Backdraft Page 7

  He cursed the bum hand that prevented him from peeling her apart and feasting on her the way he wanted. Instead, he dipped his tongue inside her moist slit and found the pleasure probe linked to her orgasms. The harder and deeper she sucked his cock, the faster he licked her clit. Before long, they were fucking each other’s mouths relentlessly, as though their lives depended on it, and it was the hottest, most intense thing he’d ever experienced. He was dying to come, but not before he drove her over the edge first. He got his wish as she gasped and tried to pull away. He wrapped his arm around her waist and held her in place as he lapped up the sweet juice pouring from her tight channel. When he was satisfied that he had exhausted her, he said, “Head on the pillows, flat on your back.”

  When she was lying on the pillow beside him, he shifted until he was straddling her waist.

  “Dave, your hand, be careful,” she said, eyeing his bandaged hand, warily.

  “Don’t worry, Doc,” he said, smirking. “I won’t need my hand for this.” Bracing his uninjured hand on the headboard, he slid home, and it struck him that being inside of her felt like home.

  “God, that feels good,” she said, her eyes drifting closed.

  This was always her favorite position. She used to tell him she loved feeling his weight pressing her into the mattress, confining her.

  Bracing his weight on his forearms, he leaned in, kissing her softly. He’d intended to steal just one kiss, but that was like asking an alcoholic to stop after one drink: impossible. Sliding his tongue over the seam of her lips, he smiled when she opened for him, threading her hands through his hair to draw him closer.

  Kissing was always her favorite form of foreplay. She would often straddle him at a stoplight and kiss him breathless until he had to pull over on a deserted country road, pull his pants down, flip her skirt up, and pull her back into his lap to finish what she started. God, they had been so hungry for each other back then. And so in love, it still hurt him to think about it.

  He closed his eyes and lost himself in the kiss. In his mind, they were teenagers, on the verge of being adults and so desperate to be together. The memories filtered through his mind like a slideshow: the stolen kisses, the laughter, the lovemaking. She wasn’t the girl who betrayed him anymore; she was the woman he loved.

  Thrusting in and out, trying to bridge the gap of their broken dreams, he made love to her as though the last ten years never happened. “I love you,” he whispered, surprising himself with the intensity of his declaration. He poured everything he had, everything he was, into her, depositing his seed, and giving her his love.

  She looked into his eyes, as though half-expecting him to take back his words, but when he said nothing, she smiled. “I love you, too. Always have, always will.”

  He cursed himself as he rolled off and gathered her in his arms. He shouldn’t have said that. It was too soon; too much mistrust and uncertainty lay between them to talk about love yet.

  She kissed his chest and looked up at him. “This is the most amazing night I’ve had in…” She smiled. “A long time.”

  “Shit,” he whispered, pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger as he closed his eyes. “Shit.”

  Frowning, she pushed off his chest. “What’s wrong?”

  “We forgot the goddamn condom.”

  She settled back into his arms, gliding her hand down his bicep. “Don’t worry, I’m on the pill.”

  Be that as it may, he never forgot to use condoms, ever. “Is that 100% effective?”

  She rolled off, claiming the pillow beside him as she turned her back to him. “As a doctor, I can assure you, I won’t get pregnant, so don’t worry.”

  Shit, he hadn’t intended to offend her, but he sure as hell wasn’t ready for a kid right now. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to imply…”

  She sat up, reaching into her nightstand. She withdrew a box of condoms and a small plastic disc. After turning the dial, she set a tiny pill in her hand and popped it in her mouth, glaring at him. “See? No worries, I’m not trying to trap you by getting pregnant.”

  His eyes drifted to the small box of condoms on the nightstand. Reaching for it, he tipped the box. It was half-empty. “Son of a bitch,” he muttered. He wished he hadn’t looked; that was more than he needed to know right now.

  Glaring at him, she snatched the box out of his hand. “You want me to apologize for having a sex life while you’ve been busy engaging in orgies?”

  Just the thought of her having sex with someone else pissed him off. He was her first, and for a long time he’d believed he would be her last. That’s how it would have been, had Craig not interfered. “Orgies? What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “Don’t even try to deny that you and Craig have threesomes.”

  Narrowing his eyes, he asked, “Just how close are you and Craig?” If he found out they were sleeping together, he would drive over to his friend’s house right now and beat him senseless.

  “We’re friends,” she said quietly.

  Sitting up, he braced his weight on his hand. “Define this friendship.”

  Her face fell, and she lowered her head. “We talk on the phone, text, and email; we’ve gone out to dinner a few times…”

  Why the hell was Craig trying to forge a relationship with his ex-girlfriend if he didn’t have feelings for her? It didn’t make sense. “How did you two re-connect?”

  “Online, a social networking site. He sent a friend request, and we just started talking.” Shrugging, she said, “I was curious about what you guys had been up to.” Looking him in the eyes, she said, “I was curious about you, whether you’d married, had kids…” Her voice trailed off.

  “And when you found out I hadn’t, that’s when you decided to come back to Brant?”

  She nodded. “I wasn’t expecting anything. I know it seems silly, but I just wanted to be with you again.”

  “For old time’s sake? Was this your way of trying to put me behind you, or were you trying to start something new?” He held his breath, waiting for her to explain. He didn’t know what he was expecting, or what he hoped she would say.

  “I don’t know what I wanted,” she said, raking her hands through her hair. “I wouldn’t allow myself to dwell on what might happen once you found out it was me.” She shrugged. “Maybe I was hoping that some of the wounds had healed, but I wasn’t expecting too much.”

  “That doctor, Chris, you said you two are just friends?” He tossed the condom box on the floor. “You sure that’s all it is?”

  Her eyes fell to the small plastic packets on the floor and he knew, without waiting for a response, that they were lovers.

  “Goddammit,” he said, reaching for the pants she’d peeled off earlier. “I’ll never learn, will I? And to think, I was almost willing to trust you again.”

  “Dave, wait,” she said, grabbing his wrist. “He and I are just friends. Have we had sex? Yes, a few times, but…”

  He held his hand up. The last thing he wanted right now was a blow by blow of her sexual escapades with other men. “You know what? That guy’s perfect for you. I think you should go for it.”

  Frowning, she pulled the sheet against her chest. “What are you talking about?”

  “He’s educated, sophisticated, well-off…”

  “You know I don’t care about that stuff.”

  Getting dressed without straining his injured hand was a struggle, but he couldn’t out of the house fast enough. “Is that why you were willing to settle for a lowly firefighter? Wouldn’t it have bothered you, marrying beneath you?”

  She stared at him. “I thought you knew me better than that.”

  “Are you kidding? I don’t know you at all. I never did.”

  Chapter Seven

  Dave was going stir-crazy at home since his father, the chief, forced him to take the week off while his hand healed. He said he would be useless with only one hand, and in his line of work, he couldn’t argue. Still, he would give any
thing to have a reason to get out of bed in the morning. He couldn’t seem to find the energy to do anything, go grocery shopping, to the gym, or even prepare a decent meal. Instead, he sat in front of the TV, trying to block out reality while immersing himself in mindless primetime dramas.

  Six days into his semi-self-imposed exile, he finally picked up the phone to reconnect with the outside world. He’d called the operator for the number earlier in the week, but he hadn’t found the nerve to use it until now. After dialing the digits, he waited for the phone to ring. Since it was Sunday, he wasn’t expecting him to answer the phone in his office. He thought he could just leave a message and claim he’d made the effort to touch base.

  “Caledon Veterinary Clinic, Dr. Monroe speaking.”

  Dave paused, unsure how to respond. “Uh, Jack. This is Dave… Briar.” He waited, hoping his old friend would fill the awkward silence. This was worse than calling one of his booty calls in a drunken stupor at 3 a.m.

  “Oh my God, Dave Briar? How the hell are you, buddy?”

  Just like that, the anxiety melted away and they were just two old friends catching up. “I’m good. I wasn’t expecting to catch you at the office today.”

  “I performed surgery on a Collie with a blockage yesterday. I just popped in to make sure she was doing okay. Man, I’m glad I did. It’s great to hear from you.”

  “Yeah, it’s good to hear your voice, Jack. It’s been too long.” Jack, Dave, and Craig had been the best of friends all through high school. Jack traveled his own path in the years that followed, but Dave always thought of catching up with him, and now he had the motive.

  “Hey, what are you doing right now?” Jack asked.

  Dave looked down at his ratty sweats and stained tank top. “Uh, not much. Why?”

  “My wife and kids are visiting her parents today. I was just gonna go home and catch the game on the tube. Why don’t we get together for a drink? I sure would love to catch up.”

  Reconnecting with an old friend, especially one with the insight to help him put his life back in perspective, was exactly what he needed right now. “That sounds great. How ‘bout Casey’s in an hour?” It was a sports bar located in the small town between them. That would give him forty minutes to get his ass off the couch, shower, and another twenty minutes to make the drive.

  “Sounds great. Hey, I’m glad you called, man.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  Dave got ready and drove the short distance to their meeting place on auto-pilot. His mind was racing, trying to decide how to approach the subject of Maya with her brother. He didn’t want Jack to think that was the only reason he’d reached out to him, but he couldn’t walk away from this meeting without any insight into where her head might be now.

  He’d thought of Maya and little else since he left her house. He knew he over-reacted to the news that she slept with the doctor, in spite of the fact that she claimed they were just friends. He could say the same about half a dozen women he’d slept with in recent years. They were just friends, with benefits. He didn’t have any claim on Maya, hadn’t in a long time, but that didn’t stop him from being jealous and possessive when he thought about her sleeping with someone else. Some habits die hard.

  Dave spotted his old friend right away; the years were good to him. From a distance, he looked the same as he remembered. After getting out of his truck, Dave grinned when Jack started closing the distance between them.

  Jack laughed, perching his sunglasses atop his head when he saw him. “What’d you do, make a deal with the devil, boy?”

  Dave chuckled, reaching out to pull him into a half hug. “What’re you talkin’ about?”

  Jack elbowed him in the ribs as they walked toward the entrance. “I expected you to have a paunch by now. No one liked to throw ‘em back as much as you did back in the day.”

  Dave liked his beer back then, still did, but now he enjoyed it in moderation. For a brief period after the incident with Craig and Maya, he feared he was developing a problem with alcohol, so he quit cold turkey for a few months, just to prove to himself he could still control some things in his life. “I still like to knock a few back once in a while,” Dave said, holding the door open. “But I usually stop at that. I’m too damn old to be waking up with a hangover, ya know?”

  Jack chuckled. “With age comes wisdom, my friend.”

  If only that were true. Dave felt like he was still making the same stupid mistakes he made ten years ago. Sliding into a vacant booth, Dave asked, “So, you’re a vet now, huh?”

  “Yeah, how’d you know that?” Jack asked, claiming the bench seat across from him. “You run into one of the old gang?”

  So Maya had kept their night together under wraps. He couldn’t say he was surprised. He decided to dive in and take the opening Jack offered. “As a matter of fact, your sister came to Brant last week. She’s the one who told me what you’d been up to.”

  “No shit,” Jack said, smiling at the pretty young waitress approaching the table. “You still drink Bud, man?”

  “Yeah, sounds good,” Dave said, remembering how many kegs of beer they’d demolished together over the years. Damn, seeing his old friend again was good. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed him until now.

  Jack waited until the waitress left before leaning forward and asking, “So, what the hell was my little sister doing back in Brant County?”

  “She came to the charity auction.”

  Jack laughed, sliding his cell phone across the table. “You mean that bachelor auction?”

  “That’s the one.” He knew his old friend would tease him mercilessly if he found out he was on the auction block. “We hooked up afterwards and…”

  Jack held his hand up. “Hold up a minute. Define ‘hooked up.’”

  Shit. Jack was always over-protective of his little sister. Since Dave knew it was too late for damage control, he decided to bite the bullet and come clean. “We, uh…”

  Shaking his head, he said, “You slept with her, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah.” Sighing, Dave asked, “So, you pissed at me, or what?” Back in high school, Jack warned him that if he did anything to hurt his sister, they would have a big problem. He assumed he was still willing to make good on that threat.

  He brushed a hand over his cropped auburn hair. “Hell, my sister’s a big girl. She can make her own decisions, but do you really think a one-night stand was smart, given your history?”

  “Who said anything about a one-night stand?” Of course they’d only spent one night together, but he wasn’t willing to believe that was their last.

  Frowning, Jack asked, “Are you saying you two are seeing each other again?”

  “Would that surprise you?” Dave had the uneasy feeling that he was in the dark, again.

  “Uh…” He propped his elbows on the table, covering his hands with his face. “Jesus, I really don’t want to get caught in the middle of this, man.”

  Dave waited until the waitress set their beer bottles on the table between them before asking, “What the hell’s going on, Jack? Obviously, you’re not telling me something.”

  “My sister isn’t the type of girl to date more than one guy at a time…”

  Dave scowled. “She wasn’t above…” He didn’t know if Jack knew what happened to cause their break-up. He didn’t want to be the one to tarnish her brother’s view of her.

  “It’s okay,” he said, sighing. “I know she slept with Craig, and that’s why you two broke up.”

  “She told you?”

  “Yeah, she was pretty miserable for a long time. Finally, I got it out of her.” He looked Dave in the eye. “She made a mistake. I’m not saying what she did was right. I would have felt the same way you did, but you forgave Craig. Why can’t you cut her some slack?”

  Dave had asked himself that question dozens of times over the years. Was he holding her up to an impossibly high standard? “It cut deep. You have no idea what it did to me, walking in on them together
.”

  Jack started peeling the label off his bottle, refusing to look Dave in the eye. “I do know, believe me, I know.”

  “What are you saying?”

  He drew a deep breath. “My wife cheated on me.”

  “Jesus,” Dave said, taking a swig of beer. He didn’t know what to say to that, so he sat in silence, waiting for Jack to fill him in.

  “Yeah, it damn near killed me, but we have two little girls, ya know? I wasn’t going to lose my family because of that prick.”

  Dave considered his friend’s dilemma. He didn’t know how he continued to live under the same roof and share the same bed with the woman who betrayed him. “Was it a one-time deal?”

  “No, it went on for a few months.” He tipped his head back, closing his eyes. “She thought she was in love with him, that’s why she told me.”

  “Shit,” Dave said, gripping his beer bottle. He didn’t know how he would handle hearing that his wife, the love of his life, was in love with another man. “What’d you do?”

  “I asked her to go to counseling with me.”

  “And?”

  “And she agreed.” He opened his eyes, a smile tugging at his lips. “That was a year and a half ago, and our marriage has never been better.”

  “How the hell do you get past something like that? Doesn’t it eat at you?”

  He tipped the beer bottle up to his lips. “Only if you let it. I made the decision to let it go so we could save our marriage. If I chose to dwell on it, I would’ve lost everything that matters to me. It wasn’t worth that. I love her; I love my kids. They’re the only things that matter to me now.”

  Dave considered what he would do if he had so much to lose. “I don’t know if I could let it go that easily.”

  Scowling, Jack asked, “Did I say it was easy? It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I still think about it sometimes, but I don’t punish her because of it anymore. There’s a difference. I’ve forgiven her, but I’m sure I’ll never forget.”

  Dave needed to take a lesson from his friend. It was time for him to forgive Maya for making a mistake. “You’re a smart man, a hell of a lot smarter than I am.”