INVISIBLE STRING ☆ DANIEL RICCIARDO

eight

MIAMI, USA; MAY 9th 2022

     The morning light was creeping through the empty crevices of the hotel rooms curtain, bathing the room in its soft glow. The suns rays were reflecting off the tender skin of his back as her eyes fluttered open to glance around her.

Isla could immediately feel the goosebumps rising on the skin of her naked body, upper half exposed to the cold air in the hotel room. Her gaze rakes over the man next to her, still blissfully asleep with one arm stretched under his pillow, the other slung across her waist as he lies on his stomach.

Her hands go to her face, rubbing aggressively down her skin as she contemplated what she had done last night. The regret comes washing over her almost instantly, even if it felt so, so good at the time. She knew she shouldn't be there, she shouldn't have been there at all.

She seemed to always throw herself into intimate relationships— no, not even intimate; just plain sex. It proved to be her own form of escape and deflecting from her real problems and she hated it.

In her attempt to crawl out of bed, she had created too much motion, causing the man next to her to wrap his arm around her tightly. She wanted to hate the feeling, she really did, but his warmth spread across her skin, making her comfortable yet again.

It doesn't take much longer for Daniel to stir yet again, this time Isla fully knowing he was awake as his lips pepper tender kisses along her exposed shoulder. Isla let's out a satisfied groan, almost leaning into his advances before her mind seemed to reboot and she was pushing herself upwards.

Daniel seemed shocked at the sudden movement, eyebrows furrowing at the woman as she mumbles to herself in a foreign language. He watches on in confusion as Isla rushes out of bed and grabs the shirt he was wearing just last night off the ground, pulling it on and turning back to face him.

"This...this shouldn't have happened." she speaks hurriedly, as if she were apologising for her actions. "I'm sorry if you've gotten the wrong idea but-"

"What on Earth are you talking about?" Daniel questions, still barely awake. Isla couldn't help the flutter across her body at the sound of his voice, quickly shaking the thoughts away yet again.

"This was a mistake. I never should've ended up here last night."

"But you did."

"Yeah, and it was wrong."

Daniel shakes his head, unable to contain his chuckles as he swings his legs over the side of the bed and tugs on his boxers. Moving towards her, his hands move to grab her own which were now trying to collect her things from the dresser.

"Didn't feel very wrong to me." he speaks quietly, as if his voice would startle her and she would start panicking all over again. "I was fully aware of every single action I made last night, and I don't regret a single one of them."

Isla gives him a small smile. "Not even telling me that story of you falling off your dirt bike?"

"Not even that." he laughs, thinking he had convinced her to stay but Isla pulls her hands away from his grasp.

"Look, Daniel, last night was great. I love spending time with you." she starts with a huff, hands moving frustratedly through her hair. "But I don't do this, I don't do relationships and morning cuddles or whatever else it is."

"You're making quite the bold assumptions right now."

"I'm saying it as it is. We got drunk and we had sex and that's it. Nothing more, nothing less."