Chapter 19
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Wade
The estate was quiet when we arrived, evening settling into night, the ocean dark beyond the glass walls, moonlight casting silver across the floor.
Thomas helped unload the boxes while I carried Marie straight to my suite, her body warm and pliant in my arms, her face tucked against my neck where each breath ghosted across my skin.
"I can walk," she murmured like always, but her arms stayed wrapped around my neck.
"I know." I set her gently on the edge of the bed, my fingers brushing her hair back from her face. "Wait here while I get your boxes."
I returned with Thomas a few minutes later, both of us carrying the pink-filled boxes into the suite that was about to be completely transformed.
Marie watched with wide eyes as we stacked them along one wall. Sundresses, tank tops, and ribbons created pink splashes of color against my carefully curated neutrals.
Her entire wardrobe, now transplanted into my space.
Into our space.
"Thank you, Thomas. That will be all for tonight." I dismissed him with a nod, and he left discreetly, the door closing with that heavy, expensive sound that meant complete privacy.
Then it was just us.
Marie sat on my bed in those cream clothes that weren't her style, moonlight catching on her dark skin and making her glow like she was lit from within. The intimacy of the moment settled around us, heavy and charged.
I moved toward her, watching the way her breath quickened as I approached. Her thighs pressed together, and her lips parted slightly like she was already anticipating something.
When I knelt before her, my hands reaching for her shoes, she didn't protest this time. She just watched me with those dark eyes that were starting to heat with what definitely wasn't nervousness anymore.
"You're listening, darling." I removed the first shoe, my fingers trailing up her ankle, feeling her shiver under my touch. "I like when you're good for me."
Her breath hitched. "I can still undress myself." But her voice was breathy and uncertain, and she bit her lip, watching my hands with undisguised interest.
"I know you can." I removed the second shoe, then let my hands rest on her feet, my thumbs stroking the skin of her ankles in slow circles. "But I want to unwrap you like the gift you are. Didn’t you say I’m old? That means I have plenty of patience.”
She let out a little laugh. "Do you trust me?" I asked, my voice dropping lower as my hands slid up to her calves, feeling the tension in her muscles.
"Yes."
"Then let me take care of my girl the way she deserves."
She shivered visibly, a full-body tremor that made me want to spread her out and discover every other way I could make her shake.
I moved to the button of her pants, maintaining eye contact as I popped it open. Her pupils dilated until there was barely any brown left, just black pools of want that she didn't quite know how to voice yet.
But I could read it in her body. She leaned slightly toward me, and her breathing picked up further, chest rising and falling. Her arousal was already perfuming the air between us, sweet and intoxicating.
I slid the zipper down and pulled the fabric past her hips, careful of her healing skin. She lifted slightly to help me, and then she was left in just her shirt and white cotton underwear.
The contrast of white against her dark complexion was magnetic. The fabric was already damp between her thighs, and it made my cock throb painfully against my zipper.
I stood and disappeared into the bathroom, returning with a warm, wet towel. I needed a moment to breathe, to control the primal urge to just devour her.
When I knelt before her again, her eyes tracked my every movement like she was trying to memorize me.
My hands moved to her shirt buttons, and I unbuttoned with steady hands, even though I wanted to rip the fabric off her. I revealed her inch by inch while her breathing went increasingly ragged.
Her collarbone first, then the swell of her breasts confined in a white bra that was doing nothing to hide her peaked nipples. Her sternum. The soft curve of her belly that I wanted to bite and claim.
She was trembling already, and I hadn't even really touched her yet.
I took the warm towel and started at her shoulders, cleaning away the day with slow strokes. Down her arms, carefully around her bandaged forearm, then back up to trace across her collarbones.
My hands moved lower, the towel wiping down her sternum, then between her breasts, where I could feel her heart hammering against my palm.
"Your heart is racing," I murmured, eyes never leaving her soft skin, the glow of her body.
"You make me nervous," she admitted, her voice small and sweet. "But the good kind."
I reached behind her and unclasped her bra in one smooth motion.
She made a soft sound as I pulled it away, revealing her breasts to the moonlight streaming through the windows. Her nipples were already peaked, dark against her skin, and I had to bite back a groan at how fucking beautiful she was like this.
Bare, trembling, and mine.
"So beautiful," I breathed, my eyes devouring every inch of newly revealed skin like I was starving for it. "And all mine."
I leaned forward and pressed my mouth to her collarbone, feeling her hands come up to grip my shoulders like she needed the anchor or she'd float away completely. I kissed down her sternum, letting my lips and tongue learn the taste of her.
My hands came up to cup her breasts, and the weight of them in my palms was everything. She arched into my touch, a needy whimper escaping her throat.
I took her nipple into my mouth without warning and sucked hard enough to make her back bow off the bed, a surprised cry tearing from her lips.
“Oh,” she gasped, her hands flying to my hair and gripping tight enough that it bordered on painful. “Wade!”
I lavished attention on one breast while my hand worked the other, rolling her nipple between my fingers, using just enough pressure to make her want more.
Her soft whimpers were rapidly becoming desperate sounds that went straight to my aching cock, and when I switched breasts and used my teeth, she moaned fully.
My hands slid down her sides to grip her hips, and I felt her try to close her legs. She was fighting herself—years of survival instincts warring with the pleasure building in her body, demanding acknowledgment.
I pulled back to look at her, and that's when I saw that distant look starting to creep into her eyes as sensation threatened to overwhelm her. She was beginning to float away, her mind unable to process the intensity of the pleasure.
"Marie." I gripped her face immediately, my thumb on her chin, forcing her to focus on me. "Stay with me, darling. Right here."
She blinked, her eyes struggling through the haze. That trauma response had kept her alive, but now threatened to steal this moment from her.
I needed to ground her, to give her something to anchor to that wasn't just my voice.
"Open," I commanded softly, bringing my thumb to her lips.
Her mouth parted in confusion, and I slid my thumb past her lips and onto her tongue.
"Suck," I instructed, watching her eyes widen. "Give yourself something to focus on, darling. Stay here with me."
Her lips closed around my thumb hesitantly at first, then with more certainty. She sucked gently, and I felt it everywhere—in my cock, in my chest, in the possessiveness that settled even deeper in my soul.
"That's it," I praised, keeping one hand on her hip while she suckled my thumb. "Just like that. Eyes on me."
I watched her eyes clear as she sucked harder, the sensation grounding her immediately. It gave her something to focus on that wasn't the overwhelming pleasure, something oral and soothing that spoke to a deep need within her.
"Good girl," and I felt her whimper around my thumb. "Stay right here. Don't go anywhere."
My free hand moved to the waistband of her underwear, and I held her gaze as I pulled it down, making sure she stayed present for every moment.
When I spread her legs and positioned her at the edge of the bed, she sucked harder on my thumb, using it as I wanted her to.
Her sweet pussy was glistening, her arousal evident with the wetness coating her inner thighs.
"Stay with me," I reminded her, stroking one hand up her inner thigh while keeping my thumb in her mouth. "Keep those eyes on me and keep sucking."
I started with my free hand, stroking through her folds, and she was so wet that it made sounds that filled my bedroom. Her mouth fell open around my thumb on a gasp, but she kept sucking, using that oral fixation to stay grounded.
"There,” I encouraged, circling her clit with gentle pressure. “Watch me devour this pretty pussy of yours.”
I finally leaned forward and pressed my mouth to her, my tongue flat and broad, licking up through her folds to taste her. Marie moaned out, and it was the most erotic thing I'd ever heard.
She tasted sweeter than the cider we’d had at dinner.
She sucked harder on my thumb as my tongue lavished her little pussy, and I could feel the desperation in it—the need to have something in her mouth while pleasure overwhelmed every other sense.
I circled her clit with my tongue, her whole body jerking, and her teeth grazed my thumb slightly before she resumed sucking.
I moved lower, dragging my tongue down to probe gently at her entrance. She tensed, and I remembered how she'd frozen last time with my finger inside her.
But when I pressed just the tip of my tongue inside her, she didn't freeze. Instead, she made a soft, needy sound around my thumb, and her hips rolled slightly like she was asking for more without words.
I probed deeper, using my tongue to explore her tightness while watching her process the sensation. She seemed to decide it was different from fingers, decided she could handle this.
Decided she liked this.
I fucked her with my tongue in shallow thrusts that made her whimper around my thumb.
My free hand found her clit, rubbing tight circles that matched the rhythm of my tongue inside of her, and I watched her struggle to stay present through the overwhelming sensation while using my thumb as her anchor.
She was trying to say something, her mouth working around my thumb, but nothing coherent came out except desperate, muffled sounds. She was non-verbal, overwhelmed. But her eyes were still on mine, still present even if language had abandoned her.
I pulled my thumb from her mouth, and she whimpered at the loss.
"You need a word, don't you, darling?” I kept my fingers working her clit while I looked up at her flushed, desperate face. "You need a name for the man taking care of you? Something that will quiet that beautiful mind?”
She nodded frantically, her mouth opening and closing like she was trying to find the right name, the right word for what we were doing.
“Call me daddy," I urged softly, watching realization hit her. "That's what I've been, isn't it? Taking care of you, making decisions, keeping you safe. Call me what I am."
"Daddy." The word came out breathy but certain, and her eyes rolled back slightly. "That's... yes. Daddy." It was like she'd finally found the word that made sense of everything between us.
"That's right," I growled, bringing my thumb back to her lips. "Now open up for me again."
She obeyed eagerly, and I slid my thumb back onto her tongue, feeling the relief in how quickly she closed her lips around it and started sucking again.
“Such a pretty mouth,” I praised. "Keep sucking while daddy makes you feel good."
I dove back in, my tongue probing deep inside her pussy while my free hand worked her clit relentlessly. She sucked harder on my thumb with each thrust of my tongue, the dual stimulation clearly doing something profound to her mind.
She whimpered around my thumb, and I felt her inner walls starting to flutter around my tongue.
Her suckling became almost frantic as pleasure built—hard pulls interspersed with gentle licks of her tongue against my thumb pad that made me think of my cock in her mouth.
"That's it, darling," I murmured against her soaked flesh between licks. "Use daddy's thumb. Stay right here with me.”
She was getting close, her thighs beginning to tremble on either side of my head, her inner walls clenching around my tongue. I increased the pressure, flattened my tongue, and licked her from entrance to clit in long strokes that made her entire body bow off the bed.
“You’re gonna come for daddy," I purred against her clit. "Let me taste it, darling. Give it to me."
She came with my thumb still in her mouth, her teeth grazing it slightly as she tried to cry out around it. "Mmm, daddy—oh god—"
Her back arched, her thighs clamping around my head, and she pulsed against my tongue as she came hard and sweet. Her eyes prickled with tears, but remained locked on mine through it all, present and here with me.
And my darling never stopped sucking my thumb. She carried herself through every wave, every aftershock, like that action was the only thing keeping her from falling apart.
I worked her through it, my tongue gentling but not stopping until she was gasping and trembling, her suckling becoming soft and seeking comfort rather than needy.
Only then did I pull back, pressing reverent kisses to her inner thighs, her hips, her trembling belly while slowly withdrawing my thumb from her mouth.
She made a soft, bereft sound at the loss, and I immediately moved up her body to press a kiss to her lips, letting her taste herself on my tongue.
"You did so well,” I murmured against her mouth. “You stayed with me the whole time and used Daddy's thumb exactly like you needed to. I’m proud of you, darling."
She made a contented sound and kissed me back, her hands coming up to cup my face like she needed to hold onto me.
When I pulled back, her eyes were clear and present, full of starry wonder.
"There's my girl," I said softly, and she smiled through the tears still wet on her temples.
I stood and arranged her properly on the bed, changing her bandages with gentle efficiency. I dug out one of her pink sleep shirts and helped her into it, treating her as irreplaceable as she was.
When I finally climbed into bed beside her and pulled her against my chest, she immediately took my thumb and brought it to her mouth again, holding it against her lips like she still needed that comfort.
I let her, stroking her hair with my free hand while she sighed sleepily.
“It felt really good,” she whispered after a few minutes. “And thank you for not letting me disappear. For giving me something to hold onto."
“Of course, darling. And you can have Daddy's thumb whenever you need it. Whenever you need to feel grounded or safe or just need something to comfort you, it's yours."
She hummed contentedly and curled closer into me, her eyes drifting closed. She was safe, present, and utterly mine.