Endure (Evolve #4)

by S. E. Hall

  “Mmm,” she purrs as she curls her arms tighter around my neck, muscular legs ringing around my waist, squeezing her thighs tight into my sides. “Love me, babe.”

  “I do love you. But right now, I’m going to fuck you. Hard.” That’s the only notice I give her before I slam my dick home through those warm, wet walls of hers, made just for me. My head falls back and a sound I don’t recognize resonates from deep within me from the sensation. She always feels so damn good, mine, an ideal fit. That tight pussy, I never stop wanting, constricting around my cock from the second I get it in her.

  I know men operate under some myth that sex isn’t all that great in water, the conduciveness of water not as fluid as you’d like, but when the pussy you’re in is dripping and ready for you, everything slides just as smoothly as it should. And Laney’s cunt sucks me in greedily, flawlessly, the natural lubrication of her want for me silky perfection.

  I use one hand to brace myself on the log behind her, the other wrapped under her ass to hold her up. I drive back and forth inside her, tilting her pelvis until her moans deepen and become louder, telling me that I’m hitting right where she needs me to. “You like that, don’t you?”

  “Mhmm.” She grabs the back of my head and fuses her mouth to mine, digging her fingers in my scalp.

  The water splashes and swirls around us as my girl moves faster, widening her thighs to give full access as she twitches, twirls and grinds up and down me.

  “That’s right baby, dance on that dick. God damn.” I eat at her mouth again, savoring her wet clutch around me and the thrumming pulse of the sweet pussy that’s only ever felt me, only ever let my dick inside. That’s a potent thought that does carnal, barbaric things to a man’s head, heart, cock... swelling within her to an almost impossible fit, causing the familiar fire of release to start racing up my spine.

  When I’m here, in Laney, my wife... all else ceases to exist. My only worry how many times I can make her come before I explode. My only thoughts on how to get closer, deeper, permanently connected to her. My only want to feel her coat me in her, our, pleasure.

  “Jesus baby, you…” I lose the thought when she scores her nails down my back to my ass, grabbing both cheeks and dragging me farther, harder, inside her. I slink a hand between us and find her clit, swirling my thumb with the precise pressure and speed I know she likes, till she’s wailing into the night, demanding my come from me.

  “Whose?” I thrust hard, then ease slowly out till just the tip remains in her moist heat. “Say it. Whose baby are you?”

  “Yours Dane, only, always, yours.”

  That’s what I fucking thought.

  “You look like you just took a plowing,” Bennett crudely surmises, with an eyebrow wiggle as we meet her and Zach midway up the resort sidewalk.

  “We went swimming,” I clip, my head held high.

  “Swimming, fucking.” She flicks her hand in dismissal, “whichever. Anyway, we were coming to find you to settle a debate for us. The grandparents all went to bed, which means the booze came out, and so did Sawyer’s claws. Zach here thinks we should leave it be, that Blaze and/or Ryder, whoever he’s targeting at any given second, can take it. I, however, think we should stop him.”

  “Good God, let’s go,” I start to rush past her but she latches onto my arm.

  “By we, I meant we should make Zach and Dane go control their boy while we sit out here and catch up. My foot hurts, I need fresh air and I haven’t seen you all day.”

  “Okay, come on.” I help her hobble to a nearby patio table and sit down. “Have fun boys! Lemme know if you can’t handle it. And Dane?”

  “Yes, dear?” He mocks, standing right where I left him with his arms crossed over his chest, brows trying to meet in the middle.

  “Remind your son he’s not old enough to drink.”

  “My son? First time I’ve heard you say that in a while.”

  Zach laughs and claps Dane’s shoulder. “That’s because she thinks he’s doing something wrong. Don’t worry, he’ll be Mama’s boy again tomorrow, when he’s sober. Come on. And no wandering off on that foot, B.”

  “Send someone out here with drinks!” Bennett calls after them. “Alcoholic, made with at least three fruits!”

  “So.” I dive right in, “where were you all day?” My nose tickles from the suspicious giggle I’m holding in.

  “Uh, in my room. Hurt foot, remember?”

  “My God, how bad can it be? Is it still attached? Let me see!” I lay my hand over my heart and gasp.

  “I do have one good one left, which I will cram straight up your ass, ya know.”

  “Uh huh, nice try on the deflecting.” I narrow my eyes.

  “If you’re choking on something over there Laney, better spit it out.” She leans back and folds her arms, glaring at me while pursing her lips.

  Here goes… I’m certainly not afraid of Bennett. Over the years, she’s mastered “dishing it out.” Well, she’s about to take it. And who’s she foolin’? She asked me to stay out here because this is the very conversation she and I both know she wanted to have, lest she implode from keeping it bottled up.

  “What’s going on with you and Zachary Taylor Reese?” I grin, leaning in on my elbows.

  “I would’ve known who you meant if you had just said ‘Zach.’” She rolls her eyes. “And we’re best friends, same as always. Hate to disappoint ya there, Gossip Girl. X-O-X-O, though.” She air smooches me.

  I slam my hand down on the table. “You are so full of shit, Bennett! I saw the way you treated Tia!”

  “Who? Oh, the maid Zach brought snorkeling? Pssh.” She flings her hair over her shoulder. “I didn’t treat her any kind of way. I actually made friendly conversation, didn’t I? And if she can’t handle that little taste of my legitimate curiosity, she’d never make it in the Crew. See, saved us all some time and headache.”

  “And Shane, Mr. Baseball? What’s going on with him?”

  “No idea, could’ve already gone home for all I know. And I didn’t invite him. Sawyer did,” she quips… except a lot bitchier than just a normal quip.

  “Did Sawyer invite him dancing too? You completely ignored us to bump and grind with him all night.”

  “Did Zach ask me to dance and I missed it? Didn’t think so. I’m in Jamaica, and there was dancing. I danced. No big deal. Let me ask you this though, did Shane have sex with my face, like Zach and Whorey Housekeeper, and I somehow missed that too?”

  She’s getting very defensive—Code Red—her cheeks and throat the same color as her hair and a downright evil bite in her bark. Plus, she’s now using her hands to talk, and not just any hands, karate chopping the air, or the imitation of a knife slashing someone’s throat hands.

  Perfect time to push harder. Cause that’s what friends are for and all. Plus, I do love myself a heated debate.

  “Why’s it matter, Bennett?”

  “It doesn’t!” As much as I don’t want the guys to come back with our drinks and interrupt, this chick could use some calming elixir.

  “Then why are you yelling?” I yell back. She’s high on Jamaican air if she thinks I’m gonna sit here and coddle her loud ass.

  I can literally see the lumps of control bump along her throat as she swallows down her psycho. “I’m. Not.” She grits out, but at a reasonable volume now.

  “So you’re not jealous?” I drum my fingertips on the table, the other hand casually propping up my chin.

  “Not at all. Be a little late now anyway.” It trailed off in a gloomy muffle, but I heard it.

  “Why? Bennett, why is it a little late now? What is a little late now?” I plead, practically salivating for her to open the floodgates and let me help her paddle safely to the side.

  “Zach’s great, honestly, he’s my best friend in the whole world. No offense, you are too, but you have a family to take care of. Zach and I, well, we only have each other to worry about. Tia just didn’t seem right for him, but I shouldn’t have been so rude t
o her. I’ll fix it.”

  Aannnd, we’ve made a total one-eighty. So fast, I’m dizzy.

  “Bennett.” I reach over and cover her hand with my own. “You know I want you happy, we all do, whatever that looks like. You and Zach have both brought around a ton of different dates over the years, but this time, this trip, something’s different. I can feel it, Ben, just like I know you can too. You know you can talk to me, no judgment.”

  The agonized noise she lets out can only be described as what sadness sounds like, pure and raw, and it hurts me for her just hearing it. “Zach and I will always be friends, close ones. I’m not going anywhere, and any new bitch that comes slithering around and thinks different can kiss my fabulous ass. But…” She looks off and I see the gleam of tears in her eyes. “Sometimes, when you shut a door, and hide away the key... you forget where you put it, and can never open that same door again.”

  What does that mean? Did something happen between Zach and her? How long ago? What’s behind the damn door????

  She laughs, although pained and facetious, shaking her head. Guess I said, screamed, either… all that out loud. “Don’t over think it, Laney. You’re not a locksmith. And I wouldn’t call you even if you were. You love your fairytales and happily ever-afters. Well, lemme give ya a big spoiler. Lots of those damsels could’ve figured a way out of their towers. They didn’t want to escape. They wanted to be rescued.”

  She stands, all her weight on one foot as she holds out her hand. “Come on, time to call it a night.”

  I move to take her hand, confused and far from ready for this conversation to be over, when a deep voice startles us both.

  “Let me help you, Ben.” Zach just inside the shadows, steps forward. I try to read his face, something I’ve always prided myself at being able to do, but he gives away nothing.

  How much had he heard?

  And of what he did, does he understand all she didn’t just say?

  Some Kind of Way

  His set in stone face and blank eyes had the opposite of his desired effect, telling me what I fully suspected. He heard what I said. Laying out the woes of my battered and broken heart in cryptic message that he no doubt decoded. I just couldn’t hold it all in another torturous second, so I vented in a way where I offloaded some of the burden, but still felt hidden.

  Some secrets can’t ever be spoken.

  They wouldn’t understand, and I’d lose all I have left.

  But I can certainly discuss it with Zach.

  “Nothing to say? Critique? No follow up questions?” I give him lip as he walks with me back to the room.

  His faint chuckle is sharp around the edges. “You drunk?”

  “No! Don’t you think you would’ve noticed if I was tossing ’em back?”

  “You double up on your pain meds?” He wraps one arm around my waist, stiff and purely for support, probably noticing that my limp’s worsening the later it gets, having been on it a lot this evening.

  “Just ask me what you really wanna know.” Enough with the games and pussy footing around. He holds open the door, waiting for me to enter, but I refuse. I’m not going a damn place until he uses his big-boy voice and asks me an actual question; the one I can smell burning his tongue.

  “I just—” His chin lowers to meet his chest, one hand reaching up to scrub the back of his neck. Then all of a sudden, his head pops up. He’s decided to go for it. With purpose in his green eyes, he looks straight into mine, nostrils as flared as his pupils. I don’t get you, Bennett.” He huffs, “What the hell’s up with you this trip, huh? Why the bitch treatment to Tia? And the crazy rambling to Laney? Did I do something wrong?”

  “No.” I exhale slowly defeated and exhausted, so genuine, and shuffle past him through the doorway. “You didn’t do a thing wrong. Just ignore me, I’m PMSing.” I fib an excuse.

  “No you’re not.” I snap my head back toward him in shock, his cheeks a shade of crimson I’ve never seen him wear.

  “How do you know that?”

  “You’re kidding, right? Bennett, think of all the tampon runs I’ve made for you, the purple box, unscented, cause the perfumed ones are dangerous for, never mind. Or how about all the times I’ve scrounged up your heating pad cause you had cramps and couldn’t remember where you put it. And let’s not forget my personal favorite, picking up your birth control prescription for you. That’s how I know. Now let’s get you to bed before you act any crazier tonight.”

  Still stunned by the plethora of embarrassing intel he just spouted, I didn’t realize he knew that much about me, I hobble up to my room with as little of his assistance as possible; feeling crazy enough for it to actually be my time of the month.

  I slump down on the sofa and take off my walking brace and one shoe, super chic, tossing it across the room. Damn, I was hoping I’d hit something with it. “You know I don’t deserve you, don’t you?”

  “Uh huh,” he mumbles, watching me throw my tantrum with amusement tugging at the corners of his mouth, a beautiful mouth, bottom lip much juicer than the top.

  “And you don’t deserve the way I’m acting. So if I was to ask you to stay and watch, say, ‘Eagle Eye,’” I happen to know it’s one of his favorites, and I saw it on the Dane-Pay-Per-View list, “I wouldn’t be surprised or blame you if you said no.”

  “No idea what’s gotten into you tonight woman, but you are acting some type of way.” He kicks off his shoes and socks… must be the temptation of Eagle Eye. “I wanna shower before we start it, though, cause we both know we’re falling asleep before it’s over. So you want to take one first?” “No, you go ahead, I’m fine.”

  He reaches behind his head and tugs off his shirt, cause he couldn’t have waited until he was in the bathroom to do that just trying to torture me now.

  Zach’s a big ole’ boy, the tallest of all the guys at well over six feet tall, and not an ounce of fat on him. The light scattering of hair on his chest is the same dirty blond as that on his head and the dark tribal ink on both his shoulders is a sinful kind of sexy.

  But it’s nothing I haven’t seen a hundred times before. So why I’m throbbing painfully between my legs tonight, I’m not sure.

  “Don’t.” He says, dark and resolute.

  “Don’t what?”

  “Don’t look at me like I wouldn’t be your biggest regret in the morning. I’m going to take a shower, Bennett. While I’m in there, think about why it isn’t an option, and who set that rule. Then cover yourself in head to toe pajamas and get the movie ready.”

  And with that, he walks to the bathroom and in a few seconds I hear the shower start running. I’m glad he’s so immune to the romantic intent and scenery surrounding us everywhere we look. His level-head gives me the self-preserving illusion of choosing the reprieve I need to get my own back on straight.

  It’s just… Zach and I are the staple “single ones” here in paradise, surrounded by half-naked bodies, tangled together more often than not. And all the wedding talk. And though Zach and I spend more time together than most married couples… I’m lonely. Really lonely.

  Yes, that kind of lonely.

  Zach’s the only man I’ve felt safe with, or close to, since I lost Tate. So all those dates my friends have watched me bring around over the years? All for show, partly to avoid their pity, but mostly so they wouldn’t all start buying me cats. Every single one of those men said goodnight at the door, if I didn’t meet them on location in my own car, in which case, they said goodnight at my car door.

  Except one.

  And that one, and all the memories attached, is my recurring dose of reality – that no matter how hard I try to fool myself, I don’t want to be alone forever.

  Would Tate want me to spend out my days alone?

  I know without a doubt that he wouldn’t. But would he…

  Nope, not going there. Enough thinking for one night. I turn off all those thoughts and hobble into the hallway to grab some ice from the machine just in case this throbbing in my
foot gets worse.

  “Oh, excuse me,” I apologize to the woman coming around the corner that I nearly barrel into. Admittedly, I wasn’t watching where I was going, but Rahana, according to her resort nametag, was walking backward!

  And now that she’s gone and no longer blocking my view, I see what had her getting in one last look: Ryder is standing at the drink machine, blushing from ear to ear.

  “Friend of yours?” I ask.

  “Definitely not.” He’s adamant. “I’d say she was acting totally inappropriate, but not a lot seems to be considered inappropriate in Jamaica. I didn’t encourage her in any way, she’s far from my type.”

  “And what is your type?”

  He takes the bucket from my hand and starts filling it with ice for me. “I don’t know, I guess… smart girls, motivated and self-assured. The kind who get attention by not looking for attention. If that makes sense.”

  “Oh, it makes sense.” I grin and take the now filled bucket from him. Thank you Ryder, have a good night.”

  “Yeah, you too.”

  Call it intuition, or my witchy sixth sense, but on my return, I take a detour bringing me back toward my room up a totally different hallway. And just as I suspected, I see her, but she doesn’t see me, far too engrossed. Brynn. Peeking around the corner to watch Ryder, and I suspect, his little interaction just minutes before.

  “His type sound like anyone you know?” She jumps three inches off the ground when I ask, surprising her.

  Sweet Brynny stares at the floor, fidgeting from one foot to the other as she mumbles. “I don’t know, maybe.”

  “May be, Brynny. Just may be. Night precious girl.”

  “Night aunt Ben.”

  I sneak quietly back in the room, hoping to avoid the lecture I’m positive I’ll get if he knows I limped out for my own ice. Thankfully, he’s still in the bathroom, so I hurry and change into my sleep tank and shorts set. And just as I’m cueing up the movie, Zach joins me in the living room, wearing only gray gym shorts that cling to his hips, hair damp.