16. Darwin
“OKAY, HOW DOES THIS LOOK?”
My head falls to the side, looking diligently up at the mounted TV Savvy is adjusting above the prize counter, or, at least, I’m trying to look diligently.
Admittedly, it’s difficult to get my eyes to move past my girlfriend’s ass, which is conveniently positioned at my eye level thanks to the ladder she’s standing on.
“Dar,” Savvy chides, and I force my gaze up to meet hers. I smile sheepishly, but my life feels better than I can remember it ever being. This woman… fuck. I never stood a chance.
“Sorry.” I step back, shoving my hands in my pockets to—hopefully— disguise my erection. “It looks great. When did you have this idea?”
Along with the traditional arcade prizes, which range anywhere from stickers to a professional drone, Savvy thought it would be a good idea to offer players the option to trade in their ticket winnings for food from the snack bar or rounds of laser tag. It’s all advertised on the digital sign she’s spent the better part of an hour setting up.
“Last night,” she replies, shooting a little smirk over her shoulder, eyes sparkling.
My heart stalls. Fuck, she’s so beautiful. Is it too soon to propose?
“I wasn’t aware you had time to think about our business last night.”
After a day spent finishing up odd tasks around here, I brought her home with me. Just like we’ve done every day for a week, and just like I intend to do as often as possible.
Forever, if I can manage it.
“I’m very good at multitasking,” my little tornado says primly, turning back to fiddle with the remote control. The little tease moves one foot up a step, accentuating her perfect ass. Recent experience has taught me there’s a zero percent chance this was accidental.
“Apparently.” I stroll around the counter, hands still in my pockets. “Work-life balance is very important, Savvy. Would tying you to our bed and making you come until you pass out take your mind off things?”
It’s big talk from a man who still hasn’t been able to do that, but Savvy turns so quickly the ladder wobbles. My foot finds the bottom step, pressing it down before she topples off, and I lift my hands to her hips.
“Dar!” She giggles, unperturbed by how close we came to spending our evening in the emergency room instead. “The kids are here.”
“The kids are painting the birthday party space. They’re occupied.” I lean forward and sink my teeth into the swell of her ass, biting playfully through her little shorts.
Above me, there’s a ragged gasp that’s almost immediately drowned out by a loud exclamation of “gross” from the doorway to the arcade.
We both whip around to find Marley standing just inside the room, glaring at us with her nose wrinkled in disgust. “Can you guys, like, not be so into each other? Old people shouldn’t be this thirsty. It’s embarrassing.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose while, above me, Savvy bursts into laughter. “Can we help you, Marley?”
“Yeah, can we order Chinese for dinner?”
“Go for it,” I tell her wryly, reaching into my back pocket for my credit card. “Get extra egg rolls this time.”
When she’s gone, Savvy climbs down and twines her arms behind my neck. “You’re so cute with them. Like a nerdy, sarcastic mama duck.”
“The little shits have grown on me.” I drag her closer. “Do you want kids?”
Savvy bites her lip. “With the right person, yeah, I think so. I hated going back and forth between my parents’ houses though. So I’d want to be, like, two hundred percent sure about my partner.”
My heart lurches, and I lean down to capture her lips in a kiss that’s too intense to be played off as anything other than a desperate bid to make it clear I intend to be that person. When we part, panting, Savvy smiles mischievously. “What about you? What’s your stance on making small humans?”
Just imagining Savvy pregnant with my child is enough to knock the wind out of me. The possibility of having a family of my own was unthinkable for so long that it’s startling to realize how badly I want it now.
I swallow back the sudden burst of longing. “Pro. Definitely, pro.”
Another kiss, this time more heated than the last, but Savvy ends it quickly, letting her head drop back with a frustrated little groan. “You’re making me so wet. We have to stop.”
I don’t want to stop. I want to lock us in the back office and worship her beautiful pussy with my fingers, tongue, and cock in no particular order. We’ve been… intimate, but the reality that I still haven’t made her come has become a source of near-constant frustration for me. Since our first date, the level of dumb lust has risen to unbearable levels. We can barely keep our hands off each other, but I haven’t tried to push it further. The memory of my panic when it came time to touch her… I can’t do that again. To either of us. I have to make sure, but I have no idea how.
I even broached the subject with Doctor Lucas at our appointment this morning, but the unhelpful asshole was more focused on unpacking how I felt about the whole situation than on telling me how to solve it. Savvy’s constant reassurances that she doesn’t mind taking it slow only make me feel worse.
She might not mind, but I sure as hell do.
“Dar.” Warm hands touch my face, and I blink down at Savvy, realizing I’ve been staring off into space.
“Sorry.” I kiss her forehead. “I came over to talk to you about something. Your ass distracted me.”
She smirks. “I’m not going to apologize for that.”
I chuckle. “Nor should you. Anyway, the show’s production team and a good portion of the cast will be in New York this weekend for some gala, and my agent suggested we set up a meeting while they’re so close. I suspect she thinks there’s a better likelihood of me agreeing if I don’t have to get on a plane.”
A slow, excited smile is curling over Savvy’s face. “You’re going?”
“Not if you need me here. It’s very last minute, and Patricia is used to me telling her no.”
“Everything is under control. You should absolutely go.” She moves to wrap her arms around me, but a second later, as if something’s just occurred to her, she stops and glares up at me. “As long as you promise not to leave me for a movie star.”
It’s probably wrong to be smug, but I can’t help it. I love that she’s as possessive of me as I am of her.
Tugging playfully on a lock of her hair, I laugh. “Unless they have pink hair and can kick my ass at Mario Kart, they’re not my type.”
I kiss her one more time, but when I draw away, intending to finish updating the point-of-sale system, Savvy’s hands tighten on my shirt, stopping me.
The little smirk she’s wearing has me abandoning all thoughts of productivity. “Do you want to play a game later?”
My mouth is suddenly bone dry. “A game?”
Savvy nods, running her hands down my chest to hook two fingers through the belt loops on my jeans. “Later. After the kids have gone home for the night.”
“What kind of game?”
Her smile widens, and the mischievous glint in her eye might be the sexiest, most terrifying thing I’ve ever seen. “Laser tag.”
When I return to Galactic Guild, the lobby is dark and quiet. Savvy closed everything down for the night while I was dropping the kids off, and now, the only lights are shining from between the big, swinging doors that lead into the laser tag briefing room.
Savvy finished laying the new flooring a few days ago, and my shoes squeak as I cross the room, anticipation moving farther up my spine with each step. This could just be an innocent game, her way of taking my mind off things, but I know it won’t be.
I know my girlfriend—I still get a thrill whenever I think of her in that context—would never be so predictable. Where my brain works in controlled, methodical steps, always considering every possible scenario, Savvy is the opposite. As situations arise, she handles them. Foresight is hardly her greatest strength, but I’ve never met anyone with such a knack for pulling ideas out of thin air.
Is it strange to be attracted to someone’s mind? Because I am.
All questions about what is or isn’t normal vanish as I push open the door.
The room is lit by unearthly blue light, illuminating the rows of benches to my right and hooks of vests and laser guns hung on charging mounts to my left. In the center of the room is Savvy.
She’s wearing the same infuriatingly sexy shorts as earlier, but has discarded her T-shirt, leaving her top half covered only by a sports bra and black laser tag vest. A braid of pink hair is hanging over her shoulder.
“Hi.” Savvy smirks, shifting her weight to show off the holster strapped around her bare thigh, laser gun inside.
I can barely swallow. “You look incredible.”
Her eyes sparkle in the neon light. “Do I? Thank you.”
“I think I should be the one thanking you right now.” As I move forward to touch her, though, Savvy steps away, her smile widening. Wordlessly, she gestures to a vest and gun laid out on one of the benches.
“We’re playing a game, remember?”
Alright. I’ll bite.
I feel her eyes on me as I pull the vest over my head. It’s not heavy or bulky, but the large, flat LED lights on the front and back make it oddly stiff.
Not unlike my cock, which has been violently hard since I walked in here and found her in that fucking outfit.
“I’ve been thinking,” Savvy says coyly, and I can tell my little tornado is loving this. “We’ve both been way too in our heads. About the sex thing.” Hearing the word “sex” come out of her mouth while she’s dressed like that is the equivalent of waving a red flag in front of a bull. All I want is to charge across the room, throw her over my shoulder, and do whatever it takes to make her come.
She wants to play with me, though, and I want to give her whatever she wants.
I pick up the gun. “Have we?”
“Mhmm,”she hums, flicking her braid back. “That doesn’t matter right now. I have a high-stakes mission for you, Commander Wilder. Should you choose to accept it.”
This is a scene in one of my books.
Fucking hell, she has my dick so hard. I love seeing her like this—playful, confident and sexy, a woman who knows she’s making my blood boil just by breathing. How the hell did I get so lucky?
I clear my throat, endeavoring to keep my shit together, to play along. “What’s the mission?”
She moves toward me, stopping when we’re toe to toe, her smile widening. “It’s simple, Commander. You need to find and capture the rebel by any means necessary.”
Christ.
My mouth goes dry as I nod. “I accept.” And, unable to resist touching her when she’s so close, I curl my free hand around the back of her neck, dragging her into me. The plastic on our vests bumps together noisily, and Savvy giggles, her warm hands settling on my shoulders. “What happens when I capture the rebel?”
“You’re awfully confident, Commander.”
“Well, I did write the book on this.”
Her answering laugh makes me feel ten feet tall.
“Well, then, I’m sure you know. Don’t be afraid to go… off book, though.” I lean in to kiss her, but Savvy is already moving away, shooting me one last teasing smile.
My cock throbs when she turns to the tablet mounted beside the arena doors, allowing me an incredible view of her ass in those shorts. A moment later, the lights on our vests and guns come to life, glowing for a few seconds before fading. Beyond the double doors, music starts.
Savvy reaches down, removing her gun from its holster. “Ten hits and you’re out of luck, Commander.” Before I can even think to respond or shake off the fog of desire she has me in, Savvy’s gun is raised and the light on my vest is flashing pink. She beams. “That’s one.”
Then, we’re moving.
The door to the arena has barely begun closing behind Savvy before I’m shoving it open, looking wildly around, but she’s already vanished.
It’s like I’ve stepped into another world. Stone was so into this shit, constantly finding ways to add new features, building spacecraft wreckage or installing the machine that creates the white smoke curling around my knees.
The pathway through the arena is lit by strips of LED lights, dimmed so they don’t detract from the fantasy of it all, and above my head, strobing, technicolor laser beams give the illusion of an intense battle underway. The low beat of the electronic music settles deep in my chest, as though it’s pulsing in time with my own heart.
Fuck me, there’s something so intoxicating about the possibility of letting go and surrendering myself to this. It would be easy. Savvy knew it too. She figured out I needed to get out of my own fucking head.
So, without wasting another second, I do.
Prowling forward on the balls of my feet, I duck through a cave illuminated by strobing green lights, heading for a small bridge at the edge of the arena. My little tornado might know me, but I know her too, and that she loves the element of surprise. My bet is that she’ll be lurking in the structures bordering the largest center tower, waiting to ambush me when I use it for a better vantage point.
I don’t need to see the whole arena, though. I just need a clear view of the base of the tower.
Sure enough, when I edge along the side of the bridge, staring out at the area where I expect her to be, movement in the shadow of a towering pile of faux galactic waste crates makes my heart leap.
I wait, straining my eyes through the black light to confirm, but the angle is wrong. It doesn’t matter. She’s there.
I take the stairs back down to ground level two at a time, flat out running toward where I saw her, gun held aloft.
My pace only slows when the crates are in sight. She might have moved on already, correcting course when I didn’t immediately go for the tower. I’m prepared for that, but I edge around the corner just in time to see a flash of bright pink rounding the crates ahead.
I follow.
My heart is thundering in my chest, but my movements are calm and measured. I’m a hunter, and she’s my prey. This game we’re playing is as old as time, and I’m about to win.
There’s no need to rush this.
My eyes find her the moment I turn the next corner. Savvy is six feet away with her back to me, peeking around a pillar with her gun held close to her chest. She’s focused on the tower, and with the deep thudding rhythm of the song playing, it’s unlikely she’ll be able to hear my footsteps.
She doesn’t.
Still, my little tornado—my rebel—seems to sense she’s being watched. I’m three feet away when I see her shoulders stiffen, but when she begins to turn, it’s already too late.
The flashing lights on her vest are the only warning she gets before I lunge, pulling her back into my chest roughly, and I hear her gasp even over the pulsing beat of the music.
Our guns clatter to the ground.
“Hello, Commander.” Her laugh is breathy as I reach down, tearing at the strap of her vest. It gives way, and I shove it away impatiently, squeezing her pierced tits through her sports bra while my other hand makes its way to her throat.
“Is this what you wanted?” I grit out, my lips brushing the shell of her ear. Savvy whimpers, her pulse racing under my touch. With no true effort, she struggles against my hold, trying to get away, and my fingers tighten on her throat. “Does this turn you on? Let’s check.”
I shove my hand down the front of those fucking shorts. If I wasn’t out of control before, feeling the soft, wet skin of her cunt would decimate whatever rational thought processes I had left.
Holy fuck, she’s so wet.
We’re acting on instinct, desperate creatures rubbing against each other in a dark corner because we need this.
I ease two fingers through her slit, and my body shakes with hers when they brush over her swollen clit, stroking in gentle circles.
She bucks into my touch greedily, and my hold on her throat tightens. “Is all this for me?” I rasp, and the helpless little whimper I get in response makes my stiff cock ache.
My fingers push farther down, searching for her entrance. My eyes squeeze shut as I push inside her for the first time, feeling the impossibly hot, tight walls of her cunt.
“Holy shit—holy fucking shit—baby, you’re so goddamn tight.”
I’m barely aware of what I’m saying, too focused on cataloging Savvy’s reactions to all this. She’s getting slicker with each word, and I feel a surge of triumph because even without having done this before, I know what my girl likes.
I know how to make her wet.
We stumble forward, and the front of Savvy’s legs hit one of the crates of toxic waste.
“I’m going to fuck you bare,” I warn, grinding my palm over her clit as I work my fingers in and out, getting her ready. “Do you want my cum inside you, baby?”
My fingers curve, searching, and I know I’ve hit the good spot when Savvy’s legs almost buckle.
“Dar! Oh fuck, please!” She’s shaking in my arms, rubbing against my hand the best she can, looking for relief.
“Come for me.” My voice is so rough, I barely recognize it. “Come on my fingers. Give it to me, and then I’ll fuck you nice and hard. You want it that way, don’t you? Want to feel this slick little hole being used the way it’s meant to be?”
There have been a handful of moments in my life when I thought I felt victorious. When I finished my first book. When I signed that first publishing contract. When I kissed Savvy for the first time. All those times were incredible, life-affirming even, but none of them compare to making her come apart on my fingers.
Flashing lights and deep, pulsing music carry through the arena around us, but I’m hardly aware of any of it. All I can do is watch, bewitched, as Savvy’s lips part, her face transformed by the pleasure I’m giving her as her inner walls clamp down.
Fuck. Yes.
Her body has barely stopped writhing against mine before I have her bent over, peeling those skin tight shorts down her legs and leaving them tangled around her ankles.
I’d like to stop and admire her, to touch every inch of her beautiful body, but there’s no way I can take this slow. My cock is harder than iron and leaking so much pre-cum that it’s soaked through my boxers. Urgency is humming under my skin, demanding I do this now. Fill her. Own her. Make her mine.
No more waiting.
My hands are steady as I reach for my belt and fly, undoing them to allow my cock to spring free. It’s not a relief. The ache is still so intense, it makes my teeth ache.
Savvy manages to free one ankle from her shorts and, still bent over the crate, she lifts her leg onto the surface too, offering herself up to me.
My breath comes in ragged pants as I grip my base, guiding the tip through her slit, coating it with the same wetness still sticky on my fingers. The flashing lights above us give everything an oddly surreal quality, but we’re not in a fantasy. This is real, it’s happening, and I need to see her face when it does.
“Dar,” Savvy gasps, and as I press my tip against her intensely narrow entrance, my eyes lift to meet hers. A silent understanding passes between us, and I didn’t know it was possible to feel this connected to another person. There’s no hesitation, no self-consciousness or fear. Only a bone-deep need that must be satisfied by the other.
My free hand finds her hip, anchoring us together, and that’s the last conscious decision I make.
A rough noise leaves my chest as I press forward into heaven. Nothing has ever felt better than this, and I suspect nothing ever will. She was made for me, her hot, wet walls gripping my cock like a fucking sleeve. The world doesn’t exist beyond the two of us, and I don’t stop until my balls are pressed against her clit, the head of my cock hitting the deepest part of her and—holy fuck. I have to bite my tongue to stop myself from coming in one thrust.
Savvy is clawing at the crate, peeking back at me with a shocked, hot-as-fuck look on her face. “Dar, Dar, Dar,”she chants, spreading her legs wider to offer me more.
I take it.
As I pull back, my eyes fall to the space between us, watching as her little cunt clings to my too-big-for-her cock. I’m addicted. I want to see this every day for the rest of my life. Now that I know how fucking incredible it feels to be inside this woman, I’ll never be able to stop.
It doesn’t take long for my pace to become savage. Each thrust is sharp and rough, each withdrawal slow and lingering, sending Savvy to the tips of her toes. And when the music changes, I can hear the sexy-as-hell cries that leave her lips when I hit bottom, a noise somewhere between pain and pleasure.
“Oh god. Fuck, Dar!” She’s babbling now, almost sobbing as I begin to pick up speed.
She’s close, and I need to get her there before I lose it completely. Lunging forward, I press my lips to the back of her damp neck, shoving my hand beneath her to rub furiously over the stiff nub between her legs. “You were made to take my dick, weren’t you, baby? You fit me just right.”
Savvy lips part, her moans lost to the swelling music. I’m going at her hard, but my little tornado takes all of it, arching her back to let me deeper as the connection between us swells to something all consuming and inescapable.
I took her. She’s mine, and I’m not giving her back.
My abs are burning, my thighs aching, but the pleasure building at the base of my spine has become unbearable, and I can’t slow down. This won’t last much longer and, desperate now, I pinch her throbbing clit. “Come,” I snarl. “Fucking come, baby.”
Her walls clamp down, clutching at my shaft as Savvy’s body shakes with the force of her orgasm, the sound of her cries muffled.
My beautiful, fearless girl, my personal miracle, coming undone beneath me—because of me. It’s too intense, too much, and the frayed tether of my control breaks.
I come, filling her with my release and cementing the primal, possessive feeling that’s settled deep inside me.
We collapse over the crate, undignified and damp with sweat, me fully dressed—laser tag vest still in place—and her bare apart from a sports bra and her shorts tangled around one ankle.
“Baby.” I half groan, half laugh, so fucking elated I could burst.
Savvy turns, resting her head on her arm and beaming at me. “Why am I ‘baby’ when I’m naked but ‘little tornado’ the rest of the time?” she teases, lifting a hand to play with my beard.
“Too many syllables.”
Her laughter carries over the music, and I find myself annoyed by our current location. “Come on.” I stand, re-fastening my pants, then kneel at Savvy’s feet to help her pull her panties and shorts back up.
“Where are we going now, Commander Wilder?” she questions once I’ve retrieved the dropped laser tag equipment and taken her hand, leading the way out of the arena.
Fake smoke curls around our ankles, and flickering lights shine on Savvy’s golden skin. Maybe I should feel guilty about this, or at least conflicted for fucking my dead friend’s daughter in the place he once loved most in the world, but I don’t.
It’s hers now—ours—and I won’t hold myself back from her for anything or anyone.
My thumb brushes over Savvy’s hand, already so familiar in mine. “I’m taking you home.”