The Honeymoon Period (The Austin Series)

by Fallowfield, C. J.

  ‘Me too, but your suitcase won’t pack itself, just like dinner won’t cook on its own. Plus you wanted to spend a bit of time with Lexi.’

  ‘I do. What time do we get back on Sunday?’

  ‘We should be back here by five, why?’

  ‘Lexi and I’d like to go out together, as we’ll miss our Friday night and we missed last night too and both nights the week before. Do you mind?’ I asked as I stroked his ribs.

  ‘Just the two of you?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Where are you thinking of going?’

  ‘Probably Princes Street, work our way along a few bars.’

  ‘Drinking?’ I felt his body stiffen a little under me as his hand stroked my back.

  ‘Yes, and we’d be together all the time.’

  ‘What time would you be home?’

  ‘Midnight, the latest, please Gabe,’ I begged, trying a sexy pout. He closed his eyes and sighed, so I pulled out the big guns and lifted my head, tilted his toward me and kissed him and bit and sucked on his lower lip as I caressed his neck, knowing it would make him cave. ‘I miss my best friend Gabe, it’s only one evening and you could have some quality time with Doug and I’ll come home to bed with you after.’

  ‘Ok, fine,’ he sighed. ‘But you make sure you have your phone with you, it’s on at all times and you and Lexi are glued at the hip. I’ll come and pick you up when you’re ready to come home.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘Yes,’ he said, sounding as if he really meant no.

  ‘Thank you.’ I kissed him multiple times until he started laughing.

  ‘It’s me who should be thanking you.’

  ‘For what? You just did all the work, again,’ I smiled.

  ‘For your little display in English. You took me completely by surprise.’

  ‘I figured out you were letting Milo know we were a couple in no uncertain terms, so I thought it’d please you if I made it perfectly clear to everyone that I’m yours and you’re mine.’

  ‘O, I think they got that baby, especially the girl behind you that you gave your jealous glare to. That was quite some kiss, you made my day,’ he smiled. I grinned and kissed him again, until he groaned, gripped my arms and rolled me off him and stood up at the side of the bed, his hand extended.

  ‘Shower, now, before we end up doing this again. I’m going to help you so you don’t slip over with all that oil on you.’

  ‘Where did you learn to massage?’ I asked as I followed him through.

  ‘I’ve had so many myself, you pick things up. Was it good?’

  ‘Amazing Gabe, please feel free to do that to me again, but you better tell me that you’ve changed to a male masseuse,’ I replied as he leaned me back on the wall, turned on the shower and started washing me down with a facecloth.

  ‘O baby, you’re so jealous. I love it.’

  ‘Would you like the thought of another man rubbing his hands all over my hot, tight little body?’

  ‘No I bloody wouldn’t,’ he bit back without hesitation.

  ‘Then you know how I feel, no woman touching yours. This sensational package is all mine, Gabe Austin,’ I said as I looked up at his amused face and ran my hands over his solid strong biceps.

  ‘All of it? I thought you just loved my big cock.’

  ‘O I do, I love it very much, but I also love all of the rest of it and especially what’s in here,’ I laid my hand over his heart and kissed him. ‘That’s my favourite part of all.’

  ‘You’re starting to get romantic Miss Page, who would’ve thought that a few months ago?’ he cleaned between my legs with the face cloth.

  ‘You’re rubbing off on me.’

  ‘No, but I’d like to again,’ he said with a cheeky grin and wink. I slapped his arm as he laughed, then I washed both our hair and finished cleaning up. I decided not to dry myself, but just wrap up in my dressing gown and let the remaining oils soak into my skin, as I cleaned off my streaked mascara and dried my hair into silky tumbling waves. He stood behind me and nosed into it before kissing my shoulder and squeezing my butt before getting dressed. I smiled at myself in the mirror, this was a good day, it was the happiest I’d felt in forever and I really hoped it was a sign that we were back on track, back to normality. I started packing my toiletries and makeup and looked up to find him back in his jeans and black shirt and watched as he walked around barefoot as he folded up the satin sheet and blew out the candles. He walked over to me and undid the tie on my dressing gown and threw it on the bed and ran his hands over my now soft, dewy skin, pausing on my breasts.

  ‘This is how I want you most of the weekend, you don’t need to pack a dressing gown. Hmmm, I’m almost tempted to blow off dinner and eat you instead.’ The look he gave me was so hot, I felt my knees go and he grabbed me by the waist and laughed. ‘You’ve no idea what a turn on it is to see and feel you react to me, Mia.’

  ‘In my defence you’re very easy to react to. Please go or I’ll never get packed. And tell Lexi to come in, I need her help with something.’

  He kissed me and ran his fingers through my hair hesitating and then sighed and left. I pulled on some slouching clothes and grabbed my medium suitcase from under the bed and packed some sexy underwear, stockings and suspenders and some casual clothes and called Lexi in. I showed her what I was thinking of taking for the dressy night and club night and she agreed. We argued over what shoes and bag would go with my dress before agreeing on one set that would go with both outfits and she went to get me some of her jewellery to go with the dress. When she returned, I pulled out a box from under my bed and showed her a sexy dressing up outfit I’d purchased and got the thumbs up so I packed that as well.

  ‘Are you two actually going to leave your room?’ she asked amused.

  ‘I’d like not to, on at least one day, but I do want to see the pandas and some of the city.’

  ‘Sod it, just shag all weekend. He’s not going to be able to keep his hands off you with the stuff you’ve packed, Mia.’

  ‘Are you going to be ok? This will be the longest we’ve been apart since we met.’ Even when I was living at Gabe’s, Lexi had stopped over a few nights each week.

  ‘I’ll miss you, Doug will be a poor substitute, but you’ll keep in touch, right?’

  ‘Yes and we’re on for Sunday night as well, so be ready to leave at six and I’ll get ready as soon as I get in.’

  ‘Brill, so what were you two up to in here earlier? You were unusually quiet and it smells lush.’

  ‘God, it was amazing. He lit loads of candles and gave me a frangipani oil massage and then made love to me.’

  ‘He makes love? I thought he just fucked.’

  ‘Most of the time yes, but then we have the odd time where we take it slow. It’s not as earth moving, but it feels so raw and intimate, you know? We always feel closer after doing it like that.’

  ‘Do you realise how damn lucky you are? Control freakery aside.’

  ‘I do Lexi, and I really want that for you as well. Promise to talk to Doug and work on it?’

  ‘Speaking of, I think I can hear him. We done here? Let’s go and have a drink and head to the lounge.’

  We walked into the kitchen and I smiled as Lexi kissed Doug and I kissed Gabe, who was stirring up something that smelled delicious. Who’d have thought a couple of months ago that we’d both be sitting here now with steady boyfriends? Lexi and I grabbed a beer and went to the lounge leaving them in the kitchen. I closed the curtains and dimmed the lights while Lexi put the fire on.

  ‘Shit, how good do we have it, Mia? We get to put our feet up while the men cook for us.’

  ‘I know, I was just thinking the same. If anyone had told us three months ago that you’d be going steady and I’d be in love and moving in with a guy we’d have laughed them out of the room.’

  ‘How long before you knew you loved him?’

  ‘I think I knew within days, but was too scared to even admit it to myself, let alone him. I
was one-hundred percent sure the day I booked the tattoo. Why?’

  ‘It’s been longer than that with Doug and I’m not at the love stage,’ she sighed.

  ‘Do you look forward to seeing him and spending time with him?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘So don’t worry for now. Some people take ages to fall in love, Lex.’

  ‘Mia, you were with Kai for three months and it never happened and you broke it off.’

  ‘I broke it off because I knew it wasn’t going anywhere and I was moving away.’

  ‘Still, I think if it doesn’t happen within a couple months, forget it.’

  ‘I don’t think you can set a time limit on these things, Lexi. I was really lucky to find Gabe and feel that so quickly, especially given my history. You haven’t had any good male role models either, maybe you’re even more cautious than I was.’

  ‘Maybe,’ she sighed and put her finger to her lips as the lounge door opened.

  ‘Ok bodacious babes, dinners up, to the table,’ grinned Doug as he stuck his head round. I laughed and kissed him on the cheek as we went past. I was really fond of him and it was obvious he adored Lexi, but I was starting to worry about what was going to happen between the two of them. Gabe had cooked us an amazing beef stroganoff, with his usual favourite basmati and wild rice and fine green beans. I ate left handed as he held my hand under table and I saw Lexi raise her eyebrows and smile at me. The boys had fruit for dessert and Lex and I cracked open some cookie dough from the freezer and they laughed at us moaning as we ate it.

  ‘How do we always get stitched up with the cooking and clear up?’ I asked as I closed the dishwasher and set it after Doug and Lexi disappeared to the lounge.

  ‘Because if we didn’t, we’d live on toast or take out and come home to the mess we did on Sunday. So you all packed?’ he asked as he pinned me to the sink and slipped his hands under my top to stroke my waist.

  ‘Yes and no peaking in my case, there are a few surprises in there.’ I put my hands on his large rounded biceps and looked up at him.

  ‘Ditto baby. God, your skin feels even softer than normal,’ he purred.

  ‘Would you enjoy it if I could do that to you?’

  ‘What, stroke my waist?’

  ‘No,’ I laughed. ‘Massage you.’

  ‘Would I prefer my girlfriend rubbing oils into my body, instead of my male, built like a brick shit house, Russian ex-Olympic sports therapist? Hell, yeah.’

  ‘Then you’ll have to let me try one day and give me pointers. Why did you keep your boxers on?’

  ‘To keep the oil off my cock, you don’t want that inside you.’

  ‘Always so sexually considerate.’ I tiptoed up to kiss him before grabbing his hand and leading him to the lounge. He got in the recliner and parted his legs and patted for me to sit in between them and rested his chin on my head, put his hands back up my top, his fingers running back and forth over my stomach. I looked over at Lexi, sitting upright facing the TV with Doug’s head on her lap and sighed. I really wanted her to be as happy as I was, for it to work with Doug, but I could feel her getting ready to quit.

  ‘You ok?’ Gabe whispered.

  ‘Yeah,’ I nodded.

  ‘That was a big sigh.’

  ‘Thinking about something non us related, it’s nothing,’ I reassured him. He squeezed tighter around me and kissed the top of my head and I put my hands under my top to rest on top of his and yawned and closed my eyes. That massage had made me so relaxed, I was ready for bed. I jumped when I heard a load of laughing and felt Gabe nuzzling my ear. ‘What?’ I asked as I opened my eyes to see Doug and Lexi chuckling at me.

  ‘Mia, seriously, that’s too cute,’ laughed Doug.

  ‘You were making funny noises again,’ added Lexi.

  ‘Seriously? I feel asleep?’ I asked and they both nodded.

  ‘You did baby and I think it’s time to get you to bed.’

  ‘But we just sat down,’ I protested.

  ‘No we sat down over an hour ago, you went out like a light. Come on, we’ve got to be up at five.’ He let go of me and we all stood up and I went to give Doug a kiss.

  ‘Have a great time, Mia,’ he smiled.

  ‘Thanks, Doug. Keep an eye on this one for me will you and try not to get the place in the state it was at the weekend,’ I warned.

  ‘Sure thing and again, sorry about that.’

  ‘Thanks for paying to clean it up.’ I turned to look at Lexi and she grabbed me into a bear hug and I hugged her back and we just stood like that, swaying from side to side.

  ‘I’m really going to miss you,’ she mumbled.

  ‘You too Lex, I’ll text you.’

  ‘You bloody better.’

  ‘We’ll be back on Sunday you two,’ I heard Gabe say.

  ‘So?’ I replied as we hung onto each other. ‘We’ve never been apart for that long.’

  ‘Seriously?’ he asked, sounding astonished.

  ‘Yes, ever since we met at eleven. The longest we’ve gone without seeing each other is my weekends with you, Gabe. Ok Lex, I have to go, we’ve a really early start and you’ve got Doug to keep you company, ok?’

  ‘Suppose so,’ she sighed as she let me go.

  ‘Hey, thanks a lot for the enthusiasm, Lex,’ ribbed Doug.

  I kissed her on the cheek as Doug and Gabe did their quick back pat hug thing and Gabe grabbed my hand, pulled me out to the bathroom and we brushed our teeth, stripped off and got into bed. I set my phone alarm for five and turned off the light and snuggled up against him onto his outstretched arm.

  ‘You’ve really never gone more than four days without seeing Lexi?’

  ‘No,’ I replied, draping my leg over his and running my fingers across his stomach.

  ‘In seven years?’

  ‘Yes, why?’

  ‘I knew you were close, just not that close,’ he said as he stroked my arm.

  ‘Of course we’re that close. We boarded together for seven years and spent all our holidays together. In case you haven’t noticed, we don’t really make friends that easily.’

  ‘Do you resent me for taking up so much of your time? Time that you’d normally spend with her?’

  ‘No, of course I don’t resent you Gabe, I love you,’ I replied and kissed his chest. ‘It’s just going to be weird not seeing her for so long, or being close enough to come home if she needs me, but I haven’t been able to spend too much time with her lately and that’s why it’s important for me to make an effort and not let her down again. Don’t get me wrong, I love spending time with you, but she’s my girlfriend and I need to have some quality girl on girl time with her too.’

  ‘Wow, you just made that last sentence sound so hot,’ he groaned.

  ‘Gabe.’ I slapped his stomach.

  ‘Owwww, I’m teasing you. Though given you were in an all-girls school for so long have you ever been with another girl?’

  ‘No I haven’t, not even snogging and I don’t envision it ever happening unless one of my top three made an offer. How did Lexi put it when she shocked you? O yes, I’m a strictly cock girl and I’m very partial to yours.’

  ‘You’d better only be partial to mine, but I’m very happy you love my cock as much as I do,’ he replied. ‘Top three?’

  ‘That’s a conversation for another night when I don’t have to get up at silly a.m.’

  ‘Well I’m sorry I buggered up last night for you both. I promise to make more of an effort to give you space to have fun with her too.’ I felt his lips on the top of my head.

  ‘Hmmm.’

  ‘Are you dozing off again?’

  ‘Hmmm.’

  ‘Sleep tight then baby, I love you.’

  ‘You too,’ I yawned and let his steady strong heartbeat lull me to sleep.

  Thursday

  It was still dark as I watched all the bright lights of the passing traffic as Riley drove us to the airport. I had my head on Gabe’s shoulder as I looked out, amazed so many peopl
e were on the roads at this hour and how dark it still was. Riley unloaded our two cases, wishing us a safe trip.

  ‘This is weird,’ I said to Gabe as we walked hand in hand through the departures lounge.

  ‘What is? You being up at this hour?’ he replied with a smile on his face.

  ‘Well yes, that too. I meant being in an airport with you, being here with a guy on my own.’

  ‘Hmmm, yes, I’ve never been away with a girl before. You never went away with a boyfriend?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘How many guys have you dated?’

  ‘Do you really want to have this conversation?’ I looked up at him surprised.

  ‘You already told me no sex or oral, so why would it bother me?’

  ‘About forty guys if you count a minimum of a week from first to last date.’ I wasn’t telling him how many others I’d snogged, that was a huge list.

  ‘Forty, seriously?’

  ‘You said you wouldn’t be bothered.’

  ‘Not in a jealous way, I’m just amazed that out of forty guys you held off being serious or having sex and then jumped straight in with me.’

  ‘You were different, special. I just knew I wanted more,’ I blushed.

  ‘Just like me with you.’ He tugged me to him and kissed me in the middle of the walkway, his hand on my cheek and I let myself mould into his body, my hands on his chest and sighed happily. I’d missed this Gabe so much. ‘Come on, I need caffeine,’ he said smiling as he saw my eyes had glazed over from his kiss. As he walked past the coffee shops and restaurants and headed towards the private lounge, I gave him a look. ‘It didn’t cost me any more baby, it’s part of the benefits of my credit card.’

  ‘You get private lounge access with your credit card? Damn, and I thought my Amazon points were good,’ I laughed as we walked in.

  We settled down with a coffee and smoked bacon sandwich each, in a very comfortable massage chair and it seemed only minutes when our flight was called. We boarded and were two rows from the front. There were only two seats on the one side of the aisle and one on the other.

  ‘Wow, I’ve never been in such a small plane,’ I exclaimed and he smiled before offering me the window seat. ‘I’d rather you take it Gabe, so I’m not tempted to lean on your bad shoulder. Please do it for me,’ I added as he started to protest, before doing as I asked. He gripped my hand as we taxi’d to the runway and even tighter as the plane sped up to take off and I looked up at him.