by Nisha Davis
Her hands snaked around his neck, and was rewarded with the ride of her life. Nick loosened her arms from around his neck, and lifted them, each in turn, above her head, so that she was holding onto the shower’s spout. His head bent, and he nipped at her breasts, taking each of her nipples into his mouth and rolling it around his teeth until he sucked at each one, hard, the sensation making her body arch towards his. “Na ah! Stay still!”
He continued his onslaught, the feel of his cock inside her coupled with the sensations he was causing with his mouth, almost made her cum. Almost, but not quite.
Nick abruptly stood up, and Selena almost complained, was it not for the fact that he started gyrating his hips, slowly at first, but, seeing her excitement growing, speeded up the motion, until she was keening, begging him for her release. He did not disappoint, his hands around her hips and ass holding her tightly, keeping her in place, while he carried on with his invasion of her tight pussy.
“Cum for me, cum for me baby! I love seeing your face when you cum!”
His words were the final spark needed for her to topple over the edge, her body convulsing, and, was it not for his hands holding her, she would have fallen. Nick waited for every last contraction in her belly and pussy to pass, then he started the motion all over again, his pelvic thrusts getting more and more urgent as he built up to his own release.
“Again, Selena, cum again! With me!”
Glancing at him through wet eyelashes, she could see the effort he was having in keeping his orgasm under control, the sight so sexy, so arousing, her body started convulsing as her own hit her, over and over, timed with his, their juices mingling as they clung to each other.
“Fuck me!” were the first coherent words Selena could utter.
“Honey,” he laughed breathlessly, “I just did!”
He let her stand again, took up her sponge, lathered it with her soap, and proceeded to wash her down, the strokes lazy and content. He toweled her down and wrapped a towel around her, picked her up again as if she weighted nothing, and went through to her bedroom where he put her to bed and slid in behind her. They were asleep as their heads hit the pillows.
***
Nick awoke to bright sunshine streaming through the windows. It was a moment or two before he realized what it was that had woke him up. It was the incessant ringing of his cell phone in the next room. The ringing stopped and he snuggled back under the covers, but just as he got comfortable, it started up again. He groaned, but decided he needed to go to the bathroom anyway. He slipped out of the bed, hoping not to wake Selena as well and padded out of the room, naked. He fished around till he found the offending device and saw that there were three missed calls from the same number. He dialed.
Selena found him there and heard the tail end of his conversation.
“Yes, of course. Yes, I’ll come as soon as possible. Yes, do whatever is necessary, just don’t let anything happen to her. I know. Yes. I’ll fly out as soon as I possibly can. Yeah, see you.”
“Nick, what is wrong?”
“That was my mother’s cardiologist. She’s been admitted to hospital. She suffered a massive heart attack. I have to go!”
“Of course you do.”
“Come with me?”
“Oh Nick no! All this flying to and from New York is eating at my savings!”
“I didn’t ask you to pay for your flight, Selena, just that you come with me!”
“But that’s the thing, Nick. I can’t. This thing we have, it can’t really go on!”
“What in hell’s name are you talking about, Selena? I love you! Come with me!”
Tucking the sheet she had wrapped around herself tighter, Selena shook her head. “No. You don’t love me, Nick, you love who I used to be! I cannot remember that person, don’t you understand? Don’t you get it? I am me. That Selena was... Don’t you get it? You are in love with a different woman, from a different time! This is now, and this is me. A singer. I go to a bar every night and I literally sing for my supper! I live in an apartment that you would not really be seen dead in, except it's miles away from where anyone knows you, and I have no recollection of who I once used to be, what I did, even of what my dreams and my aspirations were! I am not that Selena! Not the one in your head! You don’t really know anything about me, except what you have imagined, and you want back what you lost. I am sorry, but I cannot be that person! That Selena died the day that car hit her on the street corner, along with her unborn child, and this is the one that woke up in that hospital! Me!”
Nick ran his fingers through his hair, a gesture, she had noticed, he did whenever he was frustrated.
“Look, this is not over! I have to go, my mother needs me, hell, she may even be dying, and I need to arrange for a flight out of here. I have to tell you, I seem to have a constant case of jet lag. But hear this: I will be back! I am not giving up on you, on us! I know what we had, and I know we can have it again! This is not the end of this story, do you hear me?”
She looked on in silence as he gathered his clothing, donned it, and stalked out her apartment, slamming the door so hard that it bounced back on its hinges.
Chapter 10
Nick entered ICU where his mother was attached to various monitors. He felt as if he had been through a washing machine and dryer. His eyes were gritty from lack of sleep and his body was exhausted, the recent flights having played havoc on it, and he wanted nothing than to go sleep for a week. The jet lag was killing him.
“Mother.”
Cecily Duvall cracked open her eyes. “Nick, you are here.”
“Yeah, the Doc says you should be out of here in a little while if you keep on progressing the way you have been doing.”
“I heard you had found her again.”
“Selena? Yes, I have. We need to talk about that when you are better.”
“No. What your father and I did was wrong. We thought, at the time, that she was wrong for you, that we knew better, and that is why we did what we did. We bought her father off, and in so doing, we sold your happiness, and I am so sorry about it, son.”
Nick squeezed his mother’s frail hand. “It’s over. Okay? You just get better. I don’t want to lose you.”
Cecily closed her eyes, and slept.
***
Selena was woken up by a pounding sound. Squinting, she looked at her clock on the bedside table. It was just before 9 a.m. “Why do people bother you so early in the morning when you work at night?” she asked it, as if it could answer her back. The pounding started up again. “Hold on I’m coming!” Sliding out of bed, she donned her robe and made her way to the door, tying the belt as she faced the delivery man in front of her. “Can I help you?”
“Got some packages to deliver. Please sign here.” He stuck a handful of pages and a pen in her direction while turning to pick up something in the hallway. Without batting a lid at her state of undress, he walked past her and put them down, before going out to fetch a huge easel which he balanced against a wall. “Ma’am, if you could sign please, I have more stops to make.”
“But I…”
“Please ma’am. You are Selena Montclair? These are for you and I need to go.”
Selena signed and closed the door behind him, staring at the brown paper the parcels were wrapped in. There was a note stuck to the easel, she noticed. She opened it.
Selena,
It’s not over until it is over, and as for me, that’s nowhere soon. My mother is out of ICU and will be alright, but I want to be close to her so as to keep an eye on her. Take my absence as a reprieve, if you will, but keep in mind that I will be seeing you again, soon.
I thought you might like playing around with the paint and things. I hope everything you might need is included; I asked them to send everything an artist would need.
Yours,
Nick
Selena sat down with the note in his hand and stared at the parcels. ‘He bought me art supplies? Seriously?’
She stuck it all u
nder the kitchen counter, except for the easel, which she ended up leaving where it was, and went back to bed.
***
It was three days later that Selena finally opened her presents. The easel she placed in front of her living room window, with one of the canvasses on top of it. Then she tackled the package which she knew would hold the paints and brushes. She was not disappointed. Everything she could possible need was included. She took up the palette and squeezed some paint onto it. Standing in front of the easel, she dipped a brush, mixed some paint, and started applying brush strokes to the canvas. She was soon engrossed, oblivious to her surroundings, as a face slowly started taking form in front of her.
It was as she was painting the eyes, that the first memory hit her. A younger version of those same eyes had once looked at her laughingly, grabbed hold of her and swung her around before lowering her to the floor and kissing her soundly. Then another memory came flooding in. A strong hand gripping hers as they walked down a beach with gulls swooping overhead. And then there was another. They came faster and faster, as if they were images that were flashing on a screen, and her brush strokes became frenzied, stopping only now and then as she mixed some paint on the palette before resuming her onslaught on the canvas. Soon, the tears were dripping down her cheeks, but Selena carried on, driven to remember as she was driven to complete what she had started out doing as an experiment.
At last, gasping, she flung herself away and sat down on the stool she had placed in front of the easel earlier. The face was Nick’s, albeit a younger version, without the small crow’s feet at the sides of his eyes. He looked relaxed, happy, and his eyes were smiling.
“I remember you! I remember me! I remember it all!”
Selena danced around her apartment to some tune playing on the radio, even taking up her hairbrush and singing into it as she went. Once the preliminary euphoria had worn off, however, she remembered the accident, remembered the fight she’d had with her father, her determination to contact Nick using a pay phone, as her father had taken her cell from her, her rush to get to the drug store, the sudden sickening squeal of tires, and waking up in the hospital, unaware of who she was or the child she had lost.
Selena wept, mourning the child she never had a chance to know, the life she had lost, but most of all, she mourned for herself and Nick, for the life they could have had and had lost. “Oh, Nicky!” she whispered brokenly, “I need you.”
As she washed her face, she looked up, staring into her own eyes. “You stupid woman! What are you waiting for?”
Grabbing a towel and running to the phone while she wiped her face, she dialed and spoke into the phone briefly, before throwing a few things into a carryall. She gave her apartment a once-over before locking the door behind her.
***
Many hours and two flights later, an exhausted Selena found herself at the door of Nick’s apartment. Checking her watch, she realized he would still be at the hospital and sat down with her back against the door to wait. She closed her eyes for a few minutes, intending to text him as soon as she gave them a little rest. The text was never sent.
“Selena? Is that you?”
“Hmm…”
“Selena, baby, wake up. What are you doing here?”
She woke to the sound of the voice from her dreams and a warm hand on her shoulder.
“Nicky?”
The hand swiftly withdrew and there was a sharp intake of breath. “Selena…”
Propping herself against the door, she slowly rose, keeping the steadiness of its wood surface at her back. She lifted her head and looked Nick steadily in the eyes. “Hello. Nicky, have you missed me?”
“You called me Nicky!”
Selena nodded. “I did. Can we go inside before someone comes along? I can’t believe I passed out in front of you door like that, but I am dead tired, haven’t had much sleep since I started painting, and I could really use your bathroom, and I am hungry, and…”
Nick cut off anything else she might have said by grabbing her to him and kissing her soundly. Her arms were around him immediately, pulling him closer. Selena kissed him as if her life and soul depended on it.
“I really think we need to get inside, don’t you?” Nick fumbled in his jacket pocket for his keys.
“I said so already, didn’t I? You don’t listen, do you? You need to pay attention, Mr. Duvall.”
Standing aside, he let her enter before him. “I always pay attention.”
“Yes, you do.”
“You called me Nicky, Selena. I never told you that. How come you called me Nicky and what are you doing here? I thought you wanted things to be over? And how come you are covered in paint smears?”
“Oh Nicky! So many questions! Can I have a shower, do you think? I feel grungy, and then I’ll answer anything you want to know. And yes, so by the way, I have my memory back, Nickster-boy!”
Nick groaned. “That’s one pet name I hoped you would never remember again. Yeah go have a shower while I rustle up some food. You look a mess. And you are dirty!”
Selena stuck out her tongue and went to his bedroom, filched a T-shirt from his cupboard and got into the shower, letting the warm water wash away the lies that had filled her life for the past number of years. She found him in the kitchen, shirt unbuttoned to the waist, frying bacon and scrambling eggs.
He gave her an appraising look. ”My cooking skills are still limited. Bacon and eggs for supper alright?”
“Sounds like heaven!” She sat down on a bar stool, while he cooked.
“So what happened, babe? Are we an item? Are you staying? Are there still parts that you can’t remember?”
“Whoa Nick. I believe I remember everything. And it is thanks to you, actually. Your present did the trick. It took me a few days to work up the courage to actually open it and paint, but when I did, I couldn’t stop. I had to finish. And the memories started slipping in, one by one, until it was like a flood. It hit me pretty hard, I have to admit, but I let it wash over me. But the most important ones, Nicky, were of you. Our times together. Everything. It all just came crashing back like a huge wave. I don’t have the words to describe it, really. And then I realized I needed you, to be with you, around you, smell you, touch you…”
Nick took the pans off the stove top and switched off the dials, turned around, and looked at her.
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why, Selena, do you need me, want to be with me, around me, smell me, touch me, etc.?”
“Because, Nicholas Duvall, I love you. Always have, and always will. That is why. Even when I didn’t consciously recognize you, I think I loved you. Is that a good enough reason?”
Nick took the few steps between them and put his hands under his shirt, around her tiny waist and promptly lifted her into the air, twirling them both around in circles. “That, my girl, is the only reason that matters!”
He let her down slowly, his shirt riding up her front so that it bunched under her arms, and it was hastily discarded. “You always look better stark naked, Selena! You were made to be loved, by me!”
“Then show me?”
“Oh I intend to do just that, my girl, for the rest of my life, if you want me?”
“I want you, Nicky. Forever and always!”
Prologue
Seven months later Selena slowly walked down the aisle, her wedding dress, with its A-line cut and Grecian style bodice, softly accentuating her slightly raised belly, while her hair, which had been curled, hung over one shoulder, exposing the side of her elegant neck. She had never looked more beautiful than she did at that moment in her magenta wedding dress.
“You are gorgeous, sweetheart,” her groom whispered as he placed a kiss in her nape.
“Thank you, you don’t look too shabby yourself.”
The minister started the usual service. When it came to Selena’s turn to say her vows, she looked Nick straight in the eye, threw her posy into the crowd, twined her arms around his nec
k, gave him a smacking kiss on the lips, and proclaimed “I do!” much to the delight of those attending.
“She gets it from me,” her mother told Cecily Duvall, who smiled at her new daughter’s antics.
“I am glad they have forgiven us our mistakes. I think the two of us are going to be great friends.”
“Honey,” Selena’s mother replied, “we can take turns at babysitting!”
The End
