#odd_writing

“Gonna come f’r me, ain’t’chu? Gonna fall apart?” he cooed, only half paying attention to what he was even saying. Lori wasn’t listening much either, but the tone of his voice alone had her writhing.

“Yeah, gonna come for you, Arthur, I’m so close!” she whimpered. “Come for me too? Please?”

“Gonna come so hard for you, wanna fill you up —”

Arthur had to cut himself off as Lori tightened around his cock at his words, and he let his tempo pick up, pounding into her faster as he neared his own finish.

"God, I wanna put another baby in you," he blurted out suddenly.

"Arthur!" Lori cried in response, fingernails pricking into the skin of his shoulders.

His rhythm stuttered at the same time as his words as he scrambled to cover what he’d just said.

"I know, 's okay if it don't take, 's okay I swear. God, you just look so good when you're round, heavy with our baby— fuck! 'M sorry, I jus'—"

"Arthur," she interrupted more softly, reaching up to cup his jaw in her hands, forcing him to tip his head up and look at her. “Come inside me,” she commanded, “And don’t you waste a single drop.”

"Jesus...” he groaned out, eyes squeezing shut, his hands gripping at her waist harder. “You wanna be full of me?" he hissed, and when he opened his eyes again, they were burning like blue flame.

His entire demeanor had changed, from almost embarrassed by his own thoughts to heated and hungry, almost feral for her in a way that took her breath away. She answered his question with a frantic nod, not trusting her voice to stay as steady as it had been.

Arthur’s hips jolted forward in a heavy thrust, harder than he’d taken her all night, plunging as deep as he could go into her dripping cunt.

"I'm gonna fill you up, gonna keep you full," he said, almost snarling with the savage promise, eyes fever bright, heated, excited.

"Please!" she begged, feeding off the sudden rise in his energy, the possessive way he clutched her closer, kept his hips against hers, tight, like any space at all was too much.

"Gonna fuck you over —" he thrust into her, hard. "— an' over —" he thrust again. "— an' over again. ‘Til it takes," he panted.

"God, yes!"

“Yeah, you want me to make you a mama again, don’t’chu?” Arthur gave her a sharp, slanted smile, cocky and sure of himself; he had her in the palm of his hand, taking her apart as he grabbed her legs and wrapped them around his hips as he rocked into her. “Show the world that you're mine?” he purred, leaning down, putting his hands on the bed on either side of her shoulders so he could curl over her. “That you let me, of all the sorry bastards in the world, come inside this sweet cunt?”

“Only you, ever,” Lori said, a blissed out smile crossing her lips.

“Damn right.” Arthur dipped his head down, taking her lips with his, kissing her even more senseless than she already was from his cock alone.

“Please, Arthur!” she whimpered, wrapping her arms around his neck as his lips drifted from hers, nipping at her neck and collarbone. “Ah! Please please please, Arthur, please, I want a baby — need your baby, please!”

“Come for me, angel, want to feel you come all over me, then I'll fill you up so good —”

He didn't need to say it again. He barely had time to say it once before Lori came with a shout, her fluids dripping out of where his cock plunged into her, coating him and leaving a slick white ring around his girth, stretching her as he swelled further.

Feeling her shatter beneath him, a soul bared as it left her body for a moment through the cracks in her chest, was his last straw. Arthur slammed home, buried himself in her sopping heat until he could feel the end of her channel against his weeping tip, and let go. The wave of ecstasy that swept over him left him seeing white, ripped a moan from him that shredded his throat, and pushed him to try, as futile as it was, to press that much deeper. He needed to be closer, needed to leave traces of himself so deep inside her they'd never leave.

The world slowly came back, the wingbeat-quick pounding of Lori’s pulse beneath his lips on her skin, her breaths catching in her chest like broken sobs, the cooling sweat on his back, stinging in the marks Lori had left on his shoulders.

“God, Arthur...” Lori whined, hitching with a thickness in her voice.

Arthur lifted his head to see the streaks of tears on her cheeks, at odds with the beaming smile she couldn't fight back.

“Shhhh, darlin’...” he whispered, wiping one thumb across the wet mark and resting his forehead against hers. “You alright?”

“Yeah,” she nodded, voice cracking, one of her shaking hands joining his in brushing away the tears. “I'm okay, I'm more than okay.”

Arthur bundled her up in his arms and shuffled them both up toward the head of the bed, lying her head on her pillow like she was a delicate gem. He silently cleaned her up, dampening a soft towel with the pitcher of water in the corner and wiping the stickiness of sweat and their combined mess from her thighs.

“Sure you're okay?” he asked softly as he slipped into the bed beside her and wrapped one arm around her, tugging her close to his side.

She nodded, eyelids drooping as she laid her head on his chest.

“I didn't think that... you wanted more.”

“Oh, darlin’...” he sighed, tipping her head up with two fingers under her chin. “It ain't that I want... ain't that I need more. I have more than I ever thought I'd get already. I have you. I have Irene. You've given me so much.” He kissed her softly. “It's okay, I swear it is, if we never have another, if it don't take... You're still so beautiful when you're carryin’ our baby, it... it does somethin’ to me. But it won't change a thing if all I ever get is what you've given me. You've given more ‘n I deserved. I have everything so long as I have you.”

“You deserve the world, Arthur,” Lori said sleepily, taking his hand from beneath her chin and turning it around to kiss his knuckles. “You're everything to me, too.”

She slipped away into content, sated sleep, held in his arms, with a spark of hope growing in her heart.

The music that so juxtaposed their current pain coming to a halt didn't inspire much hope. The distant, indistinct shouting, however, moreso. Perhaps this meant a stranger had stumbled across this isolated mountain cabin - if they were lucky, the stranger would be no worse than their captors.

She filled her lungs with freezing air, taking deep breaths to tear open the way her throat felt stuck together with thirst, preparing to shout as much as she could from around the gag in her mouth, to scream and scream and scream, and pray someone could hear her that had no intention of doing anything more terrible than what they'd already endured.

Gunshots cut her off before she even could.

Gunshots. Of course it was gunshots. She'd heard enough gunshots to last her a lifetime, but the world was too full of them. These would hardly be the last.

Her sister let out a broken sob when even that unholy volley of death and shouting went quiet, and her mind raced - did she dare risk a fury her bruised and broken skin already knew on the slim chance the men who'd imprisoned them were dead? If they weren't, and they doled out a punishment she'd already taken from them before, could she withstand the beating long enough to protect her sister?

To be fair, she decided, she could withstand anything, for her.

She screamed.

Wordless, pitiful and sharp with pain, drowned by the spit-soaked cloth that dug into the corners of her mouth, shredding her throat and lungs with the volume she tried to reach to compensate.

For a moment, even in her head, it's all she could hear.

Then, boots scuffling overhead.

The creak of the cellar door.

Lantern and fire light.

“Listen, numbskull, I can touch ‘er if I damn well please. If she don’t like it, then she shouldn’t’ve been battin’ her eyelashes like some whore —”

Arthur’s first punch sounded like it broke bone, and Lori was sure she saw a piece of tooth in the blood the man spat on the ground. Before the stranger had even a moment to recover, Arthur swung again, pummeling his fist deep into the man’s gut and knocking the wind out of him. From where the man had doubled over, Arthur grabbed him by the shoulder and pushed him upright, just to hit him again. The uppercut left him sprawling back onto the table behind him, cracking the wood and scattering cards, drinks, and angry customers.

The stranger staggered back to his feet and shook his head, dazed. Arthur turned back to the bar and picked up his drink, downing it in one quick gulp like he didn’t want to lose out on what he’d paid for when he inevitably got kicked out.

The other man took the opening and sprang forward to wrap his arms around Arthur’s neck, trying to put him in a chokehold. Lori could only look on in amazement as Arthur merely reached up over his head, grabbed two fistfuls of the man’s dingy shirt near his shoulders and heaved, lifting him clear off his feet and throwing him over his shoulder to land on his back on the bar.

Winded again, the stranger scrambled behind the bar then bolted toward the door. Arthur met him stride for stride and cut him off. The man swung, but Arthur grabbed his fist, shoved it away and headbutted him full in the face.

Blood cascaded down the stranger’s face, and now he was swinging blind. He got one lucky hit in, clipping Arthur across the jaw, but if anything, that just made him angrier.

Grabbing the man by the collar, Arthur reeled him in closer, drawing back and striking him across the cheekbone, again, and again, and again. The man’s fingers scrabbled uselessly against Arthur’s forearm, but he was unphased by the attempts to get him to loosen his grip.

Flight failing him, the man had no choice left but to fight, and he brought an arm down hard against Arthur’s elbow, unlocking the stiff, straight arm he’d been holding him back with. That brought Arthur within reach, and the man landed a decent hit to his temple with a thud. The momentum of Arthur’s head snapping to the right carried through as his whole body turned, but he used the grip he still had to fling the man down onto the floor.

From where he landed, the stranger made a desperate decision. A foolish one.

There was a swell of panic when bystanders saw the flash of a revolver, but Arthur’s reflexes were faster. He kicked the gun out of the man’s hand with no small amount of spite, and stamped his boot down hard on his wrist so he couldn’t try and reach it. Lori cringed when the crunching and snapping of bone met her ears, but couldn’t dig up much sympathy.

“This the hand you touched her with?” Arthur sneered, leaning down to get in the man’s face and pushing that much harder with his foot, grinding the wrist beneath his foot into the floorboards until the man screamed. “Ain’t gonna be of much use to ya now, is it? Might be you should’a listened, ‘fore you lost the ability to listen at all.”

He drew his own revolver, cocking it and pointing it down squarely at the man’s forehead.

“That’s enough, Arthur, this isn’t anything to spill blood over,” Lori interjected then.

Arthur paused, looking down his nose at the sniveling stranger, a rage still written plain as day on his face, deep enough it was almost disgust.

“You're lucky,” he muttered, his thumb letting the hammer of his cattleman down slowly. “Real lucky... if I had my way your head would’a had a hole the size of New Hanover in that thick skull. The lady thinks different. For now.”

With that lingering threat, Arthur holstered his gun, reaching down to haul the man off the floor — still by his shirt collar — with his other hand.

“Now get outta here. You so much as look at her, you won't get a second chance.” He shoved, hard, forcing the man to stumble toward the door, cradling a clearly broken wrist as he went.

The saloon was as silent as a cemetery as Arthur stalked back to the bar.

“Get me a room, would ya?” he said, tossing a coin onto the bartop and leaning on it, side by side with Lori again.

“Sir —”

“Look, I think we c’n all agree he started it. I was just finishin’ it. I warned him, even. Ain’t my fault he didn't listen. In my books, we're all squared and even, and while I'm not sayin’ you oughta do me any favors for stoppin’ him from shootin’ up the place, it oughta count for somethin’, wouldn't you agree? Now, if I could get a room, please, for me an’ the young lady.”

That, Lori could agree with, if for no other reason than getting out from underneath the eyes of everyone else in the room.

The bartender sighed, looked around at the carnage, then fished beneath the counter for a moment before dropping a key into Arthur’s extended palm. “Room three.”

“Thank ya kindly.” His fingers curled around the little sliver of metal slowly, then he turned toward Lori and held his arm out to her to slip hers through.

The rough, dangerous demeanor stayed firmly in place as he walked her down the hall to where the rooms were, unlocked the door, and gestured for her to enter first.

As soon as he stepped over the threshold after her, he changed. All of the hard angled lines softened, the heavily gritted jaw went loose as he breathed out slowly. When his hand caught hers, it was gentle, like he was worried about breaking a butterfly’s wing.

“You alright, darlin’?” he asked, and hearing his voice sink so softly into a register that Lori was beginning to realize only she ever heard made her heart stutter in her chest.

It was all for her.

Lori didn’t answer him directly, choosing instead to reach up, cup her hand against the hinge of his jaw, and pull him down to her level, sealing her lips to his with a fervor she didn’t entirely understand.

It was for her.

Not the violence, not the crack of bone and breaking glass.

This.

This softness in his rugged, scar-torn body. This tenor in his voice that gave her goosebumps down to her very soul.

This man, who was so easily capable of hurting, of throwing grown men like they were no more than sacks of grain, breaking jaws with a single punch, was tender with her in a way that made her head spin.

“Not the response I was expectin’ followin’ that,” Arthur chuckled as she let him go.

“I forget, sometimes...” she pondered, setting her other hand against his, palm to palm, and lacing their fingers together, “...just how strong you are. What you’re capable of.”

Arthur looked away, trying to pull himself out from under her touch, but she reeled him back. She tucked her hand against the back of his neck, fingers threading through his long hair and tangling through the strands.

“What I’m capable of ain’t good, sweetheart,” he said, like he was reminding her.

“This?” Lori asked, tugging on the hand she still held and placing it against her hip. “Your touch being so... so gentle for me? That’s not good? Inherently, intrinsically good?”

“That ain’t what you meant,” Arthur grumbled, though his hand stayed exactly where she’d put it, fingers squeezing slightly.

“It is what I meant. I watched you wreck that man without even breaking a sweat, without a second thought —” She caught him again when he flinched. “— and that is the strength I get to feel tempered. For me.”

She caught his lips again, trying and probably failing to convey what she was feeling through the touch. 

Arthur certainly got the sense of something wild about her, something that was desperate for closeness suddenly. He wasn’t about to deny her that.

Lori’s mouth worked against his and she pushed him back gently, taking blind steps with him across the floor until his calves hit the edge of the bed. Even then, she didn't let up, not until he had no choice but to let himself fall to sitting, landing with a groan from the bedframe beneath him.

Satisfied with where he ended up, she let him go and started undoing the buttons on her blouse almost frantically. Arthur caught on quick enough, and his hands fell to his own shirt. He didn't really bother with the buttons – the few that were already open and showing just a peek of his chest hair were enough for him to pull it up over his head. He shucked off his jeans as he scooted back up toward the head of the bed, and Lori eagerly followed.

Eager was the word of the moment, it seemed, as there wasn't many other words to describe the way she grabbed Arthur’s hands in hers as she crawled over his lap and settled over his thighs. She pulled them forward to put them against her body, cupping her own breasts in his palms.

“Lord above, darlin’, what’s gotten into you?” Arthur asked breathlessly as he backed up just enough to speak.

“You're just...” Lori started, but couldn't find the words before she became too impatient to keep trying. She just sealed their lips again, getting lost in him.

This had begun as Lori leading Arthur’s touch, squeezing his fingers around her breasts, but he was taking over, massaging the soft flesh with a firm grip. He took her nipples between his thumbs and forefinger and rolled them slowly.

“You're always so careful with me,” Lori whispered. “You don't understand how that feels... how much it means that your touch is always so gentle when I know how much control it takes to keep it that way."

“I don't wanna hurt you, angel. Not ever,” Arthur murmured.

“I don't think you ever could, dearest,” she sighed as the pleasure started to ramp. “And that's what means so much, because it's so easy with a strength like yours to hurt without meaning to. But I've only ever felt safe with you, and it makes me feel so... incredibly special.”

“You are,” he insisted, hands becoming claw-like as he clutched her close, and closer still.

Lori squirmed in his hold, dragging one of his hands down her body, widening her thighs so she could lead his touch between them. He didn't need to be told more than once, and slipped his middle finger down across her core, skipping across her clit just enough to tease before pushing into her entrance.

“Good lord, darlin’, all this for me? After beatin’ that poor feller like that?”

“Does your strength disgust you so much that it would surprise you? It was for me, Arthur. Because he was a threat to me, wouldn't take no as an answer, could've hurt me,” Lori said, letting her hips roll against his hand wantonly. “All of that strength and power, but it's to protect me. And then! Then you go and touch me like this... How can I not love your strength when I get to see who you are beneath it?”

“Sweetheart, you keep sayin’ it... might end up believin’ you,” Arthur said. His voice was thick like he was almost choked up, but when he looked up and met her eyes, there was a spark buried in the affection in his gaze.

“You’d better believe me,” Lori said with a wolfish grin, grabbing the sides of his face and pulling him into a fiery kiss.

Her passion was kindling, and Arthur let himself go up in that blaze, returning the kiss with the same ferocity.

The surge of pleasure from his finger sinking into her cunt drew the breath from her lungs in a rush, and he took that moment to nip at her lower lip. She was past ready for a second, and even a third finger as he stretched her pliant walls to accommodate him.

“Arthur!” Lori pleaded. “Darling, I want you.”

“You'll have me, angel. C’mere.” Arthur wrapped his free hand around her, low against the dip of her back so she couldn't move away as he crooked his fingers deep within her.

She wasn't planning on going anywhere. She merely spread her thighs wider, thrusting herself into his touch more. Her body writhed and curled around him as he rubbed his fingertips against that one spot that made sparks dance behind her eyes. His touch had her flying toward release, climbing to that blissful precipice — but she wanted something different.

“I want you. I want you in me when I come, Arthur. Please.”

He moaned at the sound of his name, fingers stuttering in their rhythm before he took them out with a slick sound.

It only took a brief shift for Lori to position herself so Arthur’s cock was at her entrance and lower herself until she could feel the hot, blunt head press against her. Tension built and built until the tip popped inside as the pressure caved, and they both gasped to catch their breath.

“Easy, darlin’...” Arthur breathed, letting her take the lead on exactly how fast he was sinking into her waiting heat.

“I'm not glass,” Lori whispered back, slowly easing herself down in one smooth movement that had him buried as deep as he could go in one easy push.

“Well good. Or this’d go a bit differently,” Arthur chuckled, sliding his hands up her back.

A boyish grin stretched across his lips as his hips rolled. He carried her weight in his arms with no effort and laid her on the bed on her back, without ever slipping free of her. Her golden hair spread across the sheets as she giggled.

The first real thrust of his hips against hers wiped the amused expression from her face entirely and replaced it with a wash of pleasure, and her hands wrapped around his forearms as she gripped whatever she could reach, desperate to hold on.

Encouraged, Arthur fell into a steady rhythm, pistoning into her with long strokes so she could feel every inch of his cock within her. It was an ebb and flow, a rolling tide with no pause or peak, sheer ecstacy flooding through her at the stretch of her walls, the push of his girth against her most sensitive places.

Lori could feel herself rising, tightening around him, back bowing, but there was something just beyond, something out of reach.

"Harder, Arthur! Please!” she begged, her eyelashes fluttering, fingernails carving little crescent shaped divots into the cords of muscle along his arms.

He responded instinctually, panting harshly as he thrust into her harder. It was no faster or slower, but each buck of his hips had a new swell of power behind it; he would’ve sent her sliding backwards if he didn't have such a grip on her hips. The force clipped off the ends of her moans.

“Oh! Fuck — Arthur — Yes!” Lori cried, letting her hands fall to the bed and tangle helplessly in the sheets, warping the fabric as threads creaked.

All she could do was lie there and take exactly what she had asked for, arching her hips to accept every heavy plunge. Feel the overwhelming deluge of pleasure brought by that glorious cock finding every hidden and secret place inside of her and pounding it raw and frayed.

With the litany of her moans, there would be no question of what was going on behind closed doors to anyone across the hall who could hear them. She was his. He would protect her, and she would thank him every time, just like this.

“Christ, you're close, ain't you? Can feel you gettin’ tighter,” Arthur groaned.

“I am!” she gasped, squeezing her eyes shut and tipping her head back. “Just — I need —” She couldn't think clearly enough to know what she needed. All she knew is she was closer and closer still, and she knew what had gotten her here. “Harder?” she questioned herself, and the fission of pleasure that shot down her spine answered. “Please? Arthur, please!”

“You sure?” he questioned, looking worried.

“Yes! Harder, please! Need to feel you!”

He acquiesced little by little, the following thrusts each coming just a little harder until he was slamming his length into her with every ounce of strength he had in him. And she took it. She took it all, every girthy inch, every ram of his cock against her cervix,

Arthur’s hips hitting Lori’s skin where her ass met the underside of her thighs was enough to burn pink and then red over the minute it took for her to shatter like glass. Her cunt squeezed down around the solid column of his cock like she was trying to crush stone.

Half because he could feel his own orgasm just a breath away, but also because the force of Lori’s walls convulsing nearly pushed him out of her channel entirely, he pulled out. Rutting his cock against her sopping pussy was enough to snap the weak tether he had on his sanity, still able to feel the rhythmic pulse, and he streaked her lower belly with ropes of white.

“Jesus...” Arthur barely caught himself as his legs threatened to give way beneath him, bracing his hands on the bed above Lori’s heaving shoulders.

“Yeah,” she panted, fully agreeing with the sentiment alone.

“Is this gonna be how you respond every time I near beat a feller t’ death ‘cause he was botherin’ you?” Arthur asked, smiling down at her, slanted and smirking but charming.

Lori laughed with the breath she hadn't quite caught yet, planting a hand on his chest and shoving weakly.

“I don't need to encourage you,” she said. “But if it's for me? Well... it's a possibility.”

Arthur laughed, crows feet creasing the corners of his eyes. “No, sweetheart, I can’t say I do know,” he said. “Why don’t’chu explain t’me then, what more you could’ve meant by sayin’ you were ‘keen to steal my hat long before I gave it to ya?’”

“Oh c’mon, you know the ‘rules’ don’t you?” Lori said, spinning herself out from underneath his arm and traipsing back into the house.

“Sure do — ain’t sure you do though,” he said, following after her and stuffing his hands in his front pockets.

“Are you telling me that it isn’t a sign of intention for me to wear your hat?” she asked with a snicker.

“That’s certainly one word for it,” Arthur allowed.

Lori stepped up to him, reaching out and walking her fingers up his chest before grabbing his shirt collar, straightening it unnecessarily.

“Maybe I was saying I wouldn’t have minded a little... romance, before we really found one another,” she said lowly.

“Romance, huh?” Arthur cracked a smirk, looking down at her with hooded eyes.

She matched the shift in expression, a sly smile on her own lips as she took his jaw in her hand, running her thumb over his lower lip and watching it intently.

“Something of the sort...” she murmured.

Arthur leaned in, eager to give her the lips she seemed so entranced by, but before he could, she turned away again, walking briskly toward the bedroom.

“Or maybe I just thought I’d make a good cowgirl and I needed the hat to match,” she called, waving over her shoulder like she was brushing him off and ending the conversation. The sway in her hips, though, said she was anything but done with him.

Still half-bent to kiss her, he watched her go, each tease another chip out of his his self control.

He dimmed the last lantern and banked the fire in the living room before he joined her, shutting the door silently, aiming for casual, but the second he entered the room she could feel the energy lingering under his skin.

He approached her at the vanity where she sat, completely bare, running a comb through her hair like it was any other night. “Fancy yourself a cowgirl, do ya?” he asked.

“I’d make a great cowgirl,” Lori assured. Then she met his eye in the mirror and the smile she gave him was slanted and sharp, only softened by the splash of tipsy pink blush on her cheeks. “I can prove it too.”

Arthur raised a brow. “Can ya now? An’ how’re you plannin’ on doin’ that?”

“Go lie down and I’ll show you,” Lori purred.

A grin split his face as he turned and went to do exactly that, kicking his boots off at the foot of the bed and starting to unbutton his shirt.

He wasn’t fast enough for Lori’s tastes, as he was halfway through removing his final layer of clothing when she decided she was done preparing for the night, and she came up to where he was still standing at the edge of the bed. His hands stalled, union suit undone just past his navel, as one of Lori’s hands pressed against his chest.

On a normal day, she’d never be able to move him, but he was just caught off guard enough to fall when she pushed him down until he was sitting. She knelt with him, grabbing the cuffs around his ankles and swiftly pulling the constraining garment down his legs.

When she stood again and moved to straddle his lap, he chuckled, letting her climb over his thighs.

“Impatient girl,” he murmured up at her, but his hands were just as eager as he grabbed her hips and pulled her close.

“Can you blame me?” she giggled, reaching down to find his cock, hard already, and taking it in hand. “And it seems like I’m not the only one who is,” she goaded.

“You‘re sayin’ I’m too eager cause’a that, as if you ain’t drippin’ f’r me,” Arthur countered, and he could watch the blush on Lori’s cheeks deepen at his vulgar words — something she apparently still hadn’t gotten used to. He’d always found it adorable, especially when it juxtaposed the confidence in her actions like it did now.

One hand left the swell of her hip and maneuvered around hers to slip between her thighs. The wetness he felt there made his cock twitch and he moaned. Dripping had not been so literal when he said it, but she was, her slick coating his fingertips the second they brushed against her.

“Christ, darlin’, you really were wantin’ this, huh?” he asked.

Lori let out a dulcet hum in answer, cooing at his touch but not bowing to it. The alcohol had merely melted into confidence in her veins, and she let her body move how it wanted, fluid and enticing as she rolled her hips. The intense rapture in Arthur’s searing blue eyes as he touched her only made it burn hotter.

She settled her knees on the edge of the bed, put her hands on his shoulders and shoved, pushing him to his back so she was over him, her hair slipping from over one shoulder to frame her like a curtain of gold.

“Been wanting you under me so I can show you how well I ride,” she clarified in a seductive growl.

Arthur wasn’t sure he hadn’t died and gone to heaven — or maybe the devil on his lap was getting ready to drag him down to hell — when Lori wrapped her fingers around his wrist and brought the hand he’d worked against her to her mouth. Her pink tongue swirled around his fingers at the same time her hips circled the tip of his cock.

“Christ—”

Definitely a devil, as she chose that moment, that winded blasphemy, to sink down onto him so several solid inches were buried in her tight, soaking wet cavern.

He hadn’t intended to make her ride a difficult one, but the sudden pleasure had his hips bucking upward like he was a bronco trying to throw her off. Lori countered the movement, so the rest of his not unsubstantial length was speared into her with just that wild movement, and a sharp cry punched out of her chest.

Her thighs trembled hard enough he could feel it where they bracketed his and icy guilt flooded through Arthur’s veins.

“Shit,” he hissed. “Sorry darlin’, I couldn’t —”

Lori’s pointer finger landed on his lips, shutting him up swiftly. He looked up from where he could see the coiled muscle beneath her skin, taut and shivering, to meet her eyes, like embers in the quiet of their room.

Those eyes slipped closed, rolling back, as her other hand delved between her thighs, finding her clit and rolling it beneath two fingers on either side of the little pearl. The broken noise she let out and the fluttering clench of her stretched pussy around him hammered realization home for him. The trembling wasn’t shock or pain... it was because she was close. And she pushed herself over the edge with almost nothing at all.

His breathless, shocked moan was muffled, his lips still sealed closed, and he reached out in a blur to hold onto her, a lifeline in the tidal wave that threatened to pull him under already, the flickering pulse all-consuming to the vague haze of alcohol in his own veins.

“Fuck I love you,” Lori panted as the ecstasy faded.

“Don’t be sayin’ shit like that or I ain’t gonna last,” Arthur groaned, struggling to keep still — not even for her benefit, but for his own.

“You say that like that isn’t the whole plan.” Lori grinned, sharp-edged and dangerous, as she hooked her feet into the bend of Arthur’s knees, using them to brace her position as she lifted herself up.

“C’mon, darlin’, gimme a chance,” he gasped. “Wanna make it good for you too —”

“It will be,” Lori purred. Then she dropped, impaling herself on Arthur’s thick cock with a moan.

It took everything not to lose himself in the first few thrusts, and that was with his eyes shut tight. When he opened them again he couldn’t decide what he wanted to look at most, but it all added to the overwhelming flood: the look of sheer, abject pleasure on her face, the way her breasts bounced as she rode him, or the way he could watch himself swallowed whole, glistening and slick when she let him slip free for those few seconds before taking him in deep again.

Before long, Lori brushed his hands away from where he’d been clinging to the dip of her waist, as if wanting to prove she was doing this under her own power and didn’t need his help. Not that he was helping, he was just trying to hold on for dear life.

“Shit...” he ground out from behind clenched teeth, fraying and raw, fisting his hands in the sheet at the edge of the bed, fighting with the self control he didn’t have left.

Lori thrust herself down hard then paused, circling her hips heavily instead of lifting herself up again.

“Don’t make it easy, Arthur,” she murmured, skating her nails up his tensed stomach and swirling them through his chest hair. “Trying to show you how good a rider I am, aren’t I? Can’t do that if you’re going to be so docile.”

Arthur could only breathe heavily through his nose, the use of language absent in the feeling of her, the sound of her sweet voice so uncommonly confident.

“Let go,” she whispered, and then made sure he would. When she circled her fingers around her clit again, the sudden clench of her cunt around him wrenched an honest-to-god whine out of him, and his hips jumped off the bed in an uncoordinated thrust — one she met readily with her own, and he could feel his blunt tip bump up hard against the very end of her channel.

That slick pressure and the smooth grip of her walls on his cock as he moved within her was addictive, and his body was taking intention away from his mind little by little to chase that feeling. She’d wanted him to loosen his hold on the reins, but Arthur wasn’t sure he could let go just the fraction he wanted to.

“God I’m close,” Lori whimpered, and the spirals she drew over that hidden pearl grew tighter, more focused.

“Give it to me darlin’, please,” Arthur begged.

“Once you do,” she countered, shaking her head. “I want everything, I want you to let go, want... wanna ride you ‘til you snap, want you to come —”

“You come for me, angel, an’ I won’t be able t’ hold back,” he promised, locking eyes with her as he lifted his gaze.

She must have seen the absolute truth of it there, because she nodded, screwed her eyes shut and doubled-down, her hips giving little, stuttering jerks just to feel him so deep while her fingers grew almost frantic.

“Oh — oh god, yes!”

Arthur had every intention of purposefully giving in to the steadily growing demands of some feral part of him as soon as he felt her shatter around him, but he didn’t have time to make the choice. The rhythmic clench of Lori’s finish was too much to handle and he was lost in the primal need.

It felt like every buck of his hips threatened to unseat her, but she clung on, hands buried in the mussed up sheets beneath him, legs still locked where they were tucked beneath his. Her head was bowed, too heavy to lift, or she was too busy fighting for every gasping breath to bother, but she kept up with him even then, coming down heavily, skin slapping against skin every time he buried his cock as far as it could possibly go. His thrusts came quicker, shallower and shorter, until he was merely grinding up into her, stomach clenched as his hips chased her higher, the backs of his shoulders the only thing still pinned down to the bed until that taut cord that had been tightening low in his belly finally snapped. Arthur came with a gruff shout, the sound ripped out from his chest as his breath was punched from his lungs by the force of his pleasure.

When he slumped back onto the bed, Lori let him slip out of her, standing on her knees with shaking legs so his cock could fall free of her channel as it started to soften.

“Christ alive, sweetheart...” Arthur breathed, laying a hand over his heart like he was trying to make sure it was still beating.

Lori let herself collapse against him, and he wrapped her up in his arms, not quite crushing her against his chest. They stayed like that, feeling trembling limbs start to strengthen again, catching their breath, until she lifted her head.

“What’s the phrase?” she slurred, drunk off the ecstasy still, exhausted by the fervor. “Ridden hard and put away wet?”

Lori's golden blonde brows pinched together, and her breath caught. But it wasn’t enough for him, he needed to feel her shatter. They had come together, but he didn’t dare spill inside her. He missed the throb of her pussy sucking him in when he pulled out, and something desperate inside him was starving for that feeling.

His hand slid across her sweat-soaked skin, over the rise and fall of her chest as she panted in the humid air, over her soft belly and down. The seed he had left there slicked beneath his fingertips as he went, smearing pearlescent lines across her hip bones. It had soaked into the thatch of hair, and when he drew his thumb through the curls he collected the shining fluid; his first touch against her clit was slippery and smooth and Lori gasped like she’d touched a livewire.

“Yes, ah— yes darlin’, that’s it,” Arthur moaned, feeling her clench down around him.

“Oh fuck!” Lori squeaked, head thumping back to the sheets, lashes fluttering as she looked up at him.

Their eyes met, and Arthur couldn’t stand the distance. He leaned down, claiming her lips with his hungrily, working narrow circles around that little pearl so she got tighter and tighter —

Lori sobbed, breaking away from the kiss as she came unraveled, bliss spreading through her in ribbons.

The fire burning within Arthur erupted, the sound he made was ragged, almost wounded, as she came and he felt her walls pulling him in with an all-consuming pulse. It took effort to push himself deeper, the clutch of her greedy channel was almost too tight to let him move, and his hips were dragged to a stop, each thrust slower than the last as he lost steam.

Every shudder that worked its way through Lori passed to him, and he shivered violently as he was ravaged by too much to feel at once.

She reached up toward him, resting her hands against his cheeks, carefully pulling him down to kiss him again.

“I love you,” she whispered against his mouth.

His hips rocked forward.

Sensitivity ripped a whine from his throat. He thrust again anyway.

“Love you...” he mumbled. “Wanna feel you —” Another wave of oversensitivity cut his words off with a whimper.

“Arthur, you can stop, sweetheart,” Lori urged, voice tight as she spoke through the rush of her own pleasure.

“No,” Arthur blurted out, shaking his head vehemently. “Just need to feel it. Need t’ feel you.”

The hand set between her thighs hadn’t moved, still poised to toy with the sensitive bundle of nerves at the apex of her folds. So he did.

She loved him.

“Again —” Arthur choked out. “Please, darlin’, please.”

She loved him, and it felt like kerosene. It was real, and it was burning at him with no way to put out the flame. She loved him and she meant it and he would smolder to ash if he couldn’t feel proof of what he did for her one more time.

“Need ya to, need to feel you come — need to make you come again...” he rambled in jagged whispers.

She loved him, and he’d show her how much that meant.

Every thrust into her soaked cunt filled the room with the wet sound of skin on skin. She was drenched, dripping onto the sheet below her, so alive with pleasure she couldn’t contain it, cries, moans, gasps of his name all spilling out from her lips.

This was how much she loved him. She trusted him to take her apart, and put her back together again.

He trusted her enough for the same.

“Arthur! I’m— oh god, I’m—”

“Please,” he begged. “Please, please, please—”

Threads snapped.

For Lori, it was the tension that had been building low in her belly, deep inside her.

For Arthur, it was the tether to his sanity.

He no longer controlled his body, his mind was lost in the white-hot flare behind his eyes, the pleasure that was laced with pain that screamed at him. Shaking arms gave way, dropping him to his elbows, and he buried his face in the crook of Lori’s neck as he moaned because he couldn’t find the power to lift it. His hips rolled against hers, desperately trying to bury his cock as deeply as he could, but it wasn’t a conscious desire to be closer, it was something primal he just couldn’t rein in.

There was a ringing in his ears he hadn’t heard until Lori’s voice started to filter through it.

“Sweetheart? C’mon dearest, come back to me,” she was saying.

Arthur lifted his head to meet her eye, finding concern in her dark gaze.

“A bit... much?” she asked with a soft, satiated smile.

They came to another intersection in the hall, and Lori paused for half a moment to listen before peaking around the edge.

“Hey, who’s that?”

Arthur heard an unknown voice call, and then Lori was a blur, spinning away from the corner and around him, grabbing his hand to yank him into whatever room they were right next to.

It turned out to be the dining room, blessedly empty of people, but also barren of good places to hide.

Lori locked the door behind them and then started looking around.

“What now?” Arthur asked, but Lori just shushed him harshly.

“Come on, he’ll be right on us in a second,” she hissed, grabbing his hand again and taking him with her as she bolted for another door just on the other side of the unlit fireplace.

He didn’t get more than a glance at the dark space, they could hear the handle on the door she’d locked jiggle, and then the scrape of a key, so there was no time to judge dimensions as she shoved him inside, following on his heels and pulling the door shut behind them, silently closing the latch.

There was barely enough room for both of them among the table linens and trays of cutlery, the shelves behind Arthur were digging hard into his back, and Lori still had to back up until she was pressed flat to his front to get the door to shut.

All of the adrenaline and the heavy pounding of his pulse must’ve given certain parts of his anatomy a different idea, and he felt his cock twitch and stiffen in his pants. He sighed, irritated more than anything, and tried to scoot back to get any space at all between their hips. Any ground he’d made in that regard was lost when they heard footsteps, and Lori pushed herself back even further, the plump curve of her ass fitting right against the evidence of his arousal like a puzzle piece. Arthur bit his tongue hard enough he thought he’d bleed and clapped a hand over his mouth so the involuntary grunt that punched from his chest wouldn’t give them away.

Lori went ramrod straight but, for her part, kept silent.

From just beyond the door they could hear their pursuer muttering to themselves. “The hell?”

They both held their breath, but Lori pressed even harder against him at the sound of the voice.

Arthur grabbed her hips in a sudden vice and pried her away from him, desperate to remain silent, and he wouldn’t be able to if she kept that up.

Neither of them dared move until the footsteps seemed to fade, and Lori took the half-step forward she was able to.

“Excited, much?” she teased on a whisper.

“I’d apologize, but I think at this point you were doin’ it on purpose,” Arthur grumbled in reply, voice rougher when he had to be so quiet.

“Was not!” she chided.

Then Arthur heard the faintest chuckle, and the warning bell in his head went off for a split second before Lori thrust her hips against his again, rolling her ass over the hard length of his cock trapped in his pants.

“That was on purpose,” she said, almost inaudible over the barely-muffled groan that Arthur buried in her neck, curling his body around hers.

Her turn with the involuntary sounds came when he nipped at her skin in payback. The gasp he pulled from her dripped with want, and he chuckled, vindicated in the knowledge he wasn't the only one affected by the situation.

“Should prob’ly stay hidden for a bit, dont’chu think? Make sure he ain't comin’ back with friends,” Arthur murmured, purposefully pulling her back against him now, rolling his hips against her so he was sure she felt every rock-hard inch.

“Just to be safe,” she agreed after a heavy moment.

His laugh rumbled against the crook of her neck and shoulder as he let his lips linger there in a kiss, leaning further down and rucking up her skirts. She scrambled to help, gathering handfuls of silk and cotton petticoats and holding her skirts out of the way as Arthur flipped them up over her back as she bent down.

“Oh!” Lori clapped a hand over her mouth just slow enough she couldn’t cover the exclamation as Arthur cupped the heated center of her through her bloomers.

“Gotta be quiet darlin’, or you’ll just bring ‘im back lookin’ again,” he warned on a whisper, easing the delicate underthings over her hips and letting them fall to the floor.

She kept her hand there, bracing her other on the solid wood doorframe as she leaned forward, giving him better access suddenly more important that keeping her skirts out of the way. It was a good thing she was still muffled, but the keening moan she let out wasn’t quieted much as Arthur slicked up a single finger and thrust it home.

“What’s got you so eager, hm?” he teased, nipping at her ear. “Makin’ a mess of my hand already, an’ I swear, I c’n feel your pulse in this sweet cunt.” His finger crooked deep within her and she squeaked. “Awful excited darlin’.”

“It’s the adrenaline,” Lori snarked, lowering her hand just enough to bite out the sarcasm over her shoulder, turning her head so he would see her roll her eyes if he could see her face at all in the dark.

“Mhmm, sure,” Arthur allowed, sliding a second finger in next to the first.

Lori reached back and fumbled briefly with the fastenings of Arthur’s pants, blind and admittedly very distracted, but she managed to get them undone and shoved her hand down the front as the waistband slackened to wrap her hand around his erection.

“Awful excited there, dear,” she quoted with a teasing lilt.

“Damn right I am,” Arthur purred. “Got’chu bent over an’ practically beggin’ to be fucked in some rich bastard’s house while a party goes on oblivious jus’ a few yards away. I’d like nothin’ more ‘n to make you scream louder ‘n that damn band they got goin’.”

Lori gasped, grip around his cock going tight for a second before she recovered from the bolt of arousal at Arthur’s words. The low, dangerous chuckle she heard drifting through the dark told her that he knew exactly what he was doing to her.

Frantically, almost, she pulled her hand out of his clothes, grabbed his wrist where it was between her legs still and dragged his fingers out of her.

“If you’re not in me in the next minute I’m sneaking out of here on my own, you smug —”

It was Arthur’s hand that covered up the sweet, sweet sounds dripping like honey from her lips, gently clasped over her mouth but leaving her nose unobstructed so she could breathe through the sudden breach of his cock into her hungry core, burrowing into her deep with one long shove. His own groans he had to struggle to bite back on his own, tamping them back until he could manage with just the rough panting breaths she could feel against her skin.

For a moment, Lori wasn’t even sure she was human anymore, if she was even on earth or if that stretch had snapped her clear into the stratosphere, somehow burning as not enough and too much at the same time, too much of him, too much pleasure but she wanted more, she wanted to feel fuller of him and she felt herself clamp down around his length within her, chasing the way his girth toed the line of too big. He was hard, and hot, and heavy, perfect as she shuddered, clenching around him with each full-body shiver that tore through her.

The height difference had her on her tip-toes, legs shaking with the strain and the surge of pleasure, and she clung to his arms as best she could. His free hand came up and rested against her sternum, his forearm braced against her so she could lean on it, and she did.

“That’s my girl, takin’ me so well...” Arthur murmured, shifting her to stand straight and dipping his head down to kiss the side of her neck.

“Fuck —” Lori whimpered as he moved his hand, cradling her jaw now so she could pant open-mouthed in the stifled air around them. “So much, ‘s so much Arthur!”

“I know, doin’ so good... ain’t goin’ nowhere ‘til you’re ready, take a breath now...” He held her, practically limp in his arms as she adjusted to his size. His steadiness helped ground her, the patient press of his lips to her flushed skin and the ease with which he carried her.

“Move, please,” she begged when her patience wore thin.

Arthur’s first thrust was tentative and slow, rocking his hips against hers with enough control that he could stop at the first sign of pain. But she wasn’t in pain, she was in heaven; her thrust back against his momentum was proof enough of that.

Lori surprised herself, staying quiet even as Arthur started to move faster, but all that meant in the end was they could both hear every plunge of his cock into her, the slick arousal building up enough to squelch softly.

“Christ you’re soaked, ain’tchu?” Arthur breathed behind her, moving his hands to hold onto her waist, dragging her back to spear her onto his dick as much as he thrust forward into her.

She braced her hands on the wall again, letting him rock her back and forth because it took every ounce of concentration she could spare to keep herself standing upright.

Every time she felt him fill her again, spreading her walls open to accommodate his girth, cut-off moans burst from her chest like trilling birdsong. Despite knowing they had to be quiet to not draw attention back to them, Arthur couldn’t bring himself to silence them, each little noise was a spark singeing his nerves, each caught breath fanned the embers.

“Wish I could take my time with you,” he sighed, pausing to grind his hips against her, pushing his cock as deep as it could go and relishing the hiccup in her gasp. “I’d make you come ‘til you couldn’t see straight, but we ain’t got time for more ‘n the one... you’ll give it to me though, won’t you? You’ll come for me?”

Nodding her head with a whine, Lori tried to get her skirts out of the way enough to reach her clit, bracing herself with just one hand in the middle of the door as she struggled with the excess fabric.

“Aw, darlin’ you need help?” Arthur cooed, leaning forward against her back and brushing her hand away, his own palm landing on her thigh and hunting higher in a rough drag. “Need me to touch you? That gonna make you fall apart f’r me?”

Lori was more frantic when she nodded again, the dignified, frustrated whine turning into a desperate whimper when she felt his callused fingers against the wiry curls just above where she wanted him so badly.

“Make me come, Arthur!” she pleaded.

He groaned, low and hinging on desperate himself, the pitch of her voice getting under his skin and setting fire to his blood. His touch delved further, sliding over her clit briefly but passing it in favor of spreading his fingers across her pussy, feeling how he split her open, how frictionless the movement of his cock in and out of her was, her wetness smeared across her inner thighs and drenching over him. Those smooth thrusts got rougher as he got caught up in the feedback, the chain of sensation he could cause with just one touch. Wetting his finger with her fluids he pressed down on her clit, feeling it twitch, then feeling her tighten and pulse in response to him, and feeling how that clench drew out the stutter of his hips, mind awash with pleasure. Each purposeful touch was the same series, coming faster and faster with each circle of his fingertips, Lori’s slick cunt growing tighter and tighter —

Until she snapped.

“Oh fuck!” Lori let out a long, drawn out cry, much louder than intended, but with the white-hot lightening streaking through her veins, their situation was the last thing on her mind.

The convulsing of her channel around him was the last straw for Arthur too, as he felt the burst of pride and pleasure at being the reason for hers. He pulled out, grabbed his cock in his fist and stroked feverishly, the evidence of Lori’s orgasm slick against his hand until everything whited out, his vision, his hearing, his mind itself, his own climax tearing through him like a line of fire down his spine. His cock pulsed against the flushed skin of Lori’s ass, spilling warm seed in streaks.

Arthur was the first to breathe, it seemed, as he shook his head to recover his senses.

“Shit...” Lori cursed. “There’s no way no one heard that.”

“Sure,” Arthur agreed, stepping back as much as he could to give her space. He looked around briefly and grabbed one of the pristine, daintily folded napkins nearby to clean her up. “Remind me why it’s always us that ends up doin’ these jobs,” he muttered as he wiped his spend from her.

Lori laughed, still a little breathless. “That’s your fault, actually. You told Hosea I was a good actress, after all.” She stood and let her skirts fall back into place as Arthur tucked himself back away and fastened his trousers again. “So how’re we getting outta here? Make a break for it, or join the party again and leave like respectable invited guests?”

“Only if you’re alright goin’ out there lookin’ like you just got fucked in a closet, sweetheart,” Arthur chuckled.

She laced their fingers together, kissing the back of his knuckles with a smile he could feel more than see.

Arthur was silent and still for a few controlled breaths before he took her shoulders in his hands and shifted her back to look at him again. Restraint was etched into every stiff movement, into the tense line of his shoulders and set of his jaw.

“If you’ll pardon me for a moment, sweetheart, I think Micah’s got an appointment t’ keep with the business end of a shotgun,” he said, and motioned like he was going to step around her.

She grabbed his wrists and held them, swinging around with him as he moved toward the door. “Arthur, don’t,” she said, though the bluntness of his response made her laugh just a little. “He isn’t worth the mess that would come with all that.”

“Well I gotta do somethin’,” Arthur protested. “He ain’t gonna get away with talkin’ to you like that.”

“By all means, you can beat him six ways ‘til Sunday in the morning, but it’s late and I’m... I’m just tired. Been carrying that around all day, and I just want to go to bed and forget about it.”

He filled his lungs slowly, and held it for a beat, letting his eyes close; when he exhaled, his whole demeanor changed, the fury she could see written on his face melting away as he dipped his head down further to kiss her forehead.

“Alright, ‘s long as I can wring his neck tomorrow,” he allowed.

The quiet that filled the room was less tense as they finished undressing, having been interrupted by the conversation, and Arthur crawled into the rickety bed up against the wall, watching Lori finish tying her hair back in a long braid down the middle of her back.

He took her into his arms when she joined him, pulling her in close until she was slotted against him perfectly.

“Had a thought, sweetheart, if you’re willin’ to humor me,” he said, grabbing her thigh to drape it over his, nuzzling in close to kiss her temple.

Lori hummed suspiciously, narrowng her eyes as she wrapped her arms around him in turn. “I thought you had that look in your eye like you're planning something.”

Arthur’s hand smoothed its way up higher, delving beneath the hem of her nightgown, and the gentle kiss became a sharper nibble at her ear.

“How ‘bout I don’t wait ‘til you’re asleep t’go give a beatin’ — to someone who well deserves it, mind you... and instead spend some time provin’ that what we have together is a helluva lot more’n just ‘a quick fuck’ an’ blowin’ off steam.”

“An evening of being spoiled, and I get to keep you from picking unnecessary fights? Sounds like an offer too good to pass up,” Lori grinned.

Arthur tutted briskly as he turned them both, shifting into a different position so he was propped up on his elbows with Lori on her back beneath him.

“Woulda been completely necessary, darlin’, don't know what'chumean,” he said.

She just laughed, curling her fingers into his hair and looking up at him with a sweet, bemused expression. Widening her legs so he could lower his body between them felt too natural, like the cradle of her hips was always meant to support him; and being closer now, he captured her lips with his easily, sinking into a slow, consuming kiss. Their lips moved together with no haste or urgency, like taking a meandering path just for the sake of the journey. Neither of them felt the need to rush, but when Arthur slicked his tongue along Lori’s bottom lip, she deepened this kiss without hesitating, sucking his lip into her mouth to nip at it lightly. She kept it pinned even as he backed up just enough to speak, making his groan at the sting first.

“Don't think I tell you enough that I care...” he said quietly.

“But I know,” she murmured, running her fingers through his hair again.

“Not if you're listenin’ to that drivel,” Arthur disagreed, sitting back on his haunches over her, dragging his hands down her body reverently. He paused at the curve of her breasts, still hidden by the thin cotton but he knew their shape, able to find her nipples with the pads of his thumbs and circle them until they'd stiffened and peaked.

“Arthur—”

He shushed her, his hands continuing their path as she squirmed, spreading his broad palms across her ribs, and dragging them down to her waist. “I want you to know it so deep in your bones that you could never believe anythin’ else,” he said softly. “Will you let me try’n show you?”

Lori nodded shakily, the words caught in her throat at the open honesty in his lake-blue eyes. She kept her eyes on his as he scooted back off the end of the bed, kneeling on the floor there.

The grip he had on her tightened for a second before he tugged her forward, her gown riding up and exposing her core to the night air as he hooked both of her knees over his arms and shrugged them up over his shoulders. Instinctually, she found herself crossing her ankles somewhere in the broad expanse of his back.

He smirked up at her from his place between her thighs. “Eager?” he teased with a low chuckle.

“Oh shut up,” she said, but the breathlessness certainly told him how much she really meant it.

“I do intend to,” he quipped. “Got better uses for this smart mouth of mine, don’ I?”

Even without being able to look, Lori knew her cheeks were flaming a bright, warm pink. But heat had undeniably settled elsewhere beneath her skin too, and the beginnings of that ache of arousal was more than distracting enough to pull her away from her embarrassment.

“Want you thinkin’ ‘bout somethin’, if ya can,” Arthur instructed, his thumb coming to rest just above the apex of her folds, so close to where he knew the pearl of her clit lay. “If I weren’t in it except for a quick roll in the hay, if I didn’t love you, would I know how to take you apart s’ quick as I do?”

“Arthur!” She tried to berate him, but the flat pressure of his tongue found her clit halfway through his name and it ended in more of a squeak than a scold.

By his eyes alone, she could tell he was grinning, satisfied in his interruption, but she couldn’t bother being even vaguely irritated by it — not when he mercilessly started in with quick flicks of that dexterous muscle over the most secret, sensitive parts of her.

The pleasure washed over her so fast it raised goosebumps from the crown of her head all the way down to her toes as they curled. Heaven above, he did know her, she realized. Startlingly well. His tongue kept up a tempo that had her clutching at the sheets faster than she could’ve even gotten there herself.

Arthur’s hands smoothed down her sides, digging briefly into plush give of her hips before one slid beneath her to prop up her back, arching her spine into a better angle. The other glided back up under her chemise to cup her bare breast, rubbing his thumb over her pert nipple in the same back and forth motion as his tongue over her clit, his mouth sealed against her hot flesh.

Lori had been in the clouds longer than she cared to try and count by the time she felt those rough, callused hands drifting again, off of her back, over the swell of her ass and down the back of her thigh. Her taut skin dimpled as he tightened his grip there, shaking her leg briefly to draw her attention.

“Stay,” he growled against the slick skin of her pussy, eyes burning like blue flame as he looked up the length of her body to meet hers, pupils wide and hungry.

Dutifully, without wondering why, Lori hooked her knees more securely on his shoulders, and reached up to press her palms to the wall behind her to keep herself from slipping.

She almost slipped anyway, though, as Arthur’s fingers hunted higher again, tracing the hollow and tendon from her inner thigh to her heated folds. One thick finger slid home without any resistance at all, burying deep all the way to the knuckle in one swift push. His touch left her breast as he grabbed her hip instead, steadying her so she couldn’t pull away.

The bitten-back chirp of a moan that Lori let out was brief enough that she could hear the quieter, muffled groan from Arthur, always struck by how wet she got for him, how hot she was, how readily she wanted.

She whimpered when he added a second, the subtle stretch making the blood in her veins feel molten. There was no haste in Arthur’s movements as his pumped those fingers in and out of her, pushing against the fleeting resistance to open her up to him; he seemed content to while away hours kneeling on the hard wood floor, not even leading her toward her finish, just lapping at her like she was a delicacy. Still, each lick of his tongue, each pulse of his fingers deeper into her core, was another match on a trail of kerosene headed straight for a bonfire.

“Fuck, Arthur!” Lori breathed out, her head tipping back onto the bed as he crooked his fingers upward, pinpointing that spot within her that had her seeing stars.

“There’s my girl,” he purred, finally separating his mouth from her cunt, licking his lips as he smiled up at her. “That’s what does it, ain’t it?”

Her thighs twitching was the only way Lori could answer, tightening her hold on him like she was trying to pull him closer, but he was stalwart.

“Caught on early to what makes you tick,” Arthur said, a note in his voice that almost rang smug but it was too warm to be so callous. “Can’t help but notice what my touch does to ya, and I’ve been tryin’ to find each an’ ev’ry little thing that’ll make you melt like this, since the first time you let me touch you.”

“Arthur, please!” Lori gasped, twisting her hips and trying in vain to move him, sounding close to tears with the buildup of pleasure threatening to drag her under. “With you— I wanna come with you in me, please.”

His fingertips might’ve left bruises with the way his grip clenched at her words, his breath caught frozen in his lungs. The blue of his eyes was the barest sliver, a halo around an eclipse, with the same blinding intensity.

Arthur’s fingers slipped from the heat of her core slowly, and his eyes stayed locked onto hers as he lifted them to his mouth and licked them clean. She whimpered, the deep-seated societal mortification at the action warring with the burning desire. As much as she wanted to hide the blush on her cheeks, she didn’t break the eye contact that felt like it was pinning her in place, keeping her from looking away as he crawled over her, every movement tempered until he was hovering over her on his elbows, the same way this evening had started.

“Sure you’re ready?” he asked, hushed and low, like his concern was a secret to keep between them.

“Yes,” she whispered back, taking her hands from the wall above her head and wrapping her arms around his neck to hold him close to her.

The first nudge of his broad cock at her entrance made her breath hitch, but she let it out, measured and even, as Arthur rolled his hips forward until he fully slipped inside. He rested his forehead against hers, eyes fluttering shut as her walls swallowed him little by little, each cautious, careful thrust burying another inch. Lori’s fingers threaded themselves in the hair at the nape of his neck, tightening as she felt the burning stretch take over her senses, but she needed to feel him — all of him, so close to her they might as well be one person; so she breathed steady and willed her body to relax, her legs falling splayed open and welcoming on either side of him.

“Christ, darlin’...” he murmured, easing into a consistent push as he felt her walls part around him like the velvet curtain on a stage. “Feels’so good,” he slurred, already lust-drunk from the ease of it.

When the entire hard girth of him was buried within her core, the mess of brown curls at the base of his cock mingling with the blonde at the crux of Lori’s thighs, he paused, counting the seconds of each breath to slow the racing of his heart.

He lifted his head and saw Lori’s eyes open at the same time his did, the syrupy gold pitched black by the swell of her pupil and the cover of night.

“God you’re beautiful,” he huffed, the swell of affection in his chest tumbling out as unbidden words.

Lips more perfect than any artist could depict split into a smirk. “Can’t even see me, Arthur, still covered up,” Lori pointed out.

“I said what I said, angel, ain’t no need to see to know somethin’ that true.”

The smile on Lori’s face softened and her eyes went a little misty and dazed.

“You’re beautiful,” Arthur said again, dipping his head down to kiss her nose, then pulled his hips back to drag his cock out, barely, testing the waters.

“And you’re sweet.” He pitched forward again, and Lori responded with the lightest moan, half a song and half a sigh.

“You’re good— your heart, your soul... you’re kinder th’n I’ve ever deserved,” he groaned, feeling her wet walls tighten and twitch around his length.

Lori’s hands, still in his hair, dragged him down into a kiss, and she whispered, “Move, please,” into his mouth, a plea he almost felt more than heard.

“Goddamn perfect.”

It was not tentative or apprehensive, the pace he settled into. It was unwavering. Single-minded. The solid length of him moved within her with fluidity, smooth and compulsive. He filled her to the brim and pulled away again without pause, every shove back into her wet cunt following on the heels of the drag back out in a pattern he couldn’t stop if he tried, he was too far lost in her. The slow rocking of their bodies together were waves on a shore, unhurried.

The silence of the night shadowed two individuals entirely consumed in each other, unbothered or just plain unaware of the world outside the tattered walls of their room. Lori had no way to know if it had been minutes or hours, or maybe days, when she broke away from Arthur’s lips, looking up at him as he pushed off of his elbows and rose above her with his hands planted on either side of her head. The steady, unshakable tempo never changed, but with that shift, the angle sharpened; now his cock dragged heavy against the most sensitive places within her, and his pelvis ground down against her clit with every thrust.

“God—”

“Yes, tha’s it—”

Their voices crashed together and they clutched each other tighter, Lori’s legs hitching up around Arthur’s hips and Arthur curling around her, his lips landing on the slope where her neck met her shoulder.

“Christ, ‘s like I was made to fill you up like this,” he moaned against her sweat-slick skin, and she nearly sobbed in response. Every plunge of his cock into her depths was aimed, just as well as any shot he’d ever taken, hitting that perfect spot, the ecstacy burning hot, and building. “Gonna come for me, right darlin’?” Arthur panted.

“Yes!” Lori cried, fingernails pricking at the skin of his shoulders as she approached that peak, her whole body holding him impossibly close, knees pinned to his flanks, arms over his shoulders, even the clutch of her cunt seemed to suck him in. “Please, god, please—”

“I’ll getcha there sweetheart... wanna feel you come apart ‘round me, best thing I’ve ever felt,” he rambled, only half hearing his own words. “Wanna be the one to make you come, ‘s like heaven, I swear...”

Lori’s head tipped back, allowing him more access as he littered her neck with faint blush-pink marks that would fade come morning. She felt his weight shift, leaning onto one hand, the other followed a direct, distinct path, fingertips dipping into the valley between her breasts, following a straight line down her stomach, and she had just enough time to realize what he was doing before his fingers found her clit again.

He was lucky he’d picked that moment to kiss her again, or maybe he just knew, because his lips were the only thing muffling the sharp cry she let out. That touch was all she needed; two rough digits swirling around the little bud in time with the plunge of his thick cock, it was too much, and she shattered, writhing beneath him.

It proved to be too much for Arthur too, and he followed after her pleasure like his had been tied to hers as hers fell. He barely managed to pull out, his cock pulsing against her thigh as he came, painting her skin with his seed. The strength of his finish made him shiver, his hips trying to press that much closer to the heat he could still feel from Lori’s core, and he had to break the kiss to breathe, panting into the humid night air.

His expression, painted with absolute bliss in a way that was so rare, was such a victory that it had Lori clenching around nothing, whimpering as aftershocks shuddered through her.

“Christ alive, Arthur...” she murmured once she caught her breath.

He just gave her a breathless laugh and pushed himself up to kneeling. “Shall I take that as a compliment?”

“Oh hush with that, you know it is,” Lori said with a chuckle of her own. “Now help me up so I can go wash off.” She lifted her arms sluggishly, holding them out for Arthur to grab and pull her upright, but he just shook his head, carefully getting to his feet.

“You jus’ sit pretty, I’ll take care’a ya.”

Lori grinned, tired, and satisfied. “Love you,” she whispered.

God it looked like he was devouring her, a beast with its head bowed to sink its teeth into waiting prey. Muscle and sinew rolled beneath his skin as his hips worked even deeper, tendons in his arms standing out as he clenched the sheets in his hands. It was primal, wild and unbroken. When she felt Arthur’s blunt teeth nip at the ridge of her clavicle, the bolt of arousal that shot through her veins felt like lightning. She let out a sharp cry, her legs clamping around his hips to clutch him closer, nails turning into claws as she scrabbled at his spine.

“Arthur please!” she breathed, though she didn’t know what she was asking for.

“Easy there sweetheart,” Arthur soothed, leaning up and pulling himself from the circle of her arms. “What’s got you so riled?”

“I'm not, it’s just... a lot,” Lori hedged, averting her gaze away from the mirror and from him.

“Barely gotten started with you, ain’t nothin’ yet,” he said, then sank down so he was resting on his elbows, laying heavily in the cradle of her hips, flattening his torso against hers but keeping most of his weight off of her. “What’s really goin’ on in that pretty mind a’yours?”

Lori couldn’t help the way her eyes darted back to the silvery reflection, taking in the soft line where their bodies pressed so close together not even light could slip through, following that horizon between his skin and hers.

She realized that she was staring again and tried to look back to Arthur before he noticed — but it was too late. His eyes had followed hers, and he was taking in the very same view.

She was beautiful and warm, spread out against the white sheets like spilled honey, tanned and summery against his paleness. Smooth. Pristine. Perfect. It made all of his imperfections stand out: the rough skin that came from a harsh life, the uneven tan and sunburnt pink, the crosshatching of white and silver scars. What hadn’t he been marred by? Bullets, blades, burns - each a permanent mark he could never erase that highlighted the vast difference between them and the lives they’d lived.

It couldn’t have been seeing that that had gotten in her head, that couldn’t have been what roused this sudden heightened pleasure.

The crease of confusion between his brows made Lori’s heart sink to the bottom of her ribs, and her skin burned with embarrassment as she turned her head completely away, covering her face with one hand.

She felt Arthur shift, the warmth of his skin leaving hers as he pushed himself upright again, but he surprised her when he eased her fingers away and replaced her hand with his, not hiding her face but lifting it.

He studied her for a moment, pupils wide in the dim light making him look hungry, more curious than puzzled now.

“You were lookin’ at us?” he asked softly.

Under the weight of his scrutiny, she could only nod.

“At... at you,” she finally whispered in the silence Arthur had no words to fill.

“At me?”

She nodded again.

Never once had Lori ever lied to him. Her body couldn’t lie to him. Not like this. Not here. He knew her too well for that, had dedicated himself to learning her every reaction and response.

It left one truth, and while it was a truth Arthur himself couldn’t believe, he had to believe her.

Gently, giving her room to refuse, he tilted her head back the other way - asking, in his silent way, to look again.

As soon as she did, golden brown eyes finding his arctic blue ones in the reflection, Arthur thrust into her heavily.

She could see the way he moved against her, the way his cock disappeared into her slick pussy, the clench of muscle in his ass and thighs as he rocked his hips forward.

There was something about watching it -- watching him while she also felt the solid column of his girth filling her, pushing against her sensitive walls, that overwhelmed her senses.

“God! Oh, fuck, Arthur!” she cried, unable to bite back the exclamation quick enough. In the mirror, she watched her own hands clutch at his arms, scratching faint lines into his skin that faded too quickly.

“That somethin’ you like, then?” Arthur murmured, staring down at her in wonder.

Lori couldn’t bring herself to respond, no more than she could bring herself to look away as Arthur’s hips rolled like a wave against hers, drawing a whimper out of her lungs.

“S’pose I don’t need t’ ask, do I?” he hummed. “Not when I can feel it. Certainly are a strange one, ain’t’cha?”

“Feels so good, Arthur, please!”

“Feels good t’be fucked by a scarred up, ugly ol’ bastard like me? Feels good watchin’ that?” he questioned, letting a little venom color his voice as he glanced over at the reflection too, his own eyes catching on the old injuries and damage that littered his skin.

She reached up and turned his gaze back toward her, shaking her head, expression softening to something sincere, though still awash with pleasure.

“You feel good. It’s you,” she corrected. “Want to watch you.”

With that honest plea, she hooked both of her thighs up around Arthur’s hips and pulled him in closer, shoving his cock further into her, making them both gasp.

“I... I don’t understand you...” Arthur breathed, truly confused by the sentiment, but he couldn’t deny the weightless feeling that was settling into his bones like a second wind.

“Please,” Lori begged. “Please, Arthur, I need you...”

Arthur couldn’t refuse her, his reservations and self-doubt cast aside immediately at the tone of her voice alone.

The pace he had abandoned he picked back up now, dragging his hands down her thighs to keep them wrapped firmly around him as he moved.

He couldn’t understand how she could feel so strongly about seeing them together like this, how she could look past the history carved into his skin and the blood on his hands, but she was dripping, each thrust of his cock into her pussy came with a wave of her arousal that coated her inner thighs.

It was undeniable.

“You wanna watch me?” Arthur asked in a whisper, and Lori’s eyes darted up to his, her blonde brows tight as she started to get lost in the pleasure. “Go’on then, see what I do to you.”

The rhythm was hypnotic, the rut of his cock into her, the rock of his body, the way her feet dangled in the air as he hooked his arms beneath her knees. The sunlight outside had given way to velvety night, and the sweat that had started to gather on Arthur’s skin shone gold in the lamps, catching copper and bronze in his hair as it swayed with his movements. Every plunge of his cock, pushing against her wet walls, filling her full, stealing her sanity bit by bit, was seared into her mind as she watched, head tipped to stare wide-eyed at the mirror.

It felt holy but looked profane, and Lori wasn’t sure if she wanted to listen to the angel or the devil on her shoulder.

“Christ sweetheart, you’re so tight...” Arthur panted, and shifted to anchor his hands on the bed, putting more force into his thrusts, stuffing his cock into her so that it would budge up against that one spot inside of her that had her seeing double, her eyes rolling back in her head as it rolled on her shoulders. “Nuh-uh, you keep watchin’ this,” he huffed, lifting one hand to cup the back of her neck, fingers tangling into her hair as he turned her face back.

He didn’t have to tell her to open her eyes - he knew she already had when he felt her cunt clamp down around him like a vice. If she was any less aroused, any less soaked, she could’ve stopped his thrusts with the sudden clench of her walls, but her fluids had covered him, coating every inch of his cock, saturating into the thatch of brown hair at his base and making a mess of his entire pelvis, so everything was slippery and slick and he didn't even slow despite the resistance.

Arthur gathered every ounce of his remaining self control and pulled out of her heat, tamping back a frustrated whine — Lori didn’t bother holding in her complaint, wordless and shrill, but short. Her dismay was interrupted as Arthur moved her, hands grasping at her hips and flipping her onto her side. It took her all of a few seconds to realize what he was doing when he picked up her leg, and she lifted it before he could so her cunt was fully on display again, shining with her arousal.

“Tha’s a good girl,” he rumbled, latching one arm around her thigh and dragging her across the bed, lining himself up hurriedly, a desperation screaming at the back of his mind to be buried in her again.

Lori almost screamed as Arthur’s cock filled her in one swift shove, the change in position bringing a new angle to his thrusts. He had her leg propped up on his shoulder, pinned against him as he leaned in to push deeper, and the stretch in her hip sparked with each pendulous thrust. His free hand handed on her hip, steadying her against the strength that threatened to send her sliding across the sheets, and she joined his hand with one of her own, tangling their fingers together.

“Want you watchin’, angel,” Arthur growled. “Want you t’ see yourself.”

Without her conscious input, her head fell to the side, finding the mirror unerringly. She didn’t even dare to blink.

Seeing him had been one thing, but the way he had positioned her left her entire body stretched out and visible in the tarnished silver, she could see everything. The way his hips slammed into hers and how that made her softer flesh ripple for a moment. How his fingers dimpled her skin when he tightened his hold to keep her in place. Every slap of skin on skin was accompanied by the bounce of her breasts, skin reddened by the rough movement and exertion.

Her expression stunned her, she would never have known that rapture looked like torture on her face, her brows arched like she was in pain, lips bitten red, loose and slack around the noises she was making. Perhaps it was torture in a way, this endless build of pleasure. Something had to snap.

“Please Arthur!” she gasped, begging for him to find that tether and break it.

The smallest shift brought it to the point of no return, her dark eyes trailing across her body for a moment before finding his as they watched her. She couldn’t look away now, consumed by the black voids barely rimmed with the familiar azure as they took in the effect that he had on her. But then he tore his eyes away from the squelching plunge of his cock into her, and his eyes met hers. His breath left him in a rush.

“Christ, lookit you...” he said, hips stuttering in their rhythm. “Come for me, sweetheart — ain’t gonna last, shit — need you to come.”

He helped her along on that goal, switching which arm held her calf against his chest and lowering his free hand between her legs to find her clit. Trigger-callused fingers swirled around that little bud, timed to the drive of his hips.

She came moments later with a scream, writhing against his touch, impaling herself that much more on his cock just to feel herself pulse around the rock hard flesh within her. That thin chord that she'd wanted to snap had been the only thing still tying her to this world, and now that it was broken she was lost in waves of heat and white light.

Arthur could only hold on long enough to extend her pleasure, wanting to see her through it but she proved to be too much. He wrenched his hips back, wrapping his hand around his slick cock, pumping twice before he spilled hot against Lori’s thigh.

Once the ragged panting breaths had eased and the two lovers had returned to their senses, they cleaned up in heavy silence, using rags and a pitcher of water provided in their room by the hotel.

Sensing a tired distance in Lori when they'd finished, Arthur crossed the room and took her face in both his hands, lifting it and lowering his head to look her in the eye. It was a common, silent check-in, but this time she didn't meet his gaze. Hers was stuck over his shoulder, and when he followed the line of sight, he saw the same tender embrace in the mirror that had started all of this.

Arthur merely chuckled once, kissed her on the forehead and trudged over to the offending furniture. Taking the frame of it in both hands, he tugged firmly, and the scrape of wood on wood as he angled it away pulled Lori from her thoughts.

She met his eyes then, as he returned to her.

“Ain't that I didn’t like it,” he promised, stopping to kiss her on the lips this time. “Just don't think I could survive another round."

“So what I'm hearing is we're putting the mirror back tomorrow,” Lori laughed.

“If you're front ‘n center? Hell, I'll move it in the morning.”