He has never felt so connected to a woman’s body before, as he feels towards Hope’s, but he thinks that he is connected to her spirit as well, and that is the reason it makes it a stronger need.
He wants to bury himself in her embrace and never let her go; her smell, her moans, her smile and most of all, her heart and wants to hear her laugh. She has a big heart she did not even know about, he wants to show her that she is equal to any other woman younger than her and then some. He is aware she has reservations about their connection, but he has none. She was made for him and he would make it his business to show this to her.
He gets up and paces towards the bathroom, opens the door and leans against the doorframe watching her under the water with her eyes closed.
“How are you feeling this morning?”
She is jolted by surprise, opens her eyes and looks at him. “Sore.”
He looks at her for a length of time admiring what he sees with a look on his face, as if asking permission to join her. She beckons him and he climbs in the shower and wraps his arms around her waist, “How sore?”
Hope looks into his face. All the sensible things she was thinking with her left side of her brain had left the house. “Not enough.”
Jason takes the shower jell and starts to wash her. He lifts her arms up and he starts from the top, soaping her, stroking her and never taking his eyes off hers. He gets down to his knees, he pushes her legs apart and washes her thighs lifting her left leg and placing it over his shoulder, and his mouth is parting her labia, tonguing her, and once again she loses reason. She leans up against the cool tiles and with water running on both of them she lets him pleasure her and she comes apart within a few moments. Her legs are like jelly, he gets up, holds her in his strong embrace and she can feel his generous erection between her thighs. He leans over and turns the taps off, grabs a towel, wrapping it around her, and one for himself. He dries her making her sensitive skin tingle. He gets out of the shower and gives her his hand. She takes it and he leads her into the bedroom.
“I’ll start with the bed and then I’m going to take you all over the house.” Hope is in his embrace and she forgets all the reasons why she should not be with this man. She can feel the bed at the back of her legs and he lies her down while staying on top of her. She only has to look at this amazing creature to know that he wants her. She wonders why he wants her when he could have his pick. What is it that attracts people to certain other people? And she wonders about him. What does he need so much that he prefers her instead of some ravishing young woman in her twenties?
But he makes her forget all of these thoughts, as he looks deep into her eyes with his jades that are soft and sexy, and in some ways dangerous. He keeps looking, not saying anything, supporting his weight with his elbows. All the time she can feel and see he is extremely aroused and yet, he waits. He straddles her and lifts himself up. Hope has her arms lifted on top of her head, letting him know that she has surrendered. He holds his beautiful cock in his hand and looks at her and says.
“Look what I have for you.” Standing back on his knees where she has full view of his torso, his ripped body and his gorgeous cock that he is holding and shows it to her. But he will not give it to her and she is now desperate. He teases her while he strokes himself, and she knows he is waiting for her to ask for it.
“Do you want it?”
She just keeps looking in wonder and even though she’s desperate for him, she says nothing. Oh and does she want him!! But she can’t let him know how much she wants him. He keeps looking at her in that seated position straddled on top of her, stroking himself while she hungers for him. Even in this situation she tells herself that she is not deserving of this creature.
His breathing is heavy and ragged, and as he strokes himself putting on a show for her benefit, he leans over and kisses her, searching for her tongue and she gives it to him. She wraps her arms around him and he pushes her thighs apart with his knee. Holding himself, he enters her slowly and she moans with pleasure and discomfort from overuse. Hope has never wanted a man as much. She is scared of her feelings and her racing libido.
He makes slow, gentle love to her. She has never experienced anything like this before, all the time looking into her face in adoration and she still wonders, “Why her?”
“Hope, baby, let go, don’t hold back. I’m here for you and only you.” He knows she is over thinking; she looks at him in wonder and ponders how he knows her so well in just one night.
“Come for me baby, I want to watch your beautiful face as you come.” And Hope falls apart, her body contorting and he covers her mouth with his so that she cant’ be heard. As she calms down he speeds up the pace. He holds her face by the chin in one of his gorgeous hands and makes her look at him. “Look at me.” And she does. She looks in his eyes and sees the change that happens as he looks at her and he stills and pours himself inside her, uttering her name softly, over and over again. He drops his body on top of hers and nuzzles his face in her neck. She hears him say in a muffled voice. “You have no idea, have you?”
After a minute he pulls out of her making Hope yelp, “Ouch, ouch”. He rolls to his side propping himself up on his elbow looking at her. She knows she has to pull herself together and try to escape this intimate gaze of his.
Hope looks at him, “I have a friend who came yesterday and I have to spend time with him.” Thus she avoided any conversation about “us”. (She knows he wants to say something.) She jumps out of bed, as it is almost midday. “What do you like for breakfast?” And with that she puts an end to any further conversation pertaining to “us”, whatever “us” may mean.
“Yes I do have breakfast and coffee”.
Hope pulls on a pair of shorts and a top and goes into the kitchen. She puts on the coffee maker, gets the yogurt out for herself and asks what he would like. He is happy with yogurt and fruit. It’s too hot for big breakfasts in the summer.
He comes in behind her and nuzzles his face in her shoulder and she shrugs him off. He pulls her face around with one hand and she sees the storm in his eyes as he says very seriously. “We will talk another time.” She takes the breakfast out on the veranda and they settle down to have it watching the sea. They sit in silence. Hope rings Pétro, “Hey, are you awake?”
Hope hears Petro’s sleepy voice on the other end.
“Kaliméra
, (good morning) how did last night go?”
She avoids the question, “What do you want to do today? Beach? Sightseeing? I’ll come by your hotel and if you want to sightsee we’ll hire a car.”
“Give me an hour and come by. We’ll decide then.”
“Ok, see you in about an hour.”
“You’re going to hire a car? What role am I playing here?” she looks at Jason and he has a wondrous hurt look on his beautiful face and she says nothing. She doesn’t know what to say.
“Are you dismissing me again? Am I to be a one night stand?”
Hope looks at him and reaches over to touch his perfect hand, as she knows she has insulted him once again, and is aware that it is her self-preservation instincts at their best rising up and guiding her. The walls she has learned to build over the years are working for her now. She squeezes his hand and in a weak voice says, “I presumed that being the weekend, you would have things to do and friends to catch up with. Maybe a girl?” Oh god, there goes that lack of filter between her insecurities and her mouth. She said the most stupid thing she could have said and she thinks to herself, “What am I?…sixteen?!”
“I’ve wanted to be with you from the moment I set eyes on you. Is this how it’s going to be? You second guessing yourself and dismissing me, as if I’m a teenager?”
“I have no idea what the hell I’m doing with you, Jason.”
“Well I know what I’m doing with you, so let me do it. Can’t you just allow yourself to enjoy us?”
She twists her mouth and keeps silent. He squeezes her hand almost painfully. “I’m going to get some clothes to change into, a swim suit, and I’ll be back and we’ll go together to pick up Pétro. Ok?”
“Ok,” she replies, feeling chastised and thinking that he is old for his age! And she feels so foolish.
Pétro hops in the car and they’re off. They’ve decided for today to go swimming and hang out at a
tavérna
in the next village that has great food. They get there and proceed to find a space on the beach to lie about. It’s such a beautiful place. Hope feels so much like she belongs to this land. The
tavérna
is almost on the sand with a wooden walkway from the beach on the sand to get to it, as the sand is very hot. There is land with the vegetables next to the tavern. It is more like a plantation than a garden, land that would belong to the owners of the
tavérna
, growing their own produce for their business. The beach is full. There are lounge chairs and they hire three and sit under a beach-umbrella provided for them. It’s much too hot to be exposed to the sun all day.
Pétro and Hope are chattering most of the time, talking about all things that connect them. Jason is silent and Hope pretends not to notice, but is painfully aware of his presence and his silence. She’s also aware that she did not make any attempt to include him in the conversation, as she and Pétro talked about Australia and people that only the two of them knew. For a moment she is aware that she’s doing this on purpose. Why? She has been brought up with immaculate manners and Jason has gone beyond and above to be a gentleman to her. If she had not slept with him she knew she would be more civil and inclusive. She gets up and walks up to him and touches his hand, almost like an apology. He looks at her and gives her a crooked, sad smile and she knows he knows what she is doing. She now hates herself.
They settle into beach lounge chairs, the waiter comes around, and they order a cold drink each and strip to their costumes. Jason gets up, “I’ll go for a dip and let you two catch up,” and he’s off. They both watch the back of him and wonder at the perfection. Hope is suddenly taken out of her dream-state by Pétro shouting at her.
“What the fuck is the matter with you?”
“What do you mean?” she pretends she doesn’t understand. “Oh, cut out the innocent act with me Hope. I’ve known you for half a life time now, and I know what you just did and he does too. He has good manners and said nothing.”
“What do you expect me to do?”
“Fuck, Hope, you slept with him and now you’re ignoring him! Get a grip. Do you like him?”
“Of course I like him. What’s there not to like? Look at him! But I need to control this, because I’m not allowed to like him too much.”
“This control thing of yours since the break up of your marriage has escalated to a destructive degree, and it will only leave you lonely.”
There is an uncomfortable silence, as Hope has no reply for him.
Pétro breaks the silence with a cheeky grin. “Well, spill the beans girl, what is he like in the sack?”
“Too good, and I don’t want to get used to him.”
“Then go fuck an ugly one.” He retorts and they both start laughing.
And she knows now that she has to rethink this summer affair, and treat it as just that, as a summer affair. She must not read too much into it and most of all, she should enjoy it and savour him as much as possible.
It’s just that he is so delicious, not only in his looks, but as a person. That calm demeanour. The total control he has without denying himself the need to enjoy. He’s smart and intelligent. In such a short time Hope has found out so much about him and yet they have had little personal conversation. Hope feels like she knows him and yet, he has not talked about himself much. Pétro has been a constant in her life and always the voice of reason. He has always been there in bad and in good times for her, and this is a good time and she knows he is the person to pull her into line and tell her what a dimwit she is being. And she would never take offence.
Hope, Jason and Pétro are sitting in the tavern. They have ordered some
mezé
(morsel of food), the mandatory bread and icy water jug has arrived, and a bottle of the local white wine. The cultivation of wine on this island has been known since Homeric times, as it is mentioned in the “Iliad” – it was a wine that apparently delighted the Achaeans during the siege of Troy. It is a wine that tastes like none other.
It is customary to go in the kitchen and see the food, (especially if one wants to order seafood), but also to see what else the pot has to deliver. It is a wonderful custom, where eating is also visual before it comes to the table. Pétro goes on his own. Hope suspects he has done this on purpose. Jason looks at her and reaches for her hand.
“Look at me.” He pulls her hand and she allows him to do this with an ache deep inside her that she can’t explain. He looks into her face with a lot of gentleness. “Don’t be afraid. I would never hurt you. Don’t spoil something that is so wonderful before it has time to mature.”
“Mature into what? What do you expect this to become, except sex?”
“I don’t know, all I know is that I love being with you and in you.” And with those words Hope’s heart misses a beat and he lifts her hand up to his mouth.
She looks into his eyes and asks what she has wanted to ask since she laid eyes on him. “You never asked for my phone number, you never asked me to go and have that famous ‘cup of coffee’ that all men ask for when they want a first personal contact. Why?”
“We’re on an island
kardoúla mou
. (my little heart) We can’t get far away from one another, and I keep seeing you everywhere, but most of all I wanted you to come to me of your own volition, and you did. I don’t want you without your free will. What is coffee any way, we had our first coffee this morning, and hopefully it will be the first of many morning coffees.”
He strokes her palm and threads his fingers through hers. She tries to pull away gently but he tightens his hold. “I know why you want to pull your hand away, you don’t want people to see us holding hands.”
How does he know her? She looks away, feeling foolish and he continues to hold her tightly. “Look at me Hope, look at me.” And she looks into his beautiful face. “I want to be with you. Do you understand?”