Page 41 of One Week With You
I dropped my hands to her thighs again, kneading the flesh there, and tried tugging her closer.
“You sure?” Talia double-checked, still clutching the bed frame, bracing her body weight. “I’m not exactly light. I might suffocate you.”
“Fuck, I hope you do.”
“You asked for it,” she said with a grin, and I wanted to shoutyes, yes I fucking did, as she dropped her weight fully against me.
“Merry Christmas to me,” I murmured, and Talia’s spluttered laugh twisted into a throaty groan when I sank my tongue deep inside her.
“Fuck,” she said breathily as I licked up the full length of her, circling her clit a few times before a hard suck made her whole body shudder. One hand still gripped the bed frame and the other clenched in my hair, directing me this way and that, telling me exactly what she liked without saying a word.
I groaned into the slickness of her, alternated with measured licks and sucks that made her lurch and grind, and I couldn’t believe I got to see her like this, writhing senselessly against my goddamn face.
Talia reached back to grab my cock but there was no finesse in the way she tried to stroke me, too lost to the need to clench down and ride.
“That’s it, you’re so fucking hot,” I took a breath to murmur and slapped the outside of her ass, a loud thwack lost to the room.
“Rafe,” she moaned, her voice more breath than sound, and I growled and gripped her thighs, lifting my head off the pillow to bury my mouth closer, deeper, mindless with want. Talia’s hips rocked harder against the rumble of my moan, and she closed her eyes as she climbed higher and higher and—
“I’m coming,” she choked out, her body as taut as a bow string before she broke and moaned and shuddered all over my face.
“How was that?” I asked, feeling pretty smug as I stroked her skin and pressed a slick, wet kiss right at the top of her thigh.
“I should be asking you,” she panted. “It was your gift.”
“Best present ever.”
* * *
With the room dimly lit by the fire’s orange glow, we sat on cushions on the floor and picked at our dinner of cheese and crackers, chorizo, chutney, brown pickle and red grapes on the coffee table. Talia gave a little clap of delight at the spread and chewed on a few grapes while she filled her plate, and I couldn’t help the smile crawling across my face.
Another incredible day. Despite the long walks and rounds of sex, my muscles were loose and limber. The headache that usually appeared every afternoon had been missing for a week now. I’d never been so content.
Thirty-nine years was a long time to go without this feeling.
“Did I ever tell you I bought this place from my parents?”
Talia glanced up from spooning dollops of caramelised chutney across wholewheat crackers and slices of cheddar cheese, pausing to lick her fingers, and I lost my train of thought. “Mrs Brown mentioned it,” she said, her oversized sweater slipping down one shoulder.
“Of course she did.” I chuckled, leaning over to kiss that smooth slope of uncovered skin. Needing to know everyone’s business was probably the reason she hadn’t retired. “Can’t help herself.”
“She also said that it’s been in your family for over one hundred years,” Talia admitted. “Why did they want to sell after all that time?”
“They thought the place was wasted sitting empty all year, which is true. But there’s so much history here. Too much.” I pointed at the rumpled angel perched at a sad angle on the tree, no matter how many times Talia made me adjust it; the fireplace garland that had seen better days twenty years ago. “Those decorations, they’re from when I was a kid. I don’t remember much but I do have some memories of spending Christmas here. They were mostly good ones too. I guess I wanted the reminder. Just in case.”
“For your own family?” she asked tentatively.
“That was the dream.”
“But not anymore?”
“I don’t think dreams ever go away unless you make them a reality.”
Talia nodded, seeming lost in thought. “Well, I’m glad you have some good Christmas memories at least.”
“Not just some. I have a lot. Thanks to your family.”
Her smile was brilliant and blinding and caught me right in the chest. “What changed, do you think? With your parents?”
