22. A Moment, Please
22
A Moment, Please
Matt
Figuring he’s the best first responder we can get at this point, we send Marieka to fetch Jessica’s father with instructions to give him the cliff notes on what happened.
When he first enters the room, he stops just inside the doorway, scanning around wide-eyed. He says nothing at first, his eyes jumping from one body to another before finally settling on me. He raises his brows and asks, “This was your plan?”
I give him a dirty look and retort, “Not exactly. We could call this, like, plan M.”
Jessica rises from the chair she was seated in, stepping between us, and says, “He didn’t have a choice. They’d all lost their fucking minds.”
He turns his gaze to her, cocking his head as he says, “What do you mean?”
Marieka speaks up from behind him, “They showed up at her room like animals. There was no reasoning with any of them, especially Matteo.”
“What was his intention?”
Jessica crosses her arms over her chest in a defensive manner and then answers, “My understanding is that he wanted to marry me, so then he could make me do whatever he wanted.”
Marieka nods, and then she says, “The things he said were disgusting. The things he was going to make her do.”
Seamus frowns. “He admitted that he was going to abuse my daughter?”
Marieka nods emphatically, and Jessica responds, “Yes. Let’s just say I was going to have a lot of company on my wedding night.”
My hands tighten into fists at the thought. Suddenly, I wish I could kill him again, but this time, I’d take my time with it.
Seamus sighs, shaking his head as he mutters, “Well, this is a problem.”
Jessica glares at him. “So, you think we should have just let him do it?”
He turns his frown on her and spits out, “I didn’t fucking say that.”
Jessica walks toward him, stopping a foot in front of him where she says quietly, “Sometimes, it’s what you don’t say that matters.”
He looks at her impatiently, his jaw tense as he contemplates his answer. Then, after a beat, he responds, “You think I would willfully allow something horrible to happen to you?”
“Yes, if the alternative would interfere with your fucking job.”
He narrows his eyes. One of his hands comes up, and I instinctively lunge for him, gripping his wrists tightly as I say, “I wouldn’t fucking do that if I were you.”
He raises his brows at me, his look sheepish as he says, “I would never hit her, Mathias.”
I yank his hand down and then release his wrist. “Don’t even touch her.”
He’s quiet for a moment, then inclines his head at me, stepping back a few inches before looking back to Jessica. “Regardless of how you think I feel about you; your mother would roll over in her grave, and you know I couldn’t have that.”
Sadness shadows her features. “How could I forget your undying love for a dead woman.”
He flinches at her words, his gaze moving to a spot just behind her, and then Kaian speaks up. “We don’t have time for your fucking family feud right now. Someone could show up here at any moment, and we’re all going to be fucked.”
Seamus sighs and then nods. “I’ll go break the news of the change in plans. I’ll explain what happened and why and make sure that I’m threatening in regard to what almost happened to Jessica.” He pauses, glancing at her before looking at me as he continues, “You better prepare her for what’s next. I don’t know my daughter very well, but I know her well enough to know she’s not going to fucking like it.”
She turns to me and asks, “What’s next?”
“I’ll explain in a minute,” I reply firmly. I turn to Kaian and Marieka and say, “You two get cleaned up and be prepared to make a statement. Marieka, your statement needs to be something that does not include you being in her room.”
She nods, and Kaian slaps me on the back as he says, “I’m on it.”
They both exit the room, Seamus right behind them, leaving me and Jessica alone for the first time in an age.
I extend my hand to her, and she takes it without hesitation. I lead her from the room and down the hallway, keeping her close as we head toward my room. “Those old men will not be happy that the plans changed without their permission. There’s not much they can do about it at this point, and since they’re going to need to save face with Seamus, they’re probably going to begrudgingly allow it. But that doesn’t mean we’re off the hook.”
“What do you mean off the hook?”
I say nothing as we continue down the hallway, and I feel her gaze burning a hole in the back of my skull.
Frankly, I don’t want to answer her. I want to have this short walk back to my quarters, pretending that nothing horrible is going to go on. That I’m not going to have to do anything to her that might make her question me as a person. That she won’t be put into a situation where she may question herself and everything she’s ever known.
I increase my pace until I’m practically dragging her down the hallway behind me. She still comes willingly, but I feel a bit of resistance, and just as soon as we reach my door. I waste no time kicking it open, pulling her inside and pushing her into the middle of the room as I slam the door behind me, locking it.
I turn back to her, and I haven’t taken more than two steps toward her before she puts her hands up defensively as she asks, “What are you doing?”
I continue walking toward her even as she’s backing up slowly and then more quickly, looking behind her so as not to run her into a wall, but the only place for her to go is the bathroom door, which is exactly where I want her to go anyway.
She backs up hurriedly, and I follow closely until she finds herself pressed up against the bathroom wall. I press myself against her.
She’s panting, and there’s a tremble in her bottom lip. Her eyes are wide as she stares at me and whispers, “What are you doing, Matt?”
I lean in close so I’m pressed against her from hip to chest, not even a hair’s breadth away from her lips, as I reply, “Shut your fucking mouth.”
Her breath catches, and I pull back a bit and see her frown, which makes me smile.
I move in closer, pressing my face into her neck, and then I just lean there, breathing slowly. And then I chuckle.
She rests her hands on my shoulders, most likely because she is unsure what to do with them, and after a moment, she asks, “What could possibly be funny right now?”
I shake my head, my words muffled against her neck as I reply, “Everything.”
She sighs, and her hands on my shoulders become heavier. She clutches at me.
I ease away from her, standing up straight, my hands circling her upper arms, yanking her off the wall. She yelps but doesn’t attempt to extricate herself from my arms, and I turn and hustle her toward the shower door.
I release her and say, “Don’t move.”
I walk over to the shower door, open it, and turn the water on before returning to her and stripping my shirt off my body. I quickly rid myself of my shoes and socks, my pants and underwear, until I’m standing there completely naked.
She’s eyeing me suspiciously, but she makes no move to escape, so I step into her again, this time pulling on her shirt until she allows me to remove it from her body.
I stoop to remove her shoes, and she rests her hands on my head, tangling her fingers in my hair, and then I’m pulling her pants down her hips, and she’s wiggling to assist me.
I rise to my feet, staring into her eyes as I say, “Can we just pretend none of this happened?”
She frowns as she says, “Pretend what didn’t happen?”
I laugh bitterly and then sigh, my hands coming up to my face and rubbing vigorously. I motion for her to enter the shower before me, quickly following behind and closing the door behind us. I push her into the hot spray of the water, saying nothing as I grab for the soap and a washcloth, quickly ridding her of the blood spatter I’m sure she doesn’t even realize is still on her person.
She giggles, and I stop the soapy path of the washcloth. I look up at her face and ask, “What’s so funny?”
She giggles again and then shrugs as she replies, “We keep meeting here like this.”
I frown, squinting at her until I remember the first time we met, and then I laugh. “Apparently, you like to get me naked and wet,” I reply dryly.
She laughs, sending a jolt of warmth down my spine.
I quickly finish cleaning her up and then make short work of cleaning myself. I move to turn the water off, but her hand on my arm stops me, and when I look at her, I see the naked need in her eyes.
She moves closer to me, and this time, I retreat, backing up one step and then two until I’m pressed against the cool shower wall.
She presses into me from hip to chest, and my breath catches in my throat. She rises up on her toes and brushes her lips against mine.
I don’t return her soft kiss. I just ask against her lips, “What are you doing?”
She pulls back the tiniest of a fraction as she replies, “You shut your fucking mouth.”
I frown, her words completely throwing me off, but before I can reply, she presses into me fully, rotating her hips so she’s rubbing firmly against my hard cock that’s pressed against her stomach.
I moan, feeling a slight tremble in my legs, and when I say nothing, her eyes meet mine, and her hand strokes up from my belly, along my chest to my neck, where she brackets my throat, squeezing firmly. I whimper, a soft choking moan.
I shouldn’t be surprised at her actions. After all, Jessica knows my most intimate secrets, but I am surprised at the timing. “You don’t know what’s going to happen.”
Her laugh is bitter and hollow, and I see the determined look in her eye as she sneers, “Oh, I fucking know.”
“What do you mean you know?”
Her hand on my throat tightens, and what little blood I had left in my brain shoots south, and my cock twitches. Then she replies, “You seem to forget I spent a good number of years in this bullshit. All impressionable years where I listened when I wasn’t supposed to. And my mother, God rest her soul, was always very transparent with me on expectations and the atrocities of the life.”
She’s right. I had forgotten. Her being a part of all this being so new to me that it’s not something I would immediately think about.
So, I don’t hedge my words when I say, “So you know what they’re going to make me do to you?”
She nods, her free hand coming around and squeezing my ass, and she rubs against me with purpose. She says nothing, so I add, “And you’re okay with that? You’re going to be okay being a spectacle while I fuck you?”
She shrugs. “I’ll do what I have to do, just like I’ve always done.”
Her hand moves from my ass around to my front, gripping onto my dick, squeezing. I thrust into her grip, my hands gliding up her back and over her shoulders, gripping each side of her head. I force her to look at me. “No matter what happens, you know I’d never hurt you.”
She nods and whispers, “I know that. But let’s use what little time we have left to create a good memory.”
I frown, understanding what she means but uncertain if that’s even a good idea.
She doesn’t wait for me to reply, moving away and yanking me over to the wide bench that sits right outside the reach of the water. She pushes me down, and I ask again, “What are you doing?”
She pushes me back, so I’m sprawled across the bench, where she straddles my hips, rubbing her slick pussy along the hard length of my dick. She leans her upper body over, bracing herself on my shoulders as she says, “Taking what I want.”
I attempt to sit up, but her hands on my shoulders keep me down, so I say, “Wait. Let me—”
“No,” she interrupts. “I’ve been ‘letting people’ my whole life, and now, it’s my turn.” I frown up at her, and she smiles and then adds, “You told me months ago, don’t you remember?”
I certainly remember me and my big fucking mouth. But I just nod and then ask, “Tell me what you want.”
“Just be here with me. Let’s have this moment.”
Nodding, I relax beneath her, my hands moving to her hips as I whisper, “Anything. Anything you want.”
Her soft smile is back, and then she licks her fingers, raising her hips up and wiping her saliva between her legs and along my dick. She grasps me with the same hand, raising me up and rubbing the tip of me against her clit rhythmically before shifting so the head of my cock is pressed against her quivering cunt.
My fingers flex on her hips, and I’m trembling as I allow her to take what she wants at whatever pace she chooses.
It takes every ounce of self-control I have not to shove up inside, to wrap my arm around her hips and fuck her into oblivion. To flip us over so she’s pressed into the floor with me rutting into her like the feral beast I am.
I shake that image from my head, refocusing on her as she takes me inside slowly, inch by inch until I’m pushed up inside of her as far as I can go.
She pauses like that, fully seated, taking every inch of me, her eyes boring into mine, and then she whispers, “Touch me.”
I stroke my hands from her hips up her sides and around the front of her to her breasts. I glide my fingertips along the underside before cupping them in my palms, feeling the full, heavy weight of them as my thumb and forefingers twist and tease her nipples.
The height of the bench is a perfect level for her to have her feet planted on the floor, and she uses this leverage to rhythmically bounce up and down, each downward motion grinding against my pubic bone, as she gasps and moans.
I release her breasts, sitting up and bracing an arm behind me as I ask, “What do you need? Tell me what you need.”
She doesn’t answer me in words, and I see the tension in her body. Her brow is furrowed, and her eyes are now squeezed shut in concentration as she rides me.
I wrap my free arm around her hips, leaning more of my weight back on my outstretched hand as I move one foot to the floor, pulling her in close as I thrust upward. Her breath catches in her throat, and her eyes open. She stares at me and gasps, “Yes. Right there.”
My dick throbs at her words, and I already feel the heat in my pelvis and at the base of my spine. I clench my teeth as I force myself to maintain control and not just empty inside her right now.
“Touch yourself, sugar. Rub that clit. Come on my cock.”
Her hand immediately moves between us, her fingers rubbing against her clit rhythmically, putting more pressure into my groin, and I groan, “That’s right. That’s my good girl.”
Her free hand moves around my shoulders, her hands sliding up until her fingers are tangled in the hair at the back of my head. She pulls, and I go willingly. My face pressed is between her breasts, and then I lick and suck a path to her nipple.
I suck urgently on one and then lick and bite a path to the other side, where I bite her nipple until she sobs, and then I lick and suck as she gasps. Her fingers stroke, rub, and pinch her clit, and I feel every movement against my pelvis as I continue to thrust up into her in long, hard pulses.
She’s chanting brokenly, begging and pleading for me not to stop, the sound of her voice sending sparks of lightning down my spine and directly into my balls.
I pull back, my arm around her hips firm as I continue to jackhammer up into her. My eyes scan up her body, reveling in the sight of her riding me with abandon. Her head is thrown back, her eyes once again squeezed shut, and the ball of emotion that erupts in my chest almost chokes me, but I manage to grit out, “Open your eyes. You open your fucking eyes and look at me.”
She immediately does what she’s told, her eyes opening, her head coming forward so she’s staring directly into my eyes as I whisper, “I love you.”
She blinks at me, confusion, surprise, and then awe showing along her features, and then she smiles and sobs, her hand in the back of my head tightening as she forces my head up, and then she’s kissing me feverishly, riding my cock and her hand as she gasps over and over and over again, “I love you. I love you. I love you.”
And then she comes.
She sobs into my mouth, earning an answering, guttural reply as my body tightens. Her body twitches, her pussy spasming as I thrust up into her forcefully.
She sobs and moans through her pleasure, grinding down her fingers on her clit, extending her pleasure, and then she says against my lips, “Come, baby. Come inside me. Mark me. Please.”
And I fucking come.
She sucks my pleasure from my mouth and my balls as I empty inside her, allowing myself this one last moment of pure bliss before we both step out into the complete unknown.
I thrust up inside her a few more times before finally, I still, and then we rest there with my dick still inside her, both of us trembling.
She wraps both arms around me, pressing my face into her neck, her breath hot on my ear as she repeats over and over, “Don’t let go. Don’t let go.”
I sit up, wrapping both of my arms around her back and pulling her as tightly to me as possible as I answer her plea.
“I’ll never let go.”