Growing and Kissing (31 page)

For once, Murray’s voice was shaky. “I want paying,” he said. “You can have the contract but you gotta buy it out.”

I heard Sean snarl and closed my eyes, waiting for the sound of the hammer hitting bone. That would be it: Murray dead, Sean in jail—I might never see him again.

But the noise that came instead was tiny, the barely-audible thump of something small being tossed down on the floor. A moment later, Sean stormed out of the office. He did a double-take when he found me lurking outside, then pushed something into my hand: my contract.

“Tear it up,” he told me, and I did—in long, loud rips that felt like freedom.

“But how did—you don’t have any money either!” I said.

He shrugged and kept walking towards the street, laying his hammer over his shoulder. He took out his phone and started dialing.

“What are you doing?” I asked, frowning.

“Calling a cab.”

I glanced at the Mustang, confused. Then I realized what he’d done and my face fell. “Oh my God...but that car’s the only thing you care about!”

He stopped walking and turned back to me. “No,” he said. “It’s not.” He put his finger under my chin and tilted my head up and then his lips were coming down on mine. Hard and ferocious, forcing my lips apart. I gladly opened for him, molding my body to his. Every press of his lips sent fresh ripples of pleasure through me and I gave myself up to it completely, floating on a river of pure relief. My chest was going fluttery at what he’d just said...what he’d just
done.

His tongue explored my lips and then dived inside, the kiss turning deeper and hotter. His hands slid through my hair and then clasped my shoulders, holding me in place for a second. But that wasn’t enough for him. Before I knew what was happening, his hands had slid down my body and I was being lifted like a doll, one hand on my ass and the other across my back. He growled and kissed me again and again, arms locked around me in an unbreakable hold. I moaned in pleasure—it was like nothing I’d ever experienced, even from him. He’d kissed me plenty of times but I’d never felt so...
kissed.

And then I realized what it was: he was kissing Murray right out of me.

When he finally released me, he drew in a long breath, still refusing to put me down. “Let’s get back to the mansion,” he said. “There’s something I want to show you.”

Louise

At the mansion, I insisted on checking on the plants before we did anything else. But they seemed to have survived the move just fine: they were shooting up and we were nearly ready for the final phase, where they’d flower. Maybe, just maybe, we could still pull this off.

Sean took me by the hand and led me up the staircase, both of us watching carefully for rotten planks. I hadn’t even gone upstairs when I rented the place: I’d only been interested in whether there was room to grow. Now I looked around in wonder at the antique wallpaper and the wood paneling. It was a beautiful place, even if it was in an appalling state. With enough work, it could make a great home for someone.

Then Sean pushed open a set of double doors and I just stopped and stared in amazement.

The master bedroom was missing nearly all of the glass in its windows, but the holes had been sealed with cardboard and the summer weather meant it wasn’t too drafty. The roof was intact and even the floor seemed to be solid. But none of that mattered.

What mattered was the bed.

It was a huge four poster built out of dark, varnished wood. There were no drapes but it was easy to imagine them hanging down from the thick cross-beams. And lying ready on the bed springs was the mattress from the grow house.

“I mean, y’know…” Sean sounded embarrassed. “I know there’s no sheets or anything. But...I thought you’d like it.”

“I
love it!”
I yelled and dived on, bouncing on my back on the mattress. Even without drapes, being on the bed was like being in a separate little room, intimate and magical. It didn’t matter that there were cracks in the room’s plaster and peeling paint:
instant princess!
And along with all the innocent, little-girl dreams that brought back, a few full-on adult ones swam into my mind. This was the sort of bed you didn’t so much
make love
on as
got ravished
on.

Sean joined me on the bed, but even as he reached for me, I jumped up and crossed the room, hungry to explore. There was a huge, silvered mirror hanging on the wall opposite the bed. Like the bed, it must have been too big or too much trouble to move when Mrs. Baker left. And next to it was a free-standing closet taller than me—taller even than Sean. You could have driven a small car through its huge, polished doors. I ran my fingers over the dark wood in wonder and then opened it up, just to see how big it was.

And found the dress.

It was emerald green with a low-cut, almost square neckline and a long, flaring skirt. A dress that was so simple and classic it could have passed for anything from medieval gown to modern day red carpet. I had no idea how old it was—twenty years, fifty, more? I sniffed it, but it didn’t smell musty at all. I turned around holding it, to show Sean.

He was kneeling up on the bed and looking at me in a very strange way. “What?” I asked, glancing down at the dress in case there was a killer spider or something crawling up it.

“
Put on the dress,”
he ordered. His voice was actually strained with lust—I could hear it in every silver-edged, panty-melting Irish syllable.

I swallowed and looked at the dress, excited but uncertain.

He tilted his head to one side and gave me a
don’t make me come over there
look.

I took the dress and hurried out into the hallway. It felt wrong to change in front of him and spoil the effect. Whoever the dress had been made for, she’d had the same hips as me, but slightly smaller boobs. Fastening up the eyelets on the back of the dress made it lift and squeeze everything together and—well, there was a lot of cleavage on display. Or perhaps that was the idea.

Barefoot—because sneakers didn’t feel right—I looked like some princess stealing out of the castle to see her secret lover...or possibly a maid, summoned to the king’s bedchambers, I couldn’t decide. “Close your eyes,” I told Sean as I opened the door.

When I walked in, he was sitting up on the bed with his hand over his eyes. I took a second just to admire him: his soft, glossy black hair, the hard line of his jaw with its rough stubble, those lips that could snarl or grin or kiss the hell out of you, but were never cruel. Those shoulders, solid as rock and smoothly tan. The forearms, dense with muscle and thickly veined, and those hands that looked as if they could crush rocks.

“Open them,” I whispered. I was suddenly nervous—did I just look stupid?

All my reservations were blown away with the very first look he gave me. “Sweet Jesus,” he croaked. He’d given me the full heat of those Irish eyes before, but this was beyond that, beyond just sex. He was
entranced.
It felt as if he was drinking in every detail, as if I was some priceless piece of art. And there’s no feeling like that in the world.

He got off the bed and strode towards me. Without words, he stripped his tank top off over his head and tossed it away. I tried to look up into his eyes but I was suddenly having a hard time tearing my gaze away from that tanned, sculpted chest. He was breathing slow but deep and, when I finally managed to look up, the look in his eyes was almost primal. Sure, I was some piece of art...one he had to have.
Right. Now.

He came closer and closer, close enough that he could put his hands on my waist. He touched me almost gingerly: not as if he was scared, more as if he knew that, once he touched me, his self-control was going to disappear very, very fast. I’d never seen him so turned on, so
animal.
It would have been scary, if it had been anyone else. But I knew he’d never hurt me or do anything I didn’t want him to. And that made it just incredibly hot.

“
You
...” he said, his breathing so harsh now that he almost had trouble getting the words out. “
Look…
” He shook his head as if, in his eyes, words couldn’t do me justice. He ran his hands up the dress, following the bodice as it went in and then out, staring at my neckline. Those powerful fingers moved closer, closer….

“Wait—are you thinking about ripping it off me?” I asked.

His thumbs stroked the point where the fabric met the sides of my cleavage as if to say,
Fuck yes.
I started to rapidly melt, but: “Don’t rip it,” I said quickly. “It’s not ours. You can do anything else, but don’t rip it.”

Out of nowhere, a twist of dark heat darted straight down my body and exploded in my groin. I really liked the way that sounded. So I said it again. And this time, I threw in
to me.
“You can do anything else to me.” Another twist of heat, even stronger than before.

Sean tilted his head to one side questioningly. His eyes widened and he mouthed
Louise!
looking mock-shocked. But then his lips twisted into a dark, knowing grin.

I swallowed. My mind was swimming back to those historical romances I used to read, where the heroines wore dresses not so different from this one. I’d started to breathe fast and, every time I panted, my breasts lifted. With the tight dress, low neckline and no bra, there was a lot of...well,
heaving.

I pressed just a little closer to him. How would those heroines have said it? I looked up into his eyes and gave him the full thing. “You can—You can do what you will with me, but please don’t rip my dress you...you...
Irish beast!”

I wasn’t sure
beast
really came off right, without a British accent. But it didn’t seem to matter.

With a sudden yell, Sean grabbed me around the waist and threw me—
literally threw me,
in a yelping bundle of kicking legs and flapping skirt—to land with a soft
wumf
on the mattress. By the time I managed to sit up, he was stalking towards me. His eyes were gleaming in a way I’d never seen before.

“Do what I will
,
Lady Louise? Are you
sure?
”
Oh God,
he was good at this. And he had the accent for it, too, He stripped his jeans off, taking his jockey shorts with them. He was already hard and he ran a hand up and down his shaft, brandishing it like a weapon.

I stared at it, transfixed. Maybe it was the fantasy, but I actually went a little heady, the blood pounding in my ears. Much more of this and I was going to full-on swoon. Between the dress, the four poster bed and his Irish gorgeousness, I really did feel like I was a maiden about to be ravished. He started to lift the dress up my legs, baring them, and I started to struggle—well, thrash around on the bed. I didn’t want to actually get free. “Un—Unhand me!” I shrieked.

He pressed my ankles down on the bed with one big hand and continued. At which point I learned, to my delight, that when a big Irishman decides he’s going to ravish you, you can struggle as much as you like and you won’t put him off his game. I started to buck and wriggle, feeling the heat spike higher and higher inside me with every inch the dress climbed.
God, what’s happening to me?

I began to strain upwards with my ankles but by now he’d used his legs to pin me, leaving both hands free to pull the dress up my legs. My thighs were bared, then my very un-medieval panties. Which turned out not to matter at all because he simply grabbed and, with a twist and pull of his powerful arm, snapped the elastic. I shrieked again as I felt myself bared, and crossed one leg over the other as tightly as I could. I was panting, now, and the heat was thrumming through my whole body, making it sing like an instrument. I’d never felt anything like it before.

Sean stopped pulling the dress up when it reached my navel. Then he leaned down to kiss my lips and—

Suddenly I was twisting my head away, moving one way then the other to avoid him. I was panting, my face glowing. “You beast!” I managed. “How
dare
you!”

A truly evil grin spread across Sean’s face. He moved fast, stretching out on top of me. I bucked and writhed under him, but his muscled legs easily pinned mine down. His chest pushed down against my breasts, trapping me against the mattress. I started to push at his shoulders with both hands, but he didn’t budge even an inch. The realization that
I really couldn’t stop him
made me go melty inside.