“Just a bit further, Liv. You need to do this.” I grew angry at myself, annoyed that I was having this reaction.
I braced my shoulders and pushed my body nearer, a fierce determination to get to the bloody bush. As I was a few inches away, about to reach in and part the branches a cat jumped out. I screamed loudly and fell backwards, my arse hitting the ground with a harsh thud. I put my arms around my knees and wept a silent, harrowing cry that made my head ache and my throat sting.
I heard my phone ringing from inside the house and got to my feet, dragging my pitiful self up the garden and into the kitchen.
Picking up the phone I noticed there were more missed calls from the unknown caller.
To my relief I saw it was Nate ringing. “Hey baby,” he greeted cheerfully when I answered.
“Hi” I returned, a little despondent.
“You okay?” I could hear the question and slight concern in his voice.
“Yeah I’m fine.”
“Liv?” he persisted.
“For Fucks sake, Nate! I said I’m fine,” I bellowed into the phone.
I heard him suck in a breath through his teeth. “Well you’re obviously NOT FUCKING FINE are you?” he bit back.
Rubbing my finger along my temple and closing my eyes, I sighed, “I’m sorry.”
“Tell me what’s wrong,” he persevered gently.
“Honestly it’s nothing. I saw something move in the bush outside and when I went to take a look a bloody cat jumped out at me. It just shook me up, that’s all,” I insisted, trying to reassure him, even though I was still shaking and not doing a very good job of reassuring myself.
“Baby! Nothing’s gonna hurt you anymore. James is in prison and I’m here. I won’t let anything hurt you.”
“I know, Nate. What got to me the most is that I had just given myself a pep talk about being stronger now and I’ve got nothing to be frightened of anymore and then I go and shit my knickers when a bloody cat jumps in front of me. That’s what I’m upset about, still being a fucking useless shit!” I raged, so angry at myself.
“HEY! That’s enough, Liv! You are not a useless shit. In fact you’re a fucking amazing woman, a strong person who has pulled herself through so much bloody crap in life, I’m surprised you’re still standing!” There was a silent pause for a moment. “Now, I want you to close your eyes and take a deep breath.” He tutted, “I’m waiting, Liv!”
I laughed a little and pulled in a large breath while I closed my eyes. “Right. I want you to picture a secluded white beach with soft padded sun loungers; the sun high and bright in the sky, a chilled cocktail in your hand and the clear blue water rippling up and gently tickling your feet. You getting this, Angel?” he whispered.
“Mmm,” I sighed, rolling my head calmly around my shoulders, picturing the tranquil scene he had placed in my mind.
“And then I want you to imagine my head between your naked thighs as I eat your delicious pussy,” he growled.
“Jesus Nate, that’s not fair!” I moaned, rubbing my hot thighs together for some required friction.
He laughed down the phone. “You relaxed now, Angel?”
“I was!”
“Ha, I’ve gone hard picturing it myself,” he chuckled.
“That’ll teach you,” I reprimanded, making my way upstairs to change ready for the party.
“Anyway, I was ringing to tell you something,” he told me as I entered the bathroom.
“What?” I asked turning on the shower to pre-heat the temperature.
“Don’t bother with knickers tonight,” he stated, matter-of-factly.
My eyebrows met my hairline. “Okayyy,” I grated out, my pussy clenching in anticipation.
“Good girl.” I could sense his grin down the phone. “I’ll pick you up in an hour, baby. I love you.”
“I love you too.” I smiled.
Fifty minutes later I was stood in just stocking and suspenders . . . and no knickers or bra. Sliding into my black silk dress, I smiled to myself. I’d always liked this dress, it skimmed my body and hugged my thighs, the cut of it outlining my curves and the flimsy silk was cool, ideal for partying.
The solid black material had a wide slash of lace that ran from the right shoulder, diagonally across my breasts and finished at the curve of my hip.
Because the black lace was intricately woven, my scars were disguised underneath it, but you could still make out the contours of my breasts, the style of the dress not allowing for a bra.
As I put the finishing touches to my hair and make-up I heard my phone ring. Slipping into my black high heels and grabbing my bag I ran down the stairs to answer it. I dropped my bag at the kitchen door as I went to answer it.
It was the unknown caller again. Feeling brave since my phone call with Nate, I answered. “Hello?”
Silence
“For God’s sake. This is getting silly now.”
Silence.
“Right, listen to me. If you carry on I’m going to report your number for harassment so BACK OFF,” I warned and ended the call, sure I heard laughing as it disconnected.
I shivered and shoved it in my bag when I heard Nate knock. As I opened the door he grinned suggestively as his eyes roamed my figure and I grinned back as I took in his outfit.
He was wearing sleek black trousers that hung from his hips, hugging his crotch and skimming his thick thighs, his crisp black shirt was stretched across his firm chest and it was finished with a thin black tie. He looked fucking hot!
“Got everything?” he asked with a smirk, making a pointed look to my crotch area. Holding a single finger up to him to indicate ’1 minute’ I turned and walked to where I’d dropped my bag.
Very slowly I bent over at my middle, straight over without bending my knees as I reached for my bag. My dress rose over my buttocks, lifting it high up my thighs and flashing Nate a vision of my bare arse and freshly shaved pussy, my suspenders pulling taut against the cheek of my arse.
I stood up, spun on my heels and walked over to him. “Ready?” I purred, running my tongue sensually across my top teeth.
He stood motionless looking intensely at my mouth, his chest heaving with heavy breaths. As his eyes rose to mine, a blaze fired in his pure blue eyes and a slow, lustful smile formed on his lips. “Oh I’m ready, baby!” he rumbled, putting his hand to his crotch and adjusting himself expressively.
I locked the house up and followed Nate to the car where Blake was stood waiting for us. “Good evening, Miss Adams.” He smiled to me with a slight nod of his head. “You look stunning as always.”
“Thank you, Blake.” I returned his smile as I very carefully slid into the car.
I noticed Nate stood back a little, checking out whether I could manage to climb in without losing my dignity, a huge grin on his face. I scowled at him and pulled my dress to my knees as he climbed in beside me. “Well that was fun,” he winked at me.
Entering the noisy function room elevated above The Late Lounge, I was taken aback how many people had managed to cram into it; it was surely a fire hazard.
“Jesus,” I said under my breath.
Nate leaned forward, his ear to my mouth. “What baby?” Shaking my head at him, I stepped further into the room and I saw Leah, Josh and Grace sat round a table.
Leah spotted me and waved frantically, indicating a few spare chairs at their table. I turned to Nate and lifted my mouth to his ear, “What do we tell people about us?” I shouted in his ear, trying to raise my voice above the loud pumping disco music. He frowned at me, giving me an ‘I don’t understand’ expression. “Do you want your employees to know we’re in a relationship? I don’t wanna cause any animosity.”
“Of course I want people to know you’re mine, Liv.” He wrinkled his brow in a ‘are you stupid woman?’ expression, “I don’t give a fuck whether it upsets someone. You’re mine and I wanna show you off.”
Nodding my head at him I ventured further in and he grabbed my hand, an act of telling pe
ople I was his girlfriend. “You go and sit with your friends and I’ll fetch you a drink. Wine?”
“God yes!” I exclaimed, thinking of the crisp white liquid longingly. Laughing he dropped my hand and approached the bar as I headed over to the group.
“Liv!” Leah declared when I reached her, her perfectly shaped eyebrows elevated on her brow. Nodding towards Nate she said, “Is there something you wanna tell us about you and Mr Carter?”
“They’re just old friends from university, Leah,” Grace notified her. Before I could correct her she said, “Liv, this is my husband, Paul,” indicating towards to a tall, slim man beside her. He had a mass of brown curly hair, narrow eyes and a huge moustache. I tried to stifle a giggle when I felt Leah nudge me under the table. He looked like a 1970’s porn star, even down to his prickly brown suit.
“Hi,” I choked out, trying to smile to him. He grunted something and nodded his head to me then took a long mouthful of his bitter, the creamy froth settling on his moustache when he pulled the pint glass away.
Leah nudged me again and I turned to her, my eyes alight with humour. “How are you this evening, Leah?” I asked, trying to tell her to stop her mocking.
“I’m goooood, hun,” she answered, her own eyes glinting with humour.
I grinned at her just to give some relief to the imprisoned wit trying to escape my mouth. “No Beef tonight?” I inquired, looking around the room.
“He’ll be here in a short while. He has to take his mum to bingo on a Saturday night,” she confessed, looking a bit sheepish.
“Really?” I scoffed. Just the thought of a big, burly Bert in a bingo hall made me release the giggle I had been holding in.
“Don’t!” she chastised, a snicker escaping her own lips.
I turned to Josh smiling. “Good evening, Mr Bell.”
He leant over and kissed my cheek, flinging his arms around me. “Sweetie!” he exclaimed with a wide smile. “You’re late, we’ve nearly drank all the wine.” He winked at my glare. “Heads up though, Pervertson’s already pissed and prowling the women.”
“Just what I need,” I said rolling my eyes.
A large glass of wine appeared in front of me as Nate slipped into the chair beside me and took my hand. “Evening everyone.” He grinned at their stunned expressions, every single pair of eyes on our joined hands. He squeezed my hand in humour or support, I wasn’t sure which.
“Hi, Mr Carter,” Leah stammered, her eyes still on our hands.
“Nate when were not at work, please,” he requested.
“Sure Nate,” she grinned, obviously happy at being on first name terms with the Boss.
Grace smiled gently at him. “Hello Nate. I’m pleased to see you looking after our wonderful Olivia.”
Nate lifted our hands to his mouth and kissed my knuckles. “Only took me twenty years to get her back,” he smiled softly, looking in my eyes.
“Oh, you had a relationship at university then?” Leah probed.
“We did. For three years we never left each other’s side or our crappy student digs bed,” he finished with a sardonic grin.
Slapping him on the arm but grinning at him I picked up my glass and as I put it to my lips my phone rang in my bag. As I tensed Nate gave me a questioning look but I ignored him and retrieved the bloody annoying item from my bag. I already knew it was the unknown caller again before I even had to look. I declined it as I tried to hide it under the table prompting Nate to glare at me, a suspicious expression on his face.
“You still getting those prank calls, Olivia?” Grace blurted out as I tried to quickly stuff it back in my bag. Nate snatched it from me and analysed my call log, hissing through his teeth when he saw the amount of calls.
“Fucking hell, Liv! There are forty nine bloody calls since yesterday!” he fumed. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me?”
I glared at Grace. She gave me an apologetic look and mouthed ‘sorry.’ “It’s nothing to worry about Nate,” I shrugged trying to play it down. “I’m going to ring my service provider Monday and get my number changed.”
He narrowed his eyes on me. “What do they say when you answer?”
“Nothing,” I said, shaking my head. “Although once someone tutted when I told them to fuck off,” I finished with a small nervous laugh.
His lips pursed in anger as the phone rang in his hand. “Who is this?” he fumed when he answered it for me.
Removing it from his ear and glaring at the screen it was obvious the caller had hung up on him. He gave me a penetrating stare. “Make sure you change your number Monday Liv, and tell them about the caller, they might be able to trace it.”
“Yes, Mr Carter,” I agreed with a formal nod of my head.
“Don’t be facetious Liv. I mean it!” he said sternly.
Rolling my eyes, I downed my wine and rose from the chair. “Another?” I asked everyone.
Nate took the glass off me and stood. “I’ll get them. Anybody else?” They all pushed their glasses at him in one synchronised movement. He laughed as he picked them up and went to the bar.
“Wow Olivia! Well done girl! He’s so hot!” Leah commended me, an excited gleam on her face. “I can’t believe you saw each other at uni and then found each other twenty years later. How romantic.” she sighed dreamily. I rolled my eyes at her, thinking it was going to be a long night.
Two hours later the wine had worked its magic and I was a little tipsy. Nate had wandered off to ‘mingle with the employees’ as he had put it.
“Come and dance, Leah,” I pleaded, pulling on her hand and dragging her to her feet.
As we got to the dance floor; Loreen’s ‘Euphoria’ pumped from the speakers. I loved this song and felt my body start to rock in time to the beat. The wine had loosened my inhibitions and I moved to the music; my body swayed, my hips swung and my arms rose in the air as I danced opposite Leah. I closed my eyes and got lost in the rhythm, the pulse in my body taking over fluidly.
Hands sited on my hips and I felt a body press into me from behind, swaying with me. “Do you know how fucking hot you look when you dance, baby?” Nate’s voice rumbled in my ear.
He pushed his erection into my back as he moved his hips to and fro with mine. His hands slowly slipped up my raised arms, grasping mine and pulling them behind his body to place them on his arse as we continued to throb to the beat.
“I can’t wait to hear you scream my name when I fuck you raw later,” he breathed in my ear.
My insides throbbed and I gulped when he nibbled on my ear lobe. Taking my hands in his again he spun me round and threw his mouth over mine in a hot, sensual kiss as he placed his hands on my bottom and caressed it firmly. A moan escaped my throat. He caught it in his mouth as he continued his onslaught, pulling me tighter to him. We were in our own isolated bubble as we continued to kiss and sway to the music.
The track finished but we were still jammed together in our own erotic dance. Pulling away before we embarrassed ourselves, I grinned up at him. “You are a very naughty man, Mr Carter.”
He kissed me on the nose. “You’re a bad influence Miss Adams. I couldn’t watch you dance anymore without touching you,” he laughed. “I’ve gotta go and talk to Bob before he goes baby, Sorry” he pouted.
“It’s fine Nate. I need the bathroom anyway.” I smiled.
Deciding on another sneaky wine before a wee, I fetched my bag from the table and made my way over to the bar and ordered a large. Leaning over to shout my order to the barman a hand snaked round my waist; thinking Nate had spotted my sly alcohol top up, I plastered a ‘but you love me’ expression on my face and turned to him; it was Peterson. Shit!
The smile dropped from my face and I removed his hand. “Mr Peterson.”
“Olivia,” he slurred, obviously intoxicated past his limit. “You look very pleasing tonight.”
I shifted my attention back to the barman as he handed me my glass, noticing it was the same server as when Peterson tried it on before. He rolled hi
s eyes at me. “You alright, love?” he asked, giving Peterson a scowl.
Downing my wine in one I nodded back to him, “Yeah, thank you.”
Placing my glass on the bar, I turned and made my way to the restrooms, leaving Peterson propping himself up on the bar.
The toilets for the function room were situated at the back of the room and down a long corridor. I had to hurry down the passageway, my urgency in relieving my overfull bladder was stronger now I’d had the extra glass of wine.
I bounded into the toilets, catching a quick glimpse of someone in green stood in front of the mirrors and flung myself into a cubicle. I was thankful that I didn’t need to yank my knickers down and I silently thanked Nate as I managed to sit on the toilet seat in time.
“Oh yes,” I sighed as my bladder emptied. I heard someone scoff. In my eagerness to get to the toilet I had forgot someone was in the room. I rolled my eyes at their obvious disgust in my voiced relief. Snobby cow!
Flushing the toilet, I exited the cubicle and came face to face with Eleanor. What the hell was she doing here? It was a NSC party.
“Well hello again, Olivia,” she droned, her lip curled up in repulsion of me.
“Eleanor,” I grated, turning the tap at the sink to wash my hands.
“I see you’re here with Nate again,” she sneered “You have got him wrapped around your finger, haven’t you?”
Washing my hands, I smiled satisfactorily to myself. “Anybody would think you’re jealous, Eleanor.”
She narrowed her eyes on me. I could sense her rage rising. “You think you’re clever don’t you, love? Don’t say I didn’t warn you when he’s had his fill with you and comes running back to me,” she said, a self-satisfied grin on her lips.
Turning to her, I placed my face close to hers with a warning look. “Oh, he likes to fill me Eleanor! In fact he can’t seem to get enough of filling me, if you know what I mean, love!”
Her hand rose to slap my face but after all my years of self-defence, my instincts kicked in and I grabbed her wrist before it hit its target. Squeezing her painfully, I pushed my face closer to hers. “Try that again Eleanor and I’ll rip that fucking smug look off your pretty little face and shove it up your fat arse.”
The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone Page 13