He couldn’t read her expression because her face was pressed against his chest. He held her, felt her arms snake around his back and hold him close. The water swirled around them, currents pulling them this way and that, but together they were strong enough to stay put. Perhaps their relationship could be like that. Strong enough to work even with all the stress and media and career issues buffeting against them.
“So...” Miri blinked up at him, her green eyes so light in the sunshine. “Are you saying we can be real? Our relationship can be real?”
He kissed the top of her hair, then kissed her forehead. “I think for both of us, it’s been real for a while. And if we’re going to make love, if I’m going to be your first, let’s not do it under false pretenses.” He caressed her lips with his, drinking in her soft sigh. Another oversize wave crashed over them, going unnoticed as the kiss deepened. He finally pulled away. “Are you ready?”
“Are we going to do it here?”
Mason shook his head. “Beach sex seems hot in theory, but when sand or bits of seashell end up in the wrong place...”
She shuddered. “Say no more.”
They waded to the shore and walked up the beach hand-in-hand. Mason felt like he’d been hard for the last twenty-four hours, but now the arousal really hit him. He was taking her to the house, to the bed, via a quick rinse off. He was going to fuck her. She was giving him this precious, once-in-a-lifetime gift. He ran his fingers through her hair under the warm shower, washing away salt water and bits of sand, thinking how very undeserving he was. Well, he would try to be deserving. No one was perfect, especially him, but he would try so hard to be perfect this day.
She was making him a better person. She was supposed to be fixing his reputation but in some strange way he felt like she was fixing him. Taking away his cynicism, his anxiety and immaturity, all the damage left over from Jess. His first wife had been youthful infatuation, his second marriage to Jessamine a blatant career move, but this, now, for the first time felt like his idea of love. Someone making you feel like a better person, making you feel changed. Was he really thinking about Miri as a wife? Oh, God, wife number three. No, he wouldn’t think about that now.
They toweled off together, Miri staring most of the time at his cock. He could have said some lurid sexy stuff to her. Take a good look, baby. I’m about to tear you up. But it didn’t seem right to do that. Instead he laid her back on the round bed and took his time playing with her, teasing her so her whole body was responsive and eager, so even a little pain would feel good. Over the past few weeks, he’d learned where to touch her and how soft—or hard—she liked it. He’d learned what to say to get her going and he used all of that knowledge now, stroking, whispering, caressing, manipulating. He teased her until she started making those noises, until she started begging to be fucked, as she’d begged so many times before.
This time, though, she was going to get what she asked for.
He settled between her thighs, missionary style. It had to be missionary because of his size, and because he needed to see her face this first time. He needed to know if she felt good, or bad, or turned on, or frightened or thrilled or all of those things. He drew up one of her legs, let the head of his cock fall against her hot center. She shivered a little, and tensed. Again, again, the impulse to ram into her. No...
He looked into her wide eyes, cupped her chin and kissed her. “Don’t be scared.”
“I can’t help it. I know it’s going to hurt.”
“If it hurts, it won’t be for long. You’re made for me, and I belong inside you.” He nodded, willing her to agree. She shifted though, shivered a little harder and scrunched her eyes shut. He reached down to fondle her clit. She was so wet, so ready for him, and yet so scared. She’d been fine until he’d positioned himself, braced his cock against her virginal opening. The moment was here at last. He took a deep breath and savored the anticipation.
“Just do it. Please get it over with. Don’t make me wait,” she whispered.
“Look at me, Miri.”
She opened her eyes and stared up at him. “It’s just that I’m really, really worried you’re not going to fi—”
He surged forward, his hips sliding over hers. He felt the membrane tear and give way as he firmly drove past it. He absorbed her jerk of surprise but still he pressed in, feeling enveloping heat and such pleasure he thought he’d disintegrate from it. She cried out and he nuzzled her, trying to soothe her with soft words.
“You feel so good. It’s okay, Miri. Baby, I’m inside you.”
“No. This isn’t going to work.” She pressed her palms against his chest and dropped them to his hips. “Get out.”
“No,” he sighed. “Never.”
Miri swallowed a sob and pushed at him. “I changed my mind.”
“I haven’t changed mine. Just wait a sec,” he whispered. “You’ll get used to it. Give your body a moment to adjust.”
She drew in quick, panting breaths while he remained arched over her, rigid, his cock buried deep. After a long, drawn out moment of panic, she seemed to relax. Mason breathed a sigh of relief, because he really, really would have hated to stop at that moment, that wonderful moment when her heat and tightness overturned his world. She shifted her hips and moved a little, squeezing the intrusion within her. The edges of Mason’s mind went black. He wanted her so bad, he could have eaten her. He wanted to ride her like an animal until she wept for mercy.
“God, stop. Stop moving for a second,” he begged. Mason Cooke of the epic staying power, about to climax thirty seconds in.
“Am I hurting you?”
“No.” He gasped for breath. “The opposite.”
“Oh. I’m sorry. Or not sorry. Or—”
“Miri,” he rasped. “Hush.” He started mentally running lines from the script of a project he was prepping for. Why yes, Mrs. Vincent. I live just around the corner. Just around the corner. Around the corner. Okay, he’d turned a corner. He was under control again. He looked down at Miri. Her eyes were closed, but her lips were parted and relaxed. When he moved in her, just a little, her mouth opened and she took in a deep breath.
“Okay, baby? How does it feel now?”
“Oh. Oh.” He shifted his hips a little, drew out, then slid in again, slow as the sun across the sky. “Oh, it feels much, much better now.”
“Move with me,” he whispered. “Show me how it feels best.”
She grew a little bolder, arching, cradling him with her hips, squeezing his rod with her inner muscles until he thought he’d have to start running lines again. Instead he concentrated on the beauty of her expressions. She was so open to him, so brave and erotic as she met him thrust for thrust. Each of his forays into her tight heat brought a sigh or groan and an answering movement.
“Still feel good? Tell me if I’m hurting you.”
She said some indecipherable words and strained forward, reaching out to him. Something like “More. Closer.” The words hit him right in his pelvis, right at the base of his cock. He drove in again, bottoming out in her. He took her hands, held her down. Her low moans escalated and she spread her legs wider. He could tell she liked it, being held down, being fucked. He covered her with his body, driving deep and kissing her in a frantic battle of tongues. Mason could feel the vibrations of her squeaks and moans against his lips.
“You’re so beautiful like this,” he said. “You’re made for me. I told you.”
Their bodies met again and again in a sensuous, building rhythm. He gave her all his attention, stroking her, manipulating her and clasping her close. He wanted to be in the moment with her but at the same time, he wanted to engineer each moment for her, make it the best first time any woman ever had. “Yes, yes, baby,” he said now and again to encourage her. Whenever he let go of her hands she’d cling to him, body to body, and some primal part of him felt replete. Everything about these moments...her warmth, her weight, her scent...imprinted itself on his memory.
He pushed her
back just to look at her, just to appreciate the beauty of their closeness. She studied him with a languorous smile, with the same wonder he felt. She was so hot and tight around his cock it almost killed him. He touched her everywhere, expertly but impatiently, teasing the connection higher. He didn’t want this to end, but at the same time, he was working toward a goal for her. He watched her reactions, aroused her in growing waves until she neared the apex he wanted her to reach.
“Come on, baby. Beautiful girl. You love this, don’t you? Come for me. I want to feel you come so bad.” He stroked one of her nipples and she arched up off the bed. He fucked her faster, wilder. She cried out, fighting against him as he held her down. Now that she was ready, he gave her the rough, nasty joining she’d wished for, rode her hard all the way to the finish line. He could tell the moment her climax burst wide. She shuddered and the walls of her heat pressed in on him in a rolling rhythm. His orgasm exploded along with hers, and he rammed into her, spurting up inside her virginal womb. Ah, biology. It felt good shooting his seed up there, even though he knew no baby would come from it. It felt good to ram inside her warmth and spill himself like a fucking caveman. Miri made him feel like a caveman, like a savage.
He looked down at her. Her eyes were closed. She looked limp, lifeless. He kissed her tenderly, worshipfully, on the lips. “Ah, Miri.” He brushed his thumb across her temple and down to the delicate tip of her nose. “My savage woman. My fearless girl.”
*** *** ***
Miri blinked and opened her eyes. He was talking to her but he might as well have been speaking Martian. Her brain was totally shut off, replaced by pulses and pleasures that even now simmered in her breasts and between her legs. His cock was still inside her, still hard. She tested it tentatively, squeezing its girth.
“No,” Mason growled. “Give me a minute before you make me die again.”
Die again. Yes, it had felt like dying, but in a very wonderful way. When he’d slid inside her, with the pain and the pressure, her mind had screamed, no, no, no! But her body had welcomed the invasion with some deeper craving. It had taken a few moments to adjust, to realize that it felt good, that the pain was over. And then...
She squeezed on him again, involuntarily. With a stifled curse, he pulled away, leaving her feeling empty. Satisfied, but still empty. He collapsed beside her and tugged her satiated body into his arms. She felt floppy, like a rag doll. She laid there drifting, breathing in his fresh masculine smell and the faint notes of lingering sex as he ran light fingers up and down her arm. His body was so strong, so perfectly sculpted. She stared at the carved contours of his chest and barely restrained herself from licking them.
“You survived,” he said.
“I got what I begged for.”
He smiled. “You can keep on doing that, you know. Begging me for sex.”
“I have a feeling I will.” She looked up at him, trying to read his face. She had to know. “Was it everything you hoped for?”
He didn’t answer for a moment, and her heart fell. But then he took her hand and brought it to his lips. He opened her fingers against his cheek and leaned into her palm.
“Miri, it was so far beyond anything I imagined. Because it wasn’t just busting through some girl’s virginity. Don’t get me wrong—I found that part of it extremely satisfying. But the best part about all this for me is that...that it was you. That it was you underneath me, responding to me. Looking at me that way.”
His words nearly brought her to tears. And how could she have looked at him any other way? His words on the beach had startled her and thrilled her to death at the same time. They were going to be real, a real couple, whatever real meant. If real was this, right now, with Mason gazing down at her, her body still humming from being physically connected to him, then real was a wonderful thing.
He moved closer to her, his cock hard again, or perhaps still hard from the last time. “I want more of you,” Mason said. “Are you too tender? Are you up for it?”
“Yes, again,” Miri said.
It was simpler, easier this time. They started in the same position they’d used the first time. The spread and invasion was still shocking to her, but the sharp pain of initial penetration wasn’t there. She was able to relax and float away from the start. Soon, though, he turned her over and pinned her underneath him, thrusting into her from behind. She liked that a lot more than the missionary position. He fucked her hard, but it felt wonderful. There was something about the weight and threat of him crossed with his tender caresses and his wickedly erotic skill. He knew just where to touch her, where to let his fingers linger and for how long. When she came, it was a sharp, satisfying ache.
“Next time,” he said against her ear when they were both resting in the afterglow. “Next time I’m going to tie you down, little girl. Tie you to this round fucking bed.”
She laughed softly. “Is that possible?”
“I brought rope. I’ll find a way.”
They dozed a while, then ate a light dinner of grilled steak and vegetables on the patio as the sun set. Mason cracked open champagne and Miri let herself get a little drunk. When on earth would she have a better occasion? She’d just lost her virginity to one of the sexiest heartthrobs in the world, and now she was sitting naked on a lounge chair gazing out at a breathtaking view of the sun setting over the waves. The steak was perfectly cooked and the champagne was obviously some stellar vintage, like everything else in this far-flung paradise of Mason’s.
“Thank you,” she said, reaching out to take his hand. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can never thank you enough. You made everything perfect for my first time.”
He gave her a lazy smile. “It was my pleasure. Believe me, definitely a pleasure.” He rubbed his lip. “I click with you somehow. I don’t know why. Even when—when we did that scene in Revelation, I felt something. Obviously.”
She snickered. “Obviously.”
“I never would have thought it, the two of us. I figured you were too innocent, that you wouldn’t like the kinky stuff.”
“I like what we’ve done so far.” Which was admittedly not very much. Some mild spanking, some bondage and teasing. She knew he usually played harder. She felt him holding back with her, treating her with kid gloves.
“Do you really like the power exchange?” he asked. “Or do you just do it to please me?”
His gaze was very direct. She told him the truth. “I like it. It excites me...but it scares me too.”
“Would you be disturbed if I told you your fear turns me on?”
“A little disturbed. And a little, um, excited.”
He squeezed her hand and then tugged it. “Come here. Come sit in my lap.”
She did as he asked, looking down at his cock as she eased onto his muscular thighs. She could see it stir before her eyes. He made a noise to get her attention. “Miri, just ignore him. Otherwise he shows off.” She settled against his chest and looked up into his ocean-blue gaze.
“Is this where you ask me what I want for Christmas?” she joked.
“That depends. Do you want some handcuffs, nipple clamps, and/or a leather strap for Christmas?”
Her tummy flip-flopped and turned over. Yes, she wanted those things. She wanted to play harder, to see if she liked those things as much as she thought she would like them. She’d asked for cuffs and nipple clamps before but he’d told her she had to wait. And a leather strap. A real spanking.
“Did you...did you bring those things?” she asked.
“I might have.” She could feel her face reddening. She buried it in his neck. “Are you on the good list or the naughty list?” he intoned with a hint of teasing in his voice. “Wait, don’t answer that. Let me see for myself.” He slid a hand between her legs, probed her wet center with gentle fingers. “Tsk, tsk, tsk. Definitely a naughty girl.”
She let him lift her to her feet. He pointed into the house, toward the bedroom. “Walk.”
That one word, Walk, resonated in her pu
ssy with a clench and an erotic pulse. He watched her, perhaps thinking she wouldn’t do it, but she hadn’t prodded him this far to lose the opportunity. She just needed a moment to screw up her courage.
“What are you going to do to me?” she asked, wrapping her arms around her waist.
Mason stared at her. “Whatever I want.”
Chapter Ten: Not Alone
Whatever I want. Good Lord, that just about sent her over the edge right then and there. She started toward the bedroom and he came after her, provocative menace at her back. She felt safe though. This was Mason, not some stranger. He’d already asked what fantasies excited her, and shared some of his own. He knew she was a beginner. Hell, he’d had to teach her how to do a blowjob. That had been interesting, but based on those lessons, she knew Mason would be patient and take things slow.
But what if the things he did to her really hurt? Hurt more than him busting through her hymen? Of course it would hurt more than that. That pain had only lasted a second or two. A real BDSM scene, with real equipment and real implements, might last quite a while and hurt a whole hell of a lot more.
He led her to the center of the bedroom, then crossed to his bag and returned with a slim black collar.
“This is for you,” he said. “Do you know what it means?”
Miri stared at the delicate circle of leather, its silver buckle glinting in the half-light. “It means...well... I know it’s a submission thing.”
He nodded. “It represents submission, ownership. Your value to me. Whenever we play, I’ll put this collar on you. It’s a covenant of sorts, a symbol that I promise to take care of you, and you promise to submit to me. Not only submit to me, but trust me.” He put it around her neck, threaded the tail end through the buckle. “I’ll try to be worthy of your trust.”
They were such beautiful, formal words. They didn’t sound rehearsed, but heartfelt. Miri stared into his eyes. He looked shy, like maybe she wouldn’t be okay with all this, but she thought it was wonderful. “I... Wow.” She touched the soft leather. “Thank you.”
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