“It was good, Mum. What’s wrong?”
She grimaced. “Kelly had a falling-out with some girl at school in their … I don’t know … some app where they’re all in there chatting together. She says she doesn’t want to go to school tomorrow.”
Murray scrubbed an agitated hand over his beard. “I’ll talk to her.”
“Good. I’m heading out.”
“Will you text me when you’re home?”
“Of course.” She reached up to kiss his cheek, her position on the stairs erasing their significant height difference. “’Night, son.”
“’Night, Mum. And thanks.”
“No problem.” She squeezed my arm as she passed me. “’Night, London.”
“Good night, Fiona.”
Silence fell between us as we listened to the rustle of Fiona donning her outerwear and then the click of the door opening and closing behind her.
Murray gave me a pained, exasperated look. “I need to …” He gestured toward the hallway, to Kelly’s wing of the ground floor.
Since I totally understood his priorities and would expect or want nothing less, I hid my disappointment and stepped onto the staircase. “Of course. See you in the morning.”
Our eyes met again as I looked back during my climb upward and I almost dove back down toward him at the heat in his beautiful green gaze. But his daughter needed him, so I put my wants aside and disappeared upstairs.
32.London
Ilay in bed for about an hour, contemplating relieving the ache between my legs by myself. But every time my hand slid downward, a resentful desire for more stopped me.
There was no way I resented Kelly. That would make me a heartless bitch. I was glad Murray wanted to be there for her through everything going on in her life.
But my touch was not a substitute for his.
His touch made my body zing with crackling energy, like I was truly alive and awake for the first time in my life.
The longer I lay there, the more I began to realize that I didn’t want Kelly to know just yet that things were changing and progressing between me and her father. She didn’t need the uncertainty of such a big transformation in her lifeagain. But this … this was a big house and there was nothing to stop Murray and I enjoying a physical relationship without the other occupant knowing.
So, why was I lying here alone when I could be lying on top of Murray Shaw?
Pulse rushing, I threw off my duvet and got out of bed. I quietly and quickly changed into a silk cami and short set Nee bought me for Christmas last year and dragged a brush throughmy hair. A quick once-over in the mirror revealed I was decent enough, and I tiptoed hurriedly out of the bedroom.
The house was so quiet and dark it made my heart race even harder as I tried to cross the upper hallway without the floorboards creaking. Every time one did, my heartbeat would skyrocket. I was flushed, palms clammy, by the time I was even halfway downstairs.
When I finally made it onto the ground floor that didn’t squeak at all underfoot, I skittered across it and paused at Murray’s closed bedroom door. I raised my fist to knock and then paused.
Was it inappropriate to do this with a teenager in the house?
I lowered my arm.
But then … Murray seemed to be fully intending to sleep with me when we first came into the house.
I lifted my fist again.
What if it was a difficult conversation with Kelly, though, and it had killed his libido for the night?
I was about to lower my arm when his bedroom door flew open and Murray stood in the moonlit doorway, half-naked in pajama trousers. Suddenly, I found myself yanked inside as he growled “Thank fuck” against my lips before his mouth took mine.
I heard the door snick shut and then I was abruptly lifted upward. My legs automatically hooked around his hips and back as he kissed me hungrily. The heat between my legs pressed up against his hard stomach and I wanted to move lower. I wanted to rub myself all over him. It was a desperate need, one I’d never felt before.