by Dale, Lindy
‘I couldn’t do that, I’m too busy sleeping with the staff,’ he grinned smugly, and smacked her behind. ‘Now get your pretty butt back to class before Miriam starts questioning the length of time you’ve spent alone in my office.’
Flora rubbed her bottom in mock horror. ‘That was not professional, Mr McDermott,’ she teased, heading for the door.
‘You make me feel anything other than professional,’ he chuckled and tripped over a stack of books near the wall. ‘Same time tonight?’
Flora couldn’t believe her luck. Nobody could say her life was boring now. ‘I have to do my reports tonight.’
Luke smiled, ‘I’ll cook dinner then, at your place. And after you finish your work….’
‘Will we eat it this time?’
‘I live in hope…’
****
The tiny house was filled with the most delicious but odd aroma. Curry and chocolate. Flora lifted her head from the screen of her laptop, the scent making her curiously hungry.
‘What are you cooking?’ she called to Luke, who was pottering in her tiny kitchen chopping, stirring and whistling happily to himself. He had arrived an hour previously, arms laden with shopping bags, barking instructions at her to keep on working while he prepared a gourmet feast.
‘Curry.’
‘I smell chocolate.’ She sniffed again. Yes that was definitely chocolate.
‘That would be the dessert,’ Luke called back. ‘Fondue.’
Now, where on earth had Luke found a fondue pot? Flora had no such thing in her tiny kitchen. Even more curious she saved her work and snapped the lid of the computer shut. Then she headed for the kitchen.
‘I thought I told you I’d call you when it was ready,’ Luke smiled, as she walked in, perching herself on the bench next to the stove. He leaned across the pots and placed a kiss upon her forehead. ‘You’re supposed to be working.’
‘I’m finished, Boss,’ she saluted him. ‘Well, all except for Brooke’s General Comment and I can do that later. It’s only a five-minute job. I know what I want to say.’
Reaching over, she dipped her finger into the fondue scooping the chocolaty liquid up and into her mouth. Slowly, she sucked the mixture from her finger and licked her lips. Luke was still, spatula in hand, taking in every movement.
‘It’s rather nice,’ she whispered, an idea forming in her mind.
His eyes roamed over her body, stopping at her breasts. ‘You can say that again.’
‘It’s rather nice.’
Feeling naughty, Flora dipped her finger again and traced it with gentle precision over Luke’s mouth. Then, before he could lick it away, she removed her finger putting her lips in the spot, kissing him. Her lips sucked at his, her tongue darted in and out of his mouth and her sticky fingers swam through his hair. ‘Forget dinner. Let’s have dessert now.’
Luke sparked. He hoped this was going where he thought it was. Flora wasn’t usually one to initiate.
Eyes locked on her, he stared, as carelessly, Flora pulled her t-shirt over her head and threw it across the room to land on the sofa, revealing the creamy skin of her breasts spilling from the top of her cotton bra. Her fingers flicked at the buttons of her jeans and she removed them, tossing them aside too until she sat before him, in her matching underwear, white as snow and looking twice as pure. Taking a finger to her long ash coloured hair, she pulled the band out and shook it free. She could see the swift rise and fall of Luke’s chest, the bulge that was growing in his pants. She knew that he wanted her.
Astounded by her sudden provocative show, Luke stood still, his only movement to turn off the gas burners on the stove. It wouldn’t do for the house to be burning while they were making love.
Flora stared at him. ‘Pass me the spoon.’
He did as he was told and watched, his excitement mounting as she poured spoon after spoon of hot chocolate sauce down her cleavage. His eyes followed the silky trail as it made it’s way down her belly and towards her knickers. Lips parted, she looked at him, his fingers twitching to get at her, his eyes glazed with longing. She took the spoon again and poured more of the chocolate across her belly, rubbing it towards her pubis. Then with a final flourish, she licked the spoon and placed it on the bench beside her.
‘Dinner is served,’ she said. ‘Now, eat me.’
****
The next morning there was another note. And this time, it was one she couldn’t ignore.
Carefully laid on the doorstep, on top of a pair of her missing knickers from which the crutch had been cut out, its words were chilling.
Stay away from him. You belong to me.
Someone was watching her. She had to tell the Police.
Chapter 21
‘Why didn’t you answer your phone last night? I rang four times,’ Louise quizzed, as they sat at lunch the next day. It was the first time they had managed a lunch together in two weeks. Most of Flora’s lunchtimes had been engaged – either with planning for the next day so she could get away early or hiding in the nooks and crannies of the school with Luke. It was amazing how many cupboards and storerooms there were that she had never seen before.
Preferring to say nothing more about her ‘admirer’ to her friends, in case Luke found out, she had spent a good deal of the previous afternoon at the Wembley Police Station. She had shown them the notes, told them about the underwear and all the other things but as she suspected, there was little they could do unless the man or woman actually made some face-to-face contact or tried to harm her. She had done all she could; now she wanted to forget the whole thing. After all, she only had limited time left with Luke. He was her priority right now.
‘So? Why didn’t you answer?’ Louise asked again.
Flora was evasive. ‘I turned the phone off. I had reports to finish.’
Louise looked at her. She could smell the rat. ‘But yesterday was Wednesday. Isn’t that your night to watch Project Runway?’
Everyone who knew anything knew that Flora, despite being so sensible in so many areas of her life, was addicted to cheesy reality TV shows and American teen dramas. In Louise’s mind, it was one of her only flaws. Nobody in their right mind would watch such drivel, but then nobody in their right mind would rack up thirty grand’s worth of credit card debt either, so who was she to judge.
Flora shrank into her mug of herbal tea. She had known this would happen sooner or later. Yet the secrecy and subterfuge were one of the things she was finding the most irresistible about her affair with Luke. She wasn’t about to let a few questions stop her. ‘I set the recorder,’ she mumbled. She hated lying to her friend but the words simply fell from her mouth. She had had an early night of sorts, she justified. She had been discovering the joys of chocolate with Luke. Not to mention the new uses for household items they had found.
‘But you never miss it,’ Louise was incredulous.
‘Well, I did this time.’
‘You look very tired, are you shagging someone on the side?’ PJ said.
‘Only in her dreams….’ Louise giggled.
Flora knew Louise was convinced that a goody goody like her would never be doing something so naughty as having sex without telling her. Louise assumed that everyone told her everything and in the past that had been true. But in the past Flora had had nothing to hide and nothing worthy of sharing either.
If only I could tell her it wasn’t in my dreams, thought Flora, blushing at the memory. It was in the bed, on the floor, on top of the kitchen bench and last night….. oh my God …. in the swimming pool. That had been a new experience.
Shaking her head, she dismissed the idea. ‘Not that I know of, Peej….,but you’ll be the first to know if there’s any change,’ she replied, standing and pushing in her chair.
At the opposite end of the table, Luke was hiding a smirk behind his own cup. He raised an eyebrow as she walked past and gave her a furtive wink. Clearly, the memory was still fresh in his mind too.
‘She is, you know,’ PJ whis
pered, as Flora floated toward the door. ‘That girl is shagging her brains out, it’s written all over her little pixie face.’
****
An hour later, Flora met Luke in the costume cupboard under the stairs. She had gone there on the pretext of sourcing items for the Christmas concert and was rifling through a box of halos and elf caps when she heard the movement behind her. He had followed with the intent of a mid-day grope or at least a quick pash.
‘Don’t close it,’ she twittered, as he pulled the door behind him. ‘Anyone could see us.’
‘That’s why I closed the door,’ he grinned.
‘That’s why you should leave it open. It looks inappropriate with it closed.’
‘But how can I kiss you if the door’s open?’
Flora straightened, exasperated. ‘I have a mountain of stuff to organise. I didn’t come here to kiss, Luke,’ she said, slipping his hand from where it had begun creeping along the curve of her butt.
‘I did.’
Flora put down the halo in her hand. She stared him in the eye, ‘Anyway, now that you’ve followed me here, I think we should discuss the situation.’
‘What situation?’
‘Didn’t you hear them at lunch? They all know.’
Luke pushed her against a clump of angel gowns and pressed his body to hers. His eyes travelled over the curves of her body and she could see what he was thinking. She could, so, see it and she had no intention of delivering. A cloud of five year old dust wafted around her face and she tried to wave it away. How was she supposed to make sense of it all when he was looking at her that? He was impossible.
‘I don’t care. I want everyone to know,’ he grumbled, his hands reaching her breasts and caressing them. His lips played against hers, swelling them with desire.
‘You do care. If Miriam finds out it will be both our heads. You can’t fraternise with the staff. It’s got to be against some unwritten law or other. I’m sure it’s in our contracts.’
His interest lost, Luke pulled away.
‘You’re right of course. I’m not behaving in a very professional manner at all, am I? But you have to admit, you’re not making it easy for me. How am I supposed to ignore you, if you come to work wearing dresses like that?’ He asked, indicating the floral georgette frock Flora was wearing. It showed a little more cleavage than she normally put out there but wasn’t that what breasts were for?
‘Surely you’re not distracted by a bit of bosom, Luke? That’s very immature,’ she teased.
‘Not as immature as you wearing it to lure me into this cupboard,’ he said, stepping back into the doorway and assuming a casual look.
Flora went back to her search. Luke stood for a moment, leaning against the doorjamb, watching her bottom as she bent into the mass of costumes. He was deep in thought. ‘Maybe we should create a diversion?’
Flora, confused, looked up from the box she had gone back to. ‘From what? My chest? I don’t think anyone except James has noticed it and he doesn’t count as a person, or so PJ keeps telling me.’
Luke grinned. ‘No, not for him. For your friends. We should throw out a decoy. Let them know you’re shagging someone, baffle them with details but not the right ones.’
Flora could see the merit in the idea. ‘Yes. We could do that. I think. But who would the decoy be? It’s not like I have a plethora of men friends I can snap to attention, you know.’
‘What about James?’
‘Year Six, James? Look-at-my-cleavage, James?’ Flora snorted a little. Surely, Luke wasn’t serious. James may have liked to butt in on conversations and stare at her bosom but he was so, well, weird, despite his cute looks.
‘Yeah. He thinks you’re hot.’
‘Don’t be ridiculous. He’s a baby.’
Luke stepped back into the cupboard. His arms curved around her. His lips bent to her ear. ‘He’s not that much younger than you and he would be perfect. So close to home, they would lose the real scent,’ he whispered and gave her lobe the slightest nip.
‘But I couldn’t do that….. it’s not nice. I couldn’t play with his affection like that.’ It was against everything she stood for. But then so was having an affair and she was doing that without a second thought.
‘You wouldn’t have to do anything….. just go out with him a couple of times…. smile …… then give him the old ‘I-don’t-think-this-is-going-to-work, it’s-not-you-it’s-me’ speech. That would take up at least the month until Christmas. By then the year will be over and it won’t matter anymore.’
Flora was quietly appalled, not because Luke was suggesting she deliberately lead someone one on to take the heat off, but that she was considering doing it. ‘I don’t know. I don’t think I can.’
‘Go on. Go out with him. Make his day. Talk about it to your friends.’ He kissed her cheek; he was very persuasive.
‘But how? I can’t simply go up to him and ask him out.’
‘I’ll get in his ear, convince him to ask you. I’ll tell him you’re hot for him.’
Flora giggled. ‘That’s dreadful. We can’t do that.’
‘I know. But it will work, I promise,’ he mumbled, pressing his lips on hers.
****
All that talk of sex had made Luke rampant by eight o’clock that evening. Flora, hot and sticky from her yoga class, hardly had time to knock before the door was flung open to reveal him standing there, naked she assumed, but for a Hell’s Kitchen chef’s apron, the prongs on the devil’s fork logo more than appropriately placed. His left hand held a jug of gravy and in his right was a glass of red wine.
‘You’re late,’ he said, grinning as her ushered her in, ‘luckily it’s roast, so it won’t be ruined. Let me put this down and I’ll be right with you.’ Then he took off down the hall, his naked butt leading the way.
Flora tittered as she followed along behind. She had never believed the ‘naked chef’ existed but that was Luke; always trying something new, ready to give her a new experience. Last week chocolate fondue, this week roast.
‘Do I have time for a shower before we eat?’ Flora asked, taking the glass he pointed to on the counter and having a sip. ‘The class was hard tonight and I feel quite sweaty.’ She rubbed her palm across her clammy chest. It was better, she decided, not to ask the reason as to why he was cooking naked. Sometimes the illusion was easier to handle than the reality.
Luke put his glass on the bench top. ‘Of course. Come through and I’ll show you where everything is.’
‘I had a word with James,’ he said as he led her through his bedroom and into the ensuite. Stopping, he opened a cupboard and grabbed two fresh towels. ‘His eyes lit up like floodlights when I mentioned in passing your ‘interest’ in him.’
Flora watched as he reached into the shower and turned it on. A surge of water jetted into the shower bay, quickly fogging up the room.
‘Do you think he’s going to act?’ It made her feel excited to know two men were interested in her.
‘He’ll be in your classroom, first thing in the morning, I’ll warrant.’
Peeling her singlet over her head, Flora turned away from Luke to unclip her bra. She wasn’t in the habit of showering in front of men. Her last boyfriend, Simon, had never seen her in the bathroom in the whole twelve months they had been together. Maybe that was why they had split up?
‘Thanks for turning the shower on,’ she murmured, over her shoulder. ‘I won’t be a minute and then we can eat.’
‘Like some help?’ Luke’s hand was on her breast, cupping it from behind and squeezing. His free hand pulled down her exercise tights and knickers and she stepped out of them, leaving them in a puddle on the floor. ‘I could wash those hard to reach bits for you.’ His voice was husky against her nape.
Flora spun to face him, pulling the apron over his head and dragging him into the shower with her. God, when he talked like that he was irresistible, even to a prudish girl like her.
‘Is that all you’ll wash?’ she murmured
, running her fingers through his wet hair and pushing it back from his face.
His lips bit down on hers. ‘Depends.’
Flora’s eyebrow arched in question. ‘On?’
The water rushed down her body, skating down between her breasts and over the mound of her crotch. Despite its tepid coolness, she was burning inside.
‘On how long you keep talking for.’
His hands, lathered with soap, roamed along her sides and around the curves of her butt, his lips found her nipple and sucked as she threw her head back and moaned. His fingers played in the space between her legs, teasing her. He knelt in the water and parted them, placing one leg above the other on the lip of the shower bay as his tongue buried itself inside her, thrusting and licking all around. Flora felt herself quiver as he replaced his tongue with his finger, still licking and sucking her.
‘Oh God, Luke, stop!’ she cried, not meaning a word. Luckily, he didn’t hear or if he had, he didn’t want to obey.
‘Stay still,’ he muttered, standing again and pressing his erection against her. ‘Put your head under the water.’
Flora lifted her chin. The water streamed down her neck and back and between the cracks where their bodies met. Luke’s hand was on her buttocks, holding her firm as he slid into her. She gasped. The water coursed over them as he thrust against her, caressing her breast, kissing her neck, nipping at her shoulder. It felt so good. Slowly, he increased the intensity, harder and harder he went, until Flora felt that she would explode from the exquisite pain. Deeper and deeper until she shuddered and fell back against him.
‘No,’ he cried, ‘not yet….’ and with a final push sent them both into oblivion.
Flor panted and clung to him. The water, cold from where she had slipped against the tap, ran down their bodies, cooling the fire they’d started. Goosebumps began to form on her arms and legs.
‘Oh Luke,’ she whispered and kissed him.
‘Hungry?’
‘You have no idea…’ she laughed and climbed out onto the bathmat.