by Dukey, Ker
I know you’d offer me comfort, take me in your embrace and give yourself to me.
I want that more than anything I’ve ever wanted. Why do you consume me so much?
Taking a deep breath I move through her house, inhaling her scent when I pass her room.
I head for the bathroom.
It’s so dingy in here, Alice.
How do you look so beautiful all the time when this is where you have to bathe your smooth, silky skin?
Opening the only bottle of shampoo, I sniff the coconut scent and smile.
Generic products are so beneath you.
When you’re living with me, you will have only the best.
Everything that touches your skin, your hair, will be luxury. You deserve luxury, Alice.
Moving into her room, it smells of her in here. Like clean clothes and cotton candy.
I haven’t had the time to look around before, be present in her existence. Breathe in the air she lives in.
There are photos of colleges on her wall and influential men from our town, red circles around their faces.
There is a list of companies who offer scholarships written on a piece of paper above their names and pictures.
My fist clenches when I see my company with a picture of Lee beneath it and a red cross over it.
Why him and not me, Alice? Do you not know that is my company, and if any man can offer you what you need, it’s me?
Snatching the picture down, I crumple it up and slip it into my pocket.
Fuck Lee.
I take a deep breath allowing my anger to wane.
I can’t stay mad at you, Alice.
It’s not your fault that you haven’t been taught to know who the businessmen are.
You’re just desperate to get help for college.
I will help you with that.
Slipping over to her laundry basket, I grin to see that she’s tidy.
I like that, clutter and mess are for children.
You’re not a child.
Picking through her dirty clothes I come across a pair of pink panties, cream lace around the edges. Innocent but sexy all in the same breath.
Bringing them to my nose, I inhale her.
This is what you wanted, why you left the basket full. You like to be desired and damn, Alice, they smell fucking divine.
Like you were soaked with arousal before slipping them off and touching your sopping wet pussy.
Do you like fingers inside or just rubbing over your clit? One day you will show me.
I will watch your pussy contract and release your nectar, lapping at every fucking drop.
I’m so fucking turned on by you.
My cock roars for release.
Unzipping my jeans, I pull my cock free and wrap the cotton panties around the girth.
We’re fucking touching almost, Alice.
Your essence is mixing with mine.
It doesn’t take long for the ribbon of come to squirt from me, coating my hands, her panties, and all over the clothes laying in the laundry basket.
I wish you didn’t have to wash them, so you could wear my scent on you…One day Alice…One-day real soon you will.
* * *
Maggie is asleep in the guest room when I return to Ebony’s house.
My sister is in bed, her TV on in the background since like me, she hates silence.
I go to the fridge and sigh.
It’s empty and I’m starving.
I debate over ordering something in but it’s nearing midnight.
Flicking the TV on, I collapse onto the couch that still needs to be replaced.
A job for another day.
Maybe I can get Maggie to pick one out.
She loves spending my money.
Closing my eyes, I conjure up a thought of Alice.
It’s time. It’s time to meet.
* * *
Screams wake me, ear splitting and terrified.
I dart up into pitch black and I’m plunged back in time to my childhood.
My mother screaming at me, drunk off her face, her tight grip clutching my wrist as she drags me through the house.
“Please Mama, don’t put me in there.
I’ll be good, I promise.”
But no pleading ever got me off.
The cupboard under the stairs was my hell, and I’m transported there now.
No way out, darkness all around, closing in, consuming me at will.
My own cries my only company.
No… there’s something else.
I jar from the hold my past has on me and search the floor for my cell phone.
Locating it, I quickly flick the flashlight app on and open my playlist to keep me tethered to the present.
Sweat coats my entire body and my chest moves rapidly with ragged breaths.
It’s Ebony’s screams I can hear, tormenting and soothing me all at once.
“What is it?” I hear Maggie calling out, her voice rough from sleep.
Ignoring her, I take the stairs two at a time and bust into my sister’s room.
I seek her out with the flashlight and find her huddled in a corner.
“Everything went out,” she sobs like a little girl waking from a night terror.
“It’s ok, it’s just a power outage,” I assure her. Grasping for her, I take her in my arms.
Moving to the bed, I lay us both down and hold her while my phone sings to us.
“Erik?” Maggie questions.
I didn’t even realize she’d followed me in here.
She’s standing at the end of the bed in one of my shirts, glowering at me as I hold Ebony.
“What’s going on?”
“Get out,” I bark and she startles, hurrying out of the room.
She’s gone when we wake up the next morning.
Twenty
Chapter
ALICE
All I can think about is Mr. Ross.
He’s in my dreams, in my waking musings and in every thought.
It’s hard to even explain to myself, but as soon as I saw his picture it felt like I knew him already.
Or I’m supposed to.
I’m more sure of that than anything else.
I haven’t replied to Ebony for days.
Instead I’m waiting her out, hoping she will soon be back to work where I can then go meet her, become her friend.
Insert myself into her life to get to him.
Coming into the kitchen my feet halt when I’m met by an older woman walking from my mother’s room.
“I got her a caretaker,” Asher announces from behind me, making me jump out my skin.
“Stalk much?” I snap.
“You wish.”
He looks tired, the toll of everything etched into light crinkles in the corner of his eyes.
“Can we afford her?” I whisper, but she hears me and raises a brow.
“Yes,” he says to us both as she continues filling a bowl with water at the sink.
“How?” I ask in a hushed tone, taking the seat next to him.
“I’m picking up some extra shifts at the garage, and it looks like the house will either need to go on the market or be remortgaged.”
This house is mine.
When mother croaks the money from this house will pay for me to get the fuck out of here.
Paris awaits.
I’ll forgo college or damn, go to college over there.
Asher seems to sense my stiff form because he narrows his glare on me.
“Your mother needs to be taken care of, Alice.”
What the hell ever.
“Have you been in my room?” I snap.
“What? No, why?” he sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose with his forefinger and thumb, like I irritate him.
Without given him a reply, I turn on my heel and storm off.
He has been in my room, because shits missing from my wall.
Twenty-One
Chapter
ERIK
The pane of glass acts as yet another barrier between us, stopping me from reaching out for her and never letting go.
Would she even remember me from our brief moment? Recognize any glimmer of the man who sniffed her hair in the elevator?
I’ve dreamt of this moment, played it out over and over, but never had the drive to see it through. Because once the chase is up… she will never be free of me.
I need you, Alice.
Watching from afar is a game for me, testing my restraint.
An edge game that keeps my adrenaline pumping and my fire burning.
She’s like a fine wine I’ve been saving for the right moment.
It’s been weeks of watching her, learning her routines, the people in her life.
Just drifting through her life, asleep at the wheel.
There’s something missing inside her; it shows in her soft, muted, dark eyes.
They have a smoky flare that’s waiting to be ignited in a fiery passion.
I can be the spark she’s been missing all this time.
She’s lonely, like me.
She needs me. Like I need her.
I push through the door of the clothes shop she’s in. The whore who works here has already spotted me, like her hormones are on alert and her radar has found a potential new victim.
Unlikely.
She’s looking for something she can’t have. I’m not here for her.
Without looking over at Alice, I can see her in my peripheral view.
She’s flicking through a rack of dresses, a frown on her features.
A man in here with his wife lets his gaze linger on her too long.
Do you want to die today?
The stench of burnt coffee beans assaults my senses as the assistant approaches me.
“Hey, what can I get you? It can be anything,” she winks, and I wonder if this really works for her or if she knows it’s desperate and unattractive.
“I’m just looking.” And it’s true, just not at the clothes she’s selling.
She bites her lip then holds her finger up in the air like a bulb just went on inside her empty head. “Maybe you need something for a date? Girlfriend? Wife?” she queries, dropping her eyes to my naked finger.
As if my body is tethered to hers, I sense Alice moving closer to us.
Her flowery perfume wafts over me, and then she comes into view.
Dark strands of velvet hair spiral down her back.
She’s smaller than she looks in her photos, and though she usually wears baggy clothes, today she’s in a summer dress despite the rain trickling down outside.
She’s such an exception to all rules.
Her small shoulders sag a little as she moves to the counter, and then they straighten, and her thick lips part as she looks up at me.
Her deep brown orbs seeing me for the first time.
There’s instant, palpable energy when our eyes lock.
Her breathing increases, raising her chest and straining the fabric of her dress against her ample bust.
The tension in her body dissipates like she diluted right in front of me from just a look.
Like our souls were greeting an old friend, introducing us to the new bodies they inhabit.
When the sales assistant returns to the counter, I keep my gaze trained on Alice, her eyes hypnotic and alluring.
The annoying assistant asks her for her items.
I make my way through the shop, keeping my eyes trained on Alice while shifting into the shadows, so I can rub the ache that has begun building.
As I pass the guy who can’t keep his eyes from what is mine, I kick the shoe that’s protruding from the seat he’s perched in.
He looks up from the paper he’s pretending to read, but I don’t waste energy on him.
Not when she’s here for me to focus on.
There are loud voices coming from the front of the store, some woman talking animatedly on a cell phone, but summoning all my attention is Alice.
She’s walking towards me, a bag with her purchase inside gripped in her palm.
An exotic pink glow creeps up her neck and bursts onto her cheeks, her eyes expanding as she takes me in.
“Do I know you?” she breathes. Silence and then, “I feel like I know you.”
The pull at the corner of my lips is hard to fight, so I allow the soft smile to grace my face.
She’s holding her purse to her chest like it’s a life raft and she may be drowning.
Her juicy fat lips part and her pupils dilate as she gazes up at me like I’m a mythical creature she’s discovering for the first time.
I tell her, “not yet. But you will.”
Twenty-Two
Chapter
ALICE
Is this fate?
What are the chances of running in to him of all people, of all places?
His words scream at me like a red neon sign.
Run.
But I don’t want to run, I want to surrender to him and let him have his wicked way with me.
“I’m Alice,” I say, offering him my hand.
There’s a look in his eyes that says, I know who you are.
He looks not at me but into me, dissecting and weaving his way through the choppy sea to the calm beneath it all.
The heat of his palm taking mine sends a stirring in my lower stomach.
This is what I wanted, to meet him, but I didn’t know then what it would actually be like.
My knees feel weak.
What a cliché.
“Erik,” he finally says, not releasing my hand.
I feel energy pulse up my arm, sprinkling pebble bumps all over my skin.
Wet, liquid heat dampens between my thighs, and as if he can sense my ache, his tongue swipes out to dampen his bottom lip.
“This may seem forward, but would you like to grab a coffee?” he asks, finally releasing my hand.
It’s unusual, a connection this intense with someone you just met, but it’s undeniable.
The circumstances and coincidences swirling around us are like a storm hitting land, but I know I’m going to say yes.
Yes to coffee, yes to sex, yes to anything he wants.
Twenty-Three
Chapter
ERIK
Recognition sparked in her eyes when they grazed over me.
She’s either seen me before, knows I’ve been following her, or she’s looked me up.
It doesn’t matter which, because she’s now seated opposite me in a small coffee house sipping a foamy drink.
White froth sits on her upper lip, and I ache to suck it clean then replace it with a creamy liquid of my own.
“Do you ask all the girls you meet in the shopping mall out for coffee?” she asks, slight amusement in her tone.
“Only the pretty ones,” I wink.
It’s cheesy but makes her blush, and oh what a pretty sight that is.
I wonder what she would look like whimpering.
“What did you buy?” I ask, flicking my eyes to her shopping bags and then back to her.
Placing down her cup she crinkles her nose, embarrassment making her eyes lower.
“I’m graduating Friday, so I needed a new dress.”
She bites her lip nervously, so I tease her a little.
“Oh, what did you study at college?”
Tracking her gulp, I shift in my seat to ease the zipper from digging into my hardness.
“High school, actually,” she tucks a strand of hair behind her ear and picks up her cup to hide behind it.
“You look older than a high schooler,” I drop my gaze to her cleavage then slowly look back up at her through my lashes, my eyes doing all the talking.
I want to fuck you right here on this table, little bird.
&nb
sp; “I’m nineteen,” she says with a ragged hitch in her words.
I want you on this table like a buffet for one, for me to take my fill.
My leg moves against hers beneath the table, her eyes widening and lips parting upon contact.
The tension is palpable in the air around us.
Snapping my hand out I grasp her by the wrist, making her gasp and almost drop her cup.
Frenzied eyes seek an explanation, but I stay silent, just letting the feel of her racing pulse surge into me.
It’s never happened to me before, but I swear I’m about to come in my pants.
She doesn’t tug away, but she is scared. Her pulse tells me so.
“I want to taste you,” I caress the words over my tongue, let them slip through my lips and wash over her like an elixir.
“Where?” she asks, and pre-come seeps from the tip of my hard cock.
How is this even happening? I didn’t expect that to be her answer.
Any other women would have fled and warned her friends about the pervert they met.
Apparently not her though.
No, my broken little bird is as fucked up as me.
She wants to be ravished and ruined.
Placing her cup down she waits me out, the devil in her eyes daring me.
Checking the surroundings, I slip beneath the table once I’m satisfied we’re far enough in the back for no one to notice us.
She doesn’t protest or move to run.
There is no running from me, and she’s sensing that. We belong together.
Her bare, creamy legs part with a firm shove of her knees from my palms.
Arousal, potent and delicious, beckons me. Adrenaline rushes through my body like an undercurrent dragging me into the bliss.
My hands slip up her thighs, tugging her panties to the side.
Her clit is just peeking out at me from her juicy folds.
Maneuvering myself into a better position, I force her legs to wrap around my neck and kiss over her pretty lips.
