Tantalus in Chains

CHAPTER EIGHT: UNCHAINED

Zack's hands tightened on my waist as my words washed over him. My body cried out for him to take me, to show me that he wanted me as much as I wanted him. I sucked his earlobe into my mouth and flicked it with my tongue. He responded with a low moan, one that vibrated across my neck as he lowered his lips to the hollow of my throat. His teasing tongue didn't ease my growing frustration.

"Are you literally trying to drive me crazy?" I asked.

"Could be. Or maybe I just want to hear you repeat what you want me to do to you."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm not entirely sure I should stroke your ego that much."

"I have something else you could stroke instead."

"Don't change the subject." I pouted playfully.

"From what?"

"How you're teasing me so mercilessly. I've been wanting this since August. It's so unfair."

He pretended innocence, a mask that barely covered the flicker of surprise that burned through his eyes. "What have you been wanting?"

I wrapped my hand around his half-erect cock and gave one sinuous stroke. "This," I said, a touch of annoyance in my voice. I'm not sure how much annoyance actually came through, though, because the feel of him in my hand was exhilarating. "You, pounding this into me."

He squeezed his eyes shut and breathed a shuddery sigh as I stroked his cock again. Then he picked me up. I was shocked at the suddenness of his movement, shocked by the way his skin surrounded me, shocked by the scent of his soft hair tickling my face. I barely noticed that we were moving until we collapsed onto the bed together. His mouth and hands were everywhere. He kissed me deeply, almost deeply enough to assuage my desperate longing for his body. When he broke the kiss, he was looking at me with a mixture of wonder and disbelief, as if suddenly unsure that I could possibly want him this way. It was a look that went straight to my heart.

"If you wait one more second, I'm going to explode," I murmured.

Savage lust filled his face, and then he was inside me. My back arched deeply at the sensation as my pussy convulsed with a long pulse of exquisite pleasure, pleasure that built as it seemed to explode through my body. All I could do was gasp, or something between a gasp and a moan.

He pushed in deeper with excruciating slowness. Everything inside me opened to him—all the walls I usually keep for protection dissolved with his relentless forward movement. My gasp became the kind of sigh that goes with getting into a tub of warm water after a long, exhausting day. Him inside me felt right, and for the first time all year, I felt complete.

His eyes were wide, surprised by the intensity of my response and his own. He recovered quickly and he began to really fuck me. I watched his eyes focus on my tits as they bounced from the force of his thrusts. I couldn't believe how deep he pushed into me, how completely satisfying he was.

"Yes... Oh God, Zack, you feel so good," I moaned. My voice jumped as he pounded me.

"You are so incredible," he said, speeding the pace of his thrusts. "I'm never going to stop fucking you."

I met his thrusts with desperate need, half afraid he would vanish at any moment leaving me empty and alone. I clung to him as he moved inside me, feeling my skin melt into his as the passion I had felt all year burned through us.

He dragged his lips lower, and the sensations of his hair against my face started a shivery reaction that combined with the power of his thrusts to send me over the edge of orgasm. I screamed for him as I dug my nails into his back.

I dissolved. There was nothing but the release of all that had been building between us. The rest of the universe swam in a mass of glittering darkness.

Consciousness came back in a slow tide, and I became aware that I was spooned against Zack's body. The solid warmth of his chest at my back was everything I had always hoped it would be. His breath was a soft breeze against my hair, which tickled my neck and ears. His arms were warm and surprisingly soft around me. My fingertips moved with an impulse of their own, gliding across his skin. He shivered under my touch.

"Haven't you done enough?" he asked playfully.

I frowned as I abruptly realized I missed his own orgasm. "Umm... I guess I don't know."

He snorted. "I thought you were supposed to be smart."

I was blushing. "Well, I kind of missed the show at the end."

His soft laugh rumbled through his body into mine. "I guess that means I'll have to do it again sometime."

"Promise?" I murmured as drowsiness began to close over me.

The only answer I got was another soft, rumbly laugh, and then I was asleep.

**********

Zack vanished for a solid week. It was partly my own fault. He actually called me after about four days, but I didn't answer the phone. Instead, I spent hours torturing myself with questions about whether I could see him again, but I already knew the answers. It was never going to work between the two of us. There were just too many things to stop us. Maybe Zack knew that, too, because he didn't call again.

And then I ran into him at Wal Mart. I was scouring the sparse selection of candy for an afternoon pick-me-up when I heard his voice behind me. My nerves jumped in giddy anticipation when I saw his tanned fingers restlessly curling around a bottle of Pepsi, leaving streaks in the rapidly forming condensation. I tried desperately to remind my nerves that they had nothing to anticipate, that it was over with Zack. Then I met his eyes. I had always assumed that sleeping with him would appease my body and I would be able to stand beside him without humming with need. Instead, his eyes unlocked things inside me that they hadn't been able to touch before, and it was only with a supreme effort of will that I managed to keep from touching him.

I was blushing, but I tried to cover it with my trademark friendly smile. "Hey stranger," I said, shooting for and nearly scoring a casual tone.

"Hey." He was far from casual, unfortunately. He was practically seething with dark emotion. I couldn't tell if it was lust or anger, but it suited him.

I couldn't help it. I put my hand on his arm. My body shuddered at the contact. "What's wrong?" I asked.

He just looked at me. I blushed harder, because his expression became practically verbal. Anyone would have known that sex was behind it. I dropped my hand from his arm and stepped back.

"I guess I should go," I said hastily, hoping that no one had in fact observed us. "It was good seeing you."

"You too," he muttered.

I hurriedly checked out and left, making a beeline for my car. I needed to get out of here. Unfortunately, my hasty exit was halted by my engine's decision to stop working. Zack saw me standing with my arms folded over my ribs, and he knew what my narrowed eyes and tapping foot meant. The tension seemed to melt away from him as he came to stand beside me.

"I can look at it if you want me to," he offered.

I shrugged, and he poked his head under the hood and then into the driver's seat to check the gages. Then he re-emerged. "It's not working," he offered. "That's about how much I can tell you about it."

I laughed in spite of myself. "Brilliant assessment. I'll be sure to call you next time I need an expert's opinion." Then I sighed. "I left my insurance card at school, so I can't even call a stupid tow truck."

His eyes flickered beneath a casual veneer. "Need a ride?"

Images blazed through my brain. Being in his truck, with him so close, the tantalizing warmth of his body practically against mine... I was trying to say no when I heard myself say yes.

He eased the truck out of the parking lot. The quickest way to the school involved a network of back roads I could never seem to navigate, but all the high school students knew. It was still a good twenty minutes away, even using the back roads. I tried to make conversation about anything at all to make the moment seem natural.

Then he cut through my shallow small talk. "Are we over? Is that why you didn't answer your phone?"

I blinked, a little surprised by his directness. "I don't know. Is there a 'we'?"

"Do you want there to be a 'we'?"

The sun played across his tawny skin in ripples, and I ached to touch him. I settled for burying my fingers into the soft leather of his jacket, the one that had driven me insane during the year. He had apparently left it in the cab of his truck when winter changed to spring. Its rich scent enveloped me as I worked it between my fingers. It didn't make it any easier to say what I needed to say, but I said it anyway. "Zack... you know I care for you. I just don't see how there can be a relationship with us. I was your teacher. People won't understand that. And you have to go away. You can't stay here."

He pondered what I said for a few minutes before replying. "I'm trying to hear what you're saying, Miss Martin. But if you really think that, I must not have done to you what you did to me. All I can think about is you underneath me. It's driving me crazy not touching you right now. "

My heart hammered twice before I said, "Pull over."

"What?" His voice was confused.

"Pull over." I was undoing my seatbelt. I barely noticed that he was, in fact, pulling over as I slid across the seat toward him. He had just put the truck in park when I captured his face in my hands and stared into his eyes, letting my hunger for him blaze across my face. "It is torture for me to be away from you. I think about you all the time. I wake up at night remembering how you felt inside me. I came harder than I ever have in my life. You made me feel things I never imagined were possible. You were amazing, and sometimes I want you more than air."

Then I closed the space between our lips, kissing him with all the intensity of the passion that had been building in my body. We tugged at each other's clothes, and soon I was straddling him, running my fingers over his bare chest. He squeezed my breasts savagely, and I moaned and bucked against him. I dropped my hands to unbutton his fly, desperate to feel his cock in my hands.

It was just as smooth and firm as I remembered it. I couldn't believe how hard he already was. I slid from his lap to rest between his legs, tugging his jeans down with me. My lips were a breath away from his cock when I paused and looked up into his tense, expectant face.

"Don't think I'm going to do this every time you think I'm not attracted to you."

His laugh was shaky. "Whatever you say."

I rose slightly on my knees and pressed my lips against his abs, drinking in the smell of his skin. "God, you're gorgeous," I murmured against his body as I moved lower. Then I blushed, realizing I had just sounded like a ridiculous fangirl.

He opened his mouth to respond, but I stopped him by choosing that moment to lick a long, teasing line along his shaft. I would have kept teasing him longer, but I frankly lacked the willpower. Instead, I pulled the head of his cock into my mouth and began licking soft swirls around it.

"Fuck," he moaned. "How do you do that?"

I smiled up at him with my eyes as I moved a little farther down his shaft.

"Wait," he said, pulling back with obvious effort. He took my breasts in his hands almost reverently, then squeezed them tight together. "I'm going to fuck your tits, Miss Martin. Is that okay?"

I moaned as a shudder went through my body. He seemed to take that as acquiescence because he started working his hardening dick into my cleavage. His fingers pressed into my sensitive flesh, and the way he felt between my tits was indescribable.

"Zack..." I gasped as the head of his cock shoved through.

"What is it? Do you want me to stop?"

I laughed. "Only if you want me to strangle you. God, you feel good."

He pulled back and thrust forward again, over and over, shaking my whole body with the force. His balls slapped against my skin, and the effect was mind-blowing. He stopped with a sudden growl. "I need to be inside you."

"Yes," I gasped as I scrambled to straddle him again. "Fuck, yes. Fuck me hard, Zack. I want you so much."

There was a desperate moment of positioning ourselves, and then he drove his cock into my pussy. It was a different intensity than our first time. The first time, we had been careful and moved almost painfully slowly. Now, we devoured each other with raging hunger, trying to make up for the week we had been apart. I buried my face in his hair as I breathed in ragged gasps. He pressed tense lips to my neck as he bounced me up and down with the force of his thrusts.

"Oh God," I moaned as my body's tension built. "I'm cumming Zack, you're going to make me cum so hard. FUCK, you're amazing."

When it came, the orgasm was savage instead of epic. It screamed through me like a runaway train. I felt him explode just after I did. His soft growls told me his orgasm was as savage as mine.

When I came down from my high, I was still straddling him. He still had his face against my neck, and his breathing was still a little uneven. I was suddenly aware that anyone could drive by and see us, although it was unlikely during the summer. The moment would have to end soon, and I didn't want it to. I brushed my lips across his hair, holding him close to me.

"I guess we have to get to the school," I finally sighed.

I could feel him smiling against my skin. "Or not."

I rolled my eyes, releasing him. "I guess I could just get you to drive me everywhere."

He smirked. "I'll give you a ride any time. All you have to do is ask."

I ignored him and straightened my shirt.

"No response? But I used a euphemism. Which I learned how to do in your class. I don't get any credit for that?"

I couldn't suppress a smile. "I think you already got your credit for that. Okay. Seriously. School."

He grinned as he pulled his jeans back on. "I don't really think you need to go, though, Miss Martin. There's nothing wrong with your car. Nothing except that you left it in drive and it won't start unless it's in park."

My mouth dropped open. "You... You are a creature of evil."

His grin broadened. "I'm not the one who forced me to pull over so that I could go down on me."

"I hope you know the only reason I did that was because your truck is incredibly sexy."

"It's my secret weapon," he agreed.

I sighed and watched him rebuttoning his white shirt in a methodical way that swallowed the golden warmth of his body. "I don't know what will happen with us, Zack."

He started the engine without speaking. We were back in the Wal Mart parking lot and I was standing outside his truck when he finally responded. He rolled down his window and grasped my hand, looking down into my face. "I want you. You want me. Maybe that's enough for now."

I looked into his deep brown eyes for what seemed like an eternity. Then I kissed him softly on his cheek. "It's enough forever," I said. "Whatever happens, I'll never forget you."

I got into my own car with the bittersweet knowledge that whatever time we had left, it wasn't long enough. I might want him so desperately I could barely see straight, but I could see straight enough to know that I loved him more than I wanted him. One thing that hadn't changed today was that if he didn't leave here, he would burn out. I sighed and started the engine (after, obviously, putting it in park), still feeling the aftershocks of his body so close to mine. But more than that, I couldn't forget the expression on his face when he looked at me. I finally let myself agree with him. Maybe what we felt WAS enough for now.