We walked around a little more and came to a piece by da Vinci. Something caught AJ’s attention and he stopped abruptly. “What’s wrong?” I asked. He didn’t answer right away.
“Nothing,” he replied dismissively. He started walking again, but continued to check over his shoulder a couple times before refocusing his attention on the exhibit. I looked around and tried to spot something amiss, but saw nothing, so I had to let it go.
We viewed each piece in the time span of about two hours and headed toward the exit. “What do you wanna do next? It can be anything, my treat ‘cause it’s your birthday,” I offered.
AJ smiled and replied, “All I want is to spend some time alone with you before we have to leave out tomorrow.”
Ugh…why’d he have to remind me about tomorrow? I quickly fixed my expression and forced a smile. “Cool…I think I can afford that,” I replied as we climbed into a cab.
*****
Back at the hotel I decided to pack my things up before I got too comfortable. AJ lay on the bed watching me move about the room collecting my belongings.
“Would you just come lay down with me?” He asked. “You can do that in the morning.”
He had a point, so I stuffed the shirt that I was holding back into the drawer and joined him on the bed. The man from the hallway earlier popped back into my mind, but I didn’t want to bring it back up. I wanted to keep the remainder of our trip as lighthearted as possible. So instead of voicing my suspicions, I decided to let AJ know how much I appreciated what he’d done for me.
“Thanks,” I stated.
“For what?”
“Everything; the trip, the exhibit, all of it.”
“Whatever. Don’t thank me,” he replied casually. When he finished speaking, he turned and met my gaze. I felt weak for him – weaker than usual, too weak to turn away before I got trapped by his stare. My eyes shifted to his mouth as I subconsciously counted each breath that he took. I couldn’t help but to press my lips to his, savoring the familiar taste. We’d been doing a pretty good job of avoiding physical contact since we’d been here; I even slid a pillow between us after he finally dozed the night before just as an extra precaution. However, I couldn’t help myself this time. I wanted and needed to be close to him.
As we kissed, I sighed through my nose at the sense of relief that I got from touching him like this. He moaned low and deep as if having the same sensation that I did. AJ moved in closer, pressing his pelvis flush up against mine in a slow, grinding motion that set my body ablaze while flooding my mind with images of us tangled up in these sheets, naked and sweaty. I only had the strength to resist for a few seconds when he pulled me on top of him, covering his body with mine. It was hard to even breathe as I tried to hold back the emotions that I’d successfully bottled up for so many months. Giving in to my flesh had gotten me into a world of trouble in the recent past, but somehow this still felt right. Weakening me a little more, AJ slid one hand up through the back of my hair and the other in the opposite direction down my back as he smashed me into him even more. I was at war with myself and it was still too early to tell which side would win.