23. CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
B rody
Someone’s knocking. No. Pounding. Someone’s pounding at my door.
I roll over onto my side and bring a pillow over my head. Surely, that’s not for me. I don’t know anyone who’d threaten to take my door off its hinges with that level of aggressiveness. It must be a dream.
“Brody, open up!” a voice comes through, cutting a path through my foggy mind.
The noise grows louder as I roll over onto my back and open my eyes. I look at the door and a groan leaves my lips. They’re rattling the door now.
I roll out of bed, pull my sweatpants up, and drag my tired feet across the carpet. Whoever’s on the other side better have a good reason for threatening to split my skull with all that noise.
I unlock the door and turn the handle. “What—”
The question dies on my tongue as I’m shoved so far back I stumble. The fuck?
“You asshole!”
Me? Asshole? I blink away the bleariness in my eyes. Who’s being so rude to me? I manage to focus and Ivy stands before me. She screams something I can’t make out, poking a finger in my chest.
Fuck . I must be dreaming. There’s no way she’s here in real life.
“H-how did you get in here?” My voice comes out hoarse. Nothing makes sense.
“Duh.” She sneers. “Through the freaking lobby. Now, are you going to answer me? Or will you just keep staring…”
But how can her voice be so loud my ears ring if this is really a dream? And why can I feel her finger against my chest?
“Do you hear me?” Dream Ivy takes me by the shoulders and shakes me. Or attempts to. I don’t move an inch and she huffs her frustration. She gets right up in my face, her dark green eyes wide with alarm and her lips trembling. “Someone shot at me, Brody! Someone tried to kill me.”
Why would someone do that? Ivy’s such a nice girl. Sometimes .
“Fucking wake up, you jerk!” she shouts in my face. “My life is in danger. You said I could go home, but I almost got killed in my home, okay?” Her eyes are clouding up with tears and she chokes on her words. “You promised me I was safe, but I’m not. We’re not safe. Someone is still after us.”
The stalker. The thrashed apartment. The man that was caught.
I’m not dreaming. This is real.
“Someone shot at… you?” My heart races as my mind plays catch up.
“That’s what I’ve been saying.” She pushes against my shoulders. “Aren’t you listening?”
“Someone shot at you,” I repeat, fear clamping around my chest.
Someone shot at Ivy . God, no.
I grab her face and look into her eyes. Apart from the naked fear and alarm, she looks alright. I turn her head to the ceiling and check her neck. No bruises, no blood. The sweater she has on slides against my fingers as I drag it up.
“What are you doing?” she squeaks.
“Checking.” My voice comes out weak, shaky. I don’t know what I’d do if Ivy got hurt.
Her stomach is smooth, her porcelain skin cool and unmarred. I lift my hands to her chest. A gunshot wound through the heart is deadly. She’s soft to the touch and bare. She gasps above me as my fingers trail her nipples. It doesn’t register what I’m doing until she lets out a soft moan.
“What are you doing, Brody?” She sounds breathless.
I pause, my head snapping back into place. I have my thumbs on her nipples with my head on her belly. “I didn’t mean to...” I drag my hands away and pull her into my arms. “You didn’t get hurt, did you?”
She’s cool to the touch like she’s been out in the cold and indeed she has. Her outfit is too light for a trip in the chilly weather. She drove out here tonight. Anything could have happened to her. Whoever’s after them could have followed her, caught her, and hurt her.
“I’d be in the hospital if I was hurt, wouldn’t I?” she snaps. “Or maybe the morgue.”
My heart hammers in my chest. “Fuck, no. Don’t say that.”
“He shot at my head, Brody.”
I bury my face in her neck and take a drag of her warm scent. “You’re alright.” I reach my hands up into her scalp and caress the roots of her hair. No blood. No wound. “You’re alright.”
“I’m not. I’m scared. What if he comes back?”
“You’re with me now.” I pull back to look into her eyes. “I won’t let anyone get to you.”
She starts to protest again and I run out of options. If she keeps speaking, I’ll do something mental like drive to Denver right now and scour the whole of the city looking for the shooter. We can’t have that. I need her quiet. I need her to know that she’s safe now.
I press a kiss to the side of her trembling lips, muttering quiet words of reassurance. She’s so soft and supple against me. Easy to break. I’d never let anyone hurt her. I turn my face and steal the frightened words from her tongue. Unlike her skin, her mouth is warm and wet and welcoming.
It doesn’t take a second for her to return my kiss with fervor. Her arms wrap around my neck and pull me deeper like she needs my touch to know she’s alive and unhurt. I give her what she needs, banding my arms around her waist and pulling her body against mine.
Nothing will ever hurt you, Ivy. Not if I can help it.
Even fear.
I need to free her from it. I need to rid myself of it.
I walk her to the bed and ease her onto the mattress. She doesn’t want to let my lips go as she rolls our tongues together and moans softly. Her legs wrap around my waist and her hips veer up, hitting the center of her thighs against my hardening cock. The sweatpants I have on in addition to whatever’s covering her pussy is not enough to prevent me from feeling her wet heat. I want to taste it. I want to make her feel good.
I ease my hands between our bodies and rub her hard, little nipples. She gasps, arching her back up into my touch. She throws her hands over her head and allows me to take off her sweater. Her skin pebbles with gooseflesh, her body trembling.
Fucking sweet.
I lean in and take one tight bead between my lips.
“Oh,” she gasps, hands running through my hair. I switch to the second one, getting a similar reaction. “Please, more.”
“I wish I could.” The words grate out of me. “But there’s something I want more.”
“Huh?” She pants, looking down at me as I run soft kisses down her trembling belly on the way to what’s hidden beneath her short skirt.
I find a zipper and rid her of it but I’m met with more obstacles. My chest heaves as I assess the pantyhose providing her a layer of protection against the cold. An obstacle against me.
But I’m not deterred. I run my fingers down the middle, finding the spot that makes her soft body twitch.
“Oh, yes.” Her legs come up, opening up her center for me.
I run a hand down the middle of her legs and moisture grows where my touch lands. Unable to resist, I lean down and kiss her through the fabric. Her moans are a delicious motivation.
My cock is a rock beneath my sweatpants but it’s not getting any attention yet. I’ll take my time getting reacquainted with her pussy. Loving it into a wet, dripping, pliant hole before reintroducing her to my meat. Then all of this talk of shooters will be far behind us.
Even being reminded of it now makes my blood boil. I need her taste on my tongue. Fresh from the source.
It’s a fight to get the clingy pantyhose off and I just give up and rip it off. Ivy moans, her dark, lusty eyes even growing more heavy-lidded with the display.
“You like that, huh?” I push her thighs apart and sniff her warm cunt. “You like when I lose control because of how much I need you?”
Her head falls back and she runs shaky fingers in my hair. “Eat me out, Brody.”
I push her panties to the side, exposing wet, slick lips. “Fuck.” A groan leaves me as I cover her with my mouth and lick. The moment her taste hits the back of my throat, I’m done for. I growl, parting her slick flesh with my tongue and finding the little button that makes her scream.
I devour her heat like a predator burrows into prey to find the tastiest spot. I can’t decide if it’s her swollen clit or the hole I’d soon have my dick trapped in. I lick her from top to bottom and then back again.
Somehow, it’s not enough. I push her thighs apart as far as they’d go and lift her off the bed so her ass is up in the air. She knows I need more and maybe she does too. That’s why she’s rolling her hips, slapping her eager cunt in my face, getting my jaw all wet with her juices.
“Keep going, baby,” I urge her. “Keep rubbing that horny, little cunt all over my face. You’re getting closer, huh?”
She answers my question with a big lift. Her back is off the bed now and she’s only supported by her shoulders as she grinds blindly into my face.
“Brody, Brody,” she chants breathlessly.
“You’re so close.” I can feel the swell of her pussy and the flood of wetness that bathes my tongue. I keep my tongue on the spot she likes and allow her to exert herself, reaching for her orgasm. “It’s yours, baby. Take it.”
In two, short twists, she screams to the ceiling and bucks against my face. Her legs rip off the mattress and band around my head, locking me in. My eyes roll to the back of my head as the display of her orgasm heightens. She’s getting my entire lower jaw drenched now, working her hips up and down as a high, keening sound leaving her lips. Her delicious cunt drips with her essence, soft and ready to take cock.
Precum leaks from my tip, wetting the front of my sweatpants. Anticipation tenses my core. Soon I’d be shaft deep inside my personal paradise.
I wait until she’d gotten her fill. Until her back is flat against the mattress and my head is released from its cage. Only then do I lift off of her and free my cock. Even the slight graze of the fabric feels like torture.
I groan, gripping the turgid length and tugging at it to ease the pressure but my gaze falls on her still writhing form and impossibly, I grow harder. I can’t give myself the pleasure I need. It has to come from the pulsing flesh between her thighs.
“Come here.” She lifts her arms and invites me with a flick of her fingers.
I’ve never said yes faster in my life. I lay on top of her, sliding my cock between her legs. She’s open and ready, her slit parting to let my cock rest on top of it.
Her moan thrills me and her fingers running tenderly through my hair only rack up my need.
“You know I need to fuck you now, right?” I stare down at her face.
She nods. “Do it.”
“If you want to wait a minute…” I don’t know why I’m asking because I sure as hell can’t afford to.
“Please.” She drags me down and kisses— no, licks —her juices off my lips. She moans, bucking her hips and invading my mouth with an insistent tongue.
“Fuck, baby,” a groan leaves my throat. “You like your taste, don’t you?”
She nods, capturing my tongue and sucking on it.
“Oh, fuck.” It’s my turn to slide back and forth against her drenched core. “You need to be fucked, yes?”
“Mm-hmm.” She grinds against me.
“Okay, baby.” I run my hands down her legs. “Part those thighs for me.” She does. “Such a good girl following my instructions. A little more. Now lift your legs. Up around my waist.” I choke out a gasp as this new position opens her up, bringing my cockhead deliciously close to her honeypot. “That’s it. Now ease those hips up.” My tip touches the borders of heaven and I groan. “Yes, baby. Just like that. Now I’m going to fuck you. Just hold on. It’s going to be a long ride.”