Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
MAISIE
Maisie burst into a fit of giggles when Ted came sulking out of the bathroom, completely unimpressed with the events he’d overheard for the last hour from the other side of that door. One glance at Iain and his bouncing stomach and she knew he was trying not to laugh too. She watched him cross the room and drop the fluffy bed back at the foot of theirs.
In the space of an hour, Iain was a completely different person. Cheeks still rosy from the truly wonderful exertions he’d just delighted her with, he looked so open. He smiled, grinned even, and Maisie’s chest expanded without him needing to even look at her, still hungover in her post-sex haze.
It had been … perfect.
All of her needs, Iain listened to. He hadn’t urged her to do something she wasn’t comfortable with yet – which in truth was the bare minimum she should expect, though more often than not hadn’t been met by men before him. She was a little sore, but the good kind. The kind caused by the afterburn of Iain’s beard scratching over her skin.
And god – his mouth. The way he spoke to her and talked her through everything was just as stimulating as the way he’d used that mouth down between her legs.
There are other ways that we can enjoy one another.
Other ways, indeed.
What had happened between them had been an unconventional surprise. Maisie never expected that Iain’s extremely adequate self – beyond adequate, really – and her would fit together like that so pleasurably. For starters, she’d actually orgasmed. With a man. He’d gotten her there first before letting go himself.
Maisie could count on one hand how many times that had happened to her.
Skin touched by the warm yellow glow of the bedside lamp, Iain moved to the door and peeled back the drape to look outside. What for, Maisie didn’t know. All she knew was that she looked at him with soft eyes and a heart so full of fuzzy feelings it might actually burst out and yell ‘surprise’. Which would be appropriate, because her head still tried to wrap itself around everything that had happened today. She could still smell him all around her on the sheets she’d crawled beneath, body still buzzing with how they’d gotten to this place, as Iain glanced at the darkness.
Neither had wanted to drag themselves away to shower again, which was the perfect excuse for Iain to run a damp cloth all over her sensitive body, wiping up the creamy-white stream he’d left on her stomach with the smug look of a man who was proud of what he’d achieved.
This wasn’t fake anymore.
Iain said he didn’t know when he’d stopped pretending that it was, and neither did Maisie. It was obvious, really, and she’d just been trying to avoid getting her hopes up for the eventuality that he didn’t want her the way she wanted him. But he did, and their feelings were shared and real and …
Maisie flopped back on the bed and smiled so broadly at the ceiling that her cheeks began to hurt. She was purely and utterly happy.
Because she’d found him.
She’d found the one who wouldn’t break her heart.
Fingers curled around her knee and gently jostled her back to the present. She opened her eyes to the sight of Iain smiling down at her, his head cocked and hair ruffled.
Maisie smiled harder.
“I don’t want to leave your side, not for a second,” he said, “but Ted has needs I can’t neglect.”
Her fingers danced through the air to sweep down his arm. “It’s okay.” Ten minutes to silently scream out her giddiness and kick her feet under the duvet were acceptable.
Iain pulled on his boots and coat with his pyjama trousers – a very odd combination to see, especially when he wore no underwear and the outline of him swung beneath the?—
“I’ll be back as quick as I can,” he said before leaving the cabin with Ted in tow.
Maisie forced her eyes upwards to his face. “Mhm.”
The door clicked shut, and her outward glee crashed. The overwhelmingness of how full she felt for the first time in years hit her like a wall. Behind her smile, Maisie held back her emotion as tears.
She wasn’t supposed to cry – these minutes were supposed to be the pleasure-drunk afterglow, but she’d waited for someone like Iain to come along and love her right for so, so long, and now he was here. It felt like someone had just handed her a golden ticket – or a puppy, puppies made her cry – and she couldn’t contain herself.
She visited the bathroom then splashed water on her face, but it didn’t work. She couldn’t help being watery at the emotion of everything that had happened today. There’d been a lot of opening up and setting her heart out on the table – so much risk she’d taken, praying that things would be okay in the end.
Iain was a better man than he’d ever given himself credit for. Her gentle mountain man with a sense of humour, fantastic beard, caring hands, and a penis that made her tremble and shake without even entering her.
This didn’t happen to her.
She was the side plot – the best friend.
She didn’t get the perfect ending.
Well maybe that trope would change now …
Maisie lay back in bed and closed her eyes, letting the emotion sit within her, until she heard boots tread up the steps outside. Ted’s claws clicked their way straight to his bed, the zip of Iain’s coat drew down.
He crawled under the duvet and another shock of emotion made Maisie quietly catch her breath.
“Are you awake?” he whispered.
She sniffled. “Yes.”
Iain shifted behind her, his face appearing by her shoulder. He paused, frowned. “Why are there tears falling, Daffy?” he asked, folding his arm around her waist and hugging her tightly to his chest.
Maisie’s gooey, melting, physical response to his nickname for her which she still hadn’t figured the meaning of, was innate now. She wasn’t sad, and she didn’t know how to make that clear. Happiness had never manifested in her like this.
She couldn’t bring her voice any louder than a hushed – “I might be overwhelmed.”
“Was it too much?” The thread of worry in Iain’s voice as he stroked his thumb back and forth between her breasts was entirely her fault.
“No – no, you were amazing, and you did what I asked,” she said. “I’m just … you don’t know how long I’ve wanted to be held like this.”
Iain tucked his body up against hers, pressing a kiss to her naked shoulder. “So long as you want me to, I’ll hold you all night,” he said. “I promise.”