by Donna Hill
“That medal, it’s for flying, correct?”
“Yes.” He looked at her over the rim of his glass with amusement in his eyes.
“Clearly you would have made an excellent spy because getting information out of you is torture.”
Graham chuckled. “Tell me how you like the steak.”
Alexis rolled her eyes then cut into her steak. She took a bite and actually hummed in pleasure. She chewed slowly to savor every morsel. “Oh my...” she was finally able to manage. “If you ever give up the educational profession you have a career as a chef.”
He chuckled. “I’d thought about it once or twice.”
“I can see why,” she muttered, talking around her food. “Is that Wynton Marsalis playing?”
“You have a good ear.”
“I have a lot of his music. But I don’t think I’ve heard this one before. I just recognize his intonations.”
“It’s from one of his early recordings.”
She slowly bobbed her head to the music while sipping her wine. She set her glass down. “You seem to have quite a repertoire—navy pilot, multilingual, talented cook, well-read, educated, well traveled...”
He slid out of his seat, picked up their dishes and put them in the sink. He refilled their glasses. “I think you’re leaving something out.”
“Hmm, what might that be?”
“That I’m at my best when I’m making love to you.” He stared right into her soul.
Warmth flooded through her as if she’d slipped into a hot tub.
His lids lowered a bit over his eyes giving them a smoldering look. He reached out and ran the tip of his finger along her jaw and then up across her bottom lip.
She held her breath.
“Do you dance?” he asked so quietly that she nearly missed his question, which took her completely off guard.
She blinked back her surprise. “Um, yes.”
“Good.” He took her hand, helped her down off the stool and led her to the center of the room.
A classic Nancy Wilson tune was playing softly, “Tonight May Have to Last Me All My Life.” He pulled her close and effortlessly glided and swayed with her across the floor. The feeling of being held in his arms like this was as sensual as foreplay. Their bodies moved as one, the music swelled, the words mesmerized.
Alexis closed her eyes and rested her head on his chest. The steady beat of his heart underscored the rhythm and pulse of Nancy’s voice.
She wished she had the words to explain how Graham made her feel. When he touched her it was akin to awakening from a deep and prolonged sleep and feeling alive for the very first time. Like now as his fingertips grazed her face and along the hollow of her throat causing a tremble to roll along her spine. Their dance was as much a physical concerto as it was an erotic symphony. Their movements teased and taunted and aroused until it was like the act of sex itself.
The music came to a soulful end but they continued to move together so slowly, holding each other to the tune that they’d created.
Graham dipped his head to look down at her. Alexis’s eyes fluttered open, she lifted her head from his chest and in that instant that they connected she felt full, complete and awash with a joy that eclipsed anything she’d ever felt before and it terrified her.
Without a word, he took her hand and led her down the staircase to his bedroom.
Her heart thundered in her chest. She felt like she was going to a boy’s room for the first time while his parents weren’t home. It was scary and exhilarating all at once.
Her eyes slowly adjusted to the dimmer lighting. A king-size bed dominated the room that was another reflection of Graham’s fine taste in furnishings with a distinctive masculine touch.
She figured his entire apartment must be wired for sound as she heard the faint strains of music softly enveloping them and there was no sign of a stereo system in the room.
“Let me make you more comfortable,” Graham said to her. He lifted the hem of her tank top and pulled it up and over her head. He tossed in onto a side chair near the corner of the room. His eyes burned across the rise of her breasts. He lowered his head and placed a hot kiss in the valley before sliding the straps of her bra over her shoulders then unsnapping the hook in the back.
She eased out of it, letting it drop to the floor and relished in the gaze of admiration that beamed from his eyes when he looked at her.
His hands lowered to her waist and then guided her back toward his enormous bed. She plopped down on it, then scooted up to the top. He did a slow crawl on his hands and knees until he was perched above her.
“You made it very difficult for me to keep my hands off of you today,” he said in a voice laced with desire.
“Did I?” she replied coyly.
He flicked his tongue across her nipple. She hissed in air through her teeth.
“Yes.” He did the same to the other before drawing one into his mouth. Her back instinctively arched. Her eyes slammed shut. “And I think it was very unfair of you to be so close...” He kissed her mouth. “And still so far.” His arm slid down between their bodies and his fingers found their way around the band of her running pants and began to pull them down while she helped by wiggling out of them, leaving her in just her black thong.
Graham groaned low in his throat. “I want to imagine that this is what you always wear under your clothes.” He caressed the curve of her hip and down the inside of her thighs with his thumbs. Her skin fluttered beneath his fingertips. He cupped her sex in his palm and gently massaged her until she was wet with wanting.
He moved down her body, dropping hot kisses along the path of her flesh. He kissed the inside of her legs, behind her knees along her calves and back up until he reached the apex of thighs. She was hot and moist. He pressed his lips against her damp thong and gently nibbled.
She gasped. Her hips writhed. She gripped the sheets in her fists.
He delved deeper—using his tongue and his teeth—against the strip of near-sheer fabric that was more of a turn-on for them both than a barrier.
She spread her legs and bent her knees, giving herself over to him as he sought his treasure.
The intensity grew within her as his rhythm quickened. He gripped her hips to keep her from bucking too wildly, as he licked and sucked and hummed against her wet heat.
Her head spun and her heart raced so rapidly that she was sure she would pass out. The tingling and tensing of her muscles began on the bottom of her feet and crept up the back of her legs, settled and gripped her cheeks, spread across her stomach, up through her chest, out to her arms, then reversed its course and became trapped in her center, throbbing and pulsing and begging for release. He shoved his tongue inside her and the world stopped spinning. She was suspended in a vortex of unimaginable sensations that shook and shook and shook her while she screamed his name over and again and tears squeezed out of her eyes and her body jerked with jolts of pleasure.
“That’s only the beginning,” he murmured against her and slowly made his way up her body.
Chapter 13
Graham braced himself between her legs. He rose up on his knees, grabbed her hips firmly in his large palms and pushed deep inside her in one long, hard stroke.
All the air rushed from her lungs. She wasn’t ready. She wasn’t ready. The last wave of her orgasm still rolled through her when he entered. Her insides instantly convulsed in response, gripping him, sucking him in. There was nothing she could do to hold back the dam that was ready to burst. Their bodies had wills of their own and all they sought was satisfaction.
They moved together giving and taking, in and out, fast and slow, faster, harder, more, longer. Enough! Enough! Now. Now. Yesss!
* * *
“Are you okay?” Graham gently asked against the shell of her ear.
He smiled, threw his arm across her hip and closed his eyes.
* * *
She hadn’t realized she’d fallen asleep until Graham shifted his body in the bed and she slowly rose from a deep, sweet slumber. She blinked, trying to focus in the dark. The blue light of the digital bedside clock showed 1:00 a.m. They’d actually slept for hours and even though it was truly the middle of the night she felt utterly refreshed and starved.
She took a quick peek at Graham and gently extricated herself from his embrace, eased out of the bed and the room. She tiptoed up the steps to the kitchen in search of a snack.
Turning on the light she went to the fridge, opened it and stepped back in shock. The restaurant-styled double-door stainless-steel refrigerator was packed from front to back, top to bottom. She blinked and blinked. Every cold item one could imagine lined the shelves.
Curious she crossed the kitchen space and opened the door of the pantry and that nearly took her breath away. The cabinets from top and bottom were also loaded. And she was sure that the deep freezer would be packed, as well.
Admittedly she’d seen the voluminous amounts of food he’d purchased at the supermarket. At the time she simply chalked it up to him not having done any food shopping due to his travel schedule. But clearly that was not the case. This was an accumulation over time. It was just so odd.
She pulled open the drawer of the vegetable bin and took out an apple. She diced it into pieces, got some peanut butter from the cabinet and spread it on the slices. She took her plate of peanut butter-coated apples and sat down at the island. She picked up one of her treats and chewed it slowly, thoughtfully. It was just so odd, she thought again. If it had been anything other than fresh, edible food, and neatly stored, he could potentially be a candidate for an episode of Hoarders. The show was one of her guilty pleasures. Having watched it so often she was a pseudo expert on the myriad of reasons why people keep or buy an overabundance of “stuff.”
Generally, if they weren’t plain crazy, the hoarding was to compensate for some loss or to fill some void. She chewed another apple slice.
The crunching of the apple muffled the sound of Graham’s approach. All of a sudden he was right behind her.
“I woke up and you were gone.” He kissed the back of her neck. He slid onto the stool next to her and snatched up one of the apple slices. “One of my faves.”
“You, um, have a lot of food,” she said, quietly emphasizing each word.
His jaw slowed. He put what was left of the apple back on the plate.
Alexis watched an array of emotions play across his face, finally settling on closed and shut down.
Graham pushed back from the counter and slowly stood. “I’m going back to bed. Be sure to turn out the lights.” He turned and walked away, leaving Alexis to wonder what in the world had just happened.
* * *
When she returned to the bedroom, Graham was on his side so that his back was to her. She sat on the side of the bed.
“Would you rather that I leave?”
He inhaled deeply and expelled a long breath. “Your decision.”
Her insides twisted.
“But I would rather that you didn’t.” He turned onto his back, tucked his hands under his head and stared up at the ceiling. “It’s not something...it’s complicated.”
She reached out and tenderly placed her hand on his chest. “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to.”
He pressed his lips together. “We... There was never enough. Always fighting over scraps. Waking up day after bloody day with hunger pains so deep in my belly that it could never be filled.”
“While you lived in England...I thought you lived with relatives.”
His jaw tightened. He closed his eyes. “That’s partially true. My mum shipped me off when I was two, like I said. I lived with my aunt. I didn’t know until years later that she’d been lying to the family about how well she was doing. She was dirt-poor, on the dole with four kids of her own. Half the time there were no lights, no heat in winter.” He slowly shook his head. “I’ll never forget how cold I was. I didn’t ever think I would be warm.”
“Didn’t your mother come to see you? Didn’t she ever find out what was going on?”
“I never saw my mother again until I turned seventeen.”
Her heart twisted in her chest. She remained silent without making any further comment, not even to fill in the echoes of intermittent silence. She sensed that this revelation from Graham was a major turning point in their very new relationship. He was entrusting her with a dark part of his soul and she knew in her heart that she would never betray that trust, no matter what the ultimate outcome of their relationship.
“At least a couple of times a year I was placed in a foster home—different people, schools, environments,” he said in a faraway voice. “I never knew what or who I could count on or for how long. I didn’t dare form any attachments because I knew that as soon as I did they would be gone.” He sighed heavily.
Alexis couldn’t fathom how a mother could do that to her own flesh and blood—to her child, any child. The concept was so far removed from her own reality because of the close bond that she’d had with her mother. Of course, she knew about and had seen destructive relationships between parents and their children but that didn’t make it any easier to swallow.
“You asked about my mother,” he said in a voice that came from far away. Alexis held her breath. “For much of my youth I didn’t know what to think. I knew my aunt wasn’t my mother. She didn’t love me or show me any affection.” The words hung in the air and she longed to gather him in her arms and promise him that it would never hurt like that again. But the cold stiffness of his body language, the feeling that he had turned inward screamed “don’t touch me, I don’t need your pity,” even as the ragged edge of his words seemed to say something different.
“I didn’t know until years later that she’d always known what was going on. I remember going to bed at night and praying that my real mother would come and get me. She never did.”
Tears stung her eyes, but she vowed that she would not cry.
“So there you have the whole sordid tale of my young, tortured life,” he said, the sarcasm adding to the sting of his words. He slowly turned his head to look at her and his eyes raked over her face as if seeing her for the first time. “I’ve never told anyone that story before. No one other than Blake,” he said, almost as if he was surprised by his own revelations.
“Thank you for trusting me,” she said, softly.
He took his hand from behind his head and reached out to cup her cheek. “I think that maybe it means something, eh?”
A shadow of a smile teased her thoroughly kissed lips. “Could be the start of something.”
He grinned and the light came back on in his eyes. He drew her to him. “Could be,” he murmured against her mouth. “And just so that you know, I actually have Milton come up twice a month and ship most of it off to shelters and family safe houses.”
She grinned. “So there’s no need for an intervention.”
“The only thing I need help with,” he said, turning her onto her back, “is not wanting you every minute of the day.”
Chapter 14
When the sun came up they both fought the urge to stay in bed and keep talking throughout the day, but that was out of the question. And although he still had not said anything to Alexis about Tracy’s surprise visit, he didn’t want to feed any flames by both he and Alexis being out at the same time that was not clearly business related.
Instead they got up at dawn, did a quick wash up
and went jogging before returning to their own apartments to get ready for the day and made sure that they arrived separately to the office.
* * *
Alexis virtually hummed her way through her morning. She had an extra bounce in her step and a smile or a good word for everyone, and even Tracy’s extra chilly attitude didn’t bother her in the least during the impromptu staff meeting that she’d called. She wanted to bring everyone up to speed on the current projects, get any input or suggestions and to remind them once again that her door was always open.
When the meeting broke up, Alexis asked Tracy if she could hang behind for a few minutes. She acted as if she was going to protest, but apparently thought better of it.
She remained seated and tapped her foot impatiently while the staff filed out. Once everyone was gone, Alexis pulled up a chair and sat right in front of Tracy, so close in fact that it startled her. She blinked back her surprise.
Alexis leaned forward, stared right into her light brown eyes. “I know you have your place here and that you’ve worked hard to get where you are. I’ve read your file. You’re talented. But here’s the deal. I’m here now. You may not like it or like me, and that’s okay. But you will respect me as I will respect you. We’re both adults here so let’s dispense with the eye rolling, the mumbling and snide comments. There’s no room for that. I won’t sit back and be undermined by the people that I work with, no matter what their title is. I’m more than happy to find a way to make it easy...or not. That’s up to you.”
She leaned back, never once taking her eyes off Tracy.
Tracy’s throat worked up and down as if she wanted to spit something out but thought better of it. She let out a soft breath and lifted her chin.
“I’m sorry if I gave you the impression that I was being difficult.” She swallowed. “It won’t happen again.”
Alexis knew that if Tracy had the chance to snatch her up by the collar and could get away with it, she would. Unfortunately, that option wasn’t on the table. She pushed back in her chair and stood, effectively ending the tête-à-tête. “As I said, my door is always open.”
