Chapter 17
Ian
I couldn’t believe that I wasn’t drunk as I glanced around the living room. The light was dim, perfect for the mood, and the curtains were drawn shut. I honestly couldn’t have planned it better if I’d known what was going to happen. Drawing curtains and dimming lights were both part of my many moves. I’d met very few women who enjoyed having a good fuck right up against my wall of windows—too many onlookers. And Kate didn’t strike me as the type to particularly love such a display either.
But it was strange how things worked. If I hadn’t been sitting at my window before she arrived, looking out into the city, I wouldn’t have been right next to the remote to draw the curtains.
I still couldn’t really believe what had happened between me and Kate.
It had been incredible, even better than the fantasy I’d been enjoying just before she arrived. It was different than I’d expected, in the best way imaginable. It wasn’t just that it was more heated and hurried. It was real, she was real, and nothing could have prepared me for how good the real Kate would feel. Not even — and maybe even especially — my own intense imagination.
The room smelled of sex and sweat, and it would have been uncomfortable if I had company—well, company that didn’t include the woman I’d just fallen in bed with—but it did nothing but turn me on with her here beside me.
We were both exhausted, tangled up in one another — and our clothes— as we lay, still spent, on the couch. I glanced over at her and smiled. She was looking up at the ceiling, and her hair was plastered to her face with droplets of sweat still beaded atop her forehead. Every time I looked at her, she grew more and more beautiful.
Our breathing was ragged and rapid, because we still hadn’t gained our composure. She took her eyes off the ceiling and looked at me, a smile on her face. I wondered if she was as shocked as I was by what had just happened.
“You okay?” I asked, barely able to compile a sentence.
She nodded, still smiling.
I grinned back, and pulled her to my lips to lay a single kiss on top of hers.
Her lips were amazing. Perfectly luscious and plump. I felt like the most blessed man in the world that she was sharing them with me. She was so beautiful.
“Wow,” she said with a smirk. She turned her body away from me, prompting me to hold her. I did, gladly.
The fact that we were spooning didn’t make me feel weird at all. Usually I wasn’t big on cuddling, and the fact I was cuddling now would have freaked me out if I hadn’t been so incredibly distracted by the warm, lusciously soft feeling of Kate’s perfect ass pressed against me. My arms were wrapped around her, and my head rested just above hers.
I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath, savoring the scent of her shampoo. She smelled good, like honeysuckle and melon. It was a smell so unique and so good that I knew it was one that I’d have locked away forever. It was now one of my favorite scents.
I felt myself getting aroused again, as she shifted her body slightly, wriggling against me. Her warm flesh lightly moved over mine, and I couldn't help but stifle a deep moan low in my throat. I didn’t even realize that my pants were still down until I felt her there. I knew that I was going to be ready for round two at any moment.
I wanted her so damned badly. But I knew that I shouldn't test my luck. We still hadn’t talked about anything.
I whispered in her ear as I pressed a gentle kiss on her neck, relishing the taste of her skin. “So it’s not exactly morning yet,” I said. “But, good morning.”
“Good morning,” she whispered back in what sounded like the most angelic voice I’d ever heard.
Her voice was sweet, quiet, and full of what I could describe only as wonderment. Kate clearly lived in a world different from the one I lived in. Even with all the shit she had to put up with her family, she still seemed like one of the most positive people I’d ever seen.
Sure, she’d come in ranting and raving like a lunatic. But everyone was allowed to be angry. She had emotions. She had sadness — I’d seen it. She’d had anger — I’d definitely seen that.
Positivity still remained. She never gave up. She never quit fighting for a life she wanted.
“Go to sleep,” I said, a smile forming on my face. I was leaning over her, watching her eyes blink closed every couple of seconds. She was completely exhausted, ready for bed. There was no telling how long she’d been awake — and by looking at the clock, I could tell that it was well past my own bedtime. Three a.m.
I smiled again. Each time her lids fell, it took longer for them to open back up again. I knew it was only a matter of time before she was out completely.
“I’m not tired,” she whispered, but her voice sounded exhausted.
I smirked. She was so freaking adorable.
“I’m telling you, I’m not tired.” She shifted again, grinding against me. I had to bite my lip to stifle the moan that was trying to escape my throat, and just enjoy the moment.
She was probably the cutest sleepy-woman that I’d ever seen in my life. It was even cuter that she kept saying she wasn’t tired, when I was literally watching her fall asleep. I could even hear it. Her breath began to slow in pace, and increase in volume—into little snores.
“Shh.” I marveled at her a little more, until I noticed that I was fondling her as my fingertips grazed over her fair skin at the uppermost area on her thigh. I bit my lip as I moved over the exposed flesh, which was her entire bottom half.
I smiled. I was proud of myself for getting that much clothing off of her.
I was still almost completely clothed. The only thing askew was my unbuttoned shirt and my pants, which were halfway down my ass.
I felt a chill roll down my spine when I heard a giggle elicit form her mouth.
“I need to get in the shower,” I whispered, leaning down in her ear. “Go to sleep.”
I knew that if I stayed any longer, round two would have to commence. I’d go crazy otherwise.
“Actually,” she said, just before rising up and facing me. “That sounds like the perfect thing to wake me up.”
I groaned, suddenly feeling a nervous a catch in my throat. I was terrified. In confined spaces with her naked, our sexcapades would have only just begun, and despite my old ways of fucking and forgetting about it, it seemed like maybe Kate and I should talk about things before we got too carried away. “Maybe you should just rest,” I suggested.
“You better let me in that bathroom, or you’ll regret it.” Her eyes were dark. It was comical, but it was also enough to make me shudder. Those dark eyes were full of lust as she pulled herself up to stand.
I watched her adorable rounded ass saunter off toward my bedroom. I was mesmerized by her. I watched as she combed her hair with her fingertips and continued on, until she disappeared around the corner.
Forget talking. We could talk later. Right now I had the most beautiful woman in the world strutting naked toward my shower. My jaw dropped and I sat there frozen for what was probably longer than necessary, before getting up in a hurried frenzy to follow. My pants almost tripped me as I stood, so instead of bothering with them for a second longer, I pulled them the rest of the way down and stepped out of them.
I’d been in a trance, and I didn’t have a clue how long. All I knew was that I didn’t want to miss a shower with Kate. So with probably a little more urgency than necessary, I jogged to my bedroom and then to my en-suite bathroom. The door was shut.
I took a deep breath, ripped my shirt off my arms, and opened the bathroom door.
Watching the steam fill up the room, clouding up the mirrors and the glass, I couldn’t help but grin to myself. She was in there. She was naked likely lathering suds over her gorgeously fair body. But the best thing of all was I knew that she was in there waiting for me to join her.
I could see her silhouette through the glass door, but only her silhouette. I couldn’t help but curse my frosted glass in that moment. It would have been nice to have a preview before opening the door, alerting her to my presence.
I loved what I saw as soon as I opened the door and stepped in.
Kate. Dripping wet. Water droplets slid down her body, teasing me. The image brought me back to memories of how I’d stood around daydreaming about her and her supple body beneath a stream of water.
It was like déjà vu, but it was a very, very welcome one.
The water continued to stream over her skin. Down her face to her bottom lip, where I wanted so badly to kiss her.
She looked at me, innocently. “What is it?”
“Jesus,” I said. “You’re beautiful.”
She smiled as I looked down at her, and I felt something ball up in my stomach. Nerves.
Because I knew, right then and there, that she was the woman I wanted to be with more than anything in the entire world. It was frightening, but it was also exciting.
I was so incredibly turned on, just by looking at her. She had an amazing power over me, a power that I couldn’t understand. She had so much control—and it astonished me. No woman had ever had this much control over me. It was thrilling but terrifying, all at the same time.
She wasn’t all sudsy like I’d envisioned, but I could fix that. She purred happily when I reached out and slid my hand down the entire length of her body, as far as I could reach.
She licked her lips, and I could tell that she wanted my mouth on hers once again.
But I wanted us to take our time. Instead, I kissed her porcelain skin. First, grabbing her hands, trailing my lips to her fingertips, and then up her arm, to her shoulder, and finally her neck.
She whispered, “You feel so good,” as my fingers threaded into her wet locks. I moved away from her neck and pulled her closely to me, gently, by a handful of her gorgeous red hair.
From there, I sort of lost place of where I was. The next thing I knew was that we were soaking wet, battling tongues as we made our way hurriedly to my bedroom. I didn’t even know if we’d cleaned ourselves off, or if we’d even turned the shower off.
All I knew was what came next—our bodies moving rhythmically together once again, and the way I felt when she brought her hands around my neck. I felt at ease. At home, even — more than in just the physical sense.
I leaned forward to bring her into a passionate kiss as we moved in perfect rhythm with one another. The timing was perfect as if our bodies and spirits were connected to one another so closely it allowed us to fall into a synchronous bliss.
She wriggled and I growled roughly in her ear. She gripped the sheet beneath her, pulling it from the bed as she writhed beneath me. I always loved watching a woman’s orgasm. To see a woman completely at my mercy with pleasure so intense that she no longer had any control over anything—it was a joy and a privilege, and I liked it even more with Kate. She was so powerful. She was so in control of everything that it was nice to see her lose it for a second. It was even better — euphoric even — to know that it had been me to cause her to lose control.
Something unleashed deep inside of me as I caught sight of her lustful, half-lidded eyes. It was so incredibly powerful, so incredibly wild, that it caused me to slide into her faster until we were both screaming in pure ecstasy.
Completely spent, I rolled off of her and my head hit the pillow. I slung one arm over Kate and pulled her to me so that she was resting on my heaving chest. I smiled and placed a small kiss at the top of her head just before pulling the blanket over us.
Having sex with Kate was something I’d hoped for from the very beginning, but it was never something I’d expected to happen. If it did, no matter how I’d felt about her before the act itself — no matter how different she was — I still hadn’t thought the sex would be any different than it was with anyone else. I’d always loved sex, but this was something more than that. I couldn’t fully explain it, but it felt like a homecoming.
I’d never been one to cuddle, either, but now there was nothing in the world that I could imagine being better than her resting in my arms. With every small kiss she gave me, all I thought about was holding her closer. I didn't even think about the clothes we’d left strewn across the penthouse. I didn’t even think about how great the sex was in bed, against the wall, or on the couch. I didn’t think about our bodies moving perfectly with one another as we gasped for breath.
I felt a lot more than just red-hot desire—I felt something else. I felt weak in the knees when I thought about her. I felt weak in the heart as I held her.
Tangled up in her legs, I pressed lazy kisses over her skin while she did the same to me.
I felt for this woman, in every way possible. It started with the slope of her nose, and the sweet luscious curve of her lips, all the way down to her belly button and then to her kneecaps and ankles and toes. I loved her mind. I loved her body. I loved it all.
Was it only a matter of time before I fell in love with her, too?
I continued to admire her as we lay there, completely lost as to what time it was. I realized that my head had been cloudy with only images of her since I’d met her. She made my heart flutter. Thoughts of her distracted me every single minute of every single day.
I wanted to be with her for as long as she’d have me. I wanted to listen to her stories while we cuddled close. I wanted to hear her fears, her dreams, her hopes — and everything in between. I wanted to have dinner with her every single night, and watch a shitty television show with her. Most importantly, though, I wanted to wrap myself around her every single night and hold her as we both slept.
I wanted to be the first ‘good morning,’ and the last ‘goodnight.’ I wanted her. To say it didn’t scare me would be the biggest lie that I’d ever told.
“I really can’t believe we did this,” she finally said, breaking the silence that I hadn’t even noticed. I shifted to look at her.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“You know what I mean,” she said with a laugh. “But I can’t really say I’m sad about it.”
“I’m not sorry,” I said.
“Me either, oddly,” she whispered, snuggling in close. “But we still have to do something about this.”
I nodded, just before placing a single kiss atop her forehead. I knew she was right. I just didn’t know what we could do — other than just not see each other again. No way. The option of not seeing each other again wasn’t acceptable.
“Well, first I need to ask how you knew where I live,” I said, laughing. “You’re not a stalker, are you?”
She laughed. “Sort of. I actually live in this building, and Claire found out and told me to ask the security guard, so I did — so I guess that part is sort of stalker-ish.”
Now that I thought about it, I did remember that douchebag Michael Murphy lived in this building. I never saw him. Didn’t bother to try to, though. I just remembered my dad always talking shit about how he had the penthouse and the Murphy’s lived below.
“At least it makes sense why I feel like I’ve been seeing you everywhere,” I said.
“I thought the exact same thing! We both thought we were going insane!”
I chuckled and looked down at my pillow, letting a silence fall between us for a minute.
“You know,” I said. “I don’t care who you are, or who your family is.” I cleared my throat. “You could be the daughter of anyone in the world—Adolf-fucking-Hitler in fact, and I’d still want you.”
“I’ve wanted you this whole time,” she said, and immediately I felt a hint of guilt rise up in my stomach. I’d rejected her today, or yesterday, rather, when we’d run into each other at the coffee shop. That had been a shitty thing to do.
“So that’s it then?” I asked, a bit amused.
“I think so,” she said, seeming pretty sure of herself. “We’re dating. Deal with it.”
I smirked, and then she spoke again.
“So are we going to tell my family, or keep it all a secret for a while — to see if we have anything worth telling?”
“Didn’t we already do that?” I laughed, gesturing towards her bare breasts. It was pretty obvious, at least to me, that we had something.
She giggled, almost shyly. “I suppose we did,” she agreed. “I’ll tell him.”
“You don’t care about causing trouble, do you?” I said with a laugh. She sounded so sure about this, about telling her dad. If I were in her place, about to tell my dad, I’d be a nervous wreck.
“I just don’t care what he thinks,” she said. “It’s my life. He knows that now. He also has to know that I’m going to see whoever I want.”
She looked down at my hand and took my fingers in hers. I heard her gulp, and pull in a deep breath.
“But,” she said, “I think the bigger problem is that I’m moving across country in a few months.”
I felt a pang of worry hit me, and my stomach whirled with nausea. I cleared my throat again, hoping I wouldn’t show how bothered I was by the thought of her moving.
“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it,” I said with a half-smile.
I couldn’t believe it. I’d managed to sound convincing. My tone was actually reassuring. Too bad it was completely at odds with how I felt.