Chasing Temptation

by M. S. Parker

  After turning on the oven, I put the casserole down on the counter top and peeled away the aluminum foil that had been placed on the top. Glenn was already sitting down, hands folded on the table in front of him, his eyes staring off into the distance, pensively.

  I went to join him.

  “Tell me how you met Cane.”

  And he did. The oven preheated and I got up to put the casserole in and he continued to talk. As I got water for us both, he talked. The casserole finished and he talked about their early days in Hollywood, both of them taking on cheesy bit parts that they’d still laughed at, even years later.

  He finished telling one story and then stopped. “I guess he won’t laugh about it anymore.”

  “So you’ll tell others about it,” I said. “And they can laugh with you. That’s how you keep him alive, Glenn.”

  “Yeah.” A sad smile curved his lips. “Maybe.”

  We finished the rest of the meal in silence, and he surprised me by taking over the clean up, insisting I stay there while he washed up the dishes and returned the rest of the casserole to the fridge.

  When he finished, he came back to stand at my side.

  Just like earlier that day at the church, he held out a hand.

  This time, I didn’t hesitate when I took it.

  I expected him to lead me to his bedroom, but to my surprise, he turned me around to face the table and my breath caught my throat as he tugged my dress up.

  “I saw you everywhere I looked, for weeks…months…years. Even when I was with Kimberly, I’d see you. I’d wake up with her hands on me, but you were the woman I tasted,” he whispered into my ear.

  Both hands closing around my hips, he tugged my butt back against the hard ridge of his erection, grinding his cock against me. Hunger twisted in me like claws, emerging from out of nowhere and laying me open.

  “Did you miss me?” Glenn growled the words against my ear.

  I opened my mouth to answer, but a moan escaped before the words could.

  He fisted a hand in my hair and yanked my head back. “Did you miss me?” he demanded again.

  “With every breath.”

  He spun me around then, boosting me up to sit on the edge of the table. “Show me.” Fingers plunging into my hair, he took my mouth in a hungry, ravaging kiss that threatened to destroy every last, sane piece of me.

  When he finally broke away, it was to kiss a path down my neck, then my chest. At some point, he’d opened each of the tiny pearl buttons that held it closed and the feel of his mouth against my skin was pure, savage seduction.

  “Show me,” he said again, guiding my hands to his head.

  I clung to him, tugging his mouth to my breasts.

  He bit one nipple through my bra. I felt that contact with my flesh, already so much more sensitive than before, as though he’d brushed me with pure electricity. Arching up against him with a shriek, I tightened my grip in his hair.

  Black dots blurred in front of my eyes.

  He did it again.

  “Wait…wait…”

  He shifted his attention to the other side.

  It was too much.

  I could feel the pressure building inside me and pulled him away. He seemed to acquiesce, but all he did was take the opportunity to work my bra up over my breasts, not even bother to free the clasp at my back. When I felt his mouth close over my nipples again, wet, demanding and with absolutely no impediment, I couldn’t control it. I climaxed with a hard, jerking spasming.

  Glenn stilled above me.

  Appalled, I went to shove him back, unable to figure out how to explain how I’d just gotten off all from him sucking on my nipples.

  Sure my breasts had been sensitive the past few weeks and I assumed it was from pregnancy, but that much?

  “I guess that is definitely showing me,” he murmured, pressing his lips to the middle of my torso.

  The bra twisted uncomfortably under my armpits and I shoved at his chest, my face hotly red. “Let me up.”

  He did, but when I went to look away, he wouldn’t let me. “What’s wrong?”

  “That was…” I floundered, unable to explain—at least without giving away secrets I wasn’t ready to reveal.

  “Shhh…” He brushed his lips over my mouth. At the same time, he smoothed my dress off my shoulders so that it pulled around my hips on the table. Then he freed the clasp of my bra and tugged it away. “Just touching you is about enough to make me lose it. Seeing you climax like that is amazing.”

  Ducking my head, I hid my tears, the secrets. He went to his knees in front of me and pulled me off the table, pulling my dress completely off. That…and my panties. He left the garters alone. “I love a woman in garters. I know they don’t work for everything, but fuck me if they aren’t the sexiest thing around.”

  After easing me back onto the table, he kissed my knees and urged my thighs apart. “I’m going to lick you and suck on you and make you beg me, Maya. Then I’m going to imprint myself on you. Tell me you want that.”

  He braced himself over me, staring into my eyes as he waited.

  “I want that.” Gripping the front of his shirt, I struggled to breathe around the ball of lust that had gathered inside me. This was what I’d missed…this connection, this…tenderness. Us. “I want that, Glenn.”

  A slow, smug smile curled his lips and he went about doing just that.

  “Please…” I moaned as he circled his tongue around my entrance, then flicked it against my clit. “Glenn, please…I can’t.”

  “You can. You still haven’t done what I told you to do.”

  What he’d told me?

  I’d climaxed so hard my brain had melted.

  I thought I might be dehydrated and my throat was raw from crying out and moaning.

  What had he told me to do?

  “Beg, Maya,” he whispered just as he sealed his mouth over my cunt and thrust his tongue deep.

  I arched up against him weakly, too dazed, too spent to tug him closer. But the pleasure was too sharp, too keen, for me not to chase more of it. “Please…Glenn, please!”

  “Good enough.”

  He stopped abruptly and I wailed. “What are you…no…”

  The orgasm had been just out of reach and now it withdrew, taunting me.

  Even as my brain tried to comprehend that, Glenn levered himself over me, the heavy oak table bearing our weight. I gasped as his heat crushed me for a moment, bringing my hands up to push against his chest.

  Then he was splaying my thighs and coming inside me. I moaned.

  He caught my wrists and dragged them over my head. I whimpered.

  He nipped my lower lip and whispered my name…and said, “Beg me, Maya. Beg me again.”

  “Please, Glenn. Please make love to me.”

  I needed him to fill this ache inside me. He was the only one who’d make it go away.

  He tensed minutely and something in the back of my head clicked on. I tried to focus on it, but he was already thrusting inside me, slow, deep thrusts that had him rubbing against the sensitive spot deep in my pussy.

  “Please…” This time, I didn’t even know what I was asking for.

  He understood anyway. He thrust deeper, harder. And when it still wasn’t enough, he let go of my wrists and worked one forearm under my waist, tugging me into fuller contact with his groin. Now, barely moving, he ground into me, letting me feel the ripple and pulse of his cock and it was like our hearts began to beat in rhythm.

  His eyes burned into mine.

  I couldn’t look away if I’d tried.

  He twisted his hand into my hair, fisted it, just to make sure I didn’t even dare to try.

  Like I would.

  He was in my blood, in my soul.

  The climax built slower this time and Glenn did nothing to help move it along. It was like he wanted to build, and build, taunting us both. As it drew closer, he slowly even those minute movements until he was barely rocking inside me. Even that was too m
uch.

  One pulse of his cock finally sent me over and I ended up sobbing and twisting under him. He bore my weight to the table using his hips, a demanding kiss stealing the breath out of him as he, too, began to come.

  The feel of his cock jerking inside me over and over made me moan, triggering a series of aftershocks that was just too much. Another mini climax started and Glenn swore. “Fuck…don’t…”

  He pulled out abruptly and I cried out in shock, but all he did was flip me onto my belly and pull me to the edge of the table.

  Then he was inside me again, riding me deeply this time, hard and furious and fast.

  I had another climax, then another.

  Then, just as he growled and came, black dots gathered in front of my eyes and I passed out.

  I jolted awake in bed as he passed a cloth over my face.

  He chuckled when I groaned and slapped his hands away so I could cover my face. Then, when a soft murmur, he caught my wrists and dragged them away, kissing me softly before he settled down next to me. He pulled me into the hard curve of his body and nuzzled my temple. “Go to sleep.”

  I wasn’t so sure I wanted to do that.

  Even though my body was ready to shut down, just lying here with him was…everything.

  Rolling closer to him, I worked my arm around his waist and pressed my face into his chest.

  “I’ve missed this,” he said into my hair.

  I almost said it back, but then, before I could, he added, “I don’t want to talk about it…or anything else tonight, okay? I just want to hold you like this. Okay?”

  So I nodded, trying to fight back the sting of tears.

  His hand smoothed up and down my hip in a stirring, soothing motion.

  My eyes grew heavier.

  He said something else.

  But all I could make out was my name.

  Sleep drowned out everything else.

  24

  Maya

  I came awake almost the exact same way I’d fallen asleep.

  A warm hand stroked up, then down my back. The remnants of sleep faded slowly, letting things come to me in bits and pieces. A hard body was pressed to mine.

  A familiar scent surrounded, as well as the warmth coming from that body.

  Glenn.

  I didn’t have to think, didn’t have to open my eyes.

  I knew where I was and who I was with.

  The smile was already there before I opened my eyes, a yawn cracking my mouth so wide, it hurt. “Morning, sleepyhead,” he whispered against my shoulder.

  “Good morning.”

  As Glenn urged me onto my back, I felt a stupid smile curving my lips and it only spread wider when he buried his face against my neck and rubbed his stubble-rough chin against me.

  I giggled and hunched my shoulder up. “That tickles,” I said. But I didn’t really want him to stop.

  He caught the skin and bit me gently before pushing up onto his elbows and throwing his thigh over my knees, effectively pinning me into place. He laid a hand on my belly. I started to tense, but the hand slid up and he started to stroke the underside of my breast with his thumb.

  His eyes slid down to my mouth and under the intensity of that stare, I felt my smile start to fade. For a few minutes, I’d totally forgot what was going on, that time has passed between us—years on his side, a couple of months on mine. And there was so much left unsaid between us.

  His gaze slid up to mine when I laid a hand on his cheek.

  “Hey.”

  Glenn covered my hand with his and pressed lightly before levering his weight away and sitting on the edge of the bed. “Hey. Did you sleep well?”

  “Yeah…um…I slept really well. Better than I have in…weeks, really.” I didn’t elaborate, glad I’d caught the words before they could escape me.

  “I understand that. I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep since…” He stopped and got up, grabbing the pants lying over the headboard. “Anyway. Are you hungry?”

  He slid out the bedroom without waiting for me to answer and I got up, feeling awkward there, alone in his bedroom with my skin still warm from him…and my soul cold from the words he hadn’t said.

  I hurried into the bathroom to wash my face and brush my teeth, using the toothpaste on the counter and my finger. The intimacy between wasn’t gone, but it was strained, and I wasn’t going to help myself to his toothbrush the way I might have done once.

  After cleaning up the best I could, I tugged my dress on and went to find him.

  He was standing at the stove, bare-chested, frying up eggs and bacon.

  Fortunately, the morning sickness seemed to be settling down and while I had no desire to help myself to any bacon, it wasn’t about to send me to the toilet. “Mind if I have some toast?”

  He waved a hand to the counter and I went in search of the bread and a toaster.

  “I’ve been thinking,” he said, flipping the bacon over. It sizzled in the skillet and he waited until it stopped before continuing. “I haven’t decided yet, but I’m going to talk to the man who handled Cane’s enlistment. See what they have to say.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me, Maya.” He sounded tired. “I’m…tired. All this bullshit here in Hollywood, playing nice to the press to convince them I’ve turned over a new leaf. Seems like it’s a waste of time if I have to do things that I’d never really do anyway. Maybe I’m not drinking myself into a stupor all night and maybe I’m sorry I was an ass and blew my career into the ground, but going to kid’s picnics and acting like some philanthropist doesn’t make me feel like a better person.”

  “So going to a kid’s picnic makes you feel bad?” I tried to tease a smile out of him, even as my mind worked furiously to figure out some way to change his mind.

  “Yeah. It makes me feel lonely, Maya.”

  Hollowed out by those words, I swallowed and looked away.

  “Anyway, I don’t even have any real purpose anymore. Nothing that calls to me or feels…right. Cane had a purpose and it gave him focus, gave him peace. I want that.”

  “That focus gave him an early death,” I said, the words slipping out of me without thinking about how cold they sounded.

  “But he died doing something that mattered.”

  I wanted to argue with him, but what was I supposed to tell him? That millions more were going to die? I’d already done that. That kids would die? I’d done that too.

  A cold chill racked me. “Glenn, please don’t do this.”

  “I can’t stop thinking about it,” he said. “It’s like…when I’m gone, is there anything I’ve done that made a difference? Cane did that. He made a difference.”

  Spinning around, I glared at him. “You do make a difference. You make art and it makes people happy!”

  “Movies.” He snorted. “They’ll be forgotten in five or ten years.”

  “You’re wrong!”

  His face softened as he caught the expression on my face. “Maya…it’s going to be okay.”

  “You don’t know that.” Shaking, I wrapped my arms around my middle but it didn’t help the chill inside.

  “It's just a skirmish.” He shook his head and focused his attention back on the stove. The sizzling continued from the stove, and a few seconds passed before he flipped the bacon once more. “It’s nothing major—not like the great war.”

  I didn’t understand what he meant at first, then realized, abruptly, he meant World War II. That was still recent to people now, while it was fading from memory in my time.

  “It’s nothing like that.”

  I couldn’t argue with that. But war was…war. My throat was locked and tight, and I wanted to huddle up in a corner and cry. But I focused and kept my voice level. “This isn’t a skirmish,” I said, voice husky. “It won’t end in a few weeks, in a few months or even in a couple of years. A lot of people are going to die, Glenn. I don’t want you to be one of them.”

  “You don't know that.” He shook his head as
he flipped the bacon out of the skillet. Moving the skillet to the back, he turned his attention to the other pan and jabbed at the eggs, like they were trying to attack him. “You’re a woman. The idea of war must scare you.”

  Insult flooded me but I kept it at bay. I wasn’t in my time. I was struggling to acclimate to these things but it wasn’t as easy, especially when he said shit like that. Besides, I was afraid. It didn’t have anything to do with being a woman, either.

  “You know, being a woman isn’t why I’m afraid,” I said, keeping my voice calm. Being afraid and being insulted didn’t make for calming thoughts, but I managed.

  A faint smile tugged up the corners of his mouth. That just made it worse, and the calm I’d summoned up fractured.

  “It has to do with the fact that this is war and people die. Damn it, quit smiling like that. You act like I’m telling you a joke!”

  “I know you’re not joking.” He scooped the rest of the eggs out of the skillet and turned the stove off then came over to me, reaching up to cup my cheeks.

  “I think you’re just…worrying more than you need to.”

  “Arrrghhh…” I slammed my fist into his stomach before I could even process what I was about to do. He grunted out in shock. I doubted I’d really hurt him. As his hands fell away, I spun away and moved over to the French doors. They opened out onto a patio and I could just barely catch sight of the ocean from here. Pressing my forehead to the window, I sucked in one ragged breath after another. I felt like there wasn’t air in the room. I was suffocating, on fear, on misery.

  Placing a hand over the baby growing inside my belly, I said, “Glenn. Please…please don’t go.”

  “Why?” he bit off, a sharp edge in his voice.

  Apparently, I wasn’t the only one fighting with some anger.

  Spinning to face him, I stared into his eyes, searching for…something. I’d hoped for a sign of the love I’d once seen there. But I couldn’t it. He didn’t look as furious and disgusted as he did the last time we’d argued, but things weren’t what they once were.