Arousal

Meghan

“I have news for you” Juliet’s voice sounded really breathy when Meg picked up the phone the next day.

“And it couldn’t wait till a reasonable time? Like maybe when humans had gotten up?” Meg said to her.

“Well, I thought you would appreciate me telling you now than later” her friend replied impatiently.

“What could be so important that it couldn’t wait?”

“I am going on an impromptu trip with this guy I met two months ago. I’m actually leaving in two hours and thought it would be appropriate to, you know, inform my friend” 

“Why would you be going on a trip with someone you just met? What about your job?” Meg inquired. Her friend was the kind to be spontaneous, alright, but she had just come out from a nasty breakup and Meg would have thought that the last thing on her mind would be hooking up with somebody. Though if it was just a fling, that would be understandable.

“This is just for fun, right? It’s not as if we’ll have to pick up the pieces of your broken heart again? Remember what happened the last time?”

Juliet sighed at the other end of the phone. “I think I’m in love, Meg. I know I swore I wouldn’t fall in love again but this time, I think it’s real”

“Your heart is as fragile as anything, Juliet. You fall in and out of love so easily it’s alarming. I think all you need is company and I’m sorry I am not there to keep you occupied” Meg said

“I know I get involved way too fast and all but this feeling, it’s different. He makes me feel secure and good and all the nice things. He actually asked me to go on this trip two weeks after we met but I refused. I have had a lot of time to think about it and so far all I feel is a sure sign that I should go ahead and take the jump” 

Meg had heard her friend try to convince her so many times that each guy she took a liking to was love. She had learnt how to dissuade her friend from potential heartbreaks. But hearing Juliet talk about this guy, even in few words, she had no negative comeback. Although the words were vaguely familiar and had a sense of déjà vu, this time around it had so much conviction.

“If you really feel this way, then maybe you should do it. Go on this trip and see if what you feel is really true”

“Do you really mean that? I thought you would talk me out of it and maybe call me a flighty female” her friend replied, sounding relieved. 

“Well, I do want to call you a flighty female but I think you should go. I’ll need, whosoever he is, his name and every other detail about his entire existence. I need to know that you will be safe at all times”

“I will send everything to you. “ 

Meg smiled. “Where are you off to then? And what about work?

“I don’t know where we’re going to, only it’s somewhere sunny and beautiful. And I believe my clients can survive without me for a week.” Juliet replied

“Okay. Have fun and do take care” Meg said 

“Try and have some fun too. I want to hear some very interesting stories when I come back” 

“Jules! Despite what you think, I am not going to sleep with him!” Meg reprimanded her friend 

“We’ll see, won’t we? I gotta go now. Bye “

Meg turned and tossed and tried to go back to sleep after she had ended the call with Juliet. In some ways, she envied her friend. Her friend had been with some of the nicest guys she had met, however brief. The ones that turned out to be bad was because they, Juliet and the person she loved, had discovered that they didn’t love each other at all but had a case of severe lust and attraction. Thus, they had irreconcilable differences that could not keep them together.

Meg could count on her fingers the amount of people she had been interested in that felt the same way back. It was as though she wasn’t even good enough for a fling. So many ways in which she felt inferior to her friend.

That was why she would work and not make passes at her boss. There was no need to add another number to the tally of failed conquests. 

After more and more deliberations, she fell asleep.

She woke up in the afternoon and promptly went to fix herself something to eat in the kitchen after she had taken a really long bath.

 When she was done, she decided to take a walk around the manor and its surroundings. Maybe she could get some sort of inspiration before she continued writing. She wore a loose cotton trouser and a flannel top. 

Walking outside the house, she inhaled deeply and deliberated on where to start her exploration. She saw the path she had earlier viewed that led to a garden at the back of the manor and decided to start from there.

She walked through a gate and her breath caught when she got to the garden. There were, among other flowers, tons of lilies blooming. Lily Catherine, she immediately reckoned. It was as though parts of the house still belonged in the time of Catherine and her mysterious lover.

At one end of the garden was a little house made of stones. Walking into the house, she saw more lilies planted there. There was also a long wooden chair that sat at one end of the little house.

Meg could imagine that Catherine and her lover may have met here at night to say all the things to each other they couldn’t have said in their letters. Why, this was the perfect place with all the lilies that Catherine must have smelt like.

Sitting on the chair, Meg soon got lost in her imagination.

When she finally came out of what she had named, the lily haven, Meg noticed that a couple of hours had passed.

Oh, well. At least I got some thinking done, she thought to herself as she walked back into the manor. 

Grabbing a couple of bread slices and the jar of peanut butter she found, she walked to the library to get on with the letters.

Settling down on the sofa, she opened the box and picked the next letter.

Lily Catherine,

Of the flowers that blooms.

I should hope that today our eyes meet in passing and you glimpse the overwhelming affection I feel towards you.

I fear that if you do not see it, my heart shall grow faint and weary.

I have news. Today, word came from the village that my father had taken ill and requested my presence. It was a friend who brought the sad news.

Did I tell you of the many ailments that plague my father? Of how he had almost taken his last breath a year ago? I fear that this time around he might not survive and the thought frightens me a great deal.

Alas, that is not all the ill I write of. For, if I go to my father, I do not know if I will return here to you. My heart shudders to think that I will be gone from you, my sweet Lily.

For this I am perplexed. Should I cast the care of my father upon my younger brother and stay here with you my love or shall I go and lose thee? I fear if I go, your heart might belong to another in my absence.

I shall write no more but implore that you meet me in the place where the sun meets our love at nightfall. Take care and beware of your brooding father.

                                                                                                    From, me.

Did Catherine’s lover go to meet his father? Did she meet him at nightfall? Meg thought as she folded the letter back and kept it in the box. There were so many questions she had at this point.

Her thoughts flickered towards Jack. He had certainly taken the character of Catherine’s father, the brooding and ever serious one.

Where was he now? She thought. Was he in his office scowling over documents and files? Or was he somewhere having fun? He didn’t deem like the kind of guy to have fun though. She could bet all he thought about and did was work.

It didn’t matter to her anyways. She had stuff to do.

She brought out her laptop and began to make notes on the letter she had just read. No doubt the letters were in a disorganized manner because she had read three which had no correlations to one another except the fact that they were written from Catherine’s lover to her.

It was also odd that she hadn’t seen any letter that Catherine wrote in reply. Had she preferred talking to penning down her thoughts?

Maybe she had been scared that her father would see them. If she had no return letters to implicate her and her father somehow got a hold of the letters she received, she could claim they were from a secret admirer who told grand lies.

After a while, she decided to read one last letter before she went to bed. Curious to know what might have happened, she picked up the next letter and began to read aloud to herself.

My sweet lily,

How beautiful you are. Brighter than the sun and sweeter than nature’s fruits. If I had known you today would have been, I would have prepared the grandest bed with the best lilies all for you.

Meg stopped reading when she felt a penetrating gaze on her. Looking up, she saw Jack standing at the door way. She opened her mouth to speak but nothing came out.

He was wearing a shirt that fitted snugly across his chest with lose flannel pajamas. His hair looked ruffled and his eyes had a stormy, intense look. Standing at the door, he looked…formidable. Meg felt as though he had swallowed the air from the library and all of a sudden she couldn’t breathe.

How did he manage to affect her so much with just a look? 

“Hi” she finally croaked.

“Hi” he replied.

“I thought you’d be busy or something” she said.

‘I was, but I wanted to check on you. I’m sorry I interrupted your reading, please go on” he said.

Meg shook her head. “’Oh, it’s nothing. I’m done actually. I think I’ll retire for the night”

Jack came into the study and sat beside her on the sofa. When he sat beside her, Meg felt every rational thought in her head fly away. She glanced towards the wall in an effort not to look at him.

“I admit I am intrigued by the letter you were reading before I interrupted. Please continue” Jack told her in a calm voice.

“Okay” Meg said in a tiny voice and picked up the letter to continue

Oh, how I recall with longing and fondness my love, of how ethereal you looked when you came to me last night. The moon seemed to pale in comparison to how you glowed.

Today I remembered how your eyes had looked upon me with love. I recall how your lips had met mine and how your tongue tasted like honey drops and dew. Oh, how I long to taste the heaven that lies in your lips once more.

Do you remember, my love, how I worshipped your skin in undulated adoration? When your robes had fallen to the ground and your night dress discarded, I could have sworn in that moment that time stopped.

Oh how your breasts felt in my palms like treasures. Your pointed peaks had tasted like honey combs in my mouth as I ran my tongue over them again and again. 

The thought of how they felt kept me awake, hard and raging.

Meg looked up from the letter when she heard a low groan from Jake. Had he felt what she felt in the letter? Was he as affected as she was right now? Taking a risk and looking at him, she saw that he had felt what she felt.

His eyes had darkened with what could only be desire and he was staring at her as though he wanted to eat her at that moment, there and there.

“I think I’m done” she whispered, unsure of her voice.

“But the letter isn’t done.” He said

“I could continue tomorrow, it wouldn’t put a damper in the book” Meg protested. She wasn’t sure that she could stand reading the rest of the letter in front of him. If it ended the way she thought, she could not predict that she or Jack would go to bed that night without anything happening.

But she wanted him right? 

“Please continue. As soon as you are done, I’ll take my leave”

Meg nodded and continue.

If there was a place I could wish to stay forever, sweet lily, I would desire the bliss between your legs buried in your wet heat engulfing me. How sweet bliss is found between your creamy thighs, my love.

I recalled this morning when the cold hit the place where the sun does not shine on me, how your moans sounded like the most amazing song as I buried myself over and over again in you.

Meg felt a need so intense course through her body as desire pooled low in her stomach. God, she ached for some sort of release. Would Jack her or would he pretend not the sexual energy radiating from them? It was as though she could smell her own arousal in the air.

When jack did not say a word, Meg felt disappointment wash over her. Maybe he did not want her after all. It would be best for her to leave now.

“Why did you stop?” Jack asked her, his voice coming out in a husky growl.

“I feel so tired, I think I’ll go to sleep now” Meg replied and stood up to go when Jack held her hand and pulled her on his laps.

“What, what are you doing?” she asked, spluttering.

Jack looked at her with a scorching look that made her clench her thighs in anticipation.

“I think we both know what and why.” He said and looked down at her chest where her nipples had hardened into pointed pebbles and were straining across her shirt.

Then he looked at her in the eyes.

“I am going to kiss you now” he said as he mouth descended on hers.