Page 51 of After the Fire
The Victoria from before would have hated this. He was so attentive, so in tune with his body and mine. She would have rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation because it usually came with a request. Because people didn’t engage me without wanting something in return. But somehow, somewhere along the last few days, this town and this man had transformed me. Transformed me into a person I barely recognized but who I was starting to like.
“Oh my god,” I hissed. His movements were electric inside me. My hips matched his pace, and our hearts met up conspiratorially, our rhythms aligned and beating to the same secret tune.
His face lit up with a blinding smile and then returned to my body, working hard to explore every nook and cranny. My jaw, my throat, my shoulders. The middle of my chest. By god, this man.
He knew exactly what to do with his hands, molding my body into the perfect position, moving together in tandem. It felt so natural, like we were meant to be all along. This was effortless, for me at least, so easy and fun and sensational. So much so that I was close to the edge. Again. And then the fire burst inside of me and Santiago’s body went stiff, and the world around us stopped moving, frozen.
“Shit,” he said, his face hiding in my hair. I could hear the smile in his voice. I could picture his delighted, contented face. He rolled over to his side, taking me with him and hugging me close. My forehead tucked under his chin. Our breaths were synced up, slowly returning to normal. “That was…”
My eyes widened because the only thing I wanted to say was “perfect.” But I didn’t. I just moved closer to him, smiling softly against his warm, damp skin. We lay there for a long time, or maybe not that long, just enjoying the silence and the stillness around us. His fingers roamed my body, and mine held him tight against me. I didn’t want to let go.
“What’s on your mind?” His voice was husky. I smiled against his chest again, taking a moment to clear my thoughts. Weren’t we the ones supposed to ask men what they were thinking? The roles were reversed here, for sure.
“Nothing,” I said as I tipped my head back to look into his eyes. I smiled wider and moved my hand to his forehead, slightly pushing the hair that had fallen over and was partially covering his eyes. “Just…” Sigh. “This is nice.”
It was a moment of vulnerability for me. A moment when I finally accepted the things that were happening around me that were out of my control. And I was enjoying them. I was letting life take me in the direction it should, without thinking so much about consequences. Without thinking much about what people—Susana—would say or if this fit into my plans at all. Because I didn’t have any plans anymore. And that was nice.
He huffed a small laugh. “Yeah, nice.”
And then we lay there in silence, slowly drifting to sleep, the evening sky darkening around us, the town growing quieter as the hours went by. His hands never left my body, his warmth cocooning me to sleep. I wasn’t this type of woman, but maybe for him, I could be.
Maybe.
25
THE CONVERSATION
“Why are you awake?”I asked her, not understanding how I ended up on a video call with my best friend so early in the morning. The events of the previous night were a blur, and to be quite honest, I was still high on the adrenaline of it all. It had been a whirlwind of a few days, my body running on the high of being so close to Santiago it felt I could almost burn to the touch.
“Because this baby is kicking the living daylights out of me, and I can’t sleep. Duh.” Catalina rolled her eyes so hard I could basically hear her do it. “And my stupidly coherent husband reminded me that I wanted this, so now I feel guilty and…” She shrugged. This was a common thread between my brother and her. Catalina was the most passionate of them both, and my brother was logical, more rational. They both were a bundle of energy, unable to sit still, and I thought that was what made them incredibly successful in their professional lives.
“What’s up?” she asked, settling her body on the couch. She was whispering, maybe because my brother was still asleep in the next room in their small apartment.
“I need to tell you something,” I said while removing my makeup.Santiago and I had a moment, I wanted to scream at her.It was amazing, and I can’t get it out of my head. And why did you never tell me it could be this good?
I was only going to let myself call it a moment. It was a blip in time, an escape from my normal self. An outlier. A lapse in judgment, maybe.Obviously, I willingly agreed to go on a “date” with him, or whatever that was. And whatever happened the night before had also been entirely consensual. But things were getting blurry. “Don’t freak out.”
“Oh my god! I knew it!” she squealed. “I fucking knew it, Victoria!” She grinned, her smile covering more than half her face, her eyes shining with mirth.
“You knew nothing,” I scoffed. I ran the cotton pad over my cheeks more times than necessary, hiding my rapidly heating skin. The memory of the previous night made me blush, then sent a shiver down my spine.
“Of course I knew. I could feel it in my bones. Call it… mother’s intuition,” she added with a laugh.
“You’re not even a mother yet,” I huffed, but a smile started to form on my lips. “And besides, you’re not my mother. I think that only works with your own children.”
“Nonsense. And by the way, I take offense.” She was moving in her kitchen, reaching a tall cabinet where her glasses were. Her belly had grown considerably since I last saw her, but she was as gorgeous as ever. She really did have that pregnancy glow. “And also, everyone knows he’s been pining for you for years,” she added while filling up her glass with water. She took a long sip and walked back to where her phone was, her eyes dreamy and ecstatic. “How was it?”
“Ugh.” I rolled my eyes, annoyed at myself. “Disgustingly perfect. He’s so… good to me. I don’t understand.”
My body was tender from the activity of the previous night. He had slept over but crept away an hour earlier to avoid running into any of his family members in the lobby or on their way to work. My lips still stung from his kisses, swollen from rubbing against his stubble.
“I am legit swooning,” she said dramatically. She loved eavesdropping, and she would make up unbelievable stories while overhearing things, especially when she was in court waiting to see a judge or clerk. Her tales were always so entertaining, I always wondered why it never crossed her mind to be an actress or even a writer. Her imagination was wild, and it ran rampant often. And this was exactly what made her good at her job; she always knew where to look. “I’m going to live vicariously through you.”
“What are you talking about?” I said, smiling. Catalina and my brother had a fast and furious love story, and it was sickening to watch. In the time I dated Manuel, they dated, moved in together, got married, and were now days away from having a baby. Meanwhile, I was single once again. “You are about to have a baby with the love of your life.”
“Yeah, whatever,” she replied, then started rubbing her hands together in a cartoonish motion. “Tell me more. Tell me everything.”
Where to start? What about with the way he looked at me, like I was the most scrumptious dessert ready to be devoured? Or how his hands moved, like he was trying to commit my body to memory, to later carve me out of stone? Or maybe the sounds he made, grunting in awe of what was happening?
