“What are you saying? You’ve changed your mind on your preference of me being easily accessible to you whenever and wherever?” Her lips grazed up my neck, pausing just below my jawbone to nip at a tender patch of flesh.
I flinched against her, which had me pulling out of her. This time it was me who controlled the rate of our fucking—and it wasn’t slow and gentle this time. Both Cora’s and my cries echoed into the night as I seated myself deep into her welcoming body.
“I’m saying you’re worth every battle. Every challenge.” I moved my face in front of hers so I could look her in the eyes. God, having her eyes on me when I was buried inside her was the single most erotic thing I’d ever felt. I could already feel my orgasm building, and I’d barely thrust twice into her. “You’re worth ever bead of sweat and every groan of frustration. You’re worth the work, you’re worth the wait, you’re worth everything I have to give you.” I moved closer, so our foreheads were pressed together, our eyes aligned. “So make me work for it. Make me work hard for it. I will. You won’t hear one complaint from me working myself to the bone for you. Not one.” My hand slipped up her waist, molding around her breast, and my thumb played with her aroused nipple. “Make me work for it, Cora. Don’t make it easy, make it hard. Make it so fucking hard I feel like I just might die if I don’t get to be with you.”
Cora’s head fell back as I continued to palm her breast, her hands bracing on my shoulders as she started to slide off me. “I think I already make it hard. So fucking hard.”
She slid back down on me, and a breath hissed from my teeth as I felt close to blacking out. If she did that once more, I wouldn’t be able to control myself. I’d be going off inside Cora for real this time, instead of imagining it like I did whenever I’d taken my dick into my hand. My release would be spent in her body instead of wasted in my sheets. Some part of me would be inside her after this. Forever.
That thought alone almost had me going off inside her right then.
“You could make my dick fucking hard on your worst day, baby. You’ve got no worries there.” I circled my hips against her, reminding her of just how hard she made things for me. “But you make the rest hard too. Make me work for you. Make me earn your love. It’s worth whatever price. Whatever cost. Don’t let me come to expect easy with you. Make me want to work hard for you.”
The way she was squirming in my arms from the way I was touching her breast, her back bowing whenever I pulled at her nipple, had me reaching for the neckline of her dress and yanking on it.
The sound it made when ripping didn’t jolt either of us, and neither did the sounds of small buttons skipping across the wood porch. I felt my dick kick inside her when I took my first look at her naked breast on display. Perfect. That was the only way to describe Cora, from the person she was as a whole to her right breast glowing in the moonlight. Her nipple managed to harden even more from the cool night air whispering around it, or maybe it was from the way I was staring at it, my jaw grinding in an effort to keep from coming right then.
“Put me in your mouth.” Cora’s chest was still rising and falling hard, but her voice was even, her eyes unblinking as she made her request. She must have seen something on my face she read as surprise, because her eyebrow rose. “You told me to make things harder on you. Then I guess that means I need to be more vocal about what I want and less willing to just give you what you want.”
It looked like she might have been about to add more, but all manner of speech was rendered incapacitated when my mouth fell to her breast, sucking her nipple. It must have surprised her, because the loudest cry I had yet to draw from her fell from her mouth, so loud I wondered how far it would travel across the ocean. One of her hands came around my head, her fingers tangling in my hair as I worked her over in my mouth. I became a student in that minute, studying her for signs of pleasure, watching for signs of ecstasy, committing to memory the way her body bucked against mine when my teeth sank into the delicate, prickled flesh.
The sounds she made for me as I made love to her body, I’d never forget. The way she submitted to me, letting me do whatever I wanted at the same time I realized just how much she was demanding of me in that moment of unabashed intimacy, she had me questioning if what I’d done, and what I was doing, was really so reprehensible.
Who I was or wasn’t didn’t change the way this woman was responding to me right now, in this moment. It didn’t changed the way she writhed in my arms, begging me to give her what she wanted as I felt her desire run down her legs. For this moment in time, this infinite journey between one moment to the next, we were meant to be together. The time between two seconds was immeasurable, and though I knew our moment would come to an end, it would be a limitless one. We were two halves of one being who had at last found each other and come together in this union.
“Please. Please,” she breathed, begging me with her eyes as well when I looked up to meet them. “Come with me. I want our first time as husband and wife to be together.”
When I released her nipple, I felt my inner demon gloat when I saw it was red and wet, compliments of my mouth. “Are you asking me to fuck you? Do you want me to stop fucking around and just fuck you now?”
Her throat bobbed, her eyes going wide like she wasn’t expecting these words from me. At the same time, she looked like she liked them. “Yes. That’s what I want.” Her legs tangled around me again, her lap circling mine in a way that made my eyes roll back into my head.
“Are you close, baby?” I grunted, clenching my fists in an attempt to keep from going off. “Because I am. I’m so close, you do that again, and you’re going to be in trouble.”
“You’re that close?” Her mouth was back on my neck, kissing it between her words, but I didn’t miss the note of disbelief in her voice. I didn’t get it though. As it was, it was the miracle of this lifetime I hadn’t already lost it inside her yet.
I tipped my head back to give her better access to my neck. God, I hoped she’d put a couple of marks on me like I already had on her. I wanted Cora’s mark on me for everyone to see. A mark of the physical variety, because her mark had been all over me in every other way.
“Closer,” I breathed when I felt her tighten around my dick after my fingers dug deeper into her backside. Moving my other hand between us, I slid it under her dress, only one destination in mind.
The moment my thumb circled the sensitive spot, I felt her orgasm unfold. Her body went rigid on mine at first, her body pulsing around me, as her moans turned to cries.
“Tell me you want it, Cora.” I ground my jaw as her orgasm spilled through her body, taking everything inside me to keep from following her. “Tell me you want me.”
Her hands dug into my shoulders as she rode me, pulling me deep inside her with every thrust, making me feel like the damn ruler of the universe from the way she was getting off. I’d never known pleasure existed the way I could see it playing out on her face. The way I could feel it pulsing around my damn dick.
“I want it.” She panted, her chest bouncing as she pumped against me. “I want you.”
That was all I needed to hear. She could have stopped bouncing on my dick and gone rigid, and I still would have come. Those were the words I’d dreamed of hearing come from Cora since she’d first come into my life. I’d wanted her to want me the way I wanted her. I knew she might have been referring to it in a different way, given our present situation, but it didn’t change the words she’d spoken or the way I’d taken them.
I want you.
My orgasm hit me hard and violently, like it had been building for years and it had just burst free of whatever wall had been damming it up. Pinning her hard against the porch beam, I drove into her so hard she slid up the smooth wood beam a foot with every thrust. The whole time my release went off in her body, I forced my eyes to stay open so I could watch her. So I could remember the way she looked as I took my pleasure from her, and she took hers from me.
So if the rest of my life wa
s as pathetically lonely as it had been up to now, I’d have this memory to get me through the long years. It would be enough. This moment would be enough for any man.
Even after my orgasm was long over, I kept my body moving inside hers, reveling in the new sensations. The way every muscle in her body felt spent and soft, supple and submissive. The way the union of our pleasure felt between my legs.
It took me forever to catch my breath. It took her just as long. The whole time, I held her, keeping her close as her body floated down from the high we’d just climbed.
She was still breathing deep, heavy breaths when she smiled. “Wow.”
I knew what I’d just done. I knew what it meant. I should have been feeling guilty and ashamed and everything in between. I should have felt like whatever hopes I’d ever had of deserving this woman, whose body I was still sharing, was forever gone. But the thing about Cora was that no mortal man could ever hope to deserve her. They could only die trying. I was good spending whatever was left of my life doing just that.
“Yeah. Wow.” I pulled her closer because I knew soon, I’d have to let her go. It made me want to hold her that much tighter now. “Let me just take this opportunity to apologize for the way we did it our first time as a married couple. I think I was supposed to make love to you instead of fucking you up against this thing, with most of our clothes still on, outside in the open. You make love to your wife on your first night together; you don’t fuck her like some kind of animal.”
She gave a contented sigh, before kissing the corner of my mouth. “I don’t know what you classify that as, but that was the best sex we’ve ever had. No apology needed.”
He was a different man.
I mean, he was still Jacob, but a different Jacob. There was a new meaning behind his words, the way his eyes matched what he was saying, the way he gave me his full attention instead of whatever fraction he had left over. I’d married a different man than the one I’d spent the past decade with, and I’d be lying to say if I didn’t prefer this version. This was the Jacob I’d always hoped he’d become, even after I’d resigned myself to the fact that it was foolish to hold my breath waiting for a man to change.
His breathing was finally back to normal, but that could have been because he was fast asleep. After the porch . . . and the shower right after . . . and on the kitchen counter a little after that when we’d been attempting to refuel—he’d passed out into some kind of satisfied stupor. I should have too, but something was keeping me awake. Him.
I felt like I was afraid of falling asleep and waking up from this dream. The man I’d married wasn’t the same one I’d spent half of my life with and I wanted more of these types of days—I wanted every day forward to be like this one—but I was superstitious too. So I didn’t want to fall asleep, because if this was a dream, I didn’t want to wake up to reality.
A couple of hours ago, he’d carried me to the master bed we were presently curled up in. After wrapping his arm around me and drawing me close, he’d kissed my forehead and fallen asleep. Even hours later, his arm was still folded around me, keeping my body beside his. Jacob had never been one for snuggling after sex. On occasion, he’d been known to indulge me, but it had never lasted for longer than a few minutes and never after he’d fallen asleep. He’d get too hot or develop a cramp in his arm or my hair would get in his mouth or some annoyance would set him off and he’d roll over and keep to his half of the bed for the rest of the night.
Something had changed, and I wasn’t sure I knew what. I wasn’t sure I needed to know what, because whatever it was, I approved. I didn’t need to know the why to appreciate the result.
When I felt my eyes start to succumb to the heaviness they’d been battling, a yawn following right after, I leaned up on my elbow and tried blinking myself awake. It wasn’t working. I’d been up for close to twenty-four hours, gotten married, survived a flight, and had repeated sex of the record-setting variety. It was going to take a miracle to keep me awake.
Or . . .
When my hand dropped to Jacob’s stomach, my nails scrolling soft circles across the hard planes, I didn’t miss the way he stirred in his sleep. The way a certain prominent, rather wonderful part of his body stirred.
Suddenly, I felt very much awake.
Not hesitating, I swung my leg over Jacob’s lap, lining up our bodies until I felt his hardness pressing into me. As I lowered down over him, I bit my lip. I was a bit sore from all of our earlier exploits. It had been a while since Jacob and I had had sex back-to-back (to-back), and I was probably imagining it, but it seriously seemed like his dick had magically gotten bigger. At least it certainly felt like that, because, yeah, I hadn’t been this sore since I’d lost my virginity to him back in high school.
When I was fully seated on his lap, I stayed still for a moment, giving myself a chance to adjust to his size. From his pillow, a lazy smile was moving into place as his even breaths indicated he was still asleep.
My hands molded into his chest as I moved over him. His skin was warm and smooth to the touch, but I loved how solid he felt below that warm, smooth surface. How firm and resilient and unmoving he seemed.
It wouldn’t take me long—I’d discovered that earlier when Jacob had made that his mission—but this wasn’t about me. This was about him. Taking care of him and putting him first, what marriage was all about. God knew he’d been proving that to me ever since we’d exchanged our vows.
The smallest of moans slipped out of me, but it might as well have been a scream from the way he jolted awake. Leaning up in bed, blinking awake, it took him a few seconds to catch up to what was happening. Once he took me in, naked and moving above him, his head fell back as every muscle in his body seemed to go rigid.
A sound rumbled deep in his chest—the kind of primal echo that made me have to slow my pace so I didn’t come right then.
“I was having this exact dream,” he gritted out, one hand finding the perch of my hip and holding on.
Hearing that made me smile. “How does the real version compare to the dream one?” To sway his answer, I circled my hips a couple of times, drawing another one of those primal sounds from him.
“The dream was a fucking joke compared to this.” His head fell back into his pillow when my nails dug into his chest. “That’s how they compare.”
My smile spread. “Good to know. Plus, with dreams, right when you’re about to get to the really good part, you wake up.” I could tell he was close. From the way the muscles in his neck were pushing against his skin, to the way his pupils were wide, his eyes excited—he wouldn’t last much longer.
“The best part of anything is being with you.” His jaw set as my own orgasm tore through my body. “The best part is you.”
It was his words. It was his body. It was the way his eyes held mine and matched the words coming from his mouth. I was trying to hold back, to wait until I’d given him his, but it was futile when he touched me the way he was, looking at me like I was every answer to every question.
The moment I cried out, his release thundered to the surface. His hands braced against me like mine were against him, holding on to each other as though we were the only thing keeping each other tethered to this world.
When we finished, he gathered my body against him, both of our chests coated with sweat, our lungs laboring. He held me like that until I could just make out the first ribbons of light breaking through the dark sky. It was a new day. A new life.
As his fingers combed through my tangled mess of hair, his head turned toward mine to watch the sky lighten and the new day unfold. “Cora?” My body lowered as he let out a long exhale. His fingers stopped moving through my hair. “I need to tell you something.”
My throat bobbed, knowing from his tone that this was something significant. I had a few ideas what my new husband might want to confess to me, but not yet. I didn’t want to break the spell we’d managed to cast temporarily. I wanted honesty and openness from my husband. Maybe just not righ
t after the single best night we’d ever shared together. Especially not the kind of honest I guessed Jacob had in mind to tell me.
“Not right now,” I whispered, closing my eyes. The new day could wait. “Let’s not ruin it. Not yet.”
Another exhale, this one longer than before. His arms formed like vises around my spent body, but this hold was different. This was the hold of a man who was desperately clinging to something he knew would be ripped from his arms no matter how hard he held on.
“Whatever you want.” His lips skimmed along my temple as he inhaled. “Whatever you need.”
Holy fuck.
That was the first thing that burst into my head as I woke up later that morning. I’d just slept with my brother’s girl. Repeatedly.
It wasn’t just Jacob I’d betrayed though. It was Cora too. My betrayal toward her was the worst because she trusted me and yesterday . . . last night . . . she’d shared things with me, she’d shared her body with me, thinking I was Jacob. All of these years, I’d despised my brother for not realizing what a great thing he had in her, and here I’d just pretended to be him and slept with her.
It was official. I was going to hell. Every kind that had been invented and every one that existed. But who was I kidding? I’d been in hell for years. If this was what hell felt like, I was never packing my bags and leaving.
But I knew that when I told her, she’d hate me. She’d never look at me or speak to me again. Accepting that made me content to delay the inevitable, if only for five more minutes. Especially with the way she was holding onto my arm, cradling it to her chest like a child would cling to a stuffed bear for comfort.
As I lay there pretending like this moment wasn’t coming to an imminent, disastrous end, I wondered what was going on back home. Had Jacob resurfaced? If so, had he put the pieces together yet? If he had, he’d be on the next plane he could catch to get here to kick my ass. Before that happened, I needed to tell her. I guessed it would go over marginally better than the man she thought she’d married showing up with murder in his eyes and a bare ring finger.