His smile disintegrated her. His eyes captivated her. His touch burned her skin. She wanted more and more, and he gave her more and more.
Running his hand down her torso, he found the curling triangle between her thighs and caressed her there. The moisture slicked his fingers as he encouraged the dull buildup in her pelvis. She squirmed, didn’t know what to do with the sensations. He didn’t stop. A gentle finger touched her clit, making her moan louder.
“Henry,” she cried, her legs parting wider involuntarily.
“Do you like that?” he asked, still strumming at her.
“Mmm…”
He chuckled. “You’re unbelievable, Miss Hill,” he said, “I want this.” He drove a finger inside her; she clenched around him. “You have no idea how much I want this.”
Finally, after he heightened her senses and she’d thought she’d explode, he planted himself firmly between her thighs. She looked up to him, his eyes dark and stormy. He was on the brink, she could tell. Mouth partially open and eyes half closed. It thrilled her to know she made him feel that.
****
She squirmed under him as he began to enter her.
“It hurts,” she cried.
Henry hovered over her, not fully entering yet, and studied her face. She was so innocent and unsure of herself. He searched deep in her eyes and saw the flicker of something troubling her. His heart stopped. Could she be? He felt a pull in his stomach. Is she a virgin? The thought of Norma never being with a man before him made him apprehensive. Perhaps his past female companions weren’t the best example of all women. He started to feel unworthy.
“I hurt you?” He hovered over her, biceps bulging with his weight on his hands. He hated he might have hurt her. It was the last thing he wanted to do.
“No!” Her eyes pleaded. “I just…I’m not used to this…” She confirmed what he thought.
“Am I…the first?” His voice was small—he never had a small anything.
Nodding in slow movements, her eyes grew with trepidation, then shifted away when she couldn’t find the words. Being her first carried a lot of responsibility. He didn’t want to be some random brute to take her special gift and toss her aside like a leaf in the wind. He hadn’t had a first anything since Mae, his college sweetheart whom he was engaged to for a short time.
Damn.
He didn’t want to stop. He wanted to make love to Norma more than anyone he’d ever known.
Did it make a difference? His intentions were pure with her, probably the purest intention he’d ever had. He looked down on her fright-filled face, her eyes large and dewy. Her lips trembled, even. God, she was beautiful. His heart thumped. Eyes softening, he knew what he felt…honored. He would be honored to be her first. And he wouldn’t toss her aside like a leaf in the wind.
“Please Henry, make love to me,” she whimpered. Her arms pulled at his shoulders. She wanted him close.
Eyes squeezed shut, he hung his head. Lips finding hers instinctually, they kissed like starved beasts. Her mouth was sweet; it was like the nectar of the gods to him. He plunged his tongue into her, tasting her until he found his body moving against her again. She moved against him as well. And as if their bodies were meant for each other, the tip of him easily found her center. No more waiting. No more worries. He pressed himself inside her, and he was forever her first.
****
“Ahh…you feel…ab-so-lute-ly amazing,” he grunted.
Full didn’t begin to describe how she felt as he drove himself inside her depth with expertise. She cried out in response, the pulling skin and ache within unleashed itself as his body joined with hers. He pressed until she could accommodate his size, which was no small feat. She felt torn open in more ways than one. With every thrust, he went deeper and deeper until waves of fire streamed through her body.
He pumped himself in and out of her with steady movements, his body moving gracefully as he brought the stirring deep ache to the surface. Waves of pleasure traveled through her at lightning speed, and before she could take another breath, she found the relief she begged for—screamed it out for him to hear. Loving him was indeed easy.
****
The day came in streams through Norma’s sheer curtains and danced on her face. She could smell her night of passion with Henry, and it took her to that place again. She turned over, and Henry must have regressed to their love making and hungered for it again as well, as his fingers weaved through a chunk of her messy short curls. He held her still against the thick pillow. Soft lips moved down her naked back, leaving a trail of kisses in their wake; she ached for him again.
“Beautiful.” He continued to press wet kisses against her body.
“Henry,” she moaned into the pillow.
Her eyes closed with ecstasy stirring in her private regions. The soreness at the apex of her thighs didn’t stop her from wanting him again, and as his tongue traveled down her lower back to her buttocks, the familiar tug of desire awoke her insides. Her breath caught in her throat at the new sensations of his mouth over her buttocks. Where was he going with that? She squirmed under his mouth as he placed a firm hand on her hip, soothing her with his candied words.
“Relax,” he said. “Let me show you a different way I can make you feel good.” He kissed at her skin, nipping her with his teeth and stubble on his face. The air freezing the wet pools he left behind. Then he said, “That’s what I want. You to feel good.”
He pulled at her hips with the strength of both his hands, forcing her to rise to her knees. Her heart beat double time. What was he doing? Why was he behind her like that? Her face turned behind, her neck straining to face him. “Henry…”
“Trust me.” His hands rubbed down the length of her back, soothing the sensitive skin, rubbing it to submission. “Do you trust me, Norma?”
His erection settled against the split of her buttocks. She gulped heavily. “Yes.”
She drew her lips inside her mouth with every touch of Henry’s body. She could feel his hard shaft against her, ready to take over her body. Ready to give her pleasures of the unknown. Though she was uncertain about her positioning, she backed her bottom into him, the shock of his warm skin entering her, filling her. She never knew making love that way was possible and could be so delectable. Perhaps it was just Henry that made it delectable. Soon, she found his rhythm, and they moved to climax once again.
“You’re like an angel fallen from the sky.” Henry looked down on her face after their lovemaking. His erratic breathing slowed to a normal rhythm.
She looked away. She didn’t know about being an angel fallen from the sky. What she did know, without a doubt, was she fell for him.
“You cut your hair,” he observed.
Her eyes shifted back to his face. “I thought you’d never notice.” She ran a hand through her tangles.
“I noticed.” He said nothing else then, just as he never mentioned it on Tuesday. On Tuesday, he was her boss, and she was his subordinate. What was she to him now?
“I suppose you like me better with long hair?” She bit her bottom lip.
“I’m not interested in your hair, Miss Hill.” His eyes were soft and serene. He looked as if he could be lounging on a beach on a tropical island.
Norma smiled, smothering her face in the pillow. He had the amazing ability to make her feel insecure and desirable at the same time.
“You’re not so tough, are you, Norma.”
She looked up. “I am tough,” she said after a beat.
She frowned, that shield she always wore resurfaced—funny how she didn’t notice it was gone until then. Henry brought down her walls.
“Don’t do that,” he said. “Don’t put up your walls again. Letting down your guard doesn’t make you weak.”
“Weak women don’t get what they want.” She pushed away, covering her nude body with the heavy cotton blanket haphazardly hanging off the bed. She had to put something between their naked bodies.
“A tough woman may not
get what she wants either.” Henry pulled at the blanket. It would appear he wanted her naked during that conversation.
“My mother was weak, and my father left her. She let him do to her as he wished,” Norma spit out. She didn’t realize until then how much her parents’ relationship affected her.
But Henry didn’t need to know that information. Not when she didn’t know where she stood with him. How much of her heart should bare to him? How much of her truth could she trust him with?
Henry was silent for a few moments. His face loosened, and his hesitation was not at all the Henry Chapel he showed the world.
“You’re not your mother, Norma.” His words soothed her, hands soothed her too.
She considered what he said, leaning into his touch on her arm. No, she wasn’t her mother. She would never be a woman who let a man devastate her for the nearly three decades. Her face relaxed as her eyes lifted to his softened gaze. His eyes were like emeralds gleaming under a stream.
“No, I’m not.” Sitting up, she pulled her knees into her body.
Henry reached over and tucked a loose curl behind her ear. His mouth broke into a delicate smile, one she had never seen before. He looked young and innocent. She hardly recognized the shrewd boss everyone knew him to be. “In fact, Miss Hill, I think you are quite extraordinary. In all the ways a person can be.”
Her heart swelled.
“I really wanted to hate you.” She looked away from his gentle stare.
His chuckle broke through the tense air. It sounded beautiful and melodic in her ears. “I was under the impression that you do.”
She smiled.
“You intrigue me, Norma.” His face grew serious again, eyes darkening once more. “So much. You’ve…changed me.”
“You’ve changed me,” she said without thinking. It was the most authentic thing she’d said.
He pulled her into him, bringing his lips to hers, kissing her until she was breathless.
“I guess you’re not just my boss.” What are you then, now that you’re my first? She couldn’t bring herself to ask.
“I guess not…” His gaze traced the line of the window and then returned back to her face. “And I suppose the empty claim of it not happening again, whatever it was is null and void?”
“I’m glad you saw it as an empty claim.” She looked away.
Enough had been said. She didn’t want him to say anymore, and she didn’t want to think further about what they had done. She didn’t want to think about how their actions had changed the course of their relationship, or how making love had irrevocably changed her. She didn’t know how she would reconcile that she’d given Henry a very sacred part of herself. Even after holding back all those years, avoiding intimacy, Henry let her open up like a spring flower. She didn’t have any regrets. But he was still her boss, and she was still his subordinate. Making love didn’t change that.
Could their lives resume come Monday? Hers couldn’t. She quelled the thought and grabbed his face with both hands, looking deep into his eyes and kissed him. He responded to her instantly and took over. He delved himself between her thighs, and she knew what would happen next.
****
Henry couldn’t believe he was about to make love to her again. She was so beautiful. Could he get enough of her skin…her lips…her eyes? She intoxicated him. Not all the gin in the world could give him the high she gave him. Not all the Pulitzers could satisfy him the way she did. She got him. She got him good, and he didn’t know what to do about it.
He parted her thighs and placed himself between them. Her skin was silky to his touch. He hungrily kissed her neck, one hand cupping her breast and the other cradling the back of her head. He drew her pink nipple in his mouth, greedily sucking on it. Sweet. He then went for the other nipple and tugged on it with his dexterous fingers. The sounds of her moans pushed him over the brink.
“Norma…” he whispered between mouthfuls of her skin.
“Henry!” She grabbed a handful of his hair.
“I can’t get enough of you.” He moaned.
“You don’t have to.”
She reached out to him, and it was obvious she wanted him. Her eyes invited and reassured him to continue with what their bodies demanded.
He closed his eyes, allowing her to pull him against her. He stroked her face, her lips parted, and he planted his lips square on hers. Kissing her with gentle lips and tongue, he refused to think about the consequences.
They were nothing but panting bodies after he tore himself from her mouth. He looked down on her once again before he fully pressed himself into her. She yelped, but he didn’t stop. Body warm and moist around him, he lost himself in her once again.
Chapter Fourteen
Norma couldn’t wait to get to the Chicago Daily. Her stomach fluttered in anticipation to see Henry after their weekend of passion. She replayed their lovemaking in her mind over and over and over. No one could’ve been more perfect than Henry—or gentler.
How could she ever be the same after his touch? After he made his mark on her skin? Her heart? Her soul? She never imagined the act of making love could be so powerful. With Henry, it was the best moment of her life.
She rode up the elevator, willing it to go faster. Luckily, no one else rode with her to bear witness to her ants-in-the-pants dance. She wiggled about as if nature was calling—well, nature was calling but with a scandalous howl. Then finally as if she was at the pearly gates, the elevator doors slid open. She leapt out and raced into the press room.
The morning buzzed as usual with typewriter bells sounding and reporters hustling around the metal desks. She glanced to the far end of the room. Henry’s office door was closed, but light spilled out from underneath. The butterflies broke out into their synchronized dance again in her stomach. Only Henry could jump start her senses that way.
Ingrid’s sweet perfume wafted through the air as she walked through the metal desks. Her normally pinkish hue was colored by a green glaze, and the red tip of her nose grew raw with each rub of a handkerchief. She didn’t look well one bit.
Norma frowned. “Are you okay?”
“I’m a bit under the weather.” Ingrid sniffled, taking her place at her metal desk and shuffled around loose papers.
Norma walked over to her own desk. “Yes, I was concerned when George said you were indisposed due to a headache on Friday.”
“It just won’t let up. I don’t know what’s wrong.” Her voice strained with every word.
“Perhaps you should go home? I can assume your duties until you get back.”
Ingrid’s eyebrow lifted. “You want to handle Mr. Chapel’s secretarial work?”
Yes! She had to contain herself. “I would do it for you.”
“You’re awfully eager…” Ingrid pursed her lips. She glanced back to Henry’s office and then back at Norma. “I suppose I should get rest…”
“Yes. Go.” Norma urged her.
It didn’t take much more to convince Ingrid she should be home. She feebly stood and gathered her coat, which was folded over the back of her chair. “Thank you, Norma. You really are a doll.” She stuffed the chair underneath the desk, taking long shaky steps to the grand hall, out of Norma’s sight. “Go easy on Mr. Chapel.”
Once Ingrid was out of the office, Norma smoothed her hands down the length of her white chiffon blouse and to the top of her new black skirt—courtesy of Ingrid. She couldn’t look disheveled when she walked into Henry’s office. She had to look perfect. She fluffed her curly bob and stood on her T-strap clad feet as she ascended to his office on shaky legs. Why was she so nervous after their passionate weekend? If anything, she should be comfortable in his presence; after all, he had been in her bed, nude. And she’d given him the best of her. Even so, she still didn’t know the status of their relationship.
On Sunday, after almost two days of sheet wrestling, he had lethargically stood at her doorjamb, kissed her as if he’d never see her again. Should that have been indic
ative of his intentions? She felt much like she felt when he walked out of her brownstone and drove off in his car. Desperate. She was desperate for him to stay and always be with her. But now, she wasn’t sure if he was still that Henry or Mr. Chapel, the boss.
She approached the closed door, hesitating before she knocked on the cold metal. When she didn’t hear a response, she knocked again, hard that time. “Hen—err, Mr. Chapel?”
Rustling came through from the other side. She could hear the faint voice swear. He wasn’t happy about being interrupted. She was clearly breaking his policy, but he had taken her virginity. It seemed like an uneven exchange in her favor.
“Who is it?” he demanded behind the closed door.
“It’s Norma…” She placed an ear to the door.
Pause. More rustling sounded through the thick door. Then his defrosted voice called, “Norma…”
Her heart leaped in her throat. Why did he sound odd? What was he doing in there?
“May I come in? Err…I have a question about my weather report.” She glanced back.
Anton who sat nearby perked up with interest.
“Enter,” he called.
Norma sucked in a deep breath and blew it out before she turned the cold knob. Entering his office was like entering a different world where everything was backwards. The last time she’d entered his office, he didn’t know her kiss. Now, she entered as a woman he knew fully.
The light spilled out and enveloped her body as Henry came in full view. He stood near his desk with his jacket off and his white shirt unbuttoned at the neck and his sleeves rolled to his elbows. His mid-afternoon strip, as the staff called it, wasn’t due for a few more hours. A cigar was strategically placed behind his left ear as usual. His eyes blazed as they had the morning after their first night of passion. They were intoxicating. Her knees buckled when she got an eyeful of him. She had to grasp the doorframe or else she would’ve fallen over.
Their gazes locked. Amber to green. Her heart stopped. She wanted to run into his arms and kiss him until the world just fell away. She wanted to tear her clothes off and let him devour her as he had more times than she could count on two hands. She wanted him to push her down on the floor and dominate her at the most primal level. She couldn’t imagine anything else. Even more, she didn’t want to. He owned her.
Love Easy Page 14