The Maid's Daughter - S01 E14

Story 3 years ago

The Maid's Daughter - S01 E14

Read Story: SEASON 1 EPISODE 14

The last time Devlyn remembered feeling this level of sexual

agitation was the night after he lost his virginity. It disturbed

him that the old wound echoed in today’s encounter. But it

made sense in a way. He lusted after Gillian, but he felt sleazy

for having taken her, despite her compliance. Last night he

had managed to walk away. Today, he had failed. Guilt and

sexuality made uneasy bedfellows.

Wincing inwardly, he found her underwear in his pocket

and handed it over. Gillian’s face was rosy with color, her

gaze downcast. She took the bikini, bent at the waist and

stepped gracefully into it, ignoring his attempt to steady her.

His hand dropped to his side. Undoubtedly she expected him

to say something. After all, they had just indulged in wild,

uninhibited, reckless sex. Or by another definition, spontaneous

combustion.

She adjusted the collar of her blouse and smoothed her

hair. Those simple, elegant motions dared him to dishevel her

again, though he was certain she didn’t mean to convey that.

He cleared his throat. “Gillian?”

She looked up at him, her expression guarded. “Yes?”

“Oh, hell.” Dragging her into his embrace, he gave her

a hard, heated kiss before holding her at arm’s length and

staring into her eyes, willing her to understand. “I’m flying

blind here, honey. You’ve knocked me six ways to Sunday.”

Suspicion etched a tiny wrinkle between her brows. “You

sleep with women all the time. Everyone knows that.”

“You aren’t a woman.”

“Excuse me?” The frown disappeared when her brows

rose toward her hairline.

Good God. “You’re not a normal woman,” he clarified.

Gillian struggled free, her chest heaving in a way that

threatened to distract him again. “Are you trying to make

me regret what just happened here?”

He ground his teeth. “You know what I mean. You’re different.

Special.”

“As in mentally unbalanced?”

“Quit putting words in my mouth, d--n it.” Heat washed

up his neck.

“Somebody needs to. If this is your idea of pillow talk,

I’m amazed you ever have a second date.”

“For a female who comes across as shy and polite, you’re

sure loosening up.” He was bemused by his utter lack of

savoir faire. He’d built a reputation both in the bedroom and

the boardroom as a slick operator. Yet Gillian managed to

disconcert him time after time.

Prim and proper on the outside, a hot, silver flame in his

arms. She didn’t look at all like a woman who had just been

thoroughly— Even in his own mind, he had to censor his language.

Gillian made him want to be a better man.

She sighed audibly. “Can we go home now?”

Her pallor disturbed him. “Are you okay?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know what I am. But I won’t stay

at the castle anymore. I’ll do your job. Help with the school…

but this…” She waved a hand at their unorthodox trysting

place. “It’s really a bad idea.”

“Didn’t seem that way a few minutes ago.” She had grit.

He had to give her that. In spite of her painfully evident embarrassment,

she met his gaze head-on.

“Devlyn…” She stopped and exhaled an exasperated

breath. “You know how appealing you are…charming, sexual,

physically close to perfect…”

“Close?”

“Focus, big guy. You have all the cards. It isn’t fair. I don’t

know why you’re slumming with the housekeeper’s daughter.”

His temper fired. “I’ve never been accused of being a snob.

And d--n, but it must be exhausting carrying that chip on

your shoulder. I like you. Is that so hard to believe?”

She bit her lip. “Truthfully? Yes.”

“Are you really that unsure of yourself?”

“Not as a rule. But then again, the men I’ve been with…

and I can count them on less than one hand…they were…

well…normal.”

His lips twitched. He saw the moment she realized what

she had said. “That word must have multiple meanings,” he

drawled. Finally, she smiled, and the knot in his gut eased

a bit.

“You are incorrigible.”

“There you go again…using five-syllable teacher words.

It makes me hot.”

“Forgive me if I point out that you’re what we call easy.”

“And you’re not easy at all. Where does that leave us?”

“As the woman who recently allowed you to lift my skirt

and have your way with me, I haven’t a clue.”

“How would you feel about moving our relationship to

private territory?”

She tilted her head, frowning slightly. “You’ll have to give

me more than that.”

“I have to go back to Atlanta after a carnival fundraiser

for the school. I’d like you to return with me to Georgia.”

“Why?”

“Because I’d like a chance for us to be alone together.

Really alone. With no one to interfere.”

“And in the meantime?”

“You were the one screaming my name a little while ago.

You tell me.”

“God, you’re smug.” But she smiled as she said it, so he

figured he was okay.

“Was that a yes?”

She lifted her chin, looking down her nose at him with that

prissy, disapproving, narrow-eyed gaze that made him want

to kiss her senseless. “I suppose I could be persuaded to go

to Atlanta with you. But in the meantime…I’m conflicted.

Maybe we should abstain. It’s not really practical to sneak

around outside, and the thought of your family walking in on

the two of us in flagrante delicto gives me hives.”

“I don’t even know what the heck that means, but it sounds

dirty, so I like it.” Her suggestion wasn’t entirely unreasonable,

though it might be hard to pull off. Maybe he could wait

until Atlanta. It would give him time to deal with his unanswered

questions about his own culpability if he let things

get too serious.

She kicked at a pile of leaves with the toe of her boot.

“Don’t play dumb with me, Devlyn Wolff. They don’t put

imbeciles in charge of worldwide corporations. Earning that

MBA you’ve got tucked in your back pocket required a lot

of brain power.”

He shrugged. “I’m good at math. It’s no big deal.”

“Not from where I stand. Overseeing an organization like

Wolff Enterprises requires a complex skill set. You act as if

it’s a walk in the park, but I know how hard you work. Just

because you make it look easy, don’t assume that people take

you at face value. You’re a financial genius. And I know your

father and your uncle are very proud.”

Her quiet praise affected him in ways he couldn’t explain.

Gillian was real and honest and thoughtful. Hearing her sincere

compliments humbled him.

The serious turn in the conversation was unexpected and

gratifying. But he had more carnal concerns on his mind.

“So we’re going to try to be platonic?”

He moved toward her, grinning when she backed up and

almost fell over a root.

“Stay where you are.” Her cheeks were flushed again.

He held up his hands. “I was only going to kiss you.”

“Look where that got us last time.”

Her quick glance at the abandoned stump was enough to

make him hard. Again. She didn’t protest when he pulled

her arms around his neck. “Kiss me,” he coaxed. They were

plastered together, chest to chest, but fully clothed this time.

Gillian’s lips met his. He tasted her smile, her yielding,

her sweet, almost innocent trust.

She tipped back her head and gazed at him, eyes filled

with feminine secrets. “Are you going to wine and dine me

in the big city?”

“Among other things.” He’d already taken her once like a

wild man. Would it be entirely out of line to try again?

He was shocked as hell when she decided to play with his

zipper. Her face, shielded by a fall of dark brown hair, was

hidden from him as she whispered a tempting offer. “I’ve

always heard that to go cold turkey on something, sex, for

instance, you should overindulge before you begin to deny

yourself.”

“Hell, yes. Smart woman. I knew there were benefits to

being the teacher’s pet.”

She found his rigid s---t and stroked it. “Is that what you

think you are?”

Her long fingers curled around him and squeezed. He

groaned. “Easy there, Gillian. Have mercy.” He felt like it

had been days since he’d taken her…not minutes.

She released him and stepped back. “You’re right. Besides,

everyone knows anticipation is half the fun. Tell me again.

What day are we leaving?”

He bent at the waist, his brain mush. “The carnival is tomorrow

night. We’ll leave first thing Saturday,” he croaked.

Surely she didn’t intend to leave him like this.

Her smile was sunny. “I accept your invitation. I’m going

to head back to the car. I’ll let you finish up here.” She turned

and took a step in the opposite direction.

“The hell you say.” He was ninety-nine percent sure she

was teasing. But that one percent scared the crap out of him.

Snagging her wrist in an unbreakable hold, he dragged her

back. “Not nice, Gillian. You’re not going anywhere.”

Huge, long-lashed chocolate eyes looked at him mischievously.

“Is there a problem?”

He took her hand and placed it over his erection. “You’re

the problem,” he said, realizing that he was dead serious.

What was he going to do with her?

She cupped him in both hands, going up on tiptoe to kiss

him gently. “Don’t worry, Mr. Wolff. I’ll take it from here.”

Gillian barely even recognized herself. Sexual banter?

Erotically teasing and taunting a man who far outstripped her

in experience of almost every kind? What had possessed her?

As she played with Devlyn’s impressive s---t, she acknowledged

that the question was not what, but who. Devlyn.

Her lover.

He was steel sheathed in silky warm skin. Moisture oozed

from the head of his erection, signaling his readiness to take

her again. Understanding the full measure of how much she

wanted that to happen told her she was beyond turning back.

The journey had begun. The ship cast away from its moorings.

The die was cast. Any cliché she could pick. Her only

hope was to enjoy Devlyn while he was hers and do her best

not to beg when he was done and ready to move on.

He would try not to hurt her. That much she knew for sure.

But trying was not the same as succeeding. It would be up to

her to protect her heart.

Even now, seeing him at a man’s most vulnerable point,

her instinct was to protect him, to make him happy. The

naïveté in that goal should have shamed her. Did she really

want to be one in a long line of faceless women who had

warmed Devlyn’s bed?

But as much as she needed to be with him in the most elemental

way, she also had a painful urge to save him from

himself. Something in his past hung as a millstone around

his neck. She knew it. And though he had shared glimpses

of the events that shaped him, there was something more,

something darker.

The possibilities scared her. She didn’t want to rip open

old wounds and have him hate her for it. But perhaps fate had

brought the two of them together for a reason.

As she rubbed him with a delicate touch, he put his hand

over hers. “Harder,” he pleaded. “Faster.”

She wanted him inside her when he reached c----x. But it

was an impossible situation at best. While she and Devlyn had

been concentrating on each other, light rain had sneaked back

into their wooded glade. It dripped from leaves overhead, filling

the air with the humid, pungent scent of decaying leaves.

As Devlyn trembled in her embrace, she saw the depth

of his trust. He was completely open to her, unguarded, intimately

exposed.

Something cracked inside her, a wall she had tried to keep

in place to protect her heart. But it was too late. Feelings

rushed in like floodwaters swamping a breach. It would be

so easy to love him…and yet so terribly unwise.

Swallowing the lump in her throat, she tried to separate her

messy emotions from the sensual experience at hand. Pushing

aside everything but the need to pleasure him, she did

as he asked. Faster. Harder. Devlyn moaned. Without words,

he had allowed the balance of power to shift momentarily.

His big body warmed her, hands clenched on her shoulders,

legs braced like bulwarks against the storm. When she hit a

sensitive spot, he quaked and sank his teeth into her earlobe.

The sharp sting of pain made her belly quiver with hunger.

Twice she had climaxed, and yet she wanted him again. To

prove to herself that she still had some sort of sexual backbone,

she concentrated on Devlyn. Denying her own need

demonstrated that she could walk away at any time. When

the situation became untenable.

She was not a victim, nor a helpless, fragile female. Choosing

to be with Devlyn was a rational, eyes-wide-open decision.

He kissed her temple, his breath hot on her cheek. “I’ll

finish.” The words were barely audible, his breath wheezing

raggedly.

Leaning into him, both of her hands trapped between their

bodies, she circled the head of his erection and brushed the

eye. Devlyn came with a muffled curse.

When it was over, the silence was absolute but for the beat

of her heart in her ears, and the faint chatter of a squirrel in

a nearby tree.