“You don’t need to call me sir,” I reminded her, ashamed that I liked it, deep down. Ashamed that I enjoyed the sound of her voice, in her soft accent, saying that word. “Do you need painkillers before you go to bed?”
“I’m all right, just shaken,” she said, holding herself at the elbows. “I had such a wonderful time before he...”
I sat down on the couch beside her, bowing my head. It hurt to hear that she’d had a grand time, only for it to be spoiled by that lout, who had travelled a long way just to hurt her. I would have to review our security controls. The gate should have been locked, as it usually was, but I’d left it open deliberately so Grace could come straight inside. Small mistakes lead to big regrets. I was old enough to know that.
Grace’s hand on my face startled me. I looked up from my hands in time for her to mount my lap, placing a hand on each of my shoulders, her fingers tracing my neck.
“Grace, no,” I said, taking her by the hips to move her. She couldn’t do this, not now. Not ever.
“I want to, sir,” she said softly, making the skin on the back of my neck pebble as if under a sudden chill. “I know you like me to call you sir. I know you pretend not to like it.”
Thunder rumbled in the distance. The rain pattered hard against the window pane.
“You’re too young for me,” I said firmly, though I couldn’t tear my hands from her hips. I could feel the shape of them so clearly through her sopping wet dress. My thumbs instinctively made circles as I held them.
“And you’re far too old for me, sir,” she said, as she dipped her head and kissed me, deep and eager. I was lost to her for a few moments. When our lips parted, I knew I had to stop this now, or I’d never be able to resist her again.
“You’re innocent, Grace, and vulnerable,” I said.
“You can take all that away. I want you to.”
I groaned, my determination slipping away from me. She could feel my stiffness beneath her. She smiled as her mouth closed over mine again. Her eager tongue probed until I let her in, and the sweetness soon gave way to the deep longing I had tried to suppress. My hands were firm on her hips as she began to rock them, mewling gently against my mouth.
Grace began to lower her dress from her shoulders, shimmying down the wet fabric to reveal her small, perfect breasts and pink nipples. She began to rock again, very gently, grinding herself against my thigh. I lifted it and guided her hips, watching her eyes flutter closed, her expression contorting, as her heat seeped against my leg.
“That feelsso good,” she said with such yearning that she almost moaned it.
My resistance disintegrated on those words. I rocked her gently, guiding her hips, while she groaned and sighed. She fell gently forward, pressing her forehead against mine. I kissed her and lowered my head. When I closed my mouth around one pink, swollen bud and drew on it, she moaned against the crown of my head.
Holding her by one hip, I felt beneath her skirt and found the pulsing bead that I was seeking behind her knickers, and pressed. With the pad of my thumb, I pushed and rubbed to the rhythm of her rocking hips. Her breast in my mouth, I drew on her until she was crying into my hair. Her hips grinding harder and harder, she shuddered in my arms. Her cries faded as she relaxed against me, breathing fast.
“The pink room,” she whispered against my neck.
“No more,” I said, but she kissed me and trailed a path beneath my ear. Within moments my mouth was on hers, my hands kneading her breasts.
I carried her to her room. The lightning flooded the bed in silver, patterned by the gnarled, bare limbs of the trees outside. I laid her on the bed and she kicked off her shoes, wriggling free of her sodden dress. Her cold hands tore at my belt buckle, tugging down my trousers, and fumbled with the buttons on my shirt.
I slowed her with a kiss, throwing my shirt onto the floor. I took her face in my hands and devoured her mouth, enjoying the way she moaned and sighed. I lowered her down onto the bed, caging her with my arms.
“I need to feel your heart against mine,” she said into the darkness.
I drew her into my arms, our cold bodies warming one another. She nestled against me, our hearts thudding in our chests. I pressed her pelvis to mine and rocked her again, this time against my stiffness, until she begged me to end her suffering. I cupped her gently between her legs and she flowered open for me. The first of my fingers made her gasp, tipping back her head. Then her hips began to grind, and she was able to take a second. With the pad of my thumb, I brought her as close to the edge as I dared.
When her mouth sought mine, she whimpered against it.
“Please, Nick,” she whispered.
I drew my hand away and moved between her thighs, nudging at her wetness. She explored the crown of it, rolling her hips until she drove me senseless. As her moisture made passage for me, I pushed inside,groaning and euphoric. I entered her and filled her, slowly and completely. The bed creaked beneath us, our bodies entwined, as I began to move. She was warm and inviting, goading me with the movements of her pelvis. Inches appeared and disappeared between us as she gasped against my lips, her hands grasping, her mouth seeking mine in the dark.
Our hands above our heads, clasping.
Chapter Eleven
Grace
Tom’s violent hands were eclipsed by Nick’s ardent need for me, for my body. Where fear lived before, as deep as my bones, love replaced it.
It was close to dawn, still dark, twilight bleeding in with its deep blues, by the time Nick finished loving me. We did things together that made me blush just to think of them; things I wouldn’t dare to tell another living soul.
