‘Ready?’ he asked, stroking her head gently so that her heart trembled for a different reason. She nodded, dragging her nails down his back and digging them into his buttocks.
As he drove into her, he kissed the flesh just beneath her earlobe, and the sensations were almost too much to bear. He moved as though he’d been given the key to understanding exactly what she needed. Every time he shifted, he brushed new nerve endings, so she was almost exploding with the power of her pleasure, coming apart at every seam she possessed.
‘Theo, Theo,’ she said, over and over, forgetting that she’d once been determined never to give him that, never to show him how much she wanted him. ‘Please,’ she cried into the bedroom, not even caring that she’d probably see a look of triumph in his face, that he’d revel in her weakness.
When he dragged his mouth to her breast and took a nipple into his mouth, sucking on it until she saw stars, Annie was gripped by a fierce orgasm, her whole body writhing from the force of her pleasure.
‘You are so beautiful,’ he muttered and then pulled out of her, moving to stand at the edge of the bed, staring down at her, so for a second, she feared history was repeating itself, and he wasn’t going to experience his own pleasure. And she wanted him to. She wanted to know that he’d been as driven wild as she had been.
But then, he crooked a finger, indicating for her to stand up. Heart in her throat, she did so, going toe to toe with him. His hands on her hips were strong, commanding, as he turned her over, to face the bed, then pushed at her shoulders, guiding her so she was bent at the hips, her elbows braced on the bed.
‘Remember what I said,’ he asked, and before she could answer, he’d pushed into her again, this time, harder, faster, more like that first time, in the ocean, and his hands came around her body, one massaging her breast until she was crying out with the sensations he could so easily stir, and the other moving to her clit, brushing it as he took her from behind and made the whole world stop making sense. How could anything be the same once she’d known pleasure like this? How couldsheever be the same?
She tried to remember what he’d said—sex was sex—but the truth was, this was mind-altering, personality-changing sex, and she would never be the same afterwards.
‘Theo,’ she cried out, but this time, her voice was drowned out by his own gruff, rasping cry into the air. After that, there was only the sound of their rapid breathing.
‘Can I ask you something?’ Annie murmured, her breath warm against his chest. His hand, stroking her back, stilled, but then, he began to trail his fingers once more over her soft, smooth skin.
Her voice was soft, and yet, something inside of him braced for her question. He’d shared more with her over lunch than he’d intended. She had an ability to reach inside of him and draw out whatever she wanted to know. ‘Yes,’ he said, though, after a beat.
‘How did you come to live with the Georgiadeses?’
His hand began to draw invisible circles in the small of her back, as he replayed that time in his life. It felt like a lifetime ago.
‘I was fifteen,’ he said.
She propped her chin on his chest, her eyes resting on his face. ‘I remember.’ A quick glance at her showed a knowing smile, one he felt tugging at his own lips.
‘You were eleven.’
‘And totally smitten.’
His laugh surprised him.
‘Anyway, that doesn’t answer my question.’
‘No.’ He nodded once. It wasn’t something he, or the Georgiadeses, had ever really discussed, but that didn’t mean it was a secret. There was no reason not to tell Annie. ‘Paul saw me shoplifting—just an apple and a bag of crisps. I stuffed them under my shirt. He followed me out of the store. I was going to run. I thought he’d drag me to the cops or something. Instead, he just asked me if I had somewhere to sleep.’
‘Were you scared?’
He shook his head. ‘You remember Paul. He had kind eyes and a gentle, patient voice.’
‘Yes,’ she agreed softly.
‘He was older, too—in his seventies by then. He couldn’t have hurt me, even if he’d wanted to.’
‘He could have called the police, like you said.’
‘I would have outrun him easily.’
‘But you didn’t.’
‘No,’ he frowned. ‘And he surprised me, by asking if I wanted to come and stay at his house for the weekend. He pointed across the street, to a café, where his wife was sitting at a table on the footpath. She waved at me, and smiled. It was very strange,agape, but I almost felt as though I knew them. As though I had known them before.’
‘Had you met them, do you think?’
‘No, how could I have? We moved in very different circles,’ he said, with a wry grimace.