The Complete Series Boxed Set (16 page)

“John?” Alex choked out.

The flashlight hit Alex’s face and he turned away, like something out of an alien abduction movie.

“Alex! What are you—oh! And Josie!”

She
peered deeper into the dark and realized…

They’d
nearly been caught air fucking by Alex’s stepfather.

If you could actually see a man blush in moonlit darkness, Alex would have glowed right about then. His hands smelled like
Josie
.
He was still wearing the condom on his rapidly deflating erection
. What a day to choose to go commando.

Don’t laugh don’t laugh don’t laugh
,
Josie
chanted inside, using every muscle at
her
disposal to keep
her
face even and neutral. One comment, one joke, one anything and
she
would crack.

Like Darla at the TSA counter,
she
imagined.

“What are you two doing out here this time of night?” John asked, coming closer, an easy grin on his face. Noi, the dog, came up to Alex and began licking his hand eagerly. Alex snatched it back with a confused, horrified, completely helpless look on his face, and rapidly shoved his hands in his gloves.

Only then did he pet the family dog.

“We’re ice skating.”

Alex had lured
Josie
here with that promise, and
they’d
actually had two sets of skates sitting
b
y the ice, which Alex pointed to, like an errant child lining up his evidence to get out of being in trouble.

“Oh, nice! Meribeth doesn’t trust her knees anymore, so I can’t get her to come out on the ice with me these days. Next time you guys decide to do this, please let me know. I’d love to join in!”

Don’t laugh don’t laugh don’t laugh
.

Alex’s eyes were so wide they might compete with the moon for the largest orb in the sky. “Will do, John.”
Josie
bit
her
lips and gave one of those smiles where you just pray you won’t turn into a raving lunatic, and John’s eyebrows twitched just the tiniest bit when he looked at
her
.

“What are you doing out here?”
Josie
managed to ask, trying to look polite.
She
shifted her hip slightly and felt her panties slide down from h
e
r hip to her knee, a large bunch of cloth that had not just torn, apparently, but been shredded into a pile of uselessness now.

A pile that threatened to get caught at her jeans cuff and come peeking out. Kind of hard to hide bright red, satin panties, even in just moonlight. Leaning against Alex on that side gave her some safety, so she looped her arm around his waist and hugged.

Really hard.

“
We’re only a few blocks from home.” He pointed, and then her eyes took in the road. Now Josie realized where we were—about a quarter-mile from Meribeth and John’s place.
 

Damn. Did that mean Alex knew this alcove would be quiet? Had he planned this?

“I thought you walk Noi down at the dog park,” Alex said casually, though Josie knew the real message was for her.
I didn’t mean for this to happen
, he seemed to say.

But if his mom lived nearby, and he knew about this little place, had he…been here before with other women?

Suddenly the moon seemed more a conspirator than a voyeur, and a smoldering began inside her.

Not the good kind, either.

“
You two want to come over for coffee, or something stronger?” John looked at our discarded ice skates. “After you’re done, I mean.”
 

Oh, we’re done.

“Thanks! Um, maybe?” Alex turned to
Josie
, his voice going up like a question.
She
hated when he did this, because it put all the pressure on her. If she said “no,” she looked like an asshole, and she felt like every time she said what she actually wanted, if it wasn’t
the
“right” think
in
g in terms of being with Alex’s
f
amily, that it gave them ammunition against her.

Reality and what she felt were two radically different states, though. Her rational brain knew that Meribeth and John would understand if she turned them down. And right now, she didn’t want to be around anyone.

Not even Alex.

“
I…”
 

Her hesitation seemed to make Alex kick into gear. “I shouldn’t put that on you,” he said, apologizing as if reading her mind. “John, can we just show up if we decide to? We might be too tired after skating.”

Gratitude and fury fought inside her.

She didn’t know which one would win.

“Suit yourself. You know your mom has a standing invitation for you two. If
y
ou don’t come over then it’s just an extra night of wild sex for us.”

J
im
had an odd sense of humor.

Alex blushed again, though he seemed to recover, this role more familiar. “Just don’t do it on the kitchen floor by the back door. Don’t want a repeat of what happened when I brought the soccer team home after practice that one time.” Low chuckles, then a wave from John as he dis
a
ppeared, drag
ging
Noi off
b
y the leash.

A long, audible exhale from Alex, and then he turned to her with amused eyes. “Can you believe that?”

Josie snorted.

“Oh, that snort sound
s
dangerous,” he said, turning away. He reopened his pants,
but
if he thought they going in for round two after that, he was crazy.

Nope. He tied off the condom and found a trashcan nearby. This was a well-known area along a trail, but it fu
e
led her anger that he knew exactly where the trashcans were, right here in the woods.

How about that?

“So, come here often?” she asked him.

He took that as a joke, an invitation to sidle up and snuggle. Her body went stiff with anger.

“Oh,” he said archly, taking a step back and holding his hands above her, as if dealing with something he had to handle gingerly. Which, he did. “You’re upset about something.”

“
Perceptive.” She had been reduced to single words now, the churning cauldron of fucked-up emotions inside her spewing nonsense. Josie knew if she tried to explain why she was upset, she couldn’t be coherent. Hoping that Alex understood that, and would somehow just ride out this mood with her and be gentle and understanding, she went quiet.
 

Josie didn’t
do
quiet. He knew he’d screwed up somehow, but damn if he could figure it out. Coming here had been some sort of mistake, and having John discover them left him reeling. While John had always treated him more like a friend than a father, it was still damn intimidating to have your ste
p
father nearly find you balls deep in your girlfriend in the woods in public.

“You’re upset that I stuck you with answering about his offer to visit after we…” His voice disappeared. After they what? They’d just completed what he’d come here to do. Mission accomplished. His guilty eyes cut over to the ice skates and hope resurged in him.

Maybe he knew exactly what to do next.

“After we…” she repeated in a mocking tone. Uh oh.

“You knew why I brought you here,” he replied, voice as neutral as possible. They had an implicit agreement that outdoor sex and all the thrills and risks that came with it was a joy they both were privy to indulging in. The shock of finding that the other enjoyed the slightly voyeuristic sexual kink had been a revelation. Alex fell for Josie that first time they’d been together, kissing at the hospital while her best friend Laura was giving birth. The improm
p
tu sex by the river a few days later had clinched it.

The rest, as they say, was hist
o
ry, and seven and a half months later, here they were.

Fighting.

He and Josie didn’t, generally speaking, fight. They bickered and argued about sma
l
l details, but the big concepts weren’t an issue. Both fell into a pattern of just living life together, and as the relationship deepened they found, layer by layer, that they were even more compatible than either realized from the start.

It felt like they were somehow getting away with something. And outdoor sex most definitely fell into that category for Alex. A
s
his breath made clouds that floated up to kiss the observing moon, he took deep, piercing breaths to steady himse
l
f. He wanted more. Not just more sex, but more.

However, he didn’t like more
fighting
.
 

“
What about the others?” she asked in a soft, heartbreaking voice. Others?
 

“Others what?”

Josie’s arm swept out from her, extended like an announcer at the circus making a grand gesture. “You knew exactly where to go so we couldn’t be seen. You grew up around here. And the trashcan. Ether you have a strange inborn echolocation system for finding the nearest garbage can every time we have outdoor sex, or you know because you’ve been here before with someone.”

He cleared his throat and drew upon the only response he could think of. “You’re right,” he said in a low voice.

She looked stri
c
ken. It made his chest hurt. “I am?”

“Yes. You’ve discovered my secret. I’m…” He paused for dramatic effect. “Garbage Can Locater After Public Sex Man.” He unzipped his coat and pulled up his shirt. “I forgot to wear my uniform today.”

“
Oh, Christ…”
 

“
Professor
X rejected me for the X-Men school. Didn’t think my powers were sufficiently designed to help mankind. I argued that, in fact, they are uniquely designed to aid mankind! I mean, what better skill would a person want as a superpower?”

“Alex,” Josie said, lips twitching. He was getting to her, and then she punched him in the chest, right at diaphragm level. She practically had to jump to do it, their height difference that vast.

I
t felt like having a plush animal thrown hard at him.

“Ouch,” he said weakly, which made her laugh.

“I know that didn’t hurt.”

“Then why did you do it?”

“Because you’re an idiot.”

“An idiot with unique trashcan-finding abilities.”

“Alex.”

“What?”

“I love you.” Without even looking at him as she said the words, Josie walked over to the ice skates and sat on her ass. She began to shake one leg like a dog, and he frowned, wondering what on earth she was—

And then she pulled a piece of red sil
k
cloth out of her ankle.

“What is that?”

“I just gave birth. Congratulations! You’re a daddy.” She threw the item at him, hitting his cheek. He bent down and picked it up. Her panties. Shredded.

That would have made him laugh, but her words made his heart stop and speed up all at once.

You’re a daddy.

Someday, he wanted to hear those exact words from her as they huddled around a pregnancy test, eager for a positive result. In the not-too-distant future, when his residency was over and he worked reasonably normal hours (though there was no “normal” for an obstetrician, ever on call for babies who didn’t follow schedules), they would talk about marriage and children and…

A family.

Josie slipped her feet into the set of ice skates he’d brought. Thankfully, they were the right size. Frankly, he’d brought them for show, never imagining she would actually want to skate. As she laced them up, she looked out over the pond. God, she was beautiful. Tiny nose, sharp bones in her face, the kind of woman who would age gracefull
y
and even at sixty look like she was forty. Not that he cared. She could look like an ogre’s pet boar for all it mattered.

She was Josie.

And they would have babies.

He walked
to her,
and
plunked down on the ground, and put on his skates, the toes pinching a bit, making his feet feel swollen, but for an hour on the ice he could suffer. His ankles would take a beating, and his old failed ice hockey seasons—all of two, in middle school—gave him enough muscle memory to manage this.

Standing carefully, Jo
sie
balanced well and impressed him as she glided on the ice, taking care. Her ankles wobbled and she caught the toe of one ice skate on a bump in the very uneven ice, but soon was skating with decent control. Not circles or triple axles, but she could move with a level of grace that surprised him.

She could always surprise him.

His turn. Being well over six feet, close to seven, meant his center of gravity was far different than hers.
BAM!
His ass cracked hard against the ice, the moon laughing at him as he looked up.

The
snick snick snick
of Josie’s skates on the ice told him she was coming to his rescue. Or something like that. Her pe
t
ite form couldn’t possibly pull him up w
i
thout the two of them wrecking each other in a painful pileup.

“You need to talk to
Professor
X again,” she said, her face over his now, grinning. The moon spilled light over the back of her body, framing it like an aura.

“Why?”

“That superpower of yours needs to include better ankles.”

He slipped and slid, finally giving up and turning over onto all fours, ass in the air as Josie dissolved into giggles. Aching move by aching move, he toed his skates and pulled up to standing. He felt like a toddler wrapped in bubble wrap, trying to run.

Those two failed seasons
o
f ice hockey came back to him. They had been a failure precisely because of this.

He couldn’t skate
w
orth a damn.

At indoor ice rinks he could cling to the wall for help, but out on the open ice his only option was Josie, and he’d snap her like a twig if he used her to balance on.