AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He hummed, pleased. “My Izzy. Such a good girl. I’m going to make you come right here, but you don’t get to make a sound. Your moans and gasps and whimpers are mine now. No one else gets to hear them.” He drove his fingers faster and harder, curving them perfectly so they hit my sweet spot with every pump.
I clamped my lips shut, swallowing back every moan. He held my gaze, never letting me look away, never faltering his pace.
Oh, and then the aforementioned pace picked up.
I fisted his shirt even tighter, feeling my orgasm creeping toward me.
“Yeah, that’s it, you cling to me. I got you.” Without slowing the speed of his thrusts, he began rolling this thumb around my clit. “Come, but not one fucking sound, Izzy.” He bit into the corner of my mouth … and I came. Hard. Long. Silently.
Afterwards, I slouched, panting.
He stroked a hand over my hair. “You did very well. Now we have a room waiting for us, so let’s finish this in private, shall we?”
Oh yes, yes, we shall infuckingdeed.
Chapter Six
Lying flat on the ground, I held my camera steady as I aimed it straight above my head to get a squirrel’s eye view of the cluster of trees around me. It was early in the morning, so the lighting was just right—more golden than bright. It was one of my favorite times to photograph landscapes and wildlife.
I took picture after picture, occasionally tinkering with the lens. There was little sound here in the forested area of the park. Only the rustles of leaves, the calls of birds, and the slight creak of branches. But I occasionally heard the distant barking of a dog or delighted squeal of a child coming from the grassier parts of the park.
I wouldn’t be able to stay for much longer, since I had a thousand things to do before getting ready for yet another night at the Vault.
Four weeks had gone by since I agreed to an arrangement with Cole. Back then, I hadn’t even allowed myself to wonder if it would last this long, let alone expected it to.
Not that club members typically shied away from long-term arrangements. On the contrary, they tended to prefer them. But there were those who avoided them to ensure that neither party developed expectations. And Cole was so dead-set againstexpectations that it would have made sense for him to have moved on before now.
He hadn’t, though. Which I couldn’t feel joyous about, because it seemed inevitable that he’d pull back sometime soon. But I didn’t let that dominate my thoughts. I allowed myself to enjoy what we now had. It was impossiblenotto enjoy it.
With Ryland, there’d always been a little push and pull. We’d never really found a balance, never reallysettled. I’d only really stuck it out regardless because I didn’t like to give up on things or people—something I’d come to realize that, when taken too far, could be a flaw.
With Cole, it was just effortless to relax into our arrangement. He was an easy person to be around. So grounded. So steady. Chill, yet always hypervigilant … making a girl feel both comfortable and safe. A heady combination.
I’d never admit it aloud to him, but there were times I found myself missing him. We only ever saw each other on weekends. We met up at the Vault every Saturday, just as we would tonight. We also often met up there on Fridays when possible. But those ‘meetings’ collectively only took up, what, six hours of my week? It wasn’t much.
We regularly ate at the lounge before heading off to play, which I liked. Though we often did a lot of talking and laughing, we rarely touched on anythingtoopersonal—careful not to ask the sort of questions that were generally reserved for couples.
I’d failed at that a time or two, to be truthful. But he hadn’t called me on it, he’d merely redirected the conversation. That was something he also did if the subject of his family came up, so it would seem that he’d apparently told me all he was willing to tell me about them.
That was okay. There were things I didn’t speak of either. Such as that I might make changes to certain elements of my career.
It wasn’t something intensely personal, no, but I generally didn’t confide much in others. Not easily, anyway. I most often chewed on things in the privacy of my own mind. And I didn’t feel that he’d welcome any attempt from me to share any personal struggles.
In sum, we weren’t confidants. I couldn’t really describe us as friends either. We were friendlyand got along extremely well, but there was this barrier that was never crossed. It meant that what we had lacked the essential components of friendships.
And so, though I sometimes had the urge to text him about this or that, I never did. I’d strictly forbidden myself from contacting him about anything that wasn’t Vault-related. Particularly since he himself never called or texted me unless it was to discuss meeting up at the club.
It probably said very sad things about my past relationships that I could say I knew Cole better than most of my exes. I might not know his innermost secrets, but I knew the core of him. I knew he was a man who would never be derailed by adversity or hardship. A man who would never allow concerns or fears to limit him. A man who believed in taking control of his own destiny and would cut any toxic influences out of his life in an instant in order to fully pursue that destiny.
A man who also ticked every box I had.
I couldn’t lie to myself, there were times when I lamented that nothing more would come of our arrangement. It was just my luck that I’d found a bloke whosawme, who fit me well, who understood the struggles of growing up in the public eye, who had the same strong work ethic, who didn’t wish to play up to the media or use my connections to get ahead … yet he had no interest in building anything with me.
Cursing myself for stupidly getting a littletoocomfortable with someone I couldn’t permanently keep, I paused in takingphotos to adjust the exposure compensation slightly, wanting to ensure the images had plenty of detail in the shadow and highlight areas.
On the bright side of things, the online fuss surrounding the bullshit article had died down, likely since there was no fresh news to feed its claims. Plus, there were now more far interesting things in the world for people to focus on, including a recent political scandal that had diverted pretty much everyone’s attention.
I’d initially worried that Ryland would do something stupid to rekindle the public’s interest in our sex lives. But either Briar’s threat had done the trick or he’d simply thrown in the towel, because no more articles had cropped up.
