“I need a potty break.”
“Just a break? You wanna keep playing?”
“Don’t you? I’m having fun.”
“Sweetness, I have a long way to go before you drink me under the table, so this is only the beginning of my fun.”
Kayla replied with a pfft! and the two of them headed for separate bathrooms. This only gave their brains more time to absorb the liquor, so when they returned they were even farther from sobriety than before. They both downed bottled water to help avoid tomorrow’s hangover effects, then Steve plopped onto the couch and laughed as Kayla stumbled into her own usual position across fromhim that they’d begun using in 1979.
“You got at least six in a row,” Kayla said, “Iss my turn.”
“Ok, ok.” Steve drank right from the bottle and held it between his legs.
“I have a Stefano question.” Steve dropped his grin. “You said you brought Stefano into my life, but thass not how it happened. He’s obsessed with Bradys, so he wouldn’t have known you at all if you hadn’t known me and Bo. And he took away 16 years of your life. Are you at least a little resentful or, I dunno, maybe bitter about that?
“No way.”
“But—”
“First of all, it was Alamain that took me away from you, not Dimera.”
“Ok, but he sold you to him.”
“And second of all, no. I could never resent you or Bo or any of the Bradys. You didn’t do anything, he did. The man’s a psychopath. My life with you is worth anything that comes from him.” He handed her the bottle. “Ok?”
She nodded. “Ok.”
Kayla took her swig and held onto the bottle to wait for his question. “What was an average day for you like here while I was away?”
“Here in LA?”
“Yeah.”
“You’ve seen that for the last six weeks.”
“No. The way it really happened. What was your average day like? I mean, you went to med school and raised our Little Sweetness. That had to be hard. What was your day like?”
“You mean beyond missing you? Just … a day in the life?” Steve nodded. “It was one day at a time, really. I never really slept in. Sometimes … not too much. Mrs. Lopez was very good to us and literally never once raised the rent. She was that grateful to have a tenant in her haunted house. I cooked almost every night ‘casue it was cheaper, helped Steph with her homework, got her down to sleep at night, and did it all again the next day. Every day. Kimmie helped a lot. She’s mad at me right now.”
Steve nodded. “I know.”
“Thass gonna be a little slice of heaven when we get outta this.” She sighed and absently took another drink. “Sometimes being a single mom was a struggle, but I was honestly too busy to feel it. There was no time to wish for something easier, I juss had to do what I had to do every day. And I loved being her mom. I still love being her mom. Stephanie was the pride I felt every day. I loved going to class and learning how to be a surgeon. I loved my rotations and the patients. Diagnosing people, understanding what made them sick and helping them get well. But watching our baby grow and learn and become this beautiful young woman that was just like you … that was my never-ending joy.” Kayla sighed in memory. Then she handed Steve the bottle. “My turn.” Steve took it, but he glared down into his lap. “Whass wrong?”
“Nothin’.” He took a drink and said, “go.”
“No, what is it? I said something wrong.”
“No.”
“Yes. What was it? I’ll even make that my question. What’d I say?”
“You didn’t say anything, Kayla, I’m … jealous.”
“Again? Of who?!”
“You,” he said softly. The alcohol was pushing his emotional pendalum away from happy drunk into sad drunk. “I missed all of this. You got that bond with her, and I didn’t. You got to have all that time with Stephanie. You two together are like two peas in a pod. I wish I had it, too.”
“You sure you’re not bitter?”
Steve looked up quickly. “No,” he said emphatically. “Never. But I do wish I had what you had.”
Memories of jumping away from Steve and Emily rushed into Kayla, and she understood what he meant. She didn’t resent Steve for having the last moment with Emily, but she did wish it for herself, too.
“Oh, Steve,” she took his hand. “You do have that. You have it now. She idolizes you, don’you know that? She follows you around the house like a puppy dog every day. You get up to go into the kitchen, she follows you. You go up to the loft, she goes with you.” Now Steve smiled, because that’s exactly what Stephanie did. “You’re right, I’m the parent she knows best and that she feels like the default parent.”
“That’s a real good way to put it.”
“And I know she loves me. What we have is special,” Kayla shrugged. “But you are her absolute hero. What you have with her is just as special, and I’m not jealous of it at all. I love seeing it. To see you two in book club. To hear her call you Papa at this age. I never want it to end.”
“Thank you, baby.” Steve took his drink and gestured for her to go.
“I’m gonna ask the same thing. What was your average day like as a soldier?”
A chill swept up Steve’s spine. “I don’t wanna talk about that,” he spat. It came out harsher than he’d meant it to, and Kayla reared back slightly in reaction.
“You don’t have to bite my head off.” Kayla glared, and Steve looked away. Finally he looked back up and adjusted his patch.
“Sorry. I … sorry.”
They were silent for a moment, then Kayla tried again. “I think you owe me a penalty shot.”
“Nah,” he exhaled heavily, “You’re about to pass out drunk, so we can just stop there.”
“So, one question upsets you and you wanna take your ball and go home?”
“Why you wanna know about that?”
“Why did you?”
Steve laughed humorlessly. “That ain’t nearly the same thing, baby.”
“Yeah it is. You wanna know what my life was like ‘cause you love me. I do, too.”
“It wasn’t the spinal unit and PTA meetings.”
“Ok, so wha’was it?
“Why you pushin’ me?!
“Don’t YELL at me!”
Steve dragged a hand down his face and took another drink. “I’m an asshole.”
Kayla waved a dismissive hand at him and took the bottle from him for her own drink. “Look,” she said, then took one more before Steve took the bottle back from her.
“You are gonna paaaaassss OUT!” Then she went on.
“I realize we’ve been spenden’ing alot of time together. An’you don’get t’go anywhere.”
“I’m here.”
“Stuck in ‘nother room with nowhere t’go. We’re probably smothering each other a lil’ bit, but it juss means we have t’find some other stuff t’do that doesn’t involve eash other.”
Steve didn’t like this. He was nearly two out of three sheets to the wind, so his rationality was too low to process it with his full wherewithal.
“No, no, hold on. I don’t need space.”
“Yes, you do, an’so do I.”
“Huh?!”
“Shh! It doesn’mean we don’t love eash other. It’s healthy for a couple to spend time apart. That doesn’t mean we’re less couply.”
“Couply?”
“Strong. We’re not less strong as a couply. “You need to go out with friends! Like Bo and Bart and that other guy. What was his name?”
“Who’s Bart?”
“Bo’s friend!”
“In LA?”
“In 1979!”
Steve looked at her like she was nuts. “Kayla, do you know when we are? A) those dudes were never my friends, and 2) It’s like 40 years later.”
“Forty? How is that possible?”
Steve lookd at his fingers and tried to make his brain count out the years, but it was too soaked with tequila to perform the arithmetic. Finally he looked up. “New rule. No math.”
“Ok, thass a good rule.”
“So what was the quesshion?”
Kayla had no idea.
“Other stuff to do,” Steve remembered.
“Right!” she said excitedly. Steve couldn’t help but laugh, because she was always so cute when she was intoxicated. “We both need other social outlets. We’re together all the time. I have work, I have Raj and my sister. You have the TV. Iss’not fair.”
“You feel smothered?” His tone wasn’t defensive, it was curious.
“I feel like we both are, juss ‘cause we’re always in eash’other’s hair.”
“Ok. When we get outta this, I’ll go play with the neighbor kiddies.”
“Good! Who’s turn is it?”
“Ugh,” Steve groaned and let his head fall back. “You wanna know what life was like when I was Nick and Patch and no one.”
“That’s a lot of Steves. But yeah, I do. If … if it’s not gonna upset you.”
Steve brought his head back up and felt the tequila spin him into a high. “Sweetness, I try not to remember a whole lot, and really, it’s a bit of a blur half the time.”
“What about in Cincinnati? At the hospital? You remember all of that, right?”
Steve shrugged. “I woke up, I went to work, I drank at the bar, I went home. Not real interesting.”
“Home to Della, right? Ok, and … ?” she prodded.
“And what?”
“And what else? Whaddid’you do on days off?”
“I didn’t have a lawn to mow or anything that really mattered, Kayla, so what do you think I did?”
Kayla ignored his obvious reference to sex, rolled her eyes, and went at it another way. “Were you a Browns fan?”
Steve smirked. “That’s Cleveland, baby, and you owe me a shot.”
Kayla took the bottle from him, complied, and gave it back to him. “Were you a Buckeyes fan?”
Now Steve let out a genuine laugh. “Ok, here’s what you have to know if you want to live in Ohio. Listen up, now, this is important. If you live anywhere in Ohio, you are an automatic Buckeyes fan. Now, they’re college, not the NFL.” Kayla blinked in drunkenly focused attention. “Now you were there for three years, see I pay attention to our lil’ Jump Project quizzes you like to lay on me. Did no one send you this memo when you got there?”
“No,” she answered very genuinely.
Steve clicked his tongue at her a few times and waggled his finger. “So, the answer to your question is yes, I was a Buckeyes fan, ‘cause it’s a requirement of residency in the state. I think the team you’re lookin’ for, though, is the Bengals.”
“Yes! The Bengals! What the hell is a Brown, anyway?”
“You wanna know? Take a drink.”
“Nevermin’, I don’care. Answer the one I drank already, were you a Bengals fan?”
“Actually …,” Steve replied with a bit of reflection, “… no, I … was a Bears fan.” He huffed out a revelatory chuckle. “Guess I took that with me.”
“Ok, so you watched football. That’s great!”
Steve’s enthusiasm for all of this didn’t match his wife’s. “Yeah,” he shrugged, “I watched football.”
Kayla’s face fell. “That’s really it? Wasn’t there any other … fun? That whole time? I mean, I know some of it was bad, you did bad things, you were with with bad people. But … weren’t you ever … happy?”
Something about this question made Steve very hesitant to be honest with her. “What are you askin’ me?”
“Did you have friends? Was there ever a time you had happiness when you were gone?” Steve opened his mouth, but nothing came out. “It will break my heart if you were miserable for all that time. Were you ever happy?”
Finally Steve let himself say the words. “I think you know that answer.”
“Yes?”
“Yes.”
“You had friends?”
“Yes.
“And lovers.”
“You know I did. And they made me happy.”
“Ava.” She somehow got that out. “Made you happy.”
Steve nodded. “Back then. Yeah. She did.”
Kayla sat up straighter. “Good.”
“Ok, wait, wait, wait. Here, my turn.” He shoved the bottle at his wife. “Drink, so I can ask.” She did and, boy did she feel it now. “Why aren’t you jealous?”
“What makes you think I’m not? I hate her. You’re mine, too, you know.” Steve smiled. “You want me to be jealous.”
“Yeah, I do.”
“Makes you feel like a man.”
“Makes me feel like your man,” he said. “Then if you’re jealous, why good that I was happy with her when I was that guy?”
“Because it means you weren’t miserable for 16 years! I would never want that for you. I wish you didn’t have to always pick the psycho bitches, but I’m relieved you had some joy.”
“I don’t always pick psycho bitches.”
“Oh, come ON! Ya know what, iss’ok. You’re stuck with me forever, and I’m not a psycho or a bitch.” Before Steve could react, Kayla shoved the bottle at him. “Drink.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Thass Queen Sweetness to you.”
“Queen Sweetness?!” Steve fell into hysterics. He laughed so hard, he thought he might throw up all the alcohol that hadn’t made it to his bloodstream yet. He let himself roll onto the floor and and layed on his back and got hold of himself while Kayla looked on, utterly amused. “Oh, baby. See, thass why I love you. Queen Sweetness!”
She joined him on the floor and sat astride him across his crotch. “You do love me.”
“I do,” he panted from the laughter.
“You keep saying I’m the only woman you ever really loved, but I don’t think that’s true.”
“What are you talkin’ about, you know you are.”
“Nuh-uh. We just talked about Ava not two minutes ago.”
“I don’t love her, Kayla!” Steve got up on his elbows, but the room spun, so he fell back down and groaned. “Why would you say that?!”
“Listen, Drunky. I know you don’t love her or any of them anymore, give me a lil’ credit! I SAID, I’m not the only girl you’ve ever loved. I was there when you were getting over Britta, you loved her. And you loved Marina once. And you loved Ava. I hate her.”
“Her we go.”
“But thass ok, iss in the past. And iss ok that I hate her. An’ if she ever comes near you again I’m gonna scratch my nails down her face and pull her f*cking hair out.” Steve couldn’t help it, her ferocious covetousness of him made him hard.
“Ok, down girl. Yes – I don’t know why we’re goin’ here, but yes – I once loved them.” He used air quotes with his arms out at his side, “past tense.” Then he brought them in and stroked her thighs. “But not like I love you. It’s not even close to the same kind of love.”
“Different how? They’re all so similar, and completely different from me. The three of them … they were exciting. I’m not exciting.”
“Thass not true.”
“I want you to be honest, Steve. You had this crazy exciting life when you met all of them. They were like these dark, mysterious seductresses.” It took a lot to get those big words out, because she was full-on drunk now. I’m not that. If they were such turn ons, then what about me ever turned you on?”
“Are you kiddin’ me? It’s who you are that turns me on, baby.”
“No,” she bounced on top of him in frustration. “I’m the furthest thing from dark and mysterious. All of them were these dangerous girls that just ooze sex an’adventure. I’m not a seductress. I’m … sweetness. I’m the safe, homey girl next door. After them, how is it that you one day found yourself wanting me? What about me turns you on? Whass attractive about me?”
Steve sat up and Kayla moved to his side. “That, Kayla. All of that that you aren’t is what’s attractive about you.” She was getting frustrated, so Steve tried again. “Sweetness, I spend most of my time trying to control myself with you. You lick those lips of yours, and I feel it in my groin.” Kayla smiled, and Steve was glad he was on the right track with what she wanted to know. “I love how you’re always touchin’ me. I never had any kinda connection with anyone until you. Your hands are on me all the time. Iss not even always ‘bout sex, iss even when you’re juss layin’ up against me when we watch TV, or you’re playin’ with my hair. You do it with everyone you know, you have to show them you care about ‘em with your touchy feely. When you touchy feely me, I have to control my dick so it behaves.”
“What else?”
“Your ass. Your round, perfect ass. And I love watching your tits bounce when I’m goin’ at you.” Kayla licked her lips and didn’t even know she did it. “Jesus, you just did it. You licked your lips, and now I’m hard again.” Kayla blinked slowly, his words making her insides melt. “And those eyes. They’re the sexiest part of your body. The way they look at me. They’re sweet, and they’re sexy. And they love me. They see my soul. Kayla rubbed her thumb against her husband’s lips. “Oh, baby. you are the most honestly sexual person I know. There was this woman in Vegas before I got here, she was a stripper. Tits hangin’ outta her thing, an’she tried to get me to f*ck her.” Kayla cocked her head sideways in obvious question. “I was hiding against the side of a building, she came out the back door.”
“Ah. Got it.”
“In the world I knew, a lot of the girls were like that. That’s the sexy they were. In your face. Superficial. Nothing ever went deep. It’s not just ‘cause I love you. Your sexiness is powerful. It’s … soulful. You don’t have to try. You just are.” Kayla’s eyes were dewey. Steve didn’t know if it was entirely her or partly the alcohol, and he didn’t care. “Is that a good answer?”
She kissed him with love and heat, and he had to admit it, he was amazed she hadn’t fallen over in a stupor by now. “For a man as drunk as you are, you find the most beautiful words.”
“It’s real.”
“I know.”
“And, yeah, I’m real drunk.”
“Me, too.” She went back to her previous position straddling him as he held up the couch and kissed him again. They made out that way for several minutes. “Is that what makes our love different?” she asked as she kissed her way down his neck to his collarbone. “Is that what makes it feel like the only love you’ve ever felt?”
“No,” he sighed as her wet mouth made his skin prickle with heat. “Thass just something you know when you feel the real thing.” Kayla rubbed her hands up Steve’s chest under his tee-shirt and felt the raised ink of his dagger with her fingertips. “The real connection – for the very firss time. The forever feeling.” He tipped her chin up to kiss him some more. Then he caressed her face and looked her in the eye. “Baby, I thought I loved all of ‘em. And the guy callin’ himself Patch before I jumped into him last month loved Ava. But he didn’t know any better, ‘cause he didn’t remember. When I felt what I feel for you, it was intense. It was so emotional that it’s like staring at the sun. They never burned like the sun was inside me. You’re inside me. You own me.”
Kayla pulled her cami over her head in a mad rush. “Then gimme what’s mine!” She crushed her lips to Steve’s and searched out his tongue with hers. Steve moaned into her. He wanted to take off his tee-shirt, but he couldn’t stop tasting her. His hands roamed all over her naked back, slid down beneath the waistband of her pajama pants and underwear, and squeezed. She started rocking against him, and he couldn’t help thrusting. “I’m wet for you!”
“I want it!” He held her firmly by her back and layed her down before him. Tore off his white tee shirt, then pulled at her bottoms. As soon as he got them off, he parted Kayla’s knees into a butterfly and began licking her hotly. Her moans were immediate and loud, then she began holding them in just in case the walls were thinner than anyone let on. Steve loved the sounds she made. He loved knowing that he made her sound that way. Somewhere beneath the haze Steve knew that if he wanted to hear more of it without anyone else hearing it, too, that they were going to have to move.
It took some impressive control in his drunken state, but Steve pulled away and got his wife up off the floor. “Come on,” he said. They stumbled into the bedroom, closed the door, and Steve sat heavily on the little recessed bench. He pulled Kayla to him by her ass, lifted up her left leg and threw it over his shoulder as she held onto him and began licking her again. This time when Kayla started moaning, Steve looked up at her. The sight was so erotic. But then he saw something else. Something he’d never really seen before, and it made him leak cum from his tip. “Kayla,” he rasped. “Look.” He nodded his head to his left. The vision that met her when she turned her head made her gasp. It was their reflection in the full length mirror from the open bathroom door. All they could do was stare at themselves staring back.
Kayla watched in fascination as she slowly rocked her hips toward him. Steve watched, too. He watched his tongue dart out to taste her. The effect on him was pure, unbelilevable need for sex.
“More,” Kayla whispered in a tone that dripped with every bit of sexuality present between them.
Steve pulled her into him again with just his right arm and watched his tongue lick a path up her slit. He did it again, this time flicking her clitoris with the tip of his tongue while his fingers explored her delicate folds. He moaned with her, this time, helpless to the power of the imagery in the mirror.
The tequila was intoxicating, but it was nothing compared to how drunk she was on the sex between them. She’d never watched herself have sex before, and she knew just from the reactions of her husband below her that Steve hadn’t either. It was a new experience for both of them, and that knowledge made her feel … powerful. A surge of need infused her. With one hand against the wall and another gripping her husband’s shoulder, she gyrated herself into his tongue and demanded more.
Steve growled into her and began licking with abandon. Her moans and whimpers spurred him on, their vantage point so sexually carnal. Watching his tongue disappear inside of her made him insane. He couldn’t help it when he took his cock in his hand and began to stroke in rhythm with Kayla’s gyrating hips, her essence making his palm slick. Their eyes met in the mirror, and the vision was unreal. Kayla watched him pleasure himself and knew he was in a frenzy. “Lick my pussy,” she panted even as she felt the first tremors of her orgasm. “Make me come!” Steve moaned as he licked her harder, sucked on her clit, and pumped his hand furiously over his cock. “Please … please …”
Kayla came apart and watched as her body quaked and jerked against him. “Oh … God!” She couldn’t tear herself away from what she was seeing in the mirror, even as the waves of pleasure crashed her against him. Her legs were too shaky now to stand any longer, but Steve couldn’t stop the strokes. He could feel the tingle in his spine and wanted to come. Kayla sensed how bad he wanted to explode and wanted to feel him inside her before her climax began to ebb. She stayed his hand and began to guide herself onto him, but he stopped her.
“No … watch … I want both of us to watch it!” Steve turned her around roughly and pulled her down to his lap.
“Yes! I want it!”
Kayla lowered her slick walls around Steve’s thick shaft and let out a loud whimper at how he filled her. This was not a position they used often, which only added to the eroticism. Steve wrapped his arms around her and molded his palms to her breasts before quickly rocking her back and forth over his cock. He kissed wetly down her spine as he rubbed his thumbs over her erect nipples, the impulses making direct contact from there to her core. Kayla’s clitoris was too stimulated to be touched, but Steve’s tip was teasing her g-spot with every thrust. She leaned back just slightly, and that was enough to light those nerves on fire. Steve watched Kayla’s face in the mirror and knew he was brigning her back to the edge. He felt her try to get more stimulation and was desperate to give it to her. He leaned back as far as he could against the wall, brought her with him, and heard her tone change when her climax built. The sex was incredible, and Steve reveled in the heady knowledge that Kayla was about to come again.
Kayla had never felt so high. Steve felt so good inside of her. The sex, the connection, the way he loved her, and the way he knew her body. Kayla watched it all in the mirror and knew this was some of the best sex she’d ever had. She wanted to tell him to f*ck her, but she had no words, the sex was that intense. All she could do was listen to her husband’s coital grunts and feel how good it was.
Steve had to come. He couldn’t take another moment. “Watch!” he commanded. “Watch me come!” Just then Steve felt himself finally lose control. His cum exploded from his body in unspeakably satisfying lurches as Kayla continued her own frenzied pace. He squeezed Kayla’s breasts and bit at her shoulder with his final, powerful spurt and saw her freeze. “I love you, baby,” he panted.
Kayla couldn’t speak as she watched herself come. She held on to Steve’s strong arms still wrapped around her as her body jerked. Steve felt her vagina pulse around him and watched as the pleasure washed over her face.
“Sweetness … Sweetness …” Steve’s whimpers were loving even as the eroticism continued to stare back at them. Finally, Kayla couldn’t hold her head up to keep looking and layed it back against her husband’s shoulder. Steve caressed his hands over her belly and breasts and kissed the side of his face as she finished trembling.
They continued to sit there for several moments while they caught their breaths. Steve felt like jelly. He let his hand drop heavily and smiled when Kayla took it into her own. She dug the back of her head into the crook of his shoulder where it still lay and cooed at him. It sent immense pleasure into his soul.
“Did you just burrow into me?”
“Mm-hmm. You feel so good.”
“Baby …” They both knew they should get up, but neither of them could move. “We just had drunk sex.”
“And watched.”
Steve felt a stir with that statement. “It was a first, Sweetness. A real first.”
“I loved it.”
Steve smiled. “I know. That’s what made it so sexy. Watching you enjoy it.” Then he whispered. “I wanna do it again.”
Kayla smiled like a vixen. “Me, too.”
The sex sobered them, but as they cleaned up the tequila crept back over them. “I win,” Kayla announced as she brushed her teeth.
“I admit it, you lasted longer than I thought you would. But you’re still drunker right now than I was after my last shot.”
“You ah sho fur ov’it,” she said with a mouthful of toothpaste. Steve laughed and told her to try again in English.
Kayla giggled at herself and rinsed her mouth. “I said, you are so full of it. I’m not drunk anymore.”
“Yes, you are.”
“Ok, fine, I am. So are you. And you know what that means?
“It means there’s no more tequila.”
“It means you’re Super Sex Man.” Steve snorted. It was almost as funny as Queen Sweetness. “You know why?”
“No I don’t, baby, but damn if you’re not the cutest drunk that ever walked this earth.”
Kayla loved this and wrapped her arms around Steve’s neck. “It’s becaue alcohol makes it really hard to get it up. I know this, Steve, I’m a doctor.” She said it so matter-of-factly, only adding to her adorableness. But it seems to have the opposite effect with you. The drunker you are,” she announced in admiring marvel, “the harder you seem to get. How do you do that?”
“I do that, baby? Because you are irresistible.”
“Yes,” she smiled. “I am.” Then they kissed, the tequila on their tongues replaced with the freshness of minty toothpaste. “Let’s take a bath.”
“Now?”
“Yep.” She stepped to the oversized, clawfoot tub and stumbled a bit as she turned on the faucet.
“Ok, Sweetness, you’re plowed. No tub for you.” He leaned over and turned the water back off.
“I am not plowed, and you are a party pooper.”
“Oh, so you wanna have a party in there?” he leered.
“Steve. Sometimes a bath is just a bath. It’s not always sex romp.”
“I see.”
“Besides, this might be the biggest bathtub we’ve ever had at our own private disposal. It would be too bad if we went home tomorrow and didn’t have the chance to use it, don’t ya think?”
Only in their altered states would the concept of going home tomorrow be unfortunate. The truth was, though, that the minute Steve saw the thing this morning he wanted to get into it with her. It was very modern with a raised side-faceing faucet and was clearly made for couples. “So, you’re saying live it up. That’s what you’re saying?”
“Turn on the water, Steve.”
“Yes, Queen Sweetness.” Now it was Kayla’s turn to giggle.
Steve turned the water back on, made some bubbles with the shower gel, and had to admit that when the hot water surrounded him it felt fantastic. Kayla got in on the other side, and it felt a little like they were in two different zip codes.
“This thing is huge,” she said. She dipped her head back and let her hair fan out below her before coming back up to settle in.
“Baby, I’m Super Sex Man, it’s true, but my dick doesn’t reach that far.”
“Nice,” she said.
“All part of the service.”
“That’s right. To the queen.”
“Always.”
They relaxed against the ends of the tub and just enjoyed the relaxing scent of the bubbles and warmth of the water as they caressed each other with their feet. After a while, Steve’s mind wandered to what she’d told him about her time without him in LA.
“Baby?”
“Hmm?” she said sleepily.
“I was thinkin’ about you in the tub while I was away.” Kayla smiled. “What made you decide to go to med school?” Kayla raised her head to look at him but didn’t answer right away. “You were an RN. You had plenty of job opportunities, right? I know how hard you worked in nursing school. I can’t imagine what it took for you to do this as a single mom.”
Kayla nodded. “It was hard. Took me a lot longer, too.”
“So what made you stick with it?”
Kayla shrugged. “I wanted to do more. I wanted to be more. For Stephanie. And for myself, too.
“It wasn’t for the better paycheck?”
Kayla shook her head. “No, and it definitely wasn’t for the better hours. The higher pay certainly helped, though, that’s for sure. But it wasn’t the reason, really. I just felt like I had more to offer. I wanted to make a bigger difference.”
“I’m so proud of you, Sweetness.” Kayla’s expression was so soft and beautiful. “I really am.”
“Thank you,” she said softly. “I love you for it.”
Kayla leaned forward a little and took Steve’s foot in her hand. She rubbed the top of it like she had on their September 5th wedding night, and Steve became a puddle. “Mmf … baby, that’s so good.” She was happy to see her husband feeling good.
Steve was lost in relaxation with his eye closed when Kayla’s brows knitted together.
“Can I ask you something?” she said.
“Uh oh. Sounds serious,” he mused. When she didn’t reply right away he opened his eye. “What is it?”
“Last night,” she said very softly. “We fought.”
“Yeah,” he replied guardedly.
“Why did you panic?”
Steve took a beat, then said, “Real bad fight.”
`
Kayla chose her words very carefuly, because she didn’t want to scare him off of this topic. “Your blood pressure spiked, I could feel it in our pulse.”
“That wasn’t real. It was that side effect.”
Kayla nodded. “Yeah, but it came from somewhere. You got so upset.” Her voice was concerned and comforting, and between that and the effect of the alcohol, Steve wasn’t able to resist her.
“Come here. Lay against me.”
Kayla shifted positions and let Steve pull her back against his chest. He nuzzled the side of her head and kissed her sweetly. “I got scared, baby.” He caressed his hands over Kayla’s belly and grounded himself for this conversation in the softness of her breasts. “Real scared.”
Kayla was so pleased that her husband was opening up to her on this but still proceeded gently. “It’s not the first time we’ve done that.”
Steve sighed. “Kayla, you don’t know how scared I get when we fight. Every time. I know in my heart that we’re gonna be ok, but my head messes with me. Part of me is always terrified you’re gonna come to your senses one day. That the love potion number nine is gonna wear off if I f*ck up bad enough.”
“Can’t happen.” They were silent for a moment while Kayla digested this. And she just knew something wasn’t adding up. “Steve … this wasn’t the same. You were desperate to make up. What was different this time? What scared you, baby?”
A pain stabbed at Steve’s heart. And before he could stop it, the words tumbled out. “That I could be happy with the other you. You said if you died I could survive like you did. And I could be happy with the other me. I realized you were right, because before you got here, I was living with and loving you. And you were loving me back. And I … I felt like I was … Like I was …”
“Shh … baby, shh.” Steve held her a little tighter and rubbed his foot against her calf.
“Jesus, baby, it felt like I was breakin’ a vow. Like I was already doin’ somethin’ wrong.” He couldn’t say cheating. He wouldn’t. “I don’t want to go on with the other you. I want my whole Kayla. I don’t care if your body is 19 or 60, I want the woman that’s in here,” he kissed the top of her head. “I want my wife. Who remembers all of me. But I already went on without you. For two weeks before you got here. I guess I just couldn’t handle it and panicked.”
Kayla took a deep breath. She didn’t have a good answer for this. And she never would. They’d gone over this conversation so many times. It was a fact of the slipstream, and it wasn’t going to change. They were going to land when and where the slipstream landed them, and all they could do was submit to it until Rolf fixed it. If he ever did.
“Steve. If something happens to me—”
“Stop.”
“—No, listen to me. You need to hear this.”
“I don’t.”
“You do,” she insisted. “If something happens to me, or if I never show up, I want you to find happiness. Go to the other me. Love me, let me love you back, and make a life. For as long as you can.”
“I don’t want to go on without you.”
“But you will. You have to. We don’t know what dying in the slipstream really means, so all we can do is continue to live. You have to find me and be happy.”
“I want you to do the same thing. I’ll be jealous of myself—”
“Believe me, I will, too.”
“But … do it.”
“And, I want you to promise me something,” Kayla finally said. “I want you to promise me that from now on you don’t let it scare you like this. You can be upset about it, I’m upset about it, too. But you can’t let it do this to you, anymore, ‘cause you’re going to give yourself a heart attack.”
“I’ll try, Sweetness.”
“Ok. I’ll try, too.”
Steve looked down at her. “What do you mean?”
“I panicked last night, too, and almost passed out. Steve sat up straighter at this. “I was so desperate after they took you away that I worked myself up into the same thing. It took a lot to calm myself down.”
“Jesus, Kayla, we don’t need those goons, all we need is to panic a few more times like that, and we’ll do the job all by ourselves.” Kayla chuckled, but it had no humor in it, because he was exactly right.
Kayla tunred her head for a kiss, and he gave it to her. “Mine,” he whispered to her. Kayla nodded and kissed him back.
“Yours.”
“Kayla rubbed her hands up and down over Steve’s knees on either side of her. “So, what’s the first thing you want to do when we get home?”
“I wanna pick up my baby boy and kiss his head and tell him his Papa loves him.” Kayla stopped what she was doing and Steve sensed the mood shift. “What did I say?”
“Nothing, I just … that’s not the home I meant.”
Steve was confused. “What home did you mean?”
Kayla turned her head toward him. “This one,” she huffed a small chuckle. “I meant when we get out of the hotel room and get back to the house.”
Steve decided that it was time for the question keeping in his head from earlier to unkeep now. “Sweetness? Do you want to go home?” He’d never dared ask it, and Kayla had never dared really allow herself to answer it even to herself. The truth was that liquid courage, even as its half-life drains away, is aptly named. So, they both let themselves be courageous. “Don’t tell me what you think I want to hear. Tell me the truth.”
“I … I don’t really know the truth. I’ve never let myself know it.”
“You know it, Kayla. It’s in you. Tell me.”
Kayla got very sad. It happened that quickly. Then she shook her head. “I can’t.”
Steve took her hand and laced his fingers into hers. Then for the second time tonight he said, “Try.”
“I miss Joe so much. We’ve never jumped to him. I don’t understand why we’ve never jumped to him. It’s shared time, why don’t we go there?”
“We did once. For about ten seconds.”
Kayla nodded. “But didn’t get to see him. I want to see our baby. But if we’re really careful, we can make him again. Travelling through time like this has made me see how much we could have had if we knew then what we know now. I … I do want to go home. But … I want to go back to the one we made in 1987. I want us to make that life. Have Stephanie. And then make Joe when it’s time.”
Steve understood the allure of that home they’d made. They were insanely happy there. And going back there was the only way they’d ever be able to have Emily back. They could make their other two children in any other timeline, but Emily was gone forever unless they went back to that one. Which was all a pipe dream, anyway, because they knew it wasn’t possible to jump back into a previously abandoned jump. “Are you going to be disappointed when we jump back to our real home in our real time?”
“No!” She said it a little too quickly, though, and Steve wasn’t so sure. “Steve, that’s our life,” she insisted. “For better or worse, that’s the life we’ve shared, and I won’t be disappointed to live it with you for the rest of our lives. But doesn’t that feel more like the pretender to you? The farther away we get from it, the more 1987 feels … right.” Steve couldn’t put his finger on it, but she was right. It did feel like more of the stars in that timeline aligned than those in their proper one did. And the fact that he felt that way made him damn uncomfortable. “I do want to go home. But if I got to choose, then I’d want all my children. So, if that means going home to a different timeline than we left, then that’s what I’d choose.” Steve didn’t say anything right away. “Are you mad at me?”
“Of course, not,” he assured her. “I’m just thinkin’ about what you said.”
“Good thinking or bad thinking?
“Thinking thinking. I want her back, too, Sweetness. If we could have ‘em all, I’d give anything. I just don’t know if it’s healthy for us to think like that. Kayla agreed that he had a point. Steve made a mental note. They had to get to Rolf. He’d up and disappeared on them, and the unanswered questions were beginning to pile up. Steve exhaled heavily. “Baby, ya know what I miss most about home? Other than our kids and family? Cellphones.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Hell no. I mean, 2001 has ‘em. But most of the time we don’t. I miss technology. Did you know they don’t even make floppy disks anymore?”
“In 2009? Yes, I knew that. I’m not that tech illiterate.”
“The smartphone sittin’ on my nightstand at home has more on it than the computer in our house here in 2001.” Just as Steve said that his hand brushed over Kayla’s nipple, and she whimpered a small groan at both his actions and words.
“I love what you just said,” she said in her lower register.”
Steve’s penis stirred at her own clear stirrings. “What I said?”
“Our house. All I ever wanted and pined for for all the years I lived in it was for my little house to be our little house. And now it is.”
Steve pulled Kayla more snugly against him and kissed her neck. She gasped, and Steve knew he could keep doing this, and she’d keep reacting. “Sweetness, we know how bad it is when that magnified stress or whatever it is hits us, right? Do you wonder what magnified sex would be like?”
“Hmmp. How do you know we haven’t already had it?”
Steve hadn’t thought of that. Their actions on the plane to Hawaii immediately came to mind. It was the best sex he’d ever had when she went own on him like that. And their wedding night and honeymoon, too. Kayla had said pregnancy sex can be like that, but what if it was the effects of being in the slipstream?
“I think we should experiment.”
“Yeah, weren’t se supposed to be doing that, already?” Kayla chided. “What happened?”
“We fell down on the job, baby. We’re bad, we’re going to have to punish each other.”
“Ok. What kind of experimenting do you want to punish each other with?”
“I want to watch while I f*ck you in the mirror some more.”
Kayla let out a breath. “I like when you talk dirty to me. I want you do do more of that.”
“Yeah, what else? What else should we play with?”
“I want you to have multiple orgasms.”
“I want that, too. I want you to try to make that happen.”
“I want to play Truth or Dare.”
“Truth or Dare? How about sex poker instead?”
“Sex poker?”
“Yeah, it’s like strip poker, only every losing hand gets me sex.”
Wait, every losing hand gets you sex? As in I’m going to lose all the hands?”
“That’s the plan, baby.”
“What if you lose a hand?”
“Then you get me f*ucking your brans out.” Kayla reached behind her and began stroking Steve’s penis, which was already quite erect. “Aren’t you tired, baby? This hot bath is so relaxing. Lots of bubbles. And it’s past your bedtime.”
“Mm-hmm. Very tired.”
Steve squeezed her nipple gently, and Kayla put her hand on his as he did it. “Is this how you felt at night … when you lived here without me … after a long day in class? At work?”
Kayla nodded. She felt Steve’s hardened erection push against bottom and smiled when he rubbed up against her. “Is that for me?” she cooed.
“Yeah, it is.” He was playing with Kayla’s nipples, remembering what she’d told him about her fantasies in the bathtub. “Pretend I’m there,” he said in provocative seduction. “Like you used to back then. Show me how you thought of me.”
“I thought you got a pretty good eyeful already tonight.”
“And you were on fire. Light it again.”
“You want me to show you?” she teased. “How I’d touch myself?” Her tongue darted out to lick her lips. “Make myself come?”
Steve swallowed. “Show me, baby. I wanna see it.”
Kayla nestled against Steve’s erection and was pleased when his breathing quickened. She closed her eyes and let her hands slowly glide up her belly. Steve looked down at her and mentally urged her to move that hand higher. “I’m with you. Do you feel me?”
“Mm-hmm,”
“I’m feeling those perfect tits of yours. I wish I could taste them. Do you feel me touching you?” Kayla used both of her palms to rub her breasts.
“I feel you. I love when you touch me.”
“When I taste your nipples, you always arch against me. Did you know that?” Kayla pinched her nipples, and Steve watched as her chest rose with the arch of her back. “I wanna make you wet, Kayla.” He couldn’t help himself, he had to have her skin on his lips and suckled against the spot between her neck and shoulder that made her crazy. She exhaled a whimper. “Are you wet for me?” She nodded. “Show me. Slide those fingers into your pussy and show me.” Kayla lifted her legs and draped them over the sides of the footed tub. Then Steve watched her drop her right hand to her thigh and run it up to her center beneath the water. He couldn’t see past the suds, so Steve reached around with his own right hand over her breasts to feel her ministrations. “Touch yourself, Kayla. I want to feel you make yourself come.” When he felt her fingers slide through her slick lips, he gasped.
“Steve,” she moaned. “Mmm …”
“It’s me,” he breathed. “I’m inside you. I’m making love to you.”
“Yes.”
“Faster. Do it faster.” Kayla began flicking her clitoris. “Do you like this, Kayla?”
“Yes! More! Tell me how you’re with me!”
“I am! I’m loving you! I’m inside you loving you!”
“I miss you!”
“I’m here now!” He wanted to be inside her, but he had to watch her finish. Feel her come. He kept his right hand at her core but he embraced her with the other, interlocking their fingers together below her breasts. “I’m here,” he kissed her neck, then suckled on her earlobe. “That’s my cock inside you! Making you come!”
“Yes!” she panted. “I want it!”
“Tease your clit, baby. Make yourself come. I want you to feel good. I want you to feel so good, Sweetness!”
She did everything he told her to, and it was another new experience. Fantasizing like he wasn’t there, but knowing he was, and being watched by him all at the same time. It was so personal. So intimate. Her climax was nearly upon her, and right now that’s all she could think of was finding it.
Kayla’s soft moans reverberated with the bathroom acoustics as she fingered herself mercilessly. The sounds practically vibrated against Steve’s own arousal. He continued to rub his erection against her, the mutual self-gratification intensely erotic for both of them. “I love watching you, Kayla. God, you’re so beautiful.”
“I’m coming! I’m—I’m coming!” The water sloshed as her orgasm made her buck agaist Steve’s penis. He grunted in stimulation.
“Oh yeah, that’s it, baby! You come for me!”
Steve! Oh … Uh … I … love you!”
“I love you, too. Sweetness, I love you so much.”
Kayla’s head lolled back. She was nearly spent. Which was why Steve was shocked when she used her thighs as leverage to position herself over Steve’s shaft. “F*ck me,” she whispered.
Steve nearly blew his wad just from her lustful command, alone. He wasted no time. He guided himself carefully into her from this rear-facing position as she layed her back against him, and she continued using her thighs to roll her hips into him when he began upwardly thrusting into her. It was hard and fast, and the nerves being stroked from this position were divine. “That’s my cock. Really inside you. F*cking your brains out.”
“Hard! Hard!”
Steve threw his head back, the sensations were too good. He moaned in guttural grunts and let the salacious words fly.
Kayla was high. She wanted to come again and started rubbing her clitoris as they rode each other. The double stimulation was unbelievable. Steve felt what she was doing and lifted his head to watch again. It was so wanton and carnal.
“Faster!” She commanded, panting in desperation. Steve bit down on Kayla’s neck and pinched her nipple, and she erupted. Cum released from her body in wetness hotter than the water around them. She felt the orgasm from her neck all the way down to the bottom of her feet, and it was ecstasy. Kayla’s core pulsed around Steve’s cock, and he knew she felt so good.
Steve still hadn’t come. His need to release was desperate now, but he couldn’t quite reach it. “F*ck!” he grunted. The pleasure ran from his penis all the way into his groin and out the top of his head, but he couldn’t help still whimpering with need.
Kayla loved how much he wanted her. How much he needed her. How much he needed to love her. She was out of her own head, but she needed to give her husband the release his body so badly needed. She reached down to where they were connected. She massaged his ballsac, eliciting desperate moans from him. She rubbed hard at the gland beneath his balls, and it was the final piece Steve needed to send him tumbling over the edge.
Steve came hard, semen shooting out of his cock and into Kayla in hot, thick spurts. It was rapture. He didn’t know how the delirium of his bliss could have been of this world.
Kayla’s vaginal muscles continued to pulse in aftershocks, and she clenched herself hard around Steve to make his orgasm as intense as she could. Steve bucked at the overstimulation, and Kayla smiled. “Do it again,” he rasped. “I wanna feel it again.” Kayla clenched again, and this time she knew it was the last one she’d be able to give him, because she was spent. His dick sputtered one last time, and now it had to have a break. “One more for you, too,” Steve said as he flicked Kayla’s clitoris. Her body convulsed, then she collapsed in a heap. Steve kissed her while she whimpered.
Kayla finally raised her hips, and Steve pulled out of his wife and rolled her nestle her side against him. The water had cooled, and she began to tremble. “Baby … we need to get into bed.”
“I don’t wanna move. I can’t.”
“You’ve got to, you’re freezing.”
“Just hold me. I feel so good, I just want to hold on to each other.”
He really didn’t want to get up, either, the intensity of the release taking everything out of him that he’d had left. But if they didn’t get out of the tub they were going to freeze. “Ok, one more minute, baby. Then I’ll hold you warm in our bed, ok?”
“Mm-hmm,” she nodded.
Ten minutes later they were naked in bed, their body heat beneath the down comforter warming them up. “Drunk sex,” Kayla murmured. “I had no idea.”
“About what?”
“That it would be the best sex I’d ever had.”
Steve was surprised. “Yeah? What part?”
“All of it. Watching in the mirror … the position.”
“You like it that way.”
“I love it that way. And I love what we did in the tub. Doing what you told me to do. Next time I’m going to tell you what to do.”
“Your wish will be my command, Queen Sweetness.” Kayla chuckled. “Wait, I thought next time you were going to give me multiple orgasms.”
“I’m gonna work on that, too.”
“Ok, you do that, baby.”
Steve stroked Kayla’s hair off her forehead as she laid against his chest. He would never stop craving her. He would never stop loving her.
They knew this unshared time they were loving each other in, fighting each other in, and making new, significant changes in was going to wreak havoc with the slipstream. But at this moment, neither of them cared. They just loved each other wholly and deeply, their souls clicked into place, with hope that they’d wake up here in the morning.
Kayla sighed sleepily. “Mine,” she said just before she drifted off to sleep.
Steve smiled and held her against him. “Yours.”