by Donya Lynne
She began to cry, and that did it. Unable to hold back any longer, Mark wrapped her in his arms and pulled her against him. “It’s okay. Ssshhh.” He rocked her.
She buried her face against his chest and let out a tight, quiet sob.
For a couple of minutes, he simply held her as rain began to fall outside and the lightning and thunder grew closer. He knew firsthand what Karma had experienced, because he had, too.
“The worst part,” she said, “is that Jolene ended up getting with Dave after that. They were a couple for the rest of the school year.” She sniffled. “Jo’s been adding insult to injury all my life.”
He stroked her hair as she continued to cry.
A few minutes later, she pulled away and took a deep breath. “Anyway, that’s why I reacted the way I did when you…you know…touched me. I’ve just never quite gotten over the stigma.” She sighed and shrugged almost apologetically.
“I think I figured that out.” He wiped his thumb over her tear-moistened cheek.
With a sad smile, she pointed her finger at him and put on a brave face. “That’s what I like about you, Mark. You’re quick.” She was obviously trying to lighten the mood.
He kissed the tip of her nose. “If I was really that quick, I would have known sooner not to do what I did.”
She shook her head. “No, no. I was into it. God, I mean, no one’s ever…” She trailed off and ducked her head. When she spoke again, her voice was low, whispery. “No one’s ever kissed me or touched me the way you do.”
Mark’s heart beat a little harder for her. Karma was so damned innocent, and she’d had such a traumatic childhood. He never would have imagined her past had been so bad. “I like it,” he said quietly, brushing his fingers through her hair. “I like kissing you.” What an understatement. He fucking loved kissing her. So much so that his normally patient libido had risen like a cobra ready to strike.
“Me, too.” She tipped the crown of her head against his chest, and her delicate fingers curled against his stomach.
The bashful yet imploring gesture pulled at Mark’s soul, and he smiled as he kissed the top of her head. “You know,” he said, “those kids were wrong about you, Karma. If they could see you now…see the beautiful woman you’ve become…you could make them all eat their words.”
Her body burrowed into his. “I guess in some ways I still see myself the way they saw me back then. You know, ugly and gangly. Flat.”
Mark frowned at her confession. Was she saying that she was ashamed of her body? That she thought her breasts weren’t big enough? “Karma, you’re a beautiful woman. All of you.” When she didn’t immediately respond, he pulled away. “Look at me.”
Trepidation and uncertainty shone from her eyes as she raised her face to his. He had to show her how perfect she was. How beautiful. Because clearly, remnants from the past still haunted her self-image. She truly didn’t realize how perfect she was.
“Come here.” He got up and bobbed his head toward the full-length mirror hanging on the wall by the bathroom. “I want you to see something.” He held out his hand.
* * *
Karma’s gaze darted to the mirror. “Mark…”
He waved his fingers and nodded toward the mirror. “Come on. You need to see this.”
Dreading what was about to happen, Karma gingerly sat up, swung her legs around, and took his hand. She followed him across the room as another flash of lightning lit the shadows.
Stopping in front of the mirror, Mark turned on the bathroom light then stepped behind her. “What do you see?” He nodded toward her reflection in the mirror.
What she saw was a scared little girl cowering inside a woman’s body. “Me,” she said noncommittally. She knew what he was after, but she couldn’t say it.
“But what do you see?” He pulled back her hair.
“I don’t know.” She dropped her gaze to the floor. She didn’t want to look at herself right now.
“Do you want to know what I see?” He placed his hands on the sides of her face and lifted so she was looking in the mirror again. Her eyes met his in the reflection. “Look at yourself,” he said. She forced herself to do as he asked. “Here’s what I see when I look at you.” He wrapped one arm around her waist and caressed his other hand over her cheek. “I see perfect, clear skin. Smooth, youthful, and healthy. I know women who would kill to have your skin.”
She’d never noticed that before, but looking closely at her face, he was right. Her skin was pretty damn flawless.
“And your eyes,” he said. “They’re big and bright and the most extraordinary shade of green. I’ve never seen eyes quite that color, and, to be honest, they’re mesmerizing.”
Once again, she had never paid attention to her eyes before, but now she stared at them as if seeing them for the first time.
Mark continued ticking down her features. Her heart-shaped lips, her flat stomach, her supple hips, her delicate hands, even her button nose and her “sexy” ears, which he nibbled on as he whispered how attractive they were. Finally, he drew back and pulled her blouse tight from behind so that the fabric stretched over her breasts.
She sucked in her breath, suddenly self-conscious.
“And your breasts, Karma,” he said softly, leaning down so that his chin almost rested on her shoulder. “Are you worried they’re too small?”
Licking her lips nervously, she gave a tight, shaky nod. Couldn’t he loosen his hold on her shirt?
“Well, I’ll let you in on a little secret.” He drew even closer and whispered, “I think they’re perfect. Absolutely perfect.”
Perfect? He thought those slight mounds under her shirt were perfect?
“That’s right, Karma. They’re perfect. A nice handful, a bit perky. Did you know that when you walk just so that they actually bounce a little?”
She shook her head, unable to speak. Did she actually have ample enough breasts that they bounced? Really?
“Well, they do. And it drives me wild.” He slowly released her shirt. “Do you trust me?”
Seeing herself through fresh eyes, in a way she never had before, she swallowed, briefly pressed her lips together, then whispered, “Yes.”
His hands slid around to her stomach, on the outside of her blouse, and she watched the reflection as they slowly crept upward as he kissed the side of her neck. With racing heart and quickened breath, she blinked drowsily as his thumbs pressed against the underside of her breasts. Pausing, he seemed to be gauging whether or not she was going to let him continue. When she didn’t resist, he drew his palms up and over her breasts.
“They’re supple and sexy,” he whispered in her ear. “The perfect handful. And anything more than a handful is a waste, if you ask me.”
She had never thought of her breasts as sexy or supple. Least of all perfect.
He squeezed gently, and her nipples hardened. “Still trust me?” he said quietly.
Thunder rolled outside.
He had just made her see herself with new eyes. Hadn’t he proven himself over and over by now. “Yes.” She had never trusted anyone more.
Keeping his left hand where it was, Mark dipped his right hand under the hem of her blouse. She knew what was coming, but unlike before, she was ready. His fingers brushed like feathers up the side of her stomach, his hand pushing the shirt away. The sultry caress left a tingling trail up her abdomen. In the mirror, the outline of his fingers approached her breast. Then his hand cupped her, and the warmth of his palm pressed against her. And then his left hand joined the right, and both hands held her breasts, skin to skin, heat to heat.
“Put your hands on mine,” he said, pressing more firmly against her from behind. She could feel his erection against her bottom, and a torrid fantasy of being bent forward and forced to watch him take her in the mirror broke unbidden inside her thoughts.
She did as he said and covered his hands with hers. If she thought kissing him had been exciting, watching in the mirror as his hands shifted under
her blouse, and feeling his fingers curl around her flesh, was damn near the most erotic thing she’d ever experienced.
“Now do you understand?” he said against her ear. His deep, gravelly whisper reached down and cupped her between the legs.
Panting, she nodded and rested the back of her head against his shoulder. Between Mark’s erection on her backside and his hands on her breasts, she was in sensory overload.
“Better?” he said.
She nodded. This was much better. Much, much better. “Yes.”
“Every day,” he said, “I want you to look in this mirror and imagine me behind you. I want you to touch your breasts like I am…” He squeezed, softly raked his blunt nails in as he made loose fists, and then circled them around as he spread his fingers once more. “I want you to touch yourself and realize how beautiful you are…how perfect your breasts are…how sexy you are.”
Blind to everything but his palms massaging under her shirt, she nodded, eyelids drooping. Right about now, she would do anything he asked. She was putty in his hands.
“Will you do that? Every day?”
Again, she nodded. “Yes.” She would if only to relive this moment again and again in her mind.
Just then, a bolt of lightning struck right outside her building. Under the Mark Strong onslaught, Karma hadn’t even realized how close the storm had come, but as her eyes darted to the window, she could see how violent the wind was. Trees swayed as lightning flashed again. The power blinked then cut off and blinked back on. The instant explosion of thunder was so powerful it shook the walls. Karma yelped.
“Holy shit!” Mark jerked behind her, his hands clamping down on her breasts, and then he burst into nervous laughter as he let go and pulled his arms from under her shirt.
She looked over her shoulder, laughing with him. “Scared?”
“Goddamn, that was loud.” He continued to laugh as he looked toward the window then scrubbed his hands up and down his face.
The thunder had jarred them both out of their erotic interlude, which was probably a good thing. If they’d kept on the way they were, they would have ended up back in bed, and while the idea of making love with Mark sent a shard of yes-please through her blood, she kind of liked the slow seduction happening between them. Besides, if he was as big as he alluded, she really did need to prepare. It had been far too long since she’d been with a man.
“Don’t worry. I’ll protect you,” she said, glancing back toward the mirror.
“Oh you will, will you?” He met her gaze in the reflection and smiled.
“Sure.” She grew more serious. “Especially since you’ve taken such good care of me.”
He blinked, bent forward, and kissed her shoulder. “My pleasure.”
She smiled. “Mine, too, because, once again, that was pretty, uh…pretty nice…what we just did.” She paused and looked at her reflection. Mark had opened her eyes. She cocked her head to the side as she studied herself in the light from the bathroom. She no longer saw the little girl. She saw the woman. “Thank you.”
He hugged her from behind. “You’re welcome.” He said it as if he knew exactly why she was thanking him.
But that was Mark. He always seemed to know what she was thinking and almost knew her better than she knew herself. And maybe, in some ways, he did.
Chapter 22
When genuine passion moves you, say what you’ve got to say, and say it hot.
-D.H. Lawrence
After holding her a while longer and listening to the storm rumble past, Mark left Karma’s place around eleven o’clock and returned to his condo. Upstairs, he changed into sweats and lay down, only to reach for his phone less than a minute later. He simply couldn’t let the night go. It didn’t feel complete.
“Hello?” He heard the smile in Karma’s voice as she answered.
“Hi.” An easy quiet came over his body as he settled more comfortably into the mattress.
“Did you forget something?”
That was a loaded question, because he felt like he’d forgotten to bring her home with him. She should be here, beside him, in his arms, dozing. What did she look like when she slept?
“Just one thing.” He shut off the bedside light, bathing the room in darkness except for the faint glow coming through the windows from the street lamps. “I was supposed to have helped you tonight…with the first step of your training.”
“You did help.”
He frowned into the darkness. “What do you mean?”
She giggled. “Ummm…I’m…uh…”
Then it occurred to him. “You are? Right now?”
There was a short pause. Then, her voice soft, airy, and graced with self-conscious guilt, she said, “Yes.”
“Mmm, well then I’m glad I called. I was going to ask if you’d like me to help you over the phone.”
“How?”
“Have you ever had phone sex?”
“No.” Curiosity and anticipation infused her voice.
“Do you want to?”
After another short pause, she whispered, “Yes.”
He was hard. So damn hard for her. He pushed the waist of his sweats down to release his erection. “Are you in your bedroom?”
“Yes.”
“On the bed?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Is the light off?”
“No.”
“Turn it off.”
There was a rustling sound, then a soft click, and then she came back. “It’s off.”
“What are you doing?” He still hadn’t touched himself, but his erection ached for contact. “Do you have the smallest dildo with you?”
“Yes.”
“And…do you have it inside you?”
“I did a few minutes ago, but not now.”
Oh Jesus, the thought almost made him moan. “Did it hurt?”
“Not much. Are you okay?”
“Yes. Why?”
“You sound different.”
“I’m turned on.” He blew out a heavy breath. “Really turned on. Aren’t you?”
She hesitated. “Yes.” But she sounded shy, too, which only made him want to hear her come that much more.
“Slide it up and down for me,” he said. “Up and down your clit…tease yourself.”
“I am.”
Oh, God. “Are you wet?”
“Yes.”
“How wet?”
She moaned and sighed. “Very wet.” After a silent moment, she whispered, “I’m always wet around you.”
Fuck. It was a good thing he wasn’t with her. He wasn’t sure if he could merely be a bystander. “That’s good, because you make me hard. I feel like I’m always hard lately, and it’s because of you.”
She moaned again.
“Is your clit swollen?”
“Mm-hm.”
“Rub the tip of the dildo over your clit for me, Karma.” He reached down and wrapped his hand around his cock. “Rub it in small, slow circles. Imagine it’s me…my cock on you.”
She sighed into the phone.
“You like the idea of that, don’t you?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Me, too. Are you rubbing yourself?” He began stroking in long, easy pulls, palming the head before stroking back down.
“Y-Yes.” He heard her shudder.
“You feel so good,” he whispered.
“You can feel me?”
“Yes. Very much.” He really almost could. “Tell me how I feel against you, rubbing the head of my cock on your clit?”
Another shuddering breath, followed by a muffled sound, as if she’d shifted on the bed. “You feel…good.”
“Just good?”
“Hard. You feel…hard.”
“I am hard.” His breathing deepened and he gripped himself more firmly. “Put me inside you, Karma. Slide me in.”
She panted lightly into the phone before she uttered a long, soft groan.
He closed his eyes and imagined himself above her. How would s
he feel? “You’re tight. Am I hurting you?”
“No.”
“Does it feel good?”
“Yes.” She drew the word out on a breath.
“That’s because you’re very wet and very ready for me.” And he was ready for her, too. He didn’t want to use his hand. He wanted her touching him right now.
“Are you…touching yourself?” she said.
“Yes.”
“Omigod,” she whispered quickly, almost unintelligibly.
He grinned. “You like that I’m touching myself?”
“Yes.” She whimpered.
“It turns you on that I’m here, stroking myself, wishing it was you touching me instead.”
“Mark…”
“Hold the dildo inside you, Karma, and use your thumb. Rub your clit. Make yourself come for me. I want to hear you.”
“I am…”
“That’s good.” He couldn’t stand it and stroked himself in earnest now.
“Mark…?”
“Yes?”
“I’m close.”
“Me, too.”
She grew extremely quiet, almost too quiet. Then, after several seconds as his orgasm flamed to life at the base of his spine, she gasped. Once. Twice. And again, her pitch rising with each breath.
“Come, baby.” He almost growled the words as his own orgasm tightened his scrotum, making his shaft swell.
She cried out, and it sounded like she dropped the phone, because everything grew muffled, but he could still hear her in the background, gasping and moaning.
Hearing her like that, lost to lust and depravity, sent him over, and with a grunt, his release shot out onto his stomach. Every muscle in his body clenched again and again through each throb, until finally he growled out a long, heady exhale and sank into the mattress.
A moment passed then Karma spoke into his ear, as if she were really there beside him. “That was sexy.”
Breathless, he managed a weak, sated chuckle. “Back atcha. I wish I could have seen that.”
“Me, too.”