[ twenty eight ]
His lips continued to move against mine, claiming my own, and I parted my lips to allow him entrance. And when we pulled away breathless seconds later, he pushed me back onto the couch, and leaned over me, his lips now connecting with the exposed skin on my neck, where he was leaving feather light kisses that seemed to ignite my skin in the heat of the moment. His hands moved off my face, and were now slowly travelling the length of my body, stopping at my waist, which he now held firmly in his strong hands.
James' body pinned me down against the couch cushions. My hands trailed down from his neck slowly, grazing the bare skin on his back. He still hadn't found the time to put on a shirt, not that I was complaining, especially not in that moment.
His teeth nipped at my exposed skin here and there, leaving a soreness in its wake that I knew would later turn into little love bruises. Involuntary moans found their escape from my lips at the sensation and they served to encourage James, who didn't look like he had any plans to stop any time soon. And neither did I, my mind was in too much of a state of euphoria to even begin to create coherent thoughts.
My mind was brought back to its senses when I felt his hand grip the waist band of the training pants I was wearing, but he made no movement to continue unless he had my permission. But he wasn't going to get it. Not today.
"James, stop." I called his name weakly, my eyes shooting open and my hands moving to his shoulders, to push him back. I had never taken that next step with him or anyone and my brain started to think panicked thoughts.
He immediately did. His kisses that overtook my neck came to a bitter halt, and his brown eyes looked up at me. He had now pushed himself up on his arms, leaving a small space between our bodies. "What's wrong?" He asked me, and there was concern on his face, as though he thought I was stopping him because he had hurt me.
I bit my lip before starting, "For one," I said rather breathless. "We're in your parents' house, on their livingroom couch and I don't want us to get carried away. And second, I don't want to do this to Toni. I'm with him now and he's been such a great guy."
James groaned, sitting up on the couch, leaving me sprawled out there, with my heart racing, my hair a mess, and bruises already forming on my neck. "Don't give me that, Arista." He said, "You don't love him. I know it and he probably knows it too, so why are you with him? Why won't you be with me? What does he have that I don't?" In his eyes was a genuine curiosity that wondered why I couldn't allow myself to be with him.
I pushed myself up to sitting and ran a hand through my still dampened hair from my morning shower. "You're going to get married."
"I told you I would leave her for you!" He insisted, his voice sounding agitated. "I'd leave Real Madrid for you, I'd leave everything. But you reject me. All I'm asking for is one chance. You're only hurting the two of us with that attitude of yours." He begged.
Bringing my hands to my face, I inhaled a deep breath.
Would things work out between James and I?
Things always seemed to go wrong when we got along. But maybe, just maybe, a second breath was all we needed to be happy. Peeking at him from in between my fingers, I spoke in a voice muffled by my own hands. "Okay, James. Let's give this another try." I said, adding, "I'm going to have to talk to Toni as soon as he arrives in Colombia tomorrow. I feel bad about making him come all the way out here for nothing, but I don't want to do this over the phone."
"Gracias, bonita! Gracias, gracias, gracias." He grinned at me, pulling my hands away from my kiss and planting gentle kisses on my lips. "I promise I won't let you down. I'm going to have to tell Giselle that we're over when I return to Madrid for the new year. But after that everything will be perfect again."
"You won't spend it here in Colombia?" I wondered.
He shook his head. "She wanted us to spend it with her family that's coming from A Coruña. But I'll just go to tell her we can't be together anymore and then I'll come right back to you, mi amor. Then we can go spend the rest of our vacation in Medellin like we used to."
"I feel bad for Giselle and Toni." I pouted. Not so much for Giselle because she hated me and had gone to great lengths just to get me fired. Still, that wasn't my motivation to take James from her. He and I were in love.
He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me close. "Its better to tell them we don't love them now before we got married with them and hurt their feelings twenty years later or something."
I shrugged at his words. "I guess you're right." I said, but it didn't make me feel better about hurting Toni.
From the kitchen, his mother emerged with a big bowl of chicken soup in her hands. On her face was a wide grin and I knew she had heard everything we were saying. But most embarrassingly, she had heard what we were doing, or were about to do. A blush found its way onto my fave as she placed the bowl in my hands. "I'm so happy my Jamesito is finally going to be with the woman he loves." Mrs. Rodriguez cooed. At least she was being nice to me again.
"Thank you for the soup, Mrs. Rodriguez." I smiled at her, the blush still heating my face.
She shook her head. "Don't call me Mrs. Rodriguez anymore, its too formal. You're part of the family again. You can call me Maria, or suegra," Mother-in-law. "or you can also call me mom."
"Mamá, porfavor," Mom, please, James groaned, "Con trabajos pude hacer que me aceptara de nuevo, and now you're going to make her change her mind." It was hard enough to get her to accept me again.
"Well, I'm just so happy that you two are together again." She gushed, clapping her hands together delightedly. I suppose James had been right, she didn't hate me, she was just upset that we weren't together. But she was damn good at hiding it, so good that I had actually felt intimidated by her up until now. "Eat your soup, m'ija, so you can feel better and the two of you can go out and have a nice time at the plaza. You two always liked going there at Christmas time." With that, she left for the kitchen.
"I'm glad your mom isn't being super hostile towards me anymore." I sighed with a smile playing on my lips.
"She loves you. You're like a daughter to her." He said to me, nuzzling his face into my hair. "You still use that shampoo that smelled like roses." He said happily. I liked that about James, he was always showing affection towards me, and always told me he loved me back when we used to date. Toni was a little more shy about it, but I knew he loved me, which was why I felt bad that I would have to break his heart.
"It reminded me of you." I admitted.
"Now that I have you, mi bonita, I'll do anything and everything to keep you by my side." He said.
"If I finish my soup, you owe me a date." I said to him with a playful smile.
He nodded, "I'll take you wherever you want, bonita."
At least for now, the problems that would come at us seemed almost non-existent. Colombia was like our own little paradise.
Paradisi, gloria.
-
guys dont roast me for that terrible make out scene at the beginning. i dont write fluffy stuff for a reason, i am shit at it. and it makes me super nervous to write about it, maybe bc im catholic. lol. but i made an attempt for you guys and because we needed some jarista fluff in our lives. and just a heads up, there are about 5-7 more chapters before this story ends, so we're super close to the end.
and i want to thank all of you who have read this from the very beginning and have suported this story even when i would go weeks without updating it.
your support has meant the entire world to me.
thank you for being my friends. i love youuuuuuuuu.
-clary xx
