by JB Salsbury
Her skin feels like it’s on fire, her mouth hungry as she sucks at my tongue and nips at my lip.
I pull my mouth away and kiss a trail down her jaw to her ear. “You wanna take this inside?”
“Yes.” Her hand blindly reaches for the door, and I wrap my arms around her to keep her upright as I walk her back and into her living room.
It’s mostly dark inside except for one table lamp. I walk her back to the couch and move to lay her on it when she pushes against my chest.
“What?”
She smiles and motions to the sofa. “We need more privacy than this.”
I peek over her head to the felines all sprawled out and staring up at me. Staring is being polite, because I get the distinct impression that each one of them is telling me to go fuck myself. “I think your cats hate me.”
“That’s probably true. They hate everyone.” She takes a fistful of my shirt and pulls me across the small space to a hallway and then a dark room.
The lights flick on and she lets me go. It’s a small room with log cabin walls, a desk, dresser, and a queen-sized bed with a white iron frame. It looks like a teenage girl’s room with the purple comforter and magazine cutouts decorating the walls, but these aren’t photos of teen idols and sports icons; these are cut outs of places. I walk over to inspect them. They look like they’re all from magazines, travel magazines.
Greek shorelines, Arch de Triumph, Grand Canyon, Mayan ruins, Egyptian Pyramids . . . “What is all this?” I turn back, and she’s tugging at the hem of her shirt nervously.
“I’m kind of obsessed with world travel.”
I point over my shoulder toward the images. “How many of these places have you been to?” I fear I already know the answer.
She shakes her head.
“None?”
“I’ve never left Hope Town.”
I can’t stand the weird shame I see flash in her eyes, so I turn back to the images and point to one very colorful cutout. “Las Vegas.”
“Yeah.”
“Hm.” I’ve seen so many places. To think this incredibly talented, smart, beautiful woman has been on this earth for thirty years and only ever dreamt of seeing the world is an injustice I can’t bear to swallow.
“So, uh . . . does all this kill the moment?” She laughs, but it’s an uncomfortable sound, and hurts like hell to hear.
I pull her in front of me, facing the photos. As I press my front to her back, she gasps when she feels my hard-on at her lower back but doesn’t shy away. I gather all her hair in my hands and push it over her shoulder, allowing my fingertips to brush the side of her breast ever so slightly. She leans back, giving me her weight, and I take it gladly, running my hands up her arms, over her shoulders, and back down to the underside of her wrists. “You make me want things.” My hands continue to move on her body, tucking under her shirt to graze the smooth plane of her stomach. “I’ve been to most of these places.” I dip my fingers lower to skim at the waistline of her shorts. “Now I feel like I need to go back, with you, because I know they’d be more beautiful with you in them.”
Her head falls to the side, opening her neck to my mouth. “Caleb . . .”
I suck at her sensitive skin, licking my way up to her ear. “I’m right here.” Hooking my fingers under her shirt, I slide it up, wondering if she’ll stop me as I slip it over her head. She doesn’t. Turning her around, I gaze upon her breasts and remember how badly I wanted to taste them at eighteen years old. But she was just a girl then. Now, standing before me in a black cotton bra, she is all woman.
I dip two fingers into her shorts and pull her to the bed, sitting down. I drag her between my legs then lie down so she’s on top of me. She straddles my hips and grinds down against the erection that’s pressing painfully against my zipper.
“You feel so good.”
Her mouth goes to my neck, and she licks up to my ear then tugs the lobe between her teeth where she whispers, “So do you.”
Unable to take another second without her mouth, I guide her back to mine, and she sinks into a wet and needy kiss. My hands move to her breasts, cupping their heavy weight and running the pad of my thumb across the pebbled tips until she’s squirming deliciously on top of me.
I want her. I want to strip her bare and taste her all over before falling blissfully between her thighs where I can die a happy man.
I have a fleeting thought, a curiosity that I must know as it’ll determine the direction of tonight.
“Honor?”
She tugs at my shirt, and I push up so she can slip it off.
“Babe?”
“Hmm?” Her mouth is at my chest where she licks at my nipples before tugging them between her teeth.
My hips jack off the bed, searching for the warm friction of her body. “Honor, wait.”
“What?” She says it, but she doesn’t stop trailing her lips across my pecs, moving lower . . . lower . . . lower…
“Whoa . . . hold up.” I push up on my elbows, and she peeks up at me through a veil of pale hair. Her eyes are blue pools of molten desire. “Before you go any lower, I need to know . . .” I swallow, just as terrified of ruining the mood as I am of her answer. “Are you a virgin?”
Her eyebrows drop low, and a strange look comes over her face before she bursts out laughing.
I’d almost be offended if it weren’t for the fact that this laugh is the one I like, the one I feel in my bones, the one I’d spend the rest of my life ensuring the world heard more of. “What’s so funny?”
She holds up a hand, trying to calm herself. “I’m sorry. It’s not funny. I mean it is, but it’s not.”
“Explain that.”
“I can see why you’d think I’m a virgin. I mean . . . I’m not exactly a social butterfly. People don’t find weird and unusual war facts entertaining party fodder. Go figure.”
I laugh when I realize this is the first genuine peek at Honor’s true personality I’ve ever gotten. Fuck if it doesn’t make me like her even more. “What’s wrong with people?”
“Right?” She sits back on my upper thighs, and I could stare at her like this all damn day, thighs spread out over me, tits wrapped up in thin fabric giving me just enough of a tease to make me starved, hair falling all over tan shoulders and arms. Fuck me. “But no, I am definitely not a virgin.”
“Oh.” And why the hell does that piss me off. “Definitely not?” What the shit does that mean? Now I’m plotting the slow and painful death of every single man in Hope Town.
“I had a boyfriend for two years.”
What the motherfuck? Yeah, no, I am absolutely going to kill someone. Which is ridiculous. I’d expect a woman as gorgeous as Honor to have been with someone, but the irrational man in me wishes it had been me.
“It was in my mid-twenties. We didn’t do much that would count as being in a relationship. Nothing, ya know, outside of stuff . . . like this.”
“Is that right?” Don’t blow this by getting pissed, asshole!
“We weren’t in love or anything. We just . . . I don’t know. I guess we were trying a lot of stuff out on each other. Perry was just as—”
“Hold the fuck on.” I did not hear that right. “Did you say Perry? As in Scary Perry?”
“Perry Foster. Yes. Scary Perry, one in the same. Now you see why we bonded.”
“No, I do not fucking see why you bonded. That guy isn’t even in the same ballpark, hell, the same county as you. You’re way too good for him.”
“That’s sweet, but no. He was Scary Perry. I was Bug. We had a lot more in common than you think.”
“He’s that prick Roy’s best friend.”
“He actually doesn’t really like Roy, but like me, he still hangs around him though. Again, something we had in common.”
“Bullshit. He just told you that to get in your pants, that little shit. Does he still live here?”
A slow smile migrates across her perfect face.
“What? Does he?”
&n
bsp; “Oh my gosh, Caleb Dean.”
“What!”
“You’re jealous!”
I grab her hips and flip her over so I’m on top, lying in the cradle of her thighs. “You’re damn right I’m jealous. I was so hot for you at eighteen. Dammit.” I shake my head. “I should’ve made a move. That little hard-on Perry—”
She silences me with a kiss that starts off softly and quickly turns frantic.
It’s stupid, it’s immature, and all the reasons why I shouldn’t do it are raging in my skull but just sound like static, because I’ve made up my mind.
This is happening. I’m going to spend all night hitting every single spot on Honor’s body, bringing her so much pleasure it’ll erase forever the memory of the man who came before me. For the rest of her fucking life, she’ll orgasm every single time she thinks of me.
~*~
Honor
Who knew jealousy was an aphrodisiac?
Something snapped in Caleb after I told him about Perry, and what he was holding back when we first made it to my room he has now unleashed.
He growls against my neck as he drags his teeth in an agonizing path between my breasts. Every rasp of his mouth to my over-sensitized skin sends a buzzing through my veins. His big hand cups my breast as he nips and licks me over the fabric of my bra. It’s torture, sweet, delicious torture.
I run my hands through his hair, holding him to me as I arch into his touch. He hooks the delicate fabric and tugs it down to reveal my breast, which is aching with need.
“Do you know how long I’ve dreamt about being with you like this?” His words ghost hotly across my bare skin. He rains kisses on me, alternating between stiff bites and soothing licks, and the contrast has me writhing beneath him. “Tell me you’ve thought of us too.”
Have I?
Caleb was always the best-looking of the boys that tormented me. Not that he ever participated in the bullying, but he hung out with the asshole who did, which made him just as guilty in my eyes.
But he did show me that one kindness. He saved my kitten from Roy and gave me the shirt off his back to make sure Ulysses was warm. Would he think it weird that I held onto that kindness for years? If I pulled out the shirt he gave me, would it freak him out?
“I have. So much.” In the last few days specifically. He has shown me nothing but kindness and respect, and although there’s a part of me that fears he’s only setting me up to pull the carpet out from under me, to place me on a pedestal only to watch how far I’ll fall, a voice inside me whispers he’s a good man. His actions prove he’s loyal and caring, compassionate and sincere.
“You taste so good.” He pops my other breast free from the confines of my bra. “So soft.”
“Don’t stop.” I breathe the words on an exhale, and he smiles against my skin as he moves down my body.
He makes quick work of the button and zipper of my shorts, and I lift my hips as he slides them down my thighs. I stare up at him as he stands at the edge of the bed, looking down at me, devouring me with his gaze.
I have a moment of insecurity when I consider the kind of women Caleb has been with. The curves of my body weren’t sculpted in some fancy Pilates class but rather from the strain of physical labor. Where he’s probably used to women who wear the finest silk and lace, I’m wearing a Jockey bra, and my cotton underwear is far from what most would consider a panty. And yet, he looks at me as if I’m draped in silk and satin.
I move my hands to my stomach, nervous about what he might see.
His eyes dart to mine. “Don’t do that; don’t hide from me.”
“I’m afraid.”
“Of me?”
“No. Of what you might be thinking.”
With a knee on the bed, he crawls back over me, nestling perfectly between my legs, allowing me a moment to feel, really feel, his body’s reaction to mine. “I’ll tell you exactly what I’m thinking, Honor.”
My name . . . the way he says it, with so much power and authority.
“I’m thinking that I’m dreaming. I look down at you, all that soft, tan skin, your knees open to take me, your legs I imagine wrapped around my hips. All that hair spread out around you like a golden halo, I’m thinking I’m the luckiest son of a bitch who ever lived to be here, like this, with you.”
My breath catches in my throat. “Really?”
“Really. No more wondering about what I’m thinking. You wanna know, you ask, and I’ll tell you.” He rocks his hips forward, and his low moan rumbles against my chest. “I want you so badly. This too soon?”
“No. I want you too.” I lift my lips to his, hoping to silence all conversation and allow our bodies to do the rest of the communicating.
He rolls to his side, taking me with him so he can get at the clasp of my bra. With one hand, he pops it free and slides it from my arms, tossing it to the floor. Pressing me back to the bed, he braces his weight on one elbow and trails his fingers from my chest down to the waistline of my underwear. For minutes upon minutes, he tortures me with his fingers, brushing them with an uneven pressure so close to the place I need him most. He cups me between my legs, and when he drops his forehead to my neck with a groan, I know he’s feeling what I’m feeling. His effect on me is unmistakable.
Reaching for the button-fly of his jeans, I work quickly to get all five buttons undone, and he lifts as I shimmy the jeans along with his boxer briefs down his hips.
“Hold on.” He reaches down to the pocket and pulls a foil packet loose before kicking his pants to the floor.
“You came prepared.” I’m joking, but a flash of concern crosses his expression. “I’m glad you did.”
He grins, and it’s crooked and so sexy I run my lips along his. I don’t know what he does with the condom, but when his hands are back on me, they’re free of it as they roam. He slides his hand down and under the black cotton between my legs and dips his fingers inside. My hips rock into his hand, and he curses low under his breath.
He brings me to the brink of release then backs off, making me frenzied for more. I pull and bite and rip at him to finish me, but he merely chuckles and continues to work me with his hand. I try to relax as the sensations roll through me like a tide, coming close only to crawl away. I breathe through the overwhelming frustration and force my muscles to accept what he’s offering.
“That’s it, Honor. Trust me.”
The air in the room cools the light sheen of sweat that has broken out across my skin. “I trust you.”
With that, I lose his hand, and I bite my lip to keep from crying and begging him to finish. He rips the foil packet with his teeth and rolls to his back, pulling my limp over-worked body with him to settle me on top.
“You’re so close, babe. You let me set the pace; now it’s up to you to finish it.”
Thank you! I push up on my knees and slide slowly down over him until I’m fully seated on his hips. My eyelids are heavy as I peer through the long veils of my hair to see his gaze firmly set on mine. I roll my hips and watch in fascination as he bites his lip against a hiss of pleasure. His fingers dig punishingly into my thighs, as if he can’t decide if he wants me to slow or speed up. I continue to move above him, absorbing every sensation, watching in awe as his firm abs contract, his pecs shine with sweat, and the tension in his neck increases as I ride him hard.
“You’re so fucking beautiful.” His hands cup my breasts. “Don’t stop. Never stop.”
I move faster as the sensation builds low in my stomach. Everything tightens in preparation for what’s sure to be an orgasm that might kill me. My fingers dig into his sides, and I know I’m leaving marks, but the building release is too much to deny.
He bends his knees, powers his hips upward with every one of my downward strokes. My name falls from his lips, and with that, I tip right over the edge.
My thighs clench, and my mouth falls open in a soundless cry that he quickly smothers with a kiss. Our tongues lash together, drawing out our orgasms as we continue to roc
k against each other. It goes on forever until we finally collapse side by side in a tangle of arms and legs.
Breathing heavily, I blink away the fog and focus on the devilishly handsome grin staring back at me.
“You’re looking awfully proud of yourself, Mr. Dean.”
“Not proud. Just really fucking happy.”
“So, this is why they call you the Destroyer.”
He chuckles and tucks my hair behind my ear. “Not exactly, but I’ll take it coming from you.”
“Is there any chance we can do that again?”
His gaze darts down then back to me. “Already? I’m gonna need a few minutes.”
“How many minutes?”
He groans and pushes up to cover me with his big body, all broad shoulders and a wide chest. “Hmm . . .” Already I feel him stiffening against me. “If I had to guess, I’d say not many. But we’re in no hurry. We have all night.” He kisses my chin then my neck. “And the next. And the next . . .”
And the next until he has his fight and leaves Hope Town again. A fissure of worry splits through my post-orgasm bliss, but my mind scrambles as his lips continue to travel lower.
He nips at my belly button and peeks up at me with lust-filled caramel eyes. “But let me see what I can do while we wait, yeah?”
He dips his head between my legs, and I instantly forget whatever I was so worried about.
Six
Caleb
I’m locked in the sauna at the UFL gym in Las Vegas.
I can’t breathe as the air becomes thicker. I search for the handle to the door, round and round the tiny room, but I can’t find it.
I wake, gasping for air.
“Dream.” I pant. Motherfucking dream.
I take a few deep breaths to calm my shit down. Only thing is I still can’t breathe, and it is still hot as hell.
That’s when I feel it.
Looking down as best I can, I’m met with a puffy mass of dark fur.
“What the fuck?”
A small giggle erupts from my side. Honor is sitting up in bed, her knees bent, arms wrapped around her shins. “He likes you.”