by Simon Archer
I sat up on my elbows and blinked at her. “That was—”
“I-I never did that before,” she interrupted. “I’ve only ever stretched externally, but I knew I could do it after a test yesterday, and—”
“Andie.”
“—I mean, I tested on some fruit and thought maybe it would be fun, but I—”
I crawled up to her and gently pulled her in for a kiss. It was soft and reassuring, but she was still eager without release, and it quickly grew heated again. I pulled back before she could demand more, and smiled at her, looking deep into those wonderful, expressive eyes.
“You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” I said with confidence. “Thank you. It was amazing.”
She flushed scarlet, unsure what to do with the compliment. I reversed our positions and carefully lifted her shirt up to begin a path along the curve of her breasts. They were humble compared to others, but the perfect size to cup in my hand. Nibbling the nipple of her left, I thumbed the right, and she whined softly while squeezing her thighs and shifting in need. My free hand trailed down between her legs, and I teased at the fabric over her clit with the press of my thumb.
I heard her breath hitch.
“So you like to be a tease,” I whispered as I licked a path to her other breast. I bit that one a little more harshly. She sucked her bottom lip to try to hide her reaction. A tiny little cry still escaped, however, and I pulled at the nipple with my teeth, teasing it until it was red, puffy, and quite happy with my affections.
“Nick, just fucking—”
“Do you know what a color system is?”
“Y-Yes—”
“You’ll tell me red to stop?”
When she didn’t answer me, I found her neck and returned her earlier favor with a sharp bite of my own. I pressed my thumb hard against the fabric between her legs and was greeted with a moan.
“N-Nick—”
My tone brooked no argument. “Answer me.”
“Yes, yes, I’ll tell you if I need to stop!”
“Good girl. Now, unless it’s a color, I don’t want one word from your naughty little mouth.” I curled my hand into a fist between her thighs and pressed it hard against her. Her breath hitched again, and she squirmed, uncertain if she wanted to grind against me or escape the advance while she still had the chance. “You can whimper, though. Do it with enough passion and I might have some mercy.”
“O-Oh God—”
In a swift motion, I yanked her pants down to her knees. Her cute lacy underwear followed, and I took only a quick glance to appreciate the color, a violent purple hue, before I slipped a finger inside her and felt for the little nub all stiff and ready for attention.
“I believe I told you not to speak,” I calmly reminded her. “That’s two. You earned one for that bit of bossiness earlier.”
I rubbed the nub in hard circles, and Andie tipped her head back, gasping like a fish out of water. Her hands twisted in the fabric of the sofa, her knuckles white.
“Already so eager for me, and I haven’t even started yet. Don’t get comfortable, Andie, because you’re not coming until I’m fucking you.”
“P-Please!”
“Three.”
“Th-three—ohmygod—ahh! Th-three w-whaaat?”
“Four. I’m going to edge you four times before I’ll let you come.”
She whined loudly at this news and tried to grind a little harder on my finger. I had pity and didn’t count for five. Four was going to be hell enough. I pulled out my finger instead of letting her keep going and tsked. “I don’t think you want it bad enough, sweetie. You’re being a very bad girl.”
She bobbed her hand at me, trying to tell me that yes, she wanted it very, very much. I tilted my head, expression loving. “Color?”
“Green.”
Good.
I sank down between her legs and began to lick and nibble at her twitching, wet labia. She’d shaved it, so the path was easy and clean. Above me, I heard her cry out, and she began to writhe and twist like she didn’t know what to do with herself. I held her knees to either side, spreading them wide so I could gain better access. Piercing her with my tongue, I drank in the essence of her like a man starved.
I continued on until I felt her thighs shudder, then pulled out, immediately going for her hands to pin them at her sides. She shrieked, thrashing in protest.
“One,” I said calmly. “Color.” Though I sounded confident, I was worried I was pressing too hard, too fast.
Andie stuttered, “G-Green,” her lips silently begging for more.
I knew her well enough that I could read the lights dazzling in her eyes. She was incredibly turned on by the events at hand and would scream red at the first opportunity if it took a bad turn. She trusted me, I trusted her. It was like a battlefield, but one that we both had better control of.
“I’m trusting you to tell me, Andie,” I said and slipped two fingers deep inside her again. Her clitoris was an engorged, twitching mess, and I rubbed along her walls, encouraging a second climb to nowhere. “I’ll finish it and stop the game if it’s too much for you.”
She shook her head very enthusiastically. I grinned, showing a bit of tooth. “My naughty little girl likes a bit of daddy, I take it.” I crooked my fingers, then added a third and began to fuck her with them.
Keeping eye-contact, I watched the way her own glazed over. She squirmed around me, her hands twitching with the need to touch, but uncertain if she should do so. I picked up the pace between her legs, and her breath hitched in warning. Again, I pulled out, and let her linger on the cusp.
Tears of frustration swam in her eyes, but she didn’t tell me to stop. Apologetic, I sank down to her breasts and took one of the nipples into my mouth again, keeping her hands pinned to her sides, so she didn’t get any ideas on finishing the course before I was done with her. I sucked on it lazily while she calmed back down, then quietly returned my hand for round three.
Her whimpers were desperate now, high-pitched and frantic. I released her nipple, and kissed the noises instead, drinking them with passion. Her tongue twisted around mine while I worked three fingers deep into her core, setting a punishing rhythm that made her lose her mind entirely. She was so wet, it had dribbled somewhat onto the cushions below her.
I held my forehead on hers, our eyes inches apart. I stared deep into them, frowning at the tears while I forced her to climb yet again. When I pulled away the third time, she screamed.
“Shh. It’s alright,” I whispered. “I love you, sweetie. One more time. You can do it. You’re my brave, fantastic girl.” She granted me an unsteady nod, and I felt the world swim all around me as I became overwhelmed at just how much she trusted me. “My ray of sunshine. My Andie. Mine.” No one had ever believed in me as much as Andie did, and she did it as easily as breathing.
“I love you,” I repeated, kissing her neck, her breasts, the scoop of her belly. “Andrea, I love you so much.”
“I-I love you, t-too Nick,” she gasped.
Inspired, I shoved my pants back down and aligning us with a hand. I was completely hard again, and desperate to finish this. I held her eyes when I sank in slowly. She twitched around me with a loud moan, her core a searing heat. She bit her lower lip when I didn’t immediately move and whined a needy little thing that only made me that much harder.
Slowly, I began to fuck her. She wrapped her legs around me and sat up to kiss me in desperation. Her fingers clawed at my back, unable to contain it anymore.
“One... more... time,” I huffed when she finally let me breathe again. “Tell me when you’re about to come.”
“N-Nick, please.”
“It’s going to be okay, sweetie. I love you. I’ll take care of you. You can do this. Just tell me when.”
Again, we climbed an impossible mountain, and again, I felt her twitch around me. I groaned at the stimulation, and suddenly, she began to beg.
“Pleasepleaseplease, Nick, please let me—”
“No. Not yet.” To be cruel, or because I was drowning in need of my own, I picked up the pace and began to take her a little rougher.
“Ah!! Please.”
“No,” I huffed, still calm. “You can do this.”
Despite wanting to finish the game myself, when she shrieked and confessed, “I-I’m going t-to—!”
I pulled out entirely, with little warning. She sobbed and thrashed on the sofa like a wild animal, and I held her down until the crying stopped. I licked her tears away, and whispered, “Thank you.”
Drunk on arousal, Andie blinked at me with wide, owlish eyes. “Nick... I...”
“I love you, Andrea.”
“I-I... I love... I love you too, N-Nick.”
“I’m going to take care of you now, just like I promised. Are you ready?”
“Please.”
After a moment waiting to cool down, I slid back inside of her. She slick and wide now, and it was like fucking a hot, wet cavern. Slow and deep, in and out. Her breathing picked up, and her eyes glistened like she was afraid I was going to stop again. But I didn’t.
I leaned down to kiss her and drank all her moans with a hungry growl of my own. The final crest was a fast one, too desperate after the first four. I pulled back from the kiss to tell her, “Give it to me. All of it.”
One, two, three, then a scream. She arched her back, breasts raised high in a plea to me. I picked up the pace and continued to fuck her through her orgasm until I met my own with a sharp cry.
When we were done, she was passed out below me, dead to the world. I cleaned us both up with a nearby towel, then lay her in my arms so I could hold her until she woke again.
I kissed the top of her head and rubbed a long soothing palm along her spine. “I love you, Andie.”
She cooed a sweet little noise in her sleep and then snuggled her cheek against my chest like I was a pillow instead of her boyfriend. I chuckled and kissed the top of her head again. When I finally joined her in dreams, it was to become the best night’s rest I’d had in years.
Chapter 16 - Andie
He was whistling in the kitchen. I heard rustling pans, mixing pancake batter, and sizzling butter on the gas stove. The smell of the coffee maker’s burbling brew floated into the bedroom, and I slowly opened my eyes, giving in to the waking world. My stomach grumbled, and I sat up in confusion. Then I smiled.
Nick was an enigma that I sometimes struggled to define. He could be vulnerable one moment, and then impenetrable the next. When the time finally came to drag him into my bedroom and have my wicked way with him, I’d never actually expected the results. It wasn’t like we’d had a talk about it. The do’s, the don’ts, the what-do-you-likes.
And yet, he somehow knew all the same what I’d want. He’d made the entire experience all about me, and I couldn’t remember the last time anyone had done that, if ever. From an outside perspective, someone might think I’d feel dominated or even used, but that wasn’t actually the case. I felt... worshipped. Loved, cared for. Sex on two legs.
I glanced at the painting I’d finished the previous day and then smiled again. Nick’s sleeping face was now firmly etched into my mind, and I was perfectly okay with that. I’d have to do another now. One with an entirely different expression that I’d seen the previous night. An expression, I suspected, meant only for me.
Yawning, I stretched my arms wide and then snatched the shirt from last night. After finding a pair of sweatpants, I wandered out into the kitchen, and Nick stopped whistling to raise both of his brows at me.
“Oh! Uh, hi,” he said. Frozen in place with a spatula in his hand, he looked incredibly awkward. I wanted to kiss him because it was adorable as hell.
Instead, I found a seat by the kitchen table and smiled at him. “Morning, sweetcheeks.”
“Uh, morning.” He remained frozen in place until the sizzling of the pancakes woke him up again. He spun on his heel and flipped them before they could burn.
“Are you, uh...?” Again, he faltered. He didn’t look at me, focusing on the pancakes. “Everything was...? I didn’t...?”
When I realized what had him so nervous, I rolled my eyes. How he could go from edging to this was a mystery for another day.
“Nick,” I chuckled, “it was fantastic. Thank you.”
He spun around again, brows crawling back into his hairline. “Are you sure?” He closed the distance between us and gestured with his spatula. “I mean, I should have asked before we did anything, but then the moment struck. I mean, I did offer the color system, but that should have been done before we did anything, not during. I was just... you know... and you were... you know, and—”
I pressed my finger to his lips, and his eyes scrunched in confusion. “I loved every last moment.” When it looked like he was going to interrupt me again, I added, “Seriously. You were... incredible. Thank you.”
Against my lips, he slurred, “Oh, okay.”
I giggled, and he spun around to address the pancakes once more. After deciding they had enough, he placed a few on a plate and then handed it to me, as well as a bottle of syrup.
“You’re really on fire.” I smiled. “First, have your way with me, and then you make me pancakes. What’s next, coffee?”
“Uh, yeah actually.” He chuckled. “How do you like yours?”
“Milk and a lot of sugar.”
“Somehow, that doesn’t surprise me.”
There was a joke somewhere in there about the previous night, but I was too in love to notice. He poured me a cup of coffee and mixed in the additions with a little whistle. When he handed me the mug, our fingers touched, and we locked eyes.
Nick’s eyes were more expressive than most men I knew. Aside from Eric, maybe. They could both say a lot in one expression, and right now, Nick’s were saying, ‘I love you.’
“I love you too.” I laughed.
The expression shook itself away to confusion. “Wh-What?”
“I love you,” I said again with extra sincerity. “Thank you for last night. You were incredible.”
“I didn’t step on any boundaries? You sure you’re alright?”
“I’m not made out of glass, Nick. Seriously, it was wonderful.”
“Well, if you’re sure...”
“I’m sure.” I nodded.
He fetched himself a plate of pancakes and then joined me a moment later. He smiled at me with a big dumb grin, and I laughed again.
“Someone’s happy,” I said, pointing at his face.
“I sure am.” He planted a hand on his hip and beamed with confidence. “I’ve got breakfast, perfect weather, and a beautiful woman for company. What’s not to love?”
“Beautiful, eh?” I blushed a little because even now it was incredible to hear. Others had called me beautiful before, but Nick said it like the word encompassed the whole of me.
He leaned across the table, and our lips connected gently. His eyes drowning in mine, he whispered, “Gorgeous. Lovely. Perfect. A goddess. I could go on if you like.”
“You keep doing that, and we’ll never make it back to Valcav.”
“We’ve got time,” Nick whispered back, and then pecked me on the cheek.
Chapter 17
The day after our tryst in the Stacks, Andie and I spent some time alone in the apartment and enjoyed the peace and quiet. I watched her paint various splashes of color onto canvas, and it was some time before I recognized the purple hues and swirling white patterns of Aylin’s profile.
We didn’t say much, but the silence was easy between us. The utter contentment in Andie’s company was nothing I’d ever experienced before, and I suspected that for Andie, it was much the same. She and I kept darting little glances at each other. They weren’t hungry like they had been, but more affirming. We didn’t know where this whole dating thing was going, but for the moment, we were happy with the ride.
It wasn’t until we were back at the Academy that I recalled the attack on the beach and all the stig
ma that came with it. I felt the eyes of at least two dozen students and staff giving me the evil eye as I passed by them. To them, Lord Inferno was the enemy, and I was a simple extension of my father. Andie noticed too and gave me a comforting hug before parting.
“Don’t you mind them,” she said as she kissed me on the cheek. “They don’t know any better.”
True or not, the tension was quite high as I walked the halls. No lives were lost on the beach, but the property damage and outright scare were bad enough. It had been three years since Inferno’s last attack as he’d been too focused on his conquests elsewhere in the world. Inferno’s military was tremendous, but even he had his limits. Taking Alexandria was not the same as Otevale. Between City Master’s defenses, Triton’s mere presence, and the work of both Amazoness and Judgment in securing the shores, my dad didn’t really stand a chance.
The moment I walked into rescue class, Matt and his cronies confronted me. The girls had yet to appear from their dorm that morning, and Eric had an appointment with Hiro, the school’s counselor, so I was alone for the first time in ages. Matt shoved me to the side the second I walked through the doors to the gym, and I was forced into a corner while he, Jack, and Brad all crossed their arms in disgust.
“I saw the feed of your dad’s little speech. I know that attack the other day was your fault, Inferno Boy.” Matt gestured in the general direction of the beach on the far side of the city.
“Is that so?” I lifted an obstinate brow at him and held my ground as best I could. They might have me outnumbered, but it wouldn’t be the first time I had to handle such a situation. I’d spent a lot of time in training fending off two or three attackers at once.
“Yes,” Matt growled, “that’s so.” He shoved me roughly into the wall.
I gritted my teeth, balled my fists, and resisted the urge to break his nose. I was in no mood to waste a power-up, but I would if they pressured me hard enough. I could get a good hit in before Jack’s big brick body did some serious damage, provided he actually hit me. He was rather slow and lumbering, and I could probably dance circles around him. I still wasn’t sure what Brad’s power was, so attacking him after Matt was probably a priority. I didn’t like unknowns. I could punch Matt, dodge Jack’s inevitable fist, then maybe kick out Brad’s legs from under him on my way out...