Natalia suddenly rolled off of Justin. “I’m sorry, I can’t.”
Justin didn’t say a word as she picked her top up from the floor, walking to the other side of the room as she pulled it back over her head. His eyes followed her as she sat in the armchair by the window and pulled her knees up to her chest. He was utterly confused as to what had happened. One minute everything was fine, more than fine, and the next she was across the room, leaving him with a racing heart and well and truly bewildered.
Natalia sat in the chair and wearily ran her hands over her face. Unfortunately it didn’t wipe away the embarrassment. “Go ahead, yell at me if you want,” she said quietly.
Justin looked at her in confusion. “I don’t want to yell at you.”
“I wouldn’t blame you if you did. I just totally led you on, there.”
Justin searched for a way to ask her about what had just happened without sounding like he was demanding an explanation or angry with her. Because he wasn’t. He was just confused. “You want to talk?” he asked softly.
She groaned. “Not really.”
Justin bit his lip and looked down at his hands. The CD switched to an old Boyz II Men song. Enough with the love songs already! He was thoroughly regretting his choice of music right then. He could’ve done with some good old hard rock to ease the tension.
“I’m sorry.”
“Will you stop saying that!” He tried to calm his frustration but it seeped through into his words. He sighed. “Now I’m the one who’s sorry.”
“Justin, I’m just really embarrassed right now. I’ve dug the hole a thousand times over and crawling up in it and dying is sounding good right about now.” In fact it sounded very good.
“Overreact much?”
She sighed and fiddled with the drawstring of the satin pants. “As much as I wanted to…I don’t think I’m ready for that yet.”
“Nat, that’s okay, I’ll get over it.” He’d be fine once he cooled down a bit. Nothing a cold shower wouldn’t cure. “Just…just stop going all weird on me every time something happens.”
“Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it, it’s not the first time I’ve been turned down.”
“But I bet you’re taken up on the offer more often than not,” she mumbled.
“Is that was this is? You’re worried about who, or how many people, I’ve been with before?” Surely she didn’t think he was some kind of male slut.
She shrugged slowly. “Or about the lack of people I’ve been with.” She spoke so quietly he could hardly hear her.
“Huh?”
She rolled her eyes.
Suddenly it dawned on him. “Wait…you’re…”
“You can say it Justin…virgin. Yep I’m a virgin.” She felt her cheeks flame, although she didn’t know why, it wasn’t something to be ashamed about. She just all of a sudden felt inferior and totally inexperienced. Justin’s look of shock was not helping matters.
“Really?” he asked incredulously, his eyes wide.
“Oh God,” she groaned, covering her face. She stood up and walked to the kitchen, intending to get a glass of water.
Justin jumped from the sofa, hurrying to catch up with her. He placed his hand on her arm. “I didn’t mean it to come out like that.”
She ran her hand under the steady stream of water, waiting until it was ice-cold before filling the glass. The cool liquid sliding down her throat was a welcome feeling.
She felt Justin behind her, his hands resting gently on her hips. She could feel the warmth of his fingers in the gap between her top and pants. He gave her a couple of seconds before his hands turned her carefully. She lifted her chin from her chest and gingerly met his eyes. A smile graced his lips and if she didn’t know better she would’ve thought he was amused, but it was more a smile of relief.
“Is that what you were worried about?”
She shrugged.
“It doesn’t matter to me. And I didn’t mean to sound surprised but in all honesty I was. I thought someone would’ve snapped you up long ago,” he chuckled.
She pushed his shoulder good-naturedly.
“Lucky for me, though, they didn’t.”
“Yeah you just keep sweet-talking me like that.”
“’Kay.”
He rested his chin on her shoulder and his arms encircled her waist. Slowly her hands travelled up his chest and wrapped around his neck. They rocked together on the spot for a moment.
It was moments like that that gave her hope for the two of them.
“I’m hungry,” Justin announced.
“Again?”
“Yup.” He lifted her up and sat her on the counter before he crossed the room to search the fridge.
“You’re like a bottomless pit.”
“So I’ve been told.” He settled for a bowl of cereal.
She watched him as he wolfed his sugarcoated choice down. He was still shirtless after their little adventure.
“You checking me out, girl?” he joked, catching her staring from the corner of his eye.
She blushed. She thought his full attention had been on the food in front of him. “You wish.”
“It’s okay, you know,” he said seriously. “I’m not gonna pressurise you into doing anything you don’t want to do.”
“Who said I didn’t want to?” she mumbled, but just a little too loudly.
He raised his eyebrows in curiosity but didn’t say a word.
“Just because I’m not ready right now, doesn’t mean I don’t want to. You’ve got to realise my experience with guys isn’t all that broad. I’ve been looking after my mother for the last few years, which basically left no time for a social life. I had a boyfriend before that but I was so young that pretty much didn’t count. Since then I’ve only been out with 2 guys. It only took them both a couple of weeks to realise that they weren’t my top priority and then they were gone. You’re pretty much the only guy who has stuck around.”
“It doesn’t matter to me,” he assured her again. Actually, he quite liked it. She was untouched and in a way he liked that. He didn’t have to worry about another man touching her, loving her in a way that he wanted to. It did wonders to his male pride to think she would be willing to make him her first. “You just let me know if you’re ready.”
“When I’m ready,” she corrected him timidly.
He pushed his bowl aside and walked back over to her. He placed his hands on her thighs. He gave her a small smile. “Okay. What do you say we hit the sack?”
“Sounds good to me.”
He helped her down from the counter and together they made sure the lights were off, the doors and windows locked, the alarm set, and then they headed upstairs hand-in-hand.
Justin sat on the edge of the bed and eyed the digital clock. “Have you got work tomorrow?”
She sighed. “Yeah.”
“Want me to set the alarm?”
“I guess.” She had put all thoughts of work out of her mind until that moment. She had to go back sooner or later, it might as well be sooner, get it over with.
“What time?”
“7?” she said regretfully. “I need to go home and get a change of clothes.”
Justin groaned but set the alarm anyway.
“You don’t need to get up, I’ll get a cab.”
“Nah it’s fine, I’ll take you home.” He pulled back the covers and climbed in next to her. He reached over and turned the bedside lamp off. They took a few moments to get comfortable; finally settling with Natalia’s back pulled to Justin’s chest.
She turned her head back giving him a peck on the lips. “’Night.”
“G’night.” He nuzzled his face into the back of her neck. “Get some sleep, don’t worry about tomorrow, you’ll be fine.”
Within 10 minutes they were both asleep, exhausted from the emotional day.
The alarm had woken them at 7 am as planned. Unfortunately the both of them had decided to rest for 5 minutes and had instead fallen asleep until 7.45 am. They’d both dived out of bed and frantically dressed, Natalia unable to do anything more than splash her face with water before they had to drive across town.
One good thing about the lack of time that morning – it didn’t leave her any time to worry about the day ahead.
Justin pulled up outside her house and she threw the door open, only pulling back in time to give him a kiss that lingered longer than she’d planned.
“You need me to drive you to work?”
“Nah, I might need the car in the day. Thanks anyway.”
“Call me later?”
“Sure.”
She slammed the door shut and waved before she ran to her house. The door swung open before she could put the key in the lock.
“Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in.”
She pushed past her brother. “I haven’t got time for this, Alexei.”
She ran to her room and pulled out a clean blouse and skirt from her wardrobe. She dressed quickly and ran a brush through her hair. In the bathroom she brushed her teeth and applied a touch of tinted lipgloss before dashing to the kitchen.
“Hi, mom.” She grabbed a piece of toast off the table and ate while she slipped her shoes on.
“Did Justin have a good trip?”
“Mmmhmm,” she mumbled around the food in her mouth. She swallowed and took a sip of the orange juice her mother produced for her. “Thanks. He’s tired though.”
“I wonder why that is,” Alexei piped up from the doorway.
“Alexei, shut it!”
“Leave your sister alone, Alexei.”
Natalia smiled smugly at him before she caught sight of what time it was. “Gotta go.”
“Will you be back tonight?” Eva asked.
“Yeah.”
She ran out the door and to her car. She knew the drive to work so well she could do it in her sleep, just as well because she thought she could do just that that morning.
“You better?” Shannon asked when she entered the office.
“Yeah thanks. Where is everyone?” she asked. The office looked unusually empty that morning.
“Conference in Miami.”
“Bryan?” she asked.
“Gone too.”
Natalia smiled. “Perhaps today isn’t going to be so bad after all.”
She grabbed herself a mug of the disgusting, but strong, coffee from the percolator set up in the corner of the office. She could have gone to the cafeteria or the machine downstairs to get a name brand, but it probably wouldn’t have had the same effect in keeping her awake.
She set her bag down in the corner of her office and sighed in relief as she sat down in her chair. Finally she picked up the first bit of work from her in-tray. “Damn,” she whispered. It was the Markov contract. The day wasn’t looking so great anymore.
“How’s things going with your woman?” Chris asked, as they relaxed by Justin’s pool.
His woman. Justin smiled at that. “Good. We had our first fan encounter yesterday, though.”
“Uh oh. How did that go?”
“A lot better than I expected. I expected her to freak out but instead I did.”
Chris reached into his drink, grabbed an ice cube and threw it at Justin. “Ya big dork, what did you do that for?”
“Hey, that was cold!” He brushed the piece of ice off his chest. “I don’t know,” he sighed. “She doesn’t seem like someone who would be comfortable with all the stuff that comes with our lifestyle – fans, reporters, record company people butting into our relationship.”
“Well why don’t you give her a chance instead of getting yourself worked up about nothing. If this is how you’re acting now what’s it gonna be like when we leave for the tour next week.”
Justin pulled a pathetic face.
“Justin…you did tell her…right?”
Justin covered his face with his hands.
“Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! You stupid, dumb, idiotic, prick!”
“Don’t rub it in,” Justin whined.
“How was you gonna explain the fact that we’re going to be gone for 3 months?”
“I was gonna tell her,” he argued. “I’m just not sure when,” he mumbled. “Besides, she knows we’re going to be touring, she’s seen us rehearse.”
Chris stood up and pulled his T-shirt on over his head.
“Where are you going?”
“Home. You think I’m gonna stick around to watch you tell her that you’ve been keeping a huge-ass secret. Nuh uh, no way. I ain’t sticking around to watch the shit hit the fan. Oh and before you say anything you are going to tell her today.” Chris shook his head. “You sure are dumb sometimes, Timberlake.” Chris started to walk back to the house. “Oh and I suggest you do something nice, it might soften the blow a bit.”
Justin watched Chris until he disappeared from sight. He let his head drop back on the lounger. He was the king of procrastination and he’d been putting off telling her for 2 weeks now, fearing she might pull back if she knew he’d be gone. He hoped she could come visit him, but with her home situation, not to mention a jackass boss, he wasn’t getting his hopes up.
Things had been hard enough with them in the same town; apart for months was not even worth thinking about – so he hadn’t. Only now was he realising his mistake. He was giving her no time to prepare at all.
Justin groaned out loud. When had his life got so complicated?
He knew the answer.
The day the girl of his dreams walked into his life.
Chapter 25
Chapter Index
Stories Page
Main Page