Chapter 14: Break the Rule

Simon had the gate open before I reached the bottom of the stairs.

Brooke stood on the step with rain running off her coat and one hand flat against her stomach.

"I didn't know where else to go," she said.

"Come in," I said.

"I heard him on the phone, telling Joan about the video."

Her teeth were chattering.

"She said I should stay in the kitchen and keep my mouth shut. So I packed."

"Are you hurt?"

"No. Just done."

The housekeeper came down in her robe and took Brooke's suitcase without a word.

She put her in the blue room at the end of the hall and brought tea.

Brooke held the cup in both hands.

"I'll tell you all of it tomorrow," she said.

"I haven't slept in a bed that was mine since March four years ago. Let me have one night."

I closed her door and stood in the hall.

Simon was at the bottom of the stairs with his coat still on.

"I'll walk you to your room," he said.

"Where do you sleep?"

"In the gatehouse, over the gate."

"Take me there."

He looked up at me for a long moment.

"The Dunnings aren't finished," he said.

"I know what I said."

"You made a rule," he said. "You broke it behind a hardware store."

His voice had gone rough.

"You told me not to make you do it twice. So say it again."

"I'm breaking it."

"Say it like you mean to."

"Simon, I want you to fuck me. Tonight. Now."

He crossed the hall in two strides.

We did not reach the gatehouse bed.

He shut the door behind us and put me against it.

His mouth came down on mine, hot and hungry and wet from the rain.

I got my hands inside his coat and shoved it off his shoulders.

He pulled my sweater over my head and dropped it on the floor.

"God, look at you," he said, and he unhooked my bra and put his mouth on my breast.

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