Page 77 of Green
19
Theo
We kissed. For five minutes or five hours. We kissed as lovers, we kissed as friends, we kissed like hungry desperate strangers, until our lips were swollen and numb and raw, and she fell asleep beneath me.
It would have been a huge blow to my ego if we hadn’t already fucked three times. To be honest, I needed the break. She was insatiable. And I just wanted to lie there beside her, to stare at the becoming shape of her, in the half-light, and enjoy the nearness of her for as long as I could before either of us started to get nervous about things changing.
I’m usually obsessed with time. As a runner, you’re constantly aware of it—race timing, recovery time, beats per minute. As a techpreneur, you have to be aware of your burn down schedule—how much longer your money will last versus how many days until the product launches. But when I was with Gemma, for the most part, I was just with Gemma. All I was aware of was her. Even when we’ve got the TV on and I’m catching up on emails, I always knew if she was laughing or crying or bored or annoyed with me for not paying attention to the home makeover show or noticing the brilliant and subtle layering of colors in the main character’s bedroom.
Here on vacation, I was aware only of the fact that our stay wasn’t limitless, but underneath that there was still this constant flicker of fear that my time with Gemma had an end date, no matter how many times I asked her to stay. Three years was definitely not enough. Five years wasn’t enough. All that time wasted, not being like this with each other. I used to think I was so smart, but now I wasn’t so sure.
Now I knew what she tasted like, how she trembled and whimpered and moaned before letting loose and crying out my name, I knew I was right about that brave and naughty side of her. I’d had some very beautiful and sexy partners in bed before, but this was something else entirely. I knew as I watched her sleeping that I would never get enough of Gemma Kelly, and that even while I had her I couldn’t let go of the nagging thought that someone else had had her before me, and I hated the thought of anyone coming between us. It was like running a marathon with a sustained injury. I knew I could push through the pain and get through it, but the longer I ran with it, the harder it would be to heal.
* * *
I must have slept, and when I woke up, Gemma was lying on top of me, out like a light. Just like on the morning after we met, she began to stir, sighing and gently moaning, but this time my brain didn’t have to fight my body’s response, I could run my fingers through her scented hair all I wanted, and I was ninety-nine percent sure that if she was dreaming or feeling frisky it was because of me.
Thirty seconds later, I was one hundred percent sure, because she started kissing my chest and reaching her hands downwards, God bless her.
“We have to be quick,” I whispered, as I squeezed her perfect, luscious ass.
“Why?”
“Because I’ve got something fun planned for us out in the world.”
“This is the world,” she purred, as she covered us with the sheet and flipped me over so I was on top of her.
She was right.
And we weren’t quick.
We were an hour behind schedule by the time we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant and I didn’t care one bit.
I knew that this wasn’t Gemma’s idea of paradise when I first brought it up, but I was confident that her mind would be changed soon. It was like being in a storybook, as we approached our destination. Passing by the Rainbow residential area, making a right at the Emerald entrance, onto Summer Lane, to park the rental car and then emerge to breathe in the crisp mountain air.
As she shut the passenger side door, I asked her if her shoelaces were tied.
She rolled her eyes. “Yes!” Then she looked down at her feet, bent down and tied them. “Shut up.”
“Double-tie them.”
“I am, I am, shut up.”
“Also, by the way, it’s very unlikely, but if we happen to come across a bear, it’s important to get still and quiet. Stop moving. Speak calmly and softly to the bear so it knows you mean no harm, and then back away slowly. Never turn your back and run.”
She narrowed her eyes at me and gave me aYou could have taken me to Maui you turdlook, but she nodded and said: “Roger that. Are we bringing the picnic food now, or leaving it in the trunk?”
“Trunk for now. We’re gonna go for a little walk and do something and then we’ll relax on the dock. You’ve got your bathing suit on, right?”
“Yes sir I do.”
I watched, as she took in the view.
As much as I loved taking her breath away last night, watching her forget to breathe as she took in all the green and blue, as far as the eye could see, may have been even more satisfying.
“So beautiful,” she whispered, as she stared out at the still turquoise Green Lake, surrounded by towering evergreen trees and mountains and blue sky. “Layer upon layer of green. Mother Nature is the best production designer. No one could top this.”
This girl. Cheesy without even trying, but somehow she could say things like that without making you want to throw up in your mouth. I just put my arm around her and smiled.
