Chapter 30
Nothing
I opened her Jeep’s door for her and tossed her bag over to the passenger seat before stepping aside to let her in. She paused before getting up into the driver’s seat and leaned out to kiss me. I took it for the gift it was, and swore to myself to treat her with the utmost care tonight. She was trusting me, when she had no fucking reason to, and I was blessed for it.
I shut her door, ensuring she was safe in her Jeep, making sure I didn’t catch any of her with it. She rolled down the window and leaned down as I leaned up. A quick, chaste kiss and she started up the engine. I jogged over to my bike and got on, starting it up and leading the way.
Once we were at my place, I hit the button for the garage and watched it trundle up. I’d pulled off to the side and waved Charity in. She put the Jeep in gear, pulled smoothly inside and I pulled the bike over and into the driveway, letting down the kickstand and thumbing off the motor. I took my keys and ducked under the garage door before it could finish closing, just as she got out of her Jeep.
“You got anything sturdier in there to wear?” I asked.
“Um, like what?”
“Jeans, better shoes like sneakers maybe?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I don’t have food, and I don’t know about you, but lunch was a while ago.”
“Oh… wait, are you asking me out to dinner?”
“And for a ride on the bike,” I said and had to smile.
She turned and looked at the door leading into the house and back to me, “I’ll be right out,” she said and smiled. I nodded and followed her into the house so I could freshen up myself. She disappeared into the guest bathroom, closing the door behind her and I headed into my bedroom. I changed into fresh jeans and a clean shirt, shrugging my cut back on over the tee.
I was sitting on the edge of the bed pulling on my boots when she peeked inside my bedroom door. She wore form fitting jeans and a pair of women’s canvas tennis shoes. Her top was one of those form fitting ladies cut tees that clung to her curves, the light peach color giving her skin a healthy glow, her eyes standing out to perfection. She was beautiful, without the benefit of any makeup, in just jeans and a tee shirt. I liked that about her.
“Ready?” I asked her, and she smiled nodding.
“Do I need anything other than phone, bank card and I.D.?” she asked.
“You don’t even need the bank card; phone and I.D. should be just fine.”
She blushed lightly and said, “I don’t like to presume.”
I pulled the cuff of my jeans down over the top of my last boot and stood up, going to her. I pulled her lightly by her denim clad hips into my arms and smoothed my hands over the delicate curve of her ass.
“I said I was taking you to dinner, no presumptions there. You got your stuff?”
“Yes,” she said, and held up her phone in one of those cases that had places to hold her cards on the back. Three of them were stacked neatly in their cases. I gave her a swat on the ass and she yipped, laughing.
“Cool, let’s go.”
We left out the front door and I locked up behind us, she let me back the bike out of the drive and got on behind me, snuggling up close. I liked that too, that she wasn’t afraid to ride or afraid to get close. We rode to the boulevard where I found some easy parking along the strip. I figured we’d go back to the place we’d been last night. I owed the bartender, Charlie, a big fucking thank you. Charity stopped and tugged on my hand when she saw where I was headed.
“I don’t know about this, can we go somewhere else?” she asked, skeptical.
“Hey, it’s okay.” I pulled her into my arms and couldn’t get enough of the feel of her there. “Haven’t you wondered how we found you?” I asked, and she blinked several times, bewildered. I saw the gears turning and her shoulders lost their tension.
“I totally didn’t even think about it, no. How did you guys find me?” she asked.
“That’s why we’re here,” I said and ushered her the last few steps up the sidewalk and through the door.
She put her sunglasses up on her head and I did likewise, letting our eyes adjust to the dim interior. Charlie was behind the bar and looked up to greet us.
“Oh, hey, good! You got her. How you doing, Sweetheart?” he asked Charity and she didn’t even miss a beat, she went around the bar and hugged Charlie tight.
“Thank you, I saw you on the phone, I just didn’t realize you realized.”
He hugged her back, shooting me a stricken look over Charity’s head. I waved him down and he relaxed. She drew back and slunk back around the bar quickly, like she was afraid to get Charlie in trouble.
“It’s no worries, just doing my part,” he said. “You guys staying for dinner?”
“Yeah, man, we are.”
“Cool, find a seat anywhere, know what you’ll have to drink?”
We went through the motions, ordered some drinks and some food, talked quietly for a while, and just tried to relax which was easier said than done when all I wanted to do was get her naked and writhing underneath me. Charity had been right about one thing, our sexual chemistry was off the charts.
Dinner ended up being equal parts delightful and torturous with how bad my cock raged against the inside of my zipper. I couldn’t even care that I was sporting full wood in a public place. All any of these motherfuckers would have to do was take one look at Charity to understand, so I didn’t sweat it.
The conversation was light, as we studiously avoided any topic of conversation that involved any of the down and dirty fuckery to have gone on as of late. Mostly we kept it to where we had come from and where in life Charity wanted to go. It was nice. Her dreams aligned perfectly with what I used to want and what I’d given up. She wanted a career in the medical field, and no surprise, emergency medicine was her main focus. Kids were neither here nor there for her. If she had one or two, great, if not, that was okay too. She was focused and driven, like I had been once, and I felt an almost excited pull to try and go back there again.
I thought I’d given up the ghost when Corrine had died, when I’d lost my wife and child. I slammed the door, as I always did, on thoughts of Katy. That was too painful, and I tried like hell not to think about that particular gaping hole that would never heal.
“Nothing, are you okay?” Charity’s soft warm hand covered my own where it rested on the table. I snapped back to the here and now.
“Yeah, sorry.” I cleared my throat, “Thinking about my little girl.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. What made you go there?” she asked.
“You did, sort of. You’re eager, a real go getter, out to save the world and I remember when I was that way. You make me want to go back to it, but I thought those days were over, you know? They kind of ended when I couldn’t save her.” I dropped my eyes to where her hand rested on mine, and moved my hand, letting my fingers find the spaces between hers, playing with our entwined hands; idly twisting my wrist back and forth.
“You miss her the most.”
It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t answer but I had to ask, “How do you figure?”
“Because you don’t talk about her, like at all. It’s too hard. It was the same way for me when Faith was missing. I could talk about my dead mother, but bring up Faith and I couldn’t speak. I thought it was awful and strange, but then I went to counseling. The counselor told me it was because we knew mom was going to go, and that I’d had closure there. There was no closure when it came to Faith. She was just gone… so I couldn’t deal with it as easily.”
“Except we found Faith,” I said shifting uncomfortably.
“Not when I was having the feelings. She’d been gone over a year. There wasn’t anything to go on, and I just… I lost hope that we’d ever know.”
She leveled me with a gaze so solemn it made my chest feel tight. I gave her hand a reassuring squeeze and we finished our meal in a comfortable, if weighted, silence.
I paid for our meal, and we slow walked back to the bike, taking in the fire of the sunset over the water. Charity sighed and I smiled.
“Ready?” I asked after a few minutes and she nodded. I got on the bike, and turned her over. Charity climbed on and signaling, I pulled us smoothly into traffic. We took a bit of a ride, all the way to the edge of town, around and back down. I could have turned us around at any of the intersections, but a little wind therapy seemed to be just what the doctor ordered. Sometimes you just needed to put your knees in the breeze and just ride.
When we got back to the house, I pulled into the garage alongside her Jeep. There was enough room. It was a two car, and I didn’t store a whole lot of crap in it. We went into the house and Charity asked me, “Have anything to drink? The food was good, but a bit salty.”
“Uh, yeah.” I opened the fridge and hung my head, “Beer or water?” I asked. Smooth, real smooth…
“I’ll have a beer,” she said with this adorable as hell little pixie grin.
“You old enough?” I joked.
“I’m twenty-four, jackass.”
I stood up and held one out to her, “Now I feel like a dirty old man,” I said and she raised an eyebrow.
“What are you? Thirty-four?”
“Thirty-six,” I answered.
“So we have a little bit of an age difference,” she gave a one shouldered shrug, “I always knew I would end up with someone older.”
“Yeah?” I asked.
She set her beer down and placed her palms flat on the counter she stood against and hefted herself up and back onto it. She twisted the cap off her beer using the hem of her tee and took a drink.
“Mm-hmm,” she uttered around the neck of the bottle.
I wasn’t thirsty, at least not for anything to drink, so I shut the fridge door. I went to her and stood between her knees, letting my hands rest on her hips.
“Why did you figure you’d end up with someone like me?”
“Hmm, I didn’t think I would end up with someone like you, I said I knew I would end up with an older guy. Ending up here, with you, is just a bonus,” she murmured and she stole what I was gonna do and kissed me first.
I pulled her to the edge of the counter, closer to me, her body right up against mine; pressing hot through the mutual denim of our jeans. She tasted crisp and clean, like the hops from the beer she’d just drunk. Her mouth was cold and eager and the combination of sensations drove me wild. I hauled her even tighter against my body and she wrapped her legs around my hips, an awkward motion on her part, and her tennis shoes hit the linoleum of my kitchen with a loud slap; one after the other as she toed them off.
She pushed at my cut and I stripped it off, laying it on the counter beside her and had to vaguely wonder what was it about my kitchen? All thoughts left my brain and I turned it over strictly to feeling when she lifted my shirt over my head. I let that fall to the floor. I didn’t care about the shirt. Her hands were cool against the heated skin of my shoulders and I broke apart so I could search her face.
Those beautiful eyes of hers were heavily lidded with lust and I felt an answering spark in my own. I lifted her tee and stripped it off her, her bra hitting the edge of the counter and dropping to the floor right behind it. I took a nipple into my mouth and spent several seconds worshipping it with my tongue. Charity arched, forcing more of her breast into my mouth as I let my hands work at her jeans.
I backed off her breast and said, “Lift your hips for me, Baby,” and she did, placing her palms flat behind her on the countertop to give herself the leverage she needed. God this woman could arch like a cat, her body all sleek, toned, lines. I hauled her jeans and panties away as one and she yipped when her ass touched the cold Formica.
“That’s cold!” she complained and I took her other nipple into my mouth, because you know, symmetry.
That distracted her, although it didn’t diminish her squirming, if anything, it intensified it. I finished my descent onto my knees by kissing down her body, my hands finding the curve of her ass and lifting her, settling her on the edge of the counter from where she’d squirmed off of it to give me easy access. I licked a wet line from her opening to her clit before settling on just that little bundle of nerves, giving it a proper tongue lashing. I have to say, I loved the reaction. Wantonly, Charity grabbed me with one hand by the head and ground her pussy into my mouth. It was hot. Incredibly hot, and I stiffened to the point of pain in my jeans.
I held out though, licking her pussy like it was the last meal I was ever going to have. After a few minutes of her moaning, fingers buried in my hair, I decided I had better up my game or suffocate. Not that I was complaining, I loved her enthusiasm. It was hot as hell. Still, I wanted to get her off at least twice and if I didn’t get my dick inside her, and soon, I was afraid of somehow causing myself some permanent damage.
I slid my middle finger inside of her, bracing her thighs open with my shoulders so I could better use my hands.
“Oh, god!”
Yep, I found the spot. I curled my finger just so, in that come hither motion and Charity jumped and whimpered. She clenched down around my finger and I knew she was close, so I came up for air with some long, lingering laps of my tongue, took a deep breath, and mercilessly teased her clit, stroking her g-spot, until she came apart completely, her knuckles white with the force she used to grip the edge of the counter. I stood up, wiping a hand across my mouth and her cunt honey off on my jeans, even as I bent to rip off my boots and to drop the offending pants off my hips.
Charity looked dazed, her eyes glazed with pleasure, but I wasn’t done with her yet. I dragged her back to the edge of the counter and she yelped, her arms going right where I wanted them, around my neck and shoulders.
“Hang onto me,” I said and lifted her legs around my waist. She locked them behind me, just like I wanted and with a few false tries, I slid inside her. Charity moaned and my eyes closed with the intensity of how good it felt. I rested my forehead against hers for a heartbeat, stroked in and out of her a few times, and repeated, “Hold onto me, hold on tight.”
She did as I asked, and held onto me tight, I supported her weight with my hands on her ass, hitching her up my body, and trembling with the fine exertion of carrying the weight of another person, I made long strides down the hall to my bedroom.
I kicked open the door, and went right for the bed, laying her down on it, and taking the opportunity to press myself deep. She cried out, voice sultry and breathy, that right combination that told me I was doing everything right, and I wanted her to keep making that sound for as long as possible. I adjusted her position on the bed so I could join her, laying over the top of her, smoothing that golden hair of hers away from those luminous eyes. I kissed her, made love to her, took my time with her, and tried like hell not to go too early on her. It was a fine balancing act, and worth the effort.
She was beautiful, laid out in my bed on the black sheets, hair fanned out around her head, a golden halo; my personal angel. She held onto my shoulders, her eyes for mine, her voice a plea that was soothing to the ear as she begged me to make her come again. I obliged her, I couldn’t deny her, and with every panting breath, I think I was falling even more in love with her.
I slid my hand between us, teased her clit, and lit the match that sparked the inferno inside of her. Her pussy clenched around me, hot and wet, milking my cock until I just couldn’t hold back anymore. I came with her, sparkles and little white flits of light taking over the edges of my vision as synapses overloaded. Jesus she was fucking amazing. Beautiful, warm, caring, and everything I needed right now. An anchor in the light, a chain to follow out of the dark and self-loathing.
I collapsed on top of her and gathered her close, her slender arms going around my shoulders, pulling me down on top of her, holding me even closer as we panted together, our heartbeats pounding from the rush that we found in each other’s bodies. Her lips found mine and kissed them softly and I withdrew from her body, shuddering at how sensitive I’d become. I lay beside her, and pulled her tight against my chest and swore, that I’d never let her go again. That I’d work on me, and work on making us a thing, because I wasn’t sure, after having this taste, I would ever be able to go back to doing the alone thing without imploding.
Charity had quickly become a need in my life that I just never expected.