by JD Hawkins
Half-drunk on the taste of each other’s mouths, bodies twisting with desire for skin-on-skin, we stumble out of the elevator toward my apartment. I turn my back to him to get the door open and he wraps his arms around my front, hands rolling over my stomach, kneading my breasts through my shirt as he bites hungrily at the nape of my neck. Somehow I manage to fumble the keys out and unlock the door, pushing through as soon as it’s open.
I turn around to see him watching me with eyes narrowed and on fire, trapping me in their intensity. He slams the door behind him without looking, then roughly tears off his tuxedo jacket and tosses it aside.
“Nobody drives me as wild as you do,” he growls, as his eyes flick possessively down the length of my body, eyes so intense I can feel them, can read the intent, all the lustful thoughts behind them.
I smile a little and step toward him, then hook my fingers in the top of his belt.
“Good. Because I like it wild,” I say, as I pull him by the belt backwards into the bedroom.
I sit back on the bed, his body broad and powerful before me. My eyes go from the bulge in his black tux trousers up to the hungry look on his face, and he responds by tearing his shirt the rest of the way off. It hangs loose, framing the taut muscles underneath. I’m thirsty for him, my nails scratching down the indentations of his abs like I’m deciphering them, feeling his hard muscles tremble beneath my touch. I need my mouth on him.
His fingers bury themselves in my hair as I tug off his belt, whipping it off and working his pants open. His cock is already stiff and thick in front of me, the veins pulsing with need. All I can think about is sucking it. I trail my fingertips along him softly as I drop to the floor and get on my knees, my mouth watering, ready for him. I lick the drop of pre-cum off the tip, enjoying his sharp intake of breath, the way his eyes narrow even more, the determined, muted groan that he can’t help letting out.
“Ooh, you like that,” I tease. “You want more?”
Instead of waiting for an answer, I lick him again as his hand grabs a fistful of my hair, as he fucks my mouth. I almost choke on the length of him, he’s so big, the head ramming the back of my throat for a few short, quick thrusts, before he pulls out with a gasp. I remember this Teo. Aching for me but doing everything in his power to hold back, stay in control. I grin and lick my lips, making eye contact as I let the head of his cock roll over my tongue, taking my time as I slowly trace the underside of his shaft. Then I open wide and take all of him into my mouth. He groans, his body already swaying a little to the rhythm of my sucks and the pulse of his desire. I start to work him faster, increasing the pace, but he pushes hard into my throat again, impatient for me to deep throat him.
“Nuh-uh,” I hum with my mouth around his cock. I ease up now, just to punish him for rushing, and then start back at the beginning with just the tip of my tongue lapping his head. I lick him all the way down to his balls and then back up again, keeping him there on the edge. Sucking softly and then harder, letting him thrust shallow and then deep into my mouth, alternating the pressure as I bob my head back and forth. He’s pulling my hair hard now in his fist, sending tingles through my scalp and a wet throb through my pussy. I could do this for hours.
“Fuck…Ash…” he growls, like some powerful prayer. I smile with my eyes, then moan, long and low so he can feel the vibrations against his cock. He lets out a half-laugh half-sigh, his body too under my control for him to do anything else.
With one hand rolling up and down his wet shaft, making him pant with tense frustration, I use my other hand to undo my blouse. Then I let go of him just long enough to shrug out of my shirt and bra, listening to him sigh with pleasure.
“God, you’re good,” he gasps at the ceiling, before looking down at me again.
I sit back on the bed, smiling devilishly as I cup my breasts in my hands, knowing it drives him crazy, and then pull him toward me. I give his cock one last suck, then roll it from my lower lip, down my throat, down between my tits, listening to the way he murmurs and hums between his clenched jaw. I squeeze him between my tits, pushing them together to give the friction we both want.
“You like that?” I tease.
“Fuck yes,” he groans, and he starts to thrust harder.
I arch my back and roll my soft tits around him.
“Fuck yes,” he repeats, locking eyes with me now.
He glares down at me with grim determination, his icy blue eyes boring into me as hard as the cock against my chest. Eyes that can’t hide the unbearable longing in his body, the lust that goes almost soul-deep. I can hardly control myself.
“Fuck!” he roars, unable to bear it, unable to let me toy with him anymore.
In seconds Teo is straddling me, teasing my slit with his cock.
“Fuck, you’re wet,” he groans. “I need to be inside you.”
He pulls away from me, sucking my tits one at a time before trailing his mouth down my body. When he laps at my pussy, I’m already on the edge. He slips inside me, filling me up.
He thrusts into me and in no time, I’m so turned on I can feel myself clenching around him. He sucks my nipple into his mouth and I feel an electric pulse in my clit.
“Fuck,” I moan.
He slams into me, so deep, hitting all the right spots. I’m grinding against him, faster, losing control, until I come so hard I see stars. Teo hugs me closer to him.
“Ash, you’re so tight,” he whispers, slowly pulling out of me.
I need him in my mouth.
“Come back,” I say, motioning to my tits, and he moves back over me.
I open my mouth and let my tongue drop, lapping at the head of his cock. It tastes like us together. I knead my breasts around him as he slams forward and back, faster and harder, until I can feel the beating closeness of his orgasm.
So close I feel even the moment of hesitation, the second he starts pulling himself back like he’s reining in some wild beast.
“Don’t stop. I want you to come all over me,” I say, almost a whisper, but it’s enough.
His head thrown back, his front like some glorious statue of a Greek god above me, he comes over my tits, my chest, my neck. All that mental frustration, those days of pain, that longing for me, turned physical and exploded out of him. I watch the hard, beast-like tension of his body turn back into his normal relaxed swagger.
He leans down, elbows on either side of me, bringing his face to mine to kiss me softly and then pull back just to look at me. I bring my hand up to that sharp cheek, feeling the sweat under my palm, and he smiles back.
“You’re mine,” he tells me.
“I am.”
25
Teo
I wake up in a strange place, with a sudden burst of dark, heart-sinking fear as I wonder if I just dreamt everything. Then the sound of clinking glasses draws me a little further awake. I realize I’m at Ash’s place, and the fear disappears, replaced by the feeling of everything being right, balanced, peacefully blissful.
She comes into the room carrying a cup of coffee, and smiles when she sees me.
“Morning. I was just about to wake you,” she says, putting the coffee on the stand beside me and sitting on the bed.
“Morning,” I groan sleepily. “Where you going?”
She puts a hand on my naked chest, and I put my hand on hers, bringing it to my mouth to kiss her palm.
“Work,” she says, smiling from the sensation, but her eyes downturned at the subject. “Well, sort of. Pretty much the only reason I’m going in is to pack up all my things.”
“Seriously?” I say. “We’ve barely had a chance to just…I don’t know…be together.”
“Yeah,” she sighs. “Well, that’s life. There’s always something more important than the thing you actually want to do.”
“I’m sure it won’t take long,” I soothe.
She laughs. “I’m sure it will. I’ve got plants there, ornaments, tons of giant art books I was using for inspiration. Paintings, photographs,
this old camera collection I was starting—” She stops to laugh at herself cutely. “I’ve got this really bad habit of over-decorating, you know? Trying to make wherever I am feel interesting and comfortable.”
“I noticed,” I say, planting another kiss on her palm. “Look, I’ll come and help. I can borrow Ginger’s truck.”
“What? No. I’ll manage with my car.”
“I’ll take the truck,” I insist. “We’ll have it done in no time.”
She looks at me, smiling at the gesture, but still unconvinced. Then she sighs regretfully.
“I don’t know…” she says. “Thanks… But it might be weird, you being there…you know? Everybody seeing my boyfriend, Candace stomping around…”
“Who cares? You don’t work there anymore. You think I could just laze around all day knowing that you’re struggling to fit a bunch of potted plants in that tiny car of yours? Forget it.”
She laughs easily now, looking at me with a sense of appreciation that compels me to draw her near and bury her in my embrace, under the covers, despite her laughing shrieks about how she’ll be late.
After meeting Ginger at Mandala, where he hands over the truck with a big grin and a fist bump, we head on over to Ash’s workplace on the studio lot and go on up to her office. She’s a little on edge, glancing around her, shying away a little when she exchanges some hellos in the lobby. No amount of subversive ass pats or whispered assurances seems to relax her. I wonder if it’s having me there, the possibility of facing Candace or Carlos again, or just the general unease of leaving all this behind, her job, her colleagues. A confirmation that she’s finally giving it all up for an unknown.
“Don’t look so worried,” I tell her in the elevator, rubbing a hand across her back, folded boxes under my other arm, “we’ll be done before you know it.”
She nods and purses her lips, trying to smile for me.
We step through her sleek office, past desks where well-dressed, stressed-looking women and conversely laid-back looking guys hunch over laptops, then go into her office.
“You weren’t kidding,” I say, as I look around the small room. Glass figurines and old cameras line bookshelves of books big and heavy enough to tile a patio, the potted plants are more like small trees, and there are several large posters up on the walls. It makes the rest of the office seem like a call center by comparison.
Ash shrugs and shoots me an apologetic look. I half-smile back and start unfolding the boxes to show I don’t mind.
As we slowly get into the rhythm of filling the boxes up, Ash directing me on what to put inside, there’s a knock at the door.
“Ash? Oh, God, it’s really happening…” the girl with the grey-blue hair says as she steps inside, looking tangibly sad.
She notices me suddenly. “Oh, hey,” she says.
“Jenny? Is it?” I say.
“Yeah,” she says, looking pretty happy I remembered her name, then turning back to Ash.
They embrace warmly, then break apart with sad, longing looks on their faces.
“Don’t…” Ash says, as she gets back to packing. “I don’t want to cry or anything.”
Jenny laughs, but I can hear in it that she’s close to tears as well.
“This place is going to fall apart without you,” she says. “We’ve already had to rerun a bunch of old segments the past few days. Ugh…don’t leave me.”
Ash crumples up some newspaper to wrap a glass figurine in.
“We’ll still be seeing plenty of each other, you can be sure of that,” she says, placing it carefully in a box. “And you know what? Soon enough they’ll hire somebody else to come in here and do way more work than their salary’s worth. Everything’s going to be fine.”
“Yeah,” Jenny says, rolling her eyes, “I’m sure Candace has an equally obnoxious nephew somewhere, or a young meathead that she’s got a crush on. Anyway, I wish I could help, but I’ve got a script to write—Carlos needs something to butcher for the big interview tonight.”
We say our goodbyes, Ash and Jenny arranging to go for drinks over the weekend, and then Jenny leaves.
“What’s this ‘big interview’?” I ask Ash.
“The show’s going out on a really great slot tomorrow—minutes after some big season finale of a TV show. We usually put a big segment up when we know we’ll get a lot of viewers like that, and Candace managed to arrange an interview with some actor. Though Carlos isn’t that great at interviews—it’ll basically be a fifteen minute advertisement for his new B-movie.”
“I see.”
We continue packing for a while, and I start bringing some of those gigantic potted plants down to the car, tying them up with bungee cords in the back and covering them with plastic so they don’t make a mess. When I get back upstairs for the next few boxes, Ash is talking with a meek-looking bald guy who looks like Santa Claus if he worked in the tech industry.
“Teo,” she says, spotting me over his shoulder, “this is Sean. He’s an executive producer on the show.”
“Hey,” I say, shaking his hand and quietly judging his expression, trying to determine if he’s one of the bad ones.
“I was just telling Ash,” he says, looking a little frightened of me, “that we’re really going to miss her. I’ve been keeping my ears open for anything else she might be good for—” he turns back toward Ash “and if you’re still available, I might be able to—”
“Thanks, Sean,” Ash says, seeming genuine. “I appreciate it. And yes, go ahead and let me know if you hear anything—for now at least, I’m still unemployed.”
Sean looks sad for a moment, before perking up and pulling something from his blazer pocket.
“I got you something. Nothing big—I’m not very good at gifts, but I wanted to at least try.”
He hands Ash the envelope and she flashes him a smile before opening it. She pulls out the card, reads it, then examines the small slip of paper inside with a growing smile.
Sean looks pleased. “It’s a VIP certificate for Knife. I remember you saying you wanted to go when they changed up the menu but you thought it was too expensive, and you couldn’t get reservations anyway.”
“Oh Sean, this is fantastic, thank you.”
“It’s for two, so you can take Teo,” he says, looking at me. “I mean, whatever you want, it’s up to you.”
Ash sees his awkwardness and side-hugs him warmly, like he’s a favorite uncle, and then there’s another knock on the open door.
“Hi,” the man says, grinning from ear to ear. “Just wanted to say goodbye.”
I recognize him from TV, but it’s still a little weird to see him in real life. There’s a glossy smarminess to him, an aura of smug superiority, that on television just seems to go with the territory, but which I always assumed was just for the camera. Seeing him in front of me, though, only seems to exaggerate it to unbearable levels. The guy looks at me like I’m a camera, talks as if he’s reading from a script, and acts like all eyes are on him.
“Hey,” Ash says, and I can hear in the low pitch of her voice she feels the same way I do. “Um, Carlos, this is Teo. My boyfriend.”
“Nice to meet you,” he says, offering his hand and standing up straighter, as if feeling a little threatened.
I take his hand firmly, staring blankly at his smile. When he winces and tries to pull his hand back, I just grip it even tighter.
“You’re the reason Ash is getting fired, right?” I say.
He lets out a snorted laugh of shock, a quick glance around to see if anyone else is surprised, but still I don’t let go, staring at his face as if trying to see behind it.
“Teo…” Ash says, sounding concerned, and finally I let go of the guy’s hand.
He laughs, shaking out his hand a little, and though he tries to act casual I can see that he’s rattled.
“Well, I should go prepare for the big interview. Hopefully we’ll speak again before you go,” he says insincerely, then disappears quickly.
I
look at Ash, who glares at me reproachfully.
“What? I was just being friendly,” I say, spreading my hands.
Sean’s phone rings and he gains an air of urgency as soon as he looks at it.
“Excuse me,” he says, already marching out of the office. “I have to take this.”
“Sure thing,” Ash says.
I look to her and shrug.
“Seems like a nice enough guy.”
“Yeah, he is,” she says, glancing down at the gift. “Maybe too nice, actually.”
We continue packing for a few more minutes until Jenny runs into the doorway, having to stop herself by grabbing onto the frame. She looks a little flustered and panicked.
“What’s wrong?” Ash asks quickly, while the writer catches her breath.
Jenny glances back over the bullpen, sees something, then comes inside.
“Brace yourself,” she says, in a tense voice.
“What?”
The explanation comes in the form of Candace, her face twisted with rage, the glowing screen of her giant smartphone held out in front of her like some crucifix ward. She steps inside the office looking like she’s ready to explode and kill us all.
“So this is your idea of not telling anybody, is it?” she hisses at Ash. “Couldn’t resist getting a little revenge, could you?”
“Hey!” I snarl bristling at the way she’s speaking to Ash, but apart from casting a brief, disgusted scowl in my direction, Candace loses none of her anger.
