by Lisa Torquay
“I’ll have to travel to Nice with Travis.” Amy too felt light, relaxed. She couldn’t deny that she was happy, that she had missed him and now everything seemed to be in its place.
Mark heard her and sensed his blood in a frost. The all too familiar cold claws squeezed his heart pitilessly. It was work, his mind knew that, but the depths of him didn’t. “I see.” He tried to sound nonchalant, he sounded cold instead.
“I need to introduce him to my clients.” She bit her toast. “It’s better if I do it personally.”
“Are you both staying at the house you were renting?” And he waited for the answer; the avalanche it’d cause in him.
“I don’t know. It depends on the availability of hotel-rooms. It’s high season as you well know.” She sipped her coffee.
“When are you flying?” He asked a little too casually.
“If everything goes accordingly, tomorrow.”
So soon? He thought. “How long will you be there?”
“I am not sure yet.” She drank the rest of her coffee and stood up.
Amy knew very well that it was a wrenching difficult issue for Mark. Nevertheless, if they were going to continue this affair, or whatever it was they were in, he had to get used to it. She was too busy at the moment; she needed to use her time wisely or else nothing would be set in motion.
Mark saw Amy leaving for work as he himself felt as if he had been punched on the stomach. The idea that she’d be alone with Travis for a couple of days got him lying on a bed of nails. He’s aware he didn’t know how to deal with this, knowing he’d have to cope if he wanted her to come back to him. And this was a fervent wish.
Amy had an extremely busy day at work. Carrying out the projects for MBS and restructuring Nice office kept her at full speed the whole day. She had hired a couple of people to help her with this new scenario, but they were still on probation period and she had to guide them all along.
Some of the results from the MBS employees’ feedback had been indexed and a couple of interesting facts were surfacing. Amy would have to settle a meeting with Susan Baron, the HR manager. When Amy called her, Susan said that Mark had asked to be present when the first projects came round. They managed to meet that afternoon, since Amy would be flying with Travis next afternoon.
Mark and Susan sat in her meeting room at the appointed time. Amy put on the screen with the tables on presentation. “These are just the first rough results, as you may know.” She said in a very professional way. Amy was very conscious of Mark’s eyes on her, not so business-like and her inner response was likewise. “What’s become undeniably evident is that seventy per cent of the employees show a high degree of job satisfaction due to fringe benefits and work environment.” She paused a little to let it sink. Mark and Susan looked content with that.
“We cannot forget your helpful ideas while you were substituting Susan.” Mark commented.
“I was pleasantly surprised indeed.” Susan added good-naturedly.
“Thanks.” She smiled shyly. “But I just followed the path that Susan had already prepared.” She changed the screen to another table. “Another fact that becomes clear, though, is that those same employees feel hindered when it comes to decisions. They feel they are not heard in their effort to participate actively in the decision making process.”
Mark frowned immediately. Amy knew he had a rather autocratic leadership style. It was, she deemed, a personality trait of his.
Susan had a neutral expression in her cobalt eyes. “I think I understand their point of view.”
“Do you mean you agree with them?” Mark asked bluntly. He felt utterly uncomfortable about this finding.
“Well, Mark,” Susan replied mildly. “You cannot contradict the fact that you are very…,” she paused looking for the exact word, “single-minded in your management.”
“I cannot disagree with her.” Amy said politely. She was the consultant now. Nonetheless, she knew what it was to be his employee, especially if you decided to give a day off to hard-working staff. She tried to repress a shiver that ran through her at the memory of him storming into her room, which resulted in their calid first night together.
Mark looked at both women as if they were exaggerating in their opinions. “I am not sure I agree with that, but I couldn’t contradict a professional survey, could I?”
“And that brings us to the need to review the decision-making process, which permeates all departments in every management level.” Amy gave her consultant’s assessment. “If you agree, of course, Mark.”
He wasn’t very happy about the whole thing, but outsourcing a consultancy was his own idea after all. For highly questionable reasons, a tiny voice inside him retorted. “I’ll have to think about it.” He evaded for the time being.
When the meeting finished it was already late afternoon. Amy closed her laptop, put it in its bag and left. She still had some packing to do. It wasn’t as if she was excited about going to Nice. It was surely a pleasant city, but being far from Mark was going to be dull.
Having arrived home and prepared what was necessary for the trip, Amy saw that there was enough time to relax and that’s exactly what she set out to do.
Mark arrived home looking for Amy. He wondered when he had started coming home and searching for her, realising he didn’t know the answer for this. All was in the dark upstairs, which meant she wasn’t there. He strode to the kitchen, nothing still. Where the...? At that second he heard the rush of water. The Jacuzzi. He nearly ran to the back room, his imagination prompting his body.
As he entered the Jacuzzi room, there she was, like Aphrodite surfacing from the foams. She had her back to him and regarded the garden through the glass panels. Her arms were stretched along the edges of the huge bubbling Jacuzzi. He stared at her mesmerized; her wet skin, her dripping hair.
Maybe she sensed the presence of him, for she turned her head. Their eyes crossed and electrical communication was established. She turned to him as she leaned on the other side, never taking her eyes from him.
She saw him straddling, his eyes angling in that so manly manner of his. She sat back on the bench in the water and sighed in clear suggestion. He unbuttoned his shirt cuffs, his fingers slid to the front buttons. First, second...all undone, his fit tanned torso evinced inch by inch only for her delight. He peeled out his shirt and it fell in a pile on the floor. His hands reached his belt. Her honey pools registered one end flaring out of the loop and again to be unhooked. Trousers down on the pile. Left was only his too stretched boxer-shorts. Added to the pile. His whole magnificent figure was exposed for her delectation. Her gaze strolled over his entire muscled handsomeness.
He strolled lazily towards the Jacuzzi, exhibiting his full extreme desire. His legs immersed in the bubbling tepid water and he stopped right in front of her, hands on his waist. Unhurriedly she lifted her gaze to him. He posted straddling there as a powerful god stirring her to the last nerve. He knelt beside her and lay alongside to her. She watched him bending over her as one of his arms laced her narrow waist. She reacted straight away; her body arching to meet his, her lashes weighing down, her breath in short puffs. His other hand entangled in her wet hair. He embraced her tight at the same moment his mouth claimed hers in a deep erotic kiss.
One of her legs mingled with his. Her hands found his muscled watery forearm and slid up to circle his broad shoulder. She received his tongue in total capitulation, corresponding intensely to his exploration. The bubbling water juggled their bodies making them rub sleek on each other. Liquid fire ran through her when his hard angles moulded her to him. She opened her mouth for him, allowing him to set fire in her entire body.
His hand palmed her buttocks clenching her and pressing his hardness against her belly. That sensuous mouth of his left hers to glide down her neck, licking it unchastely, awakening her senses. It reached her breast mounding just over the water and captured it ravenously; one nipple licked, the other nibbled. Her head lolled in abandoned pleasure,
intensified by his hips abrading his eagerness against hers. Amy was totally abandoned to him, her body producing endless bolts of electrical reactions. Those wicked fingers of his found her core in skilled torment. She was lost to reality. He caressed her delightfully, extracting moans from her lips, dipping her in extreme hunger. Would he never stop this merciless treatment?
“Mark!” She pleaded.
He turned her, making her lean arms on the edge, the bubbling covering and uncovering her back. His arms circled her from behind as he dipped in her in a long deep thrust. His body came all on hers, his lips suckling her earlobe. “You’re mine. Only mine!” His hoarse grave voice a command, as he was breathing hard. “Never forget that.” His both hands cupped her breasts with pure provocation, pinching her nipples. Explosive fuel to her fire.
She arched for him to catch the most she could from him and gasped with escalating pleasure. As he filled her, instead of relief, she was hungrier, in desperation for him to set her free. Amy almost fainted when one of his hands came back to her core in refined torture. Her head fell back. How could he ever doubt that she was his? Her very guts were irrevocably infected with his passion. His invasion extended to her senses, to her heart. There could never be anyone else because her surrender to him was complete madness.
The more he moved, the more he stroked her, the more he pulled her to perdition. The ball of fire grew to unbearable point and exploded in multi-prismatic clenches, extracting a long groan from her.
He demanded her to be his, but the reality was that he was hers alone. His passion was only for her. He’d barely be capable of touching another woman ever again. She was his mate, his she-wolf, as he was hers. Eternal mates. But her clenches decontrolled him. Mark embraced her tighter, thrust deeper; his lips suckled the base of her neck in despair. And he could not hold back anymore. Explosion took him in a downpour that depleted him of all he had. He embraced her tighter, sucked the base of her neck and let himself be empty.
After a while they left the Jacuzzi, dried one another with fluffy towels and went to his king-size bed, where, snuggling, they fell sound asleep.
Early morning, Amy awoke with Mark pouring little kisses over her cheeks in slow savouring movements. She gave a faint smile. It felt so good. He held her as she lay on her back and he half over her. Her arms held him in return, caressing his muscled broad back lazily.
“Hmmm.” He manifested and rested his head on her soft breasts, while his hand stroked the side of her lush body.
He rolled on his back and brought her to him. “What time is your flight?” His arms circled her and her head made good use of his broad, fleecy chest.
“Two in the afternoon.” She murmured in a sleepy voice.
“So you’ve got plenty of time.” His eyes closed as she stroked his muscled arm.
“Not so much. I need to prepare some documents before I leave.” A comfortable silence fell in the bedroom.
They continued like this for a long moment. At some point, Mark took her hand and directed it to his lower six-packed abdomen. He was hard as a rock. “Oh, my!” She muttered and explored the length of him, which got her aroused.
In one economic movement, Mark rolled over her, trapping her under him at the same second she nested him in between her flexed thighs. “Amy.” His husky grave voice called. “It’s going to be hell all these days without you!” He kissed her and they made calid love over again.
In the days that followed, Mark missed Amy dearly. He got back home at night and the fact that she was not there made the Georgian mansion feel cold and empty. But he made himself endure it with stoic wait. Meanwhile, he had loads of work to do and it kept him from mulling over her absence.
Amy, on the other hand, had very little free time to think of anything else outside work in Nice. There were no hotel rooms available and she stayed at the rented house in the old town with Travis. This proved a convenient arrangement, since they had a lot to do.
During the few days she was there, successive meetings happened with her clients. She introduced Travis to them and fostered his way into straitening his acquaintance with the hotel contacts. By the time this was done, she felt sure Travis would be able to take it from where they left it.
Sitting back on her seat in the plane, she felt tired but happy. Everything had gone well and she‘d need just to make occasional trips to Nice to meet with Travis. He had prompted to travel to London whenever necessary, as well. He said playfully that it’d give him the chance to visit his relatives and friends. She deemed it very convenient.
She looked through the window to the vast bed of fluffy clouds tinged with a purple rim from the sun and thought about Mark. She had missed him a lot, even though she hadn’t had the time to dwell on her feelings. She looked forward to seeing him again. They had talked very little on the mobile and she understood he was busy back in London. Her eyelids lowered and she dozed off.
Chapter XVII
It was early evening when the cab left her in the Georgian mansion. Mark had texted her to inquire about her flight and she informed him of its timetable. She dragged her wheeled cabin bag into the entrance hall and closed the door. As she turned to make her way to the sitting room she saw Mark. He had arrived earlier than usual. Their eyes crossed. He straddled there magnificent, his shirt sleeves rolled up, revealing his strong folded forearms. Her heart swelled with all the longing of those past days. They stood there, eyes locked in each other, her lashed open wide and mesmerized as she merged in his predator’s ones.
He strode to her swiftly and caught her in his arms. “Amy.” He murmured in his grave manly voice. His arms tightened around her.
One single word popped up in Amy’s mind as her arms circled his tie-less neck: home. She sighed and leaned all her body against his and her eye-lids fell down, revelling in his warmth.
He parted just a little from her. “How was your trip?” He stared attentively at her.
She smiled faintly. “Very productive indeed. I’m sure that Travis will handle everything accordingly.”
“It’s good to hear that.” His thumb came to caress her full lips, which she first kissed and then sucked into her mouth in a blunt promise. His breath quickened as his other hand palmed the nape of her neck and his thin sensuous lips bushed lightly over the silky skin there.
Amy was melting away with his proximity. She groaned when he reached the base of her neck. A few seconds more and she’d be pulling him to the bare floor.
His head lifted from her neck and he looked at her with haze desire in his stare. “You must be tired.” He breathed out.
She just looked at him trying to keep up with her unruly heart beats, unable to answer. He stimulated her senses so intensely that she had no condition of thinking about anything else.
“I’ll heat up the dinner Mrs Smith prepared.” He said barely capable of smashing his desire under control.
“In which case I’m taking a shower.” Her voice came husky with sensuality. They parted reluctantly.
Dinner was taken in apparent light-hearted atmosphere, but neither of them talked very much or ate very much for that matter. Amy had dressed one of her short night-gowns and a hobby over it.
It was not possible to finish. Their hunger was totally misplaced. In a silent communication they lifted their eyes from their dishes and stared at each other. Electricity running deep.
Mark could not take it anymore. His body was clamouring for her in a shameless state. In a sudden movement he lifted from the chair, surrounded the table and took her hand. She accompanied him, pounding heart. They climbed up the stairs in rushy strides. He closed his bedroom door and pressed her against it with his body. He guided the hand of hers he was holding to his low abdomen to show her his stone-hard desire for her as his mouth came down on her voraciously.
Amy strolled her hand over his voluminous extension at the same second she sheltered his plundering kiss. His tongue ignited her already eager body. He peeled her from her hobby and hauled her by the w
aist. In a blink of time she was lying on his king-size bed, her gown coiled around her middle, leaving her naked for him. As his muscled weight came over hers, she felt as if their bodies were amalgamating and all she wanted was the fulfilment only he could proportionate.
“Amy.” He murmured husky voice. His mouth sought her breast over the silk gown, sucking it hungrily. The feel of his mouth wet and warm over the fabric got her in calid clouds of pleasure. “I need you. Now!” His mouth murmured without leaving her breast.
As an answer, she separated her thighs and nested him between them. He moved to open his trousers and set his desire free. He entered her in a long, delicious thrust, extracting a moan from her parted lips and she arched to him to get all of him. Her arms tightened around his neck while his arms laced her middle possessively. Amy was only sensations as his thrusts levered her to extremes of wild responses.
He managed to uncover her breast and set his lips to torture her there, fuelling the fire that ran through her body, her head lolled in total delight. He moved ever with skilful sensuality bringing her to a riotous explosion. She groaned and moved her hips in search of total pleasure.
Her clenches got him insane. He moved in her blindly, seeking relief in the smoothness of her body. “Amy.” Finally he coursed into her deliriously, a long muffled grunt on her breast. He fell on her relaxed and released. And she wrapped him in abandon.
Amy lay there drained of all her thoughts, all her feelings. Their excruciating lovemaking didn’t seem to subside. After these long months her desire for him was the same and every time they were together it felt like her soul, her heart and her body melded in unison to him. She never reckoned it possible. At first it was a teenage crush, to which she didn’t give much importance. But after she came back from university things got really serious. She had never felt like this before and she didn’t know how to deal with this...welled intensity that inundated her when they were together. It just happened, beyond their will or control.