CONTAINS CONTENT:
Sensual dialogue.
{{Unedited}}
After waiting for their bags, Austin and Marielle walked out into the brisk New York air. It pricked Marielle’s skin and nose as they moved across the street to the car rental place. “That ain’t no ninety-degree weather,” he chuckled, both remembering how hot it had been even three weeks ago.
“Yeah, I think that we get winter in California like two minutes after we take the turkey out of the oven?” She laughed back.
They waited for a few minutes in a heated room, rented a car from a woman – who was checking Austin out, despite his red nose and plane fatigue – paid, and went to get into a little black four door after Austin loaded the bags into the trunk.
He pushed the black beanie off his head and ruffled his hair. Marielle looked away; this action was tightening her middle in a way that she hadn’t expected. “This okay?” he asked blasting the heater for a moment.
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
“I don’t know. I just want to make sure that you’re comfortable,” he replied with a shrug as he started up the car and driving out of the parking structure and to the street where they stopped at a light. “We’re going to grab something to eat on the drive, and then we’ll get going. It’s about an hour and a half to the house, so get ready to be cozy for a while.”
She gave him a soft smile enjoying the warmth from the heater filling the car. “It’s fine, we can talk.”
“Slug bug,” he said, gently slamming his fist into her upper arm. She eyed him and followed his gaze. A cream-colored 60’s beetle was puttering by.
“I haven’t seen one of those in years.”
He nodded. “Music, darl- Marielle?”
“You know sometimes you stop yourself from the darling thing and other times you don’t. I don’t really correct you either which way.”
He flicked a pleased brow at her. “Are you saying that you don’t mind if I call you darling?”
She tucked her chin into her shoulder and looked at him. “I’m saying I don’t care too much. I’m just not going to do it back.”
“Fair.” She put her hands on the heater for a moment. “Music?”
-How about if you sing to me? Her cheeks filled with color.
“Is that what you want?”
“You don’t have to. You know how thoughts work… sometimes they just happen.”
He smirked, and flashed her a look. “Yeah, but I know that most of them also happen because often you do want those things even if you won’t act on them or press them.” He paused. Then he started to sing in Italian. She recognized the song, but didn’t know the name.
As he sung, he got onto the freeway and opened the speed as he continued his song.
She didn’t know why but his silver toned voice moved down her spine in waves until it was pooling in her lower stomach. She shuddered in a good way and sighed.
“Dreamy, darling?”
“Hush.” She replied.
He bit his bottom lip and checked the rearview.
They pulled off the freeway about ten minutes later and to a fast-food place where they used the restroom, got a couple of cheeseburgers and an order of fries to split and started off again.
Marielle took to feeding him the crispy potatoes so he didn’t have to take his eyes off the road.
He smirked at her, catching her glance in the rearview mirror as she put a fry into the side of his mouth. -This is oddly sexy.
-We really can’t keep our thoughts off the physical, can we? Marielle sighed.
-What was your first clue? He flicked a brow at her.
She chuckled silently as she took a fry and went for his mouth, but the moment that he partially turned his head, she stuffed it into her own. “Oh, is that how we’re gonna play?”
“I’m sorry,” she feigned.
–No you’re not…
-but you’re going to be. They finished simultaneously. Both filled with memories of deep, sensuous kisses that were utterly perfect and set her skin on fire. Her scarlet lips and the dress that was only for him, the ice cube and how they’d laughed about it.
They were silent for a few moments, trying to let all that pass and simultaneously fighting to rekindle it.
Marielle finished her burger, crumbled the wrapper, and stuffed it into the bag. She did the same for him. Then she swallowed as the car shifted to serious. “I have to ask you a question and I don’t want you to take it the wrong way or be offended by it.”
“I told you; you can ask me any question ever. I’m an open book to you,” he said – with a sigh that told her that he was annoyed that she still didn’t believe him when he said that – and a lane change. “Which I suspect is in part the reason that we can do what we do,” he added under his breath.
She went silent for a moment and watched the cars pass. “I’ve needed to ask you this for a long time but I dreaded the answer so I’ve just sort of buried it,” she said with a sigh.
“Darling…” he whispered reaching over and taking her trembling hand. He gave it a squeeze and let go, “ask me.”
“Please don’t be offended… Have you ever raped anyone?”
He let out a long sigh, but quickly said, “no.” He also glanced at her so she could read his eyes. “This might surprise you, Marielle but I love consent. It’s one of the reasons that you’re not going to like find cameras in your home or something. Am I perverted? Yes. Do I take what’s not mine? No.” She drew her eyebrows together inquisitively. “I’ve pushed boundaries, I admit that. Have I ever forced someone? No.”
“So, you’ve never like found a passed-out girl and,-”
“-Actually I did find a passed-out girl once at a party in college. She was totally alone on a bed. I went in to find a restroom. I used it, I came back out, closed the door, and sat on the bed with her until she woke up.” Marielle’s eyes glittered and she turned to look at the road, letting out a ragged breath. “I understand my counterpart, okay? But that’s not me, and at this point I’ve decided to get as far away from him as I possibly can. I want nothing to do with him. I’m not going to sit here and pretend that I haven’t thought about it, okay? I’ve thought about it. You especially.”
“Why me?”
“Because at one point I thought of you as mine. You’re not. You never will be. Not in the sense that I own you. If I’m going to be with someone – and it’s always been this way – I want them to say yes… and if they can’t, or don’t, then I don’t want it. Why would I do that to someone, Marielle? Why? To feel powerful? I can kill a man fifteen different ways with my left hand, I don’t need to feel powerful. I want the emphatic yes.” He stopped talking, but his mind kept moving. -Want to know what makes me feel powerful? Yes, Austin! Yes, yes! Oh, God, Austin, YES! It was her voice.
She was beet red and unable to control a smile, but gave him a testing look as if to say stop it. He did. She paused for a moment. “So then why have you wanted to hurt me?” She dared.
“I’ve never wanted to hurt you,” he retorted. “I’ve had dark fantasies to let some rage out at how upset I was with you for not giving in. Marielle, the night that neither of us like to talk about? I had you… you were in my home. You were in my bed. It was past midnight, I believe. I was biting your shoulder, you loved it, don’t even pretend that you didn’t,-” her cheeks flushed, “-I could have taken what I wanted. You said no despite your body screaming yes. So, I didn’t. I let you hit me, and leave. I’m sorry that I pushed it a little. I just knew that you wanted me.”
She swallowed hard and leaned back. “I think I should probably apologize to you for that… I know why I hit you.”
“Because you were upset that I was forcing you to confront the fact that you actually wanted me.”
She sighed, and looked down into her lap. That was true.
There was silence for a moment. “I’m sorry that I asked that question… about assault.”
His brows furrowed. “I don’t like it, but I know why you did it. You had to know because of him.” He meant Tundra.
There was silence for a few moments and Austin sped up a few miles, then crossed over to another lane to get onto a different freeway.
She thought back to a few minutes before and her cheeks grew red and hot remembering his internal words. “I don’t sound like that,” Marielle whispered, trying to stifle a laugh.
“Oh?” he asked, raising a brow at her. “Well, I wouldn’t know. The last time I heard you sing I was trying to defuse a landmine.” She caged her bright red face, remembering. Desire swirled in her core. “So, what do you sound like? Do I ever get to know?”
-Maybe someday. She sighed feeling the tautness build. He dropped it. Again, stillness enveloped the car. “The girl that you found passed out… did you sleep with her?”
He took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Yes. But when she was awake, clear headed, and could say yes.”
“Did you protect her so you could sleep with her?”
He swallowed. “Yes.” She sighed, heavily. “But understand that if she had said no, or told me that she didn’t want to, that would have been the end of it.”
“Have you ever done anything just because you’re a good guy who wanted to do it?” She growled.
He fell silent. Not hopeful. “Yeah, no, I have,” he eventually said. “Several times. More now after my, you know… life alterations. But yeah, I’ve done things to just be helpful,” he confirmed with a nod. “Many of them for you.”
She knew that he was telling the truth.
They fell silent again for a while and she drifted for a few minutes as he put some light classical music on.
She stretched and yawned, enjoying the warmth of the car. “That night… that we don’t like to talk about?” His ears perked in interest. “Before I slapped you, you said I won’t even…” her voice trailed off. “What were you going to say?”
He narrowed his eyes in thought. “I’ll be honest with you I was so shocked that you actually hit me that I don’t remember. Then you took off so my mind was furthest from all of that.”
“What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking about how badly I screwed this up, how you’d never forgive me, and how I had to make you hate me the next day so that I could be free of you.” -Ha…ha… “I was terrified to be honest.”
“Terrified?”
“Yeah, even then… of losing you.” He stroked his bottom lip for a moment. He wanted a kiss so badly. “When you said that you hated me and left… I collapsed to my knees and cried, and I thought about those words for days in agony, Marielle.” He was distant for a moment and she was briefly concerned about whether he was paying attention to the road. He made another lane change, showing her that he was. “That’s another reason that I know that I love you,” he said.
“What?” she asked curiously, her gaze briefly drifting to his left hand where his ring still lived… her ring… their ring.
“I’ve never cried so much in my entire life. I don’t cry. I did when I was a baby, and a kid, of course, but… I don’t know after like twelve? I just- I think I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve actually cried.” He turned to her. “Then I meet you.”
She remembered the day that she made him sign the contract with her. Nothing has ever hurt me this deeply echoed in her head.
“Yeah, that…” he whispered in response. -Oh, how badly I want to see you in red again.
“Because it means that I love you?”
He nodded distantly. “That was maybe the best moment of my entire life,” he breathed as if speaking to someone long gone. “Looking up and seeing that lipstick on you,” he smiled sadly, “you have no idea how that made me feel.”
“I think I do.”
“No. You’ve been in love. I never have. I was innocent, a child for the first time. I was flying, my heart was leaping out of its chest to meet with you. I,-” he was shocked into silence to find her hand in his and giving him a quick squeeze before she let go again, perhaps realizing what she was doing. The quiet was deafening. “So, what were Vincent’s rules?”
“He didn’t give me any. He just said that if I slept with you, or started like making out with you again, he was going to leave. He told me that he knew that we’d engage in some way.” She could feel the heat in his chest and the rise in him as he hopefully thought of holding her hand, and drawing her against his body. “Hey, listen… I’m not going to do all of that with you. I’m trying to keep this as friend based as possible. He wants me to get to know you.”
There was an awkward silence as Austin drew his eyebrows in as if processing something internally. “Did he want you to fall in love with me?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because he knew that I would anyways and he wants me to choose.”
“Is it that?” he asked, cautiously. He flicked his gaze to her, “or is it because he wants another way to crush me?” he asked his tone full of venom.
She’d never thought about this before. Vincent had admitted that he’d done things to make Austin upset; to hurt him. In a twisted way, just as Austin had used others to be a surrogate for Marielle… Vincent was using this Austin as a surrogate for Tundra. As she looked out the window, she started to truly wonder if Austin’s question was true. How weird all of this was…
***
Austin knocked on the gray door just under the spot where a big, bushy wreath hung with red berries and dried leaves for fall.
The house was a picturesque dream. It wasn’t enormous; she guessed three bedrooms inside based on what Austin had said, but there was a lovely window to the left of the door revealing a twinkling red, white, and gold Christmas tree already up. She could see a piano and a lovely dining room table beside it.
–Hey… You’ll be fine. Austin said, sensing her nervousness as they heard rustling inside.
-Thank you.
The door sprang open and an older woman with blonde hair pulled into a tight bun, shrieked with joy. “Aussie!” She grabbed him, and drew him into a hug while she whirled him into the house.
“Mom!” He reached back and took Marielle’s hand, pulling her in as well.
-Auss-iee?
-Shut up. Austin growled playfully.
The house was warm, clean, and smelled wonderful; like fresh pastries baking in the kitchen. The entire space that she’d entered looked like something out of a magazine. “I made your favorite!” She said, pulling back and taking his face gently between her hands. She gave him maybe one of the most genuine and lovely smiles that Marielle thought that she’d ever seen before the bastion of motherhood turned her attention to her. She wasn’t sure why, but Marielle felt small, and she was certain that it showed. “Is this her?”
Austin smirked and glanced down. Oh no, they knew who she was… He told them about her. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Moretti.” Austin had told her Rick’s last name wasn’t his. That made sense, Austin had kept his name from Turin.
“Please call me Tiffany,” she replied tenderly and she put a warm hand to Marielle’s cheek. “Oh, Aussie, she’s so pretty.”
“Thank you,” Marielle said under her breath as her green eyes peered at Tiffany through long lashes. -Auuussssiiie…
Austin took Tiffany’s hand away. “Okay, mom, let her breathe,” he said, with a soft chuckle and playful roll of the eyes.
Tiffany pulled back, and gestured to the home while fingering a little gold cross around her neck. “Welcome, Marielle. This is our home, and we want you to know that for the time that you’re here this is also your home. We mean that.”
-They do. Austin assured as he closed the door to shut the cold air out.
“If you want water, or something to eat or drink, just go get it. If you want to make yourself tea or coffee, do it. Come and go as you please, turn the T.V. on anytime you want.” She gestured around the warm, spotless living room dotted with holiday décor.
“Where’s dad?”
“He went to the store, I forgot your cider,” she replied over her shoulder as she headed toward the kitchen. “I thought he’d be back before you. Traffic wasn’t too bad?”
He shook his head, took his beanie off, and scrambled his hair. Marielle internally panted at this action and he smirked knowingly at her, and followed Tiffany into the kitchen with Marielle right on his tail.
“You like cider?” Marielle asked.
“I do.”
“So do I!” Marielle said with a beam.
He grinned. -Interesting how much we can know each other and still learn. I hope we always learn about one another.
-Okay, Aussie, let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
“This is the kitchen,” Tiffany gestured around a gorgeous white and cool gray space with red apples in a bowl on the counter. There was a wooden cut out of a heart with the word Blessed carved into the front, and below it was a smaller heart with the word mommy on it written in a child’s hand. Marielle smiled softly, taking in the rest of the kitchen that looked like it came straight from a magazine as a timer dinged, and Tiffany took something out of the oven.
Austin’s eyes bugged, “No way! Grazie. questo è troppo.”
“I told you; I made your favorite!” She said putting a tray down filled with biscotti.
“Those look amazing,” Marielle complimented.
“Well, we’ll all enjoy some after dinner,” Tiffany said. She flashed a sweet smile to Austin. “Chinese?”
“It’s a tradition,” Austin explained looking to Marielle. “Night before Thanksgiving we order Chinese so no one has to cook.”
“Oh, that’s nice,” Marielle said, demurely.
“Austin tells me that you are an amazing cook. Is there any way that we can sample something before you leave?” She asked.
Marielle’s cheeks reddened. “What would you like?”
“You have to try her mushroom and cheese souffles,” Austin broke in, giving Marielle a smile that was full of memories.
“Then that,” Tiffany replied.
Then she waved for them to follow, bustling back through the living room and to the stairway that resided just behind the front door.
She led them up and Marielle got an eyeshot of three or four family photos. There were more, but she didn’t have time to catch them all.
“This is the rest of the house, up here is the office, guest bathroom,” she gestured, “and this is Aussie’s room,” she pushed a door open into a large space. Marielle grinned at Aussie.
-You’re never going to let this go, are you?
-Nope. She replied, wrinkling her nose behind his mother’s back.
The walls were a deep blue with a few bookshelves filled with hard backs, and one built into the wall to the left of the bed that it was resting against. A queen-sized mattress sat under a tall window and against the right corner. Their gazes met for a moment, then looked away. A few feet from the bed was a comfortable looking reclining chair and lamp next to a bookshelf where a radio sat. There was a bathroom on the far wall. “We-” Tiffany chuckled, “-didn’t know sleeping arrangements, so sadly…”
“There’s only one bed,” Marielle finished, and glanced at Austin with a smile.
“I’ll take the chair,” he explained, looking away from the embarrassing situation.
“I am sorry, Austin, I wasn’t sure what was going on, here,” she whispered.
“It’s okay, Tiffany, neither do we,” Marielle said with a somewhat dismissive smile as she set her bag on the bed and opened it, looking in.
Patches wandered in the room and gave a low, mrowr to the space. Austin picked him up, “Patches!” he held him close.
This was also when the front door opened, and an older man’s voice raspy voice called, “Tiffany?”
“Up here, darling!”
Rick Moretti lumbered up the stairs, and popped into the bedroom with them. “Ey! Austin, kid!”
Austin put Patches on the bed, “Dad!”
Rick had a wide face, and silvery hair, and when he held Austin close and gave him a good pat on the back, Marielle noted a friendly smile. When Rick pulled back, Austin started playfully punching him up under his arm, and Rick whirled him around and the two began to wrestle.
“What have I told you boys? Not in the house!” Tiffany threw her hands up and pushed past them to the hall again.
Marielle was laughing quietly, her hand up to her mouth in awe as Rick maneuvered Austin’s head under his arm, and talked down him like he was a growth.
“You gonna help your old man bring some groceries in?”
“Duh, you gotta let up, dad.”
Rick let him go, and Austin pushed his disheveled hair out of his face. “Oh, and this is-”
Rick cut him off, “I’d know this pretty girl anywhere,” he said in awe as he stretched his hand out to Marielle. “You must be Marielle Chaenes.” Marielle curtsied a bit and pushed her chin into her shoulder as she blinked coyly at Rick, giving him her hand. He squeezed it before he planted a soft kiss on her knuckles. “Oh, Aussie, she’s charming.” Austin’s eyes went to the floor as he smiled distantly. “Well, we’re so glad to have you.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Mr. Morett- Rick,” she corrected, blushing.
“Well, I hope you like Chinese, you know?”
“I do. We had Chinese-” her eyes gestured Austin, then she paused, “-not that long ago.” She became distant, remembering that they’d had it during their weekend and how much fun she’d had that night with him. Her mind instantly went to the moment that she made him go home, so she could call him back over and how they’d completely collided against one another the moment that he knocked on her door.
-One of my favorite moments too, darling.
She blushed and looked away.
“So, what do you like for Chinese, you know? You maybe like some noodles, or shrimp?” Rick was directing his question to Marielle.
“Orange chicken.”
“Beautiful.” Austin was already down the stairs and out to the car. “You know it’s real great to finally meet you. Just swell, you know?”
“He’s told you guys about me.”
“I shouldn’t say nothin’, you know?” He gave her upper arm a light squeeze. “We’ll keep it between us, yeah?” She nodded, and rolled her eyes a little, feigning offense.
Rick grinned, “Alright, then. Let’s get you settled in, you know? Are you thirsty or anything? My wife give you the tour?” She nodded. “Good, good.”
“I actually kind of want a shower,” she noted, realizing the plane stench mixed with sitting in the car with greasy food stink as well.
“Yeah, use Aussie’s,” he gestured to the bathroom. “There’s already a few fresh towels in there.” Rick quietly left, going downstairs to bring in some groceries with his son and leaving Marielle to stand alone in Austin’s room.
She took it in with quiet interest, looking over the bookshelves and noting comic books on one shelf with a smile, a row of fiction, there were several language books, and a few in a different language as well. He was so smart. Her eyes spied a journal or two and she wanted to pick them up and read through them, but refrained.
She looked to the left at the chair, it was the first time that she noticed that it was facing a television with a few video game consoles wired to it and some game controllers sitting around the screen.
Then her eyes went to the bed and she paused, looking at it. For a moment, her mind filled with heated thoughts of them wrapped around one another under the sheets. She swallowed and looked away when she felt the twinge of jealousy that told her that she wouldn’t be having sex with Austin Rancor this trip… but other women most definitely had and on that very bed.
She rifled through her suitcase trying not to think too much more about that, and pulled out a change of clothes before going to the bathroom with them, closing herself in, locking it and showering in extra hot water quickly so things wouldn’t get too awkward when Austin came looking for her.