by Louise Bay
This. This was what I wanted.
Going down on her was necessary. It wasn’t some favor, or some way of warming her up. I needed it. I’d make sure she enjoyed it, just as I knew I would.
As if we knew that the next step would be crossing some kind of boundary, we locked eyes. She smiled softly and dug her fingers through my hair.
I bowed my head and slid my tongue between her folds, reveling in her heat, her wetness, the way her hips slowly lifted beneath me. She was so sweet, so fucking drenched. I gripped the top of her thighs, digging my thumb into the crevice where her leg met her body. I wanted to pin her down and make her take everything I had to give her.
I’d never been friends with a lover before. Friendly but not close. Truly was the only woman I’d ever told about my accident, the only one I thought looked cute eating noodles, yet nothing about this moment was anything but perfect. This was exactly how it was meant to be.
I groaned into her sex, wanting more of her.
“Please don’t stop.” She squeezed out the words as if they wouldn’t quite fit, but she had to try.
But there was no chance I was stopping. I couldn’t. I licked up one side of her pussy and then the other, pressing and sucking and covering her clit. Going one way and then the other, I was determined to make her feel good, to charge over the line of friendship into something more. Her legs tightened and her fingers clenched my hair.
She was so close, so quickly. Fuck, I loved that she was reacting to me like that—not as friends but as lovers. She wanted me and I couldn’t get enough of her desire. She bucked beneath me, so I pressed a hand low on her abdomen, right over her g-spot, and slipped two fingers into her. I grinned against her wetness as she moaned, her breaths coming faster and tighter as my tongue and my fingers continued to lick and pump.
With a final scream, she exploded, her skin flushing, heat radiating from her body.
I was lost.
“Oh God, Noah,” she said, guiding my face up. “I . . . I . . .”
Her unspoken words hung in the air—she’d not expected it to be this good. “I know,” I whispered and dipped to kiss her.
Any concerns we had about crossing this line fell away, and it felt entirely natural. Honest and intimate. “I want you inside me,” she said.
“Me too,” I said.
“Condoms are in my bedroom.”
I wasn’t wasting time going and coming back. I’d take her with me. I lifted her up and carried her into her bedroom, her mouth on my jaw and my hard-on throbbing between us.
I was pretty sure if I’d timed myself, I’d have a claim to the world record for putting on a condom.
“Come here,” I said, gripping her ankles and pulling her arse to the edge of the bed. “I’m going in deep and fast and . . .” I couldn’t think. My head was foggy, and all I could focus on was being inside her. I pressed my tip through her sex, rounded her clit and then back to her entrance.
“Yes,” she moaned. “Do it.”
“What do you say?” I teased her.
“Please. Noah, please, please. I need your cock.”
“Good girl.” Jesus fucking Christ. This was a side of Truly I’d never seen before—passionate and needy. She was perfect. It was as if someone had just cut the cord of my self-control. My vision tunneled, my muscles bunched, and I slammed into her, hard and so, so deep.
Again.
And again.
I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t slow down. I needed to get as close as it was possible to be to this woman.
Her knees tightened around my hips, and she arched off the bed. I leaned over her, gripping her shoulders, keeping her in place, because I needed to fuck and fuck and fuck.
She trembled beneath me, bucking as if someone else was in control of her body. She gasped and screamed silently. Fuck, yeah. That was what I did to her. “All your orgasms are mine,” I hissed through clenched teeth.
She gazed up at me, her body boneless against the mattress, and grinned. She reached and wiped away a trickle of sweat working its way down my temple. “All yours.”
Those two words ended me, and my body spasmed as I emptied myself deep inside her, pushing in as far as I could go.
I dealt with the condom and rolled onto my back, trying to catch my breath as if I were at the end of a competitive sprint. I’d never been that consumed before, never lacked so much self-control. It was as if I’d been chasing after something I wanted to save.
Reaching for her, my hand landed on her stomach. “Hey.” I pulled her toward me, needing her close.
“You’re a cuddler?” she asked.
I wasn’t normally, but I wanted to touch her, wanted her touching me. “Maybe,” I replied.
“Well that’s another thing I learned about you tonight.” She slid her hand down my cock and grasped it at the base.
I groaned.
When I’d first seen her in the church, Truly hadn’t been any different from any other woman I’d met. I’d imagined her naked and fucking her. But since she’d blown me off and we’d become friends, thoughts like that had been saved for others. But now she blocked out everything else. Everyone else. It was shocking how fucking warm and open and unselfconscious she was in bed. How was it not more awkward, and why hadn’t we done this before?
She squeezed her fist then dragged it up. We both watched as I twitched in her hands.
“So quick to recover.”
The only time I thought about fucking a woman twice was before I’d fucked her the first time. Right now that pattern was history. “Not normally, but you’re always an exception.”
Tucked into my side, she glanced up at me, and I kissed her. We’d morphed from platonic friends to lovers so easily, but looking back, this had been brewing far longer than I’d realized. Way before the tequila kissing. Even before I’d left for New York.
Truly pushed herself up, and I rested my hands on her hips as she straddled me.
“I’m usually asleep by now.” I chuckled. I’d never normally reference a past sexual experience, but with Truly, everything was different.
She stroked her hands over my chest as she settled her pussy against my straining cock, content for the moment to slide her soft, wet folds against me. If she wasn’t careful, she’d make me come again.
She groaned and tipped her head back, her hair spilling over her shoulders, the dark silky strands a mezmerizing contrast against her smooth skin as she rocked back and forth.
I sighed, mesmerized by the beauty in front of me.
Reaching back to the bedside table, I grabbed a fresh condom. “Truly, I swear, you look so fucking perfect, I’m going to come and I’m not even inside you.”
She grinned and tucked her hair behind her ears before taking the condom from me and covering me from tip to base.
She raised herself up on her knees and positioned herself over me, sliding down so very slowly. I wasn’t sure if it was her expression of ecstasy or the sensation of her squeezing my cock as tightly as she was that had me closing my eyes and reciting the alphabet like a teenager trying not to blow his load at his first look at a naked girl.
I gulped down a breath and opened my eyes to find her staring right back at me.
“I don’t know if I can do this,” she said, panic flitting across her face.
I tightened my grip on her hips. There was no fucking way I was going to let her regret what we’d done. It was too fucking perfect and tonight wouldn’t be enough. I knew that already. “Shhh,” I said. “Relax.”
“It’s so good. I can’t take it.” Relief shivered up my body that she wasn’t having a change of heart. I slipped my hands around to her back and coaxed her to lean forward. I tried to ignore the sensation of her body covering mine, her hard nipples pressing against me. I held her and began to move beneath her, pulling out and pressing in while she knelt over me. She whimpered into my chest as I slid in as deep as I could go. Her cries turned to moans.
Fuck, why had we waited so long? All th
at wasted time we’d spent talking when we could have been naked and fucking. My fingers dug into her arse cheeks, and she began to match my movements. She was so fucking perfect. She knew exactly what made me feel good, what worked for her.
Her body swayed and she collapsed against me, her muscles weakening as her moans grew stronger. But I couldn’t stop, so I rolled over and pushed in again, earning a fresh cry of pleasure from Truly as she wrapped her legs around me.
“I fucking love your sounds,” I spat through gritted teeth. “Like you can’t get enough.” I slammed into her again, and she arched her back, her nails biting into my shoulders as her orgasm claimed her. I didn’t stop. Couldn’t. I kept fucking and fucking, the orgasm that I’d been holding off since ten seconds after my last one building and building.
Truly opened her sleepy eyes and it was her small grin that did it. That secret look she gave me, like I was the best man to ever know her, pushed me over the edge. I thrust once more, pushing into her, closing any gaps between us.
TWENTY-ONE
Truly
I put on the hand brake and checked my hair in the rearview mirror, twisting it up into a clip. I tilted my head, taking in the bruise just below my ear. Shit. I pulled out the clip and let my hair fall loose.
I closed my eyes, remembered the way Noah’s teeth felt. I’d bet those half-moon bruises covered my entire body. He’d been rougher, needier than I’d expected last night, as if he’d been storing up all his sexual energy and had unleashed it on me in several hours of casual sex that had felt anything but casual.
I hadn’t expected it to be so good, so intense, and passionate. I just hoped I’d survive whatever we’d agreed to last night. I needed to focus on the physical. Put him in a box along with other men who couldn’t hurt me because I didn’t care enough.
I’d kicked him out after my third orgasm. It’d been late, I’d been exhausted, and I hadn’t wanted him to tell me he was leaving.
He’d not argued, probably thankful that I had no expectation he’d stay.
No sleepovers should be rule number seven.
This morning I’d woken, my head fuzzy from lack of sleep but my thoughts full of him. What I needed was distraction. Since Abigail had been put on bedrest, I’d not visited the spinal injuries center. So here I was, ready to have my focus pulled away from what didn’t matter to what did—these kids, the foundation, my work.
I opened the car door and headed to the sliding doors of the entrance. The office would wait. I didn’t have any Abi-related tasks until a lunch on Wednesday. My number two had stepped up and exceeded my expectations, and for the first time in months, I was confident that the foundation could survive without me for a couple of hours.
“Hey, Maggie,” I called as one of the nurses passed me in the corridor.
“Good to see you, Truly. Theo’s been asking after you.”
“I’ll make him my first stop.” I was going to go straight to the activities center, but the thought of Theo had me headed right to the ward.
I squeezed the sanitizing gel from its holder at the entrance at the exact moment my phone began to buzz from the depths of my bag. I balanced the gel in one hand while fishing for my phone with the other. Finally, I found it.
Noah. What could he want? “Hey,” I answered, tucking the handset under my chin and rubbing the sanitizer between my hands.
“How are you this morning?”
Did he feel obligated to check up on me and my feelings? “Fine. Just about to go into the center,” I said.
“Right,” he said. “That’s actually what I’m calling about. I was wondering if you’d mind if I connected with the medical head there. I’ve been looking into the epidural stimulation thing Abigail mentioned, and I wanted to ask them some questions about their current solutions and what’s on their horizon.”
So, he hadn’t been calling to check on me at all. He was all business. Which was good, obviously, because I didn’t need my hand held. “Why would I mind? I can introduce you if you’d like.”
“That would be great.” His grin echoed down the phone. “If you’re there already, I could come now.”
I sighed. “If you can be here soon, sure.” I’d come for a little space, a little distance, and to refocus after last night. But Noah sounded like he always did when he was talking about business—passionate, focused, and determined. And that was nothing I could say no to.
“I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”
I stopped by Dr. Edwards’ secretary, arranged a meeting for Noah, then headed back to the ward.
Time for me to see Theo.
“Hey, Douglas,” I greeted the boy in the bed next to Theo. “How’s it going?” He’d been here since before Theo. His operation had gone well, and I’d heard from the head physio that he was doing better than expected. Apparently as long as he did the rehab, he was on his way to walking normally again.
He shrugged.
“I hear you stood on your own a few weeks ago.”
“You have spies in here or something? I’ve not seen you in the ward or in the activities center for . . .”
It had been weeks, but I hadn’t expected the kids to notice. “Of course I have spies.” I glanced around the room. “Everywhere, so be warned.”
He grinned. “I knew we were being watched.”
“It’s only me. I wouldn’t let anyone else.” I plonked myself in a chair between the beds. “Where’s Theo?” I asked.
“They’ve just taken him to watch the kung fu. I think it cheers him up to think that will be him one day.”
“And you too,” I said.
He shrugged.
“Hey, what’s with the attitude?”
“It’s just taking such a long time.”
I couldn’t imagine what it was like to be his age and have spent such a huge proportion of my time unable to simply be a kid. “I have a friend—he’s coming here, any minute—and he was just like you. In fact, way worse. Was told he’d never walk again. You know what he likes to do for fun now?”
Douglas’s mouth twitched. “What?”
“He skydives, that’s what.”
“What, you can do that if you can’t walk?”
“He can walk, run, jump out of planes—everything. He proved them all wrong. You’d never know he was ever in an accident.”
“How long did it take him?”
I glanced up to see Noah standing at the entrance of the ward, scanning the beds. I reached up, trying to catch his attention. “You can ask him yourself. He just arrived.”
“This guy?” Douglas asked. “No way. He doesn’t even walk with a limp,” he said as we both watched Noah stroll toward us, spinning his car keys on his index finger.
“Swear to God.” It had only been hours since I’d seen him, but my heart thudded against my ribcage as if it had been years. He grinned at me as if we were the only two people in the room, as if we shared a secret that we’d tell no one. Maybe we did.
TWENTY-TWO
Noah
My mouth went dry, and if I didn’t know myself better, I’d say I fucking blushed at the sight of Truly. That warm smile of hers undid me. The way it had been last night between us had been nothing short of phenomenal, and this morning any doubts I had about crossing that line with her had completely disappeared. She knew me better than anyone and had a body that was made for me.
“Hey, Noah,” Truly said. “This is my friend Douglas. Douglas, this is Noah. Skydiver, pilot, bungee jumper. You name the extreme sport, he’s done it.”
“Pilot?” Douglas asked, pulling my attention away from Truly. She’d worn her hair loose, and I wanted to bury my face in it and breathe in the scent of coconut.
“No, not yet. I’m having lessons.”
“Douglas and I were just talking about you. He’s frustrated because of how long it’s taking him to recover. But the doctors and physios are telling me he’s doing really well and as long as he keeps up with the rehab, he’ll be walking in no time.”
I nodded, not knowing quite how to respond. The kid seemed to be in such a similar situation to me. “Right.”
Truly was one of the few people I’d talked about my accident with. It wasn’t that I had anything to hide. I didn’t talk about it because I’d moved on. I’d been able to lead a very different life than expected, so why waste time talking about something that could have been so much worse. With Truly, we’d talked about everything and it had just come up one evening when she’d asked about a scar on my arm. The few people I’d told up until that point had felt bad for me—I’d seen it in their eyes. Truly just listened with rapt interest; there was no pity in her eyes. She’d wanted to know the details, how I’d felt, if it had changed me psychologically. It was the first time I’d ever told anyone who wasn’t around at the time, and I hadn’t regretted it. She’d been so matter-of-fact about it.
“Did they really say you’d never walk again and then you ended up like—just being normal?” Douglas asked.
I paused, never having spoken to anyone in the position Douglas was in and wondering how to approach it. I wanted to provide hope to this kid but at the same time, my situation wasn’t everyone’s. A lot of people had left this unit in wheelchairs they’d be in forever. But I could give him the facts of my situation, couldn’t I?
“Yup,” I said. “Told me I’d be in a wheelchair the rest of my life.”
“Did you just have crap doctors?”
“Hey, D. I’ll get banned from this place if they hear you talking like that with me,” Truly said.
Douglas groaned. “Crappy isn’t that bad a word.”
Truly fixed him with an adorable glare and I wanted to kiss her. “Would your mum agree?” she asked.
Douglas rolled his eyes. “Okay, did you have doctors who didn’t know what they were talking about?”
I tapped my finger against the metal footboard that was just the same as the one I’d had on my bed. I’d been in the same position as this kid. Feeling shitty and hopeless. Wondering if I’d ever get to play football or if I’d have any friends when I finally got out of hospital. He deserved to hear a success story. “I think my doctors were pretty clever—they just didn’t know my superpower.”
