She had expected to find flowers. She had wanted to find flowers.
She picked up the dark green velvet and pulled it out of the box.
She let her fingers run over the pleated paisley silk. Her heart skittered, hard and irregular. With slow steps she laid the dress across the bed, draping it for proper display.
Then she stepped back.
For long minutes she simply stared at the dress, absorbing the reality of it.
Then she went back out to the sitting room and looked around the suite…a suite in a hotel that had such high prices it had taken two years’ worth of her savings to stay a week in the smallest, meanest room in the hotel.
She heard Rhys’ voice again, from last night.
It’s amazing what compound interest will do, given enough time.
How much time
had
it taken?
She hurried over to the bar and dug out a can of pop. It took three attempts to open it and she slopped it over the bar as she took her first mouthful. She paused after two mouthfuls, wondering if it would stay down, for it churned in her stomach.
She heard the locks on the door thunk.
Rhys pushed the door open and came in, looking around for her. “You’re here. Good.” He glanced at the white box on the table and smiled. “And the dress, too.” He picked up her hand and kissed it. “There’s a Christmas party here at the hotel tonight. We’re invited.”
“Who invited us?”
“The manager.”
“You know him?”
“Tolerably well. Enough to be invited, anyway. It’s black tie, so I did some fast arranging.” He glanced at her, and then studied her more closely. “Are you all right? You don’t object to the dress, do you?”
“It’s beautiful. Although the price tag makes me want to puke.”
“That’s what credit cards are for.” He shrugged. “I can afford it, Jenna. Allow me this indulgence. Please?”
She took a deep breath and it seemed to help.
She came around the bar to his side and slid her arms around his chest, resting her head on his shoulder as she had longed to do. His heart beat against her cheek and it sounded perfectly normal.
His hands stroked her back. “You’re trembling.” He sounded surprised.
“I’m afraid. There’s so much to know, to learn. It’s all going so fast. I wouldn’t have chosen this for myself, Rhys but I’m being forced to it.
All I want to do is be myself. I just want both of us to be normal. Ordinary.”
“For tonight, we can.” His voice rumbled against her ear.
“And the future?”
He lifted her chin, made her look at him. “There are no guarantees. For anyone. You just have to take time as it’s given to you. Moments, remember? Enjoy the moments.”
She kissed him and knew as she reached for a reassurance he couldn’t give her. But for the moment she could fool herself that all was normal.
Ordinary
. That Rhys was simply a wonderful lover she had found. A vacation romance.
The kiss deepened and then she was no longer pretending. With fingers that trembled with excitement, not fear, she stripped him of his shirt and ran her hands over his shoulders and chest. She admired the strength they represented and enjoyed the heat of his flesh, the satiny touch of the skin and the hard muscles beneath.
His hands deftly slid her tee-shirt from her as she played.
Yes, this was
normal
. Rhys was just a man. He responded as a man. All her dark imaginings were just that: her imagination run riot. But she saw a flash image of her computer screen and the search engine results, which seemed to throb and glow in her mind like a neon sign.
Accusing.
Tormenting her.
The corner of doubt remained and fear with it.
Jenna shucked off her jeans and panties, the last items of clothing she wore.
She pressed herself against him. “Make love to me, Rhys. Fuck me as hard as you can. I need to feel you.”
His hands on her ass were hot and demanding, holding her against him. He kissed her again, his tongue driving deep. When his lips lifted from hers finally, she pushed him far enough away from her to undo his jeans and slide them to the floor so he could step out of them. She stripped him bare then took his stiff cock in her hands and stoked it. Rhys’ gasping groan urged her to do more to make him groan again.
That groan was as human a sound as any man could make. How could she be wrong about him?
She stepped back a pace, feeling a wanton abandon, and a desire to test his human frailties so she could see them with her own eyes. Empirical evidence that he was completely human would be indisputable evidence.
She cupped her breasts, looking at him. “Want to touch them?” she asked. “Lick them?”
Rhys’ eyes narrowed. “You have to ask?” he growled.
It wasn’t quite enough. Not yet. She needed to push him further.
She stroked her nipples with her fingers and let her eyes close dreamily. “Mmm…” Slowly, she began to run her hands all over her body, a languorous, sensual stroking.
Rhys took a step towards her. He radiated a stunning urgency and his sense- image spiked her own excitement. She licked her lips, reckless abandon gripping her.
“No! Stand still. Stay where you are. Watch.”
“If I watch I cannot stand still. Do you know how that can drive a man, Jenna?”
His voice was husky, but the sharp, feral pleasure pouring from him caught at her throat and left her breathless. She hadn’t fully appreciated until that moment how exciting a man found it to watch a woman pleasure herself, but now she used the knowledge to the full. She licked her fingers and circled her nipples with the wet tips, making them crinkle and tighten sharply. While caressing one breast, she let her other hand slide down to her pussy and stroked it.
She delved deeper with each stroke.
Although this was a familiar act for her, it seemed new and utterly thrilling with Rhys watching. She was hyper-aware of her fingers slipping between her labia and the gentle stroke along her clitoris. Each stroke was a silvery ripple of pleasure, far more intense than any she had ever experienced on her own and she gasped in reaction. Her juices were copious, coating her fingertips with hot moisture.
“Jenna…” Rhys’ growled warning made her heart jump and pleasure rippled through her. The deep excitement in his voice was unmistakable. Now she saw his weakness. His vulnerability.
She closed her eyes, caught up in the waves of pleasure from her masturbation, concentrating on what her fingers did and letting the excitement build up. She was aware of the little moans and sounds she was making, but they sounded distant, as if another person made them.
“Dear god,
enough
!” he demanded, his voice thick.
He sounded almost drunk.
Jenna scuttled backwards as he lunged for her. But he was faster. His arm snagged around her waist and brought her to her hands and knees. It should have given her a tactical advantage because it is more difficult to pick a person up when their center of gravity was close to or on the ground.
But picking her up wasn’t his intention. She felt his hands on her hips and realized with a rush that he intended to take her right here. Even as the realization shot through her, his cock pushed through her folds, spearing her, filling her.
She clenched the carpet, gasping, her hips twitching forward.
Rhys drove into her with a single-minded intention. Had she pushed him that far?
His heat permeated her, through his cock inside her and from his hands on her hips and the heat of his pelvis as he slapped up against her buttocks with each frantic thrust. He panted.
It was a raw, driven sound she had never heard from him before.
She had wanted this, had she not? She closed her eyes, giving herself up to the sparkling waves of reaction rolling through her. They welled and grew.
Stroke yourself
.
Do it.
The command was harsh, but behind it she heard the ragged excitement that had driven him to take her in this way. She’d tapped into a primal, human instinct in him and now it flowed to her.
Shaking with a novel excitement far beyond anything she had ever experienced before, she reached between her legs and stroked her clitoris with little hard strokes and fed the silvery thrilling spikes back to Rhys.
In return she felt his pleasure spiral, uncontrolled and blind to anything but her sensations, which steepened the ascent and made it sharper and keener.
Her climax ripped through her and she groaned aloud and mentally, as Rhys climaxed, his fingers digging into her hips and his body locking tight over hers. With each spasm of his cock, the hot liquid spilled inside her. His mind touched hers, giving her a glimpse of an incoherent maelstrom of admiration, joy and a total, primal satisfaction enhanced by her own climax. Behind it all was a wondering, a small fear at the way she had begun to encompass his mind, soul and body.
There.
There
was the human frailty she had sought. But having found it brought her no comfort at all.
With a deep, guttural groan, he withdrew and fell to one hand on the carpet beside her. She glanced at him. His eyes were closed tight and sweat showed on his temples and forehead.
Jenna climbed to her feet, taking several seconds to do it.
She walked with unsteady steps to the bathroom to clean up.
She shut the door softly behind her, then used a cloth to soothe the heated places where Rhys had been gripping her flesh.
Then she wiped away his cum.
She scooped a small handful of it into the palm of her hand and studied it. Could there be a more human sign that this, the spilling of a man’s seed?
She washed it away, trying to rinse away her doubts and fears with it.
* * * * *
The Banff Springs Hotel Christmas party was hosted by the hotel itself. It was a glittering formal affair for the hotel’s favourite guests, suppliers, friends, business associates and more. The sumptuous banquette served over three hundred people, in the biggest function room in the hotel, and must have kept dozens of staff busy in the service areas behind the scene.
As soon as she saw all the diamonds, gold and fur on parade, Jenna relaxed. She was barely adequately dressed in her outrageously expensive gown and far from being overdressed.
You outshine them all
, Rhys assured her.
She could accept it as more than an offhand compliment, because she saw behind his words the sweeping glance he’d made, taking in all the guests within his view and how none of them had drawn his eye the way she did.
There was a secondary tone to his thought; one of pride.
That kept her chin up, but her eyes were wide as she watched the other guests mingling and chatting. Very few people appeared to be on their own. A solitary man with a crookedly-tied bowtie watched her but was quickly joined by a woman who placed a whiskey glass in front of him and he turned to smile at his companion as she sat down beside him. Then Jenna realized many people were watching her, for she would catch their gaze before they averted it or turned away.
She tucked her arm under Rhys’ elbow.
“What is it?”
“People. Watching us. Do you think they’re…like us?”
You can determine that for yourself.
Right. I forgot
. The next time she caught someone’s gaze sliding away from hers, she reached out mentally to sample them and found nothing. No field, no hint of energy or response.
* * * * *