by Alexa Davis
“How about I help you upstairs, and run you a bath in that huge claw tub of yours,” I offered. She raised an eyebrow and looked at me through almost-closed eyes.
“What’s in it for you?” she asked, still looking at me from under her lashes.
“No, seriously. You, bath, wine, and when you’re done, I’ll rub the rest of the kinks out.” She smiled and nodded.
“It does sound good.” She headed upstairs to start her bath and I ran to the kitchen for the wine and glasses. By the time I caught up with her, she had begun shucking off her clothing, and I could see that the bruise on her face was the only mar on her perfect body. She glanced over her shoulder at me and motioned me over to her, as I stood like an idiot in the middle of the room, my brains scrambled by the view of her amazing curves bent over the bath. I mentally shook myself and made my feet continue toward her, and she slid into the bubbles that were already just under her firm breasts, the white complementing the pink flesh that gathered and jutted out from the cool air on her skin.
I poured wine in the two glasses and handed her one, then unbuttoned my shirt while she watched, the sensation of her eyes on me only making me even harder. Her eyes never left mine as I slid my arms out of the shirt and dropped it on the floor. She licked her lips and I moved my hand down the front of my pants, pressing it against the erection that made the pants pull tight across the front.
I undid the zipper slowly and pushed the slacks off my hips, letting them fall so I could breathe in relief as the pressure against me lessened. Her hungry gaze was so arousing, that I stood firm and tall against my stomach once I slid my boxers down my thighs and stepped out of the puddle of fabric pooled around my ankles.
“Come closer and let me touch you,” she whispered. I stepped up to get into the bath with her, and she slid her hands up my thighs, stopping me from bending my knees to sit. Her mouth was around me in an instant, and I felt her slick, wet hands on cupping my ass as she drove herself onto me, until her lips touched my pelvis. She pulled back and looked up the length of my body into my face, and I slid my fingers into her hair, moving it away from her face, so I could better see the lust in her eyes.
She tried to take me in her mouth again, but I held her hair just tight enough that she couldn’t move, and I slid down into the bath so I was facing her. I pulled her into my lap so she straddled me, and pressed me between us, so my shaft was trapped, the tip dipping into my navel. I massaged her lower back and she rocked her hips, rubbing my length between the folds of soft flesh I knew were pink and delicate to the touch, slipped over me and up, until she drove me inside her with a moan, shuddering against my chest.
I held her and forced her to take it slow, to wring every last drop of pleasure for herself as I kissed and sucked on her hard nipples, my hands still working the tight spots in her back. I felt her shudder around me and squeeze me tight, and her breathing went shallow and ragged as she clenched her strong muscles around me and let the first orgasm take her.
“Libby, I don’t want to leave,” I confessed into her hair as I reached past her to the faucet to add hot water to the bath.
“Then don’t. Maybe it’s time we tried to be, I don’t know, at least semi-official?” I flipped the drain to open and let the hot water replace the tepid.
“I have to stay away from you while the Ethics Committee checks into my—well, my firm’s claims. They have to look at me, too, and make sure I’m not just making trouble for an opponent by smearing his name.” I turned the water off and tilted my hips to better accommodate her and intensify her thrusts, reaching that smooth spot deep inside that would make her scream her next crash of pleasure instead of whispering it in my ear.
“How…How long will you be gone?” She gasped as I found my mark and pulled her down on me, faster, harder than before.
“I don’t know, a couple of weeks, maybe?” I dug my fingers into her slender hips and moved her so the hot water rushed up my chest with each thrust, and the cold air between made her nipples hard and cool when I drew them into the heat of my mouth. I released her breast and looked up into her face while she stared down, her lip tucked between her teeth in a way that was so sexy and innocent it amazed me.
She leaned down and covered my mouth with hers, coaxing me open to her and delving into me with the sweet strong muscle she had slid over other parts of me minutes before. Just thinking about her mouth on me while I was inside her was enough to make me lose control, and I pushed her down on me and roared my orgasm at the ceiling as I felt her clench around my throbbing dick and ride the wave of pleasure with me, until it crashed over us both and I sank deeper into the water with her.
“A couple of weeks is a long time,” she whispered into my chest as she trembled against me. I held her close and tried to slow time, hold off the ticking clock on the wall. It was just a few days, and she’d be fine without me. I just wished I didn’t feel like tonight was my last night with her, forever.
22. Libby
The first few days that Tucker was gone, it hadn’t mattered. He hadn’t been such a part of our lives that I missed him so terribly, right away. There was the dull ache of his absence, but I treated it like any other time we’d gone a while without speaking, and carried on with life. My bigger fear was going back to work and finding out that Maggie Dunham didn’t have a sense of humor, or a soul, as I had long suspected. By Wednesday, I felt safe from the after-effects of my joke gone awry, both in a physical sense and safe from being fired by Maggie for interrupting her grandstanding.
It wasn’t until Olivia and I were on our way home, and she wanted to stop for a mommy-daughter lunch at a fancy restaurant (which was any sit-down eatery with actual servers), that I realized my life was exactly as it had been before I went to Tucker about the will. No Tucker, no Cynthia or Kristy or court, or waiting for a hearing date. We’d gone through all the stress and sacrifice, and in the end, absolutely nothing about my life had changed, except that the longer Tucker was gone, the bigger the hole in my chest grew.
I watched my sweet little girl order from the children’s menu, speaking earnestly to the college kid who was waiting on us. He crouched by her seat so they were eye to eye, and made notes as she spoke, even though she wasn’t making much sense.
“Olivia, please. Just order something they actually have on the menu, baby,” I gently chided her. Her jade eyes sparkled with tears and her little mouth quivered as she tried to hold back her embarrassment, and I mentally shook myself for being an idiot and a rotten mother. I glanced up at the server, who winked at me and made a show of concentrating hard.
“Miss Olivia, I know we don’t have the chicken with pineapple on it here, but do you trust me to make you something really, really special?” Olivia frowned, but nodded slowly.
“Okay. I will be right back with drinks to start you with. If I guess what your favorite drink is, will you draw me a picture?” Her frown disappeared under the thrill of a challenge, and she grinned and nodded more enthusiastically. He turned to me and smiled. “If I were a guessing man, I’d say you need full caffeine, full sugar today.” I laughed and agreed, and he set off towards the back to turn in our orders.
“Sorry I snapped at you, O. I’m frustrated with life, and I had no excuse for taking it out on you.”
“That’s okay, Mom. I’m fust-er-ated too. I miss Uncle Tuck. He was going to bring his puppy to our house again, and he said I could hold her leash.” I reached across the table and held her soft, sticky little hand in mine.
“He will be back soon,” I promised. “He didn’t want to go in the first place, and I just know he misses you too.”
“He’s not gone like Daddy’s gone… right, Mom?” Her little voice was tinged with worry, and I shook my head.
“No, baby. He’s not gone like Daddy had to go. He’s just doing super-important work stuff and can’t come over. He’s helping people who were hurt by a really bad dude; and just by doing what we’re doing, we’re helping him.”
“By
letting him work?”
“Exactly.”
“Okay, but can I go play with D’Ante today? Keisha said she’d play fort with us.” I told her I’d check with their mom, and laughed to myself. If only it was that easy for me to change my focus. I was still doing research on the survivability of a party planning business, and the stark numbers were daunting, at best. I texted Shaunte and smiled up at the waiter, who had brought me a frosted pint beer mug and a pitcher of Dr. Pepper, and a fruit salad for Olivia, shaped like a dinosaur eating from a bush. I gaped at him and he shrugged.
“One of our prep cooks is an art major.” I chuckled and handed him two ten dollar bills, one for himself, and one for the prep cook.
“This is aside from the tip. Thank you for being good to my daughter.”
“It was my pleasure. I have four sisters and two nieces. I get how they think.” Olivia was ecstatic for the rest of our lunch date, demanding that I take pictures and post them on “Face TV book,” and chortling over the captions she asked me to type for her.
Shaunte had gotten back to me, via text, before we’d finished eating, and that left me with nothing to do with the rest of my day, but drop her off on our way into our neighborhood and work on finding myself a career that would provide for me and my daughter.
Two hours later, sitting at the bar in my kitchen, all I wanted to do was hit my head on the counter until I knocked myself out. I checked in with Shaunte, who said the kids were great, and Dale was home from work and building them a skyscraper from empty boxes he’d purchased for them to move with.
Knowing I could not stand my own company for one more minute, I invited her over, and promised her wine. I had popped the cork and was letting it breathe in a special decanter Tucker had left on one of his visits, when I heard her knock at the door, and wondering why she bothered, I hollered for her to come in, or kick the door if her arms were full and she need help.
I heard the beep of our security system as the door opened, and another as it closed, and I started digging through my fridge for snacks to munch on while we complained about our jobs and kids. We never complained about husbands. Hers was too amazing to pick on, and mine had been too damaged to be funny. But for what it was worth, I was happier than I’d ever been, and my head was in a good place, no longer just worried about surviving until tomorrow, but looking ahead to the future, to doing something that would bring me a sense of fulfilment and happiness.
I backed away from the fridge with an armload of fattening foods, and as it closed, I turned to ask Shaunte for help getting it all to the counter. Instead, the entire pile hit the floor as I stared into the pale, drawn face of the one woman I never expected to see in my kitchen.
“Kristy, oh wow. Um, hold on; let me clean this up.” Kristy bent down and helped me pick up the fruit and cheeses that had rolled away from me on the tile floor, and smiled shyly as she piled it on onto the counter.
“You said come in,” she started, uncertainty in her voice. “You had your head in the fridge, I didn’t want to say something and have you bash your head.” I laughed.
“Thanks for that.” I scrubbed my hand over my neck. “I was expecting someone else, but I’m happy to see you.”
“Well, are you happy to see me too?” Shaunte’s voice floated in from the foyer. “I come bearing high-fat snacks and wine coolers!” Kristy chewed her lip nervously, but she sat in the barstool I pulled out for her, and relaxed as she watched me cut pears and apples and arranged them on a plate with aged cheddar and goat cheeses. I introduced them, and gave Kristy a paring knife and an apple to keep her hands busy.
“Damn Libby, you and your fancy schmancy cheese plates,” She rolled her eyes and I saw Kristy hide a smile as Shaunte winked at her. “I brought donut holes, Bugles, and Chex mix. You’re welcome.” I pointed her toward the cupboard with the bowls and earned myself another eye roll. “I know where the damned dishes are, snowflake.” Kristy’s eyes were huge as she watched Shaunte move around the kitchen as if it was her own, and tease me at every turn.
“You must be Libby’s best friend,” Kristy finally said to her, quietly.
“Well, yes, I like to think I am, but why do you say that?” Shaunte leaned over the counter and smiled at the young woman.
“Because you know her kitchen, and you make fun of her. I’ve never heard anyone do that, even from the people who don’t like her. They’d try, but it was like they were telling a joke with no punchline. I thought it meant Libby was kind of scary.” A surprised laugh escaped Shaunte, and when she looked at me, I couldn’t help but laugh, too.
“She’s not scary. She almost broke her face last week, trying to tease a coworker with a carafe of water.”
“God. Thanks, Shaunte.” I put away the extra food and admired the spread. “Looks good. Now we can drink more without getting sick.” Shaunte and Kristy got to know each other while they sipped their drinks, Shaunte with a glass of pinot noir, Kristy with a wine cooler.
“I have not had one of these since—well, since I skipped school and went hiking with my best friend,” Kristy reminisced with a giggle. “We thought we were so badass, smoking cigarettes she conned the gas station attendant into selling, and drinking the coolers we stole from her mom.”
“Whatever happened to her?” I asked.
“She got me into dancing,” Kristy sighed. “And then she got me into coke.” Shaunte and I exchanged a glance, but said nothing. “Then, I stopped using, because I just wasn’t into drugs. The next thing I knew, we weren’t friends anymore, and she made sure the world knew she hated me.”
Her voice was low and I pretended I didn’t see the stray tear that dropped onto the counter as she stared down at her plate. Shaunte set a stack of napkins on the table and pushed one off the top towards the sniffling girl.
“You must think I’m such a loser,” Kristy sniffed. “I didn’t plan on coming here and feeling sorry for myself.”
“Why did you come?” Shaunte shot me a look and I rephrased the question. “I mean, you’re always welcome, did you have a reason to come, or did you just want to say ‘hi’?” Kristy played with the food on her plate, her face screwed into a grimace.
“I don’t have anywhere to go, and because of the freeze on my, well, on Andrew’s assets, I’m broke.” She looked up at me and I covered my face with my palm.
“Yeah. Tucker started this whole… ethics… thing, and it included investigating him and that cute little student, Cynthia, so you aren’t alone in that dinghy.”
“So, you want money from Libby, after wrecking her marriage and taking everything she had to begin with?” I waved my hands and rushed to Kristy’s side.
“She had nothing to do with my divorce, Shaunte. He met her after we’d separated.” My friend backed down, but her grey eyes glinted dangerously. I rubbed Kristy’s shoulder and smiled at my protective friend. “How much do you need to survive until this is over, Kristy?” She shrugged and shook her head.
“I don’t really want your money,” she countered. “I just want my life back.” I chewed on my cheek for a moment.
“Did I ever tell either of you, that Andrew filed for divorce right after he found out he had cancer? He never even told me he was sick.” Kristy and Shaunte exchanged glance. “Crazy, right? Who does that?” I patted Kristy one last time and claimed my glass of wine, drained it, and held it out to Shaunte for a generous refill.
“Then why did he propose to me?”
“I don’t know. Did he tell you he was dying?” Kristy frowned and shook her head.
“He said he had been sick, that’s why he’d lost some weight.”
“I can’t help but wonder, knowing the way he was, if he thought he’d manage it on his own then realized he just couldn’t stand to be alone. The nefarious Mrs. Peele Senior isn’t exactly the caregiving type.”
“Great. Was anything he said, not a lie?” Kristy tossed her empty cooler in the trash and grabbed a wine glass. I winked at Shaunte and opened two more bottles of
white I had in the fridge, just in case, and Shaunte filled Kristy’s glass.
“Did he tell you you’re beautiful?” I asked, chuckling at Kristy’s snort. “Did he tell you he never loved me?” Her face went from irritated, to grave, and she looked down at the glass she as spinning slowly in her hands. “Well, there you are. Two non-lies, right off the bat.” I folded my arms. “What can I do to help you, Kristy?”
“I shouldn’t have brought my problems to your doorstep. I should go.” I snatched Kristy’s purse from the barstool next to her.
“You’ve had too much to drink. On top of that, you are the only other person in the world who truly understands what I went through with Andrew. I don’t hate you for being the next person he latched onto, I hate him for putting you through all that, just so he didn’t have to die alone, all because he realized it was harder than he thought.” The silence that filled my kitchen was heavier than my heart the day I’d realized what I said to Kristy was true.
“We are going to need more than wine for this therapy session,” Shaunte drawled. She whipped out her phone and her fingers flew over the face. “Dale’s sending fried chicken and cinnamon rolls. You’ll thank me later.”
“Last time, Kristy. What can I do to help?” She twisted her fingers together anxiously, in an all too familiar gesture.
“Can I stay with you for a few days? I’ll pay you back for whatever I use, once I get a job.”
“I have a room you can use. But I don’t want your money. Just—don’t leave the fridge empty if you empty it, don’t leave messes in your wake, and be nice to Olivia. You are her stepmom, after all.” Kristy gasped. Andrew hadn’t let us near his new wife or himself before he died. I watched her face as she processed what I’d offered, and knew her answer from the tears that poured down her face. She took off, then circled back and I pointed her toward the guest washroom.