Sweet Reunion (30 page)

To prolong the ecstasy, Justin took small breaks from
his attentions to her clit, moving his tongue downward to dart in and out of
her slick opening.

Amanda groaned as she ground her hips against his
mouth, her fist pounding the mattress.

Finally, she grabbed the hair on the back of his head
and yanked his face upwards, until he was looking up her body, past the
magnificent landscape of her breasts, peaked with hard nipples, directly at her
flushed face and into her eyes.

“God dammit, Justin, enough!” she exclaimed in
desperate frustration, “I need you, right now! I've been waiting for ten years
to feel you inside me, I cannot wait one more fucking second!”

Justin nodded, matching her desperation, unable to
speak. In one swift movement, he had lifted himself back up above her, so that
their bodies fit together perfectly. He leaned down and kissed her as he thrust
inside, his tongue penetrating her mouth at the same instant he penetrated her
body.

She moved her silky legs around his waist and began to
gyrate her hips in rhythm with his, a rhythm which was starting out slowly. He
wrapped his arms around her, pulling her body tight to the length of his as he
moved inside of her.

This was another departure for him. He had never
before cared about going slow, about building up, about creating an experience.
All he had ever done before was mindlessly thrust until he achieved what he
needed, and moved on with his life. This was something entirely new. Something
so remarkable in its uniqueness that he wondered if what he had experienced up
until this point in his life was even worthy of being called sex. It was so far
from being in the same ballpark as what his body, soul, and mind was feeling
with Amanda right now that it felt like sacrilege to use the same word to
describe it.

Amanda's head swam as she felt Justin's hard thrusts
grow faster and more insistent, sensing the rhythm building to a powerful
climax. She disentangled her legs from around his waist and planted her heels
in the mattress, angling her hips up so that he could penetrate her even
further.

She felt his strong hands grasp her waist when she did
this, his fingers digging into the delicious flesh of her ass, pulling her to
him even harder each time he plunged into her.

She watched his face and body as he drove himself into
her again and again, and when she could tell that he was mere seconds from
losing control, she shifted the angle of her hips again, so that with each
stroke, the tip of his penis stimulated her internal pleasure center, at the
same time that his shaft rubbed her clit, both as he entered her, and as he
withdrew.

She knew that the first time they climaxed with each
other, she wanted it to be together, and so she took control of the situation. Within
half a dozen strokes in that position, she felt herself start to orgasm. Her
body spasmed around him, gripping him even more tightly, and she called out his
name in ecstasy.

This was more than enough to trigger his own release,
as she knew it would be, and he emptied himself into her as she screamed his
name, joining his cry with hers.

--- ~ ---

For long moments after Justin and Amanda's
simultaneous shuddering climaxes, they simply laid together, arms and legs
entwined, glistening skin exposed to the air and slowly drying.

Justin stroked Amanda's silky hair softly and slowly
as they breathed together, their heartbeats slowing, their consciousnesses
gently drifting back to earth.

He moved his lips against her ear. “I love you,” he
murmured, “I love you so much that sometimes I can barely breath when you're in
the room.”

Amanda turned her radiant face up to his, “Oh, Justin,
I love you so much,” she returned breathlessly, “I love you so much that
sometimes it's all I can do to not just blurt it out when we're together! It
feels like so much a part of me, as much as breathing. There have been times
that I've actually had to bite it back, that it's almost just come out, 'I love
you.'  Like...oh, guess what? The sky is blue. Rain is wet. I love you. Just, you
know, listing facts I know about the way things are.”

Justin laughed and kissed her forehead, “Oh my God, I
had to hold myself back from screaming it while we were making love. I thought,
she'll kill me if I say it for the first time while we're having sex.”

Amanda laughed and laid her head back down on his
chest. “I don't think I would have minded,” she whispered as she traced
patterns with her fingertips over his chest.

That's when she saw a slip of paper – a very familiar
slip of paper – resting on the floor in the middle of the bunkhouse where it
had been knocked off of the bed in the heat of passion.

It was the old note, the one that had lived under her
pillow for ten years, the one that Justin had left for her the night he had
walked out of her life. The one that said, “Amanda. Forget about me. Justin.”  
She had assumed that Lauren had taken it and burned it after she had passed out
that drunken, heady night of the truth or dare game in her den.

She sat up in bed and bent over to pick it up. Yes, it
was definitely her old note. With one significant difference. In large, heavy,
block capital letters immediately before the words “Forget about me,” Justin
had scrawled the word “NEVER.”

Chapter 26

As dawn broke over the horizon, Justin heard a knock
on the bunkhouse cabin door. Who could be coming to see him this early? Only
one possibility. Amanda. She had gone back up to the house to shower and get
ready an hour ago, and he was supposed to meet her up there for breakfast. She
must have had other plans. He grinned widely.

“Back for more?” he teased as he opened the door
expectantly.

“More what?” asked Lauren dryly.

At the front door of the bunkhouse stood Lauren and
Henry. The smile disappeared from his face, replaced by an expression of
anxious expectation. He knew that they could only be here with news about the
unofficial audit of Mountain Ridge Outdoor Adventures' financial records,
specifically how they related to the possibility that Geoffrey had somehow
found a way to embezzle money right underneath Parker's nose.

Justin hurriedly ushered them inside, glancing up
toward the main house. He didn't want Amanda finding out about this possible
situation before they had any solid, concrete evidence. She had gone through so
much recently, there was no use in upsetting her unnecessarily.

The three sat down in the same spaces they had
occupied a few days before, when Henry and Lauren had initially come to Justin
to share their concerns, and get his permission as owner of twenty percent of
the resort to do a thorough checking of the books, to which Justin had of
course readily agreed.

Justin leaned back in his chair and spread his arms
wide. “Lay it on me,” he said grimly.

Lauren shook her head, “Nothing to report,” she
responded gloomily, “As far as I can tell, the books are clean. Henry agrees.
If you or Manda come across anything funny at a later date, we can hire a
forensic accountant to go through it all with a fine tooth comb, at a much more
detailed level than Henry or I are obviously qualified to do. But as of right
now, as nearly as I can determine, there is nothing out of place.”

Henry nodded his agreement.

“I guess that's a good thing, right?” Justin inquired.

Henry nodded again, “Oh, sure, sure. It's great.”

Justin looked at Lauren, “Then why do you look so doom
and gloom?”

Lauren scowled, “Because I know there's something
going on with that Geoffrey weasel, and I just can't figure out what it is.”

Justin said, “Well, does it matter at this point? I
think he's basically out of the picture. He'd already be dumped if not for the
fact that he's not returning Amanda's phone calls.”

“Oh, it matters,” Lauren said hotly, “You don't try to
take advantage of one of my best friends and then think you can get away with
it by just ducking phone calls. You're damn right it matters.”

“Yeah, I agree, when you put it that way,” Justin
said, “But I just don't know what there is to do about it.

Lauren smiled, but not with joy. In fact, in was a bit
of a scary smile. Justin hoped to never be on the receiving end of any plans
that Lauren was making when she smiled that particular smile in the future.

“Oh, I don't know yet, either,” Lauren said coldly,
“but you can be sure as hell I'm going to figure something out.”

Lauren stood to leave and looked expectantly at Henry.
Henry stood and patted her on the shoulder. “Honey, why don't you go on ahead.
I've got something else I need to talk to Justin about.”

Lauren looked suspicious, but said, “Sure. I'll see
you up at the house,” and headed out the door.

Henry sat back down again across from Justin and
looked at him hard for a few beats. Justin was just beginning to get curious
when Henry said, “Son, I'm gonna bring up something here that's definitely none
of my business. But by the time you get to be my age, you start to see that a
lot of problems in the world, but especially in communities and families, are
allowed to go on because people were afraid to say things that were none of
their business. So I'm gonna speak up.”

Justin, puzzled, said, “Oh. This isn't about the
Mountain Ridge Outdoor Adventures business?”

Henry shook his head. “No, son, this is about your
father.”

Justin's face hardened, and Henry noticed. He put up
his hands in front of him in a gesture of surrender. “Now, now, don't go get
that look on your face and shut down on me. Like I said, I know it's none of my
business, and I don't expect you to necessarily listen to what I have to say
with a completely open and receptive heart and mind, and then rush out and take
action. I may be old, but I'm not crazy. But I do ask that you take what I say
in the spirit that it's intended, which is love and understanding, and don't
completely shut it out before you've even heard what it is I want to tell you.
Can you do that?”

Justin heard the wisdom in what Henry was saying, and
knew that he needed to accede to the request, out of respect for Amanda's
godfather if nothing else. He took a deep breath to center himself and get rid
of the negative emotions that always flooded him pretty much immediately upon
the subject of Rick Barnes being broached. He made up his mind to do his level
best to listen to whatever Henry had to say with as much neutrality as humanly
possible.

He nodded at Henry, “You're right,” he said evenly, “I
will listen with an open mind.”

Henry nodded back at Justin once, decisively, the
agreement having been struck. Then he cocked his head and looked probingly into
Justin's face. “Son, how much do you know about your grandfather?”  he queried.

This caught Justin off guard. Out of all the things he
might have predicted would have come out of Henry's mouth next, that certainly
would never have made Justin's list. Justin shook his head. “Nothing,” he said,
“I didn't even know I had one. I mean, obviously, biologically, of course I had
one...I had two, as a matter of fact, just like anybody. But I didn't know that
he was significant, or that people knew him...” Justin trailed off, realizing
he was babbling. I must be nervous, he thought with a start, to hear what Henry
is going to say next. That's strange.

Henry shook his head and snorted derisively, “Oh, he
was significant, all right. Tom Barnes was the meanest son of a bitch in 200
miles. Parker and I were kids around the same time your Dad was, you know. And
we were terrified of Tom Barnes. Most folks were, and not just kids. He was
mean as a snake, and his bite was just as venomous. He was a drunk, and he was
a terrible, mean, violent drunk.”

“Whoa,” Justin breathed, “That's awful. Why didn't my
Dad ever mention this to me?”

Henry shook his head, “I can't answer for him, son.
But I imagine he might have been ashamed. Also, it might have been a bit hard
for him to talk about still. Your Dad was drinking most of your childhood, and
I know that you were pretty much neglected. I don't mean to belittle that,
Justin, believe me. But please hear me when I say that your Dad was nothing in
the 'terrible father' department, compared to his own father.

“One day, when I was in the market with my mother, we
turned the corner around an aisle and saw Tom yelling at Ricky at the front of
the store. Then Tom reached out to slap him around, and Rick's hand just
naturally went up to protect his face. Well, that was all it took to set off
old Tom. He was instantly enraged.

“He yelled, 'Boy, I've told you about putting your
hand up when I'm whipping you!' and then he grabbed your Daddy by the back of
the head and just rammed his forehead into the wall. It was hard, too, my
mother and I could hear the crack. Then, when Ricky started crying, he did it
again, and your Daddy just crumpled up on the ground. That's when Tom saw that
Rick'd wet himself. Whether it was out of pain, or fear, or a combination of
both, I don't know.

“So Tom picks him up by the collar and throws him out
into the snow. This was the dead of winter, December or January. He called him
a sissy and made him walk home, three miles, in the snow, in his soiled pants.”

Justin felt tears pricking the back of his eyes. Tears
for his father? Odd. He had thought that he had no compassion in him for Rick
Barnes, no kindness left in his heart for the man who had made his childhood so
miserable.

Henry sighed at the long ago memory, “I looked up at
my Mother and started to say something, but she just cut me off. 'It's their
business, Henry, it's not ours.'  She bustled us right on out of there. Those
were different times, you know. You didn't get involved in other folks' family
matters.

“But I will tell you, Justin, that there was hardly a
day that Ricky Barnes didn't come to school with a new bruise or a bloody lip,
a few times even broken bones. Everyone knew what was going on in that house,
and nobody stopped it.