~"Come on now, honey, we can build a home for three
Come on now, honey, don't you wanna live with me?"~ 

*

A.N.: Sorry for not updating in forever, but my life was really busy and I had to take a break from writing, but I'm back now and try to update this more regularly again.  A big thank you to whoever is still reading this as well as for the over 200 votes on this little story. Well  I really hope this chapter makes a bit up for the long wait.~xxx

"I... I don't know what to say... Brian, this is far too much. We can't...David and I-"

"Would have everything you needed her. Didn't you tell me you wanted to move out of the city? Something quiet and peaceful," Brian interrupted her. "This is exactly what you wanted and you wouldn't have to pay anything. Think about it."

Celeste bid her lip nervously, obviously hesitating to accept his offer as Brian had expected of her. She was a proud independent woman, nobody he could just coax into doing what he wanted with a promise of a better life. It might have been easier if Celeste had been a little bit more like her sister, but strangely enough this was exactly what Brian liked about her. She wasn't like the girls he usually went out with and theoretically he wasn't going out with her in the first place, which he was totally fine with, Celeste was his friend, one he wanted to have always around him.  

Maybe in someway he did feel more for her than only friendship or lust... Brian hadn't been in any relationship since he had met her. There had been women of course, but nothing more serious in any way. The only one he wanted to have with him in his home was Celeste, even if she would only be his housekeeper and it meant he had to deal with her son as well, it still would be better than what any other girl could offer him. Celeste meant home and that was everything Brian wanted at the moment. He needed a break, get his act together again and he knew with her here at this wonderful house, he could finally find his peace. He wanted to tell her how much he needed her, but he couldn't. Despised that they had become really close and that there was sometimes nothing more that Brian craved than reaching out to kiss her, he didn't want to scare her off. She was still keeping most of his advances at bay, though Brian couldn't help, but think that she sometimes returned his longing to reach out to kiss him or maybe it was only wishful thinking on his part. 

Considering how she sometimes acted, it probably only was. 

Celeste was frowning at him as if she was trying to figure out what Brian was really planning with his offer and it got nearly awkwardly quiet between the two of them until Celeste just decided to voice her fear, but not without looking away from him first. "You don't expect me to sleep with you, because you offer David and me a place to stay?"

It hurt to know that her opinion on him had remained so low. He might have managed to raise her view on him, but in certain moments it still was very clear what she really thought of him and why they never would become anything more than friends. Celeste might be what Brian was looking for in a woman, but he wasn't what she wanted in a man.

He gulped his feelings and frustration down or he feared he would have said something he might have regretted later. "No, I- I certainly wouldn't mind if you would sleep with me, but you don't have to. All I want from you is to stay here, promise... and that you well maybe cook for me."

She still wasn't looking at him, but the expression on her face had changed. It seemed nearly sad somehow, even if Brian didn't understood why. "You don't want to be alone..." She mumbled.

Brian could have denied it or told her he was only offering to help her out, but from experience he knew that he often got further with Celeste if he just told her the truth and so he decided to voice something that had been on his mind for a quite a while, despised everything telling him what an awful idea it was. Maybe they never could be more, but he would never know if he never tried.

"I'm really fond of you..."

Celeste visibly tensed up at his words and her silence made it even worse. Brian's stomach dropped and he started to regret that he had said anything. How typical of him to ruin something precious to him, he thought and suddenly wanted nothing more than a cigarette and a drink. There was nothing to drink, but at least he had a packet of cigarettes in his pocket. Trembling he lid one, but the calming sensation didn't arrive with the first drag and neither did it with the second.

"Just tell me you despise people like me and we're over. I can't stand this fucking silence!" he finally exclaimed. Celeste snapped out of her daze, even if she didn't look any happier. She was biting her lip again and looking any where but Brian.

"I don't despise you... it's quite the opposite actually, I really like you, which is why this is so hard... Brian, I-I enjoy the time with you and David adores you, but I have to think about the future and that's why I have to turn down you offer... I can't stay with you. "

The only thing Brian heard though was 'I really like you' and his mind was overjoyed. Before he could waste another thought he had stepped closer to Celeste and pulled her into a hug. She looked at him astonished with big eyes and he couldn't help himself, but kiss her. Slow at first, wanting to enjoy every bit of the sweet sensation, but soon he discovered he needed more when he felt her wanting this as much as himself. It was nearly as if he had looked for this his whole life and now that he got a taste of it, he knew he would never be able to live without her again.

His mouth soon wasn't the only thing that was pressed against her. Every fiber of his body craved to be with her. Never in his life had felt such an enormous longing for something and every little touch made it worse. Celeste was more addicting than any drug he knew. She was pure addiction and with every kiss Brian got more and more lost. 

It was her that pulled him onto the couch and it was her as well that had her hands on his belt, Brian was so dazed that sex hadn't even crossed his mind. He wanted to be with her in every form there was and sex seemed so ordinary... He desired more of her than just a physical connection, which he wanted her to know, but he couldn't find his voice, when he felt her hands pressed against him rather intimately. The only sound that left his throat was a groan and another one when Celeste suddenly pushed him off her. 

Brian couldn't react. His mind was everywhere, but here and there was just one thought: why? He looked at her, pleadingly to continue where she had left, but she evaded his gaze and got up from the couch. She stood before him flustered and tried to straighten her dress.

"Why?" he whispered when he heard it.

"Cel? Seriously where are you? I'm no longer in the mood to look after David and I need to leave anyway." Marion. She must have looked for them and yelled out for her sister. Brian could have strangled her. If she had waited a bit longer, he could have got rid at least of some of his longing, instead of raising it to a level it nearly was dangerous. 

"I-I..." She started off and finally looked at Brian. Her cheeks were slightly flushed and she as well didn't seem to know how to really act. "I'm sorry... I need to deal with my sister," she concluded and rushed out of the room.

"Fuck..."

*

"Is this really the Hundred Acre Wood?" David asked. After Brian had more or less snapped out from the dazzling spell Celeste had cast upon him, he went to look for her and her annoying sister. When he had offered to show her the house and Marion had decided to tag along, he had already dreaded that he would regret allowing her to come as well, but he hadn't expected it to be that bad, especially when at first Marion even had its advantages. She inspected the house with David and hence had left him alone with Celeste... Maybe it would have been better for his peace of mind, if David had stayed with them the whole time. Surely nothing he could now ponder about would have happened with the boy in the room. Funny how he wished David had been there when in the past he had been grateful for every moment he could spend with Celeste on his own. He no longer minded her son too much, the boy was alright, but whenever he was with them, Celeste's attention was rather on the boy than on Brian and well to be honest it made him kind of  jealous. He wanted to have her attention and not share it with a four year old and even lose to him... It was a very stupid thought of him. All Celeste tried was to be a good mother, but Brian couldn't help, but wish she would care about him as much as she did for her son. 

"Brian?" David tried again and snapped Brian finally out of his thoughts. Celeste had borrowed his car to drive Marion back to the city, but David hadn't wanted to leave. At least part of his plan had worked, maybe not everything was in vain yet. 

They were outside, walking though Brian's newly acquired property and as soon as David had heard this was where Winnie the Pooh lived, he run around asking a million questions and Brian nearly struggled to keep up with him. Though it was nice to see that somebody else loved his house as much as he did. Marion hadn't seemed very impressed by it and Celeste well she had loved it until he had asked her to stay...

He sighed.

"Are you sad? You seem sad," David suddenly exclaimed and Brian wondered where the boy sometimes got his ideas from.

"No, I'm not sad. I just asked your mother something and she well she didn't react how I wanted her to," he explained.

"That does sound like you're sad... Did you ask her to marry you?"Brian stopped in his steps and David did as well, looking up at him with childish innocence. "Mummy said if people loved each other they would and you love mummy, so did you ask her?"

"I-No!" Brian exclaimed more vehemently than he had intended to. The boy seemed taken aback for a moment.

"I thought you liked mummy?"

Brian sighed and wondered if he really wasn't cursed in some way. "I like your mummy very much, but that doesn't have to mean we need to get married."

David frowned, clearly contemplating this new piece of information and Brian nearly had to smile. The boy might ask a million of annoying questions, but he was at least indeed trying to understand matters, which was more than one could expect form certain grown-ups. They just asked, but never understood anything. Brian had suffered through endless interviews like that, which made it nearly refreshing to finally have somebody who contemplated what he said, even if he had no idea what to reply to David's next question.

"But how can we become a family then?"

*Lyrics by the Rolling Stones.

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