Page 6 of Holiday Hater

“It must be weird to go out and act pre-child.” He keeps an eye on me out the corner of his eye as he walks up and down the length of the pool, doing what he needs to do.

“I can’t imagine myself pre-child. Once they enter your life, you can’t imagine living without them.” I’m doing it again. Why am I so doom and gloom? I must be very depressing to be around. How do I have any friends?

“I can’t even imagine.” My comment obviously didn’t bother him as much as it did me as he comes to sit across from me in the opposite lounger. “I’m still trying to decide on my life, and you already have yours all set up.”

“I wouldn’t say that.” I look down at my cotton basketball shorts and tank top. I’m thankful this top has cups in it. If it didn’t, he’d be able to see everything. My knockers aren’t exactly discreet in size. “At least, it doesn’t feel set up. I’m in a constant state of winging it.”

“Seriously?” He looks at me with shock, as if he’s already figured me out. Or so he thinks.

“I’m constantly chasing after the ten thousand things I’m meant to be on top of. I’m always behind, never on time, and probably the most disgustingly disorganized person on the planet.” It’s something I have tried to change but have failed still to this day. I’ve resigned myself to simply try a little harder every day to be better, but I’m not expecting miracles from myself.

“You might find you’ll get a better response from work if you balance it a bit better with play. Since the second that I heard about you, then met you, you sound as though you’re all work and no play. You’re throwing yourself into being responsible all the time. You can be silly and crazy and it’s perfect acceptable and necessary to have a good balance between the two.” He leans back, bracing himself on the lounger.

His position gives me a great view of the plane of his chest and broadness of his shoulders. Even through the shirt I can see his muscles. He must work a lot to have muscles like that. I haven’t been given the impression of him being a gym binger. Normally men who visit the gym a lot have to say it to every woman they meet sooner or later. I’ve been told by too many men about their gym habits. They’re only buying a cup of tea from us, but they seem to think we want to know what weight they pressed that day.

“I’m sure I’m my own worst enemy.”

His lips quirk up in a deviously sexy smirk. “That’s the worst kind.”

Chapter Six - Noah

I wait for the water to drain from the pool, my legs dangling above the water as it slowly seeps away. I wonder if she will come out again. It will be the third night in a row that she has come out to sit with me while I work. She has to wait until her daughter goes to bed, so I might have started coming a little later just so I get to see a bit more of her.

Just because she has been coming out doesn’t mean she will so I’m telling myself she won’t just so I can attempt to save myself from disappointment. It’s hard not to want to be around her. She has a very simple and pure outlook on life. I don’t know if that’s because she’s stayed away from men for so long or if that’s how she has always been, but it’s nice to not have to worry about any games being played by her or ulterior motives. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve been used to make an ex or even a current boyfriend jealous.

“Bad day?”

Her voice makes me jump but it’s welcome and is music to my ears. “It’s better now that you’re here. I was beginning to think you weren't going to come out tonight. I was starting to feel sad.” It feels silly to withhold from her; she doesn’t with me.

“Silly man…” She sits down beside me at the edge of the pool. She has thin wispy bottoms on with a matching colored racerback vest. Simple but very sexy with the way it shows off her figure. “I wouldn’t miss my lesson on being more reckless.”

“This isn’t about being reckless.” She unknowingly puts herself in a cage and I just want to show her she can be an awesome responsible mom and business owner and still have fun like everyone else. “This is about being free.”

“Easy for you to say; you’re only eighteen.” The sarcasm in her voice spreads the grin across my face involuntarily. She might be a few years older than me, but I’m not a squirt.

“Don’t act like you care how old I am.” I spot something at the bottom of the pool. It glints in the underwater lights. Jewelry?

I jump down into the remaining water, splashing across to pick it up before it gets caught up in the debris catcher of the drain. The tiles under the soles of my feet feel warm from the water. “Have to see if we can find who this belongs to.” I hand the bracelet to her as I join her back at the side of the pool.

As she studies it, I study her. She’s only gotten more beautiful as I’ve gotten to know her. Stepping forward, I place my hands on either side of her hips, holding on to the side of the pool. Her body stills as she looks up at me.

“What are you doing?” Her voice betrays her by giving away how nervous my closeness has made her.

“I’m inviting you to be free with me, if you want to that is…” As I inch closer, she straightens up and comes face-to-face with me. Her face looks brave, but her eyes warn me not to do anything too brash and to go slowly.

The closer I get, the heavier I breathe as the desire to kiss her takes over. I move slowly, not wanting to push her into anything and let her be the one to close the distance. At first nothing touches but our lips and all the pent-up desire between us pours out in one kiss. I don’t have to worry about her being spooked because she melts under our kiss and reaches out, pulling me between her legs and as tight against her as she can get me.

The embrace makes my head a little lightheaded as I refrain from doing things I know she isn’t ready for. Instead, I feed the hunger to touch her by tracing her figure through her clothes. I want to dive under them. If I had my way, I’d quite happily fuck her on the floor of the pool, but that’s not how it should be for her. She needs to be treated a different way, but the thought still crosses my mind and sends blood rushing to my groin. There’s nothing I can do to stop the hard-on as she continues to press her tits against my chest. I need to stop this because otherwise I’m not going to want to and I really don’t want us to rush this.

Her legs don’t want to let go but they let me step back as I break the kiss. She looks thoroughly mouth-fucked as she stares back at me with heavy lids. “Why did you stop?”

“I think we should go slow and steady.”

Her eyes become sharper as she slowly leans away, a sheepish smile appearing across her face. “Yeah, I agree.”

I’m not sure where this little mission of showing this woman how to be free again came about or when I decided I was going to do it, but I know I don’t know how to walk away from her, and I know she’s not ready for me yet, not completely. She won’t know how to fall in love with me when she doesn’t know how to love herself.

Chapter Seven - Silvia

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