The White Phoenix: The Honeymoon Chapter

We sat on the floor of the hotel suite that we would be spending the next week and a half in for our honeymoon. Surrounded by a collection of cliché honeymoon night items like champagne and chocolate strawberries, discarded items of clothing, and suitcases we didn’t dare touch until the morning after, we held each other close as we talked and laughed about our life together so far.
“So tell me,” I asked seductively, “When did you first realize your sexual attraction to me?” Koeda rose and dark eyebrow at me and looked me over appraising the white corset and lingerie I had worn underneath my wedding dress all night. I had even replaced the garter he had removed with his teeth at the reception just so I could enjoy the feeling of him doing it again when we were ready.
“Well I always thought you were very attractive but my… feelings got more intense during junior year. You were really starting to fill out. I found myself checking you out and sometimes even drooling over your perfect… everything.” His heart started to pick up a beat, and so did mine. I smiled to myself, pleased I was able to get that kind of reaction from him at such a young age. “So you tell me,” he continued, “when did you first start to realize how sexy I was?” He mocked me.
I laughed nervously. When did I start to really notice that every time he spoke to me I thought that I’d soak through my underwear? I began to become very aware of our proximity to each other; us both facing one another propped on one arm in front of the fireplace but facing away from it. The memory suddenly came to me.
“It was the first time I saw your band perform before you guys asked me to be the lead singer. You got up from behind the drums and came to the microphone and sang ‘When You Were Young‘ by The Killers.” He caught on the last part, remembering also. “Your voice and they way you sang like you were singing right to me made me quiver everywhere. I wished you would have hopped right off the stage, kissed me, taken me backstage, and made love to me on top of a speaker.”
I bit my lip as he processed this. He noticed and chuckled in response, cupping his hand around my cheek while using his thumb to ease the grip my canines had on my lower lip. I sighed. “You were really that into me?” he asked. I nodded timidly; embarrassed by the way I had acted like some sex-crazed groupie. “Jaeda, that’s hot. That’s really hot,” he replied. I smiled and he chuckled again. “Please tell me about the other times you felt that way.”
I licked my lips reflexively, unaware of his stares. “Chronologically, the next time I remember being extremely attracted to you was basically anytime you danced when you thought no one was watching, when you came home from soccer practice and were still just a little sweaty, when you tied your hair back when you were drumming during band practice, when you absentmindedly twirled your drumsticks in your hand-“
“Wait, you thought that was sexy?” A smile played on his lips. I couldn’t stop the girly giggle that escaped my lips as I thought about how hot I thought he was when he stretched out his muscular arms to twirl those stupid drumsticks. I rolled my green eyes at the foolishness of it all but shrugged and nodded. He rolled his eyes too but beckoned me to continue.
“The major event that climaxed it all during our high school career was junior year when I was dating Anthony and you and I went into the woods behind our houses so you could take pictures with your new camera.”
“Ah, I was waiting for you to get to that part.”
“You set the camera down so we could take a picture together and as you were walking over to me the sunlight came through the trees and landed on your body and I nearly drooled on how perfect your browned skin was and how amazing your muscles look through your shirt. You didn’t say anything but you just kept looking me in the eyes. It took all I had to keep from jumping you right then and there.” I could feel my skin getting warmer at the memory and the sexual tension building but I held it back.
“I was trying to read you and figure out what you wanted. I hated that you were with that asshole and I knew you didn’t want to be with him.” His eyebrows furrowed as he remembered how I had been abused, nearly raped, and eventually shot by my drug-selling ex-boyfriend for refusing to sleep with him. Koeda had been there for me in the hospital but we had gotten into a huge argument that temporarily ended our friendship. “I was praying to God that you wanted me as much as I wanted you right at that moment.”
“When you kissed me I thought I would explode with passion I had been keeping in for nearly three years. You picked me up and pinned me to the oak tree with my legs wrapped around your waist and I was just about to come right then and there but I stopped you because I was afraid of being a cheater.”
“Of all the things to be afraid of…” he murmured as he shook his head as if to shake away the frustrations of my naivety during my teenage years. “I wanted to make love to you under that tree so many times. It felt so right, so natural to be surrounded by trees and sunlight and curious forest animals.” I laughed at the thought of some Disney-oriented forest creatures finding a pair of teens doing the unthinkable in such a perfect place. I told Koeda my thought and he laughed whole-heartedly. “So what about the time at your dad’s house when I came to visit?” he asked.
At that time we had already been together for three months and it was after my mom died and I had been forced to live with my drunken, abusive father in Los Angeles while Koeda still lived in Redlands. We had gone out on a date for the first time in over a month of not seeing each other and had come back to my dad’s house to spend a little more time with one another. I had decided I didn’t want to wait anymore to make love to him but I was driven mostly by the attempt to piss off my dad. He thought we were having sex anyway so I thought I’d make it official in the hopes that he’d kick me out already and I could live on my own, or with Koeda. I had the money to since my mom had left me a good three million dollars she had kept a secret from the whole family just in case something had happened to her, but I wasn’t old enough to have it all for myself so she assigned Dr. Thoreau to be my “caretaker” to give me a monthly allowance so I wouldn’t go without necessities while I lived with my dad.