Page 34 of Unchained
CHAPTER TWELVE
A shower did nothing to wash away the pain gathering in both my mind and soul. I was being held hostage by Veronica and the information she claimed to have. I didn’t doubt that I was free to leave, but if I left, I would be going without knowing what happened to Suzanne.
“What am I supposed to do, Suzanne? All the fucking cases I had to figure out and win, and I can’t do shit about this.”
For the first time in days, I laughed inside. Suzanne would have told me to pull my big girl panties up and get on with it. She would have come from it as a defense attorney. Lawyers lost cases on things that should have been obvious, but what else was there with Veronica? Fuck!
I climbed from the shower and glanced at the clock—nearly two in the morning. I needed an exit strategy for Rio. Once Veronica gave me the information I wanted, what then? I didn’t see any way she let me go. And Rio was full of criminals, and I would stick out like a fox in a hen house. I racked my brain, trying to remember if there was anyone in Rio I had ever come in contact with, but nothing came to mind. I had put several Brazilians away in prison. That wasn’t going to help.
“See, Suzanne, I’ve lost it. Can’t even fucking think straight.” I crawled halfway under the covers. “You’re gone, and I have tried to move on. I know you’re looking down and seeing me with Stephanie. I know you know I’ve grown attached to her. Hope it’s okay. But I can’t start a new life with anyone until I have closure to my old life. I have to fucking know what happened to you. I can’t let that go because then there will never be closure.”
I rolled to my side and saw a hint of the moon through one of the narrow windows. It had been under the moon one night that I asked Suzanne to marry me. Luckily, she said yes. We were in Northern Iceland, seeing the Northern Lights, a glowing green band just below the moon. It was especially magnificent that night. Suzanne had once said emerald green was her favorite color, so there was no other perfect place to ask her to be my wife.
The large diamond in the middle of the wedding ring was surrounded by small emeralds—green and shiny. Of course, she said yes, and of course, we made love in a bundle of blankets outside beneath the waving band of green. We had frozen our asses off, but it was something we laughed about for years. That was the difference between Suzanne and most women—she loved to laugh even if it was at her own expense. Despite being a lawyer, she didn’t take life too seriously. She also gave freely of herself.
Every other Wednesday, we volunteered at a charity for abused kids. We took a break for a few weeks when we found out we couldn’t have kids, but we soon returned to the charity and doubled our time. Two years later, Suzanne was pregnant, and, months later, she disappeared.
“Hey,” Stephanie whispered from the doorway.
“Aren’t you going to get into trouble for being in my room? Mommy isn’t going to like that.”
She stepped inside and closed the door. Her white robe barely covered her thighs, the tie in the middle tight around her waist. “I needed to see you. Hope that’s okay?” She crawled beneath the covers and turned to her side, facing me.
“Yeah, I was just thinking about all this.”
“She’s trying to beat you down,” Stephanie said. “You have to stay strong. Don’t let her win.”
“You didn’t stay strong.”
“That’s because I had nothing to lose. I was alone. Lost. Jobless and almost homeless. Veronica took advantage of my situation.” Stephanie rolled onto her back and placed a hand between the pillow and her head. “In the beginning, she treated me very well. Then things became dark and scary. She did things sexually to me and the others, things none of us have ever recovered from.”
“That’s what Rio is about?”
“Exactly. You shouldn’t go. You shouldn’t do the things you will be asked to do.” A tear race from the corner of her eye and landed in her ear. “I promise you she is not what she appears to be. She’s not who she claims.”
“I gathered that.”
Stephanie turned to her side again. “No, you haven’t. But please be careful in Rio. If you’re going to go, then just do the things she asks because once it begins, there is no turning back.” She laid her hand against my face. “I have a favor to ask, Deacon.”
I shrugged. “Anything.”
“Make love to me. Don’t fuck me or be rough. Just make love to me.”
I realized then that Stephanie had been severely abused by Veronica and whoever Veronica’s followers were. Maybe she was free to leave as well, but something was holding her back, something Veronica had on her as well. There was also something desperate in her tone as if this might be the last time we saw each other.
Stephanie pushed the covers away and untied her robe, revealing her naked body.
She had perfectly soft skin with a few well-placed freckles, her breasts beautiful, the shape of her pussy heavenly. Her face, narrow, her cheekbones high, her eyes dark yet amorous. She deserved to be made love to.
I moved closer, pressing my body against her, the warmth between us growing. A euphoria overtook my mind, and I laid my hand across her stomach, my fingers traveling gingerly across her skin, encircling her nipples, my palm gently against her breasts.
Leaning forward, I kissed her nipple softly, lovingly, the succulent knob hard and pleasing. Stephanie moaned and moved her fingers through my hair. She was a completely different woman than she had been the first time we met.
I shifted my leg over Stephanie’s, and as I did, she spread hers. I was a lover of foreplay. It didn’t matter how long it took, but I believed in getting a woman wet before entering her. And though I felt like we’d not done nearly enough to make that happen, Stephanie reached between us and slid me inside her wetness
“I want you to go slow, Deacon. I want to close my eyes and feel you opening me. I want to feel your body electric against mine. To feel your body shudder when you come inside me.”
All I wanted to do was give Stephanie everything she asked for. I went slow, my thrusts deep and seductive. I caressed her face and ears, occasionally interrupting the touches with my lips against her neck and breasts. I went painstakingly slow as she requested though my body yearned to move faster, my desire raging.
