26. Pearl
CHAPTER 26
Pearl
R hett brushed the hair off my face and dipped his head to touch his lips to mine in a long, slow kiss, like we had all the time in the world.
He dropped his head and pressed a kiss to my collarbone, his hands cupping my ass, rubbing himself against me. Then his hands ascended from my hips, tracing my breasts, to cup my face.
“Baby,” he whispered, his lips grazing mine. He nibbled against my lips again, and I leaned in, wanting more.
“More,” I moaned.
His tongue slid against mine, and I tasted him, salty, sweet, incredibly erotic. The kiss went from soft to passionate in seconds. My hands were behind his neck, pulling him closer.
I fell into him, trusting him, as our mouths tangled for dominance .
“Pearl,” he said my name breathlessly, like I was the most amazing thing in his life. He tilted my head, and this time, the kiss was desperate. We’d been dancing around us for weeks.
“I love your kisses,” he claimed, running his fingers through my hair.
“They’re the fucking best,” I agreed.
He laughed.
I brought my lips to his again, and this time, I arched into him, wanting more. His hands ran down my hips and cupped my ass again.
“Oh God, baby,” he all but whimpered into my mouth and rocked his erection against me.
“That’s my line,” I breathed.
He chuckled.
“Can we take your shirt off?” I asked, my hands hungrily wanting to touch his skin. He looked hot in a tuxedo, and I’d enjoyed seeing him take off his jacket casually, and now I wanted it all gone. “I want to touch you.”
“Yeah?” He didn’t sound sure that I wanted him.
“I want you.”
“Oh, baby, I want you, too.”
I couldn’t believe what I was saying and how he was responding. I’d gone from wanting to go into darkness to wanting everything life had to offer…and that, right now, was orgasms from Rhett.
Suddenly, he picked me up, bridal style, and I squealed.
“I think we need a bed for this,” he announced .
He kept kissing me as he carried me to bed, his tongue licking mine. He was needy and eager, just like me. He set me down by my bed, and we went at each other hungrily. I pushed his dress shirt up, and he helped me, yanking at his cufflinks, which I heard land on the hardwood floor with a soft clink .
His hands gripped my tank top, and I froze. It was for a moment, but we both felt it. He waited, not asking for more.
I licked my lips.
“I don’t know how I look,” I confessed.
He smiled and smoothed his hands over my torso. “You look beautiful. You always have.”
“I have a lot of stretch marks.”
“Okay.”
I took a deep breath. “And…everything is lumpy.”
He circled my waist and squeezed. “You feel so good, Pearl.”
He cupped my breasts, and I moaned. He pinched my nipples, and it felt so damn wonderful. He gently pushed me onto the bed, and I opened my arms.
“Lie down with me,” I offered.
Trust was complicated for me, but Rhett had shown me who he was over these past weeks. Slowly, I was letting go of the past—of the young Rhett who, as this older and more mature man now admitted, had messed up.
He lay down next to me and pulled me to him for a kiss. His hand slid under my shirt.
Skin against skin .
I whimpered.
His hands were everywhere, touching, feeling, learning. He didn’t undress me, and I knew he was waiting for me to take that step. His hands glided under the elastic of my sweats, and… fuck …he cupped me.
“Oh God.” I arched my back, and my legs opened on their own accord, like I was drugged.
He slipped a finger inside me, and I reached out to cup him through his tuxedo pants. He fucked me with two fingers, and I kept kissing him as he did, wanting his taste inside of me. My hands squeezed his cock.
He was hard, God, but he was.
His thumb came to rest on my clit, and he pressed hard just as he inserted a third finger inside of me.
“Rhett,” I cried out as an orgasm slammed into me, crashing through all the walls I’d put up for years. It was amazing. And I wanted more .
My hand began to jack him off through his pants, and he groaned. “I’ll come, baby.”
I began to pump him in earnest, wanting very much to take him where I’d just been. He let go, and I felt his pants dampen as he did, his face buried against my neck.
We both fell onto our backs, struggling to catch our breath. My hand moved away from his sticky cock, and his fingers slipped out of me. I looked over at him and found him watching me, and just like that, a giggle slipped out of me. He quirked an eyebrow, and I grinned. “That was… wicked . ”
He turned sideways and raised himself on an elbow. “Yeah, it was.”
“You came in your pants.” I couldn’t stop laughing. It wasn’t because anything was particularly funny—it wasn’t. I was laughing because…I was happy.
He chuckled. “I certainly did.” He dropped a quick kiss on my mouth. “I’ll clean up, and then we can go to bed, yeah?”
I was in awe of how domestic all this was. We would go to bed together, like we had been doing for days, as if it were normal.
“Did you think I was fat when we…you know…the first time?” I couldn’t say the words.
“What exactly are you asking, darlin’?” Rhett traced a finger down my cheek.
We lay in bed, facing each other. I was too revved to fall asleep, and so was he.
“You know what I’m asking.” I glared at him.
He lifted himself to kiss my nose. “I always thought you were beautiful. Even then . We were young, it was your first time, and I’d had a few sexual?—”
“Few?” I mocked.
“Few,” he maintained. “I was seventeen, Pearl.” He traced my lips with a finger, his eyes somber. “You were so sensual. I’d never had sex with someone so into it…an d, in fact, so innocently into it. You didn’t make sounds because you heard it on a porn video. You were genuine. I loved that. I loved making love with you.”
“Then why?” I asked, my eyes filling with tears.
He looked in pain when he saw that I was still hurt from what had happened half a lifetime ago.
“I didn’t want to admit that I’d fallen for the….”
I waited a long moment, but he remained silent.
“Say it,” I ordered.
“Don’t make me, Pearl,” he begged.
I shook my head as tears rolled down my cheeks. “Say it.”
He took a deep breath as he wiped my tears. “That I’d fallen for the fat girl.”
“You thought I was fat?”
He shook his head, and I saw his eyes were moist as well. I wasn’t the only one hurting, and somehow, because he carried part of the pain, it was lighter inside me.
“I thought you were smart, beautiful, fun, interesting. I thought you were special. I wanted to spend time with you. I enjoyed talking to you. I hated what I did to you. For years , Pearl. The first time I apologized…fuck, I was such an asshole.”
I chuckled. “You were.”
“I was surprised to see you in Savannah for Spring Break. I…I’d been waiting for years to say I was sorry, and then I bungled it.”
I sniffled. “You refused to validate how I felt, Rhett; instead, you focused on how being cruel to me made you feel. ”
“I know.” He rolled over so he was on top of me, cradling me with his body. “I’ll never hurt you again, not intentionally.”
I couldn’t speak because my emotions were loud, clanging inside me like cymbals at a parade.
“Please forgive me.” He kept kissing me as he spoke. My lips. My forehead. My cheek.
“I do.”
“Yeah?”
I gave him a watery smile. “I can’t forgive the boy, but I forgive the man.”
“I know it’s too soon. I understand that. But I need to tell you, Pearl. I love you. I have fallen in love with you.”
I gaped at him.
He nuzzled my nose. “I’ve never been in love with a woman. I didn’t even know that was what I felt until I saw you in your bedroom that day. I don’t want to live my life without you.”
I didn’t know what to say. I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him gently. “I don’t know how I feel.”
“I didn’t tell you because I want you to reciprocate; I told you so you know to trust me. We’re goin’ to date. We’re goin’ to do this right.”
“We are?”
“I know it’s ass-backward since we had sex fifteen years ago, and I just gave you the best orgasm of your life.”
“Someone is arrogant.”
“Best orgasm of your life,” he repeated with a grin. “But we’re goin’ to take our time, date, get to know one another. We’re not goin’ to worry about what people think or say; we’re just…gonna be us.”
“That sounds good,” I murmured, looking into his brilliant eyes. “When will we start?”
“You’re not paying attention, darlin’, ‘cause we already did.”