naked,’ he told her, and he went into his pocket. He wished he’d kicked off his boots so he could do the same but there really wasn’t time. As she shed her knickers he dressed his erection and Freya toppled a little as she took off her shoes.
‘Come here,’ he said, and she just stepped to him and he lifted her to where she’d wanted to be all along.
‘Oh...’ He didn’t guide her on, he held her hips as her hands went behind his neck.
‘Lean back,’ he told her, and as he held her by the hips he rubbed her wet sex over his stomach and scented himself with her.
‘I’m going to come...’ Freya was, the feel of the hairs on his stomach, the rough guide of his hands, the way he was holding her, and she couldn’t hold on.
‘That’s the intention,’ Sexy Bastard said.
She had kind of got this wasn’t going to be like anything she’d experienced before but she found out for certain then. As her body arched, as she let out a building moan, he took her coming. He just drove into her tight and twitching and moaned at the pleasure.
‘Oh, yeah,’ he said.
Oh, yes, Freya thought.
He just parted her orgasm, it was like being a virgin all over again, or not, Freya thought because that had been such an underwhelming encounter.
This wasn’t.
She went limp for a moment and he took full advantage, grinding her down to meet his thrusts. Her hands took in his muscled shoulders and she dug her nails in, and then she just had to taste that shoulder, sucking it as her hands explored his broad upper back.
Her nails dug in again, deeper, and he took her a bit slower but with measured tension. It was an odd consent but she read it—he wanted more of the same so she scratched him hard.
‘Careful,’ he warned as her mouth sucked skin, but he wasn’t telling her to stop, she knew that. ‘You’ll pay for each bruise.’
Oh, she would gladly pay.
He took her to the desk, or she guessed that’s what it was, because it was cold and hard on her back. Freya went to wrap her legs around him but his hand pressed her thighs apart and he took her hard and so deep that she just about performed a sit-up as her entire lower abdomen contracted.
‘Come on,’ he said, and she opened her eyes to his gruff command but then her eyes met his and he smiled down at her.
‘Nice,’ he said, bucking into her.
‘So...’ Freya couldn’t finish. She had never known anything like it. His face tensed and then he released into her, and she met the impact with a deep force of her own. Her orgasm just rolled through her like thunder and then lightning clapped her tight with no pause in between. It just dissolved her from the inside out, and as it left she quivered and then he collapsed onto her.
He was so heavy, and breathless, but then his mouth was an unexpected soft caress. Even as he came out of her he kissed her. Even as he unsheathed he kissed her back to earth, and as he stripped off his boots and jeans, his mouth never left her skin. Naked now, he picked her up from the hard desk and carried her to the bed.
He got in beside her and scooped her into his body. His hand stroked her breast and he kissed her shoulder as she lay feeling bewildered yet drowsy and sedated.
‘Go to sleep,’ he said.
He seemed to know just what she needed and yet they didn’t even know each other’s names.
‘How...?’ She attempted to gather a thought into a sentence.
‘Chemistry,’ he answered.
And to sleep they went.
‘I SHOULD HAVE paid way more attention in science class,’ Freya said a few hours later as she woke to the thought of his last word and the feel of her loose, relaxed body in his arms as he spooned in behind her.
‘Oh, I’ll make you pay attention,’ he said low and deep into her ear. ‘Happy New Year.’
‘And you,’ Freya said.
‘It already is.’
Last night he’d barely been able to get the words out to his mother, knowing how pointless they were, but now Zack was happy, indulging in one of his passions.
The other was work and that was so intense that he lived for escapes like this.
‘Were you going to come to my room?’ he asked. ‘Honest answer.’
‘I was thinking about it,’ Freya said. ‘I wasn’t having the best night.’
‘What did you say to that guy?’
Freya frowned.
‘The one who walked off just before you saw me...’
‘Oh, that was Edward—’
‘No names,’ he interrupted, and Freya lay there, feeling his fingers gently kneading her stomach.
Freya wanted to know his name, she wanted to know more about him, and yet he’d reminded her that there would be no exchange of names. But as she lay there, enjoying the gentle massage of his fingers, and thought about it, she realised that it was actually quite freeing. There would be no I’m Freya Rothsberg. Yes, Aubrey St Claire and Michael Rothsberg are indeed my parents. And if he recognised the name, then he’d know about their messy divorce. And there would be no I’m thirty-one, single, perfectionist, infertile but trying not to be, recovered anorexic. She didn’t have to say she was a big shot in PR. Or that she was stressing about taking on the charity side of her brother’s medical centre. Or that, though she’d pushed James to let her, really she wanted to use her psychology degree.
No names didn’t mean no past but it meant she didn’t have to reveal anything that she didn’t want to.
Who was she without all of that? Freya lay there and pondered.
She.
The woman in his arms, and that was enough for him.
He.
Freya understood now the bliss of no names.
‘He’s an ex.’ Freya answered the question after a very long pause. ‘And he tried it on last night. Several times.’
‘I’d try it on again with you...’
‘He’s married.’
‘Bastard,’ Zack said. ‘Did you know that he was when you were together?’
‘He wasn’t married then,’ Freya said. ‘From the way we broke up it would seem he wanted a wife and children. He’s got what he wanted but his wife wasn’t there
