At the Brink

by Anna del Mar

  “No need,” Josh said. “We’ll stay at the bunkhouse.”

  “Are you sure, honey?” Evelyn said.

  “Positive,” Josh said.

  Evelyn queried me with her eyes.

  I nodded. “The bunkhouse will be great.”

  The bunkhouse turned out to be a small cabin fronted by a charming little porch located by the lake about a half a mile down the dirt road behind the house. It was sturdily built and full of rustic charm, like the matching quilts on the four bunk beds built into the cabin’s back wall and the plaid curtains that covered the windows.

  “It’s like out of a magazine,” I said.

  “Knowing Mom, it probably is,” Josh said.

  “Your mom’s nice.”

  “Everyone loves her,” Josh said. “Emma is like her. Jan and I, we’re mutants. We share genes with a pack of rabid wolves.”

  I laughed as I made my way to the bathroom, where the bag Josh had packed for me sat on a luggage rack. I was surprised to find a set of flannel pajamas among my things. They were more my style than Josh’s, but I was happy to wear them. They were particularly well suited to the homey cabin and comfortable to boot. I slipped my legs into the bottoms, buttoned on the long-sleeve top and considered my reflection in the mirror. I looked like a big, square, box wrapped in checkered gift paper. The only thing missing was the bow on my head.

  When I came out of the bathroom, Josh had changed into a pair of sweats, socks and a black T-shirt that showed off his broad shoulders and his nicely defined arms. He finished feeding the fire in the wood burning stove and shut the metal door. The fire warmed the room, reflected through the glass and imbued the little cabin with a reddish glow that framed Josh as he strode across the room, sleek and graceful like the panther he always reminded me of.

  “Which bunk do you want?” I plonked down on the nearest bed, bounced on the mattress and, swinging my legs over the edge, stretched back onto my elbows.

  “Whichever has you in it.” He landed right next to me.

  “No, really, I want to know,” I said. “Which bunk was your favorite as a child?”

  “All of them.” He turned on his side and propped his head on his hand. “We took turns. We loved staying out here when we came stateside from Dad’s deployments. It was like coming home.”

  My heart blazed like the merry little fire. He hadn’t just brought me to meet his parents. He had brought me home.

  “What about you?” Josh tugged on my sleeve. “Are you a top or a bottom bunk kind of girl?”

  “I don’t know,” I said. “I’ve never slept in a bunk bed before.”

  “Never?” He stared at me in disbelief.

  “I wasn’t allowed to go on sleepovers.” My mom had been too overprotective for that. “And summer camp was out of the question. But I think I like this bottom bunk a lot.”

  It was cozy, and private and, surrounded by polished pine paneling, it brought to mind vast forests, sun, freedom and the sort of carefree summers I never got to experience as a child.

  “You’re very thoughtful tonight.” He trailed the line of my jaw with his fingertips. “Newsflash: You look hot in flannel.”

  I scoffed. “Nobody looks hot in flannel.”

  “You do.” He leaned in to kiss me.

  The warmth spread from his lips to the rest of my body. Maybe it was the stress of the day, but the heat in my sex rose as his hands slid down my neck and ran over my back, working the soft flannel over my skin. His lips meandered up and down the slope of my throat and fanned the need growing inside me. He walked two fingers over my breasts, where my nipples rose through the flannel like a pair of eager volunteers.

  “Thanks for coming, Lily,” he murmured, nibbling on my earlobe. “You were very gracious putting up with all of us tonight.”

  “Hmm.” I shivered at the rustle of his tongue on my ear. “You mean I had a choice?”

  “You always have a choice, Lily, but you know that.”

  His hand slid down my belly, cupped my pubis and kneaded my pussy. God. I went liquid inside. The slow, steady massage moistened my sex and awakened the lust. He rubbed his thumb in tiny circles above my clit, teasing, provoking, building layer upon layer of delicious sensations. My sex ached with longing so keen I had to press my legs together.

  “Now, Lily,” Josh warned. “You know better than to close your legs on me.”

  “I know, but...”

  “But what?”

  I fought a surge of good old-fashioned embarrassment. “The thing is, this is your parents’ place and I feel weird having sex out here.”

  He cocked his eyebrows. “Why?”

  “Oh, I don’t know.” I shrugged and offered a crooked smile. “Parents, sex, yuck?”

  He rolled his eyes. “Your Puritan streak is making an appearance. My parents’ house is at least a half a mile away. So no to parental-related inhibitions, yes to sex, yum.”

  I hesitated. “But—”

  “No buts.” He shifted to his knees, lowered my pajama pants and pulled them off altogether. “Make no mistake about it. We will have sex tonight and I will have you.”

  The look in his eyes had me squirming in place. The shiver that ran the length of my spine galvanized my overactive pheromones. They swarmed my brain with an infusion of pure lust. I buzzed like a freaking hive. When he stared at me like that, eyes dark with need, I wanted to put my hands in the air and surrender.

  He cradled the back of my head and pressed my face to his groin. His erection jutted through his pants, thick, hard and urgent against my cheek. Heat radiated through his sweats and warmed my face. My lips separated to trace the elevated ridges of his bulge. My mouth craved the hardened flesh beneath the fabric. I found myself resenting the cloth that stood between his cock and my tongue.

  I planted little kisses all over his groin, kneading his balls and rubbing his shaft. I drank in his body’s tightly controlled reactions, a quick twist of the lips, a tiny flinch, his fingers digging into my scalp, and the occasional sharp breaths that widened his nostrils. But when I tried to lower his waistband, he pulled away from me.

  “Not yet,” he said, reclining next to me. “Patience is a virtue.”

  I sighed and settled my head on a pillow. Josh reached over and kissed me, undoing my buttons as he did. He parted the shirt and pushed aside the halves, uncovering my torso. His gaze flowed over my body in a slow visual caress that had my belly heaving in anticipation. His finger trailed the middle line of my body from the hollow of my neck down to my pubis, where it hooked into the edge of my panties and pulled aside the center panel to reveal my sex.

  He sighed, a rush of warm breath that gushed over my body like a tropical breeze. “You’re so beautiful.”

  Me. Beautiful. He had to be blind and dumb to think so, but then, if there was one thing I knew for sure about Josh, it was that he was not dumb. Far from it; he was the most brilliant mind I’d ever encountered. If he thought I was beautiful then maybe I could be beautiful, if only for him.

  I stayed very still, withstanding his scrutiny. He looked down on me, his mouth upturned in appreciation, his eyes suddenly soft with...what? Desire? Longing? Affection?

  The breath caught in my throat. What was happiness if not to be wanted like this? What was beauty if not the wonder I spotted in Josh’s eyes? What was joy if not to be cherished and needed?

  His touch scattered my thoughts and centered me in the moment. He caressed my pussy, his big, blunt, square-tipped fingers rustling through my bristle. His gaze fixed on my face, no doubt measuring my reactions. His mouth landed on mine, demanding as always. I opened my lips and his tongue thrust in my mouth at the same time that his finger glided into me.

  “Ooh.” I closed my eyes and leaned my head against his shoulder, relishing the exquisite breach as he worked
his way through the tight ring of muscles that yielded to his passage.

  “Christ, Lily,” he murmured. “You’re so tight and wet. You need to be fondled, sweet, no way around it. You’ve been such a good sport. I’m going to give you a reward.”

  “A reward?” My sex coiled like a compressed spring. “What is it?”

  “You’ll see.” He kissed me thoroughly. “It involves all night and you coming on all four bunk beds, just to see which one you like best.”

  My sex squeezed, giving his finger the equivalent of a very firm handshake. Pleasure bolted through me in dizzying waves. My hands closed around fistfuls of quilted fabric as his digit pumped in and out of me with exquisite gentleness. I let out a long breath, happily skewered, reassured now that some part of him filled the void in me.

  With his free hand, he clasped one of my breasts and brought it to his mouth. I gasped at the feel of his lips fastening with incredible grit to my flesh. His mouth drew in my nipple, my areola, my soul. His teeth raked the stout little stalks that my nipples had become. Lightning struck in my mind, a memory of my breast, smeared in black and silver paint, and the storm building in me all over again. I hissed and dug my fingers into the mattress.

  “Good,” he said, when my hips started to rock, following the movements of his hand. “You make me so goddamn hard when you move like that.”

  I rolled my hips some more, for his pleasure, but also for mine. Confined to the bottom bunk, I felt protected and safe, like some ancient primordial creature nestled in her cave, devolved by need into my most primitive state, a female in the grips of an uncontrollable sexual urge driven by an insatiable need.

  Soon enough, his fondling turned demanding, pumping an unbearable amount of pleasure into me. The tension built until I could no longer stay in control.

  “Oh, my God, Josh, I have to come, please!”

  “Then by all means, sweet.” His smile was sun and freedom. “You may come.”

  The orgasm that walloped me blinded me to anything but the white light dazzling my senses. A hoarse groan strummed my vocal cords, scraped my throat and escaped my lips, the sound of runaway lust. I arched on the bed, clawing at the bedspread and writhing in his arms.

  “One bunk down, three to go,” he murmured, caressing my hair and consuming my pleasure through his eyes.

  My mind reeled and my body was still quavering from the orgasm when Josh helped me out of the bottom bunk and planted me in front of the wooden ladder.

  “Up.” His arms braced me at the waist. “Come on.”

  I grabbed the rail and lifted a shaking foot to the first rung. My sex still vibrated with the aftershocks. Darn it. The ladder seemed steep and long to my bedazzled eyes, even if it was slanted and it had only five rungs. I made it to the second rung before Josh stopped me.

  “Wait.” He rolled my panties down my legs and took them off. “Nice.” He landed a slap on my bare ass, a playful smack that sent me scampering up the ladder.

  I landed face down on the mattress, legs dangling down, feet frantically searching for purchase.

  “Hang on.” He came up behind me and, appropriating the halves of my ass, opened me up as if my flesh was but a pair of curtains obscuring the view.

  I wrapped my fingers around the railing on the opposite side of the bed and held on for dear life. His hands pressed at either side of my sex, stretching me apart. God help me, I couldn’t think of a more direct view of my private parts. And then I couldn’t think anymore. His mouth settled on my sex and his tongue, warm and slick, laved my center fold, lingering over my clit and teasing my opening, poking, pressing and altogether driving me insane. I’m not sure, but I might have screamed as I galloped from one orgasm to the next.

  Whether I came soft and slow or fast and hard, the steady stream of orgasms eroded my will and turned me into a quivering, pleasure-wracked pile of flesh. My vocabulary was reduced to “yes,”

  “right there,” and “please,” all rasped with either fervent enthusiasm or utter desperation. The top bunk wasn’t a bad place to hang out. And to think it was only two out of four.

  Lying on my belly, trying to catch my breath while Josh pushed me beyond reason’s limits, I had a vision. Or maybe it was more like an out of body experience. For an instant, I saw us from above, Josh, fully dressed, put together and in charge; me naked, open legged and coming, completely shot out of my mind. This was the true trade between us; he, always perfect and in control while I came apart for him.

  By the time Josh judged that the top bunk had served its function, I was a hot, sweaty mess. The world spun when he whirled me around and sat me up at the edge of the bunk. My body was slack in his arms, drained from energy and basking in the glow of my post-erotic stupor. In one swift motion, he tucked his shoulder under my belly and draped me over his back.

  “Hey,” I protested, dangling upside down. “I can get down on my own.”

  “I sincerely doubt it,” he said, stalking across the room.

  I could’ve tried to free myself, but he was right, my knees were anything but steady and I felt safe in Josh’s arms for the duration of our quick trip up the second ladder. Well, at least my privates got a little break, with all my blood rushing in the opposite direction.

  Josh was in a hurry, his movements efficient, his brow wrinkled in concentration, his sweats domed over his erection. I could tell by the set of his jaw that his need tested his control. And yet I knew better. The chances he’d deviate from the sexual fantasy he’d concocted in his mind were exactly zero.

  With me in tow, he climbed up the ladder. He lay me down on my belly and, pushing my thighs together, braced his knees at either side of me. I heard rustling, craned my neck and caught a glimpse of Josh, loosening his drawstrings, wrestling his way out of his sweats. Holy Mother. His cock leaped out of his boxers fully formed and ready for action.

  He scooped my hips between his hands and shoved his sex through the tight space between my legs. His cock stabbed into me, hot, hard and enormous. I cried out from the pleasure. His strokes drove through me, deep and thorough. I tried to brace on my elbows, but he held me down. My cheek pressed against the quilt and my chin rubbed against the seams at the steady cadence of his thrusts.

  He didn’t speak, but he did stop a time or two, either to pace himself or to rearrange my limbs. I felt like a mannequin in his hands, an object used for his pleasure, an extension of the glorious cock rooted inside me. The problem? I didn’t have a problem with being his object. In fact, I loved it. The notion excited me to no end and drove me to a new level of naughtiness that released the sexual monster lurking in me and growing mightier by the stroke. I cried out “more” and “harder” even as he pounded into me. It was true. The lust-driven Jezebel overtaking me craved his come, not only in her pussy, but coating her mouth, dripping from her lips and glazing her breasts in a translucent gloss.

  The vivid images almost did me in.

  “Can I come?” I rasped, at the edge of delirium. “Can I please, please come?”

  “Hang on.”

  He braced his weight on his elbows and flattened over me. My entire body yielded beneath him. My thighs inched apart under his last, powerful strokes. My sex accepted not only his size and thrusts, but also his balls, pressing against my ass. His cock shuddered deep inside me and, once again, I came undone, although this time I had a secret milestone to celebrate. On bunk number three, I made Josh come along with me.

  It took a while for both of us to recover. At some point, Josh’s weight lifted off me. He sprawled next to me, chest rising and falling under his T-shirt, eyes closed, face gleaming with sweat in the aftermath of our furious lovemaking.

  Perhaps we slept a little, I’m not sure, but it was late when Josh led me down the ladder. I was still in a daze, so my descent was more of a sudden plunge. Josh caught me at the foot of the ladder, where he
propped me against a narrow rung and guided my sex firmly onto the brand new shiny erection he pulled out of his sweats.

  I fell into place. The impact sent me reeling into yet another orgasmic spasm. Josh held on to me as I rattled off a fresh crop of pulsations. Every molecule in my being vibrated into a pinging pitch and joined the frenzy.

  “You didn’t ask permission for that one,” he mumbled between hot, wet kisses.

  How could I, when I had no control of my body?

  “No more until I say so,” he said. “You got that?”

  He might as well have asked me to serve him a slice of the moon. I clutched the railing and dared to glance down. The full length of his sex splashed in and out of me, glimmering with my juices. I closed my eyes and savored the thrill coursing through my body. Some people jumped off cliffs or relied on parachutes for their adrenaline rush. I had Josh.

  How long I hung from that ladder, I’d never know. I was too busy running our sexual marathon. I was vaguely aware that we were in between bunks, but whether this counted as this bunk or that, I didn’t care.

  I spied Josh’s face between my lashes. His lips tightened into a white line, his irises were almost black and the veins on his neck bulged as he drove into me with disciplined intensity. Exhausted from holding back and maddened with desire, I wrapped my legs around his waist and bore down on him, a blatant attempt to disturb his astounding self-control.

  He flashed his sexy smirk. “You’re not taking over.”

  He was onto me.

  He clasped his hands under my ass and carried me a few steps. His heavy cock fell out of me and disappeared into his sweats before he lowered me into the bunk next door. I whimpered at his absence, at the sudden emptiness inside.

  “Not enough?”

  I shook my head, reeling from the abrupt loss.

  “Good.” He deposited me on the bed, smiling. “Because that little cunt of yours is a fucking delight and I’m far from done.”

  What was it about his dirty talking that had my heart racing and our combined juices dripping down my thighs?