Essential Beginnings (24 page)

“I’m confident in what’s been decided because of who made them,” Henley replied honestly, giving one last look out into the dark where not even the moon was shining through the clouds. At least, she hoped they were rain clouds and not ash. “Ernie and Felix have seen combat tours just like you. They know what it will take to endure the coming days and I trust you. You spoke up when you disagreed as to why and then the issue was debated.”

“Do you?” Mav asked, slowly walking closer and holding out his hand. It was such a sweet gesture that Henley didn’t resist or inquire about his question. She automatically slid her fingers into the palm of his hand. “Trust me, that is?”

“Yes,” Henley replied, not wanting any doubts left between them. He pulled her close until their bodies were mere inches apart. She wanted him to know how she felt and why, without any reservations. She stepped away and then led him to the couch, waiting for him to take a seat and then sitting down beside him with one leg drawn underneath her. It gave her the ability to face him and read his reactions, which was what she’d always shied away from. “Mav, you and I both know that in any other circumstance…things would have gone slow. You probably would have continued on home to Chicago if the caldera hadn’t exploded. I would have been left here to stew over my stupidity, along with having a sidekick who never would have let me live down that I kept allowing fear of other people’s judgments to rule my life. You would have eventually called me, pretending that all was fine when it really wasn’t. I might or might not have accepted that call because I was too embarrassed to admit that you were right. Then depending on the time frame and where both of us were at over the course of the year…we might have bridged the distance between us. I’d like to think we would have anyway, but I don’t regret a single second of the last few days.”

“Ernie would take offense at being considered a sidekick. He definitely thinks he’s the main attraction.” Mav gave her a small smile, but he did reach for her hand and lace their fingers together. He stared down at them while she had trouble focusing on anything other than his contoured chest. She’d been lucky to get those words out and there was still more that needed said. “Henley, we both handled things badly. I shouldn’t have let things go for as long as I did, but you were right when you said three years was basically cut down to maybe five or six weeks overall between vacations and holidays. I kept up with your welfare through Tank because I could never get you off of my mind. I want to clarify a few things though.”

“What would those be?” Henley relaxed a bit at Mav’s willingness to talk and she rested her shoulder against the couch, still holding his hand. His brown eyes weren’t as troubled as they were, but she couldn’t help but get the feeling that he was keeping a part of himself hidden. They hadn’t started a fire like she normally would have so that they could preserve the firewood for when the temperature plummeted, but being next to him gave her all the warmth she needed despite that lone cold shiver at whatever he was hiding. “Mav, if you’re not—”

“It was wrong of me to compare you to my mother.” Mav’s fingers tightened on hers and she wasn’t sure she was ready to hear the horrors he’d faced when he was younger. He said that his childhood had helped shaped him into the man he was today, along with the friendship of his team and the father figure Ernie had represented. All Henley could picture was an innocent, scared little boy seeing his mother passed out on the floor from the crack she’d purchased on the street that night. “You are nothing like her. The compassion you have for the people in this town astounds me. You saw the lines of vehicles leaving town today, so you witnessed what fear and panic can do when faced with adversity and you did your best to get them to see past that. My mother would have been the first one in a vehicle to save her own ass, with no thought to anyone else.”

“These people are my family,” Henley said, wishing he’d had the support that she’d had growing up. It dawned on her that she hadn’t had a meltdown or a full blown panic attack at being placed in this dire situation, whereas a simple insult in her previous life would have resulted in her thinking she was having a heart attack. The reason that happened was because the community in her town supported one another, which was something Mav had never experienced until he’d gone into the Marines. “They’re your family too. Blood doesn’t make you family—it just means you’re biologically related.”

“Come here.” Mav tugged lightly on her hand, pulling her into the crook of his arm and holding her the way she’d always wanted to be held. She snuggled against his warm skin, not wanting to take a single moment they had together for granted. “You’re going to get both of us in trouble with your rationalizing that everyone is this town is cut from the same cloth. Some of them aren’t who you think they are.”

“If you’re talking about Rat, he’s just scared and letting pride get in the way of reasonable judgment,” Henley said, having known the man since she could remember. “Kellen is a little too quiet for my liking though, so I agree that we should continue to keep an eye out for him.”

“I’m glad to hear it,” Mav replied wryly, but she ignored the taunt. They both had different viewpoints on Stanley and that wasn’t going to change. Honestly, Henley expected Stanley and those that had chosen to go with him to show up sooner rather than later. That would mean doubling up even more people, but no one would turn them away. “I have Kirk monitoring Truman’s movements just in case he gets it in his head to try something. Jeremy, Dylan, and Jason are watching the access road into the lodge, while Ernie is currently in the bunker monitoring the HF transmissions.”

“You’re worried about the guys.” Henley stated it because it was the truth. She’d seen the concern in Ernie’s eyes as well, all of them knowing that Owen should have been here by now. There were numerous things that could have held him up and she did her best not to think of the negative ones. Mav had faith in them and so would she. “They’ll all make it.”

Mav gently stroked her arm in comfort and they must have stayed that way for over an hour before Henley needed more. She untangled herself from underneath his arm and slung her leg over his lap so that they were face to face. She ran her thumb over his eyebrow, wanting to erase the worry lines that were now etched there. His brown eyes searched hers and cupped his face, wishing she had the ability to make everything okay again. Instead, she would use her touch to give him a moment’s peace.

Leaning in, Henley gently covered his mouth with hers while using her tongue to ask permission to deepen the kiss. He parted his lips, allowing her access and she took what she wanted. She slipped her fingers through the back of his hair and pulled him closer, reveling in his masculinity. She loved his strength and the hardness of his body. She hadn’t had a chance to explore before, but she did now and would take total advantage of the time they’d been given.

“Take your pants off,” Henley ordered against his mouth, not breaking their connection. She felt his gradual smile, which prompted her own. She finally kissed him one last time before drawing away. There was a sparkle in his eye that she hadn’t seen since last night. “Don’t tell me you have trouble taking orders from a woman.”

“I listen to those placed in command, but I’m not so sure you’re in that position.” Mav ran the back of his fingers over her shirt, targeting her nipple and finding the hardened peak with no problem. She inhaled sharply, but wasn’t about to lose this battle of wills when it meant that she would get to enjoy what she hadn’t last time around. “Still a bit sensitive?”

Mav’s question was tinged with laughter, but he somehow managed to keep a straight face. He knew exactly how sensitive she was after their first night together, but she was about to return the favor. She reached for the button and zipper on his jeans and tugged the material over his hips, loving the energy that materialized that had nothing to do with the static electricity generated from the movement of the fabric.

“This is my opportunity, Maverick.”

Henley stood and was happy when Mav didn’t resist the rest of her ministrations. By the time she was done he wasn’t wearing a stitch of clothing. She leaned down and placed her hands on his legs, separating them enough so that she could stoop to her knees and have full access to what was in front of her. His cock was long and hard, but it was his width that she remembered from before. Her pussy still ached from having been strained, wanting to experience that again. She traced her fingers up the inside of his thighs and smiled when a vein popped out and throbbed in time with his heartbeat.

“Are you going to do something anytime soon?” Mav asked, his voice sounding kind of rough and sending shivers through her. Henley decided to make him wait even longer as a result, liking this magical influence she had over his body. “Sweetheart, the world’s about to end and—”

Henley chuckled and then pulled her hand up to cover her mouth. She couldn’t stop laughing even though she tried. She laughed even harder when she saw his raised eyebrow. This wasn’t the most appropriate time to lose her composure when thirty seconds prior she was aroused to the point of severe aching, but the thought that he was actually trying to get her to move things along with the warning that the world was going to end was just too cliché not to enjoy.

“You have a tendency to give me complexes that aren’t very good for my self-esteem, sweetheart,” Mav said wryly, laying his head back against the couch with a half-smile on his face. It took a few more minutes for her to catch her breath before she was able to start touching him once more. His smooth flesh was a lot warmer than her palm and she looked down to find a small drop of pre-cum on the end of his cock, as if he was bestowing her with a present. As much as she wanted to taste him, she didn’t want to go too fast. They had all night and this was exactly how she wanted to spend it. “Your touch is enchanting, Henley. It makes me forget about everything outside these four walls…as if time stood still.”

“That’s my goal,” Henley whispered, taking her thumb and drawing it softly over his tip. “My answer is to stop time so we have forever.”

Henley smeared his pre-cum around and around, utilizing his very own lubricant. She turned her hand and combined it with a flick of her wrist, wanting his every nerve ending to applaud her efforts. She moved her hand up and down once she got that area nice and wet, wanting to prolong his pleasure. Mav’s chest had stopped moving as he watched her motions, almost as mesmerized as she was, although she didn’t think it was possible to forget to breathe. She palmed his sac, massaging his two heavily laden balls until she elicited a guttural groan from him. She wanted him to feel every bit as aroused as she’d been last night, trapped with Mav between her legs relentlessly torturing her clit with his uniquely talented tongue and then some.

Henley continued to stroke him while she leaned in and circled his nipple with her tongue. Mav didn’t have a lot of chest hair, most of it in the middle of his chest between his pecs. His sun-kissed skin practically seared her lips when she placed a kiss where she’d just licked. She did the same to his other side, but she had to stop when he brought his hand up to delve his fingers into her hair and bring her mouth up to his. Their kiss was unlike any other she’d experienced and was full of passion and need. They were both out of breath by the time he let her pause.

“You’re going to find yourself undressed and on your back in under thirty seconds if you don’t do something soon,” Mav murmured in a weighty, hungry voice while holding her close enough that their foreheads touched. She stuttered out what air she had left in her lungs and nodded her understanding. She wasn’t sure how much longer she was going to last either. “I need you, sweetheart.”

Henley slowly pulled away from him, causing him to remove his grip of her hair. She gradually lowered herself until her lips were less than an inch from the tip of his cock. She was snuggled inside his legs and shifted so that she had a better angle to take him deep into her mouth. Taking her tongue, she licked his tip so that she could finally taste his essence. Salty, musky, and downright sinful were the only words to describe his flavor. She wanted more and opened her mouth wider to take more of him, sliding his cock over her tongue until she couldn’t fit any more. She caressed the underside of his shaft and would have smiled if she’d had the ability, but his fingers had somehow found their tangled way around her strands once more.

“Damn, your mouth is so hot,” Mav sighed, unknowingly leading her by his hold on her hair. Henley didn’t mind at all and the tighter he gripped his fingers, the more she wanted to please him. She purposefully grazed her teeth gently over him when she pulled up. “Yes.”

The word came out of Mav’s mouth more like a hiss and she kept manipulating her tongue and teeth over his sensitive flesh, doing so in a slow fashion to prolong his pleasure. Henley continued to massage his sac until she sensed his flesh tightening, indicating he was drawing toward that inevitable moment of explosion. She wasn’t ready to have this stop quite yet, so she brought her fingers up to the base of his shaft and gradually squeezed.

“That’s not fair, sweetheart.”

Mav had spoken in clipped words, letting Henley know exactly how that had affected him. She’d essentially delayed his gratification for her own purposes, just as he’d done to her last night. She wasn’t doing so to get back at him, but to show him exactly how much she’d enjoyed that herself. The longer she’d been on the edge the more powerful her orgasm had eventually been.

Henley released her fingers leisurely, not wanting to have him right back where they’d started. It had just been a way to relieve his pressure and allow him to enjoy this a lot longer than five minutes. She had to press against his hand that was twisted in her hair so that she could continue to pleasure him, once again laving her tongue on his underside. She could hear her own breathing, sounding shallow in her ears, but it was his heartbeat that she felt when she rested her hand against his inner thigh.