‘I told you, and because my sister is being rude, and I feel responsible.’
She stares at me for a long moment.
‘It feels like pity,’ she says abruptly, and I smile, realising she’s found a little confidence.
‘It’s not. Get into bed.’ The building tension inside me is making me lose my cool around her and the sooner she’s covered up the better.
She looks at me for a long moment before reluctantly climbing under the covers. I arrange them carefully over her and return my attention to my tablet. After a moment, she turns onto her side, facing away from me. To turn off the light, I’m going to have to reach over her. I should get off the bed and walk around, but I don’t. She could turn it off herself, but she doesn’t. I lean over, breathing in her delicate vanilla scent. It’s such a contrast from the heavy, cloying perfume Vittoria wears. Her body is warm against my chest as I pause with my hand on the switch. Then I click it off, plunging us into darkness.
For the next couple of hours, I read reports, and check figures and place orders, aware of every sound and movement Niamh makes beside me. Dawn is breaking when I rest my eyes for just a moment– and then I’m waking up, Niamh’s arm draped across my body, her breath whispering across my abs, her small hand curved around my opposite hip.
She jerks awake, and there’s a momentary pause before she tenses and slowly sets about lifting her arm and head from my body. She lifts her head and looks up, swallowing nervously when she finds me staring down at her. As she rolls back onto her side, the back of my hand grazes her breast. Her breath catches, her cheeks flushed, and the temptation to slide my hand inside her top and claim what I want to be mine is almost overwhelming. I’m fairly certain she would submit willingly, and I could satisfy my need to have her, and then move on.
But I don’t. If I did that… then there’s a chance that I wouldn’t stop and, while this young woman is absolutely not a person I expected to appear in my life, that doesn’t change the fact that right now, she’s here in my bed, tempting me in ways that no one else ever has.
I can’t take any risks. I have plans, except that my cock doesn’t seem to be getting that message. I put my phone on the bedside cabinet, and slide down the bed, staying on top of the covers. Her head is on her pillow, watching me as I mirror her position, finally letting myself relax.
She lets out a sigh. ‘Last night was my first proper party. Iwas hoping maybe for my first kiss and instead I end up in bed with… I should have known I’d get it all wrong?—’
She breaks off as if just realising what she’s said. Well, Chris might have been being an arsehole earlier, but he was right in his assessment of her experience. Except that, what he saw as something to mock, I find… intriguing and, god help me, endearing. She covers her face with her hands and sighs.
‘Wow, you must think I’m pathetic,’ she says. When I don’t respond she slowly pulls her hands away.
‘We all have to start somewhere,’ I reply eventually. She gives me a wry smile, an embarrassed laugh escaping her perfect pink lips. Before I can stop myself, I roll and take hold of her wrists, pushing them either side of her head against the pillow and lower my face to hers.
‘Is that something you still want?’ I whisper.
She doesn’t say no. She doesn’t say yes, at first, either, but her eyes stay locked on mine, her breathing growing shallow, until she nods and a low groan of want escaping her lips, tells me exactly what I want to know.
I thread my fingers through her hair and angle her face up to mine, her garnet necklace slipping round to the side of her neck, warm against my hand.
‘What happens in the darkness, stays in the darkness,’ I murmur against her lips, then I cover her mouth with mine, and take. The words of theGuth Dorchawill claim her memory of her first kiss because she can never know that it was me– even if it’s only a stolen kiss. But I will remember.
I will vividly, and achingly, remember.
Chapter11
Niamh
NOW
Cillian stares down at me for a long moment, then reaches for me. I whimper, pushing myself away from him as best I can, the cable ties around my wrists and ankles biting further into my flesh as I move.
He lifts my head, forcing it forward until his fingers find the knot at the back of the gag, but although he pulls, and twists and curses, it doesn’t loosen. He straightens and pulls out the metal handle of a knife. I jump at the loud click as a large blade comes into view in front of my face. And when he leans towards me, I scream, bracing my feet on the floor of the boot, pushing away from him, pulling at my bonds with all my might, despite the fact that I know it won’t do any good. There’s nowhere to go.
‘Fuck’s sake,’ Cillian hisses, his fingers gripping my jaw and holding my head still, forcing me to look at him. ‘I’m not going to hurt you. Just stay still and let me cut you free.’
He’s not going to hurt me? Does he think I’m stupid? I shake my head, still trying to shift away from him. Tears pool in my eyes and I blink them away. Not that it matters. He has the control here and I have none.
He straightens, his words gradually penetrating my brain. Cut me free? Okay, that does make sense. I stare up at him, my chest heaving, sweat beading on my forehead, as I manage to stop the pointless screaming into the gag. My heart races and I force myself to breathe in an attempt to keep calm.
‘That’s a good girl,’ he says and deep inside me, heat coils at his words. ‘I’m going to lift you out, cut you free. And then you’re going to run from me. As fast as you can into the woods. Understand?’
I nod, frowning at him.
‘I know you’re frightened but…’ he whispers, his voice catching. I can’t work out what this new expression on his face means, what he’s thinking. If this situation pains him, why doesn’t he let me go? He pulls the blanket off me, and I shiver when the chill of the night air hits my bare flesh. I glance down, remembering that the straps of my dress have been torn and my breasts exposed. But the stretchy material has been pulled neatly back, the strap pinned into place and, although the situation is precarious, I’m currently decent. I flinch as he slides his hand over my shoulder.
Goosebumps form on my skin where he’s touching me, my body reacting to his touch even though it shouldn’t. Each brush of his fingers sends sensation coursing through me. The strength in his hand both reassures me and awakens something deep within me, something that I hesitate to explore, fearing that it’ll consume me. How is it possible to still want this man, when he’s brought me here for one reason and one reason only.
