CHAPTER 97: The Virgin’s Summer, Part 37
“When I hear it, I want it to be because you mean it, not because you think it’s what I want to hear.”
“Michael, I...”
He presses a finger to my lips, then casts around, looking at the ground. He takes off his jacket, spreading it over the grass. “Lie down,” he murmurs.
Holding me with his eyes, the leaf-mottled sunlight a brilliant halo through his hair, he presses me down, one hand by my waist, one on a shoulder. As I lie back on his jacket, I start to pull up my tee-shirt. He presses my hand down. “No, you’ll be cold. Keep it on. Um, you can take the boots off though.”
Chuckling, I unravel the laces of my walking boots.
He unbuckles my jeans, unzips me and slides them down, along with my panties, leaving me naked below the waist. Kneeling between my legs, he stoops to kiss my belly, my sex.
I lie back, head cradled in the springy turf, eyes closed. The warmth of his breath curls over my thighs, the heat of his lips on my skin. My troubles melt away in a soft haze of arousal. My magical Lover, always there, always my anchor in the storm...
Except...
“Michael… why won’t you believe me, when I say that I love you?”
He raises his head, sighs, and slides up my body, his face settling next to mine. He doesn’t speak, but is unbelting, kicking off boots, shucking off his jeans.
Finally, his erection pressing hard and warm against me, he says, “Charlotte, I’ve had a lot more women than, I believe, you have had men. I know the difference between passion… arousal, lust… whatever you want to call it, and love.”
Michael settles between my thighs, kissing my neck, hands running over my face.
“And yet, here we are?” I ask.
He raises himself on an elbow, looking down at me, his lips pressed together, and gives a small nod of acknowledgement. “And yet, here we are…” He stoops to kiss me.
“Michael, if what I feel for you isn’t love, I don’t have a label for it.”
He raises himself again, his brilliantly blue eyes gazing into mine, soft, semi-lidded. He strokes my face. “That’ll do.” And he bends to kiss me, opening his mouth over mine.
My pussy responds to him, running warm to his touch, and as he presses himself inside me, I welcome him in. With a series of short, gasping breaths, I arch, raising my hips to meet him. He thrusts forwards slowly, in slow strokes, easing in, coating himself in my honey, before gradually, smoothly, he sheathes himself inside me.
Almost in slow motion, he takes me, loving me with his body, his cock kissing me inside.
I don’t cum. In my current state of mind, I am not capable of it, and I think he understands this. But he does, sighing into my neck and hair, as he climaxes within me.
He kisses the soft skin of my throat, then raises himself again, gazing down at me. “Whatever it takes, whatever it is, I will be here for you. Understand that.”
My fingers caress his cheekbones. “I do. Thank you. Knowing that makes me stronger.”
Back at the beach house, Michael holds a large brown envelope.
“Is this it? What Jansen was trying to blackmail you with?”
I eye the envelope. “Yes. I was going to destroy it, but I’d not gotten around to it. It hardly seems to matter now.”
“It matters to you.” Michael pauses, reflectively. “Charlotte, may I? Can I look at this?”
I falter…
“If you say ‘No’, I won’t look.”
“No, it’s alright. If you want to, you should see it too, I think.”
Frowning, he riffles through the brochure and marketing documents, glancing up at me as he does so, then spotting the data key, clicks it into the laptop port.
My courage fails me. “Sorry, but you’ll have to excuse me. I can’t bear to watch it. I’ll come back in a few minutes.”
His eyes follow me out of the room, before turning back to where the video has opened up on the screen. I exit the kitchen, hearing behind me:
“Charlotte, it is entirely your choice, but are you willing to undress at this stage, on the podium? It will almost certainly help you to bring a better price.”
“Undress now? All the way?”
“It’s up to you, Charlotte. No-one is going to make you. But the better they can see what they are buying, the better your chances.”
“... C’mon. Let’s see the rest...”
When I return, ten minutes later, Michael is sitting, staring at a blank screen, looking upset. I sit down, next to him. He breathes in, deeply.
“What was going through your head when you did that? When you stood, naked on that podium, and they bid for you?”
“Um, I was a bit spaced-out actually. Mainly, I was thinking that the numbers I was hearing were more money than I’d ever seen in my life, and half of it was mine. All I had to do was keep my nerve for a week.” Then I falter. “That all seemed pretty reasonable until Richard told me what happened to that other girl...”
He slips his hand over mine.
“Why did you come back to us, Charlotte? You went through that, after everything that had preceded it, and then James and I... We... You had the money. You could have started your life over, and never had to set eyes on us again, but you came back. Why?”
“Because I wanted to. Because both of you were honest about it; about what you wanted, and that you were paying me, very well, for it. The things we did… you were both so gentle, and kind, and careful with me. You never forced me into anything. I chose all of it.”
“Alright, so we didn’t hurt you. but that doesn’t answer the question. Why did you come back?”
“I came back, at first, because I simply wanted more, of both of you. Later, I realised I’d fallen in love.”
His face twists. “With James, not with me.”
“It took longer with you, that’s all. And it’s different with the two of you. It was only meant to be for a week, but later, the more I thought about what had happened during that week, the more I wanted to be back with you both. The two of you were my Master and my Golden Lover. I’d never had anything like it.”
“It didn’t bother you that we were fucking you for money? After what had happened to you in the past?”
“But it wasn’t like that... Yes, you’d paid, but you never treated me like I was someone you’d paid. And you helped me. You gave me ways of helping myself, and then, later, after I knew I’d fallen in love..."