––––––––
The headlights of a passing car travelled across the ceiling and painted deep shadows around the room.
"I don't normally do that," was the first thing I said once I could speak again.
His body lay exhausted and heavy on top of me. There was sweat sticking between us and his back glowed in the orange light of the streetlamp. Luckily there were no apartments opposite, or we would easily have been seen.
"You don't have sex?" he asked, confused.
That was true in a way. It had been a very long time, at least.
"Bring home someone I don't know and then..."
Adam lifted his head and he had that amused, sexy expression on his face. "So that was something special for you?"
"Yes." The feeling was still beyond compare. So much so, I didn't want to let him go.
"For me too." His hand stroked my skin. Why did I feel even more naked after sex than during?
Even if it meant sounding like a typical woman, my curiosity got the better of me. "Have you been single long?"
"Far too long," he admitted and kissed my neck. Then he sighed. "Mmm, you smell so good."
"Aren't you cold?" I had the couch at my back and a very hot Adam on top of me, but his back was bare and it was December.
"I'm never cold when I'm with you."
"Huh, and whenever I'm around you I get goosebumps."
He draped the coat I was laying on over my shoulders. "Better?"
"Not because I'm cold. It's your words that do it to me." I kissed his shoulder. "And the nearness of you."
"Then I'd better not go away." Adam smiled and his eyes teased me provocatively.
"You didn't just happen to stand next to me in Twister, did you?"
Now he had those dimples by the corners of his mouth again. "I caught you on purpose too that night. It's not so easy to get a beautiful woman's attention."
"Oh, whatever," I said, amused.
"Well, you didn't notice me when you walked into the party, anyway."
Now I was astonished. "You saw me?"
"From the very first moment."
I felt hairs standing up on end all over my body again. He laughed quietly and wrapped the coat more tightly around me.
"Where were you?"
"On the stairs."
What I remember most is how packed the house was. I hadn't even noticed Adam.
"And then?"
"You had those hot shoes on." He lifted his head and looked around. "Are they still here somewhere?"
I put on a sexy voice as I answered: "In my closet."
Now he almost looked as excited as Lennox at the idea of going to my closet to pick me out something to wear. Maybe men were just like that, and only my ex-boyfriend had been a sad exception.
"If you want, I'll put them on for you later, when we decorate the Christmas tree."
He seemed to like the idea. Still, he teased me: "Oh, are we really doing that?"
"If you thought I brought you up here for sex, you thought wrong. I only brought you along so you could put up the tree and decorate it."
He lay a hand on my knee and pulled my thighs up to his hips, pressing his growing excitement against my body without batting an eyelid. "Will you only be wearing the shoes?"
I giggled, because I found it too funny that decorating a Christmas tree could make him horny. "It would be too cold for that."
"Okay, with underwear too then."
"I don't have any woolen underwear."
He nodded. "That's good."
"So it would be way too cold."
The corners of his mouth turned down in disappointment. "That's bad."
I reached for his hair, which no longer showed any trace of melted snowflakes. It was soft and dry. I teased him, giving it a little tug. He offered up his throat and looked down at me.
I gazed at his throat. When he swallowed, his Adam's apple moved. I had to grin - Adam's Adam's apple. Hesitantly, I took my lower lip between my teeth. I could clearly see his artery pounding.
"You're welcome to bite me, but then decorating the tree would have to wait another round," he warned me.
"That would turn you on?" I asked, surprised.
He shrugged, still presenting me with his throat. "You don't have to be a vampire to be into teeth. Actually, it would turn me on big time if you bit me."
I enjoyed winding him up, so I pushed him off me. "Oh no, first work, then play."
He grinned cheekily at me. "It's okay, sex isn't work for me. And afterwards I'm happy to play around decorating the Christmas tree. I'll do the straw stars and you do the angels?"
"Who told you about my angels?" I joked and sat up.
I felt quite exhausted. My legs were all stiff because I'd had them apart for too long beneath him. His weight hadn't helped. "And they say sex keeps you young."
Adam indulged in a long stretch. "I feel absolutely wonderful."
"Yeah, but you were on top."
"Lucy, if you want to be on top you only have to say the word."
That earned him a slap on his naked behind. The sound rang out in the room and he grabbed me, pulling me to him. "Hey, spanking costs extra."
"True, if I figure it out based on the kiss at only a hundred dollars, what would I get for this?"
He kissed the tip of my nose. "This was priceless."
The butterflies in my stomach somersaulted with joy and told me I mustn't let this man go, no matter what.
I slipped into my underwear and tried to get the Christmas decorations down from the top shelf. Given how seldom I used them, the most difficult to access storage space in my apartment had seemed ideal. Mind you, now I really had my work cut out for me getting them back down. I jumped up high to try and reach the box, but ended up accidentally pushing them even further onto the shelf.
"Crap."
"Can I help?" Adam stood in the doorway, watching me jump with an amused expression on his face.
"Now that you mention it."
He brushed a kiss on my neck and reached up, tensing all the muscles in his abdomen and back. Damn, he was really nice to look at. I could kind of understand what Lily had been thinking when she wanted to take a snapshot of her vampire.
My thoughts automatically went to yearbooks, and the fact that Adam had been wearing a shirt from South Dakota State University.
"What exactly are you studying?" I asked once he had the box in his arms.
"Info-tech, but I'm already finished."
"You're a nerd? Where are your glasses?" I grinned, because I would never have imagined him studying something so boring.
"Your nerd will give it to you in a minute," he warned playfully.
"The box? Nah, be a darling and carry it over to the tree."
He rolled his eyes and took my box into the living room. He called back over his shoulder: "Don't forget your high heels."
It was much easier to fall in love with a man, little flaws and all, than with a perfect hero who never came around. As I slipped into my pumps, I stumbled upon the idea that I might have fallen in love with Adam. I steadied myself on the bed nervously.
"What's this?" he asked, turning the little straw figure between his fingers.
"Those are my angels." I took another one lovingly out of the box. "I made them myself."
"They do look a bit that way."
I poked my tongue out at him. "I made them when I was seven. I almost drowned that year." I pointed to the pictures on my walls. "A man saved me. It was just before Christmas. He was my guardian angel, but I never saw him again. So I made little angels as a thank you."
Then I shook my head. "Of course they did look more like scarecrows to start with. But my parents didn't even throw those ones away. To this day, they still decorate their bushes with them at Easter. But I didn't tell them they were meant to portray a vampire."
"You have funny parents."
"You have no idea just how funny they are." I had to think of Dad's lawnmower and Mom's turkey. Then, however, their fight came to mind and it was much less funny.
"And where are these angels then?" he played dumb.
I sniffed and stroked one of them over its yellow hair. "They're all just beautiful."
He examined them more closely. "They don't even have long teeth."
"They're angels, not vampires. Just because my vampire saved me, doesn't mean all angels are like that."
Adam paused. "Your vampire?"
I quickly licked my lips and shrugged. "That's just what I call him. He never contacted me again."
"And if he ever did?"
He had no idea how close to reality he was getting. For Lily, it was no longer a hypothetical question.
I grabbed Adam's hand and searched out his eyes. Oh, those gray eyes that could see right into my soul. He was so similar to him and yet completely different. "He's had his chance."
"Lucy, your walls don't look as if..."
"Shhh." I lay a finger on his lips. "Let's decorate the Christmas tree and then I'll pay you for your work."
That achieved the desired effect. "I'll hang it all, wherever you want. Even the straw dolls."
Because the tree was so tall, I left the upper half to Adam. We attached three long strings of lights between the branches. One was made up of countless tiny bulbs, the other two were both star-shaped. Then we hung the angels up so they got the best spots on the tree. I loved their straw-yellow hair and the fact that each one looked a little different from any other. I had painted faces on all of them, so they smiled happily as they swung on the branches.
"You won't get any more birds landing on it, anyway." Adam joked.
"You’re getting these ones mixed up with the ones they use on the bushes at Easter.”
"I can hardly wait to see those ones."
I felt a little nervous as I hung the red and white baubles. If Adam wanted to see my childhood craft gone wrong, I'd have to take him to my parents' house.
"Do you have plans for Christmas?" I asked as casually as possible, rummaging in the box for a hook to put on one of the baubles.
"Lucy?"
"Hmm."
"Look at me."
I bit my lower lip and looked up at him. His eyes shone full of warmth. "Was that an invitation?"
"I..." I exhaled noisily and played with a little bauble I’d chosen for an upper branch.
"Because if you wanted to do something together, I'd love that."
"Aren't you going home for Christmas?"
He shook his head. "It would be okay not to, if I had a girlfriend."
My nail-biting habit, which I had long since given up, crept back out from its hiding place and I gnawed on my right thumbnail as I murmured, "Am I your girlfriend then?"
Adam came over to me and reached for my hands. "I'd like you to be. I told you, I want you to be mine."
I had to grin. "Yeah, but that was during sex. I heard people don't really mean what they say when they're having sex."
He laughed. "Lucy, I was in you, not on drugs."
His words reminded me of exactly what he had just done with me, and I felt my cheeks burning. His eyes caressed my body, which was only cloaked in underwear and way too high pumps.
"Then yes. Come with me to my parents' place. They're going through a difficult phase at the moment, so I'll apologize for that in advance. They may well go at it. But if you want to come anyway..."
I didn't get any further. He pulled me in and kissed me so intimately, it was as if he wore his heart on his lips. It pounded heavily inside his chest and I wanted it to be beating for me.
In the end, we finished decorating the tree. We wound up talking about Lennox and I admitted I had thought he was gay at first.
That elicited a dry cough from Adam. "But the way he looks at you..." then he hung Lennox’s love on the end.
"Oh, nonsense. He calls me that all the time."
"Exactly."
"If it puts your mind at rest, he's been going out with Trixy from my art class for a while now. She paints like a goddess. He's as fascinated by that as he is by Annie Lennox’s voice." I explained about the nickname.
"Oh, so that's why you thought he played for the other team?"
"Partly," I admitted. "But he also liked to help me pick out what to wear..."
"I do too," growled Adam. He sounded really jealous.
"And we watched romantic movies together."
He looked at me as if I was seriously naïve. "I bet you cuddled up together while you watched."
"I thought he was..."
Adam shook his head and raised his hand, resigned. "It's okay. I'll explain something to you: Not every man who wants to snuggle up with you and pick out hot pumps and short skirts is into men. Actually, it's more indicative of the opposite."
"But the movies," I reminded him.
He rubbed his forehead. Luckily Adam looked more amused than on the verge of a migraine. "Which ones exactly? Musicals? Ballet?"
"Dirty Dancing."
He nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, watching a heterosexual couple fuck is certainly very gay."
"The way you say it, it sounds like we were watching pornos. But it's a romance."
"Dirty Dancing, huh?"
I flitted over to my movie shelf and pulled the DVD out. "When ‘Time of My Life’ comes on, it always gets me."
"When ‘Time of My Life’ comes on, I'll get you," he said.
"Does that mean we're watching it?" I looked at him hopefully.
Adam put his hands on his hips and inspected the Christmas tree. "Well, your tree looks like it's done. Why not? If the film softens you up, I'm happy to use that." He grinned again in such a sexy way, I wanted to fast forward straight to the end.
With a bag of dried fruit we sat ourselves down in front of the TV.
Adam looked at me as if I'd let the popcorn get burned. "What's that?"
"It's delicious. After all the cakes and muffins it's about time I started eating healthy again."
He looked appalled. "Please don't tell me you want to lose weight. Your curves are perfect."
I sighed and gave him a kiss on the lips. "Why did I only just meet you now?"
The film flew by and I snuggled into his firm body. He was so warm; I loved laying my head on his chest and listening to his heartbeat. When I stroked him with my hand it beat even faster. And when I started massaging him, it felt like it would jump out of his chest. His body radiated heat and he pulled me to him for a passionate kiss.
When ‘Time of My Life’ came on, he thrust into me and sang along with a few lines from the song. He hit every note in a rough voice half husky from sex, half Bryan Adams. Of course he had to sound like that, he had the same name. There seemed to be Adams all over the world, but this one here belonged to me.
I clung on and rolled myself over him so I could be on top; we almost fell off the couch in the process.
"I'm always falling with you," he complained.
"You mean you're falling for me."
He tasted my lips. "I am," he murmured. "I really am."
Little balloons floated up inside my heart, because he wanted me so bad and wasn't afraid to show it. Suddenly it didn't matter anymore he wasn't a vampire. He was an awesome guy.