17. Jensen
SEVENTEEN
JENSEN
I’m pretty sure my brain emptied out of my dick.
And I was currently living in a pear-scented heaven I never wanted to leave.
I turned my face into her neck and kissed her lightly before leaning back to look at her. Her eyes were wet, and her mouth utterly bruised. “Are you okay?”
“I’m not sure.”
I hurried to get my weight off her.
She wrapped her legs around me, pulling me back inside of her.
Fuck, how the hell could I still be half hard for her? But I was and I groaned at the warmth of her wrapped around me in every way.
“Not yet.”
She clenched down on me, and I threw my head back with a soft curse. “Lyric.”
“You feel too good inside me.” She practically purred as she rubbed herself against me. “I don’t want it to end.”
“It doesn’t have to end.” I frowned down at her.
The blissful smile slid away to wariness as she dislodged my suddenly very unhappy cock and slipped out from under me.
I dropped down onto the quilt with a groan. She was already scooting away from me, dammit. “Where are you going?”
“Nowhere.” She grabbed my shirt off the pile of clothes and slipped it on. It was so big, it may as well have been a dress on her. But I was slightly mollified that she went right for my shirt instead of her own clothes. “Is there a bathroom?” She stuffed her feet in her boots, which was an interesting choice.
She was fucking adorable and felt too damn far away.
I nodded to the large archway. “Through there on the right. If you see the pottery studio, you went too far.”
She nodded. “I’ll be right back.”
I took care of the condom and then I flopped onto my back. My skin was still sweaty and smelled of her. I’d wanted to be gentle with her and I’d practically taken her like a teenager who couldn’t control himself.
“Fuck.”
No wonder she’d jetted out of the room.
Annoyed with myself, I pushed up and grabbed my jeans. I didn’t bother zipping them as I quickly cleaned up our food.
She came back in as I was setting up the projector.
Hopefully, I could convince her to stay a bit longer with a movie.
I glanced over at her with a smile. She was twisting her fingers together, her face uncertain.
I held out a hand to her. “C’mere.” I saw her glance at her clothes, and I shook my head. “Don’t go.”
She stepped out of her boots, lowered to her knees, then crawled over to where I was.
My dick twitched at the sight of her coming for me. I had to force myself to slow my racing blood that was heading south. I plumped up the pillows and relaxed when she curled into my side. I snapped out a blanket around us.
“I’m sorry, Lyric.”
She craned her neck up to meet my gaze. “For what?”
“I was so rough. I told myself I could handle how much I wanted you, but I fucked up.”
She reached up and cupped my cheek. “It’s never been like that for me. That’s what I meant when I said I wasn’t sure. Not that you were too much.” She huffed out a breath. “Well, I don’t know about that part.”
“What?”
“That you were so...” She swallowed and drew her hand down to trace my lips with the pad of her finger. “No one has ever wanted me like that.”
I captured her hand and kissed her palm. “And no one else ever will if I have my way.”
She stiffened.
“I’m not going to apologize for wanting you, Lyric. For wanting all of you—for as long as you’ll have me. And if you don’t anymore, I’ll do just about anything to convince you otherwise.”
“Are you always this intense?”
“Pretty much.”
She pressed her cheek to my chest. “I’m not sure how I feel about that.”
“Good thing I’m a very patient man.”
Which was a lie. I was impatient as fuck, but I’d learn to find some for her.
I reached for the remote I’d tossed in the bed of blankets and pillows and powered on the projector.
She settled in against me. “What are we watching?”
The logo for Dreamworks came onto the screen followed by the sweet and crackly teen voice of Hiccup explaining about the legend of dragons.
She giggled against my skin. “I love How to Train Your Dragon .”
“What did you expect?”
“I half expected Captain America .”
“Bit heavy for our first naked date.”
She laughed. “Agreed.” She looked up at me. “This is perfect.”
I settled in with her, enjoying her reactions to the movie. Her laughter and her little sniffles as the teen Viking and his trusty Toothless had their ups and downs through the story were so sweet. We raided the last of the Chinese food, both of us confessing our love of cold noodles.
In the end, she sat between my legs, leaning against my chest as we finished the movie. I drew my fingers up the outside of her thighs to her hips, then back down. Restlessly, she moved against me.
“Again?”
I dipped my head to push my way in the collar of my shirt. “Endlessly.” I slipped along the top of her thigh with one hand, as my other hand sneaked under the thermal shirt to gently cup her breast. “Your skin is so damn soft.” I nudged her legs apart to coast over the thin strip of silky hair above her pussy before dipping inside of her heat to tease around her clit.
She hissed out a sigh.
“Sensitive?”
She let out a shaky sigh. “I’m good.”
Lightly, I played with her nipple as I sucked on the skin behind her ear. She rolled her hips against my questing fingers as I drew her deeper into a soft, slow orgasm.
My cock was ruthlessly hard, but I needed this to be for her right now. To prove I wasn’t just a hormone-driven jackass.
She lifted a hand over her head to draw my head down to meet hers in an equally deep kiss. I breathed in her groans as I edged her close to another one, then I backed off, leaving her panting. She dug her nails into my thighs and cursed my name as I left her hanging one more time.
“I’m going to kill you.”
I chuckled into her ear. “You already are, baby. You already are.” Then I drove my fingers into her, giving her the hard push she needed to break apart. She curled around my hand, and we careened onto our sides as she gasped and shook in my arms.
Fuck, I was in so much trouble.
How could I possibly live without this?
I wrapped around her as her breath evened out and she finally drifted off. I held her for a while, my body still primed for more of her. But I was ramped up and she was out like a light, so I finally had to slip away.
I hiked up my jeans and wandered over to the painting I’d started earlier that day. I lost myself in the thick, stark lines of the peonies at the bottom. I could see the flower in my mind’s eye. The uneven edges of the petals, the spiky leaves that cupped the bottom of a bud not quite in full bloom.
I reached into my travel bag of chalk and markers for the iridescent luster powder I wanted to test. It would give the line drawings a bit of softness in certain spots I wanted to highlight.
I used the pads of my fingers to add a pearly effect to a few of the petals.
“Jensen?”
I turned at her voice. She was sitting among the blankets, her curls wild around her heart-shaped face. My shirt had fallen off her shoulder and it slammed into me just how utterly beautiful she was.
I looked down at my frosted fingers and realized I’d bought this for her. The sudden need to add the luster dust to her skin rode me hard. I was overwhelmed by the urge to prove to her just how beautiful every part of her was.
I brought the luster dust with me as I crossed the room to her.
She looked up at me with those big, burnished gold eyes full of secrets. This time, they were the female secrets that had drove men wild since time began. I kicked off my jeans, leaving on my boxers.
Her gaze lowered to my cock, which was already half hard for her.
“Were you working?”
I nodded. “I was.”
She grinned at the shimmery powder on my fingers. “You want to go clean up first?”
I shook my head. “Nope.” I swiped the powder along her jaw.
She flinched. “What are you doing?”
“Highlighting your scars.”
“Why?”
I drew my shirt away from her and flipped it behind me. “Because. I want to show you how beautiful they are.” I rolled her on to her stomach and she stiffened. I dropped a gentle kiss between her shoulder blades where a swath of raised skin was. Lightly, I rubbed my fingers along her skin. The raised bits turned pearlescent.
“Jensen.” Her voice was soft and uncertain.
“It’s nontoxic.” I pressed a kiss to her shoulder. “Relax. Let me paint you.”
She folded her arms under her head. “This is not exactly what I’d call painting.”
I followed the trails of each bit of grafted skin and the raised bits took on the hue of a gorgeous scale. “You know, I always picture you as a dragon in my dreams.”
“What?” Her voice was little more than a whisper.
“Keeper of fire. So strong and beautiful.” I swiped down the fainter marks of her hip, then I reached for my phone. “Can I take a picture?”
She stiffened. “Why?”
“To show you.”
“Only if you do it on my phone so I can delete it.”
I reached for her jeans and found her phone. I took a few artful photos of close ups showing the shimmer before I rolled her over and drew the pads of my fingers over the smaller stripes on her middle that reminded me of claw marks. I trailed the powder up to her breast with a grin.
“Reach your arms above your head.”
Her eyes were soft with curiosity. I lifted the phone to take a photo, capturing the look in her eyes and the stunning line of her body.
I handed her the phone and spread her thighs open to press my hips into her. “See how I see you.” I reached for the last condom in my wallet and rolled it on, sliding into her wet heat as her eyes widened at the photo.
I flipped onto my back, taking her astride me. The phone tumbled away and there was nothing but Lyric riding above me, shimmering as she took me again and again.
I reached for her, cupping her breasts to hold onto her as she covered my hands for stability. Her hips rolled forward to take me deeper and harder. I rose up, catching the back of her head to fuse our mouths together as the pace outraced our breath and the deep and guttural moans that lived inside me.
That I offered her.
Her eyes flew open as she went over. I gripped her hips as I drove up into her again and again until I finally came, clasping her to my chest as I swallowed her cries, and my racing heart cracked open.
We both crumpled into a heap.
“Fuck,” she said, panting.
“That we did.”
She laughed and collapsed onto my chest. “I can’t believe you did that.”
“Why?” I tangled my fingers in her springy curls.
“Actually, more like I can’t believe I let you do that.”
I shifted behind her and kissed her shoulder, then I reached for her phone.
“We’re a mess.”
“Worth it,” I whispered against her ear. “Open your phone.”
Her fingers trembled. “I’m afraid to look at them.”
“You saw one just before I got inside you.”
“I think that was shock.”
I lifted the phone in front of her face to unlock her phone and opened the one of her back and hip and the rounded curve of her ass. “See. This is how I see you. Strong and lush. Endlessly fascinating.”
She was quiet as she swiped to the next photo. A closeup of her shoulder blades and then finally, the front of her.
“Don’t delete them.” I wrapped my arm around her middle. “Put them in a folder if you need to, but don’t throw them away.”
She locked her phone. “You really see me like that?”
“I do.”
“You overwhelm me.”
“I don’t mean to.” I rested my chin on her shoulder.
“I know.”
She was quiet after that.
So quiet that I wondered if she’d fallen asleep again. Then she sat up and tucked a blanket around her shoulders. “I should probably get home.”
I nodded. I could feel her pulling away, but I reminded myself I needed to be patient.
Even if it killed me.
We got dressed and I waved her off from picking up our blanket fort. “I’m going to come back here and work after I drop you off.”
“Okay.”
It wasn’t as late as I imagined, but the nights were longer than the days at that time of year. When I pulled into Trick or Treat, she unbuckled her seatbelt and grabbed my hand. “Don’t get out.”
I sighed. “All right.”
She slid across the bench to me, hooking her arm around my neck to draw me down for a hot kiss. Then she pulled away and got out, slamming the door shut. She didn’t look back.
Under the parking light above her car, I could see every line of her. The bulky coat, her skintight jeans, and all that hair.
Suddenly, she turned back to me with a little wave and got into her car.
“I’ll take the win,” I muttered to myself and turned on my music.
Between Lyric and my Burn House final test this week, I was maxed out in so many ways. Yet I wanted nothing more than to share with her what was ahead for me, but something warned me to pick my moment there. Very few people knew about my plans for the CCFD.
It felt like I needed to hold it close just in case I failed.
For now, I’d lose myself in my art—and for once it wouldn’t be about the fire. I’d focus on the future.
I waited for Lyric to start her Jeep and made sure she was driving off, then I headed back to the studio.
I had a feeling sleep wasn’t in my future tonight.