24. Jonathan
Jonathan
The red spilling across Lina’s face burned brighter than any star.
All the windows of my car were covered in a cloudy film of condensation, filtering out the only light present from the weak streetlights.
It shrouded us in a low light inside of my vehicle, almost allowing us to sit in darkness.
Silence occupied us for several moments, granting me the opportunity to listen to the sound of her breath—the tremor in it.
She ripped her gaze away from mine. Her face still glowing from her flush.
Her hands busied themselves by unwrapping the strawberry candy she had offered me earlier.
She placed it between her pretty, heart-shaped lips.
A tiny shiver shuddered over me as the candy disappeared into her mouth with a soft suckle.
“I’m not perfect, Jonathan. You know that,” she whispered, avoiding my eyes.
“You are to me,” I said. I reached across the distance between us and cupped her chin. I directed her dark brown eyes to me as she gulped a breath of air. “You are flawless, Lina Lee.”
Her lips trembled as if she wanted to say something but couldn’t.
“I’m sorry for everything I’ve done—from being a complete asshole to you at work to being a dumbass in high school. I misunderstood you and made the worst assumptions about you. I said I never liked you, but I never hated you,” I insisted.
I looked into her dark eyes and sighed softly.
“I’ve never hated you once. In fact, I hoped we could’ve been friends at first .
. . But my offers to be friends were all rejected.
I took the hint and settled on being your academic rival instead.
And, yeah, I won’t deny it. I was bitter about that.
In many ways, I wished we’d always been more than just rivals.
That resentment, along with my misconceptions of you, festered into my dislike of you.
I’m sorry about that and the things I’ve said and done to get you to just look at me—speak to me or acknowledge me.
“We’re practically one and the same. Much more than we both like to admit, but you’re better than me in every possible way. With your grades, your intelligence, your composure, and your persistence. Even now.” My words dwindled into a low breath. “You’re perfect, Lina Lee.”
Her breath quivered, “Jonathan.”
I continued. “You were Little Miss Perfect who got the perfect scores without having to put in a quarter of the work I did. You have always been the embodiment of perfection—from your perfectly symmetrical face down to the way you write,” I continued, my words sounding like a confession.
“Now that I know more about you and all you’ve been through, I also know you’re strong.
You’re such an amazing person, Lina. I can only wish I were half as incredible as you. ”
Her lips trembled.
I swallowed down my ability to speak as I pressed my thumb down on her chin, prying her mouth open. The strawberry candy that had disappeared between her sensuous lips now shone like a tiny twinkle in the pocket of her cheek, enticing me to come closer.
“I want some of that sweetness too,” I gasped. Our breaths shook together as I brought up my other hand to hold her face, tracing the outline of her bottom lip with certainty. “No more games. Let me taste you, Lina.”
I waited inches from her lips.
She looked into my eyes for a moment, emotions storming across the haze of her own dark depths. Then, her lips touched mine. I sighed into her mouth before they could even fully press against mine. She fumbled with expected inexperience and clumsiness, so I quickly took the lead.
My hands reached for her smaller and colder ones, teaching her where she could place them: tangled in my hair, cupped against my jaw, or tightly gripping onto my shoulders. She could choose whichever, so I could show her the fire raging between us—slowly, sensuously, and confidently.
I wanted her. All of her. Her kisses, her mouth, her heart, and I’d give her every single shred of myself, too.
She clearly wanted me.
We wanted each other. I wanted to be her guiding light and show her what we could do when our worlds merged together.
I licked and nipped at her lips. Our breaths deepened in unison.
My hands were all over her back, clawing to touch her skin through the thick material of the coat she had on.
Lina whimpered, her breasts brushing against my chest. Our erect nipples pressed against the heat of one another’s bodies.
I groaned with Lina as my cock began to twitch.
She meticulously wove her hand through my hair and tugged, pushing me to open my mouth and dive into her with my tongue.
A muffled sound escaped her mouth as I showed her how to properly dance with tongue and saliva.
The syrupy sweetness from the candy infused with her own taste smacked me with the addicting rush of sugar through my veins and the dangerous surge of dopamine in my brain.
I wrapped an arm around her, pulling her flush against my hard body.
My cock strained against the seams of my pants, fighting to be touched by her hot skin.
One of her hands fisted my black dress shirt, while the other tugged the hair on the back of my head again.
We groaned together as she rocked her hard nipples against my pecs.
I pulled my tongue from her mouth, saliva trailing between us in a hot puff of breath. I cupped her face in my hands and said, “Breathe, Lina. You’re going to need that oxygen.”
I allowed her to gasp for much-needed air.
Meanwhile, the desire to draw my tongue across her body blazed more intensely inside me.
I needed to taste more of her. I licked down her chin and the column of her pretty neck.
Lina whimpered loudly when I made it to my destination at the base of her neck, sucking and imprinting myself across her skin.
“Fuck, Jonathan,” she gasped.
I tugged away from her soft, velvety skin and pressed my lips against her ear. With a rumble from my chest, I whispered, “Save that for when I’m actually fucking you.”
Her breath shook, and I dove back to her neck. I opened my mouth wide, marking what was mine. After a sharp suck, she rewarded me with a breathy gasp and an incoherent word that slipped out of her mouth. My lips suctioned her skin into my mouth harder, making her grip around me tighten and—
One of our phones rang shrilly through the vehicle, cutting through the thick heat between Lina and me. We ignored it as it vibrated from the floor of the car until it went to voicemail. When I thought we were free, another call pulsated and vibrated obnoxiously.
Lina yanked my lips off her with the pull of my hair, making me groan. “S-sorry, I’m going to need to check who it is,” she heaved.
I watched as she reached into her bag and pulled out her phone with shaky fingers. The name ‘The Love of My Life’ flashed across her phone screen.
“Hey, Mary,” she answered, voice controlled and devoid of any remnants of what I did to her.
“Where are you?” asked a woman on the other end.
I reached out to touch the pink mark I left on the nape of her neck. It wasn’t nearly as red as I wanted.
“I’m—” Lina inhaled, with me leaning closer to her. I breathed against the art I left on her skin. Her voice just barely hitched, urging me to lap my tongue over the blooming hickey I wanted to be darker. “I’m—”
I almost chuckled at how cute she sounded.
“Lina, I’m checking your location right now. Why are you in the middle of a random church parking lot at 11:00 p.m.? I thought you were supposed to be at Natsuki, or home,” stated her friend in a worried frenzy.
The moment a syllable escaped her throat, I pulled her skin into my mouth in a sharp suckle as I continued to leave my personal seal on her body. Lina quickly pulled the phone away from her face to let out a shaky whimper.
Her friend was still trying to engage in a conversation with her, but that phone was nowhere near her ear or mouth. I pulled away. The two of us were breathing as quietly as possible. I grabbed the phone she held far away from us and pressed it against her ear.
Lina gulped as I returned to my rightful place over her jugular. I bit her sharply, urging her to talk. A muffled, quiet moan came from her lips as she threw back her head into the headrest.
“Lina, are you even listening to me? Are you okay?” asked her friend.
“Sorry,” she said in the calmest, most even voice. I bit her again, making her breath hitch softly. “I was hungry. I’ll talk to you later.”
She ended her call and tossed it somewhere into the darkness. I laughed, my teeth grazing against her sensitive red skin.
“I didn’t realize my nickname was ‘Hunger’.” I exhaled hotly onto my marking. She squirmed under me, moaning loudly. “Fuck, Lina.”
“Save that for when you’re fucking me,” she quipped, firmly echoing my own words back to me.
I pulled away and found her flushed so red that the mark I left on her almost blended into the rest of her skin. “Is that what you want?”
“You said later,” she whispered.
My smile softened as I held her chin. “Later, as in a later time and date. Not today, but later,” I said, giving her sweet lips a peck. “When you’re ready.”
Her breath shook, placing a hand over my chest. Her fingers swept over my pecs leisurely in this tantalizing motion. The tips of her fingers were still ice-cold, drawing goosebumps across my skin in its sluggish trail as it drew across my nipples. I groaned while she smirked.
Her hand slid up to my shoulders, then down to my bicep, and finally, to my forearm as she tried to trace every hard muscle through the material of my dress shirt. I shuddered out a breath when those icy fingers traced right over where the veins protruded on my hands to the tips of my fingers.
“Show me how to use my bright pink vibrator, too, Jonathan,” she purred in a low, sensual voice.
Before she could pull away from her own ministrations over my body, I grabbed her face and tugged her flush against mine.
I devoured her lips in a heated rush as my cock strained against my pants.
Our kiss was no longer languid and curious.
It was now sloppy with fire and molten lava.
She tried to keep up with me through these cute, biting kisses as she groaned into me.
Fuck.
Spit dribbled from the corner of our lips as I gave another bite and quick lick over her bottom lip.
I leaned back just enough to look into her black eyes and grinned at those red, swollen lips.
I brushed my thumb over the several red bite marks I left behind over the blooming hickey at the base of her neck.
I breathed, “Mark your territory, Lina Lee. I want the world to know I’m all yours.”
“Where?” she swallowed.
“Anywhere you like. Free range.” I grabbed the hand she had just laid on me. I brought it up to my neck, clasping her fingers over my windpipe like a collar. “But I want you to mark me somewhere I can show off who I belong to.”
“As if you’re a dog?” Lina raised her eyebrow at me with slyness tugging at her lips.
I moaned, tightening her hold on the sides of my esophagus for a moment. My Adam’s apple danced against her palm as my eyes rolled. I loosened her grip around my neck to groan out, “I’m better than a dog, Darling. I’m yours.”