25 - Everybody has Dreams

Her face was flushed. The breathy pants that pushed her lips open begged his kiss. Tony dipped his head claiming her mouth with more possessiveness than he had a right to, tongue marauding its way into the heated confines and demanding that she taste him. The tip of his tongue burrowed under hers, finding that sweet slickness that was so much like the slickness he wanted to bury his cock in.

"Open," he commanded hotly against her mouth. "Let me have you."

She hissed a breathy, "Yes.." and her knees fell apart with invitation. Lilah opened her most intimate self, silently begging for him to fill her.

Without hesitation, he coated himself with her moisture and pushed into her sucking wet folds with a groan of elation. Her sweet little pleasure sounds filled the air and had Tony swelling even more, stretching her walls.

"You feel so damn good," he rasped against her cheek, holding himself fully immersed for a prolonged moment. "Just like I knew you would."

Her moans grew more intense with every stroke, each louder and longer than the one before it. The pitch changed, going deep and sounding more like groans. Not just groans. More like... pain than pleasure.

"Nooo!" she choked out, frantically shoving at his shoulders. "Stop! Make it stop!"

He shook his head with confusion, not understanding what was going on. How had things gone from good to bad so fast? Another muffled cry and he awoke with a violent start, both hard and disoriented in the dark and unfamiliar room. The pitiful mewling coming from the other side of the bed had him turning his head toward Lilah.

"Nooo!" she strangled out before another guttural moan was ripped out of her chest. "Please no!"

Her tortured pleas prompted Tony to quickly bridge the gap between them, and he scooted across the empty expanse of bed to where she lay curled into a tight ball, with her back to him. Tony slid in behind her, touching a gentle hand to her arm.

"Lilah, wake up."

She did nothing more than howl with pain again, squirming away from his touch. "No!"

Curling his fingers over her shoulder in a firm grasp, he shook her lightly and ordered more firmly, “Lilah. Wake up. You're okay."

She jerked under his touch and one hand flew up in a frenzied effort to push him away. Her fingernails dug angrily into the back of his hand and he hurried to soothe her. "Hey, hey. It's just me."

It was enough to make her go stock still under his touch. “Tony,” she breathed in relief and gradually extracted her claws from his hand. Her stiff spine regained some pliability and she slowly uncurled from her frightened fetal position.

Before he could get far enough away, Lilah was rolling onto her back and her hip grazed against his groin, which was still flying at a good half-mast. At the first contact, he retreated back to his side of the bed, far enough that their bodies weren't touching, but that he could still reach out and rest a gentle hand over her forearm.

"Yeah, it's me. Did you have a bad dream?" he asked in an effort to draw attention from his slow-to-fade erection.

The faint light coming from the window was just enough to see her blink slowly at the ceiling. Fear had subsided, but she was clearly still seeing whatever visions had been plaguing her dreams. "Mm. I guess."

"You don't know?"

Her cotton-covered shoulder rasped against the sheets when she shrugged. ”I’m sorry I woke you.”

With her screams still echoing in his head, Tony wanted to shake the indifference from her and hammer at the shell she retreated into. Didn’t this women ever open up? About anything?

“You ever tell anybody what goes on in that head of yours?”

Her hair scraped across the pillow and she squinted up at him in the darkness.  “Not very often.”

Tony had the fleeting desire to be the one she would talk to.  The one she confided in.  It was crazy, and likely a case of him borrowing trouble he didn’t need, but she brought out a side of him that he hadn’t seen in a long while.  The last time he’d been inclined to protect and take care of someone other than his family, he married the girl.

And then she got tired of it and found somebody else.  Somebody who actually was a bad boy instead of just looking like one.

That was another time, and Anouk had never been as alone and battered as Lilah Bennett.  Lilah needed somebody to convince her that it was okay to put down that armor of hers.  God help him and this stupid white knight complex he had when it came to her, but he wanted to be the one to do it.

“Why not?”

“Mm.  Most things I think are best left unsaid.  They tend to make people think I’m an idiot.”

That was pointed at you, big mouth.

Leaving his lower half a safe distance from her, Tony scooted his top half close enough to drape an arm over her waist.  “I’m sorry I called you an idiot,” he apologized quietly in her ear. 

Again with the shrug and that fucking indifference.  “It’s a popular opinion sometimes.”

“It just bugs the hell out of me that you won’t take care of yourself and don’t want anybody else to do it either.”

Silence permeated the room for an uncomfortable length of time.  He was about to nudge her when she spoke softly.  “I can see where you might think that.”

“You telling me I’m wrong?”

“Mm.  I learned a long time ago not to trust anybody else to take care of me, no matter how temptin’ it might be, so I guess that part’s true.  As for the other, suffice it to say that I’m not as obsessive about livin’ as some people are.  That doesn’t mean I’m deliberately careless, though.”

He was a laid back guy.  It took quite a bit to piss him off, but Lilah had honed it to a fine art form. 

“What the fuck does that mean?” he demanded, pulling away and trying in vain to see her face in the darkness.  “You’re not obsessive about living?”

“It means this is one more time when I should have kept my mouth shut,” she sighed and slipped out from under both his arm and the blankets. 

“Where are you going?”

“To the bathroom.”

Rolling to his side of the bed, Tony planted his feet on the floor between Lilah and the bathroom.  “To pee or to hide?”

“Both.  Go back to sleep."  She waved a flippant hand toward his stomach.  "You were obviously having a good dream.  I’m sorry I woke you.”

“No.”  He reached for the lamp switch, illuminating the room and causing them both to squint and blink painfully. 

“Huh?  What do you mean no?” she asked, one eye squeezed shut and the other peering up at him with incredulity.

“I mean you don’t get to hide.”  He encircled her wrist with his fingers and tugged lightly, until she took the two steps that brought the tips of her toes within inches of his own.  Looking down, he saw that she had shed the penguin pants, leaving naked legs.  The only thing covering her was a Lost Highway shirt that came to mid-thigh.

The erection that he’d finally gotten under control stirred again and the thought of those silky bare legs intertwined with his.

Bad timing, Bongiovi.

“Talk to me, Bluegrass,” he commanded softly, guiding her back to the bed and ignoring the havoc she was wreaking on his body.  Tony sat on the edge of the mattress while she stood between his open legs. “Tell me about your nightmare.”

“I’ve already forgotten.” 

“Bullshit.”

“I have,” she insisted, peering down into his face with sleep-smudged eyes.  “It was about the bazaar, but other than that I don’t remember anything.”

Dark waves framed the face he originally thought no more than ordinary.  Now, he could see the intelligence that lived behind her eyes, the sweetness in the perfect bow of her mouth and the hint of innocence in the few freckles sprinkled across her cheekbones.  She wasn’t a classic beauty, but Lilah’s own special appeal had begun to captivate him a little in the short time he’d known her.  

“Jersey, if you knew how you were lookin’ at me right now, you wouldn’t be.”

The softly spoken words put him at the end of his tether.  Punch-drunk from lack of sleep and a very trying day, Tony wanted nothing more than to look at her that way.  Hell, who was he kidding?  He wanted to do a helluva lot more than look.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Bluegrass.”  Releasing her wrists, he slithered his own hands up the back of her bare legs, from knee to the hem of her shirt and reveling in the softness of her skin.  “I’ve tried to be a gentleman, but right now I have no fucking idea why.”

“What are you sayin’?” she whispered, hands dangling forgotten at her sides while her pupils dilated into the tropical blue-green irises.  The guarded hope he saw there erased whatever iota of reservation still lingered in his mind.  That flicker of hope granted him permission to speak freely.

“I want you.”

Lily-white legs instantly trembled under his palms, and her fingers came to burrow timidly into the back of his hair.  He shivered at the light scrape of fingernails against his scalp.  It felt good and, responding to the shot of desire it provoked, he pushed bold hands under her shirt, cupping the pliable flesh of her backside through thin cotton panties.

“I take it that’s okay?” he murmured, thumbs snaking under the elastic to scrape against the bare skin of her butt cheeks.

“Let me make you feel good,” she agreed, but didn’t agree, gingerly pushing against his shoulders.

He took the hint, releasing her and easing back onto the mattress.  Tony twisted so that his feet were on the bed and his head rested on the pillow, while Lilah sank to her knees and stroked her left palm along the hair roughened front of his shin.  When she reached the hem of the gym shorts, she tugged.

“Take these off.”

“Lilah…”  He wanted that perfect bow wrapped around the head of his cock, but he wanted more than that from her.  What he wanted was for her indifference to turn into another emotion.  He didn’t care what it was – passion, anger... just something that made her feel alive.  And obsessive about living.

“No, Tony.”  She hummed with pleasure when the shorts were kicked away, and immediately curled a firm palm around his stiffness.  “You’ve done enough for me.  Let me do something for you.”

Not allowing him time to protest, she climbed onto the bed without releasing him, making a spot for herself in between his legs.  Her hand pumped while her mouth dipped lower, sucking on that spot where his erection softened into his sac.   Tony couldn’t contain the grunt of pleasure when she worked that tender skin in her lips. 

How did she know that was his hot spot?  That and…

“Oh, Chriiiiissst…” he groaned, plowing his fingers into the top of her hair, trying to control the pleasure she was ripping from him.  Lilah was gently rolling one of his testicles in her mouth with one of those food sex purrs vibrating against the sensitive flesh.  When she gave a hard suck on it, he almost shot off the bed. 

Damn, the woman knows how to use her mouth!

“Jesus, Baby.”  He fisted her hair, trying like hell not to blow his load before he ever felt the slick heat waiting inside her lips.  The first drops of arousal were trickling out and she was quick to take advantage of the lubrication.  Her rapid pumping of his cock grew easier with the beads of moisture. 

It’s about to be a whole lot more than drops.

This wasn’t what he had planned.   They were supposed to be doing this together.  It was time to put an end to this part of the show.  Tony curled his fingers easily around her head, urging her mouth away and warning, “If my cock goes in your mouth, I’m gonna cum.”

“That’s the idea, Jersey,” she purred in between dousing swipes of her tongue over his sac.  “Hasn’t anybody ever sucked you off before?”

His cock jerked violently, anxious to find its home inside that smart little mouth. 

How the hell was he supposed to resist that? 

The hot, wet hollow closed around him with a hum of delight that rivaled cheesecake porn and he thought he was going to lose his mind.  The vibration against him was nothing but pure erotic sensation, and when he looked down to find her cheeks hollowing out with the suction, he let loose with his own deep, guttural moan.

Her tongue bathed him, flicking against all the sensitive spots while she coated him with her saliva, cooing deep in throat all the while.  Her hand pumped him as fast as her mouth and he let go with a quiet howl of pleasured pain when her teeth scraped against the underside of his head.

“Easy there,” he gasped, tugging firmly on her hair. 

She didn’t falter with her determined bobbing and humming against the arousal that was about to blow like Old Faithful.  He lost track of what she was doing, everything becoming a jumble of sensation that had him drawing up tight as his mushroom-tipped head bumped against the back of her throat.

“Ohhh…  fuuuuck…  That’s it…  Suck, baby…  Suck…”

His hips came up off the mattress, inelegantly slamming his release down her throat with a raw, gritty growl.  Lilah didn’t seem to mind, greedily slurping each burst until there was nothing left but spent man.

“Mmm…”  He nudged her to slide upward so that they were face to face.   “That was phenomenal,” Tony praised, immediately seeking the silken skin of her inner thighs.  “Now it’s your turn.”

She chuckled quietly and rolled out of his reach, feet gliding lithely to the floor.  Tucking her hair behind her ears she offered him a smile as she circled the foot of the bed.  “I’m glad you liked it, but don’t worry about me.  All I need is the bathroom.”

She could dream on.  A woman wouldn’t leave his bed unsatisfied.  Call it a male ego thing if you wanted, but he had never left his sex partners wanting, and he sure as hell wasn’t starting with Lilah.  Lilah, who deserved someone to take care of her, because she didn't seem to care enough to do it herself.

“That’s not the way I roll, Bluegrass.”

The bathroom door closed on a soft click, with no reply.