by Tracey Smith
“I left like they wanted. But I didn’t go far. I couldn’t leave her. I stayed in the woods behind the house and watched. When the lights went out I snuck back into the house through a broken kitchen window.
“My father’s shotgun was still in the display case in the den. He’d taught me how to fire it when I was younger. I took the gun with me to Katelyn’s room. My plan was to take her with me. We were going to run away. I’m not sure how I thought a fourteen year old and ten year old were supposed to survive on our own, but I knew I couldn’t leave her there. I only grabbed the gun because it made me feel braver. I hadn’t planned to use it.” Aaron’s fists balled at his sides. His whole body radiated with tension. Maggie’s chest tightened as tears came into her eyes and she waited for the inevitable conclusion to this tragic tale.
“He came to her room before we could leave. He wasn’t expecting to find me there, but one look into his crazed eyes told me exactly what he was expecting when he came to my little sister’s room. She ran and hid in the closet the moment she saw him. He tried to follow after her but I stopped him. I put the gun to his chest and told him not to take another step. I told him that I was taking my little sister, that we were going to leave and that he was going to let us or else I was going to kill him. I thought he would back down. For just a minute I actually thought he’d let us go.” Aaron closed his eyes against the memory and took a deep breath before continuing.
“He looked me in the eye and told me to pull the trigger, told me if I didn’t kill him that he would kill me, but first he would make me watch as he…” Aaron trailed off as tears choked his words and he shook his head against the images. He turned to face Maggie. His eyes were pleading.
“I pulled the trigger.” His tone betrayed no emotion, but his eyes begged her to understand. She did.
“I would have too,” she answered, looking up into his sad eyes and hoping that he could see the understanding in her own. “Aaron, you were put into an impossible situation. You were just a child. No one can blame you for…”
“Everyone blamed me!” he interjected angrily. Maggie saw a hardness come over his features that she’d never seen before. He took a step away from her, putting distance between them again.
“My own mother testified against me. Testified in court that she’d suspected me of molesting my own sister! Said that he was protecting her! That I was still angry from the fight we’d had, that I’d come back to settle the score. They called it pre-meditated. They called me a murderer and they found me guilty.” His rant lost steam about halfway through. His shoulders slumped in defeat.
“What about Katelyn?” Maggie asked. “Didn’t they ask her what happened?”
“I don’t know.” He shook his head sadly. “I never saw her again.” The first tears finally broke free and slipped down his cheek.
“Never?” Maggie asked. Aaron shook his head as silent tears ran down his face.
“I was sent to a juvenile detention center until my twenty-first birthday. The last time I saw my mother was in that courtroom. The last time I saw my sister was that night, as the police were taking me away.”
She imagined what it must have been like for him to have been so young and to be locked away, alone and forgotten.
She closed the distance between them, reaching up and grasping his face in her hands. His eyes met hers and she saw in them the scared young boy he’d once been. She also saw that he expected her to run now that she knew his secret, to turn from him just the way everyone else in his life had. Anger filled her, anger for the injustice of it all. There were so many things she wanted to say, and she couldn’t think of any of them. So she kissed him.
She kissed him deeply and passionately, feeling the overwhelming rush of anger, sorrow, and frustration flowing into this one long, fiercely passionate kiss. He responded with a need of his own, a need for love, for understanding, for forgiveness. She gave it all to him. She gave him everything she had.
She ran her fingers through his hair, gripping tightly as she pulled him closer. He lifted her into his arms and she wrapped her legs around his waist. He took a few steps until he had her pinned against the wall.
She clung to him, not wanting to let go, not wanting him to stop. He slid his hands up her thighs and under her dress. She was reminded of her dream by the lake, but this was so much more. This was real. She felt the wetness pooling between her thighs, felt the painful pressure building. She needed him to ease the pain, she needed him inside her.
“Maggie, if you want me to stop you need to tell me now.” Aaron buried his face against her neck as he spoke. He was breathing heavily and his voice was strained. He started to pull away and allowed her legs to slip back to the floor as his hands slid back down her thighs. She didn’t want him to stop, she reached for him, grasping his face between her hands and kissing him again.
“Don’t stop,” she cried against his lips. She’d never been so bold before.
His hands were on her again as the last remnant of his restraint snapped. He pushed her dress to her waist and pulled her panties away with an urgency that took her breath away. He reached down between them, freeing himself, and then he lifted her again, grasping her thighs as he pressed her back against the wall and pushed inside her.
She cried out, arching her back as he thrust into her, filling her completely. She dug her nails into his back as he drove into her relentlessly, over and over with a fierceness that had her screaming out in passion. She had never known it could be like this, that a need like this could exist. She never wanted him to stop as he drove into her bringing her to the edge of sanity. She needed him, all of him, in a way she never knew possible. She cried out with each thrust until finally her world shattered.
She screamed out in climax as her body shuddered beneath him, a feeling she’d never experienced before. Her final cries pushed him over the edge as he pulled away just before his own release and they both slid to the floor.
Both of them lay panting and trembling in the aftermath. Maggie felt as if she was floating above her body. It had never been like that for her before.
“I’m sorry.” Aaron’s quiet apology broke through her euphoric haze. “I didn’t mean for it to be like that with you, Maggie.”
It took a moment for his words to register. She turned to him and saw the concern on his face, the worry in his eyes. She smiled as she reached over to place her hand against his cheek.
“It was perfect,” she assured him as she brought her lips to his once again, “but if you like we can try again.” She felt his smile against her lips.
~10~
Maggie woke slowly the next morning as images from the previous day filtered into her consciousness: the barbeque, the scene with that awful woman Mrs. Bouchard, the fireworks afterward with Aaron…suddenly she was wide awake as she remembered with stunning clarity how the evening had ended. She sat up in bed and realized two things nearly simultaneously; first, she was completely naked, and second, Aaron was asleep in bed beside her.
She looked down at the sleeping man and a smile spread across her face. He looked so peaceful laying on his stomach with his blonde hair a tussled mess around his face. She gently reached over and brushed some of his blonde curls away from his eyes as she watched him sleep.
She still couldn’t believe that this was her reality. She’d dated during her undergraduate years, but none of her relationships had ever lasted very long, none had ever broke her heart, and never before had she ever felt the passion that she’d felt with Aaron last night. She shifted in bed as she registered the intimate soreness she felt. It had not been her first time, but it had been several years since she’d been with a man, although never before had it been anything like what she’d experienced last night.
After she’d been accepted into medical school, men were no longer a priority. She’d immersed herself in her studies, even pulling away from the few friends she’d made in Boston. Every spare minute she had was spent with her nose buried in a textbook. By
the end of her second year of med school she was starved for human interaction that didn’t involve academics, but she’d basically alienated every friend she’d previously made, and making friends had never been easy for her. She’d always been rather shy. Perhaps that had something to do with the unnatural attachment she had to the fern she’d found.
However, all of that had changed once she’d come to Georgia. She thought of Andi and realized that she finally had someone she could call a best friend, a girlfriend that she could confide in. She looked down at Aaron, asleep by her side, and realized for the first time she was in danger of falling in love. She had come here to escape reality, but perhaps what she’d found instead was a new reality, a better one. How odd to realize that what had once seemed like the worst moment of her life had led to this life, which was by far better than anything she’d ever tried to plan on her own.
Maggie quietly slipped out of bed and tiptoed to the bathroom to freshen up. She considered a shower, but soaking her sore muscles in a bath was just too tempting. As she slid into the frothy, warm water all of her aches and pains melted away. She leaned her head back against the tub and allowed herself to get lost in the memories from last night.
Aaron had been so tender, touching her in ways she’d never been touched. She’d never known it could be like that. By the time she stepped out of the bath every nerve ending was zinging with sexual awareness, her memories of the previous night had flooded her senses and left her wanting more. She wrapped herself in a plush bathrobe and returned to the bedroom. She found Aaron sitting up in bed looking as if he’d just woken.
“You shouldn’t just leave a boy to wake up alone. It might make him feel cheap,” he teased as he saw her entering the room. She smiled seductively at him as she sauntered slowly across the room. He smiled in response, scooting to the edge of the bed with only the sheet wrapped around his waist.
She stopped in front of him. “We wouldn’t want that,” she replied, looking down at him. He reached over and tugged on the belt of the bathrobe, pulling it away and letting the robe fall open. She stood before him exposed, and he took his time enjoying the view. She shifted nervously. She’d never allowed a man to look at her this way. Sex had always been something that happened under covers, in a dark room, certainly not pressed against a wall like last night, and never in the light of day.
Aaron trailed his fingertips up her thighs until his hands rested on the swell of her hips. He pulled her closer as he brought his mouth to her breast. She whimpered as her knees went weak. He held her firmly as he took his time suckling and pulling at each tender nipple. His hands caressed and roamed around her backside as he began to leave a trail of kisses down her stomach. Her muscles quivered and her legs felt like Jell-O, and then just when she thought he’d gone as low as he would go his tongue flicked out and rasped against the tender fold between her thighs. She cried out in shock and delight. No one had ever done that to her before.
He grasped her thighs firmly, holding her in place as his mouth explored her intimately. She felt that building sensation that told her she was coming close to the edge again. An edge she’d only just discovered last night. Could he do that to her with only his mouth? Just when she felt that she couldn’t take anymore he pulled away, lying back on the bed and pulling the sheet from his waist. She looked down and saw the hard shaft of his excitement. The size would have been intimidating if she hadn’t known that she’d already been able to handle it.
She climbed onto his lap, straddling him. This was new for her as well. He held onto her hips guiding her as she positioned herself above him. She braced her hands against his chest and felt the smooth tip of his erection rubbing seductively against her opening. She looked into his shockingly blue eyes, smiled coyly, and then impaled herself on him. She screamed out as she felt him fill her, throwing her head back and closing her eyes against the blinding lights that were exploding behind her lids. She began to rock against him, moving in a primal rhythm that her body demanded. He allowed her to set the pace as she moved over him discovering her own needs and desires.
She rode him until her body was overwhelmed with the sensations. She collapsed against his chest, claiming his mouth in a passionate kiss. His hands continued roam as she found a slower rhythm with their bodies pressed intimately together. He kissed her tenderly and deeply in a way that brought her close to tears. She’d never felt so close to a man before, so vulnerable, so connected. Their bodies began to move in perfect unison, reaching a new level of intimacy. He gripped her face as his kiss intensified. She cried out against his lips as she felt a wave of passion flow from her very core. He felt it too.
He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly too him as he flipped her onto her back in one swift move, and then he was on top of her. He continued to ravage her mouth with his kiss as he began to pump into her with a need that was met by her own. She opened to him, taking all of him, arching beneath him and crying out with every thrust until finally he pulled away spilling himself onto her stomach as he collapsed above her.
After taking a moment to catch his breath he rolled away and propped himself up on one elbow smiling mischievously down at her.
“I think you may need another shower,” he said, showing no remorse.
“I think we both do,” she responded as she leaned up to kiss him again.
~∞~
After a nice, long shower they made their way downstairs to the kitchen. Maggie immediately headed straight for the coffee pot.
“I’m usually a bowl of cereal kind of girl,” she apologized sheepishly as she brewed the coffee.
“Hmmm. Well, let’s see,” Aaron said as he opened the fridge. He pulled out the carton of eggs. “Do you have bread?” he asked.
She nodded and crossed to the pantry, retrieving a loaf of bread.
“Do you like French toast?” he asked.
“Um… I’m not sure if I know how to make French toast,” she admitted.
“Good thing I do.” He winked as he took the loaf of bread from her and began searching the cabinets for pans and bowls to prepare their breakfast. She smiled as she watched him work. He’d slipped on his jeans from the day before, but his chest was still bare and watching this magnificent man cook her breakfast was one of the sexiest things she’d ever seen.
“So you’ve really never made French toast before?” Aaron asked casually as he began preparing their meal.
“I grew up with a housekeeper who did all the cooking.” Maggie shrugged as she leaned against the counter next to him to watch. “I never learned to cook at home, and then once I was in college I didn’t have a kitchen in my dorm room so my skills are pretty much limited to anything that can be cooked in a microwave,” she admitted. “But Andi’s been teaching me,” she quickly added.
“Maybe I can help with that too,” Aaron offered, and somehow his offer stirred something in her that had nothing to do with food. She liked the idea of him teaching her things, all kinds of things. When the coffee pot completed its cycle she quickly retrieved two mugs and poured them both a steaming cup.
“How do you like your coffee?” she asked, grateful that she could contribute something to their breakfast preparations.
“Just a little sugar,” he responded as he whisked some eggs in a bowl. She thought of several sexy comebacks but didn’t have the courage to voice them. This level of intimacy with a man was still very new to her. The “morning after” in college had always consisted of awkward goodbyes in a dorm room.
As she carried his cup of coffee to him she realized this was the first real adult relationship that she’d ever had. She set the mug next to him and leaned up on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. He smiled over at her and his smile was so brilliant that it left her breathless. In that moment she realized what an amazing man he was. After the things he’d confessed to her last night, after the tormented life he’d lived, to be able to smile the way he did was truly a miracle in her mind.
“Will you open the bread?”
he asked as he added a little milk to the eggs and continued to stir them. She nodded quickly, pulling herself from her musings and back to the present. She opened the bread as he heated some butter in a pan.
He stepped up behind her, holding her waist and placing a soft kiss on the back of her neck. She leaned into him closing her eyes and enjoying the feel of his touch.
“Want me to show you how to make French toast?” he asked as he nuzzled her neck. She laughed softly and thought of a few other things she would rather him show her, but again she couldn’t find the courage to voice her desires.
“Sure,” she answered breathlessly. He ran his fingertips along her arms until his hands covered hers. He guided her hands as he showed her how to dip the bread into the egg mixture and place it in the heated pan. All the while she could feel his breath against her neck, feel the hardness of his excitement pressed against her backside. She’d had no idea that cooking breakfast could be so sensual.
Once several pieces of toast were cooking they moved to the kitchen sink to wash their hands. Again he stood behind her, pouring the soap into her hands and weaving his fingers through hers as he lathered their hands. He began kissing her neck as the warm water from the tap rinsed the suds from their entwined fingers. Her breathing was coming faster and she could feel herself getting wet. She wanted him to take her right here in the kitchen, pressed against the counter.
The sound of the doorbell jolted her out of her erotic fantasy. She felt Aaron growl against her neck and she smiled at their mutual frustration.
“I’ll get the door,” she said as she reluctantly pulled out of his embrace.
“Guess I do need to check on breakfast before it burns,” he chuckled as he slowly released her and turned to the stove.