Summer's Edge (18 page)

His fingers grasped her zip and dragged it down roughly, letting her dress slither to the floor. Unfastening the clip of her bra, he let his knuckles brush against the side of her breasts. She gasped as he ran his hands over her nipples and down to her stomach, pulling her against him. Her body tingled at the feeling of his hands, warm and firm.

Then wordlessly he turned her round and bent her over the edge of the sofa, pushing down over it, just as in the film. His fingers trailed the lace edge of her underwear, then he hooked them inside and ripped them away. Her last defence was gone. She was at his mercy. Alice barely noticed the discomfort of the position as she was so turned on. She was almost embarrassed by how wet she could feel herself getting.

She straightened slightly on instinct to reduce her exposure. But he pushed her back down and gripped her hips, angling them so he had access to her. Her stomach was pressed against the hard padding of the fabric; with his superior strength and weight he was fully in control.

Then he thrust into her in one long, hard, unyielding movement.

She was ready for him but it still hurt, it was so fast and deep. She gasped but he didn't relent.
 

It felt like he was filling her, stretching her with every stroke. He was hitting the end of her inside which was a bit uncomfortable and she tried arching her back to reduce the depth. But he pressed back down on her, getting the angle he wanted, making it as deep and forceful as possible. She could hear his breathing, ragged, above her.

She liked it but she knew that it was about his need, his desire for her. She was bent to his will. That made her want it too, that he could want her so much. It turned her on in a strange way that she could be needed by him with this intensity: he had to have release and it had to be with her, like this, no refusal and no escape.

He reached round and slid one hand between the side of the sofa and her front. His fingers found her clitoris and pressed against it. Each time he drove into her it rubbed her against him even though he was pushing her so tightly from behind that he could barely move his hand.

This was enough to turn any discomfort she had felt into sheer pleasure. Suddenly she wanted him as deep as possible, even deeper. Hotter. Harder. 

She was grinding back against him, meeting his thrusts. Her legs felt weak and she wasn't sure she could even have stood if he wasn't pinning her up with each movement.

They were both glistening and wet with sweat, out of breath.

He said her name and swore under his breath as he came, managing to bring her over with him at the same time. He was pumping into her and she cried out as the shockwaves went through her body. His orgasm seemed to last for ages. He was still thrusting after hers faded down to a heavy warmth that flushed all through her body. She felt absolutely filled and replete.

He collapsed onto the sofa, exhausted, pulling her over the side and onto him.

For a while he was unable to speak.

Eventually he asked her, "so you liked that?"

"Yes." She now felt shy. "Did you?"

"Christ Alice, what do you reckon?" He was still out of breath. "I don't think there's many blokes who would pass up the chance to throw a girl like you over and have their way."

She was partly flattered that he found her so hot but at the same time anxious that she was just a girl. As though there were any number that he would want to do this with. A thought of his ex-wife came into her mind. She'd been given the impression by Chris that she was some kind of model. How could she, just a schoolgirl, match up?

He sensed her mood change. "You ok?"

"Fine, just..." she struggled to find the right word that wouldn't reveal her insecurities. "Overwhelmed."

"You're not the only one." He stroked her face. "You'll stay with me tonight?"

That he had to ask her, that she saw tenderness in his eyes and even doubt of her own intentions, made everything all right again. It was her he wanted. At least she hoped it was.

"Yes, if you want me to."

"Want you to? I'd have you here every night if I could."

Now she felt ecstatic and went to kiss him. They made out for a while, still hot and sticky from one another and soon he was getting strongly aroused again.

This time he sat her on top of him, facing him, so she was in the position of most control. This way she could choose the pace and the depth, tease him. Which she did mercilessly. Drawing off him and resisting when he tried to plunge inside her again. Writhing her hips around.

She could push her hands in his hair, kiss his face, his neck, his chest. She loved the smell and the feel and the taste of him. She loved him.

He made her a coffee and they showered together and then lay in his bed, awake. Alice was in his arms and it felt like the best place in the world. She was drowned in his warmth, his clean skin, the fresh trace of shower gel, his own male scent mingling with it.

"One week to go then?" he said.

For a moment she panicked, thinking he meant with them. Then she realised he meant school. "Yes, it's weird."

"No more detentions."

She thought of the pavilion. "We should christen the pavilion right after my final exam." Her last Economics exam was on Thursday. Less than a week from now.

He laughed. "I could still get fired. But what the hell."

"Will we still have to be discreet then? Even after I'm finished with school?"

"So long as you don't drop by to watch the cricket in your tennis skirt again, we'll be good."

Alice imagined meeting him after he'd finished coaching and blatantly going off with him in front of everyone, finally beyond reach of school rules. Imagining the look on Mr Francis's face was a very pleasant fantasy.

"I've been in more trouble this term than in the past five years," she said.

"You normally behave?"

"We normally don't get caught."
 

"Your dad wasn't too angry with you about the festival?" he asked.

Alice remembered Richard's surprising revelation. "No. Actually he's my stepfather, but he's great. My dad died before I was born," she explained. "Richard - my stepdad - ended up showing me some old photos of when he was a hippy. You wouldn't believe it to look at him, he's so straight and old fashioned."

"And your mum?"

Visions of an outraged Hilary Bowes floated into Alice's mind. "She was mainly worried that I was ok. And what the neighbours would think. They're pretty cool though, both of them."

"It must be hard though, not knowing your father," he said.

"Not really. It's like I don't know what I've missed. Sometimes I feel more sad for him than me. I know that probably doesn't make sense, but it was always just Mum and me. I can't imagine it any other way." She twisted round so she was looking at him. "But what about you? I don't know anything about you."

"What do you want to know?"

What she wanted to know was about his ex-wife and how it had happened and whether he still harboured any feelings for her. But she wasn't ready to ask that yet. She hoped he would tell her anyway. "How long have you known Chris?" she asked.

"Since primary school. We grew up together, played cricket together. Always had one another's backs. He was my best man."

The mention of "best man" gave Alice a horrible feeling. But it also presented the opportunity to ask him about his marriage.

"So what happened? Your divorce I mean. If you don't mind me asking," she said quickly.

"I don't mind at all. I was an idiot ever getting hitched, far too young. Chris even tried to talk me out of it on my buck's night. She wasn't the worst woman in the world or anything but it was all wrong. She wanted glamour, a different kind of life."

Alice wanted to know if he'd ever really loved her - Bree - but she obviously couldn't ask this. "How old were you?"

"Twenty-two. Just been capped, that probably had a lot to do with it. Went to my head. She made a beeline. The marriage was over for years before we finally signed the divorce papers."

All this made Alice feel a lot better. Her fears that he was pining for some beautiful Australian model who had dumped him and broken his heart could abate.

She liked lying there with him in the dark. It was still with no noises of people anywhere, just the occasional sound of a car on the street outside and the light from its headlights briefly illuminating the far wall. It was strangely powerful, the intimacy created by two people. The two of them against the rest of the world building something that was uniquely theirs.

"What about your family?" she asked.

"My father's an engineer. My mother’s a legal secretary, part-time now. I’ve got one younger sister who's a lawyer. You?"

She considered her family. They were on a similar level to his, she thought.
 

"My mother doesn't work any more. She did do various things, but since having my younger brothers she hasn't. Richard does something scientific I think but I'm not sure exactly what." She explained that Richard worked at GCHQ, a government intelligence agency. "So it's all classified and no one's really supposed to know what anyone does there. I expect my mother knows though."

"And no divorces for you then?" He was joking.

"Not yet."

"I hope there won't be any for you. Divorces that is, not marriage."

Alice suddenly wondered what it would be like to be married to him. It was a strange, exciting and suffocating feeling imagining a day far in the future when he might want that. To own her and make her his, have her lie with every night, be with her always.

She didn't want to get married for years and years. But right now she also wanted to be with him for years and years. She couldn't imagine being this happy with anyone else.
 

She gave herself a mental kick for letting her thoughts wander in such a foolish way. After all she had only known him barely a month or so. It was amazing how much had happened in the past few weeks though. It felt like more change than she had ever known.

* * *

He woke her the next morning by kissing her. "How long have you been awake?" she asked. "What time is it?"

"Still early. But having you next to me is too distracting to go to sleep again." He ran his fingers over her body, tracing its contours. She guessed he was already hard.

"Are you going to wake me up properly then?"

Without needing further encouragement he moved over her and was soon inside her again. She adored everything he did to her and loved how much he wanted her, all the time. It was like a new power. It was the fact that despite all his reservations and all his attempts to turn her down, she had still won him over.
 

Against his better judgement he still couldn’t resist her. And it was only getting better the more time they spent together.

Really when she thought about it she had barely known him at the start, when it was just sheer sexual attraction. But the way the other guys respected him, including Chris, people’s good opinion of him, his obvious concern for her on several occasions, all this had made it so much more. Even if she didn’t know everything about him yet. What his favourite book was, what music he liked, what other things he was into. But these were minor details compared his intelligence, his humour and his charisma.

And of course his incredible looks and body which happily she now had unrestricted access to.

What did he see in her though? She had never thought of herself as the kind of girl that guys went for. Becky and Jules were always encouraging her and even her mother said she had blossomed but Alice still felt quite ordinary within herself.

Her lack of experience also worried her. From his responses she figured she was doing some of the right things in bed but she didn’t actually know. She was too embarrassed to ask him directly. Then there was her lack of life experience, her lack of knowledge about the world compared to his. He had lived, worked, travelled. He was educated. He knew things. She feared she must seem insubstantial to him.

"Where can we get breakfast out?" he asked her.

"We never go out for breakfast so I don’t honestly know. There’s a greasy spoon café in the high street that’s open early in the mornings but it’s pretty downmarket."

"We’ll find somewhere. The weather’s too good to stay indoors."

It was a beautiful morning. She was glad that he wanted to spend it with her and not send her straight home.

Then as she was in the shower she remembered her lack of clothes. Wearing her dress at this time of day would be so obviously night-before. It would be like doing the walk of shame.

His shirts were so big on her they wouldn’t be much improvement, it would be clear that she was wearing his clothes. But it was better than nothing.

"Can I borrow a shirt again?" she asked him as she went into the kitchen.

"Sure. It’s warm outside though."

"It’s not that, it’s just this dress…" she tailed off not really knowing how to describe the dilemma.

He understood. He found her another clean shirt and she put it on over her dress.

They ended up finding a café that was open along the promenade. Cheltenham was still a bit of a ghost town at this time of morning: the shops didn’t open for another hour or so. Alice was never usually up this early on a weekend. It wasn’t even eight o’clock yet.

A waitress brought them coffee and two breakfasts. Alice found herself surprisingly hungry given she rarely ate a lot for breakfast. There was never much time in the mornings.

She liked seeing other people walk past starting the business of their own day. There were shop workers arriving, people going for early morning dog walks, a few businesspeople who worked Saturdays. She even saw a couple of girls using a nearby telephone box who had clearly been out all night as well which made her feel better about her own situation.

She looked at him. She would start thinking of him fully as Stewart soon but it was still awkward with school. Right now he was half Stewart, half Mr Walker.

"Are you glad?" she asked him.