Unsuitable (27 page)

He
needed both hands to deal with the other stocking. She’d dropped the shoe. He
worked the two clips and smoothed the stocking down her leg, passing it over
his lips before tossing it over the chair back.

Then
it was the pants, but he needed her mouth, he needed the feeling of her live
wire electric in his arms. He kissed her in a smear of haste and hunger,
stroking her side, hooking his fingers into the lace at her hips. She flexed up
and he pulled the pants down her legs, watching her eyes, full and wild,
hearing her breath hard and short.

He
should pick her up and take her to the bedroom, before this went any further. He
should care where they were, how she was in no condition to be sensible. He
pressed his thumb to her clit and she bit down on her own knuckle. He rubbed
and circled and squeezed and she shook and gasped, her eyes jammed tight. She
was so close and he’d barely touched her, and he wanted to keep her like this, needing,
on the edge and out of options, depending on him for her pleasure.

“Reece,
please.”

His
name came out a hiss, all sibilance before footsteps in the hall.

“Mum.”

Shit.
“Mia, don’t you come out here.” He gathered Audrey to him. He didn’t let up on
her, keeping her just there, just there, almost there. Audrey put her teeth to
his neck. Mia made a sound. He’d frightened her with his voice all lust rough. “Go
back to bed right now.”

Mia
ran down the hall towards her room. He slid two fingers inside Audrey and
captured her mouth to swallow her scream as she jerked and thrust against him,
coming and coming and clinging to him, fingers dug in to the back of his ribs,
sucking his tongue.

He
gave her no time to recover, swept her up and carried her to his bed. They
weren’t done. He’d never be done with her.

She
lay on the bed, hair wild, eyes half-mast, half dressed. “I love you. I’ll be
back.”

He
left her to check on Mia. He slipped into her room by the soft glow of her
night light, too quick to miss her shutting her eyes in pretend sleep.

“Go
to sleep, Mia.”

Her
eyes snapped open. “I want Mum.”

He
sat on the bed. “No. It’s late. Go to sleep.” This kid was going to kill his
erection if this took any longer. One look at her mother, though, and he’d be
right to go again.

“You
scared me.”

Yeah,
well.
Sometimes a little scared was a good thing. “Everyone
in this house is in bed now so you need to be as well.”

“Can
I have a kiss goodnight?”

Jesus
.
He shifted, uncomfortable. She’d never once in all their time together asked
for that. His mouth was full of Audrey. He stood, pulled the quilt up so it
covered Mia, tucked the sheet in so she was snug. “You can have a good morning
kiss instead.”

“Now.”

“Is
it morning?” She shook her head. “Goodnight, Mia.”

She
rolled to her side, curled up. He watched her a moment then left her room for
his own. They’d cut that too fine. He shouldn’t be carrying on like this, too
risky. He’d left his door ajar. He half expected Audrey to be angry with him. She
was sitting on his bed, the robe keeping her warm.

“Sorry
that—”

“Was
just... Good God, Reece.” She closed her eyes and smiled.

“You’re
not mad?”

She
looked up at him. “Not about Sky, not about what we just did. I’m only mad my
kid can’t stay in bed and my lover didn’t get to finish with me.”

“Oh.”
He raked his hand though his hair. “Oh. Hah.” He liked that.

“Are
you finished with me?”

“Not
tonight. Not ever.”

“I
want you inside me.” She held out her arm. “I want to be inside you.”

He
crooked his head, only one of those messages making sense. She swept by him and
closed the door. He turned his head to follow her. She ditched the robe,
dropped it on the floor and walked over it. She wore just the bra, beautifully
obscene, prowling back towards him. He held out his hand, but she avoided him.

“Tell
me your secrets because you know every one of mine. What makes you lose control,
Reece? What makes you fall apart? You can put me there so easily. How do I
learn to do that to you?”

He
dropped his arm, let her trail her fingers across his stomach and his gut
tightened, his erection came roaring back to punish him. She circled around
him, dragging her hand over his skin, leaving a trail of feeling he wanted to
lean into. He turned his head to follow her.

“You
do it. You already do it. In your work clothes, in that underwear, in that fucking
ugly dressing gown.” She stood in front of him again. “I don’t care what you
wear, it’s you.”

He
went to his knees. She smelled of sex and he was ravenously hungry for her. She
put her hand to his hair and pulled so his chin came up.

“That
can’t be true.” Her expression faltered, doubt replacing that near aggression. “You’re
so careful, always. You never raise your voice, you never lose it with Mia,
even when it’s unclear if she’s possessed by evil. Only that once, with the
whiskey, were you on the edge and still you think of me first.”

He
had no idea what she wanted from him. There was nothing left of him she didn’t
already own. He pulled out of her grip and sat back on his heels. “I think of
you first always. There isn’t anything else I’d rather do.”

“Dear
God.” She stood a foot either side of his knees and gripped his chin in her
hands. “I never even dreamed the idea of you.”

He
palmed her behind the knees and she collapsed forward into his lap. He kissed
her hard, holding her head in place. He’d never dreamed her either but he
wouldn’t be satisfied until she was more reality than vision. He’d never asked,
but now he needed to know like he needed exercise to be himself, because he
didn’t know everything about her and it wasn’t enough.

“Mia’s
father, Barrett. What is he to you?”

Audrey
draped her arms over his shoulders. “He was a friend, a brilliant, irritating,
friend. We met a uni. He was destined to be amazing.”

He
had no right to be jealous, but resentment flamed in his chest like a petrol
fire, dangerous, unquenchable. “You slept with him?”

She
brushed her nose against his. Her breath was on his mouth. “We were friends. He’s
not the marriage and forever type. He likes men and women and we didn’t want
each other. We have the same colouring. He’s a good-looking man. He’s crazy
intelligent. I asked if he’d father a child. He said, yes, then no, then he
agreed to a no strings contract, then nearly backed out at the last moment. It
was a big deal for him because he didn’t want the responsibility and he had
trouble accepting I wouldn’t change my mind and want him involved.”

“You
never did.”

“I
never will.”

She
didn’t answer the question. . “You slept together.”

She
smoothed his brows. “No. We used a clinic. He’s never seen me naked.”

He
had no right to know. “He’s never been inside you.”

“Look
at me, Reece. There’ve been other men, but only you got inside me.”

He
picked her up with an incoherent roar that was the blanket over jealous licks
of heat. He’d love her hard enough to extinguish any memory, any new desire for
anyone but him.

He
had no more patience, it was all burned through. He barely got her on the bed,
his pants down, a rubber on, before he was inside her, before his rhythm went
ragged and he lost his air in the wonder of her clenching, sliding warmth. He
was rough, he was gentle, he was fast, he was aching and straining and losing
the idea of anything but the sensation of her, the sound of her, the knowledge
she was his as surely as he was hers.

He
slept like the world had ended, woke like he had a new life. Audrey complained
of being sore, but she did it without being able to keep the smile off her
face, the amusement out of her voice. He’d done something right.

He
got Mia’s breakfast, got her ready for a swimming lesson. Later Audrey was
taking her for a haircut. She waved them off, wearing that dressing gown. Under
it she was showered, he figured naked.

He
strapped Mia in her car seat. She strained to look into the front of the car. “Where’s
Snapper?” She checked beside her and on the floor.

“Who’s
Snapper?”

“My
fish. I need my fish.” She tried to push him out of her way and wriggle free.

He
frowned, bent awkwardly half in, half out of the car. Mia wasn’t going
anywhere. “Which one is Snapper?” He’d never heard of Snapper before.

“I
need him now. Now. I need him.”

There
were tears already. “Okay, which one is Snapper?”

“My
fish. My fish.”

“Mia,
tell me which one is Snapper and I’ll get him.”

“The
orange one with the blue tail. I need him badly for swimming.”

Blue
tail. He’d bring everything orange with a blue tail. “You sing
Let it Go
and I’ll get him.”

He
left the door open, went around to the other side of the car and opened that
door too. The tears disappeared. He turned stereo on, found the track. He had
approximately three minutes to find Snapper, or one minute to find Snapper and
two minutes to work out if Audrey was naked under the robe. That felt like an
inappropriate allocation of limited time. Fuck it.

He
barrelled into the house. He had no memory of a fish toy. Audrey came out of
her bedroom and met him by the front door. “What did you forget?”

“A
fish called Snapper.”

She
shrugged. He grinned and reached for her. They could hear Mia singing from the
car in the driveway. Not every sound coming out of her was an actual word. “Can
you orgasm in two minutes?”

“What?”

He
steered her back into the wall, pulling the cord on the robe, sweeping it open.
God, yes, she was all bare skin beauty and lavender soap smell.

“Reece.”

He
ran his nose over up the side of her neck. “I need a fish with a blue tail and
I need you to come.” He straightened up, tucked his hand between her legs and
she grabbed his wrist, her eyes going wide, but her head went back against the
wall as his thumb went to work.

“Oh
God.”

She
closed her eyes and parted her legs for him. He rubbed and rolled and pinched
and she went from surprised to wet and shaking in double quick time.

He
put his thigh to her hip to hold her. He put his other hand to the back of her
head so she didn’t brain herself on the wall.

“Give
it up, baby. I still have to find the fucking fish.”

She
bore down on his hand and grabbed his shoulders for support. In the driveway
Mia hit the chorus again. Audrey came with a breathless shout, her head
smacking into his hand. She was flushed a fantastic shade of pink. He stole her
unwinding sigh with a deep kiss, and he’d have stayed there all day but for the
kid in the car and the fish and the swimming lesson. He left her propped there,
pit stopped in the bathroom to wash his hands, blinking at himself in the bathroom
mirror. Fuck yeah, he’d just done that and it felt amazing.

Nothing
resembling a fish in Mia’s room. He found a plastic orange blob with what might
be a tail, it was at least blue, in the toy box. He had hope. Audrey was where
he left her. She looked dazed. He had more than hope. He had love. He kissed
her with the fish blob in one hand and her butt in the other.

When
he got back to the car, Mia was still singing. He looked at the stereo unit and
laughed. He’d somehow punched the button to make the song repeat and it was on
its second go around. She held her hand out to take the blob, said “Snapper,”
as if this toy was her most favourite thing in the whole world and kept
singing.

When
they got to the pool, Mia wouldn’t get in and no amount of cajoling would make
her. He stood in the hip high water and she stood on the deck. Whatever genes Barrett
had donated to the process, Mia was all Audrey in terms of looks and stubborn
determination.

“She’s
usually so good.”

He
turned to a woman in racer style swimmers. They knew each other by sight. Her
little boy was kicking his legs as she held him on his back, her hands under
his armpits.

“Can’t
win them all.”

“Won’t
you come in for Daddy?” the mum said to Mia.

Mia
shook her head and gave the woman a curl up and die look. It might’ve been the
daddy reference or the coming in thing.

He
had the same dark colouring as Mia did which was the reason he was mistaken for
her father so often. This morning that didn’t bother him. He’d entirely lost
the need to correct the impression. This morning nothing would bother him. He
closed his eyes a second and saw Audrey trembling in the aftermath her orgasm. He
had to wait until the woman moved away to get out of the pool without someone
complaining about his inappropriate behaviour.