Inspired by Night: - a sexy new age romance (34 page)

‘Jealous?’ he asked.

‘Yeah, obviously.’ Callum grinned. ‘The girl of my dreams never wants to kiss me back.’

I glanced at Steven, who was watching me, his eyes sparkling with amusement. I really wanted to kiss him again. I wanted Callum to go away so we could get back to kissing. I felt frustrated and slightly appalled at my desire to behave like a teenager in such a public place. Perhaps this is why Callum put us in the far corner of the restaurant!

He topped up our champagne glasses and took our orders and finally, after what felt like hours but realistically was only a matter of minutes, he walked away.

We watched each other, a small smile tugging at the corners of Steven’s mouth, his eyes boring into me. I slid around the bench towards him as he watched me, amusement evident in his face.

‘So, first date, what are we supposed to talk about?’ I asked curiously.

‘I believe we are supposed to get to know each other a little,’ he explained.

‘Right. And if we already know each other a lot?’ I asked, placing my hand on his leg and leaning into him as he put his arm around me.

‘Then I guess we can just kiss,’ he whispered into my ear, his tongue tracing a path from my earlobe to my jawline, across my cheek, and finding my mouth. I reached up to touch his face, my hand weaving into his hair as we kissed. My desire for him was overwhelming, blocking out all sense of our location, the people around us, nothing mattered except us.

We were interrupted by the sound of plates being placed on the table.

‘Don’t mind me, you two just carry on.’ Callum teased before walking away. Steven’s arm stayed across my shoulder, pulling me into him, his fingers playing with my hair.

Reluctantly I pulled away and moved back to my place; picking up my cutlery I tried to concentrate on my food. He was watching me when I glanced up at him, smiling.

‘You know we may need to hire more staff,’ I said suddenly, ‘because I don’t know how much work either one of us will get done if we’re in the same office together every day.’

‘Well then it’s a good job you have your own office, isn’t it?’

‘God, I thought you were distracting enough as it was, strutting around in your cool clothes with your handsome face and your sideburns and your toned, slim body, making me want to kiss you. Now that I can kiss you, how am I supposed to ever do anything else?’

‘I guess you’ll be sending me to more conferences then?’

‘Oh I don’t know if that’s a good idea, you’ll bring in more work that I haven’t got time to do because I’m too busy thinking about kissing you.’

‘Well it’ll give you a sense of how frustrated I’ve felt since I joined Inspired,’ he said, smiling. ‘All that nonsense about being my boss, not trusting me. I wish I had just told you everything, I knew you were the one for me, I should’ve realised that my background wouldn’t matter.’

‘That day when you kissed me.’ I shook my head remembering it, ‘I replayed that over and over so many times, just thinking about it was enough to turn me on.’ I blushed as I admitted that, but I felt comfortable telling him, it was Steven after all.

‘I’m so glad all that confusion is behind us.’ He grinned.

‘Me too.’

We decided to skip dessert. We said our goodbyes to Callum, hailed a cab outside the restaurant, and made our way back to my flat.

I checked the fridge for drinks. ‘Do you want a beer?’ I called towards the hallway where Steven was hanging up our coats.

Suddenly I was aware of him behind me, his hands on my shoulders, his lips brushing against my neck. I cocked my head to one side, giving him more room, and moaned as his tongue began to trace circular patterns across my neck and bare shoulder. I felt him growing hard as he pressed himself into the small of my back. His hands moved across my body, cupping my breasts, his thumbs rubbing circles across my nipples. I turned my body to face him, searching out his mouth with mine and tracing the contours of his body with my hands. He picked me up and sat me on the edge of the counter.

A moment of
déjà vu
hit me as I remembered the story I described to Chris, I pictured it in my mind and smiled to myself as I opened my eyes and looked at Steven, the embodiment of the man I’d described. I had never been certain how Chris looked at all, but when pushed to describe how I imagined him I’d simply described how I wanted him to look. And here was that man right in front me. My perfect man, everything I’d ever wanted, had been right there all along and now he was right here in my arms. Happiness washed over me along with desire and longing. I wrapped my legs around his waist, pulling him to me as my hands moved to the fastening on his jeans. His erection sprung forward from the heavy material and his face relaxed as he opened his eyes to look at me, his lips brushing against mine as he encased his length inside a condom. Still kissing me he pushed my skirt up, his hands running up my thigh beneath the material to catch my thong and pull it down.

He wrapped my legs back around his waist and pulled me to the very edge of the counter before pushing himself inside me. I gasped, still tender but so ready for him, he filled me, stretching me, the feeling was exquisite. Slowly he pulled away from me before slamming back in, he rolled his hips as he pulled away and quickly slammed in, again and again, hammering away at my pleasure, pushing me to the edge and holding me there ready to break. I tensed my thighs around him, bucking my hips to meet his thrusts, driving him further and further into me as my orgasm built up until finally I crashed, riding the crest of the wave until my climax subsided. He moaned out loud as his orgasm rushed into me, squeezing every drop of his climax out of his spent body.

I wrapped my arms around him, cradling his head against my chest and kissing his forehead. His lips found mine and we kissed slowly, long exploratory kisses as our heartbeats slowed and our breath returned to normal.

He looked into my eyes as he pulled out of me.

‘So, did you want a beer?’ I asked smiling.

‘Oh, no, have you got any wine?’ I shook my head, ‘OK, I’ll run the shop and get a bottle, any preference?’

‘Something pink.’ I said smiling as he fastened up his jeans. I jumped down and straightened my skirt. No one would ever know by looking at us that we had just had sex on the kitchen counter. I followed him to the hall and watched him shrug on his coat.

He reached out to caress my face and planted a soft kiss on my lips.

‘I think I’m giving you a bad impression, my love,’ he frowned, ‘I promise you tonight, I am going to make tantalisingly slow love to you.’ He grinned, kissing me again. I felt my body flush with anticipation. It didn’t matter how fast or slow it was, I was enjoying every second of it, the arousal, the kissing, just being in such close proximity to Steven, his scent, the feel of his skin, it was all intoxicating.

I ran to my bedroom after he left and straightened up the room. I rummaged through my underwear drawer and found the new underwear Ruth and I had chosen a few weeks earlier. Only one set was still unworn, I didn’t want to wear something that Chris had seen, I wanted something that only Steven would see.

I quickly removed my skirt and top and wriggled into the underwear. The bodice was made from maroon satin with a black lace covering, the satin shimmering beneath the lace. Ribbon was woven throughout the edges of the cups and along the hem. The thong was black lace with the same maroon ribbon edging.

I studied my reflection in the mirror and wondered if Steven would like it.
Well, I’d do me!
I grinned at myself and grabbed my silk dressing gown, pulling it on as I made my way back to the living room.

I curled up on the sofa and eyed the laptop. I felt the skin on my neck prickle with discomfort. It was stupid, but I felt guilty. I couldn’t decide whether I felt guilty about what I’d done and how Steven would feel if he knew about it, or if I felt guilty about Chris. Should I give him a heads up about me and Steven?

I glanced at the clock. Steven would be back soon, but I decided I had time to make a quick call to Chris and let him know what had happened. I opened up FaceTime and created a connection to Chris. I saw the connection icon and heard a faint ringing. I waited for the screen to change but nothing happened. The ringing noise sounded louder suddenly until I realised it wasn’t the computer. The ringing noise was coming from the hallway, drowning out the sound from the laptop. I followed the sound and found Steven’s phone on the hall table.

Idiot, who goes out without his phone?
Curiosity got the better of me, there was so much about Steven I still didn’t know and I wondered who was ringing him at this time of night. I picked up his phone and checked the caller ID:

Olivia Jones wants to FaceTime with you.

Chapter Thirty-eight

I was still staring at his phone when he pushed open the door to my flat, clutching a bottle of wine.

‘Oh I wondered where I’d left it,’ he laughed with relief when he saw me holding it. He frowned when he saw my expression.

‘Get out,’ I hissed.

‘What? Ols, what’s going on?’

I pushed the still ringing phone into his chest and pushed him towards the door, ‘just get away from me.’

Steven took hold of his phone and looked at the screen. The colour drained from his face when he saw the caller ID message.

‘Liv.’

‘Don’t you call me Liv. I mean it, Steven, get out.’ I scowled at him as he took a step towards me, ‘Now!’ I screamed.

He held his hands up and grabbed his coat.

‘I’m really sorry, Ols, I can explain.’

I turned my back on him and waited for him to leave. I heard the door click shut and then flung myself on the sofa and burst into tears.

The following morning I heard the phone ringing in the kitchen, and reluctantly dragged myself out of bed.

‘What happened?’ Ruth said as soon as I picked up the phone.

‘What do you mean?’

‘Your text message last night just said ‘I hate him.’ Who? Steven?’

‘We came home from Callum’s last night and Steven left to go to the corner shop to buy a bottle of wine and I decided to FaceTime Chris.’

‘Why?’

‘I don’t know, it’s not important. The important thing is that Steven left his phone behind and when I tried to call Chris the call went to Steven’s phone.’

‘No! Steven is your cyber vampire?’ Her voice registered the same shock I’d felt last night.

‘It would seem so. He came back and I kicked him out. I haven’t spoken to him since. Although I’ve had about ten text messages from him and several missed calls.’

‘Well that explains the unidentifiable photos. Wow. I can’t believe it.’

‘I can’t believe he did that to me. So much for trying to prove I could trust him.’ I sighed miserably.

‘Did he explain why he did it?’

‘I didn’t give him the chance.’

‘He might have a good explanation.’

‘I’ve thought about this all night and I can’t think of a single reason that he could give me that would be acceptable.’

‘Give it a few days and see how you feel. You’ll have to face him sooner or later.’

I sniffed sadly, ‘I just can’t believe it. I lost both of them in one instant.’

‘Or looking at it another way, you get to keep both of them.’ Ruth pointed out. She was right as always; I had felt conflicted at times, frustrated that I couldn’t be with Chris but wanting Steven too, I’d felt guilty and ashamed about Chris because of how Steven might feel if he found out. Turns out he knew all along. All the things I loved about each of them I could have because they were both the same person.

I shook my head, ‘I just feel so stupid.’ I whispered.

‘You shouldn’t feel stupid, Olly,’ she reassured me, ‘but until you speak to him, you can’t know what his intention was and you’ll drive yourself insane making assumptions.’

She knew me too well. I would wallow in self-pity, imagining he’d planned it all from the start, with some hidden agenda that would ruin me. I ended the call and put the kettle on. Tea – the nation’s healer. I glanced over at my laptop and decided to shut it down, unplug it, and put it away on the bookshelf. I turned off my mobile and put it with the laptop, Ruth would call my landline if she wanted to get in touch and I didn’t want to hear from anyone else. Finally I settled on the sofa, turned on the TV and PlayStation, and loaded up
Lego Batman
. A big part of me wanted to punch Steven in the face, but I would settle for bashing Lego bricks instead. I destroyed every Lego building I could see and when there was nothing left to break, I punched Robin. Part of me liked making my character punch his assistant: it was as close as I was going to get to doing it in real life.

Chapter Thirty-nine

It was four days before I felt human again. I woke up that morning and realised I needed to shower. My armpits smelled like curry and my hair was so greasy my head slid down the headboard every time I propped myself up against it. I felt disgusting. Pull yourself together, for goodness sake! I ordered myself. I was behaving like I had been dumped; heartbroken and alone. I hadn’t been dumped – I’d been duped.

I had spent three very cathartic days pummelling the hell out of a variety of video game characters, watched some TV box sets, and ordered takeaway each night. Chris would have been horrified at my diet,
if he existed that is
. But now I’d exhausted all my hibernation options and felt like I needed to get out. I was ready to face the world again.

I felt almost happy as I rounded the corner towards the old school. I was pleased to see cars in the car park, as much as I loved the place there’s nothing creepier than an old, empty primary school. I wasn’t planning to stay long, I’d started sketching some ideas for a game and I wanted to collect the ideas so I could do some planning before we started back in the new year.

As I made my way along the corridor I heard a chorus of voices floating out from the choir room and smiled to myself. Hearing the choir always gave me goosebumps, something about the harmonies and the collection of voices all working together felt magical. I’d always wished I could sing.
Can’t be good at everything, unlike some people.
I shook the thought from my head, I didn’t want to think about how perfect Steven was right now.