Twelve Days The Beginning - By Jade Reyner Page 0,90

actually sad about that; for her, the marriage had been dead for a long while and she registered now that the little bit of love that she had clung on to had in fact only been sympathy for Dale, and more than a little grief for the loss of something that had once been so precious to her. She didn’t know exactly when the love had died but she knew with absolute certainty that it had.

What scared her now was not the relationship that she was potentially going to explore with Vaughn but more how she was going to speak to Dale and make him see that this was the end. Unquestionably, he had contributed to that and over the last five years he had proved himself to be increasingly volatile; to the point where she was beginning to struggle to cope with the worst of his rages. The thought of what the future held both physically and emotionally was terrifying but for the sake of giving her and Vaughn this one chance, she decided to shelve all of those worries for another day. It wouldn’t change things however much she worried about it so she may as well put them away in another compartment of her mind and enjoy what she had right now.

Taking her seat next to Vaughn at the table, she was relieved when he reached under the table to hold her hand. Her fingers were frozen and the warmth of his hand started to breathe some life back into them. She looked across at him and their eyes connected; an understanding passing between them, which had been missing before. They were in this together – whatever this was – and that was good enough for her at the moment.

Deciding she was no longer hungry, she pushed her plate to the side and allowed the waiter to remove it – thankfully, a different waiter from before so she was at least spared any further embarrassment. Vaughn had begun to eat some of his but as he only had the use of one hand he had admitted defeat with chopping up the steak and left his too. She loved the fact that he refused to let go of her hand even for a second, his warmth transferring to her and making her believe that everything would be alright. Somehow.

Celeste and Roger were still deep in conversation; their chairs even closer together than before and Elise could see that Roger’s hand had also disappeared under the table. Catching her friend’s eye, she gave her a discreet thumbs-up and Celeste immediately blushed. This side to Celeste was a revelation - she was used to her friend being loud and proud, the life and soul of the party – but this gentle man seemed to have broken right through her defences and Elise sincerely hoped that this was the start of something good for Celeste. God knows she deserved it too.

Dessert was now being served; a beautiful chocolate fondant that everyone demolished enthusiastically. Elise watched as Sam and Tilly fed each other mouthfuls from time to time; Vaughn must have noticed too and he took a spoon of his own dessert holding it out to Elise for her to taste, just stopping short of allowing her to have the whole spoonful. He put the spoon with the remainder of the dessert into his mouth, all the while keeping his eyes locked onto hers. It was easily the hottest, sexiest thing that Elise had ever experienced and she could feel the unmistakable dampness of her arousal starting, the whole experience made even more raw by her lack of underwear. She blushed and looked away. It was ridiculous how readily she responded to this man and it was becoming more and more difficult to hide.

Vaughn took the hand that he was holding under the table and moved it across to his lap and down, encouraging her to feel his hardness. Her eyes widened as she made contact with him, shocked to realise that he felt even harder than he had in the alcove at the start of the evening.

Vaughn continued to look steadily at her for a while before leaning forward and whispering softly in her ear. “Just so that you know, I feel it too – big time.”

His breath whispering against her ear sent shivers down her spine and she shuddered. He smiled at her, watching her body react to his and then he gently moved her hand away from his lap