Kneading You

by Simone Belarose

  It hadn’t dawned on me until much later that in his own way, Richard extended that love to me too. He trusted me, and whether I knew it or not I wanted to earn that trust.

  Even after my dad died, Mom refused to think it was a good thing. She always saw the good in him. Was that love?

  Was she in love with her abuser, and couldn’t see him in a negative way at all? She blamed herself for it, I know that. I blew out a sigh and rose to my feet. Sitting here in this empty shop, staring at the sorry state of Sunrise Valley was giving me brooding thoughts.

  I’ll close early and go for a run, take a shower, and be ready for my meeting with Claire, I decided.

  Doors locked, lights out, I went up to my apartment to get changed. I was out on the back roads of town in no time flat.

  My mind wandered as I got to the park, taking the familiar lakefront path I had found Claire at last night. Music blasted in my ears. I took every stray thought, looked at it, and let it fall away.

  Each passing year my business did worse, the town was drying up and as it did more people caved and sold their property. Aside from a few shops, mine was the only one still doing any business on Main Street.

  I looked at the thought, examined the fear and worry with a detached gaze and then let it go. I would do everything I could to make it work, and I had every faith that Claire would work some magic to make things better.

  Beyond that, there was nothing in my power to do and if I already intended on doing everything I could, then there was no use in worrying. It was this state of detached calm that I had come to associate with running.

  Something about the constant rhythm of my legs, the beating of my heart and the deep lungfuls of fresh country air. There was nothing like it.

  I ran until my legs turned to molten lead and my lungs seared. My phone beeped and I realized I’d taken too long. Taking the next path back towards my apartment I took off as fast as I could.

  If I push myself I can get back, take a shower and still be mostly on time.

  I’d fallen into the trap of losing track of time, which is why I mostly did my running at night. Losing a few hours of sleep wasn’t quite as bad as missing an important meeting - like I was about to - or failing to open my shop when people expected it open.

  Sluggish from the extra miles I’d put in, it took me longer than I had thought to get back to the apartment. It had also come to my attention that despite everything, I still didn’t have Claire’s number. I vowed to make that right tonight, because at least then I could let her know I was running - hah, dad joke - late.

  When I got back I knocked on her door, hoping she’d still be there. She answered the door just as I had put my earbuds away. Her eyes were red-rimmed. She’d been crying, I did my best to give her a sympathetic smile.

  “Everything okay?” I asked.

  Not trusting herself to speak Claire wrapped her arms around herself and nodded. She still wore that sexy sweater. The way she crossed her arms under her chest made the swell of her breasts strain against the fabric. All her curves were laid bare. It took considerable resolve not to gape like a fish at her beauty.

  Keeping my eyes fixed solely on hers, though it pained me to see her hurting, I said, “It took me longer than I thought it would to go for a run before the meeting and I didn’t want you to think I was flaking on you or anything.” I pointed down the hall to my apartment. “I’m going to take a quick shower and be right down, okay?”

  When I looked back at her I noticed that her eyes were dark pools of black with a thin band of vivid green. I was vaguely reminded of a cat looking at its prey. She leaned out of the doorway. I must have reeked of sweat. I was soaked through and the sky had remained cloudy but cool and dry.

  I tried to lean away, I didn’t want her to smell me like this. Her next words stopped me dead in my tracks.

  “Take me with you,” she said so quietly I doubted my own ears.

  I came closer, the hallway had a tendency to amplify the sound of wind and she leaned in close, put one hand down my pants before I knew what she was doing and firmly cupped my balls. “I need you.”

  What sort of a gentleman would refuse a lady’s earnest request? Certainly not me.

  Pressed against each other we stumbled down the hall and I fumbled my keys into the lock. I had never seen Claire so forward, so sure of what she wanted. Her eyes were fierce as she kissed and bit at my neck, my arm, my lips, whatever she could get ahold of.

  The entire time her hand never stopped fondling me. Eager to feel her again my cock hardened at her touch, my balls tightened and I groaned as she rubbed her palm against them, using her fingertips to touch along my shaft.

  As soon as we were inside we were pulling at each other’s clothes, leaving a trail of shirts, shoes, pants, and underthings straight to my living room. We didn’t make it to the bed, though it wasn’t for a lack of trying.

  Stroking me to full hardness she touched the bead of wetness at my tip with her thumb and circled my crown. It drove me wild. But she wasn’t done with me. Her thumb ran its course around the tip on the underside.

  She touched me in a spot nobody ever did, a spot I couldn’t even touch the way she did. If she hadn’t stopped when she did I would have lost it right then and there. It was like Claire had a roadmap to my body and was making sure to use it to her fullest advantage.

  With a sultry grin, she backed away, but kept a firm hand on my manhood and literally lead me around by it. I wasn’t big on being submissive, but I had to admit it was hot and it gave me a few precious moments to calm down. I was right at the edge with that last stunt of hers and the last thing I wanted was to ruin things before they even started.

  We got as far as the carpet near the couch before I couldn’t handle it anymore. I lunged forward like a feral beast and grabbed her up in my arms, and with her wrapped up in my muscles I brought her to the soft carpet, caging her in with my arms on either side of her.

  Claire wriggled and reached out her hands, fingertips sending electrical sparks through my body. Every nerve a live wire. Why did nobody else’s touch feel like this? I let out a low, throaty moan and knelt down to taste her, I didn’t even know how badly I wanted to until she wrapped her legs around me and shook her head, stopping me.

  “That’s all right,” I said with a wicked grin. “There will always be time for dessert later.” The blush the crept up her cheeks was delicious.

  She was so wet I barely had to push to get into her. I paused a moment to relish in the heat, the wetness, the tightness of her. It drove me insane with lust and desire. I took a steadying breath, afraid I’d lose it right there.

  Claire wasn’t having any of that. Her legs constricted and I heeded her demand to go deeper. I felt myself fill her completely, my stomach touching her subtle curves that I had dreamed of for so many years.

  I started slow, gentle and caring. I wanted to savor every second of her. Her hips moved against mine. I wrapped my arms around her, crushing my body against hers and parting her lips with my tongue.

  I pulled a hand out from beneath us and palmed her breast, kneading and pressing my palm into her hard nipple as my thrusts grew desperate and urgent.

  Claire gasped against my lips, murmuring her commands, one hand reaching down to cup my manhood. “I want it,” she whispered. “Come inside me.”

  Everything dissolved around us. There was no Sunrise Valley, no apartment. No worries anymore. It was just us, alone and intimate. Souls and bodies intermingling, becoming one. At that moment I would have done anything for her no matter the request. All I wanted was to make her happy, to stay by her side, forever.

  I loved her.

  With that realization came the familiar longing ache in my tightening balls, my cock hardened to steel. Claire responded by clamping down on me like a vice. Her legs locked around me burying me deep inside her. It felt like I was being milked. I lost myself in her, I couldn’t hold back any longer. Every fiber of my being needed this intimacy with her, to be
one.

  Afterward, panting and gasping for air I tried to get off, I must have been crushing her. She stopped me with a hand on my chest. I don’t know if she couldn’t speak, but she just shook her head with a blissful smile on her face and I laid back down with an impossibly large smile tugging at my lips.

  15

  Claire

  My God. My body still sang with the afterglow of sex as one by one I became more aware. Like I was climbing out of a deep, restorative slumber. My toes were still curled and I forced myself to relax.

  Thomas started to move, a moment of panic came over me and I stopped him with my hand pressed against his firm muscles.

  He looked at me with those coffee dark eyes and I shook my head, not sure I was capable of speech yet. Trusting that he wouldn’t move, I unwound my legs from his back and laid beneath him, feeling his reassuring heat and weight on me.

  It was cute the way he propped himself up on his elbows to take some of his bulk off me. Not enough that we weren’t touching, but it did make it easier to breathe. I wonder what that said about my desires if I was okay with difficult breathing so long as he was on top of me?

  Thomas nuzzled my neck, his deliciously coarse stubble rasping against my cheek. Every nerve trilled with pleasure at his touch. It was a drug I couldn’t resist.

  I was surprised at how forward I had been when I saw him at my door, drenched with sweat. The curves of his muscles painfully evident through the clinging shirt.

  Maybe it wasn’t right to use Thomas to feel better, but it made us both feel good didn’t it? I needed him and he was there, like a prayer I didn’t realize I had uttered.

  With the rest of the apartment mostly picked through, I had finally gotten around to going through my dad’s room. I found a photo album on his bedside table. It was filled with images of Jemma and me, most of them included Thomas too.

  The trip down memory lane made me miss him so much more than I thought possible. I missed those days and the closeness I had taken for granted. He even had a few of mom and him when they were younger. Dad never did get over her, he hid it well but I could tell how much he missed her.

  How much that betrayal of his trust must have hurt him. I couldn’t imagine the fear, the pain of putting so much faith in one person and then having them stomp all over your heart like your feelings didn’t matter.

  How could you put all of yourself in somebody else’s hands and be totally vulnerable with only your faith that they wouldn’t hurt you as assurance?

  And yet, isn’t that exactly what you’re doing here?

  I had no good answer to that.

  There was no telling just how long we laid there on the soft rug, his weight upon me. Eventually we got up. Thomas lifted me to my feet with barely any effort. Gawking at the way his muscles bulged and rippled I missed whatever he said to me until he waved his hand in front of my face.

  “Wha-?” I started a second before his lips crushed mine and I was lost in his touch again. My hands ran all over those muscles I was so preoccupied with before. His smooth skin rose in hills and valleys along his stomach. I couldn’t get enough.

  Our lips broke apart and we stood barely an inch from each other’s face, both of us short of breath. I’d always heard that described in books or movies, but thought it was some sort of euphemism that I never fully understood.

  Now I got it. The issue wasn’t that the things I’d read were wrong, it was the guys I dated. None of them ever made my body feel like it was lighter than air, that every touch lit up my nerves like a Christmas tree.

  Is this what love is like?

  It wasn’t the first time I thought that, but it was the first time that I gave it actual consideration beyond passing it off as great sex and a desire for closeness.

  “You know,” said Thomas, his breath rolled across my skin and made my hair stand on end. “We could just have our meeting here.” I shivered with delight, there was no reason to hide the way my body reacted to him anymore. I rode the sensation and found that it rose to greater heights when I wasn’t trying to suppress it.

  The thought made me a little dizzy. I could get even more pleasure by just accepting the feeling, letting myself open up to it? This was a whole new world of possibilities.

  Placing a hand on his chest I looked into his dark eyes and forced myself not to grope his pecs. It was harder than I thought to resist. “I think we should have it in the storeroom of the bookstore,” I said, forcing rationality I didn’t feel. “I’ve already put some of the things in there and cleared off a table. That way we can…focus.”

  His lopsided grin made me melt, if not for his strong arm wrapped firmly around my waist I might not have been able to stand. “Of course.” The perfect voice of understanding. His free arm motioned to the bathroom. “After you?”

  With a nod, I walked to the bathroom, though it felt like I was newborn deer with shaky legs and an unsteady gait. That was also an entirely new feeling. I never felt like I couldn’t walk or move right after sex with anybody else. Usually, I felt like I could go right back to work afterward and not be any worse for wear.

  Thomas was different. There was a feeling of being totally involved in the process. The closest thing I could link it to was the difference between stretching and doing yoga.

  They looked similar, but in practice, they were worlds apart. Stretching didn’t get your heart rate jacked up and your breath short, just the same way that nobody else made me feel the way Thomas does.

  Jemma is going to freak when she hears about this. She was always after me to find some passion in my life. When I told her that my job was my passion she usually rolled her eyes at me. Lately all I got from her was a series of emojis since we haven’t seen much of each other.

  We swapped places after I was finished and while he was in the bathroom I put on my clothes with a distinct sensation of disappointment. Not at the sex. God no. I was disappointed that we were going to do actual work instead of fool around more, and that was distinctly not me.

  I was slipping on my shoe when he came out of the bathroom like some Greek god, all toned muscle and radiant glory. Not to mention hung. I made some noise in the back of my throat I don’t remember ever making before and decided I’d try to find out how to make it again after the effect it had on him.

  His self-assured gait faltered, his dick throbbed and began to lift off like he was accusing me of turning him on. Which, I suppose I was.

  Not that I was trying, and the knowledge that I could with a simple sound made me aroused. I could already feel the heat between my legs begin to spread.

  Most of all it was Thomas’ adorable blush that made his ears glow red. He must have seen me staring at them because he made a face and clamped his hands on them, hurrying over to his pile of clothes.

  With a smirk I forced myself away from him and sat in a dining room chair, facing it to watch him. “I don’t think you’re going to be able to get your clothes on without at least one hand,” I said smugly.

  In return, I was awarded with a good-natured glare as he realized I was right, and there was no way to get out of it and save any face. Trying not to laugh I scooted and turned myself to the right, turning my head to face the door in the opposite direction of the gorgeous naked man.

  There would be more time to ogle him, and while I found the way his ears lit up like a stoplight cute as hell, I knew he didn’t. And above all I wanted him to feel wanted, accepted for the way he was.

  The way he made me feel. The way, I realized with blossoming awareness and a deeper fondness for the man getting dressed behind me, that he had always made me feel. Awkward teenage phase and all.

  Without any warning, I was lifted like a child from the seat and into his arms. I’ve dated guys who were built before, but Thomas was strong. I never realized the difference until now. He lifted me and held me in a way that not only made me feel safe and secure but seemed so effortless.

  As he whisked me out the door and downstairs to the rear of the boo
kstore I listened to the steady thrum of his heart. The deep, placid breaths of his lungs. He wasn’t the least bit exerted holding me and walking about.

  A girl could get used to this.

  The flaking gold lettering of the door read A Novel Place just as it had when I was a little girl. My heart swelled with a mixture of pride and nostalgic fondness for the place.

  I leaned briefly away from the warm shelter of Thomas to fish out my key and awkwardly insert it into the door. When it wouldn’t turn, Thomas set me down gently and with straining forearms twisted the handle until I heard a faint tink.

  The door swung open easily after that.

  Ever the gentleman, he ushered me inside before stepping in and closing the door behind me. The door had been giving me a lot of trouble. I usually had to wrench it with both hands and lean into it before the damn knob would turn.

  I really needed to make sure I got some oil or something into the lock. The lights flicked on with the welcoming warm glow of ancient incandescent bulbs. Most of the boxes and furniture in here were covered in white cloths, all but one that I had set up as a sort of workspace.

  Documents and manila folders were strewn across it, a few of them had color-coded charts that I had printed at my dad’s. The fact that he still had a printer at all was surprising. He’d never been one to modernize, and the last printer I remember him having was a painfully noisy dot matrix.

  You could hear him printing out reports down the street.

  Smirking at the memory I sat down in a chair and opened one of the folders. “Okay, so as you already know your bakery isn’t doing so well.” I saw the thin veil of acceptance laid over the painful truth in his eyes and hurried on. “Financially at least. In every other way, your bakery is a marvel.”

  Thomas dropped into the seat beside me, close enough I could smell him. I let myself inhale his intoxicating aroma. He caught me, rewarded me with another lopsided grin and asked, “How do you figure? It’s a business, isn’t financials all that matter?”