23. Chapter 23 #2
“You and…” He trails off, glancing at the screen.
“Hannah,” I say flatly.
“You and Hannah look at it and talk about how hot I am?”
“No. Hannah talks about how hot you are. But to be fair, she talks about how hot everyone is.” I’m not above throwing her under the bus to end this insufferable conversation.
“I do not,” she protests weakly. I simply raise my eyebrows at the screen and wait until she tips her eyes up and wiggles back and forth. “Maybe Lennon and the new guy in my department.”
“And Silas,” I remind her.
“Matthews?” Lennon asks.
She nods. “Oh yeah. He’s unattainable, though, so I don’t count him.” She pauses to consider, then says, “And Lark’s delivery guy is sexy as fuck.”
“My delivery guy?”
She shrugs again. “I may have had a thing or twelve delivered here.”
“How long have you been staying at my place?” I ask incredulously.
“Oh, did you hear that?” She looks around in the most overexaggerated way possible. “That hot delivery guy must be here with another package. Gotta go!” The screen shakes as she fumbles with the phone before she finally hits the button to hang up and it goes blank.
Lennon backs off slightly but remains close on the couch, and he’s still sporting a self-satisfied smirk. “So, that was Hannah.”
“Yes,” I say simply.
“And you two have conversations about how hot I am.”
I pin him with a look. “You heard her. You’re not special in that regard.
” But even as I say it, I can’t help but notice how his sandy hair falls in waves over his forehead.
How it curls at his ears because it’s a little too long.
How one of his dimples peeks out from behind that smile, and how his eyes sparkle with boyish mischief and a touch of desire.
How the strong column of his throat works against a swallow as my gaze rakes over him.
Not for the first time, my memories of high school Lennon merge with the image of him sitting in front of me.
His dimples are the same, and so are his eyes.
But all of the soft edges have hardened.
He’s fully a man now, and my cheeks heat at the more recent memories of exactly what that age and experience has given him.
“Lark,” he warns darkly. “If you keep looking at me like that, you have about five minutes until I tear your clothes off.”
“Hmm.” I wet my lips with zero intention of changing the way I’m soaking in his body. “Thank you, five.”
His eyes flash, and he stills. I can see the evidence of his desire starting to press against his shorts. My own begins to pool between my legs as I drag my lower lip between my teeth. When my gaze meets his again, those hazel eyes are practically on fire.
“What should we do with the next five minutes?” I tap my mouth with my pointer finger as I consider. “I think I’d like your shirt off first.”
Lennon doesn’t hesitate. He grabs his T-shirt by the neck and tears it over his head.
Ink and muscles are on full display, and I want to trace my tongue over every inch.
I swing a leg over his so I’m straddling him.
His hands land on my hips, fingers inching toward the tops of my leggings.
“I intended to use those five minutes to get you ready for me.” His voice is an octave lower than usual. He sounds like a man on the edge.
I roll my hips against him, and he tilts his head back against the top of the couch with a moan as his fingers grip me tighter. Pure, unadulterated desire fills me from my toes to the top of my head. I’m high on the power I have—that I can bring this man to his knees with a touch.
“They’re my five minutes,” I taunt. “I can do what I want with them.”
“Tell me what you want, Lark.”
You . The word rings as clear as day through my head. He’s what I want. He’s all I’ve ever wanted. There is no life without Lennon near me. Not anymore.
I lift his wrist to my mouth and kiss it. His pulse makes quick, staccato pulses beneath my lips, pounding out the beat of his need for me. I run my thumb over it as I trace the tattoo of a compass over the back of his forearm. “What does this one mean?” I whisper.
“I thought it looked cool,” he says sheepishly. “But after I put those larks above it, I liked that it pointed north to you.”
Well, fuck. I’m surprised he can’t hear my heart cracking open. “That’s…nice,” I manage to choke out.
“Nice,” he repeats in a daze, his voice as full of emotion as mine is. He traces two fingers lightly over my lips. “I’m glad you think that’s nice, because I’m thinking a lot of very not-nice thoughts about you right now.”
“Me, too.” I huff. As his fingers make another pass over my mouth, my tongue darts out to meet them. I draw them between my lips, swirling my tongue around them.
“Dammit, Lark.” He lowers his head to my shoulder as I continue to taste his skin. He grunts as I suck his fingers even harder. “I want to fuck that mouth,” he groans.
I release his fingers, and he trails a wet line down the V of my shirt, just over the swell of my breast. “That sounds like a good use of the time we have left,” I pant. “Are you…clear?”
He barks a short laugh and nods. “I got tested last week after we…” He almost looks embarrassed as he trails off. “I don’t want to presume, but I figured it was a good idea.”
Removing myself from his lap and kneeling between his powerful thighs, I look up at him.
“It was a very good idea.” I hook my fingers around the elastic waistband of his gym shorts and pull them off along with his boxers.
He lifts his hips to help me and kicks the rest of his clothes aside.
My mouth waters at the sight of his cock as it springs free to stand at attention for me.
I don’t know if I’ll ever get over the sheer size of him. Longing for him to fill me collects in my core, but I temper it. Not yet. We still have some time, and I plan to use it.
Gripping the base of him, I lick up his shaft.
Lennon sighs and sinks into the couch cushions.
I taste the precum dripping from the tip and hum my approval before taking him into my mouth.
I let my saliva drip down to wet my hand as I work with it in tandem with my mouth and in time with the Lennon’s movements.
His hands make fists on either side of his legs. When I look up at him, he’s already watching me with hooded eyes, and his parted lips curl into a dazed smile. “Such a pretty mouth wrapped around me,” he rasps. “You want more?”
I nod, and he palms the back of my head to gently bring me further. His tip grazes my throat, and I relax it to take as much of him as I can. The smooth skin of his cock slides in and out of my lips in time with his thrusts. He tastes like salty ocean waves, and I want to drink him in.
“You’re taking me so well, Songbird, but your time is up.” He grips my hair and pulls me off of him with a pop.
“But I want more,” I protest.
Lennon shakes his head, his hazel eyes dark with desire. “It’s been five minutes. Clothes off. Now,” he orders.
“Touch yourself while I get undressed,” I demand. He’s not the only one who can boss someone around, and this power I have over him is still heady, humming in my blood. “I like watching you get excited.”
He complies, his hand working as his powerful forearm flexes with the motion.
I swallow hard as I remove my shirt first, then my leggings.
My bra goes next, my breasts bouncing as they’re freed from its grasp.
Lennon lets out a validating moan as he watches me, his hand still working slowly over himself.
“Panties,” he chokes out.
“You want them?” I drag a teasing finger over the top of them.
“Yes,” he says on an exhale. “Give them to me.”
I peel them off slowly, then dangle them in front of him. He snatches them out of my hand and brings them to his nose to inhale deeply. “God, Lark. You smell like heaven.”
My whole body is on fire, begging to be touched. Luckily, I don’t have to wait because he releases himself and leans forward to drag a finger through my center. When he circles my clit, I all but fall forward, my hands meeting his strong shoulders.
“I need you, Lennon,” I whisper. “Please.”
“You’re already so wet for me. You must have liked the taste of my cock.” He watches his finger disappear inside me. When he hooks it forward, I shudder. “Tell me how much you liked it,” he demands.
“A lot,” I whimper, squeezing my eyes shut. “I want you in my mouth again.”
“There’ll be time for that,” he assures me. “We have the rest of our lives.”
My eyes fly open and meet his questioning glance. Between my legs, his movements stop, almost as if he’s hesitating.
“You mean it?” I ask.
“It’s you or no one,” he says softly, his expression sincere. Hopeful.
Slowly, I lower myself onto his lap again so I can cup his face with my hands. There’s so much uncertainty, but at least we are on the same page about the most important thing.
Him and me. Forever.
I crash my lips into his in a bruising kiss, and he meets it with equal fervor. His hand continues working between us, building an exquisite pressure in my spine. But it’s not enough. I pull his hand from me and raise myself up so I can adjust him underneath me.
“No condom?” he asks.
Shaking my head, I bite my lip. “You got tested. I have an IUD. And I want to feel you. Can I?”
“Yes,” he says on a breath.
I don’t waste any time as I lower myself onto him, his cock stretching me deliciously, almost to the edge of pain. “Oh,” I groan as I raise and lower myself to take him further. When my ass finally meets his legs and he’s all the way inside me, I pause, relishing in the fullness of him.
Rocking my hips back and forth slowly, I find the spot where my clit meets his body. He grips my ass hard with one hand, guiding me. Showing me what he likes. Moving me closer to him and building even more pressure at the base of my spine.
His gaze meets mine, and I can’t look away. He lifts the two fingers that were inside of me to his mouth and sucks on them, never removing his eyes from mine. I lick my lips, my core warming even more as I watch him.
“You want a taste?” He offers his fingers to me, and I open my mouth for them again. My arousal meets his skin in an explosion on my tongue. I moan and lean my head forward more to take it farther into the back of my throat.
“Yes,” he hisses. “You’re such a good girl, taking my fingers and my cock. Look at you.” There’s an edge of awe in his voice, and when I open my eyes, he’s staring unabashedly at me, watching with a slack jaw and a slow release of his breath.
And that’s what sends me over the edge. My orgasm rocks me unexpectedly, and I clench the muscles of my core around him.
He removes his fingers from my mouth and wraps his arms around me, pulling me tight as I cry his name into his shoulder.
“That’s it, Lark. I love feeling you come.
Fuck, you feel good.” He continues to voice his encouragement as waves of pleasure wash over me.
In a few more thrusts, he’s shuddering inside me, too, tightening his grip and moving as far into me as he can get.
I shout out again at the exquisite feel of him stretching me even further.
Our breaths come in heavy gasps for a moment before he lifts me off of him and flips me sideways onto my back. It’s so unexpected that I giggle. “What are you doing?” I say, but my laughter is cut short at the way he’s looking between my legs.
“I’ve never…done that before.” He sounds unsure, but there’s no mistaking the heat in his gaze as he watches his cum drip out of me. “Are you okay?”
Reaching between us, I lace my fingers with his. “I’m great. Are you?”
“Yeah.” He laughs lightly, his gaze dipping between my legs again. “I liked that probably more than I should have.”
“No such thing,” I assure him. Biting my lip, I look down my body.
The grin he flashes me is so relieved, so boyish, that my chest physically aches.
I don’t know how to tell him that I’ve never felt more safe or more willing to explore my own pleasure and someone else’s than I have with him these past few weeks.
Nothing feels shameful, only new. I know I can tell him I don’t want to do something at any time, but he hasn’t yet found anything I don’t like.
As I’m lying here, deeply satisfied and so well-loved, all of that is too big and unwieldy to broach.
So, instead, I just say, “I’m right there with you. ”
He slides up the side of the couch so he can squeeze himself between my body and the back of it.
Tucking a piece of hair behind my ear, he studies me, his hazel eyes bouncing back and forth between mine.
“For the rest of our lives?” he repeats on a whisper, like he’s checking to make sure that wasn’t the heat of the moment talking.
“For as long as you’ll have me.”
He chuckles as he throws his arm over my torso and draws me closer. “Buckle up, Songbird. I’m not going anywhere.”
We settle into each other, the late afternoon light casting beams of gold and orange across the apartment as Lennon traces the lines of my body and we whisper sweet nothings between kisses. And just for today, I let myself believe that it could be this easy to just stay here and never let him go.