Heaven’s Gate
96 Still in Business
Jessica had never been on birth control. She couldn’t risk the changes in her body if she’d taken the pills and eventually after she and I were together, she’d never seen a reason to get an IUD. I always used a condom if we made love and that had been a rare occurrence.
But that left her vulnerable. She sat staring at the picture of her vagina with Conrad’s semen running out of it. If the last unfortunate event, being pregnant with his child, occurred, she didn’t have the mental fortitude to deal with it. I knew that, like Hannah, she would never consider abortion. If she killed the baby, it would be because she killed herself.
I took her phone from her hand and deleted the picture. She smiled at me. It was apparently something she simply hadn’t had the strength to do.
“I’m out of my depth, sweetheart.” It was Sunday morning, the last day of September. I was baking bread just for the family in our own kitchen this morning. I thought I’d fry dough. Jessica had gone back for a second counseling session, but this time I waited outside for her. She needed to work things out with her counselor now. When she got back to the car, she was quiet—almost vacant. She stayed that way all day Saturday. Ford and Ellen had returned to Mishawaka. They had their own problems to work out. But they promised they’d be back next weekend. The whole family was trying to heal, not just Jessica.
I continued talking to my girlfriend, lover, little papergirl, co-parent of our son with Samantha. Just like I’d done every morning for sixteen years. Friday, I would be thirty years old.
“I want so much to help, but I don’t know what to do. I remember the day when Ruth McCall told me I couldn’t fix you. That was a hard day. But this is so different. How can I even help? Her period is late. If anything, she’s getting more depressed. She doesn’t want to sleep alone, so she comes to the big bedroom with us, strips naked and gets in bed with whomever is near. Have you noticed that Xan creeps in late every night to cuddle her? I don’t think Jessica goes to sleep until she gets there. Even with Amy always near her. We’ve got two more naked girls in the big room. Three if you count Xan. And since the attack, Josh, Cassie, Mary, and the kids are here three or four nights a week and Casa del Agua is here on the other nights. I think they’ve coordinated things among themselves somehow. Everyone wants to hold and be held. And even sometimes to make love. I just don’t know what to do.”
“You got me through it,” Hannah whispered as she wrapped her arms around my waist and pressed her naked breasts against my back. “You were everything I needed. My rock. My constant anchor. The love of my life. I wouldn’t have made it without you.”
“My darling,” I said, turning in her arms to embrace her. “I had so much help. And I knew you and I were meant to be together. Maybe not the way I’d thought, but together. And you accepted your place in the casa. You knew everyone and everyone loved you. I might have wanted to be the one responsible for your recovery, but I wasn’t alone in it.”
“What makes you think you are alone now, Brian? Do you know that right now there are seventeen adults still sleeping upstairs in one enormous bed? There are sixteen children in the kids’ room. And there are you and I. Certainly there is enough love in this house to surround and protect a frightened and damaged woman. You are not alone, Brian Frost. Jessica Barnes is not alone. We will all do whatever is necessary.”
“I love you, Hannah. I love you more today than ever.”
“Even more than when you tried to kiss me in the closet?” She laughed at me and I nodded. “Then put a towel over the bread dough and come to the other room. I have toes that need to be kissed.”
We curled up together in the big recliner. It had been replaced with a double so we could get more people in it. It gave us plenty of room for her to sit partially on my lap while she lifted her bare toes to my lips. That move also gave me a clear and unobstructed view between her legs. Her inner lips parted and I could see the moisture accumulating in drops around her vagina as I kissed and licked between her toes. While I held her foot to my lips with my right hand, I used my left to dip into her moisture. Hannah moaned.
“I’ve been getting a lot hornier since Junior was born. I think having Samantha spurting milk in my mouth after I’ve licked her smooth little pussy might be part of the reason.”
“And when did you last lick that slippery, smooth, glistening pussy and get a taste of that milk?” I asked.
“Just before I came downstairs to listen to you talk,” she giggled.
Hannah pulled her foot away and repositioned herself straddling me. She kissed me deeply as she sank down onto my cock. It was incredible. It was as emotional as it was physical. It was a joyous release and a reminder that in a world turned to chaos, there was love. Our love.
“Just remember, boyfriend; no matter what, we all still love you.”
Tuesday morning, I came home from the bakery after I’d gotten the kids to school and found Jessica and Amy on the sofa in the family room. That was where I’d found them almost every morning, but it was different today. They were animatedly talking and waving Jessica’s cell phone around.
“What’s up, ladies?” I asked. “Trouble?”
“Sort of,” Jessica said.
“It’s good trouble to have,” Amy added.
“It seems that I still have a business,” Jessica said, absently waving her phone again.
I hadn’t thought of that. Agence Portes du Ciel had offices in Paris and New York. They weren’t located in the World Trade Center, but rather on Fifth Avenue near Rockefeller Center. The company had been operating under the assumption that both Heaven and Conrad were dead. But they were still sending models out, billing clients, and collecting revenue. Most of the business continued to function without her active involvement.
Now it was the first of the month and a dispute regarding how the company financials should be prepared had arisen. Without really thinking about what she was doing, the manager of the accounting department in Paris had simply dialed Jessica’s phone number and it had connected this morning. Suddenly, Jessica was the sole surviving owner of the world’s largest international modeling agency.
This was going to be a mess. Conrad had been the majority owner, but she’d have to find out what happened to the stock now that he was dead. The brokerage they had worked with to go public no longer existed. Or at least not that office nor the people they’d worked with. What was the status of her IPO?
“I need to go to work, but I can’t stand the thought of going back to New York or of getting on a plane to Paris,” Jessica said. “What am I going to do?”
“Most of our offices have moved to Indianapolis,” I said. “Why don’t you use my office? It has a phone and computer. I’ll get Geoff to come over and set up any connections you need.”
“Can we do that?” Amy asked. “Heaven, I’ll work as your assistant and get you up and operating. This is what we need. What you need.”
That set things in motion. Heaven moved into my office in the village and started making phone calls. Amy took Randy’s old desk and started organizing what needed to be done. There was a hint of a smile on their faces for the first time in two weeks.
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