by Cora Black
Charlotte felt tears start to press, hot and insistent, at the back of her eyes. She swallowed hard to try to keep them at bay. “I know. I’m so sorry. Can you forgive me?”
Ben looked confused, his brow scrunched up in that way he had that made him look like an adorable puppy. “Forgive you?”
“Please,” Charlotte whispered. “Please forgive me.”
Ben reached forward and pushed some of the bloody hair out of Charlotte’s face. “Of course,” he whispered. “Of course.”
“You deserve better,” Charlotte said, willing herself to push his hand away. She didn’t deserve it. “You deserve somebody strong enough to fight for you.”
“I have that,” Ben argued back in a low whisper as he leaned forward to brush his lips against a sensitive spot on her chin. “My warrior.” The tears biding their time behind Charlotte’s eyes finally broke through, and Charlotte didn’t try to blink them away. She had used up all her strength today.
She sniffled and cleared her throat to speak while Ben’s fingers traced the cuts and bruises on her face. “Yeah, I’m really tough,” she said sarcastically.
“You are,” Ben said seriously, his lips brushing up to her neck and ear, and that was all it took. A second later Charlotte was all-out sobbing, tears rushing down her face so fast they blinded her. She fell into Ben’s arms, absolutely collapsing against his body.
“Are you okay?” Ben whispered against her head, dropping sweet little kisses against her sensitive scalp.
“Yes, yes, I’m just—I’m so proud of you,” Charlotte sobbed into his lap, clutching onto him with all of her strength.
“Yeah?” Ben said, and Charlotte didn’t have to look at his face to tell he was smiling.
“I guess today I realized that I can be tough, but you—you can be soft, too,” Charlotte said, wiping the side of her face dry as her sobs ceased. “And I’m just so proud to see it.”
Ben ran his hands over the back of her head, carefully avoiding pulling or pushing too hard. Everything on Charlotte’s body was still sensitive from the fight, but at least they had both stopped bleeding from their wounds. Spread over his lap, Charlotte could see his torn-up hands, so she reached over to pick one up gently and bring it to her mouth. “Thank you,” she whispered into his skin.
“Any time,” Ben said, tangling his fingers with hers.
Charlotte felt a dull pain spring up at the back of her head, so she leaned more into Ben’s touch, wanting to feel comforted and protected.
“You tired?” Ben asked, using his free hand to rub at the back of her head again.
Charlotte shook her head, but then reconsidered it. She did want to rest, but her body still felt so tense. She wasn’t sure if she could relax with all that had happened. Ben must have sensed her tension because he rubbed his hand down from her head and over her back, down to her ass and then back up again, cradling her closer in his arms.
“What are we going to do about those guys? The Titans who were beating me up,” Charlotte asked.
Ben squeezed her more tightly. “I don’t know. I just hope they haven’t converted the whole club.”
“You think they all hate us that badly?” Charlotte asked with a laugh. “I tried not to be so annoying.”
“No, I don’t know,” Ben said. “I just feel like they all hate me.”
“They don’t. They love you,” Charlotte argued.
“Maybe,” Ben said, but he didn’t sound like he believed it. “If you’re tired, you should sleep.” Charlotte immediately recognized that Ben changed the subject, but she decided not to push it. She was pretty fucking tired, after all.
She cuddled deeper into Ben’s lap, her face nuzzling his crotch. She could smell him, his deep inner scent, the one that she could only smell if you were this close to his body. She felt safe in his arms, like the whole day hadn’t happened, like nothing bad had ever happened to her.
In this way, she drifted off, all of her muscles relaxing at once, falling into his arms without doubt. As she slipped her way into sleep, she heard Ben murmur something, but she couldn’t quite make it out. The last thing she felt was the grip of his arms wrapping around her to carry her into bed.
Sometime later, Charlotte twitched herself awake, a smile on her lips. She slowly blinked her eyes open to see Ben staring down at her. She must have been asleep for hours, as the view of the sky provided by the single window in the back room was deep purple. Twilight had fallen.
“You were talking in your sleep,” Ben said, doing that gorgeous half-smile of his as he brushed some of the hair away from Charlotte’s forehead.
“Hmm?” Charlotte murmured in response.
“Sayin’ nice things to me,” Ben murmured.
“Like what?” Charlotte asked, blushing in embarrassment.
“None of your business,” Ben said, grinning at her. But after a second the smile faded from his face. Charlotte reached down to tickle his fingers, trying to make him laugh. Ben squirmed but shifted so that his whole body sat on the bed, reaching out to wrap an arm under her waist. Charlotte reached for his toes, playing with them with her fingers.
“What’re you doing?” Ben asked, smiling a little at her as he dodged her tickles.
“Trying to figure out what’s wrong. Can you tell me?” Charlotte asked, digging her fingers gently into the side of his neck, causing him to tilt his head back to give her better access.
“It’s nothing,” he whispered, his throat working furiously as he spoke. Charlotte dipped her fingers lower, dancing over his Adam’s apple.
“You can tell me,” she murmured softly.
“It’s just—” Ben cut himself off, shutting his eyes and rocking his head back harder onto Charlotte’s lap. “I dreamt about you when you were gone, you know. For some reason my brain just thought you were… kidnapped, like you were taken away from me.”
The implication stung Charlotte right in the chest. Ben had trusted her so much he assumed she was forcibly taken away from him. The guilt hung heavy in her heart.
“I’ll never leave again. I promise,” Charlotte swore, tears threatening to leak out again as she spoke. She leaned up and pushed her head against his to nuzzle his nose with hers. She needed that contact to prove that this wasn’t a dream, that she was really forgiven, that she could stop feeling so scared and alone.
“Even if I stay with the club?” Ben asked in a soft, hesitant voice.
Charlotte lifted her head to look at Ben’s face, but it was guarded, his eyes shut against judgment. “You want to?”
Ben stared down at her and moved his hand up to lightly brush against her lips. “It’s mine, you know? I have to fight for it. You know how that goes.”
“Yeah, I know how that goes,” Charlotte said, flexing her pained muscles to remind herself of her own strength.
Ben leaned in and pressed their lips together softly, slipping his tongue into her mouth so slowly it was like he was afraid she was going to break. Charlotte turned the kiss harder, firmer, fisting her hand in the back of his hair to pull him closer, deeper into her body. But after a second Ben pulled back a little, breathing heavily onto her mouth. “Is it okay if we go… kinda slow?” Ben asked, avoiding her eyes.
Charlotte nodded quickly and gently raked her nails over Ben’s scalp, causing him to rock back into her touch. She loved seeing him like this, completely vulnerable and bare and open. “Yeah, of course, we’re both still pretty beaten up.”
Ben nodded but bit his lip. “I could fuck you hard if you want, but I… I wanna…”
“Be soft,” Charlotte supplied. She understood what Ben was asking. So much of their relationship had been framed by violence and destruction and loss. It was time for a change of pace. It was time to heal.
Ben’s hands rubbed over her thighs and calves, lightly pushing the hem of her skirt up to reveal her underwear. But he was in no rush. His fingers danced along her skin, all of her tiny little hairs springing up in attention. Charlotte felt raw and sensitive,
like she’d just shed a layer of skin and gotten closer to herself, and now she was letting Ben in to her body, her real body. She was, as always, hyper-conscious of how she looked. But instead of shifting on the bed to look as sexy as possible, spreading her legs in just the right way to entice him, she relaxed into his touch and let herself sink further onto the bed. Tonight she wasn’t going to perform at all. She wasn’t going to act like she had all the answers, that she was sexy and powerful and in control. Tonight she was showing him all her softest, most sensitive parts, and she realized with a shiver that she actually trusted him to handle them.
Ben pushed her thighs apart, but instead of going in between them to get at her crotch he focused his attention on her inner legs, the soft skin there that barely ever got touched. Ben leaned over and pressed his lips there, applying gentle open-mouth kisses to every inch of skin down to her knees. “Mmm, that tickles,” Charlotte said with a laugh, spreading her knees apart wider to let him play with her more.
“Just tell me what feels good,” Ben whispered, his tongue dancing along her kneecap, causing her to seize up with the strength of the sensation that followed. “Too much?”
Charlotte shook her head, already panting. “No, no, just enough. Just go slow.”
Ben licked wider and harder around her knee, bringing out his teeth to pull at her skin. Charlotte hissed a little under her breath and bent her legs up, encouraging Ben to lick down her legs to her ankle. He then focused on her toes, tickling them lightly with his fingers before slipping them into his mouth and sucking gently. “Mm,” Charlotte groaned, spreading her legs apart as his hand danced up past her knee and landed back on her thigh. “Mm, your mouth…”
Ben pulled off her foot to drop little kisses around her ankle. “You taste sweet.”
Charlotte laughed, having to hold her ribcage through the pain of movement. “My foot tastes sweet?”
But Ben was unbothered, shrugging and nodding slightly before clasping her ankle in his hand and sliding his tongue on the sensitive underside of her foot. “Unnngh, oh,” Charlotte groaned quietly, twisting her torso back and forth as she got used to the wet tickling sensation. Meanwhile, Ben’s nails hovered over her skin, touching her foot lightly but never pressing down. God, she wanted him to push down, to dig into her. But he was teasing her, and she was trying to see how long she could go without begging for more.
Ben sucked harder on the bottom of her foot, causing her to squeal and arch up into his touch. “Jesus,” Charlotte whispered. She never knew her foot was this sensitive. It almost hurt, how good it felt.
Charlotte had started sweating already, beads forming on the back of her neck and under her arms and legs. She wondered if it tasted gross on his tongue, but Ben only seemed to become more encouraged by it, licking her foot more quickly and firmly. “Unnh! Oh!” Charlotte moaned, her voice climbing higher with every stroke of his tongue. He only went harder and faster with every moan that left her mouth. His teeth came out again, pulling teasingly at her skin. “Fuck, baby,” Charlotte groaned helplessly, her head rocking back and forth on the pillow. Ben sucked harder, traveling up from her foot to the bone of her ankle and then up to her calves, switching between one leg and another and keeping her off-balance. She was breathing harder and harder, reaching down to tangle her fingers in his hair again as he rose up her body.
“You taste so fucking good,” Ben whispered, licking thickly at the cleft between her thighs. He lifted his body to settle between her open legs, pausing to kiss the tops of her thighs, back and forth, back and forth, his kisses becoming more wet and open with each pass.
“Did you miss it? Touching me?” Charlotte asked breathlessly without thinking. For some reason she had to know.
Ben groaned and nuzzled his head against her clothed crotch, his hand coming up to push her dress up further. “So fucking much. I needed it so fucking much,” he whispered, scratching his way up the sides of her legs. Charlotte smiled down at him, loving the raw, open look on his face as he stared back up at her. Then she wrapped her legs around his body, pushing him further onto her crotch.
“Oh? You want to tell me something, baby?” Ben asked, nuzzling his cheek against her covered cunt.
Charlotte dragged her feet over Ben’s back, pulling his shirt up with one foot. “Maaaaaybe,” Charlotte said in response, rubbing his exposed skin with her foot. “I want you… to touch me.”
“Mm, do you deserve it?” Ben asked, biting gently on her thigh again, sucking hard until he left a bright red mark. “Are you a good girl?”
Charlotte bit her lip. For a second she felt like she didn’t know what to do, push him off or pull him in deeper? Tease him or cut to the chase? But then Ben’s mouth opened again, sliding his wet tongue all over the edge of her underwear, and she couldn’t do anything but moan brokenly. “Please,” she groaned. “Please, baby. I need it.”
Ben raked his nails starting from her hipbones, still buried underneath her dress, down to her calves, causing her to arch up against his torso again.
“You’re gonna have to unwrap your legs if you want me to lick you out,” Ben said, a teasing tone to his voice.
“Mm,” Charlotte whined, pretending like she felt highly conflicted. “What to do, what to do…”
Ben laughed and kissed the top of her thigh, pulling her skin between his teeth lightly and biting down until she moaned. Her legs moved of their own accord, planting themselves deep into the mattress on either side of Ben’s shoulders. She was spread-open, her cunt feeling inflamed and sensitive even through her panties.
He stuck a thumb under the fabric of her underwear, right next to her hipbone, and slowly tugged it down, the cold air hitting her cunt. Charlotte groaned and shifted around, trying to expedite the process while her panties were ever-so-slowly pulled down her legs. Charlotte kicked them off her feet and onto the floor as soon as possible, re-wrapping her legs around Ben’s neck.
Ben inhaled deeply, clearing imbibing the scent of her cunt. Charlotte thought she could smell it even from her vantage point on the pillow: strong and sharp. Desperate. She wanted it so bad she could feel herself leaking already.
Ben brushed his nose against her outer labia, gently pushing his way all the way from the bottom to the top of her cunt. “Mm, you teasing me?” Charlotte asked, stroking her fingers along the backs of his ears until she could feel him shiver.
He exhaled lightly, the air from his lungs warming up her cunt even more. Charlotte squirmed and moaned under her breath, shifting around to try to get his lips to touch her cunt directly again. But it was no use. Ben dodged her movements, keeping a millimeter of distance from her skin. But he kept breathing, heavier and heavier every second, stroking her with air. She moaned again and arched up closer, wanting to feel his wetness mingle with hers.
Ben dug his fingers harder into her thighs, breathing even more deeply. “I wanna fuck the shit out of you with my tongue.” His voice was hoarse and worn, like every breath took as much effort as a howl. Charlotte loved that sound. It was like he was a hunter and she was the prey, and she was helpless to his touch. She wanted him to bite into her. She wanted him deep inside.
“Please,” she moaned, the only word she could manage to force out. “Please, please, please,” she whimpered pathetically. She needed it. If she didn’t get it, she felt like she might fall apart.
Ben leaned in again until his lips pressed against her outer lips, gently skimming from bottom to top. Charlotte moaned lightly and spread her legs farther, just in time for Ben’s tongue to slide in between her lips. She groaned and put her own hands over her mouth, trying her keep her embarrassing noises to a minimum.
But Ben just reached up and pulled her hands down, holding them in place on either side of her hips as he licked her cunt open. Charlotte moaned quietly, pushing her knees further apart to open up for him. Ben licked long stripes on either side of her cunt, biting down gently and causing all of her nerves to go wild. She felt like every sensitive cell in between her l
egs was lighting itself on fire, running around in joy and excitement and relief at finally, finally being touched the way she needed.
“Love this fucking taste,” Ben grunted right before sucking one of her lips into his mouth, pulling the skin between his teeth carefully.
“Unh, unh, oh!” Charlotte cried out, arching her hips upward until he let go of her lip with a wet smack.
“Yeah, you deserve it, don’t you, you good girl?” Ben murmured, applying tiny, teasing licks all over her cunt. Charlotte squealed and squirmed on the bed, closing her knees to frame his face again. Ben moved his mouth to the top of her cunt, applying one, two, three hyper-fast licks to her pulsing clit, but then he moved down, giving little bites on his journey south. Charlotte squeezed his hands tighter, needing something to hold on to.
“Please, please, unh, please,” Charlotte moaned, rotating her hips up and down to try to get him to touch her clit again. She could feel her heartbeat pounding down there between her legs, and she needed more of it. She wanted to completely shatter apart under his tongue.