The One I Love

by Mia Ford

  I sat there for most of the night thinking about Bea, formulating a plan to get close to her once again.

  Chapter 12

  Bea

  After gorging ourselves on room service, including an excess of desserts, we polished off another bottle of wine, and I wandered back to my bedroom, passing out face down in the bed. The only thing I remembered from falling asleep was wrapping the huge, down comforter around my body and sighing as sleep took me. It was not without dreams, though.

  I opened my eyes to find myself standing in an embankment of snow, wearing nothing more than a flowing, white silk gown. My feet were bare, and the wind blew my hair around me wildly, but I didn’t feel a bit of the cold. I stepped forward, looking through the swirling snow and out over the edge. I gasped, realizing I was at the top of Mount Denali, looking out over the beautiful landscape of Alaska. Above me, the night sky was alive, moving and glimmering from the colorful waves of the Aurora Borealis. I couldn’t believe how beautiful everything was, and I reached out, touching a fluttering cloud as it passed by the mountain top. I took in a deep breath and turned back to where I came from, wondering what I was doing all alone on top of this mountain. It was the same feeling I often had standing in my living room back in Colorado, looking out at the world from behind my windows, feeling completely alone.

  Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I saw movement, and I jumped back, peering into the drifting snow. Slowly, someone began to walk forward, and my heart raced, not knowing where to go or where to hide. From the swirling snow drifts came Cameron, walking forward in nothing more than his snow pants, the suspenders swinging at his sides. His upper body was bare, and his muscles rippled in the wind. I stood and watched as he made his way toward me, stopping just inches away and reaching out, grabbing my shoulders. He pulled me into him, leaning down and pressing his mouth against mine with a lust more intense than I had never known before. I whimpered in his arms as the wind blew wildly around us.

  When Cameron pulled away, his eyes pulsated like the lights in the sky, and he reached down and scooped me into his arms, cradling me tightly and staring deeply into my eyes. He turned and walked back toward where he came. As the snow cleared, I could see a large, four-poster bed with the same down comforter that I had curled my body in when I went to sleep. Carefully, he walked through the snow, gently laying me down on the bed and running his fingers up to the ties that held my dress on my shoulders. He untied each one and walked around to my feet, pulling on my dress and watching as the silky satin moved down my body, leaving me lying naked on the bed.

  Cameron pulled off his pants, and I watched as they fell down around his ankles before he crawled onto the bed and up toward me. Slowly, he inched his way forward, reaching for my thighs with his hands and pushing them apart, his body lowering down onto the covers and his head landing right above my pulsating mound. His eyes shimmered, and he licked his lips before pulling apart my folds and moving his tongue through my wetness. I gasped, unable to make any sound other than that, feeling the pressure in my stomach and chest scream out. His thumb rubbed hard against my clit, and his mouth ran circles through my lips. I could feel the warmth of his tongue above all other sensations, and the heat in my face glowed brightly.

  I laid there staring up at the ribbons of color flowing across the sky, feeling myself move in waves closer and then farther away from orgasm. I reached my hand down, feeling the soft, silky curls in my fingertips as he continued to eat my pussy hard and fast. As the winds shifted, I looked down as Cameron lifted his head, pulling himself over top of me and pressing his mouth wildly against mine. He pulled my arms up over my head and held my wrists tightly. He pulled his head back and stared into my eyes as his hips thrust forward, and he entered me, his cock being bigger than I could have possibly imagined. My mouth opened to moan, but nothing came out, starting the pleasure and suffering all over again.

  Over and over, he pushed his hips toward me, his huge dick thrusting in and out of my body, the heat in my stomach beginning to rise. I breathed heavily, feeling his hands gripping down on mine and our bodies smashing into each other. Finally, I was able to let out a sound, and my voice carried across the skies, interrupting the flow of color in the night sky. He growled into my ear, and I felt his huge shaft massaging every inch of my pussy. I pulled my legs up in the air and arched my back, knowing I was getting closer and closer. He let go of my hands and sat up, pulling my hips toward him and thrusting hard and fast, our skin slapping together with each push.

  I looked up at his eyes, darkened with lust, and could feel myself reaching the point of explosion. He gritted his teeth, the muscles in his chest contracting and his strong arms pulling my hips toward him, pushing his dick deeper inside of my body. As his hips cascaded against my clit, my head flew back, and I breathed in deeply, watching the waves of snow drifts swirl wildly around as the heat in my stomach exploded. Echoes of pleasure washed over me, and I closed my eyes, unable to comprehend the feeling which I was having.

  When I opened them again, my body collapsed in the bed, and I looked around, realizing I had woken from my dream. I sat up in the bed, breathing heavily, sweat peppering my forehead. Cameron was gone, left behind in the dream I had just had. I let out a deep breath and let my arms fall down to my sides, falling backward onto the pillow. I had just dreamt that I was having sex with Cameron, and for the first time in my life, I had a full-on orgasm from a dream. I looked around the room, almost embarrassed for the acts that I had performed in my head, knowing that unless I was screaming in my sleep, no one else knew of my fantasy.

  I pulled myself from the bed and walked into the adjoining bathroom, splashing water on my flushed face. I felt like I couldn’t breathe, and my body was shaking from the pleasure. I grabbed my clothes off the edge of the bed and pulled them on, moving back to the bedroom and slipping my boots onto my feet. It was still dark out, but it was late, so I knew the resort would be incredibly quiet. I tiptoed out of my room and took my jacket, gloves, and hat out of the pile and carefully left the hotel room. Once in the hall, I pulled on my layers and headed to the elevator, pressing the button and climbing inside. As the elevator moved down, I looked up at the numbers, wondering which one belonged to Cameron and what he was doing right at that moment. He was probably asleep, like I had been before his intrusion into my dream world.

  I stepped out into the lobby and nodded at the receptionist, who smiled kindly and watched me walk toward the doors. The cold air hit me hard in the face, unlike my dream where it felt like nothing more than cotton falling from the sky. Flashes of the dream kept moving across my mind, and I walked around the resort to the courtyard and took a seat on the covered benches. I looked up at the mountain in front of me, the slopes illuminated, but the lifts frozen in time. Everything was absolutely silent, almost painfully so, and then I looked up, watching small snowflakes begin to fall from the sky. As they hit my warm, flushed cheeks, they melted, leaving tiny flecks of water on my face. For the first time in a very long time, I actually felt like myself again. I hadn’t been at peace like that since long before Grant came into my life.

  There had actually been a time where I thought for sure that Grant was the peace and love that I was looking for. I was pretty sure that I had stayed so long in the relationship because I was craving that family, that bond, the things I should have known I would never get from him. Still, I had gotten so used to him, so used to the feelings that swirled through me when he was around, that I found it hard to break away. I was certain that him breaking it off from me had been the best thing that had ever happened to me. Finally, I had permission to go running in the opposite direction, finding a safe place on my own.

  When I got to the resort, I never thought I would meet anyone that I could actually have a conversation with, much less be madly attracted to at the same time. I literally thought it would be a nice, quiet getaway, far from the hustle and bustle of real life. I didn’t really think that I would find someone I wanted to sleep with, m
uch less find myself enjoying him as a person as well. However, there I was, having sex-filled dreams of him and running outside in the cold night air just to try to get him off my mind. It seemed completely wild, and it wasn’t like me at all.

  Thinking about it, though, it was really nice to have Cameron in my head instead of Grant. Next to each other, Cameron seemed like the man in the romance novel, while Grant was just the asshole ex with an axe to grind. I chuckled to myself, realizing that I had turned my life into a storyline for a love book. It definitely made everything seem more exciting, but I also knew I needed to pull myself back into reality.

  I sat there on the bench for about forty minutes, until I was so cold that I was shaking. The sky was starting to lighten, and I knew it wouldn’t be long until the sun began to come up over the mountains. I stood up and stretched, listening to the light chirping of the small birds nested in the trees of the courtyard and beyond. I turned and walked back toward the resort and inside, stopping at the small concession station at the front and fixing myself a hot cup of coffee. It wouldn’t be long until the early bird skiers woke up and made their way out to the slopes, getting in a few good runs before the masses flocked through the snow. I wondered what it was like for the people who lived in Aspen to constantly be plagued by tourists, to always be shoveling snow, and to feel like they were in a perpetual loop of winter. I knew that it wasn’t always cold and snowy there, but I liked to think of it that way.

  I took my coffee and headed back toward my room, figuring I would take a shower and change my clothes before coming down to breakfast. For the first time in forever, I actually felt like joining the masses and being part of a group instead of hiding out upstairs, ordering room service. I figured that Hailey would sleep in, especially knowing how much more wine she consumed the night before than me. It was pretty certain that she would be nursing a hangover all day. Hopefully, though, I would be able to explore, maybe even running into the hot man from my dreams.

  Chapter 13

  Cameron

  Was it weird that I woke up before the sun and sat at my window, staring at the empty slopes? Not that weird. I used to do it all the time back home. What was weird was that the first thing I thought about when I opened my eyes was Bea. I imagined her soundly sleeping, wrapped up in her blankets in her suite, the little tufts of snow falling outside of her window. I knew how quiet it was on the other side of the glass. I used to sit there and take in the silence just before the early birds would take the slopes. It was a time for me to clear my mind, prepare for the training that I was facing, and move forward without fear or caution. It was probably my most favorite time of the day, and I often thought about it when things got hectic or out of control in my life. There was definitely no time for those kinds of things in the regular world, but as I sat there watching the sky lighten and the sun begin to peek through the crevasses of the mountain, I felt a renewed sense of self.

  After the sun had come up, I jumped in the shower and went downstairs, grabbing a bagel and some coffee from the breakfast bar. I then made my way up to the fifth floor and stood out of sight, waiting for Bea to come out. My plan was to casually bump into her as if it were an accident. Like I was helping the hotel deliver a bagel to someone’s room on the fifth floor. I wasn’t sure if it would work, and most likely, she would see right through it, but I had spent enough time sitting around and thinking about her. I had to see her, even if it meant forcing fate’s hand.

  I stood there for quite a while, eventually drinking most of the coffee in the cup. I leaned against the doorway, standing up straight every time I heard the creak of a door or the ding of the elevator. What if I was standing here, but she had already left her room before I got there? It would be pretty awkward for her to walk up behind me and see me creeping around her floor. I wasn’t spying on her, but I knew that it would be what it looked like from the outside perspective. I started to worry about it more and more, second-guessing myself and jumping every time the elevator made a noise. What was I doing? I was standing in the hallway of a girl I had met one time, waiting for her to come out of her room so I could ask her out. Since when did I become such a pussy that I couldn’t handle just doing it the right way?

  I sighed and looked down at the cold bagel and empty coffee cup. I turned and tossed the cup in the trash and set the tray by the trashcan, holding the bagel in my hand, figuring it was probably going to be my breakfast since I had just chickened out of my plan. Besides, even if she did believe it, there was nothing saying she would actually agree to go to breakfast with me. I sighed, deciding to take the elevators on the other side of the floor since they came down near the lounge. As I started walking down the hall, Bea’s room door flew open, almost hitting me in the arm.

  “Oh my Gosh,” Bea said, racing out and grabbing my arm. “I am so sorry, sir, I wasn’t…. wait a minute.”

  “Oh, hey,” I said, trying to act surprised. “I was just coming up to deliver this bagel to room 514 for the kitchen.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah, they had some call outs this morning, and I happened to be standing there,” I said, shrugging my shoulders.

  “Interesting.” She smiled. “I wasn’t aware the maid service got room service, too.”

  “What?”

  “That room left early this morning.” She chuckled. “I was coming in from a morning stroll when they were leaving. The maid is in there right now, cleaning.”

  Just as she said that, the door to 514 swung opened, and the maid pushed the cart out, waving at the two of us. I smiled and held up the bagel, watching as she turned and walked down toward the elevators. I put on a huge, fake grin and looked at Bea, who looked more amused than angry.

  “Okay, I lied,” I said. “I wanted to see you, so I thought I could just ‘bump’ into you when you came out. It was a terrible cover… obviously. I just really wanted to take you breakfast. I didn’t think you would say yes after making the whole comment about fate.”

  “So, you decided to try to cheat fate,” she said, shaking her head and smirking. “Can I tell you a secret?”

  “Sure,” I said, leaning in.

  “I don’t believe in fate.” She giggled. “I just wanted to see if you would actually still be interested after I didn’t invite you back into my place. It seems that you have exceeded my expectations, and I give you extra points for the little flair you gave with that creativity.”

  “I’m sorry, I, uh, I am such a nerd, and I’ll be honest, I don’t know how to do this,” I said. “I have been on the road for such a long time that actually courting someone… it’s a little…”

  “Courting? In your travels, did you realize it’s not the 1700s?”

  She laughed, holding her stomach and closing her eyes. I chuckled, feeling completely embarrassed. When she opened her eyes, she smiled and gave me a pitied look. She took in a deep breath, propped the door open with the stopper, and stepped out into the hallway. She reached up and pushed a piece of my hair out of my face and retracted her hand quickly, her cheeks blushing.

  “Sorry, I, uh, it’s an old habit,” she said, shaking her head.

  “It’s okay,” I said, laughing. “Waiting in the hall for a girl is not an old habit.”

  “That’s good.” She smiled. “Otherwise, you might be branded a stalker.”

  “Yeah, not what I was really going for there.” I laughed nervously.

  I reached over and tossed the bagel into the trashcan in the hallway and dusted off my hands. An awkward silence fell between us, and I wanted to kick my own ass for being such a numbnuts. My whole life, I had been able to talk to people, never getting clammy or shuddery, but with this girl, I couldn’t seem to get out a sentence without pausing. I didn’t know what had come over me. It was like I was a different person, sent back to when I was an awkward teen, thinking about asking out the head cheerleader. Even then, though, when I was standing in front of her, I had all the confidence in the world. This girl just had a way of making me stumb
le over my words whenever I was with her. I looked up and noticed her watching me fight with myself, an amused look on her face.

  “Why were you up so early?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” she said with blushed cheeks. “I had a dream and woke up and couldn’t fall back asleep. So, I got dressed and went out to the courtyard. It was so peaceful and so quiet. I love that feeling, when it’s first thing in the morning after a big snow and the birds aren’t even awake yet. It’s beautiful and makes me wonder if there was ever a time humanity was so still and quiet.”

  “I did the same thing, only from the comfort of my windows in my room.” I chuckled. “I’ve spent many a morning on the slopes, though, just listening to the silence around me, watching the snow shimmer in the reflecting light as the sky lightens. It’s almost humbling, and I am able to really clear my head.”

  “It sure is beautiful,” she said, taking a deep breath and a step toward her door.

  “Listen,” I said, reaching out to touch her hand. “I may have gone about this the wrong way, but the truth is, I haven’t stopped thinking about you since I left you right here. When I’m around you, I’m just not the guy that I had grown accustomed to being. I am shaky, stuttering, and can’t seem to put a sentence fully together to save my life. I figure, if it is something that is getting to me that bad, then I needed to just act on it. I’m not used to women getting to me like that. So, please, come to breakfast with me. Let me get to know you better and show you who I am. I know this is temporary, but I can’t really think of any other reason why I should just leave you alone.”