by Penny Wylder
The way she says is, so full of awe and wanting, gives me the boost of confidence I need. I grab her and pull her into my arms. Her arms wrap around my shoulders and her legs around my waist. I run my fingers through her hair and press my lips against hers, hard and fast. Her mouth opens, inviting my tongue in. I love the taste of her mouth, so sweet. Her tongue is soft and flirts with mine in the most delicious way.
I put her back on the bed so I can strip her clothes away. While I’m pulling off her top, she’s unbuttoning my jeans and boxers. I shimmy out of them and pull her skirt up to her waist and her panties to the ground.
My hands cup around her generous ass, squeezing and kneading. I reach between her legs. She’s already wet. She lets out a soft whimper that brings out the animal in me. My hands linger over her body, taking in every curve, every freckle, every scar. I get to enjoy her in a way that I wasn’t able to during our encounter at the bar. The lights are on, I see everything, and it’s a glorious sight. All that flesh, all that beauty, waiting for me, and I plan to touch every inch of it.
I start with her breasts and work my way down until I’m in the spot I’ve been hungering for since our first time. Soft and wet, I lick the delicate entrance of the most perfect pussy I’ve ever seen and felt. Being inside her was like being held by a cashmere glove making a tight fist. I want so badly to be inside of her again, but I don’t want to rush this. There is plenty of time for that.
Getting off my knees, I lay on my back. She climbs on top of me with a sassy little smile. I think she’s going to straddle my waist, but instead she turns around with her ass to me and straddles my face. She starts to ride my eager tongue, gyrating her hips and moaning loud enough to the fill house with her sounds. I love hearing her, how much she enjoys my efforts.
She bends over, giving me a delightful view of her asshole as she takes my cock in her mouth. I almost come the second I feel her warm breath against my skin, but manage to hold back. She seems to have a hard time swallowing it down at first. As she finds her rhythm and allows her throat to open, she manages to take the whole thing. And holy shit does it feel amazing. I force myself not to think about how she got so good at it. All I want to think about is her, alone, with me. She’s mine now. There’s no denying our connection, and I’m done trying to force these feelings down. Maybe I loathed her once for what she did, but the closer we get, the more those old feelings evaporate and I realize Lina isn’t that girl anymore. It seems she’s grown up more than most of us. Maybe it took moving to California, where she was no longer the ruler of the school, to change her wicked ways. Or maybe her maturity came with age. I don’t know. But what I do know is I’m falling hard.
We sixty-nine until she comes. I continue the monumental task of holding on. I’m not done with her yet. Not even close. I plan to spend the entire night making her feel good.
I don’t let her relax after she comes. I plan to keep at it until she can’t move. She rolls on top of me, straddling my waist. The way she looks me in the eyes, slowly rolling her hips, and watching me carefully, I can see she’s different. There is good in her. There always has been. I knew that as a kid, but she kept it hidden from everyone else. She was too worried about her reputation as queen bitch to show her softer side, but she’s not afraid of it anymore. She really has changed. Right now, seeing that kindness in her turns me on even more. I take her by the hips and start to thrust hard and fast until she’s screaming and her eyes roll in the back of her head.
“Oh, god, oh yes,” she cries until the words become gibberish and there are only grunts and gasps as she comes again.
I flip her over, onto her stomach and fuck her from behind. Our skin slaps together, and I spank her beautiful ass, loving the way it jiggles. She grabs the pillow, squeezing it into her fists. I want to push her to her limits. See how far she’s willing to let me go. I use the pad of my thumb and rub it against her asshole. She moans louder. Her cries are muffled as she buries her face into my sheets. She likes it. I smile to myself, knowing that soon, I’ll be able to have her in every way possible. Not tonight, though. Tonight is about connecting again. But this won’t be the last time. I’m not letting her disappear again.
After several hard thrusts I can’t hold it in any longer. I come inside of her. And for some reason, my muddled, post-orgasm brain goes right back to the past, to that night in my truck when a group of my classmates stood around with their flashlights, shining them through the windows of my truck while I was lying there prone and naked. I could see all of their amused faces, hear all of their laughter. My eyes had locked on Lina’s. She was the only one not smiling or laughing. She stared at me with a painful expression.
I roll away from Lina and lay beside her, trying to catch my breath while looking up at the ceiling.
“What’s wrong?” she asks. Her fingers glide across my sweaty chest, playing with my nipples and bellybutton. Remembering her, that pained expression, makes me see her in a different light.
My plan was to make her fall in love with me, then hurt her by pushing her away and humiliating her the way she had done to me, but if she never meant to hurt me, then my revenge seems particularly harmful.
“Did I ever stand a chance with you when we were kids?” I ask. “Or did you just agree to sleep with me as a cruel prank?”
She touches me gently on the shoulder. I roll over to face her. Her smile is as soft as an angel’s. “I was in love with you. I guess I’ve been trying to block those memories out because they were too painful, but being here, at the creek, at the bar, it’s bringing up so many memories I thought were lost forever. But I do remember loving you and being excited to lose my virginity to you. I even wrote it down in my diary. That was my first mistake. Haley snuck up on me and read the whole thing. She told all of our friends. We weren’t called the bitch squad for nothing. They tormented me, humiliated me and threatened to tell my parents if I didn’t go along with the prank. Haley was the worst of them. She just wouldn’t let it go and it all got so out of control. And the weirdest part was, even after the prank, Haley kept bugging me about it. She was trying to get me to fuck you. She wanted me to. It became her obsession. She was teasing me for being a virgin and bragging that she wasn’t …”
She starts to shake and I can tell these memories are upsetting her.
A tear rolls down her cheek. I wipe it away and try to console her. “You don’t have to talk about it,” I say.
“I’m sorry,” she says. “I never wanted to hurt you. That was never my intention.”
“I know that now. It’s all right. Don’t think about it anymore.”
My mind is going a million miles an hour as I absorb what she just told me. Haley apologized to me after Lina moved away and made an obvious effort to try to get close to me. She told me that Lina set everything up, but even then I didn’t fully believe it because there were a lot of inconsistencies with her story. For someone who lied all the time, she wasn’t very good at it. I didn’t think too much of her lies and didn’t overthink them because I was so mad at Lina and thought of her as the bad guy through the whole thing. I even let Haley into my life because I was desperate for part of Lina to stay with me. I was pissed at her, of course, and I thought she was the most horrible person I’d ever met, but at the same time, I couldn’t just get over those feelings for her.
“To be honest, I’m surprised you and Haley became friends,” Lina says.
“No more surprised than me. She was trying hard. I thought maybe she was wracked with guilt.” She laughs and I do too because knowing Haley, that’s preposterous. Part of me knew that back then, but I guess I was feeling sorry for myself and wanted it to be true.
I say, “I remember, senior year, shortly after you’d left, and Haley was very obviously pregnant, she was trying particularly hard to get close to me.”
She seems to marvel at that. “Do you know who the father is?” she asks.
I laugh and look at her confused. “Are you joking?” But the look on her f
ace makes me realize that she’s clearly not. “Weren’t you the one who spread the rumor that one of her teachers knocked her up?”
Her eyes go wide, seeming horrified. “I would never do anything like that. I didn’t even know she was pregnant until a couple days ago when I arrived.”
My head hurts. I don’t know who has been lying to me. If Lina is telling the truth, that means Haley lied to me and was trying to get close to me while I was hurt and fragile. For some dumb reason I’d trusted her.
10
Lina
It’s not the sunlight peeking through the curtains, or the clanging of dishes that wake me up the next morning. It’s a heavenly smell. My eyelids stretch open and look around Madden’s room. Then I look beside me and see he’s not there. For a panicked moment, I fear he’s ditched me and this is part of his revenge against me, but as I wake up further, I know that’s not true. Something in my gut tells me he wouldn’t do that to me. Not now. Not after last night. We bonded, I know we did. When he looked in my eyes, I know he felt the same way about me that I do about him. If he denies it, he’s only lying to himself.
Careful footsteps climb up the stairs, bringing that amazing scent closer to me. Then Madden comes around the corner, into the room. He’s holding a tray full of pancakes, sausage, and eggs. I’ve eaten nothing but vending machine junk food from the motel since I arrived and the food smells so good I might just maul him if he tried to take it away.
“Thought you might be hungry after last night,” he says with a wink.
I sit up, excited. He laughs. “Starving,” I say.
“Sexy as hell, good in bed, and a fabulous cook? How are you still single?” I ask him as I spread butter over the pancakes and cover them in warm syrup.
“I guess I’ve just been waiting for the right person to come back to town.”
I almost choke on the giant bite of pancake I shoved in my mouth. He chuckles at my expression and stands up. “I have to go help Abe out at the shop for a couple hours this morning. Finish eating, take a shower if you want. There are fresh towels in the closet.”
He kisses my forehead, so sweet and soft. I can get used to this. I can see myself waking up every morning to that perfect face, to those delicate kisses.
I take a deep breath and try to shove those thoughts away. I know we’re starting to connect, but I’m not delusional. I hurt him and I don’t know if what I did is forgivable. Right now he’s being flirty; we just slept together. I’m not going to take his words and a fabulous breakfast in bed as an indicator that he wants to spend the rest of his life with me.
After he leaves I take a shower and wash my clothes. And to be honest, I poke through his stuff a little while I wait. I look at old family albums and see the progression as he changed from a skinny awkward kid into the beautiful man that he is now. His mother liked taking pictures of him. There are hundreds of him and Abe. My mom was never like that. I wish she had been. I hardly have any pictures of my father or my childhood.
After my clothes are dry, I leave. Standing outside by my car, I look over at my old house, the for sale sign staked into the brown lawn. So many good memories in that house. I miss it.
I decide to call my mom. She never told me about putting it up for sale or that it hadn’t sold. She never wanted to talk about our life in Pepperhill. Whenever I would bring it up, she would change the subject. It seemed like some kind of secret we were never supposed to talk about. I always thought it had something to do with my dad. Maybe their marriage was never as happy as it seemed, and maybe one of them had an affair—which seems impossible, but you never know. Seems everyone is full of secrets in this town.
I call my mom. I’m in the mood for answers. But she doesn’t answer. I leave a message and head for the bar.
I’m scrubbing the wood floors, sanding them, and putting on a new coat of stain. Madden shows up with his truck to unload lumber for part of the bar and the tables that need to be replaced. It’s hard to get any work done when we can’t seem to keep our hands off of each other. We have deep conversations and silly, light-hearted ones. We revert right back into the friendship we had before Haley ruined it all, and then we’re touching each other again.
He’s just finished replacing part of the counter at the bar when he says, “Stay with me.”
I stop sanding. Sweat drips into my eyes. I use the sleeve of my shirt to wipe it away. “What?” I ask, a little surprised. That’s a big jump, going from him basically bribing me to have sex with him to then asking me to stay at his place.
“There’s no sense in you paying to stay at that gross motel when I have a huge house all to myself. We can go get your stuff and you can check out tonight.”
Sleeping in a comfortable bed without the sound of arguing and then drunken make up sex going on in the next room does sound appealing. And if I’m being honest with myself, so does waking up next to Madden. But staying with him will only deepen the feelings that are scaring me to death right now, and he’s still so cocky, so I’m not fully sure I can trust him yet. I don’t want to take the chance that he plans to hurt me.
“I can’t. I’m sorry.”
He looks like he wants to argue, but I don’t give him the chance. Instead, I turn my back to him and stir the stain for the counter.
“The offer still stands if you change your mind.”
“Thank you.”
Madden grabs his tools and leaves. I have a feeling he’s not happy with my decision but he doesn’t say as much.
I go back to the motel. It’s midnight and I’m exhausted. I can’t wait to get in the shower and wash all the sawdust off of me. When I go to my room I can hear the couple next door fighting, yet again. How do two people find so much to argue about?
I drop my purse on the bed and go into the bathroom. Just as I’m about to turn on the shower, I see a giant spider on the handle and jump back with a scream. In any other setting I’m sure someone would be banging on the door to make sure I’m all right, but around here, people are used to that.
I leave the bathroom afraid to kill it. That thing looks big enough to beat me up if it wanted to. I guess I’m not getting a shower tonight.
Dejected, I go over to the bed and a cockroach scurries across the floor in front of me. “Are you kidding?” I mumble to myself. Madden was right. This place is gross.
I grab my purse and head to the manager’s office. The look on Haley’s face is as sour and bitter as they come. I used to want to look like her. I thought she was so pretty. But it’s clear staying hateful will age you. I’m glad I changed. Leaving this town, though heartbreaking, might have been the best thing for me after all.
“Can I help you?” she says in the most obvious, snotty tone she can possibly take. She’s not even trying to pretend to be nice to me anymore. I want to throw it back at her and ask her why she lied and told Abe and Madden that I spread rumors about her, but I’m too tired for that right now.
“My room is full of bugs. Is there any way I can get a new one?”
“Sorry, no other vacancies.”
I know that’s a lie. This place is hardly full. It’s not like Pepperhill is next to a freeway or in a bustling part of the state where anyone would dream of passing through. There’s nothing around here for miles.
“Are you sure?” I ask again, starting to feel desperate.
She puts her elbows on the table and gives me a fake smile as she lays her chin in her palms. “Did I stutter?”
Man, I would love to punch her in the face right now. “Fine, then I’m checking out.”
“Suit yourself,” she says.
I leave the motel and go to the bar. I guess this is where I’ll be staying for the duration of my stay in Pepperhill. There’s nowhere to sleep but one of the booths. It won’t be comfortable, but it will have to do.
Eventually I fall asleep after tossing and turning, trying to find a spot that doesn’t make my arms go numb or my back ache. It’s a fretful sleep which is why I wake up immediately when
I hear the sound of tires screeching outside the bar. I look at my phone. It’s three in the morning. My heart starts to pound. If someone is up at three in the morning, chances are they’re up to no good. I jump up, bumping my knee on the table. It hurts like hell, but that’s the least of my concerns.
I look out the window, seeing a car’s break lights come on just as they disappear around the corner. I can’t tell what kind of car or even the color because it’s just outside of the glow of the street lamps. All I can tell is that it’s some kind of sedan.
Running outside, my world starts to sink. Whoever it was has splashed red paint all over the front of the building and sidewalk. I step out further to see just how much the paint covers. I scream when I step on something sharp. Looking down I see that whoever vandalized my place has covered the parking lot in nails as well. This time when I scream it’s out of frustration. Luckily the nail isn’t in my foot too deep. There’s only a minor cut. Just enough to put me in a rage.
I go back into the bar and call Madden. He must not have been sleeping well either because he picks up on the second ring and doesn’t sound all that tired. I tell him what happened and I can tell he’s holding in his frustration as well. We both have been working so hard and someone came right behind us and ruined our efforts.
“I’m on my way,” he says and hangs up.
He arrives soon after. I’m still sitting in the front of the building, this time holding the bat that my dad kept behind the bar just in case the vandals decide to come back. Madden steps out of his truck. Though shadows cast over his face I can still see the anger there. He looks scary when he’s mad.
“Son of a bitch,” he says when he sees the extent of the damage.
“Tell me about it.”
His eyes shift over to me. They go wide when he sees the way I’m holding my foot.
“Please tell me that’s paint,” he says.
