LAUREN

 

 

Six weeks turned into ten. The young couple renting my house down home were happy to continue to do so, although I packed Smudge into a carrier and brought him to the city. Each Friday I met Billie for lunch and I took photography jobs in the city that lined up one after the other until I wondered why I hadn’t done it sooner. We printed some business cards and Tyler even discussed building an office on the lower level of the building as a base to work from. They were small jobs, a day here, a week there, but they paid the bills and I enjoyed it far more than making coffee, though I missed the contact with Peta.

Tyler was more than happy to see me stay on, though stress at work had begun to eat away at him. He never discussed it with me, but more and more times he would leave the room to take a phone call and his raised voice would float through the walls.

One night his cell phone rang at three o’clock in the morning, and Tyler’s sleep drenched voice answered it quietly as he climbed out of bed, trying not to wake me, closing himself off in the bathroom. He didn’t quite close the door fully, so I tiptoed over and watched him through the crack. He paced the polished concrete floor, one hand tugging on the roots of his hair as he listened. He tried to talk on occasion but whoever was on the other end of the line clearly was in no mood for interruptions. Blowing an exasperated stream of air up his face, Tyler turned and caught me peering at him through the crack in the door. He smiled sweetly and sadly. His naked body shone in the light of the moon streaming in through the window. Unaroused, his member hung heavily between his thighs. My gaze travelled over his body unashamedly as he listened, dark eyes locked on mine. I usually wore one of his t-shirts to bed, one that his scent clung to, one that made me dream of him even as he lay beside me, and my nipples hardened against the white material. I opened the door a little more, allowing the light from the window to pool over me and Tyler’s eyes dropped to my chest and then slowly roamed over the rest of my body as he replied in short direct answers to the person on the phone. I took a step closer and his cock twitched and began to rise, growing with each step I took towards him. He reached out and brushed a finger over my nipple, watching as it hardened further and beaded beneath the flimsy material. Taking my nipple between his thumb and his finger he rolled it, pinching hard enough for me to draw in my breath sharply. His cock was now fully engorged and I took him in my hand, wrapped my fingers around his hardness, and stroked up and down as his eyes rolled back in his head before fixing back on my body. As he lifted the hem of the t-shirt, I raised my arms over my head and he peeled the material away. His free hand skimmed over my body while the other held his phone to his ear. The voice on the other end was slurred and broken. It sounded like his father, but a drunk Hamish, a messy and broken Hamish.

“I’ve got to go now,” Tyler said. “We’ll talk in the morning.”

The voice on the other end complained, but Tyler hung up.

“Everything okay?” I asked.

“Nothing you need to worry about.” Tyler lowered his head and took my mouth with his, crushing my lips as he kissed me passionately. His cock pushed into the base of my belly, and Tyler dipped until it slipped between my legs and slid along the slickness it found. I ran my hands over his shoulders and chest. Everything about him strained with tension and trembled under my touch.

“I’m worried about you,” I whispered into his ear. “You’re too tense. You need to relax. Maybe you should have some pot,” I suggested, laughing because of his reaction the time he found Jake, Gabe and I stoned in the basement of his parents’ house.

Tyler reeled back. “Seriously?” he spat. “Drugs?”

I blinked. “I was only kidding. Though from the way you just reacted, it might not do you any harm.”

Tyler turned away from me and strode over to the window, looking out over the lights of the city with the fullness of the moon above them. I followed and wrapped my arms around his waist, my hands falling to the hardness between his legs. But he grabbed my hands and removed them from his body. “Not now,” he said dismissively.

Resting my chin on his shoulder, I pressed my body against his but did not touch him in any other way. “Is it because of your mother?” Even though I didn’t think it possible, the tension in Tyler’s body tightened. “Jake mentioned something,” I continued. “He said something about her having a dependency.”

“It was years ago.”

“What happened?” I asked. I kept my voice as quiet as possible, trying not to break the spell of melancholy that had descended over him. As sad as it was to see, there was something so vulnerable and needy about him in that moment, a sadness that was hard to resist.

“When she and Dad were younger and just starting up the business, they were introduced to a world of high rollers, one that revolved around gambling and drinking, drugs and parties. Both of them indulged on occasion, but when Dad left, Mum’s affection for that ‘state of oblivion’ as she called it, became more of an addiction. It’s why we lived with Dad. Mum didn’t want to challenge him for custody because she didn’t want her dependency getting out. As I grew up, she attended countless rehabilitation facilities but it just never stuck. She would give up for weeks, sometimes even months, but then something would happen she couldn’t deal with and the cycle would start all over again. Jake doesn’t remember it like I do. Being a couple of years younger, his memories aren’t the same. Besides, I shielded him from most of it. He never once saw her in agony, never once held her hair back as she vomited, promising that she would never indulge again, only to find her in a similar state the next day. Drugs weren’t her only addiction.”

“So what happened? How did she finally beat it?”

“Beat it?” Tyler repeated. “I don’t know if she will ever beat it, but Jake tells me she hasn’t slipped in years.” Tyler sighed and his shoulder blade rose and fell under my cheek. I wrapped my arms around his chest and squeezed tightly.

“Go back to bed,” he said, pulling one of my hands to his mouth and kissing the back of it. “I’ll be there soon.”

I left him flooded in a pool of moonlight and climbed back into bed, my eyelids already drooping as I pulled the sheets to my chin. But even after Tyler slipped out the door, leaving me alone, I couldn’t fall asleep. I kept thinking of him so sad and lonely in the moonlight. I was torn by the desire to comfort him and his seeming want to be left alone.

At some stage, I must have fallen asleep because, when I woke a little while later, the moon had shifted its position in the sky, but Tyler’s side of the bed was still empty and cold. Pulling a dressing gown over my naked body, I padded across the floor and pulled open the door, but the loft was deserted.

“Tyler?” I called into the dimly lit room, the only light coming from the moon and the city lights. But no reply came. A slice of panic cut through my chest. I ran over to the elevator and pushed the buttons to stop on the second floor, the floor he had dedicated to his gym. Even before the doors opened I could hear weights crashing to the ground.

A single light shone over him. He crouched over a weight bar, no longer naked, but with only his grey pants covering him. Fingers white with chalk wrapped around the metal bar and sweat dripped from his forehead. He flexed, straightening his back, straining the muscles across his chest into position, and then let out a cry as he lifted the weight in one fluid motion and rested it on his shoulders. He took a few deep breaths, dipped, and lifted the weight over his head before lowering it back to his shoulders and then to the ground before repeating it again. I watched him do it over and over. Sweat poured from his body and his muscles trembled with the effort, but the only time he took a break was to add more weight and then he would repeat the process again. He added more and more until he could no longer lift it, although he continued to try, muscles quivering, face red with exertion. Frustrated with his inability to lift the weight, he cursed and let the bar fall to the ground, banging loudly as it bounced. With a heaving chest, he bent over, pressing the palms of his hands to his eyes and letting out a frustrated grunt before picking up a weighted ball and tossing it into the wall.

“Talk to me,” I said as I stepped out of the darkened area. “Tell me how to help.”

If Tyler was startled, he didn’t show it. “It’s nothing,” he said.

“It’s clearly not nothing,” I replied.

“Work. It’s just work.”

“Maybe I can help, even if it’s just to listen?”

Tyler shook his head and lifted a towel from where it hung over his squat rack, running it over his forehead. “It’s nothing. Dad is just insisting I replace the contractors on this job because he thinks they are not living up to their end of the bargain, but what he doesn’t realise is that he’s pissed off just about everyone else who is available so I’ve got no other options left. See?” He looked over at me. “Nothing.”

“Why don’t I believe you?”

Tyler sighed and smiled slightly, walking over to place a kiss on my forehead. “It’s nothing,” he said again.

I lightly feathered my fingers over the glistening skin of his chest and he shuddered, a tremble rippling over his muscles. I let my fingers trail over him as I walked, circling until I stood behind him and began to massage the tension from his shoulders. Tyler rolled his head from side to side, moaning deliciously as I worked at his flesh. I kissed his shoulder blade and then ran my tongue over my lips, tasting the salt left there. My hands fluttered down his back until they skimmed under the waistband of his pants, pushing them over his hips and letting them fall to the ground. He was gloriously naked and I clutched his backside, digging my fingers into the firm flesh. Tyler groaned. I circled him again until I was facing him and he watched as I placed kisses over his chest, across his abdomen and pressed them into the crease of his groin. His cock flanked his stomach, but I didn’t go near it. I kissed everywhere but, and let the desire flame within me as moans of pleasure and frustration fell from his mouth. Lifting my eyes, I continued to lick, suck and kiss his body as he watched me, eyes scorched with lust. He wound his fingers through my hair sending tingles of excitement through me as it pulled against my scalp. He tried directing my mouth towards his cock, but I shook my head.

I wanted to feel him inside me. I needed him inside me.

Taking his hand, I led him to the rubber matting that covered the cold concrete floor. “Lie down,” I instructed.

Tyler lay on his back, his large cock protruding into the air. I knelt over him, one knee either side of his waist, and let my dressing gown fall from my shoulders. Tyler’s eyes locked onto my breasts and I took them between my hands, pushing them together as I writhed dangerously close to his hardness. I hovered over him, letting my wetness slide over the tip but not sinking onto him like I wanted. Tyler watched me with burning eyes but he did not touch. He let me tease and tempt him, his eyes caressing me in ways his hands did not. I lowered my hips, taking the tip of his hardness inside me, ever so slowly lowering myself onto him. Tyler moaned with each inch I took, his hands clenched at his side and I knew he was tempted to force me onto him, push me down and drive his cock in fully, but he was enjoying the torture of my slow seduction too much. Just as I was reaching his fullness, I raised my hips again, revelling in the way he felt inside me. I clamped onto his hardness as I toyed with my breasts, encouraged by the burning intensity with which he followed my movements. Unable to keep his hands from me any longer, they gripped my knees, his thumbs stroking my flesh as his eyes locked on where I began to lower myself onto him again. This time I sunk all the way, whimpering as I impaled myself on his fullness. With as little movement as possible, I leaned forward and kissed him, taking his bottom lip between my teeth and applying the perfect amount of pressure until he groaned into my mouth. Tyler’s hands skimmed up my thighs, over my stomach, taking my breasts and massaging the flesh until his movements became feverish and frantic, and his hips ground under me, begging for me to move against him, give him the friction he longed for. Instead, I took his hands and tore them from my body, holding them out to the side, locking my grasp around his forearms, pinning him to the ground and lowering my mouth to his chest. He could have broken free at any stage, but he lay beneath me and let me control the movement as I rocked on top of him. I moved my hips back and forth pleasuring myself on his cock. He kept his hands extended when I let go and moved to his chest, using the leverage to rock back and forth, grinding into him. I wanted to ride him until he exploded under me. I wanted to look into his eyes as he filled me. But Tyler had different ideas. In one smooth movement, he lifted me from him and scooted down until his mouth was under me and he pulled me to his face, his tongue plunging into me. I arched back, my breasts jutting into the air and reached behind to take his cock in my hand.

“Turn around,” Tyler grunted, releasing the grip he had on my hips.

I did as he requested, turning around and lowering my mouth to his cock as he pulled me back to sit on his face. The sensation of his tongue inside me and my lips wrapped around him sent shivers of pleasure through me, ones that intensified with each lap of his tongue and each thrust of his hips. Euphoria tightened and twisted until it exploded through every cell and I came as he pushed into my mouth and sucked on my clit. Leaving me no time to recover from the pulsing orgasm, he slid out and pushed me onto all fours, taking my hips between his hands and pulling me back onto him forcefully. When he pushed forward, I slumped to the ground, my cheek and chest hitting the rubber matting, but he pulled me up until I was kneeling, and threaded my arms around his neck. His hands roamed over my sensitive flesh, over my nipples and down my stomach until his fingers dove between my thighs.

I tried to pull them away. It was too much, too soon. But Tyler pulled me back, bending so he rested on his knees with me pressed to his lap, his cock hard and firm inside me. He roughly pushed my arms back behind his head, threading my fingers through his hair, and then skimmed his own fingers down my flesh until they dipped between my folds again. I squirmed against him, unsure whether I wanted to push further into him or pull away.

He stopped moving and held me firm, his mouth against my ear. “Open your legs,” he said, his fingers slowly rubbing in circles over my hardened clit.

I moaned, shaking my head. “It’s too much,” I panted.

Tyler moved, withdrawing temporarily to lie flat under me, his back to the floor, me facing his legs. He lifted my backside, pulling my cheeks apart and lowered me onto his cock.

“My god you’re tight,” he muttered as I sank onto him. He used his grip on my backside to control our motion, rocking me up and down and pushing me forward so he could watch as he slowly slid in and out. The repetitive motion reduced some of the sensitivity and soon I was moaning and rocking myself onto him. Looking over my shoulder, I watched as Tyler let go of my backside, resting his hands behind his head, eyes glued as I rode him. “I love watching you fuck me,” he growled. At his words, pressure built inside me again and Tyler grunted each time I rose and fell.

Gripping my hips, he removed himself and tugged me to my feet. He led me to a discarded pool table in the corner of the room and lifted me onto it, pushing me back so I lay across the felt, then, gripping my thighs, he tugged my backside towards the edge. The lip of the table tilted my pelvis upwards, giving him unfettered access and he held my legs wide apart before thrusting into me. Leaning forward, he gripped onto my hips, holding me in place. I began to tremble as the need to come rose violently. Moving his hands to press over my lower abdomen, he pushed deeper and held himself there, watching as waves of pleasure washed over me. Then he leaned over and I dug my nails into his shoulder, the pain and the pleasure combining until he called out my name as he came.  

Climbing onto the pool table, Tyler lay beside me, his head resting on my shoulder, breaths dancing over my breasts causing little goose bumps to dot my skin. Walking his fingers over my stomach, he ran a finger over the curve of my waist.

“This is one of my favourite parts,” he said as more dots erupted over my skin. He brought my wrist to his mouth and kissed the sensitive flesh of the underside. “And this part right here.” He lifted his head and rubbed his thumb over my bottom lip. “And this little part here where a freckle smudges the line between your lip and your skin.” His hand fell to my neck. “And this part right here. The part that makes you melt.” He rested his head back on my chest and ran his finger in a circle around my belly button. “And also the dimples just above your arse. My thumbs fit into them perfectly when I grip your hips. I think you were made for me.”

He said the last part so quietly I barely heard it.