I'll Catch You

by Lauren Milson

  “Think about it, but I’m not rushing you. I promise. Take all the time you need.” He puts his hand on mine. I take another sip of my beer and smile at him. This time, I don’t pull away. Small talk dominates the rest of the conversation. I learn about his brother, and how he married his high school sweetheart. About his parents, and how Peter always wanted a woman who would argue with him because she wanted him to know that they’re on the same team and working toward the same goal even if it means differences of opinion every now and then. It’s the best date I’ve had in years. And it’s not even a date. It’s just dinner between two people. I already feel like he’s my partner. I think I’m going to sell the restaurant to him. I’m pretty sure of it. I know it has to happen. I was just waiting for the right offer. And Peter…I think he just might be the one.

  12

  Peter

  “I’ve never used one of these before. It’s cool. I like it.” I scan the metal detector over the sand behind Claire’s house. It’s not beeping. I’d be content even if I don’t find anything.

  “You really are an interesting man,” Claire says to me. She takes a long pull from her beer. As if this day couldn’t get any better, now we’re walking side-by-side on the beach and she’s making observations about me. I want to hear more. “You’re not afraid to talk about your feelings.”

  “I like it,” I repeat. “There. Feelings. This is fun.”

  “Okay,” she says, breaking away from me. “Answer me this. Have you been married before?”

  “Nope.”

  “Engaged?” she crooks an eyebrow at me. I give her a terse smile and a little shrug. She falls for it. “You’re kidding me. Alright, alright. I guess I had to assume you’d been that serious with someone before. How old are you, anyway? Thirty-seven, thirty-eight?”

  “Thirty nine,” I reply. “And you’re correct. It does seem odd that a thirty-nine-year-old man who looks like me and acts like me would never have been engaged before.”

  I give her another look and she melts into laughter.

  “You’ve never been engaged. You’re making fun of me again.”

  “The truth is, Claire, that I’ve never been serious about anyone before, or really, about anything. I inherited my business from my father, and my brother and I have had a lot of luck in life. But I never knew what luck really was until I met you.”

  She turns to me and I watch as her expression shifts. I can feel the guards around her heart tucking their swords into their sheaths and setting down their shields, taking their helmets off and putting themselves to bed. They can go do something else. They can go take care of someone else who needs their heart to be protected. Now it’s my turn to take care of her. I want to tell her I’m in love with her, but it is far too soon. Still, I know it’s what I feel. But even more than that, it’s what I’m promising to do. I resolve in this moment to take care of her always. To protect her and shield her from anything and everything. I’ll be her guardian. I’ll be her partner, her everything.

  “Claire, I have to tell you something.”

  Her lips part and I watch her eyes as they soften.

  “What is it, Peter?”

  “I’m…”

  The sound of her dad’s beeping metal detector cuts me off but her attention stays on my eyes.

  “Is that a piece of junk in your pants or are you just happy to see me?” she says, taking a small step to me.

  “Now you’re making fun of me.”

  I put the metal detector down so I can grab her by the waist and pull her against my chest. Brushing my lips against hers and tasting her is the most incredible thing I’ve ever experienced. I explore her mouth carefully, memorizing every inch of her pretty pink tongue, nipping on her bottom lip with my teeth, making her turn to jelly in my arms. Her hands come to either side of my face and I consume her lips as she moans against my mouth.

  “Have you ever had sex on the beach before?” I whisper against me her I kiss down her neck. I’m not going to be able to resist her anymore. My cock is just too damn greedy a bastard to keep this train going slow.

  “Never,” she whispers. I take her hand and pull her against me, kneeling on the sand and laying her on her back. There’s only soft light from the moon and her house and we’re all alone out here. The air is warm like silk and I know her pussy is going to be just as smooth and twice as soft.

  “I wanted to wait but I don’t think I can anymore. Having your ass up against my cock almost made me come in my pants. And then when I tasted your pussy for the first time I felt like a goddamn king.”

  “Can we just kiss for now?” Her sweet, innocent voice is making me that much harder.

  “You don’t understand how much I want you. But yes, we can just kiss. That means I get to kiss you wherever I want, though.”

  Her breath hitches in her throat as I kiss down her neck, gliding my hands to her waist. I stop there and pull her shirt up her big, round tits. I reach around to unclasp her bra so I can let them free. I capture one of her strawberry pink nipples between my lips and roll the other in my fingers. This makes her whimper and try to rub herself against my cock, but I keep her pinned beneath me, not letting her legs spread around me.

  “Please,” she whimpers. I swirl my tongue around her nipple and latch down on it, sucking it like it’s a sweet little raspberry. Her fingers knot through my hair as she wiggles. “That feels too good. I can’t take it anymore.”

  “Want me to stop?”

  “No, please don’t stop. But I need you to do something else for me, too.”

  “But I love sucking on these tits of yours,” I rasp against her breast. “I’m going to suck on every part of your body, girl.”

  “Oh my god.” Her voice is smooth like honey butter and just as sweet. I kiss down her belly to the top of her shorts and pull them down, still kissing the line of her panties. I softly stroke her slit with one careful finger, dipping it against the fabric.

  “You are so fucking wet for me,” I growl against her pussy as I peel her panties to the side. “Nice and wet. Look at how wet you are. I’m not going to fuck you tonight. I can hold out. No matter how much you beg for my cock you’re not getting it tonight.”

  I bend her knees and push her legs apart and I don’t give a fuck about the sand. I split her lips apart with my fingers and give her clitoris a light slap to make her ache.

  “What are you doing to me?” she moans, her pretty voice wrapping around my cock. I want it in her mouth, between her lips, down her throat as I come on her pretty little tongue.

  “I’m seeing how wet I can make you. I think I can get you even wetter before I bring my cock into the picture.”

  She tries to come to her knees but I put a hand on her lower belly to keep her in place. I wrap my arm around her legs to keep her steady.

  “I want it,” she sobs, a choke coming from her throat. “Please.”

  “I told you you had to beg for it and even then you’re not getting it.”

  “Let me just play with it,” she tries. I feel a dime of come leak out from the tip and I groan against her pussy, spreading her open with the flats of my palms. I make one finger wet with the juices dripping from her and slide it around the outside of her asshole.

  “Ask me again to play with it.”

  “Gimme. Your.” She moans deeply as I slice my finger into her asshole and lick her clit.

  “What do you want,” I growl against her. I take my finger away and wrap my lips around her tight, puckered hole. Her fingers grasp at the sand and her chest starts warping, her tits moving up and down faster and faster. I brush her clit as I keep sucking. Jesus christ, I’m going to come just from tasting her tight little asshole.

  “Gimme your cock,” she moans as the orgasm bears down on her. I feel my own body hitch and hearing her beg for me makes my cock explode inside my pants. Thick ropes of come spurt out onto my boxers. I shove my tongue up inside her cunt and slap her clit a few times to keep her going. I groan my own release as it
keeps coming, warm and oozing down the front of me, but I don’t get soft. I’m even harder than I was before. I grind my tongue against her clit and drive my fingers up inside her as she cries out against the lapping of the waves.

  “Goddammit,” I groan, bearing my teeth against her asshole. “I can’t fucking take this, Claire.”

  With tears in her eyes she scrambles to her knees, undoes my zipper with trembling fingers and yanks my pants down with my shorts and wraps her hand around the base of my cock.

  “Kiss it for me,” I groan, my eyes slamming shut and my head falling back. She pets it from the root to the tip, dragging her soft hand up the thick underside of my cock. Her lips pucker up as she kisses the tip, making my come mark her lips. Fuck yes. I open my eyes and move her thick brown hair over her shoulder so I can watch as my cock breaches her lips for the first time. She can barely take all of me and from how tight her pussy was even when I worked so hard to make her wet I know she is going to feel like absolute fucking pure goddamn heaven and I could die inside of her.

  “You’re too big,” she whines, pulling her lips away from me. I look down at my cock, thick, glistening with the product of her sweet tongue and lips, and the innocent look she gives me is enough to make the sky open up with a sharp crack and for my world to split apart.

  “You better enjoy seeing my come because after this you’re never going to see it again.”

  Confusion flits across her eyes before realization settles over them. She gives me a heartbreaker of a smile and jerks me off, cupping my balls in her hands as she milks my cock, slowly grinding her fist up and down and making me come with the most deliberate, strenuous of strokes. A fierce groan is ripped from my chest as I come on her tongue. She takes all of me. She brings me into the back of her throat and I unleash my load inside her. Next time I’m going to be pressed up against her womb, filling her with sometime better. Making her swollen and perfect and mine forever.

  “Claire,” I whisper against her as we lay down together on the beach. “I think I could fall for you if I’m not careful.”

  “Then don’t be careful,” she breathes. “I’ll be here for you no matter what.”

  13

  Claire

  They say that if you hate Mondays you should wake up at the same time every day. That means getting up early on Saturdays and Sundays. I wake up early every day. Mondays are nothing to me. I’ve never hated Mondays. And I certainly don’t hate this one.

  “More coffee?” Two of the fishermen from down at the market are here for breakfast this morning. I don’t know if they’ve been in here at all in the last year. It’s almost like putting out good energy is making good energy come back to me. The bare necessities, and all that. I’ve got everything that I need. I’ve got Cassie, Mike, Brynn, my bag of old fries and now I have Peter.

  I take a deep breath as I look out to the little road that goes past Crabby’s. I have Peter. He’s my man. I shake my head. I don’t get what’s come over me. It’s a small, warm feeling inside, but it’s big and vast at the same time. It makes no sense, but it’s mine.

  The sun is shining. The water is clear. There isn’t a cloud in the sky. It’s going to be a good day.

  I go back behind the counter and look over at Cassie. She gives me a small smile and a deferential nod.

  “What’s gotten into you?” I ask her, slapping her butt gently with the towel hooked onto my apron.

  “Nothing.” Now she gives me a terse smile like she’s cooking something up or like she’s on to me.

  The rest of the day goes by in a breeze. There aren’t many customers, but I’m not bored. There’s not much to do, but I feel okay. When it’s time to close up I pack up a couple of dishes of fish and chips and I drive Cassie home. Then I make my way over to the house Peter is renting. There is lightness under my heels and when I knock on the door, he’s already pulling it open, taking the takeout bag from me, and pulling me into his arms.

  “What’s gotten into you?” I laugh as he crushes his lips to mine. He hitches my legs up and wraps them around his waist, taking me over to the couch facing the big picture window in the living room.

  “You’ve gotten into me, Claire,” he says as he keeps kissing me. He kissing me and kissing me so much that I have to come up for air at some point.

  “You’ve gotten into me too, Peter,” I sigh as my chest shudders against his. He pulls me against his big, strong body. I never want to let go of him. I never want him to leave. I feel like I’ve been born again, given a second chance, like he was swimming past me at the exact second I needed him to.

  “Claire,” he whispers, his voice tinged with tenderness, “I’m falling in love with you. I want to be with you. And I’m not asking you to marry me right this second. But I am asking you to open up your heart and let me in. And if you can’t, then I intend on making your heart so damn full of affection for me that it gets big enough to knock down those walls around your heart on its own. I know why they’re there. And I will wait forever for you. Whatever it takes, I’ve got you. If you fall, I’ll catch you. If you start to sink, I will lift you up. I’m more certain of that than I’ve ever been of anything else in my life.”

  I feel my voice lift out of me all on its own.

  “I’m falling in love with you too, Peter.” I smile, content in the wonder and awe of what’s happening to me. To us. Suddenly, my world just got bigger. The walls around my heart are crumbling. “I think I started falling in love with you the second you put your hand on me.”

  “I fell in love with you before I even knew your name, Claire.”

  “This is crazy.”

  “I know it is. It is crazy.”

  “I don’t even know your last name. What’s your last name?”

  “Ames.”

  “It suits you.” I cuddle up into his chest.

  “It suits you too, Claire. Claire Ames. Damn. I like the sound of that.”

  He puts my hand in his and puts his hand over my heart.

  “You know I come with some extra parts, don’t you?”

  “I am well aware. I look forward to getting to know them better.”

  I sigh. Not everything’s perfect yet. But now I know what path I’m on. I know where the ride is going to take me. I know the journey won’t always be easy. But I know who will be there with me to take the ride.

  “I know you’re going to do good things with the restaurant. I can’t believe I’m selling. Wow. And I can’t believe I’m so confident that you’re going to take care of it.”

  “Me?” He shakes his head. “No, babe. We are going to take care of it. Together.”

  Before I can reply, he presses his lips to mine again. Then he flips me onto the couch and I can’t help but laugh as my back hits the cushions. Peter kisses down my stomach to the edge of my panties and I reach up to unleash his cock.

  “Why did you stop me last night?” he asks, putting his hand behind my head and kissing my lips. “I wanted to have sex on the beach.”

  “Well…” This is the moment of truth. I’ve had to tell guys before that I’m a virgin, and I don’t know why I felt like I had to tell them. Regardless, it scared them away. I think they thought I would latch onto them if they were my first. Well, guess what? I’m latching onto Peter and I think he’s pretty damn please about it. “You know how I told you I’d never had sex on the beach?”

  He pulls his lips away from mine and he drives a hand through his hair. I grab the back of his neck and pull him back down to me.

  “I fucking knew it,” he mutters against my lips. “You act like you own every room you walk into but you’re really an innocent little thing, aren’t you?”

  “I’m not innocent.” I feel a smile curl up on my lips. “Would someone innocent do what I did to you last night? Or hell, let you do to me what you did?”

  He chuckles against my lips as he kisses down my body, peeling my shirt off along the way. He pulls my shorts down and latching his lips onto my clit and makes my back arch o
ff the couch, fingers in his hair, body on fire.

  “Oh god,” I moan into the air as he sneakily slides two fingers inside me. “I can tell that’s more than last night.”

  He drags his fingers in and out of me slowly, fucking me with them and giving me just a little taste of what I’m in store for. When he’s got me right on the brink, he pulls his fingers away and pulls his cock out.

  “You know I thought it was pretty the first time I saw it, right?” I say innocently.

  He replies with a groan, flipping me over onto my stomach and spreading my ass apart. I feel his thumb play with my ass as he spreads me open with his hands.

  “Jesus, and if this isn’t the prettiest little ass and pussy I’ve ever seen.” He grabs me and pulls me to my knees, positioning his cock at my wet opening. Slowly he pulls me down into his lap and I bite against the pain, my brows furrowing in the center, but with every gentle inch he claims me in the most perfect, incredible way. In the way I only dreamed the right man might be able to some day. In the way I can’t believe I’m actually experiencing.

  “I’m going to make you so happy, Claire,” Peter rasps against my ear, pulling me down so he’s fully seated deep inside me. “In every single way I can.” He rocks my hips up and then pulls me back down onto him and I feel myself stretching open wide as I take his cock up inside me again. Over and over, and faster and faster, he slams his dick inside me. Every time he eases up inside, I feel tighter and tighter. Every time he pulls out I feel his absence more and more. And when I can’t take anymore and my moans are so loud that my throat hurts and his name is said so many times that it’s forever on my lips, he reaches in front of me to strum my clit as I squeeze up around him and draw his release from him.