Elena felt none of the discomfort she had felt earlier in the day, in his room. Now, all she felt was the unexpected closeness that came from sharing thoughts that you had never said aloud before. His body was hard against her own, his hands were calloused and sure, as they moved up and down the curve of her back.
As the kiss deepened, Elena felt desire slowly build up inside her. She moved her hands beneath his t-shirt and felt the hard wall of his stomach. Her hands on his skin seemed to act as a trigger. He pulled at her blouse, and at the same time, they stumbled away from the kitchen, towards the large sofa.
They fell together onto the sofa, Elena first, and then Neal on top of her. She wasn’t sure if her shortness of breath had to do with the fall or the feel of Neal’s lips on her neck and shoulders. Slowly, deliberately, Neal removed her clothes, one by one, until she lay naked beneath him. He got off her for a moment, and rid himself of his own clothes.
When he settled on top of her again, he was as naked as she was. He started kissing her again, moving his lips from her neck to her breasts, and then to her stomach.
Clutching at his hair, Elena tried not to wonder how he had come to be so sure and confident as a lover. She tried not to think about all the women he must have been with to have perfected his style so well. Elena reminded herself that she had no right to have such thoughts at all. This was not a relationship, it was a business deal.
She closed her eyes and reminded herself of the reasons why she was even doing this at all. She wanted to be free, and the only way to achieve freedom in this world was financial stability. She couldn’t stomach moving back in with her parents, she couldn't stand admitting to them that they had been right all along. She was a failure.
She wondered if accepting Neal’s deal was a failure in its own right. She questioned her own sanity in agreeing to it at all, then he entered her, pushing his erection deep inside her, his breath mixing in with her own, his lips on her mouth, on her neck, on her breasts, and she wondered if she were doing the right thing.
It was hard to remember anything at all, the way they were entwined together, skin to skin, no distance between them. Even as her breath quickened and small uncontrollable gasps escaped her, and an orgasm consumed her, Elena lay there, praying that this wasn’t simply the desperate act of a lost woman.
Chapter8
They had fallen asleep on the couch. Neal woke up in the middle of the night, with the the moonlight streaming in through his French doors. Elena had been asleep, but she moved around a lot, mumbling inaudibly in her sleep from time to time. She seemed to be dreaming. Neal had picked her up as gently as he was able to and carried her to his bedroom. After settling her into bed, he threw a blanket over her and walked back into the living room.
Neal knew he wouldn’t be able to fall back asleep at this point. His mind was wide awake and his body felt strangely alive, but his thoughts were troubled. He was starting to doubt the success of his plan. So many things could go wrong. Elena could take a long time to get pregnant. She might not get pregnant at all. The doctor he had found to alter the paternity test might back out at the last minute. So many factors counted and so many little strings, all pulling in different directions.
Neal had looked at the situation from every angle, but Harry had explained everything to him. The codicil was airtight. The only way the family fortune could stay in the family was if George had a child. Neal tried not to feel too hurt by the fact that he wasn’t the n
ext logical inheritor after his brother’s children, but he forced the hurt from his mind; he knew he had no right to it. He had never been interested in the company and he had said so on many different occasions.
A small part of Neal was forced to admit that perhaps refusing interest in the company was his way of punishing his father for being so absent in his life. After all, all that time spent away from him, was time spent nurturing the business. Again, Neal felt a wave of shame. His pettiness surprised him and he suddenly remembered what Elena had told him that evening.
Neal wondered if she was right. If embracing a shallow life had been an attempt to turn himself into a shallow person, and if that were the case, he wondered if it had succeeded. He looked back on his life the past year, and he had to admit that perhaps he was. Neal went to the little side table where he kept his keys. He opened the left drawer and stared at George’s house key innocently sitting there.
He hadn’t been able to summon the courage to visit his brother’s house since news of the plane crash had been announced. He felt nauseous every time he thought of going. Neal sat outside on his modest terrace, and watched the sun come up. Then he closed his eyes and thought of his brother.
“Neal?”
Neal turned around to see Elena by the open sliding door. She had put her clothes back on, and her hair was disheveled. She looked very young, standing there in his doorway, looking at him through squinting eyes.
“You’re up early,” he commented, getting up and walking back inside.
She went in and sat on one of the bar stools.
“I didn’t sleep very well,” she admitted, trying to rub the exhaustion from her eyes, “but your bed was amazing. So comfortable.”
“You should go back to it, try and get some more sleep then,” Neal suggested.
“I can do that in my own apartment.” Elena reminded him.
“Is your bed better than mine?”
She smiled. “It isn’t.”
“Then you should stay.”
“But –"
“Listen,” Neal said, cutting her off as he walked to his drawer and picked out his spare key, “take this. You can come back later in the day.”
“You’re giving me your spare key?”
“I trust you.”