“Come here,” he said, and Brett pulled out of me.
Derek gathered me into his lap and brought me down over his cock. My legs wound around him. His arms wrapped around me, all muscle. I could feel the planes of his hard chest against my nipples, his cock fit perfectly into me, our stomachs pressed together, his mouth on mine. It was the most intimate position I’d ever been in, more intimate even than having his cock in my mouth.
We rocked together, making love truly. I kissed him back with my whole heart, weeping as I came, shattering with great convulsions of my inner muscles around his stiff cock. He kept kissing me as I trembled, kept thrusting into me until he came. I felt another climax take me at the sweet, hot rush of his cum filling me.
He laid me gently back on the bed. Brett was waiting for me, his cock in his hand, still hard for me.
“Please,” he said, “come to me.”
I crawled toward him, spent, but determined to give him the same satisfaction, the same closeness Derek had given me while Brett had selflessly waited. I crawled up his body, my lips meeting his. I kissed him, gorgeous Brett whose stupid wife had thought he wasn’t enough for her in bed. I caught his hand and pressed it to my heavy, aching breast. He plucked at my nipple, tugging and pinching until I was rigid with wanting. I rode the thigh he’d pressed between my legs, getting the pressure I needed from the muscular leg he drove against my pussy. I kissed him and kissed him, whispering to him, “Tell me what you want. I’ll give you anything.”
“I want all of you,” he said. He flipped me onto my back, pushed my thighs apart.
“Oh yes,” I breathed. He thrust into me, so big that I thought I was split in two, the fire of arousal warring with the heaviness of his invasion of my body. I wanted more, even though I wasn’t sure I could take it.
“Can you—can you go deeper?” I whispered hoarsely.
He lifted my hips and plunged into me until I cried out. Then I reached for him, gathered him in my arms, pulled him down fully on top of me.
“I don’t want to crush you,” he said, dragging his mouth from mine for an instant before his tongue was back in my mouth, frantic to be joined to me in every way possible.
“More,” I insisted, taking all of his weight onto me, our legs and arms tangled, our tongues tangled, his hard chest pressing against my nipples and his huge cock driving into me fast and hard. I gripped the sheets, my head tossing back and forth. He levered himself up to pump faster, to drive us both mad. As he did, Derek appeared beside me, his mouth on my neck, his fingers on my nipples. I jerked at the overwhelm on my senses.
Brett cried out with a fast climax, spurting hot inside me. I bucked beneath him, joined to him. Derek’s fingers slipped down my belly, found my clit and rubbed it. The gentleness of his cool fingers took me. My body seized up around Brett’s cock, milking him as I came so hard under Derek’s fingers.
I know I screamed their names. I know I said forever. I know I had everything I could ever want.
We lay in bed together afterward, kissing and touching softly, sleepy but never satisfied. I curled up between them, perfectly happy.
Epilogue
One Year Later
I hadn’t worked at the bar for about eight months, not since I got my full-time staff position as a writer for Envy, heading up a newer more investigative section of the publication that took on issues beyond sex and fashion, but I still stopped in to see Jason and Cammie from time to time. I’d been at their courthouse wedding about a month ago, but I hadn’t seen them since. So when Cammie called to ask if I could stop in after work, I agreed.
It was always weird to use the customer entrance instead of coming in the staff door, but I remembered to do it. The place was dark. I looked around.
“Surprise!” came a shout. The lights flipped on. The place was full of purple balloons and a sign that said Happy Birthday Lynette on it in swirly letters.
I clapped my hands. Cammie came out and hugged me.
“I cannot believe you did this,” I said, “Thank you!”
“It wasn’t my idea. It was those two,” Cammie said.
Behind her, at the bar, stood Brett and Derek, each holding a dozen roses for me. I ran to them, threw my arms around them both.
“I love you,” I whispered, kissing first one and then the other of them.
“We have another surprise for you,” Derek said.
“What could be better than this?” I said.
“We had a little help. From Barbara.”
Barbara was my dad’s girlfriend. I’d talked to her on the phone for months and gotten to know her. She was a very cool, no nonsense woman, and she must have come up to the city for my birthday to meet my guys. She was really supportive. I’d met her son, Malcolm, and his husband months ago when they were in town and they were terrific. If they weren’t in Boston for a conference, I knew they’d have been here too.
I turned around, ready to greet Barbara in person for the first time. Instead, I saw my dad, with a plump older woman in a fabulous peacock blue caftan and long earrings. She was holding a martini in one hand and my father’s arm with the other.
“Daddy?” I said, my voice barely above a whisper.
“Sweetie,” he said, his voice breaking, “I’m sorry. Barbara here has been telling me for months that I was horrible to you, that I owed you an apology. And that it was none of my business who you—well, you know,” he stammered.
I shot a grateful look at Barbara who winked at me. I burst into tears and hugged them both.
“Thank you,” I said, “This is the best gift anyone could ever give me. Everyone I love is together now.”
“Hey, what about me, chica?” a voice came. My best friend from college, Ainsley, came out of the back with a bottle of champagne, “Don’t think you can turn twenty-three without a bottle of our favorite six dollar bubbly and me!”
I squealed and hugged her. My heart was overflowing. My dad had come back into my life and had asked my forgiveness. Right then he was talking to Derek and Brett, seeming a little shy and standoffish, but he was trying. They were truly the best. They were the heart of it all, and I couldn’t have been happier. When we got home after my party, I knew just how to thank them for giving me the best birthday, the best life I could ever want.
I was sure Cammie could sneak me an extra can of whipped cream on our way our later. Because there were all kinds of happy endings in store for the night. Even for a good girl like me.
The End
Book Two - The Cabin
1
Chase
The high school gymnasium was filled to the brim, and the buzz of conversation was almost deafening. Way more people came than we could have ever anticipated or planned for. Trevor and Nolan were putting out more seats as fast as they could, while I scanned the crowd for the Woodwards. There was no sign of Mr. and Mrs. Woodward – my best friend's parents -- or Elle, his little sister, for that matter.
Checking my watch, I grimaced when I saw that they were running late. A large group of high school-aged boys walked through the doors, their fathers at their back. Another group, this one with a few girls mixed in with them, followed next. With this many people, it's going to be hard to keep them waiting.
Problem was, without the Woodward family, it was kind of hard to get started. They were the reason we were here making this presentation in the first place. They were the main people in charge with speaking today about the legacy and life of their son, Aaron.
Nolan looked up at me, his dark eyes worried as he realized the same thing I did. I nodded, holding up my hand miming that I was using the phone, and stepped out of the gym. I pushed the high school's heavy doors open, and stepped out, only to find Sean – and he wasn't alone. The familiar faces of Tammy and Simon Woodward looked up at me.
Instantly, just by their expressions, I knew something was wrong.
Tammy gave me a faint smile as I approached, but Simon's face looked older and more tired than usual. I hugged Tammy, and
she held on tightly to me. She clung to me as a drowning man might cling to a life preserver, reinforcing my belief that something was indeed, very wrong.
I whispered in her ear, “What's wrong?”
“It's Elle,” she said, pulling back.
When I noticed tears in her eyes, and her words registered in my mind, my heart dropped into my stomach. It was like a lead weight tied to my chest, pulling me down. My mind flashed back to the last time I'd seem Tammy Woodward crying. It was the night her son had passed away. It was the very reason we were there today, talking to a bunch of high school seniors about their life choices and what it would mean for them. Because Aaron's life choices led to tragedy, and I swore on his grave that I'd do everything in my power to keep it from happening to anyone else.
I'd also promised to never let anything happen to his sister, Elise. She was all the Woodwards had left now that Aaron was gone.
“What happened?” I asked, looking between both Simon and Tammy, then over at Sean.
Simon cleared his throat. “Nothing happened, we're just worried about her. That's all.”
“Worried? What's going on?” I asked.
“She took a vacation with her boyfriend, Brad,” Simon said. “Up into the mountains. She was supposed to be back today.”
“They're experiencing some pretty bad snowfall up there,” I said, looking over at Sean.
He shook his head gently, a motion only I noticed.
“She called last night,” Tammy said, her voice cracking. “She said that Brad isn't the man she thought he was, and she didn't feel safe. She said she was going to head back home, but we talked her out of it. The roads were too bad, we were afraid she'd get into an accident, but –”
“But what?” I asked.
“But she isn't answering her phone now,” Simon finished for his wife. “Could be the cell towers are down though. The storm may have knocked everything out. We just don't know.”
Tammy looked less convinced. She stared at me with familiar blue eyes. The same blue eyes my best friend inherited from her. Blue eyes that made me feel like he was staring out at me again, and where it should have been comforting, I was slightly unnerved. It was like Aaron was reaching out from the grave, pleading with me to do something.
“Alright,” I said, patting her on the back and answering her silent pleas. “I'll head up to the mountains and check on her.”
“You can't drive up there,” Simon said. “The roads are bad.”
I shrugged. “Not the first time I've driven on treacherous roads before.”
“Yeah, and he won't be going alone,” Sean said.
I looked over at Sean and raised my eyebrows. “You coming with me?” I asked.
“Better to not go alone. Just in case something happens,” he said. “The Boy Scout motto remember?” he said, trying to keep things light.
“Be prepared. Yeah, I remember,” I laughed, running a hand over my face. “Not that we're Boy Scouts anymore.”
“Let me go talk to the others. We'll head out shortly. You got an address where she's staying at?”
“Of course,” Tammy said.
Her tears had dried up, and she seemed to be feeling better, or at least, a little more reassured, anyway. That was all that mattered to me.
“I'm sorry to ask this of you.”
“You didn't have to ask,” I said. “Aaron asked us to look after Elle, and that's what we intend to do.”
“We'll continue with the program as normal,” Simon said.
“Yeah, you guys know what you're doing by now,” I said. “Everything should be set up and ready to go.”
Sean and I shared a look. I knew that once I talked to Nolan and Trevor, they'd insist on coming with us. A dangerous drive into the mountains? Hell yeah, it sounded right up their alley. Besides, if we got stuck up there, the more Rangers, the better. We could always find a way to survive as a group. We've survived worse.
“Let me go get the others,” Sean said, leaving me alone with Tammy and Simon.
“Thank you for everything,” Simon said, as he put an arm around his wife's shoulders. “The four of you have been indispensable since Aaron's passing. To be honest, I'm not sure what we'd do without you.”
“You're family to us now,” I said.
My smile faded. Had Aaron not died, I'm not sure we'd still be as close with the Woodwards. His death had brought us together, and it had helped us start down the path to setting up the organization we ran today. It was a nonprofit, in Aaron's honor, educating the world about the effects of war and how our troops and vets need more support. We'd helped many people over the years, kept people from the same fate as our best friend.
Still, even though it sounded selfish as hell, I'd have given everything I had to have my best friend back.
I knew Simon and Tammy would do anything to have him back too. It's the one tie that bound us all together and bound us by iron. They could have blamed us for their son's death, but instead chose to see it as a horrible tragedy. Something we never could have predicted happening without the knowledge we had only in hindsight.
In the wake of Aaron's death, all we could do was channel our grief by continuing to the message. I needed to feel like I was doing more than that though, so I vowed to do everything in my power to keep his family safe and happy – especially his little sister.
She had been Aaron’s world, and she was all the Woodwards had left now. The idea of them losing their daughter so soon after losing their son, hit me hard. While I didn't actually think anything had happened to Elle, I would never be able to live with myself if we didn't at least try to check on her. If something had gone bad up there, and I didn't go check it out, I don't even know what I'd do.
“Ready?” Trevor's voice piped up from behind me.
“You're all going?” Tammy asked incredulously. “I don't want ya'll going through that kind of trouble.”
“It's no trouble, I swear,” Trevor said.
While most everyone had a Southern accent here in South Carolina, Trevor's was different. He was from Texas, and his accent was that thick drawl, and his voice deep. He often sounded like a stereotypical cattle farmer, which was exactly what his father did for a living. But, Trevor was a Ranger through and through.
Nolan was standing just behind him, and to the right – quiet as usual. He was the introvert of our little unit. He was also the brains. He was an engineering geek, focused more on mechanics, than on combat during his time in the Army. He was leaner than the rest of us, and not quite the man of action and violence the rest of us were, but he was still a Ranger. His body was pure, lean muscle. Even with his black thick-rimmed glasses and clean cut, dark hair, he still looked like a Ranger. He was also the only one of us without ink, which said a lot about Nolan. He was never one to give in to peer pressure.
Then, of course, there was Sean, who was the exact opposite of Nolan. The two of them couldn't have been any different if they'd tried. While Nolan grew up in an upper middle-class family, Sean had grown up on the streets of Chicago, and it showed. A little rough around the edges, with brown hair that hung down to his shoulders now, Sean never let anything get in his way. Not even poverty.
Today, he was successful, and you wouldn't have guessed that he was once the bad boy of the group. You probably couldn't picture him, out on the corner, selling drugs on the streets back in high school. He’d had to make some pretty unpopular, and sometimes illegal, choices just to keep a roof over his family's head. He was one of the hardest working, most strong-willed men I knew.
I was more than proud to call of these guys my friends. I knew Aaron was as well. We were a band of misfits, the type of guys from totally different backgrounds, who grew up in totally different circumstances and situations, but our love for our country – and later, our friend and his family – brought us together. There wasn't a day that went by that I didn't thank God for bringing us altogether.
If only He hadn't taken Aaron from us, well, I might have been incl
ined to pray more. Losing him was like losing part of myself; a part of myself that I'd never, ever be able to get back. He was gone, and there was just an empty hole inside of me now because of it.
I'd been so deep in thought, I missed the rest of the conversation. Tammy and Simon were going inside, ready to start their presentation. I'd seen it countless times before, but it always brought a tear to my eye – and I typically didn't tend to cry much. None of us did, really.
Yet, we'd all lived through the same pain Aaron had. We'd all witnessed the tragedies of war, watched those we knew die, and experienced the shock of trying to return back to our normal lives. We'd all managed to bear the pain and endure it somehow.
The only difference though, was that like Aaron, we had come back fully intact. Physically, anyway.
Maybe things would have ended differently had he not lost his leg. Maybe not. He was still damaged when we were discharged and got back stateside. He hurt more than any of us, and he drowned that hurt in a bottle of whiskey and a hell of a lot of sleeping pills.
The real horror of war, however, wasn't the damage it had done to his body. It wasn't that he'd lost his leg necessarily, that was the reason he wasn't with us any longer. No, the real tragedy was that after surviving months on end in some of the bloodiest, most tense days of conflict, days when the bombs were going off everywhere, explosions, bullets, bombs, and missiles all combined to fuck him up totally and completely.
His depression was so bad, and so crippling, and exacted such a heavy toll on him, that not even his four best buds or his baby sister could have saved him from himself. Not there at the end, when he'd decided it was time for him to quiet the noise in his head the only way he knew how.
“Let's get moving,” Sean said. “I'm driving.”
“Your truck have snow tires on it?” Trevor asked, cocking his eyebrows at me.
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