17. Ruth
Chapter seventeen
Ruth
Ruth
I blinked at him, and my fingers curled around the sides of his neck. “A lesson?”
He nodded with mock gravity. “You do like to learn, don’t you?”
“I do,” I agreed slowly. I wasn’t sure where he was going with this, but I sensed a game.
Cal leaned over to the right where his bag lay open at his feet. With a fast glance down, he tugged two black disposable gloves out of the box before straightening again. “See, the thing with the human body is,” he slipped his left hand into a glove. I watched him with round eyes, and excitement built in a steady thrum at my center. “We have the same parts, but they don’t… respond the same.” His glove snapped as he tightened it over his hand. “You follow me? ”
“No,” I gusted out honestly.
Cal pulled the other glove over his right hand and caught my confused stare. “I’ll show you.” He settled me more firmly on his lap, making sure I was comfortable. “Let go of the blanket, Dr. Coldwell.”
Well, it’s now or never. Don’t be a coward. After a moment of hesitation, my fingers released the blanket, and it bared my body. Cal swished it aside, and then he framed my face with his gloved hands. He tickled a line down the bridge of my nose with his right thumb. “This is your nasion, which is the midpoint of the frontonasal suture.”
My eyes fluttered closed, and I felt his touch like a brush stroke that carried all the way down to my lips. “Okay.”
“Does that arouse you?”
I startled, opening my eyes again. I was completely naked in his lap, with my nipples hardening against the cold A/C air and insides squirming with latent desire. Of course, his touch aroused me. I blinked at him, unwilling to admit how potently he affected me. “Uh… not really.”
He nodded. “Let’s try another one.” I suddenly saw where he was going with this.
My lips curved into a smile. “Let’s.”
He traced my bottom lip. “Open your mouth.” I gave him a disbelieving blink. He waited patiently, so I obeyed, opening my mouth a fraction. He slipped his thumb between my lips, and pressing down on my tongue, he slid along the center fold. “The pharyngeal reflex is a funny thing,” he explained, pushing his thumb deeper into my mouth. “Some people do find that arousing. The nerves here,” he explained, pressing hard against the soft tissue, “can be sensitive.”
My clit agreed, and I coughed around a soft gag. He removed his thumb, caressing my lip again. “How was that, Dr. Coldwell? Did that arouse you?”
“No,” I lied, squirming slightly in his lap. In truth, his thumb in my mouth had made me want to suck it down further. And that made me want to wrap my lips around his cock and push him down far until I gagged on his length.
Cal’s lips pressed into a smile. “Okay.”
The blush that had started in my cheeks was traveling down my neck to my chest, and it warmed my insides like I’d swallowed the sun. I wasn’t sure I’d ever played sex games before, but I must have been missing out because I was enjoying this thoroughly. The way Cal’s eyes stayed glued to my every reaction, the way his left arm circled around me to hold me in place—it was stoking that solar heat inside of me like nothing I could remember.
Cal tilted my chin to the side, exposing the left side of my neck. “There are too many anatomical parts to your neck to name now,” he said, pulling me closer and bending his mouth to the side of my throat. “But this part,” he whispered his lips across the pulse point just below my jaw, “where your upper jugular moves to your posterior triangle,” he licked a line down my neck to the far side just under my earlobe. “This is my favorite. ”
I shivered, and like the nerves there were connected by a direct line to my core, my open center clenched in response. I suddenly decided that it was my favorite too. I had the sudden desire to have him bite me there.
“Does that arouse you, Coldwell?” he murmured against my skin.
I swallowed hard. “It might.”
I felt his smile. “Getting somewhere.” He pulled away, straightening and reaching up to his shoulder to take my wrist between his fingers. He brought it between us, and pressing his thumb to the center of my palm he exposed the delicate skin of my inner wrist. Flicking a look up to me, he skated his lips across the sensitive skin. “This is your volar wrist.” He ignited a crackle of pleasure along the outside with a graze of his teeth. “Ulnar zone.” He rotated it to kiss the inside line toward my forearm. “Radial zone.”
Goosebumps erupted along my arm, raising the fine hair along the back. “Oh,” I breathed, watching him with mounting arousal that threatened to turn my organs to ash.
He licked a line up my inner arm until he reached the sore bruise where he’d taken samples from my vein yesterday. He brushed a feather-light kiss over it. “How do we feel about that one?”
“It’s good,” I said tightly. Breathing hard, I felt a prickle of sweat at my hairline, and that heat at my core flashed through me like a solar flare. “Is it… it’s kind of hot in here. Don’t you think? ”
Cal’s expression wavered with amusement. “Is that right? Interesting.” He placed my hand on my thigh, but then his fingers stroked the sensitive inner flesh. “Your saphenous nerve runs this way,” he said, coasting his gloved finger up the inside of my thigh to my aching center. I gasped in a sharp breath, but he moved back down and curved around toward the top of my thigh. “And your femoral artery here.”
My legs shook and I grasped a fistful of his shirt over his shoulder. “R-really?”
“But I think the really interesting anatomy here is your pectineus.” Cal skated both his thumbs up my inner thighs, molding his fingers around the top of my legs, until he reached the juncture of my thighs where they were spread wide. He pressed firmly, and an electric shock of desire went straight to my clit. I held onto his shoulders for dear life as he said, “Pressure here should feel particularly good.”
It does. Oh my God, I’m going to spontaneously combust. Actually, maybe it’s not spontaneous. Maybe he knows exactly what he’s doing to me. “Yeah,” I agreed with difficulty. I stared down at his thumbs, so close to where I really wanted them, and I decided this anatomy lesson was actually a form of torture. “I think… I think I learned quite a bit. Now if you could just—” I shifted restlessly, flicking up a pleading look to his burning gaze.
His lips tipped up. “Not so hasty, Ruth. You said it would take too long, didn’t you? Sit still so I can finish, please.”
“Oh God,” I groaned, looking back down.
“Do my fingers here arouse you?” he asked, like he didn’t very well know that answer.
I cinched my eyelids with a defiant glare. “No.”
“Oh,” he pressed his lips in a thinking gesture. “Alright.” Cal turned his hands so his gloved knuckles skimmed up the juncture of my thighs, across my pubic bone, and over my stomach. I sucked in a harsh breath, but he ignored me, coasting all the way to my breasts. The heat at my center went supernova hot, and I struggled to breathe evenly. He caressed a gentle touch around the outside curve of my breasts before his knuckles skimmed the tips of my erect nipples. I released a pained sound, and both my hands bunched the fabric of his shirt above his shoulders.
“Cal,” I eked out.
“I know you’re well aware of your own anatomy here,” he went on, ignoring my distress. He gently pinched my nipples between his bent fingers and thumbs. His thumbs flicked them idly, and sharp explosions of arousal traveled from my breasts to the increasingly sensitive center between my legs. Fluid swirled between my open legs, and I breathed out a moan.
“ Cal.”
“But what you might not know,” he continued, and he pinched harder, “is the nerves here form a plexus—”
“Cal,” I growled again. I tightened my hold on his shirt, breathing hard and shifting in needy restlessness on his lap. “You made your point.”
He brought his lips to hover over mine, and the velvet softness of his gloves sent another electric shock to my pussy as he rolled his thumbs over the tips of my nipples. “Have you orgasmed yet?”
“No,” I moaned.
“Then we aren’t done.” He licked a line along my upper lip before kissing me softly. He moved languorously, cupping my breasts and teasing my nipples as he claimed my lips with a kiss that tightened that sun at my core into a dying star on the verge of explosion. I brought my hands to his face, pulling him into me like he might contain the sudden burst of need I couldn’t name or explain.
Cal’s left hand molded my breast in a soothing, massaging motion before he skimmed his palm against my nipple, and that sent such a strong ache between my legs, I let out a desperate sound. His right hand skimmed between my breasts and back down my navel. Breaking our kiss just enough to whisper against my lips he said, “Shall I quiz you, clever Ruth? Your turn. What is this?”
He skimmed the outer curve of my center. I moaned, tilting my head back. “I don’t know. Who knows that? Labia?”
“Outer, yes,” he grinned, clearly enjoying himself thoroughly. “And here?” He moved closer to that core of desire that yearned so desperately for his touch.
“Fuck, I don’t know. Inner labia?”
“Mhm,” he slicked his fingers up and down the drenched skin, bringing me gratification and torture in equal measures.
“Pretty sure you missed my clitoris,” I grated out urgently.
He chuckled, bending to drop a kiss on the side of my neck. “Here?” His fingers brushed against the sensitive bundle of nerves, and I jumped before arching into his touch.
“Oh fuck.”
He pinched it between his first and middle finger, and moving up and down, he pulled the desire at my core so tight, I thought I might splinter. “Oh God, Cal. Please.” I clutched him, moving my hips in time with his fingers and winding up tighter than I thought possible. With each slide of his fingers, I felt my empty center clench with convulsive contractions I couldn’t control any more than I could control how helplessly I wanted him.
He rotated his hand, and slipping it between us, he dipped two fingers inside of me. I breathed out hard, curling inward. “Lean back,” he whispered. His left hand came around to the small of my back, and he supported my weight as I let my head tilt back. It gave him enough room for his fingers to retreat and then slide back inside of me. Something about him wearing gloves and fucking me with his fingers after giving me an anatomy lesson did insane things to my body.
Crazy things. Unbridled, reckless things. I closed my eyes, breathing hard as I tipped my hips to meet each of his slow, lazy thrusts. He added a firm press of his thumb against my clit, and my vision went white behind my closed eyes. I grabbed his shirt again. This time I couldn’t even form coherent words. He picked up his pace, pumping in and then out, faster and with a rhythm that begged my body to give in to the breaking point I was so rapidly approaching.
“Ruth,” Cal said, his voice husky and just as breathless as mine.
He slowed, and I lowered my chin again, opening my eyes in dismay. “Wha-what?”
Bright, coastal green eyes captured my gaze. “Are you close?” He still moved his fingers in a slower tempo in and out, hooking up and then smoothing across sensitive nerves with his thumb on my clit. It was driving me absolutely insane.
“Yes, so please,” I gritted out with a glare. “Don’t. Stop.”
He slowed further with a mischievous tilt to his smile. “But you said forever.”
“Callum,” I snapped.
“Oh, not the full name,” he murmured, his eyes dropping to my lips and then up again. “I’m going to lie you down on the bed. Don’t put weight on your knee.”
I started to object, but then he withdrew his fingers, leaving me frustrated and empty. After stripping off his gloves and tossing them next to his bag, he wrapped his cool arms around my hot torso, pressing another kiss full of need and longing to my lips. He tightened his hold, and standing with me in his arms, he tilted me back until I lay on the mattress. Before my legs could fall off the edge, he lifted my right leg carefully, and after twisting the chair, he placed the back of my knee on the surface. It kept it bent at a comfortable angle without putting strain on the tendons.
I huffed, sweaty and so acutely desperate to have him inside of me, I almost kicked the chair away. “It’s fine. Cal, it doesn’t even hurt. ”
He clicked his tongue in censure, leaning his weight on his hands and bridging over me. “So hasty for someone who takes forever.”
I gave him a tight-lipped glower. “You’re very funny.”
“I told you I’m competitive, Shortstop,” he said low as he lowered his mouth to mine, kissing me softly. “But even if you do take all night, just know I’m enjoying every moment.”
“I’m not,” I gusted out, grasping his shirt at the front and tugging it up frantically. I didn’t have room to think whether I “deserved” this or not. I didn’t have any brain space left for self-consciousness about what he thought of my extra belly fat or my hips that were three sizes wider than the Hollywood standard. I had no room in my entire, furnace-hot body for anything but him— for anything but wanting him. “I can’t take it anymore. Please.”
Grinning, Cal reached behind him and removed his shirt. His abdominal muscles bunched and tightened as he tore the shirt over his head and tossed it aside.
I stared at him in wonder. He was perfect. He wasn’t like the romance covers would have us believe, with dinner rolls for abs and cut pectorals like slabs of meat. He was smooth and strong, his skin taut over his well-honed body, and the way his arms flexed as he moved made my breath catch in my throat.
Then his hands were at the button on his pants, and he undid it before shucking down his pants. I stared at the bulge at the front of his gray briefs. Is there a sock in there? No way that’s all him .
Cal planted his hands on either side of my ribs, bending over me again and dropping a kiss just above my nipple. “God, you’re gorgeous,” he breathed against my skin. The warmth sent a tingle over my nipple and straight between my legs.
I groaned, twisting under him. “You’re killing me.”
“You’re still coherent,” he replied with amusement, flicking out a tongue over my nipple. “Don’t even start with me.”
Agony. Pure, exalted, delicious agony. That was the only way to describe what Cal did to my body. He pulled my nipple between his teeth, sucking hard, and then gentling the motion so he could flick the bud with his tongue. I arched, gasping and digging my nails into his arms. He worked that nipple for what seemed like forever, ratcheting up my arousal to a fever pitch. Then he moved to the other, and I dug my nails into his firm biceps so hard, I knew I was leaving marks. He flicked and suckled, circling my nipple and then letting off just enough that the next touch would drive me wild. The muscles at my core clenched, and I felt alarmingly close to breaking into an orgasm. “Stop,” I gasped.
Cal did, lifting away from me immediately with concern in his eyes. The sunlight from the window behind me slanted across his face, illuminating his bronze hair with an ambrosial glow that was only made softer by the natural lack of clarity in my vision. “What is it?”
“I almost… I mean I was about to—” I panted, swallowing. “You know.”
A slow smile crept up to his eyes. “You little liar. Here I thought I’d get hours.”
“I wasn’t lying,” I coughed out with a laugh.
“Well, then your partners were.” He bent down close again, to kiss the spot on my neck that had given me shivers earlier. “I was drawing you out, but now I think I should just go for a home run. How many times can I make you come, Shortstop? Two?” He kissed lower, scraping his teeth across my sensitive skin. “Three? Four?”
“Jesus,” I squeezed out. I lifted my breasts to meet his mouth as he reached my right nipple.
“Five?” Cal lapped at my nipple, and I squirmed.
“I’m begging you for one.” I threaded my fingers through his soft, thick hair. “Please.”
Chuckling again, he reached between us. His hand, so much colder than my feverish body, skimmed down my left thigh until he reached the back of my knee. He folded it up and pinned it to the outside of his thigh. The length of his erection pressed hard between my legs, even through his briefs. He lifted my hips with his left hand and reached between us to lightly smooth his fingers through my slick arousal with the other. “Hang tight while I grab a condom.”
I screwed up my face. “Oh shit. Birth control.”
He puffed out a laugh, bending to the side to fish a condom out of his pants pocket before standing again. He kept my left leg bent at the side of his hip, spreading me wide and pressing me against him in a way that left me wanting. He tore open the foil packet with his teeth, arching one brow. “I know you aren’t on it. You sent over your records this morning… or lack thereof.”
“That’s a little creepy, Doctor,” I said, sitting up on my elbows to watch him. I was dying to see what he looked like. I would sell my soul to actually feel him.
“It’s a little reckless of you , Doctor,” he volleyed back.
“True,” I muttered.
When Cal freed his length from his briefs, sliding them down his powerful thighs, I had to bite my lip to keep from releasing a sound of surprise. It hadn’t been a sock. It was him—all several, hard inches of him. I reached up to touch my glasses, only to find that they weren’t there. Good thing. They probably would have fogged over.
Cal smoothed the condom over his cock, and I stared in unabashed wonder. “Hey,” I said, my voice cracking. “You uh… did you plan on telling me you had a massive dick or were you just going to impale now and ask for forgiveness later?”
Cal laughed, and it ended with a satisfied growl as he placed his left hand on the bed again and fitted his length between my legs. “I don’t know,” he said with some difficulty. “Were you going to tell me you had the world’s prettiest tits?” He pulsed forward, putting sweet pressure on my aching clit. “Or were you just going to blind me with them now and ask forgiveness later?”
“Point taken.” I moaned again as he slipped his fingers between us and began a slow, wet rhythm over my clit. I jumped, falling back again as I zapped right back to the top of my arousal. Every nerve lit up with glowing hot desire, and I grasped fistfuls of my comforter in delicious torment.
Cal entered me slowly, letting me pulse and stretch around him as he teased the sensitive bud at the apex of my thighs. I closed my eyes, curving my back as I gave myself over to the rapture of it. Soon he had filled me, and the sensation had my legs shaking before he could so much as slide back out. “I can’t,” I puffed. “Cal, please.”
“Yes, you can,” he replied, his voice tight but laced with an edge of humor. “You can do it, baby.”
I moaned again, my hips moving against him. That star at my center swirled, tightening and heating until I knew it would destroy my world when it exploded. Cal moved inside of me, slow at first, and stretching me so full, I pulsed lightly around him. His thumb pressed just outside of my clit, massaging little circles that quickened my breath. My heart galloped in my chest, and I panted for air, held at the precipice that I both needed and feared falling from.
Then he was moving fast, filling and retreating, and he pumped me so full, I cried out—for mercy or more, I wasn’t sure. My center squeezed, and I realized I had no control. I couldn’t have held off if I wanted to. I tensed, finally giving myself over to the relentless pleasure and satisfaction that being filled by Cal brought. When I released, exploding into spasms of delirious pleasure, Cal found a quick rhythm that chased my orgasm and drew it out into mind-melting pulses of ecstasy. He stilled then, releasing his own breath of relief. Cal held my left hip in a tight grip, grasping me hard to him as he found his own release.
Breathing hard, I caught his head to my chest as he collapsed over me, covered in a sheen of sweat that matched my own. I could barely think past the after-spasms that were filling me with wave after wave of blissful satiation.
Cal kissed the slope of my breast, curling his arms under me to hold me to him. “Are you okay?”
“Okay?” I panted. I tried to think of what he could mean. “I’m amazing.”
He coughed out a laugh. “I mean your knee.”
“Oh.” I bent it experimentally. It twinged, but nothing terrible. “Yeah, I’m good.”
Cal lifted me, moving us up the bed. We ended up on our sides facing each other, and he flopped his head onto one of my pillows, drawing me into his chest. I cuddled into him, still trying to catch my breath. He kissed my forehead before laying his cheek on the top of my damp hair. “I should have eaten first.”
I lifted my head with a questioning look. “Why?”
He met my stare with mock solemnity. “I need sustenance… Because that just took so long. ”
“Okay,” I glared, swatting his hard bicep. “You’ve made your point. You are the superior lover.”
“I mean, God, I thought it would never end,” he groaned.
“You know what,” I said, pushing at his immovable body and levering myself up on my elbow so I looked down on his sun-kissed, smiling features. “Next time I will make you wait. Just to punish you.”
“Next time?” he clarified, his teeth flashing. “Is that a promise?”
I gritted my molars, pinching his cheek. Through tight lips, I muttered, “You’re so cocky.”
He caught my hand, turning to kiss my palm. He held my hand against his lips, his eyes flashing with mirth. “Do you have a problem with my cock?”
My nose twitched, and I sniffed. A smile pulled at my lips. “I guess I don’t.”
“Good. Then shut up and let me hold you.” He pulled me back down into his arms. “Hopefully your cuddling lasts longer than your lovemaking.”