Lucifer's Game

by Rachael Tamayo

  Take. He’s taking me. I’m not sure what that means… but I think I like it.

  After one last nip, a gentle playful tug on my hair, he releases me with a slow smile.

  I look over at my friend, who watches me with a smirk. Xander leans over and whispers something in her ear. She grins and giggles, giving him a playful shove.

  ***

  When the bar closes, Devin takes me home. At my front door, he follows me in, grasping the hem of my dress and jerking it over my head whilst kicking the door closed behind us. Overtaken by desire, I work the buttons on his jeans as he pulls his shirt over his head.

  Pants hanging open, he moves to sit on the couch, but not before lowering them enough to expose his obvious want to me. I can’t even speak. He grasps my hips and pulls me onto his lap, simply moving my thong out of the way so that he can sheath himself.

  The sound that comes out of my mouth is nothing short of erotic. He looks up at me, eyes flashing, teeth gritted, as my body takes over and does what it wants without consulting my brain or my heart.

  Pure sex engulfs me. Animal want as moans and heavy breathing surround us. I can’t process what’s happening to me. Feelings I’ve never known start slowly in my core, deep inside my body with every thrust of skilled hips. I grip broad shoulders. I swear on all that I know, the room actually goes dim. I press my eyes shut, feeling his hands drift up my body. Every muscle in me is shaking at the slow touch that becomes faster, harder. It makes me dizzy and the room grows black when I struggle to open my eyes to see him.

  I can’t. All I can do is arch back and ride it out.

  When I reach my end, I’m able to open my eyes just enough to see that the room is dark. He’s watching me with glowing eyes, and I’m rocking my hips into his as I scream and buck so hard that I’m sure to be crippled when It’s over. It’s a struggle not to blackout.

  Glowing eyes that had to be in my head. The liquid fire in my blood pushes the thoughts away as I ride an orgasm that is sure to be the end of me.

  As I struggle against the odd sensations, he grasps my face in both hands and draws my lips towards his, taking my mouth in a hungry kiss as he forces me to the edge of myself, growing lightheaded with every thrust, using my body to reach his climax.

  Moments later, he pushes me to my feet and stands. Jeans hanging low on his hips, making no effort to cover himself.

  “Where’s the bed?”

  I’m taken by the hand and led towards the stairs.

  ***

  Andrew

  Something gnaws at me about my phone call with Cora. Damn if I know what it is. Its past midnight and I stare up at the ceiling in my cousin, Eric’s, spare bedroom. Maybe it was that dream I had. Reaching as far into the fuzziness as I can, I’m still unable to remember everything. Blurry images of Cora and a man, and I woke up pissed off. Raging.

  I told myself to calm down; it was just a stupid dream. Likely generated because she seems to be backing off the phone calls lately, and the way that one earlier ended.

  I send a text that remains unanswered. She’s asleep, calm down.

  What if she’s with someone?

  The thought comes from nowhere. I laugh it off, rolling onto my side. Cora isn’t that person. Loyal to a fault. She’d never do that to me.

  I did leave though. What if she thinks I’m never coming back?

  Am I coming back?

  I toss again.

  I haven’t let myself do much thinking about this. She’s been trying to talk to me for a while but I wasn’t ready.

  Shit, what if….

  Reaching for my phone, I dial her number. It rings and rings and rings. No answer.

  Chapter Five

  Devin

  I haven’t had sex in ages, and when I say ages, I mean several hundred years. I wake in her bed, surrounded by the smell of sex and perfume, her soft body tangled with mine. A leg draped over mine, her head on my shoulder, her hair tickling my skin.

  Once the hunger is brought to life in me, I can’t quiet it. It’s why I avoid it for as long as I do.

  Cora has awakened me. I move and she flips onto her back. Without waking her, I sit up and take in the sight of the body that I fucked over and over again last night. My mouth starts to water, so I move, push her legs wide. She makes a sleepy protest and I ignore it.

  Without hesitation, I dive between her legs, my hair falls loosely around her hips. She wakes with a start as I lick and suck moans from her between her sleepy protests.

  “Devin… oh God… what are you….” I feel her fist in my hair.

  Later, when I’ve had enough, I hover over her face with a grin. She breathes heavily, a slow smile forms on her lips.

  “Morning to you too.”

  I don’t answer, I just crash into her mouth and take what I want.

  ***

  Andrew

  Daybreak. I can’t take it anymore. I pull on jeans and a tee shirt and head out the door. It’s not a long drive and, when I arrive at what was our home, I see a big, black Mercedes in the driveway.

  It’s six in the morning, and I know that’s not Marilyn’s car. My heart is heavy as I park on the street, shutting off the engine.

  Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe it’s someone else.

  I park behind her car in the driveway and shut off the engine, stepping out. I walk around the mystery vehicle, but don’t recognize anything about it. With an impending sense of dread, I head for the door.

  The grass brushes the cuffs of my pants as I walk towards the front porch. I should get over here and mow the yard for her. The blades, damp with morning dew, brush my jeans and dampen the cuff as I step over the curb and into my yard.

  As I seek the house key on my ring, the front door opens. The sight I’m greeted with halts me in my tracks.

  A man with long blonde, damp hair crosses the threshold to my home, his shirt still open.

  My heart ceases to beat and my blood rushes in my ears, drowning out every other sound around me.

  I can’t breathe. Fuck.

  He meets my eyes. I see no worry, fear, nothing on his face but a slow growing, cocky smirk.

  “Hey, who are you?” I call across the yard. This isn’t what it looks like. It can’t be.

  He pauses at the foot of the stairs on my front porch.

  “You must be Andrew?” He grins at me.

  I stop about six feet in front of him, realizing that he’s got about four inches on me and probably fifty pounds. I’m six foot tall and not a skinny guy, but this dude is massive.

  “What are you doing in my house? Is Cora alright?”

  After crossing the yard, he leans on the hood of his car, keys in hand.

  “Oh, she’s more than alright I’d say.” He smiles. “Your house? Looks to me like you don’t live here. She didn’t say anything about you last night when she invited me back here.”

  “Why are you here, you know that’s my wife in there.” I grit out the words.

  “I know.”

  He knows. “What did you do?”

  “Why don’t you go ask her? She’s taking a shower.” He sighs, looking at me as if I’m pathetic.

  I watch, dumbfounded, as he walks around the car and opens the driver’s side.

  “Tell her I’ll call her, will you?”

  What the actual fuck is this? I can’t even process it until he’s pulled out of the driveway and pulled down the street.

  In a blur of anger and hurt and just plain vomit-inducing nausea, I rush into the house, finding the door unlocked.

  Up the stairs.

  Into my bedroom. The bed is unmade and makes my stomach roll knowing what happened there last night.

  My bed.

  My fucking bed.

  The bathroom door is cracked; she is in the shower.

  With one swift motion, I grab the decorative shower curtain and rip it from the rings. Cora screams, turning with wide eyes, soap running down her beautiful body. The tattoo of a monarch butterfly fluttering on her lo
wer back. When my eyes move over her again, I see the marks that he must have left. Distinct teeth marks on her shoulder blades, hickeys on her neck.

  I feel sick.

  “Andrew! What-” She gapes at me with wide eyes. “You scared the shit out of me.”

  “You fucked him?” I bellow, the water spraying me, soaking my tee shirt. “What did he do to you?” I gesture towards the bites on her chest I noticed when she turns.

  “What?” The color drains from her face.

  “That guy I just saw leave. You fucked him? Here in my house? In my bed?”

  She takes in a trembling breath. I see the rapid change in her eyes, from shock, to fear, to white hot anger.

  I feel the slap across my face before I see it coming. My cheek stings, water dripping down my face.

  “How dare you. How dare you come in here and think you have any right to say anything to me. This stopped being your bed when you turned your back on me. This stopped being your house when you chose to walk out that door instead of finding a way to work things out with me. When you made that decision you left me, and all this, behind. Now deal with it.”

  She spits the words at me, and they hit me like boulders right in the chest.

  “You are still my wife.” I struggle with the words, because I realize how true everything she said is.

  How bad I fucked up when I left.

  God, what did I do?

  “Legally. You gave me away.”

  “Gave you away?” I choke on the words. “I did no such thing. We needed to decide some things, to think…”

  She points a wet finger at me, jabbing me in my sternum through my soaked tee shirt.

  “You decided that. Not me. You needed to decide some things, not me. I stood with my guts ripped out as you decided all that for me. It’s not what I wanted, Andrew. I wanted a family. That’s all I ever wanted.” Her voice breaks on the word family. With a deep breath, she steadies her words, pain flashing like lightning across her eyes.

  “So what, you don’t want that now?”

  I can’t tell if she’s crying, or if it’s the water spraying on her face. Cora looks away from me, shutting off the water, and grabbing for the towel.

  “Please, just go.”

  The tremble in her voice tells me she’s crying.

  Reaching out, I touch her arm. She jerks away from me.

  “Don’t. Please. You have no idea what you’ve done to me. Just go.”

  Should I leave? Just walk out of here? Do I pump her with questions about that guy and demand that it stop? How is it that the tables have turned on me, when she’s the one that slept with a stranger? How am I the one in explaining myself?

  “Who is he?” I can’t stop myself from asking. I can almost see her panting under him, him thrusting between wide spread thighs that belong to me.

  Did she get on her knees for him?

  How many times did he touch her?

  How long have they known each other?

  Cora pushes past me into the bedroom.

  “None of your business.”

  “Like hell it’s not.”

  She regards me with an eye roll as she opens the dresser and pulls out clothes.

  “I’m not talking to you about this. You had ample opportunity to talk to me and you chose not to.” She steps into a pair of worn jeans.

  “So I’m just supposed to leave, knowing you’re screwing some other guy?”

  Cora walks out of the room pulling on a tee shirt. For a moment, I just stand here, frozen. I have no idea what to do. I find her with some guy, and now I’m the one in trouble.

  Moments later, I find her pouring cream into coffee freshly made in the Keurig on the counter. She eyes me and moves to the island, pulling out the stool.

  She sits gingerly, wincing.

  “You’re fucking kidding me.”

  She looks up, unimpressed. “What?”

  “You’re sore?”

  No answer. Just a sip of coffee.

  “What the hell, Cora? You fuck some random guy and you look at me like I’m the jerk? What bullshit is this?”

  No answer.

  I walk up and bend, forcing her to look into my face. She glares at me. Sips her coffee.

  “It’s not your business anymore.”

  I take her coffee from her hands and heave it against the wall in a crash. Glass from her favorite mug goes all over, creamy coffee drips down the wall.

  “Make it my business,” I growl.

  Tears fill her eyes. Instead of yelling back at me, or responding at all, she grabs her purse and keys off the counter and walks out the door, leaving me there.

  Chapter Six

  Cora

  I pound on my friend’s front door with tears still lingering in my eyes. I can’t believe he found me like this, that he saw Devin leaving.

  I’m so embarrassed, and hurt, and pissed off. What a nice mix of emotions to start the day.

  As I’m wiping my eyes the door opens. Marilyn stands in a tank top and shorts, her eyes widening when she sees that I’m crying.

  “What happened?” I’m dragged inside.

  I’m shocked to see Xander standing in her small apartment kitchen with no shirt on drinking coffee. His blue-black hair looks finger combed, a light sprinkle of chest hair on a tightly toned torso. He has a swimmers build. Xander grins at me.

  “Oh… sorry… I….” I stumble, wiping my face, ready to turn and leave.

  “Oh shut up. You sit.” Marilyn pushes me down into a dining room chair. “Tell me what happened.”

  I recount the whole story, my voice trembling. She hugs me and holds my face in her hands. Xander sits across from me at the table.

  “Sounds like you got his attention,” she says, kissing my forehead and pulling me back into a hug. I sigh, finding some small measure of comfort in the arms of my friend.

  “I guess so,” Xander says, exiting the kitchen.

  “Devin spent the night then? How was that?” she asks.

  I pull away from her and glance at Xander.

  “Don’t mind me. I know how Devin is with women.”

  Not sure what his comment is supposed to mean, I ignore it.

  “It was… different….” I can’t speak freely in front of this guy.

  “Hot?” she urges.

  I flush. “Yeah.”

  “Good. You deserve it. Andrew….” She simply rolls her eyes.

  Xander’s phone rings.

  “Hello… yeah I’m still here… actually she’s right here, want to say hi?”

  Xander slides his phone across the table to me. “Devin wants to say hi.” He smiles.

  I flush again. My stomach falls into my feet as memories of his body on mine all night long flash in my mind, not to mention how he woke me up this morning.

  I pick up the phone in slow motion and glance between their smiling, knowing glances.

  Ugh, this is so embarrassing.

  “Hello?”

  “Hey baby.” His voice is a low rumble. It hits me right in the gut. “Are you okay? What happened?”

  Surprised by the concern in his voice, I relax a bit.

  “Oh, well he was pissed off.” Guilt stabs at me like barbed wire around my heart. “I slapped him.”

  Marilyn’s eyes widen.

  “No shit?”

  “Yeah. He was being a jerk and I told him he had no right anymore because he left.”

  Xander gives me a thumbs up.

  “Damn, good going babe.”

  “I guess. He saw the bruises you left on me and freaked out.”

  Marilyn’s mouth falls open, she mouths, Bruises? I nod and turn to show her my back.

  “Sorry, I got carried away,” he laughs. “I do that. But you’re alright?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine. Sore.”

  “When I see you tonight I’ll be sure to kiss it all for you.” His voice is a purr.

  My insides liquefy. “Tonight?”

  “Yeah. I’ll pick you up at seven for
dinner at my place.”

  “Okay.” I swallow.

  “Good. See you tonight, gorgeous. Can I talk to Xander?”

  I slide the phone back to Xander, who smiles at me and gets up to take the call into another room.

  Marilyn examines my marks again.

  “Damn, he tore into you didn’t he?” she laughs.

  “He’s crazy.” I smile. “Like he couldn’t get enough. It was insane.”

  “Tell me you didn’t love it.” She challenges me with a smile, heading into the kitchen and pouring me a cup of coffee.

  “It was so surreal. Like I lost my mind and was someone else for a while. I’ve never had anything like that happen before.”

  She smiles at me. Honestly, I’m a bit surprised that she is pushing this.

  “You’re not upset about me doing this? Before you would have said something to me about behaving this way.”

  She shrugs.

  “Yeah, that was before. I don’t know, I just feel differently now. Xander and I were talking about it last night and he said some things that made sense. You only live once, and why waste your time on someone that doesn’t appreciate you? Respect you? There are too many other men out there that would. Anything else is a waste of time.”

  As I swallow the sip of coffee, I’m reminded of Andrew and the mess he left in the kitchen. I didn’t know what to say to him, so I just walked out.

  Frankly, I’m torn. I miss him, but I’m sick of the pain he’s caused me. The anger. Only wanting what he wants and ignoring my feelings.

  Xander returns from the back room wearing his shirt from last night. He bends, and gives my friend a delicate kiss on the lips. She grins.

  “Leaving so soon?” She grips his shirt, holding him to her lips.

  “I have to get going. I’ll call, promise.”

  Another kiss.

  He winks at me and walks out the door.

  ***

  I slip a worn, brown leather jacket on over the sundress, hiding the marks. Not from him, more from myself I guess. As humiliated as I was this morning, I’m still standing here spraying on perfume and checking my makeup one last time, waiting for Devin to come pick me up.

  I’m not sure what the point of resisting him is now. Andrew knows what’s going on. What’s done is done. I’m sure he will hate me, and I deserve it. It doesn’t stop the feelings generated in me as I wait for Devin, memories of his body on mine all night long burning my skin as if he were really here. Despite the heat, I’d leave Devin behind without ever looking twice if Andrew would fight for us again. Honestly, I think Andrew lost the fight he had for what we were some time before this morning, or he never would have walked out in the first place.