After the Storm (All I've Ever Needed)

by Moore, Jewel

  “No!” she protested, cupping the back of his head and trying to keep him in place.

  He resisted and made his way downwards, dipping his tongue into the hollow of her navel and continuing southwards. He slipped the V of her thong aside and found her neatly trimmed but not shaved, and was surprised how arousing he found the sight. That was the odd thing about sexual desire, he’d discovered, it was more aroused by difference than it was to familiarity. Every woman he’d slept with in the last eight years had been totally shaven. Being Brazilian, Renata had been particularly obsessed about being totally hair free at all times.

  Natalie wriggled and made a soft sound of embarrassment and he realized that he’d been staring at her.

  Lowering his head he gently flicked his tongue against her clit. She reacted as though she’d received an electric shock, gasping aloud and trying to close her legs.

  Stephano smiled and settled himself more comfortably between her thighs.

  ***

  Natalie tried to be silent but couldn’t help the little hissing noises that escaped her lips. The pleasure was so intense it bordered on pain. She wanted him to stop…she wanted him to go on forever. Michael had done this once, the first time they’d had sex, but it had been brief and his tongue hadn’t been as talented. And no, he hadn’t slipped it up inside her…

  “Stop!” She reached downwards and grasped a handful of Stephano’s hair, trying to dislodge him.

  It he didn’t stop this instant she would…

  Too late!

  Her body convulsed as her orgasm exploded through her. She grasped handfuls of the duvet as her back arched off the bed and her toes curled painfully.

  “Stop!” she begged weakly as Stephano continued to softly arouse her.

  It was too much!

  He gave her one last soft kiss and stood up to ease the thong down her legs.

  “Get under the duvet,” he told her as he stripped his dark blue boxers off.

  She slipped under the covers and watched as he retrieved his trousers and quickly slid a condom onto his rigid length.

  “This time I’m prepared,” he murmured against her lips as he joined her, slipping his leg between hers and reaching down to caress her softly. He slid two fingers inside her and groaned, “God, you’re so tight, cara mia.”

  Natalie buried her face against his neck as he continued to gently stretch her. She was aware that she wasn’t doing much, but Michael had furious with her the one time she had tightened her hand around him while she was stroking him and made him come prematurely. She ran her hand over Stephano’s chest and felt his small nipple tighten at her caress.

  “Yes touch me, sweetheart,” he groaned.

  Encouraged by his response she ran her hand down the ripples of his washboard stomach and over his soft pubic hair. After a momentary hesitation, she closed her hand softly around his erection. It surged into further hardness and she almost let it go it surprise. She ran her fingers up and down its length slowly, marveling that she could feel its smoothness and hardness even through the latex.

  “Yes. Yes,” Stephano groaned and thrust himself slightly back and forth, as she unconsciously increased the speed of her caressing hand.

  Turning onto his back, he pulled her on top of him and asked, “Do you want to take control this time?”

  Take control? In what way?

  “Why?” she asked, hoping that he would elaborate.

  “I don’t want to hurt you like the last time, cara.”

  “You won’t,” she assured him, hoping that she was right. It hadn’t been that bad the first time really—just unexpected.

  “You do it, sweetheart.”

  “Do what?”

  “Join us,” he answered.

  He held her gaze as she sat up and reached downwards, grasped hold of him and placed him at her entrance. Holding her hips firmly he guided her softly down onto him.

  She closed her eyes and bit her bottom lip as he filled her.

  “Do you want me to stop, cara?”

  She opened her eyes and found him looking up at her in concern.

  “No,” she replied hastily. “It feels good!”

  With a triumphant laugh, Stephano held her against him and quickly reversed their positions. He clasped her hands and held them against the bed above her head as he surged inside her. He watched her eyes widen first in surprise and then pleasure as he started to thrust.

  He leaned down and kissed her deeply as she brought her long legs up and wrapped them around his hips. He kept his pace even, not going as hard or as deep as he would have liked. But this was just the beginning of a night of lovemaking he hoped.

  He bent his head and took Natalie’s left nipple between his lips and she suddenly started circling her waist, moving her groin in counterpoint to his.

  Stephano felt his control instantly slip. He gritted his teeth and tried to hold his orgasm back, but let go when he realized that Natalie was there before him, gasping his name and arching under him. With two fast, deep thrusts, he spilled himself into the condom.

  ***

  A tiny sliver of sunlight filtered through a gap in her heavy bedroom drapes as Natalie woke up spooned by Stephano. His arm was heavy around her waist and she felt so happy it brought instant tears to her eyes. She had never woken up with Michael in bed with her. He’d said that he wasn’t used to sharing a bed and couldn’t sleep with someone next to him. She’d believed him and hadn’t known what she’d missed until this moment.

  Sex with Michael had been okay, with nothing to compare to; with Stephano it had felt the way it was described in romance novels. Stephano had acted as though his only thought was pleasing her.

  She and Stephano had talked and made love, talked some more and then made love again before he’d fallen asleep.

  She had wanted to ask him about the other woman a thousand times, but hadn’t wanted the perfection of the night of happiness she’d decided to grab for herself. If he told her the truth about the woman, it would hurt too much. If he lied, it would hurt even more.

  Long after he had fallen asleep, she had lain in the darkness, wrapped in his muscular arms, breathing in his familiar scent, listening to the sound of his breathing and crying because her heart was breaking.

  She wished she could accept what he was able to offer her.

  She had tried to hold something back—not give too much of herself as they’d made love, but her love had been like a river bursting its banks, unstoppable.

  Women shared men all the time, she knew, but she was greedy—she wanted all of him, or none at all. She couldn’t share him. Tonight as he touched her, reverently like she was a fragile piece of glass, all she could think of was him touching that other woman in the same way. She wondered if the other woman’s scent was more intoxicating, if she was tastier on his tongue. Stephano didn’t seem to notice or mind that she hadn’t gone down on him. She couldn’t help thinking that the other woman was probably miles better at it than she would ever be.

  “Do you know a few of the guys would kill to be where I am right now?” Stephano breathed in her ear, his arm tightening possessively around her waist.

  “Eh?” She was so surprised she let out the inelegant sound her mother detested. She and Nathan took great pleasure in saying it to each other in private, but occasionally it slipped out unconsciously. “I mean, pardon?”

  “None of them ever asked you on a date because they were scared you would refuse and then it would be awkward to work together afterwards.”

  “I hope you guys don’t have some kind of bet going!” The disquieting thought sudden reared its ugly head.

  “What?” Stephano sat up and stared down at her, looking so offended, she instantly regretted the words.

  “Sorry!” She tried to pull him down for a kiss, but he resisted, his eyes narrowed and his square jaw clenched tightly.

  “Natalie, we’ve worked together for fifteen months. You should know me better than that by now.”

 
Natalie took a deep breath and tried to contain her surprise. He had been with the agency for four years, but she had started fifteen months ago. Did the date she’d started have some significance for him?

  “I’m sorry,” she repeated, taking his hand and kissing his palm as she lay it against the side of her face. “I’ve been hurt in the past and it’s hard for me to trust easily.”

  He turned his hand over and gripped hers tightly.

  “I’m not going to hurt you, cara.”

  It was a foolish promise. She knew he meant ‘deliberately hurt’, but it was strangely comforting to hear him say the words. There was something so dependable about him. It wasn’t just his physical strength—he gave the illusion he could move a mountain if it stood in his way.

  “I must go,” he said abruptly.

  “Of course you must.” Natalie was surprised at the bitterness in her voice. It was still early enough for him to claim that he’d been to a nightclub. Some of the more decadent ones didn’t end until noon.

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Aren’t you going to shower first?” she taunted as he slipped his shirt on.

  “I’ll grab one when I get home.”

  Stephano spent more money than he cared to admit on a range of men’s toiletries that kept his skin in top condition. He didn’t doubt that Natalie had a similar or even better range—she had perfectly clear skin—but it was easier to go home, have a shower and change into fresh clothing.

  “Aren’t you afraid that she will smell my scent on you?”

  “I’m a grown man. My mother…” Natalie watched Stephano’s hands still in the act of fastening his belt. If that wasn’t an indication of guilt what was? “Which she are you talking about, exactly, cara?

  “The woman you kissed outside the office the morning after your father had taken ill.”

  “Woman?”

  “I only got a glance of her, but she definitely looked like feminine to me.”

  “Is that why you’ve been acting the way you have since then?”

  “I played second fiddle to another woman once. I wasn’t ready to do that again.”

  Stephano sat on the stool in front of her vanity mirror and calmly pulled on his socks and then his shoes without responding. His movements as he tightened the laces of his formal shoes were precise and deliberate.

  Finally he stood up and walked over to the bed. He brushed the curl that had fallen over her forehead back and raised her chin until she was looking up into his eyes. “Trust is everything to me, cara. Without it we can have nothing.”

  Natalie gasped as he turned and walked out of the room.

  What the hell did he mean by that?

  *****

  Comes The Calm

  “Good morning, Natalie.” Stephano’s response to her greeting on Monday morning was frosty.

  Natalie battled with her temper. If she had been wrong about the other woman all he had to do was say so. After all, it wasn’t as if she’d made some random accusation—she had seen him kiss the woman.

  With a day full of meetings, Natalie arrived back at the office at five thirty to find it empty. She could have gone home instead of coming to the office after her last meeting, but had returned in the hope of seeing Stephano and having it out with him.

  Disappointed, she walked around her desk to take her computer off sleep mode and shut it down completely. Stephano rarely left the office before half past six, so he must be trying to avoid her.

  “I thought you would have gone straight home.” Natalie jumped as Stephano entered the room with a steaming mug of black coffee.

  “I had something I wanted to complete before tomorrow,” she explained.

  “Would you like a coffee?”

  “Sure.” She’d had a creamy mochachino from Belgique in Wanstead less than an hour ago, but the coffee seemed to be a peace offering; it would have been ill mannered of her not to accept.

  Stephano returned with her coffee, pulled up a chair next to her desk and sat sipping his, staring at her as if he as trying to read her mind.

  She took tiny, occasional sips of hers and stared back at him. She was too angry at him to feel any shyness.

  “Trust is everything to me,” he said quietly, breaking the palpable silence between them.

  “You said that already, but what exactly do you mean by it?”

  “My last girlfriend Renata is a beautiful woman who could have been a model if she was four inches taller, and yet she’s very insecure. I abandoned the guys and went home to her the first three times she called me when I was out with them. She begged me to come home, saying that she needed me. It was exciting to get home and find her waiting for me…ready for us to—”

  “Should you be telling me this?” Natalie interrupted, wanting to scratch the woman’s eyes out already.

  “I’m trying to explain why I need trust in a relationship,” Stephano replied patiently.

  “Okay, but can you do so without telling me how gorgeous your ex-girlfriend is!”

  Stephano laughed at her vehemence and Natalie wanted to kick herself for coming across like a jealous shrew.

  “Sorry. The next time she called I refused to go home. My friend Adam who works in South Africa was in London on business and several of us from university had met for drinks. We don’t see him often and we had a lot to catch up on. When I got home she was crying like someone had died. She accused me of having an affair and nothing I said convinced her. The next time I was out she turned up at the bar, pretending that she’d been in the area. Then one night I went out with the guys and when Harry returned from the bathroom he told me that he saw a blonde at the bar who looked just like Renata. He thought it was just a coincidence, but I knew immediately that it was her, spying on me. When I got to the bar it was her wearing a wig. She admitted that she had been following me for months.

  “I admit I found it flattering at first. A gorgeous woman…sorry…behaving as though she couldn’t get enough of me. But the constant phone calls to check up on me and her neediness soon became tiring. She called me sometimes ten times or more when I was on a night out with the guys. I got tired of having to go outside just to hear what she was saying. When I switched off the phone she was accused me of being with another woman so I couldn’t take her call. We were arguing almost all the time and one day I decided that I couldn’t live like that anymore.”

  “You lived together?”

  “Yes,” he admitted. “She was renting a studio in Shoreditch when I met her and I took over paying the bills when I moved it. I thought I’d met the woman I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. I was ready to settle down and have children, but we would have been very unhappy with her questioning my every move and doubting my integrity.”

  “How long has it been over?”

  “About seven months.”

  “And you’re not seeing anyone else now?”

  “No. I been on a couple of casual dates, but I haven’t been in a relationship since.”

  “So, who was that woman?”

  “That was Eva.” Stephano unlocked his iPhone and flicked through his photographs until he found what he was looking for. “If I dated her it would be like dating my sister.”

  “She’s quite petite.” Natalie looked at the slender woman smiling back at the camera. She couldn’t be more than 5’2”, but she was beautiful with long, relaxed hair loose around her shoulders and not pulled back in a chignon as it had been the day Natalie had caught a quick glimpse of her before she’d driven away. She was petite, but had curves in the right place and especially where it mattered to Stephano—the hips.

  “She’s small but deadly She used to beat up anyone who messed with me!” Stephano chuckled. “She’s a secondary school teacher now and I’m sure her students are all terrified of her.”

  Natalie wondered if Stephano was pulling her leg. The smiling woman looked harmless.

  “She was my best friend growing up and we’re still close today. I think our p
arents thought that something might develop between us when we got older, but we don’t feel that way about each other.” Stephano’s voice was filled with a warmth that Natalie hoped would one day be there when he spoke about her. “She used to beat me up and take away my sweets when we were younger. Truthfully I’m still scared of her now, though she’s five feet nothing.”

  Natalie smiled at the image of Stephano cowering in front of a woman over a foot shorter than he was.

  “When you meet her you will see that there’s nothing there for you to be jealous about.”

  She loved the fact that he’d said “when”, not “if”.

  ***

  Later that night, Natalie lay awake in bed trying to process the day’s events. She’d persuaded Stephano not to accompany her home. He had make another trip to Cadbury’s Head Office. The competition was stiffer than had been anticipated. A much larger, very reputable rival had thrown its considerable resources together to put up a fierce battle. Getting the account would be a real coup, so Paul was flying up from Ireland to accompany Stephano for the last round of talks. Natalie knew how important it was for Stephano to be rested and at his best when he gave his final presentation to the prospective clients.

  She’d also needed some time to think. Although she had told her mother about him, she’d had no intention of having Stephano meet the family if she had taken on the role of ‘other woman’. Convinced that he was seeing someone one else, she hadn’t considered what it would mean to be Stephano’s woman exclusively.

  Her father would be her biggest hurdle. He had always kept to ‘his own kind’, as he phrased it, but he hadn’t objected to her mother or Nathan having friends of all races or bringing them home. He’d never said it explicitly, but Natalie knew that he’d expected his children to marry within their race. And like her mother, her father would have assumed if one of his children did date a white person, it would have been Nathan.