I have no clue what the future holds. For once, I am not looking ahead, filling in a spreadsheet or juggling my time with everybody else’s needs. For once I am living in the moment – and the moment is all about us. Finding each other again after so long apart.
I smile, hearing the sound ofPointlesscoming from the living room. Any other time, and I’d happily go in there and trounce him with my superior knowledge of random and useless crap – but not tonight. Not right now.
He looks up as I stride in, smiles when he sees me. Looks slightly confused as I turn off the TV, and stand before him.
‘Have you been painting?’ he asks, his forest-green eyes vivid, flecked with gold, like something straight from the murals.
‘How did you guess?’ I respond, looking at my colour-splotched hands. ‘And more to the point, would you like to come upstairs, and make wild passionate love to me?’
I don’t need to ask twice. He’s on his feet in seconds, and I scream and laugh as he physically picks me up. He hooks me into his arms, and gallops up the stairs with me. I’d normally be worried, self-conscious, make some crack about him putting his back out. Tonight, I just wrap my arms around his neck, and go along for the ride. Tonight, I am Jane Clarke – CEO of Wanton Sex Goddesses, open brackets Great Shag Department, close brackets. He throws me onto the bed, and I wait for him to join me.
There are things I need to tell Rory. There are things I need to work through. There is a lot of uncertainty hanging over us that needs to be addressed. But does any of it really need dealing with right now?
No, it doesn’t. Right now, I just want to feel. I just want to live.
TWENTY-ONE
RORY
What the hell has gotten into her, I think, as I whisk her up the stairs. She’d normally be desperate for me to put her back on her feet, telling me she is too big, scared of me dropping her. Truthfully, she does not weigh nothing – but once I’ve committed I’m all in, and I bound towards my bedroom at speed, her giggles urging me on.
I throw her down on the bed and she bounces, grinning up at me once she settles. She spreads her limbs wide, her paint-marked hands vivid against the white sheets, her now longer hair splayed out on the pillow, sun-streaked from all her time outdoors. Her big brown eyes are wide and joyful, a spark of energy in them that I haven’t noticed there before. The smudge of burnt umber paint on her forehead matches them perfectly. She looks me up and down, her tongue darting out to moisten her lips. Fuck. She is the most beautiful creature I’ve ever seen.
‘So,’ she says, gazing up at me. ‘What are you going to do now?’
‘I’m going to take your clothes off you, very slowly. Then I’m going to kiss every single part of your body over and over again, until you can’t think straight. And after that, when you’re goodand ready… I’m going to make you come so hard the only word you can remember is my name.’
She looks shocked, then delighted, a small sigh escaping her gorgeous lips.
‘Okay,’ she says after a few moments. ‘I’ve had a meeting with myself, and I’m happy with that agenda. I’m all yours…’
She stretches her arms over her head, lush and lithe and absolutely definitely knowing what she’s doing to me as her breasts rise and fall. I growl and pounce on her, hoping I can make good on all those promises. I’m so turned on right now, all I want to do is sink myself inside her and drive us both to oblivion.
I force myself to slow down, to take a breath. I unbutton the soft fabric of her top, peel it from her skin. She arches up towards me, and I know what she wants – what I want to give. I tug the front of her bra down so her nipples are right there for the taking, taut and trembling. I take one in my mouth, the other in my fingers, listening to her moan with pleasure as I work her. She’s so sensitive, and as she buries her hands in my hair, she spreads her legs and rubs herself against me. I know what she’s up to, and I pull myself away from her. Not yet, I think, not yet. I promised her slow, and that’s what she’ll get – sweet, slow torture.
I keep her trapped beneath me, and pull off my own T-shirt. Her fingers immediately go up to my shoulders, and she pulls me in for a kiss. I don’t resist, but I do let it wander – beneath her ears, the side of her neck, her throat. I move around her, removing clothing, kissing the tanned flesh that lies beneath, enjoying the way she’s quivering with every touch.
By the time I glide my fingers between her legs, she’s desperate for more, her soft skin hot beneath my hands and lips. I slide down, kiss her inner thighs on both sides, oh-so-slowlyteasing my way upwards. She’s shaking and trembling by this stage, murmuring my name, her voice a ragged whisper of need.
‘Oh God, please, Rory, please… don’t stop!’
I have no intentions of stopping, ever. If it was up to me I’d spend the rest of my life right here, doing this. Making the woman I love explode with pleasure…
Love. The woman I love. I pause, give myself one second to consider this. To accept it, to feel the rightness of it. I love her. Everything about her – her heart, her spirit, her gentle beauty. Her smile, her shining presence, her constant kindness. The touch of her skin against mine, the warmth of her body against me, the intoxicating scent of her right now…
I taste her, explore her, give her what she needs. What we both need. Her whole body shudders as she reaches her climax, her fists clenching the bed sheets into jumbled balls, her moan of pleasure tumbling out of her as she peaks. I smile against her thighs, lay gentle kisses against her, and work my way back up. I lie by her side, and gaze at her. Flushed cheeks, dilated pupils, swollen lips. Perfection.
She laughs, and hides her face in her hands. ‘Well, that was embarrassing…’
‘What was?’
‘That noise I just made. I don’t think it’s ever been heard on the human plane before.’
‘I liked it. I plan on hearing it again, many times. Look at me, Jane.’
She emerges from her palm-shield, and I kiss the tip of her nose.
‘I’m about to say something terrifying,’ I tell her.
