All the Different Ways

by R. J. Lee

  Cullen nips at my ear, “I’m sorry I frustrated you.”

  One hand is on my hip and the other is lightly teasing the skin along the top of my pants.

  “Mmm hmm” is all I seem capable of.

  The hand on my hip slips beneath my tank, up under the fabric of the shelf bra, and frees my breasts. He kneads the flesh, pebbling my nipples, and I reach around behind me to pull his hips against me tighter. The sound of the water still splashing over the dishes I was rinsing muffles the groan I feel rumbling in Cullen’s chest when that extra pressure digs his erection into my back.

  His other hand dips into the front of my panties and finds me hot and wet. His long, skilled fingers slip into my opening one, two, three times to dampen them and then they circle around the hard little bud throbbing for him. I rock my hips along his hand just a little, just enough to make him quiver against me.

  “Fuck, Violet,” he nuzzles into my hair.

  I pull my tank top off, hit the lever on the faucet, and wrap my arms backwards around his neck, stretching my breasts out to fill his hands with as much as he wants. He’s licking up and down my neck, circling his hand over my clit and between my folds. I could come at any minute.

  “I want you inside me now.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  Gingerly he pulls my pants over my hips, nipping at the soft flesh on his way down. I shiver, then wiggle them the rest of the way off as he removes his own shirt. I turn around to watch. I want to see the ripple of muscles, the flex of his arms as he tugs off his pants and throws them on the floor. I want to watch his abs clench when he bends to pull off his boxer briefs and reveal his tremendous arousal. Cullen’s eyes watch me watch him.

  When he’s scrumptiously naked, we attack each other’s mouths and he fists my hair, “You taste like syrup and raspberries.”

  I lick his bottom lip, “You taste like everything.”

  “That’s what you said you wanted,” he breathes against my mouth.

  There’s no chance to pause or comment. He sweeps thoroughly with his tongue again, then I turn around and press my backside against his length. He leans back and drags his hands down my sides to my ass to cup the round cheeks pressing into him.

  I lean forward, my hands on the edge of the sink, and part my legs. I hear a packet rip open and then feel the hot, slick shaft of Cullen slide along my wetness. I want to cry, it feels so good. My knees are already about to give out. Sensing my feebleness, his arm goes around my waist, and Cullen pushes into my body with one hard, smooth stroke. It’s a whole new remarkable sensation at this angle. He fills me entirely, more than in any other position we’ve shared.

  I clinch around him, squeezing and releasing as he backs out, then in again. He pumps and rolls, burying himself inside me deeper with each thrust. I push back onto him until I feel like he might crawl inside and disappear. I risk a glance over my shoulder at him but just seeing the sexy stubble on his face, sweaty torso, and large hands digging into my skin has me losing control. I cry out his name as I plunge hard over the edge. I drop my head, panting, while Cullen leans forward and bites my shoulder. He thrusts faster and harder and then explodes inside me, pulsating and throbbing.

  “Violet” escapes as a groan and he holds his position folded over me while his body comes down off its climax.

  My legs are weak; it’s Cullen who supports both our weight. He pulls me back against him as he slips out. I shudder and try to catch my breath. We’re sweaty and a bit sticky. I’d say I need a shower, but I’m not sure I’d make it up the stairs.

  “You’re incredible, you know that?” his voice resonates through my back.

  “Not really. I just can’t seem to get enough of you.”

  “Mmm, I like that.” I feel his lips on my hair as he speaks.

  “I like you,” I breathe.

  “I like you, too,” he rests his chin on my head. I feel him take a breath, hesitate, and then let it out quickly. “Can you make it to the couch while I take care of this?”

  “Oh, yeah, sorry.”

  “Nothing to apologize for. I’ll be right there.”

  Cullen bends and straightens to hand me my clothes. I thank him with a kiss and as steadily as possible, make my way to the living room. I feel like a newborn foal; I probably look just as graceful.

  I collapse on the couch just as Cullen appears to snuggle me into his side. We lay down instead and it’s not long before his warmth and slow breathing lull me to sleep. The last thing I hear is a dreamy “Thank you for breakfast.”

  Cullen

  She’s sleeping pressed into my body and I don’t think there’s a greater, more satisfying feeling in the world. Looking down at her long lashes sweeping over her cheeks and her doll baby lips touching loosely together, I start thinking of all the different ways I can keep this girl with me, make her want to stay with me. She’s a contradiction of mellow innocence playing over a sharp, quick-witted genius of sorts, and it’s causing this white hot flame to tumble around in my guts and seek her out for relief. Except there isn’t any. The closer I get, it just burns brighter and hotter.

  I panicked when she tried to shut me out on the phone. Go back to bed? I don’t think so, Beautiful. If you’re mad at me, talk to me. We figure it out. I got here in record time, afraid she’d keep that damn door locked on me. Thank God she answered.

  I feel like an asshole for making her afraid that something happened to me. What would she have done? How would she have known? Violet’s right. It would have been in a goddamn tweet.

  She tightens her grip on my hip and whimpers a little. Her bare foot twitches, tickling mine, so I press down on it to stop the flutters. I pray this dream doesn’t wake her violently like the other nightmares have. I’m not done looking at her—thinking about her and how to move on from here.

  It has to be her past that keeps sneaking in and disturbing her. It gives her a far away, haunted look to her eyes sometimes. I don’t know if she thinks I notice, but I see it. She’ll stare out a window or into a glass of water or watch the pavement speed by when we’re driving somewhere as if she’s trying to slow it down with her eyes and look at the individual pieces of asphalt that make up the road. It’s then that I know she’s being preyed upon by a memory or a phantom feeling that shouldn’t be there anymore. Doesn’t own her anymore. I want her to talk to me. I want her to let me fix it.

  Violet stirs and slides her hand up into my shirt. Her leg slips in between mine, adding pressure where pressure is already building. I slowly tug her in closer. The warmth she adds to the front of my sweats has me stifling a groan, but if I could possibly get her even nearer I would. I’m a masochist.

  FIFTEEN

  Violet

  I turned in my sleep, so when I open my eyes, my view is the macro version of Cullen’s throat. I’m wrapped up tight in his arms, tucked into his body like a letter in an envelope, our legs are even intertwined. I smile and press my lips to the warm stubble taunting me. I feel his fingers start to trace up and down my spine.

  “Good morning, Beautiful.”

  “I’m not sure it’s still morning.”

  “Does it matter?”

  “Nope.” I shift so I can tilt my head back and see his face. I reach up to place my hand along his jaw, stroking the soft, coarse hair that follows the handsome lines and angles of his face.

  “You’re so unbelievably handsome,” I whisper.

  “I’m nothing compared to you,” Cullen’s sultry voice vibrates my chest. While I’m still appreciating the butterflies awakening in my belly, he nudges my mouth with his in a slow, sleepy kiss. There’s no hurry, just simple movement of lips and tongues savoring and stroking. I nip at his thick bottom lip and he pulls mine into his mouth for a lazy fondling with his tongue. Cullen’s arousal presses hard and impressive into my side, but he doesn’t seem in a rush to do anything about it. I’m happy just enjoying the feeling of his mouth on mine—hot and smooth—and his hands stroking my skin. His fingers are up under my s
hirt, kneading the muscles of my back, wrapping around my hips, squeezing and caressing. So many sensations in so little time…or has it been hours?

  My hands haven’t left the warmth under Cullen’s shirt since he began the assault on my lips. I think I have every ripple of muscle memorized and how each tease of my fingertips tightens different groups of them. Now, as I scrape my nails along the elastic of his sweats riding ungodly low on his hips, the pack of muscles in his abs contracts as he exhales hard onto my cheek. My eyelashes flutter. I continue to play along the V, tormenting us both.

  Cullen releases my lips. They feel swollen but satisfied. I love it.

  “Wanna take a shower?” he tempts.

  “Hmm? What?” I come to my senses enough to start to feel slightly awkward.

  “It’s ok if you don’t. Wow, your heart is racing.”

  “Uh, no, it’s just that…” I trail off, biting my lip and looking down between us. We’re so close; there’s no space. I’m kind of trapped on the couch with no way to avoid what I just started to say.

  “It’s what? You’re safe, Violet. Talk to me.”

  “I know,” I sigh. Be strong, I tell myself. “I just never had a good experience taking a shower with someone else. It was always bad.” I shudder keeping the memories at bay. “Even taking one alone, but with someone in the room…” I attempt to shake my head.

  Cullen pulls me in and holds me tight. I can barely breathe, but I need his warmth more than air right now. “Baby, I’m so sorry. You don’t have to take one with me. At all. Ever. It’s ok.”

  I breathe in his masculine scent, still with a hint of syrup, and it makes me brave. He makes me brave.

  “No,” I mumble into his shirt. Cullen chuckles and loosens his grip so I can get some oxygen. “I want to try with you.” I sit up to face him.

  “Are you sure? Don’t do it because you think I’m mad or something. I only want you to do what you want to do—for yourself.”

  “It is for me. I’m just braver when I’m with you.”

  “I think you’ve always been brave. I just believe in you.”

  Aaaaand…I’m done. On five little words, I know I’ve fallen for Cullen Metz. I lean in and sink into his kiss, igniting on the inside. He rolls over me, kissing my neck, and pulling up my shirt.

  I can’t help the little moan that escapes my throat, “Still want that shower?”

  “Oh, yes… shower.”

  I giggle, “You’d better stop then.”

  He slides his teeth off my earlobe, “I’ll get my gym bag from the truck.”

  “You already had a bag?” I’m a little incredulous.

  Cullen sounds amused, “I always keep one close for practice or a quick workout.”

  “Oh, well in that case, I’ll get the water running.” He winks at me and I kiss him one more time. He pushes off the couch, then extends his hand to help me up. I land against his chest and he grips my ass, tugging my pelvis into his erection. There’s a hot thumping between my legs.

  “Hurry up,” I demand.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  I run upstairs, nerves have me almost falling over my own feet. I don’t really know what to do with myself once I’m in the bathroom besides turn on the water and take two fluffy towels from under the vanity. Am I supposed to strip? Am I supposed to get in? I’m fidgeting with the bottom of my tank when Cullen comes in behind me empty handed.

  I look up at him in the mirror, “Did you forget your bag?”

  “No,” his eyes melt mine as he wraps his arms around me. “I left it in the hallway when I saw you standing in here.” He pulls his soap from his pocket and puts it on the ledge of the tub.

  “I didn’t know what to do with myself,” I confess.

  “That’s ok, you don’t have to.”

  I turn in his arms and step up on my tiptoes to reach his lips. It’s easy to pick up where we left off on the couch. The searing heat of his tongue pierces straight into my heart and I hold back a whimper of need. We disengage long enough for Cullen to pull off my top, releasing my breasts for his exploration. As he tugs on my nipple with his teeth then swirls his tongue over the pink flesh, I yank at the hem of his shirt, nearly crazy to get to his bare skin. Cullen pulls it forward over his head, rippling the muscles of his torso in my favorite way, and I can’t help but smile at the fact that this is all mine to enjoy.

  “Whatcha smilin’ at?” he asks as he steps out of his sweats. Cullen’s frame takes up most of my bathroom. His physique is massive, even when compared to my curvier size eight. I’m not short, either. At five-eight, I hold my own with a lot of women, but compared to Cullen The Quarterback’s worth of muscle on a little shy of six and a half feet of man, I feel like a Smurf.

  “I love it when you do that.”

  “What? Take off my pants?” He winks.

  “Yeah, well that, but I meant when you pull your shirt over your head.”

  “Ah, I see. I can do more stuff that you’ll love.” He pulls me closer and dips his hand in the back of my pants. His fiery, naked body sizzles into my bones on contact.

  “Hmm, is that so? Like what?” His fingers delve into my heat from behind as he leans forward and nibbles at my shoulder. It always astonishes me how ready I am for him and how fast I can turn him on. “Yeah, that’s good…”

  He swirls around my opening a few times, then withdraws.

  “Tease,” I choke out.

  Cullen chuckles as his mouth drops down to my breast again while he rids me of my cotton pants. I try to step out of them but he lifts me by my waist instead. He steps on the fabric and they collapse as a heap on the floor. He steps us into the steamy water and closes the curtain. Droplets of spray pepper his face and neck as the showerhead pounds into his back. Water cascading around his arms and sides washes over me, warming the places Cullen isn’t touching.

  Just when I think I have seen all things sexy, Cullen has to get in the shower. I don’t think there’s anything that compares to him hot, naked, and wet. Tan skin, slightly flushed, water dripping off his hair, big round eyes—goddamn, I’ll never get this fire out.

  I close my eyes to burn this memory into my brain forever, while large hands and strong fingertips trace waterfalls down my shoulders to my chest. His lips draw in my pebbled nipple, sending fireworks straight into my core. I moan and roughly pull his hair. He flicks his tongue while rolling the other one between his fingers and I have to grip his arms for support. He moves us back a notch, turns my back to the spray, and kneels in front of me. Oh shit, this might be what he meant by “more stuff”.

  Cullen kisses my belly, kneading the muscles of my back. Then he grips my ass and wedges his head up between my legs. Slowly circling my hard bundle of nerves with his tongue, I cry out in pleasure and use the walls to keep my balance. While working me with his mouth, Cullen drags his fingertips from my ankles up past my knees to my thighs, stopping at my aching folds. Dipping two fingers in, he curls them forward and it’s like fucking magic. Hot water pouring down my spine, an even hotter tongue spiraling around my thrumming bud, thick fingers plunging as I squeeze around them, all topped off by the rough scrape of his facial hair on the sensitive skin of my inner thigh and I lose my mind.

  “Cullen! Fuck!” My hips rock as the orgasm rips through me. He withdraws, stands, and grabs my waist before my knees buckle. He ravages my mouth and backs me up against the wall. My shampoo and body wash clatter to the tub floor as he hoists my legs up around his hips.

  “I need you now, Violet.”

  Cullen’s tip easily finds my entrance open and waiting for him. With one smooth push, he’s in up to the base, my muscles clinching and releasing to accommodate his impressive size. With one arm tight around me and the other pressed Superman-style against the wall, Cullen starts to move. At this angle, he can pull almost all the way out and drive back in. Over and over, he thrusts upward while I clutch his shoulders and revel in the pure, animalistic enjoyment of all he has to offer.

  Changin
g the angle, Cullen circles his hips and swipes over my swollen clit. “Do it again and I’m gonna come,” I gasp.

  “I’m ready for you, baby,” Cullen repeats the move and I absolutely shatter.

  White bursts of light dance behind my eyelids and my head rolls back in my frenzy. Cullen bucks and loses control a few seconds later, coming with me, pulsing and jerking as my body clutches all around him. He groans out my name and pants hard into my shoulder. He pins me against the wall with his massive chest and thighs while he comes down from the crest of his pleasure.

  Slowly, he lowers my feet to the bottom of the tub and puts his forehead to mine. My eyes are closed and my breaths are still coming fast.

  “Are you ok?” he asks.

  “I’m effing awesome.”

  He kisses the tip of my nose, and I feel him bend down to pick up the bottles that fell. I open my eyes and he’s holding our soaps.

  “Thanks,” I smile, “for a completely new memory.”

  “I like to think it’s one in a whole series.”

  ***

  I’m finally done drying my hair and putting on some pressed powder and mascara. Leaving the bathroom, I spot Cullen sitting on the edge of my bed, leaning forward with his arms on his knees. His head is hung kind of low and he’s got prayer hands.

  Immediately I run through the last few hours and try to think of anything I could have possibly done that was wrong. I come up empty; I mean, I even picked up his towel from the miraculous shower we took.

  I quietly approach the doorway. “Cullen? What’s wrong? What did I do?”

  “Huh?” He looks up. “Why would you think it’s you?”

  “I just figured you were upset with me for something.”

  “I’m the total opposite of upset with you, Violet. I’m mad at myself.”

  “Well, that’s even worse! Why?”