by Lulu Pratt
“That will go well,” I say sarcastically, but I’m glad that he’s taking care of that aspect of the situation.
“Just take care of Riley, and I’ll get us out of here,” Ethan says.
I head back up the stairs as quickly as I can, hoping against hope that Riley won’t wake from her nap, even while knowing how unlikely that is. I hear Ethan go into the kitchen and turn on the landing between the floors, shaking my head. This is becoming an absolute shit show, and for a moment, as I reach my sister’s bedroom door, I wonder if we shouldn’t have done things differently.
But then, I remind myself, something like this was bound to happen, no matter what we did. We had to give our parents a chance to do the right thing, and now we had. We just have to go on with things the way we talked about.
I manage to get Riley off the bed without waking her, and I pause at the door to the bedroom, listening to hear if the argument is still raging. It’s gone shockingly quiet downstairs, so I take advantage of the moment and just scurry downstairs as quickly as I can, grabbing my purse from next to the door and hurrying out to my car before anyone can say anything to me.
I get Riley into her car seat and she stirs for a moment, but she’s truly in a turkey coma. She goes right back to sleep, not quite snoring her deep breaths. Maybe three minutes later, I see Ethan coming out of the house, walking quickly to my car.
“I told them they can take my car home,” he says, coming around to the passenger side. I give him a wry grin and climb in behind the wheel, and start the car. Once again, Riley stirs murmuring something, but by the time we’ve pulled away from my father’s house and started down the road, she’s asleep once again, and for good.
We don’t really talk all the way back to Ethan’s place, and by the time we get there my nerves are calmed a bit and I can think some about what happened at the table.
I put Riley to bed in her nursery and when I come out, Ethan is standing in the living room, looking a little lost. Before I even know what I’m doing, I’m walking right up to him, wrapping my arms around him, holding him tightly. I bury my head against his chest and feel his heart beating against my cheek and for the first time in a long time I actually feel safe. Safe, comforted, and comfortable in a way I hadn’t expected to feel for years.
Ethan turns my face up to him and then he’s kissing me, his arms still tight around me, but I know, somehow, that if I want to stop, if I pull back and tell him we can’t do this, that he will stop. Just knowing that fact, and how much I really and truly need this right now, is enough to make me kiss him back.
Gradually, things heat up between us, and I find myself touching him all over, as if I have to memorize the shape of his body through his clothes by feel. Ethan is doing the same thing to me, cupping and squeezing my breasts, letting his hands drop down along my waist to my hips. The last time we hooked up, neither of us said that we could never do it again, not like the first couple of times, but we’ve both avoided, at least a little bit, being alone together like this.
I don’t stop him, and I don’t let myself stop to think about what we’re doing, and whether or not we should be doing it. Instead I just give into the moment, and when Ethan pulls my shirt over my head and reaches back to unhook my bra, the only thing on my mind is the concern that we get done with this before Riley wakes from her nap. I tug Ethan’s shirt off as well and then more and more of our clothes fall to the floor until there’s almost nothing between our bodies, just my panties and his boxers.
He pulls me onto the couch with him, and I straddle his lap, kissing him hungrily. I want this more than I want anything else in the world right now, whether it’s wrong or right. Even if part of my brain is listening for the sounds of Riley waking up, the rest of my mind is focused on the feeling of Ethan’s body against and underneath me, the strength of him, the sense of his muscles rippling under his skin and how good it is to have him touching me so eagerly.
I can feel the hardness of his erection, the heat of him, through Ethan’s boxers and my panties, and I’m rubbing against that ridge almost mindlessly, eager to feel him inside of me. Somehow we’re both taking our time, in spite of the fact that it’s almost like torture for me, at least, to keep waiting. Ethan slips a hand down the front of my panties and finds my clit by touch, stroking and rubbing me, making me moan.
I reply in kind, managing to reach past the waistband of his boxers and find his hard, throbbing cock to begin stroking him. We tease each other like this for what seems like hours, long enough for me to wonder at the fact that Riley hasn’t gotten up yet. We’re just touching and working each other with our fingers, kissing each other, trying to keep the noise down so that neither one of us manages to wake up the little girl down the hall from where we are.
Finally, I can’t take it anymore and wriggle free of Ethan’s hands, grabbing at the waistband of my panties and struggling to get them down over my hips. I want to be fully naked, and I want more than anything to feel him inside of me. But even as I start to climb back on top of Ethan, he chuckles lowly and tumbles me down onto my back onto the couch, pinning me there.
“Not yet,” he says. I pout up at him, twisting my hips, trying to get better contact with the ridge of his erection that I can feel against my thigh.
“Why not?”
“If I have you right now I’m going to come in like, two minutes, and I want you to get off, too,” Ethan tells me. I have to giggle at that, but as he kisses me he swallows down the sound, and I give up on the idea of feeling him inside me for a few moments longer.
Chapter Thirty-Six
ETHAN
I start working my way down from Lara’s mouth to her breasts, taking my time, as much as I’m able to at least, on the path to her hot, wet pussy. I know she’s already soaking. I felt as much when we were playing with each other before. But what I told her is the truth — if I got inside of her right now, I’d shoot my load in a matter of minutes.
So instead of going straight to the main event I take my time kissing her neck, her chest and then sucking on her nipples, swirling my tongue around each one until she’s squirming underneath me, twisting and moving and moaning as quietly as she can. We both know that Riley could wake at any moment and part of me is a little ashamed that I’m getting ready to go down on my sister-in-law while my daughter’s taking a nap. A bigger part of me doesn’t think it matters, just so long as Riley never finds out.
I work my way down Lara’s body, remembering for a second the first few times we ever hooked up as high schoolers. I’m much better at certain things now than I was back then, and I’m more than a little proud of the way I’ve improved, even if I shy away from thinking about the reasons I’ve improved. I pull Lara’s legs a little wider apart, and then I bury my face against her soaking wet pussy, looking up at her face while I start licking. She tastes good, of course, I knew that already, sharp and sweet at the same time, and before too long I’m focused completely on teasing her.
I suck the little swollen bead of her clit between my lips and swirl my tongue around it, drawing letters with the tip of my tongue until I find the ones that make her struggle the most to keep from moaning out loud and waking Riley. I can feel her whole body getting more and more tense. I dip down to the well of her pussy, avoiding her clit for a few moments, just long enough for her to calm down a bit, and then I move up to the little button at the top all over again.
I keep at it until I can tell that Lara can’t stand holding back any more, working her clit with my lips and tongue and then moving down to her inner labia, over and over again. By the time I can tell she’s on the edge of climax, I have myself under control just enough to know I can last. I pull back and lick my lips clean, slithering up along her body to kiss her on the mouth.
“Think we’ve got maybe another twenty minutes before Riley wakes up?” I nibble at Lara’s neck as she giggles as quietly as she can.
“I think maybe just twenty minutes… and I think we might have less if we can’t kee
p quiet,” she tells me.
“Well, I know I can,” I say playfully. I kiss her again and feel Lara tugging my boxers down over my hips, letting my cock free. I’ve almost forgotten how hard I am. As soon as there’s nothing between us anymore I can feel my balls aching, feel my dick throbbing with the need to feel Lara’s body wrapped around me. I shift down between her legs and guide the tip of my cock against her soaking wet pussy. I hold back for just another few seconds longer, and then I slide into her slowly, so slowly I almost can’t stand it.
I pull out again, almost all the way, taking my time. Lara is soaking wet, and so tight, her muscles flexing around me in a little spasm like her body doesn’t want me to leave. I push back into her a little faster, catching her lips with mine, swallowing down the moan that rises from her throat. I start moving more steadily, finding my rhythm, and Lara fits herself right into it, pushing her hips down when I thrust into her, twisting away from me when I pull out. It feels so good and so perfect that even if I’d wanted to — and I definitely don’t — I couldn’t think of anything else.
Lara and I move together, kissing each other everywhere, touching each other, and I swear to God it’s like heaven and hell all at the same time. Heaven because it feels so good I don’t even want to come yet, and hell because after a few minutes I start to almost worry that I won’t come at all, and I think if I don’t get off I might die. But I keep going, finding Lara’s clit with my fingertips and rubbing it even as I keep pushing deep inside of her.
I can feel the tension ratcheting up in Lara’s body too, and I know she’s right on the edge, riding that wave with me, so close she can taste it but so far it seems like forever away. In the back of my mind I half-realize that we’d better finish soon, but I can’t think about it for more than just a second. Before I know it, I’m struggling to hold back the climax I can feel like a vise gripping my balls.
But I feel Lara’s muscles tighten around my cock and I feel her shiver and then she moans against my neck long and low and I know she’s hit her climax first. I ride through it, holding back with an effort that seems to be harder than anything I’ve ever done in my life, wanting to feel her finish completely, wanting to enjoy this as much as humanly possible.
I let her cool off for a few moments and then I’m right back at it, almost pounding into her. I only barely remember that my daughter’s asleep on the other end of the house, I’m so desperate to finally get off. I feel Lara’s body tensing again, and I hold back just a little while longer so we can finish at the same time.
When it happens, it’s as good as it’s ever been in my entire life, maybe better than it’s ever been. I don’t know, but every nerve in my body tingles as I finally give into the climax, coming hard deep inside of Lara, and I feel her coming too, clutching me like she’s clinging to me for life itself as her body shakes and tightens around me. We keep going until neither of us can move an inch, both of us panting and gasping for breath, and then we just collapse onto the couch tangled up in each other.
As soon as I catch my breath I know I want to go again right away, but I also know that Riley’s probably going to wake up in a matter of minutes, and while she can’t quite get out of her crib, I don’t want the guilt of leaving my little girl alone, awake, wondering what happened.
I pull myself up, my cock still buried in Lara, and look down at her. She’s still flushed, but she’s got that climax-drunk look on her face, in her eyes, that tells me she’s as satisfied as a person can be. For a fraction of a second, it reminds me of Alexis, the way she looked after we’d finished together that one time, and then the reminder is gone, and I’m back in the moment with Lara, no ghosts in the room with us.
“We have to go through with it,” Lara says, looking up at me, and for a second I’m confused.
“Oh, yeah,” I say, once the blood flow to my brain gives me the chance to think.
“We need to just…” Lara sighs and shakes her head. “It’s going to be ugly,” she says.
“It is, but it would be way uglier to let them keep going,” I point out.
Lara thinks about that for a second and nods. “They’re obviously not going to do the right thing, for whatever reasons they have,” she agrees.
“I really thought I could get my parents to get the point. But obviously they’re set against Nathan. And Nathan’s set against me,” I say. I hate the fact of that, I hate it for me, I hate it for Riley, and I hate it for Alexis, who would have never wanted any of this. Who had hoped that her provision for Riley would bring us all together, not tear us apart even more. Well in at least one way she got her wish, I think absently. I don’t know if Alexis thought anything would come about between me and Lara, but I know, she’d told me, that she wanted me to move on, to be happy with someone else if she died first. I’d wanted the same for her.
“If they’re not going to suck it up and be mature, we’re going to have to make it impossible for any of them to win,” Lara says quietly.
“We already have the plan, unless you’ve changed your mind?”
Lara shakes her head to tell me that she hasn’t.
We’d been talking about what we would do, what our “nuclear option” would be, if we couldn’t convince our parents to drop their cases against each other and us. The court date to go over Nathan’s case against me and my parents’ case against Nathan is only a couple of weeks away. More than enough time for our plan.
“Let’s get dressed. We should get Riley up, anyway,” Lara says, squirming underneath me.
I grin and climb off her, pulling out with only a little bit of regret. I could happily spend the rest of the evening making up for how terrible Thanksgiving was, but my daughter has to come first.
“Maybe we can order some pizza or something,” I suggest. Lara frowns in confusion as she pulls on her panties, and then laughs, shaking her head again.
“Yeah, I guess I should be more bummed about the lack of leftovers, especially since I cooked,” she says, sighing.
“I have a feeling everyone’s going to regret how things went down today. But pizza should be pretty good,” I say. I pull on my clothes and go to get my daughter from her nap, thinking about just how bad things have to be for Riley’s own grandparents to ruin her Thanksgiving.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
LARA
I’ve never been to the courthouse before. The couple of traffic tickets I’ve gotten I paid online without contesting. The family court seems weirdly grim, with the paint job that I’m sure some contractor told the state government would be soothing. Instead the colors just give me the same kind of feeling of unease I get whenever someone tells me to relax. A faint memory of the estate lawyer’s office comes back to me.
I take a deep breath to try to calm my nerves. Ethan and I are as prepared for this as we can possibly be, and I remind myself that it’s not like the court is going to give Riley to our parents, not when they see how contentious my dad and Ethan’s parents are to each other. And in the worst-case scenario, if they decide to award sole custody to Ethan, it isn’t like he’s going to deny me access to Riley. It’s mostly just that if we don’t pull off what we’re trying to do, it’s going to become some long, drawn-out legal battle.
The stakes aren’t that high. I have to keep reminding myself of that, even if it feels like the stakes are incredibly high. We’re fighting to keep Riley from being enmeshed in a stupid, drawn-out legal battle that both of us agree she should be kept out of. Assuming we win the day, we hope there will not be any other legal issues, but everything will have to shake out between our parents.
“Lara, you got here early,” I look up to see Dad walking to me.
I nod. “I wanted to make sure I was ready for this,” I say. I haven’t spoken to him since Thanksgiving, in spite of the fact that he’s tried to call me four times in the couple of weeks since then. Christmas is only two weeks away, and the idea of keeping him out of my life, and Riley’s, and leaving him alone for the holiday for the first time in
years, hurts me. But I know I can’t back down, not now.
“You’re going to testify, then?”
I can hear the uncertainty in my father’s voice, and I know he’s worried about what I’m going to say. I know he’s angry at me for getting in the way of his plans, and I’m pretty sure that he remembers what I told him before Thanksgiving dinner.
“I am going to testify,” I say levelly.
“You know I’m only trying to do what’s right, don’t you?”
I look at Dad. He looks so old, so sad and angry and beyond everything in the whole world. I hate that things have turned out the way that they have, but he’s done this to himself.
“I know what you think you’re trying to do, Dad,” I say. I take a deep breath.
“This could still work,” Dad insists.
I shake my head. “I’m not going to help you. And I think you know just as well as I do that if Alexis were here, and knew what you were doing, that she would scream at you and disown you as her father,” I say.
“If she were here, none of us would be here, least of all you,” Dad points out. Before I can say anything, Ethan and Riley appear in the hallway, and he steps away from me to go into the courtroom.
“What did he have to say?” Ethan asks quietly.
I shrug off Ethan’s question. It’s not important, and there’s nothing to be gained from talking about it in front of Riley.
“Why don’t we get settled in?” I look at Riley and smile at her, putting aside all my nervousness for a few moments.
“Why we here?” Riley looks at me and then looks at Ethan, wanting answers.
“We’re just here to talk to a nice judge about an argument we’re having,” I tell her. Of course, Riley can’t really understand it.
“The judge is going to help us decide something,” Ethan adds.
“What’s a judge?” Riley frowns in confusion, looking more like my sister than she ever has in her life.
