CHAPTER 15 - MALLORY
Apparently, people still play board games. Who knew? And not just Monopoly and Risk, but stuff 'more complicated and way better than that shit,' according to a very sure-of-himself Barrett. I sat at the table, not quite comprehending what was happening, as Barrett jumped out of his chair, a look of excitement plastered all over his face.
I had never seen him look like that, though I hadn't really spent all that much time around him yet — it felt like more than it was.
"I dunno about this," I started, not wanting to wound his feelings, but trying to find the right way to express just how skeptical I was about...board games?! I mean...I couldn't remember the last time I played a board game and the other players weren't kids I was supposed to entertain for whatever reason.
"Hush," was all Barrett said as he rummaged around in the closet. Then he stood back and put a finger to his mouth.
I cracked up, unable to keep it in, laughing so hard it quickly started to hurt. He just looked so serious, and it was endearing and comical at the same time.
Barrett turned to me. "What?"
In between guffaws that were starting to bring on tears, I tried to get the words out. "You...you look like me when I'm standing in front of my closet trying to figure out what to wear!" Another round of giggles hit me and I doubled over.
Just the idea of this manly man, someone I had seen kill someone not 24 hours earlier just to save my life, a man who had done such incredible things to my body a week before, standing like that deciding between which kids game we were going to play...
Yeah, I couldn't handle it. Maybe it was because of what I had been through recently, but I just let it out.
Barrett, to his credit, took my laughter well, and I could tell by the look he gave me that this wasn't the first time he'd gotten that level of reaction from someone.
Now Barrett had his hands on his hips, shaking his head. "This isn't funny."
I reached up and wiped away the tears from my eyes. "It's a little funny." I looked at him, watching the grin etch its way across his face.
"It's," he said, still shaking his head, "a little funny." He turned back to the closet. "But that doesn't make this decision any easier."
I resigned myself to my fate. Here I was, laying low in a safe-house with a tattooed and sexy killer while other killers tried to kill me, and I was going to play board games for the night. "Just pick something!" I said. "They're all the same, aren't they?"
The look Barrett gave me was one of pure shock and insult. "How would you react if a guy said the same thing about the clothes in your closet?"
I paused, trying to understand what that would be like. "Point well taken," I said after a moment of trying to comprehend that horror and the devastation I would wreak upon that poor hypothetical soul, throwing my hands up in the air. "Take your time, clearly I'm not going anywhere." I looked around, but after a moment I turned back to Barrett - even when he was getting all high-and-mighty about board games, he was still hot as hell.
Barrett smiled and turned back to the closet, and immediately lost himself in whatever was in there.
I watched him for a minute as he reached out, pointed to something I couldn't see, then pulled his hand back. This was really a big decision! I wondered how many games he actually had in there.
"Everything OK in there?" I asked, twiddling my thumbs, trying to speed up the process.
"Got it!" Barrett leaned into the closet and his hand returned holding a small orange box. He came back to the table triumphantly, and started unpacking the game.
I looked down at the pieces as he spread them out on the table — this didn't look like any board game I had played before.
"How do you, uhh, play this?"
"I'll show you, give me a minute." He looked down at the pieces, concentrating, and after looking something up in a small rule book that had come from the box, he moved some pieces around.
After he was done setting things up, I was completely lost. There were random cards and tokens anywhere, and there wen't any dice! None of this made any sense.
And then Barrett launched into teaching me the rules, and whatever skepticism I had about the entire idea of two adults playing board games melted away over the next few minutes.
Barrett got super into it, and after a couple minutes listening to him explain how the game worked, what the strategies were, and how to win, I started to understand the appeal.
We started playing, and though I took a little long on each of my turns, the game moved fast. When it was his turn, instead of looking at my cards and trying to strategize, I looked across the table and watched Barrett.
He was concentrating very hard, scowling at his cards, pointing at them and talking to himself in a very low tone that I could barely hear from where I was sitting.
It was at the same time incredibly funny and incredibly endearing. I couldn't believe this kinda guy was getting so into a game like this.
Finally, he threw his cards down, a triumphant look on his face. "That's it! I've come up with a new way to win!"
We worked through his play, and I loved seeing him get so excited as he explained what he was doing. At the same time, though, I could feel the excitement in me welling up. I glanced down at my cards as he kept going, and I squinted at them just to make sure…yup. Stay cool, Mallory, stay cool. I tried to push down the rising excitement and listen to Barrett, but it wasn't easy.
Barrett finished his explanation and sat back in his chair, clasping his hands together behind his head, the very definition of satisfaction. “What do you think about that? I won!” He was so happy with himself. I almost didn't want to burst his bubble.
Almost.
At least I made it look good.
I put on a big show. “Well,” I started, looking down at his cards on the table, “that was quite a move you made there.” I shook my head. “I just…don’t see how I could come back from that.”
“Right?” Barrett was practically vibrating out of his chair. “I got you!” He was so pleased with himself. It was so cute to see.
I actually hesitated before dropping the hammer. “Yeah, let me take a look at my hand really quick.” I smiled at him. “You know, just to make sure I haven’t missed anything, yeah?” I waved my cards around. "I really don't know what half of this stuff does, anyway. Give me a minute."
“Take your time, Mallory. I’ll be right here,” he said, so smug.
I focused on my cards. “Not this one.” I flipped to the next one. “Nope,” I shook my head. “Not this one either.” I shrugged, then cocked my head, giving my last card a funny look. “Oh wait!”
Barrett’s smile turned into a frown as I slowly put the card down and pushed it to the center of the table. “That should work! I think I win!”
Barrett’s eyes got bigger and bigger as he leaned over the table, looking back and forth between my card and his stuff. Then he sat back down, staring at me, his eyes narrowing. “You know, I don’t really like you,” he finally said.
I burst out laughing again, my eyes closing right as I saw Barrett's frown get even bigger. “I just…I can’t.”
“What?”
I waved my hands in the air. “Just, this whole thing. First it’s you and the board games, which, let me tell you, is a strange look for a man who, uh, looks like you.”
“Oh, so just cause I look like a meathead means I’m not allowed to be into smart things?”
I put my hand to my mouth. “Oh, honey, that’s not it at all. Of course you can be into smart things, but, uh, board games? Really?”
Barrett crossed his arms under his massive chest, and I lost my train of thought for a second. “I might have guessed you wouldn’t understand,” he muttered to himself. “And what’s the second thing?”
“Huh?”
“You said, ‘first it’s you and the board games.’ What’s the second thing?”
I laughed again. “Oh, that! I was just gonna say…I didn’t expect you to be a sore loser about them!” And then I kept right on laughing.
Barrett fumed while he packed up the game. I tried to help, but he swatted my hands away each time, so I just sat at the table and tried not to laugh anymore. I wasn’t trying to be mean, it was just that the incongruities over the last 24 hours were just mounting up, and laughing was the only way I could even pretend to make sense of it all.
After he put the game back in the closet, I half expected him to get another one out. “Are we playing another game?” I asked quietly.
“No,” he said, clearly still unhappy that I had managed to undo his brilliant play.
“That’s too bad,” I said, not even hiding my smile. “I was getting onto a good roll there.”
“You’re definitely the poster child for beginner’s luck,” was all Barrett said.
We stared at each other for a while — the mood in the room had dropped and each of us kinda swam in our own thoughts for a bit.
Finally, when I couldn’t take it anymore, I piped up. “So…what’s the next step here?” I looked around the room, indicating the apartment. “We can’t really stay here forever.”
Barrett nodded. “If only because we’ll run out of board games for you to beat me at.”
I was happy to hear his sense of humor at least starting to come back. “It was one time!” I exclaimed, playing along. “I can’t believe you even remember it, it was so long ago.”
Barrett shook his head, but he was already smiling. “It was five minutes ago, Mallory. I may be a meathead, but I don’t forget things that easily.”
I winked at him, before asking the question again. “We really can’t stay here forever, Barrett - what’re we going to do?” It felt weird to have been cooped up in this random apartment for even a day - I barely knew what it looked like outside, where we were; I had been so scared to look out a window just in case someone was watching us.
“You’re right, we can’t stay here forever, or even much longer,” Barrett agreed with me. “We just gotta lay low for a bit longer and then we’ll see about getting you out of town.”
I blanched; I could feel the color draining from my face. “You mean, I’ll have to…leave Meridian?” Of course as soon as I said it, things slid into place and made perfect sense. Of course I would have to leave Meridian - how could I stick around when a criminal mastermind masquerading as one of the city’s most respected businessmen wanted me dead? Oh, yeah, and he also happened to run the company I kinda sorta used to work at.
I had a feeling that my job at Norman wasn't really safe anymore.
So yeah, staying in Meridian was kinda incompatible with trying to live a normal life, even for me.
Barrett watched me in silence as I went through all the stages of understanding. “Yeah,” he said after, “looks like you’ve worked it out. You probably can’t stay here, Mallory.” That ‘probably’ was just for show, I could tell. There wasn’t any equivocation on Barrett’s part.
I shifted around in my seat. “But where can I go? I mean, I’ve been to other places, for vacations and everything, but…Meridian is my home. I’ve never really lived anywhere else. I even went to college here!”
Barrett leaned forward and took my hands in his. I stared at his gorgeous face, into those deep and dark eyes, the sharp stubble that made him look so weathered in a way that made me tense and hot all over. “I know it’ll be tough, Mal, but trust me, after what happened, it’s for the best. Somewhere else will be good for you — you won't have to look over your shoulder all the time. You can relax for a minute.”
Of course Barrett was right. There was nothing left for me here, certainly nothing worth dying over. And even if I managed to stay alive somehow, I’d live my entire life in this city having to look over my shoulder to see if someone was coming after me.
I’d wonder if every random person who talked to me worked for Tate Norman or his goons.
That was no way to live.
And even the very idea of relaxing sounded completely foreign to me even after only less than a day since my entire world had gone to hell in a hand basket. Even though Barrett and I were here playing house and I'd just kicked his butt at a board game of all things, it seemed like the word 'relax' had lost all meaning to me.
Even though I knew Barrett was right, I just didn’t want to accept that yet - I didn’t want to think about it anymore. I had to change the subject.
“Tell me about you,” I said, feeling how lame that was coming out of nowhere as soon as I said it. “I really don’t know anything about you.”
“Me?” Barrett blinked. “I’m an open book. Ask away.”
I asked the first thing that came to mind. “How did you get into board games? Like I said, it seems a little strange for a guy like you to play this kinda stuff.”
Barrett leaned back and chuckled, and I was glad to see that board games weren’t a touchy subject anymore. “Yeah, I can see that.” He looked up at the ceiling before speaking again. “Life in the military isn’t constant firefighting and heroics, despite what most TV, movies, and the news would have you believe. Even at my level, there’s a lot of sitting around and waiting.”
“You mean…you’re not always lifting weights and practicing, uh, shooting?”
Barrett laughed again. “Sure, we do lots of that kinda stuff. You gotta keep the knife’s edge sharp, so when you need to it can get the job done. But part of keeping things sharp is not overdoing them.”
I started to get the picture. “So you had lots of downtime.”
He nodded. “Yup. And you can only read the same books over and over a few times, even when care packages from home come. So, small travel games make a lot more sense. Each guy could get a few hours out of a book, but a board game, that’s fun for everyone and doesn’t run out even if everyone’s played it.”
I mulled that over for a second. “That…makes a lot more sense than I expected it to.”
Barrett’s smile grew. “Don’t worry about it,” he said after a moment, “I still spent enough time practicing killing people.”
I dunno if he was trying to be funny, but after the events of the last 24 hours, it went off like a lead balloon. “Did, you, uh, do a lot of that over there?” I asked, trying to tiptoe around the subject, but instead running right into it.
The smile on Barrett’s face disappeared in an instant. “Yeah, we did our share,” he said, his voice dropping so I had to strain to hear it.
All of a sudden I knew that I shouldn’t have asked, that this was a mistake, and I tried to backpedal. “I didn’t mean to bring it up; sorry about that.”
“Don’t worry,” Barrett said quickly. “I’ve done some bad things, but I made my peace with them a long time ago. The military helped me a lot - I didn’t have the most structure growing up, and by the time I got out of high school, I needed something like that or I would have ended up in some pretty dark places.”
I don’t know what made me do it, but I said the first thing that flashed across my mind. “Seems like you ended up in some dark places anyway.” It just came out! I clapped my hand over my mouth, eyes wide, pleading with him. “I’m…so sorry I said that, it just came out.”
Barrett’s dark eyes bore into me, and I could see the muscles in his face tightening as he fought to keep control of himself. His hands were gripping the table so hard I could see his knuckles turn white, and I was almost as scared as I had been in the supply closet the night before.
Finally, Barrett spoke. “Sometimes, you have to spend a little time in the dark so that others can stay in the light. I don’t apologize for the things I’ve done, or the things I’m able to do, but I do try and use them for good. What we did out there, we did it with the right intentions,” he looked down. "Even when things didn't always go our way."
His words anchored me, but at the same time, I was still confused. “But…you work for a criminal, Barrett. Tate Norman isn’t trying to do good. The Norman Corporation may do good things above the surface, but it’s still a corporation — they’re here to make money and make their shareholders wealthy. And that’s not to say anything about Tate’s, uh, less than legal enterprises on the side.”
Barrett’s face got even cloudier. “I don’t expect you to understand, Mallory, but I have my reasons.”
I pulled my chair forward till they were almost touching, and I leaned forward, taking Barrett’s hands in mine like he had done a few minutes earlier. “I want to understand, though.” I looked at him with as much warmth as I could. “Like it or not, we’re in this together.”
I could tell that Barrett was trying to figure out how to organize his story, so I gave him as much time as he needed to assemble his thoughts. “Tate’s father helped me out when I was finished with the military. Just like after high school, I was lost and going down a bad path, and he put me on the right track. I owe him everything. Working for him was the least I could do.”
I nodded.
“And when Tate took over, the old man asked me to look after him. The old man could see that Tate was undisciplined, and he hoped that I could provide a little guiding influence.” Barrett could clearly see the question in my eyes, because he continued on. “And I tried, believe me, I tried. But Tate is just..different. He doesn’t operate on the same level that you and I do. He's got a warped way of seeing the world, and as much as I tried I couldn't make him see clearly.”
“No, he doesn’t.” I quickly flashed through memories of being in Tate’s office and seeing him shoot that other man in the head, and I couldn’t help but shudder. “So…why did you stay? You know Tate isn’t like his father.”
“I know that. But it’s not that simple. I can’t turn my back on the last wishes of the man who helped me so much when I needed it so bad. He could have just let me go down my own road. I would have died if he’d done that.” Barrett steeled himself. “And there’s another thing that I realized — even though it may not look like it, I’m trying to keep Tate in check. I’m trying to make sure he doesn’t go off the deep end.”
“You sound like you actually like the guy!”
Barrett shook his head. “No, I don’t like him. He’s an asshole. But, at the same time, I…understand him. I understand where the dark impulses he has come from. I’ve been trying to temper them somewhat, so other people don’t get hurt.”
Now it was my turn to shake my head. “You seem to think you and Tate are alike, Barrett, and I don’t think that’s true at all. You wouldn’t have helped me out of that building otherwise. I don't know why you make it sound like you two are so similar.”
Barrett paused before answering. “I’m just…trying to do the right thing. It’s a good feeling.” Barrett's face made it clear that it was a new feeling for him, like he had forgotten it until recently.
His words hung in the room as we looked at each other. Gradually, I could tell, Barrett’s gaze turned warmer, and then I could feel the heat from his eyes warming me up, I shifted around in my chair, both turned on and a little scared of the feelings I had for the man in front of me, who’d come into my life like a cannonball, disappeared, and come back just when I needed him most.
I turned around to look at the clock. “It’s getting up there,” I said. “What do we do for dinner?”
“There’s some canned stuff in the pantry,” Barrett answered quickly. “Nothing too exciting. I’ll do some grocery shopping in the morning.”
I tried not to think about another night in bed with Barrett - not because I was scared of it, but because I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep without fantasizing about him fucking me again like he had a week ago.
“Nothing exciting sounds pretty great tonight, actually,” I finally replied. “I’ve had a little bit too much excitement lately. Especially,” I said with a grin, “after kicking your ass just now.”
Barrett stood up. “Just for that little crack, missy, I get first pick of the soup.”
“Are there really that many choices to pick from?” I fired back, getting riled up all of a sudden. I dunno why, but the idea of Barrett making me dinner, even if it was just heating some stuff from the cupboard, was…strangely very, very sexy.
Barrett looked back at me from the pantry. “You make a good point,” he finally said, his shoulders dropping a little. “There’s not much.” He took two cans out, one in each hand. His hands were so big that from where I sat I could barely see the glint of the cans. “Tomato here,” he said, lifting one up, and then the other. “Cream of Mushroom.” He made a face as he read that last one.
“Someone’s not a mushroom fan.”
Barrett closed the pantry and moved toward the stove. “They’re fungus.”
“They’re delicious! Come on, you don’t like any mushrooms?”
“They’re fungus,” he said again. “I’ve seen enough random shit growing in people’s boots to know that I’m not eating fungus.”
I wrinkled my face. “Thanks for the lovely image,” I said. “Now I might not ever eat mushrooms again either.”
“Then my work here is done,” Barrett said, reaching down and turning the knobs on the stove, setting two pans over the burners and pouring the contents of a soup can into each one of them.
I watched him move around the kitchen gathering crackers and bread from the pantry and shelves, and I was mesmerized. He was just so…efficient in his movements. Nothing was wasted. Nothing was extra. When he didn’t have anything to do his entire body stopped and held itself in place, like it had turned itself off for a few moments to conserve energy.
I had no idea how anyone could learn to do that, but I had to guess it came from his time in the military. I tried to picture Barrett holed up in a rough place, needing to move as little as possible until the right moment to strike, and even though I was just watching him make soup for two, after this I had no difficulty thinking about him getting the job done no matter where he was.
Neither of us said a word, and that felt totally normal. When two people came together, I had noticed, two people who didn’t know each other, there had always been a tendency for them to try and fill the empty space with words, like there was something to be embarrassed over otherwise.
That couldn’t be further from the truth with Barrett and me. Maybe his economy of movement was starting to rub off on me already? I was already pretty nervous at the crazy situation I had found myself in, but the one thing I could say was that Barrett wasn’t making it worse.
Of course, in one way, he totally was. I watched him get two bowls and spoons and pour the soup into each of them, and again the idea of him providing for me, and looking sexy as hell while doing it, was the only thing I could think of.
I liked to think of myself as a capable and independent woman, but as he balanced the two bowls of soup on one forearm and came to the table with the bread and crackers in the other hand, I was pretty much ready to swoon right then and there.
Why exactly had I told him that we couldn’t just fall into bed, despite having already done so a week ago? Sure that felt like a lifetime ago already…but would having another amazing night together in bed really be such a bad thing?
Barrett set down a steaming bowl in front of me, and I leaned into it, letting the vapor wash over my face, it's slightly earthy scent wafting though my nose as I breathed in deep. It reminded me of home, which was suddenly a far away concept. As I picked up the spoon Barrett had set down next to the bowl, I wondered briefly whether I would ever see my apartment again.
After blowing on the hot soup to make sure it didn't burn me, I took a tentative sip, and almost moaned at how good it tasted. I wanted to laugh that something like a hot bowl of soup gave me so much pleasure and hope, but I realized immediately that was really more of a sad commentary on my present situation than anything else.
After I noticed my eyes were closed, I opened them to see Barrett looking at me, his spoon still in his mouth, his eyes widened in wonder.
"What?" I asked, the blush coming forward in full force. "What're you looking at?"
Barrett took another sip, not even waiting to blow his soup a little cooler, his eyes still fixed on me. "You look like ..." he trailed off for a moment while looking for the words. "You look like nothing has ever tasted so good."
I dropped my eyes to my soup and took another sip before smiling at him. "That's exactly it. I can't remember soup ever tasting like this."
Barrett grunted and kept eating. "In the service," he said between spoonfuls of soup, "we realized that was the sign you were really getting into some deep shit. You know, testing your own limits."
I nodded. "Did that happen...often?"
Now it was Barrett's turn to look down at his soup. He reached to the center of the table and picked up a slice of the bread from the plate he'd put down earlier. "Yeah," he said, dunking the bread in the soup and taking a thoughtful bite. "More often than I would have liked."
I put my spoon down. "I'm so sorry to hear that, Barrett." I couldn't figure out what to say next, but that at least felt good to get out.
Barrett put his spoon down too, and I almost winced as it hit the table. He nodded at me, and suddenly he reached out and took my hand in his. "It's OK, Mallory. I made my peace with that life a while ago." He squeezed my hand. "It was the only way I could keep going."
He held my hand like that for a long moment, neither of us breaking eye contact. I didn't want the moment to end, even though my soup was going to get colder the longer we waited.
Barrett finally shook his head, like he was coming out of a trance. "Want some bread?" He asked, giving my hand a final long squeeze before pulling back and taking another slice of bread from the plate between us.
I nodded, and Barrett reached out, handing it to me. I took it and dipped a piece into my soup, enjoying the mix of the two flavors. We kept eating in silence, and the soup only tasted better with each and every bite.
Barrett must have been keeping track of how fast I was eating, because as soon as I was done he stood up and poured me another bowl. I watched him bring it back to the table and set it in front of me - I hadn't even put my spoon down, I was suddenly so hungry.
When I was done with the final bite, I looked over at Barrett for the first time in a few minutes and he sat there, his chin resting in his palm, watching me, a bemused look on his face. "What?" I asked.
"Nothing."
"Come on, it's something."
Barrett chuckled. "It's really nothing, I just like watching you eat."
I wrinkled my brow. "That's a little weird."
Barrett shook his head. "It's not." He stood up from the table, gathering my bowl along with his. "In our limited time together so far, I haven't exactly gotten the chance to see you do normal things, you know?"
"Like eating?"
Barrett nodded from over the kitchen. "Exactly. Like eating."
That made a little more sense. "Still sounds weird when you put it like that."
Barrett smiled impishly at me, which was a funny look for a guy a foot taller than me and build like a soldier. "Deal with it."
I stuck my tongue out at him and watched him clean up after our dinner. I offered to get up and help, but as soon as I started to stand, Barrett shook his head at me, and the message was clear: this was his chance to take care of me for a little while.
I wanted to speak up, to say that he'd been taking care of me for the last 24 hours, but the look in his eyes didn't brook any discussion on the matter, so I watched him tidy up then come back to the table.
I bit my lip as Barrett started to sit down, and without thinking too hard about it I jumped up. I saw him tense up, his eyebrows shooting upward, and then I was throwing myself at him, and before I knew what was happening, his arms were around me and we were kissing like we never had before but couldn't get enough of it.
It was like all the cliches in all the movies, the kind of kissing girls gossiped with their friends about.
Suddenly Barrett pulled away from our kiss, drawing his head back. I followed for a bit then disengaged, looking into those deep dark eyes of his, a question on my face.
He squinted at me, and I saw my unspoken question reflected back at me. Barrett cocked his head to the side and finally spoke. "I thought..." he started, before looking down and trying to find the words. "I thought you didn't want to do that anymore."
I stuck my tongue out at him and leaned forward, whispering into his ear, his manly scent almost overpowering my nose. "I changed my mind," I said before pulling my head back. "After you made me dinner like that, I..." I trailed off.
"You sure about this?" Barrett looked like he wanted to do something, but he clearly wanted to make sure I was OK with it. All I did was nod.
Barrett didn't leave me hanging long, even though my feet weren't touching the ground anymore. Almost immediately after that we were kissing again, and I felt the room spin around me.
At first I thought it was yet another movie cliche turning out to be something that actually happened in real life, but I quickly realized there was a much more normal cause to my sudden dizziness - Barrett was carrying me back to the bedroom.
When we got there he threw me on the bed and was on top of me in a flash, pulling my clothes off with an aggression and force that both shocked me and turned me on to no end.
Soon I was almost naked, and my clothes were settling into a heap next to the bed. Even in the low light of the bedroom I could see Barrett's eyes widen as he took me in, and I started to feel so self conscious that I sat up on the bed and started doing the same to him — and soon his clothes joined mine on the floor.
He smiled as I lay back, inviting him on top of me, but this time, Barrett clearly had other ideas. He shook his head, and I opened my mouth to ask what he wanted me to do, but Barrett put his finger to my mouth and his, shaking his head again.
I got the hint pretty quickly - it was like the first time we were together — no words were necessary. I certainly wasn't going to argue with him, mainly because that would mean his hands wouldn't be on me, and his cock wouldn't be inside me, for a few minutes longer.
No way I could wait that long, not when I was this horny and when we were so, so close to feeling each other from the inside again.
Barrett's big fingers coiled around my hips and pulled me up off the bed, and I balanced on my hands, as he leaned forward, his face stopping just above my pussy, breathing in and out deeply. I closed my eyes and moaned, and when I opened them again, Barrett looked at me with a wolfish grin, a look that said that I belonged to him.
And in that moment, I did.
He set me back down on the bed and pulled at my panties, taking them off before tapping each of my ankles till I bent my legs and moved them out of the way. He got in close and I felt his hot breath on my soaking pussy. I pushed the straps of my bra off my shoulders with each hand before sitting up slightly and reaching around to unsnap it. Barrett watched, his eyes widening even further as he watched my breasts come free. He looked like he had never seen anything like it, and that made me feel like the sexiest girl alive.
Barrett didn't make me wait long before he lapped at me with his tongue, sending shockwaves of pleasure coursing through my body like a live wire. I gripped the folds of the blanket and sheets on the bed, writhing from the tension that was building up in my pussy, but Barrett didn't let me go, didn't ease up, didn't stop; he just kept on going.
I knew we weren't supposed to speak, but I let my mouth hang open as moans came out with each time his tongue expertly parted my folds and pushed into me. Then Barrett started working his fingers into me, one at first, then a second, and with each time his fingers bent upward I shook a little more, inching my body toward him so he could get even further into me.
Barrett must have been able to sense when I was about to hit my limit, because he suddenly stopped, right as I was about to fall into a delicious orgasm. I wrenched my eyes open, and lifted my head up; we locked gazes, and he smiled at me, nodding once before he moved his head back down and I felt his tongue on me once more, back to his usual pace.
Just knowing that he wanted to look at me once before I came was enough to take me over the edge, and I bounced up and down on the bed like a possessed rag doll as the jolts of light and warm feelings shot through me from the tips of my toes to my fingers.
Barrett kept going as I rode my orgasm, and before I knew it I was cresting onto another one. He didn't keep going too long, though, giving me a moment to breathe as he got up, a look of wonder and excitement that matched mine etched across his gorgeous and expressive face.
I lay back against the bed, almost hyperventilating, trying to catch myself and stuff my soul and essence back into my body so I was ready for what I knew was about to come.
I was at least mildly successful.
Barrett raised his face from between my legs, a smile on his face that must have mirrored the one I was sure to be showing. He swooped in one more time as he moved upward, breathing deep; I watched him lick his lips like he’d just finished a wonderful meal, and I asked myself for the hundredth time what I had done to be so lucky as to have a man in my life who looked at me like that.
Even if the situation that had brought us together, for whatever form of together this actually was, had a little too much death and violence attached to be considered a fairytale-level story.
For that kind of look from a gorgeous man who had just tasted me? It was almost worth it.
Barrett traced kisses up my left thigh, moving his body above mine, our skin just barely touching. I heard him make little noises with each kiss, and I desperately wanted to hear the thoughts running through his mind, but I knew that I couldn’t ask him to open up like that.
He got to my belly and finally his forehead briefly touched the bottom of my breasts while he explored the contours of my stomach. I took in a deep breath, wanting to prolong moments like these as long as possible, because even though I was able to throw away the outside world for a few hours to enjoy dinner and a board game and amazing sex, I really couldn’t be assured that I had too many more of these kinds of moments left to come in my life.
Such were the thoughts that ran through the mind of a girl hiding in a safe house from trained killers who wanted her dead.
As fast as these thoughts came, Barrett pushed them away, moving his head upward again till his tongue touched the bottom of my breasts, pulling another breath out of me as he kissed me in places that never got touched. I pulled my fingers away from the sheets and lay them across his strong back, parsing the lines of his tattoos from back to front, pressing against his rough and dark skin. I closed my eyes and sank into the sensations of this amazing man on top of me.
When he took my nipple into his mouth and gave me a soft but insistent bite, I gasped, my eyes dropping open as I raised my head to look at him. Barrett gave me a cheeky smile and switched to the other nipple, keeping eye contact with me the entire time. I dropped my head back after the second bite, and rocked side to side, pulling my hands up and down his back. I could feel his hard cock against my thigh, hot and ready for me, as I was more than ready for him.
When we locked eyes again, Barrett must have seen my need, because he let my nipple go and nodded, a stark and determined look on his face.
I cocked my head to the side as he backed away, and then I felt his fingers pushing into my hips again, the left side upward, and the right side downward.
I turned my entire body over till I was lying on my stomach, staring into the mattress. After a moment, Barrett’s hands, still on my hips, pulled me toward him, and I pressed my hands into the bed and pushed off, getting on my hands and knees. I knew that between my legs Barrett could see how wet and turned on I was — he could see just how much I needed him. I didn’t need any words.
I felt him move behind me, felt his legs settle in on the outside of mine, and then I felt his hot breath on the back of my neck as he leaned over me, his weight resting on me, reaching around with one hand to grab my breasts and give them a hard enough squeeze that I moaned as I turned my head, craning my neck as far as possible to get a good look at him. I just wanted him to go faster, to put his cock into me already.
Barrett must have been listening into my thoughts somehow, because that was exactly what he did next. His legs moved apart, and I moved mine further apart too, till they braced against his legs again, and soon I felt his hard cock pushing into me.
I gasped, letting out a long moan as Barrett slowly fucked into me, one of his hands holding my breasts by the handful. He took his time getting all the way inside me, stretching me, out, and I was nearly in tears when he was done, a combination of almost all pleasure mixed with a tiny bit of pain at how big he was.
When Barrett was all the way inside, he stopped, buried entirely into me, and he touched my back with his free hand, drawing something or pressing into me; he took my nipple in his other fingers and pinched it ever so slightly. I couldn’t see his face but I knew he was smiling, and I could only smile, he felt so good inside me.
And then he started to move back out. I pressed my body backward toward him to keep him inside, but Barrett’s hand gripped my waist and pushed me forward. We moved in opposite directions until only the tip of his thick cock was still inside me, and I felt a rush of emptiness, for just a moment too long until Barrett relented and pulled me back toward him slowly.
We moved like that, back and forth, Barrett’s fingers roaming over my breasts as he thrust in and out of me and I pushed back, trying to get his thick cock deeper and deeper inside with each press. I felt the pressure inside me mounting, and I heard Barrett’s grunts and felt the dampness on his hand gripping my waist.
Then Barrett pulled me upward, so I rested against his hand instead of my hands on the bed. I moved upward, his cock still buried inside me, and turned my head over my shoulder as far as I could go. Barrett’s face was there, and the kiss we shared was one of the hottest of my life.
After we broke it, he slowly lowered me back to the bed and picked up speed, fucking me harder and harder, both of us moaning and panting out loud, though neither of us got even close to forming a real word out of it.
I felt his grip around me tighten, and I knew that he was going to cum soon. I was already there, the sparks of electricity already threatening to envelop me, and when I couldn’t hold them in anymore, I let down my guard and wallowed in the feeling intense fullness and pleasure.
Barrett felt me cum around him and let himself go as well, and his hot cum shot into me as he thrust one more time, deeper than ever, and we clung together, our bodies intertwined; I was unable to think in clear thoughts, and by the way Barrett’s fingers caressed my body all over as he came down from his orgasm, I wasn’t alone in that.
Later, as we lay in bed, my head on Barrett’s shoulder with his arms around me, a question popped into my mind that I needed answering right then and there.
I leaned up and kissed Barrett’s neck all the way up to his lips. He didn’t respond at first, but by the time I got there he was awake enough to kiss me back. I let that linger for a while, but not nearly long enough.
I moved my mouth over to his ear, and whispered. “I know I have to leave town, Barrett.” He grunted, but didn’t say anything. I glanced down at my hand pressing against his rising and falling chest, dimly lit by the streetlights outside against the not-quite-thick-enough curtains.
“Will you come with me?” There, I said it. A pit formed in my stomach as soon as the words came out, and I knew before I realized it that I was holding my breath, totally unsure of what he would say.
Barrett didn’t answer, and for a handful of painfully long seconds I thought he had fallen asleep again.
And then I heard his rumbling voice as if from far away. “You know I will,” he said, and then we were kissing again, and I heard a rush in my ears like waves on the beach.
Those words running through my mind were the reason I could sleep.