by Carly White
With her help and several hours of work, Claus had completed almost half of the month before and was ready to turn it in. He couldn’t believe how quickly it had all came to him. Anai had phonetic tricks to remember all of the case law involved and it helped him to see that it wasn’t so hard to remember. When she finally told him it was time to stop for the evening, he was still sitting there, wanting to stay for a little longer.
“Well I guess you aren’t such a dumb jock after all.”
“Thanks, I think.”
“It’s as close to a compliment as you are going to get. Do you think you can handle the rest of it on your own or do you still need help to finish what’s left over?”
He could do it on his own. In the beginning he could have, but her help had been invaluable and he had the strange want to see her again. It wasn’t like with most women, where they started to get on his nerves and he only liked them as long as they were kept busy. With Anai it was different. He wanted to be around her, talk to her, get to know her and the less she gave, the more he wanted. Claus had always thought that he wanted a quiet woman, one who knew her place, but now he knew that it wasn’t that way at all. He wanted a woman that he could look to as an equal.
“I was hoping that you had some free time to help me again Anai. You make everything so much easier to understand.” It didn’t hurt that when he was right, she smiled back at him in a way that made it hard to breathe. Pleasing her was enough of a reason to try and Claus hadn’t had that in a long time.
“Let me see what I have going on next week.”
“What about this week?”
“Too busy, but I think I have a couple of hours Tuesday.”
“What about this weekend?”
“Well I have a date Saturday and a family thing Sunday. I will let you know if I can do it any sooner, but it looks like Tuesday.”
“Okay, great, I will see you then.”
“Okay.” She was giving him that strange look again and he was sure that he was smiling like an idiot again. Why did he feel so out of sorts with her around? He leaned in, about to kiss her before he remembered himself.
“I’ll see you Tuesday. If you find yourself without plans Saturday, you should give me a call. I would love to see you again.”
He walked out with a lightness that he hadn’t felt in a long time. When Denise called later, he ignored the call and instead went home. It was the first time he had gone without a drink in months and he slept better than he had since then. Anai was changing him and she didn’t even know it, didn’t even mean to.
Chapter 4
“I called you a bunch of times last night Claus. Why didn’t you call me back?”
He had barely opened his eyes before the calls had started again. It was becoming clear to him that he had to somehow end things with Denise, but in such a way that Anai wouldn’t hate him for it. It was tricky when it came to family, having learned his lesson with a pair of sisters when he was in high school. Claus just had to give her a reason not to want to be with him or someone else to gravitate towards. His mind went to his friend Jeff.
“I’m sorry. I was up most of the night studying with your cousin. I was just too tired to do anything last night. We could get together after class. Jeff wanted to get some lunch. You remember him, don’t you?”
There was a silence on the other end of the phone. “Yeah I remember him.”
She didn’t seem to fond to hear that he would be there and Claus wanted to know why she felt that way. Jeff was a good looking man and never seemed to have trouble getting the ladies. He didn’t keep them very long, but the man was known for his wily ways and the way women seemed to want to do anything he asked of them.
“You don’t like Jeff?”
“No, I do, he was nice every time I met him. I was just hoping that we would have some time alone. You made promises Claus that I want you to keep.”
He chuckled. “How can I not. It may not be this evening, but soon Denise. Besides, Jeff just had a bad break-up, his girlfriend cheated and I know that you would want to help cheer him up.”
Claus left it at that and when he hung up, he sighed to himself. Now he just had to tell Jeff that he was saddened by a break up and for him to take her off of his hands. If she fell for his friend, that would leave him in the clear to go after the cousin. He doubted it would be easy, but he had to try or regret not trying the rest of his days. Women like Anai didn’t come around that often and he wasn’t going to miss the chance to have something more.
***
“Anai. I don’t know what to say, but you are always so busy and it just happened.”
She was looking over at him with disbelief and then down at the hands in her lap. Anai was dressed up for the evening, excited that Jeremy had called out of the blue to go out. They were both so busy that him finding an evening off was very unusual. But now she was realizing that it wasn’t a date at all they were on. He had taken her to a public place so she wouldn’t cause a scene when he broke up with her. It wasn’t like her to make a scene anyways. Her inside was breaking, but she just looked at him with a fake smile and sad eyes.
“So what just happened?”
“I’ve met someone else.”
“Who?” As soon as she asked, she knew that she didn’t want to know. It was just something that was asked when a person found out there lover was with someone else. Anai’s eyes closed as he told her. She hadn’t needed to know that it was one of the girls that was interning at his father’s company. She didn’t need to know her name or how long it had been going on, but the words were coming out like word vomit and she didn’t seem tp have a choice. He was almost like he wanted to tell her for his own sense of guilt to be gone.
“Well you could have just told me this at the apartment or over the phone. You didn’t have to take me in public so I wouldn’t start crying and carrying on.”
“It wasn’t because of that. You just looked so beautiful in that dress. You know how I love you in red Anai.”
She finally met his gaze again, unable to control her artic depths as much as she controlled her face. “That is why I wore it. I thought it was nice that you called, since you were the one always busy. But I won’t argue with you Jeremy, it’s not my style. I will wish you well.”
Anai stood up and picked up her clutch. She had been called the ice queen before, her lack of emotion hard to master, but in that moment she left to not lose it, not cause a scene. Things had been going well with him. The two of them were so well matched. Both from good families and interested in law, it had seemed like the perfect situation. But now she knew how wrong she was and her little world was crashing down around her.
As she walked away, she held her head high, but like everything else, it was just a front to get her back to her townhouse so she could cry. It was always the same and though she would have thought he was the one for her, it appeared he wasn’t. They had been going out for about a year and though they were long past the lovey dovey stage of the relationship, the worst part was that she had thought everything was going okay. They were both busy, but had found time to be together. Though that time didn’t seem to be enough and he had found his affections with someone else.
Anai didn’t know who to talk to about it, but she found herself calling Denise. She had just gotten out of a bad relationship and when she found out that they were going out, Anai decided to tag along. She was already dressed and it seemed a better option than sitting around and moping by herself at her place.
Denise told her that she would swing by and pick her up. There was going to be other people there, but Denise didn’t tell her who. Anai didn’t care, as long as it wasn’t Jeremy or the faceless intern that had taken her place.
When she picked her up and Anai saw a couple men in the back, it was hard not to notice that one of the jocks was the one she had seen a couple of days before. His dark eyes met hers for a moment and then she introduced herself to the dark-haired one sitting next to him. If Anai didn’t k
now any better, she would have thought that it was a double date, one that she hadn’t known about.
“So where are we going?”
Denise shrugged and looked back at Claus. It was clear who ran everything and she waited for him to answer her. “Where ever you ladies want to go. I owe Denise a night out, so you guys can choose.”
“Goody.” Denise’s eyes caught his in the rearview mirror and she wasn’t going to say what she wanted to do. She wanted what was promised, orgasms till she passed out, but there were other people with them and it couldn’t happen right then. “I was hoping to get a bite to eat, maybe some dancing.”
Anai agreed. She was dressed for something to happen and though she was surprised that Claus was going along with it, Anai liked the idea of dancing with him. He wasn’t to be hers, she knew that, but there was something to be said about a man that took what he wanted. Claus was the complete opposite of Jeremy and even though he was there with her cousin, it was Claus that got her attention as Denise drove to the restaurant.
Chapter 5
“I thought you were busy?”
“I thought I was too, but plans change.”
“Are you free for Saturday now?”
She looked over at her friend dancing with Jeff. “I thought you were with my cousin?”
“Well she seems to have a fancy for Jeff now. Who am I to stand in their way?”
“You don’t seem so upset about it.”
“When life closes a door, it opens a window.”
“Ah and in this metaphor, who is the window?”
He looked at her for a moment and then she finally looked away slightly pink cheeked. Anai was on her third drink and she tried to blame the warmth spreading over her to the alcohol, but it wasn’t the alcohol but the man doing it. Denise had been dancing with Jeff for several songs now and as she forgot about them, the two left sitting at the table got to make eyes at each other.
“You’re the window.”
She laughed. “I don’t think I have ever been called that before.”
“So why are you now suddenly free?”
“I got dumped earlier this evening by my boyfriend. I was too busy and he couldn’t help himself. You know same sad story.”
Claus leaned in and took her hand in his. “He is crazy and I will have to thank him one day.”
“For what?”
“For letting you go.”
Claus moved to kiss her hand and as she pulled away, he pulled her up. “Do you want to dance?”
She nodded and got up with him without a word. There was nothing that she could say in that moment and when she felt his hard body against her, there was more reason just to focus on breathing that was becoming more complicated as he moved her around the crowded dance floor. It was as if everyone around them had disappeared and it was only Claus that she seen. Only when he leaned down to kiss her did she realize the error of her ways.
Anai pushed away before their lips could touch. She finally had to open her eyes to the world around them. “We can’t Claus. My cousin really likes you.”
He looked over at the small blonde. She was dancing on Jeff and from the look on both of their faces he was long since forgotten about. “She doesn’t seem to be too worried about me right now.”
Anai looked where he was and she saw the same thing, but still didn’t think that falling into his arms was the right thing to do. Still, there was a moment where she wished that it was. Anai was sick of being upset and she knew that Claus was the type of man that could make her forget everything. He wouldn’t want anything in return. There would be no strings attached with him.
But the moment had past and he seemed to be considering her cousin again. She pulled away, aggravated with herself for always wanted a guy that wasn’t for her or even available. Making her way back to the table, her emotions were everywhere and when he followed her back, she made an excuse and headed towards the bathroom. Anai knew that she shouldn’t have gone out, still too raw from the events with Jeremy. She had never been one to forget one in the arms of another and it seemed even more impossible now.
Getting out of the bathroom, she was stopped by his voice. “Are you okay?”
She turned to see Claus waiting for her. “Yes I am fine.”
“You don’t look fine Anai. You look sad.” His fingertip went beneath her eye and wiped away the moisture she had missed.
“It’s just been a really long day and I don’t know why I even went out, this isn’t me.”
“Well what would you like to do Anai?”
“I would like to forget about the man that dumped me earlier today and I was hoping that a few drinks would do it.”
“A few isn’t enough. We could go back to my place and see how many it would take.”
She smiled back up at him. He was trying and though he seemed to be a man that solved his problems that way, she wasn’t. “I don’t think that would work, but thank you for trying. You aren’t like most jocks I have met.”
“What do you have against us?”
Anai sighed and touched his face slightly before moving her hand away. “Nothing. You guys are just too hot for your own good.”
“Is that so?”
Anai nodded. “Yes.”
“You think I am hot?”
She rolled her eyes and started to walk off. It was obvious to anyone of that fact that had eyes. He wasn’t being modest, but a false modesty, his eyes telling her that he knew exactly what he did to her. Claus grabbed her and pulled her back to him, her hands bracing on his hard chest as his kiss took her breath away. There was no one there to see them, no guilt, just the pleasure of his lips on hers and then his tongue delving into her mouth.
Claus pushed her against the wall, pinning her with his body as his hands roamed up the side of her tight red dress. Grabbing a handful of her hair, he pulled her to him as his mouth ravished hers. Only when he felt her body melting and heard the whimper did he stop. Moving back, he watched her blue eyes open slowly as if in a daze.
“Is that helping you forget?”
She shook her head that it was and leaned in for more of his mouth. He growled against her and his hand got more aggressive, hiking her skirt up as she opened herself up to him. “Wait Claus, not here.”
“Then where?” He would have taken her anywhere, but she was not the same as Denise. Claus highly doubted that she would get on her knees right there as many would, or against the bathroom stall wall, but he wanted her and wished she wasn’t so delicate all of a sudden. Her place was too far.
“I don’t know, but not here.”
He groaned inwardly and pulled away, letting her fix her dress while his eyes scanned the room for the people that he came with. He didn’t see Jeff or Denise anywhere and figured they were still on the dance floor. There were too many people in one place, the throng of people left the individual not outstanding at all. The people were just a mass of faces and bodies writhing together.
“Let’s go back to my place. We can call a cab and it’s not very far from here.”
She nodded, no longer wanting to do the right thing, but the wrong thing that she knew would feel so right. Claus steered her towards the exit and had her in a cab before she could think twice about anything. In the back of the yellow taxi, his hands roamed on her body, fingers going underneath her dress to run up her long legs. Anai shivered under his touch, only stopping when the car stopped and the driver made a loud noise in his throat.
Giggling she got off his lap that she had somehow been pulled onto and opened the door while he paid. Anai’s body had long since forgotten her pain from the rejection earlier in the day and all she could think about was Claus’ hands on her. He may have been different than she was used to, but it was what she needed. She needed to be handled with no compunction like she was already his. When he touched her, it was like he had already claimed her for his own.
Meeting her at the door, he came in behind her and kissed her neck before putting key in the locked do
or. As soon as he opened it though, he knew that they would not be alone. Jeff and Denise had made it back before they did and since he had been with Denise in such a way, he knew instantly who it was. When he looked over at Anai, something had changed in her eyes.
“I’m sorry Claus, but I got to go.”
He looked at her as if she had lost her mind, his hand closing around her wrist, but she pulled away and started towards the taxi they had just gotten out of. Anai looked back once and Claus was still standing in the doorway, not sure what had just happened. His body yelled at the retreating car and he looked back up at the building where all of the sounds of pleasure were coming from. It did nothing to help how he was feeling, the need gnawing at him from the inside out.
Claus cursed under his breath and slammed the door behind him. The noises stopped for a time, but picked back up. He went to his bedroom and turned the speakers up. What had gone wrong? Claus wished that he had taken her to Anai’s house. She wouldn’t have had a roommate to ruin everything. But he had made the wrong choice and Claus wasn’t sure why she had taken off, but he had a few ideas.
Chapter 6
Anai left Claus wondering what was going on and she didn’t answer his calls to let him know. He called her Wednesday and then Thursday to try and get her to talk to him, but it was only on late Thursday afternoon that she finally answered. “You have called a lot Claus. Is there something you need?”
He paused at the coolness in her voice. She was upset about something, which was made more than obvious when he heard the chill in her tone. “Well I have been trying to talk to you. After what happened the other night, don’t you think we should talk about it?”