JEDSON: The Ruins of Emblem

by Brent, Cora

  I shook my head and sighed. “Good night,” I said, my voice full of regret like I was backing off for the most gentlemanly of reasons, walking away only out of concern for her. Leah didn’t recognize a warning even when it was given to her point blank. She would regret this. I’d make sure of it.

  The last thing she said was, “I don’t get you at all!”

  I closed the door behind me and joined the night with a smile on my face.

  She’ll chase after me.

  She won’t be able to help herself. She was like Luanne in that way.

  She’ll land on my turf, aching for more of what she’d just had a taste of.

  And I’ll give it to her.

  For a little while.

  I’d already decided that I’d be taking her family’s pride and joy but now that wasn’t enough. I wanted to fuck with Leah’s pride in a more fundamental manner.

  By the time I was through with this girl she’ll be so in love with the feel of my dick that she’ll be crawling around after me, sobbing with heartbreak when I took it away.

  Chapter Eight

  Leah

  “Well, that was fucking surreal,” I muttered out loud to myself.

  I was talking to myself far too often these days. After a few stunned seconds of stupidly standing around in my panties, which were still wet from Ryan’s mouth and my own arousal, I bent down to yank my shorts back up.

  Once I got over my ‘What in the flying fuck just happened?’ shock I picked up the towel I’d been using to wipe the bar down and resumed the task, energetically cleaning the blemished wooden surface as if I had nothing else on my mind. As if Ryan Jedson hadn’t been licking my panties a few short moments ago.

  I was still so turned on I could hardly stand up straight. No other guy had ever made me want to sink to my knees with one touch. When he stopped I thought I might cry from frustration.

  “You’d regret it.”

  He wanted me too. The swelling in his pants was unmistakable and my legs nearly gave out when he ran his hand over it to make sure I saw.

  Ryan had misjudged me, assuming I was little more than a wide-eyed silly girl who couldn’t handle a good time with him. I could handle him just fine. I was dying to handle him. We’d already crossed a line and there was no going back. I didn’t care if our backstory made the whole thing sordid or what it said about me that right now I’d do anything he asked. We both needed this. And we should have it. We weren’t going to be captive to Luanne’s depravities. We were both free and taking what we wanted.

  Mopping the floor could wait until tomorrow. So could cleaning the glasses.

  I darted into the office only long enough to snatch my keys and purse, leaving everything the way it was and locking the door behind me.

  The house on the hill had been empty more often than it had been occupied. Everyone knew exactly where it was but I’d never spoken to a single person who’d been inside. I had a tough time picturing Ryan Jedson living here. I rang the doorbell and squashed an eruption of nerves as the chimes boomed within.

  Ryan opened the door both shirtless and barefoot, wearing only a pair of black sweatpants that hung so low on his waist I could easily imagine them slipping. His tan chest was perfectly sculpted, his muscled arms decorated up and down with the tattoos that remained as a nod to his life here in Emblem. He’d kept them even though they’d made him identifiable when he was trying to hide. He’d kept them even though their unrefined existence didn’t match the man who could afford to live in a mansion on a hill. Ryan had managed to climb his way to a different world than the one he’d inhabited here. He was not the same guy he’d been when he left. And yet when I looked at him I couldn’t stop seeing the boy who’d been my neighbor, my friend, my fantasy.

  He crossed his muscled arms and watched me as I struggled to figure out what I wanted to say.

  “What can I do for you, Leah?”

  “I knew where you lived.”

  “Obviously.”

  “I wanted to talk to you.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “You drove over here in the middle of the night to talk?” His expression remained cool, like that wild moment with his fingers inside me and then his mouth between my legs had never occurred.

  My body responded as the memory flashed through my mind, generating a bolt of desire in my belly, the heat between my legs reminding me of my damp panties.

  This was all nuts. The way I wanted him. The ways we knew each other. And the ways we didn’t.

  “No.” I slumped against the door frame, my face burning. “I didn’t drive over here in the middle of the freaking night to talk.”

  He liked that answer. “I know you didn’t. Do you remember what I said would happen?”

  “That I’d regret it?”

  “Yes. You will.”

  “Don’t be too sure.”

  “Then come on in.” He stepped back. “Just take your shirt off before you do.”

  My head snapped up. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No, I’m not kidding.” He shrugged, highlighting the perfection of his upper body. “What’s the big deal? I’m not wearing a shirt.”

  “Whatever game this is, I’m not playing.”

  “Good.” He sat down on a buttery leather couch, one of the only pieces of furniture in sight. “I don’t like games. Not a fan of rules.”

  “You just made a rule. You said I can’t enter your house unless I take off my damn shirt.” In spite of my whining, the more arrogant garbage that spilled out of his mouth the hotter I got.

  Ryan regarded me cheerfully. “That wasn’t a rule. That was a suggestion. Whether or not you follow it is up to you.”

  When I continued to hover by the door with my shirt intact he rolled his eyes.

  “So I’m allowed to put my mouth on your pussy but I can’t see your tits, Leah?”

  His vulgarity shouldn’t have shocked me, not when he’d point blank asked me about fucking Terry earlier and then tried to go down on me while I was in the middle of a phone conversation. I was struck again by how little I really knew Ryan Jedson. We’d played together as children. I’d lusted after him as a teenager. And then he was gone for a long time. So far he’d told me very little about what he’d been doing in those lost years. And there were a few things I hadn’t told him. Maybe we both had to be a little screwed up to be doing this but I didn’t care. I hungered for more of him. After all this time and all the heartache and all the ruin, Ryan Jedson was still my greatest wish.

  I shoved my phone into one back pocket and my keys into the other, then gripped my shirt at the hem before slowly pulling it over my head. If I’d owned a crystal ball that warned me I’d be stripping in Ryan Jedson’s doorway I would have been wearing my lacy black bra instead of a plain white one that looked as if it had been fished out of a dollar store bin.

  Ryan didn’t look displeased though. He shifted on the couch, then clucked his tongue. “Take that stupid bra off.”

  My fingers touched the clasp in the back. “Is that a rule or another suggestion?”

  “Just take it off. Now.”

  I glanced behind me and saw only my car in the circular driveway. In the distance, at the base of the hill, lights blazed from the windows of a far less opulent home.

  “What about the neighbors?” I asked.

  “What about them?”

  “I’m not really relishing the idea of being on display.”

  I wasn’t telling the truth. I had the power to leave anytime I pleased. Instead I flicked the clasp of my bra open because I was enjoying this. Whatever it was. I didn’t have the best body on earth. I was skinny and never worked out. Yet as I stood there half naked with my back to the cool autumn night and ran my hand through my hair, bringing its long length around to lightly cover my breasts, I felt more sensual than I ever had. And then I let my bra fall.

  I’d forgotten about the object I’d stored inside the right cup. I had intended to get a chain but hadn’t gotten around to it.
Instead of carrying it in my back pocket where I might accidentally toss it into the laundry, I stowed it in my bra as I went about my day, depositing it two feet away on my nightstand while I slept. It clattered to the floor now, a shiny St. Christopher medal.

  Ryan didn’t notice. Or if he did he chose to say nothing. His hand was on himself, stroking through his sweatpants. Obviously he was enjoying this. A lot.

  “You’d only be on display if you take your shorts off too,” he informed me.

  I dropped my shorts. Then I kicked them away. If he wanted a show then I’d give him one. My pale panties were still damp and I touched them, cupping between my legs, circling my thumb in the most sensitive place. I closed my eyes and listened to my own moaning while I rubbed myself.

  Ryan exhaled loudly. “Fucking hell, Leah,” he swore. “You’re killing me. Get over here.”

  Somehow it was easier to boldly strip for him in the open doorway than it was to shut the door and approach him. Shyness gripped me as I walked his way and I keenly felt the heat of his stare.

  Ryan still had his sweatpants on, although he must have been wearing nothing underneath because I could clearly see the outline of his lust. The floor appeared to be all marble, or something equally as expensive. But in front of the sofa was a large grey area rug, thickly made. My knees didn’t suffer when I knelt on it right in front of him.

  “What do you want?” I asked because I realized over there in the doorway that I liked doing things this way, liked following his instructions.

  “I want to take everything you have,” he said and I’d never been looked at by anyone with nearly as much fire as I saw in his black eyes. I tried to imagine what was going on behind them and shivered over the possibilities.

  I leaned forward on my palms, allowing my hair to spill over my shoulders.

  “This hair.” He grabbed a handful and shook his head before letting it sift through his fingers.

  “What about my hair?”

  “It’s insane. Don’t you ever cut it?”

  “You took something of mine and now you’re going to lose something of yours. That’s the way the world works, Leah.”

  “No,” I stated flatly and sat on my heels. This was heading in a direction I didn’t want to go. Ryan would have no idea. How could he? The official story was that I’d had a hormonal moment and gone scissors crazy and only some emergency salon intervention had saved me from looking like a hedgehog.

  “Leah,” Ryan said, assuming control again. “Do what you fucking came here to do and get on your back.”

  The dense fibers of the area rug tickled my skin when I eased my body down. Ryan breathed hard for a moment and then slid off the couch. He let his pants slip down in the process. I was right. He wasn’t wearing anything underneath them. I opened my legs and took in the glorious view of Ryan Jedson kneeling there naked. He placed his large palm on my belly, slowly moving up my chest and then down again as if the surface of my skin was so exquisite he had to test it. Every nerve ending in my body howled with impatience. Then he switched moods and got rough, bunching the fabric of my panties in his hand and tugging hard.

  “These stupid fucking panties,” he grumbled.

  I sat up on my elbows. “Why don’t you quit complaining and get rid of them?”

  He tugged harder. I heard a rip. “Maybe you should shut up before I fill your mouth with my cock.”

  I smiled. “Maybe swallowing your cock halfway down my throat is exactly what I fucking need.”

  He was startled by my answer. He stared at me for a moment. Then he grabbed my hips with both hands and tugged my body forward, leaving me to fall back onto the rug with a yelp. Ryan was victorious, looming over me as I hooked my knees on his hips, impatient to feel the satisfying shock of his body colliding with mine. He propped himself up on his palms and drove himself in slowly, steadily.

  “Don’t fuck me like you think I’ll break,” I said through gritted teeth. “Fuck me like you’re going to make me sorry I asked for it.”

  “Listen to you,” he growled, seizing my wrists and pinning them over my head. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

  I was fearless. Sexy. He made me that way. “A girl who plans to make you follow through with your threats.” I bucked my hips to drive the point home. “You said I’d regret this, Ryan. Make me regret it.”

  My last word ended in a gasp. He plunged in deep and hammered so hard I fleetingly wondered if I might be wrong about my fragility. And yet I begged for more, pleading for him to thrust harder and rougher until I was close to coming then I implored him to slow down. I badly wanted him to kiss me and I would have begged for such a tender pause too but by then the wave of excruciating pleasure was rising and all I could do was surrender to the inevitable explosion that left me shaking and breathless.

  A small whine of protest left me when Ryan withdrew, though I understood he had to because he wasn’t wearing a condom, which was risky and foolish even if I was on birth control, and yet so goddamn sexy. But Ryan still needed to get off and he intended to finish in the manner I’d already suggested.

  Before I could react he was straddling my neck and pushing his massive cock between my lips. I hesitated, tasting myself, and I must have made a face because he laughed.

  Screw his laughter. I knew how to be bold. I’d prove it.

  I licked him up one side and down the other, opening my mouth and deep throating as much as I could tolerate.

  “Shit, you’re hot,” Ryan panted before he started fucking my mouth in earnest.

  I braced my palms on his sweaty muscular thighs and kept up as he furiously rode my mouth.

  “Gonna come,” he gasped, giving me a chance to opt out. I didn’t take it, tightening my grip and swallowing every ounce he pumped into me. I’d never swallowed before and I didn’t think I would have wanted to with anyone else. He unlocked filthy desires that I didn’t know I had.

  “Fuck!” He pumped once more and then pulled out. He was careful when he climbed off me and rolled to his back at my side.

  I sat up and wiped my mouth. I tasted him. I tasted both of us. When I looked down he was watching me with an odd expression, like he was seeing me for the first time.

  “What the hell are you searching for?” he wanted to know as I started crawling around the floor.

  My clothes. A blanket. Something, anything, to make me feel a little less exposed.

  I gathered my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. “Nothing.”

  In an impressive move Ryan vaulted his feet. He strolled across the massive room totally naked and disappeared down the hall. I wondered if I’d just received my cue to find my own way out of his house.

  But he was only gone for a few seconds before returning with a patterned throw blanket, the kind local souvenir shops sell to people visiting from the Midwest. He didn’t swaddle me in it tenderly or anything but he dropped the blanket on the floor beside me and I appreciated the gesture. He didn’t bother to put his pants back on. Nudity apparently wasn’t an issue for him. Then again, I wasn’t complaining.

  “You’re magnificent,” I said. Then I might have visibly cringed. I covered my embarrassment by covering myself with the blanket.

  Ryan sank down on the rug without acknowledging the compliment. That was fine. I’d rather forget I said it. He picked up a nearby remote and pressed the button. The lights dimmed, not all the way, just enough to suit the mood of a post-sex scene.

  “This is a beautiful house,” I said, a stupid thing to say that was partly designed to erase the echo of the last stupid thing I’d said.

  He shrugged. “It’s just a house. Built by some asshole who wanted to show off.”

  “Is that why you bought it? To show off?”

  “Probably.” He stood up again. The guy sure didn’t like remaining in one spot for very long.

  The main living area was an enormous open concept design with the living room, dining room and kitchen all kind of blended together into one. T
he fact that there was so little furniture made the area appear even larger. The refrigerator was one of those enormous built ins that typically only exist on HGTV. Ryan peered inside, selected a few items and then casually strolled back while whistling a tune. Coincidentally – or more than likely not – it was the same song that I used for Terry’s ring tone because when Terry whistled, which was often, he only ever whistled the opening bars of Peter and the Wolf.

  “Are you trying to be funny?” I asked him.

  He smiled. A piece of my heart melted. He handed me a cold bottle and sat down again.

  “What is this?” I asked.

  “Mineral water.”

  “It has a picture of cherries on it.”

  “That’s because it’s cherry flavored, genius.”

  I opened the bottle and took a sip. “I wouldn’t have guessed you were a guy who drinks cherry flavored mineral water.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because I knew guys like that in college.”

  “Guys like what?”

  “Guys who tweeze their pubes and sit down to pee.”

  He choked on his cherry flavored mineral water. “Fuck you, Leah.”

  I pointedly looked him over. “Really? You must be more talented than I guessed if you’re ready for that again so soon.”

  He threw something. It landed by my left hand. A row of foil wrapped condoms.

  I guzzled my water like I was performing a keg stand. Then I rolled to my belly, stretched out beneath the blanket and looked over my shoulder.

  “Does that offer mean we’re not yet finished tonight?”

  He emptied his bottle of cherry water and tossed it aside. Then he tore the blanket from my back and pinned me down, straddling one powerful leg on either side and pressing his hardening cock against my backside where the skin was raw and chafed from the friction of the carpet. He moved lower, rocking against my ass in a tease, almost like he was daring me. He could dare all he wanted. I steadied my palms on the floor and pushed my lower body up to meet his challenge. No matter what he came up with I could take it.