Page 38 of Love Hollow at Last
In the faint moonlight, she could see his wide grin.“You’re smart, you’re generous, and you’re beautiful,” he said.“No, Aya.No pity here.”
All of a sudden, his face was closer to hers, his arms tight around her, and she had to catch her breath.Noah Kato was dangerous for her.If she let herself get any ideas, she was going to be stuck trying to rid her mind of him for at least another decade.
Still, she kissed him.It was incredible.
She was more attracted to him than ever.Back on prom night, even the kissing had been a little awkward.Neither one of them had been experienced, and Aya had found herself scared and excited in equal parts about the actual logistics of what was supposed to follow.
But she didn’t need to give in to worries like that anymore.The night when she’d lost her virginity sophomore year of college to a guy in her study group had not been unpleasant, if slightly underwhelming, and she’d had many experiences since then that helped her figure out what she liked.And she definitely liked the way Noah was kissing her.Aya found herself fumbling with the tie on his yukata, cursing his neat little knots.
She loved what she saw.Noah Kato didn’t do shirtless photos.Aya had looked for them, though she never admitted it to anyone.He had shown off his arms in sleeveless shirts for certain magazines, though.She loved his tattoos, and she thought she must be the only person who understood all of them.He didn’t go in for many tattoos that had Chinese characters, so there were none that appeared in photos, but she knew he had “Fall down seven times, get up eight” written vertically between his shoulder blades.She’d heard about that one through the grapevine, and apparently, Nami had teased him that he would need a mirror to even remember what was written back there.But Aya, whose family had also embraced the resilience in that motto, had always hoped she would see it.
But at the moment, she was too busy kissing him to go investigate his back tattoo.
Then a memory hit her, and she stopped.“Maybe this isn’t a good idea.”
He pulled back, staring into her eyes.“What?”
“That’s what you said to me,” she said.“Last time we were here.”
His arms were still around her, and he moaned.“I was hoping you would contradict me,” he said.
She snorted.“Are you serious right now, Noah Kato?You were hoping I would tell you you were wrong?”
“Yes.”
“You needed more confirmation or something?”
He stroked her hair.“I mean, I think I was still kind of taken in by the Catholic thing.Do you know what Father Giacamo told us?”
Aya put a hand over her eyes.“Do I want to know?Okay, fine.Tell me.”
He stroked her stomach through the yukata, and she tensed up.“That if we had relations with a young woman, we should come beg her for her forgiveness.Because tempting her into sin was sinning against her, and we had no right to inflict that on someone.”
She sighed.“I’m so glad your family isn’t Catholic anymore.”
Pulling her hands back down, gazing into his eyes again.“So you wanted me to overcome your resistance,” she said, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.“I think I might be able to do that.”
She reached down, but he grabbed her wrist.“There’s something you should know.”
“What?”She felt impatient.The moment had some sort of wedding-night feeling to it, like they had gone through a whole production, and they were finally ready to reap the private reward.Of course, it was a dance that had gone on for years, starting when they were much younger.
“That night,” he said, “w-well, for me, it had a r-really big impact.”
She loved it when he stuttered.To Aya, Noah’s voice when he was stuttering was at its most beautiful.With the world outside, he was the famous Noah Kato, never deigning to say more than a few words.And if he did have to speak in public, he busted out every possible trick he could to avoid stuttering.He never introduced himself or his band members by name, for example.He called them something different every time.He never called himself Noah but said, “I’m your young lover,” or “I’m a fool with a guitar,” or even, “I’m a man who thinks the ladies in the front row here at Jo-Jo’s lookfucking amazing!”
Aya had watched that video more than once.It always put her in a bad mood.
But when he stuttered with her, he was showing her he was comfortable.He trusted her, and letting her hear his thoughts was the most important part, not hiding his stutter.
“What is it?”she asked, still impatient.
“Um, so, I never really came b-back from that,” he said.“I’ve never had sex.”
Aya’s first reaction was to laugh.She couldn’t stop herself.The more she laughed, the more the merriment seemed to take over her whole body.He had said it with such sincerity too.
“Noah, please.I’m not a virgin, either, obviously.You don’t have to say things like that!”
When he didn’t respond right away, she kept chuckling, but then her laughter died.
