Falling Down

CHAPTER SIX

“Lindsey Renee Anderson!”

She knew she was in trouble when her mother used her full name. The pounding on the bathroom door just wouldn’t stop. I don’t have time for this. Zach was due to pick her up any minute.

“What!?” She opened her eyes wide as she leaned over the sink, applying mascara, her mouth a perfectly round “O.”

“Your father and I need to talk to you.”

She stopped mid-stroke with her mascara brush, her eyes narrowing, and she gave an evil look toward the door. Her mouth formed the words, but no sound came out:

“He’s not my father!” There was the pounding again, and this time, her stepfather’s voice.

“Lindsey! If you intend to leave this house at all tonight, I suggest you come out and talk to us!”

I’ll leave if I want to, asshole. She shoved the mascara brush violently back into the container, screwing on the lid and throwing it into her make-up bag. She adjusted the long peasant skirt she was wearing, glancing in the mirror to make sure the white satin shorts she wore underneath didn’t show.

“I’m coming!” She made a kissing face at her own reflection, tilting her head first left, then right. The pink tank-tee she was wearing wasn’t made to be see-through, but without a bra, her dark nipples were clearly visible. Grabbing her purse and slinging it over her shoulder, she pulled the door open and crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“Jeez! Can’t a girl even take a pee without it turning into some committee meeting?”

They all stood there, arms crossed, glaring for a moment, before Lindsey’s mother broke the silence. “You look nice.”

“Thanks.” Lindsey snapped her gum. “So what’s up? Zach’ll be here any minute.” Her parent’s exchanged looks and she knew, then, what they were up to and rolled her eyes. “Oh good god, don’t tell me this is the ‘you can’t date a nee-gro’ lecture again?’” She brushed past them both and headed toward the kitchen.

“It’s not that.” Her mother’s voice followed her, and so did her stepfather’s footsteps. The whole kitchen still smelled like stuffed green peppers, which Lindsey hadn’t touched. She hated green stuff. “It’s just… well, Zach is a little old for you, don’t you think?”

Lindsey snagged a Diet Coke, popping the lid open with a pink-painted fingernail.

“Twenty-two is too old?” She downed half the can in four big swallows and then burped loudly. “Christ, it could be so much worse. He could be fifty-two-lay off already!” Her mother sat at the kitchen table and sighed, glancing up at her stepfather. He just shrugged, shaking his head. Lindsey hid a smile behind her Coke can, swallowing the rest of it. It thrilled her to know that she had backed them into a corner. They were too P.C. to say any more about the fact that he was black, and they couldn’t really soundly object to their four-year age difference.

“Four years isn’t a big deal if you’re, say, thirty, and he’s thirty-four…” Her stepfather was clearly trying to salvage his argument. “But there’s a big difference when you’re eighteen and he’s twenty-two.”

“Really?” Lindsey rolled her eyes, tossing the can into the recycling bin. “Is that the new math? Did I miss that day in school?”

“Honey…” Her mother sighed again, folding her hands on the marred surface of the table. It was the one piece of furniture they’d had since she was a baby, and she suddenly had a memory of her father-her real father-sitting her on the edge of that table, putting a band-aid on her knee after she’d fallen down and skinned it. That can’t be a real memory. I was too young. I must have seen a picture of it or something… But she knew it was. She had only a few memories of him at all, but that was one.

“Wait!” Lindsey held up her hand. She’d heard Zach’s Camaro pull up in the driveway. “Let me save you some breath. You’re worried about me… concerned about my welfare, that’s all. You wouldn’t even be having this conversation with me if you didn’t love me so much. Right?”

“I don’t appreciate your sarcasm.” Her stepfather’s jaw was working in that way it did before he really got mad, and she was glad she was minutes from heading out the door.

“And I don’t appreciate you trying to tell me who I can or can’t see.” Lindsey heard Zach’s footsteps on the stairs. “I’m not going to tell this guy to come back in the year 2020 because you’re afraid of the age difference. That’s just wack!” The doorbell rang. That was her cue. “So tell me, mom… which do you hate most? The fact that he’s black? Or the fact that he’s twenty-two?”

“Which attracts you most?” her stepfather asked, leaning against the doorframe, his arms crossed.

Her mother shook her head, waving her hand in dismissal. “It doesn’t matter. Just go, Lindsey. You’re going to do whatever you want to do. You always have, and you always will.”

“You got that one right.” She edged by her stepfather, heading for the front door and the promise of another night with Zach.

“Lindsey!” Her stepfather’s voice was a warning, but she didn’t stop. When she opened the door, there was Zach, waiting in the dusky light, whistling some tune. He smiled when he saw her, glancing down at her long, flowing skirt, his eyes widening in surprise.

“You look nice.”

She snorted, taking his hand and pulling him down the porch steps. “I’m changing in the car.”

He laughed, shaking his head as he opened the passenger door for her. “Don’t tell me-you’re wearing the ‘come-fuck-me-shorts’ under there?”

“How did you guess?” She was already wiggling the elastic waist of the skirt down over her hips when he slid in, putting the key into the ignition. “Thought I’d give you a great big hint.”

“Damn, girl.” Zach glanced over as she slid the skirt down her slim thighs, kicking it into a ball on the floor next to her sandals and putting her now-bare feet up on the dash. Her toes were painted pink. “You sure do make it hard to say no.”

“I hope so.” She grinned over at him, pushing the button to roll down the window and putting her face up to the breeze. “So where are we going tonight?”

“It’s not far.” He smiled over at her as she turned up the radio, leaning her seat back a little and dangling her arm out the window. Her hand danced in the breeze.

“You’re big on surprises, aren’t you?” The air was warm, even though it was near dark already and she twisted to put her feet out the window, too.

“Do you want me to tell you?”

She contemplated this, chewing her gum. “No.”

“I think you like surprises.” Zach steered the car around a corner.

“Good ones, sure.” Lindsey gave a half-snort, half-laugh. “It’s the bad ones that get me.”

“Like what?” It sounded like a casual question, but she knew better. She could feel herself closing, something in her snapping tight. Telling people about what went on inside Lindsey wasn’t ever part of the deal. The good thing was, it was pretty easy to get most guys to talk about themselves.

“Oh, you know, the usual stuff.” She flipped the radio station. “So have you been overseas yet in this war thing?”

Zach was quiet and for a moment she thought her tactic hadn’t worked. “I’ve been on two tours in Iraq, yes.”

“How was it?”

“Lonely.” He shrugged, and she saw his eyes moving over her thighs and she slid down a little further in her seat. “I spent six months in a submarine, 500 meters under the surface of the Indian Ocean.”

“Six months?” She stared at him, incredulous.

“Actually, eight months on the second tour.”

“But you never saw any action?” She snapped her gum, changing the station again.

Zach reached over and turned off the radio. “I’ll talk about it if you really want me to, but don’t use it to just try and change the subject, okay?”

She flushed, glad for the coming darkness. The next words that came out of her mouth surprised them both. “My father was killed in Iraq.”

“I’m sorry, Lindsey.”

“I was very little.” She shrugged, shocked at herself. There wasn’t one other person in the world she could remember ever speaking those words out loud to. “I don’t remember much about him.”

“It was Desert Storm?”

She nodded, pulling her feet into the car and sitting up. “He was in the army. I guess he got lured in by that whole college education and a free ride spiel.” Zach didn’t say anything, he just drove, but she knew he was listening. “You know, that whole travel to exotic, foreign lands, meet new and interesting people…and kill them?

“I’m familiar with the concept.”

“Except he was the one who got killed.”

Zach shook his head. “There were only about two hundred total U.S. casualties in Desert Storm.”

“Yeah.” She gave him a wry smile. “Talk about bad surprises. But that’s my luck for you…I inherited it from my mother.”

“So it’s been just you and your mom since?”

“My stepdad came into the picture when I was about five or six.”

“You don’t like him very much.”

She turned her face out toward the window. “So, you never said, did you see any action?”

“I was on a fast-attack sub. We had a few hunter-killer missions. That’s what we were there to do.” He glanced over and she felt his eyes on her. “I take it you don’t like talking about your stepfather?”

“Hey, look at that, we’re here.” She leaned forward as he pulled into a parking lot. “Where’s here?”

“Okay, I can take a hint.” Zach opened his door.

She rolled her eyes as she got out, turning her bottom toward him and rubbing the satin seat of her shorts. “Promises, promises?”

“Come on, sexy.” He smacked her behind on the way past, popping the trunk.

“Let’s see if I can top front row seats at Kenny Wayne Shepard followed by an orgasm under the flight pattern of an F-16.”

She raised her eyebrows as he took a guitar case out. “Why…are you planning two orgasms?”

“Could be.” He grinned, slipping his arm around her waist as he led her toward a darkly lit building. She heard music already, a low, steady beat.

She showed her fake I.D. at the door and they went into a little blues bar, smoky and dark inside and packed with people. Zach ordered himself a beer and Lindsey a Coke and she rolled her eyes at that, but drank it thirstily as they searched for a seat near the front of the stage. The band was playing a cover of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Double Trouble and Zach left his guitar on the edge of the stage, giving a nod to the lead singer.

They gave up on looking for a place to sit and Lindsey wrinkled her nose at Zach as she led him out onto the dance floor, but it was too loud for her to ask what was up.

Besides, the music made her want to take her clothes off, and if she couldn’t do that, at the very least, she wanted to be pressed between the sea of bodies, as close to Zach as she could get.

She got her wish. The dance floor was almost as packed as the tables had been.

Wrapping her arms up around Zach’s neck, she rubbed the front of her body against him, shifting her hips into his. His eyes lit up as he watched her, his hands resting at her waist, and she smiled as their bodies moving in easy synch. Most guys she dated did the usual white-boy snap and sway, but her body knew immediately that Zach could really dance.

When the song ended, he dragged her, protesting, off the floor. She flagged a waitress while he was up at the front of the stage, talking to the lead singer during a lull in their set, and ordered three shots of whiskey. Zach turned just as she was about to down the last one, and snatched it from her, making a face.

“Hey!” She protested, grabbing for it.

“No way.” He tossed it back himself, grimacing. “If you want, I’ll get you a beer.” She rolled her eyes and crossed her arms but accepted the beer when the waitress came over with it. Lindsey saw the way the woman looked at Zach, the way she rubbed her ample chest “accidentally” against his arm when she set the beer on the table they’d managed to squeeze in at. The waitress shot her a dirty look when she turned to go, and Lindsey made a face at her back, knowing immediately it was a racial thing.

“Where are you going?” Lindsey grasped Zach’s arm as he headed toward the stage.

He grinned and shook her off. “You’ll see.”

Of course, the guitar case should have tipped her off. She actually thought he might just know the lead singer or something and was dropping it off for him. It hadn’t occurred to her that he was going to play-or sing. He strapped the guitar on, giving her a wink as the band started playing behind him. He’d clearly planned this, and she smiled, tipping her beer at him before taking a long swig.

It was after the first stanza of the song, well into the verse, that Lindsey realized he was singing to her—about her. She looked up at him with wide eyes for a moment, blinking fast. She recognized the song well enough—it was the Fabulous Thunderbirds.

She grinned up at him then, shaking her head, and he winked again, his eyes meeting hers over the microphone. His fingers were long and deft, working the guitar strings effortlessly, and Lindsey watched, a slow burn heating her belly. She’d been attracted to him from the moment she met him, but seeing him up on stage, hearing the low, rough edge to his voice, she wanted nothing more than to find somewhere to get naked with him-fast.

The music was too hot not to move, and she danced near the front of the stage, her eyes on his. He watched her grind her hips around and around, her arms above her

head, her belly undulating with the beat. When the song was over, he thanked the band, and hopped off the stage to join her. She opened her mouth to say something when the waitress sidled in between them, smiling up at Zach.

“You were hot, honey!” The woman’s nails were as long as claws and she trailed one of them down the front of Zach’s shirt like an orange streak, hooking her finger in his belt and tugging slightly. “You can play for me anytime!”

“You itchin’ to leave here on a stretcher?” Lindsey stepped in next to Zach, snatching the woman’s hand away from his belt buckle.

“Go away, little girl.” The woman rolled her eyes, waving Lindsey away and turning back to Zach.

He opened his mouth to say something, but Lindsey stepped in, grabbing the woman’s white, low-cut blouse in her fist. “I’ll kick your ass so hard you’ll have to rent stilts to wipe yourself.”

The woman’s eyes showed fear for a moment and she shook loose, taking a step back and glaring at her. “Are you even legal?”

Zach turned back to grab his guitar case off the stage, “Come on, baby.” He steered Lindsey past the waitress by the elbow. She stopped to grab her beer on the way as he guided her through the crowd. When they got into the parking lot, she glanced up at him and saw he was tight-lipped.

“What did I do?” She frowned as he put the guitar case in the trunk and opened her door for her. “I wasn’t the one being Ms. Uber-Slut…for once!” He sighed, his face softening. “Just get in.”

She did, pouting, putting her beer in the beverage holder and obediently pulling her seatbelt on. Glancing over at him as he started the car, she sighed. “I’m sorry.” He shook his head and gave her a small smile. “Never mind. Let’s go get a burger or something.”

Heartened, she turned towards him, her knee knocking the beer in the holder. It tilted onto the floor and she gasped. “Oh shit!” Her skirt was soaked, and she grabbed the foaming bottle, putting it back into the holder and sopping the floor up the best she could with the material. “I’m sorry!”

“Two sorries in one night.” Zach laughed. “Is that a record for you?” She stuck her tongue out at him, hurt, and held up her skirt. “Damn. I can’t go home in this. Even if it dries, it smells like a distillery.”

“Maybe it’s a sign.” He smiled as he put the car in gear and she smiled back when he reached over and squeezed her hand.

“I think you should throw these in.” Lindsey snapped the elastic on her white satin shorts with a grin, watching Zach throw her skirt into his stacked apartment washing machine.

“Did you get those, too?” He glanced over at her as she slid up onto the bathroom sink, pulling her knee up and resting her chin there.

“Sort of.” Her eyes followed him as he poured in soap and set the timer. “After listening to you tonight, I’d say I need to change my panties…if I was wearing any.” She saw his eyes dip between her thighs and smiled. “So…now what?”

He came to stand between her thighs, slipping his arms around her waist. “So you liked tonight?”

“Yeah.” She slid her arms around his neck, wiggling against him as she wrapped her legs around his waist. “I did. A lot.”

He kissed the top of her head and she felt him breathe deep. “It was hard to beat the other night.”

“Oh I don’t know.” Her fingers worked the buttons on his shirt from top to bottom, and he let her. “I think we can still make it.”

“No F-16’s.” His hands cupped her behind, pulling her in tighter to him. She felt the heat of his cock, already half-hard, and squirmed against it.

“I don’t think we need ’em.” She lifted her face to his to be kissed and wasn’t disappointed. The energy of the night caught between them spread through her as their mouths and bodies met. Her fingers traced his chest and belly, thrilling at the hard ridges and smooth planes as his big hands clenched her behind, pulling her snugly into the saddle of his hips.

The heat and hardness of him teased her, and the already damp crotch of her shorts slipped between her lips as they rocked. She moaned into his mouth, sucking at his tongue and digging her heels into his lower back. Twice she reached for his zipper and he caught her hand, moving it to more neutral territory, all the while exploring her mouth with his.

The ache in her belly slowly turned to fire and she squeezed her legs around him, dancing her hips against his cock just like she had gyrated for him on the dance floor. That made him groan and grip her hair as he slanted his mouth across hers. His response was encouraging and she reached for him again. This time he didn’t say no, and her hand rubbed the length of him through the thick denim, slowly up and down.

“Oh damn.” His words were just breath in her ear and she heard him swallow.

“Lindsey…”

“Just my mouth.” She panted with wanting him, and didn’t even recognize the plea in her voice. “Let me suck you…oh god, please.”

“Just…” Her kiss stopped him and she found his tongue, using hers to tease it, sucking at it like a little cock, making his hips buck into hers. She smiled through their kiss as he lifted her and carried her like that, wrapped around him, out of the bathroom.

The layout of his place wasn’t familiar enough to her, but she knew when he turned right instead of left, pushing through a door, that they were going into the bedroom. It smelled like Zach in here, cool and clean.

There were no words as he kissed her against the wall, not even making it all the way over to the bed in his lust, pressing his full weight onto her. She took it, greedy, grateful, tugging his shirt off his shoulders. The material stuck at the sleeves, where it was buttoned, and he sighed at the annoyance as he let her down and undid them. She pressed the seam of her shorts against her clit as she watched him, rubbing it back and forth there with her fingers. His eyes met hers as he tossed his shirt aside and bent to kiss her again.

Welcoming the weight of him, she pushed her pelvis up, angling, seeking his hard length and finding it with the rock of her hips. He nuzzled his way down her neck, pulling her pink tank-tee up over her little breasts and capturing one of her nipples in his mouth. She sighed happily as his tongue made soft circles there, his fingers finding and squeezing the other one, making it stand up.

Replacing his tongue with his other hand, he rolled both of her nipples as he kissed his way down her bare belly. Lindsey wiggled when he dipped his tongue into her navel, knowing just what he was up to, and she wasn’t having any of it.

“No, you don’t.” She squirmed out from under his weight, turning so she pressed him against the wall. His hands and eyes roamed over her, his fingers moving her shorts aside and she saw his eyes darken at the sight of her shaved pussy. “I told you what I wanted.”

“Do you always get what you want?” Zach let her go and she slithered between his legs, unbuttoning his jeans and working his zipper down. She didn’t answer him-

she was too engrossed in freeing his cock. It was just as beautiful-and big-as it had felt through the denim. Tugging his pants down his hips, she was gratified when he helped her get them and his boxers to his knees, his cock springing free and pointing straight up toward the ceiling.

“More than a mouthful.” Lindsey swallowed, grasping his shaft in her hand and noticing how slender and pale her fingers seemed in comparison to the thick, dark length of him. He was beautifully uncircumcised, the head already leaking a clearish fluid. She rubbed it over her lips like gloss, looking up at him. “Tell me what you want.”

“I want to eat that sweet, bald little pussy of yours, girl.” His thumb moved over her bottom lip, rubbing his pre-cum in there. “Come up here.”

“But don’t you want my mouth?” She teased the frenulum, following the sweet groove with the tip of her tongue. “I’ve been told I’m pretty good at giving head.”

He chuckled. “I bet you have. Now get your hot little ass up here.”

“Nuh-uh.” She took him in her mouth, using her best deep-throating technique to work him back into her throat. It wasn’t easy and she fought her gag-reflex, forcing even more of him in. He groaned, his eyes wide as he watched her pink lips grow taut, enveloping his dark length. Still, she couldn’t make it all the way down on him and she came up for air with a gasp, leaving a slick trail of saliva in her wake.

Her hand didn’t stop, though, and she used it to stroke him from base to tip, easing the loose skin up over the head and down again as she looked at his cock, renegotiating just exactly how she was going to take him.

“I said…” He reached down and grabbed her by the back of her shorts, hauling her around. She gasped, hearing the small sound of the fabric tearing a little, probably somewhere along the seam, and she squealed as he situated her hips over his face.

“Come here.”

“Zach!” Her hand never left his cock as he lifted her. It just twisted around the shaft as he turned her, and she squeezed him hard when his fingers shoved her shorts aside and probed between her lips. He used one hand to spread her open, his fingers tracing her pink folds of flesh, while he kept his other arm wrapped tight around her hips to keep her steady. It was a great distraction and she found it more and more difficult to concentrate on the cock she had taken again into her mouth.

He carried her that way toward the bed, her lips and tongue working his cock, his face buried in the soft wetness of her pussy. He hummed gently over her clit as she sucked him, wrapping both arms around her hips and ass and pulling her up snug against his mouth. All the blood rushed to Lindsey’s head and she flushed with it, hanging onto his cock, dizzy and upside down.

When he eased her down onto the bed, he rolled so she was on top of him and she gasped as his fingers, now free to roam, pressed between her lips, probing her flesh. His tongue moved, relentless, varying both speed and direction, leaving her breathless and guessing what he was going to do next. She couldn’t even keep a steady rhythm on his cock anymore, so she rested her cheek against his thigh and just stroked up and down his length.

“Oh god, baby…” she whispered, rocking her hips as he fingered her, two and then three, spreading her wide as he tongued her slit. “You make my pussy feel so good!”

He groaned against her clit, licking faster, making his tongue flat and edging it wetly back and forth until she thought she would go crazy with wanting him. Her whole body felt as if it were on fire, and his cock throbbed in her hand, forgotten entirely, a steady pulse in her fist.

“Ohhhhh fuck!” Lindsey felt it coming and worked for it, her hips rolling in circles, her teeth raking along his thigh. She let go of his cock, propping herself up with her palms on his thighs and grinding her pussy down against his face. He took her with a muffled groan, wrapping his arms around her ass and burying his face into her wetness.

Her nails dug into the hard muscles of his thighs as she came, shuddering and throwing her head back, bucking on top of him, completely oblivious to anything but the flood of throbbing heat between her legs that went on and on. He sucked hard at her sensitive clit, making her thrash and squeal and beg him to stop, the pleasure so intense it made her grit her teeth.

“Please!” She begged, unable to wiggle her way out of his hard grasp.

“You wanted to suck my cock, didn’t you?” He came up for air, gasping, giving her a brief respite. “So suck it, baby!”

She groaned, remembering him then, spitting on her hand and slicking her fist down over the head of him like a wet little pussy and following it with the softness of her lips and mouth and tongue, making him press deeper. Her hand prevented too much of him from sliding into her throat, but even that wasn’t enough to keep her from gagging entirely on his thick length.

His rubbed his face into her wetness again, making her moan and shift on top of him, not sure if she wanted to try to get away or press back against his tongue. It was his finger that decided her, the one that slid out of her pussy to stroke the tender ring of her asshole. He kept two working and buried in her pussy, but his index finger found its way to the sweet pucker of her ass, making wet circles there as he tongued her clit into submission again.

This time she was determined not to lose her focus, and she worked his cock for everything she was worth, forcing more and more of it into her throat with every pass.

Her hand grew slick with her saliva mixed with a steady flow of his pre-cum, more copious and thick as she sucked harder and harder. When she pulled the skin of his cock down tight and used her tongue under the uncircumcised edge, seeking out the sensitive ridge, he groaned and bucked up, making her gasp when his finger slipped deeper into her ass.

“Oh yeah!” He managed a muffled groan as she stayed tucked under the skin there and stroked him against the curve of her tongue. She eased the skin up and down, squeezing her fist as she went, faster and faster. Her tongue curved around his shaft, making a little cup, and she waited for him to fill it. “Oh god! Baby!” She knew the warning tone and pumped faster, her other hand slipping down to feel how close to his body his balls had drawn, the skin tight and wrinkled and deliciously smooth under her fingers. She cupped them, imagining all of the cum in there, waiting to burst and flood into her mouth. The thought made her dizzy with wanting it, and she couldn’t hold out anymore against his fingers and tongue.

Her whole body shuddered against his, but she didn’t stop working his cock. She felt the muscles in his belly growing tighter against her breasts, their skin slick, bodies rocking hard and fast. Suddenly his cock swelled in her hand, and the first blast of his cum wasn’t just a flood over her tongue—it shot hard and fast and thick, coating the back of her throat and forcing her to swallow immediately. He shoved up into her mouth, thrust himself deeper into her throat, and it was he who forgot about her this time, moaning against her pussy, his tongue and lips losing all focus and direction.

She shivered happily on top of him, still grinding her own orgasm against his chin and nose and mouth as she milked his throbbing cock. The second and third wave of his cum weren’t as strong as the first, but they filled her mouth both times to almost bursting and she swallowed fast before taking the next, and then another, the taste coating her tongue and throat as she eagerly pumped his length.

When she climbed off him and turned around to steal a kiss, he pulled her in tight. She shivered when his tongue met hers and he grabbed for the comforter, fisting it and pulling it over them, wrapping her in it. Smiling, she tucked her head under his chin, feeling her eyes slipping closed before she even knew what was happening. Never had she felt more comfortable and safe with a man. It would be hours before either of them remembered time, or space, or anything but drifting away in each other’s arms on a cloud far away in the darkness.