20. Zach
20
ZACH
E ven though the band’s music was too loud and far too many people crowded up and down Main Street, I had fun. I had as much fun as I could’ve had, unused to being in festive situations like this. For almost twenty years, my holidays were spent with my fellow soldiers, often out in remote areas and pending dangerous positions. Even when I had leaves and breaks, I stayed near wherever I had been stationed last, in various locations in Asia and Europe. It was jarring to acclimate back to these familiar faces and buildings. Yet, as the night carried on and I walked with my family, the Ameena siblings, and Blake and George, I grew more comfortable with the fact that I was here.
The entertainment wasn’t lacking. Lots of food and drink options hit the spot, and overall, I enjoyed myself.
It was only at the end of the night that I realized I hadn’t been stuck in thinking what else I could be doing. Where else I could be and who else I could spend my time with.
I was, for all intents and purposes, content.
The only thing that could’ve improved the experience was if I knew why Blake seemed so off. Her skittishness was one thing. But more often than not, I had to grapple with the way she seemed like a deer caught in the headlights. Not afraid, but so tense and trying hard to hide it.
It’s because we had sex. I know it. This wasn’t a walk of shame by any means, but it seemed like it. I didn’t have to ask and conspire with her to realize she didn’t want anyone to know that we’d spent the night together. That was obvious because if we acted like we were a couple at all, George would need to be told what was happening.
Cole said Blake never dated much. It sounded like her so-called relationship with Rory had been short and lackluster to the point I doubted George ever really saw the man as someone his mom was truly interested in.
But is that it? Is she just freaking out at being near me while trying to look unaffected and uninterested?
I didn’t have time to ponder it as we walked through the festival. We all made snowballs and watched the ice sculptures. We snacked and tried different drinks from flights at a vendor booth. Grandma Jenny bought a candle and Cole signed up for some martial arts classes that had a winter special at the Y. Amanda sat for a caricature, and we all decorated cookies back in the children’s tent.
At the end of Main Street, it seemed we were done. Cole and Sara left, off to another family gathering. It was just us, but it was up in the air how we’d end the night. I wanted to spend more time out like this. With Blake. With Blake and George. Anything I could get because the thought of going home to that bland apartment over the garage was too daunting to accept after how good I felt in their company.
“How about it?” Amanda asked Blake as she swung George’s hand. “I’ll take him to the movie.”
I was still surprised that the busy babysitting gig that kept my sister employed was her supervising George. She babysat for Blake, and I witnessed the obviously close connection Amanda and George had.
“Well, it’s getting late,” Blake said, glancing from her watch to neon letters on the old-timey movie theater’s marquee.
“But it’s the weekend, Mama.” George pouted at her. “And you and Jen-Jen don’t have to cater tonight.”
Blake nodded but still seemed uneasy.
“Yeah,” Grandma Jenny said, taking George’s other hand so she could swing him while Amanda held his other hand. “I’ll go with them. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen an old Christmas classic.”
“You sure?” Blake asked.
I doubted she was nervous about George watching the Christmas movie the theater was playing, but more so about George being out at all.
Grandma Jenny smiled. “Yeah. Sure.”
“Uh-huh,” Amanda replied, raising her brows at her. “Grandma and I can keep track of George at this movie. That’ll free you up to spend time with Zach. You two could catch up.”
We caught up pretty damn well last night.
“You know, talk and whatnot,” Amanda added. “You can give her a ride home, right?” She smiled at me.
“Sure.” I nodded and shoved my hands in my pocket. If my luck could hold, maybe this drive back to Blake’s would end like last night’s did.
They didn’t give Blake much of a chance to protest. Between Grandma Jenny’s insistence that this would be fun, George’s excitement to stay out a little later, and Amanda’s urging that Blake hang out with me, she was pushed to agree.
As Blake and I headed back toward the parking lot where I’d parked, I debated what kind of an ice breaker would snap her out of this nervousness to be around me. On one hand, maybe the fact that we’d had sex last night would intimidate her now. On the other, though, it could relax her.
She’d kissed me goodbye this morning. She had been game to fool around before Sara and George arrived.
So, what gives? What changed?
“You all right?” I asked, wishing I could have the right and privilege to hold her hand and keep her closer.
She jumped. “What? Oh. Yeah. I’m fine.”
Bullshit.
“You seem nervous.”
“No, no,” she replied hastily. “I’m fine.”
“You’re anxious,” I said.
She shook her head.
Is it really that hard to be with me? Even walking to my truck for a ride home? I dismissed the idea of spending time with her past that. I could read the room, or a person. Blake was too flustered to hang out with me like my sister suggested, and I wasn’t the kind of man to be hurt about it.
If I wasn’t so convinced that she was tense because she might be holding back about something, I would’ve left it alone. But this was Blake, the one woman who had the ability to make me feel whole again. The one person who brightened my mood.
“Come on, Blake.” I opened her door. “What’s up?”
She shrugged, getting into my truck and not meeting my eye.
When I got in the driver’s seat, she blurted, “I don’t often get free time like this.”
I raised my brows as I drove out of the lot. “So… you don’t want to waste it by spending it with me?”
“No! I mean… no. It’s just that this doesn’t happen often. Spontaneously. There’s always parties to cater. This is the busy time.”
“With the festival happening tonight, I doubt many people wanted to plan a get-together.”
She nodded, wringing her hands in her lap. “Yeah. But Amanda watching George out of the blue, too. That doesn’t happen often.”
“Oh.”
“It’s just that I’m always behind on getting so many things done. I could use this time to wrap presents for George.”
I glanced at her, noticing the rosiness on her cheeks. The cold air likely caused it, but I was taken back to this morning when I made her blush and then moved on to see that flush spreading down her neck. And further.
“I can help.”
She looked me dead in the eye, curious. “You want to help wrap presents?”
“Not particularly. But I want to spend time with you.”
“Not just to…”
“Fuck?” I grinned at her shy smile.
“Yeah.”
I took a risk and grabbed her hand to hold it. She didn’t tug it away, squeezing back as I fitted our fingers into a lock. We rested them on the bench seat, and I felt like things had to be improving if she was welcoming this touch.
“I want to help wrap presents. If that’s what you need to get done, then I’ll be your helper. Teamwork.”
She laughed lightly. “If you’re sure.”
I was sure about one thing and one thing only—being near her and relishing this feeling of being home .
When we arrived at her house, I fought back the déjà vu of how I’d done this just last night. Then when we walked up the steps and she unlocked the door, I tried not to recall how this was where she’d kissed me. How I’d carried her inside, making out like I’d die without her mouth on mine.
We hung up our coats, but when I offered to start a fire in the fireplace, she moved on to start finding the gifts she’d stashed away. Once a fire was roaring and warming up the living room, I found her in the basement, struggling to reach into a crawl space where the bounty was hiding. She handed them to me to pile up in my arms to take them upstairs.
Her phone buzzed, and when it fell out of her pocket, I shifted the packages to one hand and caught the device.
“What’s it say?” she asked as she searched in the crawl space.
I smiled, amused that she’d trust me so easily. That anything that came on her phone would be something she wouldn’t mind me reading. No secrets.
“It’s Amanda. She texted that the movie ended early because of technical difficulties.” I waited as another line showed at the top of the locked screen. “She and Jenny took him home, and he just fell asleep on the couch.” Another slight pause followed as one more text came in. “He can just spend the night there.”
Convenient…
“Oh.” Blake stepped back and huffed out a breath. It puffed up the strands of hair that had fallen over her face as she searched. In her hand, she hoisted up a dusty bottle of booze. “Then I guess it’s not so bad that I found this tucked way, way back there.”
I smiled. Maybe a little liquid courage won’t hurt us.
We carried it all upstairs. She set out the wrapping paper, scissors, tape, and pile of gifts on the dining room table while I opened the whiskey and poured us both a shot. “To successful gift wrapping,” I toasted.
She clinked her shot glass to mine. After she explained the premise of wrapping, we both took a gift and tried to position them.
“It’d help if they were just… rectangular.”
I laughed, glad she was struggling like I was. “If there was one right angle on the package, that’d help.” I smirked at her, pleased that she seemed to lower her guard with a task to focus on. “What about gift bags?”
She giggled. “No. Those are too easy. I like watching him rip off the paper and be excited to see if his wishes came true.”
“Yeah? What’s he asking Santa for?” I asked, intrigued about the boy.
“Markers and a paint set.”
“He’s creative. I was coloring with him in the kids’ tent.”
She glanced up, giving me an unreadable expression. “You were?”
I nodded, giving up on the gift for a moment. It wasn’t that single shot getting to me as much as it was her . This sexy, sweet woman who called to me.
“What are you wishing for?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. “Like a gift from under the tree? I don’t need to open up a present.”
I approached her, too wild for the desire burning in her eyes to concentrate on anything but her.
“I know what I’d want.”
She smiled, lowering her gaze until I reached her and tipped her chin up.
“I’d want to unwrap you.” I started to, slipping my hand under the hem of her shirt. Her chest rose and fell faster as I spread my fingers over the smooth skin of her stomach. As I leaned down, she reached up and closed the distance between our mouths. She kissed me like she’d been impatient to do so all night. With that instant punch of lust barreling through me, I turned to clear the clutter off the dining room table so I could lay her back on it.
“Zach?” She sat there, confusion clear in her bright green eyes as she watched me tug on her pants.
“Show me,” I demanded in a low growl. “Help me unwrap my gift.” Tugging on her leggings and panties, I demonstrated that I wanted her naked. Now.
She breathed faster, hurrying to yank her sweater and bra off. Her hips lifted as she helped me ease her pants and panties off. It was a frantic rush, a wrestle with her garments that wasn’t made easier with us kissing and dueling with our tongues, but in the end, she was naked on the table.
“That’s more like it.” I nudged a chair over to lower and sit, gazing at her green orbs of lust as I lowered. “This is what I was wishing for.” Stroking my hands up her thighs, I pushed her legs apart. The tart scent of her cream reached my nose, and I growled as I brought my thumbs closer.
“You were wishing for… this?” she whispered. Pure need burned in her gaze as she leaned back on her left hand. With her right, she reached up to stroke her fingers through my hair, almost as though she wanted to keep my head close but was too scared to make such a move.
“Yeah. What about you?” I asked, rubbing my hands on her thighs.
“What about me?”
“Yeah. Play along, Blake. What’s your sexual fantasies?”
She licked her lips, blushing again. “This… this rates high up there.”
“You’ve fantasized about this? Or me ?”
Her throat flexed as she strained to swallow. “Both.”
“What do you want? Show me.”
“For you to…”
I leaned my head out of her reach. Then I held her fingers and said, “Show me,” I repeated as a firmer order.
“I want you to…” She pointed between her legs.
I pushed her hand there, placing her fingers on her folds. “Open up for me.”
She did, widening the view of her glistening pussy.
I growled, so fucking hard I wasn’t sure I could last. “Now what?” I demanded. I lowered my hands to her ass and yanked her to the edge of the table. “What do you want me to do?”
She gasped in alarm but caught on quickly. Her other hand came up to the back of my head and she slowly pushed my face to her cunt.
“Kiss… me,” she whispered.
I did, pressing my mouth to her smooth, slick flesh. I sucked her clit, too, earning a whimper from her for more.
“More,” she said on a breathy sigh. She arched up into me, humping my face, and I grinned as I feasted.
“Like this?” I asked after I licked up and down her opening. My chin was wet from her juices. Under my pants, my dick strained to get free. But she was setting the pace here, not me.
“This is your fantasy. Your wish. Tell me, Blake.”
“I just want… you,” she replied, her face tense with need.
Never before had four words had so much power over me.
“You want me?” I ate at her until she was breathless, licking, sucking, and nipping at her cunt. “You want me like this?”
“Yes!”
Then that was exactly what she’d get. I dove down to push this sweet woman to pleasure, hoping she’d understood this was literally just the appetizer as far as I was concerned.