by Laney Powell
The door opened, and I stepped in. It slammed behind us, and he picked me up, right there in the doorway, and carried me to the bed.
“Will you trust me?” He pulled off my shoes as he asked.
I looked into his eyes and nodded.
“Lie still. Don’t move unless I tell you to.” There was an edge to his voice that hadn’t been there before.
It made me shiver with anticipation.
He removed my jeans, and took my hand, pulling me up into a sitting position. He took off my shirt, and bra, brushing my nipples with his hand and eased me back onto the bed. The bulge in his pants was enormous. As he looked down at me, he closed his eyes, and inhaled deeply. I hoped he was trying to control himself; that I excited him as much as he did me. The idea made my panties even wetter, and my legs rubbed against one another. He was doing this for me, to make this good for me. And he was going to have to control himself.
Good. I found satisfaction in that.
This was opening up a whole new side of sex for me. I laid back, wiggling my ass a little. He shifted to accommodate his bulge. I kept the smile off my face.
Markus leaned down and lifted my arms over my head. “Can you keep these above your head? It will be… better if you do. But it’s up to you.” His face was open.
I understood that I could say no. Did I trust him? To keep my hands over my head?
I did. I nodded.
“Excellent choice. Now, hold still.” He laughed. “If you can.”
This sounded like a challenge. I closed my eyes.
“Will you keep your eyes open?” Markus asked quietly. “I like to see you.”
Well. OK. This was different, and it made my panties basically give up. At the same time, I felt like a femme fatale, because of the careful and deferential way he touched me. I knew some of this was him wanting me to see he was sincere, and trustworthy. He wanted me. He wanted me.
I was driving him crazy. Which was the sexiest thing about this whole night. I’d never driven anyone crazy. Ever. But this gorgeous man, six-plus feet of hunky manliness, was excited beyond belief to be here with me.
Since he’d been making me crazy since almost the first time we’d met, I figured this was fair.
He drew his hand along my left side, brushing underneath my breast, and down to my stomach. When his hand dipped between my legs and rubbed against my pussy, I couldn’t keep my hips still.
“I’m so glad to see you’re as into this as I am,” he murmured. “Kind of that misery loves suffering thing.”
“Are you going to put me out of my misery?” I teased.
“After a while,” he looked at me, and his eyes darkened.
Holy shit.
Markus slid a finger into my panties and stroked me. “Nice and wet. I like you like this.”
“It’s all your fault,” I panted.
“Good.”
He was right. I wanted to wrap my arms around him and pull him inside me, but I’d promised to keep my hands up. He saw me moving and smiled. “I told you it wasn’t easy.” He didn’t stop moving his fingers in and out of me.
Just take the panties off, for God’s sake, I thought.
Markus removed his hand and casually unbuttoned his shirt. Then his shoes and pants, and he was naked in front of me. His cock sprang out, even bigger than I remembered. He crawled onto the bed with me and covered me with his body.
My legs fell open, and he laid on top of me. He fit perfectly although he was so much taller than me. He rubbed his cock against my pussy, and I moaned a little. My entire body felt like it was on fire and wanting him to touch me more.
His chest had a small amount of hair, which rubbed against my nipples. Sweet baby Jee. I still had my hands over my head, but it was getting harder.
“God, Markus,” I said.
“You feel amazing,” he breathed in my ear. He nibbled at my earlobe and then kissed down the side of my neck. He was grinding himself into me and I was still wearing underwear. What the hell?
His mouth fastened on my nipple, and he palmed the other one with a hand that had slight calluses. Both made my insides clench, and I felt my legs press up against him.
“Patience,” he said.” The hum of his voice against my nipple was maddening.
I arched against him, wiggling, trying to get his cock closer to my skin. He pulled back only a little, but I made a noise of protest as he did.
He kissed the center of my chest, and down to my belly button. His teeth grazed my left hip, biting along the bone. It nearly made me forget my promise and grab him to me.
He scooted down the bed and pushed himself up on his elbows, pulling my panties down.
“God, finally,” I breathed. They were useless at this point.
He leaned close to my bare pussy, breathing as he laughed. He moved to the side and slid my panties down. When he tossed them to the floor, he settled himself between my legs and put his mouth on me.
I nearly came. Markus pulled back. “Oh, no. You teased me, and I plan to return the favor.”
Oh yeah. I had done that.
He licked me, and thrust his tongue into me, in and out, in and out, mimicking what I hoped like hell would be happening soon. He inched up and took my clit into his mouth, nibbling and sucking, and when I thought I couldn’t stand it anymore, he slid two of his fingers into me. As he did, he curled them, and I nearly came off the bed. Markus didn’t stop. If anything, he increased his tempo, and I was losing control.
Then I was falling over a cliff, seeing stars—whatever you want to call it. Coming hard and I heard something that I realized was me moaning Markus’ name.
“Oh, God,” I gasped. My shoulders relaxed onto the bed. I hadn’t realized I’d been tense. Anything that was tense had the consistency of rubber right about now.
“Don’t even think about going to sleep,” Markus said. I opened my eyes and he was right above me, kissing me. I tasted myself on him and found it didn’t bother me. It was sexy.
Markus moved off the bed and before I had a chance to ask where he thought he was going, he was back, rolling on a condom on his cock, which looked like it had grown a foot since the last time I’d gotten a look at it. I wasn’t going to tell him that though. Maybe later.
“I’ve wanted you in my bed since you nearly killed me,” he said with a laugh.
“It took me a little longer to see you as a suitable partner,” I said. “But I got there, eventually.”
“I’m so glad,” he kissed me. Then he thrust into me, hard and swift.
“Oh my God!” I wrapped my arms around him then, holding him to me. Thank God, he didn’t give me any grief about it. I might have killed him.
I looked up to kiss him right as he leaned down, and my nose bumped against his something. I didn’t know what it was, but it hurt like hell.
“Ow! Holy shit!” I grabbed my nose.
“Oh my God!” Markus said. He made to move away from me, and the hand not clutching my nose grabbed at his ass, reaching his hip.
“Don’t move. I’m sure it’s not as bad as it feels. Let me manage it for a minute. But don’t you move,” I ground out. Tears fell from the corners of my eyes. I brought my hand back so both could clutch at my nose. “God, is it bleeding?”
“Let me look.”
I carefully removed my hands. Markus turned my head gently. “It’s not bleeding. You hit my cheek. It’s going to be tender, but it’s not broken.”
I looked at him, and he looked horrified. Then I started to laugh and had to grab my nose again because it hurt to laugh. “Oh, God. What you’re saying is the pain will pass?”
“It will. We can finish this lat—”
“No, we cannot,” I said, glaring over my hand. “You will give me a minute, and keep yourself… together, and we’ll pick up where we left off.” I glared. “I mean, if you want to. That sounded pretty bossy.”
Markus laughed. “It’s not like I rented this room by the hour. We have time.”
“Yea
h, for another round, or something equally delightful.” I pressed against my nose. It hurt less. I inhaled deeply and rubbed it. “I think you need to keep doing what you were doing before you took your revenge on me.”
He smiled and kissed the corner of my mouth. “Yeah, but at least I did it in private.”
“There’s that.” I felt safe to take my hands from my nose, and I ran them down the sides of him, loving how muscled he was. I thrust my hips up. He’d stayed hard, and when I moved, he looked intently at me.
“You sure?”
“Yes.”
Markus kissed me, gently at first, and then deeply, thrusting his tongue into my mouth. The crisis was over, and we were back to the important things. He moved within me, and I spread my legs, wanting more of him. He pushed himself all the way into me. I felt filled, but I wanted more.
“Faster,” I whispered.
He kissed me, but I turned my head slightly. “Please,” I added.
He was still for a moment, and said, “All right.”
He began to move in and out of me, faster, and harder. Every stroke, he drove into me hard, and it felt amazing, but I needed more. I thrust my hips up to meet him, wanting everything he had to give.
His hands cupped along my jaw, Markus kissed me, and the force of his movement made my body shake. It wasn’t enough. I could feel the crest coming, but it wasn’t there yet. I met him stroke for stroke, both of us beginning to breathe heavily.
All my nerve endings were on fire. A five-alarm fire. His hands came under my ass and lifted me up.
“Oh!” I gasped.
Then he moved faster, and I could feel myself right on the edge. I held him like my life depended on it, and I fell off the cliff again. I bit his shoulder, and he gave a shout as he came.
For a moment, neither of us moved.
Markus kissed me, taking care to avoid my nose.
“I can’t move,” I said.
“Don’t. I’ll be right back.” He slid out of me, and I heard him in the bathroom. He went out of the room, too, but I was curled up on my side, in that sleepy afterglow that sex brings.
He came back with a washcloth in his hand, which he proceeded to wave at me.
“What is that for?”
“It’s ice, for your nose. So it doesn’t get puffy.”
I stared at him for a moment, and sat up slowly and took it from him, gently resting it on my face. Wow. That was really nice.
“Why don’t you lie down? We can sleep a little before we have to go back to Wonderland.”
“Oh, yeah, we do have to go back, don’t we?”
“I’ll wake you,” he said. He took off his clothes again, and got into bed with me, spooning behind me.
Had I not been so tired, I might have rolled over and explored him, because I loved being so close to him, but… I was too tired.
Before I knew it, Markus was shaking me awake. “Hey, Annalise, we have to go.”
“Oh, hell. Work.”
“I know. I didn’t think you wanted to slide in there right before class started.”
I laughed, and sat up, stretching. His eyes went to my chest, and I could see the heat flare in them. “Don’t look at me like that. We can’t be late.”
I got dressed, and we held hands as we left. I couldn’t remember when I’d felt so happy. I’d definitely have to take an ibuprofen when I got home. My nose was throbbing. War wounds, I thought.
“Are you going to let me see you when we are in the City?” he asked, concentrating on the road.
“Yes. Why wouldn’t I?”
A grin spread across his face. “Just checking.”
“I appreciate being thorough.”
Markus looked at me. “I bet you do.” He pulled up in front of my cabin and leaned over to kiss me. I was ready to say the hell with the job and head right back to the hotel, but the practical side of me wouldn’t let that happen.
We’d have plenty of time during the week. I hoped he lived near me.
“Get some sleep. Take a long shower.”
“Yes, sir,” I said, giving a salute.
He was smiling as I got out of the car. As I snuck into my cabin, feeling like someone who’d broken their curfew, I decided that maybe coming to work at Wonderland wasn’t the worst thing ever, despite my earlier misgivings. It was looking to be the best decision I’d ever made.
Markus
One Year Later
I fiddled with the ring box that sat in the console next to me. Tonight was the night. I was going to propose, and I hoped she’d say yes. I was pretty sure she would—but Annalise, I’d found, was not always predictable.
We’d finished working together at Wonderland, keeping our relationship low key. It nearly killed me, but she asked if we could hang out with other people on Friday nights, and Saturday nights would be ours. I rented a lot of rooms at the hotel where we’d first been together.
At first, I’d resented her taking that time from me, from us—but as the season went on, I began to understand why she’d done it. She told me about the text she got on New Year’s Eve, and the mission to change her life path. Hanging out with other people was part of that. She and Grace and Leah were still friends, even though Grace was at school, and Leah had moved to Colorado. I’d gone home with her to Bristol and met her childhood friends, the ones she called the Spar Island girls. That had been fun, too.
I wasn’t someone who had a lot of friends, and Annalise had let hers sort of slide. She told me that while she adored being with me, she needed to find a better path in other areas of her life. After sulking for a week, I got over myself, and realized that she was right.
While it took me a while to admit it, I enjoyed the time with others. I was more at ease and relaxed than I’d ever been. That was Annalise’s influence.
Which is why I had my mom’s engagement ring in a box next to me. God, please let her say yes. I hope I hadn’t read this all wrong.
I’d been stewing for a week. I was back at my firm, part time, and I thought I’d keep it this way. I did a lot of our pro bono work, which kept it off the plates of the other partners, and they appreciated that. It felt right. I had options, and that was a good thing.
When I got to her place, I pulled into the garage. She’d told me she’d reserved a guest space for me, giving me the tag when I’d been with her last night. I parked and headed for the elevator. She’d asked me to come over tonight, offering to cook.
Annalise opened the door before I even knocked. “I heard you in the hall,” she said by way of explanation.
I kissed her and came in, wrapping my arms around her. A year after we’d met, and I couldn’t keep my hands off her. “What are you cooking? It smells delicious.”
“A manly meal. Steak, potatoes, and a salad.”
“What’s up?” I asked suddenly.
“What do you mean?” She asked over her shoulder as she went back to the kitchen.
I followed her and put my arms around her as she mixed the salad together. “Come on. I know you better than that. Something’s up. What is it?”
She took a deep breath, and I wondered if I’d read this all wrong. Was she about to dump me?
Annalise turned around. “I want to talk to you about moving in together.”
I opened my mouth. Whatever I’d been expecting, it wasn’t that. Nothing came out, and then I laughed. I was so relieved she wasn’t kicking me to the curb.
“This is funny to you?”
“No, it’s not that. I thought for a minute, with the steak, and how you were acting, you were about to end things.”
“What? No. Not at all. I want to go the opposite direction.”
“Where would we live?” I asked.
“We could live wherever. Your place, my place, a new place.”
“My place is closer to both our offices,” I pointed out.
“It is. But I don’t want you to feel like I’m making the call.”
“You’re not. We are. My place, then? When can yo
u get out of here?”
“That’s it? No more discussion?”
“Did you think there would be?”
She smiled. “I didn’t know if you wanted to give up your space.”
“To have you with me? Who cares about space?”
“I love you,” she said, and she wrapped her arms around me and kissed me.
“Hey, before this gets off track, I have something I want to talk to you about, too.”
“What?” She leaned her head back, smiling at me.
“I wondered if you wanted to have this. As a gift, from me.” I held out the box.
Annalise’s mouth went into a perfect ‘o’. I thought of ten things I could do with that, and focused. She took the box and opened it. “Is this what I think it is?”
“It’s my mom’s,” I said. “She always told me when I met the right woman, she would be delighted if I’d use her ring. She loved it, but she wanted it to be passed down, shared by another couple in love as much as she and my dad were.”
Annalise’s eyes filled with tears. “Yes.”
“Yes?”
“Yes!” She shouted, holding the box and pulling me down to kiss her.
“Wait, wait, let’s put it on.”
She got the ring on her finger, and looked up at me, tears shining in her eyes. “The hell with dinner.”
“Excellent idea,” I picked her up and carried her to the bedroom.
We skipped work the next day.
I'm a Midwestern lady, living life in the Rocky Mountains. I adore strong men with hearts of gold (even if that gold may be a bit imperfect) and that's what drives me to write the stories about them. The longer I do the romance gig, the more firefighter calendar pics I seems to collect. That's normal, right?
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The Spar Island Girls
This story, along with the others that I’ve done with this amazing group of authors, is part of a series of my own called the Spar Island Girls. This is a group of girls that grew up in Bristol, Rhode Island. Off of the city, there’s a little set of islands that are always shifting—there’s more of them exposed at low tide. They’re more land spits in Mt. Hope Bay than islands. But people like to go out there and hang out for the day, and that’s what my Spar Island girls do.