TEN
Not ten minutes after Nick had entered my apartment, I was flat on my back in my bed, completely naked, and with my legs spread. Nick was also completely naked, with his lightly tanned skin glowing in the warm light of two lamps, which I'd specifically requested be left on.
Nick was between my legs, or his face was, anyway. He was flicking his tongue across my throbbing feminine bud, making me moan as I clutched at the bedsheets, perspiring even though the room wasn't overly warm. He was clearly enjoying what he was doing, gripping the mattress with one hand so hard that his knuckles were white. As if this alone wasn't enough to show me that he was very interested and engaged in what he was doing, I’d seen when he’d briefly shifted positioning that his thick pole stood ramrod straight, so erect it looked like it was straining against thin air.
After a short while, I began tangling my fingers in his thick, dark hair, pulling him, and his rapidly stroking tongue, closer against my most sensitive spot. Seeming to appreciate my undisguised lust and greed, he groaned and began moving his tongue even faster. A quick glance down told me that he was now slowly stroking his rock-hard shaft with a fist, grunting. It was that image, combined with that very masculine sound, even more than the feel of what he was doing with his tongue, that sent me tumbling over the edge, crying out in complete rapture.
Not a second after the last spasm of my ecstasy had passed, Nick pulled me down to the edge of the bed, flipped me over, and then entered me from behind so fast and forcefully that I gasped, clutching a handful of bedsheets. What he'd done might have seemed a bit rude, to say the least, except that earlier, I'd specifically asked him to do this in a very detailed and very graphic sort of way.
Once he began thrusting, I glanced over my shoulder at him and moaned, actually trying to tease him a little and work him up further still. "Oh, Nick. Don't stop. You feel so good."
What I'd said hadn't been just to work him up further; what I’d said had been the truth. Nick did feel incredibly good. So incredibly good, in fact, that within just a few short minutes, I felt myself approaching another powerful climax. While it rolled over me in waves so intense that each one brought a cry from my lips, I glanced over my shoulder at Nick once again and found that he was now breathing as fast as if he were sprinting in a hundred-yard dash. Soon, he was clearly experiencing a powerful climax of his own, grunting out his release.
Before the evening's sexual activities were over, I'd had a total of three climaxes, each one more powerful than the last. While Nick had been bringing me to my third, my legs had begun shaking, something that had almost amused me, even while at the same time, I'd found it almost unspeakably erotic as well.
When the grandfather clock out in the living room struck eleven, the two of us were in bed resting together, with our arms and bodies entwined.
With his free hand, Nick toyed with a stray lock of my long brown hair. "So, so beautiful. Gorgeous, in fact. And not just your hair. All of you. Every single part, from the top of your head right down to the tips of your pretty little toes."
"Oh, you mean my stubby, short toes? I'm not quite so sure they're very pretty."
Nick snorted, smiling. "Well, you're wrong about that. The very first time I saw them, when you were sporting the very unusual look of one sock on, and one sock off, I thought they were the daintiest, prettiest feet I'd ever seen in my life."
Doing the same as he'd just done, I snorted, smiling. "Well, I'm glad you think so highly of them because I have to admit, I've never been a fan of them. But, hey...better than having no feet or feet so big I'd have to special order clown shoes, right? I have to count my blessings."
Nick smiled, still toying with my hair, and we both fell silent, just looking into each other's eyes. Several long yet comfortable moments went by before I spoke.
"I'm sorry that I made you think that you'd said something wrong the other night. Please know that it wasn't you. The whole Easter dinner thing was an incredibly sweet gesture, but I was just upset because of some personal memories. Well, that and maybe the three glasses of wine I pretty much slammed back. I'm not a very 'experienced' drinker, as if you probably couldn't already tell. But please, just know I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you, if I did."
It was true, and I genuinely was sorry. Which was something I'd never in a million years thought I’d feel in regards to the leader of the coven that I thought had killed my family.
With his dark gray eyes filling with pain, Nick let my lock of hair slip through his fingers. "Please, don't be sorry. I completely understood what was happening, and I understood that you were probably truly upset about something that you didn't want to talk about right then. If anyone should be apologizing, it's me.
“I wasn't really thinking when I kept refilling your wineglass time and again, without realizing that you hadn't even yet had dinner. That wasn't very thoughtful or chivalrous of me, and I'm sorry for that. I want to let you know that I'm going to be more considerate of your needs in the future."
Just then, my stomach growled loudly enough to leave me absolutely mortified.
Nick just smiled. "Did I just hear a need?"
I smiled in spite of my extreme embarrassment. "I'm afraid you did. I'd be lying if I said that a big sandwich wouldn't hit the spot right about now. I can go get it myself, though. I'll just go make it and bring it right back to bed here."
"No, not a chance. Let me go make it and bring it to you. What kind of a sandwich would you like?”
"A turkey-and-Swiss on whole wheat, please. With lettuce and tomato slices, and just a little bit of mustard. Oh, and now you made me want something else along with it, too."
"Just name it."
"Could you bring me a bowl of cereal and milk with a spoonful of honey and a spoonful of plain yogurt each on top? I know that might be a weird way to eat cereal, but I just like it.”
Nick smiled. “Coming right up.” He pressed a kiss to my forehead before getting out of bed. "I'll be back with your sandwich and your weird cereal concoction as fast as I can. Keep your pretty little toes nice and toasty warm under the blankets until I return. I might want to nibble on them later."
With his full lips twitching, he leaned over and gave me another kiss, this one on the mouth, before pulling on his boxer-briefs and leaving the room.
A while later, after I’d finished my large snack, we rested in embrace once again. At first, we were comfortably quiet, but then Nick stunned me when he suddenly spoke.
"I think I'm falling in love with you."
With my breath suddenly stuck in my throat, I didn't answer right away. "What?"
"I think I actually started falling on love with you the moment I saw you in the government prison. You pulled open the door with a fire in your eyes that instantly seemed to melt some layer of ice around my heart that I didn't even know was there. Then a few nights ago...when you cried when you were upset about your Easter meal...as irritated as I was by some of the things you were saying, all I truly wanted to do when I saw that single tear roll down your cheek was to take you in my arms and tell you that everything was going to be all right. Then when we made love the other day, and then again tonight...Tiffany, it's been a very long time since I've felt this way. I'm falling in love with you."
With some last fragment of ice around my own heart feeling as if it were melting, creating a lump in my throat, I couldn't respond.
After a few seconds, Nick pulled me closer to his chest and looked at me with his expression pleading. "Do you feel the same? Is there any part of you, even a very small one, that feels like you might be falling in love with me, too?"
Eyes misty, I extricated myself from his embrace and slowly sat up in bed, making a decision. "I have to tell you something…something very important. Before we can go any further, I have to be completely honest with you about some things."
Suddenly frowning, he sat up in bed, too. “I think I know what you’re going to say…and just know that you don’t have to.”
"But I do have to. I have to come clean about something. I misjudged you about something, or you've changed from who you once were several years ago, and I have to tell you that-"
"I know. I already know everything you're going to say."
Thoroughly confused, I wiped my misty eyes with the back of my hand. "No, you can't possibly know. What I'm going to say is something that is going to shock you, and probably even make you angry that I could even think such a thing about you, but-"
"Tiffany, please believe me. I already know everything you're going to say. I know. Please, just trust me about this."
I wiped another tear away with a strange, growing sense of urgency, feeling as if I had to continue now that I'd started. "Then, if you already know everything...if you really know the secrets I've been hiding...then, please just say that you forgive me.”
Nick frowned. “I’m the one who should be asking for forgiveness…because I’ve been keeping a few secrets from you, too.”