Transitions Page 11

  “No one at home calls Milo Booger,” Erika said softly.

  “I know.” He made a fist, but he could never punch the truck he loved so much. “They never even go home anymore, do they? You’ve set up all Etsuko’s family right there, under one roof: her okaasan, obaasan, and two otousans, neither one me. I’m not part of it.”

  “They are leaving…tonight, I guess. Tomorrow. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. It’s me…my head…It’s not about them. Come spend the night.”

  “No.”

  “Please.”

  “No.”

  “Billy…”

  “Why?”

  “Because you’ll see it’s not like that,” Erika said. “There’s a place for you in that family. Etsuko will be back really early, right?”

  “Mom has to be to work at seven.”

  “And you have to be at class at 9:30. Our house is closer. You’ll have an extra half an hour or so. I’ll tell the guys to back off.”

  “Don’t do that.” Billy softened. He wiped sweat from his face with his large, freckled hand. “They’re…they’re alright.”

  “You li-ike them,” Erika teased.

  Billy tried to fight off a smile, but lost.

  “Remember when…when you told me about Randy?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And Milo…how you could have fallen in love with him?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I think you did fall in love with him,” Erika said.

  “Rika, I…”

  “I love him, too.”

  Billy started to speak.

  “But…we also love each other—you and I, right?”

  “Yes,” Billy said quietly.

  “It’s just like that with Tom Alan…for me, but loving him doesn’t make me love you any less.”

  “You really love me?” Billy’s beautiful green eyes got bigger.

  “Of course I love you, stupid! Once you love someone, maybe you don’t stop. Maybe you never stop, but sometimes you have to move on.”

  “We tried that.”

  “And it didn’t work.”

  “No.”

  “So now we try something else. The guys won’t get in the way. Obviously, they like you, too.”

  “Tom does?”

  Erika took Billy’s huge hand in her smaller, delicate one. “He does. When I promised Tom Alan he would always be in Etsuko’s life no matter what, whether I end up with someone else—”

  “Is there someone else?”

  “No. There’s him, which is some silly infatuation I hope we all can deal with.” She was satisfied she’d finally worked in the buzzword. “And you. No one else, and he said he’d be happy with you and I getting back together.”

  “Oh. B—”

  “That’s all.” She put her finger to his lips. “That’s good. Don’t say anything else.” She smiled and Billy returned it, slightly wetting the tip. She got a shiver. “No. We don’t need his permission. Still, let’s just leave it there for now. We’re standing in a parking lot. Come on.” Erika took his wrist. “You can shower at the house, unless you want to spend time with Etsuko.”

  “Well…I mean, she’s asleep. Mom sent me a pic.” Billy showed her on his phone. “How precious is she?”

  “She looks so much like…”

  They both said “you” at once.

  “Get in the truck.” Erika reached for the handle. “We’ll leave the windows open overnight to air out your manly stink.”

  Billy laughed. “We’ll have to ride home with ‘em down. I am pretty rank.”

  “I don’t hate it.”

  “Here.” He tossed the keys. “You drive. Your tiny ass in my huge seat turns me on.”

  * * * *

  The first thing Erika noticed upon entering the house was the note from Kyoko. It was early. The house was empty. I decided to take the train down to the city. I’ll be staying overnight. With love, Mother. “I wonder if her girlfriend is here.”

  “They’re still seeing each other?” Billy sat on the arm of the couch. His socked feet were sexy. He’d taken his skates off in the truck partway home and Erika had all she could do not to pull over to finish undressing him. She could see why Tom Alan and Milo had a foot thing.

  “As far as I know. My mother is pretty quiet about her love life. What this means, though, is that we have the whole place to ourselves. So…” She took his hand once more and realized how much she’d missed it since the parking lot, and over a much longer time. “Come on, I’ll scrub your back…and front.”

  Erika led him to the guest bath. It was the smallest one, but it had the nicest shower. Big enough for two, it took up half the room. “This works out quite well. We can make as much noise as we want and no one will hear us.” She started to undress him. “T-shirt?”

  He nodded.

  It wouldn’t be the first time she’d seen him completely naked. She knew about the scars—where he’d gotten them, if not how. Erika enjoyed the taste of his sweat as she licked at the freckles across his chest and his pink, hardened nipples. The line of orange fuzz down his gut made her want to go faster, but she took her time. “Hockey pants?”

  “Uh huh.” That meant they had Velcro—waist to hem—down both legs, like stripper attire. “Whoa.” Billy grabbed onto the sink to brace himself against falling from Erika’s rather hard yank.

  “You’re wearing a jock.”

  “Fisher once told me my ass was a treat. If my team had lost, I’d have given it to them.”

  “That’s hot.” Erika reached around and grabbed both cheeks, and then, since she was on her knees, went around his waist and bit it.

  “Damn, babe!”

  “Milo was right. Think you can come twice? Once in the shower and once in bed?”

  “I’m up for the challenge.”

  Erika licked her lips. “So I see.”

  “Way to pick up on a punch line.”

  She went down on him in the granite stall after stroking him in her soapy fist until his face gave her a warning he couldn’t hold back much longer. Billy had a beautiful cock. The upturn hit the roof of her mouth and she could taste his precum, along with a hint of soap.

  “Stand up, babe.”

  “Stop?”

  “Yeah. Let’s take our time. Maybe I can get you there two times, too.”

  He tickled the small of her back as she pressed against his hands behind her. Her fingers played in his wet hair, digging into the scalp, while he worked her up with his mouth. Her head snapped back and breath came in three quick beats. He was getting her there, and she wanted more than his tongue inside her. “You’re squeaky clean,” she said. “Let’s go to bed.”

  She yanked his towel off partway across the hallway and refused to give it back. As she dragged it behind her, Flip and Twizzle appeared out of nowhere, chasing and grabbing until they both held on and just took the ride. Erika paid more attention to what was ahead than behind, though. She watched Billy’s ass flex and spread as he walked in front of her. She loved every second of it.

  “How’s about…?” Billy turned and Erika anxiously awaited the rest of his question. “Outside? By the pool? It’s summer. It’s warm.”

  “It’s perfect.”

  A stiff breeze on wet skin gave Erika goosebumps, or maybe it was Billy’s hand on her inner thigh and the anticipation of it moving ever so slightly one way. She had grabbed a blanket from inside and laid it down in the grass, under a million twinkling stars. Tall hedges blocked out the world and offered privacy. That was good, since the outside lighting was bright enough to see every inch of Billy flat out, his arms up, hands under his head. Shocks of orange hair at the pits and groin tapped on every erotic nerve she had. She loved his tummy, slightly rounded from chips and beer and no core strengthening machines or crunches. Erika mounted him, offering herself to be eaten as she prepared to go down on his curve.

  “Can I finish, babe?” He asked it rather quickly. Since he’d promised the night wasn’t one and done, she told hi
m yes, or rather just kept on doing what obviously felt so good to him. His cum first hit the back of her throat. Then it coated her tongue, so tangy, salty, and arousing. He turned her for a kiss, lifting her into the air, just like Tom Alan might. Gently lying her down beside him, Billy put his mouth to hers, quite tenderly, and hummed. “Celine Dion,” he said.

  “In English or French?”

  “What?”

  “I saw the text book.”

  “Oh.” He caressed her gently, across her shoulders and over each breast. Then he put his head there, almost as if he was hiding. “It’s dumb.”

  “What is?”

  “French, Russian, Chinese, Japanese…”

  “The Grand Prix series.”

  “I thought I might want to learn a little bit of each so I can go with you. I was…hopeful.”

  “Aww.”

  “They’re fucking hard.”

  Erika laughed. “Yes. You’re so sweet.”

  “And stupid.”

  “No way.”

  “A big, dumb jock.”

  “A romantic, wonderful man.”

  He was hard again by the time his finger separated the flesh that tingled for his thickness. Erika held her breath, as he swung one leg over her body and settled part of his weight on top, his hard cock against her pelvis. “I forgot something.”

  “Oh. The guys might have some.”

  “I do, too…in the truck.” He got to his knees, and then stood with a groan. “Hockey, not age.”

  Erika smiled. “I didn’t say a word. Except I’m suddenly wondering if pickup truck has another meaning.”

  Billy’s bark echoed off the side of the house. A dog far off in the distance seemed to answer it. It took him somewhere else for a moment. “I don’t drive around with them. I told you.” He got back down on the ground, his knees obviously stiff. “I was hopeful. I haven’t…just so you know…been with any other women since—”

  Erika quieted him with a kiss.

  “This time, I want to share everything. You know about the guys…how I chickened out of anything more than jacking off and the one blowjob, and then you and me a couple of times…This feels different, though…than all those other nights.”

  “Yes. Hurry.”

  There was enough light to catch his silhouette most of the way there and back with a box and his phone. He’d stayed hard, the thrill of the outdoors and possibly being seen most probably the reason. “All you,” he said, touching the curve, as if he knew what she’d been thinking. He sat on the edge of the pool deck. Kneeling behind, she put her hand on his warm, moist gut as it moved up and down. “It’s hot,” he said.

  “Yeah?” She shoved him hard, down into the water.

  “Babe!”

  She never could have done it without the element of surprise. “You said you were hot.”

  “I haven’t been skinny dipping since Bible Camp 2003.”

  Erika stood and made her way to the edge of the pool. “From the stories you tell, I don’t think that camp did what it was supposed to.”

  “Come here.” Billy held out his hand.

  “No way. You’ll pull me in.”

  “Nuh-uh.” He started humming.

  “You promise?”

  “Absolutely. Sit on the cement.”

  She was weary, but did.

  “Closer.” He pulled her by the legs. “I owe you one.”

  She was right at the edge. “Don’t you d—.” A gasp took the place of the rest as she felt the heat of his breath between her legs.

  “Trust me.”

  “Can I?”

  Billy abandoned words, too, in favor of more humming, this time with his vibrations pressed firmly into her wetness. Voraciously moving his mouth about as she writhed against it, moaning and occasionally shrieking at a volume she wouldn’t dare approach if anyone else was home, he had her desperately debating. Did she want to finish with his tongue or beg him to tease her clit with the tip of his cock and then thrust in and out until she came? As she started to tremble, no choice remained. She gave into the feeling, the figurative emotional rush and literal one of climax. Billy kissed his way up her thigh, then over the flesh from her abdomen to her breasts.

  “Breathe into me,” she begged, but Billy froze. When Erika opened her eyes, she saw the large swath of light across the grass and the shimmering blackness of the pool. It emanated from Tom Alan’s bedroom.

  “Guess the guys are home,” Billy said.

  “Hmm. I thought we’d have more time. Should we go in?” Erika stole one last kiss under the night sky just in case.

  “We gonna fight or we gonna do this?” Milo asked loudly at the open patio door.

  “Shoot. Too late.” Erika slid into the water at his voice, pressing against Billy’s hard-on. “What are they fighting about?”

  “No clue.”

  “I’m going,” Tom Alan said. “Hurry up.”

  Neither Billy nor Erika moved as he took the seventeen stairs down from the back deck two or three at a time and made a mad dash at the pool. “Oh.” Tom Alan stopped short, his fingers at the flap where a towel wrapped around him. It slipped. Erika caught a glance at his tan lines and some hair. “Shoot.”

  “That’s what she said.”

  “Sorry. I thought you were in your room. I saw light coming from under the door. That’s a waste of electricity.”

  Tom Alan was scolding her now? “My bad.” Erika hid her nakedness behind Billy. “Tom Alan’s big into the green movement,” she explained. “Mother left a note.”

  “Yup. Hope she has a nice time.”

  “Did you hear from the kids?”

  “No. I texted Kensuke…told him to behave and be careful.” Tom Alan added a shrug. “He probably laughed at me after the debauchery of—”

  “Well, well, well.” Milo stood on terrace like Evita. “What have we here?” He descended the steps, every bit the artist he had been on the ice, despite carrying a picnic basket. “I hope this means you two are back together, because every time Hockey Puck asks what three down is while doing his Sunday puzzle, he also ends up talking about you.”

  “I think we are,” Erika said. “You want the pool? We’re done, right?” she asked Billy.

  “If you have to ask, Flower, he didn’t do it right.”

  “Oh he did it right. Now hand me a towel.”

  “You’re being kind of silly, love. All we wanted was the water…for now. It’s hot. Stay there. We’ll get in.”

  Erika looked to Billy. Twisting her neck from behind him again, as she suddenly realized how uninhibited she had been when conversing with Tom Alan, how natural it had felt. Milo, that was different.

  “I’ve seen Billy Boy naked. Everyone’s seen everyone, ‘cept me and you.” His towel hit the grass. “There. Anticipation over. “ Erika turned her head into Billy’s neck. “Damn, you yanks are uptight.”

  Tom Alan looked as tense as anyone.

  “I’ve never seen Tom.”

  “I think that’s a hint, Skater Boy. Show Hockey Puck your naughty bits. They do all rather look alike.”

  “Not really,” Billy muttered, his eyes on Milo’s.

  “Would it be less of a big deal if we went and stood in front of the window and shagged?” Milo got in and reached for Tom Alan’s hand. “Grab an ale and join us.”

  “It’s beer.” Tom Alan dropped the towel—with his back turned. He kept it that way until he was under the water.

  “Whatever.”

  “What are you fighting about?” Erika asked.

  “The current topic would be beverage ingredients, apparently,” Milo said with an edge.

  “We’re not fighting.” Tom Alan passed a can of whatever it was, then opened one of his own. “Let’s just enjoy the water for the last time this season.”

  “Eh, there’s lots of warm weather left, Tom.” Billy flashed his wet, shiny ass when he pulled himself up on the pool edge to reach for the wine and a glass. “This for everyone?”

  “
Help yourself. What’s mine is yours.” Tom Alan’s tone was less than cordial. “And we won’t be here, so…”

  “You’re not even coming over to swim?”

  “I’m going to be pretty busy, Kiki. I should really get going on some ideas for Ani and Otouto while Milo’s gone, so maybe we can get things moving. The animator wants to meet up between Skate America and NHK. I told him we could train in Japan just as easily as the US. Then maybe we can spend Christmas over there.”

  “Sure. There’s a few weeks you could be home, but who wants that?” Milo downed half a beer in one pull.

  “You’ll be with me,” Tom Alan said shortly.

  “I’ll be looking for a job by then, love. The plan isn’t to finish training and then sit about looking pretty.”

  “You could wait and look for work after the season ends.”

  “The season ends in March…the competitive season. Then the show season starts in Japan. I’m pretty enough to be a trophy wife, but that’s not what I want to be.”

  “Ha! Good one.”

  The sting was audible when Erika smacked Billy hard on his wet shoulder.

  “Ow, babe.”

  “We should have gone back to the apartment,” Tom Alan said.

  “No.” Erika rubbed his arm while Billy rubbed his.

  “We were going to,” Milo said, “but he didn’t want to wake the cats, and refused to go without them.”

  Billy snickered as he handed the wine he’d poured off to Erika and then went back for a beer.

  “I still don’t get that, Tom Alan.” She took a sip. “Exactly why you’re going.”

  “Because of that, for one thing. We share everything, whether I want it shared or not. We share too much.”

  “The beer and wine’s not for everyone?”

  “Drink whatever you want, Bill. I’m talking about private things I say to my husband, like how I didn’t want to wake Flip and Twizzle. That’s the kind of thing that isn’t everyone’s business.”

  “I think it’s adorable,” Erika said.

  “I think it’s bullocks, Flower. He knows it is, too. Grab me another brewski, will ya Hockey Puck?” It seemed as if Milo had gotten a head start on the drinking. “How’s that for American, bro?” Milo saluted Tom Alan with his empty. “And we’re all four naked. See, there’s a willie.” He pointed at Billy’s. “Since when are there secrets?”