Her head lifted, all the dark clouds of her history parted and let her light shine through. She smiled up at me, relief easing the set of her spine. “Another water would be great.” My hand wrapped around the back of her neck as I leaned down and kissed her like I’d wanted to all night.
Her lips were salty, but her tongue was sweet as it swept across my lips. A soft breath warmed my mouth as I pulled away. She pinned the corner of her lip with her teeth as I stood to my full height.
“After we’re done eating, I’ll give you the grand tour, and if you want we can go downstairs and I’ll show you the shop.” I glanced at the window. “Well, if the weather lets up.”
“I hope it does. I hate driving in the damn snow. My tires are basically a death trap.”
My heartbeat roared in my chest as an idea formed on my lips. “You should stay here if it doesn’t stop. I don’t want you to have to drive in this weather. Or I can take you home, bring you your car in the morning.”
Melissa raised her eyebrows. “You’re not driving in this either. I’d feel like an asshole making you drive back and forth.” Her scowl was cute as I handed her a bottle of water and then twisted the cap off my bottle of beer. “Plus, you’ve been drinking. I’ll be fine. Born and raised in the snow.”
I sat down and playfully pulled on her braid. “Sorry, chick, you’re stuck with me for the night, there’s no way in hell I’d let you leave in a blizzard.”
“Is this some elaborate scheme to get into my panties?” she asked and I almost spit my beer across the counter.
I coughed on the bitter ale with a laugh as I asked, “Am I that obvious?”
She shoved my arm, and I smiled. The heavy weight that had plagued us on and off throughout the night was gone.
“If I stay I’ll sleep on the couch.”
“Not happening, I’ll sleep on the couch and imagine how hot you look in the shirt I’ll let you borrow, lying in my bed, all wrapped up in my sheets.” She blushed, and I gave her a cocky grin.
“Nah.” Melissa sipped her water, her lips spreading into a smile as the bottle fell from her mouth. “I’ll sleep on the couch and imagine how hot you look, lying in your bed, half naked, thinking about how I’m just a hallway away... half naked, too.”
Well, fuck.
“Evening chasers don’t make friends with gods of the daylight, that’s not how this works.”
Hayley Stumbo~
“This painting is wicked,” Melissa called out from the living room.
I was in the kitchen cleaning up dinner. Melissa had finally given up after I refused her help about nine times. My head was still wrapping around the fact it was a complete whiteout and Melissa would no doubt be sleeping here. It was easy to tease her and for her to tease me about sleeping arrangements but, deep down, I was freaking-the-fuck out while also mentally thanking God for the chance to be trapped with her. Explain that...
“Declan’s the painter, right? And his girlfriend?” she asked. Her eyes fixed on the painting that hung above my writing desk.
“Yeah. They’re both crazy talented, but Declan painted that piece.”
He’d recently given it to me. It was a portrait of a man’s profile. His face was gaunt white and his mouth spilled bright red words. The words made no sense, and the man didn’t look like anyone I knew, but I wondered if he’d given me a portrait of himself. I chose to hang it over my desk as inspiration for when I felt blocked.
I wiped my hands on a dish rag and stepped into the living room. Melissa’s eyes were no longer on the painting. Her head was dipped down in deep concentration scanning the page of my journal that I’d accidentally left open. I shoved my hands into my pockets, along with my fear. I didn’t care if she read my words, I only cared what she would make of them.
She was gorgeous standing in my living room. Her lips plump, parted, and moving as she whispered the poem to herself. The same poem I’d written yesterday. The warm light of the lamp surrounded her silhouette, turned her skin from caramel to chocolate, and God, I wanted to touch her. Hear her say my words out loud.
“Read it,” I said not recognizing the husky sound of my voice.
A soft gasp. A step backward. And when she looked at me, her eyes were filled with alarm. “I shouldn’t have… I mean…”
I moved toward her and Melissa’s lips started to tremble. I thought about kissing them, but hearing her read for me was more of a temptation.
“I don’t mind,” I said and she turned to the desk again. My arms folded around her waist, and I pulled her to my chest. The heat of her back soaked through my shirt. I leaned down and whispered into her ear, “Read it, Melissa.”
I could feel how fast she was breathing, and each soft pant of air that passed her lips caused my heart to pump harder.
“She is… guise and dazzling. Lust and sex. Simple and sinful. Chance and repentance. Hopeful and so, so real.”
Her breath hitched as I lowered my lips to her ear and read along with her.
“She is truth and logic. Pure and admirable. She is love, just love. Alive within the ink, and the heavy weight of the moon. Dark and full. Follow her…”
Melissa’s voice caught in her throat so I finished the sentence for her.
“And she will bring you the galaxy.”
The room was quiet, the only sound was our breathing and the rumble of my own thundering pulse. My face felt hot, the blood in my veins on fire. I wanted her to read it again, and then maybe turn the page and just keep going. Her voice had been hesitant but, the way her accent had rolled the words over her tongue, sexy didn’t cover it. Melissa reading my poetry was foreplay.
“Say something,” I said, and my mouth was so close to her neck that the tiny hairs on her soft skin stood.
“I don’t deserve this.”
Melissa’s tone was morose, and I didn’t like the sad quality of it.
“Who said this was about you?” I joked, trying to thin her mood.
She tried to wiggle from my hold, but I turned her around instead, bringing her to my chest. Her cheeks matched her red sweater, and if I wasn’t mistaken, her eyes were glittering with suppressed emotion.
I brought my palms to her cheeks and tilted her head back, forcing her to face me, to let me in. “It’s about you.”
Her eyes fluttered closed. “Why?”
I lowered my right hand and rubbed my thumb over her top lip. “I can’t help how you make me feel. I’ve never allowed myself to just dive in before. But I want to. Melissa, you’ve given me back something I’d thought I’d lost.” She opened her eyes, and the usual brown had been stoked to a brilliant amber. “Before I met you… after my mom passed, I could barely find the words to write a sentence. But looking at you, kissing you, you inspire me. I can’t hold the words back anymore.” Her lips played with me. The corners moving slowly into a smile. “You deserve these words, fuck, you deserve them all.”
I dipped down and captured her mouth before she could protest. Her lips were wet and warm and, as she opened for me, I groaned. Her tongue tasted mine, and I felt her body relax, felt it melt against me, and I hoped she believed what I’d said. It was true, I hardly knew her, but she pulled the letters from my fingertips and heated my blood. She was a white-water rapid and I’d been pulled into her current. I was drowning in everything that she was, the physical power she held over me. I was a novice, and I would never be able to navigate her.
She pulled my bottom lip through her teeth and then licked it softly before she slanted her mouth over mine again. My fingers lifted her sweater, eager to touch her. She wrapped her hands into my hair as she leaned up onto tipped toes sealing off any remaining space between us. I didn’t think. All I could do was feel. I held our bodies together, and she whimpered when the pressure of my hard dick pressed into her stomach. My hands cupped her ass, begging for friction, begging for anything, and a low growl rumbled in my throat when she rocked against me.
“Shit,” she gasped as she pulled away from my mouth.
My grin was greedy as I took stock of her features. Her cheeks were splotched with red, her lips swollen, and her chin rubbed raw from my stubble.
“If you read the next page do I get to try for second base?” I asked with a lopsided smile and she shoved my chest, effectively breaking our connection.
I suddenly wished I’d left the smartass at the door, because I didn’t like how far away she was from me now.
“How are you twenty-seven?”
“Mentally... I’m still a freshman in college,” I offered and she giggled.
“At least you’re honest.”
“Come here.” I reached out and laced our fingers. I pulled her against me again, and with my free hand, I dusted her cheek, her jaw, and then her mouth. “You’re not going home tonight.”
“Kieran, I think—”
I kissed her two more times, devouring her denial.
“I’m not ready either,” I finally admitted. My body was full on, five-alarm ready, but I didn’t want to rush her, and I didn’t want to rush myself. “I want you to stay because the weather is shit, not because I want to get laid.” Her sculpted left brow raised and I chuckled. “I want to be with you, Mel. Hell, like yesterday, but it’s like you said the other night… I like you too much.”
She laughed. “You do?”
“Mm-hm,” I mumbled against her lips and then swept my tongue across the seam of her mouth.
She let me in again, easy, and slow. I skimmed my palms under her sweater mapping the soft curve of her hips and then her stomach. Her skin erupted under my touch as I placed kisses along her jaw, her neck, and sucked on her earlobe. She was putty and hell if I didn’t feel like the master of the damn universe.
“Want to watch a movie?” I whispered.
She exhaled a shaky breath. “Sure.”
I let her go reluctantly, but linked our hands again. “T.V. is in the bedroom, might as well get comfy for the night.”
“The bedroom.” Humor sparkled in her eyes.
“Yup. But don’t worry, I won’t touch you… too much.”
We were sitting on my bed, about thirty minutes into The Princess Bride, which Melissa said she’d never seen, to which I’d told her she had to tell Father Becker this sad bit of sacrilege on Wednesday in confession, because, frankly, that shit just wasn’t okay. But I’d only been able to distract myself with outrage for Melissa’s lack of movie prowess for about five minutes. Because, once she walked out of the bathroom and back into my bedroom, with her hair down, her bare thighs exposed in my boxer shorts, I hadn’t been sure if I would be able to adhere to the no touching policy. I’d found an old pair of boxers in the back of my underwear drawer, and I had no idea how hot she would look wearing them with my old University of Utah t-shirt. I kept peeking glances at her legs, and I wondered if Melissa was internally combusting, too.
Liam would say go big or go home, and damn it, I should have probably talked to Declan more about this stuff, but I banked my nerves and placed my hand on her thigh just above her knee. She leaned into me, her eyes on the television and laughed softly at something going on with the movie. This moment felt natural. She fit perfectly at my side, and her skin under my palm was just the beginning of something better, something great. I could smell her hair. That jasmine scent infiltrated my brain, and I knew I wouldn’t keep my eyes on the movie much longer.
My thumb started tracing circles on her skin, trailing a little higher, daring myself to take another inch or two. I did. Melissa turned her head slightly. She wasn’t watching the movie anymore either. I wet my lips and exhaled as I brought my eyes to hers. The room was dark, the light of the screen flickered, and created shadows across her face and eyes. She worried her lip, her eyes on my mouth, and the marked rise and fall of her chest clued me in. She wanted this just as badly as I did.
I was about to lean in for a kiss when she moved. She lifted herself onto her knees and, in one fluid movement, she was straddling me. I couldn’t breathe. My heart was in my throat, and when she locked me in her gaze, I was a lamb willing and ready to be slaughtered.
“Melissa—”
She cut me off with her mouth. Soft lips and hard kisses. She moaned when my grip found her backside and tugged her closer. My hands slipped easily under the hem of the boxers. She rocked her hips at my urging and framed my face with her hands, deepening the kiss. I kneaded the flesh of her ass and savored the taste of her tongue as it dipped and danced with mine. Any chaste or moral thought I’d had vanished when she pressed down onto my dick and shuddered. A desperate sound growled from my lips, and I grasped her hips to keep her still.
Lazy kisses, wet kisses, hot breath, and holy shit, all I wanted was relief, but I was a horny teenager trapped inside a man’s body, and I had no idea what to do with the creature on top of me. I wanted to feel her, feel between her legs, taste her, and then fall inside of her and never come out.
“I want to touch you.” My voice was gravel as I pulled from her mouth.
“Okay,” she said with a hint of her own fear, and a shy smile.
She took my hand in hers and brought it to her breast. My throat bobbed, and I thumbed her hard nipple through the thin cotton of her shirt. She closed her eyes, and I sat up straight and nipped her jaw. I palmed her other breast and licked her pulse with my tongue. She made a needy little sound, and I smiled against the groove between her neck and shoulder.
“Can I touch you?” she asked, and when I leaned back, her eyes were open, her lip pinned between her teeth.
I had a feeling she wouldn’t have asked a normal guy, a guy who wasn’t as inexperienced as me, and I tried to not let that bother me. I wanted her to touch me. I wanted her to give me everything. I nodded and her hands curled around the bottom of my shirt and pulled it up. I dropped my hold on her and lifted the shirt over my head.
I tried not to act too pleased at the widening of her eyes as she devoured my muscles with her stare. I watched her cheeks go from pink to scarlet, and I one hundred percent, without a doubt, knew red was my favorite color. She raised tentative fingertips to my skin, and I shivered as she traced the ink on my neck down to my chest.
“This is the only tattoo you have? A rosary?” she asked giving me bashful eyes.
“Yes.” I brushed my thumb along her chin. I couldn’t stop touching her. “I’m not sure if I’ll ever want another one. Whenever I have doubts, or if I feel like I’m stumbling, losing my way, praying the rosary… it always brings me peace.” I placed my hand over hers where she’d rested it against my chest. I had faith. I wouldn’t deny that… that I loved my church, but I was happy being a man, too. “Having a rosary permanently placed on my skin, for me, it’s a powerful symbol, and it may sound stupid, but it helps me remember I’m not alone.”
Melissa leaned in and kissed the corner of my mouth. “I don’t think it’s stupid at all.” She kissed my top lip. “I think it’s kind of sexy.”
I chuckled against her mouth. “You sure it’s not my abs?”
She playfully nipped my lips. “Those are fucking sexy, too.”
“Yeah?”
She rolled her hips and I shut up. She smiled, her lips spreading across mine, and ran her fingers down my chest. Slow, so achingly slow, and when she teased the waistband of my sweats I wasn’t sure I wanted to stop her from the descent. Her fingers dipped just below the elastic, sweeping the tip of my dick, and every muscle in my stomach contracted.
My fingers fisted in her hair and my tender kiss transformed into rough waves. My tongue plunged into her mouth, demanding her attention, demanding that she do that again. I should have stopped her, kissed her a few more times, watched the movie, and then went to bed, but her hand slipped all the way down, her fingers finding a firm grip around my length, and all my morals, my chivalry, flew out the fucking window. My fingers clenched the strands of her hair tighter as she moved her fist, pumping once and then again. Some unintelligible, guttural noise echoed in the room, and I was sure it was me, but I didn’t
care. This felt good, she felt good.
My heart was pounding with each touch she gave me. Feeling... feeling, I was feeling, and her tongue was on mine. I was lost, about to crash over that blissful edge, and I craved it, fuck, I needed it, but I grabbed her hand and stopped her.
“Why did you—”
My lips crashed into hers and when I pulled away again she was breathless. Her eyes were dark, and hooded, and held every bit of my world inside the amber flame of her irises. I wanted to make her feel as beautiful as she looked in this very moment.
My hands pulled at the cotton of her shirt and she helped me remove it. She was still wearing a bra, and that was fine with me, because I had no intention of removing it. Tonight wasn’t about sex, it was about testing limits, giving in, and allowing ourselves to feel, to learn, to know each other that much more. I eased her onto her back, her inky black hair sprawled out onto the mattress. My kisses followed along her neck, past her collarbone. My hand palmed her breast and I gently bit her nipple through the lace of her bra. Melissa ran her fingers through my hair as I lowered my mouth to her stomach, but when I moved past her belly button, her entire body went stiff.
“W-what are you doing?” she asked as she took my face between her hands.
I smiled and she relaxed below me. I kissed the waistband of her boxer shorts, and when I looked up at her again, her face was a mixture of desire and insecurity.
“Is this okay?” I asked as I inched the underwear down a little more, and when she didn’t stop me, I continued my exploration. I’d never done this before, gone down on a woman. I’d messed around, but never this. The urge, the need to taste Melissa wasn’t something I could’ve prepared for. It was forceful and it drove the blood through my heart—turbulent and fast.
She raised her hips as I slipped the boxers down. The pads of my fingers only left the silk of her skin as I removed the underwear and pushed them to the side. My eyes lifted to hers, and I didn’t want to admit to myself that I was scared, but when my Adam’s apple bobbed, Melissa spoke. “We can stop.”
Poet (Avenues Ink Series Book 3) Page 15
