Absolution Road

by Rachel Blaufeld

  He gave my lower lip a gentle bite, then his tongue swiped along my lips and found its way inside my mouth where it brushed along mine. I felt myself scooted back into his lap as he continued to explore my lips and mouth.

  As his erection dug into my butt and the fireworks still burned overhead, I came up with a plan.

  The next morning, we had the gang over for brunch. Bess joined me by the sink and whispered in my ear, “Happy to see you up and around, Al.” With her arm wrapped around me, she gave me a squeeze and asked what she could do to help in the kitchen. I told her to sit down with a virgin Bloody Mary and cuddle her baby girl, who was toddling all around the place.

  I was scared to death Maddy was going to fall down the steps or get hurt on a few pieces of PT equipment we’d moved upstairs to be more convenient for me. I made a mental note to let Jake know I loved the place for now, but if we stayed the course, we needed a more family-friendly place.

  Then I mentally slapped myself for even thinking that way. What the heck was with me and all this kid stuff?

  “Oh, I’ll cuddle my baby girl,” Bess sang as she scooped up Maddy and kissed her all over her wild hair.

  Immediately, I stopped what I was doing and watched, more and more fascinated with the idea of having a baby. Would I be able to do that with my leg? Snatch my babies up and swing them around, covering them with kisses? Would Jake want that with me? Would he help?

  A tear slid down my face as I was slicing berries for a trifle. I didn’t know why I was so emotional all of a sudden. Then the phone rang, and it was the nursing home where my mom was, notifying me that she’d passed in the early morning hours.

  I cried a little after I hung up and explained to Bess what had happened, but Mom was better off. Living without memories was no way to live. I knew that now that I was making them—even if it was only Jake and me.

  “What was your momma’s full name?” Bess asked.

  “Winona West Road,” I told her as Jake made his way to my side, running his hand down my arm and kissing my hair. “West was her maiden name. Winona was a family name.”

  “That’s the circle of life, you know. One life out, and another one in,” Bess said. “And I think we’ll name this one after your momma.” She patted her flat belly and smiled like a fool at Lane.

  “Really?” I asked.

  “Really. We’re family.” Bess came over with Maddy and held me tight. “Group hug,” she told her little girl, and all of a sudden I was crying happy tears while being strangled by a toddler.

  And this time, no wimpy little sad tears for me. This time I cried big, full, ecstatic teardrops.

  Jake

  One year later

  Aly ran her hand along my back, her fingers gently tracing every inch of the way to my tattoo before heading back down toward my ass. Her touch ghosted over the crack, setting small blazes along the way, burning me up with need from just her soft fingertips. I was flat on my stomach, Aly spread out next to me, her chin on my shoulder, her right leg thrown over mine.

  Oh, those legs, they had me salivating that night when we met in jail so long ago. I never wanted a pair of legs to be wrapped around me as badly as I had back then. Or now—even if it wasn’t possible. My dick was hard as fuck against the mattress, but I didn’t move. No way I was missing out on this moment of Aly touching me.

  Keeping my head buried face-first in the pillow, I felt small kisses being placed on my shoulder, up and down the pair of legs permanently marked there. Aly’s long hair tickled my cheek as she leaned in and continued to run laps along my spine, taking the time to do wide circle eights around my traps.

  “Love you, Jake,” she said, her voice hoarse and sultry.

  “Love you, Aly-cat,” I grumbled, the desire evident in my words.

  The patio doors were open, allowing the salty ocean breeze to waft through our bungalow. It was still dark out, early morning before the sun breached the sky, the time I would normally get up to pound some iron at home or the gym. But this was my honeymoon, and I wasn’t moving.

  “You good, babe?”

  “Mm-hmm,” she mumbled as she slid completely on top of me, her front flush to my back. Her kisses traced the nape of my neck while both her hands wrapped around the front of me. I lifted my pelvis, granting her access between the mattress and my cock, but she didn’t take advantage of it right away. Her fingers tickled my groin area, teasing the seam between my thigh and the promised land.

  “Al . . . you’re killing me.”

  “Shh,” she whispered in my ear before sucking on my earlobe. “I’m taking my time.”

  “I got all the time in the world with you now. I got you back safe and sound, and I made an honest woman of you. But if I want to get in you quick, why can’t a man get what he wants?” I begged.

  Yes, I beg now. Beg for my wife.

  All. The. Time.

  Her hand wrapped around the target and gave a small squeeze.

  “Harder,” I couldn’t stop myself from commanding, and she obeyed.

  I ground into her hand, the tip of my cock hitting the satiny sheets, her warm hand rubbing me tight and rough without stopping.

  “I’m gonna come from a handy, babe.”

  “S’okay.” Her words and the sound of the ocean lapping the shore drifted over my ear, tumbling deep into my soul. All she said was s’okay, and I wanted to marry her all over again.

  Everything with Aly was beautiful, especially after we got over all the hurdles. It was worth it. All of it. I never thought I’d love a woman this way, more than myself. But I did.

  When we’d stood together in front of our family at our wedding, and she told me she loved me and whispered, “Jason, I mean all of you, including all your past transgressions,” I was done in. She took everything as it came—my moods, my proclivities and wants, and all my fuckups. She was the first woman to call me Jason since my mom, and it sounded right coming off her lips.

  My brother and his family, a priest, Hilary, and James, those were the only people we invited. It was a small affair in Lane’s backyard. Bess had planned the whole event in five seconds flat with James over the phone. It was simple and sweet, understated and beautiful, just like my wife.

  Now, there was nothing sweet about the vixen as she fisted me hard the way I needed. I grunted as I shoved my morning wood within her grip.

  Pretty sure I liked her from the first minute in jail. Honest to fucking God, I was that kind of sap now. I didn’t know it would be like this when I walked out of the jail cell a free man on Christmas morning. When we kept running into each other, I’d thought maybe she would rescue me from a life of selfishness by letting me do something noble, protect her or save her, or some shit like that.

  Instead, she needed me to protect her forever, and it almost cost her life and my soul. It did cost her leg and my sanity while she was missing.

  My balls rose up, full and ready, and I tried to distract myself by thinking of a barbell hitting the mat. She felt too good, and I wasn’t ready to blow my load.

  Doc Wells was helping me accept that Aly’s kidnapping wasn’t my fault. Sometimes Aly and I went together to see her; other times, I went by myself. I was slow when it came to these things, but Aly took all of me, including all my past transgressions, just like she’d promised at our wedding.

  “Fuck!” I blurted. Her hand was soft and supple from the day before. We’d waded in the ocean, Aly in my arms, the salt lapping all around us, and the sun kissing our skin.

  “Maybe I’ll do this every morning when we get back, keep you home from the gym,” Aly teased, slowing her pace up and down my cock, running her finger over the tip and then squeezing me hard.

  I didn’t answer, just let out a loud rumble as I came all over the thousand-dollar-a-night bed.

  Fucking show her what she did to me.

  Shifting my hips up and knocking Aly off-balance, I flipped us around. I wiped my sticky hand on the blanket, gripped the sheet, and cleaned myself off, promising
myself I’d leave a tip for housekeeping later.

  I ran my hand over her shiny red hair and down her smooth back. “If I miss the gym, babe, the body goes to hell. Don’t think you’d like that.”

  She rolled her eyes, and I smirked.

  “Probably not,” she admitted, and leaned in for a kiss. Before I could take her tongue, she pulled away and added, “But I’d love you no matter what, Jake. Want you any way I can have you. Tight body or not.” And then she let me have her tongue.

  She meant it.

  I’d witnessed the way she’d handled Shirley. We couldn’t ignore the fact that the woman had saved Aly; that would be both rude and cruel. So we’d thanked her profusely, and Bess had even sent flowers from me. I would have never thought of that, let alone actually done it, yet that was all I could give her. But Shirley wanted more; she wanted all of us—Lane, Bess, Maddy, Aly, and me.

  Aly had left it up to me, watching for clues I had changed my mind before she stepped in and put her foot down. Her intervention had started when Shirley called Bess, wanting to come to the wedding and see the ceremony. That was when my girl took charge. She’d picked up the phone to call Shirley and told her no. It was a simple no, and that was all she said. No explanations or long guilt-ridden conversations that would have been awkward for both of them.

  She told me she’d ended the call with, “Shirl, we know you’re there. We know where you are, and we know you’re trying to care, but for right now, it’s always going to be no. If we change our minds about having you be a part of our life, we will come to you.”

  Aly interrupted my foggy memory by saying, “Babe, I love you no matter what. You know that? Any way you come.”

  I nodded. I knew it.

  “Best thing I know. The only thing I know,” I told her, kissing her neck. I traveled my left hand down her rib cage, tickling her hip and caressing her thigh until it ended.

  “Jake, let it. We’re having a moment, and I don’t want to ruin it.”

  “Nothing’s ruined. It’s better. You’re here.” A shudder rippled down my spine at the thought of her not being here.

  “With half a leg,” she said.

  “One and a half is better than none,” I protested. “Look at me.” I grabbed her chin and forced her to face me. “To me, you’re always going to be all legs, and now the one you have is looking pretty fine from PT.”

  I winked at her and she gave me half a smile. When I tickled her rib cage, she gave me a full smile.

  It hurt, and I knew it. Her leg ached, her heart was pained, but it didn’t make a difference to me. She was my tough Aly-cat, learning to walk with a prosthetic and training to do a 10-K with a hand cycle. Her arms never looked so amazing, but with Aly it didn’t matter, because her beauty came from within and shone through all that shit.

  “Babe, can I continue seducing you?” she asked, and my body rose to the occasion.

  “Yeah, I’ll be quiet now.”

  Her hand came around the nape of my neck and pulled me close. She licked the seam of my lips and I let her inside, her tongue sweeping my mouth and brushing against mine.

  The silk of her nightgown rode up and bunched under my hard abs, bringing to life the tiny hairs scattered over my body. I wanted her bad. I was desperate to take control, but I’d let her have her way for a while. Her nails scratched my back up and down, down and up, small circles, then big ones. She brought her right leg around my back and dug her heel into my ass to press her cunt against my cock, which was ready again.

  My tip rubbed her clit and she let out a long purr, which was my undoing. Grabbing her arms, I pinned her hands above her head and snatched the leather ties from the nightstand. After I secured her hands in place and tied them to the wrought-iron headboard, I began my descent to her pussy.

  “Jake, I was in charge,” she grumbled as my tongue lapped up her creamy skin.

  “Not anymore,” I replied, and bit down on one of her nipples.

  I blew my hot breath on the sensitive point, allowing my tongue to love it gently. Then I bit the other one, repeating the same tenderness I had a moment before. Her nipples stood at attention on her chest, pink and reaching for my mouth.

  “Gorgeous. Fucking stunning.”

  “More.”

  “Who’s in charge? Not you, Aly.”

  “I want more,” she said.

  Of course I gave in, bringing my mouth down again on her tit. I sucked it until she was squirming and screaming. Finally, I was on the move again, dusting her flat stomach with kisses and making my way to where she wanted me to be. When my tongue grazed her clit, she arched right up into my mouth.

  The ocean air swept in from the window, coating our skin with salt. We were in Grand Cayman, but we might as well have been in some basement in the middle of Kansas, because I had no intention of leaving the room. At least we were enjoying the breeze.

  “Jake, don’t . . .” Aly whimpered when I quickly moved my tongue from her clit. “I want it back,” she begged.

  I didn’t answer. My mouth wandered to the crease where her thigh met her groin, and did a little exploring in the small cavern of sensitive skin. I sucked hard when I made it up to her hip bone, leaving one hickey and then another.

  “Please.”

  That was all she had to say from her sweet mouth, and I was sucking the hell out of her clit, my finger dug deep inside her. I was done teasing, over being gentle, my control snapped. Her hips smacked my face as she tilted off the mattress. Fuck, her glutes were strong as hell when she wanted me to dine on her pussy. She kept her right heel digging into my own glutes, and I was pretty sure my cock was going to snap from the pressure.

  I slid a second finger inside her, using the two in synchronicity to find her spot—the spot—and put pressure while I dragged my tongue hard over her clit.

  “Oh God, Jake,” she wailed as she came hard and fast all over my face, her juices tickling the stubble along my jaw.

  I sat up and swiped my hair out of my face. It was long again. I hadn’t buzzed it since the night Aly made me take charge again. There were fireworks that Fourth of July, and not just in the sky. I shaved it back then so I didn’t have to bother with it, but my girl liked her guy’s locks to be long enough to pull on. It was nothing but a quick trim these days when I went for a haircut.

  “You want your hands back or you want to keep them tied up like a good kitty?” I asked as I propped myself over Aly’s sweet and sweaty body.

  “Leave ’em,” she said.

  I didn’t need any further talk. I just dove inside her body, my cock hitting the back wall of her pussy fast and furious. After a few pumps, I slowed the pace, dragging my length back and then leisurely sliding inside my most favorite place. We did this dance for a while, fast and slow, slow and fast, before Aly said, “Need my hands.”

  I rubbed her wrists after reaching up and untying them, never slipping out of her. She fisted my hair and brought me in for a kiss, running the tip of her tongue along my mouth, prying it open and entering without warning.

  “Faster.” She breathed the word inside my mouth, and I felt it rumble all the way down to my chest.

  “Fuck!” I shouted, a loud growl escaping as I came hard inside my wife.

  I tumbled off her and trotted off to the bathroom, my dick loose and rubbing my thigh. When I came back with a cloth to wipe Aly with, she was sitting on the edge of her bed, fastening on her prosthetic. “What are you doing, babe?”

  “I just wanted to feel complete when you came back.”

  “You are,” I told her. “You’re always complete.”

  I knelt on the floor in front of her, taking her hands in mine and slipping off the prosthetic. I set the piece of metal and fake flesh to the side, bent my head, and kissed her stub. I knew she missed her leg. She couldn’t run stairs anymore. I owned a gym, exercised for a living, and that was something she’d always struggled with—the women all around.

  “Aly, there’s no one but you for me. Not yesterday, t
oday, or tomorrow. This”—I ran my finger along the scar where the doctors severed her leg to save her life—“this is nothing but another piece of your beauty. How you held on and survived for me, so we could live life together.”

  Her eyes were pained as she looked up at me. “How will we have babies with me hobbling around?”

  I knew she thought about it a lot. Since Bess and Lane announced they were pregnant with their second, Aly had mentioned babies here and there.

  “What? I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out. I promise.”

  “How do you know?” she asked as she ran her hand down my face.

  “I just do. What are you trying to say?” I brought my hand under her chin and lifted her eyes to meet mine. My knees dug into the floor, my forehead rested on hers, and my heart beat at a furious pace.

  “I’m pregnant.”

  For a single millisecond, my heart stopped and my throat went dry. Then I remembered this was Aly, and we were meant to save each other; that with her I felt I deserved life, and now we had created life.

  I grabbed her cheeks between my hands and kissed the fuck out of her face before I lifted her off the bed and up into my arms. “We’re going to be parents?”

  “Yes.” She nodded, her eyes shining.

  “Do you think I’m going to be okay? A good dad?”

  Another nod from her. “But what about me? And this?” Her gaze wandered to her stump.

  “I’m not worried, Aly-cat. I’m never worried when it comes to you.”

  I could see her swallowing back tears, and I didn’t think we deserved that on our honeymoon—or ever—so I begrudgingly carried her outside the hotel room and onto the balcony. I set my wife, the soon-to-be mother of my child, into a chair, and I pulled up one right next to her.

  Hand in hand, we sat and watched the sun rise. If this was what absolution felt like, I liked it.

  No, I loved it.

  Jake

  Another year later

  Oh my God, there were kids and dogs everywhere. Maverick rolled in the grass with Lucky, Bess and Lane’s new golden retriever puppy, and Luna, our new chocolate Lab pup, while Brooks staked out a quiet spot so he could keep a watchful eye on everyone.