Alexis kissed him and let herself indulge in the glorious feelings that having the freedom to kiss him how she wanted, was invoking in her.
Together - neither one or the other pushing more than the other - they both moved back to the bed and lay down. Lying side by side they kept kissing, letting go of worries and inhibitions and just letting the urgency flow over them.
Anthony forced his senses to come back to him and he broke away from the kiss, while still holding her as he was.
"I don't have any condoms with me, Allie. I didn't think … I'm not prepared," he said and she felt happy at him saying that - it meant he had not been presuming anything would happen. She laughed in happiness of that.
"Neither am I, Anthony. I shall be prepared next time I see you. For now, can we please just keep kissing?" she asked and he blissfully did as she asked.
A long time later, their kissing eased off and they lay on top of the bed, still fully clothed, holding each other and looking at each other.
"Are you definitely ready?" he asked her, not needing to voice the rest of the words for the question.
"Yes. Are you?" she asked in return and he nodded and kissed her softly.
~~~~~
Two weeks later Allie walked with him into his home and could sense his nervousness as he led her into the kitchen to make them coffee. He seemed to be set on doing anything but seeming eager, which made her smile since she also didn't want to appear pushy, regardless of how hungry - how desperate - she now felt to be closer to him.
They sat in the lounge on the sofa and just talked, and drank, while she let her legs rest softly on his. When they had relaxed completely he pulled her closer.
"How do you feel now?" he asked, again knowing he didn't need to find words for all that he was asking.
Alexis leaned in and kissed him, and together they melted into the kiss, for a long time. After they pulled away from each other, and could see honest desire in each other's eyes, Anthony stood up and held his hand out to her, which she gladly took, and he led her into his bedroom. She had never seen this room of the house before, and found herself curious as she looked around. It was nice to have a slight distraction, so they could both regain their thoughts without bounding ahead too quickly.
He stood and watched her looking at different things. He didn't move … just watched and waited. When she had seemingly seen enough she walked up to him and put her arms around him. He kissed her softly at first and then they were on the bed once more, kissing heavily. It felt so different to Alexis - this equality - the power of them both wanting and working toward the same thing together, instead of one person taking it from the other.
It all flowed naturally, the undressing and lying down together, not rushing. He pulled the covers over them both as he kept kissing her, for a long time neither of them moving to touch the other in their most erotic places. That could wait - for now it was a new kind of bliss to simply have the closeness.
Finally he felt ready for it to move forward, and he asked her to kneel over him, but when she moved to straddle him to join, he guided her to turn around and kneel over his face, and she found herself in a place she had never been before, feeling his tongue start to explore her, while she could similarly explore him with hers.
Alexis revelled in the feelings. It had been so long since she had felt that pleasure - even on her own she hadn't touched herself at all since the last time she was with Lincoln. Now as she found joy in caressing him with her mouth, she felt a very quick growing of the feelings inside of her, as she felt his tongue exploring … tasting.
Anthony was lost. It had been two years since he had been physically close to anyone. And to be this close … it was like how he imagined heaven to be, nestled under her like that, and experiencing her shimmering against his mouth as he felt and heard her orgasm. And he could feel himself simultaneously reaching a point he also had not been to in a long while. He kept still after she climaxed, and focused on the feelings she was bringing out in him, and soon found himself reaching - and going over - the final point of no return, letting himself release into her mouth.
They lay like that for a while, neither in a hurry to move, and finally Alexis pulled off him and turned around to look at his face, and kiss his lips.
Anthony kissed her passionately - his desire was let loose after two years of confinement, and his body was screaming to keep going - to do more.
Alexis felt like she couldn't get enough of his kissing - the depth of it and the way his lips and tongue moved against her. And his hands were all over her as he moved with her - their bodies not joined but still somehow in sync, moving against each other.
Finally she pulled away from him, just to look at his face - just to make sure there wasn't anything dark there. But all she saw was a man who was enjoying her company - exactly as she was enjoying his.
"Are you alright?" he asked, glad to take a moment of respite in what felt like a huge urgency inside of him.
She smiled at him - a brilliant smile - and nodded, before kissing him again. They kept doing that for a long time, until he was obviously highly aroused not only in mind but in body too, and she watched him as he put a condom on himself and then leaning down to kiss her, asked her one more time if she was alright.
"I am, Anthony - very much so," she replied to him and felt him kiss her as he slowly slid inside her, making them both gasp at the feeling.
Anthony let himself go. He didn't need to keep wondering if it was what she wanted - he knew without any doubt that it was - so he let himself go into his own world for a moment, concentrating on how it felt to be joined with her, before he felt his body convulse and release. When he opened his eyes he saw her looking at his face, and he smiled at her.
He pulled out and discarded the condom before lying down beside her and putting his arms around her. Leaning in and kissing her, she felt his fingers trail down and start caressing her clitoris, while he explored her mouth with his tongue, and it was a short time before she exploded once again, this time against his hand.
The afternoon, the evening - the two nights - were spent together in the same way. He let her choose where she wanted to sleep, and on both nights she chose to sleep with him, not having slept beside anyone all night for so many years. It was a comfortable way to spend the nights, with his body wrapped around hers all night, and Anthony loved the warmth that came from her.
When it was time for her to leave, he kissed her deeply on the station platform.
"I will see you soon, Allie," he said to her and she could sense the sadness coming off him.
"You will," she replied and kissed him as deeply back, before turning and climbing up into the train carriage.
She thought about him all the way home, wondering where they could possibly go as a couple. Wondering if he would have any regrets between now and the next time they were due to see each other.
Wondering, in the core of her gut, if she would ever see him again.
~~~~~
The next morning Alexis made her way to work and got herself set up at the checkout counter. She served a customer - a woman - with a small toddler, a little boy who was sitting up on the shopping trolley. She was getting good at talking to people now, she was thinking to herself, as she engaged in conversation with the mother and the child. When all groceries were packed into the shopping trolley and the payment processed, she followed them with her eyes as they were leaving, and gave the little boy a big wave and smile as they walked out. Her focus was on that way - to the left - to the exit. She was not watching the direction customers approached the checkout counters from - the right.
All of a sudden she felt the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck stand up on end as she heard the familiar voice. The voice. His voice. It was spoken at a normal volume - not a whisper. Not a shout. But it directly linked into her brain, like an electric shock passing through her.
"Lexi."
She remembered briefly that when she had met Anthony, she had th
ought his voice was similar. But she could now hear the difference. Even if she hadn't noticed the slight difference, in her gut she would have known that this wasn't Anthony. Even though she wasn't looking at him - not even looking in his direction - she could feel him.
For a moment, Alexis stood still, not moving her body, not moving her head. She could feel her body willing itself to do as it had always done - drop down to the floor and wait for an instruction. It was a pull inside of her - an automated response. She could feel it so deep within her, even without having heard that voice for so long now.
But something had changed inside of her. She found strength and determination to fight it, and slowly pulled her body even more upright, raised and turned her head, and looked directly at him.
She noted briefly that although he was still immaculately dressed and it hadn't been that long since she last saw him, he was slightly greyer around his temples, and he had dark areas under his eyes, as if he had not had a good sleep in a very long time.
But he still had that overpowering presence … and a huge aura of power emanating from him. And the look on his face … in his eyes … could not have possibly been any more intense or intimidating.
Alexis stood her ground, determined to look confident even though it was exactly the opposite of what she was feeling. Her legs were like jelly, desiring to give in and fall to the ground - trying to encourage her to do so. And her heart was more than beating inside of her chest - it was thumping - heavily, and she wondered silently if anyone in the immediate area would be able to hear it.
But what she saw most clearly as she looked at him was that by doing so, she had startled him. For a moment he seemed confused, like he didn't understand how she could stand so tall and look at him in such a way.
Alexis gathered further strength and finally spoke, not faltering in her stare directly into his eyes. Making a very solid point to him that she would not now - nor ever again - call him by the name he had always instructed her to.
"Mr Kokiri…"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To be continued in
Darkness of Heart
(Book 2 in the Painful Deliverance Series)
THANK YOU!
Thank you so much for reading my book, 'Painful Deliverance' (Book 1 in the Painful Deliverance series). I greatly enjoyed writing this story and I appreciate your enthusiasm for reading it.
If you enjoyed 'Painful Deliverance', I hope you will consider taking a moment to place a review in Amazon.
If interested in receiving up to date details of freebies, price drops and new releases, please contact me via my website to leave your name and email address, and I shall be glad to send you news.
Thank you,
Ann M Pratley
INTRODUCING: DARKNESS OF HEART
(PAINFUL DELIVERANCE SERIES - BOOK #2)
By Ann M Pratley
She thought he'd stopped looking. He hadn't.
She got away from him to start a new life. She moved on. But in his mind, he still loves her and needs her. He still believes that she loves him. That she is meant to be his. That he is meant to be hers.
He will not give up searching for her. He will not give up fighting for her. He will pursue her and stop at nothing to get her back. But it will come at a cost … a sacrifice much greater than he will see coming. A sacrifice that will finally wake him up and bring him back to stark reality.
INTRODUCING: FRIENDSHIP OF DESIRE
(PAINFUL DELIVERANCE SERIES - BOOK #3)
By Ann M Pratley
Tom and Samantha. Feisty friends from childhood who feel like they know each other inside out, until the day comes when one of them suggests they go to a BDSM club together, and become formal play partners. Pushing the limits of what each of them can individually stand in their lifelong friendship, they attract and repel like magnets, until the time comes when they must choose how they will relate to one another - and what kind of relationship they will go on to have in the future.
Whilst on this journey of discovery, the two of them meet and make a new friend - Alexis. A young woman with a hidden and secretive past, and a mystery surrounding the relationship she has - or has had - with a renowned business entrepreneur who begins to integrate himself into Samantha's life, unknown to any of them whether he has done it for him, or for her … or for Alexis, being the mysterious link from his past.
NEW RELEASE: THE GOLDEN DESIRES
By Ann M Pratley
He wanted to escape. They needed to survive.
When Isabella starts to dream of a stranger, she is awakened inside with feelings she has never felt before. She knows he is not someone she has ever seen before, and he is not of her village. He is a stranger, and she is desperate to determine if he is real or he is a part of her imagination.
Far away a businessman desperate to escape the noise and stress of the city, embarks on a journey to find peace and the solitude he increasingly needs and desires. But at his destination he will find much, much more.
BONUS EXTRACT: TOTAL FREEDOM
(TOTAL FREEDOM SERIES - BOOK #1)
By Ann M Pratley
The Drabs, that's what we had been known as, as a band in our home town of Dunedin, New Zealand. We weren't the greatest band and only played a couple of original songs, but we were happy doing what we were doing and over time the crowds did seem to come to love us. That was back in the days of what seemed to be equally the best and worst time of my life. Things have changed so much since then.
When I was 14 years old I attended high school like any other 14 year old, I dressed like any other 14 year old, and I got abused like any other overweight 14 year old - and like too many 14 year olds, I couldn't handle the abuse and as a result I let myself go and believed every word of what I was told. No friends, fat, ugly and totally useless - that's what I was told by people all around me and that was what I became.
Even as a teenager I was well aware of the concept of nutrition and weight maintenance, but day after day everything just felt painful, like just getting through each day was work for me. Like no matter how hard I searched, I just couldn't find where or who I was meant to be. And I became used to using food as my therapy - when I ate, I felt a comfort, like it was the one thing that never hurt me.
Through that period I fell into a comfort zone visiting a local café that sold a wide plethora of foods - nutritious and not so nutritious, but I naturally veered toward the latter. Friends were non-existent to me - in my universe I was a nobody who no-one else ever even noticed.
But one day, walking into my favourite café, something changed. Sitting in there was someone who I noticed and who immediately captured my attention because they were also alone, and looking like they were as miserable as I was day after day. Immediately my feelings didn't seem quite so important - but his did.
Approaching him I didn't feel the usual nervousness or anxiety that I did when contemplating saying hello to someone new. This person had such a look of despair and unhappiness that it actually felt natural for me to approach him and ask if I could sit with him. When he looked up he had such a look of surprise, but stammered out a quiet 'okay'.
After I sat down in front of him, I could see that he wasn't far away from my own age, but I had never seen him before. He looked at me with such intensity in his eyes, periodically removing his eyes from my gaze as if he were not only shy but also extremely uncomfortable talking to people.
"Are you okay?" I asked him, without even introducing myself. "You look … unhappy."
He looked utterly confused, like it was a completely new experience, having someone ask him anything. But he then seemed to find some core strength as I saw him take a deep breath, as if summoning a hidden inner confidence, and hold out his hand.
"I'm Craig," his quiet voice said with a level of doubt in it that made me think that it was a natural thing for him to expect someone at this point to turn and walk away.
I held my hand out and shook his briefly, suddenly feeli
ng strange at this new thing happening - someone was shaking my hand? I couldn't remember when even either of my parents had touched me.
"I'm Debbie," I replied, embracing this moment of physical connection with another human being, and not rushing to remove my hand.
We looked at each other, not saying anything, perhaps both understanding in that moment that we were enough alike - enough able to understand exactly where each other was right in this moment in our thinking and our lives - that a friendship was about to be formed. Something we both were so unfamiliar with.
UPCOMING RELEASE: TOTAL NEW BEGINNINGS
(TOTAL FREEDOM SERIES - BOOK #2)
By Ann M Pratley
She made a choice when she was young - a choice that she went on to question throughout her adult life to date. Twenty years on the opportunity to revisit that decision appears before her and she is left to consider what is right.
But in and around this opportunity for decision review, she learns things about her husband that push her to question the soundness of his mind, and wonder why he had ever married her.
A chance to start over, choosing this time to go down the path previously unselected … if we could go back and do it over, would we really make the different choice after all?
INTRODUCING: CRUISING THROUGH TO FULFILMENT
By Ann M Pratley
When a young woman from a small town in New Zealand travels to Vancouver to see the sights and go on a luxury cruise through the waters of Alaska, all she wishes for is that - a holiday.
On board the Glacial Sun, Tanya meets new friends, one of whom will become more, using his charm and good looks to win her heart. But once on land the discovery of a dead body close to her hotel will make her question the goodness of the person she has let herself trust, and wonder if there is a darker side to him.
Painful Deliverance Page 21