When Reese was satisfied with the fire, he stood up, wiped his hands off on his jeans, poured a glass of wine, and offered it to me as he gestured for me to sit on the loveseat. After pouring himself a glass, he sat down and pulled my legs into his lap. We sat in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the wine and just being with each other. As beautiful as they were, I was starting to strongly dislike sunsets. Each amazing display of day surrendering to night was like a tick of the clock counting down the days until our time together expired.
Reese broke the silence and said, “Tessa, please don’t take this the wrong way, but I want to help you.”
“Help me how?” I asked.
“Whatever obligations you have that keep you at The Happy Valley, let me take care of them.”
I tried to sit up but he held on tight to my legs, keeping me tethered to him. The look of concern in his eyes made me take a deep, calming breath before I said, “Reese, I’m not there because I have to be. I don’t have any obligations, as you put it, keeping me there. I’m there because I want to be. I love what I do. When I’m on stage, I get to be someone else. When the club is thumping with the bass from the music and the air is full of lust, I get to escape from the world. The rush of dancing in front of a crowd, knowing that how I move my body causes the audience pleasure and possibly even arousal, is what I live for.”
His concern turned to confusion as he asked, “What about the private dances? Are you saying that you love that part too?”
He had me there. “No, I don’t always love that part. Not every private dance is great. But it comes with the territory. There is always something about your job that you don’t like, but you do it anyway because the rest is good.”
“I want you happy, Tessa. Really happy,” he said.
“I am happy, Reese,” I said, but I wasn’t even convincing myself anymore, so I continued. “Ever since I started at The Happy Valley, I’ve had this silly dream to have my own club. And if I did, I for sure wouldn’t have any stupid dances that included shoving tits into cherry pie. That’s just gross.”
Reese laughed. “I loved watching you do that dance. After I left the club that night, I drove for an hour to find an all-night diner because I just had to have a slice of cherry pie.”
“No way. Uh uh. There is no fucking way that I would allow a dance with cherry pie at my club. But I have been choreographing this number that is a take on when Marilyn Monroe sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to President Kennedy, but in this version, she has an actual birthday cake, and let’s just say it gets a little messy,” I told him with a wink.
“Mmmm, I do like birthday cake much better than pie,” Reese said, licking his lips.
The sun was now tucked away below the horizon, the sky had turned to swirls of pink and purple, and the ocean had become a black abyss. Reese put another log on the fire and it quickly caught, sending sparks flying up to the darkening sky. As I followed the sparks, I saw the first star peek through the blanket of sky. Pushing away painful memories of the last time I made a wish on a star, I looked back to see Reese staring into the fire.
“What’s on your mind?” I asked.
“You,” was all Reese said before pulling me into his lap and pushing his lips firmly against mine. I broke the kiss only to pull my hoodie over my head as the heat from the fire and Reese’s lips were more than enough to keep me warm. My fingers threaded through Reese’s hair to hold him close to me as he tugged at the bottom of my shirt. I let him pull it over my head, exposing my breasts to the night’s chill.
Reese dipped his head down to capture a sensitive nipple between his lips and began to suck as he covered the other with his hand and pinched at it. His assault on both of my breasts sent pulses of pleasure straight to my core. I could feel his arousal grow beneath my bottom as I sat on his lap.
The memory of the night when I brought myself to climax by grinding on him caused another wave of wetness to soak my panties. Needing to feel his skin against mine, I pulled his t-shirt over his head, breaking his hold on my breasts. I felt another sensation of icy air on my nipple where his warm wet mouth had been. How am I going to be able to walk away from this? Before I could linger on that thought, Reese began peeling my yoga pants from my body, discarding them on the ground with the growing pile of clothes.
He tipped my chin up to meet the heat in his eyes as his hand pulled my panties down my legs and then pushed my legs apart a few inches to allow him access to my slick center. First I felt the pad of his thumb press in on my already swollen clit. Then, while staring into his searching eyes, I felt him slip a thick finger into my pussy, making me push against his hand to feel more of him.
His lips parted and he sucked in air through his white teeth. “Fuck, I love how you move for me Tessa.” The way he growled out the words made my heart skip a beat. I knew in that moment that when our time together ended my heart was going to shatter. It would be the end of me.
Reese pushed in another finger, stretching me wide while adding pressure with his thumb. His fingers began a relentless pounding in and out of my pussy. He curled the tips to press against my pleasure center. I couldn’t help myself. I was pushing against his hand in perfect rhythm, fucking his hand with my wet pussy.
“Give it to me, Tessa. I want to watch you come. Give me what I want.” Reese’s words sent me over the edge, my pussy squeezing against his fingers as they continued to move inside me.
Reese shifted his body to pull his jeans down over his hips, and I felt his erection slap against my thigh when it was released from his pants. Without giving me time to recover from the intense orgasm that had just racked my body, Reese lifted me easily and turned me so I was standing with my back to him, facing the fire, the heat from the flames kissing my exposed skin. He placed his hands on my hips and guided me down until his cock was positioned just under my pussy.
I wanted to slam down hard to feel him fill me quickly, but he had another, more wicked idea in mind. Cupping my ass with his big hands, Reese lowered me down on his hard cock in a slow, agonizing progression, his cock gliding into me until I reached the base and was filled completely. Just as slowly, he began guiding me back up the length of him, stopping for a moment when I reached the tip before letting me sink back down again. He continued my suffering, murmuring sweet words about how he loved my ass. Then Reese released the grip on my hips and I felt his fingers tangle in my long hair at the base of my neck. Gathering my hair in a fist, he pulled back until I was lying against his chest as he continued to move his hip and pump into me.
My mind, caught in a fog of immense pleasure, was dizzy with thoughts bordering on panic. How can a man I just met know exactly how to touch me to make me feel like this? Another rough pull at my hair. It is like he can see through me to my soul.
Reese reached between my legs and spread my pussy lips. This close to the fire, I felt the heat from the flames licking at my clit, a stark contrast to the chilly night air caressing the rest of my body. The last thought that drifted through my mind, causing a tear to escape and run down my cheek before I felt my climax take me under, was, I am not going to survive this.
“Reese”
I hated that I had to take Tessa to the airport and put her on a plane alone. She shouldn’t have to fly home by herself. When we woke up, there had been a text on my phone from Myles. Things weren’t going well at the Los Angeles shop and he needed me to drive up to help him sort out some of the employee issues he seemed incapable of working through.
Tessa said that she understood and that she would be fine, but I could see the worry in her eyes. I stayed at the airport until her plane took off. Then I took a cab to the shop to pick up a bike. The alarm went off on my watch, telling me she should have landed, when I was still on the I-5. I figured I’d give her fifteen minutes to get to a cab and then I was calling her. I kept checking my watch every two minutes, and that made it the longest fifteen minutes of my life. I pulled off the freeway in Santa Ana and parked in a gas station lot.
Tessa answered on the third ring. “I did my own seatbelt!” she said with slurry enthusiasm.
That couldn’t be good. “Tessa, how many glasses of champagne did you have?”
“Only three.” It sounded like she was counting her fingers as she giggled. “And then the nice lady gave me a valium.”
They gave her a fucking valium? I knew I shouldn’t have let her get on that plane by herself. I should have just brought her with me and we could have flown out together the next day from LAX. “Listen to me, baby. Are you going to be able to get home okay? Do you need me to call someone to come get you?”
“Nope,” she said with a pop at the end. “They pulled out my driver’s license when we landed and gave the address to the nice driver.”
Remembering that the address on her license was old, I swore under my breath.
“Reese, are you mad at me?” she whispered into the phone.
“No, baby. I just want you to be safe. Do you know the people who will be at the address on your license?”
“Of course, silly. It’s my parents’ house.”
Shit. It really was a good thing I hadn’t taken her to that address the night I’d gotten her pass-out drunk. I could only imagine the look on her father’s face when I knocked on the door with his little girl passed out in my arms. Then I imagined what it would have looked like when his fist connected with my face, and it wasn’t pretty. I was sure they still wouldn’t be happy with their daughter showing up on their doorstep drugged up like she was.
“Okay. I’m going to stay on the phone with you until you are safe inside. Tell me about the rest of your flight.”
“I did my own seatbelt!” she cheered again.
“I know, sweetheart. I’m so proud of you. What else did you do?”
“I think I broke the potty,” she sighed.
“You broke the potty?”
“Yes. I mean, I think I did.” Her words were coming out fast now. “I had to pee and so I went in there and locked the door behind me. When I was done peeing, I flushed and it was loud, Reese. It was so loud that I thought it was broken and I was going to be sucked out of the plane. I didn’t want to get sucked out of the plane so I tried to open the door but it wouldn’t open! I thought the plane was trying to kill me, Reese! I’ve seen snakes on a plane, you know! Well, when the door wouldn’t open, I started banging on it yelling about getting sucked out with my pee. That’s when the nice lady opened the door. She checked the potty and told me it was okay, helped me back to my seat, and gave me the valium. But I still think I broke it.” I could hear the cabbie’s full belly laugh as he was certainly listening to Tessa’s charming story.
“I’m sure you didn’t break it. Don’t worry about it,” I assured her.
“Oh, I made it, Reese! I’m here!” she said.
“Okay, good. Go inside and hand the phone to one of your parents,” I told her.
“Okee,” she said as I heard the cab door open and then close.
A few moments later, there was a gruff voice on the phone. “Who is this?”
“Hello, sir. My name is Reese and I’m a friend of Tessa’s. She was on a flight earlier today and they had to give her a valium when she panicked a little. I just wanted to make sure someone was home before I let her off the phone.”
“Are you an asshole, Reese? You let her get in a cab by herself like this?” he demanded.
“No, sir. I’m not an asshole. I did make the terrible mistake of letting her get on a plane by herself and I will never forgive myself.” The tremor in my voice carried through the line.
“Look, Reese, I’m not sure if you are or are not an asshole. What I’m sure of is that my little girl is looped up higher than a fucking kite right now and I need someone to blame. Right now, you are that someone. I appreciate you staying on the line, but you can go now. I’ll handle this from here.” Then the line went dead.
As relieved as I was that Tessa was safe in the loving arms of her father, I was just as sure that those arms would have been looking to pummel me if I were there. I jumped back on my bike and drove the last thirty minutes to the shop.
I opened the door and stepped inside. “Son of a bitch!” I stopped dead in my tracks and let my helmet slip through my fingers to fall to the floor. “Myles!” I called out. When he came into the lobby from the shop, I said, “What the fuck happened in here? It looks like a fucking bomb went off.”
“That’s why I said you had to come up, Reese,” Myles explained. “This is what the shop looked like when I got here this morning. The police have already come and gone. They said whoever did this knew what to take, what held sentimental importance. Said it looked like a revenge crime.”
“What. Did. They. Take?” I asked through clenched teeth.
He hung his head and said, “They took the ball, man. They took the ball.”
This fucking day can’t get any worse, I thought. My girl is hundreds of miles away and now this?
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me right now! I do not need this shit in my life,” I cursed while kicking debris that lay on the floor out of my path. “Call Sammy and let him know what was taken. He can put it out to all the pawn shops in the area to keep an eye out for it. And ask him to hit up the local auction houses too. Whoever has that ball is going to try to get some cash out of it.” I picked up one of my old bats that had been thrown on the ground and swung it around. “All they are going to get is some fucking busted kneecaps.”
We were sweeping up the floor when the phone rang. It didn’t take long for Sammy to call back. Someone had just tried to sell the ball on the other side of town. The pawn shop owner had received a text from Sammy just five minutes before the bastard had walked in trying to unload a ball signed by the entire Red Sox team when they won the World Series in ’04. He was currently under the supervision of Sammy’s guys in the basement of the pawn shop, and I’d like to think he wasn’t having a great time. Myles and I hopped on our bikes, I threw my bat over my lap, and we made it there in about twenty minutes. I got my ball back and I got to practice on my swing at the same time.