Zach paused in his exploration of her mouth to stroke a hand over her hair. His mouth curved, smiling, but his eyes were serious. “Yes.”
“Sex? I need sex?”
Both hands skimmed her shoulders, her arms, down her sides to settle on her hips. “You tell me.”
“I’m telling you,” she whispered and bent to kiss him again.
It was what she needed. Simple, pure pleasure, unsullied and uncomplicated by anything as messy as emotion. No expectations. Nothing now but focused desire.
Her nipples went tight when his palms slid up to cup her breasts. In the next second when his fingertips tweaked them, Lilly gasped and rocked on his cock, her panties the only barrier between them. His cock thickened against her and his hips bumped upward.
He knew just how to touch her, and why this surprised her when nothing else about this entire situation had, Lilly didn’t know. Maybe because no man had ever seemed to know so how smoothly to touch her, or for how long, or with what strength to tug on her desire-swollen nipples. If this was the result of mind-freaking, she was totally okay with it.
She leaned to kiss him again. He tasted so good
Zach slid one hand from her breast to press his thumb between her legs. It circled her clit gently, and Lilly sighed. She put her hands flat on his chest.
If he hadn’t faltered, if the man beneath her had made every move just right, continued that mind fuck, Lilly would’ve been disconcerted enough to stall her orgasm. It would’ve been too much for him to know her so well, so perfectly, that she need say nothing to him about what she liked.
She realized even this was for her, this hesitation, as Zach ran his hands over her body. As he looked into her eyes, a question in his, waiting for her to answer. He really did know what she needed.
“Touch me,” Lilly said. Neither command nor demand, but a soft and subtle plea. “Please, Zach. Touch me. Here. Like this.”
She placed his hand in hers and stroked it over her body. Her breasts, the nipples tight, peaked, throbbing. Over her belly. The slope of her hips. Over the curves of her ass. Between her legs again, his fingertips stroking the soft satin of her panties and the tight, hard knot of her clit inside.
She lost herself in his gaze. Like looking into a night sky without stars—and thinking of that, she wondered again where he’d come from and why he’d found her. But when she parted her lips to ask, all that came out was a sigh quickly captured by his mouth. Suddenly, knowing didn’t seem so important. Not with the magic his hands were making on her skin.
She touched him, too. His skin, hot and smooth under her palms, tempted her lips to kiss, teeth to nibble. Tongue to slide out and taste. She bent forward to fix her mouth on the jut of his collarbone. She bit a little too fiercely when his thumb pressed just right on her clit, but Zach didn’t flinch.
Lilly pulled away to look at him. His cock, thick and long and lovely, was hard between her legs, but he was so silent it was hard to tell if he was enjoying this as much as she was. She curled her fingers around his shaft and stroked, slowly. She was rewarded with a groan.
His eyes fluttered closed, then open. His cock pulsed in her hand. His hands ceased their roaming.
Lilly paused in her stroking. She sat on his thighs, hard with muscle, and looked between them to her hand, full of his erection. She’d felt power like this before. Using her hand or her mouth to make a man come.
It was different this time. All of it was different. He was; she was. Together they made something a mere four days ago she never would’ve said could be true and now couldn’t imagine in any other way.
Lilly shifted enough to get her panties off and then tossed them aside. She couldn’t hold back her groan as the hot, bare flesh of her cunt at last touched him. She had to pause, shaking, her thighs clutching his hips and her head bent so her hair fell over her face. She had to catch her breath.
“Lilly?”
Again, his dark gaze drew her in, and Lilly stopped thinking about anything else but this. Moment. She shifted, took him in her hand, rubbed the head of his cock against her entrance. Wetting him.
She was so wet, so slick and hot, he slid in without effort. His gasp rumbled, deep and male and so thoroughly aroused it sent a shiver through her.
Lilly moved on his cock, torturously slow. Her thighs gripped him, her hips tilted. She ground herself onto his cock so her clit rubbed his tight belly. She placed her hands flat on his chest, ran her fingers through the crisp, curling hair over his nipples.
Her hair fell again over her face, and Zach drew his fingers across her forehead to push it away. Lilly had been with men who spoke more, but Zach’s every gesture, every look, said more than any lover she’d ever had.
They moved together, slow at first and faster. The first bright, sparkling waves of orgasm started moving inside her, and Lilly gave herself over to them. She gave it up to the overwhelming power of desire, of ecstasy. Passion coiled tight inside her and exploded, an internal big bang that left her shaking and crying out his name.
She opened her eyes when he moaned her name. Her fingers had dug grooves into his flesh, and she smoothed the marks with the pads of her fingertips and watched them disappear, leaving only redness behind.
Zach smiled. He drew her down for another kiss. “What are you thinking?”
She stretched herself out over him. “You can’t tell?”
His hands cupped her ass to press her against him. “Not everything.”
Lilly’s body ached in the best way, from fulfillment. She propped herself on her elbow to look into his face. When she kissed him, Zach tasted pleasantly of salt. “No?”
He traced her brows. “No. Every day...”
“Every day what?”
“The longer I stay here, Lilly, the less I will be able to see inside you.”
She blinked. “I don’t understand.”
“The longer I stay here, the more I’ll become like you. And eventually...”
She ran her hand over his chest. “Eventually, what? The mother ship will come and beam you back up?”
“Eventually, Lilly, if I don’t return to where I came from, I’ll die.”
* * *
Fifth night, six candles.
They hadn’t spoken further about Zach staying or leaving. He’d turned the conversation deftly away from that topic and Lilly had let him. In the morning, he made her breakfast again and they both looked out into the yard to see another few inches of newly fallen snow.
“We’ll never get out,” she said.
“Would that be such a bad thing?” Zach, wearing the sweatpants she’d given him but chest bare, drew her close. “I can think of a lot of ways to occupy our time.”
He sounded different today, unless it was her imagination. Lilly turned in the circle of his arms to face him. He looked a little different, too. Same dark eyes, thick dark hair, heavy brows. Yet something in his eyes had changed.
“Hmm,” Lilly mused and allowed him to pull her closer and nuzzle at her neck. “I wonder what that might be?”
“I can show you.”
She held him at arm’s length for a moment, studying him. “Zachariah.”
“Yes.” His gaze captured hers, held it.
“It’s an unusual name.”
“Depends on where you’re from.” He slipped his hands down to anchor at her hips.
His grin tempted her to return it. “True. I guess in Amish country it’s not so unusual. But you’re not Amish.”
“No, I’m not. But neither are you.” His mouth brushed hers and as his grin had tempted her to smile, so did his kiss.
Last night’s sex had been good enough to sate her for a few days—if this had been a normal situation, a normal man, but nothing about this was normal. His mouth and hands on her sent her mind spiraling straight into visions of sheer, blowing curtains and white, gigantic beds, of soft, pulsing music and writhing bodies.
“What is it about you,” she murmured against his lips, “that makes me fee
l like I’m in an early eighties high-concept music video?”
“Should I sing?” Zach traced the line of her jaw with his lips.
Lilly’s eyes had drifted half-shut with pleasure. She smiled. “Mmm, only if I can tease my hair and wear shoulder pads.”
“You may choose to do whatever you like with your hair, Lilly, but I’d prefer you to be naked with me now.”
She looked at him. She’d put on a loose cotton robe imprinted with a Japanese flower print. It should’ve been too light for winter temperatures, especially with all the snow, but even though she’d kept the thermostat low, the house had stayed at a comfortably warm temperature. Because of Zach, she thought, running her hands over his warm, bare skin.
Now she untied the belt and let the robe fall open. She was naked beneath it. There hadn’t seemed much point in putting on clothes now, as though they would be going outside or doing anything but what’d they’d done all night.
Did she need this? She still wasn’t sure. But she wanted it.
There in the kitchen, without fanfare, he went to his knees in front of her. He pressed his face to her belly, his hands cupping her rear. Every inch of her tingled at his touch, and again Lilly’s eyes fluttered closed. She had to force herself to open them. She didn’t want to miss a moment of this.
It wasn’t going to last.
That was why it was so easy to let him kiss her, touch her, lick her, stroke her. It wasn’t whatever mind-freak powers he had or the snow outside making it impossible for them to leave. It wasn’t her innately horny nature, which had led her to many a bed she’d later regretted. This wasn’t going to last and she didn’t want to waste a second. Not one breath, not one kiss.
Zach kissed her belly just over the small tattoo of interlocking hearts that formed the shape of a star and then looked up at her hiss. “Does that tickle?”
Lilly put her hand on top of his head. “Feels good.”
“I would have all this feel good.” He bent back to nuzzle along her hip and down her thigh.
He guided her back one step as one long arm reached to pull one of the kitchen chairs closer. The sound of the legs scraping the linoleum sent a shiver through her, but she giggled as he pushed her gently to sit. Her knees were already parting for him.
Zach stood long enough to shuck off his sweatpants before getting back on his knees. If the floor hurt them he didn’t show a sign of it. He looked into Lilly’s eyes and smiled, one side of his mouth tipping higher than the other.
“Wicked,” she murmured and touched his cheek. “You look wicked.”
“Some might say so,” Zach said in a low voice, but before she could ask him what he meant, he’d bent to kiss between her legs.
All speech became sighs. With everything they’d done the night before and into early morning, he hadn’t yet gone down on her. Lilly’s hips tipped up under his lips. Her fingers gripped the chair on either side of her. She slid her tongue over her lower lip, capturing the faintest flavor he’d left behind.
His mouth moved slowly, softly, sweet kisses interspersed with gentle suction on her clit. It was often hard for Lilly to abandon herself to a man’s tongue on her pussy—too often she worried about whether she’d shaved enough, if it was going to take her too long to come, if he really wanted to go down on her or if he was doing it out of a sense of obligation.
She didn’t worry about any of that with Zach. As she’d done from the moment she’d met him, Lilly gave herself up to whatever lay ahead. To his fingers stroking her inner thighs, to his lips and tongue on her clit. The chair creaked as her body moved.
Zach slid one of her legs over his shoulder and focused his tongue in smooth circles against her clit. Not too hard, not too fast, but with enough direct and constant pressure to build the desire that hadn’t really left her despite her earlier orgasms.
Lilly looked down at him, her fingers tightly wound in his hair. His eyes were closed. She’d never looked at him without him looking back. Now all she could see were those brows, the fringe of black lashes and the slope of his nose. Broad shoulders and if she peeked, the expanse of his back and a hint of his ass. His right hand gripped her thigh, but his left had gone between his legs, moving on his cock.
“That is so fucking sexy.” The words spilled out of her on a gasp.
Zach didn’t say anything, but she felt his smile against her and saw it in the crinkles at the corners of his eyes. His breath huffed out as his arm moved a little faster. Oral sex and hand jobs had always been foreplay, but she wasn’t going to last long enough to get that far.
His tongue moved faster, steady, smooth flat strokes in perfect time with his arm’s motion. Lilly shifted, pushing herself against his tongue. Her hands held the chair so tight her fingers had gone a little numb; she’d think about that in a minute when she could think about something other than the bright, blinding pleasure flooding her and overflowing.
She came with a low moan. Her eyes closed, so she didn’t see the furrow of his brow, the jerk of his shoulders as Zach came, too. She could imagine it, though, on the sound of the moan answering hers. Then the climax rippled through her and made it impossible to imagine anything at all.
Blinking as sweet pleasure faded, leaving behind warmth and heaviness in every limb, Lilly looked at the man still kneeling in front of her. Sweat had pasted a few strands of his hair to his forehead. He licked his lips, drew in a breath. He kissed each thigh and withdrew just enough for her to see all of him.
His belly gleamed, wet. Zach drew his fingers through it and rubbed them together, then shook his head. The look he gave her was bemused.
“This body,” he said. “What a great miracle, to make life.”
Lilly, languid and sated, pulled him by the shoulder to bring him close enough to kiss. “I’ve met a lot of men who thought what came out of their pricks was magic, but never one who thought it was a miracle.”
He laughed. “But it is.”
He took her hand and ran it across the sticky wetness. With anyone else, Lilly would’ve squirmed, wrinkled her nose, pulled away. With Zach, she let him make her feel it, already drying on his skin.
“Nes Gadol Haya Sham,” he murmured into her mouth. “A great miracle happened there. Yes?”
This struck Lilly so funny she giggled, and the giggle became a guffaw. “Nun, gimmel, hay, shin. Just like on the dreidel!”
Zach got to his feet and pulled her up with him, into his arms. “Yes. Just like that.”
“Dude, I have to tell you, I’ve never met a guy who compared his come with spinning a dreidel.” She laughed a little more, interrupted by his kisses.
“All of this,” Zach told her, “is a miracle.”
And Lilly believed him.
* * *
Sixth night, seven candles.
They’d eaten all the latkes and decided against more. Spun the dreidel, playing for peanuts, literally. Lilly’d shown Zach how to crack the shells and eat the nuts inside, and now when she kissed him she thought of baseball and the circus.
“Do you know baseball?” she asked, curious.
“I do.”
“How? From inside my head? Intercepted space transmissions? What?” She was straddling him on the couch, their bellies touching, the tips of her breasts brushing his chest.
Zach shifted her weight just slightly to stretch out his long legs. He was silent for so long Lilly wondered if she’d somehow misstepped. Then he said, slowly, “Lilly, I should tell you something.”
She tucked his hair behind his ears and cupped his face. “If you tell me your real name is Joe Smith and you’re from Milwaukee, and all of this is some elaborate setup, I swear to you I will kick that very fine ass from here all the way back to Wisconsin.”
“No. I’m not from Milwaukee. But I’m not what you think I am.”
They’d made love on and off all day, his stamina impressive and hers unexpectedly astounding. Even so, his cock stirred, half-hard between them. Lilly shifted to press her belly to him
.
“Nobody ever is, Zach.” She’d meant this to sound light and not philosophical. Certainly not sad. She surely hadn’t meant for tears to fill her eyes or clog her throat.
He looked solemn and brought up a thumb to brush away the tear Lilly was aching to pretend she hadn’t shed. “I’m sorry for the hurts that have been done to you.”
“I’m not the only woman who’s had a shitty love life. It could’ve been worse. I could’ve been with men who abused me or stole from me. Addicts. I could’ve been with men who treated me a lot worse than simply not...loving me.”
Spoken aloud, she sounded more pathetic. Lilly bit down hard to keep herself from saying more. She didn’t want to look at his face, but she did. This time when he kissed her, he breathed in as she breathed out.
Zach unclipped the barrette keeping her hair piled high. “You have beautiful hair.”
Her dark curls fell down over her shoulders and back, tickling and erotic. He pulled the locks forward over her breasts, covering them yet with no pretense at modesty. Heat, not a blush, swept over her at his scrutiny.
“Should I dance for you?” she asked.
Zach tilted his head, giving her that curious look she’d seen less and less of since they’d had sex. “Would you like to?”
“With my hair this way I feel like I should be doing the Dance of the Seven Veils or something.”
Zach laughed. “If it would please you to dance for me, Lilly, I’d be happy to watch.”
“Wait here.” She got off his lap and went to the bedroom for a handful of silk scarves she’d collected over the years. From her jewelry box she grabbed a belled ankle bracelet that had been a holiday gift in an office gift exchange—she’d given a gift certificate to a local restaurant and felt cheated in return, but was grateful for it, now.
Swathed in silk and lace, jingling with each step, her hair unbound and wild, Lilly returned to the living room. Zach hadn’t moved. On her iPod she found an old playlist, all songs with sexy, sensual beats. Songs to fuck to. She couldn’t remember who she’d made it for, if anyone, and decided it didn’t matter.
When the music began she turned, hip cocked, to face him. “Are you sure you can handle this?”