The village of Oakvale-On-Roe is in the north of the relatively small English county of
Downshire, situated between the old market Town of Nettlebridge, and their more affluent neighbour, Roespring and Chris Thorn, head
of Thorn publishing, lives in a Large Victorian house on Nettlefield road on the southern side of the
village.
He inherited the company after his father’s sudden
death, and it had taken him five years to drag the business into the 21st
century and to employ the right people to run the various divisions because he
wanted to run things from arm’s length.
Of all the facilities and offices in the Thorn
publishing family he decided on making the Nettlebridge Book repository as his
base of operations and he bought “Red House” in Oakvale.
He loved books but he wasn’t interested in
publishing per se which is why he carefully selected a team of key men and
women to embrace the old and the new.
He was 25 when he took the reins and after five
years of hard work, he was ready for him to focus on his personal life, and he
had someone in his sights.
22-year-old
Katherine Lewis had worked at the repository since she was 17 and was the
youngest of the 25 employees by about 30 years.
She
was taken on as a general dogsbody and as a result she had become a jack of all
trades, and therefore indiscernible.
She was a shy, socially
awkward bookish girl, who appeared to lack self-confidence, but was a bright
intelligent girl, with no personal attachments as she was much more in tune
with the romantic characters in the literature she read and she was an only
child who still lived with her parents.
Outside
of work she rarely went out, she certainly wasn’t a party girl and her sexual
awakening didn’t hit her until her late teens and although there were times
when she couldn’t stop abusing herself to deal with her urges there was no one
in her social circle, such as it was, that measured up against the romantic
heroes in her books, and even if there was someone she was clueless .
She
was not beautiful, though she was not
unattractive to look at, but she wasn’t bubbly or outgoing and always wore a
knee length skirt, white blouse and tailored jacket, she had her short brunette
tied in a bun, Katherine was tall, slender with nice long legs, but was far
from being well endowed in the bustline, and had a
habit of peering over her half-moon specs.
However,
when she first saw Chris Thorn, she was smitten, he was only at the repository
on Monday and Tuesday and she really looked forward to seeing him, but she
didn’t show any sign of it.
Chris
also noticed her and was impressed by her quiet efficiency and thought there
was something about her, but it was the former that made him give her a bit of
a promotion, on the days he was there she was to act in part as his PA and as
she also lived in Oakvale on the days he worked from home she would act as a
courier for him between the repository and his house.
Katherine
had been ferrying books and documents to him for a few months, and he really
liked her but he had no idea what he should do about it, he didn’t want to be
unprofessional, he certainly didn’t want to abuse his position of authority and
he definitely didn’t want to scare her into leaving, so he took the only course
open to him, do nothing.
As
it turned out fate took a hand on a sunny August Friday afternoon, when
Katherine took the decision to wear heels in order to make the most of her
legs, she normally wore flats because she was tall.
She
changed her shoes in the car and then tottered up the path that led up the side
of the house, but as she was unaccustomed to heels, she tripped and fell
heavily as she stepped onto the patio where Chris was sitting.
“Owwww”
she exclaimed
“Oh
my god, are you alright” he said as he scrambled to help her up
“Stupid
shoes” she cursed
“Are
you ok?” he asked with concern as he got her to her feet
“Ow,
it’s my knee” she winced “But I think it’s just a graze”
“Well
come and sit down and I’ll have a look” he said gently
He
sat her on a patio chair and then sat on the chair opposite and gave the leg a
cursory glance, her tights were shredded but the wound looked like it was just
a graze as she thought, but it would need a clean.
“I
need to clean it and make sure there are no foreign bodies in their” he
explained
“Firstly,
I need to get to it, so you have a choice, I can either cut one leg off your
tights, but it might look odd going home with one bare leg, or you can take
your tights off”
“Tights
off” she responded
“Ok,
let’s get you inside, but first let’s take your shoes off” and lifted the
undamaged leg up and removed her shoe
“These
are not your usual footwear”
“I know” she said sheepishly “It’s a long
story”
“Well,
it might be better if you don’t put them back on today” he advised
“Ok,
I’ve got flats in the car” Katherine said as he helped her stand and offered
his arm to help her into the lounge.
“Ok
give me your car keys and I’ll get your other shoes while you take your tights
off”
“Ok
thank you” she said meekly “I’m so embarrassed”
“Don’t
be” he said and squeezed her hand
He
retrieved the shoes from her car, got cotton wool, a towel, some warm water and
a tube of antiseptic cream then knocked lightly on the lounge door
“Are
you decent?”
“Yes”
she responded and he walked in to find her sitting on the sofa, so he set the
things down on the seat beside her.
“You
really don’t need to do this I can easily go home and do it”
“Nonsense”
he retorted and pulled up the pouffe and sat in front of her
“I
won’t hear of it”
Adam
lifted her right leg so it was resting on his lap and with his left hand
supporting her knee he began cleaning the graze with a cotton wool ball and
warm water and found himself absentmindedly caressing the back of her knee
lightly with his fingers as he cleaned the wound, then as he dabbed her leg dry
he wondered if he’d got her wet elsewhere.
“That
looks ok, I can’t see anything that shouldn’t be there, so I’ll just put some
antiseptic cream on”
“Oh
ok” she replied quietly
“Now
this might sting a little” he said, and she winced briefly as he rubbed the
cream gently in while still caressing the back of her knee.
“How’s
that” he asked
“Lovely”
she replied wistfully
“Good”
he said and smiled “Now would you like a drink”
“No,
I’d better go; my mum will wonder where I’ve got to” she replied regretfully
“Another
time then” he suggested
“Yes,
I would like that” she replied gleefully as she stood up and then her leg
almost gave way and he had to steady her.
“Are
you ok?” he asked with concern
“My
leg just went to sleep” she replied unconvincingly “I’m ok now, just a bit
tingly”
Two
days later Chris attended St Nicholas Church, and he caught sight of Katherine
with her family, and he intended asking her about her leg but lost sight of her
at the end of the service so it would have to wait until Monday at the
repository.
He
decided to have Sunday lunch at the Ramblers before heading home for a relaxing
afternoon.
Back
at the house he had just finished making himself a coffee and was about to take
it and his book out to the patio when Katherine appeared at the back door
wearing a floral summer dress.
“Hello”
he said with genuine warmth “Would you like a drink?”
“Tea
please” she replied
He
made her drink and then asked
“Do
you want to sit inside or out?”
“Well,
its spitting of rain” she replied
“Inside
it is then” he said “you know the way”
Kathrine
put her mug down on the coffee table, but before she sat down, he said
“How
is the war wound?”
“It
a bit sore, but the bruise is coming out” she replied
“Do
you mind if I have a look?”
“Oh
ok” she responded and he crouched down to take a look and she lifted the hem of
her dress to oblige.
“It’s
a very attractive colour scheme” he said and then put his hand behind her knee,
and her leg went wobbly and she plopped down on the sofa.
“Are
you ok?” he asked with concern and sat beside her
“It
just went tingly”
“Oh,
it went tingly again” he mused
“And
what keeps making it tingly?”
“It’s
not a what” she replied enigmatically “It's a who”
“What
do you mean?”
“Your
hand on my knee made me tingly” she said shyly
“Really?”
he said, “Are you sure?”
“Yes”
“So,
this makes you tingly?” he said as he slipped his hand under her knee and
lightly caressed it
“Oh
yes” she replied and stiffened
“So,
is it just the back of your knee I wonder?” he said and stroked her whole knee
“Erm
still tingly” she remarked and her hands gripped the upholstery
So,
his hand caressed slowly beneath her hem, with his fingers began to brush her
inner thigh but before he could proceed further her thighs clamped
together
“No,
I can’t” she snapped
“I’m
sorry I’ve gone too far” Chris said
“No,
no you haven’t, I really want to, but I just can’t” she said coyly “It’s my
time of the month”
“Well,
that doesn’t mean we can’t have a kiss and a cuddle” he said
“You
want to kiss me?”
“Of
course, I do” he said, “But only if you wa….”
He
never finished the sentence as she was kissing him rather enthusiastically, and
they spent the following couple of hours on the sofa kissing between short
conversations because Katherine was mainly interested in the kissing, being new
to the sport.
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