“You’re going to have to say it, baby,” he whispered, his self-satisfied grin melting my panties.
Seriously, what exactly was it about this guy that made me permanently hot and bothered?
I huffed petulantly. He knew where my mind was headed. Hell, he’d even been leading me there over the last couple of days.
He laughed in amusement. “Can I ask how many times you’ve murdered me in your head in the last minute?”
I side-eyed him. “Twenty-four.”
“Well, looks like I have some damage control to do,” he grinned, that boyish, charming grin.
In one swift movement, he was suddenly on top of me, his eyes shining with an unrepentant, mischievous stare. Before I could figure out what he was up to, he started tickling me, mercilessly enjoying my warnings to stop.
“Xander!” I squealed. “Stop that!”
“I will,” he breathed heavily. “But what will I get in return?”
I bit my lip in contemplation and he must’ve read my mind because he burst out laughing.
“What?” I asked, trying to hold back my laughter.
He smiled indulgently at me, like he would give me the moon if I asked. It was his willingness to do anything to make me happy that made me the happiest. I didn’t need to ask for anything for him to deliver. Xander knew my dreams before they became formed words on my lips.
“You’ll be the death of me, love,” he grinned happily, as if he could imagine nothing better.
“And I’d follow right after you,” I replied seriously.
He frowned, as if the thought displeased him. “Don’t say that.”
“But you can say it?”
“Yes, because you’re my life.”
“You’re mine too,” I said.
He moved to lie beside me, taking my hand in his and laying them both on his chest. “Remember when I asked you to run away with me?”
“Yeah.”
“You said no,” he said pensively. “Thank you.”
I was momentarily speechless. “For what?”
He sighed, and a wistful smile relaxed his features. “For making me face my demons, Charlie.”
I smiled. “You know, one day, when us leaving won’t be such a selfish decision and you ask me to run away with you-”
“You’d run away with me?” he interjected.
“Yes,” I said, meaning it completely. “I’d go anywhere with you.”
He didn’t answer, and I was about to ask whether he saw himself asking that of me in future when he laid a hand on my cheek and turned me to his side. He slowly leaned in to kiss me. The contrasting softness of his firm lips still sowed happy seeds in my stomach, just like he grew sunshine in my heart. This flawed, sometimes self-doubting boy was the most beautiful human being I had ever met.
I melted into his arms as our kiss switched from languid to fervent. I moved to straddle him, leading the kiss. His strong arms wound around my body, circling my waist. I moaned into his mouth, the heat of his arms around me igniting a flame in the pit of my stomach. I lost charge of the kiss the moment his hand found their target in my panties.
“That’s my girl,” he whispered when he found my core wet and ready, so soon after my last orgasm.
He flipped me onto my back, simultaneously sinking a finger into my pussy. Then another one, then the third…
“Xander…”
“Open your eyes, baby,” he rasped, his voice bringing me back from the paradise in my mind. “I’m going to make love to you.”
I nodded my consent, drawing his lips back to mine. “Yes, please.”
He chuckled before slowly sliding my leather shorts down my legs. “You sure?”
“Positive,” I smiled up at him.
He discarded my clothes until I was left in my underwear. “Some girls love their shoes, but mine has a lingerie addiction.”
His guess at my penchant for lingerie made me shy, but not enough to change my mind. “It’s just as well, you like me in it.”
“Like?” He shook his head incredulously. “I fucking love you in it. It makes me want to devour you, feast on you like I’ll never want anything else for as long as I live.”
I’m certain I was already glowing just from his words. “Okay, Romeo.”
“Hey, we’ll role-play some other time. Tonight, it’s just you and me,” he chided.
I laughed at his stern tone, knowing I wouldn’t have it any other way. I liked this love story we were writing best.
He took off my white bra and matching panties and stared reverently at me. In that moment, I felt like his miracle. He had this way of staring at me like as if I were a gift that he’d been too scared to wish for, but had somehow made it into his life. To me, he was more. Much, much more.
His dark head lowered to my breasts, his smart mouth latching onto one, while his hand playfully flicked my other nipple. I arched off the bed to meet him halfway. This is what I wanted it to be, I wanted to meet him halfway. Love him just as much and give him just as much as he gave me. Yet, I knew it would always be more. My love for him was an entity separate from my will. I didn’t get to decide how much I loved him, much like I didn’t have a say in whether the sun shone or the rain poured.
“Xander…please,” I begged, too consumed by him to wait. “Now.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he smirked.
I quickly helped him strip naked, right down to his boxers. However, having only seen one other penis in my whole life, I hadn’t anticipated my boyfriend to be hung like a horse. The times I’d had him in my mouth hadn’t really prepared me for this moment.
“Wow,” I whispered.
“Should I be glad it still shocks you, or should I be getting worried?” he laughed.
I smiled up at him, deciding to put everything I was feeling into a deep kiss. It was as if he cast a spell on me, and I was far too enchanted to break it. He lowered himself onto me, his one elbow supporting hisweight while the other wound around my stomach. His gaze held mine, as if seeking confirmation of my readiness, but I was beyond ready.
His wide tip pressed at my entrance, and I moaned at the pressure. Inch by inch, he slowly sunk himself in me and I couldn’t help gasping at each wall he scaled.
“Should I go all the way?” he asked.
All the way? “You mean that this isn’t…all of it?” I bit my lip to stop talking.
He chuckled at my obvious surprise. “Well, no. But we won’t do anything you’re not ready for. I could come just from the tightness around me.”
His comment spurred me on, I wanted more of him. More from him. So I shifted below him, drawing him further into my pussy.
“Oh, God…baby. You’re so tight…so snug,” he rasped, his head hung low into the crook of my neck.
“I want you, Xander,” I whispered.
“We’ll have to make you a little louder, baby” he teased.
I giggled at his comment, still feeling him paused halfway inside me. A second later, his black eyes were still locked on me, his face deadpan serious.
Oh shit…
And he plunged deep inside me. To the hilt.
My fingernails clawed at his back while he drove into me, then my hands caressed his chest as I sunk into him. Before, I’d thought that we were just right for each other, and now, we were perfect. There was no one else I wanted to touch me the way he was touching me, and there was no one else I would ever need the way I needed him.
“Charlie…” he spoke through gritted teeth, the vein on the side of his neck straining against his skin. “You’re killing me.”
I rode him mindlessly, chasing a moment and a feeling I knew only he could give me. His shaft came in and out of view, my opening swallowing him whole before sliding him out. His eyes drank me in, violent storms raging in those deep, black pools. I was close, so close, when he spun us around- not breaking the contact where our bodies joined- and started making love to me like a machine.
“Ahh…Xander!” I screamed as he pounded in
to me like a man possessed, his cock hitting just the perfect spot.
“There we go,” he breathed into my mouth. “Give me more of that, princess.”
I was helpless to his command, the way he fucked me required no less that demented screams and hoarse gasps. My drenched pussy followed his dick each time he withdrew from its hungry, needy grasp. My eyes rolled to the back of my head as he sunk balls deep inside me, and my body met him halfway, wanting him. Reaching for him like he was a flame in the cold.
Because he lit my entire being on fire, and I was soaring dangerously close to the sun.
I felt a buzz spread across my whole body, and my toes curled involuntarily. I needed to come, and in that moment, I would have begged him and promised him anything.
“Pleeaaasseee,” I moaned as he fucked me harder and harder, chasing his release.
The candle-lit room was a blurry world around me, a space in which I existed solely because my body was in it. He had taken my soul to the sky and decided to love me there. There was no falling, and if ever I would come crashing down, the memory of this moment would forever mark my heart.
“That’s it…oh you feel so good, Charlotte” he moaned. “I’m gonna cum, baby.”
The explosion that started from my core overtook every part of my body and engulfed my senses. I shook at the onslaught of the most intense orgasm…ever. I must’ve rode the wave of it for a long while because his own groans brought me back to the present. And the present was the sight of the most beautiful man in the world cumming inside of me.
Warm jets of cum shot inside of me as his cock momentarily expanded. His face contorted into a tortured expression which turned to relaxation, then complete peace. Finally, he stared into my eyes and leaned in to place a chaste kiss on my lips.
“That was…life-changing,” he grinned down at me.
Yes, that was the only accurate description I could come up with. Life-changing.
“It was perfect.” I stated simply.
He gave me another one of those face-splitting happy grins. “Oh yeah?”
“Definitely,” I beamed at him. “I love you, Xander.”
“And I love you, Charlie.”
I winced when he gently eased himself out of me, leaving my just sated body wanting another go at him. I needed therapy…after a thousand more rounds.
He wordlessly got up to go to the bathroom, and a few seconds later returned with a towel. Nudging my legs apart, he got to work on cleaning me up, and the intimacy of it made me want to cry.
“What is it?” he asked, his face marred with concern. “Did I hurt you?”
“No,” I sniffed, suddenly feeling stupid. “I just…the last time I…it wasn’t like this.”
He smiled, reaching up to cup my face and wipe a lone tear from my cheek. “We’ve ruined each other for anyone else, my love. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
He was right, on both counts. Before I could say anything else, he stood up to blow out the candles in the room, leaving us the in complete darkness. I felt a dip in the bed when he was finished, then his arms wrapped around me.
“What’s on your mind right now?” he spoke calmly in the dark.
I sighed in contentment. “You.”
“Good answer. What about me?”
I smiled, turning my body to his. “Just…everything. You’re everything.”
His swallowed before he answered. “So are you, Charlotte Grace. There will never be another you.”
And for me, Alexander Hastings-Turner would always be the one. He was my heart’s deepest desire, and my heart was his.
Epilogue
Xander
One Month Later
“Do you think I’m pretty?” I heard her ask.
He was silent for a moment, before he replied simply, “Yeah, you’re prettier than other girls I know.”
She chuckled at his comment, and I decided it was time to step in before I lost my girlfriend to a nine-year-old.
“Tell me you’re not hitting on my girlfriend again.” I narrowed my eyes at him playfully.
My brother Cole crossed his little arms across his chest defensively. “I was just talking to her, that’s all.”
“And telling her she’s pretty?” I mimicked his pose.
“Well, isn’t she?” he challenged.
I bit the inside of my cheek and Charlie scowled. “It didn’t take Cole that long to answer.”
Walking over to where she sat next to his bed, I hugged her fiercely, ignoring her squeals. “I think you’re beautiful. Not that I remember much, since now you seem to like him more than me.”
I waved a hand towards Cole, and it was his turn to scowl. Charlie pried herself out of my arms and ruffled the hair on Cole’s head.
“I’ve got to go, see you around,” she smiled at him.
“When are you visiting again?” he asked.
I rolled my eyes at this. In the week he’d been home, Charlie had visited a lot. They seemed to get on well, but I wasn’t used to sharing her attention. When had I become so needy?
“When should I visit again?”
“Tomorrow.”
She laughed at his frankness, but I understood. Hell, I wanted her to live with me. I also planned to wear her down enough to get her to agree to go on a weekend getaway with me. I knew just how, and I couldn’t wait to persuade her.
She kissed Cole on the cheek (which didn’t make him twist his lips in disgust like with everyone else). “See you tomorrow, Prince Charming.”
I scowled in disgust. It’s not like I wanted to be called Prince Charming-and I rather liked being called Xander-but why hadn’t she ever called me that?
“You alright?” she peered at me.
“Couldn’t be better,” I smiled. “I’ll meet you downstairs, let me just tuck Prince Charming here into bed.”
“Charlie already did,” the little gnome quipped.
I gave him a wide smile for Charlie’s benefit. “Still, I’d like to do it.”
I waited until I could hear her descend the stairs before I spoke. “You keep hogging my girlfriend and I’ll show her that picture of you looking like goldilocks.”
He smiled brightly up at me, clearly unfazed. “Go ahead, Charlie said she likes long hair on boys too.”
“She just likes mine,” I shot back, grinning like an idiot.
“And she’ll like mine better.”
“Argh, go to sleep.” I frowned, happy to be bantering with him. Happy to have him alive and healthy.
“But it’s only five o’clock,” he protested.
“You didn’t say that when Charlie tucked you into bed at a quarter to five,” I teased.
He huffed at being caught out. “Well, whatever. I’ll go and watch a movie with Mom and Dad.”
I laughed at my small victory and mentally reminded myself not to mention it to Charlie. I kissed the top of his head and sent another prayer of gratitude heavenwards.
“I love you, Cole. And I really meant what I said about being a better big brother from now on.”
He nodded seriously. “I love you too, X. And you know it was the bad guys that hurt me. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
I swallowed before I choked on my tears. It never ceased to move me whenever he said that. I had carried the burden for so long, and his lack of resentment touched me to the core.
“When did you get so wise?” I grinned.
“When you were busy getting whipped,” he laughed.
I tossed a stuffed turtle at him and rolled my eyes. “You and Ron should find other things to discuss.”
“I’ll tell him that tonight…after we laugh at you for being whipped,” he said solemnly.
I grunted and left his room, smiling to myself on the way downstairs. Cole’s condition had improved in the last two months, and now he could eat on his own. He still had nightmares about the shooting, and my parents sometimes slept with him in his room, because he would not go to theirs. On other nights, he would sneak into my b
ed and talk my ear off until dawn, when he’d doze off and leave me to face the day tired. But I didn’t mind. In fact, he could do that for the next decade, as long he was happy and healthy.
I told mom that I would be back before eight o’clock, in time for my parents’ therapy session. They wouldn’t be seen walking into a shrink’s office in broad daylight, so they had sessions at home. Mom said it was the guilt of almost cutting Cole’s life short while he was fighting to come back to us. Dad said he wasn’t sure of his own reason for therapy, and I didn’t push. Our family was still not perfect, but at least the scars were beginning to heal.
“Ready to go?” I asked Charlie, turning on the ignition.
“Yes, sir,” she grinned impishly. “Mel is having a boy over for a school project, so don’t be a pain.”
I turned to her with narrowed eyes. “I promised your brother I would take care of you, and since Mel is as close as I’ll get to having a sister, I can’t wait to expose someone else’s son to the trauma your brother gave me when I met him. Not to mention the interrogation from when I met your dad.”
She giggled at my resolution, probably thinking I wasn’t serious. “No, behave.”
“Do you mind if we take a detour?” I glanced at her briefly.
“Uhh, sure. You and Ron have plans?”
I shrugged. “No, he’s taking Cat bowling before we meet at my house to play video games.”
She nodded thoughtfully and didn’t probe further. Cat and Lea had been hanging out with some of my friends, and I was glad our friends were getting along.
I drove for several minutes before she realized where we were. “Xander, what are we doing here?”
I parked at the by the side of the cliff, meters away from where she’d first found me. “I haven’t been here in a while. I promise we won’t stay long, I have a high schooler to grill.”
She smiled, shaking her head at the latter part of my comment. I got out of the car and went over to open her door, taking her hand in mine and not letting it go.
“We’re just going to wait,” I said, putting my arms around her.
“For sunset?” she asked seriously.
With Every Sunset Page 19
