by London Casey
Osiris began to kiss up my body. Kiss after kiss, inch after inch, letting his naked, hard body touch mine. Then I felt him. I felt his thick cock resting between my legs. Nestling up close against me, but not inside me.
Torturing me for a few seconds as he hovered over me.
My hands touched his chest. I scratched at him.
“Syi… I need you.”
“I know, sugar,” he whispered. “I need you, too.”
He came down and kissed me. As he kissed me, he pressed forward, opening me, plunging into me without hesitation. Just the way I wanted him to do it. To take me. To have me as his. Going deep and holding there for a second and then bucking his hips, making sure there wasn’t a spot he hadn’t claimed inside me.
I groaned as we kissed.
Then he pulled his mouth from mine.
My hands slid around to his muscular back.
We stared for a second before Osiris curled his lip. That was my warning.
A second later he pulled his body back like the hammer of a gun. He thrust forward with force, and that was just the beginning.
I gasped and clawed at his back, wanting him to kiss me again.
He did.
And in that moment… I was finally home.
I fell asleep in his arms and opened my eyes to find the bed empty beside me. I had dozed off for a couple hours. I reached across the bed and touched Osiris’s pillow. All my decisions for the day suddenly hit me. I expected to be in a panic, but I wasn’t. I was happy. Damn me for being that crazy, but I was happy. Losing everything. Starting over. It was scary, but it didn’t matter because of how I felt on the inside.
I grabbed the sheet and rolled it around myself as I stood up. I wandered from the bedroom through the quiet cabin. It was so calming. It was so soothing. I totally understood why people bought cabins in the woods and just stayed there.
From the corner of my eye I saw a faint light.
It was Osiris at the desk again. Just like I found him that one time. When he was looking at a map. The difference this time was that when I crept up the stairs to see him, he didn’t turn the light off and he didn’t get mad at me.
Instead, he sat there, hands on the desk, his eyes scanning left to right. On the desk were several maps.
“Syi?” I whispered.
“There was a time when I had this figured out,” he said. “I would do something nobody else could. My head convinced my heart I could do it. It didn’t matter we had police up here. We had search teams. Helicopters. To me, I could fix it. So I started going out for hours, days, whatever it took. And I tracked everything. Right here.”
Osiris looked at me and nodded to the desk.
I approached, hugging the sheet tighter to my body.
The maps were insane. He’d literally marked everything down. Different color lines with their own color coding key on the side of the map. Dates. Times. Anything that seemed out of the ordinary. A man who spent days, weeks, months, years up here trying to find the woman he loved.
I put my hand on his back and started to rub.
I could only shake my head.
This was what true love looked like. Not many people in the world could understand it.
Osiris grabbed for my other hand to kiss it. I gasped and had to take my hand off his back to keep holding the sheet together so it didn’t fall off my body.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I whispered.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I know what my next step should be and I don’t like it, sugar.”
“Which is what?”
Osiris looked up at me. “To say goodbye. For good. Not for me but for Adley. The drawing she made me is on the fridge. She’s beautiful, Lara. Looks just like Mila, too. The way Michelle and Dane are raising her is so good, though. Me and Dane will always have our moments. But he’s good to her. And I have a purpose in it all, too.”
“Of course you do,” I said. “You were there for her.”
“I abandoned her.”
“You…” I sighed. I nodded. “You have time now.”
“I know that. And the only way to begin to figure it out is to say goodbye.”
“How are you going to do that?”
Osiris swallowed hard. He took his right hand and slid it across all the maps. Then he began to fold them up, one at a time.
“They have a memorial for her,” he said. “A grave with no body. It’s wrong. I get why they did it. It’s closure. I’ve never been there. To admit she’s gone?”
“I understand,” I said. “But I hope you know that by going there doesn’t change a thing, Syi. It doesn’t mean you forget about her. Or that you have to stop looking for her.”
“Yes I do,” he said. “Fuck, sugar, yes I do.”
That’s when Osiris stood up. Towering over me again. His hands touching my shoulders.
“I love you, Lara. So I have to do this the right way.”
“I don’t expect you to do anything you don’t want,” I whispered.
He nodded. “How about I build a fire for us?”
“I’d love that.”
Downstairs, I sat on the couch and watched him stack some logs. I knew nothing of hunting, fishing, cabin-ing, camping, surviving in the woods. If I was cold, I would walk to a thermostat and turn it up.
I watched as a small flicker of a flame turned into a roaring fire.
He did it so fast, so efficiently.
Then he stepped back to his chair and plopped down. He held his hand out for me.
“Come here, sugar,” he whispered.
I stood and walked to him. He pulled me down to the chair, on his lap. We were cuddled up together. Kissing. Smiling. Flirting a little with our eyes and the way we touched each other.
“So tell me about your day,” he said.
I laughed. “I don’t know what happened.”
“That’s all true?”
“Yeah.”
“Thad…”
“He showed up. I hit him.”
“You hit Thad?”
“Yeah.”
“Good,” Osiris said.
“He thought he could just have me back,” I said.
“Scum.”
“I agree.”
“He has a woman somewhere else with his kid? And then he comes to you?”
“That’s what he was used to, probably. I wonder sometimes how many women he did that to. And doing it to me over and over. But I had no desire for him, Syi. It was pathetic to see. Then Lenore called me to find out if he was there. She wanted to talk, to apologize. And it was kind of strange for me because I didn’t care. I felt bad for her. She has a baby now and Thad is going to be Thad for the rest of his life. Percy showed up and threw Thad out. I never thought Percy would have the balls to do that.”
“Good for him,” Osiris said. “I owe him a beer.”
“And then Calvin showed up to check on me. That’s when I realized I was in that flower shop like a kid in a blanket fort during a storm. I’d never get my shit together being there. So I quit. Right there. Right on the spot. Took my apron off and walked out.”
“Shit.”
“Yeah. I’ll call everyone and meet up with them tomorrow or later. I just need to be me, Syi.”
“I understand that.”
“Then I got home to the apartment. What the hell was I doing there? I went to the office and paid what I owe for the rest of the lease and gave it up.”
“Where are you going to live, sugar?”
“Don’t know. Don’t care. I have two months to figure that out. Along with a job. I’ll get there when I get there. I’m happy right here. Right here with you, Syi. This moment.”
He held me tighter and kissed the top of my head. I smelled him. It made me think of sex. My body tingled. We still had plenty of night to go. I smiled.
“Sugar,” Osiris said. “You should move some of that stuff of yours in here.”
“What?”
“You heard me. And I can talk to Jerry
about some office work for you.”
I looked into Osiris’s beautiful dark eyes as the reflection of the fire flickered in them.
I touched his face. “No.”
“What?”
“No. I mean, I appreciate it. I love you for it. You trying to take care of me. But, no. I don’t want it, Syi. I’ll figure this out on my own. I don’t want any favors.”
“Favors?” he said with his lip curling. “This isn’t about favors, sugar. I don’t want you to leave. Ever. Not having you near me today left me feeling empty. I hated it. Even though I was with people. You… you’ve managed to find whatever was left of my heart. And you have it, Lara.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Syi,” I said with a smile. “I’m just going to take care of myself a little. Find out what I want. What I like. Start over with nothing. It’s sort of exciting, you know? Get a crappy little apartment. Get a couple jobs to scrape by. Spend my nights at this cabin in your arms. And not once worry about the future.”
Osiris slowly nodded. “You know, sometimes I don’t understand how fucking lucky I was to find you sleeping on that bench. That sounds creepy as hell, I bet. But it’s true.”
“Well, I guess this is the one time getting blackout drunk paid off.”
“Yeah, let’s not tell anyone that, though.”
“Deal.”
We kissed.
Fuck talking.
I had the sweet lips of the mountain man against mine. The fire snapping and crackling in the background. His left hand gently tugging at the bed sheet wrapped around me, opening it, leaving me exposed. That same hand slowly running down my body, stopping between my legs. I showed him then there was more than one fire burning.
In a matter of a few seconds I was on top of him, fighting to unzip his jeans, needing him to love me again.
And he did.
Three more times that night…
31
Not As Family
(LARA)
The last thing I remembered was Osiris carrying me to bed. The darkness and quietness of the cabin, my body raging after his having me over and over and over. I felt paralyzed but in the greatest way possible.
I woke the next morning with a sense of happiness flowing through me.
I got dressed and found Syi in the kitchen, cooking me breakfast. Something I could totally get used to.
My phone had been going crazy all night with texts from Kim, Calvin, Cindy, and even Percy. They were all wondering where I was. Wanting to talk. I guess my news of quitting was shaking up the small business flower world.
I laughed and snorted.
“Good text?” Osiris asked me.
“Nah. Just my thoughts. I need to get in touch with Calvin and Cindy today. Finalize that I’m actually quitting.”
“You’re sure about it?”
“Definitely,” I said. “Time for something new.”
“That’s not always a bad thing,” he said.
He made me a plate of bacon and eggs. I made a mental note that I would have to eventually introduce this mountain man to this thing called fruit. Maybe a banana to offset the grease. Or some pineapple. Cantaloupe. Something sweet and juicy for breakfast, too.
Osiris ate faster than I ever saw someone eat breakfast. It was like two giant gulps of air and his plate was empty.
I had barely eaten half a slice of bacon.
He then downed his coffee in one swallow like it was a glass of water.
“Have to get to work today,” he said. “Jerry wants to talk about equipment. About my money.”
“Your money?”
“Yeah. The last job we finished up he tried to give me a bonus. I refused it.”
“Why?”
Osiris grinned. “Sugar, I’m doing okay here. I sold off everything. I told you that. Cabin is paid for. I just send in taxes. Point is, Jerry took the bonus money and wants me to become a partner in the business.”
“That’s great,” I said. “Syi, that’s really great.”
“Is it? Do I want to go back into that?”
I swallowed hard. “Well, at least you have experience now.”
“Yeah, right. Experience.”
He felt silent. He looked uncomfortable.
I touched the roses on the center of the table. “Can’t believe these are still alive.”
“Yeah,” he said. “Got them from a good florist.” He winked.
I laughed. “Sure.”
I finished eating and called Calvin. We agreed to meet at the flower shop in two hours. I got myself ready to drive down the mountain and back into town.
Osiris was on the porch, holding a coffee mug, leaning against a pillar next to the steps. He was lost in space, somewhere in the woods.
I got close to him, loving that I could do that anytime I felt like it.
“What’s on your mind?” I whispered.
“Today.”
“What about?”
“I told Jerry I couldn’t make it.”
“Wow. That doesn’t seem like you.”
“I said I’ll meet him later. I had something to do.”
“What do you have to do, Syi?”
He looked down at me. “I have to go say goodbye.”
I hated breaking apart from Osiris. He insisted he didn’t need me. I respected him and I loved him for it but I so wanted to be there for him. Just in case he needed someone.
But Syi was stubborn.
It had been a long time since I entered through the front door of the flower shop.
And the entire family was there. Calvin and Cindy. Kim and Percy.
For a second, my heart ached a little. I was jealous of them all. Because they shared something I would never have.
“There she is,” Kim said. “The bad ass.”
“In the flesh,” I said.
“Hey, Lara,” Percy said. “Hope you’re not afraid of me now.”
“Why?”
“Because of these…” Percy lifted his arms and flexed. “See these guns? They saved you.”
“Seriously?” I asked.
“More like water guns,” Calvin said.
“Calvin,” Cindy said. “Don’t make fun of our son.”
I laughed. “At least he got lucky that Thad’s afraid of water.”
“Guys are a bunch of pussies,” Kim said.
“My ears,” Cindy said. “My poor ears. I miss when you were kids. Worrying about getting the newest magazine with the cute boy band singers.”
I walked to the counter. “So, I have to say something.”
“Me first,” Calvin said. He grabbed an envelope and tossed it to the counter. “That’s what we owe you.”
“Right. Thanks. That helps. I gave up my apartment yesterday, too.”
“Lara,” Cindy said. “What…”
Calvin waved a hand for a second. “I want you to know that you’re a part of this family. We love you. We care about you. Everything you’ve done here for us. So we’re going to split this meeting into two parts. The first part. Family. Cindy…”
“What are you doing?” Cindy blurted out.
“Mom!” Kim snapped.
“Jeez, Ma,” Percy said. “Don’t yell at her.”
I smiled.
Cindy yelled because she cared.
“I’m starting over,” I said. “I tried too hard with Thad for too long. And look what he did to me. And he’s doing it to someone else. I know I gave up a good job. But you did that, too, when you started this place, right?”
“I was a manager at a restaurant,” Cindy said.
“Still, it was something. So I’m going to start over. Figure it out. No more baggage. I have to stand on my own.”
“See,” Kim said. “I didn’t rub off on her that much. She’s got bigger balls than me.”
“Girls don’t have balls, Kim,” Percy said.
“Aw, that’s so cute,” Kim said. “You could pass eighth grade health class.”
“Eat shit.”
“Percy!�
� Calvin growled.
“Sorry,” he said.
“I love you guys, too,” I said. “Everything you did for me. But I can’t just…” I glanced at Percy. “I can’t just mooch.”
“Well, you’re a daughter to me,” Calvin said. “And I care. I always will care. I will be a pain in your ass, Lara. Now, speaking as the father figure, do you really know what you’re dealing with up on that mountain?”
I felt myself blush. I never had a father give me a serious talk before. No talks about boys, sex, drugs, drinking.
“I get it,” I said. “We’ve gotten close, okay? I know everyone around here thinks Osiris is some freak or whatever…”
“No,” Cindy said. “What happened was really sad. Nobody really talks about it because it’s so horrible. She just vanished. And he stayed up there.”
“Exactly,” I said. “He knows what it’s like. How I feel. I’m not marrying him. I’m not having his mountain man babies. Okay? I found someone that makes me happy. That’s all that should matter.”
“Fair enough,” Calvin said. “Myself and the rest of us want you happy. We’re not here to judge.”
“You just had that crazy night when you met him,” Kim said.
“Which was your fault for pushing Alex on me,” I said.
“Fine. I’ll take the blame.”
“But I love you for it. For caring.”
“Percy, do you have anything to say?” Cindy asked.
“No. Lara is annoying. She’s whiny. She’s not pretty at all.”
“Thanks,” I said.
“He’s in love with you,” Kim said.
“Shut up, Kim,” Percy snapped.
“Hey, here’s a thought,” Calvin said. “Get a real job and your own place, Percy. Then maybe you’ll get someone like Lara.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m far off the market, Percy.”
“Just tell her about buying the shop and leave me alone,” he. retorted
“What?” I asked.
Calvin grinned. “Well, since Percy is an asshole… Fine. We want you to buy the flower shop.”
I looked left to right about fifty times.
They all just stood there in silence.
“Um…”
“Let’s be honest,” Calvin said. “Kim doesn’t want this place.”
