Chapter 10

Bob gently got up from bed and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and shave his face. He didn't want to wake Shawn looking like an animal. Was he a saint or was he just weird? How could a red blooded American male sleep in the same bed with this goddess and not try to have sex? By the time he had gotten everyone out of the hotel room last night, Shawn had fallen asleep from exhaustion.

He thought of waking her during the night as he lay next to the beauty clothed only in her birthday suit, but every time he started to reach for her other than to cuddle her in her sleep, he felt pains of guilt. She was almost raped and murdered last night. Only a cad would take advantage of a woman after that. Besides, Shawn was worth the wait.

When he came out of the restroom dressed only in a towel, Shawn was awake. She looked at Bob and patted the bed next to her. "Why didn't you wake me? Didn't you think I was worth the effort after your time with Tiffany? Or, are you just practicing for when we are an old married couple and you can't get it up anymore?"

"OH GOD NO!" stammered Bob. "It's just that you went through so much last night, and I thought you needed the ... Married? Did you say married? You mean you would marry me?"

"Oh, I don't know. A girl needs to be asked, you know?"

Suddenly the room was filled by pounding from the front door. "Shawn! Bob! Are you guys in there?"

Bob muttered, "TC, I'm gonna kill you!"

"None of that, Bob. Go let him in while I get something on."

"Are you sure? We could act like we weren't here."

"Bob."

"Okay, okay, he's in."

Bob opened the door. Teresa and TC rushed into the room. "The son of a bitch is gone," spat a visibly upset TC.

"Who's gone?" asked a confused Bob.

"Many," replied Teresa. "Someone bailed him out last night. We can't find anyone who knows anything about it."

"Shit! What happened to your cop on cop stuff?"

"What's worse is that all their records on the incident are missing. As far as the police are concerned, this never happened. TC got so mad that he almost got thrown in jail."

"I wouldn't really have torn his arm off honey," offered a sheepish TC. "I was just blowing off steam."

"Bull shit! You ever pull a stunt like that in a police station again, and I'll tear your arm off and stick it up your ass."

"I think that we should go to the club, box up his stuff and see if there is anything that will tell us about what he was doing," muttered Bob. "We need to get Steve, Tiffany and Joey to meet us at the club. We have to search the place for anything that could get us in trouble. If he was running girls out of there, there's no telling what else he was doing. Let's meet there at 10AM and tear the place apart. We can stop when the club opens, and start again after closing."

Teresa said, "I'll make the calls from our room, you get ready."

Bob walked back into the bedroom. "Did you hear any of that?"

"Yeah, Opportunistic too, isn't it?"

"What's..." Bob's words were cut off as Shawn put a finger to his lips.

Shawn looked at Bob and undid the belt of her robe. "Just what are we going to do for the next two hours before we have to be at the club? I can't think of a thing. Did they ever cover this situation in law school?"

"Oh yes. We covered relationships with clients in ethics class."

"Get serious, Bob. Lawyers don't have ethics classes. They have classes in how to get around the law."

"Isn't that ethics?"

"NO! Legality is not morality. Anyway, what did they tell you to do?"

"Run like hell!"

Shawn opened one side of her robe to expose one breast. "Are you sure you want to run?"

"Fuck the rules!"

"No, fuck me."

"Better idea."

Bob dropped his robe and reached for the seminude redhead. Shawn swirled in a circle as the robe magically flew from her shoulder and landed in a pile on the floor. As she moved into Bob arms, her lips found his, and she pulled him to her.

Bob reached the cheeks of her butt as he returned the kiss. His tongue slipped between her lips. Shawn rose to her toes as one leg bent at the knee behind her. She groaned into Bob's mouth as lights exploded behind her closed eyes.

Bob felt himself getting light headed as he pushed Shawn back to the bed and gently lowered her to it. He moved his hands to each side of her head and softened the kiss to a gentle caress.

He moved his hands to her shoulders and gently massaged the tension away. The stress tension left Shawn's body and was replaced with a sexual tension. Her breathing changed into shallow gulps as Bob's hands moved to cup her ample breasts and lowered his head to kiss her nipples. With one hand on one breast, his mouth on the other, his free hand slid to her hard waist.

Shawn grasped his head as he suckled her chest and interlaced her fingers with his short black hair. She gently pulled the hair so that his head moved upward and they kissed again.

Bob believed at that moment there was nothing else in the world. Time, space, past, present, and future all merged into a blast of incredible heat that moved from the kiss to consume his entire body. From his body, he felt his mind, his soul, no, his entire being blending into Shawn's to form a third person that was the two of them. What love had brought together, no power could ever undo.

Then she pushed his head back to her breast, but didn't stop the pressure there. While Shawn pushed Bob's head lower he kissed his way to her mound. When Bob reached her mound he didn't stop, but pushed his tongue between her hidden lips. While he ravaged her, Shawn let out a rush of air through her mouth and the sweet nectar of her orgasm fell into Bob's mouth. Bob continued to feast at her neither-point, and she placed her arm between his legs and pulled him atop her.

Her mouth greedily engulfed his manhood as they strove to please each other in unselfish expressions of mutual love. Shawn stopped her efforts at shorter and shorter intervals as her climaxes built a pyramid of emotional and physical sensations.

Suddenly Bob pulled away from Shawn and turned to kiss her lips. While Shawn tasted herself on his lips, Bob gently entered her and moved with slow measured strokes that sent fire through her body. Each move was the lightning of a spring storm, each sound became the thunder, as each breath was reminiscent of the hot damp breeze that foretold of the approaching tornadoes that spring storms often brought.

Bob reached the point where he could no longer control himself. Try as he would, he could not extend the moment any longer. His first pulse of seed went from him to her in an explosion of passion and fulfillment.

In the space of the few milliseconds it took for the seeds of his loins to meet her inner walls, Shawn felt herself pull out of her body and look at the scene of love on the bed. She felt a presence next to her. Her spirit turned to see her husband or her husband's spirit reach out its hand.

"Shawn. My love. This is a good man. He will take care of you, and he will treat our son as his own. I want you to know that I bless your love and marriage to this man, but never forget that I will love you through all eternity, as I know you will always love me. Bob and I will share your love, because the more you love, the more love you have to give. Just as we will share the baby girl you have just created.

"I promise you this. I will watch over you, Bob, and all of your children as they grow older and protect them from harm and evil. But, I must go back now to await the day we can be together again. Goodbye my darling."

As Bob rested with his head on Shawn's shoulder, he quickly got up. "Oh God, Shawn. What's wrong? You're crying! You're white as a sheet. I'm gonna call a doctor."

"No, Bob, don't. I'll be ok in a minute. Could I have a glass of water?"

"Oh yes! I'll be right back."

When Bob returned to the bedroom, Shawn was setting on the edge of the bed with her head in her hands. Tears ran down her checks.

"Here, honey. Can you tell me what I did? Did I do something wrong?"

"God is in charge of us all," whispered Shawn as she wiped away the tears from her cheeks. "I have been on birth control pills ever since our first lunch, but we have just created a little girl."

"How do you know that?"

"Bob, do you think I'm crazy?"

"No, of course not."

"What would you say if I told you that while we were making love that I had an out of body experience and talked to Hobo's spirit?"

I, I, uh, I don't know what..."

"I understand, Bob, but I did. He came to me and blessed our marriage and said that you were a good man who would treat Hobby as your own and treat me with respect."

"I never met Hobo, but if his spirit can see that, he must have been a very wise man. If you say yes when I ask you to marry me, I will take care of you, and Hobby will never lack for anything in his whole life. If we made a little girl just now, I would be the happiest man in the entire world. When we get this business with the club done, let's get Sally and Hobby, and fly to Las Vegas and get married. What do you say?"

"Bob, I love you so much. Yes."

The bottle of 12-year Chives Regal sat on the table on the patio. Paul filled an empty glass and quickly downed the contents of the glass and set it next to the bottle. He stretched his naked body out in the chase lounge and sighed.

"If your going to drink it without tasting it, let me get you a bottle of bar stock," said Callie as she gently sat in his lap. "Want to tell me about it?"

"Oh, I was just thinking and looking at the stars. When I was a kid, Bob and I built a tree house with a clear roof. Mom was making some hot beds for her garden, so there were two strips of Plexiglas she was going to use. We used those for the roof. She went crazy when she found out we stole them. Dad bought two more sheets, and we got out of trouble. We were doing extra chores for a month to pay for it, though.

"That became our first science lab. We used to dream about space and going to the stars in space ships. We bought rocket kits and built operating rockets. When we would light one off, we measured off a base line and followed the rockets path with a stick stuck to a protractor. We had an old slide rule that dad got from his dad and did the trig functions before we even knew what trig or a unit circle was.

"You know, I got my first piece of ass there. Jen caught Nicole Sergeant and me and blackmailed me for a month before I caught her skipping school. We made a truce then she left me alone until Bob caught her in the tree house with Nicole's brother Billy Sergeant. Then she had to clean his room until she had something on him. You know? It's really surprising we are so close with all the things we did to each other."

Callie cocked her head and replied, "Losing your dad the way you did has a lot to do with your closeness, but I'm interested in this din of sin you guys built."

"It was a lot of fun. I guess the high point for the tree house was when Bob and I popped the Pittman twins cherries at the same time. God we thought the tree was going to fall down it was rocking so hard. That must have been where I first got interested in cat houses."

Callie pulled her shift over her head and joined Paul in his nudity. "OK. Let me guess. You're out here at 3 in the morning. You have no clothes on. You're thinking about your first whorehouse. You're chugging a $150.00 bottle of scotch and thinking about old pussy. I know! You're horny and want to fuck me?"

"Callie, I'll always lust after you. But I could never stand to be told that I wasn't your best, and I just couldn't take the chance that you would have to lie about it."

"Come on Paul. What's eating at you? I know your adventures with the Pittman twins aren't causing you to chug booze like this. You hardly ever drink. Out with it, or do I have to hurt you bad?"

"It's nothing, really."

"The hell it isn't! Don't make me go wake Muffin and have her use her whip."

Suddenly tears came to Paul's eyes. "I was thinking of Heather. What could I have done different to save her life? I killed that woman. As sure as shit, I killed that woman. Cindy was right to hate me. I don't know why she didn't sue me for wrongful death."

"Paul! Her lawyers told her she was full of shit. You were brilliant. No one else even had a clue as to what was going on. You figured out who was behind the kidnapping. No one could have guessed that Bill Barton had a place to commit murder. NO ONE!"

"I want to believe that, but what if Cindy was right? What would have happened if I called the FBI? I should have called the FBI."

"I would have lost Sally too. Cindy was stupid to blame you for Heather's death. It just happened. If I can say so, she was stupid for losing the most wonderful man in the man pound. If I were her, you would have never gotten away."

Callie pulled her ex brother in law to her chest and gently kissed the top of his head. "You are really the best, Paul. You are the best."

"Well, what do we have here," asked a smiling Jamie. "I thought you were spending too much time out here setting up the security system. Now I see why. Callie, you are lovely. I can't blame my husband for lusting after you. Want me to go back in the house?"

"No," laughed Callie. Paul was never interested in me. If he were, you would have never hooked him. I don't even think he finds me attractive."

Jamie paused and replied, "Take a look between his legs, I think that can prove you wrong."

"Well, well. He is alive. Thinking about the Pittman twins worked a miracle. I was just warming up the meat for you. Drop that robe and get over here in your place. Let me know if you need any help. I'm the one who needs to go back in the house."

"No, we could always share," replied Jamie.

Pulling out of his doldrums, Paul tried to lighten up his mood. "Ladies! I'm shocked. How can you talk about someone in front of them like that?"

The two women looked at each other and smiled. Callie said, "I don't see any problems. Do you?"

"No. I know for a fact that men talk about women all the time. Turn about seems like fair play to me. You want the white meat or the dark?"

Paul couldn't pull himself out of the mood he was in. "Come on you guys. I came out here to think. Either get a couple of glasses and join me or let me be."

Jamie and Callie looked at each other in shock. To receive a turn down for two women that looked like them from someone who was as hetero as Paul was not natural.

Jamie became concerned. "What's wrong, Honey?"

Callie answered, "He's in a funk about Heather. He thinks that Cindy was right, and I can't convince him that she was crazy."

Callie walked to the pool bar setup and pulled out two more tumblers for the scotch. "Here." She handed one to Jamie and picked up the bottle and filled all three glasses.

Jamie said, "Paul, how long have you had these thoughts?"

"I don't know. At first, it bothered me a lot. When Cindy left me..." Paul took them back to the argument that ended his short relationship with Cindy Carry.

The words echoed through the night. "You killed my sister. You killed my sister. You killed my sister. You killed..."

"Paul," shouted Jamie. "I was there. No one could have done any better. If it wasn't for you, they would have killed Sally too."

"She's right, Paul. I owe you everything I have and everything that I am. You were the force that saved my daughter's life."

"NO! Shawn and Rhonda saved Sally's life and almost saved Heather," cried Paul. "I screwed up so bad. I had everyone else in the wrong place. I allowed my chase team to get lost. I almost got them killed by a fucking horse and buggy. I almost lost the agents I had in the temple. I know I cost Heather her life. Cindy was right."

Callie looked at Paul. "Tell me Paul. What brought on this morbid train of thought?"

"I keep seeing that poor housewife lying in the floor of the club. Cy wants me involved in this investigation. I don't know if I can handle it. I just keep asking myself if Cindy was right. Am I going to get some other poor innocent killed?"