Chapter 9 #2
Gareth blows out the candle and sets it on the table. He peels the wax from my nipples, off my torso, and moves down to roll it gently off my pussy, leaving my clit encased and throbbing.
He knows what I want, but I arch my back again, anyway.
“What’s wrong, sweet girl? Does it ache, having your clit trapped, so it can’t swell and harden like it needs to?”
I nod.
“Do you need me to free that, too?”
I know he isn’t going to do it yet, but I nod again, fast and desperate, my back still arched.
“Relax for me,” he says.
My spine slowly unfurls and reconnects with the leather, one vertebra at a time. I spread my legs wider and Gareth nods.
“That’s a good girl.” He retrieves the candle from the table and holds it sideways with the wick facing him. I think he’s going to light it and let the wax fall onto me as it melts this time, but he doesn’t reach for the lighter.
He places the base of the candle at my opening and presses it inside me. It isn’t large but the cold hardness of it makes my muscles tighten around it.
“You trying to take that away from me?” he teases. “This hungry little snatch will latch onto anything, won’t it? You’re so eager to be fucked, aren’t you, sweet girl?”
I feel my face flush, and suddenly, I’m her again. He’s undone me and rewound time, found territory that’s unfamiliar to me, something new he can be the first to do to me. For the love of fire, he’s fucking me with a candle, and I can’t stop rocking my hips to aid the effort.
“Take the wax off. Please, Daddy.”
His teeth scrape away the soft cocoon and graze my sensitive skin. He spits the wax aside, and brings his mouth back to my warm clit.
I can sense how hard it is under his soft tongue. I’m far too wet now for the thin candle to provide any friction, and I desperately need to feel more. Gareth pulls the taper free of my pussy and drops it to the floor. He replaces it with his fingers and sucks hard on my clit.
Shocks jolt through my body as if it’s pulling electricity from the lamp. But it’s all him. He’s the reason every receptor in my body is twinkling like Christmas lights as my orgasm ebbs.
I’m his. And there’s not a damn thing I can do to refute it. He unbuckles the belt, frees my wrists, and carries me to his bed.
* * *
I wake to Gareth’s hand sliding between my thighs. “Rise and shine, sweet girl.”
He presses his erection against my thigh.
“Feels like one of us has already risen,” I say.
“I told you I always want you sore when you leave me.”
He rolls on top of me, and his hard cock slips inside my pussy with no resistance. But the expanse of him provides plenty of friction. I’m already sore, and his strokes sting, but my juices rush at the burning memory of last night’s fire and ice session.
“There’s Daddy’s dirty little cockslut.” His hot breath tickles my ear and sends a chill down the back of my neck. “You like it when it hurts don’t you, sweet girl?”
“Yes.” Oh, God. I’ve never been fucked this hard in my life. “Harder, Daddy. Hurt me. Fuck me sore so nobody else can touch me.”
He erupts into an orgasm that locks his entire body, and the he collapses on my chest, panting and laughing.
“Oh, you wicked, dirty-sweet girl.”
I play with his hair at his temple. “Just the way you like me.”
“There is no denying that, for either one of us. What time’s your flight?”
“One.”
“I’ll put your clothes in the dryer while you shower.”
“So domestic.”
“I have my moments. But don’t tell anybody.”
“Actually, I got up after you fell asleep last night and put some stuff in the dryer and hung up the things that needed to air dry. But if you want to fold it all up for me, that would be great.”
“I’ll make coffee.” He kisses me on his way out of the bed, and I watch him walk away. I’m afraid this is going to hurt one day. Bad.
And in a whole different way than it’s hurt for the past ten years. I try not to catastrophize, but old habits are hard to break.
* * *
I direct Gareth to my rental car and he parks right next to it, even though he has his own parking spot much closer to the door.
“I’d take you to breakfast if I didn’t have to be available to sign off on so much stuff this morning. Come up with me, and I’ll order food. We can eat in between interruptions.”
“I don’t want to be in the way while you’re trying to work.”
“You won’t be. I want to look at you until the last possible minute. Indulge me.”
The blinds to his office are closed, so we can’t see beyond them to what awaits us inside. Gareth opens the door and gestures for me to enter before him.
I see her first.
Shandy stares at us from behind her father’s desk.
“You fucking whore,” she says. “Did you honestly think you were going to get away with it after Connor saw you here? Or was that the point?”
Gareth slams the door behind us.
“This is not your husband’s office. It’s mine. This whole goddamn company is mine. And who visits me here, or anywhere else is none of your business. Get the fuck out of here. Now!”
“How long has it been going on?” she yells. “How long have you been fucking my father, Jewel!”
She spins in the chair to focus on Gareth. “Is she the reason you and Mom split up?”
“My marriage to your mother and the dissolution thereof are none of your business. And my relationship with Jewel damn sure isn’t. Take your hysteria and your paranoia and go home.”
Shandy stands and swipes her forearm across her father’s desk, sending plans and pens flying.
“I fucking hate you!”
She launches the stapler at her father’s head. It sails past him and through the glass between him and the hallway, hangs trapped in the now broken blinds.
I stand frozen in horror.
Veins bulge on the side of Gareth’s neck. He charges at Shandy and drags her from his office by her wrist, marching her down the hall to Connor’s like an insolent child being corralled after a public meltdown.
There is more yelling, but I can’t make out the words because my hearing is as blurry as my vision. Everything is spinning. Oh, God. Again, I should’ve never come up to his office. None of this ever had to happen.
People mill around in the hallway, whispering and stealing glances at me. They all disburse suddenly, so I know Gareth is heading back to his office.
He holds me close, one hand pressing between my shoulder blades as if to shield me, and the other massaging the back of my neck like he can knead the last five minutes from existence.
His fingers are clenched just tight enough to create a sensory memory that will still be squeezing my subconscious when my plane lands in five hours.
Phantom palpations spread to other parts of my body like his touch carries an echo. “Sit down. I’ll order breakfast.”
“Gareth, no. I can’t stay.”
“I understand. I will make this up to you, Jewel, I promise. Let me know when you’re safe in your hotel room.”
“I will.”
“This will all blow over,” he says with the conviction of a man accustomed to creating his own reality.
“It won’t, but that’s okay. I don’t actually care what anyone else thinks, not even her.”
His goodbye kiss is a scorcher, and if I could afford to miss this flight, I’d already be naked, maybe just to spite Shandy.
She wants to know about my relationship with her father? Oh, I’d love to let her hear distinct details right about now. I pull away from him and stare into his eyes for a moment, absorb the searing heat. That, along with the memories of the past few days, will sustain me for the next few.
And I will most definitely be back. Maybe I am still a foolish girl at heart.
I feel his gaze on me as I walk away, slip through his door, and close it behind me, loving that he watched me go. The hallway is clear. Everyone is tucked away in their own offices, but they’re probably all actively texting each other about the morning’s drama.
Connor’s door is closed, but his blinds are open. Shandy sits on his lap with her head down in despair. He’s nodding along to whatever she’s saying.
Keep walking. Just keep walking. Let it go. Don’t do it. Do not. . .
I gently turn the knob and push the door open, step one foot inside his office, just far enough to get their attention and say, “Your dad loves you, and I’m sorry for the way this makes you feel, but I’m not sorry about anything that has happened between me and him.
You can hate me over that for as long as you need to, but don’t start believing it’s the reason you’re miserable.
I won’t own that, and I wouldn’t want him to, either.
Face your shit. For once in your life, stop being a follower and blaming other people when you don’t end up where you want to be. Save yourself, Shandy.”
I’m calmer and more in control of my emotions than I’ve been in two years as I slide behind the wheel of my rental. No lingering anger at all. Gareth wrecks me and puts me back together stronger.
This is how obsession grows, I think, but then, no.
The obsession has been growing for a decade; this is where I meld it into armor, learn to keep myself on the safe side where the arrows can’t land.