A Sulawesi Romance

Chapter 20

A/N: The image above does not belong to me. It belongs to the person who uploaded it on the internet.

Gun's POV

For the life of me I couldn't stop myself from saying "for a kiss" when Mark asked me what I was in the mood for, and then, to complicate matters, when he said "... in case my guest is not a beer drinker ..." I just had to go and say "I do drink beer".

I panicked hard when he tried to kiss me but thankfully he stopped when I explained to him the story behind that expression.

As for the beer situation, he sounded happy when he instructed the cook to bring a six pack of beer with the dinner trays.

I immediately made it clear to him that I had no intention of getting drunk and he did answer "Of course not."

But for some reason that reassurance did not assure me in any way of my safety. I mean just think, I will be spending the night with the most flirtatious person I had ever come across in my whole life. We were all alone in his private suite and I could end up a little buzzed by the end of dinner. Who or what was there to stop him from making advances on me.

Mark made small talk with me while we were waiting for the cook to come up and deliver our dinner trays to Mark's private suite.

He told me that because he was an only child, he felt lonely all the time. His parents never gave him the reason why they did not have another child before or after him.

I told him that I was an only child myself and I also experienced loneliness growing up. I had developed close friendship with a few classmates but they eventually moved away to far away places and we eventually lost touch with each other.

I told him about how my parents never had any children after me because they were always fighting to the point that they eventually divorced.

Then my mother met my ridiculously young stepfather through a mutual friend. I could never understand how they could get attracted to each other despite the huge age gap.

I would have stayed home if my stepfather treated me well. But he was only looking out for my mother's welfare and most of the time he was rude and unkind to me. My mother never believed me when I told her that her new husband did not treat me well. She always took his side. That was why I decided to leave the house.

I did not even realize that my tears were falling while I was telling Mark my life story. I just felt him move close to my side. Then I felt him wipe away my tears with a tissue before hugging me gently. Wrong move. I started bawling like a baby.

"There, there. There now," he said, rocking me gently back and forth.

Automatically I placed my arms around him too.

Then he pulled back, placing his hands on either side of my face. He looked at me with something like a pleading expression on his face.

"Can I kiss you to make you feel better?" he asked.

I had no chance to answer his question because there was a knock on the door. It was the chef with his trolley of dinner trays and six pack beer.

I was momentarily able to forget my sorrows when the chef removed the cover from the trays and the delicious smell of the chicken pineapple fried rice and crispy stir fried beef strips szechuan style reached my nose.

I didn't realize how hungry I was until I started eating and could not stop stuffing my mouth with the delicious food.

I heard the hissing of a beer bottle being opened.

"Did you want to drink straight from the bottle or did you want me to pour it into a glass?" Mark asked, holding the bottle up, waiting for me to decide.

I took the bottle from him.

"I can drink it straight from the bottle," I told him, taking the bottle from him.

"I'm gonna do the same," Mark said, opening a second bottle and bringing it to his mouth.

Soon we finished all the food and before we even noticed it, we had finished up the beer as well.

"Thank you for the dinner and drinks," I said trying to stand up but for some reason I felt my knees buckling up and would have ended up on the floor if Mark had not caught me in his arms.

"Easy, easy," he said, leading me to the bathroom. "A quick shower usually clears away the alcoholic fuzziness from the brain."

I allowed him to unclothe me inside the bathroom. He pushed open the shower door and motioned me inside, holding my arm to steady my balance.

I was groping for the shower knob when I felt him step into the shower stall with me.

I turned around and gasped.

He was stark naked just like me.