Brightly Burning Bridges by Ivy Wild
Skylerand I laughed about how we were reliving lost high school years in the most cliché of ways, ending with a movie theater blowjob.
Yeah, that’s right. I was fucking laughing now.
And no, not just at other people.
I was genuinely laughing at shit, about shit, shit.
I was so fucking in love with Skyler it wasn’t even funny.
God damn it, I was making puns now too.
And the best part of all of it was, that I didn’t even care.
For the first time in my life I felt totally consumed by something other than hate, disgust, and self-loathing. It was freeing, liberating and all those other things that people talk about when they have break throughs with Dr. Phil.
Thing was, that Skyler wasn’t just some short-lived made-for-TV breakthrough. It became pretty obvious to me how much I’d missed out on and how much I was going to make sure that was securely a past mistake.
I just needed to figure out how to get her on board with the whole concept of spending the rest of her life with the fucked up bully from her senior year.
Work in fucking progress.
But, in the meantime, we’d spent our week fucking, connecting, and even cuddling and I wasn’t ashamed to admit it. Fuck, I was proud of it, actually.
It was Thursday early evening and we’d decided to stay in today. She was curled up with her laptop in my bed and fuck if she didn’t look absolutely incredible with her silvery hair stacked on top of her head, no makeup and wearing one of my white tee-shirts.
I was sitting across the room in one of the leather wingback chairs, reading the newspaper. I wasn’t going to tell her that I was anxiously awaiting news from Bob. I didn’t want her to worry, but when my phone rang and it was his name, my stomach lurched.
“Silas,” I said into the phone clearly.
“Well, I don’t know how you do it, Silas, but that little suggestion you made got the Service to drop the whole thing. They claimed they knew nothing about it and that it wasn’t an approved investigation. They asked if we could refrain from going public with this matter, as it might hurt their image.”
I snorted into the phone.
“I’m not sure the IRS has a reputation they need to defend,” I said. “I’m sure we can keep quiet about the whole thing depending on what you can negotiate from their end,” I said. It was worth a shot.
Bob chuckled. “Always the negotiator.”
“And what of the agent?”
“You mean your familial relation to which you won’t provide any more details?” I could do without his prying.
“Yes,” I replied flatly.
“Terminated, at least as far as I was told, for cause. Meaning he’ll find it pretty difficult to get another job for a very long time.” Bob hesitated. “You aren’t concerned at all? It is a family member after all.”
“I think you and I have very different sorts of families, Bob. Thanks for the news. Enjoy your weekend.” I hung up the phone and Skyler looked at me with shock in her eyes.
“Did you just tell someone to enjoy their weekend?”
“Fuck,” I chuckled, rubbing the back of my neck. “Guilty.”
“What have you done with Silas, you intruder,” she laughed, throwing a pillow at me.
I batted it away, knocking her laptop to the floor. A peel of laughter burst from her lips and if I hadn’t literally (and yes, I do mean literally) just fucked her, I would have plunged into her warmth again.
I threw my newspaper onto the bed and lunged at her. I laid on top of her, caging her with my arms as she tried to wriggle free.
“No way, you aren’t going anywhere,” I said, rubbing my lips against her neck.
She huffed, but a smile was on her face. “But, I was working on something.”
“Don’t you wanna hear the good news?” I asked her.
“If you tell me Jesus Christ is Lord, I really am going to think you’re an imposter,” she laughed.
“Definitely not,” I said. “Heaven seems way too lofty. Too much real estate gone to waste in my opinion. Reminds me of Potomac.”
She giggled. “I know you’re not speaking from experience.”
I turned over and pulled her with me so that she was laying on top of me. I put an arm beneath my head and looked into her beautiful eyes.
“It’s all done,” I said.
Her eyes widened. “You mean--?”
I nodded. “Our plan worked. Vartan got canned and the investigation is no more.”
She sighed. “It seems too easy.”
I shrugged. “Sometimes you have to take the blessings that life throws your way.”
She grimaced. “Okay, seriously, who are you?”
I laughed and wrapped my arms around her. “Just a guy who’s crazy about a girl.”
“You’re the furthest thing from ‘just a guy,’” she said, relaxing into my embrace.
“I see you didn’t dispute the ‘crazy’ part.”
Her giggling filled the room and I relaxed into the sound. We laid there for a while, the both of us just feeling relaxed and happy and at peace.
It was so fucking wonderful.
It seemed like a dream.
But it wasn’t.
This was the life I’d missed out on with Skyler for a fucking decade.
She reached over to the nightstand and grabbed her phone. I watched her curiously as she aimed the device at the newspaper I’d thrown onto the bed.
“What’s this all about?”
“Oh,” she said a bit sheepishly, taking a few more pictures. “I just take pictures of things I see every now and then. Things that remind me of good and bad and weird times. It’s sort of stupid, but I make these things with the pictures.” She laughed to herself. “Some girls write in journals. I make weird collages, I guess.”
“Sounds cool,” I said. “Can I see?”
She bit her lower lip in contemplation. “I don’t know if you would like it.”
“Sky, it’s something you made. Of course I’m going to love it.”
She shook her head. I could tell she was embarrassed. “I don’t think I’m very good. I’ve only got like one actual fan and even they don’t like everything I post.”
“Post?”
“Yeah, on Instagram.”
A weird feeling crept over me. “Please show me?” I asked her quietly.
She looked at me and finally nodded. “Okay, but please don’t laugh at me if you hate them.”
I shook my head and stayed quiet as she reached down for her laptop. We shifted so that we were sitting next to one another. I watched the screen in anticipation as she logged onto the website.
What I already knew in my heart to be true appeared on the screen.
She was @fadedwhitewings.
The girl I’d been following for the last decade.
The art I’d been connecting with.
The images that had been making me feel things in a world where I felt emotionless.
And it had been Skyler all along.
Of course it had been her.
Why I didn’t see it before this moment, I didn’t know.
The world had pushed us together, even when we tried so hard to keep apart. There was no other explanation for how I’d found her feed amongst the millions that were on the site.
It cemented what I knew I needed to do in my mind.
“So anyways,” she said, flipping through the images I knew by heart quickly, as if she was embarrassed by them. “This is them.”
She tried to close the computer and I stopped her. I turned to the screen and then to her and brushed my knuckles against her chin gently. She leaned into my touch with a sigh, and I pressed a soft kiss to her lips.
“They’re amazing. Thank you for sharing them with me.”
She blushed. “You’re welcome,” she said. She closed the computer screen and I let her. “You wanna grab something to eat?” she asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, let’s.”
Silas had been actingcagey all day, but not in a bad way. I knew he had something planned, but he wasn’t telling me, no matter how hard I begged.
He’d run out in the morning for an impromptu business meeting, but he was back within the hour. We spent most of the day in his apartment and I tried to distract myself from asking him twenty questions about what he had planned. He was an expert at dodging questions he didn’t want to answer, so I satisfied myself with asking him other things I’d been curious about.
By four in the afternoon, I found myself finally working up the courage to bring up our respective pasts. I’d been avoiding it, only because I knew whatever questions I lobbed at him, he’d turn them back around and toss them over the net. For the longest time, that really scared me. But, I was finally feeling ready to face some things I’d kept buried.
“So, you said you went to law school, but you’re not a lawyer. How’s that work?” I asked. I was sitting on his sofa, munching on a piece of celery and working on my next collage. I was feeling a lot more creative lately.
He was at the nearby kitchen island, reading the Financial Times.
He shrugged his shoulders. “The old man wanted me to go. Said he’d cut me out of the will if I didn’t.” He chuckled. “He always used to threaten that, but I knew it was bullshit.”
“So, then why’d you go?”
He shrugged again and took a sip of coffee. “Even if you’re not going to practice law, law school is still extremely valuable. It teaches you how people think about problems and how to counter opponents.”
I giggled. “Seems right up your alley.”
“It played to my strengths, yes,” he replied with a wink.
He put his paper down and turned to look at me. I knew the question he was going to ask before he asked it.
“Your turn,” he said.
I scrunched my face but he shook his head, silently letting me know I wasn’t going to get out of this one this time.
“It’s so pathetic,” I said with a sigh. “But, I’d never been away from my mother. And when I left for college, I was still so wrapped up in my shell. So, when I was asked to go on stage and perform, it just wasn’t happening for me.” I looked down at my nails. I was still a little sad how everything had played out. “I’d read so much when I was younger. Used to write my own screenplays and everything. I really thought I’d make it.”
“Ever think that maybe you were chasing the wrong side of things?”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
He got up and made his way over to the sofa to sit beside me. He pulled me into his arms and I melted into him, the beating of his heart calming me. “I mean, did you ever think you were trying to be the actress when you should have been the director? Or the playwright? You’re obviously talented, Sky. But maybe you weren’t supposed to be up on a public stage.”
I nodded my head. It made sense. Why people thought eighteen-year-olds were mature enough to decide what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives and go into hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt to do it clearly hadn’t met most American teenagers.
“It’s a little late, now,” I said sadly.
Silas shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. You’ve got your marketing degree. Who’s to say you don’t land a job doing marketing for a studio or a label.”
Hearing him say it made me sad that I’d repeatedly turned down Sophie’s offer to handle the marketing for her new label. I should probably talk to her about that. Maybe Silas was right. Maybe my dream wasn’t dead. Maybe it had just morphed.
“Yeah, but if I got another job, you’d be out of an assistant,” I pointed out teasingly.
“Shit,” he said. “You’re right, it’s much too late. Give up on all your dreams and stay with me forever,” he said lightheartedly, and I laughed.
I looked up into his dark brown eyes and he pressed his lips to mine. He pulled back and I frowned at the loss of him.
“As much as I would love to bend you over this sofa,” he said, his voice deep and making me shiver, “I’ve got a little something planned. Go get changed for me? Something nice but still casual.”
“You won’t tell me?”
“Nope,” he said, squeezing me tighter.
“You know I hate surprises,” I said, trying my hardest to get him to give in.
“Wrong. I’m the one that hates surprises. You love them.”
I grumbled but got up and made my way to the bedroom where I had a few of my clothes stashed.
Silas chuckled and followed behind me.
I began tugging at my clothing, pulling it off my body and throwing it down onto the bed in pretend frustration. He looked at me with humor in his eyes as he tugged his own shirt off his body.
I turned around and shimmied out of the soffee brand shorts I’d been wearing. I gasped as I felt his firm grasp wrap around my hips, pulling me against him. I could feel him through his grey sweatpants. He was solid.
“Maybe I was too hasty in not bending you over that sofa.” His voice was deep and gravelly and a major turn on.
I stood up and he wrapped a strong arm around the front of me, caging me against his warmth. His lips ghosted across the back of my neck and shivers wracked my body.
“I was just going to take a shower,” I said, trying to catch my breath.
“Sounds like a wonderful idea,” he husked against my ear. “I think I’ll join you.”
I smiled and his hand glided its way down my stomach to rest at the apex of my thighs. His fingers played over my panties and I could feel myself getting more turned on by the minute.
“Go,” he said, pulling back suddenly and slapping my ass. “Get it started. I’ll be there in a second.”
I nodded and tried to walk calmly into the bathroom. When I first got here, Silas’ condo was as neat as a pin, all hard lines and not a thing out of place. As I turned the knob to start the spray, I looked over at the line of shampoo bottles and smiled as a very bright purple bottle of Suave lilac scented shampoo sat next to his black bottles of Oribe shampoo and conditioner.
It looked so out of place, but Silas hadn’t moved it, not even an inch.
I pulled my panties off and stepped into the water. I felt him follow me in and before I had a chance to say anything, he was pushing my back against the gray marble and pressing his lips against mine.
Hot water cascaded down our bodies and I let my hands roam his form. Silas had always maintained a lithe physique and I could feel the ridges of his abs under my fingers. His movements against me were insistent. The more I got to know the intimate side of Silas, the more I realized that he was nothing like the carefully constructed mask he wore. In the bedroom, he’d whisper the filthiest things in my ear, and I could tell he was gauging my reactions to see if he could continue.
I’d never known myself to be so turned on by that sort of thing, but leave it to Silas to force open the doors to my boundaries but let me walk through.
“Silas, please,” I begged him, as his mouth moved down to my jaw, pressing rough kisses against my skin before nipping at my neck.
“Please, what?” he asked. I could feel the smirk against me. He loved goading me. He loved making me beg for it.
And that was fine.
I would for him.
And willingly.
“Please, fuck me,” I gasped out.
His fingers moved down to ghost over my stomach before touching my folds gently. I moaned and let my head press against the marble. His lips were on my ear and I sucked my lower lip into my mouth in anticipation.
His touch was so light, but even still, it was sending shivers coursing through my body, despite the heat of the water.
“I want to see you coming, feel your juices slide down my fingers, fuck this beautiful mouth of yours, hear you gag on my cock, only then will I fuck this tight cunt of yours,” he said, and I groaned.
My eyes fluttered closed and he nipped my earlobe hard. I gasped and looked at him in shock.
“Keep those eyes open, angel. I want to see them roll back when you climax.”
“Fuck, Si.”
“Not yet, angel. Not yet.”
His fingers moved against me, swirling easily around my clit, the water from the shower nothing compared to how wet I was below. His thumb stayed on my clit as he slipped two fingers deep inside of me, curling them and making my mouth fall open as stars began to burst in my vision.
“Look at me, Skyler,” he ground out as his hand continued to move inside of me.
My eyes met his. He looked at me with pure lust and I was done for. My arms wrapped around him as my nails dug into his shoulders and I came with a scream of his name.
“God, you’re so fucking hot when you come,” he husked, pressing his lips to mine, swallowing the rest of my moan as his fingers slowed their movements, working me down from my high gently.
I blinked my eyes back open when he parted and he smiled at me. My hand wrapped around his firm erection and it was his turn to groan and throw his head back. I knelt in front of him, giving him what he said he wanted. The water pounded against my back, cascading over my face and body, but I didn’t care.
I took him into my mouth as best as I could given how large he was, fisting the rest with my hand that I couldn’t fit into my mouth. My tongue pressed against the underside of his shaft and expletives fell out of his mouth.
“My beautiful fucking angel,” he said through grit teeth. His hands came down around the back of my head and I let him take control. I pressed my back against the tile and he pressed into my mouth, fucking my face slowly, going deeper than I thought I could take him. I tried to relax and he slid in and out of my mouth before I was gagging on his cock.
He pulled out and raised me up, pressing me hard against the tiles, his erection pressing firmly against my abdomen.
“You know how hot it is to listen to you gag on my cock?” he groaned, his fingers wrapping around my neck slightly.
“Come on, Si. Fuck me like you said you would,” I breathed out, edging him on.
“Dirty whore,” he said with a smirk on his face and excitement coursed through my body.
I could imagine that other women wouldn’t put up with Silas’ mouth. I, on the other hand, loved it. My entire life, men treated me in two ways, first, like I was some delicate object that could break if they so much as touched me, or second, like some oddity that belonged in a museum. I’d never felt sexy. I’d never felt wanted. I’d never felt desired.
Silas changed all that.
When he looked at me, I felt sexy.
When he touched me, I felt wanted.
When he called me those things, I could feel his desire for me.
He turned me around and placed my hands on the inset bench. His knees forced me to spread my thighs wider and he leaned over and played with my breasts.
“Scream my name when you come,” he said against my skin before pulling back.
He thrust into me in one swift movement and I gasped, but held onto the bench.
His rhythm was fast, rough and hard. He didn’t treat me like some delicate crystal vase that could be broken. He treated me like a beautiful, confident, sexual woman. Aftershocks from my orgasm coursed through me at his movements as he smacked my ass, my walls grasping at his cock as it slid in and out of me.
“Si,” I moaned, not sure if I could hold on any longer.
He pulled out and I knelt down and he stroked himself over me as I waited to taste his essence. From this vantage point, I could see him clearly, all of his hot edges and luke-warm center on display.
“God, I love you,” tumbled from his lips as he came into my awaiting mouth.
He tasted tangy. It was so very fitting.
He smiled down at me and I looked up at him, still licking his lifeforce off my lips. He watched me with fascination and lust before I stood. He turned me around so I was standing beneath the spray and his lips ghosted over mine.
“You don’t know just how fucking sexy you are,” he whispered.
“Only for you,” I said, and he smiled.
“Only ever for me.”
The entire cabride over to her loft, Sky tried to convince me to tell her more about “what party” and “who was going to be there,” and “was I sure she looked okay?”
She was so impatient and I loved her.
When I’d first seen her through the window of the Friendly Pancake, I’d wanted to mess with her, because I enjoyed that sort of thing. I still did, but now it was for a very different reason. I loved seeing her riled up. When she got emotional, she always dropped her quiet façade and let her true colors show through.
She didn’t know it yet, but we were heading to her engagement party. Everyone she cared about was going to be there, and fuck, she always looked gorgeous to me. I played with the velvet box in my pocket, smiled at her repeated questions, and told her to relax because everything was going to be clear in just a few minutes.
When the cab driver pulled up to the parking lot for her loft, she looked at me with narrowed eyes. “What are we doing here, Silas?”
I laughed and beckoned for her to get out of the car. I threw the cab driver some cash and climbed out myself, ushering her to the metal staircase behind the building that led up to her loft.
She climbed the stairs, but every couple of steps she turned around and gave me a look. I could hide the legitimate joy I was feeling the closer and closer we got to her place. I wasn’t going to ask her right away. Maybe not even until everyone left. But, I wanted to show her that I cared about the people that cared about her. That I could play nice and that they would always have a place in her life so long as they didn’t hurt her.
I’d even swallowed my pride and invited fucking Trevor.
I hated knowing he’d been inside of her, but I knew he was an important friend to her and therefore, I’d have to get comfortable with him being a part of her life.
At the end of the day, what mattered was her being with me. Whatever I had to put up with to make that happen was worth it.
We opened the door and the lights were already on. Connor Driscoll had his arm wrapped around a very pregnant Sophie Strong, who was sitting next to a beautiful, yet older, woman I knew to be Skyler’s mother, on the sofa. Trevor was standing in the kitchen looking through his phone and Skyler’s eyes lit up when she saw everyone in her loft.
Skyler’s mother rushed over to hug her and everyone took their turn trading hugs and kisses. I greeted Connor and made my way to the kitchen. I shook Trevor’s hand and told him I appreciated him answering my call and making the drive.
We stood in the kitchen, drinking beers, as Connor read emails on his phone and the women reconnected over wine (apple juice for Sophie) on the sofa.
“She seems happy,” Trevor said.
I took a swig of my beer and nodded. “Yeah. I try to keep it that way.”
“I’ve never known her to be truly happy before,” Trevor admitted. “So, I’m glad you two reconnected.”
“Thanks,” I said, surprised by his words. “I know your friendship is important to her.”
Trevor nodded. “Same goes for me. Shit never worked between us, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about her. We were just too similar.” He turned and looked at me. “But you two seem to be polar opposites.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, but that’s not really saying much. I’m generally the polar opposite of everyone I meet.”
Trevor laughed and nodded his head. “That I can understand.”
“Gee, thanks,” I said, but my tone was lighthearted.
Trevor and I joined the group in the living room and the hours passed without me even realizing it. I’d had food ordered in from Sky’s favorite vegan burger place, and we’d all eaten our fill. I hadn’t seen Skyler smile so much in one evening and I couldn’t help but pull my phone out and snap photos of her when she wasn’t looking. She was beautiful and perfect and full of energy. I’d never forget this night, but I wanted her to see just how beautiful she looked, too.
Maybe I’d ask her to make me a collage with her in the center.
A loud bang from the side of the room had me looking up from my phone. We all looked between ourselves and then the bang happened again and the door to the loft swung open, kicked clean off its hinges.
Standing on the other side was Vartan.
