Twelve

Devin woke beneath a heavy, immobile form.  No big deal, just naked Nicklas Backstrom sleeping with his hand between my legs.  Then she started laughing.  She did her best to keep it silent but it bounced around inside her chest.  Nicky shifted in his sleep, weighing her down even more.

His phone rang on the bedside table: the theme song from Shaft.  Nick jerked his head up, an adorable look of confusion on his face – what is that noise, who am I on top of, why are you waking me up?  Blond hair fell in his eyes and he tried to paw it away, sit up and reach the phone at the same time.

They say this cat Shaft is a bad mother… shut your mouth!

With the extra inch of freedom, Devin lunged for the phone.  “Please tell me that’s Mike’s ringtone.”

On the screen: Greener.  She burst out laughing.

“Go away,” Nicky answered the call.  He smiled before letting his eyes travel slowly down her body, confirming everything he’d remembered about the night before.  Devin stretched like a cat and ran a hand across his bare chest.

“Yes, she’s here.  Mike says hi.”  Nicky listened again, rolling his eyes.  “He wants to know if you’re naked.”

Devin wiggled an eyebrow and moved that hand past his waist, under the sheet.  His cock twitched as she brushed her palm over it.

“He wants to know if you like brown-haired guys.”

She trailed her fingernails back up Nicky’s thigh and he shifted to give her better access.  But she opted to trace well outside the target while he gave her dirty looks.

“Mike wants to know why you don’t answer him.”

Devin took her hand from Nicky’s lap with a pout and pulled the phone away.  “Sorry Mike, my mouth was full,” she smacked her lips loudly.  “Done now.  Can I help you with something?”

Nicky hit her with a pillow.  Even Mike heard the WHOMP.  She went down in a heap, covering her head and squealing.  As she struggled out from under Nicky, she said, “It’s kinda awkward to talk to you on the phone like this,” she admitted.  Honestly one fully naked Washington Capitol was more than she could handle but maybe the distraction was a good thing.  Maybe.

“Have you guys seen the Examiner?” Mike asked.

The smile fell right off her face.  “Why?”

Mike snickered.  “Just another picture for your Facebook.” 

Devin threw the phone to Nicky and jumped out of bed.  She pulled a t-shirt from a pile of folded clothes and guessed the top drawer held shorts.  Nicky was still fumbling with the phone when she ran out the door.

____

“What the fuck, Mike?  If you ever get naked girl out of my bed again I will kill you.”

“Your picture’s in the paper, bro.”

Just like that, Nicky’s good mood crumbled.  Over the course of two days with Devin he’d almost forgotten he had a shyness problem.  He’d almost gotten used to feeling comfortable, reveling in the idea he could touch her, hold her or kiss her anytime he felt like it.  And he wanted her to do the same, no matter who saw.  Unless maybe it was a photographer.

“Bad?”

“No, man.  It’s a great photo.  But I thought you should know.”

“Thanks.  Call you later.”

He sat in the ruined bed, with the sheet bunched around his waist.  Everything smelled like her – the air, the pillows and even his skin.  Without brushing his teeth he could still taste the feeling they’d shared just an hour ago when they woke to much different circumstances.  He blushed to remember how it unfolded: how he made the first move while still sleeping, only to wake to something better than a dream.  Her side of the bed was still warm.

Nicky prayed silently.  Whatever it is, please don’t ruin this.

The front door closed downstairs.  She was so light she made no noise, appearing as if by magic in the doorway seconds later.  His big Nike t-shirt waved like a flag on her slender frame and just the last inch of striped boxer shorts poked out beneath.  Her hair was a tousled mess.  The breath caught in his throat: she was so beautiful.

Devin shut the door and leaned against it as if she were holding it fast against the world.  A single copy of the Washington Examiner, still in its plastic delivery bag, was dripping on the floor.

“I stole it from your neighbors.  Their sprinkler was on.”

She turned the bag inside out as she slid it off.  Then she climbed onto the bed.  Before she could open the paper, Nicky pulled her back so she sat between his legs.  He bent his knees on either side of her like a protective barricade and wrapped one arm around her middle.  With his other, he held the paper closed.

His lips found the soft spot behind her ear.  Devin turned her head into his delicate kiss.

“It’s okay,” he whispered.  Whatever it was it would be okay.

She flipped through a few pages, looking for the gossip column.  On Page 11, next to an ad for a mattress superstore, was a two-column story about the Caps impromptu party at the club, the liquor sponsor picking up the tab, the photo the guys had posed for.  And there were a few candids, taken apparently by another photographer: Ovi with his arm around Sasha, Erskine and Green hoisting shots at the bar.  And Nicky kissing Devin for the first time ever.

____

A cold surge of adrenaline flashed through Devin’s body.  That photo was it – that was the moment of everything.  Unknowingly the second photographer had captured something very important, and therefore all the worse to be plastered across the newspaper.

It had never occurred to her that someone other than the guys would see, or care.  Second shooter, on the grassy knoll, she thought.

Nicky put his chin into the crook of her neck and sighed.  His massive chest rounded against her back.

“First kiss,” he said.

Devin felt panicky.  She knew she was overreacting but that was their moment.  It was her moment.  If she could have snapped a picture and saved it forever she would have.  But seeing it in color and ink, tossed in with all those photos of a drunken night out, made it look cheap.  She looked like the latest puckbunny fashion.

A lot of emotion had happened in the last two days.  Her mind was a stew of elation and nerves, boiled down to hormones and set on fire.  Maybe she was a little stressed out.  A tear slipped from her eye and touched Nicky’s temple.  He’d been silent, looking at the page.

“Shhhhhh, baby,” he said, kissing the tiny wet trail.  “It’s okay.”

“I know,” she tried to shake it off, feeling foolish.  “I just… I didn’t want to share that with anyone else.”

____

I am falling in love with you, Nicky thought.  Of course that was completely insane, but that had been the theme of the past forty-eight hours.

He hated seeing the photo there.  He hated that their first kiss, something he’d needed to work up to, was plastered alongside drunken bromances and tequila shots like it was a drinking game.  He hated that people were judging him for choosing her and her for choosing him and what they were wearing and how they were standing and whether or not the kiss looked like it mattered.

Well, he admitted, there’s no question.  The way his hand cupped the back of her neck looked urgent and serious.  Her fingers curled into the collar of his shirt like she couldn’t get close enough.  So the kiss looked serious.  Maybe that made it worse.  He obviously wanted that one thing so badly and here it was beside a bright yellow cartoon dog giving away free box springs.

This was his fault.  His career and the stupid side effect of being gossiped about.  Thank God I’m not Ovi, he thought, but the big Russian loved the attention.  Nicky only wanted the kind that came with scoring and winning.  His face burned with shame over seeing Devin cry and a surprisingly fierce instinct to protect her rose in his throat like anger.  But strangely her upset mood made him feel better – they were both reacting in the same way.  She understood.

“Baby,” he said again.  Terms of endearment in English were hard for him but he felt this one was right – in this situation, Devin needed to be reassured.  And he did too.

Nicky laid the paper on the nearby desk and pulled Devin back until they lay tangled together.  She wasn’t crying, just quiet.  He hugged her as tightly as he could.

“Sorry,” he whispered.

A little smile flickered across her lips.  “I thought you were never going to kiss me.  So it was worth it.”

“Never kiss you?  Never kiss you?”  He swung on top and kissed her all over, loudly slurping at any exposed spot he could find.  She flailed and thrashed but was literally helpless.  He pinned her to the mattress. 

“Can… you… unf!” she huffed as Nicky flipped her over.  “Take off my clothes!” she shouted.

Nicky stopped, startled. 

“Oh! Okay!”

He’d forgotten how much more fun everything was when you were naked.

____

Devin squealed as Nicky ripped her shorts off in a flash.  Then he lifted the hem of her shirt and stuck his head underneath it. 

So much for shy.

His soft lips brushed the curve of her breast, his breath hot against sensitive skin.  Every atom in her body immediately came to attention.  The velvety rasp of his tongue had her nipple hard in seconds and long hair tickled wherever it landed.

Nicky’s massive hand held her side, easily spanning the width of her body, sliding down toward bare hip.  She reached anywhere she could get her hands on him. 

He started moving south.  Kisses trailed across her stomach, along the arch of her ribcage and tracked toward her navel before moving back to her hip.  She was pretty sure she wasn’t ready for anything that might involve… woah.  He shouldered her thighs apart and dragged his tongue lightly down the curve where her leg met her body.

“Nicky,” she said but the meaning was lost.  Yes, no, please, don’t, stop, go… Devin had no idea.

His touch was so gentle she gasped.  The tip of his tongue very lightly flicked against her clit.  The next was more firm, like pressing a buzzer in a game show when you wanted to guess.  She sobbed out a breath and he rang again, certain he had the right answer this time.

No big deal, Nicklas Backstrom is… but even her inner monologue short-circuited well shy of a wry remark.

“Oh God,” she moaned.  His hair was like cornsilk between her fingers as she guided him toward the hot spots.  It was the first time she’d ever really been able to steer.  Devin made a mental note to only ever be with long-haired guys. 

Maybe just this one.

Nicky took his time.  He lapped and sucked, dragged and licked up the length of her slit and then circled back, tracing the opening before returning to her clit.  He took one hand from her thigh, lifting his head to look up at her.  Stay still, his gaze seemed to say.  Then he held her eye as he wet one finger slowly against his mouth and slid it inside her.

Devin’s body twitched like a live wire.  Nicky gently probed the hot, sticky mess his tongue had made then pushed a second finger in next to the first.  She mewled weakly.  He smiled and returned his tongue to the scene.

She fought the urge to scream.  He felt her out, seeking the right spots like he was memorizing a drill he planned to practice often, trying to get it exactly right.  He caught her clit between his lips and sucked hard, pressing those thick fingers deep into her body.  She cursed.

____

For a while Nicky toyed with her, enjoying the way her body sucked greedily at his fingers, the soft feel against his rougher skin.  He certainly enjoyed the taste.  Most of all he wanted her to squirm, wanted her to ache for him the way his cock ached now, pressed hard into the mattress and demanding an audience with the throne.

He tested every trick until he knew what got her most.  And then he gave it to her.

With a solid lap of his wide tongue, Nicky pulled along the length of her swollen pussy and speared the tip into her clit.  She cursed.  Every sixth or eighth twist, he nibbled or sucked the little pearl for an intense few seconds.  The pulse beating hard against his buried fingers told him he was getting close.

“Nicky, oh fuck,” she said.

Dirty mouth, he smiled to himself.  But he did as she asked and held steady, right there, until he could see her hands twisting fistfuls of bed sheet as her back arched high.

Her moan was a momentary warning, like someone slapping their stick on the ice as a penalty ends.  A second later she broke.  An extra burst of warm honey, thicker that before, slicked against his tongue as he lapped up the fruit of his labor.  Devin dropped flat and spent to the mattress.

“I can’t… you are… whooooo,” her voice trailed off.  Nicky watched her breasts heave above shaky breathing.  He didn’t want to be rude or rush her, but he was humping the bed and starting to see stars.  Devin’s hand tightened around his forearm, tugging upward.  He winced, swollen cock swinging to attention as he lifted the weight from his hips.

He lined up over her in half push-up and paused.  But Devin was already reaching for him.  Her hand felt like cream on a burn, like silk on a griddle.  He inhaled sharply as she wrapped her fingers firmly around his shaft and guided him to the spot.

Last night he’d felt bad for not asking permission.  What could be more permission than what he’d just done?  But he simply couldn’t accept that something this good was his for the taking.

“Devin,” he said.  “I want you.”

____

Devin was wrecked.  She’d come so hard she nearly turned herself inside out and that was just his mouth.  Thate skill was a surprise, a bonus.  She already knew what he could do the old-fashioned way.

Nicky’s crystal blue eyes searched hers be assurance.

“Please,” was all she said. 

He took her in one long, steady swing.  Her gasp was lost to the weight of his chest.  Nicky moved inside her, then gripped one half of her ass in each hand and pulled her down onto the full length of his cock.

She could have cried.  He hovered huge and powerful and so, so beautiful.  The look on his face when he closed his eyes – pleasure mixed with disbelief – was second only to the way he looked at her with them open.  There was plenty of lust but something else too; Devin thought it was gratitude.

She moved against him, amazed at the way he filled her more than she’d ever known. The smallest thrust moved every molecule in her body.  His slightly crooked front teeth mashed against her lips; he kissed her as hard as he plowed his rock solid hard-on into her ruined body.  Within minutes her abs were fluttering again.  She squeezed against the sensation.

He chuckled.  “You will make me come if you do that.”

“Oh yeah?”  Devin did it again.  Nicky hissed.  It felt tremendous, like trying to hold onto an umbrella in a gale.  The next time she twisted her hips too, locking against him and twirling him like a stripper pole.

“Shit,” he whispered.  “Really you will….”

But it was working for her too.  Every sensation was doubled.  A tiny cry tore from her lips as he powered through her hold and pushed deeper than ever.  She clenched against his downswing and felt like he could pull her apart.  On the release, her whole body let go.

She threw her arms around his shoulders and buried a scream in his chest.  A warm flood coursed over his burning flesh, pushing Nicky right past his flash point.  He grunted through the final stroke and pinned Devin to the mattress then burst deep inside her like a fireworks show.

They collapsed, exhausted.  He never let go of her body for a second.  Sweaty, sticky and panting they both slipped into sleep again.

____

Nicky woke first this time.  He was accustomed to napping and his body told him when he was ready to be awake.  It also told him he was sore – very sore.  And not in a place he usually worked out.

Devin was sprawled in her sleep.  One arm reached across Nicky’s chest, the other above her head.  She slept on her stomach, the sheet caught under one hip to reveal the top half of her body past the waist, like the Phantom of the Opera’s mask.  Every toned surface and lithe curve speared right through his aching muscle.

He twisted himself free.  The offending newspaper was still open to their photo.  Looking at it, Nicky knew how close he’d come to not kissing her.  How likely he’d have chickened out if not for the alcohol and the guys ragging on him.  Devin murmured nonsense in her sleep and he thought how much he would have missed.

The photo was good.  Just like in his mind, where he tended to envision things from outside his point of view.  She was beautiful and most of all, she obviously really, really wanted him.  Let them print photos, he thought, and let everyone see.  As long as she was there considered it a fair price.

____