Page 12 of A Lifetime of Afters
“You can’t make any faces either,” I warned.
“You could maybe just not look at me?” he inquired hopefully.
I scowled and moved to pull away.
He chuckled and pulled me back to him, his large palm smoothing down the length of my spine. “I take it back. No faces.”
Five minutes later, I lay naked and stiff as a board in his arms.
He crossed my arms over my breasts then wrapped his big arms around my torso. Aligning his body behind me, the hair on his thighs bristling against the back of mine, his wide chest sheltered me. The heat from his body began to leach into mine.
Shallow breaths kept my body still, unmoving. I shuddered in his arms, the hollow ache of the cold, the agony of his body, finally, next to mine, but for none of the right reasons.
Another tear squeezed past my tightly closed lids.
Jostling me lightly, he softly admonished, “Relax. It’s just me. I’ve got you.”
God, how I wished he had me.
He spoke to me softly, reminiscing about our shared childhood, carefully steering the conversation around the landmines that dotted our shared landscape.
Slowly, the quaking eased, and the warmth of his touch filled me to the marrow of my bones. My breathing grew deep and even.
Quiet now, only his thumb moved in a gentle caress over my arm.
Floating in that neverland between asleep and awake, I imagined his lips moved in my hair.
A whisper of a breath.
A dream of a dream.
“I’ve got you, Noelle. Sleep.”
Chapter Six - The Frivolity of Hope
Nothing could ever be better than waking with his beard tucked into my neck. His big palm kneaded my naked breast while his hips flexed against my ass, rocking his erection along my sensitive crevice.
Rosy light from the sunset warmed the room. We’d slept the whole day away.
I pressed my hips back into his groin, earning a big hand wrapped around my hip, dragging me further into him.
Soft lips trailed down the length of my neck. The first time they’d ever touched me. At the juncture of my shoulder, he latched on, teeth grazing, tongue laving.
“Hawk,” I gasped out his name.
“Mm,” he hummed against my neck, the vibration sending shockwaves straight to my clit.
His thumb strummed my aching nipple. I arched further and tucked my head back against his shoulder.
The hand at my hip circled around to my stomach and delved down, his long fingers seeking my core.
Lungs seizing, tummy quivering under his touch, I opened to allow him access to the heart of me, the heat of me.
His long fingers skimmed over my curls and covered my mound.
“Hawk,” I breathed, unable to believe what was finally happening. Even knowing it might mean less than nothing to him, I found myself unable to resist.
“Noelle… so sweet…” he murmured, then froze.
