by Lauren Wood
Holding her hips down with my own, I tried desperately to slow her down. I was too ready and she was too much in need.
“Eve, I want to taste you so bad.”
It was clear that she didn’t know what I was talking about. Her eyes flew open when my hand went to her panties. I was beyond the point of being stopped and when she put her hand out to keep her panties on, I moved it away. She was mine now and there was going to be no stopping me.
“Wait…”
I stopped with my head moving in the direction of being in between her slim thighs. My hands were poised on the smooth skin that felt like satin under my fingertips. She felt perfect. “Do you really want me to stop?”
There was no hesitation in Eve’s face. She nodded that she didn’t want me to stop and so help me I couldn’t help the kiss that I bent down to give her. It was the perfect silent response and everything about her made me want her more.
“Then no more talking and telling me to wait. I am trying my best to hold myself together. You do not know how badly I want to slam inside of you right now.”
Her hips rose up to meet mine and it took me some time to realize that she was telling me to do just that. Every part of me was screaming to just that and it wasn’t going to take much encouragement.
“Please Carlos. I want to see why all of those women up there are screaming all of the time.”
I stopped and kind of looked at her. I was in the process of taking off my boxers. “You know that is exactly what you told me that night you were drunk?”
Eve giggled and pushed the blonde strands from her eyes and her hands pulled on the bottom of the boxers to help me along. “I have thought that more than once. I still don’t remember what I told you when I was drunk. But it doesn’t matter now. All that matters is you hurrying up.”
“You are impatient.”
Eve grabbed me in her hands and squeezed hard enough to get my attention. “I didn’t call you because I knew this would happen. Every time I am around you, I go a little crazy.”
I told her that I liked her kind of crazy. If she wanted to be this way, I was always going to be okay with it. There was something about the raw need in her eyes that pulled me from my thoughts. I didn’t want to talk anymore. I just wanted inside of her. Right now.
Moving back over her, I leaned down to give her a kiss and felt her hips rise. She was bare and I could feel how ready she was for me. It was unrealistic how wet she was and before I could prepare myself, I was plunging deep into her tight heat. I growled out her name as I entered her and I knew then that I was lost.
Chapter 10
Eve
As soon as he entered me, I knew that he was going to be too much. Everything about him had been so far that way and lying with him was no different. My body didn’t feel able, but somehow it all worked. When I felt him twitch deep inside, I couldn’t help but gasp and whimper. My insides squeezed him, desperately trying to get him to start moving.
“Please Carlos.”
He liked when I begged and surged back and forward once again. It was more than I could take and the edge of reason that I had been on for days was miles behind me. I had never felt so good in all of my life. Not that I remembered.
I shook as my body convulsed and my hands went to his chest from around his neck. I needed a moment before my body collapsed. I was sure that it was going to do just that. Each stroke inside of me was harder and faster than the last. Carlos was a blur above me and the hands that had gone to push him away gave up on that route of action and instead entwined fingers through the dark hair on his chest and pulled him closer. I had given up on trying to stop the storm, I was just going to have to hold on for dear life and hope that I made it through.
***
Drifting off to sleep, my mind was completely blank. I wasn’t thinking about deadlines or the loud neighbor upstairs. Right then I was thinking about absolutely nothing and I slept better in the middle of the day, then I could ever remember. I went to sleep with the sound of Carlos’ racing heart underneath me.
I woke up to a loud knocking at the door. It jolted me awake, but the man that was lying underneath me was still out of it like he heard nothing. I supposed that it was a trick of his trade or he surely wouldn’t get any sleep as much as he slept in the daytime. I wished for that same skill at the moment, but got up instead. Someone had to answer the door, because the knocking started up again as I got dressed. Whoever it was on the other side did not plan on leaving any time soon.
“Alright, I am coming.” I was starting to think that whoever it was might be the devil. It was five o’ clock in the afternoon, but whoever it was had made sure to take me from his arms and I was not okay with that.
“Eve, open up. I have been calling you for hours.”
I stopped with my hand on the lock. What was my mother doing here? Of all of the places that she could be, why was she here? Her house was a couple of hours away and I hadn’t heard anything about her coming to the city. It was usually a big thing for her, something that she would have told me about a week in advance.
“Be right there mom.”
I looked back to the bedroom and crept back over to shut the door, sure that they would hear me moving around. I don’t know why I felt so awkward all of a sudden, but I did know what my parents would think if they saw Carlos in my bedroom in the middle of the day. He was tattooed and everything about him contested him being anything but a criminal. I wasn’t even sure if he was one, though I did know that I didn’t care one way or another. But what I thought and what they thought was two very different things.
I ran my hand through my blonde hair a couple of times to smooth it out. I didn’t want them to think that I was sleeping, but I knew that I looked a little rumpled. That was what happened when you spend a few hours with a man like Carlos. Once hadn’t been enough and he had taken me several times, waiting till I woke up as I dozed off from the intense pleasure. He was almost too much to handle.
Opening the door, I pushed the thoughts of Carlos from my head. I felt guilty and I just hoped that I didn’t look as bad as I felt.
“Hey mom. Sorry about that. I didn’t know that you were coming.”
My mother was nosy and it didn’t take her any time to push her way into the apartment. Her radar was up and I could tell that I was going to have to be careful. She always had a knack for knowing when I was lying and I didn’t want to see if it was still as valid now as it had been when I still lived with her.
“I see that you are still in bed. Are you sick?”
Her suspicion went from general worry to my health and I just went with it, trying to focus her intensity somewhere else. “Are you eating okay?”
I told her that I was, but she still moved to the refrigerator and then the cupboards, determining that I didn’t have enough food in the house and that we should go shopping for fresh vegetables. Looking towards the bedroom, I thought that getting her out of there was the best idea ever.
“Yeah, let me just grab my coat out of the bedroom.” I was planning to wake Carlos up and tell him that he had to go. While it was fun with him, my family was very religious and I wouldn’t hear the end of it if they saw him or even if they found out he was there. It didn’t matter that I was almost twenty three. I didn’t think it was ever going to matter how old I was.
“It is eighty degrees outside Eve, you will be fine.”
At every turn I felt thwarted and with nothing else to get me into the room to wake him up, I worried that he wouldn’t wake up and leave if he did. I really needed him to go away and there was nothing that I could do to guarantee it. If he was seen there, it was going to be bad.
***
“You aren’t listening.”
“Yes I am. I am just thinking about an article that I have to turn in tomorrow.”
“You aren’t getting your work done?”
It was an accusation more than it was a question or a statement. A person would have thought that she was my boss the
way she was worried about my career and what I did every day. I tried to tell her that I was doing fine, but like everything else, my mother didn’t quite believe me. She was always so sure that I had some nefarious plot that I was exacting. It was never true, well mostly not true, but it didn’t seem to stop her from thinking that very thing.
“Work is fine. I have just had a lot of writer’s block since I have been here. It is different in the city. It is a lot louder and sometimes it is just hard to write. I am getting used to it though. It just takes time.”
“I told you that you should have stayed at home. I don’t know what you think you were going to prove coming here, but I want you to come home.”
“That isn’t why you came, is it?”
She looked like it was the very reason that she had come to see me and there was nothing that I could do to change her mind.
“Eve, you have been here for weeks and as you said, everything isn’t what you thought it would be. It is time to come home. You are missed.”
There was a part of me that wanted to leave the city. It had been harder than I had ever thought it would be to be alone here, but the other part of me was still in bed with Carlos and knew that there was an upside to it as well. I couldn’t tell her about him. My mother would never approve, but that didn’t mean that I was going to go with her plans either.
“I miss you guys too, but I am not going home. I like my job and my apartment. I just need time to adjust, which I am.”
She looked at me as if I had stolen her last five dollars and there was nothing that I could do to change that. My mother wasn’t one that would ever say she was wrong, so I knew that I wasn’t going to get her approval. Although I finally realized after all of this time, maybe I didn’t need it. I was getting older after all.
Chapter 11
Carlos
I woke up to the sound of the door opening. My mind went to the last few hours with Eve and even though we were both tired, I wanted more when I heard her come in. I wasn’t thinking about anything else but getting her in my arms again.
Getting up from the bed, I moved to the door and opened it. I didn’t have anything on, a state of being that she was into and walked towards the front door. It took me several moments to realize a few things. The first thing was that she was not alone. There were a couple of people with her and one of them was an older woman that didn’t take much to guess was her mother. The resemblance was too much to discount and the way her eyes fell on me was enough to tell me that I had messed up big time.
“Carlos!”
I turned to Eve and I was stunned. Why didn’t she tell me that she was going to have company? As soon as I thought it though, I knew that something had been sprung on her. She was not the type of girl that wanted to get caught. When I heard the line of words that came from her mom, I knew why. Making my retreat to her bedroom to put my clothes on, I knew that I was in the middle of something that I didn’t want to be in. I didn’t have time for all of this drama.
“What are you doing Eve? Who is that? Is that why you didn’t answer your phone and haven’t done your work? He looks like a…”
I paused on the other side of the closed door and listened to what I was. It wasn’t very original but it felt like a barb from a woman like her.
“How could you do this? After everything we have taught you?”
I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I wanted to get out of there. It was clear that I wasn’t wanted there and the lack of comeback from Eve bothered me more than I would ever admit. She didn’t stand up for me in the least bit and worse than that, she actually apologized for me being there.
When I got out of the bedroom dressed, the leather jacket and earrings made the older woman look at me as if I was going to murder her right then and there. I made a step towards her to hear her make a sound and smiled at her. It was wrong, I know, but so was her judgment. She didn’t even know me. Eve did and she said nothing while it was all being said. I suddenly knew where I stood and I would be the first to admit that I wasn’t happy about it. The feelings that I had when I first woke up were gone, evaporated into nothing as I shut the door to leave.
I cursed under my breath as I made my way upstairs to my own apartment. The day didn’t look so bright anymore and if I was honest with myself, I just wanted to go back to sleep and see if it would get better. But I had work to do, so instead of wallowing, an act I had not perfected, I went to the kitchen and poured a half a glass. That was what I knew and I welcomed the burn to my throat. I would forget about her like I had forgotten about every other woman after I was with them. The only problem was that she was a neighbor and I would have to see her again.
***
“So what has been going on with you Carlos?”
I shrugged and told Joel that nothing was going on.
“Have you talked to Eve?”
My face changed and I looked away. I hadn’t seen or heard from her in well over a week and I wasn’t even sure if I would again. The first couple of days I had stayed away, sleeping at the bar and working at the shop when I could. I didn’t even go home and it was only when I wanted my actual bed that I made my way home. Turning the music on high, I had gone to sleep just like that, oblivious to the world around me.
“No, I haven’t seen her in a while. You were the one that liked her.”
Joel made a sound that I didn’t quite understand. I had a feeling that he wanted her as badly as I had. I couldn’t tell him that she wasn’t worth it, because even with everything that had happened, I still wanted her. Even though she had looked at me as if I was the criminal that her mother claimed I was, I still thought about her every night when I went to bed alone. I missed her, but I would never admit it to myself, let alone another person.
“I know that you had something with her Carlos. I’m not stupid. You took her home that night and everything changed. I haven’t gotten ahold of her since, so I know that you two were together.”
“It wasn’t then, but once. Don’t worry though. I am not her type. She made it clear that I wasn’t good enough for her when her parents showed up unannounced.”
“Her parents are very religious. Did you meet them?”
It made a little more sense when he said that. I kind of knew that there was a reason for the reaction, but I hadn’t considered that one. I was just thinking that I looked a little rough, but if it would have been anyone, I had to believe that the reactions would have been much of the same.
“Religious huh?”
Joel nodded his head. “Yeah, from what she told me they pretty much dictated her life. That is why she came to the city, to get away from them, but they have a hold on her. Family does that sometimes.”
I didn’t hear him much after that. My cousin kept talking, but I was no longer hearing him. It made me realize that I was the one that wasn’t making any sense. Why had I just given up so easily when I knew that there was something special about Eve, something right between us? I should have had more confidence, although with her it had always been a little different. I had never felt like myself fully with her. It was always held back some.
“How do you know all of this about her? I thought you only went out a couple of times?”
“We did, but I asked. She had a very interesting life. What did you guys talk about?”
Not a lot of anything and if I had had my way, we wouldn’t have talked as much as we did. I wanted nothing more than to put her face down and pound her from the moment I saw her. That was part of the reason that we hadn’t talked, that and the fact that it wasn’t my style.
“I don’t know now. I guess I didn’t ask her anything about her past cause I just didn’t care.”
Joel just shook his head like I was an idiot and maybe I was. “Man, she is different.”
I had to agree with him, if not for only in my head. There was definitely something different about Eve. She had always been special to me.
“I know. She is.”
Joel looked at me
and then smiled. “I knew that she was something special and when I met her I knew that she would be for you. I wanted her, but I knew that I wasn’t going to be the one. I tried, but she wasn’t going for it.”
There was a moment of anger when Joel told me that he had tried with her, but it was surpassed by the feeling that she hadn’t wanted him. Had it really been that clear to him and so hard for me to understand? I didn’t like to think of it that way, but I had a feeling that it was the way that it was. I had been blinded when it came to Eve, to any woman. No one had ever made me feel before and now that I had, I didn’t want to stop it. I liked the way it felt when we were together. Now I wanted her back.
“She didn’t want to go for it either with me and then all of it changed. She made up her mind. I didn’t have to make it up for her.”
Joel just shook his head and I could see that he wanted to be the one. I felt different knowing that I had been chosen. Now all I wanted to do was get her back, I just wasn’t sure how I was going to. I was just going to have to convince her that I wasn’t that bad of a guy. If she wanted her family’s approval, then I was just going to have to figure out a way to get it, one way or another.
Chapter 12
Eve
Back home was just as boring as I remembered it. It was comfortable and what I was used to. It was good and it was bad all at the same time. I was back to the quiet little life that I had gotten away from. It was a state of peace that I had yearned for when I was in the city, but now it was too quiet. My mind was overpowered and I wished for the noise and the hustle and bustle to steady the thoughts in my head.
“Eve, why are you just standing there? We have a lot of things to get done today.”
I sighed and turned towards my sister. She was a year older than me and married the proper way, to the proper man. Her husband was sanctioned by our parents. They had courted, took their time and finally took the next step. I was never one to do things right, but after the fiasco with Carlos I didn’t have a choice but to leave. There was no part of me staying that would have ended well.