by Anthology
Reid reached for his bedside drawer, and pulled out a condom. He hated using them, but having another baby right now wasn’t the smartest decision. Daniela’s arrival was a blessing, but no less a shock, and when we finally did decide to expand our family, I wanted us to be ready.
Reid kneeled between my parted legs, and when I felt him at my entrance I sucked in a breath.
“Easy, baby,” he murmured. “We’ll take it slow.”
His hands gripped my hips, and he slowly entered me, inch by delicious inch. It had been too long, but my body knew his, and opened up willingly. I breathed through the slight discomfort, but then arched my back when he filled me to the hilt. His head lowered, and he trailed wet kisses down my neck to the valley between my breasts. I felt his tongue swirl around my nipple, and my eyes rolled back as the sensation zipped through my body and stopped between my legs.
I lifted my hands, and pulled Reid’s face up towards mine. I sucked his bottom lip into my mouth, and started rocking my hips to let him know I needed him to move.
His hips moved back, and then he slowly entered me again, and again, and again until I was writhing. When he felt comfortable that he wasn’t hurting me, he sat back, and hooked one of my legs over his shoulder, hitting me deeper as he thrust forward.
“Oh yes,” I moaned breathily. “God, I’ve missed this.”
My neck arched, and I shook my head from side to side. It was building, that wave of euphoria, and I craved it to the point of mindlessness. I was desperate for that connection with Reid, having felt like we’d spent too much time without it.
I dropped my leg, and hooked my ankles around Reid’s back, urging him to come closer. He lowered his weight onto me, and shivers coursed up my skin when I felt his damn skin meet mine. My hands slipped under his arms, and over his shoulders, giving me a better grasp as his movements became harder.
I felt his hands take hold of my butt and lift me up. I cried out when the head of his cock hit me so, so, so deep, and tucked my head into his neck when he did it over, and over, over again.
“Fuck,” he grunted, “I’ve missed being inside you, missed being like this with you.”
“Please, Reid,” I begged shamelessly. “Please, please please.”
Reid answered by biting my neck gently, and with one swivel of his glorious hips I fell apart. Reid and I shook together, the room filled with the smell of us.
“Ohhh,” I panted shakily. My arms were unsteady, and my legs were weary but I didn’t want to let go of Reid just yet. I wanted his weight on me, his heart beating with mine, his hot breath hitting my neck and my shoulder.
“Fuck me,” exhaled Reid. “Eight weeks of foreplay, and we didn’t even last twenty minutes.”
My laughed joined the sound of our heavy breaths. “No, but with more practice like that, we’ll have a football team by the time we’re thirty.”
Reid lifted his head, his arms caging me in against the bed. “You’re really happy to spend forever with me?”
I smiled shyly, rubbing my feet up and down his calf muscles. “If you’ll have me.”
“Meh,” shrugged Reid. “You’ll do.”
He kissed me before I could respond, and spent the rest of the night giving me glimpses of our forever. He’d been there, waiting for me our entire lives, and after making a mess of things we finally found ourselves face-to-face. His body was my body, his heart was my heart, his soul was my soul, and it all started when we unknowingly blurred the line between friendship, and everything else we were meant to be.
~ The End ~
Sheltered
By L.A. Casey
Chapter One
CRYING AND HOWLING.
That was what woke up me up in the dead of the night.
I winced at the shrill sounds and managed to lift my left eyelid open enough to see. I looked up and through the shadowed night and there on my nightstand I saw the big red taunting numbers that read: 03:12.
This was not happening.
I whimpered to myself as I squeezed my eyes shut and tried to hold onto sleep a little longer. For a few seconds things were silent and I relaxed, but then a God-awful wail ripped though my apartment and sent a chill down my spine.
I quickly sat upright, fumbled with my bed sheets as I kicked and pushed them off my body, then jumped off my mattress and ran for my bedroom door. My room was pitch black, so I missed my door handle the first time I reached for it. This caused me to run and body slam into said door as I rushed forward.
"Bloody hell," I groaned in pain and lifted my hand to my pounding forehead.
The crying and howling in my sitting room intensified, and it caused a panic to rise within me. I could picture my pain in arse neighbours banging on my door and the guards being called for the noise disturbance.
Shite.
"I'm coming," I called out to my temporary houseguest.
I pressed my hands flat against my bedroom door and felt around. I found the handle quickly and when I had ahold of it, I pulled the door open. I blinked at the harshness of my hallway light as it wreaked havoc on my retinas. I lifted my hands to my eyes and thoroughly rubbed them. A few seconds later I lowered my hands and opened my eyes, glad to find they quickly adjusted to the lighting.
Another wail sounded and it sprung me back into mama-bear action. I jogged the rest of the way down my hallway and into my sitting room. I opened the door and placed my hand on the wall of the room and felt for the light switch. When my hand ran over it, I flipped the switch and glanced around the room.
I locked eyes on the cage my houseguest was in and the sight of him broke my heart. He looked scared... no, more like terrified. I walked over to the West Highland Terrier I was puppy-sitting and kneeled down before him. I opened the cage door and lifted him into my arms.
"What's wrong with you, buddy?" I cooed and kissed the crowned of his head.
He whimpered, but quickly snuggled himself into my body. I had him pressed against my chest and he made himself comfortable by wiggling his head around until it rested in the crook of my neck. I tiredly chuckled as I turned and walked over to my large sofa. I sat down and leaned back against the soft cushion behind me.
I closed my eyes and sighed deeply.
I was so tired and knowing I had to be up at seven am to get into work on time didn't help matters. I was tempted to ring in at seven with an excuse that I wasn't feeling well, but I would only get caught up in a web of lies that my employers would surely find out about. Seeing as my employers were my parents, I'd never get away with saying I was ill. My mother would come to check on me and see right through me – and my fabricated illness.
The puppy lightly whimpered against my neck and regained my attention. I lifted my hand and lightly stroked him until he settled down again. After a minute or two, his breathing evened out as he fell into a peaceful slumber.
Thank God.
I thought about work again and closed my eyes. I loved my job, but man, it was tiring. My parents ran a shelter for animals in need. It was a family business that we all worked in. Myself, my three older sisters, my mother, my father, my auntie, her daughter and son, and my three uncles from my father's side of the family.
We were situated on the mountains in South Dublin, Ireland. The national shelter for animals in need was the ISPCA, but the closest centre was over an hour and a half away from us. Sadly, a lot of animals were abandoned on the mountains. People would bring their pets out to a trail, tie them up then drive off and leave them there. It was a decade ago that my parents decided to open up their own shelter to help the animals in our area after rescuing a puppy abandoned on one of the trails my parent's frequently walked.
My parents bought a large site of land close to the trail and built our very own shelter, and a veterinarian office for my father to work out of. They used all their retirement savings to get everything up and running. To save on costs, and to help out family members who needed a job, my father hired only family members to work at our shelter.
Two of my sisters, Tatum and Sage, would eventually become full-time at the shelter after they finished school. They each went to college in pursuit of a veterinarian careers. Me, on the other hand, I was happy enough working full-time at the shelter. I loved being surrounded by the animals all day, everyday.
I don't want to do anything else for work, I am perfectly happy as I am.
Just because I loved it, didn't mean I wouldn't like a break every now and then, though. There were no off days when you worked in a family run shelter – there were always animals that needed help. As much as I belly-ached, the benefits of my job outweighed the cons ten to one, so I couldn't really complain.
I pushed work from my mind, and let my thoughts drift as I chased sleep down. Any chance of grabbing a couple more hours of Z's disappeared when I heard my phone ring from my bedroom.
I held the still sleeping puppy to my chest as I stood up from my sofa and walked to my bedroom. I dragged my feet along the floor of my hallway until I entered my bedroom and headed to my nightstand. I picked up my ringing phone, answered it, and placed it too my ear.
"Hello?" I yawned.
"Shay, it's me," my father's voice grunted. "My bloody car won't start and I got a call about an abandoned dog on the loose on the road close to the shelter. The dog isn't in great shape, it could have been injured somehow so a man picked it up and he is at the shelter now. I couldn't hear him very well, but that was the gist of what he told me. Can you go there and admit the dog then put it in a kennel? I'll be there as soon as I figure out what the problem with my car is."
I yawned, again. "No problem, I'll head right in."
My father exhaled. "Thanks, darling."
He hung up so I dropped my phone onto my bed, placed the puppy on my pillow then turned on the light in my bedroom. I went into my bathroom, washed my hands and face and brushed my hair out before tying it back up into a high ponytail. I brushed my teeth and gargled some mouthwash before heading back into my bedroom.
I opened the doors to my wardrobe and grabbed a white oversized shirt, and a pair of black gym shorts. I removed my pyjamas then put on my clothes. I put on a pair of ankle socks then pulled my Converse onto my feet. I pocketed my phone and keys before I picked up the sleeping puppy from my pillow and nuzzled him against my chest.
I switched off all the lights in my apartment before I exited it. I locked up my front door and headed down the stairs of my apartment complex and out to the tenant car park. I covered the puppy with my arms as I lightly jogged over to my car.
There was a breeze outside, and even at the hour it was starting to heat up. This July was Ireland's hottest in over one hundred years. We hardly ever had hot weather, but everyday this summer has been in the high twenties and mid thirties.
It was boiling hot for us pasty-white Irish folk.
I unlocked my car, climbed inside and accidentally slammed the door shut behind me. I frowned down at the puppy when he jumped with fright as the sound filled the cold car. I mentally smacked myself and quickly comforted him with snuggles. He settled pretty quickly so I placed him on my passenger seat on top of the blanket I left there for him. I was going to have to bring him to work with me when I woke up in a few hours anyway so I figured leaving a blanket there for him would be the smarter thing to do.
He was a perfectly healthy puppy, that we would hopefully find a home for soon. A man brought him in a few weeks ago, he was the only surviving pup from a litter his dog had. The man couldn't afford to keep him, so we took him in. The kennels in the shelter were pretty packed with animals right now, which is why I volunteered to keep the puppy for a few days.
Today marked the fourth day that he’d been in my care, and I had my fingers crossed it would be the final day as a family was coming to the shelter to view him later in the day. Hopefully they would be adopting him and bringing him home with them. I was sure they would take him, puppies and other younger animals easily found homes - it was the older animals that struggled.
I looked from the now snoozing puppy and focused on my car. I started the engine, switched on the headlights and carefully pulled out of my parking spot. Within minutes I was on the main road heading towards the shelter. The site where the shelter and my father's vet office were located was half way up the mountainside and that meant narrow roads.
Very narrow roads.
I hated driving on them when it was sunny and bright outside, but driving on them in the dark made me sick with nerves . I was just thankful it wasn't raining out because that would have been hell.
I drove ten kilometres under the speed limit, and I prayed to God that if anyone was driving on the road at the late hour of night, that they at least had their lights on and drove slowly.
Knocking someone down or getting into a crash was not on my to-do list this morning.
I shook my head clear and focused on driving my car. I nervously bit down on my lower lip when I turned on the first left sharp bend as I climbed the mountain. I blew out a laboured breath when I cleared the corner, but I instantly tensed up when I saw headlights up ahead.
"Stay focused. Stay in your own lane. Don't look at the headlights," I murmured to myself as I kept my steering wheel steady.
I relaxed my body as the oncoming car passed me by. I took the next three bends as carefully as I took the first then lightly put my foot down on the accelerator as I came to the long stretch of road that led to a couple of farms, the shelter, and then up to the middle of nowhere. People usually drove up here to walk one of the many trails throughout the public forest, but luckily there was no sign of anyone.
Once my nerves settled, I arrived at the shelter's entrance rather quickly. I pulled up slowly and could make out a large car parked off to the side of the closed gates that lead into the premises.
My headlights shone on the car as I pulled up and I saw it was a black Range Rover. It was a brand new model and big as hell.
I would need a stepladder just to climb up into the thing.
I shook my head clear and focused on the man that was leaning against the monster of a vehicle. I nervously took in his appearance. He was dressed in black and was completely covered. He had the hood of the hoodie he was wearing pulled up over his head, and the shadows from the night rendered it impossible to see his face from where I was sitting.
I shut off the engine, pulled up the handbrake and blew out a shaky breath as I pressed on the button on the door, lowering the window. "Are... are you the man who spoke to my father?" I shouted over to the mysterious man who was still leaning against the huge car.
I saw his hooded head bob up and down. "Yes... are you a vet, too? The dog needs urgent medical care."
His voice was so deep, it caught me by surprise and I hesitated in replying. I quickly snapped out of it.
Medical care?
"Why?" I asked, overlooking the man's first question. "Didn't you just pick him up to drop him off?"
The man's form didn't move for a moment then he shook his head. "I hit it with my car... by accident."
Damn it.
Nervousness and worries about the man disappeared as I sprung into action. I jumped out of my car, and quickly headed straight for the back door on the man's massive car. Without asking permission to do so, I opened the door, climbed up into the car and leaned down over dog.
From a quick glance I saw the breed was Labrador retriever, but I couldn't tell the sex or the extent of the dog's injury. I checked for blood coming from the dog's mouth, eyes, and ears, but luckily saw none.
The dog was conscious and lightly whining in pain.
I couldn't exam the animal any further – not that I would know what was wrong even if I did – so I got out of the car and turned to the man who was standing right next to the opened door.
I still couldn't see his face. The hood was pulled down so low I couldn't even catch a glimpse of some of his features let alone his entire face.
"I'm going to drive in, you follow me... okay?"
&nb
sp; "Okay," the man replied with a firm nod.
I rushed up to the gates, and with my keys in hand I found the master key for the shelter and unlocked the gates. I then turned and ran over to my car. I climbed in, started the engine and took off without putting my belt on. Stupid decision, but I was in a hurry. I quickly passed through the now opened gates and entered the premises. I zoomed over to the closest parking spot next to the entrance of my father's veterinarian office and parked my car. I scooped up the still snoozing puppy from the passenger seat and jumped out of my car, slamming the door shut behind me.
The hooded man was in the process of parking next to my car. When I heard the engine shut off, I approached the vehicle. I opened the back passenger door and peered in at the injured animal while the man jumped out of the driver's side and came up behind me.
"I'll grab the dog, you go ahead and open up the door so we can get him inside."
Duh.
"Right, okay."
I turned and briskly walked over to the entrance of my father's office and opened up the door. I entered the building and quickly entered the code into the alarm system before an unholy noise could blare throughout the premises.
I reached for the light switch panel on the wall next to the alarm and pushed all the switches upward. The entrance to my father's office lit up, and so did every other room in the small building.
"This is the shelter?" the man questioned from behind me.
I looked over my shoulder as he glanced around distastefully.
I got a little annoyed at his obvious disgust. The office was clean and up to regulation standards. We all knew it wasn't something rather nice to look at, but we didn't have spare money to decorate. It was either a clean clinic or a pretty clinic.
We chose the former.
"No, this is my father's veterinarian clinic. This is his office where he examines and treats the animals. The shelter is the bigger building off to the left of this one. It's just behind the mass of trees that decorate the front of the property. You probably missed it."