Spellbound

He didn’t have a condom. He didn’t have a fucking condom.

“Evgeni” I almost whispered. He didn’t respond he just kept on searching through drawers, in his pockets, anywhere. I tried a little louder this time, “Evgeni”

He turned to look at me and I beckoned him over back to the bed. He leant over me, kissing me once more before I pulled away. “We don’t have to do this right now, you know. We have all the time in the world”

I surprised myself with the words coming out of my mouth; why on earth was I suggesting putting this off? I sure as hell knew that we both wanted, even needed this.

“You don’t want to do this?” he looked hurt as he asked me this which broke my heart.

“No, I definitely do. But clearly this isn’t supposed to happen now. The time will come though. So how about we just cuddle tonight?” What a pathetic option compared to what we both wanted to do. Evgeni wasn’t impressed, I could tell.

“Cuddle?” He screwed his face up at this, great. Maybe he and I are just not supposed to happen; maybe it was a bad idea to begin with.

I was brought out of my thoughts by his lips on my ankle, then moving up my leg as he joined me on the bed. He traced kisses up my body until he reached my own lips, kissing them softly but passionately.

“Evgeni” I moaned softly. He pulled away but didn’t break eye contact. We stayed staring into each others eyes for what seemed like forever; him leaning over me, both of us still in just our underwear.

His hand moved some of my hair back behind my ear and he caressed my neck, placing a few light kisses along the way. “Evgeni, we can’t do this” I said between more kisses as I tried to pull away.

“Sssh, Elodie. I know we can’t do that right now, so tonight is all about you. All I want tonight is to pleasure you; I want you to feel like a princess.”

With that he kissed down my body, taking my bra off in the process, down to the top of my underwear, tracing kisses around the rim as he looped his fingers underneath them and pulled them down. I was now completely naked and at his mercy, but I didn’t feel vulnerable in the slightest. I felt beautiful.

He placed feather light kisses on the top of my thighs, moving high at an agonisingly slow pace. When he finally reached the top he inserted a finger and I felt my eyes roll into the back of my head as my body shook with pure ecstasy, and this was only the beginning. A while later I was on a high. Geno had done things to me I’d only ever dreamt about.

He un-wrapped his arm from around me and got out of bed. I raised a questioning eyebrow at him and he simply replied “I’m just going for a cold shower.” I couldn’t stop the smile from spreading across my face as I fell asleep in his bed waiting for him.

I woke the next morning to a weight across my stomach. I lifted my head to see it was an arm, Geno’s arm, and the memories of last night came flooding back to me. I immediately broke out into a grin and rolled over to place a kiss on Geno’s cheek. He was already awake though and moved his head just slightly so that instead of kissing his cheek, I got his lips.

He deepened the kiss momentarily before pulling away and getting out of bed, slipping on a pair of boxers. I sighed, “Hey, you can’t do that and then leave” I pouted.

He chuckled, that gorgeous, deep, chuckle that would have any woman in her right mind begging for more, just like I was. “I’ve got to go to practice this morning. How about we go out for dinner later though?”

That was good enough for me, so I agreed and after he’d left I took a shower, changing into some black skinny jeans and a simple black t-shirt. As I was drying my hair I felt my phone buzz in my pocket. ‘One new message from Max.’

He wanted me to come over this afternoon after practice. I texted back that I would, and then went out to get some lunch. I got sidetracked on my way into town and ended up in an underwear shop; something was telling me to buy something to surprise Evgeni.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned around to see Marc’s girlfriend, Vero. “Hey Elodie!”

“Hi! How are you?” We chatted for a few minutes and then both decided to try on our finds before purchasing our favourites. We ended up having lunch together where she quizzed me about what was going on with me and Geno.

“To be honest, I’m not really sure. I mean we’ve done stuff, but we haven’t had sex yet. I’m sure we would have though last night but we didn’t have a condom” I sighed and Vero sent me a knowing smile. “I really like him”

“From what I saw at Marie’s party, he really likes you too. And Max seems to think so too, Geno’s been hanging out with the Frenchies in the dressing room much more lately, Marc has said.”

I couldn’t help but smile, Geno was trying to make sure Max wasn’t against us, if anything did actually happen between us. My phone buzzed in my pocket again and I quickly read the message: Max wanted me to bring some crisps so we could watch a film. As I slipped my phone back into my pocket I noticed the time.

“Oh God, is that the time? I’ve got to get going”

“Oh, no worries,” Vero told me smiling, “We’ll have to go out for lunch again sometime, I’ve enjoyed it”

We said our goodbyes and I popped into a supermarket on the way back to Max’s. When I got there, he was already sat on the sofa with the TV on and the opening credits of the DVD playing. We were going to be watching Dog Day Afternoon, one of my favourites.

I emptied the crisps into a bowl, got us both some drinks and joined Max on the sofa. It was nice to be having a day with him, just the two of us. We did this sort of thing all the time when we were younger, but since he moved away it’s happened less and less. He pressed play and I cuddled up with him as the film started.

“Did you and Geno have sex?”

I almost spat out the mouthful of Coke I’d just sipped. Max sure had great timing. “What?”

“Simple question, did you have sex with Geno?”

“No” He nodded in reply. “Why?”

“I don’t want you to”

What? Who was he to tell me who I could and couldn’t sleep with? I snapped my head round to yell at him when he put a finger over my lips and started to explain.

“It’s weird. I know I told you he asked if it was ok, and I said yeah because I honestly didn’t think I would have a problem with it. But then I saw you two leaving last night, and I couldn’t do it, I couldn’t get my head around it Els. He’s my teammate and I know what hockey players are like, trust me. If it doesn’t work out between you two, it’s going to completely screw up the locker room.”

“Wow. Way to be selfish Max” I didn’t press the subject; I couldn’t really think of anything to say in response. So what if it messed up how Max and Geno get along, who was to say that we wouldn’t get married and live happily ever after? Not Max, for sure.

We carried on watching the film, Max with his head hung low, feeling guilty no doubt. “Els”

“No. Don’t even start Max, you can’t just say that and then try and take it back. It’s out there now; you don’t want me to see Geno. I get it, alright”

We sat for a few more minutes in an uncomfortable silence before I’d decided I’d had enough. “I’m off now” I told Max as I got up to leave.

“Back to Geno?”

“Fuck off Max”

When I got outside I took a deep breath, what was I going to do? I couldn’t stay at Max’s because I was pissed with him, and I couldn’t stay at Geno’s because Max didn’t want that happening. It wasn’t that I was giving in to Max’s stupid demands, but I understood where he was coming from. I would slow things down with Geno; we were going pretty fast anyway.

I got into my car having decided where to spend the night. As I was driving all of my emotions bubbled over and I burst into tears. Try as I did, I couldn’t get them to stop before I reached Geno’s house. I quickly rushed in and up to my room, grabbing a bag and filling it with a few days worth of clothes, hoping somehow to leave again without being noticed.

“Elodie?” Damn, that plan went out of the window. “What’s wrong?”

I carried on packing, trying to give away as little as possible. “I need to go, we need to…this, it’s got to…” I broke down even more right there when I saw his face. He engulfed me in a hug but I knew I couldn’t get too caught up in it.

I pulled away, hurting him even more, and so hurting myself even more too. “I have to go…sorry” I kissed him on the cheek; it was the least I could do.

“Why?” he choked out.

“I need to. I’ll be at Marc’s, it’s Max, I have to go”

I left him standing there, a broken man. When I arrived at Marc’s Vero took me straight into a hug while I explained to her everything that Max had said. She showed me to the spare room and told me to have a nice long bath.

I did as I was told and once I was ready for bed I went downstairs to let them both know, and to thank them for having me. As I approached the living room I could hear Marc on the phone to Max, having a go at him.

“You’re an idiot, she really likes him”

I sunk down against the wall until I was sat on the floor, tears beginning to fall again. Vero came and helped me back up to bed, assuring me that everything would be alright and that Max would come round to our way of thinking. I wasn’t so sure, but I agreed anyway.

I lay down in bed, ready to rid myself of this mess for a few hours while I slept. I noticed a flashing on the bedside table; my phone. I picked it up to see missed calls from both Max and Geno. I put it back down; I would deal with them tomorrow.

I tried to sleep but to no avail. There was one thing I had to do before I could get to sleep. I picked my phone back up and opened up a new text to Geno. I quickly typed out the message and pressed send before turning my phone off and tucking myself into bed. I lay there thinking about what I had just told him, whether it was the right thing to do. I came to the conclusion that it was, he needed to know that whatever was happening, one thing was still true. I smiled as I thought back to what I’d texted him.

”I love you x”