Beneath Your Beauty

by Alexa Keith

  “I have the button to put the thingy down right here,” Steele said, grabbing his jean-clad crotch with a grin.

  I smacked his arm. “The top, you pig.”

  Steele’s grin became frisky when he replied, “I have that, too.”

  He winked as he captured the material of my low-cut shirt and bra in one grasp and pulled it down. My breast popped out, and then his head came down, and he sucked my nipple deep into his mouth.

  “Steele…” I shrieked. My eyes flickered from side to side, making sure no one was within seeing distance. Thank God, the parking lot was empty.

  I grabbed his hair and pulled. He grunted and bit down, causing me to gasp. When he let go, his mouth came to mine where he kissed me deep while he tucked me back into my bra. When his mouth separated from mine, our heavy breaths occupied the quiet car.

  “I need to fuck you,” he grumbled as he situated himself in the driver’s seat, adjusting his erection.

  I sat back in my seat, fixing my shirt. “We had sex this morning before we left.”

  “That was hours ago,” he drawled out, appalled.

  I grinned, shaking my head, and he grimaced at me.

  The first hour of our two-and-a-half-hour drive, I tried to explain my family, more my aunt than anyone. I told him about how crazy she was and that her birthday parties were a big event. She would invite just about everyone in the small town, and it was held in her backyard. When Steele said it couldn’t be that bad if it was in her backyard, I then explained to him that she lived on two acres, and that her backyard was huge.

  She had an enormous three-tiered wood deck, a perfect expansion of lawn, and a long wooden pier that walked out to a small lake. When I told him that there would be a DJ, a makeshift dance floor, a huge catered buffet, and lots and lots of booze, he looked at me as if I were crazy.

  “She does this every year?” he questioned.

  “Yep. She says everyone should celebrate their life, and that everyone around should rejoice with her, for her letting them be a part of her life.”

  This caused Steele to burst out laughing. With the top down, hair blowing in the wind, sun setting along the horizon, I watched him with intent fascination. This morning, he’d trimmed the scruff covering his chiseled jaw and cheeks. The amber glow from the sky exaggerated a golden glimmer across his handsome profile.

  His blue eyes hit me, and his laugh diminished. He swerved the car off the long deserted road and out into miles and miles of green fields.

  I kept quiet as the sexual tension bounced from him to me. He slammed on the brakes, causing us to jerk to a stop. One hand unbuckled his belt while his other undid mine. He folded over the console and roughly heaved my shirt over my head. Before my arms came back down, he was undoing my button and zipper next.

  His deep voice coarsely demanded, “Take it off—now.”

  I didn’t answer. I just did as I had been told. His craving-filled hungry eyes were drawing me in. If I stared at him any longer, I would have an orgasm without him ever touching me. Once he worked his jeans and boxer briefs down his thighs, he reached for me. With his hands under my arms, he effortlessly hauled me over the center and right down onto his hard erection.

  It wasn’t long before we were back on the road, and I had fallen asleep. Steele woke me up when he pulled into my aunt’s long dirt driveway. “Princess, we’re here,” he said lightly and squeezed my thigh.

  I blinked my eyes, awaiting their focus.

  “Mom or Aunt?” he asked, bringing the car to a slow stop.

  I looked over to the cream yellow farmhouse with a white wraparound porch where I saw Aunt Sally bouncing down the stairs. “Aunt,” I said around a smile.

  Her small form held cutoff jean shorts and a tight black Harley tank top. She was sporting a new short spiky blonde hairdo. Aunt Sally might be coming up on her sixties, but she looked magnificent.

  She approached my door and opened it. “Oh, baby girl…”

  I got out, and I was engulfed into a big hug. “Aunt Sal,” I said, breathing in her familiar rose scent.

  She stepped back, looked me over, grinned, and drew me back in. She whispered into my ear, “Sweetie, you might want to turn your shirt right side out before your mama sees you.”

  Steele

  I folded out of the driver’s seat, stretched my arms over my head, and heard a Southern woman’s voice.

  “Sweet baby Jesus on Christmas morning.”

  Twisting around, I saw Kayden’s aunt’s eyes fixated on me. I smiled, and she beamed.

  “Please tell your favorite aunt that’s my birthday present.”

  Kayden chuckled and moved out of her aunt’s arms. “No, Aunt Sally, this is my boyfriend, Steele.” Kayden grinned at me.

  A wave of self-worth poured through my veins and landed in my heart, and at hearing her calling me her boyfriend, I smiled at Kayden. The two of them rounded the car, arm in arm.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” I said to her aunt and held out my hand.

  Aunt Sally’s tiny hands came to my biceps. “Oh, don’t give me that proper shit. Give an old woman something to fantasize about at night,” she drawled, wrapping as much of her arms around my shoulders as she could. “Oh good God, you smell delicious,” she whispered.

  I held on to her for a minute, soaking up the kindness of an older woman. Thoughts of my mom flashed through my head. I wondered if this was what it would be like if my mom were still alive.

  “Sal, let the poor boy go.”

  She let me go and yelled to the woman standing on the porch, which I presumed was Kayden’s mom.

  “Shut up, Lee. There’s nothing boy about this fine male specimen.” She squeezed my bicep and sighed. Aunt Sally wrapped her arm around my slack one and towed me in the direction of the porch.

  Kayden made a beeline for the stairs. She enveloped her arms around the woman. “Mom…” she said softly.

  Her mom’s hair was the same dark glossy brown as Kayden’s, except for the peppered gray throughout the bob-style cut. The fine lines around her hazel eyes said she had dealt with a lot of pain in her life. Her slightly larger frame compared to Kayden’s wore a dark green sundress. The resemblance was remarkable. I was looking at my future wife, twenty some years from now. That deep-down peacefulness oozed into my bones, and I inwardly smiled.

  “Oh, sweetie, you look great.” Her mom stepped back to get a good look at her. “Why is your shirt inside out?” she asked, puzzled.

  Kayden’s cheeks took on a pink tint as she looked down at her shirt. Pulling at the material, she stuttered, “Um…uh…”

  Walking up the steps with Sally, she threw her hand in the air and said with zest, “Oh, for Christ’s sake, Lisa, they screwed in the car on the way here.”

  Her mom’s face brightened to a shade of crimson, and she stared at Kayden with wide eyes. Kayden’s hand came up to hold her forehead as she shook her head. I snickered.

  “Come here, Princess,” I said, making my way to her.

  She looked up to me, and I put my hands up her shirt. Kayden stood stock-still at my actions. I pulled her one arm out and then the other. Covering her with my body, I flipped her shirt right side out at her neck.

  I placed her arms back in and said, “There.” Then, I kissed her parted lips.

  I turned and moved to Kayden’s side, putting my arm around her shoulders. Her aunt and mom stood side-to-side, holding hands, with shiny wet eyes on us.

  Her mom muttered, “He called her Princess.”

  “I’m not deaf, Lee,” Sally said, wiping at her eye.

  After the little teary-eye show that I hadn’t meant to put on—I’d only wanted to take care of my girl—we went out onto the back porch where Kayden properly introduced me to her mom. Kayden hadn’t been shittin’ me about the deck. It was fuckin’ awesome. The first level held an array of outside furniture. On the next level, a huge-ass grill sat along built-in counters and seating. The last level was the home of a few lounge chairs. The stairs
carried down through the center of all the floors. Plants and small-potted trees were strategically placed on all levels. I definitely recognized where Kayden had gotten her outside design ideas.

  When Kayden was going to pass me and sit on the love seat, I snatched her hand and pulled her down next to me on the oversized chair. She looked at me with an expression that said, Not in front of my mom. My look back to her said, Fuck that. She was twenty-nine, and I was thirty-five, so we were fuckin’ adults here. To get a little rise out of her, I pulled her legs onto my lap, took her black Converse and pink socks off, and I massaged her feet. She tried to act calm, but I could feel the tension in her legs. Every little fuss I made over Kayden, her mom and aunt would shoot each other a, how-cute, I’m-going-to-cry appearance.

  We sat for over an hour, sipping some amazing sweet tea. Of course, both women grilled me. The first question was how we met, and Kayden and I stuck with our met-in-the-city story. Then, we talked about what a coincidence it was that I owned the building their brother had lived in. There was never a mention of what had happened in L.A.

  They had asked what I did for a living, which I’d prepared for. Kayden had frozen and coughed on her sip of tea. I rubbed her back as I answered that I had worked in the film industry. They asked if I’d starred in any movies, and I skirted around as many questions as possible, and I’d told them yes but nothing major. I quickly averted the conversation by telling them that I’d be moving in with Kayden. We had stayed on that until Sally changed the subject.

  “Okay,” Sally started, “I’m sure you two would like to get cleaned up before we eat.” She rose from her chair. “Let’s get hopping because I’m starved.”

  Kayden and I went to the car to retrieve our bags.

  “You okay?” I asked her, pulling the bags from the trunk.

  She put her back to the side of the open trunk. “Yes and no.”

  I placed the bags on the ground, went to her, and positioned my hands on her hips. “Elaborate, please?” I requested.

  She rubbed her face before her hands came to rest on my chest. “I feel like we are lying to everyone, and I hate that.”

  “Sweetheart, the only thing we are lying about is the way we met. Everything else is true, right?” I bent at the knees, observing her reaction.

  “Well, yeah, I guess,” she answered quickly but with a questioning tone.

  “If you want to tell them the truth, we can. It doesn’t matter to me one way or the other,” I told her. I was only holding to the story we’d formed to protect her.

  Her head jerked back. “Do you know what they would say about you…and me?” she said, horrified.

  “Well…” I smiled. “Aunt Sally might like it.”

  Kayden smacked my chest. “Steele.”

  I snatched her hands and held them to my chest. “I don’t care what anyone says about you or me as long as we are together. That’s all that matters.” I kissed her pouty lips.

  “Hey!” Aunt Sally shouted from the porch. “Don’t be humping in the front yard. Myrtle walks her dog about a hundred times a day. You’ll give her seventy-two-year-old heart something to beat about.”

  Kayden’s forehead fell to my chest, and I chuckled.

  But Aunt Sally wasn’t done. “You can hump anywhere else though.”

  Kayden whispered to my chest, mortified, “Oh God.”

  Sally showed us to the farthest bedroom in the house. When we approached the second landing, Kayden veered to the right.

  Her aunt told her, “Not this time,” and opened a door that held another flight of stairs.

  We came into a large room wallpapered in white, red, and pink flowers. The queen-sized bed was a white rattan with a red comforter set. White wicker furniture was arranged all through the room with quirky knickknacks here and there. It wasn’t by any means a room I would’ve picked, but it fit the old house and her aunt’s taste in décor as the flowery theme played throughout the house. There had been one door in the room, and behind that was a full bathroom.

  Once Kayden and I settled our shit into the room, she went to go shower. I gave her five minutes before I pulled back the mint green plastic curtain. The watered poured over Kayden’s delicious curvy body. Water flowed down her spine and right into the crack of her luscious ass. All of a sudden, I became thirsty. Just the sight of her naked body was enough to make me come in my pants like a teenager.

  After gazing at the sight of Kayden in the shower, it was only seconds before, I stripped my clothing, and I joined her. I took my time washing her body and kissing spots in between. Actually, I’d never washed a woman in the shower before.

  My heart clenched when I was rinsing her hair. She stood facing me, her head inclined back, with her eyes closed as the water ran through her hair. I gazed down at her flawless face, and my future flashed across her features.

  “I love you more than you could ever imagine,” I whispered.

  Her lids fluttered open, her intense deep brown eyes seizing mine. A small smile played on her lips. I didn’t smile back. We held each other’s gaze, and my feeling arose to the back of my throat. An overwhelming sense of comfort flushed through me. A tear fell from my eye before I even knew what was happening.

  I sucked in a breath and choked out, “I do.”

  Another tear escaped, and Kayden’s hand came up. Her thumb caught it before it faded away.

  “God, Kay…” I started on a broken sob. Then, I fought to get out, “I love you so fuckin’ much.”

  She wrapped her arms around my neck, drawing me in. I enclosed my arms tightly around her, holding her close. She held me snug as the emotions followed through me and fell from my eyes.

  She said into my ear, “I love you, my beautiful man.” Then, she kissed the side of my neck.

  “You’re it,” I said quietly into her neck. “You’re my everything.”

  We walked into the rooster-filled theme of the old country kitchen with our fingers laced together. Hearty slices of egg bread filled with chicken salad sat in the center of the pale wood table.

  “Everything okay?” Kayden’s mom, Lisa, asked, looking between us.

  Kayden regarded my red-rimmed eyes when I looked down at her. Her hand caressed my cheek. “Allergies.”

  She smiled at me, and I smiled back.

  I’d never felt closer to anyone in my life than I did with her at that moment. In the shower, she had seen a side of me no one had ever seen, not even me, and she’d held me as I fell apart with the extreme feelings I felt for her. This was what real true love felt like, and it was kicking my fuckin’ ass.

  But I wouldn’t change a damn thing about it.

  Kayden fidgeted in her seat, occasionally twisting to peer over toward the big rooster-head clock. Jeff and Dalton were due any minute. Kayden’s contagious excitement began to seep into me. I was excited to see her boys, finally putting the last nail in meeting the family.

  The hard slam of the front door resonated through the house.

  “Calm the fuck down,” a male voice said. “There has to be an explanation.”

  A young man’s deep voice bitterly replied, “There’d better fucking be.”

  Two young men appeared in the large arched doorway.

  “Wha—” Kayden started.

  The boy with raging blue eyes and dark brown hair viewed me. “Oh, good. Fucking perfect.” He flung papers he had clutched in his hand onto the table in front of us.

  My eyes quickly scanned the strewed about printed papers with pictures of Kayden and me. A bold headline stated, Could Steele Waters, The Sex God of Porn, Be Dipping into the Shallow End? A picture of a soaking wet Kayden wrapped in my purple shirt as she ran through the house during the wrap party had the caption, Could she have plunged too deep into Steele Waters?

  “Now,” the boy roared, “you both can fucking explain this shit.”

  Kayden

  With shaking fingers, I touched the papers. An excruciating stream of anxiety flowed through my system. My heart
began to beat faster, and my breaths grew heavier as I read the words surrounding each picture.

  “Calm down, man,” Steele steadily said to an angry Dalton.

  Dalton came back with fury, “Don’t tell me to fucking calm down. You’re not my father.” He came forward with rage.

  Steele stood swiftly. “I never claimed to be, but you need to pull the fuckin’ reins in—now,” he said coarsely with a strong but composed voice.

  “I swear…” Dalton started.

  Jeff put a hand on his shoulder, preventing Dalton from taking any additional steps.

  My senses grew fuzzy, and voices turned into muffled tones.

  “Here, sweetie,” my aunt said softly in my ear. “Drink this.”

  She placed a small glass with roughly four inches of amber liquor in front of me, and I took a swig. I welcomed the searing burn flowing down my throat, numbing my body.

  “First,” Aunt Sally said from behind me, “Lee, grab everyone a drink.” Her hand came out and gestured to the bottle of Jim Beam sitting on the counter.

  My eyes came away from the table, and I looked at my mom. The shock and horror sitting behind her hazel eyes intensified my emotions.

  “Lisa!” Aunt Sally snapped. “Hop to it.”

  My mom jumped from her chair and hobbled quickly over to the counter. Pain was evident in her eyes, and I didn’t know if it was due to her sprained ankle or the fact that she’d just found out her only living daughter was dating a porn star.

  Aunt Sally’s hands cupped my shoulders where she gently massaged. “Y’all need to calm the hell down.”

  I took another generous swig of the liquid. A fierce burn coated my throat and settled to a warming stillness in my belly. I took a few deep breaths.

  “I can explain,” I said to the room, my eyes focused on the glass.

  Steele sat back down and began to rub my knee. I jerked away from his touch.

  “Baby…” he whispered.

  I shook my head and brought my attention back to the papers staring tauntingly at me.