The One I Love

by Mia Ford

  I try changing the subject to appease my nervous energy, “So did you write that song just to get in my pants?” I tease. The song is amazing, nothing less than perfect and if Charlie wasn’t with me right now I might pinch myself to make sure this is all real. Does anyone really write songs for their girlfriends anymore besides dorky middle schoolers? I expected a mixtape of some cheesy classic rock, but an entire song I can call my own makes my knees wobble and my panties melt from being totally blown away.

  “Your pants? How about this skirt your wearing?” Charlie’s hands rest on my hips making a slow descent downward grasping the fabric and helping it ride up my thighs. The pads of his fingers are rough and the tactile sensation sends tingles down my spine to settle low in the secret center between my legs that aches just like it did the last time we were in this position.

  I clear my throat as his finger makes a lazy stroke of my center over damp cotton. “What about it?” I’m not a virgin any longer and being coy isn’t the style I want to portray anymore but everything is still too new for me to guess what he’ll do next.

  He nips at my shoulder speaking, “I’d like to get my hands under it and sink inside of you if that’s alright, sweetheart.”

  I gasp feeling his short nails graze my sensitive skin and I clamp my legs together in a weak effort to halt his exploratory hands on their current expedition.

  I weakly push at his hands that stop, but don’t move anywhere. I’m just playing with him. It makes him push forward even more.

  “Ah…”

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought.” He chuckles and removes his wicked digits of pleasure leaving me panting and hanging on the edge of the couch. He goes to the front of the building and locks the door. When he comes back he shuts the door to the back room and locks it as well.

  I slip my shoes off and pull my legs up on the leather sofa that started this whole seduction in the first place. I smile as I remember the song he wrote for me.

  “Drink?” He says and I realize he has a six-pack in the small fridge at the studio.

  “Sure.” I plop down trying to cool my head. He sits next to me, his body pressing against me from shoulder to hip right down to our knees as he hands me a matching beer. I take a drink not loving the thick fizz that palpitates on my tongue as I swallow the bitter brew down. It’s alright, but I can think of some better things to drink than this swill Charlie seems to favor. I never told him I prefer wine. There’s still so much more we don’t know about each other.

  Our eyes meet and I watch him take a long drag of the beer finishing it off quickly. I follow suit praying I don’t gag on it or embarrass myself further. Our bottles clink on the coffee table and as soon as I’m leaning back up, Charlie pushes me to lay back on the couch.

  “Subtle move Casanova.”

  He chuckles looking up for a moment before back down at me as if he’s lost in some deep thought.

  He shrugs, “I know what I want.”

  I swallow back the long question and settle for a single word instead, “And?”

  “It’s you I want. I always want you. How is that even a question, Addy?” His fingers gather up my hair moving it out of his way.

  “I want you too, Charlie.” It’s much easier to admit it now verbally. I suppose seeing each other naked has a way of breaking down the barriers even if I’m not quite one hundred percent comfortable in my skin.

  “I wasn’t sure how you would like my song earlier.” His kicks off his own shoes that clunk to the floor from the couch.

  “You’re kidding, right?” He looks so self-conscious and I run my hands through his spiky hair loving the feel of the short strands that graze my fingers.

  “Does any artist or musician not feel nervous right before a debut?”

  “I guess.” My fingers leave his hair and move to his shirt which I think would look better joining his shoes on the floor. I pull it up and he removes the rest of it easily.

  “Of all people, I thought you would understand the importance of firsts, Addy.” His eyes fill with mirth and I shake my head. Leave it to Charlie to bring up my virginity in casual conversation.

  I smack his bare arm playfully. “Better watch yourself. I think your students have better game than you do, mister.”

  His laughter is a bark and he works his hands between us gathering up my skirt again.

  “You won’t be thinking of my game sweetheart when I slide my dick deep inside you.”

  He’s right.

  I shiver.

  I’ll be thinking about his hips moving against mine causing the perfect amount of fiction to get me off. I swivel my hips just so hoping he’s thinking the same thing. A groan follows and I know he’s thinking it as much as I am.

  “Charlie,” I grunt when his devil digits tease me mercilessly all over again. He works a blunt finger under the elastic of my panties pulling it to the slide before pressing his finger deep inside me only to pull out and trace the outer edges of my tender lips making me lose my mind.

  “Evil man,” I whine wanting more than his habitual teasing. It’s amazing to me how comfortable I’ve become with sex after only doing it a couple of times.

  Charlie repeats the move this time leaving a slick honey trail from my center down my thighs as he raises my leg up and over his hip. “Promise you won’t throw me off and lock the door to the bathroom again?” He settles deeper between my thighs.

  My hands anchor against him and I raise my hips up to experiment grinding against his thick rod still unfortunately covered in his pants. “A gentleman would never remind a lady of such things.”

  “I think you want to rile me up, sweetheart.”

  I pant barely able to get the words out in a single sentence.

  “I do. Want to. Rile you up.”

  “I know.” He smirks and it drives me wild. I wish he would just get down to business. You know, the screwing, the lovemaking. The whatever he wants to call it when he fills me completely because Charlie is so good at it.

  “Charlie.” I let my fingers squeeze his immovable shoulders. His hands work magic between us again and his pants are quickly shucked to the floor so he can spring free between the hole in his boxer briefs.

  A wrapper crinkles.

  “Wait.” I push back.

  “What?”

  “Um? Can I do it?” I feel like an idiot asking but his kind smile eases the awkwardness I manage to dole out.

  “Of course, you can.” He says and he leans up to rest on his knees while I’m still spread out mostly clothed underneath him still. I feel like a trussed-up dinner turkey with nowhere to go and he hands me the condom expectantly. I pinch the top and roll it down over his thick shaft that pulses with warmth under the velvety soft skin that’s rigid in my grasp. All those high school health class videos have nothing on a good selection of Tumblr clips. Who says a little porn can’t go a long way toward education?

  Not me that’s for sure. I will never admit to him I watched them just to learn how to do that and feel accomplished.

  “My turn.” Charlie grabs my panties and slides them over my butt and up my legs tossing them over his shoulder. I giggle thinking about what they might be saying on their suicide mission to the floor joining his pants and shirt. It’s a minefield of clothing. I swear I have the strangest thoughts in the weirdest moments.

  “Up.” He says slipping my shirt off because that’s got to go as well, my bra too. He reaches around me nuzzling his face in the space between my breasts kissing and licking them.

  I shift scooting lower on the sofa. My ass rasping bare against the leather. Charlie maneuvers us. One leg resumes its lift over his hips opening me up to let his sheathed dick bounce against me. The other barely makes it to the floor, my toes pressing down to lift me up against him.

  “You are so beautiful.” Charlie starts to hum the hook from the song he wrote for me as he slides his dick inside me stretching my lips around his shaft. I’m wet enough it doesn’t hurt but unfamiliar enough that it sti
lls burns as if it’s the first time. Foreplay has nothing on Charlie. His head in the crook of my neck when he pumps shallow thrusts into me. I’m pinned to the sofa underneath him and while it feels okay, I’m claustrophobic like this.

  “Charlie, move.” I push and he thrusts.

  “No, I mean…” I don’t know what I mean.

  “Addy, what you need?” His hips swivel and I nearly see stars. That. That’s exactly what I need more of.

  “I want to be on top,” I tell him waiting for the rejection or to be told I’m a silly inexperienced girl.

  Instead, I get smartass, Charlie.

  “Oh. Do you now?”

  I force myself to sound confident rolling my eyes, “yeah.”

  “You sure you can handle it?”

  I pinch his nipple.

  “Move.”

  He lifts up enough to rotate keeping himself impaled inside me but giving me what I want. Control. It’s a heady feeling like flying an airplane or what I imagine one might be like. Airplanes aren’t exactly in my wheelhouse.

  “Put your knee like… yeah… you got it, Addy.” Charlie leans back watching my every move. His hands cover my tits rubbing the nipples and holding me up for support. It’s a position I think I could get used to.

  I lift up and lower myself back down riding him in a slow canter. His hips raise up greedy for more and I speed up rocking the motion and easing down to grind over him.

  “Easy girl.” His hands leave my breasts heavily aroused to rest on my hips guiding me into the motion he likes, and give me equal amounts of pleasure on every move. It’s blissful and I feel my legs become languid as my inner muscles work in tandem to hold tight to the impending orgasm.

  My core tightens like a coil tighter and tighter until it has nowhere left to go. The force of winding it up so tight is what lets it unravel in a spinning dizzy spiral until I’m left heaving and spent falling forward over Charlie’s chest. He raises his hips up in jerky thrusts. I’ve gotten my share, it’s time for him to unravel the same. He shouts loudly and I wonder if he has neighbors who can hear his sexcapades because my jealousy runs rampant even though I’m fully sated. I can’t help it and I bite my lip to stop myself from saying or doing anything that would be construed as needy or borderline stage five clinger.

  I rest my head against his chest that hasn’t stopped thrumming, same as mine. He kisses my forehead and resumes humming the melody for me. It’s sweet, divine, and I realize how foolish I’m being because this man just poured his soul into a song written solely and specifically for me. Maybe I can cling just a little bit.

  My rapid heart calms and like a sleepy kitten, I claw my fingers into his pectoral muscles staking my claim. I think I might love this man.

  After a while, we get dressed and ready to go. I’m hungry again and hope I can talk him into some take out on the way home.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Charlie

  Ada is beautiful. The word love comes to mind more than once as I watch her get dressed.

  “Stop watching me. You have to get dressed too.” She giggles and covers herself with her hands.

  “Don’t cover yourself, you’re beautiful. We can just stay here.”

  I’ve never felt this way about anyone before.

  “No, we can’t. I’m hungry and I want to sleep in my bed tonight. It’s going to be so much more comfortable than that couch.

  She has a point there. Reluctantly I get up and get dressed. I lock up like I always do and we head out the door to the car.

  Ada has convinced me we shouldn’t be afraid to go to the studio. She thinks Jimmy would be stupid to do what he did to us again in the same place. I’m not so sure because I can see the guy has a screw loose.

  She stops me when we get into the parking lot and kisses me. I’m happy to return the kiss and wrap my arms around her waist. The night is quiet, there aren’t any cars driving by, but I hear a noise in the parking lot. She hears it too and jumps back alarmed.

  I feel like someone is watching us and immediately look around to see if I can spot Jimmy. I can’t believe he isn’t in jail for longer periods of time. He literally gets arrested and starts stalking her again. I want to protect her but I haven’t been able to bring myself to buy a gun. Now in the dark parking lot feeling eyes on me I really wish I had one. I don’t want to spook her so I don’t act like anything is wrong.

  I grab her hand and we start walking towards the car together. I move a little faster than usual and just want to get her safely out of the situation. The next few minutes seem to slow time down. Someone jumps out from behind my car and rushes at us. There’s a loud noise I don’t quite understand. Ada screams and turns to run trying to pull me with her. For some reason, I can’t move. I feel like I’m falling backward.

  It feels like someone just punched me really hard in the shoulder. When I look down I see blood. Until right now I didn’t register that sound I heard was related to the punch. Now the person is moving towards us faster and he has his hand up. I can see now there’s a gun in it, the moonlight is shining off of it. I feel myself falling to the ground and I can’t stop. I can’t see Ada and I start to panic. Is she hurt too?

  I twist as I fall to try and see her meaning I land on my shoulder in the parking lot. It sends a wave of pain so intense through my arm that I black out for a minute. When I come to it’s because another loud noise happened. My vision is blurry and there’s a lot of pain. I feel it throughout my whole body.

  “Charlie.” I hear Ada scream. It’s all going in slow motion now. It feels like the fall to the ground took forever. Now I’m lying on my side and things sound very far away.

  “Charlie,” a male voice yells and I briefly see a figure fly by and lunge at the guy with the gun who has almost made it to me. The two wrestle on the ground and a burning sensation sets in on my shoulder and shoots down my arm. I’m shot, I realize. I’ve not been punched I’ve been shot.

  I feel myself getting weaker as I see George. He’s on top of the guy with the gun and I realize it’s not Jimmy or Ada’s dad. This is related to George. This is all because of the stupid drugs. George, my good friend, has managed to get me killed outside my own studio.

  “I’m sorry Charlie,” he says, “I followed them here. I promise this wasn’t me. They were mad about the day the gun jammed.” For the first time, I notice the vehicles nearby. They’re across the road so I didn’t see them when we first walked out.

  “Hey man,” I say and feel myself go in and out of consciousness. The pain is causing me to black out and I can feel the blood soaking through my shirt.

  Ada is right beside me squeezing my hand and screaming. I try to tell her it’s okay but my eyes don’t seem to want to work. I hear sirens and think George needs to run before everything goes black and I don’t think about anything.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Charlie

  Opening my eyes in the ambulance, the siren sounds pretty distant. Ada is holding my hand and there’s a police officer sitting in front of me. I feel an iv in my arm and some pretty intense pressure where the paramedic is holding something down on my shoulder.

  “Mr. Maxwell are you able to identify your attacker?”

  “I open my mouth to speak and find I can’t. Maybe I’ve lost a lot of blood or maybe I’m in shock but I can’t tell him anything.”

  “He knew the second guy,” Ada says quietly. “The guy who tackled him. The one you actually have in custody, he knew him. I think they are friends.”

  “You didn’t know the person who shot him?”

  “No, I didn’t get a good luck at him. I just know someone drove him off. He ran to a car parked across the street and it left.”

  As Ada describes the car to the officer I think about George and hope he’s okay. My brain is having a hard time figuring out what all is going on, but I heard they have George in custody. I fade out before any more conversation happens.

  I wake up in the hospital for the second time. The firs
t time I was in a lot of pain and in surgery. No one could come in and see me and then they drugged me out of my mind. The whole thing seems like a hazy dream. It took me a while to remember why I was in the hospital in the first place.

  I had been aware Ada was nearby but was in and out so much I couldn’t really reach out to her. She had been there, Thomas had been there, Paulie had been there, but my father had not. It was in the papers that I’d been shot. If he cared, he’d have come to visit me.

  Now there’s no one in the room with me and I wonder how long I’ve been out. Has Ada given up on me, did I go into some kind of coma. I panic thinking I’ve been out for years and she’s remarried and long gone.

  “Hey, you’re up,” a nurse says as she comes in the room. “Was wondering if you’d wake up today.”

  “How long have I been here?”

  “Just two days, but I’m sure it seems a lot longer. Getting shot is no joke.”

  “Oh yeah, I forgot I’d been shot.” I laugh and realize I’m still on some painkillers.

  She checks my vitals and adjusts my pillows. I thank her and tell her I’ll write a song about nice nurses fluffing pillows. I realize I’m more screwed up than I thought I was as I start snapping. She laughs and I fall back into a deep sleep. When I wake again it’s dark and Ada is standing next to the bed.