Kissing Fire

by A. M. Hargrove

  How could I not like this?

  He started moving his hips in a very subtle way, rotating them slightly. I began to feel him touching upon me, on a place deep within me that filled me with a different sensation...different, but extraordinary. It began to build, slowly at first, but before long, I was feeling the beginnings of another orgasm tearing into me as I called out his name. Yeah, I’m pretty sure I did a bit of screaming as the spasms hit me and then he followed me right afterward.

  “What the hell was that?” I asked him. “How did you do that?”

  “It’s a secret,” is all he would say with a grin.

  “Seriously Preston. I want to know.”

  “I’ll tell you, but not tonight. We need to move inside, because the dew is starting to fall and all of our gear will be wet if we don’t.”

  I was sad. I mean, hell, how could I not be? It had been so fabulous to make love to him under the stars like that. Not to mention, he’d been the best lover I’d ever been with. Ever.

  Chapter 18

  Preston

  When she rose to her feet, I could only gape at her. Her body, in all of its glory, was bathed in the bright moonlight. It reflected every curve and nuance that only an artist’s hand could’ve painted and I couldn’t stop staring at her. Her head dropped and I knew instantly that I had made her uncomfortable.

  “Oh honey, don't. I’m only admiring what is an amazing sight. May I ask you something?” My finger traced a pattern on her cheek.

  She studied me for a moment and nodded.

  “You seem so ashamed of your body. Why is that?”

  “I told you. I’ve put on all this weight and it makes me uncomfortable.”

  We moved inside the tent to save our things from becoming damp. Once we were settled, she moved to get inside of her sleeping bag but I stopped her.

  “Are you cold?”

  “Not really.”

  “Can you not get in there yet then?”

  She eyed me suspiciously at first, but then settled down on top of her bag.

  “I’d like to tell you some things. First, I love you exactly like this. I don’t want you to ever change. I don’t want you to be a skinny, shapeless girl. I want you curvy and beautiful, like you are and you’re nowhere close to being big.” I kissed her then. Afterward, I ran my hand across her breast and watched as her nipple puckered and then hardened, so I simply had to follow it with my mouth. I sucked on it and then teased it with my tongue, circling and then gently biting it. Whenever she moaned, there was a direct connection between her voice and my groin. I was hard again, unbelievably so.

  “Look what you do to me Avery.” I took her hand and put it on me. “If I didn’t think you were lovely, I wouldn’t react this way to you. Christ, one look at your body and your mouth and I'm on fire. That's how fucking hot you are.”

  She wrapped her fingers around my length and began moving her hand up and down. Now it was my turn to moan. When she raised herself up to her elbow so that we faced each other, and she bent her head and targeted my nipples, I thought I was going to lose it right there on her.

  I sucked in my breath between my teeth, willing my control back to me. “Shit Avery, you’re going to make me come, just by doing that.”

  “Is that a bad thing?”

  “No, but I’d rather us come together.”

  “Please, let me do this Preston.”

  The way she asked, the tone of her voice made a refusal impossible.

  I groaned and watched her move over me. She sucked one nipple and then the next, her tongue playing with my piercings as she stroked my hardness. It wasn’t long before I climaxed and called her name. If I thought that was going to be the end of it, I was crazy, for the next thing I knew, she was straddling me and kissing the hell out of me. I pulled her arm down next to her and flipped us around so that she was on the bottom. Running my tongue along her upper and then her lower lip, I backed away and said, “Now, it’s your turn.”

  I did all sorts of things to her that night with my tongue...things I had been dreaming about since I first saw her. I licked the entire length of her spine and then settled in for a long drawn out sucking and nipping session on those dimples right above the cheeks of her ass. Of course, I didn’t stop there, as my ministrations carried on to those lovely globes. By the time I got to spreading her legs, I couldn’t stand it any longer and ended up spooning with her. She turned her head so we could see each other as we both came together.

  “I’m so sorry babe, but I think you’re going to be very sore tomorrow.”

  “Hmm, probably. But it will be so worth it.”

  She rolled over right into my arms and snuggled down next to me. It felt like she was molded just for my body because she fit perfectly into my side.

  “You know what?”

  “What?” she answered.

  “I know we were supposed to be out here for another two nights, but I think I want to take you back to the cabin so we can have a night in a real bed and get in the big bath tub together. What do you think?”

  “You must’ve read my mind,” she answered. I could feel her lips kissing my chest and her breath against my skin. God, I loved this woman.

  “Avery, you know I won’t ever let you go.”

  “Preston?”

  “Yeah?”

  “It’s a good thing because I don’t want you to let me go.”

  *********

  Sometime in the middle of the night, I heard Avery fumbling around in the tent. I sat up and switched on my head lamp to find her trying to unzip the tent opening.

  "What's going on?"

  "Um, I have to pee."

  "Here, let me get that for you and I'll go with you."

  "You don't mind?"

  "Of course not," I assured her. I knew how frightened she was to be out there alone.

  I unzipped the tent and told her to get her flip flops. "Should I put some clothes on?" she wanted to know.

  "No one will see you so it's not necessary."

  "Okay."

  We went outside and she grabbed my hand tightly. "It's really spooky out here, with the mist and all."

  "Well, I think it's sort of beautiful. Mysterious looking."

  "You would. You're a lot braver than I."

  I chuckled at her. We got to a good spot and I turned my back to give her a bit of privacy. Suddenly I heard her yell, "Shit hell mother fucker!"

  It wasn't like her to curse like that and with such intensity. "What's wrong?" I asked, concerned.

  "Oh God! I just peed all over my foot! Shit! What am I gonna do?"

  I broke out into fits of laugher. I couldn't stop.

  "Would you quit already? What the hell am I gonna do? I can't go back to bed like this?"

  "It's not a big deal." I eked out between my peels of laugher.

  She gave me a nasty look. "Easy for you to say. You're not the one with tinkle all over your foot."

  "Tinkle?"

  "Yes, tinkle, damn it!"

  Grabbing her arm, I pulled her into me and hugged her. Then I told her, "Look, we'll go down to the stream and you can wash your foot off. Okay?"

  "But we don't have any soap. It's up in the tree."

  "I have some unscented stuff in the tent you can use. It's all good, honey. We'll get you all tidied up."

  "Okay."

  We went back to the tent to grab the soap and then I took her to the stream so she could wash her tinkled up foot. I had to bite my lip the whole time to keep from laughing at her. When she was all nice and clean again, we headed back to bed. The best part of all was when she snuggled next to me, kissed me and said, "Thanks for taking such good care of me Preston. I love you."

  "I love you too, Tinkle Toes!"

  She popped me in the side for that one.

  ********

  We made it back to the house much faster than I thought possible. Laughing, we ran up to the master bath, stripping our clothes off along the way. I bent over the tub to turn on the water an
d Avery sneaked up behind me and said, “I don’t want to startle you, but don’t move.”

  Her hands splayed across my back and I felt her fingertips sink into my muscles right before her lips touched my skin. She massaged my muscles as she kissed my heated body moving lower as she inched along. Firm hands gripped my hips as her cheek brushed across my lower back and then she was licking every curve, indentation and raised surface of that word that was cut into me. I threw back my head and groaned out of sheer pleasure. Her hands kept moving, sliding along my body, as if they knew exactly what I needed and when I needed it, but when they wrapped around me and held my erection, I couldn’t contain myself any longer.

  “Sweet Jesus, Avery,” I breathed. I spun around so fast, the surprise was noted on her face, but I couldn’t help myself. “I need you. Now.” I reached for her and pulled her up to me, feeling for her sex to ensure she was ready. “So wet for me, and tight. You feel so damn good honey,” I murmured into her mouth, as I entered her.

  Her nails raked my back and that always set me off. It was hard to rein myself in during these moments with her, but I wanted to make sure she was satisfied before I was. Her tongue was on my neck, doing things to me that made it difficult to maintain my control.

  The way her breathing changed coupled with the way she arched her back always jerked a response from me unlike any other.

  “Harder Preston, harder.”

  I backed her up against the wall and lifted her leg around me as I pumped into her. It was impossible to make love to her without watching her. Her expressions...her eyes were so fucking gorgeous. Everything about her was amazing. I could feel her tightness around me begin to change. Grabbing her hand, I raised her arm above her head and pressed it against the wall.

  “Good?” I asked, as I thrust into her.

  “Ah yeah, Preston, that’s so good.”

  I inched away just enough so I could roll her nipple between my fingers. She squeezed my shoulder in response as she cried out for more. I took my other hand and cupped her ass so I could move her to increase the friction where she needed it the most. When I did, she rewarded me with the sexiest moan I’d ever hear.

  “Is this good Avery?”

  “Oh yeah Preston. More. I want more. And harder.”

  I rolled my hips and then pumped into her again and again, and then I felt it coming on. Grabbing the back of her hair, I pulled it so she had to look at me. It was those eyes of her I always longed to see. There was so much love and lust shining in them, I couldn’t let an orgasm slip by without looking at them.

  “Oh yeah Avery. Come for me baby.”

  And she did as she cried out my name. I felt her spasms all around me as they went on and on and I loved every minute of it, especially since I got my own out of it as well.

  I still pumped into her, even when we both were finished, just because it felt so damn good. But the best part of all was having her rub her cheek against mine and then say those words.

  “God, I love you Preston. Damn, that was some kind of great sex, wasn’t it?”

  “The best ever,” I answered her as I kissed her.

  All of a sudden we heard water running and I looked over at the tub and yelled, “Oh hell!”

  We’d forgotten about the water and the damn tub was overflowing!

  “Turn it off,” Avery yelled.

  “I’m trying!” I still hadn’t pulled out of her. We both ended up on our asses on the floor, sliding all over the place.

  “Shit!” she screamed.

  We scrambled over to the tub, still slipping everywhere when we finally got the water turned off.

  She started to get up in search of towels and I pulled her back down on my lap.

  “What are you doing? We have to get this water up or you’ll have a mess!”

  “I have a drain in here. See? It’s all good honey.” I pointed to the drain on the floor near the tub so she could see all was well. Then we both started laughing our asses off.

  ********

  She knew everything about me, all the gruesome details about my prison term. When I told her, she cried for me and held me as she tried to comfort me. I bared my soul to her as I had done to no other and it was freeing for me. Unlocking those memories I had kept buried inside for so long was so liberating that it was strange at first. I hadn’t felt so unfettered in such a long time that it took some time for me to adjust to the feeling.

  We sat around the fire one night and I couldn’t stop myself from asking her, “Why did you not ever judge me?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “When you found out about me being in prison? You knew what they’d done to me?”

  “Well, yeah, but it wasn’t like you wanted it Preston. Why would I judge you for that? It was forced upon you. You were raped. You said yourself once that if I had been raped, you wouldn’t hold that against me.”

  “But Avery, it’s different because you’re a woman.”

  “What difference does that make? Rape is rape, no matter who it happens to.” She picked up my hand and kissed the palm of it. “I’m not sure where this double standard of yours came from, but I believe you need to get that notion out of your head. I’d like to ask you something. A while back, you wondered why I had such a tough time with my body...why I was so shy and all. Well, I’d like to ask you why you feel so inferior about something that was forced upon you.”

  She looked at me with those not blue not green eyes and I knew I had to be honest with everything I told her.

  “Because like I told you before, everything they did to me made me feel so damn dirty and disgusting. It doesn’t matter that it was forced; it still makes me feel that way. I’ll always feel that way Avery and I’ll never feel like I deserve you.”

  “We’re quite the pair then, aren’t we? Neither of us feel like we deserve each other,” she whispered, right before she kissed my mouth, running her tongue across my lips.

  “I need to tell you something else, and I pray you don’t hate me for this.”

  Giving me one of her million dollar smiles, she said, “Like I could ever. What’s so damn important that you’ve interrupted a kiss? You know how I love to kiss you.”

  “I’ve been less than honest with you.”

  She pulled away from me and still had a half smile on her face. “What do you mean?”

  “About our situation here.”

  “I’m not following.”

  I looked down and then back at her eyes. Taking a deep breath, I plunged in before I lost my nerve. Hurting her was the last thing I wanted to do, but I was afraid I had gone too far and there was no stopping it now. “We’ve been out of danger for quite some time now.”

  “You mean with the cartel?”

  “Yes.”

  “How long is quite some time?” she wanted to know.

  “Since a couple of weeks after we got here.”

  Dead silence. Nothing. No movement, no yelling or screaming, nothing at all.

  “I see,” was all she said. And she responded in a very small voice, quite unlike the Avery I was accustomed to.

  “It that all you’re going to say?”

  I watched a thousand different expressions drift across her face, but none of them settled down long enough to stay. Her throat worked feverishly, as she tried to swallow, whether she was attempting to hold back tears, I couldn’t tell.

  In a strangled voice that drove a knife deep into my heart she whispered just one tiny word. “Why?”

  “I was selfish and so in love with you that I wanted to have time with you alone to see if you could even love me. I thought if we had sufficient time together perhaps we’d have a chance. When I saw how much you loved it here, I thought that maybe we could make things work. I was wrong and I know that now. I’m so sorry.”

  “Is that supposed to make it all better? Is that supposed to make me feel good or something? You lied to me. You falsified things. You made me think my life...your life was in danger. For weeks I lay awake at
night and worried about you. I worried about Justin and Caroline. You destroyed my life. My job. I have no home now because of what you did.”

  “Oh Avery, I’m so sorry. But you’re wrong. You do have a home. With me. I’ll take care of you. Always.”

  “Is this some kind of a twisted joke? Because if it is, it’s a poor attempt at one. I don’t want to be taken care of. I never wanted to be taken care of. I want to be self sufficient. I want to earn my own way in the world and not be dependent on others. You stole all that from me Preston. And you didn’t even bother to tell me. You made me believe you loved me and then you made me fall in love with you.”

  With the subtlest of movements, I watched her stiffen her spine and I flinched as her eyes came to rest on mine.

  “I want to leave this place.”

  “That doesn’t surprise me.”

  She walked up the flight of stairs and if her heart was hurting anywhere near as badly as mine was, I’m sure she felt like she was dying.

  Chapter 19

  Avery

  Crack. Did I hear it or was it simply the pain his words caused when my heart reacted to them? But it wasn’t just my heart that was cracking. My entire body and soul were splintering apart. How could he have done this to me? A lie this colossal that had destroyed my life. How could he have been so selfish? Was it worth the price?

  My tears blinded me as I ran for my room...the room that wasn’t mine any more. I fell to the bed and tried to collect my thoughts. All of my belongings were in Preston’s room. We’d moved them in there together, after we returned from our camping trip.

  With resolve, I stood up and stomped across the hall. Opening the only two drawers I had any items in, I piled my things in my arms, hauled them back to the other room and dumped them on the bed. I scanned the room, looking for something to stuff my things in. Finding nothing, I decided I would be bold and headed back across the hall. Jerking open the closet door, I rifled through Preston’s things until my hands landed on something suitable. It was a backpack that would fit all of my clothing and other items. Making my way to the bathroom, I dumped all of my toiletries and makeup into the darned thing and hurried back to my room.