Willow
I WAKE UP SLEEPY BUT DELICIOUSLY WARM. A HEAVY ARM IS DRAPED across me. A hot, hard body spoons mine.
And a man's erect cock juts into my lower back. Dominik.
Eyes closed, I smile. It all drifts back to me. Getting lost. Getting rescued by this big, strong man. Going to dinner together. Then the moment in the parking lot, when he'd asked me to come to his place. I remember the heat in his eyes, the husky timber to his voice when he asked the question.
And how quickly I'd said yes.
I've never hooked up with a stranger before. Never woken up in someone's bed after knowing them for only a few hours. How long has it been since I woke up like this–tucked securely in someone's arms? On the rare occasions he did conquer insomnia and sleep through the night, Ben always slept on the other side of the bed, like we were strangers. But now… Dominik is an actual stranger, yet he's holding me like I'm everything to him right now. Nuzzling my neck. Breathing me in like he can't get enough of me.
I can't get it confused, though. This isn't real intimacy. This is a one night stand. Well, one morning stand. I slept through the night more soundly than I have in months.
Feeling warm and well-rested, I sigh with pleasure. Dominik smells so good. It's nothing artificial or overpowering. Whatever scent he uses, it's complex and subtle enough to make me want more. I shift against his cock. A low, sexy growl rumbles in my ear. His hand slides to my breast and cups it, thumb circling across my nipple. There's a casual intimacy to the gesture, like of course we would wake up tangled together like this. Of course he would touch me like I'm already his.
His mouth brushes against my neck as his hand trails down my ribs, my belly. Slips beneath the hem of my underwear. His hand feels different than any I've experienced on my body.
Bigger. Rougher. Everything about him is rougher. And I like it. There's his stubble grazing my cheek. His teeth scraping the shell of my ear. Callused fingers tracing along the seam of my pussy. When he reaches my clit, his movements are different from anything I've known either. Finally, a man who knows exactly how to stroke me there. Pleasure flares through me as he touches me, sure and deft, his fingers moving with an instinct that feels intuitive, as if he was made to know my body. His fingers rub slow circles against my clit as he kisses my neck.
I arch into his touch, letting out a gasp of pleasure. He seems tuned in to every shift of my breath, every tremor in my muscles, knowing what I need and where I need it almost before I do.
He thrusts slightly against my ass, like he can't help himself. The hard ridge of his cock sends a delicious thrill through me. This is what I needed all along. To be touched like this. Not only because I'm with a man who actually seems to know what he's doing, but because giving me pleasure seems to be turning him on too. When his finger slides along my slit to dip inside me, I'm already wet. Embarrassingly wet. Another growl rumbles in my ear as he discovers that. It's too much, how responsive my body is to him. Too obvious, the scent and sound of my arousal as he sinks his fingers inside me.
He goes slow at first, testing me. Then deeper, faster, until I grind against his hand like I need to be filled up by him. I try to stifle the helpless sounds coming out of my mouth. Ben never liked it when I made noise. Not usually, at least. But Dominik seems to like it a lot. Up until now, he's been in total control. But the closer I get to coming, the more his desire roughens, his hips grinding harder against me, his breath coming fast against my neck. Even if I wanted to stop myself, the pleasure is too much to take.
I can't control it. Any of it. The orgasm sneaks up on me, fast and so intense it seems to explode through my body. I cry out as my pussy clamps down on his fingers over and over.
I come so hard my ears are ringing afterwards. It takes me a minute to float back down to earth. All the while, Dominik is pressing his lips against my skin, murmuring words I'm too far gone to process, guiding me back down to a soft landing. Being held like this, like he treasures me… that honestly feels just as good as the orgasm. And then the name tumbles out of my mouth. Pure reflex. "Ben," I breathe.
Instantly, every part of him freezes. Then, through the silence, cuts his voice, low and lethal. "Who the fuck is Ben?"
I cringe down to my very soul. Did I seriously just call Dominik by the wrong name? Sheets bundled to my chest, I scramble away from him.
He's staring—more like glowering at me—from across the bed.
His tattoos flex across his corded forearms, the bulge of his biceps, as he folds his arms.
"Oh God." I clap my hand to my mouth. I've never had a one night stand before. Figures I'd find a way to mess it up from the get-go. First mistake, in a multi-part saga: making him carry me inside.
Demanding he take off my socks. There might have even been a request for confirmation that we were totally going to have sex—and him saying, "not tonight."
Oh God. I really suck at this casual sex thing.
Second mistake: cuddling.
I don't think it's the kind of thing you do with a hookup. But last night, I woke up a little chilly in the middle of the night and rolled over until I found the most delicious source of heat: Dominik himself. I remember his heavy arm draping across my hip, being tucked against his hard, warm body, and thinking, this is heaven. Right before I fell asleep again.
I've never considered myself an expert in bed, but passing out cold all night is no one's idea of a good time. And then this morning, things were off to a promising start...
until I messed that up too. Third, final, likely fatal mistake: calling him by the wrong name. Dominik is still staring expectantly at me, arms crossed, while I spiral out.
Because it's too humiliating to make eye contact right now, I focus on his tattoos. Trees with bare branches etched in black, moon phases blazing a path down his forearm, waves curling around his bicep, all flowing together into a design that looks wild and elemental. There's an artistry to them. I want him to tell me the meaning behind each of them. I want to feel them wrapped around my body.
Holding me. I want this memory to smile back on someday. My life is mostly boring and pretty damn lonely these days, but this moment, with Dominik—it could be something different.
A brief, shining fragment in time, forged in heat and crystallized forever after, like a sculpture made of glass. Like glass, this moment feels fragile. Easily shattered. I can only think: I've got to salvage this. For the sake of my future lonely old lady self having something fun to look back on, if nothing else.