Fucking hell, that was the best experience of my life.
I was dead. D-E-A-D, dead. And, I was perfectly happy to be so.
It took all my strength, but eventually I was able to turn my head to the side to look at Jasmine’s profile.
She was glorious. The most perfect woman on the planet.
I felt the sudden urge to write a song, but thought it may come across strange if I jumped out of bed after perfect sex to start writing in my notebook.
Jazzy might think I was journaling about the experience.
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
Wow, we fucked the ability to hold a conversation right out of ourselves.
“You good?” I asked.
“Never better,” she said, smiling at the ceiling.
“Me, too.”
After a few minutes of utter contentment, I remembered where we were.
“Shit, what time is it? We just kind of disappeared.”
Jasmine sat up and grabbed her phone off of the nightstand.
“Oh, wow, everyone is probably expecting us at dinner,” she said. “That’s why I came back. To shower and get ready. Guess I got a little distracted.”
I was distracted right then, staring at her tits.
I was about to make a move when she got out of the bed.
“Don’t go,” I called, not caring that I sounded desperate.
She turned and gave me a glorious full-frontal view.
“Bring that cunt over here,” I told her, “I’ll make it worth your while.”
Jasmine blushed prettily.
“You use that word a lot.”
“What word?” I asked, momentarily confused, then I got it. “Ah, cunt … see, us Aussies aren’t afraid of using it like you yanks are. Cunt, fuck, mate, I’d use those fifty times in one conversation back home. I’ve gotten used to holding back since I’ve been here. Guess you make me feel like home.”
She cocked her head and looked at me curiously.
“What other things do you say?” she asked, ignoring my last statement.
“We can get into that later,” I said, standing and walking to her. “I’ll give you a crash course in the Australian language after dinner.”
I pushed my hand into her hair and lowered for a kiss. Once she was swaying slightly in my arms, I released her.
“We’d better get ready,” I said, giving her a soft tap on the bottom before moving to get dressed.
Jasmine disappeared into the bathroom.
Once I was dressed, I stepped out onto the porch and took a deep breath of fresh air.
“Sounds like married life agrees with you,” I heard Reardon say wryly.
I looked to the left to see him and Chloe walking hand and hand. Chloe’s face was slightly red when she looked up at me.
“Stop, Rear, don’t embarrass him. It’s their honeymoon,” she said, chastising him.
Reardon scoffed. “Shane can take it.”
“Well, don’t embarrass Jasmine.”
“She’s not even outside.”
I just grinned and waved at them, not embarrassed in the least that they’d heard our lovemaking.
In fact, it made me feel ten feet tall.
Deciding to check on my bride, I turned and went back inside and found her lacing up her shoes.
“Hey,” I said, with a grin.
I just could not stop smiling.
Jasmine looked up at me, and my smile dropped.
“Hey,” she said softly, but her face was conveying a message I did not want to receive. “I think we should talk.”
Shit!
“Okay,” I replied warily.
“This was amazing,” Jasmine said, gesturing toward the tousled bed. “And, I know I’m the one who started it, but … I have to wonder if this is a good idea.”
“Why wouldn’t it be?” I asked, trying not to sound defensive, even though I felt pretty defensive.
“Well, because we need things to go smoothly these next few months … For the house to go through and for you to stay in the country. What if we keep doing this and something goes wrong? I’d hate for one of us to get hurt, or angry about something, and for us to be at odds for the next five years.”
“We’re both adults, I think we can handle it,” I argued.
“I just value our friendship, and worry that complicating our arrangement is a mistake,” she said, not meeting my eyes.
I wanted to ask why we had to stick to the arrangement. Why we had to have an expiration date. Why we couldn’t start living like a real married couple and give this thing a real shot.
But I could see by Jasmine’s expression and the way she was sitting stiffly in her chair, that she wasn’t ready to hear any of those questions, and the permanence of them.
So, instead I knelt and front of her and asked, “What if we give it the rest of our time here, see how things go? We can cross this bridge again once we get back to Cherry Springs and start settling into our new life.”
“I don’t know … What if one of us gets too caught up?” she asked, finally meeting my eyes.
“We won’t,” I lied, hoping like hell we’d both get caught up, and she’d be ready to hear what I wanted for our future. “We’ll just have fun. Enjoy each other.”
Jazzy thought about it for a moment, then nodded.
“Great,” I said, standing and helping her to her feet. “We best get to the others then. Oh, and just so you know, Chloe and Reardon heard us.”
“Heard us what?” she asked, then brought her hands to her pink cheeks and cried, “Oh my God!”