Chapter 14 #3
And when she couldn’t stop the loud moan that tore from her lips, she slapped her own hand over her mouth, muffling it against her palm as she rocked against Maverick’s tongue, riding out the pleasure until she collapsed back onto the bed, exhausted.
She stared up at the plain white ceiling in stunned disbelief as the little aftershocks left her body in ripples of awareness. Her legs fell open as her muscles slackened. Nina might have been embarrassed had she even been aware of doing it.
Maverick shifted, trailing his lips from one thigh to the other and leaving little fires everywhere.
She shivered and closed her eyes as she tried to sear the moment to memory, because right then, basking in the afterglow of her first orgasm that hadn’t come from a vibrator, she understood that she had been acting passion wrong this whole time too.
It wasn’t frantic and rushed and scary. It was heavy and huge and so, so consuming.
Nobody had ever told her that you weren’t supposed to feel alone afterwards … But now, with Maverick, she didn’t – feel alone. She felt entwined. As if they were the only two people in the ether of the universe.
When the first tear fell, Nina hurriedly swiped it away, embarrassed.
Maverick didn’t ask her what was wrong, he only crawled up the bed to her and, propping himself up on one elbow, brushed them away himself. He touched his lips to hers, whispered, ‘I’m here.’
Nina was old enough, and had been in therapy long enough, to understand that she had some major trust and intimacy issues.
Her mother’s numerous betrayals throughout her childhood had made her suspicious of everyone, but especially of men.
She didn’t welcome people into her life.
In fact, she consciously avoided it, knowing the pain and uncertainty they came with.
The three times she had taken a man to her bed she hadn’t felt anything except vaguely scared, and then disappointed when the experience had left her feeling more lonely, more lacking.
But here, now, with Mav, she finally understood what she had been missing, and it was so simple, so obvious.
It was trust. And it was the loveliest realization to know that she wasn’t damaged beyond repair, that someone – Maverick – fit, like a key in a lock, opening that part of herself she had kept sealed away from everyone else.
Wanting to share it with him, wanting to keep trusting him, she snuggled back into him, pressing her bare butt up against the soft fabric of his sweatpants and his hard length beneath them.
He nuzzled that delicate spot behind her ear. ‘I wasn’t prepared,’ he said quietly. ‘I’ll go into town tomorrow.’ But he rolled her onto her back, lowered his mouth to her breast.
He pulled her nipple into his mouth and swirled his tongue around the sensitized peak.
Nina arched into him as that need started building again. But it wasn’t enough. ‘Mav …’
His big palm rose to stroke her hair immediately. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘I haven’t had sex in four years,’ Nina said. ‘I’m clean. And I’m already on the pill – to time my periods for filming.’
‘I don’t mind waiting,’ he assured her. ‘This …’ He lowered his head to lavish her other breast with attention. ‘This is still the best fucking night of my life.’
She loved that he genuinely would have waited, even as she hated how her body ached to be filled. Unsure of herself, unsure of him, she ran her hands through his hair, pulling his gaze to hers. ‘Are you worried? That what happened to Shannon might happen to me?’
‘No.’ He shook his head vehemently. Then stilled. Paled.
‘What?’ she whispered, alarmed by the shock on his face.
He slowly met her eyes again. ‘I don’t want to scare you.’
‘You won’t.’
Taking her hand in his he placed it over the impossibly hard ridge in his sweatpants and pressed her palm down. ‘It turns me on,’ he said gravely. ‘It’s new, but yeah … Fuck.’
He expelled a huge breath and buried his face in his comforter.
She heard his muffled groan. But Nina knew he wasn’t lying. She had felt him twitch beneath her palm as the words had left his mouth.
It shocked her, and it scared her a little. But only because it excited her so much too.
She wouldn’t dare say it aloud. It was too much, too soon. It was a future that couldn’t be hers, a movie she hadn’t been cast in. But she cautiously slid her hand beneath his grey sweatpants to find him hot and hard.
Maverick hissed, almost as if he were in pain. He opened his eyes to stare at her.
Nina gently slid her hand up and down his length, marvelling at the heat and silky softness over iron. Placing her other hand on his face, she drew him to her and took his mouth. ‘Please, Maverick.’
‘I’ll pull out,’ he promised. When she nodded, he rolled off the bed and removed his sweatpants. ‘It’s been a long time for me too,’ he said. ‘Almost five years.’
‘Five?’
He grinned. ‘I’m not a casual guy.’
His words hung in the air between them for a moment, almost in warning to both of them that they were moving too quickly, but then he was climbing over the bed and kneeling between her legs, and Nina couldn’t focus on anything but him.
She had never been turned on by only looking at a man’s penis before. In fact, she typically felt only fear. Not now though. Maverick was big and thick and impossibly hard – for her. And, right then, she wanted him inside of her like she had never wanted anything else.
He gripped her thighs and hauled her closer. Nina’s laugh died on a sigh as she felt him notch at her entrance, and when he reached down one hand to touch her and quickly caught himself, snatching his hand back, she whispered, ‘Do it.’ And when he still seemed unsure, she insisted, ‘I want you to.’
Gently, as if she were made of glass, he slid a single finger through her wet heat. His breath caught audibly.
Nina didn’t think about the assault or the last time a man had touched her there – without her permission that time. She couldn’t.
All she felt was Maverick.
Everywhere that he touched burned.
He kept his gaze locked on hers as he slid his finger out of her and into his own mouth.
‘Mav,’ she begged, impossibly turned on.
He grinned wickedly, and lowering both hands to her hips, held her in place as he slowly sank into her.
She moaned.
Maverick stopped moving.
He looked down at her, that same slightly stunned expression on his face.
And then everything exploded. They took each other in a frenzy, a mating, hands never resting, legs tangling, breaths sawing through the room, and this time, when Nina gave herself to the wave passing through her, Mav didn’t wait.
He gripped her hips, thrusting into her in three quick pumps, and then pulled out, and followed her over the edge.