New World--Stay with Me, page 13
So sexy.
I smiled around her finger, letting her know I’d heard her little comment.
“Cedra?” she asked as she withdrew her finger with a soft pop. She trailed a wet path down my neck.
“Hmm?”
“May I take your clothes off? Please?”
Gods, when she asked so nicely, how could I say no?
Twyla
She was so hard everywhere. My eyes told me I should’ve expected that but my fingers wandered in surprise, stroking softly as she pulled her shirt over her head and lay back against the mattress. Her braid, hopelessly undone by my fingers, rested in soft blond tendrils around her head. Like a halo. Gods, she was so beautiful my insides ached as I took her in. From those deep blue eyes to that enviable jawline and those freshly nibbled pink lips... How did I get so lucky?
A small smile curled her lips and I assumed she’d caught my thought. I’d gotten used to that, somewhat, and the blush that stole across my cheek was mild.
Her breasts were small handfuls topped with deep pink nipples. They tightened as I drew my fingers lightly across them, feeling my way down her body. My mouth watered at the sight—two tempting peaks so open to my suckling.
As my fingers explored the contours of her body, I couldn’t help but think how different she was. So tall, so well-muscled. I’d never been so close to a person with such a physique all my life. Sure, of course I knew they existed, but no one in my circle of friends and family looked remotely like this.
Stunning.
Even Leigha, whom I’d thought I loved at some point in my teens, never affected me this way with the sight of her soft skin. I remembered the trickle of desire in my belly when she boldly propositioned me or whispered dirty things in my ear at school assembly, and the thrum of excitement when she snuck into my dorm at night to explore my body.
I’d been a willing participant in that experiment, but it hadn’t been true desire. Not really. I knew that now. What I’d felt for Leigha was just a pale shadow of what I felt for this hard, strong woman under my fingers.
I leaned over her breasts to replace my fingers with my lips when I felt a rough hand at the back of my neck, tilting my head up.
“Who’s Leigha?”
Uh-oh. “Um, well, she’s a friend. From school. We—A long time ago, we, uh, we...”
Cedra’s eyes were kind. “Was she your first?”
I bit my lip to stop the babbling and simply nodded.
She cracked a small smile. “That’s sweet, ’mara. But for the time being, could you put her out of your mind while you’re in my bed?”
I was all too eager to do that. Leaning up, I slung one leg over her hips to straddle her, smiling when her rough hands fell to my thighs to steady me. Slowly, her hands moved up my thighs, over the curve of my hips and into the dips of my waist.
She moved without hesitance, like she knew my body thoroughly. And perhaps she did, from all the clues I was probably spitting into her mind right now.
And that was the moment I knew why I liked her touch so much. Her hands at my waist were possessive. They were possessive in a way I’d never felt before. No one had wanted to claim me like this, like I was the center of their world. No one had touched me with such authority, with such tenderness and ownership that I was sure, beyond any doubt, that I belonged in this bed, with her. I fucking loved it.
I loved her hands, her eyes, her soft smile. Her hard abs, those luscious small breasts with the peaked pink nipples. Gods.
In a rush of emotion, I leaned down and took her lips, letting my hair fall like a dark waterfall around us.
She leaned into me, sliding her lips over mine, controlling the kiss as her hands moved lower to my bare ass. She cupped and squeezed and I moaned into her parted lips, feeling an intense throb in my core. Only now I was able to differentiate which throb was my own and which was hers. This was definitely hers.
So she liked being in control? Well, that didn’t surprise me. It seemed in keeping with her character and personality. If grabbing my ass roughly gave her the tingles then I’d let her grab it in all manner of ways. Maybe she’d squeeze my ass while she ate me out from behind. Her tongue would be able to get in real deep that way...
“Fuck.” She stopped the kiss, her breathing ragged. Her eyes were filled with such lust that it took my breath away. “Such a dirty mind.”
I could feel heat creeping across my cheek and neck when I realized she must’ve heard my little erotic scenario. Shoot, it had just been a passing thought... I hadn’t meant to... Oh gods...
She cracked a small smile and I was mesmerized by the sight of her fangs. “Now that I know one of your little fantasies, I’d be happy to make it happen.”
My lips parted. Again, I could see myself on my hands and knees with Cedra’s head between my splayed thighs. I could hear myself panting her name—Oh wait, that was me right now. In reality.
I said her name as I took her nipple in my mouth. Sweet, pink, peaked. With each swipe of my tongue, I felt a corresponding tingle on my own breasts. It was a glorious feeling. Like I was sitting for a test and already had a cheat sheet. Like someone had given me all the answers to what made this woman’s body tighten under my fingers and lips.
I went a little wild, sucking and laving. Leaving little marks on her skin that I would love to see tomorrow. And she loved it, too. She loved watching me give her pleasure, mark her skin. Her hands tightened and relaxed on me encouragingly as I trailed wet kisses across the hard planes of her body.
Her scent was strong. I knew Cedra spoke about scents all the time, but I hadn’t truly comprehended how hers would affect me. It was as though those musky notes reached inside me and thrummed something primal. Something base. When I kissed her belly button, her scent washed across me with the best effects of an aphrodisiac.
And suddenly, I couldn’t wait. All my patient exploring, my teasing, had come to this. My fingers trembled as they caught the waistband of her sleep pants and tugged.
No words. There were none to describe the woman in front of me. Her blond curls were darker here, the vee of which was drenched lightly by the wetness seeping from her. Her thighs, a lovely light tan, were thick and sculpted. I wondered what they would feel like wrapped around my head. Would they hold me in place for her pleasure? Would they wrap so tightly around me that I wouldn’t be able to breathe? Gods, I wanted that.
She balanced herself on her forearms, leaning up to watch me. A ridge of muscles came to life on her stomach. I stopped and stared, drool pooling in my mouth, wondering if I was hallucinating. She couldn’t be any more perfect if she tried.
“You’re so beautiful,” I murmured, nuzzling my nose into the tops of her curls, breathing her in. I could already tell she would taste amazing just by her scent. No, scratch that. She’d taste addictive. Dizzyingly so.
Her thighs parted under my fingers, her crease slick with her desire, and I couldn’t hold back.
I delved in, tongue first, pressing my face into her core. My nose was flat against the top of her mound, my tongue on her clit and my chin nestled in her wetness. I couldn’t breathe. My lungs were screaming for air as I bathed her clit, but the low guttural sounds she made kept me going.
At the back of my mind, I knew the slurping sounds I was making were obscene. It sounded like a filthy porn video, rather than two people making love. But I loved it. I loved the little hiccups of pleasure she made, those low growls. Those rough hands in my hair guiding me. The angled tilt of her hips as she rode my face with little flicks.
I felt it building—her orgasm, I mean. It started low in her gut and pushed upward like a wave. I felt it in my body, too, and my fingers itched to connect with my clit again to rub it out. But no, this was for her. For Cedra. For the beautiful woman in my arms that I was so gods-damned lucky to have.
“Fuck.” Her curse was like a long hiss as I felt the dam break, drenching us both in a maelstrom of sharp pleasure.
And when I say drenched, I mean literally drenched.
I didn’t see it coming. And I think she didn’t either.
Her eyes were squeezed shut, her face tight with pleasure as she squirted into my face. I’d never seen that in real life before, despite hearing whispers about it in boarding school, and I let it drip down my chin, down my chest and onto my breasts. My tongue swiped across my mouth, seeking a taste. Salty, with a hint of her musk. I could see how this taste could become addictive.
She tried to sit up, her eyes blurry and dazed. “What...? I...”
I rose from my perch on the edge of the bed and straddled her again. My body was still wet with her juices.
“You are something else, Cedra Holloway,” I whispered against her lips before giving her a taste of her own unique flavor.
She was still breathing hard and pulled away after a few seconds.
“Are you okay?” she asked, those lines of worry back on her forehead. I leaned in to kiss them away.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” I returned. “A beautiful woman just came all over my face. It was my most erotic dream come true.”
She pressed her nose into the crook of my shoulder. “I don’t... I’ve never...” She caught herself on a shudder. “I’ve never come like that before. It’s been so long.”
I settled my ass on her thighs. “Then let’s make up for lost time.”
She was more than happy to take me up on my suggestion.
Cedra
We probably clocked ten minutes of sleep between kissing, touching and making love in the wee hours of that morning. Twyla was like a curious little kitten, exploring my body in a way no one had ever expressed interest in before.
Before dawn, I’d gotten used to her nose, lips and tongue in the oddest places. She made me laugh with her loving nature and I felt my heart swell when I glimpsed her in my arms, her breathing now soft in sleep.
I tried to extricate myself from the tangle of our limbs before the first rooster crow, but she held on tight, murmuring something that sounded like go later.
When I managed to wriggle free, however, her eyes blinked open.
“Do you have to work today?” she asked, her voice thick with sleep.
“Yes, the ranch won’t run itself,” I said ruefully. I felt deliciously sore from last night, muscles aching in places I hadn’t known possible.
She reached out to touch my arm in a soft caress.
“I thought this was a farm.”
“A little bit of both, really,” I explained, plucking my discarded clothes from the side of the bed. “I plant crops in the spring but I also have about three hundred head of cattle and a few horses and pigs.”
“That sounds like a lot of work for one person. Can I help?”
She was already reaching for her clothes when I stopped her.
“Most of it is mechanized now, so don’t you worry about me, ’mara,” I said. “Besides, if I needed any extra help, Frowh—that’s Ella’s husband—would usually come over. Like during harvests, for example. His father used to work for my father about twenty years ago.”
“Well, all right, but I’ll get your breakfast started anyway.”
Just as she was about to leave the bed, I grabbed her wrist and pulled her back down onto it. She let out a little squeak of surprise as I pressed a kiss to her forehead.
“You know you don’t have to do those things for me, right? Especially now that we have, um...”
She reached out to touch a lock of my unbraided hair. “Either way, I want to do those things for you. It makes me feel... I don’t know, grounded, I suppose. Plus, I kinda like the routine.”
She gifted me with a smile, using my hair to tug me down for a proper kiss. “And because you thought that I’d take advantage of the fact that I’m sleeping with you to skimp out on chores, I’m going to kiss you with my stinky morning breath.”
When I started to protest, she wrapped her legs around my hips. “Take your punishment like a woman!”
I was still laughing later that morning when Austy came by to collect the day’s fresh milk.
The Burkett family ran a processing plant a few miles from my land, and they helped pasteurize milk from my farm and bottled it for the community. They also made artisanal cheeses in the winter.
She called out a greeting as she hopped off her solar cart with the attached five-thousand-liter wheelie canister. She plugged it into the side of the barn where the milk expression machine was and I keyed in the security code before the filling process started.
Austy took her cap off and flung it into the passenger side of the solar cart, running a hand through her close-cropped dark hair. It seemed like every time I saw her, her hair just kept getting shorter and shorter. She’d be bald by next week.
“Good night?” she asked, leaning against the side of her vehicle. Never one to stand still, she busied herself by carefully rolling up the sleeves of her thick flannel work shirt.
“What?” I thought I hadn’t heard her correctly over the gush of milk filling the canister.
“You have...” Austy tapped her own throat, “bites on your throat.”
My fingers automatically rose to the sore bit of flesh on my neck and heat suffused my cheeks. Austy was just a kid, barely out of her teens. Was it appropriate to talk about stuff like this?
“Just a rash,” I said instead, clearing my throat.
“Yeah?” Her expressive eyebrows rose. “I wish someone would give me a rash like that.”
“Austy...”
“Whaaaat? It’s so boring around these parts, Cee. Come on, give me something. I need details.”
I cocked my head to the side, assessing her. “Aren’t you twelve?”
Austy made a choking noise, drawing herself up to her full height, which really wasn’t that much. “I’m eighteen, thank you very much. And you knew that ’cause you were at my birthday a few months ago. Now stop stalling and give me some juice. I need something to get me through the day.”
“No,” I said in my most adult voice in hopes that she’d drop it.
“Okay, so if you won’t tell me then I’ll have to list all the single people I know so I can guess who gave you that sick hickey.”
“Please don’t...”
I could only shake my head as she rattled off names of all the eligible women in a ten-mile radius.
“Okay,” she said, slightly out of breath. “I give up. For now. You sure know how to keep a secret. But maybe you should bring her to the Solstice Feast, you know, if it’s official.”
Although it was still a few weeks away, the Solstice Feast was a big deal on our Star. It involved all five settlements in what I could only describe as a loud and boisterous affair. Locally made wine and spirits would overflow and we’d get to meet people who lived in the rural outskirts. Needless to say, many matches were usually made during this Feast, which is why all unmated people tended to place great emphasis on this event.
It was also why there was a specific season for pregnancies on our Star.
After Riane left, I’d still attended Solstice Feasts on my own. That first year, there had been stares, and whispers, all of which reached my ears clear as day. Being a smaller community had its perks in terms of camaraderie and support, but it was also a breeding ground for gossip. And since there wasn’t much to gossip about usually, the news of Riane leaving me penniless and alone had spread like wildfire.
I felt a pang in my chest as I remembered walking through the Feast that first year.
My hand wandered to my chest as though I could rub that pain away.
“You all right?” Austy asked, her face a mask of concern.
“Yes, yes. Don’t worry about me, Austy.”
“That’s easy for you to say—actually, you always say that, ‘Don’t worry about me.’ But you know we still worry about you, right? These past few years have been hell. But there’s something different about you today. I coulda sworn you were smiling when I pulled up.”
I almost smiled again, thinking of Twyla tackling me with her morning breath.
“There it is!” Austy moved closer to me, peering into my face. “There’s a twinkle in your eye. You look happy.”
“I am,” I said, surprising myself. Austy and I stared at each other for a heartbeat before she threw her arms around me in a tight bear hug. I almost stepped back. In all the years I’d known her, Austy had never once hugged me. The closest we’d come is when I’d given her a handshake on her birthday.
“So happy for you,” she grunted against my shoulder. “You deserve so much happiness, Cee.”
“Well, um, thanks.”
She pulled back. “It’s just...we were worried about you for years. So it’s good to see you, you know...”
“I get it.” Damn, had I really been so obviously unhappy to these people? The answer was probably yes. I knew I’d become somewhat of a recluse, only showing my face for major events, and then only if someone had pestered me to attend.
“Anyway,” she said, changing the subject. “Dad gave me some credits to add to the panel fund.”
She opened the side pocket of the solar cart and extracted a credit note. I accepted it with thanks and put it in my pocket. It was just a small amount when compared to the half a million credits we needed to replace the century-old solar panel, but every little bit counted. At this rate, we’d probably be able to draw up enough funds to get a brand-new panel by the end of next year.
As the canister continued filling, Austy chatted about a dance she’d been to last weekend in the community square. She caught me up on the gossip—who was dating who, what was going on with the town square project—until the milk flow slowed to a trickle.
“All righty,” she said, disengaging the pipe. “I’ll see you tomorrow, same time. Think your rash will be gone by then?” she added with a wink.
