by Mia Madison
Tessa frowns. “What if it’s them trying to get in?”
“I doubt it,” he says. “But let me check it all out. You two will be safer together downstairs. Put this under the door when I leave you there, so no one can get in. Just in case.” He hands me a door wedge made of rubber. “You can shout if you’re worried. And does either of you have a phone on you?”
“I do,” Tessa says. “But I’m already worried. What if they try to get in through the windows?”
“I’ll hear that if they do, and I’ll be right there.”
I touch Tessa’s arm, hoping to reassure her. “We’ll be fine. I’m sure it’s just the storm.”
Grant shoots me a grateful look, and we follow him downstairs.
He puts the lights on in the drawing room. “I won’t be long,” he says.
I want to tell him to take care, not to take any risks, but I sense I’d be wasting my breath, given what he does for a living, and Tessa would wonder what was going on.
“Remember the door wedge,” he says as he goes out, and I slip it under the door when he closes it.
“How was your day?” I ask Tessa, trying to keep our minds off what’s going on outside.
Tessa starts off not saying much, but she warms to the subject when I ask her a few questions. She bought a lot of things. And she lists them off, including details of where she got everything and what she tried on. “The only trouble is there’s no point in all these clothes here. No one ever visits, but I’ll wear them back in London.”
“When you’re done with all the remodeling work, you could have house parties here.”
“I’d like to have people visiting all the time,” she says. “The house has no life right now. When we bought it, I had such plans, but Jeremy lost all enthusiasm very quickly. He’s not interested in houses; they’re only assets to him. But my parents struggled to pay the rent all their lives until Jeremy bought them a bungalow.”
“He’s very generous.”
“Yes, he is. With money anyway. I think he should retire, but he can’t seem to stop. We have more money than we could ever use, but he keeps trying to make more. When I tell him it’s madness, he says I don’t understand him, that the money doesn’t matter—it’s just like points in a game.”
“My ex used to spend hours on his Xbox clocking up endless points. I didn’t get that either. But at least Jeremy earns points you can spend.”
She laughs a moment, then she asks, “What happened to make your ex an ex?”
“He cheated on me.”
“Men are such bastards sometimes.”
“Yes, they are. Not all of them, but far too many of them.”
“How was your day while we were out?” she asks.
“I worked on a few ideas, but I really need to talk to you first… I probably need to take notes, though.”
“There’s a pen somewhere and paper in the desk, I think.” She rummages around in the old walnut desk and passes me a pen and paper.
With a few questions, I have her telling me about the good times in her life, mainly when she was growing up and her days at college, sharing a place with her friends, going out, having fun, lots of things she’d like to be reminded of, vacations and clothes and parties. It’s good to see her smile, and now I’ve got all kinds of ideas running around my head for designs she might just like better than the crazy ones she’s talked about, designs that she’d like because they mean something to her.
By the time Grant returns, knocking on the door for me to remove the wedge, Tessa and I are chatting away, and I’ve made tons of notes. It’s been the most productive time I’ve had since I’ve been here despite how hard I’ve been trying to come up with something suitable that Tessa will love.
“It was a tree, like I thought,” Grant said. “Part of it has crashed through the old conservatory at the side of the house. We’ll need a crane to lift it off, but I’ve sealed off the access from the conservatory into the house so it’s all secure again.”
“Thanks,” Tessa says. “Sorry I panicked.”
“That’s understandable under the circumstances.” He looks at all the notes on the coffee table. “But it looks like you two have made the most of the time.”
“We have,” she says. “I could do with a drink, though.”
“Hot chocolate or something stronger? I’ll get it,” Grant says. “You can carry on chatting.”
“Hot chocolate with a drop of Scotch would be lovely,” Tessa says. “Paige?”
“Yes, thanks. That sounds like a great idea.”
Grant brings big mugs of steaming liquid, and it hits the spot perfectly.
“Pity about the old building,” Grant says. “You might be able to restore it. The insurance should cover it as storm damage.”
“And the conservatory would make a nice party venue,” I say. “Especially in the summer—we could fill it with plants like it would have been when it was first added to the house.”
“I’d like that,” she says. And then she yawns. “I really need to go back to bed now.”
“Why don’t you take Tessa up, and I’ll wash up the cups. I don’t want to leave a mess for the morning,” I say to Grant.
A look passes between us. I hope he’ll come back once he delivers Tessa to her room.
The kitchen is dark. I switch on the lights and then leave only a couple of glass cabinets illuminated. That’s enough light if he comes to find me.
He’s not slow on the uptake. And I only have time to rinse out the cups when he’s there in the kitchen, looking for me. He kisses me like he’s really missed me today, pulling me close and capturing my mouth like a man on a mission, hard and forceful, full of heat that I feel right down to my toes.
He tastes of chocolate and Scotch. And him.
CHAPTER 16
Grant
“Do you need an escort to your room too, Miss Newman?” I ask her, tucking a stray tendril of hair behind her ear.
“Yes, I do. I think you should see me safely to bed.”
Safe is the last word I’d use to describe what I want to do to her. But hell, now she mentions safe, it wasn’t my first priority to grab a bunch of condoms when I heard the tree crash through the house.
“I’ll keep you safe,” I say. “Might just need to grab some protection.”
“I’m still on the pill, and I got tested after my ex,” she says. “If that’s what you’re thinking.”
“Then we’re both okay.” I grin at her. Skin to skin. I’ve never done that with anyone.
I kiss her again, her soft lips molding to mine, opening for me. I want to kiss the hell out of her. She’s right up against the sink where she was washing the dishes and I’m hard, pulling her to me. My cock is going to burst right out of my jeans if I don’t have her.
“Yeah, maybe safe wasn’t the right word,” she says when we break apart a moment.
“Safe wasn’t what I was thinking. either. I’m all for living dangerously in the moment.”
Her eyes flash in the semi-darkness of the kitchen.
I pull the belt on her robe and wrench it open. Her tits would make a man think he died and went to heaven, the hard nipples showing pink, jutting through the silky cream camisole she’s wearing. I can’t resist. I bend and take one nipple in my mouth, fabric and all, as my fingers find their way beneath the silk and tease the other. She moans her hips arching toward me, her breath ragged. Responsive. Needy. I like that.
I pull the ribbon on her little shorts and they slide down her legs to the floor.
She gasps. “Here?” Her eyes are wide.
“Yes, here.” We’re far enough away from the rest of the house in the kitchen, but I don’t much care right now.
“Yes,” she says, pulling at the button on my jeans. She wants me!
In two seconds, my cock springs free, and I slide into the gorgeous wetness of her, parting her walls, plunging so deep inside her, hard and full and deep. Her sweet moans are music to my ears.
She’
s so tight. I want to stay there for a week. I feel her grip on me as I move in and out of her, slowly at first, and she clings to me, as we enjoy the pleasure of that smooth, hard fuck, bare flesh against flesh, every thrust accompanied by an animal-like groan from our mouths.
I lift her then and set her down on the table. “Hang on tight, baby,” I tell her. Her soft thighs are wrapped around me. I’m buried inside her. It feels so good I’m going to come any minute, but not until I get her there, too.
My fingers find her clit and I start up the slow controlled fucking again, hitting her as hard and deep as I can while my fingers work their magic. When I sense she’s about to come my body takes over, ramming into her hard and fast over and over, wild and raw, until we both cry out, and I swell and jerk inside her and erupt. We hold onto each other, catching our breath.
Not safe at all. I’m in a lot of danger here.
CHAPTER 17
Paige
I wake up in Grant’s arms and move carefully away, so as not to disturb him. I don’t want him to find me there and wonder if I’m getting too clingy. But as I slip out of his grasp, he stirs and pulls me back to him.
I’m not going to argue.
We finally made it “safely” up the stairs, my legs weak from the experience in the kitchen. Who knew sex could turn legs all shaky like that? I thought that was only in books until Grant. Not that things ended in the kitchen. We weren’t done; both of us were greedy for more.
“Hey, you’re awake,” he says. He looks at his phone on the nightstand. “It’s five a.m. Tessa won’t be up for hours.”
“So we have time.”
“We do.” He grins back at me. “You’re quite insatiable if I may say so, Miss Newman.”
“Back at you, Mr. Maddox.”
I can’t tell him I’m insatiable only with him. He’s like a drug I can’t get enough of. One taste and I’m addicted. And in trouble.
But I don’t want to think about that right now. Not when he’s doing that thing with his tongue between my legs, not when my back is arching off the bed, desire turning my limbs boneless, and between licks, he’s telling me what he’s going to do to me.
When I come against his face, he laughs. “I love the sound you make when you come. That will never get old.” Then he flips me over onto my front, and takes me from behind while I’m still feeling the after effects of his tongue, pounding into me like he can’t stop, pausing only to move my hair out of the way and plant a kiss on the back of my neck. And then his hands are back holding my hips, giving me everything he has as we come together, and I cry out.
We roll over onto our backs on the bed, staring at the ceiling. And suddenly, we can’t stop laughing for no reason that I can fathom other than the pure ridiculous pleasure of the night we just shared.
“I suppose we’ll have to get up soon,” he says and catches hold of my hand, giving it a squeeze. “Go back to being professional.”
“Yes.” I pull a face. I don’t know how I’m going to pretend nothing has happened here.
“You were getting on well with Tessa last night. I’ve never seen her smile so much.”
“She’s all right when you get to know her. You were right about that. Her airs and graces are not really her. She holds onto them like a security blanket.”
“I guess we all have one of those.”
“Even you?”
“I had a lucky penny when I was in Afghanistan my dad gave me when I was six. Who knows if it did any good?”
“But you came home.”
“Yes. Plenty didn’t. But it’s unlikely the penny saved me; it just made me feel safer.”
“I thought you were going to say you had a teddy bear you still slept with.”
“Who says I don’t?”
“Big softy,” I tease.
“That’s not what you said earlier.”
“True, I said big, but not soft.” I run my finger over the hard length of him. “Even now. Are you ever soft?”
“It’s this effect you have on me. There’s no hope. I know a good cure, though.”
I laugh, my hands stroking.
“If you carry on like this I’ll never manage to get out of bed,” he says, and takes away my fingers and kisses my knuckles.
“I don’t think I can move.”
“Don’t move then, stay right there, but I’ll have to get up and check if there’s any damage to the security cameras and the perimeter walls.”
He gets dressed as I lie there.
“You’re watching me,” he says.
“Just enjoying the view.”
He laughs and kisses me and then he goes off, leaving me to feel lazy and languid, basking in the warmth under the covers, the scent of him still on the sheets. I can’t take the smile off my face. As soon as I stop, I think of the past few hours all over again.
I switch on my phone and catch his text from last night. And that makes me grin like the proverbial Cheshire cat. He missed me enough to send a message.
But I can’t read too much into it. Friends are meant to like each other. They’re meant to send messages. But why on earth did I agree just to be a friend with benefits? I’m in too deep for that already after just one night. I can’t think what I’ll be like after a week, never mind four. Have I just laid myself open to a whole heap of heartbreak?
But I’m being ridiculous. One night. I need to conjure up my inner Anna and just enjoy the moment. All the moments, the sexy, over-the-top-awesome moments. I giggle.
CHAPTER 18
Grant
I’m busy all week helping Tom to sort out the damage from the storm. It takes a crane to lift the tree from the conservatory, and we’ll need a specialist company to restore the building when they schedule the work, but we do the rest ourselves, clearing away the debris and fixing everything else. Despite the continuing wind and rain, it does me good to be active outdoors, making a difference. I missed that.
And at night, there’s Paige.
“What happened to you?” Tom asks, when we take a coffee break in the kitchen. “You’re not usually so cheerful. I thought bodyguards were stony-faced types, suspicious of everyone. You did nothing to change my opinion before this week. You were singing out there just now.”
“I don’t know. It must be the change in the wind or something.”
“Would that something be the new girl by any chance?”
“Wash your mouth out, mate. How could you suggest such a thing?”
He laughs. “It is her, then. A bit of a looker, that one. But women, nothing but trouble. You won’t be singing for long.”
“Says the happily married man.” I laugh. Tom has shown me pictures of his family he keeps in his wallet. But he’s right about me being happier. And not bored. I could never be bored with Paige. I can’t get enough of her.
Yet I know it’s a temporary thing. We’re just supposed to be friends with benefits, aren’t we? She just split up from her ex, and she’s not ready for anything else. Even if she was, and sometimes when I look at her I think she wants more, what do I have to offer her? The broken shell that’s me? A lifestyle that’s anything but stable? How can it go further, no matter how much I like her? Everything about my life will destroy what’s good between us, just like being away destroyed everything with my girlfriend years ago.
It’s better to quit now, before shit gets real.
Yet even thinking all that, I can’t stop wanting Paige. And I say nothing. One look from her and any thought of putting an end to this goes clean out of the window.
*
After a week of hard work, most of the place is back to normal, some of it better than it was. When Tom goes off at the end of the day, I take a shower to freshen up before dinner. As the water washes over my head, I think about Paige.
In the early hours, with her lying in my arms, I’ve talked about my past more than I ever have before, anxious to make her see why I’m not right for her.
I told her how I enlisted when I lost my parents
, how I lost good friends in service, how things were for me when I came back and found my girlfriend had left me—all the reasons why I don’t get attached, and even as I remind myself again how true all that is, I wonder if I can change.
Could there be another future for me, one with more than work? Will pleasure ever be more than an “in the moment” thing, snatched, because that might be all there is?
But I don’t think so. It’s just wishful thinking.
The atmosphere around the dining table is more relaxed now. Tonight, Tessa and Paige swap notes on places they’ve been in London, and Tessa asks about Paige’s business. At the end of the meal, Tessa goes off to call Jeremy about more plans she’s made with Paige to restore the conservatory. She says even he should be home from the office by now. It’s nine o’clock at night. The guy must be crazy when he doesn’t have to work.
It’s time to do my perimeter checks. Paige says she’ll come out to walk around the walls with me. It’s the first time the weather has been good enough for her to want to do that since the night she arrived.
As we pass the old conservatory, she says, “Tessa’s excited about restoring the building now. I love that she’s thinking about preserving it rather than turning everything into a theme park.”
“She seems to have changed her mind on a few things. She’s stopped talking about Egypt for the drawing room.”
“I never thought I’d get her to drop that.”
“She seems happier now that you’re friends.”
“We’ve been chatting all week. It’s been eye-opening, but it feels odd now we’ve talked so much, not to mention that you and I got together.”
“What good would it do? Tessa is probably happier not knowing, and after a few weeks… well, it won’t matter then, will it?”
A cloud comes over Paige’s face. I want her to deny it. To say that it will matter. But she doesn’t. She just shrugs and says brightly, “I guess not. Friends with benefits for a few weeks. That was our deal.”