“I missed this too.”
“Please take me. Please. I can do all the foreplay later, just do something, Marks.”
“Like this?”
His finger delves in and fills me up so well, I feel myself contract in a warning rush of wet heat and small pulses when he fiddles around before tapping at a spot that makes my eyes cross.
“Yes. Oh, do that.”
“What about this?”
I think I see stars when his thumb makes a wet, slippery circle over my clit, pressing down into the bundle of screaming nerves. His fingers are so good and yet I can’t stand the need for more as my hips start a bump and grind, mimicking sex, needing him hard and hot and thrusting strongly.
“More.”
“More? What about this?”
When he goes to shimmy down, his mouth so close I feel his hot breath waft over my mound, I lose my senses and flip him to his back, my control gone, washed away beneath the teasing, painful need.
I’m still struggling to breathe when I lever myself up over his shaft and grip his throbbing length at the base, holding him steady for the slow impalement.
He’s so big and hard it pinches a little as my sex slips over him, sucking at the crown of his dick like a mouth.
“Shit. Hell. That feels so good. Go slow, babe, I don’t want you to hurt,” he grates as he tries to still his hips and give me control.
I have none, though, and I don’t care what I look or sound like as I press one of his thumbs to my clit and start rocking my hips, taking him inch by inch until every part of me is filled and stuffed with Marks.
His eyes are slits, his mouth pressed into a tight line as I start bouncing up and down, taking him in a slow yet heated dance of melding parts and wet heat.
“Oh, you’re everywhere”
Marks like dirty talk, and with him, I like it too but I can hardly breathe enough to stay conscious right now. I use my body to show him what I can’t say past my gasping breaths as the rhythm and need build, build, faster and faster until I’m pushing down onto him as he slams up.
I feel him in and around me everywhere as we grind together and go wild, his naughty fingers pinching at my nub as one goes to a nipple and starts rolling at it.
That little pain is like a flame to the explosive charge winding deep in me and I let go, climaxing so hard I collapse on him and jerk as if electric wires are coursing through my skin.
Marks loses it the minute the contractions start and I find myself on my back, one leg thrown over his shoulder as he lets go, pounding hard and fast, prolonging my orgasm as he roars his pleasure and comes in me.
He’s beautiful, so perfect as I look up and see the twisted, fierce grimace I remember so well. That look takes me higher and hotter, and I think I go a little blind before the spasms fade into pulses the leave us both twitchy as I heave in a breath and find the energy to wrap my arms around him.
What I feel as he softens and slips out of me is so deep and frightening I feel one of those elusive tears I haven’t shed in years well up and try to break forth.
“You okay, babe?” he mutters into my throat when a shudder courses through me.
I can’t answer him, can’t push one word past the choked ball lodged in my throat, so instead I kiss his hair softly and let him hear my sigh, my arms trembling with fatigue as I try to pull him closer.
Chapter Eight
Words Are So Much More Than Vowels and Consonants
Percy
“Percy?”
I must have zoned out a little because when I open my eyes I’m on his chest and he’s stroking my back in rough circles as our sweat cools and dries on our skin.
“Yeah?”
“I’m sorry I hurt you when I left.”
I don’t want to do this now. Not so soon after the river of feelings that I still haven’t dared to examine hit me. I feel so raw and exposed, so open right now that just the slightest push in the wrong direction would possibly reduce me to a blubbering mess.
Part of me wants to become that mess so I can tell him exactly what his abandonment did to me, and yet another part wants to just forget and push it away where it has no power over me and can’t hurt me.
Like Indie said this morning, I can do this and be open without exposing my every vulnerable nook and cranny. Maybe it’s cowardly not to want to face things I know I can’t avoid, and should get through sooner rather than later, but the truth is that I am a coward. I think I always have been when it comes to him.
“I’m sorry I didn’t have the guts to tell the world that we were together. It’s taken me a long time to look at the way things were and realize that of course you wouldn’t have asked me to go with you, how could you when I never earned that kind of trust.”
“Percy—”
“It’s not that I was ashamed to be with the hot jock, and God help me, it’s not as if I ever had any reason to doubt you, you always showed me what you felt. The problem was me. I had all these hang-ups about putting myself out there because I was always waiting for the shoe to drop.”
I can’t look at him as I speak, I just lie there and listen to his heart beating against my ear as my finger strokes his arm in long glides.
“I understand that, Percy.”
“No, you don’t because I held so much of myself back. Indie told me I don’t have to bare myself and be vulnerable to be with you this way and I know I don’t have to, but I would like to tell you why I was so reticent about telling everyone about us.”
He tenses for a split second and then relaxes, his hands going to my hair the way they used to when we’d lay awake and talk late into the night.
“My parents weren’t great people and they were worse parents, to say the least. When I was four they fell pregnant with my brother, and by the time this screaming little bundle came along I was well and truly convinced that God was punishing me. See, Mom was not exactly maternal, and even at that age I was well aware that her lack of maternal pride and care was not normal. See, they always wanted a little boy and it seems when I popped out it was not the happy moment one would expect.”
His arms tighten and I snuggle closer, taking comfort in the warmth he provides against the chill seeping from that place of bitterness inside me.
“Don’t talk about them if it hurts you, babe.”
“I have to because I’ve only just recently come to understand that a lot of me is as a result of them. Anyway, they weren’t happy with me so you can just imagine what a hullaballoo it was when my brother came along and stole the show. I can tell you I was not happy when they pinned us with the exact same name.”
“Jesus.”
“Indeed. Seems Dad was too pissed when I popped out to redo the birth papers and Mom just didn’t care. When he arrived they gave him the name that was meant for him and just sort of forgot I existed. Don’t ask me why, I have never been able to figure out why two people could love one kid and be so apathetic towards the other. So there I was, five years old, angry at the world and God and everyone I could think of, and along came Callie and the girls. We took one look at each other and had a go at it.” I laugh, remembering that day as if it were yesterday.
“You were five.”
“Hell yeah I was five, but I was not about to eat crap off a kid smaller than me with a big attitude and a chip on her shoulder. The worst part? I socked her one when she tried to give me a sandwich she’d brought for me because she noticed I never had a packed lunch.” I giggle, closing my eyes to remember the taste of that peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
“Babe.”
I’m crying a little and I know he can feel the moisture against his chest, but I just shake my head and keep going, feeling dark and light and heavy all at once.
“We ended up in the principal’s office after we slapped each other around and she got her sharp little teeth into me, but we were cool even then. I ate the sandwich and shared her milk box while we waited for our parents to come. Mine never showed, but Gruffy came along, to
ok one look at us both and sighed, saying, ‘Another one, Calliopeia? Child, you’ll be expanding this ragtag group of Naughty buggers till I’m grey with fright.’”
His chest rumbles and I feel him laughing as I huff out an amused breath at the memory of her beleaguered yet kind eyes.
“She liked you.”
“Huh, she loved me when I told her to kiss my petunia and step off. From then on out it was just me and the Naughties. Callie and Gruffy fed me, Indie walked me home and would sneak out and crawl into bed with me some nights when I had nightmares. I don’t know how she knew when to come but she always did. Dot and Luci were just always there too, being bitchy and sweet and rounding it all off for me. They were my family.”
“They sound great.”
“They were. They are. I stopped caring about my own family after that but I never forgot that I wasn’t wanted, and that more often than not they just didn’t think of me. One time I got home on a Friday afternoon to a note on the fridge. They all went away for the long weekend and didn’t bother to take me with. Mom left food in the fridge and a contact number, just in case. I was ten that year.”
“Bastards.”
“Don’t stress. Gruffy sent Gramps to come get me and we all spent the weekend in the back yard chilling in the portable pool they borrowed from the neighbors.”
It feels so good to talk about this and give him this piece of me, a piece I know I should have handed over years ago and would have if I weren’t such a fool.
“I’m glad you had them.”
“Me too, or I can guarantee Indiana and I would have been convicts by the time we hit puberty. Gruffy and Gramps kept us on the straight and narrow and Callie and the others spurred us on. We were family, the only thing I let myself care about for a long time. Till you.”
Those fingers pause against my nape and I feel him shudder and swallow before he squeezes me tight and holds on to me with what I hope is some sort of affection, at least more than the memory of our young love.
“I sort of resented what I felt for a while there. Don’t get your G-string in a bind, Marks, I knew it was stupid but I was just so angry that this big, smart, beautiful jock had me so whipped I wanted to wash off the eyeliner and wear dresses just to see him drool. I fell hard, but I had no reference point for what was happening. I had familial love. I’d never been just wanted, you know, and it freaked me the hell out. Of course by then we were having sex and I was so obsessed I’d have done anything not to lose you.”
What an ass. I remember dressing up in this pink sundress I made one day and washing off all the makeup, staring at myself for over an hour as I tried to find the courage to go to him without my armour. Epic fail.
“I felt the same, babe. I resented everything that kept me from spending more time with you and even considered quitting ball until I bullied you into sitting in the stands and studying while I went to practice.”
That earns him a good finger to the ribs for the torture I endured with the other players’ girls who thought I was just some lame nerd who was stalking Mr. Popular.
“The point is that I was stupid. I did wise up though, to give myself some credit. That day I went over to your dorm I was totally going to take you home to meet the girls and Gruffy.”
“But I wasn’t there,” he finishes, sighing as he lets out a curse.
“Yeah. I wasn’t doing too great at the time and I wasn’t thinking clearly either or I so would have stalked your butt and slapped some sense into you.”
“Babe.”
“I thought I was pregnant, that’s why I called you a million times and almost had a nervous breakdown,” I rush, wincing when his arms squeeze tight enough to cut off my air supply. “Chill, Long Arm, it wasn’t what you think.”
I won’t tell him about the little trapped egg or the hurt it caused because I know Marks. It would make him feel all this guilt that wouldn’t solve a damn thing. All I really want from this is some sort of peace and maybe the opportunity for more.
If that’s even possible.
“What was it?”
“I had this cyst on my right ovary. Nothing serious but it messed it up pretty good. I ended up having to have the entire ovary removed because leaving it would have just caused me too much pain when I got my period. After that I was not easy to live with. I was angry and bitter about losing half of my chances to have kids and I couldn’t tell anyone because I felt so crappy for having lied to them and shutting them out.”
“You went alone?”
“Yup. I spent a week in the hospital since I told the doctor I wasn’t going to have anyone to look after me, and then…well I guess I used that time to think. I decided to close myself off and protect myself.”
“I am so sorry. I—”
I look up at him as I shove a hand over his lips, shutting him up before he can go any further. Just because I can cry now doesn’t mean I’m about to turn into a freaking sap.
“It was no one’s fault, just a tough and shitty break that happened to land in my lap,” I insist, biting my lip at his chagrined scowl.
“I could have been there for you.”
“I wouldn’t have allowed that anyway. Remember? Tough girl walking. I’d have just made things worse between us by shutting you out too. Anyway, from what I hear you had a shitty deal too. You weren’t exactly screwing your way through life like I assumed you would be.” I laugh, shaking my head with regret. “I’m sorry I hated you.”
Chapter Nine
The New Day
Marks
I should feel like the biggest heel right now for not coming clean to her, but all I can manage is a slight twinge at my dishonesty as I hold her against my chest and enjoy the newness of the love I know she has to feel to some small degree.
I’m a total coward and a fool because I know there’s no way I can keep a secret of this magnitude from Percy for long. I just need some more time to make her fall for me before I tell her something that will likely kill whatever budding emotions she’s feeling toward me.
I need to have Percy as mine when the time comes for me to leave, which is soon since it’s crunch time on the old homestead.
And she has to be with me or the whole dream, everything I’ve done and built for the last year won’t mean shit to me. Then I may as well just sell and give it up to work at Mulligan’s. The beginning and end of the plot is simple for me. She has to be there sharing the dream or it isn’t worth shit.
I’ve lived for years without her, and no, it wasn’t some Sparks novel where I pined myself to death and lived like a monk, but it also wasn’t me actually living a full life.
I guess I just fooled myself into believing that it was okay and what I had was enough not to want to just give up and say screw it. Now that I’m here and I have her back I know I will never be able to move on from her. She’s the lynchpin in this wagon train and without her there’s nothing but a failing dream that won’t live without her there to nurture it.
“Hey, don’t try to kiss me yet, my mouth tastes and smell like a sewer.”
My laugh is cut off when Percy stretches against my morning wood, gives a little shimmy just to tease me, and rolls away, giving me a spectacular view of bouncing breasts and an ass I still haven’t had the honor of sinking my teeth into.
Later.
The shower comes on seconds later and I hear her muttering about the shitty toothpaste I like as she filches my toothbrush and probably bemoans everything from the water temperature to the brand of soap in the shower.
She’s not a morning person, hence my pain when I woke with a hard-on that beat like an aching tooth and didn’t immediately attack her for morning sex.
I did that once, only once, before I learned my lesson. Percy wakes up without violence only two ways. One involves me going down on her and waking her by degrees, by far my favorite choice but seeing as we had sex three times and never showered…I don’t eat my own cum, that’s just nasty.
The other involves a jug of coffee wi
th just the right amount of sugar and cream, my only option now as I roll to my feet and make my way to the kitchen, whistling under my breath.
By the time I’m ready to face the beast she’s strolling towards me wearing her tiny pink thong, my white T-shirt, and a scowl that would crack mirrors if I let her look into one.
“Morning, babe.”
“Don’t talk to me till I feel human, Marks, I don’t want to hurt your precious feelings so soon after the smoking hot sex, but I feel like hell after only three hours of sleep and I have a vagina ache that is not all your fault but for which I blame only you,” she mutters, grabbing at the coffee like it’s her lifeline.
“I’ll take the credit with a smile, woman, since I put it there, but you have to admit, the last round is all on you.” I chuckle, eying her twitching lips and smug expression.
“It’s your fault. You shook that ass at me.”
“I was going to the bathroom.”
“Still. So…the morning after,” she muses, her smile widening as the caffeine takes hold and wakes her up completely.
This is my chance to kiss her like I wanted to while I held her so I just go for it, kissing her deeply, thoroughly as she sighs her coffee breath into my mouth and melts into me.
“We’ve been here before, babe, it’s no biggie. Although, I have to admit, I like this morning a whole lot better than yesterday when I got home without a kiss and balls the color of blueberries.”
“Big blueberries.” She giggles, licking at my mouth before pulling away. “I like this too. I like it a lot, and since it feels so nice and I haven’t put my foot in it as yet, I need to cut and run because I have work to do and a lunch to plan for your mom. Good going with the ambush last night by the way, you have my respect for sneak factor.”
“Why thank you, my lady, I do try,” I muse, kissing her once before fondling her ass and slapping it on my way to the bedroom. “Get dressed and I’ll take you home to change before dropping you off at Delights. I have to get Indie anyway since Finn promised to give her that tour she almost orgasmed over.”
THE NAUGHTY ONES: The Complete 5-Books Series Page 43
