| |
CLAYTON CAME AWAKE when he felt movement beside him. The scent of a woman touched his nose as he drifted back to reality. He rolled over, stretching his arms to reach for her, but she was already gone. Opening one eye, Clayton could see her putting on her dressing gown as quietly as possible. The woman was trying to sneak away from him in the middle of the night.
“Having trouble sleeping?”
She jumped an inch at the sound of his voice. “I thought you were asleep.”
“Sorry to disappoint you.” He propped himself on an elbow and gave her one of his best grins, the one he knew the ladies loved. She was no exception. A blush spread across her skin from the neckline of her robe upward.
“If you come back to bed, I could try to help you fall asleep,” he said, watching for her reaction. “The key is to use up all your energy on another activity. I have a few ideas.”
She rocked back and forth as if fighting the desire to come back to him. Something was keeping her from crawling back into the bed. He needed to find out what it was.
“Are you regretting what happened?” he asked slowly, afraid of what her answer might be. He regretted nothing between them.
“Not exactly.” She averted her eyes, looking down at her hands toying with the fabric of her nightgown. “I just woke up worried that someone might find me in here. I don’t want to cause Darla that kind of worry.”
“You could tell her you were walking downstairs and got lost.”
There was no smile, but he could see the corners of her mouth perk up and knew it was progress.
“Why are you out of bed?”
It seemed unusual that she would be up and walking through the house at such a late time of night. “I was hungry.”
Clayton couldn’t help it. He rolled over with laughter. He lay on his back, letting it ripple through his entire body. He laughed until he felt tears welling up in his eyes. The only thing that could stop him was the pillow hitting him upside his head. Looking over, he saw that Rory had thrown it at him. She stood at the edge of the bed, fury written all over her face.
“You find my nibbles funny?” she demanded. “You think I’m weak for having such habits?”
He could see that she was on the verge of crying and immediately stopped. To prevent her getting away, Clayton reached for her and pulled her back into bed with him. She made a squeak but didn’t fight him, just melted instead. She was so soft and warm that for a moment he forgot what he was going to say and simply buried his face in the crook of her neck.
“I could go for something tasty.” He mumbled against her skin.
“I’m still a little hungry, to be honest.” He heard her whisper against his ear, and he struggled not to chuckle.
“We should find a way to fix that.” He pulled away from her neck and started nibbling on her lips.
“That’s not going to be satisfying enough.”
Clayton pulled away to look at her with a chuckle. She lay across his chest, looking down at him. There was a twinkle of mischief in her eyes and a smile on her face.
“You are a cruel woman to mock a man who has worked hard for your pleasure tonight.”
“We both found a bit of pleasure.”
“But not satisfying?”
“Not as much as a piece of that pie the cook made with dinner.”
Clayton laughed and she didn’t seem to mind. She was smiling broadly, so she wasn’t upset by his reaction.
“Fine. We will go for a snack, but this time no window gazing.”
They both knew they needed to be quiet so they wouldn’t wake the others. He put on trousers but no shirt and led Rory by the hand. She was walking gently, careful not to put too much weight on her foot. She kept talking in a rapid whisper, filling the silence between them nervously.
“Your chef must be very good if her food brings you out in the middle of the night.” Clayton was tired of talking about the house and would rather know something more personal about her.
“She is. My brother found her for me years ago because she makes the best pastries. It also helps that she doesn’t mind making enough to have some leftover. She knows that I get the nibbles and makes sure there is always something for me to find.”
“A kitchen that is always full sounds like heaven.”
“I appreciated that she never made it seem unusual or bad that I wanted a snack. She acted like it was natural.”
“That’s because it is. The desire for food is a natural instinct, and denying it is cruel.”
Clayton could tell from her silence that he had said too much.
“Were you hungry once?” she asked.
“Everyone is hungry once.”
“I mean starving, for a long time.”
This was one of the things from his past that Clayton pretended didn’t exist, one of the pieces that he tried to never think about. He hadn’t even talked about it with Rex. He could tell her a better version of the truth, a lie to make her feel better, but that would be just another lie he had to remember.
“On the trip over to Africa, the ship I was on carried too many men. We ran into some bad weather that delayed our arrival, and we started to run out of food. I chose to give my small portions to a few of the younger boys I was traveling with.”
Those younger boys still haunted them. Not everyone on the ship had made it to shore. Clayton did what he could to protect them, but there were so many horrible fates waiting for them. He got lucky, but he still didn’t know why.
“Why did you decide to leave London? Was it to have a better chance at work?”
Clayton wasn’t given a choice but was abducted and forced onto the ship. Thomas had found the man who did it, and that was how he’d found Clayton. He didn’t want to frighten her with that part of the story.
“I ended up there by chance, but it did help me find my way. Before that I was very aimless, just interested in having a good time. I never accomplished anything in London.”
“Now that you’re back, you can change that.”
“I don’t plan on staying long.”
“I thought you said you had family here?”
His family didn’t know everything that had happened on the way to Africa, and once they did, they wouldn’t want him to stay.
“They understand my desire to leave.” They would once he had a conversation with them about it.
The kitchen was dark as they entered it, and Clayton went to the small cooking stove and started a fire. He wasn’t planning to cook, but it would give them some warmth and light. The pie that Rory had been thinking of all night was sitting on the table, and even though it had been baked hours before, the sweet scent still lingered in the air. Clayton could see her eyes focus on it and grow in size. Part of him wished she would look at him like that.
“Want to cut your own piece?” Clayton asked, finding a knife and offering it to her by the handle. “You can cut it as big as you like.”
“I don’t want to overindulge.”
She said that, but he could see the way she was licking her lips as she took a seat at the table. That pie was calling out to her. Slowly he cut a very large slice. Using his hands, he offered it to her.
“Oh! I should get us some plates to use.”
“There’s no need. We can just eat with our hands as God gave them to us.”
Rory looked at the pie he was holding with disbelief. Clayton grinned as he pulled the piece of pie up to his mouth to take a bite. He closed his eyes and moaned to make sure she knew how much he was enjoying it. The crust was flaky and fell from his lips, while the sweet and fruity filling erupted in his mouth. It was just as good as Rory had described, so he didn’t have to work hard to show her what she was missing.
“Fine, give me a piece!” Rory said, snapping him back into the moment and his eyes open.
The way she was holding out her hands to him with a grumpy frown on her face made him chuckle. She was willing to go heathen with him, but she wasn’t happy about it. He gave her the rest of the piece he was holding, and she ate it with relish. She was genuinely enjoying it as much as he had pretended to. Clayton was more than happy to just stand there and watch her enjoy it.
“Aren’t you going to have a piece?” Rory asked when she finally noticed she was the only one eating.
“I’m not hungry.” He leaned one hip against the table. “I just didn’t want you to be down here all alone.”
“Worried about me?”
“Yes.”
His answer startled her, and she blushed. “We should be getting back to bed. It’s going to be morning soon.”
Clayton wasn’t ready to let her go so they could return to the roles they would have to fill in the morning. Tonight, he wasn’t her employee but her lover, and he liked that much better. He wanted to play that part just a little bit longer.
“Wait, I think I might be hungry after all.” He pulled the pie closer to himself. “I might want a few more bites before going to bed.”
Rory stopped but didn’t move closer. He was going to have to go to her if he wanted more. That didn’t bother him; he was more than willing to let her have the control.
Clayton lifted her up and set her on the edge of the table. He positioned his body between her knees. She stared at him with those wide eyes, more green than brown at the moment, and her plump lips parted. He had to have more of her, and he suckled her mouth until he heard that impatient whimper he was beginning to love.
“Shh, you don’t want to wake the house.” He placed a finger over her lips.
The damned woman took that finger into her mouth and sucked it clean, causing him to groan with need. It also gave him and idea.
Starting with a little nibble behind her ear, Clayton began licking and kissing a pathway down her neck and into the sweet shadows of her cleavage. She leaned back, bracing herself with her hands behind her and thrusting those perky breasts closer to him. Her robe came apart easily, revealing her sensual naked body to his gaze.
As he lowered himself to his knees, she was startled and tried to move. Gripping her by the hips, he held her in place and trailed kisses down her stomach. He saw her eyes go wide just before he leaned in to savor the sweetness of her between her legs.
The chef’s pie was put to shame by what Rory had to offer his hungry mouth. He licked her gently at first, but as he felt her tremble, he got rougher with it. Suckling at her sweetest spot, he pushed her over the edge and felt her coming apart against his tongue. He thrust his tongue against her until he drained every pulse he could from her.
When he rose up in front of her, her face was confused and flushed. Knowing she might still be sore, he yanked her to the edge of the table and slid inside of her. She gasped at first, letting her head fall back in ecstasy. Gripping her by the back of the head, he forced her to look him in the eye as he took her over and over again until he finally spilled himself inside of her. She fell back on to the table, tired and spent while he stood there with a smug grin.
Rory was exhausted and lay against Clayton’s chest as he carried her upstairs. Her body was limp and heavy, making it difficult to move. The extra weight made his body ache a little, but he ignored it. That pain was a small price to pay for being able to hold her just a little bit longer.
At the top of the stairs, he had a decision to make. He could stay in her room to finish the night with her in his arms, only that would risk them being caught in the morning. If he placed her in her bed, he could take himself back to the parlor and no one would ever know what had happened. Although his body told him to take what he wanted and keep her, his heart told him to take care of her reputation. She deserved to decide how and when to tell other people about them. He left a kiss on her forehead when he tucked her in and chuckled when he could still smell the pie.