by Megan Hart
“I never thought about the future before I had leukemia,” he’d answered, as Remi curled up on his chest. She’d gotten so used to his scar by now she rested her head over it without a second thought. “So maybe one good thing came out of being sick. Now I know what I want to do with my life.”
“Which is?”
“Help teenagers with life-threatening illnesses. I don’t want to be a doctor. That’s not my thing. I want to help them the way Salena helped me—by getting me out of the house. I don’t know what to do with that dream yet, but at least I have one now. You? Do you always want to work at Arden?”
“Not anymore,” she’d confessed. “The place seems tainted now by what my parents are up to. I still want to work with horses, but I want to find a way to be around horses and do something with them other than running them into the ground. The best part of my job is the charity work we do at Arden, the people we help. I just want to find a way to do that as a full-time job.”
“You dream good dreams,” Julien said, kissing her on the top of the head.
“You’re my best dream.” They’d made love again after that and fell asleep tangled in each other. Five nights ago was the last time they’d been together. Five nights and an eternity.
She wouldn’t survive another five nights and she told Merrick exactly that when he shuffled into work an hour late the next day with a big smile on his face.
“Did you spend the night at Salena’s?” she demanded.
“Yup.”
“You’re fired.”
“For getting laid?”
“Yes.”
“My, aren’t we sexually frustrated this morning,” Merrick said, handing over her coffee.
“Five days,” she said. “I’m not going to make it.”
“You’ll make it. If I can last five days you can last five days.”
“Have you ever gone five whole days without sex?”
“Sure. Of course. Oh, you mean five consecutive days?”
“It’s ridiculous. This isn’t medieval England or Renaissance Italy. Families shouldn’t be feuding.”
“Tell that to Steve Harvey.” Merrick said, sitting on her desk in front of her. “It must be awful for you. Julien’s forbidden fruit. Taboo. Off the menu. Verboten. The scandal? The lies? The sneaking around? Terrible.”
“Awful,” Remi said.
“Horrible.”
“Shameful.”
“It’s hot, isn’t it?” Merrick asked.
“So fucking hot.” Remi dropped her head to her desk and groaned. Merrick, knowing what was good for him, didn’t laugh at her. Not too much anyway.
Remi knew she’d tear Julien’s clothes off the second she saw him again, but when that would be she didn’t know. Salena was still working out her end of the plan. Remi didn’t want to rush things, but if she didn’t see Julien again soon, she couldn’t be held responsible for her actions. When she texted Merrick at midnight on Thursday, she knew she’d reached the end of her rope.
You awake? she wrote him.
No, I’m dead.
I’m thinking about the plan, she wrote him.
No, you aren’t. You’re thinking about fucking Julien. So just go fuck him and let me sleep, Merrick wrote. And then for some reason added emoticons of a grey alien, a skull, a bee, the flag of Japan, and seventeen eggplants. She should never have let him download the app on his work phone.
But it wasn’t a terrible idea, sneaking over to Julien’s for an hour or so. Well, no. It was a terrible idea and she knew it.
She wrote Merrick back.
What if I get caught at his house?
Merrick replied with a ghost and a Santa Claus.
WTF?
Be quiet as a ghost, he explained. Get in and out like Santa.
I was supposed to get that message from two emoticons?
Duh, he wrote back. Go get it.
And he punctuated his text with a rather phallic-looking banana emoticon, and that was logic that neither she nor her vagina could argue with. She threw on her clothes again and got into her car.
Capital Hills Farm constituted twelve hundred acres near Frankfort, the state capital. This late at night with no traffic to contend with, Remi made it to the farm gates in thirty minutes. She parked her car on a side road and carefully climbed over the white wooden fence.
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” she whispered to herself as she crossed the dark, manicured lawn. Julien had said his family only alarmed the house when no one was at home. She hoped he was right about that. “How horny am I?”
Horny enough to risk a B&E conviction obviously.
“Julien, Julien...” she breathed, “where the hell are you, Julien?” The windows of the three-story colonial mansion were mostly darkened, but light glowed from two second-floor windows.
Did you get a fancy corner bedroom? she typed on her phone.
What? Julien replied. Yes. Why?
I’m looking at your window, she wrote back. If you love me, you won’t call the cops on me.
She counted only two seconds before Julien’s face appeared in the window. He opened his window and stuck his head out.
“You’re crazy,” he whispered. In the clear night air, the words carried right down to her. Her heart, already pounding from sneaking to his house, now leaped at the sight of him.
“Crazy for you. Will your mom let you come out and play?” She smiled up at him.
“It’s fifty degrees out. You come in and play.”
“Where?” she asked. She’d never been to the Brite family home before. He held up his finger in the universal sign of Wait right there.
Remi glanced around while she waited, hoping the Brites didn’t have any rabid killer attack dogs wandering near the house tonight.
She heard a whistle and peeked around the corner of the house. Julien stood on the back covered porch and waved her in. She ran to him and he caught her in his arms. In a frenzy of silent kisses, Julien pulled Remi into the house and shut the door behind them. He kissed her mouth, her neck, her earlobes and her throat while she ran her hands all over his bare chest. He must have been getting ready for bed, because his shirt and the top button of his jeans were already unbuttoned. Good. Less work for her.
“I missed you so much,” Julien murmured as he nuzzled her hair.
“I shouldn’t have come, but I couldn’t wait anymore.”
“It was killing me, too,” Julien said, his hands sliding under the back of her shirt. He unhooked her bra and pulled her even tighter to him.
In the dark she could barely make out what room they were in, but it seemed to be a large office or a small library. Didn’t matter what it was. They were alone, and that was all she cared about.
Julien dragged her skirt up to her stomach. Blood pounded through her. Her thighs felt tight and her stomach knotted itself up as Julien slid his hand into her underwear.
He found her clitoris with his fingertip and rubbed the swollen knot until she had to bury her mouth against his shoulder to keep from moaning audibly. She dug her nails into his back, holding on to him with everything she had. She shuddered hard in his arms when he pushed two fingers up and into her. Wet as she was, he slid right into her.
“I won’t make it to my room.” Julien rasped the words into her ear.
“Then just do it here.”
Julien was fantastically good at taking orders—one good quality among many. He wrenched her panties down her legs and turned her back to him. During their nights in his Paris apartment, she’d done everything she could to help him make up for all the time lost while he was sick as a teenage boy. She let him try any sexual position he wanted. Quickly they discovered together that Julien loved entering her from behind. She loved it, too, but at this point she wanted him so much she’d strap them both to roof of a moving car if that was the only way she could get it.
“What if your parents walk in on us again?” she teased. She heard Julien behind her unzipping his jeans.
“I locked the office door.”
“What if they break in?”
“I’ll tell them to wait their fucking turn, then.”
He pulled her skirt up again and pushed his fingers into her. Remi arched her back and braced herself against the wall as he opened her up. Behind her Julien guided himself to her entrance. She pushed back and she felt the head bumping her G-spot. Remi sighed with the sheer relief of feeling Julien inside her again. She arched her back even more to take all of him inside her. He bottomed out and started thrusting. This was exactly what she needed.
“I can’t get enough of you,” Julien whispered as he pulled out all the way to the tip and crashed back into her. She forced herself to stay silent as he emptied her and filled her with each thrust. He slid his hands under her shirt and cupped her breasts. All Remi could do was hold herself still against the wall as Julien slammed into her again and again, the sounds of her wetness and his labored breathing accompanying his every move.
Her climax built quickly and she came hard, her inner muscles fluttering and clenching tightly around Julien’s still thrusting length.
She went limp in his arms, and he pulled out of her. He turned her to face him and she wrapped her arms around his neck. He kissed her again, delving into her mouth with his tongue. He was backing her up as he kissed her. She didn’t know and she didn’t care where he was taking her, as long as he was taking her.
Something hit the back of her legs, and Julien lowered her down onto a leather sofa. He yanked her shirt up to expose her breasts and sucked hard on her nipples. He hadn’t come yet and she wanted him to, needed him to. For six beautiful nights she’d fallen asleep with his semen in her and on her, a privilege she’d never granted any man before. They didn’t use condoms simply because he’d been a virgin and was sterile. She’d known the moment she saw him that she wanted to give him everything she had and keep nothing from him.
Julien kissed his way down her stomach.
“Julien—”
“I have to taste you,” he said. He held her by the backs of her thighs, and Remi obediently opened her legs for him. If he had to, he had to. Who was she to argue?
He licked the seam of her vulva from base to apex and down again. The leather couch creaked under them as he devoured her with deep and hungry kisses. He pushed his tongue all the way into her before focusing his attention solely on her clitoris. He licked it gently, sucked it greedily, and rubbed it until Remi couldn’t stop herself from coming again, even harder this time. Her hips rose a foot off the sofa and as she came in dead silence, every part of her vibrating with pleasure.
She collapsed in a daze. Julien pushed between her legs again and entered her fast and hard. He went wild on top of her, fucking her as if he’d die if he stopped. Spent and drained, she could do nothing but lie beneath him and take his every rough and hungry thrust. She watched his face, studying the beauty of it. His eyes were closed to concentrate better on his pleasure, and his dark eyelashes fluttered on his cheeks. His face was flushed with desire, and his skin had pinked like a rose. Quiet breaths escaped through his slightly parted lips, and a swath of his unruly dark red hair fell over his forehead. He’d told her that he’d grown his hair out as soon as he could in a victory lap against the leukemia that had robbed him of it. She’d promised she’d never make him cut his hair as long as they lived if he didn’t want to.
Reaching up, Remi swiped the lock of hair off his forehead and grazed his cheek gently with the back of her hand. His eyes flew open and he gazed down at her. He bore down on her and with his eyes locked on hers, came inside her
She smiled at him when the last of their frenzy had died down.
“I love you,” he panted. “I keep thinking I’ll get to the bottom of what I feel for you. And then I do and the bottom’s just a lid and I open the lid and there’s more love inside it. Was that stupid? I can’t tell if it’s stupid or poetic.”
“It’s perfect. And I feel the same way,” she said, taking him in her arms. She felt his heart beating wildly against her own chest.
“I guess that’s a good thing,” he said. “Considering.” He laughed, and the laughter shook her body and his.
“Exactly,” she said. “Merrick is crazy. This plan of his is crazy.”
“But it’s going to work, right?” Julien asked.
“We’ll make it work.”
Julien pulled out of her and winced.
“Are you hurt?” she asked.
“No...just wet. And the couch is leather. And Mom sits here all the time.”
“Oh no.”
“Don’t move,” he said.
Don’t move? Of course she wouldn’t move. She clamped her thighs tight and waited for Julien. He came back with a box of tissues, and helped her with the cleanup. Two tissues for him, two for her, two for the couch.
“Six tissues,” he said. “Wow.”
“Some of that’s mine,” she said. “Still impressive, right?”
“New record for us.”
They high-fived.
“You’ve been saving that up for a while, haven’t you?”
“I was very close to taking matters into my own hands. Thank God you showed up and saved me from myself.”
“I knew there was a reason I did something this stupid. It was all for you,” she said, as Julien balled up the tissues. She got up and found her abandoned underwear and pulled them on while Julien opened a side door. She heard a toilet flushing. Good. Smart way to dispose of the evidence.
“I should go,” she whispered, as he came back to her with his jeans now zipped and his hair somewhat tamed.
“No way. Not yet,” he said.
“We can’t get caught. And we’re already pushing our luck here.”
“My parents sleep like the dead. Stay for a little while, please.”
“Will you show me your room?” she asked, grinning at him through the dark.
“Upstairs. Now,” he said, and he grabbed her by the wrist. Luckily most of the house was carpeted, so they made almost no sound as they raced upstairs to Julien’s room. When they reached his room she had to cover her mouth to stop herself from laughing uproariously. Julien’s bedroom was a time machine. It was as if the year 2009 had been isolated and preserved in this one bedroom. A Zombieland poster hung on the wall. A poster for The Dark Knight hung next to it. A large CD player and two-foot-high speakers sat on a table. She hadn’t owned a stereo system that large in years. An Eminem CD and a Lil Wayne CD sat side by side on top of the stereo.
“Wow,” she breathed. “Am I in the past?”
Julien locked his bedroom door behind them. “Sort of.”
“I like it. But then again, I had a big Christian Bale crush back then.” She nodded at a Dark Knight poster. “You know, way back then. Not anymore.”
“Such a girl,” he said, rolling his eyes. “It’s about Batman’s toys. And that he doesn’t use guns. Or kill people.”
“And Christian Bale.”
“Girl.”
“Boy,” she said. “Did your mom keep your room like this as a shrine?”
Julien laughed and pulled her to his bed—a full-size bed, thankfully. She’d worried it would be a twin.
“No. I was just too sick to care what posters were on the walls. The house has ten other guest rooms, so Mom’s in no hurry to redecorate. And now I’ve moved out, so who cares what’s on the walls?”
“Have you thought about living with me?” she asked. “I mean, once we go through with this plan.”
“At your house on your parents’ land?” He sounded dubious.
“Actually, I have a better idea. Tell you when this is all over.”
“I’d live on the streets with you, Remi.”
“Don’t worry. I’m foreseeing much nicer accommodations for us. So you’ll move in?”
“I love you,” Julien reminded her. “And we’re in this together.”
“I love you, too. And I promise, this is going to work. And no one will k
eep us apart ever again.”
She kissed him so he would know she meant it. And she did mean it. This love had charged into her life kicking up clods of dirt with fierce and flying feet. She’d never expected it, never saw it coming, never knew what hit her. She’d been run over by a team of wild horses and she couldn’t have been happier about it.
“You know,” Julien said into her lips, “I always wanted to have sex in my own bed at home while my parents were sleeping.”
“You rebel.”
“Want to?” he asked, pushing her onto her back again.
“Oh no, anything but that,” she said, throwing her leg over his back.
Julien slid on top of her and the bedspring creaked loudly.
Someone knocked on his door.
Remi froze, her heart racing. She looked around wildly trying to find somewhere to hide.
Julien only rolled his eyes.
“Great timing,” he sighed and stood up.
“What are you doing?” she rasped.
He smiled at her. “Showtime.”
He opened the door, and Salena stepped inside his room. She had a cup of ice in her hand.
“Am I interrupting?” she asked, one elegant eyebrow arched at the both of them.
“We’re done,” Remi said.
“We weren’t done,” Julien said, “But I guess we are now.”
“I got off the phone with my friend at the hospital,” Salena said. “Now’s the time. I called Merrick. He’s ready. It’s all ready.”
Julien exhaled heavily and nodded. “Okay. Let’s do this,” he said.
“Open up. Time to lower your temperature.” Salena popped an ice cube in his mouth and Julien sucked on it. “And you should go. This place will be crawling with people soon.”
“We’ll walk you out.” Julien placed his hand on her lower back. “This probably shouldn’t happen in here anyway, or they’ll wonder why Salena was in my bedroom at one in the morning.”