BETWEEN CLOUDS AND STARS: A Sexy Standalone Romance

by Sharlyn G. Branson

  Wasn’t it for the best to end our relationship? Oh, God, why did the mere thought of that cause me such agony? How would I be able to live, knowing that the love of my life was so near me, but I couldn’t have him? We worked together, which complicated the situation even further. Perhaps I’d have to leave New York and find a job in another big U.S. city? Yes, that was one option. Difficult but doable.

  After the Johnsons left, Nick went to have some important conversation, and I sat on the edge of the pool, near the waterfall. The wind made the bushes rustle and carried a scent of freshly cut grass, sea air, and spring flowers. The running water had a very calming effect on me and, seemingly, the power to gradually erode my fears. My entire life I’d felt very lonely, like a lone tree on a hill that only meets the sun as it rises and sets. Nick had taken all the darkness and drabness away and given me so much light. I adored him. I was sure I’d continue to love him even if we weren’t together.

  “Hey, babe.” Nick’s voice made me turn around. He was coming over to me in quick strides. He was gorgeous, dressed in faded jeans and a gray T-shirt. The softness in his eyes enveloped my heart with warmth, and it started beating fast and hard against my ribcage. To me, he was the most handsome of men, with his perfectly symmetrical face and square jawline. And given my current dilemma, being madly in love with him didn’t help in the slightest.

  How should I tell him it’d be best if we split up?

  He sat next to me and put his arm around me, pressing his sinfully soft lips against mine.

  “What’s up? You look pensive. Did Vicky’s curiosity annoy you by any chance? She’s still very young and doesn’t understand anything.”

  “Vicky’s a very sweet girl. I’d be overjoyed to have such a beautiful daughter.” My voice faded as I felt a lump get stuck in my throat.

  “Don’t dwell on that,” he whispered softly. His hot breath caressed my face.

  “On the contrary, I have to… I can’t pretend this isn’t a problem.” I took a deep breath to give myself some strength and said, “I think it’d be for the best if we split up.”

  Nick knitted his eyebrows in disapproval. Brown flames sparked in his eyes. I sensed rage, tension, and anxiety emanating from him. “Don’t talk nonsense, Estelle. I won’t allow it.”

  “But it’d really be better. You’d be able to live your life with a woman who could give you children, who’d be able to bring this joy to you. I can’t do that.” I tried to stand—I needed some distance. Being so close to him made me feel even more pain. The heat of his body, his amazing but now sad eyes… God, I loved him.

  I stood up, but was quickly captured in his powerful embrace and found myself in his lap.

  “Estelle, please, I don’t want us to fight. I only need you. And I know the same goes for you, babe. Listen to your heart. It never lies.”

  “I need to listen to my head. I love you too much to be selfish.”

  “I love you too, my love.” His thumb gently stroked my cheek. “You and I make a great team. Together we’ll overcome every obstacle. With you, I feel like I’m flying through the clouds and stars. It’s wonderful, babe… I’ve never felt like that with any other woman. You know how much I love flying, and you make me feel like I have wings. I wouldn’t replace you with anyone else.” His eyes gazed at me pleadingly. “Yes, our relationship is quickly becoming serious, but there’s nothing wrong with that. If, in time, you want to have a child, we’ll see every doctor, we’ll try in vitro—”

  “And if all that fails?”

  Nick was the strong link in our relationship, and I was the weak one. I needed him, his support and protection. Why was I trying to screw everything up? Didn’t he have the right to make a decision about his future himself? Why was I killing everything good between us?

  Because I loved him more than anything and wanted him to be happy.

  “We can think about it then. Right now I don’t want to think about babies.” He held me even tighter and kissed me on the neck. “I know exactly how to relax you. We’ll go in the Jacuzzi and listen to the birds sing. I’ll make you come on my face and then I’ll fuck you so hard and long that I’ll knock all those silly thoughts out of your head.”

  I smiled at his naughty proposal. Dear God, this man was amazing. He always managed to make me smile. “Someone might see us.”

  “Nobody will see us. Conchita and her husband know not to disturb me. Before I forget, I should add there are no curious robots here.”

  I laughed, remembering how Ben had watched us when Nick had been showing me how well he could operate with his tongue and lips.

  “I have a treasure for you, lying in wait in my boxers and threatening to rip the zip of my jeans.” He winked, and I laughed even harder. He was doing this on purpose to tear me away from my dark thoughts.

  “Let’s get you out of these clothes, darling.” His fingers deftly unzipped my pants and slid between my legs.

  “What if someone sees us? I feel uncomfortable.”

  “You’re overthinking it. I’ll bring us a robe each so we’re not cold when we get out of the water.” He went over to the rock, pressed a pebble, and a secret door opened in front of him.

  I followed him into the hidden space, which turned out to be a small closet with shelves stacked full of different-sized towels.

  Three minutes later, we were in the Jacuzzi, the water jets massaging and gradually relaxing my back muscles. Sunrays glimmered across my beloved’s silky black hair and made it seem even shinier. Nick moved close to me and put his hands on my waist. He leaned in and kissed the corner of my mouth.

  “You’re incredible, Estelle.” He gazed at me, sparks of love coming from his eyes.

  So God is thinking about me, then? This amazing man truly loved me.

  Unashamed, I examined the sun-kissed skin on his chest, his well-defined muscles. Nick was perfect, and I was certain I wasn’t the only one who saw him that way. One couldn’t fail to notice his manliness, smarts, and resourcefulness.

  I looked up and again met his beautiful brown eyes, which shone in a dangerously attractive manner. The fire inside them could make me do anything for him. A playful smile slid across his face. Raising an eyebrow, he asked, “You like the view?”

  A hot, primal feeling welled up inside my body. I deliberately bit my lower lip. He growled and pounced on me. Tightly pressing his body against mine, he dug his fingers into my wet hair. I knew that at this very moment, he must be thinking of how good it felt when I sucked him off hard and insatiably.

  “No matter how much I adore having these playful lips wrapped around my dick, I can’t wait to lose myself inside you.” I sensed his erection on my belly. He was highly aroused and impatient to satisfy his hunger. Passion and energy radiated from his beautiful face, intoxicating me, taking control of my senses.

  “What you make me feel for you is so nice, Estelle, so divine. Do you feel it? The magic, the powerful attraction between us is—”

  I interrupted him by putting my arms around his neck. Pulling him to me, I started to kiss him. I needed to sense his every touch, his every kiss, to feel him inside me.

  The hot water had relaxed me. The thick head of his dick rubbed against my vulva and clitoris, enhancing my arousal. He pressed harder against the entry to my sex and slowly sank inside me. His shaft was wide, making me feel like he’d stretched me out to the max. Nick thrust inside me to the far wall of my vagina. We moaned in unison, overwhelmed by the wonderful sensation of our bodies merging. The emotions he elicited in me were intense and consuming. My vulvar muscles tightened around him, making his cock throb inside me.

  “Fuuck. It feels so good being inside you, baby.” He held me tight against him and started to pump with his hips.

  His thrusts intensified, becoming hard and deep. I could barely catch my breath. My breasts swung back and forth to the rhythm of his movements. I sank my nails into the skin on his back. The sensation of his entering me made me experience supreme bliss, ecstasy that o
nly Nicholas Frey could bring me to. We both quickened our breathing. Sweat broke out on our foreheads.

  Nick cupped my butt cheeks and sped up his thrusts. His middle finger stroked my anus. “Since I met you, you’ve become the center of my life. You’re my everything. I want to possess all of you, Estelle. Do you trust me?”

  I nodded in reply. Nick had always been gentle and careful with me.

  The teasing touch of his finger was driving me wild. He pressed harder and filled me up. My muscles were relaxed from the warm water, so the penetration didn’t hurt at all. The sensation of being full on both sides was strangely different, but pleasant too.

  “Relax, babe. I want you to enjoy it.” He leaned forward and sucked on my earlobe.

  “God… Nick.”

  “That’s it. Feel me. I’m all yours, gorgeous.”

  The feeling of our bodies merging, his finger rhythmically going in and out of me… It was all so magical. I couldn’t take it any longer. My need for release had reached its breaking point.

  “Let’s do it together, baby,” Nick hissed through his teeth. Throwing his head back, he started to shoot his load into me in powerful jets. My body shook, and intense, hot waves washed over me from head to toe. A sweet shared orgasm overwhelmed us and sank us deep below a sea of ecstasy where only he and I existed.

  14

  Estelle

  “Hearing you talk about Nicholas Frey so lovingly, I can only say one thing: You’re lost in love.”

  We were having lunch in a small, pleasant, Italian restaurant near Jeremy’s apartment.

  Giovanna, his childhood friend, slapped him gently on the shoulder. “Don’t say things like that,” she chided him.

  She was a very beautiful woman with straight black hair and black-olive eyes. Her red lipstick highlighted her beautiful, pearly-white teeth whereas her beige silk blouse emphasized the golden tan of her skin.

  “Alright, alright. Thinking about it, if I were in your place, I’d be in the same situation. I wouldn’t mind sucking his dick.”

  I choked on my Coke.

  “Jeremy!” Giovanna exclaimed disapprovingly while tapping me on the back. “Don’t talk so loudly, for God’s sake.”

  I took a cautious look at the people sitting near our table. I breathed a sigh of relief seeing that, luckily, they were all talking to each other and weren’t interested in other people’s conversations.

  “Instead of making me jealous that you like my boyfriend, I think you’d better tell us about your friend, sexy Dr. White.”

  At the mention of his name, Jeremy’s face softened, and the familiar spark of love glimmered in his eyes. “Stuart is incredible…in every respect.”

  “Ah, he’s incredible, is he?” Giovanna said, throwing her head back and giggling. “And you said Estelle had fallen hard. Don’t play the saint. We want all the juicy details.”

  Jeremy sliced a piece of pizza and before putting it in his mouth, replied, “I get on with him swimmingly. He’s perfect, both at his job and at sex. I doubt you want me to go into too much detail about how he sucks me off.” He raised his eyebrow to Giovanna and gave her a smirk.

  “Fine then. You can spare me those details. I don’t want to get wet trying to picture that scene.”

  “Watch some porn.” His eyes fired off a playful look.

  “Actually, that’s not a bad idea.”

  “What do you need porn for when you can make love to your man?” I intervened. “Most of all, I love morning sex. It has a very refreshing effect on me. Afterward, I feel charged full of positive energy.”

  “You’re lucky… Right now, you’re making me so envious that I might burst. Nobody can match up to Nicholas Frey when it comes to marathon sex sessions.” Giovanna stretched out her long legs and sighed theatrically, fanning herself with a napkin.

  “How the hell do you know that?”

  “I read all the celebrity rags. His exes praise him no end. And I need a man who can last at least two hours, but alas, my Steven is getting old. As if that wasn’t enough, lately we’re always fighting over his parents. They’re constantly meddling in our relationship and saying nasty things about me behind my back.”

  “What an outrage!” Why did such underhand people exist?

  “Exactly! I love him as he is. He’s my Steven, and I want to grow old with him. Why are they trying to break us up?” She flicked her hair to the side and rested her elbows on the table.

  “Because they’re morons. Haven’t you told them that their actions only undermine your relationship and if they don’t stop, you’ll never speak to them again?”

  “No, but I will,” she replied decisively.

  “You should’ve also warned them that they’re starting a war in which they might lose their son, that they might piss him off so much that he’ll stop talking to them.”

  “Well, no, I didn’t think of that.” She hung her shoulders.

  “And for the killer blow, you could tell them that if they keep behaving like this, they might never see their grandson. Since they don’t respect you.”

  “Wow, I didn’t know you were such an expert in family problems,” Jeremy interjected.

  “Well, yeah, but only when it comes to other people’s problems.”

  “You’re right, Estelle. That’s exactly what I’ll say to them.” Giovanna rubbed her pregnant belly. “They have no right to ruin our family, especially since I’m pregnant. To top it all off, they also want to be involved in deciding the child’s name. They don’t like Victor, sounds too Russian to them. Oh, and my stupid father-in-law blurted out that everyone he knew with that name was an asshole. I don’t think I’ve met a bigger idiot than him. They’ve now ruined the name for me and I’m at a loss what other name to choose. And guess what all this fuss was for? Because they wanted the baby to be called Dick, after my father-in-law.”

  “Dick, cock. Very sexy,” Jeremy laughed, and Giovanna fired an angry look at him.

  “Precisely. Please don’t go on about it. It’s making me feel sick. We have the right, as his parents, to choose the name, not the grandparents.”

  I wiped my mouth with a napkin and threw it on the table. I’d now completely lost my appetite. “What century do these people live in?”

  “In the Middle Ages,” Jeremy interjected again, making us laugh.

  “Definitely. I hope your husband has taken your side.”

  “He supports me for now. Let’s hope he keeps doing it in the future.”

  “If he stops, I’ll come over and kick his ass with my artificial leg. That one’s harder, so it’ll hurt him more,” Jeremy said, and I got the urge to give him a hug. Jeremy had gone through so much suffering. Next month, he was scheduled to have an operation in which his new leg would be transplanted. A suitable donor had been found. But until then, the doctors had given him an artificial limb so he could get from place to place more easily. He wasn’t completely steady on his feet with the prosthesis because he hadn’t got used to it yet, but it was still a thousand times better than being in a wheelchair.

  Giovanna burst out laughing at his comment. “I depend on your support. God, the pregnancy makes me feel really tired, and my belly is so stretched I feel it might burst open at any given moment.”

  “Wait until you reach the last stage of pregnancy.”

  “Jeremy, do you really have to remind me? Do you think I don’t know it? But as my granny said, when you’re expecting a boy, the belly bulges out at the front, whereas with a girl, it stretches sideways—”

  “Ha, I didn’t know that,” Jeremy interrupted her and leaned back in his chair.

  “You don’t need to know it. You can’t get pregnant,” Giovanna said and giggled, her pleasant laughter filling the restaurant.

  “Very funny.”

  Giovanna checked her watch, stood up and, slinging her bag across her shoulder, added, “I have to go. I want to visit my grandmother at the old folks’ home. Her sclerosis is making her shake uncontrollably and it might be
turning into full-blown dementia. She’s very sick. One day she was looking for her glasses, which were on her face the entire time. Another time she’d put her shoes in the fridge… But the worst part is that she can’t remember when I go to see her. Fifteen minutes after I leave, she asks the nurse when will I come, whether I’ve called, why don’t I come to visit her.”

  “Getting old is scary. If you haven’t managed to stay healthy, it’s a real nightmare.”

  “You’re so right, Jeremy. And now I have to stop babbling or I’ll be late. I’ll call you next week so we can meet up again,” Giovanna replied. We air-kissed and she left. The words of my best friend made me think deeply. Giovanna’s grandmother was ninety years old but at least she’d enjoyed a good life, whereas Jeremy was only twenty and he’d had to go through so much already.

  He leaned in and kissed me on the temple, putting his arm around my shoulders. Then he looked at me more closely and frowned.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  My friend shrugged. “Nothing. I’m trying to get rid of this nagging thought tormenting my mind.”

  “What’re you talking about?”

  “Not about what, but about whom. And that we’re finally alone, I can be completely candid with you. Are you sure Nicholas Frey is right for you?”

  Damn it, was he implying something? Had he seen Nick with another woman? My heart began to beat so fast that for a moment I thought Jeremy could also hear it.

  The hell with that Swiss bastard if he was cheating on me. I wouldn’t take that sitting down. My ex-husband may have had affairs, and I’d tolerated his wild life because I was afraid of him, but enough was enough. I wouldn’t let another man trample my dignity. I wasn’t eighteen anymore. I was old enough to bravely stand up for myself and face any problem.

  “Jeremy, what’re you trying to tell me? If you know something I should know too, then spit it out. Just give it to me straight.”

  He took a deep breath, and I realized I’d completely stopped breathing. So much for bravely standing up for myself and facing any problem. “Nicholas Frey is the kind of man who isn’t used to being satisfied by just one woman. I don’t want him to hurt you.”