Elle
Jeremiah pressed me up against the bedroom door. The girls were asleep, and we were finally alone. He’d been quiet all evening, so this sudden change in his behavior
took me by surprise.
His lips melted against mine, his beard tickling my face. God, I loved this feeling. I loved everything about it.
He pulled his lips away, but our bodies were still touching. I could feel his erection through his jeans, pressing into my belly.
“Are you going to tell your mother about us?” he asked.
His question surprised me. “Um, I don’t know. Should I?”
His forehead pressed into mine, his eyes even with mine. “I think so. Since it appears this is going somewhere, but…”
“But what?” My pulse raced. What was stopping him from making this official?
He reached up and pushed a strand of hair behind my ear. “But let’s wait until after the trial. If I end up behind bars, then it doesn’t matter anyway. We can’t be together.”
“You’re not going to end up behind bars,” I whispered. The tears stung my eyes. Normally, I was a realist. I would look at the facts and see that there was a chance he could end up in jail. But I couldn’t think like that. It hurt too much.
All my life, I’d wanted this I’d wanted a life with him. I had my chance, and now it could all be torn away.
He stroked my cheek, his hands rough against my skin. I closed my eyes and leaned into his touch. Everything will
be alright, I told myself. I felt safe with him, like nothing bad could happen as long as Jeremiah was at my side.
“After the trial, we’ll tell people about us,” he said.
Us.
We were an us.
He kissed me again, moving me away from the door, and pushed it open. We stumbled inside, pulling at each other’s clothes and giggling like teenagers, while also trying to remain quiet. Once naked, Jeremiah swept me into his arms and threw me onto the bed, falling along with me. We rolled around, kissing and touching and exploring each other’s bodies like it was the very first time. I ended up on top of him.
He cupped my face in his hands, forcing me to look into his eyes. “I love you, Elle.”
My heart skipped. “You-you do?”
“I do. I love you. You don’t have to say it back. I’m not expecting you to right away, it’s just-p”
I silenced him with a kiss, my hands pressing against his on the bed beneath me. “Of course I love you,” I said with a giggle. “I’ve always loved you.”
“Not like that, of course,” he said.
“As soon as I realized what love-love was, yes, I did,” I assured him. “Even while in New York City, I loved you from afar. It’s always been you, Jeremiah. No other man has ever compared to you, and I feared I’d be single forever because no one ever would.”
We kissed some more, his tongue pushing into my mouth and stealing my breath away. His hands ran along the sides of my body, up and down, until he grabbed my hips, helping me rock back and forth on top of him – rubbing his cock between the lips of my pussy, teasing me.
He rolled us over, pressing his body against mine. His lips moved down to my neck, then my chest. He took one of my nipples between his lips, causing me to shudder.
Our bodies connected and found each other like old friends, and with one, solid thrust, he was sheathed inside me – where he belonged. Our bodies moved and rocked, and we were in our own little world. Nothing else existed in that moment, just us and the pleasure we shared between us.
Jeremiah leaned back on his thighs, staring down at me with hungry eyes. The way he looked at me always took my breath away, he made me feel beautiful and cared for. But now, I knew it was more than just caring about me.
He loved me.
I came once like that, staring at that marvelous man, feeling him moving in and out of my body with precision. No one made love the way he did. I was sure he had to be the best in the world. I came hard, grabbing onto the sheet as my body shook wildly.
Jeremiah continued pumping in and out of me until my orgasm subsided. He slipped out of me, then flipped us around so I was on top. He was sitting up, his back against the headboard, and I straddled his lap.
I slid down him, riding him and grinding against him, the headboard knocking against the wall from the momentum of our fucking.
Jeremiah moved me up and down on top of him, pulling my ass down hard onto his lap. His face twisted into that all-familiar look. I leaned in, pressed my lips against his, and said, “Cum inside me, Jeremiah. I’m close.”
My thighs trembled as another orgasm hit me like a wave. Jeremiah pulled me down, held me in place, filling me with his seed.
It wasn’t until afterward that it hit me. I really needed to get back on birth control. If this were to become a regular thing, and it sounded like it would, I needed protection. It just hadn’t been a priority before, and I’d been stupid not to have been more careful.
But it was too late now.
I stayed in his lap, and he held my face in his hands, kissing my lips, my cheeks, my neck anywhere his mouth could touch.
“I love you, Elle.”
Hearing those words caused my heart to race. I wasn’t sure I’d ever get used to hearing them.
“I love you too, Jeremiah. So very much.”
Ooo000ooo
“Alright, well, if you need anything, I can come home at lunch and-”
“Go to work, Elle,” Jeremiah said, a baby in each arm.
“I’ll be fine.”
“Are you sure?”
“I’ve been alone for most of the last two months,” he said with a smirk. “I think I got it.”
I knew Jeremiah could handle it, but I wanted to stay with them. But work called; the paper wouldn’t publish itself. I still had to finalize the proof and send it out for printing and needed to do it all that day if we wanted the paper to run on time.
I kissed Jeremiah, then kissed the foreheads of the cutest babies in the world.
“Have a good day,” I said to Jeremiah. “If you hear anything about the case or your trial, let me know, please?” “Of course,” Jeremiah said, grinning at me. “Now go. And don’t forget to turn the paperwork in to City Hall.” On top of everything else, I was running for mayor. Jeremiah would step down and support me once everything was in order. I had to get that done while continuing to work and see what I could find out to help him. He’d asked me to step back from the case, and I had – a little. I wasn’t going to give up entirely. I just didn’t have any new leads, no new information. The Holts weren’t going to speak to me. Lauren was avoiding my calls. She had realized her mistake and had shut her mouth. I knew I wouldn’t get anything else from her.
I had to hope for a break, something or someone to come forward with some information.
The trial date was set; we had several weeks to go. They’d torn apart everything of Jeremiah’s and had found nothing. Even his gun was in storage, where it was supposed to be, showing no signs of being used recently. But of course, he had a nice collection of shotguns, and they argued it was possible he had another that was no longer in his possession. Until they found the exact gun that was used in the murder, Jeremiah was still the prime suspect.
I headed out the door and hopped into my car. There was another concern on my mind. I dialed Josie’s number and put her on Bluetooth as I drove.
“What’s up? Pretty early for you to be calling,” she said.
“Yeah, so, I know it’s probably too early to be freaking out, but my period is late.”
“It’s way too early to take a test, Elle.”
“I know, and it’s still early enough that it will probably come, but I needed to talk to someone about it. I can’t believe I was so stupid.”
“You’re not on the pill?”
“Well…no, not anymore. I didn’t see a point since I wasn’t sleeping with anyone, and things just sort of happened with Jeremiah. It happened so fast that it didn’t even hit me until last night. Like, how could I be so stupid?”
“Relax. First thing, let’s get you on some birth control or use some condoms since there’s a decent chance you’re not pregnant still. How late are you?”
“Only a day,” I said, nibbling my lip. “If even that.”
“You’ve been later than that before, girl.”
“But I was also not having unprotected sex at the time.”
“Yeah, I get it. But it’s too early to freak out. It’s way too soon for you to know anything.”
I was just being paranoid. I’d been stupid, but I could still fix this. My period would come, and I’d be careful from here on out. “Okay, yes, I knew you’d talk some sense into me. Thank you. It’s just-Jeremiah has his hands full as it is. I can’t imagine him having a third baby on top of it all.”
“Yeah, but you’re not pregnant. Keep thinking good thoughts, Elle.”
What if those good thoughts included actually being pregnant? No, it’s not right, I scolded myself. I wanted a baby of my own one day, but now would be the worst possible time for that. One day, Elle. One day. Not now.
I hung up with Josie as I drove into town. I pulled into the Liberty Leader parking lot, and I was the first car there as usual. I walked into the building, flipped on all the lights, and went into my office. The first thing I did was check with all my sources, see if there was any news that needed to be added into this week’s paper before it went to print. I opened my email and scrolled through.
An email from a John Doe caught my eye. The subject read You should see this.
I clicked on it, and it led to a video clip. The video was grainy with no sound. It appeared to be a security camera in the back alley behind several businesses in downtown Liberty. I zoomed in to see who was in the video.
Brody Pearson, the son of the local developer caught in the scandal, was seen clearly. His smarmy face was hard to miss. He looked right at the camera a few times, albeit unknowingly.
It looked like a business transaction, but why in a back alley?
The person with Brody was hard to make out at first because he or she wasn’t in the frame. But then a woman stepped into frame and took a suitcase from Brody.
“Elizabeth, you old bat,” I gasped. “I didn’t know you had it in you.”
No one else appeared, just Elizabeth Holt and Brody making some sort of exchange in in secret, in the dark. I had never looked too much into Elizabeth. She had always registered as a non-entity to me, someone who happened to marry into the mess. I blamed George for everything, ignoring the wife behind the scenes. It hit me how sexist it was to assume Elizabeth was just an innocent bystander in George’s crimes. I dismissed her because she was a woman and because she was just so good at acting the part of a ditzy housewife.
Well, she registered on my radar now.
The video ended when the two of them disappeared off the screen. I sent the video to Teddy immediately in case my anonymous source hadn’t done so already. Then I went straight into my database, typing in Elizabeth Holt’s name.
Her photo popped up, along with the usual information. Her date of birth. Her marriages. She had divorced before marrying George. Two kids, yes, I knew that. Maiden name was Elizabeth Ann Dierks.
Dierks.
Huh. That’s not a common name, I thought.
I leaned back in my chair, feeling like the wind had been knocked out of me.
L. Dierks was the mother of Jeremiah’s daughters. Or so he said.
What the hell?