Read What Brings Me to You Online
Authors: Loralee Abercrombie
What Brings Me to You (10 page)
"Did you have a good day, baby?" He asked in a half yawn.
Baby.
He'd said it again. The first time was in the car and I was already freaking out about what to wear, this time I could actually enjoy it. It was the most wonderful word I'd ever heard in my life. After the previous three days of misery, our make-up, then shopping, and the “baby” endearments, I just wanted to cry.
"Are you kidding me? This is more clothing than I'll ever wear, and more money spent on me than I ever deserve." I turned on my side to face him. He had his eyes closed and was smiling serenely. "Thank you, Teddy. This was, by far, the kindest thing anyone's ever done for me." I placed a tentative hand on his chest and he immediately covered it with one of his own. He turned his head slowly to face me and searched my eyes with his.
"Charley, are you going to kick me out tonight?"
"What?"
"I'm really tired. Can I crash here with you?" My heart fluttered and I felt the familiar heat of hives creeping up to my chest. "I promise all I'll do is sleep, I just can't...I don't think I'll make it home." My mind was swirling. I didn't want him to get in a wreck by falling asleep at the wheel but I surely didn't want him trying any funny business with me -I still hadn't gotten over the last time. I tried to detect any hint of malice, any chance this was a scheme to get in my pants but it didn't seem to be, the whites of his eyes were red and bloodshot like he hadn't slept in...
Oh God.
"Teddy?"
"Yes," he yawned.
"Did you sleep at all while we were...apart?" His droopy eyes became more alert when he understood what I meant by the question.
"Not well," he muttered. Those two words melted my resolve.
"Yes, you can stay. I'm going to change, though, okay?" I went to the bathroom across the hall and changed out of my new clothes back into Teddy's tee shirt, it had become a security blanket of sorts for me. I figured he'd seen me in bathing suit bottoms and my cotton underwear covered more area than that so I didn't bother putting on anything else. In the time it took me to do that, Teddy had stripped down to his boxers and fallen asleep. He looked so sweet that I didn't want to wake him. I eased a pillow out from under his head so I could curl up on the floor when he grabbed my wrist.
"No way. This is your bed," he said sleepily, "you take it, I'll take the floor."
"No, Teddy, you're comfortable and after what you did for me today this is a small way I can thank you."
"Hey," he snapped, "get up here." He had scrunched his long, lean body up against the wall and had his arms open to me.
"Teddy there's no way --," but he cut me off immediately.
"Miss Feinman," he clipped, "get that sexy ass in here or I will be forced to punish you." I had to giggle at his confidence and, truthfully, being curled up in Teddy's arms is exactly what I wanted.
"Okay, but no shenanigans."
"Yes ma'am."
I eased myself into his arms, my back to his front, and was amazed at how easily we fit together. He ground his face into the back of my neck and kissed me lightly. "I'm happy you're happy, baby," he whispered. The words and his breath in my ear gave me chills down my back.
"Thank you so much, Teddy. No one has ever done anything like this for me."
"Well," he yawned deeply, "I want to do it. Now. Always." His breathing slowed to a steady rhythm, though he didn't lose his grip on my waist and then he was asleep. I, however, lay awake with my mantra playing over and over one word.
Always.
*****
"Good morning, baby," he breathed in my hair.
"Hi." I was grinning like a fool but I couldn't help it. He sighed as he kissed the nape of my neck. I didn't want him to leave. It was the first time I felt whole in my little room, in my little bed. It was amazing how much I wanted him after I told him everything. Having someone know about my “family” allowed me to knock down a barrier to intimacy that I held up for so long. Now that I had him, I wanted him with me all the time, and the thought of him leaving, even if just for a few hours, physically hurt. I turned, for the first time completely unabashed, to face him so we were nose to nose. He sucked in a breath through his teeth and set his hand lightly on the side of my cheek.
“God, Charley.”
“What?” I asked in a sultry tone that surprised me.
“You. Waking up and seeing you. It’s…nice. I mean, it’s better than nice it’s…wow, I’m going to stop talking now.” Rather than continue to fumble over himself he pressed a sweet kiss to my lips, but moved away abruptly with a frustrated growl. “I have to go, but I don’t want to,” he whispered against my lips.
"Then, stay," I pleaded. He looked conflicted for a moment before he crashed his mouth against mine greedily. I didn’t even have time to care about morning breath or bed head because the kiss was frantic and hungry. His hand slid up and down my side and hitched around my lower back so our bodies were in line with each other. Every element in contact with the other, but it still wasn’t enough, not for me. I reached my hand between us to feel the hardened ridges of his lean muscled chest and stomach. His skin was slick and hot to the touch. When I fisted a handful of his blond hair in my hand he moaned into my mouth encouragingly. His hand roamed up the side of my body, skimming my ribs underneath my-his tee shirt so close to the underside of my breast but still not touching me. I needed him to touch me. I had to make up for the last time. I didn’t want him to be afraid.
“Charley,” he said breathlessly, looking searchingly into my eyes. I brushed some of his soft blond hair from his eyes and gave him a look that said,
yes. Please. I’m not afraid. I want it to be you.
It was enough because in one motion he had my arms above my head and the shirt on the floor. I was laid out underneath him in nothing but my underwear and he just looked at me. Appraised me but kept his hands off.
“God Charley,” he said and his blue eyes pierced me through with a look that sent lighting between my legs. His lips came down toward me but he kissed me everywhere except my mouth. He blazed a trail down the side of my face, across my collar bone and when his mouth landed on my nipple I whimpered. He stopped and I was disoriented. “Is this ok? Did I hurt you?” He asked, looking so genuinely concerned I could’ve cried. I released one of my wrists from his hands that were pinning them above my head and touched his cheek. I wanted to say something, but I couldn’t seem to form words. It was enough for him because his mouth landed on my breast and his other hand, no longer restraining me worked the other one. If felt divine but there was an ache between my legs that I couldn’t seem to relieve. I crossed my legs at the ankle trying to ease the pressure, but Teddy wasn’t going to have that. He released my nipple from his mouth with a pop and nuzzled his face in my neck. He slid his hand down the side of my body and into the waste band of my underwear. When his fingers reached the epicenter of the ache he hissed in a breath. “God, Charley,” I giggled a little.
“You…said…that…already…”I panted as he stroked me. I felt myself moving in time with his hand and then I was falling, crashing, a blinding white light behind my eyes, my body boneless and pliable. I laid there, not entirely sure what had happened but more content than I’d ever been, and hoping to God he would do it again. He gingerly slid his fingers out from my underwear and propped himself up on an elbow to look at me. “What?” I asked feeling all gooey and sleepy even though we’d just woken up. He kissed the tip of my nose and reared back to continue looking at my face.
“You’re so beautiful, Charley. I’ve never seen…I mean…wow.” Reality was starting to creep in and I realized that I was lying topless in front of Teddy without anything to cover me. I slung my arm around to cover my chest and the hives that were creeping up near my throat. “Don’t do that, Charley,” he moved my hand so that it was by my side, my entire front exposed. “I want to look at you. I want you to let me look at you. You. Are. Beautiful.” He kissed my nose again and his face got serious. “Was it…are you okay?”
“Teddy, I feel… different. Lighter and heavier somehow.” He cocked his head curiously.
“You’ve never, um, felt that before?” Suddenly I felt very self conscious and crossed both my arms over my chest.
“No.” I whispered.
“Wow.” He said again. And then once more, reverently. “Thank you for trusting me with that Charley.” Then, and only then, did it dawn on me what happened. Teddy gave me my first orgasm. After Adam, I never thought about sex. Adam never raped me. In all the important ways I was still a virgin, but the idea of being close to someone, the idea of any of it feeling good was foreign to me. I let Teddy touch me because it felt right. I wasn’t thinking about all the awful times in Adam’s room. I was thinking of Teddy and his lips and his hands loving all over my body. It also occurred to me that he, who was clearly still worked up, hadn’t requested anything in return. Hadn’t forced my face into his crotch like Adam. The thought of putting my mouth on Teddy didn’t disgust me like I thought it would. There was no way I was ready for that, or would ever be, but it didn’t make me want to vomit, or curl into a ball. Still, I started to panic because I thought he would expect me to do something. I sat up rigidly against the wall and Teddy got that concerned look in his eyes. I didn’t get a chance to say anything stupid because he silenced me with his finger to my lips.
“Shh. I don’t want you to be afraid of me, Charley. I did that because I wanted to make you happy. I don’t want anything but your smile right now. Okay?” he asked as he smoothed out a line between my furrowed eyebrows.
“But what about you? What, um, how…um…”
“Shh,” he said again, this time with a little humor in his voice. “Don’t worry about me, baby. I can take care of it later.”
“But it isn’t, like, fair.” Teddy tugged me down next to him so I was on my back again almost completely underneath him in my little bed. There was nowhere for my arms to go but around his muscled shoulders and he ran his hand up and down my ribcage.
“Charley. This isn’t about tit for tat or getting what’s fair. I want to make you happy. I don’t want to push you to do anything you aren’t ready for. You’ve been honest enough with me and opened up to me so much. We have plenty of time for other things. Charley,” he paused and held his fingers underneath my chin, “I’m not going anywhere, okay? For now, just let me make you happy. Let me give you what you deserve.”
“But you deserve to be happy, too.”
“Baby,” he said seriously and leveled me with a look. “I
am
happy.”
“Honest?”
“That was the deal, remember?” He reached around me and tucked me into his side. I rested my ear against his chest listening to his heartbeat for a few moments before he sighed. “I gotta go, baby,” he said and I gripped him around his middle tighter.
“No,” I whined and looked up into his eyes.
"Jesus, Charley, don't do that to me," he smiled, "it's hard enough for me to resist you without you begging. I can't, I have to go to my place to get ready. I'll be back to pick you up around four. Baby, don't look like that." I must've been making a face because he cupped my cheek in his hand and kissed me sweetly on my forehead, then my nose, then my lips. He hung there on my mouth for a long time
like he was trying to communicate a message. I think I got it, because it wasn't so painful when we parted and he got up. He watched me watch him get dressed and I took in his half naked body while, I assume, he took in mine. I stood up and realized the tee shirt was nowhere to be found. Right as I was going to get frantic searching for it, he closed the gap between us and firmly grasped my waist with one arm and pulled me tight toward him while he held the tee shirt with the other. He ran his hands seductively up my sides to lift my arms over my head so he could dress me.
"You’re too skinny. I need to fatten you up some.” He smiled and I smiled despite myself at his frank observation. Even though it was true, I still felt sexy and beautiful and
desired
; such a new and wonderful feeling. When my shirt was on, I kissed him slowly and he welcomed it, hugging my waist and flattening his large hand and long fingers over my lower back. The kiss started to escalate and he pulled away abruptly.
"Baby, I
have
to go," he said as he ran his hand through his bed hair. The little motion made me smile because I knew, unlike last time, meant he really didn't want to leave. He reluctantly let me go and turned toward the door. Without looking back, he called over his shoulder that he'd be back to pick me up at four.
