Chapter Three

 

All too soon, it was time to make that decision.

And Mahlen made it easy. “You don’t want to take a bus home at this time of night,” he said, as we walked back to his car. “I’m happy to drive you wherever you live—I don’t care how far it is. I’m still so excited about my client and the print and—well, everything.” He shot me a shy, adorable look. “I’m sure I won’t be able to sleep tonight, so I might as well spend the time usefully.”

“Driving me home is useful?” I asked with a smile.

“Of course it is. If you don’t make it home safely, how will I ever be able to buy you another expensive dinner?”

He unlocked his car and saw me seated comfortably before coming around to get into the driver’s seat. “So: where to?”

I told him the general neighborhood where I lived, clear on the other side of town. It would have probably taken three different buses to get there, and I was grateful not to be standing on street corners this time of night. “I’ll tell you more specifically when we get closer,” I said. “There’s a trick to it; GPS systems always send you the wrong way.”

“Got it.”

We drove in companionable silence for a little while. I was struck once more by how comfortable I felt with him…though ‘comfortable’ really only told about half the story.

Because I was also completely wound up. Honestly, I didn’t think I was going to be able to sleep either. My veins felt full of the sensation of…I didn’t know what to call it exactly…the fizziness of being near him. It wasn’t the full-on spark I felt when we touched, but maybe a younger sibling of it.

I just wanted to be near him.

Sadly, despite the fact that it was all the way across town, it seemed like we were in my neighborhood in no time at all. “Turn left at that next street,” I told him, and then directed him the rest of the way to my apartment building.

“Oh, that is complicated,” he said, when he pulled up in front of the building. “How did you ever find it to begin with?”

I giggled. “I almost didn’t. I was forty-five minutes late meeting my landlord the first time; I was sure he’d give up and leave, but he said everyone does it, so he didn’t worry.”

“Wow.”

“So, um.” I turned to look at him, here in the dark, in his idling car. “Thank you for dinner.”

“It was my pleasure!” He also faced me. So close. A million miles away.

I wanted to touch him. I wanted to invite him in. I…couldn’t think of a reason why not.

Oh, right. I generally don’t bring men home on the first date. Or the second, or third. (Not that I had all that many dates…)

But this was a man I’d known for a year!

Sort of.

We just gazed at each other. My heart pounded in my chest. At long last, he reached out a tentative, trembling hand, pausing a few inches shy of my face. “Grace, I—can I kiss you?”

“Yes, Mahlen.” I leaned forward.

His hand made the rest of the journey, and touched me gently on the cheek, as he also leaned forward. Sparks exploded in me again at his touch, and redoubled when our lips finally met. I moaned with surprised delight, leaning into the kiss even more. Oh, his lips were so delicious—soft and sweet—it couldn’t still be his chocolate ice cream after all this time. No, it was as if he were made of chocolate ice cream.

He sighed and kissed me harder, pulling my face to his with a hand behind my head. Less gentle now, but somehow not bold enough; I reached up and pulled him to me closer, tangling my fingers in his amazing copper hair.

My body squirmed in my bucket seat, wanting to be closer to him but confined by my seatbelt. I reached down to undo it, but that only sort of helped, because the gear shift was between us, and why in the world was he so far away from me?

Mahlen gave a low chuckle and undid his own seatbelt, then reached up and turned off the ignition.

And that simple act made my decision for me. I pulled away from the kiss for a moment and said, “Would you like to come in?”

“More than anything in the world.”

~*~*~*~

Of course I fumbled my keys at the building’s entrance and again at the door to my apartment, because I’m me. But eventually we were both inside, with the door shut and locked behind us.

This was the moment when I was usually awkward and nervous all over again—especially after doing something like that with the keys—but that didn’t happen this time. “What an adorable apartment,” Mahlen said, looking around as I turned on a few low lamps.

“I know, I love it,” I said. “It’s tiny, but it was the most charming place I saw by a mile. And cheaper than most of the others too. Maybe because half the people who wanted to see it never could find it.” I put my purse down on the futon couch and turned back to face him. “Do you want to see the rest of it? The whole tour takes about thirty seconds.”

He grinned and nodded. “I think I can spare thirty seconds. But then I want to be kissing you again.”

A shiver of delight passed over me. “Okay, um. Well, this is the living room and the kitchen and the dining room—all efficiently contained in this one room right here. And the office and the guest room too, when needed.” I waved around the space. “And if you’ll come this way, I’ll show you the rest.”

He followed me into the little curve of a hallway—actually more just a bent angled space where the two larger rooms met. “The bathroom is through there,” I pointed at a door in the angled space, “and…my bedroom is here.” I led him into the bedroom, silently thanking This Morning Me for having had the presence of mind to make her bed, with clean sheets at that, and actually put most of her clothes away too. Especially since This Morning Me had so recently been Last Week Me, with…with whatever weird illness that had been.

I shook my head to clear away the uncomfortable memories…and the lack of memories. Because Mahlen was standing right behind me, and now he was putting his soft, strong hands on my shoulders, and turning me slowly around.

Our mouths met once more in a deep, astonishing kiss. Astonishing because now our bodies could meet as well. I leaned into him, greedily pulling him as close to me as I could, savoring the feel of him even underneath all our clothes. He was a strong, solid man; odd that he should also be so soft and yielding. He was everything I wanted to touch in a man.

Except for all these dang clothes.

And Mahlen was clearly thinking the same thing, because his hands were at the buttons on my jacket. I helped him undo them and shrugged out of it, letting it fall to the floor. Still, though, too much cloth, not enough skin. I tugged at my T-shirt, untucking it out of my jeans.

Mahlen tossed off his own light jacket, letting it drop; then his hands followed mine, reaching up under my T-shirt. I hissed in a breath: oh, the sparks! We made a live current, the two of us; wherever we connected, I felt zings of pleasure and life and fulfillment—but also of heat and desire and hunger, such a deep hunger. Every touch just made me want more, need more.

His hands, warm on my skin, moved upward, and now he was touching the bottom of my bra. I reached out for him, even as I tried not to stop him from what he was doing, but I wanted to touch him, I wanted to touch his skin, it could hardly be fair for him to touch me when I couldn’t touch him, could it?

He gave a grunting laugh when he realized what I was trying to do, and drew back a moment, pulling his own T-shirt over his head and tossing it away, then returned his astonishing mouth to mine.

My hands ravished his chest—oh, that smooth warm skin, very little hair on his chest, just strong muscles, and the world’s most adorable freckles. I pulled away from our kiss and bent down to kiss his sun-spots, then ran my tongue over his tiny, erect left nipple.

He shivered at the touch of my tongue, so I did it again, and this time he moaned. “Oh Grace.” His hand caressed the back of my head, and the heat in me doubled and redoubled.

I stood up abruptly, pulled my own shirt over my head, then took his hand and led him the three steps to my bed. He followed eagerly. I pushed the covers aside, and together we sank down onto the mattress as I pulled him down atop me.

He kissed me deeply another minute, then raised up off me and scooted my bra straps down off my shoulders, pushing them down my arms, freeing my breasts but leaving the bra still fastened around me, like a lacy straitjacket. I wriggled beneath him, gasping as he lowered his mouth to my left breast, echoing my action of a moment ago…oh so deliciously. He suckled and ran his tongue over the nipple, filling both hands with my breasts. I’m small, and his hands were huge; I felt lost in him, tiny and lost and so alive.

He switched to the right breast, running his teeth over my rock-hard nipple before suckling once more. I hissed and gasped again, writhing helplessly beneath him. I could hardly move my arms; they were trapped by my bra and pinned by his weight atop me. All I could do was take the pleasure he was giving me.

And he didn’t stop at my breasts. When I was about at the point of crying out with ecstatic frustration, he scooted lower, his clever hands caressing my belly for a moment, and covering it with kisses, before he found the button on my jeans. He undid the button and pulled down the zipper and put his hands on my hips and just…smoothed the jeans and underwear off me like he did this every day. Like the clothes themselves had decided to help him.

I couldn’t even marvel at that before a new shock of electric delight shot through me. His kisses just kept lowering, and lowering, and lowering…and then his lips were at my lips, my lower lips, and his teasing tongue was darting all around my opening, touching and flicking away from my clit, driving me wild. I twisted on the bed, trying to free my arms, trying to do something—but he murmured against my clit, “No, no, lay still, I’ve got this,” and that was so silly and so great that I just moaned and let him pleasure me.

He licked and kissed and then his tongue pushed inside me. I groaned again and lifted my hips, rising to meet him, to fuck his tongue, rocking my hips against his face. He had one hand underneath me, under my ass; and now those wicked, naughty fingers crept closer, into my crack, just hovering, skimming close to the bud there, not touching…just almost. And his other hand was now busy up front, following his tongue, reaching inside me, probing, finding that little spot of joy that just about sent me over the edge.

I murmured something incoherent—I was trying to say something along the lines of how I wasn’t going to be able to last very long if he kept this up—when suddenly he pulled up again, removing that delicious tongue, those delightful fingers. But before I could protest, he was reaching for his own button, and sliding his jeans down. He wore boxers, the cutest boxers you’ve ever seen, they had hearts on them, I kid you not. And his eager cock was straining through the front of them, poking its way out through the fly. I giggled, because it was so adorable, so delightful.

He pushed those cute boxers down, out of the way; I wanted to wave goodbye to them, but I still couldn’t move my arms, and anyway, what replaced them was far, far better. He moved to straddle me, standing on his knees over top of me, letting me get a good long look at him. His cock was just gorgeous, the most perfect cock I’d ever seen. Strong and straight and true; maybe almost just the tiniest bit too big, but somehow, I knew that was not going to be a problem.

I strained against my confining bra-straitjacket. “Can I touch you?” I moaned.

Mahlen grinned down at me. “You want to touch me? Really?”

“Oh, I do, I do…please…”

“Hmm,” he said, peering down at me as if the situation were really just terribly complicated. “You seem to be all tied up.”

“You tied me up,” I mock-pouted. “I’m stuck.”

“Well, your hands are stuck,” he said, knee-walking forward, crawling up my body. “Other parts aren’t.” With that, he leaned forward, putting his hands over my head…lowering his cock toward my face. But moving slowly, slowly…waiting to make sure it was okay?

Oh, it was more than okay. “Yes,” I whispered, and opened my mouth to take him in.

He eased that delicious cock into my mouth; I leaned forward to take it in, savoring the taste of him—clean and delightful and musky and…oh, magical. “Mmm,” I purred against him, licking and tasting and stroking—but only with my mouth, as my hands were still trapped, now worse than ever, as his knees held my bra straps tight by my sides.

He sighed and gasped in a shuddering breath as I took him deeply in my mouth, as deep as I could. He didn’t push; just waited for me to let him know how far he could go. And now he rocked his own hips back and forth, gently, slowly, letting himself ease in and out of me, fucking my mouth so sweetly.

The pace increased; he couldn’t hold back for long, I somehow knew it, just from his breaths, his gasps. I kept up, matching him thrust for thrust as best I could, just with my mouth, with my body under his.

Then he moaned, and abruptly slowed the pace, pulling back again, then all the way out. “You’re amazing,” he said, “but I want…” His words trailed off as he ran a hand down the front of me, pausing at my breasts, then lower, lower…he scooted down as well, and then he was straddling my hips, his cock poised at my entrance. He gazed into my eyes. “Grace.”

“Mahlen.”

He gave a slight smile. “May I?”

I smiled back at him; my smile was a broad grin. “Oh, please do.”

He thrust into me, startling me with the intensity, the strength; he had been moving so slowly, so deliberately, until that moment. I almost came right then; the flash and spark and electricity of touching him was multiplied a thousand-fold when his cock entered me, when we were bound at that deepest level. “Oh my god!” I gasped out, struggling to keep hold of my sanity, gripping him with everything I had. Under me, my helpless hands clenched the sheets, they could do nothing more.

He moved like a lion, like a panther, claiming and taking and covering me, filling me completely, harder, faster all the time. His eyes held mine, and then they closed as he moved down to kiss me, to claim my mouth as his cock was claiming my pussy. I melded into him, letting our bodies become one, riding the dreamy ecstasy of this connection. I thrust my hips up into him, yet I was helpless as a kitten, I was so much smaller than him, and he had me so pinned. He could just eat me up.

I wanted nothing better than to be eaten up like this. Forever.

And yet the heat built…it was purple flames in my veins now, fire shooting through my whole system. The most delicious, life-giving flames anyone had ever felt…my life was made of the flames, I wanted to lose myself in them, give myself to the fire…

Mahlen’s breath was coming in fast, sharp gasps now, and his thrusts were shaking even my sturdy bed. I clung to him with my legs, now somehow free and wrapped around his ass, I don’t know when he’d let them come unpinned, and I held on tight to the sheets under me, and still we might rocket off this earth and out into space…

“Grace,” he panted. “I won’t…last…much…”

I exploded into orgasm, screaming with the intense ecstasy of it in that moment, gripping his cock with my pussy, arching my back to thrust up into him harder, deeper, more. He shouted my name once more and exploded into me, filling me with his essence now as well as his flesh, and with the flames, the heat, the fire. We were one person, we were a supernova, we were magic, bound together forever…

I fell out of time for a while, I think, riding the other-worldly plane of existence I now lived on, before settling back to this one, with something like surprise. I was still panting, gasping; my pussy was still shuddering, holding on, reverberating.

Mahlen lowered himself gently, still holding most of his weight off me. He opened his eyes and smiled tenderly down at me, belying the wild animal who had just fucked my brains out mere moments ago. “Wow.”

I laughed, low and throaty. “Yeah. My god.”

He leaned down and gave me a deep, soulful kiss. It felt so good to be joined like this—like we were a moment ago in our build to ecstasy, now easing down the other side of that Himalayan peak. Our tongues intertwined like they had been built for each other; he let more of his weight sink down onto me.

“It’s fine,” I whispered, breaking the kiss a moment to pull him closer. “You feel amazing.”

“So do you.” Now he let the rest of his weight cover me, like the world’s best blanket. I secretly thrilled at the fact that he didn’t make a big point of how small and fragile I seemed; I don’t want to crush you, said every previous lover I’d ever had (not that there were all that many of them, but still). Mahlen just took my word for it, settling down over me like I was the most comfortable mattress in the world, and kissing me again.

We floated in that soft sweet comfort for a long while, and it eventually morphed into us kissing side by side in my bed. I tossed a leg over his hip and he reached forward, around my back, and finally—at long last!—unhooked my bra and let it go. “Ah!” I said, stretching my arms forward and pulling him close to me. My hands explored his strong shoulders, his amazing hair, caressed his jawbone and his collarbone, tickled his nipples again.

“Hmm,” he said, after a while of this. “Maybe I should have freed you sooner.”

“Regrets regrets,” I murmured, and kissed him again.

~*~*~*~

We slept. When I next woke, it was deep in the night, dark as the other side of the moon. I slipped out of the bed and used the bathroom, trying to be quiet. But my apartment is tiny, and when I returned to bed, Mahlen’s strong arms encircled me, pulling me close.

“Sorry to wake you,” I whispered.

“I’m not,” he whispered back. He turned me around in his arms, spooning us together, kissing the back of my neck, nibbling my ear, running his hands through my hair. “You’re so beautiful,” he murmured.

“You’re not so bad yourself,” I said, wiggling my ass against his fast-growing cock.

He moaned and pressed against me. “Wicked woman.”

“You know it.”

His hands moved downward, clutching my hips, moving me against him as his cock pressed against me from behind. I tilted my hips up just a hair and invited him in. He slid in easily, smoothly, sending another wave of shock and delight through me. When had sex ever been electrical before? It was like I had never made love before; my previous lovers had been pretend, or practice, or a bit of vivid imagination. This was the real thing.

He clutched my hips tighter, moving in and out of me with practiced ease as I bucked back against him. Our breaths matched, our gasps building in tandem, and he moaned when I moaned.

And he cried out when I did, as we came together, strong and furious, gasping and groaning. “Omigod,” I breathed out, when I could make something like words again.

“I think even the Russian judges would have to give that one a ten,” he whispered.

I busted out laughing. “See? This is what I love about you. You’re such a dork.”

“I’m your dork.”

I wiggled my hips against him again. “Oh, that is the best thing I’ve heard all year.”