Chapter Three

 

Steven and Virginia gave me plenty of time to notify my landlord and put the stuff I wasn’t taking into storage. Meanwhile, we rehearsed. That brought back memories of watching my mother, Steven, and Virginia prepare for their tours. They’d park the bus somewhere woody and wild, and they’d light a fire, and they’d sing.

That’s how we did it, too. With my dog Rufus, we drove out to the borderlands, where the city lights were dim enough to see the stars. We found a spot by a little creek, and we lit our fire and we sang. I cried the first night, because those songs were my home. I’d grown up not in a bus, but in music. Steven and Virginia brought me home.

During the days, I worked my office job while Steven and Virginia hustled for gigs, building a tour schedule that would take us well into next year. At night, they’d pick me up and I’d board the bus I’d slept in as a child. We’d head out of the city to sing.

With her glasses on the tip of her nose, Virginia read out a set list by firelight. “I think we can manage this, to start. We’ll throw in regional favourites as we trawl around the country. We can take requests if the audience is adamant, but this is a solid show.”

“And it sounds good,” I said, in amazement. “I can’t believe we sound so amazing. It’s like we’ve been singing together forever.”

Setting a warm hand on my back, Steven said, “You’re a natural.”

When I looked into his eyes, they glowed with pride and admiration. I imagined kissing him in that moment, and the thought made me blush.

“Well, I’m ready for bed,” Virginia said. “Let’s get you home, Winter.”

“It’s okay. It’s Friday. I don’t have work in the morning. Anyway, I should probably get used to that bed in there, if I’m giving up my futon for it.”

Steven nodded toward Rufus, who was snoozing at Virginia’s feet. “Looks like the puppy’s ready to hit the hay, too.”

Virginia hauled the growing pup into her arms and carried him to the tour bus as he let out a whiny puppy yawn. It was the cutest thing I’d ever seen.

When we were alone, just Steven and me, I felt like maybe I was sitting too close to him. All this space, this vast clearing within a dense forest, and we were positioned right up next to each other. His hand hadn’t left my back. I thought again about kissing him, and the idea made me shiver.

“Are you cold?” he asked.

I shook my head. “No, I’m fine.”

He stood and grabbed the army blanket from Virginia’s chair. “Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

When I looked into his fire-lit eyes, I knew I was in trouble. Through the entire rehearsal process, I’d tried not to be alone with Steven. I’d tried to stick by Virginia. But now it was just the two of us, fireside. This night could only end one way.

“Remember when you were little? All four of us would lie out on this blanket and look up at the stars.”

The memory came roaring back. “Virginia would point out the constellations and Mom would talk about the planets and you and I would just listen.”

“Who do we listen to now?” Steven asked. “When it’s just the two of us?”

“I guess we listen to the stars.” My legs propelled my around the fire to follow Steven, who was laying out our blanket. It felt so natural, falling down beside him, together again, under the velvet sky, staring into the night.

I drew a deep breath as I lay at Steven’s side. My breasts had never felt so heavy, so swollen, as they did in that moment. I felt as though I were breathing the night air through a straw—it filled my lungs like tropical heat, and all because of Steven. I’d realized, over the past few weeks, that he didn’t have to do a thing to work my hormones into a frenzy. Just the scent of his cologne and the heat emanating from his body were enough to turn me on.

“It must be hard,” I said to him.

He chuckled, sounding embarrassed. “What must be hard?”

“Well, dating, all that sort of stuff. When you’re on the road, I mean. Probably easier nowadays, with the internet, but when I was a kid how would you have kept in touch?”

“Oh.” This time, his chuckle sounded relieved. “Your mother kept in touch with your father pen pal style. She wrote to him, he sent mail to your grandparents’ house. True, it wasn’t as immediate as things are today, but there was also the telephone, if they really needed to get in touch.”

My father? Strange how, growing up, I’d never thought much about him. I guess Steven filled the gap, and Virginia, too. I had three parents. I was a lucky kid.

“There’s something about my mother dying that makes me feel like an orphan even though, technically, I guess I’m not.”

“You’re not.” Steven took my hand and squeezed it so tight my knuckles mashed together. “Winter, you’re not an orphan. You have Virginia, you have me…”

“And I have a father out there, somewhere.”

I rolled onto my side and etched Steven’s silhouette into my mind. His forehead had more wrinkles than when I was a kid, but they made him look sun-loved and distinguished, not old. His nose bulged more to one side than the other, but it wasn’t something you’d notice unless you were staring at it.

“What about you?” I asked. “You and Virginia. How do you… I mean, do you date people ever?”

“Aside from each other, you mean?”

I tried not to react, because I should have seen it coming. “So you’re a couple, you and her?”

“I wouldn’t say a couple. More like two people who are there for each other, in every way possible—emotionally, practically, physically…”

When I was young, Steven’s mouth was a mystery buried beneath a thick beard. Now that his pink lips were exposed, he seemed naked all the time. Every time I looked at him, I felt uncomfortable and embarrassed. Strange, the way our minds work.

“What about my mom?” I was almost scared to ask. “Was she… were you… there for each other?”

He laughed. “No, no. Your mother was of the opinion that sex could only ruin a friendship. Virginia and I prodded her, urged her, but she never partook. In a sense, she stayed chaste for the sake of the trio.”

That was a relief. Nobody liked thinking about their parents having sex.

Mind you, nobody was supposed to like the thought of having sex with their parents, either, and there I was, lying under a moonlit sky, imagining Steven kissing my lips.

But Steven wasn’t actually my parent. As much as I viewed him as a father, growing up, he never was. Not truly.

“Steven?” I asked.

His hand still cocooned mine. “Yes, Winter?”

“Did you ever think about…?”

He turned onto his side, so his chest was so close it grazed my tender nipples. When he spoke, I felt his breath against my lips. “Think about what, Winter?”

I couldn’t ignore the throb between my legs. I couldn’t fight it any longer. I barely had to move to kiss him, and that’s just what I did. Or did he kiss me? We moved for each other’s mouths simultaneously, opening to one another. His tongue swept mine into a frenzy as we gave in to the desire my mother had forbidden. She must be spinning in her grave.

“Wait,” Steven said, pulling his mouth from mine. “Winter, are you sure this is what you want?”

“I’ve wanted it since I was fifteen years old.”

Hugging my head to his broad chest, Steven laughed. “Oh, don’t say things like that. You’ll give this old man a heart attack.”

I pulled back, easing my face closer to his. “You’re not that old. You’re younger than my mom.”

“But I’m older than you,” he said, and kissed my nose. “Old enough to be your father.”

That nose-kiss infantilized me and I didn’t like it, but when I jerked away he pulled me back. He pulled me into a real kiss, an adult kiss, and I gave in to that one because I wanted it. God, I wanted it.

Our bodies slid together like snakes in the grass. We rolled on and off the army blanket as we kissed. For a time, I thought that’s all we might do. In fact, I thought if that’s all we did, just kiss and touch and writhe all night, I might be perfectly content.

And then his hand found its way between my thighs, and I knew I wanted more.

I gasped. “Steven!”

He pulled his hand away. “You’re not ready…?”

I sat on the blanket and drew up my oversized T-shirt, showing him my breasts cradled in a simple white bra. His eyes followed my fingers as they unbuttoned my jeans and slid down the zipper. When I’d kicked off my pants, I posed for him, like a pin-up model. I wanted him to see just how ready I was. I didn’t want him seeing how fast my heart was pounding, though. Maybe I was the one who’d die of sexual delight.

“Winter…”

I slid my hand across his crotch, hoping he couldn’t feel how badly it was trembling. “I want this.”

“Winter.” He grabbed my wrist hard enough to make me shriek. I thought he’d cast it aside, cast me aside, but instead he forced my hand harder against his concealed erection. “That’s more like it.”

A full-bodied flush came over me when I realized my stroking hadn’t been up to snuff. I needed to show him I knew my way around a man, and I dug at his belt, struggling with the metal clasp but failing to get it open.

“Here,” he said. “Let me.”

I felt totally incapable when Steven had to take out his cock, too. How could I prove I knew what I was doing?

“That twinkle in your eye,” he said. “I know that look.”

“Good.” I leaned across his body and whispered in his ear. “Then you won’t be too surprised when I wrap my lips around your dick.”

When Steven gasped, I felt like I’d finally won a round. I’d shocked him with my sexual knowledge, and I was about to shock him again with my oral prowess.

All I had to do was look at his cock and it twitched. When I tentatively traced my fingers the length of his shaft, it jerked wildly, splashing his clothes with pre-cum. “Take off your top,” I said. “And your pants. Take it all off.”

Steven raised an eyebrow as he unbuttoned his shirt. “You’ve become demanding in your old age.”

I rolled my eyes, trying to conceal how incredibly nervous I felt. “So funny I forgot to laugh.”

He must have sensed my anxiety, because as soon as he’d shuffled out of his shirt, he wrapped his hand around mine. Together, we stroked his forbidden cock. Together, we watched it burble pools of pre-cum, which dripped onto our fingers, making us both sticky.

As we toyed with his erection, I bowed to his tanned chest. It didn’t look all that old, aside from a few white hairs among the dark ones. They tickled my lips as I planted kiss after kiss down his flat stomach. Nervous energy swirled with arousal to form a terrifying buzz in my belly. The closer I came to his penis, the more I feared that banned part of him.

“You don’t have to,” Steven said. “We don’t have to do this.”

“I want to,” I assured him. “Really, I do.”

To punctuate my point, I dove at his cock, stopping only an inch or two away from it with my mouth wide open. I knew what to do. So why wasn’t I doing it? I stared at his weeping cockhead, savouring the depth of colour in that mushroom tip. It was so red, so hot I could feel its heat against my face. His hand tightened around mine, and that’s what gave me the strength to consume him.

“Winter!” he cried, then hissed.

“What?” I asked. “Am I sucking too hard?”

“No, no, it’s just…” He gazed lovingly into my eyes, but his words came out in a throaty rasp. “I haven’t had a blow job from a girl your age… oh, probably since I was a guy your age.”

I smiled around his dick as we stroked his taut flesh against my lips.

“Go easy,” he said. “I’m close already.” His breath hitched as he said, “Very, very close.”

His cock tasted so good that I could have gone on sucking it, but I backed off because I wanted more. My panties were sopping wet. I needed to fuck him.

Releasing my hold on his erection, I reached behind my back and undid my bra. I didn’t tear it off. I just let it slide slowly down my arms, until it was only held up on the strength of my very erect nipples.

“Take it off,” he whispered.

“Take off your pants.”

“God, Winter, you’re driving me wild.” He kicked them off and rested on his side, so his cock stuck straight out at me and his balls rested like two swollen cushions on his thigh. “What can I give you?”

I let my bra tumble to the blanket, and he zeroed in on my naked breasts like a moth to a flame. This time, it was his mouth that went to work. He sucked my nipples, sweetly resting his hand on my hip. That wasn’t enough. I guided it down my belly, into my panties, and he moaned when he felt how wet I was.

“Feel that?” I said. “That’s all for you.”

Growling, he abandoned my nipples for my neck. He kissed it like crazy, tore off my underwear, and pressed me down on the blanket. Under a starry sky, the man who’d raised me now ushered in a new phase in our relationship. He guided his cock between my legs. Burying himself neither softly not sweetly in my wetness, he covered my mouth with a kiss.

As his tongue tangled with mine, he thrust heroically, spreading my pussy lips, delving into my depths. I always knew it would feel good. And it did. The harder he kissed me, the wider I spread my legs for him. Planting my feet flat on the army blanket, I bucked my hips up to meet his. We drove our bodies at each other, colliding harder and faster, our kisses ever echoing the ferocity.

I whimpered as his cock filled me again, again. He got so deep inside that his balls slapped my skin, slapped it with every thrust. His pubic hair scoured my clit, bringing me closer to climax.

Was it his kisses that put me over the edge or his earthshattering groan? Maybe just knowing he was coming was enough to bring me to the brink. But we never stopped kissing. Our mouths filled with ecstatic cries, pleas, moans. Our pleasure remained contained in the closed system of our sex.

When finally he rolled off me, his spent cock dragged my pussy juice and his cum across my thigh. It dried there in the open air as we panted. As we stared up at the stars, side by side, I reached for him and he reached for me. Naked, we held hands. Eventually, we rolled together and slept in each other’s arms.

When I awoke, all I could think about was Virginia.