Chapter 11
GREG
‘So if you don’t usually live here, where do you? Live usually, I mean?’
I’ve opened another bottle of wine, and we’ve still got the board game out, though now it sits on the floor between us. I can’t make my mind up whether Isobel put it there because she doesn’t trust herself or she doesn’t trust me. She has good reason not to trust me because, now that I have a taste, she won’t get any peace.
It’s just an interlude, my mind supplies.Don’t get too attached. You heard what she said.
‘On the East coast of Scotland in a place called Auchkeld,’ I reply, brushing the thoughts away.
‘And you’re a ruggedly sexy master craftsman.’
‘I am a man of many talents, hen. You’ve barely skimmed the surface.’
‘Well, I know you’re good with your hands,’ she says, giggling smuttily. Placing her glass down, she manoeuvres herself onto her front so she’s lying across the floor. Because having her in touching distance wasn’t enough, apparently, I also had to be gifted a perfect view of the peaks of her arse. I’d like to strip the layers from her and slide my hands under her hips. Glue my mouth to her pussy and make her come until she’s hoarse, then use her moisture to work myself between those firm cheeks.
‘Do you have a website?’ Her words drag me from my smutty thoughts.Reluctantly. ‘I could leave you a glowing review.’ Then she places her tiles down, continuing her ass whooping as she informs me her move happened on a triple score.
‘How many points it that now, Scrabble shark?’
‘You don’t want to know,’ she replies cheerfully.
Scrabble has never been my thing. Not that it matters as I can’t concentrate on anything but her flushed cheeks and the way she throws her head back when she laughs. It reminds me of the pulse at the base of her throat and of how, as I’d slid my cock into her, she’d swallowed thickly, a sigh escaping her mouth. Hell, I don’t even think I’d notice if I had a word with a Q on a triple letter score.
‘I thought you said you’d given up on the whole escort thing.’ My words are a low rumble because I’d play whore for her, no problem.
‘I have. Mostly. But you could totally be one, and I mean that as a compliment.’
‘Sure, right,’ I answer in a disparaging tone. It’s a good job she can’t read my mind.
‘I absolutely do,’ she protests. ‘Women would pay to date you. Not that I’m suggesting you should go into that line of work. And you might have to play the strong, silent type, you know, on account of how annoying you are.’ She ducks as I throw the wine cork at her, but I’d aimed to miss purposely. ‘Apart from that, you’re smart and kind and charming, and if you put out, you’d be inundated with work.’
‘Is that your way of saying I’m a good fuck?’
‘I wouldn’t have put it in quite those terms.’ Her cheeks stain pink immediately.
‘Thanks for the compliments,’ I answer, ‘but I see a flaw in your plan. I have it on good authority that prostitution is illegal. I think I’d best stick to working with my hands.’
‘Maybe that could be a thing,’ she says, giggling again. ‘A male escort who offers only digital relief. You’re good at that, too.’ I sigh as though I’m in pain, even if I am smiling at the absurdity of this conversation. ‘And I could give you a glowing review for your regular website. It could be like your undercover job, and you could use your website as a website within a website. Your business cards passed out among women with secret smiles, the glowing reviews left in cipher.’
‘You’re enjoying this a wee bit too much. How would the cipher be decoded?’
‘We could go with euphemisms!’ she says, a wee bit too excitedly. I’m hoping it’s the prospect of me getting my hands on her again rather than her offering to work on my business plan. She puts down her glass, then folds her arms under her chest, framing her tits. Scrabble was supposed to take my mind off fucking her again, not make me think of anything but. When she begins to speak, it’s in a voice best saved for commercials, perky and saccharine-sweet. ‘Greg is one cabinet maker you justhaveto have.’
‘Have to have, eh?’ Come and get me then, Isobel.
‘If you’re thinking of getting a man in, I urge you to choose Greg. He’s just great with his hands and really knows how to use his tool... s.Okay, that one needs a little bit of work,’ she adds with a slight frown, propping her chin on her fist now. ‘How abouthe absolutely went to town decorating my box—it’ll never be the same again!’
‘Are they personal recommendations?’
‘What do you think?’ Her voice is husky. Has she laughed a little too hard, or is it the wine? Or has she made peace with the fact that we’ll be fucking again?
‘What I think is, you didn’t say anything about how great I was with my tongue. Because when I had my tongue on you, you were plenty vocal. In fact, I think you were maybe speakingintongues.’
Her cheeks heat, and she runs her index finger against her bottom lip as though remembering something dirty.I certainly hope so, anyway.
‘I think that one’s a little harder to work in code. Give me an hour or so and I’m sure I could come up with something.’
