Driftwood Cove Trilogy: Complete Series

by E. C. Towers

  Tim rarely went out. He only went to work, and then returned home. Rumor had it that he was a Peeping Tom, spying on Linda through a powerful telescope from his deck. He was a 30-something-year-old dishwasher who lived with his mom, and the closest relationship he had with a woman was through a telescope. It was so depressing to think about it that Hardie almost wished that Linda would grant Tim an invite on her boat. At the same time, he didn’t blame Linda for not extending an invite. Tim’s disguise as a laid-back surfer dude didn’t fool anyone now. While his words and body language remained casual and nonchalant, his eyes gave him away. There was an intense darkness in is gray blue eyes that he just couldn’t hide. Hardie felt the malicious intent emanating from Tim every time he went to work. He chose to ignore it and tried to minimize eye contact as much as possible, which was difficult since they worked right next to each other and Tim was constantly trying to engage him in small talk, hunting for any information about Linda or her upcoming parties.

  Tim spent 90% of his time imagining what it would be like to smash Hardie’s face with one of the dishes he was washing. This motherfucker had gotten away with fucking two beautiful women and suffered zero consequences. And now the two girls he fucked were getting it on, and he knew it was only a matter of time before Mr. All-American over here would get in on the action. He was seething with anger. Linda hadn’t called to give him an invitation like she had promised, and now he knew for sure that bitch only said it to persuade him off her boat. Little did she know that it would take more than that to get him off her back; she may be hot, but she had no right to make him look like a fool.

  Tonight was her usual business dinner at Edges, and he had hoped to confront her as soon as she was finished. Tim waited and waited and waited. Linda didn’t show up, nor did her business partners. He stepped outside for a smoke break towards the end of his shift and looked toward the dock. It was mostly blocked by restaurants and buildings, but he saw that Linda’s boat was brightly illuminated from within. She was home.

  After his final drag, he turned around and bumped into Hardie, who was done with his shift and leaving.

  “Oh, sorry, dude, I didn’t see you there,” Hardie muttered, backing up and sidestepped Tim. “I’ll see you tomorrow, man.”

  Hardie walked off, glad to be out of work, but especially glad to be out of Tim’s hateful stare.

  “Hey!” Tim yelled.

  Hardie stopped and turned around.

  “What’s up?”

  “What the fuck did you do?” Tim’s voice was combative and on edge. His stare seemed to cut right through Hardie, and he would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little scared of the guy. He was tall, skinny and Hardie probably outweighed him by 40 pounds, but the obvious anger that he harbored for Hardie would be an equalizer if they ever got into a scuffle.

  “What did I do about what?” Hardie knew this was about Linda, but his confusion was genuine.

  “Why didn’t Linda come to dinner tonight?”

  “How the fuck should I know? I’m not her secretary,” Hardie shrugged.

  “Yeah, you’re her fuck-around boy. Don’t think I don’t know where your dick has been, motherfucker. You’ve messed up shit for Linda and me ever since you got here!” Tim rose his voice, flicking his cigarette butt at Hardie’s face, barely missing his ear.

  Hardie stood there not quite knowing what to say, since every rebuttal he could think of would be an admission that he had seen Linda.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about, dude. If you think I’m trying to get in between you and Linda or whatever…”

  “Or whatever?!” What are you trying to say, asshole?! That I’m lying? What the fuck do you mean by “Whatever,” he thought. He was slowly becoming enraged, and Hardie knew that anything he said at that moment would only add fuel to his fire.

  “Listen, man, I didn’t mean it that way, I just want to go home, dude. I’m tired; I’m sure you’re tired. Let’s just go home, get some rest and we’ll talk about it more tomorrow, all right?”

  “Fuck you. I still have two hours left of work.”

  Hardie took that as an agreement to his terms and walked away. He was uneasy having his back towards Tim. He could feel him staring at the back of his neck. Hardie wouldn’t have been surprised to be tackled from the behind, and he was fully prepared for it. Thankfully, as he glanced back, he saw Tim had already gone back inside the restaurant.

  * * *

  Jessica heard the door open. Hardie was home.

  She had been in her room attempting to read a book and relax, but so far she had been reading the same paragraph for the last half hour. Her mind kept going back to Linda, then Hardie, and then Linda again. Their experience together was consuming her every waking thought.

  She went to work on autopilot, as she replayed the events that had happened with their threesome. She relived it again when taking her bath and pleasuring herself. Her orgasms were intense, hard and deeply focused, and she had to bit her lip from crying aloud. The thought of imagining Hardie’s tight ass going up and down as he fucked her; the taste from licking Linda’s inner thighs, kissing her nether lips with her hot tongue between her legs; it gave her multiple orgasms, one on top of the other. She felt like had been sexually awakened.

  Of course, now that she was awake, no one seemed to be around. Hardie had been distant, and she briefly saw Linda at the bakery, but aside from a sweet smile and a wave, she appeared distant, as well.

  Jessica still didn’t know what to do about the three of them. She had strong feelings for Hardie, but it seemed like she had strong feelings for Linda, too. Any thoughts about what to do were placed on the back burner, as all Jessica could think about was fucking both of them again. Jessica wanted a replay of their encounter. She wanted to fuck them individually, and then fuck both of them again.

  It was odd. She felt like a horny college guy with a perpetual hard-on, but she couldn’t help it. It baffled her that they weren’t feeling the same way, or at least that they were hiding it far better than she could.

  She opened her door slightly and took a peek down the living room. Hardie was sitting there watching television. It had been weird with her brother and Hardie. She lied and told her Trent that nothing was going on between them and that Tim had made it up because Tim hated Hardie, all so that he would allow Hardie to continue being their roommate. Whether not her Trent believed her, it ruined the dynamic between him and Hardie. Her brother was hardly ever home, and when he was, it was to grab a quick change of clothes and nod hello to her before taking off. She asked him what was going on, and he said he just wanted to work a few extra hours at the bar, and since he was getting out so late, he figured he would just sleep in the extra room above the bar. She later found out that her brother was having an affair with the owner’s wife, but he was home so infrequently that Jessica hadn’t had the chance to tell him that fucking the owner’s wife might not be such a good idea.

  So most nights, it was just her and Hardie. She had waited for him to come to her, thinking that he was also sexually energized from their threesome, but he never did. Hardie was just his normal nice-guy self, whenever they bumped into each other, that is, which was usually never because they also had conflicting schedules. He was usually asleep when she left for work, and she was usually asleep when he got home. But tonight, she stayed up. She had told work that she was taking a personal day tomorrow because she wanted to stay up and wait for Hardie to come home.

  “Hey,” Jessica offered, stepping out of the hallway to greet Hardie in the living room. He looked up, surprised to see her awake so late.

  “Hey,” he responded, emotionless. He sat up and scooted a little on the couch, so she had a place to sit down. “What are you doing up so late?”

  “I can’t sleep …”

  “Oh, that sucks. Well, have a seat and watch TV with me. Full House reruns will put you right to sleep, I promise,” he smiled, patting the seat next to him.

  Jessica smiled
back and stood exactly in front of him so he would have no choice but to look up her from the couch, which is exactly what he did. Hardie had sounded casual, but there was a tightening in his loins from seeing Jessica in an oversized white t-shirt, one so thin that the light from the TV was enough to see the outline of her hips and curve of her breasts through the shirt. Her hair tousled and wild, and suddenly Hardie wasn’t as tired as he had been when he arrived home.

  “Let’s stay up. Who needs sleep anyways?” she smiled and remained standing in front of him, almost taunting Hardie with her luscious form.

  “What about work?”

  “I called in. I have the day off, tomorrow...” she trailed off as if she expected Hardie to suggest something. Having sex all day, she hoped.

  “Oh,” Hardie replied, unsure of what to do next.

  “Are you sleepy? Do you need me to help you stay… up?” She suggestively glanced at his crotch. It was brief, but he must've noticed because he remained there, speechless.

  Jessica took it upon herself to straddle Hardie playfully. She sat facing him, feeling his bulge pushing between her legs. She closed her eyes and kissed him slowly, grinding up against him. He ran his hands over her ass, hiking the shirt up to reveal the fact that she had on no underwear.

  “What’s gotten into you?” he whispered.

  “You,” she whispered. “You’ve gotten into me. And you’re going to get into me, again.”

  She slid off his lap and kneeled in front of him, slipping off his jeans slowly. He took off his shirt and then reached for her own. He was hard as a rock when Jessica put him inside her mouth. She engulfed him with warmth, tonging his shaft until he was gasping in between moans.

  They made love well into the dawn, stopping more than once in exhaustion and falling asleep, only to wake up recharged to begin again. Every possible position and body part was explored. They built on to each other’s sexual repertoire, exploring positions that were new to both of them. They had their personal favorites: Jessica’s being something as simple as watching his face while he came, and Hardie’s being as specific as putting his cock in between her plump and pert breasts, bouncing them around his dick while he plunged into their softness again and again.

  After they finally gave in and collapsed from exhaustion into a tangle of limbs, they both instinctively knew that this was just the beginning for both of them. As they were about to fall asleep, their eyes met, and they both understood. There was now a connection between them that hadn’t been there a few hours ago. A connection that had started to grow when they first became intimate, and they couldn’t possibly stifle it now. As Hardie drifted off to sleep, he briefly wondered how they were going to tell Linda about their unspoken decision.

  25

  Decisions

  “Fuck!” Tim cursed, tossing and turning in his bed. His anger over the whole situation with Linda had been keeping him up a few nights. Tim would just sit there in the dark and fume.

  Who did that pretentious bitch think she was? Did she think she was too good to tug on his dick? That little mouth, too sweet to suck his cock? I don’t think so, whore, he thought. “Oh, you are going to suck my dick, Linda,” he said to himself, firmly but quietly. He had been watching Linda since she had become a widow, and aside from the slight change in what day she held her parties, for the most part, Linda stuck to a routine every day of her life. But now, with Hardie throwing her schedule all off, he had no idea where she was at any given time.

  Tim had a day off and decided to go to Linda’s yacht. It was Wednesday, the day she usually went to yoga, and he hoped she at least stuck to her workout schedule. He had to get back on her yacht before she got back to confront her, once again. This time, he wasn’t leaving until he got an invite.

  * * *

  Linda’s driver arrived at her yoga studio and stopped the Maybach in front of the door. Linda didn’t immediately get out, looking at her yoga mat and wondering if she should even go.

  “Ma’am?” the driver looked back at her.

  She stared at him for a moment and decided no, she couldn’t do yoga today. She had to see Hardie or Jessica. A week was long enough without seeing them.

  “I’ve changed my mind, sorry. Please take me back?”

  “No problem, Ma’am.”

  The driver turned the car around and headed back to her boat. Once she was inside, she made herself a drink and sat out on the deck. She was about to press in the code to activate Hardie’s green light when she heard a noise behind her.

  Footsteps.

  She spun around quickly and saw nothing. The sliding door to her bedroom was slightly opened, as she left it, but her room was empty.

  Funny, she could have sworn she heard someone walking around in there. Ever since Tim from the restaurant had broken into her boat, she made sure to turn on the alarms and retract the sea ladder he had used to board from the back of the boat the first time. She was still undecided as to whether or not to have one of her bodyguards stay with her aboard because she enjoyed her privacy too much. Linda was still worried, though.

  She finished her drink and went back inside to check her rooms.

  * * *

  Hardie woke up and saw that Jessica had left him a note.

  Random work emergency. Be back soon. xoxo

  He smiled. They had all day together before he had to go back to work, and he laid there for a while, replaying their marathon sexcapade. He almost drifted off to sleep when thoughts of Linda crept back into his head. He had to tell her, but tell her what? They weren’t in a relationship, were they? Perhaps so, but he didn’t obligate to tell her anything. Still, Hardie knew that he would never leave her hanging like that, and soon put on his clothes and headed out the door.

  * * *

  As Linda walked into her bedroom, she heard it again. It wasn’t footsteps; it was a tap on the side of the boat. She walked back out to the deck and looked over the side to see where the tap had come from and saw Hardie standing there looking at here. Her heart quickened at the sight of him, and she immediately walked back inside and pressed a button to let him in. Linda was anxious and excited that he was here. As he ascended onto the boat, she poured two glasses of wine and sat at the bar to wait for him. He sat down next to her and received her glass of Riesling, which he set aside. He didn’t want to lose his wits and chicken out.

  “Well, that’s one way to get aboard,” Linda smiled, breaking the ice before taking a long sip of wine. “I’m sorry, I just wanted… uh, needed to talk to you,” he answered, pausing uncomfortably. Was he ready to do this?

  “I know. You don’t have to say anything,” she filled the silence. Linda did know. As soon as she saw his face, the avoidance in his eyes, she knew. Hardie wanted to pursue things with Jessica, and he was here to tell her about his decision.

  “You know?” Hardie asked, slightly relieved that she had taken the edge off.

  “Yeah, I know. You and Jessica. And you know what, I agree with your decision.”

  “It wasn’t just my decision …”

  Why did he say that? To emphasize the fact that Jessica also chose him over her. He was surprised at how jealous he was over both their relationships. It had the potential to turn into a love triangle, and it only solidified his decision to cut it off with Linda. He wished someone would tell his heart, still beating rapidly with excitement to be near her. Every so often, the familiar lilac smell of her hair would waft past his nose, making him dizzy with desire for her.

  “I still want to be with you, though. It's all so confusing.”

  “I know. I want to be with you too, but I want you to be with Jessica more.”

  “Why?”

  “Because, this …” she motioned to her and then to him, “it’s not going to work out that way. I have feelings for you, Hardie, I do. But this isn’t going to ever be a relationship with a future. I’m not that way, not anymore.”

  Linda’s head cleared as she spoke. She was never in love with Hardie and the certai
n sense of relief she felt when he was breaking it off with her was very telling, confirming her truest feelings.

  “There’s a future with Jessica. I know it. You both know it. You’ve sowed your oats with me, in a way, and it was great.”

  “It was great, wasn’t it?” he smiled, and they both laughed, releasing the tension completely. Before he left, he gave Linda one last lingering kiss.

  “Thank you,” he whispered into her ear.

  “For what?” she asked.

  “I don’t’ know. For everything, I guess. It’s just that this whole experience has been…” Hardie stammered to say something meaningful and profound. Something to show his appreciation for making him feel alive again, making him explore parts of himself that he didn’t know existed.

  “You’re welcome,” Linda answered as if she had read his mind.

  * * *

  Tim ducked behind one of the cars in the parking lot when he saw Linda’s car pull up to the boat. He wasn’t expecting her to be back so soon. He had been standing there trying to strategize how to get onto the boat since she had withdrawn the ladder from the back, and the small rowboat that was normally tied to the dock was gone as well. It was just further evidence that Linda had lied to him about inviting him to her parties. She seemed to have gone out of her way to make sure that access to her boat was impossible right after he had broken in. He should have never told her about the ladder.

  Tim watched as she got out of her limousine and walked onto her boat. He stared at her ample bottom that was nicely accentuated by the yoga pants she wore. Tim couldn’t wait to get a handful of that ass, but how was he going to get up there? As Linda got on the boat, the ramp stairs leading up to her boat automatically slipped back in the hull.