by Anna Bloom
She’s my drug, she always has been, and I can no longer resist my cravings.
I want to erase every memory she has of Johnny Fairweather and that fucked up shit they do together and replace it with something pure and true. Pure and true? I’m getting poetic as well as soft in my old age.
Entwining our fingers, I place them on the table top for everyone to see.
"Ahh, it’s so cute." Amanda ribs and I pull a face at her.
"Are you guys bored yet and want to go home so we can get on?" I ask.
Shayne snorts a bellow of laughter, flinging back the rest of his drink and draining his glass dry. I lean closer watching him. He seems more on edge than usual. I’m surprised he's even deeming to sit here with us considering how pissed he is with me still. "Bored?" he asks. "I’m not bored, are you bored yet, Amanda?" he swivels in his seat and calls to our sister.
"Nope." Amanda shakes her head and Sophia starts to giggle at my side.
Shayne carries on, the bloody arse. "Mammy, are you bored yet?"
Mam chuckles into her brandy—her cheeks a little pink. "Nope, I’m not bored."
He’s going to do the whole table. I sit back and tuck Sophia into my side as she shakes with giggles. "Darren, are you bored? Would you rather go to get ready for church tomorrow?"
Darren also shakes his head with solemnity. "No, my work is here today, they say that God moves in mysterious ways."
"Marvellous." I offer them all dryly.
One of the regular’s blasts the Jukebox. Lady in Red fills the air. Someone is taking the piss. Sophia glances at her red hoody and her cheeks match the colour in record time.
"Dance, dance, dance, dance." Amanda drums her hands on the table until the entire sodding place joins in.
"You’re all twats," I state. Sweeping up from the table I hold my hand out to Sophia. "Would you do me the honour of this dance?" She ducks her head, pulling out of my grasp but it’s easy to lift her from her seat. "Give them what they want," I breathe into her ear hearing the catch in her own breathing in response. "And then they will leave us alone."
Laughing she hides her face in my shoulder as I lead us back towards what on a Saturday night becomes a dance floor. "This is me, no one ever leaves me alone," she murmurs.
I graze my lips along her cheeks drawing an "oooh" from the audience. "I think they are here to see me more than they are you."
She lifts her face and her pale blue eyes stare at me openly. I want to reach over and glide my fingers through her tied hair until I can release it and allow it to cascade into my hands. I want to feel her mouth against mine, and explore her, tasting her, feeling her.
Instead I move us as the eighties ballad belts around us.
"You dance nicely." She grins.
"Is that your way of saying I haven’t broken your toe yet?"
She laughs, clutching at my jumper, pulling me closer. "Yes, you’ve got me. This isn’t dancing it’s just swaying."
I hug her tighter until our pelvises meet. A low murmur spreads around the audience but I don’t care. "There is nothing wrong with swaying. It’s an art form to be able to sway with this skill."
"So, tell me about you playing guitar here? Am I going to witness the event for myself?"
I groan and drop my forehead onto hers. "I’m going to kill Amanda."
Sophia rocks with laughter. "Don’t, she’s just proud of you, she’s got huge big brother love."
My eyes cast over to my baby sister who’s watching us in delight, sipping her glass of wine.
"I think she loves you more."
"Yeah, she wants us to get married so her and I can be sisters." Her eyes shine as she smiles up at me and not knowing how to respond to that line I kiss her in front of the whole damn village. My mouth is hot against her lips, our breath rushing to meet. It’s an act of raw passion and I explode with desire until all my limbs are hot and melting. "I need you." I talk into her mouth, oblivious to the watchful gaze of all the neighbours.
"And I want you," she murmurs back, and within my chest my heart begins to beat a march of irrepressible desire. "But come on, let me do my thing first." She pecks a kiss on my lips, just lingering a moment before pulling away. A group of young girls, bottles of orange juice in hand are watching and waiting. Sophia gives them a wave and with a screech they land on her and she's sucked into the room, smiling and greeting, signing beer mats and having her picture taken.
I watch her like a hawk—maybe my bodyguard persona isn’t so dormant after all.
Finally, I’ve had enough and I go on a rescue mission of extraction. "Enough." I bark, probably with more attitude than required.
"Are you jealous, Blake?" She turns and grins, her face lighting with humour.
"Yes, I am more than jealous. This date is over."
Fanning herself with her hand she asks, "What happens after a date?"
Stepping up close, I press myself tightly into her space. "Now, you're mine."
Her face pales but the subtle beating of her pulse in the base of the throat, thudding against her skin through a pale blue vein, tells me she wants me just as much as I want her. Maybe, although it seems inconceivable to me, but maybe she wants me just a little more, and I’m going to give her everything she wants.
Chapter Thirty
Sophia
"That was probably the most embarrassing experience of my life." He groans and pulls a hand though his thick dark waves. His other hand is holding mine, swinging our joined fingers in the space between us.
"It was fun." I tug him closer until our jackets brush. He raises an eyebrow but I nod. "Honestly, it was fun. They seem like good people."
"It’s a bit crap though. I couldn’t even give you a proper first date." I chuckle a little, as he lifts my hand and skims his lips across my knuckles. "It was a dating fail of epic proportions."
"That’s my only date, so really, you are still winning in this situation."
He comes to a stop, reeling me around to face him. "At least you won’t forget it in a hurry." His lips scorch a path up my throat.
"I wasn’t planning on forgetting." I gasp as his teeth pull gently on my ear lobe. Shivers of excitement run up and down my skin.
Lit by the moon he’s extraordinary, his dark hair disappearing into the surrounding darkness and his skin illuminated with a subtle glow. "Come, let me take you home."
My stomach dips on the word home. No one has ever taken me home before, but then also nowhere has ever felt quite like this place. I’m comfortable here. Blake’s embarrassed about his family, but I love that. It makes me long to rewrite my entire life, but I know I can’t do that, because if my life wasn’t what it is I wouldn’t be standing on a darkened street with Blake holding me in his arms.
"I’d love to go home."
His eyes search mine until I’m naked and exposed but I hold still. Before Wales this sort of exposure would be a craving cue. I’d get that unsatisfied yearning in the pit of my stomach and I’d know it wouldn’t go away until I had what I needed. Now all I have in my tummy is burning desire; spreading through me until I could rocket into the sky.
We walk in silence, our hands still swinging between us until we reach the farmhouse. "I thought we could stay in the outhouse together, if that’s what you want?"
A nervous thudding overtakes my chest and I nod. "Yes." That’s all I have, one word. I follow his broad shoulders as he picks a path through damp grass and muddy pathways to the courtyard we’d kissed in earlier. My fingers slip onto the waistband of his jeans as I trail behind. He hesitates at the outhouse door.
"I’ve tried to make it a little more comfortable for you."
"Okay." My throat dries as if I’ve swallowed sand.
Inside is nothing like I expected. The bed elicits a swallowing gulp from me as I spy it takes centre stage in the middle of the spacious room. It’s lit from above by fairy lights.
That’s all there is in the room. A bed and some fairy lights.
Holy fuck.
He chuckles, but it sounds stilted and I turn questioning eyes onto him. "When I said I’d tried, I didn’t have much to go with."
"It’s lovely." My voice shakes.
"Hey," he catches my hand. "We don’t have to do anything. It’s just somewhere for us to sleep, together, if you like." He’s almost bashful and it buries any reservations I have.
I back towards the bed. "We can sleep, but not until later."
Stalking towards me, he flashes an almost wicked grin. "Thank fuck you said that. I’ve been desperate for you all evening."
"Desperate?" My legs hit the bed and I have nowhere else to go apart from on it. My body trembles with liquid fire as I watch his approach.
"More than desperate." It’s a growl that erupts from his chest. My stomach pools into molten lava.
I attempt the coy look I’ve used on screen before but never in real life. "How desperate?"
He steps up, tugging my jumper over my head. His eyes fall on my face before travelling up to my hair. "You create a weird hair kink in me." He releases the nest on top of my head and watches, his face alive, as my hair runs through his waiting fingers. He scrunches it, wrapping it tight in his fist, holding my face as he drops kisses along my throat until he reaches my mouth.
Shifting my body, I press tight against him, feeling the hardness of him against the softness of me.
My hands slide under his jumper, gliding along his warm skin. My fingers explore the delicate expanse of smooth flesh under my touch. Groaning into my mouth as I hit a sensitive spot under his ribs he grabs for the waistband of my jeans, moving slightly so he has room to work on the buttons. My hand strays to the bulge of his jeans feeling the hardness of his erection twitch under my palm as it strains against the denim constraints. "You do bad things to me, Sophia Jennings," he mutters low against my throat.
"Bad bad, or good bad?" I shimmy my way out of my jeans, stepping free from the restraining material. I need to feel his skin on mine nearly as much as I need the oxygen in the air to breathe. His gaze smoulders and simmers a scorching heat as it sweeps along my naked skin.
My mouth meets his in a hungry dance as I smooth my fingers along the length of his erection, working his dick in my hand, rubbing the flat of my palm against the denim until the head throbs and twitches. "Good, all so good." He sighs into my mouth and the flood of desire which hits my veins is better than any high I could wish for.
Slowly, I drop to my knees, running my hands along the edge of his waistband, my lips skimming the flesh I reveal as I lift his jumper and smooth my palms along his contoured abs.
"Sophia, please." It’s a bewildered murmur which I ignore, as I pop the buttons on his fly and lever his jeans over his hips, freeing his dick to spring into my face. I grasp it into my palm, pressing with a firm pressure as I pump it up and down, watching as it manipulates under my touch, pulsing and flexing until it’s rock hard and rigid. Leaning closer I flick the tip with my tongue, the warmth of the smooth velvet skin caressing my taste buds. My confidence is bolstered by his shuddered groans and I slip the entire wide tip in my mouth, swirling my tongue around and exploring the domed head, feeling for grooves and sensitive spots. My hand keeps a steady and firm pace, as I suck and nuzzle, testing his reactions. His hands fall to the back of my head pulling at my hair and I know instinctively he wants me to take it further, deeper. He fights me, trying to hold me back but I tilt my head, opening my mouth until he can plunge within the warm depths I offer.
"Fuck." It’s a shout of frustration. Grinning, I set to work, flattening my tongue against his length as I suck harder and harder, dropping my hand as I take the bulk of him deep into my throat.
"Fuck, Sophia, no." He pulls himself away, doubling almost as he groans and winces.
"Why won’t you let me?"
A shadow chases across his expression and I realise what it is. He’s reconciling the girl he once knew to the woman kneeling on the floor giving him head.
"I can’t go there yet." His voice shakes a little and I get it. He’s a man torn within the turmoil of his moral internal war. We’ll get past it, I know we will.
Nodding I rise from the floor, my hands lifting his jumper over his head. "Just make love to me, Blake, it’s all I want." I hold his eyes so he’ll see the sincerity of my request.
He sweeps me into his arms, kissing my mouth, my throat, my chest, stepping us for the bed. "Believe me, that’s the one thing I can do."
We meet as united adults, my body loosening and softening to absorb the whole of him. It’s beautiful, a sonnet of appreciation as he slips deep within me, rocking us back and forth, a gentle steady rhythm that licks at every nerve ending I own. With every thrust he takes me deeper as if he’s searching out the centre of my soul. My legs tighten around his hips as I lift higher and higher gaining him further entry. His hands run along my skin, feather-light touches until he’s explored every inch of me, brushing and caressing, delving and exploring. The molten lava firing the pit of my belly flames into a ball of fire as he lifts my butt cheeks, his fingers sliding within the crease, teasing and testing, gliding across sensitive puckers of skin tingling at his touch. "Blake." I gasp his name, tipping my hips higher, giving him everything I own and he thrusts deep within me, his fingers still dancing and skimming as he rocks us closer and closer to the edge.
My orgasm erupts. It pools out like a dam collapsing under the weight of heavy flooding and I cling to him, whimpering as aftershocks shudder and shake my frame.
He kisses my mouth as his own body shudders a few more times. "That one was a riptide." He laughs and kisses my lips, his dark hair flopping into his eyes. I brush at it so I can see him clearer.
"That was unlike anything I’ve ever known." There’s little point denying it.
He kisses me, deeper, his tongue probing. "Damn right." Sliding down onto the bed, his arms turn me and wrap me into a tight hold. "Come, let’s snuggle like spoons."
I giggle. "The bodyguard’s going to snuggle?"
He kisses the back of my neck and a surprising kindle of warmth reappears between my legs. "This bodyguard loves snuggling."
I giggle so hard it hurts my chest. "I hope you don’t snuggle with all your clients."
Hooking his chin into my shoulder he kisses my ear lobe. "Well, there was this guy, a billionaire, he liked it…"
"Blake?"
"Yes?"
"Shut up and snuggle before I make you have sex again."
I want him everywhere. I haven’t experienced enough of him yet, not by a long shot. There isn’t a single thing about Blake Henderson that I don’t want to know and I plan on finding it all out.
My eyes flutter shut, my body relaxed and mellow. "You’re mine, Sophia Jennings." His breath rushes across my skin. "All mine." His hand skims down the flat of my belly, his middle finger slipping into the folds between my legs where my heat begins to ramp as my clit hardens to attention.
Snuggling will have to wait as I roll onto my back and allow his fingers to dance me to the edge of another shattering climax.
Chapter Thirty-One
Sophia
A loud banging pulls me from sleep. I don’t jump out of bed screaming the house is burning down because I can’t. I ache too bad all over. It feels like I’ve done an all-nighter on the Waltzer. My thighs hurt, my boobs ache, the delicate flesh at the tops of my thighs is almost crushed. It’s been a long night of the most enjoyable variety. I fell into an exhausted but contended sleep in the early hours of the morning. Which must have only been about five minutes ago.
"What’s going on?" I grumble, my eyes still fused shut.
"I’m coming, I’m coming," Blake calls, and I crank one eye open and offer him a sleepy smirk.
"Again? That’s not humanly possible, surely?"
His sleep creased face spreads into a lazy smile and he rolls over, crushing me under the weight of his arm as he slings it across my tummy and kisses my full tender lips. "It’s Mam. It must be time for church."
This gets my eyes open. "Church?"
"Yeah, it’s Sunday, we always go to Darren’s sermons."
I’ve spent the night locked in this man’s embrace, allowing him to explore every inch of skin I own, both externally and internally and yet I don’t know this.
"I can’t go to church, Blake."
He gives me another warm lipped sleepy kiss. "Why not, are you a non-believer? Perhaps we should have discussed this before."
I jab him in the ribs with my elbow making him chuckle. "No, I can’t go to church after last night. It’s going to be obvious you’ve practically destroyed me."
"Destroyed you? Don’t be so ridiculous." His smile creeps slowly. "That, my, Sophia was amazing and I don’t give a shit who knows."
A big stupid grin plasters itself across my face. "I’m going to walk into church like I’m saddle sore."
"Do you want me to get you one of the horses out to make it authentic?" He rolls from the bed and I cast a lingering glance in his direction. Naked, he’s beyond anything I ever imagined. I’ve seen Johnny naked, both on set and off, but he’s sculpted to appeal. Blake is raw power, and don’t my poor limbs know it, and let’s not mention the bruised sensitivity located in my vagina.
"You know full well I can’t ride a horse." I lob a pillow in his direction and he snatches it up, standing there butt naked as if we’ve always been this way together. I love it. It’s everything I thought it would be and more.
"Have you still not learned?" He’s referencing the terrible movie I stared in at fifteen where I had to ride a bloody horse. It was the worst filming experience of my life. Well, until I started on that bloody franchise with Johnny and Charlie. I sigh and stretch. I don’t have to think about that for a few more days at least.
Blake snatches his jeans from the floor and wriggles into them, hanging them low on his hips. "Come on, we can’t be late; it makes Darren cast pointed comments in our direction the whole service."
