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CHAPTER 11
Sydney sat back and rubbed her stomach. “I can’t eat another bite,” she moaned. Nigel smirked and pushed his own plate away. They’d finished off their meal and the two pieces of black forest cake that had come with it along with the remaining strawberries from earlier. “Isn’t gluttony a sin?” he asked, equally full. “It is,” she admitted and, tongue in cheek, said. “We should go to confession and be absolved.” “Neither of us is Catholic.” “Maybe they accept late night conversions.” “I doubt it. Perhaps we could just say a few Our Fathers and absolve ourselves.” “We could find a Rabi.” “To do what?” Sydney grinned. “Entertain us with a brisk.” Nigel stared at her. “Isn’t that where they…” He made a scissor motion with his fingers. “For the young boys?” Sydney nodded. “I’ll pass, thanks.” “Aww, you’ve done it already?” Nigel flushed. “That is none of your business, Sydney Fox.” “What’s to be shy about? Most men these days are…” “I’m not discussing it, change the topic.” Sydney sighed. “How do we get rid of this guilt of overeating then?” Nigel rose from the small table and tossed his napkin upon it. “Ever hear of pop- pop, fizz-fizz?” Sydney laughed. “That will make us feel better, but I don’t think it will absolve us.” Nigel returned her smile. “Then I guess we’ll just have to go on being sinful.” Sydney stretched and finally stood. “I guess we can sleep on it.” Nigel’s glance strayed to the heart shaped bed and his heart dropped into his shoes. “Um…actually, maybe we should…um…watch some tele? It’s still early.” Sydney smirked and crossed her arms over her chest. “I would, but someone’s hidden the remote.” Nigel flushed as he remembered his earlier encounter with the demon device. “Right…um…well, perhaps we could read? Reading is good. Broadens the mind, feeds the soul and all that.” Sydney pulled off her robe and stepped up onto the platform. “You can if you want to, I’m going to bed.” “Okay, yes…good. You should go to bed.” Nigel retrieved a book from his bag and settled on the sofa. “I’ll read awhile.” “Nigel, put the book down and come to bed.” “But you just said…” “I don’t care what I just said. Come to bed.” Nigel opened the book and stared at the page. “I…I’m really not tired, Syd.” He was startled when she suddenly hovered over him from behind the sofa. “W…what?” She held out her hand. “Come to bed, Nigel.” “I can’t!” She dropped crossed her arms over the back of the sofa and propped her chin on one hand. “Why can’t you?” “It’s…” Nigel waved a hand emphatically. “I just can’t.” “What’s wrong?” “Nothing.” and settled next to him. “Do you want to go back to the club and see if your friends are still there?” Nigel stared down at his book and shook his head. “Do you want to play cards or something?” “No.” “Then what do you want to do?” “I…I want to read my book.” Sydney caught his chin and pulled it up to meet her gaze. “Nigel.” “It’s the bed!” he exclaimed frustrated. “This whole room really is all so…so…” More arm waving. “Decadent!” “Nigel, it’s just a bed.” “No, no it isn’t just a bed. It’s a bed meant for…with attachments and…and people doing…well doing other things that we don’t do.” Sydney grinned. “Is that your problem? You think because it’s a honeymoon suite I’m expecting a full course of romance?” Nigel flushed to his toes. “No! I mean, certainly I don’t…don’t think that! You…and I…we….I wasn’t thinking that. I would never presume to think that, Sydney .” “Then come to bed.” Nigel groaned. “I can’t!” “You can.” “Syd, please don’t make me do this.” Sydney’s heart dropped to her feet and she sat back. Her plan was backfiring on her in a big way. She’d only meant to give Nigel a little nudge in the right direction, a little atmosphere where he might feel more comfortable sharing his feelings. Now she regretted ever changing their reservations. She forgot that Nigel was not like other men. She swallowed her disappointment and stood. “I’m sorry, Nigel.” She walked over to the phone and picked up the receiver. “What are you doing?” Nigel asked. “Calling the desk to get us separate rooms.” “They said they were booked up, remember?” Only because Sydney had requested they say that when she booked the rooms. “I’m sure they’ll have something.” She dialled 0 and the hotel operator answered. “Front desk please,” she requested. She was startled when Nigel took the phone from her and placed it back on its cradle. “Hey! They were transferring me!” Nigel regarded her, intently. “Why do you think they’ll have rooms now, Syd?” he asked. “They didn’t before?” “It doesn’t hurt to try, does it?” “Syd. What aren’t you telling me?” Sydney tossed her arms up in the air. “Oh, to hell with it! I changed the reservation, Nigel.” “What? Why?” She shrugged and then wrapped her arms around herself as she wandered over to the balcony. “Because I thought it would be nice. I wanted to surprise you with…” She lowered her eyes. Nigel moved next to her. “With?” She shrugged again. “I thought it would be romantic. I thought we could…could talk over some things and that it might inspire you to…” Again she stopped. She couldn’t believe she had to explain herself. Why did he have to be so dense? She slowly lifted her eyes to his and was startled to see that Nigel had lost all colour in his face. She took a step towards him and watched him stumble back and into the high back chair. “Nigel? What’s…” Nigel could only shake his head at her, fear and confusion mixed with eyes flashing with betrayal. Sydney reached for him. “What is it?” she demanded, concerned. “You…” he began, but his mouth suddenly felt like he’d swallowed a bath towel and he couldn’t get the words to form. “I…How…” He leaned forward, shoved his hands into his hair a pulled at it. Sydney dropped to her knees beside the chair, suspecting she had made a serious error in judgement by trying to trap him into revealing his feelings for her. “I didn’t mean to hurt you or confuse you,” she began placed her hand at his knee, hurt when he flinched away from her. “I was just trying to let you know how I felt without any pressure on you.” Nigel stared at her in disbelief and waved his hands around. “No pressure? You…you change our room reservations to this…this den of promiscuity, manage to find the sexiest gown in the world to prance around it all night to drive a normal man insane and then you invite me to go to bed with you because that’s suddenly how you feel?” Sydney flushed. “Okay, I made a mistake…” “How does that constitute no pressure?” “Nigel, I’m sorry, I…” “Is this what you do with…with your other men? You seduce them into feeling something just because you’re a little randy?” Sydney straightened. “Nigel! That isn’t it at all!” He stood as well. “Then what is it because frankly, Sydney, none of this makes any sense!” “I was trying to be romantic!” “Why! Why in all that is holy would you try being romantic with me, the person you have insisted, for the last five years, to any and all who come near that you have a strictly platonic relationship with?” Sydney swallowed hard and folded her arms across her chest. She could see where he might be confused. “I wasn’t trying to hurt you…” “Then what are you trying to do?” Sydney’s hands moved to her hips, he was blowing this way out of proportion. “Look, I just thought it would be a nice, gentle way of giving you a nudge in the right direction, that’s all. I thought you might enjoy it, most men would you know.” “Most men already have, by my count.” Nigel winced at the betrayal in her eyes and he immediately tried to retract his words, but she pounced on him, furious. “You’re right. I can some other man to do the job just fine and if you’re going to be so belligerent than maybe I will.” Her words pierced his heart and his temper took over again. “Do it then! What do I care? You’ve certainly made no secret of the fact that you’ll fall into bed with any ape with an overindulged testosterone level.” “Obviously you don’t care and I was stupid to think you did in the first place.” She turned her back on him so that he wouldn’t see the tears sparkling in her eyes. This was the first time they had ever really fought and it was breaking her heart. However, her anger got the best of her and she found herself being deliberately hurtful. “Don’t worry, you can be replaced easily enough.” She was startled when Nigel didn’t respond and she slowly turned, expecting him to still be furious at her, but all the anger in his features had been replaced with defeat. “It’s easy to replace someone who didn’t even know he was in the running,” he muttered, stalked over to the door and grabbed his jacket. Sydney followed him. “Where are you going?” He paused as he opened the door to look at her, his eyes lowered from her gaze. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.” Sydney watched him walk out and then picked up the nearest thing, a wine glass from their dinner, and threw it at the door, watching it shatter across the wood. She immediately felt bereft and ran to throw the door open, stepping out into the corridor in search of Nigel, but he was gone. “God damn it!” she swore and returned inside.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Sydney heard someone at the hotel room door and sat up from her position on the chaise, where she had been laying in wait for Nigel to return. She rolled to her feet and glanced at the clock on the wall, a few minutes after two in the morning. He’d been gone almost four hours. The door finally opened and Nigel practically fell into the room. He seemed befuddled by the card in his hand, wondered why it had taken so long to work, then he shrugged and kicked the door shut. He pulled off his jacket turned to hang it on the rack and missed it completely. Sydney sighed at his drunken state and moved to intercede. The fact that he had needed to drown his sorrows only proved how much she had hurt him. Everything had gone horribly wrong and she realized, as she sat and waited for him, that she should have just been upfront and honest about her feelings instead of luring him into some kind of game and manipulating the situation to the way she wanted things to be, just as she had always done before. “Oh, Nigel,” she sighed again as reached out and caught him when he stumbled on the step down step to the living area. It took him a moment to focus on her and when he did he smiled, drunkenly. “Syd!” He laid his head on her chest and wrapped his arms around her. “Syd, Syd, Sydie Sydney.” He rubbed his cheek against her, contented. “So nice to see you.” Sydney tried not to be offended and pulled him back to arms length. “How much have you had to drink? Nigel held up three fingers. “Two, five maybe…just a few beers.” He paused and swayed towards her, still smiling. “And a bottle of wine. One or two cognacs…” He scowled. “I’m not really sure.” He tried to hug her again. “You smell nice, Syd.” Sydney grimaced, sympathetically. He would have such a hangover tomorrow and he was obviously in no shape for more discussion. “You don’t, you smell like a brewery.” She guided him towards the bed. “Come on, you better sleep it off.” “Oh no, I simply couldn’t, but thank you for asking.” He tripped as his legs met the bed and he started to topple, instinctively grabbing hold of Sydney to stop his descent and succeeding in taking her with him. He grinned as they came to a stop with her on a top of him. “Oh, there you are. Really, Syd, this is hardly the time to be romantic.” Sydney scooted back, or tried to, startled when his arms coiled around her. “Nigel. Let go.” “I’ve changed my mind,” he murmured as he nuzzled her neck. “I think I bloody well can after all.” Sydney pried his hands off her and held them over his head, away from her. “Nigel, you’re drunk.” “I’m sorry.” His eyes rolled upwards to his pinned hands and then returned to her face. He grinned and thrust his hips at her. “Going to get kinky, hey, Syd? You always did like to do things your way.” Sydney couldn’t deny that the idea of showing him just how kinky she could be, even in his drunken state, was tempting, but she didn’t want their first time to be like that. She’d made enough mistakes. “You’re in no shape,” she muttered as she released his hands and started to climb off him, but Nigel grabbed her again and rolled her over onto her back. “You’ll find I’m surprisingly agile,” he whispered as his lips lowered to hers. Sydney allowed him to kiss her for a few seconds before pulling back. “Nigel, get off.” “I thought this was what you wanted?” She shook her head. “Not like this.” “Why not like this?” “It’s probably better that way.” He captured her mouth again and pressed his body against hers. Sydney gave into to her own desire for a few, wonderful moments, and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him closer to deepen their kiss. God! Even intoxicated he was a great kisser. She moaned against him as his tongue found hers, and the slight, sweet tasted of cognac reminded her that they had to stop. She gently pushed him off and sat up. “What’s wrong?” he asked, confused. Sydney rose, startled to find she was not as steady as she preferred, and pulled back the covers. “Get in bed.” Nigel rolled, kicked off his shoes and attempted to pull off his shirt, needing help from Sydney when he got it stuck over his head. He smiled at her again. “Oh, there you are.” She crawled in between the covers and reached for the remote she had found earlier, while pacing the room waiting for Nigel to return. “Here I am.” Nigel climbed in with just his trousers and socks on and moved towards her as she hit the button on the remote to switch off the lights. “Why are you all the way over there?” Sydney set the remote on the nightstand, settled on her back and pulled his head down to her breast. “Go to sleep, Nigel.” He sighed as he settled against her. “Don’t be angry,” he murmured. “I’m not. Go to sleep.” His hand slid up her thigh, she caught it and pulled it to her stomach, keeping her fingers intertwined with his. “Don’t you want me, Syd?” he pouted. “I was sure you did.” “I do, but not right now.” “When then?” “Later, when you’re ready.” “I’m ready.” He sat up slightly, pulled his hand from hers and reached beneath the covers for the snap on his trousers. “I’ll show you.” Sydney caught his hand again and brought it back to her stomach. “Later, Nigel.” He settled his head against her again. “I just don’t know what to do,” he mumbled sluggishly, the alcohol finally taking its toll and making him sleepy. “What do you want from me, Sydney Fox?” His question was so painfully desperate that it tore at her heart. She really couldn’t blame him. Everything he had said was true. She had been giving him mixed signals and she had always insisted that their relationship was platonic. It had been stupid to expect him to just go with the flow on such a drastic change. What did she want from him? What was it she could offer him, really? None of her past relationships had worked out. Was she foolish to try and change things, knowing her track record? What if she lost him completely? “Hush.” She whispered as she caressed his hair. “It will look better in the morning.” She would make sure of it. She would make sure this whole weekend was forgotten and they’d go back to the way things were, regardless of her feelings. Nigel obviously wasn’t prepared for the next step, so she’d remove it all together. What did her heart matter when it came to helping him keep his sanity? She closed her eyes and drifted off to the sound of his heartbeat beating against hers.
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