Levi
Holding her in my arms again brought instant relief. A sense of calm I hadn’t experienced in the days we were separated slipped slowly over me, caressing me like this dress hugged her body. A panic attack seized me the moment she walked out of my door. I wanted her to turn back. I wanted to go after her, but AJ cried, and it suddenly felt reminiscent of when Alicia left. But the pain in my heart was a hundred-fold worse. I wanted to call her the moment after the panic ceased, but I didn’t think she’d want to hear from me. Her cold attention the following day in class proved I was correct.
I’d sought her out tonight, frantically searching the crowd after each turn I took in the museum, hoping to find her among the attendees. My heart stilled when I found her hidden away in the corner, looking stunning and radiant in a dress made for her body. Pressing her against me, my hands wandered the silky material, forming their own search, and discovering nothing remained under that dress. Only the thin dress separated naked Katie from me and my body stiffened with the thought. But it was more than that—we balanced on a string, and I knew I had to be the one to pull us forward. The foreplay we had going on for weeks drove me insane with desire, but the lack of sex was good for me. I didn’t want Katie to be a one-night stand any more than she wanted to be that for me. There would be no holding back.
“Should we get out of here?” I whispered into her exposed neck. Her hair was pulled up and fine strands curled loose around her creamy skin. My palm absorbed the warmth of her as it wrapped around her nape.
“You probably shouldn’t leave, being the guest of honor and all.” My mouth ignored her and nipped at that juncture of neck and shoulder, on that vein that pulsed life through her, and tempted me to live.
“Join me for dinner.” I blew over her neck, soothing the bite.
“You’re at the table of honor. I’m in the back, Levi.”
“You like to play by rules, don’t you, Katie?” I sensed that about her. Good girl, who did the right thing, worried about consequences. Her shoulder shrugged, teasing my mouth for another succulent taste.
“Let’s break the rules tonight.” I retreated to look in her eyes. “It’s just you and me.” We were hardly alone, almost always with AJ. I loved my son, but he was the third wheel sometimes, and I selfishly wanted this beautiful woman to myself for a while. She bit the corner of her mouth and nodded slowly.
“Yeah?” I reached for her hand, slipping her fingers through mine.
“Yes.”
* * *
I don’t know what we were running from as if we had escaped a prison, but Katie laughed heartily as we jogged to the corner and hailed a cab.
“The Green Mill,” I ordered once inside the stale, yellow vehicle. It wasn’t as plush as an Uber, but he was already waiting on the streets.
“What’s the Green Mill?” Katie asked, pressing into my arm. She’d slipped her jacket over her dress and I missed the exposure of her skin. My hand rested on her thigh, and slowly I inched up the material.
“Levi,” she hissed. I slipped my arm from her grasp and draped it over her shoulder, switching hands to continue my travels. “Levi, the cab driver will see,” she whispered. I dipped my head, positioning my mouth on her ear.
“He isn’t watching. No rules, remember.” I let the dress cover as much of my arm as it could, but my fingers were on a mission. I needed confirmation of what I already thought. The tips of my fingers hit heat and slick skin. “Fuck, Katie,” I groaned into her neck. Her thighs clamped together, but the twist of my wrist forced them apart enough to slip a finger inside her. Her head tipped back and her teeth tugged that lip. My mouth covered hers, feeling strangely comforted, like a welcome home party. She pulled back from me, but her mouth still rested close to mine.
“Levi,” she sighed. “I’ll make a mess.” Instantly, I withdrew my fingers. I didn’t mind messing her up, but I wanted more time in public before I stripped her of this dress in private. I’d never heard Katie utter a swear word in the time I’d been with her, but she cursed the second my fingers released her. Her eyes closed and her breathing shallowed.
“Say you’ll go home with me later. I promise to make this up to you.” She nodded lazily. I understood the torture. Part of me wanted inside her now, and it wasn’t just my fingers.
The cab slowed to a stop, and I helped Katie exit the vehicle. We stood before the famous Chicago jazz club, and the music wailed out to the street.
“What’s this?” she asked, a smile on her lips.
“Research,” I said and pulled her forward. We entered the club famous for an endless list of jazz bands. From the notorious Al Capone and friends, this club held history like no other. The place was packed for a Saturday night, but the enthusiasm of the crowd added to the atmosphere.
“Drink,” I offered over the soulful sounds of heavy horns and the sultry, raspy tone of a female voice. I grabbed Katie’s hand and dragged her toward the bar. I ordered us each a shot, hoping Katie would continue to break the rules with me. She raised her glass, clinked against mine and sucked back the sharp liquor. Her mouth puckered, and she waved a hand in front of her lips.
“Holy…” My mouth crushed hers hoping to distract her from the burn. My tongue swept over hers, savoring the combination of whiskey and Katie. Taking a moment longer to drink her in, I pulled back and tossed back my own shot.
“Dance,” I hollered, dragging her closer to the bandstand. We wouldn’t be able to dance like we did in the empty ballroom, but I only needed her to be close to me. We stood with her back braced to my chest. My hands caressed the curves of her hips and the flat of her stomach. I pressed her against me and her arms reached upward and around my neck. My mouth lowered to her moist skin, damp from the heat of too many close bodies. I sucked on the salty treat while she swayed, seductively rippling against my body, like the incredible dress covering hers. Blood pulsed through my veins, lazy and alive, but the bass rhythm was concentrated in one place. We only made it through three songs before I couldn’t take the tension any longer. I spun her to face me, my mouth finding hers again. She leaned into me, wrapping her arms around my neck and returning the kiss.
“Let’s get out of here.” Keeping my arm around her waist, I tugged her out into the street. The space before the club was too crowded to find a cab, so I led her down the block. She pulled me into an alley, just enough to disguise us and her mouth returned to mine. Our mouths collided over and over.
“Katie.” She hardly came up for air. My hands fisted in that sexy material covering her skin, skin I wanted access to. “Katie, I can’t take you against the wall.”
“Why not?” she moaned, a guttural sound from the back of her throat. She sounded desperate, hurried, like if she didn’t get to me now, she’d never have me.
“Not for our first time,” I muttered against her eager mouth, although I’d take her against a wall, over a table, on the floor anytime, but the first time, I wanted it to be right.
“What if this is our only time?” she muttered, kissing over my scruffy cheek, and along the hard cut of my jaw. Pushing her back, intense blue eyes sparkled in the dim streetlight.
“Don’t say that.” I crushed her mouth with mine once again, angered at the thought. If I had her once, I’d want her again and again. I knew it from every previous time she responded to my touch, from every time her mouth moaned my name, from every moment she was in rhythm with lips.
I moved us from the darkened alley and hailed the first cab I saw. Throwing out my address, my fingers wandered again under her silky dress, teasing her thigh, drawing close to my destination but not crossing the path. I was hyperaware of how she held in the need to wiggle and reach for the friction my fingers promised.
In the stairwell, I crushed her to me again and kissed her until we were breathless. I’d already started the process of removing her coat, and she had done the same to my jacket. I wanted to spread her on the stairs, but my apartment was only a few feet away. Recovering only briefly, we entered my apartment like a married couple. We’d gathered our wits enough that I chatted briefly with the babysitter while Katie went to check on AJ. She returned as I paid the babysitter. I barely had the door closed on the sitter before I had Katie pinned against it. Instantly, my hands came to her cheeks, my mouth devouring hers, starved from not eating dinner, and yet what I hungered for was so much more than food could provide. I pulled back to walk her to my bedroom.
“What about AJ?” she whispered, still remaining plastered to the door.
“Don’t think of him.” I wanted five minutes where I could be free of thoughts of a child interrupting us. Slowly stroking down her bare arms, I returned to her shoulders and tugged the thin straps of her dress. They caught in the crook of her elbows, her breasts still hidden but hinting at release with the slightest movement.
“This dress is incredible and you in it is even more amazing.” Katie smiled shyly back at me, but she wasn’t shy. No, this girl was eager for me, and her fisted fingers in my dress shirt told me so.
“I feel like a princess,” she honestly offered me.
“Ah, my fantasy girl, so tell me a story. What would the princess like?” I teased, kissing her neck, tempting the material to fall free and release those breasts. Her head shook.
“Tell me.”
“I can’t,” she whispered. My mouth twitched. I loved a challenge.
“Tell me. Let me fulfill your fantasy.”
“I…”
“Speak,” I demanded in her ear as I blew over the curved lobe.
“A hero would fall at my knees. He’d lift my dress and worship me.”
I don’t think my dick could’ve gotten any harder. I pulled back and stared. The pink in her skin crawled in blotches over her neck from the hint of her breasts. Her mouth opened to speak, but I awkwardly fell to my knees. My mouth covered the apex of her thighs, exhaling harshly over silk fabric to warm her. My hands started at her ankles, and lifted the silky material, dragging it dangerously slow over her shins and around her thighs, dangling it in a way to caress her sensitive skin, before finally coming to rest above her hips. She stood fully exposed to me, and I planned to do nothing short of worship her. I held the dress bunched in one hand while the other slipped between her thighs and pressed to separate them. There was a soft thud at the door, and I looked up to find her head had fallen back against the wood. I exhaled again over the heat of her, receiving a quiet moan in response, and my mouth took the signal. My tongue lapped over her, hot and hungry. Her hands came to the back of my head and she held me in place with tender scratches at the base of my skull. I savored her richness, loving her scrapes, and drinking in each moan.
“Levi, I…” Her thighs trembled, but I pressed on, spreading her wider to accommodate my face. I breathed in her sultry scent as I tasted her until she came.
I pulled back slowly, pressing kisses to her inner thighs before standing awkwardly. During my feast, her dress had shifted and one breast stood fully exposed. My mouth reached for it and latched on, savoring a new flavor, and pinching her nipples to peak with my teeth. Hands returned to my head and tugged me away. Her mouth sought mine, and we kissed against the door until I couldn’t stand it any longer.
“This dress needs to come off.” She straightened her arms, and the material cascaded to the floor. My breath hitched as my lips collided with hers, drawing her into me. I couldn’t resist her any longer.
“Katie?” Her name a question, her name a plea, the sound rang in my ears, reminiscent of all the times I conquered the memory of her, adding my own fantasy, and knowing in that moment the reality of her body would surpass anything in my imagination. I stepped back, guiding her to my room, leading her like the princess she was meant to be. Pressing her back toward the bed, I lowered her to the mattress, and then stood quickly to remove my shirt and shoes. I climbed over her, not wanting to be separated for more than a moment and my hands returned to mapping her body. Over shoulders, down arms, up thighs, to a treasure I’d recently had the pleasure of discovering, I filled her with fingers too eager to wait and her quiet moan assured me she was close again.
“Wait for me,” I whispered, and her eyes flipped opened.
“I’ve been waiting,” she whispered in return. Her arms circled my neck, and I fumbled with my pants. Down went my boxers and tux trousers, and I sprang to attention. Delicate fingers surrounded the hard length of me, the tender strokes making me feel like I’d come out of my skin.
“I can’t take it,” I muttered to her jaw as my mouth formed a pattern from neck to ear to chin.
“Take me,” she mumbled, and the words nearly did me in. Primed at her core, her thighs enveloping my hips, I thrust forward and saw stars. Something strong, something fierce, something hidden deep inside me rippled up the back of my legs, crossed my spine, and prickling over my chest. I couldn’t even give her a second to get used to me despite her hitched breath. I repeated the movement, drawing to the edge of her before thrusting forward again to recapture the sensation. It would never be the same as that first connection, and yet, each repetition, each rhythm from her in response to me, built something stronger.
“Katie,” I groaned, knowing it had been too long, I was too pent up.
“It’s okay,” she whispered, but it wasn’t.
“Not without you,” I grunted, slowing the pace and slipping my hand between us, searching for the spot that triggered her.
“Levi.” My name caught in her throat as her head sprang from the bed. The dual sensation pushing her farther than I imagine she’d ever been pressed. Her thighs clenched and her nails gripped the back of my neck. The heel of one foot pressed into my lower back. I couldn’t get deep enough and yet, she drew me deeper. Her open mouth came to my neck, and I sensed she wanted to scream, but AJ was in the next room.
“Let it go,” I muttered. “Let it be me.” My voice strained, and she struggled on my name before her head fell back. Blue eyes bright as a summer’s day peered up at me and I lost my last thread of control. Pressing upward, I released years of fantasy.