Nothing went better with a chilly Iowa night then a roaring bonfire, beer, good music and laughing with childhood friends. It was one of the few things about living in the country that Mark missed and having Sydney reclining between his legs, cozy under their blanket, made the night perfect.

       “I can’t believe we have to sleep in separate rooms,” Mark protested to the sheer entertainment of his friends, rebutting the animated war stories of their misspent years of hell rising. “I mean, really! We’re adults. It’s not like Syd and I are children. Hell, even when I was younger, I was the good guy. ”

       Reggie, a local doctor and Mark’s closest friend pointed out. “Sydney, don’t let Mark fool you,” he raised his beer bottle. “He could party with the best of them!”

       “Yeah, but even then he was different,” Victoria, Reggie’s fiery redheaded, homemaker wife added from her resting spot. “He’d be the responsible one bragging our asses’ home before our parents woke up.”

       “At the crack of dawn!” everyone shouted in unison, half out of their wits.

       “Oh God remember having to wake up to milk those damn cows?” added Daniel, another running mate. “And Mark your dad was the worst,” His wife Jill elbowed him in the stomach and tucked their blanket under her neck. “Well he was! Of all the families, you guys had the largest farm and the most kids yet your dad would still send down the road for us every morning.”

       “At the crack of dawn!” they chanted again. Sydney’s laughs bellowed with the others. Her eye caught the Cecilia’s, another attractive bright-eyed friend sitting alone yet joining right in with the others. They exchanged gentle smiles.

       “Hey man, those cows weren’t going to milk themselves,” Mark pulled Sydney close and kissed her neck.

       “Mark, I love you like a brother,” Victoria threw another log on the fire. “But if I had to spend one more winter walking down that dark cold dirt road, I was gonna start killing your cows”

       Everyone burst into drunken jubilation.

       “Remember that shit! His dad never offered to come pick us up!” Jill exclaimed to thunderous laughter and applause. “I can see everyone’s faces clearly.”

       “We were all bitter!” Reggie shouted.

       “No, but it getting worst,” Daniel waved his hands, silencing everyone, dramatically pointing at Mark. “Then, junior year, this motherfucker decides to study in Japan! Japan! What the hell was he doing in Japan?”
 

       “Probably looking for more cows?” Reggie blurted out. “Bastard left us here to do his work.”

       “No, but to add insult to injury, his dad waited until right after graduation and then goes completely automated,” Victoria chimed in, sending everyone into guttural laughter. “Remember, it was like overnight.”
“And then he doubled the hired workers during the commencement speech,” Reggie barely composed himself.

       “Yeah, it was like he waited until the last minute!” Daniel broke in.

       Sydney couldn’t get enough of their banter; their excitement and openness sent her senses into overdrive. She’d never had close relations with anyone other than her father and, briefly, her mother. This is what life was supposed to be. This sense of normality is what made Mark such a brilliant Dom. Although these people weren’t his blood ties, he had a foundation of friends that never abandoned him. Sydney had neither family nor friends. But with these people, these decent strangers, she felt welcomed and whole.

       “Little quiet Cece over here was spared the wrath.” Reggie pointed out.

       “Only because I had to take care of my brothers and sisters before school,” Cecilia interjected. “Otherwise I would have been freezing my ass off with you.”

       “Bullshit! You managed to show up at all the parties,” Victoria countered. “Where were your siblings then?”

       They all awaited and answer.

       “Alright! You got me!” Cece conceded. “I skipped out. But it was cold as hell.”

       Her confession was met with drunken jeers and hisses.

       She met Sydney’s eyes, as if to transmit a message between them two. Sydney couldn’t read her; there was too much alcohol and stimulus around. Her senses were out of balance; her judgment clouded. But not for long.


       Sydney caught a shape yet silent breath. She felt the shameless naughty roaming hand of her lover, mapping its way under her skirt, heading to the fertile ground between her thighs.

       “What are you doing?” she whispers to him.

       “Shhh,” she heard from behind, close to her earlobe. “Keep facing forward.” He slipped his hand further down.

       “This is wrong Mark,” She protested.

       “You don’t like it?” His fingertips painted a sexual narrative on the glistening canvas of her pussy.

       “Yes…No, your friends are here. They will see us.”

       His hand continues its lazy travels over labia and clit; then without warning, he slid a finger between her plump outer lips in long, steady strokes. “I think you like it,” Slipping gently, relentlessly in and out. “I think you like the idea of being fingered in front of everyone without their knowledge,” His voice grew callous, his breath warm against her neck. “Having them watch you give yourself to me—surrendering to my wishes, seemingly, against your will. You like that, am I right?”

       “Yes,” She shuddered involuntarily, her pussy giving tacit acquiescence to the touch of his unrelenting finger delicately dipped within, wheedling her answer free from the snares of her dry throat.

       “Don’t you wish you could tell them that fucking me isn’t like fucking anyone else?” Mark’s breathing became harder; his hand glided over her hungry clit while the faint sounds of the sycophant tsunami raging inside of her filled their ear alone.

       “Yes,” Sydney managed. Sydney melted back into his firm chest. Her orgasm building before her eyes, it danced in the vivid shades on reds, oranges and yellows of the fire.

       “Good girl,” Mark kissed the nape of her neck just out of sight of everyone except Cece. He gave her a coy grin and continued promiscuously rummaging inside of Sydney.

“You’re very wet,” He whispered, manipulating her tiny recalcitrant clit.

       Sydney rest her head back, close to his ear. “Take me inside…take me inside and you can have me anyway you want me,” she bucked slightly.

       “Tempting, but no.” His voice said low and casual. “I want you to cum in front of everyone. I want them to see just how much I love you.” Lowering his lips onto her shoulder, he bit, moaning into the skin.

       Mark’s single-minded devotion to pleasing her, his hostage….the slurpy sloshy sounds between her undulating legs…..the sheer fortuity of being finger-fucked in the presence of near strangers all cumulated into lingering psychedelic orgasm that played out on the backs of Sydney’s heavy eyelids.

       Mark held her trembling body with one arm and cupped her post-orgasmic pussy in his exploring hand; aiding her back into herself unbeknown to the others.

       All except Cece.

       Mark turned to her with a dark grin, tenderly kissing Sydney’s neck.

       Cece smiled back as if to say “I’m next”

                                            ******

As was the norm, Helen was up before the sun tending to her household chores. Cooking, cleaning and organizing Sr.’s life. Exhausted from the previous days’ upheaval, it was taking her longer and longer to get her head around the task at hand. It mattered little, she had her son back and that was enough.

       Although their reunion had gone astonishingly pleasant up until then, Helen waited patiently for the inevitable conversation with Mark; she knew it was coming. Why wouldn’t it? They had been close, all those years ago. He was her favorite and she had abandoned him when he needed her in his corner. She had cut him off just like the others and, in turned, vacated her life.

       Mark, stood watching Helen hurry around the kitchen preparing a breakfast fit for a king. How she managed to maintain her trim, almost girl-like, figure on a diet of heavy food and child birth was beyond his grasp. The lives around her changed but she never changed.

       Or so it seemed.

       Mark hadn’t expected her to welcome him and Sydney or to stand up to his father. Maybe some things had changed after all.


       “Good morning,” Mark said breaking his own spell.

       “Good morning yourself,” Helen turned, plating her breakfast. “Have some?”

       “Um, yeah!” he took a seat. Helen passed his plate. “It’s been a while seem I’ve had real food.”

       “Miss Sydney doesn’t cook for you?” she teased. “I’m guessing cooking isn’t one of her many talents.”

       “That’s an understatement. My Sydney is very domesticated but I love her.”

       “I’m sure you do,” She smiled watching his devour half his meal; she shoveled more onto his plate and took a seat. “Sorry for the sleeping arrangements. I know it has to be killing you to be apart from her.”

       “Anything we can do to change that?”

       “Sure! Marry her and all your problems are solved. You can sleep with her under this roof all you want.”

       “Who knew marriage was the cure for blue-balls?” Mark joked.

       “Oh,” Helen wrinkled her face and covered her ears. “I don’t want to think about you having sex. That’s too many information for my virgin ears.”

       Mark pointed his fork. “You had it coming.”

       “I know,” she paused studying Mark’s every move. “Sydney told me about her parents.”

       Mark frowned. “She did? She’s only told me just recently. You’ve known her less than a week. How’d you manage to get that out of her?”

       “I’m a woman. We share a common ovary,” she smirked. “I could tell there is something missing from her life.”

       He stopped in mid chew. “What? What is it?”

       “She wants a child, Mark.” Helen said in all seriousness.