Shattered (21 page)

“I like it here,” I said to Anderson,
crossing to the window. “Can we stay a while?”

“As long as you want,” Anderson told me.

I smiled back at him. “Aren’t you going to
get antsy, being trapped inside with me all the time?”

“Trapped?” Anderson said, “Hardly.”

“You mean we’re free to come and go as we
please?” I asked.

“For a while, maybe,” Anderson said. “The
sooner we get out of the country, the better. But we probably have
another week to spare before things get serious.”

“You mean things are going to get more
serious?” I laughed.

A dark look passed over Anderson’s face.
“We’re not out of the woods, Kaela,” he said, “We’re never going to
be. We put Robert away for a time, sure, but how long will they
really keep him locked up? Even if he gets what he deserves, he’s
got people working for him all over the country. All over the
world, probably. We’ll always be watching our backs, you and I.
We’ll never be completely safe.”

“I know,” I said, looking out over the water,
“But you know what, Anderson? It’s worth it. To be with you, it’s
worth it.”

He came toward me and resting his hands on my
shoulders. “I’m glad you think so,” he said.

“Do you feel any sense of closure?” I asked
him, turning around. “Now that they’ve caught Robert, after all
these years, do you feel like you’ve gotten justice?”

Anderson mulled over my question, gazing out
across the darkened sea. “I don’t think it’s possible for justice
to be done against Robert,” Anderson said. “For justice to be done,
Robert would have to know exactly how it felt, having my family
stolen from me. That man doesn’t feel. He hasn’t got an empathetic
bone in his body. He’ll never know the pain he caused me and Toby.
He’ll never know what it feels like to walk around with a hole in
his heart for years and years until someone comes along to soothe
you, fix you up.”

“Do you think I can fix you up?” I asked.
“I’d like to try, you know.”

“I know,” Anderson said, cupping my chin in
his hand, “I’m not making any promises, though. If anyone can do
it, you can. But what if I’m too far gone?”

“For what it’s worth,” I said, laying my
hands on his slender hips, “I don’t think you’re too anything. I
think you’re perfect. I love you, Anderson.”

“I love you too,” he said, pulling me close,
“Even if I think you’re out of your mind for getting stuck here
with me.”

“Shut up and kiss me,” I said.

I didn’t have to ask him twice.

Anderson pressed my back up against the
window, the cool glass sending a little shiver down my spine. He
brought his lips firmly mine, pushing my mouth open to his. He slid
his tongue deep into my mouth, and the warm, familiar feel of him
there made me sigh contentedly. I ceaselessly craved the way he
tasted, and relished every kiss because of it.

I threw my arms around his broad shoulders as
he pressed his body against mine. He brought his hands down along
my back, over the faded scars I’d earned that first night we’d met.
His big hands cupped my ass, squeezing firmly. I thrilled at his
forceful touch, dreaming about all the new ways we would discover
each other’s bodies through the years. We’d only just scratched the
surface of our desire to know each other fully, that much was
certain. The very thought of all we had left to find out made me
grow warm and wet for him.

Anderson reached under the back of my tank
top and unclasped my bra, letting the garment fall away from my
body. He wrapped his strong hands around my breasts, kneading them
delightfully. I moaned as he ran this thumbs lightly over my hard
nipples. I brought my lips to his chest as covered it with eager
kissed as he pinched my nipples with just the right amount of
force. He drew my shirt up over my head and sucked in an
appreciative breath as I stood before him, naked.

“You’re a sight, you know that?” he
growled.

“I do now,” I told him. It was true—I’d never
felt beautiful before I’d met Anderson. But when I was with him, I
felt like the most gorgeous creature on the planet. My tan was
fading, and my dark hair had started to show its blonde roots, but
I still felt flawless under his gaze. Flawless, and adventurous,
and free...the kind of girl I’d always wanted to be. Perhaps I had
been that way all along, even while I was trapped in my dead end
coffee shop jobs. Even while I spent my first years in New York
fending off pigs and dogs of men. Maybe this adventurous spirit had
always been a part of me, and I simply needed to meet Anderson to
set it free. One thing was for sure—I never could have imagined
being as uninhibited as he made me feel.

I tugged on the hem of Anderson’s tee shirt,
peeling it away from his bulging muscles. My fingers sought out his
chest, every defined and shapely plane and dip. I ran my hands all
over his torso, treasuring the feel of his body under my fingers.
He was perfection. He was everything I could have dreamed of in a
man. And he was all mine.

Feeling brave, I shoved Anderson toward the
bed. He raised his eyebrows at me, taken aback. I wasn’t usually
the one to show aggression in our lovemaking, but there was a first
time for everything. I thought he might be annoyed by the gesture,
but if anything it seemed to turn him on more. Grinning, I stepped
up to him and shoved him again. This time, he sat down hard on the
bed, looking at me expectantly. I grabbed onto the buckle of his
belt and ripped it open, pulling off his pants and boxers in one
swift tug.

He sat before me on the bed, utterly naked.
His member had risen to meet me, and stood at full attention like
it was waiting for my orders. Meeting Anderson’s lusty gaze, I
stepped out of my skinny jeans and kicked them away. The foot of
air between our naked bodies positively crackled with anticipation.
I like the sensation of making him wait, just a moment longer than
he was used to. And I could tell from the excited, twisted look on
Anderson’s face that he was enjoying it to. I took a step toward
him, smiling.

“I think I know what it is you want,” I
whispered, laying my hands lightly on his thighs.

“I’m sure you do,” he breathed, growing
harder by the second.

I licked my lips, teasing him, and slowly
drop down onto my knees. I knew that Anderson could see our
reflection in the darkened window as I took his throbbing member
into my mouth and sucked hard. He groaned above me, steadying
himself on the bed. I wrapped my hands around the length of his
shaft that I simply couldn’t fit in my mouth. I worked my fingers
along the length of him, teasing his tip with my searching
tongue. Anderson tangled his fingers in my short hair, moaning and
breathing hard.

My tongue ran up and down the length of him,
driving him into a frenzy. I cupped his bulging balls in my hands
and held them ever so lightly, and I could suddenly taste that
Anderson was ready for sweet release. But I wasn’t done with him
yet.

I let him drop from my mouth and pushed him
back onto the bed, slapping at his legs until he swung them up onto
the mattress. I scrambled up on top of him, standing on all fours
above his powerful body. His eyes were crazed with pleasure and
desire, and I took a moment to appreciate the fact that I had done
that to him. I placed my hands on his shoulders and lowered my
hips, until my slick opening was resting against the tip of his
member. He held his breath as I hung suspended above him, hovering
just shy of being impaled by the full, bulging length of his
enormous member. I grinned down at him, delighted by the sense of
power that was coursing through me.

“You want to be inside me?” I asked him
innocently.

“Yes,” he moaned, “Please. Please, let me
in.”

“Right now?” I asked, making my eyes wide and
playful.

“Now. Please,” he begged.

“I like it when you ask nicely,” I said, and
slid down the staggering length of his rigid manhood. We cried out
as one as he slid up inside of me, his huge girth slamming against
my tender g-spot. Our bodies shuddering with bliss as we became one
once again.

I rocked my hips against Anderson, meeting
his bucking thrusts at every pass. With each movement, he drove
further and further inside me. I thought that he would burst
through the other side if he kept at it. The room spun around me as
the pleasure of feeling this mighty man inside of me, below me,
threatened to send me right over the edge. I just wanted to stay
there forever, riding my lion of a man until we both dropped from
exhaustion in an endless sea of bliss.

Anderson brought his strong hand down and
rested two thick fingers against that sensitive nub between my
legs. I gasped as he began to rub me, flick at me, and tease me
into a frenzied state. I bounced on his thick cock, breathless as
the force of his thrusts and speed of his fingers sent me spinning
into oblivion. I felt that hot, intense pressure billowing up
inside of me, gathering like a storm cloud in my very core. I
looked down at Anderson, focused all my attention on him, and
brought my hips down as hard as I could.

We cried out in unison as we came together,
filling the room with our ecstatic moans. I felt him pulse and
throb, spilling himself out inside me as pleasure rained down upon
me, drenching every inch of my body. We rode each other through
waves and waves of sensation, sucking up every last drop of bliss
that fell down onto us. When we finally slowed our pace, I rested
on top of Anderson. I let myself fall down against his chest, our
bodies still attached in the most intimate way imaginable. I rose
and fell with each breath that he took. His steady breathing slowed
as he fell into a deep sleep. The endless, rhythmic crash of the
waves lulled me into slumber, my body aglow with the feeling of
Anderson within me.

At some point in the night, I must have
rolled off of my lover. When I woke the next morning, I was curled
up on my side under the blankets, still naked from head to toe. For
a long moment, I kept my eyes closed, even as I rose up out of
slumber. I wanted to stay wrapped in that moment for as long as I
lived. I could still feel Anderson’s imprint on my body, could
conjure how it felt to hold him inside of me. There was no other
feeling as satisfying in the entire world.

Finally, I managed to convince myself to
greet the day. I forced my eyes open and looked around the room.
The bed was empty. Anderson was always up before me. I swung my
feet down onto the floor and snatched a bathrobe from the chair in
the corner. I threw on the soft garment and padded toward the wide
window. The Pacific Ocean stretched endlessly before me, glinting
in the early morning sunlight. I looked all around and noticed that
we had a little patio attached to our room. Anderson was sitting in
the sun, reclining in a chair with the morning paper balanced on
his knee.

For a moment or two, I simply took in the
sight of him. He was a finely tuned collection of perfectly shaped
muscles. His features were flawless and beautiful, intense and
sensitive and unknowable. But besides all that, he was an
incredible person. Compassionate, determined, deep, and loving. He
was a bad boy, to be sure. We were, after all, on the run from
dangerous gangsters that would never leave us alone as long as we
lived. He was a bad boy for sure, but I knew that he would always
be good to me.

I tiptoed out onto the patio, squinting in
the sunlight. Anderson looked up at me as I let the door snap
closed behind me. “Good morning,” he said, opening his arms to
me.

“Good morning,” I replied, settling down onto
his lap. “What’s going on in the world?”

“See for yourself,” he said, offering me the
paper. I looked at the front page and gasped. There, in the center
of the page, was a picture of Anderson and I fleeing from the
underground arena. A picture of Robert was splattered beside us,
and the headline read, “Mysterious Heros Bring Down Mob
Boss.”  

“Oh, dear,” I said.

“Yeah,” Anderson replied.

“This is far from over, isn’t it?” I
asked.

“Far, far, far,” Anderson said, pulling me
close to him. “Are you up for it?”

“Why not?” I said, “I haven’t got any other
plans for the next, oh, twenty years or so.”

“Want to make that the next eighty years or
so?” Anderson asked.

“You want to keep me around that long?” I
asked with a smile.

“I want to keep you around forever,” Anderson
replied. “If that suits you, of course.”

“Sounds good to me,” I said, giving him a
peck on the cheek. “But I don’t want to talk any more about forever
today.”

“What would you like to do instead?” Anderson
asked.

“A swim might be nice,” I said, turning
toward the beach.

“A swim, she says,” Anderson laughed.

“We’ve only got today, lover boy,” I called
to him over my shoulder, feeling the sand between my toes and
letting out a giggle, “We might as well make the best of it.”

I took off toward the ocean at a run. And
though I didn’t check to see that Anderson was following behind me,
I knew that he would always be there, right where I needed him. The
azure ocean rose up to meet me as I flew fearlessly into its
embrace.

# # #

The End