We spent beautiful sunny days visiting all the tourist spots of Paris, something we hadn't done before as a couple. Also it was first time for Raul to be seeing anything outside Tipperary. He loved every second of it.
We spent the nights in each others arms after Raul would hit the bed. It was as if we were seeing each other like young kids, teenagers and couldn't wait to be alone. Norberto couldn't keep his hands to himself and wouldn't miss an opportunity, something even with Raul around. Not that Raul would mind. He was super happy to watch his parents be truly in love with each other, something he had always missed when saw Nate's parents together.
We had still not decided what we would do eventually - return to Tipperary or restart our lives in Paris and I wanted Raul to be part of that decision, the way he always been part of my decision since we had moved to Tipperary. But all that would wait. Right now we were happy enjoying the idyllic vacation in Paris.
Norberto's wounds had almost healed. He had recovered fast and doctors were happy with his progress. We didn't need to visit the doctor regularly anymore, he had informed us happily during our last visit. I had been so relieved to hear him say so. Even though Norberto had been recovering, I had been worried about the side effects or any long term problems, but fortunately, Norberto had come out stronger. Even his left hand and leg which had started with jerky movements had smoothed out over the period with regular physiotherapy sessions. He didn't need any support while walking or for managing his personal needs. He certainly didn't need any help in the bed, something I wasn't complaining about.
So all in all, Norberto was back to being his usual self, only much more leaner, stronger and stamina that would indeed put teenagers to shame. It was almost like the insatiable need he had for me when we first got together, only this time, it was much more fun for it was no longer just fucking. We were a family, something we had never had before, something we had not felt the last time because both of us had been so fucking confused with all the heat and emotions that had been consuming us.
But we had come a long way. We had faced our past demons together, baring our souls to each other and we were finally together, with a promise to be completely honest with each other.
And so I expected Norberto would share everything with me. Well he did share his dirty dark life he had lived before me and how those demons had lead to us to wasting ten years of our lives and how broken and down he had been with every of my attacks. All that and more.
But there was still something he hadn't said. Well, two actually.
There had been scars on his chest and back and abdomen. They had been there since we had met again in Tipperary. Now, there were more of them with that blasted night in Chris's basements. But he never told me how he got those scars in the first place. I had tried asking few times but he would always duck the question. Even when I wanted to push, he would make it difficult to carry on by turning the tables on me.
"Why are you stuck up on my scars? Do they turn you on that you can't stop talking about them? Or do they put you off?" He would ask me in the middle of fucking me.
He did have a Adonis like sculpted body before and those scars did no justice to him, standing out in an otherwise perfect body, but I wasn't bothered about them because they had any impact on our sex. They hardly impacted his capabilities or my emotions. But I knew there was something there. The way he would dodge my questions about his scars made me even more certain. I wanted to know who did that to him but he just wouldn't tell me.
I should have let it be but I knew I couldn't. Chris's words kept repeating in my head.
"The reason why Norberto is here today or even why he was half dead all those years ago is, you."
I had to know. I couldn't rest till I knew but at the same time I didn't want to force something that he wasn't comfortable with. But there had to be another way. One morning when he was still in bed, I got up early. It was hot and I went to the bathroom, leaving a trail of clothes on the floor in the bedroom. I didn't know what I was doing other than a compulsion - a gut feeling, a sixth sense guiding me.
I turned on the shower and stood under it as water washed down my body. It was cool and did wonders to ease my otherwise tensed body. My body temperature dropped but I was immediately aware that the room was no longer cold. Instead, it had turned hot and sizzling despite cool water running down my back.
I knew Norberto was inside the bathroom and suddenly it was dejavu.
I had stood there just like this under the shower when he had joined me. I had been afraid that he was reprimand me but then without saying a word he had made me had my first orgasm in this very shower.
The memory was still absolutely clear in my mind, so much so that I could hear my groans ringing loudly in my ears as I had held onto the water jet and then his shoulders desperately. I was sure I had turned right at the moment.
"Its hot," I mumbled, trying to think of anything but that morning, as I answered his silent question while he joined me under the shower.
"You are hot," he whispered back, placing his hands on my waist and pulling me towards him.
"Uh, no. That's not going to work," I replied slipping out of his hands and the shower but he was quick. Pulling me back, he had me next to the wall with no place to go. Stepping out of his pyjamas, he covered my body with his and asked, "What's not going to work?" His fingers flipping around my waist, over my navel, going dangerously south.
"This!" I held his hand, stopping it just below my abdomen.
"Why?" He asked and his lips dropped on to my shoulders, dipping close to the depression in my collar bone, my sweet spot. Another one.
"I think I have a preposition for you." It was getting extremely difficult to continue but with each passing second it was getting clearer in my mind. Yes it was painful but in a fun kinda way.
My words had his neck snapping back up to look into my eyes. He stared at me for long, all the while I could feel the intense stare burning me up. I was just about to give in and end it all when he finally spoke up.
"Are you trying to negotiate with me, Mrs Fritz?"
"You love that name of yours, don't you?" I tried to lighten the mood knowing that the tension was knotting my own body in rocks.
"That's beside the point. Are you really trying to negotiate?" His eyes were twinkling. He was enjoying much more than I had liked.
"Well, I do have a condition," I forced myself to say it. With his member pushing against my thighs it was not easy to keep thinking with my head.
"You are forgetting something. You are in no fucking position to negotiate." His hand slid over my butt and suddenly he pulled me in onto his hard on. I swear to God, I must have spilled over at that smooth move. But I couldn't give in.
Forcing my hands in between our jammed bodies, I tried to create the much needed distance. "That's cheating! You aren't playing fair," I cried.
"And you call this playing fair?" He snorted signalling the bathroom.
"I didn't call you here," I said in my defense quickly.
"You knew very well that I would follow you. I would follow you to hell, you know that."
"Well, so now is the time to face consequences of your actions. You followed me in. We are here now. And I have a condition. So you do you agree?"
"Do I have a choice?"
"You can walk out," I gave it to him though at that moments my hands which had been pushing him till now, slid over his chest and shoulders and crossed behind his back. The move pulled him in with my rosy peaks brushing against his chest. I did it intentionally to tilt his decision in my favor but at that moment it was difficult to know who was getting more affected. Was this really a good move?
Fortunately, before I could lose complete control, he groaned loudly. Pulling both my hands away from him, he pinned them above my head.
"That's some choice. What's the other option?" He asked while his breath burned on my face, his lips less than an inch away.
"You answer my questions about those scars," I said it looking into his eyes.
"That would take ages," he replied, as his hands slid down my hands, shoulders, all the way up to my breasts which he clammed in both his palms.
"I have all the time," I murmured closing my eyes as my body arched. The need was building up inside me but I had to keep it in check.
"Well, I fucking don't. So I have a preposition of my own to offer. You finish off what you started. We fuck right now. And then, I answer all your questions."
Norberto was in no mood of letting go of control. Pulling me away from the wall, he lifted me off the floor, forcing me to grab his shoulders as he maneuvered my legs to embrace his torso.
"No, that's not-" I tried to stop him but he cut me in.
"You and your questions. Don't you know you are torturing us both? Doesn't this remind you of something. Or have you forgotten about our first time in this shower?"
I couldn't lie to that question, nor I could stop color rising up my throat which gave him the answer to his question without me uttering a word.
"Did you know that was the first time you had experienced an orgasm, your first ever orgasm?" He asked as his fingers slid close to my core.
I shook my head. "I didn't. Not then. But you obviously knew what was happening to me."
"Yes I did. But to be absolutely honest I had never seen a woman experience her first ever orgasm with me. Never. And your confused face that was speaking of thousands emotions running crazy in your head shook me to my core. I knew I shouldn't but I felt special. Shaken and special. Do I sound a bigger bastard than I already am?"
I shook my head again unable to speak to such confession. I never knew i affected him so much.
"Just the thought of you standing here drives me mad. So help me God. You have my word you will have all your answers." With that his mouth crashed onto mine and there was no place for any other thought.
He fucked me in the shower like there was no tomorrow. I might say it was not fully as per my plan but I could hardly think of the plan when his body was creating magic under water. I was lost in his arms and all that mattered was reaching peaks of our ecstasy in that rough crazy manner.
Once we both came, he wrapped a large towel around me and one around himself. My hair were still dripping with water and so was his. His lifted me suddenly in his arms bride style, drawing a gasp from me, and took us back to the bedroom.
"Are you cool now?"
"Yes," I replied while still waiting for him to keep his side of the deal. Settling next to me on the bed, he took a deep breath. What was so difficult to tell, I wondered.
"It was Chris," he finally said quietly.
There, he said it. It was finally confirmed. It was indeed that dickhead Chris who had been always hated him enough to want him see almost dead. I had known it sincethat terrible night but hearing it aloud from Norberto suddenly caused an outrage. My blood boiled. "That monster!" And he had agreed to me that he wouldn't touch Norberto again, I wondered.
"Relax. It was a long time ago. And we know he is paying the price now behind the bars," he pulled me back next to him.
"But that's because he attacked you again on the night of our party. If he hadn't done it, he would still be free. Why didn't you say something earlier?"
"It didn't matter."
"This didn't matter?" I asked incredulously feeling the scar on his abdomen. He covered my hand with his and replied with a grin, "Its so heartening to see you get all upset for my safety."
"Stop fooling around. Tell me why he did it? That bastard had promised me he wouldn't touch you. I should have known that creep was not to be trusted!" I was getting more and more irritated.
"Wait, he promised you what? And why did you ask for such a promise? If I remember correctly, you hated me then?"
"Well there's a very thin line between love and hate. I would know. And yes when I had realized in order to hurt you, I had ended up scheming up with that sicko, who went behind my back and your poor innocent employees had to take the hit, I was devastated. I had to back off and I made him promise me that he wouldn't do one of his dirty tricks again with you. What fool I had been to go by his word."
"Well it was not entirely his fault, to be honest," Norberto said lightly.
"What do you mean? Did you...?"
"Uh no. Nothing like that. You don't have a very high opinion of me, do you?"
I closed my mouth in thin lips. He was an expert on deviation.
"Okay, Okay. I get it. Did you know about Chris'son in US?"
"Huh? His son? Yes, Chris had mentioned him once. He was doing some research or something," I replied trying to remember what Chris had told me about his son. I didn't remember much, except that he loved his son dearly. It was his regret that his son didn't want anything to do with his fashion world and kept away in US somewhere.
"Well, soon after you went MIA, he returned from US to meet Chris. There was a lot of negative publicity around your broken engagement with Chris and then your subsequent relationship with Albert. Chris's son had been following it all on the net and the moment he came here he was bombarded with million times worst versions. All crap but but for a son who thought the world of his father, they were too much. He didn't want to be part of the fashion world because of all its murkiness and that's exactly what that happened to his dear father as per him. He drew a very dark image of you as the world's worst gold digger." Norberto explained trying to make it sound less hurtful but it was still too much.
"Me, a gold digger?" I was shocked.
"Yes and much more. He had many colored adjectives for you, but you get a picture, right? He was searching for you, wanting to teach you a lesson - get the revenge for his father. I came to know what he was up to but I couldn't let him hurt you. So I did what I had to do."
"What? What did you do?"
"Nothing so dramatic, my dear. You need not be so alarmed. I just told him the truth. About your false engagement with Chris and how you both had planned on destroying me. He thought of his father as an angel and what I told him shattered that image. It made Chris fall down from the pedestal his son had placed him. He was so ashamed of his father that he left for US immediately without bothering a second look to him. This broke Chris. He was furious. He may be a bad man but he was a devoted father. His son was his dream, the center part of his life and I had hit him where it hurt the most. I didn't understand it then but now I do. Chris went furious because of his son's refusal to have anything to do with him and he knew I was responsible for all that hatred his son had for him. In that crazy moment he decided to punish me. I was anyways a dead man, a burden on this earth wasting my life and alcohol, so I welcomed his men. May be I was hoping they would free me of my prison, my life. These scars are their gift to me."
"No!" I couldn't help as a painful groan escaped my mouth. I never knew anything about this. Pain and frustration cluttered my mind as his words explained the cruelty he had endured because of me.
"It wasn't painful. Like I said, I was wasted. Didn't feel most of what they did. I was ready for my punishment. I deserved it for what I had done to you and this was God's way of telling me I would die lonely at the hands of some shady criminals. But I guess the Gods also agreed it would have been too easy for me. So someone turned up in that dark alley before they could finish off their work. I woke up in hospital with several bandages and stitches and partial paralysis in my left hand and leg. That explains the cane and also Josh. I was never one to depend on another soul since very early but necessity teaches you everything. And with time it gets better. I realized this is how life was going to be so I started exercising again. It was challenging and I still had to depend on the cane but still I gained some independence. Some doctor suggested nice clear air and climate was good and that's how life got me to you again. So what you saw was in Tipperary was a much refined version of me. Aren't I glad I took up that doctor's advise. I must look for him and thank him personally."
He went on and on. I knew he was trying to dissipate the seriousness of the whole incident, trying to play it cool for me but I could see what he had gone through, what he had lost. because of me. All because of me. I kept blaming him for all the everything wrong in my life, never ever thinking what all disaster I may have caused. I never knew because I never thought of it from his perspective. I called him names for his selfishness but wasn't I as selfish as him all along. Thinking about my life, my career, my child! It was as if my eyes were suddenly opened and I could see my whole life completely differently.
"I am so sorry, Norberto. I wish... I wish.. You had to suffer all this because of me. That's why Chris kidnapped you that night again. He wanted to cause you pain, he wanted to hurt you, all because of me. And I had no idea you were suffering. While I kept telling myself you were the bane of my existence, you were all alone, beaten and almost killed by the man I had conspired with. It was all because of me! me! How could I have been so stupid and blind to get together with that piece of shit. How I wished I had never met him! And you never said anything! You never told me. Even after seeing how I had deceived you all these years with Raul, you never mentioned a word! How could I do it to you? What do I do? How do I-"
"Melanie! Melanie! Mela!" Norberto held me by my shoulders and gave me a good jerk to bring me to the present. My eyes snapped to his at his voice finally registered in my ears.
"Listen to me. Listen to me! It was not your fault. I didn't tell you anything because I didn't want to cause you any worry. It was all long time back and its over now with Chris behind the bars. He had it for me since long and he had only been waiting for a reason to justify himself. With Andrew, his son, I handed the reason in his hand and he did what he always wanted. But its nothing compared to what I have found. In fact if anything I am grateful to him because it made me see my life with absolute clarity. It made me value my life, something I had never done before. And most importantly, it brought you back to me. Remember you had told me you were leaving for good that night. If not for him we might not have realized our real feelings and so much would have been left unsaid. It would have been a life not worth living. So no, you should not blame yourself. Mela, you were not responsible. You are the only true light, a real blessing, in my dark pitiful life. I mean you and Raul. And truth is Raul is also your gift to me. He is in my life because of you. despite all my shortcomings and my sins, you gave me the best possible gift I could have ever imagined. Had it been any other woman, she would have.. But not you. You are strong. You are special. You are my angel. You are my everything. I have tried to tell you so many times, I did it too multiple times my dreams. I tried to say it through my actions, through my pains and through my happiness. I said it through my inadequacies and through my flaws, through my art and through my insanity. But I don't I ever found the courage to say to you in words."
He paused to take my hands in his and looked straight in my eyes. Bright steel grey eyes, that had turned my life upside down from the moment they landed on me, were turning darker and darker with every passing second as I held my breath.
"Mela, I love you. With all my heart and soul. I love you."
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Hey Dear Lovely Readers,
Did you see that coming? Norberto saying I love you to Mela! Yesssssssssss!
But honestly had you noticed that all this while Norberto had never ever said these words to Melanie before? Like ever!
But with that also out, these guys are set for life. I mean at least for this story, they are. Except for one last thing and we are done. That would be the ultimate end of No-Mel story. This was the last but one chapter and the next would be The End!
I have been waiting for this for long. I know many of you have also been waiting for it. Some of you may have probably given up on me as well considering how long I had been dragging my feet but truth be told my brain might be running on to the next and the next stories already but I am not willing to give up on this one completely. I mean I want to and they surely deserve a final ending. So do you, my lovely sweet readers who have been with me for more than an year. Everyone deserves a proper ending. But do you get me when I say it is difficult. Every time I pick this story up I am pulled off in some tangents reminding me of so much that has happened between these two and so much that I want to still talk about (Did you notice these last few chapters have been running much beyond my 2000 words per chapter rule) So much so that even after ten years, my No-Mel still act as if they have just met. They are so horny :)
And I mean what else justifies a "I Love You" after more than ten years! Or may be it does and that's the beauty of this story (or so I would like to believe) Not everyone may like this story or they way it developed but it is one of my most precious works and it will always be that for me.
So if you like the story and this chapter, do let me know your thoughts in comments below (you can also share even if you didn't find it as exciting as I would like to believe. I mean it would be tough to take but I am aware all of us have our personal preferences and it is absolutely okay!). But since this is the very end, I mean almost the last chapter, I would love to hear from all you how you found the story and especially on Norberto's confession.
And don't forget to color that star below. You guys know how to make my day.
Till next time we meet to hit the century and finally bid adieu to No-Mel,
Love,
Anna