by Cee Smith
“Yes, Dominic. Please.” I gave into my need, letting my body take over.
His hand pushed against the center of my chest until my body rocked back and my shoulders met the wall behind me. I teetered on the edge of the bench as his hand pulled behind my knee, dragging me forward. He spread my knees wide and eagerly dived in with a need that matched my own.
The sensations were too strong. The feeling in my clit radiated to my limbs, and I hovered close to the edge with what felt like a full-body orgasm.
“I had forgotten how good you taste.”
“Please don’t stop,” I said, pumping myself onto his thrusting tongue while his thumb rubbed circles against my tightened bundle of nerves. He parted my lips and beat my clit with a frantic tongue that had me panting for breath.
“That’s it, baby. Let go. I’ve got you.” His words were spoken into my cunt as if he was willing the petals of a flower to open, but that was all I needed. I came, screaming with his name on my lips, and he licked at my sopping pussy until the last tremor pulsed through me.
We exited the shower, making our way to the bedroom where he dried us both off, brushing the towel carefully across my skin as if I were a piece of paper that would tear. Was this what it would feel like to be taken care of by him? To be adored by him? I knew he lusted after me, that much was evident, but did I ever feel adored? He had always taken care of me, just in his own way. It was true; every time I was sick, he waited on me, staying close by in case I needed anything.
I let him carry me into the bedroom without protest. He set me on top of the quilt, and I spread my legs just enough to welcome his body into mine. He didn’t immediately take me, as I thought he would. Instead, he stood at the edge of the bed. His tall frame haloed by the bathroom light, darkness cloaking the features of his body.
The flurry of wind beat against the window whistling the dying sounds of winter, and all I could do was stare at the shadow that watched me. Could he see me? Could he make out the look of need in my eyes—the way I was desperate for his touch?
Just before I gave up and reached out to him, he walked closer to the bed, dragging his fingertips from my knees up to my hip bones—like skimming still water, waiting for my body to reverberate echoes of his touch.
He slid between my legs in one smooth motion, the bed barely showing any sign of his weight.
“Say it again,” he whispered as if the walls could hear, “Tell me you want me. Tell me—” He didn’t finish his thought, and like every other time he cut himself off, I was left wondering what he was thinking. What was it he was feeling? That had always been the difference between us. I felt like I wore my heart on my sleeve, but he kept his guarded. I knew he felt something. It was there in the way he looked at me, but I needed to hear it. I would make him say it if it was the last thing I did. Until then, I just wanted to feel what he couldn’t say with words.
“Make love to me, Dominic. I’m yours.” I didn’t know what made me say it, but it was what he wanted, no, needed to hear. I felt it in the way he touched my cheek. He looked in my eyes, “Oh, my little eyes; I am yours.”
The tip of him nudged my opening, but his kiss unraveled me until the only thing I could think of were his lips as he sank deeper into me. My walls stretched, trying to accommodate his size. He rocked his hips, and his tongue circled through my mouth creating a whirlwind of sparks that flurried through my body like the snow outside the window.
“You’re so warm. You feel so good, Hailey. God.” He pushed deeper, and my hips rolled with his, seeking more. His hands drifted down my neck, across my breasts until they came to rest on my stomach. He stopped pushing, and when I looked up from his hands, his eyes were glimmering orbs of need.
I propped myself up on my elbows and kissed him. His mouth parted slightly, but he still held a look of uncertainty.
“I want you. I want you,” my words dripped like molasses as I lay back onto the bed waiting to see what he would do next. My body wasn’t enough. It was never enough. He eased back down on top of me, and I wrapped one arm around his back while the other gripped his hip, pulling him closer to me. He took the lead again, sinking in and pulling out, and I ground my feet into the mattress as I rocked in time with his thrusting hips
We made love like that for what felt like hours, both of us seeking release. Each orgasm felt like a purging of our souls—both of us giving and taking until our bodies were spent and all we had left was being wrapped in each other’s arms. He pulled me closer until our bodies were flush and I could feel the drumming of his heart through his chest.
“You were right about everything, you know.” The words were mumbled into my neck like a confession.
“I know.”
“And I know I need to fix this, but not today, OK?”
“OK.” I leaned in to kiss his chest and his hand curled up to pull back the hair that had fallen across his chest like a waterfall of white water.
I didn’t know what happened. We were just having lunch, and she was being obstinate as usual, and it was like a dam broke in me, and every horrible thing I’d ever said or done came flooding out. It was too much to keep contained. I thought of my conversations with Scout and Clema.
They seemed to have blind faith in me—that I was somehow a good man despite everything I’d done, everything that I had put Hailey through. Could Hailey feel the same way they do? That I still had good in me? She had asked me back at the house why I couldn’t be normal, and honestly, I didn’t know the answer to that. I couldn’t remember the last time my life had been anything close to normal. In some weird way, what I had with Hailey was the closest thing that resembled it.
I was one of the richest men I knew, had anything I could ever want, except two things—a functioning liver and Hailey. There was nothing I could do but hope and wait for a liver to come through, but this mess with Hailey? I could fix that.
Hailey’s eyes glazed over like frozen shards of glass as she sloshed her soup around. Her words seemed as if she’d given up, but I knew better. If she had truly given up, she would have felt like she had nothing to lose by lashing out at me. She was still pushing me, still prodding to see how far I would let her go, and I was sick of it all. I was a coward, and if letting her hit me was the quickest way to ease the tension between us, then I was willing to do it. And she didn’t disappoint. The first slap was expected, but the second—that was the fire that I had come to expect from her.
Her hand on my throat was like a stroke to my cock. I grew rock hard, my cock throbbing as my blood pulsed through my body. I felt words pour from my throat, stripping my insides like acid on their way out. Thankfully, she stopped my rambling. Make love to me. She could have been purring for all I heard.
Once she was asleep, I began to feel sick. My stomach cramped, and despite the chill in the air, I felt a cold sweat break out across my forehead, dampening my roots. I ran my hands through my hair before letting my hand fall back to Hailey’s back.
This was what it meant to apologize—to give her the option to leave me, but the thought sickened me. Hailey had become so much a part of my life that I couldn’t imagine going back to the single bachelor that only had work to look forward to. Not factoring in the fact that she could report me and I could spend the rest of my life either on the run or in prison, I didn’t want to spend my life knowing that my child was in the world and I had no part of his or her life. I couldn’t exactly keep her and our baby imprisoned.
The next morning, I felt Hailey stir. Her feet stretched, tangled between my legs, and I rubbed the bottom of her tresses between my fingers like her hair was the finest silk my skin had ever touched.
“You’re up early,” I said just as her eyelashes began to break, showing clear blue eyes that looked at me with something other than hate.
“Mmmm.”
“Are you hungry?”
“Mmmm.”
“Is that a yes?”
“Mmmm.”
I chuckled, shifting her back on her
own pillow so I could get up and check on breakfast.
Pulling on my drawstring pants, I got breakfast, returning with two plates I placed in the center of the bed. Hailey was up within minutes of me entering the room—the sheets wrapped around her, baring only her shoulders as she sat up to eat.
“Clema said you haven’t been eating much meat lately,” I said as she took her first forkful of the hash browns on her plate.
“Nuh-unh, the smell.”
“You need to get your protein. I can have her pick up some vitamins for you, but you still need to make sure you’re eating right.”
“Well it’s pointless to eat it, if it’s just going to come back up again.”
“Will you at least try? For me?”
She stopped chewing, and I knew what she was thinking. I just didn’t know what to tell her yet, but that didn’t stop me from meeting her head on. Her eyebrows lifted, and I knew she wanted to ask about what I said last night, but I wasn’t ready to figure out how I was going to fix all of this.
“I’ll try,” was all she said as she continued chewing.
We continued breakfast with simple conversation that felt like two people filling each other in on things missed. I told her how much I had enjoyed reading her final paper, and she told me that the day before the ball, she had beaten her own record for holding her breath underwater. When breakfast was over, our conversation fell quiet, and I knew it was time to say something. We were moving into unchartered territory, and it would take more than a night’s sleep to think it over, but what she needed was hope that all of this would work out.
“I know I told you I’d think of a way to fix this, and I want you to know I’m trying. It’s not that easy.”
“I’m sure we can come up with something.”
“We?”
“Yes, Dominic. We both know what it’s like to not have our parents in our lives. I would never want that for my own children.”
“What are you saying?”
“I know this was all unexpected, as least for me it was, and we have a lot going against us, but for now, I just want to at least try to tunnel our way into the light. Can we do that?”
“I hope so. Can you give me a week, Hailey? A week of no chains, no captor and captive, just me and you. As if we’d met like two regular people who’d hit it off.”
“I don’t think we ever would have been two regular people. Not together. But, yes, I can give you a week. What’s the alternative?”
“There isn’t any. Now that that’s settled, what would you like to do with your extended freedom?”
She looked up and to the side with her finger against her mouth, placating like she was thinking long and hard of what she wanted to do. When a mischievous smile spread across her lips, she dropped her hands and said, “a massage.”
“You want me to get a massage therapist to come out here?”
“No. I want you to do it.”
“Well,” I said clapping my hands before rubbing them quickly together.
“Let me see what I can do. Turn that pretty ass over, so I can get started.”
***
We had two full days of lounging around with no disruptions or thoughts of what was to come. That was the hardest part—to think of what would happen to us when we reentered the world beyond those walls. After two days of pampering and waiting on her hand and foot, Hailey was more relaxed than I’d ever seen her, so when she finally brought up the dreaded conversation of, “What’s next?” I was ready for it.
“I’ve been thinking,” she started while we lay sprawled out on the couch, watching a sappy ‘80s movie about some girl’s prom. I didn’t much care for the movie; I was more interested in what she had to say.
“Well, let me start over—” she stopped as she sat up and crawled across the couch. She adjusted herself until she was curled up next to my body with her head leaning into my shoulder. I wrapped my arm across the top of her shoulder, finding comfort in the way she fit her body into mine.
“Do you want me? I mean, us? That’s what you want, right?”
“Was taking you not enough? Do I need to prove I want you some other way?”
“Please, I barely survived being taken. I can’t imagine how else you could prove you want me. I mean, now that you can’t use me,” Hailey said, rubbing her stomach absently. I stilled her roaming palm with my hand, “It was never solely about my liver. I knew I wanted you from the moment I first saw you.”
“When was that? You’ve never told me the details…just that it was a while ago.”
“Do you really want to know? Once I tell you it will alter your memory of a time when you thought your life was safe and carefree. A time before us.”
“Yes. It may alter the memory, but it will be the truth. A truth I didn’t know at the time. Hey, maybe it will keep me from getting kidnapped again.” I could tell she regretted the joke as soon as it left her lips, and I couldn’t contain the flames that licked at my muscles at the thought of someone stealing her from me. She is mine.
“As long as I’m alive, you will never have to worry about being taken. I would never let anything happen to you or our child.”
Her hand came to rest on my chest, conveying the sincerity of her words with just the simple touch, “I know.” I looked down in her eyes, and she tilted her head to reach my lips. Her lips were soft and tasted like the cherry pie that she had convinced Clema to make earlier. I explored the recesses of her mouth with my tongue and pulled my hand through her hair as I nudged her to accept me deeper into her mouth. She complied with a moan that shook my tongue as I licked at her, savoring the sweet and tangy taste on her lips.
“If we don’t stop, I’ll never get around to telling you when I first saw you. Would you rather continue, or do you want to hear the story?”
“Story time.”
“You were already in Puerto Vallarta when I got there. Your sister and Adam had joined you on a kayaking expedition. I watched you from my boat—the way you paddled so hard, but you moved like you were part of the water. I watched as your shoulders rolled and chest arched with each push of the oars, and it was like I could feel your body moving above mine with each row. I could tell you were the one who planned the trip. You were so vibrant and full of life, and I wanted to soak you up like a sponge.”
“How long were you out there?” I knew she would have questions, but I inwardly groaned that she chose the one thing that would make me feel like the stalker I was.
“The entire time. I never left. I watched as you cruised around the reef using your oar to knock Adam out of his kayak. I watched when you came back to the beach and lounged around until your skin turned a beautiful shade of brown, until the beach was deserted and the sun had set. I couldn’t take my eyes off you, Hailey.”
“Did you—you think of talking to me? Approaching me?”
“I came close, but then I couldn’t work out all of the details. It wasn’t meant to happen that way.”
“And every time you watched me after that?”
“You have to understand. I didn’t really know you. Not like I do now. What was I supposed to say, ‘Hi, I’ve obtained your medical records illegally and I need a piece of your liver. And by the way, I’m obsessed with you’?”
“Is that what you’d call it? An obsession?”
“Not exactly, but I know that’s what you’d call it. Isn’t it?”
I could tell my question threw her off kilter, and she didn’t know whether it was safe to respond honestly or if she should lie. Although, she knew that I could tell when she was lying.
“It’s not a trick question, Hailey. You can answer honestly.”
“If you didn’t do it for love and you didn’t know me enough to care about me, then I would think most people would call that an obsession. That’s the past, though, and I think I have an idea,” she said scooting up higher into my arms so our faces were parallel. Her eyes grew bright as she released all of her contained excitement. I couldn’t tell whether
her excitement came from the actual idea or that we were back to openly communicating.
“What if I told Jessa that I was kidnapped and was now being held by my rescuer until I’m safe—just to hold us over until we could return together.”
Her face had returned to the movie as if she didn’t want to read my face as I responded.
“Together? Are you so sure you want me in your real life? I’m still me. I’m still the man that took you. Who’s to say that once we leave here, I won’t still keep you under lock and key?”
“You’ve been doing fine for these past couple days. I don’t see why you couldn’t do that out there,” she said, tilting her head in the direction of the door. She was always so aware of where she was in reference to the door. I did that.
“And you’d do that? Lie to your sister?”
“It’s the partial truth. You’re both my abductor and rescuer, aren’t you? Would you at least think about it? I want to be able to have this baby, my sister, and you. I think…I think I deserve that.”
The cream curtain of her hair parted as my fingers ran from her roots down until my fingers met the middle of her back. She rocked her head back into my shifting hands, and I wanted to kiss down the exposed neck that taunted me with glimpses of her silky smooth skin and thumping pulse.
“You do, beautiful girl. You do. Tell me the details of this plan of yours.”
She scooted back so her folded knees brushed against my thighs and sat taller as if she wanted to be seen as more than an object to pet and fondle. I adjusted my position until I was sitting with my left foot tucked under my right knee and my upper body was turned facing Hailey.
She went into detail of this phone call to her sister that was supposed to create a segue for us to reemerge together, buying me a few days to clear up the already resolved conflict with Sampson before we were able to join her family in California.
The plan was sound. It was the after that left me feeling nauseous. A sour pit in my stomach formed at the variables that would come into play the moment that she was no longer confined to the safety of my home.
