Stone
Bella fell asleep soon after we’d finished talking. Well, soon after she’d finished trying to pry open the lockbox of the past. My darling girl had no idea how firmly shut that was. Years of silence and misery, of guilt and darkness, had glued the lock shut so firmly, I feared it would never open. It would only continue to get heavier to carry with every passing year.
I pretended to read for a while before setting my book aside. How could I read when Bella was sleeping so sweetly beside me? Her full lips had slightly parted, and her face was flushed rose from the warmth of the fire. Her hair was spread around her shoulders like a silk fan, and her eyelashes rested on her cheeks. She was perfect like this, innocent and sweet and relaxed. I wanted her to feel peaceful here. I wanted Thorn Hill to feel like home to her. I never wanted her to leave.
As the grandfather clock in the corner chimed eleven, I knew I should move her. Her neck would get sore, and besides, if I stood any chance of sleeping, I had to closet myself in my room, away from temptation.
I stopped beside her chair and crouched down, breathing in the scent of her light perfume and that intangible something that was just her. I wanted to drown in it.
“Bella, darling, time to go upstairs,” I murmured.
She shifted but didn’t wake. I let myself touch her, lowering my hand to her cheek and then up, brushing a thick dark wave of hair from her forehead. My fingers continued over her skin, running down her full cheek to her mouth. I couldn’t resist sliding my thumb along the supple flesh. I wanted to fuck her mouth with my fingers and tongue and feel her moan against me. I wanted to slip my dick between those luscious lips until she gagged on me, my pretty little darling, taking as much as she could. I wanted to mark her with my spend, so everyone would know that the beast in the house on the hill had taken a lover, and she would be his forever.
As my thoughts ran rampant, I went to pull my hand away, just as Bella’s lips parted beneath my finger. My thumb dipped inside, and heat lit me up. Inside, her mouth was hot and wet, and she let out a sigh, her eyes flickering open. I quickly pulled my thumb from her lips, clearing my throat as every drop of blood in my body headed down south.
“Time to go to bed, Bella,” I said gently as her eyes fixed sleepily on me.
“With you?” she asked in a deep, throaty whisper, still half-asleep.
Her softly spoken words pinned me to the spot. I shook my head slowly.
The slightest pout came to her full lips. “Pity. Why do none of the best dreams come true?”
I stood up. I couldn’t take the proximity one more second without touching her. If I stayed, I’d kiss her awake. Pull her from the chair, bend her over it, and sink inside her. But she wasn’t ready for that, my sweet Bella. She deserved more than that the first time I took her. I might look brutish and beastly, but I wasn’t a monster. Not to her, at least.
“You need to get to bed,” I told her more firmly.
She blinked at me, and I saw cold reality filtering into her gaze. She’d clearly been having interesting dreams. She sat up, suddenly agitated. Her eyes ran between mine and my mouth, and she looked scandalized.
“Tomorrow, you can tell me all about your dream if you want,” I told her.
She flushed. Her hair was mussed from sleeping. She looked adorable and hot as fuck.
“For now, get upstairs before I try to stop you.”
I turned away, controlling my body with sheer force and an iron-clad will. I heard her setting her book down and then the soft patter of her feet taking her from the room. I fought the instinct to go after her.
Not tonight, I told the darkness inside of me. Not yet.
But soon.
Very soon.
* * *
Gettingwork done at home was difficult with Bella around. She was noisy, chatty, and distracting. She was everywhere, and when she wasn’t, I found myself looking for her. She kept herself busy during the day, cleaning with the earnest devotion of someone who wanted to complete their task early.
Little did she know I had forgiven and forgotten her father’s debt. From the first glance at his daughter, Alfie Moore had ceased to exist to me. Now, I owed him a debt. He was the reason Bella had swung into my lonely, dark existence like a wrecking ball.
This morning, I could smell burning eggs from the basement gym. In the past, I’d often found myself quite the critic. I liked my food cooked well. I enjoyed fine ingredients. Eating quality food was one pleasure I allowed myself, yet in the last week, I’d eaten more terrible food than I had in my entire life, and I’d never been happier about it.
I’d eat anything Bella made for me, no questions asked. She could feed me poison at this point, and I’d happily down it. I was lost in this woman, and there was no way back.
I got to the kitchen and saw the cooker unsupervised. I strode quickly to the eggs, singeing gray scraps in the bottom of the pan.
“Shit! I was only gone a few minutes!” she cried from the doorway, hurrying toward me.
“Well, unfortunately, it looks like it was a few minutes too long.” I took the heavy frying pan off the burner and set it down on a cool one.
She stared at the contents of the pan. What wasn’t black was grey. “Do you think it’s salvageable?” she asked, looking at me guiltily.
“I think we’ll have to let this one go,” I told her, opening the fridge. “Here, do you want me to show you how to make foolproof eggs?” I grabbed some veg and more eggs.
She narrowed her eyes at me as she took the burnt eggs to the sink and dumped them down the garbage disposal. “It depends. Are you calling me a fool?”
“Never. But there are some tricks to make your life easier,” I said, washing my hands and taking the pan from her.
She followed me back to the counter, watching me with curious eyes.
I enjoyed her scrutiny. “Let’s begin.”
Whippingup a veggie omelet didn’t take long, and Bella’s company elevated the mundane task to something else. She watched and copied as I diced pepper and mushrooms, getting excited when the omelet rose beautifully.
I took it off the heat when it was golden and smelling divine and cut a small mouthful. “Here, you try it first.”
I held the fork close to her lips so she didn’t have the opportunity to take it in her hand. I wanted to feed her. She hesitated a moment, her eyes flying to mine before she leaned forward and opened her lips. I guided the fork between them.
She chewed and raised an eyebrow. “This is great. It doesn’t taste at all like mine.” She frowned. “Does that mean you’ve been eating disgusting food you don’t like all week when you can cook?”
“I think it best not to answer that,” I said, tidying up the scraps on the counter.
Bella was watching me, her arms folded across her chest. “I don’t get you, you know,” she said after a while.
I drifted toward her. I couldn’t escape her gravitational pull. She was the new sun of my universe, and all I could do was orbit her helplessly. “Meaning?”
“Why did you agree to me coming here if you don’t need me to cook or clean for you.”
“Who says I don’t?”
“Anyone with eyes. Or tastebuds, for that matter,” she said, stepping closer. “Why did you agree?”
I dropped the cleaning rag on the counter and turned to her. “Why do you think?” I asked her, my voice throaty and deep.
She blinked, suddenly surprised at how little distance there was between us. Her slim throat bobbed as she swallowed. The tension between us clogged up the air and made it hard to breathe.
I didn’t think for one second that Bella would be the one to push it further, but after watching her dream last night, I understood. I might be a man obsessed, but my little beauty queen was curious. Isabella Moore wanted to know what it was that crackled in the air between us, what it was that set her body alight. She was too young to know for sure, and unless I was wrong, she was untouched. She had the air of a woman yet to realize the pleasure two people could find together, and I was going to be the man to show her. From now on, I would be the one to show her the delights her body was capable of. I would be the only one to touch this woman.
“You know so much about me, Bella… the heartless man, the recluse of Thorn Hill… you tell me.” There was a challenge in my tone and I knew she’d respond to it.
Bella had been trying to figure me out, and I was eager to know what conclusions she’d come to. Whether she’d been trying to reconcile her growing desire for me, at war with the stark truth of how we’d met, I didn’t know, but I was going to make sure her curiosity won out.
She raised her chin at me. “Fine. I think it’s because you’re not as terrible as you like to believe you are. You don’t really want to hurt anyone. You wouldn’t.”
“Guess again, princess,” I muttered, losing the battle not to touch her. I reached out and closed a hand around her hip, my huge palm dwarfing her slender waist. I stepped toward her, holding her in place.
“I don’t have to. I’m right. I know I am,” she insisted.
I advanced until my front was pressed against her. “Bella, I’m warning you. Don’t look for a hero in me. I don’t turn into a prince when I’m kissed. You’ll be disappointed.”
My words were true and earnest. I couldn’t bear the thought of taking Isabella when she was under the false assumption that I might be a better man than I was.
She considered my words before slowly bringing her hands to rest on my chest. Her gentle, tentative touch made my heart quake in the desolate space.
“Who said anything about kissing?” She tilted her head and parted her lips.
Her expression was pure want and need, and I wasn’t a good enough man to resist it. I wasn’t a good man at all, and if Bella wanted to kiss me, nothing would stop me.
I closed the distance between us and gently traced my lips across hers, my tongue darting to lick at the gap between them and slip inside.
“If you don’t want me to kiss you… stop me,” I told her, moving my hand to bracket her cheek and gripping her jaw lightly to tilt her head further back. “Stop me now, or don’t stop me at all,” I warned her quietly.
Excitement flared in the dark depths of her beguiling eyes. She made no move to stop me, and it was all the answer I needed.
I dropped my mouth to hers. My tongue slid inside the cavern of her mouth, stroking along hers, and she sighed and pulled me closer. I grabbed her to me, pressing her against my hard body as if I wanted to fuse us together. And that’s exactly what I wanted—to tie Bella to me so she’d always be within arm’s reach. I was truly obsessed with my little beauty queen.
“Stone–I–I don’t know how to do any of this,” she whispered in my ear, just as I moved my lips in a hot trail down from her ear and down her neck to her collarbone.
She was tall, but not tall enough for me to reach where I wanted, so I hoisted her into my arms and turned her back against the nearest wall. We met the hard surface roughly, and Bella wound her arms around my neck, arching her back as I gripped her ass hard through her jeans.
“What are you telling me, princess?”
“I’m a virgin. I’ve barely been kissed, thanks to Alfie. He didn’t let boys come sniffing around.” She gasped as I closed my teeth over her earlobe and sucked.
“Finally, something your father did right,” I ground out.
I pinned her to the wall with my hips, relishing the way her parted thighs surrounded my hard-on laying like a steel rod up my belly, straining to be nearer to Bella.
“I’ll teach you everything you want to know… every single thing.” I rotated my hips, knowing that the hard length of me was rubbing across her pussy. Even through our clothes, I could feel her heat. “Does that feel good? When I fuck you through your clothes?”
Bella nodded, squirming against me, pinned between me and the wall. She was a lightweight in my arms, and the knowledge that if we were naked right now, I’d be balls deep, drilling her into the wall, set my blood on fire. She was moving purposefully against me, wriggling her little wet core on me, biting her lip and moaning. My princess wanted to come, and she wasn’t shy about it. I liked that. I liked that a lot.