He nuzzles my curls, inhaling deeply, his chest rumbling with an almost feral growl. And then his tongue touches my lower lips, and my world explodes into light and color. My core tightens, pleasure shooting all the way down to my toes.
“Fuck, Joey. You taste like heaven,” he says against my clit, and the combination of his words and the breath whispering over my sensitive nub almost make me come right then. But he pulls back slightly so we can lock eyes. Every move, every time he ups the intensity, he checks with me, like I’m his entire world and the sex is all about me.
I want to give him every bit as much as he’s given me. But I don’t know how. When he finds reassurance in my gaze, he smiles, and his tongue goes back to work. All thoughts of pleasing him flee as he licks and kisses, sucks and even bites gently.
Lust, need, desire, and a desperate ache consume me. My hips grind against his mouth, my toes curl. “More,” I gasp, the only word I can force past my lips, and he slips a finger inside me.
A split second of panic shoots through my body, but it’s immediately replaced with a pleasure so intense, so overwhelming, I let go.
“Ford!” I choke out. “Yes! Oh God. Yes!”
My world dissolves into flashes of light, and the only sound is the dull roar of my heartbeat in my ears. Ford’s everywhere. His kisses. His hands. His love.
And I’m flying. Floating away so high, I might never come back down.
16
Ford
This is the best dream. Joey’s hair tickles my nose, her sweet scent surrounding me. Skin to skin, we’re tangled together under the blankets, her arm around my waist. What’s even better? She’s naked. Her fingers curl against my side, and my eyes fly open. She’s not the only one who can’t believe we’re here, apparently,
“‘Morning,” she whispers with a little smile.
Twisting a lock of her hair around my fingers, I press a gentle kiss to her lips. “Did you sleep?”
“All night. I haven’t slept all night…” she buries her face in my neck for a moment, “since I left you twenty years ago.”
The admission rips through my heart, tearing and twisting my guilt until I pull away, throw my legs over the side of the bed, and rest my elbows on my knees, head in my hands. “I should have been there. Every day. Every night.”
“We can’t keep having this conversation.” Skimming her palm over my back, she scoots closer. “We both made mistakes. We’re here now. We can move on. You said you wanted to start over. Starting over implies…letting go of the past. Or at least…not letting it consume us.”
Peering up at her, I see the hope in her eyes. The blankets pulled up under her arms, hiding her body. And the tinge of embarrassment on her cheeks. “Please. Lie here with me a little longer. We have…a little longer, don’t we?”
With a quick check of my watch, I nod. “We should let Trev get some sleep before noon, but it’s only 6:00 a.m. He won’t expect us to relieve him until eight.” Taking her wrist, I gently move her arm way from where she clutches the blanket. “You don’t ever need to hide from me, buttercup.”
“Habit,” she says as her cheeks darken in the dim light from the bedside lamp. “I don’t do this.” Gesturing to the bed, then to her body, still mostly hidden, she slides back under the blankets. “Not when I’m alone…definitely not with anyone else around.”
“Joey, there’s something I didn’t tell you last night.” I join her, and she tangles her legs with mine. The contact only makes my dick harder, and I groan as I try to shift her slightly.
I’m still wearing my briefs. After Joey’s release, she couldn’t string two words together, exhaustion and pleasure conspiring to drag her to sleep. So when she reached for me with a slurred “your turn,” I pulled her against me and stroked her back until she passed out.
“What is it?” Undeterred, she skims her hand down my abs, tracing each muscle until she finds my cock. “Because I seem to remember you promising me we’d finish what we started.”
For all her nervousness the previous night, now, she’s almost brazen. Except, fear lingers in the depths of her gaze. She wants this, but she’s still terrified. “We will. If you want to.” Linking our fingers, I bring our hands to rest over my heart. “But only if you’re ready. Can you tell me, without a doubt, you’re ready?”
Joey bites her lower lip, and her fingers flex in mine. For a brief moment, it’s like a dark cloud settles over her, but then it’s gone. “Yes. I’m tired of being scared, Ford. Tired of the nightmares. Of never feeling comfortable in my own skin.”
Flopping back against the pillows, she stares up at the ceiling. “Nothing you or I do will take back those twenty years. The five days I spent trapped in that railcar being…raped. The ten days Faruk had me. I’ll never be…whole again. For the rest of my life, I’ll be…damaged. But I don’t have to be so damaged I can’t function.
“Every one of my therapists have told me I can be broken and still be…worthy of love. Until yesterday, I didn’t believe them. But now…maybe I understand. Just a little.”
“Baby,” I prop myself up on an elbow so she can see my face. “You are not broken. You’re perfect.”
The look she gives me is one part “you don’t understand” and one part “you’re an idiot.”
“So, what did you need to tell me?” Joey cups my cheek, my stubble rasping against her thumb as she traces the line of my jaw.
“I dated now and then, Joey. Three or four women over the years. But none of them…we’d fool around. They’d get off. Sometimes they’d give me a hand job in the shower. But…something always stopped me from taking it any further.”
