by Lucy Lambert
That gave my heart a jolt. Tomorrow was Friday. The end of our two weeks together. The day I’d find out if this was just some vacation romance for him, some kind of a fling, or something more than that.
And being who I was, my mind immediately and repeatedly told me that it couldn’t be anything serious. That such an idea was ridiculous, no matter how much I wanted it to be otherwise.
“It may be a little about tomorrow,” I said, “But I also just need time. This has all been so fast…”
“When something is right and good it usually happens fast, if you let it,” Alex cut in. All around us, the rain pattered on the pavement. I could feel the legs of my pants dampening from the spray.
“How do you always have something like that to say?” I said, pushing the key into the lock.
“I’m psychic, couldn’t you tell?” he replied.
I started opening the car door but he closed it again. Then he put his arm around my waist and pulled me in closer. Our umbrellas skirted against each other.
I didn’t worry too much about other people seeing; everyone was hurrying for their car or the bus stop, umbrellas or briefcases or even the occasional manila folder held overhead to ward off the rain.
“If you’re psychic, couldn’t you tell that I couldn’t tell?” I said. It was my turn for a grin. He stopped it with a kiss that sent a flush of warmth through my body.
“I want you,” he said. He caught and held my eyes with his. I wanted him then, too. My heart beat fast and the front of my stomach tightened.
I went up on my tiptoes as though to kiss him again. I waited until his eyes started hooding, then I smiled and put the tip of my index finger on his lips. I pushed gently, stepping back out of his arms.
“Not tonight,” I said.
Finally he nodded. He opened my Camry’s door for me and closed it after I climbed in.
This surprised me, so I sat there for a bit with my keys jangling in one hand. I’d been expecting him to insist. Wanting him to insist is more like it, I thought.
But he hadn’t. And that left me sitting there staring at the Toyota logo on the steering wheel, listening to the patter of rain on the roof.
Why didn’t he? I wondered, now paradoxically upset that he hadn’t. But I couldn’t say anything. In fact, it was weird that I hadn’t yet started the car and gotten out of there like I claimed I intended to.
So I started the car. The engine caught after a few revs. This disappointed me. Part of me hoped the old clunker might die again. That Alex would insist on giving me a ride home.
That I’d get to taste the rain on his lips again.
Chapter 23
ALEXANDER
I watched Charlie pull out of the lot, the tail lights bright cherries in the rain. I smiled. I couldn’t believe that she’d done that.
No one had turned down an offer for me to take them home since… I couldn’t actually remember the last time that had happened.
I thought about the warmth of her body pressed to mine in that quick kiss we’d shared. The way she’d played coy, putting her finger to my lips like that.
She was different than when we’d first met. More fun. More playful.
And does she really think she can get away from me that easily? What was she playing at?
Whatever it was drove me wild. I wanted her even more than before.
Chapter 24
CHARLIE
I got back to my apartment and immediately threw myself down on the couch. The force of it sent a dusty cloud up. Just another sign of how I’d let myself get sidetracked by Alex.
You should get to marking and then revise your lesson plans for tomorrow, the admonishing, responsible part of me said.
Tomorrow. Alex’s last day at Thomas A. Edison is tomorrow, I thought. That thought worked its way down into my stomach and twisted around in there.
Just two weeks ago I couldn’t wait for that day that the man I’d considered handsome if overconfident and a bit of an asshole would get out of my classroom.
And now?
And now I didn’t know anymore.
I did know that he hadn’t insisted on coming back home with me. But that was a good thing.
Right?
“Charlie, Charlie… get your head back into the game,” I muttered. I hated it when people talked to themselves. Never really understood it. But now I think I did. Hearing the sound of my own voice helped.
Things seemed more real when spoken aloud instead of as a thought that surfaced and promptly evaporated.
As usual, Rufus lay curled up on his doggie bed, the tip of his tail keeping his nose warm.
So I went to my desk, retrieved the papers from my briefcase, and started squinting down at some chicken-scratch handwriting on a quiz I’d collected. I had my trusty blue pen ready in my right hand.
I didn’t like marking up papers with a red pen. Students didn’t react well to red. Everything always seemed worse in red.
Then someone knocked on my door. The sudden sound made me jump.
“Who’s there?” I said without getting up. My place was small enough that my voice carried.
My heart started hammering. It’s Alex. It has to be Alex.
“Guess,” came the reply.
That pushed my heart up into my throat. It was him. I stood up slowly, my whole body tingling, my knees watery.
I went up to the door and put my hands on it. I bit my lip, trying to steady myself.
“I told you not to come here,” I said, aware of how only a few inches of door separated us.
Even though I couldn’t see him, I could picture him smiling in that rye fashion he had.
“I never do what I’m told,” he said, “And I think that’s one of my better qualities.”
Good thing the door blocked us from seeing each other. He couldn’t see the way I smiled at that.
“You shouldn’t have come,” I said.
“But I did. I told you earlier, I want you…”
“Shh! My neighbors might hear!” I said.
“Let them. I don’t care. Open the door,” he said. There was a peephole in my door. If I wanted, I could look at him.
But if I looked at him I’d let him in. And I knew I had to put up at least a token resistance for my own sake. So I didn’t look. I put my forehead against the door, felt its coolness on my skin.
“And if I don’t?” I asked.
“I could say something here about just coming in anyway, or how I could wait all day, but I won’t. I just want you to think back to the other night and then consider what you’ll be missing out on.”
My smile widened when I recalled the night in question. God, I wanted to look through that peephole at him so badly. “You really think you’re that good?”
“Are you implying that I’m not?” he replied.
I unlocked the door and yanked it open. Alex stood in front of me, a half-cocked grin on his face, one hand casually in one pocket.
“You know, you’re the most overconfident man I’ve ever met?” I said.
His grin widened at that. I could see his eyes tracing my face. My heart started fluttering in my chest. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“Take it however you want,” I said. This incredible heat started in my stomach, just below my navel. It started spreading up and down at once. More heat filled my cheeks, making my lips tingle.
He put one hand on the door frame and leaned in close so that I could smell his aftershave. He whispered, “And what if what I want to take is you?”
The air hitched in my throat for a moment before clearing up. I replied in a whisper as well, “You can take me however you want.”
There wasn’t any need for more coy words after that. No need for more games, more flirting.
He advanced into my apartment, forcing me back. He kicked the door shut while simultaneously grabbing me up in his arms. His hands went up under my shirt, the skin of his palms hot against the small of my back.
His mouth found
my neck, drawing a hot line of fire against the smooth, sensitive skin there. I knew then he wanted me as much as I needed him.
“Kiss me…” I said, grabbing his face in my hands, pulling his lips from my throat. I could see the fire of desire in his eyes, feel the way he barely restrained himself in the way his arms trembled around me.
It was a savage, unbridled kiss. The ferocity of it surprised me.
Though I knew it was because I kept wondering, somewhere in the back of my head, if this was the last kiss like this we’d share.
“You’re wearing too much clothes…” He said, his breath hot against my shoulder as he nuzzled against my neck.
“That’s a problem that can be fixed,” I said. I felt his lips curl into a smile against me. Then he grabbed my shirt and pulled it up over my head.
“Oh!” I said when his hands slipped back down, cupping my ass. He picked me up, my legs wrapping instinctively around his waist. He pushed me back against the wall, somehow maintaining enough control so that he didn’t shove me against the panel of light switches.
“How do you feel so good?” He asked, his hands moving up and down my thighs, squeezing, caressing me through my pants.
Thank God I made myself shave my legs today, I thought.
I grabbed his face in my hands again and we shared another long, deep, hot kiss. His grip on me relaxed and slowly I slid down onto my feet. Where before I’d been looking down at him, pinned between his body and the wall, now I had to lean my head back. He was so tall.
I don’t know what it was about him that brought this sort of thing about in me. He made my desire raw. He made me ache with the need to be with him. Inside, I quivered for him.
“You don’t feel so bad yourself,” I said, my hands between us, palms on his chest. His heartbeat was strong and rhythmic.
Then I pushed him back, smiling at him. He watched while I slid my hands down my stomach. My fingers worked quickly, undoing my pants. I slid those down and stepped out of them.
He swallowed lustily, his eyes roving up and down my body.
“You like what you see?” I said.
“Come closer and I’ll show you just how much,” he replied.
I took a step towards him. He reached for me. I stepped back. His eyebrows shot up. That expression made me smile.
“Playing hard to get, are we?” He said.
I shrugged. “Not a game you play often, I take it?”
He started a retort, but I silenced him by reaching back and unclipping my bra. I loved seeing the desire flare on his face as I slid the constricting underwear down my arms. My nipples stiffened instantly, partly from the touch of the cool air against them, partly from the plainly hungry expression on Alex’s face.
I threw the bra at him. He caught it, his eyes not leaving mine, and dropped it to the floor.
I took his hand and lead him to the bedroom. I pulled off his jacket and shirt so that he stood naked from the waist up.
I was behind him. He had such broad shoulders. Shoulders that rose and fell with every breath. I kissed the cleft between them, loving the wall he shuddered when I did.
I wrapped my arms around his waist, my fingers feeling the little spaces between his abdominal muscles on their way down to his belt, which soon lay on the floor along with his pants.
“Tell me how much you want me,” I breathed, still kissing that sensitive area between his shoulder blades.
He turned around, grabbing me around the waist and pulling me against him, our bare skin touching and tingling and flushing with heat and desire.
“I’d rather show you,” he said.
Then he flung me on the bed. I was powerless to stop him. I didn’t want to stop him.
Especially not when he kissed my roughly up the bare, smooth skin of my inner thighs. And definitely not when he breathed his hot breath against the white cotton of my panties.
He kissed me through my panties, his lips strong and unrelenting. I responded, pushing harder against his face.
It wasn’t long before he pulled the panties to the side. “You taste so damn good…” He said.
“Alex!” He had me crying out again and again, shockwaves of pleasure and lust and bliss exploding inside of my again and again.
Then, when he had me cresting yet another of those incredible waves he relented. But not for long.
He shifted over top of me. We both sucked in a breath as he slid into me, deeper and deeper. It was a pleasure that bordered on pain. One that had me groaning and writhing beneath him.
He kissed up and down my throat, let his lips slide along my shoulders while the rhythm of our bodies became quicker, more ragged with naked need and passion.
I climaxed for him again. So hard my lips pulled back from my teeth and my eyes scrunched shut. Even my toes clenched hard.
“Charlie… Oh, Charlie…” He said, his body so hot and hard above me, against me, inside of me. He climaxed along with me, our bodies joined as one as they rode that wave of ecstasy higher and higher.
Afterwards, we both lay on my bed, our bodies slick and glistening with the sweat of our exertions. We spooned, our bodies curved together, his arm around my waist with his face against my shoulder.
The comforter and sheet were in a tangled heap at the foot of the bed on the floor. Neither of us moved to grab it. He was all the heat I needed.
“You drive me crazy, you know,” he said. The breath of his words cooled and tickled my skin, and I broke out in gooseflesh.
“Do I?” I said. It was dark in my bedroom with the curtains drawn and twilight shifting over to night. I could make out the digits on my alarm clock, which sat on my dresser so that I actually had to get up and out of bed to turn it off every morning.
“You have no idea,” he said.
That made me smile again. It was when he said things like that that made me think that maybe this was more than just some fling.
“Alex?” I said, still unable to beat my own fears and insecurities away.
“Yes?”
“You’ll stay tonight, won’t you? You won’t leave?”
“I’ll stay,” he said, not hesitating a moment.
It wasn’t long after that that we fell asleep for the first time that evening.
I forgot how nice it was to just sleep with another person again. To feel another’s comforting body heat encircling me.
It had been too early in the day to go to sleep after that first little between-the-sheets adventure. So of course we’d gotten up, had supper (which Alex had so courageously ventured out to get) and spent the evening together.
I read the time on the clock. It was early. That time when the whole city seemed quiet. Quiet enough that I could just lay there and listen to the rhythm of Alex’s steady breathing behind me.
Just go back to sleep, I told myself. I needed it; it was now officially Friday, and my students would be at their most rambunctious, eager to start the weekend.
Our last day together, I thought.
I must have stiffened against him or something at that thought, because he stirred behind me.
“Charlie? Everything okay?” He whispered, his arm pulling me harder against him.
“Yes…” I started, then relenting, “I mean… I don’t know. It’s Friday now.”
He got my meaning instantly.
“I’m not going anywhere.” He punctuated his words with soft kisses against the back of my neck and along my shoulder that raised my skin in tingling goose bumps.
I remembered, and felt then, that we had gone to bed naked.
All it took for me to bring him back to flame was to slide my hand between our bodies. His breath escaped through his lips in a sigh of delight.
“Then show me,” I said.
He did.
Chapter 25
ALEXANDER
“I’m surprised you had the energy to get out of bed,” I said. Two eggs, sunny side up, fried in the Teflon-coated skillet in front of me on Charlie’s range.
; Charlie herself leaned against the kitchen doorway, her thighs naked and tantalizing below the bottom of my shirt that she had on. Just why is it so sexy when a woman wear’s a guy’s shirt?
The answer came to me a moment later: because it means she had nothing on before that, and that I’m the one responsible for that. I couldn’t help grinning.
Somehow sensing at least some of what I thought, Charlie returned my smile and raised me a blush. “Stop looking at me like that.”
“No,” I said, sparing a glance for the eggs. Almost done. On cue, the toaster popped out two slices of golden brown bread.
“Considering everything we did last night, I’m pretty surprised too that we’re not both dead in bed still… But it’s weird. Opposite, you know? I feel perfectly rested. And you?” Charlie said, her blush deepening. It made a few freckles darken on her cheeks.
I wanted her again, but didn’t want to tire her out on the last day of the school week.
Instead I took a quick internal inventory and found the same. No grogginess, no soreness in the back, no desire to slurp down an entire pot of coffee. In fact, the coffee pot sat steaming and full and untouched a few feet away from the range on the counter.
“I guess you’re the only thing I need to wake up on the right side of the bed,” I said.
In a rare display of girlishness, Charlie tugged at a lock of her hair, twining it around her index and middle fingers while she glanced down at the floor and then back up to me.
“This is nice,” I said.
“Yeah,” she replied, watching me plate the food.
We finished and got ready for the day. I had a spare shirt down in the car so no one would notice me wearing the same thing two days in a row.
I offered to give Charlie a ride in to school, but as usual she stubbornly refused. So I settled for walking with her over to her modest little Camry, hoping all the while that the equally stubborn Toyota engine would refuse to start.
She unlocked and opened the door, but didn’t sit down in the car. Instead she chewed her lip for a couple of seconds and then looked at me.
