Abandoned but Not Alone (11 page)

“
Don
’
t be silly
‘
son, I
learned when to walk when I was nine months old, my mother told me.
”

Laughing
Jason held Aviva up as her legs began to buckle; her eyes taking on a strange
drunken cross action. He wanted to pick her up but knew doing so would draw
attention to her inebriated state. Securing her firmly to his side, with a firm
arm locked around her waist, he carried her in such a way as to give the
appearance she moved under her own steam. If anyone chose to look closely they
would immediately see the truth of the situation.

Two people
were paying them very close attention, Carlos and Hope, the latter making a
bee-line to follow them out of the room.

“
What
’
s going on Jason, where are you two going?
”

“
Hop, what a wonderful party, isn
’
t it a wonderful party
‘
son, tell her it
’
s a wonderful party.
”

“
Your car
’
s ready Jason. I had it brought around when I saw our little
girl was looking at me cross eyed.
”

“
Thanks man, come on Miss Inebriation, let
’
s get you home.
”

No longer
needing to keep up the pretense of Aviva being unable to walk, Jason swung her
up into his arms and carried her to the waiting car. Entering with her still in
his arms he took a seat, holding her in his lap throughout the drive back to
his house. Aviva didn
’
t move
once, she just snuggled into his chest and snored softly.

It was
after midnight by the time Jason got her home. At the top of the stairs he
realized he had no idea which room she was occupying, the thought pleased him.
When she awoke tomorrow to give him hell he had the perfect explanation as to
why she was in his bed. Carrying her up the stairs Jason made his way to his
suite. Balancing her precariously, he opened the door and walked towards his
bedroom to lay her down on his bed. Removing his jacket and tie he tossed them
carelessly across a chair and looked down at Aviva
’
s sleeping form.

He needed
to get her out of her clothes and into something more comfortable for sleep.
This he was looking forward to, feeling something of a voyeur and not caring in
the slightest; Jason walked to his dresser and removed one of his t-shirts for
Aviva to sleep in. He would rather she slept in her underwear but knew there
was no way to justify that move come the morning, t-shirt it was.

Jason
looked for the opening of Aviva
’
s belt to
remove it, he couldn
’
t find one.
Moving her from side to side in his search, he still couldn
’
t find it. It was definitely not an
integral part of the dress but its release baffled him. As his frustration grew
his hand accidentally pressed against the damn contraption and it sprang open.
Relieved to finally have the belt puzzle open, he had no intention of giving
the blasted thing another thought as he slung it across the room. Turning Aviva
over onto her stomach, he pulled the zipper of her dress down, inch by inch
revealing more and more of her chocolate smooth back.  When the zip could go no
further, Jason sat Aviva up, resting her sleeping form against his body as he
peeled the blue dress away. With the dress pooled around her waist, Jason
lowered Aviva to the bed and with unhurried movements raised her hips to
completely remove the blue garment that had been driving him crazy from the
moment she had appeared wearing it. No matter how much he loved the dress, and
looking at Aviva in it, the sight she presented in nothing but a pair of lace
thongs made his mouth water. He couldn
’
t resist the temptation as she lay before his hungry eyes, he
did what nothing on earth could stop him from doing, he touched her, running
his fingertips from her chest, down through the valley that separated her
breasts, along the expanse of her torso to the top of her blue thong and back
again. She felt like velvet against his touch and he wanted nothing more at
that moment than for her to be awake to witness how her being alone with him,
the soft glow of the bedside lamp casting a shadow over them, was affecting
him.

Maybe it
was just as well that she was sleeping, she was still too skittish around him
in intimate situations. She needed time to become accustomed to his presence in
her life, to his kisses and to his touch. Pulling the t-shirt towards him,
Jason decided to leave the removal of the high heels for last. Once he had
clothed her, he shifted her to a supine position and turned his attention to
the removal of her shoes. Lightly lifting first one foot and then the other he
removed them placing a kiss on each instep before lifting the covers to obscure
her beautiful body from his eyes. Standing beside the bed, Jason looked down at
the sleeping woman and made a promise to himself; that promise was to do all
that was in his power to keep her right where she was tonight, sleeping in his
bed each night, for a very long time to come.

Moving
silently around the room Jason set it to rights before undressing, using the
bathroom, and joining her in bed. As he settled in beside a sleeping Aviva, he
pulled her into his arms, closed his eyes ready to get some much needed sleep.
His final thought before sleep pulled him into its embrace was that it had been
quite an eventful day. He would never have thought that with his arrival home
this morning, his destiny awaited him in the form of one small woman asleep in
his arms.

Later that
night as Jason and Aviva slept his bedroom door opened on silent hinges. A pair
of malevolent eyes taking in the picture they presented in slumber. Without a
sound the watcher retreated, softly closing the door.

Aviva awoke
to a banging headache. She felt awful and her mouth tasted even worse. Opening
her eyes proved to be a mistake and she quickly lowered her eyelids as a means
of protection against the glare and the intensified pounding in her skull.
Moving with extreme caution, she opened her eyes by increments, knowing what to
expect from the sunlight. Deciding the best cause of action was to keep her
eyelids at half-mast she carefully took in her unfamiliar surroundings with its
distinctly masculine feel. Still moving with caution, she turned over and
noticed an indentation in the pillow beside her, instinctively knowing she was
in Jason
’
s bed, as a slight
lingering of his cologne penetrating her awareness.

Aviva was
more than a little concerned of what might have taken place last night without
her recollection; her mind jumping back to what had happened on the ride to the
reception. Had she behaved in the same reckless way last night, throwing
caution to the wind at the touch of his hands running over her bod? Pushing the
image from her mind, she cautiously ran her hands down her body, relief
flooding her as she felt a roomy garment covering her body. Well at least it
was supposed to be covering her, but at this moment it was bunched around her
waist in a twisted tangle. At the sound of the door opening Aviva spun around,
again moving too quickly as the pounding in her head reached record proportions
leaving her gasping, prone on the bed.

“
I took the chance of bringing you up some food, just in
case you might finally be awake.
”

Squinting,
she took in the sight of Jason standing by the bed wearing jeans, a t-shirt and
holding a tray, a tray containing food and coffee by the smells coming from it.
The mere thought of food let alone the smell turned her stomach.

“
Get that stuff out of here before I puke.
Oh my God, I think I
’
m going to
die!
”

Ignoring
her melodramatic comment, he walked to the side of the bed and placed the tray
on a table. Straightening from his task he looked over at Aviva who was
attempting to pull herself into a sitting position. Meeting his eyes she was
surprised to see a startled look register across his face before it was quickly
masked.

“
Why did you look at me like that?
”

“
No reason, no reason at all, are you hungry?
”

“
No I
’
m really not hungry, thank you so much, as I already
explained, I don
’
t want anything
to eat, that stuff is making my stomach roll, please take it away.

“
I also brought you our hang-over cure, Steve
and I perfected it in our misspent youth.  Here, drink this.
”

Aviva eyed
the concoction he held out to her suspiciously, it looked disgusting and
smelled worse, sort of a brown-black mixture of blobby slime. 
“
What
’
s in it?
”

“
Best you don
’
t know, just drink it quickly. Trust me, that banging in
your head will disappear as though by magic. There
’
s only one stipulation, you have to drink it
down in one go, no stopping.
”

At her nod
Jason extended the glass of brown-black slime, although still suspicious, she
was willing to try the disgusting looking stuff if it meant relief for her poor
head and the glass wasn
’
t that big,
she could do this. Taking the glass with unsteady hands, she held her breath
and swallowed taking two huge gulps.

It happened
almost immediately, her stomach rolled, the drink was about to make a
reappearance. Banging head or no banging head she had to move and she had to
move now, squeaking,
“
Bathroom?
”
  Leaping from the bed she followed Jason
’
s pointing finger, only just making it to
the toilet before the contents of her stomach was expelled. Aviva was finally
left gasping for breath as the last of the alcohol left her body. Jason was
right, she was already feeling better apart from the disgusting taste in her
mouth, and her belly was a little sore as its contents had been expelled so
rapidly.

Spying a
new toothbrush which he must have laid out for her, Aviva made her way to the
sink to wash her face and brush her teeth. Looking into the mirror she let out
a blood curdling scream, turned and slammed the bathroom door before rushing
back to the mirror. Unable to believe the sight she presented. Aviva closed her
eyes in the hope that when she reopened them the horror looking back at her
would have miraculously disappeared.

Gripped by
a morbid fascination, Aviva lifted her head and stared at her reflection again.
Her hairspray had turned her hair into the worst case of bedhead she had ever seen,
in fact it was so stiff it looked like a one sided matted frizz helmet. Her
makeup was still on and was smudged all over her face which included panda
eyes, and lipstick that looked as though it had been applied by a three year
old playing with her mother
’
s
cosmetics. She looked like a melted clown whose face paint was a horror of
distortion, and to top it all off, she had pillow creases embedded in her skin.
No wonder Jason had looked at her as though he were witnessing a frightening
apparition, bloody hell she had scared herself.

After
brushing her teeth and washing her face Aviva decided she had only one way of
dealing with her hair, filling the basin with water, she stuck her head in it.
Wrapping her hair in a towel, she cracked open the bathroom door and peeped out
coming face to face with Jason lounging on the bed laughing at her. Rolling her
eyes and sucking her teeth Aviva flounced her way into the room.

“
You could have told me I looked like a freak.
”

“
Not on your life, sometimes you need to find
things out for yourself. Come and get back into bed and have some coffee it
will make you feel better, well maybe not about the hair and face
…”
Jason came to an abrupt halt as Aviva reached
the bed, grabbed a pillow and whacked him across the head.

“
Hey, what was that for?
”

“
That was for allowing me to go to bed without
removing my makeup and this one is for laughing at me
”
Aviva said, whacking him a second time.
Sitting down on the bed she crossed her legs and pouted.

“
Come on Angel, you have to admit you looked
pretty terrible.
”

Refusing to
answer, Aviva threw daggers at his grinning face. He was enjoying himself way
too much as far as she was concerned, but the devil was right, she had looked
awful.
“
Okay, you
’
re right; I kinda scared myself there for
a minute.
”

Cutting her
eyes at him again for good measure, she accepted the offered coffee only just
managing to say thank you as she was still pouting; much to Jason
’
s continued amusement.
“
That
’
s right buster, you keep laughing it up.
”
At his smirk and no longer able to hold back her amusement at
the situation, Aviva laughed. Looking over at the bedside clock Aviva saw that
it was already afternoon and tried to remember just how much she had had to
drink last night.