In Between Men

by Mary Castillo

  She shivered as he ran one finger down the center of her stomach and dipped into her belly button. She closed her eyes and lifted one knee to rest on his shoulder, urging him on.

  He hummed his appreciation as his fingers snuck up her inner thigh and found her ready for him. “If I’d known—” she thought she heard him whisper.

  “If you—oh!” she bit back when he bit her stomach ever so lightly while his fingers danced over her.

  “That you’d be this wild,” he whispered as a finger spread her open.

  She coiled tight, eyes squeezing shut as her orgasm threatened to rip her to pieces. No one and nothing intruded on this moment between her and Alex.

  He hummed against her flesh and before she could even think to hold back, she exploded, filling the room with her cries. He laughed again, pressing his cheek against her liquid thighs. “Now I know what to do next time,” he teased, ducking out from under her nightgown and, as slowly as a candle burning a wick, standing to his feet. She knew that he was going to pick her up and take her to the bedroom.

  “No, don’t,” she managed, holding her arms out.

  He pressed his erection against her and she jumped as if licking a live wire. “We can’t go in my room,” she explained.

  “Why not, babe?” he asked.

  “There was a uh, wardrobe explosion in there.”

  He stilled and backed up to see if she was serious.

  “June came over before the party with some clothes and I was just starting to put them away when I heard your car outside.”

  The look on his face changed from teasing to indescribably tender. “My beautiful Isa,” he breathed, cupping her head with both hands and kissing her. “You did that for me?”

  Her nipples beaded hard against his chest and his erection searched through the folds of her nightgown.

  “Alex,” she begged, reaching down and cupping him in her hand.

  His breath hissed out but he let her stroke him, his eyes locked with hers while he braced himself up with one hand planted by her head.

  “I want you back inside me,” she whispered.

  He grabbed her hand and her fingers fell open, releasing him. The light played over his muscled back as he reached over and yanked his pants over to search through his pockets. He was everything she’d imagined, taut lines and tanned skin. Ripping the package open with his teeth, he pushed her higher up against the wall, reached under her legs and spread them wide.

  “I’ve been wanting this for weeks,” he said as he joined with her, finding his way deep into the heart of her.

  All she could do was hold on, sighing at the feel of him so thick and hard inside her.

  Even with her so tight around him, he kissed and caressed while he moved in and out of her, working into a wild rhythm. Under her hands his shoulders tensed and he jerked tight against her, clutching her hips in both hands as he ground out her name, strung tight as a wire and then collapsed.

  Feeling warm and secure with his heart hammering against hers, and him still warm inside her, she crossed her ankles over the backs of his iron thighs and held him, never wanting to let go.

  “Isa,” he said, still out of breath. “The third time will be—”

  She hushed him with a kiss. “How about if we just try to do it in a bed?”

  24

  When Alex woke up the sun hadn’t even made a dent in the sky. He’d fallen asleep with Isa draped over him, too tired to even brush aside her hair, which tickled his nose.

  Her sheets smelled faintly of her and sex and his eyes shot open to find her gone.

  Aching with exhaustion, Alex counted the condom packets littering the floor like bread crumbs. He took a moment, feeling an odd mixture of embarrassment and pride in himself. He’d always heard of people who had sex more than two times in one night, but he’d thought they were lying or just urban myths. Snickering, he searched for his clothes and then remembered he’d left them in her living room. Well, he thought as he stood up, it wasn’t like she hadn’t seen him naked.

  Rubbing sleep out of his eyes, he made his way into the kitchen.

  “Why are you sitting in the dark?” he asked when he found her perched on the very edge of a chair, her knees hiked up to her chest. She didn’t hear him until he stepped onto the linoleum and hissed out a curse at the cold.

  “Just thinking,” she said.

  So what do you say to the woman you had wild crazy sex with? “Are you okay?”

  “Couldn’t sleep. You snore, by the way.”

  He grinned, wanting to touch her hair. He’d never touched softer hair than hers. She looked back out the window and she reminded him of those moon-faced goddesses that commanded respect through silence rather than words.

  “What are you thinking about?” he asked.

  He heard her make a sound as if she started to say something and then decided not to. She shook her head and then shrugged her shoulders.

  “Me too.” He pulled a chair back, careful not to make the slightest bump against the fragile silence. “And even though I feel like I got hit by a truck, I’d never take it back.”

  She laughed softly, reaching for his hand. “Are you telling me that I wore you out?”

  “I wouldn’t say that.”

  She held her smile but he saw it fade. “I’m worried about Andrew,” she confided.

  “Me too.”

  “But I still want to see you.”

  He rested his other hand on top of hers. “Good, because we’ve only done some of the things I had on my list.”

  She let that comment go with only a skeptical lift of her eyebrows. “I only have one condition. We need to keep this between us.”

  Even though she was sitting there, warm and beautiful with him, he felt her pulling back. “Like when Andrew’s at his dad’s place?” he prompted.

  She nodded.

  “You know that everyone at the party last night knows I’m here?”

  She dragged her teeth over her bottom lip and Alex felt something stir to life in his lap. “We left in separate cars,” she said.

  “Lydia lives two blocks down from you and my car is out front.”

  “I just don’t want to do this in front of Andrew. I mean, going out together or you spending the night. At least not yet and I won’t ask anything from you.”

  “This sounds like we’re prenegotiating our divorce settlement.”

  He backed off when she leaned in for a kiss. “And? There’s more behind those eyes. I can see it.”

  Isa blinked and then looked down at their joined hands. “My mother flaunted her men right in front of me. Every time I went to visit, I either had to listen to her moan about the last guy who left her, or hang out at the mall with the ten bucks she gave me while she ‘visited’ with the current one. I won’t do that to Andrew.”

  Alex looked past her where the fence, the rooftops, and even the mountains appeared out from under the shadows of night. Just like that, time slipped from darkness to morning and he wondered if, like the darkness, Isa would eventually slip away.

  “And I don’t want to pressure you right now, especially when you don’t—” She stopped herself and then dropped her chin to her chest. “This isn’t very romantic, is it?”

  Alex cleared his throat and meant every word. “It was honest and I never want us to be anything less than that.”

  Her legs slid down from her chair and onto the floor.

  “Now that we’ve skipped the formalities, we can get back to your list,” she purred.

  “Wow, when you put it like that I—” Her breasts swayed as she leaned forward and the glass in the window reflected her generous behind.

  “You what?” she asked.

  “Sorry, lost my train of thought.” Of their own accord, his hands went to her breasts as she straddled his lap.

  “I don’t know what it is about these things that get you all worked up but I—” His mouth clamped down on her, sucking her hard.

  “Hmm?” he inquired.<
br />
  She scooted up against him. “Never mind.”

  Isa knew that she looked like a woman who had had great sex, but only to the trained eye. So she avoided the front office this morning and hoped June would keep her mouth shut when she showed up for the lunch break.

  June came in, fixing an earring of dangling mini lemons. “You little—” She caught herself when she remembered the students. “Look at you! I knew it!”

  “Can we go outside for a second?” Isa said, zipping over and pulling her back out the door.

  Bursting with pride, June clapped her hands together and held them up to her chin. “Now I can’t betray my sources but a little bird told me my brother-in-law’s car was parked outside your apartment,” she sang.

  “Really?”

  “And since he came home yesterday afternoon wearing the very same clothes he had on when he left the house Saturday night, although they were a little wrinkled, I figured that two people had a very good time together. So?”

  Isa took in a deep breath and saw no sense in lying. “We slept together.”

  June’s eyelids flapped like a loose window shade. “Isa!”

  “That’s what you wanted to hear, wasn’t it?”

  “You don’t have to be so blunt. He is my brother-in-law, you know.”

  “What did you think we did?”

  “Well I…I just…was it at least romantic?”

  Isa thought about it. Could she say a mutually agreed-upon sexual relationship was romantic? “Yes. At times.”

  “At times?”

  “June, we’re not in love. We’re attracted and as two mature adults we did something about it.” Why did the words feel like she’d just tossed a handful of rocks in her mouth?

  June mouthed “something about it” and then her face squeezed into a perplexed expression. “Are you insane? We’re in a school!”

  “I’m practical and I need to get to work.”

  “Now I wish I’d never asked, I tell you. You both are sick.”

  “Excuse me?” If ever there was a moment when the pot called the kettle black, this was it.

  “It’s true. Just having sex? What a waste of time.”

  “But didn’t you—”

  “Absolutely not! I loved every man I’ve been with. It’s the God’s truth.”

  So had Isa. “You’re a romantic,” she said to save face. “And I’m a pragmatist.”

  “But Alex is romantic.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I live with him, don’t I?”

  “Do you know how bad that sounds?”

  Rolling her eyes as if the concept were just too obvious, June leaned forward. “Honey, I grew up with seven brothers. And I know when a man is getting ready for someone special, or just to get some. Saturday afternoon, Alex was getting ready for someone very special.”

  Curious, Isa leaned in closer and June grinned smugly. “When a man cuts himself shaving, he’s thinking of what he’ll say, or how he’ll try to kiss her,” she explained. “If he doesn’t cut himself, he’s got nothing weighing on his mind. Unless he’s inexperienced, but I bet you now know that our Alex is very experienced.”

  And June would be very right. Straightening up, Isa needed to get going. “So that’s it?”

  “That’s exactly it.”

  “Did Alex cut himself shaving?”

  “Three times. I heard him cussing through the bathroom door.”

  A smile touched Isa’s lips. He’d cut himself shaving for her? Maybe she shouldn’t hold it against him that it took him hours to notice her outfit Saturday night.

  “As always, it was enlightening,” Isa said, making ready to return to class.

  “Good things are about to happen. Says so according to your horoscope,” June trilled. She slapped the sides of her hips with her hands when Isa kept going. “Don’t you want to hear?”

  “Ms. Avellan,” Dr. Quilley greeted and the girls jumped. “Mrs. Lujon, how are you both?”

  They murmured that they were fine. “How is your new lesson plan working?” he asked as if he were back in England taking a turn through the park.

  It took Isa a few brain cycles to catch up. “We’re starting our first practice today. Mrs. Lujon is going to help coach them,” she lied so June wouldn’t get in trouble.

  He looked from June in her lemonade-colored outfit with lemon earrings, to Isa in her khaki pants and blue school shirt. “I see.”

  Isa took a protective step forward. Even though she once questioned June’s intellectual prowess, she didn’t want to hear anyone else doing it.

  “Mrs. Lujon is going to work with them on presentation an—”

  “Excellent. I hope you’ll invite me to see the presentations,” he said. “Tuesday the twenty-eighth would work best for my calendar.”

  He’d just reminded her that the school board would discuss the budget cuts in three weeks.

  “I’ll let them know,” Isa said.

  Dr. Quilley leaned forward, his eyes dead serious. “I’m counting on you. I have absolute confidence in your abilities to understand and handle this situation.”

  He hadn’t taken more than three steps when June asked, “Was he speaking to us in secret code?”

  “Something like that.”

  “Well, stop standing around. When do you want me to come in and help?”

  Isa stopped short. “What help?”

  25

  From the Magic Eye Camera Instruction Booklet

  We do not guarantee the accuracy of this camera’s functions. It is constructed purely for entertainment purposes and we cannot assume liability for improper usage.

  “I want to help.”

  Isa almost explained that she’d lied to Dr. Quilley so June wouldn’t get in trouble for chatting, but then she realized June really wanted to and…Isa should’ve kept her mouth shut. “You don’t have to,” Isa hastily started.

  “But I could help,” June exclaimed. “I know how to stand out from the crowd and make a good impression. I’ve won twelve beauty contests.”

  “What contests? You never said you were a beauty queen.”

  “Uh, just some back home.”

  “Name one.”

  “Dirty Dan’s Wet and Wild T-shirt contest,” June admitted frankly. “That was, of course, before I was married.”

  Isa wondered if June was somehow related to her mother, Dara. “I knew I shouldn’t have asked.”

  “And I know how to talk in front of people,” she insisted. “Come on, I’ll just sit and watch today and then we can work like a team.”

  More like Lucy and Ethel, Isa thought. But then if her students practiced in front of one stranger, they might get used to the idea of talking in front of a room full of them. In spite of June’s dubious professional past, she’d be a friendly face to her kids.

  “You can watch,” Isa warned, every protective cell in her body prickling. “If you have suggestions or comments, write them down and then give them to me.”

  “How come?”

  “Because some of these kids are very self-conscious. Some of them won’t read out loud in class in front of me and their friends, much less someone they don’t know.”

  June nodded soberly. “I didn’t think of that.”

  Isa reached for the door, gesturing to June to go in. By their fourth and next to last practice session the kids warmed up to June and made it a point of pride to attempt an accurate imitation of her Georgia accent. But when June first walked through the door that afternoon, the kids capped their chatter, watching her warily as Isa made the introduction. All but two students refused to take their turns, even though June quietly jotted notes on a notepad Isa gave her. And her notes were surprisingly on target for a wet t-shirt champion.

  At the second meeting, only three students had the guts to stand up while June consumed three chocolate cookies, a pack of M&Ms, and a diet Pepsi. Just sitting next to her, Isa felt like she’d gained ten pounds.

  By the third meeting, June
announced that she was taking the hour to coach the students how to approach the podium. “I can’t see y’alls faces,” she’d said. “Look at the board sittin’ there like you know exactly what you’re there to ask for but friendly like. No one likes someone who’s stuck up.”

  “Uh, can I ask you a quick question, Mrs. Lujon?” Isa asked before they got a lesson in selling their assets to a crowd of roaring drunks.

  “These are my kids,” she said with the roar of imaginary drunk frat boys in her head. “I don’t want ZZ Top. I want ‘Pomp and Circumstance.’”

  June stiffened with offense. “Give me some credit. This is me you’re talking to.”

  Before Isa’s eyes, the Marilyn Monroe wiggle was replaced with a dignity that would’ve been worthy of Madeleine Albright addressing Congress. The girls giggled, but they soon stood up and followed her lead. Some of the boys outright refused, but Isa knew never to underestimate June again.

  But the week before the board meeting, only three of the twelve students showed up for lunch.

  She’d pushed them too far, too hard, Isa thought, waiting by the door. Some couldn’t read a sentence out loud in class, much less address the school board. Isa thought they had lost before they’d even left for battle.

  “This can’t be,” June declared, looking around the room. “We have less than a week.”

  “But that will give you three an advantage,” Isa said to Khadija, Phuc, and Daniel.

  “I’ll be right back,” June murmured as she swept out the door. “I don’t take to no quitters.”

  Isa couldn’t leave her students in the class alone and waited with them by the door while June in her red knit dress and hippie-girl braids disappeared into the sea of kids at lunch.

  “What do you think she will do?” Phuc asked.

  “We’ll see,” Isa answered.

  Ten or fifteen minutes later June returned with the remaining nine students like they were wayward ducklings swimming in the wrong pond. The kids looked okay, maybe a little abashed, but they understood the universal language of the pointed finger aimed at a desk.