I hear a gasp from Ana; when I look at her, she's white as a ghost and the irony is not lost on me. Getting up, I tell Taylor, "Show me what you've got." As we leave the kitchen Ana picks up Teddy and follows us. For a moment I think of telling her to stay but as quickly as that thought comes, it goes. Leaving her out of this would be pointless.
When we get to Taylor's desk we see all the sites he's pulled up on his multiple monitors. The middle monitor has windows open to stories from Detroit newspapers. He points out an article dated August 18, 1998, titled "3 Dead in Car Explosion." The article doesn't give much information. Taylor then points out two other windows, one with an article dated two days later titled "Explosion Victims ID'd", the other a day after that titled "Explosion Was Drug Deal Gone Bad."
I pull up a chair for me and one for Ana so we can both read the articles. Evidently, Gary Lesourd had been a drug dealer; he was meeting with a distributor when there appears to have been a disagreement. While Lesourd and two other men were sitting in his car someone tossed a Molotov cocktail through an open window and the car exploded. The bodies of all three men were burned beyond recognition.
"Christian, no," I hear my wife sob as she gets up from her chair, with Teddy still in her arms, and crawls onto my lap.
"Baby, it's okay," I tell her as I wrap my arms around her and the baby and hold them tightly. "We'll get to the bottom of this. No one's going to hurt us."
"Christian, he's an evil spirit. How on earth are you going to fight against that?"
"Ana, I'm not so sure he's a spirit. Plenty of people have faked their own deaths." I look up at Taylor for some sort of confirmation but his face is noncommittal. Instead, he reaches over and points to one of the other monitors.
"You can see here that he's listed as dead in the Social Security index. And here," he points to another area on the screen, "are the police reports of the drug deal and explosion."
"But was there positive i.d. of the bodies?" I press him.
"Not really, sir, just eyewitness reports. Those were three crispy critters left after the explosion burned out. The reports say that there was some evidence that Lesourd's car had been fitted with explosives prior to the Molotov cocktail. Somebody really wanted this guy dead." All this is very troubling but the skeptic in me says that there has to be some explanation.
Teddy's starting to get restless and Ana seems to have calmed down a bit so I relax my grip on them. She leans back and looks at me, fear etched on her face. "It'll be all right, baby," I murmur, hoping to reassure her but it only sets her off again. She starts crying again and leans back on my chest.
And then a strange thing happens – I'm overwhelmed with a desire to be inside my wife. She's frightened and worried and still bleeding but I don't care, this is the best way I can think of right now to comfort both of us.
I move back and gently slide her off my lap. She looks puzzled as I stand up but hands me the baby when I hold out my arms for him. I turn to Taylor and tell him, "Keep working on this. See if you can find out any more information on his known associates and what happened to them. Get Ryan on it ASAP."
"Yes, sir," he responds as I move Teddy to my hip and take Anastasia's hand. We head out of his office and back to the main house. I stop at the kitchen to hand off Teddy to Gail; Ana looks worried as I do so but I keep hold of her hand and tell her, "Don't worry, just come with me."
Back in our bedroom, as soon as I close the door behind us I wrap one arm around her and firmly grab the back of her head with my other hand. Planting my lips hard on hers I explore her delicious mouth with my tongue. She responds tentatively at first but after a few seconds she's fully into it and we're playing a deep, frenzied game of tonsil hockey. It's only a harbinger of what's to come; I'm rock hard and my dick is clamoring for her pussy.
She pulls back to take a breath and I seize the opportunity to pick her up. "Christian, I'm still bleeding!" she protests as I carry her to the bed. I look at her askance and respond, "When did that ever stop us?"
"Never," she says, "But on the bed? What about the sheets?"
"Fuck the sheets," I smirk as I lay her down, "Let Gail deal with them." I crawl next to her and we resume our kiss, my hand now cupping her soft, luscious breasts, pushing up the t-shirt she wore to breakfast; I feel her wrap her arms around me.
She reaches under my sweatpants and grabs my ass, kneading my cheek, then she slides her hand around front and encircles my cock. Fuck! I am so hot for her! She's ready and I can't wait. I push off her and grab the waistband of her yoga pants. I pull them down, spread her legs apart, then gently tug on her tampon string and toss the thing in the wastebasket. After pulling off my sweatpants I position myself.
She's taken off her t-shirt and I take a moment to admire her beautiful, naked body – full, perky tits, smooth skin, flat abs; my wife is gorgeous! I slide into her effortlessly and she takes me, all of me. She wraps her legs around me and we start our familiar rhythm.
We start kissing again, my tongue mimicking my cock's actions. We're going at it, connected at both ends, I can feel my load starting to rise, when suddenly she pulls back and looks at me. "Christian," she breathes, "Never leave me."
"I won't, babe, I promise," I reassure her.
"I'm safe with you, I love you, I want to stay like this forever with you."
"I know, babe, me too," I huff before I kiss her again, this time not letting her get away because my load is really rising and I can't stop pumping her and omg there it goooooes. Oh shit, that was too quick and I start to slow down but she says, "No! Don't stop!" so I keep up the pace and after a few seconds I see that wonderful look on her face and I know she's close, so I keep going. Then, oh beautiful moment, I feel her cunt lips really grab my cock and her face tells me everything, she's there! and then I hear her shout my name in ecstasy and it's the most wonderful feeling in the world, better than my own orgasm.
I feel her slow down her thrusts so I do as well. When she starts to relax I stop and start to pull out but she grabs my buns, and says, "Don't! Stay inside me for a little bit longer."
"Sure, baby," I whisper as I reach around so I can hold her and support myself at the same time. Placing soft little kisses on her forehead I try to reassure her, "It'll be fine, Anastasia. No one's going to hurt you, Teddy, or me." Her body trembles and I can tell that she's crying. I roll over so I can hold her even more closely, pulling out of her as I do so. Words are failing me so all I can do is keep her close to me. I love this woman so much, I will do everything in my power to keep her safe and happy.
Finally, she seems to calm down; she looks at me and asks, "Are you still going to the office?"
"Yes, of course. Anastasia, nothing's changed. If he's really dead, then this whole thing is a colossal joke and there's no threat. If somehow he faked his death and he's still alive, then I have every bit of faith in my security staff. We'll be perfectly safe. If it makes you feel better, I'll have Taylor double up security for you and Teddy."
"Christian, if he's really dead, then we've got problems no security staff can handle."
"Well, I suppose we could always have a priest on staff here." I kiss the top of her head and disentangle myself from her. As I get off the bed, she admonishes me, "Christian, I'm serious!"
"Babe, I am, too, but I think you're worrying unnecessarily." And with that, I've made a decision: she and Teddy are going with me to South Africa, for the whole trip.
"Here's what I want you to do," I tell her, "find a nanny and start preparing for an extended trip to South Africa. You and Teddy are coming with me, for the full two weeks. I'll let you know the schedule as soon as I've worked out the details. We'll probably leave week after next."
"But…"
"No buts. You're going. You have a few days to interview nannies and select one. And did you get a chance to set up dinner with my parents?"
"Yes, we're going there tomorrow evening."
"Good! Let's see if we can get some more information from them."
"All right." She reluctantly gets out of bed and we both head to the bathroom for our morning ablutions.
A strange thing happens Friday morning: I wake up at my previously usual time. No piano chords, no spectral voice, no 2:30 a.m. I guess she really meant it when she said she wouldn't be visiting me every night. I look over at Ana and she's sleeping soundly so I slip out of bed and get ready to go for my run.
Friday evening we're at dinner with my parents. Ana and I'd gotten our game plan in order on the way here so midway through the meal she asks my mom, "Grace, how much information do you have on Christian's birth father?"
My mom looks startled but only for a split second, then her physician's mien takes over. "I'm sure have some information about him somewhere. Why do you ask, dear?"
Ana looks at me and continues, "Christian and I were talking about Teddy and his genetic history. I've talked with my mother about my birth father so we were wondering about the other side of the family."
Mom looks worried now. As a pediatrician and as a grandmother, she certainly takes a keen interest in Teddy's health but she's not his primary doctor, feeling that one of her close colleagues would have the necessary detachment to be able to handle that role properly. Hence, she asks, "Is something wrong?" My dad also has a look of concern on his face.
"No, no, no!" Ana and I both reply in unison. I continue, "We're just trying to find out as much as we can. I mean, certain diseases are prevalent in certain ethnic groups, right? Like Tay-Sachs disease or sickle cell anemia?"
"I can assure you he has neither of those, son," Mom interjects.
"Oh, I know but what about things like heart disease? Or cancer? If they're part of my biological family history it would be good to know, both for me and my son." I look over at Ana and see her nodding in agreement.
"Like I said, Grace," Ana continues, "I've asked my mother to find out about my bio dad. Theirs was such a whirlwind relationship she really didn't get to know his family very well but she's trying to find out. We're only trying to do our best for Teddy. He's so healthy and we want to make sure he stays that way."
"I'll look into the correspondence from the adoption," my dad pipes up, "There should be plenty of information there but I have to tell you, son, there may be some things there that would be difficult for you to learn."
"Dad, I can handle it," I reply. Gah! How does he always manage to put me on the defensive? "The past is the past and I just want to make sure my son never endures what I did."
After assurances from my parents that they'll look up the information we want, the conversation turns to other things. We tell them of our upcoming trip to South Africa and they start reminiscing about the vacation we took there when I was younger. I steer the conversation away from that so Ana doesn't feel left out. She's always felt insecure about how much overseas travelling I did as a kid, even though she says she loves hearing the stories.
On the way home Ana and I discuss the evening. We both think we successfully convinced my parents of the reasons for our inquiry. We weren't being totally duplicitous – if there is heart disease or cancer in my biological family, I really do want to know. And Ana really is talking with her mom about her birth father.
We also talk about the upcoming trip. Since we'll be gone for almost two weeks my folks are going to look into the possibility of joining us for part of that time. Ana has interviews set up with some prospective nannies on Monday. With her concern about the possibility of my dead sperm donor haunting us, it didn't take much to convince her to follow my plan.
It also helped that I had Taylor add extra security for all of us. Even though he's gone this weekend with his daughter, he made sure we have double coverage. Sawyer and Ryan are both in the car taking us home. Monday, when Taylor's back, Reynolds will join Sawyer as part of Ana's team.
Personally, I think this is all a bit of overkill but if it makes Anastasia feel safe, then it's worth it. Happy wife, happy life.