by Caisey Quinn
An unfamiliar possessive sensation overwhelms me.
I’ve never slept with a woman I felt this way about. One I had no intentions of ever letting go.
Before I climb into bed beside her, Hollis pulls herself to her knees and grips my waist firmly.
“Ever since the other day, since I accidentally tore off your towel, I can’t stop thinking about having you like this.”
I stare down at her gorgeous face. “Like what?”
She reaches inside my briefs, freeing my cock with her hand.
“Like this.”
I watch, awestruck as she kisses the crown of my dick before taking it all the way into her mouth. A groan escapes my chest as my neck tilts backward.
Hollis sucking my cock is a beautiful sight. And I’d be lying if I said I’d never jerked off to the idea before. But the real thing is so much more than I could have imagined.
Her body flushes all over as she works me with her mouth and tight fist until I have to back her down. Any more of this and I’ll come before the main event.
“Are you sure?” I ask one last time, grabbing a condom from my night stand. “As in, one hundred percent positive this is what you want?”
She smiles up at me. “I want you, Jonah. All of you.”
My emotions catch in my throat. I don’t say a word as I roll the condom on. Bracing my body above hers, then positioning myself at her entrance, I stare directly into her inviting eyes.
“Promise you won’t bail on me, Hollis. Promise me this won’t change us. How we are.”
“I’ll never bail on you,” she promises without commenting on the rest.
She kisses me on the mouth and I’m unable to make anymore demands.
It’s a fool’s request anyway. Of course this will change us. I’m changing already. I can feel it in every fiber of my being. I’m kissing her on the mouth and loving every second of it.
Even though I know the risks, that I could lose her, I can’t stop myself now. I need her too badly, need to fill her and have all of her for myself. Right the hell now.
My cock parts her wet folds and fiery heat envelopes me entirely.
Her body bows against mine as I push past the barrier no man has ever breached before.
She’s so fucking tight, clenching and clamping down so hard I can barely move inside her.
“It’s a tight fit. Are you okay?”
She nods but there’s moisture gathering in her eyes so I know she feels some pain.
I kiss her tenderly, hoping to relax her body at least a little. It works, mostly, and soon we find a steady rhythm as I stroke her swollen walls.
Her pussy milks my cock, becoming wetter with every stroke. My back and shoulder muscles wrestle one another as I move slowly above her.
The pull of her body, her bare breasts against my chest and the sweet mewling sounds of pleasure she makes have me closer to the edge than I would like to be.
I roll us so that she’s on top, sitting astride me. She handles the transition well, responding to her body’s needs and grinding herself down onto me.
She looks like a goddess, the damp sheen of sweat giving her an ethereal glow.
Placing my hands on her hips, I use them to guide her movements, slowing her pace just a little.
When I feel myself climbing too high, I sit up so that I can look in her eyes and kiss her lips while I come.
“Jonah,” she whispers as we hold each other, chest to chest, forehead to forehead. When she can’t take the stillness anymore, she rocks her hips against me.
“Yes, baby. Right there. Just like that, gorgeous girl.”
I grab the full round cheeks of her ass with both hands and move her up and down on my shaft. She whimpers when I hit her G-spot. This angle is perfect and I can feel her throbbing all around me.
“Take it all, sweetheart. Take every inch for me.”
I’m struggling not to let go, but I want her coming with me when I find my release.
I suck her nipples once more, grazing my teeth against her pink pebbled buds.
She grinds harder.
“Come for me, Hollis. Come all over me like you know you want to. Like you came all over my tongue earlier. Like you come when you touch your pretty pink pussy and think of me.”
My words send us both over the edge, flying impossibly high, then crashing down. But instead of bracing for impact, she melts into my arms where I hold her until we both fall asleep.
I probably should pace myself since it was her first time, but now that I’ve had a taste of Hollis, I can’t get enough.
I wake in the middle of the night, with her bare ass against me, and my cock is already rock hard.
I snake my arm around her and caress her breasts, rousing her enough to elicit a soft moan.
Sliding my hand across the expanse of her stomach, I explore the curve of her hip before dipping lower. Her pussy is still wet. The scent of sex clings to the air and my bedsheets.
I cup her mound, giving it a squeeze. She wriggles her ass against me, sighing happily.
“Spread for me, sweetheart,” I whisper into her ear.
Her thighs part slowly and I use my fingers to stroke her from her clit to her opening. I tease her entrance until she whimpers in protest.
“Are you sore?” I ask softly into the darkness.
“Not sore enough,” she whispers back.
I grin even though she can’t see my face. Parting her ass cheeks with my cock, I slide inside her pussy from behind.
She arches against me, moaning like a kitten purrs, a sweet sound of pleasure that sends me floating into oblivion.
“Fuck. I should’ve grabbed a condom. I’m sorry.” I start to pull out, but she clamps down on me.
“I’m on the pill, Jonah. I have been for years…”
“I’m clean,” I assure her. “I get tested monthly.”
I started when I was fighting professionally and it was one of the few good habits I continued. Even so, I don’t have sex without condoms, ever. The last thing I need is a child when I’m still figuring out how to take care of myself.
I’ve been down that road once before. My heart won’t survive another trip.
But Hollis feels so good and soft and warm beside me, all around me.
She wants me bare, then bare is what she gets.
14
HOLLIS
YOU’RE A MEAN ONE, MR. GRINCH
Lying next to Jonah after a marathon of lovemaking, my bare legs entertained with his, I recognize how precious this time between us is and have no desire to ruin it. I know the story behind his scars and most of his ink. But the one tattoo I don’t know the meaning of mocks me from his inner forearm. O32513. I trace the thick, black numbers with my finger.
“You’ve never told me what this one means,” I say softly into the darkness.
Jonah’s muscles flex beneath me. “It’s a date.” His voice is gravelly from the need to rest.
“A birthday?”
He inhales sharply. “Yeah.”
I remain still against his chest. Worried that I’ve somehow upset him, I lift my head so I can see his face.
His brow is furrowed and his jaw is tense.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked. It’s none of my business.”
I’ve intruded into personal territory he didn’t invite me into when I should’ve just enjoyed the postcoital bliss and kept my mouth shut.
Jonah gives me a reassuring squeeze. “I’d just started fighting professionally. My girlfriend at the time, Sarah, didn’t like it. At all. We’d been off and on for a year or so when she found out she was pregnant.”
My blood burns in my veins. Jonah has a kid?
He breaths softly. “We were arguing about me taking bigger matches than what I was ready for. I’d already had a few concussions. She was worried.” His voice is hypnotic as his gaze drifts somewhere far from me. “She grew up on the streets like I did. I was all she had back then. So the thought of anything happening t
o me was scary for her.”
I have a huge family and the thought of anything happening to him is terrifying to me, but I don’t interrupt.
“I couldn’t see past the money. Past the opportunity to give us all a life I’d only dreamed of.”
His eyes meet mine and he returns to the present. “When I told her I was taking the match, whether she liked it or not, she left upset. I’d been drinking and couldn’t drive her anywhere. Not that she wanted me to, but still. It was raining pretty hard. She pulled out in front of a truck.”
I hear myself suck in a shocked breath.
“Oh, Jonah.” I wrap my arms tighter around him and shake my head against his chest. “I’m so sorry.”
“She survived. But the baby didn’t.”
He sighs and rakes a hand through his messy hair.
The sadness of his story weighs down on us like a heavy blanket. My heart physically hurts for his loss. For Sarah’s too.
“Whatever happened to her?”
Jonah shrugs. “She moved on. Got married. I heard she has a couple of kids now. Works at a department store or something upstate. After we lost the baby, it was too hard for her to be around me without remembering and hurting.”
“And she’s never reached out to you? Ever?”
I can’t imagine walking away from him now. How difficult that must’ve been for her when she’d already lost so much.
“Once. I used to send her flowers on the anniversary of the accident. She reached out to ask me to please stop. So I did.”
I wince. “So the date is…”
“The date of the accident.” He clears his throat. “I got it tattooed on me as a reminder to embrace whatever life throws at me and not take a single second for granted. I learned a lot the day I lost a child I didn’t know I wanted until she was gone. I never want to forget.”
She. Pain tears into my chest like glass shards.
I can picture it, Jonah carrying his baby girl wrapped in a pink blanket.
“I’m sorry, Jonah. God, I’m so sorry.” My eyes fill with moisture. He uses the pad of his thumb to wipe several escaping tears from my cheek.
“Honestly, this is the only reason I never told you. You feel things deeper than anyone I know. Joy. Sadness. Pain. I didn’t want to upset you.”
I wipe my nose. “It’s my curse.”
He shakes his head. “It’s the most wonderful thing about you, Hollis. You never stop allowing yourself to feel. So many of us get burned a time or two and shut everyone and everything out. But not you. You are the strongest woman I know.”
“You must not know very many women.”
He glances at me with raised brows. “Actually, I—”
Cutting off the rest of his statement, I dig my fingers into his ribcage and tickle mercilessly.
“Okay, okay,” he breathes out, rolling us over and grabbing my wrists with one hand.
He pins them above my head and stares into my eyes, into my soul, before kissing me deeply.
This time when Jonah presses his body into mine, we make one another whole.
I wake up sometime around sunrise. The bedroom is bathed in pale orange light from the glow in the window.
My back is sweaty where Jonah is curled up behind me. I’m held in place by the weight of his muscular ink-covered arm. Using only the tips of my fingers, I gently caress his forearm before lifting it and slipping out from under him.
Jonah, naked, unconscious and peaceful is a beautiful sight. If I was an artist, I would have to paint this. But since I can’t even draw stick figures proportionally, I take a mental picture, something to hold onto like a souvenir.
Before he wakes up to find me staring like a creeper, I pull on a midnight blue button down shirt I find lying over a chair, along with his gray sweatpants, and make my way to the kitchen.
Zeus is waiting patiently by the door already and Achilles is pacing like a pup possessed.
“Good morning, boys,” I greet them, grabbing the leashes so I can take them outside.
It’s freezing and Jonah’s jacket only provides so much protection from the cold, so I make our trip a quick one.
When we get back inside, both dogs curl up in their beds and I contemplate doing the same. But the evidence that last night wasn’t just a dream is all over the kitchen. And in the delicious soreness between my legs.
Erma shouldn’t have to deal with this. It’d be like cleaning up after a party she wasn’t invited to.
I get to work, salvaging what I can of the cookies and my gingerbread village while cleaning the counters and floor.
Once the kitchen is sparkling, I check out the refrigerator to see what our breakfast options are.
Jonah’s eating habits and strict diet mean eggs and bacon are out.
I find avocados and tomatoes and make some whole wheat toast to go with them. There’s oatmeal and fruit also so I make a little of everything. After boiling a cup of water to make coffee in his fancy French press, I pour myself some orange juice. I down a glass quickly, not realizing how dehydrated I am from last night.
It’s only then that it hits me.
I had sex with Jonah.
I gave him my virginity, and everything else.
My insides seize, like my heart has cramps.
What if he wants me to leave? What if he just expected this to be a one-time thing and then I was supposed to clear out this morning?
Here I am, making myself at home. Playing house like I live here.
He did say he didn’t want things to change between us. Unfortunately it wasn’t at the most opportune moment to ask for clarification on what he meant.
I’m just about to succumb to a full-blown panic attack when he appears in the doorway to the living room. Clad in only his boxer briefs, he gestures to my outfit.
“So that’s where my pants went.”
“Good morning,” I say nervously. “I borrowed some clothes to take the dogs out.”
“You didn’t have to do that.”
Meaning: you should’ve left.
I’m such an idiot. I should’ve just put on my elf outfit this morning and suffered the humiliating walk of shame to my car. It probably would’ve been less awkward than this.
He doesn’t say anything as he steps closer.
“I, um, made some breakfast. Thought you might be hungry. We never ate dinner last night.”
Jonah gives me a subtle smile. The sexy man-boy one that melts my panties. Or would if I were wearing any. “Guess we skipped straight to dessert.”
His words make me tingly all over. I don’t know what to say. Thanks for the orgasms? How soon until we can do that again? What exactly was that thing you did with your tongue?
I settle on “Want some coffee?”
“Sure.” He mumbles thank you as he takes the cup from me. When our eyes finally meet, I stand there feeling exposed even though I’m fully dressed.
“You want to talk about last night,” he says, a statement not a question.
“Um, maybe? Should we?”
He shrugs. “It was your first time. I hope it was…satisfactory.”
I can’t help it.
I laugh.
And then I keep laughing.
Trying to compose myself, I manage to wheeze out, “Is there a comment card I can fill out? Or an online survey where I can select 1 for poor and 10 for satisfactory. Maybe with a would I recommend to a friend section?”
Jonah closes the distance between us in a split second. He tickles my ribs with relentless fingers and I can’t get control of myself.
“You’re going to make me pee,” I warn him between hysterical gasps for air.
“Oh yeah? I made you do a lot of things already. I have two dogs. Pee doesn’t scare me.”
“Jonah,” I squeal, as he lifts me off the floor and over his shoulder. “I’m wearing your pants. You don’t want me to pee your pants.”
“Maybe you should go back to bed, sassy ass,” he says just before slapping my bottom. H
ard.
“I made you breakfast!”
He sets me down gently and appears to think it over. “Well, in that case.”
“Yeah, don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” I hip bump him on my way past and make us both a plate of food.
“I only bite if you ask nicely.” He clamps his teeth together, making a loud snapping sound, and there’s a wicked gleam in his eyes that shoots straight to my core.
For a moment, I forget the food entirely.
What we did last night, it was huge for me. The furthest I’ve ever gone with another person. But I know it barely scratched the surface for Jonah.
Our gazes lock and I know he can see it.
There’s nothing I wouldn’t let him to do me. I want him to do everything to me.
“Eat, Hollis,” he says softly. “You’ll need your energy later.”
Electrical currents dance across my skin, meeting between my thighs.
There will be a later. I could do a victory dance, but it might make him change his mind.
I’ve just managed to swallow a few bites of fruit when his cell phone rings. Jonah seeks it out, finding it and making a strange face before answering.
“Hey, Miss Nancy,” he greets his caller. “Everything okay?”
Miss Nancy was the sweetest lady. I’d enjoyed meeting her last night. Just knowing people like her her existed in the world made me happy.
But Jonah is not happy.
Whatever she’s saying, his frown is deepening and a darkness is settling over him. Thunderous clouds roll over his murderous expression.
I push my food aside and stand. “Jonah?”
“Yeah, thanks for letting me know. And I’m sorry. I promise, I’ll take care of it.”
He hangs up and there is visceral anger rolling off him.
“What’s wrong?”
His jaw clenches, causing the muscle by his temple to twitch.
“Who did you tell about last night, Hollis?”
“About us? No one. I haven’t even talked to—”
“About the group home. About the presents,” he breaks in. “About my work there and me growing up there.”