Color of Forgiveness

by Madeleine Beckett

  “Porter…” Susie says with disgust before snorting loudly. Myra can just picture her rolling her eyes and curling her lip up in a sneer. “I so called that one. Instead of grabbing a donut, he grabbed a cookie. That man is a foodaholic just like me. I know a fellow hoghead when I see one. I can’t believe he let that psycho sicko into your house. He should have known better.”

  “But he had no idea. Apparently, she had a lot of people fooled.”

  Susie continues shouting out her disagreement on the subject as Myra looks back down at Dylan. They’re back at the hotel room, having had dinner with his family. Both of them are naked and in bed, and Dylan can’t seem to keep his hands and lips off of her. He drags his lips down to her bellybutton and below, kissing tenderly over her flat stomach. Holding her breath, she watches his lips move as if he’s whispering something before he lays his scruffy cheek against her, causing her heart to flutter.

  She gets drawn back into Susie’s ranting. “You are seriously messing with my tiny pee-wee brain here. I’ve never touched a real gun in my stinking life. The closest thing I have ever done to get even close to live guns is watching Justified on TV. That guy on there is so hot, wearing that cowboy hat and talking with that yummy twang. He’s just sexified on Justified. Damn, I’m good. Sorry. Hot guy got me off topic. What was I talking about?”

  Myra smirks because she knows Susie’s merely talking to herself, not her, and will answer herself in a few seconds. Myra smiles when she hears her immediately start blabbing again. “Oh, yeah, I remember... guns. I mean I’ve never even seen you with a gun and just can’t even remotely imagine you whipping one out and going all Rambo and shooting someone.”

  “Well, remember we met after I got out of college so you didn’t know me when I lived in Nyssa. Dad and Grampie were both into guns since dad was on the force, and they wanted to make sure that I could take care of myself. So we spent a lot of time doing target practice.”

  “You are such a total badass.”

  “Hardly,” Myra says with a half-laugh.

  “Well, I’m so glad that Natalie and the baby are doing okay. What about Jackie? Have you talked to her yet?”

  “No, I haven’t had a chance to. She left me a couple of messages today but everything’s been so crazy that I haven’t been able to call her back yet.”

  “So, I noticed when you were telling me what happened, you neglected to tell me about the I.L.Y.’s that apparently took place for you and your little beautiful cupcake that’s baking away in your oven. And that reminds me, I am so going to get you back for that evil text you left me. I can’t believe you sent that crap and made me suffer for hours… hours!”

  “I texted you that we were going to dinner with Dylan’s family—”

  “Yeah, yeah, I don’t want to hear it. So is Dylan with you right now? Is that why you haven’t fessed up on the lovey dovey stuff?”

  “Yeah…” Myra can’t wipe the grin off of her face as she stares at Dylan. His fingers are drawing a slow path down the valley between her breasts while his lips softly ghost across her skin causing her nipples to harden and goose bumps to spread.

  “Are you guys naked?”

  Myra’s face floods with warmth. “No,” she says, feeling Dylan’s hardness rub against her thigh. The man is very naked and very hard at the moment, and Susie would literally die if she knew. Myra tries to keep her breathing as normal as she can, but it proves to be quite challenging when Dylan’s mouth makes a circular path around her breast again.

  “Well, that sucks. Naked Dylan could have made this conversation a hell of a lot more exciting. Tell him you have to go take a shit or something and go hide in the bathroom so you can tell me all about his declaration of love.”

  “Gross. I’ll tell you later.”

  “You suck. You really suck making me suffer like this. I want every sordid detail later, you hear me?”

  “I know.”

  “Well, I have a story for you. I have to tell you how I got Jeff back. I so owed that man for goosing me the other day and making me fall on my ass and for causing me to lose an eyebrow. It does involve a gun.”

  Myra laughs lightly. “Okay. I can’t wait to hear this.” Her eyes widen when Dylan’s fingers slide lower and lower until he slips them between her clenched thighs. Stop, she mouths, starting to panic. Dylan merely smirks devilishly and completely ignores her.

  “Well, last night when he got home from the gym he went upstairs to take a shower, and I snuck into the kitchen. The night before, I’d put several pitchers of water in the fridge so they would get really, really cold. I took them out and loaded Tucker’s Super Soaker water gun with the freezing water. Then I went up to the bedroom, giggling like a hyena. The bathroom door wasn’t closed all the way so I flung it open as hard as I could, bouncing that sucker off the wall loudly and yelled at the top of my lungs, ‘Guess what?’ And I mean I bellowed it. The shower curtain went flying open, and his eyes were bulging out of his head and looked big enough to rival one of those gray alien’s. His mouth was hanging open so far I thought I saw his tonsils jiggling around. I scared the ever living shit out of him. There should have been a turd lying in the bottom of that bathtub.”

  “Oh god,” Myra shouts from a combination of laughing hysterically at Susie’s story and from the things Dylan’s fingers are doing to her. He has her legs spread open, his fingers lazily moving up and down through her moisture. One side of his lips tugs upwards as he watches her carefully.

  “Anyway, I shouted, ‘You will now feel my wrath,’ in my best Darth Vader voice then I let it rip. I fired that Super Soaker right into his terrified face. He screamed like a little girl and threw the shower curtain closed. I pulled and tugged on it, almost tearing the thing off the rod, but he had a hold of it too tight. But then I got smacked with a fabulous idea and jumped on the toilet and launched an aerial assault from above. He was completely defenseless and had no cover whatsoever,” Susie says before she sniggers evilly. “He was all huddled in the corner, screaming like a woman. I fired all over his head and his ass. Oh my god, it was fucking awesome. That Super Soaker fires hard too especially that close. He had little red marks all over his skinny, chalky ass.”

  Myra laughs until she gasps for air and tears leak from the corners of her eyes. Dylan stops his teasing between her legs and starts chuckling himself, shaking his head. The more she laughs, the more he laughs.

  “So then he yanked the shower curtain back and I nailed him again right in the face, some of it going up his nose. He was all spluttering and spitting. I jumped off the toilet and ran, but my fatness slowed me down and that naked runt caught me before I could make it to the bedroom door. He tossed me on the bed – thank god we have a good spring mattress or I could’ve blown that sucker out – and ripped the gun out of my hands and tickled me until I pissed my pants. I was a wet, stinky mess, but it was so worth it.”

  Myra groans as she wipes her eyes. She laughed so hard that she worries for a second that she could have hurt the baby. She glances at Dylan. He has his head propped up on his elbow, his other arm thrown over her middle, watching her intently with a huge smile on his face.

  “You’re killing me,” Myra moans in a rough voice.

  Susie laughs heartily. “It was awesome. It was so freaking awesome.”

  “Only you would think something like that was awesome.”

  “I know,” Susie says, yawning loudly. “Well, I gotta go. The time difference between us is killing me. You’re causing me to lose my beauty sleep.”

  “Okay. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  Myra continues giggling even after she hangs up the phone.

  * * *

  Dylan can’t control the smile on his lips as he watches Myra. She has never looked more beautiful to him. Happiness seems to just be oozing from every pore in her body. Her eyes dance with laughter, and her face has a pink color to it. He wants to see Myra like this - smiling and full of happy shit - for the rest of his life.

  �
�I’ve never seen you laugh like that before,” he says his fingers tracing the soft skin along her collarbones. “I was laughing with you and didn’t even know what the hell you two were talking about.”

  Myra snickers. “Well, Susie is just crazy. She was telling me about how she shot a water gun with cold water in it at her husband while he was taking a shower. She’s so funny.”

  “How’d you two become friends?”

  “When I got out of college, I got a job at the same publishing firm as her. She’d been there for quite a few years already; she’s ten years older than me. She ended up training me, and we started going to lunch together. After that, we started hanging out, and found that we just clicked. She constantly makes me laugh because she’s completely insane,” Myra says with a grin.

  Dylan reaches his hand up and touches her lips. “She’s good for you. I love seeing you so happy.”

  “She’s not the only one who makes me happy.” Dylan is absolutely certain Myra’s eyes are twinkling, and he feels like a fucking fairy for thinking that.

  “Who is it because I’m gonna beat the shit out of that ugly fucker.”

  Myra giggles but then her face grows serious as she slips her fingers into Dylan’s hair. “Come here,” she whispers.

  He immediately scoots up the bed and drapes his body over top of hers. He has to stifle a groan when he feels her warm, soft skin touching his. He leans on his elbows his face inches from hers, and stares down at her expectantly.

  “You make me happy,” she whispers. “Really, really happy...”

  Fuck, he loves this woman. As he stares deep into her eyes, he can see so much love reflected in them. His eyes trail down to her lips for a moment before he crashes his mouth onto hers. He kisses her, putting all of the love that he has in his heart for her, until he has to pull back to breathe. He buries his face in her neck. “You make me happy too,” he whispers into her skin.

  He kisses his way down her neck and chest. She moans when he tugs her nipple into his mouth and begins sucking lightly on it. He frowns and lets her nipple slip from his lips. “Your tits aren’t sore are they?” he asks. He’d forgotten how sensitive women can get when they’re pregnant. “Am I being too rough?”

  “No. They’re a little sore, but it feels good.”

  “Thank fuck,” he mutters as he sucks her other nipple back into his mouth, still trying to be gentle as he swirls his tongue around the tip.

  “Um… I need to call Jackie,” Myra says in a breathy voice.

  He swirls his tongue in circles around her nipple. “Call her tomorrow,” he mumbles before he possessively sucks it back into his mouth.

  “I’ll send her a text.” Myra grabs her phone as he moves down her body. Slipping his hands between her thighs, he spreads her legs open. He smiles when his tongue touches her warm wetness and he hears her mumble, “Oh my god.” As he licks against her, he wonders how long it will take her to send that text…

  * * *

  Myra’s body jerks slightly, her eyes popping open. Immediately, she has a strong, nauseous sensation in her stomach. It amazes her that she can feel sick the very instant she wakes up. She wishes she could just go back to sleep again so she wouldn’t have to feel like this. She swallows hard as her stomach rolls.

  Her brow furrows at the light snoring she hears directly in her ear. She can feel the heat of Dylan’s breath warming her skin. Turning her head just a few inches, her face touches his. Peering out of the corner of her eye, her lips turn up when she sees Dylan. His head is on her pillow, hogging most of it, and he has his face pressed against her neck with his arms and legs draped all over her. She loves how he seems to need to touch her constantly, even in his sleep.

  Her mouth begins to fill with saliva, way too much saliva, and she knows what that means. Dylan groans as she quickly untangles herself from his arms and legs and streaks to the bathroom. She flips the toilet seat up and begins dry heaving.

  Seconds later, she hears Dylan stumble in behind her. She quickly grabs a towel and wipes her mouth.

  “Fuck. You okay?” he asks all low and raspy, his voice not yet awake. She almost laughs when she looks at him. Big tufts of his hair stand straight up all over his head, and his scruffy face is all scrunched up, his eyes squinting against the light. As her eyes are drawn lower, they widen when she sees he’s hard as a rock.

  She hangs her head back over the toilet again. Dylan drops on his knees down beside her and gathers her hair back, holding it for her. She heaves several times more before she begins coughing which turns into a laugh.

  “What?”

  She giggles again. “Here I am hanging over the toilet, and you have that going on,” she says motioning her thumb towards his cock.

  Her eyes shyly slide to his when she hears him chuckle. He’s grinning and has pillow creases on his cheek. “My cock’s fucking insensitive. It’s morning and my woman is naked. That always equals a hard cock.”

  She smiles as she sits back on her legs away from the toilet.

  “I am sorry,” he says, smirking. “I really can’t help this shit. You just make me hard.”

  He frowns, his gaze dropping to her stomach and back up. “Are you okay? I hate seeing you like this. Is this shit normal? I was gonna ask Nat about it, but never got the chance to.”

  “Yeah, it’s normal. Some women don’t have any morning sickness, and some women have it really bad. I guess I’m in the ‘really bad’ category.”

  “It pisses me off. Do you want some 7-Up or something?”

  Myra shakes her head. “No. I’ve got some crackers in my suitcase. They usually help.”

  Dylan grabs her arm and helps her stand. “Give me a minute to clean up,” she says.

  He nods and flops back on the bed while she brushes her teeth and washes her face. She grabs a pack of crackers before she climbs into bed next to him, sitting up against the headboard. She opens the package and takes a small bite.

  “What do you want to do today?” Dylan asks as he turns on his side facing her.

  “First thing I need to do is call Jackie, which reminds me…” Myra leans over to the bedside table and grabs her phone. “Let me send her a text and see if she’s awake.” Myra quickly types off a message to her.

  “I’m just glad mom didn’t get her way last night,” Dylan says. “Can you believe all that sneaky shit she pulled to try to get us to stay with them?”

  Myra tosses her phone on the bed and giggles.

  “That shit’s not funny. It’s damn scary. If she had her way, we’d be sleeping next door to her as she planned every single minute of our fucking day.”

  “She just loves you, and she’s scared after hearing everything that happened with Rhonda.”

  “Yeah, I know. But she’s still nuts.”

  “She’s really sweet. I’m kind of in love with your mom.”

  Dylan grins as he looks up at her from his prone position. “Get your cute little ass down here,” he says, lifting his arm in invitation. “But don’t puke on me. I won’t survive that shit.”

  Myra laughs lightly, her grin matching his as she slips from a sitting position into his awaiting arms. “Well, if you didn’t notice, my whole family is fucking crazy about you. You even got the seal of approval from Nick.”

  “I did? We barely said two words to each other.”

  “Well, that’s because he’s the quiet one. Chad’s mouth-that-never-shuts-the-fuck-up more than makes up for him…”

  “They’re so different.”

  Dylan nods. “Nick got the brains. He’ll make a fuckawesome doctor someday. Chad’s just all muscle. Not a brain in his goddamn head.”

  Myra snickers as her phone rings. Dylan lets out a jealous whine as she reaches for it. “Tell them to go fuck themselves,” he grumbles.

  Myra snorts as she looks at the caller ID. “Oh. It’s Jackie. Do you mind?” she asks as she holds the phone up.

  “Yes, I fucking mind,” Dylan growls before rolling his eyes and gesturing fo
r her to answer it.

  “Thanks,” she says. Then she speaks into the phone, “Hello?”

  “Myra! Oh my god. I finally get to talk to you. Are you okay? I just can’t believe it. I’m so overwhelmed. It’s like I’m in shock or something. I don’t even know what to think about it all. The police called me yesterday and told me the basics, and they asked me a ton of questions. I feel terrible. I thought Rhonda was my friend. She seemed so nice and—”

  Myra sits up. “Wait. What did you say?”

  “Remember when I told you I about that woman who was so nice and that came into the bookstore all the time?”

  “Yeah…”

  “That was Rhonda. We would sit around and talk for hours and—”

  “Did you ever talk to her about me and Dylan?”

  “Well, kind of. She was just so easy to talk to, and I was so worried about you.”

  “Did you ever mention anything to her about Philly and Susie?”

  “Well, yeah. I told her all about how funny Susie was when she came out here and how much she made me laugh and…”

  Myra half-listens and shakes her head. Jackie unknowingly fed Rhonda every single bit of information she needed on her and Dylan.

  “The police told me that you shot her but that you weren’t hurt or anything, but are you really okay? Are you okay, Myra? Oh my god…” Jackie’s voice cracks with emotion. “If you had gotten hurt because of my big mouth, I don’t know what I would’ve done. That would have killed me, Myra.”

  “I know and I’m just fine, Jackie. I’m really all right. I still can’t believe it happened either. It doesn’t feel real. It’s like I dreamed it or something.”

  “I’m so, so sorry, Myra. I can’t tell you how sorry I am. I just don’t have the words.”

  “It’s okay. You were completely innocent. You didn’t know what was going on.”

  “Tell me every single thing that happened, from the beginning. I have to know every detail.”

  “Okay,” Myra says as she takes in a deep breath. She snuggles deeper against Dylan’s chest and starts to relax as Dylan lazily runs his fingers through her hair. She tells Jackie the story from the moment she saw Rhonda downstairs to them hauling her away in the ambulance.