The Damp, Gray Gone Ch. 03

"Thanks," I said, standing along with them.

"It's been a pleasure," Gavers said at the door, turning and shaking my hand with a firm grip.

"The pleasure's been all mine, I can assure you."

He smiled, then turned and walked toward his car.

"You ever wanna . . . you know . . . talk or something, give me a call, okay?" Sergeant Adams said, pressing her card into my hand and lingering over the handshake just a moment longer than was proper.

"Thanks," I said.

"Let's go, Sergeant," Gavers called out before sliding behind the steering wheel of the car in the driveway.

She gave a quick smile, then turned and walked to the car.

I watched her ass the whole way.

I mean, give me a break, okay?

She had her own handcuffs.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

On the following Monday morning, I was called into Professor Whitman's office.

"Your . . . er . . . former wife is doing well I take it?"

I nodded. "She'll be fine. She got out of the hospital yesterday."

"Good, good," he nodded.

Then he stared off to his right, out the window at students shuffling to and fro under the autumn sun.

"I'm going to miss it," he said.

"Miss what, Dean Whitman?"

Sorry, but I wasn't just pandering. Even the President of Chadwick never called Whitman by his first name. He'd been around too long and done too much for the institution to not be given his due.

He turned back and faced me, a peaceful smile on his lips.

"I'm retiring at the semester break, Luke."

Sure, I'd been expecting this. It still hit me in the chest, though.

"You're doing okay, right?"

He nodded. "I figure I've got another five or six years left. And I want to spend those years pulling together all of my notes and theories and writings gathered over the years. My magnum opus, so to speak."

I remained silent, and after a moment he continued.

"I'll be on staff still, of course. Emeritus status. That'll entitle me to a research assistant to help. But I'm giving up my teaching duties. And my position as Dean of the department."

"But you can still--"

"No," he said, his voice softening. "It needs to be someone who teaches. A scholar and a teacher both. And that's you, Luke. If you want it, that is."

I sat back. It would come with more responsibility, of course. And more pay, too. But I'd have one less class to teach to make up for the extra administrative duties I'd be assuming.

"I just . . . I think . . . you need to . . . ."

You ever know something was coming, but still weren't prepared when it came? That's how I was.

"You'll do just fine," he said, his smile calming me.

I smiled leaving his office, completely at peace for the first time in months.

My life seemed to be coming around.

I believed I could be happy again.

* * * * *

It was late October before Kristin again joined me in harmonious passion. We had spent the intervening month getting to know each other better and better, and friendship quickly blossomed to love.

On Thanksgiving weekend, she and Ben moved in with Kyle, Sun Tzu, and me.

Most of December was spent Christmas shopping.

We were walking down the crowded mall when a voice froze us.

"Professor," Heather Farley was calling, shouldering her way through the throng of shoppers, pulling Randy along behind her.

"Merry Christmas," I said, smiling.

"Merry Christmas," they both said in unison, her voice all chipper and Randy's a drone.

I introduced Kristin, and another round of holiday wishes followed.

"So," I said, wanting to get my shopping finished, "you two sticking around here for the holidays?"

Heather smiled at me, then turned to Randy, leaned in, and kissed him. "Yeah. He lives too far away for us to be together if we go home. We decided to just stay here."

Randy's bashful smile told me he was embarrassed at the riches Santa would soon be bestowing upon him. Strangely, Kristin's face was, if anything, even more adoring as she smiled at his blush.

"Good," I said, interrupting their thoughts. "Since neither of you is apparently all that busy, I've got some more things you need to get for me."

"You're kidding," Randy said.

"Not a chance," Heather agreed.

I shrugged. "If you change your mind. . . ."

They got away from us before I could try to foist more work on their holiday break.

"She has a crush on you," Kristin said, watching them walk away.

I chuckled. "Looks more to me like they're in love with each other. Which I'd have never seen coming, by the way."

Kristin elbowed me. "Men can be so blind sometimes."

I turned, leaned in, and pecked her on the cheek. "Blinded to all but you, babe."

She made a gagging gesture with her fingers in her throat.

I only laughed, then snuck a quick peak at Heather Farley's departing backside.

"All but me," Kristin said, seeing my sneak peek.

* * * * *

Whitney phoned three days before Christmas. We'd barely spoken since she'd gotten out of the hospital. She'd been tongue-tied every time I'd seen her, which was usually at the beginning and end of her visitation periods with Kyle. Every time she looked at me, she got a haunted look about her face. The haunted look deepened when Kristin was around.

"I was thinking," she said, her voice barely a whisper.

"What, Whit?"

"Maybe he should be with you on Christmas Day. I'll just take him for awhile on Christmas Eve and get him back by ten or so."

"Not a chance," I said. "Ben's going to his dad's house, and Kyle's going with you. Kristin and I are going back to bed to catch up on all the sleep we're going to miss out on Christmas Eve."

"It's just that he's going to get bored spending all day and night with me," she said.

"Nonsense. He'll be bored here, too."

"He'll have his new presents to play with."

"He'll have them at your place, too."

She said nothing to that.

"What's wrong, Whit?"

She mumbled something, and I asked her to repeat it.

"I guess I'm just trying to figure out a way to pay you back."

"For what?"

"For everything, Luke. For taking care of Kyle; for saving me. Because I shit all over you, and you were still there for all of us."

"Saving you?" I said.

"Karen Adams and Aaron Gavers came and saw me in the hospital. Before you and Kyle got there. I knew it was you in the mask. I mean, fucking duh, right? When I brought this up, Karen told me the whole story."

"And?"

"And they made a couple of things pretty clear. Number one, they'd have never been able to save me on their own. It was your plan that tipped their hand--got Dunlop to go to where I was. Two, if I ever told a soul, you'd be in real danger. Not just the danger of prosecution, either. Danger of retaliation from the LaBruzzis."

"Kyle, too," I reminded her. "Kyle could get caught in the crossfire."

"I know."

"So let's not talk about it anymore, okay?"

"But you've got to let me show you I'm sorry. And thankful, too. For all of it."

I was silent.

"Please?"

"You want to show me you're sorry--maybe you've learned something? Fine. Then don't be late for your visitations. Don't blow them off. Spend as much time with Kyle as you can. He deserves a mother, too."

"But Kristin. . . ."

"Is not his mother. You are. Always have been, always will be. And when you're not there for him, he feels rejected. So you want to show me you're sorry and appreciative and all that shit I'm not asking you for? Fine. Don't leave me here to pick up the pieces because you've blown him off for visitation again. For any reason. From now on, Kyle needs to be first in your life, not your fucking job. Fair enough?"

She paused for a moment, then whispered, "Fair enough."

"Good," I said, calming down. "Then have a Merry Christmas and don't be late."

I heard her sniffle with tears. "I'll be there. And Merry Christmas to you, too. And Kristin and Ben."

We rang off.

* * * * *

Christmas morning was like being back in the Army.

Reveille consisted of Ben and Kyle jumping on our bed at shortly after four, all excited to go unwrap their presents from Santa.

Twenty minutes later, the sleep still in our eyes and mugs of coffee and hot cocoa all prepared, the boys tore into their presents.

Kristin and I had agreed to spend the same on each boy; to shop for and buy all gifts together; and to make them all from Santa. No need to create jealousy, and we wanted them both to know that neither of us would play favorites with either of them.

Such subtleties seemed lost, though, in the roomful of opened gifts. What wasn't lost, however, was that not all presents between Kristin and me had been exchanged.

"Dad," Kyle said, hands on hips and eyebrows raised, "when're you going to give Kristin her present?"

"After you leave," I said.

Kristin looked at me with raised eyebrows. Then a smile curled her lips.

"Strange," she said. "I've got a present for you, too, that only gets opened when they're gone."

"Really?" I said.

Her look told me she was serious, and that I'd really, really like it.

* * * * *

Whitney and Tyler appeared at the same time to pick up Kyle and Ben, respectively.

"So you're Whitney?" Tyler said, shaking her hand after wishing her a Merry Christmas. "The prosecutor who gave us all a big scare awhile ago?"

She looked at the floor, then nodded.

"Well I'm glad you're safe," he said, then paused, furrowed his brow, and looked at her strangely. "Strange coincidence. My first book was about something like that. About an ex-wife who disappears without a trace. But in that one the husband ran off and saved her."

Whitney's head shot up and met his eyes. Then her face softened, and she said, "I guess there just wasn't enough time for Luke to get in on the action."

He laughed. "Guess not. Still, I'm glad you're okay."

Whitney turned to me with a soft look. The haunted look was gone, replaced by a look she'd not bestowed upon me since well before Charles Lawton Dunlop had appeared on the scene.

I felt a pang in my heart for what had transpired between us.

But then Kristin placed her hand on my forearm, and the regret was replaced with calm satisfaction at where I'd landed in life.

* * * * *

"So who goes first here?" I asked Kristin once the boys had left.

"I will," she said. "Give me five minutes, then come into the bedroom."

The flash in her eyes told me five minutes on the dot. Not a second sooner or a second later.

Eyes on the seconds hand of my watch, I opened the door at five minutes on the dot. The sight before me took my breath away as all of the blood in my body raced to my rampant pecker tenting my pajama bottoms.

Kristin was laying in the middle of the bed, dressed in nothing save a large red ribbon with the bow over her silky soft tuft of pubic hair. Her arms were stretched wide above her head, handcuffed to the headboard Tyler's father had made.

"It's not much," she said, her eyes hungry and hips squirming as she spoke.

My response choked in my throat.

"It's on the dresser," she said, nodding toward the wrapped box sitting in the middle of the dresser.

"Can't I open this one first?" I said, making my way toward the bed.

"No."

I stopped, then walked to the dresser and retrieved the box. I carried it over to the bed and sat next to her.

"I'm not going to lie to you," Kristin said. "Since my second divorce, I haven't been totally celibate. Pretty damned close, though. And I needed some help to get me through a lot of lonely nights."

I tore the paper off and opened the box, looking inside with wonder.

She smiled. "When we moved in a month ago, I hid this from you. In the attic. I guess I was . . . I don't know . . . ashamed or something. But the past month--hell, the past four months--have been the happiest I've had in a long time. And I decided I didn't want to hide anything from you."

A lascivious grin was spreading across my face.

"So I didn't really buy you a present," she continued. "Not with money, anyway. Instead, I thought I'd give you . . . I don't know . . . my total trust. Access to all of my secrets. Let you know that I'm not hiding anything from you and that I never will."

I looked into the box, then back to her. While satisfying, our lovemaking to date had also been conventional. My mind now whirled, though, at the various possibilities contained in the gift box before me.

I reached into the box and pulled out a vibrator, holding it up in front of her and twisting the base.

"And what exactly do you want me to do with these things?"

I tickled the tip of the vibrator around the base of the bow, and her hips followed it.

"Anything," she said breathlessly, her eyes closing. "Anything you want. I want you to take me. Do with me as you will. Live out your wildest fantasies."

"Really?" I said, putting the vibrator aside and pulling out a slim, tapered vibrator with a large circular base tied to a bottle of lube. "And what's this for?"

She opened her eyes, looked at what was in my hand, and started blushing.

"Is this what I think it is?"

She nodded, looking like a shy schoolgirl.

I leaned in and kissed her, and she kissed me back. With my hands, I grabbed the vibrator and turned it on low, circling the tip over her nipples as we kissed hungrily and she started writhing on the bed with the sensations flowing through her breasts.

My lips trailed down, and I sucked one of her nipples into my mouth. It was already hard, but my oral ministrations made it darken and stand out still more.

"My clit," she pleaded.

The vibrator left her breasts and trailed down her stomach, where I ran it the length of her lips, up and down slowly in rhythm to her grinding hips. A few minutes later, my mouth followed the trail of the vibrator until I reached the bow covering the small, thinned strip of her mound.

Using my teeth, I pulled the ribbon and released it, and her hips rose from the bed to meet my tongue. I ran the vibrator gently over the nubbin of her clit, my tongue going below and taking gentle swipes at the glistening lips of her labia.

"Yes," Kristin hissed, then started groaning.

After a minute or two, my tongue moved up and joined the vibrator, which I now held over the hood of her clit while my tongue took feathery swipes at the engorged nubbin before me. Within seconds, Kristin was gasping and groaning through an explosive climax.

Giving her time to settle down, I stood and shucked my clothes, then kneeled on the bed next to her head. Without hesitation, she turned her head and sucked me into her mouth.

I groaned at the moist heat and tingling sensations of her lips and tongue, my hand on the back of her head as I helped hold her head in place. Soon, though, her mouth left my cock and she looked me in the eyes.

"More," she said. "Please."

"For you or me?" I asked.

"Both of us."

I turned on the bed, positioning my hips over her mouth while lowering myself back to her pussy. We were both soon nearing orgasm, and I began to pull my hips up and away from her mouth.

"No," she pleaded. "Please. I want to."

Surprised, I lowered my hips back to her mouth and renewed my oral assault on her clit with vigor. My hands were cupping her ass, squeezing her cheeks and holding her pussy in place.

Soon, her hips were bucking and she was shrieking around my cock, her mouth sucking me harder and deeper than I thought possible. Just as her orgasm subsided, my own hit, and I lifted my mouth from her and gave a long, low groan as I shot stream after stream into her mouth.

She sputtered with the effort of taking it all, and I pulled out as the last shots hit her chin.

"Sweet Jesus," I panted, rolling to the side before flipping around and facing her.

"No shit," she said. "Like wow."

With my fingertips, I dabbed up the cum on her face and held it in front of her. Her eyes on mine the whole time, she sucked the ends of my fingers.

"That's the hottest thing I've ever seen," I said. "Probably the hottest thing I've ever done."

She smiled. "I'll bet we can top that."

I laughed. "I'm not twenty," I reminded her. "It could take awhile."

"Get him back up here," she said. "I'll have him going again in no time."

She wasn't kidding.

Ten minutes later, my cock rejuvenated, Kristin turned over with her shoulders on the bed and her ass in the air, and my mouth now attacking her from behind, I smeared lube over the anal vibrator.

"Slow," she said as the tip of the smaller vibrator pressed against the crinkled knot of her ass.

Slender though it was, I had doubts it would fit, particularly at the fatter end of the taper. Little more than a minute later, though, with Kristin emitting a deep, satisfied groan the whole time, the circular base of the vibrator was pressed firmly against her ass.

"Now," she said breathlessly. "Put it in me now."

I knelt behind her, my glazed eyes taking in the sight before me. It was the naughtiest, sexiest, most incredibly erotic thing I'd ever seen. I wedged my head against her lips and, in one slow, steady surge, entered her molten depths.

Kristin started bucking in orgasm before I'd even bottomed out, and I kept up a steady rhythm through her most intense climax of the morning. After a couple of minutes, I realized that her orgasms were now coming one after the other, like a steady stream of electrons firing off through her body, and I reached down and pulled the vibrator nearly out of her bottom before pressing it back in.

This caused Kristin's bucking to explode in intensity, the whole time her voice pleading me to go harder and faster and just please keep doing it. I did, but she was soon overwhelmed with the sensations and her body began to sag in exhaustion.

"Switch," she said, turning to me with her eyes still on fire. "Please hurry."

I knew what she meant. I pulled the vibrator from her ass and replaced it with the head of my cock. Pressing against her, she opened up and accepted the entry with a long groan.

I slowly buried myself in her perfect, incredibly tight, heart-shaped ass. Reaching to the side, I picked up the other vibrator, turned it on, reached down, and touched it against her pussy. Kristin shrieked and bucked, driving me the rest of the way inside her.

"Yes," she hissed. "Yes, yes, yes."

She was moving back and forth against me of her own volition, setting the pace. I was mesmerized by the sight of my cock sliding back and forth in her ass, charged with excitement as I'd never been before.

"I'm cumming again," she warned, then started bucking even faster.

Her ass was clenching and unclenching around me as the orgasm pulsed in waved over her body, and I, too, felt my body go taut as I again released shot after shot deep within her.

With a final groan from Kristin, we collapsed together onto the bed.

"Goddamn, Luke," she panted, gulping in air as my cock shrank from her.

"Yeah," I panted, still trying to catch my breath as well.

"I'm not gonna walk right for a week."

I kissed her. "Thank you. It was . . . well . . . it was like nothing I've ever experienced before. Any of it."

She smiled, her eyes still closed. "Me neither. But I've had a lot of time over the past few years to build up some really good fantasies."

I chuckled. "It was time well spent."

* * * * *

I awoke to Kristin kissing me, her hands now somehow free of the handcuffs.

"So where's my present?" she said.

I opened my eyes. She was dressed in pajamas and a robe.

"Let me get cleaned up," I said, sitting up and swinging my legs over the edge of the bed.

"Already did that for you," she said. "Just throw on your pajamas."

I pulled on the flannel pants, then went to the top shelf of my closet. Retrieving the small box, I turned and held it up to Kristin.

She saw it, and her eyes immediately glistened with tears as her mouth turned to a sad smile.

"Please tell me it's not . . . ."