“Get to know anyone, and you realize they’ve also had to deal with things.”
“Russell,” I groaned, frustrated. “Can we not talk about her?”
“What else would you like to talk about, Mr. Rhys-Gallagher? The weather? Your business portfolio? You and I both know she’s the only thing on your mind.”
“It’s complicated,” I said again.
He put the knife aside. “Because she once dated Donovan?”
I paused, shocked for a moment before speaking again. “Who told you that?”
He snickered. “I know you. There is no way in hell you would have gotten a woman pregnant and not known for five years. Besides, I remember she was here for Donovan’s wake, she broke down in one of the bathrooms.”
I fell silent, focusing on the silverware in front of me.
“I hope you aren’t feeling guilty.”
“Shouldn’t I feel that why? This is so messy we could hurt each other.” I knew that was the truth, but I was still sure I couldn’t give her up.
“I’ve lived a long time, so I’ll let you in on a little secret. Relationships that are messy are the ones that change our lives forever. It’s the one people write songs and movies and books about. It’s the one we all secretly want. Who wants a plain love story? Who does that inspire?”
“Don’t you think we should take it slow? We’ve barely gotten to know each other.” This wasn’t a movie. We couldn’t just fall love with each other, even if we had said we would. Not in such a short time.
“Hogwash.”
“Excuse me?”
He lifted the fork up to check it and blew on it one more time before saying, “I said hogwash. No one really wants to take love slow. People only say that when they’re scared of being hurt. You want slow because you’re scared of her.”
“The last thing I am is scared—”
“You were close to your mother, and she died. You tried to be the good one for your father, and he died. Then your brother left, came back, and died. When people leave you one by one, it isn’t normal to want to slow down loving something else. It’s easier to be slow because then you can plan your exit before you get hurt again.”
He was pulling no damn punches.
“How do you know if it is real love and not just two desperate people begging the other to never let them go?”
He laughed. “You just asked me, ‘how do you know if it’s real love or real love’, you know that right?”
“I’m being serious.”
“So am I. What is love but two people, for whatever reason, saying 'never let me go’?”
I sighed and muttered, “How much am I paying for this therapy session?”
“You don’t want to bring up my salary. I might demand a raise.”
I scoffed. “You have to be the most well-paid butler in the state, and what the hell would you do with more money? You don’t go anywhere or have, uh….”
“Have anyone?” He smiled. “I do…believe me I do.”
“Who?” I asked, stunned. He’d never said anything in all the years I’d known him.
“That is for me to know. Honestly, do you think I just sat around waiting for you to come up here? I have a life, too. I’ve just been waiting.” He put the silver away.
“Waiting for what?”
“You.” He was completely serious. “I’m waiting for you to be happy, really happy, so when I leave it won’t feel like another person walking away from you. I’m waiting for you to be so happy, you want me to go and be as happy as you are.”
“Russell—”
“Ms. Thorne.” He smiled over my shoulder, and I turned to see Luella dressed in my shirt, which was barely short enough for her, allowing me to see her beautiful long legs.
“We are back to Ms. Thorne, Russell? I’m hurt.” She crossed her arms, and I really wished she hadn’t, because I couldn’t help but notice her breasts lift.
“I’m sorry, ma’am, please excuse me. Here I thought everyone had gone to bed.”
They shared a look. Luella, for some reason, seemed embarrassed and brushed her dark hair behind her ear.
“What was that?” I asked, taking off the gloves.
“What was what?” she asked, backing to the fridge, then removing a bottle of water.
“That look between you two.”
“It was nothing,” she said, but the way she avoided my eyes made me feel like it wasn’t just nothing. I wondered what exactly Russell had been telling her about me.
“Are you all right?”
“I was too hot to sleep.” She drank and fanned herself.
“Hot flashes?” I grinned.
“Says the man with gray hair.”
“What? I do not—” I was about to pull out my phone to check when she laughed at me.
“Not funny. Hot flashes were a stretch for you, but I could really have premature gray hair.”
She sat in the chair beside me. “Would that be so bad?”
“Being in my early thirties and having gray hair? Yes. It’s the second worst thing to happen to your hair. The first is going bald.”
“You’re so vain, you probably think this song is about you,” she sang cheerfully. “Can you put your early onset midlife crisis on hold so I can tell you some good news?”
“I’ll do my best, but I can’t promise anything.”
She held up her phone.
“What am I looking at?”
“It’s over, Dorian.” She took a deep breath. “I paid it all off. I’m free. Thanks to you, I can finally put this all behind me.”
“Wow.” It was the only word that came to mind as I stared at the receipt of her wire transfer to an offshore account. As great as this was, it annoyed the hell out of me that she’d had to pay this scum, even though she had all but given up every part of herself for them already.
“Your mouth says ‘wow’, but your face says ‘this sucks’.”
“Sorry. This is good. I just wished it didn’t have to be done—”
“I know, but now it’s over, and I’m so happy I want to dance.” She was already dancing, right there in my kitchen. She punched buttons on her phone and music played. “Come on.”
“I’m good.”
“You have to celebrate with me.” She pulled me out of my seat.
“I only know how to waltz.”
“Don’t think about it, just go crazy.” She snapped her fingers and spun around me, and like an awkward teen at a school dance, I swayed back and forth.
“That is not going crazy, Dorian.”
“For me it is.”
“Then get crazier. No one can judge you. Dance like no one is looking.”
I copied her movements, turning, jumping, snapping my hands… Dancing. For some reason, I couldn’t stop laughing. When the music slowed, so did we, smiling at each other.
“That’s how you dance like no one is looking,” she said, trying to catch her breath.
My heart was racing, and it wasn’t from dancing. I took her hand, pulled her closer to me, and kissed her lips.
LUELLA
My whole body was on fire when we finally made it to his room. He stared at me as if I were the most important person in the world. His lips hovered over mine, but he didn’t kiss me. I leaned into him, and he lifted me off my feet. Placing me in the center of his bed, he kissed down the side of my neck. I shivered when he cupped my breasts and rubbed his thumb over my nipples. He kissed his way down my stomach. He sat up, slipping a hand between my thighs, two of his fingers already inside me.
“You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” he whispered.
I rocked against his hand, chasing pleasure. Another finger entered me. I couldn’t keep my eyes open.
“You amaze me.” We tongue-kissed each other heatedly.
All too soon, he left me, his tongue circling my nipples once more on his way down between my legs. He spread them and kissed my clit. I wrapped my legs around his head and clutched the headboard as hi
s tongue explored me. I cried out and bit my lips. It felt so good. He was too good. When he licked and sucked me, my toes curled, and as he did, I didn’t want him to have his way again.
Pulling him by his hair, he came up and licked his lips, that damn smile of his teasing me. I pushed him as hard as I could until he fell back on his back. His eyebrow rose, and I kissed his chest just like he’d done to me.
“Ah…” He hissed when I bit his nipple gently, his hands rubbing my back. But I didn’t stop there. I kissed all the way down to his waist. “Lulu…”
I heard him inhale as I kissed the length of his cock and then licked back down. He was hot against my lips, and the more I kissed, the more he throbbed. I licked the tip of it, and he jerked forward. I just grinned, doing it again and again, moving so slowly I could tell he was frustrated.
“Goddamnit, Lul—oh.”
I looked up at him as I took him into my mouth, and when I took as much of him as I could, deep into my throat, his mouth fell open. I felt his hand on my head, thrusting into my mouth, unable to hold back. Soon, he was eagerly fucking my mouth, my hand stroking the part of him I couldn’t fit into my mouth.
“Fuck…” He cursed as he came in my mouth. “You are driving me insane.”
“Good, the feeling is mutual,” I whispered, wiping my mouth.
His eyes were full of lust, and something else, something more. He brought me closer and kissed my lips, and the fact that he was tasting himself on my lips turned me on more than it should have.
Dorian
God, she was so fucking beautiful. I didn’t have any other words to describe her other than the epitome of beauty.
“Oh…” She moaned on her knees, holding on to the bed frame, her ass slapping against my hips as I took her from behind.
“Fuck,” I hissed, she was so tight I couldn’t hold back anymore. I grabbed her breast with one hand and slipped the another between her legs and over her wet pussy.
“Dorian!” she screamed out as she came, the whole bed moving with us. I wanted to hear her cry out for more. She was mine, mine and only mine.
“Lulu!” I moaned into her neck as I came inside her. Breathing hard, she rested her head against the bed frame as I slowly pulled out of her.
I felt like my chest was going to explode as I laid back on the bed.
“That was amazing,” she said softly, moving to lay on top of me. The damn vixen took pity on me and smiled. Didn’t she notice that the moment she smiled, I was back to being weak?
“Kiss me,” I told her.
And she did, I wrapped my arms around her, she held onto me. Without breaking apart, we kissed and rolled around in our bed before we had to break away for air.
“Wow,” she said, taking deep breaths as she lay on top of me.
“Wow,” I repeated, stroking her back.
“I feel like I’m on fire. You?” she asked, sitting up on top of me.
Her hair was wild, her nipples hard. Her olive-toned skin begged to be touched, and her beautiful eyes made me want to drown in her.
“You don’t want to rest, do you?” I grinned.
She bit her lip. “No.”
“What am I going to do with you?”
“Love me more.”
15
Dream Your Life the Way Children Do
LUELLA
My phone rang, and I did my best to ignore it.
“Lulu, your phone,” Dorian muttered before snuggling into my neck.
“For me to get it, you have to let go of me.”
He sighed but lifted one arm, allowing me to sit up. “New rule, no early calls after keeping me up all night.”
“I kept you up?”
“Are you denying it?”
“We kept each other up,” I giggled as he kissed my back.
I leaned over him to pick up the phone and looked at the screen. It was Eva.
“H-Hello?” I shivered as Dorian kissed back up my back.
“Are you okay?” Eva asked. I was about to wiggle away from him when his phone rang. It seemed the real world wasn’t going to let him have his way.
“Damn it,” he hissed, rolling over to get it.
“I’m fine, how are you?”
“What’s going on? You sound off.” Leave it to Eva to see right through me, even on the phone. I wasn’t fine, I was amazing.
“Sorry, I’ve had a lot going on.” Mostly Dorian and I screwing each other every spare chance we could.
“Do you need me to—”
“Don’t worry, Alaric and I are fine. You don’t have to look after me.”
She snorted. “If I don’t, who will? I was calling to ask when you guys are coming home. Alaric has school on Monday, remember?”
It was Saturday. Dorian was sitting up, his expression serious and annoyed. “Goldie, I don’t care if he’s called ten times. Hang up on him. Better yet, let go of the shares we already own.” He got out of bed, not caring that he was naked.
“Lulu?”
“Huh? Oh, I’m not sure when we will be home,” I said, more worried about Dorian’s conversation.
“Does Alaric need a new uniform?”
Shit.
“I will order it online right now.”
“I’ll pick it up at the store.”
I loved her. “Thank you. I will wire you the money.”
“Any money you have, you should be saving—”
“I paid off the debt, Eva.” I leaned back against the headboard. “I’m free, and I have more than enough to finally take care of anything else.”
“Wow. When did that happen? Why didn’t you tell me?”
Dorian went into the bathroom, and I lowered my voice. “Because things between Dorian and I kind of—”
“Lulu!”
“I know what you’re going to say, but it just feels so right, and I don’t want to fight it.”
I heard her sigh before someone called her name in the background. “I have to go, we’ll talk later. Love you.”
“Love you too, thanks again for his uniform. We’ll get any other supplies he needs while we’re here,” I replied, not noticing what I had said until afterward.
Hanging up, I took a deep breath and just fell back onto the pillows.
“Everything okay?” Dorian came out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist. I smiled, staring at all of him.
“Eva reminded me the week is almost over. I don’t want to leave, but Alaric has to get ready for school.”
“We can leave tomorrow night. I promised to take Alaric golfing, but I might be on calls all day.” He approached the bed, and I sat up, allowing the sheets to pool at my waist. I was naked from the waist up.
His eyebrow rose. “And you said you weren’t the reason I didn’t sleep last night.”
“It’s a two-way street, Mr. Rhys-Gallagher.” I got up onto my knees in front of him.
His gaze traveled my body. “I can live with that.”
He stroked me from my shoulders down to my thighs, and I grabbed his cock. His blue eyes glazed over, and his lips parted slightly as he cupped my pussy. I stroked him, and he fingered me.
“Mommy?” Alaric’s voice called from his room, and I could hear footsteps.
“Shit.” I let go of him, and he handed me his shirt.
“We will have more than enough time together soon.”
“Okay—”
“Mommy?”
I went to his room. He was wearing his Thor pajamas and staring down at Hercules.
“Baby, what is it—”
He held up a hand. “Stop.”
“What?”
“Hercules had an accident, and I stepped in it.” I saw the wet spot on the carpet. “Is Dad going to be mad?”
“No. Why don’t you get ready for a bath? I will handle Hercules.”
He gave the dog a hug, then me, and started taking off his clothes.
“Alaric,” I called loudly and waved to get his attention. “Today we get school supplies. Think o
f everything you need.”
“A cellphone?” He signed with mock innocence.
“Funny. Keep thinking.”
He pouted, heading into the bathroom. I crouched in front of Hercules. “You are the only dog left, Hercules. I know it’s a lot of pressure, but you have to be strong.”
He barked at me.
“Don’t raise your voice—”
“Are you having a conversation with my dog?” Dorian stood in the doorway in sweatpants and a T-shirt.
“I thought you were going to take a shower?”
“I was, but I wanted to make sure Alaric was all right. Even if he doesn’t see you first thing in the morning, he still never yells out.” He glanced around the room.
“He’s getting ready for a bath, but he wanted to let me know Hercules had an accident.” I rose, pointing to the stain on the rug. Hercules whimpered and shined his big doggy eyes at Dorian, as if to say he was sorry.
Dorian patted his head. “What’s wrong, boy?”
“He isn’t sick, is he?”
“I’ll have him checked out. Go take care of Alaric. I got this.”
“Let me know.” I moved to leave, and he stopped me. “What?”
“Kiss me.”
“Ew.” Alaric watched us from the bathroom, butt naked. Rolling his eyes, he retreated and closed the door.
After a stunned moment, we burst into laughter.
DORIAN
Showered and dressed, I sat behind the desk in the study as Goldie got ready to patch me through to a video conference with the board members of Edmund Enterprises.
“Mr. Rhys-Gallagher, are you ready?”
“Yes.” The screen came on, and once again I was staring at all the idiots. “You wished to speak with me, here I am. Note that the statement I made last week about wasting my time is still in effect.”
“Mr. Rhys-Gallagher, we wanted to see if you could delay some cuts until next quarter,” a woman said.
“And why is that?”
“We got a call from the governor—”
“Is the governor now the CEO of Rhys-Gallagher National?”
“No, sir, but—”
“Then why the hell would I give a damn what he wants?”
A few of them whispered among themselves.
Never Let Me Go Page 15