It wasn’t until much later, when I was in bed, the girls were asleep and I’d put aside my vibrator after a lackluster orgasm that I realized I’d never asked Joe how he knew Daniel Hart.

* * *

The screeching woke me.

Cory was home.

This happened a lot, Tina screeching at Cory. It was usually during daytime hours but it wasn’t unusual for it to happen at night.

I turned my head to my alarm clock and felt my temper flare because it might not be unusual for it to happen at night, even late at night, say eleven-ish, but it was unusual for it to happen at one fifty-three in the freaking morning.

“You dick!” Tina shouted. “Did you fuck her before comin’ to me? Hunh? Did you?”

God, it sounded like they were right outside my bedroom door.

And if it sounded like that to me, it might sound like that to Kate and Keira.

I threw back the covers, ran to get Tim’s robe, shrugged it on and nabbed Joe’s remote from my nightstand as I walked quickly to the backdoor.

“Fuck that! Fuck you! And fuck her!” Tina shrieked.

I hit the remote to disable the alarm as Joe taught us to do, slid the door open and stepped out on my deck. I looked to my left to see that Tina and Cory were, for some unknown and ungodly reason, playing out their latest drama on her deck.

“You have got to be shittin’ me!” Tina screamed to whatever Cory mumbled (I never heard Cory during the screeching, only Tina, then again they probably heard Tina in Bangladesh, she was that loud). “You dick!”

I ran down the steps into my yard and across to Tina’s.

I was at the foot of her side deck steps when I spoke. “Hey, could you keep it down?”

Tina’s eyes came to me and Cory, whose back was to me, turned.

Cory was a decent looking guy, nothing to write home about but he wasn’t ugly. What made him unattractive was that I got the sense he was clueless and pretty much didn’t care what kind of shit he had to take, just as long as he got laid as often as he could.

Tina, on the other hand, was very pretty, dark curly hair, blue eyes, great skin. She had a bit of extra weight on her but she carried it well and used it to her advantage, therefore it looked good but, unfortunately, she knew it.

She liked to get herself some, as Cheryl would say, and she liked to control what she got which made Cory perfect for her, in a way. Cory loved his wife, though, which kind of sucked for Tina. She’d bitten off more than she could chew with him and I always wondered why she didn’t spit him out.

All of this I didn’t know for certain, I wasn’t close to Tina. She was the only neighbor who was not friendly (at all). I’d gotten most of it from Feb, Myrtle and Pearl.

Tina’s eyes focused on me through the dark and she snapped, “Fuck you too.”

I opened my mouth to speak but I didn’t when I saw Tina’s body straighten with a jolt, she looked over my shoulder and her face paled, I saw it even in the dark.

Then I heard Joe rumble from behind me, “Speak to her again like that, Tina, I’ll wring your goddamned neck.”

Slowly I turned to see he was, indeed, behind me, very close behind me wearing jeans, a tee and, like me, he had bare feet.

Oh, and he looked pretty ticked.

“Cal –” Tina started.

“Shut it,” Joe growled. “Vi’s got two girls who don’t need to hear your filthy mouth. I hear this shit again, it’s gonna piss me off and you don’t wanna piss me off.”

“I –” Tina started again but Joe’s eyes cut to Cory.

“Pick one or lose both, but be a fuckin’ man, for Christ’s sakes. You let her get outta hand again, I’ll hold you responsible.”

“All right, Cal,” Cory said quickly, his hands coming up. “We’ll be cool.”

Joe didn’t respond, he didn’t need to, I suspected even Tina wouldn’t wake the sleeping giant that was Joe Callahan again.

Then Joe, obviously done with Tina and Cory, grabbed my arm and turned us both toward my yard. He didn’t let my arm go as he marched me through my backyard, up my deck stairs and to the sliding glass door. Then he slid my door shut, yanked the remote out of my hand and pressed some buttons. Then he marched me to the steps and down them again.

We were almost in his yard before it registered on me that we were heading to his house.

“Joe, where are we going?”

“You shut it too,” Joe growled at me and I felt my chest squeeze because he was still pissed but now it seemed he was pissed at me.

“Joe –” I began but he pulled me up his steps, through his opened sliding glass door and he threw it closed.

Then he backed me up against the wall by the door, his body got in my space and he got in my face.

“What’d you think?” he was still growling and I was breathing hard, not knowing what was happening.

It was the dead of night. How was it that one minute I was sleeping, the next minute I was listening to Tina shrieking, the next minute I was listening to Joe be threatening and the next minute I was in his house, he was in my face and he was pissed at me?

He was right, I’d been a bitch to him but not recently, it had been hours ago.

“Joe, I wanna go home,” I said quietly.

He ignored my request. “Tell me what you thought.”

What I thought at that moment, was maybe I should answer his demand, perhaps that might help, though I didn’t understand his demand which was a problem.

Therefore, tentatively, I asked, “Thought about what?”

“About us.”

“What?” I whispered.

“I make a promise to you in my sleep or something?” Joe clipped.

I was again whispering when I said, “No.”

“I fucked you when you were drunk, not that drunk, buddy, but I’ll admit, you were drunk. And I fucked you on the hood of my car. But you walked across your yard to get to me twice. How does any of that translate into a promise from me?”

“You didn’t promise me anything, Joe,” I told him and realized then he didn’t.

“So what’s your fuckin’ problem?”

“I don’t have one.” Or at least I didn’t anymore.

I had read something into it just because of some reflex action he had when I told him I had to go, when he’d called me baby and when he made some mention about me not wearing shoes. That was it and there was nothing there except what I was so sad and lonely I twisted into something I wanted to see. He’d given no indication that it was anything more than what he said it was.

Just sex.

“Yeah you do,” Joe clipped.

I shook my head. “No, really, I don’t.”

“Bullshit.”

“I don’t.”

“I’m not gonna be a dick to your daughters because you tell me to and I’m not gonna put up with your shit because you read somethin’ into what happened.”

“Okay,” I agreed quickly.

“I don’t need to walk out of my house and run into your wall of attitude.”

“You won’t,” I promised.

“You’re standin’ there tremblin’, scared outta your fuckin’ skull even though I’d never fuckin’ hurt you, tellin’ me what I wanna hear. How do I believe you?”

“Um…” I treaded cautiously but pointed out, “You did kind of drag me to your house in the middle of the night.”

“We need to work this shit out,” he stated in a way that made it clear that he thought dragging me to his house was a perfectly natural thing to do.

“We could have maybe done it over coffee or something,” I carefully suggested an alternative.

“Yeah? Last four times I spoke to you, you acted like a bitch, told me to fuck off, told me you hated me, you gonna have coffee with me now?”

“I make pancakes every Sunday morning, you’re welcome to come over,” I offered.

I didn’t actually want him to come over, I wanted him to let my arm go and I wanted to get the fuck out of there.

“Don’t be scared of me, Violet,” he warned.

“That’s kind of hard when you’re bein’ scary, Joe,” I explained.

When I told him this, instantly he let me go and stepped back.

Then he growled, “Go home.”

I just stood there, staring at him in the dark.

Then hesitantly, sounding stupid, I asked, “Are you coming over for pancakes?”

“Yeah, buddy, I’ll be over to your house for fuckin’ pancakes,” he clipped, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “I’m sure you can’t wait.”

“Joe –”

“Go home.”

“Joe –”

“Go home, Violet.”

“I kind of need my remote,” I whispered.

He didn’t move so I did, taking a cautious step toward him my hand lifted, palm up. He didn’t put the remote in my hand. Instead, he tossed it into a chair and then I was in his arms and his mouth had slammed down on mine.

I shouldn’t have let it happen, I knew that, but I did.

And I did because firstly, I was fucking thrilled he wanted to kiss me. Secondly, because this time I knew the rules to his game. And lastly, and most importantly, I loved him kissing me. I’d been hungry for it for weeks and having it back, I was going to take it.

The first time we had sex, it was a battle which he won.

This time, it was war.

I didn’t know if it was the last time I’d have him. The times before, he let me take a little but most of the time Joe took what he wanted from me.

Now I was going to get what I wanted.

We didn’t even make it to the bedroom. We were too busy with our hands and mouths, both colliding as they touched, tasted, explored and pulled off clothes. It was going fast and Joe was losing because I was determined. Therefore Joe took advantage, hooked an arm around my waist, shoved my lower body to the side and tagged me with a calf behind my knees which immediately buckled. I went down but he controlled my fall so I didn’t crash to the floor. Then his body covered mine and I lost the advantage.

“My turn,” I panted into his ear, my hand wrapped around his hard cock as his hand curled around my breast. “I want you on your back.”

“Next go,” Joe growled back and his finger and thumb rolled my nipple.

My back arched as that shot straight through me but I didn’t give up.

“Joe, my turn.”

He pinched my nipple and that felt so fucking good, my entire body bucked.

“Baby, you can have me next go.”

“Joe –”

“I’m gonna fuck you in a minute. We don’t have time for you to play.”

That sounded good to me so I whispered, “Okay.”

His mouth came to mine and he ground his cock into my hand. I liked the feel of him, hard and big. I missed it and having him pressed into my hand made me squeeze him, the nails of my other hand dug into the muscles of his back and I mewed low.

“So hungry,” he muttered, his tone rough but approving.

“Starving,” I whispered my admission.

“Then let’s fill you up.”

That sounded even better.

His hand left my breast, slid down my side and his fingers hooked into my panties, the only piece of clothing either of us was wearing and he did all this as he kissed me deep. I lifted my legs, curling my ass off the floor as he pulled down my panties and I kicked them off when he got them to my ankles. I didn’t delay in dropping my legs and spreading them for him, he rolled between and I barely got them wrapped around his hips before he had me full.

My mouth tore from his as my neck arched and my fingers curled into his ass.

“Joe,” I breathed.

His hand fisted in my hair and he positioned my head so he could again take my mouth.

“You say my name, buddy, you say it in my mouth,” he ordered.

“Whatever you want,” I agreed as he pounded inside me.

“Whatever I want?”

“Whatever you want.”

“Careful what you promise me, buddy, even in your state.”

“Just fuck me, Joe.”

I could swear, through his thrusts, I felt his grin against my mouth.

Then he muttered softly, “You got it, baby.”

Then he fucked me, harder and harder, until I came and when I did, I moaned his name into his mouth.

* * *

Surprisingly, the next “go”, after he carried me to his bed, Joe let me “play”.

It was brilliant.

Then he played and, I had to admit, that was even better.

After a double orgasm that was so fucking splendid, if I could write, I would have written pages of poetry about it, I passed out.

I woke up and looked at the clock.

It was five seventeen.

I hadn’t been asleep long and wanted to sleep more but I needed to get home.