by Leddy Harper
“I don’t give a shit.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“It’s been six weeks since the accident. I’m fine. And trust me, if I’m balls deep in you, I won’t feel any pain.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond. It didn’t seem like him to be bothered by not having sex. We’d gone two weeks before without it because of my period and his job, so I couldn’t fathom why he’d gotten so upset about this.
As if reading my mind, he answered my silent questions. “I woke up with a hard-on I couldn’t do anything about. My hands are still sensitive as shit because of the new skin that hasn’t hardened yet, so I can’t even take care of myself without my hands feeling like they’re on fire.”
“So why didn’t you wake me up?”
“Why? So you could give me a hand job out of pity? Or suck me off? I don’t want your hand or your mouth. I want your cunt. I want it to grip me and take everything I give it.”
His words left my panties wet and my thighs clenching together.
“But you won’t give me that.” He turned his attention back to the blackened abyss in front of him. “And I’m not going to take what isn’t offered.”
I carefully eased myself over his lap, stretching my thighs as wide as they’d go to keep from putting pressure on his leg. With my arms around his neck, my fingers twined through his hair, I kissed him with everything I had.
But it wasn’t enough, because as soon as it ended, he said, “I don’t want your pity.”
“This isn’t pity, Carter. If you think I don’t ache for you just as badly, then you’re sorely mistaken. I can’t look at you without fantasizing about you filling me, fucking me until I can’t breathe, bringing me endless pleasure. But I haven’t given in because I don’t want to be the one to cause you any more pain than you’re already dealing with.”
“Kara, my dick has been rock hard for days. Trust me, I can’t possibly be in more excruciating agony than that.” He fisted my hair and pulled my head back to expose my neck. His tongue traced the line of my jaw just before he growled into my ear. “The only thing that’ll make me better is to be so deep inside you, you won’t be able to move for days without thinking of my dick.”
Desire filled my moan as it furled through me and vibrated along my lips. I carefully rolled my pelvis into his obvious erection, needing him closer. When his hand trailed up my bare thigh to my thin panties, I couldn’t hold back my craving any longer.
“I need you, Carter.”
His thumb grazed my clit and caused me to buck against him. “Trust me, not as much as I need you,” he responded, using his words to cover his gasp of pain. “I need you naked and sprawled out on the bed. Waiting for me. Wet for me—only me. I wanna taste you, feel you, fill you up.”
I didn’t want him to stop what he was doing, but I knew how uncomfortable it would be for him to continue this outside. I knew the bed would be better, but he’d gotten me so riled up, I wasn’t sure I could move, let alone stand up and walk inside.
“Now,” he ordered with his demanding tone.
I eased myself off his lap and went to the door. Before I could slide it open, his hands were on me again, his erection pressed against my lower back. But he wouldn’t let me stop. He helped me inside and guided me to the bedroom by his desperate grip on my hip.
Once we made it to the bed, he turned me around and pushed me onto the mattress. Without any real light other than the moon through the window, I had a hard time seeing him. But I heard him. His frantic breathing filled the air around us, interspersed with hungry growls. I remained still while he yanked my panties down my legs, and then impatiently pulled my T-shirt over my head until I lay completely bare in front of him, leaving me even more in need of his touch.
“I can’t get enough of you, Kara.” His voice was low and deep. His warm breath fanned along my desperate sex. “I’ll never be able to get enough of you. Fucking never.” And then his tongue lapped through my folds, making my back arch and forcing my fingers to grip his hair, keeping him from moving away from where I craved him the most.
My eyes closed tightly and a gasp caught in my throat when he alternated between licking and nipping my clit. It only took a few times before I began to grind against his face, chasing my release. It peaked fast and rushed through me with a garbled whimper.
Carter didn’t give me enough time to regroup before his lips and tongue trailed up my abdomen to my pebbled nipple, where he pinched it between his teeth. Surprise hitched in my throat and I bucked my hips in a plight to reach for him.
With his tongue sweeping along my bottom lip, he eased himself into me, not pausing until he completely filled me. “You feel so fucking good, Kara. The way you stretch for me, hug my dick, like your cunt—body—was made for me.”
He was right; it did feel amazing. It was like a damn fireworks show everywhere he touched me. When he slowly pulled away until only the crown of his dick remained inside, I realized why it felt this way. “Carter…wait. You need to put a condom on. You’re not wearing one.”
His panted frustration covered my neck in plumes of humid air. “I don’t know if I can, Kara…or if I want to. Not since I know what you really feel like. I wanna feel you, every single inch inside you.”
I huffed out, “But I think I’m ovulating.”
He stilled and looked me in the eyes. The soft, white light from the window fell on the side of his face and lit him up, reminding me of an angel of night. “How do you know?”
I thought about all the changes a woman’s body goes through during the course of a cycle, and instead of listing them, I chose to go with the answer that wouldn’t make him go soft. “I know my body. Let’s just leave it at that.”
“So if I come in you”—he thrust into me again, punctuating his question—“you could get pregnant?”
“Yes,” I answered in a rush of air.
“Then I should probably pull out, right?” But he didn’t. He just kept moving inside me.
I remembered him once saying he wouldn’t have the strength to pull out, but it felt too good to make him stop. My brain wouldn’t function on all cylinders with the way he’d slowly pull back and then slam into me, stealing my breath.
“Tell me when you’re about to come.” It was the only compromise I could come up with. Not the smartest or the most rational, but when it came to Carter, I lacked intelligence and reasoning. The things he did to me melted my resolve. My eagerness matched his with each second his skin touched mine, with every thrust, pant, whimper, and scream.
The bed creaked and rattled with his thrusts. He took my face in his large hand, forcing me to look at him. In that moment, I saw so much more in his eyes than ever before. My body buzzed as I felt my orgasm build; each place his skin touched tingled.
“Keep fucking gripping me like that and I won’t last.” He moved faster, pumping into me harder.
I pushed against him, and each time, our hips met with a slap as he sank deeper inside.
“Oh, God,” I moaned. I knew it was coming; the buzzing in my ears became louder, and the inferno building in my belly erupted. I tried to be gentle with him as I latched onto his shoulders, holding him as close as I could while screaming into the dark room.
Breathing heavily, I glanced up at him. Sweat beaded on his brow, his forehead creased. I knew if I didn’t stop this, he wouldn’t, either. So I slid my hand between us and took hold of his cock, easing him out of my core. I stroked my palm up and down over his slick shaft, holding his gaze hostage.
His eyes bore in mine as he groaned, “Fuck…”
The muscles in his neck strained, and he grew harder in my hand as I pumped him faster, adding more pressure. His hips began to move erratically as he thrust in time with me. And then his eyes closed, his forehead dropped to mine. His mouth opened slightly and he rasped my name onto my lips as he came hard against my slit, his come dripping onto the sheet beneath me.
While he fought to catch his breath, I slid my fing
ers through my folds, feeling him on me. I circled my clit with my fingertips and moaned with my eyes closed. There was something about the slickness that turned me on. It felt incredible, but not even close to how fantastic it was when he slipped back into me. His dick hadn’t gone completely soft, and as he slowly moved in and out while I fondled myself, he grew harder.
“That’s my girl. Pinch it. Come for me again. I wanna feel you squeeze my dick while coming on me. Do it, baby.” He picked up the pace, but he remained somewhat unhurried. When my head pushed into the pillow at the cusp of my orgasm, he rocketed into me. His balls met my backside, but only for a brief second before he pulled out and slammed into me again, throwing me off the cliff of ecstasy. “That’s it.”
I never wanted this to end.
And it seemed Carter didn’t, either.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Night had fallen before I made it back home. I knew Carter would be pissed, but it was a chance I was willing to take. He’d blown my phone up all afternoon, though I couldn’t answer it. As far as he knew, I’d gone over to my sister’s house, and I’d taken his car, so it wasn’t like he could’ve gone to check up on me. Danni knew enough to cover for me if needed, but I hadn’t heard from her, so I assumed he hadn’t tried her number.
In the end, I knew it’d all be worth it once he saw what I’d been up to.
Almost all the lights were on when I walked through the front door. I found Carter throwing around clothes in the bedroom. I wasn’t sure what the purpose of it was, but he seemed pissed.
“Carter…what…?”
He turned his glower toward me and roared, “Where have you been? I called you seven times! Texted you! You weren’t with your sister. I’m not a damn idiot, Kara.”
I knew he’d be mad, but I was hoping it wouldn’t take much to calm him down. “I had an appointment for—”
“Appointment?” His brow furrowed and his heated gaze nearly paralyzed me. “It’s fucking eight o’clock at night. What kinda damn appointment keeps you out this late? And why lie to me about where you were? Why didn’t you answer any of my calls?”
“I–I was getting something done for you. I wanted to surprise you.”
He didn’t respond, only stared at me with absolute rage coloring his face.
“I made the appointment two weeks ago after I took your mom to the airport. I was talking to Danni and I had an idea. I didn’t want to tell you because I wanted to surprise you.”
He crossed the room to stand in front of me. “What. Appointment.”
I’d been so excited for this, but looking at him now, seeing his anger, I became frightened and shut down. Tears blurred my vision and ran down to my trembling chin. “I thought if you saw…if I got…”
His expression softened at the sight of my tears. “Kara,” he breathed out.
With his hand holding the side of my face, Carter wrapped his other arm around my waist and pulled me into his hard, bare chest. I winced and yelped in pain. My entire left side ached from the burn.
His grip softened, and when I opened my eyes, I found his attention set on his arm around my waist. Without meeting my gaze, he took a step back, his brows knitted and his jaw set in a hard line. “What…?” He grazed his fingertips along my side. When the plastic covering my skin crinkled beneath his touch, he focused on my eyes. Without a moment’s notice, he tugged my shirt off.
“Oh my God…” he whispered while carefully observing the colors beneath the plastic wrap taped to my body. The light from the lamp in the corner of the room cast a shadow, but it wasn’t enough to see the whole thing.
“I wanted to surprise you.”
He stood up straight and narrowed his gaze. “Why’d you do this?”
“You said there’s nothing sexy about being burned, so I wanted to prove you wrong.” I hesitated and watched his reaction. When he didn’t say anything else, only stared at me with hooded eyes, I asked, “You don’t like it?”
Carter glanced at it again and then smiled. After turning on the overhead light, he gently removed the plastic and outlined the edges of the ink with the tip of his finger. He silently observed each stroke of color, each shadow painted in black. The awe in his eyes shone like a beacon of light as he took in the entire image.
“You did this for me?” His soft words nearly broke my heart, as if he couldn’t believe I’d do something on that scale in his honor. “I–I don’t understand.”
“When I mentioned to you about the Nike ad, you told me you didn’t want to exploit what had happened to you. I know you’re worried about your modeling career and possibly losing that income, so I wanted to show you how wrong you are.”
“So you got a tattoo of flames going up the entire side of your body?”
“It was either that or throw acid on myself…and I figured this way, I wouldn’t have to go to the emergency room. Less painful and a hell of a lot cheaper.”
A smile spread over his entire face, adding depth to his dimple and brightening his eyes. “You don’t know how to take baby steps, do you? We kinda skipped over a lot of the relationship parts and went from a summer fling to being in love. You don’t just move from North Carolina to Florida, but straight into my house. Into my bed. And instead of getting some rose or butterfly, you get an entire side piece for your first tattoo. Damn, girl. If I wasn’t already in love with you…”
“So you think this is hot?”
“Fuck yeah, I do.”
I skimmed my fingertips along the discoloration on his side. The skins he’d been wearing and ointment he put on every day helped keep the scars from thickening, so aside from the subtle scaly flesh and obvious marks, you’d never be able to tell just how badly he’d been burned.
“Yet you still don’t think your strength should be shown.” I added a lilt to my statement, hoping he’d take it as a question and offer me the answer I craved to hear from his lips.
“That’s different, babe. This is art.” He pointed to the ink on my side, and then to the scars on his. “This isn’t.”
“I disagree. Maybe you look at it and see destruction, pain, damaged skin and lost dreams. But I see a man who can’t be stopped. I see a tragedy that brought us together. I see our future in your healing flesh, a future full of love and hope and dreams beyond anything I could’ve ever imagined.”
“You really think we wouldn’t’ve been together had this not happened?”
I shook my head, pushing down the ache bubbling up in my chest. “No. When I got the call, I was minutes away from signing a lease on an apartment in Linville. I was preparing to go back to work. I had nothing to make me come back…then Danni called and I had no reason to stay. Then you told me you love me, and now I have no desire to go home.”
Carter invaded my space and cupped my face in both hands. “This is your home, Kara. Here. With me. This house—or any house—is where you belong, as long as it’s with me. From now on, when you talk about home, you better mean here. It’s our house, our bedroom, our bed. You got me?”
“I got you.”
His eyes squinted as he lowered his mouth to speak against my parted lips. “No, babe. I’ve got you.”
“You’re bringing this?” Carter eyed me over the top of my car. “How’d you expect to get it home?”
I wanted to laugh at his wrinkled nose and curled upper lip, but I decided it wouldn’t be the best idea. We’d spent the last day and a half packing up everything I ever owned—half of which he argued and said I didn’t need, but relented when I pouted and told him it held some special meaning to me.
“Well, I was going to drive it back.”
“How exactly did you plan to drive your car and a U-Haul?”
I shrugged and turned my attention to the car I’d owned for the last seven years. It was old, but it got me from point A to point B with very little difficulty. I knew the argument I was on the verge of losing. “I was just going to stuff it with as much as I could fit and leave the rest.”
“And what
…drive back until you got it all?” He glanced through the window. “This thing has over two hundred thousand miles on it. You’d make it to the Georgia border before it left you stranded on the side of the road.”
“No. I’d just leave the rest of it here or throw it away.”
“Hold up.” He leaned his elbows on the roof of the car and quirked an eyebrow at me. “All these things you said you couldn’t part with would’ve been garbage had I not come and rented a truck?”
Once again, my shoulders lifted and I offered him a sly grin.
“The car’s staying.” He slapped the rusting roof and started to walk away.
“We can’t just leave it. It’s my car!”
“We’ll get you a new one.” His tone left no room for argument, but I tried anyway. When I opened my mouth to speak, he stopped and held his hand up. “Kara, I’m not gonna take the risk of you being broken down on the side of the road. You need something more reliable than”—he glanced back at my car—“a piece of shit that’s probably fifteen years old and more than likely won’t make it another year. It has a tape deck and ashtray for fuck’s sake. And are those crank windows?”
“I don’t have a job, Carter. I can’t afford car payments. Anything I get will be fifteen years old with high mileage that won’t last me a year.”
“I’m not gonna let you buy a car. I’m paying for it.”
“Like hell I’ll let you do that.”
“Think of it as a gift from the money I’ll make after this big modeling gig you convinced me to do.” His smile broadened at the sight of my surprised expression. “Oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you. You’re looking at the next Nike model.”
I shook my head and refocused back on the original conversation. “I’m happy to hear that. We’ll celebrate later. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to let you dump money into a vehicle for me. Because I know you, and it won’t be some normal car.”
He blinked at me, as if I’d said something idiotic. “Considering you’re making me bring everything you’ve made, received, earned, or probably stolen in the last twenty-five years back to our small beach house, you’ll let me buy you one and you won’t argue about it.”