by AM Hartnett
She tossed up her hands. ‘What’s the point in telling me this? What is it you want? You want me to come back with you to Mont Carmel? To lock myself away with you? To put up with you turning your back whenever you start to feel something?’
‘I’m here now, aren’t I?’
‘What is that supposed to mean to me? Why are you even here?’
He shoved away from the window and stalked the length of the table. ‘To tell you that I already knew why she did it, and that it doesn’t matter, that I’m just terrified.’
Grace was weak from his revelation. ‘You … what? You knew?’
‘I’ve always known. I’ve known since I opened my eyes that night as she made the first cut. She told me. She said, “You’re not going to throw me away like everyone else does.”’ He stopped, looking maddened, and clasped his hands in his hair. ‘And that’s what I was going to do, you know? I was going to throw her away. Some people said I did it because I wanted to turn my life around. Fuck, I didn’t want to turn my life around. I just didn’t want to be the one everyone pointed a finger at when she finally overdosed.
‘It was never about what someone did to me. It was always about what I did to them, and who I was. I throw everything away. That’s never changed, even when the rest of me has.’
He swiped his hands over his face and stared at nothing.
Grace couldn’t stay on her feet any longer. The anguish in his voice was venom, and strike after strike had weakened her. She dragged one of the chairs away from the table and dropped into it, a silent witness to the turmoil before her eyes.
‘I could have told her I was sorry. I knew she was dying and I could have gone to her and told her, but I didn’t. I wouldn’t. I gave my son away and told myself it was to keep him happy, but the truth is I was scared of what I would do to him, and what he would do to me, and so I just threw him away. I know he’s happy with those people. I know I did what’s best, but it still doesn’t change the fact that I threw him away.’
He looked at her now, his features stark with exhaustion. ‘And you, with your patience and your strength and your willingness to do something as terrifying as coming all the way to Mont Carmel. Do you know how jealous I am of that?’
‘I was only following orders.’
He let out a cynical bark and closed the gap between them to yank out the chair next to hers. He sat on the edge of it and reached out, but he didn’t touch her. He drew back and clasped his knees with both hands.
‘That never happened. From that night you were alone in here, right here. You stood right there and you owned me. You fought me and I fought you right back, but I lost, every time. You –’
‘Stop.’ She latched onto his wrist and leaned close, and watched him fight the urge to draw back. ‘I can’t fix you.’
‘I’m not asking you to. That’s up to me, and I know I’ll never be completely fixed.’
‘Then what is it you want from me? I can’t go back to Mont Carmel with you and live like that.’
He pressed his lips together, and his nostrils flared as he sucked in one deep breath after another. Then he said, ‘I can’t leave. Not yet. Even now that I’m here with you, it’s eating my guts being so far away from where I feel safe.’
Grace shook her head, her hope deflating. ‘Then what?’
‘A small step for me. I’m opening two more TAJ offices. One here, and one close to home. The guesthouse has been cleaned out. It’s a … well, I don’t know what it’s going to be yet, but everything has been moved. I burned the discs in the fire pit. I want you to come and work for me again. I know it’s not high-rises and fine night dining, but if you were there with me –’
‘I’ll do it.’
She said it the moment the thought popped into her brain. It rocked Taureau back in his seat, a look of incredulity on his face, which struck her as funny.
‘I don’t give a shit about high-rises and fine dining,’ she said as the giggles died away. ‘I just want you to be you, even if you’re a little busted and cracked, so long as you don’t let one part of you take over the whole.’
‘I’m worried you won’t like the whole me,’ he murmured.
Grace squeezed down on his wrist. ‘I’ve seen the worst of you, but I’ve seen glimpses of the best of you. That’s what I want more of, just that: nothing to live up to, nothing to hold you back, just … you.’
He said nothing. He kept his gaze between them, focused on where she stroked her thumb across his wrist. The jubilant swell in her throat deflated a little when his scowl appeared, then nearly burst when she saw a hint of a smile on his lips.
‘What if I don’t like the worst of you when I see it?’
‘Buy me dinner, and afterwards I’ll show you my worst.’
He turned the tables on her and grasped her wrists, then pulled until she had rolled between his outspread thighs.
‘Before. Show me your worst before dinner.’
As he tried to pull her out of her chair, Grace brought her arms up between them and pressed her hands on his chest.
‘Mr Taureau,’ she purred, ‘That is a highly inappropriate suggestion for the workplace.’
Taureau growled as he went for her waist. Grace let him pull her close and push her skirt up to mid-thigh, and then barred him again. She leaned close enough to brush her mouth over his, but, when he persisted, so did she.
‘My apartment is ten minutes away,’ she whispered.
This time she wasn’t quick enough. He jerked her hard out of her seat and onto his lap. Her restraint vanished as he held her in place and ground into her.
‘I don’t want to wait,’ he said, rocking in the chair so that she could feel the burgeoning length of his cock against her ass. ‘And neither do you. You want what I want, don’t you?’
‘I want so many things, Jacques.’
‘What happened to Mr Taureau?’
She closed her eyes with a sigh as he pressed his lips to the crook of her neck. ‘For at least the next two weeks, you’re not my boss.’
‘But I’m still the boss.’
‘We’ll see about that,’ she said, and chuckled as he slid his hands from her waist to her thighs. He tugged at her skirt, and Grace pushed the balls of her feet against the carpeted floor to wriggle with him until the garment belted around her waist. ‘Let me turn the light out.’
It was his turn to laugh. ‘You want the darkness?’
‘The fluorescent doesn’t exactly inspire a mood. The city lights will be fine. Besides, you haven’t truly appreciated this view yet. Let me up.’
With a reluctant groan he loosened his grip, and Grace killed the lights. Having closed and locked the door against the arrival of any of the cleaning staff, she lingered for a moment. Though it was still snowing, the weather had eased up enough that the fall left only a whimsical curtain of flakes and let the city lights in.
‘Has there been anyone since you left?’ he asked, and Grace was touched by how uncertain he sounded. ‘In here, or out there?’
‘No one.’ She peeled off her blouse, then unhooked her skirt and slid it off. ‘Though there have been a lot of solo sessions.’
The moment she was in reach, Taureau resumed his hold on her and scooted forward so his legs nudged hers apart. There she remained, blood quickening as he ran his hands up and down her thighs.
‘Rough,’ she murmured. ‘Your hands are rougher than they were before. What have you been doing?’
‘I was chopping wood for the winter.’
‘I hope not my tree.’ He paused, and she sucked in a surprised breath. ‘Really?’
‘I took it down the day you left.’
‘Jacques, no.’
‘Here, come around here.’ He urged her around until the edge of the conference table jabbed into her ass. ‘There are other trees, and then there’s my plan for the guesthouse. The cellar isn’t suitable for playing in when the weather changes. It’s too cold. I think the attic would be much more appropriate.’
> ‘Is there anywhere that wouldn’t be?’
Grace climbed onto the tabletop. She was his to pose, and by the time he was done she was splayed out with her feet resting against the edge on either side of him.
‘It’s twenty minutes from the new headquarters in Moncton to The Convent House, not long at all if I decide I need you like this for me.’
‘No conference room?’
‘There is, but the building is small and old, and I don’t think anyone would appreciate hearing the things I do to you like I do,’ he said, and quick as lightning snagged her garter between his teeth and let it go with a snap. It didn’t hurt, but the small popping sound brought every part of Grace’s body to life. She leaned forward and he rose, meeting her halfway.
A perfect bubble of happiness rose in her throat as he slipped his other hand to the small of her back and rested his forehead against hers. He muttered something in French, and with a giggle she gave him a tap on the shoulder.
‘Stop that.’
‘I thought you spoke French.’
‘I do, business French. What you’re saying doesn’t sound very businesslike.’
The rest of her rebuke snagged on her bottom lip as he rubbed her through her thong. She slipped her arms around his neck and clasped her fingers together against the warm skin.
She held on as he quickly got rid of the thin film of fabric, then rested her head against his shoulder as he stroked his thumb in a half-moon over her clit. He spoke again, murmuring phrases she only half understood with her ears but knew with her body. He teased her with her ignorance and told her what he wanted to do to her, and when he slid his finger along her slit she opened up for him and raised her face to his.
‘Remember what I said,’ she said against his mouth, and gasped as two fingers thrust to the knuckle. Her laughter was broken as he fucked her with short, brusque strokes. ‘Oh, wow, never mind.’
‘Never mind what?’ His tone teased, as ticklish as the tongue he flicked against hers.
‘I just … oh.’
He went deep and pressed against her G spot, and at the same time resumed teasing her clit with his thumb.
‘Go on,’ he said. ‘Tell me what you wanted me to know.’
‘Just don’t treat me like I’m breakable. I don’t need it. I don’t ever need it.’
His low laughter wrapped around her. ‘Is that what you think I’m doing? You think I’m being gentle with you? Wrong, Miss Neely. I’m just exercising a little patience. It’s been too long since I’ve had you hot and slippery like this. I want to make the most of it and play with you as long as I can stand it.’
She half-laughed, half-moaned as he picked up the pace. ‘I don’t think I can stand it much longer.’
‘No one asked you.’
He reached behind his head and loosened her grip, then gave her a push. Back she went, propped up on her forearms so she could watch whatever he had in store for her next.
Taureau rested a hand on her abdomen. It was such a simple gesture of possession, but the monster of her arousal roared its approval.
‘You were right,’ he said. ‘The view is spectacular.’
Now that he had her down and open for him, Taureau showed her the extent of his ownership. He gave and he took away, working arm and shoulder and pumping her with the full force of his arm until she bucked him and met his thrusts, and then he withdrew and left her only with the slow, sinful circling around her clit.
‘I’ll never make it easy for you,’ he said, a warning and a promise wrapped in that decadent whiskey voice. ‘This hasn’t changed. You’ll work this for me when I want it.’
Grace pushed up with a growl. She grabbed his wrist and held it as she clipped her legs shut. She loved the way he tried to maintain his composure in the filmy city lights, and she loved the way he lost it and smirked at her.
She gave it right back to him with a small cackle. ‘Give me what I want, baby. I need your hard cock right here.’
Holding him in place as he drew his other hand to his fly, Grace touched the tip of her tongue to her teeth and held her breath until he had unleashed himself. He pulled back and she parted her legs to let him shove his pants down.
Her whole body felt the jolt as he grasped her hips and jerked her towards him. She braced herself for the hot length of his cock stretching her, but instead was gifted with Taureau’s breathless laughter.
‘You wanted this? Here?’ he asked, and sawed the underside of his shaft through her wet lips.
‘In my pussy, deep and hard.’
Grace made a grab for his hands but he pulled away, grasping her ankles instead as he worked his hips. She didn’t protest as he kept up his movements, rocking forwards and backwards, sending a hot throb skittering along her wet slit with every bump of the head against her clit. Just a little more and the semi-darkness of the room would give way to white light as her body exploded.
‘Not yet, you don’t,’ he sang, and shifted. He gave her just a couple of inches, not enough to do more than madden her, but he made up for it by resting his hand upon her abdomen and toying with her clit once more.
Grace endured his sweet torture and overflowed with knowing how quickly he would turn once she’d gotten off. She’d danced this dance with him many times before. He wanted her so hot she’d leave scorch marks on the table beneath her, so hot that when his thrusts reached their epic climax she’d scream for more.
And so she waited, twitching and panting, dripping around the few inches of flesh he gave her.
The culmination of all this teasing was glorious. Just when she thought the need to come could render her unconscious, Taureau withdrew his cock and lowered his head between her legs. She hadn’t been expecting his tongue. This was a man who rigidly stuck to one method of pleasure until it paid off, and the soft swipe of his tongue raised her ass off the table. Grace lost control of all her senses as he lapped her with the full breadth of his tongue.
He kept it up, hands splayed on the backs of her thighs, tongue fucking in and out of her pussy, and Grace watched the starlight dancing on the ceiling above her. She was so sated and so content that she could have laughed and cried at the same time, but there was only a lazy smile as he played with her.
‘Jacques,’ she whispered at last, and lifted her head as he drew himself up.
She didn’t need to say anything more. What else was there to say? Nothing at all, she decided, and with his actions Taureau agreed. He granted her the tip of his dick once more, only this time the thrust of his hips took him home.
‘Oh, there you are,’ she said as he shoved deep and his cock throbbed.
‘Tighter,’ he said in a gasp. ‘Hold on tighter. Wrap your legs around me.’
She obeyed. She knew the only thing to do when this was happening, when the switch had been thrown and Taureau turned into this rutting beast, was to hold on. Savage thrust after thrust threatened to push her forward, but their grip on each other was firm.
A sob broke from her as he withdrew, and Taureau answered it with a hard sound from the back of his throat. He pulled back and took her with him so that her ass hung off the edge of the table and he drove into her.
‘Like that. Just like that.’ Over and over she spurred him on, until she could no longer make words, only explosive, hungry sounds that tore her open.
Grace cut into him with her nails as the rough, unrelenting pounding of his cock against her inner wall finished what his fingers had started. As her cunt squeezed on his dick, she turned her head and filled her lungs like it would be the last time.
Taureau groaned and released her, then bowed down. Hands in her hair, mouth hot on her neck, he gave one more shallow thrust and buried himself in the warm, wet place he’d created. The helpless sounds he made as he came reached her through the thick fog of her orgasm, and then there was nothing but the pulsing crush of his body.
He squeezed his fingers, pulling her hair taut, and Grace reached up. The time for that was finished. For now, she
wanted to take his hand and walk out of this building with him, lay him on her bed and watch his face in the warm glow of her bedside lamp as she teased his cock back to life.
He refused to let go, and twisted her head to face him. Then his lips were moving against hers, and his tongue sliding over hers, and the passion in him that had always been so restrained. She gave herself over to it, to him, and placed her hands over his.
After an endless, breathless interlude, Taureau loosened his fingers and lifted his head.
‘Let’s get out of here. Who knows who could be watching us.’
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About the Publisher
Australia
HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.
Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street
Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia
http://www.harpercollins.com.au
Canada
HarperCollins Canada
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