Holding On

Thirty-Four

She realized, that even if she hadn't kissed Zain on an impulse, he would've found a day to strike anyways. But she didn't know how Eva would take it. Besides they were too much in the open. Perhaps tomorrow at the office.

"Fine. I think I need to go now. David just keeps sending texts." Eva made to stand and placed Amy on the soft couch, indicating her phone which had dinged with notifications three times through their discussion. "He must be getting jealous that you guys have stole me tonight."

Eva kissed Amy on the cheek before Emma escorted her to the door much to Eva's disapproval. She didn't like to be treated as a guest. Emma laughed for the first time that day, kissing Eva. She carried a smile back into the house and stilled when she saw George emerge from his study.

He stopped too as their gazes met, and Emma's heart skipped a beat. Not out of fear but rather because she knew she was going to have to face her emotions and cut some out if she needed to face Zain later on.

**~**~**
He started up the stairs, and Emma, requesting an approaching Maggie to please put Amy to bed, followed him. He deliberately left the door open, obviously expecting her to enter. Em knew that despite his attempts at pretending to be upset, he was curious with worry to know any she'd been crying earlier today.

Closing the door, she leaned against the hard wood as she watched him go about with no sense of direction until he finally settled on the drawers of the dressing mirror, pretending to be searching for something while back facing her, and Em couldn't hold the smile that tugged at her lips.

It was all of these things-his bed attempts at joking or coming off as funny, his tendency to worry even when he was upset with you-that made her love him more each day. Still she couldn't ignore the doubts Zain had managed to cement in her, because George didn't deserve a single bit of it. Not even if it was a tinge.

She made her way towards him and tapped his shoulder. He glanced briefly at her with a grimace before returning to looking into the drawer. "What are you looking for?"

"My wallet." he replied curtly.

"Your wallet? In the drawer?" She asked, trying to contain her laugh, but when her eyes fell on what he showed her as credence, she couldn't hold it back.

His brows rose in confusion, and his eyes widened a little when they fell on the folded sheets of paper containing the several amateurish poems they used to write each other, before he joined her, laughing embarrassedly at first.

"But on a more serious note, I'm very upset with you." He said somberly when the mirth had dampened.

Sighing softly, Em nodded. "I know. But I really needed to spend some time alone."

His eyes sparkled with concern. "My love, you've never done that. Even when we merely became friends after meeting at the emotional support group therapy five years ago, you never hid how you were feeling or what was bothering you ever from me. So it hurt when you shut me out today and practically left me worried and unfocused the whole day."

"I'm sorry, coconut. I just couldn't contain my self."

"Fine I forgive you, but first... " he started tugging her towards the bed, "...let's start talking about whatever was bothering you and caused you to reject my comfort."

Stilling, she pulled him back, shaking her head as she got intimately close to him. "Not right now, love. I really need you. Please make love to me."

"Emma, we really need to talk about the issues that upset you to tears today. I can't just ignore them." He replied pleadingly.

"Are you rejecting me?" She felt on the verge of tears as Zain's last words to her today rang in her ears. He'd promised to not give up, and if she was going to send him packing, she needed all the strength she could find. And she was really hoping that a night with her husband would fortify her weapon and armour enough.

"Hey, I can never reject you, you know that. You are too damn hot and sexy to resist." He smiled lewdly at her. "But I really can't..."

"Shh." she shushed him, quieting him with a hand on his lips. As she removed the hand, she drew near to replace it with her lips.

He met her in a passionate kiss, soft at first, then increasing in tempo and momentum as their tongues met and battled belligerently for power. So it morphed into a fiery tangle of passion.

She pulled him by his tie so that they were even more closer if possible while his hands groped her body furiously. Pulling back a little but not breaking the kiss, he held the zipper of the zip in front of the dress she wore and pulled it down to expose her brassier. A frisson ripped through her.

As his mouth left hers to trail kisses down her neck while his hand groped her breasts through their confines, she slid the shirt sleeves of her dress down her shoulder, and the silky material fell and pooled at her feet.

Ceasing his endearment, George stepped back as he removed his tie and begun unbuttoning his shirt, exposing his slightly hairy chest, bulging biceps and abs chiseled to perfection. Fire pooled in her belly and spiraled lower.

George had a body to kill and die for, and a sexiness that would arouse any woman, including her of course, except that recently, she only stared at it with a sense of detached arousal where she didn't act on the sizzled desire until he initiated something. She planned to change that from tonight.

He had the body of an athlete, and what one could glimpse of the scars engraved by years of suffering abuse from his father only appeared to make him more rugged and admirable. Even though he barely worked out, his body was much like Zain's and...

She stomped on the brakes of her thoughts before she could complete the comparison. What the hell?