The Trip

Kim and Brian had made love three times that night, each time on the middle of his living room floor. They were both still there, lying next to each other. Brian was fast asleep, laying on his stomach with his hands overlapping beneath his head. Kim, on the other hand, was wide awake. She looked down at Brian's naked, sleeping body and smiled. She kissed him on the forehead and as quickly and as carefully as she could, pulled her arms from around him, trying not to wake him. She gathered up her strewn clothes, got dressed and quietly walked out the door.

As soon as the lock on the door clicked, Brian's eyes blinked open. He stared up at the shadow of the fireplace mantel in front of him. There was really no point in trying to stop her, he'd thought. Kim pretty much did whatever the hell she wanted to do and if she had made up her mind to leave, no amount of coaxing from him would have changed that. So, he lay there, motionless and said nothing as he listened to her dress and make her quiet escape.

As he heard her footsteps in the hall trail off into the distance, he let out a long, deep sigh and closed his eyes again.

****

The next morning, back in Los Angeles, Rachael was just heading out the door of her lavish Los Angeles apartment. Chloe had already headed off for work and had left a quick breakfast of eggs and bacon in the microwave for Rachael.

She ate a few strips of the bacon, quickly made some toast and hustled out the front door.

Rachael was fumbling with her keys with the slice of toast in her mouth when she pushed through the building's front doors and stepped outside. Several people were walking in and glancing behind them. Some looked troubled and still others looked amused. Rachael saw it but paid little attention. She glanced down at her watch and proceeded to walk, double time, toward her car.

She had gotten no closer than twenty feet from her assigned parking space when she stopped, dumbfounded. Her mouth fell open and her jellied toast splattered to the ground as she stared at what was in front of her. A couple walked past her, looking back and shaking their heads in disgust.

Rachael could hardly breathe.

Her black Mercedes was sitting on slashed tires in the parking lot with the word BITCH spray painted in red all over it.

She stopped and looked around for Ellis, wondering if he was nearby. He had been the one who did this, no doubt, and she didn't want him to jump her by surprise.

When she saw no one around, she dropped her purse and slowly walked up to her car. As she did, she noticed long, continuous scratch marks circling the entire body. Rachael's hands started to tremble with anger as she reached out and touched the scratches with her fingers.

She closed her eyes and tried to calm herself. She walked over to grab her purse from the ground and ran back inside her apartment.

****

Moments later, when Kim got the call from Rachael, she went into hysterics.

"Oh my God, Rachael, oh my God," she mumbled over and over again as she sat rocking on her hotel room bed. "What is he

doing

?"

"Don't come back to LA, Kim." Rachael demanded. "Not until this is all over. He doesn't know where you are and as long as he doesn't, you'll be safe."

"What about you? What if he tries to hurt you, Rach?"

"I can take care of myself." She said, thinking about the Glock-17 handgun she had tucked away in a hat box in the back of her closet. "That man isn't crazy enough to try to mess with me personally. He might wreck my car, but he doesn't have the guts to come to me face to face."

She thought about the numerous shouting matches the two of them had gotten into over the years. Rachael was no push over and she could always stand her ground. Ellis realized she was much different from Kim in that respect and he, for the most part, left her alone.

"He learned that a long time ago," she added.

"Stay in San Francisco for now, and keep talking with Eric Jeffries. Maybe he can help straighten out some of this mess."

The thought of Eric Jeffries made her ill, but Kim kept their secret business quiet from Rachael. She knew this new turn of events would mean another trip to his house and yet another naked romp on his office couch. She didn't care anymore. If that's what she had to do, so be it. In her eyes it was worth it to keep Rachael and herself safe.

"I'll stop by tomorrow and see if he can take me," she said. Her ironic choice of words made her stomach turn.

"Okay, keep me posted." Rachael hung up the phone.

All Kim could think about at that moment was Brian. He was the safest thing in her life she could think of, and right now, she needed that more than ever.

****

That night Brian was laying in his bed with Kim sitting on top of him with his fingers precariously wandering beneath her shirt. Their kisses making soft smacking noises as their lips connected.

Brian's lips devoured hers and a deep guttural moan escaped his throat. His hands unconsciously went to her head, pushing her lips even further into his as though it were possible. Brian's tongue was taking up residence in Kim's mouth and the area between his legs was searching for a new home as well. Kim felt the sensation of Brian's cool fingers inching up the front underside of her blouse. His left hand found her right breast and mauled it relentlessly.

Kim's lips locked onto Brian's mouth at the touch of his hands, she, barely able to breathe. She moaned as he reached under the thin fabric of her bra and tweaked the velvety brown nipple between his fingers. The gesture sent a spark through her entire body. Kim felt her breasts break free of their restraints when Brian's wandering hands found the fastener located between her breasts. They were full and becoming extremely sensitive to Brian's caresses. He grabbed one breast in each hand and mauled them like bakery dough.

The feeling of Brian's raging erection startled Kim and brought her back to reality. She jumped and broke her kiss from Brian's lips. She thought of how she'd have to meet with Eric Jeffries tomorrow and how she began to loathe the feel of a man inside her. The idea made her sit back on Brian's lap as his lips automatically tried to follow. He sat forward, his lips reaching for hers. When they could no longer find them, he opened his eyes to find Kim looking at him with a pained expression on her face. Her big brown eyes spoke the volumes her lips could not.

"What's wrong?" Brian said, his eyes sparkling in the dim light.

"I can't. I can't do this Brian," she whispered trying to control her erratic breathing.

"Why not?" His sexy voice barely audible as he stared into her eyes while he played with her nipples, hoping the lustful feeling it generated would bring her lips back to his. He let his tongue rest at the corner of his mouth, his eyes dark with desire.

Kim gasped at each tweak of his glorious fingers and found it that much more difficult to pull away.

"You like that?" Brian's lips formed a devilish smile. Kim's only response was the arch of her back and the closing of her eyes. She fell forward onto Brian, her chin resting on his shoulders. Her mouth was settled right next to Brian's ear and her bated breath told him all he needed to know.

"Tell me what you like. You know I'll do anything you ask me to. Tell me what makes you feel good, baby," Brian whispered while kissing the underside of her neck.

Kim finally sat up, looked him in the eye and quickly pulled his hands from beneath her blouse. She fastened her brazier and pulled her shirt back down over her stomach.

"Oh, don't do this

now

...Jesus," he said reaching for her hands as she yanked them from his. Exasperated, he buried his face into her neck in broken disappointment. The painful ache in his groin was more than he could stand. He spread his arms and rested his head backwards onto the bed's pillow cushions and let out a deep sigh.

"It's like you do a complete one-eighty with me. One night you're warm and affectionate, the next you're as cold as ice. I don't even know what to think anymore."

Kim's eyes began to swell. "I should go," she said getting up from his lap. Brian grabbed her arm and pulled her back down. She landed hard on his erection and it made them both jump.

"No. Stay here with me tonight." His hands caressed her firm buttocks creating a gentle, swaying motion on his pelvis. "Don't leave like you did last time." He ran his hands down the side of her arms. "I want to wake up in the morning with you next to me. I want the first thing I do tomorrow to be making love to you," he whispered.

"Brian," Kim said, shaking her head.

"What?"

"I love your words. I love how you talk to me." She looked down at her hands. "But, I'm afraid that they're just that. Only words." She looked back up at Brian as her tongue raced across her lips.

Brian looked at her and braced her arms just above the elbows.

"I've been down this road before and at the beginning it's always paved with gold and flowers, but in the end it's always the same. It just isn't worth it."

"What are you talking about?"

"Relationships, Brian!" She yelled, jerking her arms from his hands again. "It's all bullshit and there's no way in the world I'm going to fall for it again. It only ends in misery."

The comprehension of her words suddenly eclipsed in Brian's head. Something had happened to her in the past that made her distrustful of relationships, maybe even men in general. He saw it in her eyes every time he looked at her. He had mistaken it for coyness or even teasing before, but now he could see things clearly. That was pain in her eyes. And probably a lot more than he could ever imagine.

"Kim? Your last boyfriend...did he hurt you?"

Kim's eyes darted across the room. They looked everywhere but at Brian.

"He did, didn't he?" A vein suddenly throbbed in his forehead and his lips pursed. His entire face flushed in an instant.

"What did he do to you?" His words were terse as he tried to speak through clenched teeth.

"It doesn't matter, Brian," She said shaking her head again. "It never does." She stood up from his lap sat on the bed with her face in her hands.

He rolled over and stroked her leg.

"I'll make you forget all about him if you let me."

"Don't you see, Brian? I don't

want

to forget. I need to remember that—" She stopped to find the words, then began again. "I need to remember that the only person in the world I can trust is myself. If I ever forget that, Brian, I'm opening myself up the nightmare again. And not you, or anyone else in the world is worth that."

Brian sat up on his knees and grabbed her by the hands.

"Okay," he said, nodding. "Then is it all right if I make you forget him for just a little while?"

Kim looked down at her hands in his. Brian released them, grabbed her chin and lifted her eyes to his. He could see the pools forming in them.

Brian thought hard about what Kim had gone through. The idea of a man hurting her made him want to choke the last breath out of him. What kind of fucked up guy was her last boyfriend? And why the hell would she have stayed with him?

Brian didn't want to think about it anymore, all he wanted to do was spend the night re-exploring every inch of Kim's body.

He laid her on her back in the center of the bed. The flood lights from the open blinds was all the light there was. It wasn't much, but it was enough to be able to see everything he needed to see and more.

Brian ran his hand up her thigh and let it slip right under her blouse on their way up toward her bosom. His hands coolly glided over her flat stomach and up again between the clasp positioned between her breasts. For the second time tonight, he released it and her breasts were liberated, once again from their cloth prison. He slowly unbuttoned her blouse and let the opening fall to either side of her body. He let out an involuntary moan and let his fingers explore her silky brown bosom with fervor.

While his lips were busy with Kim's top, his hands were having their own fun trying to free her hips from her pants. Brian grabbed at the sides on top of her hips and yanked them down to her thighs. His fingers immediately found themselves between the fleshy folds of her mound. His thumb rubbing her clit while his index and middle fingers slipped inside her. Kim gasped at their entry and gyrated her hips against Brian's hand.

He let his mouth move from her delicate breasts sluggishly down her body. His mouth and tongue replaced his fingers between her legs.

Kim's hands pushed down on his curly brown hair and wrapped her legs around his back. She rocked her body underneath his, feeling herself get closer and closer to that climactic precipice her body ached for.

Then the waves hit.

Brian held her hips tight with his hands as her body fell over the edge with lust.

As soon as the commotion subsided, he couldn't stand it any longer. He had to have this woman and could think of nothing else but being inside of her.

He quickly sat up between her thighs and rested her legs on his shoulders preparing himself for entry into her slick hole. He adjusted his body on his knees and leaned forward toward Kim. Her eyes were closed and sweat glistened on her breasts. She was biting her bottom lip in preparation of his entry into her swollen and aching pussy. Brian grabbed her hips and pulled them down toward his body. Kim's body slid from its former spot, her hair leaving a trail of long, black locks in their path.

Brian carefully let the tip of his cock lay on the opening between Kim's thighs that was already wet with her orgasmic juices. The slickness made his manhood slide upwards accidentally rubbing over her clit. Kim squeaked with pleasure and Brian groaned in return. His hips guided his cock back down toward her opening as he gently pushed it in past her outer lips. He stopped. Reveling in the contrast of the intense heat the head of his cock was engulfed in as opposed to the rest of the shaft. Brian shuddered, then pushed on.

With Kim's legs still resting on either of his shoulders, Brian again grabbed her at the hips and pulled her toward him as far as her body would go. Kim gasped. He was so deep inside her hot, tight hole he could swear that it was what heaven felt like. His hips started their natural, animalistic thrust into her womb slowly at first. Her hips met his with every push. Kim's hands fondled her breasts as her head swayed uncontrollably from side to side. Soft unrecognizable mumbles escaped her lips.

The dim light from the window fell on Kim's body like the moonlight on a lake. She looked more beautiful now than ever, he thought. Her soft, supple, aroused body enjoying every ounce of pleasure it was receiving. The wet sounds of his entry and withdrawal were their aphrodisiac. Brian's deep sighs of pleasure began to intensify right along with Kim's. Brian removed her legs from his shoulders and let his body lay on top of hers with her legs spread wide beneath him. His hands lay on either side of her waist supporting his weight as he pumped his hips between her thighs. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead and began to drip down his neck and chest.

Kim wrapped her legs around his waist, the heels of her feet digging into his buttocks. Brian's tongue licked the outside of Kim's thick lips as she pursed them trying to receive his tongue in her mouth. He wouldn't surrender to its capture, but simply teased at her mouth with soft open mouthed kisses and quick and deliberate darts of his tongue.

Brian's thrusts increased in both speed and intensity. Kim's hands wrapped themselves around his waist trying to hold his body tight against her clit as she felt another orgasm coming on. At that moment, Brian quickly withdrew from her hot furnace and sat in front of her, his stiff, glistening cock standing out in front of him like a sword. He pushed her legs open wider spreading them out across the bed. Holding them down, he used his hips to slowly push his cock back inside of her as deep as it would go, then, just as slowly, withdraw himself completely again. Kim moaned at his entry and gasped at his withdrawal. He did this over and over until Kim finally grabbed him at the waist, pushed him insider her and held him there. They both moaned at his re-entry, his half thrusts excruciatingly slow and deliberate again.

Kim unconsciously reached down and played with her clit. The feel of Brian's strong, hard cock stroking in and out of her while her fingers did a dance with her love button sent Kim over the edge. Her back arched as her body tried in vain to lift itself from the bed. Brian, still on top of her thrusting in and out felt the throes of Kim's orgasm and it made his balls tighten releasing the velvety white liquid from his cock.

Brian's orgasm came hard and his ejaculatory thrusts lasted for minutes after the initial one. He could feel the juices spill from between Kim's thighs as his cock softened and slowly began to withdraw from its carnal heaven.

After their heart rates returned to normal, Brian looked down at Kim and smiled.

"I feel so used," he said covering his face in his hands in mock embarrassment.

"Oh, you have no idea what used is," she said turning only her torso around to look up at him.

Brian laughed.

As she heard the words descend from her mouth she thought about what it really meant. She had spent the last four years of her life being used and found nothing funny about a single moment of it. She looked at Brian's glazed eyes and smiling face and thought how good it must be to be free of the shackles of fear. To not constantly have to look over your shoulder, or wonder if the next corner you turn will run you right into the face of evil. To live her life without the thought of harm on a daily basis seemed like heaven to her. To Kim, Brian was the equivalent of heaven, personified.

Brian lifted his body from Kim's and sat up against the headboard. He was staring at Kim's glorious body when he noticed a small trickle of cum slowly dripping from her inner left thigh. He thought his cock must have still been covered with it after he pulled out of her and it brushed against her limb. Brian swept the white, milky film from her smooth mahogany leg with his finger and placed it at her mouth. Kim opened it and suckled his finger like a baby at its mother's breast.

Brian grunted as he felt that familiar tingle in his sack again.

****

Early that next afternoon, Brian had stopped by Kim's hotel to take her out for a quick lunch before heading back to work. Kim had slept over at his place last night and, as promised, they'd made love that morning before he went off to work and Kim went back to her hotel.

But just as he was about to pull up into the hotel parking ramp, he saw Kim's blue Corolla pulling out. Curious as to where she was going, he followed her. He was sure she'd spotted him a few times on the road, but whenever he blew his horn to try to get her attention, he was ignored. There was obviously something weighing heavy on her mind as she drove to her destination almost as though she were on autopilot.

Brian had followed Kim, remarkably undetected all the way to Eric's house. He stopped his car a block from the street where Kim had parked her Corolla. He put his SUV in park and watched her walk up the door as an older, balding man greeted her and invited her inside.

After a few minutes had passed, Brian's curiosity had gotten the better of him. He walked up to the house and stood in front of the large ivory door.

He wondered if he should ring the doorbell, but figured he would have a lot of explaining to do if he'd done that. He peeked inside the massive picture window in front and looked in. There was nothing there but a long, spiraling staircase and a few doors. He heard voices coming from inside and quickly ran around to the side of the house to their source.