Twelve Days - The Beginning (13 page)

“You are so beautiful ‘Lise – so, so beautiful.”

Absently she registered the shortening of her name which usually she detested but somehow, in this situation and when this man said it, it sounded so unbelievably sexy that she found she had no desire to correct him.

Continuing her exploration, her hands traced across his chest, starting with his perfectly defined pecs and pausing briefly at his flat nipples. Giving them each a cheeky squeeze, she moved on down towards his abs; tracing each one in turn, loving the fact that he had only a little chest hair in all the right places. Finally she moved lower, down to the V that disappeared beneath the quilt and he drew in another sharp breath before grabbing her hands to stop her.

“Any more of that and I will seriously embarrass myself.” he said with a wry grin.

Reluctantly, she moved her hands back up to his shoulders. “Spoil-sport” she whispered.

He laughed and captured her mouth again, instantly entering her and deepening the kiss. They stayed locked together for long minutes, holding each other tighter, impossibly so until Vaughn eventually broke the kiss.

“My turn now.” he murmured against her lips and turned her around on his lap so that she was facing away from him.

Gently he placed his hands on her shoulders and massaged her neck, releasing the kinks and knots from the tension she held so tightly there. She felt herself turn to liquid under his touch, more completely relaxed than she could ever remember being.

Once he had finished with her neck, he slowly brushed his hands down her arms, stopping at her shoulders briefly to loosen the straps of her dress so that he could place a gentle kiss on each one. His fingers continued to caress a path all the way down to her hands where he linked their fingers together and began kissing around her neck again and suckling on her earlobe.

Elise sighed; this was the most amazing experience of her life and the man had hardly touched her. Inside she was still aware that this was fundamentally wrong, but she just couldn’t seem to gather the strength to bring it to an end. She had been waiting an eternity to be loved like this and even before things had turned sour, Dale had never treated her with this amount of care – he was always more interested in his own needs and if hers were taken care of too, then that was merely a bonus.

Vaughn had now moved their joined hands to her midriff where he gently disentangled his and then lifted hers up, encouraging her to link them behind his neck.

“When you did that in the nightclub tonight,” he whispered, “it was so fucking sexy, I thought I would explode.”

Slowly his hands began a journey back down her arms, his lips still taunting her earlobe and neck. At first he skated around the outside of her breasts, just brushing against the outer curve down to her stomach and then back up, coming to rest on her collarbone. He briefly dipped his fingers just inside the loose collar of her dress before retracing his steps back down the side of her breasts again until he came back to her midriff.

Elise squirmed in his lap, trying to shift closer to him in the hope that his hands would move over her breasts, where she wanted them to go. This was pure torture. As if understanding he began another journey upwards, but this time he took the most direct route, running his open palms over the swollen globes of her breasts, slowing down over the hard nubs and then continuing on to her collarbone again. When he got there this time however, he dipped his hands lower and underneath the collar of her dress, his hands briefly coming into contact with her bare nipples - and she jerked on his lap as his touch finally reached her.

Twisting her neck around, she grabbed the back of his head with her hand and pulled his mouth down to hers, swallowing his deep groan as their mouths met and mated, tongues colliding. His hands all the while continuing to caress her breasts, tweaking her nipples, pulling them, squeezing them and she cried out in sharp pain.

“Sorry...” he muttered thickly “got a bit carried away.”

“No, it’s OK, I liked it. I think. It was just a bit of a shock.”

“’Lise, you are my kind of girl.” He growled and he turned, lifting her off his lap and placing her on her back on the bed.

Quickly he covered her length with his so that they were fused together from head to toe and resumed kissing her as though his life depended on it. His left hand was resting on her thigh and he shifted position to allow it to drift further down her leg, stopping at the hem of her skirt and then gently caressing her knee. His hand then reversed its journey, up and under the hem of her skirt, coming to rest just below the junction of her thighs.

Elise shuddered and Vaughn took that as a signal to move his hand onto her abdomen where he encountered the waistband of her tights and panties. With one swift movement, he pulled both down to her knees and then trailed his fingers back up her thighs again, coming to rest in the light blonde curls that covered her mound.

By now, his mouth had released hers and was working its way down her front, coming to rest on her left breast and sucking it open-mouthed through the fabric of her dress. His right hand was kneading her other breast whilst his left hand was moving lower from her curls; tracing her outline, testing and feeling her wetness.

“Christ Elise, you are soaking for me” he murmured and then he groaned as she felt another wave of wetness seep onto his hand. “Jesus, this is killing me.”

Continuing his ministrations, he pushed one finger gently up inside her and Elise jerked on the bed, overcome by feelings and sensations. He began to massage her inside, curling his finger around, finding the right spot and then he added a second finger and Elise thought she would come apart right there and then.

“Easy, baby” he said. “Easy.” His lips moving against her breast that he had now bared to his view. He licked and suckled her, all the while continuing with his mind-shattering massage down below, rotating his fingers and slowly moving them in and out.

He turned his attentions to her other breast, gently biting down on her nipple and she cried out as sensation took over and all coherent thought fled. Just when she thought she couldn’t take any more, he moved his fingers and gently began to stroke her clit with his thumb, grazing lightly over the hard nub. Gradually, he increased the pressure both inside and out and when he finally crashed his mouth back onto hers she came apart in a thousand pieces; overcome with emotion, feelings that she had never experienced before. She tore her mouth away from his and called out his name again and again before collapsing back onto the bed, eyes closed – totally and utterly spent.

Chapter Sixteen

Elise woke to find Vaughn lying on his side; head propped on his arm, watching her.

“Morning, sleepyhead” he said and reached over to gently brush a tendril of hair out of her eyes.

“Err... morning” she replied disorientated. “What time is it?”

“A little after six – you’ve not slept for long, we ....uh... had a busy night.”

“Oh God!” Reality crashed over her like a tidal wave and she suddenly realised for the first time that she was in Vaughn’s bedroom and in Vaughn’s bed. “Jesus Christ! Wh... what?? We....?? Oh god, I can’t believe I’ve been so stupid.” She covered her face with her hands briefly and then pulled them away in time to see anger flash across Vaughn’s face before he carefully schooled his features.

“If you are asking if we had sex, the answer is no, we did not. You passed out on me after I gave you probably the best orgasm of your life if the volume of your screaming was anything to go by.”

She looked at him in shock, surprised at the crudeness of his answer. She realised too late what she had just said and how it must have sounded. She had hurt his feelings, she was in no doubt of that, but it was too late to call it back now. He continued to speak and she could hear the anger beginning to return.

“I’m sorry if you feel that you have been
stupid
,” he emphasised the word that she had used only moments before, “however I do not regret any of what happened last night and I give you fair warning that I will be doing everything in my power to make sure that it happens again – and a hell of a lot more besides.”

“And...” he carried on, his voice almost cold. “Please, spare your concerns for your
husband
. You and I both know that a man who is capable of raping his wife, deserves everything he fucking gets.” He spat this last sentence out and then abruptly rose and left the room; his perfect body striding out, leaving her alone and completely confused.

Shit! Elise flopped back onto the bed and covered her eyes with her arms. He was mad. Really mad and she could only assume that her poor choice of words had damaged his ego. Christ, the last thing that she wanted to do was upset him but she was remembering last night now, and everything that they had done. Although they had not had sex, they had pretty much done almost everything else and in her world, that branded her a cheat. She had vowed to love and honour Dale and even though Vaughn was right about Dale not deserving her love, that didn’t make it any more bearable that she was now engaging in what amounted to an affair. God, what a mess! And now she had to collect her car and go home and get changed to go and pick Dale up from the hospital; precisely as if nothing had happened.

The problem was that something had happened though. For all the wrongs of this situation, Vaughn had been completely right about one thing - he had given her the best orgasm of her life and she knew without a second thought, that she would do anything in her power to experience that again.

Vaughn dropped her back at her car just after 6.30am and left without saying another word. He had been silent ever since he had left the bedroom and she had not bothered to try to engage him in conversation other than to apologise. He had just brushed her off and so she had left him to his brooding silence. She had far too much to filter through in her own head without trying to psychoanalyse his.

The day looked like it was going to be dawning fairly bright and for that, Elise was glad. Whenever the sun shone, it always made things feel better and it was particularly hard this time of year when there was hardly any sun and the days were so much shorter. She was not really a winter person - far too chilly - but she did love the turn of season to spring when all the leaves and blossoms started appearing and the birds began to sing. Once Christmas was over, the shops would start stocking Easter gifts and that’s when Elise felt like the seasons were turning. Christmas for her was never a joyful time so if there happened to be a sunny day in December then she considered that a real bonus.

How ironic though that the sky should decide to be cheerful and celebrate on the day that Elise had well and truly broken her marriage vows. What kind of twisted logic was that?

Her car was freezing so she sat and shivered for a while, waiting for the engine to warm up and the heating to kick in. Once her numb hands had thawed enough to respond, she began the short drive home and briefly hoped that Celeste and the others had had a good night and had got home OK. Maybe they had linked up with Stephen and his friends? No doubt she would find out tomorrow at work. She would have liked to text Celeste today to find out but once Dale was home, she wouldn’t be able to use her phone without him getting suspicious so there wasn’t much point. She would wait until tomorrow.

-

After a shower and some food, Elise felt much more human and began to organise things for bringing Dale home. She tidied the house to make sure that it was up to his standards and then went to the local shop to get some essentials and food for dinner. It was crazy but she was actually nervous about bringing her husband home and in many ways she was also sad. Despite the madness of the last few days it had been absolute bliss having her life to herself for a change and she knew that the moment Dale walked back through the door, everything would return to its usual way.

Going back upstairs to do one more final last minute check, she realised that her dress from the night before was still laid out on the bed where she had left it ahead of her shower. As Dale was unaware that she had bought it and she couldn’t think of a feasible reason for owning it at present, she decided to hide it in the back of her wardrobe – Dale never went anywhere near her wardrobe anyway. She did consider handing it to the local charity shop to re-sell but it was a beautiful dress and it held certain memories that she wasn’t ready to relinquish just yet.

The traffic was fairly light as it was a Sunday and she made good time to the hospital, arriving on the dot of 11.00am. As was usual with hospitals, there weren’t many doctors around for routine discharges on the weekend so the nurses had made sure that all the paperwork was in order so that Dale would be released on time. Elise had thought that this was considerate of them but she suspected it also had something to do with them wanting to see the back of a difficult patient.

Dale was sat on the bed fully dressed when she arrived – she had brought him in a change of clothes so he had managed to have a bath and freshen up and apart from the cuts and bruises still showing on his face he looked much more presentable and a lot better.

He looked up and smiled at her when she walked in and for a moment she had to look away, afraid of what her eyes might reveal. Although she had become proficient at lying through necessity, she wasn’t very good at keeping her eyes neutral – she had always had expressive eyes, one of her best features according to her parents.

She approached the bed slowly and Dale reached out a hand to grasp one of hers in his.

“Hey, baby – am I glad you’re here! The nurses are friendly and all but the food.... ugh!”

Elise smiled – that old joke again. She happened to know that he had been fed very well whilst enjoying his short stay courtesy of the NHS but she was grateful at his attempt to lighten the mood. Maybe he was nervous about coming home too, given what he had done to land himself here in the first place.

Elise squeezed his hand in return and then went off to find the nurse to make sure that he was all signed out and ready to go. She wondered how Cole was feeling today – she hadn’t seen him since Saturday morning’s ‘revelation’ and she had not had opportunity to speak to him either. She hoped that he was feeling slightly better now and that he had come to some conclusions about the direction in which his life was heading. Perhaps she would suggest lunch at work tomorrow; then they could have a proper catch up.

Completing all the necessary paperwork with the nurse, she returned to Dale’s bed and proceeded to help him out of the ward and down the stairs to the car park. When they reached her car door, she opened it with the key – her car had the luxury of central locking, just not a remote control, so she still had to use her key to get in and out. It was not an issue for her at all as she was rather attached to her car but Dale always insisted it was a death trap and it was about time she upgraded to something more modern. Ever the image-conscious man. But Dale no longer did the finances so he didn’t have a clue about their money. He spent it mainly on booze and that was about it. On one occasion when he had been nagging her about
her car, she had tried to explain their situation to him and suggested that if he cut back on his drinking, they would be able to afford other things – maybe even a holiday. He had just looked at her as if she had asked him to have his right leg amputated and that had been the end of that particular conversation.

Apart from all the violence that his drinking seemed to bring on, Elise was also worried about the general effect it was having on his health. She didn’t consider him to be an alcoholic as there were days when he didn’t drink at all – the problem was that he was a binge drinker, particularly at weekends and she knew from research that, in many respects, that was the worst type of drinker. Overloading his system continually was definitely not doing him any good but as far as he was concerned he didn’t have a problem and no amount of nagging from her would change his mind. She had rather hoped that this stay in the hospital would show up some damage that might force him to re-evaluate but unfortunately for her, the tests had only shown up minor damage to his liver; perhaps because this kind of drinking hadn’t been going on for all that long, relatively speaking. Dale had just dismissed what the doctors had found, saying that he could give up whenever he wanted to and when he did, his liver would get better. In his world, it was as simple as that.

Exiting the hospital car park Elise was surprised to notice that Dale was in a pensive mood – he was usually so loud and in control that pensive just wasn’t in his repertoire – perhaps the hospital stay had had some effect?

“You OK?” she asked.

“Yeah babe, I’m fine – now. Some of the cuts still hurt like a bitch but physically I’m fine.” he paused as if wondering whether to continue.

“Elise?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve been thinking. The fact that I lost control so completely scared me – I still can’t remember exactly what happened, but I’ve had a lot of time to think and I reckon you’re right. I need to cut down on my drinking; maybe even stop altogether for a while and see how I get on. I know that the doctor said that there was some damage to my liver and I laughed it off, but now that I’m totally sober I know that’s not good. What do you reckon?”

Elise was stunned, thoroughly stunned. Part of her wanted to shout from the rooftops – hallelujah! – this was the moment, the revelation that she had been waiting for, her husband finally seeing some sense and agreeing that
maybe
there was a problem. She almost wanted to dance for joy, run around the streets and tell the world; this had taken five years, five long years and she couldn’t believe that there might be an end in sight.

The other part of her however was a little doubtful at this turn of events and she wasn’t sure whether or not Dale could give up the alcohol and even if he did would that necessarily mend their relationship? As far as she was concerned he had hurt her – a great deal – and it would take him a very long time to make it up to her. She wasn’t sure she had enough energy in her to support him through this.

Plus, there was now Vaughn in her life. Whilst she knew that he wasn’t a relevant consideration and that if she and Dale did decide to work on things then he would take a back seat, she couldn’t forget what he had said last night and the way that he had made her feel. He had looked after her; listened to her, made her feel safe and secure and it had been a very long time since anyone had done that. She deliberately kept her thoughts away from the absolutely amazing orgasm; that needed to be put into a box and never opened again, especially if she was going to give Dale the benefit of the doubt.