In the simmering silence that followed, he had pulled out the auction house document and signed it over to me, declaring our business transaction complete. I was finally free.
Then Miles told me to leave. Floundering from this abrupt rejection, I'd begged to at least stay the night. His aloof agreement had landed me in this cold, quiet guest-room. Alone. And still technically a virgin, despite everything that had happened.
I twisted on the bed, the clammy sheets sliding over my bare legs as I lay back down. The thin cotton t-shirt seemed like feeble protection against the cold filling me. The infuriating, demanding, fascinating man I had so recently come to know wanted me to leave and a hollow dread filled me at the thought of never seeing him again. I needed to make things right with him, to somehow repay him for saving me. To my confused shame, I also ached to feel his strong body against mine once more, to meet his wicked lusts with my own sinful passion. I groaned, throwing an arm over my eyes, blocking out the empty shadows and fighting down my conflicting emotions.
An hour slowly ticked by as I lay there sleepless, too scared to close my eyes and risk the nightmare. Giving up, I finally threw back the sheets and swung my legs over the side of the bed. I had to find him. Hesitantly, I crossed the room and opened the door. The blackness of the hallway beckoned. I vaguely recalled being led down a few hallways, towards the back of the spacious mansion. Padding along on bare feet, I cautiously moved through the silent house.
I wandered along, lost and a bit frightened, until I finally stumbled upon a familiar door. It was the bedroom where I'd been so roughly deposited the night before. Its carved wood loomed over me, a forbidding barrier. Even if Miles was inside, he'd made it quite clear that he didn't want to see me again. A quiet voice in my mind whispered that I should just go back to my room. Before I could talk myself out of it, I forced my hand onto the doorknob.
With a faint creak, the heavy door swung open onto the lush room now seared into my memory. The dim light revealed the heavy four-poster bed where I'd slept in his arms, just the night before. Torn between hope and fear, I froze in the doorway, unable to force myself into the room as my nerves totally failed. The memory of his rejection curdled inside me, and I turned away, defeated. His voice from the darkness halted me in my tracks.
"Are you coming in or not?" His bored tones gave no hint to a preference, and I cringed. My cowardly escape attempt thwarted, I swung back to the open door and crossed my arms under my breasts. As the silence lengthened, I wet my lips and forced myself to speak.
"I-I couldn't sleep." I winced at the lame excuse. An aggravated sigh was Miles' only response. "Um... can I come in?" The words tripped out, rushing past my trembling lips.
"If you must." With that unfriendly invitation, I crept into the room. I slowly crossed to the bed, my knees shaking and stomach churning. As my eyes adjusted to the gloom, I made out the hard length of his body, stretched across the bed, and the cold gleam of his dark eyes. He watched me without expression, his arms crossed under his head.
Suddenly shy, I walked to the far side of the bed and timidly slid under the covers. Lying on my side, facing out into the darkness, I was as close to the edge of the mattress as possible. A few minutes ticked past, and nothing happened. I breathed a quiet sigh, both sad and relieved to be ignored. Too soon.
His arm wrapped around my waist, and I yelped as I was yanked across the bed, flat on my back. Heavy hands fell on my shoulders, pinning me to the bed as Miles slid his knee between my legs. That intimate, relentless pressure spreading my thighs instantly thrust me back into the depths of my nightmare. I thrashed, panicking, but his unyielding grip held me captive.
Suddenly terrified, I cried out. "Stop!" A frozen silence followed, and then the hard body on top of me lifted away. I gasped in a relieved breath, curling onto my side and drawing up my knees. The awful trapped sensation faded, and reality returned with a thud. Cold despair swept through me as I realized that I had just freaked out on Miles, rejected him. It was the very last thing I had wanted to do. I choked out a garbled apology, shamed by my panic attack.
A gentle touch brushed against my face, and I raised a shaking hand to press his warm fingers to my cheek. The bed shifted as Miles sat up behind me, keeping a careful distance between us. His free hand brushed back my hair, tousled from my sudden trip across the wide bed. "Sophia..."
I winced as he called me by pseudonym I'd used when we met. The blatant reminder of the artificial nature of our relationship jarred and I released his hand. Miles pretended not to notice, and coolly corrected himself.
"Rachel. Why didn't you go home?" He didn't mention my panic, and I felt absurdly grateful for a moment, before his question sank in.
I'd asked myself that same thing a thousand times, alone in the guest room, but the answer had eluded me. Speaking to this near-stranger somehow made it easier to be honest with myself. I rolled onto my back, releasing my tight protective curl with a sigh.
I spoke without looking at him, glad for the concealing shadows. "I-I don't want it to be over. This...whatever this is." I struggled for words in the face of his silence. "I mean, I barely know you, I realize that. But I want to. I want this to be real." My voice sunk to a whisper, and I looked down as heat rose to my cheeks.
The hand caressing my hair dropped down. His thumb brushed my lower lip as he cupped my chin, gently turning my face towards him. I could just make out the pale oval of his face as he spoke. I held my breath, my heart pounding with hope and fear, a knife-edge of tempestuous emotion.
"I don't know if that's possible, Rachel." My breath rushed out in a sigh, and I blinked back sudden hot tears. His hand tightened around my neck as I tried to pull back. "But I'm willing to try if you are, darling." I stared at him, and his teeth gleamed in a quick smile as he released me.
"Really?" I squeaked, an impossible joy swelling within me. "I mean, I am. Willing to try, that is. I am!" I forced myself to stop babbling as he grinned down at me, pleased to have flustered me. The aching tension that had throbbed through me since our fight faded away, and I relaxed into the soft bed. Sleep beckoned as my exhaustion suddenly hit me, but the chiding finger waggling in front of my eyes halted my yawns.
"Ah, ah, darling! We have a few more things to settle yet." I blinked up at him, and he frowned, lightly tugging my hair. He spoke quietly, but forcefully. "I have specific... desires, darling. Needs, actually. Are you willing to meet them?"
I flushed as the memory of his wicked commands swept through me. My pussy throbbed and my nipples hardened in helpless reflex. Wordless in the raw surge of lust, I pulled his hand down to my breast. He caught the budding peak between his fingers, pinching the tender flesh mercilessly through my t-shirt until I moaned.
"I'll take that for a yes, then." His voice had lowered, husky with desire. Heat flashed through me as he slid forward on the bed, closing the distance between us. He ground his hard cock against my hip, his fingers plucking and teasing my nipples until I squirmed and whimpered. After another moment of the delicious torture, he cleared his throat, sliding his warm hand down to my belly. "Ah, before I get carried away, I would like you to pick a safe word."
The pleasure filling me faded somewhat as I frowned up at him, confused. "A safe word?" My eyes drifted shut as his teasing fingers lifted my shirt, baring my flat stomach. I shuddered as his narrow fingertip dipped into my bellybutton, shooting an odd, almost electrical surge down to my clit. He said something, but I couldn't make out his words through the haze of lust fogging my mind. "What?"
My eyes opened as he reluctantly shifted back, pulling his hands away. "A safe word. It's... well, it's a signal for me to stop, if you don't like what I'm doing." With a strangled groan, he abruptly swung his leg across my body, straddling my hips and thrusting his rigid cock against my belly. "Just pick a damn word, it's not that hard!"
I froze as the weight of his body pressing me into the bed shot icy fear through me. Torn between unreasoning terror and hot lust, I blurted out the first word that came to mind. "Fire." He chuckled and settled his body more firmly against mine, his hard chest flattening me to the bed as his lips closed on my throat. I gasped, my muscles tightening painfully as the dreadfully familiar sense of helplessness plunged me into blind panic once more. "Fire!"
Miles sat up, frowning forbiddingly. "You don't have to test it, I heard you the first time!" His irritated tone intensified my terror, and I shoved at him, thrashing wildly, desperate to escape. Miles lifted himself off of me, his stern expression shifting to worry. "Rachel? Darling, are you alright?" I jerked away from him, scrabbling across the bed. He reached for me and I slapped at his hand, cringing. "Rachel?"