Chapter 38
Sean
‘Is this real?’ Cherry whispered against Sean’s neck in his bedroom. ‘Am I naked in your room, with you?’
‘Aye, you are.’
‘Aren’t you tired after your fall?’
‘Listen, woman, I’ve got lightly bruised ribs, but this ain’t no care home. Do I seem tired to you?’ He raised his eyebrows and then dipped his chin downwards. Cherry followed its path to where he looked very awake.
‘Just checking, but I think you should have a rest.’
‘I don’t need a rest.’
‘Not that kind of rest.’ Her voice dropped a semitone.
‘The kind where you let me do the work.’ Without waiting for him to take his orders, Cherry hooked her fingers into the waistband of Sean’s jogging bottoms and eased them down.
He sprang free, hard and ready. It was sweet relief, even in loose clothing.
‘Oh, this will always take breath away.’ Cherry wasted no time curving her hands around his girth and working him as he stepped out of the trousers. ‘You’re perfect.’
‘Jesus, Cherry.’ He almost fell over. Those hands of hers. How did she know exactly how to touch him? Exactly how he liked it?
‘Sit on the bed.’ Soft palm insistent on his pecs, Cherry encouraged Sean back towards the pillows, where she crawled up towards him from the foot of the mattress, before straddling his lap. Draping her arms around him, she found her north.
It was him. And he was hers.
As Cherry lowered herself onto his erection, Sean took the soft olive skin of her cheeks in his hands, hardly believing they were here, traced his thumb back and forth, affirming this wasn’t a dream. For a man rarely short of things to say, he was speechless.
With his palms on her backside, bolstering her rhythm, Cherry found a cadence, moans soft like whipped cotton. The bruised ribs had done him a favour because this intimacy – being wrapped together with her, inside her in this way – was mind-blowing.
It occurred to Sean he should be on top, showing his wife how he could love her, but his ribs were protesting, and something told him she wanted it this way. Truthfully, he did too. He’d never made love to a woman before. Until Cherry.
With one confident hand steadying the dip of her back, the other drifted to her clit, thumb circling softly. The smallest gesture, a fragment of the power he used in the muscular graft of coopering, but it was enough.
‘Oh God, Sean. Never stop doing that. My pussy fucking loves you.’
Sean groaned hard. Talk like that fired him up, and she knew it. He grasped her breast, tweaked the nipple tight, the way she liked, and listened as she moaned in synch with his touch.
Grasping his shoulders, she slid, tight and snug, up and down his cock, the soft breasts of his dreams within sucking distance, her adoring smile leaving his self-control in shreds.
For years, the one thing Sean wanted more than anything was a woman to share every liveable moment with.
And now here she was, riding him like a spirited goddess who was in love with every bone in his body. He would never get enough of this.
Letting Cherry take the rhythm alone, Sean tangled up a fistful of her dark golden hair and brought their mouths together. His kiss was a little rough but fuelled with so powerful a love that he could barely breathe.
‘Cherry, sweetheart… My wife.’
‘Seany.’ She brought her hand to his. ‘Love of my life.’
The words were everything. She was stunning, the apricot glow of the lamp accentuating her curves as she met his somewhat tempered thrusts.
Wild, loving, fantastical. The golden strands of her hair shimmered like the moon that glowed over them.
He coasted his hands over the sublime curve of her hips.
Held them there as she lifted and dropped onto his cock, moaning freely.
‘That’s it. Ride me, Cherry. Let that beautiful, wet pussy take everything it needs. You’re close; I know it.’
‘I am, I am. Oh God, Sean.’
The sight of her, lithe and frantic, giving her all for both of them, nearly ended Sean.
Being inside this woman wasn’t close enough.
He wanted to be everywhere with her. Every whimper, every moan, every syllable of his name falling from her lips was like a prize.
He was so close to losing it, but he had to see her go there first.
And damn, when it happened, if it wasn’t the most stunning sight ever.
‘Oh fuck, Sean. Oh God!’ Cherry’s climax seized her, clench after desperate clench, her manicure daggering into his forearms, forging marks he’d treasure like temporary tattoos. Hell, he’d get tattoos over those marks.
There was nothing he wanted more than to watch every moment of his perfect wife stripped bare and coming around him.
But it was impossible. She was quivering and moaning and clamping onto him, breasts rising and falling, and he was powerless to do anything except come hard, deep inside her, all the tension shooting – thick, urgent and determined – from his body at last.
‘Oh, Cherry. Fuck. I love you.’
And as her own peak abated, with him stilling inside her, Cherry threaded her fingers through his hair. ‘I love you, Sean.’
Finally, they stopped, her eyes drifting open bright and dazed, latching onto his, almost causing his heart to shudder to a standstill.
‘Oh, hey, Butler.’ Her smile was so intoxicating it should be illegal outside the bedroom.
‘Aye, hey, Paradise. Come here.’ He cradled her face. ‘I love you so much.’
‘Mmm, coming with you inside me is out of this world.’
Together, they lay down and, tentatively because of his ribs, Sean pulled her close, cherishing her small frame in his arms again. At last. He tucked her head under his collarbone and kissed her temple.
For a minute, they lay there in the silence, absorbing it all, until Cherry circled her palm as far as it went round the Celtic band on his bicep. ‘You have the best arms. I’d love for you to tattoo me there when you’re ready,’ she purred lazily.
Sean had to check. ‘Seriously?’ This was better than the roar of surf going off. She was comfortable being inked onto his skin, to accepting that he wanted her forever.
‘Yes. You can decide what it is, but I want to be there when you get it done. I’ll bring you rationed Irn-Bru and hold your hand. Dry your tears when it gets too sore.’
Sean smiled, but he was choked with emotion. ‘That means so much, Cher.’ He breathed in the sweet floral scent of her hair. ‘You letting me love you means the fucking world. You won’t regret it. And there’s no tattoo that hurts as much as not having you around.’
Cherry dusted her hands down his chest, softly over the hollow between his ribs, south and back – drifting, exploring, adoring – as they talked and touched and laughed, at last able to focus on being together.
Until the hot brushing over his skin became too much for Sean.
He barely needed any recovery time with this woman.
‘You ready again? Let me show you how much I love you.’
‘I thought you’d never ask. I’ll go on top.’
‘Ha. Nice, but no. I’m taking this, Cher. No arguments. It’ll be slow but good. I promise.’
A softened, flushed Cherry hummed in ascension, rolling onto her back, and as Sean tentatively pressed his weight onto her, he considered he’d never seen her so demure. It wasn’t a taming, simply that this was different and they both knew it. This was their first night in his bed.
Their bed.
As he pushed deep into her, their eyes locked together in the golden glow of the room, he could tell by the quivering of her cupid’s bow that she was ready for him again.
‘I love seeing your face when I’m inside you.’
‘Mmm, it feels sooo good. You make me so happy, Sean.’
‘You make me very fucking happy, Cher, looking like you belong right here.’ He shifted his hips in one deliberate movement, sending a searing pain shooting through his ribs. This position might be untenable, but it was worth it to see her reaction.
‘I do. I… Oh God! Oh fuck, Sean. What are you doing to me? That’s incredible.’
‘Just ruining you for anyone else.’
‘There’s really no need to try. The battle’s lost and won.’