The Devil To Pay (Hennessey.) (75 page)

She saw the truth of this but said, ‘
Sterling, I don’t think for a moment that Annie Bloom or Dean would give me a hard time, they’re decent people, and if they do it would only prove they weren’t very nice people to begin with, and I don’t believe that.’

He gave her a doubtful smile, ‘you see the good in everyone don’t you.’

‘Perhaps I just prefer to believe that there’s some good in even the very worst of us.’

He wondered if she would still believe that after she discovered what kind of person
he
was. It was just such a pity that he had to disabuse her of that belief.

He said, ‘if everyone thought as you did the world would be a lot nicer place that’s for sure.’

Her face tuned pink, ‘the world
is
a nice place, on the whole.’

He shook his head at her na
ivety and innocence. ‘If it is, it’s people like you that make it so.’

She looked away again
, ‘now you’re being silly again.’

He took her hands and there was no trace of amusement in the eyes that looked into hers as he said, ‘I’m neither being silly nor lying, neither am I being charming, but telling the truth as I see it.’ He brought her hand up to his lips and kissed her fingers one by one, then her eyes then her cheeks and finally her lips. His kiss was so gentle and tender that she
wanted to cry suddenly. ‘I want to tell you that I’ll miss you, and that I’ll never forget you, Adela Faraday, never.’

She was deeply moved her eyes filled with tears as she took his face in her palms and kissed him as he had done her, his eyes and cheeks and lips. Her voice trembled as she said, ‘I’ll miss you too, Sterling Hennessey, so very much.’

He took her in his arms and laid her down on the grass then put his head on her chest, he could feel the erratic beating of her heart as she stroked his hair and layered it through her fingers, it send a shiver through him.

They lay there contented, or at least she was. Hennessey was thinking that he shouldn’t have called her by her full name again, he cursed himself for that, the last thing he wanted was her to be distracted now, but was relieved when she had made no comment on it. He ran his hand up and down her leg as he said, ‘this is what they must mean by contentment.’

She said nothing but her grip tightened in his hair as she made a kind of purring sound that did something to his insides, it was the same sound she had made the evening before when he had pleased and satisfied her.

His head still resting on her chest he continued to run his hands up and down the outside of her leg then slowly moved his hand to caress the inside of her thigh. The little moan she gave encouraged him to move his hand further up to her belly then under her top to her breasts. She tensed but only for a moment as he raised her top then her bra over her breasts and began to massage them gently but firmly as he took her left nipple and rolled it round and round between his thumb and forefinger.

She gave a satisfied little sigh as she griped his hair tighter with one hand and reached under his shirt with the other and began to run her fingernails slowly and sensually up and down his back settling on the space between his shoulder blades sending tingles all down his spine as it had last night. He moved so that he was lying to the side of her and treated the other nipple to the same treatment making her groan afresh. He buried his face between the mound of her breasts and licked the hot skin there. He looked down on her breasts the nipples of which were hard and erect, then he looked into her eyes and saw the desire and anticipation there.

He smiled and she gave a shaky smile back. He bent his head to kiss her taking her mouth gently at first running his tongue over her lips then with more urgency and when his tongue found hers she groaned out her pleasure as she received the scorching kiss. He moved his hand down her stomach to the space between her legs which she parted in readiness for him; his hand reached into her panties and found her sex which to his satisfaction was already very wet.

He inserted a finger inside her and she arched her back and moaned aloud, he inserted another and began to cares her clitoris with his thumb until she moaned and writhed beneath him.

Adela was hardly capable of thought, if she had been she would have asked herself why sensible Adela Faraday was lying beneath a man in the open air letting him do these things to her, wonderful, pleasurable, ravishing things. But right now she was incapable of rational thought; she was acting purely on primal instinct and pleasure, as though she was intoxicated.

She moaned again as his teeth bit gently into her nipple. She removed her hand from his hair and to his pants where she began to undo his belt but to her surprise his hand gripped hers and stopped her. He raised his head she met his eyes and said huskily, ‘let me please you too.’

He smiled, ‘later, first you.’

Adela was torn between wanting to please him and being grateful to him for his consideration of her, for his unselfishness. She would perhaps have thought that he was not turned on by what was happening between them, except that when she had touched him before he had grabbed her hand proved otherwise, he had been aroused. That thought was gratifying and at the same time terrifying. But the next moment all thought was driven from her head as he once more began that movement with his thumb and fingers that sent her into a paroxysm of ecstasy. She moaned and called his name out loud as the orgasm ripped through her, then another and still another until she lay spent and completely content.

Then as her mind once again began to rejoin the real world she waited for him to enter her and complete the act of lovemaking, but to her surprise he laid his head beside hers and looked into her eyes that were still glazed with passion. He smiled a soft, tender smile and stroked her cheek gently with one had while with the other he straightened her clothes. She swallowed hard and her voice a whisper said, ‘
Sterling, don’t…don’t you want to…to do it.’

He kissed her forehead
, ‘I told you before I don’t want you to do something you might regret.’

‘I won’t regret it,
Sterling, I couldn’t regret it.’

He frowned and something appeared in his eyes, that same something she had seen the previous night but could not for the life of her ascertain what it I was.

He said, ‘I want to please you, to give you an experience you’ll never forget, and if I do make love to you it might be something you’d rather hadn’t happened.’

‘What…what do you mean?’

He looked away then back at her before saying, ‘I have no condoms with me, so unless you do…’

He left the sentence unfinished and watched as realisation dawned and her face became very pink.
‘Oh, oh I see.’ He smiled. She wet her lips and said, ‘but I could, you know, to you.’

He propped his head onto his palm and looked down at her and the shy, bashful expression on her face caused a tightness in his stomach and his heart to flutter in his chest. His voice was husky as he said, ‘thank you, but I’m afraid that I might not be able to stop there,’ his palm stroked her face, ‘you’re a lovely, passionate, sexy woman and it would be so easy to get carried away with you, and I promised myself I wouldn’t let that happen, it wouldn’t be fair to you. I don’t want you to leave this country with something more than memories of me to take with you.’ He kissed her, ‘don’t worry about
me
, pleasing you is a pleasure for me too. That was lesson number one wasn’t it?’

She didn’t look totally convinced but what could she say, he was being the perfect gentleman, pleasing her whilst asking nothing in return, what more could a woman ask?’

In fact he hadn’t completely lied to her; he had been pleased with her response just as he had been last night. There was something so vulnerable and defenceless and artless about her, about the way she acted and behaved and never more so than when she lay beneath him and let him take control of her. But when she had offered shyly and nervously to pleasure him it had surprised him, there had been that same something in her eyes, that something he had never seen in the eyes of a woman before, or perhaps he had never looked for it, never wanted to look for it.

But if he had been taken aback by that he had been amazed when she had taken it for granted that he would have full sexual intercourse with her. She had been ready and willing and although that had been his intention when he had planned this day, somehow he couldn’t do it, not even then when she had all but offered.

It had been somehow very touching and he was rarely touched by anything. In that moment he had let her get to him, let her reach a part no human being had reached for a long time, and he couldn’t do it. Maybe he was a cold hearted bastard, but perhaps he wasn’t a cold hearted
evil
bastard.

He shrugged aside those feelings and concentrated on why he was here, why he had done what he just had to her, he knew this might be his one and only chance to get the information he needed while she was vulnerable and liking him again.

He had to go for it, it was now or never because tomorrow he would have to leave, it would seem odd if he made an excuse to stay since he had told her his cousin’s wedding was the day after. So he took a deep breath and said, ‘can I make a confession?’

‘You want to find a church?’

He pinched her buttock, she cried, ‘ouch,’ then giggled.

‘No, to you. It’s apropos to what I was saying before I was interrupted by all the kissing and stuff.’ She laughed gaily but his tone was suddenly serious as he said, ‘I just wanted to say that although I feel guilty about leaving you to face the towns folk I know you’ll be all right, you’ve made some good friends there, and anyway you’re moving on soon. No, it’s not that I feel most guilty about, it’s something I mentioned before; you started to tell me something that’s been worrying you. I would hate to leave thinking that you have something on your mind, or that you’re troubled in some way that I could have helped you with.’ He raised his head to look down at her flushed face. ‘You were saying something happened when you were in
Alabama. Will you tell me now what that something was?’

She said nothing only lowered her eyes and the fingers she still had in his hair tightened.

He said, ‘if you don’t want to that’s okay, but I felt you were concerned about something. Look, I’m a man of considerable resources you know. I was a marine once upon a time and I can still take care of myself. I put up a good fight for those I care about.’ She raised her eyes to his and he could see that she was struggling with herself. She trusted him that was clear, but she was torn between trusting him and letting someone else in on her secret, and not just hers, but Desi’s too.

He wasn’t sure whether to persevere or if that might seem too obvious. As he waited she  said, ‘
Sterling, I would like to tell you, I
will
tell you, but not here, can you come to my cabin tonight? I’ll cook dinner and I’ll tell you everything that happened in Alabama.’

His relief was so intense he almost leapt to his feet and did a little jig but controlled himself and said as sincerely as he could, ‘yes, of course, I’ll be there. I’d go anywhere and do anything for you, I hope you know that.’ Was that too much? Obviously not, because she looked at him with intense gratitude in her eyes.

His delight manifested itself in humour as he said, ‘but dinner at your cabin? Well, that’ll be different, can you cook?’

She was glad of his humour and punched his arm saying, ‘I’ll have you know I’m a great cook. Although I can’t promise to wear a napkin over my arm and carry a tray of drinks aloft, but I think you’ll enjoy it.’

He felt almost dizzy with pleasure and laughed a little more heartily than her joke otherwise warranted but she didn’t se to notice. He asked, ‘what time?’

‘Say, eight?’

‘Eight it is.’ He kissed her lips making sure he was as tender as he could possibly be. He smiled down on her then looked up at the sky which was now cloudy although neither had noticed until now. ‘I think we should leave now, it looks like it’s about to rain.’

Instead of standing up and helping her to her feet he reached around her and took her in his arms then got to his feet. He kissed her again and she smiled and said, ‘you do like to prove how strong you are don’t you?’

‘Only to you.’

She giggled and squeezed his bicep, ‘I hope you’re going to carry me all the way to the car.’

‘Er, well, to be honest I’m a bit worn out.’ She laughed and he added, ‘yes, carrying all that food has taken it out of me.’

She gave him a mock exasperated look and said, ‘wimp.’

‘I know, but I’m in touch with my feminine side so
that
makes me attractive to women.’

She burst out laughing. He put her down and picked up the bag and they began to walk back the way they had come. They reached the stream and she was faced with the same dilemma as when they had crossed before. But to his surprise, and before he could say anything, she ran and leapt onto the stone she had been unable to reach on the way across, then leapt agilely onto the next one then stopped and turned around and said, ‘come on, wimp, or shall I come back and carry
you
?’ He pursed his lips and sent her a derogatory look before stepping onto the stone and following her.