Page 24 of Mayfair Madame (Mayfair Heights #1)

Chapter Twenty Two

Naomi

W e fell into bed, a tangle of arms and legs. Ellie had a head start on me where clothes were concerned, but I was soon stripped down to my underwear.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Naomi. Look at you.” Ellie’s eyes were wide, her hard nipples showing through the thin vest top she wore.

A dark patch formed on her light grey boy shorts. I loved when she wore them.

My pussy throbbed, and I was as wet as she was.

I undid my bra and slowly slipped the straps down my arms, keeping one arm in front, hiding my breasts from her, wanting to tease just a little more.

Ellie moaned as I stepped out of my thong. “Move your arms. I want to see all of you.”

I did as she asked and dropped the bra to the floor, leaving myself naked beneath her intense stare.

The damp patch on her shorts grew. “How do we always end up in bed?” she asked.

“I don’t know, but I’m not complaining. Is it a problem?”

“Fuck, no. I’d spend all day in your arms if I could. Can we take a shower first? I’ve been travelling and then sleeping. I’m sure I don’t smell the sweetest.”

“I don’t fucking care,” I dropped to my knees before her and slowly removed her shorts. Her pubic hair sprang free, a little longer than before. Not that I minded. I parted her lips, revealing her small, pink,glistening clit. She was so fucking wet.

I stuck my nose in her hair and inhaled. Her musky scent filled my nose. God, I loved her smell.

She pulled away, leaving me on my knees. “Please, Naomi, I want to shower first.”

Not wishing to upset her, I agreed. “Of course. Anything you want, my love.”

She removed her underwear, and we stepped into the bathroom. Steam filled the room as the shower heated. We stood under the spray, rivulets of water streaming down our faces.

I bent and kissed her again, bringing her body flush with mine. Her perfect breasts pressed hard against me. She gripped my arse, and I slipped my leg between her thighs.

“Ride me, baby.” I panted into her hair. Her finger found its way into my pussy, slick with my juices. She ground against me, rolling her hips.

She moaned, her fingers working my clit as she rubbed against me. Tingles spread from my head right down to the tips of my toes.

Her movements became frantic, and her breath quickened.

“Fuck, Naomi. I’m so close.”

I was too, and my pussy pulsed with need. Talented fingers found the spot inside, and I tensed, ready for the flood I knew was coming.

“Yes, baby, right there.” I closed my eyes, my hands flat against the tiled wall as an orgasm hit me, so intense it almost brought me to my knees. Bright lights flared behind my eyelids as wetness spilt down my legs.

Ellie continued to rub herself on my thigh, wet with her cum and the water cascading around us. She held on to my arms and moved faster and faster until she screamed out her climax.

She slumped against me, finding my nipple. She latched on, sucking the taut flesh into her warm mouth.

“God, I love these.” She nipped one, then the other, sending a shot of electricity to my clit. Any more and I’d be coming again.

“You make me come so damn quick, Ellie. We barely start before I’m coming so hard. It’s a wonder I don’t black out.”

I glanced down. Her shoulders were shaking. Was she crying?

“Ellie? Are you okay?”

She snivelled and wiped at her eyes, then turned away from me.

“I’m sorry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

“It’s been an emotional weekend, baby. What with your mom and your sister. Add in tiredness. Of course you’re impassioned right now. Let’s get washed and dried, and then we’ll tuck into some pie with ice cream. Sound good?”

I lifted her chin and kissed away the few tears that had fallen. I shampooed her hair and washed every part of her, taking my time, showing her with my actions how much I adored her body.

While she dried off, I quickly washed myself, and wearing only towels, we made our way back to the kitchen to collect the pie.

“Here, take this to the table. I’ll grab the ice cream.”

On my way back to the table, my phone pinged. Who the hell could that be?

Unknown number : I warned you bitch, but you didn’t listen.

Fucking twat. How dare he?

I threw the phone onto the table and opened the ice cream. “One scoop or two?”

“Just the one for me. Is everything okay?” She frowned as I dug into the ice cream. The stupid fucking spoon kept bending, and I stabbed at itas hard as I could. I’d have been better off using an ice cream scoop. Pity I didn’t fucking possess one.

“No, Ellie, it’s not okay.” I threw the spoon down in disgust and sat back in the chair, my arms folded.

“Hey, I can go if there’s a problem.” She stood and gripped her towel, ready to leave.

“No, no, no. Sit down, please. I’m sorry. It’s nothing to do with you. Here, read this.”

I unlocked the phone and gave it to her. She sat and scrolled through the messages, her lip firmly between her teeth.

“Before you ask, I think it’s from Godfrey.” I couldn’t explain why I knew without telling her what Rupert and I had done.

“You need to report this.” She handed the phone back to me, the pie and ice cream now forgotten.

“I already did. I called Josh on Friday when I got the first one.”

“And what did he say?”

“We both decided it was inconclusive. It’s all supposition. There’s no proof, and I’m not about to go knocking on his door and accusing him. I’ve had enough of that pompous fucking oaf.”

“So, what are you going to do?”

“What can I do? Yes, it’s a threat, but they don’t give any details. I’ll go about my business as I normally would.”

“Fuck, Naomi. I don’t know what to say.”

“It’s fine. Now let’s eat.”

But the text message had soured the mood. We picked at the pie, and as nice as it was, my appetite had disappeared. Ellie didn’t seem to be faring much better. She’d barely touched the food.

“Let’s take the wine and go back to bed.”

I grabbed the bottle and glass and let my towel fall to the floor. I was dry anyway.

Ellie followed with her glass, her towel firmly clasped in her hand.

I turned on the lamp and brought Ellie close, needing to feel her next to me. Her skin on mine.

“The ice cream will melt.” She settled next to me.

“I’ll buy more. There wasn’t much left anyway after I’d butchered it.”

“Do you want me to go see Godfrey? Warn him off?”

“I have no proof, Ellie, and it could make matters worse. I’ll delete the messages, and we’ll forget all about it.”

I stroked her arm as we lay in silence. “He’s ruined our night,” I grumbled.

“He hasn’t. We had a lovely time until then. It’s just a blip, and tomorrow, he’ll be a distant memory.”

“Don’t you dare do anything, Ellie. I know you have a sense of righteousness, but he doesn’t deserve our time. And don’t roll your eyes at me.”

She laughed, a sweet sound that made my heart feel a little lighter.

“How did you know?”

“Because irrespective of how long we’ve known each other, I know what you’re like, Ellie Sharpe. You don’t hide your feelings well.”

We lay for a while longer, the rain now battering the windows. The weather changed from one day to the next. One day it was glorious sunshine; the next, wind and rain so harsh, it could almost be winter, not the height of summer.

“Will you tell me what happened to you? You know, when you were younger.”

I blew out a breath and rubbed my chest, a nervous habit I’dpicked up and one I’d not done for a while.

“You don’t have to if it’s too much.”

Was it too much? No, it wasn’t.

“When I was ten, my mother went to prison. Prostitution and drug offences. Dad was nowhere to be found, and my gran was too old to look after me on her own. Social services took me away and placed me with a family I didn’t know. They were the first of many, and not too bad.”

“That sounds awful.”

It was, but I’d become so used to talking about it to my therapist and Rupert, any emotions I’d previously felt had been scrubbed away.

“I’ve spent many years in therapy going over this. It’s a time of my life I’ve tried hard to put behind me, but sometimes, when I’m least expecting it, the night terrors come back to haunt me. Don’t get me wrong, not every home I stayed in was bad, but the majority were.”

Ellie took my hand and squeezed. “I’m so sorry.”

“Hey, it’s fine. I promise. Anyway, I’m not sure what happened,but after about six months, I was moved to another home, then another and another, until finally, they decided I couldn’t go home. Mum was deemed unfit to care for me, and there was no one else.”

“I was placed in what they called long-term fostering. I never knew what was happening. If I were staying or going. Always living on the edge caused untold anxieties and insecurities. The family I was with chose to keep me in the dark about how long I stayed with them.”

“How old were you by then?”

“Thirteen, almost fourteen. I’d been passed from pillar to post and lost count of how many homes I’d actually been in. There was the odd stint at home when Mum wasn’t in prison, but it was never for long, and I inevitably ended up back in the system.”

“Didn’t you have any other family? Aunts or uncles?”

“Nope. I was an only child, as was Mum, and of course, I never knew my dad. So there was just Gran.”

“I…I…”

“You don’t have to say anything, Ellie. I’m over it. I promise.”

I snuggled down a little farther and took her with me. I turned off the bedside lamp, leaving the room in darkness. Heavy rain had given way to a storm, and bright lightning lit up the room, followed by thunder rumbling through the city.

“The last but one home I stayed in was the worst. They hated my being black. They barely fed me, all my clothes were from a charity shop, and half of them didn’t fit.

I was bullied at school, but no one seemed to care.

I wasn’t the best pupil. I skipped school, played up in class, and then one day,I got detention.

I was made to stay after lessons had finished for an hour.

I didn’t have a mobile phone, and by the time I arrived home, things had escalated. ”

Ellie put her hands over her eyes, but it wouldn’t change anything.

“Do you want me to carry on?” Even now, years afterwards, knowing what was coming, fear gripped me. The thud of my racing heart was loud in my ears, and my hands shook.

“Only if you want to.”

I’d got this far, and I knew if I stopped my story, it’d play on my mind until I’d finished.

“That night was the worst. They yelled and hit me before they locked me in the box room. Just bolted the door and walked away.” I could still hear the screech of metal on metal as it slid home. How I’d banged on the door as I pleaded with them to let me out.

I knew Ellie was upset, but I’d started, and now I needed to finish the story. A phrase came to mind, one from a book I’d read in school. It seemed to describe my time in foster care perfectly.

It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.

“I shouted and screamed over and over, but it fell on deaf ears, and for two days, I was locked in the room with a bucket in the corner and a thin, dirty mattress on the floor with just my clothes to keep me warm. What made matters worse, I’d started my period a few days previously.

I was left with nothing but wadded-up toilet paper to protect me. ”

Ellie stifled a sob. “I never thought it’d be this bad. I’m so very sorry, Naomi.”

“Hey, it’s in the past. I’ve come to terms with it.”

Except I hadn’t, not really. I still woke with the stench of stale blood in my nose, felt the hardness of the floor beneath my body, remembered the pain from relentless hunger.

But I was strong. I’d come back from the brink and made something of myself. I had to keep telling myself over and over. I wouldn’t let it define me. I was more than my fears.

I was Naomi Reeves. The Mayfair Madame.

“What happened next? Please tell me it didn’t get worse.”

“They eventually let me out with threats to tell no one. And I didn’t, not for a while anyway, but one day at school, I was cornered by a teacher.

They’d noticed how withdrawn I’d become, and before I knew it, I’d blurted out the complete story.

Another foster home, another school, but thankfully, it wasn’t as bad as the previous one. ”

“Then what happened?”

“Like I said the other day, Social Services kept a keen eye on me. Regular visits, interviews, and by the time I hit eighteen, I left. You know the rest.”

“I can’t imagine how fucking awful that must have been. Going through that. Makes my sorry story about being fat inconsequential.”

“No, it doesn’t, Ellie. We’ve each suffered in our own way. We were both bullied, and it doesn’t matter who did it, be it kids or adults.Nobody deserves that. We didn’t deserve that.”

I looked over at the clock. It was already eleven.

“Let’s get some sleep and put it all behind us. Tomorrow is another day, as they say, and I have you to share it with.”

Before long, the sound of Ellie’s breathing changed as she slept,still nestled into my side.

I’d missed her the past few days. Missed her voice and her face.Missed her in my bed. We’d spoken on the phone, but it hadn’t been enough, and now, with her safely lying next to me, my world fell into place.

A world that included Ellie Sharpe.