Mine to Protect

by Sarah J. Brooks

  “It was.” I smiled.

  I then pulled my camera up and clicked a photo of him standing over me. It was an innocent photo, just for fun. I often did that to my friends trying to catch a candid moment that would turn into a long time memory for the both of us. The look that filled his eyes was nothing at all fun, though.

  “Delete it,” he demanded.

  “Oh why, you look so chivalrous coming to my rescue,” I joked.

  The joke did not sit well with him at all. A scowl came across his face, and his eyes hardened on me. I really had no choice but to delete it. I was no match for him. He was serious about his request, and I felt bad that I’d upset him so much.

  “Thank you.”

  His face softened right back up the second I deleted the photo. I had a few friends that would protest when I took their photo but never anything as intense as what had just happened with Marcus.

  “I don’t think I can walk; my ankle is hurt.”

  “Well, I’m sure we can figure something out.”

  Without another word, his arms swept under me and lifted me up. I held on for dear life, and he made fast work of descending the large hill. His power was more than I could have imagined by looking at him, or even when I touched him.

  Each muscle moved precisely with the others, and he seemed to not even need to look out for the trees. He moved with large steps around all the obstacles until we reached the bottom of the hill.

  “I can try walking from here so you can rest,” I said as I saw sweat forming on his brow.

  “That’s ridiculous. Just hang on, we’ll be home soon.”

  He didn’t even consider my idea. His arms continued to hold me firmly against his body as he made his way down the sidewalk back toward our homes.

  I watched him as he walked, and there was determination in his face that I had not seen on another person ever. I know that I must have been heavy by now. Even my tiny frame would wear on a normal person, but Marcus seemed a little superhuman. His muscles bulged as he walked with big strides. It took about ten minutes, and we were finally at my door.

  “Set me down. I can walk from here.”

  “Where’s your key?”

  “It’s unlocked.”

  “Really Isabella? You leave your door unlocked in the middle of the night?” He scowled at me again.

  I just smiled as he brought me in and set me down on the couch. I waited for him to sit down next to me. He had to have been exhausted, but he never stopped to rest. Instead, he went to the bathroom and looked through the cabinets, coming back with my small first aid kit.

  “How bad is it?” I asked as he looked at my head.

  “You’ll live,” he said with a smile.

  I sat there with my lips only inches away from his stomach as he stood and cleaned up my head cut. Every part of me yearned to let my lips touch his body. Oh, how nice that would be. The salty taste of his sweat on my lips.

  I licked my lips and looked up at him. The desire I felt for Marcus was on a total different planet when compared to what Stanley and I had. There was no comparison.

  “Don’t move. I’m cleaning this.”

  “I’m sorry.” I smiled as I looked up at him.

  “Stop smiling. You could have been really hurt.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  He finished up with my head and moved to my ankle. As he pushed on it and maneuvered it, I didn’t feel it was as bad as I first thought.

  “Severely bruised and possibly sprained, but I don’t think it’s broken.”

  “Thank you,” I said as I licked my lips again.

  It was unconscious at first, but as I finished licking them, I realized how intently he was watching my lips. He wanted them. Our eyes locked onto each other, and his eyes had hunger in them that I couldn’t describe. The best way I think would be the feeling of thirst. That feeling of needing water and finally seeing it.

  My breath quickened as he moved closer to me. He sat down on the footstool and let his hands gently touch my knees. Electricity rushed through my body at his touch.

  “You’re welcome Isabella,” Marcus said as his eyes panned down to my thighs.

  I had been wearing some tan hiking shorts and a white tank top. They both now had splatters of blood on them mixed with dirt from my fall. I looked like a wild woman who couldn’t be tamed.

  Without warning, Marcus thrust my legs apart and moved down onto his knees in between them. He left his hands on my thighs as he leaned in and kissed me. This time the kiss didn’t start sweet at all. It was filled with passion and desire. He acted like he couldn’t hold it in another second and had to taste me.

  Marcus wrapped his hands around my ass and pulled me in tight against him. His mouth wrapped around mine and his tongue searched throughout my mouth. His hands reached around to my tank top and grabbed the bottom of it, slowly pulling it up and over my head. My white lace bra was exposed, but he made quick work of releasing me from it.

  I turned my neck to the side as Marcus let his mouth move from my lips down the nape of my neck. Soon he reached my nipple and pulled it into his mouth tightly. The force at which he sucked sent tingles of pain and desire throughout my body. He sucked hard, and I arched my back to press into the motion. The more he sucked, the more I pressed toward him. I could have cum right there if he had continued with that hard sucking motion.

  Instead, he let his lips move down my stomach and gently pressed me back onto the couch. He lingered around my waist to my shorts as his hands slipped up and unbuttoned them.

  “Lift,” he ordered.

  I obliged him and lifted my hips off the couch. He pulled my shorts and panties off in one swift motion.

  His hands thrust my hips apart, and his lips kissed up my thighs to my wetness. I inhaled, trying to catch my breath from the excitement of the moment. I wanted him so badly. I wanted to feel his lips on every inch of my body.

  If I thought he was good at kissing, that was nothing compared to his other oral skills. I held onto the couch as my body pulsed against his tongue. He moved fast and hard, then slow and soft. I didn’t know what to expect from one moment to the next. My body didn’t know either. I could feel the build up, and I tightened my thighs around him to try and slow his progress.

  Everything about Marcus was new and mysterious, and that just made the sex even more exciting. There was no stopping him, though. He grabbed my ass and held me tightly against his tongue. I tried to pull away, but that just made him more determined.

  As my body started to fill up, and I couldn’t take another moment, I relaxed and let myself cum. The shiver of ecstasy flowed through me. Surely he would stop now; I had just given in to his pleasure.

  He stood up quickly, and I could see the bulge in his pants. His desire for me was strong, and I felt the same. I wanted him. Even after the shiver of the explosion, I still longed to feel him inside of me.

  Without hesitation, he threw my naked body over his shoulder, reminiscent of a sack of potatoes, and he made his way up the stairs toward my bedroom. He carried me with ease up the stairs and even took two at a time when he got closer to the top.

  “What are you doing?” I giggled with my bare ass in the air.

  “Quiet down.” He laughed as he swatted my butt.

  He gently threw me onto the bed then stood there looking at me. The hard desire of his eyes was no match for me, and I looked away. Then I heard the zipper of his pants and the sound of them hitting the ground and my curiosity got the best of me.

  I looked with the intention of only glancing quickly, but when I saw him standing there in all his glorious hardness, I couldn’t look away. His body was chiseled even more than I could have imagined. Muscles stretched over every last part of him. I watched as his cock stood erect for me, and without thinking about it, I licked my lips again.

  “Here,” I said and threw a condom at him.

  He caught it without hardly looking. With a set of incredible quick movements, he had the wrapper opened and
the latex on his body all while I was still licking my lips with anticipation for him.

  The lip licking action set off a burning need in him, and Marcus was on top of me within seconds. His swift movement to fill me up had me gasping for breath.

  He grabbed my chin and pulled my face so I was looking right into his eyes as each thrust of him made me moan with pleasure. His deep brown eyes watched me intently as he thrust harder and harder.

  I tried to look away as I felt my body rock with another explosion only moments away. But he wouldn’t allow it. He liked watching me, and the desire in his eyes was so intense that I felt my orgasm increasing to new heights.

  Marcus held my chin firmly and made me face him as his thrusts got harder. My moans got louder, and I closed my eyes. If he wouldn’t let me turn away, at least I could close my eyes to avoid the intense heat of his gaze.

  As my body started to tighten up, I stopped moving in motion with him. I could feel the rapture building from my thighs up to my stomach.

  “Open your eyes,” he demanded.

  I did as he ordered. With our eyes locked together, I felt the second explosion of the night. My body shook with pleasure as he thrust one final time deep inside of me.

  My legs felt like rubber as he lowered himself on top of me, and we kissed gently. I could hardly move as he slid next to me and lifted my head to rest on his arm.

  Not another word was spoken, and I quickly drifted off to sleep. My body was exhausted from the night of events. Falling, bleeding from my cut head, hurting my ankle, and his torturous techniques all had my body feeling more exhausted than I ever remembered.

  Chapter 7

  When the sun finally blazed its way into my window, I felt around the bed for Marcus. My eyes were still closed, but I quickly could tell that he wasn’t there. A deep sigh of sadness filled my lungs.

  Then my hand ran across a note that was in the empty spot next to me.

  The note read: Beautiful girl. I didn’t want to wake you.

  He was gone.

  After having a fabulous night with a guy, the last thing I expected was that he would totally disappear. But yet that was exactly what happened with Marcus. After finding his note lying next to me after we had sex, he was gone.

  I went to his house the next morning and knocked on his door. I kept my eye out for days afterward to see if he might be coming home at a weird hour or something, but he was gone. No goodbye. No explanation, he was just gone.

  My heart sank as I thought about the night we had spent together and how wonderful it had been. His muscular hands on my body, his lips on my skin; it had been perfect. I really didn’t know what had happened and why he had totally disappeared.

  Nothing like this had ever happened to me before, and I wasn’t prepared to deal with it. Obviously, I didn’t know Marcus well; we had only been neighbors for a short time, but I liked him. I found myself thinking about our night together often.

  I turned my attention to Stanley for several days in a row. He was a gem and tried to distract me. The thing that I loved about Stanley and my relationship was that he knew how much I enjoyed having other men in my life and how happy it made me. So Stanley didn’t get jealous of this and instead encouraged it. He liked when I was happy, and that was just one of the reasons we worked well together.

  Remembering Marcus and his strong arms wrapped around me as he carried me down from the woods, I could still, very vividly, recall his smell that night, a musky mix of sweat and shower gel. My mind could get lost remembering how he had ripped my clothes off and carried me up to my bed. Marcus was different in every way from Stanley. I wanted them both, and I wasn’t ashamed to admit it.

  My head still had the scar from where I fell while taking the final picture for my art show. My ankle also was still healing from that fall. Every time I looked at either of the wounds, my mind went back to that night.

  I could still remember the feeling of his lips on mine. The sweet taste of his tongue as it entered and searched with mine. It was hard to think about anything else than that night I had with Marcus. How was a girl supposed to move on when a guy just totally disappeared on her?

  I didn’t know anything about Marcus. Not his last name or what he did for work, and certainly I didn’t know where he had gone. I felt like a teenager again, the rejection of a boy not calling. It was all-consuming for me.

  While developing some pictures one afternoon, I decided I had to go snoop around his house a little more. He hadn’t come or gone for at least a week, and I didn’t feel nervous at all that he would come home. I had woken up at all hours of the night to look and see if he was coming home, but he never did.

  My mind raced with the thoughts of what was going on. How could someone feel so right when he was here and so wrong when he was gone? I certainly didn’t like the feeling I was getting when he was away.

  As I walked over to his house, I looked into the front window. There was the same furniture as before, and nothing looked lived in at all. In fact, the whole house looked pretty empty. Or at least as empty as it had before Marcus had come.

  Suddenly, it hit me; what if he never came back?

  It bothered me. The thought of never getting to see Marcus again made my stomach churn. I don’t know why I had become attached to him so quickly; it wasn’t something I normally did. But then again, I didn’t normally sleep with guys I had just met either.

  I was starting to understand why my friends got so crazy when men didn’t call them back. For so many years I had dated one man in a loving relationship; it had worked out great. Then after losing him, I had several men in my life and those relationships had happened very organically as well. But this thing with Marcus was confusing and not like anything I’d been through before. It was horrible to be second guessing how smart I was or how beautiful; all over a guy who didn’t call after having sex. I felt absolutely ridiculous.

  As I made my way around Marcus’s house, I kept peering into the windows to see if there was anything unusual going on in there. For all I knew he could be dead in there for the past week and I was getting mad at him for not calling me. I didn’t really know if he had left the house, and I figured I should at least check to see if his Jeep was still around.

  The garage seemed a good place to go check next. The last time I had looked in there it was totally empty, and Marcus had just moved into the house.

  I let my hand slowly twist the door handle to the garage, and I pushed the door all the way open without going inside. It was difficult to see in there, and I knew I was going to have to turn the light on. I thrust my hand into the doorway and felt around on the wall until I ran into the light switch.

  The garage looked empty, except there was one box on a shelf in the corner.

  I walked over to the box and took a deep breath. It would look pretty bad if Marcus happened to come home right as I was going through his things in his garage. I ran over to the door and looked around one last time. There were no cars and no one even near the house.

  The box was loosely shut without any tape or anything over it. I certainly wouldn’t have cut through the tape to look inside, or at least that’s what I told myself as I started to open the box.

  Historically, I had never been a super curious person. I let mysteries remain and often figured that if something was important enough, I would be told about it eventually. But that was for silly small town secrets. This felt like a bigger secret that I needed to get to the bottom of.

  I don’t know what exactly I was expecting to see in the box, but I felt disappointed when I opened it and just found clothes. I pulled out a shirt and some pants, both black. In fact, most of the clothing in the box was black. The fact that all the clothing was black seemed odd since I don’t think I had seen Marcus where any black at all since he had moved in.

  As I closed the box up, there was a noise outside the garage.

  My heart sank, and I froze. I stood still and waited to see what the noise was from. My heart pounded in my
chest, and I could feel my mouth getting dry as I tried to swallow. I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath.

  I listened intently as I walked toward the doorway and peered outside.

  Then out of nowhere, a cat ran away from the side of the garage. I breathed a sigh of relief and shut the garage door behind me. I had to get back to my own garage and finish developing my pictures for my big gallery show. It didn’t matter if Marcus ever returned; I still had a life I needed to continue living.

  I had to stop worrying about this guy that I hardly knew. My show was right around the corner, and I absolutely had to make some decisions on the pictures that I would be using. I had changed my mind at least a dozen times in the last few weeks, but it was finally time to make the decisions so they could prepare the gallery for my pictures.

  ***

  As the days continued to pass, I had to just give up on Marcus. He was a nice guy, and I did have feelings for him, but any guy who would disappear like this wasn’t right for me. I needed more than this.

  One of the things that confused my friends a lot about my new lifestyle was how any guy was okay with it. But there was a simple answer to that; if a person truly stopped being selfish and thought about their partner, a situation like the one I had in the past wasn’t so far-fetched. Most men lived for their jobs. The family and home life were always a second priority, and relationships caused a lot of friction because of this.

  But in my world over the last few months, that had not been an issue. Each guy could work as much as they wanted with work or school or whatever, and I didn’t mind. There was always someone available to meet my needs, have dinner with, enjoy a walk with. It was the perfect world for me.

  The hallmark of my relationships was that the men were kind and caring, though, and Marcus clearly was not that sort of guy. We had never talked about the type of life I liked to lead, but I already knew he wouldn’t have adapted to it, so maybe it was better that he was gone.

  I felt like an independent woman and waiting on a guy to show back up just wasn’t doing it for me anymore. I was starting to feel desperate for him, and no girl ever wants the stench of desperation on her, so I made the decision to stop thinking about Marcus.