by S. M. Shade
“There’s a generator. We’ll have electricity.”
A firm breeze whispers over my skin, easing the burn of the sun as Neal steers the boat out of its slip and starts across the lake. It couldn’t be a more beautiful day for this and I can’t wipe the smile from my face while I watch all the activity around us.
The lake hosts a lot of fisherman, people on jetskis, and an array of boats I have no names for. “We’ll drive around a little and find a quiet place,” Neal says.
If I wasn’t already a hundred percent in love and lust with this man, seeing him like this would do it. Stripped down to nothing but a pair of shorts, he guides the boat with such confidence, a serene smile planted on his lips. He looks right at home.
The sun makes his blue green eyes shine and the wind whips his wavy hair around, making me want to run my hands through it. “You look so damn sexy right now,” I announce, and his smile expands. Steering us to a little cove, he kills the engine. We’re far enough away from the other boaters and people that we can hear the sound of the waves lapping at the boat. A woodpecker hammers away in the forest nearby, and dragonflies hum over our heads.
Lying back on the cushioned bench, I breathe, “It’s like paradise.”
“Wait until tonight, when the stars come out,” he says, taking a seat on the deck and leaning his back against the bench. He turns his head and I capture his lips with mine. They’re soft and warmed by the sun. The usual desperate, passionate frenzy that always exists when we come together isn’t present. This is different. It’s a leisurely, sweet kiss that makes my heart swell with emotions I’ve tried not to feel.
When we part, I press another soft kiss against his bottom lip and murmur, “I love you.”
His fingers thread through my hair and his gaze locks on mine. “I love you, V.” He shifts and slips his hand into mine. “You haven’t said anything, but I know moving in together makes you nervous. I’m sure it’ll take some adjustment on everyone’s part, but I swear, we’ll make it work.”
“I know.” I sit up and slide down to sit beside him. “It just feels a little too good to be true sometimes.”
“Moving in together?”
“I always wanted a family. It was always just me and mom, and, well…you’ve met her. Then I thought I had a chance at it with Clint, which was a huge mistake. Well, not completely, because I had Aiden, but now he’s growing up the same way, with only me for support.”
“Not anymore,” he says. “I’ll treat him like my own. We’ll be a family. Even if you never agree to marry me.”
Chuckling, I look up at him. “Is that really what you want?”
“Yes.” There’s no hesitation in his response. “But only when I know you want it too.”
“It’s not you. I just…never saw the point in marriage. It’s a bit creepy. It’s like, I love you so much I’m going to get the government involved so you can’t leave.”
He throws his head back and his laugh echoes over the lake. “That’s one way to look at it.”
“How do you see it?”
“Marriage is standing in front of everyone you care about and telling the world that this is the person you want to be with forever. It’s not swearing to the government, or a god, or even those watching, but to each other. Then, when the hard times come and there are days you might worry that it’s all falling apart, you can remember that oath and know the other person isn’t going anywhere. That trouble will pass, and love will still be there.”
“Even though divorce exists?”
“So does death, but you don’t spend your life anticipating it.”
We’re quiet for a few moments as I mull over his words. A sudden squeal from a woman on a passing boat breaks the silence. “A year,” I murmur.
“What?”
“Once we’ve lived together a year, if you want to get married, I’m willing.”
A smile leaps across his face. “I’m holding you to that.”
A bead of sweat runs down my side, and I stand up, stripping off my shirt and shorts to reveal the bikini underneath. “Go for a swim with me?”
I don’t have to ask him twice.
We sit cuddled together, watching the descending sun throw a million sparkles over the water, putting an end to one of the best days of my life. One of those I know I’ll always remember.
Goosebumps race across my skin, and Neal kisses my neck as I shiver. “Come on, let’s go dry off and put some clothes on.”
While we’re getting changed, Aiden calls to say goodnight, and I put him on speakerphone.
“Can I stay up another hour?” he begs.
“What did Noble say?”
“That there’s only so much fun he can take in one night, but that don’t make sense! Fun is good!”
“So is sleep. So be good and go to bed. I love you.”
“Fine,” he grumbles. “Love you too.”
“Let me talk to Noble.”
There’s some scrambling around before Noble says, “Hey.”
“Hey, everything going okay?”
“Yeah, they’re fine. Except Aiden broke the soap dish off the shower wall, and I have no clue how that happened. Something about Spiderman. Your boy could turn a rock inside out.”
Neal smiles at me as he pulls out a blanket. “So, you’ve had too much fun?”
“Oh yeah. I just listened to a ten minute argument because Bailey asked him ‘What rhymes with door?’ and he said ‘No, it doesn’t.’”
Neal and I both crack up.
“But everything’s good. They’re going to bed now, and I’m calling to get a vasectomy.”
I hear Aiden pipe up in the background. “Is that a video game? I want to play vasectomy!”
“Did you do a lot of drugs when you were pregnant?” Noble asks. “I’m not judging.”
“Good night, Noble. Thanks again,” I laugh.
Neal and I are still chuckling over Aiden and Noble when we make our way back up onto the deck. My laughter is cut short when I’m struck by the beauty of the world that seems to have transformed over the last half hour.
In the distance, I can see the lights of a few other boats, but we’re too far away to hear anything but the sounds of nature around us. The wind has died down and the night is warm and fragrant with the scent of the forest around us.
The true magic of the scene though, comes from the sky. Stars burst across it, closer, clearer, and in greater numbers than I’ve ever seen. The calm water reflects them, making it hard to tell which way is up.
Neal sets a battery-operated lantern beside the foam mat he’s already spread out on the deck, but doesn’t turn it on. While I marvel at our surroundings, he goes below, returns with pillows and a blanket, and makes us a cozy spot to relax.
Stretching out, he pulls me down beside him and we stare at the sky. I could stay right here forever. “It’s so beautiful. You can even see the milky way.”
“I loved spending the night on a boat when I was a kid. My parents would sleep in the hull and I’d sleep under the stars.”
I cuddle up to him, pressing my cheek to his chest. “Did you ever get woken up by rain?”
“No, but a bird shit on me once, right in my hair. I slept through it, but my dad’s laughter woke me up.”
“Are you serious?”
He grins down at me. “Absolutely. I was mad because he made me get up and jump in the lake to wash it off. It was freezing, and I was still half asleep.”
He stops my giggle with a soft kiss. Our lips part for a second, and our eyes meet, before we kiss again, and his hands wander over my body. There’s no urgency this time, no desperation to get all we can of the other because we have limited time, or the kids might catch us, but the passion is overpowering as always.
Our clothing ends up piled at our feet, and I close my eyes at the foreign sensation of the night air blowing across my naked body. It’s exhilarating because it feels like we’re out in the open, but we can’t actually be seen or heard by any of th
e other boaters in the distance.
When he slides inside me with a tenderness I’ve not felt before, my head tilts back, and a quiet moan escapes. We aren’t fucking this time. He makes love to me—slow, steady, mind blowing love—while the stars shine down on us and the boat rocks with our joined bodies.
We roll over, and I ride him at the same pace, bending over to kiss the rasp of his stubble covered jaw. He sits up and wraps his arms around me. Moving together for what feels like hours, we both slowly build until we come together, my face buried in his neck. I don’t know how long we lie there after, cuddled together, watching the stars nightly journey across the sky, but it’s the most peaceful thing I’ve ever experienced.
A drop in temperature finally chases us inside where we curl up in bed together. Maybe it was the sun, the swimming, or the sex, but exhaustion sends me to sleep almost immediately. I awake once in the middle of the night to hear the steady beat of rain above us. It wakes Neal as well, and without moving from his position behind me, he silently slips inside me again. The sound of the rain, the rocking of the boat, and another slow, devastating orgasm puts me right back out.
In the morning, I’m not sure how much of my memory is true and what was a dream, it was all so perfect.
Chapter Fifteen
Neal
“Over here, buddy!” I call to Aiden, and he pulls his wagon over to me. It’s full of items that Veronica is selling in the yard sale.
“Mom said she’ll be over in a minute,” he says, wiping his little forehead.
Nine o’clock in the morning and it’s already ninety degrees, with enough humidity to drown in the air. We’ll be lucky if people still show up with the heat advisories in place. We really should’ve checked the weather before having a yard sale, but it doesn’t matter much. At this time of year, it’s either boil your balls hot or raining.
My little entrepreneur is taking advantage of the situation. Bailey has spent her allowance, plus some money she had saved, on cases of drinks and a few boxes of popsicles. The popsicles are in the freezer inside, but the cooler is full of ice cold drinks she plans to sell. Darla loaned her a big sun umbrella that she’s driven into the ground to sit under, and Aiden joins her.
Two cars pull up just as Veronica joins me, but I barely notice them. I’m used to seeing Veronica in a t-shirt and shorts or completely naked. There hasn’t been much in-between, but her outfit today turns me into a staring idiot. Her tiny cotton shorts stop just below her ass cheeks, and a halter top leaves her abdomen bare. Blissfully unaware of my gawking and the stare of one of the men who exits the car parked behind her, she makes her way over to me.
“Shit, it’s hot already. Bailey had a good idea with the drinks.”
“Uh-huh.” Yeah, still staring as she bends over to rifle through a box of books.
She looks up at me, blinking at the sun in her eyes. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good.” Christ, Neal, get it together. You’re not a damn teenager.
A minivan pulls up and two women get out, along with two young kids. “Mom! They got popsicles! I want a popsicle!”
Rolling her eyes, one of the women brings the kids over to purchase popsicles from Bailey, along with two bottles of water. Yeah, she’s going to make a killing today. Bailey sends Aiden in for the popsicles, and he happily obliges. He’s stuck like glue to her today because she’ll be leaving to spend some time at my parents’ soon and he’s not happy about it.
The sale goes better than I anticipated. Even after everything we gave to charity and threw away, we have a ton of stuff to sell. As the day grows hotter, the steady stream of customers becomes a trickle.
The Frat Hell guys and their friends stop by and all six of them buy a drink from Bailey, leaving her with a giant smile on her face. The only other customers are a woman who has three boys around twelve or thirteen with her. They all browse around, but the boys spend their time digging through a box under one of the tables, giggling and exclaiming over whatever they’ve found.
I can’t remember what’s in it. Probably books or DVD’s. I think Bailey set that one out. Veronica notices them as well when loud laughter erupts, followed by a shriek from one of the ladies.
What the hell? Did a mouse climb in the box or something? That’s really my only thought as I start across the yard.
The lady who screamed grabs one of the boys by the arm and shouts, “In the car! Now!” They all hustle toward the car, and she scowls at me as she passes, hissing, “You should be ashamed of yourself! Deviant pervert!”
The Frat Hell guys practically sprint to see what’s in the box and beat me there by a few steps.
Oh fuck.
I’m never going to live this down.
The cardboard box may look like any other, but it has sealed my fate as the neighborhood pervert.
Bailey starts toward us, but Veronica stops her, and sends her and Aiden down to Jani’s to get more bags. It’s a good thing.
No daughter should ever see her father’s high school porn collection.
I don’t know why I kept it. There are magazines and VHS tapes in that box that are almost twenty years old. Dating back before you could just jump on the internet and see whatever you want.
By the time I try to yank the box up, the guys have already dragged out videos with titles like Anustasia, Bend Over Like Beckham, and Sorest Rump.
Noble sits back on the grass, holding a magazine bearing the headline Sir Cumsalot Spanks a Wench, laughing and trying to talk. “You’d better…be careful, Veronica…I see…a pattern.”
Fuck.
“Dude, I knew you were old, but…magazines?” Denton snorts, and all the guys burst out laughing again.
I’m still trying to find a way out of this when another car pulls up, and a guy with a kid gets out. Noble tosses a ten dollar bill at me and snatches up the box. “I’ll just get this out of your way. Worth every penny,” he laughs as the group starts down the road back to the Frat Hell apartment.
“A lot of spanking mags in here, Veronica,” Denton taunts as he passes by her. “Better be good.”
She slaps him on the arm, and he cracks up.
Great. I can’t stop them without calling attention to what they’re laughing about so they’re going to take them home and see every crazy fetish magazine and porno I managed to get my hands on as a teenager.
Perfect.
Veronica doesn’t say anything to me as the man and little boy pick out and purchase a few of Aiden’s old toys. The smirk on her lips every time she looks at me doesn’t feel like a good sign though.
Finally, we’re alone, and she approaches me, laughter breaking through her words, “So, I guess you’re an ass man?”
Her giggles break the stern expression I was trying to maintain. “I’ve had those since I was thirteen. I forgot I even had them. Bailey must’ve set them out when she moved the DVD boxes from my closet.”
“So, I don’t have to worry you’ll go all Fifty Shades on me and throw me over your knee?”
I had an ex that was into spanking, and as much as I fantasized about it when I was young, it’s not really my thing, but now the visual is in my head and all I want to do is put her plump ass in the air. “Depends on whether you bring this up again.”
“I have an idea. You never say the words ‘fucking idiot’ again and I’ll pretend this never happened.”
Laughing, I wrap my arms around her and drop a kiss on her lips. “Deal.”
“We’re a mess,” she laughs.
“Makes us perfect together.”
“Do you want me to go get your box of teenage deviance away from the guys?”
“Only if you burn it.”
“Deal. You can clean up,” she says, gesturing to the remnants of the yard sale.
Sighing, I start gathering the leftover items to take to the thrift shop. I guess I shouldn’t really be concerned. Half the neighborhood saw me running home in what appeared to be shit stained underwear. What’s a few pornos
compared to that?
I figured the Frat Hell guys would bring up the porno thing for a while, then grow bored of it. I should’ve known better. Every day since the yard sale, I’ve found a page hidden somewhere. Under the visor in my car, tucked in my barbecue grill, taped to the inside of the lid of my outdoor trash can. At least they’ve made sure to put them where I’ll find them and not Bailey. Still, when I open a piece of junk mail and find an ad for a spanking bench alongside the pre-approval for a credit card, I know this won’t blow over anytime soon. College kids have too much time on their hands in the summer.
Veronica is a ball of nerves and it’s so adorable. My parents are coming today to pick up Bailey for their usual summer visit and I swear, she has changed clothes three times, like maybe they’d like her better in a blue shirt instead of red.
“Relax, V,” I pull her down beside me on the couch and wrap my arm around her. “They are going to love you.”
“Do they know about me?”
“Of course. The last time I visited, my dad said we were both dumbasses for keeping things distant because of the kids. I guess I’m going to have to admit he was right.”
The corners of her mouth tilt up as she peeks up at me. “They knew we were seeing each other before?”
I run my fingers down her arm. “I knew then I wanted more. I wanted to wait until after we moved to say anything because I thought it’d be easier on Bailey, not to have so much to adjust to at once. But this was always going to happen, V.”
She lays her head on my shoulder and picks up my hand. She always loves playing with my hands. “I’m glad you didn’t wait.”
“Me too.”
“They’re here!” Bailey crows, darting through the front door.
Veronica swallows and takes a deep breath. Chuckling, I pull her to her feet and we head outside. “Come on. Time to let my mother fawn all over you while my father embarrasses me.”
Mom and Dad are barely out of the car before Bailey is blathering away to them, telling them all about the new house and how Veronica and Aiden are moving in with us. I hadn’t really mentioned that yet.
