by Nicole Snow
“You will,” she says, coming closer, flatting her hands on my chest. “Give it time. You'll find your way, and he'll be a distant memory.”
Something flashes outside the window next to us, catching my attention. The skyline over Phoenix and Tempe lights up in a quick blue burst.
“Heat lightning,” I say, wrapping an arm around her waist. I pull her tight until I hear the satisfying hitch in her lungs. “Truth be told, I'm done with memories, Sunflower. You've got no clue how bad I want to live in the present, without these fucked up worries.”
Lightning flashes again, bathing us in its intense blue glow, covering the red balm on her cheeks. She leans in, her voice a husky whisper, shaking when she pops the question. “So, why don't you? I'm right here in front of you.”
If my eyes were beads trained on her before, they're two hungry dogs now, tracking every soft curve of her body. My hand slides lower, stopping at her hip, grasping the edge of her blouse in a sudden rough handful. “Christ, you're a tease. Reminds me some things never change.”
“Me?” Kendra's pupils swell. So big, so needy, so fuckable I want to lose myself there forever. “Like you didn't string me along. Hell, you're still doing it, aren't you?”
Finally, the night's million dollar question. My cock stirs in my pants, angry and throbbing, ready to deal with a hundred consequences in the morning.
“I'm doing what you want,” I say, stopping just short of a kiss, laying my forehead hard against hers. “Everything we've needed since the minute I let you back in my life, and shoved the ring on your hand that should be there constantly.”
I lace my fingers through hers, feeling the bareness. She hasn't had the time or need to replace my ring since leaving my sister's place.
Damn if it doesn't bother me at some screwed up level I barely understand.
“What, and wear it in front of Jamie? Your mom? I thought we agreed –“
“Deals change all the time, darling. That's part of life on this rock. You said it yourself. I'm not worried about us anymore. Just Victor.” Lightning flashes in the distance again, illuminating the mountains. I bring both my hands to her face and cup it, giving her head a gentle turn to the window. “You see that out there?”
She nods, breath quickening. Those palm-sized tits under her top press harder against me. I know if I take them in my hands right now, her nipples will be pebbles, aching to be sucked soft the instant I rip her shirt open. Or maybe they want to be pressed against my cock instead, while I show her a new way to torture me with that sharp little mouth.
“It's calling us, Kendra. Pure energy. Makes me want to lay you down and do reckless, scary shit you've never had with any man.” I pause, grinding my hips against hers, loving how she tilts into me when my knee goes between her legs. “There, Sunflower. There. That's where I've always belonged. Everywhere I've been begging to be, even when I lied myself into thinking I wanted to be somewhere else. Real regret is not taking you years ago. We should've had it first, should've had it long ago, after Sam and Africa, before I shut you out and ran like a fucking coward –“
“It's not too late, Knox,” It comes out of her in a hurried hiss. She clams up the second the words leave her mouth. “You can be the first.”
My fingers tighten on her face, and my thumb digs into her cheek. “What did you just say? Look at me,” I growl, refusing to say another word until I see her eyes.
When she turns, lightning splashes us again, painting her eyes blue like mine for a split second. It's a surreal, beautiful catalyst for the want rising up inside me, beginning to scream in this strange, stormy night.
“I'm still a virgin,” she says in a hushed whisper, ridden with angst. “I was too busy. I never got over you, not even after that night –“
“Don't fucking say it,” I growl, silencing her with a kiss. She takes my mouth hard, muscles twitching in her cheeks. They juggle fear, regret, disbelief.
Everything I can't stand. My tongue brushes hers, tasting everything, needing more. “Leave the past behind us. Tonight, just be. Be in the here and now when you're calling out under me.”
“Knox!” She whimpers my name, her breath turning shallow. Cradling her head in both hands, I kiss her again, this time harder.
I need to take what's mine, and it isn't going to wait.
My hands move instinctively, throwing her over my shoulder, carrying her to my room. By time we reach the door, knowing I'm about to take Sunflower's cherry makes me feel like a clueless virgin all over again. My cock can only take so much before it explodes, ideally deep inside her.
9
Reconciliation (Kendra)
His hands are my ultimate undoing. It's hard to pin down just one when his lips, his gaze, and the handsome slab of muscle that's quintessentially Knox Carlisle are all over me, hotter and more demanding than they've ever been.
But if I had to choose, it's his hands lifting me to heaven when I'm on his bed, prone to his marvels. They roam my body, massaging my skin, sampling my breasts and my ass as he holds me against him, his mouth intent on smothering mine.
Every kiss is a new addiction.
I give him my teeth, sinking into his bottom lip. His delirious hands start pulling off my clothes. It's incredible how fast I'm undressed, stripped bare, buried underneath him while he works his shirt open with his free hand.
“Go ahead and look. Admire,” he whispers, grabbing my hands and using them to slide his undone shirt off his shoulders, exposing his tight shield of a chest. “Touch me, Sunflower. Put your little hands on my ink. Know you've always wanted to since the days we were kids.”
He isn't wrong. I'm barely breathing as I reach out, closing my eyes. My fingers graze his tattoos like they're a priceless canvass. His lungs pump harder as I lay my hands on him.
He's raw, alive, and completely burning up. His half-naked body is living art.
My eyes open, drinking in the work and insanity that went into crafting the muscles underneath his dark tattoos. I see an eagle, USMC over it, his unit's number branded in him for life. Then I see the familiar Black Rhino logo, a dark horn with a diamond ring around it, and what looks like several neat lines beneath, as if he's keeping count.
“Men I lost,” he answers, searching my eyes. “Just like the watch. They're a big part of the reason we didn't do this sooner. Losing half my crew in the dirtiest, darkest slums you can imagine chewed up a piece of my soul. Their sacrifice is the only reason I'm still breathing, gearing up to own every last inch of you tonight.”
His voice drips cold emotion, calling goosebumps to my skin.
So heavy. So serious. So sweltering.
My fingers pivot, aiming my nails at his skin. He releases a low growl as they slide down, below his chest, across the ripped mountains in his abs, closer to his belt line. When the very edge of my hand touches him there, he grabs my wrist so quick I gasp.
“No. You get my cock after I see your eyes roll. Lay back.” He doesn't have to push hard to topple me. I hit the mattress with a soft bounce, recoiling against Knox's huge body.
He hovers, reaches behind me, unhooking my bra. The clasp gives an audible pop and he lifts it away. Nervous heat flows free like magma, caressing me from the inside and out, re-igniting every doubt and insecurity I've ever had about my body.
Knox is blind to my imperfections. He gives a soft grunt, exhaling like he's tasted a fine wine. His hands palm my breasts while fresh lightning spills across the valley. His huge windows in this room are portals to the turmoil in the sky.
Except it's getting harder to tell if the storm is outside anymore, or in here with us.
“Always knew you hid an angel's body under those grandma tops and skirts, Sunflower. Can not believe I'm the first lucky SOB who gets to see it.” I love how he says it with excitement flooding his voice.
Can. Not.
That makes two of us. I can't believe I'm here, melting into a sticky puddle while his hands stroke nirvana into me, his feral gaze on my skin eve
ry waking second.
My nipples throb, blooming between his fingers, twin helpless peaks at his mercy. His fingers close around them and I bite my lip.
And those fingers are just a prelude to his tongue. My eyes are half-closed, but he doesn't care when he brings his face down. His gaze intensifies while his tongue flicks over my right nipple, fueling the fireball in my hips.
“Knox...” I moan his name, a quiet plea, and brace for the second his smirking lips part to devour.
Nothing prepares me for the heat. Lips, tongue, and fire swarm my body. Lightning crackles again, a vision of the inferno conquering my nerves.
Another low, soft growl vibrates in his throat, and through me, when his tongue picks up. He's lashing one nipple, kneading my other breast, fingers and mouth moving in unison.
My pussy swells beneath the last scrap of clothing attached to my body. His knee splits my legs, driving against my clit, but holding back before pleasure overwhelms my senses.
Of course he has to tease. His every movement reminds me of that silly name I've had since our night in the desert, when I was just a baby, worshiping the ground he walked on.
Look at me now.
See her, Knox? The woman who always had your hand, walked with you through hell, even when you pushed her away?
See how her lips form a perfect ring when they stretch taught, moaning your name, teeth clenching when your teeth seize each nipple, and pull?
See how I try to grind while you hold me down, asserting your control, steering this mad, beautiful whatever between us?
See how fucking sorry I am that I'm not wearing your ring tonight?
How bad I want to, and want it to be real?
How salaciously I lift my hips, wrap my legs around you, pleading with every word to have your naked body seething against mine?
Do you still see your Sunflower?
“Kendra, fuck!” He breaks away from skating his lips over my belly, like he needs his precious oxygen. “What the hell you doing to me, Sunflower? What, and how?”
I don't answer. Just kiss him harder, running my fingernails through his hair, opening my legs even though it's the last thing I want to do. What I really want is to close them around him and find the delicious friction that ends this heat, before he drives me completely insane.
Oh, but he has other delights in mind for tonight. So many, it's frightful.
I'm not a patient person. That goes tenfold when I'm minutes from saying goodbye to the shy virgin baggage chained to my life for the last six years.
Knox's fingers are on my panties. They dip inside, underneath the waistband, and I have a half second reminder I'm not wearing anything lacy or exciting.
He doesn't seem to care.
His sky blue eyes say I'm exquisite.
His clenched jaw says he wants what's in front of him like he's never wanted anything.
His hands say now.
I'm barely able to lift my butt before he pulls, stripping my panties.
They're gone.
A tremor runs through me when I realize how completely naked and vulnerable I am. His mouth soothes my worries, returning to my flesh, a heat and speed in his kiss leaving me breathless, joyous, dizzy.
Oh, hell. A new fire unlike anything I've had before curls my fingers and toes. He's at my inner thigh, licking and sucking, trying to soften me before he moves a few inches to the steaming, needful mess in the center.
“Knox, God!” I shake harder, whimpering, nerves trying to close my legs.
He holds them open with a growl, adding a delicious pressure with his thumb. His fingers sink into my skin, a prelude to the first stroke of his tongue across my pussy an instant later.
His lick is a full body quiver.
The landscape shifts inside me. I'm flat on my back, splayed open, grinding into the face of this manic animal taking me apart from the waist down. Knox brings his heat faster, splitting my labia with each taste, edging fierce, hypnotic circles around my swollen clit.
I can't hold on. I have to grip the sheets. I'm sweating and aching, dying for the man I've loved like my own brother, and hated for what he did to me.
I don't know what I'm doing in sex yet, but I understand emotion. It hits like fine whiskey and leaves me just as dazed, pleased, and addicted. The space between us closes in his quickening tongue-work.
My hips won't stay pinned to the bed anymore. They give themselves up, surrender to his mouth, pressed as tight as he'll allow, riding his face.
He's growling into me, hooking thumbs into my skin even harder, reminding me that sometimes the very best things have to hurt, if only a little.
The slight discomfort in his pinprick fingertips has nothing on the ecstasy descending.
My clit throbs as he fully takes it, stroking my bud in his lips. Then his face drifts up, his lips draw a little tighter, and the circles he brushes into my skin become inescapable.
“Knox, Knox, Knox...” I call his name, trying to count, trying to hang on before I'm pulled completely into him.
It's scary, but I want to be. And that's when I finally let go, his hands holding me open, face buried in my pussy, tongue in my folds.
Lightning flashes for the hundredth time. The sky rips, joins me, screaming thunder when I come undone.
Coming!
I'm paralyzed. The raw, throbbing shock rolls through me, seizing my muscles, turning me to granite. I'm a prisoner to his handsome face, a willing slave. His body controls mine and I adore it.
I come so sweetly, surrendering to his face.
His licks come rough, but he knows how delicate I am, too. When the breathless aftershocks finally let me lay still again, panting for dear life, he brings me home with a kiss.
“Goddamn, you come as good as you taste, Sunflower.” He kisses me harder, making sure I taste my own scent on his lips. “Love that wetness wrapped around my tongue. Too bad there's another place aching for it more.”
There's no mystery what he means when his cock presses into me, separated only by his trousers. He rears up, guiding my hands to his body, holding them at his sides while working off his belt. His zipper goes down a hair second before his bottoms.
Then the most magnificent flesh I've ever laid eyes on springs out, ready and alive.
“Wow.” I feel like a total dork with my one liner. It isn't even adequate for a single twitch of his flesh when he wraps it in his fist. Staring deep into my eyes, he rolls his hand down it, and I watch the pre-come trickling out in a steaming line to the sheets. “Holy hell,” I whimper, everything that's about to happen hits me like another bolt rending the heavens.
“Not hell. Heaven, Sunflower. Once I'm inside you, there's only one place you're going. Just gave you a taste when you saw what my mouth can do. Now, we're done looking over the ledge,” he whispers, shuffling his boxers and pants off behind him, before fisting my hand and bringing it straight to his hard-on.
It's hot. Quivering. Glorious. My toes curl against his calves, imagining the damage and the glory it'll do.
“Now, it's time to leap,” he says, rolling back on his hips, bringing his cock's mast to full attention. I've never even seen one before, but it's no shock he's huge.
Knox does big like most men do good. And what he loses when he's less than concerned with being civil, he makes up in other attributes, like the glint in his eye when he tugs on his thick length, fist pressed to his balls, leaning forward.
“You ready, baby girl?”
Can't you tell? I've only been waiting for years.
“Please,” I whisper back, tightening my fingers so hard around his I think they'll snap. “I want you in me.”
The oceans in his eyes deepen when the lightning comes again, painting them an almost otherworldly blue. A low growl pools in his throat, giving thunder to the storm splitting the sky above his roof. “Show me how bad, Kendra. You get every inch when I hear it.”
He grabs my hand, places it on his cock, and closes his fist around it. I shut my eyes
, wondering how I'm able to love and hate what he's making me do, stroking up and down. I want to keep going, but God I want him in me.
He wants me to show him I'm worthy, the ass. Or maybe he just wants to prolong the torture disguised as foreplay until I've soaked his sheets more than I already have.
“Harder, darling,” he commands, jerking my hand faster, tighter, harder with his. “Just like you want me to fuck you.”
Oh, God. More fire throbs between my legs. I pinch my thighs together, sucking my bottom lip, thoroughly addicted to the heat in his skin.
I pick up the pace, rolling him in my fingers harder. Every time he pulses in my hand, a new delight. Each time the low, masculine groan in his throat gets louder, pride. My heartbeat synchronizes to his rhythm, beating faster as his cock jerks, oozing more napalm across my fingers.
“Yeah, Sunflower, yeah...fuck!” His eyes are closed.
I'm braced for anything, wondering if he'll shower my body with his seed if he shoots off now.
But Knox seizes my hand at the last instant, yanks it off him, and brings it over my head. He pins me to the mattress, knocking my legs apart with his hips, positioning himself for the inevitable.
My eyes are wide, flickering with the lightning's reflection as they bore into his. He holds my gaze, my heart, my very soul. I wish they could stop time, too, leaving us both here to savor this unforgettable bridge between my soon-to-be-stripped virginity and God knows what comes after.
“Wish I had mirrors in my eyes,” he says, kissing at my throat, a strange statement that makes me do a double take. Typical Knox. He doesn't follow up until he's licked to my cleavage, nearly causing me to forget what he just said. “You've got no frigging clue how beautiful you are now, Sunflower. I love this look.”
“What?” The one where I'm the typical first-time fuck, shaking and clueless, core clenched so tight it's practically in my throat? I only think the last part, holding it in while his fingers stroke circles on my wrist. “You mean the one where I'm hardly able to breathe because I'm waiting for Casanova to finally lay his claim?”