Beneath the Burn

Startled out of her thoughts, she realized she was stroking him frantically, wringing her grip along his length, her other hand digging into the hard brick of his ass. His chin fell to his chest and his jaw stretched through his panting, spurring her to continue the pace.

The indentions of his muscles bunched over his torso, and veins bulged in his rigid arms. What a stunning sight. She wanted to crawl up his body and drive them both beyond their mental and tactile boundaries. Maybe she was already doing that. She was touching him. Was he cured? Or would he need a distraction every time she initiated touch in the future?

She laced her fingers together and hugged her palms around him. Squeezing up to collect pre-cum—slicking down, up, down—she lured ragged noises from the back of his throat. Maybe she could stroke him past the point of restraint until he wrenched her head back, bent her over the sink, and took whatever he pleased. God help her, she trembled to please him.

His chest heaved with his grunts and his hands tangled in her hair as he watched. “Charlee.” A plea. “It’s unreal…your hands…on me. I can’t believe how good it feels.”

Nuzzling the crown with her lips and nose, she inhaled the arousing blend of suede, musk, and man. “If the touch gives more than it takes, isn’t it always good?”

He stared at her like he was on top of a new world, looking over the edge. “Yeah, Charlee. You’re showing me that.” He tugged the lock of hair wrapped around his finger and jerked her head back. “My turn to give.”

The twinge from his tug simmered the ache between her legs. Oh, the pain he could give, it would free her. It would. “Harder.”

His brows lowered over narrowed eyes, and he unraveled his fingers from her hair.

Shit. He’d never agree to hurt her. Her shoulders slumped. But she still had his climax, and it would be something to behold. She took him into her mouth, circling her tongue and raising her eyes.

His jaw opened and closed in soundless groans with each pump of her mouth. After a few minutes, he cupped her neck with both hands and halted her movements. “Come up here.”

Not yet. She released him with a slippery pop. Her kisses glistened over his foreskin. “Do you tan in the nude?”

He laughed, but it strangled as she drew him back into her mouth and strengthened the suction. Gasping, he let go of her face to catch his sag toward the counter’s ledge behind her. “Enough.” He jerked his hips away.

She sat on her heels. “I want you to finish.”

“No.” In a half-crouch, he wedged his fingers under the backs of her thighs, shifted her around his hips, and sat her on the leather bench seat that hid the toilet. As he yanked up his pants to cover his gorgeous ass, rejection punched her in the gut. That was until he settled between her knees and pinned her with a scorching stare. “I want to look in your eyes and feel your gasps on my lips the first time I come in you.”

A viscid, foreign feeling adhered to her heart, gluing her to him from the inside out. She closed her eyes. Their unexplainable bond took root over the three years that separated them, but in one day, they had knocked down a physical barrier, and he was weakening emotional walls she hadn’t acknowledged in a long time. “This is madness, Jay.”

He kissed her softly. “The comforts of madness are plenty. Enjoy them with me.”

When she opened her eyes, his were regarding her with a strength of energy that pulled her mouth back to his. The air around them stirred with their breaths. His lips rolled over hers, his whiskers abraded, and the fingers along her spine emitted electric shocks. His tongue moved in a rhythmic tenor, flicking and twirling. She rocked her hips and dragged her nails over his scars before she could stop.

“I want to keep going.” The scratch in his voice was at odds with the gentle stroke of his knuckle sliding over her cheek, down her neck, and circling her breastbone. “I don’t know if…” He pulled his hand away and rubbed his eyebrow. “I mean, I know you’ve been working through some things in your…sessions.” He gritted his teeth and looked away.

She touched his jaw, tried to smooth out the stiffness. “Outside of contractual sex—” His eyes squeezed shut, and she rushed on. “I honestly don’t know how I’d respond. I want to try.”

He interlaced his fingers with hers on his face and pressed a kiss on her palm. Then his eyes flashed open, branding her with their heat. “We are not too fucked up to make this work.”

It was a vehement promise. Holding his face, she slid a hand across his shoulder blade and traced the first raised edge she encountered. “Your pain brought us together.”

Tenderness melted his eyes. “I came to you that night to erase it, so I wouldn’t have to remember.” His cheeks lifted beneath her hand. “And you gave me something I never want to forget.” Shaking his head, his gaze shifted to her mouth, down her neck…

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