I’d already gotten too close to her.
She made it to the old factory door first, opening the steel latch with her free hand. Upon turning the knob, it opened right away for her and I eyed her, stepping forward in my boots.
“Did you know that’d open?” I asked her and she simply grinned.
“I hoped it would.”
She said that with a smile that made her eyes widen, asking me to follow her with a jerk of her head. She took the first steps forward but as I had no idea what we’d be getting into with this place, I reached ahead and held the door, my arm out and covering her as we cut through the dust of the old factory.
The air was thick with age, musty and other smells that told of time. They hadn’t been bad smells, fine leather amongst them. That was exactly what we’d found, shoes everywhere amongst overturned chairs and tables. There was steel equipment and their accompanying conveyer belts, truck lifts and some of them still holding the pallets or boxes they’d been in the process of lifting away. The place also had a second level that led to an unknown destination, but it was all fascinating, making me feel as if I was getting a peek of something I wasn’t supposed to.
The whole thing excited Ann. Her eyes lit up as she spun around freely.
“It’s even better than I thought,” I heard her say but didn’t focus on the comment long.
I watched her hand, disappearing in mine when she reached out. We’d done that yesterday too and I’d hated when I ultimately had to let go.
I hated this moment too, knowing I’d have to let go again.
Forming my fingers around hers, I studied her softness, my hardened palms the looking glass. She was soft, so perfect and she squeezed my hand too, coming forward.
“I’m going to take the risk in overstepping,” she said looking up at me. She dampened her lips. “But I feel it’s important. Can I?”
I had no idea what she was asking me and she had to know that, but even though she hadn’t asked specifics I figured out on my own what I thought she really wanted from me.
And that was to trust her.
I did, though I didn’t know her. It was all something I didn’t understand and I bet she didn’t either. It was all so confusing, her, me and her.
Nodding, I allowed my boots to move as she guided us into the center of the factory’s operation. She still had my notebook in hand and she turned to a page quickly with her thumb. Grinning, she stared up at the rafters of the shop, spinning until we came across one of the largest abandoned machines.
Letting go there, she cradled my notebook, staring up at me.
“This is your production line,” she spoke out into the air, the sun cascading light across her high cheeks. A direct ray shown down from the skylight above, shining on the dust in the room and making it look like glitter or something across the room.
She brought the notebook over to the assembly line and I followed her, the book open on a tiny children’s toy I’d yet to make. It was designed to be made out of wood. They all were.
She put her hand over the drawing, again like it was precious or something, then gestured toward the conveyer belt behind her.
“It’ll be self automated,” she said nodding with a smile. She faced the conveyer belt. “Your men will make everything right with a push of a button.”
“My men?”
The question was both internal and external, not understanding what she was saying. But Ann… she didn’t give me a moment to catch up.
Sprinting with my notebook, I was hard pressed to catch her, her tennis shoes taking her clear over to the other side of the room. There were tables here, all holding shoes, letter scraps and whatnot. Here was where Ann turned more pages, and by the time I noticed where she stopped, she was already speaking again.
“But these are so precious,” she said, eyeing me when I noticed the music box under her hand pressed to the pages of the book. Sliding off, she touched a table full of shoes, looking up and into the light.
She closed her eyes like she was trying to feel something, channeling something.
She opened them.
“Your people will make the things by hand here,” she spoke on, lifting her hand. “You’ll have so many employees. People dying to work for Blake and bring his sketches to life.”
I was afraid to take in air, make a sound as my boots scraped the way and went her direction.
She let me, the small world tiny between us. I was trying to get what she was saying, where she was going with this and why.
My hand went out and she took it again, cutting off anything and everything I might have said. Instead, she pulled me, took me to places I wasn’t sure I was capable of seeing. It seemed too farfetched.
It seemed not meant for me.
Even still, this city girl took me there, stopping in front of an area completely empty. There were no distractions there, no old boxes, crates of shoes or tools. There was just us, us and the air and the world.
“But you’ll keep your rocking chairs here,” she said, staring out like she could see them and when I came behind her, she already had the page found.
One of my rockers was right under her thumb, not one that I wanted to make, but one I’d made time and time again for people in my town. I got to see the things everywhere, everyone wanting one when they saw someone else's. Since the first one I made, they never stopped and the joy I got from seeing them…
Ann’s breath hiked when I came behind her, her eyes closing when she opened them out to the empty area.
“They’re so special, Blake,” she said nodding. “They’re special and they’ll be here, ready and waiting for each order. You’ll ship them around the world one day. Everyone will want your rocking chairs.”
The world…
She left me but only just, choosing to go toward the closest wall. My book closed, she let it fall to her hip, staring up yonder and above at that secret world we couldn’t see from the first level.
I went to her, again staying with her. I looked on with this girl, trying to see what she had already said. I couldn’t see the assembly line or even the employees, but I had to see whatever this was.
The visions in her head had her smiling, her head lowering with them.
“Up there, the king of the castle will be of course,” she told me tipping her chin in the direction of the second level. “There’s where your office will be, a place for you to escape it all sometimes. A place where you can just catch your breath.”
“And where will you be?”
I spoke behind her, always behind her and I watched her shudder as I placed a hand on her hip and took her in. I indulged in the things both my heart and mind wanted, the feel of her waist as hips turned to thigh, the smell of her hair when she tilted her head.
Her eyes closed, letting me breathe her in, letting me absorb her and, slowly, her hands went ahead not touching mine but to the wall.
“Here,” she said, her dark lids sliding over her eyes. Opening them completely, she turned around, leaving my hands enough to touch me, her hand on my face and in my hair.
I felt every degree of heat, the charged electrodes circulating down to my boots. Stepping forward, she pushed her fingers in, her sweet smell so close I could taste it on my tongue.
“And here,” she said, her fingers so embedded in my hair she was nearly inside me. She was inside, but she was wrong about something.
Proving that to her, I took her hand and moved it to my chest, the beats I was sure she could feel straight through my shirt.
“Here,” I told her. “Here, you’ll be.”
Her hand slid easy when I removed it from my chest and she came in even easier when I pushed my hand behind her neck.
My lips slammed down on hers without resolve, a constant and fervent reverie between that of our lips.
I hugged her to me by her hips, feeling her body literally giving way and submitting to me. It gave out, her hands clenched to my chest as she let herself fall.
Her tast
e challenged all senses, opened them up and let them ring to their full potential. Colors were brighter, tastes were warmer and richer.
Touch was stronger.
My hand gripping the back of her neck, I edged her mouth open with my tongue, watching that give way too, watching her let me open her up. I worked my way in, tasting and dancing along this high with her. I let myself meld into the dream with her.
I let her take me there.
Ann
It took a lot to get Blake to come to my motel room with me. He wasn’t that kind of guy and I knew that right away, probably within moments of meeting him.
But I wasn’t that girl either. I didn’t do this with someone I just met. That had been the point. Neither one of us did this.
But we were doing it anyway.
Once he was there, he hadn’t resisted. He no longer resisted… this, letting me unbutton his shirt and touch him in all the ways I wanted to touch him. I wanted to see his body. I wanted to feel the muscles shift and move beneath my hands while he thrust his heat inside me. I wanted him in all the ways a woman wanted a man, unashamed and passionate.
My hands pushing over his shoulders slid his shirt down his biceps, his arms coming around my hips as we sat on my bed. He brought me off my knees and to him, his body a massive force of hardened planes and steel biceps.
He used the thickness of his hands to undress me, pushing my top off my shoulders until they were as bare as his.
His lips parted on the top of one, my eyes closing as he pushed a hand beneath the shirt. He unclasped my bra this way, a maneuver that told me he’d not only done this before but well. Placing me on my back, he let the bra give way, pressing himself on me and chasing soft kisses on my lips.
His weight on me, I couldn’t breathe. I didn’t want to, afraid of what would happen when I did. Thinking was a bad idea, thinking might end this and push him away.
Incredibly warm, he caged me, pulling off my shirt and then sliding my bra to the side. He pushed his thumbs along the inside of my arms, breathing warmth against my nipples too hard and achy below him.
His tongue tasted before it laved, exploring fingers pinching and tweaking my dark areolas.
“Blake…”
My legs parted to let him in, the feat apparent with his size. My ankles couldn’t even lock around his waist, my calves aiding my hips to rise and fall with the grind I attempted to make against his jeans.
Each roll of my hips, I felt him harden, considerable steel between my legs. Using a hand, he helped me out, gravity keeping his heat away from me.
He moved my hips with me, his thrusts slow in return. Pushing his hand down my thigh, he gripped my bottom.
“Tell me this is a bad idea,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to my breast before tasting. He nipped with his teeth, blond hair cascading around him. “Tell me you’re not meant for me.”
I could tell him all these things. I knew all these things, but despite that I couldn’t turn him away.
Maybe because somewhere in my heart I longed for another truth, another reality in which we ended up together. It felt so real I actually believed it. I was his.
We’d always end up this way every time.
It didn’t matter the probability or that alternate reality. Somewhere we were together. Somewhere we were each other’s.
I stopped him but only to look at him, lifting my head to part my mouth on his chin.
“It’s not true, Blake,” I said. “None of it’s true.”
What he said was false. This was our reality.
This was our truth.
His mouth moved into mine when I guided it that way, unclasping my jeans and pushing his fingers into them. He peeled them away with my panties, my arousal in the air and his full fingers ready to explore it.
His hand between my legs peeked at heaven, his mouth just as sweet. His thick fingers tunneled their way inside me, his thumb drumming over my tender bud. He nearly made me come that way, with his hands.
“I want you inside,” I told him, using my calves to once again draw him to me. “I want you here.”
Sliding his fingers out, I made him cup me, my warm juices between us. Watching him, my hips moved, his eyes closing as I slid away and unbuckled his jeans.
My legs falling away, I pushed the denim and his underwear down his tree trunk thighs, greedy and incredibly needy as I watched him kick them off and expose himself to me.
He arched full up to a ripped torso, my imagination not nearly as accurate as the real display. The build of a man towered over me, his member thick and a smattering of blond hairs around it. Blake massaged himself, forcing precum to seep from the tip.
He took my mouth as he locked me down with his weight again, his hand doing a dance with his jeans when he gathered protection for us from his wallet. Once he got it on he no longer restricted himself. He covered me, pushing himself between my legs and pressing me down hard to the bed.
“Ann…”
He breathed my name just as he slid the head in, his considerable size stopping and waiting for my body to adjust. His hand behind my neck, he eased my mouth open with soft kisses, taking my mind to other places while he guided in inch by considerable inch.
He was so thick and full. My thighs parted, hitting the bed while he pushed himself, pushed me. Once inside, he stopped, looking at me.
He watched with each thrust, each moment slow and calculated like he was making sure this was okay, that I was okay. With my return, he picked up movement, his thighs humming a warmth before slamming a burn between my legs.
I knew I called for him. I called for God and everything else I could think of, my head rolling back, as I felt things I never felt before. It was different when it was someone I felt a true connection with.
It was wonderfully different.
Blake had his eyes closed, complete and pure ecstasy on his face with each move of his thick hips. Picking up, the legs of the bed moved, scraping across the carpet and the steel bed frame hitting the back of the wall. At one point, he actually apologized. I kissed him and guided him not to stop. I didn’t care what we did to the room.
I just cared what he did to me.
Once he wasn’t self-conscious about it, he continued his movements, reaching back to gain more control of the bed. With his strength, he managed to do it, picking up my hips with the movement of his. I felt the minute he was close, his thrusts piston-like, constant and strong. Arched, he spilled into me the same moment warmth flurried inside my tummy.
The room spun, my body locked and unable to come down from the high. It took Blake’s hands cupping the back of my thighs to realize I’d finally relaxed from release, his arms waiting to catch me.
Of course he was there to catch me.
Blake
I must have fallen asleep, the hour still early. I reached for Ann but she wasn’t where I left her. She’d been on me, so close we’d been one person nearly.
Disoriented, confused, I turned on my side, trying to gather my wits and figure out exactly what I was doing. My mind felt caught in a turbine.
My heart even worse.
Scrubbing my hands down my face, I took a much-needed breath, then pushed myself from beneath the sheets. I wanted to find Ann, talk to her.
I wanted to figure out whatever this was.
My insides were telling me one thing but my brain another. My head was the logical one, the guy saying all the things my insides didn’t want to hear. He was talking them down, telling them to come down from all this and get back to reality.
But sometimes the brain wasn’t always the right thing to trust.
We were in an age of phones and travel. If we wanted to stay connected… stay something to each other, we could. It was possible. It wasn’t that farfetched. Both of us were scared to shit of planes but we could try and make something happen if it was worth it.
We’d just have to try a little bit.
And if something worked out, truly worked out I’d be willing to uproo
t.
I wondered if she had the same considerations. I wondered if she was considering them now, sitting off to herself and contemplating like I was. This all was a lot and if we had time, we both needed to breathe. We were both rightly interworked with each other right now, too close to make any logical decisions.
But like I said, we didn’t have time.
I didn’t bother with my clothes, getting out of bed. A quick exit wasn’t what this was, a careless moment in the wind that now I was trying to get out of it. That wasn’t the type of guy I was, never had been. I wanted to talk to Ann and figure all this out.
I ended up getting out the left side of the bed, the one closest to the motel phone, and I took notice of the phone for a strange reason.
The phone was gone but the cord still there, outstretched and leading away as if the whole phone was taken. Following it, I came across the bathroom I barely noticed when we got in the room. The door had been open then.
It wasn’t now.
A light shone underneath it, a person inside and the cord leading right underneath. She’d taken the whole phone in the bathroom and was on it. Normally, I would have given her privacy and I almost did before something told me to stop, listen.
The logical one in this had my hand touching the door, her voice behind it and talking to someone else. That someone else had her whispering quietly, mentioning words of, “don’t worry,” and words of, “I’ll be home soon.”
At first I believed she might have been talking to her parents or even a friend or another family member, but as I listened on, her voice sweet and her tone low…
Her words spoke of comfort, soothing and purely intimate. The nature went beyond a parent or even a close friend and when she spoke a male’s name, another, “Don’t worry,” in her voice the son of a bitch inside my head told me the harsh truth. He brought me down and told me exactly what this was.
However cruel.
I honestly couldn’t tell you the guy’s name she said if asked. I forgot about it the moment I heard it, but once I had I nodded, coming away from the door. The creak in the flooring under the carpet was audible and I assumed she heard me the moment I made it. It’d been loud enough but I didn’t care. She should know I overheard her.
Blake (Found by You Book 6) Page 4