Page 27 of Christmas in Comets Valley
“I’ll make time to punish you for that later, but let’s get you some water first.” He pushed himself up and pecked my lips before climbing out of bed and heading for the kitchen.
It was in that moment that I couldn’t help but feel like this fling between us was much more than a way to relieve some sexual tension. All he did was step out of the room and my body ached for more of his touch. For more time together. For more of him.
I’d come to terms with only having two more days here. But what I hadn’t worked out though, was how I was going to have the courage to leave Elliot behind at the end of this and go back to normal life like nothing happened between us.
* * *
The Comets Valley42nd Annual Christmas Eve Festival was everything I’d imagined and then some. We filled our day with delicious snacks and live music from The Lunar Comets, the town's notorious band. Followed by another captivating evening, wrapped between the sheets for hours on end.
That night while I dozed off, I made the decision that I’d be coming back here next Christmas to do this all over again. I only hoped that Elliot would be game for a repeat of our sexcapades as well.
It had been days, if not weeks, since I thought about work and what awaited me back in Los Angeles. And now that it was my last day in Comets, the only thing I wanted was to forget about it all for a few more hours.
Elliot slipped a firm hand through my hair while he kissed me deep and slow. Sometime last night, we moved the Christmas tree from the living room and up to the bedroom. Now, the miniature bulbs were the only source of light illuminating the darkened room around us.
Somewhere along the way, the two of us had lost track of time, which was how we found ourselves wide awake at four in the morning. Our time together was coming to a close, and neither of us wanted to waste a moment sleeping.
Flames of passion burned between us as our tongues glided against each other. Elliot took his time while I savored every touch and committed it to memory.
We molded our bodies together in harmony, and our breaths grew heavier with each slow, drugging kiss. Caressing my lips, Elliot lined up with my entrance and inched his length inside me, and my back arched instinctively as pleasurable warmth spread outward from my core.
The fire between us fueled to new heights as we moved together, inching toward the edge of bliss as one. With our bodies fused together, my inner walls rippled around him at the same time, Elliot grunted from the satisfaction of his release.
After multiple mind-numbing orgasms, the two of us lay tangled between the sheets in a breathless bundle, unsure where his body started and mine ended. There was nothing I wanted more than to stay here with him like this forever.
Tranquil silence flowed between us as minutes passed until the first rays of sunlight surfaced through the blinds. Brushing my hair out of my eyes, Elliot’s expression grew somber and his voice choked, “Stay.”
Avoiding his eyes, a weary sigh expelled from my lungs. “You know I can’t do that.”
“Why don’t we try long distance? I could get a place in LA and stay until I’m able to find a house here,” he offered, so sure of himself. So confident the separation between us wouldn’t be a burden on our relationship.
In all honesty, I wanted to keep seeing him and to believe we could make this work. But seeing as our lives were geographically in two completely different places the odds of us surviving the distance seemed improbable.
The way I saw it, once I got back to Los Angeles, my life would resume as normal. And if he came with me, eventually my long nights spent at the office would wear on him and crumble the passion between us. Then one day down the road, when he finally decided he had enough, he’d move on to someone else and I’d revert deeper into the shell of a person I was before meeting him.
It was almost as if the harder I tried to ignore the reality of our situation the last few weeks, the more it was coming back to hurt me in the end.
“And then what?” I queried. “What will we do once you move back to Comets Valley and I’m eleven hours away?”
“I’ll fly down most weekends and when work isn’t too heavy on your end, you can come up to visit again.”
“So what, we’re just going to do that every weekend until this eventually fizzles out?” His head reared back at my words and I wished I could’ve taken them back as quickly as they tumbled from my mouth. “Look, these last few weeks together have been… amazing. More than amazing, even. But I just don’t see how we could make this work long term.”
“Would you change your mind if I told you I was in love with you?”
I tensed, staring at him blankly. My cynical inner voice cut through my thoughts, convincing me his words were false. That he couldn’t possibly have fallen for me in such a short amount of time.
“Aera?”
“I—I’m… processing.” A long moment passed without words. Gathering my thoughts, I sucked in a steadying breath before speaking again. “Elliot… I think that maybe we should let the time we spent together be just that—a perfect memory to look back on—instead of tainting it with the possibility of something we can’t predict the outcome of.”
My heart sunk to the pit of my stomach when I saw the pained look in his eyes. Tightness constricted my throat as I croaked out a teary-eyed apology.
“It’s fine. No, really, it’s fine. You told me from the start what you wanted, and I shouldn’t have held the hope that you’d change your mind.” His words were understanding yet held a blatant sting.
“Maybe… if I come back next year, we could do this again?” I offered as he pulled back the sheets and slipped out of bed.
“Sure,” he replied curtly, picking up his jeans off the ground and throwing them on. “I should really go home and get some sleep before my, uh, meeting later.”
