Chapter 51 The Retaliation
THE RETALIATION
MAGGIE
Zeke and I struggled to keep our hands off one another after that.
Our Sunday chores took twice as long because of the frequent interruptions.
When Zeke left shortly after lunch and came back with a Plan B that he retrieved from the emergency pharmacy on post, I dropped to my knees and gave him a blow job right there in the apartment foyer.
“Can we…uh…go back to the bedroom and try…something?” Zeke panted as I worked him in my mouth.
I grinned around the head of his cock, fluttering my lashes as I looked up at him.
“Yeah, like, right now!” There wasn’t a moment for me to react before he looped an arm around my waist and hauled me over his shoulder, caveman-style. I giggled and playfully kicked my feet. He smacked me hard on the ass in response.
Dumping me on the bed, Zeke proceeded to rip off the simple t-shirt and yoga pants I wore. He growled in approval upon discovering I didn’t have on a bra or panties underneath.
His mouth descended on my clit, his tongue creating lazy circles around the swollen bud.
All of my nerve endings fired at once. I wanted to jump out of my very skin from the pleasure building.
In one quick move, Zeke removed his own shirt before returning his tongue to my pussy, hastily using one arm to fully remove his pants that were still bunched around his knees from my hallway blow job.
“You’re so wet for me, Trouble,” he moaned. Pausing to softly blow air on my clit, Zeke glanced up at me in wonder. “Is it always like this? Does it always feel like the world’s on fire and the only way to keep myself together is to be with you?”
All the lust gave way to that gooey, melting feeling Zeke always gave me. “No, baby, it only feels like that because what we have is so special.”
Zeke gave a satisfied nod, pleased by my explanation. “That’s what I thought.’
Without warning, he inserted three fingers inside, stretching my walls for a few quick pumps before he slid the same fingers back to my asshole.
Drenched with my arousal, Zeke circled the fingers around until my body relaxed enough to let one finger, then a second enter.
I was no stranger to anal sex, and actually found it quite enjoyable when the guy knew what he was doing, which seemed to intrigue Zeke when we looked at toys.
His tongue continued to flick across my clit while the two fingers gently thrust in and out of my ass.
The orgasm built at the base of my spine, causing my knees to quake. I gripped the duvet cover with both hands as I cried out, “Yes, baby, just like that!”
His tongue moved faster with the encouragement and my body finally gave in, the climax tearing through me so my teeth chattered.
I was barely coherent enough to register the sound of plastic tearing as Zeke ripped open a condom and slipped it on his length.
An awkward pause followed, making me lift my head to check on him.
Zeke stood at the edge of the bed and guided the cock ring dildo down as far as it would go on his shaft. The ring didn’t widen enough to meet the base of his cock, and I recognized the apprehension on his face as he glanced up at me for reassurance.
The sight alone made me want to cum.
“It’s okay, baby, it’s still going to feel good,” I promised.
Zeke nodded and climbed over me, letting the dildo slide against my lower abdomen as he hovered on his elbows. “You are absolutely perfect, Maggie,” he murmured. “Thank you for being with me.”
I didn’t know if he meant being with him physically or being his wife, but in that moment, I only felt grateful for all of it. I am so damned lucky!
Smiling, I arched my head up to tenderly kiss him. “There’s no one else I’d rather be with.” I stretched an arm up to grab one of the bottles of flavored lube from the nightstand before jokingly holding it up. “You need to use a lot of this if we’re doing what I think we’re doing.”
“Yeah?” Zeke took the bottle and sat up on his knees, slathering the dildo that bobbed underneath his rigid cock.
He did a doubletake between the bottle and my bum, indicating when he realized adding more lube to my back door would be beneficial, too. Slathering it on and using the same two fingers to massage the rim, the strong scent of strawberries filled the room.
“I’ll never look at berries the same after this,” Zeke chuckled as he returned to hover over me. “I much prefer your vanilla smell to this!”
A stunted giggle broke free, cut off when the head of the dildo notched at the entrance to my asshole.
Zeke guided the head of his cock up and down the slit of my now soaking wet pussy.
I willed my body to relax so that it would accept the double penetration.
It wasn’t every day your husband made one of your sex fantasies come true!
“I don’t want to do this if it hurts you,” Zeke hedged.
“You would never hurt me, Zeke.”
With his mouth hanging open in ecstasy, my husband gradually inserted both his cock and the dildo into their prospective entrances.
Both of our eyes rolled in the back of our heads as we collectively panted in desire.
The exquisite sensation of his cock pressing against the walls of my pussy and hitting the toy sent waves of pleasure through me.
He moved with painstaking precision, pausing every few seconds to ensure I adjusted to the double intrusion and didn’t voice any pain or discomfort.
It was the enraptured way Zeke watched me, however, that might send me over the edge.
So much love shone through his eyes…I didn’t even care what I looked like.
My cellulite and freckles didn’t make him love me any less.
The size of my boobs or the way my hip bones jutted out weren’t taking anything away from our connection in that moment.
Because they truly didn’t matter. The way we felt about each other mattered so much more than anything as trivial as my weight. My weight didn’t define my worth.
The dildo bottomed out sooner than Zeke’s abnormally large dick, so he settled into a rhythm with both before leaning down to capture a nipple in his mouth.
I reached down to work my own clit. He moaned around my breast, the sound laced with sin and sex appeal.
Another orgasm crescendoed as the passion between us skyrocketed.
Passion blazed in his eyes as we came together, something so pure and honest, that I knew came from a molecular level. Our souls merged. We both smiled in unison.
I had never felt so loved.
Something changed between us that day. I finally saw us as a real couple, recognizing that I was now half of a whole.
I could visualize our future together as a tangible thing whereas I used to see it more in the abstract way of “seeing where things went.” I didn’t need to see, I already knew. Zeke was The One.
Without discussing it, we both knew that we would sleep in the same bed that night, and another bloodcurdling orgasm helped me sleep like a rock. At some point in the middle of the night, I rolled into Zeke’s naked body and woke him up, so the whole thing started all over again.
I woke up the next morning happier than ever.
This is it. This is love, Margaret Hayes.
Except I was too scared to tell him.
All that joy had to go somewhere, however.
Even though I didn’t hold much in stock by social media, I created a Facebook account just to see the goings on back in River’s Run.
Maybe I could offer to run the accounts for Marla’s bakery and help get her a broader range of customers.
Every legitimate business had some kind of social following now.
After a couple hours of surfing through the profiles of the girls I hated in high school, a message popped up with a name that chilled me to the bone.
Wesley Madden.
HI, MAGGIE. I HOPE YOU’RE DOING WELL. DO YOU STILL LIVE IN RIVER’S RUN? I TRIED TO CALL CELESTE A FEW TIMES, BUT MY NUMBER COULDN’T GO THROUGH.
I paced the kitchen as I contemplated what to do.
Celeste cried herself to sleep for weeks after her daddy died, in part because Wes, the only other boy she ever needed, disappeared that same afternoon.
Then I held her hand as she sobbed all over again for months when she discovered that Iris was on the way.
Nobody deserved that kind of trauma, yet my best friend lived through it and became all the stronger for it.
Wes didn’t have the right to waltz back into her life like nothing happened.
While he did deserve to know about Iris, it wasn’t my place to intervene. Everything could implode for Celeste and that was the last thing I wanted to happen.
As much as it hurt, I knew what my response had to be.
HI, WESLEY. IF YOUR CALL DIDN’T WORK, THAT SHOULD TELL YOU EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW. CELESTE IS A BIG GIRL NOW AND CAN DECIDE WHO SHE WANTS TO SPEAK TO. CLEARLY YOU AIN’T IT. PROBABLY BEST THAT YOU LEAVE HER ALONE.
I blocked him afterwards for good measure.
I automatically reached for my phone to text Celeste and warn her about Wesley’s message.
If he kept trying to call her, it was only a matter of time until he managed to get through.
But then I imagined how I would feel if Zeke reached out to Celeste behind my back, how hurt I would feel if I knew.
Celeste decided on her own that Wes no longer had a place in her life.
That was her decision to make, not mine.
Setting the phone down, I sighed heavily. Growing up kind of sucked sometimes.
The front door opened and closed, and soon Zeke joined me in the kitchen. “Hey, Trouble,” he greeted me with a smile and a kiss on the forehead. “Are you ready to head to counseling?”
“Yeah, baby, get changed and I’ll meet you in a few minutes.” I smiled back at him before he disappeared down the hallway.
Right as another message popped up, this one making it hard to stifle the scream that followed.
SPENCER CHURCH: LISTEN, CUNT, YOU BETTER HAVE MY MONEY SOON OR NEXT TIME I’LL BLOW THE PLACE UP.
With it followed a photograph of the front of Marla’s bakery. Construction was much further along now, with a sign etched into the glass window and everything, so I knew it had to be recent. Marla herself stepped out of the doorway in the candid shot.
Spencer could be ruthless, but he’d never been so reckless. Desperation must’ve made people do really crazy things.
Which was why I needed to come clean with Zeke. Things with Spencer had to end.
Zeke noticed my detached attention during our counseling session, but I managed to rally enough to make it through. Barb congratulated us several times on our “successful” homework assignment and said that she felt comfortable with stopping the joint sessions.
“But why?” my husband asked incredulously.
“Because we managed to bring you two closer than ever, and now Maggie has someone in her corner that she can rely on. She knows you have her back, Zeke, and sometimes that can make all the difference in the world!” Barb grinned at us triumphantly before nodding in my direction.
“That also means there’s no more hiding from the truth, Maggie. ”
Not this again…
“Barb, I told you, I don’t need to talk about my mother. She’s crazy, and she’s not in my life.”
“But she’s in your head,” countered Barb, “and that’s what we have to make peace with. Your anorexia will never be cured until we cut it off at the roots. Diana is your root.”
Maybe it was the threat looming over Spencer’s message. Maybe all the mixed feelings over contact with Wesley again after so long got to me. Maybe I simply wanted to go back to the happy bubble of that morning, waking up to Zeke pushing his way inside me. Everything seemed so much simpler then.
No matter which way you sliced it, I had too much bottled inside that had to come out.
“I will NEVER be cured from anorexia!” I shouted, jumping to my feet. “This is who I am, Barb! So what if it started with Diana? Who cares? It’s going to end with me! I am going to beat it because I want to, not because I’ve ‘made peace’ with my goddamn mother!”
Zeke reached forward to hold my hand, just a simple touch to anchor me. I wasn’t alone anymore. I never had to be alone again.
To my surprise, Barb began to clap. “Bravo, my girl! What a breakthrough! This is exactly what I needed to hear from you!”
Tears began streaming down my face as exhaustion hit. All of the emotions collided and suddenly I couldn’t bear to stand in that room for another minute. I needed to get home, with Zeke, so we could have the dreaded “talk” and figure out what to do next.
“Can we please go?” I pleaded. “I…I’ve had enough. For one day.”
“Absolutely, my dear. I’ll see you on Thursday at our usual time. Have a good night, you two!” She waved us out of the room without further ado.
I slumped against Zeke as we made our way up the street to the shuttle stop.
He remained quiet and simply steered us in the right direction.
We managed to make it all the way into the apartment and through our nightly bedtime routines, settling into what had become our marriage bed, before I finally broke the ice.
“Look, Zeke, I need to tell you something important, and I need you to really listen before you react, okay?”
“Sure, Trouble. What is it?” Forever the White Knight, Zeke scooted closer and brushed the hair from my face, hanging on my every word.
“Right before we got married, I got into…some trouble. Real trouble. Not the kind you think of when you call me that.” He nodded in encouragement for me to continue. “I owe someone money. Like, a lot of money. More money than we have just lying around.”
Zeke paused for a moment. “You mean Spencer, right? You owe Spencer this money.”
A lump welled in my throat, but I fought back the tears. I had to be accountable for my actions and that included confessing to the act. “Yes.”
“And why couldn’t you tell me before?” he asked thoughtfully.
The question I feared he’d ask, that might very well end our marriage. The lump in my throat grew bigger.
“Because,” I sniffled, “I was afraid to tell you why I owe him the money. I don’t want to lose you, Zeke. You mean everything to me.”
For the first time ever, he pulled away from me, putting as much distance between us as the bed would allow.
“Do you love me?” Zeke’s voice had that authoritative tone to it, his Army voice that made soldiers fall in line.
When he used it with this line of questioning, the tone made me tremble in fear.
I wanted to answer him. I really did. But as hard as I tried, the words wouldn’t come out.
“Then I guess it doesn’t matter why you owe him the money, does it? At the end of the day, you still won’t put me first. That’s all I need to know.” Without a further glance in my direction, Zeke swept from the room and slammed the door behind him.