by Sylvie Fox
Unlike her own graduations with a single accomplished, well-known commencement speaker, each of the handful of students was able to speak about the struggles they’d overcome to get to today. The young graduates talked about overcoming drug addiction, gang violence, and coping with teen pregnancy. When the dean of the school handed out the diplomas, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room. Toward the end of the ceremony, Holly was overjoyed when the students and the dean gathered on stage to read a short inspirational poem and award an honorary degree to Nick.
She was so proud of him, she thought she would burst. Drew had thought Nick was crazy for giving up on network television for documentaries and starting his own company, Solstice Entertainment. But Nick had followed his heart, and had obviously touched many others by doing so.
While Nick and a short, plump woman she recognized as Helena wrapped up their final interviews, Holly helped herself to the homemade delicacies. She enjoyed rice, beans, handmade tamales, and pupusas alongside the celebrating students and parents. She was in the middle of a conversation with a young girl about her own college alma mater when she felt Nick’s presence just before his hand grasped her shoulder. His expression was blatantly sexual and all coherent thought fled. She pushed her card into the girl’s hand, encouraging her to call about a possible internship at Equia, then stood and walked away with Nick.
“My crew is ready to wrap up here.”
“You missed lunch. Do you want to go for a late bite?”
Nick smoothed an escaped tendril of hair behind her ear. “Holly, I’m not hungry for food right now.”
His disheveled hair fell across his forehead partially covering his face, but she was still able to see the hunger radiating from his eyes. Suddenly, Holly felt very warm and hoped her face wasn’t flushed with the desire that quickly overwhelmed her.
“Then let’s get out of here,” she said, feeling emboldened.
Nick grabbed her hand and swept her up the stairs and out the door before they could say any goodbyes. As they made their way north, Nick put the top down on the convertible, and Holly, already feeling carefree, took out most of the bobby pins and set her hair free. They drove swiftly through the busy streets until they reached stalled traffic at La Cienega Boulevard. Holly looked at the hills to the north imagining Nick’s house somewhere up there.
“Nick, we have to talk,” Holly blurted out before losing her courage to speak. He looked directly at her, the need smoldering in his eyes, and Holly almost lost her train of thought. “I… just want to make sure we lay some ground rules, so no one gets hurt.” So I don’t get hurt.
Nick broke eye contact as the traffic moved ahead a few feet.
Holly pressed on insistently. “Nick, we’re obviously attracted to each other. I’m more crazy about you than I thought I would ever be about anyone again. I know that you’re young and not interested in a serious relationship. So no strings attached. If you only want to spend tonight with me, I’ll understand,” Holly finished, hoping against hope that this craving for Nick, this wanting she hadn’t known existed just a few days ago, could be assuaged after one night.
Nick didn’t respond. The car’s interior was intensely quiet as they followed the slow moving cars to her home. He was still silent when he pulled up to her building and helped her out of the car. Nick’s nearness, coupled with his silence, kept Holly off balance. When they walked into her living room and Nick closed the door, she finally spoke into the awkward silence.
“Nick?”
Nick pulled her into his arms, his green eyes locking with hers.
“Holly,” he said, his voice gruff with need, “we can call it what you want. It can be however you like. None of that matters to me. More than anything, I want to be with you. No, I need to be with you. Now.” He kissed her then, quelling all thought of a verbal response. His sensuous lips rubbed against hers, his tongue seeking and gaining entry.
The rationalizations and excuses that had been her constant companions for the last week flew from her head. Instead, she gave in to Nick’s kiss and drowned in a world of sensation. She twisted fistfuls of Nick’s ribbed sweater in her hands. Reluctantly breaking the kiss, she grabbed his hand and led him to her bedroom. Talking was done between them.
Even more than the rest of her apartment, Holly’s bedroom was undeniably feminine— downright girly, to tell the truth. Her grandmother’s mahogany canopy bed dominated the dark red room. Its gauzy curtains pulled aside revealing a pillowy lace duvet. Nick didn’t look the least bit out of place in the frilly domain. He sat on the edge of the waist-high, “princess-and-the-pea” style mattress and pulled her between his strong thighs. Caught off balance at the sudden movement, Holly fell into his rock hard chest. Nick took advantage of her closeness to kiss her senseless.
Nick broke the kiss and looked at her, his eyes clouded with passion. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse with need and something far more compelling. “I’ve wanted this for so long,” he said fiercely. He pulled at the few remaining bobby pins still holding the sides of her hair back, and her corkscrew curls spilled around her shoulders.
His words washed over her. Molten desire flooded Holly’s insides. Afraid of the depth of feeling radiating from Nick and the words spilling from his lips, Holly upped the distraction ante by boldly unbuttoning her cardigan and pulling her tank over her head. Nick’s quick intake of breath as her see-through lacy bra came into view gave her the courage to continue.
Holly’s hair curtained her face as she worked at the fasteners on her slacks, so she was unprepared for the feel of Nick’s hot mouth wetting the lacy silk of her bra. Her nipples pulled hard under his skilled caress. She grabbed handfuls of his hair as he eased her bra straps down, and his mouth touched her flesh, his lips only grazing where she most wanted him to lick, to suck. She leaned forward to increase the contact, but Nick teased her, circling her areola with his tongue, then blowing on her overheated flesh. Holly felt achy all over—an ache, she now knew, only Nick could ease.
She pulled his sweater and t-shirt over his head. Holly unbuckled his belt and pulled it from the loops of his jeans. When she brushed her fingers against the hard ridge of his erection, he pulled her hands away and looped them around his neck.
“If you do any more of that, this will be over far too soon. I want to savor you.”
Holly shivered at his provocative words. No man had ever made her feel so feminine, so wanted.
He stood, and they were skin to skin for the first time—her breasts crushed against the hard, muscled wall of his chest. Nick overwhelmed her—and if her heart weren’t beating so fast or her womb weren’t contracting with need, she would have put a stop to this madness that had ensnared her in a way she’d never imagined.
Holly’s loosened pants pooled at her feet, and she stepped out of them, along with her shoes. Clad only in black hipster panties, she stood before Nick. Desire, and something else she couldn’t name, flared in his eyes as he looked his fill.
Reverently, he brushed her hair back over her shoulder. Nick’s hands scorched fire down her arms. Caught in the intensity of his emerald gaze, Holly couldn’t move, didn’t want to move. His hands touched her everywhere, tracing her spine, palming the small of her back, glancing off her nipple, cupping her bottom. Holly was caught off guard when Nick effortlessly gathered her in his arms and laid her in the middle of her duvet. Never breaking eye contact, he shucked the rest of his clothes and lay beside her.
He was more beautiful than she had dreamed. Though she’d been too shy to look at him last weekend, she took him in greedily this time. Renovating his home had obviously agreed with him. There was not a spare ounce of flesh on his frame. His biceps were rock hard, his rippled stomach flat, his legs well muscled. She wanted to touch his golden skin and did. Holly impetuously straddled Nick’s hips. She followed her sweeping hair across his body with her lips and tongue. She sucked at the strong column of his throat and flicked her tongue across his flat nipples. Tickling his belly button,
Holly rubbed her cheek against his throbbing erection. It felt so hot, so hard.
When she stroked the underside of his penis, first with her lips, then with her tongue, Holly thought Nick would lose all control. “Oh, God, Holly, yes,” he gasped. “Just like that… I’ve dreamed about this… but the reality… is so much more… ” Taking him into her mouth, she sucked him as deep as she could, using the point of her tongue to taste the bead of moisture at the tip. Nick arched back and pulled her up, taking her mouth in another bone-melting kiss. He gently rolled himself on top of her, placing her on her back. His fingers found her center and stroked her clit, slipping inside and spreading the moisture there between her swollen folds. In an instant, their lovemaking went from a quiet coupling to frenzied mating. Holly tilted up to kiss him, their lips frantic, their tongues dueling. She laced her fingers in his hair and held on for dear life as he sucked one nipple, then pulled the other deep into his mouth.
The magical touch of his fingers brought her close to the edge, but she wanted to jump off that cliff into a sea of feeling with Nick right beside—no, inside her.
“Nick, please, I want you inside me.” Holly sat up, pulling her nipple free from Nick’s willing mouth. Grasping his cock at the base, she tried easing him in. There was a moment of hesitation as her body adjusted to fit his. They both sighed at the sweet perfection of their joining. Nick grasped her hips and helped her take him first slowly, her body accommodating his size as he filled her to the hilt, then faster as they both gasped for release. “Nick, don’t stop. I’m so close,” Holly said, feeling herself hover on the brink, the anticipation of her orgasm pooling in the pit of her stomach.
Following her verbal cue, Nick slid the pad of his thumb to her core and stroked her clit, slowly, and then faster, harder, as her cries escalated. Holly felt as if she were falling into a world of pure sensation and ecstasy. As she felt Nick’s hot seed gush into her, she knew he had followed her over the edge.
With the exception of their labored breathing, the room was quiet. They remained joined for what seemed like an eternity while their bodies cooled. She couldn’t believe how perfectly they fit. But Nick gently eased himself from her then padded to her bathroom. As the chill air in the room started to pucker her rapidly cooling flesh, Holly rolled over and scooted under her down duvet. When she moved, she felt warm and sticky. Then it hit her.
She and Nick had done the deed without a condom.
And she called herself the mature one. She had never been as caught up as she had been with Nick. Never had she allowed something like that to happen with anyone else, ever. When she heard Nick turning off the water in her bathroom, she called to him.
His frame filled the doorway to her bedroom, and she was hot all over again, despite the pit of worry that sat in her belly like a stone. Even unaroused, his penis was thick and heavy. He raked a hand through the hair that had fallen in his eyes, immodest despite his nudity. Holly shook herself, determined not to get distracted. She needed to be the adult in this situation. Sitting up, suddenly modest herself, she pulled the duvet up to her chin, and looked directly into his eyes still dark with desire.
“Nick… ”
“Holly, let’s not analyze what just happened between us,” he said in that sexy baritone of his, sending chills down her spine.
“It’s not that,” Holly continued, more forcefully now. “We do need to talk because… well… you need to know, I’m not on the pill or anything. What just happened. We didn’t protect ourselves.”
Without a moment of hesitation, Nick strode purposefully to her bed and sat as close as her tucked covers would allow. “I’m clean, Holly. I don’t want you to worry. I’ve been tested. I haven’t been with anyone in a while.”
“Nick, it’s not that. I trust you,” Holly said, though she was relieved Nick had thought of that while she was focused on a different aspect of their joining. “It’s not that I think this will happen, not from this one time, but… ”
He leaned forward, pushing back her hair, brushing his lips gently across hers and said, “We’ll be more careful, I promise. I’ll accept full responsibility for anything that happens. Anything.”
Nick gently pulled the covers from her body and gathered her in his arms. When they made love this time, it was gentle and slow, and even more unnerving for Holly than their earlier frenzied coupling. When Nick entered her this second time, fully sheathed, she naively thought the impersonal latex barrier would somehow lessen the intensity of their union.
It was just the opposite. The deliberateness of Nick’s caresses, the slow rhythm of their bodies magnified every action and made each stroke that much more meaningful. When their bodies quieted a second time, Nick fell into a deep sleep. Overwhelmed by what she and Nick had experienced, Holly felt the need to do something to distract her from her racing heart and mind. After pulling on matching velour shorts and hoodie over her bare skin, she tiptoed to the kitchen, sure not to wake him, and turned on the oven to pre-heat.
Nick awoke with the smell of chocolate chip cookies surrounding him. Something else he couldn’t name filled the night air. Was it mint? He pulled on his boxer briefs with some difficulty, already half hard, thinking the third time with Holly tonight would definitely be a charm.
She was languorously stirring something on the stove when he entered the kitchen. Slightly startled, Holly looked up. Nick took in the woman he’d pined for before speaking. She had pulled her hair into a loose ponytail, but a few escaped tendrils kissed her cheeks—rosy from the heat. The hip hugging tan velour shorts she wore barely covered her slim, shapely legs, reminding him how her limbs had felt wrapped around his hips as he plunged into her again and again, just hours earlier.
“What are you doing?”
“Wait, I’m almost done.” She poured the liquid into tall glass mugs and put them on a tray. “I was going to bring this to you. Go back to bed and pretend to be surprised.”
Nick made a mock run for the bedroom, where Holly put the loaded tray on her nightstand and pounced on top of him. The cookies, which had seemed so appetizing moments before, were forgotten as he kissed her. He unzipped her hoodie halfway, dying for a peek at her pink-brown nipples.
Were they were already hard or would he have to help stimulate her flesh? She stroked his erection through his underwear as he grazed her nipple with his teeth. Then she pulled away.
“I’m hungry… for food,” she breathed a little unsteadily.
They shifted their attention from fulfilling their need for each other, for the moment, to filling their empty stomachs. Nick bit into a soft chocolaty cookie and took a sip of what turned out to be mint infused hot chocolate. “Mmmm, did you make these from scratch? How long was I asleep?”
“Yes, they’re homemade. You weren’t asleep that long. I keep ingredients on hand for nights when I have chocolate cravings.”
The cookies were divine. Holly was divine. Sitting up against the headboard, Nick grew thoughtful. He knew he needed to tell her how much this meant to him: she was more than a one—or two-night stand.
“Holly, I… this is more amazing than I ever hoped. I’ve been thinking about being with you for the last year, at least. All these months, I’ve been dreaming about you, wanting you. I think—”
Holly quieted him by placing trembling fingers to his lips. “Shhhh. It’s too much too soon.” Her eyes skittered away. The mood in the room shifted perceptibly. “You know, it’s getting kind of late. Do you mind? I’d like to sleep alone tonight.”
Nick started to say something about the abrupt change in her mood, but her shuttered look silenced him.
“I have to, you know, brush my teeth.” She excused herself, and by the time she returned from the bathroom, he’d done what she asked. He’d pulled on his clothes and had readied himself to leave. When Holly stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek, he gave in to the urge to pull her in tight. When her startled gaze met his, he kissed her full on that pouty little mouth. It was a full minute
before she pulled back, out of breath.
It was another minute before she recovered. “Sleep tight,” she trilled with false gaiety, ushering him out the door. “No strings, remember. Let’s get together soon when we both have time.”
He could tell it took a lot for her to push him through the door.
Holly sagged against the heavy door, glad she’d been able to get him out. The sex was good, too damn good. She didn’t want to hear anything serious, not from him, not now. Why did he have to ruin a perfectly good time?
Looking at him, sensing what he was thinking, what he wanted to say made Holly jittery down to her very fingertips. This wasn’t what she’d bargained for. After he’d awoken, everything about his demeanor screamed relationship with a capital R. She just wasn’t ready to go there, not with him, not now.
When she finally heard his car start, she started making her way to clean up the kitchen. She picked up the ringing telephone. The cookie sheet would have to wait.
“Are you alone?” Sophie wasn’t big on social niceties, like greetings.
“I live alone.”
“I got a dog. You’ll have to come meet Sasha.”
Holly was thrown by the unexpected news. “Were you planning to get a dog?”
“Nope.” Sophie related a long and bizarre story about her and some strange man saving a dog from certain death on the Hollywood freeway.
The guy sounded more intriguing than the dog. “Who’s the guy? Did he want the dog?”
“He was just some suit. I put first rights on Sasha and I got her. Easy peasy. She’s really cute. Maybe you should get a dog, since you seem to be A-L-O-N-E. Where’s Nick? I thought you had afternoon plans.” Sophie started humming something out of tune.
