The Art of Moving On (Siren Publishing Classic)

by Sarah Raymond

  He swiftly got to his feet, shedding his jeans to his ankles. She ripped the buttons apart on his pearl-snapped shirt, exposing his muscular chest. He entered her with force, his shaft plunging into her as he held her close to him. Trusting him to keep a tight grip on her, she dug her nails into his ass and let him disappear deeper inside of her. His blunt head hit directly on her G-spot over and over until she was about to come.

  Hearing someone cheering them on from the street below ultimately fulfilled her fantasy, and she climaxed briskly. She screamed, uncaring if half of Boston heard her. She was lost in a daze as she came hard, soaking his rigid penis. He came then too, a mixture of growls and laughs exploding from his chest as he pumped his thick stream into her.

  When they had both finished, a voice carried up from the street. “Way to go, bro! You fucked her good!” Casey and Conor both busted out laughing, unable to contain the hilarity of the situation.

  They laughed together until Casey’s chest burned. Then, the strangest thing happened. Conor placed his cool hand on her fiery cheek and bore his eyes into hers. Chest still heaving slightly he said, “Casey, I…” His words trailed off and he shook his head gently. He then replaced his words with a kiss and pulled her close. What was he about to say? Was he about to tell her that he loved her? Surely not. She let the thought fade, knowing that it was outrageous and far-fetched. Conor did not love her. He probably just wanted to say how amazing fulfilling her fantasy was for him as well. Yes, that had to be it.

  After the cool down, Casey lowered her skirt as Conor pulled up his pants. She went off on her own to look around the apartment once more, her knees weak from the amazing sex they had just had. She chose her room, the one on the same side as the balcony, with an open window and a gorgeous view. After all, she was the one paying for the entire rent as of right now. She did not mind in the least, but she was going to have first choice when it came to a bedroom.

  “Casey, ya ready, love?” Conor interrupted, just as she was beginning to visualize her furniture placement.

  “Yeah, I’ll be right there.”

  When they left the apartment, two lovers shared an awkwardly silent cab-ride. Casey realized that something was wrong, and she had an idea what it was about. Whatever Conor had been about to tell her on the balcony had him shook up. She couldn’t handle this feeling. He was always so open with her about everything. He was not at all hard to read. Right now, however, the guard he put up was worrying her to no end. With all the courage she could muster, and ready to take anything he said, Casey turned to him.

  “Did I do something to make you mad? I mean, everything was good and the sex”—which she whispered quietly so the cabby did not hear—“was phenomenal, and then you got all weird. What’s up with that?”

  “No, I’m not angry with ya, love.” His response was simple, but also very vague, which frustrated the hell out of her.

  “Then what?”

  When he did not respond, but rather looked out the window, her blood began to boil. Casey had never been so glad to be at home in her entire life. Though Conor had admitted that he was not mad, there was still something bothering him, which irritated her.

  “Fine, then. Thank you for a wonderful evening. I’ll see you later.” She opened the door and got out of the cab, shutting it behind her just as she heard Conor mutter her name. She ignored it. She was probably overreacting completely, but hey, she was still a girl. Her emotions still ran wild, and it was just about that time of the month. Best for both of them if she just went upstairs and cooled off.

  In front of the door to her apartment, Casey heard muffled sounds coming from inside. She figured it was probably just Sammie digging around for a late-night snack, so she opened the door. When she walked in, she was startled to see Giovanni, standing right beside her couch, naked as the day he was born. She gasped, turning her head and shielding her eyes as he attempted to duck beside the couch.

  She laughed out loud. “Well hi, Gio. Didn’t know that you would be here, beside my couch, and completely naked.”

  “Sorry, Casey. I hope this is okay. I just figured you were going to stay with Conor tonight. Giovanni can go if you want,” Sammie said. Her voice was apologetic, but also held a pleading tone.

  “No, of course he doesn’t have to go. This is your home, too. I am going to go to bed. You two kids have fun.” Casey walked toward her room as best she could with shielded eyes. She shut the door and flopped herself down onto the bed. Her mind was spinning, and she knew that she had overreacted with Conor. She couldn’t stay upset with him. It was hypocritical to keep such a gigantic secret from him, but get upset at something that probably meant nothing. It could be anything, though. “Casey, I…don’t want to be with ya anymore.” “Casey, I…have to tell ya that I have herpes.” “Casey, I…want ya to know that I’m seein’ other people.” Any girl in her situation would freak out just a little bit. Her mind was screaming!

  Casey got up and headed toward her medicine cabinet. The only good thing about having a menstrual cycle was the ability to know when it was coming. Her mood was telling her it was Midol time. After she downed a couple of the anti-bitch pills and got into the most comfortable PJs she could find, she got into bed and searched for a chick flick. She was the poster child for Aunt Flow right now, but she did not mind. She needed a night to numb her mind with TV…all that was missing was the ice cream, but she would be damned before she went back out into that living room. Sammie was probably in dire need of a lusty romp with a good-looking man.

  She settled on The Notebook, amused at how cliché she was right now. She watched until her eyes were heavy and burning, and used the last of her energy to turn off the TV. Just as she was drifting off into dreamland, her phone went off. She cracked an eyelid, squinting at the bright light of the screen. She saw that it was a text from Conor, but laid her phone down and turned over to go to sleep. She would deal with it in the morning, but for right now she needed rest.

  Chapter 18

  The next morning, Casey awoke with a stabbing sensation in her ovaries. She had definitely called it the night before. Though she was in mind-numbing pain, she knew that she needed to apologize to Conor. He had been nothing but kind to her from the get-go, and she had acted like a spoiled brat. She went to the bathroom, hoping to god that she had at least one emergency Kotex laying around. When she had scrounged the necessities for a day of menstrual death, she crawled back into bed and picked up her phone.

  There were two missed texts, both sent from Conor last night. The first text was simple. I am sorry, love, was all it said. The second made Casey feel terrible for being so cross with him the night before. It read: All I wanted to tell ya last night was how crazy I am about ya. I got quiet because I spent the whole cab ride tryin’ to find the right words. Casey’s heart sank. She was such an asshole.

  She typed a text in response, and for once, she was brutally honest with him. Conor, I am sorry I was such a brat last night. It is the time of the month when the emotions run wild, if you know what I mean. Sorry, TMI. She hoped that he would not be put off by her openness, but then again, he was not an immature man. Less than a minute later, he responded. I completely understand. Sorry I was such a shite. Casey laid down the phone, feeling relieved that they had solved the issue. She heard a light knock at the door, and invited Sammie to come inside.

  “You busy?” Sammie said through a slight crack in the door.

  “Just dying of cramps. Other than that, I’m fabulous. Come on in.” Casey scooted over in bed and patted the empty space beside her. Sammie lay down, glowing like a newly lit candle.

  “So…how was jumping Giovanni’s bones?” Casey asked, excited to hear all about it.

  “Oh my God, Casey. He is amazing,” she said dramatically. “His family comes from Italy. He is 36, and he has never been married. He has no kids but wants them. He grew up in New York and moved to Boston for college, which I assume is where he met Conor.”

  Casey thought of all the in
formation that Sammie had acquired in one night with Giovanni… She hadn’t got that much from Conor, and they had been seeing one another for a while. Fear of sharing her past had made her negligent to inquire more about his.

  Sammie continued, getting to the good stuff. “We didn’t get two blocks from the restaurant before we were all over each other. He just smelled so good, and he is a phenomenal kisser. When we got to the apartment, I asked him to come up and it just went from there.” She gazed at the ceiling, still star-struck from her magical sexual evening.

  “Well? How was it?” Casey enjoyed these girl talks with her best friend. She never really noticed how lonely she was without Sammie in her life until she arrived on her doorstep.

  “He was the best I have had in my entire life. His body is just…and his skin is…mmm.” Apparently, thinking about Giovanni turned Sammie’s brain to moosh. Casey knew the feeling. “Casey, he has the most enormous cock I have ever seen! And girl, he knows how to use it. Having sex while you are pregnant is the absolute most amazing sensation I have ever felt. And he was so gentle with me—I guess he was worried that he would hurt the baby or something, though I could have taken a lot rougher!”

  Casey smiled, happy to have her friend join the Having Amazing Sex Club. “So are you going to see him again?” Casey asked, hopeful that Giovanni was not a total prick that liked to prey on pregnant women.

  “Yes! We exchanged numbers and he asked me to dinner this week!” Casey was relieved.

  After Sammie had given Casey the full scoop, which went on for about another hour, she began to inquire as to why Casey was home so early the night before. Casey, a little embarrassed to admit how she had acted, responded with, “Conor was acting strange on the cab ride, so I acted like a bratty child and left it really awkward.”

  “I wonder what his problem is,” Sammie pondered. Casey showed her the text from Conor, and Sammie squealed in delight. “Casey, he is in love with you!” She read Casey’s face, trying to find more excitement than what existed there. “What’s the problem? You should be ecstatic that a rich, handsome, foreign man wants to be with you. I would be jumping for joy right now!”

  Casey turned her head to look out the window. She had never really discussed with her best friend the problem that existed between she and Conor. That conversation was one that she had only shared with the good Doctor.

  “I haven’t told him about Jace,” she said flatly.

  The look on Sammie’s face in response could best be described with one word. Horror. “For the love of God, Casey! You have been intimate with this man for months, and he doesn’t know that you were married with child a little over a year ago?” Casey shook her head. “Well, were you expecting to tell him at some point, or just keep it a secret forever?”

  Casey, sitting on the fence between defensive and pissed off, said, “You don’t have to say it in that tone of voice, Sammie. I want to wait and make sure that he is the right guy before I go off telling him my tragic story. I can’t just blurt it out and expect that our relationship will remain the same.”

  “That is fucking ridiculous, and you know it. How would what happened to you a year before you even met this man change your relationship with him in any way?” Sammie was obviously not going to see things the way Casey did without an explanation.

  “It has everything to do with our relationship! He will forever look at me with pity in his eyes, for one. And what if he isn’t into getting serious with a widow? And the children…he probably wants children, and I can’t have children. Did you think of that?” Casey was heated, but trying hard to keep it together. Sammie was pregnant after all, and stress is not good for a baby.

  “You are nuts, you know that, Casey!” This was definitely not the reaction Casey was hoping her friend would have to this revelation. “Of course he will look at you with pity. You went through a terrible and tragic thing that not many people can relate to. But the pity won’t last long, and then it will turn to love and respect for you, because rather than throwing yourself off of a skyscraper, you are here, ready and willing to love again. Who gives a shit if you are a widow? You are still a person. You aren’t tainted or cursed. And lastly, don’t tell me you can’t have children. You just don’t want to, which is something different entirely,” she argued on a single breath.

  Casey was rendered speechless.

  “If you want to wait until you know in your heart it is real, then that is your thing. But know this. He is in love with you, and it is just going to get worse. It’s unfair to leave him in the dark on this one, Case.” Making her point, Sammie got up and left the room.

  The next day, Casey’s pain was no longer radiating in her kneecaps and she decided to get started packing. She began with her room, aware that Sammie might need a little more time to cool off from their altercation the day before. They had spent the remainder of the previous day avoiding each other in silence. Sammie was right. Dr. Roma was right. He had to know, so why couldn’t she bring herself to tell him? Maybe she was nuts after all.

  Chapter 19

  By the end of the first week in October, the girls had gotten completely moved in to their new apartment on the wharf. They had originally planned on hiring movers to transport their belongings to the new digs, but Conor would hear nothing of the sort. On the first day of moving, he and Giovanni had showed up with coffee and bagels, both decked out in the most “casual” clothing they could find in their rich closets. Most people would move furniture in old, paint-stained jeans and ripped T-shirts, but not their guys. The both of them looked as if they had walked off the pages of a magazine, their crisp jeans and fresh shirts aching to get soiled. They were both so sexy! Casey and Sammie had tried numerous times to help move boxes and light knick-knacks, but the men continued to refuse. After so many “nos” and “I don’t think sos,” the girls had settled in to watch the men sweat. They were absolutely spoiled, and they loved every minute of it.

  Once moving day had come and gone, and the apartment was completely finished, Casey and Sammie decided to have Conor and Gio over for dinner to give them thanks for their heavy lifting. After a great deal of bickering over what to serve, they decided on homemade chicken fried steaks. Casey had given up on trying to find a decent chicken fried steak in Boston—she figured it must be a Southern thing. She was really hoping that it turned out well, and possibly would be a new and exotic dish to their foreign guests.

  At 7:30 p.m. the doorbell rang, and Sammie rose to invite the guys in. Casey was no longer nervous about the meal they had prepared, and excited to host the first dinner party she had thrown in what seemed like forever.

  Giovanni entered first, scooping his little pregnant date into his arms and kissing her repeatedly. Conor walked in after, holding a bouquet of her new favorite roses and wearing a smile that robbed her of breath. He looked like a movie star walking into her house, his stylish clothes hugging his body in all the right places. His hair was tousled just slightly, adding a bit of ruggedness to his look. He was just dripping with sex, and though they had not put a label to their relationship, Casey considered him hers.

  He crossed the room and set the flowers down on the counter beside her. He gently pressed his body against hers until she was pinned between him and the counter top. He pressed a large hand to either side of her face, and bent to kiss her. When their lips met, she felt his erection grow and pulse against her.

  When he pulled away, he smiled slyly, knowing that he had just made her intensely aroused right before dinner.

  “Can we skip dinner?” she whispered, not sure if she was being serious or not.

  “No’ a chance. We have to eat supper before we can have the sweets, love.” At that, he arranged himself quickly and turned toward the table. “So gals, what have ya prepared for us this evenin’?”

  By the end of dinner, the sexual tension in the air was suffocating. Casey was barely aware of the fondling that had been going on under the table between Sammie and Giovanni. She was solely focu
sed on Conor, and his level of enjoyment from her meal. He made faint moaning sounds every so often in appreciation of the steak, each time making Casey hungry for his moaning in appreciation of her. When she was about to grab his hand and excuse them from the table, Sammie beat her to the punch.

  “Giovanni, would you like to see how I decorated my new room? Casey and I found some amazing furniture for a reasonable price. I especially like my bed.” Gio agreed, and it seemed that they couldn’t get to the bedroom fast enough.

  When they were gone, likely entering into a state of sexual bliss, Casey was ready to jump Conor’s bones. He interrupted that thought with, “The supper was amazin’, Casey. Where’d ya learn to cook like that?”

  Casey felt that now would be a good time to share something more about her past. “My grandmother. She was my mom’s mom. My mom died during childbirth, so my grandmother just kind of took over the motherly role. She always told me that the best way to clear your mind was to cook something delicious.”

  “She sounds grand. What is her name?” Conor’s use of the present tense made her tinge with sadness. Her grandmother had passed away unexpectedly when she was just a teenager. She had never needed a female role model more than she did at the exact moment that her only grandparent passed.

  “Her name was Eva, but I called her Nanna.” Apparently noticing that the past had brought her pain, Conor took her hand. He pulled her from her chair, wrapped his arm around the small of her back, and held her hand firmly in his.

  “Dance with me, love.”

  “But there isn’t any music,” Casey replied, feeling as though she was living in a romance novel.

  “Yes there is. Ya just have to listen.” Casey was confused by his words until he held her still. “Close your eyes and listen.”

  She did as he instructed, and at first heard nothing but a slight thumping coming from Sammie’s room. Then, after a moment, she tuned everything else out. Casey heard the faintest music coming from somewhere in the city. It was a very slow song, romantic and old-fashioned. It could not have been made later than the 1930s. She smiled wide, and opened her eyes.