by Rachel Lacey
She wrapped a blanket around her shoulders, leaning forward so that it covered him too, keeping the cold night air off their overheated bodies. With a wicked smile, she rocked her hips, sliding up and down his cock, and she was so wet. Her heat was burning him up. He gripped her hips, guiding her up and down his length, but she broke free with a laugh.
“You’re not in control tonight, remember?” She straddled his left thigh, so close yet so frustratingly far from where he wanted her.
“I remember.” He reached down to touch her, needing to feel her arousal. He wanted to taste her something fierce, but she wanted to take the lead tonight so he’d just have to lie there and see what she had planned. In the meantime though…He stroked her, groaning low in his throat when he felt how hot she burned for him.
She rocked her hips, riding his thigh as he teased her with his fingers, living vicariously through her as she grew nearer to her release.
“This is what it looks like,” she panted, “when you lose control.” Then she threw her head back and surrendered, her hips bucking wildly as she rode her way right over the edge, crying out as she found release.
He plunged a finger inside her, heightening her pleasure—and his—as she convulsed around him. His dick pulsed in rhythm with her release, aching to be inside her, but he could wait however long he needed.
He could always wait.
“Wow.” Jess collapsed against him, breathless. “See?” she said, turning her face to meet his gaze.
And hell if he didn’t see what she meant. He imagined what it would be like to surrender himself one hundred percent to his desires, to give himself over to the need burning inside him and let go, pound his hips against hers until release crashed into him as strong as it had just taken Jess.
But he couldn’t do it. He could never be free of the control binding him. Too many years of practice held him tight as a board.
She slid down his chest, disappearing beneath the blanket, and kissed the head of his dick, just a quick kiss that nonetheless made him jerk against her lips. “How bad do you need me right now?” she asked, her warm breath teasing his aching flesh. “On a scale of one to ten. One being a total limp dick.” She kissed him again, proving his dick was anything but limp. “And ten being ready to beg for mercy.”
Pretty damn close to an eight. “Five.”
“You’re such a liar.” She traced her tongue over him, and his cock throbbed painfully. “It is going to be so much fun making you beg tonight.”
“I’m not going to beg.”
“Oh yes, you are.” She took him in her mouth, plunging him so deep, his vision went hazy. She sucked hard, once, twice, and then released him from her mouth with a wet pop. “Because I’d say you’re already at least at an eight.”
Fucking hell. For the first time in his life, he actually considered begging.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Maybe it’s already a nine.” Jessica grinned as Mark lay still as a statue beneath her. His jaw was clenched so tight, he could have crushed stone, and his dick strained against his belly, so impossibly hard. She took him in her fist. His shaft was still wet from her mouth, soft on the surface and like steel inside. “You’re so hard, Mark. It’s turning me on again just feeling how hard you are.”
He said nothing, but one arm snaked around her waist, drawing her down against him.
“Oh, would you like to cuddle for a while?” She was enjoying torturing him, maybe a little too much.
“Sure.” His voice sounded like sandpaper.
She snuggled up against him so that her thigh pressed against his cock, and she’d meant what she said before. Feeling him pressing into her like this was turning her on big time. “I could cuddle with you like this all night.”
“Yep.” His voice was casual, but his body was anything but. There was no hiding the way his cock pulsed against her thigh, poking urgently against her.
“Still a five?” she asked.
“Maybe only a four now that we’re just cuddling.”
He was such a liar! Oh, this was going to be so worth it when he finally broke. She shifted her leg against him, restless in her own desire, and he’d already gotten her off once. She might feel guilty about letting him get her off a second time before she’d done the same for him, but hey, she wasn’t too proud to beg. He, on the other hand…
“See any meteors yet?” she asked.
“No.”
She rested her cheek against his chest and looked up at the sky, twinkling with millions of stars above them. It was hypnotizing. She’d always loved stargazing, especially during meteor showers. As she watched, another bright streak shot across the sky. “Oh! Did you see that?”
“No.”
“Too busy thinking about the fact you’re only at a four, huh?”
“Yep. Four.”
“Well, I guess I have my work cut out for me then.” She swung around to straddle him. His cock pressed between her legs. She rolled her hips, sliding up and down, never quite letting his tip reach her core. Teasing him. She’d never done anything like this before, trying so hard to drive a man mad with need. For her. To make him snap.
Mark closed his eyes, still and silent beneath her.
“Have we at least made it back to five yet?” she asked.
He nodded.
“Halfway there,” she whispered, bending down to kiss his chest. She kissed his nipple, sucking hard. He surged beneath her, his hips arching up into hers. Smiling, she kissed her way over to the other side of his chest, licking and sucking the tight bud of his nipple until he released a harsh groan. He’d always been so sensitive there.
And dammit. He had willpower of steel.
She rocked faster as her own need rose up, burning her up from the inside out. “How are you, Mark?”
“Fine,” he mumbled. “Still a five.”
“You are the world’s most frustrating man.” She ground herself against him, and boom, another orgasm slammed through her. She bucked against him, riding it out, and then collapsed against his chest.
Mark swore, tossing an arm over his eyes.
“I think I’m having a lot more fun than you are.” She grinned, panting, still tingling with pleasure. “You know, all you have to do is say please…” She pressed her palm against him, and his cock pulsed so hard she thought he might come right there in her hand.
“I’m tired of this game.” He sat up, reaching for his jeans.
“Seriously?” She gawked at him. “You’d quit now rather than risk losing control?”
“I told you.” He looked at her, his expression stony. “I don’t beg, and I don’t lose control.”
“No way, mister.” She pushed him back down. “No quitting. Here. I’ll make it easy for you.” She reached into her backpack and pulled out a condom. She pressed the foil packet into his palm. “Because I know you’re not much of a talker, you don’t even have to say please. When you’re ready to beg for mercy, just roll on the condom and go crazy.”
He said nothing, but his fist clenched around the condom.
“But when you put on the condom, it is the nonverbal equivalent of begging.” She took him in her fist and squeezed. “And no holding back once you get inside me.”
“What if you’re not ready?”
“Oh, I’ll be ready.” She was so turned on again just from talking to him she could barely sit still. She had no idea how he was still holding on when she was ready for orgasm number three.
She straddled his thigh, letting his coarse hair rub her just right. Then she pumped her fist up and down his shaft, allowing her thumb to swirl through the dampness at the tip on each stroke, keeping her tempo slow enough to drive him mad, not giving him the speed or the grip he needed to find his own release.
Torturing him.
She rocked against his thigh, feeling her own arousal grow, but she was not, absolutely not, coming again until he was inside her. So she slowed down, torturing herself as much as she tortured him, and when she couldn’
t stand it anymore, she bent forward to suck his nipple into her mouth. She sucked hard, again and again, while her fingers traced the head of his dick, teasing, teasing…
Mark lurched upright so fast she fell to the side, startled. He had the condom in place almost before she’d realized what was happening. Then he’d pinned her against the blanket, his big body covering hers, his cock already pushing against her entrance.
“No holding back,” she whispered as she wrapped her legs around his hips.
“Couldn’t if I tried.” He plunged inside her, filling her up so hard and so fast she gasped.
“Yes,” she moaned, digging her heels into his ass.
His hips flew as he plunged into her again and again, each time better than the last. He hooked his right arm beneath her left knee, adjusting their position, bringing him even deeper inside her, so deep her whole body rocked with the power of each thrust. She could feel one of the strongest orgasms of her life building inside her, ready to rock her world.
“Fuck, Jess,” he ground out, thrusting harder, faster…
Yes, yes, yes…
His arms began to shake. “I’m too close…”
“Go,” she whispered as her own orgasm crested inside her.
He pumped his hips like a man possessed, swearing a blue streak.
“I’m coming,” she moaned, and her body clamped down around him.
“Fuck. Me. Holy shit…” Mark kept swearing, his hips slamming into hers, each stroke taking her higher and higher.
She was coming, and coming, and holy shit indeed…the pleasure grew so intense, she almost couldn’t take it. “Mark!”
“Jess.” He stiffened, holding himself still for a long moment. Then he thrust again, and a guttural cry tore from this throat, so wild, so uninhibited that she came even harder.
He pounded into her. “Holy…fucking…shit…”
She could feel him pulsing inside her, and her body gripped him in response, his pleasure fueling hers. Finally, he went still, dropping his forehead against hers, his chest heaving for breath.
“You did it,” she whispered, aftershocks of pleasure still ricocheting around inside her. “You lost control.”
“I have never come so hard in my life,” he gasped.
“I don’t think I have either. And yet I never managed to get you past a six.” She winked playfully.
Mark thrust inside her again, making her moan. “Baby, I was at an eleven the whole damn time.”
“I knew it!”
He withdrew, rolling off the condom and placing it inside their bag of picnic trash. Then he lay back, tucking the blanket around them. “When the Army trained me to withstand torture, they’d obviously never met you.”
“But this was a good kind of torture,” she said, snuggling in against him, not wanting to think about him undergoing any other kind.
“Yeah.”
They lay like that together for a few minutes, neither of them moving. Overhead, a meteor blazed, and she was too awestruck to say a word.
Finally, he sat up, gesturing toward their picnic trash. “I need to get this back to the truck before we attract any bears.”
“Um, Mark.” She was staring at his dick, which was still semi-hard.
He followed her gaze, hardening even more. “Already at a six.”
“That is impressive.”
“I may be hard for the rest of my life after everything you put me through tonight.”
She grinned, reaching for him. “Let me help you out with that.”
“As soon as I take the trash back to the car.” He reached for his jeans and pulled them on.
“Stubborn man.” She rolled over, wrapping the blanket tighter around herself. “Hurry back.”
* * *
Mark woke sometime during the night. Jess had zipped their two sleeping bags together, and it was toasty warm inside them. He was naked. So was she. She slept next to him, curled on her side, her brown hair fanning around her face. So beautiful.
A flash of light caught his eye, and he looked up. The night glistened overhead in a shimmering blanket of stars, and there went another meteor. It shot across the sky, disappearing behind the treetops at the edge of the clearing. Mark had never been that interested in outer space, never dreamed of being an astronaut or any of that. But okay, this was pretty cool.
As he watched, another fireball blazed in the sky, then another. Should he make a wish? Were meteors the same as a shooting star? He wasn’t sure. Still, it couldn’t hurt.
He closed his eyes and wished for Jess’s health. Then he reached out and brushed a lock of hair back from her face.
Her eyes fluttered open, and she smiled, scooting up against him.
“Look up,” he said.
She did. He held her close while they stared up at the stars. A meteor shot across the sky, and Jess gasped.
“It’s so beautiful,” she whispered. “I don’t know why, but there’s just something so magical about it, especially being out here in the middle of the woods under the stars.”
As he held her close, he felt the magic too. He would never have done this, never have even known there was a meteor shower tonight, if not for Jess.
She lay in his arms, a peaceful smile on her face. They lay together like that for a long time, and he saw more meteors than he ever would have imagined possible. After a while, Jess fell back to sleep, and then he finally did too.
When he woke up again, the sky had begun to brighten with dawn, and Jess was still asleep in his arms. He could lie here in this sleeping bag in the middle of the forest with her for a million years and never want to leave. When he held her, everything else seemed to melt away. There was just him and Jess and an overwhelming sense of peace inside him.
And he hadn’t known much peace in his life.
She snuggled closer against him, murmuring in her sleep. He couldn’t make out the words, but she looked pretty damn peaceful too. Protectiveness welled up inside him. He wanted to hold her so close that all the pain she’d been facing would just disappear. It fucking killed him that he couldn’t just kiss her and make it all better. And he was terrified that something serious might be wrong with her.
But one thing was for damn sure: Whatever she was facing, she wouldn’t face it alone. He’d be right there beside her, no matter the diagnosis, no matter if she never got a diagnosis. He’d walked away from her once, and he’d step back again romantically if she asked him to, but he would never turn his back on her again.
He lay there and watched the sunrise through the treetops as Jess slept in his arms.
“Good morning,” she murmured, her voice thick with sleep.
“Sure is.” He tucked her in closer against him.
Her warm, naked body landed flush against his. “It was a good night too.”
“Yeah.” It sure as hell had been. He’d always enjoyed camping outdoors, and watching the meteor shower with Jess had been really special. And the sex? Well, he’d been about ready to strangle her while she was torturing him out of his mind, but holy fuck, the end result had been amazing. He’d lost control all right, and he’d never come that hard or that long in his life. He had literally seen fucking stars when he lost himself inside her last night.
Just thinking about it made him hard as steel. Or maybe it was the fact that Jess was still pressed against him. She kissed him as she scooted up in the sleeping bag, bringing their bodies into alignment. They kissed and touched as the sky dawned blue overhead. And when he sank into her, he knew nothing else would ever compare.
Because Jess was everything.
Afterward, as they lay there, damp with sweat and panting for breath, he gave her another deep, drunken kiss. “What time do you have to be at work?”
She rolled to her back. “I took myself off the schedule this morning. I have a doctor’s appointment at ten.”
Reality slammed into him, hard. “More tests?”
She nodded, lines of tension appearing around her eyes. “Lucky me.�
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He wanted to tell her it would be okay, but he didn’t believe in false promises. He knew there were no guarantees, not even that she’d get answers. The human body could be a frustratingly complex, mysterious thing sometimes. “I could come with you.”
“That’s sweet of you, but I’ll be fine.”
“Jess…” But he didn’t know what to say.
She turned to face him and gave him a gentle kiss. “It’s okay. Really. Whatever it is, I’ll handle it.”
“I don’t doubt that for a second.”
“But I don’t want to talk about doctors or other un-fun things right now, okay?”
“Fair enough.” He tugged her in for another kiss.
“Hold that thought,” she whispered against his lips. “I need to pee.”
He laughed as she slipped out of the sleeping bag. She wrapped a thick, blue blanket around herself, slid her boots on, and walked off into the woods, her brown hair bouncing on her shoulders. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen a sexier or more beautiful sight.
She returned a minute later, still wrapped in the blanket. Now that the sun had risen higher in the sky, he could see the purple smudges under her eyes, a harsh reminder that she wasn’t well. She gave him an amused smile as she slid back in beside him. “Seriously, how can you not need to pee when you wake up in the morning?”
He shrugged. “Too many years in the military, I guess. You get used to ignoring it.”
“I don’t think I’d be very good at that part.” She pressed her chilly toes between his calves to warm them.
“You would. You’re pretty damn tough, Jess.”
She gave him a look but said nothing. They lay together until the sun had risen above the treetops, taking the edge off the chill in the air. “Well, Mr. Tough Army Man, I’m starving, and I didn’t pack us any breakfast, plus it’s probably time for me to go home and shower and make myself presentable.”
“You’re already more than presentable.”
“You’re just saying that because you’re the man who ravished me.” She gave him a sexy grin as she slid back out of the sleeping bag and scrambled for her clothes. “Crap, it’s cold.”
