Her body spasms and her moans grow louder with each thrust as I drive myself inside her. Clamping my hand over her mouth, I can’t help but laugh a little as she grips my hand tightly, pressing it firmly against her mouth as she yells her orgasm into my palm.
I let out a steady breath as I slam into her one last time, bursting again but still wanting more of her. I don’t think I’ll ever have enough.
Withdrawing from her, I lie down beside her and pull her onto my chest, leisurely stroking her back as we both breathe deeply to recuperate.
“You’re going to have to get a handle on that yelling,” I chuckle, knowing that anyone else in the flat has full knowledge of what just went on in here.
“If you want me to stop yelling, you’ll have to stop making me come,” she giggles, nipping her teeth against my chin.
“I don’t want that,” I say, hooking my finger under her chin and tilting her face up to meet mine, bringing our lips together, sliding my tongue over hers as I explore her mouth once more, trying to squash the nagging thought in my mind reminding me that each kiss is one less I’ll get before I have to go home.
We laugh into each other’s mouths as my stomach growls loudly. “I think it’s time for you to eat big boy,” she murmurs against me smiling. I get up, kissing Paige on the forehead and pull on my jeans from last night. I was sure to unlatch the door and collect all of our clothes from the entry way, so besides skipping out on the party, there shouldn’t be too much for anyone to be annoyed about – besides the noise we just made... ok, maybe they’ve got a bit to be pissed about.
I open my wardrobe and pull out a warm jumper, looking over as I see Paige watching me.
“Shame the weather isn’t warmer,” she comments.
“Oh yeah?” I say pulling her out of bed and hugging her to me. She slides her hands up under my clothes and over my chest.
“Yeah, I wouldn’t mind watching you walk around without a shirt on all day,” she purrs, kissing me on my neck.
I laugh and kiss her forehead again, “Well, I would prefer that you just walked around naked all day, but I wouldn’t be happy with the other guys ogling your body, so cover-up and come and have breakfast with me.”
Paige
“Fine,” I grumble, half in jest, half serious. Elliot watches as I pull on a pair of leggings and a long sleeved forest green dress that has a fitted bodice and flows down to my knees. He looks at me and raises his eyebrows. “What?” I say laughing at his expression, he looks concerned for some reason.
“You just look…”
“I just look what?”
“Busty.”
I laugh, “Busty?” I look down at the neck line of my dress. It's a simple V that admittedly, shows off my cleavage. I’m a C cup – it’s not like they’re double D’s flowing all over the place. “And that’s a problem, why?”
He steps towards me and runs his hands down the curve of my body and rests his hands on my hips, “It’s a problem because I don’t want any of the guys out there, looking at you and thinking the same things I do,” he says lowly.
“Elliot, they’ve seen me in sexier things than this.”
“Yeah, and each time they make comments about you that really piss me off,” he points out.
Tilting my head to the side, I sigh as I look at him in all of his constant gorgeousness. “Elliot, it doesn’t matter what you wear, you turn every woman’s head that you pass. If I can cope with that, you can cope with me wearing a dress that shows a little cleavage.”
He lets out his breath, “Fine,” he says as I move away from him and open the door.
When we walk out to the living area, Naomi and Gavin are sitting on the floor either side of the coffee table playing a game of cards.
“Morning,” I say.
“Morning lovebirds, sounds like you two were having fun this morning,” Gavin comments, grinning wildly. Naomi looks from me to Elliot and gives us an amused smile.
“We missed you two at the party last night,” she says.
“Why? We were there,” replies Elliot.
Gavin and Naomi laugh, “Yeah for two seconds,” points out Gavin.
Elliot tilts his head and shrugs his shoulders a little, “Well, the flat was lonely. We came back to keep it company.”
“Yeah, whatever man,” Gavin laughs. “You missed a fun party though. Shane got totally hammered and started dancing on the tables. It was so funny.”
“Ah well, sorry we missed it. Where’s Brian?” asks Elliot.
“He’s gone to pick up the new girl from the airport, Jolene, I think her name is,” answers Naomi.
“Is he in Shane’s car?” I ask. I meant to ask Shane what he was doing with it before he left.
“Yeah, Shane said he can use it until it sells,” Gavin informs me.
“How much does he want for it?” I ask.
“Couple of grand. Talk to Brian if you’re interested.”
“I will, thanks,” I say as I go into the kitchen and slide bread for Elliot and I into the toaster.
He follows me in, collects two cups and starts preparing instant coffee. “Are you thinking of buying a car?”
Nodding, I say, “Yeah, well, it would be handy don’t you think? We could take a drive to the country - see some other parts of the UK. Besides, I can’t stay here forever. After you go home, I think I should find somewhere on my own.”
Elliot
After you go home, the words echo in my ears and constrict my chest slightly. I don’t want to go and the fact she’s making plans regarding what she’s going to do when I leave bothers me.
“Where will you live?” I ask, trying to keep my aggravation out of my voice.
She shrugs as she concentrates on buttering our toast, “I haven’t decided yet,” she replies turning slightly to look at me. When she sees my face, she does a double take, sighs and turns to face me.
“You’re annoyed,” she states.
“I’m fine,” I say, totally not meaning it.
She takes a step towards me and places her hands on my chest, leaning into me as she speaks quietly, “Don’t make this harder than it already is, we both knew we only had a short time together… How about we don’t talk about what happens when you leave? We can deal with it when the time comes.”
I sigh and wrap my arms around her, burying my face in her hair. I have three weeks left. I've never felt so powerless over my own destiny before, not even when my father made me choose between Katrina and his financial support. Back then, that seemed horrible, and although I probably made the wrong choice at the time, I still had one. This time, I have to go home, I have to leave her, or I risk not being allowed to come back.
Chapter 22
Paige
After breakfast, Elliot excuses himself to go and have a shower. I can tell he’s still a little upset with me for mentioning my plans for when he goes home. I guess that was a little insensitive of me, I’m happy to leave the subject alone, but we can’t pretend like it isn’t going to happen. He needs to leave, and I need to stay.
Knocking on the bathroom door, I call to him that I’m going out for a while, I don’t wait to hear his response, but the others know I’m leaving so they can tell him for me.
I’ve told them all that I’ll pick up some milk while I’m out but my true reason for going is to take some time to think on my own. I feel so guilty about what’s happening between me and Elliot. He is so beautiful and kind, and I seriously wonder why in the world, he would choose me. Was it just that I was there when he was looking or was it some higher power that pushes people together and takes away their good sense and reasoning?
My stomach churns as I think about him leaving because let’s face it - I’m falling for him, hard. All we have left in this world is three more perfect weeks together, and it’s more than I could hope for. Long term, there’s simply no way we could make it, once I tell him everything about my past, it would be virtually impossible for him to look at me the same way he does now. As
much as I’d like to keep it all a secret, I can’t, I mean, things would be fine for a while but eventually my secrets would push him away – I just can’t pin all of my hopes on him.
I find a bench to sit on and scroll through the messages on my phone, there are at least ten notifications, telling me there are voice messages waiting – I know they’re from my parents but I haven’t been able to bring myself to listen to them but their ever increasing number keeps staring at me, taunting my curiosity.
I select one and my thumb hovers over the screen, just above the voicemail number. Nerves and foreboding fill my body, and I can’t seem to force myself to touch the numbers and make the call.
Blowing out my breath as I squeeze the emotion from my eyes, I hit the home button and select my gallery instead. I select the most recent photo I have of Elliot and I on the train when we were riding to Shane’s party last night, I touch his face on the screen and flick to the next one. It’s the one of us kissing outside the cemetery on that ghost walk he took me on.
Deciding to focus on Elliot and deal with my family issues in three weeks’ time, I delete my voicemail notifications and place my phone back in my bag on a sigh.
“I can do this,” I say to myself as I rise from the bench, heading towards the supermarket to go and buy the milk to take back with me.
Elliot
Paige has been gone for ages, and I’m starting to get worried, our new housemate, Jolene, has been here for nearly an hour already, and she’s still not back from getting milk.
I think about sending her a text or calling her, but I don’t want to seem too overbearing or worse – needy, even though right now, I feel like she’s the only reason my body allows me to take a breath.
Jolene seems like a nice enough girl. She's a Bondi girl same as me and thinks we might have actually mixed at some point as she used to date a guy I knew from Sydney Grammar. I probably have met her before, but she would have been like every other girl I knew back then and overlooked me because of my weight.
She keeps touching me on the arm, and I can see Naomi giving me a sympathetic smile. She knows me well enough by now to know that I don’t like girls who are all over me the moment we meet. I know I exploited the reaction girls have to me for a while after I broke up with Katrina, but that’s just not who I am. I like girls who like me for me, which is why I’m so glad when the door opens, and Paige walks in carrying the milk.
Paige
As soon as I open the door, I see everyone sitting on the floor talking around the coffee table. What’s the deal with the floor today? Is there a broken spring on the couch or something? Then I notice the new girl, Jocelyn – or something? I’m shit with names, so I’m not quite sure what hers is. However, she is paying a lot of attention to Elliot; her hand is on his arm, and she’s saying, “I can’t believe I have probably known you for most of my life, and I can’t even remember!”
He turns around and sees me, jumping up guiltily and coming over to greet me. My chest hurts, and I feel immediately sick. I was just out agonising over my feelings for him, and he’s back here flirting with the new girl?!
“Having fun?” I ask straight away. The new girl gets up and follows him over.
“Hi, I’m Jolene. You must be Paige,” she says, holding her hand out to shake mine. I look at it for a moment before I decide to give it a quick shake. She looks at me with uncertainty, “Um, Elliot and I were just catching up, turns out we knew a few of the same people at school.”
“I see,” I say flatly, I can feel that I’m being awful right now, but I don’t want her around me. “Excuse me,” I say as I place the milk in the fridge and walk to my room, locking the door behind me.
Elliot
I’m not really sure what’s wrong with her. She just came inside and was all annoyed. She was really rude to Jolene and didn’t even say hi to anyone else. I glance at Jolene, who’s looking around the room awkwardly.
“I need to go and see what’s wrong with her,” I say.
“Oh!” she says, seeming a little confused before it clicks. “Are you two together?”
“We are,” I confirm as I head off down the hallway and tap on the door before trying to open it. It’s locked. “Paige,” I call through it. “Can you open the door please?”
She doesn’t answer so shaking my head in annoyance, I stalk back to the entryway to go and get my keys and open it myself. As I pass the lounge room all eyes are on me, but the look on my face must tell them I’m not in the mood for talking to them because they quickly look away and pretend to be talking about something else.
Paige
We had pushed the two beds together last night, so I’m lying across the middle of both of them, listening to Radiohead’s OK Computer, my headphones blasting the track Lucky into my ears to block out any sounds around me. I just over reacted big time. I’ve never done the jealous girlfriend thing before – although I’ve never cared so much about someone before. In the past, the men I was with were a means to an end, I chose them for reasons other than attraction.
When the door opens, I sit up on my elbows, watching as Elliot closes it gently behind him and climbs onto the bed next to me.
He lies on his side and looks at me. Concern etched into his facial features as he searches my face with his eyes. My heart skips as his fingers brush my face when he reaches over to me, pulling one of the buds from my ear and spilling Thom Yorke’s crooning voice into the quiet of the room.
“Are you going to tell me what’s up?”
I stop the music and slide myself up, so I am sitting on the bed against the wall. He watches me intently, waiting for my response.
“I just walked in and saw you flirting with the new girl, and I hated it.”
He raised his eyebrows and then cracked a smile, “You think I was flirting with her?”
“Uh, yeah – you were all smiling and laughing while she was touching you. Then you jumped up all guilty the second you saw me.”
He started chuckling; I'm having a jealous hissy fit, and he's chuckling at me!
“Have you even considered that I was jumping up because I was relieved that you were home? You were gone for over an hour to get milk – I was worried. Jolene was going on and on in my ear, and I was trying to be polite and listen but all I could think about was you. I jumped up because I was glad you were back and that nothing bad had happened, plus - I was glad you were back so Jolene would see I have a girlfriend and stop throwing herself at me.”
“So I’m your girlfriend now am I?” I ask, feeling ridiculous at how my heart just did cartwheels through my chest when he said it.
He climbs up the bed and kneels in front of me. “Paige – we live together; you are way more than just my girlfriend, alright? You should know by now that I hate girls being all over me. I find it incredibly uncomfortable.”
“Yeah right, you hate pretty girls flirting with you and touching you?”
“Paige - I was pretty overweight when I was a kid, right up until my late teens. Girls like Jolene out there - they didn’t give me the time of day. When I got into sports, lost a bunch of weight and started to bulk up with muscle, suddenly these girls were looking at me like I was this new guy they’d never met before, and they made their interest obvious – just like Jolene was. I admit - I went with it more than a few times, because I am a guy not a saint, but it was all hollow. Those girls, they didn’t like me, or we would have been dating when I was overweight. They only liked what I looked like and what being with me did for them. I’m not stupid. I know how I look, and I know that I attract a lot of women, but I don’t want them. The only woman I care about touching me, or flirting with me – is you, don’t ever doubt that.”
“You were chubby?” I ask disbelievingly, trying not to smile.
“Why are you laughing? I’m pouring my heart out here!” he laughs back.
“I’m sorry! It’s just that the image of you as a chubby kid is so adorable!”
He pulls me toward him and rolls on
top of me, biting on my neck so it tickles like hell. I’m laughing so hard that I start slapping at his back and yelling, “Stop! Stop!”
Slowing his mouth to a gentle kiss, he pulls away and looks down into my face as he holds himself over me.
“Can I tell you something?” I ask, touching his face.
“Anything,” he replies.
“I haven’t had a boyfriend for eight years.”
His eyebrows shoot up, “Eight years?”
Nodding, I say, “I didn’t think I could care about anyone again.”
A smile spreads over his mouth as he leans closer to me, lowering his voice to a low deep gravel that hums through my body when he speaks. “So… you care about me huh?”
“Very much,” I whisper as his mouth meets mine, my body responding immediately by wrapping my arms and legs around him, writhing against him.
Breaking away for a moment, he looks down at me, eyes sparkling. “So, um, that was some trick you showed me this morning,” he growls, pressing his erection against me, nipping me on my neck and driving me wild.
“Do you want me to show you again?” I whisper, gasping as he pushes himself against me once more.
“Hell yeah,” he grins, eyes twinkling as he rolls on to his back, still holding me against him. I make a big show of sliding down his body, undoing his pants slowly before releasing his erection, gliding my hand up and down his smooth shaft before lowering my mouth.
“No yelling,” I tease, before taking him in my mouth and slowly start drawing him in.
Chapter 23
Paige
“You seem much happier these past couple of weeks,” Andrea comments during the afternoon lull in the salon. “You and Elliot must be getting along well then?”
“Are we ever,” I reply, attempting to keep the ear to ear grin to myself as I put the kettle on to make us both a tea, I can’t help but gush a little about how great things have been since we moved into the room in the flat together.
A Beautiful Forever Page 14