CHAPTER NINETEEN
After Tabby finally got out of the tub, Stuart remained and took his time bathing himself. She was bathing those intruders off. He was bathing Larkin off. He still hated that place.
Then he got out and dried off. But by the time he made it into the main room, he was pleased to see that Tabby was in bed asleep. Exhaustion had won the night.
But his penis reacted fiercely to that small pajama t-shirt she slept in that barely covered her butt.
That was, in fact, revealing half of her butt.
Feeling guilty that he got a rise out of just seeing her nakedness again, he quickly went over to her bed and covered her up.
She trusted him. He was never going to throw that away.
But he hadn’t packed any clothes of his own in a psychological stance that he wouldn’t be in this town any longer than an hour at best. Now he’d been in town all afternoon and into the night: for hours on end.
And wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. At least not until he knew Tabby was going to be okay.
That was why he removed his towel and got in his bed nude.
And then exhaustion won the night with him too.
Within minutes he had drifted off to sleep too.
Until he woke up to the sound of Tabitha squirming around in her bed. When he opened his eyes, it looked as if she was reliving the nightmare that unfolded at her own home.
The first mistake he made was allowing her to go through the motions and try to get through it. He didn’t wake her up.
But the second mistake was when she woke up on her own.
She was still in the throes of that terror to such an extent that when he asked if she was alright, she looked at him as if she was a long way from alright.
With her covers already thrown off of her from her squirming, she quickly got out of her bed and went and got into his bed.
He allowed it. Which was his ultimate mistake.
Because when he held her in his arms as he knew she needed him to hold her, he knew it wasn’t enough. Her whole body was trembling. That was why he pulled her on top of him and held her even tighter. And his instincts were right: she seemed to need that even more.
But then she felt his erection. Which wasn’t something he planned for her to feel, or for him to have, at a time like this. But his body betrayed him and there it was. He was greatly aroused.
But Tabby didn’t realize he was naked until he laid her on top and she felt the contours of his body, first, and then his steadily-growing arousal. And that was when she reached the same conclusion he had: That she needed more than just his arms around her.
When he laid her on top of him, and he felt her soft, supple body against his hard body, he knew he wanted to do more to her than just hug her this time.
But he resisted it with all the power he had within him.
Had it been any other woman, he hated to admit, he would have taken full advantage no question about it.
He’d always been a selfish lover and a selfish man in general.
But not with Tabby. He wasn’t doing that to Tabby.
There was no way he could be that callous with her.
But it was a hard night for both of them as they fought back the feelings that were engulfing them.
Especially Stuart. He was fully aroused as she laid on top of him.
He was so aroused that he found his hands moving down, to her butt, and gently rubbing it beneath her small t-shirt.
He was so aroused that he found himself moving her butt up and down in an almost simulation that turned into a stimulation. The kind that almost broke him.
Until Tabby, feeling just how stimulated he was, leaned her head up and looked at him.
Her body wanted him just as badly as his body wanted her.
Even he could feel that. But when he saw that look in her eyes, as if it was all too much for her to handle, he knew to pull all the way back and stop the madness.
This girl had just experienced night terrors for crying out loud, and a real live terror earlier that night. And he was already pouncing?
He took her chin in his hand and lifted her face up to his face.
Then he gave her a sweet, lingering kiss of reassurance that he didn’t want to end.
As if his lips were telling her, without saying a word, that she could trust him to be a gentleman with her.
He wasn’t a gentleman ordinarily with anybody. But he was with her.
And the message got through. Because, when he pulled back from kissing her, she did something remarkable.
She leaned in and kissed him! It meant so much to him that she would consider his needs, too, and at a time like this, that he knew that was going to be all the permission he needed.
He wrapped her in his arms and returned her kiss with such vigor that both of them were moaning and groaning as they made love with their lips.
But that wasn’t nearly enough for either one of them. Stuart laid her on her back, and then got between her legs and began kissing her neck and then squeezing and kissing her breasts. And kissing her flat stomach. And then he moved further down.
Tabby was overcome with passion when he did to her what hadn’t been done to her in a long time. It was as if she needed it in that moment like she needed air to breathe. She loved it. And in that moment, she loved him.
Stuart was on the verge of cum just doing her with his mouth. So much so that he knew he had to stop, move up the length of her gorgeous body, and then enter her with a thrust that nearly took him over right then and right there. It was just that powerful.
After that initial shockwave, they settled into a groove that had both of them within one more movement of cumming the entire time.
It felt so magnificent to Tabby that she could hardly believe it was possible to feel this way.
It felt so magnificent to Stuart that he became emotional.
He didn’t want it to end. He could remain inside of Tabby until the end of time.
But their bodies wouldn’t cooperate. First Tabby had an orgasm that left her nearly breathless, and Stuart quickly joined her with an outpouring that left him so in love with this feeling, and with this moment, that he wondered if he could be in love with her!
It was irrational on a scale unimaginable.
He hardly knew this girl. But in all of his experience, even during the good days with the mother of his children, he had never once felt like this before.
When he finally poured into her all that was left within him, they both came back to themselves and to that room and to the reason why they were in that room.
Their feelings should have deflated with the reality that knocked them back down to earth.
But their feelings didn’t deflate at all.
If anything, when Stuart rolled off of Tabby and then pulled her into his arms, their feelings intensified.
It was as if two emotionally suppressed, lonely people had just come together.
And nothing was going to tear them apart.
And that reality, instead of deflating them, lifted them up.
Tabby knew it wasn’t possible, but it surely felt that way. Stuart knew it was far too soon, but it surely felt that way to him too. Because that question consumed them:
Did he just find his soulmate?
Did she just find hers?
They both silently grabbled with that question for a good part of the night. Because it was exciting, but equally alarming, for both of them.
For Tabby, it was the cultural shock of being with a man so different than anybody she’d ever been with before. She’d had a white boyfriend before. That wasn’t the issue. But he and all of her other boyfriends were young like her and were still trying to figure life out too.
But Stuart was a whole man, nineteen years older than she was, who’d already figured it all out seemingly ten times over and came across as somebody extremely successful on top of that.
And he lived in New York city? The crown jewel of America?
How could somebody like her, who’d never even been out of Ohio, fit into a world like that?
For Stuart, it was all about the fear he’d always had of falling deeply in love and getting his heart ripped apart.
It happened to him once, with the mother of his children, and he swore up and down that he would never let that happen to him again.
He knew, as he held Tabitha, that she had what it took, she had every ingredient, to take him over the top again.
And she could then turn out to be the very opposite of the kind, considerate person he took her for.
And instead of breaking his heart like Nora did, Tabby could decimate it.
But his lifestyle was a concern too. Because he lived in a world that was more cutthroat and transactional than smalltown America chill and real.
All his friend groups, for example, were by and large abhorrent people, but they were good for laughs and company.
So he kept them around. Tabby could decimate his heart, but his friend groups, with their shark mentality whenever a new person came onboard, could destroy her entirely.
Why should he put this young lady through even the possibility of that?
He could just help her get back on her feet, and then leave her to the life she knew and seemed to love. Why didn’t he just do that?
Because he’d always been a selfish bastard who took what he wanted and thought about the consequences later.
That was the reason. And as he held Tabby, pulling her closer and closer against him, already with a need to enter her again, he had what he wanted.
It would be wholly uncharacteristic of him to even consider giving her back.
To prove his point, or to mark his territory, he moved her on top of him, thrust into her again with another jolt that shook them both, and then wrapped his arms around her and made slow, never-wanted-it-to-end passionate love to her all over again.