A/N: Be aware! This is not for the faint-hearted! Also I advise you to NOT read this in public.
This chapter is dedicated to SisterSnorfl.
Enjoy...
.
The Ladder
.
"Ah!" Barbara startled and covered her heart with her hand. "How dare you?" She stood under the running shower, almost finished, and just had turned. She had not expected to see her husband sitting bare-chested on the rim of the luxuriously huge tub with a bath towel in his hands and smiling at her. She had absolutely not heard him coming in. "Since when are you staring at me?"
"Oh, I've already witnessed how you dressed down the temperature control." It had been right after she stepped into the glass cubicle. Tommy laughed. He still was able to make his wife blush and he loved it. "And I wasn't staring, I was watching you. I can't say that I didn't like what I see. Have you finished?" Naked as she was Barbara stepped out of the shower and into his open arms. "Come here." he whispered. "Let me help you drying."
He just had pulled her into a towel embrace when her lips already met his in a long kiss. Slowly their tongues twisted like lazy snakes in their mating ritual. "Mmmmh." she murmured. "You taste like you tasted three years ago."
"And that is?" Tommy whispered against her neck.
"Wonderful." His lips had reached her earlobe. "Bruichladdich." she moaned and made him chuckle into her ear.
"I love your Scottish accent, my precious. C'mon, let's get to bed."
"Wait. Have you grabbed into the mirror cabinet?" The couple shared a gentle grin. Three years ago they had found the secret cabinet with supplies for a hotel bath. Condoms in silver foil packages had been amongst those supplies but although both had taken one unbeknownst to the other they had not spent a single thought at it when things had turned unstoppable later on.
"Of course I have. But do we really need one?" His eyes were pleading.
Lately they had been discussing a lot if a second child would be within the realms of possibility. At their age it was high time to be clear about family planning. Tommy knew he wanted at least one if not two more children and as soon as possible but Barbara had not been so sure about it. She had asked for time to consider. In the moment her husband's tenderly asking eyes had fallen on her she suddenly was very sure. Smiling she shook her head and Tommy happily squeezed her hand. He understood and it made him happy. Without taking his eyes from hers he gently kissed the back of her fingers. It was a silent promise that this night would become unforgettable.
Gently he pulled her into the bedroom.
Barbara had expected to follow him through the room and straight into the bed but in the instant she stepped out of the bathroom Tommy extended his arm to the side and one second later soft cloth was wrapped around her wrists. Without touching her he came close and whispered into her ear.
"Do you remember that pillow fight three years ago?"
Barbara nodded wide eyed. "How could I not?" she croaked.
"You've threatened me with strangling me with this decoration lining. Oh, I've had very different thoughts about it." A shower of goosepimples ran across Barbara's skin. "In fact I've just remembered those thoughts had crossed my mind in the moment I've first entered this room. And it had something to do with this ladder and being tied up with this little piece of red cloth." A whirring sound filled the dramatic pause he made. Quickly Barbara's arms were pulled up. She had to make a step to the side to keep her balance and so she came to a stand with her back against the ladder and her arms fastened at a rung above her head.
"Tommy!" she shrieked. Her eyes had grown wide.
"But as much as I would want to be in your hands I will enjoy making you come undone under mine."
"Tommy!" Barbara hissed. She was not at all unpleased with the situation. She trusted him with everything and knew he would not do her any harm. That was why this situation was so thrilling. She knew that she surely would just have to pull a bit heavier to free herself from that trap. "What are you doing?"
Tommy came closer again. His lips now came in contact with her ear but nothing else touched her. "I'm going to spoil you until you dissolve into pieces, my precious."
He turned away and left her standing there, naked, her back against the ladder, her arms tied up. She suddenly felt exposed, which she was, and was glad that at least the heater was still running. With all the time of the world Tommy opened the bottle of champagne and filled a glass with the sparkling liquid. His eyes stayed almost the entire time on her body, shamelessly seizing her and revelling in the sight of her buds reacting under his stare. He raised the glass and cheered at his wife.
"Tommy!" Barbara puled. Tommy took a sip and just smiled. It did not slip his attention that her eyes have seized him too. He knew how his own body was reacting and the brief narrowing of her eyes were proof to her approval of the bulge under the small towel that covered him. He picked an ice cube and slowly returned to his wife. With the ice held between three fingers he left a melting trace running it up and down her arms. First the left, then her right arm, shortly lingering in her armpit, making meltwater run down her skin. Barbara shivered enchanted but relaxed.
"A bit cold, are we?" he murmured seductively. She was anything but cold and the ice immediately melted quicker in his hands when he let it softly glide across her decolleté. Trickles of cool water ran down her front and found a way through the hollows of the goosepimples Barbara was covered in. When the water went across her breasts her nipples seemed to turn into stone. Tommy took another sip of champagne before he kissed one of those marbles. Then he gently bit the other. Despite the ice on her breast a warm feeling flooded through Barbara. She sighed. Tommy leaned against the wall to her side and gave in to the pleading looks she gave him. "You want to taste it?" Barbara only managed a nod. With him holding the flute against her lips she was able to take two small nips of the bubbly.
"You know, I love to share the cup with you." After he drank another bit Tommy leaned closer to his wife and kissed her neck. "I'm almost sorry that I haven't tied you to the bed post." he murmured leaving a wet trace on her skin. A kiss was placed onto the soft spot behind her ear. Then he went on whispering. "I would have been able to let this bubbly stuff tickle your navel." Barbara's heart beat faster. The back of his fingers holding the glass caressed her breasts and only stopped their way downwards when his fingernails started circling around her belly button. "Or you could do me the favour... Mmmh, I think we'll come to that later."
"Tommy..." Barbara sighed. His words had a deeply touching marvellous effect on her. She almost shivered at the prospect of what else was to come. She closed her eyes and felt the cool glass of the champagne flute gliding up her waist and the side of her breast. Tommy kept on nibbling at her ear, leaving kisses behind it and finally licking her auricle. A fingertip teased her right nipple until it was again solid like concrete. Barbara's breath went even and deep. "Mmmh..."
At her involuntary moan she opened her eyes, a bit startled herself that she already was starting to dissolve. A brief glance into her eyes and Tommy downed the last drop of the champagne in one gulp. Barbara followed him with curiously expecting eyes when he placed the glass onto the small round table and slowly returned. Placing both hands against the wall next to her Tommy bent down and gave her a proper kiss on her lips.
In the absence of the possibility to loop her arms around her husband Barbara tried to keep a hold on him with her tongue hooking his, luring it into her mouth and pressing her body into his. Only when she also looped her leg around his he suddenly withdraw himself from her.
"You are impatient, little lady." he whispered onto her temple. His left hand caressed her side. Slowly he started to knead her breast and let his lips return to that spot behind her ear that always made her weak. When his left hand slid down to her waist his right hand squeezed her other breast. Then he tickled the little bud with just his fingertips before his right hand too was gliding down to her hip while his lips kissed downwards to replace it on the breast. He gently sucked the hardened peak and kissed it. "I'll teach you to wait." His whispered words breathed cool across the wet spot.
"Tommy!" Barbara pouted watching him curiously excited because his hands at her hip kept her from grinding it into his. At that point the spot where Tommy had kissed her was not the only wet area. She sensed that the warm feeling that ran through her body orbited around her centre. Only a few minutes have gone by but she was already heavily aroused. Mercy and cruelty in equal shares drove him when he pressed the hard bulge under the terrycloth of his towel against her abdomen so she could feel what he had to endure already.
"You're not the only one who's suffering here, my precious, and I'll have to suffer a lot longer before I'll allow myself to shove you up that wall." His smoothly growling voice sent another shiver through Barbara's body. He knelt down in front of her so his lips were on her belly now. Her mewl when he let his tongue dip into her navel accompanied another wordless growl from him. "I promise you'll find pleasure long time before me." Then his deep voice became gently commanding. "Not yet, my dear! Not yet! You'll keep your feet on the ground or I'll tie them too!" No, she would not really want that, would she?
Tommy pushed her leg back down with a firm grip and returned his full attention to her belly. His hands wandered upwards at her sides back to her breasts again without looking. He was busy licking across each and every scar on her right side. Barbara's head bumped into the wall and she closed her eyes again. Her husband once had given her a long serious and tender declaration why he always loved to kiss and caress the signs that she bears. It reminded him every time that they should enjoy every single moment in life. Barbara treasured the memory deep in her heart.
"You're cruel, Tommy!"
"I have to be. Or this would be over before I really started." His lips tickled on her skin. "You're wet like Tommy's cove at high tide, aren't you?" Tommy's cove was a huge hole in the cliffs near Howenstow where they once had forgotten the tide and then stayed there and simply continued to make love. Both remembered that day very well.
"I am!" Barbara groaned and pulled at the decoration lining. Parts of her wanted to stay tied up and parts of her already wanted to loosen the knot and show Tommy the way to where she needed him the most. Other parts of her though rather wanted the knot to be solid so she would be completely in his hands.
Cruelly slow were the kisses that trailed a path from her scars to her curls. Even more cruel was Tommy when he diverted the trail towards her thigh just when it had reached the neatly trimmed edge on her pubic mound.
"This is killing me!" Barbara hissed. All her focus had been on the target of his lips only to be disappointed in the end.
"Patience, my love. Patience." Tommy's lips went back to her belly. He kept his hands in a softly stroking grip at her sides. Two cheeky thumbs eventually slid through the bikini line.
"Mmmh!" Barbara quietly moaned.
"You like that, don't you?" His voice was muffled because he was just kissing the undersides of her breasts.
"M-hm!" Barbara nodded. "God, Tommy, you're wordier today than you have been for quite some time."
"Is it good or bad?"
"Good. As long as you keep focused."
Tommy removed his hands from her waist and got up from his knees. Leaning his arms against the wall and coming very close, again without touching her, he whispered onto her lips. "Are you telling me what to do?"
"Yes, I do." Barbara smugly grinned. Tommy moved his head backwards so she could not reach his lips. Now it was his turn to smirk.
"Oh... So you think you're in the position to direct me to where you want me?" He let his lips hover above her neck still without contact. His breath was hot on her skin. "You're not!"
"Tommy!" Barbara whimpered. Once again she tried to snake a leg around his but his hands were faster and quickly pressed her thighs backwards. One of the rungs of the ladder was exactly at her bottom so he made her slightly arch into him with that. His body still did not touch her.
"You have to wait until I'll let you, my precious, but it will be worth it, I swear." Then he passionately kissed her. His tongue almost ravished her mouth. Teeth accidentally clattered, lips were softly bitten, her palate actually was being tickled. Her hands had to tighten their grip around the rung they were tied at or she would have pulled open the loose knot. Involuntarily his hands tightened the grip around her hip and pulled her needy area against his crotch. She could feel how hard he already was and his state of arousal mirrored her own. For a few moments they ground their loins into each other but suddenly Tommy withdraw himself from her. Only his hands rested on her hips and steadied her swaying to a halt. Both were heavily breathing. "And I promise you, tonight you're not the quiet comer you usually are."
Barbara gave a voiceless nervous laugh.
Their foreheads bumped and watching each other they exchanged a few more heated but brief kisses.
"Behave!" he tenderly warned. Titillating hands slid up her arms and down again across her armpits until they returned to the sides of her breasts. Silently Tommy repeated the ministrations on her front like he had done before. He knelt down in front of her without a word this time, teased and kissed her where he had teased and kissed her before. His fingers tickled her like they had tickled her before. His bold tongue left wet traces on her skin where it had left one a few moments ago. Only this time Barbara had her eyes closed permanently and only quietly muttered his name from time to time.
When a soft pressure pushed her legs apart she willingly obeyed. "Oh, Tommy." she sighed defeated.
"That's my name, precious." he chuckled with his nose finally buried into her curls. Then he moaned. "Oh, that's heady!"
He moved a bit deeper and finally kissed her pink button. It already was swollen and aching for more friction than her legs rubbing against each other had provided. With his lips softly sucking her she bumped her head against the wall behind her and groaned his name again. "Oh, god, Tommy!" She was able to feel him grin between her legs.
His hands though already had wandered behind her back and after softly squeezing her bum cheeks for a while they moved down into the fold between her bottom and her legs. They firmly gripped her thighs from behind while his face went a bit deeper. Barbara felt that he was close to adding more wetness to her folds although she was quite ready. Instinctively she stood on tiptoes because she feared an outbreak of lust, a cry of pleasure she could not muffle with her hands tied up when his lips would meet her centre.
"You're trying to escape your fate, precious?" From behind Tommy had pulled her legs even another bit more apart. Now his words left a breeze flowing over her wetness. Unable to hold it back Barbara moaned, gave in to her weak knees and involuntarily went down again. His middle fingers had slid through her warm folds and she was unable to stand that gorgeous feeling. Her husband was as pleased with himself as she was. "There we are."
Tommy's nose pressed onto her clit when his tongue slid across her completely exposed centre. It made her whimper and roll her head back again. Tommy moved his arm further around her so his fingers properly reached the soft womanhood he had just tasted from. A soft and slow massage next to where she needed him the most made her writhe and her breath came in short gasps. "Tommy!" she hissed once. Then she bit her lip and cautiously looked down to him. She would not want him to stop again just because he thought she was trying to direct him anywhere. But all she received was a broad grin shortly before he softly pulled at her curls with his lip-covered teeth. "Oh, yes." Barbara closed her eyes again.
While his left hand still caressed her outer secret parts one bold finger stroked across the middle parts. It easily slid inside. Barbara moaned again and bucked briefly. The finger moved across her inner walls and explored her cave tantalisingly slow. Every nerve not related to it was shut off and all she felt was what his magical fingers did with her. The well known sizzle had started to heat her system and prepared to centre in her abdomen. Her inner muscles twitched once. Then again. An approving sound hummed across her belly where Tommy left small wet kisses. He had begun to move not only one but two fingers in and out of her, making sure from time to time that her clit was well wetted too so the fingers of his other hand would have an easy job rubbing it from the front in addition to his thrusts.
"Oh, Tommy!" Barbara suddenly panted. She was close. Her muscles constricted regularly and Tommy did not stop to thump his fingers inside. "Oh, yah, right there!" When he left a lovebite under her belly button Barbara gave away a long moan and then stopped breathing but before she could cry out and get over the brink Tommy removed his hands. He only returned them to her bottom cheeks, softly kneading them with his little fingers staying in the fold to her thighs. It still tickled and was more than pleasant but she had been almost coming before he had stopped and slowed down his actions.
"What the hell are you-?!" Biting her lower lip again she cut herself short. She should not order him, she reminded herself, or he would torture her even more with not doing what she so desperately wanted him to do so she just glared down at her husband's smirk.
"I'm not giving you the pleasure of an orgasm when I wouldn't have a taste of it." Tommy's voice was low and his grin was naughty. Then his face vanished between her legs.
"Oh, good gracious!" Barbara groaned in positive shock. His lips sucked hard at her pink button and in an instant her arousal went just another bit higher. His tongue encircled the swollen bud for a while until Barbara panted in heavy gasps again. "Yes! Yes!" she moaned repeatedly but still quiet.
"I want to hear you scream for me, Barbara." Tommy moaned against her clit. Feeling Barbara shamelessly grinding herself against his face and writhing against the ladder under his ministrations made him almost contaminate the towel around his hips. Everything in his loin screamed to just get up and screw her properly up against the ladder but at the moment it was only her turn and hers alone. Although she tasted so good that he could barely keep himself from biting her.
His lips went deeper between her legs and impatiently Barbara turned her hips forward so he would be able to reach her with his tongue. And so he did. His lips playfully bit and sucked her folds until Barbara's moaning grew louder. He finally let her put one of her legs over his shoulder. This way she also granted him even more access. When his tongue slid into her to have the most intense taste his wife deeply groaned. Her hidden muscles never stopped clenching. Tommy sucked at the entrance once and it made her press herself against him. "Tommy!" she cried in pleasure but desperate to feel him inside again.
He wanted nothing else. His tongue slid inside her again. Deeper this time, curling this time, thrusting this time, his lips around everything else this time, her pink button being rubbed at the same time this time. Tommy added his middle finger. From behind he entered her past his tongue. It reached deeper and when he curled it backwards, his tongue still thrusting and licking, hooked towards her front, Barbara squeaked a moan. She needed to come. In that moment he even could have added a toy and she would not have been able to tell what was causing the sensations she experienced. Her brain had shut down completely and she was oblivious to details.
This time he gladly let her get over that craved brink and she came apart onto his face with his tongue and finger deeply sucked inside with her muscles. Almost painfully Barbara's fists clenched around the rung above her head. Her leg and her heel, pressed almost painfully into his shoulder blade, pulled him closer to her and almost every little muscle was busy with the incredible wave of orgasm that washed over her. Her moaning and the constrictions of her inner walls were in unison when she finally reached the peak of a big wave.
"Ooooh! Yeeees!" she cried out letting her head bump hard against the wall in her back. Eventually Tommy had mercy and removed his tongue. After playfully curling it once again thus eliciting another groan deep from her lungs he also removed his finger. He did not know how long he would have been able to let her ride this out without his own relief. Calming down, Barbara from her orgasm, Tommy from the pleasure of her taste, he placed his head onto her belly. His face was wet and the smell of her orgasm still surrounded his nose. He heard her heart beating fast but it could as well have been his own blood being pumped through his veins.
"Oh, god, Barbara!" he sighed.
Her arms went around him. Tommy startled and looked up with wide eyes.
"What? Did you think I wouldn't be able to free myself?" Still slightly breathless Barbara chuckled and took advantage of his surprise. Quickly she wound the decoration lining around his armpits and pulled him up to her. DI Lynley did not at all understand how she had managed to fix his hands behind his back but his arms were immobilised as long as she would keep up the tension in the cloth around his wrists. "Did you forget that I'm a well-trained copper?"
Tommy tried to bend down to her lips but found himself unable to move. His eyes went dark with unfilfilled desire. What he was able to move freely though was his pelvis and he did not restrain from pressing it against her abdomen. It was very promising. His towel unfortunately still was covering himself and he was unable to remove it as long as his wife was keeping him trapped.
"Barbara!" he whined.
"Well, who's the boss now?" Barbara triumphantly grinned.
"Let me kiss you!" Tommy growled pleading.
"You, my love, are not in the position to give me orders." Despite her dominant words her breath hitched because Tommy had rubbed his movable solid parts against her and although he just had satisfied her to the core Barbara felt the need to have him completely. And he definitely knew it. His grin turned naughty. Only his eyes briefly narrowed when she pulled at his binds to demonstrate that he was at her mercy now. Their breathing turn even and slow. Their eyes locked and neither one blinked. Barbara was the first to give in.
"Now kiss me!" she demanded and loosened the grip.
His lips crushed down on hers and in an instant he had turned her into a mushy mass. Her fingers got rid of the now useless decoration lining and so Tommy was able to get his hands on her hips. He pressed his groin into hers and thrusted his tongue inside her mouth. He had wiped his face on her belly but she could still taste herself on his tongue.
Barbara looped her arms around his neck and buried her fingers in his hair, ruffling his nape, keeping his face down to hers. She felt him lifting her onto the rung that had been in her back all the time then the cloth between them disappeared. His wonderfully hard erection pressed into her belly and she knew her arousal had not been diminished at all after her earlier orgasm.
"Oh, Tommy!" she sighed.
"I want to feel you coming again, Barbara!" he moaned between wild kisses. "I want to feel you coming around me."
"Oh, yes!" Barbara breathed. Her feet were not on the ground anymore since he had lifted her onto the ladder so she simply snaked her legs around his thighs. "I want to feel you inside."
Tommy had not really needed a proper invitation. He simply had changed the angle and after playfully prodding her just a bit with the leaking tip of his erect member and hearing her already gasping again with every contact he found the entrance quickly. He knew he would easily slid through her tight, still wet, still swollen walls, so with a growl he drove himself so vigorously into her that his hard balls collided with the rear parts of her womanhood.
She cried out loud in sheer pleasure and when Tommy, slowing down the speed of his first excited bump, started to steadily move in and out she was only able to stammer incoherent words. They both knew, even if he would be able to keep this slow rate for a while, it was deemed to not last long. His left hand took hold onto a rung next to her chest to keep him up on his legs and his wife safe on the ladder. His right hand had left her breast and now lifted her bottom from the wood with every thrust he made into her, pulling her onto him until Barbara only touched the rung lightly. Her shoulders pressed against the side bars. She had him in a firm embrace of all her limbs except the one arm that was stretched above her head and gripping a rung firmly. Apart from this support she was hanging more at her husband than sitting on the ladder.
They kissed as wild and uncoordinated as they had before. They gasped for air, they panted, they moaned, they fought with their tongues. At some early stage already his thrusts of course became harder and faster.
"Deeper!" she managed to command and was rewarded with another heavy pounding. She felt him inside and outside. She heard him groaning into her ear and felt him softly biting her neck. "Oooh, goood!"
Barbara's earlier arousal had not lessened very much after her climax and Tommy's excitement while he had pleased her had made him hard and ready to satisfy her again quickly. His erection could not grow harder, her walls could not turn tighter, they could not go any deeper. The rhythmical constrictions of her inner muscles pleased both. Her fingernails dug into his nape when he unexpectedly accelerated his pace another bit more but the pain she caused only brought more pleasure.
It was the beginning of the end.
The thrilling vibrations started in her centre, spread across her skin, over her entire body, then crept down her spine and via her thighs back to her pulsating innermost parts where it reached another hot level before it exploded into an eruption of tingling heat. Almost painfully arching into the man in front of her she saw twinkling stars behind her lids and a thunderstorm of long-lasting constrictions rushed through her insides as long as Tommy was pounding into her, half pushed, half pulled inside.
Finally an avalanche of burning ice crystals shot through her abdomen when she felt him shuddering and flooding her with his love. She almost passed out because she only had loudly gasped for air during his last thrusts and did not exhale but when both let go in their synchronic climax Barbara dissolved in a last long rolling wave and gave away an all but stifled positive cry. She clung to him for dear life in their orgasmic ocean. Again her fingernails dug deep into the flesh of his shoulders. She had been kissing his shoulder when he thrusted into her once more. So when she had to cry again her teeth almost bit him. Her legs, twisted around his, were pressing hard into his thighs and the hollows of his knees or elsewhere. He did not know exactly. She surrounded him and there simply was a wonderfully pleasurable pain on his tendons. They did not know where they were, or who they were, or what they were doing. They only knew it should not stop. It should. never. stop. at all.
Of course it did stop. After both had gone through their powerful release they found themselves half sitting, half hanging on and against the ladder that led to the white wooden door of the lumber room above their heads. Slowly minds restarted to work. Slowly brains remembered things and returned into activity. Barbara was painfully aware that she had pulled herself up on that rung almost constantly, Tommy's thigh muscles ached from the continuous strain, everything in her back hurt, a small trickle of blood cooled a path through the pearly sweat on his back, then both eventually could not keep their stance there at the ladder at the wall so they gently disconnected and carefully went down on their knees and further, still embracing each other, until they were lying together on the new soft carpet. Exhausted, tired, sore, painfully aware of old knees and aged bones, completely out of breath and very, very deeply satisfied.
They kept quiet, they did not say a word, and both had closed their eyes when they touched the ground. Eventually their breath was even and after Tommy had the presence of mind to use the towel a bit at least both fell into a recreational sleep for a couple of moments. It did not last for long so Barbara, still with closed eyes, searched for his face with her hand and moved hers closer so she could reach his lips. He also woke and replied with a languid kiss. The room was completely silent now. All they could hear was the beating of their hearts, the blood still rushing through their veins, their even breathes and the soft nudges of their lips.
"You're a devil, my precious." he whispered.
"And you're the evil incarnate, Tommy. I love you."
"I love you too." She sealed his lips again in another kiss before she laid back for another short nap. After a while she opened her eyes and found him watching her. He just smiled.
"What?" she breathed.
"Cyril." he said. Barbara just shook her head asking herself if he was sane. Tommy nodded. "We'll call him Cyril. Like that storm a few years ago. Because this here had been a storm too. A fantastically wonderful storm. Still devastating. In a positive way." He winked.
"You are insane." Barbara shook her head again. "And the storm was called Kyrill. Which is no option either. And by the way, what if it will be a girl?"
His smile turned into a grin. He loved that strange conversation on the floor. Naked, satisfied, exhausted, limbs entangled and deeply in love. "There was so much adrenaline running through my system, I know it will be a boy."
"Don't you think that I also have a word concerning this?" She smiled. She did not care if it would be a boy or a girl or if she did not receive at all this time. What she had felt and what she was feeling now was all that mattered.
"Not this time. But you will decide it next time."
"I don't care, Tommy. Maybe we did not succeed at all this time and we have to repeat it?" They shared a naughty grin but then she yawned and decided that they should have a quick shower and get to bed soon. As soon as they would be able to move again. "All I know is that this time I will definitely not be having breakfast down there." Barbara blushed and pressed her face into his chest. Tommy chuckled. He gently stroked her back. The house probably had witnessed every noise they had made earlier but now her voice was muffled. "I think I'll just sneak out and never come back here at all."
.
.