by Zoe Chant
She took a deep breath and then another one.
“It ... may not be a very good idea, but yes. God, yes.”
Reese supposed that the ethical thing to do would be to talk with her, to understand why she thought that it would be such a terrible idea, but all he could hear was the yes. He shucked out of his clothes so fast he was surprised that they didn't vaporize, and then he was slipping behind her into the shower. For a moment, he wondered how far she wanted him to go, but then Tara leaned back against him, slippery and wet against his chest.
“I guess I see what you mean about the smell,” she murmured. “You flash-fried some cultists, spent all day in a car that's probably older than I am, and you smell. Mm. You smell good.”
“I wear very nice cologne,” Reese said with a grin, but she shook her head.
“No, it's nothing like that. Or maybe you wear a cologne that makes you smell like ...”
She stopped.
“What?”
“Like summer. Like bonfires and fireworks. Like fire before...”
She trailed off, and it took Reese a moment to figure out what it meant. When he remembered, thinking of how she had lost her mother, how her world had ended, he winced.
“Don't think about that right now,” she said quietly. “Come here.”
She handed him one of the tiny plastic bottles on the edge of the tub, and then deliberately turned her back, lifting her heavy hair out of the way. He was struck by how beautiful her bare back was, pale and unmarred, and then swallowing hard, he squirted some of the soap into his hands and started to bathe her. It was terrible stuff, chemical and weirdly pink under the harsh light, but Reese was willing to forgive that for the way she arched under his hands, for how she sighed when he soaped her back and then slicked the foam away under the hot water. She might not have been very tall, but he could feel the muscles under her softness, could feel how tough she really was. He firmed his touch slightly, and she melted under his ministrations. He must have been pushing harder than he thought because she set her hands on the slick tile in front of her, bracing herself and letting her head droop between them.
“Oh good, oh that feels good,” she crooned, and when she looked back at him over the curve of her shoulder, he could feel something change between them. There had been a ... not a pretense, but a sort of wall between them before this. It had just been a check for wounds, or just a shared shower. Now that pretense was gone, and there was nothing between them or their desire for one another.
“Well?” she asked, and Reese felt his breath come faster.
Chapter 17
If Tara was honest with herself, she would have to say that she had been aroused as soon as Reese followed her into the bathroom. She was coming to realize that there was always a hint of arousal underneath everything they did together, but something about the way that he wanted to check her for injuries, for the protective way he gazed at her, gave her that increasingly familiar drop in her belly. There was perhaps even a part of her that wondered if the whole 'checking her wounds' thing was just a cheap ploy to get in her pants, which, a little dumb, but she wasn't going to deny the attraction between them, not when her skin remembered what they had done together earlier.
Then he had actually checked her for wounds, and the heat never went away, and when she realized that he was being true to his word, that it could all stop if only she told him to, something snapped inside her. She couldn't deny him any longer, and more importantly, she couldn't deny herself, either.
Reese's hands on her back made her moan, and under the heat of the water, it felt as if every part of her was waking up. The hot water was washing away everything that had come before, and underneath, she glowed, new and beautiful and fresh. It felt good, it felt so good, and nothing in the world compared to Reese's strong hands digging into her sore muscles. She had never been touched like this before, not with this combination of sensuality and care, and her eyes closed.
His touch gentled as he slid his hands to her front, and now he was cupping her breasts, soaping them as carefully as he had her back. She gasped as his hands smoothed over her curves, sending tingling bursts of pleasure throughout her whole body. With a gentleness that made her suck in her breath, he plucked at her nipples, bringing them to hard points that ached for more of his touch.
“So beautiful,” he crooned, his lips just inches away from her ear. She started to answer him, that no she wasn't, but then his lips traced the curve of her ear, and his sharp teeth nipped at her lobe. God, why in the world had no one ever told her how very sensitive her ears were before this? Or the sides of her breasts? Or hell, her entire body? It wasn't fair in the least...
Tara was so distracted with his mouth at her ear that she gasped with surprise when one hand slipped down to cup her between the legs. She braced herself for what came next, but then he only continued fondling her, his fingers laid along side her opening but not breaching her. Suddenly she was aware of her entire body in a way she hadn't been before. She was in her skin, ever nerve tingling, aware of the slight drag of his fingertips over the hair between her legs, the very slight spread as he slid a finger along her slit.
“You feel so very good,” he whispered.
For a moment, she barely heard him. She was too lost in the sensations he was giving her, from his hand to his mouth at her ear to the way his hard cock was pressing against her rear. He felt enormous, all of him looming over her, and she had an image of wide wings mantled over her, protecting her, keeping her safe.
For some reason, the image brought tears to Tara's eyes, and she took a deep breath, chasing after the brilliant sensations he was sending through her body because now was absolutely not the time, dammit...
“Are you all right?” he whispered, and Tara wondered what he could sense in her breathing and the tension of her body. “We can stop if you need to.”
She hissed as he started to pull his hand away. Hers came down from the tile to push it back. Her thighs were already trembling, and the longing in her was wrapped around him.
“Yes,” she said, her voice shockingly dire. “Yes. If you stop, I think I might kill you...”
Reese huffed a soft laugh against her ear, making her shudder.
“I guess I had better not stop then...”
She started to answer back, but then his fingers between her legs grew firmer, and he pressed harder against her back. There was something more insistent about his motions now, something far more demanding. Instead of alarming her, it felt as if he had flipped a switch in her head. Suddenly she was warmer than she had been before, a deep thrum of arousal sinking into her core. It was as if her body knew that he had what she needed, and it would not be silent until she had gotten it.
“Come on, sweetheart, open for me just a little.”
With his free hand on her hip, he held her steady as she spread her legs to either side of the tub. The hot water made them slip against each other, his touch just a part of the heat and steam. Now her legs were spread and his hand between her legs grew even more bold. He pressed hard against her clit with the palm of his hand, insistent until she thrust down against it, and then he dipped his fingers into her wet warmth. She became aware of the difference between her moisture and that of the shower, of how much silkier she was, and how beautifully slippery. He brought that moisture back up to her clit and she gasped as he caressed her. At first it was only pure pressure, and then she gasped when two finger tips slid to either side of the little nubbin, plucking just a little as she cried out.
“Talk to me,” Reese murmured in her ear. “I can't give you what you want if you don't tell me...”
“You ... it's expecting a rather lot of me to talk right now, isn't it?” she asked, sputtering a little as she got water in her mouth.
“Oh, I don't know about that,” Reese murmured. “You're a pretty exceptional woman. I believe in you.”
“Well, I believe in me too, but … ah! Unfair!”
It was unfair. How in the wo
rld could she be expected to say anything sensible or even coherent if he kept touching her like that, if he kept latching the sharp of his teeth onto her ear and sliding the length of his hot cock along her hip?
“Poor baby,” Reese laughed. “Poor sweet thing. Tell me.”
Tara closed her eyes, pressing her hands against the tile in front of her again. She couldn't shut out the way Reese touched her or his raw physicality, but apparently she had to if she wanted more of his maddening touch.
“I want you ... inside,” she managed.
“Oh?”
Tara swore softly when his fingertips spread her apart by just a fraction, just barely grazing the tip of her clit, penetrating her so shallowly that she whimpered with dismay. When she moved to get more contact, he pulled back to caressing either side of her slit, the pressure firm and pleasurable but far from what she needed, what the clamoring hunger inside her was beginning to demand.
“I think you need to be more specific,” he said innocently.
“More specific,” she growled, and inspired, she arched her back and pressed herself against him, rocking her hips against his. She made a soft pleased nose when his cock slid against her cleft, bringing them into intimate contact. The warmth between them doubled, and Reese uttered a soft groan that he only barely caught between his teeth. Something about that noise echoed through her, soothed the desire inside her without bringing it down at all.
He wants me just as much as I want him, she thought with a sensation of both awe and triumph. Before, she realized that there was a part of her, a buried part, that was convinced that he could not be as interested in her as she was in him, that a gorgeous man like Reese, who could have his pick of women from places that weren't truck stops or desert squats, could never be this interested in her.
As she arched back against him, however, as she had to brace herself under the weight of his body pressed down on top of hers, his hissed breath in her ear, she knew that his desire burned as bright as hers, perhaps brighter, and then she couldn't stop herself from spinning around to face him. She simply needed more of him than she was getting, and she was so eager for him that she nearly slipped on the hot water and the slick porcelain.
What came next might have been truly disastrous, but then Reese's strong arms were around her. Instead of slipping towards the most embarrassing ER trip, Tara found herself lifted off the ground entirely even as her heart thumped against her ribs.
Still turned on, though, she noted. That's ... good, I guess..
Then she decided that it was absolutely good because Reese got her turned around to the back of the shower, thumping her back against the tile. It was cooler than the tile immediately under the spray, and she gasped at the sudden change in temperature, eyes wide and Reese loomed over her.
“You are trouble,” he growled, and she would not have sworn that she did not see tiny licks of flame curling from his lips. “You are nothing but trouble...”
Tara licked her lip, sliding her hand from his throat all the way down his chest and over his flat stomach. She paused at his navel, and then deliberately let her hand drift lower, brushing the back of her fingertips ever so lightly down his shaft and up again, ending with just the tiniest graze of fingernails over the head of his straining cock.
“Are ... are you sure I'm nothing but trouble?” she asked, her voice husky.
For a moment, she thought that he was only going to stare at her, and then with a muffled curse, Reese swooped down on her, arms around her body to lift her up. He stopped short of slamming her against the tile, but just barely, and Tara couldn't help but grin when she felt how one hand came up to cup the back of her skull, keeping her from knocking her head against the wall.
“Such a gentleman,” she said breathlessly, and his mouth crashed down on hers as he rocked against her body. The kiss was vicious, just short of brutal, but it must have been exactly what she wanted because she was returning it with equal fervor. His tongue swept into her mouth with a hunger that made her gasp, as if he had been starving for her all his life. She clung to him, and she knew that her fingernails were digging hard into his shoulders, but it was the last thing that she could bring herself to care about when he was holding her so tightly.
Reese held her so that her feet were actually off the floor of the bathtub, and she found purchase by placing one foot on the edge of the tub and levering herself a little higher. It put her just eye-to-eye with him and then he could press himself up against her even more tightly, her spread legs letting him step between them. She whimpered when the tip of his cock brushed against her lips, and then she remembered what he had said, that he couldn't give her what she wanted if she didn't ask.
“I want you,” she said, and this time, all teasing and taunting was gone from her voice. She realized in that moment that she could never be a temptress, not with Reese. She wanted him too much, would always want him too much to tease him and deny him for very long.
As a strange softness came over his face, Tara had a curious feeling that he knew exactly what she was feeling.
“Tell me again,” he growled, and there was something oddly tender in it, as if he needed to hear it before he could give her what she wanted, what they both craved.
“I want you,” she said again, and this time the flush on her cheeks wasn't just from the hot water or the desire that flowed through her.
“Again,” he said, almost begged, and her hands tightened on his shoulders. He didn't seem to care how tightly she held on to him, and all she knew was that she needed him closer.
“I want you,” she murmured, and there was something whispering at the back of her mind, something that suggested that maybe, just maybe it was more than that and...
Her train of thought was abruptly derailed as Reese pressed against her and into her in the same motion, not halting until he was buried deep inside her. She let out a long, drawn-out gasp as he filled her completely, almost shocked at how easy and open for him she was.
“Oh Reese ...”
She thought he might ask her if she was all right again, but this time he smiled at her, tilting his head forward to rest against hers.
“You feel so good,” he breathed. “Nothing in all the world feels as good as you do...”
If she had thought ahead to what their lovemaking might be like, she would have thought of something like what they had in the desert, all desperate hands and mouths and a passion that struck like lightning.
Now, however, all of the vicious need had drained out of them, leaving behind something almost soft but no less heated. Tara was losing herself in Reese's eyes, falling and it didn't matter because she knew that Reese would be there to catch her.
Never breaking eye contact, he shifted so that he could pull almost all the way back out of her and then surge in again, pushing up into her with a sweetness that made her heart race. It felt good, so terribly good, and she was certain that she had never felt so perfectly full, so physically completed. It was even better than what they had done in the car earlier, and now, she willingly gave herself over to it.
“Want you,” she murmured. “Want you so much, only you...”
Those words sent a deep shudder through Reese's body, and for a moment, just a single thrilling moment, she could see the dragon in him, the pure molten heart of someone born to fight and to fly and to roar. The next moment, it was Reese again, and he pulled back only to thrust into her with a soft growl.
The surge of pleasure as he took her did not crest. Instead, it swelled inside her, stoked higher with every thrust. He was slamming into her now, his body pressing hers to the tile, and a kind of desperation to his movements that took her breath away. In every line of his body, in every breath, he she could feel his need for her.
It found an echoing need in herself, and for perhaps the first time, she let it carry her up and away, all of it feeding into the passion and the fierce need she had for him. He filled her completely, and more than that, his body rode up against her clit i
n a way that made her eyes open wide. There was something primal about the raw ferocity of his motions. Her feet slid on the tub, but finally she got her left foot up the edge, pushing herself up just enough, gaining just barely enough leverage to change her position, and the change sent a bolt of pleasure straight through her body and then another and another and...
Tara's eyes went wide as her body positively quaked. There was nothing she could do about the way every move Reese made brought her higher and higher, how she was shaking and barely aware of what she was saying. She was aware of calling out his name, she knew that she was saying please, she was telling him don't stop, and then she went over as surely and as completely as jumping over a cliff.
Her climax threw her high in the air, and she forgot entirely how to fall. All that mattered was the fireworks that were going off, starting low in her belly and then spreading to the rest of her, her skin tingling, her muscles tensed to bear it.
Tara hung on to the sensations as long as she could, because it felt so good, so terribly good. Nothing had ever felt better, and if she let it go, who in the world knew when she would get it back?
She only came back to her body by slow inches, coming down off the peak of her pleasure as Reese's thrusts took on a new urgency. His strong arms tightened around her, and his strokes became shorter and quicker. His face was buried in her wet hair, and she could not catch more than one word in five, but the ones she did catch made her heart thunder in her chest.
“Need you ... oh need you, Tara, Tara ...”
He made her name sound like a prayer, something infinitely precious, and then when he spilled inside her, she sighed with a kind of relief she barely understood. Her hands came up to tangle in his dark hair, and she went limp in his arms, letting him support her weight entirely.
“Do I weigh anything at all to you?' she asked him muzzily.
In response, Reese only uttered a shattered kind of laugh, planting soft kisses all over her face before gently standing her on her feet.