“You don’t want to tell me about your pet rabbit?” He asked, fingers lightly massaging her shoulder.
“No pets.” She stared into his eyes, ever surprised by the sense of connection she found there. It made her want to bind herself to him, to become a part of him with a fierce intensity that shocked her.
“What about pesky older brothers tying your pigtails to chair backs?” Nate’s hand snaked up beneath her hair to stroke the nape of Tash’s neck.
“None of those either,” she replied. “Brothers I mean, or sisters. I’m a sibling free zone in fact.”
It was sort of true.
I never should’ve had that third cocktail.
But without it she might not have found the courage to do this. This was not your average hook up.
“What were you like as a school girl?” Nate asked in a low tone. “Were you a good girl Tash?”
Tash grinned. “No, I was a very, very bad girl.”
Nate raised an eyebrow, lips twitching into a sexy smile. “I can imagine.”
“Then you have a filthy mind Mr Campbell,” Tash whispered, leaning closer into him, her body on fire where it met his, every muscle coiled tight with anticipation. “And how about you? What were you like at school?”
She crossed her legs towards him so her hemline rose even higher, he could see the beginnings of the lacy band of her hold-ups if he looked carefully. With a surge of triumph she saw he was looking very carefully indeed.
This feels better than any cocktail, better than a hundred cocktails put together.
“Oh I was very, very bad too.” Nate’s fingers caressed her neck, tracing tiny circles on her skin, a promise of what he might do to other parts of her body. “I was always mucking about, playing the class joker. Hanging out with the very, very bad girls behind the bicycle sheds.”
“Oh?” Tash’s breath caught at the top of her chest. “So what exactly did you do with them, behind those bike sheds?”
“I liked to tease them. I was very good at it. Would you like me to give you a demonstration?” Nate’s other hand found its way onto her knee without her noticing.
Tash felt like she couldn’t breathe at all. “That…would be…fun.”
It was finally out there, the unspoken assumptions forcing themselves out into the open.
So we do have something in common after all. We’re both rebels.
Despite Nate’s suit and respectable outward appearance there still lay the rebellious instincts she knew only too well.
“Shall we get a room?” he asked.
Chapter 4
Nate massaged a knot in Tash’s shoulders and she thought she might melt into a pool of lust right there on the floor.
She desperately wanted those fingers on her breasts and down between her legs. Like right now. Just the thought of it almost made her come.
“What, here at the W?” Tash gasped as he continued to stroke her neck and casually left his other hand resting proprietorially on her knee.
“Yes, unless you want everyone at Chalet Repos to know what we’re up to and…” he lowered his mouth to her ear and dropped his tone to a whisper, “If you want them to hear you scream. I believe the rooms are better soundproofed here and I do intend to make you scream when you come.”
She shuddered involuntarily, chest heaving and nipples tightening into hard buds as she jerked beneath his fingers, so turned on she wouldn’t have stopped him if he’d fucked her right here in the bar in front of everyone.
“You’re a bad man Nathaniel Campbell,” she said, her voice a little breathless.
“Is that a ‘yes’ then?” he asked.
She took a deep breath and nodded.
“I’ll go and sort it out.” Nate disengaged himself and walked towards reception.
Tash, stunned, let her gaze travel over the rest of the bar clientele. Some of the uber-groomed women stared at her with undisguised jealousy, looking scornfully at her home dyed hair and borrowed high street dress in a ‘what’s so special about you?’ way.
For once Tash actually had something in common with them in that she hadn’t the foggiest. What had Nate seen in her?
Probably just thinks you’re a tart, an easy source of sex.
The cruel thought taunted her, denting her newly growing confidence.
I don’t care.
And when Nate beckoned her over, smiling, there wasn’t any room in her head for anything except the one thought.
He wants me. He wants me. He wants me.
How she made it across the room without tripping and providing the onlookers with a floorshow she didn’t know. Yet it seemed as though she were transported on air, every muscle taut with desire and aching with anticipation.
After they’d been shown to their room, the hotel staff member drifted tactfully away, not once commenting on the absence of luggage or giving any indication that he considered their reservation unusual. The room was called a ‘Spectacular Room’ and it lived up to its claim to embody sleek mountain chic. The combination of pine, grey slate, red leather and cowhide chairs worked well. The lights were tiny glass globes hanging down from the ceiling like a modern art installation.
Tash was just worried she might break something. She didn’t like to think how much the room cost.
“What did you tell them?”
“That I needed the room for an hour because I’d met a sexy high-class call girl.” Nate quipped.
Tash stared at him, rooted to the floor.
Nate laughed. “Muppet. As if. I told them it was a last minute decision, we’d been so impressed by the hotel we wanted to spend longer here.”
“And they believed you?”
“Who cares?” Nate shrugged. “It’s no one else’s damn business. Now are we going to waste time with silly conversation or…”
“I think we’ll go with ‘or,’” Tash replied dryly. “God forbid we waste the precious time of the great Nathaniel Campbell.”
For a second Nate stared hard at her. She held her breath. Then he barked with laughter and sat on the edge of the bed. “Come over here and say that,” he dared her.
Tash reached round her back to unzip her dress first. It was a move she’d made many times before but this time her fingers trembled a little.
I can’t let him see I’m intimidated. I have to try to take the lead. I must stay in control.
She stepped out of the pile of black viscose pooling around her feet and walked forward, glad to see from Nate’s expression that she had his attention. Sexy underwear never failed. She was about to unhook her bra when he raised a hand.
“Stop,” he said quietly. “I want to do that.”
A little put out he’d interrupted her routine she crossed the last bit of rug separating her from Nate, less sure of herself now.
He parted his legs to make space for her and tugged her hard towards him. His strong thighs gripped her legs and the hand pressing against the base of her spine held her firmly against him. Then Nate lowered his lips to her stomach and kissed her. Desire jerked a response, pulsing between her legs. She wanted to wriggle free, to regain control but he wouldn’t let her.
Then he spun her around and planted slow, hungry kisses against her spine, his hands reaching up to cup her lace-covered breasts. She moaned, feeling like jelly in his hands. Jelly that was slowly dissolving.
He tweaked one of her nipples and a corresponding dart of pleasure shot between her legs.
“Are you wet for me, Tash?” He whispered against her skin. “Shall we find out?”
She shuddered again as he trailed his hands up between her legs, tracing the lacy edge of her knickers, teasing her through the fabric. Tash could barely breathe; she wasn’t sure she’d still be standing if it weren’t for his thighs pressed against her, holding her up. With a quick tug he pulled her knickers down her legs and his fingers plunged inside her, teasing and stroking at the wetness he found there.
When he withdrew his hand she parted her legs, arching her bottom b
ack towards him, aching to feel his touch again. She didn’t seem able to remember any of her normal moves, it felt impossible to regain control. He didn’t touch her but she felt his hot breath like a shiver against her spine.
After what felt like an eternity he deftly unhooked her bra and it fell to the ground.
“Turn around,” Nate ordered, his voice less in control than before as he released the grip of his thighs.
She turned, naked except for her heels and hold-up stockings. He’d removed his expensive shirt to reveal the perfect torso she’d been thinking about ever since she’d shown him to his room at Chalet Repos.
Eager to regain control she reached out to stroke his chest, oh so accidentally nudging her leg up against the huge erection now evident in his designer jeans.
He groaned as she sank to her knees, her fingers fumbling with his button fly. He helped her and soon he was naked too.
Only then did he kiss her, pulling her down so they lay in a tangle of limbs, her nipples pressing into his bare chest. Her fingers clutched at his back, pulling him against her as they kissed, tongue on tongue.
After a minute he pulled back, breathing hard. “Lie still.”
The tone of his voice brooked no argument so Tash obeyed and lay, naked and panting on the now tangled white cotton sheets.
“Spread your legs,” he commanded in a low voice.
She parted them for him but he grasped her ankles and yanked them further apart, stretching her wide open in front of him.
Her sex throbbed, desperate for his fingers, his mouth, his cock…
“Please…” she whispered.
He stared, exhaling hard before climbing on the bed between her outstretched bare legs. He placed one hand on each of her thighs and then slowly lowered his head between her legs. The anticipation felt almost unbearable in its intensity.
She groaned when he lowered his mouth to her. As soon as his tongue licked her clit she jerked hard against his mouth, her hands weaving into his hair. As he kissed and teased her she felt like she was falling. She was so turned on, so tightly wound with anticipation that the waves of orgasm came almost immediately. She moved beneath his lips as he teased her relentlessly, drawing her orgasm out, pushing her further when she thought she couldn’t take anymore, sending her spiralling out of control.
Once she could breathe again she rolled over, the soles of her feet still tingling. She wanted to repay him. Her breasts grazed his chest as she crawled on all fours, all the way down to his erection. She took him in her mouth and looked up at him. His eyes darkened and he let out a deep moan as he stiffened even more between her lips. She used her tongue to tease the tip of his erection, unusually she was almost as turned on as he was by the movement. She began to hum and was gratified when he groaned and swore.
Tash was good at this, she’d had a lot of practice but, and not that she’d ever admit it, she’d never really enjoyed giving oral. It was just something you had to do, a secret weapon to get men to like you, to be grateful. Sex had been a means to an end, a source of affection, a comfort or sometimes the only way to ensure a roof over her head.
A fair exchange. She was honest about it and didn’t bother dressing it up in the way other people did. They were kidding themselves. Sex was always about an exchange of some kind.
It had never bothered her exactly but this…this felt different. Erotic, yes but also powerful and deep. Even, dare she think it, spiritual.
With Nate’s rock-hard erection in her mouth she felt more turned on than she ever had in her life. She was wet between her legs again, slick with desire to have him deep, deep inside her. She wanted to withdraw now and straddle him. He was clearly close to coming though, so she made the unselfish choice; she would let him orgasm and then wait for him to recover.
One practiced flick of her tongue had him stiffening. She pulled back and rubbed his erection over her breasts, watching as he came hard on her flesh.
“Oh God…Tash,” he groaned, half growled her name.
She crawled up his chest to lie on top of him, skin against skin. He was tall enough that her head fitted perfectly under his chin. She turned her head sideways, his heartbeat pulsed quickly under her ear. The sound, combined with the warm solid body beneath her felt comforting and she exhaled.
“That was just for starters,” she whispered, tilting her face to look up at him.
“I’m looking forward to the main course. Is there a set menu?” He asked, wrapping his arms around her. “Or can we choose à la carte? What turns you on Tash?”
Tash considered. It wasn’t something she spent much time thinking about. Usually she did her thing with the guy she’d gone home with and they were grateful, end of. She moved on before anyone could get more attached. Except that felt a little…shabby now. Utterly unsatisfying. The ‘scratching an itch’ analogy was now stretched so taut it was at snapping point.
How had she not known desire could be like this? So powerful it could consume you and make the rest of the world fade away to an irrelevance.
“I don’t know.” she muttered.
You do Nate. You turn me on.
She’d die before she admitted him taking control had been beyond sexy. But it had. Why else would she have come practically the second his tongue slipped between her legs?
She shifted her weight, wondering he had condoms with him, when he sat up and grabbed her wrist, staring and frowning.
“What’s this?” Nate’s voice was hard. He seemed angry.
Tash froze as she registered what he was staring at. Ice trickled down her spine, quashing the desire, dampening it. She stared down at his chest.
“Just a few scars,” she mumbled, trying to yank her arm free.
“No it’s not.” He twisted her arm round into the light. “More than a few. You’re a cutter. Or at least you used to be.”
Tash stared at him, horrified, ashamed…Frozen in place she couldn’t move, couldn’t speak.
But no one ever notices. No one.
She’d worn long sleeves throughout her teens, even covering up in summer. But when the scars had faded and none of her hook ups seemed to notice when she was naked she’d stopped bothering. No one ever commented and she’d been sure nobody would notice unless they were really looking.
She inhaled sharply and tried to pull away but he wouldn’t let her. She felt achingly naked, her emotions just as horribly exposed as her body, both stripped naked in front of him.
She blinked hard.
I will not cry.
“So, I used to self-harm when I was younger. So what?” She spoke between tightly clenched teeth, not meeting his eyes but instead staring down at his chest. “I don’t do it anymore. End of.”
What was the point of denying it? He’d noticed the scars.
He noticed.
She shrugged but hot tears still burned in her eyes, threatening to fall.
Don’t you dare cry.
“Tell me why,” he said, holding her firmly, refusing to let her run away from him as though he knew that was what she’d do given the chance.
“No,” Tash replied stubbornly, biting the inside of her lip. “Why does it bother you? I thought your philosophy was about leaving the past behind you and moving on? You’re even writing a bloody book about it.”
“Oh, so you’ve googled me have you?” Nate raised an eyebrow. “That means you know all about me, every bit of gossip and trivia, not to mention the working class background the media so love to harp on about. It also makes things a bit one-sided, doesn’t it? Why don’t you give me the google version of…Natasha, before she became Tash. What would that say?”
Tash sighed and stopped struggling. What was the point? Resisting Nate in any way felt futile. Plus she had a feeling a man like Nate could find out pretty much anything he wanted to. She needed to give him just enough so he didn’t feel the need to go digging. She stared into his eyes, encouraged by the understanding she found there. There was no judgement, none that she could see anyw
ay.
“It would say…Natasha was born to two parents, one of whom didn’t want her and the other couldn’t cope. So she was shunted off into a series of foster homes, fourteen in total.” Tash kept her tone bland, trying to summon as much detachment from the words as she could, as though they weren’t about her at all but about another girl. In a way it really felt like they were. That girl didn’t exist anymore and she felt nothing for her. “Natasha wasn’t cute enough or pretty enough or most importantly young enough to get picked for adoption so she learnt early on the only person she could rely on was herself.”
Her jaw muscles were so tight they ached. She stared at Nate pleadingly. There was more. They both knew there was more to the story but right now Tash couldn’t talk about it. Not even if she’d wanted to. The emotions were so powerful they rose up like a clenched fist, constricting her throat and choking her.
She saw herself through Nate’s eyes then. Saw his appraisal of her ‘notice me’ pink-striped hair, her exaggerated ‘look at me’ eye make-up…and she wanted to crawl under a rock and never come out again.
He’d stripped her bare and, not content with that, he’d ripped her apart.
“Well, you’ve had your sob story, can I go now?” She glowered at him, her anger turning to numb detachment.
I won’t talk about the cutting. I can’t. No good can come of dredging up the past.
How could anyone who hadn’t actually been through it understand? Would Nate understand a pain and anger so terrible they could only be appeased by physical pain and blood? Would he understand how you had to turn the anger inwards after it became obvious turning it against the world got you sod all except a reputation as a problem child?
And it helped. You felt better afterwards. Tash remembered that now as her teeth clenched so tightly she could hear her pulse beating hard in her ear. Buried memories fought hard to resurface, assaulting her senses. She could even smell the metallic tang of blood.
She squeezed her eyes tight shut, blinking away the memories, her free hand clutching a handful of cotton sheet.
Nate kept hold of her other wrist and leaned further towards her, still refusing to let her go.
Rebellion of a Chalet Girl: (A Novella) (Ski Season, Book 5) Page 5