“Sure.”
I pull her toward me, and she snuggles into my arms as if she belongs there, which she does. I keep one arm around my woman, and with the other I grab the remote.
Claiming Lauren would be the perfect evening, but holding her in my arms while watching a movie is a pretty good second.
9
LAUREN
Strange shadows fall on the ceiling from a crack in the curtain. The wind rustles the trees outside, and there’s the call of animals that I can’t identify.
To try to find a comfortable position, I throw one leg over the other and lie on my side. The top of my thigh grazes my pussy, setting off the dull ache that hasn’t left since the make-out session on the couch with Dean.
I roll onto my back, but it doesn’t ease the throb. The strange patterns on the ceiling caused by the leaves from a large tree outside look like a giant vulva pulsing every time the wind moves them. It’s like one of those inkblot tests, and I don’t need a shrink to tell me what I’ve got on my mind.
I check my phone, and it’s almost one in the morning. The house has been quiet for hours, and I’m lying here watching pulsing vulva shadows while my own vulva screams out at me to give it a release.
I reach a hand between my legs, but I already know it won’t be enough. How have I survived ten years without having sex?
I know the answer to that one. Because I hadn’t met Dean Foley. The man has awoken a need in me I thought had died with motherhood.
I was seventeen when I fell pregnant with Kieren. Marrying Mark seemed like the sensible thing to do. He was kind to me back then, and I was naive. I didn’t realize how he earned his money. I was too busy with the baby to understand what was going on. When I realized what Mark was into, I packed up mine and Kieren’s things and left.
It was fine for a few years until Kieren turned eight and Mark got this idea in his head that he wanted his son to work for him. Luckily, he was arrested soon afterward.
Kieren has always been my priority. I pushed every other need I had aside. I put myself through nursing school, choosing it partly because I like helping people and partly because there are always a lot of short-term contracts available. It enabled me to move around the state and made it harder for Mark to find us.
But now, as I lie in the dark watching a vulva pulse on the ceiling, I feel two things I haven’t felt in a long time: safe and horny. And I’ve got Dean to thank for both of those.
My entire life I’ve taken care of myself and Kieren. I’m independent and capable, so maybe it’s time to take care of my needs too, especially this one particular need. I’m not a naive seventeen-year-old anymore. I’m a grown ass woman, and I’ve never shied away from doing what needs to be done. And my throbbing pussy tells me something needs to be done.
Before I can change my mind, I throw back the blankets and slip out of bed.
The door creaks as I ease it open, and I hold my breath. But nothing stirs in the cabin. Kieren’s room is at the end of the hall, and I sneak down there and pause with my ear to the door. The only sound is his gentle snoring. It feels like only a minute ago he was a young boy, and I was sneaking into his room to pull the blankets up over his sleeping body before I went to bed. He used to sleep with his leg sticking out of the covers and one armthrown over his head, his cuddly toy rabbit still clutched under his other arm.
Now he’s almost a man, and his snores rattle the door. I resist the urge to peer in at my son and instead turn the other way and continue to the room at the other end of the hall. Dean’s room.
I push the door open, and there’s no sound. No snoring, no breathing.
“Dean?” I whisper, suddenly uncertain.
He lifts up on his elbow and pulls the bedsheets back. “I was hoping you’d come, Bo.”
“I couldn’t sleep.”
“Me neither.”
I climb into his warm bed, and my heart thunders in my chest as he pulls me toward him. Our lips find each other in the dark, and his hands slide down my body.
I roll toward him, pressing my hips against his, trying to ease the ache between my legs.
“You need some help getting to sleep?”
His hand slides between my legs, and I sigh as he hits the perfect spot.
“Yes,” I whimper.
He slides his hand into the waist of my pajama pants, and I open my thighs to give him access.
