Beautiful Burn

by Adriane Leigh

  “Hmm...” she scrunched her nose up adorably as she thought. “So he's a perv with a heart?” I burst into a hearty laugh as she smiled and took the first bite of her sloppy joe and chewed, before her eyes fell and a low grown vibrated from her throat. And straight to my dick. That sound, regardless if she were eating a fucking sloppy joe, or riding my cock, did devilish things to me. “This is amazing,” she said when she'd swallowed.

  “Told you.” I smirked. “My mom will be proud.”

  “She taught you this?”

  “I called her after I left this morning for the recipe. I tried to get her to make it for me and I’d just pick it up, but she wasn’t having any of that.” I laughed, remembering my mom goading me on the phone earlier about being a real man and cooking my own dinner. I knew secretly she’d loved that I’d asked; she may no longer have kids in the house and under her feet, but she still loved to be needed.

  “Well, you did good.” She finished the last bite and then took a drink of the fruity wine. “Thank you.” She smiled and dabbed at the moisture on her lips.

  “My pleasure. I’ve been wanting to talk to you about your writing.”

  “Oh, yeah?” She reclined in her chair, the wine glass dangling in her hand. She looked relaxed, beautiful, she looked like mine. That very image was the one I’ll link to my memory of her forever. It was the epitome of what we represented -- laughing, literature…heaven.

  “I think you should publish,” I said.

  “What? No, I don’t think so.”

  “Why not? You’re good, Auburn, you should put it out there. You can self-publish it online. I’ll help you.”

  “No. I don’t even know what...”

  “You’ve always wanted to write fiction, right? I know you’ve got a whole pile of half-finished manuscripts just begging to the see the light of day.” She watched me dubiously as I spoke. “I can see it: Auburn Lawrence, bestselling author of contemporary fiction.”

  “Hmm...if I published anything it would probably be in romance.”

  “Ah…the new D.H. Lawrence, perhaps?” I replied.

  “Wrong initials. Maybe A.C. Lawrence?”

  “What's the ‘C' stand for?”

  “Claire, my middle name. It doesn't really stand out though...” She wandered off in her own thoughts. “So what about you? Pot, meet kettle.”

  “Me?” I leaned forward, elbows on the table.

  “Sure, why don’t you publish? I know you’ve got a dozen stories half-finished.” She winked as she repeated my words.

  “Nah, the stuff I’ve messed around with is personal. My childhood, family stories…I can’t imagine publishing any of it.”

  “You should. You’re great, ya know.” She nailed me with her gaze.

  “No.” I shook my head and looked out to the darkening water.

  “I mean it. I’ve always thought your writing was so lyrical and fresh. I try to emulate you,” she finished with another sip of wine.

  “Wow.” I swallowed, rubbing a hand over the five o'clock shadow dusting my face. “Thanks. I don’t think so, but thank you.”

  She reached across the table and clasped a hand with mine. “I wish you'd share your words with the world, but I understand,” she paused with a smile, “Now show me how to pick some cherries!”

  I laughed, glad she sensed my growing discomfort with the conversation. She was so intuitive, just one of the things I loved about her.

  Love. I couldn’t even bring myself to imagine it possible so soon, while I was in this unknown zone with my marriage and my future. So instead I pushed the thought aside and stood to walk with her to the cherry trees.

  When Auburn arrived at the first tree in a long row of identical trees, she leaned in, spotting a bright, ripe cherry, and caressed it with her fingertips. I stood beside her and explained how to properly harvest a cherry while I pulled at one of the stems just beneath next season's new bud. I plucked the fruit from the tree easily and dangled it in front of her soft lips. “Wanna taste?” She nodded before her lips parted. Catching the fruit between her teeth, she sucked it into her mouth and chewed.

  “Watch the pit,” I muttered, eyes riveted to her full lips as she savored the sweet fruit. She was enticing, intoxicating, and so addicting. Auburn tried picking a cherry from the heavily laden tree. She succeeded and steered it to my mouth. I smiled and just as I was about to bite, before she snatched it away and popped it in her own mouth with a grin.

  “Don’t make me take that cherry from you,” I growled and advanced on her. Her eyes shot open for an instant before that mischievous smile lit her face. I caught her just as she backed against one tree, and holding her face in my hands, I licked at her lips, tasting the distinctive sweet cherry taste.

  “You’re addicting,” I murmured as I fisted my hands through the long strands of her hair. I thrust my tongue in her mouth and delved, finding the abandoned pit laying perfectly on her tongue, just waiting for me to steal it. I caught it between my teeth and relished the taste of the pit she’d just fucked with her mouth, turning it over with my tongue and savoring the flavor.

  My dick ached and I wanted to lay her out right on that two-track path and make her mine, but I refrained. I had to get this out. “I can’t stay away from you anymore,” I whispered as I held her face in my hands. “So I’m not going to.”

  “What?” The one-word question fell from her lips and into the heated night air around us.

  “You want this, right?”

  “Yes,” she said without an ounce of hesitation. Another thing I admired about her -- her decisiveness. She always knew what she wanted, and she always chased it with abandon.

  “Ever since that night on the beach, I’ve been trying to get you out of my head, but I can’t. This is bad, Auburn. I'm married, I’m your teacher.”

  “Former,” she interjected.

  “Former teacher and current instructor of your writing class.”

  “I’ll quit,” she rushed to say.

  “No. I definitely don’t want that. But I don’t know what the future holds. All I know is that I want to be around you all the time. It’s the only thing I’m certain of. But if anyone found out about us, I could lose my job. And Mel is a loose cannon…I'm getting a divorce, Auburn. When we separated this spring we didn't define the terms but I think deep down we both knew it was the end. But saying that word, saying “divorce”, you have to understand, I never wanted that. My parents have been happily married for thirty years, I never imagined I'd have anything different. What we've been doing has been wrong, but I want you to know, with complete certainty, that it's over between Mel and I. A friend recommended me to a good lawyer, I just need to tell Mel and then I'm going to file.”

  “Really?” she breathed as hope soared in her beautiful eyes.

  “Really.” I pressed against her with my mouth to her ear and my dick nesting between the crux of her thighs, begging for more friction. “But I still want what I want.”

  “Okay,” she breathed.

  “I like getting what I want.” I ran a hand between us and dragged it up the seam of her shorts. She shuddered when a cool breeze lifted her hair and twisted it around her neck, causing goose bumps to erupt across creamy skin.

  “I need to be inside you,” I murmured, slipping the button of her shorts through its loop. Her fingers fumbled feverishly with the buttons of my shirt. She slipped the first few through the holes and then lost all dexterity when my fingers made contact with her soaked center. She shuddered and her hips rolled, and before I knew it she was on the grass beneath the cherry trees, pants down and waiting for me.

  I pulled the shirt over my head and tossed it aside, before rolling a condom down my shaft, and finally, finally my lips made contact with her skin. I licked and sucked as I teased my dick at her entrance. “I tried to stay away from you.”

  “Don’t.” She sucked in cool night air as her back arched and her hips rocked beneath me.

  “You’re beautiful when you’re d
esperate for my dick.”

  She moaned, wanton and beside herself with lust. “Reed,” she whimpered.

  “What, baby?” I nipped at the flesh beneath her ear.

  “Don’t stay away anymore.”

  “I promise, I won't,” I groaned, desperate to feel her. I'd remembered to bring a condom this time, and rolled it hastily onto my dick before finally sliding inside of her. I pushed through the pain of her nails biting into my shoulder as I eased in and out. “Never again,” I assured before pressing my lips to hers and delving my tongue into her mouth.

  We kissed and fucked in my parents’ cherry orchard until we were breathless and soaked with sweat. I emptied inside her slick body as she hummed and shuddered with release. “I love fucking you in the moonlight,” I whispered, dropping my head to kiss her sweet lips. I took my time, kneading the nape of her neck with my fingertips as we caught our breath. I finally pulled out of her, inch by agonizing inch, pulled the latex from my softening cock, and lay down in the grass. She turned on her side and draped an arm over my body, tucking her nose into my neck and sucking in a sharp breath.

  “Romantic.” Her full-bodied laugh echoed off the moonlit leaves around us. She dug in the pocket of her shorts before pulling out a crinkled pack of Marlboros. She lit a joint and took a hit before passing it to me and pulling her shorts up her legs. With arms stretched above her head, pretty face turned to the starlit sky, she sighed.

  “Okay?” I asked just before I inhaled the harsh smoke.

  “I am so much better than okay.” I watched the slow smile curve her lips. “So how does this work?” she asked after I'd exhaled and passed the joint back to her.

  “I’m not sure.” I folded my arms beneath my head in lieu of a pillow.

  “Nothing in public -- I would assume -- still stands.”

  “For now.”

  “Sleepovers?” she asked.

  “Sleepovers are a definite yes.” I snaked a hand over her abdomen and brushed fingertips over her wet sex. She smiled with a shake of her head. “But only after dark, I have neighbors…”

  She nodded before taking a puff of the joint and passing it back to me, crawling into my lap. “Whatever you say, Mr. West.” She rubbed her heated body against mine, grinding her hips with an innocent smile on her face. Auburn snuck the joint from where it was burning away at my fingertips and tossed it behind her in the grass before wrapping her arms around my neck, twisting herself around me like a root. “I want you to be happy, Reed,” she said as her palms brushed the sharp angles of my jaw and cheekbones.

  “I am.” My eyes caught hers. I didn’t deserver her.

  “I mean it. Don’t worry about me.” She stroked her thumbs over my eyebrows and kissed my lips tenderly. I sucked in a relieved breath. The one thing I wanted she was giving me, time.

  She crawled off of me and fished the joint from the ground before lighting it again. She sat cross-legged in the grass and smoked as she watched the water. “We should go swimming,” she mused aloud.

  “You’re insane.” I laughed and pulled myself up to sit beside her.

  “No, I'm not.” She jumped to her feet and yanked me up behind her. “Here, one more puff and then I want you naked.” She shoved the joint between my lips and lit it for me.

  I grinned through the intrusion and pulled the unsmoked stick from my lips. “You’re beautiful.” I tapped her nose with my index finger. “And I don’t need this to get naked with you.” I tossed the last of the joint at my feet before stripping out of my jeans.

  “Oh...ballsy.” She giggled and tore her shirt over her shoulders and sprinted the half dozen yards to rocky shore. I caught up to her, and knee-deep in Lake Michigan, kissed her as I pulled the straps of her bra down. My fingertips flirted with the tips of hair that brushed against hardened nipples as my eyes drank in her creamy, unmarred skin as effortless breaths turned to labored pants.

  “There are houses…” She gestured over my shoulder.

  “It’s too dark for them to see, but you may want to keep it down when I make you cum this time,” I growled in her ear and pushed my hand between her legs, sliding through wet folds before I pulled her into the shallow surf with me. Kneeling over her, I kissed at her neck and collarbone, and made my way down her soaked body. I licked between her legs and swirled my tongue along the tightening bud of her clit while she arched and dug her fingers in the sand. Cool waves rushed up her body and frothed in the long strands of her hair before retreating back down the shore while I pleasured her.

  “Fuck, Auburn,” I groaned as my cock dug into the sand between her legs while I sucked on her clit and pressed two fingers into her body. She sucked in measured breaths as her hands kneaded at the flesh of her round breasts. The muscles of her body tightened when I hooked two fingers inside her hot pussy and massaged at a tender bundle of nerves buried deep within her. Her hips ground against abrasive sand as I continued to massage and she continued to plead for more. Her fists tightened with each slide of my fingers before she burst in a torrent of moans and cum all over my palm. She sighed and inhaled deep breaths of summer night air.

  My hands pressed into the wet sand around her head as I hovered over her, covering her body in the event anyone had heard us. I licked at the delicate skin between her breasts, tasting her sweat and the cold, fresh water before laving my tongue up her neck and nipping at her ear. “We should get going,” I finally murmured while my hips flexed between her legs.

  “I want you inside me again,” she pleaded before her fingers ran through my hair in what had becoming a soothing gesture.

  “Next time.” I lifted her in my arms, already burning with exertion, and placed her on her feet, trying to half cover her and me as I led her to the shore to collect her clothes. I helped her dress tenderly, appreciating the soft contours of her young body. “I had a great time tonight.”

  “Me too.” She looked up at me once she was again fully-clothed. “I can help...” She gestured to the table and chairs next to us.

  “No, don’t worry. I’ve got it.” I slipped a hand in her hair and pulled her by the nape to meet my lips. “Thank you for a wonderful evening.”

  “Thank you.” She kissed me softly. She tasted like cherries. Deliciously decadent. “When will I see you again?”

  “Other than class?” I flirted. She rolled her eyes with a smile. “We have to be discreet. This isn’t going to be...I won’t be available like you’ll want. I’m sorry.” I smoothed a palm over her cheek.

  “I know. I’m busy, anyway, I have this hellish english teacher,” she teased. I smiled again before dropping my hand.

  “So everything continues as is, and maybe we can get out of town once and while. If we stay around here too much like we have been we’re bound to run into someone.”

  “Okay.” She ducked under my arm and held me tightly.

  “But those sleepovers…” I teased.

  She chuckled before saying, “Can't wait. So I’ll see you?”

  “Yup.” I followed her as she took a few steps backward. I wasn’t ready to leave her, feeling slightly sad that my time with her was destined to always be limited, at least for now.

  “Alright.” She stretched up on her toes and kissed me one last time before turning to leave.

  “Auburn?”

  “Yeah?” She spun. The moonlight caught her dark hair, and framed between darkened cherry branches with the silvery glint of the moon reflecting in her eyes, she was breathtaking.

  “Thank you.” I wasn’t sure what I was saying it for, but it felt necessary. A half smile lifted her cheeks as she turned again.

  I watched her walk all the way up the path. I wanted this night burned in my memory forever.

  ten

  The week following our night at the cherry orchard, Auburn pulled out all the stops. It was officially game on. I could see it in her eyes when she walked into class Monday morning. The sparkle, the too short skirt, the front row seat to my lecture on showing versus telling. It was a
basic concept that was hard for even a seasoned writer to nail.

  Auburn on the other hand had no problem showing me in no uncertain terms what she wanted. The flash of neon pink panties between her thighs as she crossed and uncrossed her legs throughout my lecture told me she was thinking about me inside her, just like I was. Which is why that night we met at my tiny apartment and I fucked her against the front door, and then again in the shower for good measure. She stayed that night and wrapping up in clean cotton with Auburn was just this side of Heaven.

  She left me early Tuesday morning to spend the day with her grandma. Her heart was the biggest I’d ever had the pleasure of knowing, and she wore it on her sleeve. What Auburn thought--what she meant--all of it was laid bare on her beautiful, angular face. It was one of the things I loved most about spending time with her, I could simply be me.

  Auburn slept in my bed Tuesday night, too. I'd texted her after ten pm just to say hi and we'd ended up chatting back and forth for two hours before I finally convinced her to come over and have the conversation in person.

  I greeted her when she crossed my kitchen threshold with a swift smack on her ass. She yelped with the sting and then giggled and sped off to my bedroom. She tried to lock herself in, but wasn’t fast enough. I burst through just as she was stripping out of her yoga pants and tank top. My cock pounded behind my fleece shorts as my eyes soaked up the soft dips and creamy tint of her body. In under a minute I had her bent over, hands pressed to the vanity, and I was pushing inside of her. I placed playful nips and licks along the curve of her spine. My teeth dug into her shoulder blade when I swirled my fingertips around her clit and made her cum with me. Auburn had a thing for pain, not intense, but just enough to take our lovemaking up another notch. It was something I had never experimented with, and I didn't even know I was into sex on the rougher side until Auburn.

  Thirty minutes later we were wrapped in a single sheet, naked and damp from a last minute shower, and drifting to sleep in utter contentment. And even in those moments, when I felt at complete peace, there was a sense of impending doom. The balloon would surely pop, and I was terrified of the aftermath. I only hoped these moments with her and I would make the risk worth the reward.