Influence

 

Chapter 11: To Not Be Kim

 

"I'm tired and ready to end this tonight. You will be staying here." I stiffened and came to a halt for a split second on the stairs. He shoved me and caused me to trip over the step. I landed on my knee, but didn't remain there for long. His hands left my shoulders, only to grab me, and suddenly pick me up off the stairs. Instead of being driven to walk again up those steps, we struggled for a moment before he won, but he had to wrestle me up off my feet into his arms if I was to stop fighting. I had to be cradled, held locked against his chest, and carried if I was to go further.

I finally found the courage to speak again. "Please take me home."

"After what you told me? I'm surprised. What if I repeated to your family what you told me?" I shook my head.

"They understand my situation --"

His chuckle interrupted me. "Liar. Remember, I can tell. You are showing me they don't understand." I bit into my lower lip. If only I could tell him this crazy story without it sounding half-baked. "Don't do that."

Letting go of my lip, I asked. "Do what?"

"Bite your lip. You could have a very unique piercing if I drop you." ’What the Hell? He's willing to break my arm and probably cracked something in both my hands, but he's worried about me biting my lip?’

Through clenched teeth, I replied. "Then don't drop me."

He raised a brow and nodded. "I may trip."

Fear and anger were being stirred in me. Hissing through my teeth, I whispered, "Then tread carefully with me." That caused him to pause on the last step. The stairs ended at another corridor with a doorway presumably to the balcony.

He shook his head and warned, "Don't tempt me."

I almost felt the niggling sensation of hysteria enter me. "You've abducted and brutalized me like a savage barbarian." There was a little laugh that escaped me. "After torturing me to confess, like a fucking witch, I'm to be imprisoned here." I shook my head. "Why shouldn't I take the risk?"

"Worse could happen." I locked eyes with him.

"Are you going to kill me?" He shrugged and resumed walking.

"You never know with savage barbarians."

"What would you call what you did to me?"

"An interrogation. You could have cooperated better and I wouldn't have required to do what I did." I shook my head again in frustration. He simply could not be made to understand and a great portion of it I couldn't comprehend enough to explain.

"Was this how you asked my family?" I noted his jaw tense when I said that. "Dammit, they are! I have no one else here."

"Maybe. Does that give you the right to replace Kim?" I didn't have a choice. ’What would the hospital have done if I started off by saying who I really was?’

"There was no other way." He turned to use his side to nudge open a door. Inside was a room filled with different sorts of furniture. It looked like a bedroom, but something about it seemed off. It didn't appear to have been in use for awhile. Not like cobwebs were everywhere, but there was a very faint layer of dust over what should be regularly used, like the bed sheets. I found that out when he deposited me on the bed and a puff of dust came up.

"This is your room. I'll be next door." He looked around for a moment before grabbing a hold of the bottom edges of the sheets. A single and violent rip and he rendered the bottom off of its main body. "Stay still."

"What are you doing?" He didn't answer with words, but action. I cried out when he grabbed my injured hands and began to tie them by the wrists. I was yanked bodily up to the head of the bed and leashed to the railing.

"I told you, I'm tired and done. I want no more disturbances from you."

Upset more than I have ever been, I lashed out and kicked him in the ribs as he was leaning over me. "Fuck you! You are the one who attacked and kidnapped me!"

I felt some satisfaction when he grunted from my kick. Unfortunately, he held me by the ankle down against the bed with the very side of his body I’d kicked. His eyes were closed for a moment. Watching him sent a new fear to replace the anger in me. He was shaking and breathing hard. I knew he was struggling to keep calm.

His green eyes peeked through narrowly opened slits at me. In a low tone, he spoke. "You swung first and last without provocation. I never brought violence onto you without warning."

"My hands --"

"You lied to me again and again. When you finally told the truth, I justified the act. I will not tell Kim's family about your sick ruse." Again, the fear in me was joined with an equal measure of anger.

"I didn't trick anyone!"

"It amazes me how you continue to be a horrible liar and have somehow Kim's family believing you." Glaring at him, I kicked him with my other foot.

It caught him in the forearm and since he didn't grab it, I kicked again. "Fucking Bastard!"

I stopped. ’What the Hell was I doing?’ I was tied to a bed and attacking someone who was nearly as scary big and nearly strong as Greg. This guy felt his actions were justified and I kept goading him to more acts of violence. Now I introduced my own violence. ’What more would he do?’

Gulping, I laid my leg down and croaked up at him. "Please, I'm sorry. I just --"

"Stop." His eyes were closed again and he shook with a firm grip on my ankle. "Scared. You're scared and trapped. Of course you'd fight." He held his breath, letting it out in slow blows. When he opened his eyes again, he stared down at me in a silence that took a minute or more before speaking again. "Tell me again. This time, be honest with me. Who are you?"

For a second, I lifted my head up to give him an incredulous look before dropping back and shaking my head. I felt close to crying like I had on the floor downstairs. "Please don't ask me that. I don't know."

"But you are passing as Kim?"

"Fumbling as Kim. I woke up, after a month in a coma, and everyone tells me I'm Kim. How am I supposed to respond?" If I could, I would have cleared the blurring tears welling up in my eyes before they started streaming down my scarred face. Instead, I just blindly stared at the red fuzzy shape that kept hurting me.

"Honestly." A exhausted sigh escaped his lips as he shook his head at me. "I'll be back to take the edge off so you may get some rest." My ankle was released and he turned to leave the room. Once he was out, I couldn't hold back anymore and let how I felt go quietly.

Turning to face away from the doorway, I buried my face into my tied and bruised arm. I needed to calm down if I wanted to think of a way out of this. Every word I said had only been digging me deeper into a grave. ’What else could I do?’

Hearing his footfalls, I knew he returned and approached the bed. The motion on the bed told me he sat on the side of it. A shadow fell over my blurry vision of the bed before I felt his palm brush over my cheek and beneath my eye. He cupped under my chin and turned me to face him with his thumb brushing away the wet streak on the other side of my face.

He held up a cup. "This will help you keep warm and rest." I felt his hand slip from my chin behind my neck to lift and support my head up. The rim of the cup was pressed to my lips, but wasn’t tipped by his hand, so I drank what he gave me by biting that rim and pulling it carefully down. I did what he wanted me to do. I had no more will left in me to fight and make matters worse.

What he gave me was fire on the tongue and down the throat. I coughed into the cup, nearly spitting and spilling the contents out, but I involuntarily bit harder on the rim during my spluttering. He tugged the cup and I let go when I felt the resistance. I took the opportunity for me to recover my breathing while he had begun pouring another cup. This serving, he drank from for a moment before lowering it back down to me. I was hesitant to try it again, but I didn't want to deal with anymore physical or emotional pain. I drank.

After so many servings, I finally felt the buzz in my head start and the world melt a little of that hard edge away. I watched him let out a long sigh after drinking another portion of the cup before placing it back in front of my glistening lips. When I finished the cup off, I had to ask. "Who is Kim to you?"

Those green eyes locked with mine. "Someone important." Knowing this world's morals, I wondered how important Kim really was to him. ’Was he one of Kim's lovers? Did he know she banged her own brother before I came along?’ Maybe he should.

"You know that Greg fucked her." It occurred to me that the incestuous relationship might not end there. "Maybe her whole family, but heard it from Brittany herself that the three are connected tightly by the hips." He didn't say anything, just watched me back as I watched him in turn. "How big is her family? I never got to investigate that before you messaged me. Does she have cousins she plays with on the side? Are there any friends at school that have extra benefits?" I giggled at that thought and wondered how lucky I would have been if I'd gone to her school.

He didn't talk. His face wasn't showing any signs that he was upset by what I said. It wasn't a sure bet, but I think he knew how free she was with the family. What I said might be true too. Seriously, if I’d had a chance to be in a school with the morals of this world set up the way they were, I'd probably have had a better chance at losing my virginity. No. It would’ve been a sure bet I’d popped someone’s cherry. As it was, I spent more time in front of a PC playing porn games when Mom slept at night as my only release.

I shut my eyes for a moment and laughed a little. "You know, it is funny. If you really want to have Kim back, just grab Brittany. As far that I can tell, she's not seeing anyone except Greg and he's willing to drop her once a boyfriend comes into the picture." Giving the bindings around my wrist a tug, I felt the pins and needles in my hands slowly fade as a strangely overpowering heat spread up and down to every extremity of my body. "What have I been drinking?"

Tilting my head back, I looked at my hands and tested the binding one more time. The warmth and numbness in my hands felt like it was possible for me to keep pulling until I slipped out. So, I tried.

His hand reached out and gently held my wrists to keep me from tugging anymore. "You'll hurt yourself." I laughed at his hypocrisy.

"Why do you care. You've already hurt me enough." I kept laughing, but stopped tugging anyways. It didn't look like it was working with his hand there.

"It won't happen anymore. I'm done."

"You've said that already three times. By the way, I thought you would be in bed by -- oh, I guess you are in a bed." I shook my head while trying to keep my laughter in check. Wiggling my fingers, I watched them move without feeling them. "It feels like I have no fingers."

He let go of my wrist and worked removing the binding around them. A flush of pain erupted in my hands, but I didn't cry out. I did feel the cool stream of tears go down my cheeks again, but that was it.

"You resemble her very much." It took me a moment to recollect what he was talking about. Then I remembered.

"Yeah, you've said that maybe once or twice." Ringing my hands around my wrists, I saw I could at least move my hands and fingers. I suppose they weren't broken. Feeling pressure on my lips, I opened up to let him pour more of the drink in.

It wasn't the cup on my lips or the drink entering my mouth.

My eyes widened and I immediately lowered my hands down to his shoulders in an attempt to shove him off. His greater frame had slide over mine and the weight of him anchored me down to the bed fully. At first, I was shocked by his face being this close to mine. It took me a little bit of processing to realize he was deeply kissing me.

I pushed again, more frantically to get him up and off, and he lifted up only enough to break the kiss and let me breathe. My hands had dragged down to his hard and broad chest to push him the rest of the way off. Instead, he lowered himself completely on top of me again and trapped my arms beneath him. In my gasping for air, he revisited my slippery wet lips more deeply than before.

Thrusting my legs out, I tried to use the balledheels of my bare feet to kick down into his thighs or someplace along his legs. I didn't feel much when I should’ve in my struggle, except the numbing warmth from the drink, and I guessed he perhaps didn't feel my fighting efforts. Since my arms and hands were trapped, I could still dig my nails through his shirt and into that formidable chest. I pinched and dug at him to try and leave off of me.

Our lips only became more wildly engrossed in their act. I tried gasping for air between the kiss, then breathe from my nose, but it became an impossible endeavor with his hot breath being fed directly to me. I inhaled him every time he pushed to taste me more, and I weakened… I fought him less and less.

The next time he broke our kiss, I only gave myself enough time to inhale and beg out a single breath for him to, “Stop.” One more breath, and I said, "Please --" And that was all I had time to say when his lips returned. I was starting to become dizzy and I saw spontaneous stars appearing and whirring around in my vision.

My legs began kicking at him with renewed energy, but it didn't prevent him from feeling along my tapered region of my waist before my hips. Between us, I felt his hand run down my flat belly and dip into the only imperfection there, my navel. Hooking a thumb, he stroked along the band and drawstring of my pajama bottoms. The feeling of him slipping in that thick opposable digit and curling it up reminded me all the more he was a man and I wasn’t. He stretched the band of my pants up for his hand to slide fully inside.

I made a noise between our kiss when I felt the tips of his fingers cup me down between my legs. The noise came out of me again as his fingers held there firmly, except for one. That one sinful finger first stroked over me, then plied me open enough to feel the liquid warmth gradually seeping out of me. Gently, he kept his slippery movement only running between me to smoothly smear the pleasant leak around.

He’d broken the kiss once more. Shutting my eyes, I still could see the stars as I gasped deeply for air. It took everything I could to keep myself from uttering those noises I made earlier between our kiss. A new kind of warmth was spreading through my body. One that was a little familiar, from when I was with Dr. Anstone, but different as well. There was an alluring glow growing hotter in me every time I breathed Jeremy's scent in.

His hard, lean, and formidable figure pressed down onto mine was nothing I'd ever come close to experiencing with Dr. Anstone. She was relenting, gentle, but merciless when she had hold of what she desired. Jeremy was full of unwavering determination to claim what was in his possession and captured every bit of me without fail.

There was a single moment that he lifted himself up, freeing my arms, but only long enough for him to grab a hold of my night’s top single-handedly. My hands shot up to him and grabbed him by the shirt to wordlessly in prevention. Each sound I heard next was my buttons popping off in rapid succession to bare my chest. Only when my exposure was complete did he brush my arms out of his way. I opened my eyes to watch him drop his face down below my sight.

A surprised gasp left me and I squirmed on the bed. With both his hands, one toying with me below, the other teasing with flicks of his thumb and making my breast tender with the heel of his palm; his lips and tongue played a tasteful game with my other breast. Hard and erect, he caught me between his teeth to tease me until I voiced another humiliating gasp. The rugged lapping I felt didn't help me feel any better, but they were more enjoyable than the bite.

I dropped my hands, since I no longer could prevent this from happening, and clenched both into tight fists to tear into the sheets beneath me. Instead of kicking him, my feet were either running or curling around his bare calves. With my legs stretching out along and around the backside of his tensing thighs, I couldn't prevent myself from pressing my hips up to his grasping hand when the fiery hot sensation he rubbed out of me peaked. It felt like I had a burning hot leak traveling from my head down to my feet. Not shocking like I had with Dr. Anstone, but fully lit on fire.

His hand left and I felt the open aired expose on me as I sensed him sitting up. I stared at him as he gripped his shirt and removed it. My eyes drifted down his entire sculpted torso. I witnessed the small hairs on his chest uncurl, the rise of his pecs as he breathed in, and his once tensed shoulders rest as he exhaled heartily when freed from his shirt’s confinement. My hand had let go of the bed sheet to reach out and touch his stacked abs on his stomach.

I jerked my hand back, not knowing what the Hell I was thinking. My mulled thought on my moment of confusion was interrupted by a single downward tug on me. Then a second more successful one as he pulled my bottoms down to the widest of my thighs. He had to get untangled from my legs to bring them down any further, but it appeared to be enough for him. He had in his sights the damp hairs that was hiding a place I wanted no man to enter.

Forgetting he wore boxers, I was shocked to see he had not required any time at all to be free. My jaw had become slack and hung as I uttered a whimper at the size of him. I twisted to roll onto the side of the bed to reach for some edged purchase on the mattress and pull away to escape out from under him.

One hand on my turned up shoulder and he tenderly tugged, but pulled me back. He only laid his hand there, tugging to direct me back until I was willingly lay back down on my own. I didn’t. I looked at him like he was crazy. So instead of being laid back down, he moved and allowed me enough space between us for me to pull out from under him… all just to unlock my legs from his.

Then he grabbed me by my lowered pants and yanked me back.

He was half pinning me by the hip with one hand and pulling my bottoms the rest of the way down and off with the other. Then, he just let go of me and sat back to watch me. The only thing I wore now was the ripped open shirt. There was no use hiding myself from him and I honestly wasn't concerned with where his eyes went. I was scared where he wanted to go with that very masculine excitement standing up between his legs.

Slowly, I sat up and made a half-hearted attempt to slide away from him for the edge of the bed. He simply grabbed and pulled me back to where I had laid before. This time, his hands didn't leave me. I was held, but not pinned down. Those palms ran up, rubbed and firmly massaged into over my hips, and back down to my thighs in the same manner until he circled back up to do it all over again. On his final massaging circuit, he passed my hips to encircle my waist.

My lower half was lifted slightly off of the flat of the bed and I fell back on my shoulders and elbows. He used his knees to wedge my legs open and just sat there. Then he did something that really threw me off-guard. He scooted away from me and repositioned himself to be laid back while pulling me to follow. I tried to sit back up, but he pulled and lifted me up to throw my balance off. Those green eyes kept a hold of me and I kept wondering what his game was. ’Why was he playing this cruel game with me like this?’

His hands ran down to the beginning swells of my pert bottom, and suddenly held onto me with that steel grip. In one motion, and with a groan from me curling to sit up straight, he yanked me up over his lap to straddle him. In a panic, I tried sliding off when I could feel the hot rhythmic beat of his throbbing pulse between my legs.

With one hand exploring my rear, he lifted himself up to sit and to reached behind my shoulders, just to grab me, and then forced me to lay back down on him. He kept me from escaping. That grabbing hand behind me traveled up to the back of my head and brushed the small hairs on my head in gentle strokes. 'Was he petting me?' I laid me cheek down over his shoulder while trying to adjust my legs, to not be uncomfortably spread open so widely around his hips, but his exploring hand on my rear held me down until I stopped moving. I stared at the bed's edge for a moment, fully aware I had a man’s cock trapped between my stretched open legs… and my worked up womanhood resting on it.

Then I closed my eyes and whimpered. He rocked his hips up and continued to hold down mine to grind the rigid belly of his aroused length up through my hotly bothered and tenderized valley. The moisture there had never gone and only made his teasing rub between us that much more slick and smooth going. Each time he rocked, I felt his hip dip lower and lower, mine higher, aiming that great male part of him eagerly, parting me, opening me with nothing more than his passing through.

There was a soft pressure on the back of my head, and then top of it, which had me look away from the bed’s edge to see what he was doing. He had gently kissed me on my forehead, and returned to the top of my head with his passionate breathing blown through my short hairs.

I heard him whisper, "Relax." ’Could I?’ I swallowed and pressed my cheek back down and more firmly on his shoulder. Consciously, I tried to ease up on my tension and let myself go, to hang out on top of his body. Once I had done that, the fiery drink he gave me had done the rest loosening me up.

One outstanding stroke between us and I felt the large blunt tip of his great masculine shaft brush nearer. I shook in response and seized up.

"Slow. Breath slow." I followed his suggestion and worked on my shallow and rapid breaths to be drawn out into gradual pulls for air. Once more, I tried relaxing.

A few more times, he grounded his rock hard root against me, always making me feel the thick headed top of it barely rubbed by the passage of my sex and repeatedly doing it over again with every chance he could penetrate me any time. That was, until either my rocking or his had unintentionally caught the crested crown of his head just enough in his latest pass to almost enter me. He paused for a mere second. His lower hand kept me firmly in place so I wouldn’t pull away. With a slow but sure determination, I was finally being pulled down his length and penetrated until he had no more of himself to plant.

My lower lip was trapped between my teeth, otherwise I would've started screaming like I had with Dr. Anstone, and I involuntarily hugged him for some imaginative security as he took me. We laid together like this, our bodies laid out on the wrong side of the bed with our heads where our feet should've been. While we laid still, I supposed he waited for me -- I just guessed -- to stretch around his size until I found comfort with him in me and be forever imprinted by only him. He kept stroking my hair, and I had to admit that soothed my nerves.

Until he stopped petting me.

He had let go of where he held or petted me to take hold of my shoulders and gently nudge me up. I got what he was indicating, that I should get up on my elbows for a bit, but I stopped lifting up off his chest when he no longer pushed me away from him. 'What's he want?' His hand came up to my face and directed me to look down at him.

"Keep looking at me." I flinched when he dragged his manhood down and partly out of me. "I want us both to know who we are." ’What did he mean by that?’ I gave him a questioning look. "I will not pretend you're Kim." I inhaled sharply and let out a gasp with his thrust. “You taste and feel just like her, but you’re not… you’re not Kim.”

For a while, the sway of our hips was all the movement on the bed. Eventually, I registered that I had joined him in the swayed motions. I had begun grinding down onto his upward thrusts and he responded to my change with a gasp. My eyes had blinked, then shuttered closed as I hanged my head down and laid my forehead onto his shoulder.

I don't know why I said what I did, but I had told him, "I'm sorry." Maybe I had felt guilt for continually being someone I was certainly not or that I couldn't be the person everyone wanted me to be. It wasn't possible for me to naturally exist that way.

I had intended to lower myself back down to rest again, but he redirected me by cupping my chin up, facing him on my way down to rest. Our lips met again. When he pushed to enter my mouth, we pressed ourselves for a faster pace. He shoved in me fully and pulled out almost entirely before thrusting himself harder until I kept completely sheathing him or nearly being taken off him again and again. He had triggered my already burning hot system to overload and explode before I nearly blacked out from the surge of power he kept pumping in me. I was going insane until I had silently screamed between our kiss the very instant he finally made the decision to stop and stay inside me.

Within me, I felt the regular pulse of his masculine vigor swell with a passionate pride. A foreign heat radiated from within me to such a degree that it prevented the orgasmic sensation of being filled from fleeing me. For the first time, I felt a wholesome completion and shuddered a cry into our kiss. This climatic episode caused me to force myself down onto his body, holding him, and never letting go until the odd passion passed.

It took time, but we eventually cooled and relaxed. I remained laid on top of him, having nuzzled my cheek back to his shoulder, and welcomed his soothing pets to finally bring me a restful end to this night...

 

---

 

When I woke up, he was still dead asleep.

Carefully, and quietly, I removed myself from his arm and body. I felt a sudden rush between my legs when I rolled off of him to the edge of the bed. I stood and winced at how sore I felt. Breathing a bit heavily, I dropped a hand down and felt moisture there. Clenching my eyes shut, I shook my head and wiped to clean my hand over the bed sheet before walking to the bedroom door.

I was escaping. I didn't care that I was almost entirely exposed. Each agonizing and stiff legged step down took me closer to freedom.

Downstairs, I searched around the entire grandhall until I found the keys to his car. Taking a look out the front door, I made certain no one was out on Jeremy’s green expanse outside to stop me. All I needed were guard dogs or a single security guard out front to stop me.

The sun was up, which would be giving me a problem if Kim’s family was awake and aware I was missing.

In one brisk walk, I made it to his car and hopped in. It took me a moment to remember how to start a car like this. ’Clutch and brakes first, right?’ My hand went to the gear shift and tested to be sure it was in the neutral position.

"Okay. I think I remember." At least Dad had taught me one good thing before he spoiled and tossed himself out.

With the car started and me being absolutely careful of not stripping the gears between shifts, I drove to the gate. For a few minutes, I tried to figure out how to open them up from the inside of the car. Backing up, I paralleled with the button and tried giving it a push. The gate opened.

After that, I drove out of here. It took me a few wrong ways, a couple of U-turns, and a single humiliating moment of asking for directions before I found my way home an hour later. From what I could tell, if I had known where I was going, it should have taken ten minutes from that mansion or palace.

That wasn't very comforting to know how close Jeremy lived.

I parked in behind Shelly's car.

Someone opened the back door. It took me a moment to figure out which of the two it was, but I found out it was Shelly. I lowered my head and shoulders as she glared down at me through the car’s window. When she reached the car, then her expression changed to confusion and then worry.

"What hap-- Never mind. Stay here a moment. I'll be back with a blanket." Quickly in and out, she was light and fast on her feet. The door opened and she instantly had me hugged in a blanket while we walked together to go inside.

Keeping quiet, I knew that if I said anything, it would cause trouble for the whole family. ’What should I say? Why hadn't I thought about this on the way home?’ There was a whole hour that I could have been thinking of how to avoid this scenario.

We reached the living room, but we kept going until we were in Shelly’s room. I was directed toward her bed and pressed to sit down. She sat with me and leaned down to hold me around my shoulders. That had pulled my head to be pressed into her bosom.

"Honey, who's car is that?" Cringing, I knew that part would eventually be revealed. Either the family would figure it out or Jeremy was going to come and claim it.

"Jeremy Kegan's." There was a silence. I felt her hand smooth back my short hairs for a few seconds before a kiss was laid on the top of my head.

"For a little while, please stay away from him and anyone else. Just a little longer. Okay Honey?"

I thought about that and decided to use the request as an opening. "May I know why I can't?"

Once more, she laid a kiss down on top before replying. "Your therapist wants you to avoid people you once knew. Even if you start remember them, you -- well..."

"I don't look like Kim." After that was said, I felt her tighten the hug around me.

"Yes, but I know you are. We all do. The same person who is in my arms was the one --" I heard her shudder a sigh. "The same girl who told me everything would be okay. Kim, I know whose daughter you are. We love you."

I closed my eyes and remembered Jeremy and why he’d done what he did. ’Pretending?’

Shaking my head, I told her the truth. "I'm not Kim."

"Honey --"

"I'm not. I -- maybe I’m the same person, but this head had no memory of Kim ever existing. As for how I look, I might as well be a different person. No one knows me. Not even me." I broke away enough to face her. "I can still be your daughter, but not Kim."

"Your memories could come back."

"They won't." I've never had them. "Even if they did, then we can work something out, but that is a really big 'IF' we are talking about."

She sighed and nodded. "I'll talk with your sister and brother about this and get their views. Until then, can you tell me that everything is okay? One more time?"

I took a moment to consider. If Jeremy wanted to cause trouble, I would deal with him when he arrives with the nasty baggage. If not, then I was not going to burden anyone with what happened last night.

I shook my head. "I'm just tired. Can I go to bed?"

"Sleep here and I'll make sure you're not disturbed. Okay?" I nodded. Turning to look at the bed, I gave the spread and blanket a tug, then grabbed the sheets to pull them open for me to crawl up and into them. "Honey?"

Covering myself up, I looked at Shelly. "Hm?"

"Call me, or your sister, or brother next time? I don't want you driving around after drinking." ’How did she know I was drinking?’ "By the way you are looking at me, I guess you thought I wouldn't smell it?" She tapped her nose. "It's a part of Mother's Intuition. You'll get that one day."

... Like Hell I will. Shelly left and closed the door as I finally fell asleep in my home for the first time...