Unbroken Pleasures (18 page)

“Thank you for
coming out tonight,” I said, “I’m really sorry that it was such a waste of your
time. I really hoped that Sylvia would listen to reason and we could all get to
know each other a little bit. I guess I wasn’t living in the real world.”

“I got to spend
time with you. I don’t think it was a waste of time. Maybe we could hang out a
bit tonight just the two of us?” he said and I could hear the hope creeping
into his voice again. I wished that I could make him happy and give in but I
knew that if I did then I wouldn’t be doing justice to my true feelings. No
matter how much I tried to deny it, there was someone else and each night that
I continued to hope he would return, it was clear that I needed to do whatever
I could to figure out what that was before I could give up on it. I couldn’t
see any way around it.

“I don’t think
tonight is such a good idea,” I said counting out the right amount for the tip
and leaving it on the table.

“It’s been a
stressful night, I know,” he said sitting back.

“I don’t think
there is going to be a right time,” I said slowly.

“What do you
mean?”

“I don’t want to
lead you on. I don’t think it’s fair to you. It’s just that I don’t think we
really have a future together.”

“I thought we
got along well together?”

“We do.”

“Alex, please,”
he said taking my hand in his, “give me a chance. We’re only just getting to
know each other and I know it’s kind of scary, but I really think we have a
chance to be happy. Just give me a little longer?”

“Adam, I have to
be honest with you. There is someone else.”

“Oh,” he said
simply. He let go of my hand and stared at his own hands on the table. I wasn’t
sure what to do or say but I couldn’t just get up and walk away leaving him
like that.

“Maybe it’s
nothing. I don’t know. It’s just that I feel terrible about leading you on when
I don’t know where things are going.”

“It’s okay. I
understand,” he said quietly, “He’s the one from the restaurant that night?”

I started
fumbling with my purse knowing that I would need to escape this conversation
before it became even more awkward than it already was. Adam didn’t need to
know about Reese or any of the details about how we’d met or continued to meet.
I just needed to cut our ties and bid him farewell before I took pity on him
and changed my mind. I wasn’t doing either of us a favor.

“Yes, he is the
one.”

“So this guy
really means something to you then?”

“I need to
figure that out,” I said. I stood up and said goodbye and he just sat and
watched me go. I felt awful, not only had I made my best friend livid at me but
I’d just broken the heart of the only man that had actually cared about me
since Ed left.

I sat in the car
for a long time trying to catch my breath and clear the tears from my eyes. I
didn’t really know why I was crying. Perhaps it was a product of an otherwise
very emotional evening and when all was said and done, I knew that I was really
no closer to ever seeing Reese again.

Chapter 16

I pulled into
the driveway and turned off the engine but I didn’t hurry to get out of the
car. My cell phone rang twice on my drive home and both times it was Adam. I
let both calls go to voice mails and judging by the indicator on my phone, he’d
left messages both times. I thought about listening to the messages but
ultimately decided against it, at least not tonight. If I listened to his
message now, I risked caving into second chances and I knew that would be the
worst thing for both of us.

I dried the
tears from my eyes even though I was only coming home to my three fish and they
didn’t care what I looked like as long as the food kept coming. I put the key
in the lock and realized that my door wasn’t actually locked. I pushed it open
and looked around cautiously. I was almost certain that I had locked the door
when I left but then again, I’d been in a hurry and I’d been preoccupied with
how Sylvia would feel about the arrangement so perhaps I’d somehow forgotten?
It seemed like a logical excuse but something still left me feeling uneasy. I
felt for my cell phone in my pocket as I turned on the lights and closed the
door behind me.

I was being
silly I decided as I stood staring at my empty living room. All of my
electronics were exactly as I’d left them. No one had been in my house. I
simply forgot to lock the door. It wasn’t the first time. I sighed and decided
that the best way to forget about the disaster of an evening would be to make
my way to the bath tub and spend an hour just soaking in hot water and a lot of
bubbles. Walking down the hallway toward the bathroom, I stumbled on something.

A shiny metallic
object lay on the floor where I’d stepped down. Once I noticed it, I wondered
how I managed to miss it in the first place. A trail had been left leading
through my hallway. I reached down and picked up the one that I’d stepped on
and looked at it curiously. A Hershey kiss? I know I didn’t leave those on the
floor before I’d left so that meant my original fears had been correct, except
what thief left a trail of Hershey kisses in his wake? I wondered… could it be
him? A flurry of excitement filled my belly and I followed the kisses until I
reached my bedroom door where they stopped.

I hesitated with
my hand on the door knob, unsure of what I would find when I opened it. Would
he be in my bed waiting for me? I was emotionally free now. I could embrace the
time I spent with him and I wanted that more than anything. I took a deep
breath and turned the knob, pushing the door slowly inward as I did. I braced
myself.

The room was
bathed in a soft glow of candlelight from two jar candles that had been lit and
placed on my dresser. There were several more chocolate kisses scattered on the
floor and across the bed but there was no sign of the man that made my heart
pound whenever I thought about him. I called out his name but there was no
reply. I left the bedroom and searched my house frantically through every room
hoping to find him but he wasn’t there. I returned to the bedroom and plopped
onto my back staring at the ceiling. I wondered why he went to the trouble to
break into my home and leave a trail of Hershey kisses and candles only to
disappear. It didn’t make sense. Did I take too long to come home?

I sighed deeply
and rolled onto my side watching the flames dance in the jar candles. My body
burned like the flame and I needed to feel his touch against my skin. A soft
breeze made the curtains billow into my bedroom and sent the flame dancing
wildly. I could hear the first hint of rain drops hit the outside of the window
and as I got up to close it and feel the soft cool spray on my skin, it made me
think of the night I met him.

I needed to walk.
It was a long shot, I knew. I’d walked several times since that first night and
never encountered him again along the path but tonight felt different. He’d
left me a sign. It was late but I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep. I didn’t
bother to grab my jacket. I stepped outside just as the rain started to pour
down harder soaking my skin almost the moment it touched me.

My mind raced as
I walked. The rain soaked my clothes until they were plastered to my skin and excess
water dripped down the length of my body. I started to think that I was well
and truly crazy. I imagined what my mother might think if she knew that I was
walking in the rain in the middle of the night and knew that I’d probably get a
thirty minute lecture on how I could catch my death of cold. I was so caught up
in my own thoughts that I didn’t realize how far I’d walked in such a short
span of time. My head was bent down against the rain watching my feet as they
hit the sidewalk so that by the time I reached him, I didn’t even know what hit
me at first.

He caught my
arms and I was so stunned by the sudden obstacle that I gasped.

“Shhhh…” he
whispered as he bent down to my ear. My body responded to his voice immediately
and I nearly melted into him as he pulled me closer and planted small kisses
from my ear down the side of my neck. I knew by the way that he kissed me that
he had missed me as much as I’d missed him. The touch of his lips warmed the
cold touch of rain against my skin, a mixture that instantly aroused my senses.
I felt his breath quicken against me and I knew that mine had done the same.

I looked up into
his eyes and opened my mouth to say something about the surprise that he’d left
at my house but before I could make a sound he placed his fingers against my
lips and silenced me. He removed his fingers and kissed me gently. Then he let
go of me enough to spin me around and wrap his arms around me so that my back
was against his front and he could point to what he’d been watching before I’d
bumped into him.

The same couple
was in the throws of passion with their drapes wide open and a soft lamp
illuminating the bedroom within their large window. I sighed at the sight of
them locked together and I pressed tightly into my companion. I could feel how
much he enjoyed watching them too.

The man had his
wife bent forward so that she was leaning against a table by the window. I
could almost make out the expression on her face as her partner’s hands
caressed her bare flesh. Reese slid his hands along my water-soaked sides until
his hands reached the bottom of my shirt. He toyed with the edge before his
arms wrapped around me and his fingers crept underneath my shirt to caress my
belly. My body felt like it was on fire everywhere that he touched me and my
knees threatened to crumble me to the ground if it weren’t for the fact that he
held me so tightly.

I bent my head
to the side as he nibbled along my neck, his hands still exploring my bare
flesh, working the fabric up higher so that I was nearly exposed to the night.
My eyes never left the couple in the bedroom and at one point, I thought the
woman looked in our direction. Could she see me standing there watching her, I
wondered? The idea sent a new wave of electric currents through my body and I
moaned softly. Reese lifted my shirt all the way to my neck so that he had
better access to stroke and fondle my bare breasts as the rain poured down over
his hands and my skin. I tingled in anticipation of the feel of his touch and
his kiss as his fingers circled and pinched my taunt nipples. Part of me wanted
to drag him back to my house and spend the rest of the night locked in erotic
oblivion with him while another part of me knew that I couldn’t hold out long
enough to get there. I needed him right then. I needed to feel him moving
inside me as I watched the couple, the way I had imagined the first night I met
him and the way I’d fantasized about every night since then.

“I need you
now,” he whispered into my ear. I twisted in his arms until we were face to
face and I pulled his head to mine so that I could taste his lips against mine.
He resisted me at first, clearly with his own idea of how this evening should
develop but as my tongue parted his lips and tangled with his, he seemed to
forget about whatever plans he had. I broke the embrace momentarily and looked
up into his eyes trying to gage his reaction.

“Why did you
break into my house and then leave?” I asked him. I thought about the trail of
Hershey kisses and the candles and marveled at the way no one had ever done
such a romantic gesture for me before. I didn’t know a single thing about him
and yet I was falling in love with him hopelessly and completely. I felt like
my entire life was spiraling out of control.

“I knew you
would find me,” he whispered back to me. He closed his eyes and lifted his face
to the rain seeming to enjoy the sensation. His fingertips traced circles idly
against my back. I could barely think about anything except the feel of his
hands on my skin as we stood locked together in the night. I sighed. He opened
his eyes, returning his attention to the couple in the window and his breath
quickened. I didn’t need to follow his gaze to know that the interaction
between them had intensified.

“Reese… we
should go back to my house.” I could barely speak the words as his hands moved
to the waistband of my jeans, unsnapped them and pushed down my zipper. The
warmth of his body against the coolness of my skin made me gasp. His fingers
found his way inside my panties and massaged me gently until I felt like my
legs couldn’t hold me.

“I need you
right here, right now.”

“Not here.”

“I can’t wait.”

He pushed my
jeans over my hips but I didn’t have the power to resist him. If the woman in
the window could see us, she would see my bare bottom and she would know our
intentions. I’d never had sex in public before and I wasn’t very comfortable
with the idea but the only thought that consumed my mind was that I didn’t want
him to let go of me, no matter what the cost.

“What if someone
sees us? We could get arrested for this.”

“No one will see
us,” he said working the snap on his own jeans and quickly pushing them down so
that we were both naked from the waist down. I felt more exposed than usual
without my clothes in the shadows of someone’s front lawn. I knew that we
shouldn’t be doing this but at the same time, I’d never wanted anything more
than I wanted him inside me at that moment.

Reese lifted me
slightly off my feet so that he could pull me further back into the shadows and
he leaned me into the trunk of a sturdy tree. With one quick thrust he was
inside me and I had to bite into my tongue to resist crying out. He pressed
against my thighs to open my legs to him as far as they would spread and used
his leverage to grind into me.

“Watch them,” he
whispered into my ear breathlessly. I only had to turn my head slightly to my
right to have a good view of the bedroom window through the trees. The couple
had changed positions so that the woman appeared to be lying on a table or some
other object just inside the window while her lover penetrated her deeply. She
turned her face toward me and it was then that I felt certain that she knew I
was watching and a strange sensation overcame me. I wanted to push Reese off of
me and run away but whatever attempts I made were feeble and he found it easy
to overpower me, keeping me pinned exactly where he wanted me against the tree
as his thrusts matched the man in the bedroom almost exactly.