The corner of my mouth crooked up in a half-smile. In the eternal, paraphrased words of Yoda, I had to do or do not. There was no try.
With that thought uppermost in mind, I moved on quiet feet into the bathroom and knelt by the side of the tub. I tested the water with a finger and found a faint hint of warmth lingering. Using that finger, I stroked the curve of Birdie’s jaw, travelling from ear to the mid-point of her jaw, and then down along the tendon in her neck until I reached her collarbone.
Her eyes popped open and she turned her head. “Hayes.” Realization that she was in the bathtub and nude hit her in the next instant, judging from the flush that rose from her chest to her cheeks. “What are you doing?” She sat and pulled her knees to her chest in an effort to hide.
“You sent me a text. I came home.”
“It wasn’t an invitation,” she hissed, looking past me. “Hand me a towel?”
“Do I have to?”
“Y-yes…” She held steady as I leaned in.
“Because I’d much rather kiss you.” I suited action to words, kissing her shoulder first, and then the juncture of neck and jaw, before moving to her lips. They were parted with surprise, making it absurdly easy to trace her mouth with my tongue before slipping it inside to explore, slow and thorough.
She made a little sound, a mewl that signified either acceptance or submission, and relaxed into the kiss. I deepened it, twisting my hand in her knot of hair and tilting her head to give me better access. She met me stroke for stroke, her tongue dancing and dueling with mine, her arms coming up to twine around my neck and send water coursing down my back. The warm touch of metal against my tongue sent a tingle down my spine.
With a groan, I slipped an arm beneath her bent legs, braced her securely against my chest, and rose. Water poured off her, drenching me and the floor as I turned to carry her to the bedroom. I laid her on the bed and came down beside her, breaking our kiss only to slide my mouth along her neck and chest, down to the swells of her breasts. She moaned as I took one in my mouth and covered the other with my hand, circling her nipple with the pad of my thumb. “Oh, God…it’s too much, Hayes. I can’t —” She broke off with a rusty sounding groan as I sucked hard, arching up off the bed and into my mouth.
I smiled against her skin. Her breasts had always been sensitive to the point of pain. As I continued moving down her body, pausing to nuzzle my nose into the very slight swell of her belly, I wondered how far she would allow things to progress. She wasn’t ready for sex. She might want sex, but that’s all it would be. It wouldn’t be making love, like it was for me. I needed this to mean something. So, in spite of the aching pressure of my cock, this wouldn’t be a happy ending for me.
But I could make Birdie feel good.
Sitting up, I shrugged out of my wet shirt and tossed it to the floor. Birdie’s eyes were lambent on me as she reclined back into the pillows, shining as they followed every movement I made. I unbuttoned and slid out of my pants so I could move more comfortably, tossing them after the shirt. Her lips parted as her eyes landed on me, straining against my boxer briefs.
“I don’t remember this kind of thing,” she said softly. I gave myself a firm squeeze and groaned.
“Don’t worry, Mini. This is just for you.” I pressed a brief kiss against her mouth and then retraced my earlier progress until I found her core. Parting her folds with my fingers, I placed a tender kiss against her nub, and when she shivered against my mouth, swirled my tongue around and sucked it fully into my mouth. Birdie squealed, arching against me, and I lapped against it, soothing and stimulating all at once. The taste of her, musky and tart, filled my senses and I growled into her.
I loved eating pussy. Especially Birdie’s pussy. Loved the little sounds she made, each guttural uh and oh. I loved the helpless little rocks of her hips against my face, as if she was trying to be polite and not suffocate me but couldn’t help herself. Loved her wetness and flavor exploding upon my tongue.
Grabbing her hips, I pulled her more firmly onto my questing tongue, spreading her wide.
“God… Hayes…”
Her movements became more urgent. I inserted one finger, then two, crooking them until I found the one spot I was searching for. Her body pulled taut, like a wire, and she came with soft whimpers and pulses that wracked her form against my face, until with a final shudder, she went limp.
I gave her a final kiss, laughing softly when she jerked reflexively against me, and then moved up to pull her into my arms, big spoon to little spoon.
│Birdie
I LAY IN HAYES’ ARMS FOR AS LONG AS I COULD STAND IT. I was wide awake, strangely energized and jittery. I needed to move.
And then there was the flash of memory I’d had as I’d come down from my orgasm. It was nothing I could assign any real context to, just a brief glimpse of a cunning face surrounded by sleek blonde hair. I recognized her as Serena Hansen, the waitress at John John’s the other day, but I couldn’t figure out why her features were popping into my mind after having mind-blowing oral sex with Hayes.
I could only imagine that my subconscious was trying to tell me something.
It was confusing; hence I needed to move.
Beside me, Hayes had fallen asleep, his arm relaxed and heavy across my waist. His hand rested on my stomach, a possessive weight. I slid from under it, holding my breath when he stirred, until he was still again.
Quietly, I dressed in a pair of leggings and a sweatshirt; then wrangled my hair into submission. My shoes were in the kitchen. I pulled them on and sent a quick text to Remi, asking her to meet me at the same diner I’d met Levi at days earlier. I wrote a note to Hayes, telling him I was going to do some Christmas shopping.
Then I left.
Remi was already seated in a booth when I arrived at the diner. I gave an uncertain ‘hello’ to Levi’s mother and sat down across from her.
“Hey, chickadee. Already ordered for you,” Remi said.
“Thanks. I am starving. Except for my morning crackers, I haven’t eaten yet. If I don’t get Baby fed soon it’s going to be Pukesville.”
“Why haven’t you eaten yet? Regular meals, Birdie!”
“I was busy.” I felt my cheeks flame and looked off to the side.
“Uh-uh. I know that look. What were you busy with?”
Flo arrived with our plates, saving me from an immediate answer. I knew Remi wasn’t finished, though.
“How are you doing, Birdie? Levi was telling me about your situation.” She tapped her temple meaningfully and a laugh escaped me. I couldn’t take offense. I liked her no-nonsense demeanor. I’d been doing plenty of thinking about my situation, as she called it, doing a fair bit of feeling sorry for myself before arriving at a kind of peace with it. Maybe I wouldn’t remember everything. There were worse things.
“I guess the good thing about it is that I can’t remember if I was an awful person before the accident or recall the things that might make me sad. It’s a clean slate.”
Flo leaned a hip against the table and settled in for a chat. “You feel like you need a clean slate?”
I considered my answer for the space of time it took me to take a bite and chew. I couldn’t wait any longer, manners or not. “Well. Maybe. And maybe there are those around me that need that clean slate. I may not ever know.” I took another bite. “And it’s nice that I get to experience things all over again.” Uppermost in my mind was my experience this morning. It was, for all intents and purposes, one of my first experiences with intimacy. “You remember when you were young, and everything you hadn’t yet experienced was a rush? Something to get excited about, to look forward to — or something to stew over and be anxious about. That’s me, right now.”