Page 42 of Suddenly Mine
He alternated the pressure on her clit, circling it with his tongue, then sucking it between his lips again while his fingers moved inside her, finding that spot that made her legs tremble and her cries catch in her throat. She was so close.
“Don’t stop,” she whispered, breathless. “Please, don’t stop.”
He didn’t. He just kept going, worshipping her with every stroke and every kiss, until she came in a release that washed over her like a wave. She cried out his name, her thighs clamping around his shoulders as she bucked beneath him, all control lost.
When he finally pulled back, her knickers still askew and her chest rising and falling like she’d run a marathon, he looked up at her with a flushed face and a crooked, satisfied grin.
“You are more than enough,” he said, voice rough with emotion. “Don’t ever forget that.”
Merry could barely move, which is why it was Christian who bolted to his feet at the sound of crunching gravel outside the conservatory.
“Shit!” he said, looking at Merry in wide-eyed alarm. “Quick.”
Merry launched herself out of the sofa and glanced through the wall of foliage. “Shit,” she agreed, unable to believe her eyes as Mrs Cradley strode towards the conservatory. “She must have a sixth sense.”
“Or some kind of fun-destroying radar,” said Christian, tugging at his trousers. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
She grabbed her tights and slipped her shoes on and they sneaked out through the conservatory door, running for a large vent. They hid behind it, watching as Mrs Cradley walked into the conservatory and closed the door behind her.
Together, hissing with barely contained laughter, they ran the long way around the roof, making their way back to the door and tumbled inside.
Chapter 18
CHRISTIAN
The last thing Christian wanted to do was head back to his room. He’d come out for a reason after waking from his nap, still groggy, heart pounding from a half-remembered dream. He was pretty sure Mrs Cradley was hiding something. The rooftop conservatory wasn’t listed on any staff floor plan, and he’d caught her sneaking out the door a few times. So, he’d come to poke around. Only, halfway across the gravel, he’d felt that unmistakable prickle between his shoulder blades that told him he was being followed. The last person he’d expected it to be was Merry.
She’d followed him. Apologised. Said all the things he hadn’t let himself hope she might say. And now she’d gone, and he was wired. Still tasting her on his lips and burning with the memory of her hands in his hair. They’d barely touched the surface of what he wanted to do to her when Mrs Cradley had appeared like a Victorian ghost with a sixth sense for sniffing out joy.
Christian figured he’d do a bit of work while he was here — burn off the restlessness that pulsed just beneath his skin. And if he happened to poke around a little more in the process? Well, there was no harm in that.
He had walked with Merry to the ground floor and kissed her goodbye at the staff door, then made his way back down the corridor and out into the atrium. It was like coming home for the first time in years, the store utterly empty and completely silent. He’d loved these moments when he was a kid, the quiet after the storm when the doors had been locked. He’d had the whole building to himself — well, him and the cleaning crews — and he’d explored to his heart’s content, playing cowboys and bandits among the hats, sliding hockey pucks along thesmooth floors of the sports department, watching the huge TVs in Electronics. He may have been an only child, but the store had been like a sibling to him. It had never let him get lonely.
Now, though, something felt wrong.
Christian walked across the vast, empty atrium. The escalators were still, the lights dimmed. Mannequins stared at him with smiles on their faces. The tree stood before him, smaller than the one at Rockefeller but no less impressive. Hundreds of presents lay around its base, perfectly wrapped and gloriously shiny. Once, when he’d been about four, Christian had opened a dozen or so of them, believing that he would find presents inside. His dad had torn strips off him in anger, but his mum had gathered him in a huge hug and told him it was okay. The next year, he remembered, she’d wrapped a special gift for him and hidden it among the fake presents. She’d done the same the year after, too, and the year after that, helping him find it without causing any damage. She’d promised to do it every single year, but of course she hadn’t — later that year she’d gone into hospital and never came home.
He wondered if there would be a present there for him now.
Shaking his head sadly, Christian surveyed the rest of the atrium. It was a mess. Clothes hung off the rails, the floor felt sticky, and the cashier’s desks were cluttered and untidy. It was almost like everyone had left at once, midway through their shift, leaving the store like the sailors on theMary Celeste. That was weird. His dad might have been lenient in some ways, but he’d always insisted on the store being spotless before everyone left, ready to open up the next day. Why hadn’t anyone bothered? Where was the cleaning team?
Christian rode the customer elevator back up to the tenth floor. It was just as messy up here, Santa’s grotto littered with candy wrappers and unclaimed presents. He made his way to thestaff door and let himself through, peeking his head around the locker room door to see a man sitting there, lacing up his boots.
“Harvey?” he said.
The man clamped a hand to his heart, wheezing in a breath. “Argh! Christian! Are you trying to send me to my grave? You scared the life outta me.”
“Sorry,” Christian said, walking into the room. “I didn’t think anyone was here.”
“That makes two of us,” said Harvey, massaging his chest. “I thought you was on an early today? What you doing here?”
“I . . . I just stopped by, thought I’d left my wallet,” he said, hating the fact he had to lie. “Where is everyone?”
“Gone.”
“But why? I thought Da—” He caught himself just in time. “I thoughtLewiswanted the store cleaned at the end of every day?”
“They’ve not gone home for the day,” said Harvey. “They’vegone. Like, for good.”