Cruel Lover

As we ate, I plied her with questions. Some I already knew the answers to and just wanted to hear her voice. When did you graduate? Where are you living right now? Are you still sketching? Then I moved quickly on to other questions, things I didn’t already know. Her plans for the future, whether she’s looking for a place of her own or if she intends to stay with her dad for the time being. Not that it mattered, there’s no way I’m letting her leave. Not now. I have her back in my life and this is where she’ll stay, whether she knows it yet or not.

“Oz…”

I draw a sharp breath at the sound of her voice, unsure at first if it’s real or I’ve fallen asleep and I’m dreaming her here right now. Turning my head, I see her silhouetted in the light from the hall and I know I have to be awake. No way is my mind supplying this kind of detail and keeping it half in shadow. The curl of her hair, a little messy from sleep, bare shoulders hinted with the straps of her bra, the curves of her waist, hips, thighs, black lace boy shorts I glimpsed earlier when I put her to bed.

“Oz, are you awake?”

“Yes, baby. What is it?”

“I don’t want to be alone.” I watch her shift her weight from one foot to the other, hips rotating, and let loose a small groan of need. “Can I just lie next to you?”

Fuck. Yes.

But no.

Just lie next to me? Even as I roll to the side and pat the couch beside me, even as I tell her, “Yes,” my mind is crying out with alarm bells. Warning, warning, proximity alert. I grit my teeth as she wanders closer, knowing there’s nothing but underwear to keep her from me. Knowing that beneath these sheets I’m naked, cock hard and ready, aching to feel the heaven trapped between her legs. She climbs onto the edge of the couch and lies down, and I wrap my right arm over her, drawing her close, breathing in her scent.

Soap, the remnants of perfume.

Need.

She takes hold of my forearm, gripping gently but firmly, her tiny fingers soft against the rough hairs.

“Thank you for looking after me,” she whispers, her voice tentative, then adds: “And for being a complete gentleman.”

Jesus Christ. How am I supposed to carry on being a gentleman with her here like this? Under the sheets, my cock is rock hard, nestled up between the soft orbs of her ass.

Impossibly, I feel her wriggle against my hardness, and I have to grit my teeth.

Then I hear the gentle sound of her giggling and I know it’s no accident.

“Angel, you have no idea what you’re doing to me.”

She turns her head, kissing my biceps. “Oh, I think I have some idea.”

“I don’t know if I can control myself here. I’m trying, but it’s hard.”

“Very hard,” she agrees with another giggle. “I can tell. I wonder what would help with that?”

I try to control my breathing, try to calm the beast, but with her right there, teasing me, knowing that only a few thin pieces of fabric separate us, it’s close to impossible. “The doctor said—”

“He said no exertion. We don’t have to exert ourselves, do we?”

Malta rolls in my arms, sliding on top of me and rising into a sitting position on my stomach. She reaches out and down behind her, and I hear her draw a quick gasp of air when her fingers glance the tent in the sheets. My teeth snap together as I fight to stave off the urge to throw her down and rut into her right now. A trickle of pre-cum leaks out, dampening the sheet beneath her fingertips.

“It’s big,” she whispers. “I had no idea…”

“All for you, sweet angel.”

“Oz, I’ve never… I mean, this is new for me. I’m a good Catholic girl and you were my first ever boyfriend. And I know it didn’t last, but there was never anybody else. I’m not sure what to do here.”

She laughs, like she’s embarrassed, but I’m shutting that down right now.

Placing a hand against her cheek, I run my fingers behind her ear, tucking her hair as I stroke her skin with my thumb. “You’re perfect,” I tell her, and not for the first time. “Everything about you is perfect, Malta. And this? This is just the icing on the cake.”

“Really?”

I nod, drawing a deep breath. I knew already. If I’d ever had any suspicion some other guy was sniffing around her, thinking he’d have a chance with my angel, I’m not sure what I would have done.

In my mind, she was always mine. In my mind, I owned her, body and soul.

But hearing her say the words. Hearing the honesty, the confession that nobody ever even turned her head, that nobody ever came close to having this, sends me into the stratosphere. My dick grows another two inches at the knowledge that we were meant for each other, that our worlds are one and the same.