Nineteen
Later that night, once again, Viola couldn’t sleep. Partly because she was freezing, and partly because she was worried about Jon. After staring up at the roof of her tent for several hours, she finally crawled out of the air mattress with a huff and crossed her tent. The moment she unzipped it, the cold night air seized her bones and nearly took her to her knees.
But the need to get to him overpowered the cold. If being warm meant going back inside the tent to seize her coat, it wasn’t worth it. Not a single unnecessary minute further without Jon was worth it. So she crept across the uneven forest floor in her socks, letting the rubble poke through the wool and nip at the beds of her feet. Puffs of white air fluttered from her lips with every hushed breath she took. Her red plaid pajama dress stretched all the way down to her calves, tight enough to ensure that she couldn’t break into a full-on run, even if she wanted to.
It was well into the middle of the night, so the six tents that surrounded the campfire that’d died out hours ago were all zipped closed for the night. One false move, however—one tree branch snapping under her feet—and she’d risk waking someone up. The last thing she needed was a member of the Moore family catching her sneaking into Jon’s tent in the middle of the night.
She shouldn’t have been putting herself in the position to get caught at all. She shouldn’t have been putting Jon in the position. But she felt out of her body. Like her limbs no longer belonged to her or at least no longer belonged to the part of her mind where the bulk of her logic lived. Her body now moved on orders solely from her heart.
On direct orders from her heart, her feet came to a halt outside of Jon’s yellow tent. Her trembling fingers found the zipper and pulled it open, slowly enough to keep the zipping sound as quiet as she could. Her mind told her to stop before she made an even bigger mess of this family than it already was, but her heart told her to climb inside that tent as quickly as humanly possible. Once again, she couldn’t defy her heart, and in seconds she was inside Jon’s tent, zipping it closed behind her.
Instantly, the cold that had been seconds from freezing her bones solid, disappeared. Replaced with a warmth that melted her faster than the icecaps in Antarctica. For a moment she wondered if the sight of Jon’s angelic sleeping face across the tent was what had thawed every bone in her body, but when her eyes shifted from his sleeping face to the small space heater he had set up next to the bed, it made sense.
The moonlight kissing the domed tent made its yellow body seem even brighter. Like the sun was shining down on that slumbering angel even in the dead of night.
Viola found herself unable to move as she watched him sleep on the air mattress across the tent. Her eyes ran his bare chest and chiseled abs slowly, drinking in every deliciously deep cavern before finally landing on the waistband of his gray sweatpants, fully visible since he’d kicked his red fleece blanket off his body, leaving it bunched up at his feet.
Her heart quickened at the bulge in his sweats, leaving no secret to the perfect outline his hard cock made against the fabric as it stretched down his thigh. The thick, engorged tip seemed to be screaming her name, making her mouth water as she remembered the night she’d been lucky enough to take that gorgeous tip between her lips. How good he’d tasted. The beautiful noises he’d made. Noises she’d inspired with each greedy taste she’d taken, like she was the only woman in the world who could make him feel so good.
Before she knew it, she was crawling, drawn in by the dick like a woman possessed, and in a second she was next to the bed. She didn’t even know her greedy fingers had begun reaching for that bulge in his sweats until her trembling hand came into her line of vision.
She froze seconds before touching him. The man was sleeping, so this technically qualified as non-consent. If she continued blindly following every desperate order her racing heart was now screaming at her she was pretty much a rapist. A pervert. No better than the sex offenders who had to go door to door, announcing themselves, whenever they moved into a new neighborhood.
This was not normal behavior. For days this man had been begging her to leave him alone. To let him fix what he’d broken with his family in peace. To stop tempting him before she ruined his relationship with them for good. She was so selfish.
It was like a bucket of cold water was being thrown at her, over and over. How many times had he told her this could never happen again? Was she so singularly focused on her own needs that she couldn’t even see how blatantly she was ignoring and disrespecting his? She should just leave him alone. It was the only thing he’d ever asked of her, after all.
The guilt her thoughts brought alive in her nearly swallowed her whole—enough to make her turn her head from his sleeping body and go to leave the tent.
His long, strong fingers clapped around her wrist just as she was about to move away, causing her head to fly back toward him with a gasp, just in time to see his closed eyes had fluttered slowly open and were now locked to hers.
Her breathing grew labored in seconds as his shining blue eyes, still heavy with sleep, studied her. Neither of them said a word. But when he tightened his warm fingers around her wrist—where she was sure he could feel her pulse racing—and tugged, she moved back to him with a gasp. Every shred of basic human politeness and good manners she’d been taught growing up left her body in the blink of an eye. In the blink of an eye, she’d entered his space, closely enough for the tips of their noses to be less than an inch away. For the warmth of his own heavy breathing to tickle her lips. Close enough to trace the black shards in his irises like a connect the dots.
She cradled her hands on either side of his body, her weight causing the air mattress to shift.
His eyes seemed tortured—almost pained—as he sank his fingers into her hair, letting them get tangled in the strands. Closing the space between them, he caressed the tip of her nose with his, letting his eyes flutter closed as he tightened his fingers in her hair. Their heavy breathing met in the quiet air, mixed, and created a brand new sound all its own. A carnal sound that made her pussy swell to twice its size and rendered her clit a bundle of nerves, desperate for the hand buried in her hair to relocate to the valley between her legs.
Moving on orders from her heart once more, her fingers traveled down his bare chest, trickling over his rock hard muscles. She loved the way his skin flinched and tightened under her touch, more violently the closer she grew to the waistband of his sweats. When she sank her shaking fingers underneath that waistband and desperately cupped his rock hard dick, they both drew in a sharp breath.
He pressed his forehead to hers, pushing his eyes closed even tighter, and shook his head, sucking in each strangled breath through clenched teeth as she began to stroke him.
“All I think about is having you inside me,” she whispered, amazed when her strangled confession caused him to grow twice as hard, swelling under her hand. “That’s all I think about.”
He shook his head again, and his lips fell open. The frown line between his eyebrows warned that he was about to remind her why this couldn’t happen. Why they couldn’t happen. Why giving into the breathtaking temptation that’d been encasing them since the moment they’d met was the biggest mistake of their lives—especially with his entire family sleeping just a few feet away. A family that could awaken at any moment and catch them surrendering to the heart-stopping attraction that had left them too weak to fear the risk—to heed the danger. Left with no other choice but to throw caution to the wind.
The residual effects of sleep made his voice gruff. “I’ve gotten so used to the fires that burn out fast…” His eyes fluttered open, filled with both passion and agony as they searched hers, digging his fingers deeper into her hair and shaking her softly. “When the fuck are you gonna burn out already?”
Viola searched his eyes, chest heaving.
He pulled her in before she could answer, trapping her lips in a gasping kiss that flooded her body with warmth. That made her chest flutter with butterflies so severe they bordered on unbearable pain. After just one soft peck, one gentle kiss, their lips spread wide, the desire racing through them so in tune they immediately needed more at the same time. Needed to go deeper. To bathe in the soft caress of each other’s tongues. The insistent coaxing of their battling lips. To claim each other in the only way they knew how—by getting as close and as deep as they could until they were plundering one another. Ravaging each other with their lips and tongue, savoring each taste as if it would be the last, and slanting their heads deep in the desperation to find new, uncharted territory. Tempted by the parts of their bodies that had yet to be explored.
When their second passionate kiss quickly proved that there was no part of their mouths they hadn’t fervently traveled—twice—they desperately searched for other, undiscovered parts of their trembling bodies. Breaking the kiss just long enough to rip his sweatpants off and sweep her pajama dress over her head. Ripping off one item of clothing after the other until they all laid in a heap at the foot of the bed, leaving them, finally, with unexplored terrain once more.
Their hungry eyes ran each other, naked for the first time, breathless, before he sank his fingers into her hair once more and pulled her back in, spreading his lips wide over hers. His hardness was in her hand once more, causing his moans to warm the space between their roving mouths, and she stroked furiously, matching his purrs with breathy whimpers of her own as the pre-cum at the tip of his dick wet her palm and made her strokes come smoother, faster.
She shushed him as her kneading altered his soft purrs and into audible cries and growls that were loud enough to carry over, smiling against his wide-open lips. She loved making him feel so good that he’d lost all control of his vocals, but if the passionate sounds leaving those wet, parted lips of his grew any louder, they’d surely be caught red-handed.
He heeded her warning the moment she shushed him by breaking his lips from hers, wrapping his arms around her waist, pulling her onto his lap so she straddled him, and drawing one of her hard, aching nipples between his lips.
His desperate groans were instantly muffled as he swirled the sensitive bud under his tongue, but her own excited noises quickly took over, unable to hold back a sharp hiss as his lips and tongue sent unbelievable shots of pleasure rolling over every inch of her body. It felt so damn good that she found herself unable to obey the warning she’d just given him. As he sucked her, she buried her head in his rustled hair and slammed her eyes shut. Thankfully, his soft brown strands served to muffle her moans the way her throbbing breasts had muffled his, just as he moved his warm mouth to the opposite nipple and sucked it between his lips as well. Her entire body went flush with warmth as he stroked her nipples with his tongue and she reached behind her to seize his hardness once more, desperate to make him feel as good as he was making her feel right then.
Her muscles tensed the moment he was in her hand, pussy contracting, slick, slippery, and pumping with the need to have that thickness deep inside her. She felt his entire body convulse under hers and saw the desire tightening every muscle in his face, proof enough that he needed it too. She didn’t waste another moment, sitting a little taller—but not tall enough to cause her nipple to fall from the heavenly cavern of his mouth, and angled the thick head at her soaked entry.
He gasped violently, regrettably causing her bud to pop out from where he’d had it between his teeth, and clawed his fingers down her back as she primed him at her center.
Their lips locked, in another frantic, heated kiss as the smooth crown of his dick popped inside her. Her wetness ensured he sank in with ease, every inch of her velvety walls clutching him the entire way down as his thickness bordered on too much to bear. Never had she had a man so big inside her. She feared she might not be able to get him all the way in. At least not without incredible pain. Some part of her was sure she’d ride the wave even if it were painful. Anything to keep those beautiful, intoxicating moans fluttering from his parted lips. Anything to see the proof that his desire for her was just as unbearable as hers was for him. She’d endure the pain for that. For that, she’d endure anything.
But the pain never came. Not even when she was sitting on his hips completely, filled to the hilt. Perhaps a hint of discomfort as her body adjusted to his size, but even that was gone the instant they began to rock together. Wrapping their arms around each other and working to quell the fire that was quickly approaching a full alarm blaze.
She sank her fingers into his soft, slippery strands as she rode him, not even realizing how much noise she was making until he clapped his hand over her mouth. The eyes she hadn’t even known she’d closed popped open when he did. The head she hadn’t known she’d thrown back fell forward, and she caught his eyes, seeing a mixture of rapture and pure amusement shining in them.
He gripped her waist and turned them until she was on her stomach, cradling his hands on either side of her body from behind. When he didn’t immediately fill her up once more, Viola looked over her shoulder, gasping softly when she found his face closer to hers than she’d anticipated, his spine arched forward as he leaned in from behind. Their lips met in another frantic kiss over her shoulder. A greedy dance between their tongues, licking and sucking so hungrily it caused loud smacks to rise into the air. So loud, he was forced to slow the kiss to a crawl, lest they make enough noise to wake their neighbors. After placing several more slow, soft smooches on her lips, quietly enough to stop them from smacking, he pulled away with a frown, as if he couldn’t stand to leave her but had no choice. He looked into her eyes as he primed his hardness at her entry once more, his dick hard enough to re-enter her without even being touched. Her slick canal made it easy for him to sink back in, and he looked into her eyes as he did, offering her the pillow at the end of the mattress as he sat tall once more and began a slow pound.
She accepted the pillow, understanding why he’d offered it, and bit down on it with all her might, letting it stifle her impassioned screams as he fucked her hard from behind. Even though she had a pillow to keep her loss of control a silent secret, Jon had no such aid. Soon the slapping of their skin as his thrusts grew ardent threatened to make twice as much noise as her strangled cries ever could. So he clutched the small of her back and slowed his strokes, an action that took every ounce of his control as evidenced by the rumbling growls that left his lips.
“Oh my god, I’m gonna…” Viola couldn’t even finish as she stopped biting down on the pillow, the pleasure taking over her body now so powerful that it left her breathless, unable to make a sound even if she wanted to, vocal chords slashed as every drop of blood in her body raced to her pussy. “Jon, I’m gonna…”
“You gonna cum for me, baby?” His whispered voice warmed her ear as he kept his strokes slow and steady. “You gonna cum on this big dick?”
She croaked softly, and could only give several sharp nods, digging her fingers into the pillow below her head. She nearly ripped it to shreds as her insides tied themselves into a hot knot at the pit of her stomach, her heart pounding hard enough to break through her chest and poke a hole in that air mattress, and her feet spasming, making her toes curl to the point of breaking.
“Stay deep,” she begged, managing to find her voice, reach behind her, and clutch his ass, keeping his shaft deep inside her as the ball at the pit of her stomach exploded and sent shards of blinding white light flashing all across her body. Tensing her every muscle to the point of breaking as her pussy contracted around a dick that had grown slick with her wetness. She buried her mouth in the pillow below her again to muffle her impassioned screams when they grew ear-splitting.
Jon’s lips buried in her curls a moment later, and only then did it hit her that he was coming as well, reaching under her body to cup her breasts and ride the wave with her, his dick shifting and convulsing inside her. Filling her with his warmth as they both reached their toe-curling, spine-tingling peak together.
Their breathing, their bodies, and their hearts became one.
Even if they both knew it was for the first and last time.
——
Less than an hour later, Viola decided it wasn’t the first and last time.
She decided it couldn’t be.
Because she wouldn’t survive it.
“It can be our little holiday secret,” she whispered, running the tips of her fingernails along Jon’s chest, which had finally stopped heaving out of control. “They won’t ever have to know.”
He lay on his back, still naked on top of the covers, staring up at the domed roof of the tent with her body curled into his. Her arm was slung across his chest and her thigh across the v at his hips where his flaccid dick was still recovering. He ran his short nails up and down her back, with his other arm curled behind his head, cradling it against the pillow.
“I won’t pressure you for more,” she promised. “And I don’t want you to think that us having sex leaves you obligated to me in any way. I understand what it is, and I’d never want to be the person who comes between you and them.”
His blue eyes dashed back and forth as if he couldn’t keep up with the thoughts in his mind.
“Talk to me.” She laid her palm fully on his chest, feeling how hard his heart was beating. Just as hard as it had against her back when he’d finished inside her. Except, this time, his racing heart had nothing to do with his dick or even her pussy, but instead everything to do with the thoughts and feelings tearing him up inside. “And I’m not begging you to talk to me as a woman who’s about to become needy and psycho just because she’s slept with you, I promise. Only as someone who’s on your side. The way they’re treating you, Jon… it’s not fair. It’s not your fault. And it makes me want to cry because I can see how hard you’re trying.”
He removed his arm from behind his head so he could pinch the insides of his eyes while jamming them shut.
Viola sat up and leaned her forearm against his chest with a sigh, just watching him.
He moved his trembling hand to his forehead, eyes still closed, and shook his head as a lump went down his throat. “Do you know Milo hasn’t even spoken to me one-on-one since I got here? Not once?”
She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well apparently Milo’s transformed into a total asshole in the span of a week. Since the moment we got here. I barely recognize him anymore. I had no idea he was capable of this level of petty. During that performance at church the other day, I kept waiting for his head to start spinning around like the exorcist.”
“What performance at church?”
Shock blasted through her. “Nothing. We just got into an argument, that’s all.”
“About what?”
At that moment, she was dying to tell him the truth. The urge was more powerful than it had ever been. Though she’d just promised him she wasn’t going to get clingy, she understood that the newfound desire to spill her heart out had everything to do with the fact that they’d just slept together. But even though she really was waiting for the moment his head finally did a total 360, Viola still couldn’t betray Milo. At the end of the day, he was still her best friend, and she’d still made him a promise. Telling the truth would only cause more trouble than it was worth between the two brothers.
When she didn’t answer his question, Jon didn’t push her. “Don’t even get me started on my father. It’s like he can’t stand the sight of me. If our eyes meet across the room, he looks away. If my name comes up, his eyes glaze over. If I walk into a room, he walks out. I’m trying, Viola. I’m trying so damn hard, but I just feel like… like I’m reaching for air. And the way he freaks out whenever Jackson gives even a hint of wanting to be like me? But praises him the second he shows any interest in being like Milo?”
She stacked her hands on his chest and laid her chin on top of it, relishing in the feel of his fingers running her back. “I feel like he was so cold to Jackson about the guitar earlier because it makes him sad. Jackson said your dad was the one who taught you how to play, right? Probably when you were around Jackson’s age. He lost you at Jackson’s age too. I think, deep down, he regrets kicking you out, really, really badly, and doesn’t know how to come back from it. I think he feels just as guilty as you do and it’s manifesting itself in a really unproductive, borderline emotionally-abusive way.”
“And for what? Because I was an asshole when I was a kid? So what? All kids are assholes.”
“Maybe he just needs to get all the pettiness out of his system before he’s ready to make a real effort. I have no doubt that, by Christmas, you guys will be good as new. Probably attached at the hip.”
“Scared to even buy him a damn Christmas gift, weird as he is about my money. Do you know how long I’ve been trying to pay him back for the 10k he dropped on all my rehab stays? He constantly complains about having to empty the family savings account but then refuses to let me reimburse him even though he knows I have it. I think he likes being able to hold it over my head.”
“He’s a proud, working man. Maybe a little too proud for his own good. But I know he loves you, Jon. It’s so clear in his eyes when he looks at you. It just seems like he’s the type of guy who only knows how to show his love through pestering and preaching. Like the way he was lecturing Betty today about disappearing in the middle of the night—”
Jon chortled before she could even finish.
She burst into laughter, too, struggling to keep it quiet as the amusement tightened her chest to the point of pain. Begging for release in the form of a nice long cackle—a release she couldn’t risk giving in to for fear of waking the family. “Thank God we hightailed it home when we did. Sounds like Robert woke up looking for her just a few hours after we got back. God, the last thing we need is for him to find out we were hanging out in the middle of the night.”
“He’d probably be jumping for joy to finally have a valid excuse to resent my entire existence.”
“Pretty sure the image of Betty getting pounded is going to be burned into my brain forever.”
“You’re the one who wanted to see it so badly. Preaching about the billion dollar porn industry and all that.”
“Yeah, when I thought it was going to be Mr. And Mrs. Washington. Two people who I don’t know. It’s different when the naked people are strangers, okay? It’s only porn if you don’t know the naked people in real life, and frankly, you’re surprisingly calm for a guy who now knows what his grandmother looks like naked.”
“I grew up with her, so no one knows better than me what kind of woman she really is behind all those ‘amens’ and ‘I rebuke thees’.”
“Oh, so you always knew Grandma got around.”
“Let’s just say I’m far from surprised.”
A smile lit up her face.
He ran the backs of his knuckles down her smiling cheeks. “You’re so beautiful. Since the day I got here, every night I went to bed telling myself I was done with you, and every morning I woke up, laid eyes on you, and realized I’d forgotten how fucking beautiful you are. I never stood a chance.”
“I haven’t stood a chance since I climbed onto that plane. Since you made me cum just as hard grinding against you at a concert as you made me cum tonight.”
“I think it was better for me tonight… but it was definitely close. You have no idea how close I was to taking out my dick, lifting up your dress, and…” He didn’t finish.
She didn’t need him to because her pussy finished it for him, taking on a slow pound that proved she was ready for round two.
“We were all packed in so tight,” he said. “Crowd shoulder to shoulder against the rails, singing, dancing. No one would’ve even noticed me push your panties aside and slip it in.”
“So you did know what was going on between us during that concert, huh?”
“My dick was nestled in your ass like a hot dog bun, V. Of course I knew.”
“You pretended you didn’t, in the hallway.”
“I was furious at you.”
She paused. “Are you still furious?”
He breathed out a laugh that flared his nostrils, still stroking her face with his knuckles. “I wish.”
“You wish? Maybe I should just dump you right now before you go full-blown bipolar on me. In fact, I think I will. It’s over, Jon.”
He smirked, caressing her bottom lip with his thumb, eyes growing heavy. “You promise?”
Her heart fluttered. Not because he was practically begging her to end their torrid affair, but because the fact that he was begging proved he had no plans on ending it himself. That he was done fighting. That if their relationship was going to come to an end, it would have to be by her hand. Her choice. He no longer had the strength to walk away.
She worried she didn’t either.
When she leaned in and drew his bottom lip in between hers, luring him into a soft, gasping kiss, she had her answer. He didn’t have the strength to end this, and neither did she. The only wisp of strength left in her entire body was the strength it took to tilt her head, spread her lips, and deepen the kiss. She even managed to find one last sliver of fortitude that gave her enough vigor to sweep her tongue between his lips. But that was the extent. Kissing him. Cuddling him. Enjoying him.
Anything more was too hard.
Anything more would be too painful.
The only thing she could imagine more painful was the sound of the tent zipper suddenly ringing out into the night air right then. The sight of the yellow nylon vibrating as it did, proving that someone was outside, and coming in.
The pain that shot through her heart as her eyes flew toward the zipper was unbearable. So much it made her feel like she was dying inside, one strangled breath away from dropping dead right there on Jon’s chest.
Because he wasn’t going to end it. And she wasn’t going to end it. But whoever had just unzipped the tent was certainly going to end it for them.
Both she and Jon were frozen solid as the flap of the tent fell open, their wide eyes locked to it just as a blonde head popped through, and Beau’s big, innocent eyes appeared, his glasses making them look twice as big when they immediately widened at the sight of Viola and Jon, naked.
It took everything in Viola’s body to swallow back a scream at the sight of the two-year-old, and she finally found the strength to move her bones, throwing her naked body off Jon while snatching at the fleece blanket underneath him. She yanked it with all her might, accidentally causing Jon to roll off the air mattress and onto the floor of the tent.
Wincing, she reached for Jon as he fell, while using the blanket to cover all her naughty bits. She couldn’t worry about Jon for too long, however, when it hit her once more that baby Beau was still watching. Her horrified gaze flew back to him just in time to see his tiny little mouth fall wide open, forming an ‘o’ shape that would’ve been adorable if she wasn’t so traumatized.
“Oh my god, he saw us.” Viola leaned forward and shoved Jon, who was shuffling his sweats up his legs from where he still laid on the floor. “He saw us, Jon, do something.”
“Hey, buddy,” Jon smiled once his pants were on while seizing the unzipped backpack he’d laid next to the bed and shoving his hand into the pocket.
“I saw yours ‘gina!” Beau beamed proudly, pointing at Viola before shifting his finger to Jon. “And yours penis!”
“Oh my god—Jon,” Viola hissed, cringing desperately at Jon.
“Hey, hey, hey, look at me…” Jon came out of his bag with a fresh hundred-dollar bill clutched between his fingers and showed it to Beau. It shook under his hold.
Beau’s big blue eyes locked onto the bill and a gleeful smile lit up his face, revealing both rows of his snaggleteeth, transfixed by the elusive sight of money in the way only a small child could be.
Jon moved slowly toward him like he was a deadly animal and not a sweet, squishy toddler, before kneeling down in front of him. “You like money, buddy?”
Beau nodded furiously, smile widening.
“You want this money?” Jon shook the bill.
Beau nodded again.
“Okay, it’s yours, but under one condition. And you have to listen really closely, okay?”
Beau’s eyes widened as he drank in the bill, so much so that cartoon dollar signs seemed seconds from boinking out of his eyes.
“Look at me,” Jon whispered, waiting for Beau’s dollar sign eyes to shift from the bill back to him. “You have to promise to never tell anyone that you saw my penis and Viola’s vagina, okay?”
“Okay.”
“I need you to say it. Otherwise, I can’t give you the money.”
“Um…” Beau frowned softly, wringing his hands together, suddenly appearing disappointed that this hundred-dollar bill was going to prove much more trouble than it was worth.
“I promise never to tell anyone that I saw Viola and Jon together,” Jon said, slowly. “Say it.”
“I promise to never tell anyone…” Beau’s lispy voice trailed off, and he frowned into the distance. “That I saw Viola and Jon together.”
“Good. Let’s shake on it.” Jon offered Beau his hand.
Beau took it with a giggle.
“Our secret?” Jon asked.
“Our secret.”
“Alright, I’m trusting you…” Jon held up the bill, unable to hide a soft smile when Beau snatched it from his hand and held it up in the air like Gollum holding his precious ring. With a grin on his face that was quickly bordering on evil, Beau turned to race away, as if fearful that Jon would change his mind and take his hundred dollars back.
“Whoa…” Jon reached out and seized Beau’s arm before he could get too far, pulling him back and waiting for their eyes to meet once more. “What’s our promise, buddy?”
“I promise never to tell… that, that you and Viola was together.”
Jon held Beau’s arm for another long moment, silently searching his eyes as if giving him an unspoken warning. “And that fresh, new hundred-dollar bill. That’s our secret too, okay?”
Beau nodded furiously.
“Put it in a really good hiding spot and save it for college, alright?”
Beau nodded again.
“Back to bed. Get nice and snuggled under the blankets, you must be freezing. Go…” Jon released his hold on Beau, his head falling as Beau broke into a run across the campground, returning to the tent he shared with Betty. Jon kept his arm out as if still reaching for Beau, before finally letting it fall limp at his side. “Just go… for fuck’s sake.”
Jon kept his head lowered, shaking it for nearly a minute, before sneaking a look across the tent.
Viola nodded furiously the moment their gazes locked. “Bribery. Nice. We’re fucked.”
“We’re not fucked.”
“He’s two years old. We’re fucked. He’s probably shaking Betty awake right now to regale her about all the subtle intricacies of your penis and my vagina.”
“And if he does, we’ll regale Betty about all the subtle intricacies we saw in her vagina last night.”
“Blackmail and bribery. Nice. We are so fucked.” She paused as her mind raced while staring off into space. “This is our payback for laughing at Betty. Who knew karma worked so fast?”
“He’s not gonna say anything, Viola.” Jon stood and moved across the tent before kneeling down in front of her the same way he had Beau, even using the same tone of voice. Like she was a child who needed extra attention. “He’s going to keep his mouth closed, and so are we. Like you said, he’s two years old. He can barely remember where his own eyebrows are. He’ll have forgotten all about this by the time he opens his eyes tomorrow morning.”
Viola wasn’t optimistic, but still, she couldn’t deny that looking into Jon’s eyes and listening to his soothing tone of voice was calming her down.
“You’re right,” she breathed. “He’ll have definitely forgotten come morning.”