by Derrick Jaxn
I strung her wrist to the headboard. That made her look at me again.
"Wait...what is this?"
"This is me making sure I can't see you naked until I make you beg for it." I grinned as I strung her other wrist.
She accepted the challenge by not resisting. I put them just tight enough to bound her without hurting her.
I used the third string to wrap around her eyes.
I took pride in the fact that my demeanor was flexible in the bedroom. At times I could be commanding, and other times simply convincing.
I stepped back to admire her. Still in the dress I'd bought, sexy as ever and tied up. I'd never done anything like that. Heard of it in Fifty Shades but not in real life. But again, playing it safe wasn't on the agenda tonight.
I grabbed the fondue and set it on the table. I fed her the strawberries while I talked; decided to foreplay with her mentally so physically, there'd be nothing left to do but orgasm.
"Everything I'm about to say is completely rhetorical. When I do ask for a response, just nod your head. Understood?"
She nodded, smiling slyly. Chewed the strawberries in her own real-time slow motion, waiting for me to continue.
"Good. Tonight, I need you to do something. It's important, critical even. I need you to forget about anything outside of right now. I need you to find your way to a place where worry and unpleasant memories can't find you. Where obligations aren't allowed. Tonight, I just need you to focus on relaxing and letting me give you some special attention. Is that understood?"
She nodded again.
I dipped a strawberry in the white chocolate, swabbed it across her lips. The moment she tried to bite, I moved it to her neck and licked off the sweet residue.
Her legs crossed. I kept licking, reaching for more strawberries to give her while I did.
While she was responding, a part of her was still holding back.
I spooned the chocolate along her left shin. It was just on the verge of hot but not scalding where it could actually burn her. She gasped when it touched her and exhaled with a moan when she felt my tongue following to clean it up.
Chocolate drops continued to fall, but I couldn't quite get her key to turn, so I kept sucking. And sucking.
I dipped a finger in the bowl, then reached under her dress to the edge of her underwear. I was absolutely sure she would stop me but dared to try anyway, and it worked. She opened her legs for easier access, seemingly trying to let herself be comfortable in the moment. I went right in with every intention of helping her do that very thing.
My taste buds were singing into the surface of her skin and her body was dancing to the melody. The part of her that was fighting to maintain her composure began rearing its head again.
So, I French kissed along her thigh before going to her panties, sucking through the fabric to taste the wetness that confessed her lustful cravings.
Persistence.
As fate would have it, So Anxious by Genuine was singing along with what we both knew was on our mind.
"Please, just take it."
"Take what?" I said, purposely being obtuse.
"Me. Take me!"
I smiled in victory.
I left her tied to the bed, but slid her panties from her body.
I licked, sucked, flicked, and delved tongue deep into her pussy until my neck was sore. She hadn't orgasmed yet so I wasn't about to stop. I cupped my hands under her ass, then lifted her pelvis off the bed, careful not to let her disengage from my mouth.
That was much better.
She flung her legs over my shoulders and we were in a position I don't even think the karma sutra could explain.
I wanted to be gentle and continue being romantic, but my adrenaline was cascading like a river and there was going to be no dam. If I did have an alter ego, chances are it wasn't human.
I lifted up higher, still licking and sucking like she was watermelon at a summer picnic with one hand and undressed myself with the other. Once I was naked, I removed the string from her eyes so she could see me.
Her attention directed to my shaft like it was a magic trick.
"Well, hello there, sir," she smirked.
She had an air about her I hadn't seen before. Instead of trying to figure it out, I just went with it.
A lot of time had passed. We were no longer just teenagers learning our way around our bodies, but young adults who had just found out and were ready to take it as far as it could go.
I loosened the strings on her wrists so she could do as she pleased.
That ended in scratches on my back, sheets pulled off the bed, fondue on the floor and the nightstand table pushed over.
I don't even know how that happened.
But with all of that damage to the room, still...no orgasm. Something was wrong.
By the time we were in doggy-style, I was pouring sweat, glistening and panting, and growing impatient.
"What...the fuck....is wrong with you?" I said, speaking more so to her seemingly broken vagina than her.
But it slipped.
"Feed it another berry, maybe that'll work," she responded, her body getting rigid.
I didn't stop stroking. In fact, I went a little harder.
"So, what's that supposed to mean?"
"It means you think a little wine and dine is all it takes to remedy us. That's what." She threw her ass back, hard. A little off target, but I maneuvered just in time to roll with her angle so she wouldn't break me in half.
We caught a glimpse of ourselves in the mirror, neither of us with faces of love making, but now with the expressions of enmity.
I couldn't peel back the layers like I probably should have, but on the surface, she'd just dissed everything I'd worked so hard to put together for the night. She had a habit of doing that. All the effort I put in to make it special. She just spat on it.
I grabbed her waist for more control. My movements were becoming borderline violent with frustration.
"Excuse me, if I don't have a way to go back and undo all the bad, redo all of the unforgiveable...but if a brother is trying his best, the least you could do is appreciate it for what it is instead of stepping on his fuckin' neck."
"Maybe I'm stepping on your neck because I'm having to step over the pieces of my heart you left shattered on the ground," she said angrily.
I stopped. Without the noises of our friction, her cries began to pierce through the room. Softly but undeniable and potent with feelings suppressed for far too long.
I leaned over her, without removing myself. Kissed the back of her neck.
I couldn't say much, but our eyes met in the mirror once again, and it was clear that everything she felt, I shared with her. Not because I went through what she did, but because when you love somebody, what's theirs is yours and that includes the pain.
"You went through so much to earn it," she continued. "just to break it. Somebody was worth it to you. Somebody was worth breaking me."
Shots of agony poured into my stomach. But I remained silent and kissed her again.
"And all the times I wanted to fix me, and put me back together, I couldn't. No one could. And you know who's fault that was?!"
I knew exactly how she felt.
"It was your fault. It was all your fucking fault! Because you...you were the missing piece. You always have been," she cried out.
I slowly grinded inside her. Her cries got louder, but she didn't pull away from me. She moved her body with mine.
"Don't hold back," I whispered.
I placed my fists over her shoulders just an inch or so away from her ears, caging her in. My body positioned like an ape.
And I kept going. Gently, but firmly. Holding back tears of my own. The emotional osmosis was powerful enough to light an entire city.
Painful cries evolved into pleasurable moans. Traces of hurt were gone and satisfaction was recompensed.
I shoved deeper, using my arms as her bumper so she couldn't run or slip from under me.
/> I thrusted harder and faster.
As our love sounds crescendoed, that tense, unfamiliar, and disturbed feeling had finally gone away.
That was it all along. She needed to get that out of her system, and when she did, the real her was back again. And I wanted to give her a hero's welcome.
I released her from the constraints of my body to stand on my feet, feeling a bit roguish.
Before she could look at me and see what I was doing, I wrapped my arms around her waist and yanked her off of the bed. Upside down, suspended in the air with her split at tongue level.
I dove in then doggy paddled with my tongue once I was beneath the surface.
Her body squirmed, shivered, and became hot like glowing coals. Memories of what that meant were still fresh and it was only a matter of a seconds now.
She shrilled, "Oh...Oh!...Ohhhh!"
I growled, continuing to feast unrestrained by any etiquette. Kept my arms firmly wrapped around her waist so the jolts in her body wouldn't make her slip away.
With the same intensity, she grabbed my phallus from the very bottom and shoved me to the surface of her tonsils.
It caught me off guard but I held on in spite of it.
Her other hand reached around and grabbed my ass, gripping tightly but not enough to distract me from the warmth of her mouth and the spit dripping down my scrotum. I fought, resisted, mentally pleaded to last a little longer, but it didn't work.
I leaned, back first, against the bed so my legs wouldn't give when I came.
Afterwards, she flopped on the side of me outside of the covers. We stuck to one another like dirt to a dropped lollipop.
"Superman..."
"Baby..."
"I've never felt anything like that in my life."
"Me neither," I said back, still trying to catch my breath. "Oh yeah...my bad for cursing at you. It just came out wrong."
"No need to apologize. Sometimes we all need to be cursed at."
"True."
We both laughed. While I didn't say anything after that, I couldn't fight the thoughts of what was next for us.
But at that moment, it deserved to be left alone. Just good old-fashioned, reconnecting but-we-got-some-things-to-get-straight-first sex rest and recovery.
Chapter 23
Let's Break the Rules
7 unread messages.
Pete: Ay..guess what?[11:22 p.m.]
Pete: You there?[11:29 p.m.]
Pete: Bro...hit me back when you wake up.[11:35 p.m.]
Pete: Never mind that last text, this can't wait. Dude guess what?[11:37 p.m.]
Pete: Oh wait, you can't guess because you're sleep. Well, we're getting married![11:38 p.m.]
Pete: I mean, after she says yes n all. But like right after she does, we're getting married! [11:38 p.m.]
Pete: Ring's fuckin huge. Cost me a fortune. At least a quarter carot, sterling silver. Wal-Mart's finest man. But yeah...talk to ya tomorrow. Let ya know how it goes. [11:40 p.m.]
I woke up to the messages from Pete, rubbing my eyes several times before admitting that it wasn't just me. This fool really said he was about to marry Rashonda.
I texted my assistant to see if she was up. I swear, that girl never slept. Starbucks was running through her veins with how much she drank their coffee to stay on top of grad school. Tried not to press her too much for that very reason, but this was yet another emergency.
After a few messages had gotten tapped out between us, she found me another pilot to take me back to Charlotte.
It was early, so the sun still hadn't come up, but Danielle's sleep was interrupted by the phone's screen light. Her eyes focused in on my message thread as she came to.
"You stay on your phone," she groaned.
"How you know?"
Eyes still closed, she pressed her lips flat. "Because I know you."
She rolled over out of reach of the glare so she could go back to sleep.
I went into the bathroom to freshen up and started getting dressed. When I came out, Danielle was sitting up in the bed, wide awake and staring.
"What?" I said. Sounded just as dumb as my facial expression.
"I'm too old for these little hit-it and quit-its. And you spent way too much money to be doin' one. So you tell me what."
I laughed, walking towards her. "I'm not quitting anything. I have to get back home. Tend to some business. We're not done with anything as far as I'm concerned." I kissed her on her forehead for reassurance.
It didn't work.
She rolled her eyes and sighed, "Yeah, I guess. You dropping me off or do I need to call a ride?"
"Already arranged for your transportation. He'll be outside waiting in about an hour, but you can check out whenever you're ready. He's not going anywhere."
"How does it feel to be so in control? 'He's not going anywhere'," she mimicked. "Like the world is in your hands or something. That why you came up here, busting through church doors like you John Travolta or somebody? You think you all'at since you made it, huh?"
"Come on, D. Don't try me like that. I've always had confidence. Just now, with money, it's a little easier to do some things. Other things, I just take a chance and hope for the best. And I'm glad I did." I kissed her again.
This time she smiled.
"So you really wanna do this, huh? Me and you. You serious?"
"Very," I responded.
"How can you be so sure?"
"Well, for starters, I never had a doubt. As a matter of fact, why don't you come with me? Come to North Carolina."
She laughed and looked away. When she looked back at me and saw me not smiling, she stopped.
"Hold on...what?"
"I said come with me."
"And do what?"
"Not be away from me again." I admit, I didn't think before I spoke. I didn't have to.
I'd never been more sure of anything in my life. No insecurities about my ability to love her, consistently and genuinely. No questions about what would happen if I were to ever mess up. I was just...sure.
"That's crazy, Superman. This isn't college anymore. I have a job I have to--"
"Quit your job. And come with me. I took a chance and came for you. Now take a chance and come back with me. We can get your stuff later and I'll make sure you have everything you need while you're there."
"So you're tryna shack up?"
"I'm trying to shower you with my love until you're drenched from head to toe," I said playfully as I gently brushed the back of my fingers across her mahogany cheeks. "But if it makes you feel better, I can get you a place of your own, name on the lease and everything. As for marriage, definitely don't want to propose to you out of obligation just so we can be politically correct. When it's the right time, we'll cross that bridge."
"And let's not forget there's no guarantee I'll say yes anyway."
"Right. So for now...just trust me."
"That's a lot of trust."
"And we'll need every bit of it to make it last. So, let's break the rules."
I grabbed her hand. She stood up from the bed. The covers slid from her body reminding me that she was completely naked.
I pushed her away from me so she fell back on top of the covers.
"Superman!" she yelled angrily.
I kneeled down, grabbed her legs, and lifted them onto my shoulders.
Had my breakfast early.
***
By the time we'd gotten off the jet, I'd filled her in on Pete and his whole situation with Rashonda.
She felt like he deserved it for making black women his fetish. She didn't blush at the sound of anyone putting race in the same boat as her character and other things she thought should matter more. Didn't see it like that until she said it, but it made sense.
"So now you're trying to go and do what? Stop him from marrying this chick?" she said, chewing through a handful of dried apples.
"Something like that. Not exactly stop him, but at least let 'em know what's up. I mean, that's t
he homie. I can't let 'im do that to himself."
"And you said he loves her, right? Like for real?"
"Yea-up. Crazy about her."
"Hmph. You still out here tryna save everybody from themselves."
I looked over at her in the passenger side, taking my eyes off the road longer than I should have.
"If that's what you call it," I said. "I think you'd want somebody to do the same for you."
She shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, whatever. I think if you keep grabbing people's hand the moment it gets too close to the stove, they'll never learn for themselves why they shouldn't touch it. Then when you leave, they'll just burn themselves anyway."
I didn't respond. Let her have that one while I drove us over to Pete's job.
I pulled up and saw him crouched behind the dumpster, pretending to look busy until he realized it was me.
"Crud, I'd just lit that cigarette. You made me waste it for no reason."
"Told you about smoking 'em in the first place," I said, stepping out of the car.
Without asking or me saying anything, Danielle hopped out too. Her shades on, belly shirt and high-waist jeans. Like my partner.
The way she'd always done when I needed to pay attention in class more, when I didn't have anything and she came to make sure I wanted for nothing. The same instinctive support that had her fueling my dreams from day one was second nature for even the smallest things like hopping out the car and making sure she was by my side. I loved that about her.
"Yeah, yeah. Cigarettes, shmigarettes. They tell us not to put anything in the microwave that has foil or metal on it too, but nobody listens to that. Besides, the way things are going right now, I could use a little help getting put out of my misery."
He looked over at Danielle. Straightened his hat and re-tucked in his shirt.
"You didn't tell me you were bringing company." He reached out his hand. "Hi, the name's Pete."
Danielle looked at me. I spoke up, "And this is Danielle, the one I've been telling you about."
"Danielle? As in....Danielle-Danielle?" he said.
I shook my head hoping to God he wouldn't say anything that'd get me and him both slapped.
"Yes, that's me." She smiled and firmly shook his hand.
