Smoldering Embers

by P. M. Briede

  Enjoying the power I seemed to have over him, I stole a glance down. “Well, I believe it is, Wesley.” I watched as his fingers deftly undid the button and moved down to the next that was just above my heart. A burn worked its way through my body; however, it didn’t originate from the stove. I wondered if he could hear the sound of my drumming heart; his was hammering against my spine. “What exactly do you think you are doing?” I asked in a composed voice.

  I flinched at the tickle from his fingers when he undid the button on my stomach, drawing a gasp from his lips. He cleared his throat. “Taking my shirt back. I was looking for it earlier,” he explained in a rough whisper. “Imagine my surprise when I saw that it had sprouted the shapeliest pair of legs.” By this time he’d finished with the last button. The cool morning air kissed my flesh in the gap between the two sides of his shirt, causing goose bumps to mar my skin.

  “Lose something?” I asked seductively as I laid my head back against his chest. His arousal pulsated at my tailbone.

  He ignored my question, instead lifting his elbow to place his palm, fingers down, between my breasts. The manner in which he erased the goose flesh as his hand ran down the middle of my body reminded me of the way the blind feel a face, cataloguing every curve, memorizing the texture. When his fingertips met the waistband of my lingerie, there was no hesitation before they curved and slipped beneath to dip in my warm, wanton pool. His lips pressed against my ear at the same moment his fingertips pressed into the space between my folds, causing me to shudder and moan, stealing the words from him. Satisfaction and pride dripped from the chuckle that emanated from deep in his throat, ending in a guttural groan of his own. A tormented whisper filtered through the ecstasy his fingers were creating. “No, I believe I have found something.”

  My body began to rhythmically move against him. I shifted enough to allow my arm to slip between us and free him from the bonds of his boxer briefs. “Have you now?” I asked in a breathy voice. He moaned his assent against the hollow between my neck and shoulder. “Well, what exactly do you want to do with it?”

  The pressure between my legs intensified as he struggled to slip inside me but just before he could I’d shift out of reach. “Charlotte!” he begged in a hoarse whisper. “I’m trying to show you what I want.”

  “I know but that’s not what I want.” And I showed him what I craved by giving him a slight squeeze before releasing him. I was instantly off the ground and cradled in his arms. With an excited laugh I clung to him and kissed him indulgently.

  I’d thought he’d carry me upstairs. So I was shocked when I heard a door slam open. I had just pulled my lips from his and opened my eyes when I was unceremoniously deposited on something I knew wasn’t my bed. I quickly recognized my office outlining the man who hadn’t been the one I’d taken as my lover just last night. The man who didn’t belong to the voice I’d been talking to in the kitchen or kissing in the hall. “Olivier!”

  He stood and peeled off the only clothes he’d been wearing. He’d thrown me on the chaise so I tried to scurry away from him Fire erupted in his eyes when I began moving and his hands shot out to intercept me, pinning me back between him and the chaise as he determinedly dragged down my panties, flung Wesley’s shirt open, and put a knee between my legs.

  It was then that I realized I was about to be used for nothing more than pleasure. The thought should have frightened me; should have spurred me to fight him. Instead the idea of my body being the one thing this man desired excited me and made me wet. This was going to be animalistic and raw.

  Common sense kicked in for a moment and I made to slide out from under him. He ensnared my thighs and spread them wide, forcing one foot on the floor and bending the other to wrap around him. His eyes met mine then and there was a grim set to his jaw. “If this isn’t what you want,” his voice said, “say so now before I can’t stop.” It hadn’t been what I wanted at first but it was now what I needed, so I remained silent. An impish smile slid across his lips as he leaned over me, resting an arm at the back of the chaise while the other held a vise grip on my hip.

  The momentum of the moment changed as he teased me with his swollen tip. I wanted to lift my hips to meet him but I was locked in place by the blasted hand on my hip. “Not so much fun when you’re the one being denied what you want, is it?” I wanted to hide my disappointment with not only being deprived of the pleasure of being filled by him but also my burgeoning despair at losing the carnality we’d been building to. So I turned away and shrugged as if what he was doing didn’t matter.

  His breath caressed my ear as he chuckled. “Don’t worry. I’ll show you more mercy than you showed me.” Then he dove in so abruptly, I not only bit back the scream that pleaded to be released but dug my nails deep into his shoulder blades. He wasn’t there long before he’d pulled out to plunge in again. This time I grunted, steadfastly clamping my teeth shut. An inferno was building so fast that by his fourth thrust I knew it would only take a few more before the swell crested over the rest of my body.

  My hip was released then but not free from his swift and hard compressions. He firmly grabbed my neck and turned my face to his. His strained voice cut through my focus to hold back the ever building fervor he was quickly feeding. “Open your eyes, Charlotte. I want to get lost in all your depths.” My eyelids fluttered open and it was a fight to keep them there as my peak was rapidly approaching. “Quit holding back,” he admonished.

  His words poked holes in the dam I’d built but by the end it had crumbled and my body shook as the flood met the fire in a clash of titanic proportions that I’d never experienced before. I was instantly consumed by his heat. The flames in his eyes had intensified to a point where they shined white. My skin took on a green hue, the same color as the fire from my dreams. The same shade as his eyes. The conflicting sensations became too much, the painful burning on the outside, the blissful surging on the inside. I opened my mouth to scream but whether it was from pleasure or pain I didn’t know.

  I shot up and gasped for air. Sweat was pouring down my spine, between my breasts. My skin was red and raw and I threw the covers off because the feel of them hurt. There was that familiar throbbing headache behind my eyes. I looked around confused. I wasn’t in my office but my bed.

  “Charlotte?” I jumped away from the sound of my name as Wesley reached out for me. I blinked rapidly and he came into focus. If he was in my bed and not Olivier then the memories I had of becoming his girlfriend and lover had to be real. Thank God! It meant that what I’d done with Olivier had been a dream! An extremely intense and realistic dream. “Charlotte?!” His voice was more panicked now. “Is it those headaches again?” He moved to embrace me. Even though I was relieved seeing his face I was still reeling from my dream. I instinctually flinched so far away from him that I fell out of bed. “Charlotte!”

  “I’m fine, Wesley. I just need a minute.” I grabbed the first article of clothing I saw, scrambled to my feet and stumbled to the bathroom. Once I was safe behind the locked door I sunk to the floor. What am I doing? Why did I have a sex dream about Olivier the morning after making love to Wesley? And that was the stark difference between the imagined and real encounter between the two men. The space between my legs throbbed with a longing to be filled. I sighed because it wasn’t readily clear which encounter I immediately wanted to repeat.

  “Charlotte?” Wesley called through the door disrupting my thoughts as he knocked lightly on it. He sounded hesitant and concerned. I knew he was questioning whether he’d pushed me further than I was ready to go. He hadn’t. I’d known full well what I was doing when I pulled him into my bed last night. “Love?”

  I stood and slid into what turned out to be his shirt from last night before opening the door. I was met with the Wesley I’d been expecting. He stood there, clad only in his boxer briefs, shuffling his feet and running a hand nervously through his hair. I smiled at him shyly and didn’t meet his eyes. Some part of me felt as if I’d cheated on him even th
ough it had been a dream.

  We stood there quietly trying to figure out what to say. He sensed something had happened. I was scared of what it could mean. “Headache again?” I nodded while attempting to bore a hole through the floor with my eyes. “Is that all?” My mouth opened to tell him the truth before I could stop it but I swallowed the words before they spilled from my tongue. His fingers lifted my chin until our eyes met. “Should I be worried?” he asked as he searched my eyes.

  “No,” I answered. At least I really didn’t think he did.

  Disappointment sat in his features. He wished I would confide in him. But until I understood my own feelings I saw no reason to share them with him. “You hungry?”

  He was offering an out and I took it. I turned to the bedroom door but stumbled and almost fell.

  Thankfully he caught me. “Whoa there, you okay?”

  “Apparently not,” I answered as I pressed my fingers to my temples. The room was spinning and there was a tightening behind my eyes. “I think I just need to eat and get some water. I’ll be fine.”

  He swept me up into his arms. “Something tells me that I might have a little something to do with this.” I didn’t know if he was right or wrong. He carried me downstairs and set me in a chair.

  It was charming the way he bustled through my kitchen pilfering the fridge and cabinets for all the supplies he needed. Seeing him behave so domestically made me smile and some of the muscles in my body relaxed.

  “I like that look on you,” he said when he caught me looking at him. I noticed that he didn’t appear as uneasy as before either. His eyes raked over me as he walked over with our breakfast. “I’m inclined to give it to you as a belated Christmas gift, by the way, so you’d hurt my feelings if you didn’t wear it.”

  I was a few bites into breakfast when I realized I was famished. I wasn’t aware I was shoveling food into my mouth like I’d never seen it until he chuckled. He bent over and picked up one of my legs, stretching it out over his thighs. Unable to question him with food stuffed in my cheeks, I let my eyes ask as I looked from my leg to his lap. “Charlotte, you’re on edge still. Let me help,” he answered in a hushed voice. His hands deftly moved along cramped and traumatized muscles I hadn’t been aware I had, kneading out all the knots and soothing my frazzled nerves. “Paige give you a hard time yesterday?” he innocently asked.

  I swallowed and took a big gulp of my juice to clear my throat and mouth before turning to face him. “You know she did,” I answered grateful to focus something other than my dream. “She kept pestering me about why you were in my room and what happened. Since I wouldn’t confirm or deny anything she tricked me into finally admitting that nothing torrid happened in my parent’s house.”

  He put down my leg and picked up the other. “How’s that?”

  “She stated that it mustn’t have been any good since she didn’t hear anything.”

  His head popped up so fast, I thought for a moment his neck might snap as fuming eyes locked on mine. “She said what?!”

  I patted his arm to settle him down. “You heard me, simmer down.”

  There was something about him that was off. He seemed uncomfortable. Under my scrutiny, he cleared his throat and took a healthy drink of his juice. “Well, I guess we proved her wrong last night.” It was a loaded statement. He was looking for affirmation that I was happy with what occurred last night. I couldn’t blame him his desire since I wouldn’t call my behavior so far this morning ego boosting.

  He deserved to know that I’d found him to be an exceptional lover, generous and attentive. After all my dream had started with me ruminating over his touch and kisses before Olivier stole it. I forcibly put that particular man out of my head. I leaned over and kissed Wesley, thrilled with the tremors that stole through the both of us and the way his tongue erased the image of Olivier from my mind. He reached out and pulled me into his lap. “Actually she was right,” I admitted against his lips.

  His brow furrowed. “About what?”

  “About how you’d handle me once you finally got on me, or should I say inside me?” His eyes flashed but still weren’t freed of his anxiety. “I believe it was something along the lines of loudly announcing our relationship to my neighbors.” A genuine, passionate, proud smile replaced his previous forced one.

  He began massaging my shoulders. I closed my eyes to the sight of the muscles of his chest, shoulders, and arms because it was insanely arousing. While I was happy to know that my dream of Olivier hadn’t changed how I saw Wesley the timing was currently inconvenient because my rehearsal with Russell was fast approaching.

  I disentangled his arms from around me and stood. He didn’t realize I was leaving until we walked into my bedroom and I pulled out my dance clothes. “Whoa, love, what are you doing? Aren’t you on Christmas vacation?”

  “I have a rehearsal today. It’s just a couple of hours. It’ll be good because that gives you time to go home and take care of whatever it is I’m sure you need to take care of. I’m not really well stocked in the daily items a man might need.”

  He grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards the bed. When he sat on the edge he placed me between his legs and solicitously looked up into my face. “About that. Please don’t think poorly of me, but I came prepared.” I arched an eyebrow at him, encouraging him to continue as I fondled the hair at the nape of his neck. He shuddered before answering. “I have a bag for the week in my car.”

  For the week! My mouth dropped from the shock of his confession but I wasn’t necessarily displeased with the implications. “What made you think I’d be okay with that?”

  “I hoped you’d be okay with that. Isn’t that a benefit of our upgrade to amators? A boy/girl sleepover?”

  I leveled him with a shrewd look. “But we weren’t amators when you packed that bag.”

  He smile and arched and eyebrow at me. “Let’s just say I had a pretty good feeling that we would be before the evening ended.” His lips found mine then to silence any other argument I had.

  An hour and a half later, I was unlocking my office to lead Wesley inside. “You know you could have stayed at my house.”

  His arms slipped around my waist and he stepped up behind me so his lips could caress my ear. “I know but then I’d have lost forty precious minutes of your company. I wish you’d let me watch you dance.” He started trailing kisses down my neck. It wasn’t the first argument he’d used to try and convince me to let him watch the rehearsal. But the distraction was the exact reason why he couldn’t.

  Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath, I reminded myself why I was here and untangled myself from him. “Computer’s on the desk. Rehearsal is over at twelve thirty. You cannot come down until then, you understand.” My tone was clipped and I refused to look at him while signing onto the internet. I took my office key off the key ring and slapped it down on the desk. “Lock up when you leave to come meet me in the dance studio.”

  With my gaze locked on the door I marched past him to leave but was stalled when he grabbed my arm. He caught my chin as he chuckled before kissing me deeply. “A reminder of what you’re missing out on,” he murmured against my lips. “Please have the boy gone when I get down there.” He released me and walked towards the computer.

  Agitated, I was grateful I had about fifteen minutes until Russell showed up. I ran to the dance studio and popped my iPod into the speakers. I needed to work off the effects of Wesley so that I could focus on the choreography Russell and I needed to put together. Selecting my song, I took the remote out onto the floor, put it in my pocket, closed my eyes, and pressed play. Obsession by Sky Ferreira started its blaring guitar beats.

  I rocked my body to the beat until the lyrics kicked in then started to move. As I stepped out I flung my head to the side pulling the rubber band out to set my hair free. My arms punctuated the beats as I threw them out and then immediately folded them across my body. Continuing with kicks, turns, changes in momentum and direction, I twirled around the
space, my body pulsating to the beats and words that were filling up the room. When I hit the chorus and its demands for more than just love, I snaked my hips and ran my arms around my neck and down my chest before stepping out into a pada bure. Then I slid back a couple of steps to arch back while kicking forward. The sweat was pouring down my back and chest but it let me work out my jittery energy and focus on dancing.

  The applause I heard when the music ended was alarming and I jumped in response. Ready to lambast Wesley for intruding I instead saw Olivier in the mirror and bit back the words. “Charlotte, I had no idea you could dance like that.”

  I ignored him to get the towel and water out of my bag. After dabbing my face and guzzling a fourth of my water, I kept my back to him. His presence brought forth the image of him plundering my body with reckless abandon. “What are you doing here, Olivier?” I asked with what I hoped was a casual demeanor. No need to give him any indication he spent many a night with me in the dreamworld.

  “Now what happened to your manners?” I glared at him in the mirror but his devilish smirk was the same he’d worn when he’d wrapped my legs around him in my dream. My cheeks heated at the thought. “What’s causing that beautiful blush, my dear?” he seductively whispered in my ear.

  “What are you doing here, Olivier?” I asked again, avoiding his question. The look in his eyes confirmed for me that he was assuming correctly that he had caused my blush. Could he possibly know that I’d been dreaming of him for weeks? That I’d imagined sex with him just this morning?

  “Why are you dodging my question?”

  That was it! “You dare to ask me why I’m dodging your question!” I spat as I spun around to face him. My reaction wasn’t what he’d expected. It wasn’t quite what I expected either. But this man had a way of bouncing my emotions from calm to agitated like a cat toying with a mouse. “Are you ready to tell me how you can bleed yet there’s no cut? Tell me what we won’t survive? Tell me what it is about me that freaks you the hell out?!” Surprise, surprise, but he didn’t say thing. “Didn’t think so. Why are you here, Olivier?”