SLOW HANDS

“You don’t have to be nervous,” he said.

She finished the water and looked toward the end of the bed where Timothy now sat.

“Why would you think I’m nervous?” she replied. “I never said that I was”

“You’re not talking.” he said.

“I was drinking.”

He shrugged and took a gulp of his water.

“Guess what I mean is that this doesn’t have to be uncomfortable. We can just take things as they come.” he explained.

“Right. For the few hours until morning” Chloe glanced at the clock. It was almost two in the morning. “I’ve had a really long day.”

“Me, too.” Timothy finished his water and walked around to the other side of the bed. “I was hoping you weren’t going to expect sex all night long. I mean, not that I wouldn’t be glad to oblige. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t fall asleep on you,, but it might be a good idea to get some rest.”

She didn’t mean to, but Chloe smiled. “I never said that I was expecting sex all night long either”

He nodded and smiled back at her. “Great then. We agree.” He proceeded to arrange the pillows before pulling back the duvet and sheet.

Chloe had been watching over her shoulder and set her glass on the nightstand beside his before easing into the bed to pull the bedcovers down on her side. She normally slept in a nightgown but she wasn’t about to walk across the room where she’d put her clothes to retrieve one. The robe would do just fine for tonight. Her pillows didn’t require a lot of adjustment and she lay easily on her side of the bed. Timothy lay on his side. He pulled the covers midway up his chest. The chest that was still bare and undeniably enticing.

“This is the only time I’m a fan of lights-out in the bedroom.” It was an easy comment made seconds before he leaned over and hit the button that turned off both bedside lamps simultaneously.

The room went dark and Chloe’s heart began to pound a different rhythm. It wasn’t a totally unfamiliar feeling but one that she didn’t welcome now. She pulled the covers up, tucking them tight beneath her armpits, and closed her eyes. She could do this. She could sleep in the same bed with a guy…. There was nothing she couldn’t do…

But this wasn’t just any guy… It was Timothy.

Except, at the moment, she was having a hard time regulating her breathing knowing that if she just extended her arm she would touch him. That thought probably wasn’t the smartest one she’d had tonight since it only increased her breathing and had her clenching the sheets. Chloe was counting down from one hundred when something moved beneath the sheet. It could have been her imagination since her mind was going at a rapid pace, but no, it wasn’t. His foot touched hers and she jumped.

“I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to scare you. It’s just that I.. I can’t sleep.”

“I can’t sleep either,” Chloe replied.

“Why is that?” Timothy asked her, knowing the question was unnecessary. He knew damn well why she couldn’t sleep. But he had to find a way to distract himself, and he was hoping that talking would do the trick.

“I… I guess it’s just that I’m…. I’m really going to miss you… You know, when you leave” Chloe said softly. For some reason, she just had to tell him… She had to let the walls she had built around herself fall for a little while. She had to open up. There was silence as Timothy said nothing. He didn’t move either. He just lay stiffly on the bed and for a moment, Chloe almost regretted voicing out her emotions. Of course, she thought. What did she even expect him to say after rejecting him?

She was taken by surprise when he suddenly moved. She gasped in surprise as he reached for her, pulling her to the center of the bed and pinning her underneath him. Before she could say anything, he crushed his lips to hers again… He kissed her… Hard and fast. He continued to kiss her until her gasp turned into moans and she returned his kiss with equal fervor…

“You know when I said that I didn’t want you to expect sex throughout the night?” he whispered against her lips.

Chloe nodded, unable to speak.

“I lied… I don’t want to stop making love to you tonight, and I’m going to miss you too when I leave… badly”

“Don’t,” Chloe said as she shook her head. “Don’t just say things you think I want to hear. I don’t want your pity.”

“Does this feel like pity?” He took her hand and pressed it to his erection, which was straining the fabric of his boxer shorts. “And don’t tell me it doesn’t mean anything. What do you think, that men are like dogs or pigs, that they’ll respond on cue every time, no matter how great an aversion they have to the woman they’re with?”

“I didn’t say that, I just-” She tried to pull her hand away. He didn’t let her.

“This-” he drew her hand up the length of his engorged penis, and down it “-is not some autonomic glandular response to the mere presence of a female. If you haven’t figured out yet how outrageously attracted I am to you, then you’re completely delusional.”

Chloe went still. “Don’t say that. It…”

“Complicates things. I know.” Timothy kissed her hard, pulling her under him, pressing her into the mattress. It was a demanding, possessive kiss, and he didn’t let her up for air until she’d softened and begun to respond. And then he released her mouth only to feverishly yank at her robe.

She didn’t try to stop him, and it was a good thing, because Timothy wasn’t sure he could stop. His hunger for her had slipped its leash, driving him, propelling him toward the inevitable. Roughly he pulled the robe off of her. His own boxer shorts followed next, goaded by the perfume of her arousal, by the urgency of her soft hands on his body, by his own ungovernable need, too long denied.

She wrapped herself around him as he mounted her, as he pushed into her, into the tight, slick depths of her. She gasped, and clung to him, and he groaned deep in his chest, overcome by the sharp, biting pleasure that rocketed through him. She moaned his name, again and again, arching against him, bringing them even closer together. The bedcovers were tangled around them; automatically he kicked them away.