And I will drink the clear
Clean water for to quench my thirst
And I shall watch the ferry-boats
And they'll get high
On a bluer ocean
~ Van Morrison (Sweet Thing)
* * * *
Some noise, some staccato sound separated her from sleep and Enid moaned, rolling to her stomach, hand reaching out for him before consciousness started to seep in.
His absence and the cool sheets that tickled the underside of her arm had her slowly squinting her eyes open. Across the room she saw him at his desk, frowning at the computer screen, each tap on the board a note sharply detached from sounds of a snowed-in New York City. A desk lamp cast golden long shadows across the exposed brick in the upstairs bedroom of his lofty home.
Enid smiled, snuggled into his pillow to watch him work, eyes still dreamy from sleep. In her imagination, she saw flashes of him, his mouth, tongue, his hands. God, his hands. Demanding, gentle, broad of back, wide of palm. Strong fingers drawing along the blank canvas of her skin.
She'd arrived in New York barely a week ago and had no idea of the day or date, nor did she care. Taking a chance on Perry was proving to be well worth it.
Burying her Cheshire cat smile in his pillow, Enid wallowed in his scent, sandalwood in amber, focusing on it and not the flicker-book of sexual scenarios flipping through her brain. She stretched her legs out stiff, arms sweeping out, morning groans as she shifted again, opening her eyes to look.
To see him turned in chair, head resting upon fist, looking across at her.
Enid's body flushed with heat, starting in her cunt and rolling up to bubble beneath her breasts. The sensation both excited and unsettled her. It was as though he knew all her secrets, her every thought, had traced every scar, could read every thought.
His midnight blue eyes were magnets for hers and she swallowed, throat dry after rest.
"Wha'time-is-it?" she mumbled and stretched again, words elongated with limbs as she worked out some of the kinks -- not at all an unpleasant sensation -- of her blissfully battered body.
Perry smiled and rested ankle upon knee. "What day is it?" he countered, and she grinned.
He pushed himself up to standing, the legs of his chair scraping briefly on wooden floor, and walked over to her, his stockinged feet soundless soft. He leaned down, one hand sliding under the pillow to stretch over her, the other trailed softly down Enid's Western Australian warm arm.
"Such a treat to have a summer warm body in my winter bed," he said, fingers smooth up her arm, his palm turning to thread through her hair. Leaning down further to kiss her.
Enid felt that flush again, the one that started behind her pelvic bone, and tilted her head up, wondering if he could feel her lips throb beneath his. She sighed, hands clasping around his neck, bringing him back down to bed.
He laughed and sat against her hip, hands either side of her head, boxing her in.
"You are insatiable," Perry smiled against her lips, across her cheek, along her jaw, down her throat, making Enid gasp and squirm.
"But you'll need to be patient," he continued, his hand shifting the sheets down her body, exposing pebbled breasts to the cool air. His fingertips traced the shape of her collarbone, down over her pierced left nipple, tracing the ridges of her puckered areola, before journeying down to circle her hip.
Enid mewled under his touch, so quickly her cunt heavy with lust. From his own Cheshire grin, she knew that Perry knew what was happening in her body. Over the last week, he had managed to pull secrets from her she hadn't even realised she'd harboured.
Why did it turn her on to confess her secrets to him?
"What are you thinking?" Perry asked, making her own blue eyes -- washed denim -- sparkle up at him.
"That I'm still in awe of your ability to seduce certain secrets out of me."
He chuckled, deep baritone soundwaves rippling along her skin as his hand moved back up to squeeze the curve of neck and shoulder. She shivered, skin pricked to prickle all the way down her side to knot in her core.
That flush swept through her body a third time, this time making her eardrums burn with blood.
"I just want to know you," he whispered, pressing his lips to the skin between Enid's breasts.
She swallowed, audibly, with nerves and thirst. "For some reason," she managed, "I think you're the only person in the world who knows me. How is that?"
Perry lifted his head and flashed his teeth, before covering her lips with his, tongue pushing through to tussle and tangle with hers.
She arched her hips as his hand spread across her lower abdomen, pressing her sleepy bladder, making her jerk and let out a surprised, "Ugh!", making him laugh.
Enid laughed too, playfully swatting his arm.
And that's when she noticed he was dressed.
It sobered her.
"Going out?"
Perry sighed, resigned, but clearly pulled between desire and duty.
"I need to go see my editor. Go over a few things."
Enid nodded, feeling oddly crestfallen.
How have I come to depend on your company in so short a time
? she wondered.
He cupped her chin between thumb and forefinger, eyes demanding she look at him, to look at him and know he knew what she was feeling.
He leaned in and kissed her. "We're going out after I'm done. I've made a booking. We haven't left my apartment since your first night here."
"You hear me complaining?"
He laughed, "No, thank the gods," and kissed her again.
"I'll be back in a few hours. Plenty of time for you to primp and preen."
Enid sat up, sheets pooling at her waist, leaned back on her hands. "You want to go out?"
Perry's eyes journeyed down Enid's body, starting at her throat, thick throbbing, down over her breasts, nubbins numb, to her pierced bellybutton and back up. Her ears were aflame under his scrutiny, and she swallowed, dry throat contracting audibly. He hummed a 'mhmm' response and nodded, eyes locked on hers.
