Melting Ms Frost (23 page)

‘You do have the prettiest underwear, Annabel,’ he said in a voice that sounded like it scraped against a dry throat.

She did, she knew. It was probably her greatest indulgence. Today she’d chosen delicate mint-green satin sprayed with the tiniest red rosebuds. He rustled and moved, and she tracked the sound as he circled around behind her, then the shirt was lifted back off her shoulders, slid down her arms and off. Nothing done quickly, everything maddeningly, sensuously slow.

Annabel let out a long, shaky breath.

‘So pretty that I’d like to take your skirt off, too.’ Aidan’s voice was close to her ear again. The heat of him radiated against the newly exposed skin of her shoulders. ‘Check whether you’re wearing a matching set. Or even better, nothing at all.’

A breath of nervous laughter escaped her at the teasing quality of his tone. She was so tense with anticipation, every muscle drawn so tight that she was almost levitating above the chair.

‘Annabel?’ She felt pressure at the waistband of her skirt as his fingers rested against the fabric there, waiting for her okay. ‘Would you like that? Or would you like me to stop?’

She shook her head. ‘Don’t stop,’ she whispered.

The button released and she felt the give in the material around her stomach as the zip lowered. Aidan moved back around to the front and when he asked her to lift up, she didn’t even hesitate, so swept away on sensation that all she could do was react. She pushed up on her hands and felt him tug the skirt down by the hem, exerting a steady pressure that dragged it in a slow glide over her hips and buttocks.

‘Oh, yes. Matching and very pretty indeed,’ he said with rich appreciation as her skirt reached her thighs and revealed her knickers. ‘So pretty I can’t even feign disappointment at discovering you’re properly dressed today.’ The skirt continued its steady path down past her knees and shins and when she settled her weight back on the chair so she could lift her feet free, the wood felt shocking against her bare flesh.

Then there was nothing but silence again. As the seconds dragged by it increased the feeling of vulnerability. She felt the tremble in her muscles as she pushed her thighs tight together. Senses on high alert, the entire surface of her skin tingled as though a brush of static electricity was making every tiny hair rise. After what seemed like an eternity she was driven to break the tension again. ‘Aidan?’ she whispered.

‘I’m here,’ he replied, stopping to clear his throat. ‘Momentarily struck dumb by the picture you make. I don’t remember anything at my table ever looking quite so appetising.’

Another little breath of laughter, another release of tension.

‘God. Do you know how beautiful you are when you do that?’

‘Do what?’

‘Smile, laugh. It lights you up.’

As compliments went, she didn’t think she’d ever received such a lovely one. She felt the warmth of her reaction to it blush across her cheeks, across her upper chest. Her mouth had turned so dry it took her a couple of attempts to re-moisten her parched lips with her tongue.

‘I was concerned that maybe it wasn’t warm enough in here, but you look as though you’re starting to feel the heat, Ms Frost,’ Aidan said. There was a rustle of movement and she heard the clink of ice against glass. ‘Here, let me help.’

Annabel gasped at the freezing sensation of a wet ice cube meeting her mouth and Aidan took advantage to rub it over her parted lips, leaving her to lap up the moisture before it could run down her chin.

‘Is that better?’

Annabel nodded. It was better. It was contact at last. Not quite skin to skin, but close enough for a start. ‘Would you like me stop there, Annabel?’ he asked, removing the ice.

‘No,’ she snapped with more force than she’d intended.

‘You’d like me to cool you a little lower down?’

She nodded, ignoring the slight hitch of amusement in Aidan’s tone.

The ice touched unexpectedly on her collarbone, tracing the line of it inwards to the little dip at the base of her throat, where she could feel her pulse pound against it. Goose flesh sprang up in its path.

‘Tell me if you get too cold,’ Aidan murmured, but Annabel was too busy concentrating on the feel of the ice cube painting watery paths across her skin as it glided downward to the swell of her breasts. ‘But I have to say, right now you look like fire. The flames are casting a glow over your skin here,
a mhuirnín
, turning it to gold.’ The ice dipped into the top of her cleavage, held there until a droplet broke free and started trickling its way southward, making her shudder at the tickly feel. In no particular rush, the cube traced along the upper edge of one bra cup, followed by the other, leaving tingling trails in its path and making her nipples push hard against the constraining fabric.

And then it was gone. Annabel heard a humming sound of pleasure before Aidan spoke. ‘You are delicious, Ms Frost.’

He’d tasted it? Licked it, sucked it into his mouth after it had been on her skin?

‘Would you like me to stop there?’

Would she hell. How could he even ask it? She gave her head a vehement little shake.

‘You’d like me keep going lower?’

She nodded.

‘Tell me, Annabel.’

‘Yes.’

‘How far down? Just to here?’ The ice touched her solar plexus, traced slow figures of eight across her ribs, the warming effect of her flesh causing little rivulets to begin trickling down her stomach.

‘Or here?’ It followed the vertical line that bisected her abdominal muscles down to spiral leisurely around the dip of her navel.

‘Or even further – all the way down here?’ It inched its way down to the waistband of her knickers.

Lips pressed together to keep from moaning like a wanton, Annabel nodded again.

‘Which one? You’ll have to tell me.’

‘All the way down,’ she said, hyper aware that all that stood between his fingertips and her flesh was one little block of ice that was melting fast.

He followed the upper edge of silk all the way out to one hipbone and then all the way to the other before coming back to the centre and stopping. Annabel waited as the tension grew thick again.

‘Open your legs a little.’ Her body obeyed before her mind could object. She couldn’t breathe as she did it – parted her thighs, just a little. Just enough that Aidan took it as an invitation to run the ice cube down over the silk of her underwear, the thin barrier offering no protection from the freezing sensation against her sensitive flesh. Up and down he ran it in sensuous strokes, applying just the right amount of pressure for her to feel it to delve into the valley of her sex, making the secret flesh there ache and leaving her shivering with want and need as much as cold. She began to squirm, to arch her back, push against the chilly caress, seeking more. Seeking the warmth of his fingers instead. When she let out a shuddery sigh at the thought of how good they would feel, Aidan broke the silence for the first time in ages.

‘Are you imagining how it will feel when I make you come for me? I’ve been wondering how it will be. If you’re the type to cry out loud, or gasp and bite your lip in an attempt to hold it all in,’ he told her. ‘If you tremble and shake all the way down to your toes, or bow your body in a graceful arch. Whether you’ll come hard and fast against me, or unravel soft and slow in my arms.’

She made a little noise in her throat.

‘Take the blindfold off,’ he commanded in a rasping voice.

Considering her earlier resistance to putting the thing on, Annabel was surprised by the rush of reluctance she felt at the idea of now removing it. Somehow it was easier to hide from her doubts and fears in the dark.

She removed it and blinked a few times in the subdued lighting. Aidan was on his knees between her legs, his eyes dark with desire. Lowering his gaze, he let it run slowly down the front of her to where he withdrew the ice cube from between her legs.

‘I’ve made your underwear all damp.’

God. Not just her underwear.

He slowly lifted the melting cube up to his mouth. ‘Do you think this tastes of you, Ms Frost?’ he asked, then opened his lips and sucked on the dripping ice.

She felt an answering flutter between her legs. Nearly moaned out loud when his tongue swept out to lick at the drops clinging to the full curve of his lower lip and said, ‘Now it tastes of both of us.’

He brought it her mouth and slipped it in past her lips, careful not to let even a fingertip come into contact with her. Technically, he still hadn’t touched her. Despite the state she was in, he hadn’t let his skin touch hers.

She sucked on the ice cube, which of course tasted just like ice. Not that that made the sharing of it any less sexy.

‘Annabel, I’d like to ask you something.’

As long as it was permission to remove her underwear and see to the ache he’d created between her thighs, she had no objection. She’d demonstrated her trust, hadn’t she? She was ready. In fact, she’d rarely been so ready in her life. She closed her eyes and felt a delicious shudder of anticipation run through her. ‘What?’

‘As you know, I’ve booked a day off the Saturday directly after New Year.’

Wait …
What?
Her eyes sprang back open. More talking? About
work
?

‘A friend of mine has taken a table at a charity ball and I have two tickets. I’d like you to come as my guest.’

She was utterly taken aback. Stunned into silence. Aidan Flynn wanted to take her to a ball? Who was she, Cinderella?

‘It’s going to be quite a big event by all accounts, very lavish.’ He dropped his gaze to allow it to roam over her still semi-naked form, drawing in a deep breath of appreciation. ‘And as much as I’d love to take you looking just as you do now, I think the dress code calls for a little more formality. Do you have a suitable gown?’ he asked.

She had something long and black that she’d bought years ago hanging somewhere in the back of her wardrobe. ‘Yes, but—’

‘Good. What about a current passport?’

That shocked her out of her stupor. ‘Passport?’

He nodded. ‘Yes, the ball’s in Vienna.’

‘
Vienna!
I can’t go to Vienna.’

‘Why not?’

All sorts of reasons. Starting with the fact that she kept a passport as a useful form of ID, but she’d never had cause to put it to its proper use. Had never been out of England.

‘I don’t have any time off scheduled for a start,’ she went with offering the least complicated excuse.

‘No. But the trip’s only for two days. Flying out on Friday – New Year’s Day, when we’re closed anyway, and back in time for Sunday lunch service. It would mean taking one day off. Tim can cover for you easily.’

‘Of course he can’t. No one at Cluny’s can know anything about this … us.’ She gave him a sharp look and crossed her arms as a horrible thought flitted across her mind. ‘You haven’t mentioned it to him, have you?’

‘No. And there’s no need for you to mention it either. You’re the only member of staff who’ll have been working without a break over the Christmas period. It’s perfectly reasonable to swap a shift and take a day off without arousing suspicion.’

‘But not a Saturday,’ she insisted a little desperately, worried that the conversation was running away from her.

‘The quietest Saturday of the year,’ Aidan countered with that composed implacability she recognised only too well. He was settling in to argue his point until he won.

‘Why do we have to talk about this now?’ Annabel complained, uncrossing her arms again and arching her torso forward in invitation. ‘Don’t we have something more important to finish?’

She was pleased to note Aidan’s gaze drop to her chest and felt a thrill run through her at the potent intensity of it when it came back up to lock onto hers. ‘We do. That’s why I want you to come away with me. I want you all to myself, and I don’t want to have to rush things.’

‘Why do we have to be away for that? You’re hardly rushing things now,’ she said with an accusatory edge to her tone that only made him smile.

‘I’d like the chance to spend some time getting to know you better, far from everything here – all the distractions, the excuses,’ he said. ‘Say you’ll think about it at least.’

He was trying to bribe her with sex. No two ways about it. And while it was impossible for her to make a decision until she could think straight, she couldn’t see the harm in agreeing to give it some thought, especially if it would make him stop talking and get back to action. ‘I’ll think about it.’

‘Good.’ He flashed her such a beautiful smile that she felt an answering one curve her own lips. His gaze immediately dropped to her mouth, darkened in a way that made her hold her breath even as she felt herself drawn slowly forward.

‘And now I’d better get you home.’ Aidan pulled back and rose to his feet.

Annabel’s spine snapped upright. ‘
What
?’ she demanded, watching in disbelief as he reached for where he’d draped her clothes over the back of a nearby chair.

‘It’s nearly one. Already Christmas Eve. We’ve got a busy day ahead,’ he reasoned, holding her shirt for her put on. ‘Time to go.’

‘Oh no.’ Instead of hooking her arm in the waiting sleeve, Annabel snatched the garment from Aidan’s hand. ‘You are
not
doing this to me again.’

‘Doing what?’ he asked, looking down at her with infuriating calm.

‘Leaving me in this state!’ she nearly screamed. He was not going to turn this into another exercise in frustration and shame like The Hyde. She couldn’t stand it.

A slow, wicked smile curved his lips, telling her she was going to have to stand it. ‘But I like you in this state, Annabel,’ he admitted. ‘And if it’s any consolation, I’m as frustrated as you are.’

She glanced down and saw that he wasn’t lying. The hard evidence of it was plain in the bulge of his jeans.

She looked determinedly back up into his face. ‘Hey, simple solution here.’

Aidan just laughed at that and retrieved her skirt. ‘As I’ve already told you,
a mhuirnín
, I don’t want simple.’ He passed the garment to her. ‘Now wrap up warm, it’ll be cold on the bike.’

By rights, the look she gave him should have incinerated him on the spot, or turned him to stone at the very least. But instead it only encouraged him to give her one of his lop-sided smiles. ‘Trust me, the pay off will be worth the wait, Annabel. I promise.’