I turn to admire it while letting more of the Scotch glide down my throat. I suppose there is something fascinating about those rows of lights beyond the lake and the mountains looming above it all, but it’s not as breathtaking as the sight beside me.
She straightens up. “What’s the most beautiful city you’ve ever been to?”
I pause to think. “Rome, maybe. Or Florence. Or Paris.”
“Paris,” Stella repeats with a dreamy sigh as she turns her gaze back towards the horizon. “I’d love to go to Paris.”
“I know.”
She gives me a puzzled look.
“I just know you’d love it there, given how much you love it here,” I explain quickly while inwardly kicking myself.
I almost gave away the fact that I’ve read her journal, which would have spoiled the mood for sure.
“Are you worried about tomorrow?” Stella asks me.
I take another gulp of Scotch. “What makes you say that?”
She shrugs. “It just seems like… you’re a little tense.”
So she’s noticed. I guess she can read me well by now. She’s right. I am tense – but not for the reason she’s thinking.
“It’s only natural, of course,” she goes on. “Tomorrow is a critical juncture.”
“It is,” I agree before finishing my drink and setting my empty glass down. “But that’s not what’s weighing on my mind.”
“Oh.” She sounds surprised. “Then is it because you were thinking of your father’s… request?”
I chuckle. “I’m pretty sure ‘request’ isn’t the word.”
“I don’t think it’s a bad idea, actually – you getting married,” Stella says as she looks into my eyes. “You spend way too much time at work. You should have more for yourself. And it wouldn’t be so bad to have someone to come home to, someone by your side to listen to your concerns and support you and cheer you up when you’ve had a bad day.”
Someone like her.
“What about you?” I ask her. “Do you have any plans of getting married?”
“Someday,” she answers with a tinge of hope in her voice.
At the same time, I see the fear in her eyes. Does she actually think she’s not good enough for any man? Absurd.
“Any man would be a fool not to want you,” I find myself saying.
Stella’s eyes grow wide. Her cheeks turn red again. She looks away and grabs her glass of Scotch to swallow a few gulps. Then she sets it down and snorts.
“Then all men are fools,” she grumbles. “None of them have even tried to kiss me.”
Well, I’m not a fool. And I’m done being a coward.
I move closer to Stella so that I’m standing right next to her and look into her eyes. “Do you want me to?”
She draws a deep breath. I can see desire and sensibility battling behind her eyes. For a moment, I think the latter might win, but then she opens her mouth to let out a whisper.
“Yes.”
Chapter Seven
Stella
I should have said no. It isn’t right for Ethan to kiss me. But that wasn’t his question. The question was if I wanted him to kiss me, which I did.
I’ve been wondering how it would feel to have his lips on mine since the night we met. For the past two years, I’ve been dreaming of it, imagining it. Yes, even masturbating to it.
And yet this is unlike anything I’ve ever imagined.
Ethan’s lips are soft yet firm, like my favorite pillow. The moment they touch mine, my eyelids fall. They press against me gently, reverently, and my heart flutters. Excitement bubbles up in my veins. His lips keep going, over and over as he runs his fingers through my hair until I feel the rest of my defenses crumble. My mouth relaxes.
I kiss Ethan back tentatively. I don’t know what I’m doing, after all. But Ethan clearly does. He traps my lower lip between both of his. Then I feel something warm and wet graze against my upper lip. I part my lips and push my tongue out just a little. It rubs against his and heat rushes all the way down to my toes.
Ethan’s tongue enters my mouth and my head spins. I grip his waist. His fingers become entangled with my hair as he cradles the back of my head. His other hand caresses my arm over the sleeve of my robe. As his tongue rubs against mine, I feel myself begin to melt – my capacity for coherent thought, my breasts, my knees, my belly, the most secret part of me between my legs. It tingles like never before inside my panties. The silk becomes moist. I shudder and moan into Ethan’s mouth.
He pulls away and I realize I’ve been holding my breath. I take a gulp of air only to lose it as Ethan kisses my ear.
He’s not done?
His tongue traces the curves of my earlobe as his hand cups my jaw. It tickles and I draw in a sharp breath.