Damaged Love

by Sarah J. Brooks

  “Your pictures are amazing,” I heard a man say and turned around expecting to see Rob, but instead it was Stanley.

  For some reason, Stanley’s voice hadn’t sounded as familiar as it normally did. He also looked a lot different than I was used to seeing him. Stanley had his hair brushed precisely with a tailored navy colored suit on. He looked good, damn good.

  “You’ve seen my work before.” I laughed as I pushed him away a little.

  “Yeah, but in here it looks so official. You really are a fabulous artist, Isabella. I’m sorry I don’t tell you it more often.”

  “Thank you, Stanley, I really appreciate that,” I said as I gave him a big hug.

  With my arms still wrapped around him, I noticed Rob standing at the other end of the room and eyeing the two of us. This was it; it was time for these two men to meet one another. I hoped they would get along.

  “I’ve got someone else for you to meet,” I whispered to Stanley as I pulled away from him.

  “Another one already? You’re a fast mover.”

  “It’s Rob, the guy I went on the date with the other night. He’s just getting to know me, but I sort of went for it and told him about my life.”

  “You didn’t think he was going to be agreeable, did you?” Stanley laughed and then went straight faced the second Rob got near to us.

  “Rob, this is my friend Stanley. Stanley, this is Rob,” I motioned between the two of them.

  “So you and Isabella?” Rob asked Stanley with a raised eyebrow.

  “Isabella and I met while she was in college. We lived together for awhile, but now we don’t. I think she’s pretty fantastic, though.”

  “We only went on one date so far, but I do have to agree with you that she’s fantastic,” Rob said and pulled me toward him before kissing me.

  It always made me laugh when guys wanted to test out the resolve of the other men I was seeing. Rob clearly thought Stanley would get upset or jealous or say something, but he was an old pro in this relationship. Stanley simply sipped his drink and waited for us to finish kissing, then without missing a beat, he moved the conversation forward.

  “Have you sold anything yet?” Stanley asked.

  “Not that Sarah has told me. I really hope something sells.”

  “Did you see that one in the woods,” Rob asked Stanley.

  “No, I didn’t see it.”

  “It’s the woods down the street from the house. You should go check it out,” I said as I took advantage of the moment. “Rob, will you show him where it’s hanging please?”

  “Sure,” Rob replied as the two men went off to get to know each other while admiring my photographs. I couldn’t have asked for a first meeting to go any better.

  Chapter 14

  “I know you all are dying to meet the artist of these amazing pictures, so please let me introduce you to Isabella Marvs,” Sarah said over a small microphone.

  The whole gallery stopped what they were doing and looked up at the small platform that Sarah was on. I begrudgingly made my way up there to say a few words. I was not the type of person who had a lot to say on a normal day, but in front of a thousand people, I really didn’t have much to say.

  “Hello everyone, I’m so happy you can all be here to share this day with me. It has been a long road to get here, and I’m very excited to be starting my journey in the world of photography. I hope you all have a great night and enjoy my work.”

  As I put the microphone down, the room erupted in applause. It caught me off guard. They were all clapping for me. It was hard to even fathom that all these people were there at the gallery for me. They had gotten babysitters and scheduled their whole night around coming to see my work. It was pretty dang awesome.

  The second I got off the platform, there were people coming up to me and asking questions. They seemed to want to know every little detail about the work. They wanted to know where it was taken, what camera, what lens, and even more personal things about myself. One man asked if I was single, another if I took dirty pictures, and a few other people asked about my family life.

  It was funny at first, as they would ask me a question, and I would ponder it for a moment and then answer. But soon I got so tired of answering the same questions over and over again. I got anxious when they asked me questions that I didn’t want to answer like about my personal life. It was pretty amazing how people felt comfortable asking you things in a gallery setting that they wouldn’t dare ask you in any other place.

  I did my best to answer the appropriate questions and deflected the inappropriate ones with laughter. I would pretend to see someone waving at me, then wave back and say I needed to go.

  Sarah was right; it was extremely overwhelming to have a gallery show. I had entirely underestimated the power of a thousand people trying to talk to me about a thousand different topics. My hands were shaking from the adrenaline when I finally decided to take Sarah’s advice and sneak out onto the balcony.

  It was a very nice balcony, about twenty feet long, and six feet wide. It was on the third floor and had a set of stairs leading down to the second level and then to the main level. They had a lounge chair out on the porch, and I sat down in it and put my feet up while I closed my eyes and took in some deep breaths to try and relax. It felt so good to take my heels off and let my feet relax.

  My eyes were closed for what I thought was just a quick moment, but then I woke up in a panic. I looked around and tried to get my bearings and figure out where I was at. It seemed like maybe I’d fallen asleep for much more than a quick minute.

  “I thought you would never wake up,” I heard a man’s voice say.

  I jumped up and looked around.

  Marcus came out from the dark of the other side of the balcony. He was dressed in a finely tailored black suit and looked delicious. I’d never seen him in anything so formal and hadn’t really imagined what he’d look like, he actually looked like a movie star, though, and I couldn’t stop looking at him.

  Even in the dark, he looked like a man who could get any woman in the entire gallery to go home with him. All he would have to do was flirt a little and flash them his smile. The girl would be his for the night; I was sure of it.

  He moved into the light, and I had to take a minute to keep a picture of him in my mind. He didn’t strike me as the kind of guy who owned a tailored suit. But damn, it fit him so well.

  “How long was I asleep? What time is it?”

  “Well, I don’t know when you fell asleep, but I’ve been out here for twenty minutes and found you looking like sleeping beauty in that chair.”

  “It is just crazy in there. I can’t even breath, my anxiety is so high. I don’t know how I’ll be able to go back in there.”

  “There are a lot of people in there,” he agreed. “I even met that boy toy of yours in there, and he seemed to have a second boy toy?” Marcus asked with an inquisitive look.

  “Yeah, both of them.”

  “Well, then I think my weird thing is probably going to be just fine with you,” he said playfully.

  “We can talk about that later, for sure.” I laughed. “Now, tell me if the gallery is thinning out of people yet? It was so overwhelming in there.”

  I didn’t want to be the person who complained at their gallery opening. I certainly was very grateful for the opportunity. But I was genuinely about to have a panic attack, and the only thing that made me feel better was being out on the balcony with Marcus. I stood up to give him a hug, but Marcus sat down in the lounge chair and motioned for me to come sit with him.

  “There’s no room.” I laughed.

  “Yes, there is,” he demanded.

  He grabbed my hand and pulled me onto his lap. His lips quickly moved to mine and met me with a desire that I wasn’t ready for. I could feel his hand moving up my skirt, and within moments, he had pulled my panties off.

  I wanted to stop him, but I wanted to keep feeling his touch on my body also. It was an internal struggle between my min
d and my body. The stress of the evening was so overwhelming, and I knew that there was a way for me to release all of that stress.

  Eventually, my body won out.

  Marcus unzipped his suit pants and pulled himself out. I could see his cock throbbing in the dull light of the balcony. It pulsed with a desire to be inside me.

  He quickly slipped a condom on and then grabbed me and set me on top of his cock. I slid down hard and started moving diligently against his thrusts. I had so much pent up energy; I just wanted a release. I needed a release so badly.

  My body reacted quickly to the pleasure of Marcus thrusting inside of me. I could feel my clit sliding up and down against his body, and there was a buildup of desire that I couldn’t hold back. Just as I was about to cum, Marcus stopped thrusting.

  He held my body tightly and prevented me from moving against him.

  Marcus pulled me off of him, and I stood up near the edge of the balcony as Marcus got up from the lounge chair. With a defining force, he turned me around and bent me over the railing. I loved how he took charge of me at that moment.

  As I looked down, I could see people walking on the streets. I looked around to see if there was anyone watching us, but I couldn’t see anyone. Not that I would have stopped him from taking me, but it was nice to know that no one was paying attention to us.

  He slid into me rough and hard. I let out a moan, and he reached around to muffle me with his hand. He used his grip on my mouth as leverage as he thrust harder and harder inside of me. He was enjoying making me scream and hearing my muffled voice.

  It felt so exhilarating to be outside on that balcony and fucking Marcus. It was nothing I would have ever imagined doing, and I probably would never do it again, but on that night, it seemed like the right thing to do.

  I held onto the railing as his thrust got even deeper and harder. I couldn’t help the screams of pleasure that came out of my mouth and was happy Marcus kept his hand covering me. As he delivered his final few thrusts, I felt a release of explosion, and my screaming finally stopped. My whole body stopped. I could hardly move; the pleasure jolting through my body was just the buzz I needed to continue on with the anxiety of my photography show.

  In my daze, I was able to find my shoes, but I couldn’t find my panties. I looked all around, but it was just dark enough that I couldn’t find them. I decided I’d have to continue without them.

  Marcus went over toward the door and waited for me so we could go inside.

  “Shit, I should get back to the party. But I just can’t. It is so overwhelming in there. People keep asking me a million questions. I thought the worse that could happen was they wouldn’t like my work, but apparently, liking my work can also be very bad.”

  Marcus didn’t say a thing but just opened the door and waved me back into the gallery. He grabbed my arm and placed it on the corner of his, and I held onto him as we made our way around to look at the pictures.

  When he got to about the fourth picture, Marcus laughed.

  “What’s so funny?” I asked.

  “I have your panties in my pocket,” he said with a sly grin.

  It was too late to worry about that now. I just laughed, and we moved on to look at some other pictures. It was nice having him with me because people didn’t feel as obligated to come and ask me questions. I was so sick of answering the same questions over and over again.

  He seemed mesmerized by my work and stopped to look at every single one of my photos. He didn’t ask me a bunch of questions and didn’t seem to care where I took them or with what camera. He just enjoyed them. I liked that.

  “Hey guys,” Stanley said as he and Rob joined us in front of one of the paintings.

  “Rob this is Marcus, right? It’s Marcus?” Stanley asked as the three men took turns shaking hands.

  Marcus was clearly confident of his spot in this foursome. He held onto me with one arm and shook hands with the other two without missing a beat. I’d hungered to have a man like Marcus in my mix. A man who was alpha in his life and our relationship but still found the softer side of him that allowed him to share me with others. He was like a unicorn in my world, and I intended to try and hold onto him.

  “Yes, Marcus,” he answered. “You’re Stanley, and who are you?” Marcus asked as he looked at Rob.

  “Rob,” he said equally as stern as Marcus.

  “Ah yes, I saw you leaving Isabella’s house the other day.”

  “Where do you live? Right next door?” Rob laughed at his own joke.

  “Yes,” Marcus said dryly.

  “Marcus recently moved in next door,” I added as I tried to smooth over the conversation. “He travels a lot for work.”

  “Wow, okay. So both Stan and Marcus live near you. I guess I’m the odd man out.” Rob laughed nervously.

  “Yeah, you are,” Marcus said with a perfectly straight face.

  I could tell Marcus was messing with Rob, really just trying to make him uncomfortable, but I didn’t think Rob understood that Marcus was messing with him. Rob squirmed and looked around the room and soon made an excuse to leave us.

  “It was nice meeting you all; I do need to get going, though. Can I call you tomorrow, Isabella?” he asked as he looked at me and then Marcus standing next to me.

  “Why don’t I walk you out,” I offered and pulled away from Marcus for a moment so Rob and I could have a quick talk. I slid my arm into his and walked with him through the gallery and to the front door. “Thank you so much for coming. I’m sorry if Marcus made you uncomfortable.”

  “No, he’s fine. I feel like I’d act the same way if you were mine.”

  “I’d love to go on another date sometime if you’re interested.”

  “Really? You would?” he asked a little surprised.

  “Yeah, I would,” I said and pulled him toward me. “I enjoyed our night together. I had fun. Life is about having fun, right?”

  Rob looked back toward Stanley and Marcus who were both deep in conversation and not looking in our direction at all. This sort of dating situation was clearly something new to Rob, and I could tell it was making him nervous.

  “Yeah, I’ll call you, and we can set something up,” he said and then kissed me with much more passion than he had when we were on a date. “I did enjoy my time with you, and although this is all really foreign to me, I would like to see you again, and we can figure the rest out as we go.”

  “Perfect. Have a great night.” I waved as Rob walked out into the street and toward his car.

  I rejoined Marcus and Stanley and interrupted their conversation about the local football team. Although I wasn’t comfortable holding hands with both of them in public, Stanley did stay close by while Marcus and I made our way around the gallery. When people would leave us alone, Stanley always came back in to talk. He was really well versed in managing this lifestyle in public settings.

  Soon people came to talk to me, and I introduced Marcus as my friend. Although I felt like we were more than friends. I was having some major feelings about him by then, and it seemed that he might have some feelings for me too.

  He did not like having to talk to people and looked just about as uncomfortable as I did, at least at first. But it only took him a few groups of people, and he was socializing like a pro. I felt that he took on a new personality, though, like he was pretending to be an outgoing guy just to make it through the evening. He certainly wasn’t outgoing; his personality seemed much more like a reserved, confident type.

  I enjoyed watching him interact with people, even if it was a fake persona. He was funny and witty; he made the men want to be him and the women want to fuck him. There was something special about the way he interacted with people that made everyone feel at ease almost instantly.

  It was freaky how he turned so quickly into this person, though. He was happy and joking; he sipped on wine and talked about politics, and he was way different than the Marcus I knew. I remember he said he did something with police or security when we
talked about his job before. It made me think that his job might be why he was so easily able to adapt to meeting all these people.

  He could read them; he knew how they would like to interact, and Marcus changed his persona to fit in. I didn’t know what he did for his job, but some sort of undercover work would be great for him. He certainly seemed able to move seamlessly into almost any environment.

  Marcus had his arm around my waist like he owned me, and it felt great. His confidence in dealing with the crowd of people made me finally able to relax and enjoy the big night. I was so happy he had been able to come, as well as Stanley and Rob. Their support of me and my photography meant a lot.

  “Isabella, I’m not going to have final numbers for you tonight. Are you staying in town?” Sarah said as the night started to slow down.

  “Yes I will be in town.”

  “Alright, how about you enjoy a day on the town tomorrow, and I’ll call you with the final sales. I will need you to come in and sign some documents before you leave town, though.”

  “That sounds fine. I am actually booked at the Marriott for two more nights. I wanted to enjoy the city a bit before returning home. I’ve missed the city life,” I said as I looked at Stanley and Marcus with a shy shrug. I hadn’t told either of them that I would be staying in the city.

  “Even better. Have a good night, and I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

  Sarah took off to talk to another group of people.

  “Will we need to bring your pictures home tomorrow?” Marcus said.

  I was excited that he said we; perhaps that meant he was planning on staying the night with me. It would be fun to have a night in a fancy hotel room with him by my side.

  “Oh, I’ll go ask her how many.” I was just about to take off to ask her when Marcus grabbed my arm.

  “No, I got it, you sit down and rest your feet. Stan, take care of our girl,” Marcus ordered.

  “I like him,” Stanley said as he pulled my feet into his lap and started massaging them. “He’s different. Quirky even.”

  “Quirky? Really?”