Chapter 51: December in Paris 002

He was squeezing the air out of my lungs. The dizziness had more to do with his words than his actions. Not exactly prince charming material.

“I’m not on the pill,” I managed to say. He loosened the embrace and looked at me. “But I’m not sure we should rush into…”

“No rush,” he said, kissing the tip of my nose. “I won’t finish inside you,” he said, taking me to bed. “That means,” he went on, while he spread my legs and positioned himself between them, “that you don’t get to be on top.”

When he started to slide inside me, all thoughts of protesting faded away from my mind. There was something wholly satisfying by being in bed, under him.

The muscles in his neck tensed as he braced himself on his forearms. His words came out stilted, as if it took great effort to speak.

“I have to warn you. I’m not going to last long. The first time.”

He started moving. The short thrusts brought me to the edge of orgasm.

“Oh, fuck,” he groaned and pulled out.

He kept stroking himself and I felt a blast of hot liquid over my belly.

“Sorry.”

He fell in bed next to me. I snuggled into him to avoid falling out of my narrow bed.

“Don’t worry. You have until Christmas to make it up to me.”

“Why until then?”

“Because my parents will be here for Christmas.”

He shifted to look at me.

“Did you talk to your father since the wedding?”

That was a strange question.

“Of course. I talk to him every few days.”

“And he hasn’t mentioned me?” he asked, genuinely curious.

“I, umm, don’t talk to anyone about you. Why do you ask?”

“After the wedding, I told him I was in love with you.”

I pulled away from him, trying to get a better look at his face to see if he was making fun of me. He seemed amused and embarrassed at the same time.

“You told my dad, two weeks ago, that you are in love with me?”

He pursed his lips and nodded.

“I told him that I don’t know how you feel about me, but I’m in love with you.”

“Why?” I asked for what felt like the hundredth time that day.

“Because he asked me to stay away from you. That Christmas in Aspen. He noticed something was going on between us.”

Three years ago. If my dad knew, my mom probably knew, too. No wonder they’d been so accommodating about my move to Paris.

“Does this change anything?” Fred asked.

It didn’t, I realized. Not massively anyway. At least they had some forewarning.

“How did dad react?”

“When I told him I was in love with you after I had promised to stay away?”

Oh, God. That sounded kind of horrible.

He shrugged. “He punched me in the face. Told me what he thought of me as a person. So, I’d say he took it well.”

I had to laugh. “You’re lucky he didn’t sue you.”

“He loves you,” Fred said simply.

Maybe telling them wouldn’t be the end of the world.

“How long can you stay?”

“I cleared the whole month. But I don’t have to stay if you don’t want to tell them.”

Not telling them would be lying. I rationalized lying to them while having sex with Fred was just something crazy that happened and was not supposed to happen again. Now…

“I think I’ll tell them. I hope they won’t cancel. Even if it means we’ll have a very awkward Christmas.”

His phone buzzed loudly, distracting me from the uncomfortable thoughts of a Christmas with my parents and Fred.