A Shade Darker ✔️

{Chapter Sixty Three}

Want

April 4th, 2018

Ashley

He had smiled down at me, but I could see his eyes still sad, reflecting off of mine and the fire light. I grabbed both of his hands and lightly tugged him into the room more.

"Please stay with me" He gave a nod of his head and I smiled as I let go of his hands.

I walked to the other side of the small room and grabbed the bucket of water, tossing it out the window and into the ocean.

I dimmed the fire in the lantern even more, the room nearly black, figures and shadows being the only thing to see.

I heard Mike's boots hit the floor along with his shirt, and then the fragments of clothing stop.

The bed was small and not made for two people, but I watched him wait for me to climb on before he sat at the edge and kept his back to me.

The small flicker of the flame on the desk whispered across his back in a dance, scars jumping out at me like creatures of the night.

I lay down on my side, my arm under my head and my other silently reaching out to touch him.

But my fingers hesitated like they were confused if this was the same back I had touched before. I pulled my hand away and put it back by my side. I could see and almost sense the tightness of the muscles in his shoulders and neck.

I sat up and scooted towards him, keeping his back between my legs. My feet rested by his knees and he never moved, or even seemed surprised as my hands landed on his shoulders.

I pressed my forehead to the back of his neck and my fingers began their dance over his skin, my thumbs rubbing circle into his shoulders to try and remove the knots.

Mike

I closed my eyes as I felt myself falling apart from the inside out. Pieces of muscle released their death grip on me with the simple touch of her fingers. Weeds inside of me withered up and died with every movement of her thumbs and fingertips.

To have her so close to me now seemed so intimate, to have her touch me and not be afraid. I thought of the way her hands worked miracles, made things better, and how mine seemed to destroy everything. They left bruises on people in the shapes of a grasp I had held on her arm.

A shudder ran through me and my eyes burned with regret.

"Ashley..."

"Shhh...it's okay" She whispered back, her thumbs pressing harder against me.

"No it's not. It will never be okay, what I did to you...I regret all of it" Her thumbs stopped pressing and I heard her sigh, then the bed creak with her weight.

She appeared in front of me like a beautiful mirage, almost too perfect to touch. She sat down on me, the heat from her body enveloping me completely.

She framed my face in her hands and pressed the smallest flutter, like butterfly wings, against my forehead with her lips. She kissed my temples, my nose and my cheekbones.

I spoke before she got to my lips.

"What are you doing?" She shushed me again, like a small whisper floating above the surface of the water.

Then her lips touched mine and possibility rang through the air.

She placed her hands on my shoulders and pressed gently.

"Lie back" Her voice was a heavy whisper, that coated my skin like a warm blanket that left me shivering underneath.

I caught her hand in mine and asked again. She blinked at me, kissed my shoulder and gently eased me back.

She placed her hands just above my belt, in front of her thighs that were spread on top of mine.

"I'm going to make all your regrets disappear. Now lie still" It seemed wrong to let her do this to me, to want to make me feel so good when I did nothing but hurt her.

How could she still want me? How could she still want to be near me?

But I couldn't help the way that my body reacted, the way that I was grasping for her to come closer.

Her lips fastened onto my neck in a way that made my eyes squeeze tightly in an attempt to not make a sound.

Then her body started moving, leaving my chest slightly chilled as her lips followed course.

Her teeth nipped at my skin, and at my attempts to keep silent she bit harder until I let out a faint hiss.

I felt her smile somewhere near my naval and when she kissed lower my erection only grew harder with anticipation.

She sighed and sat up straight, her fingers dancing down to the button of my pants. I bit my tongue to keep from begging and turned my head to the side, staring at the adjacent wall.

I already knew how this was going to go. Slow, tantalizing, punishment for my behavior. But dripping lust like every time before.

And this time the punishment was on me.

It took ever ounce of restrain, every muscle in my body to hold back. To not mutter a single "please" or "hurry up". To not pounce on the prey in front of me like the hungry lion that burned in the pit of my stomach.

Pure and utter, UGH.

With my pants off it seemed that the torture had just begun; and was far from over.

She didn't move then, just sat, silent.

"What are you doing now?"

"I'm looking at you" I lifted my head and met her eyes before they started their slow walk down every inch of my skin that was all shadows and orange glows from the small fire.

A slow throb began at the tip of my pleasure point and didn't stop until I was satisfied with the confinement of being inside of her.

The slow dance began with her hips moving forward and back, then circling me to draw out the painful pleasure.

She drew me to the edge and then backed off, leaving me to cry out from the last piece I was missing.

Only in her own undoing did she make me stand on my toes at the edge and finally take that jump into the wide unknown.

She rolled to the side and turned her head to look at me.

She placed a hand over my heart and smiled. It was the last thing I saw before my eyes felt heavy and relief enveloped me in it's embrace for the night.