7. Aspen #3
“Hell no,” he replied. “My grandmother’s house is on an acreage outside of town.
There’s a creek that runs through the back of it and woods to get lost in.
It was our childhood playground since roughhousing was forbidden in the house.
My grandmother didn’t have a lot of rules, but that was one of them.
Not cutting school or getting arrested was another.
I never got arrested, but sometimes it was hard to go to school when I wanted to read comics on a rock and stare at the clouds. ”
“I can’t say I ever did anything that ambitious when I skipped school,” Parker said. “My friends and I would ditch school to go to amusement parks and concerts, sometimes both if they were close enough together.
“Might as well make a day of it,” Phoenix said before licking me again and murmuring, “Did you ever ditch?”
“Twice,” I admitted, “and neither occasion went the way I expected.”
“Hmm, now that sounds juicy. You can turn the TV off. I’d rather listen to your story and enjoy a drink,” he remarked, latching on, firmly this time, a subtle sign that he would not be contributing any more to the conversation.
“Have I heard either of these tales yet?” Parker asked as he laced his fingers with mine.
“Nope.”
“Sweet, bring on the bedtime story.”
“Well, I can’t promise jousts and knights in peril, but there was an ER visit involved in one of them, not for anything near as cool as trying to be Spider-Man,” I explained as Phoenix slid his leg over mine, bringing us even closer as his sucking took on a gentle, rhythmic pace. “Though it did involve a spider.”
“Then you have to tell that one,” Parker declared, squeezing my hand, while Phoenix grazed me with his teeth, forcing me to suck in a breath as my body went rigid. “And I think he just agreed.”
“Yeah, I’d say so,” I muttered as Phoenix went back to sucking again.
“We skipped to go take pictures at this crumbling house in the woods, in full costume, mind you, since it made the perfect backdrop for promotional images for our production of Hansel and Gretel. Our graphic designer added so much candy to the outside of the place that we barely recognized it when he was through. It looked amazing. Unfortunately, it was a hot day, and the air conditioner in the car was on the fritz, so we left the windows down while we were taking pictures.”
“Uh-huh, and set yourself up for an encounter with nature, didn’t you?” Parker said.
“Not one of our finer moments, I must admit,” I said, giggling as Phoenix started flicking his tongue over my nipple before moving to the other one.
“Aren’t you supposed to be going to sleep?” I asked, finding the spot on his ribs that I knew would send him into fits of laughter and tickling until he nipped me hard enough that I decided that wasn’t the best idea while he was latched on and in no mood to let go.
Parker chuckled and dragged his finger over the inside of my wrist, making me squirm and earn another nip for moving.
“Bastard!”
“Quit stalling.”
“Fine. I was in the passenger’s seat when something caught my attention.
I could have handled it better; instead, I screamed spider and bailed out as we took a curve.
I wasn’t the only one, either. Three theater geeks hit the gravel like bailout kings, screaming and batting at our clothes like we were the ones with the spider on us.
Bryce hit the brakes so hard he gave himself a concussion when he smacked the steering wheel, and Mikey, who was stuck in the middle of the backseat with doors flapping on both sides of him, fainted at the word spider and missed the whole spectacle.
I felt Phoenix laugh, not just through his lips but through the quaking of his body, nearly dwarfing mine with the way he’d wrapped around me.
“This old guy in an ATV came along and called an ambulance, since we’d fucked ourselves up rolling on all those rocks.
The spider crawled out of Bryce’s hair onto the steering wheel, and he smashed it and broke his hand in the process.
The worst part was trying to explain it all to Mrs. Gibson, the theater director, when we got to school the next day and had to explain that Bryce wasn’t going to be able to play Hansel.
She was way more upset about it all than my mother was when she showed up to get me from the emergency room. ”
“Yeah?” Parker asked. “Was she cool about it?”
“I think it made her whole week,” I replied.
“She got to flirt with my doctor, who took her out later in the week, and she was proud of the fact that my act of rebellion was in pursuit of my craft. She had me tell her all about the photoshoot on the drive home and was front and center on opening night, with flowers. I never received a prettier bouquet than the ones she picked out. Even after I left home, she’d arrange for me to receive them backstage on opening night of every show. ”
“I remember you coming out of Bohemian Nights with one in your arms,” Parker murmured.
“That was the one she sent.”
“It was stunning.”
“I always kept them as long as I could,” I said. “Something beautiful from the woman who taught me what beauty truly was. I can’t wait for her Christmas visit; she is going to love seeing you again.”
Phoenix barely sucked at all now. Just the occasional pull and sleepy murmur.
“And you, she is going to adore meeting,” I said as I pressed a kiss to the top of Phoenix’s head before settling in to finally get some sleep, wrapped up with the men I adored.