Chapter 24 #2
He’s so close, his mouth right there, his breath warm on my cheek, but he doesn’t claim me.
He lets me come to him. He might have taken me out of my apartment, but even that, in the end, was my choice.
We’ve been changing and growing together, but he’s always let me initiate.
I didn’t realize either, how much I needed that in order to heal.
My lips meet his. I press harder into him, driving him into the counter, trying to resist the urge to climb him. Mercifully, his hand snakes into my hair, cupping the back of my head, drawing me even tighter.
The kiss is gentle at first, despite the passion simmering in my blood and my need for there to be absolutely nothing between us.
I’ve never wanted to unleash myself and be so devoured in turn.
It’s coming. I love the fire of this lead up.
It’s not gas and flames that burns itself down to ash in a manner of seconds.
This is deep and searching, yearning, all the motion of our past rolled into where we are now.
We’ve already come through the flames. Passed through one hell of a baptism to come together.
Maverick applies more pressure, tilting my face back with his hand in my hair, parting my lips with a sweep of his tongue. I open my mouth to him. When he groans deeply, I take that sound inside of my own body. I take his breath right down my throat, into my own lungs.
I trace the outline of his lips, memorizing the shape of his mouth, before I stroke his tongue with mine.
He buries his hand deeper into my hair and tilts my head back even further, driving forward, owning me exactly the way I craved.
My legs are completely boneless and the rest of me goes so cold, because all the blood and heat flood between my legs and to the pit of my stomach.
I claw at his shoulder, rocking against him, anything to ease the brutal pounding tearing apart my insides.
I lave his tongue, whimper and moan against his lips, bite and nip him.
It’s not graceful and my breathing is a mess of panting breaths, but he needs me just as roughly, and every bit as frantically.
He scoops me up, lifting me so that I can lock my legs fully around his waist and press against him.
He tears his lips savagely from mine, uttering a curse under his breath. “Fuck.”
Right. The frozen stuff all over the counter.
Holding onto me with one hand, he snatches up the bags of frozen fruit.
He walks with me to the fridge and turfs them back into the freezer part at the top.
He has to go back for the container of cream, the yogurt, and the juice, but he gets it all back into the fridge.
He snatches the tuna treat packets up off the counter, then wraps his arm around me and carries me to the basement.
He’s careful going down the steps, holding onto me and measuring each footfall so we don’t go tumbling down.
I nearly cry out when he sets me down on the edge of the bed, but he needs to bribe the cats. Although, waking them up for tuna will probably only make them even more interested in us.
Maybe he thought they’d be bitter that he promised them a treat and didn’t immediately deliver.
We have a stack of clean bowls down here that he got just for the cats. He makes one up for Pumpkin and one for Sprite. They both unfold out of the bed in a split freaking second, and rush over to their dishes.
“Hold on one second.” He has to race back upstairs. I hear the water run, but then he’s back, wiping his wet hands on his jeans. “God. Tuna cat treats aren’t all that sexy.”
I laugh. Fuck it, this is us. Imperfect and messy all the time, but real, and that’s what matters more than anything to me.
I stand up and meet him by the bed. This time, when he kisses me, it’s immediately hungry.
I love the taste of him. Mint and sharp edged desire.
He sucks my bottom lip, grazing it with his teeth gently.
I part for him and his tongue finds mine, dancing and stroking.
I feed him desperate whimpers between breathless panting.
I capture his hand and bring it between us, guiding him up to cup my breast over my sweater.
I gasp against his lips as his thumb rolls over my hard nipple.
A shiver wrenches along the length of my spine.
My hands flutter at the hem of his t-shirt. Between kisses, I guide it up, smoothing my flat palms along the hard ridges of his abs, up his pecs, past the bulging muscles of his shoulders.
I take a moment just to appreciate him, gaze raking hungrily over the hard bulge in his jeans, up his chest, all the way to the dark pools of his eyes with the honey gold flecks swimming in their depths.
His eyes stay on me, burning hot and bright as any star when I lift my sweater up. I peel it away along with my camisole. I undo the clasp of my bra and strip that away too.
My hands land like a butterfly, trembling on the waistband of Maverick’s jeans.
I undo the button and the zipper, practically vibrating with wild energy.
He steps out of his boots, but grasps my hands in his, keeping them glued to his jeans even while he moves.
He uses my hands to guide the denim down his muscular thighs and then off his calves.
I can practically hear his teeth grinding as he struggles to maintain his restraint.
I guess whatever leash he kept on it snaps because suddenly he hauls me up out of nowhere.
I bite down on a scream right before he smothers any further sounds of shock with a brutal kiss as he takes me down to the bed.
He lands on top of me, catching himself, arranging my limbs around him even as my arms naturally curl around his shoulder and my legs struggle to get wide enough to fit him inside of the cage of my body.
He kisses me breathless and then starts a slow, determined trail down to my nipples.
He pinches each one in turn before sucking them into his mouth and swirling his tongue over each bud.
He nips the left one and I writhe against him, letting out a sound of pleasure that is mostly just a hiss of air from my deflating lungs.
He keeps sliding down my body, kissing every inch of my skin until he’s off me just enough that he can grasp my leggings and tug them down. When Maverick tugs them free, it’s just my bare skin and the kiss of air, and the heat coiling in my belly and in my limbs like a snake about to strike.
He smooths his fingers down my seam, smearing the wetness all over me. When I open my eyes and look down at him, he senses the movement, tears his head up, and slowly brings his glistening fingers to his mouth. His eyes close as he sucks them.
“Mmmm. Delicious.” His hand splays over my mound. “Beautiful. So fucking gorgeous.”
“Take your cock out,” I say, going for haughty but of course sounding like I’m one second away from losing all control. “I want to see how badly you want me.”
He arches back and kneels on the bed, then slips his boxers down, his eyes never leaving my face.
I watch as his cock bobs out, swollen and red at the tip, glistening with precum.
He sheds his boxers and then fists his cock, sweeping his hand from the base all the way to the tip.
His eyes shutter closed as he swipes his thumb over his slit, gathering up the moisture.
He surges forward and brings his thumb to my lips, pressing down just hard enough that they part in anticipation. The salty brine of him bursts over my tongue. I rake my hands into his hair, pulling him down to me.
There’s nothing between us now, only our bodies.
His cock throbs so close to my entrance.
I kiss him until I need breath, and then I pull away and stare up into his beautiful face.
The light down here isn’t great, but it casts golden highlights and shadows on his chiseled features, hardening and softening in turn.
I love that his lips are swollen like mine, and that there’s a faint bit of red creeping up his neck.
His eyes are dark and blown out, but golden flecks from the light still dance in them.
“Make me come alive,” I tell him, pouring my heart into every word. “You already have. My heart. My soul. My body. Make me entirely yours.”
He brings my hand to his beating heart, mirroring the sentiment.
He’s close enough to the edge of the bed that he can reach over and slide the drawer of that small table open. He pulls out a foil packet, tears it open, and glides the condom down his length.
I watch with rapt fascination. He gets the condom in place and drapes himself over me like a shadow on a wave on a hot day.
I curl around him, our bodies a perfect fit already.
He inhales sharply right near my lips and then exhales.
I can taste him before he even kisses me.
He takes his time, half pleasure and half torture, teasing my lips as his cock bumps against my clit, driving me wild.
I reach between us and guide him down to my entrance.
Even when I wriggle against him in encouragement he doesn’t just ram home.
He doesn’t even slip inside a single bit until his gaze meets mine.
He holds it, his face so close that I can count every single dark eyelash and make out all the unique patterns in his irises.
He’s so strong above me, his body once again a shield between me and the world, that I feel almost fragile beneath him in comparison.
I’m so much smaller, but I know he’ll be gentle.
He’s the one who pulled me out of my cage and started to mend my torn, crippled wings.
He was planting seeds in the soil of my heart long before we met, and the second he walked into my life, he brought the rain and the sun to encourage them to grow and bloom.
He’s seen me at my worst. He knows what I’m like.
He knows all the things that I can’t do.
He’s seen all the ugly moments, the hopeless ones, the parts of me that are just straight up terrible.
He knows that I need endless improvement, but he’s still right here with me.
He didn’t just give me letters. He’s still writing them.
I know that he’ll never stop, even if the words aren’t written in ink on paper.
Even if they’re written straight into my heart.
Maverick seemed to be waiting for something in my face. It’s only now that he pushes forward, filling me slowly. I’m so achingly wet, so eager to have him inside of me at last, that the stretch and burn is all part of the pleasure.
I have zero control left. I want to beg him to fuck me all the way. I can’t get the words out, but I do cant my hips against him, opening myself up.
“Please,” I groan, finally finding at least one word. I want him to let go. To fuck me hard. To drive into me and use me, to be as feral and unleashed as I feel.
He surges inside of me, unable to hold himself back.
I love the second that the chains fall away and his restraint snaps.
He fills me all the way to the hilt, groaning out at the pleasure of it.
I make a sound that is equally as dark and needy, clenching my thighs tight around his hips as my pussy ripples around him.
I grind my head into the pillows as he glides back, hands warm and rough against the silk of my skin.
He slips both of them under my ass, driving me up into the air and spreading my legs around him as he repositions himself.
The next thrust bottoms out inside of me, hitting spots that I didn’t know existed, lighting me up.
I can feel how tight I am around him, how my body begs for more, rippling around him, trying to keep him inside of me every single time he thrusts all the way in.
I open my eyes a crack just to watch Maverick straining above me.
The veins on his neck and temple stand out.
They pop out all along his forearms as he holds me up, bracing me for every brutal thrust. His eyes are squeezed tightly closed, a look of pure concentration on his face.
His jaw is firmly set and every muscle below his neck is tightly tensed.
He’s a work of art, and every single bit of that artistry is channeled into our pleasure.
Every stroke takes me closer. I’ve never been so full.
My eyes shut and I throw my hands overhead, flattening my palms against the headboard, bracing myself. Maverick thrusts even harder and wilder, pounding into me so hard that the sound of our bodies slapping together echoes through the basement.
Silently, Maverick leaves one hand supporting my hips, but he curls over me, wrapping his fingers lightly around my throat. He doesn’t squeeze. Just pins me in place, owning me completely, inside and out.
I’ve wanted this so badly that I’ve dreamed about it and tonight it finally felt right.
It doesn’t take much more than a few thrusts and I’m shattering around him.
My walls ripple and spasm as I come apart.
My panting, sharp breaths are loud bouncing off against the concrete, but the only other sound I can make are little whimpers, begging for more, letting Maverick know how good the pleasure is as it grips my body and wrings me out.
Maverick surges so hard inside of me and then I know he’s coming, his body trembling, muscles shaking.
All I feel is heat inside of me as he groans at the pleasure.
He keeps me perfectly balanced in his hand and somehow still finds my mouth, kissing me frantically, his hips still pistoning slowly, cock churning inside of me.
He kisses me for a long time, even when the frantic passion fades and cools. The kisses are sweet, his lips, his body, the weight of him pressing down on me and the thickness filling me up, even more sensitive after my climax, are all I need in the world.
“I love you.” The words unspool against my lips, hot and tender.
I was wrong. I needed that too. Always.
I want to say that I haven’t known true peace since the night of the attack, but I wonder if I ever did. I don’t think so. Not like this. Peace isn’t just the absence of struggle. It’s a deep and total sense of freedom.
It’s the life I want to build with this man.
I shift my hands, curling them around his back and shoulders and pulling him down to me so I can hold him even tighter, until there’s nothing between our sweat-slicked skin.
“I love you.” I feed him the words, let them play over his lips, let our combined breath and our surging heartbeats stand as our truth.