CHAPTER TWENTY
The next day, when Edmund finally woke up, he was laying on his back and Maude was laying on top of him.
His arms were wrapped tightly around her body and he quickly realized that his big hands had a hard squeeze on her small butt.
He also realized that Maude’s gown was gone.
That was when he saw it at the foot of the bed, as if it had been tossed there.
And that was when he remembered what happened.
As the night progressed, he remembered sweeping her peacefully sleeping body up into his arms and laying her on top of him.
He even remembered removing her gown. But he thought it had been a dream.
When he realized it most certainly was not a dream and that he purposely pulled her on top of his naked body and removed her gown, he quickly attempted to correct his audacity.
But then his hands began to massage her butt, and his penis began to come alive beneath that butt.
He wanted to grab her gown and put it back on her before she awakened, but he didn’t.
Her raw nakedness felt too good. So he remained as he was.
He even let out an audible groan. Which was a big mistake. Because she woke up too.
But when her head leaned up and smiled when she saw his face, and then she began stretching her arms and yawning, he relaxed again. She was more comfortable in bed with him than any woman he’d ever been with. That was refreshing too.
“Good morning,” he said to her.
Maude already knew he was not a man given to smiling the way she loved to smile, but he wasn’t frowning at her either.
And the way her bare breasts felt against his bare chest. And the way his hands felt on her bare butt.
And the way his penis still rested between her legs made her well aware that inwardly, at least, he was smiling too.
Because she’d just woken up, and he was already fully aroused.
But that was when she realized she was fully naked. She glanced around, as if she was searching for her gown.
Edmund would have rather not explain it, but she looked at him for explanation.
Then he realized a kind of alarm was in her eyes.
And he realized why! “Nothing happened,” he said quickly to alleviate her fears.
And it worked. The alarm left. “I took that gown off of you because I thought you’d be more comfortable without it while you were on top of me. ”
“I don’t even remember getting on top of you,” Maude said.
It was another side of himself that Edmund didn’t want to admit. But he wasn’t about to let her think she was ever the aggressor because that, he believed, would bother her. “You didn’t,” he said. “I put you on top.”
Maude smiled. “That’s an odd way to put it.”
When he thought about it, he smiled too.
And then they fell into a quiet stare as if they both began to become hyperaware of what it meant.
His hands began to squeeze her again. His penis became stiffer.
Then he took one of his hands, lifted her chin, and kissed her on the mouth.
She tasted so good to him that he kept going. It was a long, passionate kiss.
Maude didn’t expect it to go any further than a kiss.
But he tasted good to her too, and before she knew it they were locked in a hard embrace and their kissing became much more than a smooch.
They were making love already. They were moaning in each other’s mouth as they could not stop kissing or even slow down their momentum.
Edmund was especially animated. He wanted her so badly he could hardly contain himself.
It was the strangest feeling of all for him.
He’d been with women before. More than he could count.
What was he doing? Any time he wanted a roll in the hay he only had to call Teri or Shannon, or any of his other acquaintances, or even just grab him a one night stand.
But this was different. He’d never felt such urgency with them. He’d never felt that sense of desperation to be inside of them the way he was feeling with Maude. It was as if he’d been waiting for this moment all his life when he’d just met her!
But he couldn’t help how he felt, and he felt pure emotion for her. And that was when it broke inside of him. He no longer wanted her. He had to have her!
As both of them were consumed with affection for one another, Edmund could wait no longer. He knew she was ready. Their kissing alone had prepared her. And that was why he grabbed his rock hard penis and shoved it inside of her. He didn’t put it in. He couldn’t be that tactful. He shoved it in.
And as soon as he did, they stopped kissing because of the sudden shock of his entry.
Maude inhaled a deep inhale as if she had just jumped into ice cold water, at just the mere feel of him inside of her.
She leaned her head back, looking at him, as if she needed to make certain this was actually happening.
Because his fullness suddenly inside of her was equal parts hurtful because he was so big, but absolutely fulfilling too.
She could not have dreamed up a better entrance.
He had her from the moment he entered her. But did she have him?
She did. She saw it as soon as she looked into his eyes.
He was gone too. He even started kissing her again as he began to move inside of her.
Then he moved down to her breasts and was ravaging them too.
“Oh baby,” he said as he went down harder on her.
“Oh my sweet, sweet baby!” It was unbelievably intense for a man with the experience Edmund had.
But he couldn’t help himself. He’d never felt so connected to another human being before in his life.
And it did something to him. That initial feeling he felt for her four years ago was real.
That was why he felt it every time he saw her.
That was why it became even more intense every time he saw her.
Something was different about this girl.
Something was so unique and pure and innocent about her that he couldn’t stop moving inside of her.
And then he was pounding her. Everything within him wanted every inch of her. He had to have her.
But he also knew he had to slow it down because he didn’t want it to end.
That was why he laid her head on his chest as if she was the most precious person in the world to him, wrapped her tenderly in his arms, and then made love to her that was no longer urgent and desperate and just lustful, but that was now a slow, sweet, rhythmic dance.
He wasn’t pounding her anymore. He wasn’t hammering his point deeper and deeper inside of her anymore.
He didn’t have to. She got the message loud and clear.
He didn’t have to shout it out anymore. Because now, with their bodies, they weren’t shouting at all.
They weren’t pounding on tables to get the point across.
They were in a groove. Their bodies were having a real conversation.
For nearly half an hour they made love as if they’d known each other forever.
And Edmund was driving that train. He even removed the band that corralled her ponytail, loosening her thick hair, and then he ran his hands through her long, soft, wavy hair.
Some of her hair was entangled, but he loved that too.
He also loved that she didn’t complain at all the way every last one of his highly stylized, sophisticated ladies always complained.
They had expensive hairdos to match their expensive clothing and he was never to “mess up” their hairdos they didn’t care how excited he became.
But Maude didn’t give a flip nickel about any of that.
She was free from the burden of always having to look perfectly put together every time she was in his presence.
And the fact that he expected his ladies to always look that way was telling on his part too.
But Maude didn’t have such hangups. There was nothing superficial about her. She was free.
A part of him knew that had to change, however, because no way was any woman of his going to be roaming around looking like a throwaway with no sense of fashion whatsoever.
But the bigger part of him loved the fact that she didn’t care about that.
She was authentically herself. Take her or leave her.
He was taking her.
All of her.
And he couldn’t stop taking her until he hit that spot one time too many, causing her to cum. And her orgasm squeezed his rod so hard that it took him over the top too. He came. With an outpouring so hard and full that Maude came again. They both were grunting as they came.
If the nurses heard them, Edmund, a very private man, knew he wouldn’t live it down. But even exposure was worth being with Maude. He’d never wanted anybody, in that moment, the way he wanted her.
But as soon as it was all over, and he had poured into her all he had and she had given to him all she had to give, reality seeped back in.
The euphoria was still there, but it was mixed with the truth of the matter.
Because they both just laid, Maude still on top of Edmund, as they wondered, each in their own private way, how in the world was this going to work?
For Maude, it was all about how far apart their worlds truly were.
This man was mega-rich, according to his bodyguard.
And he had another woman - she saw her hurrying from his house just two nights ago.
Was that his girlfriend? He said he never had a girlfriend, but that wasn’t what that woman’s face was saying.
Had she, in a moment of unbridled weakness for him, slept with a man already spoken for?
And, on top of that, she’d done so without any protection.
Did he use condoms when he was with that other lady?
What if he didn’t? She never even insisted he put one on the way she’d always insisted every single time she coupled with any other man.
But she didn’t even think to say it! And he didn’t either.
What if he never said it with other ladies he slept with? What if he slept with men?
What on earth did she just do?
She looked up at Edmund with terror in her eyes.
But before he looked at her, Edmund was buried in his own thoughts.
Something told him instinctively that she was not going to go for an open relationship with him or any other man.
She was not that kind of girl. But he was not the kind of man to have anything but an open relationship.
Which put them at odds right away. Was she going to be willing to bend?
He knew he wasn’t going to bend. It was all up to her. Or was it?
Because when she looked up at him and he looked deep into her eyes, he saw the terror.
And he realize in that instance that what his instincts were screaming at him were dead on.
She was not the casual sex kind of person.
This was so foreign to her, and seemed so normal to him, that it terrified her.
As if she was saying to him with her eyes alone: What have I gotten myself into?
And his heart dropped. He was nuts to think she was going to fall in line alongside Teri and Shannon and anybody else he cared to bring to the fold. What did his selfish lust just do to her?
And for the first time ever, he decided to take responsibility for somebody else’s emotional response. “It’s alright, Maude,” he said to her with all sincerity in his eyes. “It’s going to be alright.” And then he laid her head back on his chest and held her.
Although his words did comfort her in that moment and took the edge of that terror off of her, she still felt uneasy. She still felt as if she was so out of her league with this man that they weren’t even on the same planet. How in the world was this going to work? Why in the world would it work?
And on top of that, she didn’t even know if he wanted it to work!
That was how little she knew about this man that held her in his arms. Because she learned long ago that sleeping with a man did not mean the same to guys as it did to women.
Only it meant everything to Maude. What if she ended up with a baby, and had to become a single mother relying on him to take care of both of them?
That was something her aunt did with her husband and she ended up trapped in his clutches.
That was something she swore she’d never allow to happen to her.
Would she have to take that abortion pill in the morning?
That was something she swore she’d never do too.
But what if it was even worse than that? What if, instead of a baby, she ended up with a dreaded disease because her stupid ass didn’t think to make him put on a condom like she did with every guy she’d ever been with?
She had let every one of her guardrails down for Edmund Keating. While for him it was probably just another roll in the hay with just another female he could dispose of like he did that older lady that ran from his house the other night, cursing the ground he walked on as she did.
But then there’s Maude! But then there’s the only woman on earth willing to run into the arms of a man that had women fleeing from him in the night!
The terror had eased, but it was still right there.
And when she fell asleep again and woke up later that morning with news that she was being discharged, Edmund was gone. Which concerned her. Where was he? In another long, drawn-out surgery? Or had their coupling freaked him out, too, and he had decided against traveling with her to Dillon?
He was gone. But that terror still lived on.