“I’ve been thinking a lot lately about that other shop.” She started some time later.
“Oh, what about it?” Tony was so relaxed at that point he wasn't really paying attention to anything but Sarah.
She sat up then. “OK first, I don’t want you to get mad but I’ve been doing a little snooping around that area to see what could be done about it.”
Tony straightened seeing that she was clearly nervous about something. “Why would I get mad? I like that you’ve been so interested in finding a solution to this problem.”
“Well, maybe it’s because I haven’t told you what I’ve done yet.” She hedged.
He cupped her face with one big hand. “Sarah, whatever you’ve done you can tell me. I promise to listen before I decide how to react but even if I do get angry I promise not to yell. Is that good enough?”
“I guess it will have to be. I took a tour of the shop again last week and when I did I noticed that the place right next door was going out of business. Anyway, I spoke with the rental office and they told me they might be able to get you a good deal on the space if you want it.”
“Why would I want that space? I’m having enough problems with the one I already have.”
Sarah grimaced. “Well, I might have suggested that you were considering an expansion.”
Tony closed his eyes and counted to ten, far from happy about what she was suggesting. Sarah continued. “Before you say anything I also went to a couple of friends of mine. One happens to be an architect and the other an interior designer. I asked them to draw up some plans to make better use of the two combined spaces. I spoke with them about the problems you've been having and asked them about what we could do to make the store more inviting. They have a number of really great ideas and promised to get back to me in the next week or so.”
“Sarah-” he started but wasn’t sure what to say after that. So she rushed on.
“They aren’t charging you a cent for the updated floor plans. This is a favor to me and I haven’t signed anything so you can change your mind if you don’t like my idea but I just thought that if you took a look at the designs you might give this some consideration. My friends are really good at what they do and have won awards for their work. Just please take a look at it and if you don’t agree I’ll call a halt to the whole thing.”
Tony tried his best to reason out what she’d said. In truth, she hadn’t actually done anything all that terrible. He took a breath. “Alright,”
She blinked. “You-you aren’t angry at me for going behind your back to do this?”
“I wouldn’t exactly say I'm angry, irritated maybe, but what you've done can be undone and I'm man enough to admit it’s at least worth considering. I did mention that space is an issue in that shop so it would make sense to think about expanding. It’s probably been a long time coming now that I think about it.”
Her face grew more animated as she listened and she fairly bounced up and down in her seat with her glee before wrapping her arms around his neck and hugging him. “Oh Tony you won’t be disappointed I promise. Shawna and Giselle are great you’ll see.”
Her excitement was nearly enough to make him want to give her what she wanted but this was a big business decision and he wasn’t going to make it based on the way it felt at the moment. “Before we go any further there’s something I need you to understand though. I am not happy that you didn’t talk to me about this first. It would have been nice to give my input on this decision but I admit it is worth at least looking into. However, I reserve the right to refuse anything I don’t like and if it looks as if the risks outweigh the benefits I’ll scrap the entire plan.”
She nodded trying so hard to appear subdued but he could still feel her excited energy. “I completely understand. It’s your store and you have the final say. I’m sorry I didn’t go to you first. In all honesty, the idea didn’t occur to me about the expansion until I went to see the shop again for myself and happened to see that going out of business sign. I walked around the space and talked with the store manager there and they let me see the storage space in the back. This would nearly triple the amount of floor space you have currently and the building management has agreed to rewrite your lease so that you would only be paying about fifty three percent more than what you are currently paying. That alone made it worth looking at, to me anyway. I know there are other factors to consider like the cost of construction, utilities and the cost of decorating but I can get that information for you as well. Both my friends can help me to find cost effective ways of creating a more inviting space. That is of course assuming you like what they propose.”
It was impossible to not to pick up on Sarah’s enthusiasm and soon he was sharing a portion of her excitement. This just might be the answer he had been looking for. Already, Sarah had proven she was a good business woman. Profits were up by nearly thirty percent compared to the same quarter last year. If she could do all that in the short time she'd been working for him maybe she really could do something to turn the less profitable store around.
He wrapped his arms around her and tugged her against him. “I do have one concern, though.”
“What’s that?”
“I need you to promise me that if I don’t like your friends’ plans or if I decide not to go through with this expansion, you won’t hold it against me. I don’t want what goes on at work to affect us personally. Do you understand?”
“Completely, I don’t want that either. It’s kind of why I was afraid to tell you about all this. I worried that if you didn’t like what I’d done you might decide I wasn’t worth the trouble after all and that would be the end of our relationship.”
Her simple honest confession went even further towards making him want to like her plans. “You’re serious? You actually worried about my rejecting you because I didn’t like your business idea?”
“It was possible. I didn’t think you would but I was afraid I might be under estimating your reaction. I wanted to do something to help your business but I also knew I'd over stepped my bounds a bit. You could have gone either way with your reaction and I couldn’t have blamed you if you resented the idea so much that you never wanted to see me again.”
“Baby,” he groaned. Pulling her across his lap, he cradled her in his arms. “That could never happen. Don’t you know how much you mean to me?”
Absently she traced a vein in his arm. “You told me you’re crazy about me and I’m crazy about you too. That’s why I did it. I wanted to make you happy. Whenever you come back from visiting the mall store you’re always so tense and frustrated. I wanted to do something about that.”
“You already make me happy.” He assured her. “Every day, since I first met you, I come to work with a smile on my face because I know I’m going to see you. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate what you’ve done not just for my business but for me personally. If you ever manage to do something that I didn't like on the job, it wouldn't stand in the way of how I feel about you. We would just have to find a way to deal with it that's all. I can't ever see there being a time when I wouldn’t want you in my life.”
He stopped just short of confessing everything that was in his heart but had to believe it was conveyed regardless. Gently he lowered her down until her head rested over the curved arm of the couch and kissed her, a slow tender kiss with teeth and tongue and more passion than he had ever before allowed. Sarah Fournier was turning him inside out and despite his worries, he loved every minute of it. He’d tried to be patient, take things slow but the more time he spent with her the more of her he wanted. He lifted his head to peer down at her. Her stormy eyes had darkened to navy as she returned his gaze. Her lips were swollen and her ample chest heaved as she tried to collect herself.
“Tony,” she whispered before he lowered his head to continue what he'd started. As he explored her with his mouth, his hands itched to go lower to investigate every inch of her soft supple flesh as she lay stretched across his lap. His cock h
ardened as she writhed in his arms and he groaned from the sweet torture of her bottom pressing against him.
“Sarah,” he rasped. “I need to touch you. Will you let me?”
A flash of indecision flitted across her features but before he could take back his request she nodded.
“Are you sure?” He asked.
She nodded yet again and reached up to pull him back down. His lips found hers once more but his hands began a careful descent from her back down to her waist and upwards to gently cup her breast. It was soft and more than filled his hand as he stroked and caressed her through her shirt. He wanted nothing more than to strip the offending fabric from her body and feast greedily on the tender flesh until she moaned and begged for more but he refused to let himself go that far, at least not yet. Sarah had only given him permission to touch her. He would need to continue to follow his plan to take his time and let her be his guide. When and if she was ready she would let him know. The fact that she was letting him do this was a victory on its own, considering how her past relationships had gone. For now he would enjoy the small step they had taken towards greater intimacy and savor it for all it was worth.
∞∞∞
Sarah writhed as she felt Tony’s large warm hands cup her breasts and squeeze. His touch was gentle, his kisses tender and sweet with more heat than she had ever experienced. It made her want more from him than this. Heat suffused her entire body as he lightly pinched and rolled her nipples and she had to fight not to beg him to lift her shirt to draw the protrusive peek into his mouth. She wanted it so badly but didn’t know how to ask. He lifted his head.
“Are you alright?”
She wanted to laugh at the question. No she wasn’t alright. She was going up in flames and didn’t know how to make her wishes known but she was also afraid of what would happen if she did. He slowly moved his hand down her tummy to the hem of her shirt and slid his hand beneath. Sarah’s breath caught as she watched him caress her tummy with gentle swirling strokes of his fingertips. Her shirt rode up as he approached her breast and cupped her. When he bent his head to kiss her there she pushed her hands through his soft curly hair.
He lifted his head once more. “Still OK?”
She nodded wishing like crazy that he would go further and complete the fantasy. He kissed her lips while he tugged down one of the lacy cups of her bra. The cool air hitting her heated skin made her shiver and the nipple puckered. When he finally lowered his mouth to draw on her breast she cried out. The pleasure she felt made her mind go fuzzy and all she could do was hold on and arch into his embrace. The fire in her body spread to the area between her legs and she squirmed as each tug on her nipple made the ache worse. As if he could read her churning thoughts he eased away and adjusted her clothing.
“W-why’d you stop?”
“I had to. Touching you like that was making me crazy. I didn’t mean to start anything I knew we couldn’t finish.”
She sat up then but wasn’t sure what she could or should say to that. She kissed him quickly. “You’re right. Um- maybe I should just head home now.”
"Please don't go yet."
She studied him for a long moment. His eyes still looked so bruised, as if he hadn't slept in days or maybe even weeks. She lifted a hand to stroke the hair off his forehead. "You look tired Tony. You need to get some rest."
He shook his head. "I can't. I'm still having problems sleeping and I just can't seem to keep my eyes closed long enough to get any decent rest."
"How long has this been going on?"
He shrugged and for once didn't meet her gaze. It was almost as if he were ashamed of his problem. "I don’t know, a while."
"How long is a while?" She demanded sensing that same sad weariness that she'd noticed off and on ever since they first met. He'd admitted to having sleeping problems then. Was this a new case of insomnia or the same one?
He gave a long-suffering sigh and gently set her away from him. "Look it's not something I want to talk about alright? It's nothing. I'll get over it like I always do. It's just going to take some time that's all."
Sarah didn't back down. "How long has this been going on Tony?"
He glared at her but she persisted. After a long pause he gave another sigh realizing he had no choice but to answer her. "Ever since I got back from the military, nearly five years ago."
"Tony!" She exclaimed in shock. "You've had trouble sleeping all this time and you haven't bothered to get any help to deal with it?"
"I know I should but I just don't feel like it’s important enough to see a doctor. Other people have bigger problems than I have, believe me. And besides, every time I make the decision to do something about it, it suddenly goes away."
She inched closer and wrapped her arms around him lending him her strength and support. "You need help. Your health could be affected by this."
He shook his head his tone growing cold. "Don't waste your sympathy on me Sarah. I'm not worth it."
Sarah had never seen Tony like this. It was as if he expected her to give up on him. "What's gotten into you? Why would you say something like that? You know I care about you. It matters to me if you aren't getting the rest you need and it worries me that you’ve been driving around town like this. You could have crashed your truck."
He didn't say anything in response so Sarah was left on her own to try and figure out what was going on in his head just then and why he was suddenly acting so strangely. She hadn’t managed to get him to open up to her yet but had a feeling that if she pushed him just now he would resent it and she would have to work hard to regain the progress she'd already made. So, she decided on a tactical retreat.
Sliding over to the far end of the long sectional couch, she patted her legs. "Come here."
He looked as if he would refuse but after a moment of contemplation he did as she asked. Sitting next to her he looked as if he didn't understand what she wanted. She cleared up his confusion by pulling his head down and resting it on her lap. He then stretched his big body out on the comfortable cushions. Staring up at her breasts he managed a grin. "I think I like this position."
She shook her head in exasperation. "Close your eyes and do exactly as I tell you."
He did and she began a slow massage of his temples with her fingertips. This elicited a guttural moan of pleasure from Tony but she ignored it. “I want you to relax your entire body. Let yourself go limp.”
She waited several more minutes before she continued. “When I tell you, I want you to force each part of your body to go slack. Feel yourself sinking deeper into the couch cushions. I don’t want even your jaw to remain tense. We are going to start with your toes.”
She softly gave more instructions as she verbally worked her way up his body all the way to the top of his head. She could feel him sink further into her lap and heard his breathing change, deepen. She kept talking softly encouraging him to allow his mind to focus on tranquil images like grassy meadows and fluffy clouds. After what felt like hours she heard a soft snore saw past his lips and she sagged in relief. For tonight at least, he would get some rest. She didn’t fool herself in to believing this technique would work for him all the time but it helped today and she was grateful for it. She suddenly became aware of her own fatigue. It had been a long day but she didn’t want to disturb Tony by moving until she was absolutely convinced he was in a deep sleep. She closed her eyes as she waited for that to happen but soon she was drifting off as well.
∞∞∞
Tony blinked open his eyes to see the sun just starting to make an appearance in the pre-dawn sky. He looked around and saw that he had passed out in his living room. He felt relaxed as if he had slept for a long time. He smiled as he recalled how Sarah had helped him to get comfortable and finally relax his mind enough to fall asleep and actually stay asleep for the first time in ages. Just as the thought struck he wondered how long she’d waited until she left but the sound of soft breathing drew his attention to the small woman still occupying the
opposite end of the couch. With him taking up so much space she had been relegated to a tiny corner. Recently, the late summer mornings had become much cooler and he had neglected to turn down the air conditioning before he closed his eyes. As a result Sarah’s small body was curled up for warmth as she slept. Tony felt a rush of emotion as he watched her, gratitude, pride, pleasure, guilt, desire- more guilt.
Rising to his feet he scooped Sarah into his arms, careful not to wake her and carried her up the stairs to his bedroom. Once inside he gently set her down on the big bed and pulled the covers over her. He stepped out of the room long enough to call and leave messages for Jimmy and Christy to not expect him or Sarah in the store later that day. Then he reentered the room and slid beneath the covers next to Sarah and gathered her into his arms. With a soft sigh she snuggled deeper into his embrace and slept on, her previously exposed skin finally warming thanks to the physical contact and the blankets. Tony didn’t think he would be able to go back to sleep but he surprised himself when he closed his eyes and drifted off yet again. It would seem that his weeks of insomnia might have finally broken.
Chapter Seven
Sarah opened her eyes later feeling dazed and confused as she looked around the large bedroom. There was a bay window at the opposite end of the room she was in and a comfortable looking recliner sat before it with a long necked lamp and a small table loaded down with books. There was a door that stood ajar and she could see that it was a closet. There was also a door leading to a private bath. From what she’d seen, she surmised that this was clearly a master bedroom but she couldn’t remember where she was or how she had gotten there. She turned her head to see that she was lying next to a man but not just any man, Tony. A quick glance down confirmed she was still fully clothed and so was he.
His Redemption Page 7