Chapter Twenty-Two
Noelle was stunned. She’d never seen a grown man break down like this before. It was hard to believe this was the same James she’d parted with. His shoulders shook, and his sobs were loud and pain-filled. It sounded as if he was crying from the pit of his soul and someone had ripped his heart in two and left him broken.
Even though he’d hurt her, Noelle took no joy in seeing him so shattered. Unable to take any more of James’ suffering, Noelle went to her knees and wrapped her arms around him in comfort. He pulled her closer and buried his face against her neck.
Noelle doubted these tears were about her but he chose to share them with. She figured it must have taken a lot for him to become vulnerable in front of someone else. She rocked him gently from side to side and stroked the back of his head as the tears flowed down his face. Noelle wondered how long James had carried this burden as she wished she could take it all away.
She wasn’t sure how long they remained on the floor locked in a tight embrace but finally James tears subsided to muffled sniffles. When she felt the brush of his lips against her neck, Noelle believed it to be a mistake but then he did it again. She stiffened, releasing her hold on him and planting her palms against the wall of his chest. “James, not now.”
James held her tighter. “Noelle, please,” he murmured and rained kisses over her face. His cheeks were stained with tears, his eyes were red and his pain was still evident. She told herself this was for comfort, but her body said otherwise. Her nipples pebbled to painful peaks and an almost unbearable warmth built up within her core. What had started out as a means to sooth a fellow human turned into so much more.
She turned her head to dodge his seeking lips, not wanting to surrender so easily, but James was not deterred. He untied her apron, pulled it over her head and immediately began to fumble with the buttons on her blouse.
She should have pushed him away but Noelle missed the feel of James against her. Noelle responded to him like a fine tuned instrument under the hands of a musical virtuoso. As he pulled her blouse apart and buried his face in her cleavage, Noelle fumbled with his belt bucket. Managing to get the belt undone, and his pants unzipped she reached inside his pants until her fingers circled his hardness.
Noelle shivered in anticipation, desperately needing him inside of her. She’d regret this act later but for now all Noelle could focus on was how good his cock felt in her hand and how it would be even better plowing into her pussy. Already her juices flowed and her body ached with need for him.
James gently guided her down until her back was against the floor. Instead of unclasping her bra, he reached inside of it and pulled her breasts out. He took one turgid tip into his mouth and sucked greedily. Noelle moaned, feeling like she’d burst any second. How many nights had she lain in bed touching herself while imagining it was James’s hands? This was so much better than a dream. The circumstances weren’t ideal but she’d deal with the consequences later.
James covered to her other nipple with the same voraciousness, nipping and licking as Noelle sobbed his name. “Oh, James, what are you doing to me?”
“Something that has only been in my fantasies for the past several months.”
Her hand, still wrapped around his cock, gently pumped his hard shaft for several strokes. James grabbed her wrist, stopping her. “I need you now, Noelle. Please don’t say no.” He eased her hand away from his dick; with a moan James then undid her pants and worked them down her hips.
Noelle lay on the floor, helpless to do anything other than shiver with need for him. He made short order of yanking her panties off and tossing them aside. He pushed his pants and boxers down, releasing his cock to her hungry gaze. It was just as magnificent as she remembered, long, thick hard and ready for her.
He pushed her thighs apart and guided his cock to her slick entrance in hurried movements. James slid the tip of his cock along her slit before pushing past her labia just enough to tease her clit.
Noelle bucked her hips against him eager to be filled. “Stop playing.”
A ghost of a smile crossed his face before he surged forward, pushing so deeply inside of her, their bodies fused into one harmonious being. “Ah, so tight,” he groaned with his eyes squeezed shut. “I missed this so much, missed you.”
Noelle didn’t want to hear that because it would turn this moment into something else entirely, something she couldn’t handle. So instead Noelle concentrated on her baser needs and the way his cock felt deliciously stretching her walls until she didn’t think they could give anymore.
James lay still on top of her. “Give me a second. I just want to savor this moment.” His warm breath brushed the side of her face. James planted his hands on either side of her head and braced his arms to support his body as he began to move inside of her, slowly at first and then gradually picked up speed. “So damn good. So wet and tight.” His eyes were still closed as he seemed to delight in this stolen moment the two of them shared.
Noelle ran her hands down his chest and lifted her hips to meet his thrusts. They moved in time with each other as a trail of fire scorched its way throughout her body. It felt so right even though her mind screamed this was so wrong.
Apparently not getting what he needed, James let out a growl, grabbed one of her legs and raised it over his hip before thrusting mercilessly into her channel. His cock went so deep it almost hurt, but it was the kind of pain that made Noelle want more of it. James was like a berserker, taking all she had to give. She could barely keep up with him but somehow she managed to until her climax hit her so hard. Noelle screamed at the top of her lungs. “James!” Stars danced before her eyes after the intensity of her orgasm but James kept going almost as if he couldn’t stop.
Noelle braced herself for another ride on the James rollercoaster. He took her to heights she didn’t think imaginable. James was insatiable but finally, after releasing a primal yell of his own he shot his seed deep inside of Noelle. She opened her arms to him as he collapsed on top of her.
She hugged him tightly, holding him close and not wanting the moment to end because when it did she’d have to remember the bad. Things were so damaged between them Noelle didn’t think they could be fixed. So she needed to pretend, if only for a little while.
But that was not to be, because a knock on the door interrupted the comfortable silence that had fallen. “Noelle, are you okay? I thought I heard you yelling.” It was Pamela, one of her helpers.
“Uh, yeah, I’m good. I’ll be out in a bit.” She silently congratulated herself for managing to sound semi-normal.
“Okay…if you’re sure.” Pamela seemed hesitant.
“I’m fine, really,” she called out, completely embarrassed now because she was positive her employees had figured out what she was doing in her office. It was a good thing Paul wasn’t in today or else she’d get an earful from him.
“James, get off.”
She thought he would argue with her but he complied. James stood and pulled up his pants. He then retrieved her clothes, handed them to her and held out is hand to help her up.
Noelle took the offered hand warily, then turned her back to him as she redressed and tried to get herself in a decent enough order to face her employees and any other customers that came through.
“For the record, I didn’t come here for that, Noelle. I promise you I didn’t.”
Remembering how torn up he’d been on his arrival she decided not to call his bluff. After all, he could have very well been telling the truth. “Oh? Then why did you come?”
“I needed to see you.”
She squeezed the bridge of her nose as she gathered her thoughts. “James, I understand that you’re having a tough time at whatever it is you’re going through, but I hope you don’t make it a habit of coming over to see me just because you feel like it.” Taking a deep breath she turned to face him. When she turned around, she gasped at the sight of his face. He looked like he’d aged ten years, his eyes were still bloodshot from crying and he was a general mess, not the put-together man he usually projected. She wished she hadn’t been so harsh in her delivery but it had to be said. With the state he’d left her heart in, she couldn’t risk letting him in again.
“I know. You’re far more generous than most people would have been under the circumstances. You were the one good thing in my life but I was too busy tilting at windmills to see it. Noelle, up until a few days I set out on a quest to win you back not taking into consideration how you might feel. Even with all that happened in the last several months, I was selfish where you were concerned. I know you’re involved with Paul and I promise, I won’t say anything to him about this, but I believed you were mine and I felt I was entitled to you. But that was me still being an asshole.”
Noelle felt kind of guilty that James still believed something was going on between her and Paul besides friendship. “But Paul and I—”
“No, you don’t have to explain. I’m not owed an explanation but I own you one. You see, I loved—I love you and I was too proud and arrogant to realize it when I had you. I should have told you when I had the chance to make you mine for real, not just as a mistress but as my friend, my lover and my partner. But I blew it and now I have to accept we’ll probably never be together. I don’t deserve you after the way I treated you. I can’t apologize enough for my behavior but I just want to clear something up for the record. I was never ashamed to be seen in public with you, Noelle. I was ashamed of myself.” He walked across the office until he stood in front of her. “I’m proud of what you’ve accomplished, Noelle. And if you ever need me, you call me anytime, morning, noon or night.” James leaned forward and gave gentle peck on her cheek before walking out the door and also, as she suspected, out of her life.
This was what she’d wanted, but she never expected it to hurt this bad.