A Future Next to You

by Stefania Gil

  He told of all the things he stopped doing due to not wanting to get attached to another person and also letting her know how he felt about her. He didn’t know if this was love or 'true love' as his brother called it, but he knew something was happening inside him. He was more concerned with her than anyone he ever cared about and felt incomplete when she was not at his side.

  He was honest with her by telling her about the terrible moral and physical ways he hurt women while he was imprisoned in the cabin. Natalia could not stop staring at him with astonishment and horror, not for what he did, she understood he was forced. Her horror grew from imagining how cruel and ruthless the era of human history was. He realized Natalia was interested in knowing everything and took the opportunity to ask him what would happen between them. She had a lot of patience. She realized being with someone who has had so many bad experiences would not be easy.

  Everything with Natalia seemed to work differently and yet he didn’t dare feel completely happy. They had so much to overcome together. There were plenty of insecurities and fears to which she assured him not to be afraid. She would help ratify them and they would fight.

  Sigh. He wanted to be free of his confinement considering all he did was think and think so more and talk about it with his brother or Natalia.

  He wanted to know her completely, to be alone with her and to discover how he really felt for her.

  He appreciated the plan already in place. Tomorrow they would leave, go straight to the airport to travel to America where they would stay for at least a month.

  From there Francisco would take care of contacting the best security team for his estate and for the Alcalá Orange Grove. If he had to go to war with the cursed secret society, he couldn’t do it with inferior technology. He needed to be prepared. He didn’t know how much those bastards had seen from their stupid drone the day he was attacked.

  If his suspicions were correct, he was almost convinced they could have seen Natalia. It was an enormous concern haunting him every damn day. That's why he wanted to get her out of there as soon as possible. He knew it would not keep the society away, but at least he could bore them for a while and focus his energies on Caserío Peña again. He had to find a way to discover who the bosses were and kill them if they refused to cooperate, disappearing from Francisco’s life and the lives of his loved ones. The thing was, he didn’t have the faintest idea who they could be. In all his existence he could never find them, although he had to admit he never made any great efforts to get to them, because every time one of the warriors appeared, Francisco eliminated them without contemplation or without stopping to think about the life he was taking could give him valuable information in respect to the bosses.

  Well, he would start to be more careful now and if he were lucky enough to find any of those imbeciles sent to capture him, he would kidnap them and get all the information he needed.

  Yes, that would do.

  Juan Carlos studied him seriously.

  “You have to get those people out of your mind, Fran.”

  “Yes, as if it were so easy.”

  “I know it’s not. I find myself in your place many times, afraid they are going to return for me or for Isabel. I'd die if anything happened to her.”

  Francisco nodded seriously.

  “Did you feel different when you were returning to your life like before?”

  “No. Nor did I feel anything different with immortality. You, yes?”

  Francisco shook his head.

  “Sometimes I forget there are other feelings besides hatred and resignation. It's all I've ever felt.”

  Juan Carlos viewed him with compassion.

  “What about Natalia? It seems you have changed a little since she appeared or that’s what Pilar told Isabel.”

  Francisco couldn’t help smiling at the thought of her.

  “She is in my head. I want to be with her day and night. Is that what real love feels like?”

  “I suppose. You'll recognize it in due course; I think it's too soon for you to talk about love with her, right? Now that you are going to be traveling together, enjoy every second of her by your side so you can discover how you feel about her.”

  “It terrifies me to be intimate with her and not be able to please her.” Francisco couldn’t avoid those old memories when his nightmares took over his reality and he could not maintain his virility with a woman.

  Juan Carlos felt sorry for his younger brother.

  He seemed to be falling in love with Natalia and he knew, because Isabel told him, Natalia was very excited about him.

  He wanted, with all his might for his brother to love her. She was a good woman.

  His brother deserved to be happy. He had it a thousand times worse than he did and that hurt Juan Carlos deeply. When Francisco told him about the torture he never suffered, he wished with his entire soul to have been able to switch places with his little brother. He would have given him his sarcophagus without thinking so they could not have caused him such harm, though he knew that was not good for Francisco either. What a horrible situation they had lived through and wore tattooed on their souls as the most terrifying ordeal a human being could experience.

  “She has talked to Isabel,” Juan Carlos dared to say. He wanted to change the conversation so Francisco’s bad memories wouldn’t resurface. “I don’t know if you know how the girl code works in modern times but, Isabel tells me what Natalia has told her under strict secrecy which means...”

  “I'm not going to say anything.” Francisco attitude changed and he looked amused. “I promise.”

  He devoted all his attention to what his older brother would say next.

  He still couldn’t believe how lucky he was to be talking about the woman he liked with his brother after four centuries.

  14

  Natalia woke up smiling.

  The light slanted subtly through the hotel room’s curtains were they stayed.

  She heard the water running in the bathroom and thought it would have been fun to offer Francisco help in the shower.

  She yawned and shook away the lust because she knew it would pressure him so that-finally-something happened between them. She didn’t want to press him seeing as he would flee. She had to be patient with him and help him separate his terrible past experiences from the present. It was their right to live for them.

  She imagined frightening things when Francisco told her about being tortured. When he told her about the girls with the inquisitor and the guards, she was grateful he skipped the details of what had happened, but that did not stop her imagination from recreating sadistic and unpleasant ideas. Why didn’t the Inquisition industry didn’t end sooner? How had it even begun?

  “They needed television in those days,” she murmured as she turned on the TV.

  “Did you say something?” Francisco asked from the bathroom.

  “No, sweetheart.” She settled under the sheets again. She noticed the bathroom door was open and through the opening, she could see Francisco reflected in the bathroom mirror.

  That was the closest she had been to seeing him naked since they came to Boston a week ago.

  Natalia could not help but shudder as saliva pooled in her mouth.

  He was perfect. Muscular, firm, with a broad and strong back that ended with a prominent curve to give shape to a well contoured buttock.

  He turned a little, and then she saw his virility.

  She imagined at once how good it would feel pumping inside her. Her inner heat seemed to grow more humid at only the idea.

  She salivated more.

  Francisco suddenly noticed her watching him in the mirror and at once she saw how nervous he became.

  His hands began to tremble and as soon as he could, he wrapped the towel around his waist. Natalia turned away and tried to pretend like nothing happened, but her desire was stronger. She was on the verge of exploding if she didn’t do something to release the pressure.

  She wanted to try to seduce him
.

  She pulled off her pajama pants leaving on her white lace panties. She decided to leave on her white shirt showing her erect nipples in all their sensuality.

  She opened the bathroom door to find him sitting on the toilet with his head in his hands.

  He stayed in the same position even when she reached his side.

  She got on her knees in front of him and put her arms around him.

  Francisco imitated her movement and she took advantage of it to sink her face into the man's neck while his hands were running down her back.

  She began to give him timid delicate kisses on his neck, chest and face. At first she felt the tension in his muscular body but continued caressing every inch of him. His muscles began to relax.

  “Natalia, I—” He tried to say, but she drowned his words with a long, deep, wet kiss.

  “Enjoy this, please, let me try because I want to be with you.”

  Francisco emitted what Natalia considered a groan. According to her experience, that could be positive.

  She continued to kiss his chest as she stroked his firm pectorals and made her way to his thighs.

  She looked him in the eyes as she removed the towel covering his intimacy, dropping it on the floor and then looking at his manhood.

  He had thick legs, as firm as the rest of his body. She caressed the full length of his thighs of steel. As she slid both hands inside, she felt François spread his legs with a groan. He leaned back on the toilet and held Natalia by the hair. Pleased, she stared at him in the eyes while lovingly stroking his most intimate part.

  He enjoyed every second of this new life experience. She slipped him into her mouth and Francisco relaxed completely. She enclosed him with her tongue and lips. Some guttural sounds drowned in his throat as Francisco fell prey to absolute desire, confirmed by the undeniable firmness in his erotic zone.

  After a while he decided to move. Then something unexpected happened.

  Francisco stopped moving and gazed directly into her eyes. They were full of fire and passion. Natalia gave him a lopsided smile and Francisco kissed her wild, desperate and ardently. It seemed like the inside of her mouth burned as hot as he was.

  Natalia moaned when Francisco straddled her pressing his firm sex into her most sensitive spot.

  He thrust his hands into Natalia's wet panties squeezing her buttocks in desperation as he raised her like she weighed nothing. He sucked her erect nipples into his hot mouth. He began to nibble and suck at her through the fabric of her shirt.

  She felt when her lover's strong hands tore her underwear and without preamble settled her completely on his shaft.

  Natalia moaned with pleasure and arched her back as she clung to his neck.

  Without breaking their intimate connection, he lifted her with a frenzied passion he could barely contain. He carried her to the bed, and after releasing her, he began to plunge into her franticly.

  Natalia was not surprised. They were having sex and he was better than she had imagined.

  She groaned as she approached the moment her body began to lose control giving way to convulsions of pleasure.

  He sensed her pleasure and drove in and out of her to lavish her with all the pleasure she deserved.

  Natalia screamed in absolute pleasure.

  Every part of her body vibrated, when she reached her climax.

  Francisco was swimming in a sea of excitement making him lose his head. He wanted more of her as well as pleasuring her again and again.

  He focused on her eyes as she smiled at him with mischief.

  He moved his hips seductively, as a growl escaped him.

  He could do this a thousand times a day and in every possible way. Natalia managed to arouse his desire with her caresses, long kisses and seductive movements.

  Not to mention how beautiful she was.

  Her small breasts, scandalous legs, a butt that left him speechless and a flat stomach that invited him to explore its most intimate regions. Natalia was perfect. Briefly he studied her eyes as he pumped in and out of her over and over. This time, slower. He wanted to enjoy it, although he knew the second round would probably be as frantic as the first.

  Nothing rushed them or forced them to leave the room so he thought about spending the entire day discovering every inch of Natalia. Tasting her mouth, her skin, and her breasts.

  He moved quicker without dropping his gaze from her as he slid a hand under her shirt to torture those delicious nipples that tempted him so much with caresses. She moaned.

  The sound sent an electric current through his body forcing him to massage her most intimate spot quicker.

  “I'm going to...” Natalia couldn’t finish her declaration before she was interrupted by the contractions of her sex and the jolts of pleasure pulsing through her entire body. Francisco followed her as his member was being squeezed by the delicious contractions. He let himself go collapsing on top of her.

  “Thank you, for insisting and seducing me in such a way... so...” He kissed her lips gently, excited just thinking of how she entered the bathroom in those white lace panties. How she took charge of the situation by doing everything in her power to give him the greatest pleasure of his life. “You're perfect.”

  “I'm not,” she said shyly. “I was only dying to know what it would feel like to have you inside me.”

  Francisco liked her answer and began to move inside her again. He was ready to go again.

  “And what do you think?”

  She purred with a smile.

  “That we fit perfectly.”

  Then he knew, he could feel it and he was not afraid to say it aloud.

  “You're perfect for me.”

  He kissed her with determination as he let his body initiate another pleasure dance.

  15

  Since Natalia managed to make Francisco hers, they spent a couple of weeks barely leaving their hotel room. Some days they entertained themselves by pleasuring each other. Among their plans were to spend between two and four days in each town they visited to stay in motion and not run the risk of being caught by that damn secret society pursuing Francisco. However, after discovering how pleasurable sex was between them soon they decided to remain locked in the hotel room where they were. They decided their vacation would be based on making love at any time and with any excuse. At one point, Natalia began to feel uncomfortable dressed. She enjoyed walking around naked in the room, watching Francisco's erection grow immediately and detecting the look she already knew so well. The one signifying an unrestrained desire.

  From the first time they were together, Natalia understood sex between them would rarely be tender. It was good to her. She enjoyed wild sex with Francisco. A couple of times Francisco tried, but they had to stop for a while due to Francisco’s unpleasant memories. She encouraged him to only do what made him comfortable.

  “But you are a lady and I want to make love to you as such,” Francisco said on those occasions. “I want to be tender and delicate but”—his demeanor broke down as he thought about the disgusting past he had to live—, “I remember the times I wanted to be the same with the others and I couldn’t.”

  Once, the memories overcame him pitching him into a state in which Natalia —for the first time— was afraid to lay next to him. Which said a lot considering he had already tried to kill her in the past. That night, while they were kissing so comfortably, enjoying the heat of their bodies, Francisco sprang away from her and turned his back. She felt him sobbing immediately. She went to him, only to hug him from behind. That’s how they stayed the entire night. The immortal’s weeping either increased or diminished but did not cease. At dawn, it seemed they both were exhausted. Natalia fell asleep only after Francisco was asleep too. When she awoke, Francisco was not in the room.

  Natalia panicked. It occurred to her he may have been overwhelmed by his fear and demons from the past. For this reason he left, so as not to hurt her.

  Her hands trembled and her mind blanked. She cleaned up as fast
as she could, dressing in the first thing she found, and left the room ready to thoroughly interrogate the entire hotel staff.

  When she saw Francisco entering the building carrying a bag of what appeared to be breakfast for two and two cups of coffee, her soul lifted and she fell upon him. She hugged him tightly planting kisses on him for everyone to see.

  Francisco understood Natalia’s concern. Yes, he thought about abandoning her considering that night it was very difficult to break his chain of thoughts regarding his damn past experiences invading him. She stayed awake all night holding him and as worried as he would have been if he were in her place. He admired her bravery and understanding. He didn’t know if he could endured as much. For that, he was obliged to think about leaving her before things flourished between them. However, taking stock of his feelings, he realized he couldn’t bear the sadness it would provoke therefore making him comprehend —officially— he was in love with Natalia and being without her would be a real hell. Consequently, his fears began to mitigate along with those damn memories regarding the tortures and all the terrible things he had to do to survive.

  He recognized it was nothing compared to the fear of thinking that he could lose Natalia. He cried a lot last night because he swore that after that, he wouldn’t anymore. He had done very well with accomplishing his own promise.

  No sacrifices.

  The simple fact of having her every day by his side ratified him continuing to forget his past that haunted him for so many centuries. He could not let his past contaminate his perfect present.

  They became closer that day more than ever. They spent the entire day in bed, naked, but not once did they make love. Although they wished with their total being, on that particular day, they were united by something else. Tenderness and love.

  There were large doses of hugs, kisses and caresses that had no other purpose. They watched TV like teenagers. They slept the whole night. The next morning, well, that morning it seemed their desire triumphed and they made love like never before.