Chloe

I was happy that Alex didn't seem to have any macho hangups about letting me drive that night. It turned out that I knew White Pines and the surrounding countryside better than he did, and after a discussion about When We Can And Can’t Take Mara's Car and Look What Happened When We Didn't Know Where You Were; You Could Have DIED, Mara ultimately let me abscond with her precious Mercedes. But not before Bring It Back In the Same Condition You Borrowed It!

Of course driving up to the Reed house, I was suddenly reminded of what all the kids had called it years ago. It really did look like Dracula's castle rising up out of the forested landscape, and I felt just a little like a human sacrifice as I left the safety of Mara's Mercedes and went to ring the bell.

A narrow woman in an expensive-looking sweater and black slacks opened the door, diamond earrings glinting demurely at her ears and a bright, very definitely fake smile on her face.

"Oh you must Chloe," she said, her voice just a shade too brittle. "Alex will be right down."

Instead of letting me step into the house to get out of the late-night chill, however, she only looked me up and down.

"So you're from town?" she asked.

"Oh, no, Mrs. Reed, though we used to spend vacations here. My grandma lived in town though, and we came to visit all the time..."

"Oh I see," she said. "And where did you come from? Alex said that you were on the bus with him."

From the tone of disgust in her voice, I could imagine what she thought of the bus, and I couldn't help shuffling a little.

"Oh, I'm from this little town just outside of the suburbs, Havenwoods. I work at the library there, we have this amazing program for kids that are slow to read. The school district has had some rough times, and this project really gets kids invested in reading..."

I knew that I was babbling, but I couldn't stop myself. Under her sharp eye, I felt as if every piece of me was under scrutiny and nothing was passing muster at all.

"How nice," she said a little sharply. "Alex is of course a doctor in Chicago. "

"Yes, I know," I stammered. "I mean, I know because he—"

Before I could make a further fool of myself, Alex appeared, looking almost achingly handsome in a dark coat and dark jeans and boots. He smiled at me for a moment before shooting a grimly amused glance at his mother.

"Why Mother, for a second there it almost sounded like you were proud of my chosen career path," he said dryly. He led me back out before she had a chance to respond, and in just a few minutes, we were on the road again, with me behind the wheel this time.

"Er, so your mom doesn't like the idea of you being a doctor?"

He shot me an amused look that still didn't manage to hide a hint of real frustration and pain.

"It's a bit of an old and tired story, but yes. I didn't even have the self-respect or family loyalty to go into anything like research or cardiology. The Reeds did not expect to have a son who liked mucking around in trauma wards."

"I'm just going to be proud if my kids decide they want to save lives," I declared, focusing on the dark road in front of me. "Doesn't matter to me how they want to do it."

I jumped a little bit when Alex reached over to touch my shoulder gently. There it was again, that rich warmth that passed between us, and I remembered how close we had come to kissing at the damned hospital. I loved Mara and Shannon, but I could have smacked them both for coming in when they did. Of course they had both laughed their heads off when I told them that, but the point stood.

"I think you're going to be a good mother," he said, and the unusual softness to his tone left me halfway to melting.

"Thanks," I said. "Sometimes... I worry about it."

Before we could get into the many hundreds of fears I had about being a single mother, I saw our turn up ahead.

"This driveway leads about a mile back into the fields and woods to an old foundation. No one's got any reasons to use the foundation at all, so it ought to be great for us."

I pulled the car over in a small field, and as Alex watched in bemusement, I pulled an old quilt out of the trunk of the car and spread it on the ground. Our breath was steaming in the air, but it wouldn't be too bad, I thought.

After watching for a moment, Alex stretched out on his back next to me, and as if we always did this, he reached out to take my hand.

"This is adorable," he chuckled, and I bristled a little bit.

"Look, I'm sorry if this isn't as exciting as all the nightclubs and soirees in Chicago..."

"The closest I get to Chicago nightlife is when there's a shooting at a club and I need to patch people up," he said with a laugh. "This is wonderful."

I would have responded with something snarky, but then a yellow streak crossed the sky, so fast that it would have been lost if I blinked.

"Oh, I saw one!" I yelped, pointing up at the sky with my free hand, and Alex turned.

"I think you're fibbing," he started to say, but then we saw the next one, bright, vivid and gone in a heartbeat.

It was the peak of the Geminids, with one or more falling stars every minute, and we watched them in rapt silence, only exclaiming when we saw one that was particularly bright.

As we watched, I became strangely aware of Alex next to me. It was as if there were magnets within us, dragging us together through the sheer natural force of gravity. It was inevitable, and fighting it felt like the worst kind of nonsense. Somehow, I had grown closer to him over the last half hour, my hip pressed to his, my ankle knocking against his. Or perhaps he had grown closer to me?

When I glanced over at him, I realized he had been watching me for a while. In the dark, it was impossible to read his expression, but I could feel the hunger radiating from him, hunger and need and something almost wistful.

“You’re brighter than any star in the damn sky,” he muttered, and it was so cheesy that he flushed, but also so obviously sincere that I couldn't have kept myself from kissing him just then if my sisters or even aliens had dropped down in the field beside us.

I pulled him over me, leaning up to brush my lips over is. It was electricity and heat, sweet and lovely, and then he came over me again, his mouth hot and more insistent this time. He carefully held his weight over me, leaning on his elbows so he wouldn't crush me, but the kiss was consuming and claiming. When I felt his tongue trailing along my lower lip, I opened my mouth and gave him the entrance he was craving.

“You taste even sweeter than you look,” Alex whispered, framing my face with his big hands.

I felt overwhelmed with the power of him and the heat of our bodies together. He kissed me for a timeless moment, and then his mouth trailed down to my throat, tugging my scarf aside so he could get to the warm skin there. I moaned in surprise at the sudden pleasure of his lips pressed against such sensitive skin, and that small sound only seemed to encourage him all the more. He returned to ravishing my mouth as his hand worked at the buttons of my coat.

"Dammit, it's freezing out here," he swore suddenly, hands stilling.

"Well, winter in Wisconsin," I said. "Alex, I don't want you to stop..."

For a second, I thought I had convinced him. I had a flurry of images of us making love here in the open, under the falling stars... struggling with my coat and his, deciding which bits we could afford to have frozen off, which we still needed, and then he shook his head.

"If we ever want to try this outside again, I'll think about some kind of tropical getaway," he growled. "This is too damn cold. Come on, pretty girl."

He swiftly refastened my coat and pulled me to my feet. For a brief moment, I thought that we were just going to say goodnight, but then he pulled me in for another quick hard kiss.

"Where can we go?" he asked. "You know White Pines better than I do..."

"I'll take you to my place," I said, and as we got back into the car, I wondered why that single line made my heart skip a beat.

*

The house was quiet and dark when we got back. I remembered belatedly that my sisters had decided to go to an art night in White Pines' tiny downtown. Despite how dark it already was, it wasn't too late, and they probably weren't back yet.

Alex looked around the house curiously as I led him up to the tiny attic room that had always been mine when we came to stay as teenagers, but he didn't say anything until the door was closed behind us.

"Nice place," he said, looking around. It was almost spartan, only containing some bookshelves, two dressers and the narrow iron bed that I had slept in since I was a girl. I was suddenly glad that someone had gotten the random rack of dolls out of the place. I had liked them when I was little, but now, about to hopefully have sex with the most handsome man I had ever known, I was pleased that they were gone.

Now that we were alone in this warm place, however, I suddenly felt awkward. I fumbled with the buttons on my plaid shirt, feeling unnervingly awkward and young, and I could feel myself blushing as I swore.

Alex chuckled, but before I could even get embarrassed that he was making fun of me, he drew me close again. When he kissed me, I forgot about everything. There was nothing more important than feeling the warmth of his mouth, the press of his body against mine and the way his breath fanned my cheek.

"Hey," he said, smiling into my eyes. "No need to be nervous, all right? This is good. I'm going to make you feel so good."

I started to respond to that, but then his long clever fingers -surgeon's hands, I thought hazily- were unbuttoning my shirt. He moved quickly, but when the shirt hung open, he took his time easing it down off of my shoulders. When it fell to the ground he looked at me solemnly in the light of the moon that came in the window. I resisted the urge to cover myself; Paul had always said that I was shaped like a fourteen year old boy, but when I looked at Alex's face, I could see nothing but desire and pleasure at looking at me.

"God but you're beautiful," he murmured, and he stepped closer, burying his face in the crook of my neck. For a moment, we simply breathed each other in, but then he started kissing me, running a line of kisses down my throat to my suddenly surprisingly sensitive collarbones. I felt him fumbling briefly with the clasp of my bra, and then in another moment, it was gone too. The bra joined the shirt on the floor, and then I was naked to the waist.

"So very perfect," he purred, and he reached down to gently touch one erect nipple and then the other. I gasped a little, leaning in to his touch. I had always thought that having small breasts was a fault, but now when he was sending sensations racing through me with just a touch, I knew I would never think that again.

"I think I need to see all of you," he said gravely, and I couldn't help giggling at that.

"Oh really, doctor? Do you think it's serious?"

I surprised a laugh out of him, and he grabbed me up in a hug that seemed to pull out all the darkness inside me, replacing it with light.

"God, but you can be just a brat," he murmured tenderly.

"Oh well, if that's all..." I yelped in surprise when he dropped me on the bed. Instead of joining me, however, he started to work on my jeans, working them and my panties down my hips. I lifted myself up a little to help him, but he pushed me back down. When I was naked in front of him, he simply stood by the side of the bed and gazed at me. I felt as if I was someone else, someone beautiful and rare and precious.

"I want to see you too..." I said, stammering a little. It was true though. I didn't think that I could go much longer without touching his face, without seeing him as bare as I was.

He nodded, and with far less ceremony, started stripping out of his clothes. He moved with a kind of efficiency that made me smile, and then his clothes were in an untidy pile on the floor, and he stood in front of me. He was handsome clothed, but naked there was something vital about him, something almost primal. He was lean but well-muscled, and without thinking, I reached out to run a gentle finger from the curve of his shoulder, down his chest to the corrugated muscle over his belly. There was a thin trail of pale hair there, and I followed it down to his cock, which was more than half-hard already.

He came to rest next to me on the bed. It was a little too short for him and really not wide enough for two people, but we made it work by pressing hard against each other. The shared warmth felt like the most wonderful kind of pleasure, and then he started to kiss me again, one hand running smoothly down my side to my hip and my thighs.

I gave myself up to the kiss. There was no hurry to him at all. There was the urgency of his cock pressed against me, the fine tension that was strung through his frame, but there was nothing impatient about his motions. He seemed content to take his time, as if he would be happy doing nothing more than kissing me, and that drew a shiver of pleasure through my body.

At first I was content to be kissed, but then I couldn't help touching him back. I learned the textures of his body, the smooth and rough parts, how he would purr when I knitted my fingernails into his chest. When I reached down between us to tentatively circle his cock with my hand, he gasped a little, pressing against me. I liked the needy sound he made, and I drew my hand over his cock, marveling at the soft skin over the hard flesh. It drew an answering pulse from deep inside me. When I felt a bead of liquid at the very tip of his member, I swirled it over the head, making him bite back a groan.

"God, you're going to undo me..." Alex breathed in my ear, sending a tickle down my spine. He didn't miss that, and with a growl, he pinned me underneath him.

"Do you like that?" he growled, his breath warming the sensitive skin there. "Does this feel good, pretty?"

His sharp teeth snapped lightly at my earlobe, and I couldn't believe how it made me shiver. It was as if my spine had been replaced with lightning from that single comparatively gentle touch, and I gasped, clinging to him, my eyes wide.

"Feels good," I echoed, and then he nibbled at the rim of my ear as his hand slid down my body. He slid warm fingertips along my slit, finding my wet warmth, and just as he touched my clit, he ran his teeth over my earlobe again.

I cut off a full-throated cry because it rocked my entire body. It felt as if every nerve I had was set on fire, and of course, Alex kept doing it. He lapped at the new-found sensitive skin of my ear, he slid a firm finger over my clit and then deep inside me. I could feel tension building up inside me, higher and higher. Where before I had always had to work on that tension, to nurture it and to help it grow, this time, it simply happened, taking me along for the ride.

"Oh please, please," I murmured, and the sound he made was more a groan than a laugh. His fully hard cock pressed hard against my hip, and I wanted him more than anything.

Just as I was trembling on the edge of a climax, he pulled away. I let out a cry of shocked need, but instead he rolled on top of me, pressing me back to the bed. His mouth claimed mine with a kind of ferocity that took my breath away, and then he was pressing my thighs apart. He slid the tip of his cock over my slit, nudging my clit and teasing the entrance until I could barely stand it any more.

"Alex, please, I can't wait," I said, just a hair away from begging.

"Neither can I," he murmured, and then he slid his cock fully inside me. I sheathed him on that first stroke, and for a moment, we simply stared each other in wonder at how good it felt. Then he started to move, and I dug my fingernails into his shoulders, hanging on for dear life.

With every stroke, the pleasure in me roared higher. Somewhere underneath it all, I could feel that he was still watching me, still making sure that I felt good and that I would be alright. He needn't have worried. It felt as if my body had been set aflame, and now I was roaring high up into the sky, ready to meet those falling stars.

My climax rose and rose, but somehow when it broke, it still caught me with surprise. I threw my head back on the pillow, crying out in shock and surprise and pleasure. I felt like a fireworks show, the sweetness of my climax bursting over and over again until I was exhausted.

My climax triggered Alex's, and I could distantly feel his strokes become faster, less rhythmic. Just as I was relaxing into the bed, I felt him spill inside me, growling against my shoulder as he did so. I could feel every part of him, and we were joined in the most intimate way possible. As we relaxed, I threw my arms around him, needing him close. It was a perfect warmth and everything felt almost painfully good.

Alex pulled away slightly, enough so that he could roll to his side and gather me in his arms. We lay like that so long that I nearly fell asleep, and then he stirred.

"We should get under the covers," he said, and I smiled at his practicality.

"Are you just inviting yourself to stay the night?" I asked, and he paused, considering.

"Should I not?"

"No, I want you to stay. I'm just being a brat. It got such good results before."

He growled playfully at me, but he still covered me with the blanket, letting me nestle next to him. The bed was really far too small for two people, especially when one of them was as large as Alex, but right then, nothing in the world mattered at all except being close to each other. We drifted off to sleep in each others arms, and when his hand drifted over my belly, I smiled.