by Vivian Kees
* * * *
It was as if she was bound to relive the past once again. Before William, she had sold herself many times, first on the streets and then in the hall. It was a cheap act and one that she didn’t enjoy, but doing it meant survival.
The deed itself was easy, most times she’d just lay there and let them get atop of her and do their thing. When they were done, they left. It was as simple as that. She’d thought it would be the same with Cal, but much to her dismay, it wasn’t.
With the other men it had been purely physical. She was used for their amusement and pleasure. They paid for her services. It was supposed to be the same with Cal. She could hate him; she could refute him and pretend that none of it ever happened. But there was no turning back the clock on what they had started. There was no safe barrier for her emotions.
After dinner, she settled in her bedroom and promptly shut the door behind her. If only she could have locked out the entire world so simply.
She fell asleep fast, her mind but a cluster of torment, emotions rampaging through her heart. Her soul had become a myriad of displeasure.
Voices, so many voices of the past and present caused her to stir slightly, but it was a hand caressing her cheek that caused her to come awake with a start.
A figure, cloaked within the darkness of the room sat on the edge of the bed. She jumped when he spoke.
“Don’t be afraid, it’s only me,” said the deep male voice she instantly recognized as Cal.
“But…how did you get in?” Then it came to her. The back door was rarely locked.
“You should speak to someone about keeping all the doors locked at night. I was going to knock at first, but at this ungodly hour, and it was open….”
He had a point.
“Why are you here? You took a big risk coming here and at this hour. If someone had seen you, it would have just sealed their notions of me. Do you even realize we’ve become the talk of the town?”
“Have we?” he appeared to be surprised.
“Yes. Apparently, I’ve become your mistress. Now isn’t that a bunch of malarkey.”
“I’ve come for a reason Eugenia, and it isn’t to discuss the wagging tongues of a few who have nothing better to do than gossip. Why did you leave in such a hurry?”
His question rattled her. She was stuck for an answer.
“The transaction was over, why stick around? The deed was done.” There, he now had his answer and he could leave the same way he had come.
“It wasn’t like that and you know it. I’m not that kind of man, and if somehow I cheapened either the act or you, then I do apologize. That was never my intent.”
Eugenia crossed her arms as a barrier for her body, and perhaps, her heart. “I think I overestimated my boundaries, and I allowed myself to get carried away in the heat of the moment. I’ve never enjoyed….” She stopped. “Well, I’m sure you get the idea.”
“It couldn’t have been easy for you. I remember you, before William and any of this.” Cal touched her arm gently and gazed into her eyes.
She blushed scarlet at the mention of her past. “No one is supposed to know about any of that. I don’t even like to think about those days.” She turned her head from him, embarrassed. What he must think of her now….
Cal leaned over her, his weight baring down on her slightly…his lips lingering inches from her own. The man clearly had no intention of leaving her be.
“Who cares what they think. Do you think for one moment they think any better of me? Sure, they are cordial when required, but only because I have money. In their minds I’m nothing more than new money that’s begotten in ill mannered ways. But ask me if I care?”
“Well do you?” She gazed into his fiery eyes, terrified at what she saw staring back. She hated the unknown.
“No. Why should I worry about something so trivial? Life’s too short for that. I have one other reason for coming here tonight. It’s to ask you a question. One that’s of importance.”
“Yes? What is it?”
He hesitated. “Would you marry me?”
“You and I? No, it would never work. Definitely not.” Never in a million years would she consider being his wife.
* * * *
“And why not?” Cal asked, baffled by her quick rebuttal. Had she even thought about it? “We could make them eat their words.”
“Yet you claim not to care what they think.”
She was quick with the tongue, he liked that. She excited him!
“I don’t.”
“And, I’m not so sure I like your solutions. It’s what got me into this mess to begin with.”
She could be down right insufferable when she wanted to be. “I didn’t force you to do anything. Did I not tell you that you could back out at anytime?”
“You did. But a marriage built of convenience would solve nothing and in the end we would despise each other.”
“Woman,” he murmured deeply. “I’m not looking for convenience, I’m looking for love and shant settle for anything less. Can’t you see what’s right in front of your face? I’m in love with you!”
She sat up abruptly, her back straight, and then slid to the edge of the bed. “You love me?”
“Yes.”
“But we’ve known each other for only a short time. A very short time.”
“I’ve loved you from the first moment we met. Though, I didn’t quite know it at the time. We had chemistry. It drew us to one another. Call it fate, call it whatever you want, but here we are and I have yet to receive an answer.”
“Cal, this is all so sudden. I don’t know what to say.”
“So it’s a no,” he replied, answering for her. “Just as I expected.”
“How can I say yes?”
“And what about love?” he pleaded. “Does love mean anything to you? Look me in the eye and tell me you don’t have any feelings for me. If you can do that, then I’ll go and never bother you again. You have my solemn word, and my word is worth more than gold.”
The simple fact of her not being able to make eye contact with him answered his question, but would she say the words?
“I have my answer.” He stood and started to shed his clothes, tossing each item to the floor as she looked on with amusement and astonishment.
“Whatever are you doing? If someone should see….”
“Be damned with them and everyone else in this life. For tonight, it’s only about you and me. You won’t refuse me, because in your heart you want me just as much as I want you.” He was right and he darned well knew it. She was his now and would be from this night onward.
“But, this isn’t proper—”
“What is this crazy world is? Don’t deny me, Eugenia. Don’t deny what’s good and right. And to hell with being proper! I’m done with it and so are you.”
* * * *
A shiver of delight spun throughout Eugenia’s body as Cal slid next to her, naked under the bedclothes. The right thing would have been to shove him out of bed and demand he leave, but her heart and mind told her different.
Deny, deny, deny. Denial seemed more like a way of life for her these days. But now she wasn’t denying anything.
The look of surprise on his face was amusing to say the least, as she straddled him and pushed his arms back, leaving him in a very compromising position. The sensation of being in control overwhelmed her.
“I never expected this,” he muttered.
“I’m a woman of many secrets as you know.” This was new and liberating. She was now in total control and she loved it.
Underneath her nightdress, Eugenia felt her nipples harden and when she pulled it up over her head and tossed it to the side; she ground her hips down against his throbbing hardness.
It was a kiss that had first connected them and now she wanted more. Slowly, she curved her body over his and tasted his lips, teasing him, writhing her body against him.
Cal pushed up wanting more, but she giggled and pulled away.
“Such a tease,” he said, and then a devilish grin curved his lips.
She smiled, grasping his hands and placed them on her breasts.
“Perfect,” he groaned, squeezing each.
She ground down against him again.
“You’re driving me crazy. I need to be inside you. I want to feel you holding me, wrapped within your warmth.”
Grasping his erection, she stroked him and then guided him toward her entrance, slowing slipping him inside in a fluid motion. The friction between them caused her to throw back her head in delicious delight. Her nipples tingled and perked as she played with them, riding him with smooth, even strokes. Unbridled ecstasy sluiced through her body.
Rotating her hips slowly, she found a rhythm that was not only pleasurable for him but also for her.
“I won’t last if you keep that up.” He groaned, his hips meeting her every movement. “I’ve never felt anything so—”
“Perfect? You will again, Mr. Hawthorne…forever.”
“I love you, Eugenia, with everything that’s in my heart and soul.”
She increased her pace, wanting him to explode deep inside her, to feel his seed flood her with warmth.
The tension rose between them. She looked down to the man who lay beneath her, his eyes twinkling in the moonlight flooding into the room from the windows. And it came to her. This was right. Cal was the one for her.
“And I love you,” she announced. And with that, she felt him tense and release inside her. This in turn triggered her own orgasm and when she collapsed on top of him, she just laid there, her head resting on his chest, listening to his heartbeat.
Cal was the first to speak. “So, you’ll marry me?”
She paused, then pushed back to look down at him. “Yes. I love you, Cal. As much as I denied it, I guess I always had. I want us to be together, forever.”
“Then a spring wedding it shall be, with everything you could ever dream.”
Dreams.
Once she’d thought they were just that, impossible illusions that would never come to be. Even with William, try as she might, she was never content. Over the years, Eugenia fooled herself into believing that she didn’t deserve happiness. And for the longest time, she was content in just having security, be that as it may. After all, she’d come from less than nothing and she was thankful for what fortune she had.
Life was funny like that. And much like a book, when one chapter closed, another one opened. That’s how she would look at it from this night onward.
The End
Evernight Publishing
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