CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
It was just after the witching hour and Raina was almost incapable of moving.
Tom was deeply asleep next to her, his hair mussed and one of his hands still splayed across her stomach.
He was flat on his front and breathing soundly.
Raina gently removed his hand, placing it carefully on the mattress.
She edged out of the bed and darted towards the bathroom, walking in a very specific fashion.
The kind of walk that told on her. The kind of walk that comes from five hours of rigorous activity.
She switched on the light and sat on the tub.
She pushed her slightly damp hair away from her face and looked at herself in the mirror above the sink.
She let out a snort, locking eyes with herself.
Her hair wasn’t just damp, it was a complete nest. Her lips were swollen.
Her skin was lightly flushed. The faint sign of a love bite was starting to form on her neck.
It had been astonishing. Unfortunately for her, a few hours of him hadn’t been enough to work through the irritating attraction. She’d been hoping to get the desire to sleep with Tom Branimir out of her system. She’d wanted to sweat him out like a fever, but her plan had backfired completely.
Instead, she was feeling the early flickers of addiction.
When they’d finally retired, he’d tried to make conversation before sleep swept in and shut him down like her old computer. He’d been mid-sentence about how much he loved looking at her, and then out like a candle flame.
Raina didn’t mind. He’d earned the rest.
She splashed water on her face and brushed her teeth.
She spritzed a little product into her hair and ran a brush through it, before slipping back into the bedroom.
The faint glow from a streetlight was bleeding into the room through a gap in the curtains and Raina used it to mark her way back to the bed.
She settled on her side and was ready to start drifting when she felt his fingers brush her face.
She opened her eyes to see him drowsily watching her.
Before she could tell him to go back to sleep, he pressed his lips to hers.
It was slow and soft, and it quickly escalated into something more insistent.
He slipped a hand against her back and pulled her closer.
‘I need sleep,’ she sputtered, laughing against his mouth. ‘So do you.’
‘Nope, just need you.’
‘I have a meeting tomorrow.’
‘Cancel it.’
‘No, Your Majesty.’
‘I’m allegedly the king and I’m ordering you to cancel it.’
Raina laughed once again. ‘No. You’ll have to lock me up.’
He deliberately made a face which revealed just how much he liked that suggestion. However, he did relent. He kept his hand on her, but rolled back onto his side of what now no longer felt like just her bed.
Raina was sure he’d fallen back to sleep when . . .
‘I’ll take you out tomorrow. After your meeting.’
‘You do owe me a chicken.’
He smirked. ‘I can still salvage that meal. Not my fault dessert was sweeter.’
This earned him a playful shove. He apologized by scratching his nails gently and rhythmically against the open palm of her hand. The sensation was so deliriously soothing, she instantly started to drift in and out of consciousness.
She felt his mouth brush her knuckles before she finally slipped away.
Tom woke just before noon, after one of the best sleeps of his life.
Sunshine was creeping into the room and he was alone in the bed. The realization made him frown. He’d been hoping to continue last night’s activities, and his body missed hers. In a way that was different and sweetly strange.
He did hear her voice somewhere in the house. Clear and gracious, and obviously speaking to someone else.
A meeting. She was working.
He sauntered into the bathroom and blasted some water from the shower over himself.
He washed quickly and efficiently, then squeezed a tiny dollop of toothpaste onto his forefinger.
He scrubbed his own teeth with it and rinsed his mouth.
He borrowed some dental floss, mentally making a note to buy her some more.
He wrapped a towel around his waist and made his way onto the landing.
Her office was at the other end and the door was open. She sat before a desktop, where she was obviously speaking to someone. Her hair was in a messy bun and she was wearing a little splash of mascara and lipstick, as well as an oversized white dress shirt and bra.
Tom had to smile at her bottom half. A lacey thong and nothing else.
Her fellow meeting attendees weren’t enjoying the same view as him and he was glad of it.
She glanced up while someone else was speaking and they locked eyes.
She smiled at him, and it was a knowing and welcoming smile.
One that filled Tom with relief. It wasn’t the look of someone who wanted him to shower, grab some breakfast and then leave without any pleasantries or goodbyes.
It was a smile that said, give me fifteen more minutes.
‘Now, obviously that’s something we would love you to speak about at the event,’ a disembodied voice said from the computer, in a tone that told Tom they liked to interrupt people a lot.
‘If you can talk about how you overcame autism and found a career, yada-yada, I think that would be splendid. Apparently, there are people like you in every office, so I think it will make HR very happy.’
Tom scowled, disliking the person’s pompous tone and their presumptuous words. Raina just smiled serenely through the small computer camera. ‘I wouldn’t put it that way, but I’m happy to talk about neurodiversity in the workplace. I haven’t overcome anything.’
Tom watched her admiringly. She looked beautiful.
Maybe he could lie to himself and say the night they’d spent together was the reason for that, but he knew it was just the natural aura she always seemed to give out.
The one that had first attracted him to her.
She made him feel ridiculous. He was watching her and wondering how the people on the virtual call weren’t falling in love with her.
As he clearly was.
He watched her smile pleasantly while they spoke to her like she was a child, and he realized that more than a day of this would have driven him absolutely out of his mind.
The patronizing tones, while probably not deliberate, were subtle yet slicing.
Enough to make him irritable and snappy.
Yet Raina just smiled. A smile of pure indulgence and experience, clearly rehearsed and hauled out at short notice.
He didn’t know how she did it.
He waited like a dog with separation anxiety until the call was wrapped up. She looked over at him appraisingly.
‘You’re still here.’
Not a judgement, not a complaint. Just a statement with a hint of surprise.
Tom had to refrain from soliloquizing about how he was never going to leave. ‘Do people really talk to you like that?’
She looked confused for a moment and then realization hit, and she shrugged. ‘Death by a thousand cuts, but you get used to plastering them up. Women get spoken down to a lot. Neurodivergent women get spoken down to almost constantly.’
She doesn’t get it, he thought. She doesn’t know I’m gone for her.
He’d never desired anyone more. She’d given him a glimpse of that inner life. She hadn’t bothered to soothe his ego by putting on a show or embellishing her enjoyment of their sex. She’d worked him. Rewarded him for every touch that satisfied completely. Settled for nothing less.
He’d loved every second of it.
Every second of her.
‘I’m still here,’ he finally said. ‘If that’s okay with you.’
It was gentle. He meant it. If she needed him to leave, he was gone. He didn’t want to jeopardize anything.
Raina stood with feline fluidity. She stretched. She looked him up and down. Slowly. ‘You hungry?’
He moved to her in an instant. ‘Starving.’
After slow, deliberate sex on the bedroom carpet, Tom made them both omelettes.
Raina could tell that he liked watching her eat, and that this realization surprised him.
‘I’m usually good for pillow talk,’ he said, as they ate on the sofa, neither wishing to separate from the room that had changed so many things. ‘But you wore me out.’
‘A likely story.’
‘No, it’s true. I’m a little in awe.’
‘Starting my twenty-ninth year off strong.’
‘Need any advice from a haggard thirty-something?’
Raina laughed. ‘I’m looking forward to my thirties.’
Her mobile phone suddenly lit up and started vibrating persistently, causing both of them to glance over at the coffee table. She ate the last bite of her brunch and then leaned over to grab the noisy little machine. She answered the unknown number on speakerphone.
‘Raina Lewis.’
‘Hi!’ A splittingly cheerful voice shot through the earpiece. ‘Raina, it’s a pleasure to speak with you. I’m Heidi Matheson. I’ll be your point of contact for the Mondays.’
‘Oh,’ Raina moved her empty plate from her lap to the coffee table. ‘Hello.’
‘Congratulations on your nominations! We’re so pleased to have you on our shortlist this year!’
Raina threw an embarrassed glance at Tom, but he was smiling. He looked quietly proud and it almost unnerved her. She was so used to his subtle suspicion. Now he was so at ease around her. ‘Thank you.’
‘I’ll pop most of the specifics of the night into an email but I just wanted to touch base and make sure you’ll be attending?’
Raina could see the large room in her mind. She could feel her body tensing at the thought of all the many sensory attacks that would hit her.
‘Yes, I’ll be attending.’
Some things were worth the sting.
‘Fantastic! And you don’t have to know this right now, but do you have any idea of how many people you’ll be bringing with you?’
Raina and Tom stared at each other. The same thought was clearly passing through both of their minds. Would this, whatever it was, still be going on by the time the award ceremony arrived or would they be at one another’s throats.
‘How many people can I bring?’ Raina asked.
‘Oh, we would ask you keep it to less than five. But we understand social media stars love their entourages.’
She laughed chirpily, but Raina was unsure of what was funny.
She was no such thing. She had no entourage and would never describe herself as a social media anything.
She wrote scripted videos for camera, twice a week, and interacted with subscribers and interviewees.
It was no different to television or radio, just run with fewer crew members and broadcast on a different platform.
‘Me, plus three people will do then,’ she told the woman.
‘Lovely. Down for four. As I said, I’ll email along more details and I just want to reiterate how happy we are that you’ll be joining us in person this year.’
Raina’s defences softened, appreciative of the woman’s warmth and sunniness in comparison to yesterday’s call from the sneering journalist. ‘Thank you.’
The call ended and Tom’s hand slipped onto her thigh, gently stroking. ‘You all right?’
Raina tossed her phone away and put on a show. Eye contact and wide smile. ‘I’m great.’
Tom watched her with concern, his own smile fading. He reached out and brushed his fingers against her smile, the one she’d mastered into a perfect disguise over the years. His gentle touch caused her to falter for a split second. She turned her head, letting her hair fall to mask her expression.
‘You got important writerly plans for this evening?’ she asked him, trying to mimic the same cheeriness she’d just heard on the other end of the phone.
‘The agent has me booked in for Morning Papers.’
‘Is that where they talk about tomorrow’s headlines late at night?’
‘Sure is. It’s a proper ball-ache and never achieves anything of value, but it reminds editors and bookers that I still exist.’
‘Well, I’ll stay up to watch you.’
‘Well, in that case . . .’
He pulled her into his lap, which earned him a genuinely delighted laugh from her. Raina settled against him and rested her forearms on his shoulders, her fingers gently stroking the back of his neck. ‘Yes?’
‘Every time I say “with respect”, I’m actually saying, “Raina, I can’t wait to get you back in bed and . . .”’
Raina shrieked and giggled as he whispered wicked things into her ear, while pulling her taut against his body. She pressed her face into his neck and shook with laughter, before they both fell back against the sofa again.