“Is pot that great? It seems like you’re willing to risk a lot in order to smoke it.”
“You’ve never smoked?” he asked.
“Nope.”
“Wow,” he replied with surprise. “How unusual.”
She couldn't help but laugh. “Is it really that unusual that I've never smoked pot?”
“To me, it is,” he said. “Just about everybody I know smokes.”
“That’s why you need to start hanging out with a different crowd,” she told him. “But you didn’t answer my question…is smoking pot so great that it’s worth going to jail for?”
He thought for a moment before declaring, “If I am guaranteed to go to jail after I smoke, then, no. But, the thing is, if I don’t get caught—which is most of the time—it’s cool.”
“What’s so cool about it?”
“It helps you not care. All kinds of stuff can be going on around you, but when you’re high, it doesn't matter. You can enjoy life and just be.” He gestured at her with his fork. “Do you remember being a kid and always being afraid that you were going to get a beating for something?”
She felt herself become immediately vulnerable. “Yeah.”
“Now, imagine being in that same situation…absolutely nothing is different…except you aren’t afraid. That’s what weed can do. It can make the situations that are out of your control more tolerable.”
She nodded slowly as she digested that. “I get it. That does make sense. However,” she added, patting his arm, “you are now an adult, and you have the ability to change your situation. When you’re a kid, there’s nothing you can do about having awful parents, so I can see where smoking weed can help you forget about things for a while. But now, if you’re in a bad place, you can actually do something to get yourself out of it.”
“I wish it was that easy.”
“You don’t think you can change?” she asked.
“Oh, I can change. That isn’t the issue. The problem is I’m a high school drop out with an extensive criminal record. I don’t exactly have a whole lot of options at this point.”
“How did you get the job at the auto parts store?”
“My aunt is friends with the owner.”
“Well, it’s a start,” Melissa said. “Do a good job there, and maybe you can get promoted.”
“Great. Then I can earn an extra dollar per hour.”
Melissa didn’t reply.
“I’m kind of stuck,” Dylan went on. “I’m not necessarily saying I’ll resort to a life of crime again, but I don’t think I’ll ever lead a life where I wouldn’t benefit from an occasional joint. And, honestly, it sounds like you could use one, too.”
Shocked by his words, she looked up at him.
“No offense,” he added, “but you seem like you’re pretty bored.”
“I don’t think drugs are the answer, though.”
“Then what is?”
Melissa knew the answer. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind what would have made her life better, but she wasn’t about to say that out loud in front of Dylan. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Sounds fair.” He nudged her with his foot under the table. “Hey, you asked me last night about girls in my life. How about you? How’d you meet your husband?”
“You want the truth?” she replied with a sinister grin.
“No, I want you to lie to me,” he said sarcastically. “Of course I want the truth.”
“I was dating his roommate,” she confessed.
“This sounds like it has an interesting story behind it.”
“It’s not one I’m proud of, necessarily, but it is pretty interesting.”
“Do you think I’m proud of all the stuff I told you?”
“Good point,” she said. “Well, if you really want to know, I was casually dating this guy, Mike, but I knew it wasn’t going anywhere.”
“How old were you?”
“Um…Twenty-four, so I was a few years older than you are now.” At that moment, Melissa was struck by just how young Dylan was. She suddenly felt guilty about what she’d been thinking, but she continued without batting an eye. “Mike seemed to be really into me, but I was honestly just dating him because there was nobody else more interesting in my life at that point. He was just somebody to date until a better prospect came along.”
“That’s nice,” Dylan said sarcastically.
“Hey, I told you I wasn’t proud of this. I’m just being honest.”
“You’re right. Go on.”
“So, I wasn’t really into it; I was just killing time. But then we went to a party, and he brought his roommate, Jim. I instantly found myself attracted to Jim, and I thought he had a lot of potential as somebody I could be really compatible with. So, I kept dating Mike, but I always encouraged him to have me over to his place instead of going out—you know, to watch movies and stuff. That way, I could get to know Jim better.”
“That’s…diabolical,” Dylan said, smirking.
“How many times do I have to tell you I’m not proud?”
He just looked at her, squinting, making her want to jump across the table and rip his clothes off.
“Anyway,” she stressed, “I made dinner for them a lot. I wanted to impress Jim with my cooking, and I guess it worked, because he married me.”
“How did the transition happen? I’m curious to know how you went from one roommate to the other.”
“I slipped Jim a note. I put it on his pillow in his bedroom. It essentially said that I liked him a lot more than Mike, and I wanted to start seeing him instead. It had my number on it, and I asked him to get in touch with me if he wanted to get together.”
“I guess he called you, then?”
“Almost immediately,” she replied. “He had a thing for me, too…I was much cuter back then than I am now.”
“Stop it.”
“I’m just stating facts.”
“I’m telling you, there’s nothing wrong with the way you look.”
Melissa’s heart rate doubled, but she remained outwardly calm. “Thanks. But the point is that Jim didn’t really like Mike very much, so he didn’t care if he ended up screwing him over.”
“Why did he live with him if he didn’t like him?”
“Mike had a nice apartment.” She took a drink of water.
“He used Mike for his apartment?”
“If you saw the place, you’d understand. It had this great downtown location with an awesome view.”
Dylan put his chin in his hand. “This is so surprising,” he announced slowly. “I know I’ve never met the guy, but you and your husband seem like the all-American, do-gooder-type of couple.”
She shrugged and batted her eyelashes innocently.
“I guess looks can be deceiving," he went on. "So, did you and your husband ditch this Mike guy, then?”
She bit her lip. “No, not right away.”
“No?”
“I continued to ‘date’ him,” she used finger quotes. “I told him, though, that I was extremely religious and I didn’t want a physical relationship, blah, blah, blah. Meanwhile, I used the guise of going over early to cook him dinner so I could have sex with Jim before Mike got home from work.”
“That’s messed up.”
“Sad but true.”
“Why didn’t you just break up with him? You and Jim could have dated secretly if you were worried about him losing the apartment.”
“Mike had money,” Melissa replied with a shrug. “He used to buy me all kinds of things—expensive jewelry, fancy clothes…it was too good to pass up.”
“This is crazy," Dylan said, looking at her with awe. "And Jim was okay with this?”
“Sure,” she said. “It ended up benefitting him, too. Once I finally broke up with Mike, I sold a bunch of the jewelry on Ebay and made a killing. Jim and I went on vacation with that money.”
“Oh. My. God.”
“I kept some of my favorite pieces, though. I still have them. I keep them in a
jewelry box on my dresser.”
“I’m stunned,” Dylan announced. “Stunned, but strangely impressed. I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“Once upon a time, I did. Not anymore. I’ve definitely changed.”
“I don’t know,” he said, leaning in, putting his face close to hers. “Somehow, I get the feeling there’s still a little bit of that bad girl in there somewhere.”
Chapter 8
“It’s freezing in here,” Melissa noted from the couch.
“I know. There’s a draft, and I don’t know where it’s coming from.”
“There’s a blanket in the bedroom closet,” she said. “Do you mind if I get it?”
“I can get it,” Dylan replied. “I just didn’t know it was there. It’s in the closet, you said?”
“Yeah. Up high, on the shelf.”
He disappeared, returning with a fuzzy red blanket that he spread out over her. “I had no idea that was even there. Thanks for letting me know.”
“No problem.” She pulled the blanket up by her neck and kicked the rest out with her feet. “Here, come have some.”
He slid underneath, sitting with his body pressed up against hers. She didn’t try to move and make more room between them, and neither did he.
“You know, you never told me about that Ashley girl last night,” Melissa said. “You started to, but you never finished.”
“What about her?”
“Did she break your heart?” Melissa drank in the feel of Dylan’s body touching hers.
“I’m not sure I can say she broke my heart. She definitely disappointed me, though.”
“How so?”
“By not waiting for me when I got sent to juvie. We’d been together for a while, and I only had a thirty or sixty day sentence, or something like that. It was short, let me put it that way. But she still didn’t wait for me. I thought for sure I’d still have a girlfriend when I got out that time, but it didn’t happen.”
“That’s too bad.”
“I get it, though…or, at least, I do now. Why would a sixteen-year-old girl want to commit to a criminal? It was possible that she liked me, but she wanted better for herself than that. Honestly, she may make the claim that I was the one who disappointed her. She thought I was something I wasn't, you know? I didn’t understand that at the time, though. I just came to the conclusion that I wasn’t worth waiting for.”
“That must have been a terrible feeling.”
“It didn’t help matters, that’s for sure. It made me feel like I didn’t have a whole lot to lose. My life sucked, so who cared if I got sent back to juvie again. What was I missing out on? Getting rejected by girls? A mom that was never home?” She felt him shrug under the blanket. “I just figured I’d go out and have fun, not worrying about whether or not there’d be consequences. It didn’t really matter, anyway.”
“That’s so sad.” She patted his leg a few times, keeping her hand there when she was done. She felt her breath get shallow.
“Eh,” he replied. “Whatever.” He placed his hand on top of hers.
A weird moment of silence threatened to ensue, so Melissa asked, “Have you been enjoying the video games?”
“I have. I meant to thank you for that. Sorry if I didn’t.”
“It’s okay. I wasn’t looking for credit when I asked that. I just wanted to make sure you were okay with the games you got.”
“I am. It’s just a little strange to play them when I’m not high. It feels like something’s missing.”
“You used to get high to play video games?”
“I had a much deeper appreciation for the graphics when I was high,” he replied. “It’s all about art, you see.”
“Art. Yes, okay,” she said. “It’s culture.”
“Yes. I’m cultured.”
Melissa caught something curious out of the corner of her eye. “Oh my God,” she said, getting up from under the blanket. She walked over to the window, where an intense draft was making the curtain dance around. “Look at this. I guess I’ve figured out why it’s freezing in here.” She pulled the curtain away, her body immediately smacked with a wall of frigid air. Feeling the goosebumps rise on her arms, she said, “The cold air is just pouring in.”
She turned to face Dylan, whose eyes were fixated squarely on her breasts. She glanced down, noticing her nipples had become pronounced from the cold. Looking back up at Dylan, she could see the distant look on his face as he stared at her chest. He wasn’t even trying to mask the fact that he was entranced by her.
After a long moment, he got up off the couch and walked over to her, the expression on his face so intense that it took Melissa’s breath away. She let go of the curtain, allowing it to fall back into place as he approached. His eyes never left her breasts. Soon, he was standing right in front of her; his breathing sounded primal. He raised his gaze from her chest to her eyes. There was a fire in him that Melissa hadn't seen in ages.
He inched his way closer to her, slowly moving his mouth toward hers. Their lips eventually touched, and he softly moved his into a slight kiss. She did the same.
After a few more soft kisses, he pulled away, looking at her with his penetrating brown eyes. She could tell he wanted to rip her apart. In an instant, he devoured her with a kiss, pulling her in as closely as he could, kissing her deeply. He took two steps forward, moving her back against the wall, still kissing her with every cell in his body.
His hands explored her eagerly. They moved from her neck quickly to her breasts. He groaned upon feeling them.
He hadn’t been with a woman in a very long time.
His mouth moved down her body as he lifted her shirt. She helped him pull it over her head, and he threw it onto the floor. He immediately started to unhook her bra; soon, it, too, was on the floor.
She didn’t have time to be embarrassed about her body. He had already taken her nipple into his mouth, making her feel too good to worry about how she looked. She ran her fingers through his hair as he eagerly moved from one breast to the other. It seemed he couldn’t get enough of her, and he couldn’t get it fast enough.
She tugged at his shirt, trying to lift it off of him. He stepped back from her long enough to wriggle out of it, revealing the tattoos over his chest and forearm. She had never been turned on by tattoos until now. At this moment, they just added to her fury.
He ravaged her mouth with another kiss, pressing his warm skin against hers. She wrapped her arms around him as tightly as she could, trying to become one with him. He pulled out of the kiss again, just staring at her. His hands started to work the button of her pants.
She sucked in a breath as she felt the zipper go down. He slid his hands inside her waistband, pulling her jeans and panties down at the same time. Dropping to his knees, he lowered her clothes to the floor, and she stepped out of them.
She then felt his warm tongue.
Throwing her head back, she looked at the ceiling as he worked her. She put her foot up on the television stand, giving him access to any part of her that he wanted.
He took it.
His fingers and mouth caressed her everywhere. She searched in vain along the wall for something to grab, eventually taking his hair into her fists. He continued to work her with his mouth and his hands until she felt herself climax, filling the room with her involuntary guttural moans.
As she came down from the high, her chest heaving from her breaths, Dylan stood up and faced her. He primitively wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, leaving it open when he was done.
He was still hungry.
He took her hand, leading her to the bedroom. He gently guided her down on the bed, where she saw him standing there, illuminated only by the light coming in from the living room. He looked amazing.
She bit her lip in anticipation as he reached for his own button; she couldn’t wait to see what was underneath. A smile graced his lips as he slowly pulled his pants and underwear off; he knew he was making her crazy.
&nb
sp; One inch at a time, he revealed is cock, which was every bit as magnificent as she had imagined it to be. Eventually, his entire body was exposed as his clothes fell to the floor. She took in his image from head to toe. He was so young and beautiful—and clearly in need of a woman’s affection.
He climbed on top of her as she spread her legs, the tip of him landing exactly where it needed to be. With one simple thrust, he would have been inside of her.
She looked into his stunning brown eyes as a piece of his hair slipped over his shoulder, onto her body. He smiled at her with that amazing squint of his, asking, “Do you have a condom?”
“I’m on the pill.”
With those words, he filled her. He kissed her deeply as he ravaged her, both of them groaning just as loud as the other. He worked furiously—feverishly—until he stopped kissing her and buried his head into the pillow next to her ear. His loud, rhythmic moans let her know he'd had an orgasm.
He pulled out of her, collapsing onto her body, using her breast as a pillow. He breathed heavily for quite some time, until he eventually calmed down and whispered, “Wow.”
She giggled, playing with his hair.
He released a deep sigh, and she could feel his whole body relax into her. “Sorry that was so short,” he said, “but it’s been a really long time.”
“I know that,” she whispered softly. “And no need to apologize. I enjoyed it.”
“I’m glad,” he replied, raising his head to look up at her. “Because that was just the appetizer. I hope you're hungry, because I’m working on the main course right now.”
Chapter 9
“Oh, really,” Melissa said with a smile.
“Yup.” He put his head back down on her breast. “Round two is in the oven. It’s rising.”
She liked the sound of that. “Is it, now?”
“Mm-hmm. It just needs a minute.” He reached his hand up and started tracing small circles around her exposed nipple.
She had to admit, his touch was magical. With a soft moan, she said, “That feels really good.”
He continued to silently caress her, stopping only to periodically lick his finger.
What She Needed Page 5
