“I know but I’d rather you stayed here and worked.”
“I do have a lot of work to do before my show…”
“Yes, you do.” I found the strength to untangle my limbs and my emotions from around him for the moment. “I’ll call you when I get back,” I promised but then hesitated, my heart perching uncertainly on his smile. “Um, you don’t think… You’re not expecting any more ex-girlfriends to drop by tomorrow and try to get back together with you, are you?”
He looked up at the dark sky. “Hmm, let’s see…”
“John!”
He laughed. “No, I’m not. Have fun with your family.”
“Right!”
* * * * *
By the time Mami and I pulled back into her driveway late in the afternoon my head was spinning. At first it had been fun being the center of attention but then I had begun to feel rather like Prometheus—everyone wanted to know all there was to know about my new flame so they kept prodding me with questions and sometimes, in the case of certain female relatives, they even took little jealous cynical pecks at me and my fairytale happiness. If they only knew!
Whereas last night had left me feeling physically worn out but otherwise profoundly invigorated, spending the day with relatives was utterly exhausting. I don’t put great store in blood ties. In my opinion love and affection are the only valid links between people. But because it meant so much to my mother, and especially to my grandfather, I spent the day feeling rather like Spartacus tied to the family tree. I had freed myself of all this only to be caught in the end because I had fallen in love with a Miami resident. God has a perverse sense of humor indeed.
“Why did you need to keep that rental car all this time?” Mami asked me irritably as she parked beside it. I could tell she was just as wrung dry by the day as I was whether she cared to admit it or not.
“Because I felt like it,” I snapped.
“You felt like wasting money when you have a perfectly good car right here?” she snapped right back.
“You’re always using it and I got a really good deal. I’m taking a shower now.” I got to the front door before she did and gratefully let myself into the blessedly cold house.
I still wasn’t feeling quite like myself even after a long, hot beating beneath the fierce showerhead. I felt curiously cut up, as though my thoughts and feelings were hanging like bloody rags from my soul. My relatives had struck me as a pack of hungry dogs and many of them had been intent on mauling my happiness even while hypocritically pretending to be overjoyed by it. Human nature can be dark and depressing, especially when it’s related to you and you’re forced to get defenselessly nearer to it than you normally would. Of course there were some Padrons I genuinely liked and it had been nice seeing them again but the overall effect of the family gathering had been to completely drain me.
As I dialed John’s number on my cell phone, I was amazed and infinitely grateful to know he was really there on the other end and that any second now I would hear his voice, which already was more beloved to me than any other voice on this Earth.
“Hello?” he answered briskly.
“I love you.”
His tone changed completely. “I love you too, my beautiful slave. Are you all right?”
“I think I’ll live.”
“Good. I’ll swing by in about an hour and we’ll go get you a drink.”
“Oh yes, please!”
* * * * *
The instant John and I were in each other’s orbit I felt whole again. The universe came into full, glorious focus in his face and the look in his eyes instantly massaged away all the tensions of the day. His company, enhanced by a glass of Chardonnay, was all I needed to become inspired, and we ended up staying at my house. I had spent half the afternoon in a restaurant surrounded by raucous relatives. I was craving the peace and quiet and solitary comfort of Mami’s living room. She was out with Ernesto for the evening so my lover and I had the house to ourselves for a while.
“I’m making us soup and salad for dinner,” I announced.
“That sounds wonderful but are you sure you wouldn’t rather go out? I know you had a rough day, not to mention a hard night last night.”
“Mm, yes!” I caressed his crotch through his jeans.
“You pleased me very much,” he said abruptly, holding me close where we sat together on the couch watching television with the volume turned almost all the way down.
“I can’t believe the things you made me do,” I murmured shyly.
“I didn’t make you do anything,” he pointed out quietly.
“No, you’re right, but you wanted me to do them…”
“And that’s why you did them, Ariana, only because I wanted you to?”
“No…I loved it all!”
His arm tightened around my shoulders.
“I think I’d do anything you asked me to,” I dared confess to him and to myself at the same time.
“You think?”
I glanced up at his face. He was smiling softly down at me but his eyes were serious.
“I know I would,” I corrected myself, resting my cheek on his chest. Wherever I was in the world I would feel at home cradled in his arms listening to his heart beat.
“That’s good, because you’re mine, Ariana. All mine. Now and forever.”
“Amen,” I whispered.
“Do you know how right you feel in my arms?”
“Yes!” I sighed.
“Do you have any idea how happy you make me?”
“As happy as you make me, I hope.”
The End
About the Author
Maria Isabel Pita is the critically acclaimed and award winning author of over ten books, including BDSM romances, historical erotic stories, paranormal erotic romances, and two non-fiction erotic memoirs. Maria has been writing since she was six years old. In search of excitement, happiness and her soul mate (not necessarily in that order), she has traveled extensively and lived in Chicago, London, Boston, Atlanta, Miami, Virginia and Louisiana. She lives now with the man of her dreams, and an assortment of plant and animal life, on five wooded enchanted acres.
Maria welcomes comments from readers. You can find her website and email address on her author bio page at www.ellorascave.com.
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