Reggie moans, her thighs going wide. “Oh god, I like your idea so much better.”
I lick her through the gusset of her panties, my tongue stroking her soft flesh through the now-damp material. She rocks against my mouth, her hands in my hair, clinging to me. When she begins to shudder with every drag of my tongue, my own need starts to get the better of me. My cock throbs with the need to be inside her. I close my mouth over her pussy, pushing hard with my tongue, and then I lift my head. “I have condoms.”
“Oh, thank fuck.” Reggie’s hands tighten in my hair. “Get one before I lose my mind. Quick.”
I certainly don’t need to be told twice. I press one last openmouthed kiss to her pussy, then get to my feet and hunt the condoms out of my jeans pocket. I rip one open with my teeth as Reggie squirms on the bed, wriggling out of her panties and shucking her bra. She sits back down on the edge, her elbows propping her up, and watches me as I roll the condom down my length. I love how greedy her eyes are, how she’s just as possessive as I am. She watches me as if I’m something she can’t wait to get her hands on, and she’s just as needy as I am.
“I can’t help but think electric purple is an odd choice for a man like you,” Reggie murmurs as I step forward.
“Diego.”
“Say no more,” she tells me with a grin, reaching for me. “I’m just glad you came prepared.”
I kiss her again, covering her smaller form with mine. Her skin is so warm and soft, and I love the freckles on her shoulders. After I kiss her mouth thoroughly, I move to those freckles and nip at them until her nails dig into my back. “Ben,” she whimpers. “Are you just going to rub that big purple cock against me, or are you going to do something with it?”
“So bossy, even in bed.” I love it. I drag her hips to the edge of the bed, then take my cock in hand. Instead of pushing into her, though, I press it against her folds and rock against her, still teasing. “Is this what you wanted?”
Reggie growls, rubbing against me with frantic, needy motions. Her hands dig at the blankets on the bed, and her legs twitch, spread wide in silent anticipation. “Wasn’t . . . what I had . . . in mind.”
“Something more, then?” I put a hand on one of her hips, anchoring her, and then rub the head at the entrance to her body. Just a tease. Just enough to make us both insane with sensation. My breath catches when she arches, the movement pushing the tip into her body.
“Oh, fuck, yes,” Reggie says, her eyes fluttering closed. “Give me that big, thick cock, Ben.”
Her blatant demand takes me by surprise—I should have known that Reggie wouldn’t be a shy, sweet partner in bed. She’s always been demanding and slightly pushy, and it’s one of the things I adore about her—that she doesn’t let the world happen around her; she changes her environment to be how she wants it. She demands things of it.
Just like she’s demanding things from me. With a groan, I push into her, because I can’t deny her anything.
Reggie makes a soft noise in her throat as I stroke into her. I go slowly, because she’s tight and slick and oh so sweet, and I don’t want to hurt her. I also want to savor this moment, and so I drag it out, taking my time as I ease into her body. I tell her how good she feels, how pretty she is when she squirms on my length, how wet she is, how much I love her, and Reggie’s whimpers grow louder.
When I’m finally fully in her, I close my eyes and drink in the moment. I’m deep inside the woman I love, the woman who’s wearing my bracelet. The woman who gets me. The woman who . . . begins to impatiently rock under me, demanding that I move.
Well, I can do that.
I put both hands on Reggie’s hips, locking her in place, and then I begin a slow, steady rhythm. She moans, her head going back, and gives herself over to me. She’s so fucking beautiful, her small, perfect tits jiggling with my movements, her hands twisting in the blankets as if she doesn’t quite know what to do with them. Being inside her like this fuels my possessiveness as well as my need, and my pace increases. I move faster, stroking harder into her, and when Reggie cries out words of encouragement, it only adds to my hunger. Before I realize what I’m doing, I’m pounding into her, claiming her so hard that the bed is shaking, and she arches her hips with every thrust, forcing me deeper, making each plunge into her body as intense as possible.
Even though I’ve imagined this particular moment a thousand times since meeting her, I lose all semblance of control. I take her over and over again, wild with need, and Reggie just encourages it with demands like “harder” and “faster” and “deeper” and “more.” When her body tightens around me and her legs jerk, tightening with her release, she cries out my name—Ben. Not Caliban. Not “god” or “please” or anything but “Ben.”
It shatters my control. I hammer into her soft, welcoming body until I crest, the climax ripping through me with such force that stars dance behind my eyes. I rock into her as the release racks through my system, filling the condom and leaving me boneless and utterly sated. I sag against her on the bed, covering her with my larger frame as she wraps her arms and legs around me and kisses my neck and my cheek, everywhere she can reach.
“Ben,” she whispers, stroking my hair. “My Ben.”
It’s the perfect thing to say. I’m hers, and she’s mine, and I think it’s all I’ve ever wanted.
She nips at my ear with small teeth. “Can I ask you something?”
I can barely think straight, but I can also refuse her nothing. “Anything.”
“What was your secret?” Her hand trails over my spine. “The one you gave Abernathy?”
I chuckle. She wants that, does she? Reggie doesn’t like anything being kept from her. “I told him that I was moving books in the library at night so you wouldn’t quite finish your organizing. Ever.”
She gasps, and I feel it all the way down to my cock, still deep inside her. “You what?”
“I wanted you to stay.” I bury my face against her hair. “Forever. And I figured if you didn’t finish the library, it’d encourage you to stay. And it kept you out of my rooms if you were working on it.”
Reggie giggles, her arms tightening around my neck. “You are a wretched man, and that might be the sweetest thing anyone’s ever done for me.”
Only Reggie would find my manipulation sweet, because she knows how important it is to be wanted. In that way, we’re perfectly alike. She doesn’t have to worry about anything like that anymore, though. I couldn’t stop wanting her if I tried. I’m going to want her for the next thousand years or more.
“I didn’t know hiding books would make you so happy. I should tell you about all the other things I’m hiding.” I lean in and nip at her ear, because it’s soft and delicious looking and right there.
“Mmm, is one of them bright purple?”
She’s far too good at this game already.
Epilogue
REGGIE
Six Months Later
Mercury, show me Ben,” I say, trailing a finger over the crystal ball. “Please,” I add, remembering to be polite.
My offering—high-end olives with just a touch of caviar, along with a few pricks of blood from my finger—smokes in the offering bowl. The globe fills with fog, and I trace my fingertips over it again and again, willing the picture to come into focus. Ben uses his phone for scrying, but I’m still not quite good enough to do that, so I use what he calls “training wheels”—namely Dru’s favorite crystal ball, now mine.
Just thinking about Ben makes the picture focus, and the crystal ball shows me a big, strong, pale back, dripping with water. Ben is naked, his hand on the shower tiles, his head bent under the spray. I grin, full of mischief, and watch him, wondering if he’s going to touch himself while I’m creeping on him this time.