Once Written, Twice Shy (The Broken Men Chronicles) (18 page)

After our lengthy make out session, I had gotten up
and walked to the dresser.  I reached in and grabbed a few items and then threw
them at her.  “Put this one,” I said, “we’re going out.”

She sat up in bed, the sheets draped over her
naked figure and tucked under her arms.  Holding up the two-piece bikini, she
arched her brow and asked, “What are you up to?”

“Just put it on,” I said.  “I know you want to get
out so that’s what we’re going to do.”

“What?” she said.  “But I should be relaxing.”

“And you should be walking around a bit more than
you have been, gorgeous,” I said.  “I saw Doctor Messing when I visited Jasper
this morning, he gave me a great idea.”

“Okay,” she said, “but what’s it got to do with
this
?” 
She waved the tiny swimsuit as if it were a flag.

“You and I will spend the afternoon outdoors and
relax,” I said, “plus, I think the water will help alleviate some of the pain
with the walking.”

“I see,” she said.  “Sounds like my mind’s been
made up for me, hasn’t it?”

“You need this,” I said and kissed the crown of
her head.  “Now stop stalling, get dressed and come downstairs.  I’ll go put
something together for a picnic.”

***

We drove for a while before Alissa began to grasp
where it was that I was bringing her.  Her face brightened when she saw the
large barn and country home and her lips cracked a smile that suddenly
disappeared and she groaned.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Your parents’ place, you expect me to parade
around in a skimpy bikini at your parents’?” she asked with a blush that spread
from her cheeks to her shoulders.

I laughed.  “They’re not here,” I said.

“You know we could have gone to the beach,” she said. 
“It would have been closer.”

“Yeah, we could have but I didn’t want to have to
deal with people,” I said, “plus, you haven’t seen this yet.”

“Seen what?  We’re not taking the four-wheeler are
we?” she asked.

“No,” I said.  “The thing’s still full of mud from
when we got it stuck and I’d have to say that it would be too rough on you.  We’ll
take the Jeep there and save the side-by-side for some other time so sit tight.”

She laughed.  “You and your toys, you’re truly a
country boy at heart, aren’t you?”  She crooked her finger to beckon me closer. 
“I have to say that it’s quite a sexy trait,” she said over my lips before she
brushed that pucker of hers lightly over mine.

The large manmade pond came into view, complete
with the small dock and overgrown grass that surrounded it.  My father had
built it for my mother when my brother and I had been kids.  As to what the
exact story behind it was, Mom had told my brother and me that it was a way Dad
had chosen to apologize for working too much.  Let’s just say that the man was
a tough one to live up to when women came into my life in later years,
especially from a romance stand-point.

“
This
was an apology?” Alissa asked as she
looked around.

“Yeah, I don’t remember much about him being
around and doing stuff with us in my earlier years,” I said.  “After he built
this thing for Mom, he changed a lot.”  I turned the ignition off.

“It’s beautiful,” she said, “the only thing that’s
missing is a large willow with a tire swing attached to it and it would look
like something out of the movies.  It must have been a great place to party for
you and your friends in high school.”

I chuckled and remembered what had happened to the
damn thing.  “There was a tree,” I said and pointed to the large stump
decorated with a pot of flowers sitting atop it.  “Dad, Theo and I cut it down
a while back after we found it split down the middle after a bad storm.”

“So no parties?” she asked.

“Oh, there were parties.”  I laughed and exited
the vehicle.  “This is where we kicked off the summer holidays.”  Theo and I had
had some rather interesting get-togethers here back in high school.  I smiled
at the good memories and forced the dark ones back—the ones where I’d never be
able to relive with Theo again.  I rounded our ride and Alissa took my hand to
be helped out.  “How are you feeling?”

“My hips are achy but I’m fine,” she said with a
broad smile.

***

I must have dozed off after our snack, caught up
in the tranquility of our surroundings because I woke up to the sound of a
splash.  I bolted upright and that’s when I noticed that Alissa was no longer
by my side.  Seconds later, she broke the water’s surface.

“You’re right,” she said with a girly giggle, “this
does help.”

I gave her a large grin.  I was glad that she was enjoying
herself.  As a matter of fact, I was becoming aware that no matter what it was
that we did together, she always had the brightest of smiles and sunny disposition. 
Something like this, I had never been able to do with Julie.  She was a
city-bread girl through and through.  Come to think of it, the woman and I
never had that much in common and it wasn’t until Alissa had come along that I realized
that I had brushed aside a lot more than just my writing over the years.

“Hey, daydreamer,” she said, “why don’t you get
off that lazy romp of yours and join me?”

“What’s in it for me?”

She shrugged her shoulders and gave me an innocent
look before dipping down so the water went up to her chin and lifted the tiny
piece of material that had once covered her top.  She chucked it onto the dock,
my jaw dropped.  “You did say your parents aren’t here,” she said.

I jumped up to my feet and made a mad dash to
cannonball a few feet beside her.  When I surfaced, she was facing me with a
self-assured smile and I watched as she pulled her bottoms up above the surface
and held them up for me to see.

“Honey,” I said as she chucked those onto the dock
as well.

“This is nice, isn’t it?” she asked with
nonchalance.  She approached me and wrapped her arms around my neck, pressing
her naked breasts to my chest.  We were in the shallow end, by the pond’s edge
where my feet touched the sandy bottom.  My arms surrounded her at the waist.  She
laughed into my neck, nipped my jaw.  “Someone’s a little overdressed for the
occasion.”

I felt myself harden.  I wasn’t used to this kind
of overtness from her.  I chuckled.  “Are you drunk?”

“Must be the drugs,” she said and shrugged her
shoulders.

She let her hands run from the back of my neck,
down to my chest.  When they had reached the waistband of my swimming trunks I
grabbed onto her hands to stop her.  “You’ll be the death of me,” I said.  “We
shouldn’t.”

“You said
exercise
,” she said and I looked
at her in confusion but nodded my response.

“
That
’s not-”

She smiled, winked and went underwater before I
could finish talking.  Next thing I knew, my shorts were yanked down and I felt
her hands on my length, her expulsed breath bubbling with gentle tickles up
against my front as she surfaced from her underwater seduction.  She reached
one arm around my neck, pulled herself up and kissed below my ear.  I groaned at
the havoc.  “Devil woman,” I said into her ear, “but we can’t.”

She wrapped a leg around my hip.  “We can,” she
said.  My length was pulsing and nudged at her heated folds.  She ground
herself against me.

“You’re unbelievable,” I said after I pulled away
from her heated kiss.  “It can’t be helped that I give in to you so easily, but
not this time, sweetheart.”  The look of rejection was too much.  I captured
her mouth, lowered her leg from my hip and used my feet to widen her stance.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“I’m not making love to you but I’ll be damned if
I leave you hanging like this,” I said.

I felt like a rebellious teenager, sneaky,
bringing a girl home to fool around with in my parents’ back yard.  In reality,
we were two consenting adults and I really didn’t care if we were caught while
I loved on my woman.

I slid a finger into her and revelled in the feel
of her slick internal muscles, clenching down on me.

“Oh, baby,” I said and I stilled my hand when hers
made contact with my erection.

I began to grind my hips into her grip. 
Surrounded with only nature, away from civilization, we submerged each other into
a world where only the two of us existed.

I watched Alissa as she held my gaze, her lips
swollen from my kisses, her face flushed and her eyes blazing with the fires of
passion.

When her neck arched back, I began feeling the
tremors of her imminent orgasm surrounding my digits.  My balls tightened and I
knew that it wasn’t going to be long before we’d take each other over the edge.

With a guttural moan, I felt her arch into my hand
and clench my fingers tightly.  Her sounds set me off.  Our cries mixed and
mingled, causing the birds that watched over us in the tree-line to fly off as
our erotic high descended onto us.

I buried my head into her neck as she caressed her
cheek to mine, running her fingers through my hair and massaging my scalp.  We
just held each other without saying anything at all.  Nothing seemed to need to
be said.

“Are you okay?” I asked as I rubbed the side of
her face with my fingertips.

“I’m better than okay,” she said and framed my
face, depositing a tender kiss onto my lips.  “You could never hurt me, handsome.”

“I don’t know about that, sweetheart, but I can
tell you that I would never do it on purpose,” I said.  “What do you say we dry
off, get dressed and get out of here?”

“Do we have to?”

I chortled.  “You sound like Jasper.”

“I love this place,” she said.  “I always dreamed
of an old house in the country, a few horses and maybe some cattle.  I’m a
small town country girl and I’ve never had the joy of living the full-blown
country life.”

“Hmm.”  I eyed her as we made our way to the
ladder that was attached to the dock.

“What?” she asked as I helped her out of the
water.

Gravity pulled on her body and the weight of it
caused her to wince as her hips and legs were once again forced to bear her
true weight.  I held her close as her knees gave signs of giving out.  I was
thanking my lucky stars for putting my foot down earlier.

All I could do was smile down at her.  “In pursuit
of the simple life are we?” I asked.

“It sure beats a complicated one.”

***

I felt bad for the pain that Alissa ended up
having tonight.  It was so bad that our relaxing movie session had taken a
downward spiral and landed us in the bedroom, the lights turned off, her tears
streaming down her face as it was scrunched up in that horrible expression of
pain.  It broke my heart to see her that way. 
You only have yourself to
blame.

“Pax,” she said, “it’s not your fault, you didn’t
hurt me.  It’s all that walking we did.”

I knew she was right but it was just easier for me
to blame myself.  I mean, I was the one to take us out, the one to suggest
swimming which led to…well, at least I put a stop to
that
.

“Let me take you to the emergency room,” I said
still worried.

“I’ll take the pain pills,” she said.  “If they don’t
work, then you can take me in but I don’t want to go.”

Half an hour had passed and she had fallen asleep
in my arms as I attempted to sooth her by rubbing gentle patterns up and down
her upper back.  Her face, a perfect picture of relaxation, no signs of
discomfort showed, I was able to relax.

I swore loud enough to wake Alissa when I realized
the alarm clock hadn’t gone off.  We jumped out of bed to find ourselves with
half an hour to get ready and high-tail our asses to the hospital for her
follow-up appointment with Doctor Messing.

I stood there in shock as I watched my woman run
around at a frantic pace, pulling her pants on and make her way to the bathroom
while shoving her arms into her shirt.  She hadn’t winced yet which had me
smiling.  “Feeling better I see.”

“It still hurts but it’s not like last night or
the day of the aspiration,” she said.  “I think I might be on the mend.”

“I’m glad,” I said and winked at her excited
smile.

***

Alissa had been restless while we waited for
Doctor Messing.  Fifteen minutes past our appointment time, the man walked in
and closed the door to the examination room.

“Alissa,” he said as he shook her hand, “how are
you feeling?”

“The soreness seems to be fading,” she said and
looked at me.  “I nearly broke Paxton’s fingers last night from the pain but
today I’m barely feeling anything.”

“That’s good.  Have you been walking around like
I’ve told you to, though you shouldn’t have been in that much pain,” he said
and eyed the both of us.  “What have you been doing?”

She gave me a shy look and blushed as she kept her
eyes averted from the doctor’s.  “I may have overdone it yesterday when Pax got
me out of the house,” she said, leaving the most heated moments out.

“I see,” he said.  “The pain medication worked
though?”

Alissa nodded.  “I hate the stuff but I had no
choice but to take it.  I thought I was going to go insane from the intensity,”
she said.

“Something Mr. Lowell said yesterday tells me that
you’ve not been taking them regularly,” he said and she shook her head.  “That’s
fine.  Now, can I get you to lie on your stomach?  I’d like to see the
procedural site and make sure that there isn’t an infection and
please
tell me that you’ve been taking the antibiotics as prescribed.”

She nodded.  “Of course.”

After his quick consultation and a few vials of
blood to rule any issues like anemia or blood-borne infections, he dismissed
us.

“If you’re planning on sticking around to visit
Jasper, I can let you know how your blood-work came out,” he said.  “Now go.”

I grabbed her hand and kissed its top before
pulling her along the halls to Jasper’s room.  It’s not like she’d have given
me the choice to steer her away from the little guy anyway.

When we walked in, a nurse was there to adjust his
IV’s and make sure that everything was right with the equipment that surrounded
him at the head of his bed.

“How’s my little man doing today?”

“Very well,” she said and gave me a genuine smile. 
“I expect that Doctor Messing will be in shortly.  He should be making the
final decision on taking him off the barbiturates.”

I nodded.  “So does that mean that his scans came
out clear yesterday?”

The nurse’s smile brightened further.  “Yes.”  I
turned to look at Alissa who squeezed my hand and smiled with about as much
relief as I felt.

Thank God.
  “And what of the transplant?” I
asked.

“
That
you’ll have to discuss with the
doctor,” she said and turned to Alissa.  “Say, aren’t you the donor?”  The
nurse sized her up but in a kind manner.

Alissa blushed.  “How’d you know?”

The woman beamed.  “You guys have been the talk of
the ward for the last few days,” she said and looked between Allie and me.  “How’re
you feeling?”

“I’m fine,” she said.  “It’s this handsome boy
here that I’m worried about.”

I let go of Alissa’s hand and wrapped my arm
around her waist, kissing her temple as she melted into my side.  The nurse’s
gaze stuck to us and I could have sworn a look of envy had flashed across her face
before she took her leave.

***

Julie and Todd had arrived and Doctor Messing had
come and gone telling us about the good news.  Alissa was healthy and Jasper’s
drug-induced coma was indeed going to be discontinued.  His basic blood-work had
come out clear of any secondary issues for the time being but he would be
monitored closely for quite some time.  As for his JMML and if the transplant
had worked, it still remained to be seen.  We were looking at a very lengthy
monitoring phase to make sure everything worked out along with the continuation
of anti-rejection medications and regular blood transfusions.

“Let’s get you back home,” I said.

“Sounds good,” she said.  “I wouldn’t mind a
do-over on our movie night.”

“But it’s barely lunchtime,” I said.  “You can’t
expect to watch movies for the rest of the day.”

“Sure we can, but-” she said and looked at me with
an arched brow that told me plenty.  She wasn’t planning on just movies.

“I should have known,” I said in her ear and
kissed her cheek, “but I think we should wait that out a little longer.”

The woman gave me a pout.  Something told me I’d have
one hell of a time winning that battle like I had with all the others.

As we said our goodbyes, Alissa made sure to
whisper words in Jasper’s ear that made Julie and I look at each other.  I
shrugged in response to my ex-wife’s questioning gaze.  She kissed his forehead
and ran her hand over his shaved head.

“What’d you tell him?” I asked as we left the
hospital room.

She smirked and said, “It’s a secret between that
prince of yours and me.”

“I’ll let you have that,” I said and kissed her
knuckles, “just this once.”

***

“God, Pax!  Pax!” she said.  I thought my eardrums
would burst she was so loud.

I had her on her back, legs up in the air as I had
weaseled myself overtop of her.  She had thought my after-dinner misfortune to
be a hoot.

“I’ll show you how wearing ice cream is funny,” I said. 
“It’s your fault anyway.”

“How is it my fault?” she asked.  “You’re the one
with two left feet.”

“You tripped me!”  She howled and I proceeded to
rub my chest against hers and smeared the melted treat I had on my hands, onto
her face.

She shocked me when she latched on to my wrist and
sucked in one of my fingers.  My eyes bulged out of my head, my manly appendage
twitched as I felt her velvet tongue twirl and massage the digit clean.  I
guess tripping and landing flat on your face could always end worse.

“Allie,” I said with a warning groan.

“Shower?”

“Yeah,” I said, “and you, my little vixen, are
coming with although I’m sure I’ll regret that decision.”  I got to my feet and
picked her up off the floor in a bridal-style hold.

“Paxton Lowell, I can damn well walk,” she said
and giggled.

“I’m well aware of that, gorgeous, but I’m making
sure that you won’t try anything funny on our way there.”

Standing in her birthday suit, she leaned over
into the stall and turned the water on.  I groaned at the sight of those cheeks
of hers that again, for the second day in a row, were presented to me, ripe for
the taking.

“Are you trying to kill me?” I asked, my feet taking
me to a stop right behind her, my erect shaft rubbed up against her heated
core.

She hummed at my horny act and straightened up,
melding her back into my chest as my hands found their place on her hips.

I groaned.  “Get in.”

She sure didn’t waste much time.  Once the shower
stall door was closed, she turned and had me pressed to the cool tiled wall. 
Her lips ate at mine as our bodies hit a fever pitch.  If it were possible, the
water beads on my skin would have sizzled and evaporated into steam, she had me
so hot for her.

Her hands remained on my pecks as she slid herself
down the front of my body until she found herself on her knees.  Without
missing a beat, her mouth was on my length, like it had lassoed her in.  Taking
me in deep, I felt my tip hit the back of her throat.  My head tilted back and
leaned against the wall as my eyes rolled to a close and my jaw went slack.  “Damn,
Allie, your mouth is pure sin.”

Her tongue, teeth and suction had me on the verge
of collapsing to my knees in worship for her.  I could tell that she was enjoying
her ministrations.  The sure-fire confident shimmer in her eyes as she looked
up at me and the amused hum she made around my shaft were perfect indicators.

My hands tangled into her wet hair in an effort to
guide her to a more needful rhythm.  I was throbbing and I felt the blazing
heat in my balls as they began to constrict.  I was going to blow between those
swollen lips of hers if she kept going like that.

In a moment of clarity, I took charge.  I didn’t want
to explode like that—not this time.  I pulled on my fistful of her hair and
tilted her head back.  Her flushed face made me want to give in and let her
have her way with me.  She looked up with confusion as if she thought she had
done something wrong.

“Goddamn, it’s too bad you’re sore,” I said.  “Get
up.”

“But-”

I pulled her up to her feet.  My mouth covered
hers.  My hands held the sides of her face as if she was the most precious
thing in the world to me.  “There’s only one place I want my release in right
now and it’s not your mouth,” I said.  “But first…”

I never finished with my words.  I chose to show
her instead.

I kissed her hard, wrapping my arms around her as
hers surrounded my neck.  I nipped her jaw, causing her to hiss.  “I need to be
in you right now, baby,” I said by her ear.

Reaching for the valve, I turned the water off.

I was the first to turn and open the shower stall
door.  She was pressed to my back, trailing kisses down between my
shoulder-blades, her palms, smooth over my chest.

I grabbed one of her hands and pulled her around
so she faced me while I grabbed the towel that hung on the hook beside me. 
Slow kisses were exchanged as I wrapped us up in the large terrycloth sheet.

I guided us toward the bed, lowered her down to
the mattress, and covered her body with mine, our lips never parting.  The
phone began to ring as I hovered over her cleavage.

Instantly, Jasper popped into my thoughts.  The
doctors had taken him off of the drug that kept him in his coma.  Had something
gone wrong?  I rose and reached for the cordless phone on my bedside table.  I
looked at the caller ID—it was Julie.

Please let it be good news.

I looked at Alissa who gave me the small ounce of
courage I needed to hit the button that would either bring me up or tear me
down.  With a deep breath, I did just that.

“Hello?”