Spare Me

Chapter 24

M addy had to shake herself slightly as the brassy chords of “You Are the Best Thing” segued into the soulful piano intro to Adele’s “Make You Feel My Love.” She was pretty sure he’d also felt whatever it was that had happened as they both heard Ray LaMontagne’s lyrics. The way he held her tighter as Adele sang about the difficulty of making decisions made her sure. The way she felt about Alex was becoming undeniable, ungovernable. She wasn’t going to be able to contain it for much longer and suddenly she wasn’t sure how she could ever have imagined leaving him to go to Washington, DC. As they swayed gently to Adele’s luscious voice, she couldn’t imagine ever dancing with anyone ever again.

As the song ended, she looked up at him, and his lips came crashing down on hers. A small part of her wondered if they should really be kissing in public, but the rest of her immediately overrode the worry, relaxing into their kiss as if nobody else existed. After a moment, Alex pulled away. “What do you say we get out of here?” he whispered hotly into her ear.

“Yes, please,” she responded immediately .

They quickly said goodbye to Ben and Hannah, who promised to have them over for dinner as soon as they were back from their honeymoon to an exclusive island in the Aegean, and Alex wove a path through the crowd toward the exit, stopping briefly to whisper something in Eric’s ear along the way. Eric nodded and pulled out his phone, clearly following the instructions that Maddy hadn’t been able to hear over the loud music.

As they exited the ballroom into the relative calm of the hallway outside, Alex wrapped an arm around her, pulling her closer. They descended the grand staircase, and Maddy had a surreal moment remembering the last time she’d made this descent. It was the night she and Alex had had their meet-disaster and she’d been shepherding the Stewart twins back to Winfield house, completely oblivious of the way that evening was going to shape the next eight months of her life. The passing memory must have shown on her face because Alex quietly asked, “What? What was that thought?”

“I was just remembering that the last time I walked down these stairs was the night of martini-gate.”

“Martini-gate?” he asked, laughing.

“Yeah, you know, the night we met.”

“You call it martini-gate?”

“What do you call it?”

There was a brief, self-conscious pause. “The night that changed my life.”

Maddy’s breath caught in her throat and blinked back the sudden tears that clouded her eyes. Even though she’d just been thinking about the event in similar terms, it was somehow different hearing Alex say that it had been life-changing for him, as well.

“I mean, it was that too,” she replied quietly as they reached the bottom of the staircase. A liveried attendant pushed the door open for them, revealing one of the royal family’s seemingly endless number of identical Range Rovers. The driver opened the back door for them, and Maddy quickly climbed in, sliding over so Alex could join her. As the car pulled away from the portico outside of Buckingham Palace, Alex reached over and took her hand. She squeezed, rubbing her thumb across the back of his hand and turning to look at him as they pulled out of the gates into the non-existent traffic of London at one a.m. There was the same look in his eyes as there had been when they danced. One that portended something ineffable but monumental. She found herself thinking that she couldn’t imagine a life where she didn’t get a chance to gaze into those eyes as often as possible. As if sensing her train of thought, Alex leaned over and kissed her. His kiss was gentle but searching, as if he was trying to tell her something and discern her answer all at once, without words.

They rode in near silence for the short drive from Buckingham to Alex’s apartments. When they got there, however, after Alex had unlocked the front door to his apartment and led Maddy in, the mood shifted instantly. As the door closed behind them, Alex had her pressed up against it almost immediately, his lips crushing hers in a searing kiss, full of urgency and need. And Maddy gave it back in spades. Between their separation during the lead-up to the wedding and then the full day of activity and full night of being in near constant physical contact but unable to do more than steal a quick kiss, the tension had been simmering all evening and immediately erupted into a full boil.

Maddy reached up, raking her hands through Alex’s hair as he invaded her personal space, cocking a knee between her thighs. Maddy immediately found herself grinding against it, ignoring the slight abrasion of the elaborate beading on The Dress in favor of the exquisite friction he was offering her.

“Fuck, Maddy,” he hissed out as her hands moved to grasp his butt firmly, pulling him closer to her. “I know it’s not classy, but part of me kind of just wants to take you right here. I need you so much.”

She huffed out a laugh that turned to half a moan as his lips found the sensitive spot on the side of her neck. “Well, the floor looks pretty cold and I don’t think I can come standing up, so I’m voting for bed.”

His eyes darkened. “That’s not what you said in my shower on Christmas night, but for tonight, if you say bed, then bed it is.”

He tugged on her hand, leading her quickly to the stairs and almost dragging her towards his bedroom.

“Where’s Bertie?” she asked, suddenly realizing that they hadn’t been greeted or interrupted by the adorable canine cockblock.

“Boarded him for the weekend,” Alex replied, fully focused on his mission as he pulled her into his room.

Despite the urgency of a few moments before, he slowed down enough to reverently unzip The Dress, kissing his way across the backs of her shoulders and her neck as it fell to the floor.

“Gorgeous,” he breathed, running the back of one of his fingers down the column of her spine to the waistband of the black lace thong, which was the last vestige of clothing on her body now that The Dress lay in an iridescent green pool around her feet. Cupping her left breast with one hand and pinching her already erect nipple, he tugged gently on the back of the thong with his other hand, exerting exquisite pressure.

“Alex,” she gasped, nearly overwhelmed with sensation.

“You like that, hm?” he almost growled in her ear, slipping a knuckle beneath the thong to tease her gently where nobody had ever touched her before. The only response she could muster was an incoherent groan, her head lolling back onto his shoulder in pleasure as he continued driving her crazy with both hands.

When she finally managed to formulate a sentence, it was “You’re wearing too much.” She worked up the fortitude to turn in his arms, their lips meeting again as she started working at the studs of his tuxedo shirt. She thanked the menswear gods who had decided that the strangely small fastenings were the thing for tux shirts—it was much easier to undo them in a lusty haze than it was normal shirt buttons—and soon they were pressed together again, bare chest to bare chest. When he’d managed to toe out of his shoes and she’d shoved his pants and boxer briefs down in one go, she finally succumbed to the urge to climb him like an incredibly sexy English tree. He backed toward the bed, her legs locked around his lower back, their kisses growing more urgent, almost frantic.

When the back of Alex’s legs hit the bed, he sat, pulling her with him. She could feel his rock-hard cock pushing against her lace-covered pussy and she gave into the urge to grind against him again. “Maddy,” he moaned. “You’re going to kill me.”

“We haven’t even started yet,” she said, in the sultriest voice she could muster. She felt an unusual sense of confidence. One that she didn’t usually feel in the bedroom, where she was usually quite happy for Alex to take the lead, almost to the point of dominance. Pushing him back onto the mattress, she backed up, standing in front of him with one thumb tucked into the hip of her thong. Alex had one arm bent behind his head, his other hand stroking himself lightly as she bit her lip and, never breaking eye contact, slid the thong down her legs, leaving her standing there in nothing but the black shoes she’d worn to the party. She stuck one foot out at an angle and started to bend over to unbuckle the ankle strap when he gasped out. “No, don’t. Leave them on.”

She cocked an eyebrow at him and said, “Well then,” before stalking back towards the bed and crawling toward him. Planting her hands on either side of his head, she held herself up, leveling a smoldering gaze directly into his eyes. She lowered her head so that only their lips were touching in a tantalizingly gentle kiss. He moaned beneath her, and she felt the mattress shift as his hips writhed beneath her. She lowered herself a bit more so she could suck on his neck and she felt one of his fingers find her entrance.

“Fuck, Maddy. You’re so wet.” His moistened fingers found her clit, circling once, twice, before dipping down to slip into her again. “I need you, Mads,” he rasped, his other hand gripping her ass tightly.

Maddy reached for the nightstand and pulled out a condom, ripping it open as he watched her, his gaze burning with heat. Leaning back, her thighs bracketing his, she sheathed him, breaking eye contact only to make sure the condom wasn’t going on inside out. As she rolled it down his length, Alex hissed, flexing his hips. She kneeled back over him and lowered herself onto his cock, her eyes rolling back in her head as he filled her.

She didn’t know quite where this was coming from, why tonight of all nights she wanted to be the one in charge, but it just felt right, and she loved that Alex was going along with it happily, unquestioningly. She started rolling her hips, testing out what felt good in the unfamiliar position. Finding her rhythm, she found his hands, pinning them on either side of his head on the pillow, using him for leverage as she moved on top of him.

Their eyes met and, for the third time that night, she found herself in some kind of magic bubble. From the look in his eyes, Maddy could tell that Alex felt it too. A new sense of energy flowed through her as they both climbed toward the peak. A new confidence, a new certainty. She suddenly knew that there was nowhere else she could be. She couldn’t leave him to go back to the States. She was exactly where she needed to be.

“Maddy.” Alex’s voice was urgent. “I’m close.”

She unclasped her right hand from his left to reach between them. She was so close that it only took a few seconds of touching herself before she felt her orgasm overtake her and Alex cried out almost immediately after. She continued moving slowly, wringing as much pleasure as she possibly could before she collapsed against his chest, both of them breathing hard. Alex wrapped his arms around her loosely, stroking up and down her back absently, his muscles clearly still recovering, and she almost purred.

“Alex,” she whispered, a sudden moment of the strange confidence and clarity returning to her.

“Hmm?”

“I love you,” she said. It happened so fast that she didn’t really have time to be nervous about his response or second-guess herself—it just came out, and she somehow knew that it was the right thing.

His hands stilled on her back and a flicker of a doubt crossed Maddy’s mind, but a moment later she felt his chest rise with a shaky inhale and his arms came around her more firmly. “I love you too.” His voice was thick with emotion, but absolutely steady.

She levered herself up so she could look into his eyes, a feeling of almost giddiness washing over her, a grin splitting her face and found him gazing back at her. He had the same look in his eyes that she’d noticed a few times that day and suddenly realized that it was love. She kissed him exuberantly before snuggling down into his arms.

They talked for a little while coming down from the high of their shared professions and debriefing the day together. When they started to drift off, Maddy found herself idly composing the email in her head telling Georgetown that she would not be accepting their offer of admission.