Faithful (13 page)

“One thing led to another?”

“Her words, not mine. She didn’t go into details and I didn’t want her to. But she said she hated herself and kept telling him it wasn’t going to happen again but he would turn up and ...”

“One thing would lead to another?”

“Apparently, Charlie didn’t know she was pregnant until you mentioned it to him. They hadn’t seen each other since she found out that day shopping that you two were engaged. He had told her that you two ... were over ... were like brother and sister ... blah blah blah. You can imagine she was quite shocked that he was asking you to marry him while screwing her behind your back, so she had refused to see him until he found out she was pregnant. He was furious about the pregnancy, apparently. He was vile to her, accused of trying to trap him and ruin his life, demanded a paternity test. Of course, this is all according to Fran.”

“It sounds believable enough. God, how could I have been with him as long as I was and fail to see what a complete idiot he was
? Or ... is.” I sighed. It was better and worse than I expected. Better because hearing it didn’t hurt as much as I expected, but worse because it had been going on so long, longer than I let myself imagine. I felt like a fool—a naïve, trusting fool. “So, did she have the test? Are they together now?”

“Yes
, she had the test. It’s his. It sounds like they are somewhere between being together and not being together. It sounds like she’s forgiven him for his initial reaction to the pregnancy, but I guess it’s not the best start to a relationship.”

“Wow.” It was all I could manage.

I wandered back to the office in a bit of a daze. Lunch had been short because of my meetings that afternoon, but I had heard enough. I needed to get a hold of myself. I got back to my desk and was greeted with another huge bunch of white roses. I smiled as I opened the card.

I hope you managed to catch up with Anna and that you are
OK. Call me if you need me.

Dx

Dear god he was perfect. I picked up my phone and wandered into the back staircase to call him.

He answered on the first ring.

“Hey, stranger.”

“Hey
, perfect guy. Thank you for my beautiful flowers.”

“You’re welcome. How are you doing?”

“I’m good. I did catch up with Anna, but I’m all good.”

“
Wanna talk about it?”

“Later
, maybe, but seriously I’m fine, and better because I’m talking to you. Anyway, I’m just about to head over to your office and I don’t want to be late so I’d better go. Will you pick me up at 7:30?”

***

The afternoon passed in a blur. We managed three meetings back to back
, and my head hurt from trying to concentrate and remember all the information we had gathered. But it kept my mind off Charlie and Fran, and for that I was grateful.

I caught sight of Daniel a couple of times. I’m not sure if
he saw me, but he didn’t acknowledge me. The first time was while we were waiting for our first interview. He was in a meeting room and I saw him through the glass. There must have been half a dozen people in the meeting room and Daniel was at the head of the table flanked on one side by one of those women that make you feel frumpy just knowing they exist. She was ridiculously beautiful—selfishly so.

I looked at her and then back at Daniel. They looked like the perfect couple. She was hanging on his every word and seemed to have perfected her pout with her perfectly plump lips every time he directed his attention toward her. I hated her. I hated that she obviously knew him, worked with him, saw him regularly. I wanted to go in there and sit on his lap for the rest of the meeting, to make sure she knew he was mine. But how could I compete with that? I couldn’t even keep Charlie happy. I forced myself away from staring at them and realized Deb was watching me
, so I tried to distract her and myself by testing her on some facts about the Palmerston business.

The second time I saw Daniel I was on the way to
the restroom . He was standing at the end of a corridor with his back to me, talking to a blond supermodel. Jesus, did he only employ the best-looking people in London? At one point she grabbed his lower arm and I couldn’t watch any more, couldn’t bear it, so I scurried back to the interview, no doubt giving myself kidney damage in the process.

Back in the office, with all our notes handed over to Brendan, I headed to
the restroom to reapply my makeup. I had a lot to compete with. Daniel had a lot of other choices.

Daniel’s car was sitting on the curb as I came out of our offices and I slid in beside him, desperate for his arms around me. He didn’t disappoint. His intoxicating smell enveloped me as he wrapped himself around me and pulled me toward him. I buried my head in his neck wanting to get closer to him.

“I thought we’d go out to dinner. What do you think?”

I just wanted to get home and get him naked. I wanted to feel how much he wanted me.

“OK. I thought we could do something that involved less clothes, but OK.”

Daniel laughed, pulling me closer. “I’m always up for that
, but let’s do dinner first. You said I could do with you what I wanted from tonight.”

Well that couldn’t be a good sign
. He could do with me what he wanted but he didn’t want to have sex? Maybe things were starting to fizzle out for him. Just as my anxiety was reaching new highs, Daniel grabbed my chin with his hand and pulled me in for a long, deep, soft kiss that seemed to last all the way to the restaurant. When we finally came up for air, he seemed to have extracted my thoughts through our kiss.

“I will never tire of seeing you naked
, Leah, ever. I want you every minute of every day. But it’s more than that between us, I hope. I want to talk, share our day, woo you, romance you. I want you to feel for me what I feel for you.”

I couldn’t help
let a tear escape my eye. I turned away from Daniel so he wouldn’t see. Of course, he didn’t miss a thing.

“You’ve had a lot going on,
and it’s bound to be emotional for you. But don’t hide from me.”

I kissed him on the cheek. He was so incredibly good to me. I was never going to be able to keep him happy.

We went to Daniel’s favorite local Italian restaurant and I was greeted like a long-lost daughter. It was sweet how much Daniel liked the place. With all the money he had, he could dine out at Michelin-starred restaurants every night of the week, but he chose simple and unfussy dining most of the time.

I told him all about my conversation with Anna about Charlie and Fran and he just listened patiently, grabbing my hand in his at various points as if he was trying to take away my pain by transferring it to him. I didn’t know if it was because Daniel was in my life or because I had come to terms with things or a mixture of both but it seemed like a distant pain, something from a long time ago and it didn’t sting as much I had expected it to. Then I brought up my sightings of him in his office. I tried to do it in a light, non-bunny boiler way but didn’t manage to pull it off.

“So I saw you a couple of times today in the office.” I exhaled as I said it. What was I expecting him to say?

“You did? I didn’t see you at all. Thank goodness
, because I probably wouldn’t have been able to keep my hands off you.”

“Yes, you seemed taken up by those supermodel women you work with
...” I was smiling, pretending that I was teasing, but I meant every word.

Daniel grabbed my hand again and looked at me intently
. “Leah. If I had wanted to sleep with my coworkers, I could have started when my ex-wife left. There is no need for you to be jealous.”

I felt really pathetic. I’d never been like this with Charlie or Matt—so needy. Although in many ways I seemed to be relatively
OK or resigned to what had happened with Charlie, it occurred to me that it had affected me in ways I’d not expected. Was this it now? I’d turned into one of those girls or would things get better with time. Given time, I hoped I would return to normal, but I’d have probably driven Daniel away by then.

“I’m sorry
,” I said. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. You are so patient, you must think I’m completely mental.”

“Not mental, just a bit of a
headcase.” Daniel grinned at me.

By the time we got back to Daniel’s place it was getting late so we headed straight to the bedroom to get ready for bed. As I brushed my teeth staring into the mirror I realized that there was only tonight and tomorrow night and then I would be without him for days—what would I do with myself? Daniel came up behind me and snaked his arms around my waist, seeming to read my thoughts.

“You can stay here while I’m in New York if you’d like to. I’d like you here, knowing where you are, able to properly picture you and your surroundings. I hate leaving you.” Daniel buried his head in my neck, sucking and licking.

“You’ll be distracted with a bevy of New York supermodel beauties
, I’m sure,” I said avoiding his invitation as I rinsed my mouth and turned in his arms to face him.

“Why would I want anyone else when I have this gorgeous woman in front of me?”

He lifted up my nightdress, pushed it over my head so I was completely naked, and pulled me to him as he bent to suck my nipple. I buried my hands in his hair and my head fell back. How would I cope without him touching me for four days? It was an addiction, he was my addiction. He moved his lips to my other nipple, grazing the first with his nails which sent intense pangs to my stomach. He brought his hands to my waist and abruptly lifted me to the vanity unit. Standing between my legs he pushed closer and I felt his erection, through his boxer briefs, nudge at my entrance.

“This is the perfect height
,” he breathed in my ear. I felt his mood change. “The perfect height for my dick to rock right into your tight pussy.” He was rubbing up and down my sex, teasing me. I reached down between our bodies but he grabbed my hand before I reached him. He pushed down his underwear with his other hand. With my free hand I reached for him again, wanting my fingers around his thickness. He pulled me back and pinned each of my hands behind me on the unit under his.

I squirmed, unable to move from where he had placed me. I could tell he was enjoying my helplessness. But he refused to enter me and just continued to rub up and down my sex. He just stared at me as I wriggled beneath him, becoming wetter and wetter in anticipation. My orgasm crept up on me, I was so focused on when he would finally push into me that I didn’t notice the pleasure that was already building within me. Suddenly it was upon me and there was no going back and without my eyes leaving Daniel’s I shuddered into my climax.

Daniel thrust into me, as if seeing me come finally broke his resolve and he slammed into me furiously, pushing right to the back of me. It was as if he didn’t fuck me as hard and as fast as he could, the world would collapse. It made me feel powerful when it seemed he couldn’t control himself around me. It was as if he couldn’t get enough of me. I might not understand his need but I could see it, I could feel it. I felt my orgasm build again and I was vaguely aware I was calling his name over and over asking for it harder, deeper, faster. With his final thrust he let go of my arms and I slung them around my neck as my orgasm clenched the last drops of him.

He stayed buried within me, his face in my neck his arms wrapped tightly around my back until I pulled back slightly so I could see his beautiful blue eyes.

“You are incredible,” I said. “You make me feel incredible.”

He kissed me in response
—a deep urgent kiss, as if he were trying to bury himself him in me.

Pulling away
, he looked at me and said seriously, “You are everything I ever wanted, Leah.”

I bent my head and pushed the top of my head onto his chest.

“Daniel,” I said, pleading with him to stop embarrassing me.

“You don’t get it
, do you?” Pulling away from me he lifted me off the countertop and turned me around to face the mirror. Instantly my hands reached to cover my breasts, embarrassed at facing myself so naked. He moved my hands aside gently replacing them with his own. “You just don’t see you how I see you.” He started teasing my nipples until they were swelling and hard under his touch. He snaked one hand down to my mound and his fingers found the nub of my pleasure. I let my head fall back.

“Look in the mirror
, Leah. See how you respond to my touch.” I complied, meeting his eyes in the mirror. “Do you know what that does to me? Do you know how hard you make me? Do you understand what you do for me? You can’t possibly know, or you wouldn’t believe I would look twice at those women in my office. I don’t notice them. Wherever I go, I see only you.”

I could see he meant every word.

“But I have to leave you for four days. Four days when David could pounce on you, Charlie could beg for you back, any of the millions of guys in this city could try and pick you up.”

“Daniel, I’m not interest
ed—”

“I need to make sure that I’m all you’re thinking of
.” And with that, he thrust into me. “Lean forward,” he said sharply.

I put my hands against the mirror. He continued to thrust, pushing my shoulders down to meet him
. He was so deep inside me, he felt like part of me. There was no doubt he was all I could think of at that moment, this gorgeous man behind me, pounding into me.

“Look in the mirror
, Leah. See what I see.” I saw the desperate pleasure on my face, my hair in disarray around my face. I looked wanton, my body moving in response to what Daniel was doing to me, being forced further and further forward. Daniel hooked his arms under mine and pulled me back toward him.

The change in position suddenly brought Daniel even deeper into me and I cried out. Daniel grunted in response. I loved how he took pleasure in my pleasure
, that my gratification gave him gratification. He was unrelenting, never breaking pace. Bringing my eyes back to the mirror, I met Daniel’s gaze over my shoulder. He looked almost violent, like he was trying to contain himself.

“You’re not to let anyone else touch you while I’m away, not ever. Do you hear me?”

I couldn’t respond. I was overtaken my heightening pleasure as he kept hitting that spot so deep inside me.

“Leah, look at me
,” Daniel barked and my eyes found his again.

“Only you, Daniel
,” I said as I came watching him watch me. And I watched as my orgasm brought release to him. My knees weakened and as I slumped against him Daniel scooped me up and walked me over to the bed, lay me down and crawled in behind me.

“I meant it
, you know. I can’t have you touch anyone else while I’m away.” He sounded wounded, like he expected me to fight his request.

“Daniel, of course not. I love you
. I would never even look at another man.” I couldn’t believe this was how he felt.

“But men look at you all the time, flirt with you,
come on to you. I’ve seen it. It’s not that you would be looking for someone, more that they would come looking for you.”

I turned
around to face him and cupped his face in my hands. “Daniel, you make me sound like I’m beating them off with a stick which is just not true. And anyway, I don’t want anyone but you. It’s four days. I would like to say it will go quickly, but I’m not sure it will for me. But my heart won’t wander. I love you.”

“I love hearing you say that. I was beginning to think you regretted saying it the first time. I love you
, too.” He pulled me into his arms putting my head on his chest, and took a deep breath and we fell asleep.

Still in the haziness of sleep I felt myself begin to waken, that heavy feeling of being deeply relaxed and not quite ready to come
around and face the day. My mind wandered to what Daniel had done to my body the previous evening and I reveled in the memory, feeling sensations between my legs that brought me up a level of consciousness. I couldn’t want him again, so soon after last night, but I did. I really couldn’t get enough of him, his touch, his closeness.

The sensation between my legs intensified and I reached over to Daniel, wanting him, but found an empty space. Then I gasped as I felt his tongue thrust inside me. Daniel was still in bed and between my legs.

Best. Wakeup call. Ever.

He replaced his tongue with a finger and continued to lap at my clitoris, circling it, teasing it. I threaded my fingers through his hair, watching him watching me as I writhed against him. He pulled out his finger and I whimpered in disappointment for a second before I was filled up again with a finger from each hand, each working its own direction around my opening, his tongue never faltering. Deep inside my stomach I felt my orgasm build and I thrust my hips upward, desperate for release. I couldn’t believe my body could give me any further pleasure after so much being wrung out of me last night. But that’s what Daniel did to me. He constantly kept me wanting, needing more.

He crawled up the bed to me. “Hey, stranger.” Daniel looked pleased with himself and kissed me on my forehead.

“Hey stranger
, yourself,” I replied, sated but no longer sleepy. I ran my hands over his chest, loving the feeling of his physical difference from me. Reaching around to cup his buttocks, I pulled him toward me and I felt his hardness press into my thigh.

“I love that feeling
,” I said dreamily.

“What feeling
, baby?”

“The feeling of your need for me, pressing against me. Knowing you desire me.”

He pulled away from me, looked at me, and then pushed himself inside me. “All the time, baby. I want you all the time.”

And he rocked in and out of me, so gently, so slowly and soundlessly that I thought I would burst. I saw him trying to hold back and I whispered
, “Please don’t stop yourself. I love that you want to come so quickly. I want you to come right now.” And he shuddered against me and collapsed as my orgasm took me yet again.

We lay like that for what seemed like hours. Him covering me, pinning me to the bed with his weight.

Eventually we were going to have to get up. Lunch with the parents. I sighed. Why on earth had I agreed to that? Daniel seemed genuinely excited that they were going to meet me. The last time I’d met Charlie’s parents it had been to tell them about the engagement and it was the beginning of a horrifying set of revelations. That neither he nor they thought I was marriage material, that he didn’t think I was feminine, that he was fucking my friend and had gotten her pregnant ... the nightmare flooded back.

I had brought a number of outfits over from Anna’s for the weekend but none of them felt right.

“What would you like me to wear?” I asked Daniel, feeling unsure about everything. I didn’t know whether his parents were formal, relaxed. This was all too much.

“Wear what you want to wear
,” he replied.

“I have no idea what they will be expecting, Daniel
. You need to help me out!” I was increasingly anxious.

Daniel turned away from what he was doing and captured me in a hug. I tried to push him away but he just pulled me toward him like I was a child having a tantrum.

“Leah, they are not interesting in what you are wearing. They are interested in
you
, not your clothes. Lunch is at their place, probably in the garden, and my brother and his wife might come. Everyone will be very casual, but if you want to wear a ball gown, it’s all good.”

“So jeans are fine?” I
asked his chest, feeling more than idiotic.

“Jeans are fine. It’s what I’m wearing.”

I managed to suppress my anxiety enough to get in the car at least. I insisted we stop on the way to pick up some flowers and some wine. Daniel tried to argue with me, but relented when I started getting worked up. The drive into Hertfordshire would take us just over an hour—plenty of time to wind myself up again. Daniel did his best to distract me, and it worked. He seemed to regress to about 17, insisting that we play Red Hot Chili Peppers at full volume and yell-sing along. Daniel seemed to know every song word for word—I enjoyed watching him sing as if his life depended on it. He was so playful and cute you would never know he was responsible for a multi-million dollar empire.

As we arrived at his parents’ house, I gathered myself and took a deep breath.
As we drove up to the modest but very comfortable detached family home, the front door opened and out bobbed a chocolate Labrador, and then a golden Labrador, followed by a very handsome woman dressed in slim-fit cropped trousers and a t-shirt. She called to the dogs to encourage them out of the way so we didn’t run them over.

“Oh
, I love labs! What are their names?” I wanted to get out of the car to greet them with as much enthusiasm as they seemed to have for our arrival.

“Headley and
Baxendale,” Daniel replied.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, my Dad named them—it’s some legal case isn’t it? You know he’s a lawyer right?”

I started laughing—how cute and how completely geeky! I loved it. Headley v
. Baxendale was a case that you learned in your first term at university. It wasn’t well known outside the legal profession, but it was one of the most important cases in the history of contract law. My nerves disappeared. This family seemed very unselfconscious.