Lakeside Cougars - The Complete Trilogy, page 50
“That’s fine,” Susan said. “I’m amazed you’re considering it at all.”
“Atticus might also have a breeding fetish,” Colleen murmured.
“And I very much have a ‘watching people breed’ fetish,” Kate said.
“Do you mean that in a generic way, or do you mean you like watching people who are fucking specifically to get pregnant?” Susan asked.
“Definitely that second one.”
“I think we all have that fetish,” Colleen said.
“Probably,” Atticus agreed. “Now, um, I’m kind of...talked out. And being around all four of you is making me really horny. Is there anything else we need to discuss?”
“I’m good,” Kate said, and Edith shook her head.
“I feel like there’s more we need to talk about, like in specifics, but I’m good for tonight,” Susan said.
“Yes, we will have many more long conversations,” Colleen said, getting to her feet. “But right now, I have reached my limit for not having Atticus inside me. Especially now that we’ve initiated the ‘I love you’ protocol.”
He snorted as Susan got up off his lap. “Is that what you call it?”
“It is now,” she replied, grabbing his hand and pulling him up, then giving him a little push towards her master bedroom. Their master bedroom. “March, young man.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he murmured.
“And no, you can’t watch, not right now. I want a little privacy. But you can listen. And have your turn after I’m done,” Colleen said firmly to the others.
“I’ll just be waiting around here then…” Susan murmured.
“Don’t dawdle,” Colleen said when she saw he’d stopped a few feet before the door.
Atticus chuckled and went inside. Colleen followed and shut the door firmly behind them.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Oh dear God, that’s better,” Colleen groaned after she flopped onto her back, sweaty and naked and pure. “If I smoked, I would absolutely have a few cigarettes. That was amazing.”
“I mean hey, that was mostly you,” Atticus replied, still laying with his hands behind his head.
She had ridden him half to death.
And he had been prepared to keep going.
“I didn’t go too rough, did I?” she asked suddenly.
“No.”
She chuckled. “I like the immediacy of your answer.”
A moment of silence passed. Faintly, he could hear the others talking in the living room. His thoughts, which had been put firmly in their place as soon as he saw Colleen’s pussy, were slithering back into his awareness.
“...are we sure we aren’t being completely insane?” he asked.
Colleen laughed softly, then rolled over and laid an arm across his sweat-slicked chest. “No. But that’s okay. I think that’s what we figured out.”
He laid there thinking for a long moment. “Oh. Shit. Duh.”
She got closer to him, pressing herself against him beneath the blankets. “Do you want to talk more about it?”
“Probably I will in the future, but...I think I just made a decision.”
“What’s that?”
“I’m done worrying about whether or not this decision is insane. Like, I’m not saying that I am now blindly, one hundred percent committed to it no matter what, but I’m more saying that unless I notice some obvious problem, I’m going to just...put aside all the nebulous anxiety. I want this. You want this. Edith and Kate and Susan want this. Everyone’s informed, everyone’s consenting. We have houses, we have money, we have cars. It feels like, whatever comes up, we’ll probably be able to handle it. And it also feels like I’m never going to regret doing this.”
“I think that’s a very, very good decision,” Colleen murmured. “And I think I should do the same thing.”
“You seem pretty solid…”
She snorted. “Atticus, my love, I am so much better than you at hiding my emotions. You can read me well, but not that well. Now...how was Susan?”
“Ohhhhhh man, she was amazing. The video is probably...hopefully hot. It sure felt hot, and good. Goddamn she has a wet pussy...this feels so weird to say to you still.”
“I know. You’ll get used to it. And she looks like she does. God, is that woman thick. And just think what she’ll look like after you knock her up…”
“Hey,” he said, shifting a little, “I didn’t commit to that.”
“Yet,” she murmured.
“Are you so sure I will?”
“I...think you will. Whether or not you’re ready for it, I think that you’re both comfortable enough leaning on the rest of us for help and want to put a baby in her badly enough that you’ll do it. And I’m okay with that.”
“Seriously? You’re seriously okay with me bringing another human into existence because I’m kind of lazy and have a breeding kink?”
Colleen laughed. “Atticus! Do you know how many of us are here because of those exact reasons?”
“Okay, yeah, but that doesn’t make it right.”
“I know, and that’s not what I’m saying. I’m more saying that I believe in you and Susan and myself and the rest of us enough to feel like, whatever happens, you’ll do a good job raising that kid. We all will. So I think it’s okay.”
“I guess so...does it really not bother you? The guy you’re with, like seriously with, impregnating another woman and she lives with us and you help raise the kid?”
Colleen chuckled. “It doesn’t. I don’t really know why, but it just doesn’t. You’re just going to have to believe me, dear. Mmm.”
“What?”
“Just thinking, people will probably think you and Kate are the parents...although maybe not. Susan has aged very well. She could pass for her early thirties. Not that it matters. Ooh! Maybe we can take turns being the ‘mother’ when you’re out and about! Wouldn’t that be hilarious?”
“It...would be kind of amusing, yeah,” he admitted. “Although definitely we’re going to run into issues at a certain point. It feels like people are insanely paranoid about kids now. Like all it will take is one time of someone getting confused over who is the kid’s mom if we’re out and someone will flip and jump to the conclusion that you’re kidnapping someone’s baby…”
“...oh. Yeah. Fuck. That makes sense. Middle-aged woman with a newborn.” She sighed. “Goddamnit. You know, twenty years ago people would just assume I’m grandma. Everything’s so fucking complicated. Well, whatever.”
They both looked over as they heard Susan laugh and say something loudly.
Colleen groaned and began getting up. “I guess I should stop hogging you. Susan’s going to meltdown if she doesn’t get your cock back inside of her soon.”
“Yep,” Atticus agreed, and hopped up.
…
“Are you actually nervous?” Colleen asked.
“What?” Atticus tossed a glance at her in the passenger’s seat before quickly returning his attention to the highway. “No. Why? Do I seem nervous?”
She chuckled softly. “A little.”
“Well...maybe I am. A little.”
“That’s very normal, dear.” He began to respond, then laughed. “What?”
“Just...really awesome to hear you call me that. And to be reminded that we are, in fact, a couple. And in love. And I’m going to move in with you. And we’re going to keep having amazing sex.”
Colleen smiled. “Well...we aren’t exactly a couple...but the rest of that is all very true.”
“Yeah, I guess we aren’t. God, my parents just...will not understand our relationship.”
“Which is funny because we’re probably about the same age.”
“You’re actually older than my mom.”
“Holy shit, seriously?”
“Yeah. And my dad. They were like nineteen when I was born.”
“That’s amazing. I’m not sure why, but it’s amazing. And kind of funny.”
“Yeah, it is,” he agreed.
They lapsed back into silence for a bit.
So far, the day had gone well enough. So had yesterday.
The rest of his day had been a very pleasant meandering of wandering back and forth between the master bedroom, the bathroom, and the living room. Susan had fucked him three more times and ended up spending the night. And that was how Atticus got to sleep in a bed with three naked cougars.
Kate had also ended up spending the night, but there wasn’t room, so she ended up passing out on the sofa. Which was probably good for her because she was woken by an emergency call from one of the other lakehouses that the toilet was leaking, and kind of badly, so she’d hurried off.
They’d all had breakfast and then had driven up to Westfield to deal with the blood draws. They’d gotten in and out pretty fast.
And then suddenly he was going back home.
Except that it wasn’t his home any longer. He was leaving his home to go back to his old home.
It was a strange experience, but absolutely not an unpleasant one.
“So how are you actually going to handle us meeting your parents?” Colleen asked.
“I’m still not sure,” he replied. “I’ve been thinking about it, and...the best I can come up with is to just go over there with you, explain what’s happening, and wing it.”
“Well, that makes as much sense as anything else,” she murmured.
“Do you have a better idea?”
“Admittedly, no. Also, it’s occurring to me that we didn’t really make an actual plan for this. Mmm. Love is making me a little stupid.”
“Me too,” he agreed with a grin. “I love you.”
She broke into a much broader smile and reached out and touched his leg. “I love you too, Atticus. Mmm...that’s such a nice name. Atticus Archer. I really like it.”
“If we got married, would you take my last name?” he asked.
“Hmm...Colleen Archer. I do kind of like it better than Colleen Silver. I could hyphenate...no. Silver-Archer sounds weird. I’d have to think about it, but I think I would. Do you want to get married?”
“I mean...more or less. It’s one of those things where I can take it or leave it. I’d be glad to marry you, I’d also be glad to keep this going forever without getting married...what?”
Colleen was giving him a strange kind of smile.
“It’s just that you’re so laid back. About so many things. And it’s just really refreshing. Especially for a twenty five year old. The older you get, the more you tend to mellow. Everything is the end of the world or the best thing ever when you’re a teenager. Heading into your twenties takes that edge off, but not by that much. It’s just really nice. I hate fighting. I hate arguing. I endured so many fucking arguments during the last five years of my marriage…”
“I have got to admit that I am very into the exact same thing. You are really laid back. And decisive. And confident, but not in a bullshit way. So many of the girls I met before now had some form of confidence, but it often seemed like a front, or it was less confident and more aggression. Or, shit, in some cases cruelty.”
“This is true. And yes, I’ll say that one thing I did come across repeatedly while doing my...research online, about cougars, is that the guys who did get with them said they really loved how, just...together and confident they were as compared to the women their own age.”
“You are very together and confident,” he murmured.
She smiled and they once more lapsed into silence. Around them, Oregon flashed by. Trees and lakes and roads and the occasional building and more trees. All of it beneath a pale blue sky. At some point he became aware of the fact that the silence had transitioned from a calm one to a thoughtful one on her part.
“What’s on your mind?” he asked eventually.
“What?” she replied, distractedly.
“You’ve got something on your mind you’re thinking hard about. Something about me.”
She looked at him, startled. “How the fuck did you know that?”
“I...am not sure.”
“How can you possibly be this good at reading me this quickly?”
“I also am not sure.”
“Well...I was just thinking about last night. Everything we’ve done together has been rather...playboy for you, but last night kind of drove the point home when you ended up sleeping in the same bed as three naked, much older women after fucking them. Raw.”
“Yeah. So what’s the thought that’s gotten caught?”
She smiled a small smile and continued. “I suppose I was just thinking that I expected you to act differently.”
“Differently how?”
“I’m not sure, that’s what I was thinking about. I suppose...cockier?”
He snorted. “Oh. Well...hmm.”
“What?”
“I’m tempted to say, that just isn’t going to happen, because it isn’t in my personality to be that way. But I don’t actually know if that’s true. Ever since coming to Lakeside and meeting you and all the other amazing women who have invited me into their bed, I have been noticing that I’m kind of cockier. It’s weird. It feels very alien, and yet...familiar?”
“We all have the capacity for these emotions, and we’ve all, for the most part, already felt, extensively, I might add, the full gamut of human emotions during our youth. I’m sure you were kind of cocky for a little while there when you were a kid.”
“Probably,” he agreed. “I was pretty stupid as a kid.” He considered her words. “So, wait, are you saying you want me to be cockier?”
“Well...it wouldn’t be the worst thing,” she replied with a small smile.
“Are you serious?”
“Yes. I am.” She sighed when he looked at her again. “I sometimes forget that while you are rather sharp for your age, you certainly don’t have as much experience. One of the most significantly important lessons I learned–and I mean really important–is nuance. People are becoming more aware of it today, but Jesus fucking Christ, the amount of people who will just discard a potential solution because it isn’t literally fucking perfect is absolutely insane. More to the point, most answers in life tend to fall somewhere in the middle. Binary thinking is a curse on humanity.”
Atticus thought about that as they drove on. He found himself slowly nodding. “That makes sense. A lot of sense. Too many things are either the absolute best thing in history or the goddamned worst thing to ever come to planet Earth, according to society now.”
“Exactly. So, while yes: I would rather you be humble than cocky, it wouldn’t the worst thing if you were just kind of cocky. You can do that without being an asshole.”
“I guess that’s true,” he murmured. “I’m just worried I’ll fuck it up.”
“I’ll let you know if you’re fucking it up. You shouldn’t refuse to engage with something you want to just because you’re afraid you don’t know how.”
“Also true.”
She made a happy sound. “I love how...open you are. To change. To being wrong. Please tell me you don’t have some stubborn streak buried deep in you.”
“I don’t think so, but I also don’t know for sure. Put it this way: if I do, I will do my best to not let it get in the way of the relationship.”
“And that matters more than whether or not you have the stubborn streak. A willingness to compromise is, perhaps, the most important aspect of a good relationship. It is both linchpin and foundation.”
“Can’t disagree with that.”
They kept driving and he kept thinking.
“Would it bother you if I did some work on my laptop? I’ve been feeling the writing itch, and badly just recently,” she asked suddenly.
“Not at all, write away,” he replied.
“Excellent.”
She grabbed her laptop from the case she’d set between her feet and fired it up. Atticus settled in and got comfortable for the drive and listened to the quiet music they’d put on.
He couldn’t help but smile.
This was his life now.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
It felt incredibly strange rolling back into his hometown.
It was about ten times the size of Lakeside, though now that he was actually coming back from that mythic town, it seemed even bigger than that.
Much duller, too.
Perhaps it was the gray clouds that swallowed the skies and looked like a frozen ocean, but the place just looked glum. And grim. The town wasn’t exactly what he’d call impoverished, but certainly it had seen better days.
Lots of places could claim the same thing nowadays.
“I’ve never actually been here,” Colleen murmured as she looked out the window.
“You say that with some significance,” he replied.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, it’s like three hours away from Lakeside, how many places that are three hours away have you really gone to?”
“Oh! Yes, I guess that might require a little more explanation. I used to tour extensively in my thirties. I always had a special place in my heart for the Pacific Northwest. I’ve been to most of the cities in Oregon and Washington at least once, to do a book signing event or some other publicity stunt.”
“Okay, that makes more sense...holy shit, I’m dating a famous person,” he muttered. “I keep suddenly remembering that about you.”
She snorted. “Not that famous, believe me. Part of that is self-imposed.”
“Any particular reason?”
“Honestly? The psychos. Or, well, that’s not true. The lonelies.”
“Lonelies?”
“Yes, that’s what I call the lonely ones. Fans who email me and desperately declare their love to me.”
“Oh, yeah, I guess you’d get a lot of that. But what’s the difference between a psycho and a lonely?”
“A psycho is someone who sends me a message with a dick pic or a detailed fantasy about what they’d do to me if they could or just assuming I’ve been waiting for a quote-unquote ‘real man’ to show up in my life. Those are easy to ignore. Just delete and block. Easy. But there’s a lot of people out there, mostly men, who are clearly so very lonely, and that...sucks. So bad. Because I do know what that is like. And how it can hurt. It’s harder to know what to say and I don’t feel as comfortable just discarding them outright.”
