The Geary Series Boxed Set (9 page)

I kept my eyes shut which meant that I didn’t see his next move which was to lie over my body. He placed his knees between mine and nestled his hips over mine. If we were naked, my breasts would be squashed against his chest and his cock would be nudging my entrance. I kept my eyes closed as I absorbed his weight on me. It felt good to have a man so close to me, the heat from his body transferring into mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him in closer to me. I never wanted to let him go, I felt at home being held by him.

He scooped his arms behind my back and hugged me to him further and then sat us up and back on his knees so that I was astride him. Jack then sat back further so that he was seated on his arse, his legs wrapped around me, crossing his ankles behind my back. My legs matched the position of his legs, wrapped around his body. He managed to do all this in one motion. It was impressive.

He still had his arms wrapped around my back, and I could feel his breath on my mouth. I opened my eyes and looked directly at him, I knew what was coming next and I was ready. I dared him to ask me a question with unspoken words. I mentally gave him permission to start asking me about my marriage.

“Now that I have you in my arms, and you’re not going anywhere, I want to know what is going on in that marriage of yours. I know from speaking with you over the last twelve months or so that you’re not happy.” He kissed my chin while he took a breath. “Do I need to go and kick his arse? Does he hurt you?”

This is the moment I’d been preparing for, telling him the truth. I was staggered that Jack seemed so concerned about my marriage. We were relative strangers, but he wanted to know. I would tell him, but I don’t think he was ready for what I was about to tell him. I had no idea how he was going to react.

“Before I reveal the most painful event that has ever happened in my life, can I ask you why you care so much?” I asked him.

He tightened his arms around me, not quite crushing me, but I could feel every breath he took, and I could feel every beat of his heart. I dropped my chin to look down, but he whipped his hand round and grabbed my chin back up. His grasp was almost painful, it got my attention.

“I care about you Olivia, more than you realise. I know that you trust very few people, but I want to be one of those people who you think you can communicate with. I promise I’ll not judge you. I can come across as someone who doesn’t give a fuck, but I give a fuck about you. My emails portray my shallow side, constantly talking about pussies and long, lean legs wrapped around my head while I eat a woman out. That is the caricature version of me, an exaggeration if you like, but there is more to me than what I write to you about.” It was his turn to drop his chin, and he inhaled deeply. On his exhale, his raised his face to me again and gazed at my face. I looked at him with a desire I had long since forgotten existed, and I wanted him to let me talk. I wanted him to let me get it all out and then see if he still wanted to spend time with me.

“I want nothing more than to put you in my pocket and take you home. I have such an intense desire to take care of you.” Jack finished.

A tear slid down my face, he was breaking my heart, a mere stranger that seemed to have connected with me through words on a page. I connected with him too. He wiped a tear away and placed his arm around my back again.

“Tell me, please, for fuck sake, tell me. You have no idea what is going through my head right now. I think that he beats you or that he cheats on you or worse still he doesn’t love you. You in your gorgeous, selfless, optimistic way, stay with him because you think things will get better.”

I could see that he was pleading with his voice and body for me to talk. I had such an urge to tell him that if he shuts up for five minutes I will tell him. I didn’t because I liked hearing what he thought about me, I craved his compliments and his endearments.

I took a few moments to compose myself and took a deep breath and pinned my eyes to his as I began to speak. I was completely oblivious to the waterfall of tears, cascading down my face.

“The day after we got married we flew to the Spanish island for our honeymoon. We arrived early morning, and we were staying in self-catering apartment so that we could have complete privacy. He decided that he would go out to the shops and get essential provisions for dinner that evening and for breakfast the next day. He was a wonderful cook, and he wanted to spoil me with breakfast in bed the next day. He had been whispering all sorts of erotic scenarios in my ear on the flight over. He had promised me that I would not be leaving the apartment until he had given me so many orgasms I would be begging him to stop. I wanted him to walk to the shop, but he wished to use the moped bike that came with the apartment. I didn’t want him to ride on the bike because I didn’t trust them and also the owners of where we were staying hadn’t provided a helmet.”

“After ten minutes of me persuading him that I should go with him, he kissed me out of my nagging and left in flip-flops, shorts and a t-shirt. I begged him, in fact, not to go and suggested that we would go later, but he insisted that he would be okay and that I shouldn’t worry so much.”

I stopped talking to gather my thoughts, this was only the second time I had said these words out loud. My husband was in foster care with no family, and my parents had died when I was young. I think that was why we gravitated towards each other all those years ago. We were young when we met and dated for many years before he proposed. We had amazing hot sex all the time, anywhere he could get me, he was insatiable, and so was I. Such a contrast to the years after the wedding, we had connected physically and mentally. I couldn’t want for anything more with him.

I drew in a long breath and then let it out through my nose, pursing my lips then pressing them together. My mind had stalled as well as my voice, and it was preventing me from revealing the next bit. I had to be brave and tell him, I was cocooned in his arms and had never felt so safe in all my life.

“I heard the horns blaring from the apartment and then the impact of the crash. We were on the top floor, and the balcony overlooked the main road. I saw a man lying on the road with the same shorts my husband had been wearing. Stupidly, I wondered about the chances of two people wearing the same pair of shorts, in the same day, in the same sleepy town of the Spanish island.”

Jack crushed me in his arms, his head buried in my neck, his lips repeatedly kissing the skin where they landed. He had received the message of what had happened, his reaction made my heart ache a little more. I gripped onto his jacket, fisting the material in my hands as I tried to regain some composure. The tears were still flowing, but the air in my lungs had vanished. His bone crushing hug did little to help the situation. He drew back just enough to look at me, kissing my cheeks, kissing away the tears. This loving action made me sob, heart-wrenching sobs. I crossed my ankles and pulled myself closer to him as I cried into his jacket. I desperately needed to be closer to him, for him to take all my pain away.

The noise I heard on that day was re-lived in my dreams over and over again. I had always blotted out that image of him lying on the road during waking hours. My husband of twenty-four hours was lying face down in the road, his white t-shirt stained red with his blood.

“Someone had called the ambulance by the time I had stumbled out of the apartment and ran to where he was. He was unconscious but still breathing, one of the bystanders was a nurse and helped keep him alive until the ambulance came. I felt utterly helpless and sat in the road holding his hand, repeatedly telling him he would be okay and that I still wanted breakfast in bed the next day.”

I rested my head on Jack’s shoulder and let go of his jacket. Reaching around my back for his hands, I brought them around and into my lap, holding on tight.

“I need to cut this story short because my heart is in pieces. It feels as I have been shot through the heart, so I’m going to wrap this up.” I said and squeezed his hands for the next bombshell.

“We were taken to the Spanish hospital and he was rushed into surgery. I don’t remember everything that was wrong with him, but he had broken bones, a collapsed lung and internal bleeding. He was in a coma for six days before he woke up, and I could fly him home. Once we were back in England, further tests were carried out and it was confirmed that he was paralysed from the neck down. To add further heartache, because of the severe brain damage, he couldn’t speak either.”

With lightning speed, I pulled away from Jack and scrambled to my feet. I was going to be sick, and I didn’t want to throw up all over him and his beautiful suit. I also didn’t wish to have the embarrassment of him seeing me be ill. I staggered to the tree and threw up my lunch. The shock of telling another human being my story was too much. Re-living it was too much for my brain and heart. On the second heave of my stomach, I felt my hair being pulled back from my face and a warm hand rubbing my back. I was sobbing, but I could still see it was him through my blurred eyes.

As the spasms stopped, Jack passed me a damp handkerchief for me to wipe my face. I couldn’t look at him, so I mumbled my thanks and cleaned my face. Jack led me back to the blanket and searched through the picnic basket for a bottle of water. I was grateful that there was some and drank most of the bottle to get rid of the acrid taste in my mouth.

I risked a look at Jack sitting next to me, and I saw pain and concern. His eyes were bloodshot and watery, I had no idea he had been crying while I told my story. I rose up onto my knees and pulled him into a hug.

After I had my Jack hug fix, I let him go, and I stood up, I felt helpless, and a little lost as to what to do next. He hadn’t spoken a word to me. I stared down at Jack looking back up at me. I hoped he would stand up with me, but he just held out his hand. As soon as my hand was in his, he jerked me down onto his lap. I landed in a heap on his thighs, my side leaning against his chest as well as the side of my left leg. I rested my chin on my knees and sighed heavily.

“I have never told anyone that story, apart from Cecily.”

“I’m so sorry that you had to go through such heartache. I’m honoured that you trusted me enough to share it, what about your family?” He asked.

“Neither of us had any family when we met, it was just me and him against the world.” I said and chuckled humourlessly. “He said that we would be together forever until we were old, grey and incontinent. He couldn’t have been more wrong.”

“I’m so sorry Olivia, I can’t begin to imagine what you have had to endure over the last three years. Is that why you became a writer?”

“Yes. I had to look after him full time so giving up my job was the first thing I did. I still needed an income so, after a few months of sitting and feeling sorry for myself, I started to day dream about our life. I would make up stories of adventures we would have had and places we would have visited. I used to think of stories if he hadn’t had an accident and this happened or that happened. So I wrote them down. I rewrote our story a dozen times and people liked them.”

“People do, you have sold hundreds of thousands of books and no one knows your motivation.”

“No, they do not. The last thing I wanted was sympathy buying or pity buying. If people liked them then great, I was excited that perfect strangers loved my stories. I preferred that they didn’t know that the two characters were based on real people. The money I earned from the books helped me pay for private nurses. It wasn’t too long before I was able to afford twenty-four hour care for him. It enabled me to sleep, write and still spend time with him.”

“You’re a remarkable woman Olivia, I hope you understand that.”

“I’m far from remarkable. My dark thoughts about what had happened make me selfish and uncharitable. Can we talk about something else? My heart is too heavy to keep going.” I asked him.

“Sure, but just one more question if he was paralysed from the neck down, why didn't you take a lover? He would never have known.”

“That is where you and I differ, Jack.” I stroked his cheek. “I would have known.”

“Ouch, but point taken. I don’t know why I suggested that, it’s not something I would do either. Please accept my apology for what I just said.”

“Apology accepted, but you have nothing to be sorry for, we have only just met.”

I stood again, and he let me. I kept still, standing in a spot in the sun as he collected the basket and blanket, folding it neatly back into the basket.

“Let’s go back and collect your bag, I’m going to assume that you won’t want to sit in the bar all afternoon.” Jack suggested.

“Yes, I think I would like to go back to the hotel for a nap before I meet you this evening. Why don’t I eat at the hotel for dinner and meet you at your place later on?”

“Yes to dinner, please get room service rather than sitting in a restaurant alone. I couldn’t cope with the idea of you sitting on your own in a vast room. No, to meeting me, I’ll collect you and walk you to where we are going this evening.”

“Yes sir.” I said as I saluted him. I wanted to lighten the mood and forget about what I had just revealed.

“Good, while you're agreeable can I ask you to be open-minded about tonight?”

“Of course, is tonight something from the list?”

“No, it’s something that you have not mentioned, but I want to expose you to it. There is no pain or violence involved. It’s still people having sex, except this time I’ll not be involved, I’ll be watching you.”

“Ok, I trust you Jack. I’ll keep an open mind.”

He left me momentarily outside the bar while he exchanged the basket and returned with my bag and walked me to the hotel. We said goodbye, and he gave me orders to be ready at nine and to wear sexy underwear. He also wanted me to wear jeans, t-shirt and a jacket. I smirked at him as I walked away into the lobby of the hotel, smiling for the first time in hours.

I was grateful for the time he spent with me today. The perks of being boss meant he could do as he pleased. It was three thirty by the time he had dropped me off. I hoped I hadn’t kept him from important meetings.