Song of the Fireflies

“Stop me if you change your mind,” I whispered and took her earlobe between my teeth, my fingers still moving carefully in and out of her ass. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

An unsteady breath shuddered through her lips and when she didn’t say no, I withdrew my fingers and gently placed the head of my c**k at her entrance. She gasped sharply, and both of her hands began to clench the sheets. I slid myself inside her a little farther, and her whole body became stiff underneath me.

“Ow, ow, ow…,” she whined softly and I stopped.

Her legs were shaking, her hands grasping even more of the sheet into her fists. Her cheek lay pressed against the mattress, her lips parted and her breath getting heavier.

“I can stop, baby,” I said gently, wanting her to know that it was OK, that I wouldn’t be disappointed.

“No, no, don’t stop,” she whimpered.

“But if I’m hurting you…,” I said, worry lacing my voice.

She pushed her ass toward me, taking my c**k a little more. She moaned and her thighs hardened in an instant. Then I saw her hand slip in between her legs.

“No,” I whispered and moved her hand away. “Let me do it.” I began to move my two middle fingers in a firm, circular motion on her clit, and then I felt her open up even more to me, almost every part of her body surrendering to mine. And when she still didn’t tell me to stop, I pushed my c**k deeper inside her ass. God, she was so tight, constricting around me so hard that I felt my spine quiver. I threw my head back, a loud moan escaping my lips.

It didn’t take long and I succumbed to an intense climax. A deeper moan reverberated through my chest, and I pulled out and came on her backside. Bray collapsed onto her belly, and I went down beside her. I kissed along her spine, her shoulders, and her cheek as it lay pressed against the pillow. I combed her wet hair away from her neck with my fingers and kissed her there. And then I gently rolled her over onto her back and planted kisses along her collarbone and her throat and her br**sts.

With her head tilted to the side, Bray smiled over at me.

“What is it?” I asked, hiding my impatience. I just wanted to know why she was smiling like that.

She reached her right hand over her body and touched my face. She traced her index finger lightly down the bridge of my nose and brushed the backs of her fingers down my cheek. “I’m just happy,” she said. “No matter what’s going on out there. Or what’s waiting for us. I’m happy right now.”

I smiled back at her and took her hand into mine and laid it on my chest.

“But that will take some getting used to,” she said with a smile in her voice.

“Did it hurt?” I asked, worried now that maybe she’d endured the pain just so that I could get off. “I mean, I know it had to hurt some, but—”

She shook her head. “It hurt a little, but I liked it, too.”

I breathed a small sigh of relief and then looked up at the ceiling.

“Though…,” she started to say in a “nevertheless” manner, and my head fell back over to one side to face her, “… I doubt I’ll ever be able to get off like that.”

A blushing smile cracked in my face and I let out a small laugh. Then I rolled over onto my side, pulling her naked body against mine. I kissed her shoulder before I nuzzled my head next to hers.

“Say no more,” I said, as my free hand slid down her belly and toward her inner thigh. I pulled her legs apart and took my time getting her off with my fingers.

* * *

Sunlight poured in through the crack in the curtain from the office window the next morning. I remembered that Tate planned to leave first thing after the bank opened, so when I glanced up at the clock on the wall and saw that it was already noon I woke up quickly the rest of the way.

I shook Bray’s shoulder gently. “Bray, baby, get up.”

It worried me that Tate might’ve already left; I didn’t hear any voices in the house except from the television.

I crawled off the couch bed and got dressed pretty quickly. Bray followed, though she wasn’t nearly as awake as I was. Her eyes were still heavy, and she seemed out of it as she clasped her bra behind her and pulled her shirt over her head.

“I hope he didn’t leave already,” I said.

Bray followed me out of the room and into the den. Tate and Jen were still there. And so was Caleb. Adam was still there, too, and they were all staring at the television.

Bray and I stopped cold in our tracks behind the couch when we saw our faces on the television screen. I clutched Bray’s hand. She was shaking.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Elias

“Elias Kline’s car was found abandoned on Luther Road near the Charlotte County fire station last evening. He and Brayelle Bates are wanted for questioning in the death of Jana McIntyre, whose body was found near the Ocoee River in Georgia last month. Authorities believe…”

I let the rest of what the reporter was saying fade into the back of my mind somewhere.

Everyone simultaneously turned and looked at Bray and me, wide-eyed and as speechless as we were. I felt Bray’s fingernails digging into my hand, and I could feel her heartbeat pounding through my palm. Or maybe it was mine.

“It was an accident,” Bray blurted out.

“Holy shit, you’re wanted for murder?” Jen said. She was turned around fully on the couch facing us, her knees pressed into the cushions. I couldn’t tell whether or not she was disturbed by it or fascinated.

“Questioning, not murder,” Tate corrected her.

“I knew it,” Caleb said, smirking. “I mean I didn’t really think that was it. It was a joke. Damn. But a deal’s a deal.” He held out his hand to Tate sitting next to him. “Pay up, bro.”

“Subtract it from what you’re going to owe me after we get to Corpus Christi.” Tate never took his eyes off us. “What happened?” he asked, looking straight at me.

“Just what Bray said. It was an accident.”

“If it was an accident, why’d you run?” Caleb asked.

Bray burst into tears. I pulled her into my arms.

“We ran because we didn’t think anyone would believe us,” I said, holding Bray’s head in my hand, pressed against my chest. “It was self-defense. But the girl stumbled back too far, tripped, and fell over the edge.”

“The edge of what?” Adam asked. He looked far more nervous than anyone, his mouth partially agape, the whites of his eyes beginning to show.