Redemption

by Robin Covington

  I stop and look up to find her gazing down at me, her emerald green eyes dark with her passion, her bottom lip red and swollen from her biting it. I move up, licking along the seam of her lips until she releases her lip from its captivity and I can draw it into mine. I am dying to delve deeper so I abandon her lip to slip my tongue in deep, sweeping alongside her own as it tangles with mine. Her arms are wrapped around my back, pulling me closer as we eat suckle, caress, and explore in the early morning light.

  I break off the kiss and look down at her, unable to contain my smile. “I can't believe I finally got you in my bed.”

  She laughs softly, her fingers stroking the skin at the nape of my next, teasing me with her touch.

  “Well, don't waste it. You never know when you’ll get me back here.”

  Her words sober me instantly and dive in for a kiss more bruising and demanding than I intended it to be. I want to claim her, want her to agree that I’m not the only one careening towards a point of no return. Who the fuck am I kidding? We’ve already passed that point long ago.

  I release her mouth and pull back enough to make eye contact. “There is something between us. It's strong and it’s not going to go away because we go back to a bunch of rules we made up when we had nothing to lose.”

  Her eyes go wide and I silently dare her to contradict what I’ve said, to deny what is pulsing between us like a livewire.

  “This could get complicated,” she whispers. “It could get messy.”

  “Like anything between us could be anything else. But I want it. I want you in my bed and in my life.”

  She doesn't answer and I can see push and pull of what she wants to do and what she thinks she should do waging a war inside her. This is not something either of us signed up for but here we are, right in the middle of it and it feels huge.

  “I don’t know Mateo, there’s so much more you should know... ”

  “I know that I want you, that I crave being with you in and out of bed and I want to explore it and see where it goes. I’m not asking for you to commit right now but I want you to think about it. Can you do that?”

  She nods and I renew our kiss, letting her set the pressure with the way she clutches my head and guides it against her mouth. When she presses down, I obey her silent demand to trail kisses over her jaw, her neck, across her collarbone until I am back at her breasts. I tease with my tongue, little nips of my teeth on one before transferring my attention to the other grinding my hard dick against her thigh as her body writhes and her moans gets louder.

  “Carlisle I fucking love it when you lose it. Love how you scream it out, telling me just how good I make you feel.”

  “Teo, touch me. Come on. Do it,” she demands but I’m not ready to give her what she wants yet.

  I reach down with my right hand and begin a light caress of the skin of her thighs. She’s so hot for me that she reaches down and shimmies her skirt up a bit higher, giving me a glimpse of her auburn landing strip. Carlisle opens her legs wider, her own fingers joining mine on their upward journey, urging them on.

  “You want me to touch your pussy Carlisle?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then ask me nicely.”

  She huffs out a sound somewhere between a laugh and growl and her eyes snap to mine as she joins our fingers together. “Touch my pussy Teo. Please.”

  I allow her to drag my hand up and I find her damp, slick and warm. I take her hand and press it against her hot button. “You touch your clit baby and show me how you get yourself off while I finger fuck you.”

  Carlisle does not break eye contact with me as she does as she’s told. I let my gaze drop because I’m dying to see what this looks like. My fingers are darker, blunter as two of them work their way in and out of her body. The sucking pull of her sex on every retreat, as if she doesn’t want me to leave.

  But the sight of her own, longer delicate fingers rubbing herself in slow circles is enough to get me off if I don’t keep control of myself. Her hips shift as she gets closer and I couldn't look away if my life depended on it.

  “I’m going to come Teo.”

  I speed up my thrusts and lean over, nudging her hand to the side as I add my tongue to the mix of sensations. I want to taste her as she comes and it only takes a few tender swipes against her clit and she is shaking under me, her body clutching my fingers in a tight, wet, hot grip.

  She tugs on my hair and pulls me up and my mouth is taken in a kiss. She dives in, her tongue going in deep. She wants to taste her on my lips and I let her plunder, enjoying the way she takes what she wants and that what she wants is me.

  We break apart, chests heaving with our effort to catch out breath. “I want to fuck you, Carlisle.”

  “Yes, she nods at the same time her hands start to unfasten the button of on my shorts and ease down the zipper. I’m commando so the next thing I feel is her hand stroking me from root to tip. I shudder when her thumb swipes across the head of my cock and I reach down to still her touch, afraid I might come if she keeps that up.

  I lock eyes with her and voice what I’ve been dreaming about. “I want you naked and underneath me. I have to see you.”

  ***

  Carlisle

  I freeze at his words. I can’t help it.

  I have not been entirely naked for a lover since Aaron and the fear that Mateo will be turned off by what he sees flickers across my mind. Normally, I would hedge and find a way to avoid it but this morning, in his bed, with what is pulsing between us, I have to be honest.

  “You might not like it.” I gesture towards my back. “It’s ugly. The surgeons did their best... ”

  “Let me see,” he says, quietly, understanding coating the three words and soothing my fears a little.

  I sit up and let him undress me. First my tank top and then my mini-skirt and then I watch hungrily as he gets rid of his shorts. His penis is hard, jutting up against his belly, the tip red and wet. I lick my lips and feel my body clench with wanting him inside me.

  “Roll over baby. On your stomach,” he whispers and I remember that he will see all of me. I do as he says, there is no turning back now and I lower myself to lie flat against the mattress, open to his scrutiny.

  The silence in the room stretches long but I can hear him breathing behind me, his gasp when he sees the mass of scars covering my lower back. I hold my breath.

  I expect his touch but what I don't expect is his mouth, pressing soft kisses along every ridge, every keloid, every dip and indent marring my skin. He is straddling my legs, his penis dragging across the skin of my thighs, still hard and urgent and undiminished by the ugliness before his eyes.

  Mateo spends long moments examining me, caressing my skin, tracing the evidence of a stranger’s hatred with his loving touch and I melt into it. My body relaxes with each passing second and I blink back the prick of tears in my eyes. He moves away for a moment and I hear a drawer open, the ripping of a foil packet and then he is back against me, trailing kisses up my spine until he is draped over me, his breath hot on my cheek.

  “Is this okay? “ he asks, and when I nod, I feel his cock pressing against my opening. I open my legs sider and we both sigh as he slides inside, full and deep. He stops once he’s in, leaning over to capture my mouth in a sweet, deep kiss. “Tesoro, you are beautiful. I swear it.”

  Tesoro. Treasure. Oh fuck, he looks at my broken body and knows what a head case I am and he still thinks I’m a treasure? Holy hell. I can’t hear anymore. I’ll want to hear more.

  “Teo, move, please.” I move hips under him, encouraging him. “I need you.”

  “You don't think you’re beautiful, Carlisle?” You think I wouldn't crave doing this if I saw your scars?” He punctuates his word by starting a slow glide in and out of my body. I whimper, the combination of his words and his body, making me crazy and my chest hurt with the way my heart is pounding. “Everything about you is beautiful, gorgeous. I wanted you the first time I saw you and nothing can change that.”


  I shut my eyes and try to steel my heart against his words. The invasion of my body and the seduction of his words spook me. It’s too much and I need him to fuck me and I try to speed things up with my movements but he is having none of it.

  “Relax Carlisle, I’m going to give you a slow, deep fuck and you’ll believe me by the time I’m done,” he murmurs against my ear as he does exactly what he promises. I’m so wet, so turned on that all I can do is writhe under him, welcoming him deeper inside my mind with each thrust of his hips.

  Mateo never stops kissing me. My lips, my cheeks, my neck. Always reminding me that he is the one inside, around me. There is no way I can hide in my head and make believe that this is a nameless, faceless fuck. He grounds me to this room and to the time and place and I give in completely when his hands slide up my arms and he covers my hands, linking our fingers together.

  “With me, Tesoro. Come with me. Come all over me.”

  I do. It is soft and sweet but erupts electric tingles all over my skin as I fall apart. Mateo is all over me and I have his scent, his sweat, his imprint on me and it is a safe place where I can just revel in my pleasure and his pleasure as he follows me over.

  He starts to move off me but I stop him, wanting to keep this closeness, this moment for as long as I possibly can. It is the only way I can explain my agreement to what he suggests next.

  “Come home with me today. My parents are having a party and I want you to go with me.”

  Chapter Ten

  Mateo

  “I feel like I need to warn you about my mother in advance,” I say, looking over at Carlisle in the passenger seat of my car.

  I turn on the road in Lively, a little town just outside of Nashville, that leads to the house where I grew up and headed to a BBQ I was dreading until Carlisle said yes. I fully expected her to go home, get cleaned up, change her mind, and cancel on me. So no one was more shocked than me when she appeared in her living room looking like an angel in a long sundress with her hair spilling around her shoulders and a sweet kiss for me.

  “I’m actually pretty good with new people. Parents usually like me,” she answers. I can’t see her eyes behind the sunglasses but her big smile is mocking me.

  She has no idea.

  We get to the top of the long driveway that leads to the house and I see the small American flags stuck into the ground on each side and I sigh.

  “My mom is a naturalized citizen from Cuba. My grandparents escaped and got to Tennessee by way of Florida.” I shake my head as the flags get bigger as we get closer to the house. “She is the biggest patriot since George Washington and an even bigger supporter of our teams in the winter and summer games. She screamed when I told her you were coming.”

  If I hadn’t told her I knew I would be the one on the grill, served up later with the baked beans and potato salad. But warning her gave my mom time to prepare for her special guest. I have a pretty good idea of what is going to greet us when we get to the house.

  “That is sweet. I can’t wait to meet her.”

  “Sweet is not the word I would use to describe her.” As the house comes into view I groan and then laugh at what I see. “I love her but my mom is…intense.”

  The large, two-story white farmhouse sits in the shelter of tall trees, rose bushes, dogwood, flowering cherry and the flowerbeds my mom has planted over the years. In the few hours since I called, my mom has placed every piece of red, white and blue decorations she has on our house and anything else that can’t run away. Bunting, streamers, and flags are everywhere and stretched across the porch is a handmade banner that says “Welcome Carlisle Queen. American champion”.

  I park at the end of the row of cars and the silence is complete when I turn off the engine. I turn to look at Carlisle and gauge her reaction. Her face is blank and her sunglasses still cover her eyes so it is impossible to know what she is thinking. I watch as she opens the door and steps out of the car, turning in a complete circle to soak it all in.

  I start to ask her what she thinks when my mother appears at the side of the house and she makes a beeline for Carlisle who barely has time to remove her sunglasses and brace herself for the arms that pull her into a hug.

  “Carlisle! I am so happy to have you in my home. Welcome! Welcome! This is an honor,” my mother says in heavily accented English as she continues to squeeze my date like an overly affectionate anaconda. I take a step forward to get Carlisle some breathing room when I see her arms reach up to encircle my mother.

  They loosen their hold but do not let go of each other and I stand by and watch as they speak softly to each other, auburn head and darker curls bent together. My mom switches to a mix of Spanish and English as she weaves her words together into a blanket of love and welcome for the newcomer. I can’t catch all of it but snatches of their conversation float over to me on the summer wind; words of pride for her accomplishment and sorrow over her loss and, finally, blessings on her future.

  This is my mom’s superpower, to love everyone with a heart as big as the blue sky open above us. When I was kid I was embarrassed by how my mom was constantly touching people, telling them how special they were, and making sure they were loved. It’s why every lonely and neglected friend we had growing up flocked to our house. Carmela Montez Butler never learned to put a filter on her heart.

  And I like that she’s opened her heart to the woman who is becoming important to me.

  My dad strolls up to the scene and pats my shoulder with his big paw of a hand.

  “Should we rescue your friend?” he asks.

  “I think she’s doing fine,” I say and turn to look around the yard again. “You got the stuff up quick. I only called a couple of hours ago.”

  “Kit sent Max over to help so I think you probably owe him more slave labor.”

  I roll my eyes. “What else is new.”

  My mom lets go of Carlisle and when they both look at us, their eyelashes are damp.

  “Jesus, mom. Did you have to make her cry?” I ask, dodging my mother’s swat towards my head.

  “Mateo! Do you kiss your mami with that mouth?”

  “I do and she loves it.” I lean over to give her the tainted kiss and glare down at her. “You could have gone easy on her, mom.”

  “You cannot love in half measures, Mateo. You will know soon enough.” She dismisses me with

  “It’s fine, Teo. It was a good cry.” Carlisle gives my mom another squeeze and then turns her smile to my dad. “I’m Carlisle Queen.”

  “Mike Butler. Welcome to our home,” he says, giving her the same shoulder pat he just gave me and then points to the backyard. “I bet you could use a cold drink after meeting my wife…or a nap.”

  “You can both kiss my culo,” she grumbles but takes the hand my dad is holding out to her and follows him towards where the music is playing and the guests are gathered.

  “Mom, cursing at me in Spanish is still cursing,” I taunt her as I grab Carlisle’s hand and follow them. “You doing okay?”

  She nods, her smile genuine so I relax. “It was fine. She’s pretty awesome really.”

  “She really is.” We round the corner of the house and Carlisle stops me, her gentle “oh” making me smile. “This is where I grew up.”

  The view in the back is as spectacular as the front. Huge greenspace leading to the man-made lake, barns and outbuildings constructed to match the house and the rolling hills of farmland. I lift my free hand and point to a spot across the lake.

  “Straight over there is the farm where my grandparents lived and now belongs to Max and Kit. I have several other cousins who bought other pieces and have built houses on it as well.”

  “So, as far as I can see, it’s Butler land.” I nod and she asks, “Do you plan to live here too?

  “Not anytime soon but when I do I’ll either build on the east side of the lake…” I point out a piece of land to our right. “…or I will live here in this house.”

  I watch her face as she
soaks it all in, pleased that she clearly likes what she sees here. My nervousness about bringing her here is long gone.

  “I’m glad you came with me today. Thank you.” I lift the hand I am holding to my lips and press a kiss to her knuckles. “I like seeing you here. A lot.”

  “I like being here. Thanks for inviting me.”She leans over and kisses me, soft and sweet and appropriately PG-rated for any age of guest at the party.

  I lean back in for another until a voice behind me interrupts us.

  “Hey, there are kids around here you know.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Carlisle

  Mateo curses against my lips and pulls out of the kiss.

  I push down my disappointment and peer around him to see who interrupted my chance for a little bit of sugar. Whoever he is, he resembles Mateo enough for me to presume that this one of the many Butler cousins. He’s bulkier but they share the same dark hair and warm smile. I like him immediately.

  “Carlisle Queen this is my cousin, Max Butler. Task master and all-around pain in my ass.”

  I roll my eyes, smiling back as he shakes my hand. “You’re the one with the drywall problem.” I say.

  “My only problem is the assholes who don’t know how to put up drywall properly,” Max shoots back with a light shove to Mateo’s shoulder.

  “Holy crap, can’t you two act like grown men for two seconds and not embarrass us in front of the special guest?” A tiny woman with red streaks in her dark hair steps between then and they both come to heel pretty quickly. I don’t even try to bite back the laugh that bubbles up.

  “Aren’t you going on tour soon? Mateo asks, draping his arm around her shoulders, trying to intimidate her with his size. She pinches him in the side and he jumps away, rubbing the spot where she made contact. He uses his free hand to gesture between us, making the introductions. “Carlisle Queen this is Kit Landry. Kit Landry this is Carlisle Queen. She has gold medals and you have gold records. Discuss amongst yourselves.”