by Sable Hunter
“You…you think he’ll be able to accept everything.” She pleated and re-pleated the full skirt of the black and white polka dot sundress she wore.
Giving her a slow wink, Lucas laid it on the line. “I don’t think he’ll blink an eye. At this point, I can only guess what you’re going to say, but I’m sure he’ll suffer with you over the sadness, get pissed over what hurt you and thank God you’re with him now.”
Harper’s heart was pounding, literally pounding in her chest. “I hope you’re right.”
“So, do you want to tell me first, then call him in or do you…”
“I only want to tell it once.”
“Do you want me to listen or do you want me to leave?”
Harper surprised herself. She trusted him. “I want you to stay.”
She was going to need all the help she could get.
Outside in the waiting room, Revel thumbed through a magazine and wanted to kick himself for making Harper feel uncomfortable. Obviously there was something bothering her and he didn’t know what to say, what to do, to make things right.
“Revel?” Harper’s voice caused his head to jerk up, surprising him. She held out her hand. “Will you join us?”
He was up and across to her in a heartbeat. “Sure.” He’d been in Lucas’s office before, there was no way of missing he was an LSU fan, but this was the first time he’d entered in any type of official capacity. Knowing he was a sex therapist used to bring a smile to his lips. Revel remembered kidding him about his occupation and Lucas had quickly straightened him out. As a professional, he’d made sure Revel understood the difference between a sexual therapist and a sexual surrogate, especially in the light of Lucas’s relationship with Dandi. “What’s up?”
“Sit.” Lucas indicated a chair.
Revel sat, his eyes on Harper. She was beautiful, as always, but obviously nervous. “Is something wrong?”
“No.” Lucas quickly assured him. “Something’s very right. Harper is ready to share with us.”
Reaching for her hand, Revel met her apprehensive dark eyes. “I want to hear anything you want to tell me, you know that.”
Harper looked from one to the other of these men who only had her best interests at heart. “This is hard.”
“I know.” Lucas nodded. “Take your time and know you have our full support.”
Swallowing, Harper squeezed Revel’s hand. “I’m not sure where I should begin.” She looked up at the man she loved. “Some people would say I’m a masochist, and I know I have some of those tendencies. I learned in the clubs in Texas that I didn’t crave pain for pain’s sake but as a way of dealing with what I was feeling. The pain inflicted by others made the pain within me easier to bear.” She looked at them both for understanding. Harper saw no condemnation. “I discovered BDSM right before I graduated high school, after the first wonderful summer we had,” she directed this last part at Revel. “When I was with you, I wasn’t so focused on myself and my problems, but when I went home—sometimes things overwhelmed me.”
“What overwhelmed you, Harper?” Revel asked.
Lucas held up his hand, indicating that they needed to let Harper tell her story in her own way.
“When I would cut, burn or bruise myself,” she spoke to Revel, “I saw how much this bothered you.”
“Hell, yes,” he barked out. “I’d rather cut off my arm than see you hurt.”
She hastened to add. “That’s why I was attracted to the spankings and whippings, it seemed a way that I could get what I needed from you in a safe…”
Her voice faded and Revel groaned. “And I didn’t understand, I let you down.”
“Stop!” She held up her hand. “It was my fault. I didn’t give you a chance. I was so afraid of being judged that I rejected you before you could reject me.”
Lucas leaned forward. “Let’s stop here for a second before we go on. Harper, this is important, a classic behavior that many people resort to. We push people away out of fear, a fear that many times is unsubstantiated. It’s a protective device. Let’s bookmark this, sometimes we find ourselves repeating the same type of defense mechanism.”
Revel was getting frustrated. Lucas and his medical speak was keeping Harper from talking. “I wasn’t rejecting you.”
“I know.” Harper wiped a tear from her eye. “I admit I acted hastily. I was wrong to expect you to treat me like others who didn’t try to understand.”
“I’m not like the others.” Revel stated what he considered to be the greatest truth. “You can count on me.”
“As I know you’ve observed this past couple of weeks, certain things tend to set me off. Most of them are memories of my past or mention of my family.” She pulled her hand away from his grasp and covered her own face as if to hide from reality. “I remember at the dance you said you knew my family, or knew of them.” The more she talked, the faster the words came. A trickle of emotion became a flood. “You know that my parents are dead, my mother killed my father, then killed herself—but I don’t think you know why.”
“He abused you, I remember hearing that,” Revel whispered.
Harper laughed, a sad hopeless laugh. “You’re thinking physical abuse…”
Lucas looked at Revel, who was looking back at him. The awful truth hit them at one time. Even as Harper confessed, they knew…
“From the time I was seven, until I was almost thirteen, my father raped me. He came to my room night after night and made me…”
It took everything within Revel to stay seated, to keep from bellowing his rage. He wanted to jerk Harper up out of her chair and hide her against him. “That bastard…” he hissed. This was all the rage he’d allow himself—for the moment.
“Harper,” Lucas began, “what you’ve endured…”
She didn’t give him a chance. “I tried to tell my mother, but she refused to listen. Even though she despised where my father came from, she loved him. He could do no wrong in her eyes.” Harper blushed. “Remy Duhon was a very handsome man and he was good to me when I was small. I thought he was the grandest thing in the world.”
Revel’s heart broke. She was so small, so fragile. The thought of a man taking advantage of her when she was just a little girl made him want to break things.
“I begged him to stop. He wouldn’t. He called me his princess, his special girl.”
She began to curl her fingernails into her flesh and Revel grasped one of her hands and held it tightly. “I’m here, baby.”
“I finally told Clotille, she believed me. She took me to a doctor and to the sheriff. They went with me to try and get my mother to listen and to arrest my daddy, I guess.” Harper sniffed and Lucas handed her a tissue. “That time is a blur for me, except what my mother said to me.” Her voice dropped so low that Lucas and Revel strained to hear. “At first she denied it, but then my daddy came into the room and she could tell from his face that I was telling the truth. But instead of taking my side, she told me it was my fault. That I had caused it. She said I tempted him, I lured him, that I was a tramp and a slut!”
Revel couldn’t stand it. Ignoring Lucas, he pulled Harper into his arms. “I’m so sorry. No child should go through something like that.”
Harper pushed back from him. “I don’t know what I did. I don’t know what I did wrong.”
Both Lucas and Revel spoke at the same time. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“But it was my fault. Mother shot Daddy, then she killed herself. I can still remember Clotille screaming. I can still remember the blood.”
Revel held her. His poor baby. Stroking her back, he held her tight. No wonder she had nightmares. Stress wasn’t a word that could describe the torture she’d inflicted on herself. “None of it. Nothing. Not one damn thing was your fault.”
“But, I had sex with…”
“No.” This was Lucas, emphatically making a point. “You did not have sex with your father. Even if you didn’t resist, you were a child. How much resistance can a t
iny girl make against a grown man?”
Hearing their declarations, hearing the words from them that she’d needed to hear from her mother, Harper went limp. “They died.” The last two words she uttered, were like an epitaph to a nightmare she should have awoken from long ago.
“Yes, they did,” Lucas said gently. “And you survived.”
“And you’re beautiful. And you’re perfect.” Revel breathed against her hair. “And you’re mine.” He whispered the last words.
Harper turned into his arms and nestled against his chest. She felt as if the weight of the world had been lifted from her heart.
* * *
That night they made love in a bed. Regular. Plain old vanilla style.
Revel undressed her gently, laying her down, her long dark hair sliding like silk over her shoulders. Just relishing the moment, he stood there gazing at her, enjoying the view. They’d been through so much. Come so far.
“What are you waiting for, soldier-boy?”
Before he could answer, she edged off the bed, tugging him closer by the belt buckle. “What do you think you’re doing, Bright Eyes?”
“Making myself happy,” Harper muttered as she began peeling his clothes away. Beginning with his jeans, she hiked them down his legs. Revel was no fool, he did his part by kicking off his shoes. Licking her lips, she slid her hands beneath his shirt and pressed her palms against the ridges of his abdomen. He flinched a bit as hundreds of tiny pinpricks sparked on his skin. As always, the chemistry between them was incredible. If he didn’t get a handle on himself, his cock would blast off like a rocket before he got a chance to put it to proper use.
Slowly, tantalizingly, Harper pushed the polo shirt he wore over his head. Having to rise on tiptoe, she strained to reach, her full breasts plumped against his naked chest. At last, she succeeded, tossing it to one side. Next, she turned to his briefs. A harsh hiss escaped his lips as her fingers grazed across the sensitive skin above his groin. Harper smiled, deciding to tease. She rewarded herself and him by smoothing her palms down his legs as she slid his underwear down.
They both groaned when his cock sprang free. Straining outward, his member begged for her touch. With a sly grin, Harper rubbed her lips over his heart as she cupped his heavy sac. “Sweet God, you make me ache,” he said. Her little fingers rubbing his balls was almost his undoing.
“You are such a man,” she groaned, letting her eyes rove over his beautiful body.
“I’m your man,” he said, wrapping a hand around his pulsing cock. Pulling gently, he pumped up and down as he grew thicker and harder in front of her eyes. Now, that he knew her whole story, he understood. Harper had never been rejecting him. “Take off your clothes.” Two moves and the dress went flying. “I dread winter coming. These sundresses are fantastic.” His blood pressure skyrocketed. “I love you, you know that, don’t you?”
“Yes, I do.” His hot breath fanned against her lips and Harper’s heart almost stopped beating. When he pulled her against him, the sensual friction of their bodies pressed together was unbearably wonderful. Harper was so ready for him, so wet, so creamy. It wouldn’t take much, just one kiss and she’d shatter.
“What do you want? Tell me and I’ll give you all that I have.” Revel knew he was about to wax eloquent. He felt like the day had brought them renewal, a second chance. At last he could see the future through the clouds of doubt that had been obscuring their life.
Pressing up against him, she licked at Revel’s full lip, moaning as she relished his taste. “I want it all,” she whispered huskily, sitting on the bed and pulling him close. She ran her fingers up his taut abdomen, loving the tactile delight of her fingers playing over the hills and valley of his muscles. “I want you.” Soon, touching wasn’t enough, she added her mouth—licking and nibbling, worshiping his chest and abs. Revel threw back his head and moaned at the attention.
“I’m going to explode!” he growled.
So incredibly happy, Harper’s laughter rang out. “Do it, I’ll just lick you hard again.”
“Minx,” he whispered, cupping her face and tilting her mouth toward his. Revel bit and licked and sucked, tasting of her sweetness.
She parried every move, her hands shaking with excitement. “I feel so free,” she said the words between love bites, reaching down to capture the velvety hot shaft of his cock in her hands.
“You’ve always been free, free to love me as much as I love you. You just didn’t realize it.” He palmed her breasts, cupping the globes, rubbing her nipples between his fingers with enough pressure to make her purr.
“Free to do this.” She dropped to her knees, stroking the most incredible cock that ever hung between a man’s legs. “God, you’re beautiful, Revel.” He was so hard, the veins were visibly throbbing. On the tip, a thick pearl of clear essence just beckoned her—and she couldn’t resist. Leaning forward, she swiped the flared head with the flat of her tongue. “Yum, my favorite flavor.”
Revel moaned, weaving the fingers of both hands in her hair, flexing his hips and pushing the tip against Harper’s lush, sexy mouth. She tilted her head to the side and licked down one side, sucking at the flesh and nibbling with her teeth—just enough to drive him insane if his cursing under the breath was any indication.
Loving the luxury of being together with no dark cloud overhead, she made herself at home with his body, playing with his balls and fisting him from root to head. Helplessly, Revel bucked at her mouth. “Have mercy, you’re killing me, darling.” With a wicked little smile, she parted her lips, finally letting the head of his dick slip into her mouth.
Shutting her eyes, she enjoyed herself, sucking lusciously on the round succulent swollen tip, lapping and teasing the tiny slit.
“So good, so good,” he said as she pushed deeper down her throat while she suckled him hard, her lust for him as strong as her love. Harper was so aroused—so wet, her own cream coating the folds of her sex and dripping down her thigh. “Harper, fuck!” Revel roared as his manhood pulsed in her mouth, his cum erupting down her throat. Seeing his elation, feeling his release, she tightened her suction, milked his balls and drained him of every drop. The tenseness left the thigh where one of her hands rested as she slipped him from her lips. Harper smiled, “You’re still hard as a rock.”
“Because you’re amazing.” He went to his knees, joining her, devouring her lips with his. “Now, I have to taste you.” He arranged her on the bed, running his hands over her body, setting fire everywhere he touched with fingers and lips. “Here.”
Harper’s breath hitched in her throat when his fingers grazed the sensitive button between her thighs and he began to rub it in circular motions. Her hips followed the motion in sympathetic gyrations. When she whimpered, he made her wait, massaging her entire slit, then pressed two fingers deep into her channel. Harper hummed her approval, contracting around him as he finger-fucked her. “I want to cum.”
“Do you? How bad?” He gave her further incentive when he bent his head and began to tongue her clit in tandem with his busy fingers.
“Desperately!” she keened and he rewarded her honesty by replacing his fingers with his tongue, spearing deep into her sheathe. As she bucked her hips, he thrust his tongue deep into her body again and again, alternating the spearing of her pussy with the laving of his tongue.
“Don’t stop,” she pleaded, her voice shaking.
“Never.” He didn’t slow down, didn’t hesitate—he kept playing with her while his head moved back up so he could suck at her breast—deep, long, lusty draws that made her toes curl and the flesh of her thighs tremble.
“Revel!” The climax burst through her like a bomb, lighting up every fiber of her being. Arching and bowing, it seemed she would levitate from the bed if he weren’t holding her down, rubbing his rough cheeks across the soft flesh of her breasts. The rasp felt like heaven. “Kiss me,” she whispered and he gave her his mouth.
But it wasn’t over.
Rising, he covered her and
before the last echoes of her orgasm faded, he slid the head into her soft heat and it felt so fuckin’ unbelievable he had to pull back out. “No, come back here.” She reached for him. Revel thrust into her and the tiny contractions started all over again. Harper wrapped her arms around him, rubbing her body on his, her whole body clinging as he pounded, his hot hard length tunneling inside of her. Every thrust he made, she tried to hold him inside of her, flexing her inner muscles, milking him until he was almost blind with pleasure.
As if he were doing the most erotic of push-ups, Revel moved in and out of her—intense, long strokes, his chest touching hers, his lips claiming kisses. She dug her fingernails into his skin, the whimpers and cries she made multiplying his pleasure. How responsive she was. “I love you, Harper Summers,” he said the words as he pumped into her, punctuating each of them with a harsh breath.
The sultry Southern night and the perfect sex made his body slick with perspiration. They slid against one another. Mindlessly, they merged their bodies, all pretense at control gone. Plunging, thrusting—in and out—again and again. He hammered into her until she cried out, her body going stiff, clinging to him, her pussy convulsing. This was all it took. Revel exploded, his coming was so intense his whole body vibrated as if it were awaking and all the feeling in the world was returning in pins and needles of ecstasy.
Long moments later, he rolled to one side, taking her with him. Their hearts were beating hard, but beating together. For the first time in years, Revel felt completely and totally at peace. “Marry me, Harper.”
It wasn’t even a question. He held his breath, almost sure she’d tell him no.
“Yes, Sir,” she responded.
Revel looked down into her face. “Yes?”
Harper giggled at his shocked expression. “Yes, the answer is yes!”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
“Ow!” Revel yelped, turning to grab Harper as she walked by. “You pinched me! What was that for?”