He picked me up, and I nuzzled into his chest as he carried me across the master bedroom to his bed, making sure I was comfortable before running off downstairs for a late night recovery snack and drink. He really was doing a wonderful job of this aftercare business that I’d read about, and I could now understand why it was necessary.
“Yum!” I squealed the moment I saw what he was carrying in, salt n’ vinegar pringles and chocolate milk! This guy seriously had the memory of a thousand men, I’d told him during the first week we met that those were my two favourite childhood foods, not that chocolate milk is technically food but you know what I mean.
Mr. H then proceeded to turn on the tv, making sure that the cooking channel I liked was on before climbing up into bed with me and letting me snuggle into him while I munched away on pringles and washed them down with the most delicious velvety chocolate milk I’d ever tasted.
I had no idea what the time was, it had to be late, they didn’t arrive until after ten, but I was wired now, I’d gone from being ready to fall asleep in the shower to being wide awake, there was no way I was sleeping anytime soon. I couldn’t say the same for poor old Mr. H though, whose snoring was interfering with my ability to hear how to properly fillet a fish. Yup, important life lessons to be learnt here, and he’s snoring through it.
Who knows how many episodes I got through, but I must have fallen asleep at some point, because when I opened my eyes after what I thought was a long blink – it was daylight, and Mr. H was still snoring underneath me. Glancing over to the clock, I realised it was after nine already, shit. I had work to get done before I could enjoy my Sunday.
I slithered out of bed, feeling proud of my ninja skills, this time I didn’t wake him. Chucking my robe and slippers on, I headed downstairs to get a fresh pot of coffee on before setting up my laptop outside, it was a beautiful morning so why waste an opportunity to work out amongst the clouds.
Mr. H had these gigantic coffee mugs, seriously the size of three standard mugs in one, so you know I used one of those, along with a pumpkin seed bagel slathered in as much herbed cream cheese as it would hold, what? I needed sustenance to get me through my morning round of promos… which in my humble opinion, is pointless – who’s up looking at their Instagram at nine thirty on a Sunday morning? Never mind, I’m just doing as I’m told. Only one week left of this.
By the time Mr. H had finally risen from his deep slumber and ventured downstairs, I was already about half way through my morning jobs, however his half naked presence making its way over to the table was going to be a major distraction, this was going to take much longer with him here.
“Good morning Beautiful girl.” He said, kissing me on the forehead before sitting.
My eyes were darting between him, the laptop and the archway, I wanted to be writing about last night – not publicising my own book, and shouldn’t they be paying someone else to do these stupid promotions? I have much better things I could be doing – Like Mr. H…Oh, no, I mean writing, I could be writing book number two right now. See, this is exactly why I’d been preferring to stay at my own place to work. Focus was a thing of the past when he was around, unless the focus was on him.
“Morning, Mr. H.” I finally replied after forcing myself to finish the post I was working on, “Are you just going to sit there and watch me work?”
“I’ll take that as a hint – I was thinking of going for a run anyway.”
Before leaving, Mr. H made sure to let me know he’d made plans for us tonight, reservations for dinner at a restaurant I’d been wanting to go to since I very first arrived in New York, it had always been way out of my league though, I’d watched more than one food channel episode which featured this particular restaurant. Wow, I thought, these were some plans, I wondered what the special occasion was? Shit, this was almost more distracting than having him sat here shirtless.
Realising I’d run out of coffee, I ventured inside to the kitchen to get a fresh pot started. As I was fetching the coffee from the pantry I noticed Mr. H had left his phone behind on the counter. Now, I’m not normally a major snoop when it comes to relationships, so I don’t know what possessed me to pick it up. Swiping the screen open, I immediately went to where anyone would go – the text messages.
The red warning lights were flashing at the very first glimpse, the first person in the inbox was Rachel. Opening up the conversation I noticed that it was entirely one sided, Mr. H had not replied to any of her messages – and I could see why.
‘Now that Pete’s out of the picture – we can finally be together.’
‘Hello? I need you.’
‘Leave Hannah. You deserve way better… like me.’
‘I’ll give you one week to leave her before I make my move.’
‘Dumped the skank yet?’
‘Tick tock – last chance.’
One side of me was furious that he’d kept these messages a secret, but the other more reasonable side of me knew that he was only trying to protect me, which dulled the anger toward him to a mild 3/10. The anger directed at Rachel however was a raging 13. I decided to take it upon myself to reply on Mr. H’s behalf.
‘I will never love you the way I love Hannah. You and I will never happen.’
I didn’t expect her to reply as fast as she did, but the phone had barely left my hand before it vibrated.
‘Big Mistake.’
Deleting those last two messages from Mr. H’s phone, I decided I was going to pretend I never found any of them in the first place. Whatever Mr. H was trying to protect me from was much more than I’d imagined. This girl was psychotic, and I couldn’t help but think I’d just made one huge error of judgement.
Needing a distraction, I delved deeper into the message inbox, and I didn’t need to go much deeper to find what I was looking for, texts from Katie and Pete.
‘I enjoyed every second of last night, although I would’ve enjoyed it more if I got the same taste test Katie did. Would happily watch again, anytime you’ll allow.’
‘Her asshole was just as sweet as she is, put a ring on that girl, a.s.a.p.’
That’ll do it, Rachel who? But holy fuck that better not be what tonight is about. Hannah James, put the phone down, now! I should’ve known better, if I’d learnt anything from sitcoms and movies, it’s that nothing good ever comes out of snooping through someone else’s phone.
Muddling my way through the morning’s last few chores my mind was definitely elsewhere. Between what happened last night and Pete and Katie’s enjoyment of it, the amazing dinner Mr. H had planned for us tonight, and the lingering thoughts of Rachel’s threatening messages, my brain was a complete disaster zone. Times like these are when I really needed Jade. She would’ve known what to do.
The noise of the keys rattling in the door gave away that Mr. H had returned, well, a sweaty mess that somewhat resembled Mr. H was here, he looked completely dishevelled, sweat dripping onto the floor, and his breathing was still ragged.
“It’s like a sauna out there today.” He said in-between breaths, “Hottest day of the year they reckon. Ah – there’s my phone.” He picked it up, examining it with a look of sheer confusion, “Huh, could’ve sworn my watch beeped at me on my run.”
Fuck! I’d forgotten about his bloody smart watch, he would’ve seen exactly who text him, at exactly what time. But not what it said. I was in the clear. But only just.
“Can I get a ride back to my place after your shower? I’ve got some things I need to get done before our date tonight.”
“Of course baby girl. But you’re staying here the night after our date right?”
I nodded.
Something caught my attention the moment I walked inside my apartment, it wasn’t obvious at first, but once I’d figured out what it was that was bothering me, shivers ran up my spine. Someone had been in here. My answering machine was plugged in, turned on, and flashing ’25 new messages.’
Whether I needed any of those messages or not, I didn’t care,
I ripped the cord back out of the wall, angrily threw the machine onto the floor with serious force and stomped on it multiple times to ensure its demise.
Next, I picked up a cast iron frying pan as my choice of safety weapon before I headed down the hallway to check the bedrooms, which were thankfully all clear, except for one tiny little detail I almost overlooked. Jade’s window was closed, but not latched shut like I’d ensured it was on my departure. Whoever was getting in here knew what they were doing. That’s when it hit me, Jason had fixed this window more than once when we were together, Jade was always complaining about the dodgy latch. It was him. It had to be.
Suddenly I felt physically sick, I had no idea how many times he had been in here, or what he was doing. He could’ve installed hidden cameras for all I knew. The worst part? I had no proof that it was even him, I had no proof that anyone had even been in my apartment. The police would never take me seriously with all my circumstantial evidence. If this was some sick game he was playing, I wasn’t going to let him win. I wouldn’t let him see I was scared. I decided that my best option was to pretend I hadn’t even noticed, in the hopes Jason would give up and leave me alone. After all, it’s not like he was dangerous or anything, was he? I mean, I should know, we were together for two years.
Chapter Twenty Two.
Waiting for Mr. H to arrive, I checked the mirror one last time, the mid-length sapphire blue cocktail dress he’d chosen for me was stunning, I felt so sophisticated, and with loose curls and glam makeup, I actually looked the part to be attending this prestigious restaurant.
Mr. H looks good no matter what he wears, but when he came walking through my front door in his formal black dinner suit, my heart skipped a beat. This man was unbelievably sexy, and he does very good, very bad things to me.
“You ready to go gorgeous girl?”
“Hell yeah. I can’t wait to try this food.” I was fizzing, almost fangirling, after watching this restaurant on tv multiple times, this was like meeting a celebrity to me.
“I hope so – I’ve booked us the degustation menu.”
Honestly, that to me, was like a dream come true. One of my favourite chefs was going to cook me a degustation. Course after course of his finest work that I get to eat. Holy shit, Mr. H was opening up a whole new world before my very eyes. Sky high condos, high end shopping sprees, prestigious restaurants, luxury sports cars, first class travel. And to top all of that off – I was one week away from becoming a published author, my life seemed to be finally coming together.
Mr. H ushered me inside the restaurant and we were escorted to our private table. Because we were having the degustation there was thankfully no ordering required, all we had to do was sit, and wait, and we didn’t have to wait long.
Less than five minutes after our arrival the first plates made it to our table, a salmon pâté with crusty crackers, a small portion, but a delightful opening dish that left you yearning for more.
Courses four and five were my stand out favourites of the night, fresh water bass accompanied by a zesty citrus salad, and an Asian flavour inspired sous vide pork belly – possibly the most melt in your mouth pork I’d ever had the pleasure to eat, and the sauce, I could’ve drank the stuff, so sweet, yet salty and moreish.
This whole experience was already a memorable one, and when the chef himself hand delivered our final dish for the night – my all-time love, lemon sorbet, I almost fainted. I think from memory I may have thanked him about a thousand times, probably making an utter fool out of myself, but I didn’t care.
Once Chef had gone back to his kitchen, Mr. H cleared his throat,
“Hannah, I’ve been wanting to ask you something all night but I can’t hold it in any longer so… Move in with me? Properly.”
I nearly choked, luckily sorbet is smooth, I hadn’t had a key for his condo for long, and he was already taking the next step.
Was I ready to move in? Did I even want to live with him? Everything had already happened so fast, but who was I kidding? Free rent, unobstructed city wide views and man candy on tap. Fuck yes I wanted to move in.
When I began nodding, I watched as a wide toothed grin appeared across Mr. H’s handsome face, no words had left my lips yet, but he was already celebrating.
“Yes!” I finally got around to saying, “But – I’d like to hold off moving until after the book release, I couldn’t possibly deal with packing on top of all this work. Is that okay with you?”
“Baby girl, as long as it’s a yes, I’m happy. Now, let’s get back to our place.”
Our place. Seems simple enough right? Except my place was going from a tiny rundown, leaky, old apartment, to a near new multimillion dollar condo with more than enough space to swing many cats. This was a big change. A big step for a couple who’d grown so close over the space of only a few short months. Anxious thoughts were creeping in already, what if this destroys us? Where would I go if we broke up? Would I have to move home to San Diego? I’d been practically sponging off this man for the last few weeks, there’s no way I could afford to find a new place here.
The drive from the restaurant to our condo was long enough to have filled my entire brain with doubt, and when we walked inside it was clear that Mr. H had recognised the blank spaced out stare I had going on, I was too far inside my own thoughts that I wasn’t processing the outside world.
“Hannah!” Mr. H said, waving in front of my face, “You in there?”
“Sorry…” I said, before unleashing every anxious thought out loud.
Startled by Mr. H’s deep laughter, I stopped the word vomit, I’m telling him my feelings and he’s laughing at me? How could he? Noticing the offense I had taken to his obnoxious laughter, he wrapped his arms around me, enveloping me in my safe space.
“I thought we were getting somewhere with this anxiety Hannah, I don’t want you to ever think I would leave you high and dry, that’s not who I am.”
It could’ve been the words out of his mouth, the feeling of his arms tightly wrapped around me, or inhaling his scent, probably a combination of all, but I felt the calm wash over me, the internal storm had passed, I could breathe easy again.
“I’m sorry. There’s nowhere else I’d rather be than here with you.” I said, pulling away from his embrace so I could see his face. “Sometimes it’s hard to believe that this is real, you know? Things as good as you, don’t happen to girls like me.”
A brilliant idea flashed before my eyes, I was going to surprise Mr. H, after all these amazing things he does for me, it’s about time I reciprocated. I just had to set up the first step of my master plan.
“I know we just ate, like eight courses, but, I have a hankering for one of those incredibly fattening chocolate crème filled donuts from the corner shop. It would be the perfect icing on tonight’s cake.”
Mr. H looked at me sideways, as if I was a little crazy, before accepting my request and begrudgingly trapesing out on a late night donut hunt. Perfect.
I ran upstairs, quickly changing out of my evening wear. Ah-ha, found it, I’d spied a new silky red lingerie set the last time I was searching through the closet. I threw that on, along with some lacy thigh high stockings attached to the matching red garter belt. Seductive red lipstick topped off the sex appeal, and pair of sleek black stilettos were the quintessential accessory. I slipped into a black silk robe before going back down to the kitchen.
‘My turn to surprise you,’ I scribbled on a piece of notepad, ‘Come up and meet me on the top of the world.’
Rushing out of the condo, I sprinted down the corridor, I had to get in the elevator and up to the rooftop before Mr. H arrived back.
The biggest sigh of relief escaped my lips when I entered the elevator and it was vacant. Now I just had to hope the rooftop was also unoccupied.
Every time you step foot out on to this beautiful roof terrace it was as equally breath-taking as the last, the never ending expansive views captivated and the pure lushness of the green shrubbery and garden ma
de for a truly spectacular location. As luck would have it, the sky high oasis was empty.
The perfect position to execute my master plan had been set in my mind from the moment I’d decided to bring him up here.
Directly opposite the elevator doors, is a bench seat. A bench seat that has the best view of the entire rooftop, and the elevator doors have the best view of the bench seat. It would be risky, but, that risk is what was driving my arousal.
My time was rapidly running out, it wouldn’t have taken Mr. H long to nip down to the corner shop and back, so standing behind the bench, looking out over the city I undid my robe, letting it fall to the ground. I spread my legs a couple of feet apart, and bent over the back of the seat, exposing my lingerie clad rear end and producing one hell of a sight when those elevator doors opened.
The ding of the elevator sent a small jitter of nerves throughout, chances were it was Mr. H, but reality was, it could’ve been anyone.
“My, My, My.” I heard coming from behind me, along with approaching footsteps, a small part of me was screaming to check it was Mr. H, but I ignored it, if I turned my head, the anxiety would’ve won, I had to prove I was in control.
When I felt a hand run over my ass, electric bolts of arousal shot straight to my pussy, this was so hot. Then wham! The tender hand that was only seconds ago caressing my cheek, came down hard on the exposed fleshy part of my bum. Five, six, ten, twenty five hard swats ravaged my quickly reddening ass cheeks.
When the slaps had finally ended, I heard the distinct rattling sound of his belt buckle, before the whishing noise of it being removed from his pants. My ass was not out of the woods yet.
MR. H. Page 22