Rings of Fire Ch. 09

"Forgive me for this, babygirl. If there were any other way, I could reach you, make you see the truth I would, but I tried patience and love. They did not work."

"Make me see what, Brent? That you are a fucking asshole? Congrats, you might have finally succeeded there. Extinguished the love I could not," she spat the accusation at him.

His heart stuttered to a full stop at her words. His mind fractured at the harshness of her words. He reconsidered his choices. But as he had told her, he had tried the other. Time was running out for them...and perhaps for the tiny microorganism that was planet Earth. Desperate times called for desperate measures, they said. So he continued, as hard as it was.

"I hope not, Lauren. Goodness knows, I hope not. But sweetheart I have to make you see..."

"See what, Brent? What do you fucking want me to see?" she was back to those whispered screams that had destroyed them seven years ago.

He sighed as his fingers gently brushed more tears from her cheek, tenderly, "That you have been bound up in fear all your life, Lauren. Fear of failure. Fear of not being good enough. Fear of not being loveable."

He pressed his lips softly to hers once more as those eyes widened in shock at his words, perhaps denial even. "But I love you, sweetheart. I have since I was a fifteen-year-old kid afraid of the hormones raging through his body, and I will until the day I die. Even if you reject me again now, Lauren. I will still love you. Be faithful only to you."

"He stopped loving her today. They placed a wreath upon his door, and soon they'll carry him away. He stopped loving her today," he sang the song that he had every single night as he held the picture on the table next to his bed. And he had no shame whatsoever as he allowed his tears to mingle with hers.

"Trust me, please, baby. Just this one last time. Let me bind you with my love and not your fears. Then if you still want to walk away from me. From this. From my love. I won't stop you. Please, Lauren?" he pleaded his case as he watched one of his tears drop onto her cheek, mingling with one of hers...as their souls always had been...two becoming one. Or maybe they still were one, just reunited. "Please?"

***

Lauren heard the crack in his voice. Saw his tears. It was not the first time she had. But she could count those on the one hand, and she knew that she was the only one he ever allowed to. She felt the heat of that single tear as it fell on her skin. It was hotter than lava from Kilauea. It burned her soul.

She cursed herself. Called herself weak. Stupid. But she knew what her answer was going to be even before she nodded her head. She could not bring herself to say the words, to give him full consent, absolution. The slight nod was the best she could manage.

But she knew he had seen it, as Brent inhaled deeply. His lips once more descending upon hers. This kiss was firmer than before, but still more tender than demanding. More coaxing and seduction than conquering. She wanted to deny him victory but found herself responding, arching up, her breasts brushing against his bare chest, only the thin cotton of his shirt stood between them.

"Thank you, sweetheart. I promise you I won't abuse your trust," he whispered against her lips.

Damn him, damn Brent Jacobs to hell. Because in her heart, she knew that he not only meant those words, but that he never had. He had never once betrayed her trust or their love. But she had. The truth was she had pushed away the one person that loved her the most. The only one she could ever count on. She had pushed him away. She had broken his trust, ...and his tender heart.

"I'm sorry, Brent," she found herself whispering, almost against her will.

"Don't be, sweetheart. I am the one that should be apologizing. I am the one that pushed you too hard. I always knew what I was buying," he chuckled as he brushed more tears from her cheek. "I knew why too, baby. And still, I could not give you the time and space to come to the answers yourself. I'm sorry for that, Lauren. Sorrier than you will ever know."

Lauren wanted nothing more than to free her hands. To brush away the fresh tears on his cheeks, to soothe him, wrap her arms about him, draw him closer, comfort him, and take him into her body. But she could not. All she could do was lay there, and receive. "Make love to me, Brent," she pleaded.

"Always, my love. Always. Until the day, I die," he said as he stood slowly and unbuckled his belt.

Her eyes never left him as his fingers made quick work of the button and zipper, pushing his jeans aside until his cock sprang free, already hard and ready for her. She bit her lower lip. She wanted to taste him. That was another of those things that she could count on one hand, but she swore she would. Later perhaps. She smiled, maybe even give the man a taste of his own medicine. Tie his sexy ass to the bed, tease and torture him.

But right now she was at Brent's mercy, and tender though those might be, it both terrified and excited her. He smiled as he kicked off his boots and the jeans with them. Then he reached down, "You are overdressed, Mrs. Jacobs," he said as he tore open his shirt.

"Brent," she exclaimed in shock.

"What? Maybe I should cut the damned thing off? But then I'd have to go digging in the pockets of my jeans for my pocket knife, sweetheart. And I'd much rather spend that time inside your sweet cunt."

Lauren bit her lips. It always surprised her how much Brent's nasty talk in bed turned her on. It was like in his arms, his bed, she was free. Free of all the polite niceties of society. Free to simply be. Free to be herself.

Her eyes widened as it hit her. The truth that Brent had claimed she needed to see. It was there all along. Only in this man's love had she ever indeed been free. Only with him did she ever truly know happiness.

But at the moment she was more interested in actions than long confessions. They could have those later. Much later she thought as he came to join her on the bed, his body covering hers. Her legs automatically fell open. Her hips lifted, seeking, yearning for the feel of him deep inside of her. Needing that completion, she only felt when their bodies, minds, and souls melded together into one.

"Brent," she cried out as he entered her slowly. Too damned slowly as she lifted her hips to draw him deeper.

"Not so fast, sweetheart. We have all night," he promised as his hands upon her hips stilled her.

"Then fuck me again later, damn it. But I need you now, Brent. Hard and fast," she pleaded. "Damn it, please. Please fuck me," she added as she tightened her muscles around his throbbing cock. It was a move she knew he loved and one that usually won the argument for her.

He groaned as he slipped further inside her, his lips descended on hers once more. This kiss was the seething heat that threatened to consume every neuron in her brain. "Damn it, woman. Why don't I ever have any self-control around you?"

She chuckled as she moved beneath him, drawing him deeper and flexing her muscles again, "Self-control is highly over-rated, Dr. Jacobs. But if it makes you feel any better, I never have any around you either."

He laughed, and it drove his cock entirely inside her. Her body soared into the heavens and beyond once more as she trembled beneath him, "Then what the hell are we going to do if neither of us has any self-control."

"Shut the fuck up and just love me, Brent," she argued as she began to fight the bonds once more. The need to touch this man was consuming her.

"Tut-tut, Mrs. Jacobs. Such a potty mouth on a lady?" he teased as he began a slow and easy loving that threatened to rob her of all dignity.

"Damn it, stop playing around and fuck me. Fuck me hard and fast, Brent."

He smiled as he picked up the pace, "How can a gentleman resist such a polite request?"

Within a heartbeat, her body was soaring again. Higher. Faster. And further. So far that she feared she would never re-enter the Earth's atmosphere. Brent played her body, drove her further than she thought possible, gave her more...and more.

She barely managed to stifle her screams. Time was meaningless as he proved Einstein's theory of relativity. Over and over...and over again. Until she genuinely was mindless, exhausted, and so fucking well-loved that she knew there was no going back.

She belonged with this man. She always had. She always would.

They belonged together as she used her final burst of energy to capture his cock in a vise grip until he cursed and trembled, giving into his release.

"Damn it, woman," he said as he rolled just enough to the side to take his weight off her while allowing their bodies to remained locked in the dance of life and love. "I'll make you pay for that. Later," he promised with a cheeky grin.

"We'll see, Dr. Jacobs. We'll see," she teased.