Natalie woke up slowly, feeling a weight across her waist she tensed up and began to move away carefully.
John felt Natalie wake, when she tensed and started to slid away he said, "its ok Natalie, it's John."
"John," Natalie sighed in relief, relaxing into his hold. Turning around to face him she looked up into his face. "Thank you John."
"Your welcome." John said looking down into her eyes. "Anything for you." He said, meaning it. There wasn't anything he wouldn't do for her.
Natalie continued to look into John's eyes. She was remembering the night before. After she had the first nightmare and had told John everything they had gone to sleep in each others arms. Natalie couldn't remember when she had felt as safe as she did in his arms. She had had 2 more nightmares during the night but each time she had woke in his arms and he soothed away the fear. He had stroked her hair and made everything alright again.
As Natalie looked up at him John had an overpowering urge to kiss her. Unable to help him self John slowly closed the distance between them and kissed her softly. John moaned softly when his lips touched hers. Kissing Natalie was like nothing John had ever felt before.
Natalie saw the moment that John decided to kiss her. She saw his head bending toward her. She saw it and did nothing to stop him. She didn't stop him because she wanted this kiss as much as he did. She had been wondering what it would be like to kiss him ever since they had played that first game of pool. Natalie gasped as his lips touched hers. She moaned along with him at the heat his kiss generated in her. He was kissing her very softly and tenderly but the kiss effected her more then any kiss Natalie had ever had.
John tore his mouth from hers his breathing ragged. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that," he rasped.
Natalie was also breathing heavily. She looked away for a minute then back at him, "Why are you sorry? Didn't you like it? I wanted that as much as you did. So don't be sorry on my account." With that Natalie got out of bed and headed to the bathroom.
"Natalie," John called as she reached the bedroom door, "I just don't want to do anything to scare you. I care about you too much to ever hurt you or take advantage of you. And as far as kisses go, that was a great one." he said when she turned around to look at him.
Natalie blushed and smiled at him. "You weren't taking advantage of me. If I didn't want that kiss I wouldn't have kissed you back." Natalie turned around and took a step towards the door, hesitated then faced John again, "By the way I agree. That kiss was Amazing. Such a great way to wake up." Natalie said with a wicked grin before heading to the bathroom with John's delighted laughter in her ears.
John was shaking with laughter. He couldn't remember the last time he was so happy. It hadn't been since Caitlyn that he had laughed this much. He stopped laughing at the thought of Caitlyn. He paused expecting to feel that jolt of guilt that he usually felt when he thought of her. He was surprised when he didn't feel it. He tried to remember the last time he had felt it and he realized that he hadn't felt the guilt since he had met Natalie.
Thinking about that John was shocked. In all the time he had spent with Natalie he hadn't once felt guilty. He hadn't even realized it but Natalie had helped him get over Caitlyn. He could think about her with out feeling the overwhelming guilt and grief that had haunted him these past 6 years. He felt like he could talk to Natalie about her. About his past and that was a new feeling for him. Maybe it was the fact that she had opened up to him last night or maybe it was just the woman herself but John felt like he could tell her anything.
Natalie stood for a long time under the spray of the shower. She thought about a lot of things but the main thing she thought about was John. Last night, when she had told him about her past, something changed in their relationship. Something big, Natalie wasn't just thinking about John as a friend.
Suddenly, or maybe not so suddenly when she thought about it, she was thinking about him as a man. A man that she was very attracted to, that she liked very much. Somewhere along the way she had begun to think of him as HER man.
Natalie was shocked at her thoughts about John, who until this morning, had treated her like a friend. Natalie knew that he had wanted more but she hadn't realized until now that she also wanted more. A lot more. That made her both happy and sad. Happy because he seemed to want her just as much and sad because she wasn't free. She was still married even though she was unhappy in her marriage and wanted a divorce, Natalie respected her marriage vows. She didn't know what to do about this situation.
While Natalie was in the shower John called in to work. He took off 3 weeks. He had 6 weeks of vacation coming to him so if he needed more time it was there. His boss had been shocked. He rarely took a day off let along 3 weeks. His boss had wanted to know if he was dying. John had laughed and said yeah he was dying for some time off.
After taking care of his time off John started making breakfast. He didn't know what Natalie liked to eat for breakfast so he called into the bathroom when he heard the shower turn off, "Hey Natalie. What do you want for breakfast?"
"How about eggs and bacon?" Natalie said naming her favorite breakfast food. She didn't think John knew how to cook so she said, "but that's ok I can cook it myself."
Coming out of the bathroom 10 minutes later Natalie almost fell over when John presented her with a delicious looking plate of bacon and eggs. "Wow," Natalie said, "I am surprised. I didn't think you actually knew how to cook."
John laughed for a minute then got serious, "there are a lot of things you don't know about me. But I would like to tell you," He said looking at her, "There is some stuff about me that I think you should know."