Strangers (31 page)

When Kate walked outside carrying the slowly sinking cheese soufflé and the bowl of salad, it was like stepping into a fairy cave.
Charlie had put tea lights everywhere—among the plants, along the fence and all over the herringbone bricks apart from a bare strip between where he sat at the table and the kitchen door.
He wore a white shirt that matched hers and a black bow tie.
When he stood up, Kate laughed.
No pants, only boxers.
In the center of the table stood a vase of yellow flowers.
A lump erupted in her throat.

She put the bowls on the table and threw her arms around him.
“Oh Charlie, everything looks gorgeous.
Even you.”

He grinned and Kate felt his hands slide onto her bare butt.
“I hear the food’s crap at this place but we can make do.”

He pulled out a chair for Kate to sit and poured more champagne as she served up the food.

One mouthful and he was moaning.
“Oh God, this is delicious.”

“Several eggs past their sell-by date, a hunk of moldy cheese—I cut off those bits, butter, flour—well, once I’d sieved out the weevils, and milk, only slightly smelly.”

Charlie stopped chewing.

She smiled.
“Only kidding.”

“If we buy the ingredients, will you cook that Chihuahua thing again?”

“Okay.”

“And the ice-cream dessert?”

“Ah, well if you eat all your dinner, maybe there’ll be a treat afterward.
Not quite zabaglione but nearly.”

Charlie wrapped one of her feet inside his under the table.
One hand rested on her arm.
Kate lifted her other foot, and as he took a sip of champagne, she ran her toes along his thigh and under his boxers.

He groaned.
“And I thought we might get through dinner without me having to ravish you.”

He grabbed her ankle and stopped her toes probing any farther.

“Spoilsport.” Kate pouted.

“I can’t eat if you do that and I need to eat so that I can do that to you.”

He watched her as he ate every mouthful and Kate felt as though she was a child on Christmas Eve, desperate to go to bed, excited about what was to come.

She cleared away the plates and dishes, and came back with the concoction she’d thrown together.
Ice-cream from Charlie’s freezer, sherry and a couple of crushed amaretti biscuits.
Charlie pushed his chair back from the table.

“On my knee,” he said.

Kate straddled him and spooned the mess into his mouth.

He licked his lips and smiled.
“Almost as sweet as you.” His fingers fumbled with the buttons on her shirt and pulled it open.
“More,” he said and opened his mouth.

Another spoonful and then Kate yelped when his lips settled around her nipple.
She shivered as the ice-cream melted and Charlie swallowed around her.
Then warmth returned and she groaned.
Kate groaned even louder when she felt his hands slip under her shirt and stroke her butt.

“More.” Charlie stared straight into her eyes.
“Except, would you unfasten this bowtie first.
It’s strangling me.”

Kate took a mouthful of the dessert herself before she slid the bowl and spoon onto the table behind her.
She didn’t stop after unfastening the black silk tie but undid the buttons on his shirt.
He looked so sexy Kate couldn’t swallow for a moment.
His dark eyes, scruffy hair, the slight stubble on his cheeks.
No wonder everyone loved him.
He could have his pick of beautiful women.
Why would he—

“Stop thinking.
It’ll give you wrinkles.” He opened his mouth.
“Feed me, Kate.”

She put a spoonful of ice-cream just above her nipple.
Charlie was on it before she had chance to register how cold it felt.
His hands on her waist, he held her angled back as he licked and slurped before lifting his head to give her a broad grin.

“More,” he said.

The next spoonful landed on his nipple and Kate leaned forward to catch the dripping dessert, then sucked.
She slid her hand into the waistband of his boxers and fondled his cock.
Charlie hissed.

“Don’t even think about putting a spoonful there.
We have to go inside before I find somewhere else to feed off you,” he whispered.
“I don’t want to freak out the neighbors.
I’m trying to persuade them that despite the occasional paparazzo parked outside, I’m just an ordinary guy.”

Kate climbed off his knee and began to clear the table.

“Leave it.
The housekeeper will sort it out.”

“An ordinary guy would do it himself,” Kate said.

Charlie rolled his eyes but he stacked the plates.

Chapter Nineteen

Charlie was a saint.
Well, he wasn’t, but at that moment, he thought he was.
He cleared away all the dirty plates and glasses and stacked the dishwasher while Kate put the kitchen back to rights.
She even took his hand and made him go outside and blow out all the little candle lights.
And while that should have lessened his ardor, it hadn’t.
It made him want her more.

“Hide and seek,” Kate said.
“You stay here, eyes closed and count to fifty.”

She shrugged off her shirt.

Charlie’s gaze slipped to her pert nipples.
“Not fifty.
Twenty-five.” Charlie tossed his bowtie aside and let his shirt fall, then dragged his hand up his cock and closed his eyes.

On twenty-five he opened his eyes.
His heart pounded as he searched the whole of the ground floor.
No sign of her.
Charlie turned off the lights before he went upstairs, straight to his bedroom.
He’d been sure he’d find her in his bed but she wasn’t there.
Puzzled, he went to check everywhere else, including the next floor.
There was nowhere else to hide except—
oh fuck.

Charlie ran back to his bedroom and flung open the door of his closet.
Kate sat on the blue box in the corner.
She hadn’t opened it.
Then Charlie narrowed his eyes.
What was she wearing?

Kate stood, hands behind her back, and smiled.
His neckties.
Wrapped around her breasts, up her arms, around her neck, her legs, her head.
Between her legs.
He blinked.
Then she brought her hands forward to show what she held.
Fuck.
Charlie went up in flames.
A lightning strike couldn’t have been more effective.
His balls tingled and his cock vibrated like a drill bit.

No one touched his box, not his cleaner, no one.
He piled stuff on top… He never had anyone around to stay…
Damn.
He opened his mouth to say he could explain, then wondered—how?
Props for a movie?
Gifts from a fan?
Presents for—er—his agent?

“Got any batteries?” Kate asked.

Air whooshed out of him.
His knees shook and his asshole quivered.

“Already in,” he whispered.

“Kneel on the bed,” she said.

Somehow Charlie’s legs carried him across the room.
He threw off the cover and knelt on all fours on the dark sheet.
The blue dildo Kate held was long and slender, made of a soft and smooth jelly material with spirals down the entire length.
Purchased after his experiments with guys because while Charlie had liked the sensations, he liked women better.
He’d been relieved to see lube in her hand too.

The moment he felt her hand on his back, lust pooled in his groin.
This wasn’t wrong, neither perverted nor dirty, but it wasn’t something he wanted the press to get hold of.
Charlie felt as though he’d bared his soul to Kate.
Her hand pressed on his spine and he let his head fall forward onto the bed so his butt stuck up in the air.
Charlie closed his eyes.

The bed dipped as she climbed on behind him.
He felt her arms brush his thighs, a combination of her soft skin and his neckties and he trembled.
With every sense on high alert, Charlie offered himself to her.
She had all the power.
The wet rasp of her tongue at the top of his buttock and he groaned into the bed.
A fingertip stroke of his balls and he clenched his teeth around the sheet.
She breathed on him and Charlie felt the wetness bloom at his cock head.

When she spread his butt cheeks, Charlie readied himself for the coldness of the lube but it was her tongue he felt, trailing down the cleft of his backside, circling his asshole and fluttering over that triangle of skin beyond before moving on to lap at his balls.
Now, she’d use the lube, but she didn’t.
Charlie groaned when he felt the hot wetness of her tongue back on his anus.
He groaned again when she blew gently, warm turning cold in an instant.

What was she thinking?
Was she doing this because she thought he wanted it?
He flinched at the drip of lube that slid down his cleft.
Then Kate’s finger was massaging it in, pressing against the entrance to his body until he felt himself relaxing.
Two seconds of bliss until the head of the dildo replaced her finger.

Charlie tried to swallow.
Couldn’t.
Gave up and just made sure he kept breathing.
Kate leaned over him and rubbed her breasts against his back as she twisted the tip of the shaft around his anus.
He could hear her breathing—fast and choppy.
He felt her heart beating in time with his.
The knowledge that this was turning her on too gave Charlie all he needed.
He opened his body and the dildo slid in.

He gave a muffled groan as the swirled jelly shaft speared his asshole and touched his prostate.

“Oh fuck,” Charlie gasped.

“Okay?” she whispered.

“Yes.
No.
Everything in between.”

For a moment, everything settled.
Slight burn had shifted to pleasurable fullness.
Charlie could breathe.
Then Kate took hold of the thing and began to move it.
Heat exploded in his gut, flashes of fire raced through his bloodstream and his cock swelled.

No,
Charlie screamed at his balls.
Not fucking yet.

He wanted to fuck Kate while she did this, have his cock thrusting into her while she thrust into him but the thought of moving, even an inch, was beyond him.
Every little shunt she made, she pegged his prostate.
Then the dildo began to quiver in deep, thumping vibrations he felt all over his body.
And still Kate pushed and rocked and twisted the thing inside him.

Charlie’s knees quaked and he did his best to lock them in place.
He wanted her to do this all night.

Another thirty seconds would be lovely.

He wasn’t entirely sure he was still breathing.
Nor that his heart was still beating.

What a time to have an epiphany.

Charlie mustered every molecule of his willpower and spoke.
“Stop.”

“What’s the matter?” Kate asked.
“Did I hurt you?
Oh God—”

She pulled the dildo out and Charlie sighed.
“No.
Not hurt.
Good.
Too good.” He swallowed hard to try to get some moisture back into his mouth.
“Want to be in you.”

“Let me just do the dance of the thirty-seven ties.”

He leaned back against the pillows and watched as she unraveled herself.
It shouldn’t have been erotic or exotic but it was.
Plain ties, striped and checked, ones with elephants, footballs, lips, horrible ties that flashed and one that played “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” in a high-pitched voice that got lower and slower before it finally fizzled out.
He had no idea why he’d kept that.

Yes, he did.

Kate was by his side in an instant.
“What is it?”

“Michael gave me that.”

She pulled him into her arms as he began to cry.

“Fuck it, fuck it,” Charlie sobbed.
“Why did he take my keys?
Why didn’t I stop him?”

Kate stroked his hair.

“Why did she say that?” he whispered.

Kate slid down so she lay beside him.

“Don’t leave me.” He kissed her all over her face.
“Don’t leave me.”

“I won’t.”

“Oh God,” he panted.
“I don’t deserve you.”

Kate nibbled his ear, ran her tongue around it and Charlie moaned.
Nothing mattered then except the two of them.
Kate was his.
She lay there next to him and he had the chance to make love to her with no barrier between them.
He’d got so caught up in what she’d been doing to him, he’d forgotten this was supposed to be for her.
If it hadn’t have been for that tie, Charlie thought he’d have come before he’d got all the way inside her.
Christ, was Michael watching over him?

If you’re there, thanks. But fuck off now, mate.

He lay over Kate, holding himself up on his elbows and kissed her.
Her sweet lips opened and Charlie fell inside.
Their tongues behaved like kids allowed outside in the sunshine after being cooped up all day because of rain.
Playing kiss-chase, hide and seek, tag until they had to break apart to breathe.

The moment Charlie positioned his cock against the entrance to her body, they both started as though the knowledge of what they were doing had suddenly hit home.
Forget what happened earlier, this was a gift from Kate and he knew it wasn’t given lightly.
Charlie swirled his crest against her silky folds.
His pre-cum, her cream, mingled together and he could smell their musk rising around them.
Hot, wet, perfect.

His tip parted her folds and slipped just inside her.
Heat into heat.
Charlie slid into her a fraction at a time, wanting to remember every second of every moment He felt her muscles clasp him, her fingers dig into his arms, her breath hit his face, saw her lovely eyes smile at him.

He ignored his balls, clamoring for permission to fire.
He ignored his cock, aching for the chance to thrust.

“Oh you feel good, Charlie,” she whispered.

He kept pushing, breeching her with the mushroom-shaped crest of his cock, his thick shaft following.
Little by little filling her up, pushing his velvet cock into her satin glove.
Charlie would not rush this perfect moment.

“Kate,” he whispered as their hips finally kissed.

Kate pulled him down so he lay on her chest and they kissed again with him not moving inside her.
She knew Charlie balanced on a knife edge of control because she did too.
If she let herself come, Charlie would fall with her and Kate wanted this moment to last as long as they could make it.

She stroked his back, traced patterns with her fingers, wrote words she couldn’t quite say.
His cock filled her, and though Kate willed them not to, the muscles of her pussy gently squeezed him.