A Star in My Life

by Victory Storm

  “Me”?

  “Yes, to justify some immoderate spending, I’ve thought to say that it’s my new temperamental, vain and demanding girlfriend’s fault.”

  “You’ve singled me out as a scapegoat in short.”

  “That’s right. And now get into the car or else you’ll get soaked through.”

  Although unwillingly, Berenice got into the car and let Marc take the wheel. He immediately prided himself on being a very good driver, very different from her and from her awkwardness due to the fact she was blind as a bat.

  When they got home, Berenice was surprised to find a real supply of organic products they saw in the little shop around there.

  He did not buy just food, but also candles and blackberry and raspberry room perfumers that filled the air with a sweet and sensual fragrance.

  “You acted imprudently by going out in broad daylight. People might recognize you.

  “I didn’t go out. I’ve always bought on e-commerce sites. I’ve only chosen the local shops in order to have the ordered stuff as soon as possible and I’ve paid a deliveryman to do some shopping.”

  “A deliveryman?” asked Berenice surprised, slipping off her soaked shoes.

  “Yes. I handed a to-do list to him and he did everything to perfection… much better than you,” explained Marc in short, without missing the chance to have the umpteenth dig at her hostess. However she ignored him and went to her bedroom to get changed. Although Marc had sheltered them with his sweatshirt, the rain had been so pouring and horizontal because of the wind that both her trousers and pullover were soaked.

  She was about to take off the pullover when she heard the door of her room open.

  She did not even need to turn to know who it was.

  “Marc, how many times have I told you to knock?” she sighed exasperated, shortly before to be grabbed by her shoulder.

  She turned and suddenly found herself stuck to Marc’s lips that were moving demandingly and expertly on Berenice’s ones, without letting her breathe.

  She would have stopped him, but she desired that man so much that pushed herself further against him. She struggled to refuse him but at the same time he also pushed the girl backward, throwing her off balance.

  Luckily the soft and tempting bed welcomed her.

  Berenice tried to get up, but Marc immediately followed her slipping on her.

  Suddenly tense for the new situation that had just started with a kiss, Berenice stiffened and stopped him, while the whole length of his body was lying along hers, dragging the girl to the middle of the bed.

  “Marc…” she tried to call him, but he went on kissing Berenice, running from her lips to her neck. “Marc… I don’t think it’s…”

  The man went on kissing her, preventing her from speaking, and nibbling on her neck until he heard the girl moan shyly under his assault.

  His hands ran freely on the cloth, then slipped under her pullover in search of her wonderful and silky skin.

  As soon as Berenice tried to react, he gave so many breathtaking kisses to her that she lost her self-control.

  When she struggled to sit up, he took advantage of that to slip off her pullover, thus leaving her to his mercy.

  Completely dazed, Berenice found herself to tremble with excitement under his strokes and kisses that reddened the white skin of her neck and bosoms up to her navel.

  She looked blank at him slipping off the undershirt, but when she saw the man fiddling with the zipper of his trousers, Berenice had a start.

  What am I doing? Oh my God! I can’t… I can’t make love with him… I don’t want to get hurt…

  “No, Marc!” she jumped frightened, trying to cover her stomach and bosoms that were slightly outside the bra.

  “No what?” he replied not at all offended, starting to unbutton his jeans.

  “I don’t want to do it.”

  “But I didn’t ask you.”

  “Well, you should learn to do it, if some day you want to avoid a possible report for rape,” warned Berenice, annoyed by Marc’s arrogance.

  “I know when a woman doesn’t like to sleep with me,” he comforted her with a sneering smile.

  “Then it may have become apparent t o you that I don’t want,” she got nervous still further under the weight of his body that was having a complete hold over her one more time.

  “Liar.” He smiled at her nibbling her ear.

  “Marc, please, stop it,” she begged, short of breath.

  Luckily he was stopped by her tone of voice.

  He leant on his elbows a few inches away from her face, forcing her to look at him in the eyes.

  “Berry, give me a good reason and I’ll disappear from this room at once.”

  How could she talk to him while he was looking at her so intensively and blocking her under his half-naked body?

  She tried to look away, but he prevented her from doing it.

  “I don’t want. Isn’t this reason good enough?”

  “I thought you were a genuine and honest person.”

  “I am!”

  “Prove it to me.”

  “Marc, stop joking. I don’t want to end up with sleeping with you, is that clear?”

  “Why?”

  “I don’t feel like it,” you’ll soon go away and I won’t ever see you again. I don’t want to walk on air and then fall to hell.

  “I thought you liked it.”

  “It’s true, but…”

  “But?”

  “I can’t, ok?” burst out Berenice, stiffening a sob.

  “Why?”

  Because I’m falling in love with you.

  You should never fall in love with someone you can’t have.

  “What will happen after we do it?” she asked in her turn.

  “I’ll get us our dinner. As long as I stay here, I’ll be the cook, since you’re a walking disaster.”

  As long as I stay here. Those words were like a punch in the stomach of Berenice. She was just in time to lay one hand on her eyes to hide some silent tears that had gotten out of her control.

  “Get out of here, Marc. Come back to your life of a movie star and get out of mine,” whispered Berenice, hating herself for crying incessantly, which made her feel so vulnerable and bad.

  With her closed and hidden eyes she could not see Marc, but she heard him get off the bed silently.

  She thought he would really go away, but she heard him draw the blackout curtains instead, plunging the room into darkness.

  Protected by such darkness Berenice bared her wet face and saw Marc’s dark silhouette come back to her.

  She caught a glimpse of him pulling the blankets to the foot of the bed and inviting her to slip under the sheets.

  She obeyed, immediately feeling her trousers were soaked and cold on her ankles, so she took them off shortly before getting into bed.

  In the dark she heard the rustle of Marc’s clothes and then saw him cut his way through the blankets.

  “I’m not leaving you alone. Not this time,” he whispered next to her, giving a light kiss on her forehead and hugging her tightly.

  He felt Berenice’s tears wet his chest, but he said nothing.

  He silently stay there cuddling her and she enjoyed all his kindness and support.

  Marc Hailen was a very special guy. Not for what he represented, but for what he really was.

  Under that thick and hard cloak of arrogance and self-importance there was the most wonderful man she had ever met.

  He was not any longer the handsome, rich and famous man everybody knew, but just her sweet and loving Marc.

  At the very moment she realized she should not be afraid of falling in love with him anymore.

  Berenice was already irreparably in love with him.

  “What am I doing when you go away?” she asked herself without realizing she had just spoken aloud, until he answered.

  “I’m not going to die in war. I’m just finishing to act in a movie. Sure, there’s always the
possibility of being crushed to death by a movie camera or a floodlight…”

  “Come on, don’t joke about that!” got frightened Berenice.

  “I don’t. Everything can happen in life. The point is: as a last memory of you, what do you want to leave me in the end? That one of a girl in tears or rather that one of a happy and smiling woman?”

  “With you by my side it’s difficult for me to be happy and smile,” jested Berenice.

  “I thought I was your sole source of happiness instead.”

  You are.

  “You’re sitting on a high horse, boy . As usual.”

  “And you’re insufferable, as usual.”

  “And here I thought to be your sole source of happiness,” aped Berenice.

  “At that very moment I think you really are,” answered Marc seriously.

  “Do you mean it?”

  “Yes, I do. I like to be with you. I like you and love your way to behave.”

  “I thought you hated it since you’re always grumbling about me.”

  “I’m trying to spur you into improving and besides I adore your cheeks blushing every time you got embarrassed or angry for what I say. You’re so sincere.”

  “What a wonderful way to spur me! I don’t think I really like you,” she squeaked acidly.

  “You’re special, Berry. Believe me.”

  “Special?”

  “Special to me.”

  “Because I tolerate you,” noticed Berenice haughty.

  “You’re enough strong to tolerate me and enough sweet to love me in spite of everything.”

  Berenice was struck dumb, amazed by those true words.

  Marc was right. Tolerating him was not easy and he did not seem to be willing to change. Spending a lifetime next to a man like that could be stressful if you were not able to oppose him and keep him at bay.

  And yet the strength was not enough if you were not willing to accept him for what he was.

  Only love could succeed in it, but in order to get to his heart, it was necessary to have enough kind and sweet disposition to come closer to him and touch his soul deep down.

  Berenice would have expressed her feelings to him, but for fear of not using the right words, she opted for a kiss. A light and tender kiss that he accepted with a happy smile.

  How could she not fall in love with him?

  It’s impossible.

  “And you, Berry, what do you think about me?”

  “I’ve not yet decided whether you’re insufferably adorable or adorably insufferable.”

  “And at this very instant?”

  “Simply adorable,” she whispered sincerely, planting a smacking kiss on his nose.

  “Berry, will you make love to me?” he asked, taking possession of her mouth again.

  Yes, I will.

  “I don’t know if it’s a good idea,” answered Berenice hardly, struggling to keep her mind clear, while Marc was kissing her, which made her wet herself with passion.

  “Then think about it and let me know,” he pretended to suggest while unhooking her bra.

  In short, Berenice told all her inhibition s to go to hell and let herself go in front of what Marc was offering.

  Although she initially hesitated over his strokes where there were her excess pounds, she finally became convinced by the pleasure she was feeling and by her moans while he was saying to her how beautiful she was.

  With the taste of his kisses along her body, she felt him get inside her.

  She was almost moved by all the kindness he had to not scare her, to not feel her unready and to not hurt her.

  Marc completely devoted himself to Berenice until he heard her come. The girl totally forgot she was making love to one of the most handsome men in the world, who sometimes had populated her dreams with his washboard abs and his turgid swelling in the briefs. No, the reality was different.

  That night Berenice loved him with all her being for what he was, and once both of them were satisfied, she went on hugging and stroking him softly until her breath was back to normal.

  He did not leave her too, hugged her tightly in order to feel the warmth of her skin on his one more time, their heart beating in unison and all her body easing up and cuddling up against him in search of his caresses.

  For the first time Berenice came face to face with a very different Marc: sweet, kind, thoughtful and loving.

  12

  It was almost midnight when they woke up hungry and ready to start again where they had left off.

  Berenice was the first to wake up and, her stomach rumbling, made for the kitchen to make some sandwiches, take some carrot canapés that Marc had cooked that day and make some salad with slices of apple and nuts.

  When she came back to bed with the ‘midnight supper’, she found Marc sitting against the headboard waiting for her with the laptop in his hands.

  “I thought you had run away to tell the press you slept with the famous Marc Hailen.”

  “Are you checking if this scoop is already online?”

  “No, I’m not. I was just having a look at my e-mail account. I’m waiting for an urgent e-mail,” he said, putting the laptop at the bottom of the bed to give her way to sit down next to him and place the tray full of food on his legs.

  “I hope you don’t mind if I’ve brought some provisions here.”

  “I see I’ve just set the bar really high if you start serving the supper in bed.”

  “Let’s say that I rather like eating where it’s nice and warm, under the blankets… with you,” she smiled shyly, sitting down next to him. He put a slice of apple into her mouth.

  “I’m starving. I hope you’ve made something eatable,” started off Marc at once, biting into a sandwich.

  “What a suspicious man! Next time I stuffed the sandwich with some laxative or poison.”

  “What an evil idea! I’m glad I left the laptop’s webcam on to record anything. At least I’ll have the irrefutable evidence you tried to poison me.”

  “What?” Berenice was left speechless, gazing the red light of the webcam. “What are you doing?”

  “At first I had thought about a porn film clip,—jested Marc, trying to keep a straight face—but now I’ve decided to use it as evidence against you for all that you did to me. Look, my nose’s still swollen, my shoulder’s aching and my jaw’s still wounded. It’s all your fault.”

  “It’s not my fault if you’re not able to shave or lift a weight without luxating your shoulder.”

  “I’ve been shaving and lifting weights for years and I’ve never hurt myself.”

  “Maybe you lifted a too-heavy weight. Now that I’m watching you better I realize you’re nothing special. You’re rather… thin,” she teased, bursting out laughing in front of Marc’s embarrassed and horrified look.

  “Thin, eh?” he echoed, putting the tray aside and falling on her like a fierce animal.

  “From Marc Hailen I expected a powerful, male and sexy build, not a delicate and very slim guy who’s aching all over, with a nose that is now as big as a clown’s for it was slightly bashed in, with a plastered face for a little scratch and who’s stooping because of his luxated shoulder for a five-kilo weight,” added Berenice, while she continued to laugh, being very pleased at the flushing on Marc’s cheeks.

  Unfortunately for her, the definition ‘delicate and very slim guy who’s aching all over’ was not so funny to Marc and she soon found herself tormented with some incessant tickle that made her cry and laugh like mad.

  “If you don’t stop, I’ll take you to the dump together with my car, so I’ll discard both of you. Buy one, get one free,” she went on provoking, now exhausted from the tickle torture.

  “If you’re questioning my handsomeness, I know how to fix it,” he whispered with unctuous charm, running his mouth along her bosoms.

  “Never mind. I wouldn’t like you put your back out while doing such things,” she sneered, being pleased she could get her revenge for all the nasty remarks he ha
d being making to her in those days. Now it was her to let him feel inappropriate, but he didn’t agree and with one quick gesture dragged the girl under him and started kissing, touching and stroking her until she succumbed to her own desire.

  “Wait.” Marc stopped her at once, while she was trying to provoke him in her turn. “I won’t share you with anyone,” he said, closing the laptop lid that was still recording.

  Once they were alone and free at last, they indulged in pleasure again, until both of them were so exhausted to drop on the bed.

  “I just don’t know where I’ll find the strength to go to work tomorrow,” sighed Berenice sleepy before falling asleep in Marc’s arms.

  The following morning Berenice woke up with a start only half an hour before going to work.

  Marc had switched off the alarm again and she ran the risk of being late for work.

  She was just in time to get dressed, comb her hair and give a quick kiss to the man sleeping still soundly in the sheets, before rushing to work.

  Smelling the perfume of Marc’s skin on her all day did not help her to concentrate, but she was too happy and Sandy’s quick and annoyed looks failed to upset her.

  “Is he still staying with you?” asked the colleague after a while.

  “No, he isn’t. He left tonight. He said he had to finish acting in the movie,” lied Berenice, still angry with her friend for how she had treated her the day before.

  “Listen, I’m sorry for yesterday. I don’t know what I was doing… seeing him, Marc Hailen, with you made me freak out! I didn’t think it was possible.”

  “I’m disappointed with you, do you know? I didn’t think my best friend could arrive to tell me such things, and, what’s more, you did it in front of Marc Hailen.”

  “I’m sorry. It’s just not fair that he was with you and not with someone else.”

  “Why? What’s wrong with me?”

  “Nothing. It’s just that girls like us shouldn’t get close to boys like Marc Hailen.”

  If before meeting Marc Berenice would have sided with her friend, now she found her words narrow-minded and bad instead.

  How much she wanted to tell her about the last night she had just spent with the sweetest and insufferable man she had ever met!