The Honeymoon Period (The Austin Series) (31 page)

‘I love
you, so much, and I’m so sorry for treating you like I didn’t care, like I
treated everyone before you. I promise you Mia, it’s so far from the truth.’

‘I know
that Gabe. I feel honoured that you can be so different with me and this is the
side of you that I fell in love with. Now go and do the other thing that I love
you for and make me something delicious to eat, I’m starving.’ I pulled on my
black shorts and a grey slouch t-shirt, while he got back in his jeans and
threw his red t-shirt back on and went to cook the curry. I grabbed my wet
clothes off the floor and noticed the laundry bin was overflowing and dragged a
protesting Lexi out of the lounge to the utility to show her how to use the washing
machine again and shut the door behind us and hugged her.

‘Everything
ok?’ she whispered.

‘It will
be, we’ll make it ok, Lex. He’s going to see the psychiatrist as soon as
possible to get some help. I’m really beginning to think he has some severe depression
that could be related to his accident, or suddenly facing up to his past. I
don’t know, but I don’t think I can get him through that on my own, he needs
professional help.’

‘Well, Doug
and I are here if you need us, ok? We want him back to normal too. This break
will do you both the world of good.’

‘I know,’ I
nodded. ‘And thanks again, you’re the best. Except when it comes to laundry, so
watch what I’m doing.’ I showed her how to separate whites and darks and made
her programme the machine for the white load and set it and as the machine
started whirring she smiled proudly like she’d just conquered the meaning of
the universe. I shook my head and started sifting out the dark towels and heard
her head into the kitchen and listened as she started talking to Gabe and
laughed.

‘Bloody
hell Gabe, hugging, what’s got into you?’

‘I just
wanted to thank you for being such a good friend to Mia and to me.’

‘Well, most
of the time you make her really happy, Gabe. I’m really sorry that you had bad
news today, but I won’t keep forgiving you if you keep on hurting her like
that.’

‘Trust me
Lexi, I won’t forgive myself either. I’m going to get sorted so I can be the
sort of boyfriend she deserves.’

‘Glad to
hear it, but you know that Doug and I are here for you too if you need to
offload on anyone, or just someone to hang out with when you’re on your own.’

‘I know
that and it means a lot to have all of your support. Thanks, Lex.’

‘You’re
welcome, now what the hell are you cooking because it smells amazing and I’m
starving.’

I smiled to
myself as he talked her through what he’d done to make his curry and stood in
the doorway watching them stand side by side chatting as if everything were
normal again. God, I really hoped it would be.

 Doug
arrived just in time and we all sat around the table to our Thai green chicken
curry with jasmine rice and some bottles of beer. Gabe insisted I eat sitting
on his lap while he used some chopsticks that he’d purchased for us. The rest
of us used forks, much to his horror.

We all sat
watching TV and chatting until ten when Lexi and Doug decided to head to bed
and Lexi blushed as I grinned at her. She never went to bed before midnight, so
I knew exactly what she was up to.

‘Night both.
Don’t forget our appointment at three p.m. Lexi,’ I reminded.

‘What
appointment?’

‘Beauticians.’

‘Shit I had
forgotten, thanks for that. See you both in the morning. Cheers for a great
dinner, Gabe.’

‘You’re
welcome. Night.’

‘You sure
you’re ok, dude?’ Doug asked as he patted Gabe’s back.

‘I will be.
Thanks Doug, it was just a shock this morning and I reacted badly, but you’ve
all been great.’

‘Here
anytime you need me mate, ok?’

‘Thanks
Doug, appreciate it.’

We watched
them go out and I felt Gabe kiss the back of my neck. I was sitting between his
legs on the recliner with his arms around my waist. I loved having his firm
body pressed against mine with no sexual overtures, I always felt so secure and
loved and I needed it after our spat earlier.

‘What are
you having done at the beauticians?’ he mumbled as he kissed below my ear
making my scalp go all tingly.

‘Facial,
finger and toe nails and a wax,’ I sighed enjoying his lips on my skin.

‘Brazilian
again?’

‘Yes.’

‘You know
you can’t have sex for twenty-four hours after a wax?’

‘Good job I
booked it for tomorrow then and not Wednesday afternoon.’

‘Hmmm, yes.
First day of a vacation and no sex, I wouldn’t have been amused. I’ll see if I
can get in tomorrow afternoon as well and then we can keep our appointments on
the same schedule and not miss too many days.’

‘Are you trying
swimming again tomorrow?’ I asked stroking his fingers with mine. I felt him
put his chin on my head.

‘If I can’t
get in with Dr. Jarvis yes, I’ll go and do an hour. Like you said, I think I
just need to focus on one day at a time. I want to pick you up afterwards
though to go shopping and have lunch. What time do you need to be back?’

‘By two-thirty.
What shopping? You already got a load of food in.’

‘We need to
choose our kitchen and bathroom and think about tiles and appliances. The
builders made a start today so we don’t want to slow them down by not having
ordered the stuff.’

‘Really?
They’ve started?’

‘Yes,’ he
laughed. ‘Didn’t you notice the big skip, yellow tube and scaffolding outside, and
the big plastic zipped door on the landing on your way past?’

‘I saw the
scaffolding, I just thought someone was having repairs done. That’s us? Can we
go and see?’ I asked, all excited.

‘Mia, it’ll
be all dirty.’

‘I don’t
care, we can shower after. Please, Gabe.’ I wriggled out of his arms and turned
to look at him and he laughed. ‘What’s so funny?’

‘You. You’re
all excited.’

‘Of course
I am.’

‘I just
thought you’d only be interested in the nice bits like the shopping and
choosing of items.’

‘No. It’s
going to be our first home together, I want to be involved. Unless you don’t
want me to be?’

‘Of course
I do. Our first home together?’ he looked at me surprised.

‘Well, yes.
I may not be at planning a wedding stage yet Gabe, but I’m not planning on
letting you go either.’

‘Glad to
hear it Mia, especially after tonight. Come on then, get that gorgeous arse
from between my legs and let’s go and see.’ He planted a kiss on my lips and we
got up and I stuck on some flip flops while he grabbed his trainers and keys. I
felt so excited as he unzipped the protective sealed door on the landing. How
had I missed that? He sealed it behind us and opened the door to the apartment
and turned on the light and we both gasped. There was rubble and bits of wood
all over the floor, but most shockingly the place had no internal walls.

‘O my God,’
I exclaimed as I squeezed his hand.

‘Wow, it
looks so much bigger than I imagined.’ He held onto me tightly as we picked our
way through the mess.

‘Gabe, look.’
I pointed to where an old cast iron fireplace, coated in paint was leaning up
against the wall. ‘It’s beautiful. Do you think we can keep it?’

‘You want
to keep this?’

‘Yes.
Stripped down it’d look amazing and it’s part of the history of the building.’

‘You know
this is a smoke free zone? No open fires.’

‘I don’t
care, it could be filled with fairy lights or candles. It’d look amazing in the
bathroom and is that original brick under that plaster work?’

‘Yes, I
think it is,’ he nodded as he ran his hand over a damaged section of it.

‘You know
what would look great?’

‘What?’

‘If we had
the bottom half of the walls plastered and painted white, leaving a small shelf
running around the edge, then leave the top half in brick to give it a loft
type feel.’

‘What about
the insulation and sound proofing?’

‘They could
do that and then layer some weathered bricks over the top couldn’t they? It’d
look so cool.’

‘It would,
I like that idea. How about the floors? I’d quite like wood throughout except
for carpet in the bedroom and tiles in the bathroom and we could go for under
floor heating to save radiators everywhere.’ I nodded and grinned and wrapped
my arms around his neck and kissed him. ‘What was that for?’ he asked smiling
as he tucked some hair behind my ear.

‘I’m happy.
You make me happy and I can’t wait to move in here with you.’

‘Neither
can I baby. I really make you happy?’

‘Of course
you do,’ I said puzzled. ‘Why would you think differently?’

‘We fight,
a
lot
. I was just really mean to you and now you’re all smiley and happy
again.’

‘I still
love you even when we fight, Gabe. It shows we’re passionate about our beliefs
and each other and I don’t like holding grudges, we hashed it out and it’s done
and dusted. Didn’t you fight with any of your other girlfriends?’

‘Julie was really
my only long term “girlfriend” and other than when I told her it was over, we
never had a fight about anything.’ He frowned and looked all serious for a
moment. ‘I don’t think I cared enough to want to fight with her.’

‘So you
care enough to want to be mean and fight with me?’

‘I’d prefer
not to be so mean again, you didn’t deserve that, but I’d take fighting with
you all day over what I had with her, Mia,’ he said sincerely. I stroked his
face and kissed him and we stood in the middle of the empty dusty apartment holding
hands and pointed out where everything was going to go. It was eleven by the
time we locked it up and rubbed our feet on the dust cloth in the sealed area. ‘Well,
the dust is only on my clothes so I’m not showering again. Shall we head to bed?
I need to get over to mine a bit earlier so I can sort out what clothes I want
to pack for our trip.’

‘Ok. I want
to go for a run tomorrow. Will you come with me for one on Wednesday or is it
too much?’ I asked as we let ourselves into my apartment.

‘
That’s
too much, do we sound like that?’ he grinned as I started giggling. We could
hear Lexi and Doug having sex and her wrought iron bed squeaking. I nodded to
the bathroom and we went in and shut the door laughing.

‘Lexi says we’re
really
bad. Sound proofing’s a good idea for the new place.’ I went in
the shower and sprayed my feet to get the dust off them while he stripped off.
I dried as he stood at the sink and washed his hands and face and brushed his
teeth with his new electric toothbrush. I stood next to him, brushing mine and
enjoyed inspecting his naked body.

‘See
something you like baby?’ he grinned as he rinsed his mouth out.

‘I like
everything
I see. There’s not one inch of you that’s not perfect,’ I said my mouth foaming
and not just from the toothpaste.

‘Then I’ve
quite a few inches of perfect down here that would love some attention.’ I
looked down to see he was holding another erection, gripping it tightly in his
fist. I spat out my toothpaste and rinsed my mouth under the tap.

‘You’re so
rude sometimes,’ I uttered, unable to take my eyes of it as he ran his hand up
and down the length. I pushed him back against the sinks, sank to my knees in
front of him and ran my tongue over his head. He let go of himself and ran his
hands through my hair as he looked down at me with lust in his eyes and sighed
when I grasped him and took him into my mouth, all the way down.

‘Shit baby,’
he groaned as I worked on him. I loved the taste of him, so masculine and I
loved seeing him fall apart above me and it was even more special now, as he
was actually emotionally here this time, appreciating his girlfriend, not just
using me to get off. He gently held my head in place as he spread his legs and
started to breathe heavily. I gently nipped my teeth all the way up his shaft
and licked away his excitement. ‘Mia … stop, I’m close to coming. You make me
come so quick with your mouth.’

I ignored
him, I wanted him to come. I wanted to take away some more of his tension
without him focussing on me. I cupped his balls, rubbed and squeezed them and
he made an animal grunt. As I saw his stomach muscles contracting, I gripped
him around his root as I started to move faster.

‘Mia … baby
…
please
,’ he groaned. He tried to tug my head away, but I worked him
harder and heard him gasp, then groan as he swelled inside my mouth and pulsated,
forcing his load down the back of my throat. I had to swallow five times before
he relaxed and his fingers caressed my scalp. I moved my mouth up and sucked
any remaining evidence away and heard him softly saying my name. When I stood
up in front of him he grabbed me, an arm around my upper back and a hand gripping
the back of my neck as he kissed me, my arms pinned between our chests. ‘Baby I
asked you to stop,’ he whispered as he relaxed his grip on my neck and pulled
his mouth away.