***Chapter Five***

"So I'd ask what your sister did this weekend, but that seems fairly obvious," Darryl said.

"What?" Brad asked.

"Darryl," Sara said.

"Oh come on. She's got a hickey the size of Texas on her neck and you don't think I'm going to comment on it? You both know me better than that!"

"She does …" Brad glanced at her then, seemed to see it (though it wasn't that big). "Oh. Sara!"

"It was an accident."

"Tripping over the cat is an accident," Darryl offered. "That is no accident. I've given some pretty good hickeys in my time to know."

"Oh God, shut up," Sara said, knowing she was blushing profusely now. It was bad enough they'd seen it. She didn't need them teasing her about it.

"So, who is he?" Darryl asked.

"Darryl," Brad said.

"Oh come on. He can't be worse than that Alex guy was. He was a loser with a capital L."

"It's not Alex," Sara said. She had to sort of agree with Darryl that he'd been a loser. She'd liked him too much at the time to notice.

"Well, that's a relief. So who is it? Is it love? Come on, we want the details!"

"No, we don't," Brad said quickly. "Does Mom know?"

"No! Of course not! It's only showing now because we're outside and my hair is all over the place."

"Good because if Mom saw that she'd freak out."

"I know! She hasn't. I just didn't realize here I had to be careful about it showing."

"Only because Darryl's here."

"Then again. How did you miss it, Brad? She's your baby sister. Isn't it innate for guys like you to want to kick the ass of anyone who touches her?"

"Uh only if they hurt her. She's an adult. You expect me to follow her around?"

"Well, no," Darryl said.

"You're making me regret coming here with you guys! I don't know why we're here to begin with. No one's going to want to buy your stupid car."

"Ouch," Darryl said. "She wounds me with her words of disdain directed at my pride and joy."

"Then why are you selling it?"

"My youthful pride and joy? It's time to grow up."

He'd traded up was why. He hadn't been happy Brad had a better, faster, car than his basic Mustang so he'd upgraded to a Mustang Cobra. Ironically, Brad and Darryl's cars were two of like four that were faster than hers was off the lot stock.

Sara and Brad both scoffed at that. They both knew why Darryl was trying to get rid of it. He needed money. How her brother was still friends with him baffled her at times because they were not really anything alike. They hadn't been as teenagers either, but as adults. Darryl spent money faster than he could earn it. Brad could afford his car, Darryl could not. Insurance rates for twenty-five year old guys who drove muscle cars were not good.

"Try to grow up? Come on, cut me some slack. I've heard places like this are a great way to find buyers."

Sara still wasn't sure why she'd been invited to come along. She got along fine with Brad and Darryl, but she didn't usually hang out with them or anything. Maybe because she was done with school for the summer? She was taking two summer school classes, but her days were pretty free. Classes weren't starting until next week anyway.

It was a nice evening so she couldn't complain. They'd stop somewhere afterward to get something to eat. Brad would drop Sara off at the house since he'd picked her up. Then she supposed she'd find out if there was a message from Erik on her machine. She hadn't called him back yesterday. No particular reason other than she wasn't sure she should, so she'd gone with not calling him back. Hiding perhaps, but she wasn't sure she wanted to find out he'd called yesterday to tell her they shouldn't see one another again or something.

"I think I'm going to take Sara home, Darryl," Brad said after they'd gotten done walking around. Neither of them were in the market for a new car (or a new old car), but it was fun to walk around and see all of the cars here tonight.

Sara had to admit, Darryl's Mustang was one of the nicest cars here. He had taken great care of it and there was no rust or anything on it. He'd never been in an accident so the body was good.

"It's fine, Brad. I can stay a while longer."

"I know you can, but you're bored out of your mind. And probably want to go call the guy responsible for that."

"I'm here! I'm fine. If I didn't want to be here I would've said no when you asked."

They were closer than most brothers and sisters after that night. Brad was also super protective over her after that night. He went to college, though, and they didn't do as much together as they had when he'd been in high school. Then she'd gone to college and the same thing happened. Summers, though, they always tried to hang out as much as they could. Sometimes it was dinner or movies, sometimes it was things like this. They didn't talk much or anything at something like this, but they were there together. Darryl didn't have any siblings so he teased them a lot without understanding their relationship. Occasionally she'd stay the night at Brad's house and they'd watch movies.

"You sure?"

"Yes!"

"All right," he said. "Well, we've seen every car worth seeing I think. So I guess our only option is to stand here and talk to Darryl."

"Sara?"

She wasn't the only one who turned to see who was talking to her, Darryl and Brad did, too, because she wasn't exactly a staple at these things. Darryl had been trying to unload the car for over a year now so he and Brad came to things like this a lot.

"Holy shit," Darryl said. "That's…"

"Darryl," Sara said.

"Hi," she said, knowing she was blushing again. Jesus. It seemed since Saturday that's all she'd been doing. She had nothing to be embarrassed about. She was an adult. Okay, maybe a little if her brother knew what she'd done. She was still an adult!

"What's he doing here?" Darryl asked.

"And how does he know your name, Sara?" Brad asked.

Darryl laughed a little then and Sara turned to stare at him.

"What?" she and Brad both asked him.

He put a hand on Brad's shoulder, tugging him toward him. "He's got a hickey, too, Brad."

"Yeah, so," Brad asked.

Sara stepped away from them then. She did not want to hear Brad's reaction to him putting two-and-two together to realize that Erik was the one responsible for her hickey.

"What are you doing here?"

"Uh, my brother's friend brought his car here," she said, gesturing to the car behind her.

"Oh," he said, glancing behind her at them.

"Why is your brother looking at me as if he wants to kill me?"

"Uh, I don't know," she said, glancing at Brad over her shoulder. She'd like to see Brad try to kill him. She doubted he'd get very far in that attempt.

"So, I was going to call you later. My partner," he said, gesturing to the guy she'd seen at the garage before. "He drove himself so I wouldn't have to go all the way back to the garage before going home just to drop him off."

"Oh, well, see, now you don't have to."

"Did you do anything today?"

"Uh, no," she said. "I went to campus for a while, but that was it."

"Oh, I didn't think your classes started until next week. Or did I hear you wrong?"

"No, not until next week," she said, unable to ignore the feeling that washed through her that he'd remembered that. "I have a friend who's staying on-campus so I went to see her for a while. She's an RA in one of the dorms there."

"I see. But you don't live on-campus?"

"No, I do during the school year. Just this summer I'm not. I decided to take these two classes to get them out of the way. Free up my load a little next year."

"Ah," he said. "So, is he mad about this," he said, sliding the back of his hand over the spot on her neck the hickey was.

"Probably."

"So, if I kiss you…"

Holy crap. He wanted to kiss her. Here. In public.

"I don't know."

"Well, I guess we'll find out," he said, leaning down to do just that.

"You didn't have to do that," she whispered when he drew away. It wasn't a real long kiss. She could tell his partner was surprised, though. She was pretty sure Brad and Darryl were, too.

"Oh, I know I didn't have to. That doesn't mean I didn't want to."

"Okay then," she said.

"Yeah, he doesn't look very happy with me."

"I'm sorry," Brad said from right behind her now. "How did you find Sara?"

"Brad," she said softly.

"What? Come on. Why is he kissing you?"

"Because I wanted to kiss her? That's why people typically do that, isn't it?"

"She's like fifteen years younger than you."

"I'm aware of her age. And it's twelve years younger." He extended his hand to Brad. "I'm Erik, by the way."

She watched Brad frown, but he took the offered hand. "Uh, Brad," he said, glancing at Sara. She was so in trouble. There was no way she was getting out of this evening without explaining some things to him. Like how she ended up standing here being kissed by Mr. Dawson.

"Why are you and your friend staring at me?"

"Uh," he said, glancing at Darryl and then at Sara. "I don't know. It's not every day I see someone kiss my little sister right in front of me?"

"I suppose."

"If you're the one responsible for the hickey on her neck, you may want to watch that. She still lives at home, you know."

"I'm aware."

"Good. Because she'd be grounded for life if our mom saw that."

"Really?" he asked, glancing at Sara. He probably wanted confirmation what Brad said was true. Her mom wasn't mean or real strict, but there were some things she didn't like. Seeing her kids were doing things she thought they shouldn't do unless married was one of things she didn't like.

"Sara, can I talk to you for a minute, please?"

"Uh, sure," she said.

"We'll be right back," Brad said, tugging Sara by the sleeve of her jacket back to the rear of Darryl's Mustang where Darryl was. Sara sighed softly at the look on Darryl's face. No way was he going anywhere until he heard what Brad had to say to Sara right now and likely Sara's explanation.

"What in the hell is he doing here?"

"Looking at cars?"

"Don't be a smart ass, Sara. He kissed you!"

"Yeah. So?"

"Sara," Darryl said. "You're not dumb. Don't act like you are on this."

"What is it you want to know exactly?" she asked. She was defensive and sounded it. She couldn't help it. She hadn't done anything wrong! Neither had Erik.

"How does he even know who you are to be kissing you? I don't even want to know what he was doing with you that resulted in that."

"He didn't know who I was. My car broke down a couple of weeks ago. I had it towed to his garage."

"And now he's kissing you? Sara," he said cautiously. "Does he even know who you are?"

"No!"

"Sara," he said.

"I didn't think it was important."

"Not important that he first met you when you were ten!"

"I was almost eleven!"

"It was still ten years ago. You were just a kid and now he's," Brad glanced from her to Erik and then at the ground. "It's none of my business I realize, but he should know the truth, Sara. He doesn't even know that we know who he is."

"No," she said. Of course not.

"Sara. This is crazy. Do you know what you're doing? He's in his thirties!"

"I know! Chris said…"

"You talked to Chris about this?"

"Chris Parker?" Darryl asked.

"Gipp," Sara and Brad said at the same time.

"Oh that's right, I forgot she married Joe. They have a son, too, right."

"Two," Sara said.

"Two?" Brad asked.

"Yeah, Joey. And Ryan is like a month old or something."

"I didn't know that."

"I talk to her once in a while," Sara said with a shrug.

"So you talked to her about dating Mr. Dawson."

"Erik," she hissed.

"Yeah, whatever."

"Yes, I did. I didn't want to talk to you about it. Like I want to talk to my brother about dating and sex."

"Sara! Tell me you did not have sex with him!"

"I'm an adult! I'm twenty-one."

"Jesus Christ, Sara."

"Like you didn't have sex before you graduated from high school!"

"Not with him!"

She rolled her eyes and walked away from them.

"Everything okay?" Erik asked.

"Yeah," she said with a shrug.

"So, your brother's friend. Does he actually want to sell his car?"

"Uh, yeah, last I checked. Why?"

"Well, that's why we came over here initially. It looks to be in pretty good shape compared to others of the same year we've come across."

"You'll have to talk to him. I have nothing to do with his car."

"What kind of car does your brother drive?"

"Huh?"

"Your brother. His friend drives this. You drive the Formula. I'm wondering what he drives."

"Oh, a 3000GT."

"VR4?"

"Uh, yes," she said.

"Wow. I guess you guys like your fast cars. That GT is one of the few cars stock that could out-muscle your car."

"I know," Sara said.

He chuckled softly at that. "And I love that about you."

"You said your partner drove himself?"

"He did, yeah," Erik said, sounding confused by her question.

"And he's your partner so he could talk to Darryl just as capably as you can?"

"Yes."

"And write a check?"

"Yes," he said.

"Give him the checkbook then, and let's go."

"I'm sorry. What?"

"I don't want to be here anymore."

"I," he frowned, glancing behind her to her brother and Darryl. She could imagine the looks they were giving Erik. "Yeah, all right," he said. He was confused, though, she could see that written clearly on his face. "John," he said to his partner.

"Yeah."

"You take care of the Mustang. It caught your interest more than mine anyway."

"Okay," he said, sounding confused, too. She couldn't blame him.

"I'm going to take Sara home."

"Where are you going, Sara?" Brad asked, evidently realizing she was leaving.

"Erik's going to bring me home."

"Sara!" Brad said.

"What? It saves you the trouble of having to bring me home. And lecturing me anymore."

"It's no trouble!"

John was talking to Darryl by now, leaving Brad with her and Erik.

"Would you excuse us again for a minute, Mr., I mean, Erik," he said, catching himself it seemed.

"Yeah, sure," Erik said, walking toward John and Darryl.

"Brad! Stop embarrassing me. I'm not a child."

"I know you're not. You weren't going to leave with him until I started talking about it, though."

"Yeah, because you're making a big deal out of nothing!"

"I bet he'll think it's something, Sara! You're being dishonest not telling him the truth."

"I will!"

"When?"

"I don't know!"

"Sara," Brad said.

"I will, Brad. All right. I will, I know I have to tell him. I just wanted him to get to know me a little bit before I told him he'd seen me before when I was ten."

"If you're having sex with him he'd better know you pretty well."

"Brad!"

"Don't Brad me, Sara. You don't randomly have sex with guys."

"I know," she said.

Brad stared at her for a minute, mouth hanging open as if he was finally understanding.

"You wanted to…"

"Oh God, Brad. Please just leave it alone. I will tell him."

He glanced at Erik who was doing his best to pay attention to John and Darryl without trying to pay any to them. She was sure it wasn't easy to do.

"Sara. He's years older than you."

"Yeah?"

"And he's single."

"Yeah," she said with a scoff. "I'm not going to sleep with a married man, Brad."

"No, why is a thirty something year old guy not married?"

"I don't know. You're twenty five and not married."

"Because I haven't met …"

"Yeah, see. Maybe he hasn't either."

He sighed. "He doesn't have to take you home."

"Well, I've asked him to. If I tell him no now he's going to think I'm flighty as hell."

"Just do me a favor."

"I can try," she said.

"Please be careful. I don't want to see you get hurt."

"I know. I will be."

"All right."

"Thanks," she said, giving him a kiss on his cheek.

"Thanks for being a sucker for that look you give me all these years later, you mean?"

"Yeah, that. You're the best big brother a girl could ask for."

"Yeah, yeah."

Erik stepped toward them when he saw them move toward Darryl's Mustang.

"You, uh, still need a ride home?"

"I don't need one, but I'd love one."

"Yeah, sure," he said, sliding an arm around her then. He was so much taller than her that he had to put it around her shoulders but whatever worked. He didn't seem to care anyway.

"Night Brad."

"Yeah, night, Sara."

"Bye Darryl," she said.

Darryl shook his head a little as he watched Sara walk off with Erik.

"You're really going to let her just leave with him, Brad?"

"What can I do about it, Darryl? She's not a kid."

"Everything all right?"

"Yeah. Why?"

“Oh, I don’t know. I know big brothers can be a pain in the ass. I’m not a big brother, but even I’m pretty protective over my sister despite the fact she was graduated from high school before I started junior high.”

"He worries about me."

"Rightfully so," he said.

He led her to his car and opened the door for her.

"You sure your partner will be all right?"

He chuckled softly at that. "He'll be fine."

"And he won't get mad?"

"What can he say?"

"I don't know."

"He'll get over it, regardless. I just gave him a day off last week to go to Great America with his family. He can handle this."

"All right," she said as he shut her door before going over to his side.

She slid over on the seat.

"Hi," he said, clearly surprised she'd chosen to sit that close to him.

"Hi," she said, leaning in to kiss him.

She'd surprised him, but he kissed her back, sliding his arm around her to draw her closer. She whimpered softly as their tongues met. She let a hand slide along his thigh, humming softly as her hand got higher on his jeans.

He groaned softly as she worked the button at the waistband followed by the zipper. She slid her hand inside.

"Fuck, Sara," he whispered, breaking the kiss.

"I'm trying!"

He chuckled softly.

"As appealing as that sounds we're in my car."

"So?"

"Really?" he asked.

"Yes!"

"Damn, Sara, I haven't fooled around in a car in years."

"Well, I haven't had much of a choice…"

"I suppose not," he said.

With Alex she had, but he was the only guy she'd ever had any privacy like a dorm room that the door closed and locked with.

She was still touching him, running her fingers along his shaft. He hadn't told her to stop or anything. He glanced at his wrist.

"Do you have a curfew?"

"Not really. Why?"

"Well, I was thinking we could go back to my place for a while and then I could bring you home later."

"Really?" she asked.

"Honey, if it were actually dark out instead of barely dusk I wouldn't think twice about seeing this through in my back seat. Or, fuck, right here in the front seat I suppose if you didn't want to move. The benefits of having my car versus one with bucket seats, I guess. I don't particularly feel like being arrested tonight, though, and imagine you don't either."

"No," she said.

"I'd have to leave to bring you home around ten o'clock. If that's all right with you…"

"Sure," she said.

He turned his car on then, glancing at her hand still inside of his pants and then at her.

"Afraid I'm going to change my mind?"

"No, just don't want to stop."

"All right then," he said with a soft chuckle.

She didn't do anything beyond touch him. She wasn't going to try to get him off while he was driving. She knew friends who'd done shit like that, but she'd be scared to death the guy would crash his car while coming. Until tonight she'd never even touched a guy while he was driving. Something told her Erik could handle her doing that much.

He pulled into his garage, shutting the car off. He had no overhead light . She took that opportunity, sitting there in his car in the darkened garage and moved on the seat so she could take him into her mouth.

He cried out, settling a hand against her head and letting his fingers run through her hair as she worked her mouth around his length.

"You know, we can go inside," he whispered after a few minutes of her doing that. "I don't have parents inside or anything."

She didn't stop right away, licking along his head before pulling away entirely.

"That was a very nice surprise."

"I'm glad."

"Not nearly as glad as I am, I assure you."

She blushed then and he chuckled softly.

"Anytime you want to do that you feel free. Well, within reason, I suppose. I wasn't complaining."

"I know," she whispered. He leaned in then and kissed her, drawing her to him on the seat. She slid closer to him. He certainly didn't need to force her to get closer to him. She slid her hand to his chest, touching him through his shirt until she got frustrated with not being able to feel his chest. So she reached for the bottom of his shirt, tugging it up so she could touch him skin to skin. God he felt amazing to touch. Her fingertips slid along his skin, tracing over a nipple before finding the other one.

He shifted them both a bit, sliding them so he was closer to the middle of the seat, reaching for his garage door opener. He worked the fastening on her jeans, pushing them down a bit. She did the rest, working them and her panties off and tossing them onto the backseat. He brought her onto his lap and straddled him.

Their mouths parted, tongues meeting as she reached for his jeans, pushing them lower along his legs so she could.

"I need my wallet," he whispered.

"Huh?" she asked.

"Wallet," he repeated. "It's in my glovebox."

"Oh yeah," she said, reaching for it and handing it to him. She went back to kissing him, touching his cock with her hand as he tore open the packet he'd needed his wallet for. She stopped kissing him, moving to his neck so she could kiss him there.

"That's what got us in trouble with your brother, isn't it?"

She shrugged and he chuckled as he brushed her hand out of the way long enough for him to slide the rubber over his length. He took her hand then and set it back over his length.

"Just so you know I put it on and everything," he said before shifting her on his lap enough so he could enter her. She stopped kissing his neck, crying out a bit at the feel of him. She'd never done it this way before and it felt … different.

"You okay?" he asked, apparently realizing she hadn't moved yet.

"Uh huh," she said. "Just different. Uh, tighter."

"Tighter is very good, honey," he whispered, shifting his hips a bit so he pressed a little further inside of her. He reached for her shirt, drawing it up and off before tossing it onto the backseat with her other things.

She moaned loudly when he circled a nipple with his tongue before kissing her breast. He slid his hand over the other one, touching her gently as she moved over him. She was totally winging it, but how hard could it be really. His hands slid behind her to her ass and used them to encourage her to ride him faster. Once they were both at a pace they liked he slid a hand in front of her and between her legs so he could touch her that way.

She came almost immediately. He didn't stop touching her like that, though, bringing her over again almost as easily as the first time. He groaned softly at that, as he moved his mouth from her breasts to her neck and shoulder.

"Don't want to make Mom and Dad angry," he whispered when he finally drew away from the spot.

"I know," she whispered as he moved his fingers faster along her nub again so she came again. He wasn't too far behind her. She settled against his chest as he slid his arms around her after he had finished.

"I had every intention of taking you inside."

"I know," she whispered against his chest. She ran a fingertip along the edge of his nipple.

"I still can and everything. I mean, if you still wanted to come in," he said, sounding unsure of himself.

"Sure," she whispered.

"All right. I'm going to move you and then you need to give me a minute. I'm going to open the door so it's going to get a whole lot brighter in here than it was."

"Okay," she said. She should be embarrassed at how easily he was able to move her next to him on the seat, but he was a strong guy so she wasn't. He got out of the car, shutting the door right away. He didn't leave the garage, but came back a few minutes later and opened the back door to grab her things. She noticed when he opened his door again that he'd taken the condom off.

She reached for her clothes, frowning a bit when he didn't give them to her.

"What?" she asked, panicking a bit at the fact that he had her clothes.

"Relax, honey. I was just thinking," he said, glancing from her to her clothes in his hands. "You don't really need the jeans."

"Okay," she said.

"I mean, we're just going from my garage to the house. My backyard. Well, no one's going to be back there."

"But I need the rest …"

"Oh, I know," he said, kneeling on the seat and leaning toward her so he could slide the panties back on for her.

"Oh," she said.

"Wow," he said. "You paranoid I was going to leave you naked in my garage?"

"I don't know!"

"Huh," he said, regarding her for a second as she shifted her hips off the seat and then took over for him with the panties the rest of the way. "I prefer not angering naked women. Happy naked women want to, you know, do what we just did again only in a bed this time."

"But you said," she said.

"I was going to take you inside. That's what I'm doing," he frowned. "Or do you want me to take you home?"

"No, it's fine."

He stood then as she slid on the seat so she could get out, taking her shirt from him. She slid it over her head and on before grabbing her jeans.

"It's fine could mean all sorts of things. I'm sorry. I'm having a real hard time figuring out what it is you want sometimes. The other day at the garage you seemed like you were wanting to leave and then all of the sudden you very obviously had things other than leaving on your mind. Not that I'm complaining, but now you're thinking I'm going to strand you here and keep your clothes hostage?"

"No! I just wasn't sure what you were doing. Believe it or not this isn't familiar to me!"

"What does that mean?"

"I've only had sex with one person before like three years ago."

"Oh," he said.

"So, I have no idea what I'm supposed to do."

"Well, acting as if you're not afraid of me is a good place to start."

"I'm not afraid of you, Erik," she said. That wasn't entirely true, though. She was scared of a number of things where he was concerned. What would he do if he found out who she was? How could she really fit into his life? Not that he'd mentioned fitting her into his life to this point.

"Okay then. Well, let's go inside then so I can prove to you I can actually treat a woman decently."

"You haven't treated me badly!"

"No, but my desk and the front seat of my car aren't exactly impression-makers."

"Oh, Erik, you were fine."

He chuckled softly, sliding an arm around her. "I want you to think I was more than fine when I drop you off tonight."

She already did and she hoped that wasn't going to be a problem.

Story ©Susan Falk/APCKRFAN/PhantomRoses.com