Chapter Ten #2
I didn’t know whether it was hormones or something else, but I couldn’t refuse. I had to know what made her believe she’d keep me occupied while mentally, and possibly actually, shitting my pants.
“How can I say no?” I asked fearfully.
A young man greeted us at the entrance, and I hesitated before handing him the passes.
He could see the apprehension on my face.
“Enjoy the ride,” he said, knowing it would be torture, and I wondered if he said the same thing to little girls whose parents dragged them on the ride kicking and screaming through fits of snot and tears.
We entered the umbrella-covered bucket and sat on the round bench together, her soft hand in mine. She could feel me trembling.
“It’ll be okay,” she said confidently, “I promise we’ll have a good time.”
I tried to listen to what she was saying, but my focus was lost as our seat began to move.
My hands flung out to each side to grab hold of the cart.
A feeling of helplessness overcame me as we slowly rose towards the sky.
The helplessness was soon replaced by nausea as we continued back down.
I started to recall the last time my father took me on a roller coaster.
I was six, and when the ride was done, he slapped me.
“STOP YOUR SNIFFLING!” His voice rang out in my mind. “BOYS DON’T CRY.”
Suddenly, she scooched around the bench, moving until our hips were pressed against one another.
My breath became heavy, and I worried I was going to start hyperventilating under an aerial umbrella.
But somehow, without realizing it, I stopped thinking about death’s approach and retreated into her eyes.
In that moment, high above the ground, she could see into my soul.
I was vulnerable, like a child on a quest for unconditional love.
I forgot I was suspended midair, fearing for my life.
“I told you,” she said softly, sliding off the seat and positioning herself on her knees at my feet, “I’ll keep you safe.”
“What are you—”
“Shhh,” she interrupted my superficial dissent. “Relax. You’re going to enjoy this.”
It was easier said than done for me, but I sat back on the bench while she ran her hands up my pantlegs, hooking her fingers inside my knees and pushing for them to part. Instinctively, I obliged, as she crawled closer, until she knelt firmly between my thighs.
I had to look away, too flushed and flustered to see her hands undoing my belt, to feel her fumbling fingers unzipping my fly, to realize I was holding my breath. But when I finally dared a look, she was right there, her chin resting on my stomach and her eyes locked on mine.
“This isn’t as big a deal as you’re making it,” she insisted, her voice reassuring. And she just about had me convinced when I felt her fingers slip beneath my waistband. I gasped and bit my lip, desperate to keep it together, until she suddenly stopped and sat back on her heels.
I blinked at her, confused, until I saw she was tittering, a hand clapped over her mouth, trying desperately to hold it in.
“Oh man,” she teased between snickers, “I can't believe you went commando.”
For a moment, all I did was stare, baffled, before I started laughing. It bubbled up from somewhere deep and transformed into part chuckle part snort. A chortle. I hadn’t let anything that limitlessly out in forever. Free and ridiculous, the both of us doubled over until tears poured from our eyes.
“Please, don’t let that stop you,” I managed to say, wishing I knew where that boldness had been all night. My laughter stopped as I watched her wipe her cheeks and take in gulps of salty night air. She grinned, careening back in with the devil in her eyes.
“Oh, I'm not stopping,” she promised with an evil smile, the words rumbling against my skin like a low purr.
I settled back into the bench, shivering less from my fear of heights than from her touch. From the impossible intimacy of it all.
“Can’t believe you’re so shy,” she remarked, mostly to herself.
I opened my mouth to speak, but all words were lost when she wrapped her fingers around my already hard shaft, drawing it free from my pants.
Her eyes flickered up to mine again, holding them in place, demanding I not look away and hide again.
My whole body tensed, bracing for I didn’t know what.
I’d never done this before. Sure, Ferris wheels, but not this on one.
But she seemed to know exactly what she was doing.
I swear, she had more control over me, mind and body, than I did.
And when she touched the tip of her tongue to my cock, I swear, I nearly lost any sanity I had left.
The friction of her tastebuds across my crown had me seeing stars.
She swirled around my head while stroking my length with the hand she had used to pull me free.
Time and place became irrelevant. There was only her, taking me gently into her mouth.
By the time she started sucking, my heart was thumping hard enough to feel it against her lips.
I flattened my hands against the bench to keep from reaching out and grabbing her head, from ruining this rare, wonderful dream.
I figured she’d go slow. Ease me into it.
Let the covered gondola rise to its peak before sending me over the cliff.
But she had me sprinting to the edge. All I could do was hold on and hope to hell I didn’t fly out of my seat.
My chest squeezed tighter as I watched her head dip and glide between my legs.
Her cheeks hollowed and her grip tightened until I thought I’d die from it.
Just when I thought I couldn’t hold on for a second longer, the wheel lurched, knocking us off balance. Her teeth grazed my shaft, and she pulled away laughing, leaving me dizzy and breathless and hanging by a thread.
“Oh fuck,” I moaned, my voice echoing over the deserted pier. It came out so loud I startled myself, clamping my hand over my mouth like it would somehow take it back.
She drew back, and I found delight in her eyes.
“Thought you might pass out,” she goaded me, and I swear I caught a hint of admiration.
I swallowed hard, shaking my head like it was a lie, like I hadn’t been lost and found all at once.
“I’m good,” I choked out, trying to sound like I was.
For a split second, she just looked at me, a smile tugging at her lips, and I thought she might kiss me.
Instead, she lowered her head once more, taking me deeper into her mouth.
To the back of her tongue. And then she hummed.
She fucking hummed.
My hips bucked beneath her, reflexively driving myself into her throat.
I would have been mortified if not for the urgent insistence of her hands on my hips, pulling me closer, urging me to do it again.
The gondola creaked and swayed, but I didn’t care. My body was a rocket, locked on trajectory, seconds from launch. I hissed for air, unsure if I could hold out. Even if I could, she refused, pressing her lips to pelvic bone, gagging while she hummed again.
“FUUUUCK.” I exploded with a force that echoed through me, shuddering and gasping, her name loud on my lips as the night sky erupted and burned out and left me limp and panting in my seat.
Exhilaration mingled with embarrassment. The burning shame of another loud noise tearing from my throat while I bucked and quaked through the aftershocks.
She pulled away gently, though my body screamed for her to stay.
I slumped back and watched her wipe the corners of her mouth with the back of her hand, her expression half proud, half smug.
She was glowing beneath the carnival lights that streamed through our gondola as we descended back toward the ground.
"You okay?" she asked, tucking me back into my pants with a tenderness that caught me off guard.
I nodded, unable to form coherent words. My mind was still floating somewhere above us, drifting through the night sky like the paper lanterns we'd watched earlier. When she finished zipping me up, she slid onto the bench beside me, her thigh pressed against mine.
"I didn't know it would be like that," I finally managed, my voice hoarse.
She laughed, a soft melody that mingled with the distant calliope music. "Like what?"
"Like... everything at once." My hands were still trembling. I folded them in my lap, hoping she wouldn't notice.
She reached over, her fingers intertwining with mine. The warmth of her touch was a lifeline, anchoring me back to reality as the Ferris wheel completed its rotation.
"That's a good description," she murmured, leaning her head against my shoulder. "Everything at once."
I could smell her perfume, something floral and light that mingled with the scent of cotton candy and salt air. The carnival sounds seemed distant now, muffled by the thundering of my heart that was only just beginning to slow.
"I've never—" I started, then stopped, unsure how to finish without sounding pathetic.
"I figured," she said simply, squeezing my hand. There was no judgment in her voice. Only understanding.
The gondola jerked as we approached the loading platform, and I felt a sudden panic.
I didn't want the moment to end. Before either of us detected it, the ticket taker opened the door to our bucket, and the ride was over.
I forgot where we were. Lost in her, I had escaped reality.
Stepping back onto solid ground, we headed back to the car.
The ride home was an altogether different experience from the drive out.
Our conversation flowed naturally after, well, she had me flying through literal stars.
I told her about the impossible incident that landed me at the doctor’s the day we met, about the near-death experience I had shopping for cologne, and my goal to become a clinical psychologist one day.
She hoped to become a physical therapist, but more than anything, she just wanted to be happy.
When we arrived back in town, I figured she’d want me to take her home, but that wasn’t the case.
“You can drop me off at the park,” she said curiously before promptly justifying her remark. “It has nothing to do with you. I swear. The short walk home always helps me reflect on the day, and I can clear my head.”
As crazy as it sounded to let a young woman walk through the park alone in the dark, I felt determined to end the evening exactly where it began.
I parked the car and helped her out. Standing there together in a dimly lit public lot, I placed my hands on her waist, pulled her close, and gave her a long and lingering kiss.
I felt like I was back in the air over the pier.
My heart started racing, but for all the right reasons.
“I had a great time tonight, Declan,” she said.
“There are no better words to describe how I feel but to say that I love you.” A rush of terror and delight overwhelmed me at the sound of her words.
“I know how crazy that sounds,” she continued, “but I won’t deny what I’m feeling.
” I could see by the look on her face she meant every word.
It was fucking insane, but she wasn’t making it up.
My insides were lava. The horror of losing her suddenly coursed through my body.
I had no idea what love was. Old people talked about it like a candle slowly losing scent over decades of being unlit. But others made it sound like having the thermostat of your core set to the surface of the sun with no ability to do anything about it.
“I hope I don’t scare you away,” she said in a pleading tone. “I really want to see you again.”
I gave my date a big hug, and while pressed against one another, glided her hair past her ear to return a fleeting whisper.
“I love you too,” I confessed. “To deny it is futile. You’re right. It does sound crazy. It is crazy. Batshit, in fact. But truthfully, I was almost certain I loved you the moment I first saw you.”
“We should do this again next week,” she said tenderly. “Pick me up right here at the same time?”
The night concluded with a blissful kiss.
And then she walked way. As I watched her disappear in the distance, replayed that blowjob over and over in my head.
Two strangers a week ago who were now falling in love.
It was the type of thing found in a sleezy romance novel.
Who could have guessed it would be so wonderful?
Fuck.