A Beautiful Forever (12 page)

He supports his weight as he joins me on the bed, his hands
roaming underneath my clothes and setting my skin ablaze. Completely lost in
his mouth and touch, I wish for this moment to never end and pray silently that
this isn’t some dream that will be over the moment I wake up.

Oh god, how could I have denied myself this? I have never
done this with anyone I had strong feelings for before. It’s glorious.

Cupping my breast in his hand, he kisses my neck, causing me
to moan as pleasure flows like waves inside me, crashing with each kiss against
my skin. Sliding down my body, he lifts my shirt, hisfingertips brushing my
already heated skin and setting it ablaze once more. When he starts to kiss his
way towards my bust, I gasp and moan, becoming completely undone as he releases
my breasts, swirling his tongue around each nipple until they are so hard I
feel as though I’ll explode with each suck.

Gasping as each sensation shoots straight down between my
legs, I writhe, oh god do I writhe as I urge him forward, wanting him to touch
me more.

“Can we take it off?” he asks breathlessly, holding the
shirt that is now bunched up to my armpits. I hesitate momentarily, realising
suddenly that this will be the first time anyone has seen me naked in a very
long time. I’m talking years long.

Reaching up I touch his face, his eyes close as he turns his
head to kiss my hand and my heart soars. Taking a deep, steadying breath, I nod
my head, trusting him as I sit up and remove the shirt myself.

I practically hold my breath as I watch her remove her shirt
along with her bra. She's so beautiful as her hair falls down over her
shoulders and rests like silken curtains just above the two most perfect
breasts I've ever seen. Round and firm, they’re just the right size to fill my
hands.

As my eyes travel over her upper body, I notice that her
tattoo curls over her shoulders and her sides.

“Will you let me see it?” I ask her, knowing that I’m
risking ending this moment between us if she clams up, but I can’t help myself.
I want to drink in every inch of her with my eyes.

A look of hesitation flits across her face before she nods
and turns her body to show me. My eyes grow wide as I see it for the first time
- her back is like one big canvas for the most remarkable tattoo I have ever
seen. Flames start at her waist as the Phoenix rises, its beak open as it calls
out over her right shoulder with its wings outstretched, reaching up over her
left shoulder and down around to her ribs on her right side as if it’s hugging
itself around her. The Phoenix's tail feathers fan out near the flames, curving
around her body until they reach her hip bone in swirls of yellow, orange and
red.

I run my fingers lightly over it, tracing the span of this
mythical creature’s body.  “It’s beautiful Paige,” I whisper, caught up in
admiration, not only for the art but for the time and pain, she would have
invested in getting it.

“Really?” she asks turning back to face me.

“Yes, really.” I reach up and thread my fingers through her
hair, pulling her face towards mine, kissing her with everything I have in me.
Her arms circle around me, her fingers press firmly into my back, compacting
our bare chests closer together, until there is no more space. We are merged
almost as one, her skin so soft against my own, melding to me, beckoning me
forward.  

Pressed together, our tongues slide against each other in a
lavish dance of passion, our teeth clashing as our urgency increases, and we
fall back on the bed. Traveling down my neck and across my chest, his kisses
leave a searing trail of fire in their wake, causing my head to swim and the
rest of my skin to feel chill in comparison. My mind swirls, as I pull
desperately at his body, drawing him closer wth my overwhelming need to feel
him inside me.

Reaching down I unbutton his jeans, urging him to move
forward. “Take them off,” I pant out.

He breaks away momentarily and finishes removing his pants,
stepping out of them and sweeping them to the side of the room. With my eyes
glued to him, I unbutton my own jeans and start to wriggle out of them. Swiftly
reaching out, he grabs them for me, pulling them off my legs and flinging them
over his shoulder, grinning wickedly as he climbs back over me, planting gentle
kisses over my body until we’re once again face to face.

As the silken feel of his body slides on top of mine, I’m
overcome with wanting, rocking my hips upwards, urging him to push inside of
me. Moaning, he shifts slightly to the side and captures my mouth in his,
kissing me, sliding his hand down the length of my chest and over my mound as
erotic sounds escape his throat and ripple through me causing my insides to
contract.

Finding its way between my legs, his touch is exquisite as
his fingers slide through the slickness of my arousal. Gasping upon contact, I
reflexively rock my hips against his hand, moaning as I feel his fingers enter
me, curling forwards and working my tender insides already desperate to burst.
As we moan into each other mouths, he works his fingers in rhythm to my
rocking, circling his thumb around my swollen nub and causing a flood of
glorious warmth that spreads out quickly and explodes from my body as I call
out, thrusting my hips and clamping my thighs around his hand.

Gasping out, I clutch his hand, crying, “Please, I want you
inside me so badly, I need you inside me!”

A guttural moan comes from deep in his chest and fills my
tingling body with an urgency more intense than before. Poised over me, he slams
his length into me, both of us gasping and moaning as he moves inside my body,
gliding in and out with forceful perfection, filling me to my core, his rhythm
heating me from within once again, radiating outward until I burst yet again.

“Shit! Condom!” I cry out as my body is wracked with an
orgasm so powerful I can’t stop myself from convulsing as I clench myself
around him.

Stopping suddenly, he holds himself on straight arms,
dropping his head until his forehead rests on my shoulder. “I’m sorry Paige.
It's too late,” he whispers through laboured breaths. 

The glory of our love making ends abruptly as I realise what
we’ve done. Annoyed with myself for getting carried away, I push at his
shoulder to get him to roll off me.

Lying on his back, he presses his hands to his forehead,
sighing heavily. As I sit up, I reach out, grabbing the sheet from his bed,
wrapping it around myself as I rise off the mattress to visit the bathroom. I
need to clean up.

“Paige – ” Elliot pleads as he quickly sits and reaches for
my arm.

A painful ache forms in the pit of my belly as I pause and
turn towards him, touching his face and brushing my hand over his course
stubble. “I’m just going to take a shower ok?” I speak, my voice barely above a
whisper as I try to appear unaffected.

“Are you alright? Paige! Listen - you need to know I’m clean
ok?” he tells me looking genuinely worried as he rests his hands firmly on my
hips and pulls me towards him.

“I’m fine Elliot…, and I’m clean too – I just need a shower.
I'll come back afterwards alright? Don’t worry, we’re all good…I just want us
to use one in future ok?”

“We will Paige, I just got carried away. I'm sorry I –”

Leaning forward quickly, pressing my lips against his, I
silence him. I’m the one that urged him inside me. I’m the one that wasn’t
thinking. “It wasn’t your fault. Don’t be sorry,” I whisper before stepping
towards the door, the sheet trailing along the floor behind me. “I’ll bring a
clean sheet with me when I come back,” I tell him before I exit the room and make
my way to the shower to clean it all away.

Sighing heavily, I feel like such a fucking idiot as I lay
here, listening to the sounds of Paige showering. I can’t believe I got carried
away like that, although it’s not like it hasn’t happened before. Thinking
about the way I felt the first time I did that with Katrina, I realise that I
must have it pretty bad for Paige, my feelings seem so much more intense this
time around, and I can’t help but wonder what I would do if I was given an ultimatum
and had to leave Paige. I feel a desperate need for her that’s unsettling and
glorious all at the same time. I can’t imagine anything changing my mind about
her. I
need
her.

Rising from the bed, I pull on a pair of boxer shorts as I
pick up our discarded clothing and fold it in a pile on top of the suitcase I
keep at the foot of my bed. When the door cracks open, I turn to see Paige,
looking like an apparition as she’s bathed in the light from the hallway as it
filters around her and into the room.

She’s wearing an oversized white t-shirt, her slender legs,
long and tan in contrast as I watch her move towards me, holding out a clean
sheet.

“Thanks,” I say, taking it from her and dropping it still
folded on the bed.

We stand together awkward for a moment before I sit in front
of her and pull her towards me, sliding my hands up her legs and under the hem
of her shirt. My intension was to hold her to me, to talk about what just
happened. But, a grin creeps over my face as my hands continue up, never
meeting any resistance from underwear. Her eyes sparkle mischievously, as her
hands slide over my hair and down the side of my face affectionately. 

“You’re wearing too many clothes,” I say as I lift her shirt
over her head and pull her onto the bed with me. “Maybe we should try that
again, properly this time,” I suggest, wanting to put the whole ‘no condom’
thing behind us.

“I think that’s a wonderful idea,” she whispers. “But this
time I get to be on top,” she informs me as she removes my boxers and slides
her legs either side of me.

***

 “So um, do you want to tell me the story behind this
tattoo?” I ask, running my hands down her back as we lay together afterwards.

“Not really,” she says quietly, her body stiffening slightly
as she speaks. Not wanting to push her any further, I move my hand from her
back to caress her arm instead. Feeling even more curious but knowing that now
isn’t the time to push it.

A silence settles over us. It's not one of those
uncomfortable ones that makes you feel like you’ve made a mistake after
sleeping with someone. It’s one of those silences, filled with questions and
answers that remain unspoken, but at some point will need to be said.

“Elliot, do you have any plans this weekend,” she asks me
suddenly.

“Um, no, do you?”

“I do actually,” she says carefully, sitting up to look at
me. Her mass of dark hair falling over her shoulders as she leans forward to
talk to me. I raise my eyebrows in question, trying to keep my focus on her
face and not her body. “I’d like you to come with me actually – for moral
support. I’m… I’m going to meet my father,” she reveals.

I sit up quickly, frowning in confusion. “Your father? But…”

“I know - you thought he was dead,” I say over the top of
him. I reach down to the floor and pick up a shirt that’s lying there. It’s not
mine, but it will do. I don’t want to have this conversation naked.

Closing my eyes, I take a deep breath, post-coitus probably
isn’t the best time to be doing this, but I feel the need to open up to him, I
need to give him something about me. I feel so guilty right now, like I’m
leading him astray and tricking him into caring about me, he needs to know what
he’s getting into. 

“I’m listening,” he says, his eyes boring into me.

“My family isn’t dead Elliot. They're all alive and well –
as far as I know anyway – they kicked me out when I was fifteen, and I’ve been
lying and saying that they’re dead so people don’t question me.” I let it all
out in a rush of breath and then hold it, waiting for him to react.

“They what?” he asks looking down at me, deep furrows
between his brows.

“They’re not dead,” I repeat.

“No, no – I got that; I’m asking about the other part. They
kicked you out?!" he queried, a disbelieving tone in his voice.

“Yes Elliot, they kicked me out,” I confirmed. “So you’re
not angry with me?”

He scrunches his face up, confused, “Angry with you? Why the
hell would I be angry with
you
?”

“Because I
lied
, Elliot. I made you think I was an
orphan.”

He puts his hands on my shoulders, holding me firmly as he
peers into my face intently. “Paige. Your parents kicked you out of home when
you were still a child, if my parents did that – I’d probably say they were
dead too. I don’t care what you did, no one deserves that.”

I blink rapidly as tears threaten to spill from my eyes, I
can’t believe he's reacting this way. I expected him to yell at me, to tell me
he needed time to think. What I didn’t expect was complete understanding.

“I’ve been lying about my past for so long, Elliot,” I
admit. “I used to tell the truth, that I was kicked out, but people always
looked at me strangely, wondering what I’d done to deserve it, and I didn’t
want to answer their questions anymore. I didn’t do anything – they just didn’t
like me.”

His strong arms encircle me and drag me closer so I’m
sitting on his lap. This huge relief fills me as he tilts my face upwards to
meet my eyes. “It’s ok Paige,” he whispers, bringing his lips to mine. As our
mouths move together, my threatened tears slide quietly from my closed eyes as
my emotions take over and my fears fall away, cracking my heart open just
enough so hope begins to blossom inside of me. I find myself doing something
that’s been so difficult for me before now – I’m letting him in, just a
little. 

I pause our kissing and rest my forehead on his shoulder.
Perhaps one day he’ll be able to understand everything about me, but telling
him everything is a risk I can’t take yet. First, I want to tell him about my
life before I was sent out on my own.