Muscle

by Lexi Whitlow

  Chapter 10

  Gates

  “It’s just this simple,” I whisper to Winter, weaving my fingers into her mane of thick, curling hair. I pull back gently, exposing her neck, pressing my lips to the pale, silken flesh of her throat and I continue to explore with nips and kisses over her skin.

  Winter moans softly under my touch.

  “Tell me what you like,” I say, slipping a hand around the small of her back, drawing her closer.

  “I like the way you kiss,” she whispers against my ear.

  That’s a good start.

  I kiss her again, feeling her body respond positively, I move on, nipping her eyelids and earlobes, trailing over her shoulder. She lets out little sighs and small gasps as I move on, using my tongue to trail her curves, nuzzling into her nape. Her fingers press into my skin.

  She likes this.

  I lift my hand to her belly and travel further up, tracing my fingers along her chest over the cloth of her blouse. I brush over the peaking nipple of her breast while I kiss her, nicking my teeth along her lips.

  I want to go lower, a lot lower. I want to own her, body and soul. Just like the first time, all over again.

  I grasp her hips and turn her, laying her down on the couch.

  Hovering over her, I gently lift her blouse, using my tongue and then lips to graze the milky pale flesh at her soft belly. Her back arches and she moans, her body rising to meet me. A hard-on is firm between my legs as my explore the rounded contours of her body from shoulders to hip and everything in between.

  “I’m going to take my time showing you just how simple this is,” I growl against her skin.

  Using my tongue and lips, I show her this is all about her. Her body responds, relaxing in my care as she soaks up my attentions and enjoys the pleasure I give.

  I gently nudge her shirt up higher, giving her time to oppose me if she chooses to, but she doesn’t. Her small, plump breasts are firm under the massage of my fingers, and she cries out when I use my tongue and teeth to tease her nipples to hard peaks. Her reactions make my confidence build—along with the swelling, slightly painful stiffness between my legs.

  I work my way lower, finding the button of her jeans. I open it with one hand, exposing more of her body and the creamy soft skin of her lower belly. Her zipper down, thin, white panties reveal themselves to me. I slip my fingers under the waistband at the front, reaching down.

  “Mmm… Oh, Gates,” she whispers. Her hands come to my shoulders and her nails dig in as mine find her slit, then press in deeper. I can feel her heat and slick, wet pleasure. Her hips rock up, meeting my hand.

  “Take them off,” I say, keeping my hand where it is.

  Winter looks up at me, her eyes hooded with heat and vague with question.

  “Take your jeans off,” I instruct.

  She hooks her fingers at the belt loops and roughly tugs, nudging them down to her thighs. She pulls her knees up, revealing the turn of a hip bone I can’t resist. I kiss the spot, tasting the heat rising from her as she kicks the jeans to the floor.

  I press my fingers in deeper, spreading her lips while my thumb circles her clit—teasing before I press it firmly.

  “Oh…” Her mouth goes slack and her back arches with every graze and crook of finger over her sex.

  I go lower with my lips and mouth. I worship the pale, freckled flesh at the tops of her legs and her belly. Purposefully, gently, I push her knees apart to explore that most sensitive flesh inside her thighs. I catch the scent of her; ocean and sweet cream. I have to taste her—and I do.

  I tease her with my tongue starting at the inside her thighs going down to her knees. Here, I pause; before I go any further, I need to see her. I need to see that she’s okay with this.

  She meets my eyes with hers, wide and hungry. Then she reaches down, touching my hand with her fingertips. She nods. “Yeah.”

  I move back in.

  Hooking my fingers around the band of her panties, I roll them down all the way, exposing the neat trim of pale red hair and the rise of her sex. Winter stiffens beneath me, her breath seizing in her lungs.

  I tug her panties off, past her knees and throw them over my shoulder. I remember now the first time I tasted her. The stakes weren’t as high. Nothing was the same, and I was leaving for the tour that would change my life. But I never forgot those moments, and I find myself wanting to relive them again and again.

  I lay my palms firmly inside her thighs, spreading her legs gently. My kisses move from creamy flesh, deeper toward the pink fold of lips and clit I want to taste.

  My tongue grazes her outer lips tentatively. Winter moans, her fingers gripping the shirt on my back, gathering fabric in her fists. I spread her open with mouth and tongue; her wetness flows, flooding my senses, making my head spin.

  She’s dripping wet.

  Her clit swells on my tongue as I bury may face inside her, lifting her hips up, pulling her into me. She tastes like pure ecstasy, salt and sex. My cock aches, imprisoned behind binding cloth. I suck and lap her, listening to her little moans of building pleasure, using my tongue to bring her forward.

  “Oh god… Oh… Oh…” Winter whines, her hips rocking gently against me.

  I slip a finger in, tracing her lips. I press a second in past tight muscles, pumping her while sucking her clit.

  “Oh… fuck… Oh, Gates...”

  Her fingers wind into my hair, pulling me tighter against her sex, her hips gently rocking in rhythm with my thrusts. I slip another finger inside of her, stretching her further, bringing delicious whimpers of pleasure from her beautiful mouth. Pressing a little harder, my knuckles add the pressure necessary to bring her to full release.

  Winter’s breath halts and catches. I feel a tremor grip my fingers, then shudder. She bucks into me, finding a steady pace that I meet with lips, tongue, and fingers.

  “Oh… oh god...”

  Her muscles grip my fingers in a tight, pulsing pleasure. I feel her orgasm break in waves against me, and rattle through her body in an all-encompassing sensation as she shudders with the force of it.

  “Oh… my… god…”

  She’s breathing hard, letting the last bit of ecstasy wash over her body in sheets of pure pleasure.

  When she stops moving underneath me, when her fingers relax in my hair, I end with a last, gentle lap around her folds and lips, sucking her softening clit to draw one last reflexive shudder.

  I catch my breath, and then I lift and crawl up over her.

  More than anything, I want to drop my pants and slide my cock deep inside her, but I’m not going to do that this time; not now anyway. Instead I kiss her breasts, lick her nipples. Moving up, I find her lips and part them with my tongue, letting the salty taste of her sex pass from my mouth to hers and back.

  Winter breathes in deep, and with her fingers pressed against my chest, she gently pushes me back. Our eyes meet; hers are glassy. Her face is flushed.

  “That was fun,” I whisper, nipping her lip again.

  “You’re good at that.”

  “I was the first time, too. Or did you forget?”

  “I didn’t forget.”

  She shakes her head, then reaches forward to touch my face. Her expression is so intense, so focused. It’s almost confused, like she’s trying to remember something that was there, then gone.

  A tear forms in the corner of her eye, then another. I kiss them away, slipping in beside her, pulling her into my chest, wrapping her up in me.

  This is new to her.

  She’s had sex, but never gotten the connection. It is a little scary. It shows you your own vulnerability. Winter’s never let anyone close enough to feel that. I guess I broke down those defenses without really intending to, and it frightened her.

  I hug her tight against my chest. “You tasted fucking good.”

  She laughs against me, shaking a little. “It was different this time. You took me by surprise when we were first together. This was… different.”<
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  “Yeah,” I say.

  We lay together in the dark, with the lights of the city spread out beyond a wall of windows, illuminating the room, casting odd shadows.

  Winter drifts into a shallow sleep, wrapped up in my arms. I lay with her in the quiet, keeping the moment tender. I breathe in her scent, stroke her hair. We lay that way for a while, until she stirs with a deep breath and a roll of her shoulders. When she pulls back, she seems a little surprised at finding herself naked and in my embrace.

  “Hi,” I whisper, smiling down on her.

  She smiles back, blinking. “Hi.”

  “We should go to bed,” I say. “And sleep. You’re tired.”

  She blinks again. “I should go home,” she says. “My dad’ll freak.”

  “Call him,” I say. “Tell him you’re at your friend, Margot’s. Call Margot first. Get her to cover for you if he goes snooping around.”

  She’s not hard to convince. I grab another bottle of wine from the kitchen while she’s on the phone. When I return, she’s managed to get some of her clothes back on and is sitting on the floor in front of the couch. She speaks with her father in clipped tones, telling me to be quiet with fingers to her lips.

  “We’re staying with friends of hers in Bel Aire,” she lies without skipping a beat. “Girls she went to college with… I don’t know… Maybe the weekend… Okay… I’ll call you if anything comes up. I’m fine though. We’re all fine.”

  When she hangs up, she smiles up at me from her cross-legged perch on the floor.

  “He bought it,” she says, a happy smile turning her pink, slightly bruised lips. “And he’s flying to Pebble Beach in the morning to spend the whole weekend playing golf.”

  I can’t believe my good fortune.

  “Outstanding,” I say, opening the fresh bottle of wine, pouring Winter another glass. “Because that means you and I are spending the weekend together.”

  She looks surprised.

  “Oh, I’ve got plans for you,” I say, grinning. “We’re making up for lost time. I think we need to paint the town.”

  Winter shakes her head. “We’re in stealth mode, remember? We can’t be seen outside these four walls.”

  I have a better idea.

  “How about a road trip?” I suggest. “Go somewhere nobody knows you. I’m not famous. Nobody knows who I am. And you’re only LA famous because of your father. Let’s just go somewhere.”

  “Where?” Winter asks.

  “Laguna. I’ve always wanted to go to Laguna.”

  She narrows her eyes at me. “Laguna is a tourist dive.”

  “Exactly,” I say. “No one will know you there. Not your people.”

  She grins, nodding. “Point taken. I bet we can get an AirBnB on short notice.”

  “I bet we can, too.”

  While Winter sips, relaxing against leather upholstery, I find us a decent looking one-bedroom flat on the beach at Laguna that’s not too far out of my price range. I book it, then drop my phone on the floor at my feet. I slip my hands under her armpits, lifting her up onto the couch, and onto my lap, her back to my chest.

  Wrapping my hand around her hair, pulling it back, I nuzzle her long, pale neck, leaving traces of wet spit on her skin.

  “There’s only one other real piece of furniture in this whole place,” I whisper against her shoulder. “And it’s in the bedroom.”

  I feel her stiffen slightly in my arms. I pull away, smoothing her hair down. “What is it baby?” I ask.

  “Gates, I… I haven’t…”

  I pull all the way back, turning her shoulder to me so I can see her.

  “What?” I ask her, letting my hands fall to hers, caressing her fingers with my own.

  “I haven’t done this… since… since we…” she stumbles, trying to get the words out. “I don’t meet many people. I’m not… good at being with anyone. Before, you were a one-night stand. It was safe. Easy. Since then, my life has been a whirlwind.”

  Seriously? She’s been celibate for three years? Wow.

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, really. Maybe I was relying on that one experience to take me through the rest of my adult life.” She laughs like it’s a joke, but her words make me sad. She’s been so terrified of her father, of losing her career, that she hasn’t been with anyone.

  I raise my finger to her lips, shushing her. I understand everything now.

  “Leave it to me,” I say. “You don’t need to worry.”

  I lift her into my arms, then get to my feet, carrying her into the bedroom. I lay her down gently. I want to own her, use her, dive into her body and not come up for air. But this weekend is about something different—it’s about waking her up to the person she really is.

  “We’re going to take our time,” I say, threading my fingers through her hair. “Slow and easy. You let me know what you like, what you don’t. This shouldn’t be scary. It should be fun. Like the first time we did it, and it should make you feel good.”

  Chapter 11

  Winter

  Gates peels his shirt off, revealing a miracle of girded torso, his broad muscled chest, arms ripped with definition. The same body that so entranced me that day in the gym, when I took his photograph, then took a wild chance on him. I’d never done anything like that before and have never done it since. My father raised me with as strict code of conduct and lots of guilt; it’s never been easy to act on my desires. Gates was just impossible to resist. He made me feel safe, even while making me feel so vulnerable.

  “I’ve been looking forward to this since that first moment I saw you at the reading,” he whispers, crawling onto the bed above me to lift me up toward the soft pillows.

  “We’re both going to enjoy this,” he purrs, nuzzling my neck before moving lower.

  He begins with my mouth and lips, drawing me close. He’s a sensuous kisser. His tongue and his teeth nip and bite, teasing; my body shakes beneath his power.

  A simple kiss makes my entire body awaken. I feel the slippery wet heat between my legs, my hips rocking into his. He makes every nerve in me ache to his touch.

  Gates peels my shirt off me, making a production of it. He casts it aside, then descends onto breasts barely concealed behind thin lace. His hands cup my breasts while his thumbs and fingers tease my nipples. They harden and peak, the sensation almost making them hurt but pleasingly so. Waves of pleasure dip down to my pussy, causing my interior muscles to twitch and pulse.

  His fingers trace my skin, electrifying it. They linger at my hip bone, drawing his attention. His mouth plays there, his tongue bathing me in careful affection.

  My bra goes next, cast to the floor. His mouth finds my erect nipples, sucking and biting until I cry out. My back arches as every sinew in my body begs for release from this exquisite torture. Instead of granting me that release, his fingers dance over my skin, tracing the contours of my body, lingering over particular freckles and birthmarks.

  “I like this one,” Gates whispers, tracing the outline of a heart-shaped mark on the outside of my thigh. He kisses it, lapping it, then moves on.

  The expression on his face is amused, ripe with self-satisfaction.

  “What’s this?” he asks, teasing me.

  He presses fingers in deep, massaging my flesh, his thumb working my swollen clit from side to side, making me moan.

  Oh… god… Gates...

  “That feels so good,” he says, pressing my clit. “I want to be there.”

  He removes his hand and stands up beside the bed, popping the button on his jeans, then shoves them down, to the floor. Next, he pulls off his boxers, revealing an intimidating hard-on. His right hand slips around the length of it, stroking firmly as he climbs back onto the bed, over me.

  “I want to be inside you,” Gates growls, his voice tight with tension.

  His spike-hard cock slides over my sex, parting my lips, rubbing against my clit, teasing my swollen lips. My hips arch up, instinctively seeking him.

 
“Inside me,” I beg him, feeling the wet heat dripping from me, demanding him.

  His mouth finds a nipple and tortures me with attention while his cock teases.

  I arch my hips up, demanding his entry. He slides past my lips, grazing my opening, tormenting me with his patience.

  “Oh please, please...”

  Gates laughs, flicking his tongue over my peaked nipple.