7. Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Elsa
M erdé , but that was good.
I wasn't a prude. I knew how good sex could be. I knew that it was a team sport. A woman who just lay there hoping and praying the man would do all the work was stupid—plenty of my more experienced friends had told me that. But with Duncan, it didn't feel like I was doing anything—it felt like we were moving together in harmony.
I watched him come through slitted eyes moments after I did for a second time. My heart fluttered as he groaned my name.
"You feel so good, ma douce , skin against skin," he muttered, still stroking in and out of me even though I could feel his semen inside me. "So good. The first time, baby, the first time I'm feeling a woman bare."
I'd never seen him like this. Even that time when he took my virginity, he’d not been needy. He was dominating in and out of bed. I liked that, but I liked this much better. This man who was letting me know his truth, even if it was just about sex, made me yearn for him. I knew from last time that he could go a couple more times. Would he? Because I was hardly done.
I was greedy. I hadn't even known this about me.
"This pussy is mine," he growled when he pulled out and watched his semen drip out of me. He pushed it back in, and his hand brushed against my clitoris, making me feel weak all over again.
We fell asleep, wet, and exhausted. He woke me up in the middle of the night, poised atop me. "Can you take me again."
"Yes, come inside," I all but begged.
He lined his dick at my entrance and began to move it inside.
My legs tightened around his waist, pulling him in, wanting to feel that fullness.
He gripped my ass, lifting me almost, and slammed into me. I screamed because it felt so damn good, but he stopped.
"Elsa?"
" Je veux plus ." I want more.
"I'll give you more, baby. I'll give you everything," he ground out. The tendons in his neck were strained as if he were holding on a thread.
"Let go," I demanded. I wanted him out of control.
He snarled and started to pound into me. "You're so beautiful, ma douce . Mine. Fucking mine."
Oui , I was his. In a few short months, this stranger had become my world. The baby inside me had become my life.
We fell asleep again, and the next time he woke me up, he wanted me on all fours so he could enter me from behind. I felt full of him. I smelled like him. Tasted of him. He dragged his dick in and out of me. It was so damn good that my eyes rolled, and I crushed rose petals in my hand.
"Come, baby, get there because I can't hold back." He had a hand on my clit, pushing me hard into orgasm, driving me.
We came together this time. After, he pulled me into his arms and held me. "Fucking hell, Elsa. It's never been like this," he confessed.
I kissed his chest and let sleep claim me, hopeful that this marriage could work out. We had lust on our side, and I had love. We'd have a baby soon. He'd fall in love with me. We'd be a family. I'd have a family, I thought joyously.
But when I woke up, I was alone.
And then I was alone for the following week. The whole week!
When I texted him, he simply said he was traveling and didn't know when he'd be back. He didn't reply to any of my other texts and didn't pick up the phone when I called.
Madame Lefèvre was openly hostile whenever she saw me, which wasn't often. I left early in the morning and came back home late in the day.
"He's not home," I told Thierry as I kneaded dough.
"And Madame Lefèvre?"
I shook my head, my movements becoming more forceful as I worked the dough. "Still, Mrs. Danvers," I replied, rolling my eyes. "I don't know what her damage is, but she sees me as an interloper. She's been with the Archers for a long time…tells me how his family is going to treat me if I ever meet them."
That was another bruise. He hadn't made any effort for me to meet his family. He had two brothers, a sister-in-law, and parents. I had met no one. On the other hand, he hadn't met Thierry or any of my other friends who were family. He'd not even met Angelique who had been my friend and neighbor for the past several years since I moved into my apartment in the Marais.
Thierry's brow furrowed with anger. "You don't deserve this, Elsa. You deserve someone who's there for you, especially now ." He looked pointedly at my belly.
I shrugged, trying to keep the tears at bay. Damn hormones!
"I thought maybe he was trying, you know? That night, with the candles and rose petals, it felt like he was making an effort. But now, I just don't know."
Thierry, who was standing by the oven, came over to me, took my flour-dusted hand in his. "Listen, you're stronger than you think. And fuck him if he can't get his act together."
I looked into his sincere, reassuring eyes and nodded, feeling a bit of the tension ease from my shoulders. "I don't know what I'd do without you."
He pulled me into his arms and held me. I rested my head against his shoulder. Thierry came into my life right after Mamman passed six years ago. Since then, he'd been my rock both as a part-time employee and a friend.
He pulled back and smiled warmly. "Time to get these loaves in the oven. The early birds will be here soon."
We worked in companionable silence for a while, the familiar tasks providing a welcome distraction. As I shaped the dough into perfect rounds, I let myself be enveloped by the soothing routine of baking.