Chapter Seven
She was in the woods running, running through trees, falling on rocks and branches. Her knees were bleeding and her heart was pumping so violently that the water from the lake was moving in time to her heartbeats.
Jo turned, it was cold and she was wearing a small scrap of a dress, behind her was Jack. He held a gun and he was laughing. He laughed as he lifted the gun and Jo screamed. The giant grizzly thudded out of the forest, as big as a rhino, his body shaking the ground. In three bounds he moved in front of the gun just as it went off. Jo screamed as the bear went down, as Clayton’s legs buckled beneath him.
“Jo.”
Jo sat up with a sudden jerk and gulp of air. It was dark, only the light from the moon swept into the room.
“Jo,” the voice belonged to Clayton. Jo looked into the darkness and saw him in front of her, felt his hands on her arms. “It was only a dream.”
It was only a dream, Clayton wasn’t dead, Jack didn’t shoot him. Jo looked up at him as her jaw shook. Though her fingers felt cold, she’d been sweating and her hair was damp and matted.
“Have I been sleeping all this time?” Jo looked at Clayton. He was in the same clothes so it was possible that it wasn’t as late as she thought. “What time is it?”
“Three in the morning,” Clayton brushed her hair back and away with his hand just as he’d done earlier in the day. His eyes met her eyes.
He took his hand away from her face.
“No,” she reached for his hand and moved it back to her cheek. She held his hand in hers and suddenly, on an irrepressible whim she kissed his hand.
“Jo…” he said her name and she knew he was going to pull away, to retreat beyond the place where she could reach him.
Jo lifted her other hand and brought it to his face.
“Stay—please stay,” she looked at him, deep into his eyes. Then she moved closer to his face until their lips met.
Clayton’s lips were warm. His body felt tense and ready as she placed her hand on his chest.
He let Jo kiss him but he held back. Jo kissed him harder.
She pulled on his lower lip with her teeth, felt his skin next to her skin, rubbed her cheek against his stubble.
When she pulled back his face was focused on her and she could feel his energy, wild and untamed, ready to pour out of him. Clayton took her head in his hands and pulled her mouth to his.
He was more alive than anyone she’d ever met. Jo felt every move of his body, the tightening of every muscle. Her skin tingled as he exhaled near her neck and Jo felt every part of her body calling for Clayton.
She leaned her head back toward the moonlight as his lips trailed down her neck, to her breastbone, until he moved her shirt and took one tight nipple in his mouth. He teased her with his teeth and Jo gasped at the feel as a sensation shot straight through her, down to her core. She extended her spine and arched her back.
Clayton’s hand moved to the other breast, his thumb rubbing over the other nipple. Jo brushed her leg over Clayton’s body and she felt him huge and hard against her leg.
“You saved my life,” she said on as she exhaled. His body worked over hers, taut and strong. “You should let me say thank you.”
She reached for his fly and unzipped his pants. Pulling him hard and full out into the moonlight she moved her hand over him.
Clayton sucked in his breath at her touch. She moved her hand around him, learning him, wanting so badly to arouse him as much as he excited her.
She pushed his torso back with her free hand and brought her mouth to his impressive erection, ready to suck him off. She wanted to swallow him down, drink him in.
“Oh god,” Clayton reached his strong hands down and lifted Jo up, “it’s too much. I want to be inside of you.”
Jo smiled and stood in front of him. She reached down to the edge of her gray cotton tee shirt and pulled it up over her head. Clayton reached for the edge of her panties and pulled them over her thick ass and thighs, down to her ankles where Jo stepped out of them, naked in the moonlight. Her skin glistened a milky white glow.
“You look amazing,” Clayton reached a hand out and touched the curve of her breast. He let his fingers trail across her stomach, then gripped her ass in his hands and held her fast.
Clayton’s glistening erection called to her and Jo moved forward. She straddled him on the edge of the bed and waited, the tip of him ready and pulsing at her throbbing opening.
"Are you going to make me beg?" Clayton sat tensely underneath Jo. She smiled as she imagined him begging. It was a nice thought, but her own self-control wasn't up to the task. Her body was aching for him to fill her up and she didn't think she could wait any longer.
Clayton grabbed Jo’s ass in both hands and guided her down on top of him. Jo let out a loud cry as her body covered his. She’d never experienced a man so large, so filling. She lifted and moved, gliding her body over his, feeling him acutely inside of her. Then Clayton took over.
With his hands guiding her ass he moved her up and down, his strong muscles taking the full weight of her despite his position on the bottom.
“Don’t stop—” Jo pulled her body in close to Clayton’s as his lips brushed her breasts. “Don’t ever stop.”
Clayton looked up at Jo, his eyes burning into hers, “I’m afraid that is an impossibility, but I won’t stop until you want me to.”
“I will never want you to stop,” she felt sensations fly through her body, out to her nerve endings and back again.
He rocked Jo’s body on top of him. Her body slid forward, her clit sliding against his body as he moved her and Jo could feel her body mounting, pulsing, pushing, she was about to boil over.
Jo pushed her fingers back through his thick hair and leaned forward to pull his earlobe into her mouth. Her body was out of her control. There was no stopping the explosion that was coming.
She gripped her upper body around Clayton as her body shook and quaked with its final spasms of complete ecstasy.
Clayton felt Jo tense around him, and he let his body build and push past his final threshold until they both sat spent and exhausted in each other’s arms.
Jo’s head hung against the side of Clayton’s neck and shoulder, her body covered in a sheen of sweat. She felt sensations running through every part of her skin. Her toes buzzed, her stomach swirled, her hair stood on end.
“I’ve never experienced anything like that before,” Jo smiled into Clayton’s neck. He smelled supremely masculine with an edge of musk and cloves. Jo hummed to herself for a moment then, wrapped in the contentment of orgasm, she leaned forward to his ear.
“I love you,” she let the words slide easily out of her mouth.
As soon as the words were out Clayton was fully awake. His torso moved and his hands lifted so that Jo had to lift off and over him to rest on the bed.
Jo understood her mistake immediately, “That’s just the sex talking.” She tried to smile at him but her heart was breaking for Clayton’s reaction to her words.
Clayton pulled his energy away from Jo and withdrew back into himself. Jo felt her face turn red.
“I should go clean up, maybe even get some sleep myself,” he stood from the bed and grabbed his clothes.
Jo wanted to state the obvious, that he could stay here, he could shower here and sleep next to her in her bed, but she could feel the rebuff she would undoubtedly receive to these words before she’d even said them.
“Ok,” Jo nodded trying to act calm, cool, collected… trying to act as if his walking away right now wasn’t stabbing her to the very core.
She suddenly felt naked and she grabbed the top sheet and pulled it over her body, staring at Clayton. Even with her hurt feelings she couldn’t help but notice the perfect flex of his muscles, the perfect shape of him.
“I’ll see you in the morning then,” Jo was surprised at how positive she actually sounded.
Clayton nodded and she could feel words building up inside of him, words she couldn’t bear to hear, words that would make what they just did a mistake.
Jo stood up before he could open his mouth and walked past him into the bathroom. She closed the door and locked it, standing silently until she heard the sounds of Clayton leaving the room.
She leaned back against the door, tension and emotion gripping her throat. But she wouldn’t cry. If she began now she wasn’t sure she would be able to stop again.
Jo took a warm shower, bundled herself into a robe, and sat on her bed. The air was stifling inside. She crawled over the bed to an adjoining window and opened it wide.
Fresh air came tumbling in. Jo inhaled greedily.
The cool night air swam over her face. The smell of pine trees, dirt, and the approaching fall filled her with a false sense of wellbeing. Jo put her arms on the windowsill, laid her head on her arms, and fell asleep.