Chapter 10 #2
“Andreas!” Nora calls out as she storms downstairs.
She freezes halfway down the stairs when she sees me standing there. She looks like a goddess, with her hair cascading down her face and the bedsheet draped around her body. Her expression, however, is more like that of a startled scarecrow.
“Everything okay?” I rush toward her.
“Yes, yes, everything’s fine,” she stammers, her cheeks flushing red.
And then it clicks.
“You thought I’d left, didn’t you?” I say softly. She nods shyly. “I get why you’d think that, but I’m not going anywhere this time.” She nods again. “Fried or scrambled eggs?”
I’m actually asking this.
“Two fried eggs, please. I’ll be right back, I’m just going to take a quick shower, okay?”
She’s already turning to head back up the stairs when she realizes she’s not going anywhere because I’ve got the sheet clenched in my hand.
“Okay, but the sheet stays here.”
With a quick motion, I pull it off her body. Her naked form is just as stunning as ever. I grin from ear to ear.
“You’re really bad!” she exclaims.
She gives me a mischievous laugh and sprints upstairs as fast as she can. Not fast enough to avoid the playful smack on her butt, though.
About fifteen minutes later, she’s back.
She’s wearing gray jeans, a light pink blouse with short sleeves, and white sneakers.
Her casual weekend look suits her, but then again, she could wear anything and I’d still love it.
We sit together at the table and eat our breakfast in silence.
Neither of us really knows what to say. This feels both good and strange at the same time.
“What are your plans for today?” I ask her eventually.
“I don’t really have any plans. I need to go to the store for groceries, but nothing specific beyond that.”
“Feel like doing something together?”
Spending the whole day in bed is an option for me.
“Uh, I’d like to do something together, but what exactly are you planning, Andreas? I mean, I can’t keep up. You’ve already said more than once that this might not be the best idea, and then you stay over and ask what we’re doing today? What exactly are we doing, you and I?” she sighs.
I can’t keep up with myself either, so I can’t blame her.
“Maybe we can be friends?” I ask, immediately realizing how stupid it sounds out loud.
Nora stops eating and looks at me.
“Friends?” she scoffs. Her eyebrows shoot up. “Who occasionally have sex, right?”
“That’s a bonus.” A big bonus.
“Andreas, you know that kind of thing doesn’t work, right?”
“I know.” I do know.
“Maybe we shouldn’t put a label on this thing between us for now?” she says.
I mostly hear “us,” and a shiver runs down my spine. I’m not sure if it’s a good or bad shiver. It’s mostly just something new. She might be right—no label, no pressure. Just undefined us.
“Let’s not make it unnecessarily complicated. We’ll just take it day by day.” Make love, not war, something like that. I’ve officially turned into a hippie.
“Sounds good.” She gives a faint laugh but looks at me kindly and starts eating again. She has so much patience with me.
“I’ll ask Eric to pick us up.”
“Eric? Head of security?”
“You remembered that well.”
“And Eric drives you everywhere? Even on Saturdays?”
“Pretty much, yes.”
“So, your slave then?”
“I pay him enough, Nora, you definitely shouldn’t feel sorry for him. I also have another driver, they take turns regularly. Besides, Eric and I are good friends, and we often discuss things in the car. He’s more than happy to pick us up.”
Eric is more than a good friend—he’s my foster brother—but I’ll keep that bit of family history under wraps for now.
We clean up the kitchen and get ready to leave.
We decide to simply spend the day in the city.
A bit of walking, lunch together, and enjoying the beautiful weather.
About twenty minutes later, Eric is here to take us to the Market.
“Good morning, Andreas,” Eric greets.
I feel like wiping the grin off his face, but I hold back. If I didn’t want him to know about this, I wouldn’t have called him. Besides, keeping anything from Eric is impossible—or he’d be a terrible head of security.
“Good morning, Eric. Can you drop us off somewhere in the city center?”
“Sure thing. There’s an extra shirt in the trunk,” he says, with a wink to match.
“Perfect, thank you.”
We slide into the back seat, and the contrast with last night couldn’t be greater.
Nora sits close to me and looks happy. Not just satisfied, but genuinely happy, and for a moment I wonder if I could actually make her happy.
Probably not, but maybe today I can. I can’t remember ever going out with a woman for something as simple as a day out.
Nora manages to push me out of my comfort zone, again.
I snap out of my thoughts and notice out of the corner of my eye that she’s actually glancing at my crotch.
“Are you staring at me, Nora?”
She startles, and her cheeks betray her thoughts. Caught you red-handed, girl.
“Shamelessly, even,” she admits. “Is it bad that I already want you again?” she grins.
So do I. She’s irresistible. All my blood flow immediately redirects to the lower part of my body. The bulge in my pants is instantly noticeable.
“Eric? Can you put the screen up? Unless you’d prefer an audience, Nora?” I ask, dead serious, just to tease her.
“Oh my God, no, no!” She’s beet red. “I forgot we weren’t alone! Oh, this is so bad!”
She covers her face with her hands. She’s genuinely embarrassed. Adorable. Meanwhile, the screen goes up, and behind the tinted windows, we’re completely cut off from the outside world.
“Just to be clear, Nora, I don’t share you with anyone, you know that. No one can hear or see us now,” I whisper in her ear.
“I still owe you something,” she whispers back.
She doesn’t, but I like the idea she thinks she does.
Without looking at my face, she finds the opening of my jeans.
Nora’s not playing games and wastes no time going straight to her target.
First, my belt is undone, then the button, followed by the zipper.
Now I know the shiver down my spine is a good one. Her eyes light up with surprise.
“No boxers?”
Nope.
“Pretty handy, right?”
“Very,” she says, managing to get me fully erect with just her gaze.
She takes me in her hand and wraps her mouth around me, determined to finish what she started this morning.
She slides her hands along the full length of my shaft while working on the tip with her mouth.
I grab her hair and follow the same rhythm with my hand.
Fuck, this is good. Just the image of Nora in this position in the car is incredibly arousing, let alone what she’s actually doing.
I let her do her thing and want to enjoy this for as long as possible, but I’m about to explode.
“Nora, I’m going to come, if you want to…”
In response to my unfinished suggestion, she pumps harder and takes me deeper into her mouth.
She’s insanely maddening and makes me lose all control.
I suck in air through my teeth. My whole body tenses up.
A few seconds later, I come hard and jerkily in her mouth.
She swallows, looks at me, and licks her lips.
She’s absolutely perfect.
“Fuck, Nora.”
Undoubtedly, she's a natural, it can’t be anything else. I lean my head back and recover for a moment, I zip up my pants and grab Nora’s ass, looking for more.
“We’re here, that one was for you,” she laughs, satisfied.
I hadn’t even noticed we’d stopped. She takes my hand and opens the door. I change my shirt for the one from the trunk and thank Eric for the ride. Nora won’t meet Eric’s gaze but also thanks him. He drives off, and we walk from the Market toward the shopping street.
“I still owe you something, by the way,” I say.
“What do you mean? As far as I know, I haven’t missed out on anything.” She smiles mischievously.
“What about new lingerie to replace those torn rags?”
She laughs heartily, and in response, something deep inside me tingles.
“You do owe me that, I guess…”
“I’m serious, Nora. I’m buying you new lingerie today, but the kind I don’t immediately feel the urge to rip off.” I look at her seriously as I finish my sentence. “If that kind even exists.” Probably not.
She matches my mischievous grin. “You’re serious?”
“Absolutely, you tell me where we need to go.”
“Uh, I know a cute lingerie shop, but it’s on the other side of town, a bit more walking.”
“Perfect, we’ve got time.”
It’s a beautiful summer day in Bruges. The sky is a brilliant blue, the sun is shining, and the temperature is just perfect, warm but not stifling, thanks to a refreshing sea breeze.
There are a lot of people out on the streets, but since the summer holidays haven’t officially started yet, it’s still manageable.
We’re heading toward the lingerie shop, but instead of taking the shortest route, we meander through the main avenues and the smaller, more charming streets.
As we walk, we talk, peeling back layers of each other’s lives.
There’s an easygoing rhythm to the conversation, the kind that feels like it should only come after years of knowing each other, and yet, we’ve only just met.
Though she does most of the talking, I surprise myself by sharing a few things with her too.
I tell her about my brothers. Levi, the youngest and craziest of the three of us, a landscaper and certified bon vivant.
I tell her that buying the villa will bring me even closer to him and that we have a really strong bond that means a lot to me.
Without going into too much detail, I tell her that he’s pretty much my only family—except for Eric, who’s like a brother to us—since Max died, as my relationship with our father has soured.
I also tell her what a great and smart guy Max was and how much I enjoyed working with him.
Nora seems to sense how hard it is for me to talk about Max.
She doesn’t press for details but still offers comfort in the softest way—her presence, her understanding.
I realize that I’ve barely talked about Max since his death, except with Levi and Eric.
My employees and close friends know I lost my brother, but I quickly made that topic taboo. The outside world knows nothing.
When she slides her hand into mine, intertwining our fingers, her silent support feels tangible.
Nora, in turn, tells me about her childhood, which wasn’t always easy.
She tries to downplay it and put a positive spin on it, but it’s worse than what I suspected after Eric’s information.
Nora was pretty much left to fend for herself while her parents worked day and night at the café.
She had to do everything at home alone; there was never anyone to tuck her in or make her a lunchbox.
When her parents were home, they were unbearable and never satisfied.
I can’t think of any other words than “child abuse” to describe her situation.
As she speaks, I feel an anger bubbling up toward her parents, an incomprehensible rage at how anyone could treat their own child like that.
But then she tells me about Dennis, her cousin, who stepped into the role of her protector and big brother.
He was there for her at school and at home, and it’s clear how deeply she values him.
I can’t help but respect the guy; without him, her teenage years could have turned out much darker.
Anna also plays an important role in her life, she tells me.
They met while studying and clearly have an exceptionally deep bond.
Apparently, Anna is pregnant with her first child.
Nora beams as she talks about the nursery she gets to design.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, a “house, garden, picket fence” alarm goes off, but I ignore it.
Nora is such a strong personality when you consider where she came from and see where she is now.
She’s achieved so much in such a short time.
I tell her I truly admire who she is and how she’s taken control of her life.
She misses having colleagues, she says. She sees and knows so many people through her job, but they’re almost all fleeting connections.
She tells me how she might have underestimated that part of her career change but still hopes for fun and lasting collaborations in the future.
She wants to expand her office someday, and then more people could be hired.
It’s nice to hear how ambitious she is and what beautiful dreams she has for the future.
I wonder what it would be like to be part of that future and how it would feel to make plans together.
For a brief moment, I can imagine it, but I can’t hold onto the image.
It’s not real, most importantly, it’s not possible. She’s better off without me.
My mood threatens to darken after these thoughts, but the lingerie shop comes into view and offers salvation.
Nora takes a deep breath, looking adorably nervous as we step inside.
The shop is tiny, every inch packed with lingerie in all colors and styles.
A friendly woman, probably in her fifties, greets us with a warm smile.
“Can I help you? Looking for something specific?”
“We’re looking for sexy lingerie for this lovely lady right here.”
Nora whirls around so fast I almost laugh. The look she gives me could kill a lesser man. I barely resist the urge to stick out my tongue at her. She’s stunning when she’s annoyed, and I can’t help but tease her a little. If we’re shopping for sexy lingerie, we might as well do it right.
The saleswoman, unfazed, keeps smiling and seems genuinely enthusiastic about the task. “What size are you exactly? I’d say, just by looking, an 80 C?” This is getting interesting.
“More like 85 C, but I don’t think we actually need bras,” Nora replies like a fish out of water.
This is going to be fun.