by JA Huss
“Come,” I command. “Come right now or I’ll—”
But I don’t even get to finish my kinky threat. Because she gushes her release and fills the night with the most beautiful moan.
I withdraw my fingers and press my tongue inside her pussy, catching her climax and eating it up.
“Fuck me,” she whispers. It’s hoarse and half-hearted, but that’s only because she’s been subdued by my attention.
I climb back onto the rock, my legs straddling her waist. I grab her tits tightly in both hands and squeeze them as I lean down and let her taste what I just did.
She kisses me back with no hesitation.
And when I’m done sharing, I roll us over. Her on top as I look up at the night sky. Burn it into my mind. Put her face up there. Put us up there. We own it.
Her fingers are already unbuttoning my shorts, her hand already slipping inside. Her fist around my long, hard cock, pumping as everything stops in my world.
And when my princess wraps her lips around me for the very first time, I close my eyes and tell the sky to go away and let me float.
I don’t have any words. There is no song, or poem, or mathematical equation that can describe what she’s doing to me right now. Nothing but us. Everything is possible. Every trajectory is probable.
Her tongue presses flat along my shaft as she takes me deeper into her throat and even though I just want to lie here and let her do her thing, I can’t help it. I grab her hair and push her down. I shove my cock so deep she gags. I raise my hips and give her more.
And she takes it.
Every last bit of it.
I don’t let myself come. Fuck that. There’s no way I’m not gonna come inside her pussy tonight. No condom, no pulling out, no precautions. This might be the only chance I ever get with the princess and I’m gonna make it count.
“Get up here,” I say, grabbing her by the arms and tugging her up my chest. When my cock slips out of her mouth, when her tongue slides up my shaft, I have to gulp air and hold it in to stop what’s coming.
She scrambles up my body, whipping her shirt over her head. I reach around, unclasp her bra, and toss it. Her fingers are already on the hem of my shirt. I duck out of it as she pulls on my pants, drags them down my legs and then…
We’re naked. Completely bare. One hundred percent exposed. Two vulnerable people on a stage made of rock. With the bubbling brook acting as soundtrack and the twinkling night above the backdrop.
“Fuck me,” she says, climbing back into my lap. My arms wrap around her back, hugging her close as she reaches for my cock and… slips it… inside her hot, wet pussy.
She eases down and I exhale into her neck. Her hips already moving, her fingernails digging into my shoulders, her breathing loud and coming in short gasps.
Her pussy tightens around my cock. So slick. So perfect.
I lie back on the rock, letting the smooth, cool surface remind me of the night. Her body submits to mine, following me down until she’s lying on top of my chest.
I look up and see the show and realize she’s gonna miss it.
“Turn around,” I say. “You need to turn around, Princess.”
She stops her hips mid-thrust, then follows my eyes upward and realizes what I’m asking her to do. One quick scramble and two agonizing seconds of missing her later, she’s repositioned, her back against my chest, her eyes looking up, and my hand reaching down to shove my cock back inside her.
“This,” I say, “is how it’s supposed to be.”
Everything slows after that. Like we settle into our destiny. I hold her tight—her legs spread open, her ankles on either side of my knees, her heart beating and my heart beating, and the moon shining a spotlight, and the stars twinkling, and the night approving of our complete reunion.
I don’t even know if time passes or not. All I know is that we’re together. It’s me, and her, and the entire universe looking down on us as we come…
“Fate,” she whispers a few minutes later.
“Mmmhmmm,” I moan back, holding her close as we enjoy the afterglow of perfect sex. I’ve got her ass tugged up against my semi-hard cock, spooning her to my chest, holding her tight, pinning her to me forever.
“You’re not getting away this time, Five Aston.”
Which only makes me smile, eyes still closed.
“I mean it. You’ve got two choices, buddy. Stay here with me all summer or take me with you when you leave.”
“Because of fate?” I ask, trying to keep her talking. I wish I could hear her voice every second of my life. I don’t even care what she says. Just her voice. It’s all I need.
“Fate. Because we were predetermined, Five. The universe set us up and gave us this chance, and I’m gonna tell you what…”
“What will you tell me, Princess?” I kiss her neck, ready for sleep.
“I’m not gonna waste a single second of this life, that’s for sure. I’m going to be with you forever. And you know why?”
“Why?” I ask. “Tell me.”
“Because I’m the boss of you.”
My laugh is unexpected and loud. “Is that right?”
“That’s—”
But she stops talking and starts squealing. I’ve flipped her over, careful not to bump her head on the rock as I do it, and now she’s pinned underneath me.
“Who’s the boss?” I ask her playfully.
“Me.” She giggles. “I’m the boss of me. My mom told me.”
And even though I’m not a mind reader, I read her mind. We flash back to her very first day of school at St. Joseph’s, when I met her at the car and took her hand and guided her towards her future. When I explained all our big plans and promised to help her with her French and she told me she knew her address, and then we took over the world.
We took over the world.
“I love you,” I say, looking down into her eyes. We’re perfectly matched. Her blue ones. My brown ones. “I have loved you since time began, Aurora Shrike. And this life is some kind of reward. We did something good once upon a time. Saved people in another life. Or rescued kittens, maybe. Something special like that. We did something good and we earned a bonus. This life is our bonus.”
“Soulmates,” she whispers back.
“Mmmhmm. Soulmates.”
“People don’t get this lucky, Five.” She’s suddenly sober and serious. Her smile falls a little. Falters, as reality catches up to us.
“We’re not people, Rory. We’re made of moonlight, and twinkling stars, and the night.”
“Promise?” she asks.
“Yeah,” I say, smoothing a piece of golden hair off her forehead. “I promise.”
Chapter Nine - Rory
“Hello?” I say into the phone. My voice sounds like I was out drinking last night instead of having sex with Five Aston on a rock.
“Rory?”
Shit. That wakes me up. I swing my legs over the side of the glider, looking around for Five, because when I came back to the porch he was with me and now he’s gone.
“Cliff?” I say, still trying to gather myself into a fully functional adult.
“Yeah.” Cliff sighs on the other end of the connection. “Just checking up on you.”
I have no idea what to say about that. I mean, look. I like Cliff. He’s handsome and rich. He’s got everything in this world and he chose to ask me out. He’s going to law school and he’s got serious plans that have nothing to do with running from the FBI or secret global corporations that plot his demise. So Cliff is awesome.
But he’s no Five.
“I’m… OK,” I say, unsure of how I should sound after the most perfect night of my life.
Not excited though. Definitely not excited when I’m on the phone with my ex-boyfriend.
Please, Aurora. He’s not an ex. You just cheated.
Yup. I did. Which means… this is a breakup call.
“God,” Cliff says. “I miss you already. I know it’s only been one day, but Jesus,
Rory. You gotta give a guy time to adjust. Anyway, enough about me. How’s everything at home? Is everyone OK?”
“Yeah,” I say, opening the squeaky screen door and walking out into the grass. “Everyone’s fine. No one’s dead or anything. In fact, it was my little brother’s fault. He sent me a plane ticket and told me to come home and…”
And? What do I say after and? Good job, Princess.
Cliff pauses with me. Waiting for the rest of that sentence.
I decide to rip the Band-Aid off. Sort of.
“Cliff, I’m not coming back to the Hamptons this summer. I’m gonna stay here in Colorado. I’m sorry, I know it’s a shitty thing to do and—”
“It’s OK,” he says.
“It is?”
“Yeah. It’s weird, ya know. How life changes so fast.”
“Yeah,” I say, breathing out a sigh of relief. “Just so fast.”
“Because I got a call from a friend of my father’s last night asking me to come to Denver and do an internship.”
“Denver?” My eyebrows are all scrunched together on my forehead. “Who the hell comes to Denver for an internship?”
Cliff laughs. Like a real, honest-to-goodness, genuine laugh. “You’re silly, Rory Shrike. I know you live up north in that quaint college town, but Global Holdings moved their offices to the Tech Center last year. It’s a huge financial hub these days.”
“It is?”
“Yeah. But I get it. You’ve been away for school. Plus you don’t live down that way. So you didn’t know. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know I’m leaving today and I’ll stop by your place later to say hi.”
I’m actually struck dumb.
“Is that OK?”
Here? He’s coming here?
“Rory?”
And that’s when I remember I didn’t actually break up with him.
“Coming!” Cliff yells. Like he’s calling to someone on the other end of the line. “Listen, Ror, I gotta go. My car is here to pick me up for the airport. I’ll text you when I land and you can give me directions. See you soon!”
The call drops.
“Who was that?”
I turn around and find Kate walking across the lawn towards me.
“And bitch, I cannot believe you slept here instead of my house. Tell me again why I had to sleep on Sparrow’s couch?”
“Sorry,” I say. “Five and I got into a fight at your house and I came here.” I blush thinking about what came next. “He followed me. We…”
“You naughty slut.” Kate beams, hooking her arm around mine. “But that’s all I need to hear. I love you, but sexy details about my brother are my limit.”
I think back to last night and melt all over again. “It was perfect this time, Kate. Perfect. I feel like twirling around with happiness, that’s how perfect.”
“So you two are finally a thing?” Kate asks.
“A thing?” Are we a thing? We didn’t really sort out the details, did we? I mean, we said all the important shit. And we’re in love. So… “I… think we are.”
“Is Five staying? For the summer?”
I gave him a choice. I do remember that. Stay here with me or take me with him. I bite my lip. Because he never answered me. “I’m not sure.”
Kate looks all confused as she leads me back towards the house. “Well… he was supposed to leave tomorrow. Don’t you think you should find that out?”
“Yeah,” I say, getting a bad feeling about this. If fucking Five Aston tricked me into being rational last night, I will kill him. “Where is he? Inside?”
“No,” Kate says. “He’s not here. I have no clue where he is, but he’s not here.”
“Maybe he’s at home,” I say, pulling on my shorts and slipping my feet into my shoes. “I’m gonna go over there and check. Because you’re right, we need to sort this out immediately.”
Five’s house is locked and empty and there’s no car in the driveway, so even though I really want to break in via Kate’s window and look around, it’s stupid. And I’m pretty sure Ford has this place wired up like a bank vault. If that alarm is set and I break in… I don’t even want to imagine what comes next. So I leave.
Back in my car, I text him. Where are you?
And then I stare at my phone for exactly seven minutes praying for a response, before giving up and heading into downtown to check all the places he might be.
First stop, FoCo Theatre. I park at Shrike Bikes, since it’s across the street, and then jog over and go inside. Sparrow is running the place while her parents are out of town for the Disney trip. And it’s packed—as usual, since the lunch rush is just starting. The theatre doesn’t just show movies and have cool film festivals. It’s a restaurant and a coffee shop as well. A staple in this college-town community since it’s only a couple blocks away from campus.
“Rory!” Sparrow calls over the heads of a billion hungry college students. “Did you come to help?”
I’m about to say no, but then I realize she looks stressed. Sparrow Flynn is more qualified than most to run this place. She grew up in it, after all. But at only twenty years old, she’s still susceptible to all the things that can, and will, go wrong when the parents leave town.
So I say, “Sure. Let me grab an apron.”
I’ve spent my fair share of summers and weekends helping out here too. So I tie up my hair, throw on an apron, and get to work making sandwiches and salads.
It’s surprisingly calming. This familiar work in this familiar place. And even though I have a shit storm of problems brewing on the horizon, I let them fall away as I get back into the swing of being…home.
“So you and Five, huh?” Sparrow says with a wink, once things calm down. “Oliver told me this morning.”
“That little shit needs to mind his own business. He’s the one who caused all this mess by telling me to come home without Five knowing.”
“Don’t be mad. We all want what he wants. You two to finally get that fairy-tale happily ever after. If you two can’t manage it, what chance do the rest of us have?”
Good question. If Five and I aren’t meant to be together, even though we’re meant to be together, then just what the fuck, fate?
“But you’re on track now?” Sparrow asks.
“Have you seen him?” There’s a little desperation in my voice. I can hear it, so Sparrow does too.
She shakes her head. “Oliver says he spent the night with you on the back porch. But I didn’t see him when I got up. He must’ve already left.”
“Do you know why he’s in town? Exactly, I mean? He told me about some meeting in Denver but…” My words trail off because Sparrow’s face turns serious all of a sudden. “What?”
Her eyes dart around, taking in the lobby. Like she’s making a decision about something. Then she leans in close and whispers, “I have a bad feeling about that meeting.”
“Why?” I say. “I mean, I do too, Sparrow. But you tell me why and then I’ll tell you.”
“Come on,” she says, grabbing me by the wrist. “Let’s talk in my office. Sarah?” she calls to the redhead girl at the cash register. “Can you cover me for ten?”
Neither of us wait to see what Sarah says. We jog up the stairs to the higher floors in the old, historic building, and stay silent until we’re inside Sparrow’s makeshift office with the door closed.
“What’s going on?” I ask, once that’s done.
“Look, I don’t know anything for sure, but something weird is happening. The night before my parents left for Disney, Ford and Ash came over and there was a big hush-hush meeting”—she does air-quotes for that word—“and they all disappeared into my dad’s office for like two hours.”
“Hmm,” I say. “Were my parents there?”
“Nope,” Sparrow says. “But they came by the next day and there was pretty much a repeat of the whole thing. I didn’t suspect anything, ya know? Why should I? Nothing has ever really happened. And to be honest, when my mom and dad sat me down and
explained the whole thing to me before I left for college… well, I kinda didn’t believe them. Remember?”
“I do,” I say. She called me up. I was home for the summer that year.
“You had to talk me into it. Well, fine. My parents are criminals. Great. OK. I got over it. But again, two years go by and absolutely nothing happens. So I just drop it. Haven’t thought about that shit in a long time now. But then Five came, and you came, and everyone is acting weird. Just what the fuck is going on, Rory? It’s freaking me out!”
“I don’t know,” I say. “I didn’t realize anything was up until… Well, Five mentioned something weird about a meeting in Denver, but he gave me no specifics.”
“Don’t you think we earned those specifics?” Sparrow asks. “Where is he? I’ll ask him myself. We’re a team, remember? He can’t just keep shit from us, ya know?”
I agree. But… “I don’t know where he is. I came here looking for him. We spent the night together last night on your porch, but he was gone when I woke up. He wasn’t at home, I checked. Where could he be?”
She throws her hands up and shrugs. “You know him better than I do.”
“Yeah, but he moved away so long ago. And I haven’t been home in two years. I have no idea what he does or where he goes.”
She chews on her lip. Then her fingernail. Sparrow is flighty. And sometimes I wonder if she gets that from her name, or she’s just naturally that way. But she’s also very smart. Her talent all growing up was lying to the parents every time we wanted to get away with stupid shit. And now that I know what her father’s role was in their little criminal escapades when they were our age… am I surprised?
“What should we do?” I ask.
She chews a little more, then holds up a finger. “Ask Oliver. That little fuck knows something.”
“Yeah,” I say, sorting through all the events that have happened over the last twenty-four hours. “You’re right.”
“I’d go threaten the little monster myself, but I have to work. So you do it. Go shake that little shit until he spills.”
