19
CIARA
I wake up disturbed by the light that passes through the heavy curtains in Aaron’s room. I feel a heavy weight on my chest and realize as I lift my head that he’s blissfully asleep on my left breast.
I move just slightly and he rolls onto his back, lifting his arm over his head.
I let my fingers run down his face, along his chest and abdomen, then run along his pectoral muscles, provoking his involuntary smile.
He’s covered up to his waist with his V-line just visible as it disappears under the sheet.
I deny myself the view because I need to move and stretch my aching muscles. I must have been in that position the rest of the night because I feel weak and disoriented.
Okay, maybe the fantastic sex we had might have had something to do with it.
Good Lord.
I am just now starting to realize that I slept with Aaron. Panic assaults me immediately. I get up, trying not to wake him and make off to the bathroom in his room, closing the door behind me. I look at myself in the mirror and notice red marks on my neck and chest. Marks that will probably turn into bruises and become hard to hide. It’s the physical evidence that this really happened, that Aaron was with me tonight.
What’s going to happen when he wakes up? Will he say it was just a mistake? Will he ask me to leave?
My throat closes up and a wave of heat flashes through me with a terrible anxiety that assails me as I realize what I’ve done.
I need a cold shower to bring me back to my senses. I open the showers stall, turn on the water and jump right in, trying to wash away my own sense of guilt and the certainty in knowing what I have really just experienced because there is no turning back now.
The water falls over me as I let the tears fall when two solid hands grab my waist, turning me around.
“Ciara…what the hell? Are you…crying?”
“Me… no…” I stutter unconvincingly.
“You regret it, don’t you? You’re already wishing it hadn’t happened… God, you promised me you weren’t going to do this, that it would all be alright, you asked me to trust you and now I find you in tears in my shower.”
“I’m sorry…”
“What? You’re sorry? Don’t you dare say something like that,” he says seriously, taking my face in his hands. “Don’t excuse yourself with me for any reason in the world, ever. Is that clear?”
I nod, trying to calm myself.
“Let’s start over… Good morning,” he whispers, kissing me on my wet lips and entering the shower with me. He holds my face in his hands while his tongue takes possession of my mouth, sucking out all of the oxygen I had in my lungs.
Aaron’s kisses should be illegal.
They take away everything, they leave you unable to do anything. They swipe away your life and make you forget even how to breathe.
He backs away slightly, avidly sucking my lower lip which is still swollen from last night. Then he lowers his gaze and pouts at seeing my red, scratched skin.
“I’m sorry,” he says and touches the bruised areas with his lips. “I was an animal, but you are so…”
He caresses me with those hands God gave him and has a worried look on his face.
“It’s nothing. It’ll fade in a few days,” I reassure him.
“It’s also due to this damned beard.”
I touch it and smile at him.
“It’s sexy and exciting,” I tell him and slip him my tongue without even thinking about it.
