Chapter 18 #2
A slow, triumphant smile spread across her face. She lowered me back onto the pillows, her body settling over mine with a new, deliberate weight. The frantic energy was gone, replaced by an intensity that was somehow even more overwhelming.
Her mouth trailed down my jaw, her teeth nipping lightly at the sensitive skin just below my ear. She didn’t rush. She took her time, her lips exploring my neck, my collarbone, the hollow of my throat. Each kiss was a brand, a promise.
Her hands refused to be idle. One cupped my breast, her thumb circling the peak until it was a tight, aching point. The other slid down my side, her fingertips tracing the curve of my hip and my thigh. She was relearning me, and my body blossomed under her touch.
“You’re so beautiful,” she whispered against my skin, the words vibrating through me. “All these years … I thought I’d forgotten, but my body remembers.”
She shifted lower, her mouth closing over my other breast. Her tongue was hot and wet, swirling around my nipple before she sucked it into her mouth, gently at first, and then with a pressure that sent a jolt straight to my core.
I arched my back, a cry catching in my throat.
My fingers tightened in her hair, holding her to me.
She paid the same attention to the other side, her hand never ceasing its exploration, tracing patterns on my inner thigh, getting closer and closer to where I needed her most. I was wet, aching, every nerve ending alight and screaming for her.
“Dani,” I gasped, my hips lifting in a silent plea.
She lifted her head, her lips glistening, her eyes dark with a predatory hunger that made my stomach clench. “Patience, baby. I’ve got you.”
She moved lower still, her lips tracing a path down my stomach. Her tongue dipped into my navel, and I whimpered. Her hands pushed my thighs apart, firm and sure, opening me up to her. I felt exposed, vulnerable, but the look on her face was one of pure reverence.
She settled between my legs, her breath warm against my slick sex. And then her tongue was on me—a slow, deliberate lick from my entrance all the way up to my clit. I cried out, my hips bucking off the bed. Her hands held me down, her grip firm on my thighs, keeping me exactly where she wanted me.
She tasted me, explored me, her tongue an instrument of pure torture and pleasure.
She circled my clit, her movements slow and maddening, before flattening her tongue and lapping at me with broad strokes.
She knew exactly what I liked, exactly what I needed, as if no time had passed at all.
She slid two fingers inside me, curling them just so, finding that spot that made me see stars.
The dual sensations were overwhelming. The pressure of her fingers inside me, the relentless stroke of her tongue on my clit.
The hide-a-bed squeaked in a frantic rhythm, a counterpoint to my increasingly desperate moans.
I could feel the tension coiling low in my belly, a tight, hot ball of fire ready to explode.
“Don’t stop,” I panted, my head thrashing against the pillows. “God, Dani, please don’t stop.”
She hummed against me, the vibration sending a fresh wave of pleasure through me. She increased the pressure, her tongue flicking my clit faster and faster as her fingers pumped into me, hard and deep.
The orgasm hit me like a tidal wave. It ripped through me with a force that stole my breath.
My back arched, a strangled cry tearing from my throat as wave after wave of intense, shuddering pleasure washed over me.
My thighs clamped around her head, my fingers digging into the sheets, my entire body convulsing.
She didn’t stop; her tongue and fingers milked every last drop of sensation from me until I was a boneless, quivering mess.
Finally, she released me, placing a soft, gentle kiss on my still-throbbing clit before crawling back up my body. She gathered me into her arms, holding me as I trembled, my body slick with sweat.
“Jesus Christ,” I finally managed, the words barely more than a breath.
Dani chuckled, a low, rumbling sound that vibrated through her chest and into mine. “I aim to please.”
“You aim to destroy,” I corrected, turning my head to look at her.
Her hair was a mess, her cheeks flushed, her lips swollen from my kisses and my arousal. She was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
I lay there for a long moment, trying to remember how to breathe, trying to remember my own name.
The world had narrowed to the feel of her skin against mine, the scent of her sweat and arousal, the sound of her breathing, still slightly ragged.
The hide-a-bed had finally stopped its infernal squeaking, settling into a quiet groan under our combined weight.
I rolled onto my side, pulling Dani down with me just enough so I could press against her, chest to chest. Her hair fell across my face as I captured her lips in a hungry kiss. I could taste myself on her tongue, and it was the most erotic thing I had ever experienced.
But I wasn’t content with kissing alone.
I slid my hand over her hip, tracing down to the curve of her ass, while my other hand traveled upward, cupping one breast, my thumb circling the hardening nipple. She moaned instantly, a low, ragged sound that sent heat pooling low in me.
“Reese …” she gasped.
I smiled against her lips, loving the way she said my name, the way her body responded to my touch. I loved knowing I could affect her just as strongly as she affected me, that I could make her lose control just as completely.
I sighed against her lips and slid my hand lower. I traced down the sensitive line of her stomach, over a hip bone, and finally dipped between her thighs. My fingers found her slick heat instantly.
She was so wet, all I could do was groan. I circled her clit slowly at first, teasing, stroking, loving the way her hips jerked in response.
“Oh, God. Oh, fuck,” Dani groaned. Her hands clutched at my shoulders.
I teased her thighs apart with my knee so I could reach her more easily. I pressed my middle finger against her entrance, letting it slip inside her slowly, curling just right, matching the rhythm of my thumb circling her clit. Her moans grew louder, ragged, and urgent.
“You’re … oh … God…” she gasped, fingers digging into my hips.
Her words dissolved into a guttural moan as I added a second finger, stretching her, filling her. Her hips bucked to meet my hand in a frantic, desperate rhythm that told me she was already close. I loved seeing her like this—strong, controlled Dani, completely undone by my touch.
I shifted, lowering my head to capture one of her nipples in my mouth. I sucked hard, my tongue swirling around the sensitive peak as my fingers pumped into her, faster and deeper.
“Reese, don’t stop,” she cried out, her voice raw and broken. “Right there … fuck, right there.”
I didn’t stop. I curled my fingers just so as I bottomed out, feeling the exact moment her breath hitched and her hips stuttered against my hand.
“There,” she choked out. “Fuck—Reese, right there—”
Her control splintered into pieces after that.
I kept the pressure steady, my thumb relentless where she needed it, my fingers moving with a rhythm that was more instinct than thought. I could feel how close she was—not just in the way her muscled tightened, but in the way she gave in to it, the last of that careful restraint slipping away.
“Don’t—” she tried, like she meant don’t stop, like she meant don’t you dare stop, but it dissolved into a broken sound as her head tipped back against the pillow.
And then she came.
Not all at once, but in a sharp, staggered release that seemed to catch her off guard—her body went rigid before it gave way completely. Her back arched, her mouth fell open on a raw, unguarded sound I’d never heard from her before, something wrecked and real.
My name was in it. I was almost sure of it.
Her hand fisted in the sheets, the other gripped my arm hard as the waves hit—one, then another, then another—her sex clenching around my fingers, her thighs trembling around my hand.
I didn’t rush her through it.
I slowed just enough to let her experience it fully, to let the orgasm crest and break and soften, my thumb easing from relentless to soft, my hand staying with her as she came back down piece by piece.
Her thighs relaxed first.
And then her grip on my arm.
The tension drained out of her in a long, shuddering exhale that seemed to drain everything.
“Jesus,” she whispered.
I slipped my hand away gently, following the line of her body back up, pressing a soft kiss to her shoulder, her jaw, the corner of her mouth.
We lay there in the aftermath, our bodies entwined, our breathing slowly returning to normal. The room was quiet except for the sound of our heartbeats, the rustle of sheets, the occasional groan of the hide-a-bed when one of us shifted.
Her breathing was still uneven where it ghosted across my collarbone, her fingers absentminded where they rested against my side, like she hadn’t fully come back to herself yet. Every now and then, her body would give a small, involuntary twitch, the aftershocks catching up to her.
I traced slow patterns along her spine, feeling the heat of her skin, the way she softened under my touch instead of tensing.
Fifteen years, and somehow I still knew exactly how to hold her after.
Or maybe my body just hadn’t forgotten.
Dani eventually slipped free from the tangle of us, the mattress shifting as she reached down for the duvet that had been cast to the floor.
I watched her the whole time, unabashed, my gaze tracing the curve of her lower back, the flex of her broad shoulders, the familiar and unfamiliar of her all at once. It felt greedy, the way I took her in—like if I stared long enough, I could make up for all the years I hadn’t had this.
She pulled the blanket over our nakedness and resettled beside me. She captured my hand between both of hers. She toyed with my fingers, not to seduce, but to explore, like she was relearning every part of me—physical and otherwise.
“Do you remember our first time?” she quietly asked.
My impulse was to deny that I remembered anything about our nearly four years together.
I wet my lips. “I do.”
She didn’t look at me. Her attention remained on my fingers. She stroked her own fingers up and down each individual digit, turning my hand over and sliding her fingertips down my palm’s center.
“I was so scared,” she murmured.
“You were?”
She nodded, but still refused to look at me. “I didn’t want to be bad at it, you know? I didn’t want to ruin this perfect thing.”
I bit down on my lower lip. “I seem to remember it being very good.”
“Yeah?”
I released a shaky breath as the memory rushed back.
“Wrist shots,” I said. “You casually remarked how you could fuck me all night because you were so good at wrist shots. You said your right hand would never get tired.”
She blinked slowly. “Nuh uh. There’s no way I said that.”
“Oh, please,” I snorted. “I bet you used that line on every girl before and after me.”
Dani finally looked up at me, eyebrows raised. “I absolutely did not use that line on anyone else.”
“Liar.”
She smiled, small and fond. “Okay, maybe once. But it didn’t land the same.”
Her thumb traced the inside of my wrist, right where my pulse jumped. “You laughed,” she said, remembering. “That’s when I knew I was done.”
“Done?”
“Yeah.” Her gaze flicked to my mouth and then back to my eyes. “I wasn’t nervous anymore. I just wanted you to stop laughing so I could kiss you.”
My breath caught. The room felt smaller suddenly, like the walls had leaned in.
“And now?” I asked.
She didn’t answer right away. Instead, she leaned forward and pressed a kiss just beside my ear—soft and unhurried.
“Now I want to take my time,” she said softly. “If you’re still here.”
I tipped my head back just enough to give her better access. “I told you,” I murmured. “I’m still here.”
She lifted my hand again—slower this time. Her thumbs pressed lightly into the center of my palm, tracing a familiar line down toward my wrist.
“God,” she murmured. “Your hands are the same.”
“They better be,” I quipped.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I mean—” Her grip tightened, just a little. “They still fit.”
Heat unfurled low in my stomach. I watched her fingers slide to my wrist, circling it gently, like she was checking range of motion. Like she was about to take a shot.
I swallowed. “You never did get tired.”
Her gaze flicked to my lips. “I still don’t.”