Let It Burn

by Dee Ellis

  Charli loved the excitement of our little neighborhood where the cottage was nestled. She loved getting her groceries at the bodega or ordering things she has never tried before. She loved hitting the book stores with Gigi and going shopping with Regan. I knew this town held nothing but her family for her anymore.

  It soothed some of my fears, because I knew I had less of a battle to get her to come home. If it took me staying here until I won her back, so be it. It would be easier to make her remember how good things were with her back in the cottage, though. I would chase her no matter where she ran to, though.

  “You’re so beautiful,” I murmured softly as she stared out at the sprawling fields that surrounded us, “you take my breath away, Sugar.” It was true; my chest was tight as I stared at her, the sun making her creamy skin glow, her eyes shine.

  “Pretty words. You like to use them against me.” I frowned, hearing the bite in her words, so different than the sweet teasing just before at the river.

  “Talk to me Sugar. Where you at right now?” I tugged at her hand, bringing it to my lap, stopping at the top of a hill, no traffic in sight.

  “Drive for now, Cage. Please.” When she glanced my way, my heart sank; her shutters were up once again. Damn.

  I obeyed though, driving through the winding hills, watching her drift further away every mile marker I passed. Though her fingers stayed laced tightly within mine, I felt her closing down. Panic flooded me. Then anger.

  I loved her god dammit! I never loved anyone else like this; no one made me feel what she did. I knew it was the same for her. Charli loved me and that’s why this was so hard for her. There was more at stake, more to lose.

  I pulled into an empty field circled by trees with a crooked barn nestled away from the road and slammed the car into park. I dropped her hand and jumped out of the blazer, leaving her to stew in her doubts. I would wait, I would fight, but she had to fight too.

  I stormed into the barn, cursing my stupidity, cursing her need to run when things got serious. Thunder rolled through the clouds chasing through the sky overhead. I could taste the rain on the air. Just when I started to regret leaving her in the blazer with a storm on its way, she stepped into the barn.

  Charli watched me as I paced, working to control my anger because it wasn’t her fault. Not really. Charli never had anyone fight for her. But neither had I. I knew I was fucking it up and losing her was a real risk. Tears blurred my vision but I fought them back, tired of seeming weak for a woman who couldn’t fight for me. For us.

  “I...I don’t know what you want me to do.” Charli spoke softly, her voice brittle and caged.

  “I want you to let me fight. I want you to fight right beside me. I fucked up Charli,” I roared finally, turning to face her, kicking dirt up beneath my feet, “I thought I wasn’t good enough for you and then someone showed up confirming that for me. I never wanted or looked at and certainly never touched anyone else but you. I would never. All it took for me to fuck up was a reminder of what a piece of shit I was before you. It’s not like it was that long ago. How could I risk you knowing that? Risk Ariel cornering you at that fucking pub or at my place when I wasn’t there to protect you? So I fucking lied. To protect you. To protect myself, the way you felt about me, looked at me. I didn’t want to lose that,” I put my hand up when she started to step into the barn.

  ‘I fucking loved you, Charli. I was scared because I know you have these stars in your eyes about life and I didn’t want to ruin that. I wanted you to think I was a great guy. I’m not. I did that shit. I fucked women whose names I didn’t even care to know. I let them suck my cock in the back of bars, in parking lots. I fucked them just to feel like a fucking man. I let that girl suck my cock to piss off Stiles; with him right there while we watched Finn balls deep in another man’s girl,” The words sounded disgusted in the air between us.

  “Because I was a piece of shit. That’s what I felt like, so that’s what I did. When I met you, I felt dirty and worthless. I was fucking them, but they made me feel worthless. Then I looked up at you,” My chest was flaming in pain because I felt her slipping away, “one day and you looked fresh and bright and like fucking sunshine. You made me feel like a man without even touching you. You made me think I could be good at this. But I’m not. I want to fight for you. I fucking love you. I fucked up and now....” Lighting whipped through the sky behind the truck, just feet from Charli and she jumped.

  The skies opened up and she was soaked in seconds. The white t-shirt she wore, no bra the way I liked her, plastered to her and I forgot my argument. Charli’s long honey brown hair dripped down her back as she stood in the rain. She tipped her head back and let it rain down on her face. Fuck she was beautiful.

  The sun was still there, but the skies were dark and she found the one sliver of sun to stand in. Like a fucking angel. Her clothes were ruined and she looked fucking delicious. When she looked back at me, she hesitated as if considering. Then, she tore her clothes off, throwing them aside. Jesus fuck.

  Charli stood naked in the rain, head back again, tits full and nipples rock hard. Like my cock which ached to sink inside her. Her pussy was pink and bare and I wanted to kneel in front of her and bury my face in it. I didn’t. I didn’t move. I just watched her.

  My heart hammered in my chest and I briefly wondered about someone seeing her. We were in the middle of nowhere and I hadn’t seen a car for over an hour. I moved out into the rain, cautious, not sure just what I was allowed right now. I had to touch her, had to feel her wet skin beneath my fingertips.

  I was drenched in a matter of a few steps and Charli laughed. Her eyes were closed, but she felt me press closer. My fingertips moved over her curvy hips, up her rib cage. Slowly. Nervous she might shrink away. That would kill me.

  Instead she moaned softly, encouraging me. Letting my hands flatten to her skin, I slid them up, cupping her fullness and letting my thumbs flick at her hard nipples. Her teeth came out at her bottom lip and she nodded. So I did it again. Then again. Charli was slick from the rain and my hands felt rough against her skin. Lifting the perfect weight of her, I bent my head. Suckled at her left nipple.

  “Cage...” I knew that tone; she wanted more, it was always this way when I touched her.

  “I need to fuck you baby. I need to feel you come again. I need to show you how bad I need you. First....” My mouth moved to the other breast, pulling at her nipple hard, biting, and rolling it.

  “Oh...yes. I love your mouth, Cage.” For long moments I suckled at her skin, leaving marks at her flesh, nipping and caressing her.

  Thunder rolled then another strike of lightening. I picked her up and backed the few steps into the barn. It was hot as fuck touching her in the rain, but I wanted us both to survive this. Inside the rain still poured down in spots so I found the perfect place.

  Forgotten bales of hay were stacked in a corner and a dressing blanket and a saddle rested on a hook on the wall. Snatching the blanket, I threw it over the hay. Rain drops circled us as I dropped us to our knees on the makeshift bed.

  Charli was needy; I could feel it in the bow of her body, the shimmy of her hips. Her hands were at my shirt, shoving it up and off. Then she made quick work of my jeans, but I shoved her hands away from my boxers. Needed a little buffer or I’d lose my shit too fast.

  “Touch me again. Barns will be our new thing,” Charli was flushed and giggled and I fucking loved it, “I need you to remind me how good it is.” I growled and dropped over her, pressing my cock, hard and aching into her soaked pussy.

  “It’s so fucking good between us, baby. Not like anything else. I make you feel like no one else ever can. You fill up all the parts of me and make me feel worth something. Spread your legs for me, Sugar. Let me see that pussy.” Her face flushed but I knew she loved my dirty talk.

  Charli obeyed, like she always did which made me harder. Her legs fell open on the blanket, her back arching as rain hit her shoulders, her thighs, her belly. Her pretty pink pus
sy was swollen and wet, from the rain and from her need. I watched her as I worked my hands teasingly slowly up her thick thighs. Laughing softly when she squirmed and bucked her hips. Begging. I loved it.

  Charli made me feel wanted and needed and like a fucking king. I needed her. My hands framed her little cleft, my thumbs spreading her open to me. Charli cried out, rain soaking her skin as she bucked her hips. Letting my fingers drag over her wet heat, I watched her writhe beneath my touch.

  “Fuck I love how hot you get for me. That makes me feel like a fucking man, Sugar. You, wanting me to make you come. You needing me inside you. Making you cry out my name. Makes me feel like a fucking king. Tell me what you want, Sugar.”

  “Your dirty mouth. Taste me, baby. I need it.” Oh fuck, yes; I dropped over her and flattened my tongue, obeying her demands.

  “Oh shit,” Her hips bowed and I had to hook my arms around her thighs, “Fuck, Cage. I love your magic mouth. Yes, baby...yes.” I licked her from bottom to top and back again and again. Sucked at her hard clit, biting at it till she screamed out, thunder drowning out her sounds.

  “Scream for me, Sugar. Tell me how good it feels. Fuck you taste so good, Sugar. So sweet. I love your sweet pussy baby.” I proved it by dragging my tongue over her sweetness until her thighs trembled. Again and again, circling her clit with my tongue before sucking her into my mouth.

  “Oh god! Cage...baby...please...make me come.”

  I watched her as she cupped her tits, something I had begged her to do for me lately. It was so fucking hot. Her hands rubbed at her pretty rosy nipples as she moaned.

  Dropping one of her thighs over my shoulder, I drove two fingers deep inside her, making her scream. Then I pumped fast and hard, fucking her tight heat fast and hard, curling my fingers just right.

  When I hit that spot that had her rocking her hips, I focused my touch there, sucking hard at her clit. I felt her walls tighten, her thighs shaking as her orgasm took hold of her. Crying my name out, making my cock twitch, she came hard and long. Before she finished, I had my boxers off, hooked both hands around her knees and thrust deep inside her.

  “Oh fuck,” I stilled as her hips rolled to accept my size, “fuck baby. Look at me when I fuck you. Eyes, baby. Fuck you’re so fucking tight, I love this pussy. Tell me what I want to hear. Fuck everything else. Tell me, Sugar.” Her head nodded as she wet her lips, her chest pumping for air.

  “I’m yours, baby. All of me is yours, no matter what. Please, I need to feel you again. I missed you so fucking much. Fuck me, Cage.” I watched her as I slid all the way out, letting my cock slip up to hit her clit.

  Then I rammed back in, never looking away from her. Her hands twisted in the blanket above her head, the rain still pouring down on us both. I pounded into her fast and hard, her body trembling beneath me. When her hands came back to play with her tits, and a dirty smile curved that sexy fucking mouth, I almost lost it.

  When she dropped a hand between her legs, flicking furiously at her clit, I knew I couldn’t hold on. She was so fucking sexy and she was trying to please me. Charli knew I loved when she got a little dirty sometimes. Turned me on. Right now, I needed it. So as she touched herself so confidently, her pussy clenching around my cock, I drove into her roughly.

  “That’s it, baby. God damn you feel so fucking good. I love when you get dirty for me. You’re so beautiful when you come baby. Look at me. Come for me baby. I need to feel you come while I’m deep inside this pussy. I need to know I made you feel good again.” Charli whimpered, the hand between her legs picking up as she tugged at her nipples, giving me my dirtiest fantasy all at once.

  “Fuck! Yes! Cage! Oh...baby...I love you. I love you. Come with me. I need you to...I love you, Cage!” That did it; I was soaked from the rain, from her come, from the exertion and I thrust hard a few more times and came hard.

  “Fuck yeah,” I grunted into the rain, hands rough at her thighs, “I love you. I love you so fucking much.”

  At last I could focus, falling against her, claiming her mouth as she tangled her hands in my wet hair. The barn smelled of sweat and sex and dirt but it was fucking perfect. Rolling, I laid us face to face, but didn’t pull out of her yet. I needed the connection so I hiked her leg over my hip. Charli kissed me all over, leaving marks at my skin that I welcomed. I loved when she did that shit.

  Charli trembled against me so I brought her close to my chest, cradling her as I whispered over and over. Said how much I loved her, how sorry I was, how I didn’t deserve her. Charli soothed me, hushing back soft words that said she loved me too, that she was sorry too and I did deserve her.

  We stayed like that for a while, the rain still pouring down as we curled up in that rotted old barn on that dirty old blanket. When the skies began to darken, I wondered how long we had been there. I was hard again, nothing new there.

  Charli flipped us over and bent close. Pressing her tits to my chest, she told me she loved me as she rode my cock, slow and hard. Still the rain fell and I watched her as she made love to me. Knew I really couldn’t live without her now. When she laced our fingers together to cover her tits, I told her that and she smiled. Then she made me come when she told me I’d never have to.

  Then the rain stopped.

  Charli

  I loved the rain. Always had. I loved the smell and the rolling thunder, the bursts of lightening. I loved the sound it made against a tin roof, like the barn at my parent’s place. I loved the way it freshened the grass and washed away the sunlight. Now I loved it for new reasons.

  Cage was angry because I was not fighting. He was right to be. He exploded just before the rain poured down on us, giving me all his truths, all his pain and I loved him more for letting loose. For showing me his anger, his need, his frustration.

  The rain washed it all away, made me want to fight just like he was begging me to. Before I could think, I was naked, letting the rain wash away my pain with his. Then he was touching me and somehow we were in the barn.

  I needed him to take control. To not let me shutter myself when I wanted to. When I just wanted to walk away, I needed him to chase me. Cage needed me to let him take control. To chase when I ran, and to let him break down my shutters because only he could. We made love in a dusty old barn, the rain washing over us through the ragged tin roof.

  When I looked into his eyes as I took control, riding him and taking what was mine again, I knew I could not live without him. So when he told me he couldn’t do it either, I told him he would never have to. I hurt because of the lies but he hurt because I gave up. I was better than that and he deserved better.

  We got dressed quietly, shivering in our soaked clothes. Cage was terrified, I could feel it. I wasn’t ready to go back home with him. I needed time to heal. Besides, I had work to do at the shop with Maisie and Sadie. However, I knew I would be going home to him. Home to Chicago.

  Even if it hurt, even if we fought or sometimes it got to be too much, or worse, not enough. I wanted him. To own him. To let him own me. I loved him more than I could stand sometimes. Sitting beside him in the Blazer as he warmed it up, I felt that. I watched him in the late afternoon sun, the skies gray overhead. He was beautiful and he wanted me. He loved me. He smoothed out all my ragged edges and made me feel bright and warm and I wouldn’t lose him.

  “I love you, Cage Cooper.” Cage looked up from fiddling with the ancient stereo.

  “I fucking love you, Charli Dixon. Some Sugar, baby.” I laughed, leaning over to give him whatever he wanted, kissing him as his hand tangled in my hair.

  “I want the boys to like you baby. They will expect some groveling. Can you comply?” Although he had kind of already done enough in my eyes, my brothers would expect more.

  “Abso-fucking-lutely. Come on, let me get you back to your place and I’ll make dinner or something. It looks like it’s going to storm all night and I just might want to fuck my girl in a barn in the rain again.” Damn he made me feel things; dirty, wonderful, deep things tha
t burned through me.

  We drove back towards the house, not my home-not any more-as I pointed out spots around town to him. The one book store where I wasted most of my youth. The crumbling library. My schools. The tiny fire station. Cage listened to stories and brought our hands up to his lips. Squeezing gently when a memory is sad, kissing my knuckles every few miles.

  The skies are lit up again with lightning and I think he’s right about the storm. Which makes me look forward to more barn time, a smirk at my lips. When I glance over at him, he’s watching me and smirking as if he can read my thoughts.

  At a stop sign, I lean over and I’m kissing him before I hear my name called. No. Fucking. Way. I turn to find Widow Jenkins frowning at me, an umbrella in her hand, though it’s dry for the moment, and accusation in her eyes.

  “Widow Jenkins.” I waved then roll my eyes as she glares at Cage.

  “Afternoon, Ma'am.” Cage smiled that devastating smile, dimples and all and she actually blushed before we pulled away.

  Cage was quiet for a few more blocks before we paused in front of my mom’s shop. It was still locked up tight, my handwritten “Closed...For Now” sign posted in bright blue on the front of the white building. Leaning over, he pressed his face into the back of my neck, his arm slipping over my waist. I took a deep breath as he moved soft, butterfly kisses over my skin.

  When I twisted to look at him, to explain or answer the questions I felt, I was struck. Cage looked at me with open eyes, full of love and patience and acceptance. He would wait for me to answer his questions or to run for as long as my pain let me. Then he would be there to listen to my answers and soothe my pain away.