The Deep End. AM Hartnett

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СКАЧАТЬ to be practical make a man feel like an animal? I want to see you in nothing else when I have you in bed.’

      Grace leaned back against the table and held on, desperate to do something far more wicked with her fingers than press them against the surface. ‘I want … I want … always what you want …’

      ‘What you want,’ he said with a sharp bite. ‘Not just me, you want it too. I know you. I’ve watched you. You perform, and what you wear, like this, turns you on as much as dirty talk. Try and deny that you wouldn’t want to be spread out, hands holding the flushed insides of your thighs apart. Tell me that seeing the contrast of the black stockings framing your pussy while you’re being fucked doesn’t turn you into a firecracker.’

      Keeping her gaze low, she pressed her tongue to her upper lip and enjoyed the heat that filled every part of her. Once the fluttering in her head abated and the fever in her blood became a simmer, Grace was left with the suggestion perched on the end of her tongue.

      She had no choice but to let it leap. Even though her throat burned with the need to swallow it back, she was powerless, and so she said, ‘We don’t have to talk about it any longer, you know. If that’s what you want, you can have it.’

      For a few moments there was nothing left but her limbs taut with nervousness as she stared at the floor and the slight crackle coming from the computer speakers. Regret nipped her, but she bullied that thing with the sharp teeth back into whatever fathomless void it had come from.

      It had been said, and it needed to be said, even if it was a mistake.

      What came next was a guttural sound: Taureau clearing his throat, followed by his quiet words.

      ‘If you’re done with your wine, I think it’s about time to go.’

      The electricity leapt from her body and left her feeling small and cold. She pressed her lips together as her regret squirmed, victorious, and she pushed away from the table.

      ‘Shall I call a cab?’ she asked, reaching for the coat she had tossed over a chair in her eagerness to show off her lingerie.

      ‘Use the service, but get the phone and the headset first.’

      She didn’t say anything to him as she disconnected the computer and turned off the projector. Only after she had washed the glass in Caroway’s sink and tucked the bottle in his credenza did Taureau call her back, this time on the phone.

      She quickly tucked the headset into her ear and answered the call, then slipped the phone into her pocket. ‘Where am I going?’

      Taureau was quiet for a moment. ‘If you’re not in the mood …’

      ‘No, I’m fine.’

      Her answer came out more as a retort. She had a sour feeling like she was heading out into the town in the midst of a lover’s spat. It made her feel foolish, and as she buttoned up to conceal every inch of the naughtiness underneath she filled her lungs and expelled it. She pulled her hair free of the collar.

      ‘Where are you taking me, Mr Taureau?’

      He gave another pause, not as long as the first, and then he cited an address not far from the Taureau-Werner building. She called the car and was assured it would be there shortly.

      ‘Is this the executive condo?’ she asked as she headed for the lobby.

      ‘No, it’s mine.’

      ‘But you don’t live there?’

      ‘The last time I was there you were still in university.’

      She wanted to probe deeper, to ask about the blank slate between his very tumultuous young adulthood and his present closeted existence, but she was still feeling the sting of his first rejection and didn’t care to receive a second.

      ‘You seem to know a lot about me,’ she said as she pressed the call button for the elevator. ‘I’d hate to make an enemy out of you.’

      ‘I only know what I can find on paper,’ he said, and Grace caught the sound of glass clinking against glass.

      It was these little things that made her froth with curiosity on the inside. Where was he? What was in the blackness beyond where he sat day after day? He could have lived in that supposed compound in Saguenay or in a trailer park in Australia. She wouldn’t know the difference.

      ‘Tell me what I don’t know,’ he said, followed by another clink. ‘Tell me your story.’

      She couldn’t help the bark of laughter that let loose. Even when she clapped her hand over her face to stave off another she failed, and dissolved into hysterical giggles as she waited for the elevator.

      ‘I’m sorry, but that sounds like a first-date question.’

      ‘Humour me,’ he said, and his inability to conceal his own laughter inspired another fit in her.

      ‘I can’t. It’s just so silly.’

      The elevator doors opened and she stepped in. She leaned against the wall and, as her stomach flopped with the descent, her laughter died to a chuckle and her jaw ached from it.

      ‘Are you still there?’ she asked as she stepped onto the street.

      He didn’t answer. It seemed as though the elevator ride had cut them off, and Grace prepared to disconnect. Her finger was on the narrow button on the face of the headset when he answered.

      ‘I’m here.’

      He spoke barely above a whisper, and she lost her breath at the thought of having offended him with her fit.

      But then, softly: ‘You have a beautiful laugh, you know.’

      She was grateful that she was free of the Taureau-Werner building and his cameras. For him to see her face at that moment would have killed her. His gentle, admiring tone touched her deeply and spread warmth into every part of her body. She faltered down the steps and the buzzing city before she slowed down.

      ‘Thank you,’ she murmured, and lowered her gaze even though the one she wanted to hide from was miles away.

      ‘Please, tell me about yourself.’

      ‘Did you compliment me to butter me up into talking?’ she teased, but a little part of her believed the nasty little suspicion.

      ‘No, I didn’t.’

      The sincerity in his voice won her over, and as she stepped to the curb to wait for the car she relented.

      ‘What do you want to know about?’

      ‘Who were you when you were growing up?’

      It seemed like a poignant question, given the origins of the man who posed it. If she were to pose the same question to him and if he were to be honest with her, the picture he would paint would no doubt be filled with shadows.

      She tucked herself deeper into the coat. ‘Nothing exciting has ever happened to me. I grew up with just me and my mom, mostly. When I was really small we lived with СКАЧАТЬ