Chapter 16
Madeleine
Sapphire was… gorgeous.
I knew how I’d thought it, let myself drift off dreaming about it, before—always been so deep in denial, but she’d gotten me tangled up in knots since the moment we first met.
I mean—I didn’t have a reason to remind myself every fifteen minutes I have a boyfriend if I weren’t interested. Or panic so much about seeing her naked.
That soft, doe-eyed look she had, looking up from underneath me—my body ached for her, along with the familiar guilty feeling that came with it, but she’d insisted. She… wanted me, at least for now.
“Madeleine?” she whispered, and it jerked me out of the reverie, just looking at her, taking her in.
“Yeah?”
She tugged on my shirt. “Please… kiss me.”
Jesus Christ. I wasn’t emotionally prepared for the most gorgeous, sexy woman I’d ever known, saying something like that in her warm, deep… bedroom voice.
I wasn’t supposed to feel this way. But Sapphire wanted me to, for now, so… maybe I could. For her.
I sank down, pressing my lips back up against hers, and I felt the heat flow between us as she hooked a leg over mine, tugging me into her. The feeling of her skirt riding up, her bare thigh pressing against the outside of mine… I was getting so turned on, I felt it thrumming in every muscle in my body. The small moans Sapphire made against my lips, her hands tracing patterns over my back… I dared to slip a hand down her side, past her skirt, down to the outside of her thigh, and she sighed with contentment, arching her back into me. Beckoned on, I found myself dancing my fingers to the inside of her thigh, and slowly inching upward, feeling her body heat…
Christ, I couldn’t believe I got to do this with her. She was like a model, just—unrealistically perfect, and my head spun with a thousand things I didn’t know if it was okay to want from her.
I broke off from her lips, kissing over her jaw and down her neck, feeling every inch of perfect skin, and she rolled her head back, her voice wavering as she breathed my name, which might have been the most erotic thing I’d ever experienced. I shifted my weight up onto my knees, and I moved my hands up to lift her shirt, tugging it out of her skirt and undoing the top button.
“God, Madeleine,” she whispered. I worked down the buttons slowly, reverently, undoing them between three fingers.
“Do you like this…?”
“I like all of it,” she said in half a laugh, looking down at me, already mussed and a little hazy-looking. I wanted to see how she’d look after I’d thoroughly fucked her—
I really needed to keep it under control.
“Good,” I said, bending down to kiss her skin right in the V-shaped plunge of her bra. “Just relax and let me make you feel good. If you like something, say it. If you don’t like something, say it. The important thing right now is just making you feel good.”
She relaxed underneath me, letting me undo the last button, opening her shirt and kissing down to her navel. “And… um… for what you like?” she said, her voice a little wobbly.
“I… like it when you feel good.”
“Oh. Do you not want to, um…”
“For right now, I just want to focus on making you feel good,” I breathed, my lips against the skin just below her navel, and she arched herself up against me, just a bit, slipping her fingers into my hair.
“Mm… well, I want to give you what you want, too…”
I wasn’t exactly keen on taking advantage of her like that. Maybe next time. Not that I had any conceptions I’d be lucky enough to get a next time.
I tugged her skirt down, too, past her knees and over her ankles, dropping it onto the floor and turning back to trail my fingertips up her legs, shifting in between them and naturally guiding her legs open wider. She bit her lip, propping herself up on a pillow, looking down at where I settled in between her legs, gliding my fingertips along her skin, up her waist and over the swell of her breasts, settling at her shoulders and tugging her bra straps down.
“You’re so pretty,” she whispered, catching me off-guard while I was focused on her bra, and I felt myself blush, an uncharacteristic shy laugh bubbling up. Sapphire smiled wider, eyes glimmering. “Was I not supposed to say that out loud?”
“You’re really cute when you do,” I said, bending over and pressing my lips against hers, and she caught me off-guard when she slipped her hands under my shirt and tugged it up. I’d been expecting her to lie there, be passive and let me pleasure her, and I’d stay dressed, but the instant she touched my waist under my shirt, I ached for her to strip everything off me, for her fingers between my thighs, for her…
“Is this okay?” she said, her lips tickling against mine as she spoke, and I nodded without even realizing it. She tugged my shirt up over my head, and I raised my arms to let her, going up on my knees and pulling it the rest of the way off myself when she couldn’t reach, and she caught me off-guard again feeling around to my bra clasp while I was taking my shirt off, and she undid one of the hooks, looking up at me for permission. “Can I…?” she said, tugging the strap, and I—I knew I should have been decent and kept at least something on, but I couldn’t think straight.
“If that’s all right,” I murmured, and she leaned forwards and pressed a kiss against my collar as she undid the rest of my bra hooks, unfastening it and pulling it off.
“More than all right. You’re so gorgeous…”
I flushed with the cool air of the apartment against my nipples, impossibly self-conscious topless above Sapphire, but before I could say anything or get too caught up in my thoughts how I wasn’t supposed to get topless before she did, she kissed the top of my breast, and I felt it like a jolt through my body, her lips moving down and brushing over my nipple sending electricity out to my fingertips. I grabbed her by the hair without meaning to, my fingers curling.
“Sapphire—oh my god,” I blurted, my face hot. She looked up at me, perfect pretty eyes batting innocently at me as she took my nipple in her mouth, sucking lightly, and I felt the eroticism of it rage through me—a furiously hungry sensation, wanting her, needing her so badly I didn’t know how to control myself any longer. Just the thought that I was actually having sex with Sapphire—that I was here in her bed with her mouth on my body—I felt like I was losing my mind.
I unclasped her bra too, and she moved to let me take it off without breaking contact with my nipple, sliding it off and tossing it to the floor. Her breasts, full and perky with a cute kind of soft pink birthmark on the inside of one—I couldn’t take my eyes off her, off all of her as she kissed, licked across my chest and over to my other nipple, closing her eyes as she sucked on it. Losing herself in it. Like it was so good for her…
There was no way this was real. I was having an incredible dream. But I was going to enjoy it.
I broke off from her before my knees gave out, bending down and kissing her again, easing her onto her back and tugging on her underwear—she nodded quickly against me, all too eager, and she whimpered softly as I broke away from the kiss and lowered myself down her body, sliding her underwear off. I pressed a kiss against her breast on the way down, flicking the tip of my tongue over her nipple, and she moaned my name in a sound that sent heat shooting straight to my core.
Dammit. Maybe I’d have to get myself off after all. I was hoping I’d be able to wait and do it after, somewhere in private, but she was such a turn-on I couldn’t help…
I got her underwear off, tossing them onto the floor, and she collapsed onto her back, biting her lip, gripping at the bedsheets while I positioned myself between her legs, spreading them around my waist again. The sight of her spread out naked for me, face flushed, hair messy, and her thighs already stained with her wetness…
“You’re beautiful,” I whispered, stroking my fingers down the front of her thigh. I felt her breath quicken.
“You too…”
“What would you like, Sapphire?”
She blushed deeper, covering her face, looking away. “Um… anything?”
“There’s nothing that… you know, comes to you?”
“Uh. Well…” She hunched her shoulders. “I would… really like you inside me, if we’re being honest, but you know, you do whatever makes you happy.”
I laughed, a nervous sound bubbling up from nowhere. “I think that sounds like exactly the thing to make me happy,” I said, planting a kiss on the inside of her thigh, dragging my fingers down her front and slipping through her folds. She cut off a sudden, sharp cry, bucking her hips up into me, gripping a hand over her mouth and clutching the other on the sheets. Feeling her twitch in pleasure under my touch, her pretty little pink clit practically throbbing under my fingers, I was getting so wet just seeing her I didn’t even know what to do with myself.
“I’m going to put my finger inside you now,” I whispered, teasing one finger along her entrance. “Tell me if you like it, and I’ll add a second.”
She bit her lip hard, nodding wildly, and she closed her eyes with a long moan into her hand as I pushed inside her, feeling her walls tighten around me. The way she was so wet for me, she took me readily, my finger pushing in with no resistance until I hit my knuckle, and I paused there before I crooked my finger up against the tender, soft touch inside her, and she hooked her legs around me, curling her toes.
“ Madeleine, ” she groaned, reaching down and grabbing my wrist. “Oh—god—please,” she gasped. I bit my lip.
“You like this?”
“Mm…” She nodded wildly. I liked getting her to the point where she couldn’t figure out words anymore. I slipped my finger out, all the way down to my fingertip, and I added a second, pushing against her entrance and feeling her spread open wide for me as I did. She rolled her head back, lips parting, searching for words but nothing coming out, just the crackling sound of her desperate breaths as she hooked her legs tighter around me.
I moved, slowly, in and out, feeling the way her hips moved with me, her sharp breaths turning into moans as I slipped my other hand down to play with her clit.
“Oh—my god—Madeleine—”
“Do you like this?”
“It’s—” She squirmed, gripping at my wrist, holding me close to her, and she spoke in a delirious tumble of words. “I-I’m not going to be able to—last very long if you’re—”
“That’s okay,” I said, picking up the pace when I felt her body quivering for it, thrusting in and out, fingers working in tight circles on her clit. “You come whenever you like, as fast or as slow as it happens. I just want you to feel good…”
“You’re so good,” she groaned, collapsing back against the bed, thrusting her hips to meet me with the desperate, shaky little cries, as I felt her tense up more, and more—throbbing harder under my touch, the feeling driving me wild. Her wetness all over my hand, the way she wrapped around my fingers, so soft and so tight, and just—
God, I wanted to hear her come. I wanted to see the face she made. I wanted to fuck her until she came all over me and then get myself off on her, take that perfect pretty little body and ruin it, see those innocent eyes looking up at me between my legs while I fucked her face—
“Madeleine, I want to—” she started, her voice breaking. “Can I—is it okay to—”
I picked up the pace, moving harder, faster inside her, and I nodded, biting my lip. “Let me hear you come, Sapphire.”
“Oh, god,” she groaned, and she rolled her head back, thrusting her hips into me and holding it there as I felt her climax—tightening around me, her hips moving on their own as the waves of it rocked her body, and the sounds she made, straining with every bit of her voice as her hips came up higher, moving with me.
I felt like I’d break just seeing her like this, hearing the sounds she made, feeling her tighten around my fingers, the beautiful and erotic moment there in time before she collapsed, her hand on my wrist stilling me, keeping me inside her but stopping as she struggled, catching her breath, looking down at me with her face red and her hair a beautiful, sexy mess around her.
“Madeleine…” she whispered. I bit my lip.
“Yes, Sapphire?”
“Um… please… come… kiss me,” she said, looking away. I laughed, pulling out of her slowly and moving up her body to capture her in a long, slow kiss, our lips moving together in a hot, wet dance, my tongue on her lips, in her mouth, hers in mine, before she broke off from the kiss and I rolled off next to her side.
“Was that good?” I said, and she rolled her head looking over at me.
“Mm… so much better than I ever could have imagined,” she whispered, caressing her knuckles over my cheek. That simple, small intimate gesture… it healed something in me at the same time it scared me. “Um… thank you.”
I laughed. “You are more than welcome.”
“Do you want to, you know…?” She tugged on my belt loop, and—as much as the eroticism spiked through me, I was through the worst of it now. I could control myself.
“I think I’m pretty satisfied,” I said, stretching out on the bed next to her. “You are… really, breathtakingly gorgeous, you know.”
“Stop,” she laughed, looking away shyly. “Um… if you’re sure. Thank you… that was amazing.”
“It was for me, too,” I said, my voice low, my heart beating slow, and I closed my eyes contentedly when she trailed her fingertips up and down my bare stomach. It was going to turn me on again if I wasn’t careful…
“Can I… make a confession?” she said, and I glanced over.
“What’s up?”
“I don’t, uh… know what comes next. Like… what exactly… do you do after sex?”
I laughed, rolling over to face her, my heart swelling up until I thought it would explode. I just—she was so impossibly sweet and just made me happy and I didn’t know what to do with these feelings. “Well,” I said, putting an arm over her and pulling her into me. “You get cleaned up. But first you cuddle, because, you know, you… you smell nice.”
She stifled a giggle, her face flushing. “Do—do I? I thought that was just a thing in books.”
“I mean, it’s subtle, but it’s there. But there’s also just the cosmetics, you know… it makes me think of you.”
“Ugh—stop it. That’s so romantic,” she laughed, looking away, a hand over her face.
Was I being too romantic? I didn’t know what the hell I was supposed to be doing here. Just…
Now that I wasn’t living in denial, it was kind of easy to see that she’d had feelings for me for a minute now. The little gestures, the lingering touches, the way she’d look at me… I’d thought she was just attentive—and she was—but she never looked at Britt like that. Never looked at anyone like that. Just me.
No wonder I had feelings for her too. Just… wanted attention, I guess.
“Sapphire?” I murmured, and she nestled closer to me.
“Yes?”
What was I supposed to say? What are we? Everything got caught in my throat, and I knew this thing was so fragile and so precious at once, like… like I had everything I wanted balanced perfectly, precariously, on the palm of my hand. One wrong move and it would fall. But… I guess…
“Do you want to go on a date?”
Her breath hitched, and everything hung in the air, tense, nervous, before she turned to look at me, badly suppressing a smile.
“Isn’t all this supposed to… to come after the date?”
“I—listen,” I laughed. “Sometimes things happen.”
She closed her eyes, nestling her forehead against me. “I still would love to go on that architecture tour… and now that I have a place to myself, I’m comfortable enough to buy you some ice cream.”
“Just like that, you planned a whole thing.”
“Mm. I’ve been thinking about it for a minute…”
Even just comments like that made it quiver, this precarious hold on something fragile, beautiful. But if Sapphire could be brave, then—dammit, so could I.
“Here’s hoping, then,” I said, “that it lives up to it.”
“What? Of course it will. It’s you. And ice cream.”
Well, with that kind of logic, who would I be to argue?