3. He Is a Total Man Now

We don’t go up after breakfast. We go outside, drawn by the ocean. There aren’t many people on this part of the beach at this time. 

There’s a bit of an empty stretch of land between our hotel and the next, then some more to the next one. It’s quiet for now. 

I can only imagine how it’ll be at night while people gather for the beach parties that are bound to be rampant at this time of the year.

We hold hands as we walk down the beach, talking about everything and nothing. We talk about school, and work, and our families. 

Jade recently got engaged to her boyfriend of two years. Jude doesn’t like it. He says he has a bad feeling about the guy, and thinks Jade is too young anyway. 

She is in medical school, going into her fifth year. Jude thinks it’s the wrong timing, with the wrong guy. 

I don’t know much about Jade’s fiance, so I don’t know whether Jude’s reservations are based on fact or whether it's just him being an older brother who’ll never think any guy is good enough for his little sister.

On my end, other than my older sister getting married, the most exciting news is about Trey. He’s on the verge of signing a deal with a top football team in the major league. 

Right now, talks are ongoing, but there’s a huge probability that he’ll get the contract. He has done quite well in the first half of the ongoing season, and several top clubs are eager to snatch him from his current second-tier team. 

He has only been getting better since he made it to his university's first team, and he had various contract offers right after he graduated. 

It’s almost unreal. 

If he gets this contract…when he gets this contract, he’ll be a real star. Not a footballer only a handful of super devout fans know, but someone whose name is known by everyone. 

He might even end up on the national team. I’ve always thought he’d make it big, but it’s still surreal to think that’s my small brother–not so small but oh well.

Sam ended up going for basketball. About two years ago, he shot up like a beanstalk, and by the time he was sixteen, he was taller than everyone else in the house. The school basketball coach poached him from the football team and he never went back.

About Maria…let’s just say my parents are glad she hasn’t dropped out of college yet. She is always missing at home when everybody is around during the holidays–road trips with friends, part-time gigs, extra classes. I don’t think anyone falls for the last one.

We walk quite a distance and turn around about half an hour later. The beach is busier on our trip back. We’ll be back later to get the entire beach experience. But for now, we are going up. To our four walls.

We are walking past the hotel’s outdoor restaurant when someone calls Jude’s name. I look towards where the voice came from and see a woman waving at us. She is sitting at one of the tables, having breakfast. Jude halts, and so do I.

The woman calls his name again, and then rises from her seat. She looks to be in her forties. She is wearing a white flowery sundress, with her brown hair pushed over one shoulder. Her red lipstick draws attention to her lips, which are curved into a smile as she makes her way over to us.

“Who is she?” I ask Jude before she gets within earshot.

He doesn’t answer. I look up at him, and that’s when I notice he is frozen. Like he’s in shock.

“Oh my God, it’s really you,” the woman says excitedly. She comes right up to us, to him, and I barely get out of the way fast enough before she wraps her arms around him and hugs him.

I step aside feeling awkward. Something just feels wrong about some middle-aged woman running up to him and hugging him as if they were agemates. Is she an aunt? She doesn’t look anything like him–he took after his mother–or like his father. So maybe by marriage?

She pulls away finally. Her eyes fall on me. “Who’s this cutie with you?”

Jude steps away from her and stands next to me. He takes my hand “This is my girlfriend, Jo.”

She smiles brightly at me. “It’s so nice to meet you, Jo.” She holds out her hand, and I shake it. “My name is Claire. I used to work with Jude.” She releases my hand and turns her attention to Jude. “He was just a boy back then, but wow, he is a total man now.”

And then she does it.

She checks him out.

She doesn’t even try to hide it, or to be subtle about it.

I don’t know how to feel.

Other than incredibly uncomfortable.

“Care to join me for a cup of tea?” she asks, her eyes finally making it back to Jude’s face.

Jude’s hand tightens around mine. “We were just going back inside.”

She flutters her lashes. “Come on, Jude. Just a few minutes. It’s been so long since I saw you.” She reaches her hand out, going to touch his arm, but Jude steps back. He is clearly uncomfortable.

“Sorry, we can’t,” he says, and then he is walking again, not waiting for her response. He practically jogs back into the hotel, and I have to do the same to keep up. We get into the elevator and he punches the button for the fifth floor.

“Who is that?” I ask when the doors close and we start rising.

“Nobody,” he says, his eyes stuck on the panel showing the floor numbers.

“Oh? She sounded like she knows you well,” I point out. 

“You heard her. We used to work together. A long time ago.” 

Jude is only twenty six, so I wonder what a long time ago means. Before he came to my university? After high school? During high school? She said he was just a boy…

The elevator doors open and he leads the way to his room. He opens the door and waits until I walk in before he closes it. He tosses the keycard to the bedside table and then reaches for me.

His hands hook beneath my hips and I instinctively wrap mine around his neck as he lifts me. He kisses me, his lips stroking mine urgently. He walks towards the bed without stopping the kiss and only does so as he lays me down on the mattress and kneels between my legs.

He is breathing so hard, I place my hand on his chest. His heart is beating to a furious beat. “Are you okay?”

He nods and reaches for the hem of his shirt. “I just really want you right now.”

The excitement from before, when we were contemplating ditching breakfast, comes back in a wave. It washes through me as I remove my top. 

Jude reaches for my shorts and undoes my button. I lift my bottom off the mattress as he pulls them down my hips, taking my panties with them. He gets out of his jeans while I unhook my bra. And then he is settling between my legs, his naked body brushing against mine. He takes my hands in his and holds them above my head, pressing into the mattress.

“Are you wet?” he asks, his blue eyes looking down at me with a heat that looks like it could set a dry grassland on fire. 

My core clenches as I nod.

“Show me,” he says. He bends his head low, brushing his lips against my temple. He releases my right hand. “Take me and let me feel how wet you are.”

My heart stutters in my chest as I reach between our bodies for him. He is hot, hard, and pulsing in my hand. I guide him to my centre and rub his tip against me. I bite my lip and hold my breath at the delicious sensation.

“Fuck,” he groans, his head falling to the mattress. “You are soaking.”

I release my lip, forced to exhale and inhale through my mouth. It feels so good to rub him against me like this, covering him with my juices. But it’d feel even better when he is moving inside me. I drag his length to my opening and then wait.

He pushes his hips forward, his tip breaching my entrance. I let go of him as he pushes farther, penetrating me inch by inch. He goes halfway and then withdraws until only the head is inside me. He thrusts inside me again, going all the way this time.

And that’s when it hits.

“Jude!” I gasp.

“Yeah?” he asks, his voice throaty.

“Protection!”

He stops moving. He lifts his head and looks at me. He blinks. “You are not on birth control?”

I shake my head.

He frowns. “I thought…for your cramps.”

“The pills were more trouble than they were worth. I found alternative remedies.” This never came up last night because we used protection.

He swallows. “I’ll pull out.”

I bite my lip. “Sure?” 

He nods. “I promise.”

“Okay,” I whisper. 

He kisses my forehead and then starts moving again. He penetrates me with long, agonisingly slow strokes over and over that keep me suspended on the edge. It feels like I’ll fall apart any moment, but at the same time, it feels like I can’t get there fast enough.

Jude wraps his hands around my back and then rolls over, so he is on his back and I’m straddling him. “Ride me,” he tells me, his one hand coming up to play with my breast.

I’m out of practice, but I do my best, and when ‘yeah, like that’ slips past his lips, I get more confident. There’s something really sexy about looking down at him as he is swept up in ecstasy, and knowing that I’m doing that to him.

When I find my rhythm, I reach between my legs and touch myself. His eyes zero in on my hand, captivated. My head falls back as I lose myself to the sensations, growing desperate when I feel my release coming.

It hits me like a freight train, coursing from my centre to my body like an electric wave. I lose all rhythm as my walls contract around him. 

He takes over, gripping my thighs and thrusting up into me. It doesn’t take long before he is gasping for air, his hands holding me down as he spasms inside me and I feel a warm spurt right after.

“Jude…” my voice is breathy, panicky.

“I’m sorry,” he says, releasing my thighs. “Shit, I’m so sorry.”

I lift myself, ignoring how good it feels when his length drags along my inner walls. 

My mind is blank. He came inside me.

I crawl to the edge of the bed and drop my feet to the floor.

“Where are you going?” he asks, moving behind me. His hand touches my elbow, but I stand up before he can hold on.

“To the bathroom,” I tell him.

When I get back, he is fully dressed again. “I’m sorry,” he tells me again. “I’ll go get you a pill.”

“There’s no hurry,” I tell him, going over to the bed for my scattered clothes. “I can get it later.”

He shakes his head. “No, I’ll get it now.”

I nod and he heads for the door. He closes the door softly, a complete contrast to the chaotic beat of my heart.

He promised, and I trusted him without a second thought. But when it came to it, he held me in place. I don’t know what to think. Maybe I’m overthinking. He got carried away.

It was a mistake, that’s all. And it’ll be fixed just as quickly as it happened.