by A. C. Arthur
“Ah,” she said and then cleared her throat. “This wasn’t…I mean, the gown you ripped didn’t look like this one.”
“I know,” he said, reaching across the table to grab a bottle of the water she’d brought in. “I like this one better.”
“Oh,” she replied as she watched him open the water and take a generous gulp. “Okay, then. Well, thank you.”
She didn’t know what else to say. Why had he come over unannounced and why did he buy her this? It wasn’t like Savian at all.
“I know this is probably rude, but can we eat now? I’ve been in and out of stores all morning and I’m starved,” he said, pulling out a chair and sitting down.
“Sure. No problem. Thank you for bringing lunch. I was just getting ready to order pizza. It’s like you must have read my mind,” she said taking a seat also and accepting the paper plate he’d pulled out of a bag and handed to her.
“Glad I could be of service,” he said with a small smile.
Yes, that’s exactly what it was, a smile. Jenise had never seen Savian smile. Sure, he had a sexy little grin he’d give her whenever she held his thick length in her hands and stroked, but that was all she’d been privy too. She liked his smile. A lot.
“I’m glad you could, too,” she told him.
They ate in silence for a few moments. The pizza was delicious, but Jenise was more curious about the man sitting across from her and this mysterious visit.
“I brought you more decorations,” he said after taking a bite of his second slice. “It didn’t look like you had enough in those boxes to cover both rooms of this apartment. I figured you would want to have decorations in this window too, since you never close the curtains. Lights probably,” he added with a shrug. “I picked up some of that lighted garland. I’ve seen that in windows or it might be nice draped over this archway.”
“What?” Jenise asked, unable to even think about reaching for her second slice. “You bought Christmas decorations? But you said it was too early to decorate.”
He nodded while he finished chewing. “It is. But since you’re ready, you might as well have everything you need.”
And he’d gone out to buy what she needed. Jenise didn’t know how to respond to that. They continued to eat in silence because she wasn’t sure what to say or how to take what was happening. Savian had never just showed up at her place without calling or texting and when he came over, there were only moments before they were getting naked. He’d been here for almost twenty-five minutes now, and they were still sitting at her dining room table, fully clothed, and more awkward now than that first day they’d had sex in her office.
“I like Christmas music, too,” she said abruptly after he’d finished his second slice. “Now that, I do not have to wait until November to enjoy it.”
Jenise moved from her seat, going into the living room to pick up the remote that controlled the multi-DVD player on the stand just below her television. There were already six of her favorite holiday CDs inserted as she’d been listening to them often these past few weeks.
“I usually take a break from the music around January, but by the time summer rolls around I’m ready to hear it again. So I never put these away,” she’d continued talking and smiled as the first track on the A Motown Christmas CD began to play.
When she thought she would turn around and see him frowning at her from the dining room, she was quickly mistaken. Savian had also moved from the table, so that he was now unpacking the other shopping bag he’d brought in with him.
“I’m not totally adverse to some holiday music,” he was saying, his back facing her as he moved.
His shoulders were broad, his back as muscled and fantastic to look at as the rest of him. She’d known immediately that he worked out a lot, even without him mentioning it in the months since they’d known each other. She’d at first assumed he had a platinum membership to some upscale gym that he visited at least once a day. When he’d told her he only used his personal home gym because he didn’t want people staring at him when he worked out, Jenise had received her first glimpse into the private and almost reclusive man that he was.
“My mother and my aunt rotate holidays at their house so that we’re all together for each one. When we were little, we actually used to spend the night at Aunt Janean’s on Christmas Eve so that all of the kids could wake up together. It was the same when it was my mother’s turn to host,” he continued to talk while emptying the bag.
“Wow, your family is really close,” she said, folding her arms over her chest as she watched him move.
Why did he look so good doing something as simple as taking boxes and lights out of a bag? Even his clothes were normal jeans and a shirt, yet, the combo looked beyond inviting on him.
“There are a lot more of us,” he was saying as he moved from where he’d put the new items on the couch, back to the boxes he’d been going through yesterday.
Today, he went straight for the tree.
“We’re scattered across the states now, but we have an annual family reunion where we try to get everyone together. It’s kind of hard sometimes as most of us have very busy schedules,” he finished.
“But you like being with all of your family. You enjoy that sense of togetherness when you can because your life is normally so solitary.” She stopped then because she hadn’t realized she was voicing her assessment aloud.
When he turned to look at her, his brow furrowed in that way he did when she knew he was thinking something, but didn’t intend to say what, she let her arms fall to her sides.
“This is a seven foot tree,” she said crossing the room to where he stood, his hands still on the tall box. “One of the reasons I chose this apartment, even though the view is not all that I desired, was because of the high ceilings. When I decorate my tree I’m always thinking of the White House Christmas tree,” she said, pulling the tape back from the box.
She was partially relieved when Savian stopped staring at her and reached over to finish removing the tape and flipped back the flaps on the box.
“You have very grand Christmas décor ideas,” he quipped.
She chuckled. “You only live once.”
“Yes,” he said casting a glance her way. “You do.”
The next hour was spent with Savian insisting that he knew how to assemble the tree, without the directions, and Jenise frowning knowingly at him when he inevitably did it wrong.
“Don’t you dare say it,” he’d warned when he’d taken the tree completely apart and snatched the neatly folded instructions she’d dropped to the bottom of his box, per his request.
“Say what?” she’d asked, attempting to hold back her smile.
“’I told you so’,” he replied, mimicking a high-pitched sing-songy voice.
She couldn’t hold it back then, she laughed out loud and received an amused gaze from him. When he went back to assembling the tree, this time going step-by-step with the directions, Jenise was feeling so comfortable and so lighthearted that she began opening the new boxes of ornaments he’d bought and singing along with the music playing throughout the room. Eventually, she lost track of time, as she usually did when she was decorating, and when she turned back to look at Savian, he had the tree completely assembled and the lights on it were now twinkling gleefully.
Her singing stopped in that moment and she clapped her hands. “I love it when the lights go on. It looks so pretty.”
“You want to leave it like that?” he asked, taking a step back from the tree and staring at it with her.
“Oh no,” she answered with a shake of her head. “It needs all the other pretty things you bought, plus my usual dressings. It’s going to be beautiful this year.”
Because he was helping her. She’d been smart enough not to say that part aloud.
Jenise hung the first bulb, a crystal clear one with a color Santa figurine inside. It was delicate and pretty and most likely very expensive. She would remember forever that Savian had bought i
t for her. In no time, her singing began again as she moved around the tree adding bulbs and ornaments throughout. Savian had joined her in the decorating and a few times they bumped into each other in passing. She’d smile and keep singing and he’d shake his head as if her were thoroughly amused with her. Then, when Jenise thought this man could not possibly shock her again today, he did.
Savian began singing. They were on the Boyz II Men Christmas Interpretations CD now and one of her favorite tracks had just begun to play—“Who Would Have Thought”. His voice was so smooth and melodic as he sang every word while moving about the tree. There was something in her hand but she couldn’t remember what. She should have been doing something, helping him perhaps, but she wasn’t. Instead she stood there watching him, listening to him, falling hard for him.
He came around to the front of the tree where she was standing at that moment, placing the bulb he’d been holding in his hand on a branch, when he looked over to see her staring at him. He’d continued to sing, again to her surprise, while his gaze held hers. Jenise knew the words to this song. She knew what they meant and how sweet and romantic they always sounded whenever she heard them. Today, all of that was magnified because they were in Savian’s voice.
Her heart slammed against her chest, her hands began to shake and she licked her lips slowly, not sure what to say. The only words she could think of were the ones she heard him singing, the words about falling in love on Christmas day. She sang them quietly, her not as melodic voice, mixing with his. The lights flickering on the tree brought out the intense brown and gold flecks in his eyes as he reached across to take the bulb out of her still shaking hand. He hung it on a branch without missing a word to the song and then he took her hands in his.
It was like a movie scene, one Jenise wanted to watch over and over again. Savian Donovan with his fine and complicated self, standing in front of her beautiful seven foot tall Christmas tree, singing a Boyz II Men song with her. She let her fingers twine with his as he took a step closer to her and when the song finally finished, when she thought her heart was going to hop, skip and jump right out of her chest, Savian leaned forward and kissed her.
Jenise welcomed the kiss like a breath of fresh air, wrapping her arms quickly around his neck and pulling him closer. His arms went around her waist, hands flattening on her back. He moved slowly, his tongue gliding with languid precision over hers as if he were savoring every single stroke. She cupped the back of his head, loving the warmth that spread from her palms, up her arms and throughout her torso. Wrapped in Savian’s strong arms Jenise admitted to herself, with a heartfelt sigh, that she felt safe and cherished.
When his hands moved lower to squeeze her ass, she moaned, pressing closer to him and loving the feel of his hard body against hers. Another song was playing but try as she might, Jenise had no clue what it was. All she could think about was Savian’s intoxicating scent, this delicious kiss and the feel of his strong hands moving lower. She gasped when he lifted her up, wrapping her legs around his waist in a motion so smooth and seemingly practiced she blinked in surprise as she looked down at him.
He didn’t speak, but then again, he didn’t need to. That look on his face said it all. Savian took the few steps toward the sofa and with one hand, knocked every box, strand of lighted garland, plastic wrapping and whatever else was there, to the floor. He lay Jenise down as gently as if she were one of those crystal ornaments he’d purchased for her. She stared up at him without speaking as his fingers moved slowly over the buttons of his shirt. When he stripped it away, and pulled the stark white t-shirt over his head, she exhaled slowly. His body was so finely sculpted almost like a bodybuilder and she could never get enough of looking at it. From the bulging biceps, to the contoured pectorals, down to the way his torso tapered to a slim waist and washboard abs. She was simply mesmerized. So much so that he’d taken off all of his clothes and she was still lying there staring hungrily at him.
When she grabbed the hem of her shirt and was about to pull it up and over her head, Savian pushed her hands away.
“I’ve got this,” he said, his voice deeper than usual and sexy as hell.
Jenise let her hands fall to her sides and lay still as he undressed her in a torturously slow manner. His fingers just barely brushed over her full and now highly sensitive breasts after he’d removed the shirt and her bra. And when she’d lifted her hips to aid him in pulling down her yoga pants, those same fingers scraped along the crevice of her behind, sending spears of pleasure straight to her core. But it was after she was completely naked, the way he touched both his palms to her thighs, parting them slowly, that Jenise knew she’d lost the battle.
He was staring down at her with such a tender look on his face, Jenise wanted to lift her hands and touch him. She remained still when his fingers slipped to the insides of her thighs, rubbing her skin softly before moving upward to her waiting center. With those same fingers he parted her plump and now damp folds slowly, making a different sound of appreciation than she’d ever heard before. He flattened a thumb over her clit and rubbed slowly. Jenise sucked in a breath, her fingers grasping the pillows of the sofa beneath her as she closed her eyes to the sweet sensations rippling through her body. For endless moments he simply touched her, with one finger and then another, stroking along the length of her moistness, delving quickly inside her center before pulling out just as fast. She was circling her hips, trying to lift upward, to engage a deeper probe from him, begging for release without opening her mouth.
“I’ve got to,” she heard him whisper before he was moving over her.
She opened her eyes then, just in time to see his head dip between her legs. In seconds his tongue was on her tender flesh and Jenise cried out in ecstasy. Savian held her legs open wide, his fingers digging into her thighs as he pushed her back further into the sofa. She was open and waiting for him like a feast and his mouth was working hungrily over her. Her head thrashed back and forth without any thought to how crazy her hair was going to look when they were done. All she could focus on now was the pleasure, the deep and pounding waves of pleasure at the feel of his tongue on her flesh. And when that tongue speared inside of her, Jenise thought she would explode right then and there. Instead she cupped her own breasts, squeezing her nipples until they stung from the assault.
He was gorging on her, the sounds coming much louder than the music that was playing and driving Jenise’s desire up higher and higher. She wanted him so desperately right now, needing him to come between her legs and thrust deep and hard inside. At the same time she didn’t want him to stop, as evidenced by the way she grabbed the back of his head, holding him in place. He suckled and licked for what seemed like an infinite amount of pleasure-filled time, so that when he abruptly pulled back, Jenise was instantly aware and missed the contact like an addict would their fix.
Her gaze immediately went to his hand as it gripped his thick, rigid length, stroking hard from its base to the tip as he licked his lips and continued to stare down at her. Acting on pure instinct, and remembering this part from their many trysts before, Jenise moved until she could grab his pants from the floor and dug into his back pocket for his wallet. She wasn’t being nosy and didn’t even look at what was there when she opened it, only felt through the side opening for the condom packet she knew would be there.
Their gazes met as she sat up on the sofa and reached for him. Without a word he moved closer to her, letting his hands fall to his side when she wrapped her fingers around his length. Again, going solely on what her body wanted, Jenise leaned in quickly to drag her tongue over the bulbous head of his penis. He moaned loud, bringing his hands up instantly to clasp the back of her head. Jenise had never done this before, never met anyone that she’d been moved to try it on. Truth be told, she hadn’t even thought about it with Savian in the three months that they’d been lovers. Yet today, right here in this moment, she wanted to taste him, to feel his warm length sliding along her tongue the way it did in and out of
her center.
She opened her mouth wider this time, letting his shaft slide inside her mouth slowly as he pushed forward. Closing her lips around him she began to suck, spurred on by the sounds he was making and marveling in how intensely she desired more of him now. Moments later when he pulled out of her there was a popping sound and then his simple instructions to “Put it on.”
She did as he requested, smoothing the condom down his length and had just looked up at him when he touched her shoulders, pushing her back on the sofa. He was over her in seconds, spreading her legs wide once again, this time tucking one onto the back of the sofa and letting the other dangle off the side. Then he was inside, working his rigid shaft in and out of her wet center until she was whispering his name. Jenise loved that he was on top of her, that she could look up and see the intense expressions on his face—the way he bit his bottom lip in concentration, or looked to her for confirmation. She lifted a hand to touch his cheek once, when he’d leaned in to kiss her breast. He’d pulled back quickly then, as if he’d been burned and went completely still.
Jenise wasn’t sure what to say or do. The touch had been very intimate, she knew, and she’d never done it before. But today was the day of “first times” for them, or so she’d thought. She’d been feeling differently around him since the moment she saw him standing in the doorway, her instincts had her following those differences and enjoying them one by one.
Savian, on the other hand, obviously had other ideas.
He pulled out of her slowly, and then moved off the sofa. Then he touched her in a way that was familiar, and that told her exactly what he wanted now. Jenise obliged, turning around so that her palms were flat on the sofa and she was bent over, ready for his taking. It came quickly. Savian moved behind her, thrusting inside her so fast she’d gasped. He’d proceeded to pump quickly then, like he was in a race with himself. It felt so good and then it felt so wrong. Jenise could do nothing but ride it out, accepting the delicious release as it tore through her body and was still shaking when, seconds later Savian’s ripped through him.
