Here's this week's chapter. Enjoy!

42. Extra Senses

Carlos and I went up to meet the local cops. By the time we climbed up the stairs that led to the cafe, the cops had two men in handcuffs. One man I didn't recognise, but the other man was none other than Officer Joseph Morelli. I looked at Joe and then asked the nearest cop to explain what was going on.

"So it turns out that someone was watching you Miss Plum, but not you exclusively. This man here says that he is a police officer and that he was in the cafe to surveille that young man." He pointed to the other cuffed man and continued, "Officer Morelli says that he saw you out of the window and recognised you. He kept an eye on the young man as he watched you and Mr Manoso. He says that he was going to go down and talk to you once he arrested his man."

Huh? I looked over at Joe, who looked both annoyed and embarrassed. I then asked, "Why is Officer Morelli in handcuffs?"

The Cop looked a little sheepish and said, "We wanted to wait for your confirmation that he was not dangerous before we let him go."

I nodded and said, "As far as I'm aware, Joe is harmless. May I have a moment to speak with him?"

The cop nodded and I walked over to Joe.

"Hey Cupcake."

I crossed my arms and glared at him and said, "Joe, what the hell were you doing watching me and Carlos?"

Joe paled a little and said, "I wasn't watching you per say. I saw you and kept an eye on you. I wanted to go down and say hi, but I was tied up with my case. The guy in handcuffs is a witness in a really big case. He has been refusing calls from the District Attorney and I was sent to make sure that he turned up for his testimony in court tomorrow."

I nodded and said, "Well, Carlos and I are going to get back to what's left of our weekend. See you around Joe."

Joe smiled and waved. He avoided looking at Carlos and turned to the nearest cop and said something I didn't hear. The cop removed the cuffs from Joe and he quickly exited the cafe with the handcuffed young man in his clutches.

I looked at the cops and apologised for calling them out for a false alarm. They were understanding and commented on my senses. "It's very impressive that you could sense Officer Morelli watching you."

I smiled and said, "Well, the last time I ignored the same feeling, I ended up being drugged, kidnapped and threatened with death."

The cop blanched at my statement and said, "Keep listening to that Spidey Sense of yours young lady. It will serve you well in the future."

I thanked the cop and elbowed Carlos as he chuckled beside me. I heard him say something about 'Spidey Sense' under his breath but I didn't hear the whole statement. I turned and glared at him before saying goodbye to the cops.

After we left the cafe, I called Detective Carter to fill him in. I apologised for the wild goose chase but he said, "I'd rather have a dozen goose chases if it means that you don't have to go through what you went through in Miami again. Don't worry about it Steph. I'm just glad that it was nothing to be overly concerned with. Just make sure to watch out for Officer Morelli. He may not have as good of intentions as he implies. Carlos filled me in on your history, so just be careful where he's concerned."

After I got off the phone, Carlos took my hand and we walked back down to the beach. I looked at Carlos and said, "I wonder why Joe watching me set off my internal alarm the same way that Tyler did. It's not like he means me harm. He just thinks I should be with him, and I'm sure my mother is encouraging him at every opportunity she gets."

Carlos shrugged and said, "I'm not sure either, but I think you should heed Detective Carter's warning. Joe may seem harmless, but he is in a position to make things hard for you. Especially if he has your mother's backing." I nodded and then smiled up at Carlos and said, "Let's forget about Joe. I'm sure we can think of better things to occupy our time for the rest of the weekend."

Carlos nodded and asked, "Where do you want to go for dinner tonight? We can go to the famous seafood restaurant on the boardwalk or we could find a nice cafe or diner in town."

I thought for a moment and said, "Why don't we check out the room service menu before we make any decisions about going out for dinner. Maybe we should just stay in and enjoy a little privacy away from prying eyes."

Carlos grinned and said, "The room service menu is pretty boring. Perhaps we can order in."

I nodded and said, "It's still early, I'm going for a swim."

I dropped my towel that I had been clutching ever since I first sensed that I was being watched. I ran into the water and dove under. It was a warm day and the cool water was more refreshing than shocking. As I surfaced for a breath, Carlos was slowly walking towards the water. He had a huge grin on his face and the group of older women who were nearest were all fanning themselves as they watched him walk past them.

Carlos walked into the water and met me. The water was up to my shoulders, but it met Carlos mid chest. He reached out and pulled me towards him and hugged me. He spoke quietly when he said, "I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I'm glad that it was only Morelli. When you told me that you thought that someone was watching you, my heart nearly fell through the floor. I wondered what if Tyler had an accomplice. What if Tyler was out of prison? I was scared Babe. I wasn't happy that Morelli was watching us, but at least he wouldn't hurt you the same way that Tyler wanted to hurt you."

Carlos buried his head in my shoulder and just held me. I didn't know what to say so I just held him back. I had no idea what Joe had been up to, but I wasn't very happy with him either. News of my presence in Point Pleasant will no doubt make it back to my mother. I can easily ignore the phone but I'll be in Trenton sooner or later. She and my father will be at Mary Lou's wedding. I can't avoid her there.

Luckily, Carlos distracted me and I forgot all about my mother when he kissed me. We went back to our room and Carlos called the seafood restaurant. They could make an order for us but Carlos would have to go and pick it up. While I waited for Carlos to pick up our order, I showered and changed.

While he was out, Carlos also visited the market and picked up a few things for the following day. We wouldn't have to leave the hotel room for anything until we checked out tomorrow afternoon. I smiled at Carlos as he put the milk, eggs, cheese and butter away in the little fridge in the kitchenette in our room.

We ate at our takeaway on the small table on our balcony and really enjoyed our meal. I tried to keep my moans to a minimum but when Carlos served dessert, we both knew that was going to be impossible. Dessert for me was a large double-chocolate brownie served with ice cream and a mango coulis. It was absolutely spectacular. The only small issue was the ice cream. They packaged it in a separate dish so it wouldn't melt as quickly, but it was still a bit runny. That didn't stop me from eating it and it didn't slow down the moans.

Carlos waited for my last bite and then ceremoniously picked me up and carried me inside. "Babe, those moans were killing me. Let's see if I can surpass your food moans in frequency, duration and volume."

He was grinning as he put me down, making me temporarily wonder about the wisdom of having sex so soon after eating. They recommended 20 minutes before swimming. Did the same thing apply for intimate activities? Despite my mind's unanswered questions, I was unable to focus on anything other than Carlos and how we made each other feel at that moment in time.

Carlos took things very slow so neither of us had to worry about over exercising after a large meal. In fact, he took things so slowly that in the end, I was begging him to let me finish. He kept slowing his pace and kissed me for long moments. When he started to move, I'd try to encourage him to speed up but he refused and continued with his agonisingly slow pace.

I finally was able to speed Carlos up by running my nails down his back and then dug them in his exquisite ass and pulled him into to me. The shock of my nails spurred him on and within minutes, we were both sailing over the edge together.

That night we slept completely entangled with each other and the sheets. When I woke up, I could tell that it was still early, but my bladder was fit to burst. I tried to get up but found that my legs were completely wrapped up in the sheets and I was going to have to move Carlos before I would be able to extricate myself.

Carlos awoke with a start, but seeing my dilemma, he quickly helped untangle the sheets so I could escape. I practically ran to the bathroom and closed the door behind me. When I came out again a few moments later, I was much relieved and breathing easier with fresh minty breath.

I crawled back into bed and cuddled up against Carlos, who wrapped me in his arms before his breathing evened out, indicating that he was once again asleep. I tried my best to go back to sleep, but I was too wide awake. Instead, I let my mind wander over the events of this weekend and the change in my relationship with Carlos.

All along, I worried that adding sex into the mix would make Carlos pull away from me and come around only when he was in the mood. In reality, he had not done that. Instead, it had brought us a lot closer. Not only were we much closer in the physical sense, but also in the emotional sense.

Carlos didn't seem able to go through a day without seeing me. If that was impossible, he would call me. We would have a conversation, not just one of those check-in calls where one person just wants to hear the other's voice. We actually shared stories about our days. I was glad to hear Carlos' voice and I'm sure he was glad to hear mine, but it seemed that he genuinely wanted to talk to me, not just hear me. I'm making sense right?

I must have eventually fallen back asleep because the next thing I knew, my phone was ringing and it startled me awake. I looked at the caller id and groaned. I turned the phone to show Carlos and then answered.

"Hello Mother, don't you think it's a bit early?"

"What do you mean early? It's Sunday morning. Shouldn't you be up and on your way to Mass?"

I laughed and said, "Nope. Not today."

My mother paused and then signed. She followed that up by saying, "I ran into Joseph yesterday evening. He tells me that he saw you and another young man at Point Pleasant. What were you doing there?"

I rolled my eyes and said, "Mother, it's early and I'm not awake yet. Let's talk about this later."

"No Stephanie. We'll talk about this right now. Who were you with?"

This time, I sighed and said, "I was and am with Carlos mother."

"Oh, I would have thought that after Joe rescued you in Miami that you would have broken things off with the young man who dragged you down there to get abducted."

"Mother! Joe did NOT rescue me, no matter what he says. He was there, but I rescued myself. The man who abducted me followed me to Miami. The abduction had nothing to do with Carlos. I'm going back to bed now. Goodbye mother."

I hung up turned my phone off. If I knew anything about my mother, she'd call right back and start in on me about my rudeness to her and to Joe. She'd say something about how ungrateful I was to Joe for helping in Miami and how she would like me to come home so I could spend more time with him. I laughed and shrugged and turned back to Carlos.

I kissed him on the chin and then said, "It seems that Joe has been talking to my mother. It also seems that he has implied that he rescued me in Miami. Either that or that's just how my mother decided to interpret events. I'm sure there will be a dozen voice mail messages from her by the time I get home tonight, but she won't bother us again today."

Carlos smiled at me and climbed out of bed. He walked into the bathroom and came back out a few minutes later. I could tell that he had brushed his teeth because he missed a bit of toothpaste on the corner of his mouth. When he approached the bed, I stood and licked the toothpaste from his mouth.

Carlos' reaction to that was to throw me on the bed and make me beg him for the umpteenth time in the past few hours. He didn't disappoint and by the time we emerged for breakfast, it was almost time for lunch. We cooked together and after eating, we packed up our things.

We had to check out before 1PM so we decided to check out and then go for a walk along the beach. We were expected at the Manoso's for dinner later, so that meant that we had to leave no later than 4:00.

We walked along the beach for about 40 minutes until we reached a nice enough looking restaurant. We stopped in and had a quick lunch before heading back to the car. We headed back to Newark a little before 4 and spent the duration of the trip discussing what to tell Ricardo and Maria about how we wanted to spend our time together before Carlos left.

"Babe, I'll spend 4 nights at my parents and 3 nights at yours. I'll bring you for Sunday dinner and I'll see you on Monday and Tuesday at work. On Wednesdays, you have my class. That means that we'll see each on the days that I stay at my parents. The nights will be hard but I think it's important that I spend as much time with my family as possible. It will be as hard on them when I leave as it will be on you."

I nodded at this and said, "You're right. I'm glad that I'll have them for comfort when you're gone. I'll need them."

Carlos smiled and said, "I'm sure they'll need you too, Babe. They already consider you their daughter, and if I am not there, you're the closest thing to me they'll have."

Dinner at the Manosos' was a little different than usual. Maria and the girls were still down in Miami, so it was just Ricardo, Carlos and I. Ricardo didn't go all out like Maria would have, but he cooked a nice meal. He asked a few general questions about our weekend. He seemed content with our responses and genuinely happy that we had a good time.

I told Ricardo about my sense that we were being watched, and how it turned out to be Joe. I saw Ricardo and Carlos exchange some sort of silent communication at that point, but I ignored it. I figured they'd talk more about the subject after I went home, so I left it up to them.

Carlos teased me and told his father what the cop called my ability to sense when I was being watch. Ricardo laughed and repeated 'Spidey Senses' a few times and then said, "I think that's a great name for your ability my dear. I think that term can also apply to your tenacity and skill at ferreting out information in a bunch of unrelated documents. That's why the FBI is so interested in you. You see patterns and relationships in information that nobody else sees. I think Spidey Sense is a perfect term for that."

When Carlos drove me home that evening, I wondered how much time Carlos spent ferrying me around. A lot of times, he drove out of his way to ensure that I got home. Things for him would be a lot simpler if I had my own car. I decided to think about it a bit more when I was on my own.

Carlos already had a key to my apartment and the code for the parking garage, so there was little to worry about on the nights he stayed with me. I'd have to let Johnny know, but that was simple enough. When Carlos dropped me off, he insisted on parking in the garage and walking me up to my apartment. He kissed me at the door and said, "Good night Babe, I'll see you in the morning."

With one last kiss, Carlos walked to the stairs and was gone. It was still early enough that I had time to unpack and put on a load of laundry. I got ready for bed and then lounged around in my pyjamas, checking my email and looking up a few things on the internet. I shut down my computer around 10:30 and crawled into bed. I replayed the weekend over in my mind and fell asleep with a smile on my face.

More to come...