Damaged

by R. R. Banks

  “I was worried you wouldn't come for me,” I said.

  "I will always come for you."

  With those words, Micah positioned himself on his knees between my legs and shucked his pants. He then brought his mouth down to my waistband, running his mouth along the center of my chest and belly as he went. He let the tip of his tongue slip beneath my waistband and ran it back and forth between my hip bones. I whimpered and lifted my hips, inviting him to undress me the rest of the way. He did, slipping them off and letting them fall off the side of the bed, onto the floor. Filled with a sudden compulsion, I pressed my hands to Micah's chest and rolled him so that he was on his back and I was sprawled on top of him. I kissed my way down his body, relishing the feeling of his muscles and the smell of his body. I gripped his hip with one hand and the base of his cock with the other. Micah cried out as I ran my tongue up the underside of his cock to the head. When the progress of my tongue reached the tip, I grasped his shaft harder and used the tip of my tongue along the edge of the head. I completed the outline, taking a few seconds to focus my attention on the bundle of nerves just beneath the tip, then licked the slit, letting the tip of my tongue dip inside slightly. Micah's legs were beginning to shake, but he made no move to stop me.

  I opened my mouth and took Micah's cock inside. He groaned, and I felt need rush through my body at the breathtaking sensation of my tongue swirling around his erection. I sucked deeply to draw his cock closer to my throat. Micah buried his hand into my hair with one hand as I felt the other grip my shoulder. He lifted his hips to thrust into my mouth with each suck. I knew that he wasn't going to be able to hold out much longer. I had learned the signs of his body and the pitch of the sounds that poured out of him as he lost himself in the ecstasy that we created together. Finally, Micah's head arched back with a deep, animal yell as I felt the pressure in his cock peak and then become a series of fast pulses. Micah gasped for air as I cleaned his cock with my lips and tongue, savoring the taste of him, filling my heart and body with him.

  Micah was still shuddering and struggling to draw in even breaths when I propped myself up on my elbow beside him and gazed into his face. He rested his hand into the center of my chest and paused, feeling my heartbeat, before guiding me onto my back. He straddled me on his knees and touched his mouth to the underside of my jaw. He moved slowly, but his gradual pace didn't feel timid. Instead, there was a fierce strength behind his movements as if he wanted to display his dominance by ensuring that I fully felt and experienced every purposeful touch and breath. His mouth made its way to one breast and he cupped it, lifting it so that he could trace the edge of my nipple with his tongue. He opened his mouth and took my breast into it, suckling me as he kneaded my other breast with his palm. When the breast in his mouth was heavy and hot, my nipple hardened, he withdrew it from his mouth and repeated the attention on the other. The backs of his fingers touched my belly between us and ran down it with a feathery touch until he reached his cock. He flattened his hand on the top of his shaft to press his erection to my belly and rocked his hips, so I could feel it run along my heated skin.

  Droplets of slick fluid were slipping from the tip of his cock, making it glide along my belly and bringing a strong ache between my thighs. His mouth ran up my chest and to my ear. I felt his teeth nip playfully at my skin.

  “Roll over,” he whispered into my ear.

  I moaned at the eroticism in his voice and rolled onto my belly. Micah's hand slipped under my stomach and lifted it until I was positioned on my hands and knees. I felt Micah lean forward to stretch over me and his tongue touched my spine between my shoulder blades. It ran down my spine, making me tremble. Suddenly his knee pushed between mine, easing my legs apart. Micah's hands cupped my ass, squeezing deeply into the muscles. He drew his hands apart, exposing me to more intimate attention. I felt vulnerable, but also intensely turned on and I pushed back toward him. I gasped at the feeling of Micah's hot breath against my dripping opening and then my throbbing clit, a sensation that made my toes curl and my stomach clench. The tip of Micah's tongue touched my skin and my back arched, my head dropping back as I let out a strangled cry in response to the explosive feeling. He had licked me before, but being in this position and having his mouth capturing me from behind was new and nearly overwhelming. Micah pushed further, his tongue exploring me deeply and without hesitation. His touch coaxed me to relax and open to him, and I felt myself relinquishing to him. I reached around to stroke Micah's cock, encouraging it to harden even more.

  I felt moments from a mind-blowing orgasm when Micah's mouth and hand left my body. I had only a few seconds to catch my breath and let myself cool before I heard the sound of a condom packet opening and then felt him behind me again. His hand gripped my shoulder and applied pressure as if to pull me backwards toward him. I felt the tip of his erection touch my opening and I pressed back into it, craving having him inside me again.

  “Do you want me?” Micah asked.

  My breath caught in my throat and I pushed back harder.

  "Yes," I groaned.

  Micah tightened his grip on my shoulder and hip and pressed forward to meet my seeking pressure. His engorged cock slipped inside me and eased deeper with each breath. The sensation fulfilled me and soon I felt myself giving into Micah completely. He brought his hand between my thighs and massaged into my clit as he started to pump into me. With each roll of his hips I knew that there was so much more than just my body that I was relinquishing to Micah as each day passed. I was offering my body, my heart, and my soul to him.

  The movement of his hips caused Micah's hand to stroke my peak with the same rhythm as his thrusts inside me and I felt myself nearly overwhelmed by the layers of sensation that flowed over me. Within seconds I felt my body starting to tense. The deep, grunting sounds coming from Micah told me that he was on the same rushing path toward orgasm. The thought that we were fully in sync, entrenched in the blissful experience together, drove me toward the brink even faster. I opened my eyes to look down and watch Micah's hand bringing on the waves of a powerful climax. Micah cried out and I felt him thrust as deep within me as he could. He held himself in place as he pulsed frantically, satisfying me completely.

  After a few moments, Micah withdrew and we both collapsed down onto the bed. He reached down and pulled the covers up so that we could slip under them, holding his arms open so that I could get under with him and tuck up against the side of his body. I kissed him and then curled onto my side so that Micah could wrap around me, holding me close so that he could kiss along the back of my shoulder. His slow, even breathing made his chest and stomach press against my back, further tightening our connection with each inhale. I nuzzled back into him, wanting his warmth and to touch every inch of him that I could. I never wanted to leave this spot.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Micah

  "I was trying to get away from Daniel."

  Charlotte's voice was so low that I wasn't even sure that I had heard her. She was curled on her side and I was curled behind her, my body molded to hers as my hand ran along her stomach. I had thought that she was asleep and was starting to drift away myself when her words woke me back up.

  "What?" I asked.

  "That's why I crashed into the tree. I was trying to get away from Daniel."

  She rolled over and slid slightly closer so that our faces were just a few inches from each other.

  "Who's Daniel?" I asked.

  "He used to be my boyfriend," she said.

  I had an immediate reaction to the word, my jaw tightening and my stomach burning angrily. Though I obviously knew that she had been in a relationship before, hearing her talk about it was more difficult than I expected it to be.

  "How long were you together?" I asked.

  She looked at me with slightly narrowed eyes as if she couldn't understand why I would ask the question.

  "Since high school," she said.

  The revelation hit me in the center of the chest and the i
mage of the guy in the hallway with Charlotte snapped into my mind again. I saw the way that she was looking at him, the sheer terror in her eyes. There wasn't any hesitation behind the fear, no questions or surprise. She knew that this was going to happen. It had likely happened to her countless times before. I knew that expression all too well. I had seen it in my mother's eyes. I knew I had had it in my own.

  "You're still with him?" I asked.

  "I was," she admitted.

  I sat up, staring down at her.

  "How could you still be with him? I saw the way that he treated you."

  Her eyes widened, and I knew that this was too much. She was finally opening up to me and I needed to give her the chance to do it. As much as I didn't want to think that anything had hurt her or that she had ever gone through anything worse than what I had seen in that hallway, I wanted to know what had happened so that I knew for certain that I would never let it happen again. I settled back down and eased closer to her so that our thighs touched, and our feet tangled.

  "I know how he treated me," she said. "I also remember that you protected me. I never forgot that. Thank you."

  "If you never forgot it, why did you stay with him? I had to physically tear him away from you. Why didn't you just leave him right then?"

  "I tried to," she said. "I tried to leave him. I told him that I couldn't take it anymore, that I didn't want to be with him anymore because of the way that he treated me and that it wasn't what I wanted."

  "But?"

  She let out an exasperated sound.

  "You saw me in high school, Micah. You know how I was."

  "You were beautiful."

  "No, I wasn't."

  "Yes, you were. You were captivating."

  "If I was so captivating, why did you never talk to me? I was right there all the time. We were in the same hallway every day. I even went to one of your football games. You never even spoke a word to me."

  "You did go to that game to see me."

  "Of course, I did. You didn't even know that I was there."

  "Yes, I did," I said, nodded. A smile was curving my lips despite the sadness in her voice. Just knowing that I hadn't been wrong, that she had been there for me as much as I felt like she had lifted my heart. "I knew that you were there. I saw you sitting there in the stands. You were all alone."

  She nodded.

  "The few people I had who would consider themselves my friends weren't exactly the football game type."

  "I'm sorry that I didn't talk to you."

  "Why didn't you?"

  I didn't know what to say. I didn't know how to explain to her what it had been like for me when I was in high school, before I had learned not to care about what anyone thought of me. It made me feel weak. It made me feel like I had somehow failed her even before I knew her.

  "I wanted to. Every time that I saw you, I thought about talking to you."

  "I wish you had."

  "I wish I had, too. Maybe things would have been different."

  She shook her head.

  "It wasn't your job to save me then, Micah. I should have been stronger and more confident. That was the problem that I had. I had absolutely no confidence. I wasn't like my sisters. I didn't take to people. I didn't feel pretty. I wasn't particularly talented at anything like they were. There was just always a way that I felt like I was a few steps behind them. I shouldn't have let it get to me, but I did. It totally took away my confidence and my security in myself, and my parents pushing me to be the perfect daughter and find the perfect match didn't help. It was all working against me. Of course, I didn't see it at the time."

  "Then you met Daniel."

  She sighed.

  "Then I met Daniel. Well, then I started dating Daniel. I had known him basically my entire life. We grew up together. That's why our parents thought it was so perfect when we started dating. They could already see the number signs and the business-growing wedding announcement. I was just so happy that someone was paying attention to me. He seemed like he actually recognized that I was there, that I was a person. Does that make sense? It seemed like everyone else sort of looked through me. They knew that I existed, but it didn't really have much consequence."

  "I understand," I said.

  I really felt like I did, if from the opposite angle. I was just like her, but on the other side of the spectrum. People knew that I existed, and I was of far too much consequence for all of them. Everything that I did and said meant far too much when it shouldn't have. She felt like people saw through her because she wasn't able to live up to what she thought that they expected her to be. I felt like people saw through me because they only saw what they had crafted of me and what I had crafted of myself. None really knew me or what was behind the uniform. None of them really cared.

  "Was he always like that to you?"

  "No," she said. "He was actually really wonderful in the beginning. He was so sweet and attentive. He made me feel beautiful and like I was the most interesting person he had ever met. Everything that I said to him, he hung on. Every suggestion that I made, he made it seem like it was the most brilliant thing that he had ever heard. It drew me in and I was enraptured with him. I didn't see what was really happening. I had no idea that all he was doing was manipulating me. He was gaining control of me so that I would become dependent on him without even realizing it. The change was so gradual that by the time he became aggressive and abusive, I felt like that must have been the way that it always was and that if it wasn't, that I had done something to deserve it."

  I reached forward and stroked her cheek with my thumb.

  "There is nothing that you did that made you deserve the way that he treated you. No more than my mother deserved the way that my father treated her, or I deserved the way that he treated me. What he did was his fault and something that was wrong with him. Not you."

  "Micah," she murmured softly. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know."

  "No one did," I admitted. "It's not exactly something that we wanted to talk about much."

  "What happened to him?"

  "Prison," he said. "He died there. Apparently, the convicts he was housed with weren't too fond of him once they learned what he had done to his wife and son."

  She didn't flinch. Instead, she nodded, understanding in her eyes.

  "Good."

  I wanted to move on. I just wanted the conversation to shift away from me and back to her.

  "Tell me more. Tell me what happened."

  "I tried to get away from him," she said, bringing the conversation all the way back. "But he came back pleading, pretending to be remorseful. He acted like I had hurt him so much and he had finally realized what he was doing. He came up with every excuse that he possibly could and begged me to give him another chance."

  "What did your parents think? They had to have known the way that he was treating you."

  "They didn't," she said. "They adore Daniel. They did from the first day that we were together, and they still do now. They think that he's wonderful, but beyond that, they see just how valuable he could be to them. He's from an extremely wealthy, influential family, and there's nothing that my parents love more than money and influence. I tried a few times to tell them, but they were just so hopeful, I didn't want to disappoint them. I wanted them to be happy and to be proud of me."

  "So, you went back to him."

  She nodded.

  "Again and again and again. For the rest of high school."

  "I wish I had known."

  "You didn't even talk to me after you punched him. You just walked away."

  "I didn't want to make things worse for you. I knew that if I stayed there, there would be a brawl, and I didn't want you to have to see that. I figured that you had been through enough and hoped that if I just walked away, that you would do the same. I wanted to find you after that, but I graduated."

  "Life happened."

  I nodded.

  "Life happened."

  She let out a breath again.
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  "We stayed together through high school and into college. There were times when it seemed like he had grown out of that behavior and that things were actually going to be good, but every time that that happened, it just got worse again. That's when I started to learn more about myself. I discovered the things that I was actually interested in and that I was good at. I realized that I wasn't like my sisters, but that that was alright. They were fantastic at being them, but I was going to learn to be as good at being me as I possibly could."

  "How did Daniel feel about that?"

  "About as good as you probably think that he did. It took so much longer than it ever should have. I look back now, and I don't understand how I couldn't have seen what he was doing. The more that he saw me learning and growing, the harsher that he became. Every little bit that I progressed, he dragged me back. The worst part about it was that I wanted so much for it to work. I wanted to believe that I hadn't wasted all of those years. I thought that maybe if he could see how much I was improving myself and that I was enjoying life so much more now that I was feeling more confident and aware of myself, that somehow, he would change, too. I really believed that we would end up having the life that we had always dreamed of having."

  "Did you really dream of having a life with him?"

  "I thought that I did. I had been told for so long that that was what I wanted, that I believed it. It wasn't until about a year ago that it really sank in that it wasn't what I wanted. It took months, dark, brutal months, for me to finally tear myself away from him for good."

  "But you said that you were running from him when you crashed into the tree."