When I Dream of You: A Valentine's Day Romance

by Marcella Swann

  He roughly pulled her panties to the side, too eager to push them all the way off, and slid two fingers inside her. She jerked again, but didn’t pull back. He released a gasp against her lips, feeling her opening pull his fingers in, wet and ready for him. His tongue thundered around hers as he probed deeper. She spread her legs further apart, giving him easier access.

  She didn’t want to have any reservations, even though her mind was all over the place. You barely know this guy. I thought you wanted things to be different.

  His mouth had moved back to her neck and then slowly eased down her shoulder. Don’t do this. You’re better than this. Tell him to stop.

  Aria didn’t want to tell him to stop. She wanted to beg him to take her to his bedroom, do things up right, yet she was in the moment, mesmerized by him, his beauty and his strength. More than anything, she wanted him to take her right there. After he kissed her shoulder, he moved down her back to her legs. She kept her eyes closed, trying to control her breathing, anxiously wanting to drown out her fears. But she could feel him, like a feral animal stalking its prey. He inched her dress up even higher, revealing her panties.

  He took hold of her panties and slid them off with an effortless grace. He felt his hands spread her legs ever so slightly, rubbing her inner thighs. She felt open and alive. When she opened her eyes, she saw him gazing at her pussy, her legs spread open for him. It made her hips buck with desire. It was the sexier, most erotic thing she could imagine.

  His soft breath brushed against her opening as he bent down and dribbled kisses on each inner thigh. She shivered. Aria felt the warmth of his breath and drove her to distraction. She grabbed for his head, trying to pull him closer. He resisted, toying with her. Finally, he slipped his tongue inside, spreading her labia with the swift movement. She groaned, grabbing onto the couch and holding herself still. He moved in even deeper.

  He slithered his tongue in small round inside her and around her clitoris, lapping up all the wetness that she had hidden underneath. He let out a satisfied moan.

  She bore down, moving her hips as he tasted her, looking to see where the connection could go. Ridiculous. You’re doing everything you said you didn’t want to do.

  “Shut up.” She didn’t realize she had cried out the words until he stopped and pulled back. He looked at her, shock registering on his face.

  She frantically shook her head. “No. Don’t stop.” She then sat up and pulled off the dress. He looked at her bra and a wolfish smile widened on his lips. Devon was clearly in his element. He moved back up her body and held onto the arm of the couch as he kissed her.

  She closed her eyes tighter. She didn’t want her conscience to mess this up for her. She was more vulnerable in front of him than she had been in front of anyone in what seemed years. She couldn’t pull back.

  Aria wrapped her arms around him and he pressed his body to her near naked one. While they kissed, he slipped his hand under her bra and grasped onto her left breast. He started to massage with his firm grasp. You’re going to let him have every part of you and you don’t even know him. Bravo, Aria, Bravo. He started to slip his other hand, the one that wasn’t playing with her breast, under her bra strap and lower it down, ready to yank the last piece of clothing from her. If he respected you, then he would understand why you would stop. She focused on her last thought. It infuriated her that she was slowly giving in, but as the strap fell from her, she caught herself falling back on the couch.

  “Wait, Devon. We can’t do this.”

  He didn’t hear her, at first. He continued to move on top of her, his lips forming to the curvature of her breast. That’s when he heard the exasperated gasp.

  “Stop,” she said. She put her hands against his chest and pushed him back.

  He reluctantly rolled off her. He looked down at her nearly naked body, not sure what just happened. “What’s going on, Aria? Are you just trying to tease me?”

  She looked up at him and then sat up and started to get dressed again. “No! It’s not like that,” she said.

  He shook his head, turning away from her, frustrated that she would play easy to get and then suddenly draw back from him. “It sure as hell looks like it,” he argued. “You were practically throwing yourself at me and correct me if I’m wrong, you didn’t exactly look like you wanted to stop. So, what the hell’s going on?”

  She pulled up her panties. Devon was frustrated with her, but not as frustrated as she was with herself. She could barely look him in the eye as she spoke. “I did want it. I still do, but I also want to take things slow. Things got heated way too quickly. I don’t know how to handle that and it’s better if we just end things for tonight.”

  “Why, because you’re scared?”

  She pulled up her dress and reached her hand behind her back to lift the zipper. “I don’t know, Devon. Maybe I am but I don’t want to screw things up. I like you.”

  He looked away from her. “And yet, you pull back like that. Gives a guy a wrong impression, don’t you think?”

  “I’m sorry,” she softly said. She knew that this could very well ruin things for them, but she had to be true to herself. As much as she wanted to continue, she feared she would regret it in the morning.

  He slowly turned back to her. “I’m sorry too. You can see yourself out.” He turned away from her again and went over to the other side of the room.

  Her jaw dropped. She was sure that meant she had ruined things, but she merely was trying to be true to set her own pace and Devon couldn’t see that. “We don’t have to end things. We just should end them tonight.”

  “Yeah, well we might not be that compatible. We’ll see.” He wouldn’t even look at her. Pride was an ugly thing and Devon had plenty of it. His ego wouldn’t allow him to look at her. He needed her to leave.

  ARIA MADE IT OUT TO her car and slid into the front seat but just sat there. She didn’t know why she ran as she did. It wasn’t that she wasn’t in the mood to have sex with him. The truth was that she honestly wanted to consummate whatever type of relationship she could have with a night of sex. It’d been way too long for her, but she allowed her mind to get in the way of everything.

  She hit her fist against her steering wheel. “You’re going to mess everything up. What were you thinking?” She looked up to his house and she swore she saw a silhouette of someone standing behind a window staring back at her. Was it Devon? Perhaps one of his servants? Whatever it was, or if it was truly someone there, she felt weird just sitting in the driveway. She started the car and down the road out. The gate just opened as she approached it, making it easier to get as far away from the house as possible. Aria was certain she had screwed things up and wasn’t going to look even stranger than she already did.

  Back at the house, Devon continued to stare out the window. He was furious that she would humiliate him and run off like that. It was demeaning to his character.

  “Sir? Is everything all right?” He turned around to find Mary standing there. Mary had been a family friend since he was boy and he saw her as more than just the help. She looked concerned as she stared at him.

  “Everything is fine, Mary. You may clean up and thank you for a wonderful night.”

  She nodded but still looked a little worried. He turned back around and glanced once more out the window. It was a nice evening. Aria was everything he could have ever wanted and more. She was the ideal woman. She was beautiful, poised, sexy, charming, and a bit timid, but he was going to work through all that. He wanted to be with her because she was perfect in every way, until she ran out on him, of course. It was like a switch had gone off in her brain telling her she should stop. But why? What did he do to bring that out in her? Why did she suddenly feel the need to rush off?

  He shook his head and left his location to head up to his room. It would take him some time to fully understand it, but she was a woman. Women could be frustrating. “Was she just playing me?” he asked out loud as he reached his room. He didn’t think she was.
Aria didn’t seem like the kind of woman that would play games and he was already too emotionally attached to think that she was simply stringing him along.

  He sat down on the edge of his bed. Her beautiful lips came back to his mind. If she was any other woman, he would have just marked it up to a loss and so no biggie. The problem was, she wasn’t just any other woman and he’d be lying if he said that he didn’t like the cat and mouse game she would be bringing to the table. Maybe it was just time she needed.

  I don’t want to screw things up. I like you. Those words could mean something. He liked her too and maybe it was just nerves that got in her way, but should he just cut her out completely? A lot of people got nervous and it could just be that Aria was worth the wait.

  Or, it could just be that you know she wanted it and you don’t give up that easily. “Well, that, too.” He laughed when he responded to his conscience. He didn’t give up and if Aria wanted to hold back slightly, then maybe he would just have to push a little harder. Of course, he also might just have to not play into her hand so quickly. He always got what he wanted and this was something new. Leave him high and dry wasn’t something that couldn’t be quickly forgiven. She would need to have a taste of her own medicine and then maybe he would give her another chance. This was his game now. He was in control.

  ARIA LAY IN BED, HER eyes staring up at the ceiling. Every time she closed them, she thought of Devon’s mouth on hers, or his mouth on her neck or her shoulder, and then she would feel his tongue creeping into her nether regions. She was angry with herself. Why’d I have to be such a freakin’ baby about it? She hit the bed in frustration. Her cellphone dinged a text message and for a split second she thought it might be Devon.

  She glanced at the clock by her bed and saw it was just after one. She reached across and grabbed her phone, hoping it was him, but finding a text from Tyler.

  Tyler: Soooo....

  That was all he said. She considered tossing her phone across the room and cursing him forever suggesting Devon in the first place. Instead, she hit reply to his message.

  Aria: Don’t ask!

  She put her phone down and heaved a sigh. She closed her eyes to attempt to get some rest when her phone started buzzing with a phone call. She groaned and picked it up to stop the annoying sound. She knew it was Tyler. “What?” she asked into the phone.

  “Whoa, calm down. What’s wrong?”

  “Try everything,” she mumbled. “Ty, I really don’t want to talk about it. I’ve had a long day and I really just want to forget today ever happened.”

  “Babe, I’m sorry you feel that way. Don’t shut me out, though, what’s wrong?”

  She thought about everything that went wrong. She could feel a tear spring to her eyes and wondered where that came from. She flicked it away. “Things got pretty heated pretty fast after supper. Like, I’m telling you that there’s no reason that we didn’t go to bed together.”

  “So you didn’t? Why then?” he asked.

  She shook her head, anger clouding her tear-filled eyes. “It was me. It was all me,” she said. “I pushed him away because I wanted this relationship to be different. I didn’t want to immediately jump into bed and expect anything to change. So, he practically kicked me out of his house.” Aria knew that he only kicked her out of the house because he was just as confused as she was. He was basically telling her to go if she didn’t want to be there with him. “I think I ruined things.”

  “Oh, babe ... maybe you didn’t. I wouldn’t worry about it too much, because he’s probably right now thinking of how he wants to win you back. I’m sure you didn’t ruin things. Just give him a chance. He probably understands that things were just moving too fast.”

  Aria wanted to believe that was the case, but she saw his eyes as she pushed him away. He was angry with her and rightfully so, because she was angry with herself. She couldn’t fault him if he never wanted to see her again, but she secretly hoped that Tyler was right.

  “Do you really think so?” she asked.

  “Come on. You’re Aria Nolan, who wouldn’t want to get you back? I’m positive.” He hesitated on the other end. “On the slight chance that I am wrong, though, then who needs him? He clearly doesn’t deserve you if he’s willing to watch you walk away from him. You know I’m right.”

  Aria chuckled. She could always count on Tyler to cheer her up. “You’re right. I won’t dwell on it anymore because he doesn’t deserve me if he doesn’t understand where I’m coming from.”

  “Now you’re talking,” he said. “You go on and rest your pretty little eyes and don’t even give him another thought. Tomorrow things will look better. Trust me.”

  “All right, Ty. Thanks for calling. Love you.”

  “Love you, too. Talk to you laters.”

  She disconnected the call and thought about it. Tyler was right, and she was going to try to not focus her mind on it all. She had a television show to finish auditioning people for and way more to keep her mind distracted. Who needed one more distraction? Even if that distraction was Devon Prescott.

  Chapter 7

  Aria threw herself into her work. It wasn’t too difficult to do, as she had a deadline to meet and not a minute to waste. A few days after she left Devon’s house, she sat in her office going over audition tapes. She had most of the female parts that she wanted to have called back in for the second round of auditions covered but she was struggling with some of the tapes.

  On one hand, she felt she had a good idea of who she wanted to call back in, but then another actor would shine through, leaving her to wonder if maybe she was making a mistake not bringing them back in. She decided she needed a second pair of eyes, so looked out the door down the hallway, glancing in both directions, until she spotted Mandy.

  She waved to her and Mandy rushed down the hall.

  “Yes?” she asked.

  “I’m scouring through audition tapes and I seriously feel like I’m going to scream, will you give me your opinion?”

  “Oh my gosh, I’d love to,” she said.

  Aria smiled. “Thanks.”

  They walked over to the chair and sat down and Aria started the tape. She watched through them for what seemed like the hundredth time. She would glance at Mandy and find her nodding, a few times shifting nervously in her seat, but sometimes she would even have an expression on her face that seemed to say how did that guy make it into the auditions. It was more interesting just to watch Mandy’s interactions as she watched the videos. Mandy had started taking notes, which impressed Aria even more. She was taking the job seriously.

  When they were through with the two audition tapes, Aria turned them off. “So, what do you think?” she asked.

  “Well, first off ... I absolutely loved Brandon Hathaway. I’ve been reading the script and I think that he would do amazing as Lord Dexter Greene.”

  “Good eye, I think the same,” Aria said. That brought a smile to Mandy’s face. “Go on ... what else do you think?”

  “Well, when it comes to the women, I’m just not sure. Jasmine Bryant seemed to be good and I think the camera loved her. Cora, however, she seemed pretty tense.”

  Aria agreed with Mandy on many of her points. She was glad she had asked for her opinion, so she knew she was on the right track and not letting her mind play tricks on her again. “Thanks, Mandy. With that help, I think that we have the pool narrowed down. So, tell me something about yourself, Mandy. Have you done much acting?”

  Mandy looked at Aria. She nodded. “Well, besides the usual drama club in school I’ve had a few small arts, but I always believed that I was supposed to be behind the scenes. That’s where my passion comes from.”

  “You remind me a lot of myself. I think that you should keep at it and you’ll go far.”

  Mandy’s face turned red. “That means a lot to me, Aria. Thank you.” She stood up and Aria walked her to the door.

  “Anytime. I mean it.” She waved to Mandy as she left the room and went back to workin
g on what she was working on.

  Aria went back to her desk and looked over the resumes she had sitting in front of her. She had a pile of all the ones she wanted to have called back and put them in a folder to be handed over to the next audition stage. Her job, for the most part, was done. At least when it came to hiring for the HBO drama. She still had other smaller projects she was working on that could take up her time for a few more days.

  A week had gone by and while she thought she was getting through it rather well, Devon did start to creep back in her mind. Especially at night when she was getting ready for bed, she would find herself thinking about him. She would pull up his number on her phone and just stare at it. A couple of times she even went as far as to hit the button to call him, but she always stopped herself.

  Her fear was that if she stooped so low to call him, he would know that he had won and she couldn’t get him out of her mind. She didn’t want him to see that she was struggling with knowing that she might never see him again. It was possible that he wouldn’t even want to hear from her and if she learned that, it would make her feel even worse. It was just best to let it be and that’s what she would do.

  When another couple of days passed, she received a phone call from Marisa while she was finishing up at work. “Hello?”

  “Hey, girlie. Hubby is taking the kids out to give me a final girls’ night out before the little bambino is born. You up for it?”

  She groaned, careful not to let Marisa hear. “I don’t know. I have been neglecting house chores because work has been busy, and I really should be doing something productive.”

  “House chores can wait. I, on the other hand, cannot,” she laughed. “I won’t keep you out late. I promise but I just need to get out of the house and enjoy the evening without any kids. Just give me this one night. Please.”