Sweet Reunion

by Melanie Shawn

  He felt her hand slip inside his now-undone jeans and free his member, and shuddered with pleasure as her fingers closed gently yet firmly around it. It was all he could do to hold himself above her, shivering with pleasure, eyes firmly closed.

  Amanda held her hand there, still, for a moment, breathing rapidly in time with Justin's breaths, until Justin opened his eyes to find her staring up at him. With their eyes locked in intensity, Amanda started to slowly and silkily slide her hand up and down his shaft. Her body seemed to react physically to the pleasure that she was giving him, matching him shiver for shiver and groan for groan.

  Finally, he could take it no longer. He stood up and his hands slid down her waist and grasped the waistband of her sexy panties, pulling them down her legs in one smooth movement. They joined her bra, tossed into the corner, forgotten and unneeded.

  Justin kicked off his shoes at the same moment that Amanda succeeded in pulling down his jeans, and he slid his jeans and boxers off together. He turned toward her, both of them completely naked, his erection standing up full and hard. Her eyes widened at the full sight of him and she gave a little gasp. “Oh, Justin, yes!” she breathed, as he lowered himself toward her.

  She spread her legs apart as she grasped his shaft to guide him toward her opening.

  “Are you ready?” he asked, breathlessly.

  “Oh, God, I'm so ready,” she moaned, “I need you inside me, now!”

  He smiled wickedly, “Well, that's too bad,” he teased, “You're just going to have to wait a little bit longer.”

  With that, he began to languidly kiss and lick his way down her stomach. His tongue trailed hot circles and swirls as he worked his way down, taking his time. He lightly brushed his fingertips up and down her sides as he kissed her belly, feeling her muscles thrum under his feather-light touch. He also let them meander across her breasts, brushing small curlicues into her tender flesh there that mirrored those he was making with his tongue as he moved lower down her torso.

  He lifted his head, then, and gently pressed her knees apart, exposing her most tender flesh, throbbing and glistening with arousal. He took a moment to drink her in with his eyes, and appreciate how his gaze made her squirm with even more intense pleasure.

  “Do you like it?” she asked shyly.

  His voice raw with emotion and erotic charge, he answered, “It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.”

  Her voice matching his husky tone, she playfully replied, “Well, you should touch it then.”

  He met her eyes, his mouth curving into that trademark mischievous grin, and he said, “You'd like that, wouldn't you?”

  She nodded quickly, unable to even speak at the prospect of his fingers – and tongue – exploring her every hot, wet fold.

  His grin widened, “All in good time. Patience.”

  He lowered his head to her inner thigh and started planting tiny, light kisses there, leading up to her center, but never quite arriving. As he did this, he returned to playing his fingers lightly across the surface of her breasts, which were heaving with her deep and rapid breaths. His thumb inadvertently brushed one of her hyper-sensitive nipples, and a cry tore from her throat.

  She desperately clamped her hands over his and moved them to her breasts, pressing down hard. Her hips bucked up towards his mouth and he decided that he had tortured her enough. His mouth descended on her, completely covering her. He began to suck and lick at her sensitive button, causing her to groan. As he stimulated her with his tongue, he was amazed to feel her nipples grow even harder beneath his palms, a feat he would not have thought was possible.

  To prolong the ecstasy, Justin took small breaks from his attentions to her clit, moving his tongue downward to dart in and out of her slick opening.

  Amanda groaned as she ground her hips against his mouth, her fist pounding the mattress.

  Finally, she grabbed the hair on the back of his head and yanked his face upwards, until he was looking up her body, past the magnificent landscape of her breasts, peaked with hard nipples, directly at her flushed face and into her eyes.

  “God dammit, Justin, enough!” she exclaimed in desperate frustration, “I need you, right now! I've been waiting for ten years to feel you inside me, I cannot wait one more fucking second!”

  Justin nodded, matching her desperation, unable to speak. In one swift movement, he had lifted himself back up above her, so that their bodies fit together perfectly. He leaned down and kissed her as he thrust inside, his tongue penetrating her mouth at the same instant he penetrated her body.

  She moved her silky legs around his waist and began to gyrate her hips in rhythm with his, a rhythm which was starting out slowly. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her body tight to the length of his as he moved inside of her.

  This was another departure for him. He had never before cared about going slow, about building up, about creating an experience. All he had ever done before was mindlessly thrust until he achieved what he needed, and moved on with his life. This was something entirely new. Something so remarkable in its uniqueness that he wondered if what he had experienced up until this point in his life was even worthy of being called sex. It was so far from being in the same ballpark as what his body, soul, and mind was feeling with Amanda right now that it felt like sacrilege to use the same word to describe it.

  Amanda's head swam as she felt Justin's hard thrusts grow faster and more insistent, sensing the rhythm building to a powerful climax. She disentangled her legs from around his waist and planted her heels in the mattress, angling her hips up so that he could penetrate her even further.

  She felt his strong hands grasp her waist when she did this, his fingers digging into the delicious flesh of her ass, pulling her to him even harder each time he plunged into her.

  She watched his face and body as he drove himself into her again and again, and when she could tell that he was mere seconds from losing control, she shifted the angle of her hips again, so that with each stroke, the tip of his penis stimulated her internal pleasure center, at the same time that his shaft rubbed her clit, both as he entered her, and as he withdrew.

  She knew that the first time they climaxed with each other, she wanted it to be together, and so she took control of the situation. Within half a dozen strokes in that position, she felt herself start to orgasm. Her body spasmed around him, gripping him even more tightly, and she called out his name in ecstasy.

  This was more than enough to trigger his own release, as she knew it would be, and he emptied himself into her as she screamed his name, joining his cry with hers.

  --- ~ ---

  For long moments after Justin and Amanda's simultaneous shuddering climaxes, they simply laid together, arms and legs entwined, glistening skin exposed to the air and slowly drying.

  Justin stroked Amanda's silky hair softly and slowly as they breathed together, their heartbeats slowing, their consciousnesses gently drifting back to earth.

  He moved his lips against her ear. “I love you,” he murmured, “I love you so much that sometimes I can barely breath when you're in the room.”

  Amanda turned her radiant face up to his, “Oh, Justin, I love you so much,” she returned breathlessly, “I love you so much that sometimes it's all I can do to not just blurt it out when we're together! It feels like so much a part of me, as much as breathing. There have been times that I've actually had to bite it back, that it's almost just come out, 'I love you.' Like...oh, guess what? The sky is blue. Rain is wet. I love you. Just, you know, listing facts I know about the way things are.”

  Justin laughed and kissed her forehead, “Oh my God, I had to hold myself back from screaming it while we were making love. I thought, she'll kill me if I say it for the first time while we're having sex.”

  Amanda laughed and laid her head back down on his chest. “I don't think I would have minded,” she whispered as she traced patterns with her fingertips over his chest.

  That's when she saw a slip of paper – a very
familiar slip of paper – resting on the floor in the middle of the bunkhouse where it had been knocked off of the bed in the heat of passion.

  It was the old note, the one that had lived under her pillow for ten years, the one that Justin had left for her the night he had walked out of her life. The one that said, “Amanda. Forget about me. Justin.” She had assumed that Lauren had taken it and burned it after she had passed out that drunken, heady night of the truth or dare game in her den.

  She sat up in bed and bent over to pick it up. Yes, it was definitely her old note. With one significant difference. In large, heavy, block capital letters immediately before the words “Forget about me,” Justin had scrawled the word “NEVER.”

  Chapter 26

  As dawn broke over the horizon, Justin heard a knock on the bunkhouse cabin door. Who could be coming to see him this early? Only one possibility. Amanda. She had gone back up to the house to shower and get ready an hour ago, and he was supposed to meet her up there for breakfast. She must have had other plans. He grinned widely.

  “Back for more?” he teased as he opened the door expectantly.

  “More what?” asked Lauren dryly.

  At the front door of the bunkhouse stood Lauren and Henry. The smile disappeared from his face, replaced by an expression of anxious expectation. He knew that they could only be here with news about the unofficial audit of Mountain Ridge Outdoor Adventures' financial records, specifically how they related to the possibility that Geoffrey had somehow found a way to embezzle money right underneath Parker's nose.

  Justin hurriedly ushered them inside, glancing up toward the main house. He didn't want Amanda finding out about this possible situation before they had any solid, concrete evidence. She had gone through so much recently, there was no use in upsetting her unnecessarily.

  The three sat down in the same spaces they had occupied a few days before, when Henry and Lauren had initially come to Justin to share their concerns, and get his permission as owner of twenty percent of the resort to do a thorough checking of the books, to which Justin had of course readily agreed.

  Justin leaned back in his chair and spread his arms wide. “Lay it on me,” he said grimly.

  Lauren shook her head, “Nothing to report,” she responded gloomily, “As far as I can tell, the books are clean. Henry agrees. If you or Manda come across anything funny at a later date, we can hire a forensic accountant to go through it all with a fine tooth comb, at a much more detailed level than Henry or I are obviously qualified to do. But as of right now, as nearly as I can determine, there is nothing out of place.”

  Henry nodded his agreement.

  “I guess that's a good thing, right?” Justin inquired.

  Henry nodded again, “Oh, sure, sure. It's great.”

  Justin looked at Lauren, “Then why do you look so doom and gloom?”

  Lauren scowled, “Because I know there's something going on with that Geoffrey weasel, and I just can't figure out what it is.”

  Justin said, “Well, does it matter at this point? I think he's basically out of the picture. He'd already be dumped if not for the fact that he's not returning Amanda's phone calls.”

  “Oh, it matters,” Lauren said hotly, “You don't try to take advantage of one of my best friends and then think you can get away with it by just ducking phone calls. You're damn right it matters.”

  “Yeah, I agree, when you put it that way,” Justin said, “But I just don't know what there is to do about it.

  Lauren smiled, but not with joy. In fact, in was a bit of a scary smile. Justin hoped to never be on the receiving end of any plans that Lauren was making when she smiled that particular smile in the future.

  “Oh, I don't know yet, either,” Lauren said coldly, “but you can be sure as hell I'm going to figure something out.”

  Lauren stood to leave and looked expectantly at Henry. Henry stood and patted her on the shoulder. “Honey, why don't you go on ahead. I've got something else I need to talk to Justin about.”

  Lauren looked suspicious, but said, “Sure. I'll see you up at the house,” and headed out the door.

  Henry sat back down again across from Justin and looked at him hard for a few beats. Justin was just beginning to get curious when Henry said, “Son, I'm gonna bring up something here that's definitely none of my business. But by the time you get to be my age, you start to see that a lot of problems in the world, but especially in communities and families, are allowed to go on because people were afraid to say things that were none of their business. So I'm gonna speak up.”

  Justin, puzzled, said, “Oh. This isn't about the Mountain Ridge Outdoor Adventures business?”

  Henry shook his head. “No, son, this is about your father.”

  Justin's face hardened, and Henry noticed. He put up his hands in front of him in a gesture of surrender. “Now, now, don't go get that look on your face and shut down on me. Like I said, I know it's none of my business, and I don't expect you to necessarily listen to what I have to say with a completely open and receptive heart and mind, and then rush out and take action. I may be old, but I'm not crazy. But I do ask that you take what I say in the spirit that it's intended, which is love and understanding, and don't completely shut it out before you've even heard what it is I want to tell you. Can you do that?”

  Justin heard the wisdom in what Henry was saying, and knew that he needed to accede to the request, out of respect for Amanda's godfather if nothing else. He took a deep breath to center himself and get rid of the negative emotions that always flooded him pretty much immediately upon the subject of Rick Barnes being broached. He made up his mind to do his level best to listen to whatever Henry had to say with as much neutrality as humanly possible.

  He nodded at Henry, “You're right,” he said evenly, “I will listen with an open mind.”

  Henry nodded back at Justin once, decisively, the agreement having been struck. Then he cocked his head and looked probingly into Justin's face. “Son, how much do you know about your grandfather?” he queried.

  This caught Justin off guard. Out of all the things he might have predicted would have come out of Henry's mouth next, that certainly would never have made Justin's list. Justin shook his head. “Nothing,” he said, “I didn't even know I had one. I mean, obviously, biologically, of course I had one...I had two, as a matter of fact, just like anybody. But I didn't know that he was significant, or that people knew him...” Justin trailed off, realizing he was babbling. I must be nervous, he thought with a start, to hear what Henry is going to say next. That's strange.

  Henry shook his head and snorted derisively, “Oh, he was significant, all right. Tom Barnes was the meanest son of a bitch in 200 miles. Parker and I were kids around the same time your Dad was, you know. And we were terrified of Tom Barnes. Most folks were, and not just kids. He was mean as a snake, and his bite was just as venomous. He was a drunk, and he was a terrible, mean, violent drunk.”

  “Whoa,” Justin breathed, “That's awful. Why didn't my Dad ever mention this to me?”

  Henry shook his head, “I can't answer for him, son. But I imagine he might have been ashamed. Also, it might have been a bit hard for him to talk about still. Your Dad was drinking most of your childhood, and I know that you were pretty much neglected. I don't mean to belittle that, Justin, believe me. But please hear me when I say that your Dad was nothing in the 'terrible father' department, compared to his own father.

  “One day, when I was in the market with my mother, we turned the corner around an aisle and saw Tom yelling at Ricky at the front of the store. Then Tom reached out to slap him around, and Rick's hand just naturally went up to protect his face. Well, that was all it took to set off old Tom. He was instantly enraged.

  “He yelled, 'Boy, I've told you about putting your hand up when I'm whipping you!' and then he grabbed your Daddy by the back of the head and just rammed his forehead into the wall. It was hard, too, my mother and I could hear the crack. Then, when Ricky started crying, he did
it again, and your Daddy just crumpled up on the ground. That's when Tom saw that Rick'd wet himself. Whether it was out of pain, or fear, or a combination of both, I don't know.

  “So Tom picks him up by the collar and throws him out into the snow. This was the dead of winter, December or January. He called him a sissy and made him walk home, three miles, in the snow, in his soiled pants.”

  Justin felt tears pricking the back of his eyes. Tears for his father? Odd. He had thought that he had no compassion in him for Rick Barnes, no kindness left in his heart for the man who had made his childhood so miserable.

  Henry sighed at the long ago memory, “I looked up at my Mother and started to say something, but she just cut me off. 'It's their business, Henry, it's not ours.' She bustled us right on out of there. Those were different times, you know. You didn't get involved in other folks' family matters.

  “But I will tell you, Justin, that there was hardly a day that Ricky Barnes didn't come to school with a new bruise or a bloody lip, a few times even broken bones. Everyone knew what was going on in that house, and nobody stopped it.

  “Why do you think Parker lost his cool when he saw your father hit you at JT's that time? He was scared the cycle was going to perpetuate. And, I'll tell you, it's a miracle it didn't, with the way your Daddy grew up.”

  He shook his head as he stood, “I'm not defending him, Justin. The way you were raised was not how any kid should have to grow up. I'm not trying to tell you your father did right by you, far from it. I'm just saying that maybe – just maybe – you could consider the possibility that he did the best he knew how, and that now with Noah, he's doing the best he knows how again. It's not perfect. It's never gonna be. But think about how far he came with you from the way he was treated growing up, and how far he's come now with Noah than he was able to do with you.