For What It's Worth..

I woke up feeling refreshed and worn out, but in a good way.

After everyone had left last night, Chris had given me his present. I could still smell the faint traces of the cinnamon and vanilla candles he had lit all over our bedroom when I had finally came to bed. I could still picture the scene over and over in my head.

I remember walking up the stairs, feeling that it was time for bed as I noticed Chris had gone up long ago, with a mysterious ‘I’ll be waiting.’ What I didn’t know is how he meant that. I went to the bathroom and stripped down to nothing except for my shirt and underwear. Brushing my teeth quickly, I walked to the bedroom door, noticing it was closed. It was sort of odd, if I thought about it, usually when one of us was still up we would leave the door open until the other was there before we closed the door.

I opened the door, and stopped dead in my tracks. Candles flickered around the room, leaving everything in a soft glow. But that wasn’t what stopped me, what stopped me was the beautiful man sitting comfortably on the edge of his bed. I don’t remember what was going on through my head exactly at that moment, but the one thought I do remember was ‘damn..’

He had a white buttoned down shirt on and when he moved too get up, I noticed that the pants were unbuttoned at the top, leaving anything and everything too my imagination. He took a few strides over to me, his eyes never leaving mine. I didn’t know what to do with myself, I couldn’t stop staring at him, his gaze was lustful and almost predatory; like there was a warning behind them.

It screamed mine. And I gulped when I realized that it meant me; he stopped just in front of me, pushing the door closed, and walked me backwards until I hit it, so that he was slightly towering over me.

I could feel myself burn, my whole face was aflame, and I felt dizzy from sudden anticipation. My hands were starting to sweat, and I felt desire pool at my core.

“I’ve been waiting.”

My heart hammering anxiously, my lips refused to move, fear that I would just stand there gaping at him. It seemed like forever until he leaned down and kissed my lips, slowly, purposely, knowing how it was going to get me to react. His lips were hot, and minty with a tinge of chocolate. I craved that sweetness more than anything at that moment.

Those kisses took a heated detour and ran along my cheekbone, down to the sensitive skin on my neck and I gasped when he started sucking and nipping there, making me grab a hold of him, feeling as if my legs would give out at any second.

I heard his whisper.

“You're all mine tonight,” he continued, his voice sounded breathy and hot on my neck and shoulder. “And we’re not leaving this room until I’m sure that you can’t walk straight and you’re shaking from head to toe from what I have planned for you tonight.”


I shook my head, my face flushed from just remembering all that happened tonight. I felt fine laying down, but I knew from the way things went with Chris and his way of keeping his word, I knew I was going to be stumbling to the bathroom this afternoon.

I looked over at his sleeping form, he was snuggled into my neck; his arm draped over my middle. Completely naked. I had to get up and head to work, it was only a short shift, and I apparently didn’t have to go, but I wanted too. But Chris was being extremely distracting at the moment. And I knew I might possibly wake him up if I moved, and I didn’t want to risk that for two reasons. One was that he needed to sleep, because of how little he was getting lately, and two I didn’t want him to see me stumble on shaky legs too the bathroom.

Because I just know he will have this smart ass grin on his face that I sometimes want to just smack off.

Here goes nothing. I turned and slowly inched off the bed. I swung one leg over the edge of the bed. I glanced at Chris. Nothing, except a slight groan and him moving his hand that was on me under his pillow, to raise his head higher. I breathed out a slow, relieved breath and kept moving until I was sitting at the edge, both feet on the floor.

Now came the hard part. I slowly pushed myself up off the bed, already feeling as if my legs couldn’t take the weight of myself. Groaning inwardly, I stiffened myself so I could stand, against my bodies protest. It worked, but once I relaxed my muscles, I felt my muscles in my calves start to shake and convulse.

I grinned a little and beared the weakness and walked slowly to the bedroom door, nearly stumbling to the floor a couple times. When I finally got the door, I leaned into it a little, so I could regain my posture.

“Having trouble,my dear?” I jumped, startled by the voice behind me. I turned around, looking at Chris who was still laying down on the bed, except he was holding his upper body up with his left arm.

The face. Was pure amusement at the obvious trouble I was having.

“I suppose you think this funny.” I grumbled.

“I don’t suppose anything. I know its funny.”

I couldn’t think of anything else to say to him, so I just stuck my tongue at him and continued out too the bathroom to get myself ready for work.

About thirty minutes later, I found myself showered, dressed, and now brushing my teeth, dancing slightly too the music I was listening too.

Chris came in behind me as I rinsed my mouth out with mouthwash. I saw him lean beside me and turn the music up. He started flailing his arms in the air, dancing too my ridiculous pick-me-up songs I chose to listen too when I woke up some days. I quickly spit the mouth wash out before I choked on it from the impending laughter I was holding in as I watched him in the mirror.

This playlist consisted of old and new songs that even though they were annoying some days, they still brought me a little happiness in the mornings whenever I needed a boost. Music truly was the perfect cure for many things.

Right now, what was playing was Maroon 5’s This Love. I watched as he started to lip sing the words as the music played. I dried my face off with a cloth, while trying to hide my face from the laughter that was howling out of me. Chris had gone from flailing dancing too grabbing my hips and singing to me. The song had changed to Single Ladies by Beyonce, and the hip grabbing got worse. I couldn’t help but keep dancing with him, his happiness being infectious. I threw the cloth too the sink, and watched as his smiling face leaned against my head.

“You still love me?” He asked, cheekily. He probably thought I was annoyed at him from earlier.

“Of course I do.” I turned around and embraced him, staring up at his makeup-less face. I laughed when he moved us around, shaking his hips in a way that would make a belly dancer jealous. I loved moments like this, when we could just be ourselves, and not have to worry about restraining our mutual weirdness.

“Always?” He asked, making me smile reassuringly.

“I’ll love you till the day I die.” Meaning every word, curious about the look that crossed his face. Like a trace of worry and fear.

“Did anyone ever tell you that you’re perfect?” He asked, moving his hand to caress my cheek.

“Me? Perfect? Far from it.” My lips twitched into a lopsided smile. “You, on the other hand..” I looked into those caramel colored eyes, letting my words sink in.

His smile was crooked. “Not even close.”

“Well, you’re perfectly imperfect too me.”

He sighed dramatically, swaying me in his arms. “I suppose I have to let you get to work?”

“Yes, yes you do.” I glanced at the clock, my eyes widening slightly, seeing the time. “Right now, actually because I have to be there in a half hour.”



~



I rushed in through the back door of the bookstore. “Sorry, I’m late Paul. Lost track of time.” quickly putting my things in my locker, I half expected him to be a little bit angry. “Oh, its no trouble JJ.”

I glanced at him, with my eyebrows raised. “You’re not annoyed I’m late?” I asked.

“Hardly. Not even close.” The short middle aged man with a bandana on his head looked busy, as he was nearly nose to nose with paperwork that was over his desk.

“And, the reason is, because I don’t get too train the newbie.” He chuckled.

I gave him a half frown, half smile. “Let me guess who gets that honor?”

He did a little drumroll with his fingers on the desk. “And the winner is…!” I pointed to myself. “Me!”

“Yes, you do! His name is Mike, he’ll be a part timer like you. He won’t be here long, as far as I’m told. He’s in a band, and I guess that takes priority.” He shrugged, like he could care less. “He’s a quiet young man, but you know how I like quiet people.”

I laughed, knowing he was referring to me, yet again. “Fair enough.”

“Anyway, I’ve set him up in the front with the cash, thats about all he knows too do. I want you to teach him to set up in-store credits when people bring in used books. And you might as well get him adjusted too going through our book orders we just got in today. He paused a moment as if too think of something else.

“And tell him what to look for when it comes to the older, more used books. Pages, rips, bends, you know what I mean?”

I nodded. “Got it.”

I walked out and went the storage room and grabbed a box that held some of our books that were ordered. I went and saw that no one was behind the cash, so I tried calling out the newbies name.

“Hey, um, Mike is it? Where are you?” I saw a hand fly up across the store.

“Over here, I’m helping a customer find something.”

“Alright, when you’re done, I need your help, please and thank you?”

“Sure thing!” He sure sounded chipper for someone who was apparently quiet. I went ahead and opened the box, and started going through the books. I set them up on the table behind the counter, so I was facing away from the customer and Mike as they came up.

I listened too the way he talked too the customer.

“Will that be all today, miss?”

“Yes, thank you.” the customer sounded pleased.

“Your total is five dollars and fifty cents.” I heard the cash register ding as he opened it.

“Have a nice day, miss.” Mike said cheerily. I barely heard her reply,when I started thinking I recognized that voice. Where did I hear it before? "Hey Jenny, so what did you need help with?" I jumped, looking beside me to see Kuza standing there. "Kuza?!" I shrieked. "What are you doing here?" I whispered, trying to keep my voice down. His light green eyes looked at me curiously as my mind raced as to why Mike Kuza was here working with me.

"Oh,I work here part time now." he said it so casually.

"Why?" the words hissed out of my mouth, my mind going in circles and thinking of the short conversations we had before he left last night. "I thought you and your band had things to do?" My right eye twitched as I watched him fidget with his fingers, by the looks of it trying to figure out a reason for him to be here. Then it clicked.

"Chris." I said simply. I saw a sheepish grin form on his face, and he flinched from the tone of my voice. I sighed, trying to reason in my head why Chris' friend is working here other than to keep an eye on me. When I didn’t come up with anything, I gave a half ass glare to Kuza, he winced, knowing I was pissed. "This isn't over. Right now we have work to do." I grimaced as I started taking out more books to look them over, directing Kuza to do the same, telling him what to look for. We went on like this, for a good half hour or more only talking when Kuza asked a question, or I made a comment if he needed to re-check a book or not. It was a pretty simple and plain job, but if we sold a book that wasn't to the customers satisfaction, we would get in shit.

It was coming near the time to close, and we were just waiting patiently for the last customers to pick out their books and take them to the cash; when suddenly I got a sharp pain go across my abdomen. I placed a hand on it,pushing ever so slightly to see if there was any immediate danger, like swelling or if something felt out of place but when I found nothing, I just shrugged it off.

When we started closing up shop and I asked Kuza if he needed a drive anywhere was when the pain came back, more pronounced, feeling like it was going to knock me off my feet. I was getting worried that something was wrong. "Jen, you okay, you look like you’re in pain." Kuza's voice was beside me suddenly. "Yeah, I'm alright, cramps I think." But when he opened his mouth to reply, it felt as though someone was jabbing me with a thousand different razor points along my stomach and I fell to my knees from the burning pain.

"Jen, hey, whoa what's wrong." I felt his hand on my shoulder.

"P-pain." I stammered out, running my finger to indicate where, and winced as it came again and again even though I barely grazed where it was.

I remember Kuza running off to tell Paul, then came back and asked where my keys were. "I'm going to drive you to the hospital, alright?" I nodded and he wrapped his arm under me and led me outside, where I directed him to where I parked. "You'll be alright." he was trying to reassure me. I don't remember passing out, but that was the last thing I remember before everything blurred together into one giant mess...

Notes

Heres chapter 26, I don't have much time since I'm on a 15 minute computer but I have another chapter in the waiting when I have more time to type it down and edit it.

So I hope you enjoy this update as short as it is, and look forward to the next one which will be longer.

Enjoy, everyone! <3 thanks for the encouraging comments. :3