Copper to Red (The Dillwyns' Stories) (7 page)

Tom wanted,
needed to be closer, he whispered dark promises into her ear.  His hand reached
down to pull out her shirt from her trousers as he was desperate to touch her
soft, silky skin.  He swallowed Willow’s surprise as his cold hand touched the
warm skin that stretched over her ribs.  He held his hand still, to warm,
before moving it gently up and down her bare skin, loving the feel of her.   His
hand moved back up to delve into her hair, curling around the nape of her neck. 
 He trailed his fingers down the side of her face, along the sensitive column
of her neck, until he reached the top of her shirt.  Moving downwards, he
opened one button at a time, following each one with a kiss.  Pushing the sides
apart, he found her bra, removing it before gently cupping the soft mound. 

As heat
grew, clothes, now seen as obstacles, were frantically removed.  Soon flesh
warmed flesh.  He felt desire sprint through him as pings of pleasure hummed
over her naked skin. 

Trying to
get a slither of control, he rolled on top of Willow and held her head between
his hands, placing kisses all around her flushed face.  His husky voice
betrayed his feelings of arousal.  “Are you sure Willow?  It will destroy me to
stop, but I will, if you want?”  He so hoped she didn’t want to stop. 

A small
smile split her lips.  Tom surrounded her, her body feeling as though it was
made to mould against his harder one.  She rolled on top of him, reaching down
to nibble on his bottom lip.  “Mmm, that’s nice… very nice…”  She was moving
down his jaw to his neck, kissing and nipping as she went.   

She was
sending him insane; he had no patience to wait much longer.  Tom gently cupped
her face and pulled it back so she was looking directly into his green eyes.  “Tell
me Willow.  I want you.  But I need to be sure it is what you want too.”

“Yes, it
is.” She whispered, as he suddenly rolled her onto her back, while she suddenly
let out a giggle and wrapped her legs around him.  Then he was inside her, mind
and body, as she called out his name.

Willow’s eyelids
were heavy and her body stated.  She hadn’t felt this relaxed in such a long
time.  Their limbs were entwined and the taste of him still lingered on her
lips.  She ran her hand over his chest, contentment washing over her.  She
still felt as though she was dreaming, in a cocoon, buffeted from the outside
world.  Willow felt Tom run his hand slowly, up and down, from hip to ribs,
sending ripples of enjoyment through her. 

She closed
her eyelids, suddenly a shiver made its way over her exposed body, the perspiration
coating her body turning icy.  Reality slammed into her chest, making her fight
for breath, her vulnerability suddenly overwhelming her.  The situation they
were in wasn’t reality, reality was outside that door.  It was all right to
pretend for a moment that what just happened was appropriate, but to Willow, it
wasn’t.  She felt what she could only describe as shame creep up on her and
colour her cheeks.  Her mind started grasping to take back control over her
body, telling her that Tom wouldn’t want her now he had been with her.  All her
emotions came crashing down around her and she felt sick.  She suddenly pulled
out of his embrace and started to search for her clothes.

Tom lay on
his side on the floor, watching her quickly trying to dress.  He was oblivious
to the coldness of the air, the warmth of her body still warming him.  Leaning
on his elbow, he pushed his fingers through his hair.  “Come back here.” He
tapped the sack next to him. “You don’t need to put your clothes back on; skin
to skin will keep us warmer.”  He raised his eyebrows at her in jest.  The
surge of desire seeing her naked, jolted him. 

She pulled
her trouser zip up, her back towards Tom.  She dragged a breath in, her chest
feeling as though it was being crushed in panic. She wanted to play it light,
but a rage was building up inside of her, building so fast she was having
trouble controlling it.  “No, no thanks.  No need to be naked now we have had
our fun.”  Her tone was cold and brusque.

He recoiled
slightly at her cool tone of voice, confused at her behaviour.  “Well, it
certainly was fun…” he tried to keep his tone level, unsure at what was going
on, “…any chance of a replay?” 

“Of course
not!” she almost shouted at him as she whirled around, the spark of temper in
her hazel eyes, her colour heightened by passion and anger.  She glared at Tom.
He looked too relaxed, too pleased with himself, she wanted to rile him up. 
Her breath laboured in her chest as her eyes glittered in contempt.   She
tossed her hair back in defiance.

He suddenly
sat up, his previous euphoria evaporating instantly.  Her body no longer
reminded him of the woman he had recently made love to; an invisible barrier
had been suddenly, and inexplicably, been erected.  His expression became sober
and withdrawn.  “And why not?” he asked tersely.  He watched her bite her bottom
lip, confusion running over her face.  He didn’t know what had happened.  He
didn’t know how to help her. 

Willow
couldn’t speak, couldn’t look him in the eye.  She didn’t know what was
controlling her, the anger was overwhelming.  She took a steadying breath; she
needed to get her emotions under control.  The atmosphere started to crackle as
Willow grasped for the sliver of calm she had felt previously.  As she looked
back at him, she witnessed something violent flash through his eyes, making
them cold, while he narrowed them
.

“So what are
you saying exactly?  That what just happened was nothing?”  He rolled onto his
feet, as he gestured behind him towards the makeshift bed.  He faced her, he
needed to be eye level with her, try and work out what went wrong.  All he knew,
for the moment, was that she had cut him to the bone with her reaction, and he
was surprised at the impact.  He took a step towards her, she took a step
back.   Tom fought for control, as he curled his hands into fists.  He was
disturbed at how her callous words had wounded him, hurt and fury speeding
through him swiftly.

His measured,
checked temper ignited her own, only more fiercely.  No part of her was immune
to him, which frightened her.  “Yes, that is
exactly
what I mean.  It
meant
nothing
!” she spat the words out as she tried to stare him down,
all the time frightened he would see the confusion in her eyes.   

Suddenly, Willow
was alarmed to witness the chill in his eyes change quickly into fire.  His
gaze focused on her lips with ominous intensity. She willed her body to take a
step back, but it refused to move.  She needed to elude what she knew was
coming but she didn’t think she had the power, or the will, to want to fight
him off.  Before she had chance to evade Tom, her mouth was captive by the
burning force of his. 

I need more
was all Tom could think.  He reached
out, his fingers closing vice-like on the back of her neck as he yanked her
towards his broad chest, his temper making him rougher than he normally was. 
He took her mouth in a savage, hard kiss, plundering her mouth with his tongue. 
Tom heard the first muffled sound of panic and protest as he tried to drive both
himself and Willow towards the blinding heat he craved again.  His solid
muscular thighs pressed into her, while his arm circled tight to keep her
there.  His mind ignored her struggles to break free, he wanted to brand her,
brand her his. 

She
struggled.  Struggled against him, struggled to push down her own desires that
were running rampant through her.  She could feel her body start reacting to
his passion fuelled assault.  Under the crushing emotions and feelings, Willow
felt sanity struggling to return.  It was telling her that Tom couldn’t be
trusted, her brain constantly reminding her that Tom would only want her for
one thing.  She jerked out of his hold, her eyes staring to mist with tears. 
In automatic defence she swung her arm back, opened her palm and slapped him
across the face.  Tom didn’t even try to dodge the swing.

Tom slid her
a chilling look as he gritted his teeth.  He silently reasoned he deserved
that, but not the rest, not the verbal attack and violent withdrawal of her
emotions.  His mouth crooked wryly, “Well you have made your feelings perfectly
clear.  I think we should leave it there for the moment.”  He turned to put his
shirt back on, suddenly feeling very cold.

Willow could
see the white mark on his cheek slowly turn red. She felt ashamed and wanted to
apologise, pride just not letting her.  Until his temper cooled, Willow decided
it was better to keep silent.  The whole situation now was ghastly; she didn’t
need to make it worse.

“Hello?
Hello?”

The voice
woke Tom and Willow up. 

“We’re down
here in the store cupboard!”  Willow shouted while scrabbling up from the
floor.  “Thank goodness,” she mumbled to herself.  She did know how much longer
she could have perched on the side of the sacks, trying not to touch Tom. 

She had
spent the rest of the night thinking things through.  Why had she reacted so
angrily towards him?  And boy, she was angry with him, it was still boiling
inside her.  She knew she had gone willingly into his arms and had craved to be
there, if truth been known.  But after making love with him, her emotions had
come hurtling down onto her.  She was confused.  She had cooled down after a
while and would have liked to try and talk things through, but it sounded as
though he was asleep, she certainly wasn’t going to turn around and check.  Perhaps
if he hadn’t gone straight to sleep, they might have discussed things.  So, as
the night wore on, she wound herself back up and she reasoned, she had every
right to be mad at him.  In her mind, he had just used her, because the
situation they were in allowed him to.  He would do what Tom always did, move
on to the next woman.  Willow pushed off the searing hurt she felt, she would
deal with it all after the day was finished and hopefully, the hurt and anger
had subsided a little.

Tom tried to
stretch some of the stiffness out of his body, while Willow ran to the door.  Gosh,
he was tired, he hadn’t slept a wink.  Women!  His mind had been churning
trying to figure out what had happened.  The animosity had been radiating off
Willow in waves, she was certainly very annoyed at something.  But why directed
at him?  What had he done?  He knew he shouldn’t have kissed her so savagely,
but he was desperate for her to know how he felt about her.  He shook his head
and cursed.  She had seemed willing enough, after a little persuading
initially. Christ, he would have stopped at any time she wanted!  He asked her,
didn’t he?  So why was she making him feel like a fiend?  They had enjoyed
themselves, he certainly had and from her responses, she had too.  He rolled
his shoulders, he had slept on his left one all night, and boy did it feel like
it.  He watched the smile split on Willow’s face when the drayman opened the
door.  She turned back towards him.  He could have sworn he felt the daggers hit
him and the air turn icy!  Giving a sigh, he got up from the makeshift bed and
dusted his clothes down.  Working the rest of the day with her today was going
to be fun!

~~~~

Willow
crawled into her bed, bone tired and exhausted after a very trying day.  She
pulled the covers up, it was still a little cold in the bedroom for Spring or
was it
her
that was cold?  She stared up at the ceiling, willing sleep
to switch off her mind.  Unfortunately, it just kept repeating the day. 

The day had
been long.  It had been traumatic trying to act normally around the customers;
smile perched on her face, laughing at their jokes.  Willow was sure that they
would have been able to see the sparks or feel the tension in the atmosphere,
but apparently not, or at least no one commented on it. 

It had been
a nightmare trying not to bump into Tom while working behind the small bar;
there had been plenty of sidestepping and raised arms, the aching of her
muscles testified her efforts.   She shuddered, she had accidently touched him
once when they both reached for the same glass, too busy individually talking
to their customers.  His touch sent a current up her arm, which made her jump. 
Luckily Tom had the glass, otherwise it would have been smashed.  She recalled
him looking at her, narrowing his eyes slightly as if he was going to ask a
question.  Then he shook his head and his green eyes went back to looking at
her blandly.

She turned
in her bed and fluffed up her pillow, hoping that the tears she could feel
welling would go away.  It had hurt her when Tom had looked at her so dispassionately. 
She hid the hurt easily, there were customers there and she hadn’t wanted him
to know he had an effect on her, but it had upset her. 

Arguments
kept twisting, torturing her unsettled mind.  Robert had hurt her so much, she
was unwilling to go down that path again.  Love was the easiest way of crushing
someone, not pleasant.  She tried justifying her own actions, still lumping the
majority of the blame in Tom’s direction.  She had been a married woman who, of
course, had needs of her own.  She reasoned to herself that she should be allowed
to enjoy herself once in a while, albeit with someone with a reputation like
Tom.  She decided, in retrospect, his reputation could be a good thing, he
certainly would not want anything other than a plain old ‘roll in the hay.’ Perhaps
it would work, no strings attached.  Willow certainly knew she enjoyed him
looking at her, desire in playing in his eyes, the flirting and she certainly
enjoyed the passion he could evoke from her.  She pulled the pillow over her
head.  She had relished the way his body had obviously responded to hers and, if
truth be known, it was the best sex she had ever had, even on top of cardboard
and sacks on a cold stone floor.