XXI

"Are you just gonna sit there fingering spines or are you actually gonna pick somethin'?"

Rory jerked her hand back from The Return of the Native at his remark and had to replay it in her head a couple of times before it stopped sounding like Jess was accusing her of something inappropriate. "I'm sorry, I just…" Rory looked around her at the box fortress she had accidentally created while moving things. "…you have a lot of books."

"I know. That's why I bought all those bookshelves to put 'em on."

Rory rolled her eyes and looked over at him. Jess was focused on lighting a candle, angling the lighter down towards the wick. The ones he had already lit glowed gently behind him, illuminating his profile for Rory's appreciation. Before heading to the boxes, she had dragged the duvet from the bed. He, obviously more warm-blooded than his new lover—Lover? Girlfriend? she wondered—had sprung from bed in the nude and remained that way. Rory pulled the duvet around her more tightly as she shivered, though not from the cold. What am I doing looking through boxes of books? I've seen books. I own books. That is what I should be putting my hands all over.

Rory stood up abruptly and when Jess's head turned at the sudden movement, she flung down the duvet. He nearly dropped the lighter. Real smart. Exactly what this apartment is missing: a fire that destroys all your worldly belongings.

"You gotta stop doing that to me, Rory." Jess put a hand on his chest. "I don't think arson was one of the things the landlord was looking for in an ideal tenant." He felt blood start to pound in his dick like someone drumming out a slow beat on a bass drum.

Rory was wishing she had thought further ahead. She couldn't easily kick or push the boxes out of the way, and clambering over them would definitely counteract the 'take me now' vibe she was going for with the blanket drop. She tried channelling her inner Pfeiffer Catwoman and sat down on one of the larger boxes, draping her legs out beside her and reclining slightly.

"I don't feel that much like reading anymore."

Jess set the now-extinguished lighter down carefully. "No? You've moved on to using the boxes as chairs? You know, I do actually have furniture. Eventually this place is gonna look less like a storage unit." Jess's throat felt try. Damn candles must be using up all the oxygen in the room.

Rory swung her legs down in front of her and stood. She had escaped the box fortress pretty slickly. "They seemed like they were sturdy enough to take me."

Jess smirked and felt his dick stiffen. When Rory's eyes dropped to his hips, he smirked even more. "And what about me?"

"Oh, well I didn't think you were that keen on the poetry thing. I can find something if you want…" Rory turned and bent over a box in which she had noticed a Blake collection.

Jess walked over to her, feeling the hairs on his legs raise as he approached. He put his mouth to Rory's ear when she straightened up. "I meant do you think I'm sturdy enough to take you." Jess slapped her sharply on the ass. Rory jumped forward, nearly toppling over the boxes. Jess's arm immediately went around her waist, pulling her back against him. Hard rock, she thought again.

Rory turned her head enough to look at him from the corner of her eye. "First a fire and now you almost cause an earthquake?" Jess looked somewhere between lustful and puzzled. "That's what it would have sounded like to your neighbours if I had knocked over all these boxes," Rory rambled. "Or, or, like a thunderstorm at least." Rory's arms jerked out in exasperation. That's when she knew she was getting nervous. When she had dropped the duvet, she hadn't been prepared for the consequences that would manifest themselves in Jess seriously putting the moves on her. "I mean, call in the gods! The Titans are upon us!" Rory let out a weak, high-pitched laugh.

"You better move away from the boxes then." Jess ran his fingers down Rory's forearm to her hand and held it. "For your own safety." He gave Rory's hand a tug and pulled her after him as he walked towards the bed. "Not a good idea to be around large, heavy, precariously stacked objects in the event of an earthquake."

Rory's heart felt like a rabbit kicking at her chest from the touch of his hand on hers alone. She so wanted to kiss him again. "I'm pretty sure being in the center of a room isn't a good idea during an earthquake either." She gestured at the bed, which they had now stopped in front of.

Jess raised an eyebrow. "It is if you're the thing causing the earthquake."

Rory caught his drift and took a deep breath before throwing herself against him, pressing her lips to his. Jess lost no time in getting his tongue into her mouth and using it to suck erotically at hers. She moaned against him, which got him kissing her more deeply. While he took the lead there, Rory smoothed her hand down his abs to the erection jutting against her stomach. It was hot as she rubbed her fingers, then her palm, down from the tip. Jess thrust instinctually against her and reached down to squeeze her ass.

"I get…" he said in between kissing her. "…that you want to explore…" Jess groaned when Rory's fingers wrapped most of the way around his dick and gently tightened. "…my character for your book…" Jess's hand moved to stroke at Rory's hip. "…but how about letting the muse have a turn?"

Rory leaned her face away from him and looked indignant. "I write three chapters and suddenly you're my—" Rory gasped. Jess had moved his hand to position it against her and pressed two fingers up into the wetness she was releasing. He looked her square in the eye as he pushed inside, rubbing the pads of his fingers against her then pressing forward as if he were doing a two-fingered Captain Hook impression. Rory's jaw was stretched open in silent appreciation of his technique.

As he pulled his fingers out, he stroked them up across her clit. He jerked his head towards the bed. "Take a seat, Gilmore."

Rory thought this was a wise idea. Just sitting down had her ankles wobbling and she felt safer with the mattress securely under her bum. Jess knelt down before her, ran his hands up the outside of her thighs to her hips, then gripped her there and yanked her forward. He stared at her. Starting at her legs, to where they met her hips, then where her body narrowed in a swooping curve to her waist like a violin. Rory watched Jess watching her and thought that the look on his face might have been the same one she had the first time she read something she was really moved by. If she hadn't been so distracted at that moment, she would have been able to recall what that was.

Jess put his hand halfway up Rory's lap and slide it to where her thighs touched, pushing his hand down to create a gap. Her legs were hot and he felt like he was karate chopping warm butter in slow motion. Rory tensed slightly from nerves, then allowed Jess to widen the distance between her thighs. He slid his hand up and used his thumb to massage the place where her thigh met her pelvis and where her pulse pounded. He looked up at her earnestly and Rory's heart hurled itself at her ribcage. Something in her expression amused Jess because she caught sight of a smirk just before he leaned in to her and ran his tongue along her opening steadily, like he was catching drips on a soft serve ice cream.

"Fuck!"

Jess looked up at Rory, whose eyes were now closed, amused by her outburst. "My poor virgin ears."

"Somehow I'm not buying the innocent act."

Jess shrugged and licked her firmly again. He felt a tremble go down her leg and grinned. He tilted his head and slipped his tongue inside her to smooth over the delicate ripples of her muscles. She gripped the back of his head. Hard. Jess flattened his tongue out inside her channel as best as he could and pressed it against her front wall. Rory let out a keening whine, but it seemed far away to Jess. Partly because he was focused, and partly because every time he licked, she reflexively moved to trap his head with her thighs, covering his ears. On his next stroke, he drew a line from deep inside her out and up to her clit. This Jess flicked at rapidly with the tip of his tongue as though he were rolling his Rs. Rory's arousal was leaking out on his chin and she rubbed herself against his mouth, demanding more.

Jess wrapped his arms around her and yanked her down off the mattress onto his lap. In her desire for further pleasure, Rory got a little pushy, shoving Jess back on his ass with a hand against his chest. Thank god I have a rug in here. He looked up at her, a little dazed, to see Rory positioning herself on his lap with great concentration.

She was fumbling a little in her eagerness so Jess moved his hands to her hips, guiding her. Briefly, Rory looked annoyed. "Easy, tiger. Just trying to help. You're shaking like you're going to the electric chair." She took him up into her fully and quickly and Jess squeezed his eyes shut and clenched his jaw at the feeling. He opened his eyes and lifted an eyebrow. "If that was your punishment for what I said, I gotta say, I'm not likely to reform my behaviour."

Rory's eyes were glittering to spectacular effect in the light of the candles. She felt as though she were both inside the flame and the flame itself. And when she rocked in an exaggerated motion against him, she did indeed feel as if she were being electrified. She watched lustfully as Jess's abs became extremely defined as he half-crunched to return her thrust.

When Rory had worked herself up to the point of feeling a funky tingling numbness in her thighs as a result of both her position on Jess's lap and her proximity to climax, she allowed Jess to take charge again. He pulled her up by her hips, though she felt as boneless as a ragdoll, and sat her back on the bed. In a daze, Rory appreciated Jess's muscular, erect body as he stood before her, but he didn't give her long to do so.

Jess wrapped a hand around to cover her shoulder blade and leaned down to kiss her, just as passionately as before. He worked at her mouth persuasively with his, adding enough pressure to initiate her recline back onto his mattress. When Rory was flat on her back, Jess's lips abandoned hers, moving to her neck, then her nipples, as his hands came up to gently manipulate her breasts.

Rory began to whine in frustration and reached out with one leg to rub her thigh against the outside of Jess's, then hook it around his leg and draw him in. Jess's hands smoothed down her sides to grab her hips and he thrust into her. He looked down at her and smirked, which Rory somehow interpreted as the signal to get a good grip of the bedsheets. So she did.

Jess's body was unimaginably beautiful to her and between his thrusts, Rory pushed herself up on her elbows to watch him drive into her. Occasionally, her head dropped back and her hair swished back and forth against the sheets. Whenever Rory looked up at him, his eyes were totally focused, scanning over her body and assessing her expression as if he were preparing to make a 3D model of her. In contrast, Jess's body was moving loosely and wildly as his thrusts continuously changed their rhythm. It was as if he were dancing.

Then Rory remembered she had seen him dancing, only earlier this evening. And this body had been under the suit all that time. She imagined dancing with him when he was moving as he was now. Rory let out a long "mmmm" noise at the thought, which snapped Jess's attention up to her face from tracking the motion of her breasts.

Suddenly, Rory could tell she was right at the edge and felt her muscles begin to squeeze in around Jess's erection. His face expressed such honest pleasure, his eyebrows pulling together, mouth opening in a rough groan. As Jess leaned down towards her, reaching his climax, Rory arched up and reached out to grab his hand as she reached her own.

Culture references in this chapter:

The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy

Batman Returns directed by Tim Burton

Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie