Cherry Bomb (17 page)

It had been all about the kids. He had spent
an hour with Henry and Grace, trying to get them to jump off a
small rock on the side of the stream, working them up to the bigger
rocks. Noah had spent the time with Billy and his boys, cliff
jumping. I had watched from the sideline, taking pictures, and
cheering on each of their newest feats.

My heart melted when Drake finally coaxed
Grace and Henry to the smallest cliff. The closer they got the
slower Henry moved.

Drake kneel down between Henry and Grace and
gathered them around him.

“Okay, you both know you don't have to do
this, but if you decide to, remember that Drakie will never let
anything ever hurt you. I got you.”

“I . . . I no . . . not scar . . . scared,”
Henry said but never took his eyes off his feet as he climbed up
each slippery rock to the top of the cliff.

Grace never said anything. The death grip she
had around Drake’s neck told it all. Drake took his time getting to
the top.
And he said he didn’t have any patience
. Drake
pointed out Noah and Thomas who just jumped off the highest cliff,
laughing the whole way down. “See, how much fun they’re
having.”

As they reached the top, they saw a man and a
young boy coming back down. “I guess they decided this was not
their thing. It’s okay if it’s not your thing.”

Henry fingered the curl on the base of his
neck. His eyes blinking under scrunched up brows.

“Will you hold me tight?" Grace
whispered.

“I will hold you both if that is what you
want.”

Henry stood, shifting from foot to foot
before holding up his arms. Drake didn’t waste a second before he
had him scooped up in his arms. I snapped a picture of that fine
specimen of a man with two small children balanced on each hip.

“Ready or not, here we go,” Drake said before
stepping off the side of the cliff. He held both kids close to his
body. The extra weight pushed them father under water then was
comfortable, and Drake had to give himself an extra shove to get
all three of their heads above water. But it was worth the effort
when Grace started laughing and Henry immediately asked to do it
again.

And after about a dozen or so jumps, I
finally found Drake at my side and his two sidekicks splashing in
the water directly in front of us.

“I enjoyed today,” I said and laid my head
over onto his broad shoulders, and ran my hand down his arms.
Feeling the multitude of fine white scars from his cutting days
that marred his skin, I was reminded the pain from his past was far
greater than any I had experienced, yet he spent every moment
trying to erase mine.

"Now come on, you haven’t even gotten wet
today.” He stood and dragged me to my feet.

I immediately lowered my head and started
shaking it. “I can’t.”

As I looked into those exquisite green eyes
of hers, I saw pure unadulterated fear.

“What is it?” I had her in my arms, unsure of
her reaction.

“I can’t swim.” She shook her head even more
forcibly. “Please, don't force me.”

“I won’t force you to do anything. Why are
you so scared?”

“I can’t. Please.”

“Do you trust me?”

She placed her forehead in the crook of my
neck and nodded, then grew perfectly still in my arms, her back
stiffened.

I motioned for Billy and started stroking her
back with the tips of my fingers. As if he knew something wasn’t
right, Billy was off the cliffs and at our sides in no time
flat.

“What’s up?” he asked, pulling a towel out of
a basket and started drying the little bit of hair he had left
off.

“Can you watch Grace and Henry for a few? I’m
taking Cherry on a field trip.”

“Sure, man, Grace needs some Uncle Billy time
anyway. Isn’t that right, sweetie,” Billy yelled over to the
kids.

I didn’t give her time to respond or think, I
got the hell out of there. Something was freaking Cherry out and I
was determined to find out what.

We walked over the rocks and down a small
path. It only took about fifty feet before she tripped. Holding her
hand, I felt her stumble, and held her up, making sure she was
stable before leading her to a small swimming hole my brother had
told me about that morning on the way to The Falls.

“I got you. Do you trust me?”

She swallowed and took in a large breath of
air, nodding. I didn’t say anything else, simply wrapped my arms
around her and guided her into the water. She cringed but followed
me step for step.

“Please,” she whispered.

“Trust me. Just look at me and focus on what
is under your feet.”

She lifted her right foot and cautiously
moved it forward. Her next step was just as measured. I continue to
brush my thumb back and forth on her wrist as each step of hers
became more cautious.

Her shaking steadily grew worse the farther
we moved through the water. I circled around her, pulling her back
flush against my chest. She jumped when I finally spoke again.

“Lay your head on my shoulder, close your
eyes, relax, and let your body float.” I kissed the top of her
head. “Remember, I’m never leaving you.” It didn’t escape me that
the promise meant more than just the here and now.

She placed her head back onto my shoulder and
closed her eyes instantly, but it took her a few minutes to relax
enough to let her body slowly float to the top of the water.

“I want you to focus on me not the water. I
want you to tell me all about you. Your favorite color, your
favorite pet, and the school you went to when you were little. I
want you to talk until I tell you to stop, understand.”

“Yes, Sir,” she whispered.

I closed my eyes, temporarily taken back by
the fact I didn’t have to inform her that this was a scene in the
game we were playing. She understood.

“Good girl,” I said and kissed her forehead
again. “No one can see us here. Billy comes here at times.
Understand?” I asked as she nodded her head. “Talk.”

“Ruby is really a great kid. She is just
going through a tough stage.”

I fondled my hand over her breast and worked
the top of her bathing suit over, exposing her perfectly shaped
left breast. I rolled her nipple between my fingers before baring
down and tugging.

“Oh,” she yelped out.

“Not your kids, I want to hear about you.” I
gradually released the grasped I had of her breast before moving my
hand down her waist. “While you are talking I’m going to touch you;
at times I will cause pain. When I do I want you to stop just long
enough to tell me where, then I want you to go back to talking. Is
that okay?”

She slightly turned her head, snuggling her
forehead against my jaw. “Please, Master.”

A yearning for something intangible rolled
violently and vastly through my body. My dick went hard as steel. I
had to remind myself this time it wasn’t about sex but trust and
facing her fears.

She nibbled on her bottom lips until I
brought my hand down on her left breast, hard.

“Breast,” she squealed then instantaneously
started telling me about her parents. “My childhood almost seems
too perfect. My parents were college sweethearts and had me only
two years after they were married. My dad worked for NASA as an
engineer and my mom stayed home with me.”

I scraped my nails across her bare shoulder,
relishing in the marks I left behind.
“Shoulder,” she said, before continuing with her story.

She told me about the black cat, Fluff, she
had as a child. She used to dress him in doll clothes and push him
around in a little baby buggy. One day her dad decided that a black
cat was bad luck so he carried him to the local Co-op where they
took care of stray cats. She cried for three days. Her mom decided
not having the cat was bad luck so they drove to the Co-op, and
Cherry didn’t even have to scream for Fluff, as soon as she opened
the car door the cat jumped in. The cat lived with her for another
sixteen years. She finally shared about her fear of water. Her dad
had drowned when Noah was only two months old. She had been unable
to get into more than a bathtub since that day. Not once did she
miss calling out a part of her body.

Now it was time for the true test, I got her
talking about James.

She told me about her mom losing it after her
dad died and following some asshole to Florida. “That was about the
time James pulled away emotionally from me, I felt like I had lost
everything.”

I started to move around her, changing both
my position and the angle at which I made contact with her
body.

She had done remarkable, twice she started to
sink, and once she grabbed for me, but not once did she miss where
I touched her.

The game was a success. I had learned even
more about Cherry. No wonder she had such sadness in her eyes,
James not only cheated on her but left her side when she needed him
the most.

But I couldn’t dwell on that fact. She was
there trusting me. I leaned down and kissed her cheek. She didn’t
realize it but she had been floating for the past few minutes
without any assistance from me. All she needed to know was I was
there.

“See, you got this.”

I stepped completely away from her. Her
breathing picked up, but she didn’t show any evidence of panicking.
I paused for a few seconds before stepping back closer to her, and
breathed a line of air across her ear.

It took a few seconds before she finally
murmured, “Thank you, Sir.”

Keeping my face close to hers, I moved my
mouth down the line of her jaw until my lips hovered over hers. I
didn’t kiss her, I waited for her to kiss me.

I counted to one hundred and ninety-eight
before I finally felt her moved. I wrapped my arms around her waist
and helped her back to her feet. Cherry’s lips sought mine. We came
together, and I willingly let her take the lead. Her mouth moved
over mine so innocently it was hard to hold back. I pushed my hands
through her hair, fighting my inner demon to control.

I proudly disciplined myself and waited until
she pulled back from me.

Her lower lip disappeared into her mouth as
her eyes lit up in a happiness I was determine to see more and more
of.

I allowed my fingertips to linger over her
collarbone for a moment longer than even I found comfortable.

“Ready for more?”

“Yes, Master.”

I softly traced over her lips with mine,
savoring the sound of Master coming so easily from her kissable
lips.

I started to back away from her into the
deeper water. She hesitated before following me without a word
between either of us.

A limb floated by, and I reached out,
gripping it in my hand.

“Again talk, only this time I will use this
limb to tap you. Tell me about the night you left James.
Understand?” I asked, and with the flick of my wrist, I brought the
stick down across her shoulder.

“Shoulder, the night I left, Sir, or the
night I caught him with Linda?” Her intake of air was so sharp she
almost choked.

I was stilled on the spot. She tried to hold
on to him even after she learned what a dirty bag of shit he was.
“Linda,” I managed to say.

“Linda had been my best friend since the
seventh grade. She had recently left her husband, and I often found
her alone with James but told myself she was just waiting for me.”
Her voice took on the same monotone tone she used when she was
trying to distance herself from the situation.

“Th…Then. One . . . night . . .”

I snapped the stick over her chest, knocking
her out of the trance she had gone into.

After saying the appropriate body part, in an
even more lifeless tone she told me about Ruby and her coming home
after dropping the boy’s off at James’ parents’ house, and finding
Linda bent over the couch with James’ dick shoved up her ass. She
could still hear the moans then Ruby’s screams.

“I can’t . . . arm . . . let my kids get . .
. hip . . . hurt anymore. Don’t hurt us.”

She stumbled as she forced the last part out.
That should have gotten me but it was the single tear running down
her cheek that did.

I tossed the stick to the side, and treaded
through the water closer to her, pulling her into my arms. She
hadn’t even realized she had walked out to chest level water. The
fear of being hurt was far greater than her fear of water.

Leaning her over onto my chest, I was hoping
to soothe her but instead of calming down the tears came freely. I
held her tighter and let her release what had been brewing inside
of her all along. My insides were ripping to shreds, sure when she
learned the secret of how she even came into my life, I would hurt
her all over again.

The water wrapped around us and my shoulders
started to chill before her tears begin to slow. “Why did you say
the night you found him with Linda or the night you left? Please
tell me it was one in the same.”

She held onto me tighter and took another
deep breath. “I had to try for the kids.”

Cherry paused for a moment. She appeared to
be remembering something. And then, as if she was reminding
herself, she whispered. “I was always trying.”

I thought I would enjoy breaking her then I
realized you can’t break what was already broken.

“So am I, sweetie. So am I.”

She seemed startled at my response.

My hands came up to cup her face. “Look,
babe, look how far in the water you came.”

She glanced around, running an arm over the
water. I was so proud of her for not panicking.

“See, babe, together we can overcome all our
fears.” Kissing her forehead, I mumbled against her skin, “Want to
get back to the kids.”

Her head popped up, her back straightened.
“The kids. I forgot about them.”

She flipped around to return to the shore. I
took her hand and had her face me. “Babe, let’s straighten you up
first.” I adjusted the top of her bathing suit and kissed the tip
of her nose.