Chapter 57

“What’s up with Mark then?”

Mel took a large heap of spaghetti from the plate they were sharing and wrapped it round her fork.

“He’s fine,” she confirmed, her mind completely focused on the long strand of spaghetti.

“He looked a bit upset,” Chris commented, putting down his cutlery and turning his full attention towards her.

“Come on, eat your dinner,” she urged, pointing to the plate that was balanced on her lap.

“You’re not going to tell me anything are you?”

“It doesn’t matter Chris.”

He picked his fork back up and began to dig at the spaghetti, stabbing it, twisting it round his fork and then letting it drop back on the plate.

“You sulking?” she asked, slightly amused, she had never seen Christian in a sulk before.

“It’s just that you’re so close to him.” He replied quietly.

“We’re mates”

“You talk to him about everything don’t you?” Chris asked.

“Not everything,” Mel commented carefully, “just a lot of things.”

“You find him easy to talk to?”

“Yeah”

“He’s easier to talk to than me?”

“Chris!” Mel exclaimed, putting the plate down on the table, “are you telling me you’re jealous?”

“I don’t know,” he said quietly, “maybe”

“You don’t need to be, he’s my friend.”

“I know,” he grumbled in response, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Mel said grinning, “this is good.”

“I’m glad my discomfort causes you pleasure.”

“Don’t be daft sweetie,” she replied, moving closer to him on the sofa, “I’m just glad you are starting to feel something for me.”

He grunted a response and just scowled at her.

“You really are jealous aren’t you?”

“Yes,” he replied, “I felt so weird when you left to go after him today.”

“So you really do want to be with me?”

“Of course I do, I’ve already told you that,” he replied.

“Yeah, but I’ve never been sure, because I know you don’t love me and that makes me think that one day you could just get up and leave me.”

“It won’t happen,” he replied softly, picking up her hand and holding it in his.

“You sure?”

“Yeah, and I think ...” he paused for a moment and bent down to give her a quick kiss, “things are about to change.”

“They are?”

“I’m feeling more and more for you every day,” he smiled at her, “and today the thought of you being with someone else made me feel so sick.”

Her insides filled with joy as she looked right into his eyes and saw all of the warmth spilling out of them.

“I love you Christian,” she said softly, looking right at him and waiting for a response.

It never came but instead he bent his head and put his lips back onto hers, and then gently ran them all over her face.

“Tonight could be the night,” he commented grinning.

“The night for what?” she asked in confusion.

“Come upstairs and find out,” he replied, picking up his glass of wine and making his way out of the room.

She timidly made her way upstairs after him, not entirely sure what he was getting at. By the time she got in his room he was already lying on the bed taking little sips from his glass.

“What’s this all about?”

“Just come and sit down,” he replied, patting the bed next to him.

She did as he asked and shuffled her way to the bed and propped herself up next to him.

“We never do things that we should.” he said, looking straight at her.

“Like?”

“This”

“You mean talking? We do that the whole time,” she replied in confusion.

“But we’re not close are we?”

“What do you mean?”

“I want to be close in the way that you are close with Mark,” he said.

“I’m sorry I can’t talk to you the way that I talk to him, its just that when it comes to you I’m so confused,” she admitted, “I never know how you feel for me.”

“That’s why I want to start doing things properly,” he commented.”

“What things?”

“The things boyfriends and girlfriends do,” he said.

“Oh,” she replied, not really sure what else she could say.

“I want us to have sex,” he said quietly.

“What happened to taking this slowly? “Mel asked cautiously, suspicious of his sudden change of heart.

“Things changed.”

“They did?”

Mel wrinkled up her nose in confusion, men were confusing enough at the best of times, but she was beginning to think that she would need a full size manual to work out what was going on in Christian’s head.

“I want to be with you,” he said, kissing her forcefully on the lips.

“OK,” she said slowly once he had let her breathe once more, “but I don’t want to have sex with you.”

His whole body dropped immediately, his shoulders slugging down and his eyes full of hurt.

“I want you to make love to me,” she explained quietly, “I want it to be special, and for it to feel like you really mean it.”

“I want to make love to you,” he said quickly.

She blushed, the red rising quickly right up her face and settling in a glowing mass.

“You do?” she gulped, suddenly nervous by the determination in his voice.

“Yes, this time it’ll be right, it’ll be like the first time, how it should be.”

She smiled at his enthusiasm, he had jumped off the bed, turned out the light and was now running around lighting every available candle he could lay his hands on, then just before he returned to her he moved over to the stereo and put on some music.

“You are so lucky you weren’t listening to some heavy metal group before I came in here,” she joked as the soft romantic music filled the room, “that would have killed the mood.”

“I don’t listen to metal,” he replied softly, gazing right into her eyes.

Mel shivered slightly, all of this was so surreal. This was the moment she had dreamt of for years, she was lying in the arms of the man she loved with all her heart, and he was about to love her back, she was so happy, her head was spinning from the natural high of life.

“I love you,” she said softly to him, unable to help herself.

He leant right in towards her and kissed her carefully and gently on the lips and then running his hands softly all over her began to remove all of her clothing until she was lying on the bed completely naked.

“You’re beautiful” he whispered, sitting up to admire her.

“I’m not,” she breathed back, folding her arms over her naked stomach, “you’ve been with so many women, how can I be beautiful?”

“You are,” he insisted, taking her arms away and kissing her stomach, “and you’re carrying my baby”

“Yeah,” she replied thoughtfully, watching the way he gazed at her stomach.

“I don’t want to hurt the baby,” he said suddenly, dragging his eyes away and fixing them up towards her.

“It’s fine,” she replied.

“It’s OK if we do this then?” he asked, suddenly worried, “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“I’m fine,” she repeated, reaching out for him and taking all of his clothes off to join hers on the floor.

When she had finished she lay there for a few seconds, just looking at him, almost nervous by what was going to happen next. This was going to be the third time she had done it with him, and this time it had to be perfect, this was going to be the real turning point. Did he really feel anything for her or was it all just meaningless words?

He started to kiss her, almost as if he could sense her worry, and then shifted his body so he was gently resting on top of her.

She closed her eyes as he began to kiss her lips over and over again, it felt so wonderful and for the first time in months she was completely at peace. Any doubt or worry she had been carrying seemed to slip out of her body as she fell into each of his kisses, losing herself in the feeling that was welling up inside her. As he gently shifted her legs and moved inside her she hardly noticed, it just felt like the most natural and beautiful thing in the world. He rocked her gently against him, his arms tightly around her in a warm hug, kissing her face as he moved. He didn’t speed up or apply any pressure at all, just kept going at a steady gentle pace, kissing her and looking right into her eyes as he broke for breath. On the moments when she opened her eyes to look at him she was amazed by the way they twinkled back at her, and when she began to quietly gasp for breath he smiled at her. Only then did he speed up slightly, moving against her quicker yet still keeping her tight against him, it was then that it happened. He leant his head back slightly and let in a huge breath before letting it out again in a mixture of air and gasps.

As he calmed down and got his breath back, he stayed tight against her, slowing himself down.

He leant in towards her, “you’re amazing,” he whispered in her ear, his breath still coming out in short gasps, she grunted a response and then his mouth kissed her gently on the ear before following with, “I love you.”

She blinked up at him, confused by what she had just heard, were her ears going mad, or had Christian just said he loved her, he was looking at her and smiling yet hadn’t repeated what he said.

He pulled away from her and rolled to the other side of the bed, breathing heavily and pulling some clothing back on.

She looked over at him in confusion, unable to speak. So much emotion was building up inside her, that had been the most amazing moment of her life, she had never had sex like that before, and then he said that he loved her.

“That was beautiful,” he finally said turning to her.

She opened her mouth to reply, but nothing would come out, he smiled at her, gave her a kiss and then turned the light out and dropped off to sleep.

Left alone in the dark Mel could only wonder.