“I’ve got you, pixie. Let it out.” Coal’s words break through my pain. “It’s her, isn’t it?” he asks, and I nod. “Want to see another picture?”
I tip my head back and look up into his beautiful face. He’s given me something no one ever has. My mother.
“Yes.”
He stands and lifts me up in his arms and carries me over to a wall that leads to the back of the gallery. Pictures of artists that have presented their work here line the wall. My mother is in several of them alongside Coal’s mother. She had dark hair just like me, and green eyes that shine through the old pictures. Her lips were full like mine. Her body curvier and fuller. There’s a group shot with my father in the background. Anger etched on his face. I tremble and Coal holds me tighter.
“What is it? Is it too much? Do you want to leave?”
“He was angry even back then? They said he loved her and smiled only for her.”
“Who, pixie?”
My answer would lead to so many more questions from him.
“Never mind.” I shake my head. “Can we go now?”
“Yeah.”
❖
Coal
I carry her out to my rental and buckle her into the passenger seat. I never expected her to react the way she did. It’s as if she’d never seen her mother’s work, and that doesn’t make sense. Earlier she had told me she was going to art school in Chicago, that like her mother, she wanted to be an artist.
I climb back up the stairs and lock the gallery as I look around me. Darkness is settling in and I realize it’s already after six in the evening. I need to feed her again, and I want to bury myself in her body for the rest of the night. I don’t know where this is going, but I know I need to have her. That she is mine and meant to be with me.
I’m supposed to sign the reenlistment papers for another four years when I get back after the holiday, and that was my plan until I saw Kiera. Now I want to be with her. The thought of being away from her tears me apart. I swing up into the SUV and make my way over to Brick Oven Pizza, where I run in and order us a pepperoni, sausage, and mushroom with extra cheese to go.
My pixie likes pizza just the way I do. When we get back to the house, I park in the garage next to a smaller SUV. I know that’s the car she mentioned before that my father tried to give her. She will be driving away in that and taking it with her to Chicago. That way I know how to find her. Something settles in me at that thought.
We eat outside on the covered porch in the back. I light a fire in the outdoor fireplace and hold her against my body, taking in the quiet of the night as the snow falls. She cuddles into me, settling something deep inside me. A feeling of peace I haven’t felt since before my mother died.
“What’s out there?” I point to a gazebo a bit away from the house.
“That’s where the hot tub is.”
“A hot tub?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm, I’ll have to get that going so I can fuck you in it next time.” I kiss the top of her head.
“I’m going to need to go home. I need clothes, and I work Monday at the cabins and campgrounds.”
Her words cause my heart to beat faster. I don’t want to be away from her at all. I need her to stay with me because when I leave for Nevada, it will be some time before I get to be with her.
“Can you stay with me again tonight?” I lift her up on my lap so she is straddling me.
“One more night,” she says. Tomorrow I’m going to talk her into staying with me longer, but for right now, I carry her into the house and make love to her again.
When she falls asleep, I decide to explore the house after making sure the outdoor fireplace is out. I head upstairs and go through all the rooms. I find my father’s room across the house from the master suite. It faces the front of the house. It’s plain without lots of decorations except for the pictures of me and my mother that line the dresser. Next to the bed is a framed picture from their wedding. I’m so confused.
I step out of the room and see a large circular room full of windows. It overlooks the driveway and the lake in the distance. I step into the room and see it’s pretty much bare except for a small table and chair that face the window. That’s when I see an envelope with my name on it. I sit down and open it. It’s the letter from my father Lee had mentioned.
An hour later, Kiera’s hands slide across my shoulders. Her body presses into my back.
“I’d find him in this room looking out over the lake all the time. Last year when you were deployed, he’d sit here for hours. I worried he’d fall asleep in the chair and fall from it.” Her voice is quiet as she whispers against my neck.
“I was wrong about everything. I thought it was his fault she died. I thought he had cheated on her to hurt her. They loved each other, but not like a married couple, it was more like best friends. They had both slept with other people. My mother just didn’t do it as often because of me. I blamed him because it took the heat off me. If I hadn’t been at a party that night, she would still be alive.” I choke on the words.
Earl explained everything in his letter. How he wasn’t sure how to be a father. How they had agreed to have other relationships and stay married for me and for the money. How he loved her and regretted hurting her. How much he regretted me leaving. The fact he followed my career and wanted me to settle down and be safe. How much he loved me and how this house was meant to be a place for me to raise my family. He told me the gallery was mine to do with whatever I wanted. He even explained how he had found Kiera and took care of her for her mother, knowing mine would have wanted that.
“He was one of the few people that was nice to me. I really have nothing in this town to stay for.” Her words hurt to hear. I reach around me and direct her to straddle my lap. Her bare core under my T-shirt is on my boxer covered cock. I reach between us and slide my fingers through her folds, feeling the release from our earlier lovemaking leaking from her body. Before either of us says another word, I adjust us so my cock is out and I slide her down the length.
Her head falls back and my mouth lands on her neck. Kissing her.
“You’ll always have me, Kiera. This is us. This is our place,” I say as I move her over me slowly with the dark lake in the background. I make love to her right there in a room that was my father’s favorite, and where I learned that I needed more in my life.
I’ve been ungloved all weekend with her, wanting to plant my baby inside her so she can’t leave me. She’ll have to come with me to Nevada until I’m done. She’ll always be mine. Her eyes focus on me, the green darker as her lids droop in her desire.
“Coal.” She sighs my name as she comes.
I stand and pull out, then bend her over the table and enter her from behind. I grip her hips tight, knowing I’m leaving fingerprints on her skin. I work into her over and over until the tingles along my spine are too much, then I plant myself deep as she screams my name and I growl hers.
Chapter 5
Kiera
I come awake to Coal sliding his hand across my skin and turn to see him watching me.
“I love watching you sleep, pixie.”