47. Vas

47

VAS

I t was amazing, the change that a little bit of time could bring.

When I had come up with my admittedly impulsive plan to stay in America, I thought the hardest thing would be convincing my parents that it was the right move.

That part wasn't easy, for sure. Getting them on my side about staying with production went all right, but telling them I wasn't going to be married off to the next candidate they found went over like a fire in a dry field.

Everything burned, and for a while, all that was left was ash.

My father refused to speak to me, my mother tried to talk to me way too much, and I was cut off from my share of the family fortune, not that it mattered since I had my own.

My brother helped me to turn them around, though, and eventually, new plants began to grow in the dirt. But when my father grudgingly asked me whether I was dating someone and when they could meet her, I had to tell him to be patient.

I knew, without a doubt, that I wanted to be with Jenna for the rest of my life, but she was taking a little longer to convince. Jenna was fiercely independent and refused to let me pay her way. The most she let me handle was paying for our dates.

I respected her work ethic and her desire for independence, but I also wanted her to be happy and fulfilled, and to stop working eighteen-hour days.

At least she believed that I loved her.

That hadn't taken too long, and as soon as it was right, I took her home and worshipped her like the goddess she was.

I had thought that sex with Adina had been the best I ever had, but the reality proved to be better than the fantasy.

Jenna was gorgeous, and I wanted to make sure she knew it. I went slow, kissing the insides of her thighs as I crawled up her body, then over her taut stomach and breasts until I could nip at the side of her neck. When she arched up against me, it was all I could do not to slide inside of her, but I wasn't just in this for the sex, and I wanted to make sure she knew that.

Making love to her in the Experience had been incredible, but I wasn't looking to recreate that time. I wanted to make thousands of new ones with Jenna.

Her skin was warm under my lips, her mouth sweet and soft and tender against me as I slid a hand between her legs and stroked her. She was so wet.

I slid a finger inside, and Jenna moaned.

"I want you," she said, looking at me with hooded eyes.

"You have me," I told her with a smile, pumping my finger in and out of her.

"Not that…"

"More?" I put in a second finger and made her laugh. "Better?"

"It is," she said, her breath hitching a little, "but I think it could be even—oh, fuck—even better."

"Yeah?" I kissed her, swallowing another moan as I curled my fingers to press up and over. Yeah, there, she shuddered and tightened her legs around me. "Like that?" I asked.

"Closer," she gasped. "But I won't get what I want until I get this—" She reached down and palmed my length"—inside me."

"You know that I want to give you everything you want." I slid my hand free, pulled her leg up, and slid the head along the slickness pooling at her folds to get it wet, then slowly pressed into her body.

Now, it was my turn to moan.

It was all I could do to hold up my own weight as the intensity of making love to Jenna in the real world hit me. The fit was tight, yet every movement was a blissful slide in and out of her body. Her eyes were nearly closed, already glassy with pleasure, yet I'd barely even done anything. I ground down against the center of her pleasure, and she squeezed my arms so tight I knew I was going to bruise as she suddenly came with a cry.

"Oh God, fuck me harder," she breathed once she could speak again.

I did. I wanted to be close, even closer than we already were, so I pressed my body against hers and fucked her in short, tight strokes, every roll of my hips stimulating her clit. I bent my head and sucked one of her nipples into my mouth, still driving myself into her, and her hands moved to my head to hold me in place as she came again. So sensitive, I loved it, but now I was the one on the verge of coming, and there was no stopping it. I let go of her breast and squeezed my eyes shut as my orgasm hit me like a sledgehammer, taking my breath away and leaving me seeing stars as I came.

Fuck. Fuck , it was the best it had ever been, in or out of an Experience, with anyone I'd ever slept with. If I hadn't already been determined to win Jenna over, this cinched it. "I love you," I murmured.

"I love you too," she mumbled back, grinning like a loon, and I knew we would be fine.

Knowing that we were as sexually compatible in the real world as we had been in the virtual one was a step forward in our relationship, but the big change came when Jenna suddenly got word from her agent that the novel she'd been pitching had swiftly gained traction.

She went from no offers to publish and considering scrapping the whole thing to an auction with the Big Five, a two-book deal, and not having to stress over finding additional teaching jobs for the foreseeable future.

In fact, she was able to pare down to only teaching the classes she liked, which relieved enough of her stress that she was finally willing to be introduced to my parents.

My mother loved her immediately. I wasn't surprised; they were both artistic souls. My father was harder to please, especially when he learned she didn't have much in the way of extended family, just her mother and sisters. We didn't mention her father and left it at that.

My parents recognized that I was in love with her and treated her with respect. It was honestly more than I'd hoped for, and having their tacit approval of our relationship meant a lot to me.