A small frown pinches her brows. ‘One of my friends in senior school was a brilliant athlete and one day, right out of the blue, she just fell down dead while playing hockey.’ She swallows and I see the pain she clearly still feels about this flash across her face.
‘It turned out she had an undiscovered heart defect. She was only fifteen and the sweetest, most caring person you’d ever meet. We’d been friends since infant school and she was my rock – the person I’d go to when I was struggling with who I was and how I felt about losing my mother. My whole world fell apart all over again when I lost her. So I decided to do something good and positive with my life to try and stop it from happening to other people.’ She smiles, then turns back to the computer screen.
A throbbing sensation is growing in my throat, as if my heart has risen up from my chest to relocate itself there. This woman is truly amazing. She totally puts me to shame. What the hell have I done with my life up till now? Fucking nothing. I’ve been playing at being a grown-up. Even though I’ve been trying pretty hard recently with the artists’ co-operative, I’ve still not managed to make it work. So at the age of twenty-five I’ve achieved nothing I’m truly proud of.
This has to change. It’s time I grew a pair and made a monumental effort to make things work out. But in order to do that I have to start believing I’m smart enough. Clearly my attitude needs a serious adjustment.
But I guess, right now, I’m going to have to content myself with using the skills I’ve already honed to give her a reward for all the hard work she’s been putting in.
My version of giving back to those in need.
And I want to see a smile back on that pretty face of hers.
‘You should take a proper break for a while,’ I suggest. ‘It can’t be healthy to sit at a laptop for so long.’
‘I can’t. I’ve got so much to do,’ she mumbles.
‘Perhaps you need a lesson in priorities.’
‘Hmm?’ is all she says to this, already engrossed again in what she’s reading on the screen.
Okay. Time to get serious.
Getting up, I move round to where she’s sitting and pull the wheelie office chair backwards, away from the desk.
‘Let me help you.’
She blinks at me in surprise, a cute little frown pulling at her brows. ‘Help me? What do you mean?’
I don’t answer. Instead, I climb under the desk, then pull her chair towards me so she’s back in her original position and I’m trapped under the desk. ‘Spread your legs,’ I instruct her.
‘What are you going to do?’ she asks with a nervous quaver in her voice.
‘You’ll see. Just do it.’
I think for a moment that she’s going to refuse, but when she realises how serious I am she does as I ask, her legs quivering a little as she pushes them as far apart as the chair will allow.
‘Now start reading what’s on the screen aloud to me.’
‘But it won’t make much sense out of context…’ she begins to argue.
I dismiss her argument by sliding my hands between her thighs to find her underwear, which I tug to one side, exposing her beautiful pussy.
‘What are you doing?’ She gasps.
‘Just read,’ I demand, reaching in my pocket to find the vibrator I’d stashed there earlier. ‘And don’t stop, no matter what happens.’
She peers down into the gap between her body and the desk and sees what’s in my hand. Her eyes go wide. ‘What are you going to do with that?’
I smile and turn it on to vibrate. ‘Something good,’ I promise her. ‘Now read.’
‘Wait, Sandro, you really don’t need to?—’
‘I want to do this, Juno,’ I interrupt. ‘It’s going to give me just as much pleasure as you, believe me. Now do as I say.’
So she begins to read the technical-sounding article out loud, her voice shaking a little with anticipation. It shakes even more as I slip my hand back between her legs and gently strum the tip of the vibrator, first up one soft, creamy-skinned thigh, then the other. She lets out a breathy giggle of surprise, but to her credit she doesn’t stop reading.
I’m rock-hard as I listen to the wobble in her soft, smoky voice and have to force myself to concentrate as I continue the buzz between her legs, this time moving the vibrator all the way up to stroke between her pussy lips.