by Q. B. Tyler
“You can kiss your job goodbye, Audrey,” I growl.
She snorts. “That’s rich coming from you. You honestly think they’d get rid of me before you? I know you went to Harvard, but don’t tell me you’re that clueless.” I roll my eyes thinking about how she’d gone to Stanford, and we had a long-standing competition over which school was better.
My focus turns back to Charley where it’s been for the majority of her monologue. “Are you done?” she asks with the most indifferent, monotone expression, as if she’s bored and not affected in the slightest. Not sure I buy that. “What did you think you’d succeed in doing with this whole “woman scorned” act? Are you kidding me right now? Is this supposed to make me feel…threatened? I’m coming out of a five-year marriage to a man that didn’t pay me the time of day and you’re complaining about a man that you were screwing for a few months that lost interest? Please! And maybe he used you guys working together as an excuse because, GUESS WHAT?” She raises her voice slightly. “He just wasn’t that into you. And he didn’t want to hurt your feelings.” She shrugs. “Couldn’t imagine why though, you seem like a heartless bitch to me.”
Audrey smirks, possibly guessing that despite Charley’s words, she was affected. “Look all I’m saying, is be careful.”
“Is that all you’re saying?” Charley interrupts. “It sounds a little bit like you’re trying to come between me and my fiancé. Which hate to break it to you.” she leans forward and whispers, “you’re failing.”
“So, you completely trust him then?
“Not that it’s any of your business, but yes.”
She shouldn’t. My mind quips.
“So, you know about the women that came before me…came after me…the woman that was… hmmm…” She looks down at the file in her hands and then back at us. “What would appear to be right before you? Who knows maybe there was even some overlap. I’m a little hazy on the timeline details of when exactly you two started breaking all the rules.”
At this point, I feel like I could break her neck, but I settle for aggressively pulling Charley out of there, not wanting her around that woman for another second.
“I want her off the case,” I growl the second we are in the elevator. I pull out my phone to call J.R. when I realize that Charley is looking straight forward and not at me. I slide the phone back into my pocket and slam my hand against the stop button not wanting to move another floor until I can assure that Charley and I are okay. “Look at me,” I tell her, as I push her up against the wall of the elevator.
Her eyes find mine, and though they aren’t watery, they’re hurt. “You know everything about me.” She shakes her head. “Everything about the only relationship I’ve ever been in. I never thought…” She winces, scrunching her nose slightly and I notice the goosebumps popping up all over her skin. “We spent so much time talking about my relationship I never thought to ask you about any of yours.” She rubs her forehead and reaches around me to start the elevator. “I just need to think.”
“Think about what, Charlotte?”
“Was there an overlap?” she asks. “Were you—”
“After we first slept together, I never slept with anyone else.”
“Just when we started sleeping together?”
“What do you mean?”
“It means according to you, you were thinking about me for months before we were first intimate…were you sleeping with other women to… fill the void of not having me?”
“We should talk about this at home,” I tell her, and her eyes widen.
“Oh my God! You know at one point, I thought that it was kind of hot thinking about you using other women…maybe even calling them my name in bed but now…” she crosses her arms, “I’m pissed.”
“What do you want from me, Charley!? I couldn’t have you. I couldn’t touch you. I had no idea…I had no idea that we were going to get here. That we’d eventually fall in love. At the time, I didn’t even know we’d ever sleep together! Was I supposed to break my dick off jacking it thinking about you for the rest of my life?”
She scoffs as the elevator dings and walks out without so much as a backwards glance. “Whatever.”
“You’re being irrational, Charley.”
“Excuse me?”
“I understand you being pissed about Audrey and the way she talked to you. Believe me, there was so much more I wanted to say, but being in the position I’m in, I was trying to keep my cool. Fuck her. You were spot on. She’s jealous. But are you really going to be upset about women I slept with years ago?”
“Uh, you slept with them less than one year ago.”
“Charley it was two faceless women. I slept with two women when I first started seeing you and Wells.”
“How many times?”
“What?”
“How many times did you sleep with each of them?”
“Just one time each. I was trying to forget you, Charlotte. They didn’t mean anything.”
“Just twice?” she grits out as we make our way to my car. “Why?”
“Charley, I don’t want to do this.”
“Why? You know why Matt and I stopped having sex. Why weren’t you?”
“Trust me, not by choice,” I snort.
“Uhhhh,” she says sarcastically. “No one made you do anything. You took our case, you agreed to counsel us. You could have gotten out at any time. So, I’m asking, why did you stop?” she asks as she leans against my car.
I place my arms on either side of her, pinning her to my Beamer. “Charlotte Pierce.”
“What, Will?” She crosses her arms and looks away from me.
I grip her jaw hard and pull her face to look at me. “You’re sexy when you’re jealous.”
“This isn’t funny, and you can’t fuck your way out of this.”
“I know that. But there’s no need to talk about any of the women before you.”
“Why? Are you hiding something?”
“No, Charley. Because they didn’t mean anything. You were in a relationship for eight years and married for five. You’d need to discuss that with any new relationship. I dated women casually for a few months here and there. You’re my first, real relationship, Charlotte. So, no, it’s not necessary to talk about.”
“How many were there?” she whispers, and it’s the million-dollar question I was hoping she wouldn’t ask. “Audrey made it seem like there were quite a few.” I sigh sending a hand through my hair and wondering how much I should downplay this number. “Don’t lie to me, Montgomery.”
“Ever in my life?”
She shrugs and I can see the insecurities of me being the second man that she’s been with written all over her beautiful face. “I guess it’s a lot, huh?” She looks up at me sadly, and I feel my heart constrict. “I don’t mean to act so crazy. I just…never really thought about you and other women.”
“It’s not a lot, baby,” I whisper. “Comparative to you, yes. But…not a lot.”
“More than ten?” she asks, and I press my lips to hers hoping that will suffice as an answer for now.
“I’ve only ever made love to you, Charley. I didn’t have earth moving, soul shattering, hot, passionate, amazing sex until you.”
“We should go,” she whispers and although she’s letting this go from now, I have a feeling this conversation is far from over.
* * *
SHE KICKS HER SHOES OFF as soon as we cross the threshold to my townhouse and her hands find the back of her pencil skirt, unzipping it and sending it down her legs. She walks to the kitchen, leaving her shoes and skirt scattered across the floor before beelining for the refrigerator. She pulls out a bottle of wine that she’d opened last night at dinner. It was the first time probably ever that I didn’t join her, but I was preparing to tell her the truth and I needed to start weaning myself off of alcohol.
I’m not sure if she’s trying to seduce me or torture me with her lack of clothes but she leans over the bar as she sips her wine before
handing me a glass. “Sit,” she demands.
Fuck.
She sighs. “How much time was there between you having sex with them and with me?” She freezes momentarily. “If you say something like two days, I will throw this wine in your face. So, if it’s that close, I suggest you lie.”
I sigh and move around the counter so I can be within arm’s reach of what seems to be my very wary fiancée. She takes a step back and raises her eyebrows as if to say, answer first.
“I started seeing you in January. We slept together in May. I realized in late February, early March that I was attracted to you and it was growing by the day. I’d gone out one night with my brother, had far too many drinks. I slept with a woman that night. That was in March.” I rub the back of my neck. “I did use her to try and fill the void of not being able to have you. I fantasized that it was you, when I fucked her. I said your name when I fucked her. It was the beginning of April when I cut it off. My feelings for you were so strong at this point and getting more intense. Every time I came when I was alone, I said your name. I tried it again a few weeks later, still the same. I couldn’t get you out of my head. So, in short, a month,” I tell her, and hope she’s pleased enough with my answer to let it go.
She swallows before she nods once and takes another healthy sip. “Was there anyone else besides Audrey and me? I mean…is that your thing? Sleeping with women you can’t have?”
“Audrey is a bitch for putting that in your head. And she’s a fucking counselor.” I shake my head as I wrap my arms around her, grateful that she’s letting me touch her. “It was just you. There’s nothing that said I couldn’t be with Audrey. I just didn’t want to be.”
“Well, you really shouldn’t sleep with your co-workers.”
“There’s nothing in our code of conduct on it. It might be frowned upon but it’s not forbidden.”
“You had sex with her in your office?” she asks, and I don’t miss her lip slightly trembling.
“Charley…” I trail off, my finger finding her soft cheek. “Baby, please don’t be upset.”
“I’m not,” she says as she looks away from me, her hand finding the space under her left eye and wiping gently. She clears her throat and sniffles and I’ve officially had enough. I pull her to the couch and bring her into my lap, cupping her face.
“I love you so much, do you know that?” I rub my nose against hers.
“Do you think I’m prettier than her?”
“Do you even have to ask?”
She nods. “You said…I mean she said you said that she was the most beautiful.”
“You know I think you’re the most insanely beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. When I met you…I think I was speechless for a few seconds. You are stunning.”
She sighs. “I’m officially over this conversation. I’m exhausted after meeting your ex-girlfriend. She’s a gem, by the way.”
“I was perfectly content not having this conversation. We could be fucking right now.” Or you could use this time to talk to her about what she needs to know.
She snorts and I don’t like her reaction to the idea of making love when it’s obvious we both need it. “Tell me about Audrey.”
“No, Charley.”
“Why?”
“Because she’s fucking irrelevant, and I’m not arguing with you about her.”
“I don’t need a blow by blow of your sex life, I mean what happened in the relationship?” She rolls her eyes as she stands and pours another glass of wine. Time to slow this train down.
I let her keep the glass but I pull the bottle of wine off the counter and hold it in my hands resisting the urge to put it to my lips and take a long drink. “Stop saying shit like that, Charlotte, or I’m taking you the fuck over my knee until you can remember just who I belong to.”
“Apparently the woman that’s the juiciest forbidden fruit.” She shrugs. My nostrils flare, my eyes widen, and I resist the urge to snatch her wine and throw it at the wall. “How do you think it made me feel to hear that?” she yells. “That you’ll lose interest in me once the chase and the initial excitement is over?”
“Fuck you, Charley,” I growl pulling her glass from her hand and setting it on the counter. The rational thing to do would be to go to my office to put some space between myself and this infuriating woman. But instead, I push her hard against the wall, ripping her blouse off of her. The buttons fly everywhere, and before I even take her bra—one of the ones I had bought her all those months ago—off, I’m sucking her thin lace covered nipple into my mouth and biting down hard.
She yelps, which quickly turns into a moan as I lightly tickle her nipple with my tongue. “I’ve only ever belonged to you. And you know that. You’re just trying to get under my skin,” I say as my hands fist the lace material. “And it’s fucking working. Stop putting yourself on the same level as anyone that came before you. Stop comparing yourself to anyone else because there is no comparison.” I rip the bra at the point between her breasts and slide it off her before trailing my tongue through the valley of her breasts.
“You are so sweet,” I murmur into her skin. “No woman has ever tasted like you. I’ve always liked the way your skin tasted. Even after your runs…” My lips find her left nipple and I enclose my lips around it. My eyes finding hers, and I look up at her as I suckle her perky breast.
“You think I wanted to fuck my patient? Fuck a married woman? No. That’s not why I wanted to fuck you or why my thoughts were consumed with you every waking moment. Why I couldn’t get you out of my head when I masturbated. I wanted to fuck you, Charlotte. Kiss you. Lick you. Worship you. And right before we finally got together, I realized I didn’t want to only fuck you, but I wanted to make love to you. I’ve told you this before. My feelings for you started off pretty strong and then got to be unbreakable.”
She moans as her leg finds its way around my waist, in an attempt to bring me closer to her. “I’m sorry,” she whimpers, “for being so crazy.”
“You should be sorry,” I growl, hating that I’ve spent the last hour or so convincing my fiancée no one mattered before her. “I love you. And you acting like you doubt that pisses me the fuck off.”
“I don’t doubt it.” She whimpers and her eyes look up at me nervously.
“Oh? It certainly sounded like you weren’t sure. That you don’t trust me.”
“I trust you.” She assures me as her grip tightens around my biceps. Her fingernails digging into the skin as if my skepticism scares her.
“Do you?” She shouldn’t
“Yes!” she cries out. My fingers have found their way into her panties and have thrusted upwards. “Yes, of course I trust you,” she says as her jaw goes slack and her head rests up against the wall behind her.
“Look at me, Charlotte.”
She obeys my order immediately. “Yes?”
I begin to rub my fingers against her vaginal wall and she clenches. “No one mattered before you.” I begin to slow my ministrations, pulling my fingers from inside of her and ghosting them slowly over her slippery clit. “My therapist thinks I had commitment issues…well, until you. I ran from relationships. Never let myself get too close to women,” I whisper in her ear, pressing a kiss to the side of her neck. “And then I met you, and you brought me to my knees so easily. I thought about you constantly, from the first day I met you. I want to marry you, father your children, grow old with you. You broke me of my fear of commitments. I’ve been committed to you from the moment you asked if I saw myself getting married or if I was too jaded from my profession.”
She gasps, and I don’t know if it’s because I’m still fingering her or if she’s recalling that conversation and realizing that it was before we ever slept together.
“I’ve been yours long before I ever touched you, Charlotte.”
Seven months prior
“So why aren’t you married, Dr. Montgomery?” Charley asks as she leans back in her usual seat. This has become a bit of a routine for us. Matt
is always late, so we usually spend the first twenty minutes of their scheduled session talking about—anything. Everything. “Has this job made you jaded? You’ve seen too much?” Her legs are crossed, her nude pump, moving up and down slowly and the way it contrasts with her slender, tanned ankle is mesmerizing.
Realizing I need to answer, I shake my head at her invasion of privacy. Anyone else I’d sidestep the question or accuse them of being inappropriate. But not Charlotte. Not the woman that is starring in every single one of my dirty fantasies. Not the woman I’d jacked off thinking about not thirty minutes ago. No, she could know the truth.
“I just haven’t met the right one, I guess,” I say.
How can I when I spend most of my day trying to get you out of my mind, Charlotte?
“Are you sure you haven’t met her?” she asks, her eyes slightly narrowed. “I mean how does anyone know who the one is?”
I’m slightly taken aback by the first part of her question. What does that mean? “You just… know,” I tell her.
“That’s not very…specific. Your fancy degrees teach you that?” she chirps as she nods at my framed diplomas hanging on the wall behind me.
I smile at her cheekiness. Another thing I love about Charley. My eyes blink several times having caught the word blaring in my head like a bright neon light.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Every feeling that I’ve ever felt about Charlotte Pierce is coming at me all at once. The first time we met, the first time I got a whiff of her hair, the first time I touched her soft skin, the first time she wrapped her arms around me and hugged me after a particularly rough session; her soft breasts, pressed up against me. The first time I masturbated thinking about her.