Secrets (A Standalone Novel) (A Suspense Romance) (10 page)

“So will you be staying the night in Kansas City?” I
asked Chris as we walked out of the gallery.

“Hmm, I’m not sure. I would need a hotel room and a
hot shower. Do you happen to know anywhere I could find those two things?”

“I happen to have a very nice hotel room; I guess you
could take a shower and sleep on the couch.” I winked at him.

I grabbed a hold of his arm and held onto him as we
walked toward the Marriott hotel. It was a beautiful evening with the stars
shining throughout the sky. I couldn’t have asked for a better night or a better
first gallery show.

We walked into the hotel like a young couple in love.
Chris was telling me something funny about a man at the party and I was
giggling and laid my head on his shoulder. The moment felt so naturally and
comfortable, I filed it away in my memories. My
heart
felt
big and I really was excited to be getting to know Chris in this
new environment.

As we entered the
elevator,
a young teenage couple also entered. The boy reached out and grabbed the hand
of the girl and they both laughed. It was sweet and both Chris and I looked at
each other. To be that young and innocent again would be something special for
sure. I could still remember how quickly I had fallen in love back then and how
hard it was all at the same time. When you are that young, you just don’t
understand what true love really is.

The young couple got out of the elevator and Chris
quickly pulled me up against him and started to kiss me. I loved the taste of
his tongue. It was a combination of red wine and chocolate from the hors
d’
oeuvres at the party. My tongue moved gently
with his as his hands slid up and down my back in a slow and deliberate motion.

When the elevator stopped on our
floor,
he grabbed my hand and pulled me into
the hallway where he continued to hold me close to him and kiss me. I felt like
a teenager standing in the hallway of the hotel making out. It was such a
spontaneous and fun moment.

Our lips continued to explore one another and my body
urged him to come closer and closer. I fumbled to find my room key while trying
to keep my lips locked with
his
but
finally had to look through my purse.

“What room?” Chris asked.

“1205,” I said as Chris grabbed the key card with one
hand and me with the other.

He ran down the hallway pulling me behind him and made
quick work of the lock for the door. With one fast
motion,
he had the door open and both of us inside the room. He
started to unzip my dress and it fell to the ground. I stood there totally
naked as he looked at me.

The desire in his eyes was intense and I couldn’t look
away, although I felt embarrassed to be standing in front of him totally
exposed.

“Do you even know how beautiful you are?”

Chris moved toward me and held my face as he kissed me
gently. His burst of energy seemed to have died off and he was back to being
extremely
gentle
and sweet. I enjoyed
this sweet side of him very much. It was such a contrast to his large muscular
body and tough exterior.

I reached up and took his suit jacket off and then
started working on the buttons
on
his
dress shirt. The material seemed very expensive and not like anything I could
remember feeling before. The suit was definitely tailored and possibly the
dress shirt as well, they all fit him perfectly.

Slowly I moved my hands down to his belt and pulled it
off. I could feel his hips thrust toward me in desire. He wanted me to go
farther; he wanted me to unzip his pants. Instead, I let my hand rub up against
his cock through the outside of his pants. His hips moved in motion with my
hand and he wanted my hand on him. I could feel him urging me to pull his cock
out.

I pulled him out and quickly slid down to my knees and
took him into my mouth. His moan of pleasure urged me to take him deeper inside
of me. My mouth moved in rhythm with his hip motion as I reached up and let my
hand help with the stroking of his cock. My lips and hand moved deep down his
shaft and then all the way back up to the tip. Slowly and deliberately I used
pressure and motion to bring him close to climax. So close that I could feel
the tiny bit of pre-excitement on my tongue. It gave me the warning to stop
stroking him and let his body calm down.

He didn’t like that at all. Chris grabbed me and
pulled me up so I was standing. His lips met mine in a harsh thrust of desire
and I knew he wanted to fuck me. I could feel his urge to turn me over the bed
and just slide inside. But he didn’t. His kissing slowed down to a more
intimate speed and he sat down on the bed, pulling me down with him.

Chris let his hands move and explore the touch of my
body while his lips continued to play with mine. One of his hands came up and
slid my nipple between his fingers. I let out a moan of agreement with his
move; I loved the feeling of his hands on my body.
 
He didn’t muffle my moans this time and
seemed to press me to moan more as his fingers rolled and twisted my nipple
between the tips.

I lay back
on
the bed and I tried to pull him on top of me. I wanted to feel him thrusting
inside of me. I wanted to feel the explosion of ecstasy, but he would not give
it to me. Instead, he relished the ability to build up my excitement. His hands
were gentle and moved with a light touch over my skin. I could feel goosebumps
form as he was intent on making my pleasure last as long as possible.

We spent over an hour kissing and fondling each other
before Chris mounted me and slid inside. Our bodies were sweaty from our make out
session and it brought another level excitement to the evening, at least for me
it did. I loved feeling his muscles under a layer of sweat. It felt good to
know even a man in such great shape could be made to sweat from touching my
body. As our bodies moved in motion with each
other,
I felt a closer connection to Chris than I had even a few days before. I was
starting to have feelings for him and that wasn’t a good thing. I really knew
nothing about him.
 

We both collapsed from orgasmic pleasure, I felt the
exhaustion of the night overwhelm me. It only took a moment and I had fallen
asleep, tucked close up against Chris and feeling happier than I had in months.

The next morning I was awoken by the hotel phone
ringing. It startled me and took me a few seconds to figure out where I was. I
let my hand slide across the bed and felt Chris and that helped me figure out
where I was.

“Katelyn, you sold all of your photos!” Sarah said as
loud as I think she could have possibly said it.

“What? All of them? There is no way!” I said as I sat
up in the bed.

“Yep, you did. And there was a bidding war over the
picture from the woods. It sold for over twenty thousand dollars.”

“Holy fucking shit!” I stood up and went to the hotel
window.

“Yeah, everyone was asking when you will
have
another show and if you have any other
work. Do you have other photos ready?”

“Hell no! I don’t have anything else ready. I mean I
have millions of photos, but it took me months just to find those pictures. I
can go through my stuff and see if there is anything else I like.”

“That would be great. I’d love to do another show with
you whenever you are ready.”

We hung up and I stood at the window looking over
Kansas City. It was amazing. I couldn’t believe I had sold all my photos. I
couldn’t believe how much money they had sold for. It was a dream come true. A
dream that I had not dared to actually let myself
dream
of
before that very
moment. My life had never been a fairy tale and that was alright with me.

“You do know you’re naked standing in front of a
window right?” Chris said as he started to stir in the bed.

“
Well,
Kansas
City will just have to deal with my nakedness.”

“I don’t think anyone will mind. So that was good news
about your show?”

“Yes, great news. I sold everything. Can you believe
that?”

“Yes.”

He said it so quickly and so confidently that I
couldn’t help but hug him. It felt so great to have someone to share that
moment with. It also felt really good to be around someone who had such an
intense ability to calm me.

 
“I just can’t
believe it. One of the pictures went for over twenty thousand dollars. That is
so insane to me.”

“Which one?”

“The one of the moon through the woods. It was the one
I took the night you had to carry me home.” I laughed just thinking about it. I
didn’t add that it was also the night that he carried me up the stairs to my
bedroom. I didn’t add that it was the first night I had been with a man since
losing Michael. I also didn’t add that the night was a memory that was still
firmly embedded
in
my mind.

“Hmmm I remember that night very well,” Chris said as
he kissed me.

He headed over to the phone and stood there naked
while he dialed a number. It was impossible not to enjoy watching his body.
Especially while he was standing there naked in front of me. I knew he had a
lot of muscles, but seeing him in all of his glory it just made me want to try
something new.

“Yes, we are in room 1205. We need strawberries and
champagne,
please.”

“What? It’s eight o’clock in the morning. Are you
crazy?” I said as I grabbed a t-shirt from my suitcase and a pair of shorts and
put them on.

“It’s never too early to have a celebration. But yes I
could possibly be crazy.”

His smile hid something very interesting and I loved
how he winked right after saying the word crazy. I certainly didn’t think he
was crazy, but I did really want to know more about him. There had to be more
to him than a ripped muscular body that always rescued me from situations.

“Well I’m only going to have one glass, I want to get
home and get to my own bed this afternoon. I’m exhausted. Someone kept me up
most of the night.” I jokingly pushed Chris toward the wall.

“Who would do that? It must have been a crazy man.”
Chris winked at me again. He pulled me close to him and I let my head rest on
his chest. Feeling his arms wrapped around me made me feel so safe. Like no one
and nothing in the entire world could ever harm me. I liked that feeling and I
liked Chris’ arms wrapped around me.

When the champagne
came,
Chris popped the cork and poured us a couple of glasses. It was the first time
I had actually tasted
champagne
and it
was delicious. I didn’t stop at one glass and was soon lying in bed drinking my
third or fourth glass and eating a giant strawberry, with Chris sitting right
next to me. It was by far one of the best celebrations I had ever had. The
simplicity of it made it perfect.

Luckily Chris had only one glass of champagne and was
able to drive us
around
Kansas City on a
little sightseeing tour while I relaxed. We went downtown and even drove past
the Royals baseball stadium. I wasn’t a particularly big fan of baseball, but
it was neat to see the big stadium.

Around five in the
evening,
we went back to the hotel to gather our things and head home for the night. I
felt comfortable with driving by then and I really did want to sleep in my own
bed. I wanted Chris to sleep with me in that bed too, but I would have to work
on that idea when we got back to Bain.

I followed Chris for the whole drive back to town and
I felt like he was purposely driving
slowly. Otherwise,
he drives like an old lady. I had always been a slower driver, but since we
were just getting started I would have driven faster to keep up with him. After
following him to the airport the other day though, I knew he typically was not
so cautious and probably was just driving slow for me. It made me smile to
think that he was thinking about me on his drive back to town.

When we both parked our cars in our
garages,
we met in between them to say
goodnight. It was almost midnight and I was exhausted. I certainly knew I would
be asleep in only a few minutes after I got to bed.

“Well goodnight,” Chris said as he hugged me.

“Night.” I turned to walk back to my house but then
stopped to look at him. “Do you want to come over?”

He didn’t hesitate at all and was standing right next
to me within three seconds. His enthusiasm over the invitation to come visit my
house was really exciting to him.
 

“I think that’s a perfect
idea,
” Chris said as we walked into my house.

“I don’t know how exciting and fun I’ll be, I’m pretty
tired.”

“
Well,
I would
be happy to just lay next to you for the night.”

And that is exactly what we did. Both of us were so
tired, we lay down
on
the bed and fell
asleep on top of the covers, fully dressed, our bodies on top of the comforter
and fully dressed in our shorts and t-shirts from the night before. It was the
first time I was going to bed with Chris without having sex. That wasn’t
something I had even thought about after our first meeting. But now I was
starting to get closer to him and this was just one more step in that
direction.

Somewhere in the middle of the night Chris and I moved
under the covers because the draft from the old house was just too much. It was
nice to fall asleep next to Chris. The feeling of being next to him made it so
much easier for me to actually get some sleep. Just before dawn I woke up to
Chris peering out the window at his house. He was hiding from someone and just
barely had the blinds open.

“What’s going on?” I said as I got up from the
bed
, still dressed in my shorts and t-shirt
from the day before.

“I think someone is in my house.”

I came close and was about to look through the
blinds,
but Chris grabbed my hand.

“Let me see. What is going on? Why would someone be in
your house?”

Chris just ignored my questions and dialed a number on
his phone. I thought it would be 911 to have someone come and investigate.
Although, living in Bain meant the nearest Sheriff or police officer could be a
half an hour away. There just was not a need to have more than a couple
officers on duty in the county at any one time.

“They are here. How fast can you get here?” Chris said
to someone on his phone.

“Who is here?” I said as I went to the other window to
try and look out.

I continued to keep the curtains closed to prevent the
people at Chris’ house from seeing that I was watching them. He was right,
there were people in his house. I could see the curtains moving, just like the
other day when I thought I saw someone in there.

“While you were gone I thought I saw someone in your
house. I came into my house and waited to see if I saw the movement again, but
I did not.”

“What day?”

“I think it was the night you left town.”

“Alright.”

Chris went back to talking to the people on his phone.
I couldn’t make out everything he was saying, but it sounded like he was trying
to get them to come to his house.

“If their team could help out today that would be
great. Send them down as soon as possible.”

I stood at the window and continued to look between
Chris and his house. I didn’t know what was going on, but I could see the
tension and change in Chris and I felt like there was something pretty
dangerous about to go down.

“I need you to trust me. Do you trust me Katelyn?”
Chris said intently.

“Yes.”

“I need you to get into the closet and not to come
out. Even if you hear something horrible. Even if it’s been thirty minutes and
you haven’t heard from me. I need you to stay in the closet until I come back
for you. Can you do that?”

I looked at him and tried to take in everything he was
saying. I hadn’t hid in a closet since I was in elementary school. What could
possibly be going on that it would be necessary for me to hide in my closet? I
didn’t see why I couldn’t just stay in my room. Certainly the people robbing
his house weren’t going to come over to my house. Or at least that’s what I
thought.

“Katelyn, this is serious. Pay attention. Can you get
in the closet please?”

Chris guided me to the closet and moved some things
out of the way. He had me climb in to the way back and then he put the items in
front of me.

“How long do I need to stay here?”

“Until I come for you.”

“Alright.”

I could hear Chris moving something around and then he
left my room. It was hot and stuffy in the closet but I tried to stay put for
as long as possible. Unfortunately that only lasted about sixty seconds and I
was up and looking out the window at Chris’ house again.

I had never been very good at listening as a child and
was horrible at hide and seek. I just had to see what was going on with Chris,
there was no physical way possible that I could sit at home and watch the
coverage of the event from my bedroom. I could hardly see anything from there.

Slowly I made my way down the stairs and toward the
front door.