by Larissa Vine
"I want to fill you from behind," he said. "When I fuck you, I want to see your juicy ass. Do you think you can take it?"
Tess bit her lip. Then she nodded. She could handle him this time. It would feel so right and so good that she wouldn't spit him out again.
She sat up on the mattress. Breathing heavily, she drank him in with her eyes. He was so big and muscular. His dick stood up like a solider ready for her pussy.
"Turn over," Conner said.
Tess flipped onto her hands and knees on the bed. Her cunt was sore. But it felt good. He moved his hand and rubbed the nub of her clit. Tess sucked in air.
Slap. He brought his hand down on her ass.
Tess groaned as the pain mingled with the pleasure.
"Who's the boss?" he asked.
"'You are … for now."
Conner put his dick back inside her. He moved with swift deep strokes, filling her like he'd promised.
"Harder. Do you want it harder?" he asked.
"Harder," she echoed.
"This is how a real man fucks," Conner growled. "Have you had a real man before?"
Tess realized that she hadn't.
Over and over, he pumped. Tess’s hands were braced beneath her. Her fingers gripped the sheet. She wanted to turn and look back over her shoulder at him. Because gazing into his eyes gave her such a connection. But she couldn't. Her eyes were closing by themselves, as she gave way to the sensations in her body. Still pumping, Conner reached between her legs and touched her clit. He started to knead the hell out of that little bud.
She was back on the wave again. A tsunami-sized wave. The pumping, the clit rubbing. How could do he so much to her at once? She was calling out, moaning, begging. Her pussy rippled around his cock. He was groaning, too, making animal sounds.
The tsunami in her body was thundering toward the shore. It seemed to crash against the beach. With a cry, she came. It was the hardest that she'd ever come in her life. Sparks flared in front of her eyes.
Conner had clearly been waiting for her to come because he started to grind even faster. Faster and faster. He gave one final thrust, groaned, then stiffened inside her. She imagined the spunk pumping into her body, filling her cunt.
He lay on top of her, motionless. "Fuck that was good, Tess."
She could smell his sweat. It gave off an animal smell.
He pulled out of her.
"I won't be a second," he said.
She opened her eyes watched him stalk off, naked, out of the bedroom. He'd probably gone to the bathroom to deal with the condom.
She lay panting on the sheet. The room seemed hazy. She barely registered the furniture. All she could think about was her pussy. Conner was right. He had stretched it good. Her butt cheeks felt tender from where he'd slapped her. But she liked the pain. It was a reminder of all the incredible, hot, dirty things that they'd shared.
The door opened. Conner came into the room. He was still naked. His dick was flaccid. She took in his powerful thighs. His skin was tanned to the color of butterscotch. He had exactly the right amount of chest hair, she realized.
And to think, that just a few minutes ago, that body had been devoted to pleasuring her. For the first time since her split with Matt, Tess felt that her luck was on the rise.
Conner climbed onto the bed and lay beside her. She rested her head on the rock-scape of his pecs. She loved how big he was. When she'd been with Matt, she'd felt huge and unwieldy. Next to Conner, she felt tiny and feminine.
His chest was perfect, but it was way too hard to be a good pillow. She moved her head off of it and let it sink into the goose feathers of the real pillow beside him. Conner stroked her hair back from her face, his fingers moving in a soft rhythm. It was like he was stroking a cat. Tess felt like purring.
"So, Tessie," he said in his Irish lilt.
Tess's heart leapt. Tessie. He had a nickname for her. His own personal term of endearment.
"How's your summer working out so far?" he asked.
She grinned. "From what I can sense, it's going to be one hot summer."
"One long hot summer.
She smiled. "And you're okay? About the arrangement, I mean? That it's with no strings?"
"Of course I am," Conner said quickly. "I've had a lot of women you know, tons of girlfriends and one night stands. I'm always meeting girls at the beach or at the bar, who are looking for a hook up. Not to sound too big headed. Hey, are you okay?"
Tess realized that she'd gone rigid. Suddenly, she needed to get away from him, so that she could have some time to think. She flipped onto her side. Now he couldn't see her face and she had a bit of privacy.
Conner turned onto his side too and spooned his body into the curve of her back. They fit so well together, like interlocking pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
Tess thought about what he'd said. Of course he'd had plenty of one night stands. Of course girls were constantly throwing themselves at him. It was obvious. He was such a hottie. She should have figured it out before.
She imagined the women. They'd be a perfect counterpoint to gorgeous Conner. They'd have streaky hair and high cheekbones and legs that stretched all the way up to their armpits.
Something hard pressed into the back of Tess's thigh.
She raised her eyebrows. "You're kidding."
But Conner clearly wasn't messing about. His erection nudged firm and insistent into the back of her leg.
Chapter Nine
The days moved on, each one melding into the other. The heat of July carried on into August. Water restrictions sprang up in the city. Tess could no longer use the sprinkler to water the lawn outside the duplexes. On the television, she watched reports of terrifying forest fires.
Over the summer, she and Conner became inseparable. He made it his duty to show her around Vancouver. They rented bikes and cycled the trails in Stanley Park, venturing through fern-scented woods and the heady scent of the rose gardens. He brought her to Wreck Beach, then laughed like crazy when she realized that it was a nudist beach. It took him an hour of sweet talking to persuade her to get out of her bikini.
They went to a block party on Commercial Drive, the Italian quarter of the city, where they escaped the crush of bodies and sipped espressos in a cafe. They took a gondola ride up Grouse mountain and paddle-boarded in the harbor past seals. They watched fireworks being launched out at sea off of a cargo boat. Tess smelt the gunpowder mixed with the brine of the ocean. She watched the fireworks rise up and up into the night before collapsing into thousands of tiny fragile stars.
Conner was her guide to other things. He showed her more to lovemaking than she'd ever imagined was possible. He let her blindfold him and spank him. He shaved her pussy. He bought her love balls at a sex shop.
When they returned from the shop with the balls, he’d gotten her to strip then made her bend down with her back toward him and touch her toes. She gasped as he slipped the balls inside her. Their weight had felt weird as she walked around. But good weird. A turn-on weird. Conner pulled the balls out of her so fast that she came in a quivering, ecstatic heap.
****
One afternoon, she was sitting on the couch in the living room, scrolling through Facebook on her phone. Her friends' lives in England seemed so dull compared to hers. Widget was passed out inside the cardboard box that Tess had used to bring back her groceries. Widget had been away all night, probably having a spat with the next door cat. She slept so soundly that Tess expected her to start snoring.
Tess read some more Facebook posts then, idly, she clicked on the date display on her phone. Her blood froze. It was August 20th.
Oh God, oh God. In three days’ time, Granny P would be back from her cruise and Tess's long, hard summer would be over.
Chapter Ten
"1Stop fussing," Conner said. "It looks great as it is."
Tess ignored him. She raced out of the kitchen and into the lounge, almost tripping over Widget, who'd stopped in the middle of the carpet to do yoga
stretches. Widget shot her a baleful look before stalking off. Seconds later, Tess heard the click-clack of the cat flap.
Tess hurried to the mantelpiece and straightened the black and white photo of Granny P on her wedding day. Next, she fluffed out the flowers in the vase next to the photograph, spreading them apart, so that each of the irises was in full view and wasn't blocked by another one.
She'd put flowers in vases all around the house, even in the bathroom. She'd vacuumed so much that she was convinced that the carpet was thinner. The cat hair had gone. Every single bloody strand of it. The air smelt of Windex and Lysol.
Conner entered the lounge. "Stop pacing."
"I'm not pacing." Tess walked over to the television and back again.
Just then, she heard the sound of a key being turned in the lock. She cast one final, anguished look around the living room to check that it was okay. Then she saw the front door open. Granny P hobbled inside. She had the taxi driver in tow. He deposited her case in the lounge before leaving.
"Conner." Granny P opened her arms to Conner.
She looked like Alannah, Tess thought. She had the same deep-set eyes. Granny P was short with rosy cheeks. She'd teased out her curls with a comb, and they hung around her head in a halo of grey.
Conner came up to Granny P. He had to stoop to hug her.
"You're looking well," he said once the hug had finished. There was no mistaking the affection in his voice. "I'm sure those silver foxes on the ship didn't stand a chance. I bet you knocked them for six."
Granny P giggled and patted her hair.
She stared over her bifocal glasses at Tess. "And you must be Alannah's friend."
Tess stepped forward and hugged Granny P, who didn't feel frail like Tess had expected. Granny P smelt of boiled sweets and of lilies of the valley talcum powder.
Tess drew back from the hug and smiled at Granny P. "Thanks so much for letting me stay in your lovely house."
"Not at all," Granny P said. "You've kept it so well." She glanced around. "And where is that Widget?"
Conner shrugged. "Probably out catching you a rat to welcome you back."
Everyone laughed.
Granny P clapped her hands together. "Now that we're together, who's for a cup of tea?"
"I really should go," Tess said.
"When's your flight?" Granny P asked.
"Not 'til five," Tess said. "But I've been hogging your house for far too long."
"No, no," Granny P said. "I insist. And anyway, I'm due another cup of tea. Do you know, on the cruise, they were feeding me almost every hour."
****
Conner had to go home to make some calls for work. So Tess and Granny P had tea together. They sat on the patio chairs on the sundeck. The sun streamed through the boughs of the maple trees. A hummingbird darted toward the feeder that Tess had filled every day with sugary water.
Tess tried not to think about how beautiful it was. Or about how she'd miss the house. She watched Granny P pour the tea from the pot into two china cups that were decorated with rose buds.
"Now I've left some tea leaves in the tea," Granny P said. "So that I can read your tea leaves."
Tess felt curious. She'd never had her tea leaves read before.
"Did you have a nice summer, dearie?" Granny P asked.
Tess smiled. Nice. That was one way of putting it.
"Mmm, it was great, thanks," she said. "How long has Conner been your neighbor?"
For some reason, she felt compelled to talk about him.
"Conner … oh, let me think." Granny P's wrinkled forehead became even more lined as it bunched together. "He moved in about ten years ago. I don't know what I'd do without him. He's is lifesaver, he really is. He's always mowing my lawn or popping up to Safeway to fill my prescriptions."
"Wow, he must be busy, what with his job and all the girls he sees."
"What girls?" Granny P opened a packet of Digestive biscuits.
"Girls. You know." Tess wondered if it was okay to talk about such things with a ninety year old. "You know, flings. I guess he doesn't show them off to you. But you must have seen lots of women coming and going."
Granny P made a clicking noise with her tongue. "No, no, no. That's not Conner's style at all, lovie. He's strictly a single woman type of man. He did have a girlfriend. A hoity-toity piece of work, she was. Always complaining if he didn't take her out for a five star meal or fly her over to the islands for holidays. She left him for this rich fellow who owned a software company in San Francisco. Good riddance, I say. It broke his heart, it did. He always looked so sad until he met you."
Tess jumped like she'd been poked with a stick. "Me and him. Oh, we're not … how did you know?"
Granny P gave a tinkling laugh. "I may be old, but I still have my female intuition.” She studied Tess with surprisingly sharp blue eyes. "Don't break his heart."
Tess's mouth hung open.
"You've got it all wrong," she managed at last.
Granny P fixed Tess a look. "Conner's a special boy. He doesn't deserve to be hurt again. Now, about that tea. When you drink it, make sure that you leave a little bit of liquid in the cup, so that I can read the leaves."
****
Tess did as she was instructed. She drank her tea until there was just a millimeter left at the bottom. As she passed the cup to Granny P, her heart thumped in her chest. This was silly, she told herself. Why was she nervous? She didn't believe that someone could predict the future by a few twiggy leaves and lumps of mush.
Granny P peered into the cup through her extra magnified bottom part of her lens. Tess's heart thudded even faster. A crow landed on the branch of a tree. It started to caw. The sound was ominous.
"I see a palm tree," Granny P said in a mysterious voice.
Tess frowned. A palm tree. Surely that was good, wasn't it? It wasn't like Granny P had seen a raven or a scythe.
"Am I going on holiday?" she asked.
"Wait." Granny P held the cup out further away from her then brought it back close to her face. "No, it's definitely a palm tree. There's no mistaking it."
"Am I going to the Caribbean?" Tess was beginning to get excited. She'd always wanted to go to the Caribbean.
An even better thought flashed into her head.
"Oh, oh," she cried. "Maybe I get to stay here."
Granny P laid the cup back down onto the table. "No, dearie. The palm tree means marriage."
"You're being ridiculous," Tess said.
Granny P helped herself to a digestive biscuit. Then she waved the packet under Tess's nose.
"No, dear," she said. "I'm not being ridiculous, as you put it. The leaves never lie."
****
Goodbye, porch.
Goodbye, steps.
Goodbye, rhododendron bush.
As Tess followed Conner, who was effortlessly carrying her suitcase, down the path of Granny P's house and past the toast-colored grass, she mentally said goodbye to some of the things that had been part of her world for the past two months of her life.
She followed Conner through the gate and up to his Audi Spyder, which was parked, gleaming, by the curb. He opened the doors with the press of a key fob and loaded her case into the trunk.
He climbed behind the wheel. Tess got into the passenger seat like she'd done countless times before. They'd taken so many trips together—to the marshes for bird-watching, to the Chinese night market, and to a cute little fishing town called Steveston, where they'd eaten fish and chips on a floating pontoon while sitting thigh-to-thigh.
Conner started the engine and put down the soft top. Sunlight streamed in on them. He began to drive through Kitsilano.
Goodbye, sushi bar.
Goodbye, McDonalds.
Wait, Tess thought. Why was she saying goodbye to McDonalds when there were a million of them in England?
Goodbye, doggie daycare.
They left the suburb and cruised past mansions. Soon, they sped along the highway. Tess sank lower
into the seat to stop the wind from buffeting her. It had already made a mess of her hair, which she was sure resembled a whirlwind.
She snuck a glance at Conner. His jaw was locked as he stared ahead at the road. He hadn't spoken since they'd set off, which wasn't like him at all. Normally, he'd be talking at a mile a minute and peppering the conversation with jokes and wisecracks and Conner-isms.
"Your flight's at five, right?" He broke the silence.
Tess eyed the digital clock on the leather-coated dashboard. It was 1:00 PM. She didn't need to check in until 2:00 PM, three hours before her international flight.
"How far is the airport?" she said.
"Oh, about fifteen minutes away."
"Then we've got plenty of time."
"Plenty of time for what?" Conner asked.
Tess's breath hitched in her throat. "Why? What were you thinking?"
****
Conner drove on for several minutes, and then he took the next exit off of the freeway. The car purred along a smaller road past fields of crops. Tess was too far away to tell what they were, but people were picking something from the bushes. The men wore turbans. The women's saris flashed bright against the clods of the soil.
Conner pulled into the entrance way of a field and killed the engine.
"Let's get out," he said.
Tess almost choked. "What here? Are you sure? Someone might see us."
"I'm perfectly sure," Conner said smoothly.
There was a wicked arch to his eyebrows.
Chapter Eleven
He led her out of the car then pushed her against it. The sun-warmed metal felt hot against her back. He reached behind her and stroked the nape of her neck. Goosebumps formed along her arms. She could feel the chemistry building between them like it always did when they were together. Conner leant in and suckled her ear.
Tess made a moaning sound.
He stopped sucking. Then, unexpectedly, he lifted up her dress. He shoved his hand down inside the front of her panties. She gasped. He put a finger up inside her. She made a squeaking sound.
Conner took his finger out and pushed it into her mouth. "That's what you taste like."
