Trivial Pursuits Ch. 22

When she stepped off, it was early enough in the evening that many employees still loitered around working, though with a much more relaxed atmosphere than the typical professionalism found nine to five. But Alessa noticed none of them, not even the ones that turned to gawk at her unexpected return. Though she had felt confident and strong, she seemed to slow down like a wave coming in against the rip tide, losing momentum exponentially, until she was stopped just outside his door. Though it was closed, there was light coming from under it, indicating he was still there.

Her heart was slamming so loudly she was afraid it would give her presence away. After what felt like an age, she lifted a slim, trembling hand. And knocked.

Silence followed the wordless request for so long she was afraid he actually wasn't in. But then he spoke from the other side. "Enter." Her trembling increased as she reached for the knob, fear racing through her in slamming waves. But this is what she wanted.

Alessa entered Denny's office bracing herself for a fight. He was standing with his back turned to her, his gaze out his window and into the dark and sparkling early night. She shut the door quietly, not wanting to disturb him until she must. Denny seemed to be waiting for the intruder to speak first, as he finally sighed when she said nothing.

"Yes?" he asked somewhat tersely and then turned to face the person who had the audacity to bother him. He froze as he saw her there, so shocked by her appearance he blinked, thinking she was a hallucination.

Alessa scrutinized his face for any indication whether her return was welcome or not. All she could determine was intensity. Perhaps contained rage. Perhaps something else. Neither spoke for nearly a minute, until she couldn't handle it any longer.

"Hello," she said, but he made no reply, not even a small nod of the head. "I, um...I've reconsidered," she explained, feeling somewhat lame. "Not the job, I mean. Well, yes, the job I've reconsidered, but that's because it's contingent upon something else of higher priority; so I'm giving it up. Though really, it's no sacrifice. Not considering what I gain." Alessa scrunched her nose when she realized she was rambling and not making any sort of sense.

"You. I've reconsidered you." His scowl darkened. She took a rushed step forward. "I don't want to run anymore. I don't want to be afraid anymore. I want to stay with you. Always. After all," she admitted with a shrug and defeated half-smile, "you deserve me. I mean, out of all the people in the world, you are the one who worked the hardest to understand me and help me understand myself."

He said nothing, only stared at her with those incredibly intense and unknowable eyes. And she could feel it slipping away. All the euphoria that had buoyed her along when she'd realized what she wanted, the confidence she'd felt when she had the clarity that being with him was worth risking what she feared. Slipping, like the remnants of a wonderful dream as consciousness invaded the waking mind.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, not knowing what else to say. Only the apology that she had destroyed something special by running away. "I love you, and I'm sorry I acted like a fool, trying to fight it," she confessed at last, the tears blurring her vision, the desperation that she had ruined her chance at happiness.

And in that moment of seeing her future lacked all meaning without him, he finally responded. Denny strode quickly across the room, the force of his decisiveness lifting her off her feet when he reached her, his hands around her back as his mouth crushed against her lips.

Alessa whimpered out in flooding relief, her own arms instantly around his neck, clinging as tightly as possible to his solid form. For a moment he held her close, kissing her, before setting her feet on the ground and using one of his hands to cup her cheek. His tongue invaded her mouth possessively, drinking in her life to sustain his own. When he at last pulled back just enough for their lips to part, their harsh breaths stormed together.

"Tell me again," he pleaded, sounding as though he'd run up a mountain. "Tell me."

For a split second, she was too dazed to understand what he was talking about, but then she realized it, heat spreading over her cheeks as she looked into his eyes.

"Denton Ashbury, you are the only man I love. I love you with a heart I never knew I had. I crave you with a need I never knew I possessed. I love you; heaven help me, I always will. Denny, you were my first, and you will be the last."

Gently, in deepest gratitude, he lowered his forehead until it rested against hers, their lips not quite touching. "Oh, Sweetheart, don't ever fucking do that again. I thought I'd lost you." He chuckled morosely. "I was actually just running through all my Plan Bs. I thought I'd give you a week and then go to Korea after you. I never thought you'd come back, not when you'd convinced yourself you could live without me."

"I'm so sorry," she whispered, drawing him down for another kiss.

The next time they stopped for air, he said, "Please, please, please, please, please. Promise me. If you ever get scared again, if you ever become uncertain just talk to me about it. Don't assume there's only one way out. Hope that there's something we can do. Together. Okay, Sweetheart?"

"I promise. I'll never run from us again."

It took some fancy finagling, but he was able to maneuver them from the office in a respectable manner, possessing the wherewithal to text Macrae, succinctly explaining the situation and the fact that Alessa would not be going to Seoul. At least not that evening and certainly not permanently.

The moment he got them home, he was on her, pinning her body against the wall in the entry while his hips pressed firmly into the juncture of her thighs. When she seemed ready for him to tear her panties off and impale her where they stood, he stepped back leaving her alone on the wall. As he stood there looking at her like she was his personal play-thing, his fierce expression making her body completely pool in liquid need, he formulated a little plan.

"You've been a bad girl, Ms. Allen, trying to leave me."

Her breath rushed out of her as her hands gripped the wall behind her. "Have I? How bad?"

"Very, very bad. And I think you need to be punished, so you never forget what you'd leave behind if you ever think about doing it again." When she didn't respond, but simply bit her lip and arched an eyebrow, he loosened his tie. "Take off your shoes and pants. Now."

Trembling, she complied, sliding them down her legs eagerly. "Your shirt, too. Take it off." Denny's eyes devoured her as she undid each button, her shaking fingers making the work difficult. "Now, turn around and place your hands on the wall. Above your head."

When she had done as he commanded, he took his tie completely off and stalked closer to her. He traced the fingers of one hand up her right arm. He smiled predatorily when she groaned at the light sensation, her head rolling away to expose her sensitive neck to him in invitation. Not one to resist her charms, he stepped close enough to hover his lips just above the surface of the smooth skin stretched for his teasing pleasure. Denny allowed his warm breath to pour down the slopes, but didn't connect his lips to them, returning her temptation on to her.

Instead, he traveled up the length of that right arm, momentarily lacing his fingers with hers, before bringing the hand down behind her back. He did the same with the left hand and then looped his black tie around her wrists, keeping them together with only a little give.

Leaning against her lightly, not enough to truly press her firmly against the wall, but enough to cage her in with his body, he let his hands drift down her bare back and the curves of her bottom, fingering the edge of her panties, before drawing lines under the mounds of her buttocks.

"Now, for the beginning of your punishment. Have I ever told you that your ass is perfect for-" Smack!. He gave her right cheek a sharp, but not overly painful slap. She breathed in through clenched teeth, feeling the heat his hand left on her skin seep straight to the plumping lips of her sex.

"No," she breathed, allowing the tension to flow from her body and rock back against him.

"No?" He smacked the other, a little harder, but only enough to bring a slowly building thrum of pleasure to her pussy. She moaned the second time, and the third. And though she caught her breath on the fourth, she raised no protest. She did squirm, both toward his pleasure giving hand, and away after the fifth spanking. "What's the matter Sweetheart? Not enjoying your punishment?" He began tracing his fingers over the reddened globes, both tantalizing the flesh and sparking a little pain whenever he touched the places he had struck.

"Yes, yes I am," she admitted freely, not knowing if she wanted more or to be fucked. Maybe both. All she really knew was the pleasure of his fingers on her bottom were unlike any she'd ever had.

"Really? How much?" At last his fingers followed the curve to her hidden lips, which were fully coated, she was sure.

"V-very much," she stuttered when his fingers found the wet spot on her panties. The tips of two fingers stroked the spot from the back all the way forward over her engorged pearl of nerves. Her hips jerked at the amazing sensation.

"Hmm, yes, I can tell by how very, very wet you are." His weight seemed to press into her back a little more now as he stroked her sex from behind. Without being told, Alessa's legs parted to give his roving hand access, her lower back arching to tilt her crotch back toward him. "Seems like you need something," he murmured, looking down at the erotic vision she produced.

"Yes, please," she moaned.

"I don't know if bad girls get rewarded."

She whimpered, and the sincerity in her dejection made him smile. Her arms twisted in their confinement. Her cheek was now pressed against the wall as she rested her tortured body against it. "Please, Denny. I'll be so good for you. But please." She took a deep breath and let it out in a stuttering exhale. "So long," she sighed, her eyes closing. "I've needed you so long."

He realized that she meant it had been quite some time since they'd been intimate, and not just sex, but any form of physical connection. And he agreed. It had been so long. Too long. Well, he planned on rectifying that.

Taking a step back, he took her by her joined wrists and guided her before him, leading her to the couch. Denny pushed her forward so she crawled up, and then with more guidance caused her to lay across the back so her stomach rested on it and her bottom stuck up in the air. Denny pulled her panties down just past her bottom, revealing the wet lips of her sex winking at him. For a moment, he simply enjoyed the view. Her round, toned backside was beautiful and made his mouth water. He felt a stirring thrill in his loins at the sight of her skin lightly marked red by his hand.

As he reverently touched her smooth flesh, he wondered how he could have allowed himself to become so occupied with work that he had neglected her, neglected what was between them. He needed this, just as much as she did. He leant down and placed a soft, apologetic kiss on one of the pinked globes. Alessa moaned and pushed back into him a little, hopeful that he would continue the sweet attention.

Denny stood up and began running a hand over her, stroking her bottom and coming closer and closer to the dripping crease of her sex. "Tell me again," he whispered as his fingers dipped down the line, coating the tips in her hot moisture.

Reacting to that thrilling touch, she pushed her hips back in attempt to force herself on at least one digit. Denny reacted quickly enough, pulling his hand away and giving her butt a sharp slap. "No, not until you pay your penance. Tell me," he commanded more firmly, not touching her until she complied.

Alessa released her bottom lip, quick to comply in hopes that her eagerness would prove her sincerity. "I love you, Denny."

"Again."

"I love you. Have for a while now."

He placed a hand at the small of her back. "And why didn't you tell me?" he questioned, not yet caressing her, but holding his hand against her in promise of her reward if she submitted.

"I-I was going to," she confessed. "The night I found out about-" she drew in a ragged breath, "about my mom. The dinner was supposed to be for us. For you. The rock was a confession. But I never got to really say it."

"Then say it now," he said softly. His fingertips had begun to drift over her sensitive skin again.

A shudder went through her as the pain was heightened by his lightest of touches and mixed with the pleasure. "Oh Denny, I love you so much."

At her words, two of his fingers stroked firmly down either side of her pleading core. She moaned, her head writhing as she succumbed to the sensation. "Say it again."

"I love you." He punctuated her statement by invading her tight heat with the same two fingers, spreading her slick walls until she conformed around him. Her hips were lifting up to capture him fully, guide him to the deep, aching spot.

"Again."

"I love you. I need you."

"That's right," he murmured as he played her like a sweetly singing instrument, drawing his fingers out and pressing in, gliding over the center of nerves buried inside.

"Oh, Denny," she whimpered, feeling her body begin to tighten as the pleasure coalesced right before the explosion. Unexpectedly, he pulled his hand from her and landed a smarting blow to her right butt cheek. She squealed, though not in protest.

"That's for not trusting me." He gave her another. "That's for not telling me you were hurt and you wanted to leave." Another. "That's for not telling me you loved me." He rained sharp blows until she was wiggling in near discomfort. "And that's for leaving me." She was crying, though not from pain, at least not from the blows. But he gave her no respite. "And this is for coming back." And then his two fingers were back inside her, rubbing aggressively against her inner wall, causing an almost instantaneous climax like she'd never before felt.

She was crying out, all the agitated emotion of the past month pouring from her as glorious pleasure possessed her body and tensed her supple muscles until she was panting and gasping and writhing armless on the back of the couch.

Denny's loving mouth was on her back, adoring her capitulation with kisses on her damp skin. While she still floated in the euphoric bliss from of orgasm, Denny untangled her hands from his tie, placed an arm at the crook of her bent knees and guided her back to fall into his waiting arms. Her own arms went around his shoulders as he placed a grateful kiss against her brow and carried her to their bed.

He laid her upon it, and as she watched him languorously, he undressed. Crawling to her, he felt his heart squeeze as he pictured her their first night together. How far she had come, opening herself up to him, allowing him and returning his affection, if even reluctantly. He slide her panties the rest of the way off her legs, leaving them to fall open and allow him to settle between them. Her hands were instantly on him, pulling him down onto her, her hips adjusting to cradle his thick hardness. She leaned up to kiss him, to thank him with her stroking tongue.

"Tell me," she implored softly, turning his command back on him in a sweet request.

Denny leaned up on one elbow so he could stroke the damp tresses of her hair away from her temple and forehead. He leisurely traced the prominent curves and lines of her face, from the curve of her brow to the slope of her nose. Even the plump peaks of her lips he wanted to always kiss.

"I love you, Sweetheart. I always will." He kissed her then, slowly and languidly, as if his only job the rest of eternity was to portray his love with just that kiss. Without separating their mouths, he reached down and guided his shaft to her entrance. Together they worked to slide him in until their pubic bones touched.

"I'll never get used to this," she sighed at the fullness. "I'll never have enough."

Denny gave a hoarse chuckle just as he focused on not losing control too quickly. And then slowly he stroked in and out, drawing himself along her tight sheath with patience so she could feel each vein and ripple of his cock. She groaned when he pushed back in and drew her knees up alongside his waist. Denny watched her respond to him, watched enthralled as her eyes fluttered shut and her head twisted side to side against the wonderful sensation he produced as he methodically picked up the pace.

A flash of thankfulness that not only she had returned to him, but that she returned his feelings surged through him. Overcome, he bent down to kiss her, coaxing out moans and whimpers with his roving hands and thrusting body.

A possessiveness, a savagery that she belonged to him and always would overtook him and he began plunging into her with abandon. Not satisfied with the depth, Denny pulled away just enough to slightly reposition them so that both his knees were bent on the bed and she was angled with one leg below him and one on top of his right thigh. This allowed for a deeper penetration, almost as if he were bisecting her. A shiver like a hot knife raced up his spine when the tip of his penis nudged her cervix. Alessa gave a grunt, her face wincing for a split second before she continued with him, rolling her hips as if she were riding him.

Contented that the position was more than satisfactory for Alessa, Denny leaned over her, one hand on her shoulder and the other bracing him as he began thrusting powerfully into her. Alessa's hand was on the small nubbin of her sex, rubbing it in time with his pistoning. When he felt her tight walls quivers violently around his cock, his own body tensed up involuntarily, and expelling round after round of ejaculate inside her. From his groin to his scalp, he was seized with a delicious wave of liquid euphoria. And when it passed, he groaned hoarsely.

A hand went around Alessa's back, as she had curled up in a tight ball during her own climax, and holding her, he collapsed, rolling slightly so as to avoid crushing her. Together, they lay panting and recovering.

Some hours later, after two more bouts of tangling themselves in various positions, as her fingertips lightly caressed the forearm that was wrapped around her, she spoke softly. "I'm good."

"Hm?"

"I need you. I need you to hold me in the morning, to make omelets for me, to play games with me and push me to work hard. But I don't need you to tell me how to feel, to tell me when I'm wrong or right. Not anymore. I'm good now. I understand, and so from now on, I need to do it on my own. I need to stand on my own feet in this relationship. Equal. Free to make mistakes and not look to you to guide me through anything."

His arm tightened around her, and she could feel his face come to nuzzle in her hair. "Ah, Sweetheart, that's all I ever wanted." He chuckled, "Well, maybe not all, but a big part. Just for you to want to be with me. To love me as much as I love you."

She turned in his arms to wrap her own around him. She kissed his chin. "And now I do."

"Just can't help believing when she smiles up soft and gentle

With a trace of misty morning and a promise of tomorrow in her eyes

And I just can't help believing when she's lying close beside me

And my heart beats with the rhythm of her sighs.

This time the girl is gonna stay

This time the girl is gonna stay

For more than just a day.

"I Just Can't Help Believing" by B.J. Thomas

The End