by Pratt, Lulu
She tilted her head back and screamed with joy.
“Oh yes, oh yes!” she cried, her hips pressing into my mouth.
I flicked my tongue against her clitoris. It was salty, like fresh seawater, and it tasted like raw sex. I licked again. Then again and again and again, stroking Phoebe with a frenzy I didn’t even know I possessed. Her eyes were clamped shut, and inversely, her mouth was popped open in a perfect ‘O.’
But I wanted to feel more of her, to go on a greater journey. I slipped two fingers inside her opening, my mouth never ceasing its relentless pursuit of complete fulfillment.
I’d hunkered down on the floor, expecting to be there for at least ten minutes, ready and willing to do the work. However, as I looked up, gazing at Phoebe’s shut eyelids, I realized she wasn’t going to last ten minutes. Hell, I’d be surprised if she lasted ten seconds.
“Are you close?” I murmured around her clit, my voice sending extra vibration.
By way of reply, she opened her mouth even wider and let loose a loud, primal cry. A rush of fluid filled my mouth as her body moved up and down, the muscles seizing and shaking. She was orgasming, and it was magnificent to watch — pure, unadulterated happiness.
“That was incredibly hot,” I observed after several long moments passed and Phoebe had begun to come down from the high.
She wiped a hand across her forehead, chest still heaving from the effort. We hesitated in silence as Phoebe recovered from the earth-moving shake of her completion.
At last, she leveled her eyes with mine. They were flashing atop the flushed red of her cheeks.
“Your turn,” she announced before pulling me up from the ground and onto the seat next to her.
I looked around the cab of the truck. “There’s not much room in here.”
She winked. “Where’s your imagination?” She pulled a condom out of her purse and threw it on my lap.
In a sudden burst of movement, she flung open the door, completely naked, and ran around to the back of the truck. I twisted in my seat, prepared to shout her name, when I saw that she was climbing into the truck’s flatbed, laying down and making herself at home.
What’s a man to do? I couldn’t leave her out there, alone and naked. That would be criminal. Ungentlemanly. With a delighted smirk, I stripped off my jeans, pushed open the door and strode outside to join her.
“Come on!” she cried. “We’re not finished.”
She’d clambered over the sides of the bed, but I was a gentleman. I unlatched the tailgate and the back popped open, slamming down to reveal Phoebe sprawled out, ready and willing. I tore open the package and slowly unrolled the condom on my cock. Phoebe watched me hungrily.
“Holy shit. Your cock is huge.” She sat up on her elbows as if to get a better look at me.
“It has the benefit of being absolutely erect, thanks to you.”
She rolled her eyes and grinned. “Don’t be modest, cowboy. Now get your ass in here.”
I did as I was told. Who wouldn’t? Lifting myself into the back of the truck, I crawled on all fours to Phoebe, who stretched out on the warm metal, arching her spine like a nymph.
“Fuck me,” she begged.
In one clean move, I lunged the rest of the distance between us, plunging my cock deep inside Phoebe, causing us both to scream, our voices echoing in the canyon.
“Fuck,” I uttered between clenched teeth. “You are… this is…”
“Perfect?”
I thrust my hips forward, and we groaned again in unison. “Yeah, it’s perfect.”
“How do you want me?” she asked coyly.
“However I can have you.”
“You can have me any which way. Pick. Show me what you want.”
Okay, she wanted to play hard? Then we could play.
I held her back, lifted her into the air, and set her down on her stomach. She knew what I wanted. She could feel it, the same way I could feel her desires.
“Ride me, cowboy,” she urged, moving onto her hands and knees.
Had I died and gone to heaven? I mean, what other explanation covered these circumstances?
Though I wanted to sit down and puzzle how exactly my life had taken such a fortuitous and erotic turn, I knew that Phoebe’s wiggling ass couldn’t wait. I’d have to ponder the universe later. Right now, there was a woman to fuck.
I rose to my knees and grasped Phoebe’s hips, moving her back onto my cock. Oh, that felt good.
She began to move back and forth, pleasuring herself on my cock. So I began to thrust inside her, setting a rhythm and intensity. Phoebe shrieked, wanting more. Okay, I can do that. One hand on her waist, I used the other to grip her hair and pull her head back, forcing her back into a perfect hollow arch.
I rode her into the sunset, which is to say, I lost all track of time. Could’ve been minutes, could’ve been hours — I have no idea. Time was obliterated by the throes of passion.
And then, suddenly, I felt an orgasm rising within me.
“Phoebe, I’m gonna come.”
Her hips bore down on my cock, taking me even deeper within her.
That did it. I exploded inside Phoebe all at once, releasing my seed, my body quivering as I doubled over her.
I stayed inside her for a long time, until at last, I found the strength to pull out and flop over onto my back, panting and sweating.
She dropped down alongside me.
“Okay,” I managed to say. “Wow.”
“Yeah.”
We lay side by side, panting in silence, both knowing that we’d just had the best sex of our lives.
CHAPTER 17
Phoebe
UMMM.
Yeah.
So.
That just happened.
I sat there, swimming in a sea of emotions I couldn’t even begin to process, so I just let exhaustion wash over me, deciding that I’d try to comprehend the rest later.
“Phoebe?”
“Yes?”
“I have a question.”
One of my eyebrows shot up. “I thought I was the one who always had questions.”
Carter laughed aloud. “Well, it’s time we change that.”
“All right, what’s your question?” I rolled onto my side, stretching my arm out beneath me so that I could look at Carter’s profile — his tanned skin, his aquiline nose, the light stubble.
“Why are you really on this road trip? When we met, Jo-Beth was about to explain, but you cut her off.”
“Oh God,” I muttered, burying my head in my arm. “It’s embarrassing.”
“So, you’re not delivering that old shitbag car to her cousin?”
“No, we are, it’s just…”
“You’re running drugs?” he said with a goofy smile as he traced post-sex patterns on my skin.
“Nooo,” I laughed. “A dealer would have insisted on a better form of transport.”
“Hey, we just had sex,” he joked. “You can tell me anything.”
I groaned. “Okay, fine, fine. The part I didn’t want Jo-Beth to tell you is that, umm… well, we planned this road trip based on cities with sexy names. Y’know, like Beaver Creek, Spread Eagle, French Lick…”
“And Rough and Ready,” Carter guffawed. “Oh my God, that’s hilarious. I should’ve figured you were naughty.”
We both broke in giggles, laughing at the ludicrous nature of our planning. Carter’s chest rose and fell with each laugh, his glorious muscles expanding to accommodate his amusement. I ran my hand over his chest, feeling the tensing and releasing of his abs. It felt stable, secure. Like a promise.
“I don’t reckon I’ve ever done a road trip for fun,” he admitted. “I don’t think I ever got a chance to be that young.”
Though I heard the sadness and longing in his voice, I also caught the mention of my age. Young. What a silly word. Though I was twenty-one, I was mature.
Wait, was I? If I were bristling just at the mention of my age, perhaps maturity was not as close at hand
as I’d thought.
Ugh, it was too much to digest. I needed a nap.
“Carter, can we just… chill here for a bit?”
“Of course.”
I scooted closer to him, laying my head on his chest, feeling his strong arm wrap around me. “Okay, thanks.”
No sooner had I uttered those words than I drifted off to sleep.
“Carter,” I said through a sleep-laden tongue. “How long did I pass out for?”
He looked down at me, his brown eyes sincere. “I let you sleep for a while.”
“Why?”
“So I could memorize your face, your body.”
I swallowed, “we should go back.”
Carter’s hand slipped from my shoulder, down to the space between my legs.
“This,” he whispered in my ear, “is just to leave you wanting more.”
He moved two fingers inside me, and I inhaled, realizing that I could fuck him for a day straight if I had food and water available.
Carter curled his fingers, filling me with need, before pulling out.
“Wait, what?”
He smirked. “I told you — had to leave you wanting more.”
I whined, “But—”
“We gotta get back to town,” he said, before slipping his two damp fingers in his mouth. “Mmm. Delicious.”
Oh my God! Do you see what I had to put up with? That was tantamount to torture.
Very, very reluctantly, I walked with him back into the cab of the truck, where we both clothed ourselves once more, which was a real shame — men like Carter should have to walk around shirtless, at the bare minimum, just sort of as a civic duty.
After we’d reluctantly put our garments back on, Carter turned on the radio, letting sweet notes of bluegrass fill the car. It was peaceful out here, in Rough and Ready or nearabouts. I could see why people did this — settled down into the life, made a home for themselves in the great unknown. There was something wild about it, but at the same time, slow. There was no pressure of acceleration culture. After all, you couldn’t check your phones for constant Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Instagram updates. Things were quiet, and I didn’t mind it.
Or maybe that was just the effect of Carter — maybe he made me slow down, take a harder look at things, think about them more complexly. Perhaps I didn’t like the place so much as I liked the way he made any place better.
Shit. I knew I’d fallen for him physically. I’d known that right off the bat, but I thought that if I could just fuck him good, just once, maybe I’d be able to move on. Now, that seemed unlikely. He wasn’t a man you screwed and booted. He got in deeper, under your skin as well as inside it.
And, to be honest, I think a part of me believed that if I learned whatever secret he was keeping close to his breast, I could talk myself out of falling for him, i.e., if he was still married. In my heart, I guess I’d known he wasn’t that kind of a guy, but a girl can hope, right? Hope for an easy, uncomplicated out?
Alas, he’d shown me his truth, and while it was painful and challenging, all it did was reaffirm that he was, in fact, a great man. Nothing that had happened was his fault. He and his son were victims.
I was in too far. This was no way to be thinking about a guy I’d met a few days ago.
Stupid Phoebe, I thought to myself. Why do you always let your heart take the lead and not your brain?
Still, I didn’t regret having sex with Carter. So long as I lived, nothing could make me regret that. And if things got a little more complicated as a result? Well, it was the price I paid for coming just a bit closer to the divine.
The desert in front of me began to appear more familiar — there was that same twisted cactus, then the abandoned gas station. Yes, we were returning to Rough and Ready.
“You’re awful quiet,” Carter observed.
“Just thinking.”
“’Bout what?”
“About you,” I replied truthfully.
He smirked. “Anything I get to know?”
“Nooope.”
There was his laugh again, thick and deep.
The rest of the drive — only about five minutes longer, really — was quiet. It is something beyond intimacy, to sit alone in a truck with someone and know that you don’t have to say a word. For my whole life, I’ve felt the need to fill up dead space. Now, I was sharing it with someone else.
Carter pulled to a stop outside Miss Keller’s restaurant and dashed inside, emerging shortly with Henry and the booster seat in his arms. The little boy was holding a small book and kissing his dad exuberantly.
“Hey, Henry,” I said as he slid in next to me. “How’s tricks?”
“Phoebe!” he cried, enveloping me in a hug with his tiny, chubby arms.
I hugged him back, feeling only a little bit strange. As much as I liked Henry, I felt a little embarrassed. Was it okay to be hugging a guy’s kid right after sex? It seemed… distasteful. Or, equally possible, I was just a prude.
“I missed you,” he said, blue eyes shining up at me.
Okay, so maybe the real problem wasn’t that I’d just had sex with Carter. Maybe it was that Henry was getting awfully attached to me, a stranger, who would be leaving town in two or three days.
God, was that right? Would it be that soon? It felt like things in Rough and Ready had only just started… my heart twitched with a pang of deep-seeded regret. Not that that was appropriate, by the way. I had no right to wish for anything else. You’re being selfish, I told myself.
Henry clung to me, even as he told Carter and me all about his day with Miss Keller. They’d played games, she’d read to him, and then he helped her greet the one non-regular customer who came in. Henry never once let me go.
I wondered if I should say something to Henry, something like, ‘You’re great, kid, but please don’t like me too much because I don’t want your perfect tiny heart to break in pieces when I leave.’ This idea was, of course, immediately nixed, because I’m not a monster. But seriously, how was I to keep Henry from growing too close? The thought weighed me down.
“Hey,” Carter said abruptly, voice rising over some folk song I couldn’t place. “We should pick up Jo-Beth and go for dinner at Miss Keller’s.”
“Didn’t we just come from there?” I asked, skeptical.
He shrugged. “Yeah, but it’s the only place in town that serves a good dinner, and it feels like we oughta be celebrating.” Carter gave me a knowing look.
“Okay, well… sure, why not. Let’s do it,” I agreed.
Besides everything else, I was also feeling pretty guilty about Jo-Beth. I had totally abandoned her. Even Carter, who barely knew the girl, had remembered. How had sex muddled my brain so much, turning it into mushy thoughts of Carter, sex, and little else?
The self-flagellation was endless.
CHAPTER 18
Phoebe
JO-BETH HAD been quiet on the ride back to Rough and Ready. We had the window open at the back, so we could talk, but she was silent and listened to Henry share what he had done that day. However, as soon as we got into the parking spot at Miss Keller’s Jo-Beth perked up.
Well, not a parking spot — that would imply some kind of demarcation. It was more like a notion of a parking spot.
We climbed out of the truck and she started dragging me to one side.
She was giving me a signature devious look. “Phoebe, let’s go to the bathroom.”
“Uh, what?”
She raised her eyebrows meaningfully. “Bathroom.”
“Okay…” Where was this going?
“I’ll get the table,” Carter volunteered.
We walked inside together, and while Carter, good to his word, grabbed the table, Jo-Beth dragged me to the one-stall bathroom. She opened the door, ushered me inside, then slammed and locked it.
“You know I could’ve waited outside, right?” I asked dryly. “I don’t need to watch you pee.”
“Oh my God, obviously I don’t have to pee, don’t be thick.
Girl, we must must must talk about you and Carter!”
My face turned crimson. “Uh, what’s there to talk about?”
Jo-Beth slapped lightly me on the arm, and cried, “You can’t lie to me, Phoebe, you’re not good at it!”
Rubbing my arm, pretending she had hurt me, I sighed. Is this what it was like to be around me? Constant pushiness?
In fairness, there was no reason that I should keep the Carter thing from Jo-Beth. She was, after all, my best friend. I just knew that she’d be, like, judge-y about it. That’s who she was. Who we both were, really, when I wasn’t mired in the situation in question. As an outside observer, I was always quite free with my opinions, but now that the tables had turned, the possibility of scrutiny was unwelcome.
“Phoebe,” she declared, “you must tell me. If you’re hungry, and want to see sexy handsome Carter again, you must.”
With that, she moved to stand in front of the door, blockading it with outspread arms and legs. Jo-Beth might look like a movie star, but she’s tough as nails. If it came to it, there’d be no way I was getting past her.
I crossed my arms, scanning the room for alternatives. There was a window, kinda high in the wall, but…
“Don’t you even think about that window,” Jo-Beth said. Damnit, she knew me too well.
“Okay, jeez, fine!” I cried. “Fine, you’re right. Something did happen between us.”
Jo-Beth dropped her limbs from the door and raced over to embrace me in a hug.
“Oh my fucking God,” she shrieked into my ear. “That’s the most exciting thing I have literally ever heard.”
I patted her on the back before pulling away. “Oh yeah? You’ve changed your tune.”
“What does that mean?”
“When we first got here, you said he was random and mysterious and that I shouldn’t, y’know, do anything with him because I would get murdered big time.”
She shrugged. “Actually, that was you who thinking he might be a sexy murderer. But clearly you’ve already done something, and you’re not murdered, so it’s okay. Can’t I be happy for you?”
I squinted, trying to wrap my head around this wackadoodle logic, then gave up. Jo-Beth’s brain was sometimes scientific to the point that her logic was operating at a different level — nay, in a different universe — than mine. Once a possibility had been discarded, she preceded as though it had never been one in the first place.
