Finally (Mature Men, #3)

by Marilyn Lee

  I could call Michael or Jeffery, but neither would arrive in time to keep him from having his say. Besides, I wasn't so sure Michael wouldn't just urge me to hear him out.

  I didn't fear him so I decided to let him have his damned say. Once he had, I'd either get my keys back before he left or I'd change my code and my locks. I released the buzzer and walked into the living room to wait for him.

  When he rang the bell outside my door, I ignored him. Several minutes later, I looked up from the sofa as he stalked into the living room.

  I don't know what I expected him to say or do, but as usual, he surprised me. He crossed the room with a bag in his hand, knelt in front of me, and took my hands in his. "I'm so sorry, Sherlyn. I had no right to even touch his picture. Throwing it across the room was unforgivable."

  "And yet you expect me to forgive you," I said, pulling my hands from his.

  "I do. Not because I deserve it, but because I know you have a forgiving heart."

  I shook my head. "I've had a long, hard day. Just say what you have to and then please just leave me alone."

  He rose and shocked me by reaching for Don's picture that still sat on the coffee table. "If you..."

  He picked up the bag and lifted a beautiful ornate gold frame that I recognized as having held the picture of his parents that sat on the end table by his favorite chair in his man cave.

  "What are you doing with that?" I asked.

  "It was too late to shop for a frame to replace the one I damaged so I thought I'd lend you this one until I could replace it." He carefully slipped Don's slightly bent picture inside the frame and placed it on the table, facing us.

  I stared at him. "What did you do with your parents' picture?"

  "I put it in an album until I get this one back from you."

  He had three different pictures of his parents and one of his father with Am's mother in various rooms in his home. That he had bought the one I knew had contained his parent's wedding picture touched me. "Oh, Thomas, you shouldn't have."

  He shrugged. "I knew they'd understand and I hoped this gesture would signify how sorry I am. I really do regret doing that, Sherlyn. If you don't believe anything else I say, please believe that."

  "Why did you?"

  "Isn't it obvious?"

  "Not to me."

  He rose and walked over to stare out my living room window. "I'm sorry."

  "So you said and I believe you, but that doesn't explain why you felt the need to try to damage the picture of a the only man—"

  He swung around to stare at me." If you say the only man who ever loved you again, I'll..."

  "You'll what?"

  He quickly crossed the room and knelt in front of me again. "If you believe I'm sorry, why do you keep pushing? What do you want? You've known me long enough to know..."

  "To know what?"

  He took my hands in his and brushed his lips against my fingers. "To know that I have difficulty expressing my feelings."

  I leaned back, surprised by the odor of alcohol on his breath. "Have you been drinking?"

  He narrowed his gaze. "I'm almost forty-one, Sherlyn. That's old enough to not need permission to drink."

  "I know, but I've never smelt alcohol on your breath. I've never even seen you drink."

  "I generally don't drink but you've driven me to it." He laughed and rose. "Since the smell of it offends you, I'll take my drunken ass home to sleep it off." He turned and walked out of the room.

  Am had once told me that all five of her brothers had solemnly promised their father that they would guard against alcoholism and that most of them, including Darkwater, didn't drink at all. The others only indulged in an occasional celebratory toast.

  The thought of him drinking and driving scared me. I jumped up and ran after him. "Thomas! Wait! Please."

  He turned with his hand on the doorknob. "Yes?"

  "I can't let you drive drunk."

  "I'm far from drunk," he said.

  I wasn't convinced. "I'd feel better if you stayed."

  "And sleep where?" He glanced towards the living room. "I'm too tall to sleep comfortably on your sofa and I've grown too accustomed to comfort to consider sleeping on the floor."

  "You can sleep in my bed," I said.

  His gaze locked with mine. "And where are you planning to sleep?"

  I moistened my lips and lowered my gaze to his mouth. "My bed is big enough for both of us."

  He arched a brow.

  "Before you get the wrong idea, I'll expect you to keep your briefs on and your hands to yourself."

  "You say that as if you think I can't do that," he said in a cool voice.

  I wanted sex with him that night. Needless to say, I was counting on his inability to control himself. "Then there shouldn't be any problem," I said and left him at the door. With my heart pounding, I went into my bathroom where I undressed. After hesitating for several moments, I slipped on my favorite cotton nightie that fell just below my knees and had been made for comfort and warmth rather than tempting a lover.

  When I emerged from the bathroom, I found Darkwater lying on my bed. Although he wore his boxer briefs, I saw the clear outline of his cock. He was at least semi-erect. My pussy pulsed and my heart pounded. And oh, God, I wanted to feel his big body pinning me to the bed seconds before I felt his cock powering deep inside me.

  I crossed the room. After turning off the bedside lamp, I slipped into bed. Lying on my side with my back to him, I waited and prayed he would reached for me.

  He didn't and after five minutes or so, I closed my eyes on a stream of silent tears. He must know I wanted him. Hell, I'd admitted earlier in the night that I wanted sex. So why the hell didn't he instigate it? Did he want me to humiliate myself by begging for it? Well, I wasn't going to. I closed my eyes and struggled to fall asleep.

  Just as I started to drift off, I felt him shift in the bed. Seconds later, his warm lips brushed my ear and nape. A big hand cupped my breasts.

  With a rush of relief and need overwhelming me, I turned onto my back, and eagerly stroked my hand down his abs to his groin. I pushed my hand inside his briefs. Finding him fully erect, I parted my legs.

  He slipped between my thighs and pressed his full weight on me.

  I felt his cock pressing against my thigh. Oh, lord. Yes. Yes. Even though I would have probably been sexually satisfied sleeping with Shane, sex with Darkwater would always be the standard by which all other encounters were judged.

  Pinning me to the bed, he bent his head to brush his mouth against mine.

  I parted my lips and rubbed myself against his groin.

  He kissed me slowly, deeply, pressing his tongue in my mouth while grinding his hips against me until I felt on fire with the need to feel his fully erect shaft sliding inside me. I tore my lips away from his just as he shifted his body.

  I reached inside his briefs and eased his cock out. He pushed my nightshirt up above my breasts. Moments later, I gasped and shuddered with joy as he slowly pushed his hard length deep into my pussy—where it belonged and would always be welcome.

  There was no feeling in the world to rival the joy I felt having him inside my body. Once he was fully seated inside me, he lay still, taking slow deep breaths with his lips pressed against my neck. He trailed his mouth down to whisper something in my ear.

  I didn't hear it and really didn't care what he'd said. All I cared about was having my pussy full of his bare cock. I slid my hands around his body to clutch his ass. "Fuck me," I whispered.

  "No," he said, his voice brusque. "We can fuck later. First we make love."

  That's what we did. And it was the best sex of my life. Each slow, foray deep into my pussy, accompanied by his warm, insistent mouth and tongue raining sweet, moist caresses on my face, neck, and ears, sent chills of delight through me. The delicious motion of his strokes combined with the weight of his body pressing me against the mattress left me feeling completely surrounded and full of his cock. What an utterly wonderful
sensation of feeling almost as if I were drowning in him.

  I gloried in every thrust of his hips that drove his bare shaft as deep inside my pussy as possible. Trading hungry, greedy kisses with him, I rocked my hips in time with his and felt the sensual tension building between us.

  The pleasure I felt was almost incomprehensible. The sense of being a part of him and never wanting the sex to end, even as I rushed towards what I knew would be a powerful and overwhelming orgasm, robbed me of the ability to do anything but feel. Feel and glory in having him inside me again with nothing between my pussy and his utterly delectable thrusting sugar dick that gave mind-numbing pleasure.

  As the tension built, I tore my mouth away from his demanding kiss. Moaning, I draped my legs over the back of his thighs. I shuddered while wildly humping on his cock. Then I surrendered to the thrill of unmitigated bliss as my climax rushed over me with the power of a hurricane-like force of nature, shattering and splintering all the mental defenses I'd struggled to erect around my heart; leaving me happily drifting in a vast ocean of total bliss.

  Oh. Fuck yeah this was how intimacy was supposed to be.

  Although I longed to slump against the bed and wallow in the afterglow, I instead made an effort to hold him close and tighten my vaginal muscles around his cock until he groaned my name and then shot his cum in my pussy.

  Oh God! I closed my eyes and clutched him close, eager to keep every drop of his seed inside me.

  When he stopped coming, he relaxed his body on mine, burying his lips against my neck and muttering incoherently to me.

  We lay still joined for several wonderful minutes until he finally eased out of me.

  We belatedly disrobed and then he turned me onto my side, spooning his body against my.

  Oh. So nice. I leaned back against him and sighed with pleasure as he cupped one hand over my cum-filled pussy and the other over my breasts. I fell asleep savoring the feel of his semi-erect shaft against my ass thinking one day I'd like to feel it powering as deep in my ass as it had just done in my pussy.

  I woke several hours later to find myself sprawled on my stomach with a pillow under my hips. With his cock already in possession of my pussy, he groaned with pleasure every time he thrust in and out of me with a rough hunger that quickly filled me with lust and love.

  Reaching back to grip his hips, I moaned with delight because each time he drove his hard dick home, it forced my clit roughly against the pillow. It only took a few hard, almost ruthless thrusts to send a jolt of absolute lust roaring through my pussy and my body. Within two minutes of waking up to find him already fucking me raw, I was sobbing with bliss and coming hard all over his cock.

  Clutching his hands over my breasts, he pounded my pussy even harder. His climax came quickly. I held him tight as he pumped his seed into my pussy.

  Oh. Damn. What a man and what a wonderful fuck.

  When he pulled out of me, he kissed a trail down my back to my ass. After caressing and massaging my neither cheeks, he parted them and proceeded to lick and eat me to another blistering orgasm.

  Fuck. When I came, he rolled onto his back.

  Lying on top of him feeling his heartbeat return to normal, I waited for him to say something to me. Anything to show me what we'd shared had meant something special to him.

  His silence convinced me that he'd gotten what he wanted and didn't feel any need to pretend to feelings he'd probably never had for me. Yes the sex had been more than wonderful but physical intimacy wasn't enough. I wanted more and needed him to want more too.

  But he clearly didn't. I slipped off him to lie beside him on my back. "So you just wanted a fuck after all," I said, hoping he'd make me believe otherwise.

  He inhaled slowly and then swore. "If all I wanted was a fuck, I know plenty of women who'd happily give me as many as I wanted without my having to go through the shit I get from you!" He rolled away and sat up.

  Unwilling to risk his leaving angry, I reached out to catch his hand in the darkened room. For a moment, I felt him tense and half expected him to pull away and make me beg him not to leave.

  Instead, he lay back on the bed, close to, but not touching me.

  Suspecting I'd have to make the next move, I shimmied across the mattress until I could press my body against his side. After a long moment, he suddenly turned from his back to face me. When I moved closer, he slipped his arm around me and pressed a slow, warm kiss against my mouth.

  I kissed him back and pressed closer.

  Reaching a hand between our bodies, he stroked my pussy and continued to place soft, warm kisses against my lips.

  Savoring the delightful sensation of knowing my pussy was full of his cum, I closed my thighs on his hand. As sleep descended, I felt happy and thought of Don. "Don." He would be happy to know I might have my happy ever after ending with Darkwater after all. Considering Darkwater's tenderness, I decided Am was right. It was time to put Don's pictures away. We could talk in the morning and clear the air between us. Maybe then we could decide if we wanted to try again.

  * * *

  Darkwater

  When I was sure Sherlyn was asleep, I slipped out of bed, picked up my clothes, and went into the living room. As I dressed, I struggled with frustration, anger, and pain. Recalling how she had called out Don's name again just as she fell asleep, I reluctantly admitted that I couldn't compete with him. She would probably always love him. I could accept that fact and try to move on with my life. Or I could pursue a relationship with her while trying to come to terms with knowing I was and probably always would be second best with her.

  I had to admit I was tempted to settle on the latter solution until my pride kicked in. Why the hell should I settle for his leftovers? She wasn't the first woman to fall in love with me and I knew she wouldn't be the last. I'd just have to cultivate an attitude that made falling in love with someone else easier. That meant admitting failure with her and walking away this time without regrets or constantly looking back.

  After briefly returning to her bedroom, I quietly let myself out of her apartment and drove home to a house that felt as cold and lonely as the ache in my heart.

  * * *

  Sherlyn

  I woke the next morning feeling hopeful. Even though I knew before I opened my eyes that Darkwater wasn't in the bed, I inhaled slowly, expecting to smell coffee brewing along with whatever he'd whipped up for breakfast. Not that I was interested in eating. While I was hungry, it wasn't for food. Recalling the pure ecstasy I'd felt when he'd eaten me, I decided I wanted to return the favor by sucking him to orgasm. Smiling at the thought of our then showering together and finally hearing him sing I was his remedy again, I opened my eyes.

  As I had known, I was alone in the bed. However, instead of a covered tray on my nightstand, I saw Don's picture. My smile widened, pleased that he'd made the gesture of bringing it back into the bedroom and placing it on my nightstand. Hopefully, he would appreciate my gesture of removing it.

  Sitting up, I picked up the picture. After slowly tracing my finger along the contours of his face, I sighed. Then before I could change my mind, I removed the picture from the frame. I carefully placed the picture face down in my drawer. With that done, I was ready to try again with Darkwater. I rolled out of bed, spent fifteen minutes in the bathroom, and then walked to the kitchen where I expected to find Darkwater making breakfast. What I found was an empty apartment.

  It was only when I returned to my bedroom and sank onto the side of my bed that I saw the keys I'd given him. My heart felt broken into countless pieces as I stared at them because I knew his returning them was his way of telling me it was over between us. This time for good.

  Although hurt and angry, I forced myself to face reality. Who could I blame except myself? When would I learn that nothing good ever came of having unprotected sex with him? Each time he got what he wanted, he turned cold or in this case, he just left in the dark of night without a damned care for how I'd feel when I woke to find him gone an
d my keys on the nightstand.

  I wanted to sit and cry but I didn't have the time. I made a cup of instant coffee, dressed, and left for work. Although I wanted to talk I didn't want to hear Am going on about how badly I'd treated Darkwater. Talking to Janine at the moment was out of the question. And I didn't want to drag other friends into the equation.

  For once, fate decided to give me a break. I made my way to my office without seeing or encountering either Janine or Shane. The urge to have a good, gut-wrenching cry lingered well into the morning. When my cell phone rang just after eleven and I saw the call was from Shane, I didn't know rather to feel angry, annoyed, or just indifferent.

  I walked away from my workstation and answered on the fourth ring. "Hello?"

  "Hi, Sherlyn. I know you're probably angry about how things turned out with Janine last night, but I really need to talk to you and—."

  "Okay."

  "What? Did you say okay?"

  After waking to find Darkwater had just walked out without a word, I needed to see a man who made no secret of finding me attractive. Okay. I know I shouldn't have agreed to see him, but between the two of them, I felt as if Janine and Darkwater had worked me over. I nodded. "Yes."

  He blew out a breath. "Can you manage lunch? I'm free from now through two o'clock."

  "Yes, but not in the building," I said quickly. The thought of Janine looking down from her office and seeing us together sent a chill through me. Yeah. I know that if the thought worried me, I shouldn't have agreed to see him, but I needed a pick me up.

  "Name the place and I'll meet you there. I assume you'd rather we arrived separately."

  As if we were cheating. He on Janine and me on Darkwater. I shook my head, dismissing the thought. "Yes. How about the park two blocks from here at one?"

  "I can bring sandwiches," he offered.

  "Thanks. I'll see you then," I said and hung up before I changed my mind.