Rough Around the Edges (30 page)

 “Tonight?”

He squeezed her hand. “Yeah. Tonight. I can only pretend to be selfless for so long. If you really want to be with me, I can’t say no. I want you too bad to do that.” He wrapped her in a one-armed embrace that sent the breath rushing out of her lungs.

“Okay. My things are in one of your drawers, right?”

“Yeah. Second one down.” He’d longed to open the drawer during the past couple days but had forced himself to leave it closed, knowing he couldn’t let his desire for her take control.

“Then I don’t need to go anywhere. I can just stay.”

It was already dark outside.

He held her tight, unable to resist thinking of the nightmares he’d had – the ones where he’d lost her. “Don’t leave, Ally. I’ve been hating myself for making you leave on Saturday. It’s fucking miserable here without you.”

“I’ll stay. I don’t have work tomorrow. We can spend the day together.”

He forced himself to lean back just a little. “I can’t really take you out. I won’t be able to go back to work for weeks, maybe months. I’m planning to file a claim for worker’s comp, but even if I’m successful it will be less than my regular wages.” It wasn’t something he enjoyed confessing, but she needed to know – he couldn’t give her all the things she deserved.

“Don’t worry about it. That’s not important to me. I just want to spend time with you.”

He knew she was being honest, and that was exactly what made him want to give her more than he could.

Eventually he sighed. “I’m going to take a shower. God knows I need one and I can’t put it off any longer now that you’re here.” Beneath the haze of his relief, he was ashamed of the way he’d answered the door – in nothing but jeans he’d been wearing for a couple days, during which he’d done little more than sleep, hating the misery of being awake.

“Do you need any help with your arm?”

“What do you mean?”

“I could help you wrap it in plastic – maybe a trash bag or something, that way your cast won’t get wet.”

“All right.”

She retrieved a trash bag from below the kitchen sink. “Do you have tape?”

“Yeah.” He reached for a nearby drawer, pulled it open and began rifling through the odds and ends that had accumulated there. There were only a few things, really – his life in Baltimore had been so boring he hadn’t even acquired much in the way of junk.

“Here.” He held up a roll of packing tape. He’d brought it from North Carolina, where he’d used it to box up his few belongings.

She wrapped his cast in the plastic bag, securing it with tape. “Good luck getting out of that, let alone getting your cast wet.”

He took a moment to study her handiwork. “Yeah, this should do the trick. Thanks.” He made sure to thank her. She deserved that at the very least.

A part of him hated to leave her alone, even to shower. Still, as soon as he stepped beneath the spray, it was hard to imagine ever moving. The liquid rushed over his shoulders and back, so hot it almost burnt. He didn’t change the temperature – it was a welcome, cleansing heat. He’d endure it until it felt like the past couple days were gone from his skin.

Drops of water hit the plastic wrap Ally had made him, some bouncing off while others beaded there, harmless. He wouldn’t have been able to make such an effective wrap one-handedly, but thanks to her work, he was able to stand directly beneath the shower head without worrying about soaking his cast.

By the time he stepped out of the shower, the entire bathroom was filled with a dense cloud of steam. It surrounded him and clung to him, thwarting his efforts to rub dry with a towel. Eventually he gave up, slung the towel around his hips, brushed his teeth and exited the room.

The steam billowed around him as he stepped out into the living area, where the air was cool and dry.

Ally was waiting on the couch. He got rid of his towel and his wrap and pulled on a pair of jeans before going to her. When he reached her, he embraced her.

The moisture lingering on his lips was transferred to the delicate shell of her outer ear when he pressed his mouth there. The hot shower had softened his rough, healing skin, and she didn’t seem to mind the contact. In fact, she curled against him, breathing a light sigh as she turned her head so that her lips brushed his jaw.

It had been three days since he’d last shaved. The stubble on his face dulled the sensation of her mouth against his cheek, but only a little. Savoring the feeling, he reached below and unzipped her jacket.

Her grey sweater was soft and thin and didn’t quite hide the double-pinpricks of her nipples beneath. A heat that had nothing to do with the water clinging to his skin swept over him at the sight.

With his good hand, he caressed one of her breasts. The satisfaction that followed was intense, but regret filled him too – he could vividly recall the bliss that was having one of her breasts in each hand, soft flesh spilling over his fingers. How long would it be before he could touch her that way again?

Still, touching her at all was heaven. When she leaned into his caress, pressing her nipple flush against his palm, his dick throbbed, hard beneath the fresh pair of jeans he’d just put on.

“Do you want to go back to the bedroom?”

Her question sent another bolt of sensation straight to his groin. “Hell yes.” Through the cover of her shirt and bra, he pinched her nipple lightly. It went even harder between his thumb and forefinger, and he could practically taste her sweet skin against his tongue. The cast on his arm wouldn’t prevent him from tasting her anywhere – everywhere.

She reached below, running a hand over the front of his jeans, curling her fingers around his shaft.

Though it went against his every instinct, he removed his hand from her body, releasing her.

His heart rate escalated as they made their way to the bedroom. Beneath the haze of desire that shrouded his mind, his thoughts held an edge of disbelief. Two days ago – hell, just a few hours ago – he never would’ve imagined Ally would be back at his place, back in his bed. The fact that she’d returned and still wanted to be with him … there were no words, only an overwhelming sense of amazement that intensified when she stripped off her clothes.

He’d memorized her every curve, and seeing her naked was everything he remembered, but it still took him by surprise. There was a paralyzing sensuality to standing so close to her bare body – one that his memory couldn’t capture. He stripped off his jeans and underwear, then reached out to touch her – there was no question of hesitating.

He placed his hands on her hips and drew her close, careful not to scrape her with his cast. The feel of her warm skin and the pressure of her body against his stiff cock was the stuff of dreams. “How do you want to do this?” She’d never hesitated to let him know what position she wanted, but with his cast in the mix, things were a little more complicated.

“Let me ride you. On top. I like that, and it’ll be easy for both of us.”

A frisson of anticipation raced down his spine, making every muscle in his body tighten. He didn’t waste any time climbing onto the bed, maintaining contact with her perfect body as he did so and she joined him. As he reclined against the mattress, she slid on top of him, straddling his hips.

Placing a hand in her hair and cupping her skull, he drew her close. For the first time since his last match, he kissed her full on, not caring that his lips were still healing. The twinge of pain was nothing compared to the promising heat and pressure of her mouth, or the way she yielded to him, her lips parting beneath his. Her taste brought his senses to life like nothing else had, and when the kiss ended, the taste and warmth of it lingered on his tongue. “Damn, I’ve missed doing that.”

“Me too.”

He’d missed doing a lot of things, though he and Ally had only been apart for a couple days. Thinking that their separation would be permanent had made those days drag by, and trying to suppress his desire for her had only increased it. Cradling one of her breasts in his good hand, he re-memorized the curves and lines of her body – everything from the way her loose hair hung over her shoulders to the perfectly bare skin above her pussy, as easy to look at as it was to touch.

With that vision still clear in front of his mind’s eye, he lowered his head, pressing his mouth to her breast.

She pressed the swell of it against his lips when she arched her back, leaning even further forward.

He drew her nipple into his mouth and let his fingers dent her soft flesh. As always, her skin was faintly sweet, just enough so to make him crave more. Every second he spent teasing the bud against his tongue made his dick harder, but he could wait to be inside her, at least a little longer. Holding out was a sweet sort of torture, especially when her breath rushed against the top of his head, rippling through his hair.

When she wriggled against him, he stopped and cupped her other breast, repeating what he’d just done. Eventually, he couldn’t take it anymore. She’d lowered her hips in order to stay steady while leaning forward, and the position put her pussy flush against his lower belly. Her folds were hot against his skin and unmistakably damp. He ran a thumb over the smooth flesh above, dipping below to tease her clit.

“Let me just get a condom first,” she breathed, her thighs trembling a little as she slid off of him.

“Almost forgot.” The lure of being inside her was so strong he hadn’t spared a thought for protection until she’d mentioned it. The realization was mind-numbingly tempting. Maybe – hopefully – someday.

She retrieved a condom from the dresser and put it on for him. He didn’t stop her – even the light pressure of her fingers sliding down his shaft was bliss. “
Maybe sometime, if you take a pill, or would be willing to start taking one – maybe we could stop using condoms.”

She finished rolling the condom to the base of his cock, her fingertips brushing his shaft one last time as she met his eyes. “Maybe we could. And I do take a pill already.”

He breathed a long sigh, unable to hold back. “Makes me want to come just thinking about it.”

What would it be like to come inside her, to feel the heat and wetness of her pussy tight around his cock when the moment arrived? He didn’t know, but he could imagine it. If he dwelled on it for much longer, sheer desire would probably kill him. “I was tested for STIs by a military doctor. Didn’t have any then. Haven’t been with anyone since then, until now.”

After the explosion, his recovery and the upheaval of being discharged from the Marine Corps, he hadn’t had any desire to spare for another person. All his wants had been focused on the past and what he’d lost. Ally had changed that, and she’d been more than worth the wait.

“I have an appointment coming up to get my birth control prescription renewed,” she said. “I could ask for testing then, just to be safe. Not that I’ve been with anyone else for a while either, but it’s been a long time since I’ve requested comprehensive testing.”

“All right.” His blood rushed and heated in his veins at just the thought, but for now, being with her this way was enough. He slid a hand up one of her thighs, cupping the round swell of one ass cheek.

They started together – she gripped his cock by the base and he thrust upward, burying it halfway inside her. He let her lower herself the rest of the way, gasping as her tight walls yielded to his hardness.

He rocked his hips until he was completely sheathed inside her, his groin pressing flush against her slick flesh.

He didn’t even have to move to appreciate what they were doing. The simple pleasure of being inside her was real, gripping. When he thrust into her, it multiplied, setting his nerve-endings on fire. Eager to share the feeling, he pressed his fingers to her clit.

Her pussy tightened around his dick, just like it always did when he first touched her there.

Remembering the other times he’d gotten her off that way, he touched her like he had then, only a little harder, a little faster. Pleasure was already pooling at the base of his spine, like water behind a dam.

She must’ve felt the same way, because it was only a matter of seconds before a tangible change passed through her, causing her thighs to tense against his hips and her channel to draw tight around his shaft, squeezing.

She came hard – he could feel the force of her climax in the way her pussy contracted, threatening to push him over the edge too. And he could hear it in her voice as she moaned wordlessly, eyes tightly closed.  Knowing the pleasure was something he’d given her was like a drug; it heightened his senses, pushing him to continue massaging her clit and thrusting hard into her until every last trace of her climax faded.