Chapter 19 Harper #3
“Must you?” Orion asked, giving the sleeve of the sweatshirt a tug as I climbed back into bed. “Cruel of you to deny me a few of my favorite things.”
I rolled my eyes but took off the sweatshirt, pulled the covers up, and sat beside him against the headboard, curled against his arm. “You’re obsessed.”
“Can you blame me? These gorgeous, perfectly shaped pale orbs…”
“Oh my God, stop.” I groaned a laugh. “But so long as you don’t say ‘milky white.’ Ugh, I hate that word.”
“Milky?”
“Yuck, yes. Moist gets a bad rap, but I’ll take that over milky any day.”
“Fair,” Orion said. “I’m not a fan of caramel myself. I’ve heard that one too many times. I’m not a macchiato, for fuck’s sake.”
“No,” I said, letting my eyes wander over his profile in the dimness, and my fingers trailed up his strong forearm, forgetting myself. “You’re so much more than that. Gold and bronze, and warm and good…”
“You’re getting much better at this, Bennett.” He bent to kiss me softly on the lips.
I took his kiss, let it suffuse me with that warmth that was so him, and then settled back against him.
“I’m not used to…this. I never knew my dad, and my mother’s boyfriends were never role models of healthy relationships, to say the least. This new one, included.” I peered up at him. “What about you? Are your parents happy?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Hard to say. They’ve been together forever.
Mum’s been with Father from the beginning, when he was an immigrant from Nigeria on scholarship to Cambridge.
When he was poor and struggling, starting his company from scratch.
She was with him when he had nothing, and she’s still with him when he has everything. ”
“Sounds like true love to me,” I said. “Not that I’m the expert.”
“I suppose,” he said. “They’re not overtly loving, but I can’t picture either of them with anyone else. They make a good team. Is that romance?” He shrugged again.
“So where does yours come from?”
Orion grinned. “Factory settings. Came with the package.”
This boy…
With a boldness I didn’t know I possessed, I straddled Orion, my knees on either side of his hips.
I took the tea mug out of his hand and kissed him softly at first, holding his jaw in my hand.
The other trailed down his chest, down over his pecs, the hard ridges of his abdomen.
Every part of him honed from hours in the gym and more hours out on the water.
“You don’t have to,” he said against my mouth. “You don’t owe me.”
“I know,” I whispered. “This is not a thank-you. This is what I want for you.”
My lips hovered over his, kissing him hotly. Then I reached lower, finding him hard in his boxer briefs. I gripped the length of him and squeezed. He hissed in a breath. I breathed it in and began to stroke him.
“Bennett, what are you doing?”
“What do you think I’m doing?”
He brought his hands up on my hips, then slid them up higher along my sides before cupping both breasts.
“This is about you,” I said.
“It can’t be just about me,” he said. “Not when you’re like this. Right here in front of me.”
His thumbs made circles over my nipples. In answer, I slid into his underwear and wrapped my hand around him.
“Fuck, Harper.”
His breath came in shorter gusts. I reached down and tugged his underwear off his hips.
A quick glance down in the dimness and my heartbeat quickened.
I stroked harder, kissing him, biting his lower lip, while his hands slid down my stomach over my underwear.
To the center of me that was still humming.
“This is just for you,” I said.
Orion shook his head. “I need something to do with my hands.”
Now both of our hips were rocking together as his fingers began to move in slow circles over the silk material of my underwear. I struggled to keep focus on what I was doing.
“Does it feel good?” I breathed.
“Fuck, yes. So good.”
The chords on his neck stood out. His breaths sharpened. His grip on my hip tightened. I nearly lost my concentration as another wave, built off the first, tore through me. I moaned. Our kisses became hardly more than a hovering of lips and teeth.
“Harper, I’m going to…oh fuck.”
Quickly, I reached to the nightstand and grabbed three tissues from the box.
I stroked him through, catching his release, taking all of it, reveling in the pained ecstasy on his face.
How the muscles in his abs stood out, the sounds he trapped in his chest and how he shuddered for a long time until finally sinking back against the headboard.
“Fucking hell,” he gasped.
I tossed the tissues away and curled up against his chest. Orion’s heart was pounding in my ear. He gathered me to him, and we sank back under the covers.
My body hummed with pleasure, both given and received. And satisfaction that I’d stolen back something good from this horrible night, and this guy in my bed had salvaged more than that. I’d been lost and sinking into despair, and he’d pulled me from the brink.
Tomorrow, the work would begin. Again. The hard, heartbreaking work of holding my family together. But these hours with Orion were mine, and I let myself have that happiness, no matter how fleeting it would be.