by Noelle Adams
There was no real hope for her here.
“It’s too bad we can’t... can’t stretch it out a little longer.” Her cheeks burned, and she hoped the flush wasn’t too obvious. She heard the reluctance in her own voice, the little wobble of hope.
Phil might be able to hear it too.
It was torturously long before he answered. “Yeah,” he said at last. “But I guess two days can only last so long.”
Okay.
That was clear enough.
Two days was all they had.
They’d agreed at the beginning that all they were seeking was closure, and Rebecca needed to hold to that. It wasn’t fair to put pressure on him for more, when it clearly wasn’t even a possibility to him.
She sighed, blowing out the little glimmer of hope with her breath.
She could be like Laura after all.
She wasn’t going to hope for anything else.
SHE STAYED AT THE PIER until Phil closed up the shop after sunset, and then they both went back to her vacation house.
They didn’t even discuss it anymore. It was understood that they’d spend all their free time together since they had so little time left.
It was dark when they got back, and she opened another bottle of wine, pouring it out for them before they went to stretch out on the chaise on the patio.
They sipped in silence as they lay together.
She wondered what he was thinking.
She wondered if he was anywhere close to as torn about Sunday approaching as she was.
He’d enjoyed his time with her for the past two weeks.
She knew he had.
He’d obviously enjoyed the sex, but it was more than that. He’d enjoyed everything. He was more relaxed than he’d been two weeks ago. Softer. Younger. More real.
“Do you want to have sex?” she asked after a few minutes.
He turned his head to meet her eyes. “Yes. Always.”
She gave a soft huff of amusement. “Not every minute of the day.”
“Maybe not every minute but a lot of them.” He was smiling now, and he put down his wineglass and reached out for her. “I want you a ludicrous number of times a day.”
She was smiling as she put down her empty glass and then let him pull her on top of him. She straddled his hips and leaned down to kiss him, already feeling his body tightening beneath her.
She said against his lips, “We might as well take as much as we can before Sunday.”
She hadn’t intended the words to be heavy, but they changed the mood between them. Something in the air felt tenser. Deeper. More poignant.
Phil claimed her lips again, this time deepening the kiss with his tongue. He stroked her hair, her back, her thighs, her bottom, and he didn’t release her mouth.
She was drowning in him after a few minutes, trying to suck in air through her nose. He was touching her all over. Possessive. Entitled. And her body responded with implausible speed.
He only broke the kiss when he pulled off her top. He stared up at her, his hands on her breasts over her bra.
The patio lighting was dim but bright enough for her to see his expression.
It startled her. Made her heart leap in excitement.
He unhooked her bra and pulled the fabric away, fondling her breasts until she was whimpering and arching her back.
They were on the covered part of the patio, but they were in the open air. If someone walked up to the back of the house, they’d be able to see them like this, Rebecca half-naked and astride him, gasping in pleasure from Phil’s hands on her breasts.
But there was no one around, and the humid breeze against her bare skin was tantalizing, thrilling.
Rebecca let Phil caress her until she was so wet it was almost uncomfortable. Only then did she start to claw at his shirt.
He didn’t take it off for her. Instead, he pulled down her shorts and panties so she was entirely naked. She had to lift her legs to get them off so it was rather awkward, but Phil’s eyes were just as hot and hungry as before.
More than that. Something else she couldn’t quite recognize.
He’d moved one of his hands down her ass until he was nudging at the cleft between her thighs, teasing her there but never giving her what she really wanted. The other hand was still fondling her tight nipple.
She couldn’t stop whimpering as he teased her. There was a damp spot on his shorts now from where she was trying to grind herself against him.
“That’s right,” he was murmuring. “I love to see you like this. When you finally let that fire inside you out.”
“Please, Phil.” The throbbing inside her was torture now, but he wasn’t letting up. “I’m dying here. I need to come so bad.”
“You will. I’m going to make you. It’s going to be so good.”
“Soon. Please soon.” She cried out loudly when he tweaked her nipple hard. Then cried out even louder when he did it again.
“That’s so good. So good, baby. Be as loud as you want.”
She couldn’t help but be loud at the moment, and the small part of her mind that could still process such things really hoped no one was outside and close enough to hear her.
That thought wasn’t enough to keep her quiet though. Not when Phil was touching her like this.
He leaned up to take one breast in his mouth, and she sobbed and writhed in response.
If she could get in a slightly different position, she could rub herself against the bulge in his shorts, and it would only take her a few seconds to come.
He wasn’t letting her get in position though. He was drawing it out on purpose.
He kept teasing her with the fingers of one hand, giving her arousal little touches but not enough to quench her need.
“Fuck, baby. You want this so much. You’re feeling so good right now.”
“I am. So good. So good. Oh please, Phil. Please soon.” Her fingers were digging into his shoulders so hard it had to have hurt.
She let out a sharp cry when Phil tilted his head down to give her nipple a hard little tug with his teeth. The slight pain caused her whole body to throb dangerously.
“I’m gonna come just from this,” she said. “Oh God, Phil, please.”
“Okay, baby. You’re ready for me now. I want you to ride me tonight.”
“Yes, yes. Please. I want to ride you.” She started fumbling with the button on his shorts until she’d managed to unfasten them and pull out his hard erection. Together, they put on a condom and he helped position her above him.
Then finally, finally she lowered herself, sheathing him inside her.
It felt so good she started to move over him eagerly, before they could even find a good position.
“Oh fuck, baby,” Phil murmured, his face twisting in either effort or pleasure. “Oh fuck, you want this so much. I’ve never seen you let go like this before. You’re wild with it.”
She was too far gone to even be embarrassed. She rode him hard and fast, the motion shaking her body so vigorously that her breasts slapped against her chest.
He was holding on to her bottom, his eyes moving from her face to her breasts. “That’s right, baby. Just like that. You’re so hot. So good. So... everything.”
She was sobbing loudly now, riding him as hard as she could. Her thighs burned, and her breasts felt like they were about to explode, and her hair was flying all over her face. But the pressure between her legs wouldn’t let her stop or slow.
“Keep going until you come, baby. Don’t stop. Don’t stop.”
Her voice was so loud that it triggered an internal warning, so she tried to bite her lip to stifle it.
“No, baby. No. Don’t try to hide it. Be as loud as you want. Show me how much you want this.”
She couldn’t hold it back. Not after that. She made a series of hoarse, broken screams as her body started to clamp down around his penetration. She came and kept coming as she bounced over him, and Phil was talking her through it, murmuring out thick, encouraging words about how
good she was, how much she’d needed it, how much he wanted her to let go.
Her throat ached when the contractions finally started to die. She was choking on ragged breaths.
Then Phil’s hand moved to the front of her body and rubbed her swollen clit.
She arched back again with another cry as another orgasm tightened and broke. He kept rubbing her, and her body kept responding, squeezing around his erection in a series of mini-orgasms that wouldn’t seem to stop.
Tears were running down her cheeks when her body had finally had its fill. She collapsed on top of him, the shift in position causing his erection to slip out of her very wet entrance.
“That was so good,” he was still murmuring. “So good, baby. You needed that so much.”
“I did. I did.”
“You don’t let yourself take what you need very often.”
He was right.
He was so right.
One of the reasons this time here had meant so much to her was that she’d been able to indulge in her own pleasure after years of not doing so.
“Give me a minute,” she said hoarsely. “And then we’ll take care of you too.”
“I’m okay. Take your time and recover.”
It took a few minutes before her breathing had steadied and the blur of pleasure in her mind had broken enough to allow her to move. But then she raised herself up and straddled him again.
She checked the condom, and it was fine, so she lowered herself over him again.
She was raw and sensitized from her enthusiasm before, but it wasn’t uncomfortable.
She smiled down on him. “This time you take what you want.”
She waited as he shifted positions slightly. Then he held on to her bottom and started to thrust up into her from below.
He’d been patient so far, but he obviously wanted her a lot. His motion was fast and clumsy, and his rhythm uneven as he rocked beneath her.
She moved with him as best she could, but she let him do most of the work. He grunted every time he thrust up into her, and his body got tighter and tighter.
She tried to talk him through it the way he had, but she didn’t think she was very good at it. He didn’t seem to mind. He was jerking hard beneath her, his neck arching and his grunts turning into loud sounds of effort as he worked himself up toward release.
When he came, it was just as loud and uninhibited as hers had been. She didn’t come with him, so she could watch the twisting pleasure on his face, feel the release of tension in his body.
She loved it.
That he needed her so much.
That he was letting himself take what he needed.
When he’d ridden out all the spasms of his climax, she moved off him and took care of the condom. She went inside and to the bathroom to clean up some and put on a clean tank top and pajama shorts. Then she came back out to the patio.
He was still sprawled out on the chaise with his eyes closed. His shorts were open, and his body completely relaxed.
She scooted beside him, and he exhaled loudly as he wrapped an arm around her.
“Do you want to go to bed?” she asked.
“Not yet.”
“You seem pretty worn out, and I am too.”
“So let’s rest for a little while. But stay out here. I don’t want to go to bed yet.”
She wondered why. Wondered if he didn’t want the day to end yet.
After tonight, they’d only have one left.
Then he murmured, “I don’t want Friday to end yet.”
Ten
THE NEXT DAY, PHIL had to go into work, but he resented even the few hours that meant spending away from Rebecca.
He’d spent the night at her place, and she woke up when he did. But she didn’t get up and dressed immediately. Just got coffee and crawled back in bed as he showered and dressed.
He gave her a kiss before he left the vacation house, tasting coffee on her lips.
He wondered what it would be like to go to bed with her every night. Wake up with her every morning.
Impatiently he brushed the poignant thought away. It wasn’t going to do any good.
She was leaving tomorrow morning. The lease on the house had run out.
And nothing else had changed.
He went to open up the shop, and he’d set up at the pier and been fishing for about a half hour when Rebecca joined him. She didn’t have her fishing rod this morning, but she had a travel mug of coffee like he did and a box of what looked like pastries.
“What’s in there?” he asked, immediately interested.
“I stopped at the bakery,” she explained. “Donuts.”
“Oh. Yum. I’m surprised I haven’t gained ten pounds in the past two weeks.”
“I’m pretty sure I’ve gained a few.” She flashed him a little smile.
His heart did an absurd little gallop. It really should be used to feeling like this by now, but it wasn’t. “You don’t hear me complaining. Either about your body or the food.” He picked out a chocolate iced donut and bit into it with pleasure. “Thank you.”
She nodded as she picked out a chocolate one for herself too.
They ate the donuts without talking, and then Phil picked up his pole again.
“So what do you want to do today?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Do you need to work all day again today?”
He shook his head. “Just until noon, when Mary comes in to cover the shop. Then we can do anything you want. What haven’t you done that you still want to do before you leave?”
She didn’t answer immediately. “I don’t know. I can’t think of anything. Is there anything I’ve missed?”
“Not really. We can go around and look at some more towns if you want. Or we can go out to Tangier Island. It’s kind of cool. Or we could just hang out if you’d rather.”
“Let’s just hang out.”
“Okay. Sounds good.” He tried to sound casual, but he felt heavy, depressed.
He wondered what the hell he was going to do when Rebecca left tomorrow.
He wondered how barren his life was going to feel without her.
It was like he’d been living in his sleep for seven years, and she’d woken him up with her sweet smile and her deep generosity and her hot, hidden passion.
And now he was wide awake, left alone in the dark.
He figured that, despite her attempts at normalcy, she was feeling heavy too. She was quieter than normal, and when she finished her coffee and donut, she put the box and the cup down and leaned against him.
He wrapped one arm around her and held his rod with the other. The fish weren’t biting this morning anyway.
“It’s going to be a sunny day,” Rebecca said eventually.
The weather for both weeks had been really good—hot and humid, of course, but only with a few scattered thunderstorms, none of which had lasted very long. The sun was almost too bright today, as if it were mocking his mood with its unrelenting vibrancy.
When he realized he hadn’t answered her, he said, “Yeah. I guess so.”
She sighed and leaned even closer to him. “Are you kind of sad too?”
She’d never tried to put on an act the way he sometimes did. She was honest about almost everything.
It was a relief for him to admit, “Yeah. Of course I am.”
“I’ve had a really good time.”
“Me too.”
Too good a time. He’d realized a couple of nights ago that he’d waded out too far with her, despite his best intentions. He hadn’t stayed in the shallows—not the way he should have.
Nothing to do about it now though.
It was going to hurt like hell when she left.
“I guess...” She trailed off.
“You guess what?” His pulse throbbed a few times, as if his body was getting excited. Not aroused. Excited in a different way.
It was a strange and unsettling physical response.
“I guess we couldn’t... nothing ser
ious but... but just talk occasionally. After I leave. Or something.” She felt stiff beside him, and she’d lowered her eyes.
She was nervous. Self-conscious about what she’d just asked him.
It was a risk.
A risk he never would have taken himself.
His pulse throbbed some more at the idea of talking to her again after she left tomorrow. But the way he was feeling right now was too alarming, too dangerous. He couldn’t let it continue—not when he already knew there was no way they could work out everything that had already come between them.
So he said, slightly stilted, “I don’t... think so.”
He felt something shudder through her small body, but then it was gone. “Okay. I get it. That’s probably smart.”
“Yeah.”
“Closure.”
“Closure.”
“I guess that’s as much as we can hope for.”
It was more than Phil had ever known to hope for, but it wasn’t all he wanted. It wasn’t even close.
REBECCA STAYED AT THE pier with him until after eleven, but then she went back to the house because she said she wanted to work on lunch.
He would have felt bad that she’d done so much cooking for him these two weeks, but she loved it so much it was obviously not a burden for her.
She said she wanted to make lunch and dinner for him today, and he wasn’t about to argue.
He wasn’t likely to have anything so good to eat in a really long time. Not even Larry’s food tasted as good to him as Rebecca’s.
When Mary arrived to take over the shop, he left right away. As he was heading to his bike, his phone rang.
Thinking it was Rebecca, he answered it without checking the screen.
It wasn’t Rebecca. It was his Uncle Russ.
“Hey, Phil. How’s everything going there?”
“It’s fine. Fine.” Phil generally liked his uncle, but he wouldn’t have answered the phone today if he’d known it was him. He didn’t want to talk to Russ. He didn’t want to think of anything except Rebecca.
“Anything new going on?” There was a slight edge to Russ’s tone, but there was always an edge, so it didn’t necessarily mean anything.
“Nope. Nothing new.”
“Rebecca’s still there, I guess.”
