Page 21 of Beyond our Forever

Later, I woke up naked in an empty bed to the sound of soft music as I searched the sheets for the man who’d kept me awake most of the night.

Grabbing a T-shirt with the university logo which lay forgotten among rumpled sheets, I sat back and leant against the headboard, ready to enjoy the show as I admired Bruce’s back while he focused on a piece of work at his drawing table.

Dressed only in shorts, his attention was on his task, which I found quite attractive, it was so masculine, so him. At the same time, I felt honored to be there sharing his routine. I understood that he had to do his job, but the fact that he had invited me to stay meant more than the words could say.

He loved me and couldn’t wait any longer to be with me.

He made me addicted to the way he fucked me.

I didn’t care about anything else. Everything outside the small apartment had blurred. At last I understood what something I’d read so many times meant. A bubble for two. That was us. I only hoped that the return to reality wouldn’t be too hard, because although flying is nice, sooner or later you have to touch ground again.

It’s no surprise, pilots say the most complicated part of the flight is precisely the landing.

When Bruce turned around to take another sheet of paper, he noticed my return from dreamland.

“You’re awake,” he stated as he approached the bed, and taking my face in his hands, raining kisses over my skin.

“What do you want to do today?” he asked, and in response I raised my eyebrows.

His laughter was louder than the music, I swear.

“You’e going to be my death,” he murmured, caressing my neck with his nose. He loved to touch me there, it had become his addiction.

“You have no work to turn in on Monday?” I asked, resting my hands on his shoulders, playing his game, pulling him closer to me.

Yes, I too had become an addict and it was all his fault. I loved everything about him. His slim body, those arms that wrapped around me tightly, and the hands that ran gently but determinedly over my skin, and don’t get me started on what was hidden under the waistband of his pants. Holy…

“If I spend a couple of hours on it today and again tomorrow, that should be enough to get it finished,” he said between kisses. “Now I want to please my girlfriend and take her to the moon if she asks me.”

“I thought we’d already been there several times since we arrived last night.”

His laughter reverberated on my skin. He was entertaining himself by teasing me, making it difficult for me even to breathe. Try to think clearly? I had given up on that.

“If you want we can go to the fair on Fourth Street, eat there, and come back later, when it starts to get hot.”

It was barely May, but if something characterized the city we lived in, it was the extreme temperatures during a good part of the year. The wonders of the Arizona desert.

“While you work I can take care of breakfast,” I suggested.

“I can do it,” he protested. “I invited you here to pamper you, gorgeous girl, not for you to take care of me.”

I pouted and looked up at him through my lashes before answering. “But I want to spoil you too, Bruce.”

“When you look at me like that I can’t deny you anything,” he sighed, and I knew I’d got my way.

Two hours later, we left the apartment holding hands, ready to have fun strolling among the stands at the busy street market.

I was wearing a fairly light and sleeveless turquoise cotton dress, sandals, and my hair tied up in a ponytail, much to the delight of Bruce, who couldn’t resist laying his hands on me for more than a couple of minutes. And me? Well, every time he raised his arms and his skin peeked between the edge of his shirt and the waistband of his shorts, I regretted agreeing to go out.

Alone and naked we were so good.

“I have a serious problem with those legs of yours,” he said after a while.

His comment was both surprising and puzzling.

I looked down, searching my legs for the reason for his problem.

Did he think they looked like chicken legs?