Bent not Broken

by Lisa De Jong

  “Tell me if you want me to stop.”

  “No. Don’t.”

  I think he chuckles, but suddenly, I feel his tongue on me with one long stroke. I gasp loudly this time at the feel of his tongue as he licks me up and down. It’s soft, yet rough. Gentle yet firm. It is when he finds that small patch of nerves that he gently sucks on that almost sends me over, and my legs begin shaking even more.

  “Gabe,” I whisper as I raise my hips and arch my back at the feel of his tongue. “Oh, God,” I breathe out, my hips continuing to roll with the movement of his tongue. My hands find his head, and I grab onto his short hair as his tongue continues to push me further to the edge. My inner thighs are shaking as he holds them open; I’ve never experienced pleasure like this.

  My heart is racing, my body is covered in goose bumps, and I feel that tremble in my abdomen building.

  “Are you still okay?” he asks, pausing.

  “Yes,” is all I can muster. I feel him slip one finger into me, and I gasp at the pressure, clenching around his finger.

  “You’re so tight. Try to relax,” he says as I nod my head so he knows I’ve heard him. His thumb is rubbing and gently applying pressure directly on my clit when I feel him slide a second finger inside of me. That trembling feeling is becoming more and more intense as I rock my hips with the movement of his fingers.

  “Oh, God,” I moan.

  His fingers are moving in unison with my hips and his thumb is applying just the right amount of pressure. My thighs continue to shake and I feel the soles of my feet start burning as my toes curl. I close my eyes as I feel the most amazing release I’ve ever felt. My back arches more, and I gasp for air as ripples of pleasure run through my body. When he pulls his fingers from me, I watch as he moves them to his lips, tasting me. I’m mortified and curious at the same time as I watch him. Finishing, he crawls up me and simultaneously pulls the towel from around his waist, tossing it to the floor.

  “I love you,” he whispers, pressing his lips to mine. I can taste myself on his lips.

  Still breathing heavily, I mumble against his lips, “I love you too.”

  Positioning himself between my legs, he settles in as he continues to kiss me slowly as I come down from my first orgasm. Finding that spot behind my ear, he licks and kisses me softly. I can feel that heat building between my legs again, brought on by the movement of his erection between my legs. The pressure of his pelvic bone pressing against me is causing another build-up.

  “I want to make love to you too,” he whispers in my ear. “But if you’re not ready for that, please tell me now,” he says, pulling back to look me directly in my eyes.

  Brushing the hair off of my face, he kisses my temple. His eyes are dark, hooded, yet his touch is light and gentle. Closing my eyes momentarily, I nod my head. I can’t imagine my first time with anyone other than him. Bringing both of my hands to his face, I pull his head down to me, pressing a needy kiss against his lips.

  “Make love to me,” I whisper against his lips. His forehead drops to mine as he lifts his hips slightly, pressing himself against my center. “Please,” I beg him, my breathing rapid. He laces both of his hands through mine and places them on each side of my head. I squeeze his hands, to let him know I’m ready.

  “Relax,” he says. My pulse quickens with anticipation. As he gently enters me, I gasp at the slight pain of him stretching me. Taking a deep breath, I focus on trying to relax, and not the pain I feel from him entering me.

  “I’m going to go slow. Just breathe,” he says quietly, letting me adjust to him as he holds himself still for a few seconds.

  “Just breathe,” I recite to myself inside of my head. Keeping my eyes focused on his, my hands rest on his biceps as he pushes himself into me a little further and then a little further. I gasp with each inch he presses into me. It’s painful, not horrible, but not comfortable either.

  Once he’s filled me completely, I close my eyes as I mumble, “Oh my God,” and squeeze both of his hands again.

  “Baby, are you okay?” he asks, pressing a kiss to my lips.

  “Yes. Just give me a second,” I whisper. Leaning forward, I kiss his shoulder and pull my hands out of his and move them to his arms to his back. When I relax and there is no longer any pain, just pressure, I rock my hips slightly, inviting him to do the same.

  “God, you feel good,” he says.

  “So do you.”

  “Wrap your legs around me,” he whispers, and I lift my legs, hitching them around his hips.

  Taking his time with me, he moves slowly, and I can’t help but take pleasure in the fact that the man I love is inside of me, skin to skin—making love to me. Closing my eyes, I want to remember this moment, just feel him as he moves back and forth. He’s slow and gentle, and careful. Resting his forehead against mine, he continues to move, pressing light kisses to my face. Opening my eyes, I feel him harden more inside of me. His eyes grow darker and his pace quickens.

  “Am I hurting you?” he asks, his breath hitching.

  “No. You feel so good,” I whisper in between breaths.

  His breathing becomes more intense, and I feel him harden even more. Our breathing is rapid, and with two last thrusts, he moans, and I feel his warm release inside of me. He lowers himself onto me, and I can feel his heart beating against my chest. With his head lying between my head and shoulder, his soft lips and hot breath on my neck cause another wave of goose bumps to prick my skin. Overwhelmed with emotions, I hold him firmly in place on top of me, not allowing him to break our connection.

  Taking a minute to recover, he lies there, still inside of me, and I’m not ready for him to leave me yet. “I love you. I will never get tired of loving you,” he whispers with his lips still pressed against my neck. His breathing becoming less labored, and he pulls himself from me and settles at my side. Pulling me to him, he wraps me in his arms, his grip firm. I hear him repeat those words again, the most beautiful words from my perfect man. I close my eyes, burning this memory into my mind for the rest of my life. I cannot imagine this moment being any more perfect, or with anyone else.

  Chapter 10

  Gabe

  I have never been happier in my life. In the last month, I got the girl and was accepted as a recruit into the Santa Ruiz Fire Department. I spend most of my days training and taking my EMT classes at the local community college. Taking summer classes wasn’t originally my plan, but getting accepted into the academy forced me to get them out of the way sooner rather than later. If all goes as planned, I should be finished with classes by the end of fall and, hopefully, an employed firefighter by the new year.

  Jess is sitting on my bed, reading a smut book on her iPad while I get some studying done. I hear her close the cover on her iPad, stand up, and walk over behind me. She wraps her arms around my neck from behind me, and rests her chin on my shoulder.

  “What is this?” she asks, reaching over my shoulder to pick up a packet from the stack of my notebooks.

  “A study guide for that test I have tomorrow.”

  “Eww…” she says, studying the information I have to memorize.

  “I’m not worried. I know most of the information. I just need to brush up on a few things,” I say confidently.

  “So, do you have time to sneak away?”

  “Depends what we’re doing.” I wag my eyebrows at her.

  “Is that all you think about?”

  “Well, not all that I think about, but…”

  “Okay, that’s enough.” She laughs at me. “I just wanted to go for a quick run.”

  “Sure. Let me just get changed and we’ll go.”

  “I’ll meet you out front in a few minutes. I have to run home and get changed,” she says, setting the study guide back on my desk.

  Pressing a kiss to my cheek, she leaves in a hurry. Jess is already stretching when I meet her in front of her house. Coming up behind her, I snake my arm around her waist and pull her into me, kissing the side of her neck. Her
head falls back, and I hear a slight hum coming from her throat. As I gently nip her neck, I feel her shiver.

  “Let’s go, handsome.” She smiles at me and smacks me on the ass playfully. Reaching out to try and smack her ass back, she yelps and takes off running. We complete our first mile quickly and turn around to head home, Jess is pushing me hard today, and I love that she challenges me. Coming up on the last half mile, she’s in almost a full sprint. God, I love watching her run. Her hair is pulled into a ponytail, and her long legs glide through the air. I love running just to watch her. I’d be fine in a smelly gym on a treadmill if it wasn’t for her. Slowing down as we come up on our street, our jog turns into a walk.

  “Sorry, not much of a cool down today. I have to shower and meet Ava at the nail salon in about an hour,” she says, pulling the binder out of her ponytail. Her long, dark hair hangs down past her shoulders. Taking a few deep breaths, I walk over to her. She is standing with her hands on her hips and her head tipped back as she breathes deeply. I reach both arms through hers and around her waist, and she drops her head forward, resting her forehead on mine.

  “Hey, lover,” she whispers, pressing a kiss to my lips.

  “Hey. Quickie before you take a shower?” I ask with a smirk, kissing her neck.

  “Gross. I’m sweaty.” She swats at me.

  “Yeah, so? It’s usually me that makes you sweaty.” I continue kissing her neck.

  “Tonight, I’m all yours.” She starts leaning back away from me, but I hold my grip on her.

  “Oh, I plan to take full advantage of that.” I smirk and squeeze her ass as she pushes me away.

  “Go home, shower, and study. I’ll be ready by six for dinner,” she says, turning and walking away with her hips swaying. She has no idea how badly she affects me.

  ****

  “Of all the places you could pick for dinner, you chose this?” I ask, trying to look appalled.

  “It’s pizza, Gabe.” She rolls her eyes at me.

  “We just ordered our food at a counter, and they gave us a number so they’d remember where to bring the food,” I respond. “I wanted to bring you somewhere nicer than a pub.”

  “This isn’t a pub, and I want pizza. This place has the best pizza in town. Didn’t you ever come here in high school?”

  “Ah, no.”

  “That’s right. You were too busy being Mr. Jock and chasing tail to hang out at such dingy establishments like this.” She laughs at me as her eyes scan the interior of the small pizza joint.

  God, I love watching her laugh, the way her eyes crinkle just a little bit, and the way she tips her head back turns me on. There is an unspoken comfort with Jess. I’ve never been so at ease with another person in my life. Something inside of me was missing until we got together, and I never intend to let her go.

  “So what’s the plan for after dinner?” she asks, taking a drink of her soda.

  “Bonfire at the house?” I ask, not knowing how she’ll feel about that. Dad built this amazing fire pit in the back yard, and we spend most of our weekends with friends gathered around it.

  “I’d love that. I want to spend as much time with Ava before she leaves,” she says, her voice becoming quiet.

  Ava leaves for Stanford in just a couple of weeks, so we’ve been making it a point to spend as much time with her as possible.

  “I’m going to miss her when she leaves,” she says.

  “Me too.”

  “But it’s different for you, Gabe. You still have Luke.”

  “Well, you’ll have me.”

  “That’s different. Who can I talk to about you? Or who’s going to go get pedicures with me?”

  I laugh. I’m not doing pedicures. “You can call her, text her, and even e-mail her. I know it’s not the same as having her right here, but it’ll work out.”

  Our pizza arrives and it’s huge. I will also say, it’s probably the best pizza I’ve ever had.

  “So how did you find this place again?” I ask, taking another slice.

  “This really hot guy used to bring me here, and we’d make out in the back corner.” She points to a dark corner where there is an old Pac-Man video game, which has an “Out of Order” sign on the screen.

  She laughs at me when I glare at her.

  “I’m kidding. Geez, relax. The girls and I would come here after tennis practice.”

  “Your attempts at humor aren’t very funny when you joke about other men.”

  “Yes, they are.” She rolls her eyes at me.

  “No, they’re not.”

  “I’m hilarious.”

  I can’t help but laugh at her now; she is so damn cute when she argues with me.

  “Okay, you’re hilarious, Jess.”

  “I know. I’m really glad we settled this,” she says with a smirk.

  “Hey, I have an idea,” I say, taking another bite of my pizza.

  “I don’t know if I should be intrigued or scared. See, that was funny,” she says, wiping her mouth with a napkin. “What’s this idea of yours?”

  “Maybe we can go visit Ava. You know, once she’s settled, we can take a road trip and surprise her for a weekend.” Her eyes soften and mist over as she thinks about my proposal.

  “I’d love that,” she whispers.

  “I’d do anything to make you happy, you know that, right?” She nods and tears threaten to spill out of her green eyes.

  “I love you, Gabe.”

  “I love you too,” I respond. “Now are you ready to get out of this dump?” I joke with her.

  “Yeah, yeah. I will never bring you here again.” She laughs.

  “Actually, I was hoping we could come back next week. That pizza was damn good.”

  “Told you.” She laughs.

  As I pull into my parents’ driveway, I see there are quite a few cars already here. I even see Luke’s truck parked in front of the house. Instead of heading through the side gate, Jess goes into the house, and, like a lovesick puppy, I follow her.

  “Hi, Mom and Dad!” she announces as she walks through the door. My mom is at the sink, washing dishes, and Dad is sitting at the kitchen table, drinking a beer and supervising her.

  “Hey, Jess!” my dad hollers.

  He jumps up out of his recliner and makes his way to her, pulling her into a tight embrace.

  “We miss having you around, but I’m glad Gabe is keeping an eye on you.” He winks at her. “There’s quite a crowd out there tonight,” he says, nodding toward the backyard. Jess releases her hug on Dad and opens the patio door.

  “‘Bout time, lovebirds,” Luke catcalls.

  Giving him the bird, I ignore his comments, noticing that there actually are quite a few people here, more than the usual eight to ten that normally gather. Jess makes her way over to Ava, and I grab a beer from the cooler, taking a seat next to Luke.

  “So how are classes going?” Luke asks, taking a drink of his beer.

  “Actually, really good. I’m lucky that every one of my undergrad classes transferred over. All I need are the sixteen credits for the Fire Sciences degree. Once those are done, all I need is to pass the P.A.T. Jess has been running my ass off lately, so I’m hoping the extra cardio will help me.”

  Luke laughs. “Good. Can’t wait to have you on board, bro.” He takes his beer bottle and taps mine.

  “Me too, man,” I say, watching Jess move from group to group. She is a social butterfly, able to talk to and relate to anyone. She finally settles, sitting on the stone bench by the fire, talking with Ava. I can’t help but smile when I see that they’re laughing so hard, Ava is doubled over. Jess glances at me, and her eyes sparkle in the light of the fire. I never knew I could be so in love with someone, but she has completely captured my heart.

  “I love you,” she mouths to me.

  “Love you too.” I mouth back. Luke laughs when he sees us.

  “So, how are things with you two?” Luke asks.

  “Good. Really good,” I say, watching her. “I’m
happy.”

  “You look happy,” he says. “Can I ask you something, honestly?”

  “Shoot.”

  “Is she the reason you didn’t go back to Arizona?”

  I hesitate to answer for a moment because I wonder where this questioning is coming from.

  “Partly. I love her. I really do, but I also know that I wanted to be a firefighter.” I think back to a few months ago, when I made this decision and all the emotions involved. “Either way, this was a chance worth taking for me,” I say, looking at Luke, and then back at Jess. “She’s worth it.”

  “She is,” he agrees with me. “I’m glad you’re both happy.”

  “So am I, man. So am I.”

  Chapter 11

  Jess

  “Stop eye fucking my brother. It’s gross,” Ava says as she catches me looking at Gabe. I pick up another plastic cup and toss it into the trash bag.

  “I’m not eye fucking your brother.”

  Picking up the last of the paper plates and empty cups, Ava and I make one last sweep of the patio, looking for anything else we missed.

  “You know I’m really going to miss you when you leave,” I tell Ava.

  “I’m going to miss you too. I honestly can’t remember what it was like before you starting living with us.”

  “Really? I remember so much about that time, probably because I had just lost my mom. I guess the trauma of it really ingrained in me everything around those years.”

  “Do you miss her?”

  As I pause to gather my thoughts, I notice Gabe talking to Luke up on the patio near the house. I sit down on the built-in stone benches that surround the fire pit. I take a few moments to stare at the flames and remember the bits and pieces of my mom.

  “Yeah, I miss her. I don’t remember much about her particularly, but I have vague recollections of baking cupcakes with her and going to the library. She loved to read.”

  Ava sits down next to me, weaving her arm through mine and resting her head on my shoulder.

  “You love to read too,” she whispers.

  A small smile settles on my face. “I guess I get that from her.”