When Love Becomes an Instinct

PROLOGUE

 

            He was dozing off, ready to fall asleep; his black eyelashes ready to touch the surface of his gorgeous, tanned skin, when he felt a slight movement to his right and heard a hushed giggle that made his eyelids open languidly.

            “Why?” He asked.

            Her cute, silent breath of chuckle became a sudden roar of laughter that was contagious enough to make him smile.

            “Why? Tell me.” He urged.

            “Nothing. Nothing. I just remembered something really funny.” She replied, trying really hard to contain her puffs of laughter.

            “What about?” He continued.

            “Nothing really.” Another bubble of mirth escaped her cherry red lips, bruised from a wild kiss shared earlier.

            “Come on. Tell me.” His voice was gentle yet firm, hoarse and husky from his state between slumber and wakefulness.

            “It’s just about this crush I had when I was- I don’t know- four or five? It’s nothing really.”

            “Tell me anyway.” He said when the truth of the matter was he did not give a damn about a childhood story, but hearing her voice mesmerized him. It trapped him in a trance he never wanted to get out of.

            “If you insist.” She sighed before another chortle of glee escaped from her always smiling lips. The lips he always wanted to kiss.

            “Hmm. Every summer, my mom and dad drove me to this really beautiful vacation house my grandparents own. It’s paradise I tell you. My parents bring me there every summer, but they do not stay for long. They always leave me with my bags and drove off.” She said with a smile.

            “That’s funny to you?” He asked with all the curiosity (and exhaustion) in his voice; his eyes closed while his hands rested on some part of her body he did not know, what with their unfathomable position on the bed, her legs intertwined with some part of his body he did not know as well.

            “Will you just keep quiet? I’m not yet finished!”

            “Thought so too.” He said in a sleepy, tired, and deep voice that made her smile.

            “They may not always be with me, but I have very caring and wonderful grandparents that made that vacation the best summer I have ever had.”

            She sighed, almost sounding like a very young and dreamy girl. Just thinking of her Tatay and Nanay made her smile.

            “Hmm. I always wanted to be alone with them, especially my grandfather. To hear his stories and drink black coffee with him. Unfortunately,” she said, stressing the word with a slightly high-pitched tone. “We had company that time.”