Chapter 19: After

Marla took Lacey home with her and told us not to call until noon.

She said it in the clubhouse lot at nine at night, with her keys in her hand and her eyebrows up.

Jesse looked at the ground.

I drove him to the shop myself.

Neither of us said a word on Route 9.

I parked in the yard and turned off the engine, and the dark came down on the truck.

"Dani."

"Inside."

I unlocked the side door and pulled him through it by the front of his cut.

The red neon was still on over the drill press.

I had left it burning, and it lit the whole shop red.

I took his cut off his shoulders and hung it on the vise.

He stood there in his T-shirt with his bandaged hands at his sides, and he let me.

"You said you'd say it in front of all of them," I said.

"I did."

"You gave up the thing you'd had for sixteen years."

"I got it back."

"You gave it up first."

I put my hands under his shirt and dragged it up his chest.

He lifted his arms, and I pulled it off and dropped it, and put my mouth on the scar across his ribs.

He breathed in sharp.

"Dani. My hands."

"Keep them at your sides."

"I can't."

"Then keep them still."

I went down on my knees on the concrete.

I opened his belt and his jeans, and he was already hard, thick against my wrist as I pulled him out.

I looked up at him.

His eyes were black, and the muscle in his jaw was jumping.

"Look at me," I said.

He looked.

I took him in my mouth.

He swore, low, and I felt his thighs lock.

I took his cock slowly, with my tongue flat underneath, until he hit the back of my throat.