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Magnolia
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I WAKE UP AT THE CRACK of dawn to check that the house is perfect in preparation for my parents’ arrival.
“Hey sexy girl.” A few hours later, Porter’s warm voice reaches me from the door jamb of my bedroom, where I’m busy fluffing the pillows of my bed for the umpteenth time. “Magnolia, the room is perfect. The whole house is. Please stop worrying.”
Easier said than done, but I appreciate my fiancé’s attempt to soothe my frayed nerves.
“Do we have an idea of their ETA?” He can be so zen about the whole thing because he hasn’t met my mother yet but I appreciate his warm embrace as he comes to hug me from behind.
“The drive from Marietta to Silver Springs is about fifteen hours,” I inform him. “I think they must’ve gotten on the road last night. So they’ll probably be here in time for lunch.”
“Ok, then. It’s barely past 8 a.m. and everything is perfect. I think we have time to relax and have breakfast before we do some more worrying.”
He’s right. I have to make peace with the fact that my mom will find something wrong with the house or with me.
“I was about to go for a workout, do you want to join me?” he asks and I think that probably a run would burn my excess energy and help me settle down at least partially. If I shower in Max’s room, I should be able to clean up enough to pass Mom’s scrutiny.
I follow Porter to the gym in our basement and make a beeline for the treadmill.
“If you want to run, go ahead,” Porter says as I climb on the treadmill, “but I had something better in mind. How about some yoga? It always calms me down whenever I’m stressed.”
“Hmm, I’ve never done yoga before.”
Porter’s smile convinces me. “I’ll teach you. We’ll start with the easiest stuff.”
We begin with Bhadrasana (the Gracious Pose), that’s basically sitting with my legs apart and my feet touching each other.
We then go onto Surya Namaskar (the Salute to the Sun), which is a little more challenging but Porter shows me a beginner variation. Now, each pose should be held for a few minutes and I should be quiet, empty my mind to promote inner peace. But it’s not easy between the worry about my parents’ visit and the sight of Porter in just a pair of black sweatpants that hang so low on his hips that his perfect Adonis belt is showing. My fiancé is so hot that I admit that I’m distracted and I keep glancing at him when he isn’t looking.
“You’re really good at this, Magnolia. A real natural. Let’s try Adho Mukha Shvanasana (Downward Dog).” Porter demonstrates the position and I can’t take my eyes off his perfect ass. What’s a girl to do when the men of her dreams are specimens of physical perfection? I ogle him shamelessly, so sue me.
But Downward Dog is deceptively hard and as I try to copy Porter, he isn’t satisfied with my posture. “You need to lean more into it, Magnolia. Stretch and elongate your muscles as much as you can.”
He comes to stand behind me, with his hands on my hips and he leans on me to get me to lean forward. But I’m obviously not the only one who’s been distracted by our closeness this morning because I feel Porter’s erection rub against my ass.
I can’t stifle a moan as liquid heat collects between my thighs. “You know what?” I pant, stretching forward. “I’m a little cross that this isn’t naked yoga. After all, that’s how we met.”
Porter’s reply comes in the form of a slight push of his hips as his hands tighten on my own hips and a dark chuckle. “I just wanted to help you relax, Mags. But I guess that if I make you come, we’ll achieve that anyway.”
I turn my head to look at him as he uses one hand to slide his sweatpants down and then makes quick work of my leggings.
I feel his hard shaft nestled between my buttocks as one of his hands swipes over the bare skin of my pussy, front to back.
“So fucking wet.” He sounds pleased with his discovery and I wiggle my butt as invitingly as possible. “What do you want, sexy girl?” he asks and I want to rub myself against him again but his hands don’t allow me to move. “You have to tell me what you want, Magnolia and it’s yours.
I feel redness rise to my face but at this point we should be past any inhibitions, so I ask for what I need. “I need you to fuck me, Porter.” I moan as I feel the smooth skin of his tip rub against my opening.
“How do you want it, sexy girl? Like this? From behind?”
“Yes, please Porter. Now.”
He doesn’t make me ask again and enters me with one smooth thrust. I guess this is no longer Downward Dog, but our own little dirty version, Downward Doggy.
“You’re so big, Porter.” I pant as he begins moving. And I’m not just saying that to please him, Porter is absolutely massive and luckily for me, he knows exactly what to do with what nature so generously provided.
It doesn’t take long for him to work the both of us into a frenzy as he fucks me from behind, keeping a deliciously punishing rhythm. The rest of the world all but disappears and all I can hear in the gym is the slapping sound of naked skin against naked skin and our moans and pants as we thrust and grind into a hot crescendo.
So we don’t hear any footsteps until it’s too late and my mother’s shocked shriek makes us freeze on the spot.
“Heavens to Betsy! What in the world’s going on here?”
***
Blake
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MY PHONE FLASHES WITH a text message from Hiroshi.
Hiroshi: hey Dude, do you have a second to talk? Something really odd happened last night.
I text him that sure, I have time and answer my phone on the first ring.
“What’s up, bro?” I ask, immediately worried by the tone in Hiroshi’s voice.
“Hmm, I really don’t know,” he begins. “Remember that little statuette of the Buddha that my mom keeps on the counter at the entrance of the restaurant?”
I know exactly what he’s alluding to. “You mean that green one? The one carved in jade?”
“Yeah, that very one,” Hiroshi confirms.
“What about it?”
There’s a moment of silence from the other end of the line. “Did you notice anything weird last night?” Hiroshi finally asks.
“No?” My answer sounds more like a question.
“Well, you know how much Mom cares about that figurine. It was her great grandma’s and her mother gave it to her as a wedding present, to bring her good luck with her new life in America.”
I nod, I’ve heard the story from Kyoko-San countless times as a kid. Hiroshi’s mother really believes the jade figurine brought the newly weds luck and prosperity and she’s always kept it in the place of honor of any business her and her husband ever started. Especially once they finally built the Katsura Gardens, Kyoko gives the statuette credit for bringing the Katsura family prosperity, good luck and unity.
“Yeah, I know how much your mom loves that tiny Buddha. Why do you ask?”
“Well.” Hiroshi sounds uncomfortable and reluctant to continue but he finally reveals the reason of his call. “The Buddha was there last night when we opened for you guys. It was gone this morning. Mom’s hysterical because tonight we have the official opening with the mayor and the press in attendance. She says this is a bad omen and she’s inconsolable. You’re a cop, Blake, maybe you can help us.”
Of course I’d do anything to help Kyoko-San. “Hiroshi, I know that this will sound stupid but are you absolutely positive that the figurine is missing? Did you look everywhere? I know from personal experience that most of the times missing items aren’t stolen but simply misplaced.”
“We’ve looked everywhere, we’re one hundred percent sure. Plus, it’s really never moved from the wooden counter at the entrance. It has been in the same spot since I can remember.”
I’m about to confirm that I remember the exact spot where the figurine was kept, but a knock on the front door distracts me from the conversation.
“Hold on dude. There’s someone at the door and they must be particularly slow because they’re using the door knocker rather than the bell. Fucking delivery drivers, they don’t even look around.” I walk to the front door with the phone still on my ear and swing the door open to find myself in front of a middle-aged couple.
Now, I’ve never met Magnolia’s parents aside from a few photos she showed us from her phone when she told us how she didn’t have the courage to tell them about our unusual arrangement. But it’d be impossible not to know that I’m looking at Magnolia’s mother because the blonde woman standing in front of me on my doorstep is Magnolia’s spitting image, just a quarter of a century older than the woman I love.
“Uh, Mr. and Mrs. Kinsella, we didn’t expect you until lunch time.”
They both smile and while the resemblance between Magnolia and her mother is uncanny, Magnolia has her father’s open, bright smile.
“We decided to fly. Richard was too tired to drive all night. So we rented a car at the airport and here we are. You must be one of the roommates?”
I transfer my phone in my left hand and offer my right to shake. “Officer Blake Hunk, nice to meet you ma’am. Sir?”
“Oh how lovely! Nice to meet you too, glad to see that my daughter is as safe as can be with a doctor as a boyfriend and a policeman as a roommate.”
Mrs. Kinsella’s smile widens and her green eyes narrow, giving the woman a cunning expression.
“Aren’t you going to invite us in, Officer Hunk?” she drawls with the same charming southern twang I find irresistible in her daughter.
“Oh, of course. Come in.” A strange kind of anxiety constricts the pit of my stomach, I feel as if I were inviting in a vampire or some sort of dangerous creature. Maybe I’ve let Magnolia’s tales of how difficult it is to please her mother get to my head.
“So, where’s my offspring?” she asks looking around the hallway and then the living room with appraising eyes.
“I think I’ve heard noises from the gym, in the basement,” I inform her. “Give me a second to finish this phone call and I’ll go get her—”
“Oh, nonsense! How terribly rude of us to drop in unannounced when you clearly weren’t expecting us just yet. Finish your call and point me and Richard in the right direction, we’ll surprise her. I’m so excited! I haven’t seen my baby in over a year!”
“It won’t take me a second,” I insist, lifting the phone from my ear.
“Don’t you worry about us, young man. We’ll be fine if you tell us where to go.”
I see what Magnolia means when she says that it’s really hard to say no to her mother and succumb to her commanding tone. “The kitchen is on the left, you’ll see two doors at the end of it. One’s the pantry, the other one has stairs that’ll take you down to the basement.
I follow Magnolia’s parents with my eyes and get back to my conversation with Hiroshi. “Sorry, buddy. Our guests arrived earlier than expected. So, you were saying that you’re positive the figurine was still in its place last night?”
“It was when you guys arrived. This morning it was definitely gone.”
I begin walking toward the kitchen to put a pot of coffee on for our guests. “And you’re also sure that no one else aside from us, Jen, Gemma and Peaches came to the restaurant last night?”
“No one. We were closed to the public last night. We just had a special tasting with you guys.”
I sigh, not liking the possible implications of what he’s saying. “No deliveries, no new kitchen staff?”
Hiroshi confirms it. “No. The staff have been working for my parents since we opened fifteen years ago. You know them, Yuki and Ataru.”
“Ok, I’ll ask everyone if they recall seeing anything. In the meantime, make sure that you look everywhere. Maybe someone moved it to dust it or something.”
Hiroshi is about to object when a blood curdling scream reaches me from the basement.
“Heavens to Betsy! What in the world’s going on here?”