Chapter 16 - Episode: Shadows Cast Ahead

Large breasts filled his hand, they were soft and warm and they rolled with each thrust into a sinfully hot pussy. Eric's grip tightened and his cock flexed as his thrust pushed deep, then dragged back. Hot moaning filled his ears. The warm hands that had been holding onto his shoulders traveled down his arms, even as his hands tugged at the shaking, shivering tits and his cock crammed into the dripping, slathering, cunt.

Then he felt a shiver, on his skin, as metal touched it. A band on a slender finger, a matching band held tight to one of the hands tugging at the large, freckled, breasts.


"NO!" 

Eric roared awake and sat up in the process. His breathing was harsh, but he fell into the pattern his therapist had taught him. After ten minutes he was breathing normally again. His eyes focused as his hearing returned to normal, and he heard Drip wurping loudly. 

Wurp! 

He slid out of bed, saw the clock blinking that it was only four in the morning, Thursday. He entered the dim living room and looked around. It was his apartment, his apartment, and he was alone except for Drip. He saw the little slip camping the entrance to her habitat. He walked over and knelt down. "Back." He said. She slid backwards after a moment, her body shivering with excitement. "Stay." He command. When she settled down, he opened the sealed entrance and she slurped out instantly. She slid up his arm like a cool refreshing breeze and came to rest atop his head.

Wuuuurp

"Yeah girl.... I'm sorry." He reached up and patted her on the head. He exhaled again and crossed his arms. Why now? Why was he thinking about her, now? He pushed the idea out of his head, but the rings. They hung in his mind's eye like a pair of gleaming shackles. He felt his stomach turn but he restrained the urge to hurl.

Eric sighed and leaned against the cool window. He cast his eyes out the window into the Haze .

Red

A pair of red eyes glowed on his porch. A wide smile as the Regulator sat centimeters away from him, the thick layer of glass and transparent materials that helped seal off the Haze's caustic waves the only thing between him and the deadliest killing machine ever devised by man.

Good Morning. It said, the Haze smoldering around a wide smile and plump lips. Technician.

"Regulator." He nodded, his eyes wide and bloodshot, but not as red as the glowing machination. 

You seem upset. It's voice echoed oddly, was the window amplifying it?

"Yes." Eric answered curtly..

"Would you like to talk about it?" It asked.

"No, Thank you." He replied courteously. 

"There is a colloid construct on your head." It stated, and Eric's eyes widened as he reached up for Drip. "Would you like to discuss termination options?"

"How about we talk about why I'm upset?" Eric suggested and pulled drip from his head as he remained against the window, his eyes locked on the Regulator. "I had a dream."

"That is a normal side effect of a resting state." The regulator's head begins to slowly cock to one side. "What was it about?"

"It was about," He paused and saw the red eyes widen and saw the twitch of movement by the Regulator's hands.  "It was about my ex-wife."

---

Eric sat in the chairs outside the front office from the moment the Regulator had left to when the Haze had lifted. Drip was in his lap and he'd already moved her habitat into his bedroom. Awkward as it might be when he next invited Maz or Corenlia over. He wasn't going to lose Drip to one of those things...

Talking with a Regulator was a lot like defusing a bomb. Not an amateur's improvised explosives, but a well crafted professional job. Except the professional was crazy, watching you disarm the bomb, and had a remote in their hands if you did something they didn't like.

So, not like defusing a bomb at all, normally.

"Eric?" He looked and saw Amanda standing there sweatpants and a t-shirt that hugged all her curves. It made Eric swallow the bile he had in his mouth, and made Drip move from his lap to his thigh with a Gurp. "Are... are you okay?" She asked, and Eric saw the genuine concern in her eyes, mixed in with her own feelings.

"Yeah, Amanda. I just..." He inhaled. "Things are getting interesting around here." He started. "Take a seat." He asked, and decided to explain what had happened, as practice for telling Belle. After he was done, Amanda had less of a panicked look and more of a methodical one.

"That sounds like the Regulator is imprinting on you." She said, stroking Drip in her lap, and Eric's eyebrows rose.

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of." He started. "Not many civilians know about that sort of thing."

"Joanna likes to talk about what her class is covering, and well, I'm not just a pretty house wife." She said with a cocked grin. Eric laughed and leaned back, the sun's first rays had started spearing into the lobby. "I'm sorry about before." Her voice was soft, but sure.

"Me too." Eric said. "I misread the signals and..." he sighed and Amanda blushes. "Sorry, again." He shook his head.

"Well, fresh start right?" she suggested and Eric nodded. "Can't wait for Alex and Jackie to get back," She groaned, and Drip shifted up to 'look' at her, "They're gonna be so bitchy, when we tell 'em." 

"Tell them what?"

"About... ya know."

"You're going to tell them." He said with audible confusion, "What about 'fresh start'?"

"It still happened and, well, we don't hide things from them. I mean, Alex and I are well," She gestured at her face and Eric nodded: Twins. "And I don't keep secrets from my Sugar-Bear." She closed her eyes with a smile and Eric didn't hold back the laugh.

"HAHA! 'Sugar-Bear'? Jack?" He asked and Amanda nodded. "Wow, how'd you come up with that nickname?" He asked, and Amanda's grin grew as her eyes opened with the mist from some sexy memory. 

"Strong grip and a sweet 'taste'," she winked and licked her lips.

"Oh that's right, you love your sweets." Eric chuckled, and she blushed dark, but laughed.

"Eric, you dog." Came an almost chiding voice from the stairs. Both Eric and Amanda turned their heads to look, and Drip shifted herself to 'see'. Belle came down in bellbottoms and a bright blue blouse. "I swear, for someone so honest, I keep finding you in some easily misread circumstances." She said after Eric explain his presence, and what had happened earlier. "That Regulator is a real problem. We'll have to report it," She said, "And I mean we, Eric. You're my employee, and you 'met' that thing while fixing my building." She held up a finger and would brook no sass from him.

"Now Amanda, what was it you needed to talk about?" She asked, and Eric got up to leave.

"You can stay, actually, Eric." She rested her hand on his arm, and Eric felt the cool touch of metal on his skin. He wanted to hurl, but he swallowed back the bile. "This might be relevant to you... I'm afraid." He sat back down to listen. "So, I've been getting some rather annoying calls from some annoying jackass."

"Nathan Oswald." Eric speaks up, already putting some of the pieces in his head. God damn it. He cursed as she nodded. 

"Yeah, He's been pestering me and Julia to be part of this... 'catering group' of his." She explained. "He's been calling a lot and well," She turned to look at Eric, "One of his business partners is a woman named Veronica Wyre."

CRUNCH.

The arm of the chair Eric was sitting in cracked as his arm wrenched up and yanked it out of its setting, cracking the wood. His eyes were looking forward, at some point over Belle's shoulder, some speck of paint on the wall that was just a little darker than the rest. He tried to focus on the words they were saying, Belle's look of concern, or Drip clinging to his face trying to soothe him.

SHE WAS STILL USING HIS NAME.

She had legally changed it after the marriage. There was nothing in the divorce that required she change it back. A fucking oversight on his part, and one that his mother was certain to hound him over.

God DAMN her. He inhaled and exhaled, and met Belle's gaze as he struggled to focus. She had a no bullshit look on her face, and Eric found himself feeling calmer looking into her eyes.

He was still pissed, but he regained the capacity to speak.

"How is he in fucking business." Eric growled. "He should be buried under adultery and illegal prostitution charges." He leveled his gaze at Amanda, the arm of the chair still in his grip and Drip still suckling against his face. 

"I don't know about all that." Amanda shook her head, looking Eric in the eye. Some part of him marked that as impressive, given how he was seething. "He said he'd gotten clear of a 'legal misunderstanding' and that a number of permits that had gotten 'lost in backlog' had finally come through, so he's got a business venture he wants to discuss."

"Fucker must have back dated his permits and gotten his dad to stuff them into somebody's in-pile." Eric growled and dropped the arm of the chair to the ground. "Always got 'daddy' at his back." He says.

"You know him?" Belle asked, rejoining his conversation.

"You and Julie mentioned him living in the country for a few years?" He asked Amanda, and she nodded. "Well he was living in my home town. Worked REALLY hard try and win me over, and seems like when I told him to fuck off too many times," he remembered, much more fondly now, the feeling of a dislocating another student's jaw during Contact Gym class, "He went after my 'sweetheart' for some long con after my surname."

"That's disgusting..." Amanda said, and reached out to run her hand over Eric's cheek, but got a handful of Drip instead, as she shifted over to that side of his face. Eric smiled. He had to. He'd snap otherwise. He had to focus on the positives.

He knew where his enemies were, and what their target was. They shouldn't have any clue that he was here.

"Okay." He exhales. "Really going to be Cornelia's favorite person today. I need to discus options with her."

"Options?" Belle asks.

"If he shows up and he gives me my chance to break his face, the one I missed before." He rubs his hands over his body, where the recent wounds were still healing. "This time he won't get off with just pissing over my sofa like a scared dog." He grins. "Ah." A plan starts to form. "I think I've got an idea."  He turns to Amanda. "She knows you live here?" He emphasized the pronoun because he couldn't stand to use her name.

"Yes," Amanda nods. "Yes... actually she 'ran into us' the day before you arrived." Fucking dodged a bullet there. He nods. "So its safe to presume they both know Julie and I live here."

"And they know your married?"

"Yes," She scowled. "Bastard actually said there was no pointing in us getting married to them if we wanted a family, called it a real waste."

"Just meeting them once tells me that's wrong. Their reactions when I said I'd look out for you wasn't the look of someone who doesn't feel a whole lot of love." He narrows his gaze. "And I am going to look out for you. Partly because of that promise." He admitted, "But this is a common enemy," He smiled. "And a threat to the good name of this fine residence." He looked to Belle whose smile and look of determination sold him that she was in on this. "So that's three solid reasons to help." He said again, and saw the tears beading in Amanda's eyes.

"Dude..." She sniffed. "You don't have to do that," She said and Eric laughed. "What?"

"Jack said the same thing." Eric smiled, and Amanda reached over to hug him. Despite the fact that he registered her massive chest spreading against his abs, he only focused on the friendship in the embrace. He was proud of himself for that.

"So," He smiled. "Let me call Cornellia," he said as Amanda let him go, "And you call Julie," Amanda nodded, "And I'll fill you in on what I've got planned..." He pulled out his phone and dialed his favorite police officer.