Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
LUKE
D olores Richards really knows how to overstay her welcome.
She’s sipping slowly from the ugly china tea set Matthew and Erin got as a wedding gift, ensuring that she will be the last guest to leave.
I look across the room at Erin. She’s busy picking up the paper plates and cleaning up after everyone with Mom.
She looks exhausted, and when she glances up at me, she offers me a sad little smile that I should be punished for finding so sexy.
I push my shoulder off the beam I’m resting against and head straight toward her.
“Here, I can do that; you sit down.” I take the trash bag from her hands and gesture to the couch.
“Jesus lives.” My dad huffs a sarcastic laugh from the armchair he’s sitting in, but I pay him no mind and get on with cleaning up the house.
“Bryce,” Mom warns him with a stern look, but he doesn’t seem to care. He doesn’t care about anything anymore; his eyes are empty, and so is his soul.
“It really was a lovely send-off.” Dolores takes a nibble from the flapjacks Mom made because they were Matthew’s favorite. While Erin flops her head back against the couch and takes a long, tired breath.
I told her having people back here after the service was a bad idea, but Mom insisted on it.
By the look on Erin’s face now, she’s regretting the fact she took Mom's side. Especially now that she’s sitting awkwardly beside Dolores, watching and waiting for her to give a signal that she’s ready to leave.
I continue cleaning up after all those who turned out to pay respects to my brother.
The whole town showed up, all of them with kind words and memories of my brother they wanted to share.
I listened to a lot of stories today, but I didn’t take many of them in.
I was too busy being distracted by how beautiful Erin looked and worrying about how hard today must be for her.
“I think we’re about done,” Mom sighs as she looks around the open space. Today's been just as hard for her; she’s put on a brave face, and I can see that it’s not gonna last for much longer.
“Why don’t you and Dad head on home? You could give Mrs. Richards here a ride on the way,” I suggest, knowing that Erin would appreciate some time alone.
She’s been incredible today; in fact, she’s been incredible since this whole thing happened.
Laying the man she thought she was gonna spend the rest of her life with in the ground can’t have been easy for her, and I wish there was a way that I could make all this easier.
“I think that's a damn good idea.” Dad stands up from the chair and offers Mrs. Richards his hand.
“That's very kind of you, Bryce, but I don’t want to trouble you.” She hands Erin her cup and saucer and picks up her purse as she takes the hand he offers.
“No trouble at all.” Mom heads over and kisses Erin goodbye. While dad puts on his hat and heads straight out the door.
“Now, if you need anything, you call.” Mom starts giving Erin her usual goodbye speech while I start thinking of all the jobs I can do around the yard.
I need to keep busy so the thoughts in my head don’t escalate.
Me living here with Erin is becoming more challenging.
My urges are getting harder to keep under control, and I can’t let myself slip.
“Bye, Mom.” I kiss her cheek after I’ve guided her and Mrs. Richards to the door, and when I close it and turn back around, Erin is standing in the middle of the room looking lost. She’s staring at me.
Staring right at me like she’s wanting me to do something.
I just don’t know what that something is.
“I should…umm.” She looks down at the cup and saucer in her hand and quickly heads for the basin, shaking her head like she’s disappointed in herself.
It’s wrong to notice how beautiful my brother's widow looks in the tight, black dress she chose for today, but I can’t help it.
I can’t help anything, I feel when I’m around her.
“Shit.” I hear her curse after something smashes, and when I race over and look over her shoulder, I see the broken cup and blood dripping from her finger.
“Here,” I turn the faucet to cold and lift her hand up so it’s beneath the stream of water, holding it in mine and watching the water run red.
“That was part of a set.” She sounds sad as more blood drips from her finger onto the broken china.
“Don’t worry about that.” I realize how close my lips are to her neck and have to steady my breathing. Why, if God exists, would he put something so perfect just within my reach yet so out of bounds?
“I…I was being careless and?—”
“Shhhh,” I whisper gently in her ear to calm her down. “Ain’t no use crying over broken china,” I tell her.
“It’s spilled milk.” Erin shocks me when all her angst turns to laughter.
“It's no use crying over spilled milk.” She looks over her shoulder at me, and with her lips so close to mine, I can almost taste them again. Slowly, I close the gap between them. I kiss her soft, sweet lips while she’s vulnerable and at her weakest, and when I realize how selfish I’m being, I quickly pull away.
“Erin, I’m sorry.” I could kick myself for putting her in this situation, especially today. “I…I just.”
She shocks me when she turns her body so it’s fully facing mine, then, grabbing my shirt, she drags my lips back onto hers.
“Please don’t be sorry,” she whispers against them before filling my mouth with her tongue and crossing her hands behind my head to ensure I don’t pull away.
This can’t be happening on the day we’ve buried my brother, I can not be making out with his wife in his kitchen.
I should pull away, tell her to stop. Remind her that this is madness, but instead, I slide my hands under her ass and lift her up onto the basin.
I place my body between her thighs and kiss the hell outta her lips.
“This is wrong,” I tell her in between kisses.
“I know,” she whispers, looking up at me with big, pretty eyes while we both catch our breath.
“Ya wanna stop?” I ask, and when she shakes her head back at me, I should be sent straight to hell for the relief I feel.
I quickly get back to kissing her, not knowing where to put my hands.
I’ve fantasized about this moment for so long, I don’t know which part of her I wanna touch first, and when I feel her reach between us and start pulling at my belt, I aid her by pulling it open and loosening my slacks.
She moves her kisses to my neck, making my cock agonizingly hard as her palm presses against it, and when I slide my hand up her thigh and under her dress, she hums into my mouth so sweetly I almost choke on desperation.
“Take me to your room.” She looks up at me. The lipstick she’s been wearing is smudged; there's fear and excitement in her eyes, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her look so fuckin’ beautiful.
I nod as I lift her from the basin so I can carry her through the living room, toward my bedroom, and when I kick the door open, she continues to kiss me as I lower her onto the mattress.
“Erin–”
“Don’t,” she warns, shaking her head. “Please don’t stop.”
“I was gonna tell you that you're beautiful.” I take a strand of hair that's fallen loose from her ponytail and slip it through my fingers.
“Oh.” She blushes like she’s never heard it before, and I don’t care how bad a person doing this makes me, I know there's no way I could stop it now. Looking down her body, I can see how nervous she is. She's breathing fast; she’s shaking, and yet her eyes are begging for me to continue what we’ve started.
“You sure this is what you want?” I check again because she has to be sure.
“I’m sure.” She’s got tears in her eyes, tears that I wanna lick up and taste. I want to possess every inch of the woman laid out in front of me. I wanna take away all her pain and her sadness, and I’m telling myself that this is how.
“Okay.” I lower myself down her body so I’m resting on my knees, then stretching her thighs open a little wider, I pull the cotton panties she’s wearing over to one side and gently trail my tongue through her centre. I keep one of her thighs clenched tight in my hand so I can feel it tremble.
Her hands grip my hair as I continue to explore her with my tongue, and when I feel her hips start to buck against my face, I look up so I can watch her lose control.
“Luke.” She says my name so sweetly, looking down at me as if she’s scared of what comes next. I smile against her pussy like the devil himself as her breaths get heavier and her grip on me tightens.
“Luke. Luke! ” She panics as she builds to the undeniable, and I keep her thighs spread wide so she can’t deny herself.
“Oh fuck!” She rides my face like it’s a bronc as she comes for me, thrashing between me and the mattress and looking completely at my mercy.
I climb back up her body, freeing my cock and shrugging my shirt off my shoulders as I let my shaft rest against her pulsing pussy.
“You got protection, darlin’?” I check, knowing after what she told Mom that she won’t be on birth control.
“No, but I’m covered,” she assures me, looking between us at where my cock is pressing against her.
“What do you mean you're covered? I thought you?—”
“Please.” She places her finger over my mouth to silence me. “We can talk about it another time, not now. I promise it’s safe. I’m on the pill.” She slides her hand down and grasps hold of my cock, causing my eyes to roll back when she starts jerking it through her fist.
“Fuck that feels good,” I tell her, gripping the sheets and trying to find some control. Way I’m feeling right now, I could easily let loose and come all over her dainty little hand.
“I want this, Luke. I know I shouldn’t, but I?—”
“It’s okay.” I take her hand and start guiding it to the place my cock needs to be.
“You take what you need,” I assure her with a smile, because despite wanting to be the man who she loves and who she misses, I’m happy to be the man she needs.
She lines me up with her entrance before sliding her hand up to rest on my cheek, and when she nods up at me, I place my other hand over her head and steadily ease myself inside her.
She looks up at me, staring into my soul and pushing any doubts I got to the back of my mind. All I can focus on is how goddamn perfect she looks with me inside her, and I can’t help thinking that this is the way it always should have been.
I hold myself steady when I fill her completely, allowing her to get used to how it feels, and when she offers me that shy smile again to let me know she’s okay, I slowly start rolling my hips to give her a little more.
She raises her head to kiss me, moving her tongue to the same rhythm as my hips, and I have to fist the bedsheet even tighter when she starts moaning into my mouth.
My thrusts get harder, those sweet moans get louder, and it doesn’t take long for her to come for me again.
This time, I feel every pulse her body makes as she contracts around me, making it impossible for me to hold on.
I come right along with her, my fingers digging into her hips as I offload inside her perfect snatch.
Then, I bury my head into her neck and growl against her warm, sticky skin.
For the longest time, we lie in silence.
My cock still inside her, and the air around us thick with the tension our bodies just released.
I know as soon as I pull away, we’re gonna have to have some kinda conversation about what just happened, so I stay exactly how I am, holding her tight to me until we both fall asleep.