Chapter 56

Animal

She was slight. In the big scheme of things, there wasn’t very much of her. But in presence, in power, she was a legend. I held out my hand to her. I wanted to touch her. My ghost. My angel. My warrior. My T.

My attention was making her softer. She was batting her eyelashes just a little more, like a magic spell, and for some impossible reason, I was the ingredient she wanted.

“Listen, I love you, but I’m taking my wife upstairs.”

Becca whistled, and Nix slapped me on the ass like a jerk.

T took my open hand and I led her behind me while our friends catcalled us. When we were almost to my bedroom, I felt resistance on my arm. She’d stopped walking. I turned and took a few small steps until I was toe-to-toe with her.

“What?” My voice was deep and husky. She could tell me anything. I would be at her feet forever no matter what.

Her devotion deserved to be multiplied and returned.

“Not here.” She pointed at my bedroom door.

And then I understood. There was a history in that room with other women. With Albany.

“I’ll burn it to the ground for you.” I held her other hand.

She bit her lips as they struggled to form a smile. “Not tonight. I need you for other things.”

I would let her set the tone and the mood.

“How about the gun range?” She licked her lips.

“You want me to go with you to the weapons room where you attacked me with a syringe last time?” I gave her a stern look.

“Yup, that’s the place. I like guns. They turn me on.”

“Say no more.” I took a second to go into my bedroom and get the immense bottle of lube. I could only be so spontaneous with what I packed in my pants. I made sure her hand was still tucked in mine when we took the stairs down. T giggled a few times, and I knew it was the prep lube that was bringing it out in her.

Nix and Becca were still in the living room. I gave them a salute and marched past. Then we took the next set of stairs to the basement a level further.

I didn’t bring toys. Nothing. It was different—what I wanted to do with her.

After grabbing the keys and unlocking the room, I opened the door. Before I let her in, I snagged some pillows and blankets from Nix’s stalker hideaway that he no longer used for his surveillance of Becca.

After I had enough soft things to make the indoor gun range more comfortable, T and I went into the room and shut the door. I set the lube down on the floor like a pretty lewd promise.

This place functioned as a panic room, though we’d never had to use it for that. The previous owner was prepping for a zombie apocalypse. I flipped the lock and set the lights to dim.

T and I stretched the blankets onto the floor, and then she kneeled down on them like we were having a picnic in a meadow instead of in a cement bunker with egg carton foam and firepower on the walls.

I did the same. I reached for her hand again and rubbed her knuckles with my thumb. She made a subtle hum.

“Do you forgive me? For taking your place?” T’s eyebrows furrowed and she looked at our clasped hands.

I nodded for a while as I tried to find the words. “I was mad. No lie. I was so mad that it was you and not me. I could protect you. I can protect you.”

“And I can protect you.” Her face held a wisdom that was righteous.

“You did.” I leaned in and kissed her lips gently. Reverently. “You did it, T. You saved Nix that night. And you saved me about two hours ago.”

She gave me gentle kisses back. T reached her hand up and touched my cheek, running her thumb across my bottom lip. “I’ve wanted this—it feels like—my whole life.”

I felt her yearning in my chest. My mind flashed through the different times she made herself scarce while I took women up to my room. I felt shame.

“Don’t. Don’t beat yourself up. I didn’t want you to force it. Remember what I told you? When I first told you I loved you?” She let her thumb rest on my chin.

The kindness in her brown eyes was endless.

“I remember.”

I got how she felt now. It was undeniable. A force to be dealt with. A pure fact. You could write my feelings for T on a monument now. They were permanent.

“And now it makes sense.” I bent my neck so I could kiss the tip of her thumb. I wanted this to be special for her considering it was what she was waiting for since we were teens.

The setting was the worst all of a sudden. There were no candles. She wasn’t draped in diamonds. There was no champagne. I told her as much.

She laughed at me. “Do you think that’s the kind of girl I am, Animal? I mean, really, how do you think it’ll be with me?”

I laughed with her for a moment, just joining in the sound that I was addicted to. She was stumping me. I wanted to be everything she’d hoped for.

“I don’t need props. I just need you.”

For the last five months, this was my wildest dream. My heaven. My answer. I eased down onto the blanket and patted my chest for her head.

T’s hair tickled my arm.

“I always wanted to be the best. The most a girl has ever dealt with. Maybe I’m competitive.” I had so much to explain to her. Excuses and reasoning. We were going to spend a boatload of time working up to getting naked. I revered her.

She flipped over on her stomach and looked at my face.

“Stop. Talking. To. Me.” She emphasized each word with a light touch on my face. My nose, my lips, my cheek.

I was getting in my own head, psyching myself out. I put my hands on her face and gently pulled her toward me. I nipped and kissed her. God, how long had it been since I kissed a woman? Maybe the last time I did it was my early twenties. It felt too intimate to explore someone’s mouth.

But her lips—free of lipstick—had this taste, this flavor. Sharing oxygen seemed natural because she was bringing me back from the dead by doing that very thing.

I was buoyant. I felt my personality coming back to me. My joy and confidence had been buried.

She was my foundation.

T eased her body on top of mine. I took my hands from her face and put them on her hips. T’s weight on me felt like it was keeping me grounded. She put her hand on my head and ran it down my hair while we kissed, pausing on my ear.

Her touch was burning a trail on my skin. I watched as her eyes grew wide as I swelled between us.

She pushed herself to sitting until she was straddled on top of me. Her hips rocked back and forth, rubbing herself along my length.

Her jeans would have to disappear soon. My heartbeat was picking up. Her hair tumbled over one shoulder and she gave me a smile that told me she was happy to be where she was. I took her hoodie off.

I let my hands feel her body. We knew each other so well, but never like this. Her abs surprised me when I felt the slight indent of the muscles there. I let my thumbs brush the underside of her breasts through her shirt.

T was quiet and reserved. That was how I had her categorized in my mind, so when she pulled her undershirt over her head and easily took her bra off, I was amazed.

It was incredibly hot and sweet at the same time. No pretense of getting to know each other this new way. She was my T, and nothing ever was so right as her looking at me with her beautiful breasts bared.

I took my time exploring this treasure she’d offered me. The size, the weight, how playing with her nipples made her face pink a bit. I sat, and she pulled my shirt off as well.

I hugged her to me, our chests touching. This was a good position for us. I was just a bit taller than her now.

The kissing started again, the forbidden kissing. I was kind of glad I’d abstained, because it gave me a whole new level of intimacy.

T put her hands on my chest, over my heart, and I did the same.

I had to talk. I was a talker. She needed to hear all the time how grateful I was.

“We’re alive. Together.”

She nodded. “This is good.”

More kissing. I enclosed my hand around her hair and used it to gently aid me in kissing her deeply. I touched her neck, her shoulder. I took a break from the kissing to see her gunshot wounds again.

“You’re a terminator. How you moved. How you saved.”

She winked at me. “I got certain skills.”

Sassy T was a rare one. I loved it.

I loved her.

My hands went around her waist, with my thumbs resting above her hips. I wanted to be inside of her and do this again.

Her jeans were more of a task than I wanted, and I cursed them as she and I worked together to get them off. It stopped being even foreplay, and we decided to just get rid of all the clothing between us. I stripped as she did the same.

When we were naked, she stood there expectedly. Not ashamed, not trying to lead me on, just mine. She halted me, turning my shoulders. “What’s this?”

My new tattoo. How could I have forgotten? I ducked my head, grinning at her and turned.

Becca had inked an expansive capital letter T on my back. It took up all the space on my shoulders, and my spine was highlighted as well.

Her hands ran softly over the whole thing. “You weren’t kidding. You missed the hell out of me.”

I turned and faced her again. “Did you ever doubt I would? Wait, don’t answer that. It’s for you, of course.”

I drew her into a hug. It was much more than what I was used to. I normally equated this feeling with a goal to get to an end.

With T, it was just how our story continued. I started kissing her again, but stopped to turn her around so her back was against my chest.

I ran my hand from her navel to her hip to her thigh.

She turned her shoulders and offered me her mouth again. How had I ever resisted her pink, full lips?

I touched her between her legs with both hands at the same time. My fingers were knowledgeable, but I tried to go slow with her. Let her acclimate.

When she seemed to be going limp with her moans and pants coming closer together, I twisted her by the hips and got to my knees.

She opened her mouth and I got to watch as she licked her lips. T put her hands on my shoulders as I inserted one finger and my tongue found her clit. I used a wide flat technique as I felt the inside of her. Mine. This woman had my name in her blood.

I added another finger and used my mouth to make sure she was ready. Faster, I pumped inside of her. Her knees went weak, her hands tangling in my hair. I took her weight on my hand, holding her up with one arm. T started to rock on my fingers.

She switched her hold to my bicep. It was at its largest and hardest as I held her up.

Girl loved the muscles, and I felt pride swell up. I was a good package, and I was all hers.

She was close to coming. I could feel the pulse inside her start to become a heartbeat. I stood and pulled my hand out from between her legs.

I lay back on the blankets.

“Ride my face. I want to taste the first of the many, many orgasms I’ll bring you to.”

Her lust was at its peak. On her way to straddle my mouth, she took a second to gently rock her hands up and down on my length. Then she inched up my body and planted her knees on either side of my head. I embedded my tongue as deeply as I could and inhaled.

Her scent was perfection. How had I missed out on this all this time? I’d never get over all the times I could have been wearing her as a facemask. I used the fingers on my right hand on her clit, massaging and rolling it while she convulsed with my touch.

My tongue went at a fast, strong pace.

T did in fact come on my face. Her first orgasm for me tasted like forever.

For the first time in my life, my heart and my dick felt the same way. Big, ready, and in love.