‘Yes,’ she answered breathlessly.
‘How about if I tell you I want to slide a hand into your knickers to see how wet you are? To sink some fingers inside you while my thumb strums your clit and brings you to a fast climax?’
‘Definitely,’ she replied with a groan, her gaze dropping to my crotch. She didn’t need verbal confirmation that I was turned on, even without looking myself I knew that it was obvious.
‘Or if I tell you that I want your legs over my shoulders as I bury my face in your pussy and lick you into a frenzy?’
‘Castle, less painting, more doing,’ she demanded.
‘You want me in control tonight, Tiger?’ She bit her lower lip and nodded and my cock surged. Last night had been a revelation. I’d enjoyed the rare power exchange, but taking control was something I always relished. ‘Stand up and take off your dress. Slowly.’
‘Can I turn the lights out?’
‘No, because I’ve seen it all and there’s nothing to be ashamed of.’
‘Castle …’ she hesitated and her fingers moved into her lap and started to twist around themselves. It was her tell, a sign of her nerves, I needed to take this more slowly. She’d spent years being ashamed of her body, that wasn’t going to change overnight just because I’d told her that none of that mattered to me.
I leaned forwards and kissed the dip in her clavicle, laying a trail of kisses along it until I reached the crook of her neck. She tipped her head to the side to let me nuzzle it, and let out a pleasurable sigh. Kissing my way up to her ear, I put a hand on her knee and slowly slid it up her leg and under her dress.
‘Open up for me,’ I breathed in her ear. Her thighs parted immediately and I moved higher, grazing my fingertips over the damp material of her knickers. ‘So wet, already.’
‘Yes,’ she groaned. ‘I’ve never been like this.’
‘Just for me?’ I asked, my chest swelling with pride when she nodded her agreement. ‘I’m going to–’
‘Daddy,’ Rosie wailed as I heard her thudding down the stairs. ‘I’ve been sick all over Bear and he’s really upset, some of it’s gone in his tummy hole.’
‘Fuck!’ I quickly straightened up and pulled my hand out from under Alex’s skirt and she giggled. That was my night of pleasure over. Balancing being a single dad and an attentive, and satisfied, lover, was obviously going to take some careful scheduling and practice.
So much for spontaneity.
Chapter Fourteen
Alex
AFTER A FUN AFTERNOON and early dinner, it was hard to walk away after Castle had announced it was time to put Rosie to bed. Things were moving fast, but we felt it wasn’t appropriate to set the expectation that I was going to suddenly be a constant in her life, or partaking in all of her daily routines. She’d been close to tears when I’d left them both, to head back down to the beach house, and it had hurt my heart to do it, too.
I distracted myself as I stood back from my finished landscape of the cove where the seaplane jetty was, and cast an appraising eye over it, hoping that Castle would be pleased. I’d settled into my own routine in the month that I’d been here. Rising early to spend the morning painting, my lunchtime sessions with Ester, then training with Castle. It was the evenings that were uncertain and unpredictable. But that was proving to be surprisingly therapeutic. I was looking forward to a trip to Tortola shopping tomorrow, where I intended to buy a swimsuit that covered my scars so that Castle could teach me how to swim again. I couldn’t stay here surrounded by water but unable to enjoy it. Monday I’d be back to work, with the next of his chosen vistas to paint.
‘Work, goddamn it,’ I winced. I’d been so distracted, I hadn’t checked in with the gallery for over a week. I checked the world clock on my mobile, we were only four hours ahead, they should both still be at work. I lay down on the bed on my stomach, my feet in the air locked at the ankles, as I pressed the call button.
‘Well, about bloody time,’ Tom stated as his face appeared on my screen, then Janice’s squeezed into view over his shoulder as she grinned and waved. ‘We thought you’d been eaten by sharks or something!’
‘FaceTime works both ways, you know,’ I reminded him with a gentle laugh.
‘Like I’m paid enough to afford to call the bloody Virgin Islands.’
‘It’s free on the gallery’s internet service,’ Janice said, shaking her head as she flicked it at him with a “What’s he like” expression on her face.
‘Seriously? It’s free?’ Tom uttered.
‘Yes,’ we both chorused. ‘It’s free anywhere you have Wi-Fi,’ I added.
‘I thought it was called Whiffy,’ he frowned.
‘You see what I have to put up with?’ Janice complained. ‘Please come back soon, I can’t take much more.’
‘You can’t? At least you don’t have a three-hour run down on what my pet got up to the night before, in graphic detail, then a two-hour moaning session that you’re single. Ermmm hello, crazy cat woman, not surprised!’
‘You love Fluffy-poo,’ Janice objected.
‘I don’t give a shit about Fluffy-poo, darling. And while we’re talking shit, it needs a new name.’
‘God, I’ve missed you both,’ I laughed, memories of listening to their snarky banter filling me with warmth.
‘Obviously not enough, seeing how it’s been days since you bothered to FaceMime us.’
‘FaceTime,’ Janice and I corrected.
‘Stop with the IT lessons. All I want to hear about is whether sex on a stick has breached the ice maiden’s defences. Owww, what was that for?’ Tom complained as Janice smacked him up the side of the head.
‘We had a whole conversation about not pushing her for answers, and being respectful, that wasn’t what we discussed.’
‘She’s right, I apologise,’ Tom said. ‘We did discuss how big we thought his cock was though.’
‘Tom!’ Janice and I said in unison.
‘Well we did, this much detail?’ he asked, holding his hands a decent length apart.
‘More,’ I smiled, then laughed as they both whooped and high-fived each other.
‘Someone call David Attenborough, he needs to do one of those fancy nature reports on the sudden melting of the Alex Bishop ice cap. The world’s going to be in peril from the sudden rise in sea levels. So, how was it?’ Tom asked, his face moving closer to the screen as he waggled his eyebrows, Janice leaning in too.
‘I called to talk about work,’ I reminded them.
‘And you’re making it feel like very hard work by not sharing,’ Tom said. ‘I want deets now, in graphic blow-by-blow description.’
‘Nicely punned,’ Janice grinned, tapping the side of her head against his, making me shake mine in despair.
‘Come on, you have to give us something,’ Tom pressed.
‘Your wages?’
‘Leave her be, she obviously doesn’t want to discuss it,’ Janice told him, mouthing “Call me” as she lifted her thumb and little finger to her mouth.
‘It was–’ I hesitated, trying to come up with the words to convey just how amazing it had felt. They deserved something.
‘Incredible, mind-blowing, incomparable, and hopefully repeatable,’ came Castle’s voice from behind me, making me squeal with surprise. Tom and Janice let out a dreamy sigh as he appeared in the small square window on my screen.
‘How about I call you back in the morning to discuss work,’ I said firmly to them both.
‘No objections if you want to keep the line open,’ Tom countered as Janice blew me a kiss.
‘Goodnight, Tom, night, Janice,’ I replied, quickly cutting them off, before looking over my shoulder to see Castle peeling off his shirt. ‘Repeatable?’
‘You focus on that instead of the incomparable?’ he asked, his fingers moving to the button on his trousers.
‘Finding it suddenly hard to focus on anything, right now,’ I confirmed, as I rolled over and sat up on the edge of the bed, my heart drumming out
an unsteady beat in my chest. I heard a gasp leave my lips as he dropped his cargos to reveal he was naked underneath them, and standing to attention already. I couldn’t take my eyes off him. I’d never had the luxury of studying the naked male form in detail, nor had I really wanted to. But all of a sudden, coastal landscapes didn’t seem as important as wanting to paint the view in front of me.
‘No restraints tonight, Alex. But we’ll take this slow.’
‘How … how slow?’ I asked, trying to wet my lower lip, but finding my mouth was dry.
‘Painfully slow, starting with you looking, then touching.’
‘I can touch you?’ I asked, eager to run my hands over every inch of him, and there were plenty of inches for me to explore. I’d only been allowed to touch Richard when he barked an order at me, and it had been anything but pleasurable. Not to mention the lack of kissing, unless he was holding my head, forcing his mouth onto mine. Kissing Castle had been soft and tender, then hungry and demanding, passionate, and greedy, but most of all it had been wanted, needed, and craved. Just like I craved it now. ‘And … And … I can kiss you?’
‘Yes, and when you’re done I want you to undress while I return the favour.’
‘Naked?’ I couldn’t swallow the anxiety in my parched throat and took a step away from him instead.
‘Yes, naked, how I’ve already seen you. How I already want you,’ he replied, closing the gap by taking a step towards me. ‘Your eyes are telling me what you want, Alex, and it’s not for me to leave.’
‘I don’t want to … kneel and …’ my gaze dropped to his erection. I tried to recall a time that I’d once enjoyed taking one in my mouth, because I had a vague recollection that I did, but it was difficult with so many memories since that tarnished it.
‘That’s okay,’ he said, his voice full of patience and understanding, making my eyes well with emotion. ‘Your pace, Tiger. I’ve laid the foundations, you build the picture. But I can see the hunger in your eyes, and your body betrays your reticence. Tune in to how you’re really feeling, the way your nipples have formed peaks against your bra, the way you’re shifting your weight to accommodate how swollen your pussy is. You don’t have to touch yourself to know how wet you are, do you?’
‘No,’ I breathed, because I was. So, so wet at the thought of touching him again, feeling him inside me as I shattered into a thousand tiny fragments of pure bliss. I stepped forward and tentatively reached out my hands, placing them on his pecs. His chest rose and fell slowly as I moved my palms, exploring, caressing, marvelling at the beauty of his body. When I ran my thumbs over his nipples, he inhaled sharply and his chest heaved faster.
I closed the gap between us and kissed his throat, slowly making my way down his chest to take a nipple into my mouth. Sucking on it, I lashed it with my tongue the way he’d done to me the other night. A strangled groan left his mouth, his hands bunching into tight fists at his side. My gaze quickly flicked up to his face as my adrenaline spiked, but there was no anger on it, just pure ecstasy as he gazed down at me, his eyes hooded and sleepy looking.
Moving to his side, I kissed his bicep as I explored his stomach. Flat and muscular, the skin in the dip of his hips so soft. I moved to his back and swept my palms all the way up, his powerful shoulders flexing, rippling under my touch as I lay a trail of soft kisses up his spine.
‘Killing me,’ he whispered, when I trailed the tip of my tongue back down it and my hands reached to cup the tight muscular globes of his backside. When my hands ran around his sides and palmed his stomach, then moved lower, he inhaled sharply and looked up at the ceiling with an audible gulp.
My fingers wandered, with no fear from this vantage point. I might not be able to see what I was doing, but I could feel. His hair was clipped short and neat and circled his thick root. My right hand enveloped him, forcing him to grunt and his buttocks to tighten as I weighed him in my palm. Hot steel wrapped in the softest of velvets. I moved up his shaft, his breathing coming hard and fast now, testing the tip of his cock with my thumb. He was wet too, and when I rubbed it around his crown I heard him groan my name.
‘Help me,’ I whispered against his back as I wrapped my fingers around him and started to move them up and down. I’d never done this before. I’d been forced to watch before, but never allowed to touch. I wanted to do something to please him. I felt his hand gently curve around mine and he separated my fingers with his own and began to slide them up and down his shaft. My breathing fell into synchronicity with his as our hands moved in tandem, my lips ghosting kisses across his back as he groaned and various expletives left his mouth.
‘I’m going to come if you keep … Jesus, I have no control around you.’
‘I want you to come,’ I replied, taking mental notes on how he tightened and relaxed his grip, the way he varied the strokes and speed. His left hand reached for mine, which was resting on his hip, and pulled it around and down, curling my fingers around his balls as our right hands started to move faster.
‘Yes, yes … oh fuck, yes,’ he grunted. ‘Alex I’m … I’m …’
His voice cracked as I felt his whole body tense and his balls tighten in my palm. His hips jerked and shuddered as I felt warmth coating my fingers, his back coated with a sheen of perspiration which I licked and savoured. His taste was so raw and masculine. I breathed him in, intoxicated and incredibly turned on. He held both of my hands in place with his as his erratic breathing slowed.
‘Was that okay for you?’ I asked nervously as I kissed his back again.
‘Fuck, yes,’ he rasped. ‘I need to use your bathroom.’
I let him go and he quickly walked away, making my heart stall. I wanted sex with him to be more than just a need to get off. I wanted it to mean something.
When he walked back in carrying a wet facecloth and gently cleaned my fingers, then kissed each one as he held my gaze, it jump-started my heartbeat again.
‘Does your no oral rule apply to me feasting on you?’ he asked, making my core clench and water as I silently shook my head. Shaz had told me all about oral sex and how good it was, but I’d never experienced it. ‘You have no idea how happy I am to hear that news, but first I need to kiss you.’
I didn’t get a chance to agree before his mouth collided with mine, his hands moving to clutch my backside as he pulled me tightly against his body. My stomach came alive as thousands of butterflies started to soar inside me, while frissons of electricity sizzled my lips, my tongue, my skin, anywhere his touch reached. I let out a throaty moan as I reached up to weave my fingers into his hair and gently tug it, trying to keep his mouth fused to mine for as long as possible. I could die kissing him, I felt like I’d die without his kisses. They made me feel so treasured and desirable. And hot, incredibly hot.
‘Castle,’ I moaned as we broke our lip lock to breathe, our foreheads resting against each other’s.
‘What do you need, Tiger, tell me.’
‘I want to feel you touching me.’
‘Where?’ he breathed huskily as he went straight for that spot on the side of my neck that made me melt.
‘Everywhere.’
‘Naked, now,’ he ordered, slowly backing away.
I raised my trembling fingers to the buttons on my blouse. You could never leave the past behind if you didn’t start moving forwards, Ester had told me. Well this was me, taking my first steps. Castle just watched, his hands by his sides as I parted the blouse and let it slide down my arms to reveal the delicate white lace bra I was wearing. I only had one nice set of matching underwear that I wore when I needed a confidence boost, and I was in need of one today.
Reaching behind me I fumbled with the button of my skirt, then tugged at the zip and took a deep breath as I pushed it down to reveal the white lace French knickers, which didn’t quite cover the scars on my stomach. I watched his eyes, looking for a flicker of repulsion, but found nothing there but admiration, and heat. I stepped out of my skirt and went to kick off my high heels, but he sho
ok his head.
‘Leave those on, I love the way they make your legs look even longer.’
‘You promised to touch me.’ It almost came out a plea, I was yearning to feel the soft pads of his fingers caressing my flesh, even sliding inside me, but he shook his head again.
‘I want you naked first, Alex. You have nothing to be ashamed of or embarrassed about. You can see how much you affect me,’ he advised and flicked his gaze down, dragging mine with it. His cock was hard again, his wide, rugby-player thighs parted in a dominant stance as we faced each other.
Using his arousal to feed my confidence, I slid the straps of my bra down my arms and reached behind me to unhook it, letting it fall to the floor. His hand moved without hesitation to squeeze himself as he watched my chest heaving. I blinked back some tears as I wriggled my hips and pulled the white material of my knickers over them and let them drop to the ground, stepping out of them and to the side, baring myself to him completely, body and soul.
‘Jesus, Alex,’ he exclaimed. ‘You really are a tiger, you have no idea how much strength you have and what a turn on that is for me.’
‘Really?’ I asked, needing confirmation as I felt myself tremble under his scrutiny.
‘Really, and got to say, while I think a bush that thick went out in the seventies, I’m kind of turned on looking at that, too.’
‘Shut up!’ He made me laugh and want to throw a cushion or something at him for teasing me, but I loved the way he was grinning. I stopped laughing as he slowly moved towards me, making my breath hitch in delicious response.
‘Perfect,’ he whispered, as he placed both hands under my breasts to find they were moulded to fit his palms. ‘Just fucking perfect.’
I inhaled sharply as he slowly circled my already painfully stiff nipples with his thumbs, biting down on his lower lip in concentration, moments before his head dipped and he took one into his mouth. I gasped and my gaze shot down to meet his as he looked up at me while he sucked one gently, the fingers of his left hand tugging at my other.
‘Oh, I …’ I liked it, it was as if my nipples had a direct hotline to my clit. The more he played with them, sucked and gently started to nibble them, the more I pulsated, the wetter I became. ‘No,’ I cried, when he stepped back and straightened up.
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