"So what happened?"
"I caught her one night, with my friend."
"Caught her? In bed?"
Thorne loosened his collar. "Yes," he said. "In my bed. I come back from a trip that got cut short and I saw them...together."
"I"m so sorry," I said, because that felt like the only thing I could say. "I know how s.h.i.tty people can be."
He was gazing at the floor, lost in thought. "Turns out she really didn"t give a d.a.m.n about me," he said. "She even told me I didn"t deserve her. I"m beginning to think she was right."
"Thorne," I said. "You"re a f.u.c.king catch! What she did to you, of course she had to say things like that. She had to clear her conscience somehow! I know because Nick always used to do that too."
"You don"t know me," Thorne said. "I have plenty of faults to my name."
"Who doesn"t?"
"Mine are worse than others"."
"Let me be the judge of that."
And then, once again, he was looking at me, the same way he had been looking at me all night, except for that one blast-from-the-past moment. "You like this," he said. "You wanted to know me before we got any further. You wanted to see this side of me, didn"t you?"
"Is that why you did it?"
"I don"t know," he said. "I wanted you to know that I"m a real person. That I have real problems, just like you. That I"m not perfect."
"You don"t have to be," I said, setting the wine gla.s.s down and getting up.
I was feeling bold. I went towards him and he got up too. We kissed and I could taste every hint of flavor that the wine held, in his mouth this time. The pleasure was reaching all kinds of places inside my body that I hadn"t intended for them to reach just yet. But that"s what he did to me. When his lips touched mine, as always, it was fireworks. I wished there was more than just his mouth to explore.
When his body pushes into mine, the growing bulge inside his pants was pushing into me, reminding me that he was as much a part of this magical moment as I was. Instead of going to the room, he cleared out the table and held me against it. His hands were fumbling with my clothes and my fingers were trying to pry open the b.u.t.tons on his shirt, wanting to unveil whatever he was hiding. Finally I succeeded and we were both breathing hard, and his hands were fumbling with his belt and then his zipper...and I had the front of his chest to look at. My hands couldn"t help but feel the firmness of his chest, and I couldn"t begin to describe how that felt. I was still staring at the way his smooth skin gave way to the slight growth beneath his navel. By then his hand was pushing its way inside my pants and going through the fabric, and it just lingered there and judging by the expression on his face, I was not the only one getting aroused by this. One by one he started to take off my clothes, the pants come off first and then the underwear and his bare hands were touching me deeper and deeper...
"Thorne..." I whispered.
But he was not even listening anymore. He pulled me in closer and I felt his erection against me. He reached into his pocket and fished out a condom and tore the wrapper between his teeth.
He kissed my neck. "Is this okay?" he asked.
I answered by kissing him back, harder this time. "Yes."
And then he was inside me and I had no choice but to let myself go. When we both finally came it was like the whole world was trying to celebrate with us. Life suddenly looked perfect and so complete. He looked back at me, panting and kissed me again. When we looked at each other, we both broke out laughing.
Yep.
Just two crazy people being crazy together.
How often do you get to feel that?
Almost never.
And I knew that only too well.
He pulled off and put his pants back on but didn"t bother with the shirt. I straightened my own clothes and he helped me off the table.
"Can"t believe we just did that," I said.
He looked at me, solemn. "Are you saying that because you didn"t like it?"
That"s what he was worried about?
"That"s not what I meant," I said. "I just...I don"t do this."
"Why because some magic rule book said you can"t?"
"Pretty much, yeah."
He smiled. "I like that you don"t follow the rulebook," he whispered. "More wine?"
We spent the rest of the night discussing our favorite books, movies, music, what we thought life was supposed to be and we talked about everything we could think of until I couldn"t talk anymore. I had so much to drink I didn"t think I could stand up straight but even though Thorne"s been drinking more than I have, he looked completely fine. Finally, he took me to the bedroom upstairs in his loft.
"You need to sleep," he said.
The minute my head hit the pillows, I closed my eyes.
THORNE.
When I woke up she was in bed next to me. I could barely believe it. She stirred in her sleep when I climbed on top of her and tried to kiss her face. She opened her eyes. "Morning," she said with a smile.
"Morning," I said, and kissed her.
She kissed back and we started making out. I pulled her dress over her head and lowered her bra, pinched a nipple and she moaned. My morning erection got worse. I slid a hand inside her lace panties. She moaned even harder. I kissed the skin along her neck, lowered my mouth to her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and kissed every inch of skin, used my tongue on those perked up nipples and she shivered under me. "Want to make it more interesting?" I whispered.
"How?"
"Wait here," I said and got up, barely able to walk owing to the erection and I managed to get to the dresser drawer and found a couple of silk scarves. I brought them back to the bed and used them to tie her to the bed. She started laughing. "What the h.e.l.l do you think you"re doing?"
"You"ll find out soon enough," I said and lowered myself to her thighs; put myself in the right position to eat her out. She quivered, tried to move when my tongue slid into her, and when I reached her c.l.i.t she was bucking but the scarves limited her movement.
I had dreamed about this.
Jacked off to images just like this one ever since I"d set eyes on her. And now she was here, she was mine. Or if she wasn"t she would be.
ELENA.
I was in heaven and never wanted to come down.
The things Thorne"s tongue was doing to me, there was no way I could explain it. Suffice it to say that it made me forget everything. When he finally took his head out from between my thighs, I was craving more. He took off his shorts and I could do nothing but watch because I was tied to the bed and for some reason that tiny addition was making everything s.e.xier. It made me feel at his mercy and...helpless. I had no choice but to trust him. His c.o.c.k was hard when he started to search for a condom on the nightstand and slid it on. And when he finally thrust inside me, the feeling was better than anything I had ever felt before...
THORNE.
"We should probably have the talk," I said, untying the second scarf and setting her free.
For now.
She looked at me from the bed. "What talk?"
I pressed a b.u.t.ton on the wall so the blinds came off the large window and let in sunlight. She looked even more beautiful now than she had when I woke her up. "Now that we"ve moved on to a more intimate part of the relationship," I said, fearing what might come after I had said what I wanted to say. "I should probably tell you that I"m a bit of a dominant in bed."
"Dominant?"
"Ever heard about bondage? Or DS relationships?"
"A little."
"Okay then," I said. "Look, simply put although I enjoy regular, vanilla stuff once in a while, I really have to be dominant in bed in order to get any fun out of it."
I couldn"t tell if that was dejection or her face or confusion. "Oh."
"Elena," I said. "I"m not into anything weird, I mean, I can do hardcore stuff if the submissive wants, but what I basically want is an extension of what we did just now."
"Oh."
"So...I need to know Elena. Did you...enjoy it?"
I hated that I couldn"t tell what she was thinking. "Well," she said, after a while. "Yeah."
"I"ll need a little more than that."
She was thinking. Probably trying to figure out if it was too late to run. I didn"t blame her if that"s what she wanted but it would be extremely depressing. "Well?" I urged.
"Thorne," she said, looking up at me. "Pretty sure this was the best s.e.x of my life."
I could barely believe my ears. "You"re saying...you had fun?"
"Yes."
"And you don"t mind...continuing with this?"
"Maybe you can explain some of this stuff to me," she said. "But yeah."
"Elena," I said. "I think I might faint with happiness."
She laughed. "Okay look," she said, and a flush crept over her cheeks. "This is not something I"m used to, but I can"t say that I didn"t enjoy it. I like trying new things."
I leaned in and kissed her. "Well then," I said. "How about you go with on a bit of a vacation?"
"Vacation?"
"I have another property," I said. "A house. Its close by but no one knows about it, no one except for my immediate family. We could take a week off, see how it goes."
"Thorne," she said. "Don"t you think it"s a bit too soon for that?"
I sat on the bed, facing her. "Elena," I said. "I haven"t wanted anyone the way I want you. I"ve never really dated, so to speak, ever since that last break up all those years ago. I know when I see something special and you"re special. If you"ll let me show you how much better this can get, I"m sure you"ll find yourself craving me like a junkie craves drugs."
"A bit full of ourselves, aren"t we?"
"Why the h.e.l.l shouldn"t I be?"
She was still smiling so that had to be a good thing. "Let me get back to you on that," she said.
"Take your time," I said and stood. "Now. Where would you like to go for breakfast?"
ELENA.
"I take it the date went well," Penny said from the couch the minute I entered the apartment. She was in her PJs and watching The Notebook again, with a huge bowl of popcorn on her lap. There was a filled wine gla.s.s on the end table.