by Gayle Riley
“Oh, this and that,” she said mysteriously, though I noticed a twinge of discomfort at the question. “I’ve been overseas most of the time, in Italy. There is some good wine and beautiful countryside, but it’s not all it’s cracked up to be, to be honest.” Aria looked incredibly uncomfortable talking about it for so reason. So, I decided to be her savior and change the subject.
“Who’s up for a game of football!” I called out, getting cheers of approval from my father and some of my cousins. Richard looked at me, and I saw that competitive edge in his baby blue eyes. The game was on.
Chapter 3
***Aria***
I planted a pretty smile on my face the same way I had been doing for years now. Ever since I left Manhattan, things had gone downhill for me more than anyone realized. I had kept my issues a secret and isolated myself for so long, but watching those two boys…no…men, wrestle over the football in a display equal to marking their territory of me, made me regret my six-year absence.
I laughed as Richard and Aaron made asses of themselves, trying to impress me in a game of football in their backyard, the Giants game running in the background. Seeing the two of them at their parents’ house brought back a flood of memories that I had suppressed for a long time while I pursued a man I wished I had never met. Now, I felt free to let my heart remember how I felt for these two again, and it was just as fulfilling and heartbreaking as before. I had learned nothing in my years of growing up and growing older. I still had a crush on the both of them, unable to decide on just one.
However, it seemed to be even harder now, as the two were more evenly matched. Richard had always been my best friend and confidant, and he had even been my first kiss. But he had never been popular or sexy before. He was just a sweet little boy wanting acceptance as much as I did. But now that I saw how he had changed, I could see he had grown into his looks, rivaling Aaron’s obvious manly profile with his own perfected and soft one with a thin but defined chest and well coifed blonde hair. He could easily be a male model.
Aaron looked the same as he always had, not even aging a day. His killer football body was still there, and he was just as cheeky as I remembered. How had I wasted all my time away across the ocean with a monster, instead of being right here at home to grow up with these two? I was thrilled to finally be back, and I hoped the winds were going to change for me now.
“What if I want to play?” I called out as Aaron did his own version of the end zone dance after making a touchdown. It didn’t matter that I was wearing a dress, I wasn’t the type of girl to sit on the sidelines. I think that was why I got along so well with them. I wasn’t afraid to have fun or get dirty.
“Are you sure you can handle us?” Aaron asked with the raise of an eyebrow. I was certain there was an innuendo in there as I walked up to him and took the ball. I wasn’t a little girl anymore, and I wasn’t afraid of what either of them had to offer, even if I had been through hell and back.
“I can certainly handle all you’ve got for me,” I answered, looking at them both. I met Richard’s blue eyes with my amber ones, and I could see he was reading behind the lines. He had always been the smart one.
“Alright, then we aren’t going to go easy on you,” Richard quipped.
“I don’t expect you to,” I told them, getting ready to run with the ball.
I took off toward the fence, pulling in my side as the boys tried to grab me. I felt ten years younger as they chased me down the yard in my flip flops, still able to outrun them. That was, until Aaron caught up with me just before I crossed the imaginary line that would give me a touchdown. He grabbed my arm and pulled me down into the grass, and Richard joined in the tackle. It was like any scene from when we were kids, other than the effect it had on me. I couldn’t escape the image of the three of us like that, entangled together in a bed somewhere, me not having to choose which one could touch my body. I wanted to know them both even more intimately than I already did.
I stood up and brushed off my dress, startled out of my thoughts when I heard an elated cheer coming from just inside the house. Something must have been happening in the game.
We all went inside the door to see, and Aaron was immediately entranced by the way the Giants were suddenly winning the thing, stomping on the Packers’ defense. I watched his reactions with a smile on my face when I felt a hand touch mine. Looking behind me, I saw that Richard was there, looking at me instead of the television. I felt the sudden need to sit on his bed and just talk the way we used to. Aaron was the type of guy I could make out with all day long, but I could tell Richard anything. That was just as priceless.
I checked to see that Aaron didn’t notice before I snuck Richard up the stairs and into his old bedroom, which was surprisingly unchanged, shutting the door quietly behind us.
Chapter 4
***Richard***
Aria giggled as she climbed up into my bed, and I felt like a teenager once again, just hoping to land my first kiss with the girl I had been crushing on for years. She leaned up against my headboard and sighed, looking so much like she belonged there. If only I could reach out and capture the moment forever.
Aria reached out and grabbed my hand. “Isn’t this nice, being back in here?” she asked, looking around the room. Mine and Aaron’s rooms were about the only things that had not changed at our parent’ house since we left. It was like they kept them as they were just in case we shrank back into children and moved back in. But in this moment, I was glad for it. There were so many memories in that room. Aria and I used to sit there and gossip for hours.
“It is. There are a lot of memories in here,” I told her, looking over at her glowing face. Her heart-shaped visage and amber eyes looked like she was still the sweet, unsure twenty-year-old I last saw before she left town for what I was afraid was for good. But her body, and I assumed, her mind, had gone through a lot of changes.
“I know, we had our first kiss in here,” she said quietly, looking over into my eyes for the first time since she had brought me up into my old bedroom. She leaned her forehead into mine, and I thought for a moment she might kiss me, but she grabbed my hand instead. “I can’t believe I used to think you were gay!” We both got a laugh out of that. The night I kissed her for the first time she had mentioned that’s what she had thought.
I caressed her arms with my thumb, and we sat there in a happy silence, but I could tell something was weighing on her mind. It was the real reason why she brought me up there. It was probably the reason I had been the first one she called. “You’ve always been so easy to talk to,” she whispered at the ceiling. “I just don’t know how to say what I need to say.”
“You can tell me anything, Aria. I know I look different, and I have a lot of money now, but I’m still just me.” Aria let her head drop to my shoulder, and I felt like I was as close to heaven as I had ever been. If only I could get more from her; claim her as mine.
“I have to tell somebody why I’m back here,” she said. I was all ears at that point. “I’d love to tell you or Aaron that it has to do with you, and in a way, it does, but only because you make me feel safe.”
“Aria, I’m glad you feel safe here, but why wouldn’t you?” I had a bad feeling about what she might reveal. I knew little about the time just before she decided to leave Manhattan beyond the fact that she had just lost her mother to cancer and met a guy that she was moving maybe a little too fast with.
“The man that I left with, his name was Chad. He was a lot older than me, and he introduced me to this whole new world of sexual desire and complete domination. I was his sub, and it was a pleasure like I’ve never known. But then he started breaking through boundaries. He took away safe words. He would lock me up in a cage. He would beat me. Things got worse when he ended up in Iraq for a year with the National Guard. He came back different. There was no more pleasure; just pain. I came here to get away from him. I left in the middle of the night with cash I’d been stashing up little by little over months. I thou
ght I’d never make it back here alive.”
Aria had tears in her eyes at this point, and I was shocked by what she was telling me. I couldn’t imagine having Aria in my arms every day and choosing to treat her that way. I wanted to hold her tight and let her know I would never do that, and I would never let anyone else do that either.
I pulled her close, wrapping my hands around her back and waste. Her body was so soft and warm. “I wish I would have known; that you could have called me to get you out of that. I want to let you know, as a dom myself, that that is not what we’re like. That is not acceptable, and had he been a part of the community here in Manhattan with Aaron and me, he would have never gotten away with treating anyone that way.”
She looked up at me, and I could see two things behind her eyes; fear and longing. Every fantasy I’d ever had about Aria ran through my head at that moment, and I wondered if they just might be possible. She was my ultimate sub; sweet, beautiful, and broken. I liked to build women up, and this was a woman I could see myself building up for the rest of my life.
“You and Aaron, you’re doms?” she asked through her drying tears.
I nodded. “But we aren’t like that. We treat women with respect. I swear to you I would never do anything like that to anyone, especially to you.” I kissed her forehead, and that seemed to calm her down.
“Do you have a sub, Richard?” she asked. I shook my head. I actually didn’t, and with her back in town, I was glad I didn’t. “Good.”
Chapter 5
***Aaron***
I pulled up to Aria’s house in my silver Miata, hoping to make an entrance. I knew for a fact my brother had her alone to himself at the football party. I just hoped he hadn’t cast his spell on her yet because I was about to do whatever it took to make her mine. I just couldn’t handle it if I left this house today without some kind of validation form her that the sparks we had years ago were still there.
I rang the doorbell and ran my finger through my slicked hair. I had gone all out for this one, wearing my expensive pheromone cologne for her and my tightest shirt and pair of jeans. I even put on a belt just in case we would need it a little later.
As she opened the door, I leaned on the doorframe seductively. She smiled as soon as she saw me, and I felt my shaft instantly come to life in my pants as I looked over her tank top and shorts getup. Just the thought of finally getting to see everything that was under there made my mouth water.
“Aaron, what are you doing here?” she asked, looking at me suspiciously. Aria was one smart cookie. She probably already knew what I was up to. I could only hope she liked the idea.
“I just thought I’d stop by to catch up a bit. If you haven’t had dinner already, maybe we can order in?” Aria opened the door all the way, letting me in.
It was the only opening I needed. I knew once I got started, she wasn’t going to be able to resist me. I had seen the way she looked at Richard and me when she was at our parents’ house. All I had to do was be the most convincing of the two. I was pretty sure my body could handle that all for me.
Aria handed me the menus she kept in a kitchen cabinet so I could look through them to order something, but in truth, what I was hungry for I couldn’t get over the phone.
“So, where’s your dad?” I asked her, trying to drop a hint while also being polite. He had always been an intimidating guy, at least up until he lost his wife.
“He travels a lot for business now,” she explained, looking over my shoulder at the menu I was holding. “He hasn’t really liked staying in one place since…you know.” Her mother’s death had hit her hard, and she clearly had a hard time talking about it still. They had been so close when she was younger.
“I’m sorry that kind of leaves you here alone. Maybe I should make this visit a regular thing.” I winked at her, trying to make light of the mood, but I could see she was still affected by the mention of her mother. Aria tried to smile at me, but it didn’t quite reach her eyes.
I placed my hand on her thigh and felt her tense up. It was meant to be a gesture of sympathy and comfort, but it seemed she was taking it as more. I took advantage, putting down the menu and pulling her into my lap on the couch. Her lack of protest let me know she was into it. So, I began massaging her back and neck with my muscular hands. No woman could resist my touch like that.
Aria’s head drooped as she relaxed, and her long, black hair tickled my knees as it hung over the front of her shoulders. She began to moan in response to my massage as I moved further down her spine, eventually pulling her shirt off to get a better grasp on her skin. I took her reaction as encouragement, kissing up and down her spine and moving my massage to encompass her succulent breasts, warming them with my gentle touch and tweaking her nipples until they swelled with pleasure.
I decided to try an order out on her, just to see if she would comply. I leaned in and whispered in her ear. “I want you to use your ass to get me off, Aria.” My whisper had authority, and after a slight pause, she began to rock back and forth on my now rock hard protrusion. Aria went slow and then fast and slow again, giving me an expert lap dance without any need for a musical accompaniment. I closed my eyes and leaned back as she worked her body over me, finally making me release into my boxers with a sigh.
“Kiss me, Aria,” I told her, and she turned around to straddle me, placing her lips on mine and snaking her tongue into my mouth. It was a magically sensual kiss, and I was sure I had won her at this point. But as she stood up and put her shirt back on, something seemed off that I didn’t expect. She didn’t kick me out of her house, but she immediately changed the subject, grabbing the menu from where it had ended up on the floor and ordered food. There was no mention of our encounter after that and no hint that any attraction was there. I was baffled. But then I thought about the way she had resisted Richard’s questions about what she had been up to for the past few years since we had seen her last. I knew I had detected distress on her face at the mention of it. What had happened during the six years she was gone? It had to be something that left her with a lot of demons. I could just feel it in her demeanor, and I hoped I hadn’t pushed the boundaries too far with her too soon.
I had a growing feeling that my brother knew the answer to the burning question, though. He had always been the sensitive type that she had told everything to. That was probably what they had been doing up in his old bedroom. At least it would mean he hadn’t scored. But at the thought, I had a revelation of sorts. Just being good looking and great at sex wasn’t going to be enough for a woman like Aria, was it? I was going to have to step up my game if I wanted to win her over.
Chapter 6
***Aria***
I spent two days thinking over what had happened with Aaron. On the one hand, I couldn’t deny that I had enjoyed being in his strong arms like that, with his warm hands all over me. I had always been extremely attracted to him. He had been the hottest football player on the team in high school, and all the girls had been jealous of me because he had always been around me. We had somehow never had a relationship, though, beyond a couple of make out sessions under the bleachers. I had fantasized about him treating me like he had some of the cheerleaders, teaching them what real pleasure felt like. Now, he seemed willing to finally give that to me.
But my mind and heart had been in different places than my libido while I was in his lap, with him rubbing my breasts. I could feel his authority and dominance in the simple requests he gave me, and it brought back a flood of images from when Chad and I had begun our relationship. In reality, I knew that Richard had been telling the truth; neither of the Fairchild brothers were going to abuse me. But it didn’t mean it hadn’t been a slight trigger.
My heart had also confused me, holding Richard there right along with Aaron. Richard and I had a deeper connection than anyone I knew. I had known Aaron longer, but there was something about Richard’s soul that could reach in and talk directly to mine. I hadn’t ever done anything sexual with him; only an innoc
ent kiss when we were young. But I did have feelings for him. It had almost felt like betrayal as I let myself get caught up in the heat of the moment with Aaron. I had no idea what I was going to do if either of them asked for something serious with me.
It was the middle of the afternoon when a knock came at my door, and I wondered who it could be. But I got my answer through the peephole as I surveyed the blonde hair and dimples belonging to a certain brother that made my heart thump twice as fast these days.
I opened the door with a surprised smile, noticing his button down and slacks. “What’s with the formalwear?” I asked teasingly, looking him up and down. He looked pretty damn dashing if you asked me.
“I’m actually just taking a long lunch today. Aaron and I are at work all day today; lots of back-to-back meetings.” I nodded. I had been a little surprised when the news reached me that the Fairchild brothers had become billionaires. The families we came from weren’t poor, but they weren’t the one percent either. But I supposed with Aaron’s charisma and Richard’s smarts, they made a great team. I couldn’t imagine being so invested in something, though. I was more the starving artist type, feeling free to move from place to place at will. Though, I was beginning to see the benefits in settling down somewhere.
“I actually wanted to see if you wanted to take a walk with me.” I smiled at the suggestion. Richard and I used to walk around the block for hours, talking about life and school and the future. We would always find special places to call our own too; hidden gems with small creeks and little animals to hold and examine.
“Sure, as long as I’m not keeping you from eating,” I told him. Richard shook his head and held out his hand for me. I grabbed it and closed the door behind us, letting him lead me through a familiar path towards a trail that wrapped around the city.
We began to take a light stroll, just enjoying the light breeze and each other’s company. It was this silence that helped begin to heal me and make me feel safe.
