by Tia Siren
Then, as we became drained, only one thing mattered: Getting the hell out of the building.
“You think anyone heard us?” he asked as he threw his shirt back on.
“I think everyone in Rome heard us,” I replied as I slid my underwear back on. “Or me, at least. I’m so sorry I was so loud.”
“Don’t ever make an apology about that,” he said as he tugged his pants back on.
I wanted to throw his pants back off and put him in my mouth so I could remember what he tasted like. I wanted to feel his tongue where his dick had just been.
“Wanna go back to the fairgrounds?” he asked.
“No,” I answered. “Honestly, I just want to go back to your house, and I want you to fuck me again. I want us to have sex all night long until the sun comes up or we pass out. How does that sound?”
“Uh, that sounds fucking incredible,” he stammered adorably.
“Let’s get moving before the cops show up!” I said as I put my bra back on.
Then, like clockwork, we heard the door open nearby. Someone was coming in.
Like children being caught, we grabbed the rest of our clothes and hid behind a wall, waiting for the grown-up to leave. We kept stifling our own laughter, occasionally putting another article of clothing back on.
The man turned the lights on. It was a single male park officer. He was curious, suspicious, and scanning the building hoping to catch someone red-handed. He walked around, never speaking, moving from room to room. He never saw us.
Then, as he was leaving the building, leaving the lights on, I heard him say over his radio:
“Williams. Can you send over the boys from Floyd PD? Thanks.”
Our eyes widened. “Shit!” we both whispered.
Still laughing like kids, we finished putting all our clothes back on and thought about our escape. The park officer was standing outside the only usable door.
We darted over to the light switch, smiling because we both had the same idea. We turned the lights back off. He took my hand, ran us closer to the door, and hid us behind a counter on the opposite wall.
“Shh!” we kept whispering to each other through fits of laughter.
Eventually, the park ranger discovered that the lights were off. He stared at the building, contemplating. He decided to reenter and investigate.
As the officer headed toward the light switch, Darren grabbed onto my hand tighter and ran us out of the building.
We ran toward his car. We could hear distant shouts of “Hey!” but we never looked back. We ran past other partygoers, families, and police officers as we ran further away from the little building that we borrowed. Our escape wasn’t clean, but it was swift.
We’d been running really fast. He eventually let go of my hand once I wasn’t keeping up.
“Hold it!” I bellowed.
“We’ll rest at the car!” he yelled. “We’re making our getaway!”
“Our getaway is futile if I die before we make it to the car!” I could barely get the words out.
We slowed down but didn’t stop moving. He took me by the hand again.
“I’ve missed this side of you,” I told him.
“What side is that?”
“The jubilant, totally footloose side,” I answered.
“Well, it’s easy to be jubilant when you’ve had the kind of company that I’ve had,” he quipped.
“I’ve missed a lot of things,” I admitted. “I’m not ready to go back home yet. I can’t. Not when things are so spectacular.”
“And, I don’t want to go to work at all!” he replied. “I don’t want to work on heaters and A/C when I could be doing anything with you. I’m taking tomorrow off.”
“Don’t start taking time off like that,” I teased. “Before you know it, you’ll be quitting your job to do something you really love.”
He looked like he was going to retort, but we’d made it back to the car.
I looked into the back of the car. Ironically, the first time that Darren and I had sex was in the back of a car. I thought back on that night and how incredible it was.
I wasn’t alone in those thoughts, it seemed. I looked up at Darren, who gave me a knowing look. We both glanced at the backseat, grinned like idiots, and threw open the back doors so that we could quickly crawl inside.
I lay on the seats on my back. He hovered on top of me, kissing my neck and licking my ears. I began to grind my hips toward him, my body needing him like air.
I wondered if I might awaken another side of him that I rarely got to see in any form.
“Could we try something?” I whispered to him.
He leaned on his arms, looking down at me with intrigue.
“Will you trust me?” I asked.
He raised an eyebrow but nodded nonetheless.
I grabbed onto his wrist. “I trust you, too”
Without explicitly saying aloud what I wanted, I manipulated his hand to do my bidding. I slowly, carefully and tenderly moved his hand up to my neck. I spread his fingers apart so that his entire hand would cover my throat. I pressed my hands into his, hoping that he’d know to squeeze me.
He was clearly reluctant, and I didn’t blame him.
“It’s okay,” I said. “Just be gentle.”
“I’ve never used my hands on you like this,” he said. “I don’t know how comfortable I am. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“What’s pleasure without a little bit of pain?”
In time, his hand began to tighten on my neck. As he lightly choked me, soaking my underwear, I reached for his pants to undo them.
It was harder to catch a full breath The more I struggled, the hotter it felt. He never went too tight, and he never broke any boundaries. He knew exactly where to go and kept his strength focused.
I slid his pants off of him while one hand continued to choke me and the other was fondling my chest. I’m not sure how I moved when he was pinning me down with such force. I could feel his thick cock rubbing against my legs. His girth was filling so quickly for me that I worried he might ejaculate before injecting me.
He let go of my throat, using that hand to hold onto the back of my neck instead of the front. He massaged my neck, relieving me of such intense head trauma that I didn’t even know I had. His touch was healing, relieving, and amazingly gratifying. I was moaning his name for a multitude of reasons.
When he finally decided to insert his throbbing member inside of me, I was startled. He continued to rub my neck while he aggressively pounded into me. He kept one hand on the seat in front of him, and I kept both of my hands wrapped around his neck. I felt like I was melting.
This time, as he brought me close to a quick orgasm, I didn’t care at all who could hear me. I almost laughed when I pictured the park ranger hearing my cries of joy again, but now from a different direction.
Luckily for me, he was able to save his thick package until after my pussy clamped tight onto his shaft. In another startling move, as his thrusts began to pick up speed in preparation for his release, his hand found my throat again. With each burst of his cum bounding into me, his grip got a little tighter, causing me to really choke.
He roared like a lion once his balls were totally drained. He pulled out, let go of my throat, and we both collapsed together in the backseat. The car windows were fogged up, and there were occasional sounds of footsteps and cars around them driving away.
“I’ll bet they’re thinking, ‘Yeah, someone’s having sex in that car,’” said Darren.
I snuggled up to him, kissing his lips and cheeks, not getting enough of him.
“So, you’re not leaving tomorrow?” he asked.
“No, sir,” I said into his neck. I bit his earlobe, tugging on it.
“You don’t have to feel guilty about leaving if that’s it,” he said. “I promise I’m not going to be mad or anything if you leave. I’ll be sad, but I won’t, like, blame you or anything. Don’t stay on my account.”
“I want to be here, Da
rren,” I said. “I’m staying a little while longer. And, I can stay wherever you’re most comfortable. Me, personally? I’d like you to get back inside of me, naked, on your bed in your house.”
We kissed for several seconds, holding it until we couldn’t breathe.
“Then, let’s get a move-on.” He chuckled.
Chapter 17
Darren
I woke up annoyed. My alarm was going off louder than I remembered it ever being. It was Monday morning, which meant I was going to have to get ready for work. Ironically, the air conditioning in my house wasn’t working.
Another thing that made me even more annoyed was having to leave the beautiful angel sleeping in my bed beside me. She was stunning no matter where she was, what she looked like, or what she was doing. I was tempted to take pictures of her so I could remember the raw beauty that I was waking up to. I didn’t want to feel like a creep, so I decided against it, choosing instead to sketch it into my memory like a tattoo.
I took a quick shower, ate a disappointing breakfast, and tried to escape without making any noise. I let Bo out for his morning bathroom routine, let him back in with a milk bone waiting for him, and I took my leave, locking the door behind me.
It felt strange driving to work knowing that Bailey was still in my house, sleeping in my bed, feet away from my dog. The closer I got to work, the more I started resenting it. It was the first time since I started working for Mel’s that I truly didn’t want to be there. I almost didn’t care about the idea of calling in sick just so I could return to that bed and that woman.
I thought about what Bailey had joked about before. I contemplated what it would be like for me to quit my job and pursue music in Tennessee. I was assuming that Bailey and I would be together, but I considered that maybe I was dwelling on wishful thinking.
When I got to work, I stayed bored for quite some time. It was a slow morning, with barely any calls coming in or assignments to do. It felt like the day was taunting me. While I was doing nothing, Bailey was back at the house.
Around ten, I received a text from Bailey that read, “Do you want me to let Bo out to do her business?”
I replied with, “Already took care of that, thank you missy ☺.”
Garrett and I were sitting in the break room for nearly an hour watching some odd daytime talk show about older women dating teenage boys. We were lounging, scrolling through our phones, not making a sound. We didn’t end up going far from the break room until after lunch when we finally got our first assignment.
As Garrett and I were driving toward the home that needed our assistance, I had filled him in on what had been going on with Bailey and me. I didn’t hold back on details, and by the end of it, I felt drained.
“Wow,” laughed Garrett. “That’s quite a lot to process.”
I nodded. “I know. I can’t stop thinking about her, man.”
“But, you know you’re going to have to,” he said. “I’m not going to listen to you whine and bitch about this girl for another hundred years.”
“Shut up,” I responded. “That was then, this is way later. I’m not the same guy I was back then. I’m not a dumb kid anymore. I’ve got my life in order.”
Garrett didn’t seem to accept this. “Okay, bro.”
“What?”
“If you keep going down this path, you are going to bum even harder when she leaves,” said Garrett. “She has a life in the big city, and she’s going even further than that. The bigger fish she’s about to fry ain’t anywhere near here, Darren.”
“I don’t think I’m the only one going insane over here,” I snapped. “She could’ve left days ago! If she’s got bigger fish to fry, why isn’t she back frying them?”
“Maybe she doesn’t need to go back right away,” he speculated. “She hasn’t been here for a long time. Maybe she’s staying a while because she knows after this time she’s never coming back.”
“You really think she won’t ever come back to Rome?”
“Come on,” he said giving me a look. “Don’t tell me you haven’t thought it. Her dad and mom are both buried here. The only real friend she has here is you, so it’s not like she’s running out on anyone. She’s going to take over Tennessee. Then she’ll probably go to LA or one of those other big cities.”
“What’s your point?” I asked.
“My point is the more time you spend with her, the more times you let her over to your house, and you do all you do, you’re setting yourself up for a shitty future. And, I’m serious. I’m not listening to you groan and complain about her, again. We’re past that.”
“She’s always been on my mind ever since she left,” I told him. “Just because I stopped talking about her didn’t mean she wasn’t right there in my brain. You don’t think I noticed how much it annoyed you? I stopped once I saw that I was bugging you.”
“I thought you told me more than once that you were finally over her,” he said.
“I thought I was,” I replied. “Every time we talk—every time we do anything together—it just reminds me how good it used to be. I really loved her. I thought she was going to be the one. We’d have gotten a house here in town with lots of acres surrounding us. We’d have good paying jobs.”
“Ugh,” said Garrett. “Forget the past! Think about this: Here, in the present, she’s got a popular song playing on the radio, which means she’ll be making a music video, promoting herself. She needs to focus on her career, and you know that.”
“I never said she shouldn’t be trying to better her career,” I said.
“She’s going to stay for you,” he said. “She’s vulnerable as hell. She’s lost her dad, has to figure out what to do with his house, and you’re helping fill her voids. No pun intended.”
“I’m not taking advantage of her,” I said defensively.
“I’m not saying you are,” he replied. “But, maybe y’all are both getting carried away. You guys need like an intervention.”
“We need to figure out what we want,” I said. “She and I. If we want to be together, we should discuss it. If she doesn’t want to be with me, we either have to stop sleeping together and go ‘full friend,’ or we have to go back to pretending the other doesn’t exist. I either need a future with her or closure from her, one or the other.”
“That’s quite a fine line,” said Garrett. “Take the great sex out of the last few days. Would you still want to be with her?”
“My feelings have nothing to do with our sex,” I said. “My feelings transcend into our sex and makes it exponentially better.”
“Wow.”
“I want to be happy, Garrett,” I told him. “I need to figure out what I want to do. My gut isn’t telling me. And, I can’t just listen to my heart or my head.”
“Man, this chick must know magic or something,” said Garrett. “How does anyone make a man talk the way you’re talking? It’s nuts.”
“Let me ask you something,” I said nervously. “And be completely honest with me. Don’t hold anything back.”
“Shoot,” he said amused.
“Do you think—if I went up to Memphis and wanted it—do you think I could make a career out of music?”
Garrett seemed pleased to hear my question.
“Well?” I asked.
“You’ve been out of it for a while, homie,” he said.
“I know, but if I got my shit together, and got back to playing every day?”
“Bro, I think you can do anything you want to do,” he told me. “I think if you wanted to go to the big city, be with Bailey, be a songwriting duo and form a group together, you could do that tomorrow. Or, if you just wanted to go and be by yourself, play some nice songs to get the girls wet, be a star on your own, I think you could do that, too. Or, you could stay here and keep working for Mel’s A/C, which you’re really good at, too.”
I was really flattered by his words, but I couldn’t bear to show too much emotion. We’re guys, so we don’t wear our feelings on our slee
ves that often.
“But dude, you know what’s coming,” he added. “She isn’t going to stay here in Rome, not even for you. Rome is happy to have you, but it won’t be offended if you want to go somewhere else. People travel; learn more about who they are. Shit, you know, if you wanted to go get a place somewhere, but keep your house here in case that shit didn’t work out? Bro, I can come by once a week, water your plants, make sure the place hasn’t burned down. You’ve got options, man.”
Even with as much thought as I’d been putting into my situation, those ideas hadn’t all occurred to me. I felt hopeful for the first time in days.
“I’ll even help you move if you want,” he finished.
“You’ll always be my brother, man,” I said to him.
“Same here, Darren,” he replied.
Garrett and I finished up our shift, and we drove over to Bart’s. We wanted to grab a beer together and talk for a bit before I returned back to my house to likely see Bailey.
“I’ve been writing some lately,” I told him.
“Yeah?” he said, ears perking. “No shit?”
“First time in over a year, dude,” I said proudly. “The words were coming to me so quickly, so naturally and organically, you know? It hadn’t felt that good to write in years.”
“Can I take a guess as to your inspiration?” he asked. “Is it about me and my rugged good looks? Or is it about the girl you used to write music for?”
I rolled my eyes, sipping my beer.
“I know almost exactly how the actual music should sound, but I haven’t played my keyboard or guitar in so long. I noticed a layer of dust on my guitar recently, and it bummed me out all day. And the weird part was that I didn’t just go and wipe the dust off to make me feel better or take better care of my instruments. But, I’ve neglected music, and I’ve ignored a lot of what I love because so much of what I love reminds me of Bailey. And, it’s hard enough as it is to live life without her in it.”
“Why don’t you want to move to Memphis?” Garrett asked.
It wasn’t the first time Garrett had asked that question. My response was usually some variation of, “Rome is my home, and I like my home,” or “I don’t mind city life, but I prefer it here.”