Status Update (Second Chances)

by Carr, Mari

  He gripped her hips tightly, trying to decide her pace, but she was finished with that song and dance, determined to drive him to the brink of the same sexual-insanity cliff he’d shoved her off night after night.

  “Oh no you don’t. This is my game.” Bryan offered her a wicked grin as he lifted her, tossing her to her stomach. He placed three more hard slaps to her ass before pulling her hips toward him and driving inside her again. Laura’s hands bunched in the bedspread as she sought for something to ground her.

  She met him return for return, forcing him to go deeper. It still wasn’t enough. She cried out, “More. God. I know there’s more.”

  Bryan withdrew, picking her up and dragging her to the dresser. Placing her on the smooth surface, he shoved in harder. Laura wrapped her legs around his waist, reminded of their hasty, horny sex at the movie theater. She wondered if she’d ever get enough of this man.

  I hope not.

  Bryan buried himself inside her, then stilled, lifting her from the dresser. He carried her back to the bed, never leaving her body as he came over her once more. Taking her wrists in one of his hands, he pulled them above her head, holding her captive, caged beneath him. Then, he released every restraint as he gave her everything she wanted, needed and more.

  She came twice, crying out as ecstasy crashed over her like a tidal wave. She’d never made so much noise in bed in her life.

  Bryan thrust less than a dozen times more before he came as well. She loved watching as his climax overtook him. His eyes were closed tight, as he murmured curse word after curse word. “Goddamn, shit. Fuck, Laura. So fucking good.”

  Neither of them sought to move, to disconnect. The closeness was too amazing, too natural. Finally, Bryan groaned and pushed himself to lie beside her.

  What a ride.

  Laura waved her hands over her body. “Wow. Every part of me is going to hurt tomorrow.”

  Bryan chuckled. “Yeah. I hear that. I think I pulled a hamstring there toward the end.”

  Laura grinned, too exhausted to laugh. “You want to spend the night?”

  Bryan hesitated for just a moment. Laura recalled Trina’s phone call.

  Before he answered—she was too afraid he’d say no—she changed the subject. “Do you want to talk about it?”

  He glanced at her, confused. “The sex?”

  She shook her head. “Trina called me earlier. She was worried about you.”

  Bryan’s brow creased. “Is that why you, why we—”

  “Good God, no. I slept with you because I want you so bad it hurts. I mean, when you first arrived, I thought maybe I could distract you from what was making you sad with sex, but that generous gesture on my part ended about two seconds into the first kiss. Then it was all about me.”

  Bryan’s face cleared, his smile growing. “You’re the only woman in the world I’ve ever been able to be completely myself with. First in high school and now. I can say whatever I think. I can do dirty, dirty things to you and it’s okay. I can’t quite wrap my head around that yet.”

  She nodded. “It’s the same for me. It’s amazing and scary as shit all at the same time.”

  “Exactly.”

  “You miss Corinne?”

  Bryan lay on his back. He turned his face away from her, looking at the ceiling. “Yeah. For the past five years, I’d go to this little gazebo in the arboretum near where we lived. It had been her favorite place on earth. I proposed to her there.”

  “Sounds nice. What did you do there?”

  “Nothing, really. I’d spend the day thinking about her, about us. I’d talk to her in my head—tell her about Trina, the improvements we’d made to the house, my job. For a few years, it felt like she was really there, listening.”

  Laura’s chest tightened as she considered Bryan’s romantic gesture. What would it feel like to be that loved? “That’s sweet.”

  “Last year, I forgot.”

  “You did?”

  “Trina was away at college, I was bogged down at work. I was running in twenty different directions and it didn’t dawn on me what day it was until I got home from the office and saw an email from Trina that said she was thinking of me and she missed me. The light went on and I panicked.”

  “Did you go to the gazebo?”

  He nodded. “Yeah. But it wasn’t the same. I couldn’t feel her anymore. I’d lost her.”

  Laura lifted up, resting her head on her hand so she could see his face more clearly. “Why do I get the sense you feel guilty about that?”

  Bryan’s gaze met hers. “She was thirty-eight years old when she died. She missed Trina’s first date, both her proms, graduation, the day she got her admittance letter to college. All of it.”

  Laura tried to imagine how horrible it would have been to miss so much of her own children’s lives.

  Bryan blew out a long breath. “It was just one day. One fucking day where I remembered her and what she lost and I tried to give it back to her. And in the end, I didn’t do it. I forgot her.”

  “You’re wrong. You’re so wrong. You pay tribute to your wife every damn day. Look at Trina. Look at the life you’ve given her. You’ve raised her in a safe home and provided her with warmth, food, love. I think it’s the things you do on a daily basis to honor your wife’s memory that count a whole hell of a lot more than one freaking day sitting in a gazebo.”

  Her words didn’t register. She could see it in his face. “So what about tonight? I spent the entire day trying to stay away from you. I couldn’t do it.”

  He felt guilty for moving on? Laura frowned. “Would Corinne want you to live the rest of your life alone? You were thirty-seven when she died. Were you supposed to stop living too?”

  “No. She wouldn’t have wanted that.”

  “Are you sorry you came here tonight?”

  He shook his head. “Hell, no. I needed you. And you were here.”

  She smiled and ran her hand along his beloved face. “I’m glad you came.”

  Bryan gave her a rueful grin. “For three hundred and sixty-four days of the year, I’ve got my shit together, my head screwed on straight. Then this day comes along and I feel like the world’s greatest failure.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I couldn’t save her. I was standing right beside her when her body started to give out, but nothing I did helped.”

  Laura cupped his cheek and turned his face toward hers. “You’re an engineer, not a doctor, not God.”

  “You’re right. I’m not.” Bryan moved, pushing Laura to her back as he came over her. He kissed her softly. “But there are times…when I’m inside you, that I feel like a god.”

  She lifted her arms and wrapped them around his neck, opening her legs in invitation.

  Bryan was erect again, ready. He slid inside her slowly, his gentle thrusts the complete opposite of his earlier lovemaking. Laura closed her eyes and savored the intimacy, the closeness, the perfect symmetry of give and take.

  Every word, every move this man made drove him deeper and deeper into her heart.

  Laura tightened her grip, pulling him closer as her climax washed over her, soothing as a cool breeze on a hot summer’s day.

  Maybe he was a god, because Bryan wasn’t merely good for her.

  He was saving her.

  Chapter Six

  Laura Sanders

  You know Jimmy Buffett’s song “Changes in Latitudes”? Yeah…today…it’s like that.

  “Okay. That takes care of the tiki bar. Now we just need to set up the topless lifeguard stand.”

  Laura laughed as she pulled a tray of pepperoni and cheese from the cooler. Jason had bought six tickets to the Jimmy Buffett concert. A parrothead from the word go, Jason attended several Buffett shows a year.

  Kristen put her hands on her hips. “You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s why I needed to borrow the pickup truck from my brother?”

  Jason lowered the tailgate and started pulling the large wooden structure out. “Well, the
fucker sure as shit wasn’t going to fit in my Audi. Give me a hand, will you, Nick?”

  Nick and Bryan helped Jason maneuver the stand out, placing it at one end of their tailgating spot. According to Jason, the beauty of a Buffett concert wasn’t the actual show as much as the partying that went on beforehand. From the looks of Jason’s set-up, he’d clearly perfected the art of the tailgate. Laura had never seen so much ridiculous stuff.

  Bryan walked over and put his hand around her waist. “I know we’ve only been here twenty minutes, but I’m pretty sure I’m going to get drunk today. Nick’s already slipped me two shots of Jack Daniels from a flask he’s carrying.”

  Laura laughed. “Kristen warned me about this. She said there was no way I could go to a Buffett concert with the eternal man-child Jason and his sidekick, Nick, and not feel like I’ve reverted back to high school. Kristen is of the belief I’ll spend one afternoon with the ‘yahoos’ and be glad I’m a grown-up.” Laura finger-quoted yahoos and mimicked Kristen’s face as she said it.

  “Well, it’s a good thing we’ve got Trina and her friends lined up as our DDs.” Bryan had offered to pay Trina and two girlfriends to pick everyone up after the concert.

  “Hey, Georgie,” Nick called out, dragging a bucket and bag of kitty litter from the backseat of his car. “Help me set up the bathroom.”

  Bryan frowned. “Bathroom? Do I want to know?”

  “Jason says it’s a real buzzkill to have to spend half an hour standing in line for the Johnny Blues, so he and Nick came up with this plan where they basically string a shower curtain between two of the cars, then put a special toilet seat on an empty five-gallon bucket. Apparently you just add a scoop of kitty litter after you wee.” Laura was equal parts impressed by their ingenuity and horrified at the prospect of peeing in the middle of a crowded parking lot.

  Bryan laughed “Wee? What am I? Three years old?”

  Laura smacked him on the arm. “Oh hush. I suppose you’d prefer some crude term for it?”

  “Nah. I like wee. Reminds me of something my grandma would say.”

  Laura ran her hand along the front placket of Bryan’s pants, pleased when his cock began to stiffen. “I remind you of your grandma? Really?”

  Bryan’s eyes narrowed as he grasped her wrist. “Careful, hotshot. You don’t want to start something you can’t finish.”

  She smiled. “Who says I won’t finish?”

  Bryan leaned closer, speaking so only she could hear. “Just for that, I’m going home with you after the concert, pushing you facedown over your bed and spanking that pretty little ass of yours.”

  Laura shook loose of Bryan’s grip and gave him a flirty grin. “Maybe. Maybe not. Who knows? I might find some hot young stud at this concert and decide to take him home with me instead. We’re not exclusive.”

  Bryan grasped her hand, tugging her closer. “Keep it up, Laura. Every word you say just adds to the punishment. And for the record, we are very exclusive.”

  It was the closest they’d come to putting a name on their relationship. Laura started to say more, but at the moment, she wasn’t sure if she wanted to break things off before they got too serious or bind herself to him forever. Both options scared the crap out of her, so she held her tongue. Now wasn’t the time for that conversation, but if the possessive I dare you to contradict me look in Bryan’s eyes was anything to go on, Laura suspected they’d be having that talk very soon.

  “We’ll see,” she whispered.

  He kissed her roughly, leaving no doubt in her mind he was staking a claim. It was sexy and overwhelming and just enough to render every brain cell she had useless. “You’re right. We will.”

  Bryan walked away to help Kristen set up some camp chairs as Laura struggled to get her libido under control. It was way too early in the day for her to feel this horny. She still had hours’ worth of tailgating and then the concert to endure.

  Since entering her affair with Bryan, Laura had discovered she was a sex maniac. Five minutes in his presence never failed to make her hot and bothered. Twice they’d ended up having sex in restaurant bathrooms because they couldn’t wait to get home before jumping on each other. It was like they were opposing magnets, drawn to each other by a pull that wouldn’t be denied. It was terrifying and addictive.

  Kristen stepped next to her and handed Laura a beer. “Have you ever seen anything like this in your life? These are supposedly grown men.”

  Laura twisted the top off and tossed it into a nearby trash bag. “It’s all in good fun.”

  Kristen watched Jason tighten a bolt at the bottom of the lifeguard stand. “I need to find a man. Soon.”

  Laura laughed. “Regretting your back-up plan with Jason?” Kristen hadn’t had much luck rustling up a fiancé since declaring her second-chance goal back in January. “I mean it is June. Only one more month until the big four-oh.”

  “There’s no way in hell I’m marrying that man. I never would have made that damn pact with Jason if he hadn’t caught me on a bad night.”

  “I have to admit, I’m curious. When did the two of you make this plan?”

  “On my thirty-fifth birthday. I was tipsy and depressed and feeling sorry for myself. Jason made me laugh and then he promised me if neither of us was married by forty, we’d marry each other. At the time, five years seemed like plenty of time, so I shook on it, signed a napkin.”

  “I wouldn’t worry too much, Kristen. He’s probably forgotten all about it.”

  Kristen shook her head. “That’s just it. He hasn’t. And he’s mentioned it several times in the last few months. I think he intends to hold me to it. Christ, if I didn’t know better, I’d think he wanted to marry me.”

  Jason put his tools away, grabbed a chair and set it up facing the stand. Then he looked over his shoulder at them and grinned. “You ladies want to be the first to try out the stand? Only rule is once you’re up there you have to flash us.” Jason wiggled his eyebrows, accepting the beer Bryan offered him with a quick, “Thanks.”

  Kristen snorted, walking over to look at the structure. It stood nearly eight feet high and was painted in vivid colors with a spray-painted sign that did indeed declare it was a Topless Lifeguard Stand.

  “Is this thing built to code? Looks a little rickety to me. I don’t want to have to represent your ass in court when someone climbs up there and it collapses.”

  Jason leaned back and took a long swig of his beer. “That thing is solid. You wait. Few more hours of tailgating and we’ll have a line of hot young chicks fighting to get on it.” Jason gestured to Bryan. “You might wanna grab a chair and claim a good spot now for the show.”

  Laura laughed when Kristen shook her head. “You are king of the male chauvinist pigs.”

  “Have another beer, Kris. Might help you lighten up.” Jason held out his hands as if he’d just delivered them all to paradise. “After all, it’s Buffett. Anything can happen.”

  The afternoon passed in a blur of loud music, laughter, drinking, eating and…much to Jason’s delight and Kristen’s chagrin, flashing.

  Laura was amazed by the sheer madness of the day. Everyone around her seemed to have shed every single inhibition they possessed, giving themselves over to the music, the moment, the magic of the place.

  “I wanna go up on the lifeguard stand,” Georgie said, tugging on Laura’s arm. “Come with me.”

  Laura was pleasantly tipsy, but not enough to get up on that stand. Most of the girls who’d climbed up throughout the day had been young college girls with very perky breasts. Laura imagined this was what Spring Break in Fort Lauderdale was like. It was fun, but certainly made her feel her age. “No thanks.”

  “Please. Think about it. This fits in perfectly with your plan to do all the crazy things you never did when you were younger.”

  Laura shook her head. “Flashing my tits to a parking lot of strangers was not on my list of things I missed.”

  Bryan reached out and took her hand, tugging her to her feet.
“It should have been. Your tits are hot.”

  Laura laughed. “I’ll give you a private show later.”

  Georgie sighed. “I thought you were getting into the spirit of this second chance, Laura. How can you let an opportunity like this pass you by? I’ll bet you twenty dollars you’ll wake up tomorrow morning and regret not doing this.”

  “Georgie. There are a lot of things I’m going to be sorry about tomorrow morning, the main one probably having to do with the fact I’ve had too much to drink, but I don’t think the lifeguard stand is going to be on that list.”

  “Nick,” Georgie called. “Set Laura up with one of those shotgun things.”

  Georgie and Nick had called a truce since January, though Laura wasn’t sure how long it would last. Georgie was determined to revisit her previous fiancés and she had started with bachelor number one—Phillip. Part of Laura wished Georgie had skipped straight to Nick. She couldn’t dismiss the feeling there were still some genuine feelings between the two of them.

  “Here.” Nick cut a hole in the bottom of a can of beer. “Just put this to your mouth, pop the top and drink fast.”

  Laura shook her head. “Hell no.”

  Nick grabbed another can of beer, creating his own shotgun hole. “I’ll race you. Bet I can chug faster than you.”

  Dammit. The alcohol she’d already consumed was making it difficult for Laura to turn down the dare. Kristen, Bryan and Jason gathered around, picking sides. The guys were rooting for Nick, while Georgie and Kristen had her back. She laughed.

  Was this what college parties had been like? Laura had often wished she’d had a chance to further her education, to go to a fraternity party just once. Suddenly she felt like she was there, in the middle of a raucous, out-of-control bash.

  “You’re on,” she said as she lifted the can. Georgie and Kristen cheered as Jason yelled, “Go!”

  Laura popped the tab, shocked by how fast the beer came out. She swallowed rapidly, three, four huge chugs, before the can was empty. She lowered it a split second before Nick.