Chapter 53
Ethan
W ith Ryan and Eric gone, the house had become more breathable, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going crazy from cabin fever. That explained why I’d been up since the ass crack of dawn, weeding out the back and front yard.
With Matt asleep in Lily’s bed, I was able to dip to the store and back with supplies before they even noticed I was gone.
I’d taken Mrs. Thornbread’s gardening book for help on what kinds of plants to get. I figured it’d be nice to have a garden to come back to, even if she didn’t start it herself. She’d still be able to tend to it. As I took seeds and potted plants from the van, I chuckled to myself. To think a couple of months ago, I’d spent the majority of my days obsessing over stocks, on vacations, on the plane, at the airport, out for dinner with my friends. The other twenty percent of my time I’d spent on actually engaging with my friends, or charities or checking in on my mom. I didn’t think I was missing anything. I was perfectly content.
Now here I was, fucking the woman I loved damn near every day, engaging in the craziest sexual experiences of my life, on caregiving duty, and fucking gardening. My life’s had taken quite the turn, but I was more than just content. The only thing that’d make me happier would be if she agreed to move in with us.
Every night I went to sleep picturing our home together, what a future with her would be like. I couldn’t wait for her to meet my mother; they had so much in common, so equally strong. No one would look at my mother now and be able to tell what her life looked like twenty-something years ago. She was a whole new woman, running her own business, making her own name for herself. I could imagine the conversations they’d have, the bond they’d create. I’d do anything for Lily, the same as I’d do for my mom, if only she’d just let me.
Lost in my thoughts and the music blasting from my earphones, I was startled when Matt came up behind me, offering me some coffee.
“Where’s Lily?” I asked.
“Still sleeping. She’s got about an hour till her alarm goes off. I can’t stand waking up to an alarm, so I thought I’d get up earlier. Make some breakfast. You want any?”
Damn, had it been two hours since I’d been out here already?
“Yeah, I’m starving actually.” I nodded.
Moments later, he came out with a plate piled high with food.
“Damn,” I muttered. “Got a lot on your mind too, huh?” I noted the slightly burnt toast, pancakes, crispy eggs, sausage, and bacon. Well, at least he tried.
“How can you tell?” he asked.
I could make a joke about knowing him better than he knew himself. Damn, I thought I might know him better than I knew my own damn self after watching Ryan fuck him. It was one thing watching your friends fuck. It was one thing even knowing two of your friends used to fuck each other. It was a whole other thing watching your friend take your other friend’s dick up his ass. I saw him in a whole new light. I respected the hell out of him because I could never.
“You don’t make breakfast,” I said instead. “You can admit it; it’s a tight squeeze.” I winced at my choice of words. “Living on top of each other like this, I mean.” Ah hell, there I went again. This time I couldn’t stop the laugh that tumbled out of me.
He laughed too. “What the hell is wrong with you?”
he asks.
“Nothing.” I stuffed my mouth full of food.
“You’re acting like you wouldn’t let Lily peg you,” he uttered, letting me know he’s aware of what’s causing my fit of giggles, and I choked. Grabbing the too-sweet coffee, I washed back the food lodged at the back of my throat. He slapped my back to help, but I ended up choking on the liquid too.
“Damn, sounds like the first time I sucked a dick,” he said, and everything shot from my mouth as I guffawed.
“You’re going to kill me.” I wheezed, coughed, and spat laughter.
“What? You’re telling me you wouldn’t?” he asked again.
“Damn, I must love her or something.” I paused to consider. “Because I think I would.” I laughed again.
He confessed that he thought he might love her as well. Well, damn. Look at us.
Lily
The sound of my alarm blaring caused me to jump awake, but that's not the only racket. What in the world was happening outside my house? I hurried downstairs to find my mother, already awake and sitting in front of the TV in her wheelchair. With my brows pulled together, I made my way to the kitchen and found no dishes or pots in the sink, but a buffet of food covered up on the small round table. When I opened the fridge, my mother's breakfast Tupperware was already empty. But the men were nowhere to be seen. I hurried to the window facing out to the backyard, and I'm stopped in my tracks. Ethan's tall, muscular frame was shirtless and damp from the sun as he pushed a lawn mower over the patchy but tall grass. Plants of varying colors were stacked up around him. The surprises with these men never ended.
A door opened behind me, and I spun around to see Matt coming out of the bathroom. A towel around his waist. His hair damp on his chest and around his anchor tattoo.
"Well, good morning, sleepy head." He grinned when he saw me.
Sleepyhead, he's right about that. "Is it really only after eight in the morning?" I considered all the things out on my lawn that weren't there last night. I'm pretty sure we didn't have a lawn mower before either. And breakfast, my mom...
"Yes. We just needed something to do," he assured me with a kiss on my temple.
"You're growing restless here, aren't you? You know you don't have to stay. It's been weeks since Terri stopped by. I'm not as scared anymore. I'm pretty sure I won't see him again until the next five years or so." I wrapped my arms around his waist.
"Are you saying you're tired of us already?" He frowned.
"No." I laughed at his pout. "I like having you guys here. There are several... benefits." I smiled, tugging at the waist of his towel.
He chuckled. "Oh, I'd say there are plenty." He let the towel fall, and I bit my lip. When he leaned forward to kiss me though, I dodged him.
"I have to give my mom a bath." I groaned. "It's important to stick to a routine, but I've been oh, so bad lately," I teased. He sighed and picked up his towel, but not before I saw a semi. My pussy quivered, and I groaned even louder. "You're bad influences. I could go back to being a good girl if you leave."
"Oh, but you're always a good girl." He tipped my chin toward him and nibbled my lip. "But I suppose space isn't a bad thing," he agreed.
"Yeah. I promise I'll be fine. And if I'm not..." I started.
"We have the cameras," he finished.
I pouted now. "I'll miss you being so close and available though." I began to reconsider. "But I can see that you guys are missing your comforts."
"I wouldn't say..." he began to deny.
"Don't lie." I grinned.
"Okay, maybe a little bit," he confessed, pinching his two fingers together. "So..." He moved in closer to me. "Why don't you wait until tomorrow to go back to your routine and be bad for me one more time," he whispered in my ear before kissing me there.
"See what I mean?" I moaned, already hornier than I could bear.
Swearing, I wrapped my arms around his neck and let him lift me in his arms, popping me on the windowsill.
I gasped, looking behind me. I already knew Ethan's wasn't there. The sound of the lawn mower had moved to the front of the house.
"What if someone sees us?" I tittered.
"Don't you like being watched?" His lips came down on mine as he pulled up my nightdress and removed his towel.
"Mmph," he groaned as he pushed into me. Greedy hands pulled the thin straps over my shoulders to reveal my breasts to him. My heart raced with excitement at the thought of passersby witnessing us. I buried my mouth in his neck to muffle my own moans.
"Shit." He shuddered, going crazy, bracing himself with his hand against the glass window as he pulled and pushed on that sweet spot until I'm crashing over him. Man, I loved being fucked through my climax. I lost all feeling in my body, losing all sense of my surroundings. My eyes rolled back, and the guttural sound built in my stomach until it threatened to pour out. But Matt's hand came down on my mouth, attempting to save me from myself. I squealed in response to the slight suffocation, and he swore as I fell apart around him, my body growing limp this time.
"Matt," I sobbed as he kept fucking me until I'm putty in his hands. Finally, he released me from this torturous pleasure and exploded inside me. The heat of his cum drove me mad, and I panted, shuddering through my next release.
"Babe," he breathed, kissing my cheek, my neck and shoulders before our lips made contact and brought our heartbeats back to normal. I'm liquid when I tried to walk, and he grinned at my wobbling legs. "It was that good?" he teased.
"What do you mean if it was that good? You know damn well how good it was," I said through my breaths.
He grinned. "I better get dressed and get going then."
"Damn, already?" I asked.
"Yeah. I want you to miss me." He groped my ass through my nightdress.
"Mm." I bit my lip. "I already do."
"Me too," he confessed. "I'll see you later?"
"If you're lucky." I pushed him away.
When I'm done giving Mom a bath and getting her into clean clothes, I put her back in front of the television. I can't tell if she's enjoying the comedies, but I catch her echoing back the words when she thinks she's on her own. At the very least, it's keeping her engaged and her mind active while I take a shower of my own and make a pitcher of something cold for Ethan to drink, along with a sandwich. It had taken me a couple of hours to sort Mom out, and he's still going at it. I kept taking excited peeks at the progress, and it's looking so good, I can't wait for my mom to see it. I was going to roll her on out there, but I'm more interested in having my man's attention all to myself.
"Hope you're hungry," I sang on my way out the door, dressed in the shortest shorts I could because Ethan was looking sizzling hot, and I needed to match. But he didn't hear me. He's bopping to music from his wireless headphones.
I snuck up behind him, stood on the balls of my feet, and tapped him on the shoulder. He didn't release an outright shriek, but he might as well have as he spun around, knocking the headphones off to hang around his neck.
"Oh, it's you," he gasped and grinned. "Hello, you." He looked me up and down appreciatively.
I shared my own look of appreciation, my cheeks on fire as I took him in.
"I was saying I hope you're hungry. I brought you something to eat," I said.
"Hmm." He growled low and deep. "Are you talking about you or..."
I laughed. "You can have me later." I nodded toward the refreshments placed on the small picnic table Eric and I had utilized on our first date.
"Oh!" His eyes lit up at the cold pitcher dripping with condensation. He smacked a kiss against my forehead, groaning. "Oh, I love you," he said on his way over to the refreshment. He stumbled but recovered. I froze, but my heart's all bouncing like my tits when I'm on one of their dicks. "So, I saw Matt leave earlier." He cleared his throat while pouring a drink. "What's that about? I came in earlier to ask you, but you were in the bathroom with your mother, and I know how stressful that can be, so I didn't want to disturb you."
Tilting my head at him, I met his eyes and smiled. "Are we going to just brush over what you just said?"
"What did I just say?" he asked over a bite of his sandwich, his eyes twinkling with joy.
"You know what you said." I looked down and brushed back my hair from my face. "Unless you didn't mean it, then we can just forget you said it." I shrugged. "You've done a great job with the yard." I nodded. "My mom will love it. Dang it. There I go saying the word."
He grinned. "Oh, that." He smiled before pulling his phone from his jeans pocket and putting the headphones aside.
To my surprise and instant cringe, music started playing. "Uh... what's happening?" My brows rose to the top of my swelling forehead.
He started singing.
"Oh no! Not you too!" I covered my face and backed away, but he grinned, chasing me and pulling me into his arms. He's rocking me and crooning into my ears. He had an actual melody to his voice, so that's not the unbearable part. He laughed harder at my tightness. "Come on, dance with me."
I listened to the female singer and the lyrics. My mouth fell open. "Is that Taylor Swift?"
"The one and only," he said.
"Oh my goodness," I recoiled. "You're so cheesy."
"Hey, there ain't nothing cheesy about Taylor Swift." He flashed me a playful look.
"Says you," I grumbled.
"Listen to the lyrics." He spun me around, and I watched with my cheeks on fire as he sang along to the words of the song, 'Timeless.'
My heart enlarged, and my cringe was soon replaced with realization. My eyes filled with tears, and I'm shocked as my feet moved along with him, outside, in the broad daylight, where anyone could see. And it hit me, what did I have to be embarrassed about? People witnessing me falling in love? I had felt stupid for loving Marco, but I didn't feel stupid for loving any of these men. So what if I still didn't know them all well enough or whether this would blow up in my face in the end. It didn't change the reasons I had to love them now. We're creating more reasons, more memories, and more history every single day, even in this. I think this might have been the first time I'd danced with someone sober, in public.
I already had a thousand reasons to love him for the kindness he'd shown me, for the grace he'd extended to my mother, for his selflessness, his generosity, the way his hands on my body lit me up. I had nothing to be ashamed of. So what if people saw me gushing in the face of this man.
"I love you too," I confessed.
"Do you or are you just saying it back?" he asked, rubbing his nose against mine.
"I do." I nodded, wiping away the tears, and he kissed me in such a tender way, my heart exploded.
When the music ended, I went to rest my head against his naked chest, and he jerked away. "I'm a sweaty mess," he warned.
"I don't care." I snuggled against him, comforted by the warmth of his skin, the firm pillows of his chest.
"You know, I'm kind of glad I have you all to myself," he admitted, stroking my hair. "I don't think I've had you all to myself."
"Then how can you be sure you love me?" I asked.
"I just do. I lied when I said I loved you since seeing you at the Women's Shelter," he confessed, and my heart paused its pumping for a moment, until he clarified. "That day was when it was proven to me. But I think I loved you from the first moment I saw you, when you stepped into that park in that dark-purple dress and lipstick to match. My heart stopped. I was devastated when I found out you belonged to Eric."
"Hey," I corrected him. "I belong to no one. I choose who I share myself with." I looked up into his eyes to make sure he understood me.
"Oh, that's right." He grinned. "My apologies. Man, I'm so damn thankful you chose to share yourself with me. I still can't believe the way things unfolded, that we're standing here like this." He reached down to brush his hand through my hair.
"I can't believe it either. Besides, I was a jerk to Eric on that day. There's no way you didn't think that." My stomach turned from the regret of the pain I caused Eric that day, because I thought he deliberately tried to hurt me. Of course he didn't.
Ethan squirmed, smiling with one eye shut. "I mean, I won't say I didn't," he admitted. "For a tiny bit. But as I said, that moment I heard your truth up on that stage, I saw the real you. You were no longer just Eric's Lily to me. You were you, and I knew I was damned, because I knew I'd already fallen deep, and there was no way of getting out of it."
"Well, thank goodness Eric is so open," I breathed.
"Oh." He nodded. "I've never been more grateful to Eric, for meeting Eric, after our friendship led us to you. Am I making sense?"
"I don't know. I mean, I'm sure there are other reasons you're grateful for having Eric in your life." I played dumb.
"Yeah." He nodded. "But you top all the other reasons." He dipped to kiss me, and I fell into him. If it weren't so bright out, I'd be all over him. There are some things I might be okay with doing in broad daylight, even toeing the line with Matt and me earlier, but I don't think rolling around on the grass is one of them.
"You know." I broke the kiss to rub my hands over his broad, bulky shoulders. It's like he walked out of a catalogue. He removed his fogged-up glasses, and I delighted in his brown eyes, losing my train of thought for a moment.
"What is it?" His hands left my waist to brush over my ass cheeks popping out of these booty shorts.
I swallowed. "They uh..." I struggled to focus with the callus of his fingers brushing against my soft skin. My breath shook as I found the words. "They advise that we should top up with some sunscreen after staying out in the sun for too long. You haven't topped up yet, have you?"
He grinned, playing along. "No. I don't think I have."
I nodded. "Right. So, I uh, think I have some sunscreen inside. If you come inside, I can help you apply, all over your body."
"Everywhere?" he asked.
"Yeah. You'd be surprised how badly sun can burn you beneath your clothes. You have to protect everywhere." I cleared my throat.
He looked down at himself. "I don't know, I think jeans offer solid sun protection."
"I think you're wrong about that," I interrupted, and he laughed, finding it difficult to control himself.
"Well, I think I'll entrust myself to your expert hands."
"Yup. That's the correct answer." I nodded, taking his hand and moving toward the door.
"Although, I have been hot and sweaty. Maybe a shower would be a better idea." He glanced ahead of me, but as soon as I closed the door, I locked eyes with him.
"Didn't I tell you I like it dirty?" My shirt came off over my head.
His eyes glinted with wicked delight, and he worked to unbutton his pants. "You might have mentioned it somewhere."
Showing him how much I meant it when I said I liked it dirty, I got down on my knees and took him in my mouth, savoring the saltiness of him.
"Mm. Lily," he bit out as I took his longer and wider cock into my throat. "Shit," he wheezed. I looked up into his wide eyes, pride encouraging my mouth's pursuit of his pleasure. His head fell back, and he grasped at the bare walls, biting his lip and trying not to bust. Popping my mouth up for air, I turned my wet tongue on his balls, and he lost his damn mind. Swearing, he joined me on the floor, grabbing the waist of my shorts and finding my breasts with his mouth. He sucked and kissed and tugged on the waist of my shorts, pulling them up and giving me a pussy wedgie.
As he sucked the ever-living shit out of my nipples until they're swollen and hard in his mouth, he maintained a constant and rough tugging against my shorts until my throbbing clit was on fire. When I whined in distress, he got behind me and almost ripped the damn shorts as he pulled them over my hips. I'm panting and ready for anything when his mouth found my pussy, soothing and dizzying me with his tongue.
"Yes." The word vibrated on its way out of me, and I let my head drop into the palms of my hands. He's ferocious, grunting and groaning, slapping my ass and moving my hips against his face. My body crumbled against his hungry mouth, and he pulled me backward against his lap.
"I keep forgetting I have you all to myself," he said. "I don't have to rush, do I?" he whispered against my neck.
Rolling my head back against his shoulders, I responded as he brought my attention to the silence of the house and the intimacy of the two of us alone together. "No." I smiled.
"Good." He spread his legs and pulled me closer until his erection was resting against my back. Then he spread my legs and reached down to finger my clit while kissing me from the side. "Mmmm." We both moaned against each other's lips. "We should do this more often," he said.
"Yeah-uh," I whined.
He whispered his love for me as I vibrated around his skillful fingers. There were no limits to the orgasms he brought me as his other hand played a double role, to massage one breast in particular, squeezing both hard and soft tissue, crushing the nipple against the palm of his hand until my breast was sore from the attention, and to keep my body from running away with me.
"Ready for me?" he asked.
"So damn ready," I wept.
"Turn around," he whispered a subtle command, and my heart pounded harder than before. I'm quick in my movements, doing as I'm told. "Get on top," he whispered against my lips, and my hole readied itself for him.
"Do I sense a little dominance coming from you?" I spoke against his lips as I straddled him.
"Do you like it?" he asked, kissing my neck.
"I think I do," I moaned.
He smiled against my skin. "Good."
"Only in the bedroom," I clarified.
He grinned before pulling me hard against his manhood.
"Ethan," I moaned when he slipped inside me. We no longer had any time for words, only action. We didn't break eye contact in this position or the next when he got on top and pushed deeper into me, or even when he remained inside me and rolled us on the side, so that our legs were wrapped around each other and his arms were holding me close. "Ethan." His name fell from my lips whenever he hit the g-spot or as I watched the hunger darken his eyes and cause tension in his facial muscles. As he wrestled with his self-control or as love bloomed in his gaze.
"Lily," he groaned my name when he's close to the edge, and I could see the restraint he exercised, when he pulled himself back from the edge, prolonging our intimacy, our pleasure. When we finally burst together, we're spent. We spent the next few minutes or hours, (who knew at this point) still wrapped in each other's arms, kissing and tracing each other's features, before rolling onto our backs, unmotivated to leave the floor and this state of utter contentment.
We lay there for a moment, heads facing the ceiling, eyes closed as our breaths returned to normal, and when we faced each other again, we exchanged glances filled with the shared knowledge that we should make plans to get our asses off the ground. Instead, we couldn't help but gaze at each other.
"Have you given any more thought to us moving in together?" he spoke first.
I smiled. "You're getting tired of this house too, aren't you?"
He squirmed. "It's not that bad when it's just us two. But I'd be lying if I said my heart wasn't pounding with anxiety that it'll soon be filled to capacity again."
I rolled on my side. "You know you don't have to live here with me, right?"
"Ouch," he said.
"No." I grinned. "That's not how I mean it. It's just that this is still new. Besides, look at all the work you guys have done to this place? I'm not ready to leave it yet."
"But your father..." he started.
"Is long gone," I reminded him, reaching across to stroke his chest.
"But I'll miss being around you twenty-four seven," he groaned.
"You're welcome to stay." I shrugged.
He considered it and kissed my hand. "I suppose it's good to have our independence. Take the time to miss each other."
"Yeah. One day, we can have that. But we don't have to rush. We're timeless, remember?" I grinned.