by Alexa Davis
23. Carina
I woke up with Jackson wrapped around me so tight at first I panicked, thinking I was tangled in my sheets, and was going to fall out of bed. Once I knew it was him, and not my evil t-shirt sheets that held me so tight, I gently extricated myself and stayed in bed for a few more minutes as I checked on my locker at the convention. There was no record of any activity, which made me smile so big it hurt my face.
Feeling buoyed by Jackson’s super idea that had kept my costume off my “things to worry about” list, I checked my email while still in bed, stealing every second of time with his warmth that I could. I pressed my hips against his bare torso. As I felt him react to me, even in his sleep, I thanked the universe for sending me a man who preferred sleeping nude. My emails were not enough distraction for the muscular, naked body next to me in bed, so I took off the tank top and panties I’d worn to bed and dropped them on the floor, and rubbed up against him again.
He stubbornly refused to wake up all the way, mumbling something about horses and oats, and all the while he was getting harder as he pressed up against me. His hips moved, and I adjusted him so he was sliding between my legs as his hips rocked back and forth. I heard my breathing turn raspy as he slid over me like he was sheathed in silk, and I had an idea. I ducked down under the covers and slowly lowered my mouth onto him, until my lips were pressed against his stomach. I pulled almost all the way off, and repeated the action, only faster.
As I began to suck in earnest, I heard him gasp, and his fingers threaded through my hair as he threw off the covers with his other hand. I looked all the way up his body to his face, but his eyes were closed as he gently touched my cheek and knotted his fingers in the tangles of my un-brushed hair. I worked him in silence until he pulled his hips away, sinking into the mattress, and pulled me up with both hands.
“I need you on me, now,” he panted as he lifted me up further. I got to my knees and straddled his hips, easily sliding his wet shaft into me, only making us both wetter as I started to glide up and down on him. He never opened his eyes, just gripped my hips so hard he left little half-moons behind from his finger nails. Even that small pain made me wetter, and I picked up my pace until I was breathing hard and riding the edge of pleasure towards the abyss. I leaned forward and begged him to mark me somewhere no one else would see.
He bit down hard on my shoulder, and sucked until the pain went from dull, to sharp and immediate. I shuddered and clenched around him, and he lunged at me again, taking my breast in his mouth and doing the same, biting and sucking right next to the nipple, leaving teeth marks and a quickly purpling bruise bigger than the nipple itself. I was cascading down through my orgasm and screamed out, begging for more pain. He dug his fingernails into my backend and bit me one last time, on the already tender flesh of my breast.
The sharpness of the pain changed my scream and tore a gasp from my throat, before I collapsed shuddering on top of him. He held me while I trembled, and softly stroked me with callused hands turned to velvet in the gentleness of his touch. I was amazed at how I could feel such intense pain, amazing pleasure, and feel so protected, all at the same time. I looked into his eyes, which were finally open, and he watched me carefully.
“I’ve never done a lot of what you ask for. Promise you will tell me if I’m getting it wrong, or if it’s too much. I’m learning as I go, and so far as I can tell, you are the wildest creature to exist on God’s green earth.”
I chuckled softly and stared down into him. I had never met a man as wholesome and worldly as he managed to be at the same time. “You seem to have a steep learning curve, as it so happens. But, what do you want? What can I do to make you explode in pure pleasure and make you forget any other woman could ever exist?” He moved under me, and I clasped around him hard and tight enough to make him gasp aloud. “So, cowboy, what are you going to do now?”
He smiled up at me and pulled me to him for a kiss. While he held me close, our tongues intertwined, my hips pulsing against him, he wrapped his arms around me and rolled us so that he was on top of me, still kissing me as he started to move slowly and steadily in and out of my hot, wet clenching muscle.
“I guess I’m not very exciting,” he whispered in my ear as he leaned in close, “but sometimes, all I want is the feel of you around me, under me, and savoring every second I’m inside you.” His rhythm never changed, but what he said thrilled down my abdomen and poured over him in thick hot liquid as I came hard and fast under him. He grinned down at me as I clutched at his shoulders and bit my lip to silence my cries. He rubbed his thumb over my lips, separating them, and kissed me again, long and deep, eating my screams as he pushed me over the edge again with those long steady thrusts, as though each one was a declaration of his love for me.
He let himself go then, as my body softened around him. I wrapped my arms and legs around him, ran my fingers through his long, soft hair, and held him as tight as I could, all of me as close to him as I could manage without eating him whole and carrying him inside me. I felt him throb and spasm inside me and I tucked my face into the heady, masculine smell of his neck, breathing him in and holding his scent as long as my breath held before I exhaled.
“You are the kind of man a girl should fall in love with.” I whispered into his ear as he rested on top of me.
“I’m the kind of man who will crush a girl if I can’t roll over and get off her skinny ass,” he teased as he rocked to force us to one side so he could relax and not put his weight on me. I fought him for a moment, but let go with a giggle and slid onto my side rolling as one so he was still inside me as we rested face to face.
“We moved too fast, didn’t we?” he asked as he stroked my hair back from my face.
“I always move too fast, in everything, all the time. So maybe, maybe I’m pulling you along too.” I tried to pull away but he wouldn’t let me.
“My momma would be the first to tell you that no one makes me do anything I’m not fully ready to do. I want you, and only you. So, if you want me too, then I think we’re good.” He kissed my forehead and slid slowly away from me, cold bleeding into the space between us. “Close your eyes for a few minutes while I make breakfast. We still have plenty of time before we must leave. But, save some time in the shower for me this time. I want my hands on you a little longer before we head back into the land where I have to let other men grab your ass.”
I snickered and shoved him away, pulling the covers over me to keep warm while I watched his naked ass head toward the fridge.
He pulled fruits and veggies out of the fridge and sliced them up, feeding them into the blender, all the while humming a country tune and occasionally adding a yummy little shimmy for good measure. Dragging myself away from the fantasy of domestic bliss I’d never thought I’d have was torture. With a dramatic sigh, I dragged myself off the bed and grabbed my clothes from the dresser before heading into the bathroom, with the sound of the blender buzzing cheerily behind me.
24. Jackson
I put away the bed and tidied up the apartment, and made sure everything on her list was ready to go before joining her in the bath. I tried to sneak in to the shower with her, but she was waiting for me, sitting naked on the counter when I walked in the room.
“It’s your turn for something a little more tender, Lover.” She slid off the counter and put her arms around my neck. “You are the kind of man a woman should fall in love with, and I aim to make sure you don’t notice any of them.”
I laughed and held her tiny waist in my hands. “I can’t imagine what more I can do than pick up and leave my home, and put my future on hold that will convince you that all I want is to be here with you.”
“Oh, I know that’s what you want now. I just want to give you lots of reminders that I’m not just some wild creature that you can blow in and out of her life without losing something in the process. Starting with a little TLC before you and I make Gamercon history and rock the entire geek world with your genius and my creativity.”
She washed every inch of me so tenderly I thought we were about to make love. I was finally the one who had to remind her of our schedule and hurry her through her own routine so we could eat and get out the door. While she dressed and gulped down the shake I’d made her, I fed Stiles, who was my shadow until the food hit his bowl, and then he promptly forgot me. She checked her phone again before we left. The locker was still locked tight, and had been throughout the night.
I got another kiss for keeping her costume safe, and teased her about how little she cared about her home, since I’d stolen the monitor from her front door. She told Stiles to keep the place safe, and I assumed the faint ear twitch she got in response was as close to an affirmative as she could get from a feline. We raced to the car, and she drove, after pointing out to me that she was by far the more aggressive driver and we had no time to spare getting to the convention center.
On the way, I checked her phone again. The locker was dark, but there was an edge of light I didn’t remember from before. I didn’t say anything, trying not to alarm C.J., but I forgot the volume had been turned all the way up. The motion and light had activated the monitor so when the door was forced open, the sound was a near deafening crash in the car. C.J. jumped and I put a hand over her mouth before she could exclaim, turning the volume down to a tolerable level before a woman’s face came into view. As soon as her face was recorded, I demanded to know what she thought she was doing. With a gasp, the door slammed shut and the monitor went silent again.
We squealed into a parking spot near the employee entrance and C.J. tossed me the keys to lock up as she ran full out toward the dressing area. I followed as quickly as I could, and caught up with her just as she was opening the locker, which had obviously been jimmied with a tool of some kind. The grey paint was scratched through and the edge of the door itself was caved in right at the lock, as though a pry bar had been wedged in the crack between the door and the frame and pushed out.
I showed C.J. the video, and then I showed it to the security team that had joined us to check out the near theft. It was Ray, the guard who C.J. knew, who found the spray paint and thread cutting tool shoved behind a dressing rack full of soldier uniforms for one of the upcoming shows for the day.
“I suppose I should be glad she wasn’t trying to steal it,” I heard her say as Ray and a man in a suit spoke with C.J. off to one side of the lockers. I gave her phone back to her, and showed Ray and another guard where the monitor was, explaining how we’d caught the video.
They finally let us pull the costume out and check it, and her tears of relief when she saw that we’d stopped the vandal from completing her goal only made me angrier. Even more when C.J. told me that she knew the girl, that they all did, and they were looking for her, but had no idea what kind of disciplinary action was to go with her crime. The community was so close knit, they’d never had anyone force them to act against them before.
C.J. and I waited for Shelby to arrive so we could dress her for the competition, but I could see the color had seeped out of her day, and no amount of good press, maybe not even a win, was going to improve her mood now. Her biggest debut was ruined by another cosplay artist.
“No one ever takes Lacey seriously,” she sniffed as I sat with my arm around her shoulder. “All she ever cares about is being sexy, getting noticed for her boob job. She has no chance of ever winning a competition, even if she had ruined the War Angel.” I rubbed her shoulder and tried to think of something that would make everything better.
“What in the all-fired hell is going in here today?” Shelby called out from far down the corridor. “Bitches better stay out of my way.” C.J. sniffed and giggled a little, under her breath. Hearing Shelby chewing out whatever poor stranger had the misfortune of being between her and her friend, took a little of the sting out of the attempted vandalism.
C.J. wiped her eyes and took a couple of deep breaths. I tried to calm down too. I knew there was no good in letting what didn’t happen ruin the whole competition for her, but I wanted to rail against the judges, the other attendees, anyone who hadn’t taken her seriously enough to protect her legacy.
“It’s okay Jackson, you can dial it back now,” C.J. whispered to me as she bumped her shoulder into me. “I can feel your anger rising off you like heat waves.” I dropped my arm from her and shook myself.
“Sorry. Not trying to make anything worse. I’m just so mad. I literally pulled that monitor off your door at the last second. It was just supposed to make you feel better, not stop an actual freaking crime.” I rubbed my hands. “So, who is this bitch, anyway?”
“Her name is Lacey. She’s not all bad, but she wants to be seen and become famous so bad. She hates that I already had a successful career as a fashion model, because that’s what she wants to be, you know? She’s a cosplayer, hoping to be ‘discovered’ and become a famous model or actress.”
“She has a hate on for you because you’re already famous, and you’re better at this game than she is, too.”
“I don’t know about that…” her voice trailed off.
“Yeah, you do,” I argued. “You know, for a tough as nails hard-ass, you sure are soft-hearted. You could’ve demanded she be voted off the island, forever. I think they would’ve given it to you.”
“Maybe. I just want them to take our hard work seriously enough that they protect it when we aren’t able to.”
“I can imagine that if they’d got a bill from you they’d be making sure that happened.” I tilted her face up and kissed her. She tried to smile, but it was wan and tired. Her eyes were rimmed in red, and her nose was still pink from her crying jag.
She threw her arms around my waist and buried her face in my shirt. Shelby and the gofers watched anxiously by the costume on its rack, worry on their faces as the seconds ticked by. I pulled her away from me so I could look down into her face, anxiety and resignation all wrapped up in one little, adorable ball of angst. I led her to the makeup counter, with its Hollywood lit mirror and tall stool, and she sat, wiping away the remaining moisture from her face.
I took Shelby aside as C.J. started brushing out her hair to pull back under the wig she’d be wearing, and Shelby and I talked about how she looked, and what makeup to use. I wanted the judges to see her as she was now, not cold and aloof as she’d been wearing the character, but burning so hot that it felt like frostbite to touch her, frustrated and tired of an eternity of disappointment in the people around her.
Shelby listened and nodded. “You’ll have to sell her on it before she goes out there, but I have the easy job. The woman is gorgeous, all I have to do is accentuate it for the distance from the stage to the audience.”
C.J. was tucking the last few stray hairs into the tight bun she wore under her wigs, and watching us in the mirror.
“Hey there, pretty girl,” Shelby smiled at C.J.’s reflection. “I’m going to do your makeup a little differently, and Jackson had an idea for your character, that might help you feel better. You can still win this, you know.” She applied a light foundation, and got out an air-gun to apply colors while I watched, amazed at the transformation.
In a few minutes, Shelby had created a fiery goddess from a tear-stained girl. I slow-clapped as C.J. turned to face me and Shelby affixed the black and blue wig and styled it up and away from the wings, with soft, curling tendrils that famed her face. The hairstyle brought back some of the innocence that I had come to understand was a part of C.J., even if she didn’t realize it herself. She was filled with perpetual wonderment. Every experience was all or nothing for her, from choosing dinner to choosing me.
Now she looked imposing and stern, sad and majestic, from the extra inches her heels gave her, to the heavy eye makeup Shelby had added to make her eyes look larger than real life. I held up the bodice and helped her get her arms in, then grabbed her boots for her while Shelby adjusted the brace system and retightened the laces at the back.
She slid a foot into each boot, and I zipped them
up, running my hands over the soft skin of her thighs as I locked the zippers in place. Her thighs were so close and tempting, I gave in to my urge and leaned in closer, nibbling on the tender skin between the top of the thigh high boot, and the hem of her shorts, until she squealed and flicked me on the top of the head.
“Ow!” I laughed and rocked back on my heels. She rolled her eyes, but I could see the flush deepen in her cheeks. “Later, then,” I added, making her blush deeper and giggle. I smacked her on the ass for good luck, and Shelby and I backed away as a stage manager hurried her out to the backstage waiting area. I crossed my fingers.
“She didn’t check her wings,” Shelby sighed.
“They’ll work, I looked them over myself while you put C.J. through that airbrush torture of yours.”
She laughed and grabbed my arm. “We have to go watch, I can’t wait back here.” We used our all-access passes to sneak up to the side of the stage where we could watch without being seen. I didn’t see the girl who had forced C.J.’s locker open, and part of me was disappointed. I had a few things I would’ve liked to say to her. I watched as costume players from every game and science fiction franchise I could imagine strutted across the stage. Suddenly, I was worried for C.J., not because her costume wasn’t good enough, but because it wasn’t a well-known character.
“How many points are awarded based on the fan votes from yesterday?” I asked Shelby in a whisper.
“Not sure, but they’ll explain the whole system as they award them.”
I nodded and folded my arms to stop clenching and unclenching my fists by my sides. I was ten times more nervous than C.J. looked. She didn’t even glance back as her turn to strut the stage arrived. Shoulders back, whip uncurled, she stalked across the wooden platform, her boots flashing and flaring like flames dancing up the sides of her legs.