Offside

  “You okay?” she asked softly. Her smirk was gone, and only concern remained in her eyes.

  “Just tired,” I told her.

  “Get some rest,” she said. Her fingers trailed down my arm, and when they reached my wrist, I caught her hand in mine and held tight. Her head tilted slightly to the side. “You want company?”

  I nodded and pulled at her hand.

  Her scent and warmth enveloped me, and I realized we had not been together like this since before I had dumped her at my father’s insistence. Even in the hospital and rehab center, there hadn’t been room for her in bed with me. Just having someone sit on the side of the bed had jostled me in ways that hurt.

  I wrapped my arms around her, and as her body melded against mine, I exhaled heavily. All at once, the exhaustion of the day, the mental fatigue of the funeral, and the explosion of everything I had held inside of me for so long seemed to seep out of my body as I sank against my Rumple.

  Sleepily, I tilted my head to look at her, and her arm went around my neck. I reached forward to press my lips to hers once and then twice. I would have kissed her a third time, but the combination of her hand soothing my cheek and the warm comfort of the bed overtook me. When I closed my eyes for the third kiss, my head dropped onto the pillow instead.

  I woke when Nicole moved from the bed and tightened my grip a little bit and grumbled until I felt her lips on my temple.

  “I’ll be right back,” she whispered. I released her reluctantly, and she climbed out of bed and headed into the kitchen. I dozed back off, and when I woke again, Nicole was sitting up in the bed with one arm draped around me and the other holding a copy of Hunger Games. From the direction of the kitchen, something smelled really good, and I lifted my head to tell her so.

  “It’s kugel made from potatoes and carrots,” she told me. “It has to bake for a while, so I wanted to get it in the oven. I didn’t know how long you would want to sleep, but I thought you might be hungry when you woke up.”

  “What’s a kugel?” I mumbled as I tucked my head against her stomach and wrapped my arms around her middle.

  Nicole laughed.

  “I’ll show you later,” she promised. “You don’t have to wake up yet if you don’t want to. Go back to sleep.”

  I settled myself with my head basically in her lap and closed my eyes again. I listened to the sound of her turning the pages of her book, the sound of the rain on the roof as it began to pour, and the sound of Nicole’s stomach grumbling.

  Rumple’s stomach was all…rumply.

  I snickered against her leg.

  “What are you laughing at?” she asked.

  “Your tummy is noisy.”

  I glanced up and Nicole was glaring down at me.

  “Thanks a lot!” she snapped.

  I wrapped my arms around said stomach and kissed it over her shirt.

  “I love it,” I told her. I shifted back a bit, putting just a few inches of distance between us so I could see her better. “I love you.”

  “I love you too.” Nicole’s expression softened, and she tossed the book upside down on the nightstand. “Still tired?”

  “Not as much,” I said with a shrug.

  Nicole slid down so we were lying beside each other again. With her hand positioned behind my head, she brought me forward and our lips met. The kisses were only soft at first, as they had been earlier in the day, but quickly turned into more. I absorbed the warmth and comfort of all of it—Nicole’s body, the house, the tiny room that was really just a part of the living room, and everything they had done for me even though they really didn’t have much to give.

  Although Dad and I always seemed to have more money than we knew what to do with, I didn’t think I had felt so…rich…since Mom died.

  Nicole’s hand moved over my shoulder and chest, her fingers digging into the fabric of my T-shirt and making me shiver. I ran my hand up her arm until I could cup her face, and I kissed her again and again, exploring her mouth and then letting her explore mine.

  Nicole broke the kiss with a groan and pushed herself away from me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “I wasn’t thinking…I mean…shit, we shouldn’t…”

  “Nicole, it’s okay.” I reached up and put a finger under her chin. “I really, really missed you. Missed this.”

  I tightened my hold on her, bringing her closer until I could kiss her again.

  “Are you sure?” she whispered. “I don’t want to…push.”

  “You aren’t,” I insisted between more kisses. “I want this. I want you.”

  Her fingers snuck underneath the edge of my shirt, and her palm splayed out over my stomach.

  “You still have fantastic abs,” she mumbled into my mouth.

  “Yeah?”

  “Definitely.” Nicole backed off and looked at me quizzically. “At least they pretty much feel the same. I think I probably ought to see them to know for sure.”

  “I see you get your subtlety from Greg,” I commented. “You want it off, baby? You only have to ask.”

  I raised my eyebrows at her a couple times.

  “Incorrigible,” she said then pursed her lips. “Take that shirt off, Thomas. I want to see you.”

  “I will if you will,” I offered.

  “You first,” she said with an eye roll.

  I wasn’t going to argue, and I lifted myself just enough to pull the shirt over my head.

  “Mmm…” Nicole hummed as her fingers ran over my stomach. “Yep—still quite nice.”

  “At least some of me isn’t too bad,” I said and kind of cringed as the words came out. It sounded shitty, and I didn’t mean it that way.

  Nicole’s hands captured my face as she stared at me.

  “You are wonderful,” she whispered in earnest, “and if your legs never carry you again, they will still be the legs that had the speed to save me. The most important part of you is here, in your head.”

  She took her right hand and placed it over the center of my chest.

  “And here.”

  We stared at each other for a long moment, and when we finally moved our eyes from each other’s, we had changed. At least, I thought we both had. I knew I had. My mind tried to cope with the paradigm shift that changed my outlook from being useful for nothing but my speed and my agility to…to…something else. I wasn’t sure exactly what it was yet, but I knew it meant more—much, much more.

  “Rumple,” I whispered.

  She shook her head slowly.

  “Don’t talk,” she instructed, and her lips moved up my jaw, slowly nipping along the edge until she reached my ear. She sat up a little, and a moment later her own shirt joined mine on the floor beside the bed, followed quickly by her white, lacy bra.

  I tried not to let my eyes bug out. It had been way, way too long since I had seen her tits, and I had forgotten how beautiful they were. It was as if they could become the center of a whole universe dedicated to my libido.

  Even as I sat up against the pillows, and Nicole lifted her leg to straddle my waist, I knew all the physical stuff—as wonderful as it was—wasn’t as important as what I felt when I just looked at her eyes and thought about having her close to me. Having her lie down next to me meant more than almost anything else in the world. It wasn’t what I was once told was important, but now I knew those perceptions were wrong.

  “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will,” I whispered.

  “What’s that from?” Rumple asked.

  “Hamlet,” I replied simply.

  Drawing my hands slowly up her sides and around to the front, I wrapped my fingers around the sides of her breasts as I brushed my thumbs over her nipples. They both hardened and puckered, the little nubs pointing straight at me.

  I didn’t need any further encouragement.

  I rose off the pillow and took the first nipple into my mouth. I circled it with my tongue slowly as I sucked and kissed at the
first one then moved over to the second one to make sure it got equal attention. I mean, I didn’t want any inter-titty rivalry going on, did I? My nose nuzzled them equally, and my lips nipped at them as I thought about that for a minute. If they got mad at each other, would they fight? I wondered what that would look like but had to stop because the mental imagery was distracting me from the actual imagery.

  Playing around with Nicole’s tits definitely could have occupied my mind, hands, and tongue for a very, very long time. The skin was soft and creamy—just slightly paler than the skin of her arms and shoulders. Her nipples were dark, rosy pink, and just the right size for me to suck into my mouth and feel the texture with the tip of my tongue.

  When I did, she moaned. She wasn’t quiet about it either—not like she had been when her dad was sleeping in the next room. She tilted her head up to the ceiling and practically shoved her nipples in my mouth as she arched forward and dug her fingers into my hair. I was only too happy to oblige, and I reached around her with one hand and held her against me as I alternated fondling and sucking at her breasts.

  So fucking good.

  I dropped my hand down to her backside, running a finger along the edge of the stretchy material of her pants. Though it wasn’t meant to be one, she apparently considered it a hint and rose up on her knees. She started pushing the material off her hips, and I licked my lips as her hips slowly appeared in front of me.

  “Jesus,” I whispered. “You are so beautiful.”

  With my hands on her hips, she pushed the pants down farther, leaving just some little blue panties between my eyes and her intimae skin. She lifted first one leg and then the other, pulling the material from her legs and letting it join the growing pile of clothes on the floor. Her hands came back to my chest, and she leaned in and captured my lips with hers.

  “Were you looking for something?” she asked quietly, and her hips pushed her core against my stomach. I could only moan in response, feeling not only her heat but moisture as well against my skin. I looked up to her dark eyes and grinned.

  “Yeah, I was,” I informed her. “I was hoping to see that beautiful pussy of yours, but it’s just too far away.”

  “Is it?” Her eyes widened in mock surprise. “I wonder how we could remedy the situation.”

  I grabbed her backside with both hands and pulled her a little farther up my chest. She tried to position herself again, which gave me a pretty decent opportunity to hook my thumbs inside the edge of those panties and start pulling them off of her. She balanced from left to right once more, and then she was magnificently naked above me.

  My eyes moved slowly from her shoulders, over her breasts, down to her stomach, and to the little mound right below. Her muscled legs screamed to have me touch them, so I did, running my hands over her thighs as my eyes took in the exposed feminine flesh right before me.

  I couldn’t wait any more, and pulled her up closer to me. I glanced at her eyes, making sure she knew what I wanted to do and that she wanted it, too. She only nodded, her teeth embedded in her lip.

  I lifted her just a little with my hands, giving me a slightly better angle. Nicole leaned farther forward, her hands grasping the top of the headboard for balance. I glanced up at her for only a moment, raised my eyebrows and looked back to my goal. I extended my tongue slowly and tasted her sweet, sweet skin. I kissed down between her lower lips, spread them a bit with my lips and tongue, then reached in, circling her opening first, then plunging inside.

  Her hips jerked, and my hands tightened their grip to hold her steady as I licked and sucked and delved. I licked her from the top of her sex to the bottom and then back again. I licked and sucked at her clit, rolling my tongue over it and pressing against it. I wrote “MY RUMPLE” in big capital letters with my tongue as I heard her breaths turn to pants and felt her hips starting to rock into me rhythmically. I released her ass-cheek from one of my hands and ran my fingers between her legs. I slipped the middle one inside and felt her tense a little. I quickly looked to her flushed face.

  “You like that, don’t you, Rumple?” I hummed against her skim. “Makes you think about how my cock is going to feel, driving into your tight little pussy. You still think about my cock, don’t you?”

  “Mmph…” she groaned, and I smiled as my index finger worked its way inside of her, too.

  “I bet you think about it all the time,” I said as I flicked my tongue over her clit between words. “You want my cock so bad, don’t you, baby?”

  She moaned incoherently again.

  “Say it,” I told her. I pushed my tongue against her as my fingers moved faster. I could feel the tension building in her legs. “Tell me how much you want my cock!”

  “I do…” she mumbled. Her eyes were closed tightly and her warm breath brushed the top of my head.

  “You do what, Rumple? Tell me. Tell me what you want.”

  “Your cock,” she whispered, and as she said it, my fingers and tongue drove against her—inside and out—at the same time. I kept my eyes on her as her head angled back, and she cried out over and over again.

  “Louder!” I commanded.

  “Oh God! Thomas! I want your cock! I want your cock! Thomas! Thomas!”

  She shuddered, and I moaned at the taste of her as it rivaled the sweetness of her words to my ears. I slowly pulled my fingers from her and pulled her back down until her head was against my shoulder, and the rest of her body was splayed out over my chest.

  “Fucking right, you want it,” I said with a cocky half-smile.

  I heard her soft laughter against my shoulder as her body relaxed into mine, and even though my cock was still looking for a lot of attention, I felt sated.

  Nicole's breathing slowed against my shoulder, and I was content just to run my hands up and down the smooth skin of her back. She lifted her head to look at me for a moment, and I didn't understand her expression at first. Then she grabbed my chin and kissed me deeply.

  “That was fucking incredible,” she said. She licked her lips, and I knew she was tasting herself. That thought made my ass clench as my cock pressed up against my sweatpants.

  “I couldn't agree more,” I said. I ran my tongue over my bottom lip. “I don't think I need dinner anymore.”

  Nicole just gave me a grin in return and then kissed my lips softly. She moved down to my neck and then to my chest. Her tongue flicked one of my nipples, and I gasped a little. No one had ever done that before, and it felt really weird but in a good way. It tingled, and the sensation went straight to my dick.

  Then she started moving lower, sliding down my body as she kissed down my sternum and then licked my navel. She drew a line of kisses across the waistband of my sweats, and then glanced up at me.

  “I think these are in the way,” she announced and started pulling them off my legs, boxers along with them.

  As I realized her intent, my heart started beating faster, and the muscles in my backside clenched, making my dick jump a little as she pulled the fabric away. With the remainder of my clothing tossed off to the side, she positioned herself over my hard cock and stared into my eyes as she gripped the base with her hand.

  “Rumple,” I gasped as she lowered herself a little more and licked across the head. “Oh…fuck…”

  She wrapped her lips around the end and sucked as she pulled back, making an audible popping sound as she released me. She went right back down again, running her tongue over the edge as she took me into her warm, silky mouth.

  “Oh God…baby!” I cried out, and my head snapped back against the pillow. That only managed to wrap me up in the scent of her and cause my hips to buck a little. I felt the tip of my cock touch the top of her mouth as she moved back and forth over it.

  I reached down and put my hand on the back of her head, running my fingers through her soft hair. I didn't do it to push at her or anything—I let her set her own pace. She licked the underside of my shaft as she pulled back up and then circled the head with her tongue again.

>   “You like that?” she inquired with bashful eyes.

  “Oh, fuck yes, I like it!” I replied in earnest.

  “You like my mouth on you?”

  I could have come just from hearing her say that.

  “Turning the dirty talk around, are ya?” I said with a grin.

  “You don't like it?” she asked, her eyes narrowing a little in confusion.

  “Oh, I definitely do!” I reassured her. Her eyes gleamed back up at me, and she smiled as well.

  “Do you want my pussy, too?” Her eyes literally sparkled. My little kitten-minx had definitely gone all mischievous on me. My breath caught in my throat, and I couldn't respond at first, so she pushed it further. “Do you want to feel your cock in my pussy, Thomas?”

  She moved then, releasing my cock from her grasp and straddling my thighs. My mind started spinning when I realized she wasn't just speaking metaphorically. Before I could become too elated, reality tried to bite me in the ass.

  “Nicole,” I whispered, “I…um…don't have any condoms or anything.”

  She bit down on her lip.

  “I'm on the pill,” she replied with a shrug.

  My father's words echoed through my head, pounding against my temples like a pile driver.

  “Don't fuck a chick without a condom. They'll tell you they're on the pill, and they're lying through their fucking teeth about it. They all say that. They're all just trying to trap you into something. Don't ever fuck without one, you hear me?”

  I blinked a couple of times, and in my heart, I knew she would never lie to me about something like that. Even if she did…or even if something happened anyway…

  I thought about the moment I saw her holding little baby Timmy in her arms and how I had wondered what I would do if it were hers. That thought immediately transformed into what I would do if her baby was my baby, and the thought didn't feel like being trapped at all.

  “We don't have to,” she said softly when I didn't respond.

  “I want to,” I said, and my hand caressed the side of her face. “If you want to, and you're okay with it, then yeah…I want to.”