62. West
CHAPTER 62
WEST
I lean against the banister of the main staircase and wait for Nora to come down. Darcy’s sprawled in a sunspot on the marble floor, tail flicking, yellow eyes locked on mine like he’s trying to outstare me.
I don’t blink.
Neither does he.
“Are you two having a staring contest?” Nora asks, coming down the stairs.
“No,” I reply, still watching the cat. “We’re reaching an understanding.”
“You can’t be competitive with a cat.”
“Watch me.” He hasn’t been my biggest fan, and I don’t blame him.
Nora is infinitely preferable.
But the other day, he spent an hour sleeping beside my desk while I worked, and that was progress.
Nora reaches me, and I immediately lose the staring contest. Damn. Her brown hair is loose around her face, now brushed with the sun and freckles from the first week of summer.
She’s in a long-sleeved shirt and a skirt that’s shorter than she usually wears, leaving her long legs on full display. Sunlight clings to her skin, hugs her.
“Hello, gorgeous.”
She smiles. “Like it?”
“I like you.” I look at the pendant resting around her neck—the one I gave her on one of our first dates.
A necklace. A bracelet. And I can’t wait to give her a ring, too.
“You’re so damn pretty.”
“It’s pretty short. This skirt.” She tilts her head and smiles. “I have a surprise for you. A challenge, really.”
She’s enjoying this—teasing me, pushing me. God, I love that look on her face. “A challenge?”
“Yes. You once told me that if I did this again, there’d be consequences.”
It takes me a second. “You’re not.”
“I am.” She takes a step back, her eyes alight. “Ready to go?”
“Absolutely not.” I bend and lift her up over my shoulder, a hand on her ass over the skirt. Nora shrieks, but it turns into a pealing, half-huffed breath of laughter that makes my stomach tighten.
I walk into the conservatory. She hangs off my shoulder, hands gripping my shirt.
“I’m going to check,” I warn her.
There’s a small room adjacent to the conservatory once used for planting. No windows and total privacy. I kick the door shut and set her down.
She grins. Her top is askew now, revealing a sliver of her taut stomach. “What’s my punishment?”
“I have to investigate the crime first.” I nod to the skirt. “Lift up for me, sweetheart.”
Nora’s hands grip the fabric obediently, and she pulls it up the smooth roundness of her thighs.
Up past her hips.
I groan. She’s beautifully, painfully bare. No panties in sight. And fuck, her pussy is so perfect. “Look at you. All pink and pretty.”
“I didn’t want panty lines to ruin my outfit.” She cocks her head. “No one would have known.”
“A gust of wind, and they’d all see what’s mine.” My erection pushes against my zipper. I don’t think it’ll ever stop responding this way around her, ever stop wanting her. “Turn around. Hold on to the counter.”
There’s excitement in her eyes, and she turns, bunching the skirt at her waist and holding on to the table as instructed.
The globes of her ass are a lovely cream color. I run my hands over her skin and hear her faint exhale. “Remember how I told you I’d punish you if this happened again?”
“I do.” She arches her back. “We spoke about getting a bit rough.”
“Mhm. I told you I don’t like pain. But I do like…” I smooth my hand over the curve of her ass. “Light spanking. Want to try that?”
She nods, and I brush my hand down between her legs to touch her. Her folds are soft, and delicate, and already a bit damp. “Talk to me, trouble.”
“Yes. I do.”
“And can I trust you to be a good girl and tell me if it gets to be too much?”
“Of course.” She looks over her shoulder, and there’s bright color on her cheeks. “Don’t focus so much on my orgasm this time. I want you… I want…”
“Say it.”
“I want to feel a bit used,” she says, her voice half shy and half excited. “Like you just can’t stop yourself.”
I nod back toward the counter. “Hold on.”
She does, breathing fast. It’s all a game of exploration with her. Last week she showed up in bed one night, freshly showered with her hair in a braid, bringing a card game she’d bought.
Eighty positions for curious couples.
I laughed, and she looked affronted. I want to try them all, she said, and I laughed again and told her that I was always, always game, but that over half of those would require some serious stretching beforehand.
She’s a delight, my little overachiever.
Curious and hungry, now that she’s learning to express what she truly wants. Her true self is the greatest gift I’ve ever been given.
“You wanted this. Knowing I’d find out.” I rub circles against her clit with quick, rough movements. “But you knew I wouldn’t like it. So I won’t let you come first.”
She nods quickly, and her head bows. It’s a change of pace. I always focus on her pleasure first. It’s been the guiding principle, every single time we’ve had sex, that my face starts between her thighs.
But she wanted something different this time.
I pull my zipper down. I step closer and fit myself between her upper thighs. I nudge her legs tightly closed, locking me in against her warm pussy. “That’s it,” I tell her.
I smooth a hand over her right cheek, and then I lift my hand and spank her.
She gasps.
I pull my hips back and thrust against her, between her thighs. “That’s it. Stay still for me.”
I do it again. I’m not slapping her hard, but it jiggles the fullness of her ass and sends lovely color blooming over her skin.
And against my cock, I feel her growing wetter.
“I’m going to check every time now,” I say, and thrust between her thighs again. “Before you leave the house, I’m going to have to bring you in here and have you pull up your dress to show me.”
She nods and gasps when I spank her left cheek. We’ve had sex more than a dozen times by now. I’ve been inside her side by side, holding her into the cradle of my body, early one morning while she whispered that she loved me. She’s ridden me again, brave and beautiful above me, and I’ve made her shatter beneath me.
But we’ve never fucked from behind like this. Not standing up.
She’s wet against my cock, and I finally notch myself at her hot entrance. I grip her hip with my other hand and push in an inch.
“This is what’ll happen, sweetheart, if you do this again.” I hold her still and slide in slowly to the hilt. Groan out a low-pitched fuck . “You’re too damn pretty to walk around bare. I’ll fuck you if you do.”
She looks over her shoulder, and she’s glorious. “Is that meant to deter me?”
Her heat makes it hard to think. It’s always been that way, from the very first time, being inside her. It strips me down to the basest instincts.
I spank her again. Buried inside her, I can feel the faint vibrations, and control spins out of my grasp. Holding her hips for leverage, I start thrusting.
The ring I have for her, my grandmother’s, lies in the pocket of my pants. I’m going to give it to her later this evening, at dinner.
Ask her for real.
She’s mine.
With every stroke inside her, I tell her how good she is, how perfect she feels, how well she’s taking it. Her muscles flutter around me. She’s never come from penetration alone, but she’s close.
Her phone rings.
It echoes from somewhere around her waist, where her skirt is bunched up. From a pocket?
I pause, hands on the handholds of her hips. She fumbles with the folded fabric. I lean forward, still buried deep inside, and look over her shoulder.
We both see the name flashing over the screen.
It’s her modeling agent.
Nora blows out a breath. Her thumb moves to end the call.
“Don’t,” I say. “Answer her.”
She pauses. “What?”
“Tell her you’re done modeling. For good.” Nora spoke to Rafe about it a few days ago, when he was still in New York. She’s gearing up to tell her mother.
This is a good start.
“I can’t. We’re… you’re…”
“You can do anything.”
She laughs, quick and breathless, and lifts the phone to her ear. “Hello?”
Every muscle in my body aches to keep moving. I grit my teeth and stay still. She’s so hot and tight around me.
“Next month? I’m not sure…” Nora says. I roll my hips, and her breath catches. “No, I am sure. I’m not available.”
There’s a beat of silence when her agent responds, and I use the time to reach around her body to find her clit. I press down in hard circles.
She reaches up, braces her free hand against the wall. “No, I’m done with modeling. I’m not available. Ever.”
I don’t stop touching her. Buried this deep, I can feel every tremor of her muscles. “I’m changing careers… yes, exactly. Yes. I’ve spoken about it with Valmont. Thank you… oh!… yes. Thank you.”
I kiss her warm neck. She’s doing so well.
“You too. Bye.” She clicks off the phone and immediately gasps. “Shit. West…”
“That’s my girl. How did that feel?”
“Good. Great. Don’t stop.” She’s breathing hard, and I don’t stop. I start moving my hips instead, fucking her slowly while I touch her. It doesn’t take long. She was on the edge before, and now her orgasm barrels through her.
She braces her hands on the counter and moans my name. Lightning strikes down my spine, and I come with a groan, one hand on her pulsing clit and the other holding her hip tight.
Afterward I hold her tight, still locked inside her, and tell her how proud I am of her. I run my hands over her body, soothing, loving. Smooth the globes of her ass. When I pull out of her, we both realize that the whole no-panties thing has another downside.
I watch the mark I’ve left between her legs while I dig into the pocket of my pants for a tissue. I sent her the paperwork for my clean bill of health the day after we had sex for the first time.
“I’m never going to tire of that,” I tell her, and bend to gently wipe at her swollen pussy. “Never knew it was my thing, but with you, sweetheart…”
She runs a hand over my hair. “You like coming inside me?”
At her saying those words… “Like it? No. That’s too small a word.” I kiss her thigh and reluctantly pull her skirt back down. “I adore it. I love it almost as much as I love you. I want to?—”
The sound of the doorbell rings out. It’s loud enough to echo through the bottom floor, connected to the front door of Fairhaven. Few people use it. Most people who move around the house have keys.
“What’s that?”
Ernest will handle the delivery. It was meant to arrive while we were out, a surprise for when we got back. But now that it’s here, and we’re already delayed…
“Come. Let’s go see.”
There’s a large box in the hallway of Fairhaven. Nora releases my hand and approaches it cautiously. “What is it?”
“Open it,” I tell her.
She looks at me with a small smile. Her hair is wild now, and there’s beautiful color in her cheeks. “You’re making me nervous.” But she opens the box and reaches inside.
Then she pauses.
“ No .”
“Yes.”
“You bid on it?”
“I did,” I say. “Your evening was ruined. But I still wanted you to have it.”
She lifts up the green dress she so admired at the Fashion Institute. It’s wrapped in protective plastic. “Oh my god. This must have cost a fortune.”
“It’s a good thing I have one, then.”
A smile spreads across Nora’s face. “I can’t believe this. This… West… I…”
“The upstairs atelier? That’s your workspace now. Permanently.” I shove my hands into my pockets and feel the velvet box. The ring I bought while drowning in guilt wasn’t right. This one is. “If you need more space, I have enough rooms. Have more. Have all of them.”
She clutches the dress to her chest. There’s something glittering in her eyes. Is she…?
I take a step closer. “Nora?”
She swallows hard. “I don’t know what to say.”
“In a good way?”
She nods and carefully folds the dress back into the box it came in. And maybe this is the moment. Here, at home.
“I was going to do this later. At dinner. But you know I don’t like big public spectacles.” I go down on a knee in front of her and hold up the velvet box.
I open the lid.
Nora’s green eyes widen, and I never thought I’d do this. Would never have done this if it wasn’t her. “West,” she breathes.
“Will you marry me, trouble?”
She blinks quickly, and a tear slips down her cheek. “Yes. Please.”
“ Please ,” I say, and reach for her left hand. My grandmother’s diamond slides on perfectly. I had it resized, measured her finger while she slept in my arms. “I’m the one who should say please.”
She shakes her head. “No. I love you. I think… I want…”
Her words die off, and I get up to pull her close. “What do you want, trouble? Tell me, and I’ll give it to you. Whatever it is.”
A laugh escapes her. She kisses me, her mouth still in a smile. “Oh, West. I think I’ve gotten everything I want now.”
“That’s what you were going to say?”
“Yes.” She kisses me again, pushes up and against me. “You don’t have to give me anything else. You’ve already given me everything.”