by Claire Adams
I could feel the love pouring from his body as he soaked mine with his sweat, and as the thunder crashed so hard my ears rang, my legs wrapped around his body and pulled him close into me.
If I was going over this edge, then he was coming with me.
I threw my hands around his neck and pulled myself up into him, desperate to feel the whole of his body at once while I quaked at his assault. I dropped over the edge as lightning and thunder crashed across the sky while I cried out his name in ecstasy, our sweat dripping down onto the mattress as my pussy pulled at his dick. My body was hungry for his cum, wanting more, my walls pulsing around him and clamping tightly. I felt his teeth lay into my shoulder as my entire body clung to him for dear life.
My hands dug into his back, and my legs wrapped around his waist. The only thing I could do was tremble against him until he dropped us both to the mattress.
“Oh, yes. Lucy. I love you. I love you so...much...”
His body released inside of me, marking me as his own while we shook together on the mattress underneath the storm. The rain tried desperately to wash away the evidence of our lustful adventure, but as our smells permeated the tent, the only thing I could do was smile.
We heaved for air together as Jason settled his sweating face into the crook of my neck, and my hands moved from his back to his hair so I could untangle the knots I’d surely created on top of his head.
With each breath, I could feel him press a kiss to the nape of my neck, and as the storm began to slowly recede, all I could do was giggle.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
“It occurred to me you really are Maximum, aren’t you?”
“Why do you say that?” he asked.
“Because you were so much more impressive than that storm, and I’m pretty sure that storm’s the strongest we’ve had all season.”
“Did I rumble your body more than the thunder?” He laughed.
“Oh, baby, you made me shake, rattle, and roll.” I wasn’t sure that wouldn’t go to his head, but I didn’t much care at the moment. Maybe he’d earned it today.
And he raised his head to capture my lips in a kiss while the two of us swallowed each other’s laughter.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Jason
I was ecstatic that Lucy was spending Christmas with us this year. When I had told Jenna, she threw her arms around me and thanked me profusely, and then she had told me it readily made up for me chasing her away for Thanksgiving. While Jenna was only a little girl, she was incredibly intuitive about the world around her, and the statement had both shocked me and made me laugh.
“Why didn’t you tell me she had so many gifts already for Christmas?” Lucy asked, bringing me back to our conversation.
“Because I didn’t realize how many we’d gotten her,” I said.
“Between the television for her room, the collection of Disney princess DVDs, the new toys, and the tablet with all her electronic games, she’s gonna have a better Christmas than us,” she said.
“Yeah, and that’s just what I got her. I don’t think we’ve made it to what you got her, yet.”
“Nope, it’s all still out in the car. I figured that was a safe place to put it since she’s been over every day since we got back from camping.”
“I think she thought you weren’t gonna show up or something,” I said.
“Is there any way I can make up Thanksgiving to her?” she asked.
“You’ve got it in your trunk,” I said, chuckling. “And anyway, Thanksgiving is my fault, and I think she understands that.”
“You think? I mean, she’s a bit young to understand what happened.”
“She told me the other day that she was excited you were coming for Christmas, and that it made up for me chasing you away on Thanksgiving,” I said.
“She did not,” she said, giggling.
“Oh, yes she did. She’s a little spark of fire, I tell ya.”
“I never had a Christmas like this, honestly. Birthdays were the big thing in our house growing up.”
“So, you guys got big birthdays?” I asked.
“Nope. But they were bigger than Christmas,” she said.
“I never really had birthdays or Christmases like this,” I said.
“Why not?” she asked.
“We weren’t that kind of family, I guess.”
I really wasn’t in the mood to talk about my family on Christmas Eve, but I could tell she was watching me out of the corner of her eye.
“Do you wanna talk about it?” she asked.
“There’s really nothing to talk about. My parents weren’t the best, and I got jobs as early as I could to help out financially.”
“Did your father not work?” she asked.
“He did. They both did, sometimes. But, they also drank their excess money away, which doesn’t make for a good way to pay bills.”
“I’m so sorry, Jason. I had no idea,” she said.
“I don’t talk about it much. Danielle was actually the one who convinced me I wasn’t responsible for their happiness or their security. I owe much of my life the way it is now to her.”
“She sounds like she was a phenomenal woman,” she said.
“She was. I was lucky to have known her,” I said.
“Well, I’m glad Jenna’s getting a big Christmas like this. We’re about done wrapping these gifts, so I’ll go get the ones from my car,” she said.
I turned and gave Lucy a kiss before she started for the door, but I heard her footsteps stop before the door opened. The house went eerily silent, and I could hear her breathing picking up, so I ventured into the kitchen to see what happened.
“Lucy, what’s—”
“Someone’s outside,” she whispered.
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. I lunged for her, grasping her arm and pulling her away from the window, and then I pulled her into me and forced her gaze up to mine.
“There’s a pistol in the cabinet in the corner in the living room. Get it out. I’m gonna go get my shotgun. Don’t go outside until I’m with you.”
“Got it,” she said, whispering.
She raced to the living room while I ventured back into my closet. I heard fluttering around outside while Lucy and I crept around the house, and by the time I got back to the door, she was standing there, waiting for me. My heart hammered in my chest while we stood there and listened, and when the sound happened again, the two of us slowly crept onto the porch.
Lucy raised the pistol out in front of her while I cocked my shotgun, and we both slowly ventured around the house. I rushed out to the storage unit we had and pulled it open while Lucy opened our cellar, and the two of us thoroughly checked the grounds before we made our way to the middle of the backyard. We couldn’t see any shadows, nor was there any sort of movement around us, and it caused us both to breathe a sigh of relief.
“I swear to you, Jason, someone was—”
Just then, I went to go move my foot and tripped on a rock. I stumbled, catching myself on Lucy, trying not to shoot off a gun in the middle of the night.
“Are you all right?” she asked.
But my eyes were trained solely onto the ground.
Lucy had left the cellar light on to cast a glow around the backyard, and I was looking straight down at a footprint. It was smaller than mine but bigger than Lucy’s. Where the hell had that come from? They weren’t exactly in a place where someone could accidentally traipse through my backyard.
Still, it wasn’t necessarily a reason to throw any red flags. The mud surrounding it was frozen, which meant it wasn’t fresh.
“There it is!” Lucy said. I caught the movement out of the corner of my eye and whipped around with my gun ready. I was prepared for whoever the fuck thought they could step onto my property on this beautiful holiday and scare the people I loved the way they were, but Lucy’s giggling settled my gut as I finally realized what I was pointing my gun at.
“Holy shit, it
was just an owl,” she said. “Oh, my God. Jason. I’m so sorry.”
I dropped the barrel of my gun, a smile crossing my face, and I wrapped my arm around her shoulders. She laid her head into the crook of my body and continued to laugh, and I knew it was her way of getting rid of her nerves. The movement of the owl had apparently really scared her, and I could feel her body trembling with the release of adrenaline she had experienced thinking someone was actually walking around the house.
“It’s all right, Lucy. Come on. Let’s get those gifts out of your car and get inside.”
“I think we should put our guns away first,” she said. “Someone might think we’re robbing something.”
“Good idea,” I said.
The two of us walked back to the house and put the guns away before we went out and got the gifts from her car. I could tell she was still trembling a little bit, and even though we had found the owl, there was something else running through her mind.
“Is everything all right?” I asked.
“Yeah. Yeah, everything’s all right,” she said.
“Lucy.”
She whipped her gaze up to mine, and she couldn’t hide that she was still scared. I put down the tape and the wrapping paper before I reached out to her, pulling her into my body. She wrapped her arms tightly around me and sniffled into my chest, and the only thing I knew to do was run my hands slowly through her hair.
“Holy God, that scared me so bad,” she said.
“I know it did, Lucy. I know.”
“What if it had actually been a person? What if something had happened to Jenna?”
“Well, with the both of us being the good shots we are, they wouldn’t have gotten into the house before we would’ve nailed them,” I said.
“I’m so sorry,” she said. “I really thought someone was there.”
“Shhh,” I said, hushing her in her ear. “It’s all right. Just take some deep breaths.”
“If anything ever happened to you two—”
“Nothing’s happening to anyone. I promise,” I said.
But, even as I said that, I looked out the porch window and could’ve sworn I saw something running across my lawn.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Lucy
“Here, open this one,” Jason said.
Jenna was ripping and tearing her presents open like they were the last ones she would ever receive. She’d run over to my house, knocking the door down at five this morning, yelling that Santa had come and that I was late. I stumbled down my stairs, eager to get over there and celebrate with them, so all I did was wrap a robe around my body and throw my hair up in a bun.
Jenna had taken my hand and dragged me through the snow, our boots getting covered in the powdery goodness while we stomped through her house. The scent of percolating coffee wafted through the air while Jason cooked us all cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and I couldn’t help but take in the beauty of it all. The Christmas tree was stuffed with more presents than I’d remembered leaving underneath it last night. I looked back over my shoulder at a smirking, tired-eyed Jason.
“Merry Christmas, Lucy,” he said.
“You didn’t.”
“I did,” he said.
“You didn’t have to get me presents.”
“Well, I could say the same for you. You snuck them under there for me when you left,” he said.
“And I thought I did a pretty good job of it, too.”
“The best.” He bent down to kiss the top of my head.
The coffee was warm between my fingers, and it stopped my shivering body from shaking. The wind swirled the snow around and threw it up against the house, but inside, Jason was stoking a roaring fire while Jenna was divvying up the presents. Just like she had done with her Halloween candy, there were three piles, one for myself, one for Jason, and one for her.
“Disney princesses!” she squealed.
“Merry Christmas, princess,” Jason said, smiling.
“And a TV to watch them on! Daddy, can the TV go in my room?” Jenna asked.
“That’s exactly where it’s going,” I said.
“This one says it’s from you, Miss Lucy.”
“Then open it up and see what it is,” I said.
She unwrapped the present, tossing the paper behind her as the box slowly came into view. I had one when I was growing up: an American Girl doll I loved dressing up. I had one made just for her, a doll with the same beautiful hair and eyes she possessed as well as the same rosy tint to her cheeks she always seemed to have. I felt Jason’s stare on me while Jenna slowly pulled the doll from the box, and the look of awe in her eyes brought tears to mine.
“Daddy,” she said, whispering. “She looks like me.”
“It’s beautiful,” Jason said, his eyes still on the side of my face.
“Why don’t you open up the green present wrapped up beside it?” I asked.
I felt Jason reach over and take my hand, curling his fingers around my skin while I watched Jenna tear into the present. The thing I loved about my doll growing up was that she not only came with books, but she came with outfits that I could match. My doll and I had matching dresses growing up, and I could remember playing dress-up alongside her and prancing around the house for hours.
That doll screamed Jenna, and I couldn’t resist getting it for her.
“Daddy, look!”
She held up a yellow and green dress in her size before she found the smaller one that matched. She twirled around in the den, an enormous smile gracing her cheeks, and all I could do was watch her as happiness poured into my open chest. This girl had sat herself down in the pit of my sternum and carved out a place in my heart she would always possess, and I watched as she plopped back down and quickly dressed her new doll up in the clothes I had purchased for her.
“I’m gonna go get changed,” Jenna said.
I looked over at Jason and smiled as his eyes came into view. He kissed my nose before he captured my lips with his coffee-flavored ones, and everything about my life that I had long felt was chaotic and out of place slowly fell into the pattern it was supposed to be in. He brought his hand up to cup my cheek, and my heart fluttered in my chest at his touch. The scent of coffee and cinnamon permeated the room while it started to snow again outside, but as soon as Jenna came racing into the room, he pulled back and flung his arm behind the couch.
Now, Jenna was looking at a present Jason had stored out of sight, one that wasn’t underneath the tree. She looked at the small package in awe before she plucked it from his fingertips.
“Here, open this one,” he said.
Jenna climbed up onto the couch and sat beside him before she took the small package and twirled it in her fingers. The girl that was once ripping presents open was now taking her time, delicately unfolding the sides so as to not disturb the wrapping. I furrowed my brows slightly, curious to the present I hadn’t seen last night, but my eyes watered the moment Jenna pulled the locket from the velvet box that appeared.
“Jason,” I said, whispering.
He took the small necklace and hooked it around her neck, the white gold shining with the Christmas morning sun. Jenna looked at the picture, seeing a face she didn’t recognize, but I didn’t need to recognize the face to know who it was.
Holy hell, Jenna looked just like her mother.
“This is your mother,” Jason said, fingering the locket. “And this locket was hers when she was a little girl. She got it when she was around your age, and it had a picture of her mother inside it.”
“This is Mommy?” she asked.
“It is. I know it looks a bit different than the photos I show you, but that’s because she’s younger in this photo. This was your mother when she was eighteen years old. When I met her. And now, this locket that was hers is now yours.”
Jenna threw her arms around her father’s neck, and it took all my strength to hold back tears. The entire scene was absolutely beautiful, and I was thankful to be a part of it. As soon
as Jenna released her father, she threw her arms around me.
“Merry Christmas, Miss Lucy,” she said.
“Merry Christmas, Jenna,” I said breathlessly.
“Can I go play with my toys?” she asked.
“Of course, you can, princess,” Jason said.
I watched Jenna take her toys and her doll and run down the hallway, and it felt as if I was watching my own daughter on Christmas morning. Jenna and Jason had become my family, a family I never thought I would have after I had lost David. They were my second chance, the two people who had saved me from myself when I hadn’t even known I was dying inside.
I guess that was why the sentiment that came afterward slipped so easily from my lips.
“What if I moved in?” I asked.
“What?” Jason asked.
“Just, hypothetically speaking, do you think Jenna would be okay with that?”
I turned my head and looked at Jason, whose eyes were alight with happiness. They twinkled and danced while he slipped his arm around my waist, and the presents we still had yet to open between ourselves faded into the background as we began to talk.
“I think she would. She adores you, and so do I. Would you like to know what I think?” he asked.
“What do you think? You know, hypothetically?”
“I think sometime after the New Year would be a good idea. You know, give Jenna some time to process everything and make sure the transition goes smoothly with her,” he said.
“Hypothetically speaking, that is,” I said.
“Nothing hypothetical about it,” he said, smiling.
I pressed my forehead against his and thought about what it would be like to live with them. To feel Jason’s body pressed against mine every night and be able to splash water around with Jenna every evening as she got ready for bed. I could take her to school and Jason could pick her up, and we could go on weekend family trips.
“I could take her camping,” I said with a whisper.
“I think she would like that,” Jason whispered back. “Move in with us.”
