by Claire Adams
He started moving faster, and I wrapped my legs more tightly around him, feeling as though he was squeezing all of those good feelings inside of me, compressing them into one little place, deep within me, and then he thrust really hard, in the exact right spot, and it was like there was an explosion, saturating my whole body. I looked up at him right as it happened, and his eyes were squeezed shut, his jaw clenched, and I felt him pull out of me, felt his come spurting out in a hot puddle right on my stomach. We were both gasping, a light sheen of sweat covering us.
“Holy shit,” he said. “Holy shit.”
My legs felt like jelly, and I let them fall away from him, and he slowly lowered himself on top of me. I held him there, his face right against my neck, his breath warm against my skin.
We lay there together for a while, a residual tingling lingering on my entire body. I wanted nothing more than to be able to stay there with him all night, but I also knew I didn’t want to be there when Declan woke up in the morning.
“I should get going,” I said, finally working up the motivation to disentangle myself from Cole.
“Really?” he said, sounding surprised. “You don’t have to.”
“I don’t want to, but I also don’t want to still be here when Declan wakes up.”
“He’s not going to get up for a while. What time is it?”
“I’m not sure. It’s probably pretty late, though. If I stay much longer, I’m probably going to fall asleep.”
“Doesn’t that sound nice? That sounds nice to me.”
“I don’t want to confuse him.”
Cole sighed. “You’re right,” he said. “Well, then, just know that I’ll be thinking about you. While you’re lying in your bed, I’ll be lying in my own, wishing you were with me.”
We kissed again, a long, lingering one that made my knees feel weak. We said goodnight, and as I walked next door, I couldn’t keep the smile off of my face. I’d done it. I was no longer a virgin, and it had been better than I ever could have imagined.
Chapter Eighteen
Cole
That Sunday, when my parents came over, one of the first things my mother asked me about was if I had seen Allie again. We were sitting on the deck, watching Declan in the backyard as he dug for rocks with the new pail and shovel set my parents had just brought over for him.
“Errr...” I paused. I hadn’t planned on mentioning anything to my parents about it—at least not just yet—but I also wasn’t interested in hearing more of my mother’s worries about the fact that I was still single. “We have been hanging out. We’re kind of seeing each other, I guess.”
“You are?” she asked, perking up.
“Yes,” I said. “But don’t say anything to Declan about it yet.”
“Of course not. I think that’s wise to take things slowly with him and not introduce him until you’re sure that things are serious.”
I noticed, though, that my father wasn’t looking as thrilled as my mother was. “Now, don’t get me wrong,” he said, “I think she’s a very nice girl. But... you’re seeing each other? She’s Declan’s teacher, correct?”
“Yeah.”
“Is that...kosher?”
“What do you mean—because she’s his teacher? It’s not like she’s my teacher.”
Now my mother also had a worried look on her face. “That thought never even crossed my mind. Do you think there might be some sort of policy that she’s violating? She certainly seemed like a lovely person, but it seems as though they might have rules or something against that sort of thing.”
“Well, he’ll be starting kindergarten in the fall, so it’s not like he’ll be going to the Learning Center for that much longer, anyway,” I said.
My mother seemed satisfied with this answer, but my father looked skeptical.
“I’ll talk to her about it,” I said. “I’ll mention it to her, anyway. I don’t think there’s really going to be a problem, though.”
Even if there was, that wouldn’t be enough to make me stop seeing her.
Instead of going for a ride when my parents took Declan out a little later, I went over to Allie’s house.
“I was just thinking about you,” she said when she saw me. “Come on in. Where’s Declan?”
“He’s with my parents,” I said as I followed her into the house.
“Cool,” she said. “That means I can do this.” And she stepped right over to me and put her arms around my neck, pulling me in for a long kiss.
“So, I happened to mention to my parents that I was seeing you,” I said when we finally pulled apart.
“Seeing me?”
“Yeah. Is that...okay?”
“I guess we are seeing each other. I mean, I was hoping that it wouldn’t be a one-time thing. Though I’d understand if it was,” she added quickly.
“No,” I said. “I don’t want it to be. I’m not saying we should be talking about moving in together and what sort of seating arrangement we want at the wedding or anything like that, but...I’ll be completely honest with you, Allie—I really enjoy spending time with you.”
She smiled—coyly, it seemed—and raised an eyebrow. “Is that so?” she said.
“Absolutely.”
“It’s not, say, because of a bet you might have wagered with a certain friend of yours?”
I winced. There was no point in denying it, because she’d obviously knew what was going on. “Errrr... how’d you hear about that? Did Ben tell you?”
“Declan did.”
“What? Declan? Seriously?”
She started to laugh. “Yeah, he must’ve overheard you guys talking about it whenever it was you were setting it up. Now, I know that some people in my position would be... oh, I don’t know, offended by such a thing, and I was at first, but...”
“That bet has nothing to do with the way I feel about you,” I said. “It was a stupid thing to agree to in the first place.”
“I guess you won, though, huh? What’s the prize?”
“Just getting to be with you is good enough for me.”
“Aw, that’s sweet of you. But really, though, what was the wager? I’m curious.”
“Well, after he talked to you that day, he seemed to think that you had no interest in being with anyone at all, so he bet me that I wouldn’t be able to sleep with you. And if he won, I was going to have to take him to a playoff game of his choice.”
“And if you won?”
I thought back, trying to remember. It took me a second. “He was going to hang out with Declan a couple times a month so I could go riding. Or just have that time to myself.”
“So I guess you get that now.”
“I don’t even care if I do. Other than it’d be nice because you and I would have that time to be able to go out and do something, sans children.”
“How’d your parents react?”
“They were happy. Well, my dad started asking about how it was going to look since you’re Declan’s teacher and all, but I didn’t think it would be an issue. Are there rules against that?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “That wasn’t one of the things I asked during my interview.”
“Because I don’t want to get you in trouble or anything like that.”
“There’s probably some sort of ethics about getting involved with a patient, though, isn’t there?”
“I’m sure we could find you another doctor if it was going to be an issue.”
“I don’t even care about that,” she said. She pulled her shirt off, and there were those perfect tits of hers, and I started touching them, rolling her nipples between my fingers until they got hard. Her eyes were half-closed, and she was fumbling with the button on my shorts. She got it undone and unzipped the fly, then pushed my pants down so they were around my knees. She dropped down in front of me, and I felt her mouth go around the head of my cock and I leaned back, closing my eyes. If she’d only ever kissed one other guy before, I had to assume she’d never given anyone head, but
she was doing such a good job of it I began to wonder if maybe I was wrong. She worked her tongue in slow circles, then she began moving her head up and down, moving faster the harder that my cock got.
I ran my fingers through her hair, tried to keep my breathing steady and not blow my load right then and there, though it was difficult because it had been a long time since I’d gotten a blow job, never mind one this good. I managed to work my other hand underneath her and reach down so I could grab my balls, pulling them down, away from my body, which took the edge off a bit.
She kept at it, alternating between taking me almost all the way in to just paying some serious attention the head of my cock, licking it as though it were a delicious lollipop. I reached out and grabbed the edge of the kitchen counter because I felt like I was about to fall over.
And then she was standing up, pushing her shorts down, yanking her underwear off. She leaned against the counter, hoisting one of her legs up, and I held onto her hips and spread my own legs apart so I could get at the right angle to slide my cock into her. She was so wet. I held onto her hips as I started to fuck her, leaning my upper body back from her so I could look at her as I did so. Her tits bounced up and down as we moved, and she threw her head back, her throat slender and exposed. I could see her pulse beating there, underneath the smooth skin. I brought one hand up and squeezed her nipple and she cried out, biting her lip, her pussy muscles tightening around me. I wasn’t going to be able to hold off much longer, the feeling was about to roar through me like a steam engine. Nothing I could do about it. I tried to hang on long enough for her to climax, and as I felt her muscles contracting around me, I pulled out, but instead of just standing there, she dropped to her knees again and took me into her mouth, right as I came.
Holy fucking shit.
Chapter Nineteen
Allie
“So, have you given any more thought to coming down here?” my mother asked. “The weather’s been just marvelous. There’s no better place to be than the city when the weather is this gorgeous.”
“It’s not like I live in a different hemisphere,” I said. “The weather’s been pretty spectacular up here, too. Minus all the smog and traffic and everything.”
“This isn’t Los Angeles, Allie,” my mother said. “There isn’t any smog here. And the traffic hasn’t been so bad, either.”
“Says the woman who hardly ever drives. Boston is specifically designed to cause as many traffic jams as humanly possible.”
“Oh, stop it. I’m just trying to figure out a time when you and Cole and Declan can come down here. I think that’d be really nice. Have you mentioned it to him yet?”
“No, but I seem to recall you mentioning it several times when you guys dropped in on us that day.”
“You say it like it’s a bad thing, us stopping by.”
“Well, I wasn’t expecting you.”
“If you had checked your phone you might have known. I wanted to show Bill where you were staying. He’s been asking about you.”
I’m sure he has. “I’ll talk to Cole,” I said.
“How’s it going with him, anyway?”
Part of me wanted to tell her that I was finally no longer a virgin. She’d be excited. She’d probably send me flowers or something. But she’d also be prying and want to know details, and I didn’t feel like getting into it with her. And she’d also probably try to somehow claim that she was responsible for the whole thing, that if she had never called me that night to tell me about all this simmering sexual tension between him and me that it wouldn’t have even happened in the first place.
“It’s good,” I said. “We’ve been hanging out a lot.”
“Well, I think it’d be nice if you guys came down here to visit at some point. It would go a long way in terms of you and Bill patching things up between the two of you, too.”
“Why do you think I want to patch things up? I’m actually all set if I never see him again.”
“Oh, come on, Allie. Let’s try to be an adult about this, can we? Bill isn’t going anywhere, so I think it’d be good if the two of you could try to put whatever you seem to think happened in the past, okay? I did talk to him about what you said. The accusation you had against him.”
“You did?” I asked, unable to keep the surprise from my voice.
“I did. And quite frankly, he had no idea what I was talking about, which is what I expected. It was so long ago that I don’t think you can really expect to have an accurate memory of it, either. You were probably upset about something—do you remember how turbulent your teenage years were? And he was just doing what any normal father would do, and that was comfort his child. You’ve always had an overactive imagination, and I’m sure that you took it to mean something that it didn’t.”
I opened my mouth to say something, but then I decided not to. There was no point in getting into an argument with her; this wasn’t going to go anywhere. I knew this even before I had told her, which was why I hadn’t wanted to tell her in the first place. But she was crazy if she thought I was just going to pretend like none of this ever happened, and that we were all going to just come down to the city and hang out with them for the day, like we were one big happy family or something.
“You know what, Mom?” I said finally. “I’m actually happy right now. I am happy with the way my life is, where I’m living, and what I’m doing.”
“I’m glad to hear that!” she said. “You’re acting like I’m actively trying to sabotage you or something. I’m not, Allie. I am happy for you. I just don’t see why you don’t want to come down here and spend a little time with us here, let Cole see what your life was like in the city. Don’t you want to share that with him?”
“No,” I said. “I don’t.” I hung up the phone.
Chapter Twenty
Cole
Once a month, I made house visits. This was an arrangement that the doctor I had taken over the practice from had with some of the patients who preferred not to make the drive to Chapin, patients that would not otherwise see a doctor. These visits took me to the more rural parts, deep in the woods where the houses were spread out, sometimes by half a mile or more. A lot of the people lived as off the grid as they could, and even coming to town for a doctor’s visit was more than they wanted to do.
My first stop took me deep into the woods, near the foot of Bear Claw Ridge. The house was really a log cabin, set deep in the pine trees. There were two cars parked in the gravel driveway when I got there, and there was a woman getting out of one of them.
I recognized the woman as soon as I go out of the car, but by then, it was too late to get in and drive away. Plus, I had to see the patient, Mr. Geary. But what was Sam’s sister doing here? For a second, I couldn’t remember her name, but then it came back to me: Shannon.
“What are you doing here?” she asked when she saw me, her eyes narrowing.
I regarded her. “I could ask the same of you.”
“I’m Mr. Geary’s home health aide.”
“You are?”
“I just started a few weeks ago.”
“I’m his doctor.”
“I didn’t know that. I don’t know if I should even be around you right now. I don’t know if that would be a good idea.”
“If you’d feel more comfortable waiting outside while I go in with Mr. Geary, you can. But that’s not necessary.”
She was giving me a wary look. “I’m not sure about that.”
“I think we can be professional, don’t you? I’d like to think that everything that has happened is in the past now and that we can all move on.”
We stood there for a moment, neither of us saying anything.
“That’s easy for you to say,” she finally said.
“It’s not, actually. You seem to forget that Marissa was my sister.”
“Yeah, and my brother loved her more than he even loved himself. And your sister was a damn good person, which is surprising considering the family that she comes from. You
and your parents just couldn’t get past the idea that she might end up with someone who wasn’t from the same fucking socioeconomic class as you. You guys couldn’t stand the idea.”
“That’s not true,” I said, all the while feeling surprised that someone like Shannon would even know the word socioeconomic. I sighed. “Look, Shannon, I just came out here to do my job, okay? I’m not trying to start anything with you, I’m not trying to reopen old wounds, I’m not—”
“There are no wounds to reopen,” she snapped. “Because they never healed in the first place! How can they heal when we have to deal with what you did to our family every single day of the year? Yeah, your sister died, and you can go visit her grave and remember her on her birthday and during the holidays, and then the rest of the time you can get on with your life. But Sam didn’t die—his whole life just got completely destroyed because of you.”
Somewhere above us, I heard a chickadee. The wind ruffled the white pines; the sun dappled the ground. Mr. Geary was probably sitting inside, wondering what the hell I was doing out here, wondering what Shannon and I were talking about. The thing was, she was right—her brother’s life did get completely upended because of me, though that hadn’t been my intention. My intention had been to give him enough of an ass-kicking that he’d get the idea through his head to leave my sister alone, that he’d decide dating her simply wasn’t worth it if he had to deal with me.
But Sam, I had underestimated. He was wiry, not very muscular, but somehow quick and very strong, and though I’d been expecting him to fight back a little, he had gone all out, bruising my ribs and splitting my lip.
“Your brother was a drug addict,” I said. “A drug addict who also got my sister addicted to drugs.”
“So you’re blaming him. This is all his fault. He ended up addicted to drugs because a fucking doctor prescribed him Oxys. He put his trust in a doctor and got completely screwed over, and then another doctor comes along and beats him within an inch of his life.”