by Piper Lawson
“I’ve thought about you. Maybe since the day you ran me into the ground. Is that messed up?”
I shake my head no, and I’m relieved. “It’s not messed up. Or if it is, then we’re the same kind of messed up.” I bury my mouth in her and she cries out, squirming on the stairs. I hold her down with my hands, keeping her hips on one step. My abs flex to hold me on one further down. It doesn’t help that she’s writhing, bucking. But when I get a good enough grip on her, my fingers go to help my mouth, stroking into her.
Her hands fist in my hair and her voice is the same, but different. It’s hungry and raw and I love that I make her that way.
It’s awkward but I don’t fucking care. All I need it to make her lose her mind under me.
“Chase. Oh my God.” Then she’s saying words but I don’t know what they are. Her hands tighten on my head and her thighs squeeze, and I know she’s close. I suck on her clit and she comes like crazy, on a moan I’ll remember until I’m dead.
I carry her up the stairs and drop her at the foot of my bed. She’s coming back to herself, I can see it. Her eyes still hungry in the dark. Thank fuck because I need inside her yesterday.
“Ariel, have you done this before?”
She nods. I trace a finger down her cheek, gentle in the midst of what we’re doing. Then I’m frantic again, and I strip off the rest of her clothes. They’re wet, which makes it harder but also hotter. I peel the shirt off her shoulders. She’s as caught up as I am. Pulls my jeans down my hips. Tugs my shirt over my head.
I don’t even know where to start she’s so damned perfect. I want to touch her, kiss her everywhere. I lower her onto the bed, follow her down.
My mouth moves over the top of her breast, just above the lace of her bra and she gasps. Then I undo it and it’s gone. My lips caress her tattoo again. Then suck the peak into my mouth and she arches into me, against the bed.
She’s under me, naked, and I want to take a fucking picture so I never forget this moment. Life will never be as sweet as having this girl, panting and wanting and flushed and wet, underneath me.
Even though it’s not her first time, I want to make sure she’s ready.
Her long body is perfect, her skin like silk and I stroke down her side, over her hips, hitch a leg around my waist and grind into her. I bite my tongue, hard. I could come just rubbing on her, but fuck if I’m going to.
“Now, Chase.” Thank God she’s as impatient as me. We can take our time next time, I tell myself.
Please fuck let there be a next time.
I pull back. “Tell me you’ll be here. All night you’ll be here. I don’t want to rush this. I don’t want to miss a damn inch of you.”
She looks back at me, seriously. “I’m not going anywhere.”
With that reassurance I grab a condom from the table and position myself over her, never breaking eye contact. I press my dick to her wet opening and slide in, slowly, my hand holding her hip.
She’s so tight and my eyes roll back. “Fuck, Ariel.” Her name’s like a prayer as her body opens for me, closes around me. “You’re too sweet.”
Ariel’s voice is far away. “Chase. I don’t—I can’t—“
“I’m going to move now,” I breathe.
Opening my eyes, I see her nod. Her mouth’s open and she’s taking these gasping little breaths. When I pull out, push back in, she bites her lip, savagely. I bend over her, taking her mouth gently with mine.
I’ve never had to be this way before. Be gentle. But with her I want to.
“Is it good?” I murmur. “Because it’s so fucking good for me.” Ariel’s chin moves up and down, twice, tightly. Her eyes are begging me.
I keep drawing out and pushing back, lifting a breast to suck the peak into my mouth.
“Damn, that feels so good. But I don’t think I can—I mean, I’ve never…” her voice is confused and awed.
I smile into her skin despite the tension down my back. “Challenge accepted, princess.”
The pressure builds. “Ariel, fuck I can’t hang on much longer. Please, baby…” she’s writhing and I have to hold her in place. Then she comes, crying out and I follow her over.
Collapsing on top over her, I’m careful not to crush her as my heart rate comes back down. I pull out, getting her a cloth from the bathroom, and clean her up. She’s still dazed.
Finally I gaze down at her as she stretches, lazily.
“I’ve had sex before.”
Jealousy rises up and I shake my head. “Ariel, I don’t want to hear—“
She silences me with a kiss. “It’s never been like that before.”
A smile stretches across my face. “It’s never been like that for me before, either.”
We fall asleep curled into one another.
When I wake up I feel better than I can remember.
I roll over and remember why.
Ariel looks so damn peaceful and I don’t want to wake her. Despite my plans, she’d passed out, exhausted, after we had sex. Probably from the stress of the day.
I press a kiss to her forehead before getting up and tugging on shorts. I crank out my pushups, situps. I’ve just started pullups when I hear the sheets rustle behind me.
“Hey.” Her sleepy voice.
I drop off the bar and turn to see her sitting, rubbing her eyes, looking fucking adorable. Then she’s tugging on her panties, her bra from last night. I’d rescued her jeans and panties from the stairs when I got up in the middle of the night. “Hey.”
“What are you doing?” She stands and crosses to me, glancing at the bar with curiosity.
“You didn’t think all this just happened, did you?” I tease.
A sleepy smile tugs at her face. “All that muscle can’t help your running.”
“Yeah, well there’s not much to do in a min security joint for six months. And it helps with other things.” I raise an eyebrow.
“Show me how?”
I reach around her, unable to resist dropping a kiss on her mouth that she returns. Focus. I just want to touch her everywhere.
Ariel can’t quite reach the bar, so I lift her. “Start by just hanging there.”
She does, and I see her processing. At first it’s uncomfortable. Then her muscles adjust. “This isn’t so hard.”
“Uh-huh. Now pull.”
Nothing changes except the look on her face.
“It’s not working.”
“It’s hard.” I put my hands under her knees to add a bit of help. She does it. “There you go.”
Ariel grins, and it’s sexy as fuck. “I want to try again, myself.”
I set her up and step away, crossing my arms over my chest. She hangs there, grunting, in her bra and panties and it’s making me hot again.
Ariel, oblivious, gives in. “At least I can hang here all day. Does that build muscle?”
“Sure.” I run my hands up her sides, lightly.
“What are you doing?” she murmurs, glancing down at my hands. Back at me.
Feeling wicked, I bend down, brush my mouth over her navel, her abs. “Don’t let go,” I warn her.
I stroke a hand down her hip, over her ass.
She’s watching me, fascinated. I see the effort on her face. That she’s caught between me and what she’s asking her body to do.
I pull her ass so she’s pressed against me. So she can feel how fucking hard I am against her soft heat. Her mouth forms ‘oh’ as I grind into her.
Her arms are shaking now. “Chase, you’re making me fall,” she pleads.
“I thought you said you could hang there all day.”
She’s fighting, her face is shaking to keep from letting go. Ariel wants to win but she wants me too. “I did, but not when you’re…”
I’m not playing fair when I press my mouth to her breast, sucking on a peak through the lace of her bra.
“Oh, God Chase,” she moans.
“Fuck, you’re sexy,” I manage as I pull back.
My finger trail
s down her ass. I run a finger under the edge of her panties and feel her wet for me. My eyes an inch from hers, I dip my finger into her and she spasms.
“I can’t,” she cries out.
“Hold on one more minute, baby.”
I grab a condom from the bedside table before returning to her. She watches me push down my shorts, her eyes big when I roll the condom on. “It looks bigger today.”
“You know how to stroke a guy’s ego, princess.” I grin, then grab her ass as she weakly releases the bar and wraps her arms around my neck. I turn, pressing her against the doorframe and her legs tighten around my waist. Then I push inside her.
We groan together.
I’m pulling out, stroking back in and her eyes are locked on me. She’s starting to sweat, her hair just damp on her forehead. From this or the pullups I don’t know.
“I love the way you look at me,” I grunt.
The girl drives me so crazy. I push into her, slow drags, but give up and go harder. Her eyes glaze over while I thrust.
“You OK?”
She nods. “I’ve never been this OK before, Chase.”
And it’s like I imagined that night at the party, me fucking her against the wall and she’s so wet. I give in to it, my hands digging into her hips as my mouth crushes hers.
The only difference? I’d imagined getting off and getting on with things. But I can’t get her over with. She’s got my body and my heart.
Her fingers grip my neck and I can tell she’s getting close. “That feels so good. Don’t stop.”
“No way.”
She tightens around me, her eyes squeezing shut and her head falling back against the door frame.
“Look at me. Ariel.”
Then she does and it’s the wonder in her eyes, not just the way her body’s gripping me, that pushes me over.
~
“Let’s skip class,” I say an hour later as we lie in bed, naked again, my hands linked in hers.
“OK. I can’t believe I don’t even know your schedule. I just know you work at Tor’s a couple nights a week and run every morning. Well, except maybe this one.” A small smile crosses her face and I love it. We’re lying on our sides, facing into one another. Part of me still can’t believe she’s here. We’re here. But we are and it’s fucking perfect.
“What class do you have to day?” Ariel asks. Her eyes are lazily moving between my body and my face like she’s exploring. I’m glad to be explored by her anytime.
“I have race and class in American history and culture and politics in early 20th century Britain,” I tell her, tracing a finger down her shoulder, over her breast. I stop when she sucks in a little breath. “But you’re right, we should get to know each other better. What do you have?”
“Macroeconomics seminar and principles of civil law. This is better, trust me.” Her eyes sparkle. “What’s your favourite color?”
“Until last week it was green,” I say solemnly. “Now it’s your eyes.”
“Seriously?” Ariel looks at me like no one’s ever complimented her.
“Scout’s honor.” I lean over to drop a kiss on her lips.
She twists away, laughing. “Were you a Scout?”
“No, it’s my turn.” I grin. “Why did your parents name you Ariel?”
She pauses, thoughtful. “It wasn’t after the Disney princess. It was after the poem. Sylvia Plath.”
“It was about a girl named Ariel?” I push her hair back behind her ear. It slips through my fingers like silk.
“Actually, there’s some argument about what the poem’s about. But a lot of people think it’s about her horse.”
My hand freezes. “So you’re named after a horse. That takes the magic out of it.”
Laughter bubbles up from her. “I might be named after a horse. Get over it, Chase. I have real questions. What happened with your dad?”
Her words catch me off-guard. Tension forms in my chest. “You mean what happened that sent me to jail.”
Ariel nods slowly.
“I’m trying to figure out whether to tell you the short version or the long version.”
“I’m ready for the long version, Chase,” she says quietly.
“Yeah but I’m not sure I am.” I take a breath. “He hurt Drew. It never happened when I was in the house. I made sure of it. But I moved out when I came to school. I found out it’d started. That’s when I took it out on him. I wound up with six months because of the severity, plus counselling and probation. Tor helped get me back into school. Staying in class is one of the terms of my probation.”
“Where’s your dad now?”
“Jail. Fortunately hitting his sons wasn’t the only bad thing he did. It caught up to him.” It makes me think of something else. “You said you were getting threats.”
Ariel rolls onto her back, looks up at the ceiling. “It’s not a big deal, Chase. I overreacted last night.”
“Show me the emails.” I think she’s going to push back but I bend my head to press another kiss to her frowning lips. “Please.”
Her face softens. “OK.”
I get my computer off the desk and hand it to her.
“They’re all from different addresses,” she explains as she logs herself in. “I tried to have them traced, but it didn’t work. They all were sent from public computers.”
She clicks on one of them.
You stupid bitch. You don’t deserve to live. Another. You’re going to pay for what you did.
My skin crawls as I read them. I’d never imagined it would be this bad. “Public computers where?” I push off the bed, pull on shorts and stand.
“In the summer it was all over. But most of them have stopped. This week there’ve been three from this area. Probably messed up film buffs that saw the anniversary special on my mother. Chase, what are you doing?”
“Huh?” I stop, turn toward her.
“You’re pacing. It’s freaking me out.”
I force myself to stand still.
She goes on. “Dad doesn’t want me to take the internship because he thinks it’ll draw more attention. As if just being in the industry makes me a lightning rod or something.”
I turn it over. “He’s right, Ariel. You can’t be in the limelight more if you’re already getting threats. It’s tempting fate.”
Her eyes search mine. “That’s the last thing I’d expect you to say.”
“What do you mean?”
“This whole week you’ve been teaching me to be stronger. Tougher. You’ve made me braver, Chase,” she accuses. “You can’t take that back.”
I shake my head dismissively. “That’s running. Running might save you but it also won’t get you killed.”
“You’re saying you shouldn’t fight for what you believe in?”
“I’m saying some things are too precious to risk.”
She stands up, reaching for her clothes. “I don’t need another person trying to shelter me, Chase,” Ariel says.
Now the bed’s a wall between us.
“Fuck. I don’t want to shelter you, Ariel. I want to protect you I want to—“ I cut off. “I care about you. More than I deserve to. I’m saying you need to look out for yourself.”
She walks around the bed deliberately, stopping in front of me. “I love that you want to. But I do look out for myself. I’m not careless. I’m sick of people thinking I’m some weak girl who can’t do anything. If you let people treat you that way long enough, you start to believe it. I don’t want to believe it.” Ariel’s eyes are imploring me to understand. I hear her but I can’t agree.
“The fact is no one knows where these emails have come from. Who’s sending them. What they plan to do next.”
I’m trying to prove a point, but it doesn’t help. The little lines on her forehead deepen. “I need to go to class, Chase.”
She walks out and I hope to hell I didn’t just mess up the best thing that’s ever happened to me.
The rest of the day is a blur. I rem
ember I’m supposed to work and go to Tor’s at six.
“How’s Ariel?” Amos asks, coming up behind me where I’m cleaning glasses to prepare for tonight.
“Fuck off.” I haven’t heard from Ariel and don’t want to be the guy that calls her endlessly when she needs space. Hell, maybe I need some space too. We’ve only known each other a week. But somehow I’ve fixated on her and she’s all I know. All I want to. It’s fucking terrifying.
Amos leans on the bar next to me. “You’re being a prick. She wouldn’t give me her number Friday, Chase. She’s a damn beautiful girl – smart too – but I had a feeling she was hung up on you, actually.” He shoots me a meaningful look, his red hair falling across his face. “You’re a lucky guy.”
I give up wiping bar ware and turn to him. “I can’t have her, Amos. You know that.”
He knows what I mean. “The past doesn’t define us. Don’t choose for her. You could be just what she needs.”
“Maybe. But I think I fucked up. Amos, what the hell would you do if the girl wouldn’t let you protect her?”
He thinks about it. “It’s the twenty-first century, man. Girl’s got a right to be independent, doesn’t she?”
I brace my elbows on the bar, lean my head in my hands. Having the same argument with myself I’ve been having all day. “Even if she’s in trouble?”
“Yeah. I think she does.” His blue eyes are clear when I turn toward him. “I know it’s shit. But you can’t force a girl like that to stay out of trouble, Chase. Hell, we never figured out how to keep out of trouble. How can you expect her to?”
I let out a groan I couldn’t get away with when the bar’s open. It echoes in the empty space. Amos doesn’t so much as blink.
“Alright,” I concede. “I’ll call her later.”
Amos claps a hand on my back, crossing behind me to check on the stock out back.
Tor’s opens an hour later and I relax into the flow of bartending. It lets me stay in my head. Amos and I move in a rhythm we know well. Better than expected since I only started bartending here this year.
