Page 122 of Soft Flannel Hank

“Can I stay?” she asked, a smile spreading.

“For good?”

“For good.”

Hank rewarded her with a full smile, with his teeth and his cheeks and his eyes and his heart, and Esther laughed as he picked her up and carried her up the stairs.

* * *

Hank feltthat same nervous energy as the first night he’d met Esther, when he couldn’t stop kissing her long enough to navigate his house and they’d just bounced off corners and furniture like pinballs.

He had her in his arms, carrying her up the stairs with her long legs wrapped around him, without dropping her or tripping. When he cleared the top step, he pushed her against the wall of the hallway, thrusting against her naked cunt.

“Fuck,” she hissed, throwing her head back so hard that it knocked against the wall, which made her laugh.

He buried his face in the crook of her neck, sucking hard at the spot where the muscle of her shoulder meshed with the soft skin and tendons of her throat. Her laugh turned into a moan. He thrust again, grinding his pelvis against hers, unable to stop himself.

Esther unwrapped her hands from his neck and reached them down between them, trying to wrestle with his belt and jeans button. But there wasn’t enough space, between her writhing body and his belly. She whined in frustration.

He swallowed that whine, kissing her hard and deep, feeling her melt in his arms. And then he turned, walking down the hallway, nudging open the door to his bedroom with his foot, and heading straight for the bed.

When he’d pictured this moment, the first time he brought someone else to this bed, he had expected to be haunted by Marnie. He’d been haunted by her enough for the last seventeen years anyway, unable to sleep in this damn bed half of the time because the memories of her were so solid, so real. So painful. He’d expected to see her in his memories.

But as Hank dropped Esther onto the bed and followed after her as she pulled his shirt, the two of them clumsily scooting up towards the pillows together, he could only see Esther. Esther’s hair, wild and unruly against the pillow, Esther’s kiss-swollen bottom lip trapped between her teeth as she successfully wrestled with his belt and button and zipper, Esther’s appreciative smile as he shrugged off his flannel shirt and sat back on his heels to yank his T-shirt over his head.

Hank grabbed her arms and pulled her to sitting so he could whip her sweatshirt off. He didn’t have the patience to unclasp her bra. He just shoved the straps down, and she pulled her arms the rest of the way through. He nearly collapsed back on top of her then, his mouth finding hers, returning her frenzied kisses with equal fervor as he drove her back down into the pillows.

She was naked underneath him except for her bra around her waist and he ground his hips against hers. His jeans were unzipped and open, sliding down his ass, but there was still too much between them. Apparently Esther thought so too, because she used her hands to push his jeans and boxer briefs over his ass and then shoved them down the rest of the way with her feet while he kissed her breasts until she was writhing beneath him.

Hank kicked off his jeans and underwear and couldn’t help but thrust against her wet heat, feeling his aching cock slide through her slickness. He groaned loudly into her mouth and she dug her nails into his ass, holding him there as he humped at her.

“I don’t have any more condoms,” she groaned.

“I had a vasectomy ten years ago,” he blurted out, wondering why he’d waited this long to tell her about it.

She snorted, apparently having the same thought because she said, “Now you tell me that?”

Hank felt his cheeks blush. “I just… I didn’t want to make you… Is that a problem?” He should have told her sooner. Sure, the vasectomy would make things more convenient, but he realized in that one hovering moment that there was so much they hadn’t talked about.

“If you want me to get it reversed, I can,” Hank told her.

Esther looked up at him as if he’d grown a second head.

“You’re sweet, Hank,” she whispered, running her fingers through his hair. He closed his eyes and savored the sensation of her nails raking against his scalp. Then she smiled up at him. “I haven’t been with anyone else since my last annual exam. All my tests came back negative.” She reached down and fitted his bare cock against her opening.

“Do you need anything, Esther?” He swallowed thickly, holding himself in that tortured space where the head of his cock was almost enveloped by her heat.

“Just you,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him down toward her. He gladly went and then she was digging her heels into his ass, trying to pull him closer, to bring him deeper. With one long, slow slide, he granted her wish, sinking to the hilt with a gasp.

The feeling of her around him made his head spin. She kissed him and held his cheeks in her hands, and Hank couldn’t help but think about how different it was. Not just because there was nothing between them physically, but because there was nothing between them at all anymore. No obstacles. No threats. No lies.

There was only Esther underneath him, in his bed, in his house, and as he bit her earlobe and thrust hard and deep, as she cried out loudly, he was profoundly grateful for every single lonely night he’d spent on the couch because without them, he might have let this moment slip by as merely incredible instead of appreciating it for the miracle that it was.

Esther was a miracle. His love for her was a miracle.

He drove into her harder and faster, lifting his body off of hers, his weight in his hands, so that she could skate a hand down between them and rub her clit until she was squeezing around him so tightly that he had to fight to stay inside of her while she chanted his name over and over, her head thrown back and throat tight.

As her cunt clenched in rippling pulses around him, Hank felt himself falling over that same cliff. His mind went blank and his ears rang as he came, his body shuddering with the force of it. And then it was quiet except for the sounds of heavy breathing as he gasped for air, his forehead resting against hers. Esther’s legs were still wrapped tightly around his waist and she was drawing lazy trails up and down his back with light fingertips.