Her fingers find her way beneath my shirt and caress my ribs. Her touch is far sweeter than mine, and I know her well enough to guess that she’s a virgin. She starts to do undo my shirt buttons, but I put my hands over hers, stopping her.
Her blue eyes implore me. “Cale, I want this. Please.”
“Don’t you think it’s too soon?”
“It’s been nearly a whole year. Stop being the ringmaster. Just be Cale.”
Just be Cale. Indulge in what I want. I can’t remember the last time I did that, and now I’m being given everything I want. I think I’ll go mad from bliss. I kiss Ryah again and slide my hand down to cup her pussy, my fingers sliding between her peachy cleft. She whimpers against my mouth, trapped between my body and the board. She’s safe here, in my arms. For the moment I’m free from the constant, background worry. Where is Ryah? Is she safe? Is someone trying to take her away from me?
“All right,” I murmur between kisses. “But not here.”
I can’t give her a big bed or even a proper bedroom, but I can at least give us some privacy. I take her by her hand and draw her out into the night. We’re cloaked in darkness, and everyone has gone to bed. I take her up the stairs and into my wagon. It’s tidy and organized, and I’ve made it into a comfy little home. I light the storm lamp on the wall and turn to look at her.
My breath catches. The red Lycra hugs her beautiful body and the sequins catch the soft golden light. Her blon
de hair tumbles around her face as she gazes up at me with trusting eyes. I reach up to rub my thumb over her kiss-swollen mouth.
“You’re so fucking beautiful.”
I take her hand and draw her down onto the bed. It takes up the front wall of the wagon, and it’s comfortably sized for two. I sit up against the wall and pull Ryah up so she’s straddling my lap. For a while I just look at her, stroking the backs of my fingers across her cheeks. Tracing my hands down her shoulders and arms. Smoothing them up her back. Marveling at her. In awe of her.
“There’s an invisible zip at the back,” she prompts me in a whisper.
I know. I’m just taking my time. I reach up to the nape of her neck and caress her there, feeling her warm skin and the silky baby hairs. Her eyes flutter closed and her lips part. I claim them again with my own, drawing the zip down as my tongue parts her lips. When I slip the catsuit from her shoulders, I discover that she doesn’t wear a bra underneath. Her nipples tighten at my touch.
“Jesus, look at you,” I mutter roughly, and take one tiny pink nipple in my mouth. She gasps and shudders against me as I suck and bite down on her yielding flesh. I suck the other nipple, too, clenching my arms around her waist and breathing her in. All mine.
“Cale,” she whispers, threading her fingers through my hair. “I’ve touched myself thinking about you.”
I groan and press kisses to her breasts and throat, imagining those slender fingers of hers working against her clit. A second later I lift her up and lay her on her back, take off her boots and draw the catsuit down over her hips and legs. She’s wearing only a flesh-colored G-string underneath.
I don’t need to merely imagine what she looks like as she touches herself. I can see it with my own eyes. “Show me.”
A pink flush in her cheeks, she dips her hand into her tiny underwear. Fuck that’s hot, seeing her fingers moving beneath the G-string. I hook a forefinger into the fabric and draw it aside, my breath hitching at the sight of her pussy, shiny with wetness. She breathes hard as she rubs her clit, watching me with big, trusting eyes.
I lean forward and kiss her fingers and her clit, and push a finger into her pussy. To the first knuckle, and then the second, and feel her quiver against me.
Her teeth sink into her full lower lip as if she wants to cry out. “Cale?” she asks breathlessly. “Can you take your clothes off? My hands are busy.”
I brace a hand by her head and push her finger out of the way, and work slow circles on her clit. “Now they’re not.”
Ryah shudders on the blankets as she tries to undo the buttons of my shirt. She’s half panting, half laughing as her distracted efforts come to nothing. I find myself smiling at her, and she ends up just holding onto my shoulders as I rub her clit, slick with her wetness and swollen with her arousal. Perfect. She doesn’t need to do anything else.
Her expression changes, eyes closing, brow creasing. “Cale, I’m going to…I think I’m going to…god.”
Her cry becomes a squeal, and her nails dig into my shoulders as she comes. I press my smiling lips against her throat as I gather her close. She pants and goes limp against me, her skin burning from her orgasm.
“You’re so beautiful.” I can’t believe I saw something so incredible with my own eyes, and now her thighs are clenching around my hips and her mouth is seeking mine. Right here, she’s safe and happy. Right here, I can protect her from all the misery and danger in the world.
I need to be inside her so I can be doubly sure that no one else can get to her, see her, hurt her.
I make myself wait. I make myself drink her in, pretending that I’m feeling a normal amount of love for this girl and not the all-consuming hunger to have her all to myself, now and always.
Ryah takes a deep breath and gets determinedly to work on the buttons on my shirt. She opens it and pushes it from my shoulders. Then she gets to work on my pants and slips her hand inside to enclose my hard length. I’ve been kissing her throat and I suddenly take a sharp intake of breath and push up on my hands. “Fuck, sparkle.”
She withdraws her hand. “Sorry—do you not like that?”
“No, I fucking love it. You just took me by surprise.”