Settling in the New Neighbour

Natasha really couldn't miss him, how the young guy was carrying suit bags in his nicely toned arms and how his square-jawed face was topped by a mass of unruly black air that was uncannily like her own. His white short-sleeved Henley T-shirt went so well with baggy chinos and his smile, as she stepped aside on the narrow stairs, made her look at him a while longer.

'It takes a while to get moved in, doesn't it?' she ventured.

Darryl paused. He couldn't help wondering how someone so young could afford to live in an apartment block in Canary Wharf. He'd struggled to get the money together and still wondered if he was doing the right thing, whether he could hold onto the one-bedroomed second-floor apartment that just had a view of the river...if you leaned over the railing of the balcony and peered past the neighbor's potted palms

'Yes, it does,' he drawled in what would sound an only too cultured English accent compared to her voice, its Spanish intonations not disguising her command of his mother tongue. 'I've had the keys a couple of days and managed to get my stuff all packed up in time to be here today.' He smiled and took in her white tank top that was seen to be worn under a denim shirt and even more faded and frayed jeans. 'I'm Darryl Jones...'

'And I'm Natasha Tomlinson...Tash to those who know me. The caretaker told me who was moving in...who would be my new neighbor.'

'Did he now?' Darryl smiled, wondering at her curiosity.

'Yes, he did.'

'How long have you been living here...your voice suggests you're not from these parts.'

Lena paused. He had noticed that about her. 'My father's English and my mother Spanish...that's all there is to it.'

'Just curious,' Darryl shrugged and hitched up his load. 'Sorry, Tash, but I need to get on. The removals guys are using the lift and I've got to open the front door. I may catch you later?'

'You may just do that,' she smiled and watched him go, taking the stair's steps two at a time. She had been equally curious to know who would be moving in next door and had asked about him, having seen Darryl for only an instant as he spoke to the caretaker a few days ago and over the weekend. Given what she had been through, recently, she had no expectations of him or any young guy that she might meet. She needed no man's attention just now; her mind simply wasn't on that.

♥

The sound of voices in the hallway outside lessened and then fell away. Lena knew that the 'heavy lifting' phase was over. Curiosity got the better of her, though, and she decided to brew some tea. She'd take a mug round to his door and knock and be neighborly. You never knew when one favor would be rewarded by another. She wanted to see that smile of his again, not the somewhat harassed look of a guy preoccupied with moving into a new place and wondering if he had everything.

But everything seemed to be under control. She had only just rung the doorbell when the door was jerked open and an older woman stood before her. She met what would have been her startled gaze, then at the mug of tea.

'I don't mean to intrude, but thought Darryl might like this...'

'I'm sure he will,' she smiled and turned away. 'Darryl, darling...you have a visitor!'

'A neighbor,' Tash wanted to correct.

'My son does insist on doing everything himself but I called in just to see that he was okay...'

'He is okay,' Darryl was heard to say from round the corner. The hallway opened out into the large living space with its kitchen and he was seen to appear carrying an empty box. 'One less to deal with...'

'I brought you this, thought you might need it.' Tash held out the mug and sensed the two of them looking at her. 'I won't interrupt you in your work; you'll want to settle in as soon as possible.'

'And this is a help, thanks.' Darryl smiled at his mother. 'As you can see, I'm going to settle in just fine...so don't worry.'

'Then I'll leave you to it. Don't forget next weekend...Sunday lunch, will you?'

'I'm sure you'll text me a reminder.' Darryl moved with her out into the corridor and kissed her cheeks. 'You'll catch your train if you hurry.'

'Well goodbye, Darryl dear, and to you...er?'

'Natasha, I only met Darryl a couple of hours ago as he carted stuff up the stairs.' Her new neighbor's mother was only too chic in her dressed-down ways of it, in white slacks and a white sleeveless top, the plainness of her clothes brightened by colorful drop earrings and a tan belt to match her gladiator sandals. A tan leather statement bag set it all off.

'He moved in a rush,' the woman ventured, 'and I don't imagine settling in will be any different. It's a wonder he does what he does for work.'

They both waited until the elevator doors closed her from view, Darryl gulping down his tea and standing close by her side.

'Thank you, I wasn't expecting that, the tea or her visit.' She nodded and looked back at him, could not help but feel his dominating presence as he handed back her tea mug and fished out a card from his back pocket. 'I gave her my contact details, now that they've changed, and you can have them too. Perhaps we can meet up when I'm settled in, a bit?'

'Sure,' she blurted out surprised by the suddenness of it all and his lingering look upon her. What was this, can the guy be interested in me already? 'Let it ride for a few days, okay, Darryl?'

'Sure,' he shrugged, taking in her appearance some more, now that he could do so. 'You'll have to text me so that I can have your contact details and respond.'

'There' s no rush...but I'll give you my LinkedIn details.' She watched him tap them into his iPhone and remained resolute in her decision that she wasn't in a hurry to let go with a new guy, with any new guy, even if he was a neighbor and good-looking at that. Darryl's shrug of acceptance of what she had said, the manner of it, might be enough to make him watch his step, and not come onto her too strong.

♥

Snippets of news soon came her way, within hours of her giving him her LinkedIn contact details.

'I'm just checking I got it all down right!' she saw, the way that they had interacted still fresh in her mind.

What was she supposed to do now, was she to remain in contact in this way or not and just let it go until some time had passed by? After minutes of doubt, she made contact. Was she the only one of them feeling this way, the failure in controlling what was suddenly at work in her? The breakup with her ex, some ten months ago, had left her wounded, emotionally, and she had wanted a break from the intensity of a relationship that always seemed to sit in her more than a lover. She had kept her distance from any man coming onto her and yet, now, here she was tempted into crossing the line and doing that after only one meeting, no two.

Disconcertingly, their exchanges soon took on a flirtatious tone and perhaps it was not such a good idea to do that with a man living so close by, or was it? Her need to have some attention came out of her reluctant participator's shell and she would have to see if she could keep it up and go with the flow. She chose to stick to these remote exchanges and do that for a few days.

The weather didn't help because it was warm and sunny and made her feel horny, set thoughts of Darryl rushing through her mind. Was he a good kisser and would he trail his lips over her skin, beguile in stroking her skin and do what she wanted from a man using his hands before anything else was brought into play? Would he have enough for her and would he begin to realize, from any messages that she sent or responded to, what was really at work in her?

The way the messages flew between them it was becoming clear that Darryl might not be a guy to let the grass grow under his feet; to put off the moment when remote contact had to be replaced by real company, not dealings at arms' length although she had been the one to play it slow.

Only time would tell and her willingness to accept what might happen.

♥

Two mornings later she was woken at a crazy time, the text asking if she had slept well. Coincidences weren't something she believed in, too much, but it was strange that his call had woken her from a dream where she'd been with a guy who made light of a tattoo he had on his chest.

'You don't have one, a tattoo I mean?' she asked.

'As it happens, yes I do...a crown and anchor but it's small. It was painful enough getting that, I can tell you.' She'd heard him laugh out on confessing it. 'Another of my secrets you now know about!' He heard her yawn. 'It's not something to talk about at this hour...'

'That's true. Now that you've woken me I may as well get ready for work...catch an earlier tube train than usual.'

'I'll send you a picture...chest shot only.'

'Not a good idea...so don't.'

But Darryl did so anyway, waited until she was seated on the tube and could gaze at a picture of a young guy with a discreet tattoo on his chest. Half-naked, or not, imagining him doing that had the effect of arousing her, and tightened the knot of longing that seeing him like that brought on. She flicked to other things on the screen but fell into peeking another look before the tube train jolted to a stop and where she would leave it.

'Don't distract me!' she messaged back with a smiling emoji tacked onto the end.

But she was distracted because of that picture and her working day seemed to drag. It was relived only by thoughts of him, by her curiosity on how it would feel to have that naked chest against her breasts, to feel his lips on her skin as they kissed or claimed each other. All of that possessed her, and the occasional text that he seemed to have the time to send. His mind was on her, just as she kept on thinking of him.

'I've got a tennis lesson tonight so I'll have my mind on other things. I thought I'd let you know.''

'New balls please?' came his lightning-quick reply that made her hoot with laughter.

'I'm going there, even if it is too warm to rush about for long!'

'Then don't. Come over for a drink tonight? I won't be in until after nine and it will be cooler then.'

'We'll see...'

'I'd like to do more than that, to just 'see'.'

She had not pursued that line of messaging any further. When she arrived back at her apartment the evening air was still warm and she poured out a cool drink, laced it with a small shot of gin before she sat out on her balcony and listened to the occasional swish or rumble of passing traffic down in the street.

'Shit!' she cursed on realizing that she had come home and had not switched on her iPhone. And there they were, some more messages that had her wondering just what she was getting into with Darryl, her new neighbor. The guy worked hard, kept long hours, and he'd hinted in one of his texts that company -- she read into that 'sex' -- was one way for him to unwind. But he'd gone so much further, sent a shot of him in bed with the sheet shaped like a tent over his erect penis. Just where was she to go with what he was prepared to share with her even in these remote ways? Some would call it intimidation, pressuring her to submit to his brazen ways, others that they were the actions of a deviant.

She had to think it through because images of the guy raced around in her head, before her eyes, and all the while Darryl seemed so unthreatening. Was it on account of her that he now behaved in this way, for her alone? Her thoughts spooled to how it would feel to hold him in her hand and work what she had seen shape that bedsheet. How would it feel to touch the guy and to have him touch her?

'I've gotten lost in what you've sent me and have said. I've got no answer except that I can't see you tonight as I'm not used to being contacted in the ways that you do, nor the pictures that you keep on sending. I just need time so, please, understand that.'

She did go so far as to attach a photo, of her in a top that shaped her and her smiling. The full image had been cropped. He wasn't going to see the sky-blue thong that she had worn that day when the picture was taken. She had moved on from that time but kept the pictures.

'I'll have to work it all out of my system, but I'm no good at 'all work and no play'.'

That goes for you and me both, then, she thought.

The evening, then night, finally ended with them alone in their apartments, she working on herself, masturbating, and somehow finding the time to send texts or short voice messages but not speaking, 'life'

Oh, what a hot night it became and a late one. Why was she putting him off, or delaying what she knew they both wanted from the very beginning; when they had met on the stairs?

♥

The following day, even if it was the weekend, she had some work to do and would deal with it from home. She ached from her swimming, her shoulders particularly sore and she put that down to overdoing it, her swimming perhaps driven on by Darryl's place in her thoughts. He had told her that he would go for an early gym session and so she waited until his return, her thoughts possessed by the idea that he might agree to massage her shoulders and neck.

Their exchanges had been light and only too suggestive the night before, and when she rang and asked him to do her that favor he didn't let her down, Darryl not the least surprised in fact. Even though it was arranged, she jumped when her doorbell rang.

'Well, here I am,' she saw him grin and casting an appreciative look over her choice of a sky-blue cami top with frilly edges and frayed denim shorts. She's shoved on a baseball cap to cover her riotous hair. 'You said you also had some work to do?'

'Yes, but first rub some of this liniment into my shoulders and neck, would you please?' She held the bottle out to him without another word having to be said. It was the first time that he had seen her apartment, their remote exchanges never revealing to him how she had decorated and furnished her place.

'You are tense,' he soon said, his fingers massaging her skin, squeezing and easing in a practiced rhythm that made her shiver on account of the associations that his touches had on her. She moved her head in response to his fingers pushing aside her hair before they rubbed over her neck and squeezed again, eased, and moved down to her shoulders. 'Better?'

'Yes, now excuse me for a moment...I have to take this call.'

All she had to do was listen but the others would see her as it was to be a video conference call screened on her laptop. Darryl had slinked away and had kept out of camera shots. She could relax and watched him sit back in a chair on the balcony, his strong legs outstretched. She wondered, idly, what his reaction would be if she sat on him and leaned forward to kiss him. Paying attention to what was being said, in the conference call, she certainly wasn't.

She turned off the camera on her laptop as he was seen to stand up and draw near, the voices of those speaking still to be heard.

'I'll leave you to it,' he told her, bending to kiss her hair, one hand squeezing her shoulder as he did so.

She had no time to fully react but said, 'Just be honest with me won't you?'

'What makes you think that I'm not?' Daryl continued to lean over her as he spoke in a barely audible voice.

'That you kiss me quickly and then walk away.'

He grinned and pointed at her laptop which she closed down as if the connection had been lost with those she was conferring. 'Is this better?'

She shook her head even as his deepening kiss was met, one hand reaching up to hold him and draw Darryl closer. The kiss lingered and she trailed her tongue tip over his lips before his mouth closed over hers and he sucked slowly, lingeringly. Gazing at him, at last, she sensed that their kiss had aroused him.

'Perhaps I should go?' he groaned, impulsively fingering the swell in his jeans that she had not missed seeing. 'You're busy...'

'Not enough,' she answered, the conference call failing to hold her attention. She gripped his hand as Daryl trailed slow caresses over her throat and onto her breastbone, holding her stare up at him as if hoping he would touch her breasts, the nipples achingly hard against the cotton of her top. 'Go on!'

She pushed one hand over his thigh until she pressed against the bulge in his jeans, wide and full.

'What's this, now?' he murmured, lightly slicking his tongue tip over her lips and holding her stare as she slowly began to work him through his jeans. 'We've only texted suggestive words and wishes before. Where's this going now?'

'You know darn well, so just say what's on your mind.' She had met his look and now squirmed as Darryl's hands cupped her breasts. They filled them. 'You know that I want you...it took me a while to realize that even if you didn't keep it a secret.'

'Close that darned call and be with me, then!' he rasped, his voice deeper than before.

Darryl slipped away, out of her hold on him, slumped down on the corner settee, and looked her way, pressed fingers to the front of his jeans, not keeping what he wanted from her under any sort of control. The seconds of the business call seemed to drag by and, finally, on a happy laugh closed down the link to the meeting she had scarcely been any part of.

'Bye, see you all next week!' She now glanced his way.

'Come here,' he beckoned to her and she did so, wasted no time in straddling his hips and leaning forward to kiss him, felt his hands brush up from her hips and then press against her breasts. He breathed warmly on her breastbone as she pressed down against him. 'You've known that I've wanted to do this for a long time...'

She gave an exultant laugh as she looked down into his upturned face, seeing the hunger for her in his eyes. 'I just wanted to be sure that I wanted the same.'

'Well, do you?'

'Yes...I do.'

She kissed before easing off him, enough, to lift her cami top off her body, her small, firm breasts tumbling free. She felt his fingers loosen the button fastening of her shorts. His questing hands soon trailed under them and gripped her buttocks, kneading the hollows at her hips.

'There's more than enough to please me,' he now told her as she struggled to shove her shorts and panties down her legs, interrupted only by her wanting to expose that hard length of flesh she felt trapped under his jeans.

'Just undress as I will,' she commanded, sliding off him and tearing away her clothes, their eyes locked on each other until they fell into a crushing embrace, danced in small steps as they exchanged flurries of noisy kisses, Darryl's face then moving to press against her breastbone, and she caressed his cheeks with her firm tits, shuddered on feeling his hungering lips tug on hard nipples and his tongue tracing ever-widening circles over them.

Darryl pushed her away and she fell back on the settee. He stood over her and his erection swaying before her face and his hands soon drawing her to him.

'Yes, start off pleasing me in that way, Tash...we learn and love as we go.'

It was what she had expected to hear from him, words that went with the hungering look of his eyes upon her. She had shoved down her denim shorts and panties in one smooth motion and kicked them to one side, not keeping him from offering a wondering touch to her neatly trimmed bush, no more than a strip of golden-brown hair concealing her slit from view. Now she was naked to his sight and touch, unembarrassed to be seen in this way.

Darryl, the city trader, was a well-hung guy, but he brought something new to her experiences with men; he had not been circumcised and as he towered over her she reached out, slowly pulled back his foreskin to expose the domed tip, the flesh moist and pink. She leaned forward and took it in her mouth, felt his hands in her hair as she began to work him, felt Darryl shudder and shift as she did so, worked his sac in a slow kneading and tugging motion that she could have continued performing, but that would be for another time, perhaps.