Chapter 34
Thirty-Four
W hen I got home the house was deserted.
Ryan had his swimming lesson tonight, so he and Natalie wouldn’t be back for hours.
I placed the orchid in a spot in the kitchen with enough indirect sunlight to keep it happy.
I left the muffins in the fridge with a note saying they were from Alfie.
That should score him some brownie points, not that he needed any with Natalie and Ryan.
I took my time getting ready and set myself up for a long soak in the tub. When I was done I wrapped myself in a towel before heading up to my room. I put on an old Nirvana t-shirt and started towel drying my hair when I noticed my phone flashing. I pulled it off the charger.
Crap. I had eleven missed calls from Alfie. I called him back and he answered straight away.
“Where are you?” He sounded breathless, panicked.
“I’m at home. I was in the bath and had to leave my phone in my room to charge.” He exhaled a breath. “Where are you ?” He was silent for a long moment.
“Outside.” I hung up and flew down the stairs.
I wrenched the front door open and found Alfie leaning against his car with his head in his hands.
He looked up and when his eyes found mine, it was like looking into the eyes of a drowning man who’d just seen a lifeboat.
He stalked down the garden path towards me and barrelled me inside, kicking the door shut behind him.
He held me so tightly I struggled to breathe.
“The trackers were here but you wouldn’t answer,” he whispered, his face buried in my wet hair.
I pulled back and looked him in the eye.
The cool businessman that had gotten me off in a car park only hours before was gone and in his place was the secret Alfie Tell underneath.
The one that didn’t know how to wash my hair or kiss me gently.
I stroked his cheek, silently willing him to tell me what was going on and, for once, he did.
“I know that I can get inside your head when we’re together but when we’re apart…” He trailed off, willing me to understand.
“When we’re apart I can think clearer and could change my mind about being with you,” I finished for him.
His jaw clenched and he stiffened as if preparing for me to reject him for his weakness, to laugh at his vulnerability.
“I remember the pain, Alfie. I’m not changing my mind.
” I cupped his face and pressed my lips to his.
After a few moments, his body began to relax as he drank me in.
Eventually he pulled away, his steel grey gaze seeming a little clearer.
“Your family isn’t here?” he asked and I realised that was why he hadn’t knocked. He hadn’t wanted to interrupt time with my family.
“Ryan has a swimming lesson tonight.”
He nodded and his gaze wandered over me, his eyes taking on an entirely new expression. “Is that why you’re less than decent?” His hands reached under my shirt to cup my bare backside and he squeezed it, pulling me against him. I kissed him teasingly then stepped backwards up the stairs.
“You like?” His eyes followed me and I turned, taking each step one at a time, knowing that my shirt was just short enough to give teasing glimpses of my backside.
I heard him growl, and seconds later I was thrown over his shoulder.
He swatted my bottom and I cried out as he plunged two fingers into my already drenched folds as he mounted the stairs to my bedroom.
It was an intense feeling, being finger fucked over his shoulder.
There was a wildness about it, a desperate need to be inside me in any way possible.
He threw me down on my bed and yanked my shirt off before flipping me onto my front.
“This is going to be rough, Lo.” He pressed his body flush with mine, his chest to my back, his clothes against my bare, damp skin.
He fumbled with his zip as his legs forced mine apart.
I had a second to breathe before the air was forced out of me by the power of his thrust. He bit down on my neck, clamping down, keeping me in place.
His powerful thighs kept my legs spread wide as his hands pinned my wrists.
I was immobilised, pinned to the mattress and completely powerless to do anything other than take it as he began a punishing rhythm.
He took me harder than ever before. He fucked me like he wanted to be in my skin, to consume me entirely. I took it. I flowered open for him, accepting whatever he gave to me.
I ground into his thrusts as my orgasm began to rise.
He felt it, his teeth digging into the sensitive flesh in the crook of my neck.
I tried to wait, tried to hold off the pleasure, but I couldn’t.
I sank my teeth into the bed spread, moaning around it as my orgasm crashed through me, only increasing in pleasure with every powerful thrust. I drenched him, and my core twitched and jerked, milking him to his own peak.
I hummed in pleasure, grinding against him as he gave his seed to me.
Eventually, his teeth left my neck and he licked and kissed the mark gently.
“Why do you bite me?”
“To stop you wriggling away from me. You squirm sometimes when I’m fucking you, like your mind and your body are at war. You want me but you don’t. You smell good, Lola. What is that?”
“Cocoa butter, you like?”
“I love. I want to eat you.” He nipped at my neck and I giggled. “Maybe later. You need to get dressed, we’re having dinner.” He eased himself out of me and I missed his warmth as he got off the bed. I rolled over to face him.
“We’re going out?” I asked as he straightened his clothes, smoothing himself back into sex-god-businessman mode.
“No, I don’t want to share you with anyone tonight.
I’ve arranged dinner at the hotel. Open your legs for me.
” My body complied before my mind had a chance to catch up and I spread my legs wide for him.
The look on his face as he took in my seed-soaked folds was purely primal. He needed to see evidence of his claim.
“You wanna take a picture or something?” He arched an eyebrow and pulled out his phone. I shot up the bed, grabbing a pillow to cover myself. “Oh my god, I wasn’t serious!” I screeched, but the corner of his mouth lifted, amused.
“Baby, you’re so fucking cute.”
When we arrived back at The Carlton I felt proud that I was arriving in a dignified fashion for once. I wasn’t drunk, it wasn’t the middle of the night, I wasn’t wearing paint splattered clothes. Today was a good day. I even gave the owl-faced receptionist a small wave as we passed her.
As soon as we entered the suite, my eyes widened at the sight on the foyer table. The vase of deep pink bleeding hearts was huge and breathtaking. I looked up at Alfie.
“Are those for me?” I rushed to them, breathing them in.
“Actually they’re for me. They remind me of you.”
Alfie…
He turned away, uncomfortable with the vulnerable moment. “Are you hungry?”
I was starving. A delicious aroma hit me then and I followed Alfie to the dining table where succulent pork chops and cubed vegetables awaited me.
We talked a little but mostly ate in a comfortable silence.
My day had been turbulent, and judging by the storm behind Alfie’s eyes, he wasn’t as at ease as he tried to appear either.
I finished the last of my wine and eyed Alfie over the top of my glass as he ate with precise, controlled motions.
We were so very different. On the surface he blended so well into his environment, but underneath I wasn’t so sure.
I imagined his life spent in soulless hotel suites and it made me sad.
I was coming to understand how alienating extreme wealth could be.
All it had done for him was place him on a pedestal above everyone else, superior but alone.
He hadn’t helped himself, the man was an arrogant snob, but somewhere inside was a man that wanted laughter and adventure.
I wanted those things too. His brow creased as if an unpleasant thought had crossed his mind and I decided he’d been in his own head for long enough.
I pushed my chair back and rounded the table, holding my hand out to him. He looked at me with surprise and suspicion.
“Dance with me.”
“I don’t dance, Lola.” His face was so serious I had to laugh. He looked as if I’d just asked him to hold a gun to his head.
“Don’t be such a grump, Alfie. Come on.” I yanked him out of his seat and pulled him towards the open space by the balcony doors where the moonlight illuminated part of the room that was otherwise only lit by candles.
I took one of his hands in mine and placed the other on his shoulder like I’d seen in films. He wrapped a strong arm around me and pulled my body into his.
I moved us gently to the rhythm of the slow jazz.
“See? It’s not so bad,” I teased. His scarred brow twitched and suddenly he spun us into a waltz. I gasped, and after a minute of spinning me, he stopped, a small smile playing on his lips that he was desperately trying to hide.
“You liar!”
“I never said I couldn’t dance, O’Connell, just that I don’t.
Although, as usual, you are the exception to that rule.
” There was something in his eyes as he looked at me, something I couldn’t quite decipher.
He had this way of looking at me sometimes as if I wasn’t real, and in those moments he handled me carefully, as if I might disappear in a cloud of smoke if he made any sudden movements.
He bent and pressed his lips to mine in a surprisingly gentle kiss, a new kind of kiss for him.
“You’re the exception to all of my rules. ”