Blooming

by Fletcher, Peyton

  ****

  When Jen woke again, Sebastian was there. He immediately leaned over and hugged her as carefully as possible - he had her dress on his lap and had been in the process of scrutinizing it.

  “God Jen you’ve done a number on this, your dress is a write off.”

  “Sean’s going to kill me; it was so beautiful, is it torn?”

  “No, but even if for some reason you ever wanted to wear a dress that you confronted a rapist in; it’s covered in his blood and.. oh my god I think that might be vomit.”

  Jen had a vivid flashback, “I think so too.”

  Seb threw the dress across the room grimacing and rubbed his hands on his immaculate trousers. “Jen you’re not going to like it but part of the reason I’m here is to make sure the press don’t try to get in your room.”

  “The press are here, why?” she squeaked, completely dumbfounded.

  “Jen, the whole thing is all over YouTube, you and Todd are getting mega coverage. The pair of you caught a man who the cops are now saying assaulted 5 women and counting. Christ Jen, I watched some of the footage, to anybody on the outside it makes great viewing.”

  “and hot as hell, you look like a tiny Xena Warrior Princess in a fabulous dress,” a voice chirped in.

  “Sean, you’re here!”

  “Baby the whole marvellous thing from you nearly dropping a table on Todd, to wrestling him off that ugly prick and then proceeding to throttle a former professional boxer unconscious is all over the news. The table behind you was filming Grandma’s 80th birthday party and caught the whole thing, poor grandma nearly had a heart attack!”

  Jen began to feel herself fading out; she was going into full blown panic attack, her breath coming in gasps.

  Sebastian shut him up, “Sean will you cool it, where’s...?”

  “I’m here,” Todd rasped, strong arming Sean out of the way. “Go get a nurse Sean and stop fucking about.”

  In the next moment his hands gently slid Jen across the bed and his long heavy body curled into her. Draping over her carefully, he laid his arm lightly on her chest and stroked his knuckles along her jaw, “just look at me Jen.”

  She panted her eyes bugging out of her skull, “are you ok Todd, I was so scared,” then she started shaking violently and a nurse came in and gave her a shot and she passed out.

  ****

  Jen woke up when the pain in her ribs disturbed her. She daren’t move to check the time, Todd was lying next to her on his side, sound asleep, and it felt so comforting to have him close.

  Was it ok to have such intense feelings for someone she knew so little about? She raised her eyes without moving any other muscle; she had the perfect opportunity to scrutinize him surreptitiously.

  She started with the straight darkest brown hair, it had been brushed straight back earlier in the evening but now had parted slightly on the right and it flopped on the left side of his forehead nearly touching his straight full eyebrows, she knew without touching his hair that it was softer than hers.

  The true beauty of his bone structure was revealed now that his eyes were closed because they usually captured most of her attention. If he was a boxer he must have been good because she couldn’t see any lasting damage, possibly the tiniest scar under his left eyebrow, but that could have been from anything.

  His nose was straight and his cheekbones defined without being prominent, he had great skin, creamy, the kind that tanned easily. A day’s worth of dark stubble only made him look better. It framed a wide mouth and nice lips - not too full like some men’s were. She’d always found that a bit disturbing, she didn’t think men should have plump lips - then there was the gentle cleft in his chin, perfectly formed and not so deep that he looked like he had two chins.

  He didn’t even have the decency to have ears that stuck out, she smiled to herself. He was like baby bear’s porridge from Goldilocks; he was “just right.”

  Todd stirred slightly and she stifled a grimace, she was laying flat on her back and his right arm had come to rest heavily about her waist, his right leg hooked over hers.

  He was still wearing his dress trousers but at some point he must have removed his shirt, probably because it had blood on it. She smiled when she saw his white vest remembering the Bruce Willis analogy she made to him, her eye-line shifted wondering if she’d hurt him and sure enough a red welt ringed the area slightly south of his Adam’s apple.

  Christ what a pair they made.

  Jen gently lowered his arm to nearer her left hip and turned into him gingerly, testing to find the limits of her pain; she rested her cast over his arm and tucked her face into his neck.

  She lay awake for a long time savouring the intimacy, marvelling in the newness of it all. Running concurrent to that was a wariness of the depth of attachment she already felt for him.

  Todd woke to find Jen tracing his skin where it was raw. When she realised he was awake she tentatively kissed his neck and smiled up at him.

  “Am I forgiven?” he sighed.

  “There’s nothing to forgive.”

  “Jen you do know that big white cast on your wrist means you’ve got a broken arm and how the hell I managed not to break every one of your ribs I don’t know.”

  “Well women who take on a prize-fighter deserve everything they get,” she teased and then said more seriously, “I’ve had worse remember and your voice is all croaky so I’m calling us about even.”

  “Hmm I don’t think so, but how come you’ve got one of these old plaster casts I thought things had moved on from that. I’ve had pals with some kind of fibreglass rubberised sort of thing.”

  “Probably to do with my crappy cheap health insurance, I presume they got the details from my purse, I don’t think it stretches to a nice colourful fibreglass one. It’s not a big deal I’ll manage.”

  He nodded admiringly at her calm acceptance of her situation. “I see you found out my not so secret past.”

  “Why didn’t you want to tell me?”

  “I guess I figured you were anxious enough about me as it was, without laying that on you just yet. Besides it’s all in the past now - it’s quite a relief when I meet people who haven’t a clue who I am, and generally I don’t bother clueing them in if they don’t know. It was never my big passion in life, I just fell into it when I realised I was good at it. My dad boxed, that’s how it started.”

  “You got out while you were still pretty?” she joked.

  “I do kinda like my nose as it is! The truth is I made a lot of money in a short time, and when I was offered modelling jobs off the back of it, it was an added incentive to get out while the going was good. I had a nice nest egg at the end of it all and used it to help my family and to start investing in property.”

  “You were a model too?” she groaned.

  “You really didn’t think I looked familiar at all did you?”

  “No, I was too focused on how disgustingly handsome you are.”

  He laughed at her disgruntled tone, “you didn’t ever see the ads for Bravura Aftershave? It was a few years back - but it was a pretty big campaign at the time.”

  He watched her study his face for a minute and then recognition dawned,”Oh... my God – you’re the Bravura guy,” she rolled onto her back and looked up at the ceiling. “Jesus Christ,” she said in awe, “I can’t believe I’ve met the Bravura guy let alone I’ve been kissing him. I think you better get the nurse back in I’m gonna need more drugs.”

  She huffed and puffed in consternation, “You really just couldn’t make yourself more out of my league could you Todd?”

  “Don’t be silly, it’s all over now, I’m just an ordinary Joe.”

  “It’s not funny; I had a crush on you! I remember hating that blonde girl in the ads that got to drape all over you.”

  “That’s my ex girlfriend.”

  “Stop right there I don’t want to know anymore, if you say another word I’m going to spontaneously combust, I swear it.”

 
Todd pulled Jen back close to him and trailed kisses along her eyebrow to distract her, “I’m glad you managed to stop me tonight. I couldn’t think straight - I’ve never been so out of control in my life. I was going to kill him, I know I was, and the bastard didn’t even give me the satisfaction of trying to fight back.”

  Jen’s hand moved to stroke the hairs at the neck of his vest. She smiled teasingly, “well I did soften him up a bit for you. I knocked the wind out of him before you got there. You might not have managed to pulverize him so completely without me on your side!”

  Her humour diffused the tension in his face and he smiled softly.

  More seriously she said, “Todd, I think that’s why Lily, Ben and I didn’t realise the danger at the time. He seemed so pathetic – just this loathsome creep who needed to lie to get a girl.” She remembered something, “is it true what the boys said, that it’s on the internet, and that reporters’...”

  Todd nodded, “that’s why Sean got here ahead of me this evening, I got waylaid in the hall on the way in. On the plus side I think that’s why the nurse let me stay the night, it seems I’m now equally famous for being a rapist basher,” he said wryly.

  Jen cuddled in closer to him, “Todd would you mind taking the pins out of my hair for me, it’s hurting my head and I daren’t reach up.”

  “It would be my pleasure Miss Harris, anything for you.” His fingers stroked into her hair, gently massaging as he went, locating pin after pin.

  “God how many have you got in here?” he said after he’d removed at least two dozen. “Jeez I’m not surprised it hurts,” he carefully loosened the coils of her hair, easing and rubbing the tension from her scalp. It felt like bliss and smarted like hell at the same time.

  “I’m not sure I’ve got them all but that should be a bit better.” His broad fingers moved down her neck and rubbed the stress knots at the top of her spine.

  After a while she felt one of Todd’s hands creep down between the ties of the hospital gown at her back, and he trailed his fingertips up and down amid the gaps.

  “No bra – I like that,” he muttered softly as he spread his fingers in wider sweeps over her skin.

  Jen blushed, heat creeping along everywhere he touched. “It was built into the gorgeous dress that I’ll never wear again,” she said a little sadly.

  “When I said you looked beautiful this evening I meant it,” he said truthfully. “I saw you come in the door and my heart just about stopped. Every man in the restaurant was eyeing you and most of the women looked green with envy. All my brain could register was that I hoped tonight would be the night we... got a little closer so to speak.”

  He wasn’t surprised when she went a tad tense in his arms.

  Changing the subject back to safer territory he said “Don’t worry about the dress; if I know Sean he will have at least half a dozen more ready for you, probably has that same one in another colour. He’s having the time of his life because I gave him the go ahead to tell the press he was your personal dress designer, he’ll have offers flooding in. One of us might as well have some good come out of this whole mess.”

  Jen surprised him then when very carefully and slowly she said, “Even before we danced tonight I was tying myself up in knots, daring myself where this was going. I think it was heading where you hoped it would be heading.” She continued a bit more shyly, “I think it really was, but this,” she said indicating the two of them, “somehow it’s not quite what I thought.”

  At her words, Todd couldn’t resist any longer. He dropped his head to hers and kissed her, coaxing her lips with his to encourage them to open, he was thrilled at her instant acceptance and his tongue crept its way gently into her mouth, tracing her lips softly and tenderly.

  God she loved this, the feel of him. Todd who she felt was so far out of her league, that he should want her like this it absolutely blew her mind. He scared her in every way and yet filled her with feelings of safety and security at the same time.

  Jen kissed him back trying to put everything she felt into it, accepting his tongue and sliding hers back against him. Sucking his top lip, his bottom lip, bumping noses and chins, relishing the stubble rasping her skin and even the smell of day old man who’d been roughing it out in a jail cell. She craved it all.

  With a jolt she pulled away. Todd’s eyes were blazing even in the half light; his lips kiss swollen just as much as hers. His mouth followed hers as she retreated, beckoning her back to him.

  “No I want to look at you,” she said.

  His face grew puzzled, “I want to look at you,” she repeated, “get used to you, while you do nothing back.”

  Slowly Todd stilled his breathing and released her from his grip. His hands went to his waist and he pulled his vest off over his head, shifting to his back he draped one arm behind her head and the other down the length of the bed frame. Gingerly Jen sat up and looked down at him.

  Todd put his hand to her cheek, “ok – whatever you need.”

  “Scoot over a bit,” she said giving him the room, wanting him more central so he was more stretched out. There was so much of him to study.”

  “How tall are you?”

  “6 ft 3,” he said.

  “Wow.”

  She pulled the bed sheet away and studied his torso, all the way to his waist where his charcoal trousers ended with his bare feet.

  “You have such big feet!”

  “Size 12,” he shrugged.

  “How much do you weigh?”

  Todd looked at her quizzically; it was a long time since he’d been asked for his vital statistics.

  “I’m not sure, I think around 215. I’ve been bigger and fitter,” he admitted, “when I was fighting.”

  Jen’s left hand wandered over his chest, because of the cast it was just her fingertips stroking him.

  Down from his neck, she went over his prominent Adams apple and the clearly defined collar bone, over the delicious wide and solid pectorals with the perfect amount of deep brown hair feathering them. She touched both of his pinky brown nipples and wandered over his ribcage, admiring the narrowing trail of hair. Her fingers circled in it - pulling the strands gently.

  “I’m glad.”

  “Glad?” he gulped. This was perfectly torturous from his point of view.

  “You’ve got the six pack going on but you’re not too scary. You’re toned and muscly and chunky and I love these long veins in your arms, but somehow you don’t look like a ridiculous he man that has to study every bit of protein and carbs that go into his body to achieve it.”

  “I used to have an 8 pack back in the day,” he was sheepishly proud to admit, “but you’re right it was boring as hell to live like that, I enjoy food too much and although I still train I’ll never have that kind of discipline again.”

  Jen breathed in, “Would it be ok for you to take your pants off?”

  “Phhhhh,” Todd expelled all the air in his chest while he took a beat to think. “Er yes, but be warned all the blood has rushed to a particularly needy part of my anatomy, so try not to push me too much farther. I’m pretty strong willed but even I have my limits gorgeous.”

  Gingerly he unfastened his trousers and shucked them off, he gritted his teeth and lay back down, in order to control his hands he clasped them behind his head. His breathing became shallow as he watched her.

  Jen trained her eyes on his feet first and let them travel upward over his chiselled calves; his legs were lightly covered in the same dark hair he had everywhere else. When she reached his powerful thighs, she was hardly breathing. He had on black boxer briefs that were struggling to contain him.

  It was incredibly tempting to touch him there, but she knew she was already pushing him and herself to the limit. Good god look at him – he’s magnificent was all she could think.

  “You’ve got that lovely v shape down there.”

  “You like obliques do you?” He laughed without a trace of mockery at the awe in her voice.

  She
smiled and lifted her gaze to his eyes, stupidly she was struggling to meet his stare; one huge hand came to her face and stroked her jaw, his thumb tracing her cheek.

  “I’ve had a lot of years to think about what I might like.”

  She took his hand in hers and studied the newly scuffed skin on his knuckles, laid her own hand against his - palm to palm, wondering at just how tiny hers looked next to his. Her eyes filled and she shed a quiet tear.

  “What’s wrong?” he said softly.

  “You’re amazing,” she admitted.

  “Look at me,” he demanded, the heat in his eyes turning them olive green. “The sentiment is entirely mutual.”

  Jens hands returned to stroke his long arms, trailing his firm defined biceps. “I love these,” she said smiling again. She picked up his right arm and encouraged him to flex it for her, “wow, your arms and legs are so incredibly long.”

  “Yep most of my height is in my legs, so when we finally get our act straight our torsos should meet up just fine, although if this bed is anything to go by my feet will probably be hanging off the end.”

  His cheeky words conjured up delicious imagery in Jen’s head; oh he was a very devious man because yes she could picture it happening now.

  Jen put her hand over his where it stroked her face and before he had chance to guess what she would do, she sucked his first two fingers into her mouth and pressed her tongue against them, sucking gently and giving him a cheeky nip with her teeth.

  Todd shot upright nearly clashing head’s with her and hopped off the bed, grabbing his pants from the floor.

  “Where are you going, was that not ok?”

  “Bathroom, something I need to attend to urgently,” and then he was gone.

  Gingerly, Jen lay down again, and before she knew it she was chuckling away to herself at the effect she’d had on him. She burrowed her head in the pillow smothering the sounds, and breathing in their combined smell at the same time. She was happier at that moment than she ever thought possible.

  Chapter 9