by Knight, Amie
I gritted my teeth and held it back, just barely.
“Don’t stop on my account.”
I glared at her. “Why don’t you get in and close the door if you’re gonna watch? You’re letting all the warm air out.”
She quirked an eyebrow. “I don’t know. I’m pretty hot.” Still, she stepped inside and closed the door behind her. She didn’t cross the distance between us like I expected and I was cursing my overly large shower.
“Keep going,” she said so quietly, I wasn’t sure I heard her right.
I kept my eyes on her as I ran one hand down my stomach and gripped my dick hard in my hands, giving in a quick stroke.
Her eyes were like liquid heat on mine. “No,” she said louder, firmer this time. “Go slow.”
Her voice, her demand, made goose bumps break out on my skin. I did as she asked with a low moan because it damn near killed me having her watch me while I stroked slowly, rubbing the head of my dick with my thumb and then leisurely jerking myself all the way back down to the base. I wanted her hands. Her mouth. Her tight pussy wrapped around it, instead.
My eyes roved the expanse of her gorgeous body, down the slope of her neck to her dusky pink nipples that were so hard they were begging for attention. I wanted them in my mouth while I fucked her with her back against the tile of my shower.
“Fuck,” I groaned, so close to coming all over the tiles below my feet I swayed beneath the water. She must have liked what she was seeing because she brought one hand up to her breasts, palming the underside of one before pinching her nipple hard.
I moved my hand down to the head of my cock and squeezed to stave off my orgasm as her other hand creeped down to the bare folds of her pussy where her middle finger disappeared between.
I was going out of my mind. Fuck, she was perfect and beautiful and standing in my shower touching herself. I didn’t know what I’d done to deserve this. She was beautiful and sexy and all for me. The only woman I’d ever loved.
A soft moan slipped from her lips and I lost it, crossing the distance between us and turning her until her back was to my front and her breasts were pushed up against the tiles that had been behind her.
“Don’t stop,” I commanded. “Rub your pussy.” I ran my dick along the crack of her ass, desperate to be inside of her.
“Oh, God,” she breathed as I brought my hands to her hips and slipped my foot between hers, kicking her legs apart.
Bringing one hand to my hardness, I gave it a stroke before I ran the head of it through her juices, so much wetness there it made me dizzy for her.
“Fuck, I don’t have a condom,” I groaned as the head of my cock hitched on her hole.
“Just fucking put it in, Nova,” she growled and I didn’t waste any time pumping into her hard.
“Yes!” she yelled at the first thrust, her hands slamming against the tile in front of her.
I grabbed one in my hand and brought it back down between her legs because I knew I was close and I needed her to come now. “Rub your clit while I fuck you, baby.”
She rubbed furiously while I fucked her from behind, one hand at her hip, the other pulling at her hair.
My teeth came down on the sensitive spot where her neck met her shoulder as I buried myself deep and shot inside of her.
“Oh fuck, fuck, fuck,” she grunted, bucking back against me, her hand working furiously between her legs.
Her body locked tight as her head fell back against my shoulder, her mouth open in a silent scream that made my dick twitch inside of her. Fuck, I wanted her again already.
Her knees buckled and I grabbed her around the hips, turning her so her front was pressed to mine. I pushed her hair from her forehead and kissed her swollen wet lips. “Hey, baby,” I said, smiling down at her.
She glared at me while I was holding her up. “Don’t you hey baby me with that smile. You’re trying to kill me with sex, Nova.”
“That’s a good way to go, though, right?” I smirked.
She batted her eyelashes and gave me a catty smile. “Now you have to wash me because I’m too tired.”
I’d give her anything in the world she asked for. “It’ll be my pleasure.”
I sat her on the bench on the faucet side of the shower so she would be under the warm spray and shampooed her hair and rinsed it.
I pulled her up to a standing position before I lathered my hands in soap. I rubbed my soapy hands over her shoulders and the globes of her ass before turning her. I palmed her breast and she groaned when I tweaked her nipples between my sudsy fingers.
I ran one slippery hand down between her legs.
“God, you’re bad,” she groaned, grabbing my wrist so I’d stop my ministrations.
I kissed the tip of her nose, my hand warm between her folds. “You like me bad,” I teased.
She pushed my hand away and turned, rinsing her body beneath the shower. “I do, but you’re gonna have to give me some time to recover, big boy,” she said, eyeing my rock-hard cock.
I could have gone again. I could have gone for days. The woman made me insane for her.
We toweled off and Liv went straight back to the bed, flopping down in the middle onto her stomach, her ridiculously beautiful ass in the air. I pulled a pair of boxer briefs over my straining hardness. That ass was not helping matters.
I crawled onto the bed and leaned down, biting the pale cheek playfully. “Get up and get dressed. I want to take you somewhere.”
“I can’t,” she mumbled into the blanket under her head. “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”
I laughed and gave her ass a smack. “Come on. Get dressed. I’m excited to take you somewhere.”
I got up and grabbed her almost full coffee off the nightstand. “I’ll get you fresh coffee if you get dressed.”
“Fine,” she groaned, pushing up off the bed.
I fixed Liv a fresh cup of coffee and put on some gym pants and a white T-shirt while she was in the bathroom running my brush through her wet hair.
I should have been checking things on the island or trying to contact more of the women who’d worked for Sheriff Rothchild. Instead, all I could think about was Liv. She’d pulled me under, just like all those years ago. I was living and breathing her.
“Do you have a toothbrush I can use?” she yelled.
“Bottom drawer!” I yelled back as I slipped on my sneakers.
She came out of the bathroom dressed in her wrinkled clothes from last night and wet hair. I thought she’d never looked more beautiful. She was standing in my house after she’d spent the night with me. It didn’t get better than that.
We had a silent car ride back across the bridge while Liv sipped on her coffee out of one of my to-go cups. I grinned over at her, but she only rolled her eyes. I was learning that Liv was not a morning person. At all.
When we parked next to our field, Liv looked over at me and then back at the field. “What are we doing here?”
I opened the car door and got out, coming around to her side. She made no move to get out. She just sat there staring at me from behind her coffee cup.
I raised my eyebrows. “Are you going to get out?”
“Are you going to tell me why we’re here?”
“Come on, Liv. Let a guy surprise you.”
“With what? A citation for trespassing?”
I grabbed her arm, helping her out of the car. “You can’t trespass if you own the property.”
The smartass look fell from her face. “What?”
I walked with my hand in hers toward the spot we used to lie together on her dad’s blue blanket. “I own it. I bought it when I came home.”
A line formed between her brows. “Why?” she whispered.
“Because I love it here and I wanted to do something good with the place. Come this way.” I dragged her around the beginnings of the building being framed to what would eventually be the entrance one day.
She shivered and I pulled her closer under my arm. It was a c
old day even though the sun was shining.
I brought her to a stop at the blue sign with stars and white writing stuck in the ground with a wooden spike.
Future site of Off The Streets and Under The Stars Community Center
We can’t wait to see you beneath the stars
Her eyes were wide as she stared at the sign for far longer than I would have liked. I was expecting jumping up and down and excitement. This strange silence was making me edgy.
I saw the first tear slip free and down her cheek and I thought maybe I’d made a mistake. Maybe she didn’t love this field anymore. Maybe it was true that it reminded her of the bad times and not the good.
Another tear, this time from the other eye and I held my breath, desperate for her to say something but not knowing what to say myself.
“Why?” she asked, her eyes leaving the sign and looking over the framing of the building.
“Why what?” My voice was gruff, full of emotion. Full of so much love for the girl I lay with in this field and even more for the woman she’d become. I just wanted for her to be happy and safe more than anything.
“Why did you do this?” Her eyes finally landed on mine, wet with tears, so many feelings I couldn’t even describe them shining back at me.
I brought my hand to the side of her soft face, cradling her delicate jaw. “Because I love this place and I love you and I couldn’t let it go, just like I can’t let you go.”
All of a sudden, her arms were around me and her face was buried in my neck. I leaned down, gathering her up, thankful to have her in my arms again.
“Thank you.” Her voice was thick with emotion and those two words were loaded with so much sentiment and meaning. They weren’t I love you, toos, but they were pretty damn special and they made me feel like I was high. Like I was flying over this field among the clouds.
I just wanted to give Livingston a fraction of what she’d given me all those years ago. Because when we’d been together I’d had something I hadn’t had since my mother had passed. True happiness and hope.
She backed out of my embrace and grabbed my hand, pulling me around the building. “Oh my God, I can’t believe you did this. The kids are going to love it! What’s it going to look like?”
She rambled and asked a million questions as we walked around the property and I explained to her how it would look and how it would be an offshoot of her program at the planetarium.
Her eyes lit up at the prospect of having more room for more kids who needed help.
Every smile, every bit of light in her eyes, made my heart swell in my chest. I didn’t think I’d had such an amazing day in at least a decade, since the night I’d given her my mother’s ring. I loved making Liv happy. Lately, it seemed to be all I could think about.
SLEEP. WHO NEEDED SLEEP? NOT me. I was awesome. I could give up sleep for the rest of my life if it meant I got all the sexy time. That’s what I told myself the entire drive home from the grocery store after a long day of work at the planetarium.
I’d known I needed groceries badly. Raven and I had been neglecting our duties lately. Her because she had a new woman occupying her time and me because Adam seemed to be all I could think about since he’d been home. And now all I could do. I thought about our night at his house a few days ago. And last night. And the night before. God, I couldn’t seem to get enough of him. We were definitely making up for lost time. All over that big ass house of his.
And he’d told me he loved me. It felt like a dream, me standing in our field, him telling me he’d bought it and then he’d loved me. It had been too much for me to even process. I’d wanted to tell him I loved him, too, but I wasn’t ready for that. Especially considering how little I knew about the new Adam and his motives for coming home and moving to the island.
I pulled into the apartments and tried not to fall asleep right there at the wheel. I climbed out of the car and got the groceries from the back seat before making my way to our apartment. I stopped in my tracks as I reached the door. Someone was banging on it and it was someone I hadn’t seen in a very long time.
“Mel?” I questioned because I couldn’t quite believe my eyes. Surely, they were just exhausted as hell like the rest of me and were playing tricks.
She turned toward me and that’s when I got the full look at her face. The busted lip. The swollen cheekbone, the black eye forming above it. Makeup stained tears ran black down her cheeks and I couldn’t quite make out if there was any more damage. I dropped the groceries in an instance and raced forward.
“Oh my God,” I mumbled. “What happened?” I pushed the hair off her face.
She only sobbed instead of answering me, so I pulled her forward until we were hugging.
“It’s okay, it’s okay,” I said over and over, holding her to me. It wasn’t long before her tears soaked the shoulder of my purple Madison Planetarium T-shirt.
I pulled her away from me and looked down, inspecting the damage of her face again, sick to my stomach. Who’d done this to her? Who’d hurt her? And why had she come here?
And then everything fell into place like a house of cards crumbling to the floor. Holy shit. She and Sebastian had been together for years. I’d heard they were getting married. Oh my God. He’d done this to her. I would kill him.
“Come on, come in the house.” I reached into the purse hanging on my shoulder and found my keys and opened the door. Mel was silent as I helped her into the house and onto the couch. I went back out for my groceries and told myself to calm the hell down. My hands were shaking. My brain was buzzing with the need to drive to the island and confront Sebastian. How could he do this? They’d been best friends their entire lives.
I passed Mel with the bag of groceries and headed to the kitchen, Harry frantic behind me. I didn’t bother to put them away. I just sat the bag and my purse on the counter and headed back to the living room for Mel.
Tears still poured silently from her eyes as I sat down next to her, Harry on the floor beside us. It was irrational and not my finest moment, but I just said what I needed to say before I exploded.
“I will kill him. He did not put his fucking hands on you. Are you okay? Do you need a doctor?” It was total word vomit, but I was completely lost. I didn’t know how to help her.
She shook her head. “I can’t go to the hospital.” More tears fell from her eyes.
“What do you want me to do? Do you want me to call your mom?”
Panic lit her eyes. “No, please.” Her throat worked nervously. “I just need a place to stay for a few nights. Until this all goes away.”
I looked her face over in horror. If she thought this was all going away in a few days, she was sadly mistaken. It would be weeks before she didn’t look like she’d been on the losing end of a fist fight. She needed the police and a doctor.
I placed my shaking hand over the one in her lap. I thought of our fight that day after school. How silly it seemed now in the face of all this. “Of course you can stay. As long as you need, honey.” I squeezed her hand again before letting it go and gesturing to her face. “But I don’t think that’s going away any time soon.”
“Fuck,” she sobbed. “He’s going to lose his mind if he sees me like this. He’ll go to jail.”
“Who?” I asked, more confused than ever.
“Sebastian,” she choked out, and I blinked.
Why would Sebastian freak out if he saw this if he was the one who’d done it? Unless he didn’t do it.
“Sebastian didn’t do this?” I asked before thinking.
Horror covered her face as she shook her head. “No, Liv. Sebastian would never hurt me. He loves me.” And the tears were endless. She was a big hiccupping, crying mess and I was even more confounded than I was before.
“Let me get the first aid kit.” I went back to the kitchen and dug through the cabinets, searching for anything that resembled alcohol and Band-Aids although there weren’t enough bandages in the world to fix this.
I found som
e peroxide and a few bandages as well as a washcloth before heading back into the living room.
I had a terrible feeling in the pit of my stomach like I was missing something big. Like there was something I didn’t quite understand, and as I stared at Mel bent over, her face in her hands, seemingly devastated, like her life was over, that feeling grew.
I set the items on the table and sat down next to her, rubbing my hand on the back of her head, through her hair. I paused when I found a huge goose egg there.
“Mel, are you sure you don’t want me to take you to the hospital?” I rubbed my hand across the bump again, noticing how big it was. I was worried she might have a concussion.
She sat up and looked at me, reaching around and touching the spot in the back of her head. “No hospitals.”
“But you could have a concussion!” I argued.
She only shook her head adamantly. “No.”
“Listen, Mel, I’m worried about you—”
She cut me off. “I’m sorry, Liv. About what happened all those years ago. I’m sorry I told Georgina and the sheriff and I’m sorry about what happened with Adam.”
Was she crazy? Now was not the time for petty teenage apologies. She’d really done nothing wrong other than tell on me. “No, Mel, now’s not the time. We need to get you cleaned up.”
She placed her hand over mine. “I just wanted you to know I’m sorry. We were friends and I let you down and still when I came here today, you let me in. You’re a good person, Liv.”
She looked exhausted and defeated and I just wanted to get her fixed up. I pressed the side of the washcloth to her lip and cleaned it. “Why did you come here?”
We hadn’t seen each other since I was a teenager.
“I didn’t know where else to go. Braden and Sebastian are it for me and both of them will lose their minds when they see me.”
She was quiet while I cleaned her lip with peroxide and covered it with a bandage. I wiped her face clean from her makeup and pressed the cold towel to the side of her face that looked swollen.
“That bump on the back of your head looks nasty. I’m worried.”
