Strangers (19 page)

It wasn’t as simple as that, but Kate had no intention of telling the truth, that her interest in art was a way of keeping an eye on her father.

* * * * *

“Delivery for a Miss Mermaid,” Charlie sang into the intercom.

He grinned in anticipation.
The door-release buzzed and he went in.
It had just gone eleven thirty.
Late, but not too late.
He’d been caught up in a meeting with a financial advisor, though Charlie handled most of his own business affairs.
His economics degree ought to be used for something.

“I didn’t think you’d come.” Kate leaned over the banister, watching him running up.

“I wasn’t going to.
You’re so mean, going out tonight.
I don’t like you anymore.”

He made a grab for her and Kate ran.

“Fine.
Piss off then,” she shouted.

She tried to shut her door, but Charlie put his foot in the way and forced it open.
He grabbed her, pushed her inside and thrust her back against the door, slamming it shut in the process.
He pressed his lips against hers, groaning into her mouth.
They kissed so long that when they broke apart, they simultaneously gasped, as though they’d popped to the surface after a deep free-dive.
Charlie stroked her cheek.

“Christ, Kate.
I’ve missed you.
You didn’t really want me to piss off, did you?”

“Not yet.”

He stood upright and looked at her.
“So how was your day?”

“Perfect now.”

He gave a slow smile.

“And apart from landing the role of a lifetime, how was yours?”

“India is out of hospital and I haven’t had a drink, a cigarette, a line of coke or a fuck.”

“And which of those were you offered?”

“Only the drink.”

Charlie took Kate’s hand and moved into the apartment.
“Done any of our jigsaw?”

“No.”

He picked up a square of material from the counter top and raised his gaze to Kate’s.

“Have you cut up your wedding dress?”

Kate’s eyes sparkled.
“Want to see what I’ve done with it?”

Charlie thought he probably would.

“Help yourself,” Kate said and held out her hands as if she were balancing trays of drinks on her palms.

She wore a little gray denim skirt and pink cotton V-necked T-shirt.
Nothing on her feet.
Charlie’s fingers hovered.

Kate laughed.
“Make a decision.”

He glared and then lifted her top over her head.
Charlie felt as though he lay in the dentist’s chair with all the moisture being sucked out of his mouth.
He was even in discomfort, though in an area somewhat lower than his mouth.

“What do you think?” Kate asked.

Charlie was barely capable of thought.
His reaction to Kate was pure reflex.
His already perky cock, became perkier.
His heart rate doubled and his need for her quadrupled.
The strapless bra was a frilly beaded thing that actually didn’t seem to hide anything.
In fact it seemed to be offering him Kate’s luscious nipples.
His fingers unzipped her skirt and tugged it down.
A deep groan rumbled from somewhere inside him.
Her panties were a scrap of heart-shaped fabric with three thin satin strings pulled away either side to curve over her hips.
In the center of the fabric was a little hippo.

He opened his mouth and nothing came out.
She stood with her hands fidgeting, her hair all messy and a nervous smile on her lips.
Charlie sighed.

“Say something nice or else,” Kate said.

Charlie whipped his shirt over his head and dropped it.
“Something nice or else.
You are soooo bad.
You’ve spoiled my surprise.” He toed off his shoes and unbuttoned his pants.
“Want to unzip me?”

Her fingers slid into the top of his pants, brushed the tip of his cock and she laughed.
“What happened to your boxers, Rambo?”

“I was so nice and smooth after that shaving, I thought it would be interesting to go commando.”

“And was it?” Kate slid her hand deeper inside his pants and wrapped her fingers around him.

“Not until now.”

She led him to the bedroom by his dick.

“I’ve been thinking about you all day,” he said.
“I was on my best behavior.
Kesner really liked me.
I even remembered to say thank you.”

Kate pulled his pants the rest of the way down and he stepped out of them.

“I kept imagining you shouting at me if I fucked things up.
I wanted to…”

“Wanted to what?”

“Wanted to make you proud of me,” he mumbled.
“Wanted to show you I’ve changed.”

She cupped her face with his hands.
“I didn’t know the old you.
I only know the Charlie who made my nose bleed, the guy with sad eyes I thought was a shark, the Charlie who saved me.
I don’t know the Charlie who smoked too much, drank too much and took too many drugs, because you haven’t done any of those things with me.
And I quite like the Charlie who fucks too much, so long as he only does that with me.”

“I want you so much I’m scared,” he whispered.

“I’m scared I want you so much,” Kate whispered back.

He slid his fingers under the sides of her panties and squeezed her butt, tugging her to him, rocking her onto his cock before edging her to the wall.
Charlie pressed his lips against Kate’s and dived into her mouth.
The heat he found there surged through his body and his toes curled.
The smell of her drove him wild, the taste of her was almost more than he could bear.
Charlie kissed his way down her neck and licked a path to her nipples while he brushed his thumbs under the half-cups of the bra.
He discovered a hidden fastening at the front, flicked it open and the material fell to the floor.

“Oh God, your breasts,” he said with a groan.

“Not very big.”

“Just completely perfect—the shape, weight, feel and taste of those raspberry-tipped nipples.”

“Why do men like breasts so much?”

Charlie looked up at her with his mouth fastened around her nipple.
He let her loose with a gentle pop and licked his lips.
“You’re asking me to think when every cell in my body is working toward achieving those lovely few moments of not thinking?”

She laughed.
“Yes.”

“Christ.
You’re so demanding.” Charlie nipped his way down her body, punctuating each sentence with a kiss.
“I have no fucking idea why men like breasts.” Kiss.
“Because they don’t have them?” Kiss.
“Because most women hide them and they want what they can’t have?” Kiss.
“Because they feel so great?” Kiss.
“Because it turns women on when men suck them?” Kiss.
He’d reached her navel.

Charlie pulled her panties off as he circled his tongue around her neat bellybutton.
When he rubbed his cheek against her, Kate moaned.
He dropped down farther to nuzzle against her inner thighs.
She was already wet.
He could see her folds glistening.
Her pussy seemed to shimmer as he watched.
Kate groaned as he kissed her between her legs, his tongue slipping through the valleys of her sex until it found the hood of her clit.
Charlie’s cock pulsed as he sucked.

He settled his knees more comfortably on the floor and pinned her against the wall, his hands on her hips.
A few moments of fluttering his tongue over the tight pearl of her clit and she came against his mouth with a quiet cry and a flood of cream.
Charlie lapped and sucked and felt her orgasm roll through him, from his mouth all the way to his cock, which released a spurt of pre-cum in response.
He kissed her back down, held her until she stopped trembling and then kissed his way back up Kate’s body.

“More,” Kate whispered against his mouth.

Charlie smiled and turned her to face the wall.
He angled his cock so it slid between her legs, along the folds of her sex, wrapped in her wet heat until his hips were shoved tight against her backside.
She wriggled and tightened her thighs around him and he hissed.

“Don’t move,” he said.
“Keep still a minute.”

Not that Charlie thought Kate keeping still would make any difference.
Every part of him ached for her.
He ran his hands over her shoulders, loving the satiny feel of her skin.
His eyes lingered on the scar, wondering when she’d trust him enough to tell him how she got it.
Then he slid his fingers up the front of her body to fondle her breasts.
Charlie groaned as the tips of her nipples grew tighter under his touch.
Even as he told himself not to, he rocked his hips against her, letting his cock slip and slide in her slickness.

“Oh you feel so good,” he whispered.

He wished she was on the Pill, wished he could just thrust inside her without having to put on an overcoat.
The broad head of his cock nudged against the entrance to her body and Charlie found himself bending his knees so he could push up and slip inside her.
So easy. Just push
.

While he still had a few functioning brain cells, he yanked himself away.
She tempted him beyond reason.
Kate wrapped her trembling fingers in his and led him to the bedroom.
She lay on one side and watched as he reached into the bedside cupboard for a condom and peeled it over his cock.

“I always think I want to play for hours and then I can’t help myself,” he said with a groan of frustration.
“It’s all your fault.”

She laughed.
Charlie growled and pushed her onto her back.
He lifted her legs in the air and levered them toward her chest.
When he looked down at her, he groaned.

“Oh God.
You need locking up,” he whispered.

Keeping hold of her ankles, he spread her legs.
Charlie knew his cock was the same, but with no hair to blur the edges, he looked bigger and felt bigger.
His eyes closed despite his efforts to keep them open as he slid straight into her.
Down, down, down.
It was like diving into a deep pool, the heady sensation of senses being totally overwhelmed.

Kate began to make little mewling noises, and all hopes Charlie had of taking this slow began to evaporate.
Within three long strokes into her, he’d deteriorated to short, frantic bursts, dragging his cock in and out of her tight channel.
His fingers gripped her ankles as he thrust.
He could feel her pussy tightening around his cock, pulling at him when he withdrew, and Charlie’s last fingertip hold on the cliff edge slipped.
He powered into her like a super-stud porn star he’d once watched and had decided they’d speeded up.

Maybe not.

“Oh Christ,” Charlie groaned, “I can’t stop.”

“Think…I want…you to?”

The force of his mounting climax left him hovering between bliss and pain, but he was seriously incapable of slowing.
He felt Kate come and she bucked into him, her head thrashing from side to side.
About the only bit of her she could move.

“Charlieeee,” she wailed.

His balls on fire, Charlie fell into the thrall of relentless, hot, slick friction.
His muscles grew taut and his heart rate flew off the scale.
He had a sudden, momentary fear that what he and Kate had was too good, that to be this perfect wasn’t allowed.
Something would go wrong.
Then everything rushed together, sucking him inside a physical and mental vortex and he jetted into her with loud cries of pleasure.

After the last delectable shudder had slipped from his body, Charlie pulled out of Kate and eased her legs straight.
He dealt with the rubber and then pressed his face next to hers.
His limbs still trembled and his breathing remained jerky.

“Did I hurt you?” he whispered.
“Sorry.”

“More,” Kate whispered and snuggled closer.

Charlie wrapped his arms and legs around her.
Along with the feeling of deep sexual satisfaction, he was afraid.
He feared he’d fuck this up because that’s what he always did.
No matter how much he didn’t want to ruin it, that’s what would happen.

He continued to hold her in his arms long after she’d fallen asleep.

* * * * *

Kate’s eyes flashed open when Charlie shook her.

“What is it?”

“No…I want,” he gasped.

“What?” She reached up to stroke his face.

“I had a bad dream,” he whispered.
“I dreamt I’d lost you.
Oh God, don’t leave me.
Don’t leave me.”

She tugged him into her arms.
“It’s okay, Hippo.
I’ve got you.”

“You’re mine.”

“I’m yours,” Kate said.

“I don’t want to fuck this up.
You mean so much to me.”

The lump in Kate’s throat was hard to swallow.
She’d thought she could never trust anyone again after Richard but Charlie was impossible to resist.

His hand slipped between her legs.
The moment he began to rub her clit between his finger and thumb, her body responded.
He stared at her intently, watching her face as he brought her off.
Kate felt like something was expanding inside her, a thundery storm on a summer’s day, promising lightning, dark clouds rolling overhead until the weight of the air made it hard to breathe.

“You are so hot and wet and sweet,” he said with groan.
“I love making you come.
Tell me what it feels like.”

“Oh God, I don’t know if I can.”

“Try.”

“It starts off warm and soothing but right from the outset, there’s that sense of it building toward something.” She gulped.
“A sort of an intense…tightening in my belly.” Words began to run.
“If you change what you do, the angle, the pressure, that changes something inside me too, might speed up, might slow down but it keeps coming.
Like a mushroom cloud from an explosion or a big wave rushing into the shore.
Nothing can stop it and you know it’s going to swamp you, engulf you and you want it to but don’t want it to, not yet, so you run and run only you can’t do anything to make it not happen.”

She released a long groan as Charlie’s persuasive fingers pulled her into the heart of darkness, only for her to be hurled back into the light, fast as an arrow.

“Oh God, Charlie, Charlie.”

Kate stiffened and shuddered as her body tensed and relaxed in the tenacious grip of her orgasm.
Then his lips were all over her face, kissing and kissing and Kate knew she was going to die when he left her because she didn’t want to live without him.

He threw off the sheet and straddled her, his knees either side her hips, his hand on his erect cock.
His eyes looked black in the dim light.