Joke

by Mia Malone

  Now he didn’t.

  “Dante, please,” I whispered. “Please don’t do this. They will be safe, I swear to you. I miss them so much and –”

  He went on to repeat how they would go to his parents for Easter break instead.

  “Close the call,” Joke said.

  “Who’s that?” Dante asked immediately. “Are you in a car with someone?”

  “Close the call,” Joke repeated, slightly louder this time.

  I closed the call and my eyes.

  “Raz,” I heard Joke say, and my eyes flew open to find him with his phone to his ear. “We’re on.” He paused and added, “Yeah. Later.”

  Then he turned off the highway, stopped on the same outlook Lee and I had been the day before, and walked around the car to pull me out and into his arms. I leaned into his chest and breathed slowly in an effort to calm down.

  “I miss them so much,” I murmured.

  “Baby, listen to me,” he said and pushed my chin up. “We’ll get the girls out here. They’ll have a bodyguard from Boston and through their whole trip. Your ex can check him out. It’s a buddy of mine, he’s former military, runs a security firm. He’ll pick them up at home, take them to the airport. He’ll be there the whole time, visibly covering your asses.”

  “You –”

  He ignored me and kept talking.

  “You might want to keep it from your ex, but you’ll have more people watching you. Paddy talked to some guys we know and those guys you will absolutely not notice at all, but they’ll be there too.”

  “You –” I repeated.

  And was ignored again.

  “They’ll fly in to C Springs. Raz will take them to a hotel, and I’ll drop you off there. Pick you up again when they head home.”

  I just stared at him.

  “You planned this?” I asked which he clearly had, but I couldn’t believe it.

  “Of course I did,” he said calmly. “Wasn’t sure it’d be needed but figured it might be.”

  “Joke…”

  “You’re not alone in this, Sissy. I’m having your back. The others do too.”

  I wished I was the kind of woman who cried prettily, but I wasn’t so I shoved my face into his shirt when I started bawling and kept it there through my loud hiccupy sobs.

  “Babe, calm down,” he murmured and moved a hand over my back until I’d managed to stop the worst flood of tears.

  “You’re so gonna get lucky tonight,” I sniffled.

  “We helped too,” Mac said calmly behind me, and I turned so fast I almost slammed my head into Joke’s chin. “Just saying’,” he added with a grin.

  They were all standing there, and my lips wobbled again when I saw the concerned looks on their faces.

  “I love you guys,” I sniffled. “Thank you.”

  Jokes arms tightened around my waist, and I leaned into him.

  Then I called Dante and informed him calmly that our girls would absolutely come to see me, how they’d have protection and if he didn’t agree with the arrangements I’d made I would totally make a call to my lawyer.

  “You’re seeing someone?” Dante asked suddenly.

  I blinked. I knew from Mimi that he dated sometimes, and it hadn’t bothered me that he did, mostly because it hadn’t seemed to bother her.

  “I’m not sure that’s any of your business,” I said carefully.

  “I heard him,” he said.

  “Dante,” I sighed. “Let’s not go there. I know you’re dating. If I am too then I’m not sure why that is any of your concern.”

  “I’m just thinking about the girls.”

  “He won’t be there,” I said without thinking.

  “So you are seeing someone.”

  Jesus. What was his fucking problem all of a sudden?

  “I’m gonna hang up now. Please tell the girls we’ll talk tomorrow at our usual time. We’ll make plans then, and I’ll ask Cady to share them with you.”

  “But –”

  “Goodbye, Dante,” I said firmly and closed the call.

  “Shithead,” Joke grunted.

  “Not really,” I said slowly. “I think he’s mostly worried about the girls.”

  “He has a good job. Makes good money. He could have organized for protection twenty fucking years ago,” Joke snapped.

  I stared at him.

  “Will this cost a lot of money?” I whispered.

  “Calling in a few favors, babe. Won’t cost anything at all.”

  “Oh.”

  “You’ll owe me, though.”

  “What?” I asked, and it came out as a small squeak because of the way his face had changed.

  “Yeah. So, you’ll have to do what I tell you to do,” he said, keeping his eyes firmly on the road.

  “When?” I asked in another squeak.

  “Guess you’ll just have to wait and see.”

  Oh, God. The thought of what he might tell me to do made me squirm a little.

  “Okay,” I said, and when he laughed softly, I knew he heard in my voice what his words had done to me.

  “You’re gonna tell me about the dirty stuff you enjoyed back in your wild days now, babe,” he said and did not put it as a question.

  “Yes,” I said, and spent the rest of the drive telling him in great detail what I’d done.

  About the men I’d slept with. The few threesomes I’d been in, and they had been real ones, not the light-version Joke had engaged in with his friends. How I’d had sex with a girl, although I had found it pretty iffy and not an experience I wanted to repeat. That there had been some outdoor sex, and about the numerous times I watched people have sex on stage after the place where I worked was officially closed.

  I wondered what he’d think and worried he’d be put off, which turned out to be completely unnecessary. Joke was breathing heavily when we reached home and immediately pulled me up the stairs. Then he pushed me up against the inside of his door, yanked my pants down, and his own, and fucked me hard. I came embarrassingly fast and way before he did, mostly because this was one of my recurring fantasies about him, and it was way better than what I’d imagined. Watching him as he moved in me and hearing his soft growl when he came was also better than I’d imagined.

  Chapter Ten

  Joke

  Sissy was behind the bar refilling the fridges when Joke walked in from the kitchen. He’d been to one of the small breweries he’d invested in a few years earlier, to talk to the thirty-something guys with long but still carefully groomed beards who ran it. Lucky for them, they made good beer because the way they looked was according to him pretty ridiculous.

  They’d wanted to talk to him about extending the brewery, and he’d walked into the meeting thinking they’d want to buy bigger equipment to increase their production, something he wasn’t too sure was the right thing to do. They’d have to hire more staff then, and organize both marketing and distribution in a completely different way.

  He’d walked out surprised and with a stack of papers he’d have to wade through and some hard decisions to make because their proposals had to his surprise been something entirely different and not bad at all.

  One of the guys were married, and his wife had used the spent grain to make soap for quite some time, apparently. Joke had felt his eyebrows go up so high he thought they might have hit his hairline when he heard this, and he’d been laughing most of the ride home at the thought of someone wanting to wash with that shit. They had shown him her sales numbers, though, and what people apparently were willing to pay, so he’d promised to take a look at how they wanted to expand that part. He’d talk to Patty who ran a small gift shop in the same building as Oak. Perhaps she’d want to try to sell some. The wrapping around the bars looked pretty cool, he had to admit. He got a bag of samples which he wasn’t going to use himself, that was for fucking sure. Or, if he did, he was absolutely not telling any of his friends.

  The other idea they’d wanted to float had interested him more.

&
nbsp; They wanted to rebuild an unused part of the brewery to a smokery. They’d talked about dry-curing and smoked sausages, and he’d gotten another bag of samples that he’d already dipped into and what they had done on a small scale tasted great. He could easily sell that at Oak, and he knew Jenny would jump at the idea of locally sourced bacon and the likes.

  He’d talk to an old man in town about that, he thought. Billy had been smoking ribs forever, and they were legendary, at least among those privileged to taste them. Joke had never managed to figure out how Billy and his wife Edna picked who they thought was worthy of joining them for dinner. Paddy had tasted the ribs for the first time a couple of months earlier, but Joke had eaten them since he was a small boy. Combining the damned annoying enthusiasm of the bearded boys with a cool mind and some old school thinking would be good.

  Sissy looked at the bags he threw on the bar and grinned at him.

  “You let them down gently?”

  “I’ll be busy when you’re gone,” he said and placed the pile of papers next to the bags. “They had some pretty interesting ideas actually.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Soap.”

  He didn’t know what he’d expected her to say but the squeal she let out had not been it.

  “Beer soap!”

  What the fuck?

  “You got samples?” she asked. “Let me see. Oh, pretty. Can I have one? Jen and Lee will love these, can I –”

  “Jesus, babe,” he grunted. “Take as many as you like. I won’t use them.”

  At least not so anyone saw it, but considering her enthusiasm, he figured he’d have to try them if there was one which didn’t make him smell like a fucking ray of sunshine.

  “Yay,” she murmured and moved in closer to put an arm around his waist. “I’m so happy I’ll get to see my girls, but I’ll miss you.”

  “Yeah,” he said and wrapped his arm around her.

  He’d take her to her girls that evening, she’d only be gone for five days, and he’d miss her too. They’d slept together every night since their skiing getaway, and the way they’d slid into a life together was damned extraordinary. And hot. Jesus how hot it was to slowly get them both into something that wasn’t dirty exactly but certainly wasn’t a regular horizontal bump and grind.

  He’d found out that she wasn’t interested in any kind of sex that involved her butt. Since he wasn’t particularly into that himself, they’d moved on. A few ropes had proved to be more interesting, and any sticky food item was an instant hit. The way she was open to anything he suggested was a huge turn on, and he realized that he was a lot more creative than he had been in years. As they stood there in the empty bar, he felt himself harden and moved her slowly until she was in front of him, facing the bar.

  “Joke,” she said, and he heard in her voice that she knew he was up to something.

  The way his crotch pressed into her behind would be a good indication, he guessed.

  “Did you lock the front door, baby?” he murmured and slid his hands down to hold her hips.

  “Came in through the kitchen,” she said.

  “Ah,” he breathed in her ear.

  Then he unbuttoned her cargos and pushed them down a bit. It was early still, and the bar wouldn’t open in more than an hour, but people were passing by outside the big windows. Then he stretched out a hand and turned off the lights, making the space around them a gray, soft bubble. Unless someone leaned into the window and shielded their eyes, no one would see what they were doing.

  “It could be open,” he murmured.

  “God,” she said hoarsely but widened her legs when he slid a hand into her panties.

  He started circling her clit in a way he knew would both excite her and frustrate her and laughed softly when she made an annoyed sound.

  “What do you want, Siss?” he asked. “Want to come like this? Or do you want more?”

  “More,” she whispered.

  He used his free hand to push her pants down, and then her panties.

  “Lean forward and spread your legs.”

  She did what he told her, and he quickly unbuttoned his own jeans and pulled his cock out. When she felt it against her ass, she moved a little but her clothes stopped her, and she started to pull them further down.

  “Nuh-huh,” he said and gave her a soft slap. “Hands in front of you.”

  Her breaths were coming faster, and when he’d covered up, he bent his knees slightly to push inside and groaned softly.

  “Heaven, Sissy,” he murmured and started rocking his hips. “Look at the people outside, walking around. What if they knew what we’re doing, baby?”

  “Yeah,” she said and arched her back.

  He started flicking her clit and heard her moan softly. Gibson and Mac came walking and stopped right outside, talking and laughing about something. His grip on her hip, right over her fucking fantastic tat, hardened and she whimpered as he pulled all the way out and thrust inside in one long, hard push. Mac walked away and waved as he disappeared out of sight. Gib pulled out his phone and started fiddling with it.

  “What if he tries the door, Sissy?”

  She whimpered again, and he leaned over her, moving faster, pounding into her harder. It built for both of them, and the way she moved with him was fucking amazing.

  “You gonna come for me?” he asked hoarsely.

  “Yes.”

  She pushed out a soft wail, and he felt her legs shake as she orgasmed. He tried. He really tried to hold back but failed miserably and planted himself deep and came too, leaning on the bar with one arm and holding her up with the other. It felt like it lasted forever and when he finally came down, he kept sliding in and out, not willing to leave what had so very quickly become his favorite place in the whole world.

  Then Gibson turned toward the door, and Sissy froze.

  When the door handle rattled Joke chuckled and squeezed her gently.

  “It’s locked, baby.”

  “You knew.”

  “Of course.”

  Like he would have taken a chance that just about anyone could walk in to find them doing what they’d just done. Dirty was one thing. Not keeping her safe was a whole other ballgame and he wouldn’t do anything that could hurt her in any way.

  “Good,” she murmured and curled into him.

  Jesus, he thought. I love her.

  ***

  Sissy

  I ran across the parking lot like I had done almost six days earlier. Then I’d aimed for my girls, and they’d been running too until we crashed right into each other. There had been tears, and I’d held my arms around them so hard it had to have hurt. They’d held me just as tightly while we’d laughed and cried together.

  Then we’d gotten into a car Joke’s friend Raz had produced from thin air, or at least from somewhere which wasn’t a rental company because it was clearly someone’s car. The candy wrappers on the floor and dirt on its sides indicated this quite clearly.

  Raz had been a surprise. I had not known what to expect, but the tall, long-haired, goatee-sporting and tight, tattoo-showing tee wearing man had not been it. He’d seen my surprise, and his lips twitched.

  “Not gonna look like I’m still in the fucking Secret Service when we’re going to a ski resort, babe,” he muttered and moved a hand to indicate that we were to get into the car.

  The girls giggled, which probably was since they’d never heard a man call their mother babe before, and climbed in, but I stood there staring at him.

  “Still in the –” I cut myself off and tried to look casual about having him there as if having a bodyguard was something I was used to. “Okay then,” I said and accompanied by a low chuckle, I climbed into the car.

  Then we headed southwest toward a small place where the skiing was great, the people friendly and the sun seemed to shine from a perpetually blue sky. We talked and talked, and I couldn’t seem to stop smiling, even when we snapped at each other which we did in the way three women of various ages woul
d when trying to agree on shit.

  Raz kept his distance and didn’t say much even when I tried to engage him in conversations, and I was mostly grateful for this because I had so many days of being without my daughters to cram into five puny ones.

  I told Cady and Mimi about Joke the last night before we went back to C Springs. I was nervous, which felt ridiculous and I tried my best to sound casual about the whole thing. They mostly seemed curious and wanted to see pictures, which I didn’t have any. Dante was apparently dating a lawyer working in the same company as he did, and Cady said she was okay, but Mimi wrinkled her nose and shrugged. I’d have to talk to her about it, I realized and wished for the millionth time that I could have them with me. It surprised me to realize that I’d stopped wishing I could go back to Boston. It wasn’t home anymore, and apart from the girls, I had nothing there. Cady would start college after the summer, and she was heading for Penn so Mimi would be the only one remaining for me back there.

  I’d asked Joke if he wanted to meet my girls, but he’d shook his head and told me that this was for them and me, and added that it had been too long since we met and neither of us needed the distraction. I swallowed when he calmly said that we would get them to Wilhelmine by the summer and he’d meet them then.

  Raz dropped me off outside the hotel and left immediately because they had a plane to catch and we’d been delayed by traffic. When I saw Joke standing there with his arms spread out, ready to hold me as I came running, I knew without a doubt that I was falling in love with him.

  “Thank you,” I whispered into his neck. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

  He’d caught me and had his hands on my butt, swinging me around which was a little from happiness but mostly, I suspected, from the impact of me hitting him full force.

  “You had a good time,” he murmured, not putting it as a question.

  “Yeah,” I confirmed.

  “Let’s go home.”

  “Yeah,” I repeated softly. “Let’s go home.”

  We got in the car, and the way his thumb caressed my hand gently felt so sweet. He knew most of what we’d done already, partly because I’d sent him messages but to my surprise, mostly from Raz.