Chapter 22
Nora: #PerfectDisaster
W ell, this is weird.
I wish I’d had the foresight to call Carla beforehand and tell her about my plan to spend the night at home. But I didn’t. In my defense, I didn’t know Kevin had moved in with her. I didn’t think they’d reached that point in their relationship already. But whatever. And it’s my home too, even if I stay there only for a week in a year, including holidays.
Well, just thinking about it brings things into perspective. I stay more, much more than that, at Gabs’ place or Eva’s or Lily’s. So I guess I don’t really have a case going to still call it my home.
But this stupidity has led to my spending the night in the same room as Gabriel. It wouldn’t have been a problem a few weeks ago. However, now, as you know, my brain and my heart have been doing a number on me and I can’t fathom what to do about it, so it might not be the best of ideas.
We enter his room. Even though Daphne has redone most of the house, I’m glad she’s left Gabs’ room as close to what it was as possible. The bed, the study table where we both had scratched our names with a pin, the couch which still has the oil stain from when I was trying some experiment, the yearly height marks on the bookshelf that George made on Gabs’ birthday.
“Um, you can sleep on the bed and I’ll take the couch,” Gabs says, shutting the door and loosening his tie.
“No, of course not. It’s your room. Plus, I don’t think you’ll fit on your tiny couch. I’ll be comfortable enough there. Don’t worry.”
“So, when did Kevin move in with Carla?”
“About two weeks ago, I guess. She never mentioned it on our calls. When I told her she should’ve told me, she snapped and said I never told her about us. Us! As if there’s anything to tell. Sometimes I really don’t believe her.”
“How did she know?”
“Instagram! I’ve been posting about us all week from both our accounts. I thought if we’re doing it, we should do it right. Do things as if it was true. Truth be damned.”
“Um. Right. I’m still learning. After that one viral video, I haven’t had as much success.”
“That was luck. But you’ll get the hang of it. Sophia’s fairly active,” I say, in as casual a manner as possible. I’m dying to know when he kissed her and if it was any good. Was it better than ours? It better not be.
“Really? But that’s not surprising. She’ll do anything if it’s good for her business.”
“You seem to have gotten quite pally with her outside when I was talking to Carla. She kissing you and stuff? Seems that you like kissing her a lot.”
He’s removing his shirt and gives me a sideways glance from the other corner of the room, a tiny smile playing on his lips.
“Is that the green monster I see lurking under the beautiful skin of my girlfriend?”
My girlfriend! Those two words and the way he says it makes my heart pump a thousand liters of blood a minute. This is what he does to all the women he dates, who fawn all over him and I hate the way my innards feel like they’re sliding around inside my body when he aims these words at me.
“Why will I be jealous? As if I care. I just… y’know, if we’re doing this, it has to be done right. And if you enjoy kissing her and being with her, we don’t really need to do this. Poor girl, she probably doesn’t even know your mom wants you both to marry.”
“Oh, she knows.”
“What? And she still met you? She’s okay with it?”
“Yeah. What can I say? Seems I’m quite a catch. Women all over the world want to be with me, marry me without even knowing me.”
I hate her!
“Wait till they know the real you. Trust me, they’ll all run away like Paula did, breaking table lamps and God knows what else on their way out.”
He chuckles and struts to me, a T-shirt in his hand, his chest bare and his abs on full display. I plop down on the couch, my hands resting along the edges, pretending to not give a shit about him or his abs, trying to quieten my heartbeat, which seems to be drumming away to glory.
He stops right in front of me and bends down, his mouth near my right ear, barely touching it. I feel his breath on my ear and my neck and it sends a tingle down my spine. Then he whispers, “I’m glad they all ran away because none of them was the right woman for me.”
My breathing has quickened and I can still feel his warm breath on my neck as he takes a deep breath and exhales slowly.
Can anyone come by just a guy breathing down their neck? I guess I can and for fear of that happening I pull back a little.
“And who is the right one for you? Sophia? The one who thinks you’re a great kisser? When did you kiss her, by the way? On your first dinner date?”
Our gazes remain locked as he sits down beside me.
“Is that what she said?”
“No. She said you’re a great kisser. So….”
“Well, I must be really good for her to remember the kiss after all these years. Remember I told you about a girl I’d kissed when I’d gone to Paris for granddad’s funeral?”
“During the service? That one? The one that was your imagination?”
“Well, I always told you it was real, but you wouldn’t believe me. Sophia was the one. I got to know that recently.”
“So you didn’t kiss her during your dinner date?” I ask, trying to stop a smile that seems intent on crossing my face.
“Nopes. In the past fortnight, you’re the only one I’ve kissed, my girlfriend ,” he whispers the last two words slowly, softly, his hands squeezing mine. I don’t even know how or when my hands came in between his.
He leans a little forward, our noses touching, our breaths mixing, chests heaving.
“How did you like the kiss downstairs? Was it good enough for others to believe?”
“Perhaps,” I reply. “But I think we need to practice a bit more so we can be more, y’know, believable in the future. It shouldn’t look like it’s our first or second time kissing each other.”
“You’re right. Just for practice. Nothing more.”
“Yeah. This is still fake. I’m only helping you out.” My voice can barely come out of my throat. I slide toward him, bridging the gap further, my lips brushing against his.
“You wanted to talk about something earlier? What was it?”
What was it? Shit! This is what I wanted to talk about. That I was feeling hot for him. But it’s pretty evident now.
“Nothing. Just about us,” I reply, whispering into his ear, and biting his lobe. His body jerks a little and he grasps me tighter.
“What about us?”
His hand slowly moves up my back, to my hair while with the other he holds the small of my back. He plants a gentle kiss on my nose ring. He pulls me even closer.
“That I enjoy doing this to you,” I say, rubbing my hands on his back, and touching his skin. His body twitches, and he lets out a quick gasp. I love that my touch has that effect on him. Jesus, bad ideas feel so good.
He plants a kiss on my left cheek, then on my right, then a peck on my lips. I close my eyes, rubbing his back with my left hand and threading the fingers of my right through his hair. I pull his head closer, pushing my lips against his. I don’t want him to take them away. My lips want him all to themselves.
He kisses me slowly, unlike our kiss downstairs. It’s as if he has all the time in the world. I feel the gentle touch of his tongue parting my lips, then slowly making its way inside my mouth, feeling every inch. But I can’t take it so slowly anymore. My tongue lashes out, reaching into his mouth, and just like that, the intensity goes out of bounds.
He pulls me onto his lap, kissing me hard, ravishing my mouth with his. As I straddle him, I can feel his hardness. Before I know it, I’m grinding against him, my hands rubbing against his back as if trying to feel every cell while there’s still a chance. My bun comes falling down and my hair falls against his face.
I feel his fingers trying to find the zip on my back. He pulls it a little, then stops.
“Do it,” I whisper into his mouth.
He stands up, his mouth still on mine, holding me with my legs wrapped around his waist, as if I was a feather. He pulls the zip down with one hand as he sets me down beside his bed.
“Are you sure?” he asks, holding my strapless gown in place with his hands.
I nod, and as the gown falls to the floor, he stares at me and I notice a movement in the bulge of his pants.
“Jesus, Nora. You’re the prettiest, hottest, sexiest woman I’ve ever seen.”
He lifts me and places me gently on the bed, before climbing in himself. I get up and hold him, but he shakes his head. “Not yet,” he says.
Then he kisses me on the forehead, down to my lips, then my neck, then he goes down to my cleavage and plants a kiss, before moving his mouth to my left breast. He takes it in his mouth and even with the bra, I can feel my nipples hardening. Sliding his arm under me, he unfastens my bra and with a swift movement takes it off. Squeezing and massaging my left boob a little with his hand, he moves his mouth to the other. A moan escapes my lips and I bite the inside of my cheek to keep myself from making a noise.
He moves down, licking my body as he goes right down to my navel. He kisses the naval ring and my back lurches and I grasp his shoulders. He goes down further and licks the undersides of my thighs. My moans are a constant now. His fingers move along the lining of my underwear before plunging inside. Jesus! The sheer uncontrollable desire I feel right now might make me burst out of my skin.
“O baby, you’re so ready. Just hold on. I want to give you so much pleasure.”
He pulls down my underwear and licks my toes, then slowly moves up, kissing me all over my legs, my thighs, till he reaches there again. He takes in a deep breath.
“You don’t need to do it,” I whisper because a whisper is all I’m capable of right now.
“I know. But I want to.”
He parts the lips down there with his tongue and thrusts it inside me. I moan so loudly that I think the entire house must’ve heard it, but I don’t care.
He licks me and puts his fingers inside me without warning. I latch my fingers onto his hair and almost scream out his name before my entire body shudders and convulses as he takes me over the top.
He emerges from beneath me and smiles at me as I lie there, heaving.
But it’s not enough for me. Far from it. I want him more than ever.
I pull him down on the bed beside me and trace my fingers down his muscular chest, slowly reaching the edge of his pants. With a swift movement, I unbutton it and pull the zip down. I feel his hardness through his underwear and cup it in my hands as he moans and growls and closes his eyes.
I love seeing him enjoy the feel of my hands and stroke him longer, harder. I roll over him and slowly, with my hands, push his pants and underwear down, and feel his length along my belly as we’re pressed together.
“Oh baby,” he moans. “Are you sure you want to go all the way?”
“More than anything,” I whisper back, removing his clothes down his feet and flinging them off with my legs. I look down and am amazed at what I see. I didn’t have low standards for him, but this… this is magnificent.
Slowly, I position myself over him and feel him sliding inside me, inch by inch, till it flattens out and I can feel his body fully against mine and I begin riding him.
His hands find my breasts and he massages them, slowly at first, then faster, matching my movements over him.
“Wait!” he says, “I have a condom in my wallet.”
“Don’t need it. I’m on the pill. Remember?” I whisper as his head falls back on the pillow.
As I go faster, our moans mix, creating a symphony of sound and pleasure, heat coursing through my whole body. The whole world obliterated except for the pure pleasure that the physical movement of our bodies is giving us.
With a quick movement, he turns positions and is on top of me, his mouth over mine, kissing me harder. My eyes slide closed and my fingernails dig into his back. I tighten my legs around him, rolling my hips, making him move inside me and he exhales so hard. He plows into me, hitting every nerve there is, maybe some that I didn’t even know exist.
I whimper with pleasure and I feel his body convulsing as he releases inside, making me come a second time. I’d always thought multiple orgasms were a thing only reserved for books, but here I was, experiencing it for the first time in my life.
Totally spent, I fall beside him, both of us panting. He turns on his side and with a gentle movement, tucks my hair behind my ears and gives me a peck on the cheek, then my ears and neck before moving to my lips and giving me a slow and sensual kiss.
“You’re perfect, you know that?” he murmurs. “In every way, you’re simply perfect.”
I’m already half asleep as he kisses me on the forehead. I turn to the other side and feel him spooning me. I’ve never felt so much peace, pleasure, and happiness in my life. It is perfect.
Or is it?
The next instant, sleep disappears from my eyes as I think about it. I’m bad with relationships and so is he. The sex is undoubtedly good. Okay, it’s great. But is the sex and maybe a couple of months of feeling high on wonderful kisses worth losing our friendship for?
If there’s one thing I know for certain, it’s that relationships don’t last. Happily ever afters are only for fairy tales, not in real life. You may be crazy in love today but as life goes on, you never know when he turns into a monster while you become his prey, waiting for him to pounce on you and hurt you, leaving indelible marks on your small children who witness it.
Is that what I want? Is good sex and a few months of bliss worth throwing our camaraderie to the wolves? Can our friendship remain if we get into a relationship that doesn’t last? Of course not. Shit!
Perfect? This was a perfect disaster!
We need to talk. I turn around, but he’s already asleep, breathing slowly, a smile playing upon his lips. I’ll always love him but as a friend. That’s all we can ever be because he’s too important for us to be anything else.