Chapter 6 Dream

• *I am scrubbing the dishes when suddenly I feel dominant arms draping around my midsection from my back. The familiarity, and perhaps, the longing of this feeling stirs a thousand emotions, making me shiver in their embrace. I turn around to face mi armour, my prince charming, my knight in shining armour! His tall figure towering over me, and his dark brown eyes are sparkling with delight in seeing the joy of his heart- me, of course. "Finally, you are here?" I softly say, resting my hands on his chest after drying them with a kitchen towel, my eyes not leaving his.
• "Did you miss me?" He asks softly, as he carefully positions me against his lean composure, his hands caressing my posterior.
• I stand on the tip of my toes to match his adorable height, and wrap my hands around his neck, feeling his warmth, and breathing his air.
• "I missed you so much. So, so much, Andy!" I say, scanning his lips with desire. "I was thinking of you the whole day, my love." I cup his face, caressing it with my thumbs, as I feel his hands drop to the sides of my small waist. "Did you miss me?" I ask, smiling because I know he did. He definitely did. I just want to feel the magic of him saying it.
• After staring at me for what feels like a whole decade, he says something that breaks my heart into a thousand pieces.
• "No. I didn't."
• Ouch!
• That hurts! A lot.
• I look at him, and he doesn't look like he is kidding. "Y..o..u ..di...n't?" I ask with a broken voice. I love him, so much, so even a slight joke like this one will affect me. I want to hear him say he missed me like I did, like he always says, but to my disappointment, he jerks his head, and his hands withdraw from my waist. I wait for them to dock somewhere on my body, just anywhere, but no. He shoves them in his khaki pants, and takes two strands back, leaving my hands hanging in the air as his face slips out of my hold. I drop my hands, shamelessly, and bow down, to my boss, like the servant that I am. "Sorry, if I expected too much. I should have known that you can't love someone like me."
• "What do you know about love?" His sweet voice echoes from one ear to another, and I look up at him.
• What do I know about love?
• "Nothing much. Maybe I don't know even a thing about love." My heart is so heavy now, and I can't breathe properly because of the lump blocking the air in and out of my lungs at the throat. I am almost choking. I a few steps to where he is majestically standing. I lift my hands to his face once again, cupping it, acknowledging the sweet warm feeling of his bare skin in my palms. Our eyes bore to each other, his dark brown ones subduing mine, as they always do. I have never won a stare challenge with him. "But tell me, Andy. Isn't this love that I feel for you?" A tear leaves my right eye, and then from the left, but I dare not blink. "I start missing you the moment you step out of this house in the morning. I think about nothing but you throughout the day. I see you and I want to fall in your arms, because I feel safer in them than I have ever felt. I fret when you take even a minute longer to return to this house. I want to run and hug you tight the moment you appear in the doorway. I see you in my dreams every single night, because I go to bed with the hope of having you so close to me, even if it's just in my dreams." Through the curtain of the colourless liquid in my eyes, I see a flicker of a smile on his face that fades away in a blink. He stares at me, maintaining his composure and straight face without even blinking. I take my shaky hands from his face and take a step back. I turn to leave, with tears freely flowing down my two cheeks. I can't stop them. His silence hurts more than words.
• Just when I am about to open the kitchen door, I'm pulled back by Andy's strong arm which makes me turn around, colliding with him. He pulls me for a tight bear hug that lasts for minutes, with me hiccuping on his shoulder, my hands holding on to his shirt, and him stroking my hair with one hand and the other one caressing my back. This feels so sweet. I can spend my entire life like this if possible.
• He pulls away from the hug and dries the tears from my eyes, making me calm. Then he smiles a little, that smile that I always love.
• "Are you sure you can love me, Ania?" He asks, cupping my right cheek with his left hand, and I can feel the heat from his hand start to burn my face. I lean on it, closing my eyes to savour the feeling.
• "I already do, Andy. I love you. So much."
• "AND I, ANDRIAN ASHTON, A.K.A, ANDY, LOVE YOU, TANIA LAWSON. I LOVE YOU, BABY. I really do."
• It feels so feverish here on cloud nine. I don't know why it feels so confusing though. You don't even have a word to respond to someone after confessing he loves you. Someone you have been dying for. I have been yearning to hear those words echo from his mouth, to witness them smoothly roll out of his mouth, and now that I eventually had the honour, the privilege to experience all that, my mouth becomes a desert all of a sudden? Ooh, My!
• I am brought from my lost state by Andy's lips on my forehead. He plants a soft kiss there, and goes all the way down to my lips, kissing me gently, and I kiss him back. He kisses me again, and I respond without relenting, and a third one too, and then our eyes open, boring to each other in delight.
• I love the beautiful smile that is plastered on his face. It makes me smile too. I love seeing him this way, and I love him for making me feel this way.
• "I love you, baby. I love you. So, so much." He says again, and I believe in every word he says.
• "I love you more, Andy." Finally, I found my voice.
• "You want to punish me for making you cry?" He teases.
• "Naah!.. I choose to forgive you just this once. Just don't scare me like that again." I whisper.
• "I won't. But I still think you should punish me. I want you to punish me." He insists, burying both his hands in my hair, caressing my scalp.
• "Ooh, seems like someone really likes punishments, huh?" I try to joke.
• "I know my baby can't give me a severe punishment." He finishes with a confident wink.
• "Aahh. I see. I honestly don't have a punishment for you."
• "If you don't, then I'll be the one to punish you for not punishing me."
• "I hate punishments. How about you kiss me first?? Maybe I'll have an ideal idea of how I should punish you after."
• "Like this?"
• He slowly pulls my head to him, our lips in a line. He pauses to admire my lips for a minute, and then he leans in, pecking me on the lips countless times before seeking permission, which I grant without hesitation. We kiss, and kiss, and kiss, until we both ran out of breath. We pull away, gasping for air. I am trembling in his strong arms, and feeling so delighted at the same time.
• After a minute, he speaks again, his breathing still a bit heavy, but he is managing to keep it at bay, while me on the other hand... Oh, my! Maybe he is not feeling this heat that I am feeling which is sucking all my control abilities from my system.
• "Is that good enough?"
• I smile.
• "Unfortunately, you just kissed all my senses away. I just can't think."
• "Really now? Too bad. I'll have to punish you instead."
• "No objection, your honour! What's your punishment?" I tease, craning my neck to the side.
• "Mmhhh,,," he impersonates to be thinking, or pondering options, then he continues, "how about you sleep in my room tonight?"
• Whoa!
• My eyes are about to pop out of their sockets. Don't get me wrong. I'm torn between excitement and disbelief. Is he serious?
• "What?" I ask, really surprised. Me and Andy in one bed? My mind has already gone haywire.
• "Are you scared?"
• "Anything but that, please."
• "Nothing but that, please." He fakes puppy eyes.
• "But, Andy...."
• "Don't be scared now, baby. This tiger here won't do anything that will hurt you. None at all. We will just take a shower, then lie down on my king-size bed and cuddle. But of course, with a few sweet goodnight kisses."
• Ooh, I see! It's not what my dirty flirty mind was thinking, huh?
• "Then catch me if you can." I jokingly pull myself from his embrace and ran for the door. He stands there all smiley, as I ran out of the kitchen, across the sitting room and when I start the staircase, I am sure he won't be able to get me. Halfway through the staircase, I hear the kitchen door closing, and I start laughing at him, but my, oh my! In a second, before I can finish the stairs, he catches up with me, pulling me to him and lifting me bridal style, with my hands wrapping around his neck. That was too fast! How many strands did he take??
• "How far did you think you would go?"
• "Run off to my room perhaps?" It came out more of a question than a statement.
• He walks with me in his hands to his room, kicking the door shut with his leg once we are inside.
• He lays me gently on his king-size bed.
• "I am now reconsidering that joke I made that you shouldn't be scared." His face is so dangerously close to mine. I try to get up, but who am I kidding? I am beneath the mighty Adrian Ashton.
• "What? Why?"
• "You tried to outsmart me." He says.
• I open my mouth to defend myself, but he seals my lips with a sweet kiss. He deepens the kiss, and I like it. No, I love it. We kiss and kiss until we are almost choking for lack of air, and we are forced to take a break.
• "Ania." He whispers between breaths, his eyes darkening with something so strong. A very dark desire.
• "Andy... I whisper, caressing his jaws, pulling his face to myself, pleading for something I am not aware of.**
• I open my eyes, realising it was a dream, only to be met by two very familiar dark brown eyes staring at me, sitting at the edge of my bed. I close my eyes and open them again, to see if I am still dreaming, but he was not just in my dream. He is right here, confusedly glancing at me.
• I sit straight on the bed, pulling up the covers up to my neck. I rub my eyes with my palms, hoping that his figure will have disappeared when I take off my palms from my face. I would like to think I am hallucinating. I will be fine with that, and even that weird dream, but not this sight of him right now being real.
• I withdraw my palms slowly, opening one eye first, and his composed self is still parked on the same spot, a smirk plastered on his lips.
• I was freaking dreaming, right? Right? He is supposed to be rolling under the sheets with me in the dream, not in damn reality! What the heck is he doing in front of me?
• Wait, I wasn't talking in my dream, was I???