Maya by Shayne Ford

9

CHAD

I throwa pair of jeans on and check my face in the bathroom mirror.

I’ve shaved, showered, and put some aftershave on.

Shirtless, I walk onto the terrace.

I pace myself, so Tara can see me first. Startled, she rolls to her back and covers her naked body with a towel.

It’s not as if I haven’t seen her ride Shade’s dick before.

I ask them if they want any food.

I’m hungry, and so is Maya.

They say yes, and Shade walks back with me.

Just as we head inside, Maya walks our way barefoot, wearing only a robe, her eyes glinting, her hair damp from the shower.

Shade pulls away from me, making a beeline for the bar before looking for his phone and a menu while Maya and I stand in the doorway.

“Things all right?” I ask, drinking in her soft smile.

“They couldn’t be any better,” she murmurs.

“What would you like to eat?” I ask, bringing my hand to her hair.

“Anything you order is good,” she says.

Quietly, I nod before lowering my mouth to leave a tender kiss on her lips.

Her cheeks get flushed, a soft gasp drifting from her lips.

“We’ll spend the night here, and I’ll take you home tomorrow. Okay?”

“Yes. That’s great,” she says in a quiet voice that makes my heart clench.

“Okay.”

We have a hard time breaking away from each other, but we try our best. I walk in while she waves at me and goes to Tara, her stare trained on my back.

I glance over my shoulder one more time and catch her peering at me.

Leaving her here will be harder than I thought.

Moments later, she starts talking to her friend while I turn to Shade.

Arms crossed, and eyes glinting with a knowing smile, he studies me in silence.

“How are things?” he asks while I plop onto a barstool before sliding my elbows onto the counter and running my hand through my hair.

“Better than I expected,” I say in a serious voice.

He gives me a double-take.

“What’s with the long face?” he asks.

Evading his eyes, I shake my head.

“Nothing,” I say curtly.

He orders food while I pour myself a drink.

At one point, I glance out the window. Maya has her back turned to us, explaining something to Tara.

She gestures, her body language offering a few clues.

Tara smiles, and they share a peal of laugher, but I see in Maya what I begin to see in me.

I’m thankful that I got to meet her., but I start to dread the moment when I have to leave.

Shade pours himself a drink too and sits next to me, facing the terrace.

He pats me on my back gently.

“What’s the problem?”

I look down at the counter, raking my fingers through my hair.

“How do you do it?” I ask quietly.

He tips his gaze to me.

“What do you do when you find someone too early? Or too late, perhaps?” I say, smiling bittersweet.

He laughs quietly at my side.

“Are you asking me this?”

I look at him.

“Uh-huh.”

“You know my life,” he says, looking back at the two women. “It’s not easy,” he says seriously. “That’s why I plan to do something about it.”

I stay silent.

“What’s on your mind?” he asks.

Slowly, I rub the back of my neck.

“A lot.”

“What happened?”

I shift slightly and look at the blonde woman in the oversized bathrobe outside.

“She’s, um… She’s more than I thought I’d have tonight.”

He smiles.

“Sounds good,” he says.

“Does it?”

I smile, yet I’m not amused.

He studies my face for a few seconds.

“Listen… Things will be all right. When I met Tara, I had an even smaller window of opportunity. I had one shot. I never thought she’d go for it. How many women would let you fuck them in a public space the day you met them?”

Laughing, I look down.

“I found the second one,” I say.

He chuckles.

“See.”

I nod softly.

“I fucking knew it,” he says. “Back at the party?”

I confirm with a soft nod.

“So yeah,” he says, propping his elbow against the counter, his smile fading. “I didn’t know if there was anything after that night, but I acted out of instinct. I liked what I saw the moment I spotted her at that party on that evening,” he continues. “And I hoped I’d get the chance to talk to her that night, but it went smoother than I thought. What I didn’t know at that point was what would follow. I didn’t think I’d see her again.”

He pauses for a moment.

“I bet that’s where you are,” he says, tilting his gaze to me. “Am I right?”

“Mm-hmm. You’re not far from the truth. So what’s your advice?”

He shrugs.

“I can’t give you any.”

I center my eyes on him.

“Yeah…” he says in response to my questioning look. “Things have to take care of themselves. I didn’t know what to do back then. I don’t think there was much to do. As I said. I didn’t think I’d meet her again. I knew who she was. I knew I’d probably run into her. I also knew she had someone in her life. These things… You can’t control them. I was happy it happened that way but other than that, not much was in my power… It isn’t even now. It’s a struggle,” he says, suddenly in a contemplative mood, looking away. “I’m not talking about her and me. We’re good. But everything else? Well… Things are never perfect.”

I think about it for a second.

I remember how swiftly Shade has changed and started a war with Elia because of Tara. He’s still caught in that power struggle.

“How did you know?” I ask him.

He lifts his drink to his lips.

I watch him swallow.

“She felt differently. Even that night on the terrace. She was a stranger to me. Who am I kidding? Most women were a big fucking unknown to me. Even after they rolled out of my bed… I don’t know. There was something about her.”

He crosses his arms over his chest.

“You’re going to find it funny,” he murmurs.

“Try me.”

“It’s not what you think…”

“You’re fucking with me now. Say it, for fuck’s sake.”

He chuckles, a grin tugging at my lips.

“She didn’t know I was watching her that night. And you know me… I like people in their purest form. I don’t like what they put out for other people to see. We all do it, trying to hide who we are. So she wasn’t aware I was watching her, and then I saw her consumed with whatever thing that man had done to her, and I felt sorry for her…”

I look at him.

“Yeah. I felt sorry for her because I felt sorry for me,” he continues. “I saw myself in her. You know people…” he says, his voice holding a slight quiver of emotion. “They get hung up on getting loved. But love means different things to different people, and that’s what it is in the end. We want it, and often expect it from the worst people. I’m not saying her guy was the worst. He just wasn’t for her. And I know those kinds of locked doors she was up against. I knocked on them too. You scream your lungs out and kick them, hoping they’d get open. They never do because there is nothing behind those doors. The thing is… We want stuff that doesn’t exist. It was the same with her, with me… When I wanted something from my life that wasn’t there. She didn’t know after you eventually knock that door down, there’s nothing behind it. It’s only a wall. A trick of life… But I knew it. I knew what she wanted. I knew what an exercise of futility it was for her to try to fix things, so I felt for her…Because I felt for myself. So I gave her something, created a memory with her, so she had something to compare it with. I didn’t know if it would work.”

“Well, it did.”

He smiles.

“Not immediately, though. She let that man back into her life… And that was the other thing. When I met her again, I knew it. Everything about her had resonated inside me. I had felt it deep inside me. It was everything I had gone through. The desperation, the crushed hope. The idea that things could never change and things are better if you give in… Well, except that I never gave in. But everything else, yes, I felt it, and it affected me. That’s how I knew and wanted her to experience something different… I cared for her. And I cared for myself. I wanted both of us to be happy. Once that was clear in my head, everything else falls into place. And now… I don’t care how long it will take or what price I need to pay. I want to make this woman happy. Because I want to make myself happy.”

He takes a long breath and slides off the barstool.

“All right, man… I need to get into the shower before the food arrives.”

With that, he empties his glass and walks away while I still ponder his words.

What he just said makes sense, and it’s not so different than what I feel for Maya, although my story and Shade’s couldn’t be more different.

My life hasn’t been a struggle. I never fought anyone in my family. I haven’t experienced pain on a large enough scale to matter. That doesn’t mean I’m blind to it. And while I can’t see myself in Maya, I see everything I want in her.

What Shade has said is not foreign to me. Maybe because I was blessed to have it all. The unconditional love, the quiet happiness. And now I want to see it in everyone else, especially the people who matter to me. Not only her but Shade and Tara.

I always knew what Shade had gone through, and I was always there for him because I wanted him to be happy the same way I was happy.

So yeah… It’s different. And for some reason, her happiness matters to me.

The doorbell rings.

I slip off my seat and head to the door.

Minutes later, the food sits on the table, waiting for them when Shade walks out of the shower and the two women walk in.

* * *

MAYA

The only lightin the bedroom comes from the pool.

A blue tint colors the white walls, filtering through the sheer curtains and sneaking through the open patio doors.

The water moves in the pool, tossing splashes of blue light over the ceiling.

The bed is large, soft, and round-shaped.

A bottle of champagne sits on the nightstand, and next to it, a bowl of strawberries and cherries, their sweet aroma hovering over the bed.

Soft music plays in the apartment, and Tara’s muffled voice seeps through the walls from time to time.

Slowly, I kiss the man lying on his back at my side.

I inhale his fresh scent and leave strawberry-flavored kisses on his pecs, abs, thighs, balls, and throbbing erection.

He takes my offerings with the silent acceptance of a god, his hand resting on the back of my head, his fingers tangled in my hair, soft breaths rolling in and out of his chest.

I press my lips onto his hardness and give him a long lap, reveling in the little shudders going through his frame, his muted grunts, and the hardening of his grip on my hair.

He parts his legs, and I stroke his balls before rubbing his erection, moving my fist up and down, floating in beatitude, a sense of wellness I haven’t felt in a while enveloping me.

So many questions and thoughts remain quiet in my head while we create this memory to stay with us despite whatever else will happen to us from now on.

“You make it difficult for me to leave…” he says in a gruff voice, making my skin prickle down my back.

He gathers my hair in his fist and lifts his head slightly, peering at me as I open my mouth and slide his hardness in.

A moan lifts off his lips.

He doesn’t tear his eyes away from me while I bob my head, my eyes welling up when he hits the back of my throat.

I can’t breathe for a second, and it’s not only because of that, although I pretend it’s the only reason.

His eyes stay centered on me as he experiences pleasure and reads my expression.

“You know?” he murmurs, a reminder of what he said.

Yes, I know.

He’s not the only one having a hard time breaking away from us, but I don’t want to think about it.

I choose to stay quiet and not give in to my emotions.

He stirs in my mouth, and I could probably make him come when he nudges me to pull up to him.

I do.

I lie on his chest, my legs open across his hips, our eyes connected.

He points his hard length to my core and slowly enters me.

Filled up, I stare at him with drunken eyes, indulging in his slow moves.

How can I tell him he makes it hard for me to let go of him as well? But what other choice do we have?

His hand splays over my butt while I roll my hips with him.

The sex is more settled now as we finally have time to sort through how we feel about each other. The hunger has morphed into a tamed animal that still needs to be fed but also lets us indulge in every morsel of deliciousness.

I haven’t had lots of men, so I’m not an expert.

I haven’t even made a point out of learning more about them. I thought a man is a man, and certain things matter to a woman when it comes to them. And it’s true.

It just happens that he has all those things, and then he has this.

He is a generous lover. A giver. A rare breed.

Quite often, a man like him is not a giver. They are not wired that way. But he is. Through some twisted whim of the universe, he is.

And I’m a giver too.

Still, the passing of time will decide what this is for us if anything.

“Yeah… I do,” I murmur softly, leaning to him to reach his lips.

We kiss.

We kiss as if this is the last night we have. The last time we hold each other. The last moment of intimacy, of feeling his hard body against mine.

Of having him inside me.

We kiss as if the world comes to an end, and we want to write several chapters of our lives in one and take the book with us, wherever life tosses us.

We just kiss.

His hand resting on my neck, my hands framing his face.

We kiss until we stop moving, although I’m filled with him, and he throbs inside my body.

His passion for me only increases as if he wants to convey a secret message that is no longer a secret.

We both grow anxious about moving on with our lives once the night ends. Or maybe not. Maybe it will all wither away once we step out of this sex-induced haze.

Maybe we’ll go back to our lives, and everything will make sense, and this, whatever this is, will stay confined within the brackets of the limited time we have.

Whatever it is, his kiss makes my heart clench, so I kiss him back as if I love him and don’t want this to end.

As if I don’t want him to forget me once he flies across the pond.

This is not the time to think about it.

This is the time to make love to him. The best thing about this is… He wants me to love him.

Maybe he thinks I’m grateful for the good time he’s given me. Maybe he’s under the impression that I’m just in lust with him.

Maybe he knows I need more of him. More of his body. More of his heart.

I hope he knows I’m not censoring myself when it comes to him, despite being aware that he will walk out of my life in a few short hours.

Smoothly his arms loop around my body while he shifts his position and rolls with me, sliding on top of me.

My head sinks into the pillow, his body moving on top of me.

He thrusts into me again, adding his kisses, breaths, and fingers in my hair.

We’re building this perfect moment together in which he makes love to me, dispelling the myth, blowing my past experience out of the water, teaching me how love feels, what it means, and how it comes from the touch and the body of a man.

We remove every obstacle, reservation, the pang of hesitation––if there was ever one––and melt into each other, rocking against one another. A man and a woman, finding what is right for them when they least expect it.