Finding Home (23 page)

He thrust into her with a long, drawn-out moan, and she focused all her efforts on satisfying him, following his lead and taking in as much of him as she could. She sped up until Sean was fucking her mouth and she was almost breathless. Taking him even deeper into her throat, she felt him shudder and explode with a cry and swallowed every last burst.

When he was spent, Megan crawled back up his body. Her jaw was slightly sore but she was elated, and immensely gratified by his orgasm. She was desperately wet and in need of her own release, but she was ready to ignore it. This had been her gift to Sean, the physical expression of her apology to him.

He’d evidently enjoyed it. He relaxed against the pillows and lay with eyes half-closed, breathing shallowly.

Megan heard his heart beating wildly in his chest as she stretched over him and brought her face within a few inches of his. “Well,” she said softly, “feeling better?”

“Fuck, yes. You’re amazing, Meg. Just…amazing.”
“Am I forgiven?”

Sean nodded. “Can’t refuse you anything. Too good.” His arms wrapped around her.

Megan smiled and cuddled against his warm chest. She could almost fall asleep now, if she ignored the itch between her legs. His breathing slowed and deepened and she wondered whether he’d drop off immediately.

After a few minutes, though, Sean began stroke her back, progressively getting lower, until he cupped her ass, his fingers reaching round her buttocks toward her wet sex.

“You don’t have to…”
“Shhh.”
“I didn’t expect—”
“Yeah, well I did.” He suddenly pulled her up, rolled them both onto their sides and moved his hand to her crotch, probing, stroking and pushing.

Megan’s body was already so wet and ready for him she was incredibly close to orgasm. She moaned, her breath coming out in little gasps, and rode his fingers until she peaked and came violently, shaking in his arms.

“Oh, Christ,” she said weakly, as the throbbing slowly subsided. Sean chuckled and hugged her tighter. “Did you really think I’d let you go to sleep without that?” he murmured, kissing her collarbone and her neck, slow, tender kisses that made her body tingle.

Megan shook her head and snuggled into his arms, feeling warm, relaxed and finally rid of the irritation that had plagued her since Charlotte turned up. In minutes she was asleep.

After Charlotte and Greg’s visit, Megan knew she couldn’t put off explaining Sean to her mom and asking if she could bring him home at Christmas. With Charlotte’s big mouth, there would be no hiding the facts about Sean. So she called, prepared to face an inquisition, but her mom surprised her by abstaining from the litany of warnings her friends and sister had already delivered.

“Certainly. Bring your friend along. I look forward to meeting him.” Megan was so surprised by the lack of opposition that she launched into her counter-argument anyway. “You’ll see. Sean’s a nice guy despite his background. He’s not dangerous or a freeloader or anything. He just needs a place to stay while he gets himself figured out.”

“All right. I believe you.”

They chatted several more minutes about work and various relatives and the employee problems Megan’s dad was dealing with at his hardware store. Then Megan hung up, unable to believe her mom was going to let it drop that easily. There’d probably be more discussion when she got home.

ZY

Two weeks later, as Megan packed a last pair of socks into her suitcase, a strong arm snaked around her waist and pulled her against a warm, hard body.

She smiled and reached over her shoulder to cup Sean’s jaw.

He kissed the palm of her hand, then nuzzled the side of her neck. “You about ready?” she asked.
“Almost. There’s one last thing I need to take care of.” He reached a hand down to her crotch and rubbed it through the stiff fabric of her jeans. “These have to go.” He unfastened the button and zipper, sliding his hand inside the fly.

She pushed into his circling finger on her clit and turned her face to kiss him over her shoulder.

He inclined his head and covered her lips with his. Sean’s kisses always began soft and searching, as if tasting her to see what she was made of and discovering her anew every time they kissed.

After several moments, he took his hand from inside her pants and turned her around to face him. They kissed desperately, like lovers who’d only recently rediscovered each other after a long absence. Megan pushed her hands into his thick hair and cupped his neck and the back of his head. She stood on tiptoe leaning into him, angling her mouth and latching onto his fiercely.

Sean broke away from the kiss, stooped to slip his arm around the back of her knees and swept her off her feet. He carried her to the bed, dumping her unceremoniously on it, then pushed her suitcase to the floor.

Megan struggled out of her clothes and cast them aside.

Sean stripped off his clothes, crawling onto the bed until he was suspended above her, looking down with dark, lust-filled eyes. He stayed that way for several seconds, just watching her. His biceps were corded with the strain of supporting his weight.

The sight of the straining muscles made Megan’s heart flutter in her throat. She squeezed her vaginal muscles tight, trying to relieve the empty ache in her pussy.

Slowly Sean lowered himself until he covered her body, his heaviness pressing her down, making her feel delicate and small. His lips settled warmly over hers once more.

Sean reached between them, dipping his finger in the wetness from her body and smearing it up and down her seam. He teased her clit until she moaned and writhed beneath him then guided his erection to her opening.

“I love making love to you.” His whisper was as soft as feathers tickling her ear.

Megan smiled and her body melted and molded to his even more. She felt pliant and boneless as she wrapped her arms and legs around Sean and held him close.

He moved within her, slow, steady strokes that sent pulses of delight through her. His pace was measured and even but unrelenting.

Megan lifted her hips to meet his thrusts, her eyes half-closed in pleasure. Wave after wave of desire coursed through her, building higher and higher until they crashed in a powerful orgasm. She caught her breath and froze as sparkles of ecstasy shimmered through her.

Sean moved faster then, bringing himself to a swift climax. He pressed his face to her shoulder and groaned low, as he shuddered against her. When he was finished, Sean rolled off her and lay on his back breathing heavily, one arm stretched above his head.

Megan turned on her side to face him and trailed a hand up his sweaty stomach and chest. The muscles of his torso twitched under her touch and she tickled her hand up his side.

He brought his arm down to grab her wrist and hold her hand tight against his chest to stop the tickling.

She smiled contentedly and concentrated on the steady thump of his heartbeat under her hand. They should lie like this forever, she thought. Megan eyes drifted closed. “We should get going,” she said.

“Just another minute.” His voice was husky and half asleep.
“Okay,” she murmured. “One more minute.”

Within seconds they were both asleep.

Megan woke spooned in Sean’s embrace with the weight of his arm draped over her. She cuddled back into him, then her eyes flew open and she looked at the bedside clock. It was four-thirty.

“Shit!” She sat up. “Shit! Shit! Shit! Wake up!” She cast his arm off her, rolled out of bed and scrambled for her clothes. “We’re late. There’s no way we can make dinner now.”

“Then what’s your hurry?” Sean stretched and blinked sleepily up at her. “Call and say we’ll be late.”

“I guess I’ll have to.” Megan frowned. He didn’t understand she was perpetually running late and it was what her family expected from her. She didn’t like living down to their long held belief that she was a procrastinator and scatterbrain. Maybe she used to be, but she’d grown up since then. She was rarely late anymore, seldom forgot her possessions or left them lying around and never turned in a work assignment past deadline, but her parents and Charlotte didn’t seem to realize she’d changed. Being late for this family dinner would be another nail in her proverbial coffin of shame.

Sitting on the edge of the bed to make the call, Megan was aware of Sean behind her, getting up and dressed. She wondered if he’d even packed yet. It was clear he wasn’t in any rush to take this trip to her parents’ home. Maybe she should have begged off and celebrated Christmas here in her apartment with him. Maybe meeting the family was going to be too intimidating for him.

On the three hour ride to her parents’ home, Sean was silent.

Megan babbled a stream of family stories and small town anecdotes, trying to set him at ease and give him an idea of the people he was about to meet. “…then Charlotte screamed and came running out of her bedroom with her Diamond Dewdrop Barbie in one hand. Chris and I cracked up. We knew she was going to kill both of us, but it was so damn funny.”

Megan smiled, remembering Barbie, shorn of her beautiful waist-length hair and embellished with inked-on tattoos and eyeliner. Chris had even tried to put red streaks in her punk hair with food coloring, but that hadn’t worked too well and ended up bleeding onto her face so her forehead was bright red.

“What did your mom do?” For the first time since they’d gotten into the car, Sean turned from staring out the window and looked at her.

“She got mad, of course. First she had to stop Charlotte from smacking us and send her to her room to cool down. Then she sat Chris and me down and gave us a long speech about respecting other people’s things and told us we’d have to save our allowances to buy Charlotte a new Barbie, then she grounded us a while for good measure.” Megan laughed. “But it was worth it. Poor Charlotte. We gave her a hell of a time over the years. Like when she was getting ready for her eighth grade winter formal and Chris super-glued her dress shoes to the floor of her closet, or the time I told Dan Pratley she had a crush on him. We were evil.”

“Why?” Sean sounded genuinely curious.

Megan thought about it. “Because we could be, I guess. She made herself a target, she was so easy to upset. And she was so bossy all the time, she deserved it.”

“Maybe she was bossy because you were mean to her.”
“That’s what my mom always said.”
“How about your dad?” Sean continued to watch her. “What’s he like?”

“Well, he’s just…Dad. He was there at the end of the day and he supported whatever decisions Mom made about disciplining us, but he was kind of clueless. My mom ran the house.” Megan thought about her easygoing father and tried to recall a special story about him.

“Dad loves fishing and sometimes, when I was little, he took me. It was pretty boring out on the river, but I did love spending time with just him and me.” She considered those long, hot summer afternoons and how it was the only time she really talked at length with her dad. She’d never thought about it before, but realized now it was his way of keeping in touch with what was going on in her life. She wished she hadn’t been so rude when she reached high school and turned down his offers of fishing trips. It had obviously meant a lot to him, but she hadn’t seen it back then.

“Fishing. That must have been nice.” Sean turned back to the window.

She looked over at his profile against the darkness and realized he’d probably never had a father figure to take him fishing or play ball or teach him to do guy stuff. It made Megan feel even worse for taking her own father for granted. She should really call home more often.

“Your family sounds…nice,” Sean said suddenly. “Normal. Like a TV family.”

“Yeah.” Megan didn’t know what else to say. When your template for a “normal” family came from television, it wasn’t a good sign. She had a lump in her throat as she pictured what Sean must have endured living with a crack addict mother and a revolving door of her abusive boyfriends. He’d told her little about his past, but the few details he occasionally shared echoed stories she’d heard again and again during her interviews with the street kids.

When they finally pulled into her parents’ driveway, Megan parked her Saturn behind Charlotte and Greg’s Lexus. The engine made the rattling sound it always did as it cooled. Megan wondered if it was something she needed to have looked at.

She watched Sean take in her childhood home and wondered what he thought of it. The two-storey farmhouse glowed white even in the dim light. The porch light was on, the eves were strung with multicolored lights and an electric candle burned in every window. For a moment, Megan forgot how nervous she was about this visit and simply remembered how much she loved Christmas. The house looked like the holidays. It looked like home, and it’d been way too long since she’d last visited.

Megan opened her car door at the same time the front door of the house opened. Mom was silhouetted in the rectangle of light. Buttons bounded out barking wildly, followed more slowly by Grover. Megan got out of the car and Buttons, a hyper brown and white dog of uncertain heritage but predominantly beagle, jumped up on her. She pushed the dog’s paws off her coat, annoyed to see muddy prints. “Down, Buttons. Bad girl!”

Buttons gave her a happy, doggy grin with her tongue lolling then raced around the car to greet Sean.

“That’s my mom’s new dog. Charlotte and Greg decided she needed a puppy to help with her empty nest syndrome, so they gave her Buttons last Christmas. She’s so spoiled. Mom’s not training her well at all.”

“I heard that,” her mom called from the front porch.
“And this,” Megan knelt on the ground and wrapped her arms around Grover’s big neck, “Is the real family dog. This is my good boy, Grover.” She let the ancient Golden Retriever lick her face, then glanced at Sean.

He was bent over, scratching twitchy Buttons behind the ears and almost smiling. It was the least tense he’d looked the whole drive, and suddenly Megan didn’t despise Buttons after all.

“Come in. It’s freezing out here!” Her mom beckoned them forward. Megan gave her mother a big hug, then pulled back to look at her. It had been months since her parents’ last visit to L.A. and she noted new wrinkles fanning out from the corners of her mom’s eyes. She really was getting older.