by Louise J
He starts pressing into me with two fingers, all the way to the third-knuckles. Rocking my hips, I ride his hand, moaning into the garment. He brings the sole focus of his tongue to my clit and attacks … “Ah … Joe,” I scream into his shirt. My orgasm erupts like never before, taking me over entirely. I tremble and goose bumps assault me with a vengeance. For a second, I think I’ve gone blind, but it’s just the clothing over my face, which I’ve almost suffocated myself with.
Over sensitive and panting like I’ve been deprived of air, I could cry. I want to cry, but I don’t have time; my legs pushed wide, hot mouth back in place, one hand cupping my breast, firm and demanding. If I could speak I’d tell him to stop, because I feel like I’m going to die. I come hard again, sooner than I thought I was capable of. If pleasure could kill, I would expire right now, right here, and I would be happy to do so.
Tender kisses and gentle licks cover in and around my folds, avoiding my too-sensitive nub, and then they travel slowly up the center of my body. Joe eases my hands and the shirt away from my face. A soft peck to the tip of my nose and, remaining silent, he pulls me into a tight embrace, on our sides, facing each other.
I nuzzle my face against his throat. I’m lost for words. My eyelids are heavy and I’m vaguely aware of the sky being a cloudless sapphire-blue. It’s dawn. No, it’s twilight. I’m not sure what the hell it is, I’m delirious and just don’t give a damn.
My body is humming in pure rapture.
And Joe loves me.
Thirty Four: Joe
I wake up first, the brightness of the sun making me squint and shield my eyes with my hand. It’s quiet, except for some birds singing in the trees and a few faint voices off in the distance.
Once I’m fully adjusted, I gaze down at Callie, sleeping peacefully. “Baby cake, wake up,” I whisper in her ear.
Her brow furrows and she stirs. “What?” She’s so pretty and unwilling. We barely got one hour of sleep.
“We’ve gotta get up.”
As she turns onto her back and slowly opens her eyes, the bright daylight hits her. She covers her face with her forearm and smiles in my direction. I let her adjust in her own time. The moment she moves her arm, I press my lips to hers.
I’m going to kiss this woman everyday for the rest of my life.
“You got me dressed,” she says, looking down at herself inside the sleeping bag.
“Yeah, all that skin to skin contact disguised the drop in temperature over night. That’s why I put us in the same bag.”
“I’d have been disappointed if I hadn’t woken up in yours with you.” She snuggles into me like a content kitten. Really, we should be getting up, but fuck that.
“Joe?”
“I love the way you say my name.”
She laughs, lightly. “I’m not sure why, but if it makes you happy.”
It’s spoken with sweet affection. It’s always sounded this way, and I’ve always liked it, but I never understood it. Now I get it.
“Did you wanna ask me something?”
“Yes, but you don’t have to answer.”
“Go ahead, I’ll tell you anything you want to know.”
“Well …”
“Go ahead,” I encourage.
“When was your last girlfriend? Not Paige.”
“Megan. We got together when we were sixteen and I was with her five years.”
She pulls away enough to look at my face. “Five years! Are you serious?”
I chuckle at the shock in her expression. “Is that so hard to believe?”
She frowns, nodding slowly. “Uh, yeah, it … kinda is. What happened?”
“We were good for the most part, I thought I loved her. After around four years we were still going great. Then her dad upped and left one day, out of the blue, just like that. Her parents were happy as far as she and her mother knew. After he took off they found out he’d been having an affair with someone he met on a business trip a year earlier. A man.”
Those slender eyebrows shoot up. “Joe, are you serious?”
I nod. “I’m serious, Baby cake.”
She blinks a few times. “Sorry. Please, continue.”
“Megan was devastated. That would’ve been the case anyway, but leaving her mother for a guy. They didn’t know he liked men, nobody did. Her mom wound up on antidepressants, and Megan distanced herself from everyone. Including me.
“I didn’t really know what to do, so I tried to be patient and be there for her. My parents tried, too, my mom even put her in contact with a counselor friend of hers, but Megan just refused any help. Instead, she began drinking, starting with all the liquor in her house. Any attempt I made to help she rejected and we’d just end up fighting. We went on like that for about a year.
“Then, one day, she told me she’d been with some other guy, her neighbor who was home for spring break. He wanted her for a long time, even before I got with her, but she wasn’t interested in him like that. She was so messed up, and he took advantage of her vulnerability.
“When she told me what she’d done it was clear we couldn’t continue as we were, so I ended it. Soon after, she moved away, her mom couldn’t afford the house anymore. They went to stay with family in New York.”
“My God, Joe, that’s awful. Did you ever hear from her again?”
“About three years later she called my parents’ house and left me her number. She wanted to let me know she was okay, and to say thanks and sorry. I didn’t think she had anything to apologize for, but she did. I guess you could say we made our peace.”
“Is that what stopped you having a relationship?”
“After she left, I decided I should be by myself. I knew I’d be with someone else, eventually, but I wanted my head to be clear of everything that’d happened with us. It didn’t help, I guess, that Gerard and Dane were with me when I moved to the city. We arrived with one fundamental thing in common – none of us wanted commitment. We just turned into a bunch of dudes who were fucking.
“That was never my intention, but I liked that there was no deeper connection with the women. I liked not having to deal with emotions. I liked the freedom I found and more than embraced it. It didn’t take away my belief in relationships, or my desire to have a good one, but I was young and I figured I had plenty of time for all that. Until you nearly killed me.”
“Hah!” her lips curve on the verge of a giggle, “I totally did not nearly kill you. You almost rode into my bug, if anything, you tried to kill me.” She pauses, a soft smile remaining. “Did that guy coming between you and Megan in anyway influence you not telling me how you felt?”
“To start with it did, yeah. I wasn’t gonna shit on some other guy like that, and I knew from that day at the expo Nick was insane about you. It was obvious you were into him, too, and I figured I didn’t stand much of a chance while you felt that way. I didn’t know you had feelings for me, but I did sense a connection between us, like things would’ve been different if someone else hadn’t found you first. To me, the obvious thing to do was wait, which doesn’t seem as logical now as it did then, but chasing you while you were with Nick was never an option. Eventually, it came down to you and how you were with him, your reluctance. I’d been considering talking to you these past few months. I was starting to feel done.”
She cuddles into me, tightly. “I wish I knew how you felt, Joe.”
“You should’ve been mine a long time ago, Baby cake.”
Once we’re up and ready, we start heading back to the others.
Callie stops, suddenly, her eyes widening slightly. “Am I taking the walk of shame?”
I chuckle. I’m not sure what’s more funny; her expression or the way she said it. “I guess some people might say so.” I can’t help laughing again, she looks horrified. “This isn’t exactly the same thing, but you know Gerard.”
“Yeah, I do. You know you can actually buy walk of shame kits?”
“Are you serious?”
She nods. “I�
�ve never needed one, I might add. For the record, you’ll be my number two.”
Shit, I don’t need that in my head right now. Son of a bitch, I’m finding this resistance hard enough as it is. It also doesn’t help that I know how little she has on beneath the sleeping bag she has wrapped around her body. I focus on her expression as a distraction from the stirring in my shorts. I’ve never seen her get embarrassed before, but she is now. “Stay behind me, I’ll show my face first,” I say, as I pace ahead of her.
We approach the tent, and the others are outside.
“Hey, birthday boy,” Gerard says, grinning in a way I know all too well. He’s thinking someone got lucky last night. I did, but not in the one track mind way he’s thinking. He starts chanting at a lower level, with his hand cupped at the side of his mouth, “Walk of shame, walk of shame, walk of shame.” He follows it up with a guffaw.
“Fuck you, Gerard,” Callie says.
“Nah, you’ve already done Joe.”
“Ouch,” Dane responds. “Shut the fuck up, man.” He chuckles.
And this is exactly why she felt awkward. Callie ignores the smart-ass comment and goes off into the tent with Su. “We’re getting ready, so no entry permitted,” Su calls out.
Gerard’s had his laugh now, and that’s okay, but I’ll be making sure he doesn’t embarrass Callie further, when she comes back out.
Thirty Five: Callie
I am so cringing right now. For the first time, after years of knowing them, I feel self-conscious walking out to the faces of Dane and Gerard. I feel like I have ‘I fucked Joe last night’ written all over me. It’s embarrassing.
Su and I kneel down on the ground and start going through our bags for the clothes we’ll wear after our shower. Then we’ll change properly at Joe’s parents’ house. Su’s smiling, and so am I. She whispers, “So did you cram seven years of sex into one night?”
I giggle silently. “No, I couldn’t, everyone would’ve heard.”
“But you’re together?” I nod with my biggest grin ever. We hug tightly. “This is freaking awesome,” she mutters in my ear. We release each other. I feel giddy with excitement.
“What happened to Gerard? He didn’t show up after Joe and I moved to the new spot.”
“Dane and I told him not to. When you guys were in the lake yesterday, Dane asked me if you still liked Joe. I saw it as an opportunity and told him, “Maybe.” Then he said that Joe was in love with you, and I was like, “No way,” and he totally knew by my reaction, so we started plotting. We were going to wait and plan properly, military precision and all that, but then when Joe said about sleeping outside, we just grabbed the chance. Some eye contact between us and we knew that that was the time. When Gerard came back from the restroom we told him everything.”
“I can’t believe it, Su. He said he’s loved me since the start.”
“Yeah, I couldn’t believe it myself. Joe told Dane after you freaked out on him the other day. I almost freaked last night when we heard your raised voice, it didn’t make sense if you both felt the same. We sent Gerard to check on you guys so he’d take the shit if there was any.” We laugh as low as we can. “When you didn’t come back we figured things were okay. I’m totally stoked.”
“Me, too. We better get going, but we’ll talk properly later. I hate that I have to go back out there. This is one time I hope Gerard backs off.”
Su grins, unconcerned. “You can take him, girl.”
When we arrive at Joe’s parents’ house, Adam and Saffron are here. Adam charges at me, picking me up in a big hug like I’m his long lost sister. “Did I really see you and my bro walking in hand-in-hand? This is some development, nice going.” He kisses me on the cheek, his neat stubble tickling my skin.
“Yeah, I know,” I reply, as he releases me.
Saffron comes down the stairs in response to our voices. We cuddle, and just like with Adam, her hold has an additional tightness compared to our usual hugs. “Good move, girl,” she whispers in my ear. “We’ll chat soon, okay? I want details.”
“We’ll talk.”
I’ve never been to the Williams’ household before. It’s remarkable and large with a lot of natural light, courtesy of the floor-to-ceiling front facing windows. The pastel colors throughout complement it perfectly. As we walk in, we’re immediately in the kitchen and dining area. To the right of me there’s a huge oval dining table, made of oak. Its position in front of the marble fireplace is ideal. Images of Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner flood my mind.
I’ll have to ask if the paintings are the work of their mom. There’s an amazing portrait above the fireplace of, who I assume to be, Joe and Adam. They’re sitting on the floor in front of each other, drawing on pieces of white paper. They seem unaware of themselves being sketched, a real capture the moment. The kind I’d photograph.
I didn’t realize I was moving. Joe walks up behind me, and I’m standing in front of the picture of him and his brother, as boys. “Your mom’s work?” I ask, still gazing up at it.
“Yeah, most of it in this house is. My dad insisted on it, he’s her biggest fan.”
“It’s you and Adam, right?”
“Yep.”
“How old were you?”
“Six and seven.”
“It’s amazing.” He kisses the top of my head and slips his hands around my waist. Along the mantel are photos. “Your father’s parents?” I ask, observing a young, immaculately dressed couple, standing side by side. It’s in black and white, and they appear to be at a dance.
“Yeah.”
I observe the woman closer; his grandmother as a girl, my guess is that she was around twenty. This is the first time I’ve seen her, knowing who she is, but her face is familiar. I look down at one of the arms around me. “The angels are her,” I unintentionally say, thinking aloud.
“They are. She died when I was seventeen. I sketched some images and got Adam to tattoo one on me. I only ever intended on having the one, but before I knew it, I had barely any clear skin left on my arm.”
I silently contemplate the sweet reasoning behind all those angels, angels with one beautiful face and so many different expressions.
“The last one I had done,” he says, quietly, cutting into my thoughts, which are now verging on emotional, given the motivation of his ink, “was inspired by you.”
“Me? How? I didn’t know you when you had them done.”
He shows me the inside of his right forearm. “Adam did this for me about a month before you came into BlackArt. The very first time I properly saw you, right after I took off my helmet that day on the sidewalk, the expression on your face stuck with me. Concern mixed with what seemed like fascination, maybe curiosity. I wasn’t sure exactly, but I drew it and I liked it so much I designed the final angel based on it. They all relate to different emotions.” If I thought I was at a loss for words before, then I don’t know what I am now.
After a few silent moments, I bring my focus back to the photos on the mantel. The next picture along is Joe’s mom and dad. I met them at Saffron and Adam’s wedding, but if I hadn’t I’d still know who they are.
“You and your brother really do look like your dad and your grandfather. The good news is you’ll always be handsome.”
He chuckles. “I’m glad you think so.”
I adore that Joe comes from such a strong family unit, it’s no different than my own, and being in the home he grew up in feels special. Standing here with him like this makes me want us to be together more than I did before. I want to be his future and I want him to be mine. I want my home to have photos and drawings of us and our children. I want to have a son that looks just like Joe, and his father, and his father’s father. I want and love Joe right now more than ever before, and more than I even thought possible.
In fact, I think I just fell in love with him all over again.
He takes me by the hand, picks up our duffels, and leads me upstairs. Now it hits me – I am sharing Joe’s room.
<
br /> I am sharing Joe’s room. Shittttt! Stick a happy face right on the end of that!
As soon as we walk in, Joe drops the bags down on the floor and pulls me over to the bed. We lay diagonally across it, kissing and groping. We’re getting into it, and I can feel his erection against my hip. Screw waiting. I start tugging at his belt–
Adam charges through the door and jumps on us, landing on Joe’s back. I’m at the bottom of the three of us. I can barely breathe. Thankfully, Joe pushes up a little, easing the pressure. “Come on, you two, there’s plenty of time for that. We need to get the day rolling.”
Turns out big brothers are totally not cool.
“Okay, bro, just give me a minute.”
“Is that all you need, Joey boy? Maybe Callie needs to rethink things.” A wink my way and he gets up laughing as though he just told the funniest joke ever. He staggers out of the room. Popping his head back round the door frame, he tells us, “You’ve got twenty minutes to get ready.”
Joe’s up, the second Adam’s gone, locking us in, and then he’s back on top of me before I can move. We’re back to making out, I’m gripping his hair with my fingers, and he’s grinding into me. He’s so damn hard, so passionate.
“I want you to fuck me right now, Joe.” I open my legs and capture him within them. He groans from deep in his chest and I feel the vibrations from it against my lips. I start tugging at his belt again, I just get the buckle open, and he pulls away from me. He’s about to say something and then kisses me hard, before hauling himself up off me. I’m breathing as though I’ve been running. Funny, so is Joe.
“My first time with you is not going to be some quickie and that’s as good as it can get right now. You, Ms. Rogers, will just have to wait.” Taking me by the hands, he lifts me into a seated position. What? No. I’d be happy with sixty seconds. How much longer can we possibly wait?
Stick a fucking pout on the end of that one!