by Holly Martin
He led her through the lounge into his bedroom and closed the door behind her, staring down at her as if he wanted to eat her. The only light filling the room came from the moon outside. His face was partly in darkness, making him look dangerous.
He kissed her softly, gently this time, his hands at her hips as he slowly inched the material up over her body, breaking the kiss for just a second as he pulled the nightie over her head and let it drop to the floor.
His hands were exploring her body again, but this time his velvety touch against her bare skin was almost too much to bear.
She ran her hands over his back, feeling the muscles taut underneath his skin. Her fingers found the top of the blanket and she pushed it down over his hips. Now the only thing between him and her was his silvery body stocking which sparkled in the light of the moon, but there didn’t seem to be any quick way to rid him of it. He suddenly stepped back out of her reach.
‘I want to look at you, Milly.’ Cameron whispered, as if talking normally might break the spell between them.
She was panting, like she had run a mile, she could hardly breathe. Why was he standing there, not doing anything? Shit, was he turned off?
A bubble of fear, self-doubt and frustration welled in her chest just as Cameron slammed into her, kissing her hard.
‘You’re so beautiful.’
He quickly removed her bra, groaning against her mouth as he ran tentative hands over her breasts.
Without taking his lips from hers, he scooped her up and carried her to the bed, lying down with her. He continued to kiss her, hungrily, possessively.
His hands slid to her hips and dipped under the waistband of her knickers, slowly sliding them off. He shuffled down the bed slightly, so he could remove them. He gave her a crafty look, before taking her nipple into his mouth.
‘Camranemmom …’ Milly groaned, and Cameron chuckled against her breast, the vibrations of which travelled straight to her core.
As the last item of her clothing was flung across the room, Cameron’s hand moved slowly up between her legs.
He shifted back up the bed, so they were eye to eye as they lay next to each other.
‘These last five days have been the longest foreplay ever,’ Cameron said, kissing her just briefly.
‘I know, so let’s just skip that part and go straight for the main event.’
‘Not a chance.’
Cameron slid his fingers over the apex of her thighs. It took very little time to coax her to the very edge and suddenly she hurtled over it, her orgasm ripping through her so fast, so unexpectedly, that she cried out, desperate for him to stop and begging him to continue all in the same glorious moment.
Only when her heart and her breathing had slowly returned to normal did he take his hands from her.
‘We need to get you out of that ridiculous outfit,’ Milly reached for the neck hole and started to pull.
Cameron had a different idea, grabbing the material at the chest and ripping it open like Superman. She helped to push it off his shoulders and he wriggled it off his hips until he was completely and impressively naked next to her.
She watched him fumble in the drawers next to the bed, heard the tear of foil and she lay back as he knelt between her legs.
She eyed the pack of twenty condoms on the top of the drawers and sighed.
‘Do you have many girls up here?’
Cameron shifted himself on top of her. ‘You’re the first. I bought those yesterday after our conversation. You’re actually the first in a long time.’
Milly frowned slightly, not sure how to take this. Was he just feeling horny and in desperate need for sex? Did he have any feelings for her at all? How would things be between them tomorrow?
‘You ok?’ Cameron lay down gently on top of her, wrapping her legs round his hips.
‘Just a little nervous.’
He smiled, kissing her so softly and sweetly that all doubts went out the window. Her head lived too much in the future when really she just needed to enjoy the now.
He was still holding back and it must have taken every ounce of strength he had not to just thrust into her.
‘We don’t have to do this, we can just cuddle instead.’
‘You don’t like cuddling.’
‘That’s where you’re wrong, I like cuddling with you. Almost as much as I like having sex. But if I had to rank it, making love would come out on the very top.’
She smiled. ‘Above all the clothes ripping sex and the sex on the table, on the floor, up against the wall?’
‘Without a doubt.’
She stroked his face and pulled him tighter against her.
He didn’t need any further encouragement as he pushed gently inside her. She wrapped her arms round him, cradling him against her.
He moved slowly as he stared into her eyes. It was so tender, so sweet, so beautiful, Milly had never experienced anything like it. He bent his head and kissed her, his hunger for her undeniable as he devoured her gasps and moans with his mouth.
Fireworks suddenly lit up the sky outside the window, sending trails of silver and scarlet across the night sky.
Milly closed her eyes and as Cameron moved deeper inside her, increasing slightly in speed, she smiled against his lips as she enjoyed her own private fireworks.
Milly woke up with Cameron curled around her back, his hand stroking the outside of her thigh and peppering little kisses over her shoulder and the back of her neck. She could barely open her eyes. They’d done it three times the night before, how was that even possible? She had never done it more than once in a night before. With Adam she was lucky if they did it more than once a week. But with Cameron, every time had been quite simply the best sex she’d ever had.
She sleepily rolled over in his arms and wrapped her hands round his neck. As they lay side by side, she could feel him ready to go again. She was tired and a bit sore but he looked like he could carry on all day.
‘You’re insatiable.’
He grinned. ‘Just ignore it, it’ll go in a minute.’
‘So last night, did you enjoy it?’ Milly asked.
He shifted her a bit closer. ‘Immensely.’
‘I meant the play, you pervert! I’m in no doubt that you enjoyed yourself in here, if your shouts and moans were anything to go by.’
‘Oh, the play. It wasn’t really to my taste, too much cock for my liking.’
‘Oh yes, there was plenty of that.’
He raised his eyebrows. ‘You enjoyed it then? All those half naked men, is that what got you so horny?’
Milly kissed him. ‘There was one man, one willy that made me horny. Everything else just made me laugh.’
‘So we’re husband and wife now,’ Cameron said.
‘Yes, apparently so. You’ll have to take me on a honeymoon so we can have hot sex all day.’
‘We can do that here.’
‘Yes but if we’re on a honeymoon, we can have room service delivered for every meal and we wouldn’t have to leave the bed for pesky things like cooking.’
‘That’s true.’
He nibbled little kisses against her throat. She wrapped her arms and legs around him and rolled him so she was on top. She sat up and looked down at him, marvelling that this beautiful man was hers to play with for at least the next week. How had that happened?
‘The view is pretty great here,’ Cameron said, reaching up to cup her breasts. ‘But I do like the idea of being waited on while we have hot sex all day. How about Bognor Regis? I can stretch to that.’
‘Ha. I think we can do better than that.’
He frowned slightly and she leaned forward to kiss him again.
‘Where do you want to go?’ Cameron asked.
‘Norfolk is lovely. Or Scotland?’
His frown faded and he sat up, his hands going to her hips to steady her. ‘You don’t want much, do you? Fast cars or luxurious holidays, you don’t want any of that. You were as impressed with my cheese on toast an
d tomato soup the other night as you would have been if I’d presented you with lobster and caviar.’
‘Not a fan of caviar, tried it once, bit tangy for my liking. And I don’t like that you cook the poor lobster whilst it’s still alive, so no, that’s not for me either.’
He smiled and kissed her as she wrapped her arms round his neck. She pulled back slightly so she could look into his eyes.
‘Money can’t buy you happiness, not really. You make me happy, you make me feel blissfully content and last night, when you made love to me for the first time, I was happier than I’ve been for a very long time,’ Milly said.
His eyes were soft as he kissed her.
Suddenly there was a loud knocking, probably on the outside kitchen door. Milly jumped.
‘What’s that?’
He frowned for a moment. ‘Crap, I think that’s Olivia, my PA. I honestly forgot she was coming, I should have cancelled when you agreed to stay.’
Milly pulled a face, remembering that Cameron had said she was coming today. ‘Well I guess the honeymoon is over.’ She pulled back slightly but Cameron’s hands tightened round her hips, holding her in place.
‘She can wait a moment,’ Cameron said.
She was about to protest, she wanted to at least be dressed when she met his PA for the first time but as he kissed her, his hands caressing over her body, any more thoughts vanished from her mind.
It was nearly fifteen minutes later when Cameron unlocked the kitchen door for Olivia. They had showered together, though Milly had stopped him from having shower sex with her and now he’d left her to get dressed.
He opened the door and saw Olivia sitting on the grass with her laptop open, typing away quite happily. She had removed her jacket in the summer heat and her arms looked tanned in the short sleeved blouse she was wearing. A butterfly fluttered round her head, her chestnut hair gleaming in the sunlight as it billowed in soft waves over one shoulder. She was a pretty woman, although he had never really been attracted to her. She looked up at him, her feline green eyes sparkling with gold flecks as she flashed him a huge smile.
‘Hello sleepy head,’ she got up, dusting off her trouser suit, closed her laptop and walked towards him, immediately kissing him on the cheek. When had their professional relationship progressed to that? She had been with him for a little less than a year and it had never started that way. But somehow over the months, that greeting had become commonplace. He supposed they had become friends and he certainly had female friends that greeted him that way, even the ones that were married.
‘Hi, Liv, sorry to keep you waiting.’ Cameron said as she squeezed past him into the kitchen.
‘It’s no problem, I had some work to do anyway, so it’s no hassle. And it was nice sitting out there in the sunshine to do it. This place though, Cam! I don’t know whether to laugh or cry for you. It’s a bit ridiculous, isn’t it?’
‘Do you know what, it’s starting to grow on me.’
‘Really? I can see that with your wonderful imagination it would be a great place to write, but you’re not thinking about staying here, are you? It would cost millions to repair and after Eva bled you dry you’re hardly in a position to be paying out for all this stuff.’
‘I don’t know, I’m thinking about it.’ He had to tell her about Milly so it wasn’t such a shock when they met, but suddenly it was too late for that. Milly walked into the kitchen wearing her knee length shorts and a bright pink sparkly T-shirt with nothing on her feet. She looked cute and adorable.
Olivia, to her credit, barely batted an eye, although she was used to the influx of women that seemed to flock round him, and the ones she had met the morning after he’d spent the night with them.
Milly looked awkward and nervous and he wanted to say something that would make her laugh. ‘This is my wife, Milly.’
Milly blushed so she was the same shade of pink as her T-shirt. He didn’t know who looked more shocked by his statement; Milly, because he had just presented the fake marriage the night before as something real, or Olivia, who he’d last seen just before coming to the castle when he swore he was never going near a woman again. He looked between the two of them. His money was on Olivia.
Milly looked absolutely mortified and he regretted having done anything to upset her.
Olivia recovered first, rearranging her features into an expression of complete professionalism. ‘You’re married? Well congratulations, I’m really happy for you.’
‘Nah, not really, we were just involved in some play last night and we got married in that. We were just joking about our honeymoon.’
Olivia laughed with relief. ‘You had me going there. So you two are …’
Cameron held out a hand for Milly and she took it. He pulled her into his arms and planted a kiss on her forehead. He wasn’t sure which word to use to best describe his relationship with Milly. Girlfriend, lover, business associate. None of those were particularly good. He settled on one that was safest.
‘She’s my friend.’
Milly looked up at him in confusion and he pressed a sweet kiss to her lips so Olivia would be in no doubt as to what kind of friend she was.
Olivia smiled. She had seen it all before, but somehow he wanted to tell her that Milly was different.
‘I’ll just get my bags and perhaps you can show me to my room.’
Cameron gave a vague nod but he was looking at Milly who was still blushing furiously.
Olivia stepped outside and Milly pulled out of his arms. ‘Why did you do that?’
‘What?’ Cameron said, smiling at her outrage.
‘Introduce me as your wife and then make it very clear we’re together.’
‘We are together and how would you like me to introduce you?’
‘As Milly from Castle Heritage.’
‘You wanted to retain your professional image. I can hardly introduce you as the person from Castle Heritage that I’m now sleeping with and maintain any of your integrity.’
‘You didn’t have to mention that we’re sleeping together at all.’
He stepped closer to her, all humour now gone. ‘You might be ashamed that you slept with some scruffy writer with no qualifications, but I’m not ashamed of you. If I want to kiss you or touch you or take you to bed and make love to you until you shout out my name, I will. I’m not going to hide it from her.’
Olivia walked through the back door dragging a small suitcase behind her.
‘Cameron, if you could show me to my room?’
He stared at Milly for a moment and then turned towards the door that joined the corridor with the other staff quarters.
He opened it and pointed to Olivia. ‘The last room on the right hand side. The bed is made up for you.’
If he was any sort of gentleman he would carry her bags down for her, but whilst his tentative relationship with Milly was teetering on shaky legs, he needed to right things with her first.
Olivia shuffled past him into the corridor and he closed the door behind her. He turned back to face Milly.
‘Look, you’re on holiday for a week. We haven’t discussed what will happen after that week, whether you will continue to work here for a few days to complete your tests, but I won’t be allowed to kiss you or touch you during that time because you’ll be working. Or whether you will leave here with a casual wave and not a backward glance and I’ll never get to see you again. I don’t think either of us know where this is going and that’s what this week was supposed to be about, wasn’t it? Finding out whether it is just a sexual attraction or something deeper, something worth fighting for. So if I only have a week, I want to be able to kiss you and touch you whenever the mood arises. Yes, I wanted Olivia to know we are in a relationship because I’m not going to waste a single moment sneaking around and pretending we’re not and I wanted to protect your precious reputation by introducing you as my friend rather than the girl from Castle Heritage. I’m sorry if I got that wrong.’
Milly’s stance had s
oftened during his speech and he hoped he’d had some effect.
‘Ok,’ she said, quietly.
‘Ok?’
She nodded, coming towards him, wrapping her arms round his back and leaning her head against his chest. ‘I’m sorry.’
He sighed with relief.
‘And I’m not ashamed of you, not for one second,’ she mumbled into his chest.
‘Ok.’
‘I’ve always just been Milly from Castle Heritage, it’s hard to be just Milly.’
‘The girl that I’ve … that I’m …’ He pulled her chin up to face him. ‘The girl that I’m sort of falling for is just Milly. Remember that.’
Milly stared at him with wide eyes. ‘You’re … falling for me?’
He held his thumb and finger about a centimetre apart. ‘Maybe a tiny bit.’
She giggled and pushed his thumb and finger further apart. ‘That’s better. We are husband and wife after all.’
He kissed her on the head just as Olivia walked back into the room.
He turned away from Milly and went to the fridge. ‘Do you two lovely girls want breakfast?’
Olivia sat down at the table opposite Milly. ‘I’ll just have a slice of toast, please.’
‘I’ll have a full English please, I’m starving,’ Milly said.
‘Me too. Two full English breakfasts coming up, sure you don’t want the full works, Liv?’
‘No thank you.’ Olivia smiled and then diverted her attention to Milly. ‘So, how long have you two known each other?’
Cameron smiled to see that Olivia was at least making an effort, even if she thought that Milly was another of his one night stands.
‘It feels like a lifetime,’ Milly said and Cameron smirked as he turned away to deal with breakfast.
‘And what is it you do?’ Olivia asked. She was so sweet sometimes. She somehow knew that Milly was feeling nervous and was trying to put her at ease. Although she had asked the one question that was going to be tricky to answer.
‘I … I’m a dendrochronologist.’
‘Oh, that sounds interesting, what’s that?’
‘Milly has been helping me with the castle,’ Cameron interrupted, watching the bacon sizzle in the pan. ‘You’ll have to read my story while you’re here, Liv, it’s going really well. The words have flowed much easier over the last few days.’