I shuddered again.
“It’s so peaceful here,” Tria said softly.
Although her voice was subdued, it still startled me, and she looked over her shoulder when she felt me jump a bit.
“I’m going to have to agree to disagree with you there,” I told her.
“But it’s so quiet!” she said.
“Yeah,” I agreed. That was one of the things I liked the least.
“In the city there’s always noise—cars, buses, people yelling, and doors slamming—I still don’t think I’d be sleeping at all if it wasn’t for you. Here, the loudest sound you ever hear outside is the ocean.”
“That’s how you know where everyone is,” I said. “Because they make noise. That’s the way it should be.”
“You really don’t like it out here, do you?”
“Not much, no,” I admitted. “Have you had enough of a commune with nature? Because I would really like to get somewhere warm and dry.”
“If you like,” she said.
She turned around and brought her arms up around my neck.
“Thank you for being here with me,” she said. “And especially for behaving yourself. When you first said you were coming…well, I thought it was a horrible idea, but now I’m glad you are here.”
“I’m glad I’m here, too,” I said. “You know that asshole would have tried to make you stay if I wasn’t.”
“I know he would have,” Tria admitted. She looked away from me and back toward the trees. “He wasn’t always like this, but he’s gotten worse even in the short time I’ve been gone.”
“It’s that dude who runs the place, isn’t it?” I questioned. “Leo?”
“Keith’s father, yes.”
“He’s an asshole.”
“He’s…dedicated,” Tria said.
“So are all zealots.”
“Hmm.” Tria took my hand and led me back to where all the cars and trucks had been parked. It was nearly empty now—just a couple of cars and a few younger guys hanging out in the clearing. We climbed into the hatchback with Steven and headed back to the area that, around here, passed for civilization.
Steven dropped us off outside Brandon and Nikki’s house, then puttered away in his piece-of-shit Gremlin, which I couldn’t believe still ran at all. The damn thing had a fucking loud muffler, that was for sure. I rubbed at my ears a little as we went up the steps to the front door.
It was dark inside, and Tria decided to just ease the door open, thinking they might have been exhausted and just gone to sleep. I figured they had gone to bed but probably weren’t sleeping.
I was a little closer to the truth than Tria.
The telltale sounds were obvious to me as soon as we stepped into the main room of the small house, but Tria apparently didn’t get it at first. There was some grunting and some squeaking coming from the couch, and I was pretty sure the dark pile near the plastic chair was a bunch of clothes, but Tria stepped a little farther inside anyway. I just waited to see how she was going to react, a bit of a grin on my face as I watched her.
“Screw low sperm count,” I heard Brandon exclaim all of a sudden. “If I just fuck you like this every hour on the hour, eventually some of the little fuckers have to get up there, right?”
Nikki made a noise that was somewhere between a moan and a giggle. I craned my neck a little, but I couldn’t see anything other than his feet dangling over the arm of the couch as the two of them giggled somewhat rhythmically.
“Shit!” Tria whispered as she grabbed my arm and hauled me back onto the porch. Her eyes were wide as she quickly looked from the now closed door and back to me a few times. “They’re doing it on the couch!”
“Well, yeah,” I said. “That’s pretty obvious.”
“What are we going to do?”
“Take pictures?” I said with a smile.
“Liam!”
“Kidding!” I held my hands up in front of me, palms out, and took a step backwards.
“Do we just…wait?” she asked.
I reached up and scratched the back of my head, then glanced over at the motorcycle.
“Maybe we should just go,” I suggested. I pointed a thumb toward the parked motorcycle.
“All my stuff is still in there,” Tria said. “Including all the money.”
“I guess we wait it out then.” I sat down on the top step and pulled out my pack of Marlboros, knowing we were going to be there a while. There was no way I would be able to convince her to leave without the Haversack of Hades. I leaned back against the supporting post, and Tria positioned herself between my knees so she could lean her back against my chest.
To be totally honest, I probably wasn’t up for a long ride right then, either. The whole day had been completely and totally surreal, and I still wasn’t one hundred percent sure I wasn’t dreaming. I was, however, extremely glad it was over. I was definitely going to do my best to get Tria out of this hellhole at the first light of day.
I was never one to break up a sacred fuck-fest and run, but I had been an uninvited guest here for too long, anyway.
Chapter 3—Unpack the Stuff
Tria lay her head against my shoulder and relaxed against me as I exhaled smoke off to the side so it would stay out of her face. I snaked my free arm around her stomach, and she gripped my forearm with her slender fingers.
“Are you going to tell me something about yourself tonight?” she asked.
“No,” I told her with a firm shake of my head. “I was kind of thinking it was your turn.”
“My turn?”
“Yeah,” I said as I took a long pull from the cigarette. “It occurred to me that you haven’t really told me a whole lot about growing up here, but you keep trying to drag shit up about my past. I think a little turn-taking is in order.”
“So if I tell you something, you then have to tell me something else?”
It wasn’t exactly what I had it mind. In fact, the whole thing had been as much a diversionary tactic as it was curiosity about her childhood. I wasn’t completely sure I wanted to know more about this place while I was still here. I didn’t think I’d get out without cracking skulls.
“Actually, maybe that’s not such a good idea,” I said. “At least, not now.”
Tria must have been thinking the same thing.
“Yeah, maybe we should talk about that when we have a little more…distance.”
“Yeah.”
“But, we could maybe do some of that when we get home?” she asked.
“You aren’t going to give up, are you?” I sighed.
“Probably not,” she said. She turned her head toward me and smiled before leaning back against me again.
I felt her shiver in the night’s chilly air and pushed against her back a little so she would sit up again. Gripping my cigarette between my lips, I pulled off my jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders. Tria stuck her arms through the sleeves and wrapped the front part so it overlapped around her torso.
The jacket was insanely huge on her, and I should have found it comical, but I didn’t. Instead, my cock took very specific notice of how she looked and decided to attempt to escape from the crotch of my jeans, which made me groan.
“What is it?” Tria asked as her eyes narrowed a bit to focus on me.
For a moment, I couldn’t answer. I just looked at her while I tried to figure out what the hell was going on inside my head. I flicked my cigarette out onto the gravel road and wrapped another arm around her.
“It’s just you,” I finally answered. “The jacket doesn’t fit you at all, and it kind of looks like you’re wearing one of those giant bean bag chairs. I ought to be laughing, but I’m not because it’s so fucking hot at the same time—seeing you wearing something of mine.”
She widened her eyes a little.
“Like everything else about you,” I heard myself say. “It’s how beautiful you are when you’re pissed off at me. It’s how you smile when you’re making me breakfast. It’s your
eyes, your voice, the smell of your hair. It’s how your skin feels against mine.”
I hugged her against me tightly.
“Just like this,” I clarified, not wanting her to think that this was just about wanting in her panties—despite the moody little bastard’s lack of self-control. It was that, too, but it wasn’t just that. “Everything about you makes me want you more.”
Tria turned around between my legs and got up on her knees. She reached up slowly, and the backs of her fingers stroked over my cheekbone as her stare intensified.
“Why don’t you ever show anyone this side of you?” she asked. Her voice was quiet and earnest.
A hundred different answers went through my head—so many reasons why, so many people who took that side of me and twisted it into something else, something I needed to survive—but giving her any of that meant giving far more than I was ready to offer.
I could still answer with some of the truth.
“Reserved for you,” I said simply.
Her look softened though I could still see the hesitancy and the reservation she felt. It didn’t stop her from leaning forward and pressing her lips to mine. We moved together slowly and gently, not pushing any of it but just being there together. I gripped her hips and dug into the fabric of her skirt, but I didn’t go for her ass or anything; I just pulled her a little closer.
When we broke away, I didn’t understand her expression. She moved her fingers to the back of my head and stroked upwards once before she turned back around to settle into my chest again. I wrapped my arms back around her waist and tightened my grip.
Looking up into the clearing sky, I watched thousands of stars come into view. I didn’t think I had ever seen so many stars in the night sky before and wondered if you could really see constellations all the way out here in bumfuck Maine. I was about to ask Tria, but when I tilted my head to see her face, I realized she had fallen asleep.
I lay my head on top of hers and held her against me. After a few minutes, Brandon opened the front door and peeked out.
“Hey,” he said quietly.
“Hey,” I whispered back. I reached my hand into the pocket of my jacket slowly so I didn’t wake Tria. I grabbed my smokes and shook two of them out of the pack. “Give me a hand?”
Brandon picked up the cigarettes, and I found the lighter in the other pocket. He lit two cigarettes and handed one to me.
“Thanks,” I said.
“You, uh…been here long?” he asked as he took a drag.
“Long enough.” I smirked.
“Sorry about that.”
“Don’t be,” I told him as I shook my head. “I’m just glad I didn’t have to watch.”
He took a few steps forward and looked out at the brilliant, star-filled sky. As his eyes gazed upwards, he smiled.
“So what changed your mind?” I asked.
“What you said,” Brandon replied without hesitation. “When Keith was here, and I hit you. I couldn’t get what you said out of my mind. I watched this, um…”
His cheeks darkened in embarrassment.
“I watched this porno once with a couple guys from Beals High.” He stopped for a moment before going on. “There was this girl in it, and there was just a line of guys doing her one after the other. After you said that to Keith, well, I couldn’t get it out of my head.”
“No way!” I snickered, trying not to laugh too hard and wake Tria up. “I was thinking about one just like that!”
“It was gross,” he said.
“It was,” I agreed. “I mean, I like a threesome or whatever in a porn sometimes, but that was just too much.”
“I didn’t want Nikki looking like that,” he said in a soft voice.
There was no argument from me there, so I nodded and continued to smoke.
“She’s your niece or something, right?” I said. “Doesn’t that shit bother you?”
“No,” Brandon said quietly. “I’m only her half uncle. My mother had Nikki’s mother twenty years before me. Her first husband died, and she didn’t want to marry anyone else, but she wanted another kid. That’s why she went through all of that in order to have me. We’re not any closer than cousins genetically, which is still far enough removed that there is no real likelihood of genetic problems.”
I raised an eyebrow.
“Even if there was, I grew up knowing she was going to be my wife. I loved her as a kid, and I just fell more in love with her every year as we grew up. We were friends first, always knowing we’d be together later.”
When he put it like that, it didn’t seem totally sick. Not healthy, either, but not totally sick. I nodded, wondering what it was like to have your life mapped out for you like that. In some ways, I could see the appeal in the simplicity.
“How long have you been with Tria?” he asked after a minute.
I chuckled quietly.
“Well,” I said, “this would be day four.”
Brandon eyed us both.
“We’ve been living together for a while,” I clarified, “but we weren’t…you know…together.”
“You just using her?” he asked as he narrowed his eyes at me. “I mean, not that it’s any of my business or anything, but she’s Nikki’s friend, and I don’t want her hurt. I know Nikki had a lot to do with getting Tria out of here, and I don’t let on about her lying to me, but I want to know Tria’s safe and happy, that this was all worth my wife’s efforts.”
“No, I’m not,” I said. “Though if I had known how good a cook she was, I might have tried to get her to move in with me earlier on.”
He smirked and nodded.
“That’s a Beals woman thing,” he said. “They can all kick ass in the kitchen.”
I rolled my eyes, and he tossed the cigarette off into the gravel before looking at me again. I was about to challenge him on that last remark, but he spoke up first.
“Is she okay?” he asked again. “I mean, does she like living there?”
“She’s doing good,” I told him. “She’s awesome in school, and she’s looking to get a job on campus for a little extra money.”
“Good,” Brandon said with a nod. “Well, Nikki’s in the shower, and we’re both heading to bed. Sorry about earlier.”
I shrugged.
“Didn’t bother me,” I responded. “Tria might have freaked a little.”
“Hmm?” her sleepy voice came from my arms. “What?”
Brandon snickered.
“Come on, baby,” I said as I started to lift her off of me. “Let’s get you to couch.”
*****
The remainder of our trip was quick and thankfully uneventful. In the morning, once Nikki and Brandon finally emerged from the bedroom, we ate pancakes made by Tria and gathered our things to put into the travel bag and the Attaché of Attila the Hun before saying our goodbyes on the porch.
I slipped a couple cigs to Brandon when I shook his hand, and he carefully slipped them into a pocket when Nikki wasn’t looking.
“Thanks, dude.”
“No problem,” I said.
“I mean…for everything,” he went on. “I think you got a crap view of what we’re like here—saw us at our worst—but it’s not all like that. And ultimately…well, you got me thinking, you know? Set some things straight for me.”
“I call bullshit when I see it,” I replied.
“And when I needed it,” he said. “I’m grateful. Maybe you can come back again for a better reason sometime.”
The whole bro-gratitude thing made me feel weird, so I just shrugged and called to Tria. We needed to get on the road if we were going to make it far enough before Tria got too tired to ride any longer. She hugged Nikki, who also came over and insisted on hugging me as well. Tria wished them both luck in their baby-making endeavors, and we were off.
Nine hours later, we made it to a decent-sized city, and I spotted the familiar circling silver rings high up in the sky, advertising our best bet for accommodations. The routine was similar though
the manager at this place put Michael on speaker phone when my uncle made the request, and I ended up promising to call him next weekend to keep him from showing up at the door again.
It seemed to make Tria happy, so I agreed to it. Besides, Michael wasn’t a bad guy, and I had been pretty shitty to him. I probably owed it to him to at least call and tell him all was okay now. After the little talk, Tria gave me the remainder of the money—which was just about half of the rent we would need in about ten days—and I sighed heavily but took it and shoved it into my wallet.
The manager set us up in the nicest suite they had, though this one wasn’t quite as grand as the place in Portland had been. It still had a nice living area and separate bedroom and bath. The bed was huge compared to the couch we had shared two nights ago and really comfortable after the floor we had slept on last night. Tria was completely wigged out by Brandon and Nikki fucking on the couch and wouldn’t go near it again. I said something about how they had probably fucked on every piece of furniture in the house, so we had ended up on the floor.
“Oh, I can’t wait to sleep in that bed!” Tria exclaimed as she came out of the bathroom with her hair wrapped in a towel and wearing her favorite T-shirt and sweats.
“Lie down,” I said, “but don’t drop off too quick.”
She raised an eyebrow at me as she stepped across the floor and sat on the end of the mattress.
“You have plans, Mr. Teague?”
“I just spent an insane amount of mental energy not beating the shit out of your douchebag ex,” I told her. “I believe there was a certain…reward?”
“Hmm…” Tria reached up and tapped the tip of her finger against her chin. “I recall there was something…but the details are escaping me.”
I growled and leapt at her, knocking her backwards onto the bed and pressing my lips to her shoulder. The towel went flying off her head and onto the floor.
“Don’t you toy with me, Demetria.” I snarled into her ear. Strands of wet hair stuck to my forehead. “I’ve had all the frustration I can take.”
She struggled and laughed as I tickled her sides and maneuvered us both up to the top of the bed. She leaned back against the pillows and tried to catch her breath, while I made it more difficult by waiting until she had pretty much calmed completely before tickling her side or stomach again.