by Nicole Snow
“Anything, Knox. I'm ready. I'm not scared.” She closes her eyes, brings my hands to her lips, and lays sultry butterfly kisses over my knuckles. “I think...hell, I know I love you. Always have. I never really stopped since I was just a stupid kid with a crush, if you want to know the truth.”
Do I ever. It's there when she looks me in the eye again, bright and green and void, calling me to fill the hollow spaces she's carried around for years, deafened by the echoes.
“You already know I love you, too, Sunflower. I couldn't fucking stop, even when everything said try. I want you by my side, whether it's heaven or hell up ahead. Before tonight, this crap in front of us set my pulse more than I ever should've let it.” There's thunder in my throat when we uncouple hands. I sweep the stack of documents off my desk in one fluid jerk, careful to make sure it hits the floor rather than painting my woman with splattered wine.
Not that I'd mind licking it off. Not even a little.
Next time we make eyes, I've got that bottle in my hand, forgetting the dregs left in my glass. I raise it to my lips and taste the sweetest sip I've had just shy of her full, plump lips. I stand, reach for Kendra's hand, and pass it to her. Watch the whole time while she mirrors me.
“Now kiss me, beautiful,” I say, my palm circling behind her neck, melting her against me.
Her lips are unbearably sweet when they're soaked in wine. Unthinkably addicting.
We're incandescent. Clumsy in our loving. Enriched in the banquet of each other, gorging on this feast in hearts and souls, beyond ready to be tangled, messy, fused.
So. Damn. Ready.
The wine splashes her neck when I hoist her up in my arms, heading for the stairs. Another perfect signal from the universe. I stop to lick it off her skin before we head for the spa off the main floor.
Tonight, I want to light the flames low, bring her to the outdoor shower stall with its glass and stone, and fuck her in front of the stars.
I want the entire universe to see what it's missing. What happens when a man denied this long learns to ignite the same way stars breathe life in the sky.
“Gently, Sunflower. Or – fuck! – hard, if that's really what you want to do!” With her mouth full of me, there's no going wrong.
My back arches against the cool stone wall, shower heads set to mist. It's like living a sex scene from the greatest movie in the world. There's no fade to black. Colors bleed from her naked skin, piercing the blue and orange light swirling around us.
Kendra's little face goes down, engulfing my cock, her palm pressed sweetly on my balls. There's a learning curve, yeah, but I can tell she's a natural. I swear I'll make my wife the hottest little cocksucker in the entire valley once she's learned the spots along my length that make me twitch.
Greedily, she's mine.
Completely mine.
Mine for fucking-ever.
My head rolls on my shoulders. I can't look down at her for more than brief glances while she strokes and sucks, better with every second, or I know I'll lose it like I'm back in high school.
She does terrible, marvelous things with those nymphette lips. My spinal cord catches fire from the torches hung around us, their gas flames gleaming in the night, giving every inch of her naked body a delicious sheen.
I wish I had a second cock to claim another orifice. But while I'm wishing for crazy things, I think I'll get my other wish – discovering what it's like to shoot off between those perky, perfect tits while she comes for me.
My hand slides into her hair, fisting it. I pull hard to get her attention, watching as she reluctantly takes my dick out of her mouth. “Stand up, Sunflower. Brought you a present before you're back on your knees.”
She whimpers when I smack her little ass, two seconds before I pull her legs apart. She was so busy getting naked and on her knees she never noticed the silver ball behind my back. I hold it out, pushing it between her legs so she's able to look down and see, kissing at her shoulder.
“Knox, what's that?”
“Something better than the cheap little firecracker I stole from your room. This, darling, is straight up dynamite. Once it's in, get on your knees, and follow my lead.” My fingers dip up, invading her pussy, pushing the perfect orb into her.
I know she's done when I use the tiny switch in my hand to turn it on. Her whole body jerks, nipples turned to mountain peaks. I help hold her down, surrounding my cock in her tits, and tell her what's next. “Push them together. Hold them there, and don't let go. I'll do the fucking rest. You come when I do.”
She tries to suck me off and doesn't get very far. Flicking the switch, she's swept away as our new toy races to maximum speed, frigging her clit from the inside-out, brushing the spot in her pussy I'll take again later with my tongue.
Sunflower doesn't last long. Neither do I.
“Oh, hell. Knox!” My name has the honor of being the last thing on her lips before she arches, hands on her tits, squeezing my thrusting cock like a vice.
I come so fucking hard I can't even form words, roaring into the night.
“Turn the hell over. Show me that sweet ass, darling.” My hands are on her lush cheeks, roaming like mad. I squeeze until she gives me a delectable moan.
Then I take her hands, pin them over her head, and flatten her against the spa's tile wall. The water spritz and moonlight calm my blood, keeps me from boiling over. I haven't gone soft since I shot off all over her just a few minutes ago.
Now, that dripping sweetness between her legs beckons like it's fucking enchanted.
Her shoulders are magnets for my mouth, pulling me to her skin. I can't stop kissing this woman.
Every second she's naked without my lips sealed on her flesh is a crime against nature.
Do I sound crazy? Obsessed? In lust?
Good. Because clearly it's all of the above, and there's a greater pulse drumming in my chest, too.
“Knox!” Kendra whimpers, sliding her hands against the wall, trying to stop her knees from shaking when my fingers search her steaming cunt. They drift inside her slowly, teasingly, telling her exactly what's coming when I'm done playing – but only after she's given me a few more Os.
If I'm mad, it's leaving her undone that keeps the last thread of my sanity intact. I don't want her to come for me, come while every beautiful muscle in her body seizes, gives her up in total.
I need it.
Every ripple, every whimper, every moan. Every damn twitch in her eyes when she's lost in my rapture.
I'm on my knees. The toy is gone from her pussy, replaced with my thrusting fingers and hungry tongue. I pull her thighs apart, the better to lick deeper, sinking my tongue into her sweetness, savoring every quiver.
Fuck, she's sweet. Her cunt is thick honey dyed in pink and infused with ambrosia.
I'm as hungry as I am eager to see her come again.
She came for me twice with the remote control orb, both times mind blowing. And they're just a warm up when the night is this young, so dark and cool, calling to the primal beat in my pulse.
“Oh...oh...oh...there! Yes!” The little desert minx finds her groove when she's ridden my mouth long enough.
I crane my neck, reaching around to frig her clit while my tongue bathes in pink. Have I mentioned how much I love the very instant her moans become screams?
Kendra's spine arcs her body like a cat in heat. Those hips glued to my eyes undulate as I push her on faster, harder, breaking through whatever tentative barrier there is stopping this from being completely dirty from the very first second.
“Come for me, Sunflower. Come!” I urge her on, growling every word.
Her breath hitches. The tremors in her legs double. Those silky thighs squeeze my fingers, urging me to flick her clit faster.
She comes in a silent scream, too overwhelmed by the lightning I'm pouring into her to make a sound. Her pussy takes me into a new world that's simple and overwhelming.
Hot.
Wet.
Divine.
r /> I don't stop licking until her hurried breaths soften, her body rocks more gently, and she doesn't feel like her energy is melting into the supple moonlight and misty haze around us.
The pulse beating in my cock is making me blind by the time I stand up, still wiping my mouth, tasting her pussy. Normally, I'd hold her for a few soft minutes, give her a moment or two to recover.
Not tonight.
The electric urge in my dick won't wait. I take her arms in mine, make sure she's secure against the wall, and pull her soaked sweetness around every inch of me.
Goddamn, it's good. Can't imagine the day I'll ever miss the groan that rips from my throat every first thrust.
She isn't a virgin anymore, either. I'm able to fuck her like a proper lover now, fast and relentless, slowing my strokes only when I want to pull back to the hilt and slam into her again.
Her entire ass shakes when I do. Dear fuck, do I love it.
She calls my name a few more times. I slam another O through her body, gripping her hair as she stiffens, back arching, pussy convulsing around my cock as she loses it again.
It's a minute into her post-orgasmic bliss, and quickly working her to the next one, when I hear the words that light a fire in my ears. “Come in me, Knox. Please. I want it...I swear...oh, God...please!”
This isn't dirty talk.
I haven't had a chance to train her that way yet, and there's still too much of the innocence I love preventing her from moaning dark, nasty words in the night.
I know a primal voice when it speaks. Raw need grips her throat, instinctive lust channeling her tongue, fueling the fire in my balls to meltdown.
“You want this, Sunflower? Every damn drop?” Incredible how every word quickens the molten heat in my blood.
“Yes!”
“Then pull it out of me, woman.” I'm snarling, head on her shoulder, teeth nipping at her earlobe. “Move your sweet pussy and work it the fuck out. Show me how damn bad you want it.”
My hand smacks her ass. The other tangles deeper in her hair, giving it a vicious tug. I don't know what I've really done until her hips start beating a furious tempo against my thighs.
I let her set the pace, rocking backward, grinding her ass into my pubic bone while the grip on her hair gets tighter, tighter, tighter, and – oh, fuck.
I'm ten seconds from overload when I can't stop the greedy twitch at the base of my spine. My body moves like its possessed, crashing into hers, a war of thrusts as we collide. We're rocking, fucking, grunting over the edge.
She loses herself in another spastic release about a second before I do. My fingers grip harder, and I give her bobbing, red asscheeks one more smack for good measure before my whole core becomes fire.
It rips up my spine and hits my brain before it dives low, lightning in my balls. It splits my senses. It makes me a raving lunatic for the next few minutes, more fiery seconds than I can count, each one stretched out an eternity as her pussy clenches, sucks, and wrings hot seed.
My cock explodes.
“Yeah, yeah, fuck! Kendra, yeah.” It's sharp and incoherent, the only way good sex should be.
It flows out of me in steaming rivulets, deep into her. Before my cock jerks a third time, unleashing more fire, the hand that's not holding her hair like reigns slides around her waist, brushing her belly.
For a split second, I see that softness swollen with my kid. See her knocked up proper like it's heaven itself, and the harsh kiss I bury in her shoulder becomes a bite.
Hell yes.
I want her marked.
I want her owned.
I want her bred.
I want her mine.
Even when the vision fades, dulling like her scream in my ears, the enormity stays with me. I'm stuck on a single word, collapsing against the stone bench when I pull out of her, replenishing my lungs with sorely needed desert air.
How the hell didn't I see it before? Realize the heart-stopping power in that word and its promise?
Mine has a depth and volume bigger than the entire universe. Mine is another synonym for eternity.
“So amazing,” she moans, still spilling what I've left in her when she slides into my lap, pushing her warm, rosy lips to mine.
I drink deep, even with my cock temporarily sated for the next five minutes. Staring into her green eyes, brighter every minute with love and light, there's a truth so strong it ripples through my bones.
Mine is now a sacrament, and it's all this precious Sunflower will ever be.
11
Impossible Possible (Kendra)
Sometimes life takes such a sharp, crazy turn so far outside your ordinary experience, it moves the entire world. And not just the earth, but the moon, the stars, the sun above, and whole galaxies. The whole landscape I thought I knew shifts, merging with the endless sky.
It's been weeks since Knox confessed his love. The white knuckle diamonds on my finger are actually starting to make me feel like the future Mrs. Carlisle.
We're close to the end of the scorching summer and fierce monsoon, inching ever closer to Labor Day and the slow, but steady autumn balm that drifts across the valley.
Life goes on, different and better than before.
The smile on his face isn't so strange and alien anymore. Lizzie clings to me like a second shadow when he isn't around, showing me her best alongside the adorable little faults.
I'm working up the courage for the two big dinners later this week, when we'll break the news to my parents, and then his mom and Jamie over the weekend.
I had to drop a million hints I want this done, whatever the danger that might or might not be out there still. We haven't had so much as an angry word or a death threat from Victor Wright. Knox's contacts at the company say he spends most his days in Vegas, only flying back to the headquarters here in Phoenix for pressing matters.
Knox is talking to his lawyer, gearing up for a formal truce, something to formalize what we desperately hope is true: the creep has given up, and soon we'll be free to get on with our lives.
Even if he hasn't, we're not waiting. We have a hard wedding date in mind, sometime in November. I want it with my very soul. Want it in a way I never knew I could want anything.
In the meantime, until our families know the good news, I content myself with another unexpected consequence of falling in love.
I'm producing my best work. I've taken the glass slipper design Gannon tried to steal and owned it, reaching out to major fashion contacts in New York and Los Angeles. They love the design so much I haven't even had to lean on the Carlisle reputation.
There's nothing better than climbing the hills, peering at far off mountains yet to conquer. Oh, except for this new life as the soon-to-be Kendra Carlisle, where I've learned to kick ass harder, and there's always a spring in my step with a loving man and a delightful little girl. Family means more than any career coup.
I'm in the auxiliary workspace he's given me on his property, listening to the radio. It's mid-day. Knox won't be home for a few more hours. He's downtown, drafting the inquiry to Victor with his lawyer, crafting the language as precisely as he says he needs to get a response.
The lovely studio on the third floor is where I do most of my work, but since it's a little cooler today, this converted garden shed lets me enjoy the lush outdoors around his estate.
It's also a delightful place to make sure Lizzie stays easily entertained while I put the finishing flourishes on my prototype glass shoes. I think I've finally found a solution for keeping feet equally comfortable in the valley's desert heat, or the cold in Minneapolis. A thin scrap of breathable thermal insulation I've installed this morning on the inside should, in theory, stop my poor toes from overheating or freezing to death.
But I won't know for sure until I take a walk. First, I slip into the shoes, and then walk over to the corner, where Lizzie is coloring with her finger on an app. She's filling in an orange tiger on her kiddie tablet.
“Ready for a walk and a fresh ora
nge, peanut? You've been mighty busy over here all afternoon.” I stoop down, rubbing her back.
She looks up at me, smacking her lips. “OJ? Yeahhh! Just lemme finish tiger, mommy.”
I'm done when I hear those words. No matter how many times it happens, it still never fails to bring a wet heat to my eyes. Rifling my fingers through her hair, I sit, watching as she finishes her picture, filling in the tiger's black stripes. Only four years old, and her work ethic already mirrors mine.
She really could be my daughter.
Hell, as far as I'm concerned, she is. My stomach growls when the precious thing sits up, and grasps my hand. I'm looking forward to one of the fresh oranges off his tree myself. There's five different kinds to choose from, and I think I'll go for the biggest, sweetest ones today.
We take the grey stone path straight through the gardens. It's well kept and gorgeous, just like the man who owns it. A maze of desert brush, ferns, cacti, and palm trees in the distance. Citrus is the true star of this show, though, gently fanning our senses with its fragrance, stronger the closer we get.
We're halfway to the edge of the orange trees when I stop and look down at my feet. They're...amazingly cool. And in direct sunlight.
Holy crap. I did it.
I break into a smile, picking up the pace, knowing each bite of that orange is guaranteed to taste like sweet victory. I can't wait to tell Knox the news, and get another pair of these babies made. I'll send the new ones to an old college friend in Minnesota, Chelsea. There's no better proving ground for how my creation holds up in winter, and the many training grounds for hockey means she'll be able to get me a good report in the next week or two.
Then it's time to market the hell out of my hard work.
Lizzie skips ahead as far as I'll let her, holding my hand, humming in the sing-song way children do. I join her, trying to match the tune, laughing because I can't. It doesn't matter. I'm too busy wondering if I died sometime in the last few months and wound up in heaven without knowing it.