Someone Lost, Something Gained

The next two weeks pass with no more attempts at intimacy, especially not in public. Veda and Niall trade steamier texts, pictures that should never see the light of day. There was even a phone call before he went to work that left him gasping for breath and calling her trouble, and Veda wishing he was in her bed.

Thankfully, their schedules finally align. Niall accepted immediately when she invited him over for dinner, so now all Veda has to do is wait for him to show up. Hattie raises a brow as Veda paces through the living room.

“You know wearing a hole in the floor isn’t gonna make him come any quicker, right?”

“I know. My hands will do that.” The words are out of Veda’s mouth before she can stop them. Her mind is elsewhere, and it isn’t until Hattie gags that she realises exactly what she’s said. She shrugs unabashedly.

“Ew, gross, V. Why do you hafta scar me like that?”

“Because you’re my cousin, and I love you.”

“Loving me should mean you don’t give me a reason for therapy!”

A knock sounds at the door, saving Hattie from any more crass remarks, and Veda rushes to the entryway. David Barkie darts inside as soon as she opens the door. Niall stares after his dog for a moment, but then his eyes - and hands and lips - are on Veda.

“Why do I feel a weird sense of deja vu?” she whispers against his mouth, and he laughs quietly.

“Because I’ve been wanting this since we were caught the other day.”

“Don’t remind me.”

Hattie’s voice forces them apart, the disgust more than evident. “Are you two gonna screw in the entryway again? Just need to know so I can disappear.”

“Well, we’re gonna now.”

“Stop being gross, Veda.”

Much like the last time, Niall and Veda take the couch while her cousin curls up in the armchair. Hattie goes to bed at nine, taking David Barkie with her. Veda tries to watch the show on TV, but she can’t follow the plot. She doesn’t even remember the title.

She makes it almost two hours.

She sucks in a breath when Niall initiates everything. His hand rests too high on her thigh to be an accident. His fingers squeeze into her skin, and her legs part automatically. His hand trails higher as he leans toward her.

His teeth graze against the shell of her ear, and he murmurs, his voice sending shivers down her spine, “I have tomorrow off. Can I stay the night?”

Veda swallows thickly and grabs his hand. She doesn’t bother stopping to lock the door; she just leads him up to her bedroom. He closes the door behind them. As soon as it clicks into place, she launches herself at him. He catches her easily, half-carrying her toward the bed as he kisses her back just as fiercely. Just as hard and desperately.

She arches against him once her back hits the mattress, her leg wrapping around his waist. Niall groans and pushes his hips into hers. Veda can’t breathe, her head swims, and she just wants him.

Her hands tremble as she tugs his shirt off, and he rolls off of her so she can remove her own. Instead, she slithers along his body. Pressing kisses to the expanse of beautiful skin before her, she undoes the buttons of his jeans and slides them and his briefs down his legs.

“Ve-Veda—”

She grins before taking him into her mouth. His hand slaps over his mouth, but she still hears the cry, muffled though it is. She loops her fingers around his shaft, strokes in tandem with the swirling of her tongue. He can’t lie still, and she doesn’t want him to. She relishes the weight and taste, the softness of the skin, the gasps and moans she is dragging from the depths of his lungs.

Niall thrusts up on instinct, his cock hitting the back of her throat. She struggles to catch her breath even as she continues drawing him closer to his orgasm. Her belly clenches, body aches with her own desire, but she can’t stop. Her pleasure can wait. He wheezes out her name when he falls over the ledge. Veda wipes her lips and sits up.

The red in his cheeks spreads to his chest, and she flashes a smug smirk at having affected him so much.

“That was… That was amazing,” he pants out as she stretches out beside him.

“It really was.” She kisses him, swallows his groan at the taste of him on her tongue. “I’ve wanted to do that since Louis called.”

“If I’d known it’d be that fantastic, I woulda let you suck me off even while on the phone.”

She giggles, pushing her hair from her face, and drapes her arm over his waist. “It woulda been hot, not gonna lie. But maybe next time, babe.”

Niall returns the favour moments later, all mouth and fingers with her hands clenched in his hair. She gasps and whimpers, squeezes her eyes closed only to open them so she can watch him work her through the crest. Her entire body quivers with tremors, and she squirms when the sensations grow to be too much. He nips at the inside of her thigh then pushes himself until he hovers over her.

“Those noises were better than I imagined,” he whispers.

“Just wait until you’re fucking me,” she whispers back.

His head falls to rest on her shoulder, arms shaking beside her head. “I really, really want to.”

Without saying another word, he heads off to the bathroom to clean up, and Veda grabs a T-shirt from the hamper to wipe herself. As she does, she wonders if they will move past this tonight. She shakes her head. This was amazing enough. No need for further expectations.

Her brain evidently doesn’t get the memo. The clock on her phone reads just after midnight, and Veda tries to figure out what’s woken her. Right. The unfamiliar feeling of someone in her bed, holding her so close his breaths ghost along her skin. Niall’s fingers twitch in his sleep, and she pulls his arm more securely over her waist.

His breathing changes from the deep steadiness of sleep to the faintest of hitching as he wakes. His fingers trail softly along her stomach, feather-light through the fabric of her bedsheets. Veda grabs his wrist, biting her lip even while she moves his hand to her chest. Niall huffs, but he takes the cue she gives. He presses his lips to her bare shoulder.

“What are you doing to me, Ve-Veda?”

She lets out a breathless laugh, arching further into his touch. “Tell me ‘no’, and we stop right now. If you don’t want this, tell me ‘no’.” Please want this as much as I do.

He shakes his head and shifts so her ass settles against his thighs. She reaches back to hold onto his hip, her own undulating as she rests her leg over his. His hand immediately moves between her thighs; he bites the curve of her neck as he slides one finger, then two, inside of her. She rocks down on his hand, breathing punching out of her with each shift of his fingers.

“Please tell me you’ve got protection,” he groans.

“What, you’re not a Boy Scout?” Her breath stutters when he strokes his fingers roughly. “Fuck, okay, sorry. No joking right now. You’re definitely not a Boy Scout. Gotta stop if you want me to get a condom.”

Thankfully, she is as prepared as a Boy Scout. She’d purchased a box of condoms in hopes of this happening. God, she’s been hoping for this to happen.

He pushes his fingers deeper into her, his dick slipping along her ass, and she doesn’t think he’ll ever stop. He doesn’t stop. She cries out a ‘wait’ but it’s too late. Her lungs seize up as she loses control.

It’s more wonderful than she could ever have imagined. Her breath catches in her throat as he slides into her with patience and tenderness. As if he’s worshiping how easily her body welcomes him. As it adjusts to the stretch and fit of him. His grin is soft, achingly soft, and Veda wishes she could drown in it for the rest of her life, ‘too soon’ be damned.

He feels like home, like he is meant to be here, like her body was made only for him. She lingers on his lips, the kiss only sharpening the edge of desire in her gut. It should be awkward, finally coming together like this, especially when it’s been so long since she was with someone so intimately.

But this is more than a physical need being met. This is the love and care and connection she has yearned for her entire life. Her heart races in her chest for a reason different than the way he rocks into her, his thrusts gentle and promising so much good.

It’s for the fact that, as she stares up at him, she knows she loves him in a way she could never explain.

She is in love for the first time in her life, and she can never come back from this.

She never wants to come back from this.