Page 59 of Tide Over

I exhale softly, taking in the way the setting sun glows in his clear blue eyes, and casts a warm, orange hue across his face.

Keeping my eyes on his, I take his hand and run my fingers through my cum. Then I wrap my cum-covered hand around his cock, and slide it up his length.

“Jesus Christ,” he stutters, his hips jerking and his eyes fluttering closed. His hands land on my hips, squeezing tight as he drops his head to watch me pump his cock with my cum.

My other hand lifts to tangle in his hair as I watch him quickly come undone in my arms and I’m suddenly very aware that we are out in the open, in the middle of the woods, where anyone could find us.

But I don’t fucking care.

I stroke him faster and bring my lips to his as the thrill settles inside me, and I let it fuel this moment between us. As I take everything I’ve ever wanted, and give him everything he deserves.

He tenses under my touch, and grunts against my mouth as his fingers dig into my hips. The thrill inside me only grows as he comes, and I can’t get enough of him.

I eventually release him, dropping my hand from his hair to step back and take him in. His breaths are heavy as he stares back at me, eyes glassy and cheeks flushed with pleasure. And I feel like I have to pinch myself.

He’s fucking perfect.

I tug a piece of carpet free, and Miss Bobber darts after a loose string. I laugh, teasing her with it as she pounces. Liam huffs out a laugh when she suddenly gets distracted by a dust ball and bolts after that instead.

It feels like we’ve been pulling up the old carpet in the sunroom for hours since I got home from work, the seemingly easy task taking longer than expected. And not just because of an adorable kitten who wants to play. Whoever laid this carpet down must have been preparing for the fucking apocalypse with the amount of nails and staples in this ugly thing. And underneath this mess, is another mess.

Beautiful hardwood… covered in plaster.

“What the fuck are people thinking when they cover hardwood,” I mutter, yanking up another strip of carpet and finding more plaster caked on the wood. This is going to take a ton of work to refinish, but it’ll look good when it’s done.

Liam looks over and shakes his head. “I don’t know. Kids?”

I shrug. “Aren’t kids messy? Wouldn’t hardwood be easier to clean?”

He thinks on that for a moment and nods thoughtfully. “Yeah… no idea then.”

We fall back into our rhythm as I pull up carpet and Liam follows behind me with a hammer and pry bar, pulling up the endless strips of nails and staples in the floor.

By the time we have half of it done, we sit on the floor against the wall and crack open a beer. Which is frustrating… the room isn’t even that big. It should have been done two hours ago.

Liam takes a drink of his beer as he leans back against the wall beside me, looking out into the room. “Nick and I pulled carpet out of his parents' entire house once,” he says quietly, his voice sounding distant.

I turn my head to look at him, surprised he’s bringing this up. He’s staring off into space, like he’s lost to a memory. I stay quiet and let him work through whatever it is.

He eventually releases a breath and blinks out of his thoughts. “It was a fucking disaster. Worse than this,” he says, his fingers fidgeting with his beer bottle.

“Yeah?” I ask softly, giving him the space and permission to continue if he wants to talk about it.

A small smile gently tugs at the corner of his lips. “He thought it was hilarious. I was ready to give up after three steps.”

I chuckle. “He sounds great.”

He nods as his smile fades. “Yeah. He was.”

Silence settles over us again as the weight of his words linger.

“Is,” I say softly.

Liam turns to look at me, his eyes searching mine with a question.

“He may not be here now, but he didn’t cease to exist,” I say, thinking of how I felt talking about my dad after he passed. “The memories are still real, and he’ll always be a part of you. What you shared with him is still alive, and always will be.”

His eyes fill with emotion, and he blinks a few times as he nods, lowering his gaze. “It’s still hard to talk about him.”

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