Torque

by Shauna Allen

  Good morning beautiful xx

  I hope ur planning to make good on those x’s . . . this girl needs a kiss STAT ;)

  U can bet on it

  I stood and moved to my closet to find a work shirt so I could shower before going in to the shop. I glanced back at my phone for her reply.

  Promises, promises

  I grinned in spite of myself. She really was good for me. My fingers hovered over the keys as I toyed with all kinds of playful, sexy innuendoes. In the end, I settled on: xoxoxoxoxoxo

  A smiley face and a heart were her only reply. I was starting to get used to all this flirty dating stuff. I even kinda liked it.

  I showered and met Micah in the kitchen, where he was chugging one of his disgusting green shake things, the sweat from his morning jog still fresh on him.

  “Hey.” I grabbed a carton of milk and the box of Honey Smacks.

  He eyed my cereal with a lifted brow, but held back his snide comments about my eating habits. “Mornin’.” He slurped down the rest of his goo then tossed me a ‘see ya’ as he headed to take his own shower.

  I finished my breakfast in silence then headed to work. I was more than ready to get my hands dirty, but more than that, I was ready to see my girl.

  I wanted to make our first “official” date special, so after work, I ran back to the apartment and cleaned myself up, even splashing on some aftershave. I found some clean jeans and a beige button down my mom had gotten me for Christmas last year, but I’d never worn.

  Rachel definitely seemed to appreciate my grooming efforts. When she opened the door, her smile was automatic and brilliant as she eyed me up and down. “Wow. You clean up nice.”

  I fought off the burn of a blush. “Thanks. You, too.”

  She stepped back and the silky black dress swished around her ankles. She turned and closed the door, giving me a glimpse of the milky white skin of her back as her dress tied around her neck and was backless, just hinting at the little dimples above her ass.

  I swallowed. How had I gotten this lucky?

  Her deep eyes were sparkling as she sauntered over to me and wound her arms around my waist. “I missed you.”

  “Yeah?”

  She smiled and batted her eyelashes as she caressed my chin with a fingertip. “Oh, yeah.” Rising up on her tiptoes, she brushed her lips across mine once, twice. I let her take the lead as she cuddled up into me and our mouths began the dance they knew so well.

  “Rachel . . .” Her name was a prayer on my lips as she writhed against me, driving me insane. I gripped her hips fiercely and held on for the ride. The fire that always simmered when she was near burst through my body like a flame. I dipped my head and tasted her throat, drawing a long, low moan from her. I circled her pulse and let her essence fill me. Heal me.

  Suddenly, her hot little hands were tugging my shirt from my jeans and frantically rushing across my abs. I sucked in a breath as her fingernails raked my waist and then she was on her knees in front of me, her lips pressed just above my waistband as she worked the belt buckle loose. It was like a wild woman had been unleashed and I wasn’t sure I could breathe, much less keep up with her. I wasn’t sure what had brought this on, but I wasn’t complaining.

  Once my pants were open, she snaked her hand in and caressed me.

  “Holy—” I had no words as she worked her magic with her hands, her mouth. I was at her mercy.

  She peered up at me from under her lashes. “Take off your shirt.”

  I looked down at her and our gazes locked. Hot, fierce, vulnerable. I ran my hand through her loose hair as the weight of what could be between us filled my chest. I’d never felt like this about a woman and it was honestly the scariest thing I’d ever experienced. “Are you sure?”

  I held my breath, waiting for her reply. I would be crushed if she turned away now, but I would accept it. I’d always accept her.

  She pressed an openmouthed kiss to my hipbone, her eyes still on mine. “I’m more than sure. Now. Take. Off. Your. Shirt . . . please.” Another hot lick to my other hip.

  Relief rushed through me quick and vicious. With my heart beating behind my ribs, I slowly unbuttoned my shirt and tossed it aside. I watched as she lifted her eyes and examined my tattoos. First, the sacred heart on the left side of my chest, just over my own frantic heart. Next, the eagle in flight that covered my right shoulder and bicep. Then her eyes lit as she studied the text across my ribs. She lifted a hand to trace the elegant script.

  You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.

  “This is beautiful,” she whispered. “What is it?”

  I’d never heard the word ‘beautiful’ used to describe anything about me. I blinked and glanced away. “Gandhi.”

  She rose to her feet, her hands gentle as she played with the letters on my flesh some more. “It suits you, Jesse.” She brushed a kiss to the inked heart. “It all suits you.”

  Heat rushed my body as she touched me with her hands, her lips, her words.

  She brushed her hair to the side when I reached for the tie of her dress at her neck. The silky material felt like a dream to my calloused hands, especially when it loosened and she let the dress float to a black puddle at her feet. She wore nothing but skimpy black lace panties and I had to force down the breath caught in my throat. She was so much more perfect than I’d even dreamed.

  Greedy now, I reached up and caressed one of her breasts, the petal pink nipple pebbling at my touch. Goosebumps broke out across her skin as I touched her gently. How could something so lovely not crumble under my rough hands?

  She cupped a hand over mine and pressed it firmly to her chest. “It’s okay,” she said in a pained whisper. “You’re not going to hurt me. Just touch me.”

  Her eyes fluttered closed as I let my mouth follow my hands, suckling her flesh. Her tropical sweet scent wrapped around me as it floated up from her skin.

  I slid my hand just under her panties and cupped her perfect ass, dragging her to me as I found her lips again. I was desperate to taste her, to have her. And she let me.

  With an abandon I’d never known, she raked my back then skimmed her hands into my loosened pants to mimic my hold on her. She wiggled against my painfully hard erection and trapped my groan in her mouth.

  Her lips still on mine, she started walking me backward, one slow step at a time. We stopped every couple steps to find a new way to get our skin closer, as if we could crawl right up inside each other. About halfway down the hallway, she had us both naked, our clothes telling a story of seduction in a pathway behind us.

  Her bedroom smelled like her. Like flowers and sunshine. I ripped my lips from hers and glanced around. It was all so Rachel, just like the rest of her house. Colors and candles and adorable disarray.

  She let me go long enough to sit demurely on the edge of the bed, her dark eyes piercing me.

  Rocked to my core, I could only stare. I heard my demons screeching in my subconscious that I didn’t deserve this. Didn’t deserve her. I squeezed my eyes shut to silence them. “How can you . . . what do you need from me?” The words were ripped from my throat. I’d had other women and I wasn’t ashamed of my nakedness. It was just flesh and bodily needs. But here I was, inches from the woman of my dreams, and I suddenly felt so vulnerable. Like this was something altogether different.

  Something altered in her expression. Her own shyness slid away as something like determination graced her features. She shifted and let her legs spread just enough to tease. “I want you to make love to me, baby.”

  I studied her, my body strung tighter than a drum. Some primal, needy part of me began to come to life. I needed to claim her more than I needed my next breath. She was mine. Why was I fighting this?

  I stepped closer, until I was between her legs. She had to widen her knees even more to make room for me. “Rachel.” I waited until she took her eyes off my body and met my gaze. “I’m not sure what this is between us,
or where it’s going to go. But if we do this, it means you’re mine. I’ve not had a lot to call my own in my life, so I want you to understand that. Mine.”

  “I’ve always been yours, Jesse. Let me prove it to you.”

  My heart stumbled in my chest as every cell in my body lit like the sun. I leaned over and took her in a savage kiss. I unleashed every part of me that I’d been reining in. She mewled against my lips and I drank it in as I grabbed beneath her knees and yanked, forcing her to her back, her ass and pubic bone pressed intimately against me.

  She gasped, but didn’t wiggle away. Instead, her eyes dared me to go on.

  I dropped to my knees and drew her legs over my shoulders so I was eye level with the most intimate part of her.

  “Jesse . . .” My name was a plea as she threw an arm over her eyes. She knew what was coming, was obviously desperate for it, and I aimed to please.

  I used my lips, my tongue, my teeth, to taste and tease her until she was begging, her hands fisted and tangled in the crimson comforter, her back bowed off the bed. I held her thighs tightly and coaxed the keening orgasm from her.

  As she fluttered back to earth, I slid up next to her and collected her into my arms.

  She sighed into my neck. “I’m stunned. Just gimme a sec . . .”

  I caressed her round hip and cupped her bottom, drawing her closer. “Yeah, you’re stunning.”

  She drew back with a lazy, sated smile. “Flattery will get you everywhere with me, Joyner.”

  I laughed. “Is that so?”

  Her little hand wrapped around me intimately. “Most definitely.”

  Rachel

  Jesse’s sky blue eyes darkened as he sucked in a pained breath.

  I kissed his chest. Everything about his body was perfect. He was sculpted and strong and so damn impressive, I could barely stand it. Somehow, I’d missed out on the pleasure of seeing him shirtless before now and I was in awe. Brushing my lips across the words on his ribs, I read them again, knowing how true they were for him. He’d been chained and imprisoned, but he’d managed to keep his mind free, his heart beautiful. That he’d choose me was humbling.

  Pressing him to his back, I used my mouth to leisurely make love to his body. His pecs, his abs, his naval and hips. I scraped my nails across his thighs as I took in the sexiest, most male part of him. I never thought, in a million years, that I’d get to be this close to the man I’d dreamed of for years. Now that he was naked below me, his heart bared to me, I wanted to cry with the beauty of it all.

  He was so much. So . . . everything.

  His fingers curled through my hair as I tasted him. “Rachel.”

  I peered up. His face was tense as if pained.

  “I don’t . . . I can’t . . . It’s been too long.” His jaw ticked. “Please.”

  He was nearly incoherent in his lust and it felt empowering that I was the one that caused it. “Okay,” I whispered as I crawled up his body to straddle his hips.

  Reflexively, he thrust toward me as I ground down. His eyes squeezed closed as he tightened his grip on me like he was about to explode.

  “Jesse.”

  He finally slid his eyes open and I was startled to see tears glistening, making pools of blue.

  “Baby . . .” I leaned down and kissed him, wanting to take away whatever was torturing him and drown it in my love for him. “Don’t.” I rocked against him again and kissed his throat. “Just feel me. Love me.”

  I would’ve sworn I heard him murmur ‘I do,’ but I couldn’t be sure, and it was quickly swept away as he spun us until I was below him, pinned by his massive weight.

  On instinct, I lifted my arms and grasped the headboard in a silent offering.

  “Condom?” he asked.

  I blinked and thought for a second, though my mind had been made up long before then. It had always been him and I was more than ready to give myself to him fully. “I’m on the pill so we’re safe. Unless you want . . . ?”

  His blue gaze sharpened. “No. I don’t want. But you need to be sure. I’m clean. I haven’t been with anyone in a very long time.”

  I cupped his jaw. “I trust you, Jesse.”

  Emotion filled his face as he ducked to kiss me, sliding his tongue along mine. He held his weight with one elbow while his other hand slid along my waist, my hip. Then, in a moment of stunning clarity and purpose, he was inside me. Filling me, body and soul. I cried out as my back arched and my heels wrapped around him.

  We found a rough and desperate rhythm as if we’d been making love forever. Our bodies moved on instinct as we pushed and pulled and pulsed together. Sweat rolled down his temples and I licked the salt from his skin.

  My bed creaked in abuse as he thrust in and out at a frantic, uncontrollable pace. I was right there with him, my mind flooded with sensation and emotion as we rode the whirlwind together.

  His muscles quivered beneath my palms as he tensed, his body lost, yet so close. I rose and met him, holding him as tightly as I could.

  “Let go, baby,” I whispered in his ear. “I’m right here. I’m right with you.”

  As I pressed endless, continuous kisses to his shoulder, he dove into me once, twice, three times. Then he was gone, his roar of pure pleasure dragging me right behind him.

  I lifted my head from the pillow of Jesse’s shoulder and glanced at my alarm clock. “It’s getting late. You still want dinner?”

  His laugh rumbled beneath me. “So much for a romantic date, huh?”

  I propped my chin on his chest and peered up at him. “What do you mean? I think this was incredibly romantic. Not to mention perfect.”

  His fingertips made lazy figure eights on my back as he grinned down at me. “Perfect?”

  “Yes.” I bit back the flippant remark that was on the tip of my tongue when I saw the vulnerability shining in his eyes. “I’ve wanted this for a very long time, Jesse.”

  He pressed a curl behind my ear. “So have I.”

  I adjusted myself so one of my legs was snuggled between his and I could toy with his sprinkling of chest hair. “Then what took us so long?”

  He shifted so his leg with the ankle monitor was hidden beneath the covers. “I think that’s obvious.”

  I hated the change in his mood. I didn’t want our past or our differences to separate us. I gripped a handful of sheet and yanked it away from his leg so the monitor was back out in the open. “You don’t have to hide. It doesn’t bother me.”

  He rolled his head away to stare out my open window. “It bothers me.”

  I felt him closing up on me and knew I had to do something. And fast. Without another thought, I slid out of his grasp and knelt over his leg. He studied me warily as I traced the monitor and its blinking green light. “How much longer do you have to wear it?”

  “Eight months and sixteen more days.”

  My lips lifted in a smile. “Counting down the minutes?” I held his leg still when he moved to hide again.

  “What do you think?”

  “I think . . .” I leaned over and brushed a kiss to his leg just above the monitor. “It’s a part of who you are . . .” Another to the top of his foot, just below the green light. “And that makes it beautiful.”

  He was frozen below me. “Beautiful?”

  I heard the scoff in his voice and I peered up at him. “Yes. Don’t you get it, Jesse? Ankle monitor, amputated leg, blindness, deafness, illness . . . a broken heart . . . nothing could change how I feel about you. Nothing. Ever.”

  He blinked heavily, his expression thoughtful. Then he drew me back across him so we were flesh to flesh and eye to eye. “I’m not sure what I did to deserve you, but I’m so grateful.”

  I writhed against him, letting my body envelop him. “Care to show me just how grateful?”

  His grin was pure sex. “I think that can be arranged.”

  I managed to slap together some grilled chicken sandwiches and force one down Jesse’s throat before he had to leave or break his curfew. I l
aughed when I finally closed the door after he’d driven away. There was no candlelit dinner, no flowers, no soft music. It was just us tonight. Pure and real and finally, finally snatching what we both wanted.

  And it was freakin’ perfect.

  I danced to the kitchen and filled a glass with water before moving back to my room. I inhaled. It still smelled of him . . . of us.

  “Oh, Jesse, what are you doing to me?”

  Giggling, I flopped down on the bed and yanked up my cell phone.

  I think I love you, I typed then I paused, my smile falling. Was it too soon? Was I overcome with our explosive lovemaking? Were my endorphins messing with my heart?

  I deleted my words. I may not walk again for a week, I typed instead, relying on my humor to be a buzzkill to the emotion. But I loved every moment of it xxx

  I curled up on the pillow he’d used and cocooned myself in the blanket. It took ten minutes, but he finally replied.

  I loved it 2

  For some stupid reason, tears filled my eyes. What was wrong with me?

  You’re in love, stupid, my heart was screaming, but my mind shut that down. Maybe if I didn’t acknowledge that yet, just simply enjoyed our time together and this new intimacy we shared, maybe I could hang onto him a bit longer. Keep my life neat and organized like it had been for so long.

  When I didn’t answer right away, my phone dinged with another message. Since we didn’t make our date, how about we try again? Friday night? Dinner, dancing?

  I grinned. You don’t have to woo me . . . u already have me. Remember?

  That’s no excuse to not woo u

  Well OK then . . . dinner and dancing it is . . . will there b more of the good stuff like 2nite? ;)

  There was no response for several minutes and I wondered if I’d scared him off. Then: Only if you want there to be

  I closed my eyes and tucked the phone to my heart. If only he knew how very much I wanted that and more.

  Jesse

  If I didn’t love Rachel already, I was well on my way there. It was crazy and I didn’t deserve her, but there it was, making me ache with the depth and tenderness of it.