“Do you want that?”
“No. I want to feel you inside me. But you can’t come. You have to promise.”
I inhaled through my nose and exhaled slowly.
“We can still do it, as often as we like!” She lowered her eyes again.
“Only… we have to be careful.”
“You realize that ‘careful sex’ is difficult at best, impossible at worst?”
“It doesn’t have to be,” she said in a small voice. When I didn’t respond after a moment, she continued in a rush, “Please, Paul, I’m really trying to make it work.”
“Yeah, I know,” I said at last. “I’m just frustrated.”
“I can tell.”
“I’m not good at hiding it, am I?”
“No. But I’d still know.”
“Probably,” I admitted. I took another deep breath and tried to find an island of calm.
“I love you,” she said after a moment.
“I love you too.”
“And you know I’ll do anything for you. Anything. Just… not this.”
“I know. I’m not ready for kids yet either.”
“Oh my gosh, no!”
“So, I guess we’ll have to be… careful.” I even managed to say the word without a sneer.
“Thank you. I wish I would just take the pill or use a diaphragm or even get an IUD.” She gave me a sheepish look. “Brooke and I had a long discussion last week, before you got there.”
“Brooke’s smart. You should listen to her.”
“She is. But she isn’t Catholic.”
“No.”
“So we have to do this the Catholic way. And that means you have to pull out.” She ducked her head to look up at me hopefully. “You can come in my mouth. I’ll be your own personal sperm bank.”
“You already are.” I took another deep breath and forced an attitude adjustment.
“Only, do you think we can have a normal night?” she asked. “Stay at a regular hotel, maybe even a nice one, and you can make love to me? I swear, you can kidnap me some other time. Tonight I just want to feel you inside me and know you still love me.”
“I do love you. Sometimes you drive me crazy—”
“Sometimes I drive myself crazy.”
“—but I’ll survive. So, yeah, we can have a normal night.”
“I’ll make it worth your while. I promise.” She ventured a smile. “And since we didn’t get to fool around this morning, I know you have plenty of pressure built up. I’d better relieve you before we do anything else.”
“Oh? You have something in mind?”
“Maybe a repeat of the last time we were here? And I should probably take my dress off. I don’t want semen stains on it. Not that I plan to let any escape, mind you.”
“My own personal sperm bank, huh? And then next week all of you will be, ahem, ‘open for deposits’?”
“Oh, yes, sir! Open for deposits, bent over for deposits, tied up for
deposits, whatever you like. Morning, noon, and night. Five, six, seven deposits a day! And the best interest rate in town.” She grinned coyly. “I’m always interested.”
“Ha! Good one.”
“Are you ready to make your first deposit, Mr. Sperm Donor?” She leaned forward and kissed me. “You know you can’t stay mad at me.”
“I can’t.”
“I thought you’d see it my way.”
“Did I have a choice?”
“Of course! But not anymore. Now you’re stuck with me.”
“I can think of worse things.”
“Worse than a girlfriend who insists on Catholic birth control?”
“Much worse. Besides, it’s only one week a month.”
“I know. I don’t like it either, but…”
“It beats the alternative.”
“It does. Now, if you’ll please get in the car. You owe me a deposit.”
We made it to Knoxville with a minimum of fuss. The weather was beautiful, so we drove with the windows down and the radio blasting. We stopped at the grocery store on the way into town and then opened all the windows in the house to let in the fresh spring air.
We had the place to ourselves for at least another day and a half, so we didn’t have to worry about sneaking around or getting caught. We had sex whenever and wherever we wanted, and my only complaint was that I couldn’t come inside her. Even so, it was more of a challenge than it should’ve been. Christy enjoyed sex almost as much as giving head, and her pussy felt so good that pulling out was usually the last thing I wanted to do.
I was tempted to give her an ultimatum—take the pill or we stop having sex—but that would only start an argument. Her mother was right, she was the most stubborn one in the family. Her father had a pragmatic streak that she clearly hadn’t inherited. I suspected that Rich was the same, but he wasn’t in bed with me at the moment.
Christy looked up in alarm when I shuddered. “What?”
“Nothing,” I lied. “Random thought.”
I silently cursed my imagination and focused on the birth control dilemma. Some part of me wanted to start an argument, to try one more time to get her to see reason. Unfortunately, reason had nothing to do with it, so I couldn’t change her mind with logic. I directed my energy at something positive instead.
“Are you ready for a snack? And then maybe a long soak in the tub with a glass of whiskey?”
“Oh my gosh, you read my mind,” she said, although she wasn’t completely oblivious to my frustration. “But first… thank you.”
“For what?”
“Putting up with me and my nonsense.”
“All part of the package,” I said lightly.
She wasn’t ready to let herself off the hook that easily. “Brooke says I’m being selfish. Wren will too, probably. Not that it’s any of her business either.”
“No. It’s yours and mine. And—”
The phone rang.
“We can talk later,” she said. “Better see who it is.”
I stretched toward the nightstand and snatched the receiver. “Hello?”
“Hey!” Trip said. “Dude, you’re a hard guy to find.”
I mouthed his name to Christy and then said aloud, “Oh?”
“Yeah. I tried calling Christy’s house and left a message. Then I called your parents’, but your mom said you’d left on Saturday. So I tried this number, just in case.”
“Well, you found us,” I said. “We got home yesterday afternoon.”
“Ah, cool. Anyway, why I’m calling… Wren and I are back in Atlanta, at her house. We’re gonna spend the night here. We’ll be home tomorrow night.
Not sure when, but probably late. Wanted to let you know, so you don’t wait up for us.”
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah. I’m just not sure if I’m s’posed to tell you or not. Wren’s in one of her ‘prove she can do it without you’ moods.”
My eyebrows rose with amusement.
“So,” he said into the silence, “we’re gonna hang out with Mark and Leah tonight, and probably Erin.”
“Ah, one of those parties.”
“Right. But you didn’t hear it from me.” In a louder voice he said, “We’re
going to stay here and then come home tomorrow night. Just wanted to let you know.”
I grinned. “Wren just walked in, didn’t she?”
“Yeah. We had a great time, very relaxing,” he added for her benefit.
Then, “Hold on, Wren wants to talk to you.”
“Hey,” she said. “I don’t believe for a minute that he didn’t tell you what’s going on. I have a bone to pick with you, though.”
“Me? What’d I do?”
“Why didn’t you tell us Erin and Leah were in Destin? They were a mile down the beach from us the whole time. We only found out tonight.”
“Sorry,” I said and meant it. “It didn’t even occur to me. I… um… was busy with my mom in Atlanta.”
Christy rolled her eyes. It was a whopper, all right.
“Then I was a little preoccupied once I got to San Diego,” I continued.