22. Orion
Orion
When I glance away from my watch, I see that I’m not alone on the couch. There’s a mass of light brown hair in me and a much smaller body tucked up against me, her ass flush against my cock and her ribs moving up and down in slow, rhythmic breaths.
Arden.
Arden is on the couch with me.
And we have a blanket over us. My boots are no longer on my feet and we’re cocooned together in a warm nest that I would never have built for myself.
The last thing I remember, I’d just come in from the garage and realized that Mars and Arden were out.
Feeling rudderless without her in the house I’d collapsed onto the couch, thinking I’d just wait for them to get home and then laughing at myself for needing the girl so much that I couldn’t sleep if she was out.
And now I’m waking up with her pressed against me, having taken my boots off and covered us both with a blanket.
Like this is all on purpose.
Like we’re just a couple of people who fall asleep on the couch together all the time.
My heart gives a sharp, sudden thud at the thought and I reflexively pull her tighter against me, like I need her even closer.
Need her under my skin, in my body, with her sunshine smile and chocolate-flavored breath and ridiculous ability to make me admit to things I’ve never admitted to anyone before.
My movement wakes her enough that she shifts, and instead of drawing closer to me she freezes, then turn on her back and looks toward me.
“Orion?”
The words are sleepy and muffled, and her eyes aren’t actually open. She’s not actually awake, just vaguely remembering that I’m here.
And gods, something about the sleepy version of Arden, her cheeks flushed and her voice faint and so vulnerable, gets into my blood and eliminates any logic I ever had. She’s soft and sweet and warm and I want to sink into her and call her my home for the rest of my life.
Maybe I should be ashamed of that thought, some voice tells me. Maybe I should realize that I don’t know this girl as well as I want to.
That I have no idea whether she’ll stay if I hand her my heart.
But my body is too busy figuring out how to have her to listen to that voice.
I lean over her, thread my fingers through her glorious hair, and pull her face to mine, and when I claim her mouth she’s just as sweet and soft as I expected.
Her lips are pliant with sleep, her gasp quiet and lost into my mouth, but then I feel her come alive underneath me.
I feel her realize what’s going on.
And instead of pulling away, instead of pushing me off and running for her room, she hums as if she’s been waiting for this exact thing, and opens up to me.
Her mouth is hot and wet when I slide my tongue in and I gasp at the taste of her.
I kiss her as if she’s the most precious thing in the world, as if she might break under me, and her hazy, sleepy kisses fill me with an emotion I can’t name.
Maybe because I’ve never felt it before.
I slip one hand down her body, tracing my fingers over her breasts and belly and then down to the hem of the jean shorts she’s wearing. They’re short enough that they cover almost nothing, and when I push her legs open, the seam of the jeans barely covers the bare material of her panties.
She’s open and waiting for me, and one brush of my fingers tells me that she’s hot and wet and ready.
She gasps at the bare contact and arches up off the couch, her mouth open in a moan.
“Orion,” she mutters.
“Shhh,” I whisper. I lean down and seal my mouth over hers again, swallowing her gasps as I work her panties to the side and slip my fingers across her pussy.
She’s soaked and needy, her legs falling further open invitation, and I’m starting to have trouble paying attention.
My blood is so hot it’s burning me, my cock hard enough that it’s aching, and Arden’s gasps are getting increasingly loud.
I can’t stop kissing her. Can’t stop swallowing those moans and gasps.
Because the last thing I want is anyone hearing us.
This girl’s hours from 2 to sunrise belong to me, and I won’t have anyone interrupting us.
I slide my fingers through the damp moisture of her pussy, rubbing her from opening to her clit, and there I press a gentle thumb against her nub. I’m not ready for her to throw her head back and gasp my name, and bring my hand up over her mouth before she can say anything else.
“Quiet, baby,” I whisper in her ear. “I’m not going to be done with until the sun rises, and I don’t want anyone waking up.”
She jerks her head in a nod and I uncover her mouth, then kiss her again as I push a finger up inside her. She’s so hot and tight that I nearly break my own rule, the need to shout for her is so strong, and I quickly revise my plans.
I’m not going to be able to take all night with her.
I want her too much to wait.
I move my finger in and out of her once, twice, three times, before I add a second finger to stretch her, and within one more pump she’s riding my finger, spreading her legs and moving to take me deeper.
And fucking hell, I need to be inside this girl. I need her surrounding me and taking me home. Moaning my name in my ear as I show her how much my body needs her.
I pull my fingers out of her and make quick work of her shorts, jerking them down her legs and throwing them to the side.
I lay back, unbutton my own jeans, and strip the off my body before I climb between her lets and position myself at her entrance.
Her heat rises up and caresses the head of my cock and I nearly sob at the feel of it.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. I kiss her deeply, reveling in the feel of her underneath me, and then lean toward her ear. “I want to strip you and worship your body until the sun comes up. Make you beg for me. Beg for you myself. But I can’t wait.”
“Then don’t,” she responds.
She puts her hands on my ass and pulls me toward her, and God help me, I don’t fight her. I go where she wants me, sliding every inch of myself into her, and then freeze, waiting for her to push me away again. I’m on the bigger side and know it maybe too much for her.
She may decide that she doesn’t want me, after all.
And if she does, I’ll go quietly into my room and shoot myself directly in the head.
Instead of pushing me away, though, she wraps her legs around me and pulls me deeper, then runs her fingers through my hair and forces me to look at her. And fucking hell, the girl is more beautiful than I’ve ever realized, her lips swollen with my kisses and her eyes still hazy with sleep.
I pull out and then push back in, a question, an experiment, to see whether I’m welcome, and she closes her eyes in bliss.
“Orion,” she breathes. “God, please.”
I’ve never liked my name as much as I should have, thinking it nothing more than a flimsy thing I tried on once and never took off, but on her tongue it’s magic. It’s everything good in the world, everything safe and warm and welcoming. On her tongue, it’s the name of the man I want to be.
The man I think I might be able to find, if she stays.
“Fuck. Arden.”
I stop talking, then. I kiss her deeply, thrusting my tongue into her mouth as I slide in and out of her, my pace slow and patient. I want to soak her in until I’ll never forget the feel of her. Never stop remembering the way she surrounds me and holds me.
I’m patient until the pressure in my back begins to build and I know I can’t wait anymore.
And now I move more quickly, my thrusts deeper and harder as I chase the release I need.
She meets me thrust for thrust, angling her body to take me deeper and biting my lower lip as she gets closer to her own release.
She’s quiet too, but her eyes on me in an intense golden stare that makes me think I might be losing my mind.
The orgasm flies down my spine and through my pelvis and I explode up into her, the intensity taking my breath away. Moments later her body shudders and then contracts, following me over the edge, and she curls around me like a feral thing, sinking her teeth into the flesh of my shoulder.
I want to scream. I want to call her name out to the moon like some sort of wild animal.
But instead I bury my face in her neck and hold her as I fill her up, trying desperately to record every moment of this, from the way she feels to the smell of her neck to the breath of her voice against my temple as she chants my name.
When I wake in the morning I’m on my back and she’s asleep next to me, her head on my shoulders and her breath soft in my ear. And the sun is up.
I close my eyes, trying to drag us back into the dark of the night, where we don’t have to worry about the world around us or its expectations. But I know as I do it that it’s no good.
I’m not magic, and I never have been.
Though if I was, I can’t imagine creating anything better than the tiny girl lying next to me.
When I open my eyes again, though, Mars is standing over us, a wry smile on his face, and I jerk in surprise.
“We’re sleeping,” I say, knowing that I sound cranky.
“So I see,” he says, his smile widening. “But it’s time for you to get up. We have work to do.”
The magic flees the room in the face of this hard logic, and I glare at him. “You couldn’t have waited until we woke up to tell me that?”
This brings a bark of laughter from the man. “Orion, I’ve known you long enough to know that if I wait until you wake up naturally, I’ll be waiting until 2 every afternoon. Let her sleep if you like, but I need you in the shop.”
He disappears as quickly as he appeared, and only then do I remember what Arden and I did last night.
And the fact that neither of us is wearing pants.
I look down, horrified, and am relieved to see that we’re both fully covered by the blanket she put over me last night, and breathe a sigh of relief.
When I look at her, I find that she’s not asleep at all. She’s fully awake, her eyes wide open.
And they’re full of both laughter and mischief.
The little minx heard everything Mars said, and probably clocked my sudden reaction that we were naked under this blanket.
And she pretended to sleep through all of it.