I laugh. “Oh Louise.”
Connor appears at the table looking hot and bothered. “So what can I get you?”
“Umm…a menu?” Louise replies, sounding exceptionally snarky. I don’t know what’s happened to her manners tonight, or why poor Connor is getting all her wrath.
“Oh I’m sorry,” Connor says, with an equal measure of snark, turning to reach for one at a nearby station. He hands it to her with a flourish and then looks to Michael and I, glancing back at Louise briefly with a look of distain before addressing us with much more warmth. “And for the lady? I take it you’ll be demolishing the usual?”
“I sure will. I'll even share it with these two.”
Louise looks up from her menu. “What’s the usual?”
“It's enough to feed a hungry bear,” I tell her, whipping the menu out of her hands and handing it back to Connor. “She’ll be having the usual too.”
Connor takes the menu back, scribbling on another pad he pulled from his apron. “Very good.” He bows to Louise, heaping on the sarcasm and I love him for it. “Anything else, ma’am?”
She downs the remainder of her two gulp martini and hands him the glass, retrieving the olives as an afterthought and pulling them off the stick with her teeth. “Another drink would be fantastic,” she says around the olives.
“Sure thing.” He takes the glass. “One martini, extra dirty.” He smiles with false sincerity and turns away. “Hold the arsenic for now,” he mutters.
Louise narrows her eyes at the back of him and I smirk and exchange a look with Michael.
Out of habit I take my phone out of my bag and look to see if I have any messages, even though the only two people who usually text me are right here. To my surprise there is a text though. From Rhys.
Rhys: All I can think about with you sitting over there is how good it feels to be in you.
I squeeze my knees together.
“Why are you grinning like a fool at your phone?” Louise asks.
“Umm. No reason.” I look up guilty as hell.
“He’s texting her. I can see him on his phone.” Michael laughs.
Sure enough, another message pops up on my screen.
Rhys: I want to taste you again.
I feel the flutter in my belly and a flush prickles my skin.
“Jesus, you’re blushing.” Louise shakes her head in wonderment.
“Isn’t he in a meeting?” I ask Michael, flatly refusing to give Rhys the satisfaction of turning around.
“His companion must be in the bathroom. He’s alone right now,” Michael confirms.
Me: You’re in a meeting aren’t you?
Rhys: I’m over it already. I’d rather be with you.
I will not turn around. I don’t want him to know how much he affects me. I stare at my phone not knowing how to reply.
“I think we’ve lost her,” Louise tell Michael. I look up guiltily.
“I’m sorry.” I shove my phone back in my bag. “I can catch up with him later.”
“That might be sooner than you think,” Michael informs me. “His friend is back and it looks like they’re wrapping things up.” I watch as Michael not so subtly studies them and then he looks at me suddenly. “Oh shit. He’s coming over.”
We look up collectively when Rhys gets to our booth. He smiles and looks to my friends, rather than to me. “My meeting resolved itself rather quicker than I anticipated and I don’t fancy eating alone. I was wondering if you would have room for one more?”
“Of course,” Michael says right away. “Please have a seat.” He indicates the space beside him and Rhys takes it gladly.
I feel weird pinned in by Louise while Rhys sits across the other side. I feel oddly protective toward him and I can’t reach him from here. I wish he was beside me, but I can be an adult and sit through a meal with him just out of reach. I think.
“So, Rhys. Tell us about how you two got together. Charlotte here is giving us nothing.”
Rhys laughs heartily. “A gentleman doesn’t kiss and tell I’m afraid.”
“Well shit,” she huffs.
I smirk at her, then look at Rhys to find his eyes glittering and a knowing smile on his lips. He’s thinking about last night. I can just tell.
“Oh God, she’s blushing again.”
I nudge Louise. “I am not.”
After that, conversation turns to less personal things. The food, the hit the restaurant is right now, nothing deep. We don’t talk about work or our home lives. It’s light fun. Probably the most fun I’ve had in years. Rhys has hardly taken his eyes off me. I wish I could reach out to him or touch him under the table.
When the check comes, Rhys insists on picking it up. “No, honestly, I crashed your night, it’s the least I can do.” The look of confusion on his face when Michael’s double comes over to take payment is so funny, we all laugh too hard to fight him on it.
I have to stifle a yawn. I barely slept last night after all.
“Tired, kitten?” Rhys asks softly.
Louise’s eyebrows rise up into her hair on hearing the nickname.
I nod, trying to ignore the reaction.
“I can take you home if you like.”
“No need,” Louise says firmly, looking to me pointedly, telling me with her eyes to just go with it. “I’m coming back to your new place like we planned, right?”
I frown. “Oh, uh—yeah.”
She nods encouragingly, once I follow her lead. I’m just not sure what I’m going along with exactly. I don’t know why, but I guess she just settled where Rhys is going after we leave here and that would be not home with me.
“I can see you ladies back anyway, I get off on the same tube stop,” he offers, seeming unaffected by the exclusion.
I look to Michael, feeling like we are leaving him out.
“I have to help Connor close tonight. One of his closers went home sick. It’s the price I have to pay to have this kickass table at my beck and call. So if Rhys doesn’t mind seeing you home I won’t have to worry.”
“It will be my pleasure,” Rhys assures him.
We all stand to leave and Rhys shakes Michael’s hand again. “It was nice meeting you, maybe we can all get together again?”
“Sounds good to me,” Michael agrees. “I had fun tonight.”
Rhys puts his hand on the small of my back as we walk outside. I shiver slightly.
“Would you like my coat?” Rhys whispers in my ear.
“No, I’m not cold, but thank you.”
He gives me a knowing smirk. He knows exactly what he does to me.
We make our way to the tube station and ten minutes later we arrive at our stop. Rhys hasn’t stopped touching me, a graze here, a light kiss there. We walk silently up toward the building and I pause. I’m about ready to get Louise an Uber back to her place.
“This is where I say good night.” Rhys inclines his head then takes a step closer to give me a chaste kiss.
My fingers automatically go to my lips where they burn from his touch.
“Thank you for letting me intrude on your night, kitten.” He takes a step away, I think needing the distance as much as I do.
“Great to meet you, Louise. I’ll see you ladies later.” Those damn butterflies are back.
Louise nudges me with her elbow. “Come on. Let’s get inside.” She throws an arm around my shoulder and turns me toward the door. “I can’t wait to hear all the dirty details,” she adds, low enough for only me to hear.
“Oh give it up,” I groan.
“No, you’ll be giving it up, not me. I want to know everything.”
“Is that why you insisted on coming back here?”
“No, Char. That was because of that overwhelmed deer in headlights look you keep getting while he’s undressing you with his eyes. I think what you need is a night sans dick, to decompress and think straight, or he’s going to chew you up and spit you out.”
“You don’t think he’s right for me?”
<
br /> “I think he’s perfect for you. I just want you to be the dynamite I know you are, not this—” She waves her hand gesturing to the whole of me. “Whatever is happening right now.”
Louise chuckles and locks her arm tighter around me, walking me into the building. I really want to look over my shoulder to see if he is watching us go in.
“Don’t do it,” she whispers.
“Do what?” I hiss back.
“Look to see if lover-boy is watching.”
“I really hate it when you do that.” I press the button for the elevator up.
“I know.” She giggles.
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For knowing what I need.”
“That’s what best friends are for.” She grins. “That and reliving every mind-blowing second of your new and amazing sex life.”
“Oh Lord.”
The elevator dings and we both step into it. I look up just as the doors are closing and Rhys blows me a kiss and winks. God damn he’s sexy.
Sixteen
The past week has dragged. I haven’t seen Rhys since the elevator doors closed on him blowing me that kiss. Some family thing came up and he had to leave town and go back home to Scotland for a few days. He was apologetic, but with things moving so fast, I thought it would do us good to have some time to think.
I was grateful to Louise for forcing me to take a breath that night. If she hadn’t invited herself home with me I would have spent another night tangled in Rhys, and as fantastic as that sounds, I think I would have gotten lost in him to the point where his absence for a whole week would probably leave me insane with self-doubt. Instead, I sat up half the night with my best friend, doing the very thing we were most looking forward to about me moving here and hadn’t yet had the chance to do. Talking.
She made me tell her everything. Ev-er-y-thing! I was already in a dead relationship when she and I first met and in the years since, my sex life went from hardly worth a mention to tumbleweed territory. I’ve never had anything like this to discuss with her. I’ve never needed her advice or reassurance on whether I did or said the right thing, because there was nothing to talk about.
I had thought that I wouldn’t like to share intimate details, because they are just that, intimate. But Louise has this way of pulling them out of you and before I knew what I was doing, I was giving her the play-by-play and hanging on her every word as she coached me through this dating thing.
Face to face girl time is something I have never had. I needed it. It helped put a few things in perspective for me. A relationship with Rhys is nothing more or less than two people seeing if they can give it a go. I shouldn’t hold myself back because I might have regrets and I can’t view it as a life changing and permanent decision because nothing is ever permanent. Louise told me to stop overthinking and second guessing and just let it happen.
I was disappointed when the next day I got a text from him telling me he was at the airport and would be away a few days, since I was ready to try out my new philosophy on life and love. But what I will say for a week of distance is that it has given me a good chance to get to know him better. Our nightly calls and regular texts have given us the space to learn a lot about each other without sex getting in the way.
He absolutely adores his mother and he's close with his brothers. I haven’t asked about what exactly happened to his father, I only know he’s gone and that he died suddenly. I'm sure he will tell me in his own time if he wants to. It obviously hurts him to talk about.
My phone goes off and I glance down and see it’s a message from him.
Rhys: I miss you, kitten.
The message is accompanied by a photo and I swear my heart drops right into my panties. It’s a rugged selfie of Rhys in the mountains. He’s surrounded by the blooms of wild heather. It’s simply breathtaking. He is simply breathtaking.
I stare at the phone and feel myself resisting telling him I miss him too. Has it been long enough to miss him? Then I think of Louise’s advice. I can’t hold myself back because I’ll have regrets. If I miss him too then I should just say so. Still, I don’t mind making him work for it a little, I smirk.
Me: Fishing for compliments?
Rhys: Maybe…
Me: It looks beautiful there.
Rhys: Come with me some time, I think you’d love it.
My stomach flutters at the promise of future trips and I ignore it.
Me: I would. The scenery looks amazing.
Rhys: Just the scenery?
Me: You ARE fishing for compliments.
Rhys: Just tell me you miss me too.
Me: Don’t you think it’s too soon for all of that?
Rhys: Not if it’s true.
I touch my finger to the screen and trace his smile. I do miss him. Will I sound weak if I admit that to him? I swallow hard.
Me: I miss you too.
There’s a knock on my office door and I jump, feeling guilty for daydreaming on the job. I toss my phone in my top drawer. “Come in,” I call out, checking my calendar to make sure I don’t have a meeting I forgot about. The door doesn’t open and I frown.
Another knock sounds and I clear my throat to make sure I’m heard this time. “Come. In,” I enunciate clearly.
Still nothing. I groan, getting up from my desk and walking to the office door. “Yes?” I bark as I pull open the door to reveal Rhys waiting expectantly, twirling a piece of heather between his fingers. My eyes go wide.
“I knew you missed me,” he beams, stepping into the room and closing the door behind him.
Momentarily stunned into silence, I stare at him. The suit is back. He looks so self-assured standing there. So damn sexy. He holds out the heather to me and at once my thoughts of schooling my reception are gone and I throw myself into his arms. “Why didn’t you tell me you were coming back?”
He wraps his arms tightly around me and I let his warmth sink in. “I wanted to surprise you.” He leans back just slightly to look down at me, his intense gaze eating me up. He moves in until his lips brush softly over mine and whispers softly, “I’ve missed you more than I should.” And then he kisses me.
I hum to life and groan with need as he wraps an arm around my waist, bringing me closer to him. I can feel the length of him pressed up against me. He moves me backwards into the room, the backs of my legs bumping into the edge of the desk. Without breaking the kiss he lifts me, sitting me on the desk. He breaks the kiss off, panting. “Next time I’m taking you with me.”
“This is so crazy,” I say in between my gasps.
“I know, I love it.” He leans over me, his hand on the small of my back, and lays me down on the desk. Thankfully it was cleared, because I would have gladly thrown it all to the floor. I try to raise up but he holds me down, deepening the kiss and stepping between my legs.
My skirt rises up my thighs. I reach between us and unbuckle his belt, making quick work of freeing him.
He sucks in a sharp breath as my hand wraps around him. “I wanted to talk,” he gasps. “Take things slow.” His words say the opposite of what his body is telling me. “But it’s going to have to wait, I need to be inside you. Now.”
“Take me.”
“I plan on it.”
He pops the first, then second and third buttons of my blouse, skimming his fingers over the lace of my bra and studying it hungrily. “Mmmm too pretty to be hidden behind clothes,” he murmurs, then dips his fingers inside one of the cups, pulling it down, exposing me to him. The second the cool air hits my sensitive nipple, I arch. He dips his head further and takes it into his mouth, then presses it between his teeth making me groan in pleasure.
“I need you,” I plead, not caring where we are or what could happen. My hands are pulling at his clothes trying to get us skin to skin. He takes them into one of his and pulls them up over my head.
“You had control the first time, kitten, now it’s time for you to see how I like to have control of everything, your
need, your pleasure, your release. I want all of it to happen because of me. I want to give it all to you.”
Something deep inside me melts. “I want to take it.”
Rhys makes an approving sound and with one hand still holding my wrists back, he trails the other down my front. I hook a leg around his hips, my skirt hiking up completely around my waist.
“I’d love to have you naked in my bed, but I can’t wait that long to have you. I have an urgent need for you, kitten.” He reaches between my legs, pressing on my clit through my lace panties.
I whimper. “Please.”
“Hold on to the edge of the desk,” he demands, his voice husky and strained.
The moment my fingers grasp the edge of the desk, he releases my wrists and begins to worship my body with both hands, making me arch up off the desk. He pulls my panties off to one side, the cool air there doing nothing for the heat inside me.
“Please, Rhys.”
“I’m going to take you so fiercely that I’ll have to swallow your screams,” he warns, placing himself right at my entrance. Then he leans over me and in one solid thrust, fills me completely. My mouth opens to express the ecstasy and he’s there, devouring my cries. His tongue matches the rhythm of his hips. I let go of the desk and rake my nails down his back, he grunts and breaks the kiss.
“That’s my kitten,” he growls between thrusts.
I bring him in deeper with my heels. He leans down on the desk and braced by his forearms he peppers my face with kisses as he pumps into me.
“More,” I moan. “I need more.”
“It’ll come, kitten.” His pace feels so good it hurts, but I’m desperate to reach my peak. I try to slip a hand between us for a quicker release, but he takes mine into his and raises them above my head again, holding them there as he gains momentum. “I told you to hold on,” he growls.
I don’t know where I end and he begins, what I do know is how fantastic it feels. I stiffen as I feel the waves of pleasure cresting. My mouth opens to scream and I only get a gasp out as he takes my mouth again in a punishing kiss. He swallows my screams and groans into my mouth as he finds his own release.
We lay against my desk panting for a few moments, as we both try to catch our breath. Then when he finds the strength, he lifts up on his elbows and looks down at me.
Saorsa Page 16
