by Lisa Gerkey
“Sure. Yeah. How are they?”
“It’s hard to tell. Dad hides everything from me. He’s glad Paula’s in prison. I think he’s a little sorry he kept Jeff and me in the dark about everything. He didn’t know everything Paula was doing, but he knew a hell of a lot more than he ever shared with anyone. Didn’t want to hurt us.”
“I understand that. Sometimes hearing the truth hurts, but I think it’s easier to handle and deal with everything when you put it all out there. I don’t hate you, Josh. I hate knowing what Staci did, but it wasn’t your fault any more than it was my fault when Jayson drugged me and forced me to do those awful things. If you need forgiveness, I can give it to you. You once told me that we could make our own memories, and that would help us forget the past…”
Chapter Thirty-Four
“Josh”
“Any word on how Lindsey’s doing?” I look up at Maggie as I ask the question when she comes to the table with a steaming pan of meatloaf.
“No. Seems I’m not quite as lucky as your father. I have a few things from my past still to resolve.”
“Isn’t that part also Dad’s past?”
“Son! Not now. We’ve been through enough. We’ll take care of everything else when the time comes. Tell us how you’re doing? How’s the teen center coming along?”
“It’ll be ready to open in a few months.” I eat a few bites before I set my fork down and take a sip of the cola Maggie put beside me. “Kennedy showed up today.”
“Oh, yeah? How did that go? I imagine you had to be pretty happy to see her.”
“She’s at the cabin. I told her I was having dinner with you guys tonight. I guess we’ll talk when I get back.”
Dad gets that look on his face when he wants to say something, or pry a little more into my business. I know his opinion. Just like everyone else, he thinks Kennedy and I belong together.
“What are you scared of, Josh?”
“Me? Dad, I’m not fucking scared of anything!”
“Son, don’t give me that bullshit. It ripped your goddamn heart out when she disappeared. You’re afraid if you take her back you’ll have to go through all that again… Am I right?”
“I gotta go.” I stand up quickly. The chair scoots on the floor when I get up. I’m not angry because of what the old man said. I’m pissed because he’s right.
Everything’s quiet when I walk inside the cabin. The lamp beside the couch is on, but Kennedy isn’t in the living room, or the kitchen. I hear music playing in the bedroom. It’s turned down low. I can’t tell what she’s listening to until I step into the bedroom. I can’t hear the song because I’m too busy looking at the sight in my bed. How many nights have I lain in that very spot and dreamed about her?
She’s asleep, or I guess she is. Her eyes are closed. She’s dressed in only a pair of white cotton panties and a white tank top. I can see her nipples through the thin material. She’s in better shape than before. Her legs are toned with a hint of a suntan glowing on her skin. I close my eyes for a minute and listen…to the song, the words. It’s Chris Young singing Losing Sleep.
I’m taken back to the night Dad and Maggie called me to come to Kentucky. Dad locked Kennedy in my old bedroom. I remember what happened when I opened the door. I planned to talk to her. I thought we needed to talk, but that wasn’t it at all.
I pull my shirt over my head and toss it on the dresser. My belt and jeans land beside my socks and shoes already on the floor. I keep my boxers on…just in case. I start at the foot of the bed. Kennedy squirms a little and stretches her body in a cat-like manner when I take her foot in the palm of my hand. I start kissing a path. “Uh…” She moves a little more. I slowly nip a path over her calf, the side of her thigh. “Um…”
This time I chuckle.
She thrusts her ass out to me, begging for more. I splay my whole hand across one cheek, and I kneed. I trace the lines of her underwear with my fingers. “Josh, touch me…” I slide my finger underneath the center of her panties. She’s so fucking soft and warm, wet. I glide a finger through her folds while I lean down and fill my mouth with her. I kiss and bite her ass while I use my hand to work her body. My cock throbs. I want to move ninety miles an hour, but I take it slow, give her plenty of time to back out.
Unsatisfied with the pace, Kennedy rolls to her back. “Josh, please.”
“I want to take it slow. We should probably…talk…first…”
Kennedy gets up and grabs my shoulders with both hands and pushes until I’m the one lying on the bed, on my back. I put my arms underneath my head and watch as she pulls my cock free. She fondles me and strokes my length a few time and then she works to remove my underwear, and throws them on the floor. She grips me hard with both hands and slides from root to tip.
“Ah, baby. You’re driving me mad.” She darts her tongue out and sweeps it over the head. She’s teasing me. She kisses…she grips me tight, and she fucking plants little kisses all over my dick while she fondles my balls with her other hand.
It’s pure agony, but I can’t take my eyes off her. She looks at me, gazes into my eyes, as she sinks down on me with her hot little mouth. I watch my cock disappear between her sweet lips, and my eyes roll back in my head. I want to put my hands in her hair, guide her, but I don’t want to take this away from her. It’s her show. I want her to remain in charge. I need her to know how much she pleases me.
Kennedy takes me in and out of her mouth a few times, adding a little more suction each time. My hips buck off the bed. I’m so fucking close. “Baby, I can’t…I can’t stop, honey. I’m going to come. Fuck! Holy shit!”
When I’m finally coherent enough to remember what’s going on, I open my eyes and find her looking at me. “Come here.” I take her hand and pull her on top of me. “We need to get you taking care of, and we can’t do that if you’re still wearing clothes.”
“No.”
“No?”
“I want you, Josh, but not yet.” She lifts herself up and kisses me. I pull her closer, pushing my knee between her legs. I invade her mouth, and taste her with my tongue, exploring the depths. Kennedy moans and grinds her lower body against me.
“Stop! We need to talk. I want this, I do. You have no idea how much I want this with you again. I need to know I’m not going to leave here with a broken heart first. It’s bad enough no matter what, but if we make love, it’ll just make it harder.”
“You just made love to my cock with your mouth, baby…”
“Yeah, I thought…You once said we could kill the old memories with new ones. I thought maybe that would help you forget about those awful things you saw. I’m sorry.”
“Kennedy, when I’m looking at you, I don’t think about anything but how damn much I love you.”
“Even now? After everything. After I left the hotel room when you told me not to? You’re right, you know? If would’ve listened…we wouldn’t have spent all this time apart. It’s my fault.”
I slide out of bed and put my boxers on. “Jaycee says you’re going to school again?”
“You talked to Jaycee?”
“Yeah, she didn’t tell you? We’ve talked a few times. In the beginning, I wasn’t ready, but then when I thought it might be time to talk things out with you, it seemed like you were doing really well. I didn’t want to spoil anything for you. I thought if you were happy…”
“I haven’t been happy, Josh. You crushed me. I thought when I got there in time and stopped the wedding, I thought we’d pick up where we left off, but you didn’t want anything to do with me. You couldn’t even look at me. You hated me.”
“No. No, I could never hate you. I hated myself, Kennedy. I was supposed to keep you safe, protect you. Look at all the hell I’ve caused for you. Jeff’s birthday…I’m sorry. I’ll never forgive myself for how I treated you.”
“I’m tired. I have a suitcase in the jeep. I’ll go get it. I need to take a bath.”
“Take a bath. I’ll go get your things out of the jeep
.” I pull my jeans on and slip my feet into my shoes.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Kennedy
I adjust the water temperature, and then I strip off my panties and tank top. I’m just about to step in the shower when I hear the bathroom door close.
“I got your luggage, sweetheart, but I gotta say—I think you’ll do just fine without the clothes.”
“Josh! Give me some privacy.” I cross my arms over my chest. I don’t know why I’m suddenly so shy. Only moments ago in the bedroom, I was trying to run the whole show with him. It’s not like he hasn’t seen it all before.
The shield I wore before has all been stripped away. There is no pretending, no lying, or try to hide things. It’s just me. Kennedy. It’s hard to stand still and face him.
“Baby, don’t hide. Spread your wings for me, angel. I’ve waited a long time to see this.”
“See what?”
“Your halo, baby girl, it’s shining again. You know how proud it makes me seeing you like this? You’re not the broken I girl I found before.”
I drop my arms. Tears spring to my eyes and stream down my face.
I step back into the hot water without looking away. Josh strips his jeans and underwear off. He looks like he stepped from a sexy male magazine. Water runs down his chest. I follow the path with my eyes as it streams over his muscled abs and then further down to where his manhood juts proudly.
“Let me wash you.”
Wash me? He wants bathe me, and all I can think about is him crawling inside me. The spot he fills me so wholly has been empty and aching far too long. I need him so much. That’s why I came here…back to Kentucky. I thought I could end the agony.
He pulls me to him. Our bodies are slick and wet. He kisses me gently. Wetness pools between my thighs with the simplest contact. He nips lightly on my lips before he plunges in to explore me, and I taste him. I inhale sharply to breathe him in.
He pulls back and looks at me. “I want to touch every single inch of your beautiful body. Let me wash away every touch you’ve ever had before mine. I want to make love to you tonight. I want to make you mine.”
“I’ve been yours for a while, Josh.”
“You really mean that?” His eyes gaze into mine intently.
“With all my heart. I love you. I remember my mama once told me; when I meet a boy who I dream about all night, every night, and I can’t eat or sleep, and every moment in between is consumed with thoughts of him, that’s when I know he’s the one. You’re him, Josh. You are the man Mama told me I’d meet one day. You’re the other half of me. I can’t live without you, Josh. I won’t ever be a whole person if I don’t have you to share my life with. I love you so much.”
He walks me back until my legs hit the bench in the shower. “Sit.”
I start to argue, but I sit down. He goes over to change the shower’s settings and takes down the handheld showerhead and grabs the body wash, shampoo, and a…razor.
“Josh! What are you doing?”
“Hush. I want to take care of you. This is for me, too, Kennedy. I need this. After all the days I’ve been away from you, I need to feel close to you again. I love you, too, baby girl. You’re my angel. I don’t ever want to be without you again.”
“You can put your penis in my vagina if you want to be close to me, Josh, but you will not shave me. That’s just…just…it’s…I don’t know. I won’t let you do it.”
Josh throws his head back and chuckles. His sound is contagious, and I laugh with him.
“Babe, you can’t talk dirty for shit, you know that? Put my penis in your vagina?” He turns me around to straddle the bench. He copies my position, opposite me, and lifts my left foot to sit between us with my knee bent. I lean back and grip the edges to keep from sliding off.
He looks at me…there. “I think what you meant to say is, I can thrust my hard cock into your sweet, warm pussy and fuck you until you scream my name, until you agree to be mine, agree this pussy belongs to me and never to anyone else. Isn’t that what you wanted to say?”
He creates a thick foamy lather on my leg, and then he picks the razor up. When Josh glides the blade, carefully over my skin, it sends a current through my body that ends between my legs. He finishes the left leg then pulls my right leg up to repeat the process.
When he takes the last swipe with the razor, I plead with him. “Hurry up, Josh.”
Where is his patience coming from? He’s hard as a rock. He’s gripped his cock a time or two and stroked his hand up and down. I’m not sure if it’s for him, or if he’s teasing me. I can’t handle much more before I combust.
“I can’t take it anymore. I need you…so badly, Josh. Why are you teasing me? You’re hard. I know you want me, too. Please.”
“You can wait a little longer. Lie back.”
Oh god, yes, I think. He has plans to do something; use his fingers, his mouth, or fuck me upside down and sideways. I don’t care how he does it.
I hear a lid close, and then I feel the coolness between my legs and his palm is there, rubbing. I thrash my hips around to find the friction I need.
My eyes pop open when I realize what he’s doing. “Stop!”
Josh looks up from between my legs and smirks.
“Is this ‘stop, I’m embarrassed,’ or ‘red’ because it’s a hard limit? You’ve let my pussy go, baby, and we can’t have that.” He slides the razor down one side. “I like you bare. You know why I like you that way? You can feel every little thing I do, every stroke of my finger on your soft, intimate skin.” To demonstrate what he means, he moves his finger over my slit from bottom to top, lightly touching me. It’s nowhere near enough. “Lay back and be good. When I’m finished, I’ll show you what I’m talking about; unless you really want to stop, of course. We can finish our shower, and go to sleep now if you’d like.”
“No! Don’t stop!”
A few more strokes with the razor and he’s done. He uses the showerhead to clean away the leftover soap. I nearly come on the spot when the water hits me. He moves his fingers down and circles my opening. I feel one finger dip in just barely, and then he rubs circles around my clit, up and down, side to side.
“I want to taste you. I need to get my mouth on you. Let’s dry off and go to bed.”
We rub the towels over our bodies hastily and hurry to the bedroom. Josh gets on the bed and lies on his back. “Climb up, baby.” I let him guide me to straddle his body. Eager to get things moving faster, I reach for his cock. “Not yet. I know you’re in a hurry to finish, but just another minute.”
He uses his strong muscled arms to position me right where he wants me. I’m a little uneasy, but I remind myself I survived what he just did in the shower. Anything else should be a piece of cake. He shifts me until I hover over his face, my pussy only inches away from his tantalizing mouth. I grab hold of the headboard and look down at him. “Josh, I’ve never done this before. It feels…”
The words die on my tongue when he licks a path from back to front and flicks his tongue against my clit. He does it again. And again. My legs shake. He does the same thing repeatedly. Finally, he pulls my clit between his lips and sucks. I scream out as my orgasm comes full circle, panting and breathless.
I flop down on my back beside him. My body’s still reeling and oversensitive from what he just did. “Will it always be like this?”
“Nah, that was tame compared to the way it’ll be most of the time. Tell me you’re ready to feel me inside you, sweetheart.”
“I was born ready for you, Josh. It just took one hell of a ride to get here. Please. I need to feel you, too.”
Josh moves over me and settles between my legs. We both reach with urgency at the same time. I wrap my fingers around his cock and guide him to my pussy. He barely breaches me before he stops. “I need to get a condom. Hang on.”
“Birth control is covered. We’re good. Please. Nothing between us, Josh. Just us.”
He takes my breath away when he thrusts his
hips forward, filling me completely. “Just us, baby!” He pulls out and shoots forward again. We both pant and grunt sounds of pleasure, as he kisses down the side of my neck. I lift my hips to meet him every time. Thrust after thrust. It builds quickly. Even though I just had an orgasm, I’m on the verge of exploding. I wrap my arms around Josh’s shoulders and hold tight.
“I’m almost there. Josh!”
“Now, baby girl! Come with me.”
Josh slams into me harder than ever before and grinds against me, so I explode right along with him.
Epilogue
Josh
“Your grandpa turned it all over to you, huh?” Josh and I walk, hand in hand.
“He did. It was up to him. After everything Paula put us through, he didn’t find it necessary to wait until I’m married…and have a son.
Speaking of son, I want to ask Josh how things are going in Nashville. I hear him talking to Jeff about things. The great mystery surrounding Staci’s baby, and who the father is, finally is coming to light. Gave us all a rather large surprised when we found out Jonathan Masters was the one. Now I understand what Grant meant that day in the hotel when he told me Staci had other company at The Grind.
“Do you want kids?”
“One day. I wouldn’t mind a couple, or…four. I’d like to enjoy the two of us a while first. Wait! You’re not…?”
“No! I’m not pregnant. I haven’t convinced myself I can be a good mother. Maybe someday… I like the idea of it being just us for a while. We need a little time to get everything off the ground and running.
I look out at the big building that stands where the church used to be. The church and the house where Matthew Reynolds lived, no longer exist on the property. Too many horrible things happened. Josh fell in love with the land. He couldn’t let it go. He decided to turn it into a way to help other people.
“It won’t be long until the grand opening. The new counselors got settled in their offices yesterday. I hope we can do some good here. If we can help just one, or ten troubled teenagers, it’s that many we keep off the streets.”
