32

Jonathan

Cathy groans with me as I envelop myself in her slick heat. I grind into her, guiding myself into her depths as far as I can go. It’s too much. Not enough.

Need her. All over her inside and out.

She’s mine.

Mine for now, for always.

She gasps as I bottom out, back arching, head thrown back. I bend to nip the slender line of the throat she’s bared to me, tasting sweet salt on her skin. Her intimate essence on my tongue merges with her perspiration, driving my need higher.

More. I need more.

I’m a greedy bastard. I’ll take everything she’s willing to give me. I’m never going to let this woman get away. Not for any reason, the least being my utter stupidity.

I thank the angels. My guides. God himself for this moment I’ll be thankful for until the end of my days.

I withdraw from her body, drunk on the feel of her. Of the glazed look in her eyes. Of the raw, unconscious passion that emanates from her. Her fingers wind around my biceps as I drive back into her, again and again.

“Give me everything. Give me it all,” I say.

Her lips part and she cries out. “Yes, yes, yes. Take it. Take it all.”

Her breasts jolt with my thrusts. She winds her legs around my hips and holds on to me, riding me while I pleasure her. We’ve made love before, but this time it’s different. This is more intimate. A baring and melding of our souls.

She’s given me hers willingly, and now I’m serving mine up in a golden plate for her to do with what she will. I owe her my life because she’s brought my spirit back from the darkness, where I was lost for so long.

She’s saved me through her acceptance.

“Perfect. You’re perfect,” I whisper.

She may not realize the magnitude of what she’s done, but I’ll spend a lifetime telling her. Showing her. It’s the least I can do. Our breathing syncs. She looks up at me, allowing me to read the desire that turns into molten heat, ecstasy splashed across her face. I rear over her on my palms and bend to take her mouth with mine. I suck on her lips. Her tongue. Drawing any part of her into my body in any way I can.

My balls pull tight. Begin to tingle. Tension thrums down my spine.

Need more.

Need.

I come to my knees, clawing her hips in a tight grip. Close. She’s close and I want to make this so good for her. I reach and grind the pad of my thumb down her clit, feeling the bundle of nerves pulse under my touch. It changes the tilt of her hips. Her breath catches. Her mouth falls open. Her gaze locks with mine. Locks. Surprise flickers before she draws into herself. Her core flutters around me.

She grips my wrists, body tightening as she orgasms. I thrust, drawing out her pleasure. Burning heat races up my spine and my balls draw taut. A thin keening comes from her mouth. I slam into her, harder, faster, my movements jerky, my flesh slapping against hers.

I release in one glorious unwinding. I toss my head, back arching, body tightening. Pleasure detonates. I roar. A golden coil snaps inside me and I shatter into a million tiny shards that have no beginning and no end.

Heaven. Nirvana. Paradise.

Whatever the fuck it’s called.

I’m there, bathed in its glorious fucking light.

I collect Cathy in my arms, turning us onto our sides to face each other on her bed with the last piece of my sanity, still buried deep within her body.

I float.

I slowly become aware of the sheets under me. The heat of her body down the length of mine. The gentle rise and fall of her breathing, the puff of her warm breath on my chest. A profound sense of peace and well-being washing over me in waves.

Physical sensations that would normally just feel good are now absolutely mind-blowing. The brush of Cathy’s fingers along my arm raises goose bumps and sends little frissons of pleasure zinging through my nerves. When she kisses me, unhurried and deep, my entire body melts. Just the barest sweep of her tongue is enough to short-circuit my brain.

Cathy’s fingertips trace idle patterns over the sheen of sweat cooling on my chest as we lay tangled together in the rumpled sheets. For a few stolen moments, it’s like we exist in our own little world—a bubble where the rest of reality can’t reach us.

I bask in the simple comfort of skin on skin, of being able to openly touch the woman in my arms. But like all fragile, ephemeral things, our sanctuary can only withstand the press of the real world for so long. I feel it first as a subtle weight, an almost imperceptible grain of gravity. A cosmic pull beckoning.

Cathy seems to sense the shift too, if the minute tension suddenly coiling her muscles is any indication. Her fingers still against my sternum, nails scratching lightly in an unconscious tell that she’s registered the change in energy around us.

With each passing second, it grows harder to ignore the void beyond our shelter of tangled limbs and rumpled sheets. Ugly truths lurk just on the periphery of our blissed-out oblivion.

“I have to tell you about Chris...” Cathy’s body goes rigid, losing the previous softness. I almost want to stop this line of conversation, but the part of me that wants to know and protect wins out.

Her words ring in my brain: Chris knows about us—you and me. And if he’s already been squeezing you for money behind my back, I can only imagine how much worse it will get now.

Her throat bobs several times as she fights to speak.

“He can’t hurt you here. You don’t have to do this alone. Not anymore.” I thread my fingers through her hair, smoothing it off her face, and tighten my hold on her.

She buries her face in the crux of my neck and breathes me in as a slight tremor works through her body. “He seduced me when I was sixteen.”

The words detonate inside my skull. I barely stop the recoil. The visceral need to launch out of bed, find that scum and rearrange his face. That asshole preyed on her. My Cathy, innocent and barely more than a child, manipulated and violated. I knew I didn’t like him, and now I know why.

“Just a dumb kid...I thought I loved him. Thought he was it for me!” Her plaintive murmur only lances deeper, because that isn’t true. He manipulated her when she was too young to fend for herself. “I fell for his bullshit lines, and by the time I realized what kind of sadistic predator he really was, it was too late. So fucking stupid.”

Violence crests inside me and I rein it in through sheer willpower. “He took pictures. Intimate ones. The one and only time we were...together like that.”

Oh God. No. Please, anything but that.

“He’s been using them against me ever since as leverage to extort money...and favors...”

A sickening picture forms in my gut. “What sort of favors?” I choke out.

“He works for Dad. I…I’ve spoken to Dad. About him. Told him how good Chris would be for a particular job. Put him in line for a promotion. It’s been small level stuff, but recently he…he’s asked for a senior role he wants me to talk to Dad about and…” She draws a deep breath. It’s killing me—killing me—to hear this, but she needs to get it out. I need to know. “There’s no way Dad would even entertain Chris taking on this role, and if he doesn’t then….then Chris will…show… God, Jonathan. I’ve been lying to my own father for years. What am I going to do?”

When I finally manage to blink some of the red haze from my vision, Cathy is crying—silent, gut-wrenching sobs that wrack her entire body. The sight snaps something vital inside me and a strangled sound tears from my body.

“That sadistic son of a bitch.” The roar erupts from deep within me. “I’ll fucking kill him. I swear to God, if he ever so much as looks at you again, I’ll—”

Her slender fingers map planes of my face with infinite tenderness. I love her touch, but I need more. I draw her body over mine, wrapping my arms around her shoulders, as though anchoring her to me will help. “It’s all right, Jonathan.”

She’s calming me? This woman.

I pull in a ragged breath. “We have to get those photos back. Destroy them once and for all so he has nothing to hold over us.”

“I’ve tried for years, but even if he handed them over to me, there’s no telling whether or not he’s made copies. They’re digital,” she says.

This situation is untenable. How could someone as depraved as Chris have gotten his hooks into Cathy for so many years? But then I look at the woman I love, curled into herself with shame and vulnerability radiating off her in waves, and the anger transmutes into a bone-deep protectiveness.

“You’re not alone in this anymore,” I rasp out, gathering her against my chest and cradling her trembling body against mine. “This sonofabitch doesn’t get to keep tormenting you, not while I’m here to fight by your side.”

She lets out a humorless huff against the bare skin of my shoulder. “Easy for you to say. You didn’t spend years lying to everyone you care about, digging yourself into a pit.”

The self-loathing in her tone makes my jaw clench hard. “Stop that,” I growl, catching her chin and forcing her to meet my blazing stare. “You did what you had to in order to survive. There’s no shame in that, not one goddamn ounce.”

Cathy’s lips press into a tight line, the war between belief and ingrained cynicism playing out in her intelligent mind. I can practically see the gears turning, all her survival instincts and trauma responses battling against hope.

A breath escapes her, sweeping warm against my collarbone. “It’s not that simple, Jonathan. I’ve tried for years to find where he keeps those photos. I can’t just stumble through his front door and grab what I want.”

I trace the delicate arch of her ear, my gentle touch at odds with the burning need to tear that fucker Chris apart. “This is too big for you to keep trying to handle alone, babe. We need help. Help with the power and reach you need to put an end to this.”

She chews her lip, the gears visibly turning behind her eyes as she wrestles with the implications of what I’m proposing. Finally, she lets out a resigned sigh. “You’re talking about telling my father everything, aren’t you?”

A muscle ticks in my jaw, but I don’t look away. We’re way past tiptoeing around uncomfortable truths. “Yes, I am. He needs to know the full extent of what his employee has been doing to his own daughter all these years.”

Cathy flinches, but doesn’t protest further. If anything, a flicker of resigned acceptance washes over her lovely features.

“It’s not that simple, though,” she murmurs after a weighty pause. “You think my father will just...what? Welcome me back with open arms after hearing how I’ve been compromised and manipulated? No matter why, I still did it. I could have gone to him years ago.”

“You did what you had to do to survive. You were a child. A victim. Chris knew what he was doing right from the start. In no way are you responsible for this. If your father has even half a soul, he’ll be able see that, too.”

Her lips part on a shuddering inhale, eyes shining with a shimmer of unshed tears. But she’s silent. Troubled but at least considering.

“You’re not alone in this anymore, baby. I’m right here with you. We lay it all on the table, messy and raw, without any more lying or pretending.” I brush the pad of my thumb over the silken curve of her cheekbone, feeling the dampness of her tears against my skin. “No more hiding, no more being subjugated by an asshole like Chris, you understand?”

Cathy’s chin trembles faintly, but her gaze remains locked onto mine with a simmering intensity that makes my breath stall. Then, slowly, she gives a jerky nod.

“Okay,” she rasps. “Okay, we lay it all on the line and deal with the fallout together, come what may.”

“Thank you.”

“What are you thanking me for?” she asks.

“Because you’ve given me everything. Your mind. Your body. Your heart. And now…now you’ve given me your trust. The kind that’s absolutely priceless. And I thank you for that,” I murmur against the fevered silk of her mouth before claiming her in a searing kiss.

Let the shitstorm come. We’ll both be ready. I’ll finally see the end of the demons that have haunted her for too long.

We make love again. Long into the night and the day. We eat. Sleep. Day drifts into night. I don’t know the time. I don’t care. This is our oasis in time and I’ll take every second of it as the gift it is. Before real life can infringe and take it away from us. I wash her when we shower but I don’t get her fully dry before I’m kissing her again and taking her back to bed. We both reach our climax together. I pull her to my chest, and still inside her, drift to sleep. I’m drowning in her and I simply don’t care. I slide into her soft heat and make love to her slowly.

Distant noises rouse me and become part of my dream, but sleep clings to me and I don’t fully wake. The noises are persistent. The sound of a door opening and closing. Soft murmured voices. A short conversation. Careful footsteps on carpet growing louder.

“Cathy? Sweetheart?”

The soft, warm body next to me jolts and I’m thrown into full wakefulness. The covers pull from my body as I bundle Cathy in my arms, toss her beneath me and turn toward the threat. Two silhouettes stand in the doorframe, one larger than the other. Who are they? Burglars? I bare my teeth at them. Whoever they are, I won’t allow them to hurt Cathy.

She wriggles, eyes peeking from the edge of the covers. She brushes her hair from her eyes, that flare when she sees the couple. “Adeline? Dad? I…you’re back early?”