by Carly Marie
Jeff began to pull his legs back, then stopped. “I want to ride you,” he said and grinned devilishly. Before I could respond, Jeff hooked his legs around me and flipped us over so we were in our original positions. Without hesitation, Jeff straddled me. He reached behind himself, gripped my cock, and lined it up with his hole.
As the blunt head of my cock made contact with his entrance, his breath hitched for just a moment, but then he sank down. I felt the instant his muscles accepted the intrusion and he sat in one fluid motion. “Love your fingers, but your cock feels better.” His eyes were bright with amusement at his own words.
I barked out a laugh. Sex with Jeff was unlike any sex I’d ever had in my life. His love of life carried over to his sex life. He let everything be seen as he lay below me—emotions, pleasure, happiness—and it was addictive.
Before we could get too lost in amusement, Jeff rose up and dropped back down. His eyes rolled back in his head and he rotated his hips. Little gasps and grunts escaped his mouth as he adjusted to my girth. When he eventually looked down into my eyes, all I saw was happiness. “You feel fucking amazing.”
My hands gripped his hips and guided him up and down my cock. It took more energy than I cared to admit to get words to form. “The same could be said about you.”
Jeff grinned widely and wiggled around as he came down on me again. Between his movements and the look on his face, there was no way I could remain still. I pushed my hips upward as he sank down and our bodies came together with a loud clap. “Oh, fuck me,” Jeff gasped. “Do that again. Please.”
We worked together, bringing ourselves closer and closer to the edge. I pushed upward again, and Jeff fell forward, bracing himself on his elbows on either side of my head. I maneuvered my legs so that I could continue to fuck into him as Jeff nibbled my neck. His cock dragged between our bodies, precum slicking the way.
Jeff was rocking into my thrusts, his noises becoming frantic as our pace picked up. “Gonna. Mark. Gonna cum. Right there. More. Yes.” I smiled at his pleas—there was no mistaking how much he enjoyed what we were doing.
I reached between our bodies and gripped his cock in my fist. My fingers wrapped completely around his length, but the first two pumps of his hips had friction holding it back. By the third, precum had filled the space around my fingers, and he was fucking my fist frantically while I pounded into him from below as hard and fast as I could.
With a hard thrust, Jeff came. I felt hot cum fill the space between our bodies, but more than anything, I felt how his ass squeezed my cock with every pulsation. My thrusts sped up, then stuttered, and eventually stilled as my own orgasm overtook me. “Fuck,” I roared into the bedroom as I emptied into the condom, thankful we were alone in the house.
Jeff collapsed on top of me, both of us panting for breath. “So good,” he mumbled.
We lay like that for a number of minutes before Jeff’s head popped up. “How would you feel about getting tested? For formality’s sake.”
I thought about his request for a moment. How would I feel about going bare with Jeff? My heart raced, and not from the exertion of our earlier activities. I felt every nerve ending come alive at the thought. My skin tingled. My cock twitched in Jeff’s ass and he giggled. Hell yes, I wanted that.
“I’d like that. We’ll need to go to Nashville, though. Not doing that testing at the clinic.”
Jeff chuckled. “Oh, yeah, no. I don’t need anyone in town thinking about what we do in bed. But, we can make appointments?” The hopefulness in his voice had me smiling.
“Absolutely.”
Jeff beamed at me, then used my shoulders to leverage himself up. “We’re going to stick together if we stay like this any longer.” He eased himself off my cock, and slid out of bed, and headed toward the bathroom for a washcloth.
He moved around my room organically, like he belonged there. The longer I watched him, the more I realized he did belong there. He belonged in my life, in my space, in my heart. There was nothing about him in my life that didn’t belong.
CHAPTER 27
Jeff
In the few weeks since we’d told his kids, Mark and I rarely went more than twelve hours without seeing one another. While we weren’t overt about our relationship around town, we often had lunch or dinner together at Marie’s, and Mark had become a staple at Seth’s basketball games.
As expected, there was small town gossip about our relationship, but no one seemed to be taking issue with it. The more time we spent together, the more comfortable Mark became with showing affection in public. A simple hand on my back as we walked into a restaurant or a hug as we parted ways were now commonplace.
“Are you coming to my basketball game next weekend?” Seth questioned Mark one afternoon toward the end of February. We were eating a late lunch just outside of town on the way home from the final game of the season.
Mark didn’t hesitate before he nodded. “Wouldn’t miss it. Besides, it’s the tournament game.”
Seth smiled. “Awesome.”
My kids had taken the news of me dating easily. It wasn’t uncommon for me to date, so that wasn’t a surprise. What had taken awhile for them to accept was that it was okay to expect a next weekend because Mark wasn’t going anywhere. At first, Seth didn’t ask if he’d go to a basketball game more than a day in advance. He’d often ask me if Mark was going instead of asking Mark at all. Jenna had been similar in her hesitation to expect long-term, even after being the one to give me a much-needed push in the right direction.
After a month, we’d found a normalcy that fit both our families. Jenna often stopped by Mark’s to watch the kids when she didn’t have a rehearsal after school. Seth would go pick up Thomas when he was going to play basketball in the park on mild days. It felt normal.
Saturday morning, I’d woken up tucked in Mark’s large arms, my head resting on his chest. We’d been spending more nights together over the last few weeks, and waking up next to him was beginning to feel normal. Mark’s breath ghosted across the back of my neck as he slept. My brain still too sleepy to process much more than that I was warm and comfortable.
“Daddy!” The door to the room flung open and Eli burst in, dive-bombing onto the foot of the bed. We both jumped in fright, Mark’s arm flying up and smacking the headboard behind him.
“Eli!” Thomas scolded from the door. “I told you not to wake them up.”
Eli looked back at his brother like he couldn’t understand what he was talking about. “But it’s late.”
“Seven fifty-four is not late,” Mark’s sleepy voice scolded from beside me.
Eli, all cold fingers and toes, scrambled to get under the blankets between us, and we both yelped at the shock when he brushed our warm skin. I was reminded again why Mark insisted we both wear pajama pants when the boys were home. Before Mark had told Eli and Thomas about us, it had been years since I’d been woken up by kids on my days off.
Mark looked like he needed another few hours of sleep, and after having a frozen hand come down on my bare stomach, I had to admit I was awake. “Come on, popsicle, let’s go get breakfast.”
I heard Thomas let out a triumphant cheer from the hallway. Mark’s breakfast skills hadn’t improved much in the time they’d been living here, so mornings that I made a full hot breakfast were still a treat.
I grabbed an old sweatshirt off the chair by the bed. Slowly, some of my clothes had been finding their way to Mark’s house, this particular sweatshirt being one of the first to be permanently relocated. Shooing Eli out of the room, I pulled my shirt on, then shuffled to the kitchen to start the coffee maker.
“First things first,” I told the boys. “The key to a good breakfast is not starting it until you’re awake.”
Thomas laughed at me but had already reached up to grab a mug out of the cupboard for me.
I heard my phone chime somewhere and I looked around. “Anyone know where I left my phone last night?”
Eli bounded out of the kitchen and r
eturned a moment later holding it in the air. “It was on the coffee table.”
After Seth and Jenna had gotten older, I’d never even considered having more kids. Spending time with Eli and Thomas had reminded me how fun times had been at their age.
“Thank you.” I took the phone and swiped up to see Jenna had sent a text.
What time will you be home? Or will you be home?
I looked around the kitchen, the coffee already dripping steadily into the carafe and the pots and pans I’d begun to gather on the countertop.
I’m making breakfast here. You guys want to join us?
The returned text came almost instantly.
Coffee?
As soon as I told her it was already brewing, she’d said to give them fifteen and they’d be there. Bring the eggs, I requested before I turned off my phone. Mark’s kitchen had become well stocked once he got in the swing of things here, but he didn’t have enough eggs on hand to feed six people.
I set Thomas to work peeling potatoes while Eli started gathering butter, bacon, and the remaining eggs from the fridge. Fifteen minutes later, just as I was putting the potatoes in a skillet, Seth and Jenna walked in.
Jenna didn’t even walk toward the coffeepot. She saw my coffee mug and swiped it off the counter. Seth had the decency to pour his own cup and doctored it with more cream and sugar than coffee, but sighed at the first sip.
“Brat,” I teased as I extricated my coffee mug from Jenna’s grip. “There’s coffee in the pot, and make sure to make more when you empty that pot.”
By the time bacon started to sizzle in a pan, Jenna had taken over the potatoes and was sautéing onions and garlic with them, and Eli was manning the toaster, handing warm toast to Thomas to butter. Between making eggs, Seth worked on gathering plates and cups. Chatter, singing, and laughing had been near constant since Jenna and Seth arrived. The five of us worked well together, my kids showing Thomas and Eli tricks and tips to not get burnt or not dig the knife into the bread.
“What on earth is going on in here?” A sleepy-eyed Mark questioned from the doorway. I looked up to find him standing there in a baggy T-shirt and his loose sweats, hair sticking up and a pillow crease on his cheek.
“We’re making breakfast!” Eli announced, loud enough that the neighbors were likely to have heard.
Mark nodded and walked over to me, wrapping an arm around my waist and kissing the side of my face. “Morning.”
I turned my head and caught his lips with a chaste kiss. “Morning. Pour yourself a coffee and take a seat. Breakfast’s just about ready.”
Mark shuffled around, grabbing a mug, then pouring coffee. The first plate was filled with food by the time he was sipping his first cup of coffee. “I wasn’t expecting everyone here this morning.”
“Us Rusks kind of travel in a pack,” I teased. Though it didn’t seem to be far from the truth. Even though Jenna and Seth didn’t spend the night at Mark’s, they often showed up at random times while I was there.
Mark smiled brightly. “I like it.” He looked over at Seth. “So, what time is this big game today?”
“Three,” Seth said around a bite of food.
“You’re disgusting,” Jenna groaned, smacking him on the back of the head.
“Swallow, then speak. I thought you learned that about ten years ago.” I shook my head.
Seth swallowed the bite. “Sorry. It’s at three. But it’s a half hour away, and I have to be there at one thirty.”
That set off a conversation that lasted the remainder of breakfast about who would go to the game with whom and when. There were also phones pinging almost constantly. The kids and I had banned technology at the table years earlier, and the rule had naturally carried over to when we had meals with Mark, but when it became apparent our phones weren’t going to stop that morning, we made an exception to the rule.
“Aunt Annie wants to know when we’re going to be at the game,” Jenna stated.
Mark looked at his phone. “So do my parents.”
I chuckled, holding up my phone. “Why is your brother texting me?”
Mark flipped through his own phone for a few seconds. “Because I’m not answering him, and he’s an impatient ass.”
It was strange to go from a family of three, four if I included Annie, to basically having an extended family. Seth had been overwhelmed earlier in the week as people started questioning when the tournament was and where. Now that the day had arrived, I could see the excitement in his eyes at the support.
“I’m nervous,” Seth confided as we made our way to the tournament shortly after one. It was just the two of us. Jenna had decided to wait a little longer to go and would ride with Mark and his boys.
I shrugged but then squeezed his shoulder. “It’s just like any of the other games you’ve played.”
Seth shook his head. “It’s really not. I’ve only had, like, four people in the stands watching me. Now we’ve got our family and all of Mark’s family coming.”
To an extent, I could understand Seth’s nerves. There were still times I was adjusting to having more than just the kids and me to think about. Planning something to do for two teenagers was easy. When you added in two kids plus an additional adult, it got complicated. Mark didn’t just come with two kids, though. Now that his family knew we were dating, they were involved in some of our plans as well. We already had a block of twelve tickets for Jenna’s school play. It was an adjustment, to say the very least.
“They care.” It wouldn’t help Seth be less nervous, but hopefully he understood that they wanted to be there for him. I’d felt much like Seth myself. Until Mark entered my life, I hadn’t found a boyfriend who wanted to meet my kids. Finding someone who not only tried to be involved in my kids’ lives but also had a family that was involved was surreal, even for me. I found it hard to care if we never came out publicly. Maybe one day it would matter, but what we had now was already perfect.
CHAPTER 28
Mark
Trying to coordinate schedules with my family was a lot like herding cats. My parents were anxious to get to Seth’s basketball game well before we had to be there, and Carl and Kathryn were struggling to get out the door ten minutes after they were supposed to leave. I would have been like my brother and sister-in-law if it hadn’t been for Jenna helping me herd my own cats—er, children—while I got myself ready. The boys listened to her without any fuss or complaint. At some point, they’d likely tire of listening to her, but while it lasted, I was going to enjoy it.
As we rushed about getting ready for the tournament, I kept thinking of Jeff leaving the house earlier that afternoon. I’d given him a light kiss on the cheek as he ran out the door after Seth to make it to the community center on time. I watched Louie pull out of the driveway with a ridiculously happy smile on my face. It was the same smile I wore when I saw him at the garage, or walking into the clinic, or when he pulled into my driveway. I loved his smile.
I blinked. That wasn’t quite true. Yes, I loved his smile, but I also loved so much more about him. I loved his laugh, his personality, his eyes. I loved everything about him. Hell, I loved him. I wheezed out a breath. How had I missed falling in love with him? I’d known for over a month that I was falling for him, but at some point, the feeling of falling had turned into fell.
I shut the door slowly, disappointed in myself that I had spent so much time with him, but had yet to come out and tell anyone we were dating without them finding out. I’d left it to the town to figure out on their own. They’d done a good job at it too.
Over the last six weeks, I’d learned that our relationship was one of the worst-kept secrets in Fairview. We might not have come out publicly, but it seemed that more people than not had found out. What surprised me most was that not a single negative thing had been said about us dating. Anywhere we went, we got smiles and acknowledgments, and I was asked about Jeff more often than not. Even Gladys, the manager at the grocery store, had stopped to ask me to take Jeff the ca
ke he’d ordered for one of the mechanic’s birthdays a few weeks earlier.
Of course, once Gladys knew, I knew that I wouldn’t be buying lube at the grocery store anymore. That also precluded the pharmacy since it was attached to the grocery store. Amazon had become my best friend for condoms and lubes. With any luck, our test results would be back from the clinic in Nashville soon, and we wouldn’t have to worry about condoms anymore. We’d gone up as soon as we could make time. It seemed ridiculous to wait to do it. In my mind it was a formality as Jeff had been single a long time and I had been single, well, for years, but we both agreed to make it official. It seemed like a big step, but I wasn’t scared to take it.
My family was still texting as we got into the car, and I handed Jenna my phone. “Are you able to deal with the crazies while I drive?”
She laughed but handled the barrage of texts with ease so I could focus on getting us to the basketball tournament thirty minutes away. With her help, we were pulling into the community center’s parking lot five minutes earlier than planned and found Jeff sitting in the bleachers with my parents a few minutes later.
“Hey.” Jeff’s smile was relaxed when we approached.
“Hey.” I squeezed his shoulder as I took a seat next to him.
I couldn’t help but think back to the first basketball game I’d been to almost two months earlier, when I was scared to even talk to him. We’d come so far from the day when I thought I’d fucked everything up by kissing and running.
Jeff looked between the four of us. “Any troubles getting here?”
“Once Jenna took charge of the texts…” I shot my mom and dad looks “… we were fine.”
Mom raised a shoulder. “You were taking forever. I wanted to make sure you didn’t forget to show up.”
“Hey, we beat Carl and Kathryn.”
My dad playfully jabbed a knee into my back. “Only because they have two kids and live ten minutes farther from here than you do.”