She was combing her still damp hair with her fingers on the bed. The shower was a good thing after all. She felt clean and so relaxed.
She glanced at the wall clock.
Past 3 AM.
She wasn’t feeling sleepy one bit. She was a little fuzzy in the head but her body was still humming with energy she wanted to do something, not just lie down here. She wondered if the party had already broken up. It usually broke up at 4AM.
She wondered where Ray was. Was he still mad at her? He must be.
Now she was so sorry she took the pill. She didn’t mean to do it. Her jealousy drove her to do it. But that was no excuse. She still put him down. Like big time. Ray really felt strongly about drugs. And he did not leave, after all, so her little tantrum was for nothing. She felt so petty.
Was Ray asleep now? She wanted to talk to him, apologize. Shame and guilt were eating her up. She wanted to assure him it won’t ever happen again.
She got up from the bed and slipped on her silk wrapper. She went to the door and peeped outside.
Ray was occupying the suite just across hers.
She quietly left her suite to go knock at his door when she caught a movement from the corner of her eye. She turned to look to her right, at the sitting area a few meters away.
Ray was sitting alone on a sofa.
She slowly walked over to him. “Ray?” she called his name softly.
His eyes were closed. He’d discarded his bow tie and the buttons of his shirt and vest were opened all the way down, showing his chiseled chest and ripped abs. Ray was very athletic and it showed on his fabulous body.
He looked disreputable in disarray.
God, he was beautiful. She could stare at him forever.
She sat beside him. “Ray?”
He gave a low moan but didn’t move nor open his eyes.
She touched his face and turned it towards her gently. “Ray, wake up.”
He opened his eyes and gave her a bone-melting smile, like he’d seen something that mightily pleased him. She felt beautiful receiving that smile. “Buttercup...” He sighed and closed his eyes again.
She noticed the bottle he was still clutching in one hand. It was empty. She took the bottle and placed it on a side table.
“You’re smashed,” she said, shaking her head.
“Not so…not really…” he replied, slurring his words a little.
“C’mon, let’s get you to bed.”
“Not going anywhere…am guarding your door…”
“Why?”
“You might go back…there…”
“I’m not going back there.”
“Promise?”
She smiled. “Yes, promise. C’mon.” She slipped her arm around his waist and tried to haul him up but he was as heavy as a ton of bricks and didn’t even budge.
“C’mon, Ray, you can’t stay here. You’d be comfortable in bed.”
He groaned.
“Ray!” she barked in his ear.
“What, buttercup…?”
She pulled at his arm. “Stand up!”
He groaned and pushed himself up from the sofa. He wobbled on his legs and was about to drop back so she wrapped her arms around his hips. “Hold on to me.”
His arm snaked around her shoulders, leaning heavily on her.
“God, you’re heavy! C’mon, let’s go to your room.”
They hobbled towards his suite. Good thing it was only a few meters away.
“Promise me you won’t go back there…”
“I promise, I promise, okay? Give me your card key.”
“What key?”
She sighed and patted his pockets.
“You might find something else in there…” He chuckled.
She rolled her eyes. She found his card key in his jacket’s pocket.
“If you go back there I’d have to kill your boyfriend…”
She had removed his shoes and was making him as comfortable as possible.
It was the first time she’d ever seen him in this totally inebriated state.
She smiled. “I told you, he’s not my boyfriend.”
“Really? Then why did you…why did you get him… as your escort?”
She stared at him. His eyes were heavy-lidded, staring up at her from the bed. He was talking loosely now, she could tell.
“Because you didn’t offer.”
“I wanted to…I really did…”
Her heart started slamming hard in her chest. He was clearly drunk out of his wits. What did they say about drunks telling the truth?
“Then…why didn’t you?” she gently prodded.
“Was afraid…so afraid…”
This was wrong. She was like stealing from him. Asking him questions he might not want to answer in his lucid state.
But she couldn’t help herself. She wanted to know more about how he felt for her. The things he was not telling her. The things she badly wanted to hear him say.
She touched his chest. He was warm. Very warm. “Why were you afraid?”
He covered her hand with his, entwining their fingers. “Because…you make me feel things…”
She wet her lips. “What…things?”
“Strange unbrotherly things…”
Oh God.
“Like…what?”
“Like…you have no idea….especially when you wet your lips with your tongue like that, you make me feel all the weirdest things.”
His lips formed into this boyishly sexy grin and her tummy was fluttering like crazy now, her heart pounding like a hundred running horses inside her.
“I think…I have an idea.”
He was lying there on the bed and she was sitting beside him, the soft lights coming from the bedside lamps shrouding them in intimacy. His eyes were glassy but he was talking to her in this carefree manner that he’d never shown her before.
It was like she could ask him anything and he would tell her the truth.
Everything that she wanted to know.
She could see the honesty in his eyes.
The sincerity.
“Yeah…? Do tell.”
“Do you feel…weak…like your insides are liquefying and your limbs are dissolving like ice under the sun when you see me smile?”
“Yeah. Like ice cream under the summer heat. Weirdest feeling I’ve felt.”
Holy shit.
“Do you hate the feeling?”
“Yeah. But I’m addicted to it.”
Get outta here.
“Do you feel like…there’s a missing part of you…when you don’t see me for hours?”
“Everyday, buttercup. Every single day.”
I’m so gone.
“Do you feel like…you wanna kill the guys hanging out with me?”
“I will kill that piece of shit Harry if he ever lays a hand on your…ass or boobs…or legs…or lips…or any part of you. I really wanted to kill him tonight.”
She wet her lips again.
Everything she’d been secretly feeling for him the past years were screaming to break free. Now. Right now.
Holding his stare, she brought his palm to her chest.
“I feel the same.”
