CHAPTER 16

Todd was dead asleep, snuggled under the covers when the knocking began. ‘Tap, tap, tap,’ a soft and gentle sound, like a woodpecker tapping on a Lodgepole pine, a sound that echoed deep in a Colorado forest. He buried himself further under the covers, but the sound would not go away. Awake now, he looked over at the clock and read the digital face.

“Three-thirty in the morning?”

He squinted and tried to focus his eyes in the dark. He pulled the covers back over him, but the tapping continued. Finally, he noticed that the sound came from the door to his bedroom.

He sat up, at first nervous, and tossed off the covers, bringing his legs over the side of the bed. The temperature in the room was cool. He picked up his jeans and slipped them on. Not bothering to fasten his belt, Todd stumbled over his shoes as he headed for the door.

“Hold on,” he said, “I’m coming.”

The tapping continued.

Grasping the door knob, he put his ear to the door, still cautious after the incident in downtown Denver.

“Who is it?” he said.

“It’s me,” said Claudia, her voice soft.

Shocked to hear her voice, he pulled the door open. A distraught, disheveled, teary-eyed Claudia stood in his doorway. She was dressed in a thick, terry cloth bathrobe.

“You look like somebody beat you up,” he said.

“Somebody did… my great grandfather.” She fell into his arms.

“Your great grandfather? I thought you said you were an orphan and didn’t-”

“Shut up and kiss me.”

He did as he was told and they embraced, the passion at first soft but intense. Their movements were slow and deliberate. Aroused, he pulled her to him and she responded, dropping the bathrobe off her shoulders. He slipped off his jeans and they went to the bed, pulling the covers over them to ward off the cold. She had often admired his unique physical presence, and now it was there for her to hold and embrace, naked, as she touched and explored his perfectly formed body.

All the angst caused by Blackstone’s family disclosures disappeared from her mind. The warmth of their bare skin felt right, their union forceful and strong. Todd’s muscular arms wrapped her in a cocoon and pulled her into him. She felt his pectoral muscles smother her face as she kissed every inch of his exposed flesh. He became fully aroused as his large hands stroked her soft skin, anxious to move their passion forward. Erect, he wrapped both hands around her bottom and lifted her, entering her as her legs moved upward, thrusting himself into her with everything he had.

Claudia matched his intensity as she dug her nails and legs into his back. She screamed, pushing back as his rapid plunges slammed her against the bed board. Her thoughts disappeared as she pulled him into her. Einstein, Blackstone, her work – all of it vanished, melding into colorful patterns, rushing in and out of consciousness, thrusting …until they were finished, exhausted by the intensity of their passion.

As he held her close afterwards, she melted into nothingness. He stayed in her, gently moving his hips forward and back until their passion ebbed. All at once her body shuttered, the tingle of electricity traveling from her scalp to the tips of her toes. A jolt of frigid cold shocked her and slowly dissipated away, leaving her satiated.

This was what it was about, she thought; this is what made life special, holding him tight, losing herself in the embrace. This is what love gave them; two people, melded into one, losing sight of anything and everything around them. Filled with their passion, she nodded off, lumbering into a deep sleep.

Time disappeared.

Todd lifted his head.

Assured that she was asleep, he slipped on his jeans, grabbed his cell phone from the nightstand, tip-toed to the door and left the bedroom. Claudia stirred, and from the corner of her eye she watched him leave the room. Curious, she looked at the clock, puzzled by her lover’s behavior. She noticed his smell on the unused pillow and she pulled it to her face. With heavy eyes she drifted… and fell back to sleep.

She was not sure of the time when she heard him return to the room. Claudia rolled over and was about to say something to Todd about his behavior when the attack occurred.

“Surprise!”

Kaiser jumped on the bed, lathering his master with kisses.

“Thought you could use a friend,” he said.

“I sure could,” she said, now fully awake, hugging and wrestling with her golden haired friend.

“Hey, fella,” she said, trying to hold him against her. “Did you miss me?” She rubbed his coat and gave him more hugs. “Yeah, I missed you too.”

Todd slipped into bed. “How are you doing?”

She held on to her wiggling companion.

“I’ve been better,” she said.

“I guess this has been quite a shock.”

“You could say that.” She paused. “I’m so livid. How could they have kept my identity from me?”

Todd, like the rest of the compound, now knew about Blackstone’s disclosure to Claudia.

“All those years that I worked,” she said, “always in the back of my mind I wondered, why? What drove me to do this? Why do I work so hard to-”

He grabbed her, pulling her close. The warmth of their naked bodies felt right. “Let it go,” he said. “Let it go…”

He kissed her, and their passion returned.

“I love you,” she said. The words came out as if they were meant to be, an automatic response to the clarity of their passion, a unique moment in time that might never return.

He swallowed her with his embrace.

“I love you too.”