The Only Way is Up

Part Twenty Eight

Chapter Twenty Eight

"You said there's ice here?"

Nicole was in that happy place between sleep and wake, but Maxim's voice penetrated that. Then she remembered that he'd gone to get them a drink.

"Top drawer of the freezer."

Ice? She'd imagined he'd make tea, bring wine. But ice? It was all too taxing, instead she closed her eyes once again and let her mind cast pleasantly back over the last few hours. He had done things...encouraged her to do things that she never thought she would. Suddenly it all fell in to place; she'd thought that she had problems, that her poor response to sex particularly over the last year had led to the breakdown of her marriage to Vincent. Now she knew that was all bullshit. This man had made her orgasm harder and more often in the last couple of hours than she had in months...maybe even years of marriage. He was a master, he knew what she wanted, he CARED about what she wanted. This man, she sighed, this man had made love to her. Ok, so neither was expressing love verbally, she had no idea what would happen in the next few hours, let alone weeks, months and years, but this wasn't sex. Vincent...he was all about him, selfish, misogynistic almost. He hadn't been interested in her. How could she have been so blind?

Then she thought about Maxim, teasing her, tasting her, encouraging her...making her scream. It was like having a first taste of champagne after only ever tasting cheap sparkling wine. One was alcohol, just; the other smooth, satisfying and a tad exotic. That summed him up.

As her mind took her to another still graphic memory, the door opened and he walked in, happy and so confident in his nakedness, a tray in his hands.

"I am hungry, but you don't have a lot here to eat."

She nodded, shuffling across the bed so that he could sit beside her, "I need to go grocery shopping. I've just been too busy being arrested."

That made him laugh, "that is a good point. I found some fruit and some juice."

She rolled her eyes, "must you always be so healthy?"

"I am having very unhealthy thoughts, so think of this food as the yin to that yang."

She reached for a piece of kiwi fruit and slipped it between her lips, contemplating an answer, "unhealthy thoughts?"

He nodded as he guzzled at the glass of orange juice he held, "what I'm thinking about made you scream, so that has to be bad, right?"

So confident, so sexual, so exotic, she wanted to swoon at his words, the suggestion loaded in them, instead she nodded.

He laughed again, "you've gone shy on me again, after everything we just went through."

Clutching the sheet tightly over her she wished the ground would open up and swallow her, she felt embarrassed, inexperienced, and hated that he could see through her so easily.

"Nicole," He reached out, cupped her cheek in his palm. Unable to respond for her nerves, she merely smiled. "So, I have to prove it to you ALL over again." His hand skimmed her throat and she closed her eyes, swallowing the anxiety, the tension that built up in her. He gave a soft, sultry laugh, not an aggressive humiliating one, then his hand continued its slide over her shoulder, the slope of her breast to the sheet, held tightly over her.

Pushing past it, unpeeling her tight fingers with his other hand; she could tell that he was holding her breath, the same way that she was as he tugged the cotton down over her bare breast.