That was the last conscious thought that she had for a long while, because Mike began to undress her then, and Nikki surrendered herself to delicious oblivion. She delighted in the feeling of his strong hands on her skin, of the way that his touch commanded her body and the way that her body instinctively responded. They were simpatico, moving in a rhythm that he directed, and Nikki found that she was more than willing to let him take the lead – in fact, she was getting a huge charge of arousal from submitting herself, body and soul, to his insistent touch.
Nikki’s head fell back with a moan as Mike slipped her dress down over her slim figure, letting his hands trail behind it every inch of the way. Before she knew it, he had stripped her down to nothing but her lace panties and stiletto heels. Mmmmm...never before had she been so glad that she had chosen a dress which had precluded wearing a bra. A bra, it seemed to her in this moment, was just one more piece of useless clothing which only served as a needless barrier between her desperate skin and Mike's exploring hands and mouth.
When she didn't feel his hands moving on her skin for a moment, she dragged her eyes open and looked up to see what was going on. What she saw took her breath away – Mike staring down at her body, a look of amazement and hunger in his eyes that caused her core to begin to ache with heat and wetness.
He must have sensed her gaze on him, because he tore his from her nearly naked form and looked into her eyes. The immediate connection that resulted when their eyes met jolted through her like an electric shock and she began to tremble with the power of it.
“Mike,” she begged—and, yes, she had been reduced to begging, and she didn't care one little bit! “Make love to me. I want to feel you, touching me, inside of me. I need you.”
She could see in his eyes that it was the right thing to say. It clearly sparked a hunger in him that she simply couldn't wait to have him satiate.
--- ~ ---
Mike felt lust and hunger rocket through him with a power that he had never experienced before. God. Looking at Nikki's beautiful body and her angelic face as she told him exactly what she wanted him to do, to take her, to make love to her, to possess her—it gave him a sense of power that he had never felt before.
He knew that, before the night was over, he would possess her—hopefully as completely as she already possessed him, body, mind, and spirit.
But he also knew, as much as the blood rushing through his veins and pounding in his head encouraged him to race ahead, to ravage Nikki with passion and speed, he needed to force himself to take things slow. He wanted to savor each moment, each touch, each taste. But moreover, he wanted to play her like a complicated piece of music – to build her up to the shuddering edge of a crescendo before gently backing her off and starting the process all over again.
He smiled. He liked hearing her beg. He wanted to make her do it again and again before he sent her rushing headlong over the precipice of pleasure, and himself along with her.
Mike lowered his head, slowly and sensuously, to take her nipple in his mouth. He swirled his hot tongue around the hard peak as he swirled his fingers in circles around her belly, enjoying the feel of her smooth skin under his touch. She was the very definition of soft femininity, and he thought that he could be happy touching her beautiful skin for the rest of his life.
Sliding his hands firmly behind her back, he lifted her up a bit and supported her, pulling her body closer to him, taking her nipples even deeper into his hot and demanding mouth.
She groaned, and he felt her delicate fingers bury themselves in his hair.
He grew harder. There was nothing in the world so erotic to him as the way that Nikki's body responded to his touch. He knew there never would be.
Without removing his mouth from her gorgeous peaks, he slid one hand down her belly and underneath her panties, slipping his fingers between her feminine folds. He gasped when he felt how wet she was.
“Oh, baby,” he groaned against her, “you're so ready for me.”
“I've been wet since the minute I saw you this afternoon,” she gasped. “My body's been aching for you every second since then.”
As she uttered the last syllables, Mike drove his fingers forcefully inside of her, causing her to gasp and shudder with pleasure. Oh, hell, yes, he thought to himself. Making love to Nikki was the most exciting thing he'd ever done, hands down. He’d sky-dived, ridden massive waves, and bungee jumped but nothing else in the world even came close.
As he worked his fingers inside of her and continued to suckle at her breasts, he felt her fingers working at his buckle, then his fly. He groaned against the hard nubs of her nipples as her nimble and talented hands freed his erection and then grasped it.
He moaned as she began to move her hand up and down on his shaft in perfect rhythm with the motion of his fingers inside of her. He found that she remained in perfect sync with him – if he wanted her to pump him faster, he merely moved his fingers inside of her more insistently. He used this speeding up and slowing down process to take them both to the brink of release and then back them both off several times. The pleasure he was deriving from this game was intense, but he wouldn't allow them to come.
No. When he and Nikki came, he was going to be inside of her. Connected. There was no other way.
As much as he hated to break off the pleasure that their hands were giving each other, Mike felt the overwhelming need to devour her, to taste her in his mouth, to give her intense pleasure with his mouth and tongue.
He slid her lacy panties off over her hips and down her legs, and then pushed her knees apart. He studied her, so open and exposed to him, and loved how beautiful she was when she was vulnerable.
Mike lowered his head between her legs and ran his tongue gently up her lips, causing her to groan loudly. He covered her entirely, then, moving his tongue rhythmically around her pleasure center, his two hands flat on her belly to control her writhing movements as his tongue continued its work.
The truth was, he could do this all night and be perfectly content. As much as he wanted to be inside of her, to make love to her, to experience pleasure and a release of his own...honestly, the thought of any pleasure he might receive tonight paled in comparison with the pure joy and fulfillment that came with giving Nikki pleasure. God. It was so amazing how life turned on a dime – not long ago, he had no idea this woman even existed. Now he lived to please her.
“Oh, Mike,” she groaned, “Oh, it's so good...so amazing...”
Even though his mouth was busy, he did spare a second for a small grin. Yes. Hearing her say those words – and hearing the raw, desperate pleasure in her voice as she said them – was all he needed.
He quickened his pace, bringing her to the edge of climax. She cried out, pressing the back of his head toward her, but he refused to give in. He was determined that they would rush over the edge of oblivion together, while they were connected, body and soul.
“Baby,” he whispered, “I want to be inside you. I need to be inside you. Are you ready?”
“Yes,” she rasped, “I'm so ready. I need you inside me, too!”
That was all the encouragement he needed. He sprang to his feet and, not making any effort to take this part slow, stripped out of his clothes and slipped on a condom. Nikki was ready for him and he wasn't going to keep her waiting one instant longer.
He climbed onto the bed, never taking his eyes from her beautiful body and face, and positioned himself at her opening.
“Yes,” she gasped, sliding her hands down his back, “Yes, Mike I need to feel you inside of me!”
Moaning at her words, he pushed himself into her. When he was buried inside her completely, he paused, panting, his face buried in the crook of her lovely neck. He took a moment to enjoy the sensation of being inside of her, and to feel her inner walls constricting around his hard shaft.
He felt ready to burst at that moment, and it took every ounce of will he possessed to bring himself under control as he began to move in and out of her, slowly a
t first, but rapidly building up speed and momentum.
As he pumped himself inside of her, he focused his energy on her reactions to his movements. He wanted to give her the most pleasurable experience possible, that was his number one aim, and so he had to be sensitive to even the most subtle changes in her responses. That was the best way to determine what was bringing her the most pleasure so that he could continue to do those things.
He smiled to himself. Luckily, focusing on the erotic responses of Nikki's beautiful body was far from a chore. In fact, it was an immense turn on!
As much as he tried to control his own responses to focus on hers, however, there was no way that Mike could entirely tamp down the heat that flooded through him more powerfully with every thrust. He had never experienced anything quite this potent. While he was able to keep himself from surrendering to it entirely, he couldn't manage to block it altogether. The amazing thing was that the sensations, even in the muffled state that Mike was struggling to keep them in, were still some of the most intensely erotic that he had ever experienced. He had no way of knowing what it was about their chemistry that made it so combustible – whether it was physical attraction, emotional and spiritual connection, or just plain pheromones – but whatever it was, it was an incredibly powerful force.
When their bodies were moving in rhythm, Mike felt as if they were the only two people in the universe, that the entire world had shrunk down to the size of their room. He was aware of nothing else but his body, and Nikki's, and the way the two of them moved together to bring each other pleasure.
Just when Mike thought that he was getting close to the point of no return, the place where he would no longer be able to control himself and would have no choice but to give himself over entirely to his physical urges, he felt Nikki begin to tremble below him in a new way. This was more intense, more desperate, more raw. He could tell that she was ready for him to bring their encounter to a crashing climax – and not a moment too soon.
Mike lowered his body even further, without breaking the rhythm of his thrusts, so that he was pressed against her entirely. He felt the soft mounds of her gorgeous breasts as they pressed against his chest, and felt the rising and falling of her breath as she panted rapidly. Every small movement that she made, he felt intensely. He was hyper-aware of her body and the way that it was interacting with his own.
When he felt her back arch beneath him and her inner walls grasp him tightly, he knew it was finally safe to surrender himself to sensation. Thank God. He closed his eyes tightly and let the feelings, both physical and emotional, wash over him with abandon. He let himself be carried away on the tide, not worrying about anything beyond this room and this moment – just purely lost in pleasure and enjoyment. It was almost unbearably sweet.
As the world exploded around him, Mike felt Nikki's legs and arms clamp around him like a vise and heard her screaming out with pleasure. Even in his heightened state of consciousness, he was able appreciate the sounds of Nikki’s toe-curling orgasm. There was truly no better feeling in the world than knowing he had brought her that intense pleasure.
After a while, Mike began to feel reality returning to his consciousness. Oddly, he did not know if he would describe the interval as a split second or an eternity – both felt equally true. The only thing he did know was that, whether instant or eternity, he had spent that time with Nikki and that was all he cared about.
He didn't want to think about the future right now. He didn't want to think about the past. Nikki was here with him now, in the present—the glorious present—and for that reason, the present was where he wished to dwell.
He led a difficult, complicated life, and—as much as he might wish that it weren't the case—the truth was that Nikki might grow overwhelmed at the prospect of dealing with the more problematic aspects of sharing his existence, like the scrutiny that she would most certainly endure from the public and the press...hell, from his mother. There was no guarantee that she would be interested in sticking it out long-term.
But he did know that they had tonight. She was here with him, right here, right now, and she wasn't going anywhere. And, for tonight at least, that was enough.
Chapter Fifteen
“Well, hello there handsome. How are you doing?” Maribel greeted Mike warmly as she opened the front door to his childhood home. Her gray hair was pulled back in a tight bun and her dark eyes lit up from behind her glasses as he stepped inside. She’d been his mother’s housekeeper since before he was born and she practically raised him single handedly.
“I’m good. How are you?” he reached down and wrapped his arms around her rail-thin frame.
Mike immediately noted that she seemed about an inch shorter than the last time he’d seen her. Maribel had always insisted that she was five-foot-two. But when Mike was eleven years old he’d passed her up in height and he knew for a fact that he was five-foot-one at the time because he’d been measured for the stats on the back of his Little League baseball cards. Now she couldn’t be taller than four-foot-ten.
“Oh you know what they say, old age isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative,” she said as she gave him three firm pats on his lower back.
To his relief her “love taps” still had a little sting to them. Maribel may look frail, but thankfully, even though she was seventy plus years old she was still strong as ever. Growing up, Maribel had been like a mother, father, grandmother, and grandfather to him.
It was Maribel who’d put Band-Aids on his knees the many times he’d fallen out of trees or off his bike as a kid. When he’d come down with chicken pox in the first grade, she’d stayed up for three nights with him reading, watching movies, and applying chamomile lotion to try and keep Mike’s mind off of the incessant itching. She’d been the one that had brought him popsicles in bed when he’d had his tonsils out at nine years old.
As a teenager he’d gone through a very short-lived rebellious phase. It was right after he’d lost Jayden and before his cousin Laura went into remission. Mike had been so mad at the world, he’d started partying and one night he’d gotten behind the wheel after he’d been drinking. Thankfully, he’d made it home without killing or hurting himself or anyone else. Maribel had seen him get out of his car and stumble up to his room. The next day she’d woken him up at the crack of dawn, made him breakfast and then told him to get in the car.
He’d been in a foul mood because all he’d wanted to do was stay in bed and stop the hammer that was pounding in his head, but he’d done what she had said and gotten in the car. They’d spent the entire two hour drive in silence. When they arrived at a small rundown home, Maribel had gotten out of the car without so much as a glance in his direction. He’d followed her up to the door and been introduced to a woman named Hazel.
For the next hour, he’d sat in Hazel’s living room listening to stories and looking at pictures of Hazel’s beautiful teenage daughter, Lila, who had been tragically killed by a drunk driver on her way home from prom the year before. Hazel showed him a video of Lila getting ready for prom the night of her fatal accident. The last frame showed Lila, blonde hair blowing in the wind, smiling from ear to ear waving out of the car window telling her mom she loved her and blowing her kisses. That was the last time Hazel had seen her daughter alive.
That image of Lila waving, a beautiful rose corsage on her wrist, still haunted Mike to this day. Needless to say, he had never gotten behind the wheel after he’d been drinking again. That ‘field trip’ had been exactly what Mike had needed to pull his head out of his ass. If Maribel had simply sat him down to lecture him about the dangers of drunk driving it probably would have gone in one ear and out the other. But the emotional impact of meeting Hazel, and seeing firsthand the pain in a mother’s eyes when she talked about the loss of her child, was something he knew he’d never forget.
On the drive home that day, Maribel had told him simply that all it took was one bad decision to not just ruin his life but others as well. And there were some mista
kes that you couldn’t take back or make right.
Mike had no idea what kind of a man he would have become if that day had never happened. If Maribel hadn’t done what she’d done. He was the man he was today because of her.
“Now your Mama is upstairs resting, she’ll be down in a bit. Before she comes down I have something for you,” Maribel said with a sparkle in her eye that took years off of her appearance.
“Okay,” he smiled down at her and watched as she shuffled down the long darkened hall towards her room.
Mike made his way into the sitting room to wait. He knew it would be at least thirty minutes before his mother made an appearance. She always kept people waiting on her.
He rolled his shoulders and flexed his hands. Even as an adult he felt uneasy in his mother’s home. Mainly because it was a lot less of a home and more of a showcase. As a child, the room he was standing in now had been off limits to him. In fact, aside from the kitchen, the entire first floor had been off limits to him.
Not that he was complaining. He always had food on the table, clothes on his back, and a roof over his head. Mike had lived a very privileged life.
Maribel padded back into the room with a stack of the 100 Most Beautiful People magazines. “Okay I need you to make these out to the names on the notes.”
He looked down and saw that there were Post-it notes stuck to each one of the People magazines. “Who are these for?”
“My bridge ladies and bingo girls,” Maribel said as if the answer was obvious.
She handed him a Sharpie and he started signing. Maribel sat next to him and filled him in on who each of the women were—age, married or widowed, medical ailments, basically their stats—as he made his way through the pile.
Mike hated signing these ridiculous things. But if there was one person on this earth that he would sign a stack of magazines for, it was Maribel. And now Nikki. He knew after seeing her again that he would pretty much do anything in the world for that girl. He definitely wanted Maribel to meet Nikki; he thought the two women would really like each other.
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