Sweetest Obsessions - Anthology

by Anthony, Jane

  His lips are larger than mine and firmer, but his kiss is soft. It’s slow yet perfect and I scoot closer. Graham’s lips open, asking for permission, and I grant it. I’m no longer able to resist his charm, not that I want to. It’s a first kiss and then nothing more — there’s not a lot you can do on a cold park bench in the middle of the forest — but it’s enough. I don’t need check marks and columns to worry about anymore. He’s everything I’ve looked for in a person. Funny, smart, with a good sense of humor and looks to match. Our connection is cemented right then, frozen together by the weather.

  The kiss seems to last forever yet finishes way too fast, and the two of us pull apart. He smiles, brushing a piece of hair away from my forehead, and places a kiss on the corner my lips before turning forward and wrapping his arm around my shoulder to pull me tight. Then together we watch the snow fall noiselessly against the small clearing in Pelican Bay.

  6

  My nose crinkles at the odor floating up from the room vents and floor. It’s a cross between a cigarette and a dead skunk, as if somebody found a piece of roadkill, rolled it up and decide to smoke it. The thought alone makes me gag.

  I’m not a person to smoke recreational weed myself, even though it is legal, but even I know what it smells like. Although this stuff is expired. Can weed expire?

  But where would it be coming from? Even though the drug may be legal in Maine for personal use, it doesn’t mean they can smoke in the bed-and-breakfast even in the privacy of rooms. We’re a no smoking facility. This building has been around for over one hundred years. It’s kindling.

  I follow the putrid smell out into the hallway, my nose taking in all the scents around me like I’ve turned into a bloodhound drug-sniffing dog. Thinking of that, what happened to all those canines now that weed is legal? Did they ship them to other states? Or do they use them to sniff out large quantities of pot? I would hate to think of all those little pups out of a job.

  Focus, Tara.

  My small studio apartment is at the back of the bed-and-breakfast, and my nose takes me down the long hallway closer to the basement doors.

  Definitely no one should be in the basement smoking weed. I’ve done my best to avoid these lower rooms that comprise the basement of the Pelican Bay bed-and-breakfast during my time here, but the stink wafts so hard from the doorway I can’t ignore it. The smart choice would be to go back upstairs and find Dwight since this is his domain in the middle of the night, but I don’t want whoever is doing it to get away. I hold on to the hastily constructed railing, making my way down the stone steps to the musky basement below.

  The walls are formed from large rocks they found and stacked on top of one another, their own archaic cement mixture plastered between them to keep it all together in a jumbled mess. When it rains water seeps through to the floor and I can’t imagine the building would pass any kind of code inspection if they built it today. The fact the walls are still standing this much later is a testament in itself. The basement has been redone over the years, but it’s only used as storage now. I work my way through the towering boxes trying not to think of spiders.

  It’s a maze with inner dispersed lights, allowing just enough area to skip from one ball of light to the next. The smell of weed dissipates the further I go and I stop, ready to turn back when a noise catches my attention.

  My ears perk up and a bead of fear drips off my forehead even though the basement is ice cold on this chilly winter night. One of the lights overhead flickers and then turns off, and I scurry back four steps, putting myself in the light of the one right behind me. I back up with little slow steps, retracing my way to get me to the staircase. If someone is down here smoking the wacky tobacco, they can keep doing it because my courage has run out.

  I don’t know where the courage came from the first place. I’ve never been one to haphazardly jump off into the night. The sudden burst of strength that hit me when I left my room has expired. Maybe the fake bravado is from hanging out with the spy.

  My steps quicken as I search the area in front of me to make sure no one, man or beast, finds me down here. As a kid with a wild imagination, I could’ve made this place look like a labyrinth with its twisting maze-like appearance and crusty walls.

  My back hits something solid and I turn ready to scream when a hand covers my mouth. I wiggle to get away, ready to run in the other direction even if it puts me further in the basement, when a pair of tempest blue eyes meet mine in the darkness as he holds my body still against his.

  I push off the strong chest breathing heavily. “What the hell are you doing down here?”

  My perpetrator smiles but doesn’t let go of my arm. “I thought I smelled something, and I didn’t want the building to go up in flames.”

  My eyes narrow at Graham. “You came down here to inspect yourself rather than call the fire department?”

  He shrugs. “No point alerting the authorities of it wasn’t a big deal. Why are you down here?”

  I’m not willing to tell him I’m here make sure there wasn’t a fire before alerting the city authorities if it wasn’t a big deal.

  “Well looks like whoever was making the smell is gone now.”

  I lean closer to see if any of the weed comes from the dark thermal shirt Graham has on, but I come up empty. Only the sweet yet musky cologne he’s worn every day since I met him tickles my senses. It’s much more pleasant than the skunky weed.

  “I don’t know how I’ll ever get to sleep now,” I say, my heart beating away in my chest. The burst of adrenaline will probably leave me on my ass once it’s done, but right now I’m wide awake and alert.

  He smiles, taking my hand and leading us out of the small basement hallway. “Who says we have to sleep.”

  My face heats and I’m glad he doesn’t turn around to see it, not that it would be possible in the dim basement lights.

  I choke on my words. “Well.”

  Graham stops and I almost run into his back. “I didn’t mean it that way. I was just getting ready to watch a movie. One of the stations is playing the original Jurassic Park and I can’t resist watching the movie when it comes on.”

  “Well of course not. You can’t not watch a man get eaten off the toilet.”

  The two of us laugh as he climbs the basement steps.

  Graham doesn’t release my hands and pulls me toward the residents’ bedrooms. I don’t stop to ask how he knows his way around the hotel so well. From what I’ve seen of him, he never does anything more than come and go to his room with a brief stop in the dining room, but the way he goes through the maze of hallways to the guest rooms upfront, you would think he’s walked these halls more than once.

  We pass the kitchen and I pull, stopping him in his tracks. “I want to grab something.”

  The bed-and-breakfast kitchen has closed down for the evening, but the machine I’m looking for is never shut off. It would cause a mess. On the side of the big metal ice cream cart hangs a stack of cones and I grab one from the side, hurrying to make a small twist of chocolate and vanilla cone for myself.

  “Ice cream? In December?” Graham asks, an eyebrow raised in my direction.

  I lick the top of the twist off, the ice cold against my lips. “You want one? Employees can eat as much as we want.”

  I’ll never admit that it might have been the final perk in their job offer that got me to Pelican Bay. Who can resist all-you-can-eat ice cream in a cone?

  “I’ll pass,” he says but at the same time leans down and skirts his tongue along the edge of my cone stealing some vanilla. “I can just share yours.”

  He laughs and I scowl, pulling back the cone. “Hey, no man should ever steal a woman’s ice cream.”

  With me still scowling at my cone — I definitely didn’t make it tall enough for both of us — Graham and I walk to his room. This time there are no warnings about serial killers or spies or any of the other things Cammie would have me running for the hills over. It’s just the two of us.

 
; Just as he said, the TV is on and the movie Jurassic Park is starting on the screen. The main two doctors ride to the island in a helicopter, staring out at the tall trees when Graham takes a seat on his bed on top of the covers and pats the space beside him.

  “You don’t care if I eat in bed?”

  He shakes his head. “I have it on good authority the housekeeping has swept my room.”

  My cheeks heat and this time he notices as I take a seat next to him. “About that.” But I don’t know how to finish the sentence.

  He laughs, stealing the cone right from my hands and taking a bite from the top before handing it back. “If I was going to report you, I would have by now. You can thank me in dates.”

  We lie together for a few moments, me stiff as a board but trying my best to finish off my ice cream and watch the television without making a mess or declaring my undying love. I make it to the light brown cone part, popping the end in my mouth. When I finish swallowing, I turn in my eyes and meet Graham’s. His pretty blues twinkle.

  “I like you,” he says straight out. Not beating around the bush at all.

  I straighten my pajama pants with big pizza slices on them, wishing I could be wearing anything else in the world right now. Like a little backless teddy and twenty fewer pounds of fat.

  “I think you like me too," he continues.

  “I may,” I reply with a smile, hoping he can’t read all the things my words don’t say. That I definitely very much like him. I spend a large portion of my day thinking about him each and every day. That if there’s one person I’d want to run into in the scary basement underneath the bed-and-breakfast it would be him.

  “I would like to explore this more.”

  “Me too.” I smile as he slips slightly closer to me on the bed.

  “Right now.”

  “Now?” I ask, licking the slight taste of ice cream from my lips.

  Together, on top of the covers in the middle of his bedroom that not so many days ago I was caught searching, Graham and I connect. Our eyes battle against the moment. Both of us saying so much yet nothing at all. His hand skirts out and fumbles with a piece of my hair, tucking it behind an ear and pulling on it lightly. I close my eyes waiting for what happens next.

  7

  Graham tugs my leg to him twisting our appendages together. Less than a breath separates us and my heart hammers, begging for him to kiss me.

  He does, and it’s nothing like when we sat together on the bench in the middle of a clearing. This kiss is demanding and firm. His lips lock onto mine and the room gets twenty degrees hotter. His hand cups my chin, his thumb rubbing against my skin. My lips open, granting him access, and our tongues duel against one another.

  His fingers curl underneath my shirt tracing against my naked skin until he hits the barrier of my bra. I moan, moving a finger through his belt buckle and pulling him closer, wanting so much more.

  It’s fast. Faster than it should be. I count off the days and the number of dates as fast as possible. Does this count as three? Will he think less of me if it isn’t?

  His attention falls to my neck and Graham lazily dots my collarbone with kisses. “We don’t need to do anything more,” he says between each peck. “Whatever you’re comfortable with.”

  “I’m comfortable.”

  He rests in his forehead against mine, his eyes searching deep into my soul for acceptance. “Thank fuck.”

  After that it’s nothing but a fumble of hands and loosening clothes. My shirt comes off, thrown behind us, and is lost somewhere in the room followed by my bra.

  “You’re beautiful,” he says as he stares at my naked chest.

  I drink up his words as if they’re the sweetest wine available. I can’t remember the last time — if there ever has been one — when a man called me beautiful. From the look in his eyes as his gaze languishes over me hungrily, I believe each and every one. These aren’t false words said to loosen me up. They’re whispered against my lips — a truth shared only between us. I’ve never actually had sex after a few dates. In the past it’s always been with a man after we’ve established a firm relationship. I know less about Graham than I do some of my favorite TV stars, but it won’t deter me tonight.

  I want him to take me. For the first time in my life I haven’t sat down and figured out what we mean to each other, where our futures are going before sealing the deal. It’s freeing and also scary as hell, but I want it.

  “I want you, Tara,” his words are already apparent when my open palm sneaks against the front of his pants, finding a waiting bulge. “I like you, but I don’t want to mess up whatever we're doing here by moving too fast.”

  Our eyes lock on one another. I smile and swallow, recognizing what my agreement means. “You won’t mess anything up.” No matter how this ends between us, I’ll have no guilt.

  He slips his hand under the elastic of my pajama pants as soon as I finish my sentence. His fingers slide lower, searching out a hidden area already pooling with wetness. Each of his touches heat my body, building anticipation.

  One single but sure finger circles my opening tapping my clit as it passes. My hips jerk toward him trying to get closer. Then Graham goes to his knees. He unexpectedly undoes his pants and kicks them to the floor before gruffly grabbing the tops of mine and pulling them and my underwear off my legs in a fluid movement. I kick, trying to help them once he reaches my ankles.

  I’m lain out before him, naked, but barer than only my skin. Emotions fill the room as I wait to see what his final assessment will determine. Graham licks his lips and moans, trailing a finger in a circle around my belly button and then lower. His eyes stop and feast on my core.

  I let his eyes graze when in the past I never would’ve laid myself out this way. Allowing judgment to pass over each of my bones, flesh, and soul. I’d shy away and cover myself with the covers, but I don’t do that for Graham. I want him to see all of me. To accept all of me.

  The black shirt stretched tightly over his muscles blocks the view of what would otherwise be an extremely impressive chest. I tug at it, breaking his concentration until he twists the shirt up over his shoulders tossing it somewhere near mine on the floor.

  Graham parts my legs settling between them and I tense. “I just want a taste.”

  I nod, giving him permission, but not able to look away. Then with my legs spread wide, lying on the top of his hotel bed in a room where he found me snooping through his things, Graham feasts on me as if he hasn’t eaten in a week.

  His tongue trails up half along my outer rim while his fingers plunge deeply. At unexpected times, he stops to place a kiss along my lower lips before sucking again. I moan and groan, my back arching closer and my hips wiggling toward his face. His taste is no longer a sample but a three-course meal.

  The bundle of nerves that has given me so much happiness in the past coils tightly but refuses to let loose. My body is begging to keep the release, hold on until the last possible minute.

  Graham growls, and it’s more than I can handle. My orgasm tears through my restraint, my body so tight I clench my teeth to keep from yelling as the energy rushes from me.

  When I come back down, I lay still on the bed, my deep breath pulled in and out of me by force. Holy shit. There’s no way anything in life can top what I experienced.

  Not one to give up without trying, Graham covers himself with a magically appearing condom as I peek through the slits in my eyes.

  He wraps my legs around his waist, pulling me closer and closer until the tip of him nudges at my entrance. My skin is warm and tingles. It’s too much, the emotions and sensations overwhelming so soon after my release. I almost call out and ask him to stop, but he pushes through, stretching me. With each inch of me he claims, I fall more and more under his spell.

  He doesn’t move until we’re connected completely and then it’s slow. An easy in and out pace I fall into step with on my own.

  “You taste like honey and feel like silk. I could do this al
l night.” His words are slow as he takes the time to pronounce each one in between our matching movements.

  I murmur a quiet yes, but even as I do my body readies for another release — something I didn’t think possible. It grows little by little until I can’t ignore it anymore and my fingers dig into the skin on his shoulders where I grip for stability.

  He must notice because he grins and his thrusts come a little harder, the pace a little faster. A bead of sweat trickles from the top of his forehead down his face and lands on my breast. His head lowers, and he laps it up taking my nipple in his mouth at the same time.

  He’s everywhere and nowhere. His body on top of mine feels like the safety of my own shelter. A warm comforting area I never want to leave, but the end is coming near.

  “Faster,” I pant arching my back and giving him more access to my body.

  His hands cup my ass, pulling me higher so that our connection is perfect. Less than a minute later my back arches high. This time when the release hits me I can’t control my sounds and a throaty moan escapes as I push my head into the pillow.

  He calls out my name, finding his own release seconds later. He rests his forehead against mine, his cock jerking inside my body as the two of us share the air between us. I smile and he follows, rubbing that same thumb against my cheek again.

  Slowly he slips out, depositing the condom in the trash across the room. Then as I’m about to slink my way out of bed and find my clothes to return to my own room, Graham wraps his arms around my body and settles us beneath the rumpled covers.

  “Stay,” he whispers in my ear.

  Too tired to respond, I nod and snuggle into his body. Our movie plays on the TV, and a man screams while being eaten on a toilet.

  8

  “Are you sure you want to meet my friends?” Graham runs his fingers through his dark hair smoothing it back.

  I nod like a fool caught up in his spell. I’ve never met a man who can make such a simple action so overwhelmingly intimate.