by Isabel Wroth
The urgency for more started to rise, the demand for more, more of his touch, more of his kisses, and he seemed to feel the same because she got what she needed. His hands dove under her shirt, the roughness of his calluses scraped along her skin when he pushed it up over her head to toss away, damn that felt good. It felt better when he tore his mouth from hers to nip at her jaw, soothing the tiny sting with a rasp of his tongue. He nipped and licked his way down her neck, chills racing down her spine and tightening the backs of her thighs, making her pussy flutter with impatience.
She laughed at the tormented sound he gave when he saw her boobs, but she wasn’t laughing for long. He buried his face in her cleavage and licked a hot trail up over the top of her breast, right above the scarlet lace that cupped her skin. He pressed them together, dipping his tongue under the edge of the bra cup to swipe over her nipple, made her hiss and wiggle closer when his teeth scraped over the lace. He flicked the catch between her shoulder blades and she smiled at how he rubbed his face over the soft curves like a cat, first one cheek, then the other, his five o’clock shadow scraping against her skin. She felt drunk on sensation, overloaded with heat and the passion in his touch, the desire that rolled like waves through her body.
He rolled with her when she swayed in his lap, took and pressed her down into the mattress. He murmured her name and she drug her lashes up to look at him. His eyes were doing that molten gold thing again, shining out of his gorgeous face, “Beautiful.” He rasped thickly, and she felt that right in her gut. “Yeah, you are.” She murmured back, and he laughed. “Whatever you say.” She brought her knees up to hug his hips, letting her fingertips skate up under the hem of his soft tee to touch his stomach. “I say this isn’t fair. You’ve got your sexy biker vest and your shirt on, and here I am mostly naked.” His smile turned dirty. Filthy, deliciously, dirty. He pushed up to kneel above her, shucked his cut and did that man thing where he caught at the back of his tee to pull it over his head and tossed it the same way as her shirt.
His body was a work of art, skin raised here and there from scars, and her hands ate up every inch. The months of physical therapy, on top of the body that had already been there, damn. “Not so beautiful as you,” He said in that deep, bone melting voice of his, when she touched a particularly jagged, pink scar under his left pectoral. “Just more of you to touch, these don’t make you any less beautiful to me.” He swore under his breath, planted his fists down on either side of her head and leaned down to take her mouth. “Sexiest bitch, I ever saw.” She nipped at his lip, “Don’t call me a bitch,”
“Didn’t. Said you were sexy, and babe?”
“Hmm?”
“Done talkin.”
The urgency came back, but he still didn’t rush. He licked and kissed his way down to her belly, made her jump and hiss at the nip he gave to her hip. It shot shivers up and down her spine, shot pleasure through her body, made her bite into her lip to keep from shouting out, but that nip became a bite, and she flinched away from it. “Ow!” He licked at the spot he’d bitten, “Don’t hold back from me, Athena. Every sound, I want it.” She tried to hide her shock with a nod, laughing because he grabbed the snap of her jeans with his mouth, used his tongue to push it through the loop, tugged the zipper down with his teeth and growled when he saw that yes in fact, she had been telling the truth about not wearing underwear.
He peeled her jeans down her legs and threw them away, and his patience seemed to snap to see her bare. He shoved her legs wide and buried his mouth between. Even as she seized and screamed in shock, she felt him smile. She snatched up handfuls of his hair and he snatched up two hands full of her ass, dragging her closer and licked her from bottom to top, suckling hard on her clit. Hard enough for her to feel the blood pulsing in the little nub. Hard enough that the rasp of his tongue shot sparks up through her core and set off fireworks in her belly. It felt so good that her toes curled, her back arched up, and her mouth opened on a silent scream while her hips helplessly pressed up into his lips. She did scream, wail really, when he added his fingers to the mix, pressed them up inside her and fucked her with them until she screamed for real.
He couldn’t make himself take his fingers out from inside her, couldn’t stop rubbing at the rippling, scorching hot flesh that sucked hard on his hand and killed him with the restraint it took to keep from ripping his pants open to drive his cock into that wet velvety vice. She made the sexiest little whimpers as she came down from her orgasm, and the taste of her was the stuff of dreams. Sweetest pussy he’d ever ate. His dick thought so too, and it hurt like an open wound, throbbing and angry, but he didn’t want to rush her, didn’t want to fuck this up.
Another quiver rippled down through her pussy, squeezing his fingers in a convulsive little shiver. He felt it in her belly, how it clenched under his cheek. She moaned softly, forced her fingers open to scrape gently over his scalp, felt so good that he kissed her warm skin, licked the salt from her flesh and found a pink scar just below her navel. “What’s this?” She hummed, “Accident. Raid?” He licked the soft line, wondering how long ago it had happened.
“Hmm?”
“Are you going to keep being such a gentleman, or at some point am I going to get laid?”
The blood surged south at her sleepy purr, and if he’d thought his dick hurt before, it was nothing compared to what it felt like now. He might have misunderstood, he was a little distracted by how her hips had curled to press tighter into his hand. “What?” Her fingers raked through his hair, “You just gave me like, the orgasm of a lifetime, and I kind of want another one. Unless you’re too tired, in which case I could be on top.” He barked out a laugh and kissed his way up her body until he was standing to look down at her, looking down where his hand was still pressed tight inside her, at the way the wet, pink flesh was stretched around his fingers and how slick her thighs were with her pleasure. “I haven’t been with a woman since before I shipped out.”
Her eyes were a sultry, beautiful purple. Her lips curled in a sirens smile, soft and seductive, laying totally naked and spread out for his pleasure. She pulled her bottom lip through her teeth and wrapped her long, gorgeous legs around his thighs, “It’s been a hot minute for me too, but I hear it’s like riding a bike.” He curled and rubbed his fingers harder inside her, just to watch her come undone, again. He realized then, watching her thrash back and forth on the white sheets, that her hair wasn’t just red. He saw garnet and crimson, brilliant orange and gold, fiery red, tangling around her face in a wild mess as she cried out his name to the ceiling. “If this…is you…rusty, I’m going to die.”
“Muscle memory, fuck, you’re so beautiful.”
“Raid, please.”
“Sweetest, greediest pussy I ever had.”
“Raid!”
“I want you bare, Athena. I’m clean, please tell me you’re on the pill.”
Some of the fire faded from her eyes, a sadness that made his gut clench and his heart twist, because he knew whatever she was going to say would be painful for both of them. “I don’t need it.” He tilted his head and took his fingers from inside her, stroking her thighs soothingly, up her hips to brush his thumbs over her belly, watching her trace her fingertips over that scar below her navel. “I can’t get pregnant.” She said it like she was ashamed or something, like it was her fault. He crawled over her and let his weight press her down into the bed, bracing himself up on his elbows so he could look deep into those gorgeous, amethyst colored eyes. “The accident you had?” She nodded, blinking to look sideways, “Car accident when I was twelve. Doctors had to do a partial hysterectomy to stop the bleeding. So, no kids.” She wanted them though, he could hear it in the soft murmur of her voice, see it in the way she tried to hide her eyes from him. He’d never been one to really think much about a future, a family outside his brothers, but he was now. Well, he would later, right now he needed her to stop looking like she’d just failed life somehow. “Hey, just means I have you all to myself. And I
am kinda tired, not too tired, but if you still want on top, I’m not gonna argue.”
That made her laugh, and she was still laughing when she kissed him. Still laughing when she rolled him over and used her arm to throw all her hair over her shoulder, sitting astride him. She took his breath away with how beautiful she was up there. All her fair, beautiful skin with not a single freckle on it, no tattoos, no marks except for that scar below her navel. Stunning. She was stunning, and she was all his.
Her breasts were the perfect handful, tipped with berry red nipples, the same color as her pussy when she came, and all that hair, tangled from her thrashing, fuckin magnificent. “My oral skills aren’t as impressive as yours, I don’t think I’m going to be able to do that trick with your fly.” He grinned up at her and jerked his chin her way, “I’ll let it slide this time. Hurry up,”
She shook her head and bent down to kiss him, holding his jaw in her hand to tilt his head back the way she wanted it. Fuck. Sexy. “What if I don’t want to hurry?” He kneaded his hands into her gorgeous ass and rocked her over his cock, letting the denim rasp against her flesh and make her gasp at the abrasiveness. “You do. You really, really do.” She nodded, “You’re right. I do.” She tore his jeans off in record time and before she could get her hands on him, he flipped her back over and caught her thigh over his elbow. He watched her face twist with the same ecstasy that raked claws through his belly, when her pussy caught the head of his cock and swallowed it whole. He pushed hard through to the end of her, burning alive inside the tight grip she had on him, licking the sound of her pleasure from her swollen lips. “Last time I’ll be a gentleman,” He warned, and she gasped softly, arching into him, spreading her knees wider to tilt her hips back at a sweeter angle, “Thank god, please, Raid, enough talking!”
“Shit yeah.”
FOURTEEN
Her eyes opened and the first thing she saw was Cruncher’s eyeballs, peering at her from the edge of the bed. She blinked and heard his tail start whacking back and forth, heard him chuff at her and when she blinked again, he thought that was invitation enough to leap up on the bed and throw himself down on her. His weight made her moan as her body protested the movement. For a guy who’d not been with a woman since before his deployment, a guy who’d recently been paralyzed, Raid had the stamina and the freaking staying power of a god damn thoroughbred. She couldn’t remember how many times she’d rolled from one orgasm to the next, couldn’t recall just how many positions he’d flipped her into, but the delicious soreness pervading her body was evidence enough.
Ripley was not wrong, the having was good.
“Dog, get off!” She groaned, but Cruncher just wiggled up between her arms and put his head on her shoulder, whining softly, licking his chops hungrily. “What?” his whole body wiggled, “You need to pee?”
His tail whackwhackwhacked the bedding around her legs. She glanced at the clock and saw that it was just after eight. “Oh, you want food.” He nearly split her eardrums with his excited bark. She shoved at him and watched him nearly do a back flip off the bed to race into the kitchen. Then race back to her to hop and bark until she got her sore, worn out ass up out of bed to go feed her dog. Ugh. She felt like she’d just spent the night riding a baseball bat, she felt raw and bowlegged, and so….amazing. It’d be more amazing if she knew where he was now, but that was okay, time for her to get her shit together before he came back.
Thankfully someone had been kind enough to stock the fridge, and with everything that had been in her fridge back home. Everything. “You’re in luck, babydoll. Someone put kale in the fridge.” She wiggled the bag of the fresh greens at Cruncher, and he went bonkers, more bonkers than normal, especially when she started cooking up eggs. “Crunchie loves his eggs, doesn’t he? Who’s a good chicken pittie?” She laughed when he threw himself down on the floor and doggie crawled to her feet to lick at her toes. “Yeah, you are.”
She scrambled an egg for him and cut up a handful of kale to add to it, dumped it in his dog bowl and mixed in his kibbles and made him sit up pretty before she put it on the floor for him. “Feed, beast!” She ordered in amusement, and he leapt on it like she’d not fed him for weeks. “I fed him already,” She jumped at the sound of Raid’s voice and turned around to see him leaning in the doorway, a towel around his neck, dripping sweat and smiling at her. “You did?” He nodded, stalking across the kitchen to bend and touch a kiss to her mouth. “I thought you’d still be sleeping,” She blushed at his husky murmur, licking the taste of salt from his mouth. “I would be, except my poor, neglected, unloved dog was starving and needed second breakfast.”
He chuckled when she turned around to glare down at her dog, who was looking up at her while he licked up the last few egg crumbs from the dish. “Thought you didn’t feed him people food.” She snatched the bowl from Cruncher when he was done and gave him a disappointed look, “Eggs are good protein. Crunchie, you disappoint your mother.” Goofy dog just gave a pittie smile and wagged his tail because she’d said his name. “You hungry?” She asked Raid, and saw him looking up from the region of her ass where it was peeking out from under his shirt that she’d pulled on once she’d gotten out of his bed. “Huh? Oh, yeah. Food, yes.” She wanted to laugh at him, but she managed not to somehow, “Go shower. It’ll be ready by the time you come out.”
He nodded, rubbing at his chest with the heel of his hand, and she made herself turn around and get more eggs out from the fridge. She chopped up more kale, ignoring Cruncher when he tried to sweet talk her by licking her toes. “Not happening. I’m not going to give you any more food. You made me a sucker this morning, traitor,” He pouted, but as soon as she opened the back door, he shot out into the yard to chase the shadows on the ground from the birds that dove overhead. “He seems to like it here,” She pushed potatoes around in the pan while she stared at her goofy damn dog playing in the big back yard. “Yeah,” Raid slipped his arms around her waist and touched a kiss to her throat, rubbing his lips over her pulse. “Do you?” She turned her head to look back at him and smiled, “In the day I’ve been here, yeah. I do, why?”
She finished dishing up their breakfast and he set it aside, turning her around to slide his hands down and under to cup her butt, looking very serious. “Did you see it?” He asked, swallowing loudly when her fingers scraped through his hair. “See what?”
“Did you see what you gave back to me?”
“What I gave?”
“You brought me home, baby. You gave me my family back.”
“Raid, I didn’t do-“
“Yes, yes you did.”
He shifted to bend over her, his hands on either side of her face, his thumbs stroking her cheeks so he could hold her in place, no room to look away. “You wrote a letter, because a woman in your shop, touched something in your heart. You didn’t know who it would go to, or what it would mean, or how the person who read it would respond. The nurse who gave it to me, I was a complete and total asshole to her. She gave it to me, because she knew I was alone. That I didn’t have anyone and I’d lost the will to do anything but die.”
She hated that, she hated that he said that, it made her chest hurt and tears spring to her eyes. But he stepped closer, surrounding her with his body, holding her still so he could look at her. “And then I had you, I had your words, I had your laughter, I had those silver wax owls to stare at and hold. I wanted to meet you, I wanted you to see who I was before I lost that will to live. You brought me back, Athena. You gave me will, a goal, you needed me. Or maybe I just needed you to need me. So I did that surgery, and it hurt like fuck. Every day after, every day of PT, I’d have a moment where that desire to give up and die would bubble up like fuckin poison. I’d drag my ass back to my room, and it smelled like rosewood and geraniums. Like Tahoe. The poison went away, the pain became bearable, so long as at the end of all that, I got this. You weren’t a sure thing, but I hoped to god we would be something to one another. I hoped to god, I could show you what I show
ed you last night, my family, not the sex, though that was beyond words, and maybe, just maybe get to keep you. Be with you. Be needed by you, because I sure as fuck need you.” Her throat burned with emotion, her eyes already full to bursting, spilled a couple of tears down her cheeks. “What if I’d been a total troglodyte?”
He threw his head back and laughed, his eyes dancing with his amusement. He kissed her tears away, nuzzled at her cheek, “You’d still be a goddess to me. If you had a hairy chest, we might have had to negotiate some laser hair removal, but I’d deal. Because I already love you a little bit.”
“Raid, you can’t say stuff like that. You might gain a stalker or something.”
“I’ll say what the fuck I mean, when I mean it. I know a ginger or two with mad marksmanship skills. I’d go anywhere to be with you, but-” He let that but hang out there, and she gave a roll of her watery eyes. “I was already moving before you came back. You want me to move here,”
“I want, you to be happy. With me. If you like this house, we can stay here. If you want something else, we can look, there’s spots all over. Or, and it will chap my ass, but I am a big boy and I can deal, if you want your own place, we can look for that too.”
She relaxed into his arms and rolled up on her toes to touch a kiss to his jaw, rubbing her fingers into his shoulders and enjoyed the sensation of being with him. But she felt…rushed. Not afraid, but wary. “Raid, I do like it here. I have something with you I didn’t think I’d want or have, but I need more time. I planned to be away for a week, to be with you for this week. Can we start with that?” She worried that he would be mad, but she shouldn’t have. He was Raid, her Raid. He smiled like she’d promised him the moon, and bent to touch a tender kiss to her lips. “It’s a good start.”
