The Initiative: Book One of the Jannah Cycle

by D. Brumbley

  She wasn’t expecting him to ask her to open her mouth, and while the first thing she thought of was something she didn’t think she was ready for, her mouth wasn’t anywhere near his genitalia. At least she didn’t think it was, her eyes were closed, after all. After a few heartbeats’ hesitation, she parted her lips as he had asked.

  She heard a slight crinkling, but then the next moment, he placed something small into her mouth. The taste seemed to hit her entire body all at once, and only got better once she bit down, the luscious chocolate joined by soft caramel inside it.

  The sound she made was similar to the ones he’d heard her make on his bed, and she savored the taste for as long as it would linger before she opened her eyes. “Chocolate? How did you get chocolate?” She didn’t know what else she had tasted along with the chocolate, but it was simply decadent.

  “Welcome to Three.” He said with a grin, leaning down to kiss the remnant of the chocolate off her lips. “We get pretty much everything here.”

  “You weren’t kidding.” She said as she kissed him again, with even more heat behind it. There was instinctive guilt associated with eating chocolate, but it tasted too good to pay attention to the guilt. “May I have one more?”

  “You can have the whole bag if you want it.” He reached back and took another one out of the bag to pop it in her mouth, this time caressing along her jawline as she enjoyed it. “I like the way you moan, so any chance I get to get that out of you, I’m gonna take.”

  Mercury blushed at his comment, but she didn’t think he could see it in the mostly-dark room. “No one has commented on it before. Am I too loud?”

  “That’s not possible. The louder you get, the better a job I know I’m doing.” He handed her a few more pieces, then laid down on the bed beside her to enjoy watching her eat them. “No reason for you to hold back on anything with me, Mercury. You wanna scream, you scream. And I’ll love every second.”

  She savored the chocolates, but put a few back for later. She wanted to take her time with them. And with her provisional husband. “Out of curiosity,” She kissed him again through the chocolate on her lips as her hands wandered down his body. “Is it possible to wear you out on sex?”

  “I don’t know.” He said playfully, squirming a little under her exploration. “Why don’t you try, and we’ll find out together?”

  “I don’t think I’m physically prepared for that, though I previously thought I was in good physical condition.” She moaned again as his hands wandered over her still-sensitive skin. “I feel like a starved woman in front of a buffet. You make me feel so much…need.”

  Orion smiled at her curiosity, and pulled her into a gentle kiss, his fingertips caressing her cheek to deepen and soften the gesture. “I’ve got what you need. Come and get it.”

  8

  When Anna woke, she was momentarily confused about where she was and who she was lying on top of. When she rubbed at her eyes and left sleep farther behind, she remembered she was in Logan’s house, in Logan’s bed, wearing Logan’s shirt, on Logan himself. She remembered touching and kissing him, but it had seemed like it was all a dream. Anna sat up enough to look down at him, then reached out to touch his cheek. It was as warm as the rest of him. Just as real. He was real. Everything she remembered had really happened.

  He didn’t wake up at her touch, but she did feel one of his hands tighten on the shirt she was wearing. It seemed that he was holding onto her the entire time they’d slept, and wasn’t willing to let go of her even in sleep. His chest rose and fell steadily, covered in coarse brown hair that she had been laying on, his mouth slightly parted. He snored, but not loudly enough to be grating. There was a mark of tears that had run down his cheek overnight, flowing down onto the rough hair covering his cheeks and chin like hard-grit sandpaper. She had taken most of the blanket with her, but the rest of him was completely still beneath what was left covering him.

  Anna traced the trail of tears lightly with her fingertip before she leaned down and kissed his lips lightly. She didn’t want to wake him, but she couldn’t help but kiss and touch him. He was real. It wasn’t a dream. What had he cried about, though? Was he upset that she was there, or did he feel guilty about having her there with him? They hadn’t done anything too destructive or damning yet, kissing and touching. Not that she could ever forget what he looked like naked. But they hadn’t had sex. If he wasn’t ready for that, she could respect that.

  He began to stir at her kisses, but if anything, he held more tightly to the shirt to pull her in close against him. “Morning, Beautiful.” He said in a gravelly voice, his eyes not quite open yet. “You sleep alright?”

  Was he aware that it was her, Anna, or was he too asleep? Did he think he was with someone else? She didn’t know what she would do if he called her Mel while his eyes were closed. “Morning.” She said softly, running her thumb along his bottom lip. “I thought I was dreaming. But you’re really here. I’m really in your bed.”

  “And my shirt.” He smiled, bunching up the shirt in his hand again before he started running his hands over her again. He opened his eyes a crack, and didn’t seem surprised to see her there. “I woke up earlier and went to grab sustenance. I’m sorry if I woke you up.” He motioned off to one side of the bed where there were some granola bars and bottles of water sitting on the table next to them. “You seemed like you were having a good dream. I tried not to bother you.”

  “I dreamed about you. It wasn’t the first time.” Anna was relieved that he didn’t seem surprised to see her, and began to relax. She reached out and traced where she could tell that tears had fallen. “Are you alright? What happened?”

  His smile dimmed at the fact that she had noticed his tears, and he shook his head. “Always happens in my sleep. Don’t worry about it.” He managed to smile up at her and turned his head to kiss her fingertips. “I asked Doc about it once, she said it would go away eventually.”

  “Do you have nightmares?” Clearly she wasn’t judging him, but she could feel her anxiety on his behalf coming back in full force to invade the moment.

  “None that I usually remember when I wake up.” He reassured her, and pulled her into another warm kiss. “Certainly none that matter when I wake up to something like this.”

  Anna kissed him back and sighed as the kisses broke. “I wondered when you realized that I was here with you if you would think that I was…someone else.”

  He shook his head, and looked her up and down in the shirt she was wearing. “I know who you are, Anna. I might’ve only just started getting a feel for you being this close about ten hours ago, but I’ve got a good taste for it. And there’s nobody else I’d rather wake up to.”

  She wasn’t convinced that there was no one else that he would rather wake up to, since she knew if he could bring Melanie back to life, he would. “There is no one I would rather wake up to either. I’ve wanted to be with you for so long.” Anna kissed him gently. “I felt guilty about how much I wanted you after she was gone. I still do. I couldn’t be here with you if she was here, and it makes me feel guilty because I don’t want to be anywhere else but here with you.”

  “I don’t want you anywhere else either.” He assured her, still running his hands over her as if to reassure himself that she was really there. “The past is what it is. No sense feeling guilty about wanting something in the present just because of the shitty past that got you there.” He looked into her eyes and moved to push her beautiful brown hair off to one side so he could get a clear look at her. “For a long while, I thought there was no life I wanted to live. But that was a lie. There is a life I want to live, and it involves a whole lot more of waking up to you mostly-naked on top of me.”

  Anna moved to straddle his waist, which put all of her bare parts against his bare waist. She was naked underneath his shirt, exactly as she wanted to be. Anna leaned down again to kiss him heatedly, feeling wonderfully refreshed after a night’s sleep. “I love you, Logan.” She remembered telling him
the night before, but she wanted to say it again. She wanted to say it as often as she could. “I have loved you for so long, and I want to be with you for the rest of my life. You mean everything to me.” Anna kissed him harder and gripped his shoulders with her small hands since she didn’t want to let him go.

  Logan took a few deep breaths under the kisses that followed, but his arms closed around her back to bind her against him in a vice of muscle and long-burning need. “I love you too, Anna. I want that too.” For his entire young adult life, he had wanted that, and there had been reason after reason that kept it from being a possibility. The reasons didn’t matter. The past didn’t matter. Only the fact that she was there with him, and that she wanted to be for the rest of their lives. “What are you doing next weekend?”

  That confused her, since it seemed like it was out of left field for him to ask. “Um, I don’t have any plans…” She was mostly naked on top of him and he was asking about next weekend?

  “Good. Now you do. You’re marrying me next Saturday.” He kissed her casually and pulled the shirt she was wearing up over her waist so he could put his hands on her bare waist and move upward from there.

  Anna was stunned at that declaration but then she smiled and kissed him hard. “Really? Just like that, Bickford?” She laughed and then grabbed his shirt and pulled it the rest of the way off her body. “I’m keeping the shirt, too.”

  “Keep whatever you want. Shirt, bed, house, all of it.” He reached up to take her breasts in both hands roughly, and she could feel him getting hard beneath her at the feeling of her against him and the sight of her on top of him.

  She groaned as he took her breasts in his hands, since it felt absolutely amazing. Anna slid her backside closer to his groin so she could tease him with her bare ass. “I want to keep the shirt and you. And your cock.” She had a dirty mouth, but she’d never used it on Logan. Not the way she had always wanted to.

  “Absolutely keep that.” He moaned at the way she was moving, and he knew from the single movement that none of the rumors that had passed around about her sexual expertise were exaggerated. He had never doubted them in the first place, but it was something else entirely to feel it for himself.

  Something switched in Anna as soon as she regained her confidence. It was as if her doubts and fears had dissipated in the single declaration that they would be married in a week. Anna reached back to run her hand along his quickly hardening cock, but then she decided to quickly flip herself around on top of him and give it more personal attention with her mouth.

  He gasped as soon as she went after him, and groaned loudly with his hand moving over her back to her backside. He couldn’t stop groaning as she went to work on him. “Good…god…”

  Anna was so happy she was finally able to take one of her fantasies and run with it that she was going crazy on him. Anna knew how to do all sorts of things with her tongue, and her hands knew just how to touch him. When his groans got louder, she slowed her pace and pulled her mouth off him with a pornographic pop of her mouth. “You taste even better than I’ve fantasized.”

  “Holy shit…” he was still panting as she turned to look up at him. He immediately wanted her to get back to what she was doing, but he couldn’t stop touching her at the same time. “You…I…my brain already doesn’t work. God help me when I get the rest of you.” He hauled her close and attacked her neck with his lips, pulling her in close because he couldn’t tolerate the idea of having her anywhere else.

  “I would finish you off, but I want more than that. I want to feel you finish inside me.” Anna moaned as he teased her neck, since she liked what he was doing. She didn’t even hesitate to position herself over him. She was in her element, and there was no way she was going to waste a single moment of having Logan in it with her. She slowly lowered herself down over his deliciously hard cock, and felt like she was going to explode with the feeling of a dream come true as he slid into her.

  He put his hands on her waist to feel her take him, and she certainly hadn’t been kidding. It was a tight fit, but she took him with more confidence than any other woman ever had. “God, you’re one to talk. Do your worst, baby. I want it all.”

  Anna cried out in pleasure as soon as he was completely inside of her. She waited for her body to adjust to the size of him, then started rocking almost desperately on top of him. Apparently all her dreaming about him had her more then ready for the opportunity to get on top of him. She was wet, needy, and it had been too long since she had last been with a man. Logan was the epitome of them all. “I don’t know if you can handle my worst, babe.” He was calling her baby now? She really was in one of her fantasies.

  He wasn’t shy about letting her know how much he loved what she was doing on top of him, but he wasn’t backing down from her either. “No, you don’t know.” He grabbed her waist and thrust up into her hard. He had fantasized about her every which way a man could have a woman, but he didn’t have a preference about which way to have her first. All he cared about was being with her. “But you’ll fucking learn. I want it all.”

  As soon as he grabbed her waist and fought fire with fire, it turned her on even more and she was not quiet about how she felt or how much she enjoyed what they were doing. “I’m…all yours, Logan.” She tilted her head back, but her hips kept up pace with him and his roughness. “Mrs. Bickford. God, that sounds amazing…”

  He knew from past experience that she wasn’t gentle and hated being treated gently by anyone, so he wasn’t shy about slamming himself into her as roughly as she inspired him to be. He vaguely remembered her talking about how long it had been since she’d had sex and how much she missed it, and it only made him redouble his efforts. He rocked her against him and encouraged her to dig in and take whatever she wanted from him, watching her face twist in pleasure the entire time. “I want to see you come for me, Mrs. Bickford.” He sat up on the bed and gripped her ass in his hands as she rode him, slapping her ass to get her moving and add the shock of a tiny bit of violence to their lovemaking. Logan was not a gentle man. Not by a long shot.

  Clearly she enjoyed the ass-slapping as much as she enjoyed the rest of it, since her moans and groans only got louder and more enthusiastic afterward. Anna wanted to see him come as much as he wanted to see her break, and she knew it wouldn’t be long for her. She wanted Logan for so long, and now she was there with him, riding him, the realization of it was amazing. She wanted to talk, since she enjoyed some dirty talk, but she couldn’t even force her lips to form the words. “Mmmm…Logan…”

  He growled as she said his name, and rocked his hips in time with hers, shaking the entire bed they were on with the violence of both their movements. A thousand fantasies were shooting through his mind, each of them featuring Anna’s face twisted in pleasure exactly the way it was above him, but he wanted her to know she had him, every way she wanted him. “You’re going to…make me…” he growled again as he leaned down to leave harsh kisses on the slopes of her breasts wherever his lips could reach, closing her in tightly against him so that her movements were that much more intense as she rode him.

  “Good. I want…I want…” She moaned, just before her orgasm shot through her body like a drug. Anna was always loud in everything she did, but it felt so good she wanted to scream. “Fuck! Oh, god…” She somehow managed to keep her hips moving for his sake, but the rest of her was twisted up in an aching knot of pleasure. Logan and his cock were better than she could have imagined, and she wanted more. So much more.

  With her screaming and shuddering on top of him, it didn’t take her much longer to get his climax out of him, and the stories about how good she was truly sank in as she writhed slowly against him afterward, stroking him with her body to make sure she got everything he could give. The prolonged orgasm was one of the best he’d ever had in his life. He was reduced to a gasping, moaning mess as he collapsed back onto the pillow behind him, dragging her down with him to keep her pressed against his chest.

  He
couldn’t talk for a long time as he rested there, but his hands continued to work over her back and sides. “Good fucking god. You could kill a guy with that thing. And the guy would die the happiest guy on Earth.”

  “I…could kill someone…with my pussy?” She laughed and kissed every part of his chest that she could reach with her lips. Anna still felt electric with energy from their lovemaking, and she loved it. It was rare that she felt emotional about sex, but with Logan, the whole world was changing. Her whole world, anyway. “I don’t want to kill you. I want you to be the most satisfied man on this planet.”

  “Only if you take the other half of that tiara.” He moved his hips slightly against hers to highlight the way they were still connected, and rocked his rough hands over her ass while he began to settle down. “In case I spend the rest of the day without enough blood supply to my brain to actually say so, I need to tell you right now that you’re fucking amazing. You know about most of the women I’ve been with and you know I’ve had more than my share. You’re on your own planet compared to any three of them together. The best I’ve ever had and I have not even begun to have you.”

  Anna grinned and kissed his lips gently and firmly, since she wanted to enjoy the afterglow a little bit longer. Everything felt so magical and perfect, she didn’t want to let go of it. “The only man I ever really wanted to please is you. All my experimentation, all of my ‘adventures’, it was so I would know, if I ever got the chance to be with you, every way possible to make you happy.” She kissed him again and then rested her hands against the sides of his face. “I love you.” She repeated, but she felt like she couldn’t tell him enough. “We’re going to get all kinds of hell from our families, but I love you, Logan.”

  “Most of the hell I’m going to get from my family is for not going after you as soon as we were old enough to get married.” He looked into her eyes as she said it, and he completely believed her. He’d never had any reason or desire to distrust Anna, and he certainly wasn’t going to start because the nature of their relationship had changed. “I’ve loved you since I was twelve. Maybe eleven, but twelve was the year I admitted it to myself.” His hands massaged over her entire body as she stretched out on top of him, still reaching up to caress over her breasts casually as they spoke, keeping the spark between them lit by small strokes and teasing brushes against the most sensitive parts of her. “And Larissa and Liam have known about it pretty much the entire time. Only reason Liam never went after you. He knew I’d have gelded him for trying.”