by Pepper Paris
With those words it felt like she’d swallowed me whole. I couldn’t resist that type of behavior for long and could only give her a warning.
“I’m about…”
She didn’t stop, but took everything until my once stiff member was limp in her mouth.
“Wow! That was just as good as the first time.”
I flicked my thumb across her lips. “You had a little something…”
She pulled me down to meet her lips and our tongues met with an urgency that I had never felt before. It was as if she was taking me under a spell and we were the only ones left in the world.
A cough alerted us both to the fact that we weren’t alone.
My face turned bright red and I hurried to pull my dick through my pajama bottoms.
Roxie hid her face in my shoulder as her body shook against me.
While I was embarrassed, I wasn’t about to let her feel that way. “They probably couldn’t see much.” I tried to comfort her until I realized that she was laughing.
“Rox?”
She lifted her head as tears were running down her face. “Oh, my gosh. I can’t believe we just did that in your parent’s house. I didn’t even check to see if anyone was around before I just went down on you.”
With a confidence I didn’t know I had, I stood up and went to the door of the porch.
Noah was just inside in the kitchen where he would have had a full view of our activities.
“So how long were you there?” I demanded getting more pissed off by the minute.
He held his hands out in protective gesture, “I didn’t see anything, but I could hear the moans and coughed to give you the heads up.”
“All though you were probably getting all the head you needed.” He joked as he opened the fridge to get something out when I lost it. I pushed him into the fridge keeping him off balance.
“Don’t you ever talk like that about my girlfriend, again. Do you hear me?” I shouted.
“Yeah, yeah, I hear you. I was just speaking the truth.” He mumbled as he tried to balance.
“I don’t care if it’s the truth or not. That isn’t an appropriate way to talk about a woman, much less your brother’s girlfriend.” Disgusted at his words, I turned him loose only to find Roxie standing in the doorway with her mouth hanging open.
“Jay?”
I reached out for a clean glass and filled it with water from the facet. As they both watched in amazement, I gulped it down only stopping when I reached the end.
“Look, Noah. I’m sorry.” I apologized, “I’m just on edge with all the dad stuff, you know?”
It wasn’t a great apology, but honestly what did he expect after all these years of torture.
“Yeah, no I get it. Roxie is off limits in the teasing category.” Noah backed out of the kitchen, “Sorry Roxie.”
I slumped against the counter in relief that the confrontation was over.
A giggle made me look over at the reason for our fight. She was laughing again, although I wasn’t sure if it was at me or with me.
She waved a hand in front of her face to stop laughing, “Sorry.” The word sent her off into more giggles.
“What is it?” I glanced around confused.
Drying her eyes, she calmed down enough to finally speak again, “You’ve said sorry, you’re brother said sorry and then I did. It was like a harmony of sorrys. I couldn’t help it. I’ve been so worried and then we were relieving some tension…well it all got to me. Once, I started laughing at being caught then it was hard to stop.”
“You really took up for me though, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you use for force before.” She ran a hand up my arm, “It was kind of hot.”
I stood a little taller, “Really? I mean I’m not going to start pushing people around all the time, but if it’s a turn on, we might be able to come up with something.”
Feeling more confident, I gave her a wink as I turned to go back upstairs and take a cold shower.
-------
Roxie was dressed and back downstairs by the time I got out of the shower. We hadn’t heard from my mom this morning and I was anxious to get there. Maybe the surgery would have dad feeling better and he would be able to talk to us today.
The smell of coffee hit me, putting a smile on my face as I came down the stairs.
“That is the most wonderful thing I’ve smelled in days.” I walked over to grab a cup.
“I whipped up some muffins so we can eat something before we head up to the hospital. Do you want to check with your brothers and see if they want some?”
“Guess, so.” I took a sip of the hot coffee. I didn’t really want to go up there, but I didn’t have much of a choice. It was one thing to not like my brothers, but it was completely another not to be decent to them in this kind of situation.
“Noah, Craig,” I yelled from the bottom of the staircase, “Roxie made muffins if you want to get them while they’re hot.”
“You know that you’re mother would be upset to hear you yelling like that.” Roxie grinned at me.
“Good thing she’s not home.” Craig agreed with a grin as he entered the kitchen and picked up a muffin taking a bite.
“Ah, I didn’t know you cooked, Roxie.” Noah joined us ignoring what had occurred earlier.
“Umm, these are good.” He praised around a mouthful of warm muffin.
“It’s something I enjoy and both my mom and aunt weren’t very good cooks. Someone had to do it and I’ve just learned a few tricks over the years.” Roxie blushed at their words. “We’ll take what’s left over to the hospital for your mom. I’m sure she hasn’t eaten anything since we left last night.”
“I can’t see her leaving to go get anything and I know they don’t bring food the patient’s room for their family.” I agreed with her.
“Do you think dad will be okay?” Craig asked the question we were all wondering.
“We won’t know how well the surgery went. Even if it was the easiest thing ever done, he could still take months to regain all of his strength back. If there were any other issues that contributed to his condition then we won’t know about those problems until they come up.” I didn’t want to worry them, but at the same time I didn’t want to give them false hope either.
“You’re saying that he could still die?” Noah croaked out.
“At this point, the hospital is monitoring him so if there are any problems they’ll catch them quickly. It’s always a possibility, but it’s not as likely now they’ve corrected the major issue.”
I took another bite of my muffin before I realized they were both looking at me hoping that I was going to fix all of our dad’s medical issues.
“Look, I can only tell you what normally happens in this kind of situation. I’m not a doctor. I understand what they’re talking about when they spout off a ton of information, but that doesn’t mean I can give you a diagnosis.”
Roxie came to stand next to me, putting an arm around my shoulders. “It’s harder to interpret the information when it’s your family member. That’s why they don’t let you operate on family. You’re too close to the situation.”
“Makes sense, I guess.” Craig grabbed another muffin off the plate.
“Are we ready to head to the hospital?” Roxie brought us back to the task at hand.
“They’ll give us the most updated status on what’s happening to dad.” I enjoyed the closeness more than I thought as she moved away to clean up the kitchen.
“I can only come up there for a few minutes because I left work in such a hurry. I promised them I’d be back by noon today.” Noah explained.
“Depending on if he’s stable, they’re going to want me back at my job as well.” Craig answered as he checked his phone.
“Where do you guys work?” Roxie grinned, “When Jay and I talk we don’t normally discuss what’s going on with his family so I’m curious."
Noah spoke first, “I’m the assistant manager of a burger chain restaurant.”
�
��Customer service at packaging plant. We handle all the complaints about orders delivered wrong or if they weren’t delivered on time. I’m pretty replaceable which is why I have to go back today unless he’s dying.” Craig frowned, “Working isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
“At least, Jay is doing something useful by helping people when things go wrong. Maybe I should have gone to school a little longer so I could move up the corporate ladder.” Noah actually defended my job for the first time.
“I think I got everything your mom might need. I’m ready if you are, Jay?”
Roxie saying my name brought me back from a place of unhappiness from all the years of them making fun of me for choosing to be a ‘nurse’. Maybe she was right, and my brothers didn’t hate me. Maybe they didn’t know how to talk to me and were trying to be better adults.
“Yeah, I’m good.” I joined her at the front door, “We’ll meet you there.”
------
Mom was so excited to see us.
“Look, he’s awake.” She beamed proudly.
“Now, mama, the boy just got here and can see that for himself.” My dad was propped up on the pillows, but he still looked pale and weak.
“How are you feeling today, Mr. Marsh?” Roxie asked smiling at my dad from the doorway.
“Better than I was yesterday. In fact, I don’t remember much from yesterday so I’d say really good.” He waved toward the lone chair in the room.
“The doctor is very hopeful that he unblocked all of his arteries. They’re going to watch him for the next few days, but then they said he might be able to go home. Isn’t that wonderful?” Mom patted his free hand.
“Oh, that’s wonderful news.” Roxie gushed, “Mrs. Marsh, I brought you a few extra things from the house and some fresh muffins. Why don’t we step out here and let them talk for just a minute?”
I gave her a grateful look as she redirected my mom’s attention away from my dad. The family was counting on me to get the actual details and find out what the doctors were really thinking about his recovery.
“Jay, I’m so glad that you could make it. You’re mother just isn’t equipped for things like that. I’ll need you to be the man while I’m laid up and take care of her.”
“Dad,” I protested, “Don’t talk like that. You heard mom, you’ll be home in just a couple of days.”
He wave away my words, “I know that, it’s just she’s always had me to depend on and now she’s going to need to get some rest. You’re brothers don’t have a clue. Heck, they’re still living in our house and they’re in their late twenties.”
“Roxie’s out there right now, making sure that she gets something to eat. We brought her clean clothes and stuff last night. We’ve got her covered, you just concentrate on getting better so you can take care of her yourself.” I hurried to reassure him.
“That’s all well and good, but you’re the one I trust to take care of her and keep things going until then. They may let me go home, but we both know that I won’t be going for runs in the near future.” He leaned toward me with a grimace.
“I hate to place this kind of burden on you, but is there any way that you could stay home? At least until after Christmas.”
“My classes are done, but I’ll have to work something out with my internship. I don’t know that they’ll hold it for me that long. The holidays are some of the busiest times and that’s when they depend on their cheap interns to do the heavy lifting.”
“Well,” he fell back against the pillows with a grunt, “I know you’ll do your best.”
“Thanks, dad. I’m going to go see if Roxie got mom to eat something.”
“Sure, just remember what I said. Take care of your mother.”
“I will.” I promised as I forced the tears to stay as I hurried past my brothers on their way in to see dad.
Blindly, I ran toward the nearest stairwell where I knew few people would bother me.
It was difficult to process that my dad, my idol was laying there in a bed barely able to move. I’d seen people after this kind of surgery and knew that they had recovered after much worse, but they weren’t my dad.
He had always been the strong one and now, he was out of commission. The world had changed in that one minute. It would take months, if not years before he would be healthy again. There were no guarantees.
The door opened behind me and I sensed Roxie as she came to sit beside me.
“Why did this happen to one of the nicest guys on the planet? Why not a drug dealer or a murder?”
She just wrapped her arms around me leaving my questions unanswered.
I finally cried myself out. “You probably think I’m weak. I told you that you didn’t want to be saddled with a boyfriend like me. I’m not strong enough for someone like you.”
“Hey, now. I won’t listen to that kind of talk. Just because you cried when you’re dad almost died doesn’t mean you’re weak.” She comforted. “In fact, you might be the strongest person I know.”
“That’s just it. Everyone thinks I’m something that I’m not. I don’t like people for the most part. Becoming a doctor?” The scornful laugh just flew out of my mouth, “It’s not some great profession. I can’t save lives. I can fluff their pillows or hold their hand when the pain meds aren’t enough, but I’m not strong.”
“At the end of each day, I go home and think about all the things I wanted to say or do. Do I follow through with them? Nah, I can’t because then people would really know how I feel. So I just walk through each day and learn as much as I can while making sure that no one can yell at me for not doing my job.”
“Aw, honey. You don’t need to be somewhere that kills you’re spirit. You should be doing something that brings you joy. It should make you want to get up in the morning and hurry to work because you know that it’s important.” Roxie encouraged.
“It’s more than that, I have been learning for the past four years and then I was so far away when my family needed me. What good did all that learning do when my dad was having a heart attack?”
“You can’t beat yourself up for that. It could have happened even if you had been working at this hospital. You can’t be everywhere and protect everyone all the time. It’s just not possible.”
“No, you’re right. I can change things and move here. Depending on how things go with dad, he’s going to need me around to help out more. My brothers won’t do that because they’re wrapped up in their own world. This is something I can do.”
“Don’t make any decisions now. Let your boss know that you’re taking some leave, but that you’ll let him know something in the next week or so. Then if you’re absolutely sure that it’s what you want to do I’ll support you.” Roxie leaned her head on my shoulder.
“Thanks. I’ll give you a little more of a heads up then Kelly did, but to be fair I’ll be moving closer and not further away.”
I was really starting to like this being closer thing. I hadn’t realized how much I missed having someone to hug or touch me. I might not like being around people, but this was completely different.
“Promise me that you won’t let me push you away?” I waited anxiously for her answer.
She dropped her arm and climbed in front of me on my lap. “Promise.”
As long as I had her in my corner, maybe I could make it through this family crisis and consider a future with her.
------
Chapter 4
Roxie
Spending the past few days at the hospital was to be expected considering the situation. With only two people allowed in his room, I stayed out in the waiting area when I wasn’t running errands.
Craig and Noah had appeared that first day, but both had raced out to work since their father seemed to be on the mend. We’d assured them that if anything happened, we’d call them immediately. Other than to check in, we hadn’t seen them even at the house.
Everything had finally settled down and with so much extra time on my hands, I was able
to do some research on my phone. It felt a little silly to be in the corner where no one could see over my shoulder, but then again after typing the letters bdsm into the search bar, I didn’t want anyone to see what came up from that.
There were so many letters and each one meant something different. I tried not to think about what the words would translate to when in the bedroom and instead took the information as a guide through this strange new world.
Each word or phrase had to be looked up to find out what the next word meant. I was almost finished with college and this was an entirely different learning experience.
It wasn’t until I got to the section on Doms and subs that I felt I’d hit the jackpot.
This was a way for Jay to take control of a situation and gain confidence at the same time.
I would have to be the submissive and let him be in charge which shouldn’t be too hard, but did I want him to drip wax on me or tie me up? So many options and I had no way to know what he would or wouldn’t like.
Safe words looked to be important, but his mom walked in and I cleared the page before I could read anything else.
“Is everything okay?” I rose to meet her.
“Yes, Jay is hanging out with him for the moment and suggested that I stretch my legs. I was hoping you could join me.”
“Oh, sure.” I slid my phone into the pocket of my jeans hoping it didn’t burn a hole from all of the naughty stuff I’d been looking at.
She hooked her arm though mine and led me to the elevator.
“So is this thing serious between you and Jay?” She searched my face as the doors closed trapping me inside the small space with her question.
“I think so. I love him, but I’m not sure if he knows what he wants right now.”
“My poor boy has always been the sensitive one. He’s taken everything people say and then he spends days thinking about what to say back.”
“But he never does.” I supplied for her.
She shook her head sadly, “No, he never does. I want the best for him. I think that might be you. I’ve never seen him as vocal when he’s by himself, yet when you are by his side it’s like his confidence is boosted.”
