Then I was up and he had filled me.
It was nice. Grade Nine nice.
“Wow,” I whispered.
His hands came to my hips and he coaxed me to move. It didn’t take a lot of coaxing, it came naturally. I moved, found my rhythm, one of Vance’s hands at my waist, one cupping my ass. It was great to be in control. It was unbelievable.
I watched him as I moved. His eyes were locked on mine, that intense, possessive “mine” look in them. If anything, it made me breathe faster, my heart tripping in my chest, the trembles gathering, joining forces, gaining momentum and then shooting between my legs.
“Come closer,” Vance demanded and without hesitation I leaned into him. “Hold on to me,” he ordered and I put my hands on his shoulders and he again looked me in the eyes.
That’s when he bucked, slamming inside me. I moaned. I couldn’t help it, it felt so good. He did it again and again and I learned what he meant by riding him and if I thought it was unbelievable before, I was mistaken, this was unbelievable.
His hand went between us. He touched me at the exact right spot and my hips jerked. I moved with his hand and his bucking hips. I bent closer, my chest against his, my lips against his and he kissed me.
I was close, heading toward Grade Ten like a rocket.
“Say my name,” he demanded.
I opened my eyes, looked into his, he slammed into me again, his finger pressing deep and moving.
Grade Ten hit me with an overwhelming force and when it did, against his mouth I moaned his name.
* * * * *
I found there was an annoying side effect to having an orgasm, a side effect that Vance didn’t seem to share.
My body became acquiescent and my mind drifted to ridiculous thoughts like what I’d wear to my birthday party. I never worried about what I was going to wear.
Vance held me for awhile after we finished, me still astride him, him still inside me, my mind inventorying my closet and deciding I needed to go to the mall.
He knifed up so he was seated, me still astride him and I made a little mew because it felt kind of good. I could swear I felt him smile against my neck when he heard the sound.
He disengaged from me gently, pulling me up at the waist. He turned in the seat, set me on my feet in front of him and held me steady, hands at my hips, him still seated, looking up at me and I stared down at him.
God, he was beautiful.
He got up, pulled up his jeans and picked me up, again cradled in his arms. He carried me to bed, deposited me on the end of it and I had just enough wherewithal to crawl towards the pillows and collapse.
Vance got fully undressed in the hall and followed me up, pulling the covers out from beneath me and then over both of us. Then he turned me into his arms, tucking my face in his neck.
“Jules.”
“Mm?” I murmured, my mind had wandered again and I was thinking I might need more underwear and maybe a new pair of ass-kicking boots from the mall.
As well as my party outfit, of course.
“I didn’t use protection.”
At his words, my trip to the mall went out of my head with a “poof” and my body went rock solid. Then I unfroze, pulled back and looked at him.
He was smiling.
Smiling.
I stared at him like he was a lunatic. “What, exactly, is there to smile about?” I yelled. Then visions of Vance teaching a dark haired little boy how to feloniously disable an alarm popped unwanted into my head and I quit yelling and breathed, “Oh my God,” then I repeated it, “oh my God.”
He rolled me to my back, his body mostly over mine, he came up on his elbow, still smiling.
“Calm down,” he said.
“Calm… calm down? I’m always lecturing the kids about using condoms. I’m like… why didn’t you… oh my God.”
“I’ll use protection next time.”
My eyes narrowed. “Next time?”
He kissed me softly then pulled back. “Yeah,” he said casually.
“It might be too late,” I informed him, deciding to fight the “next time” fight later.
I mean, didn’t men flip out about these things too? His behavior was just bizarre.
He didn’t respond.
“What if it’s too late?” I asked.
“If it’s too late, you’ll make a good mother, if you remember to get a babysitter before you go out and crack heads.”
My eyes bugged out and my mouth dropped open. He was making jokes.
Making jokes.
He took in my bug-eyed look and I felt his body shake with laughter. Then I heard his laughter and my blood pressure skyrocketed.
“This is not funny, Crowe,” I snapped.
“Yeah it is.”
“What’s so damned funny about it?”
“You,” he replied, “you’re very cute, Princess.”
Um.
He did not just say that.
“Vance…” I said his name in my-word-is-law-and-you-are-in-trouble voice.
He ignored my voice. “What’s done is done, we can’t go back. There’s no point getting upset about it.”
“Excuse me, but –” I interrupted but he talked over me.
“Odds are I didn’t get you pregnant but if there’s anyone I know who could cope, it’s you.”
“Maybe I don’t want to cope,” I snapped.
He grinned. “Too late now.”
He thought this was hilarious.
I slapped his arm. “Stop grinning.”
He ran his fingers through my hair at the side of my head and then curled a bunch of it around his fist.
“Motherhood won’t be a challenge for you,” he went on, laughter in his voice.
Apparently he thought he was funny. I frowned at him. I did not think he was funny.
At all.
“Let’s see, Sunday night, you saved a runaway from a drug dealer,” he started.
“I did not, you did. He was kicking my ass.”
He talked over me. “Monday night, you brought down two dealers single-handedly.”
“Well, I did do that,” I allowed.
He kept talking. “Tuesday night, you had to take a break from keeping the streets safe for the citizens of Denver to go out with me.”
“Crowe –”
“Tonight, you began the healing process of three brothers who’d been torn apart by tragedy. They’re not blood, but brothers all the same.”
“Stop talking.”
“What’re you gonna do tomorrow? Cure world hunger?”
“Crowe, I said, stop talking.”
He started to laugh again, let go of my hair, curled his arms around me and rolled to his back, taking me with him. I lifted my head, planted my forearms in his chest and frowned down at him but he ignored my frown and kept talking, or I should say, teasing.
“Discover the cure for cancer?”
“Crowe. I’ll say it again, this is not funny.”
His face changed, went soft, his tractor beam switched on and he finished quietly, almost as if he was talking to himself. “Motherhood won’t be a challenge for you.”
“Crowe.”
“Stop worrying about it Jules. We’ll deal with it if it happens.”
“No we won’t. We’re over. Done. I’m breaking up with you,” I announced.
There. I did it.
His hand twisted in my hair again and he brought my face to his. “You can break up with me on Friday. I wanna take you to your birthday party tomorrow.”
Well, I guessed I didn’t do it and he was still not taking me seriously.
“Stop joking, I’m being serious,” I informed him.
He brought my face the rest of the way to his and kissed me. Not softly this time, there was meaning to his kiss.
I was a little breathless and my head was slightly muddled when his lips detached from mine but I kept at it even when his lips went to my neck.
“We need to talk about this,” I told him.
r /> “We’ll talk about it on Friday,” he murmured against my neck and I knew the way he said it that he had absolutely no intention of talking about it Friday.
Then his tongue slid from my jaw to my shoulder and I shivered.
“We need to talk about it now,” I tried to speak in my word-is-law voice but it came out breathy.
“Friday,” he rolled me to my back again and came over me.
“Vance –”
His mouth against mine, he said softly, “Shut up Jules.”
“Stop telling me to shut up.”
He kissed me quiet and while he did his hand went up my nightgown, straight to my breast and his thumb took a swipe at my nipple. I gasped against his mouth and after my gasp he lifted his head an inch and looked me in the eye. His eyes were now full-on intense, his sexual tractor beam had gone super-powered and all my breath escaped my lungs.
“You wanna talk while I go down on you, be my guest. But I’m finally gonna taste you and then I’m gonna fuck you again and it might be distracting.”
Oh my God.
I was already at Grade Six.
“You wanna talk?” he asked.
I immediately shook my head, not because I didn’t have anything to say, mainly because I couldn’t speak.
He grinned and it was wicked.
Then his mouth came to mine and after that he did as he promised.
But he wore a condom this time.
* * * * *
The house was dark, Boo was snuggled into the small of my back and I was curled into Vance’s side, my arm around his waist, his tucked under and curled around me, hand at my hip.
I was thinking that sex was good but oral sex might be even better. It was a tossup and I was mentally enumerating the pros (there were lots) and cons (I couldn’t find any) of both when Vance said softly, “Tell me about your Aunt Reba.”
Still in the throes of post-orgasm mellowness I didn’t clam up instead, I asked, “What do you want to know?”
His fingers were tracing patterns on my hip and I liked the feel of it, it was sweet and relaxing.
“Did she look like you?” he asked.
I shook my head against his shoulder but said, “Maybe a little in the face. I look like my Mom. I have my Dad’s hair.”
At that Vance’s hand went from my hip and captured a tendril of my hair and I could feel him twisting it at my back. That was sweet and relaxing too.
“She was wise,” I whispered, smiling against his shoulder and thinking about Auntie Reba. “She was a lot younger than my Mom but very wise. I know a lot of people don’t believe in this kind of thing but I’m sure she had an old soul.”
His body heat was warming me, I pushed closer to him and for some reason kept talking.
“She was really young when my family died, probably too young to take me on but she was all I had left. Nick and her had just started going out when it happened. I think they got married because of me.”
When I stopped talking, Vance didn’t say anything so I kept going.
“Not that they wouldn’t have gotten married anyway. Nick… I’ve never seen a love like that. He’s still lost to this day without her. I used to wish he’d find someone but he never will. It makes me sad but I’m glad Auntie Reba still has someone to love her like that. She deserved it because she gave her love like that.”
Vance stopped twirling my hair and turned into me, wrapping both his arms around me.
He remained silent and I looked at his face in the moonlight from the window. Then do not ask me why, looking at Vance in the moonlight, I shared my most favorite memory of my Auntie Reba.
“Nick and I used to listen to music. A lot. Nick was into Southern Rock but also a big fan of Elton John. I loved Stevie Wonder and Nick liked to encourage my love of music so he bought me everything that had anything to do with Stevie. I remember lying in our living room, we lived in a different house then, I had my back on this big, pink bean bag they bought me for Christmas and Nick and I were listening to Stevie. Auntie Reba came in and lay down beside me, her back on the bean bag with me. Stevie’s ‘Isn’t She Lovely’ came on and Auntie Reba grabbed my hand in the middle of the song. After the song was done, she just looked at me.” I sucked in my lips and Vance’s hand came to my jaw, his thumb ran across my lower lip when I released it and his eyes, I could tell, were looking in mine. I was whispering when I carried on. “I knew what she meant. She didn’t have to say anything. Even though I wasn’t their child, I knew what she meant. Have you heard that song? Do you know what I mean?”
“I’ve heard the song,” he responded softly.
I took in a breath, it broke in the middle but I kept it together.
Then I stared at him and with a lot of courage and a little moonlight, I asked quietly, “What was your Mom like?”
He answered immediately, “She was beautiful. She was broken.”
I waited but he didn’t continue.
“Do you ever think you’ll try to find them?” I asked.
“I know where they are.”
I blinked at him. “Have you…?” I started but he knew what I was going to say.
“No,” he answered.
“Will you?”
“No.”
“Do you want to tell me about it?” I whispered, my stomach clenching, my heart slowing, knowing I shouldn’t care but wanting him to say yes.
“No,” he said.
I nodded, letting him have his space but feeling disappointment running through me like acid. I dipped my chin and pressed my face into his throat so he wouldn’t see it.
“Maybe,” he said from above me, “if you break up with me on Saturday, I might tell you on Friday.”
My body went still.
“Though, I’m thinkin’, I’ll tell you on Saturday if you break up with me on Sunday.”
My head tipped back and he was grinning down at me.
My eyes narrowed on him. “Crowe.”
“Shut up Jules.”
“Don’t tell me –”
His lips touched mine. “Shut up,” he said quietly. “Go to sleep.”
I tried to force my way out of his arms but they went ultra-tight and he kept me where I was.
“You’re very annoying,” I told his throat.
He didn’t answer.
“I’m still breaking up with you on Friday,” I went on.
“No you aren’t.”
I went silent.
Whatever.
I tried to hold a grudge but I was too tired, his body was too warm and I’d had two orgasms. A grudge was physically and mentally impossible.
Instead my body relaxed, my mind went blank and I fell asleep.
* * * * *
I was dead asleep when I felt Vance tense then move swiftly. He’d been pressed against my back and I felt the cool air when his body came away from mine.
I turned, got up on an elbow and watched Boo go flying off the bed just as Vance vanished over the side.
I came up to a seated position, confused, then my breath caught in my throat when I heard a knock on the backdoor, it opened, the alarm started beeping its warning and Nick called, “Jules?”
“Hey Nick!” I yelled immediately and rolled forward, taking the sheet with me. I twisted to the side, yanking the sheet around me frantic now for a different reason. I threw my legs over the side of the bed, missed the steps and went flying.
I would have landed likely painfully on all fours but Vance caught me at the last minute with an arm around my waist. I doubled over his arm with an “oof”. He pulled my torso up and set me on my feet, his arm still around me, my back to his front.
Throughout all of this, Nick kept talking while he punched in my alarm code and walked through the kitchen. “I thought I’d treat the birthday girl to coffee and a muffin. What do you say to –”
He stopped talking when he hit the doorway to the hall and caught sight of Vance and me. Then he came to a dead halt.
Oh crap.
I r
eally hoped that Vance had some clothes on even though I did not, just the sheet, somewhere during the second round last night I’d lost my nightgown.
Um…
How embarrassing was this?
“Nick –” I started.
He didn’t miss a beat. “Vance can come too.”
“Nick.”
“We’ll go to Fortnum’s. I hear they have a great new coffee guy,” Nick continued.
I nodded, deciding to pretend I was dressed, life was cool and I wasn’t caught by the only father I remembered standing in an advanced state of undress in the arms of… whatever Vance was to me.
“That sounds good,” I said.
“Vance?” Nick’s eyes went over my shoulder.
“Yeah,” Vance said.
“Great. Just knock on my door when you two are ready.”
He turned to leave and I sagged against Vance’s body. Then he turned back and I went ramrod straight again.
I heard Vance’s quiet laughter in my ear and I kept my face perfectly composed and my body still so as not to turn around and gouge his eyes out.
“Just to say… I’ll be a little more cautious next time. Don’t want to get shot in the ass walking into my niece’s kitchen.”
Behind his glasses, Nick was laughing too.
The men in my life, I wanted to murder them all (except Roam and Sniff but they weren’t men yet, they were boys – when they became men I was sure they’d get scratched on to Jules Hit List just because men on the whole were vastly annoying and they wouldn’t be able to help themselves).
Then before I could say anything, Nick was gone.
The minute I heard the door close, I whirled on Vance and I saw that luckily he had his jeans on. Unfortunately, he had his gun in his hand.
I ignored his gun and the sight of his chest (very hard to ignore, seriously) and clipped, “What’s funny now?”
Instead of answering, he snatched me into his arms and kissed me, full-on, full tongue. Even in a snit, I had to admit, it was delicious.
When he lifted his head, he said in his silky voice, “Happy birthday, Princess.”
Um…
Wow.
He looked at me with sexy eyes and said, “Let’s take a shower.”
I could do a shower. I could do a lot of things after a “happy birthday” like that.
He let me go and twisted to put the gun on the side of the bed platform by the mattress.