Page 85 of The Moon Also Rises
“Wait!” I say, holding my hand up. “Can you leave it up?”
“You want to do this with it open?”
“Can people see in?”
Rami considers this for a moment. “Not unless we leave the lights on.”
I turn back to the window and look up at the sky briefly, searching for the moon. It’s not difficult to find, hanging low and in its crescent form, it smiles in the sky above the cityscape. So I guess I can’t even blame a full moon for feeling so utterly on edge with desire tonight.
“Lights off, blinds up,” I say, still staring at the moon. It’s not providing much light but the city’s illuminations will give us enough to see what we’re doing.
There’s another click and more whirring, turning the light off and lifting the blinds out of sight. Still a little mesmerised by the view, I don’t turn back to Rami immediately and I’m only thinking about doing so when I feel his arms snake around my waist and the warm solid heat of him press against my back.
I lean back into his touch for a few seconds, still admiring the irregular pattern of lights on in other buildings, but then I shake my head and pull away. This is not part of my “fuck it” – or rather “fuck him” – plan. Cuddles and admiring the view – no matter how impressive the latter may be, or how grounding Rami’s embrace is – is not what I came here for. Because yes, I’ve long since stopped trying to convince myself that I didn’t come here for sex. In fact, as soon as I suggested we try obliterating this tension by simply fucking it out of us, it made perfect sense. Of course, this will work. Rami and I will have a night of passion, and we will burn up all this lust that has been disrupting our professional relationship, and maybe even a friendship.
If it sounds like I have some authority on how this will play out, it’s because I do. This is how it always goes for me. I meet a guy. I fancy him. I chase him a bit. I let him chase me back. And then we fuck. And after that, well, invariably nothing happens. Aside from a few outlier relationships of a few months, things between me and men just don’t last. Twenty odd years of this behaviour on repeat is as good as ironclad evidence of how tonight will go. Rami and I really will get this out of our way and working together in the same office will get considerably easier.
Furthermore, we get to share a fun night together, because there’s no doubt in my mind that it will be fun. It’s written in Rami’s darkening pupils that look me up and down as I turn to face him. It’s clear to see in the way he licks his lips before placing them on mine. It’s evident in how our bodies bend towards one another on instinct as our mouths lock together.
As our kiss deepens, Rami starts to push me towards the bed. When the back of my legs hit the side, I stop kissing him and pull back.
“Do you… What do you… How do you want to do this?”
“What do you want?” he asks me, breaking his commanding presence, but I’m actually grateful for it.
“I want to top you,” I say in a hurry before I can change my mind.
“You do?” He’s as surprised as I expect, as men often are when I say I want to top them. So surprised that normally I take it back.
As Rami stays quiet, I feel the need to explain. I swallow before I speak. “I want to see your cock while I fuck you. I’ve not been able to stop thinking about how perfect it is.”
Rami looks away, down at the floor, and I know if the lights were on, I’d see a dark blush rise in his cheeks.
“Unless you don’t want that,” I quickly add. “Or you’re not ready for that now.”
“No, I’m ready. I had a shower just before you came here,” he says and his hands slide up my back.
“Did you now? That was… presumptuous.”
“You booty called me!” he protests.
“Booty call? Really, Rami, nobody has used that phrase since the mid-2000s and even then I think it was only permissible if you were in an American R&B group.”
“You’re talking too much again,” he grumbles, but delivers it with a winning smile.
“What are you smiling at?”
“I was just thinking how good we are together.”
Those are the last words I was expecting to come out of his mouth and for that reason, when they land, I don’t know what to do with them. Luckily for me, Rami hasn’t finished talking.
“You’re full of surprises,” he says and he lowers his mouth to kiss the base of my neck. “Really, really good surprises.”
“You thought just because I’m a bitchy diva with good taste in interior décor that I’d be a bottom?”
“If I say yes, is that going to put the brakes on things?” he mumbles into my skin.
“Well, I thought you were a straight man with no sense of humour, so it looks like we’re both learning not to judge a book by its cover,” I say and I’m impressed I manage to get a whole sentence out fully formed considering how the sensation of his teeth nipping at my ear lobe is making my mind go fuzzy around the edges.
