Inseparable Strangers

by Jill Patten

  He laughed. “You? How do you think I feel? I’m ready to slip you a drug to put you to sleep. Listening to you think about how wet I’m making you is about to send me over the edge.”

  “Okay, I have an idea. How about you go to your room, or downstairs, or somewhere besides in my room and in my bed. Because as long as you’re in my face, I’ll never be able to relax long enough to sleep.”

  “Alright, but if you’re not out within an hour, I’m coming up here to take matters in my own hands.” He got up on all fours, leaned over to kiss my forehead, and then came in quick to suck the bottom of my lip. “See you soon, Sugar Lips,” he said with a sultry voice.

  Leaving me in a heaping pool of melted goo, he walked out of my room, shutting the door behind him. Damn tease.

  Inhaling deeply, I climbed up to my pillows, pulled the comforter down, and slid into my bed. My mind was too busy to fall asleep so easily, and I didn’t want to start thinking about the day’s earlier events because it brought on too much pain.

  After lying still for about a minute, my door crashed open, banging into the wall and Aaron came trudging toward me with lustful eyes. “Fuck the dreams,” he growled. He climbed over top of me and ripped the covers from my body. “I need you, Lennox. I need your gorgeous body naked,” he said with a heavy breath as he quickly jerked my panties down my legs, and tossed them to the floor. He was like a wild animal. His moves were primal. Starting at my ankles, he hungrily kissed his way up to my thighs, paying special attention to my warm, wet slit with his fingers. “This is so much better than a dream,” he murmured over my skin as he left a trail of kisses to my breasts.

  “Yes,” I said with a gasp. His mouth worked in sync with his fingers and the sensation caused my toes to curl. A tight sensation grew in my belly and traveled straight to my clit. I was on the verge of having an orgasm.

  “Mmm…you taste better than I was expecting. I can’t wait to get a taste of your juices below,” Aaron said, looking up at me with a heated desire. When his mouth abandoned the small bud, the cool air caused it to pucker. “Hmpf, this won’t do,” he said as he closed his mouth back over it, causing a little moan to escape me.

  His smoldering eyes watched me as I watched him devour my breasts. He took turns from licking, suckling, and biting each breasts as his hands explored my ass and thighs. The sight of him enjoying me was a turn-on in itself. I could watch him relish my body for hours.

  My moans grew louder as he pressed his cock against me. I was usually one for foreplay but my wants was outweighing my patience, and I needed him in me before I combusted.

  Somewhere in between losing myself on the brink of an orgasm, my shirt and bra had miraculously disappeared, and I was glad for it. Taking charge, I sat up on my knees, pushed him down on his back and straddled his waist. His hands gripped my hips and he positioned me so his hardness would rub against my sweet spot. The sensation was mind-blowing, and I threw my head back with a loud groan as he quickly brought me to my first orgasm of the night.

  As soon as I came down from my little slice of ecstasy, he sat me down on top of his hardened length with one simple thrust. “Oh god,” I groaned as my eyes rolled back in my head.

  “Damn, you’re so tight…so perfect,” he said with a strained voice. He held my waist and tried to set me at the pace he wanted, but I was in charge of this pleasurable ride, so I pushed his hands away and shook my head. With my palms resting on his chest, I positioned myself so we both would be brought pleasure, and I rode him with an intoxicating rhythm.

  His wild greens gazed at me with lust until he slowly closed his eyes. His eyebrows drew together as if he was in pleasurable pain, his lips slightly parted with heavy breaths. He lifted his hips to meet me as I came down on him, filling me with every thick inch of him.

  Right as I was about to experience my second orgasm of the night, he picked me up, flipped me around so my back was on the bed, and slipped into me slow and teasingly. “It’s a turn on for you to take charge, but I’m the boss now,” he said, moving in and out of me a little too slow for my liking. I fixed my feet on the bed and pushed my hips up to him to try and speed up the process. When he noticed what I was doing, he grabbed both my ankles and held them in place up by his shoulders. He thought he had the upper hand, and I wasn’t one to complain. The position drove him in deeper, bringing me on the edge of my second orgasm.

  Our bodies joined together as one and it was in that moment I realized I truly loved him. No matter how difficult our situation was, I couldn’t fathom a minute of my life without him in it. The chemistry was there. The sexual pull was there. The heart-warming love was there, although I hadn’t admitted it to him or myself. He was right. Fate had to have been playing a hand in all of this. How else would I stumble upon him after a strange encounter, to rescuing him and mending his wounds, to him finding my mother for me? We were meant to be together. My only question was, why? Why would we fall for one another when we were from two different worlds? All of this shouldn’t be happening, but I couldn’t come up with any other explanation.

  Opening my eyes, I watched him as he stared back at me with so much love. Never in my life had anyone looked at me the way he did. “I love you,” he mouthed as he released himself in me. As my orgasm exploded, my body spasmed and I screamed out in ecstasy. He just declared his love for me. I think I love him.

  My heart swelled with love right before it broke.

  The realization of déjà vu came at me strong and hard. I remembered. I remembered the almost same exact dream with Aaron not long after I’d first brought him home. He’d tricked me. He’d fooled me into thinking I was dreaming when really he’d fucked me over. Literally.

  The person or figure or whatever the hell I thought I’d seen after I awoke had to have been him. He played me. I treated him like shit, and he retaliated by taking advantage of me.

  And the other dreams…were those him too?

  “You lied to me,” I said sitting still on my bed, staring out my window. The bare branches swayed back and forth as the cold front blew in a wicked wind. “This isn’t the first time we’ve had sex. The first time you visited me in my dreams, you threatened me. The second time, you let me suck you off. And the third time we had sex,” I said in a robotic tone. “Why? Why would you do that to me after what we have now? You’re not who I thought you were. Go. Leave my house. Leave me alone.” Tears stung my eyes but I wasn’t about to let him see how weak I was. I repeated the words ‘I hate you’ over and over in my mind so he wouldn’t be able to read any of my inner thoughts.

  “Lennox, please? Let me explain,” he pleaded, rubbing my shoulder in hopes of comforting me.

  I jerked away from his touch. “Don’t touch me. Just go.”

  “It’s not what it seems.” He tugged on the back of his hair in frustration. “It is but it isn’t. Just hear me out. Please?” he begged.

  “You threatened my life. You let me suck your dick!” I spat between gritted teeth. “Then you had sex with me without my permission. I think that would classify as rape in most cases,” I yelled. I was seething mad by this point.

  Aaron turned me around to face him and held me in place by my shoulders. “I’m sorry, Lennox. Please know I would never hurt you. However things may seem or look, I promise I would never hurt you.”

  But you already have. Dammit. Get control of yourself, Lennox. Stop thinking.

  “I know you think that but, please believe me. I was angry with you then.”

  He was on his knees in front of me; begging for my forgiveness. He meant what he said and it almost pained me to watch him suffer. Almost. But, I couldn’t forgive him so easily. In my eyes, there was no excuse for his actions. I fucking saved his life and playing me like a fool was his way of repaying me. I closed my eyes. Shutting him out was the only way I could cope at the moment.

  “Lennox, look at me,” he said, shaking me by my shoulders. Unwillingly, I opened my eyes. Big mistake.

  “I have fallen in love
with you. I. Love. You. I fucking love you so much I would give up my chances of ever becoming alive again just to have your love. I don’t regret anything I’ve done. If it meant meeting you and falling in love with you, I would do it a hundred times over.”

  I shook my head. “Don’t.” Tears threatened again, but I fought them back. “I can’t do this right now. I can’t take anymore shitty news today.” Closing my eyes, I whispered, “Please, if you care anything about me, you’ll just go and leave me alone.”

  His lips crashed into mine hard, then nothing. The room fell silent. Vacant.

  Slowly, I opened my eyes. Looking around, I finally found myself alone. Or at least I hoped I was alone. The weight of an elephant sat on my chest, and just when I didn’t think I could hold it in any longer, a tear fell from the corner of my eye. That was all it took for the window to my heart to open up and release all the ache I’d been holding in. Burying my head in my pillow, I cried hard.

  When I heard Aaron almost tell me he loved me, then later found my mother, I thought it was the happiest day of my life. How quickly dreams become shattered within minutes. Swallowing the realization of them both no longer being here, nearly broke my spirit.

  Chapter 20

  The sound of motorized equipment from my back yard woke me up. “Who the hell is mowing dead grass in November?” I muttered to myself. With unsteady legs, I stumbled out of bed, walked over to my window, and pulled the curtains aside. Aaron was outside mowing over dead leaves with the lawnmower. The bagger was attached to the back, sucking up everything off the grass.

  The sight of him stabbed my heart. I’d slept a dreamless night, and when I awoke, the remnants of the day before somehow never crossed my mind. But now, seeing him, everything flooded back in.

  Damn him and his sneaky ways. I’d forgotten I’d agreed to allow him to stay and take care of the house in order to repay me for taking care of him.

  Grabbing my robe and sliding into my fuzzy pink slippers, I walked downstairs to the back door in the kitchen. The air was frigid and the icy wind sliced through me like a knife.

  As Aaron turned the lawnmower around and made his way back toward the house to suck up another row of leaves, he caught sight of me standing on the back deck. Our eyes sought one another out, and my heart rate sped up at an unsteady pace. It hurt to see him. It hurt because I loved him so much, but I was so angry at him at the same time. I felt so betrayed.

  He killed the blades and drove up close to the deck. Turning the engine off, he leaned up and rested his elbows on the control arms. He looked up at me, squinting from the sun shining in his eyes.

  “When I told you to leave last night, I didn’t mean just my bedroom. I meant my house. My property. Your job here is finished. Zoila and the groundskeeper are coming back. You’ve more than repaid me, so there is nothing keeping you here anymore.”

  “Still mad are you?”

  “What, you’re Yoda all of a sudden?” I said shaking my head with disgust. “Don’t try to make light of the situation, Aaron. What you did was wrong and you know it. There’s no taking it back.”

  “You’re really not going to change your mind are you?”

  “Nope,” I said, popping the P between my lips. “I saved you then mended you. In return, you helped me find my mother, who has now disappeared again, and you threatened me, let me suck you off, then fucked me without my permission,” I accused, ticking off all four on my fingers.

  Aaron disappeared from the lawnmower, unexpectedly appearing in front of me. A gasp escaped me from his sudden presence. “I don’t know how many more times I can apologize for taking advantage of you. When you left me in the rain that day without even saying a simple thank you, I was pissed. On the surface, you were the rudest bitch I’d ever met in my life…or death. Then, when you found me, I had no idea it was you until you kept suggesting I go to the hospital. Once I realized who you were, I thought it was fate. For once in my life I was going to have the chance to retaliate for the kind of shit I’d had handed to me all my life.” He turned his back toward me and dropped his head down. If he wanted me to feel sorry for him, it wasn’t happening.

  “I don’t want you to feel sorry for me. I just want you to forgive me.”

  “Stay out of my fucking head!” I screamed.

  He turned back around to face me. “Do you think you’re not in my head?” he argued, pointing to his temple. “You may not be able to read my thoughts, but let me tell you something, you are all I think about every waking hour. And guess what? I don’t fucking sleep so that’s all the fucking time.” He paced back and forth like a caged lion, then stopped and rested his hands against the railing. He stared down at the lawnmower sitting vacant below. “At least you only have me in your head. I have you in my head and heart,” he spoke softly and mournfully.

  Just when I didn’t think the pain could get any worse, it did. I didn’t know what I was supposed to say. He made me feel like a cold-hearted bitch and I hated him for it. That was my life pre-Aaron. I’d came a long way in the last weeks and turned over a new leaf. Or at least I thought I had.

  “You make me feel,” he said, interrupting me from my inner thoughts. “Every day since you found me in the park, I’ve been changing.”

  “What?” That was meant to stay in my head.

  “I don’t know what’s going on, but you have to be my only explanation. The way I feel deep in my chest when I’m around you. When I think about you…,” he shook his head as if he were trying to find the right words, “my chest gets tight, I get this weird sensation in my stomach. I mean, I swear I feel my heart pumping blood through my veins. There’s just too many feels. It’s more than the tingle in my fingers. You make me feel alive, Lennox. I think you’re bringing back my ability to live.”

  I was stunned. Speechless. What. The. Hell. How am I supposed to process something like that?

  “If this is your way of diverting me from the problem at hand, then you’re sicker than what I’d originally thought.” I turned around and walked into the house. I wasn’t about to stand there and listen to his nonsense.

  No sooner than I shut the door behind me, he stood in front of me, blocking me from going anywhere.

  “You’re not hiding from me, Lennox.” Resting both hands against the door on each side of my head, he had me caged in.

  “Who said I was going to?”

  “I know you better than you know yourself, and that says a lot since I’ve only known you for a little more than a month. You’re going to sit here and talk to me. You’re going to listen to me. You can’t get rid of me, so you might as well suck up your pride and face me like the strong, beautiful woman I know you are.”

  “Flattery will get you nowhere,” I said blatantly.

  “You’re right it won’t, but I’m hoping the truth will.”

  I tried ducking under his arm but he lowered his arms each time I tried. “Fine. You win,” I said with exasperation.

  “It’s not about winning. It’s about reasoning.” His hands rose toward my face but he propped them back against the wall. Watching his body twitch told me he was fighting the urge to touch me.

  “I’m trying to reason with you but you won’t let me by you so I can sit at the bar.”

  “Oh, well why didn’t you just say so.” He waved his hand out, giving me the ‘okay’ to walk by him.

  “Since you’ve been listening to every damn thought in my brain, I didn’t think it was necessary to tell you.” I said through gritted teeth.

  Cutting my eyes at him, I walked around the bar and perched myself up on one of the stools. Aaron stood on the opposite side, leaned over with his arms resting on the counter. He was a little too close for comfort, but I knew if I protested, he would just argue with me. By this point, I might as well keep my mouth shut and let him do all the talking. The sooner he cleared his conscience, the faster I could move on with my life.

  Other than the buzzing of the refrigerator, white noise closed in all around us. Nei
ther of us spoke a word. We just sat there staring in each other’s eyes. I was shooting daggers at him. He was looking at me with lust…agony…love…and maybe I saw a smidge of regret. Gah, I didn’t want to see remorse. He wasn’t fooling me. I would not allow him to make me feel guilty.

  He broke our complicated gaze and cleared his throat. “You asked me about how I died, and I told you part of the story, but I never told you everything. Since I’m being honest with you, I want to come clean about who I am, who I used to be, and exactly what happened to me.”

  He had my attention. I was a little intrigued and a whole lot of scared. I nodded, indicating for him to keep going.

  “I had the typical, normal childhood, growing up in one of those neighborhoods you watched on a family sitcom. I had the most loving and supportive parents. Graduated from high school with honors. Went on to graduate college with my master’s in Business Administration, which helped me to snag a pristine job at a Real Estate Company. But after the strain on the economy, the company decided to let its newest employees go. That put me in the worst position of my life. To make a long story short, I’d just bought a condo on the upper end of town; I had a fairly new car, and a mound of student loans I was still paying for. Granted, I was receiving unemployment, but that doesn’t last forever. My parents were so proud of my accomplishments, so I couldn’t tell them I’d lost my job. Instead, I suffered in silence. I hid my failure from them. The bills kept piling up, but I couldn’t make enough money at a burger joint to pay them. In the end, I lost everything I had, and my credit was ruined.

  “To keep from telling my parents the truth, I told them the company wanted to transfer me to another location, and I pretended to move. I couldn’t allow them to see I had failed so miserably. Eventually, I had to sell my car just to pay my rent and utilities in an old run-down apartment on the rough side of town. Before I knew it, my transportation to and from work became such a struggle without a car, I ended up getting fired. Can you believe that?” he asked shaking his head. “Getting fired from a fast food restaurant had to be one of the most humiliating moments of my life.”