The Neighbor (The Neighbor #1) (7 page)

Ryder collapsed on the couch next to me. It was
obvious that we were the first to use the furniture. The sticker
was still attached
to the armrest. It was gray with random
prints. I was happy that the place
was not decorated
in a golf motif. He saved that for the bedroom. I noticed his decorators touch
but I was not preoccupied with it. He dimmed the lights with his phone. That
damn thing did everything except wipe his ass. For all I knew, it probably did.

I could sense the energy between us charging.

Ryder’s finger was on the button about to press
play. Instead, he dropped the phone and put his sinewy arm around my waist. I
read Cosmo like every other American woman. We were all supposed to have an
erogenous zone. Mine was wherever his hand moved. He pulled me close. Our eyes
met as if there was some imaginary tether between us. His breath was sweet as
the first time it hit my neck at the driving range. Ryder inhaled
like
he was preparing to take a leap. Tentative, he pulled
back for a moment. I could sense that he wanted to kiss me but he was unsure
how I would react.

I understood his hesitation. He knew I was much
younger than he was. Didn’t he know that I was a willing participant? I had a
few sexual partners in previous years. I had settled in a nice routine of
having sex with Max but we ended as friends as he left for college. It had been
some time since I enjoyed the touch of a guy.
Never the touch
of a man.
I was ready. It felt like Ryder was the man I had been waiting
for. He felt safe and the attraction was undeniable.

Our lips finally met. We began kissing rapidly and
hard. His hand slipped beneath my blue tank top and settled on my belly.

“Are you okay Jenna?” Ryder asked against my lips
and I nodded. “Come with me.”

Ryder and I rose from the couch. He pulled my tank
top off and threw it on the floor. I stood in my white satin bra. The alcohol
had taken effect on us both. Inhibitions were gone as he pushed me in the
direction of his room. We didn’t stop kissing and neither of us wanted to. We
weaved in and out of the boxes of his unpacked belongings. He was pushing me
with his body as he pulled me closer. He had a firm grasp on my belt, which he
used to guide me.

He pulled my head back with a firm grip on my hair
and looked in my eyes. He seemed to be asking if I was all right with what was
happening as if either of us could stop. I was indeed okay with what was
happening. I had wanted him ever since he wrapped his body around me to teach
me how to swing a golf club.

We fell to his bed. We moved to the hum of the
ceiling fan above. It provided
a lovers
melody. He
reclined as I mounted him and felt his dick bulging through his jeans. I grabbed
beneath his pants pulling them to his knees along with his boxers, revealing
his hard cock. It appeared ready to blow.

He grabbed my breast and kissed as much of it as my
bra would allow while he massaged the other. I felt confidence and lust rise
inside of me. I took control. I removed his pants one leg at a time. I was
moving slowly and deliberately never taking my eyes off his. I placed his hands
behind his head and he clasped his fingers. He lay motionless except for his
throbbing erect cock.

I slipped off the bed. He turned his head to see me
as I slowly undressed. I threw my bra and panties in a pile next to me. I felt
my body as I caressed my breasts and glided my fingers through the lips of my
pussy.

It was his turn to feel my fingers.

I gently but firmly grabbed his dick and started
rubbing. He looked as if his loss of control was imminent. I sealed my lips
around his penis and started to suck. I slowed and started fondling his balls.
I kissed down the length of him before sucking in my mouth each ball. His body
quivered so I made my way back to the bulging head of his cock, knowing he was
about to come. I sucked on just the head while stroking his shaft as fast as I
possibly could.

He started to cry like a wild animal. He pulled out
of my mouth and released all over my body. It was warm, smooth and sticky. He
pulled me by the back of the neck and our lips connected once again. We kissed
slowly to allow our tongues to explore each other’s. We became tangled. My legs
formed a vice grip around his torso. It seemed as if it was the start of a long
night.

Unexpectedly, Ryder pulled away and said, “I’m not
feeling well. How about we just go to sleep?”

What man turns down sex?

“I am fine as long as I can remain next to you.
Feeling you,” I responded even though disappointed.

He smiled and said, “Good night Jenna and thank
you.”

“No one has ever thanked me for oral sex before,” I
said and Ryder laughed.

“I mean – of course for that but mostly for just
being here with me.”

I lay next to him and rested my head on his chest.
He didn’t seem sick but I wasn’t in the mood to question him. I slowly closed
my eyes listening to his heartbeat.

I didn’t know if Ryder or I fell asleep first. I was
sure of one thing though. It was the most erotic night I had without
getting fucked
.

Chapter
Eight

I woke up the next morning in a pool of sweat mixed
with his scent from the night before. I had to unwrap myself from Ryder’s tight
squeeze. He was still sleeping soundly. He was breathing with a soft rattle. It
was a soothing sound and I nearly snuggled back in beside him. I resisted the
temptation.

I heard my mother’s beagle Potato barking. It was a
hideous name for a hideous dog. She called him Potato because it was the last
solid food my father ever ate. Shortly after my dad died, she had a dream in
which my father sent her to the pound to get a dog. A very odd story, but it
was befitting for a very odd mother.

I turned over and pulled up the crumpled sheet. I
was fully naked the previous night but my modesty kicked in. I knew Ryder had
seen my body the night before but things were a lot different because I was now
sober. My head was throbbing and the fact that I had just spent the night with
Ryder came flooding back. I looked around for my purse and I realized that it was
next to the couch.

I padded out of the bedroom and past the boxes. I
could hear my phone vibrating. I followed the sound and when I reached it, the
vibration had stopped. I had two missed calls from my mother. Ugh. She was
wondering where I was. She didn’t really care much. She was only curious. She
was usually on the computer late into the night often with a bottle of Gin by
her side. She would roam the dating sites and tell lies about herself. For a
couple of years my brothers and I felt sorry for her but we didn’t care
anymore. She had grown accustomed to being the grieving widow and there was
little any of us could do for her. She would roll out of bed eventually to let
Potato in and then panic would set in. She did not know how to work the coffee
maker. At least that is what she said. Perhaps she would figure it out if she
got desperate.

“Jenna?” Ryder called out from bed.

“Be right there,” I said. I had managed to find my
shirt. Who knew where the rest of my attire was.

I walked back into the bedroom. It was the “morning
after” kind of awkwardness.

“Go back to sleep Ryder. We were up late last night.
I have to run home before my mother’s dog wakes up the entire neighborhood.”

I spotted the rest of my clothes next to the bed. I
leaned over to pick up my bra and panties when Ryder pulled me back into bed.
His body in the early sunlight was more tempting than it had been the night
before.

“You feel so fucking good. To hell with the dog,” he
said and softly kissed my lips.

“We will have to pick this up later. I have to get
an early start on the day.” I kissed him on the lips and stood up to get
dressed. I could feel his eyes upon me as I fastened my bra and slipped into my
panties and jeans. I dressed slowly because I liked knowing that he was
watching me. In an instant, Ryder jumped out of bed. I thought he was going to
grab me from behind, which wouldn’t have been bad. Nope. He sprinted towards
the bathroom.

From the bathroom, I could hear him vomiting. It was
an awful guttural sound. The pinot
gris
must have been too much for him. I was surprised because I was usually the
lightweight.

“Want me to wait out here until you are finished to
make sure that you are okay? Do you need anything? I can grab you a cool towel
and a couple of ibuprofen. There must be some in the other bathroom,” I called
through the closed door.

“Jenna. Please just go home. I will be fine. I drank
too much or maybe it was the shrimp. We will talk soon. I know where you live.”
Ryder tried to make a joke but he could barely speak between yaks.

I didn’t want to leave him alone, but he obviously
didn’t want me there. He said talk soon, which did not seem specific enough for
the night we had just shared. Hoping he would call me, I went home to face my
mom’s fifty questions and brush my teeth. On the way home I nearly tripped over
Potato. The dog looked at me as though he knew what I had done the night
before. I was hoping the rest of the people I encountered that day would not
know the same.

I stumbled into the house where I found my mom in a
battle with the coffee maker. It was a mess. She still smelled of gin from the
night before. A mixture of whole beans and coffee were scattered across the
floor.

“It is about time you came home. I was not sure if
you were sleeping in late or dead. There was no one to let Potato in and the
coffee
was not made
so I looked in your room. There
was no Jenna. You did not answer your phone. A couple of more hours and I was
going to call the cops.”

“Sorry mom. I should have called. Let me assist you
with the coffee maker. For starters, you can’t brew whole beans. I can see you
figured it out. The grinder is out but you had a little difficulty with that.
The thing can be confusing. I will take care of it this time but you will have
to learn to work with it eventually. It may be best to make the trip to the
Coffee Shack.”

“Enough Jenna.
Don’t treat me like a kid. Just make the god damn coffee.”

My mother sat down at the kitchen table. It was
obvious that the coffee fiasco had embarrassed her. She had not always been a
helpless woman and occasionally I noticed a hint of the old Marnie Walsh. I
poured a cup of coffee, which cleared out the cobwebs.

“Mom, I met the neighbor next-door.” I had not
planned to share my evening with Ryder with my mother. The events of the previous
evening
were built up
inside of me so I decided to
give the PG-13 version. She didn’t know about the blow job or us sleeping naked
together. I told her we fell asleep on the couch.

“What is the guy’s name and how the hell did you
meet him? I’ll bet he came by to thank you for the pie.”

“Not exactly.
I knew Ryder all along.” I continued to tell my tale. My mother’s reaction was
priceless. If she was still tipsy from the night before, she was stunned into
sobriety.

“So are you going to see him again? Well, obviously
you will see him because he lives next-door. It will be uncomfortable if things
were left
on a sour note. I can’t imagine opening up a
wound
over and over again
. What if he brings a lady
home with him
…which
will happen. You got into it now
Jenna,” my mother said. She seemed to want company in her misery. She enjoyed
it when I
mis
-stepped.

“I shouldn’t have said anything. If you run into
Ryder, don’t mention me. Treat him just as if you would a neighbor. Be friendly
and please don’t try to date him. I am going to change and go for a run.”

---

The next day I threw on some spandex. I inserted my
ear buds and turned on my iPod. If Ryder had one it would have been nicer than
mine. Everything he had was new generation. I kept everything until it no
longer worked. I was too poor to do otherwise. I had a pop mix that my 12-year
old nephew created. He was on the cutting edge of everything current. He had a
way of making me feel ancient at 18-years old.

As I headed to the nearby river, I glanced in
Ryder’s driveway where I spotted his Lexus. Parked behind his vehicle was
another car. I felt a twinge of jealousy and suspicion. It was not a feeling I
liked or that I had ever experienced so strongly in the past.

I took a long slow run to clear my head. I thought
it was frustrating the way things
were left
with
Ryder. I knew his age…and that he had a big dick but little else. I didn’t
really know him at all.

My slow run tuned into a fast jog as I headed back
to Lewis Avenue from the river. The second car in Ryder’s driveway was gone. I
decided to check on him.

I walked up the steps to the front door and knocked.
There was no answer so I continued knocking. I remembered the sliding glass
doors and thought perhaps that Ryder was resting on the couch. He probably had
the volume turned up and did not hear me.