by J. S. Scott
Together they froze, wedded to each other, his body filling hers so completely she couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything but accept him. Her body contracted around him, squeezing him and she felt the delicious pleasure start to build. When he finally started to move it was with long slow strokes, sliding out until the bulbous head of his cock hit the ridge just inside her opening, ramping up her desire with every thrust. He bent his knees so he could angle his thrust exactly the way she needed him to, rubbing her swollen aching tissue before sinking into her so deep she felt the slap of his balls against her ass.
After a decade, he still remembered how to touch her, exactly the way she needed to feel him inside her. He found the sweet spot every time and her body tightened in response, desire spiraling in on itself. In moments she was on the edge, her climax so close but just out of reach. She clung to his shoulders, barely supported by the stool. He held her legs, arms hooked under her knees his hands supporting the small of her back and drove her on with relentless thrusts.
She couldn’t do anything but hang onto him and take whatever he gave her, torturing her with the long drag of his cock over her aching flesh. He shifted his hips, bending his knees as he surged into her, changing the angle just enough for his pelvic bone to hit her needy clit. That was all it took to throw her over the edge, and she was coming, her body tightening around him as she struggled for breath.
Her sex contracted around him, milking him as he drew out her orgasm with long steady relentless strokes. He didn’t let up – not when she was gasping for breath or whimpering from the pleasure of it. He punished her with his cock, claiming her, destroying her, marking her as his.
One orgasm turned into two and he still drove into her. Sweat beaded on his forehead and she could see the strain of holding back etched on his face. She remembered his body too. When she was limp, overwhelmed by the sensations running through her, she leaned forward enough to sink her teeth into the flesh where his shoulder met his neck, hard enough to make a mark, riding the line between pleasure and pain.
“Not fair,” he said through gritted teeth, but it was too late.
She felt his cock thicken and swell inside her and knew the moment his climax started, felt him, hard and hot and long, his seed spurting deep inside her. His expression moved from one of fierce determination and iron control to sweet release and watching him, she lost part of her heart. She buried her face in his shoulder and held on, unable to face the emotions that were too raw, too close to the surface to hide. She didn’t realize she was crying until she felt her face wet against his chest.
Chapter Seven
“Did I hurt you, cher?” Eric gently lowered Julie’s legs and lifted her chin to search her face. He’d lost himself at the end, driven by the need to make her his, but he didn’t think he’d been so far gone that he wouldn’t realize it if he’d been hurting her.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I’m fine. Better than fine.” She reached up to stroke his cheek and he leaned into her touch. Julie was trying to reassure him, but he doubted if he pressed her that she’d tell him the truth now anyway.
He withdrew from her body, still concerned, but he didn’t stop her when she slid off the stool and headed for the bathroom. Making use of the hall bath himself, he came out in time to hear his phone. He picked it up off the counter and thumbed open the text.
“Perfect,” he sent back, smiling at the picture Adam had sent.
By the time Julie emerged from the bathroom, his sweats hanging low on her hips and rolled up around her ankles, he had the soup warming and cheese toasting on the split ciabatta. Her pretty face showed no sign of the earlier tears and her overly bright smile meant she had no intention of acknowledging they’d ever happen. It was okay. He’d let her hide for now.
“That smells wonderful. What can I do to help?”
“You can open the wine.” Eric motioned over his shoulder to the wine fridge in the back of the bar.
“Which one?” she asked, peering at the extensive selection.
“If you don’t have a preference, try the Ashton Chardonnay. Top row, three or four bottles in. The opener is in the drawer.” Eric tilted his head toward the cabinets. “And the glasses are up above.”
He filled two heavy mugs with soup and stacked slices of the cheese topped bread on a plate. Grabbing napkins and spoons, he carried everything to the living room and spread it out on the coffee table. Julie handed him a glass of wine and settled on the couch next to him, tucking her feet up underneath her. Swallowed up in his T-shirt and sweats, her faced scrubbed free of make-up, she looked so young, younger even than their first summer together.
“What?” she asked, catching him staring.
“I was just thinking how long it’s been and how you look the same as the girl I fell in love with.” He knew it was a loaded thing to say. He didn’t care. She’d felt something when they were making love. He wouldn’t push her now – not hard anyway, but he wasn’t going to let her pretend they were just fucking either. They were going to follow this thing through to the end this time, wherever that might be, and no one was running away.
“I’m not,” she said, taking a gulp of the wine. “I’m not the same person. It feels like everything has changed since then. That was a lifetime ago.”
“Maybe.” He handed her a mug of soup and picked up his own, taking a sip of the spicy tomato before speaking again. “I guess in some ways it’s been a long time. I didn’t have any of this ten years ago.” He waved a hand dismissively around the room. “No one but you and your family knew or cared who I was, but sitting here with you, making love with you, it seems like a lot of things – the important things – have stayed the same. When I touch you, Julie, my body remembers you and yours remembers mine. We’re not naïve first loves anymore. Touching you is richer, deeper, God, if it’s even imaginable – more intense, but it’s still you I have in my arms. You under my hands, under my mouth. You wrapped around my cock.”
He heard her draw in a breath and watched her hands still on her glass. She could pretend if she wanted to, but he knew the truth. This time together, whatever it ended up being, was important to her too. She opened her mouth and then closed it again, but before he could push her to respond his phone buzzed and the doorbell rang. Only three people beside him had the code to the elevator and since Luke and Claire were probably celebrating the holiday in bed or with Claire’s father, it must mean Adam had arrived with the tree.
“Wait here,” he said when Julie started to rise.
“But I’m not dressed. Were you expecting someone?”
“You’re fine and don’t worry; he’s not staying.” Eric hurried to the entryway and opened the door to an enormous tree and a slightly frazzled assistant.
Adam thrust the tree at Eric who wrestled it through the door and into the living room. The trunk was sticky with sap and the tree left a trail of fallen needles in its wake, but it smelled like Christmas and Eric would’ve done anything to see Julie’s face light up the way it did when she saw it.
“What did you do?” She jumped to her feet, stopping when she saw Adam.
“Julie, this is my assistant Adam. Adam, Julie.” Eric could barely see around the tree but when Adam didn’t do more than nod a polite acknowledgement, he could tell Julie relaxed slightly.
Until he saw Adam lugging in huge shopping bags, it didn’t occur to him to wonder if he should had told him to pick up some kind of stand. He sure as hell didn’t have one in the penthouse and his plans to give Julie a real Christmas would fall apart if he had to prop the tree up against a wall in the corner.
“Hold on a second, boss,” said the PA, digging through the bag. He pulled out a bowl with two rings and a handful of bent legs.
“Here let me help,” Julie said, kneeling on the floor with Adam while Eric tried to keep the tree standing without scratching the skin off his arms.
She held the legs for Adam as he screwed them onto the rings. When they finally managed to get it
together, he helped Eric lift the tree and Julie slid the stand under it. She took a few steps back, giving him directions to straighten the trunk and when she seemed satisfied, Eric held completely still while Adam screwed the tree into the base.
“Ready?” he asked warily.
Adam stood, blew out a breath and nodded. Ready to grab it if it started to tip, Eric let go of the trunk and took a step back. The tree held and they all exhaled in relief.
“It’s beautiful,” said Julie, standing back to admire it.
Eric came to stand behind her, wrapping his arms around her and together they looked at the tree standing bare in the middle of his living room.
“Everything else is in the bags,” said Adam. “Do you need anything else from me?”
“No man, this is perfect. Thanks so much for your help.”
“No problem,” he said with a genuine smile. “I owed you. My mom really appreciated me coming home for Hanukah. It was nice to meet you, Julie.”
“You too.”
Eric walked his PA to the front door and found Julie digging through the bags when he came back.
“Hey, hey, hey,” he said, swooping in to snag the bags before she made her way to the bottom. “Wait for me.”
“Fine,” she said with a laugh and stood so she could throw her arms around his neck. “I can’t believe you did all of this.”
He pulled her close, fitting her against his body and bent to brush a kiss over her lips. He meant to keep it sweet, but having Julie in his arms, under his mouth turned up the heat every time. He had a hard time imagining ever being able to get close to her and not wanting her. He slid his hand into her hair, angling her head to give him better access to her mouth, sighing when she melted against him.
In part of his lust-addled brain he knew there was a reason to stop. But with Julie’s warm curves softening his hard edges, filling the cold places in him, all he could think about was taking her back to his couch, stripping her bare and sinking into her tight wet heat.
Struggling to clear his head, he broke the kiss, pausing to nuzzle the sweet skin behind her ear. He wanted to share Christmas with her. Tree first and then he could make love to her in the glow of the lights.
“It’s my pleasure,” he said, pressing a quick kiss to her forehead. “Come on let’s see what Adam managed to gather.”
Eric pulled out a half dozen strings of white lights and a couple of boxes of Christmas balls in different sizes and colors.
Together they wound the lights around the tree until it glowed. Julie followed behind him hiding the cords and adjusting branches. They took turns hanging ornaments and dipping cheese bread into lukewarm soup. By the time they were finished, they’d eaten something that almost counted as lunch and the tree looked pretty if a little plain.
Julie stood eyeing it critically. “I know what it needs.” She grabbed the bowl of tiny stars she’d made from the sideboard and started tucking them in among the branches.
The effect was simple but elegant. Even more important than the way they looked was that she’d made them for him. She’d done something just for him, and the gesture touched something inside him he thought had been frozen.
“Perfect!” she said, wrapping her arms around his waist.
“It is. Perfect.”
*****
He fed her, made love to her, and got her a tree. In some ways Eric the grown man was so much more than he had been a decade ago but underneath he was still the same sweet thoughtful guy she’d first fallen in love with. She’d never really stopped loving him. She knew it now even if she wasn’t ready to admit it – might never be ready. But up until today, last night really, she’d thought she’d gotten over him. Over the heartache their separation caused.
Now she knew she’d just been hiding, walling her heart away so nothing could touch it. With his hands, his mouth and his body, he’d found a way inside and Julie didn’t know how she was supposed to keep herself safe against the brutally honest way his soul touched hers. How could she stay without losing the rest of her heart?
How could she walk away?
Her phone buzzed on the counter, but she ignored it. If it was like the other three calls she’d gotten, it was her asshole brother wondering when she was coming home to make things easier for him. He was tired of taking care of their father and he wanted her to take over for him. That’s what she’d always done. Carried his share of the weight on the farm and then watched as her father sold it because Caleb didn’t want it. When it looked like his business would go under and he and her dad would lose everything, she’d come home to work her ass off trying to save it.
She put her life on hold so her brother could get everything he wanted, but not this time. This time she was going to have a chance at happiness, even if it only lasted another night. She couldn’t let herself think past tomorrow. If Caleb knew she was close to a man with as much money as Eric had, he’d never give her a moment’s piece. He’d ruin everything. It was the only thing he was really good at.
Not this. She wasn’t going to let him touch this. For today at least, she’d have Christmas with Eric.
“Looks like some pretty big thoughts are going on in there, cher.” Eric rubbed the pad of his thumb over the crease in her forehead before tipping her face up for a kiss.
His lips were soft and tasted of wine, and her desire for him flamed to life, burning away all the other thoughts she’d been wrestling with. She relaxed into the kiss, meeting his tongue with her own, teasing the seam of his lips. She felt his heart beat in his chest, her hand resting on the warm flesh of his pec. The tight point of his nipple pebbled under her palm and she made small circles with her hand just to feel him gasp against her mouth. Having a man as strong and powerful as Eric react to her touch was one of the most potent aphrodisiacs she’d ever felt.
“I’m going to make us hot chocolate,” he said, breaking the kiss and coming up for air.
It took Julie a moment to clear her head from the drugging effect of his kiss, but she was pretty sure he’d mentioned chocolate – a close second on her list of delicious things right behind kissing Eric.
“What?” she asked, her body leaning towards his as he pulled away.
“Chocolate, Jules. I’m going to ply you with hot chocolate and then strip off your clothes, lay you out naked under the tree and try to figure out how many ways I can make you come as my Christmas present.”
“I’m not complaining.” Her mouth had gone dry at his words. She knew exactly how skilled he was with his hands and mouth. With his cock. “But you don’t have to give me a present. You’ve already done so much.”
“The present isn’t for you, cher. It’s for me.”
“In that case, who am I to argue?”
She trailed behind him to the kitchen and watched as he set a pan on milk on the stove to heat. As soon as it was hot, he grabbed a bar of chocolate from the cabinet and started to break it into bite size pieces. Dropping the pieces into the milk, he flipped off the burner. She leaned closer, smelling the rich dark scent of truly fine chocolate.
“Open,” he said, holding up the last piece, and she obediently parted her lips.
He set the small square of chocolate on her tongue, brushing her bottom lip with his thumb. Julie’s eyes drifted closed in bliss and she let out a groan of pure pleasure as the bittersweet morsel melted on her tongue. Eric cupped her chin, holding her in place for his kiss. He licked the seam of her mouth, his tongue seeking the rich treat, and she opened for him, meeting his tongue with the slick slide of her own.
Her breath caught in her throat as he plundered her mouth. His tongue mimicked the thrust of his cock, meeting hers in a dark tangling dance. He swallowed her needy cries, pulling her closer as she melted against his body as completely as the chocolate.
“Delicious,” he said, when he finally pulled away, and she could catch her breath.
She’d never get enough of him, never stop wanting him. It didn’t matter how many times they made love;
her body responded instantly to his, softening, ripening, desire moving through her like warm caramel. Her hands roamed over his body, relishing the strength of his back and his sculpted chest and stomach. With deliberate slowness, she traced the ridges of his abs with her fingertips, grinning when she felt his skin dance under her hand.
“Hot chocolate first,” he said, catching her hand before she could tease him more.
He grabbed a whisk from the hanging pot rack and swirled the now melted chocolate into the hot milk, and then divided the mixture between two thick white diner mugs. She watched eagerly as he took a can of whipped cream from the fridge and floated the frothy topping on the surface of the hot chocolate. Before he put the can away, he shot a squirt of cream onto tip of his index finger and held it out to her. His eyes went dark as she licked him, swirling her tongue through the sweet topping before drawing his finger into her mouth and sucking it clean. His answering groan had her determined to get her mouth on the only thing she’d rather taste more than the chocolate.
“Let’s just take this with us,” he said, his nostrils flaring as he drew in a breath. He kept the can, handed her a mug and led her to the couch, but instead of settling beside him she dropped to her knees in front of him.
“Jules,” he said, his voice sounding strained. “You don’t have to…”
“Shut up,” she said reaching for the waistband of his sweats. His cock was already tenting the soft cotton fabric, the thick head snaking above the elastic. “It’s Christmas. I get to do what I want.”
“Not complaining.” He lifted his hips, helping her drag the pants down his legs.
Julie wrapped her hand around the length of his cock, gripping him tight, her mouth watering at the bead of pre-cum on the slitted tip. She leaned in and licked, tasting the salty head, swirling her tongue around the ridge.
