by Erin Wright
He looked up at her through his eyelashes, desire shooting through him like sparklers on the 4th of July. “Darlin’, it’s been years for me. I don’t want to hear any whining out of you.”
She threw her head back and laughed. “But, but, but,” she protested, “I have pregnancy hormones running through my veins, and those make you even hornier than usual. I’m pretty sure I’ve out-hornied you.”
It was Adam’s turn to let out a belly laugh. “‘Hornied’? Dare I say that your creativity is quite impressive? I know that for me, it’s hard to think when…” He stuttered to a stop when Kylie deliberately turned and rubbed her generous boobs across his face.
“Ah…ah…ah…” But he couldn’t manage to get anything else out because he’d completely forgotten what they’d been talking about anyway. There was nothing but gorgeous, full tits to suckle on and a rounded belly to run his hands over. Nothing else existed in the world.
All of the humor drained out of Kylie, too, and she began pulling at his shirt, fumbling at the small buttons marching up the front, letting out a curse that a sailor would be proud of as she lost the battle and simply ripped at it instead, buttons popping everywhere like popcorn in a microwave. Adam wanted to laugh but he also wanted her so badly, he wasn’t sure if he was still breathing.
Yeah, laughing was totally out of the question.
She shoved the sleeves down his arms and he fought to get it off him like a wild octopus flailing around, arms going everywhere. With a final pop of the remaining buttons, the shirt slid off his arms and was instantly forgotten. Kylie leaned down and began hungrily nipping at his chest and abs. “Do you know…” she panted, “do you have any idea how sexy you are?”
He flung his head back with a body-shaking groan. “Nooo…” he sighed. “I…”
What were they talking about? He couldn’t remember. She was frantically unbuttoning his jeans and he realized that he’d be much faster at this project than she was, so he plucked her up and sat her off to the side, shucking his jeans and boxer-briefs in one quick, economical movement, and then he pulled Kylie across his lap, the desire so strong at this point, he thought he might pass out.
Through the film of desire that’d descended over his eyes, he could see that Kylie had taken her yoga pants and underwear off at some point, leaving her naked under his hungry gaze.
“Yes,” he growled, and with one swift movement, he picked her up and set her down on his dick, the warmth and liquid and pressure around him almost his undoing. He panted, trying to push down the heat licking through his veins long enough to give Kylie some sort of pleasure out of the experience, but she was moaning and bouncing up and down on his lap, shouts of lust spilling out of her, and then his seed was spilling out of him as he went rigid and the whole world went dark and he couldn’t see or think or breathe or hear but could only feel.
His orgasm lasted so long, a small part of his brain began to worry that it might never stop and he would literally die of pleasure, but finally, ever so slowly, his body began to relax back into the couch and he managed to pull his eyelids apart to look down at Kylie. She’d collapsed against him, nuzzled up against his chest and neck, groaning.
“Are you…” He coughed, trying to clear his throat and make it work. “Are you okay?” he finally got out.
She sat back with a dreamy smile. “Ohhh yeaaahhh…” she said, and laughed. “That was…is sex always like that with you?”
He let out a pained groan. “To be honest with you, it’s been so long since I’ve had sex, I can’t remember.” He gave her a lopsided grin as he sank further down into the couch. “I tried one time after my wife died – some chick I picked up in a bar in Franklin. It was so awkward and just flat-out weird that I never tried again.”
“Weird? Like the girl had a tongue piercing and it felt weird when she was sucking you off?”
Adam let out a little laugh at that. He wasn’t used to bluntly discussing sex with another person. It was refreshing. Definitely out of his comfort zone, but refreshing. “No, no tongue piercing. It was just weird because it wasn’t my wife, you know? She liked different things, and I didn’t know what they were and I felt like I was auditioning for a part, and if I pleased her enough, she’d acquiesce to letting me have sex with her again. It was just…weird.”
“It sounds like the chemistry was all wrong,” Kylie said seriously, her green eyes trained on him. “‘Cause, well, I’m not your wife either. I hope you didn’t feel that way just now.”
His eyes grew wide with surprise. “Oh hell no!” he exclaimed. “This was…” He gestured between them. “This was like nothing I’ve ever felt before. I don’t mean to compare you to Wendy because it isn’t fair to either of you, but I will say that from what I remember of sex with my wife, what you and I just did was incredibly different.”
He couldn’t believe it, but he felt a blush steal up his cheeks like a little boy confessing his sins as he said, “I…uhh…I usually last longer than that. Just so you know. I think it’ll take a while to get my friend here back into shape. When you’ve been starved for attention for as long as I have, it’s easy to go off a little on the early side.” He stumbled to a stop. He felt like a randy 14-year-old boy, trying to explain away premature ejaculation to a disappointed girlfriend.
Kylie threw her head back and laughed. “You’ll notice that I wasn’t complaining,” she said when she finally got her laughter under control. “It’s been way too long for me, too, and…I was raring to go, I think it’s fair to say.” She flashed him a naughty grin. “And, just so we’re all on the same page, I’ll be ready to go again soon. Real soon.”
She climbed off his lap and looked down at her body with another naughty grin. “That’s the most fun I’ve had getting sweaty in a very long time. Let me go clean up. I’ll be right back.”
She headed up the stairs, muttering something about hair as she went, and Adam headed to the kitchen sink to wash up there. Afterwards, he slipped his jeans back on but when he attempted to put on his shirt, he quickly realized that he was missing more than a few buttons. He held the shirt up with a chuckle.
He had exactly one button left on the whole thing – the top one, which hadn’t been fastened when Kylie went apeshit on it.
“What are you laughing about?” Kylie asked, coming back down the stairs.
“Remind me not to get between you and sex. Ever,” Adam said dryly, pulling his shirt on to model the problem for her. She looked at the open front and sent him another naughty grin.
“Huh. I have to say I rather like this,” she said, coming to a stop in front of him and sliding her hands up his abs. “Easy access, easy on the eyes…can’t say I’m complaining.” Her light green eyes flashed desire and sex up at him and he sucked in another breath at the sight.
“You…you weren’t kidding about being ready to go again, were you?” he asked, running his hands through her thick blonde hair, straightening out the tangles.
“Not at all.” She bit her lower lip as she looked up at him through her fan of eyelashes. “Anytime, anywhere,” she breathed, and leaned forward to nip at his nipples. She sent him a saucy wink and then headed into the kitchen. “Let’s dish this up, huh?” she called out, normal and boring and totally non-sexy.
“Bu…uh…urgh…” Adam wavered a bit on his feet. What had just happened here? Going one direction, and then another…How could she put her hands all over him like that and then act like everything was normal?
He shook his head as he headed into the kitchen after her. Women. It’s a damn good thing they were so amazing and sexy, because they also happened to be confusing as shit.
Living through a relationship with Kylie would be hell on earth…and worth every minute of it.
Chapter 32
Kylie
Yup, the shepherd’s pie was cold. She knew it would be. She wished she’d been able to afford a microwave during her last shopping trip so she could easily heat the meal back up, but that particular appliance
was on the “Buy soon” list, not the “Already bought” list, dammit.
As she watched Adam shovel the food into his mouth, obviously starving, she decided that if he didn’t care, she didn’t either, and dug in too.
“So how’s your mom doing these days?” she asked as she took a sip of creamy, thick cow’s milk. One thing that was never in short supply: Milk and eggs. If nothing else, her baby would have strong bones, that was for damn sure.
Adam looked down at his empty plate with a deep sigh.
“Hold on, before you explain that sigh, do you want another helping?” Kylie asked.
“Oh, sure!” he said eagerly. “This is the best thing I’ve eaten all day.”
She slipped into the kitchen to dish up another helping, even as she rolled her eyes at his praise. If she knew her Adam – and she was pretty sure she did at this point – this would be the only thing he’d eaten all day. She rather wondered if she ought to start following him around, shoving food into his mouth between vaccinations.
“I love my mom, and…I just feel like I’m failing her,” he said in a quiet voice as she came walking back into the room with a heaping serving in her hand. “Zara Garrett – do you know her? Younger sister to Moose and Rhys?”
She slid the plate in front of Adam and then topped off his milk. “Yeah. She’s quite a bit younger than me – I was closer in age to Rhys – but I know of her, of course. Doesn’t she work at the hospital as a CNA or something?”
Adam dug into the shepherd’s pie with a hearty groan. “Thank you,” he said in a heartfelt whisper. “It’s so nice to have someone else take care of me for a minute. Anyway,” he said, waving his fork in the air dismissively, obviously trying to hurry past that admission he absolutely hadn’t meant to say out loud, she was just sure of it, “I stole her away from the hospital and have hired her to come over to help take care of Mom. She’d been asking for me to hire someone to help her – a female person – but wouldn’t tell me anything more than that. I was happy because even though Zara is just a kid, she and Mom hit it right off.”
He let out a deep sigh. “Which sounds like yay, problem solved, but honestly, it isn’t. I can’t afford to have Zara move in, and anyway, she’s still in high school. She needs to be living at home. But I think my mom needs more help than she’s letting on. For her to even ask for Zara’s help is…” He shrugged. “Nothing short of a miracle, honestly. I just don’t know what else to do. There’s only so much of me to go around.”
He lapsed into silence, digging back into his meal with gusto as Kylie sat and thought for a while. “I don’t know your mom well,” she finally said slowly, “and I don’t want to intrude where I’m not wanted. But, have you ever thought about having her move into the Long Valley Senior Citizen’s Center? They have staff there all day, every day. They can help take care of her better than a teenage girl coming over a couple of times a week.”
But he was already shaking his head, even as she was talking. “My mom was born in that house,” he said, the frustration and bewilderment about what to do stamped across his face. “She’s said it a million times – she was born in that house, and she wants to die in that house. If I take her out of it, she’ll die from heartbreak.”
Kylie nodded. “It’s…it’s hard,” she said weakly. Ugh. Such a worthless comment to make. She hated the words even as they came out. It was like the empty phrase, “Thoughts and prayers.” It was such a generic platitude, it had virtually no meaning except, “I’m saying something because I know I’m supposed to.”
She pushed that away and thought over the conundrum, rubbing her earlobe as she did. Finally, she said thoughtfully, “I kinda wonder if your mom’s attachment to the house isn’t actually just an attachment to independence. I mean, I’m sure she loves that house, absolutely, but it’s gotta be hard to be by herself so much. She’s a really gregarious woman, sharp as a tack, not slipping mentally at all that I can tell, and yet, right now, she’s basically in solitary confinement. A teen comes over a few times a week, and she sees her son for a few minutes every morning and night. I can’t imagine that a woman as outgoing and friendly as your mom is happy about that.”
Adam pushed back from the table, drumming his fingers, thinking. His shirt lay open, giving her easy visual access to his chest, and just the sight of his abs…she had a hard time keeping her mind out of the gutter and focused on the conversation, that was for sure.
“I…uhh…” She tore her eyes away from the visual feast in front of her, forcing herself to meet his gaze. “Have you been into Second Time Around?”
“No,” he said slowly, confused about the apparent change in topic. “I mean, I know what it is, but they don’t tend to have a lot of veterinarian tools or horse tack in a thrift store, so I’ve never had much reason to go in there.”
Kylie laughed a little. “I have to admit, I didn’t see a single horse saddle in the place when I went in. Anyway, I had to get some items for the house, and thought I’d check out their offerings. Did you know that it’s actually run by the senior center? Everyone who works there, they all live in the retirement home. The home sends a bus back and forth between the store and the home all day long, shuttling workers to and fro. All money from the store is used for activities and other items for the home. I personally think that your mom wants to still be busy. Important. Needed. She doesn’t want to be shunted off to some old folks’ home to die, and really, who would? But if they could find some task for her to do down at the store to keep her busy and wanted, I think that’d mean more to her than anything else. And you wouldn’t have the strain of taking care of her on top of everything else you have on your plate.”
Adam’s mouth twisted. “I’ll be honest, that sounds lovely. I just don’t know if my mom will actually go for it. Ruby Whitaker can be sweet and kind to almost everyone she meets, but when she digs her heels in…watch out. It’s a side to her that most people don’t see, but as her only living relative, I can attest that it’s there.”
Kylie reached out and took his work-hardened hand into hers. “Give it a try,” she said softly, rubbing her thumb over his calloused knuckles. “The worst she can do is say no.”
Chapter 33
Adam
“I am not going to be dragged off and stuffed into some old folks’ home to die!” his mom shouted, her normally pale face red from anger.
Kylie had been wrong. Oh so very wrong. His mother wasn’t just telling him no, she’d told him what a terrible idea it was using phrases from other languages that he didn’t even recognize. Or maybe his mom was just hurling made-up swear words at his head. He wasn’t quite sure at this point.
He held up his hands in front of him defensively. “I’m sorry!” he blurted out. “Kylie thought that you might enjoy working down at the store, and—”
“So now you’re listening to Kylie, huh?” his mom yelled, cutting him off. “Is she trying to get rid of her future mother-in-law so she can have you all to herself?”
“Now, hold on a minute,” he growled back, glowering at his mother, his worry about upsetting her morphing into anger. “Kylie was just trying to help. She is one of the nicest people to ever grace this planet, and I won’t have you saying shit like that about her!”
“Don’t you swear in front of me!”
“Don’t you give me cause to swear in front of you!” he retorted.
They were breathing heavily, just staring at each other, neither one willing to move an inch, when his mom snarled, “So. Is this why you wanted to sell my car to her? Just wanting to start the process of selling off everything I have and leaving me with nothing at all?”
“What?” he yelped, jerking his head back in surprise. “Mom, what are you talking about? You begged me for years to sell it for you but I was always too busy. You were thrilled with having Kylie take it over. Why are you acting like this?”
“Why are you trying to get rid of your mother?” she shot back. She struggled to her feet. Instinctively, Adam hurried
to her side to help her but she waved him away. “I’m going to my room,” she announced. “Maybe by tomorrow, you’ll have realized what a terrible mistake you’ve made.”
Head held high, she pushed the walker down the hallway, not looking back.
Adam collapsed into the wing-back chair and stared off into space.
Well, that went well.
It’d seemed so simple, so straightforward, when Kylie had talked about it last night. And it would be…if his mother wasn’t so damn stubborn.
He pushed himself out of the chair and headed outside. He needed to go do something. Just sitting in the house, staring at the walls, his mother busy giving him the silent treatment…that wasn’t going to help.
Somehow, he found himself in front of the Long Valley Senior Citizen’s Center, without making the decision to actually drive there. Ugh. He really needed to stop driving on autopilot. He was going to get into a wreck at some point if he kept it up.
He swung out of the truck and stared up at the building in front of him. It was a sprawling building; obviously, someone had made the wise decision to build out rather than up. When the majority of the residents have mobility issues, adding stairs into the mix was never a good idea.
Despite its size, though, it still had that welcoming feel, from the wisteria climbing up the side of the building to the rose bushes in full bloom. There was a large grassy area off to the left with some huge red maple trees to provide shade, where families could sit outside together and just hang out.
It was Sunday afternoon, so the place was bustling with family members down to visit relatives for the week. There was laughter and the Monkees belting out I’m a Believer and small kids running around…
It sure didn’t seem like the ass end of the earth to him.
Ms. Blackburn came walking up. “Hi, Adam!” she said, obviously surprised to see him. “Down here to visit someone?” She was the center’s director and from the little that he’d heard over the years, she seemed to be doing a stand-up job. Not that he’d made much of a point to pay attention previous to now, but thinking back through his memories, it sure seemed like he’d heard good stuff.
