Normal With You

Chapter 44

Tasneem was on her side watching his face crease as his dreams began to set in. He had been tossing and turning for almost an hour before his body surrendered to fitful exhaustion yet still he could find no rest. She reached for his hand, gently blowing warm air onto his knuckles as his chest rose and fell unsteadily with his breaths. She lowered their hands, brushing her thumb over the four light beauty spots that decorated his wrist. 

She loved his hands- she loved looking at them as he held her own. They were large enough to encompass her short stubby fingers and they were always warm beneath her own colder ones. His hands signified everything about him. Within his hands, he held his strength, his gentleness, his love and his devotion to her. There were times when she would close her eyes and still feel the way he ran his fingers over her ankles, up her calves, softly tickling the back of her knees. He knew where and how to touch her. He knew how to drive her crazy as he barely grazed his fingertips over certain parts of her body. He had memorised her inch by inch using his fingers and palms alone.

There were days when she had begged him to stop touching her because her memories had overcome her desires. A feeling or a touch or a graze would remind her of her brother and in a second, her hazy view of the man above her would morph into her darkest nightmare. Every ounce of pleasure she had felt would disappear only to be replace with deep-seeded disgust. And it was that disgust that would prompt her to clench her thighs together and cry out for him to stop.

And he always did.

Always.

And it would be the soft, gentle reminder of his hand brushing against her arm that would bring her back to her reality that she loved so much. He would touch her hands, slowly curling his hand over the fingers of her left hand to bring her back to him. Her hands were still her safe place and he had never forgotten that. With his other hand, he would gently skim over her sides, bypassing the sensitive skin of her breasts before smoothing his thumb over her plump bottom lip. His touch was almost hypnotic as he ran his finger across her lip from one side to the other

Over

And over

And over again.

His voice would be soft, a caress in itself, as he begged her to come back to him. To find her way to him once more. Each word punctuated by the lightest of kisses, slowly sucking her lip between his own. He would tighten his grasp on her hand, slowly bringing her back to him, before he'd feel the light pressure of her lips against his, slowly growing more and more bold.

He'd feel her hand run up his back, gently brushing over the tiny, raised circles along his spine as her deepened breaths caused her chest to rise and fall against his own. He would feel the tip of her tongue against his thumb still trapped between their lips before he'd feel her soft thighs part beneath his own. And like that, he would know that she had returned back to him and he would lace their fingers together as he lost himself within the feel of her beneath him once again.

She looked down at his hands once more, brushing a chaste kiss over his knuckles as she ran a finger over the tender, greenish bruise over her thigh. His gentle hands were never unkind to her, had never hurt her, had never touched her except in loving adoration. But those same hands had forgotten their own strength and it was in those hands that her body had melded into a canvass, painted with the green, purple and bluish hues of bruises that he had never realised he had caused at all.

She was brushing her teeth when the phone call came.

All she had heard from him was his greeting before the room transcended into a suffocating silence. He hadn't said one word as the caller on the other end relayed their message. Seconds ticked by yet still he hadn't spoken. She heard the click of the receiver as it was put down.