Castles Burning Part One

by Nicole Ryan

  ***

  “Have you seen him yet?” Christie asked over her bowl of cereal the next morning, wearing a beautiful green blouse that accentuated her bright orange tresses, and matched her eyes.

  “No.” I replied, annoyed because I knew she was going to ask.

  “Why not? He’s been asking about you for over a month, you should at least go talk to him.”

  “I don’t know if it’s a good idea. After the way we left off after I visited for Christmas, and Jarred… I don’t know if he really wants to talk to me.” I told her, but the truth was, I missed him extremely, and was nervous to face him after how we parted.

  “Well it’s not like you guys were married. He broke it off anyway remember? He was the one that said he didn’t want the stress of a long distance relationship.” She offered.

  “You don’t know him like I do Christie, he will be hurt because I didn’t wait for him. He only broke it off because he was mad, and didn’t want me to go.” I said.

  “Well you didn’t have any control. Besides, he will forgive you. He has missed you all this time. Plus, looks to me like you could use a visit from old blue eyes.” Christie laughed, pulling me a little bit out of my defense mode. “Look, all I know is he was pretty excited to hear you were going to be stationed here and that he could see you regularly again.” I felt my heart sink at the mention of the military.

  “Yeah, pray for me that my chit get’s approved.” I told her.

  “It will. You said yourself they’re making cut backs. Plus after your PTSD diagnosis from that shooting, it should be a done deal! They know you can’t be in anymore, they’ll let you go.” Christie smiled warmly at me as she placed her bowl in the sink and handed me a cup of coffee before leaving the room.

  “Thanks.” I told her, but I wasn’t as confident as she was. Regardless of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder I had been trained to handle a situation like that. I’d likely get to see a therapist to recover.”

  “Call him!” She yelled back from her bedroom.

  “Okay, okay I will.” I told her.

  He answered on the first ring.

  “Hey, Aden, it’s Amber.”

  “Oh my God, are you back?” His voice sounded excited, and I cradled the phone a little tighter, longing to feel his arms around me.

  “Yes.” My heart was already pounding.

  “When can I see you?” I could hear his smile through the phone.

  “I’m off for the next two weeks, and then I’ll have to check in to my new duty station, unless my request for discharge get’s approved.”

  “I’m going to my parent’s cabin for the weekend. Do you and Christie and Alex want to join me? I want to talk, we really need to talk.” Alex had met my best friend Christie one night at a party, after I moved in with him and Aden for a few months before boot camp, and the two were inseparable after that. Aden and Alex no longer lived together, but they were still close friends, which made for a great time when ever the four of us got together.

  “I know we do. I would love to; let me get back to you with Christie and Alex’s answer.”

  When I closed my flip phone I felt a small blossom of hope in my heart that the last couple months of silence hadn’t meant the end of me and Aden.

  ***

  The car ride to Spectacle Lake was about three hours. We got so bored that we had a sunflower seed spitting contest, and stopped for gas twice, before we decided to stop and stretch our legs.

  “Let’s get ice cream!” Christie cried in Alex’s ear. He covered it in mock pain, and then laughed heartily before kissing her on her forehead. I loved seeing her so happy finally, and I loved that it was Alex who made her this way. Christie had had a very rough time over the last few years, having lost her twin sister.

  “I’m down.” I smiled at Aden, his eyes glittering in response, he pulled off on the exit and after driving a few miles down a dirt road, we came to an ice cream shop. When we got out of the car I noticed a nice spot under a tree, and walked over to it, stretching my legs and arms as I went. The view beside the tree was gorgeous; it looked down into a valley of farmland, cows and barns sprinkled across beautiful green fields. When I joined the others to go inside the large brown barn, Alex was finishing a cigarette, once he put it out we went inside and piled in to a booth and placed our orders. Christie and I excused ourselves to the bathroom, while the boys stayed back chatting about the structure of the old building.

  “So? Have you talked yet?” She asked eagerly before the door was even closed.

  “Well, not really. We’re waiting for alone time. I mean we chatted on the phone last night for an hour, but it wasn’t about anything real important. Just catching up.”

  “Well,” Christie said as she squatted over the toilet seat, “I am certainly excited to get to the cabin, is it nice?”

  “I have no idea, I’ve never been before, but he’s talked about it for as long as I have known him.”

  “So…. Will this end up like our camping trip before you left for boot?” She asked, her eyes gleaming wickedly. I grinned at her, remembering our adventures with the only other couple we knew who were almost as kinky as we were.

  “God I sure hope so.” I laughed. “I haven’t had a good fun night like that in a long time.”

  As Christie washed her hands, I hovered over the toilet, and wondered why there was a claw foot tub with a shower curtain in here, but not two toilet stalls. As if reading my mind, Christie yanked open the shower curtain and I flew from the toilet and against the wall at the sight of a body in the tub.

  By the time I registered that Christie had gone from hysterical cries of terror to shouts of laughter, Aden and Alex burst through the door. They looked from me, to Christie, to the tub, and then erupted in laughter too. When I imagined the sight of me with my skirt sideways and my panties around my knees, I started to laugh too. Taking a closer look I realized that it was not a body in the tub, but an odd mannequin that had been soaked in what looked like fake blood.

  “Must be Halloween decorations, move out of the way I need to finish peeing!” I shouted at them still snickering.

  They rushed out of the bathroom laughing and leaving me in peace; I finished up and washed my hands and face, staring in the mirror for a moment at my new reflection. Eight weeks in boot camp had done wonders for my body, I’d lost all of the baby chub from my face, and I actually had definition to my abs and no jiggle…well, anywhere, I’d loved how I looked so much that I’d made sure to run at least two miles each day after work. I remembered that night that seemed so long ago when Aden was vehemently expressing how much he loved my curves. Turning to the side and assessing myself I decided I still had my curves, plenty of them. But my pudginess was gone and I liked it that way. Confident that Aden would still find me sexy I put on some lip gloss and said good bye to the weirdo mannequin.

  When I returned to the table our ice cream cones had arrived. I took mine from Aden as I slid into the booth beside him. He smiled at me, and placed his arms around my shoulders.

  “That was really odd.” I whispered, trying to avoid the employee over hearing.

  “I know right?” Christie added.

  “How much further of a drive do we have?” Alex asked Aden.

  “Not long, I want to stop at the grocery store to get things for the weekend.” He replied.

  We finished our Ice cream and continued on our little journey to Aden’s parent’s cabin. Which we discovered, was no cabin, but more like a lake house. It had a really nice kitchen, fully stocked once we unloaded all the groceries for the four day weekend. It was all white, beautifully and elegantly done with chrome fixtures and appliances. Off the side of the Kitchen was a dining room, done in warm browns and burgundy. Separated only by the bar, and a pool table from the kitchen was a huge great room which had a stereo system, a giant T.V., a bar, and the pool table was in front of the sliding glass door that lead onto a large deck. There were four large bedrooms, split on the floor plan so that there w
ere two rooms on each side of the house. There was a large bathroom on each side of the house, joined by doors from each bedroom.

  Christie and Alex were in one of the rooms to the west of the house, unpacking. Aden was taking his things into a bedroom on the east side, the side the lake was on, I picked up my bag and followed him, pausing in front of his door he leaned a shoulder against the wall. As he smiled down at me his dimples flashed.

  “Guess we’re not sharing a room, so I saved this one for ya.” He winked at me and turned, taking a left and entering the bedroom around the corner.

  I walked into my room and almost dropped my bag in shock. The lower portion of the room was a lovely sitting area with a small bookshelf and a pretty white love seat, the entire room was done all in soft floral sponge colors, it reminded me of sunset. Delicate and tasteful curtains adorned the wall windows that were on the upper portion of the room where there was a king size feather bed, and an arch leading into a bathroom with a garden tub that had a full view of the lake and a walk in double shower. This was the master suite. Why didn’t he just take it for himself? I shook my head in disbelief and smiled at his sweetness before taking the two steps into the upper portion of the room. I started unpacking my things and decided that Christie and Alex would probably be occupied for a while, and that a quick shower would refresh me after the long car ride.

  When I finished unpacking I glanced at the clock and seeing that it was already almost eight opted for sweats and a tank to take into the bathroom. I turned on the four light switches and it lit up like Christmas, six big bulbs along the vanity double sink mirror, a light in the walk in shower and two above the garden tub, with four more embedded into the main ceiling of the bathroom. Switching off the middle light switches turned off the lights above the tub and in the main ceiling and I decided that was perfect.

  When I stepped into the shower I was immediately in heaven. After all this time in boot camp and A-school, and using communal showers and only having five minutes of alone time at best, this shower was exactly what I’d yearned for. I quickly shampooed and shaved, then just stood under the hot water and took a moment to enjoy the peace. When I got out of the shower I felt rejuvenated beyond expectation, I quickly put on some lotion and got dressed, brushed my hair and teeth and made my way out to the great room.

  Christie and Alex were snuggled up on the green couch, each holding a Mojito, and Aden was in the kitchen pouring two more. I smiled at him when he grinned at me over the half wall, I tip toed over to it and took a seat at one of the bar stools. Bouncing and clapping my hands in exaggerated glee for my drink.

  “Excited?” He asked, handing me my glass and grinning at me.

  “Mmmm! Very excited! Thank you.” I leaned over the bar and planted a quick kiss on his cheek and made my way to the stereo system.

  Flipping through the collection of CDs I realized there must have been thousands here. All in alphabetical order, I came across an Annie Lennox CD, I remembered my mom listening to her a lot and looked for a song I always thought was sexy, it was a remake of my favorite Neil Young song. Don’t let it Bring You Down, normally I despised remakes, but Annie Lennox did it so well. I saw it listed as song number two on the back, put in the CD and turned it up a little, drinking a couple gulps of my drink. Christie and Alex were watching me, I giggled as the cheerful tunes of Walking on Broken Glass poured out of the speakers, and I began to twirl around the pool table, my straw in my mouth. I grabbed Aden’s dad’s fishing hat from the hat stand by the door and plopped it on my head, tip toe dancing around Aden as he crossed to join Christie and Alex on the sofa. He smiled warmly at me.

  “Oh goodness Aden get a couple drinks in her and you don’t need to hire entertainment.” Christie giggled with her head against Alex’s Shoulder, grinning up at me. She was definitely tipsier than I was; they probably started drinking as I got in the shower.

  I laughed at her and took the hat off, putting it back on the hat stand as the song finished up and I finished the last sip of my drink. Aden scooped it up and took it to the kitchen for a fill as my song came on, slow sexy music encircling me, I closed my eyes to absorb it and Christie came over to join me in my drunken swaying. Giggling she nudged me and winked before going back to cuddle up with Alex, who caressed her face before kissing her softly on her lips, giving me little butterflies in my stomach. How long it had been since I felt eyes looking at me that way… it seemed like an eternity. Jarred had never looked at me with love in his eyes, no one ever had, no one but Aden, and here I was with him. We still needed to talk, but I didn’t want to ruin this perfect evening. Natalie Imbruglia’s Torn came gracefully and almost ironically in perfect timing on the five disc changers auto shuffle. Aden handed me my drink and put his hand on my waist as he stared into my eyes, capturing me.

  “Wanna go outside?” He asked.

  I nodded and he took my hand into his to lead me out onto the patio. It was cold out, the stars were shining clear in the sky. As soon as the door closed Aden’s heated gaze locked with mine, I thought he might be upset with me for a minute, before I was grabbed and firmly, passionately kissed. Aden’s hands gripped my arms at first, but loosened, and made their way to my lower back, pressing me against him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and returned his kisses.

  “Do you have any idea how much I’ve missed you?” He asked me as he released me.

  “Yes.” I felt tears coming into my eyes.

  “What is it?” He asked.

  “I missed you too, and I thought you’d be mad at me.” I laughed at the stupid statement, but it was how I felt, and he needed to know the truth. Better to tell him right away. “I met someone while I was in Chicago. I slept with him.” I watched Aden’s reaction carefully.

  “How long?” He asked.

  “Just a few months, some dates.”

  Aden nodded at me, “Well, we weren’t together. I’ve no place to be upset. But, what about now?”

  “I don’t want anyone but you.” I whispered.

  “Good.”

  Taking my glass and setting it on the table Aden swept me into his arms and kissed me again, the tears spilled over my lids as I closed my eyes and let out a sigh of relief, all my fears wiped clean. When we went into the great room Alex and Christie were already in their room, shouts of laughter echoing off the walls. I looked at Aden and the need was very clear in his eyes, feeling my pulse quicken between my legs I followed him hurriedly to the master suite.

  Aden closed the door behind him, and put his ipod on as he stripped off his shirt and pants, then crossed the room to the bed. He crawled up beside me, and kissed me while he quickly did away with my clothes, grasped my shoulders and turned me around as if I weighed nothing. I grabbed the pillow and nuzzled my face into it as Aden covered me from behind, his teeth grazing the back of my neck, my insides throbbing in response, knowing that only he could give me what I’d craved.

  Aden’s lips moved to my ear “I missed you so much, baby.”

  Overwhelmed with desire and satisfaction at the same time, I closed my eyes while Aden’s hand caressed my bare bottom and I groaned in response, lifting off the bed, offering it up to him. He began rubbing the backs of my thighs with his fingers, scratching my skin softly as he brought them back up to the bottom of my ass, and squeezed hard. I groaned and turned my face to look at him, begging him with my eyes, grinding my hips against the mattress below me as I bit my lip.

  “Tell me, baby.” Aden said, sliding his hand up and down my body, watching my reactions carefully.

  I was practically salivating now, as his hands trailed hot paths across my cool skin, rubbing, caressing, squeezing, and scratching my soft flesh, then coming around to grip my hips, massaging me until I was excited beyond belief.

  “Please, Aden.” I moaned.

  “Tell me, baby.” He said, and brought his teeth to my shoulder, nipping at my skin.

  I grabbed his hand and put it back on my ass, and pressed his hand down, “Please Aden, I nee
d you to.”

  “Tell me baby, need me to what?” He asked grabbing my ass and squeezing it hard, he twisted his other hand into my hair and gently lifted my head up, I let out a moan in response, it’d been so long since I’d been loved by Aden, and I craved it.

  I slowly got onto my knees on the bed in front of him and glanced at him over my shoulder, leg’s spread before him. He was staring at me, with pride and longing in his eyes. I placed my face down on the bed, leaving my bottom up in the air and with my left hand I rubbed my ass, still looking into his eyes.

  “I want you to touch me here.” I told him grinning and pulling my lip through my teeth. His eyes darkened as he watched me move my hand along my skin, caressing myself.

  “Touch you here?” He asked, resting his palm on my ass.

  I nodded.

  “Can’t hear you, baby. Tell me what you want.” He told me as he placed a kiss on my left cheek before biting it. I cried out a little, I wanted it so bad.

  “I want you to spank me here baby, make my skin nice and pink.” I told him, wrinkling my nose playfully at him.

  Smiling, Aden sat on the bed next to me and took my hand into his. He lead me over to him, until I was leaning across his lap, on my hands and knees. He placed his hand between my shoulders and I lowered at his touch, until my forehead rested on my arms. Puscifer’s Horizons came on the Ipod dock, and I closed my eyes in anticipation of the satisfaction. My skin crawled with the yearning.

  Aden took each of my wrists gingerly into his big hands and stretched them out before my head; I felt the pillows at my fingertips. He laid my left wrist over my right and his palm caressed the length of my arms as he slid down the back of my neck, along my spine, each vertebrae charging with electricity at his touch. I exhaled as he swirled his palm on the skin of my left butt cheek, caressing it, squeezing, and then circling. Trailing his fingers between my legs and tracing them along my labia, then back up to swiftly pop my behind. The sharp landing rippling through my nerves, making me tingle all over, crawling up my skin, blossoming along the back of my neck and making my scalp prickle, then he landed another pop to my right cheek before swirling and kneading my skin, again releasing the wonderful endorphins into my system, my eyes began to feel heavy with ecstasy.