Overlooked

by Lulu Pratt

  Waves radiate out from between my legs as I grip Knox for support. I realize I’m digging my nails deep into the flesh of his back, and force my fingers to relax.

  Knox growls and his cock throbs. He slams his pelvis into mine and buries himself deep inside me as he comes.

  His chest heaves as he hovers over me, and we both struggle to catch our breath.

  Looking down at me, he says, “I’m really looking forward to having you beg me to do whatever I want to you,” he pauses, and adds with a smile, “and your kitten.”

  Fuck, I suddenly understand.

  My breath catches in my lungs, and I feel like I’m suffocating. I turn my head to the side and force a cough. I can’t bring myself to look at Knox, but I can feel his body jiggle as he laughs.

  I try to wiggle out from under him, to run away and hide. Knox cages me in, I can’t go anywhere. I should’ve known from the way he didn’t freak out at my wall of sex toys on Friday. Idiot.

  “Don’t run away from your unicorn, you’ve got to hold onto me tight,” he says, grinding his dick into me as he speaks.

  I cringe, once again wanting the earth to swallow me whole.

  Resigned, I ask, “How long have you known?”

  “Since the first time we met.”

  “Oh, you’re a longtime fan?” I tease, trying to turn the tables.

  Knox laughs and I snap my head up to look at him. As soon as my lips are angled up, he plants a kiss on them, still half laughing.

  “What?” I ask.

  “Hardly. That day a friend told me you’d moved to town. I’d never heard of you, so he showed me your videos. When I met you that night, I couldn’t believe the hot chick who gives out sex advice was living next door to me.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me? That’s some kind of invasion of privacy, or something.” I push my hands up on his chest to move him off me, but Knox doesn’t budge.

  “I tried to comment on the unicorn video,” I cringe again when he says unicorn, “But my account’s been banned. Apparently you can’t make threatening comments.”

  “Did you make other comments on my videos?”

  He kisses my forehead, and says, “Yes.”

  My brow creases as I try to understand what he’s saying. He was banned? Was he the troll?

  “Jerk, how dare you make all those comments about me.”

  “You were supposed to appreciate them.”

  “This is insane. First you don’t tell me you knew about my videos, now you’re telling me you were my troll. Do you know how upsetting those types of comments are to me?”

  “Why? You should be thanking me.”

  That’s it. “Get out of me,” I demand, pushing him.

  “What the fuck, baby?” he says, kneeling back. “I shouldn’t have told you. I didn’t have to, you know. But since you’re posting about me now, I thought it would be the nice thing to do.”

  In my mind, I’m leaping to my feet in outrage. In reality, my legs are like fucking jelly, and they’re not leaping anywhere. My mind races over everything he’s said and done.

  Fuck. The shaving. Shit. The shower. The hard, fast fuck. Wearing the blue top to suck him off.

  Knox looks at me. “That Hung like a Donkey guy was saying some nasty things to you. I thought you would appreciate your… unicorn protecting you.”

  I understand. A smile spreads across my face. He’s not my troll.

  “That’s why you wanted me to wear the blue top while I sucked you off, isn’t it?”

  Now it’s his turn to look awkward. Knox looks away and for a second, his breathing pauses.

  “You’ve probably been over there watching that video, jerking off and dreaming of me giving you the best blow job ever. Am I right?”

  Knox leans down, grabs my head and pulls it close to his mouth. “So what if I did,” he growls.

  Holy shit, I wasn’t expecting that answer. He did? He admitted that? Butterflies explode in my chest.

  Breathlessly, I say, “I hope the real thing lived up to your expectations.”

  “Better, even,” Knox says, and crushes his lips against mine.

  Our kiss has all the heat and passion as the earlier one in the bathroom. For a moment, I think we’re going to start all over again.

  He breaks the kiss, and says “I have to get some work done.”

  “So do I.”

  “What are you going to say about me today?”

  “Nothing. You’re not always the subject, you know. In fact, you barely ever are.” There goes my idea for today. I’ll have to do a question-answering video to make up for it.

  “Let me know if you need any help. I’ll be more than happy to give you some more ideas.”

  Knox leaves the room. His clothes are still in the bathroom. I’d follow him to get my bathrobe but my body is still tingling so much that I can’t bring myself to get off the bed.

  He returns, carrying his clothes, and sits on the edge of the bed to dress.

  “Are you at your car thing tonight?”

  “Every Monday.”

  “Want me to watch Piper?”

  “Yeah, if you don’t mind.”

  “Not at all, she’s a cool kid. You’ve done a great job raising her,” I say, and immediately feel foolish. Is it weird to tell a guy you think he’s a good parent?

  Knox turns his head to me, his eyebrows raised, “You think so?”

  I manage to crawl over to him, and drape myself over his back.

  “Absolutely. Piper sure is lucky to have such a great dad.”

  He doesn’t say anything, and I feel like an idiot. Why did I say that? Just because I think it. I have to get better at this arrangement. It’s sex, nothing more.

  How can I make it nothing more?

  Knox stands to pull up his shorts, and I slump back onto the bed. He does up the button, and I don’t want him to leave. I want him to stay and hang out with me all day. But I know we both have mortgages to pay.

  “See ya,” he says, and steps towards the bedroom door.

  “If you want a nice lunch break, you know where I am,” I say.

  He grunts as he goes through the door. Maybe the father comments were too much. Too far out of a fuck-buddy agreement.

  A second later, he pokes his head back in the door, and says, “Come for dinner tonight, before I go.”

  “Sure,” I say, filled with relief as the butterflies fill my chest again.

  “We eat early tonight, I leave at five thirty.”

  Knox’s feet are heavy as he walks away. “Okay,” I call out as he thumps down the stairs.

  “I still don’t know why you’re so angry at me for attacking that other poster,” he yells up from the bottom of the stairs.

  “I’m not,” I yell on reflex, and the door bangs shut. How could I be? I still can’t believe he’s Ox Man, and that he cared enough to attack Hung like a Donkey for me.

  I’m speechless. And still jelly. I flop back on the bed, hoping I’ll be able to walk straight by dinner.

  Why do I have to live next to such a great guy when I can never be anything more but a neighbor with benefits?

  Knox

  Every Monday, I stop working at five, have a quick shower, and heat up the leftovers of the one-pot wonder I make on Sundays for supper. I don’t have much time, the classic car ride starts at six, and it’s a thirty-minute drive.

  Today, like every day after school, Piper is in her room doing homework. She likes to get it out of the way so she can watch Law & Order in the evening. She only shows her face after I call her for dinner. Though maybe she’s avoiding helping to get dinner ready.

  At one minute to five, the doorbell rings. I expected Piper to get it, but she doesn’t so I make my way to the door and open it. Avery stands on the step, a silky scarf wrapped around her neck, a half smile on her face.

  Damn her. I don’t know what I was thinking when I invited Avery for dinner tonight.

  “Hey,” she says.

  “Come in.” I t
urn and walk back to the kitchen.

  “Where’s Piper?”

  “Upstairs, doing her homework.”

  Avery stands close to me, too close. She stands on her tiptoes and whispers, “Don’t worry, not even a hint.”

  Before she can move away, I grab her tight and breathe her in. My lips brush against hers and her mouth parts.

  This isn’t good she shouldn’t be here. This goes against all my rules. The rules I’ve followed for thirteen years.

  The problem is, I want her here.

  “I need to hurry,” I say, backing away from her before my dick wakes up.

  “Of course.”

  Avery passes me the plates from the cupboard, and I load them up with my chili. When they’re full, Avery puts them on the table and gets the cutlery while I get the sour cream.

  “Supper,” I yell.

  Piper thumps out of her bedroom and comes bounding down the stairs.

  “Avery!” she says when she enters the kitchen.

  “Hey Piper. I thought I’d come hang out with you tonight, keep you company.”

  “Cool.”

  “I won’t be late, Piper. Home by seven thirty on the dot.” The ride ends at seven, I can leave any new clients to Marcus and get the hell out of there and back to my girl.

  “Don’t worry about us,” Avery says. “We can amuse ourselves.”

  Taking my eyes off my plate, I glance up at her and our eyes meet. A shudder runs through me, and I quickly fix my eyes back on my food.

  “Guess what?” Piper says to Avery. “I’m finished middle school in less than two weeks.”

  “That’s exciting. Big plans for the summer?”

  “Nope. Only preparing for high school.”

  “It’ll be a big change, that’s for sure,” Avery says.

  I can’t believe she’s starting high school. How will I react when she starts bringing boys home? Other than to scare the shit out of them.

  “Avery, can you come to my eighth grade graduation? It would be so awesome if you could come.”

  “I don’t know, what are your dad’s plans?” Avery asks.

  I don’t have any, I think. Just turn up and see my baby officially finish grade school.

  “I have big plans, it’s so exciting, and I want you to be there for it,” Piper says.

  “What plans?” I ask. I don’t know anything about any big plans.

  “It’s a surprise. For you too, Dad.”

  “I don’t like surprises.”

  “Well too bad, it’s my graduation, my surprise.”

  There’s no point in arguing with her right now. I shake my head and shovel the rest of the food in my mouth while the two of them talk. Listening to them relaxes me.

  “Gotta run,” I say.

  Like always, I leave my plate on the table. I’ll clean it up when I get home, after Piper goes to bed. I grab my wallet, phone, and keys, and walk out the door.

  After sliding into my Thunderbird, I turn the key and listen to the engine purr. As I drive to the car show, I consider what just happened. I sat and had dinner with Avery and Piper. And afterwards, I left the two of them together and walked out the door to go to work. As if we were a family.

  It’s not something I’ve ever wanted. And it’s dangerous. So why did I invite Avery into my house?

  As much as I don’t want to admit it, I like hanging out with Avery, even when she’s fully clothed.

  The realization pisses me off. I spend the entire time at the event leaning on the side of my car with my arms crossed, angry. The hood is up, people can look if they want, but I’m in no mood to talk to anyone.

  Why the fuck did I let Avery get into my head? I broke the rules. No fucking the same chick more than once a month. No fucking anyone Piper knows. No relationships.

  I couldn’t keep my cock in my pants, and now everything is fucked up.

  “What the fuck is your problem tonight?” Marcus says, on his walk up and down the street.

  He calls it mingling. I call it trolling for pussy. At least that’s what I called it when I did it. Marcus has a harder time than I ever did. The blond man-bun doesn’t help, but his real problem is his clothes. The chicks here aren’t interested in suits, they want muscles on display.

  “Nothing.”

  He leans on the car beside me. “I’ve known you a long time, buddy, this ain’t nothing. You are fucking pissed. Look at you, your face is so hard, you’re scaring people away.”

  “Good.”

  “Is it that new pussy you were telling me about?”

  “Go fuck yourself.”

  “Is that a no?”

  I exhale sharply. I can’t even figure out what it is. Or if this is about Piper or not. Sure, she’s great, but now I’ve got all these fucking feelings for Avery that I never wanted to have, and I don’t know how I can have both of them.

  I swore up and down when Piper was put in my arms that first day that I wouldn’t expose her to a string of relationships. That I wouldn’t be like my mother. I had a different daddy every month. Sometimes every week. None of them lasted. None of them gave a damn about me.

  I wasn’t going to repeat that with a string of women. At least not in my house. My pussy and my child would be kept far apart.

  But before now, I could never see myself with anything but a string of women. How could any man be happy with just one? As far as I was concerned, all I wanted to do was bend them over my car and have a little fun for the night.

  “You going to say anything?” Marcus asks.

  “Nope.”

  “Whatever is going on, you need to lighten up.”

  “Lighten up?” I repeat, my lip snarled.

  “Yeah man, you always take life so seriously. Stop denying yourself for once. Loosen up and enjoy things.”

  “I have a kid, I can’t.”

  Marcus laughs, “Piper’d probably thank you for not being such an uptight bastard. And so would I.”

  I grunt, my back muscles tense with the situation.

  “I thought you were fucking her today. Did it fall through?”

  Against my will, a smile forms on my face.

  “You dog. Was she as good as you thought she’d be? Did you get your cock down the bitch’s throat?”

  Just as fast, the smile vanishes.

  “Shut your fucking mouth,” I snap, unwilling to hear him talk about Avery like that.

  “Touchy. Sounds like it’s more than a little fuck to me.”

  “I’m going home.”

  Without waiting for Marcus to leave, I shut my hood, open my car door, get in and start the engine.

  I have a thirty-minute drive to figure out what to say to Avery when I get home.

  Avery

  “Like I said, one Law & Order is enough. We’re watching something else.”

  “But the deal was I help with the dishes and we can watch it,” Piper says, pouting.

  After Knox left, we finished our supper at a slower pace, chatting about all sorts of things. But I was too chicken to go anywhere near the subject of her mother. Piper didn’t bring it up, so I left it alone.

  When we finished eating, Piper left the room. My mother would’ve killed me if I did that. I hauled her back and told her we were watching the news channel all night unless she helped me clean everything up. And I may have lectured her on helping her father out more.

  “We did watch Law & Order, it just finished. Now we’re going to watch something else. How about Community?”

  “Fine,” she grumbles. Sometimes I see a lot of Knox in her.

  “You can pick the episode,” I say as a peace offering.

  Piper takes the remote and scrolls through Hulu until she finds the episode she wants. It’s the first paintball fight, one of my favorites. And apparently one of Knox’s. Figures we’d have the same favorite TV show of all time. And favorite band. I wonder what else there is.

  We just watched the paintball episode when I was here on Thursday. That night was easy, too. Being
in this house is too comfortable. With both Knox and Piper.

  Forget comfortable, who am I kidding? I like being here. I like them. I want to hang out with them both.

  But like I’ve been telling myself all day, I have to remember this is about sex.

  I don’t know how to make it only about sex when Knox does things like invite me over for dinner and defend me against internet trolls. How? This isn’t fair. And it’s never going to work.

  Because the more time I spend with him, naked or not, the more time I want to spend with him.

  Why did I get myself into this situation. The more I sit here, rolling it around in my mind, the more upset I become. Tears prick my eyes, and I pretend to laugh so I can wipe them away without Piper noticing.

  I’m not cut out for a fuck-buddy arrangement. I can’t keep my feelings separate. It’s never going to be enough for me, and it’s better I end it now, before my feelings get even stronger.

  It will hurt far less.

  Shutting my door on the most amazing sex ever is going to be difficult and require every ounce of my willpower, but I have no choice. I can’t let my heart get involved any more than it already is, because I know I would be crushed. Knox made it clear, no relationship. And here I am, not even a week later, wanting more from him than just his body.

  I have no choice.

  Piper put the next Community episode on, the conclusion to the paintball episode. I glance at my watch, it’s almost seven thirty, Knox should be home any minute. I’m not sure I can face him now.

  “Wow, I just had this crazy brainstorm of ideas for my book,” I say without looking at Piper. Does she still think I’m writing a book? “I need to get going so I can write them all down before I forget. Your dad will be home in a minute, are you all right if I go now?” I force as much enthusiasm into my voice as possible.

  “Of course. I’m almost in high school. Remember?” Piper says.

  I don’t know if it’s wrong to leave her, but it’s only for a few minutes. Knox will be home soon. And if I’m here when he gets home, I know there’s no way in hell I’ll be able to hide my feelings. Piper would get a full display, and I can’t do that. It’s too important to him.

  “Great, thanks,” I say, and stand to leave.

  “Avery?”

  “Yeah?”