Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Maurizio
Let me see. Three words, and everything changed in that second.
I had no clue what had made her come down here tonight and I didn’t care.
I was just glad she had. Even with her sassy and confident routine that didn’t come entirely naturally to her, I couldn’t have dreamed how this evening would develop.
The truth was that currently, I had no idea how it was going to end.
I reached for her hand and almost dragged her from the room. With zero reluctance, she followed, almost running to keep up.
We climbed the stairs and entered my bedroom where I released her hand and headed for my bathroom, shedding my clothes as I went.
She followed me and stood in the doorway as I turned on the shower and stepped into the cubicle.
I stood beneath the hot water and closed my eyes.
Immediately I was back to that night where I’d watched her pleasure herself.
I rolled my neck and shoulders, loosening myself up, then with my eyes open, I reached for the shower gel.
I washed my chest, arms and neck before sliding my hand lower until it reached my erection that was throbbing with anticipation.
With a firm grip I took a hold of it at the base, my whole hand closing around it and then, slowly, slid along the length of it.
Looking across to where Flora stood, I fixed her with a stare. Her eyes dropped to where my hand continued to move along my shaft. She licked her lips, but I was unsure if that was because of nervousness or arousal . . . maybe a combination of both.
I relaxed against the tiled wall, fighting the urge to flinch at the coldness against my skin, but my eyes remained on her.
“Yeah,” I moaned as I skimmed the crown of my erection with my thumb.
My balls were beginning to tighten, and I knew this wouldn’t take long. It didn’t take long last time, but my stamina tonight was that of an adolescent virgin.
“Flora, fuck!” I groaned, allowing my other hand to drop down and cup my balls that were ready to explode.
“Maurizio.”
Flora calling my name was the final nudge I needed. My eyes, still locked on hers watched her expression of wanton desire as I came, streams of white covering my hand and belly made my release even sweeter.
She smiled at me, her eyes on mine, and fuck me if that didn’t make me begin to stiffen again. She had enjoyed her little power trip, knowing she had done this to me, metaphorically brought me to my knees simply by being under her gaze.
Her eyes dropped back down to where the water was washing all evidence of my release away.
I summoned her to me with the curl of my hand.
She stepped closer, slowly, but there was no hesitation in her movement.
When she came to a stop at the shower cubicle, I opened the door and reached out for her.
With my hand laced through her hair, I pulled her head to me, preparing to kiss her.
She grinned. “Isn’t this where you tell me to tell you to stop.”
I arched a brow. She was assured, bold and a little cheeky. I liked her attitude, a lot.
“Have you been drinking?” I needed her not to be drunk, not that I thought she was.
“One glass of wine . . . a large glass, but just the one . . . Dutch courage maybe, but not drunk.”
“What did you need courage for? For coming downstairs?”
She shrugged, as if considering her own reason for the drink. “For needing to ask you something?”
I stood still and stared at her. “Ask me anything you want?” I was clueless as to what she might ask, but I had nothing to hide.
“Bea . . .”
She looked ready to flounder, but maybe that’s why she’d gone with Dutch courage because she pushed forward.
“You and Bea. Was there something between you two, something like this?” She flicked her finger between us.
I wasn’t exactly thrilled to think Bea had possibly warned her off me because of a couple of stupid, drunken passes I’d made, not that I was proud of myself for them either, but she’d asked a fair question and I needed to reply.
The last thing I wanted was for her to think that I saw anyone who worked for me as some kind of employee with benefits.
That was not my style. Ever. And as for her asking if there was something like this, like me and her with Bea or anyone else, that pissed me off a bit, but only because the thing between us was like nothing I’d ever known.
“I made a pass at her, possibly two . . . I was drunk, my head was all over the place when Sophie first left. I’m neither proud nor making excuses for it, but it happened, she rebuked me, I woke up with a hangover, and apologised with a heavy dose of embarrassment.
But there was never anything between us and there has never been anything like this.
” I flicked my finger between us, copying her earlier movement.
“Good,” she said and looked very pleased with that information, her grin spreading across her face and lighting it up until I could have sworn that the light alone was illuminating the room.
I grinned down at her, wondering how the hell I wasn’t ripping her clothes off and devouring her.
“Any more questions?”
“Nope.”
With my lips lowering towards hers, barely stopping myself from consuming her there and then, I managed to speak. “Tell. Me. To. Stop.”
She grinned, her top teeth grazing her lower lip, making her appear every inch the seductress, but the hitch in her breathing and the pulse in her neck hammering away revealed a little of her nervousness.
“No,” she replied, and I swear her lips puckered, preparing for my kiss, not that I was entirely sure anything could or would prepare either of us for it.
Her hand stretched up and with her fingers teasing their way through my hair, I prepared to close the final distance that remained between us.
The sound of crying stopped us both dead in our tracks. We both pulled back and looked towards the door, my bedroom, and the rest of the house beyond it.
“Craig,” I said, recognising my son’s cry.
I grabbed a towel and wrapped it around my waist and headed past Flora to seek out my son.
“Sorry.” I was sorry for what could have been being so abruptly brought to an end.
“Me too. Go.”
I offered a final smile, for her compassion, lack of annoyance and genuine desire for me to go to my child.