Into His Keeping

by Faulkner, Gail

  “It’s okay, I got you,” he whispered, and placed his hands under her arms, standing and pulling her up with him, flipping off the shower while supporting her draped against him. He lifted her legs over his arm and cradling her like a baby, Holdin stepped out of the shower and carried her to the toilet. He pulled the lid down with his toes and sat her on the covered seat.

  In silence he knelt in front of her and dried her with soft touches. She sat unmoving. Quickly wiping himself off, Holdin rose and picked Jill up again. He strode into the bedroom. Very carefully he placed her on the comforter.

  Jill sank down on the pillow. She was on her side facing him and watched as he disappeared into his closet and came back wearing shorts and a T-shirt. He picked up her suitcase from the floor and carried it into the other closet. A few seconds later he reappeared with her clothes. He dropped the clothes beside her and sat her up as if she were a porcelain doll.

  “What are you doing?” Jill whispered. She couldn’t manage a normal tone yet.

  Holdin dropped a reverent kiss on her forehead as he pulled her panties up her calves. “I’m dressing my baby. Hush. Can you stand for me?”

  Jill stood obediently and he pulled the panties into place, grabbed her shorts and had her step into them and sit again.

  “Not your whore?” she questioned as he slid her arms into the bra.

  “Always,” Holdin confirmed then dragged in a deep breath as he continued. “But also my princess and the mother of my children. The woman I’ve been in love with since the first time she let me kiss her.” Holdin swiftly shifted so he was sitting behind her, straddling her to close the bra. “Hold them up, baby, or we’ll never get this on.”

  His voice was hushed and she thought she heard a hitch in it. Overwhelming emotional confusion finally rushed over her. The enormity of where he’d just taken her, who she’d become. How much she’d wanted to be that woman. Her body still hummed in sexual arousal and she couldn’t turn it off. His touch was now gentle and he had her wanting.

  Jill hiccupped a sob as she cupped her breasts for him so he could close the bra and adjust the shoulder straps. Tears adorned her cheeks but she didn’t make a sound. A tear dropped on the back of Holdin’s hand as he pulled the strap tight before slipping on her top. His arms went around her and he pulled her against his chest. Jill gave in to crying softly. She was flying apart in his arms and he was somehow holding her together.

  His big hands began to move on her body over the clothes as she shuddered. Leaning back on his chest, his hard legs bracketing her thighs, Jill was surrounded by him, the shower-fresh scent of him, the feel of him. She turned her head to the side, ashamed of what was driving her to tears.

  His mouth dipped to her neck and opened over it, gently licking as he started murmuring to her.

  “I got you, baby. I know.” He kissed down to her shoulder as one of his hands undid her shorts again and slipped inside. Her body jerked in response to the caress down her belly. “Hook your legs over mine, darlin’,” he instructed softly. “This is mine and I’ll take care of you. Always, honey. You don’t have to cry.”

  Jill’s legs lifted over his, spreading her body open to his touch. Following his commands with desperate need, being the woman he’d known she was. His hand slid down into soft curls to brush lightly over the sensitive folds of her sore, needy, wet pussy.

  Jill’s back arched in electric reaction to that gentle touch as if he’d slammed down on her.

  “Yes, baby. That’s my good girl,” Holdin murmured, encouraging her as his fingers sank between her labia to stroke the tender nerve endings there. “It’s okay to need,” he continued softly. “The only wrong thing would be if you didn’t let me know.” His fingers gently glided around her opening, delicately swirling as she moaned and pushed up with her hips. Carefully he coated his fingers with her silky lubricant before drawing them back up her to stroke the damp tips around her clit.

  One thick arm was clamped around her waist, holding her firmly against his chest as the other hand petted her into moaning pleasure. She was safe. No matter how she thrashed, he would hold her safe. She had nowhere to go but into the pleasure his knowing fingers demanded of her.

  “That’s it. Feel how good it is.” His lips moved back to her neck, finding the spot where even the lightest lick sent currents of sensation directly to the needy pussy he petted.

  Jill panted as his fingers stroked around her clit in increasingly firm circles. Her hips strained up to him and she couldn’t think. The muscles on her legs were beginning to burn as the shocks of his unrelenting touch enveloped her. Slick fingers stroked with a hard pressure as he gave her the touch she needed.

  “Please,” Jill breathed as the need became overwhelming. “Please, I need more.”

  “Tell me what you need, baby. Anything you want.”

  Jill gulped in air. What she wanted was so difficult to say. How could she want this? What did that make her? And yet, what was she without it? She turned her head and closed her eyes to whisper in his ear what she needed.

  As the words left her mouth, Holdin shuddered. Then a low rumble moved up his chest in acknowledgment of what his woman needed. His perfect little whore.

  “My way,” he informed her in a low growl as he abruptly lifted her legs off his thighs and swung around to crouch briefly in front of her and drag the shorts and panties off.

  “Lie back. No, don’t move up on the bed,” he directed as he stood.

  Jill’s torso laid back on the bed, her legs over the edge.

  “Pull your knees up and hold them open, Jilly-girl. Present what’s mine.” His voice rumbled with satisfaction as she did exactly as he told her. Her breathing caught in sharp excitement as she submitted and Holdin felt the dominant within him expand in pride. Pride in her. Or of her. She was so perfectly beautiful in her hunger.

  “Look at the pretty pussy.” Holdin gazed down at her, freely letting her feel his approval and acceptance of her needs. He wanted her to know it was never wrong to tell him, no matter what she needed.

  Jill shook as she gripped her knees, spreading herself on the edge of the bed. The submission he required was a hard emotional push and she craved it. It added to the physical sensations in ways that had become an addiction. Not always easy, but always exciting. He made her be so bold, but it was what she wanted so badly.

  “Your cunt looks like it’s had a hard fucking, baby,” he continued, stroking his stunning submissive verbally. “But now you get what you crave. Look at me, Jilly-girl. I want your eyes on mine.”

  He was right. The new touch he’d shown her was one she desperately wanted more of. How he made her feel when he did this was the thrill she had to have again. One she needed so badly she’d asked for it. His command to look him in the eyes was almost too much. Reluctantly her eyes lifted to his. She knew he wanted her to accept this part of herself, to see that he wanted it from her, but looking into his eyes as he spanked her pussy because she needed him too was so difficult.

  “My pretty whore,” he growled as his hand came down on her gushing pussy in a restrained smack. He gave her a light touch with just enough sharp pressure to bring every tingling cell to fiery life. Making her look him in the eye was simply giving her more of what she’d really asked for. This request told him how much she needed as a submissive. Her release was almost totally bound up in feeling safe with him in control as she mixed new sensations. His amazing Jill needed a rough edge to the play for her little body to surrender to him. She craved it.

  Jill’s body arched into his as the new fire shot up her. Her head jerked but she restrained herself from flinging it back as she moaned. Again his hard hand landed on her sensitive folds and she felt the burn she craved. Pleasure laced with his delicate mix of pain. It was intoxicating. Part of it was the new sensations. Part of it was his complete control of her. In this position, her surrender was absolute.

  “Yes, baby, show me,” he encouraged her as his hand landed over and over and Jill los
t all reason. Though his hand was only landing on her lightly, each touch brought a rush of blood to the surface, increasing her sensitivity every time. The act itself drove her deep into his keeping. He was the master of her pleasure as surely as he was the owner of her soul.

  “Come for me,” he commanded as Holdin dropped to his knees and it was his mouth that sucked her in. He was painfully gentle yet to her it felt as if he licked her with a burning instrument of delight. Tenderly he sucked her clit into his mouth and Jill exploded into a million pieces.

  Hard, gushing contractions bowed her body as sensation swept through her in decadent abandon. Her only concession to the present was her hand over her own mouth to muffle the scream as he took her into oblivion.

  Tenderly Holdin drank from the altar that was Jill’s body. Light licks were all she could stand as he took her silky taste that was still mixed with his own. At every touch she shuddered and gasped.

  She’d awed him again. Shown him what a magnificent submissive she was. Her needs matched his in ways no one should be able to. Precious was too tame a word for her value. He had no words to express the way he needed her. She made him more of a man. A better man. She always had.

  Holdin took a last, tender lick, dragging his flattened tongue up swollen pink folds to swirl around her sensitive clit, just to feel her shudder in weak reaction then kissed his way up her soft belly. Gently dragging his mouth over her breasts, kissing each peak. The perfection of his woman, this woman, the woman he’d given his soul to, overwhelmed him again.

  The hard warrior who’d spent the last fifteen years fighting for the right to touch her, hold her, would never give her up. It didn’t matter what the real reasons were. In reality he’d been earning her as opposed to lying down and giving up. The fortune he’d amassed was in preparation for her. Every battle on the gridiron had been for the right to have this woman. Now that she was in his arms, the reality was so much more. Her passion and intensity shook him to his soul. There was no price he wouldn’t pay to keep her and he knew that could be a dangerous thing.

  His low voice murmured to her between kisses. “My beautiful princess. My gorgeous baby. Do you know how perfect you are?”

  Finally lying beside her, he pulled her panting body into his arms, his head bent to her neck. Jill was sluggish as her arm crept around him. Reverently he continued kissing her neck and shoulders until dragging his lips up to her ear, he nibbled around that perfect shell while whispering to her.

  “You make me a better person, Jilly-girl. You could make me the worst person. I’ll never let you go, baby. Not willingly. Telling you I love you is not enough. It never was.”

  When she calmed down, Holdin went to the bathroom to wash his face and hands. Returning with a warm, damp washcloth and a towel over his shoulder, he dropped down in front of her. Her legs hung over the edge of the bed but she’d not moved more than that. Very gently, Holdin wiped her thighs and then pressed the warm cloth over her center. Not stroking because she was too tender to take even that. Giving her a minute, he then dried her and sat back on his heels to pull her shorts and panties up again.

  Jill let him move her body as he wished to dress her. The powerful response he’d dragged out of her over and over again had drained her. Lifting her up to sitting again, he pulled her shirt down over her head and gathered her into his arms. Jill’s arms crept around his shoulders and she buried her face in his neck.

  “Jill?” he questioned softly after a few seconds. Pulling back, he put enough distance between them to look into her eyes. His serious eyes gazing into hers were amazingly green now. The gold flecks in them had receded into bold striations of color. He was the big cat he’d always appeared.

  “Our son is out there, waiting to show his mom what he just bought. We have to go but first there are few things I need to say. Can you listen?”

  Jill nodded.

  Holdin’s body tightened as if he braced himself. “First. We both know I can’t hold you against your will. You’ll have to bring the law to get rid of me though. The reason for the law is that this house and all its assets are in your name. I did that the first night after you came back. So you’ll have to evict me. Then I’ll be the guy living in a tent just outside the restraining order’s perimeter. I can’t let you go. I’m not strong enough to live without you. I’m sorry, baby, but one of the many things I need is to protect you, even if it’s from a distance.

  “I understand if you don’t think you can love me enough to marry me right now. But maybe you could hang around a while and see if I grow on you. I’ll be honest and tell you I know exactly how long it’s going to take to make you my common-law wife. If I can’t have you any other way, I’m banking on that.”

  Jill sighed deeply and the smile on her face was a strange mix of sorrow and peace. Into that moment, just as she opened her mouth to speak, there was a loud pounding on the double doors to the suite.

  “Are you guys okay in there?” Drifter demanded.

  Holdin glanced in the door’s direction. “He’s not very patient.”

  “He’s his father’s son,” Jill explained in softly amused tones.

  “He’s gonna come in here any second,” Holdin predicted.

  “Let him. It’ll cure him,” Jill murmured.

  “You haven’t answered me,” Holdin growled.

  “I didn’t hear a question.”

  “Well, I have one answer, baby. This is my answer to you.” He reached over to the nightstand and picked up the gold chain laying there.

  Jill bit her lip as she watched him straighten it and then drape it around her neck, clasping it on. His hands petted it against her soft skin as he pulled back to look at it.

  Her finger reached up to rub the familiar charm, big watery eyes looked into the glowing golden green ones.

  “You know what that is? What it always was?” Holdin asked softly.

  Jill nodded. “I knew. Why do you think I didn’t put it back on?” she chided softly, trying to cover up the tears.

  Holdin chuckled. “Because you couldn’t, could you, my precious little submissive?”

  Jill sucked in a breath, trying not to cry. He had no trouble naming her demons. He’d always known them for what they were.

  “Shhhh, don’t cry, baby.” He gathered her into his chest. “The collar has always been yours.”

  The outer door opened and Drifter strode through the sitting room. “Are you guys going to answer me?” he demanded, and then stopped short in the bedroom arch. Holdin on his knees holding Jill seemed something of a shock to the boy.

  “It’s not polite to yell in the house,” Jill said calmly as if it were the most obvious explanation.

  Holdin released Jill slowly and stood. He immediately reached down and lifted her into his arms. Carrying her across the room, he smiled at Drifter. “You’ve got some things to show your mother?” And proceeded to leave the bedroom. Jill’s head rested on his broad shoulder and she smiled tiredly at her son.

  “Yeah.” Drifter stepped back to let them pass.

  “Stuff’s in the family room?” Holdin asked as he stepped out the door.

  “Yeah.” Drifter followed them, scowling. “Hey, why are you carrying her? Is something wrong? Is she sick again?”

  “Nope. Your mom is tired. I get to carry her when she’s tired,” Holdin informed him as he entered the family room.

  Charles and Carol, already seated on the couch, looked up beaming when they entered. Holdin put Jill down on the love seat and dropped a kiss on her forehead. “Coffee, baby?” he asked.

  Jill’s smile was gentle and intimate as she looked into his eyes. “Please. That would be nice.”

  “Feeling tired, dear?” Carol asked cheerily. The twinkle in her eye was telling, even if she hadn’t reached over and slipped her hand into Charles’ large paw. Charles grunted and pulled his wife closer to fit her under his arm.

  Jill smiled and looked pointedly at the pile of bags dumped on the floor at the end of the couch. “I
bet you’re exhausted.” She cocked her chin at the pile. “Looks like you emptied the mall. Weren’t you the two people who promised not to spoil the boy?”

  “We lied,” both Carol and Charles said with placid smiles as if there had never been any doubt that they would lie about that.

  Holdin returned and put Jill’s coffee cup on the table beside her then lifted her to sit down with Jill tucked under his arm. The love seat was hardly big enough and he mostly had her on his lap. Handing her the coffee, he looked expectantly at Drifter. “So what did these people let you talk them into?”

  Drifter was still standing in the doorway watching the four adults. His eyes moving back and forth between the two couples as a dull blush colored his cheeks. He ran a hand down his face and sighed heavily as he now scowled at them with a long-suffering look of persecution on his face. The smile behind that expression was barely concealed.

  “Do all y’all people hang on each other all the time?” he wanted to know as he strolled in to lean against the entertainment console. “Coz I’m gonna need a hell of a lot more stuff to distract me if I can’t turn around without being grossed out.”