Page 53 of Submissive Lies

“Why?” He stepped in close to me, one hand landing on my hip while the other brushed against my cheek, turning my face back towards his. “Do they bother you?”

“No!” The word tumbled out, a defensive reaction to having been caught. My hand came halfway up towards his, and then stopped, hovering. My throat tightened in frustration, voice turning querulous. “No! It’s just… I shouldn’t have stared.”

“You don’t need to apologize.” He moved up close to me and took my hand in his. He used his other to lift my chin up until I was looking into his eyes. “I told you what happened in Iraq. These,” he dipped his chin downwards, “are the remains of that day. Scars and memories, Jen. Those are what I have to remind me why I am no longer a Marine.” He took the hand he held in his and placed it on the scar on his chest, pressing my fingers to it.

“I’m not ashamed of them. I hate them, make no mistake. They’re a reminder every day of what was taken from me. But I earned these the hard way, so there’s a part of me that’s proud of them too.” He stared down into my eyes, face somber. “Does that make sense?”

My lip quivered as I stood there in silence. It was such an intimate thing for him to do, to say, to share. I ran a fingertip along a portion of the scar, feeling the unnatural smoothness of it, slick and shiny compared to the nearby skin. When I came to the end, my hand stopped, and I spread my fingers, pressing into him tenderly.

“A little.”

He smiled at me, and it held a trace of sadness in it, though it was clear from the tightness of his jaw, the forced set of his mouth that he was trying not to let it show. My fingers slipped from the scar, and as my arm fell to my side those strong, solid arms of his came up around me, pulling me in a tight, protective embrace. I leaned against his chest, eyes closed as my cheek pressed to his skin. His fine hairs tickled me lightly as I flattened myself to him. I soaked up the comforting strength that being contained within the cage of his arms enveloped me in, willing myself not to cry. I pressed my eyes tight to keep tears trapped, mouth and nose scrunched. I couldn’t let him see me break down, not after everything he’d given me. This night had been too wonderful, too incredible for me to suddenly let sadness overtake it. If I needed to cry over what Steve had sacrificed, I would do it later. Quietly and in private where my grief wouldn’t taint what we had shared. I sucked in a breath, calming myself as his hand ran up and down the length of my back, soothing both skin and nerves. We stood there holding each other, unmoving, connected in a way that didn’t require words. He relaxed in my arms, pulling away a moment later to take my hand in his once again.

“Come on. Bed.”

I followed him out of the bathroom. As he moved ahead of me towards the bed, I indulged myself. I admired the firmness of his ass as it shifted with every step, the way his back muscles rippled in counterpart to those two cheeks I had a sudden desire to dig my fingers into. I knew if I did that what it would earn me, and that thought did less to stop me than urge me to follow through with my desire. Before I could, however, we were at the bed. He guided me with his hand, and I crawled up onto it, knees sinking once again into the tangled sheets strewn across the mattress. I watched as he let the towel slip from his body. It slid off hips that ended where the ‘V’ of his upper body tapered in, sculpted lines at either side that had my teeth biting into my lower lip as it fell. I soaked in his gorgeousness, watched as that tight ass became two smooth surfaces that I could have spent an hour running my fingers over if I thought he’d let me. The muscles of his legs made sinuous outlines as he bent and rose, twisting as he tidied up our clothes from the floor. He gathered them, then draped them over the nearby chairs. Finally finished, he stretched, fingers linked as he brought bulging arms up and behind his head. His abdomen became a plane of ridges, skin pulled taut over the rippled muscles beneath it. Climbing up onto the bed, he gathered me up into his arms, pulling me into his chest. I snuggled into the warmth of him, drew the scent of soap and freshly washed male into my nose. I fitted my head to his shoulder, tucked in under his chin. Pressing myself tight to him, I let my eyes close, reveling in the sensations as I melded to his body, drawing in the heat that radiated off him. The fingers of one hand began to stroke my hair while the other lightly caressed my arm and shoulder.

We lay in silence for a while. Two people cocooned in pleasure, quiet breathing and the faint whisper of fingertips brushing against skin the only sound in the room. My head rose and fell to the movement of his chest, and his tender touches soothed me, lulling me from the state of excitement that had run through me throughout this evening. My breathing slowed, body relaxing and drifting into a half-conscious state of drowsiness that made my eyelids too heavy to keep open. I was right on the edge, hovering at the very precipice of sleep when he shifted slightly beneath me, clearing his throat.

“Jen.”

“Hmm?” I didn’t move, enveloped in the nest made of him and the bedcovers.

“I don’t do this. I want you to know that. I need you to know that.”

I froze, confusion at first quick to morph into an insidious worm of anxiety that wound through me, dragging me out of the serenity I’d wrapped myself in. Steve’s body stiffened to my response, both of us now fully awake, bodies tensing to each other. Three simple sentences and all thoughts of slumber were chased away. I pulled back, my face a mask to hide the trepidation that was growing inside me. Steve eased up onto an elbow to stare down, his mouth a thin line, gaze impenetrable to whatever he was about to spring on me.

“You don’t do… what?” I asked softly.

“This.” His hand pulled away from my hair, hovering to make a vague wave as if he could weave the answer to my question from the air around us. “I don’t go after, you know, seduce, or sleep with…” His voice trailed off with a frustrated growl. He ran a hand brusquely across his scalp, fingers clenching at the back of his head. “God, I am doing a shitty job of this. I don’t do one-night stands. I… I’m just not like that.”

I started to interrupt him, but before I could get a word out, his hand came down, gripping my shoulder.

“Sorry, wait. I need to finish. I’m not saying that’s you, or you’re anything like that. God, please don’t think that. And I’m not trying to play some sort of fucked up head game here. But… this has been really fucking incredible tonight, and I need you to know that. To know how special this has been. I need you to know that this is not something that just happens all the time with me. To be honest, it’s never happened before.” He sighed, and the pressure of his hand on my shoulder relaxed, the fingers spreading against my skin. “I just needed you to hear that. I hope to fuck it makes sense.”

I’d tensed up the minute he’d started, and now as it began to sink in, my body went rigid. So many conflicting emotions came bubbling up as I played his words back in my head. A part of me wanted to feel resentment at the arrogance of him thinking he had seduced me. As if I’d had no part in it, hadn’t understood was happening between us from the moment he took my hand in his on the show floor. Steve was a Dom, pure and simple. He probably did feel that way, at least at some level. Thinking he’d been the one in total control of the situation all this time, and I had simply fallen into it. It was part of the Dom mentality, little different from my own submissive nature. That attitude was something I wanted, and I’d sure as hell got it in spades. And though some of the words stung, there were more that didn’t. The ones that made up the part of his statement which thrilled me. That this evening was special for him. That sentiment was one I felt. I felt it to my core. Because this night had been the same for me. Special. Absolutely, completely, incredibly special. I chose to focus on that. That this night was something more than two random people falling into bed for a quick fuck.

“I’m a big girl, Steve. I knew exactly what this was.” I turned my head towards him. I could see in his look he was gauging me, watching to see how I was going to react. “I wanted this from the moment you took my hand at that table. I don’t sleep around, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

He started to protest, but I pressed on.

“And I’m not saying that’s what you were suggesting, but I need you to understand something. I wanted tonight. I wanted what we did as much, if not more, than you. I needed this, Steve. For my own reasons.” I paused, pursing my lips together to let emotions cool. “So, yes, I understand what you’re saying. I’m no different. I don’t do this either.” I stopped, mustering every bit of sincerity I could draw on. I pushed all of it into my smile, tried with everything I could to make that emotion show. “But I can tell you this. I’m so fucking glad I did.”

His face slowly changed. The concern faded, his mouth turning from a thin line to curl into a smile of simple pleasure. His fingers curved to cup my cheek. At his touch, my eyes closed, and I leaned into his hand, my breath slipping away on the drawn-out breath of a sigh. He caressed a path to touch the lobe of my ear before he bent to kiss me. It wasn’t a passionate kiss. It didn’t need to be. It was a simple, tender gesture, our lips meeting in a soft embrace. And yet it was the most intimate one we’d shared all evening.

“Okay,” he said quietly after pulling away to look into my eyes. Again, his hand came up to stroke my cheek, thumb brushing across my chin. “Thank you.”

I pressed my hand to his, palm laid over his in a silent appeal for him to hold me for a moment longer. “No, Steve. Thank you.”

He smiled, doing as I wished until he tenderly pulled away. He shifted then, body slipping alongside me as he rolled to his side, the silky feeling of his skin against mine a soothing reassurance. He gathered up the bedcovers and tugged them around until he had them pulled over us. He slipped his hand under the covers, gliding up my thigh and over my hipbone until he positioned me where he wanted.

My butt wriggled into place, spooning against him. The feel of his cock nestling against my ass was more comforting than arousing, a good indication to me just how satiated I was.

“I’ve got about five hours before I have to get up so I can head back to my hotel and get ready for work. Until then I’d like to stay here and sleep with you. You good with that?”

“I’d like to see you try and get away.” I chuckled, pressing back against him and snuggling in tight. I clamped my hand over the one he had at my hip, defying him to try and move. I knew what I was doing, and my butt went taut in expectation of how he might respond.

He tensed, and then the hand underneath mine yanked out, pulling away from me. I squirmed in delicious anticipation of what might come next. We remained motionless until Steve relented, his hand moving back to rest on top of mine.

“Hmph. You, Ms. Boyd, are treading on very dangerous ground. I’ve half a mind to give you another taste of what I did earlier.” He leaned in closer, lips skimming against the skin of my ear. “But there’s always tomorrow night for that, isn’t there?”

A shiver ran down the length of my spine. There was no way Steve could have missed it. His chuckle confirmed he hadn’t, followed with a kiss to the back of my head.

We lay together in peaceful silence, the only sound that of our slowing breathing. Sleep pulled at my eyelids, and even when Steve made a slight adjustment of his hand, letting it drift down over my stomach until he had me wrapped in an embrace, I barely noticed it, drifting closer and closer towards slumber. His hand around me was a calming presence, and it wasn’t long before my body finally gave in. This day had been one for the books. A plethora of emotions that pushed and pulled me in all directions. First an epiphany of epic proportions, followed up with incredible sex of the kind that I hadn’t experienced in a long time. All ending on a wonderful high note that my body left me little choice but to respond to. It called for me to sleep. Demanded it. Burrowing into Steve, his arm cocooning me, I gave over to that call and drifted away.

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