Birding with Benefits

Chapter 25

John had a glorious bed.

The decor of his room was as simple as Celeste expected—a few framed nature photos and a lot of books. Big windows with an unobstructed view of desert and sky, now dark and deep.

But his bed, yowza. It was the kind of four-poster wooden frame she’d dreamed about as a kid, except that every post was different. One was topped with a pineapple, though somewhat crudely carved. Another featured a smooth, polished knob. The third was a pine cone, which looked so realistic it could have come straight from the forest floor. And finally, a bird—small, with tucked-in wings and its head just barely cocked to the side. She couldn’t ID it without colors, but the shape and size were all sparrow.

As her fingers rubbed at the ridges of feathers, Celeste realized she was about out of time for what she’d come in here to do, so she hurriedly unclipped her bra and pulled off her underwear, leaving them both on John’s dresser. Pulling her hair out of her bun and combing through it with her fingers, Celeste took one look at her naked body in the mirror over John’s dresser. Yes, she was forty-two, and her body showed both the ups and downs that came with midlife. Her lower abdomen was striped with stretch marks, and her ass wasn’t as tight as it had been a decade before. But she was also stronger than she’d ever been, and feeling at home in her skin.

A skin John had seemed to take quite a liking to.

“Wow.”

He filled the doorway, wearing just his shorts, staring at her blatantly. It was a bold look for such an unassuming man, but she was learning that this was John. Often quiet, but confident when it counted. And very, very competent.

The strong curve of his shoulders gave way to the expanse of his chest, covered in a brush of hair lighter and curlier than that on his head. Rather than narrowing at the waist, his body stayed wide, going straight down to his hips, where a little ridge of bone emerged above the fabric of his shorts.

“Wow yourself.” She cleared her throat and walked to one corner of the bed, smoothing her hand over the rounded post. “This bed is incredible.”

“Thank you.” He closed the distance between them in a few strides.

Her throat tightened. “Did you make it?”

John nodded as he brought a hand to clasp the back of her neck. “Yes. The frame was simple enough, and I used the posts as a practice project. I’m happy to tell you all about it, but maybe not right now.”

She laughed and wound her arms around his neck as their mouths met. Celeste explored John’s bare chest, fingers sifting through the dusting of hair and trailing along his collarbone while one hand worked on unbuttoning his shorts. John pushed her hair aside to reach her neck with his mouth.

After kicking his shorts away, John eased Celeste onto the bed, coasting a hand up her thigh. He crawled over her and leaned down for a series of short, gentle kisses before rubbing his beard along her cheek. “This still good? You doing okay?”

“Yeah.” She sighed as his hand cupped one of her breasts, teasing her nipple lightly. “I’m really good. You?”

“Really good.” His words were spoken just above her nipple, which he then drew into his mouth, making her groan and buck beneath him. He bathed both tight nipples with attention until she was writhing under him.

He chuckled against her skin and rose to look at her. “I’ve been dreaming about having my mouth on you, going down on you. Would that be okay?”

She’d known this was coming. As their texts had grown more explicit, he’d said he wanted to taste her. The thought made her wet, had helped get her over the edge as she used her fingers and imagined his tongue, but now he really wanted to do it, and she… Well, she wasn’t sure.

John’s brows pulled together at her silence. “If you don’t want that, it’s okay. That’s why I asked.”

Celeste’s gaze hovered over his shoulder for a second as her hand idly brushed up and down his spine. She met his eyes again. “I don’t know,” she finally said. “The times Peter used to do it, I just had a hard time getting out of my head.” He’d had a way of acting like he was doing her a favor, and she was too busy trying to be grateful to ever really relax. “I always felt like I was supposed to react a certain way, and then I’d just sort of want it to end, so I’d… you know.”

John rolled to the side, leaning on his elbow. “Fake it?”

“Yeah,” she admitted. “And I think Peter could tell I wasn’t enthusiastic, so he gave up, and over time we just kind of stopped doing that.”

John dropped a hand on her hip, stroking gently. “I get that. No pressure from me. I just want you to feel good.”

“Do you think I’d like it, though?” She snaked one finger up his chest. “If you were the one doing it?”

His eyes darkened, all the intensity she’d seen him have out on the trail now focused on her. “I do think we have a knack for… discovery.”

That word shouldn’t have been so sexy, but it sent heat straight between her legs.

She’d let Peter hold her back from enough discovery over the years.

“I want to try again. I want to try with you.”

His eyebrows lifted, and so did his smile. “You sure?”

“Yes.” She nodded, getting more excited by the second. “I just might not come, and I don’t want you to feel bad about that.”

The hand he’d been resting on her hip moved down, slipping between her legs. She’d enjoyed touching herself for him in his woodshop, but finally feeling his finger on the tingling nub of her clit was ecstasy. She bit her lip and groaned, rolling her hips into him.

He slid his middle finger up and down long and slow, just like she’d done earlier, then drew small, tight circles on her. “Think I can make you come like this?”

“Definitely.” And it wouldn’t take long.

He lifted his fingers and gave her a long slow kiss, then rolled her to her back and settled his mouth near her ear. “So we have a backup plan.”

Celeste laughed and shoved at his shoulder as John rubbed his chin on her neck and jaw before pushing up to look at her. “You’re going to feel my beard on your thighs, and my lips on your skin, and then I’m going to spread you open with my fingers and put my mouth on you. Okay?”

She nodded wordlessly, stunned and turned on by his easy rapport. He was as straightforward about oral sex as he was about identifying a bird, and it was oddly hot. He placed a kiss on her shoulder. “I’m counting on your feedback. Anything you’re not loving, just tap my shoulder. And anything you like, tug on my hair. Okay?”

She nodded again. “Okay.”

John smiled before starting the journey down her body, stopping to draw one nipple and then another back into his mouth. This time, he used his teeth, nipping at her until she was breathing hard and threading her hands through his hair. Then he was giving a slow kiss to her belly button before scraping his teeth over her hip bone.

Her hands went to her breasts, teasing them, keeping her touch light.

John looked up and gave her a little hum of approval. “You doing okay?”

Her lids were heavy, and she smiled. “I’m good. I like… watching you.”

He stretched out for a pillow, which he bent in half, then slid under her hips. She was clearly in the hands of an expert.

He glanced back to her. “Keep watching.”

Never taking his eyes from hers, John put his hands gently on Celeste’s knees and pushed them apart. “Remember the system.”

He bent low over her and rubbed his beard against her inner thigh. She groaned and gripped his hair, giving a hard tug. He answered with his teeth on her skin, biting her gently before tracing the same spot with his tongue.

John used his thumbs to dip into the soft brown curls between her legs and open her up for him. She started to tense, but before she could get too far into her head, he put his mouth on her for a long, slow kiss, using his lips and tongue just as he had on her mouth. He moved slowly and deliberately, like he was savoring his first taste of her.

He came up gasping. “Christ, you taste amazing. You’re like earth and air. Something elemental.”

He lowered his head and kissed her again, harder this time. Then he slowed, tracing his tongue along the edges of her, flicking at her opened lips. It felt… interesting, but she started picturing her anatomy and what exactly he was—

She tapped his shoulder.

He looked up with a smile. “Good, yes, just like that, Celeste. I’m listening.”

He returned to his work, sliding his tongue lower, so that it teased her entrance. She tapped again.

Undeterred, he drew back his mouth and released a long, hot breath, blowing right over her clit.

She gave his hair a hard tug.

He laughed against her, making her yelp and squirm. “You like that, huh?” He kissed her inner thighs as he spoke.

Then he returned his mouth to her, giving her a long, slow lick, dipping past her entrance but continuing until he reached her begging clit, where he swirled his tongue in a small circle.

He closed his lips around her clit and sucked, moving his tongue against her as he did. She bucked in his mouth and both of her hands were in his hair, pulling. It was soft and hard all at once, a sensation she couldn’t find words for, just gasps and whimpers.

He worked her some more, switching the direction of his tongue and changing the pressure of his lips. She couldn’t tell exactly what he was doing or where, but it felt amazing. Hot and warm and wet and safe.

Tug, tug, tug.

But then John’s mouth was gone, and he was shifting up, smiling down at her, his cock brushing against her thigh through his boxers.

“Why did you stop?” She didn’t disguise the shaky need in her voice. “You were doing really, really well.”

He smiled. “I’ll keep going in just a second.” He caressed her cheek. “But we need to be clear on something first. Do you know how many birdcalls I have stored up in this lockbox?” He tapped at his head.

She shook her head with a laugh. “A lot?”

“Hundreds. And you know what other sounds are stored up there now?”

She only looked at him with a smirk and shook her head, wanting to hear him say it.

“The sounds you make when you come.” He bent closer to her. “I know them now.” He tapped his head again. “I know the way you breathe when you’re close, the way you whimper, and the gorgeous throaty moans you let out when you’re almost there. And I know that when you come, you’re silent, just gasping for air as your body rides it out.”

She grasped his neck and pulled his mouth to hers. She tasted herself on his tongue, and it was elemental, even beautiful somehow. She licked her tongue all around the edge of his lips.

John drew back and looked at her seriously. “So no faking, okay? It won’t work anyway, because I know your sounds. I’ll go as long as you want, or I’ll stop anytime and get you there another way.”

“I promise,” Celeste whispered. “No faking.”

He gave her one more kiss before moving back into position and setting his mouth to her with fervor and confidence. Earlier he had created a map of her pleasure, and he was following it now with his tongue. Lick, twirl, suck, lick, twirl, suck, over and over again until her brain was only yes and fuck and so good.

He sucked on her hard, groaning into her body, the vibrations from his mouth going right to her hot, needy center.

Everything was alive in her, climbing toward the same destination. Her hands left his hair and gripped the blanket beneath her as his tongue moved relentlessly, settling into the pattern that was bringing her higher and higher, the fierce pleasure pulsing from her clit all over her body, building up the charge. She was almost there.

Almost there, but then her thoughts flooded in. She was pushing too hard against his mouth, thrashing too much, being too loud. Too shameless, too needy. She bit her lip and held her breath, trying hard to push the thoughts aside.

John’s hands found hers where they gripped the blanket, easing out her fists, entwining his fingers with hers. His tongue moved hard against her even as his thumbs stroked gently against her knuckles, soothing her.

She slowed her breathing, letting herself feel his hands around her, his thumb rubbing in the rhythm he was setting with his tongue. The burning edge returned, climbing again, just within reach.

She’d never come on a man’s mouth, but she could now, she would now, if she let herself.

Say yes.

And she let go. He sucked hard on her once more and her body filled with light, blinding and sharp, throwing spots across her vision. She arched and gasped, mouth open, body rocking. His hands held her steady, his mouth never breaking contact as she hit her peak.

Then he was bathing her inner thigh in slow, sweet kisses, pulling her back to earth.

But she wasn’t ready to land.

“More.” She let go of his hands, reaching for her own breasts. “More.”

John groaned against her thigh and lifted himself enough to look at her. “That’s a word I like to hear. Tell me what you want.”

“Your mouth.” She panted, squeezing her nipples, keeping her climax near the surface, just barely dipping down from her peak. “And your hands, together.”

Before she could worry about whether she’d asked for too much, John bent back down and blew a hot breath where two of his fingers were entering her slowly. The slightest touch from him had her moaning, and when his fingers inside of her curled, he pulled more sounds from her.

She was barely down from coming the first time and climbing back up fast.

“Yes, so good,” she moaned. She loved knowing how her words egged him on, how much he craved her feedback. His mouth sucked at her, his tongue twirling as his fingers curled onto her G-spot, and she was almost there again, shaking beneath his mouth.

And when she got there, it was more than the moment of John’s fingers and mouth playing her perfectly. It was the release of years of accepting good enough and just fine when she wanted more. It was the freedom of spreading her legs and asking for just what she wanted. It was the power of turning too much into perfectly right.

She hovered in that mindless state, blissed out and slack, as John slipped the pillow from under her hips, placing kisses along her lower abdomen and rib cage, then her neck.

“Celeste.” His voice brought her back to earth. “Are you okay? You’re…”

She opened her eyes to John at last. His brow was tight and wrinkled, his lip worried between his teeth.

“You’re crying,” he continued.

Her hand shot to her cheek, which was wet, with tears still flowing.

“Oh god.” She covered her face, turning away from John, horrified. What a way to thank a man for two mind-blowing orgasms. She had no way to explain herself, except that giving herself up so fully had been phenomenal. Healing and comforting in a way she hadn’t experienced sex in a very long time. Tears welled out of her eyes and dripped down her cheeks.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me. That was so amazing. I guess it was a little overwhelming.” She curled into a ball. “I’m so embarrassed.”

“Hey.” His hand ran down her back, then his weight shifted and a blanket was folded over her. He curled around her from behind, the blanket now between their bodies. “I’m honored.” He placed a small kiss on her earlobe. “And for the record, Peter was an idiot if he couldn’t recognize when his wife was faking an orgasm. He should have been paying more attention. It’s a gift to see you like that.”

A gift. John said these things so simply, like he was pointing out an ash-throated flycatcher on a tree branch.

She stretched out beneath the covers. “That was a very nice discovery. Give me a few minutes to recover and I’ll repay the favor.”

“No rush.” She felt him settle his head on the pillow behind her. An arm wrapped tight around her body. “Can you stay the night?”

“Mmm.” Celeste rubbed her cheek against his hand, the borders of her thoughts going fuzzy. Sleeping in John’s glorious bed sounded absolutely delicious, but they had more to do first. “I’m not going to sleep now, though. Just taking a break.”

“Just in case, should I set an alarm for the morning? It’s a school night.”

She shook her head slowly back and forth. His pillows were nice. He was nice. “I wake up with the sun. Not going to sleep, though.”

The last thing she heard was John’s low laugh.