AN: Okay. I'm not gonna lie. Writing smut (GOOD smut) is hard. I tend to shy away from it, especially with OC's, as it tends to be misconstrued as shameless wish-fulfilling. But, since this one is actually a removed chapter from one of my other stories, I decided I'd throw it up here and see what people think.
I'm posting this (and any other sexual encounters herein) as its own fic because I really want the main story, The Hand that Feeds, to remain T-rated. While I believe this content is valuable to the plot, it's not precisely necessary. Anyway, I'll stop justifying my smut and let you all get on with it.
The page break denotes the end of the previous chapter, "Scars." Narrative is continuous.
Obligatory Warning: Strong sexual content. Don't read if you're going to flame.
Disclaimer: I don't own any Square copyrighted content.
Rhea gently brushed the shirt from his shoulders, the flat of her palms stoking over them and down his surprisingly muscular back. His shoulder blades rose ever so slightly as he shifted his own hands to wrap around her waist. Rufus pulled her closer to him, hips touching hers, her hands coming back to run down the front of him. His chest was cut with tough sinew, but her movements hesitated as she felt an irregularity among them. Pulling away not more than an inch, she let her eyes fall to his side—there, etched across his abdomen like a claw mark, lay a dark, grayish scar. It was wide as well as long, wrapping around the front of his stomach. It looked like a crack in the earth's crust, deep in the center and rising on either side. She touched it with wonder and felt him flinch.
Rhea's eyes returned to his, searching them briefly. "What is this…?" she asked.
He forced a small smile. "Geostigma," he whispered.
Rhea returned her hand to the scar, tracing it softly with two fingers. Rufus tensed beneath her touch, afraid it might disgust her. Far from it—she was entranced by it. "It's beautiful."
Rufus raised his hand and lifted her chin upward. He moved to cup her cheek, his thumb brushing across the sharp mark across her cheekbone. "Not as beautiful as yours."
As Rhea looked into his eyes, lit by half-light, glowing like lapis, all thoughts of her true intentions melted away. In that moment, she believed she might truly be in love with him, with everything about him, even the scars he chose to hide from her.
She felt his hand come back to press against the nape of her neck. Rufus leaned his head into hers, letting his lips part just before they pressed against her own. She her eyes fell closed and she stepped as close to him as she could, forearms resting against his chest. He moved his lips expertly, pushing in and drawing back like a soft pulse. The hands behind her head kept her steady as he moved against her, his fingertips inching into her hair.
He halted the kiss just long enough to pull out the ribbon and clip that kept her locks tied up. They fell down over her shoulders like a river of fire, and he ran his hands through them, closing one fist around a handful of curls to pull her head back gently. Her throat turned up to him, exposed. Hot breath whispered over her windpipe as he kissed it, moist lips leaving a trail of wetness that glistened in the silver light.
Rufus released her hair, but her head remained back, allowing him to nip across the hollow of her throat as his fingers found the zipper of her dress. It hummed downward, slowly and deliberately, his cool touch trailing up her vertebrae and slipping beneath the fabric slung over her shoulders. He pulled the dress down and away, and she straightened her arms to let it fall to the floor.
Her black undergarments contrasted the soft peach of her skin, breasts spilling over the top of a tight strapless bra and lace panties hooked onto the sharp edges of her hips. He kissed down further, pressed against her sternum with ardent lips before following the curve of her soft breast. Rhea quivered beneath his touch but managed to bring her arms between his own and find the belt and button of his pants. She had them undone in a moment, and in exchange, he snapped open the straps of her bra. Both joined the pile of garments on the floor.
He cupped the curves of her breasts and felt the malleable flesh beneath his hands. She sucked in air as he caught her nipples between the knuckles of his fingers. He smiled and kissed them, feeling her arch into him with a fervent, uncontrollable impulse.
Desire blurred the fine line between logic and instinct. Soon, both were stripped the rest of the way, and Rhea backed to the bed, slipping herself onto it as Rufus crawled over her. When her head reached the pillow, she lay back against it, her hair fanning out in all directions. He scooped a handful and pressed his nose into it, arching his body gracefully over hers. In a moment he was kissing her again, tongue flicking out with each retreat to tempt her back into him. She let her hands push the strands of ashy hair away from his face so that she could look into his eyes when he finally pulled away.
Rufus kissed down her again, stopping briefly to show each of her breasts attention, letting the wet interior of his lips leave glistening petals on the flat plane of her stomach. He ran his hand down and over the jewel that hung from her navel, stopping just above the warmth between her legs. Rhea's breath quickened, and she looked at him with eyes of anticipation. He repaid her with a calm and inquisitive smile, but her permission was not needed—it never had been.
With touch as light as air, he stroked his thumb across the wet folds, dragging a damp film up to the peak. There, he swirled his finger in circles, and her body danced in time. Little gasps whispered past her lips, her eyes all but white as they moved backward under fluttering lids. Her fingertips twitched around handfuls of the sheets. Rufus stopped long enough for her to catch her breath and find his eyes again. Rhea was surprised to see that they remained soft and attentive. She had feared he would be brash with her body, but every touch was tender—every movement cautious.
Eyes never leaving hers, he trailed his middle and ring finger back down her, turning his hand over to nudge them at her entrance. She arched her back as they slid into her, the first of many moans dragged from her lungs. Rufus worked them inside of her, twisting and rolling until she was pushing against him. He watched her hair slip around the silk sheets as she tossed her head back in ecstasy. In a swift urge, he brought his head down to where his fingers teased her, offering a few careful laps against her folds. Rhea gasped, and her amber eyes flew open, casting them down to him. His own gaze trailed up her body to meet them, and sparks flew.
His fingers stopped moving and, as if she were attached to them, so did her body. When he removed his hand and separated his fingers, a thread of moisture connected them. He swept his tongue in to cleanse it, making sure her eyes were still on him as he did so. The indulgence delighted him, aroused him—no longer the well-mannered politician he'd been trained to play.
Offering her a pleased smile, Rufus rose above her and placed his arms on either side of her. The moonlight illuminated his silhouette against the canopy of the bed. He slid his knees below the supple curves of her things and flared his hips downward, so as to position the hard length of him at her teased, wet entrance. Skin touched skin and they both drew in deep breaths. He pinched his bottom lip between his teeth as he slid into her, midnight eyes dancing about her body, watching her muscles twitch and tighten with pleasure.
When his hips came to rest against her own, Rhea's eyes fluttered closed and her whole body shuddered. He leaned down over her again to catch her parted lips with his. He nipped and tugged at them, his body suddenly quivering with restraint. His mind was wheeling, instinct battling sense. He needed more.
Slowly, carefully, Rufus pulled his hips away, feeling her walls close around the emptiness he left inside. When he pushed back in, they enveloped him perfectly, as if he were meant to be there. His soft sighs spiraled uncontrollably into muted groans as he watched himself enter and exit her with calculated thrusts. He wanted her—maybe he had always wanted her—and now he had her.
Rhea's hands wrapped around his forearms, strained veins snaking up the soft flesh to his powerful biceps, flexing as he dropped against her again and again. It was not enough to feel him inside her; she needed to feel him everywhere, all around her. Rufus obliged her unspoken wish and spread his body atop her own, his panting lips tucking in beside her ear. She nestled her cheek between his neck and shoulder, feeling the moist perspiration that had settled in the groove above his collar bone. She wanted him covered in it—slick with desire and need.
Another moan escaped the dry, breath-worn depths of his throat, and Rhea answered with a soft whimper of encouragement. His hands pressed along the near-translucent skin on the underside of her arms, sliding up until his fingers intertwined with hers. He pushed up enough to look into her eyes. The fringes of his hair lay plastered to his forehead as he labored faster now, hips rolling in an elliptical path, tough sinew of his abdomen crunching tight in an attempt to push deeper, to find a place in her no one else had ever reached. She squeezed her palms tight against his, fingernails digging divots between his knuckles as she arched her hips up to meet his. She wanted to take him where he so longed to go.
His chest froze and he retreated from her depths, shifting his hips just an inch before pushing back in with force. Rhea cried out, feeling her depths lock around him uncontrollably. Rufus held himself there, his breaths shallow, waiting until her eyes fell back open so she could see the conviction in his own. He had conquered her.
He threw restraint to the wind and leaned up straight now, hands wrapping around the front of her thighs as he rocked against her like an expert. Her hands found fistfuls of fabric again, filling the empty space left by his. Her moans and whimpers sounded alien in her ears, his skillful movements bringing out an alter ego even she had never met. "Rufus," she called out, a warmth spreading through her body like disease.
"Rhea."
He pressed his hand against the center of her pelvis, his thrusts coming up to meet it. She reached desperately for him, raking her nails down his chest like hot coals. His utterances increased in tempo and volume, thrusts becoming wild, tamed by neither logic nor feeling. In a final moment of clarity, he slipped his thumb across her warm folds, and she raced to catch up with him.
They moved in unison, toes curling, names echoed on each other's throats, until they spilled over the precipice together like true lovers.