by Brook Wilder
His fingers slid with the utmost gentleness down the side of her neck until they could spear into the soft waves of her hair. He used his hand to hold her still with the softest of pressure as he tilted his head, his mouth angling over hers for better contact.
She gasped as his tongue teased against the seam of her lips, allowing him instant access and he slid it in to tease wetly with hers. It was slow and languorous and had a heaviness seeping through her that made it hard to move. Not that she wanted to. No, she could finally admit to herself that she was exactly where she wanted to be. In Honey’s arms.
Elle was overwhelmed by the emotion that stole through her at his kiss. Just a simple kiss, but there was nothing simple about the painful need that was bubbling up inside her. But still, he kept things slow. So sweet and gentle, so unlike their first times together, and so tender that it had tears stinging the corners of her eyes and she had to squeeze them tight.
His kiss didn’t stop, it didn’t slow or speed up. On and on, his mouth moved, light and soft against hers until she felt like she was drowning in his kiss. He nipped at her lower lip, drawing it gently between his teeth and she let out a breathy moan at the pleasure that ripped through her.
Something about his pace, or the maybe it was the fact that their bodies were still inches apart, made the ecstasy that much more intense, that much more overwhelming. His scent surrounded her and every time she inhaled she drew more and more of him deep inside her. Honey invaded every part of her, that heaviness spreading like syrup until she could feel moisture pool warm and wet between her thighs. She moved restlessly then, unknowing, wanting him more than she’d ever wanted anything in her entire life. But nothing she did could make him alter his slow, steady pace.
Torturously, his fingers grasped the edge of her cardigan, just barely touching her as he pulled it off her boneless arms. They were so heavy she could hardly lift them at all but then he was working on her blouse, anticipation spiking through her as he painstakingly unbuttoned each button going down the front and slid it front her shoulders to land unheeded next to her sweater.
“Lean back,” he whispered the words roughly against her mouth, still not breaking the kiss as he helped her back until she hit the arm of the couch behind her and he was working on the button and zipper of her jeans. Elle reached down to help but he held both of her wrists over her head with one hand while he went back to work on the closures with the other.
“Honey–” she breathed out, frustration making her move restlessly but he stopped her with a gently touch.
“No, Elle. Let me.”
With her hands restrained above her head there wasn’t much she could to argue with him so she tried to hold herself still as he worked, finally getting the zipper undone and slowly, so slowly he inched the jeans down her legs until he could throw those as well to the floor. Honey made quick work of her bra and it took her a full minute to realize that she was completely naked and spread out underneath him.
The sudden need to be skin to skin shot through her and she arched her hips up into his, relishing his quick indrawn breath.
“You, too,” she whispered against him, tugging at his grip and he reluctantly let her go. Immediately her fingers went to work, drawing his shirt up and over his head, fumbling at the button on his jeans but the trembling in her limbs and digits didn’t help.
Honey took pity on her, pulling back enough to shimmy out of his jeans and boxers and they both groaned simultaneously as he helped her to lay back onto the couch, every inch of his hard, muscled body pressed against hers.
It was almost too much for Elle as he began to run feather-light kisses up and down her entire body, every part he could reach of her. He teased her, drawing her higher and higher as pleasure flooded through her hyper sensitive system, but it still wasn’t enough. It wasn’t nearly enough.
But still, he continued, teasing her, torturing her until she thought she couldn’t take a second more. As his kisses landed, sweet and chaste and at the same time the most erotic thing she’d ever experienced in her entire life.
Elle’s chest tightened with bittersweet emotion as her hips rolled of their own volition, begging him without words. Words that she couldn’t form, that she didn’t have the oxygen or focus to. All of her attention was on Honey, and the exquisite pleasure pain he was ringing from her body.
Desire swept through her, all-encompassing as he traced a path across her hip and down the sensitive skin of her inner thigh. She could hear him inhale and rather than embarrassment Elle felt a wave of power. She knew that he was just as much at a mercy of whatever spell had been cast between them as she was.
And then he was reaching out with his fingers, sliding them easily along the already wet inner lips of her pussy and she couldn’t hold back when she moaned out his name. All thoughts were gone, wiped away by the pleasure he wrought with his hands, bringing her higher and higher. But still keeping her just out of reach, holding back just enough to keep her right on the edge.
“Please, Honey. Please,” Elle said, her voice breaking as pleasure and desire wracked her, “I need you.”
***
I need you. The sweetest words Honey had ever heard echoed over and over in his head in time to his racing pulse and the lust sweeping through his body. Like a mantra, or a totem, he repeated them, he clung to them as he worshiped Elle’s body. With his tongue and mouth and fingers he teased her, over and over he brought her to the edge, just about to come before pulling back again.
He loved the way her body moved, like silk and water beneath him. She was so beautiful that it stole his breath clear out of his lungs and he had to inhaled deep of her as his kisses trailed over her entire body. Every inch of bare skin he could reach. Nothing went untouched, unexplored. Delving into every crevice, every secret hollow, until he knew all of her, ingrained in his mind like a map.
Elle twisted and turned beneath him, begging with him, pleading with him and her words sank deep inside him, wrapping around him, healing a scar that he’d never known he carried, soothing the bitterness that he’d held within for so long. But then desire was back, riding him fiercely and he couldn’t wait.
Finally, it was too much for him as well. Every moment that he’d spent teasing Elle, he’d been torturing himself at the same time, driving the fire hotter and hotter between them until he thought he was about to explode.
With a frustrated curse, he fumbled with the condom packet, finally ripping it with his teeth and rolling it on, impatience driving him forward. He needed to feel her. He needed to be inside her. Now. He couldn’t wait another second, wouldn’t survive with her sweet heat surrounding him.
With a grown of pleasure unlike anything he’d ever known, he grasped her hips, pulled her thighs up until they wrapped around his and he sank all the way to the hilt inside her. They both froze for a moment, Elle’s eyes squeezed shut as pure ecstasy played over her features.
And then, he was lost in her, lost in the rhythm of their bodies meeting, their souls meeting over and over again until a frenzied pace caught them both on the brink. A moment later the pleasure grew so sharp he had to cry out her name a second before Elle shuddered beneath him, clawing at his back, and he followed a moment later, everything inside him shattering into a million pieces. He didn’t think he’d ever be able to put them back the same again. He didn’t think he wanted to.
Chapter 18
Honey felt like he was walking on clouds as he strode through the tiny, mismatched kitchen to make two cups of tea. Everywhere he looked there were reminders of Elle, her touch in every small detail. The way the porcelain tea cups all had flowers on them, but didn’t match. The handmade labels affixed to bottles and jars of various sizes, all penned in her meticulous script, and all filled with spices and seasonings, all the things she used to bake with.
She was a notoriously good cook. He could attest to that fact as he inhaled deep, drawing in the sweet and spicy aroma of cinnamon rolls coming from the 1950’s looking oven. It e
ven had the speckled ceramic interior.
“Honey, can you take the cinnamon rolls out of the oven? I think they’re done!” she called from the back room, the one she called the music room. She had to reschedule some of her piano lessons for first thing in the morning since so much of her time had been taken up with the farm. Honey had a feeling this particular student wouldn’t mind having to wake up a little earlier once he got a taste of one those rolls.
A second after Elle’s words reached him, the timer in the shape of a tomato started to beep on the counter next to the stove and he hastily quieted it. Grabbing a kitchen towel, he gingerly pulled out the hot pan, turned the oven off, and inhaled again. Heaven.
This must be what heaven feels like, he thought to himself as he looked out at the sunny morning just outside the small kitchen window that hung over the sink. This is what paradise must be.
He couldn’t remember ever feeling so…happy. That was the word. That was the feeling that bubbled up like golden light, that made him want to laugh for no reason. The water in the tea kettle started to boil and he quickly poured the steaming liquid in the cups, adding extra honey for himself and juggling three still molten hot cinnamon rolls.
Honey was still juggling them all precariously as he made his way back to the music room. They were just finishing up their lesson. It was a little girl in a pink dress and long blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail. She was furiously focused on watching Elle’s fingers as they swept across the keyboard of the piano, a seriousness in her expression that reminded him so much of Elle that it made his chest hurt. In that moment, it was so easy to imagine that she was their child, that this was what every morning was. Simple. Sweet. Honest and heartfelt. And most of all, good.
Whoa! Get a fucking grip, man! His inner voice chastised him and he had to shake off the fantasy. Because that was all it was. Just a fantasy. Nothing real. But maybe it could be, one day. Another voice whispered, a soft, sad voice that lived deep inside him, a voice that he’d thought had died long ago. Hope.
Honey watched her for another ten minutes, entranced, as she finished up the lesson, congratulating the girl on learning so fast and assigning a new piece for her to work on during the week before sending her on her way.
Elle started playing around on the piano, her hands playing instantly, easily, some soft happy tune that reminded him of a lullaby.
“What?” she finally asked, noticing his stare that was trained on her. He just shrugged, handing over a roll and the extra cup of tea he’d made for her.
“You really love them, don’t you?”
“Who?”
“Kids,” he said, tilting his head to examine her, “You really love working with kids.”
“I do,” Elle said simply, smiling up at him as she took a bite. His own was long gone. “I’ve always loved kids. I thought that maybe one day I’d be a teacher but…” she trailed off, looking down at her fingers as they trilled out a tiny melody. The sound turned sadder, more wistful, “I couldn’t, not with having a panic attack every time I was around more than five people.”
“But it’s better now, your anxiety,” Honey added when she looked at him questioningly. But then it was her turn to shrug.
“I suppose it is, yeah, I’ve worked hard over the last ten years to get better, to not let it affect me so much. But, I would still have to go to school and get a teaching degree and this is…this is enough,” she said as she slowly ran her hands just over the keys, not making any noise now.
Elle took another bite of the cinnamon roll, leaving a little crumb of sugary sweet spice on the corner of her lip and he couldn’t resist. He held out a hand, simultaneously holding his breath, letting it out in a whoosh as she reached out her own and placed it into his. He could still see the wariness in her dark eyes, but for now, that was enough.
Slowly, he drew her up from the piano bench, turning her as his hands fell to land on either hip and his eyes went to her lush, all too kissable lips.
“You have something,” Honey said, his voice hoarse, “Just there…” his words trailed off as he leaned down, sweeping his lips light and teasing over hers, licking his tongue out to taste the sweetness, and groaning at another flavor. The taste that was all her, all Elle, and pure sin. Honey deepened the kiss. He hadn’t meant to, he’d just kissed her because, well, because he had to. But now he was pulling her hips hard against his and pressing them both back until they landed with a jarring, jangling sound against the keyboard of the piano.
He loved the way Elle melted against him, her curves sinking weightlessly against all his muscle, her soft against his hard and it made him groan out again as he kissed across her jaw and down to the sensitive curve of her neck.
Honey could feel her tremble in his arms and all he could think about was having her again, being buried so deep inside her that she would never forget the feeling of him filling her, of being joined together into one being.
He was about to lift her up and carry her back towards the bedroom but he couldn’t wait that long. He thought about taking her to the nearest wall, the nearest hard surface that he could bend her over and bring her to a screaming orgasm but a tiny, tinkling alarm started to sound. It took Honey a long moment for the sound to break through the red haze of lust that clouded his minds and sent all his coherent thoughts fleeing south but then Elle was pulling back.
She gave him a look, have humor half frustration as she pulled the old flip phone from her back pocket.
“It’s my alarm,” she said breathlessly as she fumbled to stop the still ringing thing, “We’re going to be late. We’ve got to go.”
Honey sighed, resting his forehead against hers for a long moment as he fought every instinct in his body that was telling him to forget the farm and spend the day in bed with Elle. It sounded like paradise, and the best idea he’d had all year but he could tell by the serious look on her face that she wasn’t about to break her promise to Carla. Honey understood needing to stay true to her word, and he respected her for it.
Finally, he sighed in resignation, pulling back after he gave her one last, quick, passionate kiss that had them both breathless again.
“I’ll go get the car started,” Honey said, forcing himself to take a step back, and then another. He had to get out of there because he knew if he spent another second alone in the same room as her he would have her stripped naked and pushed up against the wall in no time. With another heartfelt sigh, he turned and walked out of the room.
***
Elle looked over as Honey slowed the car to a stop in the parking lot at Honey Bud Farms. She was still trying to get her bag together and her seat belt unbuckled when all the sudden he was there, opening the passenger’s side door for her and helping her out. He leaned close, breathing deep against her ear before planting a quick, casual kiss on her lips, leaving her even more flustered.
“Have a good morning in the office, baby. I’m in the greenhouse all day. I brought lunch for us so I’ll see you then?”
Elle couldn’t get out a single word, she could only nod dumbly as he shot her a radiant smile that had his dimples winking at her before running off in the direction of the greenhouse and disappearing inside.
What the heck was that? her inner voice asked, sounding as confounded as she felt. And why did it make her feel so warm and content inside? Only Honey could wrap her up and tangle her emotions so thoroughly, then kiss her as if they’d been doing the same thing for a lifetime, rather than barely a day.
With a sigh Elle turned and trudged up the small hill to the little farm house that had been converted into the office. She walked inside and headed straight for the newly added secretaries desk that was pushed into the only available corner. It was small, but it was enough for her to do work at, entering receipts and tallying up profit and loss statements. She’d always been good with numbers, with problems of logic. Anything that she could reason out.
And that was exactly the problem with Honey. Nothing about the man was logical and
reason couldn’t even begin to untangle the puzzle of him. At first he seemed like nothing but a too charming for his own good womanizer and hopeless flirt. But there was so much more than that to him. There were layers of mystery that she hadn’t even begun to uncover, but the question was, did she want to?
You already know the answer to that question.
She sighed again, distracted as she shuffled around files and folders but not really accomplishing anything. Because that voice was right. She wanted to know him. She wanted to learn all of his secrets. She wanted to be the one he confided in. And that thought terrified her. Because it would be so easy to come to rely on him, to need him. To lo–
“Oh my god, Elle. What was that?!” Carla’s voice broke into her thoughts for which Elle was eternally grateful. That was one question that she didn’t want to have to answer.
