Page 45 of Savage

“Babe.”

She didn’t know if he was begging her for something or if it was a prayer, and she didn’t care. All she knew was she didn’t want him to stop. She needed more.

Before she was aware of what she was doing, her arms found themselves wrapped around his body. She pulled him down, needing to touch him. When he was close enough, she kissed him, pouring every aching desire she had into the simple contact.

His hips moved away, causing him to pull out until only his tip remained inside her. She knew this was how it worked, still, she whimpered the loss into her kiss.

Donna didn’t have long to wait, because he thrust back into her, this time sinking all the way inside. An intense wave of pleasure had her throwing her head back, a wordless cry erupting from her as her fingers curled into his back.

Her body seemed to clamp down around him, but he never stopped moving. Every thrust seemed to drive her pleasure higher, higher, higher until she would have sworn she was somewhere among the stars. Then everything exploded and she lost track of time as she seemed to float, happy and sated, among the stars.

35

“What’syourfirstname?”Donna’s voice pulled Savage from his hazy afterglow.

He lay on top of the sleeping bag, staring up at the top of the tent, the light still on and Donna curled against his side. He’d only recently regained the ability to breathe normally, and it wasn’t that he minded talking. He loved laying here in the dark, talking to her, but the question wasn’t one he’d expected her to ask.

“Wait, what?” He twisted his head to look at her face where it rested on his shoulder.

“What’s your first name? I was thinking about it, and I know everyone calls you Savage and that it’s your last name, but I realized I don’t know your first name.”

He frowned, wondering where the hell all this had come from. He’d been floating in a beautiful sea of contentment, and she’d been thinking? How had she been able to think after the number of times she’d come, and so hard that last one had felt like a tight fist around his cock?

“Thomas.”

“Thomas,” she repeated, her voice soft.

He liked the sound of the name only his mother used anymore coming from her lips.

“I like it, it’s a good name.” Her nose crinkled, it was cute and made him want to see it more often. “But it doesn’t feel right. Maybe I’m just used to Savage. Maybe I just need to find the right name.”

“The right name?” He wondered again what she was thinking.

A shiver ran through her, making him realize they were still lying on top of the sleeping bag, not inside it. He hated to move but he hated her being cold more.

Savage forced himself to stir. It only took him a couple of moments to clean her up with a wet wipe from the pack he kept in his bag, then tuck her into bed. He disposed of the condom and slid in beside her, and turned off the lamp. He settled in, enjoying the feeling as she curled up against his side, placing her head back on his shoulder as if he hadn’t disturbed them. Somehow, this was even better than it had been the night before. Maybe because tonight there was no clothing between them. Instead, they lay naked in each other’s arms.

“What was that you were saying about the right name?” he asked once they’d settled back into place.

“I don’t know. You never call me by my name. I was thinking maybe I need a name for you. I thought maybe your given name, but that doesn’t feel right. I’ll have to keep thinking about it.”

“I use your name,” he said, scowling into the dark. He knew he used her name. Yeah, he liked to call her babe, but he thought she liked it.

“You do once in a while, when you’re trying to get my attention or draw me out of myself. When everything is good, you call me babe.”

“I like calling you babe. I thought you liked it too. I can stop if you’d rather I use your name.”

“No. I do like it. I don’t want you to stop. I like the feeling that you have a name for me that you don’t use with someone else.” She snuggled a little closer, rubbing her cheek against his shoulder. “Now, if you called all women babe, then we’d have a problem.”

He was quiet a moment as he thought about it. When was the last time he’d called someone babe, to their face? He couldn’t recall. Had it been Gina? His high school girlfriend? The one who had sworn she would wait for him to get out of boot camp, then they could get married, but hadn’t been able to stay out of someone else’s bed for even seven weeks?

No. He’d called her baby. Close, but not babe.

“No, not all women,” he said. “In fact, I can’t recall ever calling anyone babe, at least not like I do you. I might have made an off-hand comment using the word. Like fuck, that chick’s a babe, when talking to someone, but I’ve never used it like I do with you.”

“Good.” Her voice had gone husky, and her breathing was slowing. She would be sleeping soon. Knowing that sent a warm feeling through him. “I guess I won’t have to kill you then.”

Savage couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face, even lying here in the dark, at the idea of her killing him. He had no doubt that given the right motivation, she could raise holy hell. That in the future, she could and would make his life miserable, at least once in a while. But that’s what life with someone was about. Taking the bad with the good, right?