‘It’s hot! And feels so good,’ he called out, leaving the shower door open.
‘Um, both of us?’ I asked from the hallway.
‘Sure, why not?’ Nick shrugged. ‘Don’t you want to warm up?’
Despite the rivers of alcohol pumping around my body, I was still shivering and cold. I caught a glance of myself in the bathroom mirror; my bottom lip looked almost blue.
‘OK, then.’ I took a deep breath, peeled off my dress and underwear and quickly stepped carefully into the shower. Nick guided my shoulders and moved me until I was in the middle of the water. My ice-cold feet and hands started to tingle as the blood rushed back into them. I paused at this point, aware of him being naked, standing behind me. I imagined him getting closer, whispering in my ear, and it shot a tingle down my back.He squeezed a line of body wash across my shoulders and started to massage it deeply into my neck, my shoulders, my arms, down my back. Warm water. Suds. He turned me to face him. Fire curled around my belly, and I wanted him to kiss me.
As if sensing my thoughts, he leaned down and brushed his cheek against my lips. I could feel the tiny stubble against my skin, his square jaw. My stomach fluttered. He cupped both my cheeks with his hands and kissed me, gently. It wasn’t the type of kiss where I was thinking, where should I put my hand? Which way do I tilt my head? Tongue? Or no tongue? We just came together, and my brain thought of absolutely nothing except how amazing it felt to kiss him. It felt right.
When we broke away from our kiss, I was so light-headed I almost needed to put my hand on the shower glass to steady myself. I closed my eyes and felt as if I were floating. When I opened them, Nick was looking at me intently.
‘Are you warm?’
I laughed. ‘Um yes.’ Because I couldn’t be warmer, but he was turning off the shower. The water stopped running, and he was stepping out and handing me a towel, and as I stepped onto the fluffy white bathmat and dried off, I thought, oh, that’s it?
And I felt disappointed by that. Not disappointed like I’d felt with Norse God – because that had been nothing. But disappointed because I liked Nick, in a way that I probably shouldn’t. I liked him more than any of the guys I’d been on awkward dating app first dates with. I liked him enough to want to see him again. I liked him in a way that made me not care about what I ‘should’ or ‘shouldn’t’ do, because I knew what I wanted right in this moment – to be with him, to sleep with him, to stay here, and wake up next to him.
As if reading my mind, he waited until I had dried off, and wrapped the towel around my body. ‘Do you want to stay?’
I nodded.
He led me down the white-tiled hallway to his bedroom. Without saying a word, he leaned down and lifted me up – effortlessly – his muscles flexing, he slid me onto the bed. I’d always dreamed of an amazing man, a sexy, wild version of me, a beach hut somewhere, but nothing like this.
Was this happening? My stomach fluttered and I grabbed the back of his neck and pulled his face towards me. He kissed me again, passionately. ‘I like it when you do that,’ he said.
He traced his lips over my lips, then my cheek, following the line of my neck down the right side, leaving soft kisses that gave me goosebumps, then licking in long strokes, and finally tiny bites. He tugged gently on my hair, then a little stronger, pulling my head back, and exposing my neck to his kisses.
He moved his hands to cup my breasts. I arched my back, and he sucked my right nipple in his mouth. I moaned with intensity, all other thoughts immediately leaving my head.
‘I thought you’d be the noisy type.’ He licked between my breasts and looked up at me.
‘Do you like noisy?’ I asked coyly, letting my fingers float across his perfect chest and abs, honed to perfection, smooth and taut.
‘God,’ he moaned, ‘I love it.’
I’d always dreamed of a summer fling, but nothing like this.
I curled my legs around his back, locking my ankles, pulling him closer to me. Without thinking, I leaned forward, licked his neck, then whispered in his ear, ‘I want you.’
His hot breath was on my chin, on my neck, as he ground into me. Our bodies rocked against each other. He grabbed onto my thighs where he was holding me, so hard, that he left fingerprints. I scratched my fingernails down his back. The pain and pleasure pushed us both over the edge in a large shudder. He groaned and fell into me, gently placing me back on the bed, kissing my lips gently.
We stayed there for a minute, not moving.
‘I did not know this was going to happen,’ I said, panting from the effort.
‘Why are you panting? I did all the work!’ He laughed.
I swatted his arm. ‘I was doing a lot of hip action there too, buddy. It takes yoga classes to get that flexible.’
He leaned back and looked into my eyes. ‘That was amazing.’
‘Sleep time?’ I asked, suddenly exhausted and wanting to feel his warm body pressed against me all night.
‘Sleep time,’ he said, kissing me gently on the tip of my nose. ‘My bed is king size. It’s comfy, I promise.’
He tossed me a T-shirt and shorts from the top of the wicker basket. ‘I only wore them earlier today for ten minutes – they’re clean.’
When I put them on, they smelled of him slightly, his minty aftershave. I collapsed onto the bed and yawned again, almost slipping instantly into sleep.
Nick crawled on the bed next to me, one arm around me, tucking my hair away from my face. I wanted him to kiss me, but before I could do anything, I fell asleep feeling his soft warm breath tickling my skin and listening to the sounds of the ocean in the distance.
‘Good morning, sleepy,’ Nick said, standing there, his perfect body in perfect boxers, smiling, an orange juice in his hand. ‘Do you want coffee?’
I nodded limply, because everything seemed to hurt my head.
‘Hangovers,’ he’d said, ‘are the version of adult nightmares that you can’t wake up from.’
We laughed and delicately tried to eat toast and sip water. Then we spent an hour laying next to each other, our arms and legs touching, intertwined, chatting about places we wanted to visit, and places we’d loved, and our favourite books, and music – all the things that you loved discovering about another person. And there was no doubt about it, Nick was a nerd, a poetry nerd at that. He liked Yeats, but mostly E.E. Cummings. I knew that he liked his coffee extra black, extra shot. That he visited him mum every second Saturday. That he would move to Canada if he could, to the west coast.
Finally, I knew I had to get up and go back to my hotel, to shower, and sleep, and feel human again. I mused about how to say goodbye without making it uncomfortable or strange. Of course, I wanted to see him again, but I had no idea if he felt the same way. For a moment I stood awkwardly in my black dress, my shoes in my hand, looking around his room. Did we swap numbers, or email addresses, or something? Or maybe we just kissed … and said goodbye like mature adults and went on with our lives.
‘How about a seafood lunch later?’ Nick said casually, pulling on a T-shirt after a quick shower. ‘I’m flying back tonight, but I could see you before three o’clock.’ He paused. ‘Only if you want?’
Sure,’ I replied excitedly. He wants to see me again.
‘My number is 04—’
‘Wait. My phone is out of battery and there’s no way I’ll remember that.’