A Girl by Any Other Name Read online

  “Trust me, I’m going to put my experience to good use.”

  I ran my fingers down her breasts and waist, deciding it was time to use my mouth for worthier pursuits than talking. I stood and walked to the end of the bed, letting my hands trail up her thighs, wondering if I should leave the cowboy boots on her as I’d imagined this afternoon. In the end, I decided to remove them, wanting full access to her whole body. I flexed each foot, rotating her ankles and massaging them after I removed her footwear. My eyes froze on her right ankle as soon as I noticed it. I ran my finger over it, admiring the detailing of the tattoo. The image depicted a small black raven, readying for flight. I looked back at her, smiling.

  “It was my favorite poem too,” she replied.

  I knew she had done it in some sort of remembrance of me. I kissed it then I started kissing up her leg, making my way to the place I wanted to taste most of all. I ran my finger against the waistband of her panties. I hooked one finger on each side and slowly pulled them down. She lifted her hips to help me. I sniffed them, inhaling the scent of her. Her eyes widened in shock. I twirled them in my fingers before slingshooting them to the floor next to the other discarded clothes.

  “Open up for me,” I said. She complied, bending her knees up and opening her legs. It was time for my eyes to widen. She was clean shaven. “Wow,” I said simply, unable to provide further articulation. She giggled in response.

  Like a predator, I crawled over her, pushing her legs even farther apart. I moved my tongue over her opening in slow repetition. Only when her moans begged for more did I move inside her. She gasped at the sudden movement, knees shaking. Then I plunged in, not coming up for air. I sucked on her clit. I circled her walls. I thrust into her with my tongue penetrating her folds as I held her thighs apart. She screamed out each time, lifting her ass to meet my thrusting tongue. I rewarded her by moving deeper, especially when she said my name. I felt her sit up on her elbows to watch what I was doing to her. She fisted her hands through my hair, almost pulling it. I loved it. I didn’t want her to stop, but she moaned wildly, falling back as if she couldn’t take it anymore. I loved that too. I sucked her clit, penetrating her soaking pussy with my fingers. She tightened around me, breathing hard. It was too soon. I wanted it to last longer. Maybe I could make her come again. I started the process over.

  “Get up here, now!” she demanded.

  I laughed and crawled over her body. I laid kisses to mark all the places I wanted to explore further. I stopped at her sumptuous lips, licking the outside as I’d done to her below. She opened her mouth, somewhat hesitantly, but I wouldn’t let her balk at my kiss. I found her tongue and we did that little tangled dance because I really wanted her to taste me and more importantly, taste her on me. There is a place where erotic and sweet meet, and it’s the spot I wanted to take her to.

  “Oh, my God,” she moaned, when I finally released her mouth.

  “Nope, it’s just me—Cal,” I said, laughing into her neck.

  “I’m an idiot.”

  “Why would you say that?” I asked, punctuating kisses down her neck.

  “What was I missing in high school?”

  “Like you said, it’s better we waited.” I planted butterfly kisses across her jaw line.

  “I don’t think I can do this much longer, Tex. I need you inside of me.”

  “Patience, baby, all good things come to those who wait.” I continued my path as I gently massaged her breast.

  “Are you going to make me wait two years again?” she moaned. “Like you did for that kiss?”

  I sat up, staring at her, coyly. “Since we were so truthful today, I should confess that you were my first kiss.”

  “What? What about all those other girls you said you kissed?”

  I shrugged. “I lied.”

  “Why?”

  “I wanted you to think I was more experienced than I was. Besides, you kind of emasculated me by kissing me first.”

  “You were twelve. I don’t think the term ‘emasculated’ would have applied.”

  “Try telling that to my twelve-year-old self.” I embraced her, letting our bodies press together, before flipping us so she was on top of me. I reached over to the nightstand and retrieved the condom.

  I started to remove it, but I made the mistake of looking up at her. Her soft breasts were against my skin and her hair draped around us like we were the only two people in the world. My hands shook at the prospect of what we were about to do, and my mind ran through a crazy montage of all the times I’d imagined this moment.

  “Will you put it on, please?” I asked, handing her the foil wrapper. She complied, tearing it with her teeth. I didn’t want to seem vulnerable to her, but right now, that was what I was. It seemed to turn her on even more. It was just the weight of how much I wanted her. She moved down my body, leaving slow, hungry kisses in her wake. Her lips were so soft that I almost lost it right there. She reached my cock and I sat up to watch her put on the rubber, but she surprised me by grasping my erection in her hand and tasting the emerging droplets that formed at the tip.

  “Um…baby, that’s really nice, but I don’t need it. At least not this time.”

  “I just wanted to taste you too,” she replied, and this time I fell back on the bed, not able to stand it anymore.

  She rolled the prophylactic down my dick then worked her way up to my chest again. I clasped her hips and moved her over my erection. She mounted me without hesitation. I wanted us in this position so I could watch her. She was so slick, but so incredibly tight that despite the ecstasy of it, I wondered if I was hurting her. I searched her closely to make sure the contortions on her face were from pleasure not pain. When I was satisfied they were, I clasped her hips and pushed into her with force. I had no intention of letting her do all the work. She gasped in response, but it was gratified surprise. I moved myself, thrusting into her each time.

  Her hands fell on my shoulders for support. She went to move them back to her side, but I shook my head. “Leave them. It’s better that way,” I grunted.

  Her hair fell like a soft blanket over my chest. She bit her lower lip and I bucked into her harder.

  “Sylvie. So tight. So good, baby.” It wasn’t poetic, but they were the only coherent words I could form in my present state. At least she seemed to appreciate it. I rubbed her clit while she slid on my shaft.

  She moved with me, meeting me halfway with each thrust, digging her fingernails into my shoulders as we climbed higher together toward our releases. I felt her come apart and spasm around me. It took only another thrust for me to follow her. She collapsed on top of me. I ran my fingers down her back and kissed her head.

  I placed my fingers under her chin and lifted her head. I looked into her deep brown eyes, dark, inviting and innocent at the same time. “You belong to me.” She nodded, but that wasn’t good enough. “Say it. Tell me who you belong to.”

  “I belong to you,” she said.

  “Who do I belong to?”

  “Me.”

  “That’s right.”

  * * * *

  We spent most of the weekend that way. I was either inside her or next to her. We took breaks for meals and showers. On Sunday night, she lay on my naked waist with her hair splayed out. I read the same sentence a half dozen times, since I had to start over every time she moved. She must have noticed my need because she put her book down and gave me a sexy smirk before she started planting slow, pleasurable kisses on my chest.

  “Ready so soon?” It wasn’t that I didn’t want it, but I wondered how she wasn’t sore yet.

  “Yes, please.”

  I smirked. “Girl, you have one zealous appetite.”

  “I suppose. Are you going to withhold sex from me already?”

  I laughed. “Hell no, but I do have an important question for you.”

  “No more questions, Tex,” she sighed in frustration. In between our moments of pleasure, I had asked her many more questions about the last ten
years. She had been forthright with her answers, but I knew it was difficult for her.

  I shifted and in one motion I rotated us so she was underneath me. “It’s pretty important, baby.”

  “Ask it then. I ain’t got all day.”

  I laughed. “You’re so cute when you’re trying to sound country.” I kissed her quickly, trying not to get too excited before I got my answer. “Are you on birth control?”

  She stared at me in surprise. “No, why would you ask me that?”

  I sighed and buried my head in her neck. “Come on. We have to go out.”

  “What for?”

  “We’re out of condoms,” I said, getting up from the bed.

  “What? How did that happen?”

  I sighed, smiling at her. I’d never tire of her body. “I had an orgy over the weekend. What do you think?”

  Her look of disappointment would have been amusing if it hadn’t matched my own. “I just thought you had a lot of supplies when I looked in that drawer.”

  “I did and we had sex an awful lot too. Are you forgetting already?” I put on my jeans and looked in my dresser for a clean T-shirt. She didn’t stir from the bed.

  “This sucks.”

  ”I could always do the pull-out method.”

  She was quiet as if considering it. I regretted even putting the suggestion out there. I walked over and sat on the edge of the bed and kissed her. “Forget it. It was a stupid idea.”

  “I thought it was a pretty damn good idea.”

  I kissed her shoulder, working my way up to her ear, so I could whisper my admission. “As much as I’d like to feel you without anything between us, I really don’t think I can pull out when the time comes. I’m just not that strong, baby. Not when it comes to you.”

  “’Kay,” she replied.

  I stood up and reached for her hand. She took it, but then looked around with hesitation.

  “What now?”

  “I don’t have any clean clothes here.” She was right. She’d been wearing my T-shirts and boxers, but we couldn’t exactly go out like that.

  “You can wear my T-shirt.” I shuffled in the drawer, pulling out a pair of sweats. “And these have a drawstring.”

  She laughed, but put on the pants. They looked ridiculous on her, threatening to eat her up. It reminded me of the way she’d dressed when she’d first come into my life all those years ago.

  “Why don’t we go back to my place?” she suggested, trying with concerted effort to tighten the drawstring. I walked over and helped make a tight enough knot so they wouldn’t fall off.

  “So you can get your stuff?”

  “Cal, I need to be home for a while. I’ve spent the last two days here.”

  “I’m not comfortable with that.”

  “I didn’t say I needed to be alone. Pack a bag, Tex.”

  “I suppose that’s a fine idea then.” I wanted to see her place too. I wanted to check all the windows and doors. I went to my closet, grabbing my backpack and Glock revolver. I loaded it with bullets.

  “You have a gun?” she asked with disbelief.

  “You can take the boy out of Texas, but you’ll never take the Texas out of the boy,” I replied with a grin. She didn’t laugh at the joke.

  “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be carrying it around.”

  “Relax. I have a permit for it. Hey, how about we go to the range next weekend?”

  “Why?”

  “So I can teach you how to use it. We can get you your own. It would make you feel more comfortable around it, and it would give me some peace of mind to know you had one.”

  She swallowed. “I don’t know if that’s the best idea. I’m not exactly a fan.”

  It occurred to me why she would look at it with such disdain. A bullet had been responsible for taking away her parents. I put the gun down, and walked over to her. “It’s not the gun, baby. That’s just a tool. It’s the user that’s dangerous. Guns can protect as well as harm. It all depends on who’s using them. Trust me on this.”

  “’Kay,” she replied. I decided not to press her. She’d conceded and that was what I needed to hear.

  We found ourselves at a chain convenience store on Piedmont. Sylvie was cracking me up, staring at all the various packages of condoms, reading the promises on the labels. Some things never changed.

  “Baby, I know what we need,” I said, taking the simplest package.

  “I don’t know about that, Cal. This one says it’s for my pleasure. Don’t you want to try it out?” she asked, waving a package in front of my face. I snatched it from her hand, shaking my head as I put it back on its hook.

  I laughed. “Like our earlier conversation. It’s not about the tool, but rather the user. Are you complaining?”

  “Hell, no.”

  I almost turned to walk away, but I decided to grab a few more boxes to be sure we didn’t run out again. I made my way to the register when she called out my name.

  “What?”

  “We can’t just leave here with four boxes of condoms,” she whispered, gesturing me back over to her.

  I strode back. “You’re fucking with me right?” She shook her head in a demure, shy way that always made me smile. “We’re of age, and this is an acceptable pastime for consenting adults.”

  “I don’t want the old guy at the cash register to know we’re going to have sex.” She stared down at the boxes in my hand. “Or how much we’re planning to have.”

  I chuckled. “I’m fucking proud of that. Hell, I’d get on the store intercom and announce it right now if you’d let me.” I bent down, hovering my lips over her ear. “I’m going to touch, lick and kiss every part of your beautiful body. And then I plan to fuck you a million different ways so that even when I’m not inside of you, you’ll feel me there. Our personal demand will be responsible for shortening the supply of available prophylactics in this world. That’s how much I want you.”

  “’Kay,” she said, swallowing hard. I laughed, pulling her against me. After a deep breath, she smacked my chest. “Stop, I mean it. We have to buy some more stuff so it’s not obvious.”

  “Fine,” I grumbled. “You get something and I’ll get something and we’ll meet back here, but hurry.”

  She nodded, with a shy smile, turning around. I couldn’t resist smacking her scrumptious ass. She gasped, but it turned into a giggle as she scampered off.

  I honestly tried to pick out miscellaneous items I didn’t need, but in the end, I only found useful products that would assist me in the promises I had whispered to her. I found her lollygagging in the candy aisle instead of by the condoms where I’d told her to be. She held up two boxes of foreign chocolates, wrapped in gold foil. “For old times’ sake,” she said, smiling.

  I held up the basket I’d picked up and she managed to chuck them inside, holding her arms up. “Score,” she yelled.

  “Now come on so I can score,” I replied, wrapping my arm around her and speed-walking to the register.

  Her smile faded when I put our combined contents on the register. We had two bottles of wine, a six-pack of some power energy drink, baby oil, four boxes of condoms, two bags of chocolate and…lube.

  She whispered in my ear, “So much for not making it look obvious.”

  I shrugged. “At least we’re going to get good use out of all of this.” I caught up to her as she was exiting the store. “Are you really mad about this?”

  Her lips curled, fighting a smile. “Yes, but rest assured, I’ll think of a way to punish you later.”

  “Are you planning to withhold sex from me? Because I’ll buy out the whole goddamn store if you want.”

  She bit her bottom lip, but I knew she was now doing it on purpose. Now that she knew what it did to me. “That would be punishing myself, and I’m no masochist.”

  “That’s my girl,” I replied, putting my arm around her shoulder.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Sylvie’s place, an efficiency apartment situate
d in an artsy part of town, matched her style. “So this is you,” I said, gesturing to the space. There was a small couch, which I supposed Momma would refer to as a loveseat. The only other furniture was a twin-sized bed that I wondered how we were both going to sleep on and a chest of drawers. One wall screamed out, painted bright red, but the rest were stark white. It felt like Sylvie in some ways, but it also felt cramped and foreign too.

  “It’s not much, but rent’s cheap.” She took the bags from me, and placed them on a small countertop that housed a few miniature appliances and served as her kitchen.

  I immediately started checking the windows and locks. “You need a deadbolt. The one you have isn’t very strong and you don’t even have a peephole.”

  She shrugged. “I don’t get many visitors. Do you want beer or wine?”

  “Beer. It doesn’t matter how many visitors you get. It’s a pretty basic safety protocol.”

  “I’ll call the landlord if it makes you feel better,” she responded, handing me a beer.

  “Don’t bother. I can do it. We’ll hit Home Depot tomorrow.”

  “You know the US Marshal’s office still looks after me.”

  “Yeah, and they did such a fucking brilliant job the first time,” I spat. She winced at the harshness in my tone. I put my arm around her, pulling her close to me. “I’m sorry, I just want to take whatever precautions we can.”

  “I understand. I work tomorrow, but we can go in the morning.”

  I suddenly felt pretty stupid since this was such an obvious thing for me to know and also the one thing I hadn’t asked her about. “I don’t know where you work.”

  She laughed. “Of course you don’t. I never told you. I work at an art supply store.”

  “Do you like it?”

  “It’s boring most of the time, but I teach a few classes for children and I love that part.”

  “You were always good with kids. You were very good with Mandy.”

  “Oh, my God, I never asked you how she was,” she replied, clapping her hand to her mouth in guilt.