by Elle Chance
“That’s cheating, but I’ll allow it,” Josh said.
He hooked my knee over his shoulder and then fucked me. His strong strokes filled me completely, finally giving my aching center what it needed.
“Yes, yes,” I gasped as Josh thrust into me. I brought one hand to my aching clit, already close.
“No, I want you to cum just from me in you,” Josh said, gently pushing my hand away. “Are you going to cum for me?”
“So soon,” I said.
Josh continued to pound me. His every thrust was sending me closer and closer to the edge. All I wanted was to finish for him and bring him to the edge along with me. Josh’s thrusts were harder and becoming more ragged, and I could tell he was getting close too. I was helpless under him.
I came around Josh, and I could feel him follow me after just a couple more strokes of his own. I couldn’t remember ever having come twice with anyone, but my second orgasm was even better as Josh followed me. I could feel his hot cum inside of me, and I felt more claimed than I ever had before.
And Josh on top of me felt inevitable. From when I first met him, Josh had been winning me over entirely with his warm enthusiasm. And as back and forth as our relationship had been, when Josh kissed me gently I knew I was in deeper than I wanted to be.
JOSH
WAKING UP NEXT to Sofie felt too good the next morning. I was wrapped around her from behind, one hand cradling one of her wonderful breasts. She was just as gorgeous as I expected from when I first saw her. Porcelain skin and her hips flared breathtakingly from her waist. Her long blond hair smelled like vanilla. The warmth of her against me was the most comforting feeling I’d had in years.
I could see myself waking up like this for years. In fact, I wanted to. And knowing that, a tendril of doubt ran through me.
There was a reason that I hadn’t told Sofie I knew who she was, and it wasn’t just because she’d introduced herself under a fake name. It was for the same reason she’d been sure I wouldn’t impress her father. And sure, she’d pretend to date me to save face with her brothers. And while she was in Homesburg, we almost were on an even footing.
But the second we returned to our real lives in New York City, there was no way that this would work. I may have amused her father. But I wasn’t on track for winning her over, impressing her father, making her brothers accept me.
Instead, I was lying next to a woman for the first time in years in the morning and not looking for an out.
My timing was as awful as my taste was impeccable.
I knew Sofie, and I were together out of convenience and desperation for her. She would never bring me with her on tours of New York City. I had it in writing that she would give me an interview after she left Homesburg and our relationship goodbye. But even I wasn’t happy-go-lucky enough to think that would go anywhere.
The full weight of that knowledge was eating at me, but I pushed it aside. I could at least continue to the same smiling fool Sofie was expecting, could make her laugh even in her life. And even if this was a fleeting romance, even if I was the only one who felt this way, I thought spending any amount of time with Sofie would be worth it.
I buried my face back into her hair and tried to will myself to doze off and into a better mood for Sofie.
Instead, hair got in my mouth and I got distracted by the feeling of Sofie’s soft skin under me. I stroked along her breast until her nipple hardened for me, and Sofie let out a sleepy, drowsy noise of interest that combined with my already present morning wood to make me the hardest I’d ever been.
Sofie roused and pressed back into me. When I tried to lean over her to kiss her, she laughed and hid her face in the pillow. “You’re not allowed to know how bad my morning breath is,” she said breathlessly.
But she pressed against me eagerly, able to feel my hardness against her ass.
I brought my fingers from her breast down to her clit, groaning at the wetness I found between her legs. She was so eager and excited for me. It was intoxicating. “So no kissing, but I can think of something else we can do this morning.”
“Just like this?” Sofie asked sweetly. Like I hadn’t been thinking of seven ways I could have made love to her right where she was laying.
Pushing into her and feeling her push back against me wiped all concerns from my mind. For at least this morning, I had more time with Sofie to cherish her. Even if I was just ramping myself up to further disaster down the line, I couldn’t stop myself from urging her to play with herself until her tight wetness pulled us to another orgasm in the golden morning light.
I was walking into my future broken heart with my head held high.
“Next time we need to hook up on a Saturday instead of a Sunday,” Sofie said to me in the shower. Water plastered her hair down golden, her eyes huge and beautiful.
“You’re out of your mind if you think I’m waiting until this weekend to do that with you again,” I told her from my position squished under the water.
Sofie laughed and ducked her head forward to wash the conditioner out of her hair. I took that opportunity to kiss her while she shut her eyes, earning another wet giggle and her pushing me away. “I really have work today,” she told me.
“I do too. Two live events to stream about the hottest in technology,” I told her, pushing her out of the water so I could reach the soap. “And for all the people who want to read about the same thing there’s a full video on, I’ll be there. Writing everything they’ve said.”
Sofie stole the soap from me once I was done. Unsurprisingly, she was a hot water hog. At least she wasn’t too greedy with the blankets at night. She continued to tell me about the importance of her focus and her passion for her career as I got lost in watching the soap suds clinging to her every curve. “Are you paying attention to me?” she asked when she saw my gaze had drifted.
“I’m getting the broad strokes. The importance of you stewarding the money to the exact right cause.”
Sofie’s eyes narrowed as she took me in suspiciously. “I guess you were listening. But I just want you to hear how much this means to me.”
“I dear you,” I told her, trying to look charming as a taller than six-foot man freezing out of the spray of the shower. “But unfortunately, I also have lived in the same building as you for weeks. And I know that you’re already spending a couple nights a week drinking with some dashing hottie at the bar.”
“I have never called you a hottie,” Sofie said with a laugh, turning and giving me a view of her beautiful, perfectly formed butt as she rinsed it off. Over her shoulder, she continued to object until she once more noticed my drifting gaze. “I need you to listen to me, Josh,” she said, hand on hip in the shower.
“I’m listening,” I told her, leaning forward to kiss her forehead and steal some hot water. “And I think what you do is wonderful. But all I’m hearing is you want to take more time with me in the morning.”
I still couldn’t read her perfectly, but I was learning exactly which smiles and kisses were most disarming for Sofie. And I knew that she was afraid that I thought of her as flitting about doing charity work to sound more substantive than she was. Little did she know, I thought she was wonderful. She just didn’t seem willing to take my word for it.
“Are you ready to go again?” Sofie asked, glancing down at where I was getting hard from just a kiss.
“Haven’t you heard all men are pigs? We have one thing on our minds,” I told her.
“Well, I have to be ready for a meeting in fifteen minutes, so I don’t have time for anything.” The genuine longing in her voice. That softened the blow.
“It’s all good, go on ahead without me. I’ll sneak out when you’re done here.”
Sofie gave me a lingering kiss and brushed my hair out of my face. “You’re very handsome like this,” she said as she traced my cheekbone with one thumb.
“I’m handsome lots of ways,” I told her, laughing when I’d finally disgusted her enough for her to break free from
my charm. “You seem particularly attracted to me when I’m eating you out,” I reminded her when she’d stepped out of the shower.
Sofie poked her head back in through the curtain. “It’s true, you’ve never looked better.” She gave me a grin that looked dangerously like my own when I was up to no good.
In the refuge of the hot water, I experimented with a few of the many products Sofie had in the shower. I couldn’t be blamed if I assumed my day was on the up and up. I’d had some wonderful morning sex, almost made Sofie late, and had come to terms with the outcome of what getting into bed with her would mean.
Which meant that I ran into Cory when I was leaving Sofie’s room.
“What the hell, Joshua,” Cory said, looking like he’d like nothing more than to give me a shove in the middle of the hallway.
“Cory, don’t worry about it, really-”
“Nah, you come with me,” Cory said, and he grabbed my elbow and walked me into the suite across the hall where he looked to be assembling furniture. “What do you think you’re doing in Sofie’s room?”
Cory was an older brother where it was about as bad as getting caught by our parents doing something bad.
“Look, man, it’s not like she didn’t know I was there,” I said, on the defensive. “I think you’re overthinking this.”
“You’re apparently not thinking at all,” Cory said, tapping one large index finger to his temple. “She’s got more money than God and she has you under contracts. I thought you said this was a fake relationship. You’re at the bar every other night and you’re giving her moony eyes at Mom and Dad’s.”
“Why do you even care? It’s not like she’ll leave the Lodge now.”
Cory’s jaw tightened. “This isn’t about the Lodge. For all you know, she’s gonna sue the shit out of you for this. Her brothers think we’re all idiots. And you said she was angry at you when you knew who she was.”
“Look, things change, man. I’m just trying to make the best of a weird situation. Besides, I’m giving her another good reason to stick around Homesburg, Cor. Bring your business.”
Cory shook his head. I hadn’t seen him this pissed since I’d tried to run off with one of our 4h calves when I was eleven and he was fourteen. Which meant, if I remembered that chilly morning well, that he was a little scared for me too underneath all the pissed off.
“You and I both know there’s no way in hell she’ll ever come back here when she’s done. She’s not staying or leaving on account of you.”
I huffed, but it’s not like he wasn’t saying what I was afraid. Hell, what I’d meditated on in bed with Sofie this morning. But hearing it from Cory made it worse than possible. Cory didn’t make it his business to confront someone unless he was sure of something.
“You think I don’t know that?” I asked him. Sounding weak as hell. Sounding like a kid again, begging him to let me run off with a cow we were raising in a cleared out gardening shed to sell-off. “I know what this is, Cory.”
“Like hell you do,” Cory said. “I don’t get why you’d sign up for heartbreak. You’re a damn fool for this, Joshua Chase.” He stormed out of the suite and slammed the door behind him.
And I stayed, looking over a suite that was plastered in antlers and a bear’s head. I tried to figure out how I’d be able to continue this charade with my brother pissed off at me and saying all the doubts I had that were eating at my resolve already.
SOFIE
THE NEXT TIME Josh and I had plans was Tuesday, which was when my father threw up a fuss and tried to get himself discharged from the hospital.
“This course isn’t aggressive enough,” my father said.
My frail father was trying to convince me of this when Rocco, Patty, and I had arrived. Cheryl stayed today, serving a steady and imposingly chipper presence. I wasn’t sure if she was there more to keep my father from leaving or to convince him to be hopeful about the plan.
I put my hand over his in the little living room of his suite. The coffee table was far enough away that he could wheel his chair through it for this little intervention.
“I hear that you want to have more done now. But you came out here because you believe these doctors are the best suited for treating you.”
“They told me they listen!” my father boomed. His body may be weakened from the radiation, but neither his spirit nor his voice had caught on. “And here I am, telling them what I need! And they won’t listen to me.”
I let out a long, annoyed sigh. “Stubbornness is not as a good a qualification as a medical degree,” I told him darkly.
“Oh, if it was, I’d have you overseeing my treatment.” My father was gearing up for one of his excellent rants. I loved them when they were about business or catering or work ethics. Less when they were about me. “But I suppose that bimbo you’re dating would have you disqualified for that.”
Josh, who’d woken up in my bed this morning despite us having planned to not get drinks yesterday. To build in space to our weird living arrangement. Josh, who was the only person could make me laugh about this story about my father when I told him. Josh, my glaring weak spot. He’d given my father and brothers ammo to get under my skin.
“This is why I don’t introduce people to you. At this rate, you and Lou and Tom will meet my children at their kindergarten graduation and I’ll forbid their father from ever meeting you.” It’d been shocking when I’d first given my father this threat,. Over the years the sheen had worn off of it, though.
“That’s wise. Kindergarten will be the last time any child of his would be in a graduating class, I’m sure,” my father said.
I wondered if my eyes looked like my father did now when I fought with Josh. His were cold chips of ice that let nothing in. My father still intimidated me. How did Josh always brush me off?
“Josh has a journalism degree.” My father opened his mouth to continue on a rant about that. “I know, he knows, we all know it’s wasted on my generation’s news consumption by sound bite. You don’t have to tell me. But that is beside the point. You’re halfway through this treatment plan. Why would you back out now?”
My father thought about whether it would still be worth it to pursue harassing me about Josh. “It’s not very admirable of you to give up so quickly. It shows a lack of spine and a lack of loyalty on yours. Just like your mother with me.”
“You loved my mother,” I reminded him. It was true. He’d given me her old Upper West Side condo when I’d turned 21 with misty eyes. “I’m not in love with Josh for his business acumen or his career, Father. And the Vanderbilt I dated didn’t impress you, so it’s a lost cause.” It was true. The Vanderbilt had lacked character, meaning any personality if I was the judge. “But that’s about him, not you.”
My father angrily rode the wheelchair away from me, toward the bedroom, before rethinking and turning to tell me why he was giving up. “We’re going far too easy on this thing.”
I tried to imagine what Josh would say if he was heard. And I imagined he’d look at me with those big brown eyes and say that it scared him. My father would die before conceding to such a weak emotion.
“They’re taking as aggressive a course as they can.” My gaze lingered on the wheelchair he used more and more often when I came to visit. To preserve his energy, he always said. “But they’re trying to not kill you along the way.”
My father reluctantly came around the coffee table. He wouldn’t look at me. “I’m not afraid of dying, Sofie. You must know that.”
I sighed again. Softer this time. “I know, Daddy. I’ll be afraid of that for you, okay?”
My father’s grey eyes were softer when he looked at me. “I don’t want you to fret. But what if I don’t give this all I’ve got? I wouldn’t know until it was too late.”
I reached my hand out for his, feeling how thin his skin felt under my hands. “No one would accuse Mark Barlow of not giving a fight everything he has.”
My father going silent was as close as a victor
y as I’d gotten with him in months. Cheryl left, giving me an enthusiastic nod for my good work with him. And I let my fear sit with us too, and all my hopes for my father too.
“I hate that I’m worrying you, and dragging you off to the woods with me,” my father said finally.
“We’re only a couple hours outside of the city,” I reminded him. “I could still live there and come argue with you if I wanted to. But it’s nice to take a break sometimes. We’re taking a break in the Poconos.”
My father laughed at that. The same low chuckle from my childhood breaking into what would be a giggle on a lesser man. “You have a way of making things sound better than they are. And the boy treats you well?”
I squeezed my father’s hand. “I think he’s making me soft. He treats me so well.” I wanted to tell him about Josh’s parents, or the Lodge, or any of the utterly normal parts of my life out here. But I thought I’d keep those details to myself for now.
“Well, soft isn’t always weak. Despite how your old man may seem right now.” That same lesser man would have had a quaver in his voice. But my father would never allow such a thing.
“I could never think of you as weak. To your detriment. Remember when you tried hiking the Alps?” My father had lost half of a toe in the two-week endeavor.
My father’s gaze had hardened at the memory. “This is why you never show weakness. Your daughter will hit you at all your soft parts.” He put his other hand to his hard, tapping it firmly with his thick hands. “Daughters were made to make their fathers nostalgic, anyway.”
I rolled my eyes so he could see, but I was still smiling. “Yes, that’s all we’re here for. You’ve clarified that I ruined your run of being heartless and headstrong. This is the first time I see any evidence for it.”
My father huffed at me. “Well, you can’t see it. I was a changed man the moment they put you into my arms. You didn’t have the chance to meet me at my prime as a businessman.” He cleared his throat, and I thought our moment would be over. But he continued. “I prefer the softer man in some ways, you know.”