Inescapable (11 page)

He threw back his head, neck corded, bellowing unreservedly as he rode her. “Oh, that is so bloody good.”

Delighted, Lily met him and matched him. Her lips parted each time he thrust inside her, her breath caught on each move. He locked eyes with her, nodding. With her hands on his upper arms, she looked deep into his eyes, loving the way he was.

“Long time coming, love,” he said, stroking her damp hair back across the pillows.

“This has been a long time coming.”

It surely had been, and they were frantic in their union, their hips rising together in time, each of them urging the other on. “Faster,” she said, embracing his cock over and over, joyous laughter escaping her lips, “harder.”

There was such a look of pride in his eyes that her chest ached. “Oh, Adrian…”

“Right here, love, I’m right here.” His voice wrapped around her like an embrace, taking her to the edge. With her arms and legs locked tight around him, she came, her body pulsating with heat and energy.

Grinding deep, his cock jerked and then he stilled, silent in his moment of release.

Holding the position for as long as he could, he kissed the tip of her nose, before rolling away onto the bed next to her. His fingers meshed with hers, and he took her hand to his lips, kissing it.

She had all but melted into the bed, her limbs like jelly, and she was about to comment on that fact, when he got up and went into the bathroom and was back a minute later, reaching for another condom.

“Blimey,” she said, rising up onto her elbows to observe, “you’re still hard.”

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“Like I said, I’ve been waiting, and I developed a whole head of steam these past weeks.” He grinned. “Now I’ve started, I could work my way through this whole box of condoms.”

“You really can go again, straight away?” Lily was astonished.

“Uhuh, I can usually manage twice, sometimes three rounds.” The new condom was on. “Can you take more?”

Laughing huskily, she reached out to him. She had two men, and apparently one of them could go all night. It never rained but it poured. “I think so, but I may never walk again.”

That was when the door creaked open.

“I can’t turn my back for a moment,” Seth said, taking off the baseball cap he was wearing and throwing it onto the bed next to them. “You’re insatiable.”

“Hey, it’s my turn now,” Adrian murmured, resuming his former position and thrusting hard between Lily’s thighs again.

Lily savoured the look Seth was giving her, a thorough once up-and-down with an appreciative grin.

“Are you going to join us?” she asked.

“Hell no, I thought I might try this watching thing, see what all the fuss is about.” He waved his hand. “Carry on.” Humour filled his eyes, and Lily laughed softly, mellow and wildly aroused all at once, drugged by the experience.

This time Adrian was less hurried, and his slow, almost lazy thrusts made her melt all over again. When he bent his head to kiss her throat, she saw how Seth had changed, how his expression had darkened to brooding. Glancing lower, she saw he was hard inside his jeans.

He moved closer, watching.

She growled, clutching at Adrian, decadent in her excess, eyes closing as another orgasm rolled over her. Adrian’s mouth was on her neck, and when Seth’s mouth closed over hers, the pair of them kissing her as she peaked, she was in heaven, and she wanted it to last and last.

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“Day four in the Big Brother witness protection house,” Adrian said, faking a reality show voiceover, “and the lovely
Laidbacklady
Lily grows more ravishing by the moment, keeping both Seth and Adrian in a constant state of arousal.” He munched on a piece of toast, watching as Lily rolled on the sofa, giggling. The way her eyes sparkled made him feel good. Even Seth was smiling. It hadn’t slipped his notice that Seth rarely smiled in that genuine way, except when it was about Lily.

“That’s great. Can you do other impersonations?” Lily asked.

“Keep the curtains closed and stay away from the windows,” he said, mimicking Seth.

Lily laughed again, and Seth’s eyebrows shot up.

“You’re crazy,” Lily said, reaching for her tea.

“In a good way or a bad way?” They kept asking each other that question.

“A good way, of course.” She looked cosy on the sofa. She’d pulled a velvet cover over her legs, and clutched her breakfast mug in both hands to warm her. “It is a bit like Big Brother, isn’t it? Day three, and the housemates don’t know what bloody time of day it is, but they eat breakfast, because they just got up and they were hungry.” Flashing a smile his way, she sat quietly for a moment and then sighed, loudly. “It’s way different to the normal routine, for me at any rate. What would your average day be like?” Adrian relished her question. “Well…there’s this woman who I like to talk dirty with, online…”

“No!” She laughed again, and looked at him fondly, as if she liked the joke. “I mean the rest, the bits that I don’t know about.” She really did want to fill the missing pieces of the picture. “What would you be doing now?”

“Right about now,” he glanced at his watch, “my secretary, Cassandra, would be breaking the endless cycle of figures with a cup of green tea and a large bowl of muesli.” Seth coughed. “You’re a health freak? Damn, I missed that on the info sheet.”

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They had info sheets
? “Me no. I’ll pretty much eat anything. Cassandra, yes. She’s like this 1970’s super-efficient health freak, into yoga and the whole thing. She frets that I don’t eat breakfast, and—like I said—I will eat anything that’s put in front of me.”

“This is the grandmother lady who thinks you should get out and meet women?” A teasing, curious smile lit Lily up again.

“The very one.” He paused, remembering the time he had shared that with her, thinking about the times they had shared on line. It also made him think about Cassandra, who he cared about a great deal—thinking about the actual nuts and bolts of what went on when he was pulled out of his life. Looking Seth’s way, he knew he had to ask. “Will Cassandra know? I mean, will someone have explained it to her, and my brother. Will they understand what’s happened to me?” He wasn’t sure he wanted them to know, they’d only worry, but the question kept bugging him.

Seth nodded. “Normally you’d have had time to alert them yourself, but the way things panned out, members of my department would have moved in and checked out the office.

Your next of kin and secretary’s details were already on file.”

“Good. She’d have been worried.” Why did he suddenly feel so weighted down by all of this? A moment ago it was good, it was free and easy.

“Yes, my flatmate will be worried too.” Lily’s expression had also grown more serious.

She cast an accusing glance in Seth’s direction.

“That’s different,” he countered, quickly, a heavy frown developing on his forehead.

“Why?” Adrian asked.

“If my department tracks down the bloke Lily saw, she can go home.” Seth grew tense, his cheeks working as if he was grinding his teeth. “This will be sorted soon, Lily, I promise, and you’ll be able to get back to your regular life.” Silence descended on them. Adrian felt gutted. Ultimately he was in a lose-lose situation. If Lily was gone, this would be so much worse, but he hated that she was here because of him. Confused, and regretting he had asked, he stood up. “I’m going to take a shower.”

“Are you okay?” Lily said, concerned. “You already had a shower,”

“I need another.” He paused, looked back, and smiled her way. “I’m okay, just need to think.”

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Limping off down the hallway, he realised that no amount of thinking—or showering—

was going to help this particular problem. The one he’d unexpectedly found himself burdened with, the one that was extra to the Carlisle court case and everything that came with that. He didn’t want Lily to be here, but he did. Whilst he recognised that she was making the most of a bad lot, she’d never be able to forgive him not afterwards, not after they got back to their real life, and that brought him a whole of pain.

* * * *

Seth knew they were both upset, and he knew it was because they were talking about what they’d left behind. Adrian had to come to terms with it, but Lily didn’t. He had to out Lavonne, then she could go.

Simple as that. Except it wasn’t.

Looking over at her, he felt as if he’d learnt so much about her in these few days. He’d begun to know what made her tick, and he knew it was taking a lot of inner strength for her not to balk right now, not to shuck off his authority and make life difficult again. He was prepared; sometimes the witnesses needed to let off steam. Better that they attack him for his role in this than walk out and into danger. And she, more than anyone, had the right to attack him. He needed to sort it, needed to find a way to safely have Lavonne arrested so that she could go back to her normal life. No reason not to, right?

Problem was he was thinking about ways to do that less and less as time went by, because he liked having her there. He was honest with himself on that score. Nevertheless, it rested a heavy sense of guilt on his shoulders.

“Tell me about the online chat thing,” he said, asking about the grey area in his understanding of her.

“What about it?” She looked as if she thought he might be judging her.

“How did you get into it? I’m just curious.” He reached out and teased her tootsies with his.

She foot wrestled him, and then rested her head back on the cushions. “Oh, well it was kind of a joke, at first. I haven’t had a proper relationship since I was in training as a nurse.

When Andrea, my flatmate, made the decision to open the sandwich boutique, I left nursing, and things only got busier. We’re in the first year of a new business.”

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“That’s hard work.”

“Yes, in fact these past few days have actually felt like a bit of a holiday for me, one I probably needed.” She paused, a frown gathering between her eyebrows. “Anyhow, we have this guy who delivers salad and fruit to the boutique.”

“Fruit?”

“Yes, some people like grapes in their brie-and-salad baguette.” He grimaced.

She threw him an amused look. “We need to educate your taste buds.”

“When it comes to food, I have simple tastes.”
When it comes to women, I seem to be
attracted to you, and you are so much more complex than I’d ever have guessed.

Where did that thought come from?

“People can change.”

There was a teasing expression on her face and she wore a half smile. What was she thinking? He’d love to know.

“So, this guy Carlo,” she continued, “he is recently divorced and he’s always going on about meeting these sexy women online. We thought he was joking or that he was using dating agencies, but when we asked him about it, it turned out he was using chat rooms. For him it’s too soon to get involved with another woman properly, but he likes to keep his chat-up skills polished just in case—or so he says.” She smiled at that point.

Seth wondered if she had a soft spot for Carlo.

“For me it was different reason, very little time, and I was just looking for a bit of fun.” She shrugged. “Honestly, it was just a giggle to begin with. In fact, the first time Andrea and I logged in together and pretended we were twins.” She laughed, remembering. “We said we were looking for one guy, to share…we got dozens of men wanting to chat with us.”

“I can imagine.”

“We literally ran away, laughing. It was way over the top. Then I went in on my own one time, and I happened to get chatting with Adrian.” He stared at her, reflecting how lucky Adrian must have felt conversing with her, then meeting her. He also reflected on all the losers and weirdoes she might have met and might still meet, doing that, and it worried him.

“Did you know there’s a stack of food in the freezer?” They had sat in a comfortable silence for a minute or so. Didn’t she want to talk about it anymore?

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“No, I hadn’t checked.”

“I’m hungry,” she explained, “You two are keeping my appetite up. I did a bit of exploring earlier. How does fish and chips sound for tonight?”

“Now you’re talking.”

“I thought you’d approve.”

A secret smile lit her expression, and it was right then that Seth finally admitted to himself that it didn’t matter that she was here because of Adrian. That was then, this was now. She wanted him as well. She’d wanted him when she’d come onto him outside Adrian’s office, and it hadn’t gone away. For all her prickly attitude towards him and the flippant remarks about enjoying the moment, he could read the signals. God knows he’d had enough time in close quarters with people. He learnt to read how they really felt, no matter what words came out of their mouth. Desire was there in her expression, in the things she didn’t say and the way she acted, everything about her told her what he needed to know.

I shouldn’t care
, he told himself. But he couldn’t help it.

She rose to her feet and walked to the curtains, peeking out between them. She was looking longingly at the patio and the landscaped garden beyond. It was a look he’d seen many times before, the familiar look of a caged creature, begging to be free. Why did it bother him that she looked so caged? He’d protected witnesses so many times before, and almost every time he’d seen people start to look this way when their confinement became a burden and they wanted to be free, but this time he was thinking about in a different way.

He felt her pain, her longing, and it was because they were involved.

It had been an incredibly intense time, the three of them living a fantasy many owned but never fulfilled. Four great days, days he’d never forget, but he shouldn’t have done it, because he couldn’t help himself, not when it came to Lily. It had to end, soon.

“It looks so beautiful out there this morning. Not as sunny as it was, but the sky is roaring. It’s such a beautiful spot. I’d love to explore. Another time, of course.” The fact she liked his childhood home made him smile, he couldn’t help it. Then she turned around and the look of yearning on her face made him feel so bloody bad.

Shit.
I could do without this.

The sense of responsibility he felt towards her, a woman he’d got involved with—the only woman he’d got involved with under these circumstances—was different, definitely. He felt he owed her more, which is why he shouldn’t have got involved in the first place. If he

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started making concessions to security for her, as he was tempted to do, weak points would be opened up. Even so, he nodded. “I could turn the alarms off, if you want to go outside for a few quick breaths of air.”

Fool, if a local is walking in the fields beyond the gardens and saw that someone is staying here,
when it should be closed up and empty, they’ll investigate, or report it to the police, which would open
up a line for Lavonne.

Her eyes lit up. “You’d do that?”

Surely they couldn’t be that unlucky, to be spotted inside a minute? “Just for one minute, and only if you stay on the patio, close to the house.” She masked her disappointment, but not before he caught it. She wandered over. “I’d really appreciate it, just to breathe that crisp air and get some natural light.” He went to the hall to switch off the alarms at the main box, ad she followed, clinging to his arm as if it was Christmas and he was giving her the best present in the world. While he flicked the alarm switches off, he dealt out the rules. “I need to be able to see you at all times, and I want you to stay close to the doors so that you’re not visible to anyone who might be walking on the land beyond the gardens. There’s a public footpath there, and occasionally people pass through.”

“We are safe here, aren’t we?” She stared at the alarm box, as if he’d put the doubt in her mind.

It was no bad thing, but still…he hated to see the worried expression of face. “Yes, very safe, as safe as we can be right now. I just have to remain vigilant. It’s my job.”

“Thanks Seth, I appreciate this.” She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him quickly. It was like a promise. Her kisses always felt like promises.

When they walked back to the patio doors, he paused and stroked her hair back from her face. “I’m sorry it can’t be more than a minute.” She nodded. He opened the door and she wandered out.

He stood in the doorway watching as she walked up and down the patio a mere three feet away from where he was in the doorway. She was following his rules. Shielding her eyes, she looked first at the landscape beyond, and then she looked at the border shrubs that ran along the patio. If Gareth, his stepfather, had been here, he’d be out there with her telling her the names of the various plants. He always did that when a guest showed interest.