I should still just leave, tell her no…but I wouldn’t want to sleep in jeans either, and her voice dredges up some long-dead sympathy in me. With a groan, I return to her side and have her tilt her pelvis up so I can unbutton her jeans and slide them down her legs. They seem to go on forever, and I keep my eyes locked on the blanket beside her as I do so, not wanting to torture myself by watching inch after inch of her skin being exposed.
She wiggles the rest of the way out of the pants, and that little movement does me in. Ihaveto look at her. Elise fumbles with her blouse, eventually throwing it aside, and now she’s almost nude in front of me, and it would only take one movement to put my hands on her.
I guess I expected Elise to be the type of girl to wear black on black undergarments every day, so I’m surprised to see pale yellow lace panties and a matching bra covering her curves.She’s so beautiful, so sexy, that it makes my mouth go dry. I can’t possibly take this… why am I doing this to myself?
I screw my eyes shut and put all my focus into not getting an erection, clenching and unclenching my fists as I do so. I know she’s watching me, there in her lacy, ridiculous panties, and that makes the task even harder.
“Dan…” she breathes. “How do I look to you right now?”
Irresistible. So delicious that I want to lick every inch of your skin.
I clear my throat, not opening my eyes until I can turn away from her. “Like a drunk, troublesome little girl. Now I’m going to go get you some water and aspirin.”
“Hey!” she yells at my back, clearly annoyed that I didn’t give in to her bid for attention. “I’m not drunk, just tired!”
“Yeah, right,” I mumble, leaving her and all her temptation behind.
Like Elise herself––most of the time––her kitchen is perfectly organized and put together. I’m sure she has a house cleaner that comes by weekly and just walks a few circles around the place before leaving because I find it highly unlikely Elise ever lets it get anywhere near messy. This makes it exceedingly easy to find her medicine cabinet and to get her a bottle of Evian from her stainless-steel refrigerator. Even her food is organized in little clear bins inside of it. It looks exhausting.
When I return to her bedroom, I’m surprised to see that she isn’t in bed anymore. Then I hear a retching noise coming from her en suite bathroom, and it all clicks into place. My little ice queen really is quite a bit drunker than she was letting on.
I set the aspirin and water on her bedside table and rush in to assist her. She's so pathetic, crumbled there in front of the toilet that I don’t even register how nearly naked she is anymore. I rummage through her beauty box, finding a black hair tie and kneeling next to her slumped form.
“Well, I’m sure you’re going to feel a lot better now,” I murmur gently to her, gathering her long hair up and wrapping it on top of her head in a sloppy, but effective bun. Elise moans in pain from the pressure I’m putting on her head, but better a little headache than a head full of vomit-filled hair.
“That’s it, love, get it all out.” I rub her bare back as she heaves again, my heart breaking just the slightest bit at the sobs between the retches.
Once she’s done, and there’s nothing but bile coming up, I flush the toilet for her, close the lid, and help her to sit on it. Wetting a face cloth in warm water, I clean her face, neck, and give her a bundle of tissues to blow her nose into. Clearly miserable, her beautiful eyes ringed in red, she listens to everything I tell her to do for once. If she wasn’t feeling so terrible, it might be a nice change of pace, but as of right now, it’s just sad. Poor girl.
After squeezing some toothpaste onto her toothbrush, I hand it to her, telling her, “I did everything else, but I don’t think I can brush your teeth for you. You’re going to have to manage that one on your own.”
She brushes them, eyes closed against the harsh bathroom light, and then I guide her to the faucet to rinse her mouth once she’s done. Clean and with fresh breath and an empty stomach, Elise hobbles to her bed with me at her side, climbing into the thing so carefully, as if her world is spinning around her. Honestly, it probably is.
Against the headboard, she swallows the aspirin and polishes off the bottle of water, lazily pulling up the covers and crawling underneath. Her eyes are heavy, but she’s looking right at me, a question in the depths of them.
“What, Elise?”
“Will you stay with me for a little while? I’m afraid of getting sick again and not being able to make it to the bathroom.”
It’s a terrible idea, but I also don’t want to leave her in this state. She seems on the up and up now, but I feel like she could get incredibly ill again at any moment. With a resigned sigh, I crawl up to the headboard as well, kicking off my shoes and sitting against it. “Just for a little bit, okay? And I’m not going to get under the sheets.”
She must truly be drained, because for once in her life, Elise doesn’t argue with me. “That’s okay… as long as you stay.”
Now that she knows she isn’t going to wake up alone, Elise falls into a deep slumber within minutes, one of her hands stretched out just enough to lay it on my leg. As beautiful as she is, the only thing I want to do is protect her, and make sure that she feels safe. Watching her breaths lengthen and slow, I can feel my own fatigue start to weigh on me. I’ll just close my eyes for a few minutes, and once I’ve had a cat nap, I’ll go home and leave her be. That should be long enough to ascertain that she isn’t going to get ill again.
My eyelids shut just as I reach out to take her hand in mine. She sighs in her sleep, and then I too am unconscious.
I’m interrupted from floating in a sweet, dreamy nothingness by the harsh sound of a door buzzer. I ignore it at first, thinking that it’s just part of my dream, or that whoever it is will eventually go away until I realize that the buzzer sounds off. Not like the one at my place at all.
I jump up in bed, not recognizing where I am for a second while the door continues to buzz and buzz. The night before slowly starts to filter back to me, and when I turn, there is Elise, sleeping so soundly beside me. How she can ignore that racket, I have no idea.
“Elise,” I hiss, shaking her shoulder. “Get up. Someone is at your door.”
She groans, pulling the blanket over her head and rolling over. I clench my teeth, but exhale slowly, crawling out of the soft bed and letting my feet hit the cold hard floor. I guess I’ll have to greet the guest myself.
Thank God I check through the peephole to see who is waiting outside because had I just opened it without checking, Andries would have gotten the surprise of his life. He’s loitering out in the hallway, holding a drink carrier and paper bag, getting more and more annoyed each time he has to ring the bell. I’ve been under the impression that the two of them weren’t really on friendly terms, so seeing him here is a hell of a shock.
Shit. What am I going to do now?