by Mia Madison
“When do you want to tell Martin about us?” I ask. “Because I’m not going to be able to leave you alone, and he’s going to guess if it goes on too long.”
“I don’t know. Once he’s settled back in. Maybe in a week or so?”
“I can’t wait,” I say. “I can’t wait to be with you properly.” I kiss her again and whisper in her ear. “I can’t wait to fuck you.”
And her breath hitches. “Maybe we should tell him today,” she teases. But then in case I think she’s serious, she says, “He won’t take it well if we suddenly spring it on him here.”
“I need to ask you both to a movie he’ll hate so he doesn’t want to tag along. What do you think? What’s on next weekend?”
We settle for some girlie flick I won’t like any more than Martin would, but I don’t care if it means an end of this pretense. Now we have a plan, I can focus on that.
We kiss to seal the deal, but any kiss with Alyssa is enough to fire me up. When we break apart, her mouth is pink and her eyes shine, and I have the hard on to end all hard ons.
“I think I’d better make you the coffee I promised you, otherwise Martin is going to stumble on something he shouldn’t and find out sooner than you want.”
But I can’t resist another kiss while the coffee machine chugs away. And a kiss turns into her hands on me and mine on her. A kiss turns into me pulling open her blouse and sucking at her tits, to me with my hands inside her panties, circling and coaxing her clit, over and over, making her squirm against my fingers.
“So sexy. Come for me,” I whisper in her ear, and my insistent strokes send her tumbling out of control.
She has to smother her moans against my chest.
It’s so good hearing and watching her come that I can’t leave it there. I pour out the coffee and before it grows cold, my fingers work their magic once more and I have her arching against me, her limbs shuddering as another orgasm takes hold.
We have to drink our coffee then before our luck runs out, but not before I hug her tight and kiss her hair. I’m so happy she’s here with me. And her eyes sparkle back at me as if she loves it here with me, too.
I want to bring Alyssa back to the cabin soon. Just the two of us, and we’ll christen every room. And then, once the weather is warmer, I want to take her outside in the forest. It feels like nature unleashed a beast in me with an insatiable need for her, and what better place to be together with her than outdoors among the trees, wild and free?
CHAPTER 15
Alyssa
Martin wakes up after a half an hour or so and gets a second wind. We play an old board game Ward has hanging around the cabin, but after that I’m tired and ready to give in and go to bed before the guys. Martin slept already, and Ward seems to have enough stamina to keep pace with him, so I leave them to it and say, “Good night.”
The little bathroom has just enough room for a shower and toilet and tiny sink, but it’s adequate. Ward lent me a t-shirt from his stash at the cabin so I don’t have to wear my clothes overnight as well as tomorrow, and I have a shower and quickly get changed there.
When I come out, I hear Ward say, “You’re still very close.” I can’t help stopping to listen.
“More than ever now,” Martin says, “because of the accident. That kind of shit changes everything.”
“Yeah, things change whether you want them to or not. I guess you won’t live together forever.”
“I don’t know, though there’s the girl I met last leave in London,” Martin says. “We’ve had a good thing going via email. I’m going to see how things go when I visit her.”
She must be the one he wants to look up on his visit. I expect I’ll be the last to know.
“What about you?” Martin goes on. “Alyssa seems to have taken a shine to you, so watch out.”
Thanks, Brother. I can imagine him grinning as he says it, but then he goes on. “I bet women are still falling at your feet.”
Ward laughs. “One of the perks of the job, mate. They can’t keep their hands off me. Like falling off a log. Seriously, you should get out of the army and look at a career in the fire department.”
Wait, what? I’m just one of the stream of women who can’t keep their hands off him? My heart speeds up for an entirely different reason than it did in the kitchen.
But then, he could be just messing with Martin? I can’t tell. Ward doesn’t know I’m listening to this.
Even so, when it comes down to it, I don’t really know him at all. Maybe he has a string of girlfriends he can call on, and I’m just one of many. Maybe he likes the risk of Martin finding out about us—a chance to get one over on his old friend. There was always a bit of friendly rivalry going on when they were both mechanics.
I slip miserably into my room and my mind starts working overtime, thinking of all the things he said. I can’t help seeing everything in a completely different light. It’s easy for him to be nice to me. The words just trip off his tongue. I’m an easy target—the fat girl whose boyfriend leaves her in a restaurant bathroom. He didn’t even have to try with me.
And his t-shirt I’m wearing, the one that smells faintly like him, is no longer a pleasure against my skin but a form of mockery.
I can’t get to sleep. After an hour or so, I hear the guys go to bed. There are only two rooms, so Martin takes the couch. I’ve no doubt the guys sleep easy, but I toss and turn all night. I was excited by the future, but now I realize how naïve I was—stupid to rely on Ward sticking around.
One thing is sure, I need to do something with my life and not hang around expecting things to get better, working in the back office at the bank until I’m old.
I always wanted to paint, but I’ve never picked up a brush since the accident. I thought I might be a photographer, too, but the expensive camera I treated myself to hardy sees the light of day. I’m just drifting, and that has to stop. Right now.
But despite my bravado in the night, the feeling that I can do anything, I look at Ward in the morning, and when he winks at me, I don’t believe it’s about me anymore, and I feel sick. How could I have been so easily taken in?
CHAPTER 16
Ward
Apparently, Alyssa is not a morning person. When I smile, she gives me a fierce look, so I don’t push it; I just make coffee and hand her a cup. She thanks me and takes it back to her room.
We load up the car and I drive back so she can get ready for work. After a while, I can’t help thinking it’s not just the time of day. Something has changed, but I don’t know what. When I look in the mirror now, she’s sitting so I can’t even see her, and when I speak to her she’s asleep, or pretends to be. I’ll call her about the movie later after she gets home from work.
But when I phone her just before my shift, she seems to have changed her mind about going to see it.
“I heard it’s crap,” she says. “The girls at work were talking about it.”
“But I thought that was our plan. It doesn’t really matter about the movie. Is there another one you’d like to see?”
“Not really.”
I have to get going to make it to the station on time, so I just say I’ll see her soon and leave it at that. But I can’t let it rest completely; I send her a text.
“What’s up? You changed your mind?”
And all I get back is, “Yes.”
It doesn’t compute. We kissed in the kitchen. I made her come, and she clung to me. And then Martin woke up, we ate the rest of the food, played some stupid board game. We all got on like a house on fire and Alyssa went to bed. What the fuck is going on?
I go around to their place next day after I think she’ll be home, not sure what excuse I’ll use, but I have to see Alyssa. I have a few hours before I have to go back on duty. There’s no answer when I buzz. Is she in there or not? When I go back to my car, I look up and I see her hurriedly closing the curtain.
This is just crazy. I send another text. “Are you avoiding me?”
And sh
e sends one back. “Yes.”
“Can I ask why?”
“Can I ask why me?”
“Is Martin there? Come out with me, and I’ll tell you.”
“He’s not here, but I’m not going out with you.”
I’ve had enough of texting. I have the feeling any moment that this conversation will end, and I can’t have that happen. I call her, willing her to pick up the phone.
It takes her seven rings to answer the call, though I know she has the phone with her.
“What’s going on, Alyssa? I’m not going away until you tell me.”
She doesn’t say anything.
“Can I come up?” I press the intercom a few times. Will she let me in? It’s a relief when the door sounds, and I push it and go up. She opens the door to her apartment, but she won’t look at me.
CHAPTER 17
Alyssa
Ward is here, wanting to know what’s going on, and now I don’t know what to say. I tried to hide away again, just this time it wasn’t in a bathroom. When will I learn I have to face these situations head on?
In any case, I can’t say it’s just that I thought he liked me and now I realize the truth, that I’m just one of many women who are after him. He’s going to think I’m stupid for not realizing our getting together meant nothing to him when it meant everything to me.
He touches my arm, but I pull it away. “Alyssa, help me out here. Tell me what’s going on, because I’m at a loss.”
I’ve got to say something. “I overheard you and Martin. At the cabin.”
He looks puzzled. I know it probably didn’t register with him. He just spoke the truth, so why would he remember it? I guess I’ll have to enlighten him.
“You were talking about all the women falling at your feet, and I just realized that I was doing exactly the same thing.”
“Oh that? I’m sorry. I get it now.” He looks relieved as if knowing matters, but it doesn’t help me at all. “I was just winding Martin up. We used to have this stupid thing going in high school about who could get the most girls. It was like we were sixteen again, back there in the cabin. Crazy, given how long ago that all was.”
“But you could have anyone. I know that’s true. Why me? I’m just so easy for you, aren’t I? What was it you said? Like falling off a log?”
“I don’t think of you like that at all. You’ve gotten right under my skin, Alyssa Davis. Last night at work, I couldn’t think of anything else but why everything had suddenly changed between us—until we were called out to a fire, and even then in the middle of it all, you flashed across my mind and I had to drag myself back to focus on the job.”
I want to believe him. So much. But can I? Is this the kind of thing that just trips off his tongue?
“Hey,” he says. “You don’t believe me?” And there’s such anguish in his voice, it’s clear he was telling the truth.
“I believe you. I do.”
“Come here,” he says, his voice low, and I’m there in his arms as if pulled by an invisible cord. It’s as if I forgot how good his kisses were and what they do to me. Our hands are everywhere, reaching out, touching. And somehow, we can’t stop there.
We’re in my bed, naked, his skin on mine. And then his mouth, taking in my nipple, licking and sucking until I’m wild for him. Nothing else matters in that moment than feeling him inside me. His fingers are there, stroking, teasing, probing, taking me to the edge, but it’s not his fingers I want; it’s him. I reach for his cock, frantic for him. But he’s not to be deterred. I come on his fingers, calling out his name.
Neither of us hears Martin arrive home.
CHAPTER 18
Ward
“What the fuck is going on here?” Martin snarls, and Alyssa screams and pulls the sheet over herself.
Why the hell didn’t I close the bedroom door? Not that it would have made anything less obvious with the noise Alyssa just made, but if I had, Martin wouldn’t have actually witnessed the moment when she came.
Alyssa yells, “Get out of here!”
He turns tail then, but not before sending daggers at me. “Out there, Stevens,” he growls.
He can wait. I have to calm Alyssa down. She’s beside herself. “Oh my god. He saw that.”
“I know it seems bad, but it really isn’t. It’s just sex. He’s not a kid. He knows it happens.”
“But he’s my brother.”
“And I’m sure he’s not the first brother to walk in on his sister. He’ll get over it.”
“I’m not sure I will. Ever.” For a moment, I think she’s going to cry.
“It will be all right. At least he knows now. Maybe that’s a good thing.” I stroke her hair, trying to soothe her.
“You call that a good thing? This is exactly what I didn’t want to have happen.”
“I know that, but now it has, we can deal with it.” I just hope I’m right. Martin is out there clattering and banging stuff around. If I was their pet cat right now, I would be getting out of the way. “Are you ashamed of being with me?”
“No. Not ashamed. Just embarrassed he caught us like that.”
“There, then. I’ll go out first, calm him down. It will be okay.”
I throw on my clothes, and go out to find Martin knocking back a glass of whisky.
“Sorry you saw that,” I say.
“I bet you are. You couldn’t wait to get your dick inside my sister, could you? I should have known you’d decide to make her another one of your conquests.”
“It’s not like that.”
“It looked like that to me. Get the fuck out of my house and don’t come back. Ever.”
“I want to see Alyssa again.”
“You didn’t quite get everything you wanted tonight, then? Too fucking bad. You had her spread out for the taking—”
I’ve heard enough of him disrespecting his sister. I grab his shirt. “You take that back. You know she’s not like that.”
“I don’t know what she’s like any more. She looked as cheap as any whore in there.”
I pull back my hand and sock him in the jaw. He deserves it for that insult. I’m not going to stand here and let him insult Alyssa.
He looks stunned, then he takes a pot shot at me and misses, knocking a lamp over on the side table. It crashes to the floor. That makes him mad. He must have had a fair amount to drink before he came home.
Alyssa comes out from her room in her jeans and t-shirt. She looks distressed now, rather than embarrassed.
“Just stop it,” she says. “Both of you. Can’t we just talk about this like adults?”
“No, we fucking can’t,” Martin says. “I didn’t know what a whore I had for a sister. You think he cares about you? He’ll put his dick anywhere.”
I go for him again. I just want to shut him up.
Alyssa grabs my arm. “No, Ward. Don’t. That’s not helping. Can’t you see?”
“He can’t talk about you like that.”
“I’ll talk about her how the fuck I like,” Martin says. “I’ve always been there for her. Have you? You’ll be gone by next week, once you got what you came for. And I’ll be left to pick up the pieces.”
I look at Alyssa. She’s waiting for my answer to that. Martin would have been right, up to now. I’ve got no track record with longer relationships. Three months was the longest time I’ve been in one, and I couldn’t wait to shake off the girl. Is it fair to promise anything, just because I think this is different? But I have to give this thing with Alyssa a chance.
“There’ll be no pieces to pick up this time,” I say, not quite knowing, but hoping it’s true. Yet once I’ve said it, I’m certain it’s true. Crazy, after just meeting her again a few days ago. But there it is. Maybe I know her better than I think because of all the time I was around her family years ago.
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Martin says. “But you can forget about getting together under my roof.”
“Then I’ll take Alyssa home with me,” I say.
This hasn’t ended the way I wanted with us all being friends, but if that’s the way it has to be, so be it.
But then Alyssa says, “No, Ward. I’ll catch you later. I’d better stay here.”
She wants to take his side? I can’t believe it, after everything he said about her.
“Right, then,” I say. “Looks like I’ll be on my way.”
Martin smirks at me.
CHAPTER 19
Alyssa
I run after Ward out into the hallway. My feet are bare and the floor is cold. I shudder. It’s been a terrible night.
Understatement.
A freaking nightmare.
“I’m sorry. He’s had too much to drink. I can’t leave him like that,” I say, because I can’t. What kind of sister would I be if I did?
“Right, then. You made your decision.”
“Don’t do this. I’m not taking his side. I’m just making sure he’s okay. He’s my brother.”
“And he treats you like shit sometimes. Why do you put up with it? Just because he’s your brother doesn’t give him the right.”
“He’s looking out for me. He has my best interests at heart.” Even as I say it, I recognize there’s an ounce of truth in what Ward says.
“Are you sure about that? Because I’m not. I think he wants you here waiting for him when he comes back on leave. Is that for your benefit or his?”
“No. He loves me. He cares for me.” I can’t go along that path. Martin is all the family I have.
Ward looks contrite. “Sorry, I’m being too harsh. I know he cares for you in his own way. He probably thinks he’s protecting you. It’s been a rough night.”
“Yes. Even if it had its moments.” I look at Ward and we both smile.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he says and kisses me on the nose. “I would have had to leave you alone soon if you had come with me, anyway. I have to go to work in a couple of hours. But good luck with him.” He nods in the direction of the living room where Martin is muttering something under his breath, still throwing his weight around. Something clatters to the floor.