Charlie

Yeah. I barely got away with that one.

When a woman kneels and gives a man carte blanche with her mouth, it takes him a few minutes to come down, though, so sue me. Because she’s Ever and she understands I’m not a complete asshole, she only gives me a lazy middle finger and stretches out on the bed like a cat. She throws her arms up over her head and arches her back, giving me the view of the century. Her pussy is barely covered by a peach-colored thong, with a little white bow on the super-low waistline. Those sugar-flavored tits are out. I could drag her under me, shove those pretty panties to one side and fuck her until she starts screaming for divine intervention. God knows my cock is begging for its usual rough, filthy, pounding session.

Whatever this feeling is inside me, though? This full, crowded, choking feeling? It’s asking for something else.

It knows Ever needs more, so there’s no option but to give it to her. Maybe it’s danger that has me strangled right now by her beauty. Not just her body, which, let’s face it, is an eleven. But it’s the way she watches me, as if she’s reading my thoughts and doesn’t find fault with a single one. She knows not only me . . . but she knows us. She knows us together. That’s the danger. I’ve found someone who could be my other half. I’m going to make love to her. And I have no idea what comes afterward anymore.

Ever pushes up on one elbow, blonde hair draping across one shoulder. “Charlie,” she breathes, her eyes feverish. “I need you.”

“Fuck, I need you, too,” I say, all pretenses dropped. There’s no place for them between Ever and me. Not here in the dark when we’re in a bed together for the first time and my heart is tapping out Morse code at warp speed. I hook a finger in her thong and slide it down, down, licking my lips at the sight of her naked pussy, all slick and ready. Ready to take her man. There’s a little freckle on her stomach I never noticed before and following instinct, I lean down to kiss it now, sliding my tongue into the hoop of her belly button ring for good measure. Tugging just a little. Listening to her gasp, while I roll the condom down to the root of my dick. “Christ.” I shake my head, letting every thought in my head tumble out. “I can still see you running away from me tonight.” It’s there every time I close my eyes. The reminder has me looming over Ever, taking her arms and securing them above her head. “Someone bumped into you and you stumbled . . . and then I couldn’t see you anymore.”

“You were angry with me,” she breathes, her toes sliding up and down my calves. “Maybe you shouldn’t think about it right now, since you’re supposed to be making love to me.”

I lean down close and nip her bottom lip, making her gasp. “Maybe we make angry love.”

“That doesn’t sound like us.”

Us. A wrench twists in my chest. Why do I keep seeing her disappearing into the crowd? Over and over. What if I’d never met her? Never became friends with her? No one would have texted me tonight. I wouldn’t even have known she was in trouble. I’m setting myself up for a lifetime of not knowing what happens to Ever.

I shove my face into her neck and inhale, trying to break free of my dark thoughts, but they won’t go. My frustration is manifesting itself in my bones, my throat, the dead center of my stomach. “No one is going to call me next time, goddammit, are they?” Not giving her a chance to answer, I bare my teeth against her lips and they open for me. The taste of her knocks me back into the light . . . until I realize I’m trying to get my fill. Get my fill of Ever. And that becomes my quest, in that moment. Store up enough of this insane way she makes me feel, so I can survive on the fumes as long as possible.

My body moves all on its own, dragging up and down her curves. We’re synced flesh, rippling like an ocean current, her knees writhing like waves on either side of my hips. I’m not even inside her yet, and we’re moving like I’m balls deep. Yes. It’s not dry humping, because Jesus fuck, she’s drenched and getting that wetness all over me.

“First time you let me bring you home, I couldn’t believe you were real,” I groan, my head tipped forward over her bouncing tits. “Still don’t. Still can’t. You know how I’m going to move before I get there. How do you do it?”

“M-me? I thought it was you.” We breathe a laugh into one another’s mouth . . . and ten tons of emotion slams into me. I miss her. How do I miss her when she’s close as another human being can possibly get? I need an outlet, I need the next thing, or I’m going to swallow her whole. Gathering her legs up around my waist, I punch my hips and drive the full way into Ever’s tight pussy with one thrust. “Charlie.”

“God. God, Ever.” I flex my ass, pushing, trying to find a corner of her I haven’t yet occupied, but I’ve got her crammed full. Every time I move, she whimpers and spreads her legs wider, my ultimate fantasy. Except every single moment we’ve been together like this, she’s gotten better and my imagination can’t compete anymore. It was laughable, this idea that we could make love. The base of my spine is splintering, spasming with the need to bury myself in her, again and again. A hard, slapping pace that we’ll both race to keep up with.

No. No, I promised her something better. How, though. How? I don’t know the first thing about making Ever feel special. Which is why I shouldn’t have chased her in the first place, after she decided to move forward with her life. I was so goddamn selfish, but I couldn’t help myself. She’s . . . Ever.

Her fingers lace through my hair, her walls tighten around my cock and I’m drowning in the urge to claim her, while battling the responsibility to honor her in some way. The way I should have been doing all along. “Charlie.” She shhh’s against my mouth. “Everything is going to be fine. Just kiss me slow.”

I’m not sure I can manage to feel her tongue and go anything but fast, but she opens her lips, squeezes my hair in two fists . . . and slants my head, directs me. She’s saving me. A life preserver in a storm. I’ve been in this storm for days—I was barely surviving until now. But what about tomorrow?

“Ever . . .” I rasp, licking at her top lip. “More.” My hips rear back and roll forward. “Give me more of that. Need more of everything you got.”

Same way we do everything, what happens next is instinctual. Ever’s hand puts pressure on my shoulder, but I’m already rolling onto my back, my spine curving like it’s going to snap. She’s never moved on top of me like this. Like she’s riding a mechanical bull in slow motion. Tweaking her hips back until she’s dancing on my tip, swiveling her hips on the way down, rubbing her clit on the thickest part of my root. I’m turned on out of my mind, because that place where we’re joined is so fucking wet, I know she’s hot for an orgasm. Needs it. But she wants the build.

Jesus, I want it too. I need her mouth. I want all of her against me, so I don’t miss a single shudder or gasp or bead of sweat. Jackknifing into a sitting position, I band an arm around her waist, pumping my hips in that same deliberate, but filthy grind. “Put your hands on top of your head,” I growl against her mouth. Her wet, swollen mouth. “Take all that hair and get it up. Let me see your neck. Need to see every part of you.”

Her face tips up toward the ceiling on a moan, her body riding mine in long, hot glides. Those hands of hers shake as she gathers her blonde strands, making a mess of it on top of her head. “Charlie, it hurts,” she whines. I live for that whine. “I can’t last.”

This is the other reason I wanted her hands on her head. Her nipples shake when she comes and now they’re right there, swaying in front of my mouth like God’s gift to man. We might be making love, but I still lap at her tits like a filthy beggar, sucking them deep into my mouth, batting them with my tongue. “Somewhere along the line, you became mine, didn’t you, Ever? Didn’t you?” My own release is building, snatching away any control I have over my mouth, my actions. “I’ve been writing my name on every part of you. Knew it and couldn’t stop it. Couldn’t help it since day one. Mine, mine, mine.”

The muscles in my stomach start to contract, twisting and knitting into a pattern old as humankind, but new and fresh every time with this woman. Looking down, I watch her take my cock in and out, faster now. Faster. Her hands are still locked together on top of her head, making her look like a prisoner. My prisoner. Except, I’m hers. This whole time I thought our lack of commitment was setting me free, but in truth, she’d thrown away the key to my freedom the minute she opened her mouth. She didn’t mean it, my Ever, but I’m imprisoned forever, just the same.

Her pussy tightens like a fist on me, telling me the end is coming. I suck her nipple into my mouth the second tremors begin to rack her body, her hips pumping overtime, her lips busy on my face, in my hair. Kissing, gasping, kissing.

“Charlie.” Her voice vibrates, catches. “Stay, stay, stay.”

My heart hurtles into my throat and expands to eight times its normal size. “I’m not going anywhere.” Not tonight. We grit one another’s name as she bears down, working out the last drop of her climax—and then I’m on top again. Mindless. Living for my next thrust. “Pull me in tight. Help me get so deep. Help me.”

Ever’s fingernails dig into the flesh of my ass, yanking me toward the wet goddamn paradise of her hot, little pussy. Our damp skin smacks together, both of us moaning loud enough to drown out the music, the groaning bedsprings. I can’t keep my mouth off of her. It’s sucking on her neck, attacking her lips, raking over her ear and whispering filthy words, praising words. A rushing sound is blaring in my head like static. I need to come. Need to come. But this could be the last time with Ever and I hear the sounds I’m making. Like a wounded animal. A desperate idiot.

I’m holding on until I can’t anymore.

“You’re disappearing into the crowd again, Ever,” I say against her mouth, even though the words were meant to be contained in the whirling shit show inside my head. “You won’t ever get hurt, as long as I’m breathing. I’ll know if you’re in trouble, won’t I? I’ll know and I’ll come get you. You’ll let me, won’t you?” My lungs are drained, my body falling into the abyss, driving into my home, again, again, again. “Say yes, say yes, say yes. Don’t take that away from me.”

“Yes.” Ever’s thighs hug my waist, the miracle of her hands helping me grind out my peak. My hips are moving in a jagged, unpredictable rhythm, but Ever knows exactly when to lift, when to squeeze. When to lie still and let me pummel her with rough pushes of my draining cock. “Yes, Charlie,” she cries into my shoulder. “Yes.”

But when I fall on top of her a moment later, sweat sliding off our skin into the bedclothes, I wrap my arms around her. I hold tight. And I swear, I can still feel her vanishing. No.

Ever must sense my struggle, because she finds a way to save the moment. Make it last forever. Lip caught between her teeth, she eases out from beneath me and flings a hand out to some nearby surface, bringing back her phone. Then she takes a picture of us together where we gasp, side by side, on the pillows. The picture I asked her for that day we kissed in the park hits my phone across the room a few seconds later. We meet eyes . . . and she’s so beautiful, I never want to look away.

I’m not sure I can anymore.