[Dawn]I nod but don’t say anything. Aldo nods but doesn’t say anything. Suddenly everything I was thinking this morning, silly games of ‘are we together’ or ‘are we not’, seems just exactly that. Silly. I feel comfortable being in the cab with Aldo. He’s big and muscular. No one wants to mess with guys who are big and muscly. Even other muscly guys, I’m guessing, don’t like messing with other muscly guys. I don’t even want to imagine what it’d be like to get punched by one of these men. Let alone fight them. The two in the car didn’t look as big as Aldo, but they were driving past at sixty miles an hour…We’re cruising along the highway by the time I come back. And I’ve had a change of heart. Five minutes ago, I believed in thinking that what I was thinking this morning was silly, but current me doesn't think so. I’ve calmed down from our pull over experiment and want to know what Aldo thinks of us. It’s fantastic timing, I know, but I feel like we should discuss it…If not the kiss
[Aldo]“I think it’s about time we got lunch, right?”Dawn looks at me like I’m in trouble. Like it was my fault to bring up all the history with her brother. I suppose I am in a way, but I didn’t mean to. I didn’t even get to tell her about the text I received from him. About his first days with Luca. I almost crack up from the thought, but if I did that, then surely I’d be in even more trouble.Dawn just grunts at my offer of food.“C’mon. The roadhouse is just a mile away. I saw the sign for it before; Let’s get some pancakes.”“We’re stopping for lunch,” Dawn says, arms still folded. “Pancakes aren’t lunch.”“You’ve never had pancakes for lunch? Let me change that.”She twists her lips, stares out at the passing highway, then finally smiles.I grin back, knowing I’ve chipped a little bit of armor away.The mile passes quickly, and soon we’re pulling up to the enormous roadhouse area. There’s a car park full to the brim, a gas station with a few cars lined up at the pumps, and peo
[Aldo]I remember when my parents and I moving into the neighborhood when we were kids. My dad had always dreamed of moving, giving up the whole wise guy lifestyle and all.She must’ve been about five or six? Which meant that Andre was eight. I remember him from school first. At first, we kept a distance between us as we walked home to the same area. Then one day we were both buying comics at the little corner store. We became friends walking home everyday after school from that point on. Always at the end was Andre’s younger sister, home from school earlier than us, watching us through the screen door and playing with her toys. Or eating glue, as I liked to tease.Now? Now she wasn’t the girl who ate glue. Maybe that’s why it’s been such a weird and confusing time for me. My own memories and ideas of our lives were guiding me, not what the truth was now.“Should we get back on the road?” Dawn asks.“Yeah, I’d say so. We’ve still got to make time—” I almost choke out the last bit o
[Aldo]By the time we pull into the motel that night, we’ve had many hundreds of miles roll by under our tires. We’re in Virginia, having crossed all of North Carolina in one day, I am fucking exhausted from driving and being on edge.I still haven’t told Dawn about the note.Or the men.Or the fact that I did all that because of how I felt about her.Then I curse Andre again. Why the hell hasn’t he picked up all day?Dawn’s in our room having a shower while I check on the van, and I use it as an excuse to call Andre. He has not answered or replied to any of my texts. Not that I’ve outright asked him what business he’s been up to with the Russians, but he’s never been so slow to reply to anything. My paranoia over the last few days has put me over the edge.And for some reason I keep not telling Dawn. Why? What would it solve? I’d just be lumping the worry onto her, and she’s had enough of her brother. Am I using that as an excuse to not anger her again? Around and around in circl
[Aldo]Where’s Dawn? The van? Are the men here? But it’s none of that. Dawn is standing over me, grinning, a wicked sparkle in her eye. She’s just locked my hands to the bed. “I understand that today was a tiring day for you. And the one before.” Her voice is low, husky, dripping with mischief. She moves around me, her finger trailing along my body, slow and deliberate. That finger traces down my t-shirt, grazing my abs before sliding over the waistband of my jeans. She gets to the end of the bed and pulls off my boots with an almost teasing slowness, like she’s savoring every second of control she has over me. Then, just as leisurely, she lets her finger travel back up the other side of my body. “And since our first night together, the urge has only gotten stronger between us. Even if you’ve been naughty since.” My breath hitches as her touch sends a shiver down my spine. My mind is spinning, still slightly on edge, unsure if I’m being attacked or seduced. But my dick? He
[Aldo]Then her mouth is on me, hot and wet, her tongue swirling around the head in slow, torturous circles. Her hand strokes my shaft while she sucks, her other hand cupping my balls and rolling them gently. “Fuck, Dawn,” I groan, my head pressing back against the headboard. She releases me with a pop, her lips slick and shiny. “Not yet, Aldo,” she whispers, her voice like honeyed sin. She climbs onto the bed, straddling me. Her heat is so close, I can feel it. She lines herself up and sinks down onto me in one slow, deliberate motion. “Holy shit,” I groan, my hips bucking involuntarily. Dawn moans, her nails digging into my shoulders as she begins to move, grinding her hips in slow, circular motions that have me biting my lip to keep from losing it. “You like that?” she asks, her voice low and breathy. “You know I do,” I growl. She smirks, leaning down to bite my lip again. “Then be a good boy and don’t come until I say.” And Cristo, I don’t know if I can, not with
[Dawn]In the longest road trip I’ve taken since I was a kid, I feel like I’ve barely said half as much as I did back then. The silence between us is almost suffocating, heavy like the humidity of a storm that refuses to break.After our night of sex, Aldo is still paranoid and awkward on the road. Even after we talked to his parents and Luca. It’s like every time we get in the car, he transforms into someone else—someone distant, locked inside his head. I’ve tried everything: talking, not talking, even sharing pieces of myself I’d kept buried for years. But nothing sticks.The rumble of the engine vibrates through the floor, filling the space between us. Outside, the highway stretches endlessly, a ribbon of gray under a pale, washed-out sky. The monotony of the road mirrors the emptiness I feel when I glance at Aldo, his profile hard and unreadable.I know he’s not telling me something, and it eats at me. The tension coils in my chest like a spring, tightening with every mile.For
[Dawn]Aldo is searching his mind for the correct response. He can see my neck bulging and my temple flashing with a pulsing vein. My anger is a live wire, crackling through the confined space of the car. I’ve gone from zero to one hundred over my damn brother, and my frustration is practically vibrating off me.That’s when the car horn blares.And another.A car veers sharply into our lane.Aldo slams on the brakes, and the force yanks me forward in my seat. The seatbelt digs into my chest as I instinctively grab at the dash, my fingers clawing for stability. My heart rockets into my throat.Then Aldo swerves hard left, the tires screeching against the asphalt as the van swings violently to the side. I see it clearly now—them.It’s the men from the car!The Russians Aldo’s been paranoid about. They’re grinning, laughing like this is all a game to them. My stomach twists in a cold knot as they swing back across, aiming straight for us again.“Shit,” Aldo spits, his voice tight with fu
AIDANThe girls spent the afternoon sightseeing and shopping but came back by the evening as promised because I’d told them I would treat them to dinner to celebrate Lila’s new internship. I was proud of my daughter for her accomplishments. The law firm she would be interning for was a prestigious one, and it would definitely beef up her resume. As much as I wanted to celebrate this milestone with her, I was also hoping to calm the waters with Clio.After they left, I paced in my room, realizing that I had come on pretty strong. I didn’t want Clio to feel like she was trapped here with me. That was the last thing I wanted actually.Mentally, I scrolled back through the last couple of years. Lila and I spoke on the phone several times a week. I’d heard about her friend Clio countless times. Lila had described her as shy but funny and insanely talented (her words). She’d also told me before she drove down to Malibu that her friend would be coming with her because she’d had a really shit
CLIO“You know that internship that I applied for? That one right here in Malibu?” she asked. I remembered which one she was talking about. Lila had applied to a couple of internships at a couple of law offices, one back home and one in Malibu. She’d gotten the one back home but was denied the one in Malibu, and when that happened, she decided to just take the summer off and hang out at the beach house. “The office called and left me a message yesterday and said that the intern they’d selected changed his mind at the last second. They wanted to know if I would still be interested. Well, of course I called them right back, but I could never get a hold of anyone, so we’ve been playing phone tag, but that was them. I got it!”“That’s amazing, sweetheart!” Aidan said, sweeping his daughter into a bear hug.“That is awesome, Rea, congratulations!” I told her.She moved partially out of her dad’s embrace and beckoned me over. “Get over here, girl, this is a group hug moment.” Really? I th
CLIOWhen I’d returned to the beach house just a short time before, I’d been on cloud nine. I hadn’t been planning on giving Lila every nitty gritty detail of what happened on the beach that morning between me and a gorgeous, mysterious, older man. But I had been excited to share how I’d tried something new, and I’d been assertive about what I wanted and the universe had rewarded me with a kind, hot man and the first orgasm I hadn’t given to myself.Lila had returned with bags of food bursting at the seams with some of her own good news. Looking at one another, each of us could tell that what we had to share would take a while, so we decided to hold off so I could go clean up and change out of my wet clothes and she could get lunch set up.I’d taken a little longer in the shower than I’d planned. Once the warm water streamed down my body, I found all the sensitive places that Aidan had touched waking up again. It was almost like no one had ever touched me before him, and while it was
AIDAN “You’ve got to have one first in order for me to worry about it,” she huffed with a raised eyebrow, then her face fell. I could practically see the question written all over her face before she asked it. “Dad, you’re not still hung up on Mom, are you?”I barked out a laugh, unable to help my response at the ridiculous idea. “What? No,” I said firmly. The idea was truly laughable. For one thing, Renee and I had truly burned every bridge when we split. The only remaining tie we’d had was Lila, and that tie was severed the second Lila graduated high school. For another, it had been twelve years since our separation, and it felt like a lifetime ago.“I didn’t really think so,” Lila responded. “I just want to make sure. I know you made sure to keep that stuff away from me when I was growing up, but Dad, I’m a grown woman. I am more than capable of the idea of my dad being in a relationship.” At that moment, an image of Clio popped into my head. God, I had to be rusty. I’d spent an
AIDANI emerged from the water for the umpteenth time, glancing at the shoreline. Once Clio left, I’d gone back into the water, trying desperately to work off my frustration, but I couldn’t keep my mind off her.I’d decided to head down to Malibu a couple of days early. I didn’t think Lila would mind, and I couldn’t face another day in the office listening to entitled rich people whine about their issues.When I arrived, Lila’s things were spread out, but she was nowhere to be found. I figured she and her girlfriend were out, so I decided to take a walk and go for a swim. The morning and the water were too beautiful to pass up.The sand immediately began to relax me. Then I spotted her: a beautiful young woman with generous curves standing in the water. She wasn’t used to the ocean, but she seemed determined to gain her sea legs. I walked along the beach, watching her surreptitiously. It might’ve been a little creepy, but I couldn’t help myself. From where I was, she faced away from m
CLIOI’d never been told anything like that before and certainly not by a gorgeous man plucking at my nipple through my bikini top while I writhed beneath him. I grabbed his face in my hands and kissed him again, if only to distract myself into calming down, though it quickly became evident that calming down was not going to be a possibility. Remembering my goal of being more assertive, I gave in and let my hands roam over Aidan’s body. I ran my hands over his broad shoulders and down his chest and abdominal muscles that flexed beneath my fingers. I could feel his desire pressed against my thigh, but I didn’t let my fingers go there just yet, instead letting them dance at the waistband of his trunks.He stilled then and gently moved my hands away from his waistband and pinned them on either side of my head. “Not yet, Clio. Not before I make you come.” His voice was husky, and the words he’d uttered made me feel like I was on fire. “Tell me you want that,” he said, and I was delighted
CLIO“You mean other than saving a beautiful woman from the current?” He smiled, and I felt my blush all the way down to my toes. He chuckled softly at my reaction and continued, “I found myself suffering from work burnout and decided I needed to get away for a while, recalibrate. You?”“Same. I mean, not from work or anything. Maybe I’m just burned out on life? It’s just been a really hard few months, and I’m looking to work on myself—recalibrate like you said,” I told him.“And what is it that you’re trying to work on exactly?” he asked, looking a little skeptical but still good-natured.“I’m working on being more assertive, of taking charge of my life…not worrying about what other people think and doing more things that scare me,” I told him, surprised at how easily I opened up to this man.“Is that what the swimming was about? Doing something that scared you?” he asked, floating closer toward me.“Yeah. I don’t want to miss out on opportunities just because of fear,” I said.“Are
CLIOI sat in the sand, heaving in breaths, as the man squatting beside me rubbed soothing circles on the small of my back. I pushed my wet mop of hair out of my face and finally looked into possibly the most beautiful set of eyes I’d ever seen. I didn’t think I had ever seen eyes that color before. They were slate gray and kind as he stared down at me. “There you are,” he said softly. “You’re okay, just take it easy.” He was still rubbing circles on my skin when I managed to clear my airways enough to respond.“I-I-I don’t know what happened,” I stuttered out.“I saw you go into the water, and when you didn’t come back out, I figured something was wrong. First time in the ocean?” he asked in a silky voice. I couldn’t decide if it was the sound of his voice or shock making my flesh break out with goosebumps.“Yes,” I admitted, “and apparently my last.” I shot him a sheepish smile. I met his eyes but quickly tore them away, feeling my face burn with embarrassment.“Don’t say that,”
CLIOLila had not been exaggerating when she described the paradise that was her father’s beach house in Malibu. While I understood that where we lived in Northern California was beautiful in its own right, we spent most of our time there in classrooms and at work. Here, the white, sandy beaches stretched for miles, the vast, blue water sparkled before us, and best of all, we didn’t know a soul there. It was heaven.On the drive down to Malibu, I’d spilled my guts about the whole incident that led to me agreeing to come with Lila. She shook her head in disgust after my story was over. “I know you cared about him, but Michael really is a rat bastard. Honestly, I think you should start looking at this as a bullet dodged instead of a heartbreak.”“I know.” I sighed. “I just want to start over and get away from the old Clio.”“Hey, I happen to love the ‘old Clio’ as you call her. But I’ll support you in whatever way you wish to reinvent yourself. You want to start wearing dark eyeliner