"I know I don't know everything about your past," Hammer said. "But I know about how shit from the past can affect the present. If there's one thing I learned from April's death, it's to live in the moment, because I don't know what the fuck is going to happen in the future."
Living in the moment was something I was an expert at avoiding. I had trained myself to exist by fading into memories of the past- back when I was a child, or when I still had Ben with me- or by fantasizing about the future. Anything to escape the pain of the present moments in my life, the ones that I couldn't bear to face.
Except for this. Except for him. I wanted to be here for this, to experience these moments. I wanted to drag them out, to savor them, emblazon them in my memory. I wanted to save them, so that these would be memories I could draw on later. These memories would be what kept me alive the next time Aston called for me.
The thought sent a shiver up my spine.
Hammer's voice broke through my thoughts. "If you're not comfortable, just say the word and I'll back off."
"I'm -" I started, struggling to put it into words, to figure out how to tell him I was intermittently uncomfortable, triggered by little things- a smell, a look, the memory of something. "I'm comfortable right now."
"Are you comfortable if I do this?" Hammer asked, kissing me just below my ear.
"Mmm, yeah," I said. "That's not too bad."
"Not too bad, huh?" he asked. "What about if I slip this off?" Without waiting for me to respond, he pulled my t-shirt over my head.
"That's okay."
"And what about this?" He unhooked my bra, and I drew in my breath as my nipples hardened in the air conditioned hotel room. "Is this comfortable?"
Hammer trailed his finger down the front of my chest and over the tops of my breasts. I ached for his mouth on me, just like before, but he seemed intent on tormenting me. I reached for his cock, erect and begging for my attention, but he pushed my hand away. "Huh-huh," he said. "I asked you a question. Comfortable?"
"Yes," I said softly as he traced light circles around my areola and then my nipple. My panties began to dampen in response to his touch, and I was suddenly acutely aware of the empty aching between my legs. My body remembered him and what he had done to me last time.
"And now?" He left a trail of kisses down my chest to my cleavage, then flicked his tongue lightly over the end of my nipple, teasing me more. I arched my back, willing him to take my breast in his mouth, to suck me like he'd done before. But he didn't. Instead, he smiled, and unbuttoned my pants, kneeling at my feet as he stripped them from my legs and tossed them on the floor with the other clothes.
He ran his hands up my thighs, his thumbs pressed against my inner thighs as he tormented me further.
"I'm comfortable, Hammer," I said. "It's all comfortable. I want you."
"That's good to hear," he said. "But I want you to be more than just comfortable." He kissed one of my inner thighs, and it took everything I had not to push my pussy into his face, I wanted him so badly.
But he didn't kneel between my legs and lick me like he did last time. Instead, he slipped off my panties and tossed them to the side with the pants, then rose to his feet, chuckling when I let out a disappointed groan. "I know," he said. "You're comfortable, right?"
I nodded, biting my bottom lip. Comfortable was no longer the right word. Overwrought was a better one. I wanted to feel him inside me, to have him ride me until I couldn't think about anything else except him. "Hammer," I said, wrapping my hand around the base of his shaft. This time, he didn't stop me. Instead, I listened to his breath grow more shallow as I began to stroke him, my hand moving up and down his length in measured rhythm.
"Yes," he said.
"All the stuff that's happened," I said. "I want you to take it away. I know you can't, but I want to pretend. I want you to make me think about what's happening right now. In the moment. I want to forget everything else, even if it's only for a moment."
Hammer groaned, and I wasn't sure if it was because of what I said or what I was doing with my hand. I knew it wasn't a long-term solution to anything, but I wanted him to take me away, to obliterate everything around me, all the shit I had to worry about, so that the only thing I could think about was him and I. Right now.
"Is that really what you want?" he asked.
"It's really what I want," I said, my heart racing. I wanted complete annihilation.
"Fuck," he said, his voice raspy. He turned to grab a condom, and rolled it onto his length, then paused. "You want me to be gentle, go easy with you?"
My heart raced, and before I could second-guess myself, I said, "No."
"I want to hear you say it," he said.
He wanted to hear me say it? I suddenly felt bold. I'd say it, all right. "I don't want gentle. I don't want to be coddled or handled with kid gloves."
"Oh, hell," he said, his voice a growl. Before I could react, he stepped toward me and slipped his hands under my ass, lifting me up off the ground like I was nothing. "You want this," he said, more of a statement of fact than a question, and I felt the tip of his cock against my entrance.