Neighbor Dearest

by Penelope Ward

Damien was leaning against the kitchen counter. He was wearing the same dark jeans but had changed into a gray shirt that hugged his muscular chest. He was also wearing his beanie. I loved when he wore that hat in a way that his hair peeked out from the front. His sleeves were rolled up, showcasing his forearm tattoo. His angry glare was really working for me. It made me think back to his threat about angrily fucking me against the wall the night of my drunk messaging. He just looked so freaking good right now, and I caught myself forgetting why I was even here as I continued to stare at him.

I wanted to slap him. “Fuck you. Now all of a sudden you want me because you think I like your brother?” “No, Chelsea. I’ve always wanted you, from the moment you knocked on my door and called me the devil. But tonight…it’s finally making me insane. I’m not thinking straight. Right now…I just need to taste your lips, feel you moan over my tongue again. He suddenly pulled me into him.

“Oh, God,” I muttered over his mouth as he gripped my waist, his mouth enveloping mine. He kissed me so hard, and his breath tasted of cigar and beer as he ravaged my mouth with his tongue. I couldn’t move my tongue around fast enough, couldn’t taste him enough. Feeling the heat of his erection pressed against me, the heat between my own legs was overpowering; I was so wet and throbbing. My entire body was buzzing, ready to explode.

He suddenly stopped kissing me. Panting, we just stared at each other with lust-filled eyes. Bunching my hair in his fist, he pulled it back as he lowered his mouth to my neck. Damien kissed me softly and traced his teeth along my skin. He then started to suck on the skin at the base of my neck. The pain was euphoric. I knew he was trying to mark me, staking his claim on me so that Tyler would clearly see which one of them I truly belonged to. And the t...

“I’ve never betrayed my brother’s trust, but I’m about to for his own good.” “What are you—” “My brother is in love with you.” My heart started to beat faster as I processed his words. Did he really just say what I think he said? I shook my head. “No, he’s not.” “He is.” “Why would you say that? He doesn’t even want to date me.” He leaned his arms into his legs as he looked up at me. “He’s crazy about you. I’ve known about it for a while, but I really saw it with my own eyes tonight.”

“That you were a lot more than the bitchy dog complainer next door. I figured out that you were a sensitive, caring person who’d had her heart broken, a person who loves and trusts with her whole heart…a person who needs to be handled with care, even though you’d deny that. Basically, I knew you were amazing long before we ever became friends.” I closed my eyes to stop myself from crying. Taking a deep breath, I let his words sink in.

Damien opened the door, and a waft of marinara sauce greeted me, along with the scent of his cologne. I concluded that those two smells were basically like home to me. This was home—not the empty apartment next door but right here with him and these dogs.

We just stared at each other for a bit. His ears were red, and I could just sense that he was burning up inside as much as I was. I wanted so badly for him to kiss me, to touch me, to suck on every inch of my body. I had never wanted him more than I’d wanted him in that moment. The fact that I was moving tomorrow did nothing to curb the fire inside of me.

He followed close behind me as I walked toward the door. It seemed like either he didn’t want me to leave or that he was readying to say something. He never did. He just stood at the doorway with a look in his eyes that seemed to carry the weight of a thousand unsaid words. I didn’t know if he’d ever allow himself to set them free. In the meantime, I needed to move on with my life. I guess you could say I was throwing in the towel. But in a sense, it felt more like I was giving it to him, hoping he’d hand it back someday.

Seeing Damien standing there, leaning against a wall as he waited for me nearly took my breath away. It made me realize that my feelings for him hadn’t lessened one bit throughout this time apart. Every bit of longing returned instantaneously, and that really sucked for me. My heart wanted to leap into his arms and ask him to take me home, but my brain stopped my legs from moving any farther than a foot away from him.

Wearing his beanie, he looked and smelled so good. He wore a white collared shirt under a fitted black sweater, which was a different look for him. The sweater clung to his muscular chest, and he had the sleeves rolled up, displaying a thick metal watch I’d never seen before. Black jeans and big black cargo boots finished off the look.

“Is everyone with this disease destined to die young?” “No, that’s the thing. Many live completely normal lives. There is just no way to know.” “But Damien is convinced he’ll die young?” “Yes. And that’s why he refuses to get involved with you, because he doesn’t want what happened to my mother, to happen to you.” “Why couldn’t he tell me?” “Because he knew you would say it didn’t matter. He didn’t want you to know. He wanted you to move on, find someone else, so that you never had to get hurt. It kills him to push you away, because he’s crazy about you.” I had to stop to compose myself. It was an overwhelming a-ha moment. It was like he’d just handed me a gigantic missing puzzle piece. Everything finally made sense.

“We’d gone to speak to a specialist at Cedar Sinai. He has doctors there and at Stanford.” “Wow.” “That trip to L.A. was when I realized Damien was really falling for you. He wouldn’t stop talking about you.” “I love him,” I said without hesitation. It was the first time I’d said it out loud, but far from the first time I’d said it. “I know. I can tell.”

Returning to Damien, I began to massage my fingers slowly through his hair and watched his resolve weaken with each second. He closed his eyes before clutching the material of my shirt and pulling me closer to him.

He leaned his head into my chest. “You’re not allowed to come around anymore.” Breathing into me, he said, “You make me forget all the shit I’m supposed to be doing right. I can’t think straight.” He then looked up at me. “You have no idea how much I wanted to kill that guy for touching your ass that night. I realized then more than ever what a lost cause I am when it comes to you. It pissed me the hell off.” “I love your jealousy. And you were totally right about him.”

This is bullshit. Of course I’m terrified to lose you, but I am way more terrified of living without you while you’re alive and well. For the record, I would rather have a single day of truly being with you than twenty thousand days of going through the motions with someone who doesn’t have my heart. I don’t care if I never have the chance to grow old and decrepit with you. I want today. I want to watch creepy movies with you and the dogs, burn toast in your apartment. I want to feel you inside of me. I want to experience everything with you while we’re both alive. WE ARE BOTH ALIVE. A good life is about quality, not quantity. I just want to be with you for however long that may be. But I can’t force you to see things the way I do.

Damien emerged out of my old bedroom. Sweat glistened off his chest. Paint was splattered onto various sections of his body. He looked even more jacked than I remembered. His jeans were slightly opened at the top, and his hair was unruly. His feet were bare. He looked hotter than I’d ever seen him. His heady smell was a mix of cologne and sweat. I ached for him.

When he’d mentioned he painted my room, he didn’t mean a solid color. He’d used my wall as a canvas. He’d used our wall to create one of the most beautiful images I’d ever laid eyes on. Spray painted onto the smooth surface using a mixture of white and pastel paints, was a gigantic unicorn that looked like it was flying freely through the sky. I covered my mouth. “Oh, my God. What did you do?” “It’s you.” “What?” His mouth curved into a smile. “You’re my unicorn…”

“Yes. And there’s something else I need to tell you.” Goosebumps peppered my skin from the contact when he pulled me closer and placed his forehead on mine. “When I first woke up in that ambulance, for a split second, I didn’t know if I had died. They say your life flashes before your eyes, right? Well, you were the only thing that flashed before mine. Just you.”

He just kept looking into my eyes. For the first time, I could feel him surrendering to his feelings. You could literally feel the release emanating through his bones. I could feel it in the possessive way he was holding my face, in the way his hand was trembling ever so slightly. He was giving into the need within him—within us. He’d loosened the reins—no longer stopping the invisible pull. It had always been there and had only grown stronger.

“The way you look at me, Chelsea. No one has ever looked at me that way. When I was watching that video of you and him—the one I broke—you were giving him that same look. It killed me. That was the main reason I wanted to break it.” “There’s no comparison, Damien.” “You were never able to understand how he could do what he did to you, why things happened that way. I figured it out. You know why it didn’t wor...

“Then that explains it.” I smiled. My fingers raked through his already messy hair. “From the very beginning, even when you were pushing me away, I felt like I belonged to you.” Unable to wait a second longer to devour his lips, I reached up to kiss him. This time, I fully relished it, becau...

Grinding my clit against him as he kissed me, I swirled my tongue faster around his as he moaned into my mouth. “You still on the pill?” I nodded. “Yes.” I didn’t bother to ask how he knew about my birth control situation. Damien just knew everything about me. “You said you wanted to feel me inside of you. You mean that?” “Yes.”

He unzipped his jeans and adjusted my body over him as he positioned the head of his shaft at my opening. I watched his eyes close in ecstasy as he sunk into me slowly. The girth of his cock was seriously a shock. He was so thick. My opening stretched to conform to him until he was fully inside of me. “Oh…my…fuck…Chelsea. You’re so tight.” He filled me so completely as he moved in and out slowly. “You feel that?” “Yes.” He began to fuck me harder. “You feel me now?” “Fuck. Yes.” I bucked my hips. “I feel you. I feel you.” “I can’t believe I’m inside of you. Never thought I would get to feel this. You’re so wet for me. It’s so fucking incredible.”

Tears were pouring from my eyes. I thought I knew what good sex was, but this…this was insane. He’d taken control of my body like no one ever had, playing it like an instrument that only he knew how to operate to perfection. I didn’t realize until now that everything I’d always thought was great wasn’t perfect after all. This....

Still inside of me, he gently lowered us to the ground and began to fuck me against the hardwood floor. He placed his hand around the back of my head to prevent it from slamming against the wood as he rammed into me. My hands were wrapped around his muscular ass, palming it as he moved in and out. At one point, Damien reached behind himself and grabbed my hands, pinning them over my head as he fucked me harder. I gladly gave up the control, feeling blissfully powerless—drugged—by this man. “I’ll never get enoug...

My orgasm caused me to spasm around him. When I screamed out suddenly, I felt his body begin to tremble. “Fuck. Chelsea. Fuck.” His groan echoed throughout the empty space as he rocked against my body and came inside of me. I loved hearing him come. Damien was normally so calm and colle...

He stayed inside of me and showered my neck with soft kisses until he eventually pulled out. Resting his mouth on my neck, he whispered against my skin, “I love you.” He placed his index finger on my mouth. “Before you say anything, I want you to know that I don’t use that term lightly. In fact, I’ve never said it to a woman before.” “You haven’t?” “No. I vowed never to say those words unless I was sure I meant it...

“I love you so much, Damien. I have said it to two other people before. And in both instances, I truly thought I meant it. It’s only in retrospect that I realize I have a much greater capacity to love than I ever knew, because nothing has ever compared to how I feel...

Chelsea, I’m sorry I stood you up at the Powell Street Starbucks that day. I’m just writing to let you know that I am cancelling my account after today, so you won’t see me on here anymore. I had the best sex of my life tonight. It was with my best friend. And it was fucking awesome. I should have listened to her weeks ago when she asked me to DUCK her.

Sex was our distraction. We’d become addicted to it. I’d never had so much sex in my life, and yet I still couldn’t get enough of him. I’d count the minutes at work just to be able to get back to his place where he’d already be fully erect and waiting for me. Damien and I had also developed an affinity for spontaneous fornication in public places. Maybe it stemmed from our near-miss in the bathroom at Diamondback’s way back when.

With his chest pressed against my back, he immediately began to devour my neck. Placing my hands on the sink for balance, I watched us in the mirror. Damien groaned as he lifted my dress and admired my ass. I loved watching the look of desperation on his face. There was no bigger turn-on than witnessing how much he wanted me.

The buckle of his belt clanked as he undid his pants, letting them fall halfway down his legs. Within seconds, I felt his thick cock pushing inside of me with ease because of how wet I was. All of that talk in the car had really gotten me going. “Someone was ready,” he teased. “Fuck, you’re wet.” He slowly glided in and out of me. I nodded silently and pushed my hips back into him. “I’m always ready for you.” “I fucking love it,” he rasped.

Damien’s eyes were smoldering as he stared at me through the mirror. He cracked a slight smile as he fucked me harder. He loved watching me lose control as much as I loved watching him. “Look how beautiful you are when I’m inside of you, how pink your cheeks are.” He slapped my ass. “These cheeks, too.” “I love when you do that.” “Keep your eyes on me,” he demanded. “I like to watch you looking at me w...

Grabbing my hips, he guided me with smooth precision over his cock until I’d completely forgotten that anyone was waiting for us. My muscles pulsated around him. I watched his eyes roll back as his hot cum shot inside of me. I could never get enough of this. He flipped me around and spoke over my lips, “You slay me, Chelsea.” “We’d better get out of here.” I followed Damien out of the bathroom as we did our mini walk of shame back to his truck. All eyes in the store were on us. It was worth every shred of embarrassment.

enough to find that person in a lifetime.” She turned to Damien. “My greatest wish is that each of my sons is able to find the person who was meant for him. She looked down at Damien’s and my intertwined hands. “I strongly believe Damien has.”

He ran his hands through my hair. “I’d wonder what this would feel like between my fingers.” He lowered his mouth to my neck. “What it would be like to suck on this…” He gently bit my skin before lifting my shirt off. “What these tits would taste like.” Bending down, he took my nipple into his mouth and sucked hard before licking a line slowly down to my belly button. “What the grooves of this tiny navel would feel like against the tip of my tongue.” As he continued to kneel, he said, “Don’t get me started on this navel. I’ve painted this navel. That’s how much I love it.” “You have?” He caressed it with his fingertips. “Yes. I’ll show it to you sometime.”

Completely naked, I leaned against it. My nipples were hard as steel as I watched Damien peel off his boxer briefs. His rock hard cock stood fully erect, glistening with precum. My mouth watered as my eyes travelled from his naked abs back down to his cock. I’d seen his body naked so many times now, but it never ceased to amaze me how beautiful he was fully naked.

Within seconds, I felt the slow burn of his engorged cock sinking into me. So worked up, I needed release, but held on for as long as I could. Fucking me so hard to the point of pain, he whispered in my ear, “Come all over my dick. Come on.” We were so sexually in sync that he always seemed to know my breaking point. As soon as I let go, Damien released his load into me. We stayed panting, leaning against the wall until the movement of our hips slowly came to a halt. My body was completely limp. Damien was still inside of me, his mouth resting on my skin. A bead of sweat ran from his forehead onto the back of my neck. Our breathing and the rustling of the leaves outside were the only sounds left. It was bliss.

I’d been enjoying spending time there with no expectations for however long it lasted. It wasn’t uncommon for me to wake up in the morning with Damien’s face in between my legs. I loved rolling out of bed on weekends and having breakfast with him and the dogs. I loved everything about spending time with him, and it didn’t matter to me if he put a label on it.

“You’re nuts.” “You love my nuts.” “I do love your nuts. Oh, speaking of which…I need you to get some mixed ones to put out on the table. I also never bought soda. We can’t only have alcohol and water with nothing else to drink. So, get some cans of Sprite and Coke. They have the ones with the Christmas logos at the store.” “I’ll give you a Christmas Coke can right now.” “Why oh why did I ever put that idea in your head?” “You’ve just said nuts, Coke can and head in the past thirty seconds. How the fuck am I supposed to focus on decorating a tree?”

Returning to the kitchen counter to finish arranging the appetizers, I admired Damien’s body as he decorated the top of the tree. His fitted red shirt rode up every time he reached his arm out to position an ornament.

Mixing some onion soup mix into sour cream, I said, “It’s not every day I get to watch a hot man in a Santa hat decorate my tree.” Damien turned toward me and raised his forehead. “Stop looking at me like that, Jameson, or the only thing wrapped under the tree will be your legs around my back.”

Pulling down my pants, Damien said, “Everyone’s talking and laughing out there, and all I could think about is burying my face in your pussy.” When my pants were off, he did just that as I spread my legs apart. Still leaning my back against the wall, I dug my fingers into the back of his head as he continued to eat me out. He came up for air. “Falalalala to me. You taste better than any Christmas treat.” I laughed. “We have to get back out there.” Panting, I said, “I need to come.” “Don’t come yet,” he growled.

Standing up, he flipped me around so that I was facing the wall. “Come now,” he said as he entered me. It took me all of ten seconds to spasm around his cock at the exact moment he released inside of me. “That was the very definition of a quickie,” I breathed out. He was holding my hair back as he spoke against my neck, “That’s what happens when you work me up all night.” “Go ahead of me. I need to use the bathroom.” He pulled his pants up and went back out to the party.

When we stopped laughing, he just continued to gaze at me from afar with a look that was a mixture of lust…and love. This truly was the best Christmas of my life. I knew that Damien and I likely had some tough times ahead, but tonight—this moment in time where the two of us were oblivious to everything but each other—was perfect.

I woke up to the amazing feeling of Damien’s hard dick sandwiched inside the crack of my ass. It was our own special version of spooning.

He was looking so deeply into my eyes. It was as if he was looking beyond them. “Do you have any idea how much I love you?” “I think I do.” “No. I don’t think you do. There’s something I need to say, and I need to make sure you really understand it.” “Okay…”

“I know it’s always at the back of your mind, because I know you so well. You wonder whether you’re gonna wake up one day and find that my feelings have changed—like his did. You won’t allow yourself to believe that this could be forever, because you want to protect yourself in the event that history repeats itself. I need you to believe that as long as I’m walking this Earth, I’m going to love you. I’m not gonna hurt you like he did. I can promise you that. You’re it for me. Maybe you’ve heard that before, but this time, the person saying it means it. I need you to understand that.”

Feeling undeserving, I watched every movement of his gloriously naked body as he slipped on some sweatpants and sauntered toward the kitchen.