Skin to Skin

by J. M. Stone

  We headed home when the sun was setting and, by the look in Brandon’s eyes, our night was just beginning.

  We walked in the door at home and I’d barely gotten the door shut and locked behind us when I found myself being spun around and pressed against the door by his body. He locked his lips on mine in a heated kiss as his hands found my hips, slid down a bit and lifted me up into his arms. My legs automatically wrapped around his waist, nestling the hardened ridge of him between my thighs, which drew a ragged groan from his throat.

  He wrenched his lips from mine and leaned his forehead against mine, his breath puffing against my mouth as he whispered, “Is this okay? I know it’s been a rough day…”

  “Fine, I’m fine. Don’t stop…” I moaned, seeking his kiss once more.

  He complied, his mouth slanting over mine in a rough, deep caress, his tongue sliding inside to duel with mine before slipping back out as his teeth closed over my bottom lip, sucking on it and then biting sharply.

  I arched into him, crushing my breasts to his chest, rubbing myself against the engorged column of flesh trapped beneath the placket of his jeans. One of his hands left my thigh and slid up my body to tangle in my hair, jerking my head back as he moved down my throat, sucking and licking the tender flesh and sending shivers down my spine.

  “Bed,” he panted against my throat and I nodded wildly, feverish to feel him against me, skin to skin, with his length buried deep inside my body.

  He carried me into the bedroom and laid me on the bed, but he didn’t follow me down. Instead, he ordered me to strip as he moved to my closet. He watched me distractedly, torn between drinking in the sight of my naked flesh that each removed article of clothing revealed, and whatever he was reaching for in the darkness of the closet.

  Finally he swore, snapped the light on, grabbed something, and then the light was off and he was on the bed with me. I have no idea how he’d done it so quickly, but he was naked when he got there.

  I gasped and arched into him as his body came down over mine, his hard to my soft, every inch of him pressed to me. His teeth nipped at my shoulder and then he kissed his way down my stomach, stopping to lick along each of my hip bones, moving down a little further as he hooked his arms under my thighs and pulled them apart, spreading me open and covering me hungrily with his mouth.

  His tongue made a long, leisurely stroke through my slick folds, the tip swirling around and around my clit before sliding back down and inside me, tasting every inch of my dripping wet heat. He kept up his assault on my tender flesh until I was hovering on the edge of release but, right before I tipped over into blissful orgasm, he moved, kissing back up my body until his lips met mine.

  I tasted myself on his tongue, moaning at the heady sensations coursing through my veins, lust overriding every thought. He ate at my mouth with a ferocity that belied his sure movements. He moved in haste, yes, but there was nothing hurried about the way he slowed and sipped at my lips and plucked at the tips of my breasts, the tight buds swollen, tender, and aching with need. The smooth, firm head of his turgid length slid effortlessly though my damp folds, the ridge of him dragging over my clit with every thrusting stroke.

  He broke the kiss on a groan and shifted, moving off of me just enough to reach between our bodies. He positioned himself at my dripping entrance, the tip barely penetrating my opening before he thrust deeply, seating himself fully inside me. At that same, earth-shattering moment, his hand moved, a buzzing came to life, and my clit turned to fire as pleasure raced over me.

  With a high-pitched cry, I flew over the edge, coming hard as he impaled me with his hardness repeatedly while his fingers worked my micro bullet over my now over-sensitized clit. I was jerking against him, trying to pull away even as I arched into him, seeking more of the blinding ecstasy filling me, pushing me almost violently to that razor edge and beyond once more.

  I screamed out my release until I was hoarse, my fingers clutching and scratching helplessly at his back and shoulders as I was dragged under by waves and waves of almost unbearable sensation. Brandon, with one last hard thrust, slammed deep inside my clenching heat, spilling himself inside of me on a loud, primal shout before he collapsed across me, taking care, though, not to crush me beneath his weight.

  We laid there panting, our sweat slickened skin sticking together where we touched, his heavy weight pressing me into the mattress while the forgotten toy buzzed happily alongside my hip where he’d dropped it. As I worked to catch my breath, I mused that I didn’t have to wonder what he’d been doing in my closet. The better question to ask would probably be how the hell he’d known where my stash was?

  After a few moments, he rolled to his side after carefully disengaging from my sated body. He reached for the toy, smiling slyly at me as he thumbed it off and tossed it aside before gathering me in his arms and cuddling me against his chest. He drew lazy circles on my shoulder and down my side and hip while we laid there quietly, our breath mingling in the closeness of our lips.

  He smiled tenderly and kissed me softly, sweetly. “Mmmm…” he murmured between kisses.

  “Yup,” I sighed happily.

  “You know,” he began, his tone getting softer, not quite worried, but definitely getting a little tense. “We haven’t been using any protection.”

  I nodded. “I know,” I said, my voice very quiet. “But, like I told you before, I’m on the pill.” I looked away from his and whispered the real reason I’d never worried about protection with him. The painful one. “I-I can’t have kids anyway.”

  He leaned up on his elbow and gripped my chin gently in his fingers, turning my face back to his. Concern creased his brow as he asked, “When…?” He didn’t finish the question, but he didn’t need to. I knew what he was asking.

  I nodded once more.

  He blew out a breath and kissed me again, holding me tighter in his arms. After touching his lips almost absent-mindedly to my forehead, he said, firmly, “It’s okay, sunshine. That bastard will never hurt you again.” He dipped his head, his eyes searching my face. “There are always other options, baby. Don’t ever think there aren’t. If and when we decide to explore that path…”

  His words trailed off. All I could do was smile at him and lean in for another kiss as my eyes filled with tears. But they weren’t sad tears. They were the happiest-I’d-ever-been, how’d-I-get-so-fucking-lucky kind of tears. And those are the best kind to have.

  Chapter 16

  The plan put into motion by my friends and family shifted my life completely, turning it upside down over the next week or so. I couldn’t complain about it, though. When Allie learned that everyone was on board with her selling the store, including her mom because she’d been wanting to take an RV tour of the U.S. with George, Allie’s dad, she moved quickly.

  The realtor found a buyer immediately; it was unreal at how everything played out, especially finding a buyer so quickly. Allie settled into her role as a housewife rather easily, content to ready the house for the baby that was due any time now and spoil Grady even more than he already was. Jackson was ten times happier, too, knowing that Allie wasn’t overexerting herself, and he wasn’t worrying so much anymore about something happening with her being alone at the store or any of the hundred thousand more scenarios that had been giving him nightmares since the night she told him she was pregnant.

  He’d kept it together pretty well, I must say, though. Did it stop me from teasing him about turning into a worrywart? Nope. Although, I would have to admit that I may have used other words. You know, like…hell with it, I called him a pansy. It earned me one of his death-glares and he threatened me with a mega-wedgie, but it was worth it.

  Emma gladly turned over her duties down at Skin Deep to me, especially with her due date looming so close, so now, not only do I get to have Brandon in my bed every night, I get to spend my days with him, too. I worried about him getting sick of seeing me so much, but he assured me he wouldn’t. Honestly, I think he was just excited to get
to figure out ways to get me naked in the supply closet. Or in his office. And once on the floor behind the counter…but the shop had been closed at the time, thank God.

  Luke just shakes his head in disgust when he catches Brandon kissing me at random times throughout the day, but then he just grins wryly when Brandon reminds him that it was he himself getting caught lip-locked all the time before I started working.

  My mom was back from her trip and had flown directly out to Ohio instead of going home. She’s staying at Jackson and Allie’s house so she can be there when the baby comes. Emma and Luke already had a security system in place, as did Allie and Jacks. Needless to say, my house was wired up within an inch of it’s life now, too. They even upgraded the system down at Skin Deep, just to be safe.

  So, just like that, everyone did what they needed to to protect themselves and…well, mostly to protect me. Every day, I woke up and thanked God and anyone else who would listen for all of them. I may have saved myself by getting the hell away from Greg, but in all honesty, they were the ones who really saved me.

  I still had nightmares, but they’d been getting less frequent. I still jumped at shadows, which Brandon laughed off, but I could still see the worry in his eyes. I rarely went out by myself, just until we got confirmation that Greg was back behind bars for violating his probation and the no contact order. Emma had waltzed up into her old boss’ office and Attorney Floyd Grimm had sent out a nice, biting little letter to the Department of Corrections and the Courts out in California, along with a copy of the letter I received from Greg. The police had been looking for him, putting out BOLO’s and everything, but they’d had no luck so far.

  Other than that, everything was good…no, it was perfect. Okay, so perfect with a few hiccups. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

  Not even when I got the phone call. The one that said they’d found a car registered to Greg in a little town on the outskirts of Cincinnati, abandoned on the side of a township road in the middle of nowhere. They’d done a search of the area, including the woods and the one and only motel in the town, but they’d found nothing.

  With things being so tense until we heard something from the police, the group had banded together even more than usual. In fact, dinner was a nightly event, moving from house to house. Two nights ago we were at Luke and Emma’s, last night was at Leah’s…and I can’t with good conscience tell you that that would be happening again anytime soon. Unless we order pizza or takeout from somewhere…

  We were supposed to be having spaghetti and garlic bread, which should be simple to cook. Or at least, I always thought so. But we didn’t have spaghetti. We had pizza. Why, you ask? Because Leah can burn water. Not kidding. The cooking genes definitely skipped her.

  Tonight had been my turn to cook; I had Brandon grill some steaks and then I topped them with Maytag bleu cheese crumbles (best bleu cheese in the world…so yummy!) and crumbled bacon. I paired them with my favorite Italian-ranch pasta salad for a simple but very filling and tasty meal. I even made my own appetizer of fried pickles with spicy ranch to dip them in. For obvious reasons, Allie and Emma both (but especially Emma) were over the moon about that.

  I’d have to say dinner was a resounding success…but anything probably would have been after Leah scorched a pot full of water, then managed to turn a pan of spaghetti noodles to glue. I won’t even mentioned what happened to the sauce.

  We were all lounging around the living room, laughing and joking with Leah, who was flying solo tonight because Ian had a meeting or something, about her cooking skills (or lack thereof, actually), and then about Allie and Emma’s due dates. Allie was technically due in three days, and the little baby boy nestled inside seemed like he wasn’t budging. He’d turned head down and had dropped majorly, but that’s it. She went to the doctor three days ago and they said they’d give her until next week; if she didn’t go naturally by then, they were going to induce her.

  Emma, on the other hand, is due next week but they don’t think she’s going to make it. She’s already dilated to 2 and is effacing rather rapidly, as well. It’s kind of a toss up at the moment to see which one is going to pop first. The guys have been taking bets, but that was curbed when my brother got caught with his hand in the proverbial cookie jar. He was doing everything he could think of that he’d read about to try to bring on labor. Allie caught on when she got on her laptop and saw the Google search for ‘ways to get a woman to give birth’ and finally figured out that’s why he’d been trying to get her to take long walks with him every night. Just for that, Allie made him double his bet, then bet against him, and gave Luke every idea she could find to make Emma go first.

  There was a break in the conversation as we all debated going out for ice cream and we all froze as Allie moaned. She was sitting on the couch, Jackson beside her. When she noticed we were all looking at her, her face flushed and she ducked her head.

  We all wondered why…until Jackson jumped up and shot away from her like a rocket, yelling, “Fucking hell, woman! That’s worse than both Grady AND Doug!”

  My mom scolded him for talking like that, but then, suddenly, her nose twitched and her face fell. One by one, the expressions around the room started changing, mostly looking horrified, disgusted, or a combination of both.

  Brandon, realizing what had happened, darted away to stand by Jackson in the doorway to the kitchen. He got halfway there and his eyes widened, then his nose screwed up comically as he shouted, “Oh my God, Allie! You seriously just farted like that? What is wrong with you?”

  Allie looked so ashamed, but at the same time, she couldn’t help but laugh. Emma was sitting in the armchair not too far away from her, just shaking her head. “She’s always been like that. It’s just worse now that she’s pregnant. Trust me…I know.”

  Luke shot her a droll look, muttering, “Yeah, you think you know. She doesn’t sleep with YOU every night.”

  It was Emma’s turn to blush and we all laughed.

  Then Allie moaned again, but this time, she followed it with a loud, gasping, “Oh!” Her eyes blinked rapidly in surprise and she sought Jackson’s gaze, her jaw dropping open before she looked at me. “Chloe, I’m so sorry, but either my water just broke or I just peed on your couch.”

  We all sat there, stunned, for a moment before all hell broke loose. Jackson beelined for the couch and swooped Allie up into his arms, hollering at Luke to move his car and Brandon to grab his keys out of his pocket. That in itself was pretty comical to watch as Jackson didn’t slow in his determined stride to the door. Brandon ran along beside him, his hand scrabbling on Jackson’s hip until he could jam it down in his pocket. He gave a war whoop as he jerked his hand free, the keys clasped in his fingers like the ultimate prize.

  Before he got out the door he paused, looking back at me. My mom, who was hot on his heels, didn’t realize he’d stopped and ran smack dab into his back, falling back with an ‘oompf.’

  “Sorry, Mom,” he said, before addressing me again. “You and Brandon head to the house, let Grady out for us, and grab her bag, okay?”

  “Yeah, we got it,’ I said. I moved to the bedroom to grab my shoes and my purse, grateful we’d already cleaned everything up from dinner. Brandon was still outside but his wallet was sitting on the dresser, so I grabbed that as well.

  I heard Leah pipe up as she headed out the door behind Jacks, Allie, and my mom, calling out to Allie and Jacks that she’d make the necessary phone calls to Allie’s parents, her grandparents, and everyone in Emma’s family.

  When I got back out into the living room, the house had been evacuated by everyone but Emma, who was trying to lever herself out of the chair. She gave me a pitiful look and I smiled at her in sympathy as I helped her up.

  Forty-five minutes later, the waiting room was packed with bodies and filled with laughter and happiness. We’d been updated briefly by my mom, letting us know that Allie was really in labor and we were about to have a baby! Everyone had been speculating on names, bec
ause Allie and Jackson already had one picked out but they wouldn’t tell anyone what it was.

  Luke broke into the conversation on a sigh. “Well, there’s no stopping it. Jackson’s going to be ridiculous about this…” He glanced up at us all. “You do realize that he won the bet, right?”

  Laughter bubbled up from everyone and groans resounded as we tallied up his winnings. We laughed even harder when Nanny walked right up to Luke, snatched the money out of his hands, and stuffed it into her bra, claiming that she was just going to hold it for him.

  Once Allie was pretty settled, we all got to take turns going back to see her. When it was my turn, she grabbed my hand and pulled me close.

  “Chloe, I feel really bad.”

  “Why?” I asked her, smoothing her wildly spiking hair back from her forehead.

  “Because I leaked all over your couch…” she cried, her eyes filling up with tears.

  “Oh, Allie…don’t you even worry about it!” I told her, chuckling affectionately. Truth be told, I completely forgot about it, but that was definitely something I should probably get cleaned pretty soon. Like really soon.

  I wiped her tears away and glanced at my brother, who was beaming with complete and total joy. But then his expression dropped as Allie cried out. He was by her side in an instant, checking her over, asking her, “Are you in pain, is something wrong, do you need something, what can I do to help?”

  Allie looked at him in horror and then at her mom and my mom, who were both sitting across the room on the little sofa there. “We have to get married!”

  Jackson sat gingerly on the bed beside her and took her hand. “Allie, sweetheart, it’s a little late for that. You’re in labor.” His words were cautious and soft, and he looked like he was approaching a rabid bear as he spoke.