“Fuck.” Thomas ran a hand through his hair, then got up and strode into the kitchen, returning a moment later with the bottle of whiskey and a clean tumbler. He refilled Mia’s glass, then dropped back into his seat and poured himself a healthy measure. “Fucking hell.”
“That about sums it up,” she replied, noting that her bombshell had driven Thomas to the whiskey. “And thanks.” She lifted the glass.
He nodded acknowledgement. “So what are you going to do?”
“Well, I’ve got no choice, have I? It’s legally binding.” After gulping down half the contents of her glass, she continued, “It’s fucking blackmail from the afterlife, that’s what it is. I loved that man to pieces, but he must have been out of his bloody mind when he changed his will to add this ridiculous caveat. I’ve got nothing against having a husband, but I’m in no particular rush, either. And I certainly don’t need one to help me run the estate. I can manage perfectly well on my own, and if I couldn’t, I’d employ someone to help out. Why the hell didn’t that occur to him?”
“Maybe he was out of his mind when he changed the will—I mean literally,” Thomas said quietly.
“What are you on about?”
“I don’t know how to say this without it coming across as insensitive, so I apologise in advance, but Edward was in pain, wasn’t he? He was having treatment for the cancer; I assume he was on all kinds of drugs, pain relief and whatnot. Maybe all those chemicals whizzing around his system affected his brain, his capacity for thinking and logic. Perhaps, in his mind, this crazy idea of his made perfect sense. You know he would have never done anything to deliberately hurt you, Mia, so I can only think that, like you say, whatever his reasoning, his heart was in the right place. He had to have thought he was doing his best for you, to make sure you would be all right after he was gone. Had to.”
Silence reigned as Mia turned Thomas’s words over in her head. There was something in them, some thread of significance, but she couldn’t quite figure out what it was just yet. She took a healthy swallow of whiskey, willing her synapses to fire faster, to come up with the solution she knew was eluding her.
Then, suddenly, it hit her. She jumped up, almost spilling her drink in her excitement. “Tom—you’re a fucking genius! Oh my God, I knew talking to you about this would be a good idea!”
Thomas got to his feet, his confused expression showing that he hadn’t yet come to the same conclusion Mia had reached. He moved in front of her and looked into her eyes. “Not that I don’t enjoy being called a ‘fucking genius’, but I’m feeling far from clever right now. What the hell are you talking about?”
Barely able to contain her enthusiasm, she bobbed up and down on the balls of her socked feet. “What you said, about the drugs and chemicals—it’s the only thing that makes sense. He can’t have been himself when he made the change to the will. What do they call it, diminished mental capacity or something? Hopefully it means I can contest the will and insist it’s reverted back to the previous version on file, which will get rid of this stupid clause about me having to get married. Then I can get on with running things here and not worry about finding a husband I don’t bloody want.”
“Wow, erm… I’m not sure what to say.” He shook his head. “I’m not trying to be devil’s advocate here, but how could you possibly prove what his mental capacity was at the time? Didn’t you say it was months ago? And now, obviously, it’s, erm, too late to do any tests…”
Mia shrugged, the alcohol making her bold and blasé. “Way I see it, it’s not up to me to prove his mental capacity was diminished. It’s up to the solicitors to prove it wasn’t. And if nobody can prove anything either way… who knows? Just having the question raised, the doubt, might be enough to allow me to contest. Don’t you see how exciting this is? I can stop that greedy bastard Quinn getting his hands on this place! I told Lenton it would only happen over my dead body, and I bloody well meant it.” She threw her arms around Thomas’s neck, this time sloshing whiskey over her hand and onto the rug beneath their feet, and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Thank you so much, Tom. You’re a total genius. If you weren’t the only gardener, I’d give you a promotion!”
“A pay rise wouldn’t go amiss,” he quipped, putting his free hand on her shoulder and gently guiding her back so he could look her in the eye. “But in all seriousness—”
His words were cut off as Mia planted another kiss on him—this time on his mouth.
Chapter Five
Mia tasted whiskey on Thomas’s lips, as he no doubt did on hers, and she found that she didn’t want to stop kissing him. She’d only planned it to be a friendly peck of gratitude, but for some unknown reason she’d remained in position, her lips fastened to his, and he hadn’t pulled away or protested.
She shifted her body closer to his, so their torsos were flush. He still didn’t pull away or protest, so she deepened the kiss, peeking her tongue out to seek entry to his mouth. Thomas let out a groan and opened to her, and now she tasted the whiskey on his tongue, too. They both still held their glasses, so their movements were limited, but Mia slid her free hand around the back of Thomas’s neck, while he wound his around her waist, pinning her in place as their kiss moved from surprising and tentative to needy and sensual.
This is probably a terrible idea. The worst idea you’ve ever had. And that’s saying something.
But despite her internal doubts, she continued to kiss Thomas, and he kissed her right back. It grew increasingly hot and heavy as their tongues twisted and thrust and danced together, and her arousal started to crowd out everything that wasn’t the here and now. Soon, Mia was entirely consumed by Thomas; by his strong arm wrapped around her, by his hot lips moulded to hers, by his heaving chest as he fought for each breath, and by the feel of his soft, thick hair clenched in her fingers.
Her body having taken over her mind, she used her grip on his hair to tilt his head back, breaking their kiss. Then, her olfactory sense full of his fresh, spicy cologne, she peppered butterfly kisses and gentle nibbles over his neck and jaw line, before shifting to his left ear and pulling the lobe into her mouth to suck on it.
Thomas’s moan, now no longer muffled by her mouth, rang out into the room and sent thrills racing through her. She released his earlobe, then licked a line down and under his chin, up to the other ear, where she repeated the gesture.
“Oh, fuck,” he said, his words a little slurred, but Mia was confident it was arousal causing that, rather than drunkenness. He’d had even less alcohol to drink than her, and all she felt was a pleasant buzz, mixed with just enough brazenness to continue what she’d started. “Oh God, that feels good.” He crept his hand down to her arse and gripped one buttock, hauling her against him. She felt the hardness of his cock through their clothes and suddenly wanted nothing more than to see it, touch it, taste it, have it inside her. Deep inside.
When she stepped back, he released her without hesitation, his eyes wide with panic. But his concern soon evaporated when she took his glass from him and put it, along with hers, down on a side table, then advanced on him once more. He grinned and held his arms wide, then wrapped them around her as soon as she stepped into them.
She tilted her head back and looked up at him. “Are you sure you’re up for this?”
He let out a splutter of a laugh, his lovely eyes crinkling at the corners. “Are you joking? I’m a man, and you’re as sexy as hell. Besides, shouldn’t I really be the one asking you that, given the circumstances?”
She smirked. “Maybe. But although my inhibitions might be the tiniest bit relaxed, I’m still in full control of my faculties. And the fact I just said all those big words without tripping over them should reassure you that I’m plenty sober enough to know what I’m doing. We’re just two adults enjoying each other, right? Having a bit of fun.”
“Well, I’ve enjoyed what we’ve been doing so far, but I think we can improve on that…” Apparently done talking, he scooped her up against him and sealed his lips to
hers once more.
She relaxed into his embrace and looped her arms around his neck, glad to have the use of both hands. They picked up where they’d left off—their kiss frantic and frenzied, their mouths and tongues working hard, and their lips crushed bruisingly together.
The level of Mia’s need spiralled out of control. She wanted to fuck Thomas, and she wanted it now. She began walking, pushing him backwards towards the three-seater sofa. He stumbled a little at first, but once he realised what she was doing, he went willingly, pulling her along with him. When they reached the sofa, Mia stepped back, then gave Thomas a shove so he fell back onto the cushions.
His resultant chuckle died in his throat as she unzipped her hoodie. He remained silent as she pulled it off and tossed it onto the armchair she’d recently vacated, then bent and removed her socks. Once she’d straightened, she jerked her chin towards him, her eagerness making her impatient. “Now you.”
Without taking his eyes from her, he toed off his own socks and ditched his hoodie. The black T-shirt he wore was just loose enough that she couldn’t make out his muscles beneath it. Figuring there was an easy solution to that, Mia pointed and said with a smirk, “That, too. In fact, why don’t you just get naked?”
With a lazy lift of his right shoulder, he shot back, “I will if you will.”
“You’re on.” Thankful for the warmth the fire was now pumping out, Mia undressed, her arousal making her clumsy. Once the remainder of her clothes rested in a haphazard pile on top of her hoodie, she turned her attention to Thomas, who had, by now, divested himself of his own garments and retaken his seat. And wow, was he worthy of that attention.
She drank him in greedily, from his already-mussed hair to his bare feet, with particular focus on the parts that lay in between. She’d seen his top half many times before, when he’d worked shirtless in the gardens, but this was different. This was sexual, and she wasn’t just going to look. He had the broad shoulders and well-muscled arms of a manual worker, as well as the softly-defined pectorals and six-pack of someone who worked out occasionally. A trail of dark hair led tantalisingly from his belly button to the top of his pubic bone, where it spread out into a neatly-trimmed mat, springing from which was his thick, uncut cock.
Mia briefly admired his meaty thighs, before returning her gaze to the appendage that thrust rudely up from their apex. She grinned widely before looking up to meet his eyes, seeing that his own had darkened with need as he mirrored her inspection of him. “Like what you see?” she asked, playfully jutting a hip and placing her hand on it.
“What do you think?” he replied, his tone incredulous as he gestured at his erection. “I told you you’re as sexy as hell.”
“Thank you. You’re pretty damn sexy, yourself.”
“So why don’t you do something about it?”
Closing the distance between them, she purred, “I intend to”, before straddling him and settling on his lap. She gasped at the heat of his skin as their bare bodies met, and couldn’t resist grinding against his cock, which poked up between them.
Thomas growled and shot his hands out, where they hovered for a moment as he struggled with indecision, then apparently decided on getting the best of both worlds—cupping a breast with one, and clutching at a naked buttock with the other.
With a smile, she let her own hands wander, sweeping them across his shoulders, then his firm pecs, before scraping her nails lightly over the ridges of his abdomen, stopping only when she reached the edge of his pubic hair. Her fingers rested on either side of his shaft, tantalisingly close, and after holding out for a few seconds while he squeezed and kneaded at her mounds of flesh, she could resist no longer. She curled the fingers of her right hand around his dick, and shifted her left down to cup and lightly tug at his balls.
His movements stilled, and he gave a throaty moan as his head lolled back against the cushions behind him. “Fuck, Mia, that’s so good. So good.”
“Yeah? What about this?” She tightened her grip on his shaft and began to pump it faster, revelling in the sensation of it swelling and heating beneath her touch.
“Uhh,” he ground out, dropping his hands onto her thighs and digging his fingertips into her flesh, “yesss, that’s fucking incredible. But Mia?”
“Yes, Tom?”
Rolling his head back to its natural position, he then fixed dopey eyes on her and said, “I might be a fucking genius, but I’m not superhuman.” He sucked in a sharp breath as she stroked him faster still and closed his eyes for a moment. His tone strangled, he continued, “Much more of… that, and I’ll come.”
“Isn’t that kind of the point?” She kept up the pace.
“I suppose so, but I want… uhh… to be inside you. Amongst other things. I don’t want to rush.”
“How’s your recovery time?”
“My… huh?” His brow creased.
“If you come now, how long before you can get hard again?”
He blinked a couple of times. “Not long, I don’t think. Maybe… twenty minutes.”
Slipping the index finger of her left hand beneath his balls and pressing at his perineum, she replied, “Well, there you go then. What’s the problem?”
She hadn’t intended to tease him this way, but once she’d seen what a quivering wreck her touch had turned him into, she’d become hooked on the power trip. Quickly, she scrambled off his lap and knelt beside him on the sofa at ninety degrees, then continued what she’d been doing, this time with her right hand further down so she could clamp her lips around his glans. She groaned as the taste of him swept over her taste buds, salty-sweet and deeply, deliciously masculine. His shaft was hot against her tongue and lips, and she got it good and wet with her saliva before sucking him in earnest, bobbing her head up and down while her hands got busy with the base of his dick and his balls.
Mia was vaguely aware of Thomas’s hand groping at her head, awkwardly gathering up her hair and pulling it into a ponytail, which he fisted tightly, tugging at her roots. She snatched in a breath through her nostrils as sparks of pain danced across her scalp. She wasn’t averse to a little bit of rough play, though. In fact, she enjoyed it.
With that thought in mind, she concentrated on finishing him off—sucking and stroking his rigid dick at an increasingly frenzied pace until his balls tightened in her hand and his shaft thickened and twitched in her mouth, before letting loose jet after jet of hot, creamy spunk. She swallowed it down eagerly and, as soon as he was done, she flipped over and sat on the sofa, still at ninety degrees to Thomas.
“Hey,” she said. Then, when he turned to her with an enquiring look, she grabbed a handful of his hair and pulled him towards her. “Time to return the favour.”
She lay back, tugging him with her until he got the hint and positioned himself between her spread legs, his head just in the right spot to go down on her—which of course had been Mia’s intention all along. With a grin, she pushed both hands into his thick hair, closed her eyes, and held on tight as he lowered his head towards her pussy.
At the first touch of his mouth, she gasped. He gripped her inner thighs, parting her further, and began to feast. First, he teased her—and she couldn’t exactly blame him for that. She had told him to return the favour, after all. He huffed hot gusts of breath over her sensitive skin, then ran his tongue lightly up the seam of her, so lightly that it tickled and turned her on at the same time. A trickle of juice seeped from her core, and her clit ached for attention. It swelled some more as Thomas slipped his tongue between her folds, licking up her wetness from its very source.
He made an approving, yet unintelligible sound, muffled against her body, then licked his way to her clit, so maddeningly slowly that she growled with frustration and bucked her hips. Thomas chuckled, then fastened his mouth around her swollen bud and gave her what she wanted, what she demanded. He sucked and pulled at the sensitive nub of flesh, causing bolts of pure bliss to zigzag through her body, and a strangled moan to escape her lips as he pushed
two thick fingers inside her slick channel.
Thomas began to fuck her with his fingers as he suckled her clit, and Mia soon felt her orgasm building. She tingled all over, and she pulled his head harder against her as the familiar tightness centred on her abdomen, silently begging him to tip her over the edge. With skill and enthusiasm, he continued pleasuring her, his fingers, lips, and tongue working in perfect harmony, propelling her rapidly towards her climax.
When it came, it hit her hard. Mia cried out as the tightness that had formed in her abdomen exploded out through every part of her, right to the very tips of her fingers and toes, even as her pussy spasmed around Thomas’s fingers. The bliss rolled over her again and again, leaving her dry-mouthed and gasping as the waves finally receded and she opened her eyes with some effort to look at Thomas.
He carefully removed his fingers, then lifted his head, and she was treated to a view of his grinning face, the bottom part of which was covered in her juices. He licked his lips and shot her a wicked grin. “That was… intense.”
“Mmm-hmm,” she replied lazily, then shifted her gaze further down his body. “How are we doing down there?”
Reaching a hand to his cock, he fisted it. “Fine and dandy, thank you. And you?”
Mimicking his movement, she pushed a finger inside her pussy, then removed it and put it in her mouth. With deliberate slowness, she pulled it back out, sucking off her juices along the way—the whole time maintaining eye contact. When her digit slipped free with a pop, she curved her lips into a wicked grin of her own. “Wet and willing. More than willing. You got a condom?”
He nodded. “One sec.” With that, he quickly retrieved one from his wallet, then opened it and rolled it on. Then he hurried back to his place on the sofa, picked her up and manoeuvred them until she was astride him. Then he took hold of his cock and positioned the head at her entrance, his other hand splayed on her arse cheek and urging her onto him.
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