The Years Between (2 page)

She opened her mouth wider and stroked her tongue over his. He took that as his permission. His mouth was hot, fiery, fast and thorough over hers. His lips moved over hers, his tongue in her mouth, touching her lips, lapping at her tongue. His other hand came up to hold her face in his. Those were the little touches that Will always added to whatever he did to her. He always touched her in a way that reassured her he knew exactly who she was. She wasn’t just any girl to him. He would hold her hand, or touch her face, or clasp her closer to him. He held her with possessive, sweet, affectionate care that went along with the hot, usually intense way he made love. He wasn’t exactly always a gentle, soft, compassionate lover. No, Will had sex, full on, hot, sweaty sex with her, once she gave him the go-ahead. But he was always sure she was okay, every moment of it, and well aware of how she felt at any moment.

“I need to touch you,” he mumbled, his mouth still against hers.

She took his hand and pulled it to her chest. He loved her boobs. They were huge. Way too big for her frame. He loved to play with them, rub them, suck them… and she liked him to do it, too.

He didn’t move his fingers at first, but rested his hand against her heart, his palm flat over her nipple. He pressed her breast in, so his hand could feel the strum of her heart. She sighed when his thumb crossed back and forth over her nipple. The nerve endings seemed to reverberate down into her stomach. It wasn’t often that sexual feelings shot through her.

But then again, never before did she believe the person she loved most was dead. And then to have him show up alive! So, if not now, when would she ever feel this way again? In that moment, she felt alive and free. Free of Mexico and the rapes that so ruined her, as well as her relationships and sexual satisfaction. For once, it was Will and her and the moment. Who cared how they got here? He was here and she was here. They were alive, and in love, and Will wanted to be with her.

She wiggled around on him, trying to shift away from the steering wheel. He groaned at the movement over him. She felt him getting warm under her bottom.

“This is not why I stopped,” he said, lifting his mouth off hers long enough to smile.

“It’s not, but it is now.”

“We can’t do this here… not on the side of a highway.”

She wiggled again. “We can, and we are. I don’t want to wait. Please, Will.”

He hesitated and frowned even though his eyes glazed over when she again rocked her hips. “Jess, this isn’t the place to do this.”

She pulled her head back. “When did I ever beg you to have sex with me?”

His eyebrows scrunched up his face. “I guess never.”

“So, I’m begging you now. Do you think you should be arguing with me?”

“We don’t even fit.”

She lifted her shirt off. “We fit well enough.”

His eyes narrowed in on her. If she’d known earlier that he was alive and would have been driving her home from Fort Bragg, and not her sister, she might have worn something a little sexier than the white cotton, lace-edged bra. But Will’s glazed eyes convinced her he really didn’t care. She tugged his head toward her. He lifted his hands to the cups of her bra and dropped them down so her breasts poofed up over them. He stared at her in the odd, kind of distant light being cast from one of the street lamps. His hand touched one of the white, rounded sides. He finally sighed happily, and buried his face against her skin, seeming to breathe her in. She giggled as she clutched his silky hair, and ran her hands through it. She quit giggling when his head turned to the side and his mouth caught her nipple. His teeth just barely nipped her as his tongue came out and bathed her in his wet warmth.

He reached down and the seat started sliding
so her back was no longer pressed against the steering wheel. She almost started cheering. Yes! He was going against his usually cautious, do-the-right-thing self. Though she normally loved that about him, because she was so
not
that… every once in awhile, she liked seeing him react to her as she did to him: uncontrollably. God, they were really doing this! After all the time apart, and all the grief she lived with… Will was in her arms. Alive. Healthy. Well, almost healthy.

Feeling stronger the last two days he’d been in and out of briefings. He was told
about General Bains’s fate just about the same time Jessie and Lindsey were told, only hours before it hit the media. Already the local media was buzzing around the base and the scandal that was General Bains. Will told her his first thought was he had to get to her. Now. Forever. It was one of Bains’s former underlings who informed him Jessie was on base receiving the news. Until that moment he had no idea she was even in North Carolina. He’d been biding his time to get well enough to fly back to Ellensburg to get her.

She kissed his head, which was still at her breast. “Are you sure you’re feeling well enough?”

He paused and nuzzled her nipple. “I’m sure.”

She put her hands to his chest and sighed happily. It was warm. Alive. She could feel his heart beating and his stomach contracting as he moved. She
slid her shaking fingers down to his pants and struggled to undo them. It was hard to concentrate when his mouth was doing those things to her and her body was happily enjoying it, and not just tolerating it. She had sparks starting in her stomach and traveling through her toes.

He touched her bare knee and ran his hands up the skirt she wore. She put it on this morning, in preparation for the warm temperatures to come, and without the knowledge that her father was dead and Will was alive. It felt like years separated “that Jessie” from this one. Laying his hand flat on her knee, he slowly caressed his fingers on her kneecap and started to drift higher up. “Just say.”

The only time they ever had sex was during the four weeks they spent together in Washington state, between Will’s
departures.
He often said to her that if she didn’t like something or whatever, all she had to do was say and he’d stop. He admitted, long ago, he was no good with victims. What he didn’t seem to comprehend was he was just about perfect with her. For she was a victim, or a survivor, whatever you wanted to call it; and rape was something that used to be her total definition of sex. Sometimes, even with him, she couldn’t do it.

But not this time.

She shimmied up, so her knees were resting on the seat and on either side of his lap. She leaned down and got his pants undone with a sigh of satisfaction. He remained still, as if wondering what she would do next. She wasn’t very graceful. His face was
right there
. There was no way to shimmy out of her underwear gracefully, but she managed it. She smiled when she held it up by its side strap on her finger. He smiled back.

“Your turn.”

He smiled. “You want me to do that?”

“I want you to… yes. Do that.” A blush rushed into her face. It was hard to explain how, when she was still in her teens and early twenties, her sexual behavior could only be described as slutty, shameful, forward and pornographic. But with Will, she became like a scared, shy virgin.

He suddenly grabbed her by the waist and brought her to him again. It was like he couldn’t get enough of her. It was so weird, and so disconcerting. His face rested at her neck, above her exposed breasts that were still proudly supported by her bra. No man felt like Will did about her; and no man but Will ever even liked her.

He kissed her collarbone as he said, “Do you have any idea what you look like just now?”

“Stupid?”

“No. Hot. Young. Beautiful. My wife, wanting to have sex with me. It’s not something I ever pictured.”

“I’m not your wife.”

He tilted his head up. “You’re going to rub that one in for awhile, aren’t you?”

She laughed out loud. He also made her laugh a lot. “I so am. You kinda deserve it. ‘Oh Jessie, go date. Find another man.’ Ring a bell? So, yes, I am.”

In response, his fingers started tickling her armpit. She was helpless when he did so. He knew it. He tortured her with it whenever she mocked him. He could be so serious and somber, sometimes, she had to.

Lifting his hips high enough to slip off his pants, he pulled himself free. She looked down. She didn’t always look either. There were many things she didn’t participate in. But this time, it all felt so different to her. She touched him and his gaze jerked up to hers. After a moment, she blushed and dropped her eyes. It was like the tongue thing. She didn’t love men’s penises. One too many had hurt her. But his? Will’s was an extension of him, and the entire body, heart and soul of the man who took her broken, destroyed spirit and said ‘you’re worth saving,’ before doing so.

His breath caught. She felt him clamping his fingers tighter around her waist. She pulled her hand up and then down, touching him softly, the heat of him filling her hand. She did it again, and again, this time harder and faster as his mouth came forward and grabbed her nipple in it. His teeth nipped on her, harder than before. The startling cry that came from her lips was a surprise to her too. She liked it.

She shifted forward on her knees, removing her hand until the tip of him touched her. She moved back and forth over him, letting her body react, as moisture started to make her wet in all the right spots. Something that didn’t always happen either. Seemed like a lot of her parts didn’t work right for her. But this time, perhaps the most important of her life, it seemed to all happen right.

“Oh God, Jessie…” he whispered her name with almost reverent worship. He kissed her face, her cheeks and her mouth. “I love you.”

His words, more than his body parts, released her body and allowed it to fully expand and react normally, as most women responded. She sunk onto him, letting all of him fill her up. She felt him jerk in surprise before groaning with total appreciation.

Long ago, after she first gave birth, she started using birth control. There was no way she could go through another unplanned or unwanted pregnancy. Not by rape. Not by Will. There was just no way. But they could talk about that later. For now, it was enough for her just to have pleasurable sex with Will.

He watched her. She could feel his eyes on her as she moved up and down on him, riding him in ways that she didn’t usually. She let him gaze at her bouncing breasts until she leaned her hands over the headrest to gain leverage. His hands suddenly clamped on her waist and held her still as he shoved into her hard. It was strong enough that she felt her head might have pushed up through the roof if he hadn’t been holding her still. The orgasm that ripped through him and erupted in a groan from his mouth was nearly violent. She wrapped her arms around his neck as his head came to rest against her. She kissed the top of his head as his breathing starting to calm. She could feel his heart rate returning to normal.

“Didn’t work, did it?”

She blinked at his voice. Their mingled breathing filled the cab with a strange silence. He knew she sometimes didn’t come during sex. It wasn’t new. Or a big deal. Or a reflection on him. Luckily, he was confident enough not to get his feelings hurt.

“It’s okay. It was wonderful. I like feeling you.”

He lifted her off him and redid his pants. She held herself above him by grasping the seat behind him. She forgot how strong he was and how easily he could manhandle her. How fun it was to be manhandled by Will, but only Will.

Grabbing her, he flipped her around and held her against his chest. He grabbed her breast and put his hand on her at the same moment. His fingers touched and caressed her as he played with her nipple. She closed her eyes and her mind emptied. Meantime, his hands, oh, his magical hands made her body respond like nothing else could.

It seemed to take her way too long. What if he grew bored… or annoyed, or lost interest? But he just kept touching her, rubbing her and kissing the side of her face, until finally, she relaxed in his arms. Her body started to hum pleasantly, then warmly, until she was coming around his hand as he did exactly the right thing she liked.

After a few moments, she mumbled, “I’m sorry. I just can’t seem to…”

He laughed softly. “Why? It’s not a problem for me to touch my wife.”

She curled into him. “You do realize how inappropriate this was for our reunion.”

He kissed the end of her nose. “I think you were right; it was perfect.”

“Lindsey’s going to think we crashed.”

“Lindsey can most likely figure out what might be taking us awhile. It has been an extraordinary day.”

Silence stretched for a few moments. Finally, she whispered, “Will?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you think it could be the start of a more ordinary life for us? I’m tired of being extraordinary.”

He squeezed her next to him. “I think it will be the most ordinary, dull, normal, typical life you could ever imagine.”

She laughed softly and snuggled to his chest. “It’s all I want, Will. I dream of it at night, when I’m all alone; even though I was supposed to be moving on, and even worse, when I thought you were dead, I thought of all the ordinariness I would love to have with you.”

“That’s it? That’s all you want from me?”

“
Yes. I want to experience a full, normal life. With you.”

“You got it
. You get everything I have to give from now on,” he whispered gently. “Do you think that’s enough to start our ordinary life?”