12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Caleb

W hen she looked at me with the bairn, I could see it in her eyes. Love. Don’t know how I know that’s what it is, as it’s the first time I’ve ever seen it in a woman’s eyes for me, but I saw it. She loves Peg, too, and that hits home. After all the back and forth about da and his directive to marry us, I have to be so careful with Laney. This could be a disaster if it isn’t handled properly. She doesn’t want to get married or to have bairns, but I can tell her I love her, right? As long as I pick my moment. And after we fucked in the car wasn’t it. It could have been. But it wasn’t.

The way this woman looks at me, I want to see that look in her eyes all the time. That adoration. That warmth. I love it. I love her. And it kills me that I can’t tell her right away on account of all the bullshit with da. After we fuck in the car, it seems like the edge is off, so we hop back into the traffic and head to my place. We decide to stay at my place since it’s closer to Gretchen and Peg’s. My house is very large and overdone, but it’s an investment, same as my place in Florida and in North Carolina. I also have a few places in Brazil, Italy and France, but they’re all investment properties, with people living in them, but I do kick them out once in a while to travel, however seldom.

“You have the softest hair.” Laney comments as we lay on the couch, in front of the fire, cuddling.

“Me? Yours is like bloody silk ribbons, Bonnie. I want to crawl inside and live there.”

She looks at me, recognizing that I just called her ‘Bonnie’, which is what we Scots use for ‘beautiful’. I kiss her on the mouth and rub my forehead on hers. “Let’s go to bed, lass. I’m beat.”

She rises without a word and we walk up the spiral staircase that overlooks miles of land through picture windows lining the stairs, to the second floor. I walk into my closet and remove my clothes and when I walk out, she’s standing there waiting. The questioning glance on my face is answered by her pulling her dress over her head, with that same wanton look on her face that I saw earlier, in the car.

I’m naked, by the way, as I stand in front of her, locking eyes with her, as she proceeds to peel her bra and panties off, stepping out of them. I swallow, taking in her beauty, feeling my cock harden before her. Her gaze goes to it and she kneels down in front of me, grasping the hilt, and stuffing it inside her mouth.

“Holy fuck, Laney.” I grunt softly in the silence. The last time a woman took me in her mouth, we were both so fucking drunk, all I remember is coming and passing out next to her. This, this is memorable. The woman I love on her knees, pleasuring me in the best way to pleasure a man. I can feel my ass cheeks clench as she sucks the tip expertly, while artfully pumping the shaft, making me feel my balls fill up to the head.

I can’t watch her. It looks so fucking sexy I’ll blow my wad, so I close my eyes and take it in, as she makes inhuman sounds come out of me. As I feel her swallowing my precum, making for better suction, I just about lose it. “God, Laney, I’m so fucking close, I’m going to come in your mouth if you don’t stop.” I say quickly, not sure where the words are coming from, as all the blood in my body is inside my cock. It’s rock hard as she relentlessly sucks, and when I can’t hold on any longer, we both feel my cock twitch, as I come gloriously, emptying into her mouth, grunting so hard I can feel the veins pop out in my neck.

She is a fucking goddess. Have I said that before? I’ll say it again and again. I come so hard my legs turn to jelly and I have to sit down. “Jesus Christ.” I breathe as she sucks the last bit of come from the head and sits next to me. I look at her. “You. You are unbelievable.” A pause in the silence, or near silence, as my breathing is choppy as fuck. “I can’t believe you did that.”

“I can’t believe I did that, either.” She chuckles. “It’s an acquired taste, I’ve heard.”

I take a cleansing breath and kiss her belly, still hard below the belt. My hands are all over her breasts as I make my way around her navel, licking, nipping, sucking it, as I leave one hand on her breast, and slide one down into her wetness. She immediately arches her back. My mouth makes its way up to her breasts, as I make a trail with my lips up her body, stopping at her breast, kissing and sucking it, and then I move to her nipples, as she writhes from my touch. My thumb circles her clit while my middle and ring finger slides in and out of her wetness, and my other hand plays with her opposite breast.

As I move my way back down the same trail I'd made before, she continues moaning, hungry for her release, and I can’t let her down. With kisses all down her belly to her thighs, I land at her wetness, sucking it, French kissing it, making her melt, making her wiggle, making her moans louder. My tongue tickles her clit, sitting right up, begging to be tended to, and I don’t ignore it. Two fingers slide in and out of her while my tongue batters her clit, feeling it harden, feeling her insides quiver. I reach up and pinch her nipples with my free hand, wondering how the hell I got so coordinated so fast, but I want to make her come as gloriously as she made me come, so I'm pulling out all the stops.

When I feel her hips start to lock, and that certain cry come from her, I know it’s on. I lick faster, not daring to leave that spot, and I pump harder with my fingers, as I bring her home, with her back arched, her mouth wide open, and her nearly screaming with pleasure. Mission accomplished. Her chest heaves as she comes down, spent, and I gradually slow, letting her feel it all, as she ebbs and the aftershocks come. Finally, once she’s just a smouldering mess, I kiss up her thighs, belly, neck, until I get to her mouth.

“And you call me a goddess.” She breathes. “You, sir, are a god.”

I lay my head next to hers. “I think we’re just great together, don’t you?”

A nod. “We are fantastic together. Dangerous.”

My fingers skate up and down her belly, and then she turns to face me, draping her leg over my waist. “Have you had better?”

“I feel like this is a trap.” I smile.

“It’s not. I swear.” She says, face straight as an arrow. Something tells me that Laney is not one to lie. She’s got one of those faces. Honest. And I don’t think that she has a lot to lie about. Nothing to hide.

“Okay. No.” I say without hesitation. “I’ve never had it this good. Never.”

Her neck cranes slightly. “Really? I figured with your reputation that you would have had hundreds of women giving you phenomenal blow jobs and the like.”

I shake my head, frowning. “That was different.”

“How?”

Just as she asks that, my phone rings. I smirk. “Saved by the bell.”

She smiles. “Asshole.”

I rise and grab my phone out of my pocket. My smile fades immediately.

“What’s wrong?”

My heart skips a beat. “Shit. It’s Glenda. Gretchen’s next-door neighbor.”

Laney’s face matches mine.

We both know that something is wrong.

We just never dreamed it would be this.

Laney

Caleb and I dress like the fire alarm has sounded. Not a word is passed between us as we drive to Gretchen’s house. It’s like I don’t want to know what’s happened, and Caleb doesn’t want to tell me, but based on the pallor of his face, it can only be something horrible. Caleb only tells me that he’d given Glenda his phone number if there was an emergency. She’d never called him before today. An ambulance and a police cruiser are at the bottom of the street. Caleb looks at me. It’s like we can read each other’s minds, even though he’s told me nothing.

I walk inside and Peg is sitting in the corner of the living room, with her knees at her chest, hugging herself. A lady sitting next to her, who I assume is Glenda, is trying to comfort her, but she’s having none of it. Peg is sobbing, and when she sees Caleb, she rises and runs to him. He kneels to her and holds his arms out for her. When they make contact, his face pales and he sobs with the bairn, making me sob, too. And that’s when I see it. The stretcher, with Gretchen’s body on it, covered over with a sheet. My hand goes to my mouth. My worst fear has been realized. Even though I fight it, my eyes go into the bedroom, where the body came from. I can see the Ziploc bags labeled, with various drug paraphernalia inside.

She overdosed.

My heart pounds, my eyes tear up again, thinking about that poor bairn, and what horror she must have witnessed. Gretchen, I knew was very troubled, and I had a terrible feeling when we left her, that I ignored and shouldn’t have. As I wipe the tears from my face, I look over to Caleb, cradling Peg in his arms, crying with her. A sob escapes as I feel their pain, and as I watch him shield her eyes as they carry her mama’s body out on the stretcher. “She offed herself.” Glenda volunteers, cold as ice. I can immediately see why Peg doesn’t like her. She’s got the face of a badger and the scowl of an old, disgruntled woman.

“Thank you. I see that.” I tell her.

“The bairn didn’t see anything, but I saw the dealer walk up to the door and make the delivery. I'd only seen him here once before.”

“Where was Peg when this happened?”

“In her bed. Gretchen wasn’t the brightest lass. She left her bedroom drapes open, and I was watching her shoot up from my yard.”

My eyes widen. “And you didn’t come over and help her?”

The scowl grows harder. “I did. But by the time I got here, it was too late. Peg woke up to answer the door and she was going to go get her mama, to tell her I was here, and I stopped her. The bairn was adamant, so I chided her; told her to go sit in the corner. That’s how come she was crying and didn’t want to go to me when the crew here arrived.”

“Can’t say I blame her. That’s a fine way to comfort a child whose mama just died.” I scold.

She lifts a finger. “Don’t you judge me, lass. I called the authorities. I called Caleb. There was nothing more that I could do. I put up with these two all the time, carrying on, making noise and such. I don’t owe them a thing.”

My voice is firm, direct. “Thank you, Glenda. You may go.”

“I’ve got to give my statement. I’ll not leave until I do.”

“Fine. Why don’t you go help yourself to some tea in the kitchen then.”

She squares her shoulders. “I’ll do that.”

My jaw muscles are working, my tears fighting to come, as I approach Peg and Caleb. His head is resting on hers. He raises it to my touch. “I’ll bring her home with me, Laney. Bring her things.” The bairn has cried herself to sleep in his arms.

“I’ll go gather what I can from her room.”

He nods, following me.

And it’s the longest night of our lives. Or so we think.

Caleb

We found the document. Under Peg’s little pyjamas in her drawer, lining the bottom, was Gretchen’s last will and testament. I had no idea she’d made one. She never told me so. If Laney hadn’t thought to gather her things, we might never have found it. Gretchen left me everything, including Peg. When I laid the little bairn down on her bed to sleep, that’s when Laney found it. We read through it, and when Laney found where Gretchen had left me Peg, I looked at her and couldn’t stop the sob from coming.

Laney grabs me and holds me tight, sobbing with me. “You are the best thing that ever happened to her, Caleb. Gretchen made a wise choice.”

As I grasp the hair on the back of her neck with my hand, I’m weeping like a bairn myself. I pull back, swallowing, searching her eyes, as she wipes the tears away from my cheeks and hers, I can’t hold back any longer. “Laney, I love you.” I gasp and draw in a deep breath, still sobbing, licking my wet lips. “I love you so much. And I want…I want us to raise her together.”

With a gasp and a sob, she nods and pulls me close. As she sighs out a puff of air, Laney says. “I love you, too, Caleb. And I love Peg.”

“I love the little bairn like she’s my own.”

“I know you do, Caleb. And I love you for it.”

I kiss her lips softly, tenderly, and then I hug her again. “This is going to be a mess, Laney.”

“That’s okay, Caleb.” She looks at me. “It’s just thank God that the goddamn murder investigation is over.”

I swallow, eyes widened. “Oh my God, yes. I’d almost forgotten about that.” Then, something occurs to me. “What am I going to tell my da?”

She shakes her head gently. “Caleb, there is no choice here. You have an obligation to this child. Your da is going to be fine. He’s going to have to be, Caleb.”

“I know.” I nod. “This will be the first time that I will have to dictate to da what is going to happen. Not sure it will go down well. I have to tell him that I've been looking after Gretchen and Peg for the last three years without his knowledge. He won’t take that well.”

“You had your reasons, Caleb. I think it’s more important here that this bairn and her mama needed you and you were there for them. What your da thinks is irrelevant. He is not going to banish you from the family for doing something decent. And if he does, then you can come work with me.” She says with a playful look in her eyes that I immediately catch.

“That’s after your da kills me first.”

“Trust me, Caleb. For doing this, you will score brownie points with my da.”

“Just what I was looking for.” I say only half facetiously. Suddenly, what Laney’s da thinks of me is of much importance. I see her being my wife some day, hopefully. I’ve seen the transformation in her since meeting Gretchen and Peg, and I'm hoping that it all has an impact on her. And a lasting effect. I look over at Peg, asleep on her bed, as if none of the horror that happened tonight effected her, but then I remember that she’s so young. Three and a half years old is too young to even be able to process what’s happened tonight. “We need to get her out of here, Laney. Get her into a good school, keep her close. I’m not sure how it’s all going to work out, but all I know is that this little bairn deserves the very best.”

“And that’s why Gretchen left her to you. Because she knew that’s the treatment that you would give her.”

“We have a lot of work to do. I want to adopt her. I want her to be mine legally, so that I don’t have any bullshit later on.”

“That’s a great idea, Caleb.” She nods.

I love her more and more with each second that passes. And then, as if I think I couldn’t love her more, she says something else that blows my mind.

“I’d like to adopt her, too, Caleb.”