24. Helen
Chapter 24
Helen
“So, we’re telling them this week?” Jax asked as he handed me a coffee while we stood in the kitchen.
“I guess so. Are you sure you want to do this?”
He tilted his head as if he couldn’t believe we were having this conversation again. We’d stayed up half the night talking about what we were doing and whether it was a good idea.
Well, I talked, Jax reassured and his words were the same every time.
He wanted me. A future, time to explore what we had. And he didn’t want to hide or conduct our relationship in secret.
Wrapping his arm around my waist, he stepped in behind me, pressing his lips to my neck. “I will keep saying this until you believe me. I want you. I really like you. I want to be able to show the world that you're with me.” I covered his hands with mine, humming as his lips continued to move along my jaw.
“I guess I’m just nervous about what people will think. I mean, I’m old enough to be your mo—”
He covered my mouth with his hand before I could finish the word. “Nope, I’m not letting you sully what we have like that. Understand?”
I nodded.
“Now, do you want to be mine, beautiful? Do you want to be with me?”
I nodded again, unable to reply with words because his hand still silenced me. He slipped his free hand under my dress, nudging my legs apart with his foot. I whimpered behind his palm as he pushed his finger inside me and circled my clit with his thumb.
“Good girl,” he muttered against my ear as I relaxed into his touch, taking the pleasure he was offering.
“Helen?” I looked up to find Thomas standing in the doorway. “You okay?”
I glanced back down at my phone, wishing I could unsend the message I’d just sent, but as I looked, the two ticks went blue telling me all three of my boys had read my request for them to come to dinner on Friday as I needed to talk to them. I silenced it before they could reply and turned my attention back to work.
“All good, Boss. Can I help with something?”
He beckoned me with his finger. “Can you come in here? Close the door behind you.”
I stood, straightening my dress, feeling worried that I was not about to like the conversation he wanted to have.
“Take a seat, Helen,” Thomas instructed as I shut the door and sat across from him. He looked tired, stressed even. He never let his state of mind show on his face—the man was unflappable—making me worry even more.
“We’ve worked together for a really long time, right?” He didn’t wait for me to answer. “I’ve known you longer than anyone else here… even Sean. Helen, I need you to do me a favour and not ask me any questions.”
I frowned. “Are you doing something stupid I will try to talk you out of?”
He offered me the slightest nod. “I need to go and burn down the world.”
I opened my mouth to ask him to explain, but he held up his finger to his lips and shook his head, making me wonder if he thought the room had been bugged.
“Just another normal day at the office then,” I replied, trying to keep the mood light hearted, despite the heavy atmosphere in the room.
“My trip to Ireland next week. I need to leave tomorrow instead. It’s just me going, so I’ll fly commercial. Can you book me a seat? I’ll email you which flight I need to be on. I also need you to hire me a car at the other end. Something small, sporty. Two-seater.”
Not one part of that request made sense. “You have a private plane but you’re flying commercial and then you want me to hire you a sports car?”
“Yeap. I also need you to get me that surveillance bloke on the phone. What was his name?”
I thought for a few seconds, mentally checking through all Thomas’ contacts. “Roman Black?”
He banged his hand on the desk, looking almost relieved. “That’s him.”
“And do you want me to tell him what you want to speak to him about?”
“Just tell him I have something urgent I need him to do today and I’m happy to pay through the nose for it. That should pique his interest.”
I lowered my voice and leaned forward. “Thomas, why do I sense I’m not going to like what you’re doing?”
He sucked in a deep breath as he stood, walking around to his office door, opening it as an obvious signal for me to leave. Confused and slightly alarmed by this entire conversation, I took the hint and made my way out. As I passed him, he leaned in close, whispering, “You’re not, but whatever happens, I need you to remember who I am.”
“Helen?”
“Sorry, what?” I looked to Lizzy, who was sitting across from me in the booth in the American-style diner where we’d come after work.
I was still distracted by Thomas’ weird behaviour that had got worse as the day went on when he agreed to take a seat in coach as that was the only one available on the flight and then he cancelled an afternoon of important meetings while he disappeared off to meet with Roman Black.
“I said that I’ve got tickets for the opening of this posh club next month. Shall we go?”
I went to tell her I was well past my clubbing days, but I didn’t want to be that person anymore. I liked my newfound confidence, and clubbing with my friends might be fun. “That sounds great. Text me the date and count me in.”
Her mouth fell open in mock surprise. “Who are you, woman? All that non-sex you’re having with your lodger must be affecting your brain.”
“What’s this?” Becks cried.
“I’m not talking about this. Nothing is going on.”
“You know we can tell when you’re lying. You might have the world’s best poker face, but we can see right through it.”
Just then, my phone buzzed on the table, and I lifted it to read the message so no one else could get a sneaky peek.
Jax: I’m glad you’re mine because now I can tell you all the things I’m going to do to you when you get home.
“You’re blushing and your eyes have gone all weird.” Vee laughed as I read the next message that included a picture of the bullet vibrator I’d still not used successfully and what he was planning to do with it.
I looked between my friends, knowing that I couldn’t lie to them. “Fine, I found some ‘relief’.”
The three of them squealed and clapped their hands.
“Which one did you prefer?” Becks asked.
I glanced around and leaned in close. “The one attached to the fireman.”
Their mouths dropped, stunned into silence.
“You’re sleeping with him?” Vee hissed.
“I think I’m having a relationship with him.” I shook my head, as it still sounded ridiculous. “I know, it’s too soon. I’m being silly, caught up in the mind-blowing sex… let me hear it all.”
I waited for my friends to give it to me straight, but none of them spoke.
“What?” I asked, confused.
“You hooked up with the hot fireman, had mind-blowing sex, and made him fall for you,” Becks whispered.
I tutted. “He’s not fallen for me.”
“Oh, no?” Vee challenged. “Remember, I saw the way he looked at you the other day. That man is obsessed with you.”
“No, he’s not. I mean, he did meet me from work to tell me he’d never dated, but he wants something more with me. And we’re telling the kids about us this week. And this morning he…” I blushed, remembering that I came so hard in the kitchen that Jax had to hold me up because my legs gave way. “Asked me if I was his.”
The three of them swooned like we were watching Bridgerton .
“Stop it. All of you. You’re supposed to talk some sense into me. Tell me it won’t work. That I’m too old for him.”
“Nope,” Lizzy replied while the other two shook their heads.
Vee took my hand. “Are you happy?” I nodded, sheepishly. “And that’s all we care about,” she added.
I took a sip of my drink, needing a little Dutch courage to ask what I wanted to know. “I do have a question about s.e.x.” My voice was so low it was a wonder they could hear me, let alone anyone nearby catch wind of what I was about to ask.
“If you're doing the thing, you have to be able to say the thing, Helen. Remember, we talked about this. They're just words and you’re allowed to say them,” Lizzy admonished.
“Fine. I have a sex question.” I still whispered the word sex because I’d die if anyone overheard me talking like this.
“Better.” She smiled. “Go ahead.”
“Is it normal for men to make you orgasm…” I looked around to make sure no one was listening. “Like a lot but never want you to touch them? To claim that they get off on you getting off?”
“Pleasure Dom,” Vee replied instantly.
“You’re making that up,” I scoffed.
“Nope. It’s a thing. People who get turned on by other people’s pleasure. Controlling their orgasms, edging them, making them come excessively until they beg them to stop.”
I shook my head, my mouth hanging in an O shape.
“How do you even know that, Vee?” Becks asked before downing the rest of her drink.
“Romance books. Sally and I love them. She likes to read them to me.” She winked. “The darker and spicier, the better. And Pleasure Doms are definitely a popular trope these days.”
“Okay,” I replied, stretching the word as I tried to focus on what she’d said about Jax and not on her and her wife reading sex scenes to each other. “But Jax isn’t like that. Not really. I mean, the orgasms are a lot and he does seem to get turned on by me… you know—”
“Coming. The word is coming,” Lizzy added before I could finish.
“I was going to say that,” I huffed.
“No, you weren’t. You were probably going to say releasing or opening your lady flower or some other shit.”
They burst into fits of laughter, and after a second, I joined in, realising that, until recently, that would probably be exactly what I'd have said.
“Is that before or after he slides into your velvet lady glove?” Vee added, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.
The conversation descended into chaos as we all kept adding cringe-worthy lines and the stress of my day dissolved.