After Midnight Read online

  I was stunned that parents would say that to a child.

  “Are you serious?” I said to her, shocked at their reaction. “How could they do that to their own daughter?”

  “I wondered the same thing, then and now,” Sarah said to me. “I couldn’t believe they didn’t want me home and were just willing to strand me like that. So, I called James, and he came and got me right away. I started living with them, helping them out around the house and taking care of my niece while James and Denise worked. I was so grateful they took me in, and everything was fine for the first year or two. But as Lizzie started getting older and was spending more time with me, getting help with homework, with clothes, talking about boys – I think Denise came to resent me. Things have been getting more and more tense for a while.”

  “Then…” Sarah looked at me, “Then she saw you outside with me one morning a few days ago when you had walked me home. I didn’t really know you… I didn’t even know your name yet… and she freaked out about me letting someone follow me home.”

  “Sarah,” I said to her, taking her hand, “I am so sorry. I never meant to cause any problems for you. I was just… just looking for a friend, is all.”

  “Oh, Caleb, you have nothing to be sorry about,” she said to me, holding my fingers in hers. “Believe me, I was looking for a friend, too, and I am… I’m so grateful you came along to be my friend… and more,” she said softly.

  Sarah grabbed another tissue and gently dabbed her eyes dry again before continuing.

  “Denise, though, I think she saw it as an opportunity, a chance to maybe force my hand to get me out of the house. This call from my mother to Denise… Denise never talked to my mother directly. It was only after my mother called James or he called her. I am sure she arranged for it to happen when she knew I would be there. I haven’t talked to my parents in years since that all exploded. Denise took the opportunity to put me on the spot and then tell my mother about you in a way that made me look… well it made me look the whole thing from the past was my fault, and it made me feel like it was my fault all over again. I grabbed a few things, stormed out of the house, and then I didn’t know where to go. Then I thought of you.”

  Sarah looked drained after explaining it all to me. I pulled her to me again to hold her close to me. I could feel her body shivering, partly from being damp from the rain and partly from how upset she was. I wanted to take the pain away from her so that she could feel better, feel happy again, but I knew all too well what it was like to carry around pain like that inside. It hurt to have it in there, but it was even more painful when you tried to share it with someone else. It made you have to relive it all over again, something I never wished on anyone.

  “Is it okay if I stay here until I have to leave for work later? I don’t have to be there for another four hours,” Sarah asked me tearfully.

  “Of course,” I said to her, holding her. “As long as you don’t mind the mess around here.” I looked around the apartment and saw that there were some clothes strewn about and lots of folders and papers piled up on the counter by the kitchen.

  Sarah laughed, seeming a bit more like the Sarah I knew when she did.

  “This is hardly a mess, Caleb,” she said to me. “You should see my niece’s room. You can’t even see the floor most of the time. Teenagers can be the worst.”

  “I don’t know,” I said to her. “Adam keeps his room neater than most hotel rooms I stayed in. I think his mother must have drilled it…” I cut myself off, not wanting to get melancholy about Ella, not when Sarah was feeling down already.

  We both sat quietly for a moment before I got up and straightened up some of the papers and gathered up some of the dirty clothes.

  Sarah stood up and came over to me, grabbing the stack of folders in my hands and placing them back down on the counter.

  “Caleb, you don’t have to do that,” she said. “Come back and sit down with me, please.”

  We walked back over to the couch, and I sat next to her. I put my arm around her as she curled on the couch, pulling her legs up onto the cushions. Sarah placed her head against my chest. I am sure she could feel that my heart was beating a mile a minute. She tilted her head up at me and smiled.

  “Your heart is racing,” she said as she kept listening, snuggling closer to me and wrapping one of her arms around my waist. “Do I make you nervous?”

  “More than a little,” I said to her honestly.

  Sarah sat back up next to me and brought her lips to mine. What started out as a soft kiss quickly turned to a more passionate one, and I could feel her mouth open slightly against mine. We held our kiss together, and I could feel my hands instinctually start to roam up and down her back. Somewhere in the back of mind, I knew it had been a long time since I had kissed or felt anyone like this, and I may have felt a little more tentative, and perhaps even a little scared about where things may go.

  Even with this feeling deep in me though, I found myself wanting Sarah more and more. As we kept kissing, I could feel her hands roaming on me as well, over my shoulders, across my neck, and eventually down across my chest. It was as if neither of our hands knew exactly where else to go at this point as we waited for one of us to make the next move.

  My brain and body finally started to coordinate things as we stopped our last kiss. I could see a familiar look in Sarah’s eyes, one of hope and passion, one that I had only ever seen in one other woman in my life, until now. I took Sarah’s hand and helped her up from the couch and led her down the hall to my bedroom.

  My bedroom was hardly what I would call ready to entertain any guests, but at this point, I didn’t think either of us really cared that much. Sarah and I walked over to the bed and sat down next to each other and resumed our kissing. Within moments our actions were getting more heated and eager. I found my hands moving from her back slowly around her waist and then moving up, gently cupping her breasts in my hands as we kissed. Our kissing stifled a light moan and sigh from Sarah as I touched her. Before long, my hands were at the hem of her shirt, lifting it up and over her head. Sarah quickly did the same to me so she could guide her hands over my bare chest.

  I could feel myself leaning my body to Sarah’s, getting closer to her as my arousal heightened. I moved closer to her, guiding her body back onto the bed, so we were lying next to each other. Our hands continued to explore, with my hands gliding over the front of her bra to the back clasp so that they could undo the hooks. Once undone, I began kissing Sarah’s left shoulder, slowly pulling the strap of the bra down over her shoulder until I could easily free it from her arm. I did the same with her right shoulder, starting by kissing her lightly on the nape of her neck and working down. I could feel her breathing becoming more rapid, her skin getting hotter before I was finished kissing and taking her bra off completely.

  At first, she seemed a little shy, moving her arms to lightly cover her bare breasts, but once I returned to kissing her neck, she relaxed again, letting her arms fall to her sides. I glanced up at her face and could see that her eyes were barely open and she was getting lost in the feelings she too was experiencing right now.

  I continued with light touches from my lips across her shoulder and downward, planting kisses just over the top of her right breast as my right hand reached up and cupped her left breast. I felt her warmth fill my hand and gave a gentle squeeze, causing her to softly moan again. All the while Sarah’s hands were freely roaming over the muscles in my chest and stomach, tracing the outlines of my pecs and abs with her fingertips and fingernails and sending chills throughout my body.

  The tip of my thumb barely grazed across the tip of her nipple, eliciting electric excitement from her body as I heard her gasp. Sarah grasped her hand behind my head and kissed me deeply as my thumb circled her breast and nipple. I could feel that Sarah was starting to squirm a bit on the bed, looking to get her torso even closer to me.

  I moved from our kiss and looked down into her eyes. Her eyes opened wider from the slits
they had been so she could focus more on me. She could tell I was hesitating before I did anything else.

  “Caleb,” she said to me breathlessly, “You should know that… well, I haven’t been with anyone in a long time… there’s only ever been once, a long time ago, and I…”

  I interrupted Sarah before she could say anything else.

  “Sarah, it’s fine,” I reassured her, reaching down to gently move a stray wisp of hair in front of her face.

  “The only woman I have ever been with was Ella,” I said to her honestly. “I’ve never wanted to be with anyone else… until now.”

  I bent down and kissed her again, pressing my lips close to hers, gripping her hands in mine. I broke the kiss and stood up as Sarah moved further up on the bed to get more comfortable, laying her on one of the pillows. I moved back on the bed and over her, kneeling between her legs. I started kissing her stomach, putting my hands on her hips as I did, kissing her lightly in different areas. My hands then moved down and gripped the waistband of the cotton shorts she had on and slid them down her legs and over her feet.

  After tossing her shorts aside, I went back to her body, running my fingers up the insides of her legs, from her calves up to the tops of her thighs, watching as goosebumps formed on her legs. I then traced my index finger over the waistband of her thin cotton panties, causing her hips to arch lightly upward. I hooked both index fingers into the waistband of the panties and inched them down as well, tossing them on the floor next to the shorts.

  I looked at Sarah’s naked body on the bed laying beneath me and felt a surge of yearning building up inside me. I tugged my own shorts down, so I was naked as well, letting my arousal be seen by her for the first time. I knelt between her legs once again, getting closer to her, leaning forward so I could kiss her on the lips once again.

  Our hands went into exploratory mode again, frantically searching over each other’s body to see how the other would react to touch here, a kiss there. My left hand moved across Sarah’s body, down to her waist, and drifted down further between her legs. I could feel her warmth and readiness before I even slipped my finger inside her. I let my index finger linger just outside her, brushing against her, teasing her a bit as I moved up and down. I dipped briefly into her with my finger, pressing the palm of my hand on her mound while I did, and Sarah let out another groan.

  “Oh, Caleb… please…”

  I wanted her badly, and the nervousness I had felt inside at first was long gone now and replaced by intense desire. I shifted my body quickly, so I was hovering over her again before I slowly slipped inside her. I closed my eyes at the feeling as I inched in, experiencing a force washing over me that I had not felt in so long. I moved against Sarah tentatively at first, not wanting to go too fast, working to make this encounter last for both of us.

  Sarah pulled me close to her again, mashing her chest to mine, entwining her legs with mine as I slowly moved with her body. The slow movements did not last long as we both could feel excitement and power building and building. My breathing quickened with each thrust and motion, and I could feel Sarah’s fingers digging into my shoulders. I looked down at her, and her eyes were closed, her breathing through her mouth occasionally interrupted by her teeth biting down on her lower lip to try to control herself more.

  There was no controlling it anymore, for either of us. Sarah’s body started to tighten and tense as our pace picked up, and she gripped my body tightly, her legs and arms trying to hold me in place as I thrust one more time, hearing myself groan loudly as I did. My body shuddered as Sarah held me tightly and she cried out in pleasure.

  I collapsed my body against Sarah, both of us covered in a light sheen of sweat, and my lips found hers once again. I moved off to the right so I could lay next to her, and immediately took her in my arms, holding her close to me. We both lay there, panting and trying to calm our bodies down.

  I kissed Sarah on her damp forehead, brushing her hair aside again before I smiled at her.

  Sarah placed her right hand on my chest, pressing her palm against me.

  “Boy, I thought your heart was racing before,” she said with a laugh.

  “I guess you have that effect on me,” I told her as I placed my hand on her chest. “Yours is thumping pretty good right now too.”

  Sarah snuggled her buddy closer to me, giving me a light kiss on my chin and then my neck.

  “I just want to be here,” she said to me with a sigh as she hugged me.

  “That’s okay with me,” I told her.

  “I’m glad to hear that,” she said, propping her head up on her hand. “But I have to go to work in a few hours.”

  “When was the last time you took a sick day?” I asked her.

  “I don’t think I’ve ever taken one,” Sarah answered.

  “I think if you ever needed a mental health day, today would be it,” I told her. “Besides, how busy could they be on a Sunday night? Give yourself a break, Sarah. Sometimes we all need time to step away for a minute.”

  Sarah looked at me and smiled, and then quickly hopped out of bed and padded out of the room and down the hall. I sat up on the bed, waiting to see what she was doing. I could hear her talking and her voice got closer as she came down the hall.

  “Are you sure it’s okay, Doug?” she said into the phone as she stood in the doorway to the bedroom, still completely naked.

  “Thanks so much,” Sarah replied. “I’ll see you on Wednesday. Bye, Doug.”

  Sarah pressed a button on her phone, slowly walked back towards the bed, and placed her phone down on my nightstand before climbing back into bed with me.

  “Doug was more than happy to give me a day off,” Sarah said as I wrapped my arms around her again as we both lay on our sides. I moved her hair aside so I could kiss her neck.

  “Great,” I told her in between kisses.

  “I guess that means we have a few days together,” she purred as I kept kissing her and ran my hand down her side to her bottom.

  “We’ll have to come up with things to do,” I told her.

  Sarah turned around, so she was facing me now.

  “I’ll bet if we think hard enough we can come up with something,” she said with a grin, snaking her right hand down my body, letting it linger on the inside of my right thigh.

  19

  Sarah

  A day that started out as one of the worst of my life quickly morphed into one that I would never forget for good reasons. When I decided to come to Caleb’s house after my argument at home, I was seeking to come here for comfort. I just knew he was the one person that could make me feel better and feel safe. With all that in mind, I hadn’t expected to end up in bed with him. When Caleb and I started kissing, I knew if he wanted more I was willing. All my tentative feelings I had about men, and about people, just seemed to wash away when I was with him, and more than anything I wanted to be with him in that way.

  As we lay together in bed and the day turned into night, I nestled my head against his chest, listening to the rhythm of his heartbeat, and all the worries that I had just a few hours ago seemed to melt away. I listened to each breath that he took as he slept, and I slipped my arm across his chest and abdomen to hold myself closer to him. His muscles were rock hard, and I could feel the definition of his body underneath my fingers. He was clearly a strong person, inside and out.

  While my fingers were holding him, I could feel a defined scar on his left side, running around just under his ribcage. I let my index finger trace it lightly, touching it and fingering the slope and differences in it. I felt Caleb move slightly beneath my touch and I pulled my fingers back. I glanced up at him and saw his eyes open as he looked down at me.

  “I’m sorry,” I said to him gently. “I didn’t mean to wake you. I was holding you, and I noticed… well, I noticed the scar.”

  Caleb sat up on the bed and turned to face me. I pulled myself up into a sitting position, letting the blanket fall from my body.

  “It’s okay,�
�� Caleb said to me. He took my right hand in his left and led it back to the scar. He held my hand as I traced it again, feeling it with my fingers and the palm of my hand.

  “What is it from?” I asked him, holding my palm against his side.

  “It’s from a knife,” he said to me, looking down at my hand as I held him. “We were on an early morning mission in Afghanistan. We had just entered a home where suspects were, and I thought we had cleared everyone. Someone jumped out from behind a stack of boxes and slashed me just under my vest. He got me pretty good. I spent a while in the hospital recouping from that one.”