I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do next. It was as if I were at the best buffet ever, one that held all my favorites, and I just didn’t know where to start.

“I’m not sure if I want to suck your nipples or your little pussy, Grace.”

She moaned again. “Anything you want.”

God. Damn.

“I’m going to suck your pussy then, because you are going to drip on this expensive carpet if I don’t clean you up. Bend over the bed.”

Grace silently moved into the position I asked. The bed in here wasn’t as high, so her knees were slightly bent, but her ass was pointing straight up to the sky. I wanted to spank it again, make it rosy with my hand. I remained dressed, too afraid that if I disrobed I’d be inside her so fast that neither of us would appreciate the orgasm.

My jeans must’ve felt rough against the tender skin of her thighs but Grace never voiced a protest. I leaned my body over hers so I could hear her. “You with me, baby?”

“Right there,” she said.

“You aren’t panting, so I don’t think you’re turned on enough for me.” I patted her ass as I spoke. “I don’t think you want it bad enough.”

“I do, Noah, I do,” she said and then her words were cut off as I slid a finger around the tight pucker of her ass and then down farther to her sweet pussy.

“You need to spread your legs, then, and show me how much you want it.”

Grace pushed her heels outward, exposing more of her sex to my hungry gaze. “That’s right,” I encouraged. “Farther.”

“But I can’t—“ she started.

“If you don’t want to do this, Grace, just say the word.” I made my voice hard and indifferent.

“No, no,” she protested and then widened her stance so far that she stood on her tiptoes.

“Good girl,” I said approvingly. Kneeling between her legs, I started licking in long slow strokes from the front of her pussy lips to the back, right below her pucker. Each time I made sure I flicked her clitoris with my tongue. Her thighs began to shake, either from the effort of holding herself up or from arousal or both. The tremors were my signal, and I took it. Pushing her ass up with one hand, I slid two fingers into her channel. Then, realizing my fingers would be in the way of eating her out, I turned around and sat on my ass, my back to the bed.

“Your pussy is so beautiful,” I told her. “I wish you could see it. Your lips are plump and your little clit is sticking its head out, begging to be sucked on. Let’s give that little fucker what it wants, hmmm?” I didn’t wait for her response. Sucking the clit into my mouth, I thrust my middle fingers in and out, each time stroking her forbidden little rosette with my pinky finger. Her hips bucked against my mouth but with my palm pressing against her ass, she was pinned more securely than a butterfly.

“Can I come?” I heard her gasp out above me. “Please.”

The pleading note sent an illicit thrill down my spine.

“Not yet.” I wasn’t done yet. She tasted too good. I wanted to suck her arousal down until all I would ever taste was her in my mouth. My mouth and fingers worked her hard, and I felt her ass cheeks tighten and her thighs harden as the beginnings of her orgasm started spiraling.

“Please, please,” she begged. I couldn’t resist her pleas.

“Yes, baby, come for me.”

My words were like the starting gun at a race. She started spasming inside and out, her juice running down my chin as I ate her like she was my last meal. I kept at her while her whole body shook above me. Her legs tightened and then collapsed into jelly like she couldn’t hold herself up, and I let her slide into my lap. As her head dropped onto my shoulder, I noticed she hadn’t once moved her hands.

“Oh Grace, I love you so much.” I stroked her long hair and cuddled her close as she tried to catch her breath.

“I love you too, Noah. You’re all that I’ll ever want or need in this life or the next.”

A surge of lust and love propelled me upward. I disrobed quickly and tore the makeshift binding away. Lifting Grace onto the bed, I knelt over her. “I’ll always be yours.”

“And you’ll always be enough,” Grace replied, lifting her hand to stroke my face. I bent down and kissed her. Her lips parted, and I felt like she was giving me a benediction. In her arms, I felt wanted and loved and necessary. I couldn’t ever lose her.

The erection I’d ignored was pushing insistently against Grace’s hip. I was so hard that I actually ached. Real pain was throbbing because my dick wanted inside Grace so badly.

Somehow she knew. She always knew. “May I touch you,” she asked diffidently.

“God yes, please.” I dragged her hand down to my cock and closed it around my member. I was surprised I didn’t break off in her hand, it was that hard.

“May I kiss it?” she asked, and I realized I should be taking charge. That I wanted to take charge. Pushing myself against the headboard, I ordered her to get between my legs. “On your knees. I want you to suck my cock.”

She didn’t move right away. “Grace,” I told her sternly. “Don’t make me repeat myself.” Under the curtain of her hair, I could see her slight smile. More confident now, I leaned over and slapped her ass. “Move it.”

She finally moved, shuffling down toward the bottom of the bed. I slid my feet back so my knees were pointing upward and outward. When Grace was situated between my knees, I unzipped my pants and pulled my dick out, holding it for her. Looking at me with a shy smile, Grace waited for further direction.

Oh God. She was going to kill me. “Lick him, base to tip, and then suck him into your mouth.”

Grace did exactly as I told her, and my eyes to rolled into the back of my head. The wet suction of her mouth felt so glorious I briefly thought angels were singing in our bedroom. Pulling her hair up, away from her face, I enjoyed the sight of her hollowed cheeks as she sucked. The sensation of her tongue coupled with the sight made my balls tighten. It was too soon to shoot my load. I had to be inside her.

“Stop now.” I pulled her up, ignoring her protests. “I have to get my dick inside your pussy or I’ll die.” I’d learn more about control and submission and dominance later. Right now I wanted Grace on top of me, riding me until we were both stupid from orgasming so hard.

Quickly I disposed of my clothes, pulled out a condom from the nightstand and sheathed myself. Positioning Grace over my cock, I slid inside her. She was wet, both from my tonguing her earlier and from her blowing me. “You’re so wet and tight it makes me want to come from the first stroke.”

Grace’s response was to moan out her satisfaction and tighten her muscles around my cock. So good. So damn good. I pulled my legs up behind her and pushed her to rest her back against them. “Ride me,” I ordered. “Ride me hard.”

Her hands fluttered in the air as she looked for leverage. Clasping them in mine, I pushed up against her in a furious rhythm. With our palms pressed together, she met every upstroke of mine with a fierce downstroke of her own.

“This is the only thing that matters,” Grace gasped out. “I only want you.”

Her words sunk deep into my skin, soaking into my hungry heart. “You too, baby, you’re all I want or need.”

“Make me come,” Grace cried.

Flipping us both over in one swift move and without removing myself from her, I laid Grace on her back. Pushing up her legs, I thrust into her in long, deep strokes. Her fingers dug into my forearms and she urged me on. “Faster, Noah.”

I raised on my tiptoes so that I could press against her clit every time I thrusted into her. The extra pressure was enough, and she began coming, her inner walls squeezing me hard until I couldn’t hold off one more second. With a shout, I came so hard I feared I broke the condom.

We both lay panting afterwards. Grace was so right. I needed a little control in the bedroom because so much of the outside world was spinning off its axis. In here, though, I could be in charge and even better, I'd learned that a little bossiness in bed made Grace wetter than the bottom of Lake Michigan. Gathering Grace’s exhausted body into my arms, I flipped the covers over us and fell into the first dreamless sleep since forever.

WHEN I AWOKE THE NEXT morning, Grace was gone. Usually I was the one who was awake and out of bed first. I liked to run early in the morning, and it was the one opportunity for Bo and me to have uninterrupted time together. It seemed that every minute of my day was taken up by my various responsibilities.

Something was going to have to give at some point or another. I think I knew that I couldn't keep up this pace. Winning this fight in two weeks would go a long way towards assuring the future I wanted to have with Grace. It was a high-profile fight, and if I won, I could move up to headline my own card and gain sponsors—bigger sponsors than the ones I had.

It was all coming together, but a lot of it hinged on this one event. But if you threw the fight, you would have a lot more time to spend with Grace, an insidious little voice murmured.

I threw myself out of the bed and went out to look for Grace. I wandered around a bit until I found her bedroom, but no one was there and it looked as pristine as when we’d left it last night. I didn't feel comfortable interrupting her cousin, who slept across the hall. I went back to the room, got my phone, and texted her.

I wondered if Grace really understood the ludicrousness of the situation. That I would have to text her in order to find out where in this house she was.

Looking for you.

No answer.

I checked my watch. It was oh seven hundred. That was fairly late for me. I'd slept like the dead after last night's adventure. Grace had worn me out. A glance out of the floor-to-ceiling windows framed a still figure with long, light brown hair. I ran upstairs and picked up the small velvet box that I’d chosen a week ago. Tucking it inside my jeans pocket, I let myself out of the house where I tracked the figure down to a small strip of sand that couldn't really be called a beach. Despite the bitter cold, the waves of Lake Michigan still rose and fell against the surf.

"How come it doesn't freeze?"

“In grade school, they said that the wind and waves and some kind of reservoir of heat in the lake prevents it from freezing entirely.” She pointed to some small frozen spots near the shoreline. “When it gets cold enough, some of the harbors and the shallower water will be frozen over.”

"I missed you this morning." I folded my arms around her, her puffy coat preventing me from actually feeling anything but solid mass underneath.

“Mmmm.”

"Were you worried your mom was going to find you or something?"

"Not really," she admitted, still not looking at me.

"What happened last night, Grace?"

"Didn't you like it?"

Like was a tame word. Like is what I used for a good run or a solid hit. Like isn't how I would've described what went on in our bedroom last night.

"Yeah, I liked it a lot. I just..." And now maybe I could see why Grace was up and out of the bed before I could wake up. "I was surprised, that's all. Where'd you get the idea for that?"

Grace wasn't sexually experienced. She may have done other things with other guys over the years I wasn't with her, but she hadn't had sex with them. Of course there were dozens of ways she could have touched them or been touched. I didn't like thinking about even one of them.

“In my head," she said quietly. Then tucked her head down into her jacket like a turtle.

"Are you embarrassed?" I was astonished. I turned her around to look at me, but all I could see were her eyes peeping out between the stand-up collar of her jacket and the lowered cuff of her knit stocking cap. My own ears burned in the wind and reminded me that I'd come out here with just my coat and no hat.

"Not exactly," she said. Then she tucked her head into her jacket and released a tiny puff of breath. ”Okay, yes, a little."

"God, why? Last night blew my mind," I admitted and then had the horrible thought that maybe I'd hurt her. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No!" She hurried to reassure me. "I just...it's embarrassing, and I thought maybe I'd forced you to do something with me that you… Well, do you think differently of me now?"

I shook my head, not quite understanding her. "Are you saying that you think that because you had a fantasy of me telling you what to do in the bedroom that somehow I'm going to be turned off?"

She shook her head, and this time I could see the expression in her eyes read miserable. I drug her to my chest and hugged her, wishing we were inside and without the fifteen layers of fabric, down, and feathers between us.

"I'm glad you said something, took the initiative. If you hadn't then I'd never have known."

"You liked it, right?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah, almost too much."

"Why?"

"Because all I'll be able to think of for the rest of my life is you sitting there on your knees, your palms up. In fact, I think you'll have to keep your neck covered, because if I see it bent down, I'm going to get hard. That's going to be tough for me in everyday activities."