The Stories We Whisper at Night

by Sky Corgan

  “You doing all right there, Miss Marrow?”

  “I’m perfectly fine. And you?”

  “Never better. This place makes the best damned martini in Texas, don’t you think?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t had every martini in Texas.”

  “You’re kind of a spitfire, aren’t you, Bella?”

  “I don’t know. Am I?”

  “Yes, I’d say so. Not like other girls, that’s for sure.”

  “You already said that.”

  “You’re right,” he said thoughtfully, his brow furrowing slightly, “I did. I guess I’m not completely sure how to talk to you.”

  “I seriously doubt that. You seem like the kind of guy who knows how to talk to every woman. Isn’t that so?”

  He just looked at me then, and I found myself wishing that I’d kept my mouth shut. Matt had asked me about ordering a full dinner as soon as we’d sat down, but I had nixed that immediately. Being wined and dined by this guy wasn’t the reason I had agreed to come out with him. I’d agreed to come out with him because of the resolution, and that was it. Maybe it was because of that, and perhaps it was because he was so good-looking, but for the whole time the two of us had been sipping our drinks together, I had felt a building tension between us. Matt kept probing to get to know me better, kept asking questions I didn’t want to answer, and I kept turning it back to light, meaningless banter.

  It was actually kind of frustrating, and I couldn’t get rid of a vague annoyance over the whole thing. I had been on plenty of dates over the last ten years of my life, during which I had tried harder than I wanted to admit to get those dates to be genuinely interested in getting to know me. Now, here was this guy I was determined not to get to know at all, and he kept giving me looks like he was trying to see into my mind. I wanted him to stay an enigma, and for me to remain the same to him, and after I proved to myself that I could see my resolution through, I wanted to leave him behind before I could catch any kind of feelings.

  “What makes you think that, Bella?” he asked, his voice a little too low and serious for comfort. “Have I done something to give you the impression that I’m a womanizer?”

  “What?! No! Come on, Matt, you’re taking this too seriously. I was just playing, okay? Just having some fun. That’s what this is supposed to be, right? Fun?”

  “I guess I can’t argue with you there.” He smiled, that unsettled look still a ghost lingering in his eyes. “I guess that’s part of the point of first dates. That, and getting to know each other better, which I’m not sure we’ve been doing a very good job of. We’ve been here for an hour, and I feel like I haven’t gotten to know you at all.”

  Internally, I let out a little cry of victory. When it came to dating, oversharing had always been a problem of mine. Oversharing and falling for men too quickly, neither of which I was allowing myself to do right now. Instead of me feeling frustrated, it was him, and there was nothing wrong with that, in my humble opinion. Matt was right, he didn’t know me any better now than he had at the start of this thing, and I didn’t know him, either.

  I took another sip of my martini, a long, deep sip that made me cough and sputter. The point of it had been to gain a little bit of courage. In my mind’s eye, I was sure I would look like one of those wickedly cool forties movie stars who commanded the attention and desire of every man she met. Instead, I almost choked, and Matt gave me a look of concern.

  “You okay, Bella?”

  “Fine,” I manage to get out, my face hot and blushing defiantly. “You just surprised me, that’s all.”

  “Surprised you? I don’t understand. I didn’t say anything too shocking. At least, not that I’m aware of.”

  “You’re too serious, Matt,” I answered in what I hoped was a flirtatious, coy voice. “Anyone ever tell you that?”

  “Honestly? No. That’s not something many women have accused me of.”

  “Well, I think you’re being too serious, for sure. We should be having fun. Let’s get out of here. Okay?”

  “Where do you want to go?”

  “I want to see where you live.”

  I had been shocked by the sound of those words coming out of my mouth and even more shocked still when they had worked exactly the way I had wanted them to. Matt quickly called the bartender over for the check.

  The whole interior of his car was filled with electricity while he sped through the dark, moving through the hill county roads quickly and with the two of us in near silence. His hand rested on my thigh while I clung to the sides of my seat in anticipation.

  He seemed like a decent man, exactly the kind of man I would have fallen head over heels for just a couple of weeks ago, but I had managed to get out of our date without that. All there was, was the sexual wanting, and that feeling was extreme enough all on its own. It was so extreme that I barely even noticed the large, fancy house he pulled up to. When he got out of the car and came over to open the passenger side door for me, the only thing I could think of was my resolution. It was time to put my money where my mouth was.

  Matt took me by the hand and helped me up and out of the car. As I got to my feet, I stumbled a little, just enough to send me pitching forward into his ready and open arms. His scent was stronger now, enveloping me thoroughly. When I looked up, his face was bent down towards mine, his breath showing in little white puffs in the cold winter night’s air.

  “Sorry. The driveway is made of stones. Looks pretty but isn’t the most practical thing in the world. I haven’t lived here very long. I’ve been meaning to change it, but—”

  “Matt?”

  “Yes?”

  “Shut up, okay?”

  I rose up on the tips of my toes, a distant part of me marveling at my own craziness. Never in my life had I told a man to shut up that way, and the words were completely exhilarating and mildly terrifying at the same time. I noted the widening of his eyes, the look of surprise there, and had time to think that Matt probably wasn’t the kind of man who’d been told to shut up many times in his life. By a woman that he’d taken out to a fancy dinner? Probably not ever.

  I slid my hands into his thick hair and pulled his face closer to mine, pressing my lips to his before I had time to chicken out. I had never been the kind of girl to make the first move—had always waited anxiously for the guy to do it. Taking charge the way I was now shot my body full of nervous energy, and my stomach flip-flopped uncomfortably, but it was a feeling that was quickly replaced by a fire running through all my limbs that settled into the center of me, the part of me that was now aching for more of Matt. The moment my lips touched his, the electricity that had been building between the two of us exploded, and I felt like I was melting into him. My fingers tightened in his hair, and without even realizing I was doing it, I started pulling him in closer so that I could have more of him, all of him. His arms, which were still around me from his valiant catch, tightened, his hands sliding up my back before moving down to my ass and cupping it firmly. I moaned a little, and his hands grabbed me more intently, slapped my ass lightly, and then pulled me so close that there was no denying the massive erection resting against my hip. I leaned into it, pressing the weight of my body against him so that he grunted, his breath and heart both quickening at the same time.

  “Bella—”

  “No,” I said throatily, speaking into his open mouth. “Don’t talk. Talking is no good right now. I want you to feel me.”

  I kissed him again, my lips parting gladly as his tongue slipped inside. He tasted like spice, like the vodka from his martini, and the heat in my pelvis grew. One of my hands dropped down from his now thoroughly tousled hair, found the hard length of him, and began to stroke up and down teasingly through his pants. Matt moaned, backing us both up until I was propped up against the hood of his car. He pulled my dress up roughly, unceremoniously, his strong fingers tugging my lace thong aside. My head cocked back, my eyes closed to the full moon watching our tryst in the sky above, and I cried out a
s his fingers located my clit. They moved expertly, found the perfect rhythm, and my hands reached for his belt blindly, wanting his pants off, wanting to feel him inside of me.

  There was none of that nervous inner dialogue about what he would think of me when this was all over, none of that fear of whether he liked me enough for this to be a good idea. I didn’t care about that. I didn’t care about anything but the way my body responded to him. And dear God, if I responded so readily to just his fingers, what would it be like when he slid inside of me? It was something I didn’t want to wait to find out and something I didn’t need to wait for. All of those dating rules I had always tried so hard to follow, they were obsolete. There was just me and him and his fingers thrusting inside of me until I shrieked, coming hard and fast.

  My own clumsy fingers still struggled with the buckle of his belt. It was a task I was so intent upon that it took me a minute to realize that he was drawing back from me. He kissed me lightly on the forehead and then pulled my dress back down, stepping just outside of my grasp. When I opened my eyes, he was smiling at me, but there was something strange about the smile, something that made it seem like he was shaken up.

  “What is it, Matt?”

  “I want to see you again, Bella.”

  “What do you mean, again?” I laughed, hoping the question came off as playful and not annoyed, or even worse, needy. “I’m still here. I’m right here.”

  “I know you are, and believe me, Bella, I’m incredibly tempted, but I can’t do this right now. I can’t get caught up tonight. I have a really early morning full of meetings, and if I let myself get caught up now, I won’t be able to stop.”

  “Right. Okay, I get it.”

  “But I want to see you again, okay? Promise me you’ll let me take you out again.”

  I agreed, feeling numb about the whole thing. Matt begged me to let him drive me home, but that was something I wasn’t interested in. I called a taxi, telling him that if he had such an early morning, he didn’t need to be using his time to take me home.

  The taxi was there in record time, the only thing about the end of our evening that worked the way I wanted it to. I rode home in silence, my head full of confusion.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  MATT

  Bella had thought I was lying about my meetings. I had seen it on her face. She was a hell of a lot more transparent than she thought, although not nearly as easy to read as I was used to. I had seen the question on the edge of her mouth, wanting to know why I would have work meetings on a Saturday morning. I considered answering the question, too, even though she hadn't outright asked it, but in the end, I hadn't seen the point. She was already sure I was lying to her, and in my experience, a woman who knew you were lying wasn't all that interested in the truth. So I had let her go, knowing I wasn't going to get any sleep.

  I was right, too. I'd climbed into bed like a good little boy, but every time I'd closed my eyes, I had seen her. I had seen Bella's face lifted towards the night sky, contorted in a mask of unadulterated pleasure while my fingers moved inside of her. Even when I did manage to nod off for a half an hour or so, she was on my mind, and I would wake back up again well beyond a tolerable level of sexual frustration.

  When it finally started to get light outside, I had said fuck it and climbed out of bed, stomping into the master bathroom to take a shower. I had thought about Bella while I was in there, too, something I couldn't have stopped even if I'd wanted to. Which I didn't.

  Leaning against the slick tile wall, I had closed my eyes and seen the way Bella's hips had thrust against my hand, the way her hips would have moved if I had slid my throbbing prick inside of her the way we had both wanted me to. My hand moved roughly up and down my cock while I thought about this, while I imagined the way her tits would bounce when she was perched on top of me. I came hard and fast.

  It wasn't what I really wanted--wasn't nearly as good as the real thing would be—but it was enough to get me through the day. It made me tired, and I wanted to fall back into bed for an hour or three. Wanted to, but for me, that wasn't an option.

  “No rest for the wicked.”

  I smiled to myself in the foggy mirror, feeling none of the humor in my expression. That was the thing that had me pissed off about last night. Bella had left angry at being rejected, and I hadn’t actually been lying. I had a bunch of meetings to sit through, the last thing any guy wanted to do on a Saturday morning, and now I had to do it with Bella in my head.

  “Excuse me, Mr. Brinks? I have to be honest with you. I’m getting the impression that your heart isn’t really in this thing. I have to say, it doesn’t fill me with the utmost confidence either.”

  My eyes, which had been open but not seeing what was in front of me, cleared, and I saw Mr. Lipshtick, the owner of a company whose name I couldn’t even remember at that moment. I was a little surprised to find that I was actually in my office at all, a surprise I did my best to hide from the needy bastard. My whole morning felt like a movie strip with pieces cut out of it, leaving me to jump from one part to another without any of the in-between parts that made everything make sense. I was too tired for this shit. Too tired and too hung up on a woman who I barely knew at all. Unfortunately, for everyone involved, that didn’t mean I wasn’t still expected to do my job.

  Being the owner of one of the biggest tech companies in Texas meant I didn’t get to blow off Saturday meetings, sleep or no sleep. It meant I had to placate the complaints of men like Mr. Lipshtick, men I would have rather told to get the hell out and be done with it. Instead, I smiled a smile I hoped was enough to calm him down and get him out of my office sooner rather than later.

  “Please, Mr. Lipshtick, never think that. Believe me, we’re definitely interested in your company. I’m interested in it.”

  “Are you sure about that? Because it looks like your head’s not in the game. It looks like you would rather be somewhere else.”

  “Of course not, Mr. Lipshtick. It’s just the wheels in my head turning. It’s how I am when I get a new project. Like a dog with a bone, you know? It’s all a part of the creative process. I can assure you that we’re going to produce something you’re very happy with. It’s what we do.”

  Mr. Lipshtick peered at me through his thick glasses, his eyes narrowed. I had a feeling he was going to make me do some more groveling before he allowed himself to be satisfied, and I ground my teeth, preparing myself. It had been my idea to be the face of the company and not just the owner, but that was something I was starting to rethink. I was getting tired of this shit. I was getting tired, in general.

  “Okay, Mr. Brinks,” Mr. Lipshtick broke in, apparently satisfied with what I’d said, “you’ve certainly got the reputation. I’m ready to proceed. I think we’re going to do good business together.”

  I stood and shook his hand, instructing the man to see my secretary on his way out for the paperwork necessary to start our partnership rolling and then sat down again heavily as soon as he’d gone. I was glad for the minute alone and rested my head in my hands, rubbing my temples slowly and wishing I could go home. I wished I could get Bella out of my head, too, and wondered what in the hell it was going to take to make that happen. I kept going over the night before, the way her hands had fumbled with my belt. Even thinking about it made my prick start to get hard again, which was just about the last thing I needed at the moment.

  “Goddamnit. What the hell am I supposed to do with this?”

  “Woah there, cousin! Catch you at a bad time?”

  Not looking up, the headache that had been starting to build during my Lipshtick meeting took a giant step forward. My cousin, Noah, wasn’t supposed to be at work today, but with the way the day had been going, I shouldn’t have been surprised. Noah wasn’t the kind of guy to do what he was supposed to. That was precisely why I had done my aunt and uncle a favor and given him a job when he couldn’t get one elsewhere. He was a lazy fucker, and most of the time, he was kind of a son of a bitch to boot, but he w
as also like a brother to me, and that meant I was willing to tolerate a lot from him, even him waltzing into my office like he owned the place, although I’d be lying if I said I was happy to see him. On a different day? Maybe. On this day? No fucking way.

  “Hey, Noah. What the hell are you doing here?”

  “Hell of a way to greet a guy. Seriously, bro, what’s going on with you? You look like shit warmed over.”

  “Thanks, buddy. Always good for a compliment, aren’t you?”

  “Just calling it like I see it, bro. What gives?”

  “Didn’t get any sleep last night. Just struggling a little bit. That, and Lipshtick is sort of a prick.”

  “Don’t have to tell me twice. Part of the job, right?”

  “It is,” I answered lamely.

  Noah and I had both come from money, and not the kind of money easily attainable for the upwardly mobile people of America. We had come from the kind of money people make movies about.

  For the Brinks family, the life of the elite was no big thing. It was our day in and day out, and after a while, it got kind of boring. Having too much of some things can be harmful. Having too much of everything? Disaster waiting to happen. I was the guy who belonged in a soap opera, the douchebag rich playboy who was always down to screw other people over. I spent as much as I wanted and screwed five, six, ten chicks a week and then got up and did it all over again the week after that. I lived a life most dudes would kill for, and I loved it. Then, just like that, I didn’t anymore.

  Something in my gut told me the life I was living was going to kill me, and not from an overdose or catching a disease either. It was going to kill me because it was sucking everything good right out of me. I didn’t want to be that man anymore, and for the past year, I had been working on changing.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  BELLA

  “Hey. Are you at work right now?” I asked Maggie over the phone.