One Last Touch

by Lauren Wood

  Chapter 4

  Cal

  She was a little blurry, but I could see her just fine. I woke up to Mariss looking at me and it made me think it was a dream. A damn good dream, so real. She was saying the things I wanted to hear. This couldn’t be real. She was right next to me. I could reach out and touch her.

  My hand went to her face and it was soft underneath my fingertips. I could feel the heat coming from within. She sure the hell felt real.

  “Yeah Cal. There was something going on between us. I would have liked to have seen how it all played out.”

  I leaned in and kissed the apparition. Nothing was this perfect in real life and I was convinced that this couldn’t be real. Her lips were too soft and too giving as I started to kiss her. Her body was too soft when I pulled her closer. Everything about it was just too perfect.

  “You taste like you used to.”

  “Taste?”

  “Yeah, your lips, your skin, all of you. I still remember the way you taste from last time.”

  She tried to squirm free.

  “That was a long time ago Cal. You can’t remember that.”

  I chuckled and told her that I had a good memory when it came to her. I’d never had a dream where I argued with her.

  “I do.”

  My hand slipped underneath the T-shirt that she was wearing, and I found out that she didn’t have any panties on. I felt the wetness and my hand stalled. Sliding one finger inside of her wet heat, I heard a distant moan. She was soaked, and I brought the taste to my mouth.

  “You do taste just the same.”

  She covered her face with my shoulder and wouldn’t look at me. I moved my hand back down between her legs and started to rub and push my digit deep, tasting it and then kissing her until she looked at me.

  “Nice and sweet.”

  “Then you should do it properly. I remember things too and your mouth was very well trained.”

  That had me laughing. I don’t remember her being such a delight. We should have talked more that night.

  Pushing her back and opening her legs, I leaned in and took the first slow lick on her hot flesh. She jumped a little and I had to hold down her hips so that she couldn’t get away. Whimpering, I could feel her trying to raise her hips to meet me, but I wasn’t going to let that happen. She was trying to rush me, but this was my dream and I wasn’t going to let her. I wanted her nice and slow, knowing that I was going to wake up and Mariss was going to be gone.

  The soft whines and moans were new, and they seemed to take over my ability to think. Her hips and hands were insistent, pushing me for more, needing more from me. “Please Cal, I’m so close!”

  I’d heard her say that before and it did no less than it did the time before. She felt so damn god, tasted so good, I grew hungrier and wanted what she said she was so close to. I needed to taste the pleasure in my mouth.

  Sliding a finger inside to push her over the edge, Mariss called out loudly and I tasted a flood of her fluid. It overwhelmed my senses and I remember thinking how real it all seemed. This was the realest dream that I’d ever had.

  “Fuck Mariss. Why can’t you be real?”

  She looked at me confused and both of us had the same look when the light came on. It flooded the room with brightness and I could see very clearly the woman underneath me, as well as the couple that was standing by the light switch with a look of surprise on their face. My mind took a minute to realize who they were and where I was.

  “Mariss!”

  It was Anna yelling at her friend. Mariss was quicker to get up then I was, and I could see her face now. It was red with embarrassment and I wasn’t sure what I was supposed to say. I wiped my mouth because it was still wet with her juices and for the first time since I woke up and found her standing over me, I realized that this wasn’t a dream. She was real, this was real, and the consequences were going to be real as well. I’d really messed up.

  Anna and Mariss left the room after she gave me a dirty look. I was a bad influence on everyone I assumed she thought. Maybe she was right because I wasn’t supposed to do that.

  “What the hell are you doing Cal?”

  I was still trying to get with it and reality was setting in. What the hell had I been doing besides tasting a woman I hadn’t tasted in a decade? I’d wanted it too much and now that I had, I knew that I had fucked up.

  “I don’t know. Fuck, I thought I was having a damn good dream.”

  He couldn’t look mad for long, that much was clear. He was smiling behind the knitted brow that he was trying to maintain. I wished that I was able to feel some guilt, but I didn’t. Not even a little bit of guilt ran through me, not one little ounce of it. She felt too good and being with her was well worth the consequences, some that only a couple of hours before I was so worried about. Now it didn’t seem to matter. If I lost my job, so what?

  “I see that. Anna is going to chew my ass out for this.”

  I apologized to him. That was the only thing that I felt bad about. I wished that he wouldn’t get bitched at for it.

  “It was worth it on my end man. I will cover for you sometime as payback.”

  He just shook his head. “What the hell were you doing?”

  “I think you saw.”

  “Yeah she’s loud and woke us up.”

  “I always liked that about her.”

  He just shook his head. “Maybe she’s right, you are a bad influence on people. Her friend hadn’t even been here a couple of hours and you have her committing sin with you. Does she know about Marsha?”

  Hell, I hadn’t even remembered about Marsha in those minutes. I hadn’t thought it was real. Truly, I’d thought that it was all a dream. It wasn’t the first time that I’d seen her and touched her in my dreams over the years. She had a reoccurring role.

  “No and you can’t tell her. She would be pissed off at me for not telling her.”

  “I have a feeling that she is going to know soon enough. Anna likes Marsha and she’s going to say something. I wouldn’t be able to stop her. You know how Anna is.”

  That had me worried. I didn’t want Marsha to know. I needed time on that front, but more than that I didn’t want Mariss to find out that I wasn’t available. I was. Agreeing to get married was a mistake from the beginning, but now it was a huge one. I had to fix it. It was just that simple.

  “I do, but I need to tell her first.”

  He held his hands up and told me that he couldn’t help it. Jesse was my good friend, but I could see what side he had to stand on in this one. I didn’t blame him. Anna was going to be his wife in a couple of days.

  “Well, I guess whatever happens, happens.”

  Jesse scowled, and he looked about as excited over the prospect of it as I did. This was not going to turn out well.

  Chapter 6

  Mariss

  “What were you thinking Mariss!?”

  “I wasn’t thinking Anna, that’s the problem. It always was with him. I don’t know what hold he has on me, but that’s no excuse. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for that to happen, in your house no less.”

  She waved me off and told me that she wasn’t worried about that, but that it put her in a tight position. I didn’t know what she was talking about and the look she gave me sent a hard knot into my throat.

  “What should I know that you’re not telling me?”

  “I’m going to tell you Mariss, I’m just not sure how to. I know that you and Cal had something going in the past and when you told me about it I should have listened better and told you that he wasn’t single, not by far. He’s engaged to be married to someone that I know and like very well, Marsha.”

  My face fell and there was no way to stop the reaction that her words gave me. It made me sick inside and no matter how much I wanted to believe that it was wrong, and she was somehow mistaken, I knew that what she said was true, no matter how much I didn’t want to hear it.

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah, they are gettin
g married a month after me and Jesse are getting married.”

  “Oh.”

  It was a stupid answer, but one that I kept repeating because I really didn’t know what to say. I was stumped and the more I thought about it, the more I got upset. Why had this happened if he was getting engaged? I felt like he had lied to me, even though there really hadn’t been that many words. It was all talk of the past, nothing of the present or the future. It had all just happened.

  “Now you can see why this is a problem. I like Marsha and I know her well, but he’s Jesse’s best friend so if I say something, it might start something between me and Jesse. I don’t want that.”

  “Don’t say anything. If he loves her, he’ll tell her. I won’t mess with him anymore. I didn’t know, or I wouldn’t in the first place.”

  “How did this even happen?”

  She asked like she didn’t know, and I realized that she didn’t. She didn’t know that I was the one that had found him and stared, getting caught, then letting it all get out of hand. Cal was sort of drunk and sort of sleepy, but his kisses and words had set something alight in me and I hadn’t cared.

  “I don’t know. It just did. I didn’t know that he was getting married. He didn’t say anything.”

  “Well to be fair Mariss, it didn’t look like he had much of a chance to say much of anything.”

  I turned a little red because I knew what she was talking about. She was talking about the fact that he had been in between my legs. It had been a good way to get him to be quiet. Give his mouth something to do and he hadn’t said a word.

  My legs pressed together with the idea of him doing that and I waved myself off. I really had to get him out of my head. He was married. How did he forget to tell me that? I was going to find out because I wasn’t done with him. He’d been the one that wanted to talk and now I was the one that wanted answers.

  “Yeah, I know. Damn he is good at that. I’m sure Marsha will forgive him, just to get the feeling of what he can do with his mouth. He is quite talented.”

  She just shook her head and told me that I was crazy. Maybe I was, but at the end of the day it was because I knew that I was going to have to let him go. The sad part was that I didn’t want to. I wanted him with me, in me and I don’t know if the idea of him a fiancée having really ruined that for me. It had been so long since I’d been pleasured like Cal could do. He had a way with my body back then and he had the same control over it now to my chagrin. I didn’t like to think that anyone had that sort of control over me, no matter how handsome they were.

  “I can’t believe you Mariss. This isn’t like you. I don’t think I’ve ever heard you talk like this before.”

  “I know.”

  Anna told me that she was going back to bed. She didn’t tell me to stay away from Cal, but it went without saying. I was supposed to be here for her, not my own needs and desires. I wasn’t being a very good friend now.

  “I’m sorry Anna. I don’t know what came over me, but it won’t happen again. I’m here for you and the wedding. I just didn’t see him coming.”

  She said that she understood, but I didn’t even understand so I doubted her statement. I’d been caught off guard and let the wild side of me out again. It was hard not to when he was around but knowing that he was getting married would work in cooling my jets. It was the last thing that I wanted to hear. I wanted him to be mine and free, but it wasn’t to be. Cal was another woman’s and the little taste of pleasure from him would be the last.

  I convinced Anna of that fact. Now I just had to convince myself of it as well.

  I went back to bed and tried not to replay the last hour in my head. I didn’t see Cal again and I was glad for that. It was bad enough that I had to stay here now and be around Jesse. I was so embarrassed, and I thought about getting a hotel in the morning. I could still be here for Anna and her important day, but I wouldn’t have to meet Jesse in the kitchen for breakfast. How was I going to be able to face him after what just happened?

  Cursing myself and my weakness towards Cal, I convinced myself that getting a hotel was the best way to go. I needed to get some space and a place where I could think. I don’t know what I was thinking, but it was hard to deny that I was still unsure what had happened.

  I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I couldn’t have Cal. He was going to be married. I didn’t like the thought of that at all.

  Chapter 7

  Cal

  The morning was worse than the night. Before I was drunk and sobered up to a bad realization. This morning was worse because I had a headache and I still had to deal with the shit from before. I really didn’t think that what happened with Mariss was real when it was happening. I thought it was a dream. I really did. I would have done it one hundred times over of course and I knew that the excuse of me thinking it wasn’t real, wasn’t going to pan out.

  I didn’t know if Anna was going to tell Marsha. They were friends, I knew that, and Anna would not stand by and say nothing, even if it was her other friend that I’d been with. I was sure that I was going to be walking into a hailstorm. I should just confess and tell her that the wedding was off. It shouldn’t have been going on as it was. It was something that had started somehow, and I’d been swept away in it. The fact of the matter was though, I didn’t want to be.

  Now that I knew where Mariss was, and things were going well with her, I was thinking about our next meeting. It didn’t occur to me that Anna would also tell Mariss about Marsha and I would be had. It was all a damn mess and my head hurt even more when I thought about it. Fuck.

  “Hey man, you up?”

  Jesse came in with some coffee and a couple of pain killers. He was a godsend and I told him so because he really was. My head felt like it was going to explode. I was thankful that I didn’t have to go to work today because I would have been hard pressed to be productive at all.

  “Yeah, I’m up, but damned if I want to be.”

  “After last night, I bet. Anna is all fired up about it, so I wouldn’t pay her any attention when you go downstairs.”

  My head was the worst of my problems now, but his bride was my second. I’d heard stories about her anger and I didn’t want it directed at me.

  “Why don’t I just go out the back door and we can skip all of that?”

  “Not a chance. If she lets it go with you, that means that she will chill out a bit for me.”

  I just laughed and shook my head. “Throwing me under the bus?”

  “You bet your ass I am. Now go downstairs and make an appearance so that she can scold you. It’s not so bad, not really. It’s kind of like getting rapped on the nose with a newspaper.”

  “Good to know.”

  I dreaded going downstairs because of Anna, but also Mariss. She most likely already knew that I was engaged, and it was going to be awkward. Would she confront me too? I had this irrational fear that Marsha would be down there as well, called in to bust me out. It wasn’t a good feeling and I felt like was going to my execution, not breakfast.

  “Morning Cal.”

  It was Anna that spoke to me. Mariss wouldn’t even look at me and she looked about as uncomfortable as I felt.

  “Good morning Anna. Thanks for letting me crash on your couch.”

  “No problem Cal. You know you’re always welcome here, as long as you don’t try to molest my friends in the middle of the night.”

  If she would have been serious I would have gotten defensive, but she was teasing, something that I was thankful for. It was one of those times that I really had messed up and I didn’t get embarrassed by my action very often. I looked over to Mariss and I could tell that she was humiliated. She was bright red and I liked the look of it. It was a good look for her.

  “Sorry about that Anna. Your friends are just too damn delectable.”

  “Yes, you have been with a couple now, one you’re supposed to marry in a month.”

  And then that happened. I thought it was all going so
well. She had let me get my guard down and now I was going to get the ass chewing that I was sure was going to happen to begin with.

  “Now it wasn’t supposed to happen like that. I was a little drunk…”

  I stopped because there really was no answer that was going to get me out of this shit and I didn’t even want to try. I’d messed up. That was the end of it. I didn’t regret it.

  “It happened. I don’t regret it.”

  That was the end of it and I took a bite of eggs before I was kicked out. Anna had a temper and she could be a handful from what I hear, but she could also cook. Jesse would bring in leftovers from the night before and he shared with me once and a while.

  The eggs were just as good as everything else and I wondered what it was that she did to them. They’re just eggs.

  “These are great Anna. You really out did yourself.”

  “So, did you from what I heard.”

  Now I was getting red and I looked to Jesse to save me. He was smiling at his fiancée and I wondered if he liked that I was getting it. I knew that he didn’t want the barrel directed at him.

  “I aim to please.”

  Anna smiled, and I could tell that she was enjoying herself. I wanted to ask her if she was going to tell Marsha, but I was afraid of the answer and I didn’t want to push it one way or another. I noticed the shift in Mariss’ demeanor when the mention of my fiancée was brought up. I knew that was why she did it and I could have wrung Anna’s neck. She wasn’t going to make any of this easy, that was for sure.

  Me and Anna bantered back and forth with Mariss and Jesse staying out of it. I wanted to catch Mariss alone to talk to her, but she was the first one done, ready to leave the table. I didn’t know what to say to her and I didn’t have an excuse to go after her.

  Anna left not too long after that to go upstairs and get dressed. The two women had appointments to keep and I was happy to have a moment to breathe. I can’t believe that Jesse was willingly going to do that for the rest of his life. She was brutal and way too smart. I would be exhausted if I had to argue like that all the time.