6. Saved
THALIA
For Thalia, the car ride home took entirely too long. They kissed hungrily in the backseat the whole way there. All thoughts she had of a platonic night out with her temporary neighbor without expectations? Fuck all of that.
There was a moment of silent hilarity when they snuck up the stairs to her apartment, hoping not to alert Bill. Not that it mattered. They weren’t teenagers but sneaking was still fun.
Upstairs, she locked the door behind them and took off her coat. Kissing him, she said, “Build me that fire. Be right back.”
While Rick got busy with her request, she used the bathroom. She made a quick stop in the kitchen for a pitcher of water and two glasses and set them on the small table in front of the couch. Then she brought out a thick fuzzy rug and threw that down, along with two pillows.
“I think that’s everything,” she said matter-of-factly, despite her heart knocking against her ribcage. “But, um…how’s your credit score?”
“My credit score?” he repeated with confusion. She gestured toward his pants. “My credit is great. I got checked after I found out about the bum, and I haven’t been with anybody since. How’s your credit?”
“I’ve got a great score and an IUD. No more whoops babies.”
Her tone was light and funny, but she stood twisting her fingers together, until he pulled her down to kneeling with him.
“No more whoops babies? That’s a relief, I guess.”
The way he said it, regret skating along the edge of his joke, made her catch her breath. She could easily picture a baby with him. Maybe a little boy, for the one he’d lost.
Thalia wanted him to rip off every stitch of her clothing and plunge inside her, but Rick seemed to savor each moment of pulling her clothes off and laying them on the table. He smiled at the way she trembled in anticipation as he took his own clothes off.
She’d thought he would be beautiful naked, and she was right. He was big and thickly muscled, not super cut but solid. She ran her hands down that expanse of deep brown skin as the firelight rippled across him. The warmth of the crackling fire was enough to keep the winter chill at bay, but she shivered all the same.
“I love these,” Thalia said, her fingertips tracing the lines and geometric patterns inked into his chest and his arms. “I’ve never seen tatts like these before.”
“They’re Southeastern Woodlands style. I love yours too.” Rick stroked the swirls and flowers on her back and her arms. “You should paint yourself, if you haven’t already. You deserve to be immortalized.”
His compliment was answered with a breathless giggle. “Yeah, right. Look who’s upped his flirting game.”
“I’m serious. Let me show you.”
Rick got up and retrieved the mirror propped against the armoire. He lay it on the floor, positioning it so she could see herself in its surface. On her stomach, Thalia watched him straddle her upper thighs, his big cock bobbing mid-air. Pre-cum leaked from his tip and dripped on the round globe of her ass. She was surprised when he delivered a hard slap to it. She loved the rap of his flat hand against her flesh, loved that sharp sting and the way he hissed when the flesh jiggled.
It made her pussy flood again. Rick lifted off her, saying, “Sit up. Look at yourself.”
Slowly, she did as he told her, pushing up to kneeling. They both looked in the mirror at her nakedness, him from over her shoulder. The glass surface reflected what she’d been afraid to expose. The forces of time, gravity and childbearing had reshaped this body in ways she’d found hard to appreciate. But in the firelight, in the way Rick’s hands touched her tenderly and slowly, with such care, she began to see herself differently.
His voice was hushed, reverent. “Look how beautiful you are.”
She wasn’t prepared for the expression on his face of something close to pain, as if he wanted her so much, it hurt. They watched together as he squeezed her throat gently with his long fingers then ran his hands to her breasts.
“Beautiful tits,” he murmured in her ear.
Her brown nipples hardened under his teasing fingertips. Her breath grew heavier as they watched his manipulation. A moan finally slipped from her when one hand stayed pinching her nipple while the other skimmed down her belly to part her lower lips. His cock strained against the crease in her ass as he found her clit and flicked it gently.
“Pretty pussy. Fuck, I need another pair of hands.”
“I don’t want to imagine you with four hands,” she joked, then another moan slipped out when he pushed his cock between her legs and stroked her folds with it from behind.
Her pussy was so wet against his hardness. She wasn’t sure how much teasing she could take and thankfully he withdrew. Rick leaned forward to bite at the slope of her neck and when she gasped, he squeezed the heaviness of her breasts in his hands.
“I need a taste.” Rick’s voice had deepened to a rasp. He turned her around and lay her down, then proceeded to suck and lick the skin of her throat, then her nipples until she was arching her back, desperate for more. When they were swollen and stinging from his harsh tugging, he sat up and admired his work. “Sit on my face,” he ordered.
“I…” Thalia was suddenly flustered, not just from his kissing and fondling, but from what he’d asked of her.
“I said, have a seat, Thalia.” Rick lay down and pulled her to straddle his face. “Look at yourself.”
When he pulled her hips forward and took his first taste of her pussy, she dizzied with the pleasure of it. Rick set to work, licking and sucking on her clit, fluttering his tongue and swirling the tip in a series of wicked circles. Thalia couldn’t help but play with her nipples while he did, now finding the sight of herself in the throes of bliss deeply erotic. She felt beautiful. Beautiful and wanted .
Thalia gave up self-doubt right then and there, choosing to enjoy this sensation of being so wanted, and reveling in his murmurs and groans as he lapped up her honey. Her trembling increased while his fingers dug into her rocking hips to hold her in place. The sight of his dark head between her legs, the wicked things that tongue was doing to her, all of it brought her closer to the edge. She hung there in the balance, then teetered, fell and crashed into her second and harder climax of the night.
Wrecked, she collapsed onto her hands and knees while Rick slid out from beneath her. He was up and on her from behind before she could catch her breath, wrapping his hand in her braids and pulling her head up.
“Watch me take you,” he commanded her.
His gaze locked on to hers in their reflection. Rick slapped her upturned ass again, hard, and she moaned. She thought that last orgasm had been her limit, but she was already wet for him again, wet and wanton for the cock he teased between her folds. The swollen head slid up and down against her clit and then pushed into her entrance. He hovered behind her, his grasp on her hair tight to make sure she didn’t miss a single moment of this. The pain made her wince even as it made her pussy juicier for him.
The anticipation had her clawing at the rug beneath them, her nerves taut as she waited and then…oh, the thrust came, and he pushed his dick inside her. Stretched her, filled her completely, every inch of him delicious and rock hard. When he bottomed out, they gasped at the depth of their joining.
“Thalia…” Her name from his lips was a purely feral sound.
He fucked her slowly for the longest time, each thrust hitting deep. Whenever a stroke hit too good, making her involuntarily close her eyes to absorb the sensation, Rick jerked her back to attention to make her keep watching. She loved how she looked with her face glazed over with bliss. Loved the deep flush arching across his cheekbones and his heavy-lidded eyes.
“Do you like watching me fuck you?”
“Yes, I like it,” she whispered. “I love it.”
“Me too. I love it. I love —” His words broke off and he groaned.
Rick pulled out suddenly, flipping her onto her back. He pushed up her legs and drove back inside her. This time the pace was quicker, tighter, with his hips snapping into her. Then he went in deep, to her limit, his dick coaxing out every last drop of cream she had left to give him. All she heard now were his deep guttural sounds, and her excited cries every time his cock pounded her just right.
When it became too good, she sobbed. His voice washed over her, dark with excitement. “You need to come one more time, with my dick inside you.”
“I can’t,” she wailed, her head rolling from side to side.
Still pumping in and out of her, Rick pressed his palm against her mound and rubbed her clit. “You can and you will. Now , baby.” And when she arched her back and obeyed him wordlessly, her pulsing walls gripping him, he growled. “ Yes , like that. Fuck, you’re so beautiful when you come. You’re so… Thalia .”
Watching his face spasm with his release moments afterward felt almost as good as coming herself. Feeling the throb of his dick as his cum spurted deep inside her made her wrap her legs around his waist and hold him, tight, until he was spent and quivering in her arms. His cock still pulsed inside her. She was nothing more than a mess of sweat and satisfaction underneath him and she’d never felt better.
Rick rolled off her and held her, looking at her with shining dark eyes. Before he even caught his breath, he said, “Thalia, I already love you. And I like you too. I like you a lot.”
His words jolted her heart. She laughed, something prickling at the corners of her eyes.
“But you can’t. You’re the Red Flag.”
“I know. And you’re my Blue Hair. I don’t want to change you. I don’t want to save you. You surprised me. I want to see what happens next.”
“Okay but are you willing to take it slow? Not just for our sakes. I have to think about what’s best for Ixchel, too.”
“Of course,” he replied. He snuggled her closer as the wind howled outside her window. She’d never felt so safe and warm. “I want to get to know her and let her get to know me.”
“Your job?”
“I might be more useful somewhere else. Building, rebuilding where people need it. We’ll figure it out.”
Thalia had to think about it for all of five more seconds. “Okay, I’m in. I kinda sorta love you too. And I like you, a lot. Crazy, right?”
“Totally crazy.” He kissed her until she was breathless, then settled back to smile at her. “Well. Did Santa bring you everything you wanted?”
She pinched his side accusingly. “Except for that massage. You listened to me talking to my cousin, didn’t you? That’s how you knew about Walter and the rest of my list.”
“I’m not admitting to anything. Did you like your presents?” Rick persisted, raising an eyebrow.
Thalia rolled on top of him, and he smiled. “Ask me again in the morning. I’m not done opening them yet.”
The End