The NSC Boxset: Heart of Stone

by D H Sidebottom

  “That would be wonderful.” She winked back as her eyes widened, “A conspiracy, oooh how exciting.”

  I laughed as she left and pulled the door quietly behind her, my whole body shivering as an icy breeze blasted around the kitchen with the open door.

  I continued to eat on my own for a while and just as I was about to go on the hunt for Grace, she reappeared. She walked over to the door Mona had gone through and turned the key whilst sliding across the three bolts and fixing the chain into the recess. “Secure enough?” I asked with a slightly amazed laugh.

  She quirked a brow at me as she settled in the seat opposite and filled her plate with food, “I take it you don’t do security?”

  I shrugged and shoved my empty plate aside, “Never really had the need to.”

  She scoffed as she drank down her water and then tucked into her meal, “Well believe me, now you do, Mr Hamilton.”

  “Will you call me Kade! You make me sound fifty.”

  She carried on eating as if I hadn’t spoken until her phone rang. She glanced with a confused expression at the screen and swiped it, “Beaumont.”

  Her jaw tightened as a sever fire blazed behind her eyes. An iciness rippled around her as her whole body clenched in fury and her chest heaved rigorously. I picked up my plate and busied myself rinsing it as though I wasn’t listening to her conversation. Of course, I was listening.

  “Why bother? You know you’re not welcome.”

  I could physically feel her tension and I quietened my actions as I tried to catch hold of the voice on the other end of the conversation.

  She laughed bitterly and mockingly, “Oh, you know I’d love that.” By the tone she used, I gathered she was joking as her teeth rattled furiously.

  “No.” She said bluntly as she ended the call with as much abruptness as her tone before she rose from the table and walked out of the room stiffly.

  I stood still and silent as I pondered her exchange and actions afterwards. I could feel both her anger and her distress; the house literally seemed to darken with its keeper’s mood as an intense weightiness controlled the air in the room.

  A door closed somewhere, its echo bouncing around the abandoned house and never actually settling on anything solid as though the years of rejection had taken its core and left just a hollow shell of a once vibrant family home. My heart actually felt heavy with the sadness Grace had portrayed and I sighed as I proceeded to tidy the kitchen, rinsing the pots and placing them into the dishwasher before I strolled across the miles of hallway and curled on the gigantic sofa in the silent lounge.

  Who the hell had been on the other end of the call?

  * * *

  I woke with a severe crick in my neck to darkness. I blinked as I tried to make out outlines and establish where I was as I swiped my phone screen and looked at the time. It was past 3am and I wondered why Grace hadn’t actually woken me and designated a room for me. There was no way I was picking my own. Not when I knew what had happened here. Knowing my luck, I’d end up choosing her parents room and she’d go all Uma on me.

  A muffled grunting sound faintly filled the eerie silence of the house and I tipped my head to listen properly. Yes, it was definitely grunting and I pulled myself off the sofa and made my way towards it.

  It grew louder as I neared a door down a corridor beyond the kitchen. The whole place was full of passageways and hallways and I hoped I would be able to find my way back if I’d ventured down the wrong one.

  I slid the door open quietly and struggled to take a breath as I observed the exhibition that greeted me. My dick hardened instantly, the head scraping along the zip of my jeans and I knew I should’ve worn shorts as I clenched my jaw to impede the groan of lust that tried to leap up my throat.

  Holy Jesus, it was a scene that even my imaginative dreams wouldn’t have been able to concoct and I fisted my hands to stop myself palming my cock to offer it some light relief.

  Grace was dressed in just bra and knickers with her back to me, her tight supple body covered in a glistening sheen of sweat as she, what I can only describe as, beat the motherfucking shit out of a punch bag. Her long blond hair was tied to the top of her head but a few loose strands had fallen and were clung to her long slender neck with the weight of her perspiration. The groove of her spine seemed to dance as she swaggered around the bag, the dip at the base calling out mockingly and I licked my lips just to give my tongue something to do and bate its hunger.

  Her arse, fuck me, what an incredible backside she had; it was pert, compact but yielding and I couldn’t remove my eyes as I tracked the bead of sweat that trickled down and disappeared beneath the white cotton covering those luscious cheeks. I’d always preferred sexy lacy numbers, but right now I cursed myself because those plain ordinary knickers were the sexiest things I’d ever laid my eyes on.

  Her solid thighs were tight and firm and I couldn’t remove the image of them wrapped around my waist as I fucked her fast and urgently against the wall, making damn sure she kept those knickers on just so I could pull them to the side and thrust into her deep and hard.

  But the image that would not bate and refused to fuck off; the vision that was causing the sizzle in my gut and the throb in my balls, was of her bound and tied. The arrangement of the rope crisscrossing her beautiful body and restricting her own stubborn control as she gave into me and allowed my complete domination and her perfect surrender, was blowing my thoughts into oblivion. The final pattern and design would show my unique blueprint across that delightful pale skin of hers as I claimed her.

  She would hate that and the thought brought a wicked smirk.

  “Help yourself,” she grunted.

  My eyes widened, not with the realisation she was aware of my presence but that she was giving me the go ahead to touch her, or maybe she was mocking me.

  “Um, what?”

  She turned her head and looked at me over her shoulder. Her face was blank and her full red lips demanded my attention as the pump of blood through her system had plumped them exceptionally. “The equipment” she clarified. I didn’t show her my disappointment.

  “Ahh, not really my thing at 3am, Beaumont but you carry on, I’m happy just watching.”

  She rolled her eyes then continued to torture the bag, causing a severe constriction to my stomach when I realised just how hard she was pounding the thing.

  I sat on the press bench and carried on watching her, my body sulking with the pressure in my veins. “Something upset you?”

  I heard the hiss as she drew air between her tight jaws but she persisted with her mission to annihilate the equipment. “Did you want something, Mr Hamilton?”

  The tone in her voice didn’t even falter as she pummelled savagely, her breathing slow and regular and I stared in awe. “Well, I was just wondering if I have a bed or do you want me to kip on the couch, sweetheart?”

  She paused then gradually turned towards me. My eyes fluttered as her breasts came into view, fair enough they were covered in the same plain white cotton as the briefs but damn, I had a sudden new fixation on white cotton underwear. She didn’t strike me as the type to sport racy undies but strangely I found myself not actually wanting her to.

  “One, I am not your sweetheart. Two, I’m sure you are capable of finding a bed, there are twelve bedrooms and I’m quite positive they each contain a bed and three, if you think I’m going to bow down to you during your house arrest, then you’re going to be extremely disappointed.”

  I remained silent as I let my eyes roam slowly and leisurely over her remarkable body and as I lifted them back to her face I smirked at the flush that had covered her neck and face. “One, you are very much not a sweetheart, I agree. Two, I didn’t want to find myself in the wrong bed, namely your parents and three, I don’t expect or even want you to look after me.”

  I stood and stalked the room towards her. Her breathing accelerated as I neared and the slight flare of her nostrils, evidence of her own arousal, gave me the courage
I needed. “But I can promise that eventually you’ll definitely bow to me Grace Beaumont,” I whispered as I leant into her. “And furthermore, you will become my slave, but most certainly not in the kitchen.”

  Her soft gasp made my throat hurt as I fought to control my hard on. I was positive if she released another I would come right there and then.

  The electricity and tension between us was raw and so fucking powerful I couldn’t help myself when I grabbed her ponytail and yanked her head back. She hissed but didn’t pull away as she held my gaze with her own fierce glare. “You know it’s there, Beaumont. You feel it too, racing around your bloodstream and making you wet with want.”

  Her lungs were working overtime as her chest heaved rapidly but her eyes gave away her lust, so did the way her teeth sank into her lower lip. I locked her down for an extra moment as I slightly clamped her earlobe with my teeth. She whimpered and I made myself physically relax my balls, “Soon, very soon darling, you’ll beg me to take hostage every bit of that stubborn discipline of yours. You’ll beg me to rule you under me, right underneath me, where you’ll feel every bit of my control and I can promise it will be more of a sweaty workout than this shit what you’re trying to relief your tension with.”

  “Fuck you!” she spat eventually and shrugged out of my hold.

  I had expected her fist so I was pleasantly surprised with how she’d disengaged from me. “You’re so full of yourself. I don’t fuck my job number, Mr Hamilton. You are here because I was forced to take you on to recoup my job, nothing more.”

  She seemed flustered and I noticed the twitch in her thigh so I patted her cheek gently, smirking slightly when she moved her head away. “Oh, I know all that, but I also know your nipples are hard on your heavy breasts. Your pussy is wet with your arousal and your mind is currently displaying all sorts of different erotic images incorporating me fucking you hard and wild whilst you hold on tight to this bag.”

  She swallowed and licked her lips. “Mr Hamilton, I suggest you go find one of those beds before you find that you take residence in a hospital one.”

  I nodded, smirked and winked. “You know where to find me when you decide to let go of that tenacity.”

  “And hell may actually freeze over.”

  She turned back round and restarted her furious disagreement with the gym equipment. I hid my smile from her as I exited the room and listened to the loud grunts she made with her workout. I really hoped she made the same grunts when I fucked her, because I would fuck her. She knew it as well as I did.

  Chapter Eight

  Grace

  I RATTLED THE iron gate, checking its sturdiness before I replaced the ivy and continued my joint run and perimeter check. The smells from Mona’s fried breakfast were wafting across the gardens and churning my stomach, driving me to run harder just to fight off the nausea.

  Christ, I felt rough today and all I had wanted to do when the alarm woke me at six was turn over, pull the duvet over my head and refuse the day any access to me but I had a client to protect and the property wouldn’t safeguard itself.

  I made it across the lawn and palmed the wall of the pool house as a dizzy current swept over me and my head started to pound cruelly causing my eyesight to blur.

  Oh dear God! I was starting to sweat one of those horrible clammy sweats, where your whole body covers in goose bumps and your ears started to hum. I slid down the wall as the ground shifted beneath me and my head swan with hums and buzzes as the nausea won and I vomited everywhere violently.

  I tried to take a breath and control the sickness but my body shuddered as another wave hit me and I threw up again.

  “Okay, come on sweetheart. I’ve got you.”

  I blinked up at Kade as he lifted me in his arms and held me against him before he strolled swiftly across the grounds and into the house, bounding up the stairs as if I weighed nothing and straight into my room where Mona was preparing my bed for me.

  “Oh my goodness, you look shocking.” She flustered as she briskly pulled me upright and shoved a bucket under my chin to catch the latest torrent that projected from my ailing body.

  “What the hell did you put in the casserole, Mona?” I tried to joke but she stared at me and I cowered slightly, “Joking.”

  She blinked rapidly then turned to Kade. “Out, go on. I need to get her undressed. Go boil some lemonade and fetch me some towels.”

  His brow lifted as he cast a glance at me then frowned, “I’d really like to care for her, Mrs Hardy, if you’d let me.”

  What the hell?

  She glared at him with narrow eyes and even through my raging fever and sickness, I smiled. “I beg your pardon? Grace needs a mother figure right now, and you Mr Hamilton are definitely not a motherly figure. Now, go boil some lemonade and fetch me some towels, please.”

  He stared for a moment then saluted like a soldier and I couldn’t quite hold back the snort. He’d soon learn that Mona took no shit from anyone.

  He shifted his eyes and winked at me before he left the room and proceeded to take on his mission.

  “That boy is after you, pet.” Mona said bluntly as she pulled off my shirt and tugged on a vest. I just looked at her as fatigue took over and I slumped down into the embrace of the soft covers. “But he’s up to no good.”

  I frowned at her. Mona had always been one of those optimistic people who saw the good in everything and everyone, so for her to cast a warning had my attention, “Sorry, nanny?”

  She smiled warmly as I reverted back to my childhood title for her. “You mark my words, my darling. Nanny feels it in her bones.”

  I just nodded; my weary body was unable to give her anything more but her words circulated around my head as sleep took me under.

  * * *

  I could hear mumbled voices as a slight raise in tones filtered through my ears. My head was still pounding and I remained silent as my eyes refused to open to the light in the room.

  “But she needs them, Mr Hamilton. I can’t leave her, you must go.”

  “But she’ll go nuclear on me if I leave the house, surely you know this?”

  “I don’t care. She needs the anti-sickness medication; otherwise she’ll not get any rest.”

  There was a pregnant pause as they both refused to back down but I heard Kade eventually sigh, “Fine, I’ll fetch them.”

  I groaned and tried to lift myself up but my body refused to move and I had to force the words from my mouth, “NO!”

  I felt Mona’s hand slip into mine as she patted my arm, “He won’t be gone for long, pet.”

  “No,” I ordered again as I prised my heavy eyelids open. “He doesn’t leave the house, Mona. Final word.”

  She pulled in a hefty breath then snatched her hand out of mine. I frowned at her anger. It was rare anything ever got a rise out of her and I wondered if she actually believed that Kade would hurt me. “I’ll be fine, nanny.”

  And on cue, again came the sickness, just to prove me wrong. Kade shot over, pulling me upright swiftly as he pulled my hair back and let me launch at the bucket. “Okay Beaumont, let it out.”

  I rolled my eyes as I heaved but there was a tone to his voice that showed all of his determination to take care of me.

  “Mrs Hardy, can’t you fetch the pills? She can’t carry on like this.” Kade asked as one of his hands swept up and down my back softly. I’m not even sure he was aware he was doing it but the action made me feel slightly better, the rhythm calming my mind as the regularity of it relaxed my stomach slightly.

  I shook my head and grumbled that I was fine before another round of illness commenced and I moaned in annoyance. “Oh, be a big girl, Beaumont. Mona’s going for that medication, aren’t you Mona.” It was said as a statement and not a question and I lifted my eyes to see a hatred in Mona’s eyes that I had never witness in all the thirty one years I had known her.

  “Mona?” I asked during a much appreciated break.

  She blinked as though to break herself from t
he spell and smiled softly at me, “It’s okay, pet. I’ll go.”

  I nodded as I dropped back against the pillow and groaned. I hated being ill, I’d rather be in pain and I pouted sulkily at Kade when Mona left the room.

  He laughed loudly as he swept a cloth across my forehead, “Oh don’t be such a baby. You kick ass, sweetheart, I’m sure you can cope with a stomach bug.”

  I sighed and closed my eyes as he gently wiped across my face with the newly cooled cloth. “I’ll let you into a secret, Beaumont.”

  I opened my eyes and gazed at him as his eyes tracked the route of the cloth. He watched it for a while and I lifted a brow, “Go on.”

  He smiled and caught my eye, “I always wanted to be a nurse.”

  “Really?”

  He nodded and smiled sadly, “My parents thought it was stupid.” He shrugged and grimaced as if embarrassed by his confession, “Which it is really.”

  “No it’s not. I think it’s an admirable job. It takes patience though and I’m afraid, that’s something you do lack.”

  He smirked at me as he wrung the cloth in the bowl beside him and continued his tending. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I wasn’t sweating any longer. “That’s due to the dominant trait in me; it makes me demand things and appreciate when they are delivered swiftly.”

  I watched him as he kept his eyes anywhere than on mine until I eventually lifted my hand and settled it over his to halt his nursing. “Thank you, that’s much better.”

  He smiled happily at me before he stood from the bed and went into the en-suite to change the water. “When was the last time you saw Mona?” he shouted from the bathroom above the noise of the water.

  I sighed and thought back, “God, it must be at least two years now.”

  He nodded as he came back in but his face was pensive and I tilted my head in question, “What?”

  He shook his head as his lips bowed, “Nothing.”