River's Winter

by Leanne Davis

  Then his fingers grabbed her nipple. She cried out when he inadvertently flicked it with his thumbnail. She needed much more from him. She left his hair and grabbed his wrist. He let go of her immediately, but she placed his hand under the hem of her sweater. There was too much thick material separating them, and Luna was getting frustrated with all of it. She needed him now and she couldn’t wait to revel in more of his lovemaking. The feelings inside her became so intensely alive that she dared not lose the sensation.

  His fingers explored the underside of her bra, and he managed to squish her boob downwards until it was free of the restrictive fabric. He touched the tip of her nipple, now bared without anything to reduce the sensations. First, he twisted it. Then he let go and flicked it and twisted it again before rubbing it. She lost track of all the delightful sensations that emanated from that one small spot. How did he know that? How could it be so powerful and manage to entice her so much? How could he stimulate so many nerve endings at once? She was on fire. Her need for him said, now! She longed for so much more. Not just his mouth and his hands but all of him and all at once.

  She pushed herself into his hand and licked his lips until she had to remove them from his because her breathing had become so labored. His gaze found hers, and he watched her intently. Luna grabbed a handful of her sweater and slipped it over her head.

  She pushed her bra up too before taking his other hand and setting it squarely on her other breast. He took both globes in his hands, each a perfect handful for him. He rubbed her nipples together at the same time and she jerked back, letting her hair fall and tickling her lower back. With a groan, she thrust her bare tits right at him. He dropped his mouth and took one inside his lips before biting and sucking and circling it with his tongue. She moaned again. She grabbed his head and held him tightly against her while grinding her pelvis toward his center.

  She needed him now. So much.

  Taking his jeans in both hands, she released the snap, while Jacob’s mouth stayed happily on her nipples, sucking and twirling with his tongue. His mouth felt warm and soothing while his hand was harder and more punishing, but oh, God! She loved both techniques.

  While sucking her nipples, his hands descended to her leggings and he worked them down her legs, leaving them flapping off the side of her hurt leg. It was too hard to try and peel them around the big, bulky cast. He succeeded with little effort and quickly revealed her white lace panties, which he pulled down to her knees. Then he buried his hand right up inside her swollen, wet, hot, pulsating slit. She screamed out her pleasure with uninhibited surprise. Pulling his face toward hers as her mouth opened, she dived into his mouth with her tongue. Their tongues collided in a wild, teeth-scraping melee. His fingers slid inside her, and she became a little sloppy in her passion. She pushed her hips down, saying, “Now. Harder. Deeper.” She begged him, barely withdrawing her mouth from his to say it. She panted and jerked her hips back and forth, dry-humping.

  His fingers moved deeper inside her. He took her clit between his thumb and forefinger and gently pressed on it as his fingers explored the inside of her body, and oh, God. The unique combination he used on Luna was like magic. Pure magic. Primal scream, white-hot magic.

  Talk about being alive. This had to be it.

  She pulled her mouth from his and screamed again when her body rushed into a climax around his hand, dripping wet between her legs.

  She leaned her head against his shoulder and her orgasm left her panting. Her heart raced. He kept his fingers on her and her entire body milked the one place he so perfectly touched. He withdrew his fingers from her wet, hot slit and then surprised her when his fingers felt her nipples and he rubbed her juices on them. He twisted them and rubbed some more, and her body instantly responded by tightening to her core.

  He was straining against his jeans and Luna didn’t fail to notice. She pushed his jeans downward but had to hold onto him for her leg. He pushed her panties right onto the floor. He dropped his jeans down too, but not before taking out a condom from his pocket. He was huge and straining, poking out from under his sweatshirt, which he didn’t even bother to remove. As he worked to undo the condom wrapper, Luna slid her hand on him and grabbed the hot, hard shaft of his penis. He grunted and shoved his hips against her hand. She saw the pleasure he felt in his eyes as she stroked him. He shut his eyes and quit moving to let her thrill him even more.

  When he reopened his eyes, he moved her hand away and slid the condom on. Then he set his hands under her armpits, lifting her up and shoving her against the wall behind her. She raised her legs, cast and all, and wrapped them around his waist. His straining penis found her engorged, hot, wide opening and he slid right in. Her eyes popped, and her mouth became a huge O. She even screamed. The sheer joy she felt as his penis jutted in and out of her lasted for a long moment. He held still. Every muscle straining. She grasped his shoulders, holding herself upright and steady. He turned his hips with just a little rotation and the sensation it created inside her drove her wild. He felt like he set off a nuclear reaction with only a tiny rotation of his muscles.

  “You okay?” he whispered into her ear.

  It’s a little late to ask that, she thought. She was pinned against the wall by his hard penis.

  She could see he was into it. And holy shit, so was she. Maybe like never before.

  “Hard, Jacob. Please. Fuck me as hard as you can.”

  His head jerked back, and his eyes sought hers.

  “Do you mean that?”

  “I mean it. Please. I need this so badly. I want it so much.”

  He held her gaze and pulled his hips back, bringing his penis all the way out of her until the tip almost slipped out of her dripping sleeve, then he pushed forward and slammed himself into her. Her body took the brunt of the pressure and she closed her eyes, her mouth dropping half open. She wanted him to do it much harder and faster. Seeing he could create so much pleasure, she had to have it harder just to satisfy her. It was never like this for Luna before.

  “Yes. Oh, yes! That! More, Jacob, more…”

  He obeyed her every command, shoving forward and then slipping out. Slowly at first, he was watching her reaction. Then, all at once, as though he finally realized where she was in relation to her own satisfaction, he started slamming into her much harder. She screamed that she wanted more over and over and over, fast and hard. Her body took all of him in. Perfectly. Her body rocked with his. The friction from banging against the wall abraded her skin. Up and down on his dick she slid, loving every second of it, screaming with pleasure, while their tongues devoured each other in open-mouthed wet kisses.

  It was white hot, raw love. Hammering her. Hard. Fucking her.

  So much hard fucking.

  She screamed and clawed his back behind his shoulder. Her hips crashed into his over and over until he pinned her to the wall before his entire body shook. Luna wanted to take his entire being inside her. She screamed as she clung to him and her third orgasm peaked. She feared she would pass out soon.

  But he came too, and her body swallowed his right up. His sweaty, salty body eventually released her but only by a fraction of inch. Her breathing was hard, to the point of panting, and she lowered her head onto his shoulder. Wilting. Melting. Ready to pass out.

  He held her against him and the wall. When he withdrew from her, he loosened his hold, so she could slide her legs from his waist and get her balance on the floor with her good leg. She throbbed and hurt at her core, but she also tingled, and she loved it. She had never come so often and so wonderfully. Not like this.

  Hot. Used. But not abused. And all in the best way possible.

  He looked down and his hands slipped under her armpits as he took the weight off her feet. “We shouldn’t have done this, not while you’re laid up and all.”

  She stared at him. If he only knew. “No, we should have. You really should have. Maybe there was no other way I would have if you hadn’t. There was nothing I wanted more than that.”<
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  Chapter Fourteen

  REALITY DAWNED ON JACOB slowly as he gently lowered Luna back to her feet. His regret was sharp and unforgiving. He winced as he glanced downwards. Half their clothes were still on. Her cast was a harsh warning of what not to do. He leaned down and pulled up her pants before he did his own. He kept his arms around her, circling her back, resting his hands on her waist to lessen the pressure of her bad leg. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to her forehead. “Lean on me, Luna.”

  She did. Her gaze drifted up toward him. Her eyes were hazy with what he hoped was the deep sensual pleasure that he felt too. No pain. No regret. No sorrow or confusion.

  Crap! What did he do? How could he have done that? Of course, he did want it to happen, but he didn’t actually plan for it, and it should not have happened like this.

  His regret blasted him. Balanced, she was back on her good foot with the cast on the ground as he held her up. She lifted her arms around his neck and clutched his shoulder. He tucked her head against his chest and liked the sound of her breathing, even when she shuddered against him.

  He leaned down and kissed the top of her head, once, then twice before saying softly, “I’m sorry. This wasn’t how I meant for this to happen. Not here. Not like that. Are you okay?

  “I feel more normal right now than I have since the day of the shooting. Are you suggesting you coerced me?”

  Startled, he snapped his head up. “What? Of course not. I’d never do that… or at least, I like to believe I wouldn’t.”

  She leaned back far enough to see his face and lifted her hand to his cheek. “I would too. And I wanted to do this. This involved ‘us’ at every moment, so unless you really didn’t want it to happen just now, you can keep your own opinion to yourself. Don’t even try to speak for me. I’m way better than just okay. I am more normal right now than I have been in weeks. Ever since it happened. Please don’t lay a guilt trip on me or act like a nursemaid. Please.” Her snort of annoyance made him laugh, a surprising conclusion to what he feared would be regrets and maybe worse.

  “I… I didn’t mean it like that. I meant because of your broken foot. After what you’ve gone through, and the pain and discomfort you’ve been having, it’s been pretty tough on you and I just wanted to—”

  “Take care of me?” She pushed back from him, but could not walk so she kept one hand on his shoulder to maintain her balance.

  “Yes.” He watched her eyebrows scrunch up. “No. Maybe not. I sense that isn’t the right answer.”

  “I don’t need a knight on a white horse to save me.”

  He snorted. “I’m hardly that. If you only knew. I just care about you. I like holding you when you cry or get upset; it seems as natural as breathing to me.” Her body shifted around. “Come on, Luna, let’s sit down. You can yell at me whether we’re sitting or standing.”

  The slightest of grins appeared on her mouth. “Okay.” He backed up and she hopped forward, leaning on him. They fell onto her couch and she groaned softly, stretching her injured leg out. Her subdued groan made his conscience react. She turned and touched his face. “I don’t need to be coddled because my foot was broken or because I’m having a hard time with overcoming the shooting. Okay? This was hot and awesome, and I loved it. Please say you see that.”

  He took her hand and squeezed it. “It was definitely hot and awesome.”

  “Then don’t regret it. You can regret how we met. Or that eight people are dead. Regret Lester is still alive and living on our taxes. But this? You can’t regret this.”

  He gripped her fingers tighter with his. She waited for him to confirm what she just said. “I don’t regret it. Not at all, I just got scared I screwed it up.”

  “No. You didn’t. We didn’t.”

  She startled him when her head landed on his shoulder. Calm. Quiet. Unmoving.

  “Luna?”

  “Yeah?” she replied softly.

  “Would you go out on a date with me sometime?”

  She tilted her head up. “Didn’t we just skip that part?”

  “I don’t think so. We need that more than anything else right now. How we met was a bad nightmare, but how we first spent time together was honest and real. We were both trying to learn how to move on. That’s not what this is for me. Not at all. You are bright and beautiful. Funny and brave. You make me feel good things… things I’ve never felt before as an adult. So, no, I don’t want to skip that part.”

  She lifted her head up to his in a long, lingering kiss and stared into his eyes. “I feel things too that don’t involve our nightmare. So, I’d love to go out with you. But the thing is… it is all intertwined. There is no one else I would ever have wanted to experience this with. What you did tonight? As well as last week, getting your friends and family to do so much for me, that goes beyond any gesture I could ever imagine anyone topping. No one would do those things for me, no one but you.”

  “Hopefully, I won’t become a walking reminder of everything that hurt you.”

  “You’re a reminder of who managed to save me.” She tilted her head forward. “Not that your wonderful work did me much good. I couldn’t stay in the restaurant even a half hour. I started to feel like I couldn’t breathe.”

  “I didn’t do it to test you. I don’t want you staying in there if you decide you can’t. You’ll go there only if and when you’re ready. I mean, we fixed it up so you could make a clean choice for what to do with the place. You tried, Luna. Despite my pressure, you did everything I could have ever expected of you. Now you’ve got to let nature take its course.”

  “Can I be honest?”

  “I hope that’s the one thing we have going between us.”

  “I freeze up thinking about going on a date with you. I—I can’t picture us going somewhere and sitting down and just… you know, eating. Being natural. Enjoying the ambiance. I can’t. I just don’t think I can make myself do that yet. I don’t know what to do about that.”

  He squeezed her next to him. “I won’t put any pressure on you or increase your anxiety. I just want to make you feel special and cared about.”

  “Talking to me here, in my home, does exactly that.”

  “Really? Then we’ll do it here.”

  She looked up to stare at him. “Here? Do… do you think it’s healthy to indulge my fears and anxiety? It’s not normal or rational. I know that, but my feelings disagree with the rational parts of me.”

  “I think normal is a relative term. Few people have experienced what we have. There can’t be any timeline on this, can there?”

  “I can hardly go out in public.” She lowered her head back down as if the shame were too great to let him see her. “I use my foot as the excuse. Yeah, it hurts, but not enough to stop going out in public. It isn’t really that bad. I should be able to just grab my crutches and go into a store or an appointment or a restaurant. My own restaurant included.”

  He held her. His first reaction was to say, then don’t. Stay here. Stay safe. He’d take care of her and bring her whatever she needed. He’d be her personal assistant, her eyes and ears to the world. She could heal right there.

  But he sensed that wasn’t what she was really asking for. Her body language suggested this shamed and embarrassed her. “Do you need to talk to someone? Get some professional help? You endured a major shock and trauma. Maybe you need to consider seeing someone.”

  “You don’t need any help.”

  He pushed her off his chest, took her wrists in his hands and gently turned her to him. “I spent a year in group and individual therapy. I suffered from depression, so don’t think I’m a superhero. I had an epiphany. A single, brave moment. It doesn’t make up for the rest of my life or even alter the character description of what I’m truly like.”

  Her head shook. “I don’t know. How do you know? Who can say when it’s just temporary and when it crosses the line to become something more?”

  He stayed quiet for a long moment. “Maybe when seeing me
doesn’t help anymore. Maybe when it gets more overwhelming and scary for you. Maybe if you can’t tell me or anyone else about it.”

  She turned and stared forward. “There’s never been anyone like that for me.”

  “What do you mean? For what?”

  “For me to talk to. I don’t talk. My parents and I were never close, even before we quit trying to pretend we were a family. It was always superficial. Fake. I don’t know, maybe it’s due to all the lessons I received on that, but I never let anyone close to me. The way I am with you? It isn’t ordinary for me. I had friends I dated but I just kept it simple… no deep, abiding connection. No one whom I could talk to the way I talk to you.”

  “Then talk to me. Keep talking to me. But if you find you need more, it wouldn’t be difficult to get you the right kind of help.”

  Her head bobbed up and down. “I’ll consider it.”

  “In the meantime, how about here? We’ll have dinner here?”

  She moved from him and laughed. “We do that more often than we don’t.”

  “I’ll think of something, okay?”

  “Okay. Jacob? Will you stay with me tonight?”

  “Gladly.”

  She took the crutches he handed her and led him to her bedroom. The thumping of her crutches became hypnotic. She ducked into her bathroom first, and then they switched. When he came out, she was on her bed, and this time, he didn’t offer her any sleeping pills or keep his clothes on. He slipped his jeans off and his t-shirt before sliding next to her under the covers. She had a silky, long-sleeved shirt on. Her body heat soothed his hands when he gripped her waist and pulled her toward him. He leaned over to kiss her mouth, her cheek, and her eyes, and she sighed softly as she turned flat on her back, lifting her arms to wrap them around his neck. “Oh, my God, that feels nice,” she said softly.