Safe Refuge

"Never change, Clark, please don't," she says as he tenderly kisses her neck.

"Okay?"

He looks up, perplexed. "I don't intend to. What brought that on?"

"Just thinking, that's all. I just hope that the sensitive and secure man I've known for over a year will always be that man."

With a straight face, he says, "Well, if we're to live together, you should know that full moons turn me into a werewolf. But not to worry. My howl is worse than my bite."

Dialed into his sense of humor, she's ready with a response. "Oh man, with a forest of thick body hair and long, sharp incisors?"

"Correct."

"Just be careful when you kiss me in that state."

"Sure thing. Any other concerns?"

She reaches out to stroke his full erection. "Um, just that I hope my tight pussy will accommodate this thing. Look at you!"

After minutes of oral and tactile preliminaries, she's wet and throbbing with desire to the point where her initial concerns about accommodations seem almost comical. "I'd say we fit together quite well," he says. "Don't you?"

"Very much so." As if to make her point, with her feet planted firmly on the mattress, she bounces up and down on his cock with a delicious fluidity. "Now don't come yet," she says between deep breaths, "cause I'm just warming up."

Chuckling, he grips his hands over her oblique muscles to provide more thrust. "If this is a warm-up, I can't wait until you're in full throttle."

It's not much of a warmup, for moments later, she is indeed in full throttle, cruising into overdrive. The sounds of sex reverberate—her butt slapping against his pelvis, the squeak of bedsprings, moans and groans and squeals of delight, followed by the crescendo—hers first, then his. Then, as the afternoon wears on and shadows lengthen across the room, comes the part she loves the most, cuddling and smooching under the covers, her long legs entangled with his, her affection deepening. Just hours earlier, she was almost sick with worry over being homeless and jobless. Now, those worries seem to float away, and it isn't long before she curls up and sinks into a blissful nap.

*****

"I'd say we got off to a great start," Clark says.

"A wonderful start," she responds. "Thanks for letting me sleep. I needed that nap."

"Of course you did. That full throttle tuckered you out."

She grins and gives him a playful love slap across his back.

It's now hours later and they're cuddled on the sofa, sipping wine and listening to the crackle of logs burning in the fireplace, their sole source of light at this precious moment. The fire and their wool PJs warm them against the chill of a living room set at sixty-sixty degrees. "This is what I meant when I talked about going home with you instead of to Safe Refuge," Nerissa reveals. "I pictured us sitting by a fire, just like this." She snuggles closer.

He eases an arm around her. "From now on, I hope you can think of this place as another safe refuge, a permanent safe refuge, one I hope you can continue living in once you find another job."

She purses her lips into a look of skepticism. "You really mean that? Clark, you're so used to living by yourself, doing things when and how you want to do them. I worry about getting in your way, about annoying you, about you getting angry at me, resentful. I couldn't go through that again." She shakes her head, brushes back a tear.

He tucks a finger under her chin, lifting her face toward his. "Listen, right now I'm committed to making this work. You've just been through a terrible experience living with someone else. I get it. Now you get this, Nerissa Bohlen. I care about you, adore you. You're right, it'll be a major adjustment for me. So I'll adjust. Look, I could annoy you just as easily, you know."

"How?"

"Stick around long enough, you'll find out."

"Okay, then we'll be mutually annoying."

"Quid pro quo?"

"Yep. Quid pro quo."

He brushes her blond bangs aside and kisses her forehead. "Nerissa, I have a feeling this will work. I really do."