“Fuck,” he curses and shudders once more.
I smile and reach up to brush his hair from his forehead, but he shakes it, smiling wickedly.
“Don’t think we’re done that easy.”
I squeal and laugh as he lifts me and throws me further up the mattress before covering my body with his and sinking into me again, this time placing my leg on his shoulder and devouring my mouth with his.
“I ache,” I announce two hours later as I get dressed after a long shower. Isaac doesn’t approve of the bathroom. Not because it isn’t decent, it is, but because there’s only one and, according to him, sharing a bathroom with a roommate can cause more issues than any other room in the house.
Speaking of roommates, mine still isn’t back, but the day is still young.
“Painkiller?” Isaac suggests, pulling open the fridge. “The shelves are split in two, apart from the top one which is for larger items, like pizza. Your roommate is organised.” After leaving the bedroom I stare at the plastic dividers, noticing that I get the right side of the shelves. It’s not an issue. I like the fact our food won’t get mixed up. “We should go food shopping, find the closest place for your convenience.”
“I’m not sure I can walk.” I’m not lying either.
Isaac winces and kisses my cheek. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s not you. I slipped in the shower and now my hip hurts.” Of course the rest of me aches too, but it’s nothing I can’t handle. It’s totally worth it in every way.
“I’m actually slightly disappointed. I was going to make myself a certificate, date it and hang it on the wall.”
Now I’m confused. “Huh?”
“It would say ‘the day I broke Elle with my penis’.”
I roll my eyes and laugh. “You’re an idiot. Come on. Let’s go and get me food.” I turn towards the door next to the bathroom and pick up the pen that hangs from the white board similar to mine.
“Leaving a note?”
“Yep.” I quickly scribble, ‘Hello, gone shopping be back soon.’ “Done.”
“Does everything excite you?” My smile widens as I nod in reply. “Sigh.”
I link my arm through his and grab my keys. “You make a sigh noise; you don’t actually say ‘sigh’.”
“I felt like it needed the word.”
“I’m seriously going to miss you.” I stick out my lower lip and make sure the door locks behind us. “Call me every day?”
“Twice a day.”
“Three times, or I’ll think you’ve died or run off with some prissy thirty year old who always wears her hair in a bun and sneers at the younger folk.”
“You’re a bigger idiot than I am.”
Giggling, I jump onto his back, ignoring the pain in my hip as I wrap my legs around his front. He grunts and grips my thighs, just behind my knees, with both hands.
I take this moment to appreciate his hair. It’s super soft and rebelliously long, as always. It suits him, though, and I love running my fingers through it.
I brush it away from his neck and press my lips to the soft skin there.
“Careful, or we’ll be going back inside and this time I will break you with my penis.”
I grin against him before biting and sucking the skin, pretending to mark him with a tacky love bite.
He pinches my thigh to make me stop. I do and pull my head back to check the area I just suckled. It’s slightly pink, but my eyes catch something else.
I run my finger along a strange looking scar; it’s a crisscross pattern of tiny white lines that snake around his neck, a few inches from below his ear to the base of his skull. How have I never noticed this before?
“What happened?” I ask softly, touching it with my finger.
He drops me instantly and scratches at it delicately. I wonder if it’s from his peculiar scratching habit, but the scar doesn’t look like nail marks made it. I’m not sure what it looks like.
“Clothes-lined myself as a kid,” he explains, laughing a little. “Tried jumping from the fence in my parent’s garden into a paddling pool and ended up catching myself on the clothes line. Ripped the skin at my neck, but I was okay.”
“Oh.” I touch the mark again and lean up to kiss his lips. “Proof that you were born an idiot.”
He slaps me on my arse and presses the button for the elevator. At least I don’t have to take the stairs.
By the time we’ve explored a little and we’re home, I’m starving, exhausted and on the verge of tears at the fact Isaac will be leaving soon. I’ve begged him to stay the night but he has to take his mum to her hospital appointment first thing in the morning.
When we walk in, I’m greeted by the smell of tomatoes and garlic. It smells amazing.
I also hear the microwave ping and realise it’s one of the many ready meals that sit on the left side of the fridge.
The door to the right opens and Isaac stiffens immediately. My mouth drops open. Jordan’s boyfriend is actually quite good looking. He’s nowhere near as gorgeous as Isaac, but I guarantee he isn’t the kind of guy who doesn’t get offers.
His hair is dark brown and thick, definitely comparable to the colour of chocolate. His eyes match his hair and his skin is shimmering like it has been polished with cinnamon. I wonder if he has Italian in him.
He stops in his tracks when he sees us both and a smile lights up his face. His teeth are perfect. He definitely comes from money with a Hollywood smile like that. “Hey guys, you must be the new roomie.” He directs the latter statement to me and holds out his hand.
I shake it, smiling and staring a little bit. I don’t fancy him, I’m just startled is all.
Isaac shakes his hand next. “I’m Isaac.”
“Ah, the husband?” He grins again, his plump lips tipping up at the corners. “Elle has mentioned you in her emails.” They shake hands and he takes a step back. “I hope your room is okay. I let you have that one because you’re female and probably have a lot more shit than I do.”
Uh-oh. Isaac tenses even more. I didn’t think it’d be possible.
We both stand staring and Jordan starts to shift, clearly feeling uneasy. “Is there a problem.”
“Jordan?” I quickly ask. “I umm… I thought you were female.”
He laughs and it’s loud. “Do I come across that way in my emails? Well that sucks.”
“I’m sorry, it’s just the name… it’s unisex. I just assumed.”
Isaac remains silent and I think he might be having a heart attack.
“No worries.” The microwave beeps again, reminding him of his dinner. “I’ll let you both pack away; I’m so freakin’ hungry.” He moves into the kitchen area and opens the microwave as I elbow Isaac and quickly start unloading my bags of food. Jordan places his ready meal on the counter before pulling himself up onto the stool. “I hope you don’t mind that I labelled everything. My mum made me do it. She said you’d probably feel more comfortable having your own space.”
“That’s really kind of you and your mum,” Isaac grits out, helping me unload and figure out where everything goes. “So are you a first year?”
“Nah, this is my second year. New apartment though. Last year I was at a place just down the road, but my neighbours… they’re a lot noisier than your average neighbour.”
I fill the kettle and then quickly spin to my new roommate. “I’m sorry, I don’t even know if all of this is yours and I’m just using it.”
He shrugs, smiling happily. “It is, but it’s totally cool. What’s a kettle between friends? The fridge and the cooker was already installed, along with the beds. Your mattress came a few days ago, fucking heavy. Took us ages to get it inside.”
Bollocks. “I’m sorry. My dad was supposed to sort it.”
“No worries. The men who brought it were great, but one of them absolutely reeked of something you’d assume to be dead and rotting. I felt like he didn’t need to be contaminating your mattress so I helped the other guy up with it.”
/> “Thank you.” I turn back to the kettle. “Does anybody want coffee?”
“No, I’m good. I’ll finish this and let you both get settled in before I make myself known again.”
“What do you want to eat?” Isaac asks, handing me the milk.
“Oh, one more thing.” Jordan interrupts. “I thought, to save on filling the fridge with two bottles of stuff we’re both using, we could just split the cost of butter, milk etc. It’s what I did with my roommate last year. Worked out well enough. Just saves on space and time.”
That sounds logical to me. “Sure.”
Isaac continues unpacking and organising my side of the fridge as I make drinks and work on the cupboards.
“It’s all stuff we can figure out another time.” Jordan quickly finishes his dinner and drops the empty carton into the bin and the fork into the sink. “I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Later,” I say and the second he closes his bedroom door behind him, I turn to Isaac. “I swear…”
He holds up his hand, stuffs the empty bags into a drawer and, after taking our hot cups of coffee, I follow him into our room.
He doesn’t talk for a really long time, at least fifteen minutes, and I daren’t speak to him until I know what level of freaking out he’s at.
I watch him pace the room wildly, grabbing my things from my bags before hanging them up. I do the same, knowing he’ll speak to me eventually. He’ll have to, because he has to go soon.
“Isaac?” I try, but he continues angrily filling my wardrobe.
I move towards him and place my hand on his shoulder. He turns and presses his face against my neck as his arms wrap around me. “I have faith in us.”
My breath hitches at his words. “You can trust me.”
“I have faith in us,” he repeats, quietly this time. His lips press against my neck and his body trembles against mine. “It’s not all for nothing.” Pulling back, he stares me in the eyes. “Tell me that this hasn’t been all for nothing.”
“It hasn’t,” I reassure him, gripping his face between my hands. “I love you. More than anyone and anything.”
“I don’t want to leave; I want to stay here with you forever. I want to protect you.”
I roll my eyes, knowing it will annoy him but not caring. “Stop being stupid. If I wanted to cheat on you I would, whether we were together all of the time or not.”
His face darkens angrily.
“I don’t mean I want to; that’s not who I am. I’d never hurt you like that. I didn’t marry you just so I could run away to university and meet other men. I married you to show you that, even though I’m young and probably even more stupid than you are, I want to spend my life with you. Why would I ruin that?”
“Your choice of wording is horrendous.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I do… I’m sorry, I just… I don’t trust him.”
His eyes glare at my bedroom door angrily so I tap his cheek in order to pull them back to me. “I only want and need you. This will make us so strong. We knew it was coming. I can’t avoid men any more than you can avoid women. I love you. I need you.”
He kisses me deeply, claiming my mouth with a brutal force as his hands push me onto the bed and explore every single inch of me he can reach. “Don’t do anything stupid. I… I wouldn’t be able to handle it.”
“You either.” I brush his hair from his face, noticing how much brighter it looks from the amount of sun we’ve been getting. “I love you.”
“Not as much as I love you.”
Grinning, I flip him over and straddle him. “We have a lifetime to debate that. Now…” I stand and smooth my clothes down. “Help me make the bed. I want to snuggle with you under my blanket before you go.”
Isaac
“How did she settle in?” My mum asks for the third time. This time my dad is present, though, so I answer again.
“Good. Her apartment is good and in a great location.”
“You don’t look happy about that.” Nothing gets past my dad.
“I am; I’m just…” I shrug and bite my lower lip. “It’s not important.”
“You’re scared of losing her.”
“Can we not talk about it?” I ask, grabbing a chocolate biscuit from the tray. It tastes like ash. Everything I’ve eaten since I got home last night tastes like ash. My stomach is constantly churning and the stress I feel over this situation is killing me. I can’t stand the thought of her and that pretty boy snuggled on the couch right now, watching movies after a long day of discovering what they have in common. It’s fucking killing me.
“You love with an intensity even I don’t understand.”
“Please,” my mum snorts. “You’d thump a guy just for breathing in my direction.”
“When I was eighteen,” my dad points out, clearly happy at the sudden surfacing of a clearly beloved memory. “Isaac is twenty nine. He should know better.”
I roll my eyes. I seem to have picked up that habit from my favourite little red head. Fuck, I miss her with an ache that’s brutal.
“It’s his first actual relationship.” My mum’s memory continues to astound us both and we pray the new medication she’s on works long term. This is the best she’s been in far too long. “Of course he’s going to be intense. He’s had no practise.”
“This is true.” I agree, because it is. If I’d actually loved another during my life, I might already know how to deal with this irrational rage and jealousy I feel. It’s tearing me apart. “I should call her.”
“Yep, that’s one way to keep a girl her age. Smother her.” My dad’s tone is sarcastic and I don’t much care for it.
“She loves it when I call.”
“On occasion, not every damn hour.” He shakes his head. “This could have been avoided if you’d just picked someone your own age and not thrown your career down the bloody drain.”
“I don’t need a lecture.”
“I know, but you need to see sense. It wouldn’t be as intense if you hadn’t given up so much for her. You’re constantly going to be wondering if she appreciates it, if she was worth it. You’re a smart man… sometimes… Use your brain.”
“No, I gave up my career and my life to come back here. She’s the thing that made it better.”
“Well thanks, that’s kind of you.” My dad copies me by rolling his eyes, clearly not offended by my words because it’s nothing he hasn’t heard before. “You don’t find what you’re looking for by running away, Son. If you two are truly meant to be, I’ll eat my words in ten years’ time, and only then. But until something decent comes out of this relationship, I’m going to continue to lecture you.”
“My happiness isn’t decent?” Scoff.
“You’re happy? You don’t bloody look happy.”
My mum frowns at us both. “Stop arguing. I’m sick of you arguing.”
“She makes me happy; it’s just a difficult time.” I snap, brushing my mum off even though I probably shouldn’t. The last thing she needs is to listen to us arguing, but I hate him when he’s like this. Uppity and always thinking he’s right, when he just doesn’t understand. “Wouldn’t you have missed mum?”
My dad nods. “Yes, but we were both in the same place in our lives and I didn’t have to give up everything to be with her.”
“Wouldn’t you have done? Isn’t that what you’re doing right now?” His glare tells me I’ve gone too far and I probably have, but at least I’ve got my point across. “I love her; I’m spending my life with her.”
“Nobody is doubting that you love her, we’re just doubting your intelligence and common sense. There’s a huge difference.”
“Whatever,” I grumble, standing quickly. “Thank you for dinner but I have a house to fix, ready for my wife.”
“Good luck, sweetie,” my mum whispers as I kiss her cheek.
My dad crosses his arms over his chest, not offering to see me out, but I don’t care. I leave without saying goodbye and
grumble all of the way home.
I stare at the mess of a house and flick through Eloise’s plans to make it less of a mess and more of an actual home. I don’t have a clue how to do half of this shit, but I’m going to figure it out.
It’s not until the next morning when my first round of bills come through the door and I check my dwindling bank balance that I really start to panic.
Fuck.
Eloise
“Thanks for showing me around today,” I say to my roommate as we walk into our apartment.
“No biggie. At least you now know the easiest route to work and back. You’re lucky you have a job. There are too many students here struggling because there’s nowhere hiring.”
“I didn’t expect it to be so far away, but the walk will do me good.” I grin, dropping my bag under the coat rack and moving to the kitchen. I grab a can of pop from the fridge and gulp half of it down in one.
“How did you like tutorial yesterday?” He asks, following my lead and grabbing his own drink.
“It was scary but I had an awesome course guide.”
He nods. “They’re all so friendly in the beginning, but be careful. Soon, especially in Business, it’ll become a war for who can get the end of year recommendations.”
I shrug. “I don’t need them; my line of work will run off my dad’s. I’ll start from the ground up if I have to.”
“And again, like me you’re lucky. It’s cool to have parents who worked hard at our age.” He motions to our apartment. “Better chances for us.”
“Amen!” We clink drinks and move to the couch, putting over a metre of distance between us both.
“You want the remote?”
I shake my head and wave my phone at him. “I’m reading on the Kindle app and my best friend wants to tell me all about Boston. Watch what you want; I’m not big on TV anyway.”
“Thank fuck, me neither. I prefer movies and YouTube.”
Another huge relief of the day. I got so lucky with Jordan, or so it seems.
It’s just such a shame he has a penis.
Destruction: The Distraction Trilogy #2 Page 4
