Landon follows me and calls after me nicely. I don’t respond. My inner child is screaming at me ‘WARNING WARNING WARNING’. The morning feels muggy and sticky already, that same air that I’ve come to resent.
“Lucy!” he calls after me again.
“Why am I even here?” I say, reaching the vending machine to buy a drink to cool me down. “What do I do now?”
“You stay a few nights with me and leave a free woman. I’m not holding you here.”
“Yes you are!”
“No, I’m not, Luce. You can go when you please.”
“You begged for me to come with you.”
“I know. I know I did. Let’s not make a scene here. Please come back in the room. We can figure this out.”
An older couple sharing a cigarette beside the run-down pool look up at us.
“Lucy,” he insists.
“I don’t care what these people think. Why the fuck should I care? That sign’s right. This is fucking death-row and I don’t want to be back here with you being sentenced to it.”
He shoos me away and walks back to the room. “I’m not indulging you here.”
“Indulge me in what exactly?” I follow him, craving an argument I know usually comes with Todd. I’m searching for some kind of sick relief that comes through yelling. Landon doesn’t let in.
“Indulge you in an argument, Luce. I’m happy to talk with you,” he says. “But I’d rather wait until you’ve slept. We’re both exhausted.”
We enter into the room again.
“Tell me what your plan is from here on out. And where exactly do I fit into it?”
“If you lower your voice, I will.”.
“Asshole!”
“Hey, where the hell did that come from? You’ve been off ever since we hit town…”
“Maybe I just think this is a mistake… I shouldn’t have come here… I—I’m going for a walk.”
“I’d rather you didn’t.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t want you walking away when I know you’re still upset. Let’s talk this out a little bit.”
“Talk what out? I came with you, just like you wanted… Why couldn’t we have just stayed back at my place?”
“Tell me exactly what’s wrong. Let’s solve it,”
I forgot how patient this boy is with people he cares for. Still, I press on wanting to find a button of his. I take a pillow and toss it at his chest, fed up with these vague words that are becoming meaningless. He laughs slightly then picks it up and launches it back at me knocking me onto my ass on the mattress.
“Oh, shit! Lucy, I didn’t mean to throw it so hard.” I’m cradled up in his arms, trying to hold back laughter too. For the first time since we hit Jethrow, I feel… Better…
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine, Princess. It was a pillow, not a missile.”
He stands back up, hands in the air and backs away from me. I raise a pillow of my own high above my head and launch it towards him this time, but Landon makes a reactive side step to dodge it.
Thud! Csssh!
The small TV topples off it’s stand and onto the floor, cracking the screen.
“Shit!” I say cupping my hands over my mouth. Landon snickers then looks back at me. His goofy grin makes me laugh too.
“I ain’t paying for that. Bluey gave me money but…Not that much.”
“It’s your fault. You dodged it!”
Landon squints at me then stomps towards me with a jokingly stern look on his face. I squirm and giggle as he gets closer to me. I jump from the bed, running away from him as quickly as possible until he’s under my arm, throwing me over his shoulder. His muscles aren’t merely for looks — He’s tough and manages to lift me up with ease.
“Let me go,” I laugh and pound on his back.
“Nope. I’m sick of this. Over the balcony, you go, Palermo. You’re a liability. Now we can’t watch Wheel of Fortune tonight. You know I love Wheel of Fortune.”
He keeps playing while I’m left breathless and silent over what I just heard. I go limp and docile over his shoulder, letting his strength hold me.
“Lucy? You all good?”
As he goes to set me my feet back down on the floor, I try find words.
“What’d you say just now?” I ask. I know what I heard.
“I’m just joking about the TV, Luce. It’s alright. Damn thing probably didn’t work anyway.”
“No, before that.”
“I don’t know, darlin’. I was just playin’ around. I can’t remember.”
He said Palermo, clear as day. Palermo as in Lucy Palermo… The real me. The name he used to call me when he pretended to be mad at me. My own name. Landon remembers. My Landon’s in there, closer than I thought. Some part of him knows who I am!
“Lucy, you’re scaring me a bit here… If you really don’t want to be here I’m sure I can get you a bus back to California.”
“I’m fine,” I reply, staring at his eyes and hoping for another glint of recognition. “I’ll stay.”
“I think I might be winning you over,” he says, giving me a cocky smile.
“Don’t be arrogant.”
“I’m not arrogant… I just know what I want, and I know how to get it.”
Landon moves quicker than his injuries should have allowed. I found myself tackled onto the bed, twisting and landing on top of him, my breasts pressed into the hard granite of his chest.
And beneath me, I could feel something even harder than granite pressing against my thigh.
“Landon,” I murmur, and his name on my lips was like a prayer of thanksgiving.
“There’s my Lucy,” he grins and moves his lips to cover mine.
I kiss him back with everything I have, the years of pent up passion continue to pour into my frenzied and frantic movements. Our tongues meet
and mingle once more, sparring for dominance as I let my hands wander down the body I had missed for so damn long. Lower and lower I touch, seeking, probing and stroking until my fist closes around the upright evidence of his desire beneath his jeans.
He brakes away from the kiss. “God damn, Lucy… You don’t know what you do to me…”
My hand begins to move of its own accord. “Maybe I do,” I murmur against the hollow of this throat. His skin under my lips is warm and practically pulsing with life. I lick my lips and they come away salty and sweet, so I kiss his throat again, sliding my tongue ever downward, tasting, licking and teasing until I reach the edge of his jeans.
Memories of our times before life pulled us apart filled my mind. Maybe if I could remind him… If I could show him what it was like.
I planned on teasing him into a frenzy, but all those plans went out the window the minute I pulled his jeans south and his cock bobbed free.
I gasp out loud to see Landon’s cock up close. The perfection I remembered was nothing compared to the work of art in front of me. "Oh my god, Landon,” I murmur.
"You like it?"
I close my fist around the long, elegant shaft, and it fits perfectly in my grip, heavy and smooth at the same time. I move my head over the tip before flicking my tongue outward.
“Fuck,” Landon grunts, letting his head fall back on the pillow.
"Are you sure you know how to get what you want?” I ask, darting my tongue around the tip in quick, rapid-fire swirls.
Landon laces his fingers through my hair, pain blooming across my scalp as he takes control. I gasp as he lines up my mouth, pressing his hips upward.
It had been so long since I’d let him use me like this. Maybe he didn’t remember me, but his body knew what to do. My lips close tightly around his shaft as he drives his cock deep.
He grunts and lets out a low, animal moan that inflames me with desire so delicious that my toes curl. Emboldened by his appreciative moans, I begin working his cock in earnest with my tongue, giving myself up to his control as he guides my movements. I am laving the entire shaft, inhaling deeply and taking the entire massive length of him deeper with every motion. His cock pulses with desire, the head hitting the back of my throat as he surges upward, willing me to take him in, to take all of him and swallow every last inch just the way he likes… The way the Landon I knew couldn’t get enough of.