Lost Memories (Forbidden Romance) Page 10

  “Oh man,” Ben moaned and felt the private investigator begin to intensify her pace. The pleasure building in his crotch and cock was becoming almost overwhelming in it intensity. He tapped her on the back of the head as he felt himself cross over an invisible line in the sand, but Kate just kept sucking.

  Ben’s hips jerked forward involuntarily as he began to cum, pushing the head of his cock against the back of Kate’s throat in a way that was almost rude. She didn’t even flinch, and continued sucking as string after string of Ben’s seed blasted into her mouth.

  The pleasure made Ben feel as though he’d just slipped into a warm bath. He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes, feeling good at first, and then suddenly very guilty.

  This was a betrayal, of both Emma and Rachel. This… shouldn’t have happened.

  “Have we reached an understanding, Ben?” asked Kate. “I want you to work with me. With my help, you’ll be able to get your memories back, and all I ask for in exchange is a little trust.”

  Ben didn’t say anything and spent a minute or two just breathing and looking through the darkness at Kate.

  “I… don’t know,” he finally said. “I just need a day or two to clear my head.”

  He watched as Kate’s silhouette nodded back to him.

  “So be it. I’ll be waiting.”

  The private investigator opened the closet door and walked off down the hallway. The fire alarm was no longer blaring in Ben’s ears, but he still hurried as he made his way towards the school’s entrance. Students were already on their way back inside, and he spotted his class headed straight towards him. Mr. Evans did not look happy.

  “Explain yourself, now,” said the teacher.

  Ben scratched his head.

  “I uh, was stuck in the bathroom,” he said. “A bad case of diarrhea.”

  Mr. Evans sighed and shook his head.

  There was only about a half hour of class left after the disturbance. Ben sat through it, unable to focus over the clutter of his distracting thoughts.

  Who the hell can I trust, at this point? Everybody has an agenda... except maybe Rachel.

  For a while, Rachel was all that Ben could think about. He could picture her soft smile and motherly demeanor so clearly in his mind’s eye, and he wanted nothing more than to be with her, to hug her, and to kiss her. His thoughts shifted into dangerous, forbidden territory, and he did his best to clear his head.

  The final bell rang, and after heading to his locker to drop off his books, Ben headed towards the school’s exit as quickly as he could. The day had only made his situation even more confusing, and he wasn’t interested in trying to sort through the mess that awaited him.

  He let out a frustrated sigh as he walked out into the parking lot and saw Emma sitting on one of the school’s short stone walls, waiting for him. He shook his head as he walked over and tried to keep his emotions in check.

  “Ben,” she said. “I thought we could walk home together, if you wanted…”

  “How am I supposed to trust you, Emma?” Ben couldn’t stop his anger from leaking into his voice. “Am I supposed to just brush off the fact that you won’t tell me anything about my past and take your cryptic excuses at face value?”

  Emma looked as though his words had cut into her like daggers.

  “Ben, what’s wrong?” she asked. “I thought-“

  “I talked to the private investigator some more.”

  “Wait, what?” Emma stood up and walked over to him. “When did you talk to her? You mean after lunch?”

  “During the fire alarm,” said Ben. “Emma, she told me I couldn’t trust you. Why the fuck would she tell me something like that?”

  Emma opened her mouth to answer him, but it took a second before her vocal cords actually started to make any noise.

  “She… Ben, the fire department said that the alarm was probably triggered by somebody as a prank. It was probably her, but it doesn’t make sense. I mean, why would she go through the effort of pulling the fire alarm, just to get a chance to talk to you some more? Why wouldn’t she just wait until the end of the day?”

  That’s a really good question.

  “Maybe she wanted to talk with me without you around,” said Ben. “Maybe she knew that you’d come and find me after school.”

  “And maybe she was trying to catch you off guard, get you into a situation that she was in control of.”

  Emma took a step back from Ben and held up her hands defensively. It was hard for Ben to ignore the depth of emotion in her eyes, and the way it felt as though she was looking into underneath the surface.

  “It’s up to you whether or not you decide to trust me, Ben,” she whispered. “But I’m not ever going to hurt you, or betray you. I never could. Never.”

  Ben was silent. He felt a flicker of emotion that hadn’t been there before as he looked back at Emma, and for a moment a strange sense of déjà vu washed over him.

  “You need to tell me more than that, Emma,” he said. “If you don’t help me remember, you might as well just be hurting me in the long run.”

  Emma took a deep breath and then exhaled.

  “What do you want to know?” she asked, in a soft voice. “I can’t tell you everything. That would be just as much of a betrayal.”

  “Tell me…” Ben thought carefully for a moment. “Tell me what happened after I killed the wolf. What did they make me do next?”

  Emma flinched back and suddenly closed her eyes tight.

  “I… I don’t want to tell you about that Ben,” she said. “I don’t know how to tell you about that… the man in the cell.”

  The man in the cell… my god.

  Ben’s legs suddenly felt weak. He took a step forward and sat down hard on the stone wall as a rush of forgotten memories swept him back in time.

  ***

  Ben was pushed into a cell, one that looked a lot like the one that he’d been in before. This one had a man that he didn’t recognize in it, in his mid-twenties and still wearing clean clothes and a clean shave.

  “A kid…” said the man. “I ask to speak directly with Lenka, and they send in a fucking kid? Enough jokes!”

  The man stood up and walked towards Ben, his body language full of the type of puffed up aggressiveness that only someone with a lifetime of getting their way can pull off. Ben flinched back slightly. His arm had healed over the past few weeks, but it still hurt to move it quickly.

  I have to do it. I don’t have a choice, it’s just like before.

  “Listen, I don’t care if Lenka is your boss or your fucking mom!” The man was shouting and gesturing with his hands as he spoke. “Tell her that I had nothing to do with my dad’s business. Let me go and he’ll make sure that all of you are substantially rewarded.”

  I remember… Lenka already talked with his father. He refused to pay a cent.

  “Lenka says that… your father needs some encouragement.”

  The man walked away from Ben and shook the metal bars of the cell roughly.

  “So figure out a way to fucking give it to him!” he screamed. “I just told you, I’m not involved with my father or his finances. So yeah, maybe on occasion I’d have some fun with the women that he’d buy and sell. Maybe I wasn’t always gentle with them, but it’s none of you and your vigilante leader’s goddamn business.”

  Ben gritted his teeth. He’d already heard about the man and his father from Lenka. They were a dynasty of human traffickers, modern day slavers, evil and unrepentant. Part of Ben had hoped that the man would act exactly as he had, full of vitriol and belligerence. It made following through with what he had to do next much easier.

  The last few weeks have changed me. There’s no turning back.

  Slowly, Ben walked over to the man, who still gazed out through the gaps in the bars, away from him. He pulled out both of the tools of the trade that Lenka had given him from his belt, the taser and the knife. The man turned as the stunner sparked to life in Ben’s hand, but it wa
s too late.

  “What? No, hold-“

  His plea was cut short as Ben gingerly touched the electric arc to the man’s arm. He shook for a moment and then dropped to the ground in a limp heap.

  “Lenka has talked to some of the women that you used and then threw away.” Ben spoke in a whisper as he set the taser down and pulled the man across the cement floor. “The ones that you let live… they told us that they wished that you’d killed them.”

  “You’re… just a kid…” The man spoke to Ben in an insubstantial, wispy voice. Ben shook his head.

  “I am one of Lenka’s children,” he whispered back.

  Ben brought the knife down hard on one of the man’s fingers. He prepared mentally for cutting through the tough joint and sinew, putting more force into the motion than he thought he needed to. The man’s scream was more of a dull moan than anything, but it still made tears of disgust begin to crest in Ben’s eyes.

  I have to do it… I am one of Lenka’s children.

  ***

  “Ben! Ben! Are you okay?”

  He had passed out. As Ben slowly opened his eyes, he saw Emma’s face in front of him. He had fallen over into her lap, still sitting on the stone wall, and she cradled his head gently, staring at him with worried eyes.

  “Yeah, I…” Ben paused. “I’m fine.”

  Am I fine? What have I done? How could I have done something like that?

  Emma shook her head and looked as though she was on the verge of crying.

  “Ben, this is why…” she whispered. “Do you understand now? You shouldn’t have to remember some of the things that you’ve… That both of us, have had to do.”

  Ben sat up. He sighed, and then made a noise that was a mixture of a laugh and a sob.

  “Emma, I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I’m sorry…”

  “You haven’t done anything wrong, Ben. It wasn’t you. It… wasn’t us.”

  Ben took her hand into his and rubbed it gently between his fingers.

  “I should get back to Rachel’s. Let’s go to the football game tonight.”

  “Are you sure? We could just relax, do something a little less public.”

  He shook his head.

  “No, it’s like you said. Let’s try to be normal teenagers, even if it’s just for a night.”

  I was a normal teenager… Up until meeting her. What the hell is going on?

  CHAPTER 15

  “Yo, wait up!”

  Ben was halfway home from school when the sound of Danny calling to him pulled him out of his trance. He turned to watch as his friend jogged to catch up and took a second to force the tense, introspective look off his face.

  “Hey,” he said. “What’s up man?”

  “That’s what I want to know,” said Danny. “Lately, it’s like you’ve been in your own little world. Or should I say, you and the new girl have created your own little world.”

  Ben started to answer, feeling a little guilty at the truth in Danny’s accusation.

  What can I say, he’s right…

  “Oh come on man, don’t take it personally.” Danny smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. “I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that I’ve barely seen you this week.”

  “Sorry, man,” said Ben. “I’ve had a lot going on. It’s just been a confusing couple of days.”

  Danny lifted one of his eyebrows and looked as though he was picking up on a message that Ben hadn’t intended to impart.

  “It’s all good man,” he said. “At least one of us is getting laid.”

  Ben smiled and playfully pushed his friend’s shoulder.

  This is exactly what I need. Normal friends, a normal life, as a normal teenager.

  “Are you going to the football game tonight, Danny?” he asked. “I was going to go with Emma. It would be a good chance for all of us to hang out together and relax for a bit.”

  “Yeah, I’ll be there,” said Danny. “Ben… If there’s anything else that’s been eating you, you can tell me, you know. I have your back.”

  “Of course…” Ben’s voice had more sorrow in it than intended, but he forced a smile on his face anyway. Danny had always been there for him. He found himself wishing that his problems were a bit more relatable, and he could let his friend in on them as he had so often done in the past.

  “It’s not Cliff, is it?” asked Danny. “After what happened with you, Emma, and him, I would have figured that he’d give you guys a wide berth.”

  “No, it’s not Cliff,” said Ben. “I’ve just been having some really bad dreams lately.”

  Danny didn’t say anything, but he put one of his arms around Ben’s shoulder and walked by his side. It was a small, good-natured gesture, and it actually did help Ben relax a little bit.

  “I gotta meet up with my dad at the hardware store, but let’s talk more about this tonight,” said Danny. “If it’s bugging you that badly, the least I can do is give you an ear to vent on, even if I can’t help.”

  “Thanks man,” said Ben. “I appreciate that.”

  Danny clapped him one more time on the back and then split off around the corner.

  An ear to vent on, huh? I guess given everything that’s happening, that’s all I can really ask for.

  When he made it back to Rachel’s house, he was a little surprised to find that her car was already in the driveway. Her work schedule had been unpredictable for the past few days, almost strangely so.

  He walked up the steps and headed inside, kicking off his shoes as he scanned the living room. Rachel was curled up on the couch with a blanket over her, watching TV.

  “Ben, hey,” she said. “How was school?”

  “It was fine, I guess.” Ben walked over to the couch, and Rachel pulled her feet back enough for him to have room to sit down.

  “You sound a little down.” Rachel pushed her foot against his leg and sat up. “What’s going on?”

  As Ben turned to look at her, he noticed that she’d already changed out of her work clothes and into some that were a little more comfortable, a purple t-shirt and black yoga pants. Her hair was pulled back into a simple bun, and it was hard for him to look at her without feeling his heart begin to beat dangerously fast.

  “Rach… A private investigator came to the school today.” He paused and watched her face shift in concern. “She asked me some questions about my life before I came here.”

  Rachel moved closer to him on the couch and took his hands into hers. The side of her body pushed against him, and for a moment all Ben could think about was leaning into her embrace, and feeling her soft warmth.

  She’s the only one that’s always been here for me, that I know for sure I can trust.

  “Oh sweetie,” said Rachel. “What did she ask you? Did you remember anything?”

  Ben nodded, and then slowly began to describe the memories he’d regained over the course of the day. Rachel began to trace her fingers across his scars as he told her about the fight with the wolf, and held one of her hands on his chest as he talked about the man in the cell.

  “Ben, I’m so sorry.” She looked more upset than he felt, and for a moment, he almost regretted worrying her with the truth.

  “It’s fine,” said Ben. “I’m fine. I’ll probably end up remembering more. It’s just a part of my life I’ll have to work through. I’m just glad that I could talk to… well, that I could talk to Emma about it, and feel a little less crazy.”

  Rachel’s expression flickered for a moment, and Ben saw a glimmer of jealousy in it. Her hand began to move across his chest and stomach, slowly tracing the outline of his muscles and abs through his shirt.

  “Ben… Are you and her…?”

  Ben shook his head.

  “I don’t know what we are.”

  And I don’t know what you are to me either, Rachel.

  “Well… she is your age,” said Rachel softly. “And you both clearly went through a lot together.”

  “Yeah, I guess we did.”

&nb
sp; The room suddenly felt a couple of degrees hotter, and a strange tension seemed to hang on the air. Ben became acutely aware of how close she was to him on the couch, along with the fact that they were alone in the house. The memory of what had happened the night before was vivid in his mind and his body began to react as though it was happening all over again.

  “Ben, I’m here for you,” said Rachel. “If you need somebody, that is.”

  Ben nodded and felt the tension skyrocket as the room grew quiet again. Rachel shifted even closer to him, and one of Ben’s hands slid off her shoulder and onto her arm.

  “Rachel…” His cock was growing into an illicit, iron hard bar inside his pants.

  Are we really about to do this? Is this right?

  Rachel’s eyes expressed the very same concerns. Ben could feel her breath on his neck, hot and ragged, as though they were already in the throes of ecstasy. She locked eyes with him and let her hand drift lower and lower until it came to a rest on his cock. A shiver of excitement and pleasure shot through Ben, like he’d won a prize in a contest.

  “Ben, sweetie,” whispered Rachel. Ben nodded ever so slightly. He was at a loss for words, too overwhelmed by the intense pleasure of giving in to temptation. Rachel leaned her head into his, and their lips slowly came together, sending fireworks through Ben’s body as they kissed.

  Ben ran his hands over Rachel’s seductive body, feeling her breasts and her butt, feeling all of the perfect curves of her perfectly proportioned frame. He kissed Rachel’s neck and then felt her move him down underneath her on the couch as she began to rub his package.

  There was something about kissing Rachel, about getting hard for her and feeling her touch, that made Ben feel like he’d violated some cardinal rule. It was as though he was in the midst of a bank robbery, but instead of taking off with cash, it was her sexy, seductive, off-limits body.

  She slowly began to move her crotch against Ben’s hardness, grinding into him and watching the pleasured reaction on his face. Ben lifted his hands up and kneaded her breasts through her shirt. She had no bra on underneath, and it was easy to feel the warmth and softness with his fingers.

  “Ben…” Rachel’s voice was a conflicted whisper. He could see the same struggle on her face that he felt in his heart, her lust doing battle against responsibility and reason.