by Dani Stowe
“You can escape these feelings,” I announce and reach in my right pant pocket to pull out the Bang. I shake the small pill box to hear it banging around and I put the pill container on the table. “This is what I created the Bang for. If I take this pill, only those feelings of love and—” I cough again, “lust will come to the surface. You won’t have to feel inadequate ever again when you’re with me.”
She laughs. “So, are you going to take that pill every day? Do you even know if there are any long-term side effects? I’m well aware, Elliot, the drug you’ve created hasn’t even been through human trials, that you and Nick are the only ones who have taken it. Do you think I want to see you get sick or hurt because of me? I already can’t live with myself.”
“There is another option,” I mention.
Charlotte squints as I slide my ass down in the chair to reach in my left pant pocket and sit up to pull out a four-carat solitaire diamond engagement ring in platinum and place it on the table, right next to the Bang. “You could marry me and we could work on these feelings together over the long term.”
Charlotte’s eyes are welling up. “I’m sure that will make my mother very happy.”
“Charlotte, I only want to make you happy.”
She gulps and bats her eyes. “Do you now?” she asks with a low gruff voice. She looks cocky. Confident.
I laugh. “Why are you trying to talk like me?”
“I’m trying to sound smart. I want to make the right choice here. Do I sound smart? As smart as you?”
I look at the ring and the Bang on the table and sigh. “Charlotte, when it comes to you, I’m a dumb fool. Will you just stop teasing me and pick me or put me out of my misery?”
“Yes,” she says confidently and I’m glad to see her old self returning, but it’s me who is unsure of himself.
“Yes, what? Which is going to be?”
“For an extremely bright man, you certainly don’t know how to ask the right questions.”
My cheeks warm as I lean forward to pick up the ring with one hand. I put my other hand out and signal with my fingers for Charlotte to give me her hand, which she does.
“Will you marry me?” I ask and slip the ring onto her finger. I’m not waiting for an answer. She’s already said yes and I’m not giving her any other opportunities to answer except the one time.
“Hmm,” she sighs.
“What’s the matter?"
“Elliot, you mentioned earlier that if you were going to ask me to marry you, you would’ve added a little something extra than just hand me a box.”
“Well yeah, sweetheart!” I exclaim and scoot my chair back to stand up. I check for my Jag keys in my suit pocket and walk around the table. Bending down, I give Charlotte a kiss thrusting my tongue into her mouth. I let my tongue dance around with hers as I slyly reach for the pillbox on the table and pop the top.
Charlotte gasps as I quickly lean my head back ready to drop the pill under my tongue.
“Elliot! You don’t need that,” she cries, gripping my arm. “You should already know that I... I...”
“Love me?” I ask.
“Uh-huh,” she pants.
“For just one night, Charlotte, I don’t want to chase you. I don’t want to be teased. I want to be sure this engagement really means something to you, that it’s something you’re truly celebrating inside, that you’re really into me and trust me to make you happy, to take care of you.”
Charlotte lowers my hand and peeks into the pillbox at the little white pill. “You can be sure, Elliot,” she affirms, “and to show you how much I love you, I’m going to let you take this, this one time, so you know just how much I trust that big sexy brain filled with shameful, dirty thoughts you’re hiding behind those geeky glasses of yours.”
I watch Charlotte reach with her thumb and her forefinger to pick up the pill. She opens my mouth with a finger of her other hand then slips the pill under my tongue and kisses me.
Charlotte’s back arches and I see her knees spread open in her seat. Her mouth gets hot and her chest is heaving. She’s steaming up my glasses!
I glide my fingers up Charlotte’s inner thigh towards her center where she stops my hand and resists. It worries me, but I’m relieved to hear her speak of more feelings she’s been hiding.
“Take me home, Elliot Crowe. I’ve always wanted to go over to your place to play. Let’s celebrate this night with a Bang, shall we?”
Bonus Chapter
You are about to enter the Bank...
Charlotte
“Hi baby,” I sing as I push my way through the lab doors of NIM where Elliot has convinced me to stay.
Elliot doesn’t answer me. He’s in deep thought—glasses on, lab coat swaying, dry marker in hand. I come up behind him and plant my butt on the nearest stool.
I look about. No one is here. Thank God!
I swivel in my seat. “Elliot, it's late. It's after seven. Don’t you think we should call it a day? I’ve been waiting for you.”
Elliot continues to scribble on his white dry erase board covered in a million alphabets and numbers plus symbols and diagrams that speak to me as if it’s an alien language. He erases a few symbols with the sleeve of his lab coat, making a clean spot on the board as he mumbles to himself. I love that he’s so smart and there are times when I can just sit and watch him like this for hours.
I love how he’ll fold his arms across his chest and bite on his thumb when the gears in his brain are rotating in full motion. So focused. So fixated. He gets so intense, as intense as he is when he’s making love to me. He wants so much to figure out how to always make things right. Right with me. Right with the world. Right for his friends and partners at NIM. But it’s Friday and I’m ready to claim Elliot for myself for the weekend—let that big brain work on me. I can’t wait for him to be focused and fixated on me.
“Baby!” I shout. Elliot jerks his head to look at me. The point of the marker in his hand is stuck to a single dot on the board.
I flash Elliot my best puppy dog eyes and push out my bottom lip. He tosses the marker and marches right to me to cup my face and kiss me. His head tilts from side to side as his sweet hot lips press into mine and my hands wander under the folds of his lab coat to grip his waist.
He pulls away with a soft suck on my bottom lip. “Charlotte, I’m close. I’m so close to figuring this out. Just give me a few minutes, okay?”
A few minutes? I know what that means. A few minutes means we’ll be here for at least a hundred and twenty.
Elliot lets go to walk back to his oversized alien calculation panel and I feel stumped, lost, abandoned. I can only imagine this is how he felt whenever I rejected him when we were younger. He bends down to pick up the marker he dropped and is immediately sucked back into a separate universe—one made of science—that is strange and unknown to me.
It seems silly, but I don’t want to be left in the dark, so with all honesty, I ask him, “Is there anything I can help you with?”
Elliot bows his head with a smile. I’ve just pulled him back to earth. “I’m sorry,” he says turning to look at me but his smile disappears. His eyes glaze me over and his brow furrows. “You know?” He rubs his chin. “I think you can help me.”
A spark in my gut ignites. “I can?” I’m so excited!
“Yeah,” he nods and turns around heading over to a table where he drops the marker among a pile of others and picks up a small notepad and a sharpened No. 2 pencil.
Elliot places the notepad in the pocket of his lab coat but keeps the pencil in one hand. He reaches his other hand out to me and I’m elated to come off the stool to put my hand in his. He plants a wet kiss on the back of my folded fingers and pulls to lead the way.
I’m shuffling in my red heels and black pencil skirt with a red top as we head through the doors and towards the elevators. Elliot is marching so fast.
“Where are we going?”
“To the Bank,” he responds.
I sto
p dead in my tracks and yank.
“Whoa, baby.” Elliot comes to a halt as we both nearly fall over. “What’s the matter?”
I shake my hand free and cross my arms. “The Bank?” I cock my head. “As in Nick’s office?”
“It’s Friday. Nick’s out. He’s always out on Friday. You know? With Loulah.”
I roll my eyes and pick up my toes ready to turn on my heels.
“Charlotte,” he says sternly, stepping up close and wrapping his fingers around the back of my neck. He takes off his glasses with his other hand, folding the temples against his chest so he can grip them along with the pencil in hand. “I would very much like your help and I do believe there is a way you can help me.”
“In the Bank?” I blurt back in confusion.
“Yeah,” he coos, shrugging his shoulders like that innocent little boy from next door but moving in close, so I can smell him as he bats his eyes.
He’s no boy. And he’s not a geek anymore either. That irresistible cute cocky smartass look—he’s a player.
I’m staring into Elliot’s dreamy eyes and I know I’m being played. I don’t know where he learned these cute tricks—during the time I was absent from his life, I suspect—but I try not to think about it. I don’t want to think about the women he’s been with over the years that we’ve been apart. I am thankful, however, knowing I’m the one he was always thinking of.
Not to mention, of course, Elliot could easily slip the Bang in his mouth and I’ll do whatever he wants, because the drug knows more than I do how I love him, how I want to please him, and even more so, how I want him to please me, which he never fails to do.
“Fine,” I grumble.
Elliot bites his bottom lip and puts his glasses back on then leads us to the elevators. Once inside, I’m waiting for one of his infamous kisses—the ones he’s always trying sneak in while we’re going up or coming down but he doesn’t make the attempt to slobber me this time. He just stares up at the numbers as they become illuminated one-by-one until we reach the top floor. Elliot entwines his fingers with mine as the doors open and he leads me out of the elevator towards Nick’s office.
It’s dark, but Elliot seems to know exactly how many paces it takes to get to Nick’s door where he opens it and makes a left, dragging me behind him before he lets go to punch in a code that pops the heavy Bank’s door free.
Lights come alive automatically from within the Bank. They break through the darkness forcing me to blink and I scan the ceiling. Luckily, it’s not extremely bright. The lighting is rather low. I recognize a few fixtures in the ceiling as I’m reminded of the last time I was in here when Nick dragged me in kicking and screaming.
Elliot fumbles about inside. He’s making quite a bit of noise. I have yet to step in.
“Charlotte?” he calls. He’s taken off his lab coat throwing it on the bed with black covers and I’m afraid to look at him.
I fix my eyes on the floor.
He comes to me and lifts my chin with a knuckle. “Sweetheart, what’s the matter?”
“How is it that I’m going to help you by going in there?”
Elliot sighs. “Are you afraid? You look scared right now.”
“Well...yes,” I admit.
Elliot’s shoulders slouch. “You’ve always been my inspiration, Charlotte. My muse. Science is an art at times. I would just like to put you in a position where I can look at you.” Elliot fixes a few loose tendrils of my hair behind my ear. “When I look at you, the universe makes sense to me and all of its mysteries merge to become fixed points in my mind, easy to dissect, easy to digest.”
I gulp. “Dissect? Digest?” I roll my eyes. “That sounds even scarier, Elliot.”
“Does it now?” He asks with a chuckle and it infuriates me that he seems to be getting off on our conversation. He still likes to see me squirm.
“Yes, it does,” I say firmly.
“Really?”
I take a step back.
Elliot reaches out, grabs my hands, and runs his fingers over my own. “Be my muse, Charlotte.” Elliot snakes his arms around my waist placing my own behind my back with his. “C’mon. Don’t make me chase you. I just want to watch you.”
“Watch me do what?” My nose crinkles.
“Let me show you.” He steps back pulling me with our arms behind my back into the Bank. His square teeth glimmer under the low lights as he smiles wide. He looks so happy so I let him pull me in.
We come near to the bed. “Elliot, you’re not cuffing me to the headboard again.”
“No I’m not,” he announces. “Stand here.” I look down in the spot Elliot wants me to stand in. The floor is illuminated—my shadow the only thing within a circle of light. “Look up, Charlotte. What do you see?”
I look up and there’s a black rope hanging right above me with a large metal ring at the end. “A rope.”
“Pull it,” he directs.
“Pull it? I’m not going to get splashed with water or something am I, Elliot?” I laugh, but I’m serious. I feel like I need to prepare myself to get wet.
“No, nothing like that.” I hear him coming back. “Just pull it, Charlotte. Pull it hard.”
I reach up to pull on the ring. Nothing happens. “Nothing’s happening.”
“Put your legs up,” he says.
Put my legs up? “You mean lift my feet?”
“Yes.”
“You mean you want me to hang by my hands?”
“Sure,” he says as if I’m the one making demands but this is all his idea.
“Elliot—”
“Please, Charlotte. I’d like a good visual. It’s just gravity.”
Gravity. I sigh. He has a tendency to make complex things seem simple. I grip the ring and lift my legs, pulling my feet out of my heels to appease him.
I feel so silly hanging here and I don’t think I’m going to last more than a minute, but luckily, Elliot is back facing me. I notice the pencil is in his ear, which can only mean one thing. “What do you have in your hands, Elliot?”
He lifts a set of cuffs and I guess I should’ve known.
“Are you going to cuff me while I’m completely vulnerable like this?”
“Only with your permission, of course. Will you do this for me? Or,” he raises his brows, “if not for me, for science? And if not for science, then for the sake of the medical—”
“Put them on!” I interject, giving in, though mostly because I don’t want to keep hanging as he makes his argument, which I know he will eventually win if it turns into a debate.
Elliot cuffs me and I find my footing. I feel a sense of relief as my arms are released from the stretch despite remaining cuffed above me while I come to standing and I find myself hanging once again as my knees get weak when Elliot kisses me. He drives his tongue into my mouth and I can hear the clasp of his belt coming undone.
I am beside myself. Never did I think I’d be interested in actually having sex in this room, but the idea that Elliot is about to fuck me right now while I’m cuffed and hanging is turning me on.
He unzips his fly, unbuttons his shirt, and removes all his clothing tossing each piece to the bed next to his lab coat. When he is completely naked, except for his glasses, the beautiful man walks out of the Bank.
“Elliot?” I call out.
“I’ll be right back,” he shouts from down the hall.
I check out the walls of the vault turned dungeon, and I’m beginning to get uncomfortable. There are floggers in here. Chains. Whips.
“Elliot?” I call louder this time.
“Babwee, I’m wight hea,” he says, bringing in a lightweight metal chair and small wooden folding tray table, carrying the pencil in his mouth. He props open the tray table placing it front of me along with the chair to face me but beyond reach.
He walks over to the bed and pulls out his notepad from his lab coat then returns to place the notepad on the folding table. He sits down. Opening the notepad and pulling the pencil from his e
ar Elliot begins to take notes. He looks up every now and then with a glimmer in his eye or a blush on his cheeks and I get the feeling he’s not working on any formulas.
“What are you doing?” I ask. “Because I know you’re not working.”
“You’re right,” he smiles proudly. “I’m not working but believe me, my brain is.” He looks at my legs then takes more notes.
“Elliot. Baby.” I huff. “Why am I just standing here if you’re not working?”
“I’m accessing.”
I tug at the cuffs. I feel like we should’ve gone home. “Accessing what?”
“The motor cortical circuits in my head where long-term memory is stored.” He writes something down then places the eraser side of the pencil in his mouth.
I’m not exactly sure I understand everything he just described, but I can take a guess. “So, you’re taking notes on your own memories?”
“Not exactly,” he pulls the pencil from his mouth and writes something else. “I’m recalling my fantasies.”
“Fanta—” My heart is pounding up into my chest. I can’t tell if I like it or not. I love Elliot, but I still wonder if he’s too smart for me. He could totally have his way with me right now. I clear my throat. “Fantasies about what?”
“Fucking you.”
My breath hitches, catching his attention and he pulls off his glasses to smile deviously at me. I finally know why he never took off the glasses when we were younger. It wasn’t just so he could see me clearly, it was also so no one would suspect the sinful thoughts he was hiding behind his spectacles.
“You have to understand, Charlotte,” he says getting up and walking to the corner of the room where a set of drawers stand and where I admire his butt. “As smart as I am, my flaw lies with you. I cannot contemplate formulas when I am consumed by my fantasies of you.”