A Needful Heart

by J. M. Madden

  Gina fought to control her face, and the dismay she felt. “Did you?”

  Matt smiled grimly and shook his head. He rested a foot on the step below hers. “No. He beat the shit out of me that night for standing up to him. George found me in the parking lot of the apartment complex and hauled me in to the hospital. I stayed with him for a while when I got out. A couple months later, Rick plowed himself into a tree.”

  “Wow.” Gina could only stare at him, fascinated.

  “Children’s Services didn’t think George was a good role model at the time, which he wasn’t, so they put me in a home until I turned eighteen.” He clamped his lips tight and turned away, sorting through his toolbox. Gina recognized the move for what it was--busywork for his hands. “I wasn’t very nice when I was in the home. Actually, I was a shit. Most of the time, on purpose.”

  “Well, I’m glad you stayed friends with George. At least you had somebody.”

  Matt snorted. “I guess. Back then, George was lucky to remember what state he lived in when he drank. It’s why his liver was fried and he ended up needing the transplant.”

  Gina frowned at the words. It was obvious Matt cared for the old man. He brought him to the office every month for his check-ups, and she had seen them speaking and joking quietly together. Maybe he was afraid to admit how much the old man did mean to him.

  “So, what did you do when you turned eighteen?”

  Matt looked up at her and shook his head. “Nothing really. Batted around the state on a motorcycle for a while doing labor, joined the Army for a couple of years, got a couple tattoos, but eventually came back here. Rick had left a storage container full of carpentry stuff. It was good equipment. Stuff I’d never been allowed to touch.” He held up a well-used hammer. “Makes me happy to pound the shit out of it now.”

  Gina laughed and leaned down to pat him on the back. “I think you deserve to beat the shit out of his stuff.”

  He tossed the hammer in the toolbox with a clatter. “I guess.”

  “My dad is going to want to pick your brain.”

  “Why’s that?”

  “He likes to tinker in the garage with his woodworking machines. He makes bookcases and birdhouses, smaller things like that.”

  Matt pointed at the shelving unit in her living room. It was tall and stained a dark oak to match the rest of the trim in the room. “Did he do that?”

  Gina nodded. She wasn’t surprised Matt had noticed it. “Yep. Took him several months to build, but I think he kind of liked getting out of the house and away from Mom. She’s come up with all sorts of projects for him to do since he’s retired.”

  “What did your dad do?” Matt seemed genuinely interested.

  “He worked at an insurance company for twenty-three years. Started having some heart issues last year, so he decided to retire.”

  Matt was still kneeling in front of the toolbox, looking at the tools inside. “I’m probably not the kind of guy they expect to date their daughter.”

  Gina scooted down two steps, so that she could lean in to catch his eyes. “Why do you say that?”

  “Their lives, and yours, sound pretty pristine. Ordinary.”

  She snorted. “Oh, please. Believe me; we’re not as ordinary as you think. My brother’s in the FBI, my older sister lives in Croatia right now with her military husband, and my mother likes to skydive. Little sis is a brainiac and already has scholarships to college. Dad likes to take off gambling a couple weekends a year. We all have our quirks. I think you may be surprised how well you fit in.”

  But he didn’t look convinced. His full lips were pursed in thought, and he was looking at his boots.

  “And then me, well,” she let her voice lower to a whisper. “Let’s just say I like to collect pretty things.”

  Matt glanced at her with a mock frown, curiosity in his eyes. “Like what?”

  Gina twitched her eyebrows suggestively. She leaned forward enough that the loose collar of the sweatshirt gaped down, revealing her lace-covered cleavage. Matt’s face went completely slack for several long moments before he tightened his mouth. His pale eyes darkened with need as he stood up in front of her, staring at her hard. With one hand he jerked her to her feet and Gina knew this would be an encounter to remember.

  “Gina?”

  The two of them jerked apart. Gabe stood at the open front door, frowning at them fiercely.

  She stepped around Matt and met Gabe at the door, straightening her sweatshirt. “Hey buddy. What are you up to? Just get off school? Do you want something to eat?”

  She tried to slow her mouth down, but she was flustered. She could feel the embarrassment in her face, and she deliberately took several deep breaths. Caught almost in the act. Gabe was still looking at her as if she had two heads, but when he turned his old eyes to Matt, he glared. Gina was taken aback at the anger she saw. “Hey, what’s wrong honey? Why are you mad?”

  “All that stuff he told me was crap. He hurt you. He jerked you up by your hand and I heard you make a sound.”

  Gina flushed all over again. The young boy hadn’t seen the heated embrace, he’d seen a woman being jerked around by a really big guy. “Gabe, he didn’t hurt me. We were kind of playing actually.”

  Gabe didn’t look convinced, and he continued to glare at Matt. “That’s what my mom used to say too, but then she’d come out with bruises all over her.”

  Sinking down onto her bottom right there in the doorway, Gina urged Gabe to sit down across from her. Her heart broke for the child because all he had ever seen was destruction and anger.

  “Gabe, I want you to listen to me. I don’t know what you saw with your mom and dad, but I can tell you now that Matt would never hurt me. I know it looks like certain things have happened.” She paused to hold up her wrist and motion to the stairway. “Matt didn’t do any of those things on purpose. Remember I told you I used to break a lot of bones when I was a kid?” She waited for him to nod. “Well, I still fall sometimes. Heck, you’ve seen me fall going up the stairs, remember? I’m clumsy. I’ll always be clumsy. As much as I want to, I can’t change that.

  “And what you saw just now? Matt wasn’t going to hurt me; he was going to kiss me, which I like very much. I promise you, he has never hurt me. And he never will. Do you understand?”

  Gabe stared at her for a long time, weighing her words. He nodded. “I guess.” But he still looked leery, and not nearly as friendly to Matt as he used to be. She reached forward and pulled his bony little body into her arms for a hug. Gabe put his arms around her neck and clung fiercely, then let her go.

  “Come on, Jitterbug. Let’s go find you something to eat.”

  Gina glanced at Matt in apology for the interruption and he tipped his head to her. They could wait for their play.

  And Gabe seemed determined to make them wait. It was as if he was going to personally chaperone the two adults for as long as he could. Gina knew Chuck was going to be angry, though, if the boy didn’t get home soon. She shoved a couple dollars in his pocket for the ‘work’ he did, and reluctantly sent Gabe on his way. “If Chuck gives you problems, let me know.”

  Gabe nodded and disappeared into the dark. They heard yelling from the house when the boy disappeared inside, but not so much that they needed to call the police. Gina chewed on her fingernail until she saw Gabe’s bedroom light flash on upstairs.

  Matt had worked through the afternoon, and he stood at the porch railing beside her.

  “I’m done,” he told her quietly.

  Gina tried to be happy and made appreciative noises when she looked at the stairway, but inside she was desperately sad, almost to the point of tears. Matt now had no legitimate reason to come to her house. The work was done. And with as much time as he had spent with her, she had a feeling his other work had suffered.

  She had one more weekend with him, and she had a suspicion he would try to fade out of her life after that.

  Gentle hands settled on her shoulders from behind, and she a
llowed herself to lean back against the hardness of his chest.

  “You okay?” His voice rumbled at her back.

  “Yeah, I’m okay.” She cleared her throat deliberately and snugged her bottom into his groin. “I think you were about to do something earlier, and we got interrupted.”

  Matt clasped her hips with his hands and pulled her even tighter into the erection growing between them. His stubbled jaw burrowed into her hair, pressing kisses to her nape and sending goose bumps across her skin. She gasped at the sensation and then moaned, letting her hair fall forward.

  One of Matt’s hands left her hip and burrowed beneath her sweatshirt to rest against her satin-clad belly. He ran his fingers over the fabric several times. “I’ve never felt anything as soft as your skin in this. I need to see.”

  And Gina needed to show him. She jogged up the stairs and tugged him behind her. Just inside her bedroom doorway, she stripped off the sweatshirt, then turned to face him.

  He paused in the doorway and drank her in. Swaying her hips, she pushed the bottoms down to her feet and kicked them away.

  For a long time, Matt didn’t say anything, and it actually made Gina a little self-conscious. She moved to cross her arms, but he stopped her. He swallowed heavily.

  “Don’t you dare cover yourself. I’ve just never seen anything so beautiful. What is that thing you have on?”

  She laughed, even as her heart ached. Nobody had ever worn anything like it for him, apparently. “It’s a teddy.”

  Matt’s eyes never left her body as he kicked off his heavy boots and jeans and ripped his t-shirt over his head. Gina caught her breath as she watched those incredible muscles flex. She’d been with other men, but nobody had ever turned her on the way Matt did. Watching his body shift was poetry in motion, and moisture pooled between her thighs. She knew what was coming and she welcomed it.

  The underwear stayed on, which frustrated her a little. She wanted to see all of him--every last, glorious inch.

  Matt stepped forward and raised his hands to her breasts. The satin merged into lace at the cups of the teddy and left nothing to the imagination. Her nipples were hard as stones, and so very needy as they rubbed against the fabric. Matt took the weight of her breasts into his hands, and squeezed the tender tips with thumb and forefinger. Gina moaned and pressed against him harder. Her hips moved forward, searching for a place to rest, but Matt shifted away, not letting her touch his erection.

  His mouth settled on hers, and he teased her lips with the tip of his tongue. Gina swallowed him down. She needed to merge with him as much as she physically could. Matthew Calvin was like a drug to her. Kissing him was precious, and he used every subtle move he’d learned with her. Nothing could match the intimacy of kissing.

  Gina had to revise that sentiment as he settled his hips gently against hers. His cock was pushing out from beneath the underwear elastic, searching for a place to nestle. She reached down long enough to position it straight up between them, then began to undulate her hips into the hardness. Matt moaned and clasped her hips in his hands, grinding against her soft belly.

  Her breath tightened in her throat as she accepted the assault. If he moved her hips just a fraction of an inch, he would bump her clit, and at that moment, there was nothing more important.

  Backing toward the bed, she gave him a look from beneath her bangs and leaned down to unsnap the crotch of the teddy. Her fingers quivered and she gasped when she bumped herself. She was so ready!

  As Gina climbed onto the bed, Matt stripped off his underwear and tossed them away. He ripped open a condom and rolled it over his length. Even as she moved, his gazed stayed firmly on the opening she had revealed. He waited long enough for her to lie down on the bed and he crawled over top of her.

  They reached for each other and Gina automatically spread her legs to nestle him between them. Matt was one of the biggest men she’d ever seen, broad and strong, heavy, but as he settled on top of her, he felt perfectly right. Emotion clogged her throat as she wrapped her arms around his neck. It would be very easy to love him.

  Who was she kidding? She already did.

  One week of being the center of his gentle attention and she wanted it for a lifetime.

  Instinctively, she knew Matt would freak if she spoke the words, so she tried to tell him with her body. Tilting her hips up, she angled to work him into her body, but he wasn’t ready to give in. He glided his hands down her sides, shaping the dip of her waist and the curve of her hip. He did it several times, apparently fascinated by the way her body felt in the negligee. Lowering his mouth, he closed it over her lace covered nipple.

  Gina arched into the hot suction of his mouth, lost to sensation. When he mounded her breasts together and alternated between her nipples, she thought she was going to have to stop him. The sensation was too much. Fluid was flowing freely from her cunt, and she thought if she really let herself go she could come just from the touch of his mouth on her breast. Her clit was already flexing, searching for some kind of contact to bring on orgasm.

  Matt shifted and lowered his head to rest against her belly. Gina was curious at the move, but burrowed her fingers into his thick hair and held him to her. ‘I love you’ was on the tip of her tongue, but she forced it back. He moved subtly, and she realized he was rubbing his whiskered cheek against the fabric of her teddy.

  “I’ve never felt anything so soft,” he murmured.

  Gina hummed in her throat and promised herself she would go shopping for more things like this to make him happy.

  Matt lifted his head and shifted until he was braced over top of her. He looked down at her for a long time, not saying anything, just tracing his eyes over every bit of her face. She smiled at him gently, raising her lips to his. She wondered if he was as emotionally overwhelmed as she was, but she was afraid to ask.

  He whispered his mouth over hers for several long minutes, and Gina was amazed at how gentle he was. Opening her lips, she let him consume her. Nobody had ever taken the time to pleasure her the way he was now. When he reached down to tickle her wet curls, her heart began to pound. Pressing gently, he massaged her plump lips, but didn’t slip inside. He ground the heel of his hand against her fleshy mound, and it was just enough to snap her into orgasm. Gasping against his neck, she convulsed beneath him with a high, keening moan.

  That was when he slid inside her.

  Rather than being too much, his hardness was just enough to prolong the torture. Matt moved slowly, but strongly, plunging into her as deeply as he could. Gina lifted her legs up over his hips, deepening the contact. He gasped in her ear and surged harder, again clasping her satin covered hips in his hands. Contracting her muscles, she encouraged him to move harder.

  Matt groaned in her ear as his arousal crescendoed. Fumbling, his lips found hers, and they breathed each other in as their pleasure consumed them.

  Gina actually thought she was going to pass out from the orgasm that lit her from the inside out. Spots danced in front of her eyes, and her breath clogged her throat. Matt groaned loud and long, arching sharply above her. For several heart-stopping moments, he convulsed before sagging to rest on top of her. The force of his heart pounding was enough to make the bed shake.

  She ran her hand down his sweat-slicked back and pressed kisses to the wetness of his neck. Tightening her inner muscles, she tried to keep his hardness within her.

  Matt laughed when she clenched around him. “Do that again.”

  She did and flexed her hips just a bit, even with his heavy weight on top of her. Matt responded by surging into her again, weakly.

  “We’ll have to explore that more later.”

  With a final, reluctant kiss, he rolled off the bed to pad to the bathroom. When he returned, the condom was gone and he was heavy-eyed. He settled next to her and straightened the teddy over her stomach.

  “I’ve seen these things in magazines and stuff, but I never realized they were so hot.”

  “I’m glad you liked it.�
�

  He plopped down on the bed beside her and folded his arms behind his head. He was still completely naked, but he seemed very unconcerned with his nudity. She leaned over and blew gently against his still damp penis. The sensitive skin tightened and then relaxed. “I don’t think you’re going to get anything out of him for a while. He’s worked pretty hard today.”

  Gina grinned up at him and shifted to lie against his chest. “Very hard. I’ll give him a break.”

  Matt lowered his right arm to circle around her back and pulled her tighter to his side. She nestled her head into the dip of his shoulder and ran her palm down his abdomen. She teased the trail of hair with her fingers, ruffling it lightly. An indentation in his skin made her pause. “Is this a scar?”

  He was quiet above her for a long time. “Yeah.”

  “What from? It’s an odd shape.”

  This time he was quiet for a longer stretch of time, and Gina had a feeling she had just shoved her foot in her mouth.

  “Cigarette,” he answered finally.

  Her stomach clenched sickeningly. “Cigarette?” she whispered.

  Matt’s ribcage expanded beneath her as he sighed. “Yep. One of Rick’s many and varied punishments.”

  Gina clenched her jaw and clamped her eyes shut. She would not cry. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked.”

  “It’s all right. There are a few more around the side, so don’t freak out when you feel them. And some scars on my back.”

  She tightened her arm around him and swallowed heavily. It broke her heart that his childhood had been so harsh. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what he had gone through.

  As a child, she had been loved and coddled. Anything she’d wanted, she’d gotten. Discipline had been taking treats away, or at the very most a light swat on the behind. Certainly never anything more harsh than that.

  The total aloneness he must have felt back then had to have been brutal. “Didn’t anybody try to help you?”

  Air expanded his chest as he sighed deeply. “One neighbor lady tried to help out, but Rick scared her so bad one day she never came back. If she reported me to Children’s Services, I never knew about it. It wasn’t until years later that they started to investigate.”