The Lovely Garden (16 page)

“Are you blackmailing me?”

“Hmm,” he considered it for a second. “I think I am. So, am I going to get that kiss?” That irresistible smile on his face made it hard for me to say no. And I was hungry.

I got on my knees and moved closer to him. Just before my lips touched his I said, “I’m only doing this for the food,” and then kissed him. It was long, hard, and I wanted more, but I had to pull back, otherwise we would never get to eat. “How was that?” I asked sitting back on my heels.

“Hmm,” he started, as if truly contemplating it. “I believe it was satisfactory.” He reached forward and ripped open the bag. The smell of the food filled my nostrils and my mouth began to water even more. When he offered the little white container with chopsticks shoved in the lid, I had to stop myself from snatching it out of his hands. I did, however, rip it open and chow down. He just shook his head and started to eat his own food, a small smile on his face.

The silence that only good food could create fell between us. It didn’t last terribly long. Just long enough for me to finish half of my food and regret how fast I had eaten. That was why you shouldn’t wait until you're starving to eat. It just ends with gorging and an upset stomach.

A groan left my mouth as I set my food on the table and leaned back against the couch. Charles eyes shot up high on his forehead. “You okay over there?”

I smiled weakly and nodded my head. “Yeah. Just ate too fast.” Sometimes you just can’t help yourself. “I’ll be fine in a few minutes.” And then I would get right back to eating because I was still hungry. The food was probably going to be cold by then, but it would still taste good. “So, how was work?” I asked, trying to take my mind off my upset stomach.

“It went pretty well. Had several meetings cancel on me so I got to come home, and see you.” There was the sweetest smile on his face when he said that. He really knew how to make a woman blush.

I don’t know if it was the smile on his face or the lingering flowing juices from his bedroom teasing, but I wanted him. Wanted him so bad I was willing to climb into his lap and take him. But my upset stomach was not going to like that. Puking isn’t sexy. “I thought canceled meetings would be a bad thing.”

He shook his head, having just taken a bite of his food- the same order as me. Once he was finished chewing, he spoke. “Only if they don’t reschedule, which all of them did. Mondays are always weird with meetings, and a lot cancel and reschedule. I usually have a backup plan, but Rebecca said she could take care of the rest for me.” That was really nice of her. Or she was just getting tired of him worrying about me. “She seemed a little concerned about you, which is unlike her. She usually hates all my girlfriends.”

That was some good news. She was his best friend, after all. “I guess you’ll have to thank her for me.” I would do it myself, but it was mostly by random chance that I saw Rebecca.

“I’ll be sure to do that.” Charles gaze fell on his food and he went silent. After several seconds, his eyes went blank. When it went on for longer than a minute, I got worried, wondered what he was thinking about. Then, he sighed, set his food down, and turned to me. “Are you alright?”

I blinked, shocked at the question. It had come out of nowhere. “I’m fine.” There unease in my voice was clear. I would keep telling myself I was fine until the day I broke down.

His face said he didn’t believe me. “Amy, you don’t have to lie to me. You haven’t been sleeping well. You jump when I touch you.” I hadn’t even noticed I did that. No wonder why he was worried. “I know it’s only been a couple of days, but I just want to know if you’re going to be alright. I want you to be alright. And I’ll do everything I can to make sure you’ll be alright.”

Without a thought, I flung myself toward him. My arms wrapped around his neck and my lips fell on his hard enough our teeth hit. His arms snaked around my waist at the same time my fingers entwined in his hair. The kiss was heated and left me breathless when we broke. “I love you.” There was no taking it back now. Not that I wanted too.

His arms tightened around my waist as if he were afraid I would run off. “Do you mean it?” I nodded my head. “You’re not just saying it because I said it?” I shook my head. The look in his eyes were enough for my chest to tighten, making it hard for me to breath. They were just so raw. It was as if that was the first time he had heard someone say that to him and actually mean it.

He pulled me closer to him, resting his head on my shoulder. I wrapped my legs around his hips to sit more comfortably and to bring us even closer together. His body started to shake and my shoulder started to feel warm and wet.

When he finished crying, I wiped away his tears and kissed him once again. “I need you to do something for me.”

“Anything.” And he meant it. My stomach flip-flopped, at his lack of hesitation. Tears threatened to spill, but I forced them down, not having time for that.

“I need you to fix what your sister did.” First, I needed to tell him what she did. It was the hardest thing I had ever done in my life, but I managed it. Managed to tell him that his sister assaulted me in more ways than one all in the hopes me breaking up with him. A lesser person might have, but I wouldn’t. Like I said before, fuck that bitch.

Charles gave me the sincerest look I had ever seen on someone before. “I’m sorry,” he said, as if he were the one that attacked me and not Ava. This was part of the reason why I hadn’t wanted to tell him. The blame he placed on himself. That and the shame. It had been more debilitating that I could have ever imagine. I had never been disgusted with myself until then. Disliked myself, yes, but never disgusted.

“
Don’t
apologize for what she did to me! That wasn’t your fault. I never want you to say you're sorry because of her
ever
again. You understand?” He opened his mouth, but I cut him off knowing it wasn’t going to be a yes. “What Ava does to keep you miserable, is not your fault. She’s a fucking psycho and needs to be put in a mental institution, but it’s not your fault.
She
hurt me,
not
you.” I got a nod from him, but he wasn’t looking at me. He was staring at my carpet. So I took his face in my hands and forced him to look at me. “Please, don’t blame yourself. I don’t.”

That snapped him out of it. His eyes hardened with determination and his jaw set. “What do you want me to do?” he asked, truly prepared to do anything to help me.

I released a shaky breath. This was going to be hard to say, but I needed to say it. It was what I needed him to do. “I need you to do what she did.” The horror on his face told me what he thought of that idea. But I wasn’t finished. “I need you to show me that there’s still pleasure in it.”

His face softened knowing I didn’t mean to do it exactly as Ava had done. “Alright,” he said, removing my hands from his face. “Alright.” His lips touched mine in a brief kiss, his hands still wrapped around my wrists. “Okay.” Another kiss, this one longer, deeper than the last. His grip tightened on my wrists to an almost uncomfortable level and I moaned. The feel of his strong fingers against my flesh knowing that he could squeeze tighter and hurt me, but didn’t sent a pool of warmth between my legs.

He released my wrists and I felt their absence. The warmth my skin had been soaking from them quickly disappearing. I wanted him to hold them again. Squeeze them tighter until they hurt, but I wasn’t willing to break the kiss to tell him so. Instead, I tangled my fingers into his hair pulling and scraping his scalp with my nails. A groan rumbled in his chest and he wrapped his arms around my waist, holding me closer to him.

In one quick movement he broke the kiss, got out from under me, and moved to his knees behind me. My heart hammered hard against my chest and I started to shake, but I bit my lip and dealt with it because if I didn’t do this now, I was never going to do it, and it was going to spell my doom. Charles felt me shake and wrapped his arms around me, pulling my back closer to his chest. “It’s okay,” he whispered in my ear so close I could feel his lips touch it. “It’s me.”

I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. That helped the shaking, but my heart didn’t slow. In fact, it just sent it to my throat, making it hard to breathe. I wanted to scream at him, beg him to stop, but I bit down on my lip harder forcing them to stay closed. I asked for this and I’d be damn if I wasn’t going to go through with it.

The only warning Charles gave me that he was going to pull off my shirt was a gently tug at the bottom of it. The cold air hit me, giving me goosebumps and hardening my nipples. My arms went around my body to try and warm myself, but Charles knocked them away instead replacing them with his own. His lips brushed against my neck as he moved back to my ear, giving my lobe a nibble, and his hands scraped across my belly up to my breasts to tease my nipples.

A whimper left me. I was starting to get into it. Could feel myself getting wet, but my heart was still pounding, screaming at me to push him away. I wanted to run. But I couldn’t give into the urge.

“Amy.” Hearing him call my names made my heart stop. His hands found my cheek and turned me to look at him. Gently, he removed my now swollen bottom lip from my teeth and rubbed his thumb against it. “I love you.” He said those three words gently, as if they would break me.

And they did. The tears started to flow then. I cried and he held me, patiently waiting for me to finish, which didn’t take long. I forced back the tears and cleaned off my wet eyes and snot with my discarded shirt. My eyes fell on his. “Please, don’t stop.”

He kissed me then, and gripped my hips tightly just the way I liked it. A pleasure filled gasp left my mouth, and he took advantage, slipping his tongue in. There was no fight for dominance this time. I let him have it, and he asserted it his tangled in my hair, keeping our lips together. This went on until I could no longer breathe and broke the kiss.

While I gasped for breath, Charles moved to my neck, kissing and biting wherever he deemed fit for attention. His left hand inched down my body as his right held my chin in place to have access to my neck. I tensed when his roaming hand slid under the elastic band of my pants. If he noticed my sudden stiff posture, he opted to ignore it. Just kept kissing my neck and moving his hand from my pelvis to my butt cheek simultaneously pulling my pants down.

Charles removed his hand to give my exposed hip a tight squeeze. Jolts of pleasure shot up though my body and I cried it out, louder than I had intended to. I could feel Charles’ lips curl up in a smile against my neck. “You’ll disturb the neighbors if you’re too loud.” He was teasing me, but I knew he liked it when I was loud. No matter how much he tried to shush me, there was always a smile on his face when he was doing it. And it wasn’t like I could help it. It felt good.

“Take off the rest of the way,” he commanded, making things tighten. I liked when he told me what to do. In the bedroom.

As I struggled to get my pants off, he removed his hand from my chin to make things a little easier. It still wasn’t all that easy. My hands were shaking and he had me pushed against the couch not giving me a lot of space to move. He moved back slightly and helped me get my pants off. Once off, he tossed them on the ground and pushed forward until my thighs grazed the rough material of the couch. With a hand on my hip and the other splayed between my shoulder blades, he bent me at the waist and guided me down to the couch cushion. The material bothered my cheek, but I didn’t move.

Charles gave my hip one last squeeze before moving his hand. It slid down my lower back, my butt cheek, and in between my legs. His fingers brushed against my wet folds and I tried my hardest not to flinch, which resulted in me stiffening instead. Charles took it in stride and continued his journey until he found my clit and started to rub. My hips started to buck immediately at the same time a small gasp-whine left my lips.

The orgasm was quick enough that I barely knew what hit me. My muscles contracted and I was left panting. Charles didn’t give me any time to recover. He slipped his middle finger in my wet pussy and my entire body tensed. I bit my lips hard to stop the whimper that wanted out. He wrapped his free arm around my waist and leaned forward, kissing the bruise between my shoulder blades. “It’s okay,” he muttered barely audible over the sound of my pounding heart. “It’s okay.” Another kiss and he started to move his finger.

It didn’t take long for me to relax and let the pleasure take over. It helped that Charles talked to me the entire time, letting me know that it was him. The tightness in my chest was replaced with something else, and my heart raced for a new reason. Soon, I was into the moment. So into it I hardly noticed that he had added another finger. Just knew that it started to feel better, and I wanted more. So much so I started to buck my hips to the rhythm Charles had set. He squeezed me around my waist tighter, making it harder for me to move but I still somehow managed to.

Just as I was reaching my highest point, I reached back and took Charles hard cock. As much as I wanted this to be just about me, there was no way I could allow that. He needed this just as much as I did. Needed to feel my pleasure with me.

His fingers became rougher, going deeper into my pussy. I cried out, and tried to match his pace. He moaned. “Amy. I need to be inside of you, please?” As he pleaded, he added another finger, making me cry out. I nodded my head, needing him just as much as he needed me.

I was so wet it was easy for him to slip inside of me. His head rested on my shoulder for a moment, gripping my hips tightly.  “You feel so good,” he groaned in my ear. It made me tighten around him, his grip tightening. Then, he started to move in and out of me. It wasn’t a slow pace, but it was fast either. I wanted him to fuck me harder, but this was nice. I was still panting, still squirming under him, begging for more.