The Ties that Binds Us

Chapter 24 "Shattered"

                   “Good morning sleepyhead.” Luke kissed my hair at the back of my head as I stirred around to face him. I squinted as I open my eyes trying to filter out the morning sun that peeked through the window of my apartment. Once my eyes have adjusted to brightness of the room, I saw Luke looking down at me, as he sat beside me on the bed cross-legged. Absentmindedly, I sat up facing him who stared at me, observing my every move.

I rubbed my eyes, stretched my arms up high in the air and made a grunting sound as my arms fall back down beside me. When I turned to look at him, he was wearing only his pajama bottoms without a shirt on, which by the way distracted me. Every crevice in the middle of his perfectly sculpted abs stared at me, enticing me to look at them. His bare chest went up and down as he breathe slowly and his deltoids and biceps ripple with his every movement. When he noticed that I was staring at him, a playful, sardonic smile etched on his pink lips.

“Syd, stop staring at me like I am an untouchable. If you want to look, touch or smother your face, do so. I’m all yours baby. There’s nothing stopping you.” He threw a lopsided smirk at me. I raised my eyebrows at him and he laughed whole-heartedly. “I mean it. I’m all yours! I’m not going to stop you.” Suddenly he threw his arms around me, pulling me to the bed and locking me down under his heavy weight. He straddled me for a few moments, pulled both my arms over my head and held both my wrists in one of his hands. He inched his face closer to mine and when I thought he was going to kiss me, he started to tickle me relentlessly with his other free hand. I struggled to free myself from his strong grip, pulling my arms down to me but failed miserably. I laughed and giggled loudly as he continued his torture.

“Stop! Stop! Luke stop!” I couldn’t keep my laughter as tears started to fall down from eyes. “Stop please enough!” He stopped his tickling all of a sudden, released his strong hold freeing my hands and grabbed my face with both his hands. His long, slender fingers caressed my cheeks and then down to my neck. He lifted his fingers to my lips and traced the bottom slowly and gently. As we stared at each other breathless from our little escapade, he suddenly became serious.

“I love you.” Oh my.

“I love you too.” For the first time in six years, I felt my heart grow and fill with love. I felt the emotions I had back when Tristan was alive. The feeling your stomach makes whenever the person you love is near you; the way you look at the person as if everything was in slow motion; the feeling when you’re with him and how a bubble form around the both of you and nothing else mattered but you and him. It’s exciting but scary at the same time. You’re become vulnerable, exposing yourself to everything that is unknown and uncertain. It’s a heady mix.

“Come. Time for work.” He pulled me up with him easily, me wearing only my bra and panties, him wearing just his boxer shorts.

“Bath first.” He pulled me into the en suite bath in my room and closed the door behind him.

“I know.” He turned on the shower and I watched the warm cascading water hit the shower floor. The steam rose up, filling the bathroom, engulfing us. He turned me around to face the mirror. I stare at us through the mirror in front of us, his hand on my shoulders and I on the other hand stood still awaiting his next move. He stood behind me, and stared at me in the mirror, greedily his eyes went up and down the length of my flushed body in front of him. He kissed the back of my neck with an oh so gentle manner that gave me goose bumps all over. He traced my back along the center slowly until he reached the lock of my bra. He started to fumble with my bra from behind, released it easily and dropped it to the floor. Once more, he gazed at me in the mirror going up and down my body as I stood there pinned down to the bathroom floor, motionless and paralyzed.