(A/N: As this is my first story/series, feedback/comments are always appreciated. I make sure to read all comments/reply to feedback and I sincerely thank you guys for tuning in for every update. It's super motivating.
I'm also not too familiar with the standards of each genre on Literotica yet, so I did want to say that some chapters could have less explicit sexual instances than others. I want sex to be helpful to the story instead of having to conjure up a scene out of nowhere just because. I hope that's alright.
Thank you for your patience.)
-
Landon and I spent the night together nearly every day for two weeks after my last day of therapy. With most of our words exchanged after the second time we hooked up, we prioritized making each other feel amazing. We made it work with our unique schedules, which sometimes meant rushing into work with my hair wet or testing out the sturdiness of his desk when he had to stay late.
Landon was the one who had taken a honeymoon trip, but I was sharing the bliss that came from it. The hate sex had been a great start, and every session after that left us satisfied. As his introduction to sleeping with men, I was eager to please his every wish. Curious was an understatement - the moment he realized he was an adult with sexual autonomy and lack of experience, he wanted to try everything. The shy, purity-ridden moralist I used to call my friend, the one who changed the subject at 28 years old when I told him my first boyfriend and I had gone to third base, was now eagerly suggesting that we try a double-sided dildo. In case you're wondering, yes, I was a fan.
There were other things I didn't love, though. 30 felt a little too old to try poppers. I didn't like going to clubs that made my ears ring. I especially didn't like waking up in bed at Landon's new apartment only to watch as he scrolled on dating apps. Naturally, an argument broke out, but he brought up an undeniable fact: we had never discussed dating.
"I just downloaded them right now, anyway! Can you tell me with full honesty that you haven't been seeing other people while we've had this going on?"
"I haven't, no." It was the truth. They were still downloaded, and I was still getting suggestive emojis late at night, but they hadn't been touched since our.... whatever this was started.
Dead end. Landon sat in front of me on my bed. "Look, Heath. I want to be with you. There's no doubt in my mind that you're the one I want to be with."
I made God a mental promise to donate the entirety of my next check if this was the end of the topic.
"But..."
Too good to be true, I guess. "Landon, you said you love me."
"I do! I do," Landon assured, putting a hand on my knee, "and I love you too much to lie to you. It just feels like I'm being given a second chance to remake myself. I just did what I was taught for ten years: I stayed with the girl I was told I needed; it feels like being renovated. You wouldn't get it."
I was scared that thinking about that take too much would lead to something ugly. I shrugged. "I guess not. I don't understand what you want, then."
"Again, I want you," he reiterated, "and I want you by my side in this journey, whatever it entails."
That was too vague for my liking. "Spit it out, Landon."
"I'd like to try having an open relationship with you."
-
When we were 22, Landon, Bradley, and I celebrated graduation with a weekend trip to Landon's family cabin. Calling his parents wealthy was an understatement - this mammoth mountain house was only one of five of the Belhomme's vacation homes.
For a pair of guys who were just able to start drinking legally, not having a single drop of alcohol during a trip was catastrophic for Bradley and me. At the time, Landon was as opposed to drinking as his parents. He proudly shut down our proposals to drive to the nearest gas station to at least get some warm wine coolers.
We had waited until Landon went to bed to sneak out, carefully not to roll down the incline and lose our lives before they began. Even though we got a little lost, Bradley and I managed to drive back with our treasures.
We used a tiny flashlight Bradley had attached to his keychain to look for the wooden stairway. When he turned in, Landon had turned off all exterior lights.
The longer it took us, the more we realized being in unknown woods with a dim light source and dead Nokias was risky. Holding our bottles to our chest, we cursed at the clouds for covering our best source of sight.
Then we heard a gunshot.
"Brad!" I called out. Any concern about being silent was gone with the firearm's echo.
"Fuck! Run!" Bradley urged, dropping his bottles and accidentally running right into me. I fell onto my bottles, broken glass digging into my back when Bradley came on top of me.
"Bradley! Heath!" a voice called out as the lights of a nearby cabin flicked on. This included the pathway torches that illuminated the staircase only two feet away.
Landon looked down at us in fear, holding his father's hunting rifle. He carefully set it down and ran down the stairs. "What the hell are you guys doing here?!"
"Did you shoot him?!" Bradley asked, agitated as he rolled off me and inspected my body. I sat up to the of my ability, croaking in pain.
"No, you imbecile, those were blanks! He fell on that!" Landon reached us, pointing at the glass that was half crushed on the ground, half impaled on my back.
Bradley broke into apologies that lasted to the nearest hospital, a noticeably small building forty minutes away. While Bradley sped down the highway, I argued with Landon to take the glass out. I had grown up pretty hyperactive, so I had my share of injuries throughout my youth. None of them compared to that. I had to spend the night, deal with aftercare on my own (Landon was too scared to tell his parents), and pay off my hospital bill with all the savings I had gathered since I began to work at 16. Bradley helped as much as he could, but it barely covered X-rays
It was a horrific experience, both physically and financially - but somehow, after Landon finished his sentence and waited for my response, I longed for that ache instead.
-
"You piss me off, Heath."
"I know."
"You actually, genuinely, fully piss me off."
Aaron was giving me the chew-up of a lifetime. He had been supportive when I said I wanted to try things with Landon. He had mixed feelings when I told him I stopped seeing Dr. Jackson but was ultimately okay. The open relationship part, which I brought up while I drove him to the airport, had his eyes full of disappointment.
