by Natalie Ann
“That sounds good. Are you hungry? Dinner is almost done now.”
“I’m starving, but it isn’t food that I’m in the mood for,” he said, wrapping her up tight again. It seemed he loved touching her, holding her, kissing her. What woman didn’t want to be cherished that way?
“I’ve been slaving over this dinner for hours. I’m not letting it burn.”
He turned and opened the oven. “Lasagna. Pull it out and let it sit. It has to anyway.”
Her jaw dropped. “How do you know that? I thought you only grilled.”
“I like to eat. Lasagna was my father’s favorite. We had it often. He always thought once it came out it was time to eat. My mother used to slap his hand.”
“Well then, let me get it out of the oven.”
She barely had time to pull it out and set it on the counter before he was spinning her around and kissing her hard, slamming her into his body with a force that made her want to strip him naked.
There was such strength and power behind him and it was as if he knew it turned her on when he showed that little bit of domineering side to her.
“I don’t think I can make it to the bedroom,” he said.
“You hate my bed anyway.” He was always complaining the double bed was too small, but it was all that fit in the small room.
“Let’s try out your couch,” he said, lifting her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her the few short steps.
“My couch isn’t bigger,” she pointed out as she attacked his neck. He always smelled so good. Like a man.
“But it’s big enough for what I want to do. All you need to do is sit for the moment.”
He set her down on her feet, then undid her jeans and lowered them to the ground with her panties. She kicked them away and before she could do anything else, he urged her to the couch, then knelt between her legs and spread her wide. Oh man, she was in for a treat.
He’d only done this once before, but it happened to be her favorite thing in the whole wide world and boy did Liam have a nice mouth on him.
He slid his hands up her legs, then down again, making shivers erupt all over her body. He loved to make her squirm and now wasn’t an exception.
He picked up one of her ankles and started to kiss her there, his tongue tasting every little groove it could. “Have I told you that you’ve got one nice toned body on you? Yet I’ve never seen you work out.”
“I don’t need to,” she said, arching when he bit the skin behind her knee just now. How did he get there so fast? She was just so lost in the sensations that he always made her feel. “I never sit still.”
“No, you don’t. I like that too. So hyperactive. It makes sex frustrating, but fun at the same time.”
“Why frustrating?” she asked, gripping his hair and trying to urge him to the spot she was dreaming of, but he wouldn’t be deterred.
“Because you want what you want and I want what I want. Sometimes we have to learn to meet in the middle.”
“Yeah. The middle. Meet there,” she said.
He laughed. “In due time.”
His due time and hers weren’t the same though. They never were. She wanted it fast and hurried and he was determined to always drag it out.
This time proved no different.
“Liam?” she said, her voice rising. “If you don’t move to where I want you, I’m going to start screaming and the tenants below me will think I’m in pain.”
“You are in pain though,” he said. “Pain I’m bringing to you and pain I’m going to wipe away.”
“Do it,” she said, moaning now. He was so close to where she wanted him. His tongue was teasing her right around the edge of her inner thighs. She could feel his breath just as a whisper against her skin. Like he was breathing her in rather than tasting her.
“Like this?” he asked, his tongue coming out to lick.
“Yes,” she said, her fingers digging into the couch. “Again, do it like that again.”
He did. He always did what she asked of him...eventually. But he never left her waiting too long and didn’t this time, finally pulling her little swollen bud between his lips and sending her over the edge. Somehow her legs ended up on his shoulders and she had no clue how, nor did she really care about the awkward position.
“You are so good at that,” she said, sighing now.
He stood up fast, her legs falling to the floor, then he undid his jeans and slid right into her before she could come down from the high she was on.
“You’re still pulsing. I had to be inside of you,” he said, panting out and pushing in again and again. “I had to feel you squeezing me.”
“Don’t stop,” she said, wrapping her legs around his hips where he lay over her, and was now pumping into her faster than ever before.
“Shit,” he said, starting to pull out. “Condom.” She wasn’t letting him move.
“Don’t stop.” She was right there with him, ready to fall again and there was no way he was stopping. “It’ll be fine. It’s okay. Don’t stop. Please don’t.”
“Oh God,” he said, moving in and out again, their hips meeting and withdrawing, their bodies grinding, his jeans rubbing against her inner thighs, but she didn’t care. All she cared about was falling over the cliff with him. Holding him tight like he had her so many times and knowing that he’d never let go.
Have the Answer
“Sorry about that,” Liam said afterward. He’d never had unprotected sex before.
“It’s okay. I should be fine. No worries.”
“I didn’t mean to do it.” He’d just lost control like never before. He didn’t know what it was about her, but every time he was around her, it was like the green flag being dropped at the Daytona 500. Maybe it was the easy acceptance from his mother that just sealed the deal today.
Or maybe it was that he saw himself falling in love with her for a while now and he was hoping that she was hitting the gas and coming out of the fourth turn with him on the final lap. It had been her idea to tell their mothers and he figured that was a good sign.
“I think I’ll be safe.”
“I’m not worried,” he said. If she accidentally got pregnant just now, he wasn’t stressing in the least. Matter of fact, once that thought crossed his mind he realized there wasn’t panic, but joy in it. He couldn’t wait to settle down and have a family. He just hadn’t found the right person yet, but now he was thinking—no, he knew—he found that person in Ali Rogers.
“Let’s not think about it and ruin what just happened.”
She was smiling, but he tried to guess what was really going on behind her eyes. He’d let it go for now.
He stood and pulled her up with him, then fastened his jeans. “I’ll go get dinner ready while you make yourself presentable.”
She looked down and laughed at herself. She was standing there in a wrinkled shirt and rainbow-colored socks. Yeah, it was a funny sight.
They were sitting at the table eating dinner twenty minutes later. “How was your day?” he asked her.
She looked up and stared at him for a minute. “Good, why?”
“Just asking. No reason to look so stunned over it. Am I not allowed to see how your day went?”
“No. It’s just you’ve never asked before. It was fine. Fourth graders can be little wiseasses now and again, but for the most part, they’re a good age. I love my job. I love having a steady job.”
“You said you subbed?”
“Yes. After graduation, I didn’t get hired for anything I applied for and once the school year starts, it’s even harder to find a teaching position. I took advantage of the time and started working on my master’s. I guess subbing in all the districts gave me a leg up this time around. I filled in for three months while someone was on maternity leave and when an opening came in that school, they were pleased with me.”
“I’m sure you’re a great teacher.”
“Why is that?”
“Are you looking fo
r compliments?” he asked, still eating and smirking at her.
“Not really. Just more curious. You’ve only seen me doing things on the farm, which is completely different than teaching.”
“Not so much. Every time you’re showing me something on the farm, you’re teaching me. You have a patience I didn’t expect. Especially since you don’t seem to show it other times.”
She laughed. “Can I help it if you turn me on and I don’t want to wait?”
“Not at all.” He reached his hand over and laid it on hers. “I’m just saying that you listen to my questions and you make sure I have the answers. Not only that, I see how you are with the customers and the kids that come in. It’s like you were made for working with the kids. Not to mention your skill at crafts.”
“Those are fun though,” she said. “Even interacting with the kids.”
“Do you want kids someday?” he asked. Might as well find that all out now.
“Of course I do. What about you?”
“I do. Not a ton, but I think more than one. I joked about being an only child, but at times I think it would have been nice to have had a sibling when I was the new one in school.”
“That had to be hard. I’ve lived here my whole life.”
“You never wanted to move?”
“Nope. This is where I want to be. This small town is comfortable to me and I like being comfortable.”
He looked around her apartment. “I would have never guessed.”
“Comfort isn’t always physical. Sometimes it’s mental.”
“That’s why you wanted to hold onto the farm. It’s a comfort level?”
“At times. But I’m realizing now that it was the wrong kind of comfort. It was never going to be for me. I just liked the fun stuff there, like the haunted house and working in the store. I know deep down I couldn’t do it day in and out like my mother has.”
“Your father never helped?” Maybe now was the time to ask that too.
She snorted. “No. The farm was the reason for their divorce.”
“What?” he asked. He didn’t want to say he’d heard that her father cheated on Belinda.
“My father hated the farm. He didn’t want to do any work on it and he didn’t want my mother spending as much time on it either. They fought all the time and then they pulled me in the middle.”
“How so?” he asked.
“My father used to say it was no life for me as a kid. I hated being put on the spot like that and tried to leave when I could.”
“Did you feel like it was no life for you?” he asked, not really thinking that since she always worked there and wasn’t thrilled over the sale in the beginning.
“I never thought one way or another. Like I said, I had fun with the stuff I did. It was work, sure, and sometimes it was hard, but I didn’t mind it. I just liked being around my grandfather and that was one of the ways I could do it.”
“You’ve got no relationship with your father at all right now?”
“Funny you bring that up,” she said.
“Why?”
“I haven’t talked to him in a few years. He didn’t even show up for my college graduation. But out of the blue, he called me today.”
“What for?”
“He said he heard the farm was for sale. I told him it wasn’t. In my mind, it’s not. Or at least actively for sale. What you and my mother have is a done deal, right?”
“I’m not backing out of it, so it’s a done deal in my mind. Why would he care?”
“No clue. I don’t even know how he found out. Have you told anyone?”
“People that work for me know, Ali. I own a lot of businesses.”
“You do?” she asked, looking surprised.
Might be a good time to talk about this too. “I started out in construction, but that is only part of it. I own a lot of properties and rent them all year round. I’m also a silent partner in multiple businesses in this area. Though I haven’t told too many people I’m buying the farm, it’s not a secret. All my staff know, my lawyer, your mother and the staff at the farm. It’s not hard pressed to think that it’s getting out there.”
“Oh,” she said.
“What’s the problem? Do you think your father is going to cause trouble? I’ve seen the deed. It’s only in your mother’s name.”
“There’s nothing he can do. It’s my mother’s property. I just thought maybe he left some things there and wanted them. No clue, but I told him to call my mother.”
Liam thought for a second. “Would your father go out to the farm for any reason or try to find what he might have left there?”
“I have no clue. Maybe to talk to my mom, why?”
“I’m wondering if he tried to get in the house and found it locked.”
“You think he broke in?”
“Would he?” Liam asked.
“I don’t know. It’s never been locked before, and he’d know that. It’s possible he’s gone there before and no one knew. My mother has never said a word, so you’d have to talk to her. Again, I have no idea why though. It has nothing to do with him.”
“You’d be surprised,” he said and let it drop.
Freaked Out
The Friday before the haunted house was going to open, Liam and Ali were rushing around doing everything they could. The kids had come out this week from the drama club and had some great ideas while helping to set up. It was hard for her to let go of the reins, but she found that Liam was correct in that the kids had pretty warped minds at times.
This definitely was, by far, going to be the best haunted house yet. For all the work that the kids did, she gave them free passes and then an extra one for a friend.
Her mother and Liam’s mother were in the bakery now, making all sorts of gory things that they’d need to add tomorrow. The haunted house would open right after lunch. And though it was still light outside and most wouldn’t get the spooky graveyard effect walking up to the barn, the inside was still spooky enough to make people scream.
The best part was that some of the areas had the teens dressed up and reaching out to grab at people. She’d done that one year but didn’t have enough people to make it work most times, so she had bats and bugs that would fall from the ceiling and such instead.
But between Liam and the teens, there was a lot more live interaction this year. Not to mention the technology that Liam incorporated. She found he was a big kid at heart, just like her.
Dinner with both mothers had taken place two weeks ago and had gone off without a hitch. Liam’s mother was very sweet and gentle. And though Liam said her mother and Amy were a lot alike, Ali didn’t think so.
Sure, her mother was sweet, but she wasn’t always so gentle. It was probably the hard life of working so much, where Amy had never really worked at all.
“My mother is going to go through it first,” Liam said walking up and putting his hands on her waist from behind. She loved when he did that. When he claimed her as his for all to see. She told herself she should probably stop creating little fairytales in her mind, but she couldn’t help it.
“How come?” she asked, turning and putting her arm around his waist.
“Because she’s scared of these things. It’s not even finished and if she walks through and jumps then it will be funny to watch.”
“That’s mean, Liam,” she said, laughing.
“Well, you could go through with her. Maybe it’d be good for the two of you to bond.”
She laughed. “I’m not scared of this. I’ve done it my whole life. And bonding, while your mom is clinging to me, isn’t what I had in mind.”
“Then maybe it would be good for you to go and reassure her it’s fine and what to look out for before it happens. Go give it a trial run. There’s no one jumping out and grabbing her and the lights will be on.”
“Fine. Go turn the music on and tell me when it’s ready.”
Ali went to find Amy while Liam set up the computer that would time things popping
out and falling down from the ceiling along with the right music to set the mood.
“There’s no smoke and I’m already freaked out,” Amy said when they were walking toward the barn and past the makeshift cemetery that Ali had set up.
“There’s nothing to be scared of,” she said. “It’s all fake. You even helped me set these up.”
“In the daylight, the arms and legs sticking out of the ground didn’t seem too scary. Now I’m afraid I’m going to have nightmares.”
Ali reached her hand down and held Amy’s. “I’ll tell you when everything is going to happen. You’ll end up laughing more than anything.”
“I’ll take your word for it, but I’m not convinced.”
Ali lost count of the number of times Amy jumped or grabbed her arm when props were moving. On top of that, Ali feared she might have lost some of her hearing with the way Amy was screaming the whole time.
In the end, Liam was right though, it was a good bonding experience for them, because when it was all done, Amy hugged her close and laughed, then thanked her for bringing joy to her son.
***
“That was awesome,” Liam said on Sunday night when they closed it down. He’d always enjoyed the haunted house as a kid, but never realized how much fun it was to be behind the scenes.
“Wasn’t it?” Ali asked. “Now you know why I’ve been so excited about it. When I was younger I used to dress up and hide throughout the maze and scare people when the time allowed.”
“Really?” he asked. “I bet I saw you at some point since I came every year.”
“Most likely. As I got older and it took off, my grandfather and mother needed the help running it instead of letting me play inside of it.”
“It’s going to stink taking it all down tomorrow. Are you sure you don’t want to do it one more night?” he asked.
They were busy from the moment it opened until they took the last ticket tonight, running thirty minutes longer than planned.
“The weather isn’t going to be good. Most people aren’t going to come and stand out in the rain, though honestly, it would have a great effect in the cemetery.”