by Ava May
“Your invite?” she asked and he nodded.
“I asked you out to dinner a while ago… a couple of weeks ago to be exact.”
She took a long deep breath. She really thought she had dodged that bullet. Yes, he had asked her out but she had so many reservations. Her biggest one being the fact that this was the same man she thought that she could never have. The macho guy in high school. The hot quarterback and she was the kid who never got picked at P.E. They were from two different worlds and there was no way no universe where the two would ever be together.
“Are you going to make me wait forever?” he asked as he slowly began walking towards her. She held her breath and bit her lower lip as she looked at him.
“Dante… we can’t…” she started in a soft voice. “It’s not a good idea.”
“What? When has sharing a meal ever been a bad idea?” he asked. By this time he was so close to her she could feel herself panicking.
“But dinner…” she shook her head. “It’s a little too intimate.”
“But I do want to have something intimate with you.”
“Intimate?” she asked in a whisper and he nodded.
“And I mean it in every sense of the word,” he said in a low tone.
He slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her close to him. She gasped as she heard her car keys fall to the floor with a rattling noise.
“Why are you making me work so hard for you?” he asked in a whisper. “I mean, not that I’m complaining. You are worth every single fight but baby…”
“Don’t call me that.”
He pulled her even closer, crushing her against his body. She was so close to him that she could smell his intoxicating scent. It was all around her. Engulfing her. Drowning her.
“I want to call you that.” He began lowering his head, bringing his lips closer and closer to her neck. “Every day for the rest of our lives.”
“Dante…” she said, putting a hand against his shoulder. But he never gave her enough time to say or do anything else. His lips were on her neck and she suddenly felt herself melting into his arms. He was kissing her, nibbling on her neck… doing everything right that made her weak in the knees. She wanted to push him away but he seemed hell bent on having her right there and then. “Dante, please stop it,” she finally managed to say when she found her voice. She pulled herself from him and took a long deep breath.
“What? Why do you keep on pushing me away?” he asked and she stood there for a long minute trying to figure out what she was supposed to say. But after a long moment of awkward silence, all she could do was just bend down to pick her keys before she walked out leaving a stunned Dante behind, looking at her wondering if he had possibly crossed the line.
*****
By the time Corrine got back to her apartment, it was a little after nine and she was exhausted. And she knew that she had nothing left over in the refrigerator. She would have loved to whip something up but she was too tired. She couldn’t even think of making a plate of mac and cheese. It was that thought that made her dial Mr. Wok’s, her favorite Chinese restaurant.
“Yeah, hi. This is Corrine Marshall. I was wondering if I can have Kung Pao chicken and a side of fried rice delivered to me… yes. 1347 Willoughby Street apartment 402… yes, that’s my address…” she kicked off her shoes. “Forty minutes sounds perfect. Thank you.”
She hang up and sighed loudly as she made her way down the hallway to her bedroom. All she wanted to do was to jump in the shower and wash off the day’s exhaustion and maybe try to wash away the memory of what had happened earlier on at Giovanni’s. As she stood in the bathroom, under the running water, she could not help but wonder what Dante’s angle was. The first time she had seen Dante, she had immediately had that feeling that she would never be the kind of woman he would look at twice. His kind of woman. And to make matters worse, he had a girl with him the very first time she had seen him. And it was not the kind of girl you can claim to be just friends with. She had been hanging on to his every word, taking every excuse to touch him… as far as Corrine was concerned, she was just a needy girl who was taking every moment to show the world that he was hers and hers alone.
She did not know how long it had been before she finally stepped out of the shower. She had just wrapped her hair in a towel and put on a bathrobe when she heard her doorbell ringing loudly, piercing through the peaceful quiet of the apartment.
“That was fast,” she thought as she began making her way to the front door. She was sure she had not been in the bathroom for all of forty minutes already. She grabbed her purse and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill before she made it to the door. “You deserve a tip…” she started as she opened the door but her voice trailed off when she saw Dante standing on the doorstep.
“Yeah, I think so too,” he said in a soft voice, smiling as he looked at her.
“Dante…hey….I thought you were my Kung Pao chicken,” she said as she looked into his eyes, confused.
“I needed to see you,” he said. “And seeing as you ran out of Giovanni’s so fast…” he shrugged and sighed loudly. “I needed to see you,” he said again.
She shook her head.
“About what? We have nothing to say to each other.”
“Actually, we have a whole lot to say to each other,” Dante said just as the delivery guy walked up to the door.
“Kung Pao chicken, side of rice,” the young delivery guy said and she forced a smile. She was just about to hand him the twenty in her hand when Dante gave the delivery guy a hundred dollar bill.
“Whoa, bro…I don’t think I can break this… I don’t have enough…” the delivery guy started before Dante shook his head.
“It’s all right. You can keep it,” he said and the delivery guy looked at him, both surprised and confused.
“Look dude, I only need eighteen bucks,” he started before Dante shrugged.
“It’s all right. Really,” he said.
“Whoa… thanks man,” the delivery guy said leaving Dante standing at the doorstep holding Corrine’s takeout bag. He turned his attention to her and handed her the bag.
“You know, I can pay for my own food,” she said grabbing the bag.
“I know you can.” He put his hands in his pocket and sighed. “So, are you going to invite me in or are you going to just let me stand out here all night? Because I am not leaving until we talk.”
Corrine sighed and stepped aside so that he could walk in. She unwrapped her hair and her curls fell perfectly into place.
“I’m sorry… I only got the one order,” she said in a soft voice as she walked towards her kitchen.
“It’s all right. I’m not hungry… I just want to see you. To talk to you.” He watched her as she got half a bottle of red wine from the counter.
“Drink?” she asked and he nodded.
She got two glasses and poured the wine before she pushed one glass towards him. He looked at the glass and then at the bottle and a smile played on his lips.
“This is the bottle I got you after the launch of the fourth restaurant, huh?” he asked as he looked at her and she nodded.
“Yeah… and actually, you gave me a case. Heck, crate,” she said smiling. She raised her glass and took one long sip before she got a pair of chopsticks.
“Well, you were worth every single bottle in there,” he said.
She opened her box of chicken and took a bite. Until then, she had not realized just how hungry she really was. She took a few more bites and then sipped on her wine before she looked up at him.
“Guess someone really was hungry,” he said and she nodded.
“As it turns out I haven’t had a chance to eat anything all day. So… I guess I’m allowed.”
“Well, now that you are full maybe we should talk.”
“Dante, you and I have nothing to talk about,” she said but he shook his head.
“You and I both know that is not true, Corrine.”
She rolled her eye
s. He was beginning to get to her. She was feeling like she had a fire inside her. A fire that he had started weeks ago when he started asking her out. And this was it. This was the straw that was finally going to break her back. She dropped her chopsticks and sighed loudly.
“I am beginning to think that letting you in was a terrible idea,” she started.
“Wait… what?” he asked and she dabbed the sides of her mouth,
“Because you are trying to bed me and I am not interested in being your flavor of the month, Dante. I don’t think I ever will.” He looked at her and shook his head.
“I am not trying to make you into a flavor of the month, Corrine.”
“Really?” She hated the fact that she had a condescending tone but she could not help it. “Because I have seen you with every kind of skinny woman in the world. Models, actresses, celebrities and suddenly you want your average fat black girl around the corner?”
She was so furious that she didn’t even realize he had walked round the counter to where she was. He stood in front of her and almost immediately, her throat went dry. It was like she had not been the one who had been talking just seconds earlier. He held her waist and she felt a chill going through her body. She knew what was about to happen. She was about to relive what had happened earlier that day.
“I have all these women because I am always looking for something. Looking for what you have in them and I can never really find it,” Dante said in a soft voice.
“What are you talking about?” she asked.
“It is you I want, Corrine. You are the one I have always wanted.” He slowly brought a hand up and held the back of her neck. “I don’t want you as a flavor of the month. I want you. Period.”
She shook her head.
“Dante…” she started as she looked at him.
“What is your reason for pushing me away, Corrine? Because I know that there is no one in your life right now,” he said. “You have no reason to refuse me.”
She tried pushing him off but she just didn’t have the will to.
“I want you and I know you want me too.” He pushed her wet hair back and began lowering his head. “Just let me have you.”
“I am not property, Dante,” she whispered and he smiled.
“You have been mine for a really long time, you just didn’t realize it. Until now.” He kissed her lips softly and she closed her eyes when she felt his lips on hers. He was kissing her warmly, taking her lower lip in between his own warm ones. He pulled her even closer and crushed her against his body before he pulled away from her. “I have been dying to do that ever since I first saw you,” he said in a low voice.
“Really?” She was whispering. He nodded and his eyes fell to the V of her robe that showed off her generous cleavage.
“And I really don’t want to stop by just kissing you,” he whispered as he gently tugged on the chords of her bathrobe. “But I don’t want to make it look like all I want is…” his voice trailed off when she pushed herself into him and kissed him softly.
“I don’t want you to stop,” she said when she pulled away.
A smile played on his lips and he lifted her up to place her on the counter. She gasped when he untied her bathrobe chords and pulled the two ends apart exposing her damp nudity to him.
“You are even more beautiful than I imagined,” he whispered before he kissed her once more. She exhaled into his mouth when he filled her hand with her breast. She was moaning softly and he was claiming her lips, her cheek and her neck. His hand was slowly going down her back to the soft bump that was the start of the curve of her ass. She had not been handled like this in a very long time… actually, no one had ever been this way with her. So slow, so soft and so gentle. She could feel that he really did have serious feelings for her. It might have been ridiculous to think like that but the truth was that she was indeed feeling what he was. She slowly brought a hand up and held the side of his cheek as he gently pushed his tongue into her mouth. She sighed softly and allowed his tongue to find hers. What she did not know at that moment was that the sound she made at the back of her throat, that soft purr she made at the back of her throat roused every neuron in his body, made every hair stand at edge. She could not see him or feel him but at that moment, he was so hard and all he could think of doing was sinking himself inside her. Taking her in every single way. It took everything he had not to bring her down from the counter bend her over and just fuck her. He began tracing his kisses down her neck to her chest. He raised his head briefly to look at her but she had her eyes closed and her lips slightly parted. He went on lower and lower, brushing his lips against his right nipple before he put his hands on either knee. He gently parted her legs and fondled her breast gently before he began tracing his lips down one thigh to her knee and then up the other one.
A soft moan escaped Corrine’s lips when she felt him getting closer and closer to her core. Instinctively, she spread herself wider and Dante needed no second bidding. He suddenly engulfed her already moist cunt with his mouth and began running his tongue over her clit. He was kissing her, licking her, sucking her and even nibbling at her most sacred, most sensitive part. Corrine was not sure whether it was the fact that she had not had anyone so anything sexual to her in a long time or just that Dante was that good but she was already climaxing and he wouldn’t slow down. He kept on kissing and licking her, literally eating her out. He was making her shiver, her legs shaking as he tried desperately to hold her steady.
“Fuck, Dante!” she cried out as she felt another orgasm ripping through her. He pulled away and kissed her softly. She could taste herself on his lips.
“I want you, Corrine,” he said in a whisper. “I want to have you right here. Right now.”
She was still shivering as he held her gently. She could not even bring herself to speak because she was so overwhelmed but Dante could see past her physical weakness. He knew that she wanted him as much as he wanted her. He picked her up in his arms and carried her over to the couch where he laid her down gently. He began taking off his clothes, removing his jacket first, and then slowly unbuttoning his shirt, almost as if he was teasing her before he unzipped his pants. She gasped silently when he pushed his pants off revealing his engorged cock. He gently got on the couch and settled himself in between her legs. Her heart was racing.
“Dante… I’m scared,” she whispered when he positioned his cock at her opening. “I have never…” she started before he raised an eyebrow over the other in surprise.
“Are you trying to tell me you’re a virgin?” he asked in a whisper and she shook her head reluctantly.
“I’m not a virgin but I might as well be… I mean, it’s been six years since… the last time,” she finally said. He gently touched the side of her face and smiled.
“I would never hurt you. Not in my wildest dreams,” he said as he began moving the bulbous head of his cock over her now dripping pussy. She gasped when he began pushing himself into her, stretching her out as he went on pushing in. She buried her head in his shoulder and dug her fingers into his shoulder. She moaned when he pulled out and gasped loudly when he pushed back in. “You okay?” he whispered in her ear and she nodded.
“Yeah,” she said before he began to slowly move himself in and out of her. With every stroke, he was stretching her out to her limits and she was surprising herself that she was able to accommodate his entire length. In no time, he had buried his entire length to the hilt and she had a leg around his waist, pulling him closer and deeper. She could feel the tension inside her building up and she knew that she was about to climax: again. She began nibbling his earlobe hoping that giving herself something to do would fool her body into not giving into her desires. But she was wrong. She was suddenly exploding once more and he was keeping steady as her orgasm made her vaginal walls spasm. By the time her orgasm died down, he was ready to explode and he had held back as long as he possibly could. He suddenly began moving himself in and out of her faster and deeper than ever,
as he exploded inside her. He buried himself inside her one last time and let out a loud groan as he sent his seed deep inside her, not caring that he had not even used a condom.
“Oh fuck, baby,” he whispered as he held her close. “Do you have any idea what you do to me?” He moaned softly as his cock slipped out of her pussy.
They were still panting as he gently laid himself next to her and cradled her.
“What does this mean?” she asked as she felt his hot breath on the back of her neck. “Because I don’t want to be just another trophy on your scoreboard, Dante.”
He rested on his elbow and looked at her.
“Look at me.” It was more of an order than a request. “Look at me, Corrine,” he said again when she hesitated.
“You are the ultimate trophy. The one that can never be showcased on some scoreboard.” He gently stroked her hair. “I want you in my life. Forever.”
“Are you sure?” she asked and he smiled.
“Well, I’m here. Aren’t I?” he asked.
“Yes, but what next?”
“I will have to figure that out when I get back,” he said, still caressing her cheek.
“You’re leaving?” she asked and he nodded.
“Just for a couple of weeks. I need to oversee the new hotel launch in Virginia.”
“Oh,” Corrine said, in a sad voice.
“Your company is still taking care of that. How about you come with me?” he asked and she shook her head.
“My business partner takes care of that side of business. And I can’t leave yet… with Simon and Mona…” she started before he brought himself down and kissed her softly.
“I have a vested interest in making sure we work out. And you by now you should know that I don’t give up easily,” he said in a whisper and she nodded.
“Okay,” she said, forcing a smile.
Chapter 2
What was supposed to be a two week trip to Virginia for Dante turned out to be a longer trip after an explosion went off in Richmond, a few blocks from where Dante was setting up his restaurant. At first, Corrine had been scared out of her mind trying to get in touch with Dante after news of the explosion broke. All she wanted to know was if he was all right and when he was coming home. But he never called. Or texted. Or emailed. It was like he had gone cold turkey on her and she was increasingly getting nervous. No one knew where he was. Not even his second in command. She had actually taken it upon herself to call every restaurant he owned on the country just to find out if anyone knew where he was. When it hit three weeks and she had not heard from him, she was convinced that she was living her biggest fear. Her worst nightmare. Actually, two of her worst nightmares. That something had happened to him and that she had been a booty call.