Chapter 30

Dawn crept in through the curtain, as Marcus watched the winter moon disappear from sight beyond the limited horizon the window offered. The hard surface of the wall against his back kept him in the bed, and the soft surface of Shawna's back pressed against his chest kept him hard.

Sleep had been quick to come the previous night but fast to finish, though he didn't feel tired. The sheer wonder of the previous evening fuelled him through the long dark hours of the early morning as he lay, watching the gentle motion of her shoulders as she breathed in her sleep.

"Hmm..." Shawna moaned gently, waking slowly, reaching round behind herself to grab him where he pressed against her. "Morning." He flinched, slightly, wondering how she'd react, then settled when she didn't panic.

"Hey." He leant down from where his head was resting on his elbow, kissing her neck and shoulder. "How are you?" She lifted her other hand to place it over his where it rested on her breast, and her smile got even broader.

"I'm... I feel good, Marcus. Really good." She lifted a leg, eased him between her legs and then gently began to stroke herself back and forward along his length.

"Oh, god..." He managed, and she felt the first tears on her cheeks. She'd known it would be emotional, she'd been awake for hours nestled comfortably in his arms the night before. He, of course, had slipped off in an instant, but she had to prepare herself. She shouldn't have to, it should have been the most natural thing in the world, and she felt guilty about it nonetheless. It was almost like she couldn't really give herself up properly, she had to build up to it, gather her courage. It was Marcus, but still she couldn't just let go...

His hands came into play, suddenly, cupping her breasts gently and rolling her nipples between finger and thumb, and she stopped thinking about before.

"Oh." She gasped, surprised out of her reverie, stuttering in her rhythm, and feeling his lips on her neck. "Marcus..."

"Hmm?" his reply was muffled gently by the skin of her shoulder as he trailed little kisses along it.

"What... what would you say if I asked you to stop?" She trembled, slightly, and his face lifted, even though her hips kept their gentle back and forth movement along his length.

"I'd stop." He told her, absolute conviction. "Whenever." She nodded, pressing her eyes closed.

"What if I told you to start?"

"I'd... I'd probably ask you how, to be honest." She smiled through the tears, reaching one hand back to cup his cheek as the other grasped him firmly.

"Marcus... start..." she told him, shifted her hips, and slid herself over him.

"Oh Jesus!" he gasped, as she pushed back against him, spooned together in the bed, and he lowered a hand to her hip, easing himself gently into it. She hissed her pleasure, amazed again at the size of him even though the position didn't allow her to get the full effect.

Settled into place, aware of the hesitations she had, Marcus gently drew out as far as he dared, and just as slowly, gently, pushed back in, marvelling at how she gripped at him as he went. The position wasn't ideal for either of them, with his chest still pressed up against her shoulders and her hips arched back to provide him access, but it guaranteed it would last. Marcus kisses trailed up and down her shoulders, her arms, he kissed along her knuckles when she raised her hand to stroke his face.

He kept up his work, intermittently, on her breasts, teasing her gently as they went along, resisting all the urges he was getting to speed up, to feed the pressure he could feel slowly building down below. Shawna lost all track of time, focussing more and more on the slowly, gently growing fire in the pit of her stomach, the tendrils of heat his fingers kept generating that sparked down occasionally to meet it, and the general glow of love she could feel, wrapped in his arms. Her cries got louder and louder, finally muffled when she turned her face into the pillow and screamed her orgasm out.

Marcus felt her grip him tightly, his eyes screwed shut in concentration as he willed himself to last long enough to make this worthwhile. The sudden tightness, half-way through an in-stroke, caught him by surprise and tipped him over the edge, firing off with a grunted hiss in her ear. He pulsed a few times, each one sending a delighted shiver through her, and when he slumped back, sweating and spent, she spun around to clamp her lips onto his, squeezing him tight and crying gently as he hugged away the last of the hurt that had come between them.

"Are you OK?" she snuggled against his chest, warm and content and still amazed at the torrent of feelings he'd unleashed in her.

"OK... better than OK, I think." He smiled, stroking her hair, staring up at the ceiling.

"I can't believe you made me cry." She managed, after a moment. He just squeezed her a little tighter, bringing a groan from her as her nipples rubbed over his side. "You sure you're alright? You look a little... lost."

"I'm good, really." He kissed her hair, breathing in deeply, revelling in the moment. "Princess... it's... I'm not complaining, it's not like that, but... I feel... a bit..."

"Unsure?"

"No. Definitely not that."

"Scared?"

"No... well yes, but..."

"Horny?"

"Sho!"

"Sorry... go on."

"I... I feel like, I don't know... like Bart Simpson just died, or something." She giggled, which did even more interesting things to her nipples, and she clamped her legs together tight — she couldn't believe she was ready to go again so soon.

"Bart Simpson just died?" she finally managed.

"Bart Simpson's been what, eight, nine, for as long as I can remember."

"Riiight?"

"So... I've been thinking about you — us — for as long as I can remember... and now it's suddenly here."

"It was pretty intense... you do know it's not going to be like that every time, right?"

"I know... I'm sorry, I'll figure out what I'm doing at some point." She rolled further onto him, flattening her ample chest against his.

"You'd better not change anything, mister. You get any better at that and I just might not be able to drag myself out of here."

"So... I didn't... hurt you... did I?"

"Hurt me? No, Marcus you didn't. I... oh hell I said I wasn't going to do this."

"Do what."

"I wasn't going to talk about... before. Others."

"So don't."

"No, I think... look, there have been others before, for me, that's not a secret, but it has never, ever been like that."

"Bad?"

"Don't be so insecure..." she kissed him, tears coming again. "I've never connected like that before... it's always been just something to do... that was like, like something to be. It was your first at anything, but it was my first time having someone make love to me rather than just fucking." He was silent for a minute, and she lifted herself up to stare at him, and realised his eyes were as wet as hers were.

"So I didn't do too badly, then?" he finally managed, pushing a laugh out.

"I cried... me. You were wonderful. It was... slow! I've not taken time like that before, I liked that."

"OK."

"Next time, though, I think I'd like to see your animal side come out a bit."

"What?"

"You know, be a little more... frantic?"

"No, I meant... next time." His smile nearly split his head open. "I didn't want to assume anything..."

"Hell yes, next time. I promised you this wasn't going to be just a one night thing, didn't I?"

"Oh... so... What about this time?" Something brushed against her leg, and she felt both his hands caressing the small of her back as her hips twitched forward.

"Oh, god, Marcus..." she whispered, letting her head fall forward to nibble on his shoulder gently. "Any way you want..."

"So?" Elspeth asked, archly, watching a frazzled looking Shawna slump onto the easy chair. Briana untangled her hair from Elspeth's hands, and sat up to listen.

"What?" Shawna demurred, briefly, then cracked a smile that lip up her face like a sun. "God, it was... busy." They all giggled, but she could see they weren't going to let her away with just that.

"He was... oh, he was so gentle, so tender. It was almost like being with a girl, he was that soft. And those fingers... you've heard Corinne talk about guitar-player's fingers... she didn't mention the calluses but GOD they can hit the spots.

And his tongue just goes on for miles, and miles..." she shivered just thinking about. "You know, I'm pretty damned sure he wore me out completely. I couldn't go again if Orlando Bloom walked in."

Elspeth poked her tongue out. "Orlando Bloom, eugh."

"Or Liv Tyler." Shawna upped the stakes. "Or both."

"Liv Tyler..." Elspeth considered that one. "Hmmm."

Briana nudged her with an elbow, and leant forward. "Would you, though, if you could?"

"Would I what."

"If Orlando Bloom or... and... Liv Tyler knocked on the door, right now? Would you?"

Shawna sat back for a moment, closing her eyes and thinking back over the long, exhausting and quite, quite wonderful weekend. "Not for anything..." she managed.

"Yes!" Briana shrieked, clasping Elspeth's hand tight.

"There was just one more thing..." Elspeth muttered, after a second.

"What?" Shawna opened one eye, not quite recognising the tone.

"I don't go for that sort of thing, y'know, but... he helped me with my ankle last term remember, and there's things that sort of stand out, in the pool." Shawna looked blankly at her for a moment.

"Is he really that big, is what she wants to know." Briana laid it on the table, and Shawna smiled broadly.

"It scared me half to death when I first saw it, I thought it was a fucking baseball bat..."

"So?" Lorraine asked, shuffling across the sitting area with one of Tony's boxes.

"So what?" Marcus looked confused.

Tony leant over the counter, a broad smile plastered across his face. "Come on, spill it... how was it?"

"Tony!" Lorraine slapped his shoulder as she went past, shoving her last book into her bag.

"What?" he turned round, all wounded innocence.

"Do you just want to see if he was better than you?" she asked, archly. "I can take him in his room for a few minutes and find that out... it won't take long." Marcus blushed to his roots, and she winked at him with a conspiratorial smile.

"Hell no, I know he was better than me." Tony observed, turning away to pull her close. "It takes you to get the best out of me."

"That's better." She told him. "Anyway, I'd have heard about it from you already if you'd managed to get her to make as much noise as he did." Marcus snorted coffee out his nose, coughing hard in shock as Tony laughed all the way to his room.

"Marcus..." Lorraine tried to cover a smile, failed, and just let it burst free. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to embarrass you." He managed a shrug, not trusting himself to speak. "But..." she peeked back at the door, making sure Tony wasn't coming, and lowered her voice. "I know you were worried about this, we all knew you were worried. You did fine..."