The Devil To Pay (Hennessey.) (68 page)

The voice that came out of her mouth no longer sounded like her own, ‘Sterling, Sterling, oh that’s wonderful, beautiful, oh please, don’t stop.’

It seemed like he had no intention of stopping because he removed one hand from her buttocks and inserted a finger into her vagina. She arched her back so that her upper body was raised from the bed and the top of her head lay on the pillow. Her body was aflame as though in a fever as he inserted another finger and she fell back to the bed as
though thrown there from the ceiling.

She was sobbing now with sheer ecstasy, ‘
Sterling, please, I’m ready, oh so ready.’

But still he kept her on the threshold with this exquisite torture.

Never in her wildest dreams could she gave envisioned this kind of unalloyed pleasure. No amount of book reading could have prepared her for this overwhelming feeling of being completely reckless and abandoned. It was like floating through the air, like a dream where she was flying through the clouds looking down on everyone below, only now she was looking down on herself and witnessing something she had never been able to let herself believe could happen to her.

She might have thought she was having a dream; a strange, bizarre, erotic dream except there was a real flesh and blood man between her legs. A real man whose hair she gripped so tightly, a real man who was taking her into another world, a world unlike any she had ever dreamed existed.

And this was no story, no fantasy, no dream, because what she was witnessing was not just any man doing this to her making her feel these things alien to her but Sterling Hennessey. This was what is was like to be made love to by a man of experience, a man sure of himself and his ability to please a woman.

The tears ran down her cheeks but still he kept her poised between pleasure and pain, agony and ecstasy. But just as she thought she could take no more pleasure, that she would surely die if he did not give her release, he stopped what he was doing with his tongue but kept his mouth against her swollen, feminine lips and began to stroke her clitoris gently yet agonisingly with his thumb.

She sobbed out his name as her body bucked and writhed and spasmed as the first orgasm she had ever experienced with a man tore through her as though her whole body had exploded with a thousand tiny lightening strikes. The warm liquid oozed from between her legs and pooled on the sheet under her buttocks. She was not even fully recovered from the first spasm when she was overtaken by another, this time more violent and more earth shattering than the last. Just when she thought she had indeed died and gone to heaven another wave of rapid fire explosions overcame her until she thought her heart would stop with the strength and ferocity of what was happening to her body, to her mind, to her heart.

Eventually he raised his head but kept his hand cupped over her vagina, stroking it with his palm as if to quieten down the storm that had just ravaged it. She felt him brush his lips against her thigh before moving up the bed; he rested his head on her chest and felt the rapid thumping of her heart, he put his other hand over it as if to slow it down a little. They stayed like this for a full five minutes until he felt her heart quieten under his cheek as her body began to calm itself like a volcano which had suddenly erupted then settled down leaving shock and awe in its wake.

She felt him take several deep breaths before he raised his head to look at her face which was aglow with a rapturous, satisfied contentment.

He smiled like a complacent and gratified cat. Her throat was constricted rendering her speechless but her eyes bright and shining conveyed everything she wanted and needed to say.

He covered her nakedness with the sheet and put his elbow on the pillow then rested his head on his hand. He stroked her hair which was now completely free of pins and ribbons and lay around her head like a shawl. He continued to look down at her flushed face, he saw the tears on her cheeks and wiped them away with his fingertips a small frown between his eyes.

He said, ‘are you all right?’

She lay supine hardly able to move, her body felt as heavy as lead and at the same time as light as air. She swallowed then nodded and her voice came from deep within her, ‘yes, oh yes.’

His frown vanished and he grinned then kissed her lips and once more the taste of her own feminine wetness on her lips gave her a renewed thrill between her legs.

Her voice was husky as she said, ‘thank you, Sterling, thank you
so
much.’

He frowned as he studied her flushed happy face, ‘you’re very welcome. But I have to say, it’s been a long time since I’ve had that reaction from a woman.’

Her already pink cheeks turned bright red and she lowered her eyes but he raised her head to look at him. ‘I’ve rarely had a woman cry on me before.’ All amusement gone now and his voice soft he said, ‘but then it’s been a long time since I met anyone like you, and a long time since I enjoyed pleasing a woman as much as I have you tonight.’

She smiled shyly then frowned and said, ‘but,
Sterling, what…what about
you
.’

‘What about me?’

Her breath was still coming in short gasps as she said, ‘well, you know, don’t you want to, you know, be satisfied?’

He smiled at her discomfort and awkwardness. ‘I
am
satisfied.’

She lowered her eyes again obviously flustered, ‘you know what I mean.’ Before she had become carried away with her own feelings, her own desires, before she had become so completely lost in her own physical needs, she had wondered why he had not attempted to have sexual intercourse with her. She realised now of course that he had not taken off his pants, only his shirt. But those feelings had taken hold of her and she had thought of nothing else but what he was doing to her and her own gratification, and now she felt awful and selfish.

Her voice was very low and shaky as she asked, ‘don’t you want to...to do it too?’

He said nothing for a while just kept running his fingers through the length of her hair. Her heart sank, she knew what he was going to say, that he wasn’t turned on, that he had discovered that he had not found her attractive or as sexy as he thought he would. Or she had somehow put him off by her actions tonight. Her stomach felt as though a huge boulder was inside it and she felt sick. Despite what he had just said she knew it was her fault, that she had not done enough to please him, she had just let him please and satisfy her and given nothing in return. She was a selfish, inconsiderate, thoughtless woman.

He said, ‘of course I do, I am a man you know, a man lying next to a beautiful, sexy, vibrant woman who would make even a monk question his vows,’ he grinned, ‘and I’m no monk.’

Of course she didn’t believe the part about her being beautiful etcetera, and she wasn’t sure she believed the part about him wanting her, but she asked, ‘then why, why don’t you want to…to…

Again he helped her out, ‘because this night is solely for you, this is
your
night. I want your first time in bed with a man to be memorable and perfect. I don’t want you to be tense and on edge thinking that I’m going to ask something of you you’re not prepared to give…not yet anyway.’

‘But…

‘But nothing. Look, you enjoyed yourself tonight didn’t you?’

Her voice came out breathy, ‘you know I did.’

‘Well then, think about that, remember
that
. Don’t worry about me; I got as much enjoyment out of pleasing you as you got out of being pleased.’ He kissed her nose then her lips, ‘lesson number five, learn to take as well as to give and learn to know when your partner is happy giving, because I’m happy now, happy that I pleased you as I did. All right?’ To his amazement, not to mention chagrin, he discovered that this was true.

She nodded then smiled brightly and kissed him rather shyly on the cheek. He returned her smile with a huge grin.

Adela felt a small sense of relief that he had not taken the evening any further and had sexual intercourse with her. He was right, she wasn’t sure that she
was
ready, and she liked him all the more for not taking advantage of her when she had been so carried away with her emotions and the way he had made her feel. But mostly she felt a great disappointment, an emptiness as though there was something missing, something she should have done but hadn’t, heights she should have reached but hadn’t and she knew it was because she had wanted him inside her, wanted him to become part of her, to make her whole.

The object of her thoughts broke into her reverie as he suddenly raised himself up from the bed and said, ‘I should go.’

She stared at him eyes cloudy with disappointment, ‘go? But it’s only 4.30.’

‘I know, but I want to move my car, I really don’t want to compromise your reputation as a good, virtuous lady. Besides, if I stay I can’t promise not to take advantage of the situation and I
have
just been priding myself on my restraint.’ He smiled down at her and after a few seconds she smiled back. She made to rise but he pushed her gently back down, ‘no, don’t get up, go back to sleep.’

She was glad he had told her to stay put; she didn’t think she was even capable of standing let alone walking.

He added, ‘besides, you’ll need all your energy for tomorrow.’

‘I…I will?’ She stammered foolishly.

‘Yep, I’ve got something special planned for tomorrow.’ He knew what she was thinking of course and laughed inwardly as he shrugged into his shirt and fastened it leaving her waiting before saying, ‘you’ll need that big hat of yours where we’re going.’

‘My hat?’

He said, ‘yep,’ again and laughed at her expression, ‘I’m not going to tell you so don’t ask, it’s a surprise. You
do
like surprises don’t you?’

She gave him a bright smile, ‘yes, yes I do.’

‘Well then.’ He put on his shoes, ‘’I’ll lock the door and put the key back through the mailbox, that way you won’t have to get up again.’ She nodded.

He sat on the bed and ran his hand down her cheek before kissing her tenderly on the lips. She raised her self up and deepened the kiss hoping to convey how much she owed him, how much she liked him, how much she wanted him.

He broke the kiss and leaned back looking at her for a moment before getting swiftly to his feet saying, ‘you temptress you. Now go to sleep and let me leave before I change my mind.’

She tried to be as light hearted as he was but it was so hard when she wanted to ask him to stay. But she was still not that sure of herself, nor as yet of him so she smiled and asked, ‘what time tomorrow should I be ready?’

‘Well, since you’ve had a disruptive night I’ll let you lie in bit later. So say, ten?’

‘Ten it is then; and thank you for your consideration of my beauty sleep.’

‘Well we don’t want you looking a wreck tomorrow do we, the towns folk will think I kept you up all night, ‘he paused for effect before concluding, ‘drinking and dancing.’

Her face flushed as she said, ‘oh you.’

He laughed and turned to the door, ‘goodnight then.’

She was about to say goodnight when she suddenly thought of something, ‘oh,
Sterling?’

He turned back, ‘yes?’

‘You said tomorrow.’

‘Yes that’s right, the day after today,’ he looked at his watch, ‘or in this case, tomorrow means today.’

She smiled fleetingly, ‘no, I meant I thought you were leaving tomorrow, you know, for your cousin's wedding.’

He looked down at the floor then back at her, his eyes raked her up and down, ‘well, something happened that changed my mind.’

Her face was once again suffused with heat and her voice was soft now, ‘I’m…I’m glad.’

He grinned and she said softly, ‘good night,
Sterling, and…thank you.’

He turned back to her a frown on his face; he stared at her for several seconds before nodding then turning quickly opened the door and let himself out. She heard him lock the door then nothing, he had not put the key back through. She stared hard at the door hoping she would not see the key come through the mailbox, she held her breath waiting. Then she heard the mailbox rattle and saw the key come through then heard it hit the floor with a ting.

Before she had seen the key come through the door and hit the floor, she hoped that he would change his mind and come back to finish what he had started. Because she knew that what had happened tonight was not finished, and she didn’t want it to be, she never wanted it to be. She lay back on the pillows and stared at the ceiling, she lay like this for a long time knowing that Hennessey’s sacrifice in leaving to let her get some sleep was a wasted one.

CHAPTER 24.

         
Hennessey stood a moment looking at the key in his hand; he looked back at the door then down at the key again before pushing it through the flap. He heard it hit the floor on the other side then turned and walked down the steps to the woods.

His mind was racing with what had happened. If she had been satisfied and oh she was satisfied all right, there was no doubt he had left her replete and satiated, then he was doubly so. He felt an adrenalin rush such as he had not felt in a long time. The job he did no longer had the power to excite him, the planning for an operation no longer thrilled him, and the fear of being caught no longer exhilarated him. But it was the danger he missed most, the danger and fear he had experienced right at the start of his “career” that was lacking now. Maybe that’s why he didn’t use a long range rifle any more and hadn’t for years. He had tried to tell himself that he liked it up close and personal, but he was honest with himself if no one else and knew it was because he wanted the rush to come back to him, the rush of those early days, but it never had. Until now.