Catnipped

by Olivia Myers

  The doorbell rang, signaling her final appointment of the day, and she was certain that she wasn’t going to get what she wanted. Well, let’s get this one over with, she said to herself as she opened the door.

  “Hello,” the young man on her stoop said. “I’m here about the apartment.”

  Rachel blinked a couple of times to make sure her eyes weren’t playing some evil trick on her. In front of her was a good-looking, articulate person who clearly stated what he wanted.

  Well, this guy’s one up on the competition so far. “Hello,” she said. “Let me show you the place.”

  She opened the screen door a little and he took the handle, holding it open for her as she stepped outside.

  “I’m Conner,” he said, smiling and extending his hand. Conner had those looks that most guys see in magazines and spend hours and money trying to harness. He was a head taller than Rachel, with a perfectly tousled head of black hair, which was only complimented by a set of piercing blue eyes. His smile was kind, and was punctuated with a pair of dimples that probably won him sweets as a child, and most likely acted as a flawless lure for the ladies.

  Rachel slipped her hand into his to greet him, and the gentle but firm squeeze gave her a jolt that she hadn’t felt in a very long time.

  “You must be Rachel.”

  “Yes,” Rachel responded, silently recovering from her unexpected response. “I’m glad you could make it out.”

  “Absolutely,” Conner said excitedly. He nearly jumped off the stairs of Rachel’s stoop and walked across the lawn to the empty apartment. “I’m just amazed that it’s still available.” He stepped further back on the lawn, to take in the whole building in one glance. “It’s a great property in a really cool neighborhood. I’d love to live here.” He strode back across the lawn to the empty apartment, stepping right up to the front door and peering through the small window into the front room. “It looks like the place has been occupied recently.”

  Rachel laughed as she pulled the keys out of her pocket. “Yes, it was.” Her answer couldn’t pull Conner’s face from the window. She jingled the keys and said coyly, “Um, you know, Conner, I can give you a better look with these.”

  He turned his head with a puzzled look that faded into embarrassment when he realized what she meant. He chuckled and stepped away from the door. “Sorry, I just get so excited about places like this. I’m a contractor, and I fall in love every time I run into a place like yours.”

  “Oh really,” Rachel said as she turned the key in the lock and opened the door. “My ex always talked about getting this place fixed up, but I never knew of any problems.”

  “Well, there are lots of problems that you probably can’t see,” Conner replied. “A building this age is bound to need an upgrade on its electrical and plumbing – the city is changing some codes on what’s acceptable.” He planted his feet where he stood, and rocked back and forth on the hardwood floor, listening to it creak. “And these floors could use some work too.”

  Now Rachel felt full of embarrassment. “Oh wow,” she said. “I had no idea. I just thought the place was old and charming. I didn’t know it was a death trap.”

  Conner laughed and shook his head. “It’s not that critical, but yes, the place does need some work.” Rachel thought that he was going to say his goodbyes and leave, but instead he continued to follow her around the space, taking a full tour. When they returned to the front room, he looked at Rachel and said, “Look, Rachel. I can’t walk away from this place. So let me make you a deal.”

  Rachel was wary, but intrigued. “Okay,” she said. “What are you offering?”

  “I’ll take the place if you let me work on improvements. I’m starting my own contracting business, and I would love a showpiece for clients, to show them what I can do. I’ll take care of the labor, and you deduct the materials costs from my rent.”

  “Seriously?” Rachel asked. She grabbed his hand and shook it quickly, as if Conner and his offer would fade away. “You got it!”

  Conner smiled, and Rachel almost fell into his dimples. “Excellent. I promise you won’t be disappointed.”

  Somehow, Rachel was certain of that.

  ***

  For the first two months, Rachel saw very little of Conner, but heard more from him than she bargained for. True to his word, he worked on the building like a man possessed, laying new floors and pipe whenever he wasn’t out working on paying gigs, sleeping, or eating – which all ran distant places on his priority list. It meant a lot of sleepless nights and early mornings for Rachel, as the constant hammering and sawing didn’t make for a peaceful environment. But Conner didn’t hear a word from her; Rachel was far too thrilled to get the work done than to concern herself with complaining.

  Conner’s rate was the best she was ever going to get, and it felt good to see the building go through changes. It felt as if Conner was gutting not only building materials, but also the remnants of Rachel and John’s failed experiment at marriage. Not many people get a fresh start without having to move, Rachel thought to herself. Conner’s efforts were as amazing as they were relentless; his apartment gleamed with dark wood floors, new lighting fixtures and appliances, and windows that actually kept the room comfortable. Thanks to the sale of some mutually owned stock of hers and John’s, she was able to bankroll the costs with ease, and at the end of his second month they were making plans to renovate her place.

  By the third month, things had settled down at Conner’s, and Rachel was free to sleep soundly for the first couple of weeks. The silence was new again, and since the renovations happened so soon after the divorce, she was just becoming used to the idea that she would always be able to sleep alone; John wasn’t coming home after a long trip anymore. She certainly didn’t mind the solitude; after eight years of thinking of someone else before bed, she was glad to turn off the lights and drift off to sleep without wondering if her husband was coming home or if he was safe.

  One Saturday night later in the month, Rachel slipped into bed after another one of her now-patented single girl nights with her favorite new friends: a bottle of wine, a pint of ice cream, her couch, and the sappiest movie she could find on her streaming TV account. She was drifting off to sleep when she was jostled awake by a vibration from the wall behind her bed. At first she felt a big bump, and then a rhythmic thump, thump, thump. It took her a minute to orient herself, but soon she knew what was going on: the wall was the one that she shared with Conner’s bedroom. The few times Rachel saw him during the construction process, he didn’t fail at delivering on the stereotype of the sexy construction worker. Whether her neighbor worked in jeans and a sweaty white t-shirt that clung to his chest, or whether he opted to go without a shirt at all, Rachel wasn’t immune to his natural wiles.

  Now, as she sat upright in her bed, listening to the thump, thump, thump of Conner’s headboard against their wall, she carved those images out of her mind and pasted them on his bed, where he was pounding a woman into oblivion.

  Rachel’s breath quickened as her imagination picked up steam, imagining Conner’s face looking into hers as he leaned in to plant a soft, wet kiss upon her lips. Mmmm, she moaned to herself, as her thighs began to rub against each other, almost involuntarily. There was something about Conner that made Rachel react without thought; from the moment she met him, it seemed as if her body wanted to do things to him, regardless of whether or not she was thinking about him. Their few exchanges were always riddled with teenager-like giggles from her, and now as she had the audible proof of his sexual prowess, she couldn’t stop the wetness between her legs from happening if she wanted to.

  And then she heard him.

  “Oh God, baby, you feel that,” Conner’s muffled voice said from the other side of the wall. Thump, thump thump, thump. “You love that cock, don’t you baby?”

  “Oh fuck,” a nearly breathless voice responded. “Fuck me, Conner! Give me that big dick! Please!” Her pleads began to synchronize with the headboard crashin
g against the wall. Thump “Yes!” Thump “Fuck!” Thump “Fuck me!”

  Rachel pulled her hair away from the side of her face and pressed her ear against the wall. Her hands moved in opposite directions – one slid up her body to alternate caresses between her round, naked breasts, and the other travelled down her stomach, floating over her mons and pulling her panties to the side, to work her clit in the circular fashion that her recent lonely nights had allowed her to perfect. The slit between her legs continued to flood with her juices, and her finger alternated between delivering slow and quick orbits around her pink button and darts of pleasure into her aching pussy. It didn’t take too much brainpower to imagine Conner with her in that bed; after all, he was only inches away from her, and she could feel his passion as if she was in that bed with both of them.

  “Take that dick, baby,” Conner commanded, his voice full of a toe-curling deepness that forced Rachel to slip another finger inside of herself. She took her free hand and forearm and firmly stroked it across both of her breasts, brushing her nipples hard enough to squeeze miniature moans of pleasure from her throat.

  “Oh, shit,” Conner’s muffled voice bellowed. “I’m going to come. You want it, baby? Huh?”

  “Fuck yes,” the voice screamed. It was louder than anything else up to that point. “Give it to me, sexy! Fill me up.”

  If Conner hadn’t been coming at the same time as Rachel at that moment, he would have heard the greatest moan of the night from her throat, as she plunged three fingers inside herself, filling her tight pussy with ecstasy. Her orgasm overcame her in waves of passion; she could feel her clit twitch and pulse against the palm. She slipped into sleep quickly, and had several mini-dreams of Conner’s cock inside her, and the saturated bed linens underneath her body.

  ***

  A pattern formed over the next two weeks. Rachel would go to bed, and nearly every other night Conner would bring her to orgasm and a hard sleep with his headboard pounding and woman pleasing on the other side of the wall.

  After a few days she was able to figure out his rhythm: Conner went on a date every other night, so Rachel was able to plan her week so that she could take herself out on a “date” before he arrived home with his latest sexual conquest. A well-prepared meal and bottle of wine were followed by a delightful fingering and a role playing scenario. Rachel would sometimes pretend to be the girl Conner was fucking, moving her mouth to lip-sync with her moans and cries. Other times she would imagine that Conner was with her in her room, bursting in to give her the lay that she’d needed ever since her divorce. And still other times her mind was flooded with images of sexy threesomes with Conner and whatever woman he chose to bring home that week; they would have her please them both as they brought each other to one screaming orgasm after another.

  Being the natural beauty and confident executive that she was, Rachel was naturally left with thoughts of concern about her current behavior. Is this what my life is now? she wondered to herself. Am I just one of those sad divorcees who sit at home and deceives herself into thinking she’s content?

  But each time she looked in the mirror she let that thought float away. Rachel was far from conceited, but she was confident in her beauty. John may have been the only one to make her come before they were married, but he was far from the only man who had tried. She turned down offers for dates left and right these days; it wasn’t that she wasn’t attractive. Rachel was simply not interested. It seemed that marriage put some kind of “commitment capable” sign on her, and every man she ran into was looking for a girlfriend. Rachel wasn’t ready for anything like a traditional relationship – or even a regular boyfriend – and she wouldn’t be for a while.

  What she needed, she thought to herself, was on the other side of her bedroom wall. I need a fucking like that, she would tell herself as she listened to Conner’s women beg for everything he could give them. I need to come like I’m 23 again.

  But even if she’d had the nerve to ask Conner out, by the sixth month of his lease they barely crossed paths. Between his growing contracting business and his social life, Conner was a blur. Rachel’s consulting business wasn’t slacking either, so for Rachel the only time she could count on being around him was those eavesdropping evenings by the bedroom wall. She grew to long for them.

  On another one of those special nights, Rachel fell into her usual “date night” routine. She curled up on the couch after her dinner with a glass of wine, only half-paying attention to the movie she picked for the evening. One glass of wine turned into another, and soon after that an empty wine bottle was tucked underneath the arm of a sleeping Rachel. She drifted off, waiting to hear Conner’s keys in his door so that she could get to bed and wait for her special sex show. A knocking sound awakened her. Instead of from her bedroom wall, though, it came from the front door.

  “Hey,” a familiar muffled voice called from the other side of the door. “Are you up, Rachel? Rachel? It’s me, Conner from next door.”

  Rachel thought she was still drifting between the dream world and the real world. When she heard him knock again, she sat bolt upright and ran to the door, like a TV teenager waiting on her dream date to pick her up.

  She took a breath before she opened the door. On her stoop stood Conner, dressed for a night of clubbing in a tight black V-neck and dark jeans. His deep blue eyes told the story of man with many cocktails in him. But his smile was just as gorgeous as the first time Rachel saw it, and he flashed it at her as if it were a weapon, throwing just the right amount of charm to turn her into putty.

  “Hey Rachel,” Conner said, staying just on the coherent side of slurring his words. “I just got dropped off, but it looks like I left my keys in my date’s car.”

  “Oh, wow,” Rachel said. “That sucks. Well, do you need my phone to call her?”

  Conner chuckled softly and dropped his head. “Um, I think I need to give her some space,” he said. “She’s not that happy with me right now. I’m sure she’ll be okay in the morning. Can I use your spare?”

  “Oh Conner, I’d love to help you out,” Rachel said. “But I actually gave you the only copy. I meant to make copies before I gave the keys to you, but I never got around to it.”

  Conner sighed heavily. Rachel could tell he was pretty drunk tonight, and whatever happened between him and his date left him pretty frustrated.

  As she stood there looking at him, she realized she was at the perfect intersection of desire and opportunity. It was time to take advantage of the situation. “But hey, if you want to crash here on the couch, you’re welcome to it.”

  Conner raised his head to meet Rachel’s gaze. “God, that would be fantastic.” He pulled the screen door open and walked into the living room. “After that date I just want to crash and forget.”

  Rachel laughed as she closed the door behind him. “That bad, huh?”

  “Oh my God, yes,” Conner said. He kicked his shoes and socks off at the door and sat down on Rachel’s couch. “Have you ever spent time with someone that you, I don’t know, just don’t click with?”

  “Yep,” Rachel said. “I was married to him for eight years.”

  Conner’s face fell. “Oh, shit. I didn’t mean to bring that up.” He laughed nervously. “Jesus, I barely speak to you, and there I go, acting like an ass.”

  “Don’t worry about it.” Rachel sat down next to him on the couch. “Listen, I’m sure that if you guys didn’t hit it off from the beginning, there was no need to hang out anymore. I don’t know you too well, Conner, but from what I’ve heard, you don’t have to worry about finding a date.”

  Conner’s jaw dropped as he pieced together her words. She clapped a hand over her mouth. She couldn’t believe she’d said that. She started to put her mind to work at finding a way to spin the situation, but the look on Conner’s face told her that effort would have been in vain.

  He gave her one of his intoxicating smiles, but this time his blue eyes flashed with a hint of wicked fun. “You can hear me, huh?
” He threw his head back and laughed. “I was going to reinsulate the walls before winter came, but I guess I need to add some soundproofing, too.”

  Rachel could feel her cheeks becoming flushed. She took a breath and looked into Conner’s eyes. There she saw exactly what she wanted to see: the smoldering gaze that told her he was simply waiting for permission to take her. But Rachel was having too much fun; she wanted to play a bit longer.

  “Oh no, don’t do that,” she cooed. “Otherwise I wouldn’t have any fun.” Rachel slid herself closer to Conner on the couch, moving close enough to slip her hand onto his knee.

  “Well, I’m sure that just listening can get very boring, very quickly,” Conner said, as he took her hand from his knee and placed it on the growing mound of denim between his legs. “But I’ve got an idea that’s probably more fun.”

  He leaned in, grabbed Rachel by the back of the neck and pulled her to him for a deep kiss. It was even better than the one Rachel had played over and over in her imagination. She kissed him back, softly darting her tongue into his mouth. He moaned with surprise; from what Rachel could tell from the sounds of his lovemaking, he wasn’t used to a woman being forward. She squeezed Conner’s package, feeling the outline of his cock become more defined under the fabric as his erection grew. He matched her probing by sending his hand up her soft thigh, slipping underneath the satin fabric of her pajama shorts.

  She opened her legs just enough to invite him to explore further, and he didn’t hesitate in picking up on the signal. In a flash two of his thick fingers were inside of her, sliding in easily with her arousal. Conner kissed her deeply as he moved in and out of her, placing the lightest pressure to her clit, brushing over it with expert flicks of his thumb. She moaned with pleasure, lying back onto the couch and pulling Conner on top of her.

  As he fingered her faster, she undid the buttons on his jeans. She pushed down the thin pair of cotton boxers underneath to free his cock. Finally seeing it with her own eyes, Rachel understood why all of Conner’s lovers could be heard through the walls. It was a seven-inch rod nearly too thick for her to wrap her hand around, and had an upward curved shaft with a thick, mushroom head at the end. Rachel looked at it with a hunger as she stroked its length.