by M. C. Cerny
“Okay that works too.” Deflated, I sipped my coffee watching the scenery turn more mountainous heading back to New Paltz. The bitter taste reminded me of my mother and I put the coffee down uninterested in the caffeine buzz.
I turned the radio on to a pop station filled with my contemporaries bopping and rapping about life’s woes.
Whit turned the radio off.
“Hey, I was listening to that.” I grumbled.
He made a grumble that sounded like bullshit. “No, you were avoiding me.”
“Can’t let anything go, can you?” I’m annoyed. Irritated. I’d blame my PMS, but Whit was so up my ass at the moment considering our method of birth control he’d call me out quicker than I could pull my calendar out.
“Nothing gets by me.” He’s focused on driving, expertly weaving between traffic making good time.
“Nope. It certainly doesn’t.”
I didn’t know what I expected at this point, but an understanding boyfriend who sensed how hard today was for me hadn’t really crossed my mind.
“Do you want to elaborate or leave me in the dark? I’m not a mind reader.” He patted my leg and I brushed him off by crossing it and turning toward the window. I can’t have him touch me when he wants to converse. He might swerve off the road or I’d find myself crawling over the console.
“I knew today was going to be difficult. It puts me a mood that takes a few days to unravel because my mother…” I chewed my bottom lip unable to verbalize the strained relationship. She wanted things from me I couldn’t give her. Things like control over my decisions and interests. Telling her I wanted to switch my major nearly made her head explode.
Whit cleared his throat. “Your mother loves you.” I grunted and Whit gripped above my good knee. “In a weird way, I can tell she loves you. I wish I knew what that was like.” He’s suddenly quiet.
I reach for him and he turns his palm up to hold mine.
“I feel like an idiot. Ungrateful. Will you tell me about them.”
“Sure.” I waited a full minute for him to speak again and the roughness in his voice tells me another part of this story. The part where, even the strongest men fall to their knees at some point and loving them is the only thing that brings them back up. I wanted to love Whit enough and have him stand with me.
“I grew up in Boston first. My parents loved the city. The sparkle of lights and busy streets. My mother loved to get dressed up and go out with my father.”
Whit lifted my hand pressing a soft, barely there kiss to it.
“We lived in a pretty brownstone house with cobbled alleyways and a nanny who watched me. My dad’s parents always lived out here. The house I own was my grandfather’s. When he died, I gutted it and had Hunter help me rebuild.”
I’m not sure if he’s going to tell me what happened to them or not, but I know it isn’t good. I knew they died, but I never probed into the circumstances. It seemed like one of those conversations you didn’t start unless invited and Whit was like a brick wall. The mood shifted from subdued to heavy and I would have given anything to break the silence until he spoke again.
“It was a Friday night when it happened. I was ten and they didn’t come home.”
“Oh Whittaker.” I sobbed. It was impossible to contain the well of emotion that threatened to drown me.
“I used to sit in my window seat long after the nanny put me to bed and wait for them to come home. There was nothing better than the sound of my mother’s soft laughter and my dad whispering something meant only for her ears.”
He stopped for a second and brushed his hand over his face wiped off tears. How could not with a memory as visceral as that.
“I waited all night until dawn broke. A ring at the doorbell launched me from my window seat. A police office said there’d been an accident. A gas main exploded and several people had been trapped inside a restaurant, my parents included.”
I hunched over in shock. Whit stopped the story there and I sat thinking. Unblinking. I couldn’t speak, but I wanted to hold him.
“Take me home with you.” I asked feeling wounded.
Whit made a sound, a mix between a chuckle and a groan filled with grief. “I didn’t tell you this story so you would feel poorly and come back to my house.”
“That’s not why I want to come over.”
“It isn’t?” He said with a defensive tone. “Most girls dig a guy with a sad story and baggage.”
I dried up my tears. “I think we both know I bring the baggage to this relationship.”
20
Lia
Vegas is a whirlwind of colors and movement. I tried to catch everything on my camera from the airport to the drive. It was a surprise for the bachelor, Whit’s friends Hunter that us ladies would be here. I was excited to hang out with new friends. I’d already snuck a drink with Kristen on the plane and arranged for us to get tattoos before we met up with the guys. I just didn’t expect Whit to be uptight twenty-five hundred miles from home. We’d been here barely a few hours and he looked like he wanted to drag me home again.
Whittaker hustled down the sidewalk past street performers, clouds of hazy weird smelling smoke and a light show put on by one of the many hotels. I was out of breath and struggling to keep pace with his much longer stride.
“Hey, would you slow down Ranger Jones. I don’t see a bear chasing us.” To say my boyfriend had been oddly quiet since his confession du jour before this trip was an understatement.
He spun me around and pressed me back against the cement railing that butted up against a pool of glowing water.
“You’re vexing me purposefully aren’t you.” He rested his hands on the railing on either side of me. We’re separated by mere inches and his breath is slightly coated in beer.
“I vex you?” I said incredulously. I felt like I’d been walking around on eggshells around him afraid to mention my parents or his or any combination of the two.
“You. Vex. Me.” His glare didn’t match the way he licked his lips or the way his pulse thumped in the side of his neck wild and visible. If I had condors conducting a dance party when he was around I supposed the turnabout was fair play.
“Delightful.” I murmured. “And pray tell, Ranger Jones, what is it this evening you find so vexing about me.”
He doesn’t respond, but his nose follows a trail along the line of my neck from my center to the hollow just under my ear. His fingers pinched into my hip bones. I winced at the spot of my new tattoo.
“That shit better wash off.” He growled pressing harder.
My hands reached up in between us pressing him back with all my strength. Two pushes and I relented. Yeah. No. I wasn’t budging his grumpy highness until he had his say.
“Highly unlikely.” I nuzzled against his neck laying a light kiss of my own against his slightly salty skin.
“Your mother.” He growled.
I pinched his side, hard. “Has no place on this trip.” I shut down his chastisement and instead hugged him. We fit together and under the sparkly lights everything seemed magical and like a fairytale.
“I don’t want to argue this weekend, please.” I pleaded.
“Don’t you think that’s kind of our thing now?” I knew Whit was joking but it wasn’t that funny.
“Sometimes I think you look for things to get riled up about. Like some caveman thing. What if I suggested we go zip-lining right now.” I gave him a pointed glare.
“On an empty stomach?”
I huffed. Was he serious or was he feeding into me. By the look on his face I thought he might be serious.
“There are twenty-four hour buffets on every corner and you’re going to complain about not eating before flying down Fremont Street?”
Whit flapped his arms looking less like my hot condor and more like a squawking pigeon stomping around the City of Sin. “Someone has to be the responsible adult here.”
Well, now.
The gauntlet had been thrown down. I felt my chee
ks heat and my temper rise to the surface. If we weren’t fighting we were fucking. At some point one of us was going to tire of the game and it didn’t matter who was older. I didn’t know if I wanted to cry or yell at him.
“Whit, what is the problem?”
He shuts his eyes tilting his head up to the sky. “I don’t know how to handle this.”
I don’t get the chance to walk away because he’s taking my hand and ushering me back toward the hotel. He doesn’t speak and it’s frustrating. He’s mad about the tattoo. Fine. I get it, but it’s my body. I wasn’t planning on telling my mom until it slipped out someday as an afterthought. You know how that happens. One minute you’re talking about which Pantone color will dominate the season and boom mic drop, I have a tattoo on my hip.
Perchance she’d see it the next time we were on a family vacation or maybe not. It wasn’t planned and it wasn’t any of her business.
“Maybe if you relaxed a little and looked at my age as something to be savored instead of forlorn over we’d be a normal couple.”
“We’re not a normal couple.” He grunted.
“We’re fighting over a tattoo. I didn’t rob a bank.”
“How do I know that’s not next or you list of things to check off your bucket list?”
“You left me with your friends unattended.” I pointed out reminding him of Kristen and Taylor Jane. Both super nice but complete strangers to me. I think I handled myself pretty well considering it was totally obvious the guys went to a strip club while we went to a tattoo parlor and got tasteful ink ingrained in our skin.
“I did, didn’t I.” He said grabbing the back of his neck.
I placed my hand over his heart feeling the jump of its beat. “Yes, you did.”
We stared each other down until a rowdy crowd from the sidewalk emerged. Damien bumped into Whit a little unsteady on his feet. Hunter picked him back up chuffing at his cousin’s clumsiness or drunkenness.
“We missed you sneaking out.” Kristen wrapped her arm around me and I restrained my smile. Whit looked chagrined. Yes, you big oaf, this is what you left me with. If anyone was going to find trouble this weekend. It was this girl clinging to me.
Chase scanned his watch. “Time for the buffet.”
“Dude this isn’t the itinerary I planned.” Damien straightened and pulled a wad of papers from his back pocket.
“Hunter are you hungry?” Chase asked the bachelor.
The big guy shrugged and said, “I could eat.”
“Buffet it is.” Chase pointed down the street leading half the crew with him.
I nudged Whit, “So zip lining?”
“You’re killing me Pixie.” He wrapped an arm around me and we followed them toward sustenance.
21
Whit
“Isn’t one of us supposed to apologize first?” Lia cocked her hip, hands on them attempting to look tough. Pixie didn’t look the least bit contrite. I wasn’t sure I really wanted her too, so I grabbed her hand, tugged her close, and wrapped her up in my arms. No way was I letting her out of this.
“Yeah, I’ll go after you go.” I waited for her to glare at me giving her a wink.
She gives in sniffling, her upturned nose wrinkled trying too hard to not smile as her anger melted in my embrace.
“You big jerk.” She attempted poking my chest, hands squashed between us. I hold her hands in mine smoothing the fight out of her.
She leaned in to hug me. I didn’t ever want to lose that feeling of holding her, but I don’t know how to tell her that without feeling like we’re running and leaping forward before we’ve mastered walking in this relationship. So many parts of this I’ve screwed up doing backwards or exerting unrealistic demands.
“Come on.” I cajoled.
“What? Where are we going?” Our feet shuffled in opposite directions moving us like weeble-wobbles.
“Stop looking at me suspiciously. I just want to take a walk away from everyone right now.”
She paused forcing me to stop. “Is that all?”
“Yeah.” I nodded as her arms crossed over her chest like she was bracing for another argument. That was the last thing on my mind.
“Really?”
I drawled, “Maybe not.”
“Uh huh.”
So I lead in with a random statement she has no idea if I’m prepared to act on or not. “How do you feel about pool sex?” I realized by itself it’s a jarring question. I hedged that she’s never been asked before and that’s fine by me. Better even in my current growly mood.
“Like in a pool?”
“No, in the shower.” I joked.
She stepped closer, her finger tips rested over my lips as her head twisted to scan the area before seriously whispering, “I didn’t bring a suit down here.”
I winked and leaned in close whispering back, “Neither did I.”
Her eyes narrowed, perhaps a bit suspiciously which I deserved. I kissed her nose.
“Cheeky.” She said and I guided her through a set of doors into the darkened pool area. We were finally alone away from the chaos of my friends and the hang ups of them hawking our every move. They might have joked called Lia jailbait and maybe they weren’t far off but I didn’t give a damn. We were here to celebrate Hunter and Taylor, not get caught up in the rest of their drama.
“I’ll show you mine if I can I see yours.” I pulled her close and lifted her short little dress up and off her body. She’s wearing a lace bra and panty set that remind me of a lightly frosted cake, barely there, and good enough to eat. Her brand new tattoo is covered up and I know she isn’t supposed to swim but I’m also hoping it secretly washes off like a temporary one so her mother doesn’t kill me because she will see it one day.
She shivered wrapping her arms around her covered breasts. I pull them open and placed them around my neck as I kissed her bare shoulder getting a whiff of her unique scent that turned me on ravenously.
She pushed back, “I don’t think we’re supposed to be down here after hours.”
I don’t answer the obvious question, instead I hooked my fingers in her panties tugging them down. I tossed them to the side out of reach.
“Definitely not, but where’s the fun in that?” I took off my t-shirt and got rid of the jeans leaving my boxers on so she didn’t have a major freak out. And here I thought I was the grumpy old man here.
Her arms covered her breasts again and goose bumps peppered her skin. “Whit… I thought you followed all the rules.”
I rubbed her skin warming her up. It worked when she hugged around my middle resting her head on my chest.
“Hush. Can’t I kiss my girlfriend and make out with her?”
“Proceed.” She smirked and I took that as my cue to keep going. I kissed her mouth until her lips plumped and I tasted the shots of alcohol she snuck with the girls. It’s a tart taste mixed with her sweetness.
I tweaked her nose.
“Naughty. Underage drinking.”
“I have a few months until I’m twenty-one.”
“Still.” I chastised her spanking her butt lightly earning me a squeal. She covered her ass freeing her breasts to bounce prettily.
“Whit!”
“Amelia Rae!” We laughed and I continued to kiss her walking her toward the edge of the pool slowly so she knew where I was directing her to go.
Her hands pressed my chest stopping me.
“We walking in or jumping in?” She asked eying the water.
I had no idea what temperature it would be. That was my extent of living dangerously. I shrugged indifferent how we got to the goal as long as we got there.
“Ladies choice.”
“Jump. Too cold for walking in.” She shivered.
“Agreed.”
She jumped in and I waited until she surfaced in the water laughing and out of breath. I followed her jump with a cannonball splashing her. I crowded her forcing her to swim close to the edge.
Her hands found my shoulders as a
n anchor and she fingered my hair holding on. “This is…”
“Nice.” I followed her statement and swam around with her wrapped up in my arms. Everything about Lia was nice, more than nice. She was fun, and smart, and pretty, and all the things I saw myself with years from now. However, articulating those thoughts would get me into trouble.
She wasn’t ready.
She wasn’t even close to being on the same page as me.
I guided her over to a darkened corner of the pool where the light missed casting us both in shadow.
“I feel like we’re about to get caught out here.” Lia giggled and I nipped her wet nose.
“If anything all they’ll see is my bare ass. I’m not about to let anyone feast their eyes on you, that’s mine.” I growled squeezing her.
“Yours huh?”
“That’s right.” I propped my arms up on the concrete pressing into her. She wound her arms around my neck cuddling me. Her breasts brushed against my chest, the nipples hard and poking me through the soaked sheer lace. My hand roamed to the back and snapped the clasp off. Her top floated in the water like a melted confection. Her small upturned breasts looked good enough to snack on. Yeah, no way in hell was I letting anyone catch a glimpse of Amelia topless, bottomless, or any form of clothing-less state if I could help it.
“I’m glad I came to Vegas.”
“For the amazing pool sex?” I joked.
She smacked my shoulder grinning. “No, although so far it’s been all talk and no show.” She grinds her mound against me. I pushed back letting her feel my hard dick standing at attention and ready to go the moment she gave me the go ahead.
I brushed her wet hair behind her cute ears. “My lady doth protest too much.”
“I doubt a dead playwright is going to help this situation.”
“You’re right. So how about I just slide my sword inside your tight little sheath?”
She pursed her lips. “Are we punning this to completion?”