Chapter 10 #2
‘Sorry,’ she squeaks from the other side of the door.
I grin, doubting she’s ever going to open that door again voluntarily, so I cross to open it.
On the way, I catch sight of my bare chest in the mirror and the way the stark black of my tattoos stands out against my skin tone in this light.
I glance back into my room, frowning when I think I might have caught a glimpse of Vittoria’s face in the mirror, but there’s no sign of anything other than my own bedroom when I recheck the mirror.
Fuck me, I’m tired and just want today to be over.
‘I’m sorry,’ Niamh squeaks again when I open the door. ‘I’m in your way. I should go.’
‘No.’ I reach for her, the smooth bare skin of her arm warm in my hand.
I slide my fingers further up her arm, loving the feel of her, but stop when I realise she’s staring at me, curious but fearful.
She hasn’t given me permission to touch her, and without that I won’t take this any further.
I’d rather my partners were trembling because they want to be touched, not because they don’t.
‘Please stay. You’re safer here tonight. ’
‘Okay’—she nods, her tone becomes more confident as she says—‘but you weren’t massively keen on me being here earlier, so what’s changed?’
Should I tell her that Chris was setting her up? That should really frighten her, not all the men here know where to draw the lines of consent and most will obey Chris without hesitation.
‘My sister shouldn’t have abandoned you like that.’
‘It’s okay.’ She shrugs, her skin moving under my touch, and I swear I feel her shiver before she pulls her arm away from my touch. I like that she does. It’s just one tiny rebellion. ‘She really likes Matt. I don’t want to get in her way.’
‘Come and get some rest. I’m not going to do anything to you without your consent.’
I smile as her eyes widen and I guide her to the bed, trying to subtly adjust my joggers before she notices just how my body is responding to touching hers.
And if I’m responding like this to touching her arm, what would it be like if— I let her go.
I’m so very, very tempted. And she’s interested, I can tell, but as she looks up at me, her eyes wide and guileless, I’m reminded once again of how young she is.
Even with her consent, I shouldn’t touch her. She has no idea about the world my sister has introduced her to, and I plan to keep it that way. What the fuck was Rose thinking inviting her here tonight? She’s not one of us, not one of the Kinfolk.
‘But I can’t—’
‘Don’t argue,’ I say. ‘You won’t win.’
‘What will your girlfriend think if I stay here? And where are you going to sleep?’
‘She will understand, and I’m not going to sleep.
I have work to do.’ I resist the urge to brush my fingers through the hair on her temple.
‘But I will make sure no one else bothers you. I have a responsibility to make sure you’re safe as long as you’re under my roof.
I run several prominent bars in town and have a reputation to uphold.
The newspapers would have a field day reporting that I allowed a young woman to leave my home at this hour, drunk, only for her to be accosted on the way home.
Besides’—I aim for a rueful grin, hoping that will win her over—‘Rose would never forgive me.’
‘What would the newspapers say about you keeping me a prisoner in your bedroom instead?’ Her hand covers her mouth as soon as she finishes speaking, but I grin at her, pleased to see the spark I sense within her starting to burn.
‘Not a prisoner. A guest.’
I smile at her and she relaxes. I know fine well I could just order Aiden to drive her home but I’m not going to, and while my body has decided it wants her, regardless of all the reasons why it is a fucking terrible idea, I’m not going to pass up the chance to get to know this woman who intrigues me so much a little better.
‘You can change in the en suite,’ I say, with a smile.
I sit down on the other side of the bed and pick up my tablet, opening it to tonight’s reports from Elliots and The Three Graces.
When she thinks my attention is on my work, she opens her bag, then scurries past me with her pyjamas.
The information on my tablet is meaningless since all I can think about is her undressing on the other side of the en suite door.
Vittoria and I have been together for so long that I’ve forgotten what the thrill of lust really feels like.
My girlfriend might match me with her power and dark fantasies, but I can’t deny the fact my attraction to her has never been as strong as it is for the young woman currently in my house.
The delicate satin camisole and shorts she’s wearing leave little to the imagination and from the look on her face, she’s wishing she had brought something more demure with her tonight.
The thin fabric stretches across her breasts, her cleavage visible and her puckered nipples pebbling into hard points.
I’ve barely said three sentences to her and I’m already imagining all the ways to bring her pleasure.
I run my tongue across my lips, barely able to control my want as I feel myself harden.
Thank fuck I thought to put loose joggers on, although they’ll do little to disguise my full girth and length.
Niamh’s legs are pale and slender and if I don’t push each and every thought of having them wound around my waist while I fuck her until she can’t remember her own name out of my head, then I’m going to do exactly that. Right here, right now.
She crosses back to her bag and this time I get a view of her toned buttocks, barely covered by her shorts.
I watch her in the mirror, imagining bending her over the chest of drawers, watching as I slide my thigh between hers to part her legs, spreading her in front of me to fuck.
How I could bend down and plunge my tongue inside her wet pussy as she begs me for more—
‘Why are you doing this?’ she asks again, jolting me from my thoughts.
‘I told you, and because my sister is being rude, and I feel responsible.’
She stares at me for a long moment.
‘It feels like pity,’ she says abruptly, and I smile, realising she’s found a little confidence.
‘It’s not. Get into bed.’ The building tension inside me is making me lose my cool around her and the sooner she’s covered up the better.
She looks at me for a long moment before reluctantly climbing under the covers.
I arrange them carefully over her and return my attention to my tablet.
After a moment, she turns onto her side, facing away from me.
To turn off the light, I’m going to have to reach over her.
I should get off the bed and walk around, but I don’t.
She could turn it off herself, but she doesn’t.
I lean over, breathing in her delicate vanilla scent.
It’s such a contrast from the heavy, cloying perfume Vittoria wears.
Her body is warm against my chest as I pause with my hand on the switch.
Then I click it off, plunging us into darkness.
For the next couple of hours, I read reports, and check figures and place orders, aware of every sound and movement Niamh makes beside me.
Dawn is breaking when I rest my eyes for just a moment – and then I’m waking up, Niamh’s arm draped across my body, her breath whispering across my abs, her small hand curved around my opposite hip.
She jerks awake, and there’s a momentary pause before she tenses and slowly sets about lifting her arm and head from my body.
She lifts her head and looks up, swallowing nervously when she finds me staring down at her.
As she rolls back onto her side, the back of my hand grazes her breast. Her breath catches, her cheeks flushed, and the temptation to slide my hand inside her top and claim what I want to be mine is almost overwhelming.
I’m fairly certain she would submit willingly, and I could satisfy my need to have her, and then move on.
But I don’t. If I did that … then there’s a chance that I wouldn’t stop and, while this young woman is absolutely not a person I expected to appear in my life, that doesn’t change the fact that right now, she’s here in my bed, tempting me in ways that no one else ever has.
I can’t take any risks. I have plans, except that my cock doesn’t seem to be getting that message. I put my phone on the bedside cabinet, and slide down the bed, staying on top of the covers. Her head is on her pillow, watching me as I mirror her position, finally letting myself relax.
She lets out a sigh. ‘Last night was my first proper party. I was hoping maybe for my first kiss and instead I end up in bed with… I should have known I’d get it all wrong—’
She breaks off as if just realising what she’s said.
Well, Chris might have been being an arsehole earlier, but he was right in his assessment of her experience.
Except that, what he saw as something to mock, I find …
intriguing and, god help me, endearing. She covers her face with her hands and sighs.
‘Wow, you must think I’m pathetic,’ she says. When I don’t respond she slowly pulls her hands away.
‘We all have to start somewhere,’ I reply eventually. She gives me a wry smile, an embarrassed laugh escaping her perfect pink lips. Before I can stop myself, I roll and take hold of her wrists, pushing them either side of her head against the pillow and lower my face to hers.
‘Is that something you still want?’ I whisper.
She doesn’t say no. She doesn’t say yes, at first, either, but her eyes stay locked on mine, her breathing growing shallow, until she nods and a low groan of want escaping her lips, tells me exactly what I want to know.
I thread my fingers through her hair and angle her face up to mine, her garnet necklace slipping round to the side of her neck, warm against my hand.
‘What happens in the darkness, stays in the darkness,’ I murmur against her lips, then I cover her mouth with mine, and take. The words of the Guth Dorcha will claim her memory of her first kiss because she can never know that it was me – even if it’s only a stolen kiss. But I will remember.
I will vividly, and achingly, remember.