War never comes at a good time but now is particularly tense for me. I hope the danger ebbs but if not, I’m building my teams for strength rather than dexterity.
There’s no one left in the dining room when I get there. When Grace starts to bring out the courses one by one, I tell her to bring everything out and take the rest of the night off.
Left alone, no longer problem-solving, my mind drifts.
Isabelle said yes, that’s where it first goes. Like I’m calling her up from my imagination, when I glance up next, she’s standing in the doorway.
“D’you want some company?”
I gesture her inside and she hurries to the table, taking the place beside me. Her limp is better, no longer rolling her to the side like a Friday night inebriate who’s just drunk their entire paycheque.
My heart is so swollen that I can’t face the rest of my dinner and put my cutlery down so I can turn and haul Isabelle close enough to kiss. Her mouth opens, warm and welcoming. I could spend hours lost in that soft cavern but there’s still the horrors of Alice to address.
“You’re okay?” I ask when she pulls away. “Alice can be…”
“Yeah, she can.” She wrinkles her nose and turns aside. “D’you mind if we don’t talk about your ex-wife right now? My brain’s working on storing her as a distant memory.”
“I’d be ecstatic if I didn’t have to talk about her for the rest of my life.”
That makes her laugh and I’m glad to see that she’s regained her equilibrium. I push the decanter her way and she shakes her head. “I would butsomebodytried to knock me up the other day and now I’m stuck being good until I know one way or the other whether he was successful.”
I slip my arm around her back and pull her closer to me, her chair legs squeaking as they’re dragged along for the ride. In my head, I make a note to add prenatal vitamins to the household order.
I swallow the last sip from my tumbler and kiss Isabelle again with the scotch still lingering on my palette. “How’s that? Work for you?”
She licks my lips and sighs. “Not sure I’ll take it up as a hobby. Licking alcohol off people’s probably just as bad.”
“Then I’ll abstain, too.”
“Hm.” The low hum sets off a chain reaction of signals and I pull her across to straddle my lap to take full advantage. With her sitting on top of me, we’re closer to level. All the better to stare into her beautiful face while my hands link behind her back.
“You haven’t changed your mind about anything, have you? Left to your own devices all afternoon.”
A devious smile crosses her lips, there and gone, but she must think better of it because she whispers, “No. I haven’t changed my mind.”
The dress she’s wearing is delightfully easy to access. A quick tug on the side bow and the front can be peeled back, exposing her creamy breasts.
I take first one, then the other nipple into my mouth, alternating between them and her mouth until her soft moans demand more. I reach my left hand into the elastic of her underwear, sliding my palm across her silken cheek until my fingers chance onto the hard edge of a plug.
“Thought I might get things ready, since you’re home so late.” Her cheeky smile would turn me hard even without knowing what she was referencing. “But I don’t think here is quite the right place.”
“And where would you like me to take you?” The double entendre has never felt more apt.
“Ooh. Let me see. There are so many places.” The last three words of her sentence are punctuated with kisses down my neck. “Maybe one of those rooms with a bed inside it? Just a thought.”
“Mm-hm.” I place my right hand on her knee, sliding it along her leg until it delves under the skirt of her dress. “I mean, there’s no hurry.” My thumb rubs a circle on her thigh, so far up that I gently bump against her pussy. “We can take all the time you need.”
My thumb extends his adventure, now edging under the side of her panties and teasing its way along the outer edge of her lips, pressing with more insistence as it reaches the tip…
“Yours,” she decides, bunching the front of my shirt in her hands. “And some expediency would be appreciated.”
Laughing, I lift her, supporting her lower back as her legs find their place to grip around my waist. Her mouth presses against mine again as I start walking, then she pulls back, blinking. “Can you see, okay?”
When I reply, “The view’s just perfect from here,” she bends her head again to suck on my bottom lip.
The journey to my room takes far too long and also no time at all. I spill her onto the bed, taking a moment to appreciate the sight of her, dress half off, hair splayed like a silken pillowcase. Lips already swollen from my kisses and her eyes dazed with lust.
There’s a new present for her in my bedside cabinet and I pull it out, tucking it into my pocket for later before I unwrap her. Peeling every fragment of clothing off her body until she’s bare before me. So glorious that I can feel a thread tied around my chest, pulling tight.
