Page 26 of Their Pup to Tame

“With as many of us as there were in and out of the house growing up, she got to be a pro at keeping everything orderly,” Phoenix admitted. “Man, my cousins and I used to get into some shit.”

“It wasn’t a fun childhood if you don’t have a few scars to show for it,” Parker said. “There was an old tree in the backyard of the house I grew up in. My sister and I were always daring one another to climb higher. We’d tie strips of cloth around the highest rung we reached. One color for her, one for me. When we reached our old height, we untied it and carried it up the tree with us until we chickened out again. I fell out of it twice and managed not to break anything. She fell out of it once andbroke her arm. We’d have probably kept on climbing it until one of us broke our necks if it hadn’t been struck by lightning. My mom called it divine intervention. Sometimes I’d see her in the kitchen window, pinching her nose, a pained expression on her face as she watched us climb down. As soon as we came clamoring through the door, she’d wave her wooden spoon at us and tell us not to come crying to her when we fell out of that tree again.”

“For me it was heels,” I said. “I was obsessed with them, and my mother, being a costume designer, always had fabulous pairs in her closet. The only time she got after me about wearing them was when I snapped the heel off one. My bruises had bruises by the time I learned to walk in them, but when I strutted down the hall like I was walking a runway, sky-blue glitter heels shimmering beneath the lights, she clapped for me with a proud smile on her face. The next day she took me to pick out my first pair. I wore those boots out, let me tell you.”

“I can picture that,” Parker said. “You wobbling, falling, and glaring at the heels before dusting yourself off and trying again. I don’t think my mom would have been that cool about me borrowing her shoes, but then the only kind she ever wore were sneakers.”

“You started this, so what did you used to get into?” I asked Phoenix as I caressed his cheek.

He retaliated by dragging his tongue over my nipple again, this time pausing to tease the nub with several slow flicks before he was rewarded with more milk.

“Everything,” he said, sounding sleepier now and grumpy, like he was annoyed with us for prompting him to talk when he was more interested in my milk. “If it could be poked at,disassembled, set on fire, or launched somewhere, we tried it at least once, and probably a few other things too. Seriously, we were the poster children forDon’t Do This at Home. You can imagine how often one of us wound up banged up or in the emergency room. My grandmother used to say that they should name a wing after our family for all the business we sent their way. It was crazy some of the shit we pulled, just being curious.”

“Trying to picture you as a little kid, the only thing that comes to mind is the Tasmanian Devil,” Parker said, which just made me laugh because now I could picture it too.

“That’s fair and pretty damned accurate,” Phoenix said. “We never played pranks or did mean shit to people. But we liked to figure out how things worked and if something was possible. One day, my grandmother caught us outside with a rope, trying to hang upside down the way Spider-Man did in the movie, same pose and everything. She’d no sooner told us to knock it off before one of us fell on our heads when my brother, Ray, slipped and landed on his. He wound up with a big lump and had to go to the hospital. My grandmother was not amused. The wordslast nervewere used, among others. Man, she was pissed.”

“I’d imagine so, if she kept having to chase after you guys,” I said.

“We were a handful, but it was fun to live in a house full of people like that.”

“I bet no one was ever bored,” Parker remarked.

“Hell no,” he replied. “My grandmother’s house is on an acreage outside of town. There’s a creek that runs through the back of it and woods to get lost in. It was our childhood playground since roughhousing was forbidden in the house. My grandmother didn’t have a lot of rules, but that was one of them. Not cuttingschool or getting arrested was another. I never got arrested, but sometimes it was hard to go to school when I wanted to read comics on a rock and stare at the clouds.”

“I can’t say I ever did anything that ambitious when I skipped school,” Parker said. “My friends and I would ditch school to go to amusement parks and concerts, sometimes both if they were close enough together.

“Might as well make a day of it,” Phoenix said before licking me again and murmuring, “Did you ever ditch?”

“Twice,” I admitted, “and neither occasion went the way I expected.”

“Hmm, now that sounds juicy. You can turn the TV off. I’d rather listen to your story and enjoy a drink,” he remarked, latching on, firmly this time, a subtle sign that he would not be contributing any more to the conversation.

“Have I heard either of these tales yet?” Parker asked as he laced his fingers with mine.

“Nope.”

“Sweet, bring on the bedtime story.”

“Well, I can’t promise jousts and knights in peril, but there was an ER visit involved in one of them, not for anything near as cool as trying to be Spider-Man,” I explained as Phoenix slid his leg over mine, bringing us even closer as his sucking took on a gentle, rhythmic pace. “Though it did involve a spider.”

“Then you have to tell that one,” Parker declared, squeezing my hand, while Phoenix grazed me with his teeth, forcing me to suck in a breath as my body went rigid. “And I think he just agreed.”

“Yeah, I’d say so,” I muttered as Phoenix went back to sucking again.

“We skipped to go take pictures at this crumbling house in the woods, in full costume, mind you, since it made the perfect backdrop for promotional images for our production of Hansel and Gretel. Our graphic designer added so much candy to the outside of the place that we barely recognized it when he was through. It looked amazing. Unfortunately, it was a hot day, and the air conditioner in the car was on the fritz, so we left the windows down while we were taking pictures.”

“Uh-huh, and set yourself up for an encounter with nature, didn’t you?” Parker said.

“Not one of our finer moments, I must admit,” I said, giggling as Phoenix started flicking his tongue over my nipple before moving to the other one.

“Aren’t you supposed to be going to sleep?” I asked, finding the spot on his ribs that I knew would send him into fits of laughter and tickling until he nipped me hard enough that I decided that wasn’t the best idea while he was latched on and in no mood to let go.

Parker chuckled and dragged his finger over the inside of my wrist, making me squirm and earn another nip for moving.

“Bastard!”

“Quit stalling.”