Chapter 24: Loud in My Own House

The bench was the right height, and so was he.

He stood between my knees with his mouth on my neck and his hands under my red cardigan.

A picture book slid off the shelf behind me and hit the floor.

"Leave it," I said.

"I wasn't going to pick it up."

I pushed the cardigan off my shoulders and he undid the buttons of my blouse, one-handed, in about a second.

"You've done this before," I said.

"I've wanted to do it for six years."

He bit my collarbone, gently, and I stopped talking.

He took my blouse off and my bra after it and put his mouth on my breast, and I held his head against me with both hands.

The shelves were warm at my back.

Down the long room the light from the west windows lay on the rug in a gold square.

The cushions still held the shapes of the children.

I should have been embarrassed.

I was not.

I was in my own sitting room with the man I had chosen.

I wanted him more than I had ever wanted anything.

I undid his belt myself.

"Odette," he said, rough. "Here?"

"Here. On the bench. Now."

He lifted me by the hips, and I got my skirt out of the way and my underwear off.

He stood there with his forehead against mine, breathing hard.

"Say it," he said.

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