Crucifix: Temptation Ch. 03

Chapter 3. Taking Care of Mr. Snoop.

Claudia fell into her new job with grace and ease. The kids loved her. Nina thought she was cool because she could do a double flip off the diving board. Nolan said she was awesome because she wasn't afraid of earthworms and Nicholas thought she was fabulous because she could make funny voices with his toys, something every four year old loves. One of those toys was Mr. Snoop, a ragged bunny he'd had since he was about one month old.

Mr. Snoop, however, proved to be the bane of Claudia's existence sometimes. "Nicholas, I promise Mr. Snoop will be fine. I put him in on the delicate cycle. And I'll set him out in the sun to dry. Please stop crying." Nicholas had been bawling ever since Mr. Snoop fell into the mud pie he'd made and he was so distraught, Claudia thought he'd make himself throw up.

Brody had been looking out of his studio window, watching Claudia as she lay on one of the deck chairs reading a book. God, he could sit and watch her for hours. {Damn, Brody, you've got to get fucking focused.} He stared down at the practically white storyboard that lay in front of him.

When he saw Claudia put down her book and go to Nicholas, he knew something was amiss. And he shook his head as he watched Claudia carrying both Nicholas and Mr. Snoop in from the backyard. Even from his studio he could see Nicholas' red rimmed eyes. {Shit, what's wrong with him now?}

Brody stood with a slight bit of difficulty and laughed as he made his way into the main house. He chided himself, "Damn, Brode...you've seriously got to take a breather. God, maybe a cold shower! You're going to break yourself."

His brief moment of joviality as he thought about, or rather tried to stop thinking about, the bulge between his legs came to a quick end as Nicholas' cries pierced the air. He followed the wailing to the laundry room. "What's the problem, big guy?"

Claudia, who was still holding Nicholas or more accurately, he was holding on to her, nearly jumped out of her skin when Brody came up behind them. "Oh, God, Mr. Anderson. You scared me." She caught her breath and pointed to the washing machine, "Mr. Snoop went swimming, face first, in the mud." She set Nicholas on the dryer and rubbed her neck where he'd held her with a death grip.

Ever the calm soul, Brody quietly told Nicholas, "It's okay, see, Claudia's fixing him. He'll be fine in about twenty minutes." Nicholas didn't care. "I want Mr. Snoop better NOW!"

The little boy kicked his legs and nailed Claudia in the ribs so hard she fell back into Brody and together they both fell to the floor. "Oopsee doopsee." Nicholas put his hand over his mouth and his eyes grew wide.

While Brody had often imagined lying prone with his sweet nanny, their current situation wasn't exactly what he had in mind. Especially since it was apparent that Claudia was in pain. He slid out from under her and rolled over to check on her.

Brody stared into her beautiful eyes with concern as he placed his hand on her flat, tanned stomach, never intending to 'feel' her, but that was practically impossible. {God, her skin is so smooth.} "Are you alright?"

"I think so." Even above the sharp pain that radiated from her lower ribs, Claudia was overtly aware of Brody's hot touch. {Don't do or say anything stupid, Claude.} She tried to laugh it off, "I mean don't think my ribs are broken if that's what you're asking. Just got the wind knocked out of me." She glanced up at Nicholas, who looked very concerned, "It's okay Nick, I'm alright."

Brody cleared his throat. "Good. That's good." He wanted to stay there, even if it was only to look into her eyes. But he knew that was wrong.

So he stood up and looked at his son, "That was not very nice, young man. You could have really hurt Claudia. And then what would we do? I don't make grilled cheese sandwiches nearly as good as she does." He tweaked his son's nose and glanced down at her and saw that she'd gotten to her knees.

Brody looked down at Claudia and suddenly wished his son wasn't there. She looked so delicious in her bikini top and those peach colored shorts as she stood there on her knees. {Just the right height.} He shook the thought from his head. Yes, it had gotten quite difficult for Brody to be around Claudia Marshall in the past few days.

Maybe it was because Shannon wouldn't return any of his affection when he was home. Maybe it was from holding Claudia in his arms to comfort her after two boys had pulled her into the woods almost three weeks ago. The thought of which still made him sick..........

...Claudia was making her way down to the dock with the brownies she'd baked but forgotten to bring down. "Stupid, stupid! I hate this hill!" Her legs hurt from going up and down the long path. This was her third trip and they'd not even had lunch yet.

Brody was sitting on the dock watching the boys swim when two guys rode their jet skis up on the shore close to the woods. {What the hell? Don't they know this is private property?} He'd seen them going back and forth on for about an hour and had sort of put them in the back of his mind.

For a moment, he considered yelling at them as they walked up the embankment. {Let it go, Brode...probably just some closet gays heading to the woods for some fun. It's summer...let 'em have their fun.} Besides, Nicholas and Nolan were demanding his time so he had to turn back around.

As for Claudia, she had seen them and intentionally started to walk faster down the long, lonely path from the house to the dock. {Faster, Claudia, faster.} If she could just get closer to the shore, Brody would be able to see her.

But Claudia knew that his view was hampered by the boat house and those guys were getting closer. Before she realized it, they'd corralled her at the edge of the woods. She calmly panicked, if there is such a way to do so, and looked for a way out of the situation.

Those boys, probably in college, had been taunting her for the past week, asking her to come for a swim or have a beer. They had made her very nervous. As she stood there carrying the plate of brownies, she suddenly wished she'd told Mr. Anderson just how much they concerned her when Nina mentioned them last week.

"Hey, sweet thing. What you got there?" Asked the taller of the two, but only by about two inches. Claudia didn't say a word, she just kept walking, trying to get closer to the shore and farther from edge the thick woods. He grabbed her arm and stopped her. "I asked you a question. What you got there?"

Claudia looked and saw that the other boy, the one with blond hair, was standing behind her now. She pulled her arm away from the taller one and kept going. She suddenly regretted being such a timid person.

If she'd just scream at them, maybe they'd leave her alone. Maybe Brody would hear her and come. Maybe. But she just stood here.

"My name is Kirk," the tall one said with a smile, "and that's my friend, Jeremy." He could see she was terrified and it just turned him on more.

Claudia stood there, silently.

"Hey, now, we just want to talk for a minute, sweet thing. Is that alright?" Claudia was so nervous, her tongue felt numb. "Those brownies you got there?"

She nodded. {Run you moron, get away from them. Scream.} Her mind was begging her to flee, but her feet weren't getting the message.

Jeremy touched her butt and she jumped. "You go to Holy Cross?" He stuck his hand up her sweatshirt and undid her lower bikini top tie.

She tried to keep it together, "Yes, how'd you know?" Her voice not much louder than a child's. "Your sweatshirt, genius." Jeremy smiled at Kirk, "We love those Holy Cross girls, don't we, Kirk?"

Kirk pulled the plastic wrap from the plate she was carrying and took out one of the brownies, "Yes, we do, Jeremy." He took a bite. "Tasty. You bake these?"

The two boys got closer to Claudia and she froze. She could feel Jeremy's breath on her neck. She was so scared she didn't know what to do. "What's your name?"

Claudia didn't answer. Kirk grabbed her arm and she dropped the plate of brownies. "I said, what's your name?"

"Cl..Claudia. Let me go or..."

"Or what? You gonna scream? If you were going to, you already would have Claudia." He stroked her cheek with his hand then pushed her into Jeremy. She could feel his swollen cock on her leg and tried to squirm her way loose.

"Oh, Jer, she's a wiggly one. This is going to be fun." The boys laughed. Jeremy grabbed her arms and pulled her into the woods.

{Oh, God, they're going to rape me. No, no. This isn't happening to me. God, help me. Please.} Claudia was well within the woods before the realization of what was actually happening finally struck her and it was as though a lightning bolt surged through her.

She found her voice, hidden behind years of 'being a good, quiet girl' and started screaming. She kicked and thrashed trying to get away from them. Kirk slapped her square across the face to shut her up. But it didn't work. Terror had set in and there was no way Claudia was going to stop screaming. They'd have to kill her first.

Everything moved in slow motion around her. "Fucking shut up, you bitch!" Jeremy shook her as he spoke. Then he crammed a cloth in her mouth.

It tasted like dirt, no mud...lake floor mud. She thought she would throw up. And she never felt the thick plastic stay being cinched around her wrists.

{God, no, no, no.} Claudia started to pray...what else could she do? Terror, it seems, is often the catalyst for undying faith.

Brody sat on the dock and looked at his watch. Claudia had been gone quite a while. "Boys, come on, out of the water. Let's go find Claudia. I'll bet she's up at the house eating those brownies, what do you think?"

The two boys reluctantly got out of water and grabbed their towels. As they walked up the dock Brody saw the two jet skis but saw neither head nor tail of the two guys who were on them.

His sons were singing 'row, row, row your boat' so loudly it was hurting Brody's ears. But above their loudness, Nolan's being the louder of the two youngest Andersons, Brody heard something. "Hush, boys."

They didn't and he thought he heard it again, "Damn it, Nolan I said quiet." The boys stopped singing.

He heard a scream. "Jesus, Claudia." Brody took off running toward the sound of her desperate cries. His mind raced trying to figure out what could be wrong with her.

Then he heard her scream out 'NO!' and his mind recalled the two boys on the jet skis. "Christ, Claudia."

He ran into the woods towards her voice which had stopped calling out. He frantically called to her, "Claudia, where are you? Claudia?" There was no reply. "Shit! Shit! Shit!"

Jeremy and Kirk looked at each other when they heard the new voice and threw Claudia down on the ground. They took off running through the woods.

When Brody found her just moments later, she was lying on the ground with her hands bound and a filthy bandana in her mouth. She was crying and covered in the dirt of the forest floor. They'd cut her sweatshirt open and thrown her bikini top aside. Claudia didn't see Brody, so when she felt him grab her shoulder, she freaked out and tried to get away from him.

"Claudia, stop. Stop. It's me, Brody. It's Mr. Anderson. Claudia, please calm down." He let go of her and waited for her to settle. "Claudia, it's me. You're okay. Everything's alright now. You're okay. They're gone."

She looked up into his eyes and his heart fell. Those beautiful eyes of hers were filled with such fear. He pulled the cloth from her mouth and she started coughing. But he could not get the plastic binding off her hands. "I'm sorry, I can't get this off. I have to cut it off."

Brody saw her bikini top lying to the side and then he saw that her sweatshirt had been either ripped or cut, he couldn't really tell. Knowing that Claudia would be mortified when she realized how she must look, he took off his own T-shirt and wrapped it around her as best as he could.

Brody was happy she was safe he, himself, started to tremble. Then he realized just how very angry he was. It was a rage unlike he'd ever felt. He wanted to find those guys and kill them. But his concern for Claudia was greater. So Brody rocked her in his arms until she felt safe and secure enough to get up.

When she finally spoke, her voice was barely louder than a whisper because she'd screamed so loudly. "I'm okay now. Can we please go home?"

She and Brody emerged from the woods to find Nolan and Nicholas sitting on the path. "Come on boys we're going in." Nolan started to protest but Brody looked at him, "Nolan, move it!"

Nina was on the phone when they walked in and she looked at her father and Claudia. "Zoe, I'll call you back." She hung up the phone before she'd actually stopped talking to her friend, "Oh, my God, Dad, what happened?"

"Nina, take your brothers to the basement and let them play video games, okay?" She stared at Claudia, "Nina, now."

Claudia clutched the T-shirt to her chest for dear life as Brody went to find something with which he could cut her loose from the binding. The kitchen sheers, designed to cut through bone, did the trick. Once she was freed she laid her head on the table and cried for twenty minutes. "Thank you, Mr. Anderson." Her voice was much stronger but still quite shaky.

Claudia, still somewhat dazed, went to her room, took a shower, and went to bed. She didn't wake up until late the next morning.

Brody, however, could barely contain himself. He didn't tell his sons what had happened to Claudia other than she was lost in the woods. And as for Nina, she knew.

When his attractive ten year old, who looked more like she was fifteen, came into the kitchen she quietly asked, "Is Claudia alright, Dad?"

He ran his hands through his hair and stared at the floor, "Yes, Nina. She's fine." He looked into his daughter's eyes. {God, what if it had been her.} Every father's nightmare played out in his head. "Nina..."

"I know, Dad. I know." She kissed her father on the head and grabbed the chips and dip. "Don't worry so much, please."

{Don't worry so much...right. Goddamn. What I didn't hear her? What if I was too late?} That night when he went to bed all he could think about was how scared he'd been when he heard Claudia screaming for help. And how terrified he was when the screaming stopped.

He dreamed of Claudia that night, of how he had held her, how he'd saved her. He was so angry. If Brody had just demanded that those boys leave his property. If he ever found them, he'd kill them, he was sure of it. No one had the right to hurt Claudia, no one.

Slowly, the weight of the day took it's toll on him and Brody fell asleep. He found himself dreaming of her. Kissing her and running his hands through her long, silky hair. He dreamed of caressing those breasts that fit so well into her bathing suit. Of feeling her legs wrapped around his.

He could practically taste her. Brody could hear her laughter. And her eyes, good God, those eyes. It was such a good dream. He woke up and realized just how good a dream it had been when he felt wet cum around his still hard penis. He laughed, rolled over and tried relive the dream.

As for 'Kirk' and 'Jeremy', they were never caught. The sheriff even said it'd be almost impossible to find them, what with all the college kids who drifted in and out of the beautiful lake region. And that pissed Brody off..........

...But as he stood there in that warm laundry room, with Claudia on her knees just a couple of feet from him, just the right height to give him a much desired and often dreamed of blow job, he knew how wrong it was to be thinking such things. God, she was half his age and he had even heard her tell Nina the other night that she was still a virgin and not to believe all the things she saw in those teen movies.

He looked at her lips, wishing they were around his quickly hardening cock. {Good thing this is a long shirt. Shit! You've got to get away from her. Now.} With less than a nod, he smiled at her then at Nicholas and left the laundry room.

Tonight would be another lonely night. Another night filled with dreams of a sweetness so off limits, it was killing him. Claudia was a good girl. A sweet girl. A soft, delicate and very sexy good girl. Maybe that's what really drove him crazy.