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Chapter 34
After we were both clean and dried off, my scratches had stopped bleeding – but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t start again.
I offered to lie on a towel so I didn’t stain her sheets.
“Don’t worry about it,” she said. “If it doesn’t come out in the wash, I have plenty of other sheets.”
When we returned to bed, I lay on my back with Mei-ling under one of my arms.
As she nestled up against my chest, she murmured something in Chinese.
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“The closest approximation is ‘holy shit.’”
I grinned. “I’m hoping that’s a good ‘holy shit’ and not a bad one.”
“Very, very good.” She paused for a moment, then asked, “Did you learn all that from the older woman you lost your virginity to?”
“A lot of it. Not all the first night, though.”
“I should hope not. I can’t even imagine that being my first time. I would’ve lost my mind.”
“Did you lose your mind tonight?” I asked playfully.
“A couple of times, actually.”
I laughed and kissed her.
When we went back to lying in each other’s arms, she asked, “So… you received your education from – what was her name again?”
“Vittoria.”
“Right, Vittoria. So after she taught you, what happened? Did you go on a rampage, sleeping with dozens of women?” Mei-ling asked wryly, like she was resigned to hearing about years of bad behavior.
“No, actually. I was already involved in my family business, and I had some funds at my disposal, so I paid Vittoria enough that she could stop working at the brothel. I was her sole client for a couple of years.”
Mei-ling propped herself up on one elbow and looked at me in surprise. “So you had a relationship with her?”
“More or less. I would call it an ‘arrangement.’”
“Did you love her?”
When I didn’t answer immediately, Mei-ling said, “I’m sorry, that was too personal – ”
“It’s fine. No… I can’t say that I’ve ever been in love.”
Mei-ling stared at me. “Never?”
“No. But… I cared for Vittoria. And she cared for me. That was enough. She was the only woman I slept with the entire time we were together, and I’m fairly certain she was faithful to me.”
“What happened? Did you break up?”
“Unfortunately, no. She’d had a traumatic life before we met and was an addict. Opioid pills – oxycontin, mostly. I paid for her to go to rehab, and she stayed clean for a year, but she relapsed. She didn’t tell me when she started using again. Maybe she was ashamed. Maybe she didn’t want me to stop her… I don’t know.” I tried to smile but failed. “Sometimes people’s demons get the best of them.
“I lived an hour away from her, in the countryside outside Florence, and I was busy with my family’s business. I only saw her every other week, so she was able to hide her drug use from me. But one night, she took too much… and she overdosed and died.”
Mei-ling stared at me in horror.
“I was the one who took care of her funeral. No one from her family came – it was just me and some of her friends from the brothel,” I said quietly. I paused for a long time, then finally said, “I didn’t see anyone for a long time afterwards.”
“I’m so sorry,” Mei-ling whispered. I could hear the pain in her voice.
“Thank you. It was several years ago, though, so it’s been a while.”
“Still… that’s awful.”
“It was at the time, yes… but it’s in the past.”
And it was.
But I immediately regretted telling Mei-ling.
I’d killed the mood, so I tried to restore it by being funny.
“Well, on that tragic and uncomfortable note – ”
“Stop,” Mei-ling whispered.
She put her hand tenderly on my face as she looked deep into my eyes.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to ‘entertain’ me. You don’t have to ‘perform’.” She smiled sadly, and tears glistened in her eyes. “I appreciate you telling me. I really do.”
“…thank you,” I murmured.
I felt at peace…
Like I could be myself – truly myself – with her.
Which, for me, was a rare feeling indeed.
Mei-ling leaned over and kissed me on the lips… softly… sweetly.
I kissed her back…
And I slowly became hard.
She felt it against her belly. I knew she did, because she rolled over onto her back, gently pulling me along with her.
As we continued to kiss, she opened her legs to me…Material © NôvelDrama.Org.
And it felt like she was opening herself to me.
Not just her body, but her heart.
I eased inside her…
And we made love for the first time.
Actually…
It was the first time that I’d ever made love –
With anyone.
Not just sex, no matter how gentle or tender…
But something far more powerful.
This time, I felt a confusing flood of emotions.
Not just desire or lust…
Or the need to control a woman’s body… to make her come…
But joy.
Intimacy.
Vulnerability.
…love.
I didn’t try to stop my orgasm through pain. I just let it happen naturally.
When I was about to pull out, Mei-ling clutched my ass with her hands and kept me inside her.
“Come inside me!” she cried out. “Come inside me!”
That tipped me over the edge.
We came together, staring into each other’s eyes…
Her screaming with ecstasy…
And me feeling like I was drowning in her gaze.
Afterwards, as we lay in each other’s arms and she drifted off into sleep…
I reflected on what I’d told her earlier.
I can’t say that I’ve ever been in love.
For the first time in my life, that was no longer true.
I was falling for Mei-ling.
I knew it deep in my bones.
It was dizzying –
Terrifying.
I felt completely out of control…
Yet it was the most joyful, exhilarating emotion I’d ever felt.
And as I looked down at Mei-ling’s angelic face as she slept…
I knew that nothing would ever be the same for me again.