Loving You Better

Chapter 1

Layla

Her hands covered her ample breasts. Her dark red henna acting as laced flowers as it ran over her skin. Yaaseen could only stare at her, his eyes hazy as he took in her reddened nails curled over her pale, white shoulders and her decorated palms that covered up the one part of her that he had caught only one shy glimpse at.

Layla sucked the corner of her lip into her mouth as she stared at him, silently daring him to move her skittish hands away because she knew she could never do it herself. No one, not even her mother or sisters, had set eyes on her in such a bared state. She had barely even realised that he had been unbuttoning the lace bodice of her wedding dress as he kissed her- slow, heady, drawn out kisses that captured every part of her mind as she finally felt his lips on hers.

She had dreamt of kissing him for almost 2 years. She always, always prayed that no one around the supper table suddenly gained the ability to read her mind as she thought about such intimate thoughts about him. If her mother knew she was thinking, she'd have bleached her mind till it was sparkling white once again. Her friends told her she was stupid and that it would never last. They said she was too young to know what love was but she knew it, deep, deep, deep within her heart she knew that she was desperately in love with Yaaseen and that he was desperately in love with her too. She didn't want to wait to marry him. She didn't want to content herself with sneaked pecks on her cheek all through varsity. She wanted to be with him in every sense of the word.

Screw propriety.

When he had asked her to marry him towards the end of their matric exams, she didn't even hesitate.

She wanted to be his wife and that was that.

Her father was furious and her mother was mortified but what could they do? It would be better that she marry him than have them continue whatever it was that they were doing.

And now, as she looked at him, she could only smile.

She had a crush on him since she was 14 years old. He was shorter than her and he wore braces but she took one look at his light hazel eyes and she was a goner. She loved the way his eyes stood out against his dark, caramel skin and the way they followed her subtly around the class whenever he thought she wasn't looking. There were times when Mrs Erasmus would slam her book on his desk, jolting him into attention because he was too busy making her blush from across the class.

"You're still staring." Her voice was shy and soft and awkward as his gaze lingered on her hands. He wanted to catch a thousand more glimpses of what lay beneath them. He ran his tongue across his lips as he tried to say something- anything. But his mouth wouldn't work. He was drawn to her naked torso, the tiny scar tucked beneath her ribcage and the small, shallow bellybutton at the centre of her slim waist. "Yaaseen!"

He could see her begin to raise her hands to cover her face before she realised that lifting her arms would only leave her completely bared to his view. "Sorry." His ears felt hot as he blushed all over.

"Why's your shirt still on anyway?" She asked, her eyes widening at her brazen words.

He tried to cover his smile with his hand but unabashed eyes shone with amusement. "You could take it off for me?"

"Wha-" Her mouth formed pretty, little O as she gaped at him, flaming at his words. "Just," She dropped her head, trying to cover up her utter astonishment before she turned around altogether. "Just don't look at me for a while, okay?"

She tried to ignore his silent chuckles as she gathered herself once again.

Her mother never told her how truly awkward this would be. She explained what would happen and she told her that it would hurt just a little bit. She told her not to be too shocked if she bled a little her first time or not too be too overwhelmed at what would happen during the whole... event but her mother never told her how it would feel having her husband stare at her as he had been doing for the past 5 minutes nor what to do with that maddening feeling in the pit of her stomach. She could feel little goosebumps dot her skin as tiny shivers raked through her whole body. She wanted it, badly. She had been waiting for him for two years but now that it had finally come, she really didn't know what she was supposed to do.