“Oh my…” She gasped, as if she’d been dunked into a vat of ice-cold water, and arched into him. Not wanting to lose the friction, he ground down with his hips as he circled the tip of her breast with his tongue, flicked the nub, sucked it in deep. And changed his direction with his hips as he moved to her other breast.
“D… something’s… oh my…” Her body tensed, she scratched up his back and gripped his shoulders in a surprisingly strong vice, and then he felt her whole body tighten and release with the most shocking orgasm he’d ever witnessed.
Shocking for both of them, it seemed.
He raised his head and looked at her, mouth open. When was the last time a little dry humping had been enough? When he’d brought a woman so close that she’d jumped over the edge of orgasm?
Back in seventh grade, probably.
“Holy shit.”
Her eyes fluttered open, almost wild with confusion. But she didn’t say a word. Just reached out for him and brought him back to her lips.
“You okay, darlin’?”
“Mmm. More.”
Her hands reached for his belt, pushing in on his lower abdomen, and he had to roll off to get his shit together before he was the second one to lose it with their jeans still on. Christ, she undid him. He needed a breather. But looking back at her, sprawled over her bed with her shirt and bra under her chin, arms and legs limp like a rag doll, he knew the breather wasn’t even an option. He reached over to help her remove the shirt and bra, then worked his fingers on the button of her jeans. Kissing her neck, below her ear, her shoulder, he gave her ample opportunity to slow him down, to stop, to say she changed her mind.
She said nothing.
She was a matcher, he discovered. One of those women who matched their panties and their bra together. Normally, he found this was a hint that they would be one of those complicated females. But with her, the entire matching thing seemed to make more sense, like she just did it because it was the thing to do rather than because it mattered a whole lot.
With her pants completely off, he dipped one finger under the band of her panties to find her completely ready for him, no assembly required. She squirmed, twisting her body until her face was smushed into the nearest pillow, though whether that was coincidence or out of bashful instinct, he didn’t know. But he wouldn’t push. Instead he pulled the underwear down and shucked his own jeans off. Holding back at this point would just lead to more pain than necessary. There was delayed gratification, and then there was masochism.
“Dwayne?” She looked up, and he had a hard time placing the look in her eyes. It wasn’t fear, but it wasn’t exactly confidence either. He paused in reaching for his wallet in the back pocket of the jeans he’d just dropped.
“Yeah, darlin’?” Please don’t say stop. Please don’t say stop.
She bit her lip, then shook her head, fire overtaking the uncertainty in her eyes. “Nothing.”
He froze, waiting for her to take it back, but she didn’t. Careful with the rubber, he rolled it on and positioned himself over her. Her face said she was caught in the moment, but her body remained stiff as a board.
What kind of experience had she been through before to freak her out? What jackass had treated her badly before…? He clenched his teeth against the anger and forced it from his mind. For now anyway, his main concern was Veronica.
With soft kisses, he soothed the best he could. Supporting his body on one forearm, he used his other hand to smooth up and down her body, massaging a little. As her muscles relaxed under his touch, he nudged a little into her center. She tightened, and he started the process over again.
Her uptight posture made it all the more tight as he inched in. He gritted his teeth against the amazing pressure, and nudged one of her legs wider with his knee.
“Need just a little more room here, sweetheart.” He kissed her, continued kissing her, because he realized she wasn’t one to open her eyes during sex. Pity. But she loosened up a little and spread out wider for him, making the rest of his entry easier.
“Oh my…” Her eyes popped open, and it was like looking into a beautiful mist. She wiggled around a little, experimenting with how much range of motion she had. “That’s wonderful.”
Between the extra slap on the back to his ego and all her wiggling, he wasn’t going to last. Not at all. He kissed her again, hoping to distract her from her below-the-belt exploration, and pumped into her. With one hand he slid around her hip and found her clitoris, speeding her along as best he could.
The sound she made deep in her throat would have driven a saint to sin.
“God, forgive me.” He wasn’t going to be able to wait. Dammit. Praying she wouldn’t think he was a total jackass, he followed the rhythm his pounding blood sent him on and pushed into her over and over, still working her with his thumb and forefinger.
But just as he reached the point of no return, she clenched around him. Her mouth opened in a silent “O” and her eyes fluttered closed. She even came quietly, with dignity. No screams or thrashing around wildly for his woman. Just a contented smile that spread over her face and the constant pressure around his cock that told him he was out of the doghouse and could grab his own release without guilt.
And grab he did, until he couldn’t keep himself up any longer and collapsed next to her on the bed.
“That was fun.” She said it with such wonder.
“It usually is, when you do it right.” He immediately cursed himself for being an idiot. Way to make her think she’d been doing something wrong up to now…
But then again, he sort of thought he’d been doing it wrong, too. Nothing he’d ever experienced in the past had come close to what they’d just shared. So maybe it wasn’t so much about something wrong, but someone wrong. And then finding someone right.
He let that thought wind its way through his mind as Veronica curled up next to him and sighed into his neck like a sweet kitten ready for a nap.
***
Veronica woke to the sound of running water. She opened her eyes and saw nothing but darkness. Though the bed was still warm, Dwayne was gone. She sat up and glanced at her bedroom clock. 3:18 a.m. She breathed a sigh of relief. Still plenty of time left in the night… if he wanted to stay.
Pushing through the bedroom door, he appeared, silhouetted in the hallway light. He flipped it off and crawled back in bed, pulling her to him. She sighed and snuggled closer. This was something she had been missing out on. The idea that she could be intimate with a man, even without sex. The touch, the feel of another body close by. The actual act of making love was truly splendid—even the pain she’d read about had only been more of an uncomfortable pinch, then gone—but this. This was what she had truly craved.
He jostled her just a little as he settled further in the bed. “You know,” he said, voice rumbling in the dark, “we really need to do this at my place instead. This twin-sized bed? Not cutting it for my frame.”
She softly laughed and realized he was all but hanging off the mattress on all sides. No wonder, with as tall and broad as he was. “Sorry. I didn’t think that one through, did I?”
He squeezed her tighter. “No worries.” With one hand, he drew light circles down her arm, going up under her nightshirt—which he’d asked her not to wear but she’d insisted—and down to her wrist. With the other, he twirled a lock of her hair. Almost as an afterthought, he asked, “What made you decide you were ready?”
Did he know? Had it been so obvious she’d been a virgin? She fought to keep her breath even.
A twenty-six-year-old virgin wouldn’t exactly be what Dwayne was expecting. Much as she cared for him, she just wanted to have a bit more normal before she could explain her history. So she hedged. “Ready?”
“For us. You know.” He squeezed her hip a little. “I knew you weren’t the type to hop in the sack at the word go. Not that there’s anythin
g wrong,” he added quickly when she sucked in a breath. “To be honest, I appreciated that more than you can probably understand. You know, with my issues. Time was a good thing.”
She relaxed, let her body melt around his like chocolate to a strawberry. “I think we just both were ready.” Me more than anyone. “And it felt right. I couldn’t ignore that any longer.”
He shifted until she was under him, his face hard to make out in the dim light. But the intensity of his look wasn’t hard to miss. “I’m really glad to hear that.” Burying his face in the crook of her neck, he held her gently, and her heart absorbed the sweetness of the moment. “You have no idea how glad I am.”
Because he seemed to need it, she rubbed her fingertips over his back, stopping just before she hit his butt. Unlike her, he had zero issues sleeping in the nude. It seemed almost deliciously wrong, in a good way. But baby steps. Sleeping with a man at all was a massive jump for her. Maybe she’d get used to it.
She prayed she’d have the chance to.
***
As dawn crept in through the blinds of her room, Dwayne shifted over her. He crooned, his honey-tipped voice smoothing over her still-sleepy senses, waking her up with gentle ease. His hands roamed over her body and she resisted the urge to open her eyes, just letting her skin do the work. She wanted to feel him, smell him, hear him. Imprint the memory of what it was like to have a man like him in her bed—so intimately in her life—so that she wouldn’t forget.
And when he nudged one knee aside and high, probing between her legs with his erection, she sighed and cracked one eye to find him grinning over her.
“Morning, sunshine. You’re a hard one to wake up.” He punctuated the greeting with a kiss on the nose and a short pulse against her wet center.
“Mmm. Someone cut into my sleep time last night. And I’m not an early bird.” She glanced at the clock. “It’s not even six yet. Give a girl a break.”
He pushed in, and though her body resisted a little, it was nothing compared to last night. And she was able to mentally relax enough to let him slide in without pain. Discomfort, a little. But the pain was gone, she was relieved to find out.
“This is definitely a nice way to wake up,” he murmured below her ear, nipping his way down her neck to her collarbone. One hand pulled her nightshirt up until he could see her breasts. She managed to resist covering herself, but the automatic flush that took over her skin wasn’t something she could control. Luckily it was still dark enough, he probably didn’t see.
With one hand massaging one breast, he took the other nipple in his mouth. She moaned, then wanted to bite her tongue. What if Madison was home?
“We’re still alone, darlin’. I checked when I hit the head a few minutes ago.” He spoke against her skin, lips brushing an intimate caress over her cleavage before settling around her other nipple.
He’d checked to make sure they were alone before starting another round of sex. Though modesty wasn’t his thing—clearly—he still cared enough that he knew she would mind. Her heart did somersaults in her chest beneath his touch, as she realized that not every man would care.
But that’s why she was comfortable with Dwayne. Because instinctively, she knew he would. He would be the kind of man to make sure her natural modesty was preserved as much as possible.
The slow, leisurely climb to climax was sweeter, more relaxing than before. Not the sweaty race to the finish from the night prior, but more a floating, serene existence that ended as sensually and calmly as the entire thing began. One minute she was feeling the lovely tug at her breast, the next her stomach contracted and spasmed, and she couldn’t hold back the pressure that built below until it overflowed, taking Dwayne with her.
She sighed and loved how his weight settled over her a little more fully, yet still not pushing against her too hard. A man his size could suffocate her, but he seemed to know it and was conscious of how he relaxed. And when he pulled away, she regretted the loss of warmth, the delightfulness of the moment, the quiet—
“Fuck.”
Chapter 17
Well, that wasn’t at all sweet or quiet. That he cursed so violently in front of her, when she knew he took care to watch his language in front of women, was more disturbing than the word itself. She sat up and concentrated on his shape in the dark room. “What?”
He was silent for a moment, back turned. Then he stood up and walked to the bathroom without a word.
Had she done something wrong? New as she was to the love-making process, she didn’t think so. Maybe he’d stepped on something. Their clothes still littered the floor. Or perhaps he’d forgotten a meeting—she glanced at the clock again—at six thirty in the morning…
No, not likely.
Speculation didn’t last long as he walked back to the bedroom, one hand on the back of his neck, completely unaware or unbothered by his own nudity. “Sorry for the language.” When she said nothing, he sighed and grabbed his jeans from the floor, pulling them on without bothering to look for his boxers. After the jeans were snapped, he sat on the bed and held on to her foot, still under the covers. Massaging her instep, he said, “The condom broke.”
The words filtered through her mind. Condom. Broke. She wouldn’t pretend to know everything there was to know about sex. But that couldn’t be a good thing. It was never good when something broke. Mentally she started flipping through the different facts she remembered from her short online search.
He finally looked at her, and his face was etched with anxiety. Her chest pinched a little in confusion, not sure what the problem was or what he wanted her to say. But he spoke first, saving her the effort. “I hate to ask this, and I feel like an as—a jerk. But are you…” His big hands gestured in some random circle.
Oh. That was helpful.
She stared at him. He looked so uncomfortable, so completely out of his element that she had no idea how to respond. Mostly, though, because she had no idea what he was asking.
He finally sighed, shook his head, and started over. “Are you on birth control?” he managed to ask, the words sounding like he squeezed them out of his throat.
“Oh.” Now that was an easy one. She gave him a reassuring smile and crawled over to him, curling into his side. When his arm slid around her and tugged her closer, her heart did another little flip-flop. Being away from him, even for that short amount of time, wasn’t any fun. “I am. It’s okay.”
His breath whooshed out in a relieved gust. “Thank God.” He laid back down for a few minutes with her, mumbling something about how he wanted just a few more minutes before he had to leave to get ready for work.
She listened to his heart for a few minutes, thinking back just moments ago. His entire moment of panic made her curious. Was it having a baby outside of marriage that made him so worried? Or just having children with her, or having them at all? Did he even want kids eventually?
And why was she thinking these things so soon? There was no way she should ask something so personal so quickly. Could she? Should she?
He transferred his weight and she rolled back so he could stand. She covered back up with the bedsheet and watched as he dressed, his moves smooth and uninhibited in the dark of the room. Almost as if he had night vision.
“I’ve got to get to work. But can we meet later tonight?” Dwayne stood over the bed, smiling down at her, his face relaxed once again. All signs of distress or apprehension were completely gone, and he was simply happy Dwayne.
And he wanted to see her again. She resisted the urge to do a little happy dance and nodded. “That’d be nice.”
With a kiss on her forehead, he tucked her a little deeper into the bed that still held his warmth from the night. “Good. I’ll call you later.” And then he was gone. She waited until she heard his truck start up in the quiet morning and the sounds of his engine faded away. Then, knowing she was alone, she got up and did her happy dan
ce, barely containing a little shriek of joy.
She was still a dignified woman, after all.
But a true woman. With a social life, and friends who spoke the same language as her, a job she liked, and a boyfriend.
You could call someone you slept with and were dating a boyfriend, couldn’t you?
Well, she was going to. Because it was a massive step in the right direction. She was in a relationship with a guy who she was falling for more each day, who she had a small idea might really care for her back.
At that very moment in time… life was good.
***
Dwayne whistled as he walked into the break room to nuke a breakfast burrito. Normally he would have snagged at least a bowl of cereal or another PowerBar at his apartment before coming to work, but he hadn’t had the time. He’d wanted to spend every minute that he could in bed with Veronica before leaving.
His mouth curved at the memory of her draped over him. She was so small—though he was rather large in comparison to anyone—but so trusting. Quite a difference from the shy, almost skittish woman he’d met only a few months earlier. In general, she’d changed a lot. Though maybe she was just being more comfortable around him.
And, better still, he hadn’t had a single nightmare while sleeping next to her. Maybe his brain was too tired from the exercise to be bothered. But then again, on a more fanciful—and more welcome—level… maybe the chaplain was right. Maybe Veronica was just that good for him. He wanted to be good for her, too. Though he was going to have to be more careful, he thought with a frown. The condom breaking was bad luck. Nobody’s fault. And thank God she was on birth control herself. But that wasn’t an experience he wanted to repeat. He’d gone through the whole “What’s gonna happen?” thing before with undesirable results. He wasn’t going to do it again.
Officer and the Secret (Semper Fidelis. Always Faithful.) Page 18
