Welcome to Blissville

by Walker, Aimee Nicole

  “Movie time,” I said when I joined him on the couch. “What are you in the mood for?”

  “I think I’d rather watch this show than a movie if that’s okay with you.” It happened to be one of his renovation shows that I happened to like also. It was a married couple who could find the beauty in just about any house. I was suspicious that he only chose it to make me happy, which must’ve showed on my face because he rolled his eyes. “There’s a marathon on because the new season starts on Tuesday. I haven’t seen some of these, and even if I did, I still love watching them.”

  “Okay,” I said in surrender.

  We watched a few hours of episodes and laughed several times at the husband’s shenanigans and the wife’s never-ending patience with him. They truly were a fun couple and very knowledgeable about what they were doing. My favorite thing about the show was how they tried to repurpose things when they could because shiny and new didn’t fit everyone’s personality.

  “Relationship goals,” Josh said sleepily from where he lay against my chest. His confession surprised me a bit, because the R word wasn’t in his vocabulary. “Something goals,” he amended, as if he read my mind.

  I ran my hands through the silky strands of his platinum hair and could tell the moment he fell asleep. I didn’t reach for the remote to change the show, I continued to watch the couple that Josh seemed to admire so much. It was true that they had a natural, genuine love for one another that came through loud and clear. They didn’t smooch or hang all over each other, but you could see it in their expressions and the smiles they shared with one another.

  I stayed in the same position so that I didn’t wake him until the numbness turned into pain. “Wake up, sleepy head, so we can go to bed and be more comfortable.” Josh just tried to burrow deeper into me rather than wake up. “If you cooperate then I’ll take you to see Charlotte even though you haven’t showed me your pole dancing studio.” He’d been bugging me to show him my 1970 Dodge Charger that I kept in storage more than I bugged him about the studio.

  “Just leave me here.” Poor guy sounded exhausted and there was no way I was leaving him on the couch when there was a perfectly good bed waiting on him. I did the only thing I could; I carried him to bed. “What?” he asked when he realized he was being lifted in the air.

  “I got you.” They were the same words I said to him the night I shot and killed the man who broke into his home with the intention to kill him.

  “Yes, you do.” I tried not to take his words too seriously because he was half asleep, but they still made my heart speed up.

  He woke up enough to help me remove his clothes and get in bed, but he was out like a light after that. I spooned up behind him so close that we shared a pillow because that was how he liked to be held. I discovered that I missed our closeness on the nights I slept away from him. The warmth of his skin against mine and his even breaths pulled me into a deep sleep.

  The next thing I remembered, I opened my eyes to find Josh standing next to the bed fully dressed with a cup of coffee extended to me. It was a lot like the first time he stayed at my house, except I was happy to wake up there when he hadn’t planned on staying at my house. I told him I’d wake him up and I did, but it was the next morning and not after a few hours like he’d been expecting.

  “Breakfast in ten minutes.” Josh set the coffee cup on the bedside table when I made no move to take it from him. “Hit the shower, Big Daddy, because you’re taking me to see Charlotte before I have to do my tedious errands.”

  “You didn’t cooperate,” I hollered after his retreating back.

  “Pick your battles, babe.”

  “Fine, but then I want a demonstration up in the studio.”

  Josh stopped and faced me. “Oh, honey, you’re going to need a few days to rest up after the wicked things I want you to do to me on the hood of your car.”

  I whipped back the covers and flung my legs over the side of his bed. I tripped over my shoe and stubbed my big toe in my hurry to get to the shower, but my dick didn’t care about anything as minor as that. “Fuck!” I heard Josh laughing over my discomfort and vowed I wouldn’t be the only one limping that day.

  It had become a competition between us–Charlotte vs the pole dancing studio. As long as I live, I’ll never forget the lust-crazed look in Gabe’s eye the first time I mentioned my attic studio on our first dinner date. It was so fucking adorable how he tried to be a gentleman and wait for an invitation to a private showing the months that followed, rather than invite himself on up. It made me fall deeper in like with him. I’ll also confess that I liked having the upper hand when it came to him, so it was quite a blow when I discovered that Gabe was keeping a secret also.

  Sally Ann and Adrian had invited us over for Sunday football and chili once Gabe recuperated from his head injury. I can’t even be sure who or why it was brought up, but Adrian said something about Charlotte or Gabe’s obsession with Charlotte. At first, I was confused as fuck. Who the hell was Charlotte and why would Gabe be obsessed with her? I was overcome with an insane streak of jealousy and then I stamped that shit down quick. I never once got the impression from Gabe that he was also attracted to women and Lord knows there were enough sexually-engineered commercials on during football games to fire up any male remotely interested in lady bits.

  Apparently long legs sold beer and models opening their mouths wide to eat a burger encouraged guys to want to eat at their restaurant. I didn’t so much as see a reaction out of him. Then I realized it didn’t matter who he was attracted to because I was the one he wanted. As insecure as I was at times, I was smart enough to know that attraction didn’t equal unfaithfulness. Billy Sampson’s behavior in high school colored my views for a long time, but I eventually figured things out. I also knew that Gabe wasn’t the kind of guy to stray, which was a reassurance I never thought I would have in a rel… something.

  Secure in my place in his life, I laid my head on his broad shoulder and asked, “Who’s Charlotte?”

  Gabe leaned away enough so he could look down at my upturned face. “I never told you about Charlotte?” I could hear the reverence in his voice when he mentioned her name and my earlier confidence started to fade.

  “No, you certainly didn’t.”

  “Oh. Hmmm.” His nonchalant attitude caused me to narrow my eyes at him. He knew damn well he never told me about this Charlotte. The smirk he wore on his jutted chin made me want to twist his nipple clean off.

  I was just about to blast him with standard Josh-like snark when Adrian spoke up. “What is Charlotte, not who.”

  Gabe sent Adrian a look that said he wasn’t at all helpful, but I didn’t agree. Charlotte wasn’t a person; she was a thing. I began to think of all the things that men owned that they named, specifically a woman’s name. I narrowed it down to two things: a boat or a car. Gabe didn’t own a garage, but rental units were plentiful in Carter County and some were large enough to shelter either of those things.

  “Boat or car?” I asked him.

  “You show me yours and I’ll show you mine,” was Gabe’s husky whisper in my ear. He then turned and leveled Adrian with a fierce scowl. “Not another word from you.” Adrian pretended to zip his lips then threw his hands up playfully in surrender.

  Gabe threw down the gauntlet that day and I was not about to give him a show on the pole–well, not the one in the attic, anyway–until he showed me Charlotte. I spent more time than I should’ve trying to figure out if she was a car or a boat. My first thought was that she was a classic car of some sort because his dad owned an auto body shop in Miami, but then again, being from Miami meant he probably liked the water. In the end, I decided she was a car because most boats that sailed in the ocean weren’t the same ones that sailed on inland lakes in Ohio.

  Even half dead, I would have heard his promise to take me to see her. It amused me when he tried to backpedal the next morning, but I wasn’t letting up. He was going to show me his first and I was going to reward him h
andsomely later. I wasn’t about to confess that I had a special song in mind for the first time I performed for him. I wanted to captivate him as surely as he had me and give him a night he would never forget.

  It didn’t take Gabe long to limp into the living room after his quick shower. It wasn’t nice of me to laugh when he tripped over his shoe and cursed when he stubbed his toe. The wicked look in his eye promised that I’d be paying for my insensitivity. If he thought he scared me, he had another thing coming. I reached down and arranged my growing erection before I served up his scrambled eggs on a plate beside bacon and a blueberry muffin.

  Gabe stepped behind me and pulled me tight against him. He rubbed his nose behind my ear and down my neck, knowing it drove me wild. “You spoil me.”

  I turned in the circle of his arms, looking into his eyes. “I wanted to give you a morning that was as special to you as last night was for me.”

  “I made you dinner and we watched television.” I didn’t like how he downplayed his kind gesture, but we both had our issues to work through.

  “Well, I made you breakfast and then I’m going to bend over the hood of your precious car so you can fuck me.”

  Gabe groaned my name before he captured my lips in a kiss so devastating that I almost confessed that I more than liked him. I was on the verge of using the other L world when he broke our kiss, but then I noticed that the look on his face had turned from lust to suspicion.

  “What makes you think Charlotte is a car?” he asked.

  “You’re not the only one with reasoning and deduction skills, Miami Vice.” I pinched his nipple playfully before I turned back around to grab our plates. “Our lakes aren’t deep enough for any boat you sailed in Miami and your father owns an auto body shop.” I placed our plates on the table and then put my hands on my hips. I gave him my best smug smile before I said, “It stands to reason that you have a classic car stored somewhere in this county.”

  Gabe tipped his head to the side as if he was impressed then he shot my theory all to hell when he said, “Maybe it’s a motorcycle.”

  My mouth dropped open as I pictured Gabe in a leather jacket and pants astride some manly looking machine. I imagined the vibration of the bike working its way through my body as I held tight to him with both my arms and thighs. “Well, I guess she better have one hell of a kickstand to support us when I straddle your legs and ride you.”

  “Jesus,” Gabe groaned.

  I may or may not have teased Gabe the entire thirty-minute ride to his storage unit with the things I wanted him to do to me. I was grateful that he was as worked up as I was by the time we stepped inside his unit because I couldn’t handle being the only one to feel it. He was on me as soon as he shut the door. At first, I was too caught up in our heated kiss and the way his hands felt against my skin when they slid beneath my sweater. Eventually two thoughts penetrated my lust-dazed brain: it was dark as night inside but warm as could be.

  “It’s heated?” I asked after pulling back from his kiss.

  “Nothing but the best for Charlotte.” Gabe licked the seam of my lips before he bit down on my bottom lip. “Ready to meet her?”

  I was more excited than I thought I would be. I mean, it was a hunk of metal either way, but she obviously meant a lot to Gabe and he meant a lot to me. I cringed internally after my hunk of metal thought, because I sure as hell didn’t view my car that way. “Ready.”

  Gabe flipped on the light and I blinked against the sudden brightness in the unit. I could tell by the shape beneath the cloth cover that we were definitely talking about a classic car. Gabe walked over and slowly began to remove her cover, as if he was performing some automotive striptease. The gleaming black hood came into view and then the rest of the car inch by inch until just the rear of the car was covered. Gabe yanked the cover the rest of the way off and held up his hands like a dorky, but oh-so-sexy magician.

  “She’s a 1970 Dodge…”

  “Charger,” I completed for him. “My granddad had a red one named Dolly. She was his pride and joy too.” I felt Gabe’s eyes on me when I walked over to the gleaming machine. “She’s beautiful.” I reached for the handle and opened the door. I was pleased to see that her black leather interior was just as pristine as the exterior. “I can see why you like her so much.” I heard and felt Gabe approaching me so I shut the door then turned to face him.

  “Love, not like.” The emotional crack in his voice told me that he might be talking about more than just his feelings for his car. I wasn’t ready for that so I did the first thing that came to mind. I seduced him.

  I reached between our bodies and stroked his erection through his jeans. I took to heart that I could get such an intense reaction out of an amazing man like Gabe. “It’s been too long since I’ve felt you inside me.” It had been twenty-four long hours too many and I was impatient to have him again.

  I stepped away from him and walked around to the hood of the car. I unsnapped my pants and pushed them all the way down to my ankles so that I didn’t risk scratching Charlotte’s paint job with a snap or zipper. Gabe stood rooted to the spot until I began stroking my erection, then he stalked toward me with an intense look that said he was the predator and I was his prey.

  Gabe stood behind me and removed my hand from my cock. He took my wrists in his hands and pushed his chest against by back until I was bent over with my hands braced on the hood. I was shocked that he wanted my handprints on his car, but then I lost track of all my thoughts when he said, “Don’t move.” His voice was a dark promise beneath the bright, sterile lights.

  I expected to hear Gabe undressing in preparation to fuck me, but instead he dropped to his knees and parted my ass cheeks. My eyes rolled back in my head when I felt the tip of his wet tongue against the crinkled skin surrounding my hole. I expected him to dive right in, but I was wrong. Gabe took his time teasing my puckered entrance for several long moments before he pulled back to nibble on the taut globes of one ass cheek, then the other, while his large hands kneaded the muscles in my thighs. I needed more from him.

  “Gabe,” I moaned.

  “Shhh, I got you,” he replied.

  I heard the sound of Gabe sucking on his finger before he pushed the tip inside my ass. Then I felt his tongue licking my sensitive pucker around his finger as he worked it in and out of my tight clench. Gabe growled as he lapped at my flesh like it was the best thing he had ever tasted. My head suddenly felt too heavy and I let it fall forward.

  “More,” I demanded.

  Gabe obliged me by removing his finger so he could fuck my ass with his tongue. It was the most incredible thing I had ever felt and I hoped it wasn’t something that I only received on special occasions like birthdays or Christmas in the future. Pre-cum leaked from my dick in a thin, clear line and landed on the hood of Charlotte.

  “I’m getting cum on your car,” I warned Gabe. His answer was to bury his tongue deeper inside me.

  I wanted so badly to stroke my dick, but Gabe told me not to move and for once I listened to him without putting up a fight. I wanted to draw out my pleasure as long as I could and the combined sensation of his tongue in my ass and friction on my cock would have me coming too soon.

  Gabe worked my hole until I was practically a pliant, limp noodle on the verge of collapsing onto the hood of his car. I promised him anything if he’d just take out his big cock and fuck me.

  “Anything?” He rose up behind me and I heard the glorious sounds of him undoing his pants. “You’ll give me anything I want? Like a private dance in your studio?”

  “It was already a sure thing.” I was embarrassed by the way I panted between words. “Fuck me already.” Gabe made quick work of putting on a condom and lubing his cock. The slight burn of his penetration was so welcome I could’ve cried, but instead I shouted something that sounded entirely too much like hallelujah for the activities we were engaged in.

  Gabe placed his hands on my hips and pulled back until only the tip of his dick was insid
e me. I could tell he was going to torture me by teasing me and I wasn’t about to take that. Instead, I pushed back until he was buried to the hilt inside me again.

  “You little spitfire,” Gabe growled. “You just have to be in control, don’t you?” He leaned over me until his chest was pressed against my back. “One of these days…” He let his threat trail off, but he didn’t worry me.

  Gabe pumped his hips and gave me the fucking I demanded from him. I loved the sound of our flesh slapping together combined with his growls and my whimpered pleas of, “More.” He wrapped one hand around my cock and the other around my chin so he could turn my head for his kiss.

  God, I swore that every time we were together it was better than the time before. He made me feel things–want things–I never thought I’d experience. He wasn’t the only one on the verge of throwing the real L word around, but the one functioning cell left in my brain refused to say something so special during sex. I wanted him to believe me when I finally fessed up to being in love with him and everyone knew that declarations made during sex couldn’t be trusted.

  Instead I went with, “I love… the way you fuck.”

  “I love… that I get to fuck you,” was Gabe’s reply.

  We both meant more and we knew it. I figured we would turn our confession into a competition to see who caved first, kind of like when I squeezed my ass around his dick as hard as I could to make him come first. I wanted to bring him so much pleasure that he lost control and couldn’t hold back.

  “Damn it,” Gabe said between gritted teeth. “I know what you’re doing. It’s not going to work. You’re going to come first.”

  “I don’t think so, baby.” I reached between our legs and gripped his balls firmly in my hand and massaged them in a sure-fire way to make him… well, fire.