by Lulu Pratt
My words had the desired effect, and I saw his shoulders untense as he allowed himself to laugh. “You keep on surprising me.”
“I know, and it’s not in my contract, so I guess you’ll have to start paying me more for that,” I smiled.
“Speaking of surprises, I am really sorry you had to sit through that. It must have been awful for you,” he winced.
“Not as awful as it was for you,” I said.
“I shouldn’t have said anything. I didn’t intend to…” he shrugged regretfully.
“It was a super exit, if that’s any comfort,” I said, hoping he would smile.
“Well, that’s something,” he smiled, and we entered the elevator.
“It’s been a long day,” I said, pressing the button for our floor. “Maybe try to get some rest?”
He nodded, then asked, “Was I a total dick just now?”
“No!” I said. “I think you were pretty controlled under the circumstances.”
“Really?”
“Really,” I nodded, and we stepped out of the elevator. “If anything, your dad was kind of a dick. Sorry.”
“Oh man, I wish he could hear you say that!” he laughed, then added, “He isn’t really, you know…” but he kept laughing.
I was glad to see him laugh properly, and as we approached my room door, he gave me a spontaneous hug, saying, “I’m glad you were there, but I’m sorry it was such a fucking awful night!”
“I’ve had better,” I said into his chest as he hugged me.
He pulled away and held me at arms’ length, giving me a look of mock outrage. “Better hugs?”
“Better nights!” I corrected, laughing.
“Ah, it’s just,” he paused, biting his lip, and looking down for a second, “I can do better hugs…”
“I know you can,” I replied, meeting his eye. I couldn’t help myself. It wasn’t that I couldn’t fight the inevitable; I just didn’t want to fight it anymore.
He stepped forward and put his arms around me again, holding me tighter this time, his arms wrapped around me. “See?”
I exhaled. “That’s a little better…”
He laughed. “A little!” He held me even tighter, pulling me even closer to him. I closed my eyes and breathed in his cologne. I could already feel myself relaxing in his arms and getting aroused.
We stood there, neither of us wanting to break it off, but neither wanting to be the one to make the decision to open my room door and go inside. It was him who broke away from me in the end, stepping away almost violently.
“Effie, you should know I have a rule never to get involved with employees, and I am really struggling right now,” his voice was husky.
I thought for a moment and then said, “I’m going to go into my room now, and I will see you tomorrow,” smiling at him to show there were no hard feelings, even though everything inside me was screaming to just take him with me.
He stepped forward, raised my face to his and kissed me softly. “I’m so sorry.”
His lips were soft, and his rough hands were pressed into my clothes. My body instantly reacted, and the flush of desire made me want him more than I’d ever wanted another man, but Keegan was my boss.
I broke the kiss and stepped into my room and leaned against the door. So close. But this was better, right? I did not need to complicate things further by ending up in bed with him, and I knew that was where this was going if we didn’t stop it now. I was grateful to him for being a sensible adult and stepping away. I respected him for it. Anyway, I told myself, I was fairly sure that I would have stepped away. Wouldn’t I? I stayed there, leaning against the door wondering whether I would have had the strength to step away if he hadn’t.
I wanted him. I needed him as my hand went to the door handle to open it to go to Keegan, I heard him outside the door, and then a knock. I opened it, and Keegan was holding out his phone to me.
“Hello?” I said into the phone, searching Keegan’s face for an explanation, but it was blank.
“Effie? Hey, listen, Mick here. I want to offer you a job working for me at Clover House. However, you’d still be based in the Boston office, same package, same job description, but, erm, I’d be your boss instead of Keegan…” he lowered his voice. “I don’t know what’s going on, does this make sense to you?”
“Yes thanks, Mick,” I said, my eyes firmly on Keegan, who was smiling a wicked smile. “I would be very, very happy to accept.”
I hung up just as Keegan stepped through the door, slamming it behind him and stepping towards me, commanding me. “Come here.”
“I don’t have to do what you say, I’m not your employee,” I said boldly, stepping backwards.
“Exactly,” he growled, taking my head in both hands as he kissed me, and pushing me backwards onto the bed.
I fell onto the huge hotel bed and pulled him onto me. He kissed me until I could barely breathe, and I wrapped my arms around him, meeting his urgency by biting his lower lip while I gasped for breath. He had pulled the straps of my dress down so that he could kiss my shoulders, and I fumbled with the buttons of his shirt until he tore it off and threw it away. His chest was smooth and slightly tanned. I sat up so I could run my hands over it, kissing his shoulders as he had kissed mine. Reaching around, he undid the zipper of the dress, and it slipped easily down and pooled around my waist where I sat. He made a small groaning sound as he realized I hadn’t been wearing a bra, and my breasts were now revealed to him. He sat a foot away from me, looking at me in the warm lamp light until I smiled shyly at him and crossed my arms, hugging myself for a little modesty.
“You,” he said, standing up, “are completely beautiful.”
He stood up and stepped out of his pants so that he was naked in front of me. I allowed myself a long look at his toned form, from his muscular arms that I admired so often in his crisp tailored shirts, to his flat stomach. He was already quite hard, and I tried not to stare. He stepped towards me and reached to my hair, undoing it easily and running his hands through it. His hips were level with me where I sat, and as he played with my hair, freeing long curly strands so that it tumbled all down my back and over my shoulders. I impulsively turned my head and took him in my mouth. It felt good to surprise him, his hands tangled in my hair as he stood frozen in pleasure for a moment, and then he stopped me and pulled me up to stand with him. The black dress hit the floor, and his hands ran across the lace trim of my underwear as he kissed me again and then spoke in a husky voice.
“Are you sure you want this?” he asked. I saw a flicker of uncertainty in his eyes.
“Yes,” I answered, and I meant it. I had never wanted anyone more than I wanted him. I had never known good sex. I had never known how it felt to want someone like this. To feel a primitive connection with a person and to feel my body take over. I could feel the slick wetness already between my legs, the tingling of my skin, the sensitive erectness of my nipples. So yes, every bit of me wanted this. I felt strangely empowered, I could see that my body had an incredible effect on him. It was palpable how much he wanted me, but also how much he wanted this to be right. He could have lifted my dress and fucked me as soon as he stepped into the room. But he wanted what I wanted; he wanted this to last. He stepped back to watch as I slowly removed my panties and lay down on the bed.
“Are you sure?” I asked, smiling as he looked down at his now fully erect cock and then back at me.
He crawled up the bed towards me, stopping to place rough, urgent kisses on my body as he made his way upwards. My ankle, my calf, my knee, my inner thigh. I felt him breathe in my scent as he made his way up my thighs, and I felt a sudden surge of panic as well as my rising desire. I had never had anyone go down on me. Jason had been too selfish, and I hadn’t come close to that level of intimacy with anyone else. I placed my hand on his head to try to guide him upwards to me, but his hands were sliding up my legs and his mouth was just inches away from me. I opened my mouth to tell him not to just as his tongue dipped
into my sex, parting the lips of my pussy. He groaned in pleasure and his lips gently closed around my clitoris, sending a pulse of vibrations through me that made me open my legs to him willingly. I didn’t care anymore. I just wanted this, his mouth on me, licking me, sucking me, eating me. In fact, it was all I could do not to wrap my legs around his head to trap him there.
I moaned, a noise I have never heard myself make before. I sounded half-wild, and he pushed deeper into me, finding my opening, and flicking his tongue inside me before moving back to my clit. I felt a building of tension inside me, and it took me a minute to realize what it was. I was going to come. Something I had only ever done alone, and never with this intensity. I fought it, and I was relieved as he moved away from my wet center as though he knew I was close to the edge, and he wasn’t ready to push me over just yet. He began to move upwards again, leaving wet kisses along my stomach. I was arching my back in pleasure as his chest drew level to mine. As he reached my mouth and I tasted the sweet, earthy taste of my own sex from his probing tongue, I felt the tip of his cock brush against the still-parted lips of my pussy. As we kissed more and more passionately, I could feel him right against my opening. He paused, raising his head to look me in the eye, but it was more than I could bear, and I moaned at the torture of being made to wait. I needed him inside me now and he knew it.
He reached out to his pants and pulled out a condom wrapper. He raised himself to his knees, and I watched intently as he rolled the condom on. I bit my lip as I watched, wondering for a moment if he would fit inside me.
He groaned as he pushed into me, and despite how silky wet I was, I gasped at the thickness of him, at how he stretched me so deliciously. I cried out at how intensely I was throbbing as I gripped him inside me. For a moment he was still, his head bowed over me, and I raised my hips and pushed upwards to him, begging for more. It was too much; I felt his urgency, and he thrust hard into me, faster and faster, his head bowed over me as he kissed me frantically. I wrapped my legs around him, pulling him deeper into me as he pounded me.
It took just seconds of this before I felt myself completely let go, and I felt wave after wave of intense throbbing pleasure flow through me. I had never experienced anything like it, and I cried out loudly as I came. I let my legs fall, and he didn’t stop, raising himself higher above me so that he was grinding his hips into mine, hitting me from a new angle and pushing me towards the edge again. This was like nothing I had ever known, and as I finally felt the muscles in his back tense up as he came hard inside me, I felt myself squeeze him, milking him as ripple after ripple of exquisite pleasure pulsed through my body. He was heavy on top of me, his eyes closed and his arms trembling as he turned to the side and wrapped his arms around me. Neither of us said a word, and he was holding me as I drifted off to sleep.
Chapter 32
KEEGAN
I WOKE UP with the early morning light streaming through the window, and realized vaguely that I must have left the blinds open last night. I had slept better than I had in months, perhaps years. I felt refreshed and eager to see what today would bring. I was hot and tangled up, and as I stretched out, I felt soft warm legs entangled in mine, and the night came flooding back to me. And yet I wasn’t seized by regret like I had been many times in the past when I had woken up in similar circumstances. Instead, I felt content, and for once I didn’t get out of bed before I could overthink things. I rolled closer to her, and she sleepily stretched her naked body against me.
It was seven. We had the day free, and I felt an unexpected sense of adventure. It was like I had stepped into someone else’s life, an uncomplicated, pleasant life. Effie had turned over, and her perfect round butt was resting on my bent legs like she was sitting on my knee. I was rock hard and trying to avoid waking her with my dick unexpectedly against her ass. She wriggled against me again, and I froze. I knew she could wake up regretting what had happened, and I had seen her flick the switch from hot to cold before. I wanted to enjoy this moment for as long as possible. She wiggled again, tilting her body so that my erection slipped between her legs. I inhaled sharply and heard her stifle a laugh.
“Good morning,” she yawned and smiled.
A flood of happiness filled me. She didn’t regret what happened. “Good morning,” I said, reaching around her from behind as she turned to face me.
“Did you bring two condoms?” she asked with a smile.
I nodded and quickly produced it for her.
She threw her leg over my body, and in one swift movement was on top of me, stretching her arms upwards as she eased herself onto me, closing her eyes in pleasure. The vision of her sitting above me, arms outstretched, still yawning, with that incredible red-gold hair flowing in all directions and the sun behind her, made me catch my breath. I still couldn’t believe how she felt around me, and I already felt like I was going to explode. She gently rode up and down on me, keeping her eyes closed so I could watch how she was using me for her own pleasure. It was incredibly erotic, and I realized that despite how good it felt to make love to her, it was as though she was experiencing it all for the first time and simply experimenting with the sensations. I managed to hold off until she began to climax on me, and then I let go, joining her in the pleasure, watching her all the while until she allowed herself to collapse on top of me, breathing hard.
After holding her and kissing the top of her head several times, I slipped out of bed as she showered, and went half-dressed next door to my own room where I showered and dressed. We met downstairs for breakfast, smiling awkwardly at one another, and occasionally laughing for no reason. She was entirely adorable, and it was all I could do to stop myself taking her back upstairs. But I had a promise to keep. I had said I would show her around the city, and that was what I intended to do. Anyway, she had got a map from the front desk, and was poring over it trying to work out where we should go first.
We set off on foot and explored the center of the city. I pointed out the main tourist attractions, and she asked me lots of questions about the history of the place that I hadn’t really thought about since I had been at school. Mid-morning, we sat down on a bench in St. Stephen’s Green to have a coffee and watch the ducks squabbling over some bread.
“Will you show me your city?” she asked, slightly shyly.
“I am!” I laughed. “After this, we can take an open top bus tour if you like. That will give you the answers to your questions better than I can.”
“No, I mean, your city. Dublin as you see it,” she said.
“Which one? The rugby-playing, private school, fast cars side? Or the seedy side?”
“Both,” she shrugged. “I want to see it like you do.”
“Okay,” I nodded reluctantly. Somehow this seemed more intimate than anything that had happened that morning or the previous night, and I felt a little daunted. I got up and took her hand, and we took a taxi to the neighborhood I had grown up in. I directed the driver where to go and pointed out my parents’ old house, a Georgian square set around a perfect patch of green grass and trees. We had lived here before they had moved out to the suburbs.
“I can’t imagine what it must have been like to grow up here,” she smiled.
“I hated it. Too many snooty neighbors. Every chance I got I was off to my grandparents’ place. They had a farm out in the countryside – remember those mountains you saw? Wicklow. They had a horse farm there. I would ditch school and head down there on the train. My ma and da would come and drag me back again,” I laughed at the memory.
Next, my old school, set within acres of parkland, at the top of a tree-lined avenue. I got the driver to let us out by the gates.
“It’s incredible,” Effie breathed. “Like something out of a movie.”
“A horror film, maybe,” I laughed.
“Yeah, let’s face it,” she said. “Some people say that high school is the best time in your life. It’s a lie. I think now is the best time, or pretty damn close.”
Next, we took a bus,
and I showed her where I had lived with Kevin and Mick. Half of the high-rise flats here had been abandoned, and they had started to demolish them to make way for new buildings. I was glad to see they were going to be pulled down; they were no place for people to live good lives. Still, the area was fairly grim, and I didn’t want to hang around long. We walked past the pubs I had played in, the betting shops we had sheltered in, the houses I knew to avoid because they were really brothels, and the alleyways where god-knows-what had gone on. It was strange to be seeing it from her perspective, and easier for me than if I had made the journey by myself. She held my hand as we went, and I found myself remembering good times as well as bad, funny things that had happened, memories of when it had all been a big adventure, before it all went so wrong.
“I had forgotten some of that,” I said, after laughing about some friend who used to visit us. “I don’t know how I could have forgotten it, but I had.”
“You probably blocked it out,” she said. “It feels wrong to remember good times when you are trying to process something awful.”
She was right. I had been looking back at this part of my life as though it was all bad. I was seeing everything in black and white. And now I could see that it wasn’t so simple, and it made me feel better about how I had occasionally hankered after this life that I had left, and resented the privilege that I had in my life in Boston.
“It was shit most of the time, but we had each other’s back, you know? We just laughed. All the time,” I smiled at the memory and felt something heavy lift off me.
“Do you have that back home? I mean, in Boston?”
“No,” I said. “Well, you work with me – do I seem like the kind of guy who laughs a lot back in Boston?”