The Devil To Pay (Hennessey.) (66 page)

Or maybe he wasn’t too concerned whether they made love or not, perhaps he was a take it or leave it kind of man. No, he was interested she knew it; she had seen it in his eyes and felt it in his touch, not even she was that innocent that she did not recognise desire when she saw it. Oh she wished he was not a man of such great restraint and principles.

She wished he had not left it to her to decide whether she wanted him in her bed or not, and she knew that was what he had done, left it to her to take the initiative. But she was not sure enough, not confident enough, not courageous enough.

His voice was no more than a whisper but it startled her and made her jump guiltily as he asked, ‘are you still awake?’

‘Y…yes.’ She hated herself for stammering but couldn’t prevent it.

His tone was very soft as he went on, ‘I just wanted to say, I’m sorry about what happened to you tonight. We were having such a good time and it was ruined by those three assholes, well,
four
assholes if I count myself. Anyway, I’m sorry you were hurt. But I hope you don’t leave Mississippi remembering what happened tonight and not all the good, fun things that have happened and the decent people you’ve met,’ she heard the smile in his voice now ‘not to mention the panther of course.’

There was a silence from the bed until her own voice a whisper she said, ‘Sterling, I can’t promise I’ll forget tonight, because I don’t want to forget. No man has ever been concerned enough to be angry with me as you were when I left the door open earlier. No man has ever taken me to dinner at such a wonderful place, and no man has ever bought me flowers and pinned them to my dress. We had a wonderful time, we talked and laughed. And I enjoyed meeting your friend Carson. I’ll probably never do anything like that again in the rest of my life. I don’t want you to be sorry for giving me an evening I will
never
forget.’

This time the silence came from his end of the room. His mind went over her words, so softly spoken, so sincerely meant. He hadn’t expected that, he had expected her to say it’s all right, or don’t worry, or some other trite response, not what she
had
said. He had wanted to plant the memory of this evening’s débâcle in her mind just before she went to sleep, but he kept underestimating her, her capacity to forgive a wrong, to accept what she could not change, and to see some good in everything and everyone.

The sudden urge to get up from the couch open the door run all the way to Glissando’s mansion and shoot the bastard dead was great just then, for offering him this job, for putting temptation in his way. But he comforted himself with the fact that he felt this way sometimes just before a hit. He had seen a target talking in a bar, laughing and happy and having fun. He had seen a target at his white picket fence in the morning kissing his wife goodbye. Or a target in the park with his dog, throwing a stick then laughing and rubbing the dog’s belly when he brought it back. It was not guilt he had felt, that word had vanished from his vocabulary and his conscience a long time ago. No, it was not guilt he had felt but a kind of pathos, a certain sympathy.

But this woman aroused something deeper than that in him. Sympathy yes, for the sad, lonely life she had led, pity for her situation, not really of her own making, she was just unfortunate enough to have been in the wrong place at the wrong time and was the means of earning him an astronomical amount of money. But in his way, in his own disturbed, deranged way he had a certain affection for her. She was easy to like, it would be even easier to let her get to him, but he was stronger than that, more despicable than that, less human than that. Okay, he liked her, but a job was a job and after it was done he would have no trouble sleeping, and if he did he could always count to five million.

He said, ‘you’re a very special woman, Adela Faraday.’

‘If being special means telling the truth then yes, I’m special.’ She heard him chuckle and she said again, ‘goodnight, Sterling.’

There was a small hesitation before he said softly, ‘goodnight.’

Her last thought before she fell asleep, apart from she would never be able to sleep was, that again he had not replied in kind by saying, “goodnight, Adela,” she racked her mind to recall when he had called her simply Adela.

                                                           ********

She was fighting, fighting someone who held her against something solid that hurt her back; she was trying to stop them tearing her dress from her shoulders. She tried to hit out at the attacker, to kick him, but there was something wrapped around her and she couldn’t make contact with the solid form. She tried to scream but there was something soft and stifling pressed over her mouth. She struggled and hit out at the person holding her so tightly but they were too strong. Then she heard a voice, ‘hey, hey, it’s all right, calm down, it’s okay.’

She continued to struggle until he said, ‘it’s me, it’s all right, you’re dreaming, wake up.’

She did. Her eyes sprung open and the first thing she saw after the haze had cleared was a face just inches from her own. She drew back in fear hitting her head on the headboard as she did so but not feeling it. The room was dark except for the light from the small bedside lamp which he had obviously switched on; it cast eerie shadows over the bed and the wall. His voice was calm and gentle, ‘it’s all right, it’s okay, it’s only me, I won’t hurt you. You were having a nightmare, a pretty nasty one too, which is not altogether surprising considering.’

She continued to stare at him with suspicion and fear for a few seconds then as if suddenly realising who he was she let out a breath, whether of relief or fright he couldn’t be sure, probably a mixture of both. He drew back a little so as not to crowd her and also to assure he intended her no harm, not yet anyway.

He said, ‘are you okay now?’ She drew in a sharp breath then nodded her head. He said, ‘I’ll get you some water.’ He stood up and she moved back quickly. He stayed where he was for a moment looking down at her and frowning, then turned and went to the kitchen.

When he came back she was sitting in the same place leaning against the headboard, this time the bedcover was pulled up to her neck as it had been earlier.

He handed her the water and as she took it he noticed her hand trembled. He sat on the bed again but this time at the foot not wanting to get too close and frighten her again.

He said softly, ‘the nightmare was about what happened at the club, those guys, I take it.’

She nodded, ‘it was horrible, I thought I was suffocating.’

'You had the bedcover over your face,’ he smiled, ‘you didn’t seem to want to relinquish it.’

‘Oh.’ She shook her head, ‘I’m so sorry, Sterling.’

‘He frowned perplexed, ‘for what?’

‘For reacting the way I did when you woke me. I thought…I thought…

‘That I was trying to attack you?’

Instead of turning red her face paled as she nodded meekly. ‘I’m so sorry.’

He smiled, ‘don’t worry, you were having a nightmare, you didn’t know who I was at first. It’s perfectly understandable that you would be afraid.’

‘Thank you for understanding, and for waking me.’

‘That’s what I’m here for, remember?’

She managed a smile but she felt awful, awful and guilty, he had stayed out of concern for her and she had recoiled from him as though he was a vile rapist.

She drank some more water and went to put the glass back on the table but he moved forward and took it from her his hand brushing hers as he did so. She flinched then her face flushed red with embarrassment and guilt. He sat down again but closer to her this time. She said, ‘you knew didn’t you that I would have a nightmare about what happened tonight.'

He shrugged, ‘you had had a shock and were very shook up, it just seemed pretty obvious that you would dream about it. I wanted to be here just in case.’

‘I’m glad you were,’ she gave a rueful smile, ‘although I may not have seemed it.’

He returned her smile, ‘I understand.’

Her smile turned into a thoughtful frown, ‘I know you do, you always seem to understand. You seem to…to know me so well, as if we’ve been friends forever.’

‘I wish we had.’ She arched her eyebrows in surprise at his words, he went on, ‘but sometimes two people can be acquainted with one another for years and still know next  to nothing about each other, about the way they think and feel and sometimes all it takes is a few hours to know what makes a person tick. Or maybe it’s just that I feel this familiarity, this affinity with you because I care about you and what happens to you.’ He leaned towards her leaving less than a foot between their faces. ‘I know this sounds like a cliché, but I feel that there’s a bond between us.’

She stared at him mesmerised by those remarkable eyes and the words he was saying, words that sounded like soft sweet music to her ears. Her voice came out low and hoarse, ‘I…I think that too.’

His smile was tender, ‘I’m glad.’

She swallowed so hard it hurt her throat as he leaned further towards her then gently kissed her mouth; it was as before just the mere brushing of lips but it almost took her breath away. But she could not hide her frustration when as before he pulled back and said rather abruptly, ‘I don’t think you’ll be troubled by any more nightmares. Goodnight.’ He made to rise but she reached out and clutched his hand.

If anyone had asked her later why she had done that she could not have given a satisfactory answer. Except that right at that moment she did not want him to leave her. She did not want him to play the gentleman; she wanted him to kiss her as he just had, gently and exquisitely, but she also wanted him to kiss her with passion and zeal. She wanted to feel his touch as she had when he had treated her wounds, but this time with excitement and urgency.

He was looking at her waiting; she closed her eyes and raised his hand to her lips then kissed his fingers as he had done to her several times. Then she turned his hand over and kissed his palm then moved it to her cheek and down her neck to her chest.

She dared to open her eyes praying that she would not see shock or revulsion on his face.

She didn’t, she saw that same look she had seen in the car when he had told her that he desired her, that he had wanted her since they had first met. And again on the sofa, when he had told her that he would respect her innocence and that he would be gentle and loving with her. But there was something else there now too, and it was what she had wanted to see, prayed to see. Desire.

She leaned towards him slowly and hesitantly, he didn’t move to meet her halfway just let her do this in her own time and in her own way. But instead of kissing his lips she moved her mouth upwards towards his eyes and kissed each one with such soft, feather light strokes that if he had not felt a tingle run down his spine he would not have even known she had touched him. Then she moved across to his right ear and nipped the lobe then put her tongue gently into his ear. She wasn’t sure if this was the right thing to do, but she had read it somewhere and the man had seemed to like it very much, she hoped that the shiver she felt pass through him meant that he did too. She moved down to his neck tracing her lips down his cheek as she did so. She found the gap between his jaw line and his neck and stopped there, using her lips and her tongue this time.

He raised his head slightly so as to give her better access, she took the hint and let her tongue travel up then down his neck where she found his throat and stayed there kissing his Adam’s apple and the V of his collarbone.

She touched his face with her fingertips and traced them down his cheek to his shoulder and down his arm. Then retraced her steps this time using her finger nails very gently and slowly. This small movement on his skin sent a shiver through his entire body. She moved her hand down to his chest and proceeded to do the same things with her fingernails so that he had to suppress a groan. All the time she was doing this she prayed that she would not make a stupid move and do something he would not like.

As for Hennessey he could not believe that this shy, inexperienced woman who knew nothing about men could be doing this to him. If he had not known better he would have thought she had done this dozens of times, except for the fact that he could feel the trembling of her fingers and mouth as they touched him. Whatever he had expected it had not been this. To his chagrin she stopped what she was doing to his neck, but his disappointment was short lived because her lips slid up his throat to his chin then his mouth where she brushed her lips against his softly in what he could only describe as a chaste kiss, his mouth quivered.

Then suddenly she stopped again and this time began to move away. He cleared his throat but his voice didn’t sound like his own as he said, ‘what is it?’

She shook her head. He insisted, ‘come one, tell me, what’s the matter?’

She wouldn’t look at him and her voice shook as she said, ‘I…I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know what to do next.’ She moved back against the headboard, ‘I’m only doing what I’ve read in books that people do. You were right; I
am
innocent and unskilled in what to do to please a man. I’m sorry.’

She looked so like a little schoolgirl feeling guilty because she hadn’t done her homework or not done it adequately enough that he felt sorry for her. At this point he should have laughed, at least inwardly, but there was something in her defeated demeanour and her expression of utter despondency that got to him and he felt a strange stirring in the region of his chest. He quickly shrugged off the feeling as he had the way she had made him feel when she had touched him. And he had to admit that despite her inexperience she had gone a long way to turning him on, maybe that’s what it was, her inexperience, her tentative, uncertain touch, her desperate need to please that had gotten to him.