by Gilead, Kate
And I’m proud of her that she stood up to him, even though it meant putting herself in such a precarious position.
Well she isn’t any more. She’ll never want for anything again. She’ll never have to work again, never have to lift a finger if she doesn’t want to.
I know she’d never go for that, but if that’s what she wanted, I’d give it to her without a second thought.
If she lets me. If she wants me as much as I want her.
I think she does, but she’s in a bad place right now. I don’t want her to letting pride get in the way of accepting the kind of help I want to give her.
Maybe she’s afraid I’ll think she’s a gold-digger.
Maybe I shouldn’t have told her that I own this place.
Maybe I shouldn’t have shown off so much.
Soaping myself up in my fabulous, state-of-the-art shower, it dawns on me, once and for all, that I don’t give a damn about all this grand opulence.
None of it means shit if there’s no one to share it with.
If there’s no one except me rattling around in here…or the dreaded parade of one-night stands or short-term girlfriends.
Jesus. Jonathan Drake could just as easily be me, or anyone.
Because if Cherry doesn’t want me, I don’t think I’ll ever marry anyone at all.
How can I move things forward? What can I do to close the deal with her?
What I want more than anything is to start my family, my legacy.
And my heart, my blood, my body, is telling me is has to be with Cherry.
My personal Picasso.
The thought makes me laugh out loud in the shower.
Precious girl.
No, no one else will do. Meeting her today is definitely a gift from…I dunno, the Universe or God or something.
Never believed in any of that shit before…always believed in making my own luck. That’s what luck is, after all.
The harder you work, the luckier you get. That’s always been my motto.
So if it takes work to win her, that’s what I’ll do.
As I dry off and put on some soft trousers and a white t-shirt, something else occurs to me.
Cherry’s a woman, not a mechanical schematic, or a hydraulic lift or I dunno, an algorithm to be tweaked or de-bugged.
Nor a property to be bought and owned, no matter how coveted.
All that shit takes masculine energy and drive and ambition to achieve, for sure.
As I head back down the stairs, I realize that she needs that same masculine strength, but channelled in a different way…into love and support and steadfast loyalty…which, lucky for me, I already have for her, in spades.
* * *
Back in the kitchen, I boil water for tea while I’m waiting for her.
Tomorrow, once the roads are cleared, I’ll have to take her home. There’ll be no more excuse to have her here.
Of course I’ll ask her to date me, and make sure I stay right in her face, but…something about having her here, snowed in like this, is magical.
What’s that saying about striking while the iron is…
Hearing a small sound, I turn around and there she is.
Oh… damn.
She’s wearing my robe. It’s huge on her of course. She’s all but vanished in its terry-cloth folds. All I can see of her body are the bottoms of Lana’s pajama pants and the fuzzy socks that I lent her, which she appears to have rolled up at the ankles so that they’ll stay on her feet.
But her face! With her hair still damp and combed back, her clean face, devoid of makeup, glows like it’s lit from within.
She looks innocent, fresh, and almost exactly like she did when I fell for her eight years ago.
“Hi,” she says, that smile curling the corners of her mouth. “Thanks for the robe and socks. Not very sexy but I feel very cozy and warm.”
“You…you look beautiful.”
Her eyes widen, followed by her smile. “Oh, geez Brad. I feel like a pig in a blanket in this robe! But..thanks.”
I’m staring at her but I can’t help it. Those lips…still so red, even though I can see there’s no lipstick on them.
My heart’s pounding so hard I can hear it in my ears.
And my cock…fuck! Something about how swaddled she is, how innocent, makes me hotter for her than, I dunno, the sluttiest stripper flashing her cooch for a bar-full of “patrons” ever could.
I swear, all I mean to do is to ask her if she wants tea, but my body is moving me towards her without my knowledge or consent.
She watches me, eyes wide and luminous, those pupils so dilated I can see a tiny version of myself reflected in each one.
Standing before her now, looking down at her…of its own accord, my hand lifts to caress her face.
When she closes her eyes and leans her soft cheek into the palm of my hand, thoughts of anything but her fly out of my head.
My hand slides to the nape of her neck, her still-damp hair soft and sleek and clean.
“Cherry,” is all I can say, my voice husky and low.
Her heart-shaped face tilts up at me, eyes half-lidded. Her gaze finds mine, and then drops to my mouth.
Her pink tongue peeks out to lick her lips and that’s game over for me.
I bend and touch her lips with mine. They’re so soft and delicate, yet firm and warm, and they return my kiss so tentatively, it makes the fire in my belly burn that much more brightly.
My other arm goes around her waist and pulls her closer. With a soft sigh, she comes willingly, wrapping her arms around my waist and then running her hands up my back. A shiver follows those soft warm hands of hers.
Within her body I can feel the same kind of trembling tension that’s running through my own right now.
My kiss becomes more urgent, more insistent. I’m trying to hold back, don’t wanna overwhelm her, but now she’s kissing me back just as forcefully.
I no longer doubt that her hunger for me is equal to mine for her.
It’s just under the surface, waiting for someone who loves her to bring it out.
Breathing hard, I nibble along her jaw and that warm, fragrant neck. Jesus fucking Christ, she’s delicious, like a long-awaited feast after a years-long famine.
“Cherry…baby,” I whisper, “you know I’m in love with you, don’t you?” Finally I get out what I’ve been trying to say all day.
Her body startles, as if she’s been shocked. Her arms tighten around me as a small cry escapes her, half-laugh and half-sob.
“Oh God Brad! I love you too! I’ve always loved you, since the moment we met…”
She turns her head towards mine and finds my lips with hers, delivering another long delicious kiss that has my cock pulsing with need.
Enfolding her, I can feel it pressing against her belly, where she must be able to feel it, too
I can’t hide how much I want her, and I don’t want to hide it.
I don’t want to hide anything from her.
“I love you so much…just wanna protect and care for you, always have you by my side.” My mouth, drawn to the hollow of her jaw, where I can feel her pulse pounding, murmurs those words to her that I always wanted to say.
Caressing her warm, sleek back… and then, again of their own volition, my hands slide down her bottom, finding and squeezing those perfect globes that tantalized me all day.
Again, her body tenses, then relaxes into my arms as her own luscious lips kiss my collarbone, then the hollow between, then gently trace their way up my neck, over my chin, to find my own lips again.
Her hands find their way under my t-shirt and she runs her nails lightly across my skin, tracing what feels like lines of sparks as they go.
“My hero,” she breathes, her mouth against mine, and when that tongue gently probes my bottom lip, I almost come in my pants.
Every man wants to be a hero, but it means so much more when someone you’ve always desired says those words to you.
“I want you
so much,” she whispers. “I…need you, Brad. Now. Right now.”
Without another thought, one arm goes around her waist and the other, under her knees. Her arms go around my neck and she giggles softly as I stride down the hallway carrying her, my blood pounding in my cock almost painfully.
The nearest bed is in the spare room and I take her straight to it. Setting her down on her feet, I untie the robe and pull it off her shoulders, then cup her breasts, with their hard tips poking against the thin fabric of her top.
She moans and cups my hand with hers, encouraging me to knead and massage her lovely tits.
My cock throbs and pulses inside my briefs.
She lifts the shirt off, with me helping her, then holds my head as I bend to take each of those hard pink pebbles into my mouth, one after the other.
Another passionate kiss, tongues touching, breath coming faster. We break the kiss so I can take a moment to look at her body again, to squeeze and admire her breasts, running my thumbs lightly over each nipple, before taking each one between my fingers to roll and coax to stand out even more.
God this woman is so fucking beautiful!
I already know I’ll never get enough of her.
She rests her forehead against mine, mouth slightly open, her eyes half-closed with desire.
A faint flush glows now on her chest, neck and cheeks. It tells me she’s ready for the next step, or nearly so.
These signs transmit her readiness to me so surely, so unmistakably that my body takes a sharp, involuntary breath through my nose, bringing her scent to me.
She smells so heavenly, and my instinct knows damn well it’s not the unscented soap that the housekeeper put in that bathroom.
It’s her. It’s Cherry’s smell, the smell of her flesh and her beauty and those seductive pheromones a woman puts out when she’s with a man who adores her.
Bending to suck and nibble her breasts again, I pull the waistband of the pajama bottoms down on each side of her hips, hooking my thumbs into the material of her panties along with it.
Giving a wiggle with her hips to help me along, her movement makes me groan with lust.
Stepping out of the clothing as it falls to the floor, she stands naked in my arms, and I see her in all her glory.
She’s stunning, an incredible natural God-given beauty, from her dainty feet to her shaved pussy to her fire-colored hair.
I can’t believe I finally have her in my arms, naked! She was right, it’s like a fucking miracle that I found her like I did.
And here she is, radiating warmth and love and sex like a flame gives off heat.
My arms pull her to me again and my hands travel her silky skin from her breasts to her slender back to her shapely ass, where they pull her body to mine as I grind myself against her.
Another deep kiss, ravenous, both of our breathing fast and hard, her hands now going under the waistband of my trousers where they grasp and knead my ass.
I’m grinding my erection into her belly panting like a dog. I need to explore her pussy like nothing I’ve ever needed before.
I slip my hand down her soft belly and cup her mound. “Ahh,” she moans, tilting her hips towards me. “Brad…”
My middle finger curls and makes contact with her secret flesh, soft yet firm and wet with her need. Running my finger through her folds, I find her button and slick it with her juices, then circle it gently.
“Ohhh,” she breathes, and her thighs part slightly at the same time as her hands grip my hips. Her body jerks a little bit with each circle my finger makes.
Now I want to find her most secret place. My finger follows the silken path of her flesh to her innermost folds, unerringly drawn to that molten center where…
“Brad?” Her hand goes to my wrist and grips it as her legs close protectively, stopping my hand from exploring any further.
“I’m sorry, but I…I think you should know. I mean, I don’t want you to stop, believe me! I’ve never wanted anything so bad,” she says, her voice soft, looking up at me shyly.
It’s hard to come out of this fog of lust enough to focus on her words.
But I make myself stop what I’m doing and listen.
“But…um, yeah. I think you should know.” She bites her lip. “I’m still…I’m a virgin, Brad.”
What? I straighten up and blink down at her face.
She’s a virgin? Cherry’s a virgin?
At twenty-five?
I must look pretty dumbfounded because she lets out a soft, ironic laugh.
“Yeah,” she says, ruefully. “Never quite gone all the way. I’m not that…um…experienced, in, um…yeah. It’s not that I was trying to be a “good girl” or anything. It just happened that way.”
I’m shocked speechless, but as it sinks in, I realize that it fits with the shy, reserved girl I used to know. The girl who did open up to me once upon a time…when she realized she could trust me. The girl who was always ready for a laugh, to be goofy and silly, but only with a certain few.
The girl I realize now that I’ve been in love with all this time.
“I just thought you should know,” she continues, haltingly. “It’s, you know, special for me. Very special. And I thought you’d like to know in case…well, I mean, I hope, that it would be special for you, too.”
Chapter Nine
Cherry
Eyes slightly narrowed and frowning, Brad’s expression suggests that maybe he doesn’t believe me.
Not that I’d have any reason to lie. I’m embarrassed to admit it, and could be I’m red a as a beet but I look steadily back into his brown eyes.
My pussy’s throbbing and starving for more of his touch, more of his attention…wanting, needing, desiring.
Hoping I didn’t just ruin this by waiting for this moment to tell him the truth.
But what better time is there?
I can’t change the past. And I can’t help that I didn’t meet anyone who I wanted to be that intimate with.
It’s my first time. And it is special for me. That’s the truth.
And I don’t want this moment to happen with me being the only one who knows just how special it is.
Then his hands come up to caress my shoulders and travel down my arms, his gaze going down my naked body. He takes my hands in his and squeezes them.
“Cherry? So you’re saying you’re…cherry?”
Oh Lord. I might’ve known. He never could resist a pun.
I roll my eyes but the grin that spreads across his face is so huge and so delighted, I have to smile back.
“Yes,” I let out a soft laugh. “I’m cherry. You can feel free to beat that pun to death…I mean, it’s kind of irresistible, I know.”
“There must be very few women your age who have never had intercourse,” he observes, watching my face. “Especially in this age of Tinder and hooking up and all that.”
“I’d never use Tinder. I barely use Facebook for that matter, or any social media. Look, it’s kind of embarrassing, but, it is what it is.” I push a lock of hair out of my eyes. “I told you, I haven’t been with anyone long term. Haven’t really connected with anyone well enough to want to have sex with them. I’ve, you know, had some petting and a bit of foreplay but I didn’t..I didn’t let it go further because it didn’t feel right.”
“What kind of foreplay? Oral? Fingering?”
“No, not that far. I know it’s hard to believe but I’m telling you, I just did not have the desire to…”
“You’ve never given oral or never received oral?”
“Neither.” As I’m speaking, I move to cross my hands over my chest, wondering if the truth is too unbelievable…wondering if I’ve made myself too vulnerable.
“Seriously?”
“Yes! Jesus, Brad. I told you, it’s just how things…”
But he doesn’t let me finish. That gleam is back in his eye.
“Cherry, don’t you realize that you’re exactly the kind of girl that a lot of men want?”
/> He throws his head back and lets out a shout of laughter, then grabs me and hugs me to him, hard, rocking me and kissing my head, then down my neck, murmuring mmm mmm all the way down, then over one shoulder and all the way down to my hand.
“Who you think you are, Gomez Addams or something,” I giggle.
He guffaws again, then bends, picks me up and drops me bodily onto the bed.
I look at him speechlessly, wondering if he’s going to ravage me now or what.
God I hope so!!
“Oh you gorgeous, hot, incredibly sexy fucking goddess of a woman,” he says, the most devilish smile he’s ever shown me making his eyes gleam. “Special? You hope it’s special for me too? Are you kidding? It’s like the icing on the cake…with a cherry on top!”
And oh…Lord have mercy…the way he laughs would make the Statue of Venus cream her stony drawers.
Off goes his shirt, followed by his pants. As he tries to step out of his briefs, he has to hop a couple times, nearly falling over as he does.
I catch a glimpse of his erection, bobbing under his belly as he tries to stay upright.
He looks so comical I can’t help but giggle, at the same time my eyes feel like they’re about to jump right out of my head, trying to take in the sight of him.
Naked now, he’s beautiful, chiseled, in the prime of life and fine of form.
And his cock is enormous, standing ramrod-straight as if it’s ready for the Sarge’s inspection.
He flings himself onto the bed next to me, then pulls me into his arms.
Then, like I always dreamed, he wraps his strong, warm, muscled legs around mine.
Oh! They’re so nice…his legs are hard with strength yet soft with that covering of downy hairs.
Mmmm, being naked in his arms, his warm body so close to mine, is so wonderful, so natural and feels so right.
Can’t wait to feel him fill me up…I want to pleasure him, I want to watch his face when he sinks himself into my pussy and I want it to be so good for him that he loses himself when he explodes inside me.
I reach down and grasp his thick cock in one hand.
“Mmm,” he growls, and it pulses in my hand like it has a life of its own.