Romeo
A fter the call was disconnected, Briana excused herself, leaving Becca and Tessman standing alone in his office with the door closed.
Becca glanced around, checking out the place Tessman spent more time at than his own apartment.
She walked up to a large poster that hung over the couch, where he’d said he slept often.
It was a stunning photo of the silhouette of a scuba diver in beautiful blue water with a vibrantly colored coral reef to one side and thousands of brilliantly colored fish swimming all around him, but mostly above him where the water was a lighter blue that transitioned to nearly white at the waterline, the bright sun shining into the top layers of the water.
“Don’t fear death, fear the un-lived life,” she said aloud, reading from the poster.
Her gaze then settled on him.
“Said Angus Tuck in the book Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt.”
“Was it? I wouldn’t know,” he said, impressed she knew that off the top of her head.
“Does that pretty much sum up your approach to life?”
Tessman grinned that half-smile, half-smirk at her.
He wasn’t sure how to interpret that statement, nor could he read her attitude towards it.
“You’ve figured me out.”
Her lips spread into a grin.
“I doubt that.” She stepped into him and wrapped her arms around his neck.
“But I’d like to see more inside of Carter Tessman’s world, so just maybe, I could figure you out.”
Tessman glanced at the door to be sure it was closed before he wrapped his arms around her lower back and pulled her all the way into himself.
“I’m a pretty simple guy. What you see is what you get, unlike you, who continually surprises me.”
She shook her head, disputing it.
Their eyes locked, and they both felt the magnetic draw.
Their lips neared, and they shared a kiss that was lengthy and passionate.
After a few pleasurable moments of enjoying the kiss, she pulled away, just far enough to break the contact with his lips.
Gazing deeply into her eyes, he saw unasked questions and maybe even a statement by her that was bubbling there, wanting to get out.
“I don’t think I’d ever get tired of doing that.” He tightened his arms just enough so that she’d feel it.
“But you have something else on your mind than how incredible that kiss was.”
Becca nodded.
“It was incredible. This closeness is incredible.” She paused.
“But?” he prompted.
“I wouldn’t ever pick someone who does a dangerous job to be involved with, but I can’t deny the attraction I feel to you or how amazing it feels when we kiss. Or how much more I want when we touch. I haven’t felt this way in a very long time. I wish I’d met you at a different time in my life.”
He wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but he was sure it didn’t bode well for him or any continuation of this relationship.
“We can’t pick the timing. And I don’t think we should let what we think is supposed to be the right timing or the wrong dictate anything. And as far as what I do, my job, it’s who I am. If you don’t think you can deal with it, I’d first ask you if you’d give it a try before deciding. And if you won’t do that, then I’d ask you to give me one incredible night before you walk away. Memories are better than nothing, and I’d rather have the memories to go along with the heartbreak of never seeing where this could have gone, than have nothing at all.”
She sighed an emotional release and dropped her head against his shoulder.
“And if I completely fall for you and something happens to you?”
Tessman gently lifted her chin until she looked him in the eyes.
“You’ll live through it just as you’ve lived through the horrible loss of your sister and her family. I can’t promise nothing will ever happen to me at work, and I can’t promise nothing will ever happen to me anywhere else, either. I’m not an adrenaline junkie. I don’t put myself in dangerous situations for the thrill of it. I do what I’m trained to do, training that few others have, to protect people from the very bad people who are out there. I’ve served my country all of my adult life and I’m not going to stop doing it anytime soon. I’ve seen a lot of death, Becca, caused my fair share of it, too. But since meeting you, I’ve realized my life is lacking one special person in it, who I can say is mine and that I’m hers, someone I can be all in with. I never thought I wanted that until you were in my life.”
Becca saw nothing but honesty in his return stare.
She felt vulnerable and raw.
Her heart pounded in her chest. She’d professed her feelings, but she wasn’t ready to be what he wanted and needed.
“I want that with you, but I don’t feel I’m in a place to be all in. And if you were, and I wasn’t, that wouldn’t be fair to you, and it wouldn’t work. Can you give me some time?” If he couldn’t, she knew it would crush her.
“Whatever you need,” he said, his hand which had been holding her chin, now gently caressing her cheek.
“I want to be here for you, to help you through this any way I can.”
She nodded.
“And you are helping me a lot. But I feel so conflicted. I feel this overwhelming sadness along with this anger that I can’t direct anywhere. While we kissed, I didn’t think about anything but how good it felt and then when I realized that was the case, I felt guilty for feeling good.”
Tessman tapped his lips against hers.
“I think you need to do a whole lot more of it if you think of nothing but feel good when we kiss. You deserve that after the shit-show you’ve lived through these last few weeks. No pressure, Becca.”
He pressed his lips to hers again, determined to keep any sad thoughts from her mind.
The one thing he couldn’t do was keep his hands from roaming.
God, how he wanted to strip her clothes from her and feel the skin on her ass rather than the blue jeans beneath his touch.
The kiss lasted much longer, and his hands greedily explored any place on her body they could reach.
He ran his hand up her bare back, beneath her T-shirt, enjoying the sensation of her soft flesh.
When his fingers began to work the fastener on her bra, she pulled away.
“Carter,” she said in a breathless whisper, her palms firmly pressing against his shoulders.
“Sorry, I was lost in that kiss, forgot where we are.” He held her bare back with both his hands, didn’t withdraw them like someone caught with their hand in the cookie jar.
He pressed another kiss to her lips and softly ran his hands up and down her back.
The heat from his hands on her back seared her, flesh against flesh, making her want more.
Those kisses were intense.
Maybe he was right. She needed to just go with it and let herself feel what his kisses and his touch brought her.
It was satisfying as well as igniting.
It was exciting and indulgent to give into the desire she felt for him.
Within a few short moments, they were back at the heightened state they’d been in when she’d put the brakes on his advances.
His pants were uncomfortably tight, his cock throbbing to be let out.
He slipped one hand out of the back of her shirt and pulled her right leg up and partially wrapped it around his leg so he could more snugly nestle his cock up against her clit.
He wanted her to feel him, even if it was just through their jeans.
He thrust himself against her and circled his hips.
Becca broke her mouth free and gasped at the immense pleasure his body brought hers, and they were still both fully clothed.
With her head thrown back a bit and turned to one side, Carter pressed hot, wet kisses to her neck.
His kisses on her neck caused ripples of need flowing right to her intimate places.
She knew she should stop this before it went further.
The problem was, she didn’t want to.
She wanted this. She wanted more.
Tessman watched her chest heave with each breath she drew in.
Her nipples were erect beneath her T-shirt, which he clearly saw as her bra was not padded.
His lips made their way down her neck, across her chest. The curve of her round breasts peeked out from beneath the low neckline of her T-shirt.
He ran his tongue under the fabric, rewarded by a gasping moan escaping her parted lips and a shiver that ran through her body.
He pressed on. He kissed over the fabric until his mouth was poised over a nipple.
He blew a hot breath over it and gently bit down.
Becca moaned the most erotic sound he’d never tire of hearing, squirmed, causing more pressure against his cock, and she pushed her breast farther up into his face.
He nearly came in his pants.
If only they were naked.
“Carter,” she moaned, “Is it safe here in your office?”
And he thought when she’d said his name that the word no would follow.
“Yes, but the apartment would be safer.” He gazed into her eyes.
“I want to make you feel really good. Imagine how a couple of orgasms will make you feel.”
The look in his eyes was pure passion.
She didn’t doubt for a second that he could easily give her a couple of orgasms. And she’d bet they’d be intense.
She nodded.
He opened his office door and led her from the room, encountering no one as they hurried to the stairwell without a word spoken.
They mounted the steps and were up on the ninth floor and in front of the door to the apartment moments later.
Once inside, with the door closed and locked, he again gazed into her eyes, looking for any signs she was having a second thought.
Seeing none, he took her into his arms and picked up where he’d left off with deep kisses and roving hands.
He only broke the contact long enough to push her shirt up and over her head.
Then his hands reveled in her soft, hot flesh.
Becca tingled where his fingers traced over her bare skin.
With her shirt off, the heat from his hands warmed where they touched.
This time, when his fingers worked the clasp at the back of her bra, she didn’t pull back, didn’t stop him.
And when his hands felt over her breasts, followed by his lips lathing kisses and suckles, she focused on the pleasure she felt and nothing else.
“The window,” she said, motioning to the open curtains over the window, which showed the brilliant sky ablaze from the setting sun.
“All the windows have privacy film. No one can see in,” he said.
Tessman tore his own shirt off, overheated and needing to shed all his clothing.
Then he undid the button and lowered the zipper of her blue jeans.
Instead of peeling them off her, he ran his hands down the back of her jeans, under her panties.
He cupped her bare ass with both his hands as he kissed her, making love to her mouth with his.
She panted and moaned, spurring him on.
A hand thrust down the front of her pants followed as one of his knees parted hers to give his hand room to feel over her, which garnered him an even louder moan when his hand came in contact with her drenched folds.
After he took a few minutes to run his fingers in all the right places, he dropped to his knees in front of her and worked the fabric from her.
She now stood in front of him, completely naked, the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen.
He leaned in and gave her open-mouthed kisses, his tongue making love to her.
When his tongue penetrated her intimate lips, the sensation was intense.
Becca shuddered and gasped.
She tried to back up, but Carter wrapped an arm around her hips and increased the licking and sucking.
“Oh my God!” she gasped.
Tessman pulled away just far enough to be heard when he spoke.
“I’m not stopping until you come.” Then he thrust two fingers inside her and resumed flicking his tongue over her clit until her knees slightly buckled and she did just that.
Becca was in a post-climax daze when Carter laid her on the bed.
She heard him in the bathroom, the water running.
He returned with a towel, patting his face, which had an erotic smile on it.
She watched as he kicked his boots off and shed his pants and underwear.
His erect cock sprang free, and he stepped to her with no shyness, only a fire burning in his eyes that promised this was just the start.
He straddled her, his legs fully separating hers.
He held a condom in his hand.
But instead of sliding it on, he circled his cock at her entrance, teasing her very sensitive clit with it.
Becca knew it wouldn’t take much to make her explode again.
Then he kissed her, deeply, slowly, slower than their kisses earlier had been.
There was an honesty exchanged in their kisses, a deep wanting, trust, and a promise of more.
He slid his mouth to her ear and kissed it, blowing a hot breath over it as he whispered, “I’ll wear the condom this time, but I’d like to ditch it very soon. I want to feel every part of you.” Even as he said it, he knew it was a discussion for another time.
His thoughts were electrified with the sudden sensation of her hand gripping his bare length.
Now it was his turn to moan and gasp.
She milked his cock until he was about to come.
He pulled her hand free and slipped on the condom.
Then he settled between her legs, pressed them open wide, and pressed in, slowly, inch by incredible inch.
After a few minutes, and intense sensations, he moved her into one of his favorite positions.
He pulled her so her ass hung slightly over the edge of the bed.
Cupping her ass cheeks he thrust into her and then laid atop her, her legs in the air and out to the sides.
This was a favorite position as it gave deep penetration and increased his chances of hitting her G-spot, and he could look at her face and still kiss her, which he loved to do.
He loved to kiss her lips, to trail kisses down the neck, to breathe over her ear.
He’d already discovered she got off on hot breath blowing over her ear.
It didn’t take long for him to reach his peak.
As he tumbled over it, he was aware of her insides gripping him tightly, her breath matching his in short draws laced with moans.
Becca lay back; Carter’s face nestled in her neck.
She felt his cock throbbing deep inside her.
Her heart still raced.
It felt perfect. Her thoughts were quiet, and she focused on nothing but the incredible pleasure he brought her.
Even now, she allowed her mind to focus on her rapid breathing.
She felt high, she felt content.
She felt good. Then she felt Carter’s lips on hers and his tongue entered her mouth for a slow, passionate kiss.
She lazily rubbed her tongue against his, envisioning his tongue on her clit.
It felt erotic, stimulating beyond words, perfect.
He knew how to hold her, how to touch her, how to kiss her.
His touch and kisses were perfect in every way.
Fighting his waning erection, Tessman circled his hips, his cock still in her.
Energy bristled through his body.
He pulled his lips a breath away from hers and gazed into her beautiful green, half-hooded eyes.
“Wow. That was magic.”
Her lips cracked into a smile.
“Wow is right.”
“Let’s make you more comfortable.” He reluctantly pulled out and shifted about until he was able to pull her so that her butt was nearly on the bed.
He sank to his knees in front of her open legs.
“You are absolutely beautiful,” he said, his gaze still on her eyes.
His hand ran up her thigh.
His fingers gently descended into her drenched crack.
He grinned when she shuddered.
He drew a finger up to her clit and slowly circled it.
She gasped out and threw her head back, still aroused.
He didn’t stop until she came.
Carter lay beside her, holding her when she came back down from the last orgasm, which was mind-blowing.
She wrapped her arms around him and held on as the peace she felt from her mind turning off, was replaced with the sadness and anger that had been constant companions for weeks.
“I wish we could stay here, just like this forever,” she said when she opened her eyes, gazing into his.
“We could, but the world will invade our refuge. It always does.”
“Ugh! I know,” she said.
“I’m surprised your phone has stayed quiet this long.”
“If anyone had called or text messaged, I would have ignored it,” he said.
“We both know you can’t.”
“So, are you willing to give it a try with me and my job? Or was that our one incredible night?” As he said it, he prayed it wouldn’t be the latter.
A smile curved her lips.
“That was a fool’s choice. Even if one incredible night had been my choice, after that I’d be changing my mind. There’s no way I’d want to walk away from what you just did to my body.”
“So that was you’re willing to try,” he said.
“I still need some time to get my head on straight, Carter, or I won’t be any good in a relationship.”
“And I still vow to give you the time you need.”