by Jules Dixon
“Sage?” His hand lifted my neck to get my attention. “Are you okay?”
I opened my eyes and nodded frantically, trying to get my head wrapped around how being with him was more to me than anything I’d ever experienced in my life. Meant more and settled deeper into me than any moment.
“You’re amazing and you feel amazing, Rahl.”
His large hands slowly wound my legs around his waist. I lost any shred of control over my body. The massive size of his steel hardness inside of my inviting silky slickness created an extreme pressure that had my body responding in delight and demanding for friction. In response, I scraped my fingernails down his back. He arched into me, causing every inch of me to vibrate with tiny precursor shockwaves. When he retreated and drove, long and deep, it was only seconds until I cried out his name. Rahl whispered my name in appreciation. Our eyes met, and I journeyed through the deepest and longest bodyquakes of pleasure I’d ever experienced. Every muscle contracted and released around his solid body. His fingers caught a tear that trickled its way out of the corner of my eye and he kissed the moment into my memory. And the moment is more beautiful than most of my life up to this point.
He roared my name as he climbed to his own peak. His body rocked into me faster and faster, his thrusts deepening and stroking just before my limit. His arms stiffened and his feral grunt bellowed into the quiet. Reaching up, my hands trailed down his face, watching his release relax every muscle in his body. He kissed my fingertips and sighed, “Angel.” His heavy body trapped mine as he came down. The manly warmth against me was heavenly. I smiled and kissed his shoulder.
With startling urgency, he pushed up, separated from me, and rolled to his side to face me.
“Rahl, what’s wrong?”
His hand rubbed my arm. “Sage, I’m sorry. I forgot a condom. I can prove I’m clean but that won’t prevent a—”
I touched his face, gliding over the worry, hoping to take it away.
He tagged my hand and placed a kiss in my palm. “I’m really sorry.”
“It’s okay. I won’t get pregnant.”
“The pill?”
Those two innocuous words hit me hard. It was his right to know the reason why a pregnancy wouldn’t happen, but I couldn’t tell him the truth. Not yet.
“No. I can’t. I just can’t.”
“Sage, tell me. Whatever it is, it’s okay.” The confusion in his eyes hazed my brain.
I took a deep breath and rambled words quickly. “I’ll tell you soon, I promise. Can you just hold me, please?” I burrowed so deep into his warm body that I assumed the action was a little disturbing on his side, but I needed to keep him with me. To know he wasn’t going to leave me, and he didn’t. He dragged me on top of him and rubbed my back.
His voice broke minutes of silence. “Sage, I want you to know how special being with you was to me.”
“I’ve never responded like that before.”
“You were … wow.”
I snuggled into his chest with a giggle. “Yeah, wow.”
“Sage, whenever you are ready to tell me your story, I’ll listen. Until then, whatever makes you comfortable.”
“Thank you.”
My body relaxed into him, and soon I was asleep.
****
The bed dipped next to me.
“Sage, how are you feeling?”
I stretched out my legs. “Satisfied.”
“Kind of meant your head, but good to hear. I’m going for a quick run. I’ll make you breakfast when I get back.”
I rolled over and Rahl’s hulking body shadowed over me. I cleared my throat. “What time is it?”
“Six-thirty.”
I twisted in the bed, my body protesting what I was going to say. “I need to get up and head home, to get ready for work. And weren’t you supposed to be to work at five?”
He shook his head. “Not gonna happen. You need to rest, doctor’s orders. I’ll be back in less than an hour and we’ll spend the day together.”
“No, I need to go to work.” I tried to sit up but he hovered over me. His warmth radiated into me like a heat blanket, effectively encouraging me to stay in bed.
He whispered in my ear, his whiskers tickling my cheek and his breath raising goose bumps on my neck. “You’re gorgeous in the morning.”
I huffed. “And obviously, you’re experiencing orgasm blindness, and don’t change the subject, Vendetti.” I pushed on his hard pec muscles through his t-shirt but my efforts were unsuccessful at moving him at all.
And relatively enjoyable.
“Nope, I have 20/20 eyesight.” His lips grazed my cheek, then he pushed off the bed. “Be back soon.”
“You hid my keys, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” he said over his shoulder on the way out the door.
“And my phone?” I called out.
He walked back to the doorway and only his head peeked around the corner. “That, too. When I get back you can call work.”
“I don’t have any sick leave, Rahl.” I covered my eyes with an arm as the bright morning sun crept through the shades.
“Then I’ll talk to your boss and explain what’s going on and make it very clear that if they fire you, they will face a wrongful termination lawsuit by my very powerful lawyer uncle.”
“Fine.” I rolled the covers down and abandoned my efforts to change his mind.
“That’s better. Now, you bask in your afterglow and I’ll be back soon.”
“You ruined the afterglow.”
He stalked back to the bed in that predator way I’d seen on Saturday.
“Well then, I guess we’ll have to have a repeat performance so you glow again.”
“Just go run!” I waved him off.
He chuckled and spun to leave.
Don’t think I’ve ever seen him this happy.
I scooted over to his side. The bed was still warm and smelled like him—clean, woodsy, and virile as hell. My stomach fluttered in response to the mingling scents.
An hour later, Rahl was in the shower, and I urgently needed to use the bathroom. I snuck down the hall in only Rahl’s long t-shirt. Didn’t know what hours his roommates worked but greeting them sans underwear wasn’t high on my list of to-dos today. I used what was a bathroom in serious need of a deep cleaning, like yesterday, or maybe even last year. With his standards, I couldn’t imagine how Rahl put up with that. I supposed if he never ventured in, he’d never know.
“Sage!” Rahl’s voice pierced the quiet hallway. “Sage, where are you? ” His heavy footsteps passed the door. Either he utilized his military training to source out my location, or common sense hit him. He pounded on the bathroom door. “Are you in there?”
“Yes. Just a minute, please.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
I finished doing the don’t-touch-the-disgusting-toilet hover maneuver and unlocked and cracked the door before washing my hands. He swung the door open. His eyes scanned my body head to toe several times.
“I’m fine, Rahl.”
The hand towel on the hook looked like it had seen better days, and possibly never a wash, so I stepped to Rahl and used the clean, crisp white towel around his waist to wipe my hands.
His pupils dilated. “I couldn’t find you. I thought you left.”
“No, you made that pretty impossible to accomplish, and honestly, I don’t want to leave.”
His shoulders relaxed and his hand wound into my messy hair.
“You freaked out.” I skimmed my fingers around the top of his towel, into those picturesque Adonis muscles on each side of his hips, and his skin rippled in response.
“I guess I did.”
“I think that headache is coming back. I might need to take another pain reliever.” I raised my eyebrows, staring up into his warming eyes. “Or maybe I could go for another round of pain-killing endorphin ecstasy?”
Rahl gave me a sexy smirk and a single eyebrow rose. “Oh, really?”
I brought my hand up and broke our kiss, sucking my thumb into my mouth and letting it pop out.
His chest rose and fell. “Did you just taste me?”
I nodded as my eyelids became heavy. “You’re delicious.”
His head tipped back and when he brought his eyes back to mine, they blazed with hot and raw heat. “Fuck, Sage. I need to be inside of you.”
His manhood slipped through my fingers as he bent his legs and lifted me. I coiled my legs around his muscle-bound waist and my arms around his thick neck. His hands cupped my ass and he carried me to his bedroom. Our tongues tangled frantically as we shared breaths of craving for each other.
Desire for Rahl coursed every vein, contracted every muscle, and excited every nerve. Everything his body silently said was that he needed me as much as I needed him. But my craving for him was more than just want or momentary need. The feelings were bone-deep, pit of the stomach, head-spinning, and all-consuming. Like we had to happen forever or one of us would implode and cease to exist.
He slammed his bedroom door closed, swung me around, and pinned me against the cold wood with his body, one hand in my hair behind my neck and the other under my ass, holding me up.
“Jesus, I’m as hard as an M4 Carbine for you, Sage.”
Have no idea what that is, but damn, it’s sexy as hell.
I dropped my lips to his ear. “And I’m dripping hot like a burning candle for you, Rahl.”
Two fingers invaded my swollen tissues and my neck arched at the wonderful intimate penetration.
“Fuck! Yes, you are. Do you want me to wear a condom, Sage?”
“I promise it’s not necessary. I trust you’re clean.”
His hand withdrew. He dropped the towel and holding my gaze, impaled me on his stone solid cock. I screamed out obscenities at the fullness. He gave me a minute to get used to the extreme stretch and pressure.
His slick lips skated down my neck. “Ready?”
“Only for you, Rahl.”
He moaned at my words and began to pound into me. The intense drives weren’t slow and definitely weren’t tender. They were animal, and hard, and raw, and deep. The hidden animal in him escaped to share his carnal side with me. And I loved it. Our journey was a connected mind-body-soul state from the first linking of our bodies. We thrashed against each other and our grunts of uninhibited lust made us even wilder.
My hands roamed every muscle on his cut upper body.
“Can I touch your beautiful breast through your shirt?”
I stilled for a moment, then nodded. His hand untangled from my hair and trailed a path down my valley to cup my right breast through my shirt.
With his soft lips brushing mine, he whispered, “I know you’re special, Sage, and I want you to feel special.” He dipped his legs, lifted my ass with his other hand, and changed the angle, placing more pressure on my clit. “Come with me, beautiful.”
In a few skillful thrusts my detonation was only seconds from being inevitable.
Our eyes connected like our bodies. Our breaths danced like experienced tango partners.
“I’m almost there,” I moaned. “Harder, Rahl.”
He rammed into me and I ground down on him, clenching around his hardness.
“Fuck! Do that again, Sage.”
I ground again and again as he slowed his withdrawal and rammed back into me. The delicious friction of his massive cock and appreciating the effect I had on him pushed me over the edge.
“Rahl, I’m there. Now!” I abandoned reality and allowed my body to take over. My forehead struck his shoulder and I bit down hard on his collarbone, screaming my pleasure through his name.
“I can feel you around me. My turn…” Rahl pumped hard and his release was so powerful. His bursts detonated inside of me, and the sensation drove me over the edge again.
“Rahl! Don’t stop! I’m coming again for you.” My head slammed back against the door, a fire-breathing orgasm winding through my body.
“Sage!”
He moved his hand from my breast and cupped my head from the hard door while he continued thrusting to extend both of our orgasms. Our moans became one melodic refrain of bliss. After a few slowing thrusts, he stilled, held me threaded onto him, and ambled to the bed. Falling onto the soft comforter, he uncoupled our bodies and brought me down on top of him.
We held each other, breathing fast, our bodies covered in a mist of sweat.
“Shit, that was amazing, but you hit your head again.” He caressed the back of my head.
I slowed my breaths. “It’s not hurting. Yet.” I sighed into his chest. “Thank God for endorphins.”
His body bounced with amusement. “I love how vocal you are, Sage. It made me harder than I’ve ever been. I was driving into you so hard and deep, I thought I was going to send both of us through the goddamn door.”
“That was … double wow.”
When I was back to full reality, I rested my chin on my hands to gaze up at him. “I probably should take a shower.”
“We could shower together?” He lifted the hem of the shirt I wore and traced the small of my back with his fingers.
I closed my eyes. “Rahl…” I sounded about as exasperated as ever, the way I said his name.
He rolled me under him. The pads of his fingers traveled up my cheek and into my hair. I opened my eyes to find his face only centimeters from mine. “Hey, I won’t pressure you, but I want you to know, whatever it is that makes you fearful of me seeing you fully naked, I promise you, Sage, I will never find you anything but gorgeous. I always have.”
The honesty in his eyes shined through, but I feared the reality could overcome his beliefs.
I pecked his soft lips. “I’ll shower by myself. Maybe later we can talk.”
“I’ll go make breakfast.” He pushed up and stood, and the view was enough to make me reconsider my solo shower.
Damn…
Chapter Thirteen
Rahl
Sage entered the kitchen with an orgasmic glow and rosy pink flush from her hot shower. She smelled like my soap, which was a complete turn-on, picturing her washing every inch of that blemish-free, tanned skin.
“You need pain relievers?”
She giggled. “The bottled synthetic kind or the man-induced natural kind?”
I wrapped my arms around her waist and guided her into me. “Your choice. I’m willing to offer my version whenever you want it, and the bottle is on the counter behind us.”
“Before anything, I need to call into work.”
“I took care of it.” I tunneled my nose into her damp hair and breathed deeply. She smelled like my shampoo, but also of a time when I felt hope and peace.
“Really? How?” She leaned back to look up at me.
“I used the connection I know at your work.”
“Oliver?”
“Yes. Andi says she needs you to get better for the big install tomorrow. I told her I’m on duty to get you all better.”
“I’m actually feeling pretty good right now.” She nuzzled her head into my shirt.
I rubbed her back.
“Don’t you have to work today?” she asked.
“There’s a benefit to being the boss. I can work from home.”
And I’d stay here forever, if we could.
“You’re the boss?”
“Yeah, but I have a great team. I trust them. They’re all management material and can handle anything that happens without me. Benefit of hiring mostly ex-military—we get shit done and we do it rig
ht the first time.”
She tipped her head. “Sounds like you own the business?”
“I do.”
“Wow.”
“I like that ‘wow’ much better when you’re admiring a part of me.”
Sage’s body bounced against me. “Let’s eat, Mr. Wow.”
I smiled at her playfulness.
Feels good to be smiling again.
I brought out French toast, bacon, and eggs. I lifted the orange juice and Sage nodded in agreement while she sat.
“Tea.” I pointed to the steaming mug beside her filled OJ glass.
“Thank you for remembering.” She pulled me down by my t-shirt and kissed me. And I let her. My heart jumped into my throat when we parted and her face flushed with exhilaration.
After drinking half the glass of juice in one long gulp, she said, “That tastes so good.” She dug into the bacon. “If I eat like this every day I’m going to weigh a million pounds.”
“We can work out at Triple R together but not today. So tell me, Sage, what do you like to do in your off time?”
“Read.” She dragged a piece of bread onto her plate and drizzled on syrup.
“That’s it?”
“Well, I also like to go to art museums, shows, and festivals, but it’s pretty boring doing those things by myself so I haven’t been going lately.”
“Art, huh?”
“Yeah, mostly contemporary works and sculpture, but I like the classical paintings and works as well.” She took a bite. “This is really good.”
“Thanks, another call to Mom.”
Sage smiled.
I pulled two pieces onto my plate. “I bet Laken would like to do that with you. She’s always asking me to meet her at the Joslyn Art Museum outdoor gardens.”
“Haven’t been there in a while. I think they’re supposed to have a Renoir and Chagall exhibit soon.”
“It’s there right now,” a familiar female voice carried from the living room.
“And how long have you been listening in on our conversation?” I asked as baby-blue eyes rounded the corner.
“Not long. Oooh, French toast!” Laken pulled a plate from the cabinet and sat at the table across from me.
