Flying Free

by Abigail Davies

  “Don’t,” she warns, a fire in her eyes that I’ve never seen before. “Don’t you dare, Corey, not now, not when we’re...”

  “Sorry.” I hang my head, not wanting her to see what I’m really thinking. “I just don’t want to take advantage.”

  She growls in the back of her throat and pushes against my chest trying to move me. I lift up immediately, not wanting to make her feel closed in.

  “I can’t believe...” she fumes, standing up and pacing on the floor in front of me. “I don’t know how many times I have to say the same thing over and over again.”

  “Baby-”

  “Don’t baby me!” She swings her head to me and I hold my hands up in the air. “I’m not that person, Corey!”

  “I know-”

  “You obviously don’t!” she says, ripping her jacket off her shoulders and wrapping her hands around the bottom of her t-shirt, starting to lift it up. “I’m not afraid of how I look anymore, not with you.”

  I grit my teeth as she lifts up her t-shirt, my eyes moving over all of the scars, scars that I know fill her back, but I can only see the ones that stretch around to her hip and onto her stomach.

  “These marks? They turned me into a different person, Corey, but I got over that. If you can’t accept me as me, the me that I am now, then this...” She waves her hand between us again. “It’s not even worth it.”

  She stands there, her hands on her hips and her fingers grazing the longest scar that stretches to around to her hip. I focus on the scars for a couple of seconds, the white puckered skin that has faded over time but will never fade completely, before my eyes drift up to her chest.

  “Baby...” I say, standing up and stalking towards her. I run the pad of my pointer finger against one of the scars and watch as goosebumps rise on her skin. “I love how you are now. You’re perfect.”

  “I wouldn’t go that far,” she scoffs.

  “I would.” I follow the trail of my finger with my eyes as it makes a path to her breasts and I stretch my palm across her torso, rubbing my thumb along the underneath of her breast and up to her puckered nipple.

  “Corey,” she moans.

  I step closer, entranced by her beautiful but blemished body and move my hand around her back and down to her ass. Squeezing it as I pull her against me, letting her feel every hard inch of me.

  She gasps when the tips of my fingers touch her pussy and I can’t help but close my eyes at the sound and feel of her.

  “It’s so worth it.” I pull back, looking her in the eyes and showing her how much she affects me. “I’m gonna show you just how worth it this is.”

  She closes her eyes and leans her head back basking in the way I’m touching her.

  She flinches as my fingers feather up her back and over all of the scars. I grab the clasp on her bra and undo it, freeing her breasts and stepping back to appreciate them.

  Grabbing my t-shirt at the back of my neck, I pull it off in one fluid movement and step closer, having to grit my teeth as her nipples touch my bare chest.

  I never thought such a simple thing like our chests touching could cause me to react like this, I take a breath and close my eyes trying to stop myself from throwing her onto the bed and taking her here and now, like I really want to.

  Slamming my lips back down onto hers, I spin us around and push her back down onto the bed, only this time I don’t lean over her but instead I pull the zip down on her jeans and take them off, ridding her of her panties and jeans in one move.

  Her hands fly to her pussy, covering herself and I shake my head, wrapping my hand around her wrist and pulling it away.

  “Don’t hide from me, Ava... ever,” I tell her in a firm voice, keeping my eyes connected to hers, making sure she knows how serious I am.

  “O... okay.” She looks away and then turns back. “I... I’ve just never... erm... done this.” She puffs out her cheeks.

  “You’re a virgin?” I ask.

  “Yeah.”

  I look at her like she’s grown two heads. How the hell can she still be a virgin? Not that it bothers me but Jesus, she’s at college with a bunch of horny ass guys and not once has she done anything?

  “So you’re telling me that no one has ever touched this pussy?” I run a finger up her slit and her juices coat it. Fuck me, she’s wet.

  “Ahhh.... no, no one apart from-”

  “No,” I growl, shaking my head. “Has anyone touched this pussy that you’ve wanted to?” I ask, pressing the pad of my thumb to her clit, grinning wide when she moans.

  “N-n-no.”

  “Good,” I growl, the caveman in me coming out. I look down at her pussy lips and spread them apart with my fingers, my dick growing harder at seeing her laid out naked, on my bed.

  Letting him see all of my scars is a big deal. No, that’s not right, it’s a huge deal. Apart from the first time he saw them, and the doctor who treated them, no one has seen them up until now, I never thought I’d want anyone to see them but showing Corey; it felt right.

  I expect him to look at them and be disgusted and I’m okay with that because when I looked at them it’s how I used to feel. That is, until the last few weeks.

  I’d made so many changes that when I looked down at them now all I saw was strength. I’ve been through hell and back, mentally and physically, but I can see the light to the other side now and it’s getting brighter and brighter by the day.

  Part of the reason for that light is Corey. I want to be better, more confident, not just for myself but for him too. I want him to want me, scars and all. I want him to look at me like the world starts and ends with us because that’s how I feel when I look at him.

  I didn’t plan to do this, show him my scars, but it felt like the right time and I knew that if I didn’t do it right now then I probably never would. So when I pulled my t-shirt up, I expected him to look at me like I was a monster... but he didn’t.

  His eyes showed me so many things but none of them were disgust. When his hands touched my bare skin, I nearly combusted right then and there.

  Opening my eyes now, I watch as he looks at me, laid on the bed, butt naked. I’m never naked, I haven’t been since that day. Even when I shower, I can’t bear to touch my scars, the phantom pain that I feel when I run my hands over them is sometimes so real that it brings me to tears.

  My head swims with so many thoughts, wondering what he’s thinking, what he thinks of my scars, whether he’ll still want me. I don’t know why I’m so worried because when he dips his head and runs his tongue over my hip and trails a path to my pussy, I realize that he doesn’t even see the scars.

  He just sees me.

  I close my eyes and throw my head back as he parts my lips and sucks on the bud between them, causing my hips to buck off the bed. His moan vibrates through me and tingles starts to spread between my thighs, I start to panic, trying to push his head away, my fingers weaving into his hair.

  “No,” he growls and looks up at me, his eyes hooded and burning with fire. His keeps his eyes glued to mine as he bends down and licks me slowly again. I can’t take my eyes off him as he holds me still and continues his show.

  His rough hand trails up and over my hip, over my stomach then up to the underneath of my breast. His fingers dig into my back as his thumb rubs my nipple and it sends me over the edge. I squeeze my eyes shut as my hips lift off the bed, shouting out his name.

  I feel him move onto the bed properly and hover over me but I don’t open my eyes, I keep them closed riding the wave of my orgasm.

  “I’m going to make sure you’re ready for me,” he whispers in my ear and all I can manage is a nod as his hand trails a path down and I feel the tip of his finger dipping inside me.

  I freeze at the intrusion and my whole body tenses. “Relax, baby, I won’t hurt you,” he says, bringing his other hand back up to my breast and rolling my nipple between his fingers.

  I try to relax, breathing through my nose as he pushes his finger deeper. I gasp a
s he pushes all the way in and starts to slowly pull out and then back in again. He does this a few times before he pulls away slightly.

  My eyes spring open as I hear the sound of his zipper in the otherwise silent room.

  I take him all in now, how chiseled his body is and my eyes trail down his pecs and his abs then over that perfect v and down to his swollen dick.

  “Will that even fit?” I squeak at the size of the thing.

  “Yeah, baby.” He smirks, coming to lean back over me and opening my legs wider. “Breath through it, okay? It’ll only hurt this first time.” I smile and wait for him. “Tell me if you want me to stop, okay?” he says, all of a sudden serious.

  “Yeah,” I say, breathless at the feel of the head of his dick against my opening.

  He pushes inside of me slowly and stops when he’s half way there. I take a deep breath and try to focus on anything but the pinching sensation.

  “You’re so tight,” Corey grits out between clenched teeth. “You doing good, baby?”

  “Yeah,” I say on a release of breath.

  He lifts his hand to my face, his fingers weaving through my hair as he lowers his face and brings his lips down to mine. I open up for him when he swipes his tongue along my bottom lip, I get so caught up in the kiss that I don’t realize he’s pushing inside of me even more until he breaks through my barrier and I squeal.

  “Fuck!” I shout, squeezing my eyes tight and digging my nails into his biceps. “Holy... fucking... shit,” I gasp.

  “Stay still,” he warns, his own body tense. “Fuck, I’m trying to go slow but you’re so fucking tight.”

  I start to feel bad that I must be causing him discomfort but he must see it on my face because he cups the side of my head and rests his forehead against mine. “I’m gonna move now, okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  He pulls out nearly all the way and then pushes back in, the pinching sensation a little less now that he’s already broken through my barrier and I start to adjust to him. His hand moves down to my leg and pulls it over his hip as he starts to thrust faster.

  I close my eyes and start to enjoy the sensations now that it doesn’t hurt so much. When his hand comes in between my legs and rubs against my clit it makes me go off like a rocket.

  My pussy clamps down onto his dick and starts to pulse around him and I grip onto his arms as my nails dig into him, holding on for dear life.

  “Fuuuuck!” Corey shouts and I open my eyes just in time to see him throw his head back. His hips jerk another couple of times as his cum releases inside of me and then he collapses on top of me, his hand coming out to catch most of his weight.

  I move my head to the side as he buries his face in my neck and whispers, “You caught me, birdie. I’ll never be free again.”

  Coming back to Corey’s apartment and him not being there felt strange. He’d been gone for a whole week now and I missed him like crazy.

  I hated that he wouldn’t let me say goodbye to him and left while I was in a lecture. He had said that he doesn’t do goodbye’s because it feels too final but I hated that he didn’t because it felt like he hadn’t been here in the first place.

  He told me that I could stay here as much as I wanted and that he would prefer that I did because I was closer to the bar and knowing I was sleeping in his bed when he wasn’t here, made him feel more relaxed.

  Being in his bed made me feel safer anyway and he was right, being closer to the bar was better and it meant that I could pop in there most nights, even if it was just for a chat with Jamie.

  I finally catch up with Jess as I’m leaving my last lecture. She hasn’t been back to the apartment for a while before I started to stay at Corey’s and I’m concerned, it isn’t like her to be like that because she always comes home.

  Her eyes flick away from me as I call her name and I watch her look over to Scott, her face telling a thousand words. Something isn’t right here.

  “Jess? Are you okay?” I ask, stretching my hand out to her.

  “Huh? What? I’m fine.”

  “Are you-” My eyes flick over to Scott and I shake my head. “Are you coming back to the apartment?”

  “Erm... I dunno... look, I’ve got to go... I’ll erm... I’ll catch you later, ‘kay?” She attempts to smile but it doesn’t reach her eyes, right before she spins around and walks over to Scott.

  He can’t even look at me as I watch Jess go over to him, although that may be down to who my ‘brothers’ are.

  I may have been ‘delicate’ as the brothers liked to say but that didn’t mean that I didn’t know how the world goes around. Sometimes I feel like they forget I lived a rough life before they found me. Seeing people beaten up or getting caught in a brawl was nothing new to me. If they knew half of what I used to have to do just to get my dad’s fixes every night, they’d be shocked.

  My dad confronting me had bought up so many memories and things that my mind had forgotten about. It’s funny how that happens; your mind will lock away things that you’d think you would always remember.

  It takes something to trigger those memories and when you remember one of them, it’s like a vault opens and they all coming flooding back.

  I fully intended to tell Corey as soon as I got back to the apartment that day but when he told me he was going away, things took a turn. I decided not to tell him, not wanting to ruin the mood or our last night together. All it would do is make him worry and he’d leave on a sour note and I didn’t want that. I wanted him to leave thinking that I was fine.

  Whether I am or not doesn’t even matter.

  I take my time going to Corey’s, stopping at the store for a few bits. When I get to his building, I put the numbers in the keypad on the door and turn, having the feeling like someone is watching me again. It hasn’t left me since that night when I left work and although I’ve tried to put it at the back of my mind, when I don’t have anything to occupy my brain, it’s all I can think about.

  Telling Charlie was out of the question so I decided to go to the local precinct yesterday, just to be on the safe side.

  I filed a statement, knowing that there’s not much they could do but needing to feel like I’ve done something about it.

  As soon as I stepped out of the station, the feeling came back full force and I was starting to wonder whether I was imagining it but now as I see a figure move in the distance, I know that I’m not.

  The black hood pulled up over their head hides most of their face and the only thing I can make out is their eyes. Familiar eyes.

  My hands start to shake and I’m rooted to the spot as we both stand on opposite ends of the road, neither of us moving.

  Then he steps towards me and I freak out, opening the apartment building door and slamming it behind me. I try to run up the stairs but I’m not half way up when he bangs on the door, pulling his hood down.

  “Ava!” he shouts. “Let me explain!”

  “Go away,” I whisper, then shake my head because there’s no way he can hear me.

  “Please, there’s so much more to it than you think.” His eyes beg me to hear him out but I can’t, not when he’s been following me.

  Shaking my head at him, I start to walk up the next few steps.

  “Please! Let me explain it all to you, you’ll understand then.”

  “Go away, Thomas!” I shout back, turning, ready to go up the next flight of stairs.

  “I’m your brother!” he shouts.

  I freeze, rooted to the spot.

  “W-w-what?”

  Sat here trying to listen to Daley tell us about this mission is futile when all I can think about is Ava back in my apartment, possibly in my bed and wearing one of my t-shirts.

  Fuck. me.

  I adjust myself and clear my throat, trying to concentrate on this douche.

  “In and out within minutes, that’s the goal,” he says to me and the other five men in the room. They all nod and turn to me, waiting for me to say something.

  Sta
nding up, I tilt my head at Daley and cross my arms over my chest as I widen my stance. “This guy is dangerous. You need to have all of your wits about you. You aren’t overseas now, you’re back in the US. We have to go undetected.”

  They all listen to me intently and with respect.

  I go into all the details, where we will be watching him and the formation we will go in. This should be a quick in and out job and although my mind is fully on the job, all I want is to be back home with Ava.

  Once we’ve gone over everything, I send them off to get suited up and walk over to talk to Daley.

  “Hey,” he says. “Ready to get out there?”

  “Yeah.” I run my hand down my face and sit next to him, huffing out a breath. “I can go home after this, right?”

  “Why?” he smirks, leaning forward and resting his forearms on his thighs. “Want to get back to the wifey?”

  “Fuck sake,” I say, closing my eyes and leaning my head back.

  “What?” he asks, like he genuinely doesn’t understand why I reacted that way. I swear, sometimes I wonder how he even made it as far as he has.

  “Wifey? Who even uses that term?”

  “Erm... me?” he asks, his eyes wide and mouth open in shock. “That’s what she is, right?”

  “I give in,” I say, throwing my hands up in the air and standing up.

  Even though I resent him for making me work for him, I can’t deny that he’s good at what he does and knows how to pull together a great team. Plus, I’m kind of getting used to him.

  I’ve worked with some good men in my time but this team is one of the best and if it wasn’t for them, I know I wouldn’t be here right now.

  They’ve saved my life several times over, just like I had with them.

  Walking through the hallway of the safe house we’re staying in, I make my way to my room and pull my cell out. Scrolling through my contacts, I hover over Kay’s number and then over Ava’s, debating who to call first.

  Who I am kidding? I haven’t been able to get Ava out of my head since I left. Every night when I go to sleep, I remember her lying on my bed, naked. The image is burned into my brain.