Page 61 of Empowered
Chapter 14
The rest of the world certainly did not exist once they were in Lucas’s hotel room. His bodyguard stayed well out of their way, giving his employer and the girlfriend plenty of privacy to explore the meaning of a world without traumatic chaos.
Sarah almost detested how safe she felt in his arms. Whether her cheek was pressed against his naked skin or her hands splayed across his chest, ah… she definitely hated how foreign of a feeling this was. She had felt plenty comfortable with other lovers before. Many wonderful one-night stands had made sure her safety and consent were top priority, but this? This was a different kind of safety. This was the assurance that the evils of the world could not touch her as long as they were together. If his sweat touched her tongue and his fingers touched her inner walls, not a damn thing could touchthem.That was the law. The rule. The promise made between them and the universe.
She didn’t want to let go.
They made love. Genuine, passionate love unlike Sarah had allowed herself to experience before. She had slow and sensual sex before. Men had made her feel more than special in bed. But this was her first time embracing the emotional side of sex and how it could bring two people together. Of course, she denied it at first. When something as strange as that attempts to take hold of a woman, she’s inclined to dismiss it. Where was it the first hundred times she had sex? Where was it when a baby came to her? Where was it when she grieved? Became a woman? Lost the innocence she never knew she had?
This was the kind of thing that only existed in fiction. Those fantastical romance novels that Sarah never gave the time of day because they weren’t realistic enough. How could that be possible? Sex was sex. Sometimes you found someone good enough at sex to fall in love with them. Or at least what someone thought was love.
The way Lucas caressed her, kissed her, brought parts of her to life she never knew were dormant… that was the practice of a skilled lover, right? It didn’t say anything about the feeling enveloping Sarah every time he purred against her warm skin or tenderly thrust into her. And she definitely didn’t feel anything when they rolled over and she straddled him for the next five minutes, her hands bracing against the breadth of his chest and her energy allowing her to escape the whole damn planet and go wherever the hell it wanted. His grip on her hips and ass kept her steady as she threw her head back and pretended this was how it had always been. That she had only known the loving touch of a man, instead of whatever emotionless hole she usually found herself in.
Did she come? Was climax a simple trick of the mind, anyway? If she climaxed during regular sex, was it the same as having an orgasm with a man who made her feel safe to express this side of herself? Even if he was barely a known entity in her life?
Before, she had hunted for sex with whatever half-decent man would have her in a bid to reclaim her control, to claim in the first place that she was empowered. But it wasn’t until that night, when she rode Lucas Blackbourne like a woman taming her first stallion, that she understood what she meant by searching for empowerment.
She didn’t care that he toppled her over when her orgasm finally abated. She was happy to have him on top of her again, nuzzling the crook of her neck and leaving lingering kisses on her lips. Lucas entered her with only half the usual confidence, even though he was so hard Sarah almost worried he would finish within two seconds.
“Has it ever felt like this for you before?”
Sarah opened her eyes. The room was dark, save for the city lights glowing outside the uncovered windows. Even so, she had a clear view of Lucas’s face, his neck, his torso as all three hovered over her.
“Felt like what?”
“Likethis.”
She closed her eyes again, head sinking deeply into the hotel pillow. “No. Never.”
“Is that good? I mean, is it good that it feels like this finally?”
“Shut up. Take me.”
He kissed her so hard she lost the ability to breathe.
“What do you want, Angel?”
She said the first thing to pop into her addled mind. “Say my real name.”
“Sarah.”
He pinned her hands above her head and lost himself in her after that. Sarah anticipated his climax to the point she almost begged him to finally give her what she wanted. What was left between them? While she understood his apprehensions now – he was already roped into one surprise child by a woman who intentionally got pregnant – there was no reason for them with her. For the first time in over a year, Sarah was at peace with having sex for the sake of it, not as a thrill, and certainly not as a way to play God with her life.
And for the first time, she was not annoyed when he pulled out and spent himself between her thighs. Sarah kissed his cheek at the first sign of his eyes glazing over and his lips mouthing the wordsI’m coming.
Later, when she made the decision to spend the night and travel back home with him in the morning, Sarah curled up next to him and promptly forgot that the rest of the world existed.
“I like you,” Lucas said, his hand entwined with hers beneath the covers. Sarah lightly played with his chest hairs and considered stroking his cock back to life. Anything to keep him from talking during a nice moment like this. “I mean it. Maybe the best thing that could have happened to me in this country was you waltzing up to me in that ridiculous wig in a sex club.”
“So what are you saying?”
“What do you think I’m saying?”
She sighed against his chest. “I’d rather you come out and say it.”
He unhooked his hand from her hers and wrapped his arm around her clinging body. “Maybe there’s something here?”
“Just ask me to be your girlfriend.”
