“Had your doctors said anything about what sex would be like?”
“Just that I shouldn’t get my hopes up.”
She leaned over and picked up his sweatpants, the same ones he’d been wearing the night before. A red G-string slipped out of the pocket. She looked down at it blankly before snatching it up and waving it in front of his face.
“Seriously, creep-o? What’s this?”
“I’m sorry. They were there. Out in the open in the laundry room. I took them. It was an impulse.”
“They’re underwear, not a stick of gum by the register.” She feigned anger, but couldn’t summon the real thing so soon after two orgasms.
“Won’t happen again. You know, now that I’ve been in them.”
She slapped his shoulder with the panties. “It better not. Not if you ever want to get in them again.”
“That’s a possibility?”
“I don’t know.” The laughter was gone. “Maybe.”
Chapter Ten
The next day was a Saturday, but Sarah had to go in to work. She got up and got dressed, plagued by uncertainty over what had happened the night before. They’d both needed something from each other. She’d needed to be fucked, to be reminded she was still a woman and not just a mom. He’d needed to prove to himself that he was still a man. And damn if it wasn’t good. But she didn’t want to let those things confuse the situation. This whole thing was some kind of fucked up, untidy heap of transference and Florence Nightingale effect, not to mention that it was highly unethical for her as a therapist.
It couldn’t happen again. She finished getting dressed and headed out to find Ethan already up.
“You going to be okay today?” she asked.
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I?”
“It’s nothing. I’m nervous about you and Jared spending the day alone together.”
“We’ll be fine.” He looked down at his chair for effect. “Seriously, how much trouble can we get into?”
That’d have to do. She was late. She grabbed her keys and walked out the door with a wave.
* * *
Truth be told, Ethan was nervous about spending the day alone with Jared, too. He didn’t have much experience being around kids, and he wasn’t sure what they’d talk about. Maybe it’d be better if he just hid in his bedroom all day. As if on cue, Jared came out of his room at that very moment. Too late to hide.
“Hey,” Jared said.
“Hey.”
The two had breakfast in near silence, broken only by the sounds of their crunching. Finally, Ethan ventured a question.
“So, you like sports?”
“Not really.”
There went all hope of Ethan finding some common ground.
“Hiking? Mountain biking? Any outdoor activities?”
“Nope. Definitely not.”
“What do you like?”
“Video games. Building stuff.”
Ethan could barely email. “What kind of stuff do you build?”
“Computers. Electronics. Mechanical stuff.”
“Oh.” Another strike. He was on fire.
From over by the French doors leading to the deck, Dame let out a soft whine and scratched at the glass. Jared hopped up and went over to let her out.
“Thanks. You like Dame?”
Jared’s face lit up. “Yeah, she’s great. Oh! That reminds me. I’ve been working on something for her.”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
Jared ran off to his bedroom and emerged a few moments later with a small object made of metal wire. He held it up proudly and raced over to the door. Ethan had no clue what it was supposed to be. Jared slipped the top wire over the knob and then opened the door, fitting the rest inside the door’s closing mechanism. He opened and closed the door a few times to test it, and once he was satisfied he hooked on a loop that hung down from the doorknob. He retrieved a tennis ball from his back pocket. The ball had been slit in half, and he slipped it on over the loop and stood back.
“What do you think?”
Ethan had no fucking clue what to think. “What is it?”
“Watch.” Jared reached down and slapped at the tennis ball. The door popped open. “See, she can just hit it with her paw when she needs to go out. Automatic doggy door.”
“Whoa, that’s incredible. You figured that out all by yourself?”
“Wasn’t hard.” Jared shrugged his shoulders.
“You think she’ll be able to learn how to use it?”
“Totally. She’s really smart. I’ve already taught her some new tricks.”
“Maybe you could show me?” This kid thing wasn’t so hard after all. Ethan patted himself on the back for a job well done.
An hour later, they ran out of things to talk about. Jared and Dame showed off the new tricks they’d been working on, but eventually Dame got tired and lay down for a nap. Ethan was out of ideas.
“So, uh…you like school?”
“It’s all right.”
“Got any homework over the weekend?”
“Nope, we’re out for winter break.”
“How long does that last?”
“Three weeks.”
“You’re not going back to school for three weeks?” Ethan was on the verge of panic. It hadn’t been three hours yet, and they were bored of each other.
“No. So…since we live here now, does that mean we’ll have Christmas here, too?”
“I guess.”
“But you don’t have a tree.”
“Oh.” Ethan looked around the room. Nope, nothing that resembled a tree anywhere to be found. He never put up a tree. It was just him, and he was always gone anyway. Holiday tours usually sold out. “Should we put one up?”
“Could we?”
“Why not?”
“Where do you keep it? In the attic?”
“Keep what?”
“Your tree. Mom keeps ours in the attic.”
“You mean an artificial tree? I don’t have one of those. I always used to go out and chop one down with my dad.”
Jared’s face fell. “Oh. Well, thanks anyway.”
“You don’t want a tree anymore?”
“I do, but how are we supposed to get one?”
He meant how are a nerd and a cripple supposed to get one. That fired Ethan right up. They would have a fucking tree.
“You built the dog a door opener out of wires and a tennis ball. Surely between the two of us, we can figure out how to bring in a tree.”
* * *
Sarah came home exhausted after a long day of work. She worried about how the boys had gotten on all day without her. She half-expected to find them both hidden away in their respective bedrooms. To her surprise, she heard them laughing and talking in the living room. They seemed to be having a good time. Color her impressed.
“What on earth happened here?”
They both turned to look at her with what could only be described as shit-eating grins. A tall, skinny Christmas tree stood next to the fireplace. A hacksaw lay in the floor beside it. Green needles littered the room all the way to the French doors. There was also a set of distinct, snow-covered tire marks running along the same path. The two of them had somehow gotten down the hill, chopped down a tree, and dragged it inside without hurting themselves or freezing to death. Out on the deck, she could see that they had rigged up some sort of pulley system to get the thing in the house.
Ethan was parked on one side of the tree adjusting a garland, and Jared stood on the other. They each fished ornaments out of a large box in the middle of the floor. Dame lay contentedly at their feet.
“We decided we should have a tree,” Ethan said matter-of-factly.
“O-OK. How did you get it in the house?”
“We improvised.”
“Where’d you get the decorations?”
Ethan looked down at the glass orb in his hand. “They belonged to my mother. Now, grab some ornaments. I did the bottom, Jared did the middle, and you get to do
the top. For obvious reasons.”
Dame got to her feet, did a stretching bow, and waltzed to the door. Sarah made a move to let her out and froze in her tracks. She watched in amazement as Dame pawed a tennis ball hanging from the doorknob, stood back while the door popped open, and took off outside. Sarah raised a finger to point at the door.
“Oh yeah, Jared made that,” Ethan said casually. “Pretty cool, huh?”
“That might be the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.”
Just as she was about to go and close the door, Dame came back inside, turned around, and pushed it to with her nose.
“Okay, that is definitely the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. You taught her to do this?”
Jared grinned.
After they finished decorating the tree and scrounged up some dinner, the three of them popped popcorn and settled in front of the fire, like a family. Only they didn’t look like any family Sarah had ever known. It was more like one out of some kind of holiday movie. And if something seems too good to be true…
A phone ringing broke up the moment, and Sarah was grateful when Jared asked if he could stay the night at a friend’s house. Things had gotten entirely too comfortable, entirely too quickly. She didn’t have the faintest idea what to do about it. The ride to Jared’s friend’s house should have given her a chance to clear her head, but Jared spent the whole time prattling on about how much fun he’d had all day with Ethan. He was already attached. What would it do to him if this didn’t turn out well?
What was she going to do? The more time she spent with Ethan, the more her willpower waned. Every time she made up her mind to pull back, something happened that pulled her in even deeper. It would probably be easier to end things if she actually wanted things to end.
Ethan had turned down the lights and lit a few candles while she was gone. Two glasses of red wine rested on the coffee table, and he’d positioned himself on a huge fuzzy blanket in front of the hearth. Warm tones came from a record player behind the sofa. She could feel her resolve dwindling. She couldn’t think straight like this. Tomorrow. She’d figure things out tomorrow. She was an addict, and he’d become her fix.
“What’s all this?”
“I get you all to myself tonight. I didn’t want to waste it.”
“What’d you have in mind?”
She stepped closer, and he yanked her down on top of him. He reached up and pulled the ponytail holder out of her hair so the strands hung loose.
“This.” His hands slipped around her neck. She leaned in for a kiss. Parting his lips with her own, letting her tongue lap lazily along the inside of his mouth, she savored the sweet red-wine taste of him.
She ran her tongue along his jaw and nipped at his earlobe, quite pleased when she felt his cock fatten between her legs. Strong fingers massaged her thighs, and her hips rocked against him. Exquisite friction sent a wave of heat right to her groin. One by one, she undid the buttons of his shirt. His bare chest beckoned her, and she trailed kisses over the warm expanse of skin. His nipples popped to attention, and she curled her lips around first the left, then the right.
The fire crackled behind her, and she rose up and ripped her top off, eager to feel the heat of it on her back. That devilish smirk tugged at the corners of Ethan’s mouth. He was enjoying the show. He hadn’t seen anything yet.
Sarah slid both hands down his stomach and into his waistband. She leaned down and captured the drawstring of his pants in her teeth. His pulse kicked into high gear when she dramatically pulled the string until the knot gave, releasing his cock only inches from her face.
She licked a slow circle around the head and then blew a hot gust of air over it. He squirmed underneath her. She looked him squarely in the eyes when she took him into her mouth. He banged the ground with his fists when she playfully pulled on his prick. Her tongue swirled a slow circle all the way around before she swallowed it down in earnest. Her eyes never closed, never left his face.
“If you don’t fuck me soon, it’s going to be too late.”
She came up grinning.
“If you insist.”
She stood up and backed just out of his reach, allowing him to look but not touch while she finished undressing. She let the light and shadow dance on her skin as she turned slowly in front of the fire.
“Damn.” The look in his eyes said it all.
Sarah enjoyed drawing out the game, and she was discovering how much she liked being in control. She walked over to where Ethan lay on the floor.
“Like what you see?”
“Like doesn’t even begin to describe it.”
She grazed the skin of his belly with the toes of her left foot then pivoted on the ball of her right, so that she was standing above him, astride his waist with her back to him. He stroked her calves with his hands, eager to see what was coming next. With exaggerated slowness, she began to lower herself down.
“Oh God.” He gripped her ankles as she lowered down over him. She moaned when she took him inside her and brought a hand up to stroke her clit with each pump, slow at first and gradually building speed.
“This is torture,” he whined, between gasps. She intended it to be. She wanted him to see what she was doing to him, but only be able to imagine what she was doing to herself, just out of his sight.
She flipped her head back and let out a heady moan. Each time she came down on him, her own pleasure ratcheted up another degree. Her entire body tingled, screaming for release. He smacked her ass and howled when he came, pulsing underneath her with each pump. When it was over, she eased down on him and gently rocked while she finished herself with her fingers. She bucked and then collapsed over onto his legs, too spent to move. A dull ache pulsed deep inside her thighs. She’d done her squats for the year.
“That…was the sexiest thing I have ever seen.” Ethan rested a hand gently on the small of her back.
“I don’t know what came over me.” With great effort, she picked herself up.
“Come here.” Ethan stretched out an arm.
Sarah curled into him, rested her head on his chest, and almost immediately sank into a deep and satisfied sleep.
Chapter Eleven
The next morning, Sarah woke up in front of the still-smoking embers of the spent fire alone. She stretched contentedly, and her leg bumped warm fur. Not completely alone. Dame raised her head.
“Morning, Dame.” She reached down and scratched behind Dame’s ears. The dog flipped over on her back, three legs in the air.
“Do you need a belly rub?”
Dame thumped her tail expectantly.
“I don’t know what good you are as a service dog, but you sure are sweet.”
Sarah noticed a slip of paper resting on the pillow beside her. It instructed her to wash up and come downstairs for an early-morning PT session as soon as she woke up.
“Bossy,” she muttered as she stood and walked into the kitchen for coffee. She poured a tall glass over ice and drank it down. How on earth did he have the energy for a therapy session after last night? She guessed if he could manage it, so could she. She hurried off to her room for a quick shower and good toothbrushing. By the time she finished, the caffeine had done its job.
“All right, let’s get to work,” she said, as she descended the steps into the basement. She took one look at Ethan and froze right where she stood. Hanging from the ceiling, buck naked, he’d somehow managed to haul himself into the harness swing. She gave him props for creativity and cajones. It took balls to climb into that thing without a stitch of clothing and call her down here.
“Oh, come on,” he said. “Don’t tell me you weren’t thinking the same thing. I saw the way you looked at me while I was doing my set.”
“Okay, fine, I was. But still. How long have you been up there?”
“About forty-five minutes. I was starting to worry. If you’d slept in much longer, I’m not sure I could’ve gotten myself back out of this thing.”
She walked over and gave one of th
e straps a push, sending Ethan spinning. He made a single rotation, and Sarah grabbed the straps to force a stop. If he heaved, she’d be the one who had to clean it up.
“Whatdya say?” He waggled his eyebrows.
“What the hell?” She was already pulling her shirt back over her head.
Within a minute, the rest of her clothes had fallen to the floor. Warily, she appraised the straps, uncertain as to the best method for climbing on. She held them tightly to steady the basket and slipped first one, then the other leg over Ethan’s naked body. He gave the handles a yank, and the basket pushed him up to meet her, shoving his dick against her clit. His cock sprang to life. She kicked her legs and set the basket to swinging.
“See, now this is fun.” He pumped the handles a few times, muscles tensing from the strain.
She threw an arm around him to lift herself up and used her other hand to guide him in, letting out a slow breath as she did.
“Hold on tight. It’s going to be a bumpy ride.”
She took hold of the handles above his hands and gave him a nod. He yanked down hard, thrusting them both into the air. She gasped, shocked by how well the device doubled as a sex toy. If the makers were only marketing to physical therapists, they were really missing out on a huge potential market. He pulled again, and she did the same, matching his rhythm and doubling the force propelling his cock deeper inside her. Chest to chest, the position provided for optimum contact with her clit. She couldn’t tell if she was huffing from the workout or the intensity of the sensations, but she pulled harder and harder, desperate for more.
A Broken Man Page 6
