by t. h. snyder
Manny and I make our way to Char's door and rather than ring the bell or knock on the door I try the knob. It's unlocked so I let us in.
"Babe?"
"In the kitchen Riley." She says.
I hurry my way in to find her and immediately pull her into my arms. I’ve never needed another human being as much as I needed Char today.
"God I missed you today." I tell her while peppering kisses along her jaw line.
"I missed you too Riley! Do you want to talk about it or eat first?" She asks while rubbing her hands up and down my back.
"Let's eat and then if it’s okay with you I want to take Manny for a nice long walk."
"Sounds perfect, sit and I will bring over your salad." She tells me in a firm tone.
My demanding girl, god I love it.
We eat the delicious food Char has once again made for us and we chat a little bit about our day. I do my best to steer away from any discussion of the job or the family drama for now. I would rather wait till later to break it all out to her. I just want to enjoy her and the way she makes me feel when I am with her.
It isn't just the touch of her hands on my body it’s the way her heart and soul dig deep into mine. This girl is mine and she is meant to be mine forever. I know I am falling hard for her and I can only hope she is following me along on this ride.
Seeing Riley like this has me quiet anxious to know what the hell happened today. I don't want to push him to tell me anything, but the suspense is starting to kill me.
We take Manny for a nice long walk around the area. By the time we are back in front of my apartment, he looks absolutely spent. I grab a comforter and bowl of water so that Manny can feel at home in my apartment.
"Thanks for letting Manny come here with me." Riley says with a smile.
"He is a cute pooch and since he is yours he is more than welcome here anytime you are with me."
Riley sits down on the couch and I can tell he has something on his mind. He starts to fidget with his hands and stands while pacing behind the couch.
"So your dad offered me a new job today. Roger has left Taylor & Sons for another contracting company down south."
"Riley this is amazing, congratulations!!" I say with enthusiasm."What did you tell him? Are you going to take the position as general contractor?" I ask watching him move to the couch and sit down next to me.
I know this will mean the world to Riley, it’s a huge goal for him to become a GC, but it will also mean a little bit of travel for him too.
"I told him I’m willing, I just needed some time to think about it. Plus I told him I wanted to talk to you too." He says while grabbing my hand and rubbing little circles along my palm.
"Why do you want to talk it through with me? This is your life Riley. Anything you want to do that will help yourself advance I am all for it."
"Like I told you before Char, I care about you a lot. I am not saying we are going to ride off into the sunset today, but I want to make sure that we will be in this thing together. I wasn't kidding when I said I am getting ready to steal third base baby. I am falling in love with you and I am falling hard and fast."
He takes my face in his big palms and pulls me closer to him. He kisses me softly and I can start to feel the buildup of passion rocketing through our bodies. This man is falling in love with me and I can't help but fall for him too.
Our feelings for one another are coming together so fast, but one thing is for sure, I am not scared to fall in love with Riley.
Slowly we pull ourselves away from one another and I stare into his gorgeous hazel eyes. I can see he feels strongly for me and I can feel the tingling sensation radiate from his touch onto my own.
"Riley you came into my life when love was the last thing I was looking for, but I thank god everyday that you did."
I kiss him again with all that I am and all that I have. The taste of Riley consumes me and I never want to leave his arms. Slowly he begins to pull at the hem of my dress and in one quick movement I am standing in front of him in a black lace bra and panty. He moves back just enough to look over the image in front of him and takes in a deep breath.
"You are one beautiful woman Char and you are all mine." He says with eyes of pure lust.
He picks me up and carries me back into my bedroom, laying me gently onto my bed.
"You know you’re not so bad yourself, but if you could kindly take off that shirt and slacks I can be a better judge of that body." I say with a sexy giggle.
"Anything for you." He replies and disrobes himself so that he is completely naked standing in front of me.
"Holy hell, yes you are one fine ass specimen of a man." I tell him almost breathless.
I am in awe of him; I want nothing more than to have him inside me right now. No barriers, nothing between us...just him and me.
"Riley, make love to me. Please!"
He reaches toward the floor and into his pants to grab at his wallet. I stop him.
"Wait! Don't, I want it to just be us, nothing else. Is that okay?" I ask almost embarrassed that it isn't right to be asking such a thing of him.
"I'm on the pill, have been for years." I tell him hoping that he will drop the wallet and come back to me.
He does just that. He tosses his wallet on the floor and climbs back on the bed and carries himself directly over my body. He bends his head down so that he can grab my bottom lip between his teeth. The feel of his mouth on mine and the smell of his minty breath have me breathing heavy. I can barely stand the anticipation of him being so close to me. I can feel myself getting wet at just the thought of him being inside me bare.
He deepens the kiss and our tongues dance to a rhythm made only for us. He plants kisses along my jaw line and down to my chest. He grabs both of my breasts in each of his hands and begins to rub at my nipples until I am aching for more. I need him to release the pent up feelings I have for him in this moment. He takes a nipple into his mouth and licks it, sucks it, and bites it until I let out a moan.
"Riley, please!" I shout.
His mouth moves into a wide grin and he asks, "Please what baby, what do you want me to do to you?"
"Damn it Riley, I want you inside of me now." I say once again breathless from the way he makes my body feel.
"Ok baby, as you wish."
He brings his face back up to mine so that we are looking into each other's eyes.
"I am going to take this nice and slow Char, you did ask me to make love to you and that is exactly what I plan to do."
"Ok!" I whisper.
He takes his fingers and lightly traces a trail of my wetness from my sacred place leading to his target. He moves his fingers in just the right spots to get my body ready and with no warning slides himself deeply into me.
The feel of him entering my body with nothing between us is indescribable. I’ve never had sex with a man without protection. The feel of Riley touching me like this is the best experience I could ever ask for to share with him.
He begins to slowly ease in and out, in and out, in and out. I lift my hips and move into a steady cadence with him. Our bodies are so in sync with each other. I don't even have to think about what movements I need to make. We are both covered in a film of sweat and the slickness of our bodies is guiding us to move at a faster pace.
"Char! God baby, you feel so good." He moans.
"Yes, just like that, please don't stop." I cry.
"I am close Char, come with me!" He lets out before I can feel his cum shoot into my body.
"I am coming with you, oh god!" I can barely understand the words that are coming out of my mouth. I am taken to a whole new world in this moment and I don't want it to ever end.
After Char and I have our moment of pure bliss, we lay with each other. We are a pile of arms and legs all intertwined, but neither of us seem to mind. I run my fingers through her long hair and she is drawing over the lines of the tattoo across my chest. I love this woman. I don't care that I have only been in her life for
a few weeks. The way I need her, the way I feel around her is like nothing I’ve ever felt before. She consumes me and I feel like without her I would just be a lost soul.
"Char?"
"Mmhhhmm."
"I want to talk to you about something that happened before I moved to Boston. I want you to know more about my past, because sooner or later I am going to have to face something and I want you to be by my side."
She sits up and pulls the sheet to cover her nakedness. I move myself up against the headboard so that we are both looking at one another. I am not scared to tell Char about what happened I just need her to know and hear it from me.
"A few months before I moved to Boston some bad shit went down between me and my family." I look to Char and she is intently watching and listening to me.
"Wait I guess I should back up even further." I tell her and grab her hands into mine. I need to feel her.
"Ok, I am listening. Just tell me whatever you need to however you need to."
"Alright, well my dad started up his own contracting business, RPK Contracting, when I was in High School. It wasn't much of anything big, just a few small jobs here and there. It brought in enough money to keep the business afloat and pay the bills so my Mom didn't have to work."
"Sounds like a great business to me." Char chimes in giving me a big smile.
"It was and I was a lucky kid to have him as a father. He taught me a lot about life, how to love my family, and to be a hard worker. All through high school and college I would help him out on jobs. Once I graduated he made me his lead building contractor. It was a dream come true to work side by side with my dad. I loved going to work every day, seeing him and working with him. We went from being a small business to one of the best known contracting companies in North Carolina."
"Your father must have been so proud of you Riley." She says while placing a kiss to my hand.
"He was proud of me, but then I let him down." I want to continue to tell her what happened next, but I don't want to let her down too.
"Riley, I am sure you did not let him down. Tell me what happened next."
Char is just too perfect. Not even knowing what I am about to tell her next, she is acting so compassionate and supportive.
"We needed more people to help us with the amount of work we were bringing in so Dad asked Keith, my brother-in-law, to join the team. Since Dad was heading most of the work and needed to settle more time in the office he put Keith in charge as the general contractor. The three of us got along fine and never argued about anything, we were a great team. Then six months ago, my parents were killed in a car crash. My entire world came crashing down on me." I can feel the tears falling down my face onto my cheeks and Char's sheets.
"Shh baby, don't cry. You don't have to tell me anymore if this is too much. It’s ok. Shh I am here for you."
Char does her best to comfort me, but the more she tries to soothe the pain the more tears fall. I haven't really thought about all of this since I left North Carolina. I never really had a chance to mourn the loss of my parents because I was too worried about losing the business.
I take in a deep breath and try to calm myself down. Char takes her small hands and wipes the tears from my face. She places a kiss on my nose, my forehead, my cheeks, and my chin.
"Now, do you feel better?" She says while smiling her beautiful smile for me.
How can I not love this woman? She completes everything about me. She makes me feel like the man I want to be for her and for my future.
Riley is an incredible man. The story of his past that he is sharing with me rips my heart apart. Seeing the emotions run through him is hard. I am doing my best to comfort him, but all I can really do is sit back and listen to what he wants to share.
"God Char, what would I do without you here right now? You have no idea how much it means to me to have you like this with me." He tells me as the last tears fall from his face.
"I will be here for you as long as you want me to be. If you are ready and willing to tell me more, I will listen and do anything I can to support you." I say looking right into his eyes.
I want him to know that I mean these words and they are coming straight from my heart. He has been put through a tremendous loss; he needs me to be strong for him.
"After my sister, Emma, and I heard about Mom and Dad's accident we both got to the hospital as fast as we could. By the time we got there, they had already passed away. It was the hardest day of my life. I wanted to be strong for Emma till Keith got there, but I couldn't find the words to comfort her. There was no way for me to tell my big sister it would be ok, because I knew it wouldn’t be the same again."
"I am sure she appreciated you just being there for her." I try to tell him.
"Yea, I guess." He says shaking his head no.
"A few days had gone by after the accident and Emma and I needed to situate the house, the business, and Mom and Dad's finances. They both created a will in the event something was to happen to them, but it had not been updated since I had graduated college."
Riley goes silent and moves to stand and get up from the bed. He pulls on his boxer briefs and sits down next to me on my side of the bed. I can tell he is feeling anxious and honestly I don't know what to do to help him through this. So I just rub his back and look at him to show that I am still willing to listen.
"Emma is ten years older than me, so Mom and Dad had her listed as their executor of their will and their power of attorney. Since I was still in college when the last edit to the will was written pretty much everything was to be sold and divided among Emma and me except for the business. RPK Contracting was fully given to Emma and Keith to do as they wished. I was crushed, devastated, and heartbroken. It tore me up to know that everything Dad and I had worked so hard to create was now out of my hands. I tried to talk to Keith about letting me partner up with him, but he said I was still a kid and didn't know how to run a business. I was angry and wanted to fight for what was really mine."
Riley stands up and his body is shaking. He has broken out into a full sweat and I can see his fists are clenching together. He is angry and I have no clue what to do to help him relax.
"Riley, I think we should take a break. This is hurting you and I can see that. I don't want you to have to relive everything that you’ve walked away from."
"Char you don't understand. He took it all; he took away my life, my family and left me with nothing. I wanted to do anything I could to get that business for myself. I went to banks for loans to buy him out, but nothing worked. Every time I tried to talk to him about it he just blew me off. It got to the point that our relationship was completely destroyed. Since there was no use talking to him I tried to go through Emma, but she just gave me the same line. I am too young and naive to run a business. I’m only a building contractor and there is no way I could be the man that Dad was and keep the family name afloat."
I am in shock at the things Riley’s family had to say about him. He worked hard to build that business with his father and he deserved more than anything to be a larger part of that dream.
"That night after leaving Emma's house I went to a bar down the street for a drink. I’ve never been a big drinker, but for that night I wanted it all to go away. I missed my parents, I missed my dad, and I missed the way things were before he died. I drank one too many beers and before I knew it I was pretty wasted. I had walked down to the bar so I wasn't too worried about how I was going to get home. As I got up to leave Keith came in looking for me; wrong choice on his part. He started running his mouth about how I am a disappointment to my father and that I could never be the business man he was. Before I could stop myself I was hitting Keith with everything in me. I lost control and hurt him pretty bad. One of the patrons at the bar knew Keith and me so she called Emma to come as soon as she could. By the time she had gotten there I was gone and Keith was knocked out cold."
"Oh my god Riley!" I say without even realizing the words had come out of my mouth.
/> I can feel my entire body quivering and the way Riley is watching me I can tell he sees it too.
Shit! I can tell that I am scaring Char. Her body is shaking and she is just sitting there staring at me.
"Baby, I am not a drunk and I am not a fighter. What happened that night is something I have never done before and will promise you I will never do again."
I sit down next to her and take her into my arms. I can feel her body start to relax with my touch and hate that I have upset her so much by telling her my story.
"No, no Riley. I could never be scared of you. You would never hurt me. It's just the story is so intense that I guess my emotions got the best of me. Please keep going I want to hear more."
I continue to hold her and finish the ending to my story, the family I lost.
"I tried to call Emma for days after that night, but she wouldn't answer my calls. I went to work, but Keith had me removed from the building because of a security concern. He even had me banned from my team's work sites. My world was falling apart right in front of my face and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I didn't want to give up so I waited to go over to the house when both Keith and Emma would be home. I needed to talk to them together; they were the only family I had left."
"God Riley, I am so sorry." Char has tears running down her face and I hate that I’m the one that put them there.
I had to tell her this; she needed to know what happened to me and why I came to Boston.
"Baby don't cry for me. That is my past and you are my future. Let me tell you the rest and put this story away for good. That way we can move on with a new chapter of life together."
"You are such a good man Riley. Don't ever forget that." She says and gives me a sweet kiss.
"I went to the house and stayed outside in the Durango for a while before getting up the nerve to ring the bell. Finally Emma came out after seeing me sit out there. I jumped out of the truck and ran over to her. She lifted her hand in the air and demanded that I stop and never step foot on her or Keith's property again. She told me, in that moment to turn away and never come back. I was not the brother to her that I once was and that it would be best to not contact her, her husband or the business ever again."
