8. Maddie #2
“Good girl,” he says before kissing me, and in a single moment I’m swept away in his touch.
My head is fuzzy with lust. His hands are everywhere at once, his lips never stopping.
He consumes every inch of my neck and lips.
I’m barely cognizant as he strips me down to nothing and he fucks me over the edge of the sofa, facing the big picture windows, sliding inside me with hard, fast strokes.
Graham makes me come that way, too, with his hand wrapping around and stroking over my belly until his fingertips find their way lower to circle my clit.
He has to hold me in this position because my knees are weak and shaky.
With every hard stroke I climb higher and higher until pleasure wraps itself around both of us at the same time.
I’m breathless and stunned, really, by the time he’s planting small kisses on my neck and settling everything back into place.
When it’s over he pulls me back into his lap and folds his arms around me.
He plants a kiss and then another. It’s silent as he leaves me on the couch, zips up his pants, and hands me what I need to get dressed again.
He sits next to me as he was before, although his arm is around me this time. I’m cuddled up to his side and he reaches for his laptop, reminding me that he has work to do.
“I thought…do you want me to stay?” I gather up the courage to ask him as the moment seems to come to a close.
“Yes.” His answer is simple, and I start to feel out of place. “If you’re available and don’t mind that I’ll be working,” he adds.
I settle myself into his side, enjoying the warmth and comfort and simply nod.
The evening is easy. I have a few messages I answer on my phone and for the most part, I’m able to lay into him in comfortable silence, his laptop ticking away as he occasionally asks me questions.
Sometimes he asks if I need anything, like the champagne he brings me.
Sometimes he asks questions like whether I prefer tea or coffee and what restaurants I like in the city.
As the night gets later, his touches become more focused on my curves and he lingers longer.
Two glasses of champagne down and his laptop closes.
He pushes it back on the coffee table and then murmurs something about ‘earning this’ before his lips press to mine and his body covers mine.
When we fuck this time, he’s on top of me with my legs spread around his hips.
The climax is higher and heavier than the last, and he groans my name into my neck just as I cry out his with the blinding pleasure.
I’m breathless and the most at ease I’ve ever been as I lie down on the sofa with my back to his front and the blanket wrapped around us. An old movie is playing on the TV; the New York skyline surrounds us.
“What do you think?” I ask after a while. “Worth the investment?” A small smile tugs at my lips.
“Every single penny,” he says, and kisses the back of my neck. The simple kiss feels like heaven.
Time passes easily. The two of us finding out little pieces of each other, and each night falling into a steady rhythm.
We don’t only have sex, which is what I imagined originally, though I’m sure that given a week without any obligations, we probably could. I can’t get enough of him and the same seems to be true of him.
Graham takes me to get coffee in the mornings. And if he isn’t there, I find a text on my phone telling me to have a good day and that there’s a coffee waiting at the front desk for me.
Although the mornings have been the same, tonight is a little different.
He texts me before I leave the office and asks me if I want to meet for dinner. I expect someplace too fancy for my work clothes, but he takes me to an Italian place I told him once that I loved. “You really haven’t been here?” I tease over our entrées.
It’s not high-end, but it’s authentic and the atmosphere is amazing. He simply shakes his head, folding the cloth napkin in his lap. With the candles lit on the table and the soft din of conversation around us, I can’t help but think how romantic it feels.
“I usually come with my family. My aunt loves pasta and we’re very close,” I tell him casually and have a sip of the cabernet he ordered. “You should bring your parents.” It’s divine, so delicious that I almost miss his reaction.
Graham glances at me, his eyes guarded. “I see…” He trails off and doesn’t say anything for a few minutes. For the first time, insecurity sweeps through me. It’s sudden, but enough that I feel it in the tips of my fingers. I set the glass down and swallow thickly.
“I’m sorry if I said something out of line.”
“You didn’t.” He twirls his fork over his plate, seeming to decide what to say. “I was close to my parents as well.”
There’s a but at the end of that sentence that Graham doesn’t say.
“My dad died young, and my mother couldn’t live without him. They’re both gone.”
“Oh, Graham.” I reach for his hand across the table and squeeze it. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
He opens his mouth like he might reassure me and say it was a long time ago, but instead he says a quiet thank you.
We sit for a minute. Silverware clinks against plates at the tables around us. Faint noises from the kitchen float out to our table. I wish I could think of something to say but all I can think of is, “I’m happy to be here with you.”
He offers me a smile but doesn't say anything else. I take another sip of wine, attempting to start any conversation.
“I feel awful,” I admit to him and he tells me not to.
“According to a good friend of mine, it’s why I work as much as I do. I wanted to make sure that never happened to me,” Graham continues. “I wanted to make sure I had my life under control. Nobody would be able to run me into the ground.”
He clears his throat and then says, “He says I work too much. I tell him he’s just mad I make more than him.” He attempts to joke, and I smile back at him, letting this admission sink in.
I run my thumb over his knuckles, considering my next words. This arrangement doesn’t mean that we have the kind of relationship where I can comment on his choices. But I’ve seen how he works. I know he pushes himself beyond the regular working hours.
“Do you ever go on vacation?”
He laughs, his blue eyes crinkling. “I live in a penthouse in one of the most beautiful buildings in Manhattan. I’m always on vacation compared to the life my parents had.”
I laugh along with him, but…I understand the sentiment. I get what it’s like to struggle and not have enough money and always worry about making ends meet.
I also know that fixing it is hard work, and it’s the kind of work you can’t keep doing forever. Everybody needs a break sometimes, even if your father’s life was objectively harder.
“Would you ever consider going on a vacation? A real one, I mean.”
I keep my voice casual and take a sip of wine, watching Graham’s face like this is just a getting-to-know-you conversation.
He watches me back, his eyes hot.
“Up until a few weeks ago, I probably wouldn’t have. I don’t see the point of being out of the office when I’m just going to take my work to another location.”
The pause between us suddenly feels charged and even hotter than it did before.
I can feel the flush coming to my face. Hopefully, Graham doesn’t notice how often I blush around him.
It’s not because we’re falling in love or anything, it’s just because he’s incredibly attractive and everything that comes out of his mouth turns me on.
Which might mean we’re falling in love.
Or at least I’m falling in… something with him. Want, maybe. I’m falling into a much deeper want than the beginning, when all I could think about was not getting kicked out of my apartment.
“What about now?”
“Now…” He wets his bottom lip with the tip of his tongue. “Now, I might consider it, if the right offer came along.”
“The right offer?” I question as my brows knit. My pulse feels like it’s going too fast to actually pump blood, and I’m getting lightheaded. If I wanted to know for sure how Graham felt about me, I’d say… if I asked?
But I’m not sure I’m ready to know.
“If the right man asked me if I wanted to go somewhere with him, I’d think about going on a vacation…somewhere,” I offer instead.
Something flickers across his face. “What kinds of places do you like to vacation to? Would you rather ski or lie on the beach?”
I answer with a smile and with the tips of my fingers slipping around the stem of the glass. “Anywhere I can wear a bikini.”
“I like the sound of that. You can’t wear one when you’re skiing, though, so I guess Vail is out.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. They have a lot of hot tubs there. I could spend practically the whole time in a bikini or at the spa while you…play in the snow?” I guess and he laughs, a deep husky laugh that soothes whatever part of me was concerned.
“I enjoy skiing and I do believe there is a spa I could leave you while I ‘play in the snow.’”
The night carried on easily and when it was time to take me home, he did so like a gentleman, leaving me with a kiss and something else that made me feel like we took a small step forward in a direction I didn’t know we would go.
The next week, Graham texts me when I’m in for the evening and I can’t help but to smile.
Graham: Looking at some vacation spots. Can I get your opinion?
Maddie: Of course.
Graham: Come upstairs
Diligently, I take the elevator upstairs to the penthouse. Graham gave me a keycard that lets me onto the top floor, and when I get there, he’s on his comfortable couch where he’s already fucked me half a dozen times, his computer on the coffee table, and he’s looking up places to vacation.
I cuddle in next to him, as I’m getting far too comfortable doing, and he angles his laptop toward me.
“The Virgin Islands,” he says, and scrolls past gorgeous photos of cabanas next to a sparkling blue ocean. “Or there are some places closer that could be fun, and we could spend a week or two enjoying each other.”
My heart does a little twist in my chest, that insecurity very much riding through me again. “A weekend getaway is probably all I could manage right now with my job.”
He glances at me, reading my expression and then nods as if it’s an easy answer.
“A weekend it is then.” Graham scrolls through a few more resort listings. “In this hypothetical vacation, I think we should lie in the sun and enjoy drinks and the sound of the ocean.”
We echoes in my head and makes me hot all over.
“Oh yeah? Is that what we should do?”
“For now…” He closes the laptop, sets it aside, and kisses me. “I think we should relax.”
“Did you realize you were tired?” I ask him and he leaves me a moment, only laughing at my question as he goes to the kitchen. I watch as he opens a bottle of champagne and pours us each a glass.
It’s only after he’s back next to me, each of us sipping the bubbly, that he admits, “I do think I could use a moment to sleep in, and”—he lowers his voice, planting a small kiss on the crook of my neck before whispering in the shell of my ear—“enjoy my investments.”
As I inhale his masculine scent, his eyes reach mine and the kiss we share in that moment is perfect. Everything is perfect with him. It’s almost too good to be true and I find myself hushing that voice in the back of my head.
I anticipate him taking me again, but instead we lie down and relax into each other.
We relax so much that he ends up sprawled on the couch, his arms around me. I let my head rest on his chest and listen to his heartbeat for so long that Graham falls asleep.
He looks younger when he’s sleeping, and it tugs at my heart.
I want to pull the throw blanket over both of us and stay all night, but thoughts race in my mind.
The way he talked about his parents and getting more from his life makes me hesitate. There’s a decent chance he doesn’t want anything serious because of this, and I don’t want to be the one to get in his way.
And…I don’t want to be the one who falls in love too fast.
That little voice in my head says it’s already too late.
I slip out of his arms anyway, tuck the blanket around him, and go back down to the eighth floor. Back down to reality where I can’t sleep because I’m almost certain I’m way in over my head, over my heels, and all the way back around again.