Chapter Thirty-Five
Ella let her head drop back as pleasure rushed through her body. She couldn’t focus, her brain was foggy and felt disconnected from the rest of her. God, she felt high. Donovan’s lips on her skin as he kissed his way up her inner thigh, his tongue as it pressed against her sensitive flesh in small, rotating circles…it was all just too much to take. She felt almost as if she might pass out.
She heard Donovan’s voice cutting through the haze that engulfed her, but it took a few moments to bring herself back to consciousness enough to understand what he was trying to say to her. Finally, she lifted her head to look at him. “What?” she asked, confused by what he was saying.
“Your hair,” he repeated with an amused grin.
She shook her head, certain that she had somehow lost the ability to process language. Her hair? What the hell was he talking about?
He laughed. “You didn’t want to mess up your hair,” he reminded her.
Oh, right! The facts came flooding back to her in a rush of consciousness, but it seemed so bluntly unimportant now compared with the all-consuming sensations that raced through her when Donovan put his hands and his mouth on her skin, making her want to surrender to oblivion and sever her ties to frivolous concerns like her freaking hairstyle.
“Forget the hair, I’ll put it up in a damn bun,” she groaned, and then collapsed back on the bed to more fully enjoy the way that his incredible mouth was making her feel.
He laughed, and even that sent a shiver of delight down the length of her body. His voice, his laugh…they were some of her favorite sounds in the world. And now she was going to get to hear them every day. Just that little reminder of the fact that he was staying made her belly flip over in a rush of emotion and enhanced the physical pleasure he was giving her tenfold.
“Don’t stop, Donovan, please don’t stop,” she breathed, reaching forward and burying her hands in his full and wavy hair, urging his mouth on, closer to the center of her pleasure.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he mumbled against her skin, and continued his erotic journey upward.
She lifted her head just enough to be able to watch his progress through heavily lidded eyes. It was so sexy, the sight of his head moving there between her spread legs, making languorous progress toward her burning center.
She moaned involuntarily. In fact, she didn’t even realize that she was making the sound until she heard it and recognized her own voice. That was one of the things about Donovan—he could make her do things that she’d never thought she would. Had never even thought she’d be able to. He pushed her beyond her own self-imposed boundaries. That had always been true of them, so it was only natural that the same dynamic extended into the bedroom.
Donovan slid his fingers underneath the fabric of her panties and hooked them around, then slid the fabric slowly down her legs until they were entirely off, then tossed them to the side. He turned his eyes to her glistening wetness and breathed out slowly. His own eyes widened as he studied her, and she felt more turned on than ever, lying there in front of him, spread out and open to his admiration.
She squirmed under his gaze in a way that she didn’t, even under his touch. There was something so sexy about the way he studied her. It made her feel vulnerable and at the same time powerful, the dichotomy as intoxicating as a drug.
He leaned forward and trailed his tongue over her silky folds and she moaned. She wanted him. No, it went beyond that—she needed him. If she didn’t get more of his touch, more of his tongue, more of him she’d die. It made no sense, but she was sure of it in that moment.
She leaned forward and fisted her hands in his hair again, pushing his mouth against her with a desperate furor that she’d never known before. She needed him, that was the only awareness that her brain had room for. Logic, reasoning—all of that went out the window, pushed out by the insistent growth of her visceral animal hunger.
Donovan covered her entire mound with his mouth, kissing her in that most intimate of places as she angled her hips up to meet him. Pleasure rushed through her with the ferocity of a freight train, setting every cell in her body on fire.
It was impossible to remain still. Her muscles twitched and writhed. The only thing she wanted was to get closer. Closer to his mouth, closer to his body, closer to all of him.
It was an aching torture, the sensations that were going through her. The sweetest torture she’d ever known. For every ounce of pleasure, she was filled with an equal measure of longing, and it was a longing that was impossible to fill. That was where the torture part came in. Her entire being was filled with the urge to become one with him, to merge into one being—mind, body, and soul.
Although she knew it was technically impossible, everything in her told her that that should be the goal. She knew she had to follow her instincts to get as close to achieving that metaphysical oneness as possible.
And, hey—if she could have an orgasm or two along the way, so much the better.
Donovan moved his mouth further up between her legs, flicking her pleasure button with the hard tip of his tongue and plunging two of his fingers inside her as he did so. He used those two fingers to penetrate her again and again, plunging in and out of her tight inner walls and sparking a fire within her core that raged so hot and out of control that she felt it might burn her up entirely.
The muscles in her lower belly began to spasm uncontrollably, and before she even knew what was happening, a wave of pleasure was rushing through her, building and then cresting and crashing so quickly that she could barely even track the progression.
Damn, nothing like this had ever happened to her before—an orgasm overtaking her with such power, force, and speed that she didn’t know what was happening until she was already in the middle of it. There was no slow progression, no warning of what was coming. It was a little unsettling—but, damn, it was also hot!
She rode that wave out as long as she could, controlling the rhythm of her hips as they moved against the competing rhythm of Donovan’s tongue, timing every single motion to draw out the rush of pleasure as long as humanly possible.
When the cycle of crashing waves finally died down to a gentle lapping, Donovan moved his mouth even further up, planting a trail of gentle kisses up her belly. His mouth was warm and slick as it touched the flat skin of her stomach, which was slick with sweat after the exertion of that amazing orgasm.
When he reached her breasts, he slid his hands around behind her back, urging her to raise up a little so that he could unhook her bra. God, until that moment, she had completely forgotten that she still had any clothes on. She’d been so lost in the sensation of ecstasy that Donovan’s body had sent rushing through hers that it seemed almost inconceivable that any part of her was bound by clothing.
He easily snapped the clasp of her bra open and pulled the wispy garment away from her, tossing it to the side with a flick of his wrist. She giggled as it went flying across the room, but the birdlike laughter died in her throat as he turned his head back to face her and she saw the raging lust that burned in his eyes when he fixed them on her newly bared breasts.
He gazed at her for a moment, then brought his hands up and gently traced the sensitive flesh, paying special attention to her hard, pebble-like nipples at the tips. “God, you’re so beautiful. Every time I think that no part of you could possibly be more beautiful than the last, you prove me fucking wrong,” he breathed, awe tinging his voice.
Just like that, she was fully engulfed in arousal again. It didn’t matter that she’d just been rocked by a powerful, bone crushing orgasm. All he had to do was brush his fingers over her flesh and breathe some sexy words in that desperately turned on tone of voice that he got when he looked at her body, and she was revved up and ready to go in half a second flat.
Donovan leaned down, then, and fixed his fiery mouth on her nipples. He swirled his tongue around the hard peaks, drawing them even tighter and sending sharp zings of sensation racing through her.
Her hands snapped to the back of his head and pressed him forward. She arched her back, as well, pressing herself into his mouth as hard as she could. She wanted to get lost in him, to lose herself. She didn’t think it would be that hard. After all, she didn’t have very far to go.
He pulled his fingers up and down her sides as he flicked her nipples again and again. It was magic. There was nothing better than being touched by Donovan, she decided. Nothing in the world. She thrashed her head from side to side, then balled her fists and beat them down into the mattress beside her. Her legs twitched, her torso undulated. It was like the pleasure that flooded her had nowhere to go. It had to escape, the pressure was building up and getting ready to explode if she couldn’t manage to find a release valve.
“Oh, yes…so good…” she gasped, hardly even aware of the words she breathed. Her mind was on another plane and she had no desire to yank it back down to earth. “This is amazing. God, Donovan, don’t stop…never stop!”
He was her soulmate. Even if she hadn’t known it before, the way she felt right then would’ve convinced her beyond a shadow of a doubt. What she was feeling—it went beyond the physical. Beyond the mental, even. It was communication directly between her soul and Donovan’s, and it bonded them even more than their drunken Vegas wedding of fifteen years before had done. That may have been a legal bond, but it was unintentional and, until now, never honored. This was a spiritual bond, and it was very intentional, and it would be more than honored. It would be cherished.
“Are you ready, Ella? I need to be inside you. God, I need that so much,” Donovan moaned, and she whipped her head up immediately to meet his eyes.
“Yes, I’m more than ready,” she bit out. “I want you. Take me. Now!”
Donovan scrambled up and sped to the nightstand. He grabbed up the condom he’d deposited there earlier and ripped open the package, unrolling it onto his engorged member with what seemed to her to be superhuman speed.
She grinned. She loved it when he did things like move incredibly quickly, or let his eyes flare at the sight of her body, or groan at her touch. Involuntary reactions that told her how much he was attracted to her. How much she turned him on.
In a way, it was even more special than the way he protected her and treated her like a princess. Not that she would’ve traded the two. The way Donovan cared for her and how connected they were as friends was one of the things she cherished most in life, and about their relationship, and she would never want to abandon it for the sake of sexual attraction.
But knowing he was attracted to her, and seeing the clear evidence of it written all over his body’s reactions, was a new phenomenon and she was fascinated and moved by it. She’d always known that he turned her on. That had been a given in the Donovan + Ella equation. The fact that it was reciprocated was a new and very welcome variable, and she was enjoying it to the hilt.
He crossed the room back to her and she held out her arms to him. She breathed harder even as he leaned over her, before he’d even touched her again. Just the thought that he’d soon be inside her, filling her up, was enough to send her system spiraling into overdrive.
He lifted her gently and moved her further back on the bed, placing his knees between hers and nudging them gently further apart. He positioned himself at her entrance and leaned forward, hovering over her. She could feel his breath mingling with hers, yet another thing that connected them.
He looked right into her eyes and held her gaze as he thrust into her. She felt his penetration in every part of her body, not just her core. Her lips felt it. Her knees. Her fingertips. It was different this time, knowing that he loved her. Knowing that he was staying. Knowing that they were together. Truly together. It meant more.
He drew back and then plunged into her once again and it was every bit as powerful the second time as it had been the first, and then it was just as powerful the third time as it had been the two times before, and every time after that, the intensity between them only built, never waned.
She moaned and arched her back as she felt another orgasm building. It was so soon after the first she hadn’t thought it would be possible, but it definitely was. There was no mistaking that sensation of impending climax, and she was definitely right in the thick of it.
She pushed her hands up the rippling planes of his muscles. They traveled first over his torso, then his chest. Finally, she raised her hands until one rested on each side of his face. Ah, God! That face she loved so much. That face she’d loved her whole life. Donovan’s precious, handsome face. She was in heaven.
“I’m about to come again,” she whispered, stroking his cheek with her thumb.
He grinned. “Good. So am I.”
He dropped his head down and buried it in her shoulder. The minute she felt him start to tremble and convulse, she was sent rocketing over the edge, as well. Her legs snapped up and wrapped around his waist and her arms snaked around his neck. She held him fast to her, feeling the tremors that rocked through his body as if it were just an extension of her own.
She clung to him as she rode out the climax, this one all the more powerful because of the knowledge that she was sharing it with Donovan. Hell, everything was better when she got to share it with Donovan. It only made sense that the single most awesome thing in the universe—orgasm—would be, too.
After their tremors subsided, they lay next to each other on the bed, sweat cooling on their skin as their breathing returned to normal and their heartbeats slowed down to a non-cardiac-arrest-inducing rate.
Donovan took her hand in his and squeezed it. She turned her head to look at him and saw that he was giving her the brightest, most loving smile she’d ever seen. Her heart swelled knowing that it was for her. The joy within him that the smile expressed…she’d put it there. She’d made him that happy. There was nothing in the world she wanted more than that.
“Happy Valentine’s Day, my beautiful Ella,” he whispered.
Her eyes widened, realization flooding through her. Crap! She couldn’t believe she’d really lost track of time and space to the extent that she’d forgotten what day it was, and what that meant, and why Donovan was even here, but holy cow, she sure had!
“Crappity crap crap crap!” she explained as she jumped up from the bed and ran over to her vanity.
Donovan burst out laughing. “What are you doing?”
“What do you think? No time to talk! I’ve gotta wrangle this mess of unruly curls into a bun so we can get our asses down to the high school gymnasium before the whole town thinks I freaking kidnapped the reunion’s guest of honor!”