Lincoln
J enny doesn’t let me taste her. She doesn’t want anything in return for the best experience of my damn life except to cuddle up on my lap and trace my tattoos with the tip of her finger.
I’m so fucking hungry for her, but I don’t push the issue. I never will.
She knows best what she’s ready for.
Still, I can’t help prowling after her through the apartment for the next few days, always desperate to smell her throat, to touch her skin, to nibble her bottom lip. To feel her arms loop around my neck and hear her relieved sighs. And she always welcomes me, every time I go to her, but she never seeks me out. Not since shattering my world on that sofa.
I try not to think about that fact.
And I sure as hell don’t ask her to kneel for me again.
* * *
“?”
I’ll never get over the way Jenny says my name. Soft and shy and full of so much buried hope. Like she can’t really believe that I’m here, and she doesn’t want to jinx it.
I know the feeling.
I grip my phone tight, tilting my head back to peer up at the stars. “Yeah, sweetheart?” I started this ritual the week I moved in with Jenny—coming up to our building’s roof and sitting up here in the silence, escaping from the urges pounding through my veins whenever my adorable roommate is near.
The breeze is cold and the shadows are dark.
It’s the perfect place to work through my shit before I go back down to her, human again.
“Where are you?” Dread laces her words, and I swallow hard. It’s like she’s waiting for me to run out on her like her last piece of shit roommate. Jenny has no idea how much I need her. It’d be like carving out my heart and leaving it on the nightstand.
“On the roof.”
There’s a pause, and I can just picture her wrinkling her nose. Screwing her face up like I’m the most confusing man in existence.
“The roof? Why are you up there?” Her breath stutters, audible through the phone. “Are you… are you trying to get away from me? I can go in my bedroom for a while if you need space—”
“That’s not it.” Not the way she’s thinking, anyway.
Jenny thinks I’m getting tired of her. But the truth is, the longer I’m around her, the more my restraint wears thin.
“Why don’t you come up here?” I say suddenly, pissed off that I never thought to invite her before. I guess it would defeat the point of getting some silence, but hell, it’s perfect for her courage thing. Operation: Bold Jenny. “Bring a blanket with you, though. The wind is cold.”
“Um.” The moon is waxy and pockmarked overhead. Glowing bright between dark clumps of cloud. “I… okay.”
Good.
I swallow hard, my throat tight. It’s only been a few minutes, and already I miss her.
Jenny clatters through the roof door ten minutes later, grumbling audibly about stairs and blankets and freaking roommates who pick ridiculous places to brood. I grin, lighter already, and call over from my spot against a wall. I’m sitting on the frigid concrete, my back against rough brick.
“Over here.”
Jenny stomps over, then spreads her blanket between my bent legs. She plops down between my thighs, her back to my front, and yanks my arms around her middle before leaning back with a sigh.
“We could do this inside, you know.”
I press my face against her hair, breathing deep. “No stars inside.”
Jenny plucks at my sleeve. “Are you wearing a jacket ? Oh my god. Such an occasion. If I knew, I’d have brought you a card.”
Growling, I tug her closer, burying my face in the crook of her neck as she laughs, and already I’m hard in my jeans. Aching for her.
“You got a letter today.”
I grunt. Probably more junk mail. “Lucky me.”
“It looked like work. There was a travel magazine logo on the envelope.”
I go still, heart thumping. We haven’t talked about my work yet. Haven’t talked about the future. I keep wanting to broach the subject, but each time I try, it’s like Jenny shuts down and then I chicken out.
Jesus. Maybe I’m the one who needs to grow some courage.
“I’m not going anywhere.” My voice is gruff. I sound like such a caveman, but I don’t care. We agreed: she’s mine. I won’t be parted from her, not unless she sends me away.
“It was a big magazine.” Her voice is soft. “A super famous one. It could be a great opportunity.”
“I don’t care.”
Jenny huffs, and she’s rigid now. Stiff as a board where she sits between my thighs. “I know you finished that city series, . I’m not an idiot. What are you gonna do, take photos of the inside of our apartment forever?”
“No.”
Jenny waits, but I don’t have more of a rebuttal. All I know is I’m not leaving her. “Maybe I’ll take photos of dogs in human clothes.”
Her elbow digs into my ribs. “ . That’s not funny.”
My eyes burn as I glare up at the stars, and it’s probably because I haven’t blinked for the last three minutes. My stomach’s lurching, and my chest is raw. I can’t do it. I can’t leave her behind, not for anything.
“What are you saying, Jenny?”
She grips my wrist tight, squeezing with those slender fingers. Some of them are rough, callused with needle pricks from her sewing.
“I was thinking… maybe I could go with you.”
Uh.
What?
I turn my head, like I might hear her better. As if I could hear anything over the blood pounding in my ears.
“Say that again,” I rasp.
“I could go with you. I’ve been working on my own designs, making sewing patterns to sell online, and I can do that from anywhere—”
I don’t even realize I’m crushing her until she lets out a squeak.
“Sorry! Sorry. Shit, do you mean that?” My hands slip under her sweater, roaming over the bare skin of her stomach, hungry and possessive. Can’t help myself. “Do you mean it, Jenny? You want to see the world with me?”
When she nods, her hair tickles my nose. “Yes. Um. If you’ll have me.”
If I’ll have her? Fuck.
The button on her jeans pops open easily. The zipper crunches as it drags down.
“You going to let me in here, sweetheart?” My words are hot against the back of her neck, my breath stirring her hair. Jenny shivers, clutching at my arm as I stroke a single fingertip over the bared strip of her panties. “I’ve been dying for a touch. For a taste. God, Jenny, I need—need to feel you on my cock. You’re coming with me, and you’re mine. ”
I’ve got no business talking to her like this, but I’ve lost my mind. The instincts are finally winning, taking over my body and words and brain.
“Y-yes.” Jenny shifts, her boots scraping against the roof, and I help her work her jeans and panties down, baring her heated skin to the night air.
“Ah, shit.” I can’t stop touching her. Stroking and squeezing her thighs. Every inch of her is perfect, and she’s coming away with me. That means she loves me too, because little Jenny wouldn’t leave this apartment for anything less. “Do you love me, sweetheart? Say it. I want to hear it.”
Her breath catches, but her words are strong. “Yes. I love you.”
“You’re going to love my cock, too,” I promise, tugging my own zipper down. Not to pull myself out yet, but to relieve some fucking pressure, because there are already going to be bite marks from my zipper all the way down my shaft, I’m pressing against it so hard. “It’s all yours, Jenny, and I’m going to fuck you so deep, you’ll feel me in there for days.”
Maybe not the most romantic proclamation, but I can’t think straight. Can’t stop grimacing either, baring my teeth behind her head, because I want this girl so fucking much.
I love her. God, I love her.
“Lean back first.” I may be an animal, but I’m not about to hurt her. No way. And Jenny melts back against my chest with so much trust, her legs parting easily for me, that my gut aches. “Let me touch you. Let me get you ready.”
When my fingertips meet her slick folds, I choke back a groan. Get her ready? She’s already wet and swollen; already rocking into my touch. I circle Jenny’s entrance, then rise up to rub around her clit.
“Oh. Oh .” She’s a wriggly little thing, gasping and bucking. “! That feels— there. Right there.”
“So bossy,” I murmur, sliding my free hand under her sweater; delving under her bra to pinch at her nipple. Jenny sucks in a sharp breath, then lets out a feral growl.
It’s perfect. She’s perfect.
Pushing one finger inside her makes my temples throb. I pull it out and suck her taste off my knuckles, and working in a second makes every muscle in my body snap taut.
“Are you ready, Jenny?” A minute later, my fingers pump in and out of her easily, slick and shiny in the starlight. “You ready to take me?”
Her head lolls against my shoulder, her fingers bloodless where she grips my thighs. “Y-yes. Yes. I’m ready.”
It’s a little awkward, sitting her up again. Yanking my zipper the rest of the way down and drawing out my cock, then helping Jenny up so her ass hovers over my lap, her jeans tangled around her shins.
“This is so ungraceful.”
I nip her shoulder, grinning. My cock throbs as I nudge her entrance.
“Oh .” Jenny sinks down on me with one long sigh, melting back against my chest like she’s climbing into a hot bath. She hooks her ankles over my legs, and then she’s draped over me, relaxed and shameless.
I snort, bracing her hips. “Comfortable, sweetheart?”
Jenny wriggles, taking my cock an inch deeper. “ So comfortable,” she purrs, like the cat who got the cream. I really like her smug.
I like her writhing, too, whimpering and breathless in my lap. I like her searing heat, the tight clasp of her pussy, the slick slide as I pump in and out. I clutch my shy roommate to my chest and fuck up into her from beneath, and it’s like I’m holding the whole world in my arms.
“Mine.” My teeth scrape her neck, then I suck a bruise beneath her ear. “Can’t take it back, Jenny. You’re mine.”
I’m a possessive asshole, but her nails dig ten sharp points into my thighs, and I know Jenny gets it too.
I’m obsessed. She’s obsessed.
And this is it for us. The rest of the world faded away the second we found each other.
Just in case, though, I make her come good and long on my cock, rubbing her clit as I stroke inside her, deep and steady and merciless. And feeling Jenny twitch around me, hearing her breathless gasps of my name, feeling her thighs spasm and her stomach muscles shake—that’s heaven.
My jacket scrapes against the rough brick behind me, and the wind chills my ears. My muscles are burning, and my back is damp against my clothes, and she feels so fucking good. Hot and wet and tight. I never want to stop.
But sparks crackle down my spine, and my balls draw up tight, and I can’t hold back. Can’t hold this off forever.
“Jenny.” I screw my eyes shut, wedge myself deep—and spill my whole goddamn soul inside her.