Dark Moon

by Victoria Wakefield

  “You know I’m easy,” I said.

  “Oh, really?” Michael teased. “Only with me I hope?”

  I playfully batted him on the arm. He grabbed my hand and pulled me to him. We fell back onto the bed and he started to unbuckle my jeans. “Priorities, Michael,” I said, laughing and swatting his hand away, even though it was exactly what I wanted right now. “Shower, food, then sex.”

  “So I’m just a good lay to you, huh?” Michael asked.

  I looked over at him. His expression was serious, but then his face dissolved into a smile. “You dork,” I said, laughing.

  I headed into the bathroom. “Oh yeah,” I called back. “I forgot one thing. That list should have been: shower, wine, food, and a good lay, all in that order.” I turned on the tap before he could reply.

  Chapter 13

  The pizza had just arrived when I got out of the shower. Not having any clothes of my own, I got one of Michael’s t-shirts, which reminded me of the first night we made love.

  He had set the kitchen table with two glasses of red wine, plates and forks.

  “I’m surprised you don’t want to watch a movie,” I commented, sitting down at the table.

  “What, are you kidding me? I haven’t seen you for almost two days, Lana. I want to soak up every bit of you.”

  I swallowed a big gulp of wine nervously. Michael was looking at me intensely. “What are you thinking?” I whispered.

  “That here I am buying you sexy lingerie, and you already look sexy as fuck in that t-shirt, which I want to rip right off of you.”

  “Maybe I should put the lingerie on now, and let you rip that off instead?” I suggested in a low voice. “Are you even hungry?” My stomach was such a bundle of nerves that I wasn’t sure I could eat.

  “I’m fucking starving. For you.”

  It was all the encouragement I needed. I went to Michael’s bedroom and took the lingerie back out of the bag. I slipped into the sexy underwear and pulled the corset around my body. Once I got the eyelet hooks on the front of the bodice all clasped together, it pushed my boobs up, making them look a lot bigger.

  Barefoot, I padded into the bathroom to look at myself in the full-length mirror. I did a double take at my reflection.

  I had never seen myself looking like this…like a vixen.

  “Does it fit?” Michael called. He had come into the bedroom.

  “See what you think?” I asked, walking out for him to take a look.

  I’ve never seen someone’s jaw literally drop open, but that’s what happened when Michael saw me. “Holy, shit, you look like a model, Lana. Really sexy. I mean, look what you do to me,” he said pointing at his erection.

  “I know what I haven’t done for you yet,” I said in a sultry voice. Feeling confident, like I should take charge, I walked over to Michael and pushed him down on the bed. I yanked off his jeans and underwear.

  “Lana, you don’t have to,” Michael was saying.

  “But I want to.” I put him inside my mouth. Even though I’d never given a guy a blowjob before, I didn’t have to stop to think what I should do. I just let instinct take over.

  “You’re really good at that,” Michael said in between moans. He reached down and ran his fingers through my hair.

  I kept pulling him in and out of my mouth, lost in the moment, loving Michael’s reaction to each pull.

  “Baby, I’m so close; you’d better stop.”

  I paused and looked up at him. “Then why don’t you cum? Just relax.”

  Michael struggled to a sitting position, his face flushed. “That outfit was supposed to be about you, not me, I swear it,” he said, laughing. I stood up.

  Now it was his turn to push me down on the bed. I readily pulled him on top of me. I was just as turned on as he was after having his cock in my mouth.

  “Your turn, Lana,” he whispered. Without taking off any of my clothes, he pushed the tiny panties to the side and slid his tongue against me. I opened my legs wider, surrendering to the wonderful sensation.

  I could feel the pressure, that sensual, titillating pressure that I had gotten so used to feeling right before an orgasm. Now it was my turn to tell Michael to stop. “Don’t you want to feel me cum around you?” I asked him.

  He looked up just long enough to say, “Of course I want to feel you cum around my dick; that’s why I’m going to make you cum at least twice.”

  So I let myself fully go, gave into the pressure looking to be released. When I had finished, Michael got up from the bottom of the bed. As he had promised, he slowly pulled off the lingerie. He unbuckled from the top downwards, clasp by clasp, until my breasts spilled out over the bodice.

  He softly kissed and licked over every inch of my exposed breasts and hardened nipples. My body moved uncontrollably under his. When the top was completely off, he kissed all the way down my stomach to my underwear and pulled those down with his teeth.

  Totally naked now, I spread my legs as wide as possible and grabbed Michael around his waist, pulling him down deep inside of me. We both moaned with pleasure. Maybe it was because I hadn’t seen him, felt him for a day, but it seemed like our lovemaking was the most intense it had ever been.

  “I can’t believe that just really happened,” I said, when we had finally finished.

  We were lying side by side, our faces just inches apart. “Lana, I let it slip before, and I was embarrassed. But now I know that I meant it. I’m not just falling in love with you. I’m in love with you. I love you more than anything.”

  “Michael, I love you, too,” I said immediately. We didn’t say anything else; there was no need to. Michael pulled me against him, my face against his chest, our legs and naked bodies intertwined.

  We lied there in silence, relaxing in each other’s embrace. Michael finally spoke. “Now I actually am hungry – for food,” he said.

  “Me, too,” I admitted.

  “Do you like cold pizza?” Michael asked. “Because if you tell me you don’t, that just might be a deal breaker,” he teased.

  “I love cold pizza, almost as much as I love you,” I joked back.

  Grinning like two stupid teenagers, we made our way into the kitchen, still entangled in Michael’s sheets. He sat down in a chair and pulled me on top of his lap, my naked bottom against his legs, the sheets wrapped around us, protecting us, like a cocoon.

  We ate the pizza right from the box, only stopping to kiss and drink wine. I had never felt happier in my life.

  ###

  Friday morning arrived all too early, but I was excited that I’d get to see Michael at the hospital, and then again that night. Like I usually did, I went home, got a shower and headed off to my first class.

  “You should bring your clothes here,” Michael said before I left. “So you can go straight to class from my place. And…I was thinking. I could make you a key to my apartment.”

  I’d happily said yes to his suggestion. You’re not moving in with him, I rationalized, thinking about how Maryanne might react if I told her about the key. No, I’d keep that piece of information to myself, at least for now.

  I found myself watching the clock, willing the minutes to pass so I could go to the hospital and have a chance to see Michael. I had warned him this morning about Evie’s prying and my stupid slip-up about the Thai food, but Michael had just hugged me to him and said, “Lana, I don’t give a shit who knows that I’m in love with you. If they find out, they find out. I just don’t want to perpetuate gossip.”

  In love with me. I could hardly believe it. My bleak, desolate life finally had a purpose other than helping sick children.

  When I got to the hospital, I was surprised to see Michael at the nurses’ station, chatting with three of the nurses. There are never that many nurses hanging around the station. They must have all flocked over when they heard Michael was there. If only they knew the truth, that he was waiting for me.

  “Hi,” I said to the group as I checked in for my shift.

 
“Nice to see you again, Lana.” Michael flashed me a secretive smile.

  “You, too, Dr. Reynolds,” I said coolly.

  Evie managed to tear herself away from the conversation to tell me that today I would be running the Cheer Cart again.

  Good. More chances to see Michael. If I wasn’t working with any of the nurses and could do my own thing, no one would be checking up on me, wondering why I was hanging out an extra long time on floor six…

  I forced myself not to rush from room to room. This was the highlight of the day for most of the patients. It would be selfish of me to cut them off just because I was dying to see Michael.

  When I got to Cynthia’s room, the old lady who used to be a ballet dancer, I was surprised to find it empty. I had actually been looking forward to talking to her. She was so down to earth and had such a positive attitude.

  I flagged one of the nurses down. “Did Cynthia, er, Mrs. Green, check out of the hospital?”

  “Oh no, dear.” The nurse shook her head, a sullen expression on her face. “Mrs. Green passed away two days ago.”

  “What?” I asked in shock. “But she seemed so normal, so alive.”

  The nurse gave me a strange look. “This is a hospital. Mrs. Green had a heart condition. But don’t worry, she died peacefully. She’s with God now.”

  God. I had very mixed feelings about him, especially considering what I really was.

  It bothered me that Cynthia had died, but I didn’t quite know why. She was old, but not that old. Maybe eighty? Weren’t people living well into their nineties nowadays? It wasn’t fair. Didn’t being a nice person count for anything anymore? Why would God kill someone good, and let murderers, child molesters and countless other sickos live healthy, long lives?

  I forced myself to move on with the Cheer Cart, to smile and laugh with the patients, but with each person I visited all I could think about was when they were going to die.

  You’ve got to snap out of this, Lana. I pictured Michael, my gorgeous, loving boyfriend. I needed him to hold me, to tell me again that our lives were going to work out.

  When I did see Michael on the cancer floor, he immediately sensed that something was wrong. No one else was in the hallway. Michael motioned for me to come into an empty room and shut the door behind us.

  “What’s happened?” he asked, his face filled with worry.

  “I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I heard that a patient I liked died, and for some reason it really bothered me.”

  “That’s normal,” Michael said. “Even I’m not immune to it. Unfortunately, it’s the horrible, all too common reality of working with sick people. But you’ve got to put it out of your mind, Lana. You can’t question why some people get to live and others have to die. For every bad situation, there’s always a worse one. Why does a five-month-old baby get cancer? How can you tell a thirty year old single mother that she has inoperable tumors, and the only thing you can do is shrink the tumors with chemotherapy? And all that does is buy time; it’s not a cure.”

  “That’s awful,” I whispered.

  Michael hugged me to him. “It’s one of the worst possible things in the world. But that’s reality.”

  I pressed my face into his chest. “Thanks, Michael,” I said. “I know you’re right. It just hit me hard today, for some reason.”

  He pulled back and leaned down to kiss me. “It’s because you’re such a caring, sensitive person,” he whispered. “You’d have to have a dark heart to not be moved by that kind of stuff.”

  But I do have a dark heart.

  Maybe there was a chance for me, after all. I was supposed to be thriving on death, not recoiling from it.

  Wanting to erase everything from my mind, I leaned forward and kissed Michael, aggressively this time. He didn’t resist. Michael pressed his body against mine as the kiss intensified. He reached his hand under my shirt, then under my bra.

  “Shit, this is crazy,” he said breathlessly between our feverish kisses.

  “I can’t stop myself when I’m with you,” I told him.

  Michael groaned and took a step back. “We’re at work,” he said, laughing. “It’s my goal to fuck you in as many locales as possible, but I never imagined the hospital being one of them.”

  “It’s a bit creepy,” I admitted, staring at the depressing hospital bed.

  “I’d better get back,” Michael said. “I know I didn’t ask you…I guess I just assumed we were spending the evening together.”

  “Of course.” My face broke out into a smile.

  “I’ll take you out to dinner tonight,” Michael said. “Somewhere romantic, dimly lit. I would say to wear something sexy, but you’re always mind-blowingly sexy, no matter what you’re in.”

  “Do you say that to all the women?” I joked.

  Michael’s face turned serious. “No, just you.”

  I felt myself blushing. “We can’t go out there together,” I said.

  “You go first,” he instructed me. “I’ll wait a few minutes after you’ve left.

  I squeezed his hand. “See you tonight.”

  Chapter 14

  After my shift, I went back to the dorm to change into something sexy. When I got there, Maryanne was lying in bed, her back to the door.

  “MA?” I called tentatively. She didn’t answer.

  I walked over and poked her lightly. “Leave me alone,” came a muffled voice as she buried her face into her pillow.

  “Maryanne, what happened?” I asked in alarm. Maryanne rarely got upset about, well, anything. The only time I’d ever seen her broken down was when her older brother OD’d on cocaine and almost died.

  “I just want to be alone. Besides, aren’t you going out with Dr. Wonderful tonight?” she asked, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

  Ouch. “Come on,” I tried again. “Whatever it is, talk to me about it. I’ve told you some pretty personal things,” I pointed out. I sat down on the edge of her bed.

  With a big sigh, Maryanne rolled over to face me. Her eyes were bloodshot. “I’m done with men,” she declared.

  My eyebrows shot up in surprise.

  “That fucking loser Doug dumped me,” she wailed.

  “Huh? I didn’t think you were dating Doug! You said you weren’t dating anyone.”

  “Well, I was dating him,” Maryanne said defensively. “If you were ever around, you might have noticed.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, not knowing what else to say. “Why in the hell would he dump you? Is he some kind of idiot?”

  A brief smile played on her lips, but her expression quickly turned sullen again. “He said I wasn’t his type.”

  I snorted. “Not his type? Is he blind? You’re the best thing he’s going to get, ever. Seriously. I predict he’ll be crawling back to you in no time, and I hope like hell you tell him to go fuck himself.”

  Maryanne laughed. “You’re my best friend; you would say that. The truth is, it’s not so much the fact that I got dumped, I just can’t believe how stupid I was.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked in confusion.

  “Do you think I like having different guys over? Feeling like they only want me for one thing?” she shot back. “Well, I don’t,” she said, before I had a chance to answer. “And Doug might not have been the most handsome of the boys I’ve dated, but he was nice, and he treated me like a princess, not just his Saturday night booty-call.”

  “I didn’t realize you liked him so much,” I said softly.

  Maryanne sighed. “I think I liked the idea of someone actually caring about me more than I liked him,” she admitted. “But that’s it; I’ve learned my lesson. Back to playing the field. I’m not getting burned again.”

  “You can’t say that,” I argued. “Some guys are just really immature, especially the ones our age. You just have to be patient and - ”

  “And Mr. Perfect will stumble into my life, just like what happened to you?” Maryanne cut me off.

  “Oh, listen to me,” she said.
“I sound like a bitter bitch. I don’t begrudge you your relationship with Michael. It’s just hard not to be jealous.” She paused. “You should go. I know you want to be with him tonight and I’m not good company anyway. I’ve got a bottle of wine and bad TV to keep me distracted.” She was trying to make a joke, but all it did was make me feel like more of an ass.

  “Come out with us tonight,” I said impulsively.

  “We’ve been through this, Lana. I’m not tagging along on your date!”

  “You wouldn’t be tagging along,” I argued. “I’ve been wanting you to meet Michael. And we were just going to a bar, anyway,” I fibbed. “You can flirt with as many guys as you want, ditch us if you meet someone you like.”

  I could tell Maryanne was considering it. “Michael wants to meet you anyway,” I said, which was true. “He’s always saying you should come out with us.” Not quite so true.

  “If you’re sure I really wouldn’t be intruding,” Maryanne said skeptically.

  “Positive! Now, please, go get ready! I’ll call Michael and find out what time he’s picking us up.”

  MA stood up and hugged me. “Thanks, Lana,” she said.

  “You don’t have to thank me. I’d do anything for you,” I replied.

  While Maryanne was in the shower, I called Michael. I didn’t think he’d be mad that I’d invited her, but he might not be too happy, either.

  Fortunately, Michael was a good sport about it. “I can take you to a fancy restaurant tomorrow night instead. I know a cool bar. I’ll pick you two up and afterwards we’ll drop Maryanne off at your dorm. I hope you’ll still come to my apartment tonight. You don’t need your car; I plan on keeping you captive all weekend,” he teased.

  Since plans had changed, I decided to go casual that night. I put on my skinny black jeans and a low cut black tank top. I’d been experimenting with makeup more lately, and tonight I applied a thick layer of mascara and dark purple eye shadow. I looked older than twenty, which was good, because I didn’t want anyone questioning my age at the bar.