Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Iopened the door to see Pippa with a big smile on her face, holding up a charcuterie board, with Granger leaning against the doorframe beside her.
What the hell were they doing here?
“Thought we would come over to bring you a little Welcome-to-Oystar-Bay present. Or, you know, welcome back to Oystar Bay.”
When I stood frozen in the doorway, Pippa nudged my arm with the charcuterie board.
“Can we come in? This isn’t getting any lighter, you know.”
“Oh—sure, sure. Of course.”
She stepped through and before I could move aside, Granger brushed by me, so close I felt the drag of his rough fingers across my belly, the knock of his cock on my waistband.
His scent was all in my nostrils, deeply masculine and erotic, a hint of his plain shampoo mixed with salt. He spent a lot of time out fishing in the bay, there was always that taste of wind and sea on him.
I gritted my teeth and waved them onto the couch, while I sat on the less-comfortable chair opposite.
Pippa put the charcuterie board down on the table and sat down.
She was obviously determined to put the past behind us.
And so was I.
But as normal as I tried to act, Granger’s presence unnerved me.
Last night I’d had his cock so far down my throat I could still taste the cum there. Or maybe it was that once you tasted Granger, you couldn’t taste anything else.
Pippa talked about her fall plans for Hollingsworth House and asked if I wanted to sign up to train for a half-marathon together. Her sleeks fingers plucked fruit from the charcuterie board as she hand-fed Granger, placing cut strawberries and mango between his lips.
Granger acted like he’d never fucking strayed in his life, his tongue flicking out on Pippa’s fingers to wrap around the fruit, pull it deeper into his mouth with that cocky grin.
I tried to bring up my boyfriend as much as I could. Pippa obviously thought I could do better with her brother, though.
Could I ever be friends with Pippa again? Or would my guilt consume me?
Every minute they stayed was an agony. There was a very old piano in the corner and Pippa wanted us to sing together like we used to, so with dry and parched lips, I started to play as Granger brought out his fiddle.
To my surprise he had the same case, the wood mellowed and seasoned, the music still pouring out of him like it always had, those dirty, sensual notes he could make that old fiddle play.
But I refused to look at him.
“I heard you were distressed to find your car gone,” Granger said. “Hayden noticed it had a nail stuck in it so we thought it best to take it to the shop. I’m sure it’ll be done in a few days.”
“How did that nail get in there, I wonder?” I asked flatly.
“I have no idea,” Granger said. I could feel him only inches from my back, the hairs on the back of my neck prickling with awareness. “Must have been something on the drive over.”
“Must have been.”
I was more convinced than ever that Granger had tampered with my car. But why? Why was he so insistent I was going to be his mistress?
“I’m tired,” I said, pushing away from the piano. “I don’t want to play anymore.”
“That was so good,” Pippa enthused. “Just like old times.”
“Exactly like them,” Granger agreed, but I tightened my lips and refused to look at him.
“I’ll be right back,” Pippa added. “I wish we’d built the guesthouse with a bathroom on the first floor instead of just the second floor. So inconvenient. But then, it was just for the servants, of course. Sorry, Sosie. Of course I don’t mean you.”
“Of course,” I said.
She went up the stairs, still humming.
I heard the flick of a lighter as Granger lit a cigarette, his hand resting in the open window. As if that would somehow keep the guesthouse from smelling like his earthy, aromatic smoke.
“What are you doing?” I snapped.
Granger was leaning back on the sofa with his feet up, his stubbled cheeks hollowing with each drag of his cigarette.
“Put that cigarette out.”
“Why? My wife said it was all right to smoke here,” he countered with a smirk, and I felt fury rising inside me.
“The very least you could do is not smoke inside,” I hissed. “The open window there isn’t going to do shit.”
Granger only smiled, slow and lazy.
“Make me, then.”
Suddenly I couldn’t bear it any longer. His arrogance. The way he’d broken my heart but he wouldn’t let me nurse it in private. He was going to do a fucking dick dance over the remains.
I ripped the cigarette from his lips and plunged it into his soda can.
“Fuck you for even coming here. Why can’t you leave me alone?”
My heart was pounding, but he didn’t even seem affected, one strong arm propped leisurely behind his head.
His T-shirt had ridden up so I could see the deep v-cut of his belly, the jeans that hung low on his hips.
“I don’t want to.”
My fists were clenched and I wanted to smack that smile off his face, but I only kicked out at his feet propped lazily on the coffee table.
“Why don’t you take your beloved wife away. I’m tired of the sight of you both.”
He only cocked his head, his thighs falling open so I could see the outline of his heavy bulge even through the pants.
“You’re not over that yet?”
“Over what?”
“Me choosing Pippa.”
The callous reminder of the wound still stung a bit.
“No. I just think you’re disgusting for cheating on someone you love, though.”
He put his other arm behind his head and the smile was spreading across his face now, those bright white teeth shiny and predatory.
“Now, who said I married her because I loved her?” Granger countered.
Then, as fast as a serpent, his hand snapped out and he gripped my chin with hard fingers, pulling me closer until he forced my mouth over his in a sick kiss.
I tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let me, his mouth forcing mine to move as if this was normal.
When I refused to open my lips for his tongue, he pressed down, hard on my cheeks so they parted to admit him, his tongue demanding, tangling with mine possessively.
I had to wrench my head away as hard as I could.
“Pippa and I might not be that close anymore, but I’m not going to help you cheat on her!”
“You’re not going to help me do anything,” Granger said, gripping a fistful of my shirt. “I’m going to make you, whenever I please.”
I slapped his face with all my strength.
“What the hell is wrong with you? What are you doing?”
His eyes looked cold, and suddenly I was afraid. Afraid of what this man was capable of. . .
“Taking what’s mine, that’s what I’m doing. I told you I would have you whenever I wanted, and I meant it.”
“I’m not yours. You ruined that by choosing her.”
Granger grabbed me by the neck and thrust me face-first into the couch, my nose stuffed into the cushions.
His cock was pressed against my back, grinding me deeper into the sofa.
And I couldn’t fucking breathe!
“Naughty girl. It’s not nice to slap.”
Two fingers were dragging down my panties, feeling the way my wet cunt was responding, and I writhed with the humiliation of being trapped there. I didn’t know where his filthy fingers had been.
His grip tightened on the thin fabric and with a sudden tug, he ripped them off.
He pulled me up for one second as I took a huge, gasping breath.
“No one said I was choosing her forever,” he hissed. “So don’t be such a brat.”
He drove my head down into the couch again, as beach air played over my suddenly very bare-feeling pussy.
His hands ran down my belly to between my thighs again.
Then without any warning they plunged into my cunt and I could feel the soft flesh pulsing with shock, trembling wetly as he stroked me, and I made an impossibly soaked splashing sound as he drew his fingers out and spread them in front of me.
“What a little liar.”
“I am not,” I said, gasping for breath.
“I will do whatever I want to you,” he said through gritted teeth. “And I know you fucking want it. Your body is begging for it.”
“It is not, Granger!”
His hands were around my throat now, stroking up and down, his low voice almost a musical croon.
“Shhh. You know I don’t love her. I love you.”
“You’re a bullshitter,” I almost shrieked, struggling against him as his fingers stroked in and out of me, dragging by my overstimulated clit.
“Why don’t you come all over my fingers and we’ll see who’s right?”
He circled my clit, and the wet sounds were loud, obscene.
I was not gonna come for him. But it didn’t look like I had a choice, all my squirming and wiggling doing nothing as I felt my cunt liquify.
I could hear the tap-tap-tap of her heels on the wooden floor upstairs and he still didn’t let up.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I hissed, but he only added another finger inside me, so I had to grunt in alarm, burying my face in a pillow to keep any of the noises inside as my thighs began to quake, waves of unwanted and infuriating pleasure flooding me.
“Goddamn--you!” I whispered.
Her shadow was visible on the living room walls, falling across the couch, still chattering away, before Granger finally let met go, the skirt barely covering my pussy before I collapsed onto the couch.
He was in the opposite chair lighting another cigarette by the time Pippa entered the room, and thank god she always looked right at him because I was a mess, quickly wiping sticky curls off my forehead and trying with trembling hands to adjust my skirt.
Then she turned to me, and through the ringing in my ears I heard her say,
“Oh, Sosie, are you getting sick? You look like you’re running a fever.”
And I had to try and calm my racing heart, catch my fucking breath, try and gasp some answer out.
“Look at her!” Pippa demanded, gesturing to her husband. “Doesn’t she look like she’s coming down with the flu?”
Granger only cocked his head, blowing a cool, unconcerned ring of smoke in the air.
“I don’t know. She looks about the same as usual to me.”
Pippa couldn’t resist a smug little smile as she took his hand.
“You’ll have to excuse us. We act like newlyweds still.”
When they were finally gone, I went to the bathroom and scrubbed my teeth violently, but no matter what I did, I could still feel the imprint of his mouth on mine, the way he had pressed down so hard I could feel my lips swelling.
But nothing, not even the hottest shower I could stand, could erase the degrading feeling of his hands on me, the knowledge that I had come for him.
The next day was dark and overcast, and I decided to go out in one of the little fishing boats that were available for guest use, foolishly ignoring the colors on the horizon. It wasn’t raining and I wasn’t going to go far out.
I just needed to get away from here, go somewhere I knew Granger wasn’t.
And Jax was definitely avoiding me. I couldn’t understand it. Even though the service was shitty, my texts were going through. We’d been together for about five months now and I couldn’t imagine what was wrong.
I was too absorbed in my own problems to take a close enough look at the sky.
Fog descended on me quickly, and I was too slow to turn around and try to make it back to the store.
Shit. I wasn’t dressed properly either, only in a T-shirt and jeans, and the rain had turned from sprinkles to a downpour.
I turned the boat around. But which direction should I go? Everything looked the same in this fog. Maybe I should just go parallel to the shore and wait to take her in until I got a clear break in the clouds.
I’d been out in storms before. But panic started to crawl along my spine.
This had been very, very stupid behavior.
“Help!” I cried out.
But I hadn’t seen any other boats out on the water.
“Help me! I don’t know which way to go!”
There were many little hidden coves all along the coastline—but there was also the possibility of getting stuck on some of these hidden shoals, and with the rain pelting me now and the visibility so poor, I could not see to avoid them.
But I had to go somewhere, my boat was getting blown about either way.
I turned her around and started to head in the direction that seemed a little bit lighter. But how far had I strayed from my original spot?
With a sickening crunch, the front of my boat collided with the sharp rocks of a shoal and I watched in horror as it began to split apart under me, the bottom cracking wide as angry seawater began to rush in.
I was going to have to swim for the shore—but which way was it?
Just as I prepared to jump off, I heard a pissed-off voice.
“What are you doing, idiot?”