by Q. B. Tyler
“What? I can’t—”
“Yes, you can.” He runs his index finger over my cheek gently.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea—” I start when he interrupts me.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to be apart.”
“I think that’s the smart idea.” I raise an eyebrow, questioning him.
He sighs. “Fine, then I’m coming with you to Lauren’s.”
I nod before changing the subject. “I told my mother it was you.” I lay my head on his shoulder allowing him to resume stroking my back.
“Oh really? What did she have to say about that?”
I’m about to answer him when Will’s cell phone rings through the Bluetooth in his car. I turn my head out of habit to see who’s calling when I see my husband’s name flash across the screen.
“Answer it,” I urge, gesturing toward his phone.
“Charley…” he starts, and I shake my head.
“It’ll be okay, please?”
He clears his throat before pressing the button to connect the call. “Dr. Montgomery.”
The line is silent but only for a moment before his voice roars over the line. “She left me. She really left me.”
“Did you think that you could have convinced her otherwise?” he asks, his voice even, clinical. Dr. Montgomery is here now.
“I don’t know.” I hear him hiccup. I wonder how much of that whiskey he’s put away since I left. “I fucking hate her.” The words wash over me when Will lifts my chin to meet his gaze. I love you, he mouths. He smiles and swipes his lips across mine quietly not caring that we are on speakerphone with my husband. “You there, Doc?”
“Yes,” he says, still looking at me. “I can understand your anger, but what is it that you’re looking for at this point? An apology?”
“I don’t want anything from her, just her.”
“As that’s so evident by your behavior.”
“What the hell does that mean?” His voice is laced with anger and accusation.
“It means you took your wife for granted, Mr. Wells. She was screaming for your attention and you wouldn’t give it to her. She felt unappreciated and unloved…so she left, but not before giving you chance after chance.”
“So much for you being impartial. Why do you always take her side?”
He rubs his nose against mine and smiles again at me.
Always, he mouths.
“Mr. Wells, this isn’t about sides. This is about you and Charlotte. Frankly, my opinion doesn’t mean all that much. Your wife decided to end your marriage, so she did. There’s nothing I could have done to change her mind.” I shake my head back and forth at him.
“I have one of the best lawyers in Atlanta if she thinks for one second she’s getting anything she has another thing coming.”
I can feel him tense underneath me, and I sigh. “So, you’re just going to leave her with nothing?” I wave my arms in front of his face, signaling that I don’t want anything from him but he waves me off. “You’ll be required to pay alimony if a prenuptial agreement was not in place.”
“All that shit goes out the window if I can prove she cheated on me.”
“Why are you so convinced that there’s someone else?” My eyes widen at his words. You’re playing with fire, Will.
“It’s just a feeling, you know? She hasn’t let me touch her in months. She barely looks at me.”
“Those are all assumptions and hunches…do you have any proof? Phone records, pictures, letters, text messages?” I guess this is smart in a way; we can know what I’m getting myself into by knowing ahead of time what he knows.
“No, I just…it’s just a feeling…you think you wouldn’t know if the woman you were with for ten years was sleeping with someone else? She’s just different.”
“But so are you,” Will interjects. “You’ve both admitted to being different people than when you first met. You met before you were finished growing…and sometimes in the process of growing, couples grow apart. It’s not anyone’s fault, it’s just you were only meant to be together in one particular part of your lives. The Charlotte and Matt as adolescents were perfectly compatible…but not the fully grown adult versions of Charlotte and Matt.”
“Can’t you help me get her back?” His voice shakes and my lip start to tremble fearing Will’s next words as he tries to remain unbiased.
His hand strokes my cheek before he shakes his head. “No,” he says tersely. “No, Matthew, I can’t. I can’t convince her to give you another chance.”
“Yes, you can. She listens to you. She trusts you.”
More than you could even imagine.
“Mr. Wells, I have to go. If you’d like to set up a private session, please contact Vanessa. But I’m not going to go in circles with you right now when it’s clear that you’ve had too much to drink. We will talk when your mind is clear.” He doesn’t even wait for the reply before he presses the end button on his car. He checks his phone to make sure that the call has really ended before he cups my face. “Are you okay?”
“I want to come with you…to your house. I want to be alone.”
“I always tried to picture where you lived,” I tell him as we pull into the garage of his townhouse on the outskirts of the busy city of Atlanta. His house isn’t small, but it isn’t ostentatious or what I would imagine for a bachelor pad. It sits on the end of a row of four houses, a one-car garage nestled underneath the three levels. The red brick is accented by white shutters, and a long staircase leads from the parking pad to the front door.
The garage door slides down behind us, shrouding us in darkness and I look around the small space, a vast difference from the four-car garage I’m used to.
“I know it’s probably not what you’re used to but…it’s just me here.” He seems to read my thoughts, and I grab his arm as he makes a move to get out of the car.
His eyes meet mine and I grab his face, pressing my lips to his. When I pull away, I see the hint of disappointment in his eyes. “Now it’s you and me,” I say, trying to convey as best as I can that he is all I need. “And a house full of babies,” I add, my teeth finding my bottom lip at the mental images of tiny versions of Will and me running around.
A smile tugs at the corner of his mouth. “Should we go upstairs and start practicing?”
I almost melt into a puddle of need in his car upon hearing his words. “Yes, please.”
He places a kiss on my lips before he’s out of the car and opening my door so I can step out. I’m suddenly aware of a sharp pain in my hand, reminding me that the tiny people from my music box are still nestled tightly in my palm. I slide them into my purse and the movement catches Will’s attention.
“I can’t believe he did that.” He sighs as he sets my small overnight bag down.
“You can’t? You heard him, he fucking hates me.” I repeat Matt’s words as I move closer to him and into his arms. Wrapping his arms around me, he kisses the top of my head, then tilts my chin up to kiss my lips gently.
When he pulls away, he takes me on a short tour of the main floor. The house is beautifully decorated, leading me to believe that he probably had someone do it for him. The space warm and inviting, but still masculine. “Your place is beautiful, Will. Did you hire someone to do this?” I ask him, my hand running along the black granite countertops in his kitchen.
“I did. As much as I wanted a place full of IKEA furniture, my mother would have had a fit. She took care of it. Within two weeks of moving in, she had her decorator in here making all kinds of decisions. I eventually had to rein her in.”
I nod, feeling a twinge of jealousy as I think about a woman decorating Will’s place. It’s her job, Charlotte.
“You can decorate the next one for us,” he tells me, his hands finding my face, again as if he’s read my thoughts.
I slide off my heels, my feet aching with the pressure. As a matter of fact, my entire body aches. The adrenaline from the day is wearing off, and I�
��m suddenly exhausted.
“Are you hungry?” He opens the refrigerator and I note how organized it is. I’m acutely aware that I haven’t eaten much today, but to be honest, food is the furthest thing from my mind right now. I shake my head. “Baby, you have to eat something. We haven’t eaten since that fruit and cheese at the house earlier.”
Hearing him reference our house makes me feel warm all over and I shoot him a smile as I walk toward him. “What house?” I ask him, my eyes dancing playfully.
He seems to understand what I want to hear, as he sets down the bottle of wine he had been in the process of opening. “Our house,” he whispers.
I lunge into his arms, my legs immediately wrapping around his waist. “Say it again.”
“Our house,” he groans as my lips find his neck.
“Take me to your bedroom.” My words come out breathy, my sex taking control of my voice as I rub my core against his torso. I pull away and his lips find mine as if they are drawn to each other like magnets. One hand threads through my hair and one holds my bottom, cupping it possessively as we begin to move. “I love you,” I whisper against his lips. My breaths are labored as the tears become lodged in my throat and I’m unable to keep the emotion out of my voice as the events of the day come crashing down on me.
He sets me on my feet and I take a second to admire my surroundings. I’ve fantasized about being in this room a million times, but nothing could have prepared me for how I would feel actually being here. This whole room smells like him and my body immediately reacts—but not in the way I expected. My heart beats wildly in my chest, my nerves suddenly going haywire as I think about what I’ve done. What I’m doing.
I’m in the bedroom of my lover, the man I left my husband for…
I left Matt.
I’m getting a divorce.
“Are you okay?” he asks so quietly I almost miss it. I wonder if what has happened is setting in for him as well. I nod, the connection between my brain and mouth not working. He runs his hand down my back and finds the zipper of my pencil skirt. I’m still wearing my clothes from the session and I’m desperate to get them off of me. Desperate to get this day off me. The skirt pools at my feet and I’m brought back to the first time he pulled a pencil skirt off of me four months ago. His hands find the buttons on my blouse and he peels it off of me slowly. His lips brush over my right shoulder before he trails kisses across my chest to my left shoulder.
“Will,” I moan, my nerves and anxiety slowly melting away under his skilled lips. I let my head fall back letting the feeling of his mouth on me take over my mind.
There is so much shit I have to deal with, but not right now. Not in this moment. Right now, my only concern is this man with his lips and hands on me making me feel things I’ve only ever felt with him.
Love.
Passion.
Desire.
An overwhelming need to be possessed by another so fully.
“You are so beautiful, and you are mine,” he groans against my neck and only then do I realize my bra and panties have been ripped from me. I look down to see that I’m completely naked, and the tent forming in his pants in response. He brushes his thumbs over my nipples, making them pebble instantly. “Get on the bed,” he says and I follow his instructions.
I lie on my back and my eyes follow him around the room as he peels off his clothing like a well-choreographed dance. He pulls off his tie, sliding it through the collar of his shirt, his eyes never leaving mine as he unbuttons his shirt. My heart races seeing his naked torso as if I’m seeing it for the first time. At the sight of his abs I lick my lips, longing to feel the hard ridges against my tongue. He unbuckles his pants letting them fall to the floor, his strong thighs on display dying for me to sink my teeth into them as I make my way toward the hard muscle standing proudly between his legs.
“See something you like, Charlotte?” His arms flex, the veins protruding in that sexy way as he slides his gray briefs down his legs, revealing his cock, hard and pointed directly at me.
“You are unreal, you know that?” I smile as he makes his way toward me, kneeling on the bed and crawling up the space of his California king bed until he’s between my legs. He lowers his mouth, hovering over my mound that is quivering in anticipation of his touch.
“Is that so?” He presses a kiss to the skin and I hiss, dying for the stimulation. “So wet,” he says, and I wonder if he’s talking more to himself because his eyes haven’t left my sex as if he’s memorizing it. A moment later, he is working me over, kissing me as if it were my mouth. His tongue rubbing my clit the same way his tongue massages mine and I whimper as my hands find his hair. He pushes two fingers inside of me, hooking them around that spot, rubbing his fingers against it, all while his mouth never leaves my clit.
I whimper, my release imminent, as I shut my eyes feeling the first wave of my climax. “Will!”
His licks become more rapid, as he slides his fingers out of me, his nose continuing to stimulate my clit as he fucks me with his tongue. The bite of his stubble heightens my arousal, and I’m finding it difficult, not to clamp down on his face, keeping him in place and the consistent delicious prickle on my thighs. “I love the taste of your pussy.” He pulls away, my orgasm dangling in front of me like a proverbial carrot.
I look down and I almost come at just the sight of him. The bottom half of his face is slick with my juices while his blue eyes are dark with pure, unadulterated lust. “I get to do this whenever I want now,” he continues. “I can mark you and not have to worry about anyone seeing it but me.”
“I’m yours,” I moan out. “Mark me. I belong to you… I’ve always belonged to you,” I say, my eyes finding his between my legs. His hands move under my bottom and cup me, lifting me up to meet his mouth.
“Fuck,” he groans as his eyes flutter closed. I expect to feel his tongue again but I don’t. I hear him inhale and my mouth drops open as I realize it’s his nose nestled between my legs, breathing in my scent. “I want to bottle your fucking scent,” he says, letting my bottom drop to the bed. He trails kisses up my body and lies on top of me, his dick working on its own accord to find its way home inside of me. “I want to smell you all the time. Your pussy, your perfume, the way your hair smells…the way your skin smells… I need all of it. On me. All the time,” he says into my ear as he begins to rock back and forth inside of me.
His hands find mine and he brings them up over my head, lacing our fingers. His face finds the crook of my neck as I wrap my legs around him. “Charlotte. Fucking. Pierce,” he says, each word tied to a thrust. “You. Are. Mine.”
“Yes,” I moan. “Every part of me is yours.” He continues to thrust. “Even my name,” I whisper. He stops instantly, pulling his face out of my neck, looking down at me, and questioning what he knows I’m trying to say.
“What—but you’ve never…” I think he’s struggling with the words not wanting to talk about my marriage while he’s balls deep inside of me so I cut him off.
“No one has ever…” The intensity of his gaze is penetrating. I try to look away but I can’t. “It’s different with you,” I say finally.
“You…want to take my name?” he asks and I see the surprise in his eyes. I hear it in his voice.
I bite my bottom lip and nod. “Yes, please,” I whisper.
“Charley,” he murmurs, both of us building toward our release. “You don’t know what that means to me. To know you want to be mine…in every possible way.”
“Please!” I exclaim, both in response to his comment and the orgasm that is so close I can taste it. I squeeze my eyes shut feeling the telltale signals.
“That’s it, baby. Come for me,” he groans in my ear and I shatter, the fireworks shooting behind my eyes and exploding throughout my body. Goose bumps break out on my skin, the hairs standing on end as he pushes through his orgasm as well, my name on his lips, like a prayer. I’m still in a fog from my orgasm but I could have sworn I heard him say Charlotte Montgo
mery. He pulls out of me after a few moments and pulls me to his chest. I draw circles on his skin before dragging my lips across the same place that’s covered in sweat.
“Did you call me Charlotte Montgomery?” I ask looking up at him with a smile. He tightens his hold on me and winks and I know I have my answer.
Charlotte Montgomery
My name has never sounded better.
* * *
I’M NOT SURE HOW LONG we sleep, but the soft buzzing of my phone rouses me. My eyes flutter open to find Will and I are both on our sides, clinging tightly to each other, his arms cradling my head to his chest protectively. I don’t want to leave this peaceful, safe embrace but I need to see who is looking for me.
Probably everyone I’ve ever met.
I roll him to his back gently and try to pull away but his grip tightens around me. Note to self—sneaking out of a bed with Will is no easy feat.
“Baby, I have to get up.”
“Mmm-mmm, you’re too warm,” he says sleepily and clutches me tighter rolling me to my back, immersing his face in my chest before sucking a nipple into his mouth. His arms wrap around me as he uses my other breast as a pillow. He lets me go with a pop and drags his face up to mine to kiss me deeply. “Hi, beautiful.”
“Hi.” I grin at the man in my arms, still in a sleepy haze, not wanting to let me go for anything. Somewhere in there is a metaphor for our relationship. “I have to answer the phone,” I say kissing his nose. He finally relents and lets me go with a final squeeze of my ass. I giggle and find my phone in my purse. It’s a little past nine at night, meaning it’s been three hours since I officially walked out of my house setting the wheels in motion to end my marriage.
The first step toward a new life, a new love, and a new Charley.
I see that it was Lauren that had called and I press the button to return her call. Before I can even say hello, she’s barks out, “So, are you just not coming here?” I can hear the irritation in her voice.