Chapter 16
Eve was laying the table when she suddenly asked, “Do you have a washing machine?”
“I have a rarely used washing machine,” Gray replied, making Eve smile.
“Rarely used?” she questioned, wondering how anyone could or would have a rarely used domestic appliance like a washer.
“Yes, rarely used because I have a laundry around the corner where my washing is dropped off and then collected washed, dried and ironed,” he explained.
“You lazy sod.” She returned to the kitchen where he was opening a cupboard to reveal a ‘looks like new’ washing machine complete with manufacturer’s stickers. “Detergent?” she asked optimistically.
“Not a clue and stop swearing,” Gray replied as he moved towards the fridge and took out the steak they'd bought earlier.
Rummaging in the cupboards Eve found a tiny bottle, possibly a free sample of washing detergent and laughed. “Is this it? Put detergent on your shopping list.”
He passed her a notepad and pen. “Write down the one you have; I like how your clothes smell and how mine do when you wash them at yours. Why are you washing anyway, you haven't dirtied anything?” He looked confused suddenly by her need to wash clothing.
“My bikini is full of chlorine and it effects the fabric if you don't wash it out—”
“Ah, your bikini,” he said dreamily. “Did I mention how much I liked that particular outfit?”
“Once or twice,” she smiled, slightly disbelieving but happy at just how much he'd liked it and how he'd struggled to keep his hands off her since they'd left the gym.
“Can I use this?” She held up the tiny bottle of washing detergent.
“Help yourself.” He then turned back to dinner, “How do you like your steak?”
“Medium, please. What are we having with it?” She realised that she was ravenous now, not that she’d been awfully active, certainly not enough to work up a real appetite.
“What do you want? Salad, jacket potato, new potatoes, whatever you want?”
“It's got to be chips with steak, hasn't it?” she asked, making Gray frown.
“I don't have chips, but there's a place around the corner. You wash your bikini and I'll be back in ten minutes.” He smiled, grabbed his keys and kissed her gently on the lips.
Eve had washed her bikini in the sink of the en-suite bathroom in Gray's room and left it on the side of the bath before quickly changing out of the leggings and vest she'd first put on after Gray had selected them for her. She had showered after the pool and Jacuzzi but decided to change for dinner having not taken clean clothes with her to the gym, unlike Gray who had appeared at the reception of the gym wearing dark blue, almost black jeans, a dark blue and white stripy t-shirt and dark Converse pumps, the same clothes he still wore.
Eve slipped on an above knee, sea green dress with large, brightly coloured flowers on it. It was probably more suitable for taking on holiday than dinner with its elasticated bodice and full skirt, but it was comfortable. She pulled her hair loosely into a clip, holding it at the nape of her neck. Her hair pulled back and the dress gave the illusion that she was wearing a necklace with the brown wooden ring and beads attached to the bodice of her dress and strings that fastened behind her neck, adorned with brown and sea green beads. Slipping on a pair of brown leather flip flops that coincidently had a wooden ring detail, Eve decided she was ready for dinner.
Returning to the empty kitchen, Eve switched on the hi-tech radio and began to throw some salad leaves into a bowl until a tune from her uni days came on the radio, a song that she and Sally used to dance to. Smiling, she turned up the volume and began to sing along and dance as she chopped cucumber and peppers until she felt hands on her hips, spinning her around, pulling her into warm arms that danced her around the kitchen.
“I think I should disarm you, just in case I step on your toes,” Gray told her tossing the knife she still held behind her, sliding it across the worktop before dancing her back towards the salad and the steak he'd earlier removed from the fridge while she laughed and giggled. “Medium, you said, right?” He pointed towards the steak as he drizzled some oil into the pan.
“Please.” Eve reached for the chips that Gray had returned with wrapped in paper.
Smacking her hand gently, he shook his head with a grin. “No snacking before dinner. Leave them and go and sit down or something before I start thinking about coming home and finding you shaking your sexy arse in my kitchen. In fact,” he said as an afterthought, “open the wine, the red, please.”
“I don't really do red, remember?” she asked.
“Trust me, you'll like this one, it's nice and smooth,” he assured her.
“Like you?” she asked with a wry smile.
“If you say so, now open the wine woman,” he ordered, making her laugh, something she hadn’t done much of in recent months and now, with Gray she was doing more of it. She liked it, a lot and she could certainly get used to this, the domestic, mundane tasks of washing and cooking, with Gray.
Flipping the steak over he turned and grinned at her for no reason he could fathom except that he was ridiculously happy that she was here, with him, talking, teasing, sharing his home, his food, his bed, shaking her sexy arse in his kitchen. That final thought made him grin even more now until his thoughts were broken by her swearing.
“Oh bollocks!”
“You okay?” Gray was concerned at the alarm in her voice.
“Yeah, well, no. I may have broken the cork in the bottle,” she admitted, sheepishly holding the bottle up in one hand and half a cork on the end of the corkscrew in the other.
“Baby, there is no, I may have broken the cork, you definitely have. And please stop swearing.” He smiled, taking the bottle and corkscrew from her. “Maybe you could take the salad to the table and then sit down and look beautiful. I like your dress.”
She almost skipped to the table, feeling a little foolish for being so pleased that he had not only referred to her as being beautiful again, but he had noticed her dress and liked it. She'd never been beautiful, never considered herself to be; she was attractive, pretty even, striking due to the combination of her height and her voluptuous figure, but she was not beautiful, was she? Taking one of the seats that had a place setting before it, she watched Gray in the kitchen and wondered where she would be now if she hadn't joined the singles site and turned up at The Stanford that night.
Swallowing hard, she realised that she would have been in one of two places, at her flat, sad and lonely, even if Sally had been there, or, she could have been back in her house, hers and Max's house, preparing to embark on that ridiculous plan to have Max's baby, for Annette as much as for her, more so. She made a mental note with a frown to call the unit where Max's sperm was kept and ask for it to be destroyed.
“Eve, baby,” called Gray looking at her with suspicious concern. “Would you grab the wine for me?” he asked as he walked towards her carrying two plates.
“Yeah, course.” She smiled but knew that the smile was only on her lips and her eyes were sad, for all the things Max would never experience.
“Hey.” Gray walked back towards the kitchen where she was picking up the wine. “Are you okay? I didn't mean to upset you by sending you to sit down.”
Placing his hands gently on her hips he gazed down at her glistening, sad eyes and hoped he wasn’t responsible for them.
“What? No, sorry, I was thinking,” she explained, slipping free of him so that she could pass him with the bottle of wine begging herself not to cry, not for Max, not in front of Gray.
Following her, Gray asked, “Do you want to talk about it?” And whilst most of him wanted her to say no because he may not like what she was thinking about, a smaller part was desperate to know that it was something insignificant, not him, nothing he'd done, no doubts about them, no comparisons between him and Max where he'd been left wanting or found to be inadequate.
“Nothing to talk about,” she s
aid bluntly making him blanch at the abrupt nature in which she had just shut him down and wasn't sure what or why she had. Moreover, he didn’t know if there was anything he could do to open conversation, even a little.
Looking across at his crestfallen expression Eve sighed and closed her eyes briefly. She hated herself for thinking of a situation that wasn't real and allowing it to impact on something that was real, her and Gray.
“Sorry,” she started, thinking she owed him an explanation at the very least. “It wasn't you. I was sitting here watching you in the kitchen and enjoying it,” she smiled, wrinkling her nose as a small blush spread across her cheeks. “And I was wondering what I would have been doing if I'd never joined Single No More and more specifically if I hadn't gone to The Stanford that first night and let's just say the alternatives, to this, without you, weren't awfully appealing.”
“I see,” replied Gray with a huge sigh of relief that it wasn't him that had made her sad, quite the opposite it seemed. “If I'm rushing you, Eve, you have to say. I've told you I don't know too much about real relationships and I have always been a bit all or nothing with the things I care about so I could and probably will make loads of mistakes...”
Eve got to her feet and stretched across to kiss Gray's lips, pulling his lower lip between her own, sucking and finally scratching her teeth over it, desperate to reassure him and to absolve him of any feelings of guilt for her drop in mood.
“Eat your dinner,” she told him as she retook her seat, leaving him staring at her for a few seconds, silently pouring the wine before finally acknowledging the action that had silenced him.
“So, it wasn't me, I'm not rushing you and you have the sexiest, most talented mouth I have ever known,” he said before inserting the fork holding a piece of pink meat into his mouth that was still tingling from her treatment of it.
Lying on the sofa eating another chunk of chocolate, Eve decided that she probably should make it her last as she was beginning to feel quite sick, but doubted she'd heed her own advice.
“So…” Gray stretched his legs out so he essentially formed a barricade around her on the sofa; her lying across the back of it with her head resting on his chest while his body and now legs were pressed against her. “What's the story with the pill and you not knowing where I've been?” he asked looking down at her.
“Ah…” she adjusted her position so that she was now lying flat on her back with her head in his lap looking up at him. “My mother always instilled in me the importance of not getting knocked up.”
Gray smiled at her choice of words but also that she was talking about her family voluntarily.
“That it would ruin my life and that I would be saddled with an ungrateful brat who would hold me back, prevent me from fulfilling my dreams and ambitions, ruin my life generally, just like I had done to her. Oh, and ruin my figure, which was a risk I couldn't afford to take according to her,” explained Eve flatly, the words and sentiments she was conveying in no way a shock to her as she’d heard them enough times over the years to no longer be affected by them, unlike the shocked looking Gray who was staring at her with a frown.
“I am going to suggest that your mother had some issues at this point, but go on,” he encouraged.
“When I was about fourteen, we had the people come into school to talk about sex education and contraception and I was genuinely interested. Some of the kids just wanted to blow condoms up or ask really stupid questions in an attempt to embarrass the people there, but I really did want to know how best to protect myself from primarily pregnancy at that point, not that I was having sex. I had never had a boyfriend and never even been kissed at that point.”
“Sweet and innocent Evie, eh?” He grinned.
“Mmm, you’d have liked her, I’m sure,” Eve teased making Gray arch a brow at her.
“She kind of makes me horny,” announced Gray, shocking Eve and making her laugh.
Rolling over and getting up on her knees, she leaned across Gray until her face was almost touching his as she moved so that she was straddling his lap.
“Does she now? I was the best student in my drama group, so you play your cards right and I may just play sweet and innocent for you. I could even do a nervous and slightly scared virginal Eve, if you fancy it? Edging up the bed with just the right mixture of fear and anticipation, breathing heavily, almost panting,” she offered making him pull her head forcefully towards his where he took her mouth and every breath from her for a moment until he finally released her, gasping.
“I most definitely fancy that, and maybe,” he added, grinning darkly, “maybe my little virgin will have second thoughts, maybe fear will overtake anticipation, but it will be too late. I think I would be inclined to take what I wanted anyway, even if it meant pinning you down and prising your thighs apart, ripping your pants off and fucking you hard, what do you say to that?” He watched her every move now; the hard swallowing, the rapid rise and fall of her chest and although he couldn't see it, he knew that she was wet.
“I say, we’re going to need lots of date nights if we keep coming up with all these scenarios.” She almost panted at the idea of him forcing her down and fucking her.
With his head thrown back, Gray laughed. He looked younger, well he looked his age, all twenty-eight-years rather than the thirty something he sometimes looked when he was busy or brooding.
“We should probably save the noisier ones for here or The Stanford because your bedroom walls are a little thin and your neighbour's bedroom is joined to yours,” he told her seriously.
“How do you know?”
“Because after you fell asleep on Friday night, she was telling whoever she was in bed with that if he didn't stop, she was going to come.” he said flatly.
“No way! Linda next door said that?” Eve stared disbelievingly because apart from anything else Linda had been single for a few months and Eve had never heard anything, not even a banging headboard.
“Oh yes, and he told her that if she did, he was going to, and I quote, 'flog her until she begged for forgiveness'.”
“No way!” she repeated, staring wildly rather than disbelievingly now. “So, what happened?” she asked in a whisper making Gray laugh again.
“You're doing that whispering thing again. He continued doing whatever it was he'd been doing, she came, and he flogged her judging by the first few screams and then she stopped.”
“What? Do you suppose she was okay? What if he's killed her?” Eve sounded totally OTT and melodramatic.
Laughing more loudly, Gray shook his head at her. “Baby, I think he gagged her or something because about twenty minutes later she was coming again while screaming thank you.”
“Why didn't you wake me?” she asked, suddenly irked about missing it.
“You want to listen to your neighbours enjoying a bit of BDSM?” he asked with an arched brow, although he knew that Eve would have loved hearing the noises through the wall even it would have sent her into whispering and melodramatic, ‘do you think he’s killed her’ overdrive.
“No!” she protested innocently. “Well, yes, but only because you did,” she told him now.
“No, you wouldn't. It would have made you horny, it made me horny.” With a gentle thrust of his hips she could feel his arousal beneath her. “Talking about it with you makes me horny. Now carry on with my virginal Eve wanting to avoid getting pregnant.” He moved her back onto the sofa, off his lap.
“Okay.” She pouted, stretching out and lying at the opposite end of the sofa. “So, they talked about disease as well as pregnancy and explained about the importance of good sexual health for one's immediate future as well as long term. They showed pictures of infections and explained that some infections lie dormant and then flair up or hinder fertility. To be honest, it scared me shitless and I sort of vowed never to have sex there and then, but they explained that even women on the pill should still use a barrier method like the condom or the female version with a new partner, certainly until
they were sure it was a healthy, long term partner. That became my compromised vow of not quite celibacy,” she recalled.
Gray found himself with a smile, partly at her story but also at the image in his mind of a young and innocent Eve, complete with school uniform.
“Are you thinking pervy things?” she asked in an accusation that made Gray shrug in admission. “You are an animal,” she told him and then reverted to her story. “So, I always insisted on condoms, not that I had too many partners; my first was when I was seventeen, then there were two more boyfriend's during my uni days and finally Max, all of whom I used condoms with. When Max was first ill I was all out of kilter and my periods went a bit haywire, but I knew I wasn't pregnant so just plodded on until after Max died and I was telling my G.P. that I didn't need anti-depressants when I mentioned my periods. She said that stress does odd things but suggested that I might consider the pill to regulate things and it has, but I didn't really think of it as contraception because I wasn't taking it for that and I wasn't having sex, until you.”
Gray allowed a smile to slope across his lips, somehow managing to prevent a huge grin to rival The Joker forming on his face as he absorbed the information she'd just shared. He was the first since Max.
“And you didn't know where I'd been, nor I you, no offence,” he smiled using her phrase from the previous night.
“Exactly,” she agreed, possibly missing his ribbing.
“Are we odd? Not to have had sex without a latex barrier?” he asked aloud, but Eve was unsure who he was asking.
New Beginnings Page 19