All Over Again - Chapter 35: Chapter 35

"Ruuuuuuttttthhhhhiiiiieeee," Jana groaned, flopping over her lap in her Black Widow onesie costume.
Ruth hid her grin behind taking another sip from her chai tea latte and patted her cousin's head sympathetically. "You'll be fine."
"You're gonna leave me with Talkative Terry over there who's gonna want to stay with Johnny for hooooours. What part of that sounds fine?"
"I heard that, asshole!" Terry shouted from the room over.
"You were meant to bitch!"
Ruth laughed loudly that time, and placed her tea on the little decorated table. Her cousins loved Halloween, so they decorated the apartment in orange Halloween lights and lit up pumpkin candles that gave the room a soft glow to go along with the aroma. Their carved pumpkins sat on the porch still with their three silly faces carved with different emotions. That was just about as Halloween as Ruth could get.
"Come on, Jana. We're running late as it is," Terry murmured, walking back into the living room with her purse swung over her shoulder. She looked gorgeous in her Kim Possible getup with her natural hair flopped over to one side and make-up done perfect with her shaded lip and outlined eyes.
"You sure you don't want to go, Ruth? You're already semi-dressed up," Terry asked, gesturing to her clothes.
Ruth rose a brow. "You call striped shorts and a Christmas sweatshirt dressed up?"
"You could always throw on a pair of pants over your shorts."
"It's okay guys. I'm okay watching scary movies for the night," she waved them off. "School was exhausting this week so a night in is definitely what I need. It's already 7 anyway."
Terry gave her a curious look, but before she could comment any further, Jana was standing up and getting ready to go. Shoving her purse over her arm and grabbing a handful of Ruth's popcorn, much to her protest, and pushed Terry out the door.
"Alright, Ruthie. We'll say hi to lover boy for you!" Was the last thing Jana called out before they slammed the door shut behind them. Ruth didn't even have time to feel guilty before they were gone, though that quickly dissipated after she waited a solid five minutes and then pulled out her phone from her pocket.
Ruth: Okay, they're gone. Come in!
Ruth quickly bounded off of the couch and tidied up the room with the first Insidious playing in the background. There wasn't much to put away, but she still wanted to make sure everything was perfect. She had never invited a guy over to the apartment before, let alone Raffo, so she had to make sure there was nothing embarrassing out. She even cleaned up her room, though she didn't know why she did that. They were probably just going to stay on the couch the whole night watching movies and eating the snacks scattered about. There wasn't going to be any . . . well, of that.
Her cheeks flared up just thinking about the possibility.
She didn't have time to ponder it for long before there was a hard knock at her front door. She mentally cursed under her breath as she bounded over, knocking her knee into the wall on accident while doing so. Hissing sharply under her breath, she gave herself a minute for the throbbing to go away and shook the nerves out of her fingertips. There was no reason to be nervous. It was just Raffo, for goodness sake. It wasn't like they were going to another powwow.
Ruth purposely stayed in her lounge clothes because she wanted to feel comfortable and in her zone. She wasn't eighteen anymore, she could invite guys over all the time if she wanted to. All adults invite people over.
That was normal.
Right, okay.
Taking a deep breath in, she finally opened the door.
And some of her nerves melted away almost instantly.
Standing there, with his hair pulled back into a knot, and his hands casually shoved into his pants pockets, was gorgeous Raffo Leflore. Over his hoodie was his signature leather jacket that he had been wearing lately, looking like a younger Adam Beach.
Which Ruth was more than fine with, she thought, as she tried not to tremble under his curious stare. His heavy gaze traveled along the length of her curvy body, settling briefly on the expanse of her thick thighs, and then making his way over Tim Allen's Santa Claus over her chest. He looked over her bundle of wild curls floating about near her waist until finally catching the hot warmth across her cheeks.
She wasn't wearing any make-up, but by the way he was openly staring at her with sweet affection, she was fine without it.
Her smile was shy, her fingers fumbling with the door handle. "Hi."
"Hi," he smiled back, nodding at her torso. "Nice sweatshirt."
Though she knew what she was wearing, she still glanced down. "Had to show my support for my favorite holiday on my least favorite holiday."
"I like it," he chuckled, then glanced behind her into the apartment. "Nice place."
"Thanks . . . Oh! I'm sorry—you can totally just—um," she wracked her brain for what she wanted to say. "Come in. Please, come in."
Raffo glanced at her in amusement but proceeded to come in. She told him he could leave his shoes at the door, which he did, and the two shuffled inside with sock-clad feet. She watched him look around their decorated living room and wished she knew what he was thinking.
Did he think the candles and lights were too much? Did it smell like a pumpkin threw up in her living room? Is the setting giving off the wrong idea?
She had to think up a diversion quick.
"Sorry I look a mess. I just thought since we're only watching movies that I could just wear something casual," Ruth apologized. He looked back at her, his eyebrows pushed together.
"You look beautiful," he disagreed. His eyes lingered on her body, before he met her hot gaze. "You always do."
He sat down on her couch, not noticing the way her breath stuttered and her feet refused to move closer. She knew she should, but some part of her was nervous when he inclined his head towards the empty space on the couch. Kicking herself into gear, she walked towards him, subtly enjoying the attentive way he watched her, like she was the only girl in the entire world he ever wanted to look at. Granted, she was the only one in the room currently. But even at school when women like Abagail and Mirana were walking in the same vicinity, he only ever looked at her, at least whenever she was around. She technically didn't know who he looked at in his free time, but it was a nice fever dream to imagine he only had eyes for her.
As soon as Ruth sat down beside him, with her legs curled to the side, Raffo wrapped her up in the comfort of his strong arms. While he grabbed the remote to press play on the movie, she cuddled up under him, feeling a surge of warmth and comfort throughout her body. Neither of them let their hands stray during the film, but that didn't mean she wasn't overly aware of how well their bodies fit together. Especially when she combed her fingers through his and drew his knuckles up to her lips.
Ruth never thought of herself as an overtly touchy person before Raffo, but they found themselves needing physical assurance whenever they were around each other. Physical touch was never her love language, but his love language easily turned into hers, and she quickly adopted into it. Sometimes as a child, she felt deprived of physical love unless her parents had time to give it, but it was always Koi who gave her extra long hugs and kisses on the top of her head. Her mother wanted nothing to do with that, having grown up in a household where physical affection just wasn't done.
But Raffo made her crave it in a way that she had never craved it before. She wanted it all the time, whenever he'd offer it. Some might see this as too much, but it was exactly what she needed.
"How was your day?" she murmured towards the middle of the movie.
He stirred beside her and shrugged, his eyes temporarily leaving the screen to look down at her. "Alright, I guess. I helped out at Johnny's dad's mechanic shop for a few hours."
"I didn't know you were a car guy."
"I know a thing or two," he admitted. "I usually help him out to make some extra money."
Ruth nodded, respecting that. "Do you like it?"
His lips twisted to the side. "It puts food in my sisters' stomachs and gets my mom off my back. So it isn't too bad."
"Moms know best," Ruth scrunched her face.
Raffo tilted his head down towards her, curious by her words. She rarely mentioned her family to him, just like he rarely spoke of his to her. It wasn't purposely on her end, she just never had a reason to bring them up.
"You too?" he asked.
"My mom's always had a plan for me," she explained, frowning. "She didn't even really want me to come out here, something about how she grew up with her side of the family here. I don't even really know them because of her."
He blinked at that. "Do they live close to here?"
"No idea," she admitted.
"So she just upped and left with your dad? Never looked back?"
"Pretty much."
His brows crinkled in thought, though there was something underlying his vision too. It almost looked like . . . . longing? "That sounds . . . rough."
"I don't know how she did it. But she expects so much of me because of that, even though she knows I'm nothing like her. I could never do what she did, and I don't even completely know if I want to follow the path she has set for me."
This recaptured Raffo's attention, dissipating the dream in his eyes. "Nursing?"
Ruth nodded. "She's the one who taught me that writing wouldn't be a practical major. That nursing would give me a future."
"She obviously hasn't read any of your work," he said, rolling his eyes. "You can pursue a career in anything you want, Semple, and you'd be damn great at it. Especially with writing."
Her chest warmed at his words of encouragement, and she openly considered this path. She'd been thinking a lot about writing lately, especially after sending in her work for the contest. Writing was always something she loved, but she never was told to pursue it until . . . well, until Raffo. He was the only one who took the time to read her work, talk about it with her, and encourage her to follow her passions, wherever that would lead. He wanted her to follow what she loved, even if she most likely wasn't going to come out a millionaire if she decided to go down that path.
She'd be giving up a reality to follow what her mother would believe to be a pipe dream. Even Emily convinced her it was more of a hobby than an actual job, because the chances of being the next J.K. Rowling or Stephanie Meyer were slim, especially for an Afro-Indigenous woman like herself. But damn it, pipe dream or not, it was still her dream.
And there was only one person who had her back on the matter.
She couldn't put into words how much that meant to her.
"How do you always know what to say?" she demanded, shaking her head at him like it was his fault he was so damn good to her. And it was.
Raffo smirked cockily and ran a hand under her jaw, running his fingertips along the silk of her neck. "Because you deserve to hear the truth even if it pisses somebody else off. And for you, I'd gladly piss the world off."
She found that hotter than she should have.
"Shut up and kiss me Leflore," she grumbled, earning an amused chuckle in return. She ran her hand up his chest until she could lock her arm behind his neck and impatiently draw him down to her.
He didn't keep her waiting long.
Raffo's lips were hot and eager on Ruth's mouth.
Puckering hungrily beneath hers, she let him part her; devouring her, mind, body, and soul with those hypnotizing lips of his. He claimed and conquered her with just the simple movement of his lips and the roll of his soothing tongue around hers. She didn't know how it happened, but she pulled herself across his lap just like she'd done in the car after the powwow.
Ruth's knees straddled either side of his waist, her shorts practically morphing into underwear at that point. His fingers created a blazing trail along her exposed skin, running along the smoothness of her thighs as her skin rippled with pleasure. Ruth pushed herself impossibly closer and ran her fingers up the back of his neck to skillfully release his hair from its band, as she wanted it everywhere around her instead of being tucked away.
Raffo shivered at her fingers twisting and weaving in her eager grasp. The action drew his thumb up to the hem of the shorts encasing her thighs, teasing the material against the inner part of her upper leg.
She broke away with a broken gasp, her lust for him exploding as a surge of familiar warmth surged down to her core. His tongue traced her name along the length of her neck, resulting in a wonton moan that shook her from the inside out.
"Raffo," she mumbled thickly, her voice faint. "My room—to the right—"
Ruth didn't need to explain anything more.
Raffo wrapped his hands tightly around her thick thighs and he hoisted them both up. She interlocked her legs around his waist instantly and allowed him to take her to her room, the candles glowing eerily down the hallway and in her room. She had lit a couple earlier, not thinking anything of it at the time, but now she was glad that she did that.
There was a level of intimacy that came with the flickering of a candle versus the brightness of a lamp.
She didn't know how far they were going to get, but she was ready for all of it.
Before she laid out on the bed after he put her down, she quickly discarded the warmth of her sweatshirt and was left in nothing but her hiked up shorts and flimsy tank top, accentuating the fullness of her breasts. His eyes glowed in the night as they stayed glued to her curvy figure, his jaw stuttering with the sharp inhale of his breath. She didn't miss the way he subtly ran his tongue along his kissable lips.
Seductively, Ruth wrapped a hand around the top of Raffo's shirt and inched him closer to her. She pulled them both back against the headboard of her bed, and made sure they purposely recreated the position they were in on the couch with his waist encased between her thighs and her backside resting on his lap. The coolness of her damp hair made her sigh out, glad to have gotten rid of the stuffy sweatshirt.
Raffo's hands were back on her upper thighs, his thumb stuck flickering against the thigh's hem again. She wrapped her arms lazily around his neck.
When his thumb moved up a little higher, her breath hitched, a shuddering gasp causing her to clench her fingers tighter into Raffo's hair. His dark smirk made her clench below even more and she nearly melted everything into him as he was back to kissing under her jaw.
"You want me to touch you, aiukli?" he murmured, and almost instinctually, she spread her legs an inch wider on his lap, her core begging for it.
"Please," she whimpered.
Her soft cry when his thumb finally pushed through the side of her shorts was in complete and utter relief. At first, he teased her outside of her underwear, running from the top of her down to the bottom, stroking the outside of her core with a feather like touch. His kisses along her neck slowly began to travel lower and lower, trailing across the top of her rounded flesh.
Ruth pushed her chest closer to his mouth and he cursed under his breath as his other hand tightened on her waist. It wasn't until his thumb finally pushed aside her damp underwear that she got any sort of relief, though the torture didn't end there, as he stroked his finger over her wet folds. She shuddered.
"Fuck," he hissed. He pulled back for a moment, his eyes swirling with torn, unveiled lust as he swallowed visibly. "Ruth I—I don't have anything so we can't—"
"We don't have to," she panted as he hovered above the spot she wanted him to touch most. "We can just—we can do this—"
She nearly crumbled in his lap when he brushed along her sensitive bundle of nerves. He understood what she was trying to say and he didn't seem to mind it one bit. Especially when he started taking control once again, determined to give her what they both wanted, even if they weren't going to have sex that night. Her body arched against him, pleasure taking control of her limbs.
"Take it off," he demanded in a husky, gravely voice that dipped deep into her belly.
Fuck, that was sexy, she thought to herself dreamily.
Ruth didn't waste any time asking some stupid question when she knew exactly what he was referring to. Luckily, she wore one of her bras that snapped in the front, so all she had to do was twist the metal off and her breasts practically burst free from the constricting fabric. She was only a D cup, but the lack of constraint across her chest and back was nearly a relief as she shoved her arms through the straps, flinging the bra somewhere across the room.
Raffo watched every movement, mesmerized by the way her chest moved and bounced for him with the movement until her hard nipples were poking through her white spaghetti strap. Before she could think of something witty and playful about his hungry eyes, he dipped his face low and ran the flat of his tongue up her covered nipple at the same time he inserted a finger.
His teeth grazed and pulled until his name was nothing but a repetition off her tongue, falling like a stalled out record player. By the stirring of his member below, she could tell he loved it, especially when she arched herself towards his warm mouth. Teasing her was what he liked to do best, so he did everything in his power to stick with stretching her tight walls with dancing fingers and flickering his tongue against her strained nipples.
It wasn't until his fingers started to slowly pump in and out of her that she was a fucking mess. She withered under his sucking lips and moving fingers to the point of losing herself. Once he was satisfied with her moaning and the constant spreading of her legs, he moved his tongue up just a little to dip down into her cleavage, scooping her breast into his mouth. He hummed in response of her breathless gasp and one of her hands fell to the back of his hair, holding him there while groans vibrated against her flesh.
"Raffo," she moaned at the wet, warmth of his mouth sucking and grazing around her nipple.
Raffo slipped another finger in and she squirmed to adjust herself to it, her eyes blurring with absolute pleasure. It wasn't until his pumping fingers began to pick up more of a pace that her breathing started shallowing out. Usually, with her past partners, she needed to build herself up for awhile before she was anywhere close to coming, but Raffo knew what the hell he was doing. He knew the right way to touch her, to kiss her, and make her feel like the only girl in the world who deserved his want to fulfill her.
Every moment together just further increased her feeli—
"Go out with me," Raffo pushed out, stroking his fingers against her inner walls.
She shook above him. Her soul had just left her body and he expected her to focus on him talking?!
"W-what?" she asked faintly, her breath hitching. Her whimper of pleasure made him shiver beneath her.
"Go on a date with me," he practically groaned into her neck, kissing and sucking along the exposed skin. His fingers stopped their movement, much to her annoyance, and when she tried to move against them again, he held her waist to stop her with clenched fingers.
"Raff," she whined, her fingers squeezing his upper thigh. He twitched against her, another word cursing out of his beautiful mouth as he suddenly kissed the hell out of her to get her to focus. She returned his hunger until she grew tighter and dizzier.
"Date me, aiukli. Go on a date with me," he growled against her lips, his thumb pushing against her clit and rubbing it in a circular motion.
"Yes," she cried out. "I will Raff—I will. Just—just—"
She didn't have to beg for much longer before he finally regained the fast pace of his relentless fingers and his mouth found its way back to the erected flesh of her nipple, pushing her well over the edge. His name tumbled out of her lips in a harsh cry and welcomed the orgasm around his fingers.