26
Braille Sundress
COLE HELD KYLE AS gently as he could manage. He wanted to pull her inside of him. Kneeling with her in the church had saved him. He realized now that she was his angel. There would be no denying her again.
“Kyle, will you come with me?” He whispered the words against her forehead between kisses. His hands traveled over her back as if the Bible were written in Braille on her sundress.
“I’m your shadow now, Cole. I’ll be where you are.” Kyle smiled, her eyes steady on his.
He stood and held out his hand. She took it.
Kyle gasped as he swooped her into his arms. One of her hands touched his cheek as the other settled onto his bare chest.
The trip to his quarters was not smooth. He had to stop to kick open the door by the altar. At his bedroom, he awkwardly used his foot to unlatch the lever door handle. But he wouldn’t put her down. Cole nudged the door shut with his rump.
He turned with Kyle so she could be his hands. “Lock it,” he murmured.
She pushed the little button until it clicked. He set her on her feet, and she leaned against the closed door.
“I need to tell you some things,” Cole began, gearing up for confession.
Kyle smoothed his hair. “No. No, you don’t.”
He continued as if she’d said nothing. “Kyle, I’m sorry for my past sins—especially because they may offend you. Help me to do penance, to do better, and to avoid anything that might lead me to sin.” Cole paused to take a breath, then added, “Amen.” He needed the ritual of prayer to make sense of the changes he was about to implement.
“Don’t pray to me. Don’t pray to me!” Kyle said, her eyes widening in alarm. “We’re in this together. I’ve done things wrong too. We’re human, Cole. We’ll still make mistakes, but now we’ll always have each other to hold when it hurts.” Kyle’s eyes filled with tears.
“It hurts now. I killed those men. How could I…” Cole’s words failed him.
“I killed those men, Cole, before you even got there. How could I tempt them…” Kyle trailed into silence as well.
Cole hugged her to him again. He listened to her breathe and felt calmer.
“We have to go somewhere far from here.” Her lips moved on his chest, tickling the skin there. “Where do we go, Cole?”
“You know in your heart that those men were wrong in the way they treated you. You know that.” Cole’s hands became two tight clenches of anger. “And they had no idea what lives inside me, what I can do.”
“I know what you do to me,” Kyle said, finding his eyes. “It’s everything right, honest, and good.” She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his lips.
“Kyle, I’m intense and devoted, and I need a lot of direction just to get through my day.”
“Cole, I’m impulsive and devoted and hopeless. I have a filthy mouth, and I don’t see it cleaning up anytime soon.”
“I would like to make love to you. Here. Right now,” Cole said, continuing his confession. “But I’m afraid I’ll lose you, that you’ll leave your body and go somewhere else. Will you stay with me?”
“I’m your shadow now, Cole. I’ll be where you are.” Kyle set her jaw, determined.
“Okay,” he said. “This is how it’ll go. I’m going to give you pleasure. And you’re going to take it. No reciprocating.” He instantly saw doubt in her face. “Please, this time—which will be the first of so many—let me make you happy. Let my touch cleanse you. When I’m done, I want your body to belong just to us.” He could feel himself smiling, just thinking about it.
Kyle nodded and bit her lip. She looked nervous as a virgin. “This feels like jumping off a cliff,” she finally said.
“I’ll only do this if you want me to. Do you want me to?” Cole took a step back.
Kyle reached around and unzipped her sundress. She held her arms out like a sacrificial lamb.
“Say it, so I know for sure.” Cole’s eyes glowed with lust and reverence.
“I want you to.” Kyle watched him.
Cole gently took one of her outstretched hands and kissed it. Every place he christened on her skin became theirs. His lips took off layer after layer of mistake.
When he got to her dress strap, he watched her eyes as he slid it off her shoulder. She smiled her unquestionably Kyle smile. Still present. When the other strap left its perch, her sundress became a gentle puff of air around her ankles.
Now they were chest to chest. Skin to skin. Cole could see Kyle forcing herself to stay still rather than reach for him. She clasped her hands together behind her back.
In Cole’s hands and mouth, Kyle’s breasts were so much more than erotic tools. They were beautiful, able to sustain life. She moaned at his attention to them. He checked her eyes.
“I’m still here,” she said in a playful voice. But she was. She was still there.
“Kyle, will you come to my bed?” Cole would take this so slowly.
“I will.” Kyle followed as he led her to his simple twin bed, covered in a plain tan comforter.
The sun spilled onto the bed through his window, making sharp angles that wouldn’t hurt at all. Cole kissed the standing Kyle until she was sitting. He nuzzled her neck until she lay on her back. Cole checked her eyes. She winked. Still there. When Cole’s kisses lingered on her belly button, she crossed her legs.
“Are you okay?” He appeared instantly at her eye level, worried.
“I’m fine. I just, I never let a guy…um, well, they never wanted to. It’s not what I do.” Kyle’s eyes looked everywhere but his.
“Is it because you don’t think you’d like it, or you don’t think you deserve it?”
Cole waited with patience that would have made him an excellent priest.
She bit her lip and looked away again. He saw her answer.
“You do deserve it,” he said fiercely. “Can I give it to you?”
She accepted with a nod, and he slipped her panties down the smooth muscles of her legs. His kissing started at her ankles and moved up ever so slowly. By the time he could finally taste her, she’d gathered the sunshine and the bedspread in her hands.
Her thighs cradled his face, and when he added his fingers to explore with his mouth, her legs dropped open.
Cole felt her begin to shake as he increased the pressure of his persuasion. She arched her back when the inside-out magic he’d granted hit her. Then she relaxed, panting as her skin glistened.
Cole tucked his very proud self around her now-relaxed form. “Did you deserve it?” His voice was husky.
She sighed and tried to talk, but nothing came out. She just nodded.
Cole tilted her chin so he could look deeply into her eyes. “Kyle, you are my heaven. Will you come with me?”
“I will.” Kyle snuggled deeper into his chest, gently tracing his Sorry tattoo.
Cole’s heart beat like the pounding of an angel’s wings.