Chapter Thirty – Oliver
OLIVER
Final Preparations
S he was like an angel when she slept.
Her fiery red hair fanned across the white pillows, and I’d pulled the unruly wavy strands out of my mouth more than once this morning.
I would be finding strands of her hair everywhere now for days—long, crinkly red ones would appear seemingly out of nowhere, as if Rose herself was planting them as a never-ending reminder of her presence in my life.
As if I’d ever not notice her.
Her fair eyelashes twitched against her cheeks, and the freckles that dotted her cheeks and nose were like tiny puzzles I couldn’t help but trace with my eyes.
And her lips.
Her soft, full lips, that were currently parted as she breathed.
God, I was so in love with her. Every part of me hummed with desire for her, and I wondered if this would ever be enough. If touching her would ever satiate the need I had for her, that unending want to be close to her.
I wanted to stay here, in this bed, with her in my arms. I wanted to breathe in her raspberry-scented hair and run my fingers over her rough hands as if I could massage out the damage the physicality of her job had done to her pretty skin.
I couldn’t imagine letting her go.
And now, I had a feeling she felt the same. After her outburst yesterday, I’d seen it—that ugly, gnawing jealousy she was holding onto. It was the same as the one I’d felt after I’d seen those videos of her dancing.
I had no idea what pictures she’d seen, but if I knew the way the media spun things, they were undoubtedly in an article speculating about my marital status.
As my friends had slowly begun entering relationships, getting married, and having children, attention had naturally come the way of those of us in the upper classes who were still single.
Whether we courted such attention or not.
I most certainly did not.
Maybe that was why I was coming to see Hanbury as my home. Rose was here, and so was peace. This was a place where I could breathe, where I could simply exist as myself without the weight of too many expectations.
It was a place I wanted to be.
A place nobody cared to find me.
A place I would happily stay for the rest of my life if it meant getting to keep Rose by my side.
I glanced at the clock. It was six-thirty. Time to wake her.
I pressed a feather-light kiss to the tip of her nose. She didn’t stir, and I moved to her cheek, dotting a soft path of barely-there kisses across her cheek. When she still didn’t move, I took my journey downwards.
How far could I get before she’d finally wake up?
I trailed down her neck, and she finally moved.
“Mm.” She rolled her head to the side and reached up, getting a fistful of my hair. “What are you doing?”
“Wishing you good morning,” I said in a low tone that was still full of sleepiness. “Is this not how you do it?”
My lips continued their journey across her neck, and she shivered when I reached the base of her throat, pausing only to graze my teeth across her collarbone.
“Not unless you’ve brushed your teeth,” she murmured, eyes still closed.
I laughed and fell back, drawing her against my body. “How did I know you’d say that?”
“Oh, no. Am I getting predictable?”
“Never. I don’t think predictable is ever a word anyone could use to describe you.”
“Good. I was worried I was losing my touch.” She yawned and finally forced her eyes open. “What time is it?”
I met her gaze with a smile. “Six-thirty. You asked me to make sure you were awake then.”
“ Ughhhhh. Past Rose is an idiot,” she murmured. “I’m tired.”
“Then go back to sleep.” I kissed her hair. “You said you didn’t have a client until eleven, right? So, sleep.”
“No, I have to go home. What if someone sees me?”
I hesitated before saying, “Does it really matter? Do you think nobody knows something is going on between us?”
“I think my dislike of you is pretty well documented,” she said sleepily, yawning once again and letting her eyes flutter shut. “I don’t think anyone would look at us in public and go, ‘oh, yeah, they’re definitely sleeping together.’”
I said nothing for a minute, knowing just how wrong she was.
I didn’t want to ruin this moment by shattering her dreams since she clearly thought she was doing a good job of hiding her feelings for me, so I simply shrugged and relaxed back against the pillow.
“All right. I guess I’ll have to stay your dirty little secret for now. ”
“I’ll lock you in my shed and come and play with you,” she murmured, her voice sexy and husky in a way that made my cock twitch.
“Oh, yeah? On what days?”
“Days that end in ‘y’.”
I hummed against her hair, nuzzling into its softness and taking a deep breath. “Good answer. I suppose I could handle that.”
“As long as you remember that Bertha the Girthy is not a toy.”
“Ah, yes, how could I forget about Bertha?” My laugh was muffled by her hair. “That neon pink monstrosity you threw at me.”
“Shh,” she said, sloppily touching her finger to my lips. “No, I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did.” I nipped her finger before drawing the tip of it into my mouth and sucking the sting out of it.
She moaned, coming closer and rubbing her body against me like a needy kitten.
“Rose,” I said in a low voice. “If you keep doing that…”
“Hm? Oh.” She dropped her hand to between us and brushed her finger over my erection.
I flinched, closing my eyes. “Ro—”
“Let me sort that for you,” she breathed sleepily, her eyes still closed. She wrapped her fingers around my cock and flexed her wrist, stroking me in a way that made me kiss her and groan against her mouth.
“You’re going to kill me,” I said, slipping my hand down her body. “Open your legs.”
She did as she was told, and I eased my way between her legs. She was slightly wet, and I couldn’t help but smile as my finger slipped through it.
She really was going to kill me.
I kissed her slowly, keeping my tongue to myself given her earlier comment about toothbrushes. We lay for a while, just touching one another in an almost lazy, comfortable way. I knew when her orgasm approached because she gripped me a little tighter, and that drew mine closer to the brink.
Rose came on my hand, softly crying out, and with a few more pumps of her wrist, my own release came, spurting all over her thigh. She sagged against me with a sigh and muttered, “Now let me go back to sleep.”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed. I wondered if she was even fully awake at all, but then again, this was Rose.
I felt like I thought those words a lot lately.
Maybe I knew her a lot better than I thought I did.
Unsurprised that she was already back asleep, I carefully got out of the bed and went to the bathroom to fetch a towel and wet cloth. I washed both my hands and cleaned my cum off her hip and thigh, then got back into the bed with her and cuddled her into me.
She rolled against me like a sleepy cat, and I smiled, closing my eyes.
I still had another hour before I had to get up to talk to Piers about the stewardship of the allotments.
I wasn’t leaving her until I absolutely had to.
ROSE: So, uh, just to make sure…
ROSE: I didn’t dream that, right?
My first mistake today was sipping tea while opening a message from Rose.
My second was not turning away from my computer as I choked on said tea and spat it all over the screen.
Luke eyed me but didn’t say a word. I grabbed a tissue from the box my mother insisted should be on my desk—that had come in useful more than once—and cleaned the screen to the best of my ability. I put my tea down safely before tapping the ‘reply’ box.
ME: Are you admitting that you dream about me, princess?
ROSE: That’s why I’m asking. I’d like to know if my craziness has finally gone past the point of no return.
ME: As much as I’d love to tease you about that, the answer is no. You didn’t dream it.
ME: You woke up, fondled my poor cock, extorted an orgasm out of me, and promptly went back to sleep.
ROSE: Your poor cock, my left tit.
ME: I’d be happy to arrange for them to meet in person, if you’d like.
ROSE: …Did you not question my random early morning horniness?
ME: It was my early morning horniness that started it, not yours.
ME: And I knew you were awake. You complained neither of us had brushed our teeth.
ROSE: Oh. I remember that. I was half-asleep, though.
ME: That’ll explain why your orgasm lulled you right back to sleep.
ROSE: Did you clean me up?
I grinned, drawing another weird look from Luke.
ME: Yes. You were a bit of a mess, and I didn’t want to leave you to sleep like that.
ROSE: Thank you. Do you mind if I shower quickly before I leave?
She was still in the cottage? I’d even broken into her phone and set an alarm on it to make sure she woke up in time. I thought she’d have been long gone by now.
ROSE: And did you set an alarm on my phone for me? How did you even get in it?
ME: Your passcode is your birthday. It’s not exactly locked down, princess.
ROSE: How do you know my birthday?
ROSE: Nvm, forgot you conducted illicit research on me when you came to ruin my life.
I burst out laughing, and Luke finally threw his pen down and stared at me.
“Your work cannot be that amusing, because mine sure as shit ain’t,” he said, eyes hard. “What are you doing over there?”
I was the boss here. Why was I getting scolded?
“Speaking to an unruly pain in my arse,” I replied, tapping out a message back to her that yes, she could shower, and she didn’t need to ask.
“Rose. You’re speaking to Rose.”
I grinned.
He wrinkled his nose up. “Don’t smile at me like that. You’re starting to scare me.”
“Nonsense. She was just telling me off for my ‘illicit’ research into her, as she puts it. She’s offended I know her phone passcode.”
Luke tilted his head to the side. “It’s her birthday, isn’t it?”
“Which just proves my point that it’s not exactly locked down,” I replied. “So, thank you for that.”