Joke

by Mia Malone

  She started laughing, but it faded when she opened the present and saw what he’d given her.

  “It’s a…”

  She stared wide-eyed at him.

  “A dildo,” he said. “You’re gonna use it.” He sat down in the chair opposite the couch and leaned back. “And I’m gonna watch.”

  Her short laugh sounded mostly as if someone had punched her in the belly and he raised a brow in a silent challenge but didn’t say anything.

  “How…” She trailed off and looked at the toy, and then at him again.

  “Oh, I think you know how to use it,” he said. “But I’ll give you a hint. Naked is a good start.”

  Then he adjusted his crotch which was becoming uncomfortable, and waited.

  She watched him a few seconds and slowly, a smile crept into her eyes. He felt his lips twitch and anticipation of what would come rushed through him. When she got up and walked over to start a sweet, bluesy song, he had to force himself to unclench his hands, and then she slowly, slowly unbuttoned her shirt.

  It wasn’t like any strip-tease he’d ever seen before. She didn’t do any of the deliberate moves, calculated to show off her lady-parts, or wiggle her tits in his face, but damn if it wasn’t the sexiest sight he’d seen in his life. She swayed with the music as she slowly pulled her shirt off. And her pants. Her bra. And when she slid her panties down, she did it with straight legs, standing with her side to him, so he didn’t get a full view of what he by then wanted to get all up in, and he groaned.

  Then she sat down on the couch in front of him and picked the toy off the coffee table in front of her.

  “Is it…” she trailed off and looked at him. “Can I –”

  He knew what she was asking and nodded slowly.

  “It’s ready to use, baby,” he murmured.

  “Okay,” she said and leaned back on the couch.

  Then she hesitated, and he decided to help her out a bit. Just as slowly as she had, he pulled off his tee, unbuttoned his jeans, pushed them and his briefs down and pulled out his cock. When she didn’t move and kept her eyes on his hand as he stroked himself, he stopped.

  “I’m waiting, baby,” he told her.

  Their eyes met, and he felt the skin around his crinkle a little when he saw another soft smile in hers. Then she leaned back and put her feet on the edge of the coffee table. Her legs were spread, and as he watched, she slid the toy over her pussy.

  He thought his eyes would roll back into his head when she started working herself, moving the toy between her folds and pushing the tip of it inside.

  “Flip the switch at the base,” he rasped out.

  She did and moaned when it started vibrating softly. Then she moved it over her clit, back and forth, slowly building it and watching him while it did. When her hips were moving restlessly, and she whimpered with the rhythm, he groaned.

  “Fuck, baby,” he grunted. “You’re killing me. Put it inside.”

  She opened her mouth and moaned softly again when she slowly slid it inside.

  Their eyes locked as she started fucking herself, slow at first but then faster. They weren’t touching, but it felt like they did as they both worked themselves. Each watching the other and both making low, hoarse sounds.

  “I’m going to come.”

  He couldn’t get a word out, and when she arched her back and whimpered as she shook with her orgasm, he let pleasure rush over him as he came all over his stomach. It went on for so long the end was blended with an edge of pain, but he couldn’t stop moving his hand.

  She exhaled, and he moved, kicking the coffee table to the side and crouching down in front of her.

  “One more, Sissy,” he grunted, put his hands under her ass and with the dildo still inside her, he started licking her clit.

  She gasped and twisted as if to get away. He tightened his grip and used on hand to move the toy inside her while he worked her. When he heard sounds he knew meant she was getting close again, he sucked her clit hard. Her legs started shaking, and he heard her scream hoarsely, but he kept eating until she went limp and whimpered softly.

  He pulled the toy out, threw it to the side, and lowered her into the couch.

  Her eyes were unfocused and a little stunned, and he grinned into them. “Happy anniversary, baby,” he murmured, kicked off his pants and slid his still semi-hard cock inside. “Heaven,” he murmured and moved slowly. “So sweet.”

  “I can’t believe you’re still…”

  He watched her and wondered how the hell she could blush about him being hard after what they’d just done.

  “Takes me some time to come down,” he said.

  “Can other men do it like that?”

  “Some do, some don’t.”

  “Oh.”

  Another blush crept up her cheeks.

  “He doesn’t,” Joke said softly and held his grin back when he felt her pussy quiver.

  “Wh –”

  “I know you liked seeing them, baby. Know you liked hearing him on the phone while I was buried deep inside you.”

  “Um,” she mumbled.

  He couldn’t hold his grin back then.

  “My girl is a little bit dirty,” he murmured. “Just like me.”

  She arched her back, and the heat in her eyes was enough for him to wish he was young enough to go straight into round two.

  “Maybe,” she whispered, and it sounded almost like a challenge.

  “Another time,” he said. “Want one more, right now. Use your hand, Sissy.”

  She did, and he watched her the whole time.

  Chapter Twelve

  Sissy

  I’d finished my workout. Lee had rolled up her yoga mat, and we were debating coffee at her place, which was ten steps away, or at Jenny’s which admittedly was farther away but also where Jenny was. Gibson was in the shower, and I saw how Lee was glancing in that direction so I was about to tell her they had an hour and we’d meet at Jenny’s later, when Joke walked in.

  He saw us, made a frustrated sound and was about to turn around and leave when Gibson walked out from the showers. His brows went up immediately when he saw Joke’s face. I frowned and straightened, wondering what was going on.

  Things were different since that night when we fought and ended it with the most amazing sex I’d had in my entire life, even counting my wild-girl days which had been pretty wild but also a pretty long time ago.

  After those years, I’d had Dante and safe, ordinary him-on-top or me-on-top sex for a large number of years and it had felt so good when we started out. Then what we had faded away and part of why it hadn’t worked was on him, but part of it was me too. Most of it was just life, I guessed.

  And now there was Joke. A man who made love to me in the darkness, slowly and softly. Wiggled a bottle of maple syrup and pushed me down on our breakfast table. Took me against our front door before my shift. And gave me a dildo so he could watch me use it.

  I hadn’t known not touching each other could feel so intimate, and something had changed that night, but not in a bad way. He was just as bossy and stubborn as always, but there was something in the way he watched me sometimes. Or, perhaps it was just me imagining things because I loved him so much and wanted him to love me too.

  “What’s up?” Gib asked calmly.

  “I’ll –” Joke stopped and made a low, frustrated sound. “Not in a good mood. I’ll just go and –”

  “What’s up?” Gibson asked again, and this time there was an edge of steel in his voice. He walked across the floor to stop in front of Joke. “You know how it works. Just tell me, Joke, and we deal.”

  I looked at Lee to see if we perhaps should make ourselves scarce, but she seemed confused too.

  “Bought Dad’s share of the farm,” Joke muttered.

  There was a long silence, and then Gibson sighed.

  “He say shit?”

  “Yeah.”

  The word was a drawn-out, angry sigh and I took a step forward but stopped whe
n Joke put a hand out and hissed.

  “Don’t be an ass,” Gib warned him. “What did he say?”

  “Don’t want to talk about it.”

  “What –”

  “I do not fucking want to talk about it!” Joke roared.

  Gibson had apparently pushed him too hard. Before I could butt in, Gib got in Joke’s face.

  “Do I care?”

  What the hell? Was he deliberately goading Joke into a fight? Two seconds later, I saw that he had because they crashed into each other. Lee and I moved back toward the wall, but she didn’t leave, and I wasn’t going to.

  They were magnificent. Tall, muscular and clearly experienced fighters both of them, although it took me no time at all to get that Joke wouldn’t have a chance in hell against Gibson. The way he moved was like watching Mac ski. It was fluid and controlled in a way that reminded me of music. They grunted and cursed as punches flew and they pushed each other around, but it was absolutely, unequivocally and utterly beautiful.

  “Dear God,” I heard Lee whisper, and I nodded but couldn’t get a word out.

  Then Gibson had had enough. He put a shoulder in Joke’s midriff, used it to push him up against the wall, straightened and put a hand around Joke’s throat, just underneath his jaws to hold him still. Joke punched him in the ribs but he didn’t even flinch.

  “Stop being an asshole and tell me,” Gibson said.

  Their eyes had locked, and I barely dared to breathe.

  Then it was over.

  I saw how the anger drained out of Joke’s face and Gib did too because he backed off and watched his friend in silence.

  “I hate that fucker so much,” Joke said.

  “I know.”

  “You know how it was with Anna and me. How we tried for kids. What it did to us that it didn’t happen.”

  I blinked because this was not what I had expected him to say.

  “Yeah,” Gibson confirmed.

  “Remember how I got sick when we were seventeen? Went to the hospital?”

  “Yeah,” Gibson repeated, and I pressed my lips together, suspecting that I knew what would come.

  “I was the only one who caught it because my fucking parents didn’t believe in goddamned vaccines. A real man wouldn’t get sick. Fuck that.” Joke had apparently not lost his anger completely because his voice was a low snarl when he went on, “And if a real man got sick, he wouldn’t get fucking sterile from it.”

  “Fuck,” Gibson murmured but didn’t elaborate, and there really wasn’t anything else to say.

  “Yeah,” Joke said. “Dad knew. Mom too. And they knew we were trying to have kids and still didn’t find it in them to tell me.”

  “Baby,” I whispered, and he turned.

  “It isn’t about being sterile, Sissy,” he said. “Don’t fucking care, you know that. It’s… I loved her, and it broke us. If I’d known, wouldn’t have started shit with her. Or she might have accepted it, and we’d made a family another way.”

  “I know,” I said, feeling inadequate.

  “It’s not even about Anna. That was a long fucking time ago.”

  “I know,” I repeated. “It’s the betrayal. Treating you like shit and then when it was supposed to be over they did it again. And again right now.”

  “He told me he might as well sell me the farm because I hadn’t been man enough to produce a Tucker to run it.”

  I blinked.

  “That’s just bull-shit, baby,” I said.

  “I know,” he said but added quietly. “Pissed me off that his words still sting.”

  I went to him then, and he put his arms around my back, leaning a little on me and breathing into my neck.

  “You know who you are,” I murmured. “And he’s nothing like you, which pisses him off. He’s just a dick and everyone knows it.”

  “Baby,” he murmured softly, and I felt his lips move over my neck.

  “Oh, honey,” Lee said quietly behind my back.

  “Unless you wanna watch what’s gonna happen pretty much now, you need to get out of here,” Joke said, not moving his head away from my neck.

  “Leaving,” Gibson said immediately.

  I heard the door close. Then he was pulling at my clothes.

  “Felt good to push Gib around,” he murmured, and I shivered when I remembered how they had looked. “Didn’t come here for him.”

  “Zacharias –”

  “Came here for you,” he said hoarsely.

  “Baby…”

  “Need you,” he pressed out, so I helped him get us both naked.

  Then he pushed me down on the floor in the middle of Gibson’s barn, moved my legs apart to slide two fingers inside and started to move his thumb on my clit. It was rough and felt a bit desperate, but the way he watched me was also hot and heat built in my belly. He heard my soft gasp and moved over me to slide inside. He started thrusting immediately, pounding hard and fast.

  I gasped again, which made him stop, and his eyes came to me.

  “Jesus, Sissy,” he grunted. “I’m –”

  He started to pull away, but I put my hands on his hips and pulled him toward me.

  “Not gonna take you like this just because I’m pissed, baby,” he said and moved away again.

  “I love you,” I whispered.

  His eyes widened, and he slid back inside.

  “Baby,” he murmured.

  “Just that, Zacharias,” I said and moved my hands over him in a soft caress. “I love you.”

  His face hardened, and he closed his eyes tightly. Then his hips started moving again, and it was again hard and fast, but the almost desperate feeling from before was gone. I put a hand on his cheek and let my thumb slide over his mouth.

  “Let it come, Joke,” I said. “I love you.”

  He immediately groaned in a way that was almost a whimper. His hips bucked a few more times, but then he pushed deep inside, and I felt his cock jerk as he came. He’s beautiful, I thought as I watched him pour himself into me, and smiled into his eyes when he finally opened them to look at me.

  “Use your hand, Sissy,” he murmured and started rocking his hips again.

  He moved his lips over my neck. My cheek. And then he kissed me, hard and deep. I moved my hand between us. When I whimpered in a way he knew meant I was close to coming, he raised his head and watched me.

  “Love you too, baby.” It washed over me in long waves of pleasure and through my orgasm, he murmured soft words in my ear. “Love you, Sissy. Love you so much.”

  We stayed on the floor, kissing and letting our hands roam, but not saying anything.

  A loud knock on the door made me jolt out of my love-word induced state of bliss, and Joke raised his head.

  “You decent?” Gibson shouted.

  “No,” Joke shouted back at him.

  Gib did apparently not have any sense of personal space at all because he opened the door and stuck his head inside.

  “You’d better get dressed. There’s a dude here, looks a bit like a douche, says his name is Dante Parker.”

  Oh, God. My ex-husband.

  I stared at Gibson, and when he grinned, I realized that he knew exactly who Dante was and that he was just fucking with us.

  “Nice tat, Siss,” he said, moved away and closed the door.

  ***

  The difference between Dante and Joke would have been hilarious if I hadn’t been so freaked out about Dante being there. Joke being there. And me being there, just after sex on the floor and words of love.

  Joke walked into the room as if he had no problems with the situation whatsoever.

  “Right,” he said. “Joke Tucker. Welcome to Wilhelmine.”

  They shook hands, and I opened my mouth to make what I felt would be a perfectly reasonable inquiry as to why Dante had lost his everloving mind and showed up on Gibson’s doorstep.

  “Let’s go,” Joke said.

  “What?” both Dante and I squealed, although the squealing part was mostly me.r />
  I’d realized that Joke hadn’t washed the hand Dante had just clutched and it freaked me out because I knew where it had been only a few minutes earlier.

  “We’re gonna settle a few things.”

  Okay, yes. Gibson’s living room was probably not the best place to –

  “You’re not coming, Sissy,” Joke said calmly and moved in a way that herded Dante toward the door.

  “What?” I squealed again.

  “Easier if you stay out of it,” Joke said.

  “But –”

  “Sissy.”

  I watched him and thought about what he said. I wasn’t entirely sure what it was they would settle, or why everything would be easier if I stayed out of it, but I also recognized the look on Joke’s face.

  “Oh, alright. Wash the blood off your face before you go,” I said, trying to sound as if I hadn’t just given in to an order.

  I saw Dante’s brows go up, ignored him and them, and walked into the kitchen to wet some paper towels for Joke.

  “Thanks, babe,” he murmured. “Promise. It’s better like this.”

  “It better be,” I said just as quietly but with a snap in my voice.

  He grinned then, and they walked out without another word.

  I turned toward Lee and Gibson.

  “What the hell just happened?”

  ***

  Joke

  He unlocked the door to Oak and let Sissy’s ex-husband walk inside before closing and locking it again.

  Dante Parker looked so much like a regular guy that he felt like smiling, but he didn’t. Instead, he watched the other man watch his place and waited.

  “Can I get you something to drink?” he asked when Dante turned toward him.

  “You must wonder why I’m here?”

  “I know why you’re here,” Joke said calmly, walked around the bar and brought two bottles of water back with him.

  “It’s not because of Louisa,” Dante insisted.

  “If you loved her, you would have fought to keep her. I get it.” Joke handed the other man a bottle. “You’re here because of your girls.”

  Their eyes met, but Dante looked away almost immediately.

  “I wasn’t sure –”