by Lacey Black
If I’m honest with myself, I’m staggering on my feet. Jaime wraps her arm around me, and I like to think that she’s trying to get close to me and not solely because she’s offering me additional support. Outside, Jaime leads me towards her car, opening the passenger door and helping me slide–uncoordinatedly, I might add–inside.
Jaime slips in the driver’s seat and starts the car. I watch, mesmerized by her beauty, as she drives towards my condo. The streetlights reflect off her hair, lighting up her eyes. “You’re stunning,” I tell her, praying that my words don’t come out of my mouth as jumbled as they seem in my head.
She looks over at me and gives me a sexy little grin. “You’re drunk.”
“True, but that still doesn’t mean what I said wasn’t true. You’re the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen.”
Her throat seems to work hard at swallowing and her hands grip the steering wheel. I’m distracting her, I know, so I choose to keep my mouth shut until we’re back at my place. Then all bets are off.
When she pulls into my driveway and parks her car, I jump out. Well, it might have reflected a stumble. I’m around to her side of the car before she even has the door open. Jaime startles when I throw the door open. My eyes are wild as they consume her long, slender legs as she slides out of her car. Suddenly more sober than ever before, I grab her by the hips and lift. Automatically, Jaime wraps her legs around my waist.
“You shouldn’t do this,” she tells me breathlessly. But the look in her eyes confirms that she’s more on board with this plan than she’s letting on.
Without saying a word, I walk towards my front door. My strides are swift as I take the steps two at a time and stumble into the front door. Jaime gasps as her back hits the steel door, but then giggles uncontrollably.
“Are you alright?” I ask, concerned that in my haste to get her inside and naked that I’d hurt her.
“I’m fine. Are you alright?”
“I’ve never been better, baby,” I tell her just before I claim those lips once again.
The kiss is feral, hungry, possessive. Mine. But she owns me, as well. Jaime has every piece of me. Body, mind, and soul.
Somehow, I get the door open. I hear my keys hit the floor just as the door slams behind me. I move hurriedly, each step I take bringing me closer to my bedroom. Jaime breaks the kiss, but only to slide her wet, swollen lips down the column of my neck. I shudder against her, my arms tightening around her.
We fall atop my bed a tangled mess of limbs and fumbling hands. My desire for her consumes me like a wildfire, ripping at and devouring me with every breath of air I take. Zeroing in on her neck, I lick a burning path along her tender skin. Gasps of pleasure erupt from her mouth, fueling my need even further.
“I need you so fucking much,” I confess, running my large hand down the path I just licked, continuing down her side towards her hip.
“I need you, too.” Her words stop my movements as I focus on those beautiful green eyes.
“I’m not talking about just tonight,” I say, my heart rate spiking to a dangerous level.
“I’m not either.”
I close my eyes, absorbing and savoring the meaning of those words. They may not be the three little words I long to hear spill from her lips, but they’re equally as sweet. Equally as meaningful.
My fingers tremble as I rise up on my haunches and start to remove her clothes. Our eyes remain locked the entire time, unspoken words spilling forth between us. This is everything. She’s everything.
Jaime lies naked before me and I want–no, need–nothing more than to be naked with her. With legs and hands that seem to only wanna work half the time, I strip myself of my boots, jeans, and t-shirt. The rest of my clothes are gone as quickly as possible too.
Her eyes drink their fill, starting at my chest and roaming down to my cock. He’s jetting long and proudly outward, throbbing with need to be inside of this gorgeous woman.
“Baby, I need to be inside of you so bad. I can’t wait another second.”
“Don’t wait,” she pants, extending her arms out to me.
Sliding between her thighs, I rest my cock at her entrance. She glistens in the moonlight, wet and full of her own need and desire. Lining us up perfectly, I slide myself through her wetness. My blood ignites and my body shudders.
Deliberately, I slowly push the head inside. She’s warm and hot and ready for me. Suddenly, I stop. Without moving, I look down and realize I’m not wearing a condom. “Shit.”
“No,” she says, grabbing my arm when I go to get up. “I’m on the pill. Please, Ryan. I want to feel you without it.”
I hear her words, but it takes a moment for the meaning to register. No condom. No barrier between her body and mine.
Looking down at her, I see the conviction in her eyes. I don’t need to ask if she’s sure, because I’m witness to it. I feel it. So with a painstakingly slow stroke, I slide completely inside of her until I’m fully seated to the root. She’s tight and hot and wet in a way that I’ve never experience before. Her eyes are wide with passion as she grips me from inside.
Leaning forward, I extend my body to completely cover her. Jaime wraps her legs around my waist and grips my back. With my eyes fully locked on hers, I pull out and slide back in. Warmth surrounds me, wrapping around me and pulling me forward. I’m trapped in a euphoric world that only Jaime creates, a place where only she and I exist. It’s heaven, blissful and pure.
I keep a slow and tender rhythm as I make love to her. She never takes her eyes off mine as I convey everything I’m feeling, everything I want. Her. I want her.
Running my hands up her arms, I move them above her head. Entwining my fingers within hers, I slowly pull out and push back in, arching myself upward and grinding my hips. Jaime’s eyes widen and her mouth falls open with each thrust of my hips. I place tender, open-mouthed kisses along her lips, jaw, cheeks, and forehead, only taking my eyes off hers for a few brief moments.
“Oh, God,” she groans as I thrust upward with a little more force than before.
I continue to push her higher and higher until her eyes are glazed over with sweet surrender. Running my nose along her neck, I inhale deeply, committing the scent of her skin mixed with our arousal to memory.
“Jaime?” I ask, looking up at her lovely face. Her bottom lip trembles and her eyes fill with unshed tears. I get lost in the beauty of the moment, unable to control the words about to spill from my lips. “I love you.”
A single tear leaks from the corner of her eye, getting lost in the sea of dark hair spilling over my pillow. Her jaw trembles as her intense gaze keeps hold of mine. “I love you, too.”
Her words fall forth, lively and gripping. No words have ever meant more than those four little words coming from the woman I’m madly and truly in love with.
My lips devour hers in a bruising kiss that’s filled with elation. My cock seems to recall exactly where it is and begins to move on its own. With each thrust, I drive us each closer to the edge of insanity. Mouths consume each other, swallowing each pant and groan of pleasure.
I feel her start to tighten around me, moments before she verbalizes her orgasm. Without the condom barrier, her body grips me so fucking tightly that I’m sure I’ll never feel anything so wonderful in my life.
Against the pull, I pull out and push back in. Her arms squeeze around me as she quakes beneath me. I watch, mesmerized, as her orgasm sweeps blissfully through her body.
“Ryan,” she moans loudly.
My name on her lips pushes me over the edge of white, blinding light. I’m consumed, but I keep my eyes on her, transfixed by her beauty and the power of our joint release.
“I love you,” I groan. “I love you, I love you, I love you, Jaime.” I can’t stop saying it. Over and over until one orgasm turns into another for her. My hips continue to move, drawing out every ounce of pleasure I can lure from her body and my own.
When we’
re both finally boneless and spent, I fall, my body unable to hold up its own weight any longer. I slip to her side, worried that I’ll crush her under my brutal weight. Jaime keeps her legs wrapped around me and moves in tandem with me. My cock is still fully embedded within her body.
Neither of us move. We’re a mixture of sweaty limbs and panting mouths, as we lie perfectly still, wrapped in each other’s arms.
Several minutes later, I start to feel her surrender to sleep. My arm begins to tingle beneath her, but there’s no fucking way I’m moving. I have my arms wrapped around the woman I love, damp and spent from the most intense lovemaking I’ve ever experienced.
I’ve finally said it. I said the words I’ve wanted to say, but am now too terrified to speak. But she said them back. Jaime told me she loved me, without the look of fear or panic in her eyes. Tonight she gave me a gift. Not only her body without the barrier of protection, but her heart. Her broken heart that has been mended back together again, piece by piece.
And that might be the greatest gift of all.
As night consumes me, between the alcohol and the sex, I, too, finally surrender to the desire to sleep with a smile on my face.
***
Light pierces through my closed eyelids, penetrating my brain and causing the drummer inside of my head to breakout into an award winning solo. Whoever is jackhammering inside of my bedroom is about to find themselves on the receiving end of a right hook. I try to open my eyes, but the blinding light does nothing but cause a painful recoil in my stomach. Jeeezus!
I groan loudly, reaching blindly for a pillow to cover my head. When I’m encompassed in sweet darkness once again, I slowly try to reach for any fragment of memory as to what in the fuck happened to put me in this current state of pain.
“Ahhh, he lives.” Her sugary voice permeates the horns and hammering pounding in my brain.
“The jury’s still out on that,” I mumble beneath the pillow.
I feel the bed dip beneath her body’s weight and reach a hand towards her. “How’s the head?” she asks as I feel the warm, smooth skin of her forearm.
“Shhhhhh. You’re disrupting band practice. We must be quiet. Very, very quiet,” I plead, my voice barely above a whisper.
“I brought you some Tylenol,” she whispers, her fingers gliding across my chest.
Suddenly, my naked body stirs to life, pitching a tent with the sheet that would make the Boy Scouts proud. “I just want to lie here with you and sleep. Then we’re going to put my hard cock to use because it seems to have missed the memo that I was hit by a bus last night.”
Her chuckles fill the air as I throw back the sheet, the cooler air chilling my flush body. “Take these pain meds and I’ll lie with you for a few minutes before I have to go to work.”
Reaching blindly for the pills, I hold completely still until I feel the tablets dropping in my palm. Then she moves the pillow. “Fuck,” I groan, pinching my eyelids closed as tightly as possible.
“It’s not that bad, you big baby. Sit up and take a drink of water,” she says sternly with an edge of authority in her voice. And holy hell if that tone doesn’t turn me on even further.
I sit up but keep my eyes closed as I bring the bottle of water up to my lips. I chug greedily until half of it is empty, pop the pills in my mouth, and finish off the rest of the bottle. When I’m done, Jaime takes the empty bottle from my hands.
“Get in here,” I tell her, yet to see her beautiful face.
“I have to go to work,” she says, yet I still feel the bed dip as she inches closer to me.
Jaime lies against me and lets me spoon her body, her back to my front. She smells like strawberries mixed with my body wash, and I can’t help but run my nose along the column of her neck. She’s a combination of her scent and my own, and fuck if that doesn’t turn me on even further. Right now, I’ve got a hard-on that’ll last for days unless I do something about it quickly.
“Don’t even think about it,” she says, but it lacks the conviction she had earlier. She’s all breathy and wiggles in my arms.
I pull her as close as humanly possible, ticked off that she’s wearing clothes, so I slide my hand beneath her shirt and find the soft skin of her stomach. “What the hell happened last night? I don’t remember being hit by a truck.”
“What do you remember?” she asks as she gently runs her hand up and down my arm.
“I remember getting a call from Mary that Paula died. She’s the wife of one of my employees,” I tell her. “She had been battling breast cancer for a while now.”
“I heard. I knew of them. It’s a horrible tragedy, and I’m sorry for your friend’s loss,” she replies, pulling my arm tightly around her as if giving me a one-armed hug.
“Thank you. After I got the call, I went to see him. He was okay with all the guys coming over for a bit and we ended up hanging out, helping do a few things around the house. When his parents arrived, we all went up to The Beaver and decided to have a drink. Apparently, a drink meant half of the liquor they had stocked,” I tell her, finally able to blink a bit in an effort to open my eyes.
“You appeared to be having a good time. Or a bad time, in this case.”
“I was supposed to meet you for dinner,” I say, pieces of last night starting to fall into place.
“Yeah, I tried calling you a few times. I was getting worried.”
I squeeze tightly. “I’m sorry, baby. I didn’t mean to scare you or miss our date. I don’t know what happened really, but one minute we’re all toasting her memory, and then the next minute sunlight is burning my eyes like I’m a vampire.”
“You don’t remember anything about last night?” she asks. There’s no missing the disappointment in her voice. I’ve missed something or messed something up terribly, this I can tell. I just need to search my memory to figure out what so I can make it right.
“Not much. How did you get here?” I ask, praying that I haven’t done something so bad I can’t fix it.
“Danny called me before eight. He asked me to come up to The Beaver and help get you home.”
“You helped me out to your car,” I reply after the pieces of the puzzle in my mind start to fall into place.
“Yeah, you were able to walk well enough to my car, but I had to steer you a bit. I brought you back here,” she starts, but stops talking. I can tell there’s more to the story she’s not saying.
I close my eyes again, letting the delicate contours of her body and the steady beat of her heart ground me as I search in my database for the memory.
And then it hits me.
Pulling her out of her car. Carrying her inside the house. Taking her to my bedroom. Stripping her naked. Not using a condom. Professing my love. It all comes back in a rapid-fire replay of lost time. I suck in a huge breath. I was going to end it with her because I was afraid. I was terrified knowing that, eventually, I would lose her, so the brilliant person that I am thought it was wise to let her go now so it would hurt less.
What a dumbass.
I move, letting her fall flat on the bed. She’s resting on my arm as I hover over her. “We made love without a condom,” I say, gazing down into her hypnotic green eyes, gently running my free hand along her side of her face. She gives me the faintest head nod. I know that it wasn’t sex that we had last night, but something deeper, something truer. “And I told you that I loved you.”
Jaime’s eyes widen and her breath catches in her throat, but still she doesn’t speak.
“I remember,” I confirm. “I told you that I was in love with you, and you said it back.”
“I did,” she finally whispers, all hoarse and breathy.
“Did you mean it?” I ask, my lips hovering above hers.
Her only response is another head nod and eyes that fill with unshed tears. “Did you?” When the words leave her lips, she seems to hold on to her breath, waiting for my answer.
“I meant every word. I’m in love w
ith you, Jaime. I’m an ass for finally saying it when I was three sheets to the wind. Believe me, it was never my intention to tell you like that, but I’m not sorry that I did. I’ll never be sorry for telling you how I feel about you. And how I feel is that I’m so madly, completely in love with you, that the thought of not having you beside me, in my life, makes me feel crazy and out of control. I need you like air. I need your smile and your laugh and your goodness and your beauty surrounding me, because without it, I’m nothing. You make me whole.”
A single tear spills from her eye, disappearing into her hair, and is quickly followed by a second and then a third.
“That might be the best thing anyone has ever said to me,” she admits.
Just the thought of Jaime travelling through life without being worshipped for the magnificent creature that she is, is truly disturbing. It makes me want to find that Gavin guy and beat the crap out of him that much more. Every protective, not to mention jealous, inclination I have flairs to life with a vengeance.
I’d give anything to claim those soft, lush lips once more, prove to her how much she deserves to be adored and savored, but a cold bucket of reality splashes across my face. I haven’t brushed my teeth. Fuck, I smell a nauseating mixture of two-day-old sweat and alcohol. Not to mention the fur that’s growing on my tongue at the moment.
“I really want to kiss you, but I should probably clean up.”
“I hope you don’t mind but I used your cell phone to call that Danny guy who called me last night. I told him you weren’t feeling well and that you’d be a little late.”
“You did that for me?”
“Yeah, but I’m pretty sure he knows it’s the brown bottle flu that’s keeping you in bed this morning.”
“I’m sure he does. And thank you,” I say before brushing a closed mouth kiss across her sweet lips. God, what I wouldn’t give to deepen that kiss.
“You’re welcome,” she purrs beneath me, her body arching upward as if seeking out the friction it craves.