Erika
“What happened to Kronum?”
The question just sort of slipped out. She hadn’t meant to ask it. Not right then at least. It would have been so much better if she’d waited, waited until later, when it didn’t seem so confrontational. When she could make him see that she was asking not because she wanted to know—though she did—but because he needed to talk about it. To open up.
To grieve.
“Pardon?” he asked, clearly caught off guard by the sudden change of the subject.
“Never mind,” she said hurriedly, hoping that perhaps they could move past her blunder.
It wasn’t to be, however, as he focused those eyes of monied green on her. “Why do you want to know about that?”
She finished removing her shoes, grateful for the relief after having them on all day, and stood up. “That’s not my primary reason for asking,” she told him. “But for starters, because someone warned me away from you, because you’re from there.”
Anger, cold and terrible flashed through his eyes, a darkness she wasn’t sure she could ever understand. Hatred twisted his features into something incomprehensible for a split second. Then his iron will exerted itself and forced calm into him once more. Erika found herself relaxing from a tenseness she hadn’t realized was there, exhaling roughly as the moment passed.
“They what?” he asked quietly, icy rage filling his voice.
“That guy at the ball, bald-headed dude, told me to stay away from you.” She wrinkled her nose. “He kinda acted like he had a claim on me, though I would never have let him touch me. He was…wrong, somehow, I can’t explain it.”
“I’m going to kill him,” he hissed, turning back for the door.
“Wait, Harden,” she said, tightening her fingers into his bicep. “No.”
He looked back at her, then down at her hand on his arm. Erika met his gaze, unafraid to lock eyes with him, peering deep into his soul.
“I know you hurt,” she found herself saying. “I can’t understand it, but I can see it. I can feel it.” Erika licked her lips nervously, pulling him around to face her. “If you let me…I can help you.” Her other hand came up, resting on his chest, over his heart. The strong, powerful pulse of it was noticeable even through his clothing. It wasn’t beating fast, but strongly, pumping blood through his muscles as he prepared for a fight.
“You can’t help me with this,” he whispered hoarsely. “No one can.”
“You’re wrong,” she said, taking a step forward.
Harden moved backward, until his shoulder blades pressed against the door.
“I can’t understand how you feel, because I haven’t been through something like that. I have lost, I’ve left everything behind, because I can’t go back to where I was.” She expelled air from her lungs heavily. “Did you know I used to be a second-grade teacher, living in a house sharing a room with four college students? That’s how I lived. I went to food banks once or twice a month. I begged on the streets on weekends for money for the stray cat that I took care of, until it died. My life growing up I moved around every six months with my father, living the military lifestyle. Yes sir! No sir!” she said, her voice rising as anger filled her as well.
“Erika…”
“No! Don’t use that tone on me,” she snapped. “Not if I’m not allowed to use it on you. You can’t shut me out and then expect to let me in, Harden Archer. That is not the way it works!” She was up in his face now, as best she could be with the nearly twelve inches of height difference. “So no, I can’t feel how you feel. But don’t you dare act like you’re the only one who has ever suffered. I’ve told you about my life, now. You know that it was rough. But I talk about it, Harden. I speak, because it’s the only way that it will allow us to grieve.”
She paused, taking in a breath, her features softening as she pleaded with him. Her voice was a whisper now.
“And you need to grieve, Harden. You need to let your sorrow out.”
He looked away.
“Please. Before it destroys you.”
The last words were spoken so softly they were barely audible, but he heard her nonetheless. For a long moment she thought he was going to defy her, to brush off her attempts to talk to him, to get him to open up. Then he sagged, sliding down the door until he was sitting on the floor, knees pulled to his chest, head hunched over.
Erika followed him down, never letting herself lose contact with him. She stayed on her knees so that she was slightly taller than him, hopefully providing a comforting presence. Her right arm slid behind him and draped over his shoulders while she held his head in her other.
He didn’t cry, which she knew he needed to. Instead he simply sat there in her arms for a long, long time. Neither of them spoke. Neither of them had to. It was an easy, mutual understanding, something that usually took months to develop between a couple. Yet it hadn’t even been twenty-four hours for them. Erika felt overwhelmed by that fact, but she couldn’t deny the connection forming between them.
She’d thought about trying, about not letting him into her house after they came back from mini-putt. It should have been easy to leave him at the door, give a hug, and say thank you for the wonderful afternoon. That’s how it should have gone down. Instead, her body had betrayed her and she’d walked inside, leaving the door open so he could follow her. Whether it had been a subtle way to try and ensure she got laid, or a hidden desire to simply spend more time with him, she hadn’t known.
Now though, it was clear to her that she’d been in the right. He needed this. They both did. Harden needed to grieve, and she needed to know he trusted her enough to be vulnerable around her. She wondered if he’d even cried by himself. It seemed unlikely, judging by the resistance she’d received just now. The evidence that he was bottling it all up was everywhere, and if he kept keeping it in, it would destroy him, an outcome she was quickly coming to realize was unacceptable to her.
“You can’t destroy yourself,” she whispered to him at last. “Not if you want me around.”
He looked up at her, his eyes perhaps coated with a very, very thin sheen of liquid that might not normally be there. Erika carefully didn’t call attention to it.
“I’m not sure I’m fit to be around you,” he said bluntly.
“Maybe. Maybe not,” she admitted. “Right now you’re certainly in no shape to be a father, which is something you’ll have to accept if you want me.” Her hand wandered down to her stomach, a gesture she’d found herself doing more and more lately.
A moment later, it was joined by his.
“I might not be a fit now,” he said, strength returning to his voice. “But according to you, I have twenty-five weeks to work on it. To become the person you need me to be.”
She smiled at the determination in his voice. “It won’t be easy,” she told him.
“I’ve never been one to back away from a challenge. And I think this is the biggest challenge of them all.”
Her lips formed a line that slowly bent upward into a smile. Maybe he was going to be all right after all. Together the two of them could tackle his demons, help him accept the pain, and eventually even maybe begin to move on.
“How do you propose we start?” she asked.
Harden sat up straighter, putting one hand on her back and worming the other behind her knees, between her hamstrings and calves. Then with incredible strength and the utmost care, he lifted her off the ground and onto his lap.
Erika smiled and bit her lip, breathing slightly heavier at the way he’d manhandled her with ease. How such a little action could be so arousing she didn’t know, but it inflamed her body instantly, adding to the work his touch was doing on its own. He began to stroke her leg, caressing her inner thigh as they stared at each other.
“Is this acceptable?” he asked in a smooth, deep voice, run through with tension and excitement.
“It’s a good start,” she whispered, gasping slightly as his fingers slid deliciously close to the peak of her inner legs. “A good start. But if we want to do things right, we can’t stop here.”
He nodded. “Agreed. That wouldn’t be very nice. We should probably continue.”
Erika nodded, a jerky, uneven movement, her attention focused intently on him as her inhibition began to fray and then unravel swiftly with each measured caress of her leg. He squeezed her upper thigh, and she practically melted into him. Warmth crept into her cheeks, down her neck, and across her chest. Her skin flushed, breasts swelling as her nipples responded to his touch, straining to work free of her top.
“Harden,” she whispered as his free hand slid up her side, across her ribcage, and tightened around her enough that he could cup her breast in his long, sensuous fingers.
She hissed, arching her back involuntarily, lips parting ever so slightly. He took advantage of that distraction and covered her mouth with his, eliciting a moan from inside her that trailed off as he didn’t stop his fingers from sliding up her leg this time.
He parted her lips with his tongue and she returned the kiss passionately, letting him explore her as their tongues darted to and fro. The heat of his kiss made her swoon, and she decided right then and there that she wanted him.
“The couch,” she whispered, separating her lips from his long enough to speak.
Harden looked past her, saw the three-person sofa and without a care in the world picked her up and rose to his feet, never once jostling her, his muscles flexing and keeping her even and still the entire time.
“I knew you were strong, but…” she whispered, nipping at his ear as he removed his shoes before continuing, a motion that should have been awkward that he somehow made seductive. The jokester part of her brain wondered if he could do the same with sock removal.
“You don’t exactly weigh much,” he returned, laying her down on the couch and lowering his entire body down on top of her, the two of them shuffling around to make it fit as best as possible.
“Flatterer,” she replied, pulling his face back to hers so she could kiss him some more. He was too delicious not to want to just lie there and kiss. She could smell him now, a combination of freshly cut wood and something else, perhaps lilac, on his hands. An odd scent, but one that reminded her of her favorite body wash. The sudden thought of rubbing Harden all over her while she was wet and naked ran through her mind, and a grin spread across her face.
“What?” he asked, pausing what he was doing.
“Oh, don’t stop that,” she told him, taking his hand and placing it back on her upper hip, where he’d slowly been dragging it down between her legs. “It was nothing. Ask me when we’re done.”
He nodded, obviously confused but not enough to make an issue of it. Erika took advantage of the momentary separation between them to reach down and tug his shirt off, tossing the T-shirt away, more enthralled with the flat, sculpted musculature of the man on top of her.
“Mmm,” was all she could say as her hands ran across his flat stomach, feeling the ripple of his abs and the firm power of his pecs.
He lowered himself back onto her and she dug her fingers into his back, nails pushing on the muscles that she found in every square inch of him. While she was exploring him, he moved his lips along her jaw, dipping lower to her neck before finding the ridges of her collarbone. She moaned and pushed up into him, her head thrown back as he laid a trail of fire across her body with his touch.
Fingers pushed up under her shirt and she propped herself up on her elbows. Harden wrapped one hand under her lower back and easily kept her aloft while the pair of them divested her of not only her shirt, but her bra as well, baring her hardened nipples to his hungry mouth.
Between gasps she noted that his other hand was climbing perilously high up her inner leg, without any indication that it was going to stop this time. She steeled herself, but the press of him between her legs set off a fire in her core that overwhelmed her. Everything else had led up to that moment, and even with her pants still on, she was trembling from the simple caress of a finger.
“Oh, fu…” her voice trailed off as he moved that finger back and forth very gently with increasing speed. The vibrations and pressure transferred easily through her jeans and Erika began to shake. It had been so long, and he felt so good. In no time at all she felt her body tighten around her, and then explode as he forced her to orgasm with but a knuckle of his index finger. She writhed in ecstasy brought on by that simple touch, forcing herself to breathe heavily to try and maintain some semblance of control.
“Off,” he commanded, unbuttoning her pants.
Erika found herself obeying his command immediately, lifting her hips up off the couch so he could slide all her remaining clothing from her body in one smooth motion—including her socks. A giggle escaped her lips at that thought, but Harden simply arched an eyebrow, lifted the leg that wasn’t pressed against the couch, and lowered his mouth to her. Heat washed over her skin and she was suddenly lost. The surroundings blurred and all she could focus on was his tongue as it flicked out and across her with agonizing slowness.
Erika held her right leg aloft, the left one hooked over the couch, Harden buried between them, one knee on the floor the other stretched out on the rest of the couch. It didn’t look comfortable, but she could never seem to find the words to ask him if they should switch positions. His tongue was warm and soft, and he knew exactly where to run it over her for maximum effect. Although he moved slowly, her climax came on quickly, rushing through her body in a matter of minutes.
She curled up into a ball momentarily, lost in her own mind from the simple pleasures he’d been inflicting upon her. Brain sensors overloaded for the moment, she didn’t quite know what to do. The sight of him standing up and removing the rest of his clothing spurred her into action, however. Erika sat up and with a quick lick of her lips, grabbed his shaft and took him into her mouth.
He groaned loudly, making her want to bite her lip. There was something in the way, however, so Erika was forced—“forced”—to content herself with taking just a bit more of it deep into her throat. He was long, with a solid but not intimidating girth to him. That was a relief, given what she knew of shifters. Big was fun to joke about, but sometimes it could be too much. For her anyway.
“Okay, stop,” he growled shortly thereafter. “Or else I’m going to explode now.”
Erika pulled herself free, licking her lips to clear off the excess saliva, rubbing it into his cock with her hand.
“Sorry,” she said without meaning an ounce of it.
Harden rolled his eyes. “Don’t be.” Then he positioned himself between her legs, the head of him pressed gently against her opening. “Are you sure?”
“Yes. I want you,” she said. “I want you inside of me.”
Her eyes rolled back into her head as he pushed inside of her, sliding an inch at a time between her walls, stretching her, filling her with perfect bliss. Pleasure rolled out through her body in waves with each miniature thrust of his hips. Erika gasped and thrust her hips at him, trying to capture more of him inside her, but he maintained his pace. By the time he finally buried himself completely, she had begun to ache for it.
“Fuck me,” she hissed at him. “Fuck me!”
Harden obliged. He withdrew entirely, until she could almost feel him fall out of her. At the last second, as she clamored for him to stop, he reversed and thrust his entire length into her at once. Erika sat up, eyes wide, mouth hanging open as he repeated the motion over and over again. Mind-numbing pleasure rushed out from between her legs, washing away any other thoughts. All she could focus on was the sight and sensation of his cock as it dipped into her over and over again.
Moans turned to cries, and cries turned to screams of naked ecstasy as he fucked her thoroughly. At one point he flipped her over, one hand wrapping around her hair as the other spanked her just until her ass was tingling and slightly pink. The combination of that and being fucked sent her over the brink again, making her explode all over his cock.
“You fuck me so good,” she said, chest heaving as she flipped onto her back once more, breasts flush with red from the workout.
“Good,” was his only reply, his breath short from doing all the work.
Time to change that, I think.
She pushed him down until he was in a normal sitting position on the couch. Then she swung her right leg up and over him, settling down with her breasts in his face. Reaching behind her, she grabbed his cock and held it steady while she adjusted herself so that he could slide inside her. A tiny gasp came from her lips as he licked one of her nipples at the same time.
“Now let’s see if I can return the favor,” she said in her best sexy, sultry voice, licking her lips, mouth open as she stared into his eyes. Tightness worked itself into his eyes as she moved her hips against him, grinding back and forth on his cock in a slow, sensual manner. She pressed her breasts into his face when she drew close, and ran her hands up her sides to play with them for him to see when she was away.
He groaned and his eyes lost focus as she fucked him. His cock felt so good, and the way her clit was rubbing against him was making her begin to shudder.
“I’m so close,” he whispered.
“Me too,” she echoed. “I’m going to cum.”
“I can’t—” He trailed off into a wordless groan.
His cock swelled inside of her.
She tightened around him, pushed over the edge by the sensation.
“Erika!” he groaned, her name spilling from him.
“Harden!” she echoed, swept up in the moment.
His hips bucked under her as she started to shake.
Warmth exploded into her.
A scream rushed from her lips.
“I’m cumming!” he roared.
“Fuccccckkkkkk!” she cried out loudly.
Together they crashed through their orgasms, the moment stretching out into eternity and back in an instant. She collapsed, nearly melting into him, utterly spent from the exertions and the constant climaxes. Every part of her was numb, an unfeeling heaven brought on by a sensory overload.
Beneath her Harden’s chest rose and fell swiftly, bobbing her along with it. The weight of her didn’t seem to bother him, which was good because she didn’t know if she could move just yet. All the energy had fled from her body, leaving her weak and limp.
But oh had it been worth it.