by Chloe Plume
“Well,” Rev noted, “we better head in. My mom will be steaming mad if we’re late for dinner.”
“Oh, now none of us want to keep Helen waiting, his Uncle said, starting off back across the field. “It goes without saying though: this conversation never happened and it’s best if we keep all of this between ourselves.”
The light on the horizon began to fade and dusk settled in as we walked back over to the main house, which loomed large even in the distance. A circular driveway made of large cobblestone sat in the middle of the massive front lawn. Lush green grass and tall trees framed the sprawling homestead, and purple mountains soared in the far distance. I shook my head. It was hard to believe a place like this was surrounded by desert.
The house itself was white with shuttered windows and a slate blue roof. I couldn’t guess how many rooms, but I’d assume many. A white fenced patio ran the entire perimeter of the bottom floor. It had a homely feel despite its formidable presence. It conveyed the unmistakable presence of old money.
“Quite a place your family has here,” I whispered to Rev.
“Yeah, mostly all the additions my dad put on,” he said. “But at least they kept it the same style my grandfather preferred back when it was about a fourth of the size.”
As we made our way up the steps towards the front entrance, a voice boomed from inside.
“Get your ass in here Rev. I don’t like waiting on Mom’s cooking.”
The door opened and light streamed out onto the deck. Mayhem strode into the doorway, and suddenly the light was gone.
“Alright, alright,” Rev began jokingly. “But, I’m sure you like ate a whole cow two hours ago or something. Aren’t you on that whole 8 meals a day thing?”
“I’m training for that heavyweight international tournament in Russia. Need to put on some more muscle.”
Rev shook his head. “Why?” he asked rhetorically.
Mayhem ignored him. “Good to see you again, Winter. Surprised you’re still hanging out with this wise ass.”
He reached for a handshake. My hand disappeared for a moment.
“Uncle Norman.” Mayhem nodded. “Good to see you.”
“Cage.”
They shared a look, cold but respectful. Mayhem turned to go back inside and we all followed.
The entrance spilled into a huge, open room. Vaulted ceilings and a rustic western-lodge vibe. I recognized Ink sitting on a leather sofa by a petrified wood coffee table. An older man sat across from him, his back turned, hair clipped short and grey.
A woman with shoulder-length brown hair and a rounded face walked through an archway at the opposite end of the room carrying several wine glasses. When she saw Rev, his Uncle and me approaching, she hurried to place the glasses on the coffee table and meet us.
“Oh, it’s so good to finally meet you,” she beamed, bringing me into a soft hug. “It warms my heart to see Rev with someone like this. A mother worries…” She pulled back and looked Rev and me over, tilting her head to the side with a wide smile across her face. “Oh, you two are adorable.”
“Jee. Thanks mom.” Rev turned to the archway at the end of the room, through which you could see the end of a dining table set for dinner. “Smells good.”
“Smells like it’s getting cold,” Mayhem complained, pushing past Rev.
The older man on the sofa stood up and began filling the glasses with wine. “Everyone get a glass and let’s take a seat.” His voice echoed through the high ceilings, abrupt and peremptory.
Rev walked over to the table and got us both some dark, burgundy wine. “Let’s do this thing,” he joked, swigging back the whole glass of wine.
“Show some damn respect, Revon,” the older man snapped.
He was clearly Rev’s father, acting every bit the patriarch of the Gryffin family.
Mayhem nodded in agreement and walked through the arch and into the dining room. Everyone followed until we all sat around the table.
“Helen, this looks wonderful,” Uncle Norman remarked. “You outdo yourself every time.”
Helen began passing dished right and left. “Now, Edward,” she began, eyeing Rev’s father. “You take it easy on the pork. You know what the doctor said about your heart. There’s some baked trout I made especially for you.”
Edward scoffed. “What the hell am I gong to do with fish? That doctor doesn’t know what he’s talking about. They’re always changing their minds about what’s good and bad to eat every couple years anyway.”
Edward Gryffin was a stark contrast to his wife. Helen had a motherly presence and softness with her full figure and big blue eyes. Edward was stern with aquiline long features and harsh grey eyes.
He was also the direct opposite of his brother Norman. Edward wore a crisp collared shirt, sport coat, and close-cropped hair. His face was strained and intense.
Uncle Norman, on the other hand, wore jeans and a short-sleeved button down. His hair was tied back in a short ponytail and his jovial bearing matched his offbeat, bohemian vibe. He looked every bit avuncular.
“So, you been staying busy?” Edward asked his brother.
Uncle Norman shrugged. “Doing what I can. More time for hobbies. I’ve been working on some cars at my garage and I‘m starting to do more advanced performance work, so it’s getting interesting.” He looked across the table at Rev. “Been seeing a lot more of Revon these days.”
Edward shook his head. “I had higher hopes for you,” he said, staring right at Rev. “You could have been building the Gryffin name and working side by side with your father. Now you’re driving those stupid cars around in a circle out in the desert where no one even gives a shit.”
I could feel the heat oozing from Rev as he grew agitated. “I’m living my own life, just like Julian. Why the hell doesn’t anyone give him flack for it.”
“Because apparently Julian’s a genius or artist or whatever—ask your mother, I don’t understand any of that.”
Rev flushed red. “He’s a damn tattoo artist!”
Edward put his fist down to the table and pointed straight at him. “You love to win, Revon! You’re not a damn philosopher, you’re a man of action like me. And you should be there by my side, victorious in business and in life. Like your brother Cage. Like a winner.”
“Oh yeah, that seems like a real noble calling. You two are doing so much good as it is!”
Mayhem stepped in. “Logistics is the future for this family, Revon. Once the big online companies started building those massive warehouses all through the desert and delivery became the new shopping standard for just about everything, we had this one opportunity to take the Gryffin name to the next level. Thank God, dad had the foresight to plan this out. Otherwise we’d be a bunch of outdated farmers who’d be watching our returns diminish until a bad enough year pulled it all out from under us. There’s nothing else here. No minerals, no oil.”
“Not to mention,” Edward added, “Gryffin transportation is putting jobs on the table. Jobs that have a future as the trucking boom spreads like wildfire.”
“Yeah, jobs that put long-haulers on the road for weeks on end,” Rev noted. As opposed to working side-by-side with their families on the land their kids were playing on.”
Edward face strained visibly and he slammed his fist down on the table. “It’s an opportunity to earn money and support your family!”
“Yeah. Until driverless cars and the whole fleet going automated.”
Uncle Norman, until now silent, finally raised his voice. “These dinners are about putting together our differences. That’s why pappy started them, God rest his soul. He’s looking down now wondering why we can’t be more like fathers, sons, and brothers, instead of bickering hens.”
“Amen to that!” Helen called out.
Rev stewed. I put my hand on his knee under the table. He turned to me and nodded, calming down.
Edward piled the pork into his plate and rubbed his hands in anticipation.
“I wish you wo
uldn’t do that, Edward,” Helen cautioned. “Your father passed away at age 50. You have to be careful.”
“He died of a stroke. Completely different.” Edward raised his fork as if it were an old classroom pointer. “You know, everyone thinks they’re going to die of a heart attack, and it’s always something else that gets them first. Just goes to show you…” He began to greedily shovel the pork up to his mouth.
As Rev reached for the pot roast, Mayhem’s fork came down on the last piece.
“Saw it first,” Rev noted, bringing his plate closer to load it in.
Julian, who hadn’t said a word the entire time I’d been there, finally spoke up. “You really going to take it from him Rev?”
Mayhem smiled menacingly. “Give it a shot. Good luck.”
Rev backed off, slumping against the chair. “Yeah, fine. I know how much you need your precious protein.” Turning to Helen, he complained, “Mom, this always happens. I keep telling you that you should make more.”
“And I keep telling you to get here on time,” she shot back.
The rest of the dinner proceeded quietly as everyone scraped every last bit off their plates.
I relished the last bit of my home-baked bread and fresh stew. “Mrs. Gryffin, that was phenomenal. I’ll be asking for recipes.”
“And you’ll get them.” Helen stood and picked up her plate. “I hope Rev brings you by here more often. In fact, I’d like it if he visited more often,” she said, eyeing him.
Everyone cleared their plates. Once the table was clean, Rev and his brothers stepped out with Uncle Norman to check up on some clamoring in the barn out back while Edward eased into a leather sofa and turned the volume up on his favorite team playing football. I stayed to help Helen with the dishes.
“So, if you don’t mind me asking,” she began, expertly lathering the dishes we’d scraped, “where’d you two meet?”
I stuck with the compacted version of the story. “I was lost trying to find my Aunt’s place, in the middle of nowhere, a real fish-out-of-water. And he cruised up in that obnoxiously loud car of his. He was all smug grins and cavalier attitude, so at first I steered clear.”
Helen smiled knowingly. “Sounds like Rev.”
“But then, there was something about him. Like his authenticity was so damn charming. He gave me a ride back to Vegas, I decided to stay for Cage’s boxing match, and the rest is history.”
“That’s so romantic,” she mused.
“Oh, I don’t know…just two people coming together by chance. Not sure if the rest is a story for the ages or anything like that.”
“All young love is,” Helen said. “I remember the first time I met Edward. He was visiting the ranch I worked at, a place they rented out for corporate retreats and the like. He was the handsome ambitious businessman, out here with his father and several other prominent leaders in agriculture. And I was the simple country girl with a love of horses. We spent days riding together through mountain forests and when the retreat ended, I came back with him.”
“Now, that’s romantic,” I pointed out. “Maybe replace horses with bright orange cars and mountain forests with gas-fumed desert racetracks, and you got our version.”
Helen laughed out loud. A big, open chuckle. “Oh, well it happens differently for everyone.”
I heard the door loudly shut. Rev’s boisterous voice filled the large family room as Edward demanded he “shut-it,” and the volume of the television went up. The Gryffin brothers and their rowdy fraternization echoed through the house.
“I really enjoyed our conversation Mrs. Gryffin,” I said, extending my hand. “Thank you so much for having me. And I just want to say, for what it’s worth, I’ve never met anyone like your son.”
She leaned in for a hug. “Not everyone means that in a good way,” she said jokingly. She pulled back with her hand on my shoulder and her blue eyes stared at me intently. “I’m so glad he found someone like you, Winter. I really am.”
Rev and I left for his apartment in Desert Haven. He initially protested, indicating that it wouldn’t be anything like the Gryffin Ranch or a nice Vegas hotel.
“A real shithole, whatever I can afford,” he said.
I told him the sooner we got to his place, the sooner we could go to bed.
We were there in ten minutes. His lips were on mine at the door.
“I’m going to peel those jeans right down over your ass and bury my cock inside you.” He groaned, grinding his cock against me as he fumbled with the keys.
We tumbled through the door and all the way to the bed. He flipped me over and pulled my jeans down. “That’s all mine now, kitten.” He spanked across my cheeks hard. “That’s mine and I’m going to make sure you never forget it.”
And then he was kneeling behind me, his head between my thighs, and his mouth covering my softness.
His tongue moved down the length of my slit. “Oh shit,” I said, managing no more than a whisper.
He pulled his face away from my pussy and I felt his hot breath against my ear. “I fucking love how you taste.”
He probed me with his fingers. My muscles clenched tightly down around him. I wasn’t used to feeling like this. My body throbbed and ached, yearning to be filled. Rev had me so desperate and needy for him, I’d do whatever he wanted.
I arched my back as he probed deeper, full relentless strokes of his rough fingers, bringing me to the edge. All I could think about was the throbbing between my thighs. My body shuddered and my breath came out in gasps.
And then he stopped and stood up over me. I turned around and watched him unbuckle the heavy leather belt that rode low on his hips. His cock sprang free.
He stepped out of his jeans, bent down and kissed me, his mouth hungrily covering mine. He pressed past my lips, his tongue finding mine.
My hands roamed down his chest and the ridges of his abdomen. I ran my hands across the V above his hips and reached around to his tight, rock hard ass.
Then I dropped to my knees and gripped his weighty erection. I wanted so badly to cover him with my mouth and taste his manhood. My lips pressed against the head of his cock. A drop of precum formed and I licked it off the tip. I pressed my lips against him.
“Holy shit.” Rev grasped my hair and looked down into my eyes. “Kitten, your mouth is so damn hot.”
I stretched open wide to take him in. He tasted potent and masculine. I could feel him throbbing as I held him in my mouth, fully controlling his pleasure. It brought a rush of heady arousal.
I looked up at him from under my lashes as his shaft slipped deeper. He began to pump, his hips flexing as he used my mouth for his pleasure. His expression clouded with lust and he gripped my hair tight with his fist.
“Fuck… The things you do to me…”
He pulled me of his cock before he came.
“I’ll finish in your pretty little mouth some other time,” he rasped. “Right now I’m going to come in you.”
He spun me around and pushed me to my hands and knees. Down on the ground, he pressed from behind me. “I’m going to fill you up.” His voice was harsh and grating in my ear as he entered me. “I’m going to mark you as mine.”
His muscled bulk leaned over me as he reached for my breasts. One hand gripped my ass cheek and the other stroked my nipples.
He plunged deeper and groaned. “You feel so good…all mine... and so fucking good.”
His hand slid to my face and he slipped his thumb into my mouth. I sucked hard as he fucked me from behind, bringing me closer and closer.
“You fit me like a glove, kitten. I want to feel you come on my cock right now.”
The orgasm overtook me. I came, shuddering around his cock. And he followed, thrusting one final time and yelling out loud as he surged deep within me.
Chapter Sixteen
REV
“I didn’t think you’d like this place so much,” I admitted.
“What’s not to like,” she teased. “It’s so compact that you
can watch the living room TV from the comfort of your bed.”
“Eh, well, with the way the real estate market’s going in Desert Haven, this is what an affordable apartment looks like. You know, some hotshot developer is building a five star hotel about a mile away. Soon they’ll have gambling and a nightclub to go along with the rustic getaway charm.”
Winter shook her head. “It’s a shame. Stuff like that gets to me—the phony way some profiteering weasel pretends to be all about the identity and character of a community.”
I laughed. “Yeah, welcome to the age of rural gentrification. I guess there’ll be jobs as the tourism industry sets in. But it kills me that all the ownership will be in the hands of corporations that haven’t lived here and don’t give a rat’s ass about this town.”
I never thought I’d be doing this.
Say you’d asked me a week ago: “Rev, what’s the last thing you’d ever be caught doing?” Well, I wouldn’t have been able to come up with this. It was so far beyond the realm of possibility…
And yet, here I am.
I sat on my bed, my arms wrapped around Winter, her back pressed up against my chest. I was having an actual conversation with a girl who’d slept over and stayed past morning. And yeah, I was watching a chick flick.
“Shhh!” I felt her chest rise and fall under my arms as she exhaled forcefully. “This is the best part.”
“If this is the best part, then we’re in for a really crappy movie,” I said, somewhat disgruntled.
She pulled her knees up to her chest and leaned back against me. “Oh, come on. You agreed to this.”
“Yeah, I guess so,” I conceded. “But only because there wasn’t something better on.”
“Better than this?” she exclaimed, her body rocking in anticipation.
“Yeah, you know. Like anything with Steve Mcqueen and a fast car. Instead of letters that never even get delivered and what’s-his-name.”
“Psssh!” She tilted back and rested against my chest, her cheek pressed to my shoulder.