by Amy Brent
It was a dream. I had dreamed of Marcie in the house. I rubbed at my eyes as a wave of emotions crashed over me. I didn’t want Amber to see the tears lingering in my eyes.
“No,” I said. “I just laid back down.”
“Your skin is scorching hot,” Amber said, concern thick in her voice. “I think your fever is making you a bit delirious. Let me get you something to eat before taking anymore medicine.”
I rolled onto my back when I felt her stand up from the couch. The sunlight streaming in through the living room windows was almost too bright. Chills wracked my body.
“What time is it?” I asked.
“It’s almost one o’clock in the afternoon,” Amber replied, her voice distant in the kitchen. “I just got Ethan down for a nap. I’ll make you some soup to eat with your medicine.”
I drifted back into a feverish haze while listening to Amber move about the kitchen. She returned a few minutes later with a small cup of chicken noodle soup and a few liquid Nyquil tablets.
“Here,” she said, handing the tablets over. “Take these. This should help with the cold. Make sure to eat some soup.”
I sipped at the soup while Amber took a seat on the coffee table across from me. She watched me with a concerned frown until I handed the empty cup back to her.
“Thank you,” I said and resisted the urge to reach out to touch her. My heart swelled with gratitude. “It’s nice having you here. I’d be relying on Aunt Ray in town to take Lily to school. You’re a much better nurse than her.”
The corner of Amber’s lips curved up at that. “I’m glad that I’m the better nurse, but you’ve been an easy patient. Get some sleep. I’ll make sure to get Lily home from school.”
The next few days passed by me in a surreal blur of cold medicine and endless sleep. I woke to bright afternoon light coming in through my bedroom window after what felt like an eternity of feeling like shit. The aches in my body were nearly gone, just a dull throbbing now. I felt lucid, despite not knowing what time it was, or even what day it was now.
I stared up at the ceiling in my room while I tried to gather my wits. The house was quiet. I didn’t pick up any sound of the kids playing down the hallway. The heater kicked on as I pushed back the sheets with a groan. My stomach grumbled hungrily as I padded across my bedroom to the door to the bathroom. Slipping out of my clothes, I stepped into the shower when I realized several things all at once. The shower was already on, steaming hot, and my bare hip bumped into what felt like warm and wet flesh.
I nearly slipped on the slick tiles when I whirled around to find Amber backing up against the tiles. Her eyes were wide with shock while her hands were frantically trying to cover herself up. Not before my eyes betrayed me, though, by taking in those perfect tits, smooth skin, and that delicate curve of her pelvis as it dipped down between her legs.
All the blood drained out of my body. Do it! Just do it! That dark part of me screamed to take advantage of the situation in front of me. But I forced myself out of the shower to grab a towel, slamming the shower door shut behind myself.
“I’m sorry,” I said, massaging my temples in aggravation. Why the fuck didn’t I see that the shower was on? I told her to use this bathroom. “I forget that you were using this bathroom. I’m not fully conscious of anything at the moment.”
“It’s fine,” Amber said, her voice tight with tension. “Do you mind?”
I grabbed the door quickly to leave the steamy bathroom to enter the privacy of my room. For good measure, I locked the bathroom from the inside before shutting the door. To give Amber privacy. To keep me away from the temptation of going straight back in there.
The slickness of her thighs burned the back of my mind. I could just imagine having those wrapped around my hips while backing Amber up into the shower stall to thrust my aching cock into her. I let the towel fall away to cool my heated body. I couldn’t do this, not to Amber. Not after everything she had been through over the past few years. Nothing could happen between us. Beau had entrusted me with Amber’s well-being, but I had waltzed into the bathroom with her naked in the shower.
I shook my head at myself as shame flooded me. My cock was hard when I thought of those taut pink nipples I had caught a brief glimpse of before Amber covered them with an arm. She was perfect. There was no denying that.
It took a long few minutes before I managed to calm my body back down. Amber had since turned the shower off and closed the bathroom door. I could hear her walking about in the guest room before her footsteps retreated down the hallway.
“Cold shower,” I told myself, gathering my clothes to go down to the guest bathroom. “Just take a cold shower, Gage. No heat.”
The cold spray didn’t even ease the tension. Frustrated, I dressed in the bathroom because I wasn’t going to slip there. I refused to pleasure myself to the thought of Amber in the shower. I wouldn’t stoop that low, getting off to the image of my best friend’s daughter. Even if she was an adult capable of making decisions for herself.
I found Amber stirring something in the crockpot when I entered the kitchen. She glanced over her shoulder at me. It was impossible to read the emotions in her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I wasn’t thinking about it when I got in. Just a habit, you know?”
Amber placed the lid back down on the crockpot with an embarrassed laugh. “Why don’t we just forget it happened, okay?”
“Okay. I locked the bathroom door so it won’t happen.”
“That’s not necessary, Gage. You’re still getting over being sick. You’ve been in a coma pretty much all week. You didn’t know where your head was at.”
Oh, I knew where my head was at. It was still stuck in the past, stuck in that shower with a naked Amber in there. I couldn’t get rid of the image. It was burning brightly in my memories as I found my gaze floating over her now-clothed body.
“You should get Lily from school,” Amber said. “Ethan laid down for a late nap, and I don’t want to wake him up just yet. If you’re up to the drive—”
“I’m up for the drive,” I interrupted, glad to have some distance. I grabbed my wallet and car keys from the kitchen counter. “I’ll be back in a little bit.”
The windy mountains roads were slushy as I drove down to the city. I picked up Lily from inside the school, stopping to grab her a snack at the store before we went back up to the house. I found myself torn between wanting to go fast, to make sure that Amber hadn’t fled out of fright, and wanting to go slow to give her the chance to leave.
How would I explain it to Beau if she did leave?
I smoothed a hand through my hair at the question. I had no answer to it.
“Dad?”
“What?”
“You’re not listening,” Lily said impatiently. “The teacher gave me all my homework for next week. She said we’re going to get at least two feet of snow.”
“That’s a lot,” I remarked absently. “We’ll make sure to get everything we need for the next week then.”
We spent the next two hours at Wal-Mart, getting supplies and groceries for the week. I welcomed Lily’s company because she could always snap me out of my thoughts and moods. My heart was pounding when I pulled up the driveway to find that the living room lights were still on. Smoke curled from the top of the chimney, and I could see Ethan bouncing around on the couch through the living room windows.
While Lily darted up the porch steps, I gathered the bags that I could carry into the house in one trip. I stopped in surprise when Amber came down, slipping into her snow coat. She smiled at me, despite the trace of unease in her eyes.
“Let me help you,” she said, taking a couple of bags. “I didn’t realize that you were stopping before coming back.”
“A last-minute trip,” I said.
We carried the bags into the house. It wasn’t until a few hours later, after the kids had finally gone to sleep, that I couldn’t stand it any longer. Having the kids bouncing around the house was a distraction from my ac
hing cock, but I couldn’t bear it anymore. Not with Amber smiling over at me from across the dining room table. Not with that image of her naked in the shower still replaying in my mind.
I wished Amber a quick good night before going up the stairs to my room. I’m just a man. What did I expect? I unzipped my pants to stroke myself with a low and muffled groan. I was helpless against what my body needed. I just wanted to bury myself between those toned legs and to feel her wet flesh in the palm of my hands. I could hear her moans in my ears as her hands rested on my hips, guiding my frantic thrusts into her body.
My release came down hard. I sagged over into the bed in relief, sucking in deep breaths to calm my racing heart. That was when shame flooded through the haze of pleasure. I had done it. I had gone to the one place I had vowed not to do, but I couldn’t resist it any longer.
I had no how idea how much longer I could last with Amber in the house.
Chapter 12
Amber
Gage Devlin had been naked in the shower with me. Even better than that? I had gotten a glimpse of how well-equipped he was in the downstairs department. There was no doubt in my head now that having sex with Gage would be the best I’ve ever known. He’d blow Scott out of the water. He already did in so many ways.
It had been hard, though, to hear him call out for Marcie in the depths of his fever. I had caught sight of those tears in his eyes when he realized it was me, not his late wife. I refused to let it sting too much. Both of us were grieving our relationships in different ways. I had only been with Scott for three years before our marriage came crashing down. Gage had been with Marcie for nearly eleven years, if I counted right. It was natural for the both of us to be carrying this sort of emotional baggage around. Our kids carried it around, too.
My heart clenched, thinking of Lily throughout the week. She had lost interest in girl’s clothes since her mother’s death, but she had made camp in the center of my guest room while looking through my bag of makeup. It instantly reminded me of the times I would watch my mother doll up for the day, and my heart swelled with a new grief, thinking of how Lily no longer had that connection. Until now.
The sound of the sliding glass doors opening drew me out of my thoughts. I twisted around from where I was seated on the couch, wrapped up in a thick blanket with a book in my lap. Gage carried in the fourth box of chopped wood from outside. He set the box down on the bricks around the fireplace with a sigh.
“A foot of snow is being forecasted tonight,” Gage said, slipping his gloves off. The tip of his nose was red from the cold. “If we need any more wood to keep warm, I’ll grab some throughout the night.”
I closed my book to set it on the coffee table. “Do you think we will lose power up here?”
“Yes,” he replied simply. “It happens more than you think.” He caught sight of the panic spreading through me. “Don’t worry. I have a generator to run the house if we really need to. The fireplaces in here tend to keep us pretty cozy. We’ll just have to sleep down here with candle lights.”
“Even the furnace won’t be on?” I asked anxiously. The thought of being snowed in with Gage wasn’t entirely a bad prospect. It was the freezing my ass off in the middle of the night that didn’t sound pleasant. Temperatures in Montana had a tendency to drop into the negative digits, even more than Colorado.
Gage frowned at me. “Most likely, no. I can run the generator enough to keep the furnace going. Will that be better?”
“If it isn’t a problem,” I started, but Gage shook his head at me.
He tossed a large log into the already smoldering fire before heading down in the direction of the basement. I picked at the corner of my book while gazing out the windows. The sky was already covered in thick grey clouds. Upstairs, I could hear Lily and Ethan playing in her room. They were excited for another few days of snow. It meant that Lily didn’t have to go to school if the roads were too treacherous and slick to drive on.
I listened to Ethan’s bubbly voice as he played along with Lily. All traces from the nightmare last night was gone. He had woken up as usual with a bright smile, but I saw it lingering in his eyes the same way my dreams haunted me. His screams had stirred me out of my own nightmare about Scott. It had felt so real. I could smell his breath and the wet spit in my face. I could feel the heat of his hands on my arms, and the pain of his fingers digging into my skin. No matter what I did anymore, or how far I ran, Scott still managed to find a way back into my life to haunt me.
In three weeks, we had a custody hearing in front of a judge. Neither one of us was willing to mediate when it came to Ethan, so we bypassed mediation to go to court in front of a judge. A part of me wondered if Scott had shown up to my parents’ home, searching for me since he knew that they were gone.
Just yesterday, I had turned the TV on to let Ethan see my father on the screen as he left a congressional meeting with his fellow peers. Scott kept track of things like that, but my phone remained silent. No one called to warn me that he was on his way up to Montana.
I rubbed at my aching head. For days, I had popped Vitamin C to keep from getting Gage’s cold. I didn’t want to go delirious with a fever. There was no telling what sort of secrets would come spilling out of my mouth. My fantasy about finishing that shower with Gage in there with me, for example.
I still couldn’t erase those images of his taut and well-muscled ass cheeks when he stepped in the shower, bumping into me with a hip. He was all hard lines and coiled muscles beneath his thick skin from years of being out in the wilderness. Water had trailed down through the patch of chest hair and past a flat and toned stomach, before disappearing into the thick curl of hair between his legs.
My core ached thinking of it. He was just pure masculinity, a real man who could take care of himself without any help from modern day accommodations. If the world ended tomorrow, I knew without a doubt that Ethan and I would be safe under Gage’s watch.
“Here,” he said.
I looked up in surprise to find Gage setting a cup of hot cocoa on the coffee table next to my book.
“For you,” he said. “You look like you need a pick me up.”
The thoughtfulness touched a part of me. I smiled up at him in appreciation as he disappeared once again to get ready for the incoming snowstorm. Picking up the mug, I studied the generous amount of whipped cream on the top with a sprinkle of what seemed to be cinnamon and nutmeg. I took a sip with a sigh of pleasure.
Everything about Gage was drastically different from Scott. There were little things that Gage did throughout the day that spoke of genuine compassion and care. Bringing me a cup of hot cocoa was one of those gestures that brought tears to my eyes because I couldn’t remember the last time anyone ever made me feel cared for like this. Scott had never bothered to keep up his charade of being a chivalrous gentleman after our marriage vows. We were already married. He had me, and he didn’t believe that I would ever leave.
A cold chill went up my spine when I had gone through our house in a hurry to grab only my clothes and Ethan’s things. Those white walls had become my prison. There was no warmth in that house, only dark shadows and cold temperatures because Scott refused to pay for a high furnace bill.
Now, I was seated in front of a blazing fire with Ethan and Lily’s laughter echoing from upstairs. It still felt surreal to be here with Gage, going about our lives like we were meant to be together. The perfect sense of domestic bliss. That was the best way I could describe it.
The shrill sound of the phone ringing from the kitchen cut through the warm and comfortable haze. I got up, knowing that Gage couldn’t hear it from the basement, and picked up the landline.
“Gage Devlin’s house,” I said formally.
“Hi, honey. It’s Mom. Is that how Gage really wants you to answer the phone now?”
I smiled at the warm-hearted jest. “No. I just do it out of courtesy since his work does call the landline if they can’t get through to him on his cell phone.”
; “Cell service must be down then. I tried calling your phone.”
“There’s a snowstorm heading in,” I replied, looking out the window. “It’s going to dump a couple feet of snow here. What are you doing?”
“Enjoying breakfast with a few friends here. It’s sunny and warm out right now. I’m enjoying a dress at the moment.”
“Way to rub it in,” I said, sitting back down on the couch. “I’m assuming you are calling here for a reason?”
“I wanted to let you know that I’ll be back in two weeks. I’m going to arrange for security to come get you from Gage’s house. We can have a proper mother-daughter chat then.”
“You mean that you’re going to lecture me, right?”
“I wouldn’t say lecture. I’ll be in touch, dear. I have to go. I love you, sweetheart. I hope that you and Ethan are doing okay there. It’s so kind of Gage to take you and Ethan in for us.”
“Yeah,” I said thickly. “He’s been very good to us by taking us in. Everything’s fine here. Don’t worry about us.”
“I’m your mother. I’m always going to worry about you.”
I hung the phone back up. My stomach twisted into uneasy knots. I doubted that my mom would feel so appreciative of Gage’s help if she knew how much I desired him. Just the suggestion of it would give her a heart attack.
“Mommy,” Ethan called out, running into the kitchen to wrap his arms around my legs. “Can we go outside to watch the snow when it comes down?”
I smoothed back his hair to look up as Lily came into the kitchen, too, with Gage right behind them. He shrugged his shoulders when I looked up at him.
“Sure,” I said. “Only for a little bit, though. I don’t want any of us getting sick when are snowed in.”
The air was heavy with the promise of snow when we stepped outside. I watched as Lily and Ethan scooped up snow, still frozen and cold from the last snowfall, to throw at one another.
“Wait for it,” Gage whispered into my ear, his shoulder brushing against mine as he looked up at the sky. “It’ll start off as a trickle before it really comes down.”
