Perfect Beginning (The Prequel)

chapter 18

The next morning you woke up to the blare of your alarm.   Reaching for your phone you found the text notification.

Your heart raced as you read Jin's words. He had the book and he called it a “precious gift". 

You lay back in your bed and had an entire imaginary conversation with Jin in your head.  You were almost late for work thinking about how things might happen when Jin returned home.

Before you left you sent Jin a text, hoping it would be delivered before he landed.

With that you headed out the door, forcing your thoughts away from the beautiful man. By now he was surely half the world away.

The next several weeks progressed  much the same.  Work was consuming.

You found yourself checking the mail eagerly each day when you arrived home.  Each day you were disappointed to find nothing from Jin.

Some mornings you awakened to brief texts from Jin, wishing you well, telling you to take care of yourself.  You responded in kind.

At night you tossed and turned thinking of the things you wanted to ask him.

For some reason you had stopped writing to Jin in your journal.  Instead you held full conversations with him in your head.

Without really thinking about it, you started a list in your head of things you wanted to do with Jin. 

They were mostly simple things, watch a movie entwined on your couch, go out drinking and come home slightly tipsy with him, talk in front of a fireplace. 

Some nights your dreams supplied  “wishes" of a more erotic nature.  You blushed to think how much even the thought of him began to free you from past hangups.

Days turned into weeks with occasional texts from Jim.  You never actually made real time contact with each other, but you loved picking up your phone to find his name displayed.  You answered back, staring at the blank screen once you hit send. 

You hurried to check the mail each day, only to find bills and junk.  There was no envelope with thick dark writing waiting for you. 

You missed those letters more than you were willing to admit.

Jin thought of you daily, several times a day.  His schedule was so tight he did not have the time to contact you.  He composed messages in his head that were never sent. 

He began to realize just how much he had come to depend on those letters and late night messages.

That connection  slipping from his grasp was making him frustrated and emotional.  He began to count the days until he returned home. 

He daydreamed about the things the two of you would do if you would give him a chance.

Late one night at a photoshoot Jin was lying back on the prop couch, idly watching the stars. 

As he watched one arc across the sky he sighed.  He allowed his imagination to roam, creating a space where the two of you were alone under the stars. 

He closed his eyes and he could practically feel your body stretched along his, stealing his breath and the warmth from his body while at the same time causing desire to roar to life in him. 

He wanted that with you.  He dreamed a time when that would come true.

Then one night, after days of not hearing from Jin, you were dragged from a deep sleep by your video call alert jangling.

You blinked, trying to get awake enough to grasp what was happening.  You saw Jin's face on your alert and swiped to open the call.

Still squinting, trying to adjust to the light, you saw Jin lying back on his hotel bed.  As you finally saw him your heart sank.  He looked terrible. 

“Jin!” you croaked, your voice still rough from sleep. 

You sat up in your bed, not yet caring that you were wearing  your old white sleep shirt and your hair was tumbled all over.  You rubbed your eyes, trying to make sense of things.

Jin did not realize he was holding his breath waiting for you to answer.

“What in the hell are you doing?”he asked himself.

He had almost convinced himself to hang up when your face popped onto the screen. 

All thoughts fled as he watched you fighting the sleep away, your hair tossed into a halo around your held, your eyes heavy, your gaze unfocused.

For a moment all Jin could think was this was exactly how you would look after sharing your body, sweetly rocking to climax or desperately chasing release, each pushing the other to fall apart together. 

He dropped his eyes and immediately groaned in reaction. 

The white shirt you were wearing was obviously soft and well worn.  It hugged your breasts, revealing their full swell.

He was relieved when you pulled the sheet over yourself and leaned back into the pillows, pulling him with you.

Damn. It. He cursed to himself.

Your eyes having adjusted, you finally had the opportunity to see, really see, Jin.

He looked exhausted.  There were folds and dark circles under his eyes

He looked like he had lost weight.  Your eyes fell to his chest, so tempting in a tight white undershirt, damp from his practice.  The frame of the camera ended at the waistband of a pair of grey sweatpants.

Your mouth watered as you scanned from his toned body , across his broad shoulders and up the long, elegant column of his throat. 

You lingered on his hair, messy and damp from hours of hard work.  You could almost feel your fingers in it, smoothing it or tugging it as he kissed you. You felt a flush steal down your body.

He cleared his throat and your eyes flew back to his face.

Looking at him again you could see his eyes were red rimmed and there was a glitter of tears remaining on his lashes.

“Jin….are you ok?  What is wrong?” you were immediately concerned.

He bent his head, almost as if he was resting it on your shoulder.

You pulled the sheet to cover you, belatedly thinking of the thin white cotton shirt. 

You laid back in the pillows and sighed as you had a real sensation of lying back and pulling him to cover your body with his.

Jin took a deep breath and looked back into your eyes.  His voice was shaky as he started.

“Today was a really horrible day.  I am exhausted.  We have been working non stop.”

Then he paused and after a moment he whispered “ and then,” I just got some really bad news from home". 

His voice broke on the last and you could see him rapidly swallowing, trying to grab onto his composure. You could tell he was losing the battle.