Disclaimer: They ain't mine. I promise to return them -- a little stickier, but none the worse for wear -- when I'm done. This story's got sex and plenty of it, so if that's going to cause you or me any trouble, turn back now. And much thanks to my beta, Kerensa Evans!
They sat together on the steps in the antique shop, looking worriedly at the door with silent expectation. Tessa fidgeted endlessly with an unlit cigarette while Richie kept kicking his feet back and forth like a hyper five year old. “Will you stop that, Richie?” Tessa finally snapped, then apologized. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to yell.”
“It’s all right, Tess. I’m worried too,” Richie admitted. “He’s been gone an hour, that’s more than enough time to...” He swallowed his worry, the lump in his throat nearly choking him.
“Mac will come back. He always has,” Tessa insisted, her voice harsh with protest.
“I know, Tess. I know.” He tentatively put an arm around her, relieved when it seemed to be what she needed. Tessa leaned against him and began to cry, the sobs shrieking out of her against his green and black leather jacket. He was scared, not knowing exactly how to handle her fear and grief, but his own worry welled up inside him and the pain seemed to join them together.
Suddenly she leapt up. “I’m going to take the car and go look for him. You stay here in case he comes back. Call the police station; he might have been arrested and not allowed his phone call. It’s happened before.” She rushed out the door without waiting for a reply.
Six hours later she returned to find a half-eaten pizza and a worried teenager. “Anything?” she asked.
“Nada. It’s like he disappeared off the face of the earth or something.” Richie nodded at the pizza box. “Sorry, but I was hungry and I didn’t want to burn the kitchen down.”
“It’s all right, Richie. I think I’ll have a slice too.” Though she picked it up, she didn’t do anything with the pizza; she couldn’t make herself eat.
Richie looked at her with concern, in his book not eating was a very serious thing. “Talk to me Tess, please.”
She looked up at the teenager that she had taken into her home and heart, with his sad mix of toughness and fragility. He had his own worries about Mac without her adding to them.
Richie saw her sorrowful pause and protested, “Tess, I’m not made of glass, for crying out loud. Talk to me.”
She buried her face in her hands, dropping the slice of pizza. “I didn’t ask for any of this, not the Game, or the Gathering, or his Immortality, or not having children! Sometimes I just feel so angry and helpless, and I can’t stop it because I love him with all my heart!” Her tone was full of fierce rage that always came out when she was upset, as though she was afraid of seeming weak.
“I know, Tess. It’s not fair. I worry about him too, although it’s not the same thing. He’s like a father to me, even though I haven’t known him that long. I hate the way he always pushes me away when he thinks he has to protect me.”
“Protect both of us,” Tessa agreed. “God, if he’s dead, I don't know what I’ll do.” She looked at Richie and brushed the tears from her eyes. “I’m tired of being strong for him. I’m tired of waiting and worrying every time he gets that look in his eyes that means he feels one of them! I--” She broke off with another fit of crying, and felt Richie’s arms around her, comforting and surprisingly strong.
Richie had dim memories of his mother, Emily, stroking his hair at times like these. He did the same to Tessa, rocking her back and forth, making what he hoped were soothing noises. Slowly her crying ceased, and she looked at him for a long moment before leaning up and kissing him on the mouth.
Richie pulled away in shock, and Tessa caught his jacket gently. “Richie, I’m sorry, I just -- I wanted --”
He looked at her, horrified. “With Mac maybe out there dead or suffering? What the--”
“Richie, I just -- for a little while I want to forget about everything I can’t do for him. If you don’t want this, then I’m sorry, I never meant to hurt you.”
Richie looked at her with alarm, swallowing hard. He was devoted to Tessa, but not in that way...or was he? Was it just that he loved Mac and Tessa too much to hurt either of them by coming between them? Was now even the time to be thinking of things like that? He didn’t even have that much experience, just a few moments with Angie in the back of an abandoned building. He was scared that even if he did this, Tessa would laugh at his clumsiness. And what if Mac were alive? Could Richie look the older man in the eye day after day and know that he and Tessa had done something like that behind Mac’s back?
Gently Richie cupped his hand against Tessa’s chin and kissed her slowly, moving his mouth against hers as he felt hot tears of grief and release roll down her cheeks and onto his. Her hands tentatively went to his shoulders, pulling off his jacket and pulling him closer. Richie could feel a tightness in his belly and his groin as the older woman’s hands caressed his chest and back, and he very slowly allowed his hands to drift down until they trembled over her breasts. She gave a small moan, and encouraged by her response, he cupped her breasts with his questing thumbs as his mouth lowered to kiss and nibble at her throat.
Tessa gave a groan of pleasure as Richie’s powerful jaws delicately clasped her neck, and she let her hands slide under his shirt to his hot skin. She pulled away from him for a moment, her eyes fever bright, as she pulled him upwards and guided him to the bedroom. A customer walking in right now would be very problematic. There was something very strange and slightly guilty about making love in the bed she normally shared with Mac, but Tessa pushed that thought from her mind as she pulled off Richie’s shirt. She fought the trembling in her hands to open his jeans, freeing the straining bulge that was more than eager to rise and throb in her skilled hands.
Richie gave a small gasp of surprise, fighting his reactions as he pulled off Tessa’s shirt and skirt to reveal her nude loveliness. She was everything he had dreamed of late at night in his room: her pale skin glowing against the blonde curls above and brown below, her gently curving body, her intent look. Her nipples stood out proudly in the slight chill of the room, and there was a faint whiff of pleasure coming from between her thighs.
Tessa, for her part, had managed to disrobe her young friend and stood admiring the pale gold physique that was so very different from that of her long-time lover. She had not had a man besides Duncan in twelve years, this was all very strange to her, but she needed it. She also knew that if she took him now, Richie’s over-stimulated body would likely leave her unsatisfied and him embarrassed and ashamed.
Instead she knelt before him as her nails gently stroked his belly and lower, lower ... she let her hands play with his shaft, stroking it and rubbing the hot length. She couldn’t help but make the comparison: Richie was slightly smaller than Mac, but thicker, and where Richie was circumcised, Mac was not. He was still scared, desperately wanting, but afraid to make the slightest error, his hands trembling inches away from her head as she teased him.
She slid her tongue along the head of his penis, parting her lips to kiss him fully on the tip and sliding her mouth down, then up again. Her careful artisan hands cupped his balls and slid caressing fingers deeper between his thighs as he gave out a helpless groan of ecstasy and shuddered with pleasure. She let her tongue bathe the length of his shaft, feeling his body tense with denial as he tried to fight off his climax. “Tess, please, I don’t want to--”
“It’s all right, Richie. I know what I’m doing, just let it happen.” Tessa murmured as she slid her mouth over his hot shaft. She could feel his hands trembling centimeters from her head as she pumped him, knowing how hard it was for him to fight off the desire to hold her head there and thrust against her. That knowledge gave her a measure of power and pleasure as she let her hands cup and tease his balls, his thighs, deeper, deeper as he finally cried out and shuddered violently, holding her sweet hair as he pulsed hot seed into her mouth.
Tessa froze a moment, trying not to let Richie see her worry as he gasped and slid down until he knelt beside her. She swallowed the last traces of his semen and kissed him, her mind distracted. Normal, mortal sperm had a tingle to it as the seed sought something to fertilize. Mac’s did not, it just had a slightly thick flavor. Richie’s didn’t either. Was Richie a pre-Immortal? Had Mac been hiding that from her, from Richie?
Richie gave a soft exhale and kissed his lover tenderly, feeling his fears evaporate. Tessa’s face seemed to glow in the light and Richie smiled at her. “My turn,” he murmured, lifting her in his arms and placing her on the bed, laying his body next to hers. He kissed her and let his hands roam her warm body. He was afraid -- not of hurting her -- but of not meeting her expectations, but she gently guided his hands to her breasts, her belly, and seemed to be greatly enjoying herself. He took one breast into his mouth and suckled on it, feeling her back arch in response. His hand slid between her warm, moist thighs, teasing the little nub he found there.
“Tessa?” he asked, his young voice husky with desire.
“Yes Richie?”
“I love you,” he said simply, kissing her. His fingers strumming her desire were getting very damp; she wanted this badly. Her knees slid up to nestle his ribs and he rested his shaft at the very entrance to her for a moment before pushing himself inside that hot, sweet center. Tessa groaned, her inner muscles clenching him tightly as her fingers gripped his back. Her nails gave him painful pleasure as he nibbled at her breasts, pushing himself deeper and deeper into her willing warmth.
Tessa could feel the power building inside her as Richie plunged into her again and again, could feel the innocence of his love and the intensity of his desire, and she writhed as his sweet assault on her body grew closer and closer to the inevitable. Finally, like a match to the acetylene torch she used in her sculpture, Tessa exploded in her climax, crying out and gripping Richie tightly to her.
Richie felt Tessa getting closer and closer, and fought off his own reaction as her womb pumped and squeezed his shaft with hot silky warmth. Then she cried out and came, intensely, fiercely, and he was swept along with it like a tidal wave washing over him.
As they both slowly returned to their senses, exhausted, Tessa kissed Richie on the mouth, deeply. “I love you too,” she murmured, and they fell asleep in each other’s arms.
An hour later, when it was more than dark out, Mac returned to the store. He was wet and bedraggled, his clothes were slashed to ribbons, and he was exhausted. The fight with Kurn had been bad enough. Dying and falling into the river had been worse. But what had topped off his afternoon was waking up to find himself tangled in a fishing net that had fallen to the bottom of the river years ago. It had taken him hours of dying and waking to disentangle himself, get his sword, and swim out of the dirty river.
He went up to the bedroom, intending to shower, go find wherever Tessa and Richie were and get some sleep. But when he opened the bedroom door, he realized that he didn’t have to look for them and sleep wouldn’t be an option.
There, lying on the bed tangled in each other’s arms, were Tessa and Richie, both peacefully asleep. Duncan swallowed hard and his heart skipped a beat. He decided to slip quietly past them into the bathroom, lock the door after him and take a very long shower, getting out all of the physical grime of the day. When he emerged, dressed again, he found to his annoyance that they still hadn’t had the decency to wake up and explain what the hell was going on. Not that it needed much explaining, it was pretty clear what had happened.
Duncan cleared his throat. Nothing. Much as he was loathe to do so, he reached over and shook Tessa’s shoulder, startling her and Richie awake. The two of them gasped when they realized what had happened and Richie started babbling explanations and apologies while Tessa just stared at him mutely, unsure whether to be happy he was alive, or afraid of what he was about to do. “Richie, out. I’ll deal with you later.” Duncan ordered, and the teenager shut up and scrambled out of the bed, at least having the decency to leave Tessa with the sheet.
Duncan sat down on the bed next to Tessa, full of tension. “Do you want to tell me what this was about?”
Tessa looked at him for a long moment. “I am sorry, Duncan. I’ve never done anything like this before.”
“Why?” he asked. “Twelve years, why now?”
“Because of the stupid game! I was so tired of living my life around whether you lived or died every day. I just wanted to forget! I should never have done it, I know.” She looked at him for a long moment before saying, “And he’s Immortal too, isn’t he?”
He stared at her for a moment, startled. “One thing at a time, Tessa. Would you do it again? Do you want me to leave?”
She sighed. “I love you. I always have, that doesn’t change. I wasn’t thinking, I just wanted...” she stopped. “I care about him, Duncan. Not like I do about you, but that could change with time. I won’t let it.”
Duncan pulled away from her. “I have to go talk to Richie.”
“Duncan--”
He left the room.
Richie was dressed, at least, and packing his belongings in his bag. “Look man, I’ll be out of your hair tonight, I’m sorry, I never meant for this to happen, I--”
“Richie, enough.” Duncan stopped him. “Sit down, I’m not going to kill you.” In fact, he had dearly wanted to, earlier, and was still none too happy about this, but there was no way he was going to let Richie run off with no place to go, even after what just happened. “How long has this been going on?”
“It was just today, Mac, I don’t know what came over me, I--”
“Richie, stop it.” Duncan was exerting considerable effort not to yell at the kid. “If you stay here, would you do that again?”
Richie paused. “Honestly? Mac, I love her, but she’s yours.” The simple honesty in the statement, though troublesome, made Duncan calm down a little. Richie didn’t think before he acted, but he was not amoral.
“Richie, I want you to stay. I’m still not sure what I think of all this, but I think we’re going to have to figure it out as it comes. We’ll manage.”
End.