Hearts on Hold

by Charish Reid

  “Yes, I reached around the front of your body and cupped you there. You jumped a little and moaned. I think you were surprised. Can you feel me pressed against your back, Victoria? I’m hard and I want to be inside of you.”

  On her side, she nodded her head, forgetting that he wasn’t there to see her.

  “You let out this low groan and push against me. You think you’re ready, but you’re not. You think you’re warmed up, but you’re not there yet, honey.”

  Victoria’s lips curled at the corner as she slipped her panties down her legs and kicked them off the bed. “No?”

  “Not yet,” John said. “I make you wait because I love to see the blush creep up from your breasts, up your neck, until it hits your cheeks. It’s a very soft pink against your brown skin, did you know that? You’re like a tea kettle that’s heating up and I want to make you blow.”

  There was already a change in her breathing, as she ran her hands over her belly and hips. John said all the things she needed to hear in that moment. His voice was a low rumble from his chest and he spoke with a deliberate slowness that made her ache all over.

  “Before I can do anything else, I need to get that tank top off you. I pull it from your waist and slip it over your head. Your braids slap against the mat and I can see that thin Victoria’s Secret bra straining against the weight of your breasts.”

  Victoria held back her laughter at the mention of her bra. She had worn a very secure sports bra that night and it would have been an impossible struggle to shrug out of in her sweaty state. She tried to ignore that John was still a man who fantasized about lacy underwear and got back into the mood.

  “Your breathing is heavy,” he continued. “You keep panting my name and begging me to hurry before someone sees us. But I remind you that I don’t need—”

  “—a plan,” she interrupted while taking off her T-shirt. Her breasts, now exposed to the cool air of her bedroom, were still warm from the blush John described.

  “Exactly,” he purred. “I take my time unhooking your bra and let it fall to the floor. When I kneel over you with my cock pressed to your ass, I make a trail of kisses along your spine. Does my beard scratch your skin?”

  “Uh-huh,” Victoria said as she ran her hands down her neck, picking up on the heat of her skin. She fanned her fingers over the tops of her breasts, brushing across stiff nipples.

  Her luxurious sigh must have been audible on his side because he said, “Tell me what it feels like, baby.”

  Victoria’s breasts rose and fell with every breath she took. “It feels like the time your beard was between my thighs. You kissed my thighs and rubbed your cheek against my skin.”

  The rich timbre of his voice followed her hands down her body as she pinched and squeezed her own breasts. “Would you like my beard down there again?”

  “Yes,” she sighed. “Please.”

  “I thought you’d never ask,” he said in a low chuckle. “I push your shoulders down to the mat and raise your hips upward. You’re dripping wet, Victoria, and I’m thirsty.”

  With one hand on her breast, she let the other one snake downward. As she parted her thighs, she waited on him to continue.

  “My love, you’re the last ice cream cone on a hot summer day. The more I lick, the faster you melt, and the more of you I want. I kneel behind you and lick your clit and then your lips. I flick one while lapping the other. Have you ever had ice cream drip down your hand, darling?”

  Oh god, I have. Her fingers worked her swollen flesh as his words scandalized her ears.

  “You try to lick everywhere so you don’t make a mess,” he said. “But I want you to make a mess, my love. I want it to drip down your legs and stain the mat. I want you to come against my mouth. Does my beard tickle?”

  Victoria bit her lip, stifling a moan. “Yes,” she said in a ragged voice.

  “Does something else tickle?” he asked.

  The building pressure in her womb would make her weep if she didn’t finish. “Yes.”

  “Let me hear how it feels, Victoria. You can be as loud as you want.”

  She nodded again. “Okay...”

  “I think it’s time for me to pull away for a moment. When I do, you look over your shoulder with those big brown eyes, and give me a frown. Don’t worry.”

  “What are you going to do?” she panted, rubbing herself.

  “I slide down my waistband and take out my cock. When you see it, you lick your lips and raise yourself from the mat. You want me inside of you now, don’t you?”

  Victoria let out a soft moan as she raised her hips from the bed. “Yes.”

  “Yes, what?” he teased.

  “Yes, Johnny. I want you now.”

  “Anything for you, honey. You’re ready to receive me and as I slide inside of you, I can feel every twitch and jump of your walls. It’s like you’re pulling me in. How fast do you want me to go, baby? Do you want it nice and slow or rough and fast?”

  Jesus Christ... “Rough and fast,” she whispered in a tight voice.

  “Good,” he said. “Because I want to fuck you until you scream my name. I want your breasts to bounce and I want you to back into me for more. I need your hands to slip against the mat as I drive into you. Can you keep up, Victoria?”

  “Yes,” she said loudly. “Please.”

  “Please, what?”

  “Please...do it...harder, Johnny.” She was so close to the edge, she was dangling by a thread.

  “I don’t know if you want it that hard, Victoria.” The wicked humor in his voice made tears stand out on her lashes.

  “I do,” she panted.

  “Good girl. I want you to take all of my cock, right up to the hilt. In and out, Victoria, in and out. I kneel over you and cover your naked back as you slip away from me. I cup your breasts as they rock back and forth. I’m so close to losing myself inside of you, I don’t know if I can stop myself.”

  “Don’t stop,” she hissed. Victoria arched her hips in an effort to use two fingers on herself. The thread was so close to snapping, she gritted her teeth and continued to stroke herself.

  “I’m not going to stop,” John said. “Not until you collapse in a heap. I’m going to keep thrusting deep and hard until the room smells like sex. Until you cry out and—”

  The explosion in her brain rocked her body with violent tremors as she fell over the edge. “Johnny,” she cried. The room was dark, but behind her eyelids, she saw stars. Victoria choked on a sob as her muscles shook under the pressure of her orgasm. His words, so filthy and so precise, made her come with such force. It took her several moments before she had the energy to pick up the phone. “Hello?” She spoke in a broken whisper.

  “Hello, my dear.”

  Lying naked in her bed and fully satiated, Victoria still missed the heat of John’s body. She was tired like he promised, but she wanted to wrap her legs around him and hold him close.

  She sighed. “Thank you.”

  “Of course. Do you think you can sleep now?”

  “I’d sleep better with you,” Victoria admitted. She found it slightly easier to tell John the truth at times. Though she was used to keeping most of her feelings to herself, he pulled something out of her.

  “I know I would too,” he said softly. “Can you wait for me tomorrow?”

  “Maybe,” she said.

  “If you need to touch yourself when you think about me, please do. But know that I’ll always be there to offer assistance...eventually.”

  Victoria smiled in the darkness of her room as she curled up to her phone. “You will?”

  “Always.”

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  “Are you being good for your uncle?” Jessi asked, peering from John’s laptop. Even while she was thousands of miles away, his sister still managed a convincing stern face. But it didn’t last
long as she and Becca immediately engaged in a funny face competition. John sat behind Becca, glancing up from his paperwork, and occasionally crossed his eyes or stuck out his tongue.

  Becca rolled her eyes. “I’m always good.”

  “I’m having a tough time getting her out of bed and ready for school these days,” John said while sorting manila folders. He only had a few minutes before Victoria arrived to the library and he wanted to get his office looking halfway decent for a change. After he’d picked up Becca, he had brought her to the library for a chance to do her homework and talk to her mother at an appropriate hour.

  Jessi was back to stern mom in an instant. “Why is that, Becca?”

  John answered for her. “It’s because she doesn’t go to bed until two in the morning.”

  After his phone call with Victoria, he’d gone to the kitchen for a glass of water only to hear Becca giggling with her friends on an early morning skype session. He’d stood on the other side of her door, listening to them talk about boys until it grew too unbearable. Connor or Kaden or whoever the fuck had gorgeous dimples. For a feminist collective, their debates certainly didn’t pass the Bechdel Test.

  “I can’t go to sleep,” Becca whined.

  “Honey, you understand cause and effect, right?” his sister asked. “School is never going to start later so you need to adjust yourself to get better results. Go to bed earlier or you’re going to be a mess like your uncle.”

  John glanced up. “What happened to a united front, Jess?”

  “What time did you go to bed last night?”

  His face warmed from her accusation. His sister or niece had no idea what he engaged in last night, but even he had to blush from the brazenness of it all. John had never gotten a woman off over the phone and discovered he was actually pretty good at it. He cleared his throat. “I’m not the one on trial here.”

  “Children pattern their behavior after the adults in their lives,” Jessi said in a tone John had always hated.

  “Becca has a mind of her own,” he said as he stuffed random papers into a folder and shoved it in his drawer. The system he’d created was falling apart the more he talked to Jessi and now he wanted to toss all of his mess into a drawer. “It’s not like she’s going to pick up my coke habit.”

  “Ha, ha...”

  “Mom, how long until you get back?” Becca asked, ignoring the bickering siblings.

  “I’ll come home in about eight weeks, sweetie. Just in time for the holidays.”

  “You’re sure?” Becca pressed. “Because you’re missing Halloween and we always celebrate Halloween together.”

  Jessi forced a smile. “I know, honey. Mama’s just got to finish up a project here and I’ll be back before you know it. Uncle Johnny will take you trick-or-treating.”

  “I will,” John said, rubbing her arm.

  “He won’t dress up,” she said.

  Jessi directed her gaze at her brother. “He won’t?”

  “I’m putting ‘find a costume’ at the top of my list,” he assured them both.

  His sister flashed a brighter smile. “Well there you go.”

  Becca rolled her eyes, a constant habit of hers. “I guess...”

  “Becca, could you be a dear and let me talk to your uncle for a minute? I’ll call you again before I go to bed.”

  “Sure.” She backed away from the computer and slowly left his office.

  “Do your homework at the checkout desk where Martha can see you,” John called after her.

  “Do I have to?”

  “Don’t sass, Becca!” Jessi shouted from the computer.

  As his niece exited his office, he looked down at his sister. “Don’t sass? Where did you pull that one from?”

  “Just wait until you have one. You’re going to sound like your mom in no time.”

  “Why do I need a private conference with you?” John said, giving up on the stacks of paper. He shoved them all in the bottom draw and faced Jessi head on. “Am I in trouble too?”

  “It depends. What’s this about a woman at your place?”

  John frowned. “Sandy told you?”

  “Maggie told me,” Jessi said. “Well, actually Mom told me later that night. According to them, she was there in the morning wearing your pajamas.”

  John pressed his lips together and stared at her. “And?”

  “So you wanna talk about it?” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Mom said she’s a darling.”

  He scratched the side of his beard. “Honestly, I would have talked to you about this much sooner than our mothers, but I was caught off guard that morning.”

  “It sounded embarrassing as fuck,” Jessi whispered. “They seemed excited more than anything. They think you’re going to marry her.”

  “I may have made a joke about that.”

  “So...is she the one?”

  He shrugged. “I can’t say just yet. I just know that I like being around her. She’s...a fucking mystery.”

  “Oh god, you’ve got that far-off look in your eyes.”

  John’s eyes cut back to the screen to see Jessi grinning at him. “I just keeping learning new things about her. Victoria has surprises and I find myself wanting to discover them all.”

  His sister clasped her hands together and stuck out her bottom lip. “That is the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard...”

  “I’m just picking up on a little hesitance on her end,” John said and proceeded to repeat the same story he’d told Chris. Jessi listened carefully, nibbling on her lip as she nodded along.

  When he finished, she rubbed the space under her bottom lip, something she’d done since they were young. It was her “thinking” gesture that always produced helpful advice. “Okay, I see what’s going on here.”

  John raised a brow. “Do you? Please enlighten me.”

  “She’s a little uptight and high-strung, but you’re going to get that from an academic. It just comes with the territory. They’re not all squares though, and she sounds like one of the cool ones. Now, when you add the mom issues, you’ve got a storm on your hands. And as sweet as you are, you know you can’t compete with that.”

  “I was hoping you wouldn’t say that,” John said, resting his chin on his knuckles.

  “All is not lost though,” she said quickly. “She just needs you to be there when things get nasty between her and her mom, and her boss for that matter. But she doesn’t sound like the kind of person who’s going to dump all of her problems on others either.”

  “So I need to anticipate?”

  “And listen, and read between the lines. I think you should ask about this Chicago trip again.”

  John felt queasy from her recommendation. He didn’t want to force his presence on her if she didn’t request it. “What about Becca?”

  Jessi frowned. “I appreciate you looking after your niece, but you’re not the only caregiver she has. It takes a village, Johnny. Between you, the moms, and Chris—By the way, how is Chris?”

  “What?”

  “What’s Chris up to?” Jessi asked wearing an innocent expression. “I was just wondering.”

  “He’s being Chris, dude-bro Chris,” John said, narrowing his eyes at his sister. “Why the hell are you asking?”

  She waved off his concern. “Nothing, don’t worry about it. All I’m saying is: you’re free to pursue a cute lady. That’s what family is for.”

  He settled down and decided to tuck that little nugget away for another time. He was picking up a vibe between his sister and best friend that he didn’t have time to investigate at the moment. “I just prefer to be asked is all.”

  “And that’s why you’re a perfect gentleman. But she might have left you hanging because she likes the orderly situation she created. Family drama on this side, boyfriend on the other side. But a little chaos never hurt anyo
ne,” she said with a grin.

  Since they had moved on to his tamer version of a sordid affair, meeting her parents seemed as normal as it could get. Fucking, dating, meeting her mom and dad. Sure, the order wasn’t to her liking, but he was intent on getting to know her. Why not go to the source of her neurosis? If last night’s phone call was any indication, Victoria was losing control of the plot anyway. He’d held on to her voice and nursed its whimpering cadence when she’d said “I’d sleep better with you.” John’s heart swelled as much as his cock when he heard those words.

  “There’s another far-off look,” Jessi said, interrupting his thoughts. “Your concentration has always been an issue, but this Victoria is making you worse.”

  Her laughing eyes were a welcome sight even if he was struggling with love woes. He missed his sister, a friend he could always depend on for support when his mind was scattered. “I’m seeing her tonight,” he said. “She should show up any minute. Maybe I can nudge then?”

  “You think she might be down for a Skype meeting?”

  “Nope.”

  Jessi stuck out her tongue. “I go to Sweden and miss everything, huh?”

  “Just about,” he said. “I hate to do this...”

  “But you’ve got to go,” she said. “Yeah, I get the picture.”

  “Love you, sis.”

  “Love you, bro.”

  When he’d closed the window, he shut his laptop and formed a steeple with his fingers. He had lied to his sister, John wasn’t going to nudge anyone. If Victoria could meet him halfway with her attempts to have fun in bed or over the phone, she could meet him halfway on this. John tried to ignore his pride, but he couldn’t help but feel principled about it. If she really wanted him to go to Chicago with her, she would have said something instead of escaping from the gym.

  A soft knock at the door pulled him out of his thoughts. Victoria stood in the entrance, not dressed in her usual teaching outfit, but in a Pembroke University sweatshirt and jeans. On her feet were a pair of red Converse sneakers. Her braids were gathered in a sloppy bun, perched atop her head, much like how she woke up in his bed. In this relaxed state, she was still gorgeous. Victoria tipped her head and smiled. “Hey there,” she said in a soft voice.