The Reunion Lie

by Lucy King

  So they were, thought Zoe, wrenching her eyes from his and seeing they were pulling up outside a house at one end of a fine Georgian terrace. And a good thing it was too because despite her aversion to exhibitionism she wasn’t sure she could stop herself from touching him for much longer.

  While Dan paid the driver she got out, her limbs feeling so loose and wobbly that she had to clutch onto the side of the taxi in order not to stumble. Then he grabbed her hand and strode across the pavement and up the three steps to the front door. He unlocked the door and ushered her inside and closed it behind them, instantly blocking out the rumbling of the city and the chill of the night and cocooning them in the warm quiet shadows of the hall.

  She watched him turn the key in the lock, her pulse racing and her breath becoming all shallow and shaky. He slowly turned to her and for a moment they just stared at each other and then it was as if they were springs that had been held apart and suddenly let go.

  As he lunged for her Zoe dropped her handbag and lurched forwards. He pulled her into his arms and hauled her up against him and she wound her arms around his neck and lifted her head at the same time as he lowered his. His lips crashed down onto hers and his tongue slid into her mouth and deep inside she felt desire flood through her like a great rush of water breaking through a dam wall.

  Managing to slip her coat off with one hand, Dan slid his other hand up and into her hair and angled her head, and as he deepened the kiss Zoe melted into him. She moaned and shivered at the feel of his erection against her stomach. She arched her back and pressed herself even closer and with a soft groan Dan twisted her round, pushing her up against the front door and pinning her body to it with his hips.

  He planted his hands either side of her head and then he tore his mouth away from hers. She gasped for breath, her heart thundering so hard she feared it might leap from her chest, and was just about to protest about the absence of his mouth when his lips connected with her jaw, trailed along to her ear and then down, and any protest she’d had died in her throat.

  ‘What the hell was all that about?’ he muttered against her neck.

  What with the way her skin was burning and her head swimming Zoe could barely think let alone speak. ‘What was what all about?’ she said hoarsely, threading her fingers through his hair, closing her eyes and tipping her head back to give him better access to her throat.

  ‘Road markings.’

  ‘A distraction,’ she managed and gasped as he gently nipped the skin covering her collarbone.

  She felt his mouth curve into a smile against the pulse at the base of her neck. ‘I was going for the studiously ignoring you approach.’

  ‘And there was me thinking you just weren’t all that interested in traffic planning.’

  ‘I was more interested in the underwear part,’ he said, lifting his head and staring down at her. ‘Or rather the lack of it. Now that’s a fascinating subject. Five per cent, did you say?’

  Zoe blushed. ‘I might have been a little sketchy on the percentages.’

  ‘And you, a statistician? I’m appalled.’

  ‘Didn’t you know eighty-six per cent of statistics are made up?’

  ‘I thought it was forty-two.’

  ‘No, it’s definitely sixty-seven.’

  He bent his head and murmured into her ear, ‘Tell me more about this absence of underwear. In your particular experience.’

  Zoe shivered as the vibration of his voice and the warmth of his breath curled all the way through her. ‘I might have been a bit misleading on that front, too.’

  ‘Oh dear, twice in one night?’

  ‘I wanted to get your undivided attention.’

  ‘You got it. You have it.’

  ‘I know.’

  Dan moved his hands to her waist and her breath hitched in her throat. ‘Perhaps I’d better check, though, just to see whether there’s any “might” about it.’

  ‘You know, you’re full of good ideas.’

  He drew back a little and smiled down at her. ‘I’ve barely even started.’

  ‘Well, I’m not going anywhere.’

  ‘No,’ he said, his eyes burning into hers, the look in them making her heart thump even more crazily. ‘You aren’t.’

  He slid his hands up her ribcage, skimming the undersides of her breasts as he searched for the zip of her dress and Zoe shivered.

  ‘Cold?’ he murmured, finding the tab at the side and beginning to tug it down, so slowly that at first her dress did nothing but gape a little.

  ‘Boiling.’

  He pulled the zip further, all the way down until it stopped and her dress just sort of fell apart, slithering down her body and pooling at her feet.

  ‘Better?’ he asked.

  ‘Not really.’ Not when she was standing there in nothing more than a white lacy strapless push-up bra, matching knickers, nude hold-ups and shoes, with only a pearl choker for decoration, and his eyes were roaming all over her with a hunger that robbed her of breath.

  ‘Not one of the five per cent, then.’

  Zoe swallowed. ‘Disappointed?’

  ‘Disappointed is not the word that springs to mind.’

  ‘What word does?’

  ‘Stunning.’

  ‘That one will do.’

  As Dan resumed his perusal of her he appeared to descend into speechlessness and immobility and Zoe took the opportunity to balance things up a bit on the sartorial front.

  Pushing his coat and then his jacket off his shoulders and letting them fall to join her dress on the floor, she went to work on the buttons of his shirt. Her hands were shaking so much it took twice as long as she reckoned it should have but, God, was it a task worth pursuing because when she parted the two panels of cotton and caught her first glimpse of his chest she realised that what was in front of her was a body that Michelangelo would have wept buckets of awe over.

  There wasn’t an over-pumped muscle in sight, just an expanse of tanned skin brushed with a smattering of hair that stretched over taut flesh and tapered down over the hint of a six-pack.

  Unable to hold back, she put her hands on him and when she felt him tremble beneath her palms a sense of power and amazement that she could do this to a man like him surged up inside her and addled her brain.

  In mouth-watering fascination she watched her hands trail down to the fastening of his trousers as if acting entirely of their own accord. Her fingers undid the button and slid down the zip and then slipped inside to feel the hot hard length of him.

  At the thought of him pushing into her, she started to ache and throb with such desire, such desperation, that she actually moaned as she curled her hand around him and began to stroke it up and down.

  Dan snapped out of his rigid immobility and galvanised into action. ‘Bedroom,’ he said, wrapping a hand around her wrist and stopping what she was doing.

  ‘No,’ she muttered, thinking that if she didn’t get him inside her right now she might just expire right here on the floor of the hall.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Condoms.’

  Good point. ‘Lead the way.’

  As he pushed his trousers down and stepped out of them Zoe kicked off her shoes, then put her hand into the one he held out and followed him up the stairs that were hard to negotiate given her legs had turned to jelly. He led her into his room, flicked a switch that bathed the room in soft pale yellow light and kicked the door shut.

  Zoe didn’t have the chance to look round, or even check out the bed, because her eyes locked with his and all she could see was him. Then he was walking her backwards until the backs of her knees hit something hard and he was giving her a gentle push so she fell back on the bed.

  Then she found she couldn’t have checked out his furnishings even if
she’d wanted to because Dan was stripping what little remained of his clothing, rummaging around in a drawer and then slipping on a condom and as it struck her she was about to have out-of-this-world sex her mouth went dry and her head went all foggy.

  Dan lowered himself over her and settled his mouth on hers and all she could think about was how delicious kissing him was. How wickedly clever he was. He knew exactly how to make her whimper, how to make her pant and moan and beg simply by concentrating on her mouth, her lips and her tongue.

  By the time he rolled onto his back, taking her with him so that she sprawled on top of him, Zoe was a rioting mass of sensation inside. Every nerve ending she possessed was quivering and jumping and desperate for more.

  He unclipped her bra and she wriggled as he tugged it from between them. Then while she revelled in the friction of his hair against her breasts he slid his hands down her back and over her bottom, slipping his fingers beneath her knickers and easing them down. Then he rolled her back over so he could remove them altogether. Which he did. Achingly slowly. Sliding them over her hips and down her legs, stroking over her skin as he did so. He took the same care with her hold-ups and by the time he was finished all Zoe could think was that she was about to explode with need.

  She couldn’t stand another second of the torture. Of the torment. Instinct took over. Batting Dan’s hands out of the way, she reared up and he automatically sat back on his heels. Which was just perfect for what she wanted. Before he could even begin to look surprised, she straddled his hips. She wrapped one arm around his neck and took his erection in the other hand and with a deep groan sank herself onto him.

  She locked her legs around his back and tucked her head into the nook where his neck met his shoulders, delirious for a moment just to feel him buried deep, stretching her, filling her and throbbing inside her.

  Dan went rigidly still. He was tense and his jaw was tight and she wasn’t sure if it was because he didn’t trust himself to stay in control or whether he was in shock at the boldness of her move. Having no intention whatsoever of asking, Zoe decided to just carry on as she wanted and see what happened. So she kissed her way up his neck. She found his mouth and slid her tongue between his lips, tilted her hips and felt him lodge even deeper.

  And then something clearly snapped inside him because he clamped one hand to the back of her head, the other against her lower back and he rocked her back. Looming over her, his eyes glittering dark and hot and his muscles strained, he began to move.

  And with all that power and strength above her, being used with such perfectly deadly intent, Zoe felt herself begin to unravel. Her insides buckled and melted and as she felt a wave of pleasure begin to roll through her her breath came faster, shallower. Beginning to pant and moan and too far gone to even care that she might be begging, she gripped Dan’s arms and clung on for dear life as the wave gathered strength and rushed towards her.

  His thrusts became harder, deeper, faster and the frown on his face deepened and then that wave hit and with a sharp cry she shattered, convulsing over and over again around him as the pleasure splintered inside her.

  And then he lowered himself down to her, held her face and kissed her hard and fiercely as he buried himself deep and pulsated into her.

  For quite a while the only noise filling the room was the sound of their breathing, at first loud, ragged and harsh, then gradually quietening and evening out.

  ‘Well, that certainly beats the ski resort in Italy,’ said Zoe once she’d recovered her voice and her brain was back in its usual place.

  Dan rolled off her and fell back. ‘It certainly beats my expectations.’

  She propped herself up on an elbow and looked down at him quizzically. ‘You had expectations?’

  ‘Many.’

  ‘Since when?’

  ‘Since last night when I dreamed about you.’

  That sounded nice. ‘What was I doing?’

  ‘This,’ he said with a wicked smile. ‘With variations on the theme.’

  ‘And I was good?’

  ‘Very good.’

  Zoe smiled and stretched and then flopped back against the pillows. ‘I dreamed about broccoli.’

  A look of bemusement passed across his face. ‘Broccoli?’

  She nodded. ‘A great towering spear of the stuff was marching towards me like some sort of giant mutated tree, chanting “eat me”. I guess I’m a little low on iron.’

  A little low on appropriateness as well, it belatedly struck her, because she’d just had the out-of-this-world sex she’d been hoping for and all she could talk about was the nutritional benefit of broccoli? Was there really no hope for her?

  Groaning, Zoe flapped a hand and then clapped it over her eyes, ‘Oh, God, ignore me.’

  She heard him laugh softly. ‘Impossible.’

  ‘If you want to send me home now I wouldn’t blame you in the slightest.’

  ‘I don’t want to send you home now.’

  Zoe gingerly removed her hand to glance at him, just in case she was imagining the sincerity in his voice. ‘You don’t?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Oh, good.’

  ‘In fact, I’m thinking you should stay the night.’

  A wave of warmth rolled over her and she felt a great goofy smile begin to spread across her face. ‘And I’m thinking I’d like that.’

  EIGHT

  What a night, thought Zoe, gradually coming to and stretching beneath the warm cosy duvet while her brain caught up with her body in the waking-up stakes. And what a morning...

  Blinking away the remnants of sleep and rubbing her eyes, she smiled a smile that she was glad no one could see because she was sure it was wide and satisfied and way too smug.

  She’d been one hundred per cent right in thinking that sex with Dan would be of the stupendous kind. It had surpassed all her wildest dreams and her dreams had been pretty wild. And even though she didn’t have much to compare it with she was pretty sure that most people didn’t have multiple orgasms all through the night or moan and groan so much that their throat wound up sore. As for her body, well, she ached in places she hadn’t known existed. She’d discovered muscles she didn’t think she’d ever used and she’d learned that she was more supple than she’d ever imagined.

  ‘Good morning,’ muttered a rough voice from beside her and Zoe pulled down the duvet to look at the cause of her aches, her lethargy and her bonelessness.

  ‘Is it?’ she mumbled. ‘Morning, I mean.’

  Dan twisted back around, all those fabulous muscles flexing and pulling, picked his watch up off the bedside table and squinted at it. ‘Just about. It’s half past eleven.’

  ‘Heavens, I haven’t slept beyond seven in years,’ she said with a yawn, ‘but then I don’t normally have a night like the one I’ve just had.’

  He put his watch back down and rolled over to face her once again. ‘How are you feeling?’

  She grinned. ‘Fabulous. Exhausted. Achy.’

  ‘Me too.’

  He propped himself up, then leaned over and bent down to kiss her, and any brief panic about morning breath disappeared beneath a surge of desire. The kiss was lazy and long, and wiped out the aches faster than any hot bath. By the time he lifted his head, Zoe was so hot she was surprised she hadn’t melted.

  ‘So what happens now?’ she asked breathlessly, kind of hoping he wasn’t going to tell her it was time to go home as she wasn’t sure she was able to walk.

  ‘I could make you coffee,’ he said with the glimmer of a smile.

  ‘That sounds nice,’ she said. ‘And then?’

  ‘Brunch?’

  She gave him an exasperated look and batted him on the arm. ‘Ouch,’ he said mildly.

  ‘Wimp,’ she said, grinning up at him. ‘What I’m trying to ask, a
s you’re well aware, is do you want to do this again?’

  ‘What do you think?’ he asked, taking her in his arms and rolling her on top of him so she could feel exactly how keen he was to do it again.

  Zoe pushed herself up and off him before the desire he whipped up inside her could suck her under again, taking a handful of duvet with her as she sat back on the bed. ‘I don’t mean now,’ she said, clutching the duvet to her chest as if it might provide some sort of defence against his addictiveness. ‘I mean another time.’

  ‘Sounds good to me,’ he said, his smile fading, and his expression turned serious as he too levered himself up. ‘But there’s something you should know.’

  At the gravity of his tone Zoe felt herself pale and her heart dropped. Oh dear, this didn’t sound good. He’d told her that he wasn’t married and he didn’t have a girlfriend, so what could it be? Was he ill? Not who he said he was? Did he have a criminal record?

  ‘What is it?’ she asked, and braced herself.

  ‘I have a three-date-only rule.’

  Huh? Zoe blinked, wondering for a moment if she’d misheard. ‘A what?’

  ‘I only ever have a maximum of three dates—and discreet ones at that—with any one woman.’

  That was what she thought he’d said. ‘Why?’

  He rubbed a hand along his jaw. ‘I can’t risk another kiss-and-tell.’

  Zoe bristled. ‘I’ve no interest in kissing and telling.’

  ‘I’m sure you don’t,’ he said so smoothly it sounded like a line he’d used quite a few times before. ‘But that’s the rule.’

  ‘Is it negotiable?’

  ‘No.’

  She bit her lip. ‘I see.’

  ‘If you don’t like it I wouldn’t blame you.’

  She wasn’t sure what she thought of it but as she turned it over in her mind Zoe supposed she couldn’t blame him for being wary. Although the way he was only mentioning it now, when she was already reeled in, did seem slightly underhand. ‘Bit late to bring up rules now, don’t you think?’

  Dan frowned. ‘Yes, I’m sorry. I should have mentioned it last night. But I wasn’t thinking entirely straight, not that that’s any excuse.’