“Yes. I love you. I love you, Amanda. I know it hadn’t seemed that way, but it’s only because I have trouble conquering the truth of my own feelings and I’m just so sorry…” I trailed off.
“I love you, too,” she said, leaning forward to capture my words.
I caught her with a kiss, and our arms wrapped around one another. Her lips parted, and I brushed my tongue against hers. Tears that had run down her cheeks and collected at the corner of her mouth slid onto my tongue, adding a twinge of saltiness to the taste of her. I wanted to kiss them away. Forever.
Our lips parted for a moment and she held my face in her hands, searching my eyes. “I love you, Tom. I’ve been sure about that for a while I think. Emotions are scary.”
“That is true. But I know for sure now that I love you, Amanda,” I said, and we both smiled in spite of ourselves. It felt like a great weight had been lifted from my shoulders, and I crushed my mouth into hers again, both of us tumbling to the bed.
She curled into me, her thin T-shirt and loose pajama pants barely concealing her body as it molded into mine. I didn’t want to push her, but the need for her skin was too strong to resist. I slid my hand inside her shirt from behind her, letting my fingers run up her spine, and my lips moved to her neck. She gasped as my tongue flickered out and licked the skin at the crook of her neck and shoulder, and then she placed her hands on my chest and gently pushed me back. Afraid I had moved too fast, I leaned back and searched her face.
“Just a second,” she said and grabbed the hem of her shirt. She lifted it quickly, tossing it away, and then leaned across me to shut the curtain over the fan that sat in the window. “There,” she said as the world outside was hidden away, but she still hovered over me. I took one of her heavy, perfect breasts into my mouth, and she cooed as my tongue glanced over her nipple. “Much better,” she said.
I rolled her to her back and hovered over her, my hips grinding into hers as she undid the buttons on my shirt. I helped her pull it off me and then grabbed at the waistband of her pants. They slid off easily, revealing her delicious mound. As soon as I was over her again, her hands were digging at my belt, and I shimmied the pants off as she unbuttoned and unzipped them.
I grabbed the blanket and pulled it over us, blocking the light, and all that was left was our bodies. Naked, hers wet with anticipation and mine hard with desire, we melted into each other, and I sank into her deeply. The feeling of her body wrapping around mine, her tight pussy clenching over my cock, was an ecstasy I had never even imagined.
I rocked into her, my arms wrapped around her to hold her back and the back of her neck so I could continue to kiss her at will. Her mouth opened and sounds of passion escaped with each thrust, and I continued to lavish her breasts with my attention. Her fingers slid down my back and then raked back toward my neck, as her legs began to tremble and her voice began to rise. I knew she was getting close, and I increased my speed, slamming into her until our skin clapped together, and she cried out into the heavy blanket above us.
Suddenly she threw the blanket away, exposing us both, and the sudden rush of sensation overloaded my senses. I exploded into her, and she locked stiff as her body convulsed. Her thighs trembled and her back arched as we came together. I sank deeply in her and draped my body across her before rolling to my side.
Pulling the blanket back over us, she settled in the crook of my arms and sighed happily. I kissed the top of her head and moved the blanket over my shoulder. Closing my eyes, I drifted off to the first good sleep in a long time, naked and wrapped up in Amanda.
36
Amanda
I had already gotten back into the routine of waking up far too early, but all it took was being back in Tom’s arms for that to go by the wayside. The combination of feeling so comfortable and at ease wrapped up with him and the ongoing tiredness of my pregnancy meant I slept deeply late into the morning. And it didn’t bother me in the least. I was more than happy to just curl up against him and stay hidden away from the rest of the world for as long as it would let us.
It didn’t let us for nearly as long as I might want it to. The sound of Tom’s phone ringing broke through the happy fog of being somewhere in between deeply asleep and fully conscious. It was that foggy time of morning when I would usually want to just curl up closer, put my head on his chest, and drift.
Instead, I shifted out of the way so Tom could reach for his phone. He looked like he was ready to ignore the call, but when he saw that it was the private investigator, he climbed out of bed.
“Hey, what’s up?” he said when he answered the phone.
He moved around the room, pulling his clothes back on. That was one of the little quirks of his personality I caught on to over the weeks we were together that particularly amused me. Not that it happened terribly often, but if anybody ever called Tom while he wasn’t dressed, he put his clothes on. They couldn’t see him. They had absolutely no way of knowing he was on the other end of the line naked. Yet, he couldn’t bring himself to carry on a conversation without being fully dressed.
This time, though, he seemed to be getting dressed with more urgency than usual. He wasn’t just pulling on his clothes so he didn’t feel strange talking to whoever was on the call naked. Instead, he was getting dressed quickly, and his expression was getting more and more intense with every moment that passed.
“Are you absolutely sure?” He paused as the other person answered. “But I don’t…” He paused again. “No, I understand. I get it. That sounds… I’m just shocked. It doesn’t make sense.” One more pause. “Alright. I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
He got off the phone and tossed it back to the dresser so he could finish getting dressed.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
I sat up, moving my hair away from my face. The way he was acting worried me. Something was definitely happening, and I had a sinking feeling it wasn’t good.
“I have to go do something,” he said.
“What? What do you have to do?” He didn’t answer, and I climbed out of bed to get clothes on. If he was going to be addressed and this on edge, I felt strange not being dressed as well. “Tom, what’s going on? What did he say?”
“The investigation has confirmed that it wasn’t Danny,” he said.
“What do you mean it wasn’t Danny?”
“The arson that destroyed the bar. It wasn’t Danny. They have evidence and have been able to absolutely clear him,” Tom said.
I stared at him for a few seconds, not knowing how to react. I was completely shocked. This definitely wasn’t what any of us were expecting. We were all completely convinced Danny had been the one to burn down the Hollow. He was envious of the success of the bar and had always been horrible to the Anderson brothers.
Even more than that, he joked about the destruction of the bar and tried to buy up the new building out from under them. He was the only explanation that really made sense. And there was evidence to confirm it. Even the investigating officers believed it. Now everything was thrown completely off track.
“What are you going to do?” I asked.
“I need to call my brothers and tell them what’s going on. Then we have to get together and talk about it,” he said.