by Amy Sumida
“Oh, God.” He moaned.
I slid my hand under his sweats and grabbed him through his boxer briefs. My hand barely reached around his girth as I squeezed gently. His eyes rolled back into his head while he leaned into my hand. I slid my fingers under the cotton barrier and found him. I caressed his length once. Twice. He groaned and pushed into my hand. His hand started pumping into me faster, leaving my lower belly aching for more.
Our breathing filled the room as we worked each other closer. I arched up into him and kissed him fiercely. He laid more of his weight on me as his hand moved even faster. His thumb found my clit again, and I moaned into his mouth.
“That’s it, baby. Give it to me.” His breath slid over my ear, sending a different kind of chill through me.
I ran my hand farther down him, stopping to cup his balls in my hand. “Oh, sweet Jesus.” He called into the room. I didn’t know how gentle to be. When I ran my thumb over them and he shivered, I gave a gentle pull.
His head dropped to my shoulder, and he bit me again. I ran my hand back up and grabbed him firmly in my hand. Pumping in time with his fingers.
“Please, Joey,” he gasped. “I’m so close.” The weight in my belly quickly turned into a pressure. I shook my head.
“I need…” My head rolled back into the bed. “Oh, God, please...”
He ran a hand up and grabbed a fistful of my hair. He pulled just enough to get me to meet his eyes. “What do you want, baby?”
“I don’t know,” I almost sobbed. “Please.”
He twisted his hand, and it did amazing things to me. My hand tightened reflexively while my thumb slid over his tender hood, his precum coating my fingers. He cursed.
“I can’t hold back much longer, Joey.” The hand in my hair tightened just enough, and I was gone.
I muffled my scream against his chest, biting into his pec.
He pumped harder into my hand, and the warmth of him rushed over my fingers.
He pulled us to our sides, and we lay facing each other. We panted into the silence, our chests rising and falling in unison.
“Wow.” He breathed. I blushed and glanced down at his chest. There was a perfect imprint of my teeth across from the dragon.
“Sorry, I bit you,” I whispered.
“Don’t be.” His eyes were gentle as he brushed hair out of my face. He smiled, “I liked it.” His thumb caressed my bottom lip, and I nipped it softly. He rolled out of the bed. “Wait here.” He stepped out of the room.
I rolled onto my back. What the hell just happened? I’d just had my first orgasm. I just gave a hand job. Oh, dear, sweet Lord. What do I do now? My chest heaved as I panted for breath; my mind searched frantically for something to say or some sign to tell me what to do.
I didn’t have long to worry. Stetson walked into the room with a wet washcloth. He took my hand and gently wiped it clean. He leaned down and kissed the center of my chest, then kissed my lips. “I love you.”
My heart warmed. I knew all the reasons people would tell me it was too soon. Reasons which should make me shy away, but I couldn’t have done what I did if I didn’t feel the same.
“Love you, too.”
He smiled. I loved his smile. He reached over and grabbed my tank top. Helping me back into it, he asked, “Stay with me tonight?”
I kissed him. “Okay.”
We turned and snuggled in under the covers. I put my head over his heart. I fell asleep to the gentle rhythm softly beating in my ear.
I jerked awake when someone screamed my name.
“Joey’s gone!” Matt yelled. “Joey!”
A door crashed open down the hall. “What?” Jaidon called.
Stetson hugged me to him as his bedroom door flew open and banged into the wall. “Joey’s go—” Matt froze when he spotted us. A look of pure rage came over him so fast I didn’t know how to react. “I’ll kill you!” He hollered and ran at us. I rolled over Stetson and came to my feet on his side of the bed, blocking Matt’s advance.
“What are you doing?” I asked him. He seemed to calm down a little at the sight of me fully dressed.
“I thought he took advantage of you.” Matt growled. I blushed. When Matt noticed it, his anger ramped up again. “He did, didn’t he?”
“No.” I said firmly. “He did not take advantage of me.” I huffed, “If anything, I took advantage of him.” Matt flinched like I’d hit him. He turned to leave. “Matt,” I called, “don’t.”
Jaidon jumped into the room and shut the door. Leaning against it, he blocked Matt’s exit. “We can’t react like this, Matt,” he said quietly into the room. He glared up into Matt’s eyes. “We agreed to let her set the pace. We can’t act like jealous idiots any time one of us gets more time with her.”
“More time with her?” Matt screamed. He took a breath; he obviously learned from Joshua how to turn down his anger. “He slept with her. How am I supposed to react to that? Congratulate him?”
I gasped. If he’d been close enough, I would have slugged him.
Stetson wrapped his arms around me from behind. “It wasn’t like that, man.”
Matt turned to him. “Please, I don’t want the play-by-play.”
I broke away from Stetson, marched up to Matt, and kicked him as hard as I could in the shin. “Ouch.” We both said at the same time.
I hopped around on one foot, grabbing my poor toes, as Matt reached down to rub his leg. “You…you asshole!” I shouted at him. “How dare you! How dare you make me feel cheap?” I started to tear up. “What happened last night wasn’t about some one-night stand with someone I’ll never see again. It was something special with someone I love, and I won’t let you make it dirty. You’re supposed to be with me. Do you honestly think I’d have sex with someone I’ve only known a little more than a week?”
“You didn’t have sex with him?” Matt looked confused. “But, Stetson… he always…” He trailed off.
I glanced between Matt and Stetson. “I might be a man whore,” Stetson said angrily, “but I never told any of those girls I loved them. I never slept in the same bed with them. And, I sure as hell didn’t invite them into our home.”
Matt appeared shaken. He met my eyes. “I thought I’d lost you to him.”
Crying now, I glared at him. “It was your idea for me to be with all of you. You can’t act like this when I’m with one of the others.”
His sigh weighed down on all of us. “I know.” He turned, pacing between the door and us. “I know that, but it’s so hard to see you with him, knowing that I want you with me.”
“Don’t make me choose,” I sobbed. “I can’t. I’m falling in love with all of you, it’ll kill me to choose.”
Matt took the few steps necessary to wrap me in his arms. “I’m sorry,” he whispered into my hair. “I’m so sorry. I’m an idiot and a jerk. I don’t deserve you.”
I collapsed into him, crying. “Don’t you ever do that to me again. I can’t survive it. You made me feel like a slut.”
“You’re not a slut. I’m just jealous. I’ll get over it, eventually.” He squeezed me tighter.
Someone pounded on the door, and Jaidon moved to the side to let Alex and Bishop in.
Alex saw me crying, noticed Stetson’s angry face, and Matt’s guilty one. He turned to Jaidon. “Who do I need to kill?”
Jaidon shook his head. “No one, yet. I think he”—he nodded at Matt—“managed to pull himself out of the hole he dug. Barely.”
Bishop took in the situation and walked over to me. He took me from Matt and carried me to the bed. He sat down and put me in his lap. He glanced over my shoulder at Stetson, then nodded. He met my eyes. “I won’t ask what happened because it’s not my business, but I will ask this. Are you okay?”
I nodded.
“No,” he said, holding my face so I had to meet his eyes. “I don’t want you to answer without thinking. Think about it.” He leaned his forehead against mine for a good minute. Finally, he pulled back and peered
into my eyes. “Are you okay with what happened?”
I thought about it for a few more moments, letting him know I took his question seriously. “I was.” I lowered my eyes. I didn’t want to meet Matt’s gaze and make him more upset. “I didn’t mean to hurt you guys.”
Bishop shook his head. “How could you hurt us? You’re figuring out how this relationship will work, there’s nothing wrong with that.”
“I don’t want you to feel like I’m choosing. I’m not. And I don’t want to diminish what happened by saying that.” I shot my eyes back at Stetson. “It was perfect. It was better than perfect, and I don’t want you to regret it.”
Stetson walked over and sat on the bed next to us. He leaned in and kissed me deeply. “I don’t regret a thing, except not locking the damn door.”
Alex laughed. “That wouldn’t have helped, we’d just be having this conversation in the hallway.” He and Jaidon crawled onto the bed and sat.
All eyes turned to Matt. He sighed and came over to sit on the other side of Bishop and me. “I really am sorry. I’m so afraid I’ll lose you. I kinda lost it for a minute.”
I leaned forward to face plant into Matt’s chest. “I’m not going anywhere. Unless you want me to.”
Bishop squeezed me, drawing my attention back to him. “You’re staying right here. Preferably exactly right here.” He wiggled his eyebrows. and I chuckled.
Alex leaned over to meet my eyes. “So, what now?”
I shrugged. We sat in silence for a while, and surprisingly, Jaidon broke it. “We do what we’ve been doing. Spend time as a group and with each other individually. Let things happen when they happen.”
Matt stared at him. “You’re not jealous at all, are you?”
Jaidon shook his head. “Not really. I’m mostly relieved.”
I shook my head in shock. “Relieved?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know what I’m doing.” His face darkened. “I don’t like admitting this in front of the guys, but I’ve never…” He cleared his throat. “Well, I’ve never.”
I crawled from Bishop to Jaidon and sat across his lap. I leaned in to whisper in his ear, “I wouldn’t know what to do either. We’ll figure it out when the time comes.”
He leaned in and kissed me. “I know. Is it bad that I’m kind of glad you had a good time?”
“I hope not.” I giggled. “I’m pretty glad I did, too.”
Alex reached over and rubbed my back. “We need to do this.”
Bishop twisted and smacked him in the back of the head.
Alex rubbed his head, “I didn’t mean it like that,” he grumbled. “I meant when one of us is having problems or is feeling left out, we need to talk about it. The more we communicate, the less chance we have of anything going wrong.”
Matt nodded. “He’s right. We need to be able to come to each other with our issues.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Without putting each other down or yelling, threatening, or otherwise being an ass.”
He blushed. “Yeah. All that.”
I took pity on him. “Come here.”
He laid back until his face was in front of me. I kissed his cheek. “You’re forgiven. This once. Next time, I’ll aim higher than your shin.”
After we calmed down and I passed around hugs and kisses to everyone, we walked down to breakfast together. Stetson and Jaidon claimed my hands and made me squeal by picking me up and swinging me between them. Alex pulled out a seat for me, and when I sat, he snatched the seat to my left, grinning at Stetson, who sat across from him. Jaidon sat on my other side. Matt grabbed the seat across from me while Bishop grabbed bowls and boxes of cereal from the cabinet. He passed out the bowls and placed the boxes of cereal in the middle of the table. He went back for the gallon of milk and orange juice. He sat down, and jumped back up. “Cups!”
“I’ll get them,” Jaidon said as he hopped up.
Something was up with Bishop. He didn’t seem all there. I had an idea, but I didn’t know if I was right. I slid off my chair and went to the coffee maker. I fixed two cups of coffee and brought them both to Bishop. I sat them down in front of him, then went back to my seat. It took him a few seconds, but his eyes eventually brightened. “Joey, you’re an angel.” He downed the first cup in about three gulps. He cupped his hands around the second mug and breathed in the scent.
I caught myself smiling at his behavior. He was acting more like my Bishop. I realized how hard it must have been for him to pull it together this morning without his coffee.
We’d all poured our cereal and drinks when Joshua and Daniel walked in. They grabbed bowls and sat down. Daniel glanced at me and raised an eyebrow. “Did you get everything settled?”
I blushed so hard I could feel my face burning. I cleared my throat. “I think so.”
“Good.” He glared at Matt. “Do we need to have a discussion about how to treat your woman?”
It was his turn to blush. “No, sir.”
“Okay then.” He turned to his food and started eating with a purpose.
As we cleared the table, Joshua turned to me. “Do you mind riding into school with me today?”
I stalled, a little surprised. “Sure.”
I went back upstairs to get my bag and noticed I was considerably less sore than a week ago, glad to be on the mend. I went into my room and shoved my chemistry textbook into my bag. As I left, I bumped into Matt. He reached down and took my bag. “Thank you for forgiving me for being an ass.”
“A major ass,” I corrected.
“A major ass,” he agreed. “I’m sorry. I feel like I’ve fucked things up with us.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t want that to happen.”
I slid my arm around his waist. “We’re good. We just have to find a way to navigate through this relationship. We’ll have problems, we just have to do what we agreed to and talk them out.”
He stopped me. His hands grasped my shoulders and turned me to face him. “I can do that.”
I leaned up and kissed him. “I know,” I whispered when I pulled back.
Matt walked me down the stairs to the rest of the guys. They all gave me a sweet kiss and told me they’d meet me at school. Stetson was the last, and he held me a little longer than the others.
“Thank you,” he said. “Thank you for not regretting something so beautiful.”
“You don’t need to thank me,” I whispered, hugging him harder.
“Love you.” His voice melted my insides.
“I love you, too.”
He walked into the garage, and Joshua held up his hand to stop me from following him. “Let’s give them a minute to clear out.” He scanned me up and down. “You ready for today?”
I tried to make a joke out of it. “I’m ready for tomorrow. I need a weekend.”
He chuckled a little. “Seriously, I want you to know you can come to me if people give you trouble. I have some experience dealing with small minded idiots.”
I tilted my head to the side. “You seem like none of it fazes you. I know you’ve heard the kids talk about you and Daniel.”
He smiled at me. “I’d put up with their crap every day of my life if it means I’d get to come home to the man I love.”
“That’s really sweet.” We smiled at each other while the roar of the guys’ cars melted into the distance.
“Okay, let’s go.” He held the door to the garage open for me and guided me to his Impala. He helped me into the car and put my backpack in the backseat for me.
We headed out and spent a few minutes in silence, which he broke.
“I have to ask, were you safe last night?”
I blushed again. “Mr. Keeler…I…we…” I almost choked. “I don’t know if I can talk to you about this.”
“You can talk to me about anything.” He took a deep breath and rested a hand on mine. “Look, Joey, I’ve had the talk with all the boys. They know they should be safe and respectful. I want you to know you should always think of safety first, an
d you should always be respected. I have a feeling at least some of my boys were disrespectful this morning, and it took everything I had not to smack them upside the head because they knew better than that.”
“We didn’t do anything we needed to be safe for,” I said to the dashboard. “But, if we did, we would have been safe.”
“Good.” He cleared his throat. “That’s good.” He gently squeezed my hand before he returned his to the wheel.
We drove in an uncomfortable silence for a while. This time, I broke it. “Thank you for trying to take care of me.”
“You don’t have to thank me for that. You’re family now.”
We turned into the school’s lot, and I breathed out a sigh of relief, this awkwardness finally over. He pulled into his space and cut the engine. “One of the guys can drive you to the police station after school. Daniel and I will meet you there.”
“Okay, see you in class.”
The guys waited for me outside the door. A little flutter filled my belly at seeing them all standing there. I walked into the group, and they all closed in around me. We all walked to my locker, and I liked being surrounded by them. There were some whispers and pointing, but they didn’t really bother me since I’m getting used to them.
That afternoon, Matt, Stetson, Alex, and I piled into Stetson’s Ram and headed to the police station. Jaidon and Bishop followed in Bishop’s Lexus. Daniel waited for us outside the station when we pulled in. We parked next to each other and took our time getting out. I wrung my hands together, nervous energy flowing through me. Not scared, not when my guys were with me, but I knew if I did this I couldn’t turn back. The butterflies in my stomach now had jackhammers.
Jaidon took my hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. I laid my head against his arm. Joshua made it, and we all walked over to Daniel. He assessed me. “Ready, Joey?”
“As I’ll ever be.” I took a deep breath and headed into the station.
I thought things were going pretty smoothly, but I thought too soon. When I gave my information along with the report number from the other night to the desk clerk, they found Officer Johnson for us. She took us back into a lounge area to talk with her and a police officer I hadn’t met before. Detective Stiles stared at me with an odd expression on his face after he read the report from the day my dad hit me.
