Never Tell Secrets (18+)

Ch 12 - It's Time

ATTENTION RADISH READERS! Please don't leave any spoilers in here or you'll be getting a spanking from Alfie. Or Elliot. Or Keira. Whoever you'd prefer. 😘

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Alfie's house?

I didn't know Alfie had a house.

I knew he had property but I didn't know he actually had a place that he lived in.

"I thought you didn't have a home?" I remembered him telling me that in the early days of our relationship.

"I wouldn't call it my home. I rarely spend any time there."

"Then why keep it?"

"It's where I keep things that are important to me. This house is separate from the rest of my life. No friends, no colleagues, no dinners or parties. Just me and the shit that matters." I guess that included me now.

"Thank you for letting me in. I appreciate you making that effort," I said, my voice calm. I needed to handle this so carefully. Distance. Keep your distance, Lola. I needed to keep my wits about me and that started with laying ground rules. "Alfie, I—"

"No sex." He cut me off, giving me that small smile. "I know. I'll keep my hands to myself. Even if you did show up at my office at dawn in a fuck-me dress." He roamed a side eye down over my body.

"I blame the alcohol."

"You aren't drunk, Lola. If you were, I wouldn't be driving you to my house right now."

I didn't know how to answer that so we drove in silence for a while, but the silence was anything but calm. The tension was deafening. I could practically feel his need to touch me. The same needs sang through my body. His knuckles whitened on the wheel, my thighs pressed together. His hand brushed my knee as he switched gears and fuck, my breath hitched. He tensed beside me, his jaw clenching. But instead of pulling over and taking me like he once would have done, he instead cracked his window, bathing us both in the cool air not yet touched by the burnt morning sun.

I turned my attention out of the window, trying to ignore the gnawing in my stomach. My heart wanted Alfie and she wanted him bad. Instead, I focused on the passing shops, the houses turning into bigger houses, then townhouses, mansions, until finally...

"Is this your house?" I stuttered. We pulled through the steel gates and my jaw dropped when his house came fully into view. I heard Alfie chuckle.

"Bit of a shit hole, isn't it?"

Just like that, I was plunged back into the first night we'd slept together. A night that I had done over in my dreams so many times. That moment had been the first time I'd seen Alfie laugh. The shrapnel in my chest throbbed and I swallowed the pain, forcing my gaze away from him and out at the shit hole in question.

The stucco-fronted mansion looked to be five stories tall, the many windows dark and foreboding. At the front, an imposing set of black double doors greeted us as we drove up the expansive wrap-around driveway. Instead of pulling up, however, Alfie drove around the side of the house. He slowed to a stop, pressed a button on the dash, and suddenly the ground beneath us lowered until I found myself in an underground garage accompanied by a dozen other luxury cars. 

"Holy fuck, Batman." 

"You think it's excessive." He pulled into a space, switching off the engine.

"I think it looks like you're trying to compensate for something." 

"You're saying I'm lacking in that area?" He raised his brows at me and, despite everything, I couldn't help but smile.