Insatiable (10 page)

Once he was gone, Aurora kicked off her heels, went into the kitchen, took an unfinished bottle of white wine from the refrigerator and poured them each a glass. Rosie turned on the radio and they each flopped onto the couch. "I go away for a few hours and you guys raise hell," she teased.

Mari took a sip of wine. "We couldn’t help ourselves," she teased back. Liam cleared his throat. He was beginning to think that Aurora had forgotten about him. "I haven’t forgotten about you," she said and playfully nudged him on the shoulder. "Let's talk," she said and led him into the kitchen.

"We can go upstairs you know," Mari said.

"No you two stay and relax, I won't be long."

Aurora leaned against the counter top and smoothed out her dress. "Thank you for what you did earlier Liam. I appreciate it, but given all that's gone on, I think it best if we call it a night."

"I understand," he said and made a move closer towards her. "But I fully expect to continue our conversation at a more convenient time Aurora. I'm not at all satisfied with your response."

Aurora felt a nervous knot in her stomach, and her legs felt weak. Liam reached for her hand and for a moment they held each other in silent regard.

"That's too bad that you're not satisfied Liam because I certainly am. Good night," she said and showed him to the door. He studied her as though trying to gauge the real motive of her response. Was she being seductive or was she really done with him and giving him the brush off?

"I'll be in touch," he said and after saying goodnight to Mari and Rosie, walked out the door.

"Well ladies, I'd love to hang out and chat but I want nothing more than to take my glass of wine, draw myself a hot bath and crawl into bed. And if it's alright with you two, I'm going to go to my loft and do that."

"Of course Aurora, but come first thing tomorrow, you're going to tell us all about your date." Mari winked.

"Not much to tell Aurora winked back. "Good night ladies and don’t forget to lock up. If you need me you know where I am."

While making the drive home Liam got lost in his thoughts. He wondered what happened to Aurora to make her so doubtful about relationships. Had she been abused at some point in her life? Had she been hurt so bad that she no longer believed in love? There was so much more that he wanted to share with her. He wasn’t expecting them to make love but it had been wonderful just the same. She was everything that he was looking for in a woman.

In some ways Aurora reminded him of his mother. The kind regard that his mother held for those around her was the same way Aurora treated Mari and Rosie. Liam thought back to a time when his mother Nicole had found one of the servants crying. His parents were having a party later on that day and some of the guests were staying over. His mother went in search of Lena and found her in one of the guest rooms. She'd been cleaning up and had her back to the door, when Nicole touched her arm to get her attention, Lena burst into tears. Immediately his mother told Lena to stop what she was doing and talk to her.

Lean did as she was told, and by the time she had finished, Nicole had learned that her housemaid was a victim of domestic violence. It seemed that the night before, while Nicole was at her Bridge Club, Mr. Hunt had forced Lena to stay late. He claimed that the floor in the outdoor gazebo needed to be scrubbed. When Lena explained that she had already done so, Victor Hunt practically dragged her outside and showed her a spot that she had missed. Because she had to stay late to redo the floor, her husband's dinner was late.

By the time Lena made it home, her husband was more than a little angry, he was downright mad, and he met her at the door with a balled up fist. Lena went on to say that her husband always made sure not to strike her where it was visible. He always picked spots on her body that no one but he could see. Everything from hard pinches to heavy punches to the back, underneath her clothes, Lena's body was covered with black and blue marks.

After she got through telling her story, Liam's mother took Lena under her wing. She gave Lena a pay raise out of her own pocket, and helped her leave her abusive husband and move into her own place. When all was said and done, Liam's mother had helped Lena move closer to her family in Upstate New York where she was able to go back to school and begin a career in the catering business.

When Liam's mother fell ill a few years back, Lena came back to Newport to help out. But his father dismissed her and told her to go back to New York. She'd stayed in a hotel for a few days and visited Nicole when she could and when his mother passed, Lena had made sure to attend the funeral. Liam couldn’t stop thinking about Aurora. Besides the fact that he'd never dated outside his race, he thought her much different than the other women he'd dated. He loved the fact that she was full figured, that was something that he was always attracted to. Her skin was like silk and her eyes were amazing. He remembered how sexy and seductive she looked when she was on top of him.

Aurora was a hard worker who seemed to sacrifice bits and pieces of her own life so that those around her could feel safe and have some serenity. She was the polar opposite of all the women he'd dated, and he also liked the fact that she was comfortable with her size and her body. That was a very rare occurrence. Too many times he'd found himself dating a woman who never seemed to be happy with the way that she looked. It was something that hindered his past relationships because he found that there was nothing more unattractive than a woman who wasn’t happy with herself.

But Aurora seemed different, she held an air of self-confidence without conceit, and that was something that he found very attractive. Liam smiled to himself as he thought of how much his mother would have liked Aurora. He missed her so much, and was sure that her premature death had been the result of years of abuse at the hands of his father. Thus his estranged relationship with him. Liam never could forgive his father for the years of physical and emotional abuse that he inflicted upon his mother. Even as she lay on her death bed, she made Liam promise to forgive his father for what he'd done.

Liam couldn’t stand to tell her the truth so he lied, he lied and promised his mother that he would forgive his father. He was convinced that after so many years of abuse, her body couldn’t take it anymore and it simply gave out. His mother was only seventy two when she died and even though his father had long since stopped the physical abuse, the emotional abuse carried on. He was glad when his father packed up and moved to Boston, he claimed that now that his wife was gone he could live the jet set life that he'd always wanted. And as far as Liam knew, he was still living that kind of life.
There's no way a man like that can change
.  Liam couldn’t stand to be around him, their communication had been cordial at best, and that was only when the need would arise. Had Liam had his way, he would sever all ties with his father once and for all. But the old man was getting old, and Liam hoped that before he died, he would ask him for forgiveness for driving his mother to an early grave.

Ken Holmes had been dead for several hours, and his assailant now sat alone in contemplation. It had been a hectic day, full of running around. But killing Ken Holmes had caused a great deal of relief. Relief and release, a release that was more than welcomed. Now all that was left was to take care of the rest of the people who were causing nothing but grief.

"So come on, out with it." Mari and Rosie sat in the kitchen and began accosting Aurora. "Well good morning to you too," she grinned and took a sip of coffee.

"Don’t play coy with us girl come on, out with it. How was the date? What did you guys do?"

"What didn't we do is more like it." Aurora winked.

Mari rubbed her open palms together. "I just love a woman who goes after what she wants."

"Aurora, you're my hero," Rosie grinned.

"I'm hardly anybody's hero. I had a need, and Liam Hunt was more than willing to fulfill that need." Aurora chuckled. "I heard that." Mari nodded her head. "But he does seem quite interested in you though."

"I know, it's just hard for me to think about getting into anything serious right now. I'm used to being by myself."

"Seriously though, I don’t mean to be nosy, but are you sure you don’t want to give things a try with him? He seems so nice." Rosie couldn’t help but ask. After all that she'd been through she was still a hopeless romantic who believed that there was someone out there for everyone.

"She's right Aurora," Mari chimed in.

"We'll see," she said. "We'll see. In the meantime I've got a surprise for you ladies. A volunteer Zumba instructor is coming over in about an hour, so get changed girls. We are going to dance out all of our stress," she said with enthusiasm.

"This place really is like a spa retreat," Mari and Rosie said in unison. "We may never leave."

"That's fine with me." Aurora beamed.

Liam couldn’t concentrate, there was work that needed to be done but he ended up handing it off to his assistant, Gary. He just couldn’t stop thinking about Aurora. He laughed when he thought of how desperately he did not want to get out of bed this morning. The scent of her perfume still lingered on his bed sheets and he closed his eyes and took in the scent. He had to figure out a way to see her again. It had been a long time since an image of a woman had lingered with him like that of Aurora Collins. She had a fire in her that aroused him in more ways than one. He had to see her, had to see her now.

Martin Gaines was another volunteer at
Aurora's Place
, today he was set to re- stain the back porch.

"Who is that?" Rosie blushed as she spoke.

Aurora didn’t have to turn around. "That's Martin, he's our handy man volunteer," she grinned. "Want me to introduce you?"

"Yes please," Rosie nodded anxiously.

"Sure, come on," said Aurora as she led Rosie to the back deck.

When Martin shook her hand, he couldn’t help but notice that Rosie was very pretty. She was petite and had the sweet face of a Madonna. Her sparkling green eyes held warmth and honesty in them. Her brunette hair was lightly tinted and tousled with loose curls. Given her current situation, she looked very calm. "It's very nice to meet you Rosie. You'll probably be seeing more of me, Aurora," Martin said. "I've decided to donate some more of my time to this place. Got to get it ready for winter," he grinned and went back to his work.

After Rosie excused herself and went back inside, Aurora whispered to Martin, "I don’t suppose meeting Rosie has anything to do with your sudden interest in wanting to winterize the place now does it?" She teased him.

"It might," he grinned. "It might."

"Okay, you ladies are moving way too fast for me," Aurora teased them.

"I told you ladies to take your time and get to know yourselves and fall in love with yourselves before you fall for another guy. But yet here you both are, one of you is flirting with a police officer and the other with a handy man. What is going on?"

Aurora couldn’t hide the smile on her face. She knew that every friend was different, and that every friend went about the healing process her own way. Both Mari and Rosie seemed to be more than ready to move on. "I know we are acting like a couple of teenage girls Aurora, but it's like we've been in limbo all this time, and meeting, and socializing with people is something that neither of us has experience in doing. Aurora it didn’t take us long to realize that we needed to get rid of those zeros to make way for our heroes." Mari chuckled loudly at her witty remark. Aurora nodded her head. "Just don’t forget who you are, that's all. You both deserve some flirtatious fun with the heroes of your liking." She grinned.

"Now it's time to get our Zumba on ladies."

Liam looked at his bruised knuckles as he drove to Aurora's. Punching that guy last night made him feel good; he wished that he could do it again. Although he knew that Aurora could handle herself, he liked coming to her rescue. He wished that he could be there for her all the time, hell he would be if that was what she wanted. But she told him last night that she already got what she wanted, and he hoped that she would want it more and more. The sex had been amazing, but Liam wanted more, he wanted all of Aurora Collins and he would do everything in his power to get her.

A slight smile escaped her lips when Aurora looked out the window and saw Liam's car pulling up in the driveway. They'd just finished their Zumba lesson, and she was a hot and sweaty mess.
That's what he gets for showing up unexpectedly
, she thought to herself. She wiped the sweat from her face and greeted him at the door. "Well this is a surprise," she said.

"I wanted to see you."

"You missed me didn’t you?" She asked and took a step closer towards him. He was instantly turned on. Her body was damp from the workout and he could see that her nipples were erect underneath the sports bra that she was wearing. Aurora smiled at his hesitation and took a step closer. Her breasts were almost touching him now, and he felt his cock stiffen. She reached up and traced the collar of his dress shirt, a dress shirt that fit his body to a tee.

"You can admit it," she laughed. "Come with me."

Aurora took him by the hand and together they made the short trip to her loft apartment. "Where are Mari and Rosie?" He asked. "Inside keeping busy. Don’t worry," she said and led him upstairs.

"I was sure that once you saw me that you'd kick me out."

"Now why would I do that?" She ran her hands across his shoulders. She pressed herself closer to him now until she could feel the bulge in his pants. Liam looked down at her succulent lips, he ran his tongue along their fullness before kissing her. Aurora stared at him and cooed, "Feels like something else misses me too," she said and slowly unbuckled his belt and let his pants fall to the floor.

"Aurora I didn’t come here for…"

"Quiet," she said and Liam obliged. He could feel her hands wrap around him, and he began to feel weak. Aurora saw the affect that her touch had over him, and her smile widened and her eyes darkened seductively. Liam leaned his head down and pulled her closer to him. Soon their mouths were open and their tongues began to lick together. He'd never met such a woman with such stunning intensity before, he can feel her energy, her sexuality and he seemed to tingle all over.