12. Iris
Iris
M y heart felt too big to fit into the house, but somehow it did. Gully distracted me with kisses as soon as we crossed the threshold, barely giving me a chance to walk more than three steps before I was entangled in his arms again, his hands touching and stroking and feeling, the teasing of the last few days finally coming to an end, or so I hoped.
He carried me up the stairs, making me laugh with the ease of his efforts, whispered words filling the quiet of the place that could become my home.
His bedroom was our destination, which did make me sigh with relief. I’d barely been in this room, apart from a couple of occasions. It was huge, the view over the Strait from two sides of the house, floor to ceiling glass windows that showed all of the day’s mood. He put me down on my feet, his arms still around me as he stood behind, both of us looking out over the sea.
“I’m giving you a moment to make sure you want this.”
He had no idea how much my body was aching, how much it had ached for him over the last few weeks, maybe longer.
There were things to unpick; how he’d been in love with me for two years and never said anything; how I hadn’t worked that out; why it hadn’t come out at some point – how I’d been so utterly oblivious.
But they could wait.
There were more important things to do.
“I don’t need any more moments.” I turned around in his arms and pulled his sweater up over his body, taking the T-shirt that was underneath with it.
He let me strip him, giving me control even if it was only for a few seconds.
A few seconds it was, his mouth crashing back on mine, his hands busying themselves with my clothes, finding quick ways to shed them from my skin so I was left in just my underwear, a pretty blue bra and matching underwear, which I was now pleased I’d had the foresight to put on that morning.
“You’re fucking gorgeous.” He looked me up and down, taking his fill. “When I saw you naked in the hotel room it nearly killed me.”
“That would have been a funny way to die.” I put a hand on his chest, feeling the muscles there, the slight roughness of his hair, then I let my hand slip to the belt of his jeans, undoing the buckle with both hands and pushing them down.
“I’d noticed how beautiful you were every time we’d met up. I’d thought about you and felt bad about it – you were my friend and that was what you needed me for, but I couldn’t get you out of my head. When I went on dates, I compared the women to you, which wasn’t fair. There were so many text messages I typed but never sent because I knew they’d cause a whole shitstorm of mess.”
“Maybe they wouldn’t have.” I pushed him backwards, moving him onto the huge bed that still didn’t take up most of the room. “Maybe I would’ve felt the same.”
I was pulled on top of him, my bra lost in the process. Gully’s mouth trailed from my neck to my breast, teasing my nipple into a tight peak, his hand on my waist, keeping me where he wanted me.
He switched to the other side, shivers running over my skin as it was lit up with what he was doing. I could feel dampness building between my legs, the fire he’d become too good at beginning to burn in the best possible way.
He looked up at me, eyes reading something from mine that made him smile. “Maybe it was meant to be this way. Maybe if I’d told you how I felt we wouldn’t be here now, having a baby in a few months.”
“Maybe.” I was rolled onto my back, my underwear pulled down my legs and discarded onto the floor. His mouth carried on memorising every centimetre of my skin, travelling over flesh that was burning for him.
My hands ran over his chest, his back, over his ass and down his front so I could take his length in my hand, grazing over it and revelling in the groan I elicited from him.
“I thought our first time would be desperate and rushed,” I said, as his mouth moved slowly over my skin, his tongue teasing a nipple as his hand cupped my breast.
“It’s a first. We should take our time. Promise I’ll fuck you hard and fast later.”
My heart skipped a beat, my body remembering what it had been like in New Orleans when he seemed to have discovered everything that made my toes curl in just one night.
Sex against the wall, me on top with him still calling the shots, from behind while his hands played everywhere, in the shower where we managed to break the door.
“I’m holding you to that.” My hand gripped his hair as his mouth landed between my legs, lapping at my clit in entirely the right way to induce an orgasm there and then.
He didn’t prolong it, looking up at me with a slow, smug smile that told me there was only one person who was in control here.
“I can’t wait to get inside you, but I’m not sure it should be now. We could wait.”
“Fuck me, now, Gulliver Holland. I want your cock balls deep in me.” There was no need for any flowery language.
“Was that you begging?”
“It’s as close as you’re going to get.”
Another grin, boyish and thrilled, his eyes shining with words that we said and we knew we’d say again.
He lined his cock up with my entrance and pushed home, filling me in one easy movement. He was thick and big and everything I remembered from before, my body filled with the best sort of shivers as he entered me, my heart pulled at his expression.
“You feel so fucking amazing, ‘Ris.” He stilled, pausing above me. “I think you’re my favourite place to be.”
“I like that.” I wrapped my legs around his waist, shifting my hips, needing him to move.
He started a slow rhythm, deep, long movements inside me so we could feel everything, the pace increasing, his sentences become fragmented until everything in me tightened and I came hard and tight around his cock, the place where I ended and he began blurred.
Gully took hold of my leg, pressing it up so he could move a little deeper, the speed increasing as he drew closer to his own ending. My tits bounced with the movement, his eyes shifting from them to my face, his hand braced on the headboard behind me.
“Fuck.” Two, three more thrusts inside of me and I felt his cock pulse as he came inside me, my pussy fluttering, pushed over the edge with his orgasm.
Then his lips were on mine again, taking possession with a messy kiss that said everything words could not. Breathless, we slowed everything down, hands still greedily devouring each other, unwilling to break any contact and his cock stayed inside me, still hard, still owning me.
“I love you.” He said the words without fear. “I’m going to have to do this so much over the next few months.”
“Years.” I dug my nails into his ass, enjoying the little bit of pain I was inflicting. “I like sex too much to give it up.”
“Sex with anyone in particular?” He looked ruffled.
“Maybe you, but I’ll need more experience before I can make that call.”
Gully shook his head then rolled us over, him on his back, me creating a wet spot that was going to be unavoidable for one of us.
“I don’t want to hurt you or make you sore.”
“I’ll let you know if we even get anywhere near close to that. And we might need to get creative when I end up with a bigger bump.”
“I can be creative.”
“Prove it.”
“Challenge accepted.”
When Zoey came round for the photoshoot the following week, Gully’s house was no longer just his. We’d ended up renting a van and driving down to London, packing up the belongings and furniture I’d wanted to keep and meeting with an estate agent to put my apartment on the market.
I hadn’t felt any sense of loss that part of my life had ended. I’d loved living in London and the lifestyle I’d had, and I was glad I’d got to do it, but I was in no rush to carry on with it, not when I had a house with the views over the Strait and a huge garden with its own jetty to gaze on every day.
Plus, we’d decided that my old bedroom at Gully’s would become the nursery. The day we’d come back from York had been the day Gully had also taken all of my clothes and bits out of that room and into his, then in between him giving me more orgasms, we’d decided on some new soft furnishings for the bedroom and chosen some of my photos to be printed and framed to go on the walls.
So when Zoey arrived, looking rather shy and nervous, she walked into a house that was anything but the bachelor pad it’d used to be.
“This place is gorgeous.” She looked round the entrance, paying attention to the artwork, most of which I’d brought from London. “It feels so relaxed.”
“It is. I think anywhere Gully lives is relaxed though. He’s generally laid back.” Apart from sometimes when he was in bed and I’d been teasing him. Then the beast awakened, and it was a beast I very much liked.
“I had a bit of a crush on him. He’s so charismatic.” Zoey gave me an embarrassed smile. “I don’t think he’d look twice at me though.”
I shrugged. “He was a flirt, so you could’ve been in luck. Anyway, you have plenty of admirers.” She was one of the biggest female solo artists at the moment and had been for a while, and she was only twenty-three. “Anyone special?” I was fishing. There was a very quiet rumour that Zoey and Caleb were a couple, although no one had any proof or even a hint of proof that was the case.
She shook her head. “No one. My record company really wants to set me up with another singer, but that’s just for the publicity. I’m kind of off relationships at the moment.”
I decided to go for it. “What about Caleb? You seem to spend a lot of time together.”
She laughed, her gaze drifting out of the window. “Caleb has girls throwing themselves at him. Honestly, when he’s here, he’s the golden boy of the village, but when he’s based in a port doing his research or he’s in whichever city he’s taking a break in, he’s just a walking fuck boy.”
I frowned. I’d spoken to Caleb a lot in the last couple of weeks as he’d been back home, in between whatever work he was doing. He had a master’s degree in marine biology and was studying for his doctorate, as well as working for a company on developing sustainable something or other. He was friendly and polite and intelligent, working behind the bar for his father’s wife, and living in the flat above.
“Really?”
Zoey nodded, looking amused. “Really. He can charm the birds from the trees.”
I shrugged, kind of disappointed that there wasn’t some secret romance going on.
“So these pictures – they’re for you?”
She nodded. “Just me. I’m doing my own make-up and I’ve brought things to wear that I’ve chosen, so no one’s styling me and these are for my use only. I might frame them and put them up at home someday.”
“The best reason to have a shoot like this.” I’d done boudoir shoots before. It had been a good way to make a living in between bigger jobs, and I’d had some high profile clients who knew they could rely on my discretion to stick to the NDAs and confidentiality agreements. I also enjoyed doing them; you could capture a totally different side of someone - playful, vulnerable, fragile, confident, aroused. All of those emotions and characteristics that sat behind a mask worn for the public eye.
Zoey nodded, looking around the house. We’d gone into the kitchen because this was where I’d go through my ideas for the shoot, she’d tell me what she liked from those ideas and then we’d work out the logistics of it.
It was also where she’d have wine. Just a couple of glasses of fizz, to ease her apprehension and help to relax her. Usually I’d have joined in, but there was no chance of that for the next few months, which I wasn’t complaining about.
“Is Gully in the house?”
“No. He’s gone fishing with his brothers and a few others. He knows you’re round so he won’t come home until I call him.” He’d been looking forward to going out with Finn and Roe too. There was some competition about who could catch the biggest fish that they’d been talking about all week.
“He doesn’t mind?” Zoey looked curious.
“It isn’t like I do these sorts of shoots all the time so he’s fine with it. Prosecco?”
She nodded, looking a little more relaxed. I started the process, showing her some sketches I’d made and one or two of Gully’s photos which he’d said it was okay to share.
By the end of Zoey’s second glass, we had a plan and she was smiling, looking more confident and less apprehensive. I got the vibe of what she was after – sexy but arty, photos she could put up in her house at some point and be proud when other people saw them, and maybe one or two to share with a future lover.
It was always interesting shooting someone who was used to the camera. They generally had a good instinct of how to stand and where the light was, and the experience of how the camera would catch them. Zoey was no different. She’d left her curls wild, and chosen to make her make-up smoky, a little dangerous, which contrasted with what she’d brought to start off wearing.
By the end of the shoot I was proud of what we’d got; sexy, arty pictures that made her look completely different from the teen pop icon she still was.
“These could be in a high-end editorial,” she said as we looked through them. “I can’t believe that’s me.”
“That’s definitely you and I haven’t played with them yet, so some will get tinkered with to adjust the light or contrast. I’m not fixing any imperfections though – we agreed to keep it as you are. Not that there are any imperfections.” She was a stunning woman and the camera had caught that.
“I can probably find them all.”
“So don’t look for them.” I studied her for a moment. She’d talked more about relationships during the shoot, and Caleb. “You’re sure you’re not going to share any of these with Caleb?”
There was a laugh and a shrug. “Maybe. There are one or two I might show him – nothing that shows too much flesh.”
“They all show a lot.”
“The ones where it’s no more than an average day at the office. You’ve seen what I wear on stage.”
I had. “Yep, but these are more intimate. This you is nothing like the one that’s sold.”
“Which is the point. I might share some with him.”
“He might - ” I stopped.
“He might what?” she pushed.
“See what’s right in front of him.” Because it had become obvious that he wasn’t just a friend to her, or at least she didn’t want him to be.
“We’ll see. I’ll keep you posted.”
I saw Zoey out and tidied up, grabbing a quick shower. Before I got in, I noticed an envelope placed against my moisturiser, my name written on it in Gully’s handwriting.
Dear Iris,
Just wanted to say that while I’ll be busy trying not to push my brothers in the water today and catching the biggest fish the Menai Strait has on offer, I’ll be missing you, which sounds really soppy and nothing like the big, hard man I really am (you know how hard!). I know you’ll have had a great time taking photos and making someone feel beautiful; I hope you’re missing me too in a really good, can’t-wait-to-see-him way.
Is that too needy?
Probably. I’ll make it up to you with an orgasm later.
By the way, the Northern Lights are meant to make an appearance tonight – get your camera ready.
Love you,
Gully
My heart swelled to twice its normal size. He left love notes around the house a lot now. I’d even seen some that he was writing with letters addressed to the Bump. I hadn’t asked him about those, not yet.
We did see the Northern Lights that night, sitting on the balcony outside our bedroom, watching the sky dance with greens and yellows and oranges, Gully’s arms wrapped around me while I fiddled with the settings on my camera and tried to slow down time so I could capture the perfect image.
I asked him about the notes he was writing, but I couldn’t wrangle an answer from him.
Not yet.
There was time.
There’d always be time.