Lina 39
“Is that dress from the clothes Denny picked out?” Telor asked, handing me a to-go cup of coffee as we headed out the door. Sundays were normally a designated off-day all the way around, but Seline had asked if we could come in for a couple of hours today.
Waking up with him, getting ready for work, eating breakfast—it was all so…domesticated. I could almost believe that we were only a happy couple going about our normal day. That nothing lay in wait to harm us.
“Yeah, it is,” I said, checking the dress in the mirror next to the door. It was a blue and gray striped sweater dress with an off-the-shoulder neckline and a thick black belt at the waist. “Should I change?” I asked worriedly. Maybe it wasn’t as work appropriate as I thought.
He laughed, wrapping his hands around my hips, and pulled me to him. “No, definitely not. Now that you mention it, you should probably never take that dress off.”
“But if I don’t take it off, how will I take a shower?” Flirting with Telor was a language I was becoming very fluent in—one that I was more than willing to speak often.
“I’m sure we can figure out a way.” His voice grew thicker. “Speaking of taking clothes off, I have a surprise for you.”
“We don’t have time for that, we’re going to be late for work.” I rolled my eyes and pulled him into the hallway. His chest pressed against my back when he pushed the button for the elevator. “Maybe we have a little time.”
“Patience is a virtue, Cariad,” Telor mused. “But my surprise isn’t that.”
“Then what is the surprise?” I asked. While surprises made some people excited, they only made me nervous and queasy.
Rather than answer my question, he tucked me under his arms and kissed my forehead. He didn’t give anything away the entire time we were at work, either. Finally, when five o’clock rolled around, he blindfolded me and stuffed me into a car he’d borrowed from Denny.
With his hands covering my eyes, Telor walked behind me, leading me to our unknown destination. I hated surprises. Not like one of those girls who ‘hated surprises, but secretly loved them.’ I really one hundred percent loathed them. But Telor was so excited about our date that it was hard to squash his enthusiasm. By this point, I knew very little. We’d driven about thirty minutes to somewhere, and we were inside now. Telor had taken extra care to make sure that he gave nothing away, either.
“If you were any tenser, you would snap,” he whispered in my ear, his hot breath against my face forced a small sliver of dreaded anticipation from my body.
“I hate surprises,” I said in a breathless whisper.
“You’ll love this one, I promise,” he said, placing a small kiss on the tender skin behind my ear. He drove me nuts. He knew it, too, which was why he did most of the things he did, just to watch me squirm.
He led me up a short flight of stairs and into a warm room. A fire crackled somewhere in the room, and a sweet aroma floated around me as Telor lowered himself and pulled me into his lap. He moved his hands, and I opened my eyes and blinked as they adjusted to the dimly lit room. The frantic beating of my heart stuttered to a stop before picking up double time.
We were in a small, cabin-like room. There was a stone fireplace in the corner, and a solid glass wall looked over the Kentucky River, its surface was spotted with hundreds of stars reflected from the night sky. A dock led from the deck of the house out over the water.
“Denny thought it would be good for us to get away for a day, just the two of us. We are constantly trying to stay two steps ahead of the game. The few moments we have to ourselves are just stolen time,” he said, and moved my hair out of my face. Still in awe, I turned my face into his hand and pressed my lips to his palm. “If I have to spend the rest of my life running to stay with you and keep you safe, I’ll do it. But I want one night, one night that is just ours.”
“You. Are. The. Most. Amazing. Man. Ever,” I said, punctuating each word with a kiss.
My awe with the gesture was quickly overshadowed by the truth of Telor’s statement. We were just using stolen time. If we wanted to be together, we were going to have to spend the rest of our lives running, watching over our shoulders. Tori would never let us be. Suppressed anxiety crept its way back into my mind.
“Stop,” Telor told me firmly. Frustration laced his words and seeped into me. “Not tonight. Tonight there is no Tori, Denny, or Robin. Tonight, we are just a couple, madly in love with one another, spending a romantic evening together. Our problems will still be there waiting for us tomorrow.”
Even though I knew he was right, I couldn’t help but worry. I thought to argue for a second, but Telor quickly shut that thought down by pressing his lips to mine. He was tender with his kiss, but the need of the night resonated in me with every second our lips stayed connected. This was the only us time we’d really had so far, and the only us time in the foreseeable future. We needed to take advantage of it.
“You’re right,” I said, willing my fears aside. “They will be. Where are we, how did you do all of this?”
“Right across the river from Raven Run Nature Sanctuary.” His hands caressed my hips, moving down my thigh to the hem of my dress. “And I didn’t do anything but ask Denny get the place ready while we were at work.”
“We’re gonna have to leave early tomorrow to get to work on time.”
“We’re not going in tomorrow.” I raised an eyebrow at his words. “Why do you think we went in today?”
“It’s all ours? We are completely alone?” I asked, excitement growing stronger by the second. He nodded, and his smile morphed into a sexy little smirk.
“Completely alone.” He lifted me and placed me on the back of the couch, jumping over the back in one graceful lunge. “Until Sunday at noon, that is.” My legs wrapped around his waist at the same time my fingers threaded through his hair. “No phone calls? No pop-in visits from Cheyenne? No Gavin or Jilsey?”
“Nope, they, with the exception of Gavin, have been instructed that we are unavailable in all ways for the next forty-eight hours.”
His lips touched mine and moved to my jaw, my neck, my ear, and back to my neck. His teeth gently nipped at the sensitive skin stretched over the hollow of my collarbone. A small whimper escaped my mouth, and I felt him smile against my flesh.
“Something wrong?” Telor asked, all faux innocence, sucking my earlobe into his mouth.
“Hmm,” I managed, my breathing picking up speed.
He tightened his grip on my hips and pulled me off the couch, his lips connected with mine as he walked us down the dark hallway.
He kicked the door open and bypassed the light switch as he headed straight for the large king-size bed in the center of the room. Telor sat on the edge of the bed and leaned back so I was straddling his hips. The moonlight cast a silver light over us. His eyes were even brighter now than they had ever been in the daylight.
I trailed my hand over his cheekbone, then his jaw, and finally his mouth. They were smooth and warm, and I ran my tongue over his fuller bottom lip and was rewarded with his feral moan. A split second later, I was flat on my back with Telor hovering over me, his hands braced on the bed beside my face and his body so close but too far away from mine.
I could barely stand it—barely stand all of this almost. My body knew he was mine and wanted him so badly.
He stroked my hair with one hand, looking at me like I was the salt of the earth. “Every time I think you’ve never been more beautiful, I prove myself wrong. And every time, I’m glad for it.”
“You have a way with words, Mr. Conway,” I whispered past my thick throat.
Allowing my hands to move under his tight-fitting dark gray shirt, I lingered on the contours of his chest. Seeing where I was heading, he leaned back, removed his glasses, and whipped his shirt over his head with one hand. A victorious smile broke over his face as he took my hands and pulled me so I was on my knees, flush against his chest.
“I believe it’s your turn to lose something,” he said. Torturously slow, he slid my dress up my body with his thumbs hooked inside it and his other fingers sent waves of shivers through my body as they trailed upward behind my dress.
My body didn’t bother me, usually anyhow. The idea of Telor undressing me, knowing his eyes were taking in every inch of my skin, made me a little self-conscious. My thighs were a little thicker than most women’s, my stomach, while not large, was also not firm or toned. Anxiety started to creep into my blood, mixing with anticipation.
“Wrong again,” he murmured against my lips as he laid us back once more. Telor’s obvious adoration of my body set some of my insecurities at ease. His pants followed soon after, and were topped with my bra and underwear.
After all the times I’d attempted to take things further with Telor, I thought I would be more prepared for this. I was wrong. Those butterflies were alive and going strong. I swore I could hear his heart beating, too. It was a symphony of us—hearts beating, breathing heavy, and the rustle of the sheets under us.
His mouth moved down my body, over my collarbone, lingering on my breast. Nipping and teasing me before he glided his tongue down my body and up again.
“I want you,” he said in a throaty voice, barely restraining the raw passion he was trying so hard to keep hidden.
“Then take me,” I told him, not at all embarrassed to give voice to what we both wanted. He already had my soul and my heart; I wanted him to have my body, too.
He didn’t need to be told twice. He moved, and something between a moan and a gasp sounded from my throat as he entered me. My fingers dug into his shoulders as my back arched against the bed. Telor stopped when he was buried completely inside of me, giving me a moment to adjust. Pulling his face down to mine, I gave him a deep kiss and moved my hips against his. It was my turn to elicit a moan from him.
Rational thought and coherent words gave way to whimpers, moans, and his name over and over again. My eyes opened as he slowed his strokes. It was a truly intimate thing to look into someone’s eyes while making love—an intimacy that went beyond physicality. Telor’s lips cocked into a smirk as I tangled my fingers in his mass of black hair, using it as leverage to move my body with his.
The tightness built faster with every rock of his hips. Telor wrapped my legs around his waist and pinned my arms above my head, moving faster and harder now that he had all the control.
“Oh God,” I gritted through rasping breaths.
“You’re it for me, Cariad,” Telor said in a jagged whisper. “Forever.”
“Forever,” I managed to say before my body clenched around him.
We lay there for what felt like forever afterward. Skin against skin, my head on his bare chest, and his hand drawing lazy lines up and down my naked back. The moment was perfect. The perfect start to some us time. Against my will, thoughts of our dilemma crept into my mind. Pulling Telor tighter to me, I placed several small kisses on his chest.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice thick with fatigue.
“Just thinking,” I said, being vague on purpose to not ruin our night.
“That’s dangerous on the best days.” He laughed a little before returning to his serious tone. “Tell me.”
“I love you,” I said. I knew it was implied with our relationship, but I still wanted him to hear the words. “More than I can tell you.”
“You don’t need to tell me,” he said, and brushed a small kiss to the top of my head.
A small part of me was disappointed that he hadn’t said it back. Not that he had to say it for me to know it was true. Still, it stung.
“Do you actually need the glasses?” I asked to lighten the mood from my dark thoughts.
“No, I don’t.” He laughed. “I needed them before but not now. I wear them out of familiarity.”
“I can’t decide if I like them or not,” I mused, propping myself up on his chest. “They dim your eyes, but they are pretty hot.”
“So, you have a thing for men with glasses?” he asked, huskily, stirring a tight feeling in my stomach. “What else strikes your fancy?” He was laying the accent on thick. Maybe round two would happen a little sooner than planned.
“Hmm, let’s see.” Tapping my finger on my lips, I pretended to ponder his question and his assets. “Men in bands, men who can sing, men with English accents.”
Telor made a hurt sound. “You wound me, Cariad. I’m Welsh.”
“I apologize.” I’d never seen a man who was so touchy about his nationality. The things Gavin said came rushing back—how I’d only known Telor for a few weeks, how I barely knew him. I didn’t really know anything about Telor—at least not about before.
My nerves were getting the best of me, and I had trouble making the words come out of my mouth. “Can you do me a favor?”
“Anything,” he said immediately, and I felt a little bad about what I was about to ask, when I knew it would be something he didn’t want to answer.
“Tell me about you. About before.” I nervously fidgeted with my necklace, keeping my face turned to his chest.
“What exactly do you want to know?” His carefree demeanor vanished quickly, his face hardened, and my heart picked up double time at his change. His past was something that he didn’t like to talk about. The few times I subtly attempted to ask him a question about it, he had dodged it.
“You don’t like to talk about it,” I stated. “Why?”
“I wasn’t a very good person.” He attempted to turn his head, but I stopped him by gently placing my hand on his face.
“Tell me.” I kissed his cheek, ignoring the nerves in the pit of my stomach. “Please. For me. Nothing will change my opinion of you.”
“Let’s not go there tonight. I’ll tell you,” he said, sliding further down into bed and pulling me with him. “But it’s late, let’s get some sleep. We have plans tomorrow.”
“That’s not fair,” I said, pulling away from him, aching at the loss of his touch. I let the aggravation seep into my voice. “You wanted to know me; it’s not fair for you get to know me and not the other way around.”
“What do you want me to say, Catalina?” he asked, scrubbing his face hard with his hand, his five o’clock shadow dusting his jaw. A frustrated sigh escaped him as he looked into my eyes. “Do you want me to tell you about how I was a drunk who slept around? Want me to tell you how I knocked up a frequent fling, and she didn’t even tell me, because I was such loser? Is that what you want to hear? Or how about how I got shot by a couple of guys who thought I rigged a poker game?” I wanted him to stop this, but I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. He was on a roll, letting his past spill from his lips. “Is that what you want? You want to hear that your soul mate is a royal fuck up of a man who the world is better off without?”
“Stop,” I whispered, finally. I hated that I did that to him. I couldn’t believe he thought so little of himself. I wanted to forget everything that he’d just told me. Not because I didn’t want to know him, but because I did know him. One thing that he said I did want a little more elaboration on, though. “You…I mean…you have a…” I stumbled over my words. I didn’t want to say baby, because obviously it wasn’t a baby anymore. “Child, you have a child?”
“No. I had a child.” He might have been lying right next to me, but he wasn’t here. The past had caught him, and he was being sucked away a little at a time. “Adam died before he even took his first breath. He was too little and had a bad heart. Guess which lucky Guide got to watch him die and then hand his soul over to Tori?” he asked rhetorically. “Yours truly. Tori’s little way of keeping me in line.”
“I’m so sorry,” I said over a sob, though another came right after and was followed by several more. “I-I didn’t know. I shouldn’t have asked.”
My tears seemed to snap him out of whatever personal hell he was swimming in. As if my lips held the key to his salvation, he pulled me roughly to him and pressed his mouth to mine, moving them with a deep-seated need. I returned his kiss and allowed him to find himself again in me.
“I love you. I still love you,” I said and held his face in my hands. His chest rose and fell in an uneven rhythm against mine. “You ‘were’ that man. You’re not anymore. Now you are a better man, and you are mine.”
“I’m trying to be a better man.” His breathing was shallower as he laid his head against my chest and wrapped his arms around me. “You tame my soul, Cariad.”