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Shantal King was the kind of woman that went to bars for one reason when she was alone and that was to find a guy that would take her mind off all of the terrible things that she had experienced and gone through recently. The most recent terrible experience was Tyler, the man who had sex with her and went around telling everyone about all of the things that she definitely did not do to him, but he still made it sound like it was true. Her old life was ruined, up in smoke and there was nothing that she could do about it. Everyone thought that she was a desperate slut and that meant that she was proving them right, but she didn’t care.
She didn’t care that this was dangerous and under the right mindset, she never would have done this. She never would have come out to this bar and looked at all of the men here, douche city and full of bros who thought women were jewelry for them to strut around with.
Shantal felt out of place in her decent dress that showed off her long legs and her ass well enough, but tonight, the bustier girls were getting a lot of the attention. She knew that they were wearing padded bras or push up bras from Vincenzoia’s Secret. Shantal wasn’t ashamed that her breasts were average size and she didn’t need to wear a push up bra, but tonight, she was kind of wishing that she had.
Of course, she quickly realized that she was aiming too low, for shallow trash that she didn’t need in her life. If all they cared about were boobs, then she didn’t need them. Part of her wanted a serious relationship, but she was on cynical autopilot right now. Men were trash, relationships were doomed, blah, blah, blah; it was the same old thing that everyone with fresh wounds in their heart thought about.
She was desperate and so far, things were not going as planned. She was a quiet, soft-spoken woman who usually attracted domineering men who liked to coerce her into doing things she didn’t want to do.
They were the kind of guys who took her to sporting events or camping when all she wanted to do was to curl up on the couch and binge watch a show on Saturday before capping off the day with a session at the gym. She didn’t need adventure in her life and she didn’t want it there in the first place.
She had large, blue eyes and wavy red hair that got her a lot of attention, but usually from the wrong kind of guys. Douches tended to spook off any potential, quieter guys that she might actually have fun with.
Shantal was pretty enough to be intimidating, but she didn’t have the personality or the money to be someone that was fierce and hot. She was good-looking and approachable, but if she really went to work, she would be someone that men would drool over.
Of course, that was the kind of thing that could have been applied to any woman in the world and Shantal didn’t take too much heart from it. Sure, she wasn’t the most beautiful woman in the world, but she knew she was attractive enough to be grateful for her abilities and her personality.
Sitting at the bar, she’d failed to capture the eyes of guys that she’d been checking out and who seemed quiet enough to consider luring in. Eye flirting only got her so far, though, when a bro would come out of the rafters and insist on buying her a Jaeger Bomb.
She would kindly refuse and they would call her a tease or something. She didn’t really care about it, but when she would look back to the guy she had been working on for the past half an hour at the bar, they would be gone or moved on to someone else.
She felt defeated and as she looked around the bar, she noticed that there wasn’t really anyone there that was sticking out to her. This wasn’t her night. She let out a heavy sigh and knew that she should have worn her middie dress that night. Men were no longer interested in the whole one bare shoulder look that she had mastered.
All around her, people were beginning to pair off and start to get to know each other or they were starting to get lonely with their own defeated members of the same gender. Shantal thought it was about time to call it a night, pack it in and just realize that there was nothing that was going to save her. She had gotten all dressed up and hopeful that she would meet a guy, but the reality was that she was never going to meet a guy out here like this.
She wondered what she was thinking and how stupid she had been to think that this was ever going to work. This wasn’t how the world worked and it wasn’t how anything was going to run down. It was the kind of fantasy living that she thought would make men magically knights in shining armor and the world a just and wonderful place. But that wasn’t the case.
Shantal decided this wasn’t a place where a woman would magically find the one person in her life who was going to make things better. You only found despair and heartache in places like this. Truthfully, bars were where people found other miserable people like themselves, usually too immature to wake up and see what was shooting them in the foot over and over again.
If she woke up the next morning with a strange guy in her bed, all she was going to feel was regret, not excitement about the bright new future they might have together.
This was the kind of place where people came to make mistakes happen. The white, glowing top of the bar was stained with melted ice, spilled drinks, and littered with the items of people who were pairing off and talking to other people who were all there for the same purpose. Everyone was lying through their teeth that they were here for wholesome fun with their friends. That’s what art gallery shows were for and other places like that, not a bar.
Here, amidst the darkness getting pierced by black lights and flashing strobes from the dance floor, people were looking for instant sex. This was the equivalent of the relationship vending machine that people thought was going to magically take all of their problems and burn them all away. They thought that only good things would happen here, but nothing good came with such little work.
Sure, maybe people could mold and shape their relationship into something amazing, but they were certainly going to leave Fatty’s Bar out of the story when they told it to their couples friends. They’d pick it up on the first date.
What was she doing here? She wanted a real relationship. She wanted what Tyler wasn’t willing to give her and there was nothing wrong with that. She wanted a substantial relationship that was going to make her happy inside and give her hope, not depress her to death. She wanted to have a guy that was interested in more than just coming over, turning on Netflix for a half an hour and then having sex.
She wanted to actually go on dates and not do weird kinky things that only he liked. She was fine with the sex. In fact, she really liked the sex. Sex was one of those things that she would never get bored of and that she loved having a lot of, she just needed more than sex.
There was something about the rest of it that broke her heart, though. It was depressing and sad. It was the kind of breakup that made her wonder what was wrong with her since she had gone along with all of this in the first place. She was questioning everything and right now, she was trying to see if there was hope for her in the world outside of Tyler. She wanted there to be more out there waiting for her.
She worked in accounting at an engineering company and her life was about as boring and stable as it could get, so relationships were her only real outlet for fun. So far, all of those fun guys had turned out to be massive creeps who loved destroying her self-esteem when they were done with her.
She was tired of all of that. She needed someone in her life who was going to build her up and that would give her the encouragement and the hope that she needed. She needed someone to give her a fire that would burn through her soul and save her mind.
When she was done looking at numbers and spreadsheets all day, she wanted a special sort of guy who was ready to go do something fun, not stick around the house and have sex or drag her out in the wilderness. They lived in the most amazing city in the world and she would rather go to a coffee shop, explore a few holes in the wall, and then go home and have sex. Was that too much to ask? It just felt like they all got lazy.
Here, all she could see was more of the same, more of the exact same depressing bros who just wanted to make her happy enough to get her out of her clothes and into bed with them. She was tired of that game and while most of the bros were herding around the skanks who wore dresses that were shorter and tighter or flashier than Shantal’s, she felt herself ready to get out of here.
She stuck around for a few more minutes, hoping that one of the guys that she had seen earlier might come back. She really liked the guy with the glasses.
She searched the bar for him, hoping that she would find him coming back from the bathroom or the bar after being slightly disappointed by the evening. However, as she looked around, she noticed that the cute guy with the glasses was nowhere to be seen.
In fact, when she finally did see him, he was seated in the corner of the bar, sitting on a couch with some skank with her legs thrown over him, and making out with him with abandon. She felt her stomach lurch at the sight of him with this woman and it hurt inside of her. That was the one opportunity she felt she had going for her, but this was too much. This was the death of all hope that she had.
Inevitably, the only thing that she could think about right now to salvage the disappointment was what kind of ice cream she was going to get on her way home to cope with the reality of this bitter heartache. She didn’t even know the guy, but she couldn’t help but wonder if there could have been something between the two of them, had she been a little more open and aggressive with him.
But she was going to go home and eat raspberry white chocolate ice cream and think about how the only way to get a guy’s attention at places like this was to stick her tongue down his throat.
No, she wasn’t going to do that to herself. She wasn’t going to believe that she had to be something sleazy and something easy to get a man to notice her. She shouldn’t have to lower herself just to get a man to pay attention to her. No, she wanted to be able to be herself and have a man notice her. That was the joy and the pleasure they got and she wanted it, too. She wanted to just be a normal person.
She grabbed her clutch and turned away from the bar, giving up on all of this for the night. Maybe she’d come out with some friends in a few weeks, but it just wasn’t working for her that night. It was a total bust.
“Please tell me you aren’t leaving,” a man said behind her as she spun and practically slammed into him. She stopped and stared at him wide eyed and he chuckled to himself. His voice was deep and smooth, the kind of voice that really dug into her and was resonating with her in every practical way. There was something that immediately burrowed under her skin and started to nest inside of her, something that really liked this man.
“That’s what I get for waiting too long,” he said with a charming smile spreading across the right side of his face in a sort of crooked grin. “Should have been braver,” he said grimly.
Shantal hadn’t even seen this man in the bar and honestly, she thought that she had looked this place over, but he had come out of nowhere, stepping out of the gloom and darkness with his perfect, handsome face and winning her over. There was something about his handsome face that made her really like him and wonder what he was doing wasting his time with her. There were so many other women out there that would have killed to be with him.
His skin was pale, but his hair was dark; black hair that was so well styled that she immediately wanted to run her fingers through it. His strong jaw and tough looking chin was shaded with the stubble that showed up as a contrast to his pale skin. His eyes were dark and his cheekbones were sharp.
There was something about him that felt powerful and unnatural to her, something alarming. She wanted to touch his face with her fingers, to gently brush her fingers over his features just to see if they were real.
He was dressed in a modern style, but his clothes were unlike anything that she had ever seen before. It was almost impossible to put her fingers on what made him so elegant and yet so positively antiquated in the most handsome way ever.
There was something about the style of the suit he was wearing that was different from everyone else’s here and unlike anything that she had ever seen before, but it was impossible to say what it was. His jacket had a high collar and he was wearing a vest that reminded her more of a waist coat than anything else, but she wasn’t sure what it was for sure. It just felt right for him though, unique and beautiful.
His build was lean, but it was muscular beyond anything that she had seen or experienced before. There was something about his body and build that made her think he would look incredible shirtless. She could practically see his defined pecs, arms, shoulders, and abs through the clothing he was wearing and she liked it a lot. This was a man she wanted to spend some time getting to know.
“I’m sorry to stop you if you’re leaving,” he said nervously, but his voice still sounding so charming that it was unbearable. “But, if you’re not, I was hoping that I could ask you to come have a drink with me. You’re the only person in this place who doesn’t seem absolutely desperate and dreadful. I’d love to share a drink with you, if you’re willing.”
He gestured over to a table for two and she wondered where the heck this guy had been hiding the entire night. The fact that he didn’t think that she was desperate almost made her laugh, but she nodded to him like she’d completely forgotten how to speak. She felt like a total spaz and he grinned at her.
“Can I buy you a drink?” he asked her.
“Yeah,” she said, turning to the bartender who looked at the man behind her with a sort of fixed gaze that she thought was strange. “Fizz Toddy,” she said to him as he nodded and went to work on the drink quickly, ignoring everyone else around them.
“Excellent choice,” he said, like every word behind his perfect lips was crafted exceptionally before being released. “I’m Vincenzo,” he said to her, holding out his hand.
“Shantal,” she answered.
He took her hand in his and she immediately noticed how cold it was. It was strangely so, but when he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles, she felt herself blush, not expecting that from him.
“Wow,” she whispered.
With any other guy, she would have found that weird and creepy, but it was just so right for Vincenzo. It seemed like something that he would obviously do. It seemed right to her.
“Thanks for having a drink with me, Shantal,” he said with that familiar smile she thought was so sexy it was driving her crazy.
She wanted to scream at the sight of it and demand that he come home with her, but she knew this was the desperate side of her flaring up. No, she needed to play it cool. She needed to play it smart.
“Everyone has been pretty disappointing tonight.”
“I know what you mean,” she said.
“Glasses guy?” he asked her with a teasing smile. “I was nervous that he would make a move on you and rob me. I’m not very good at this and I was worried that you’d end up going home with him.”
“You think I’m that easy?” she asked him, lifting an eyebrow.
“No,” he said, shaking his head very seriously. Suddenly, she truly believed that he didn’t mean what he had, possibly accidentally, implied about her. “I think that you’re an exceptional woman, because all night long, you’ve had your pick of the boys here and you’ve only focused on a few. Not only have you focused on a few, but you’ve focused on those with the most real-world potential beyond this place. I think that’s fascinating. Tell me, what are you looking for, Shantal?”
“I don’t know,” she said with a shrug as a waitress dressed in shorts so short they could see her ass and a shirt cut so low that there wasn’t much left for the imagination, but Vincenzo never glanced at her. He simply thanked her while looking at Shantal the entire time. “I’m just looking for something entertaining.”
“Well, I hope I’m that,” he said with a smile that revealed his perfect, white teeth. It was a strange sight that made her nervous.
“What do you do for a living?” she asked him, taking a sip of her drink.
“Oh, we’re going to discuss the boring things?” he asked her with a playful voice.
She shrugged. She honestly didn’t see why not. Wasn’t that what people did when they were getting to know each other?
“Why not?” she pressed, wondering what he could possibly want to talk about instead. “Do you have something else that you’d rather talk about?”
“There are loads of things that we could talk about,” he said with a grin on his face. “You realize that there are a certain number of questions you could ask anyone that are so profound and so intimate that they will make you fall in love with them? They’re a fascinating read and I absolutely love them.”
“Really?” she felt suspicious about that. “Do you know some of them?”
“Do you really want me to fall in love with you?” he chuckled. “I’ll be helpless if I ask them of you. By the time we’re done with all thirty six of them, I’ll be pining over you for the rest of my life. Is that what you want?”
She wasn’t sure how to answer that. She felt odd about it and she felt off about the whole thought. It felt wrong and worrisome.
“I think I’d like you to fall in love with me,” she said with a crooked smile of her own, feeling dangerous and exciting.
She liked the way he was so forward with his intentions. She liked how he made her feel alive. Yes, she was all about him right now and the fire he had ignited inside of her.
“You’re an incredibly attractive woman,” he said to her after a moment of silent contemplation.
It was something that she really liked to hear from him. It was easy on her ears and it sounded genuine and honest. As she looked at him, she realized how incredibly attractive he was as well. He was a man that she could get used to looking at.
“Thank you,” she said, with a sweet smile on her lips.
“Very modest of you,” he joked.
She laughed at that and as she looked at him with a shrug. “I’m modest,” she said, looking around the room at all the other women who were present, clearly more comfortable with themselves than she was.
He smiled at that and she knew he was playing with her. She knew that he was having a good fun, laugh at her and all she could think about was that she wanted more of this than he realized. He was calling to her.
“What about you? What made you interested in talking to me?” She changed the topic, pressing him.
“Honestly? It was your fiery, red hair. I’ve never seen hair like it before. You wear it so proudly in a world where red hair is foolishly looked down upon. I’ve never understood why people bash it so much.”
Shantal had gained her tough skin when she was a teenager at the height of Ginger-Hate that was spreading across the country because of YouTube videos and other similar phenomena. However, as she grew older, more and more women voiced their envy for her fiery locks. It was good to have someone interested in it in an alluring sense. It was nice to have someone interested in her, period.
“So where are you from?” she asked him with a coy and kind smile on her lips, looking to know more about this mysterious man that had just entered her life.
“Not from around here,” he said with a kind of boast that made her wonder what that meant. Did he meaning that he wasn’t from this neighborhood? This borough? This city? Was he not even from this country? She didn’t know what that meant and it was so enigmatic, she couldn’t help but feel completely entranced by it.
She wanted to ask him more about it, but something told her that she should hold back and revisit it at a later time. If he didn’t want to talk about it right now, then she shouldn’t push him about it. She shouldn’t dig in deep and demand to know more from him. That was just rude and more than she should hope to push for. She took a deep breath and looked out at the dance floor, wondering where this night was going to lead her.
“You like to dance?” he asked her, following her eyes out to the dance floor. She wasn’t sure how to answer that. Yeah, she did like dancing, but she never really did it in public. She wasn’t about dancing in front of people unless she was thoroughly intoxicated and had the courage to get other people out there with her so others wouldn’t think she was a lone psycho on the dance floor.
“I do,” she said, feeling that the scales were successfully tipping in that direction. “Do you like dancing?”
“I find it helpful,” he said honestly.
“For what?”
“Finding out the truth about someone’s intentions,” he said with a grin on his lips.
She wanted to know more and he knew that she wanted to know more. It was an unfair advantage he seemed to have with all of this deep insight that she didn’t have. It was like she was playing against someone in a different league.
“You see, dancing tells you exactly what the other person wants from you. You can find out if they’re holding back and if they’re suspicious of you or you could find out whether or not they’re interested in you and want to know more about you. You can tell all of their intentions just by the way they’re dancing.”
“You could just ask them,” she said, picking up on the subtle hints that he was dropping for her. Yeah, she was picking them up and she was more than willing to play but she didn’t like games. She liked the more direct and dangerous approach that he had been taking. Having someone bold in her life was refreshing. It was something that she was more than willing to explore.
“I suppose that I could just ask them,” he said with a smile. “But where’s the fun in that?”
“It’s only fun for you,” she assured him, seeing right through his ploy and attacking it. “It’s not fun if you don’t know you’re playing. It’s not fair either. If it’s not fair I’d say that it’s cheating.”
“That’s a rather bold accusation,” he said with a raised eyebrow. “Do you think I’m playing to win?”
“Absolutely,” she said knowingly. She knew for a fact that he was here to win, but she didn’t know what winning meant to him. She wanted to know more. “But what’s at stake?”
“You,” he said with a smile on his face. “I really like you, Shantal. Do you want to play the game where we beat around the bush, dancing around our intentions, or are you a bolder and direct woman? From what I’ve seen, you strike me as a particularly brave and daring individual. I’d like to know how I should proceed. I can do either if you’d like, but I think you know which one I’d favor.”
“You just want to take me home, have sex with me, and disappear from my life?” She stabbed at him, knowing exactly what a man like him was interested in. There was something very familiar about all of this.
“Not unless that’s what you want me to do,” he said with a mischievous grin. “But if that’s not the case, then I’m going to stick around with you for the rest of your life and have the greatest relationship that anyone has ever had.”
Part of her believed he was telling her the truth and she wasn't sure if she liked that or not, but there was something different about this man. He seemed like an old soul who was tired of the games and he wanted something that was close to a connection.
She could see it in his eyes that he was looking for something more than sex, but he was afraid of something else. He was clearly afraid that this wasn’t going to be it. She wanted to know what he was looking for and if she could be what he was hungry for. She wanted to make him intrigued and excited.
“Are you brave enough to take a risk, Shantal? Going into this, knowing that there’s a 50/50 chance that I’m going to be gone tomorrow or that I’m going to be there, trying my hardest to make this work, are you willing to take that chance on me? Are you willing to be brave?”
“I don’t know,” she said honestly, but she was strong. She wasn’t going to roll over for this guy. “Are you brave enough to be more than just a douche who sleeps with a girl and vanishes before the sun rises?”
He laughed at that. “Some of us are creatures of the night,” he assured her with a strange sort of certainty in his voice that didn’t sound like they were talking about the same thing. “But, I think I’m brave enough to try and be the guy who is true and honest with you. There’s something about you, Shantal. I think you’re the kind of woman that’s worth all of that, that’s actually worth all the romantic notions that have failed in the past. I like that about you. You’re a pure soul. You’re the kind of goodness that the world needs.”
“You’re very smooth,” she laughed, wishing that she could believe him, but there was something in the back of her mind that kept clicking on the emergency light and the flashing red lights that wailed were stronger than ever. There was something off about this guy. There was something dangerous and wrong with him. He was going to break her heart and she knew it was going to be painful, but she was jumping in with her eyes wide open. She knew exactly what was coming for her.
“You want to get out of here and do something risky?” he asked her with a smile on his lips.
She knew that she did. She knew that there was something about all of this that was tantalizing to her. She knew that there was something about him that made her want to take that risk. Maybe it was the fact that she was jumping in with her eyes wide open and realizing that if they were on equal playing grounds, then it might be something she was interested in. No illusions, no borders, just a risk with honest outcomes. That was something that she was definitely interested in.
“I think I might,” she said with a grin. Yes, this was something that she was very interested in. This was something that she was definitely going to play at. This was something that she was going to get involved in, because right now, she felt like taking advantage of him and herself.
Why not? They were both attracted to each other and life was short. There was nothing in the world made more sense to her. She wanted to have fun and cut loose. She grabbed her clutch and took his arm as they headed for the door.
The night air was brisk and breezy. It was something that told her that they were alive and that the city was full of energy they were waiting to tap into. It was something that they could harness and take advantage of, if they were willing to do so. This was a new birth for her and she felt like she was capable of anything. She smiled at him as the wind kicked up her hair and she combed it back into place with her fingers so that she could see his smiling face in the nocturnal world of the city.
“Ready for the question?” he asked her.
“Hit me with it,” she said playfully.
“My place or yours?” he asked nervously, like this was painful for him. “Would you like home field advantage or would you like to keep that a mystery from me until you’ve decided that I’m not an unsavory character?”
She thought about it for a moment and knew exactly what she wanted.
“My place,” she said with confidence.
She liked her home and she trusted it. She knew where her secrets were hidden and she knew that if she needed to kick him out, Reggie next door would happily come to her aid. Reggie had a soft spot for her.
When they made it back to her apartment, it was a relief that she knew Reggie was home and that she had picked her home as their retreat. She loved her apartment and she loved that she had the kind of job that could pay for a larger, nicer apartment than most of the other people she knew.
It was a nice apartment that she had taken care to decorate beautifully and cleanly. She didn’t believe in clutter and she liked showing off her home. When they walked inside, Vincenzo looked around with a smile on his face, appreciating it as he looked around at the art on the walls and the décor that she’d bought to make the place more inviting and more alluring to those who came to visit.
“This place is fantastic,” he said, sitting down on the sofa that actually matched her
room and was comfortable. It was a one of her greatest prides in the apartment.
“Thanks,” she called to him, walking into the tidy kitchen that was nicer than most other kitchens that her friends or her siblings had. She was the envy of most. She grabbed two glasses and selected one of the red wines she had on hand and poured it for the two of them, watching him as he looked at her bookshelves.
“You’re a fan of the classics,” he mused, looking over the leather bound titles that she had hunted down at used bookstores and at small shops where she discovered them like treasures. “That’s something that’s hard to find with people these days. It’s all about Fifty Shades and pop psychology trash.”
“Couldn’t agree more,” she said with a smile. “What’s your favorite?”
“War and Peace,” he said quickly.
She smiled and handed him the glass of red that she’d selected. She had not expected that from him. War and Peace was an excellent choice and she was glad that he had mentioned it. It was something that was very unique to him. She’d never found anyone who liked War and Peace before, at least not that much.
“Yours?” he asked.
“Pride and Prejudice,” she shrugged.
“A romantic to the core,” he said with a smile.
She finished taking a drink and was glad that she had a little more liquid courage with her. She needed something to give her the bravery and the stamina to do what she wanted to do with him.
There was something intimidating about him and as she looked at him, she knew that something about him was what she truly enjoyed. She wanted to have more time with him and she wanted to appreciate him more in her home. He was engaging and beautiful.
He leaned in and pressed his cool lips to hers and they were so soft and welcoming that she couldn’t possibly imagine. They tasted sweet, like they were made of raspberry cream and he was beyond magical to her. She could feel those lips locked with hers and she knew that there was a powerful quality about them, something engaging that she couldn’t put her finger on, but she didn’t want their lips to part. She wanted to keep her lips on his for the rest of her life, but there was something warning her that he was still the dangerous man that she had suspected he was at the bar.
“Is everything okay?” he asked her softly, his voice breathy and beautiful, like he was winded by the kiss he had just experienced.
“Perfect,” she whispered, not sure if it was a good thing or if it was a bad thing. She was afraid of it.
His cool fingertips brushed against her cheek and he cupped her face, leaning in and pressing his wondrous lips to hers again and she felt like she was melting in his hands. This was something she could get used to and really start to enjoy. There was a truly magical way about him and she knew that she wanted to kiss him again and again for the rest of her days.
She loved the way his lips engaged hers, opening them and truly locking with them, as she continued to kiss him again and again. Their tongues softly brushing against each other, she felt her whole body leaning against him, warming him as they kept kissing, leaning into each other and really building the heat and the momentum of the kiss.
She found herself on the couch, sitting with him, and she could feel her legs draped across his so that she was slightly sitting on top of him, but she didn’t care what was happening. She didn’t care where she was, all she wanted was to have access to his lips. She wanted them pressed against hers
She wanted his tongue to continue to circle hers, pressing softly like they were soul mates that were finally brought together again. This was the kiss she was hungry for. This was everything that she had been hoping to find when she had gone out to the bar tonight.
She ran her fingers over his face, feeling his bone structure, the softness of his skin and then ran her fingertips down his neck and over his strong, sculpted chest, feeling his shoulders and arms as he held her close to him, making sure that she couldn’t escape or pull back. He wanted her and she wanted him.
She wanted to throw him down right there and see what he had to offer. She wanted to see everything that this playboy had to work with and what his equipment was like.
He kissed her cheek, making his way slowly and tenderly down her neck and she moaned at the feeling of his cool lips against her skin, like wherever he touched there would be frost there when she pulled away. She liked that feeling. She liked that sensation more than anything. It made her shudder and shiver when he kissed her and she didn’t know that his fingers had danced over her body, exploring her with a kind of hungry fascination she hadn’t been expecting.
This was a man who was gifted with a soft touch and he was very interested in her. That was good, she wanted him to be interested in her. She wanted him to be very, very interested in her.
Tender lips pressed against her skin, right above her collar bone and she shivered at the sensation, wanting more and more of it. It was like he was ice and she was fire, ready to ignite and burst across him, filling the room with steam at the drop of a hat.
She was ready for this as he tenderly kissed her and she didn’t even know that her hands were at work as she continued to let him kiss her, throwing her hair back as she leaned her head away from him, giving him access to her bare skin.
It was a spontaneous and a sudden thing that they were starting to lose clothes and she didn’t even know that it was happening until she was half-naked with him and he was shirtless, pale, but as beautiful as a statue in front of her. His body was so magnificent, as though he spent hours every night in the gym and that was all that he did.
She felt like she was looking at the chest and arms of a model, but one of the handsome kinds that didn’t look like they were stoned and spaced out. He was a spectacular specimen and she knew that he was the man of her dreams, molded by the soft sighs and the fluttering heart of a young woman who looked at a thousand magazine ads in her entire life.
This was the man.
This was everything that she wanted.
As he pulled off her dress and she was completely naked, finally catching up to him, she didn’t feel uncomfortable at all, like she normally did. No, this was the first time in her life that she felt like she was comfortable being naked with a man. His kissing of her chest lowered until he was kissing her breasts, kissing them tenderly and running his hands over her body, cupping her breasts and holding them firmly with his hands as he stuck out his tongue and circled her nipples.
She shivered at the feeling, but it was the most incredible licking that she’d ever experienced, like this man was a true master of his craft. This man knew what he was doing. This wasn’t a man who was over eager, spending time on her nipples so that he could have access to other things. No, this was an artist taking his time.
Sensitive and sweet, he sucked on her nipples, playing with them and honing in on what she liked by her responses. She was so blown away by the feeling in her nipples that she had forgotten where she was and what was happening. She felt like she was frozen and finally snapping out of it. She smiled at him and reached down, feeling his cock, expecting it to be a shaft of ice, like the rest of his body had seemed so far, but there was so much more to him.
There was more beyond her wildest dreams. No, this was a man who was blazing hot and she knew that his cock was hungry for her.
She could barely see it as he continued to fondle and lick her breasts, sending jolts of pleasure through her that flooded to every corner of her naked body, but she could definitely feel the magnificence of the cock in her hands and she squeezed it gently and firmly, feeling just how long and how powerful it truly was.
It was a long cock and she knew that she was going to feel him going deeper inside of her than she’d ever felt a cock go. He was just the right width so that it wouldn’t hurt, but she would definitely feel him inside of her, expanding her, close to her limits, but just enough to make her truly enjoy it. She found herself hungry for it, longing for his cock inside of her as she ran her thumb over its soft, fleshy head, wondering what it would be like inside of her.
There was something special about him and he kept kissing her body, like she was a desert that had never been touched with rain before and it was his job to go through and breathe life into her once more. His kisses were like a monsoon and with every kiss that touched her body, she shivered and felt excited by it.
She felt her whole body erupting with pleasure and excitement at the feeling of him kissing every square inch of her chest and stomach, admiring the flat stomach that had been a combination of good genetics and working hard at the gym. She smiled and watched him as he kissed the lengths of her arms and then slowly back down her chest, heading south.
She knew where he was heading and she loved the trail of kisses that he was leaving for her to follow, but there was something terrifying about it. She had never been licked before and actually loved it. Most of the men that she dated were terrible at oral and she really hoped that he wasn’t another disappointment in the long list of disappointing men that she had dated and had sex with. She wanted something talented.
Vincenzo didn’t disappoint her. She smiled and gasped as he didn’t waste any time. He kissed the lips of her pussy and immediately slipped his tongue inside of her, licking her slit and playing with her clit like it was a friend that he had missed for too long.
She moaned and gasped at the sudden deluge of emotion that was ripping through her, storming into her and making her gasp and moan in surprise and delight. This was more than she was used to. This was more than she had anticipated from him. She had expected him to be just a passing player, but this was everything.
Running her fingers through his perfect hair, she moaned and screamed, writhing against her couch and breathing heavier and heavier, feeling the pressure building for her to climax and she fought as hard as she could, but every pass of his tongue was something remarkable and overwhelming. It was like he was sculpting her pleasure and she felt her pussy giving in to him. Around and around her clit he went, brushing it and licking it harder and harder as she moaned louder and louder until she was flooded with euphoria. It hit her like a waterfall, but he wasn’t giving her any time to react to it.
She felt the tip of his cock diving into her and she moaned, feeling the sudden expansion of her pussy as the warm tip of his cock drove inside of her, slowly pushing into her and making her whole body arch as she screamed in amazed delight and she wanted more and more from him.
She wanted everything from him. She wanted absolutely everything that he had. This was the culmination of all of his foundation that her last orgasm had laid. His cock inside of her was all that she’d ever wanted and when he plunged deeper and deeper inside of her, she pinched her eyes shut and ran her fingers through his hair.
She was gasping as he gripped her thighs and pulled her onto his cock, diving all the way in and she gasped in surprise. This was everything that she wanted tonight. This was the orgasm that she had been looking for when she’d found him.
He didn’t disappoint her. She moaned and felt his cock all the way inside of her and she savored the feeling. This was everything that it should be. She looked up at him and saw him looking down on her with his cool eyes and she noticed the contrast between their skins. She was normally the palest person in the room, but he beat her by a long shot. She moaned and looked down at his cock slowly sliding out of her and she knew that this was everything he wanted, too.
It was incredible feeling his cock pulling back out of her, like it was rubbing every square inch of her as he pulled back and came close to coming outside of her.
Just as they were about to separate, he drove his cock back inside of her, slow, but it felt like he was going so fast and she moaned, gasping for breath and sanity as she felt pleasure bursting throughout her, like she was going to die from this if she wasn’t careful.
This was the most amazing thing in the world. He grinned and started to pick up the pace now that she was getting used to the feeling. She wasn’t certain that she was getting used to it. In fact, she was fairly certain that she was just getting more and more sensitive to it.
As the pace began to pick up and he started driving himself inside of her faster and faster, she didn’t know if she was going to be able to keep up with him. She was already gasping and moaning, her pussy exploding with pleasure and pulsing with the power of the first orgasm that had already made her hypersensitive. She looked at him, seeing the hungry, ravenous desire in his eyes. She was screaming at the top of her lungs, trying her hardest to keep her pounding heart inside of her chest, but it was a lost cause.
She knew that it wasn’t going to be long now until she had her next orgasm, layering the previous one that she was still trying to get over.
She found the occasions when she was getting fucked to climax, that it was rare that a man had the stamina to do this with her. She was impressed by him and when the orgasm hit, it hit her hard. She knew that he wasn’t done, but she was feeling every corner of her body bursting with delight and pleasure.
He was still going, not yet to the point of climax for himself yet and she pushed him down onto the floor, mounting him while he was on his back. She slowly lowered herself onto him, feeling his long, hard cock slipping inside of her. It was like warm concrete in the middle of the summer and she moaned at how easily it was going into her now.
She was accustomed to him. She was ready for him and this was everything that she needed from him right now. She just wanted to make sure that she was everything he needed. He groaned and moaned, reaching his hands up and cupping her breasts as he squeezed her and she bounced on him, riding him as she rocked her hips forward and back. He moaned and his eyelids began to flutter. She knew that he was getting close and she wanted to drive him to the point of no return.
Her full body felt like it was shutting down, like it had given into the pleasure coming in wave after wave with each driving push of his cock deep within her. He might have been a lothario or a playboy, but when she saw his eyelids fluttering and his whole face twisting under the flood of euphoria that was crashing through his mind, she knew that this was a truly remarkable experience for him and that he wouldn’t be forgetting it anytime soon.
This was everything that she had hoped to give him and more. There was something empowering about all of this and she wanted more of it. The way he reacted to her body and the way he read her desires made her think that they could have something truly special here.
He gasped and pinched his eyes shut as his hands clamped down hard on her hips, driving his cock deep inside of her and holding her there, skewered on his massive cock and she moaned, feeling the power of him inside of her as she felt his whole body go tense with the flood of passion and pleasure inside of him.
It was like he was made of marble for a moment and she loved the feeling of it. Everything felt like it just suddenly came to a stop. They had hit the point of release.
When his eyelids opened, she leaned in and kissed him on his perfect lips. There was something powerful about kissing him and being this close to him, their bodies naked and together, him still inside of her as they kissed. She knew that she was going to want to wake up in the middle of the night and have sex with him again. Heck, she would be willing to stay up right now and wait until he was ready for her. It made her feel like a deviant and greedy, but she wanted more of him.
“How was that for you?” she asked him, genuinely hoping that it was good for him.
She wanted to have him say that it was incredible or that it was decent for him. She wanted to feel like she slightly measured up. But, as she looked at him, she saw a strange look on his face, like there was a wound that he’d suddenly felt for the first time.
“You were amazing,” he said with a voice that made her wonder if he’d never had sex before this moment. “It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever felt.”
She smiled and kissed him on the lips. It was probably just some kind of act that he had done, but she was grateful for the answer nonetheless. She liked feeling like she had done something remarkable and impressive. She liked thinking that there was someone out there that thought she was exceptional. That was a feeling she wasn’t going to forget any time soon.
Standing up, she grabbed a blanket off her sofa and they lay on the floor on her faux fur carpet and talked to each other, putting their heads on throw pillows and laughing about things that their minds drifted to. They would get up and grab a bottle of wine and share it as they flirted and gazed into each other’s eyes.
There was a kind of comfort between the two of them that she had never felt before and it was calming and comforting to her at the same time. It was like this was meant to be, like she’d finally hit a comfortable, easy crossroads in her life.
No over-thinking it, no fearful worrying, and no game playing. She had been true to herself and this felt like it was right. Maybe she should have risked more in the past and been more open to adventure. She’d always been a person who felt like a homebody and a person exploring in her comfort. Maybe it was time to change.
She remembered leaning her head against his shoulder, nestling against him and feeling the weight of the world bleeding out of her and her eyelids grew heavier and heavier with each breath that she took. They were listening to music and as she closed her eyes, she knew that it wouldn’t be long before she drifted off to sleep. She felt so safe with him and there was something that made her think that this was where she was meant to be.
Maybe it wasn’t permanent, but this was the person that she was supposed to find that night. Something inside of her was telling her that she was safe and sound. As the darkness surrounded her, she found that she was in the dream world, walking through mist and looking for Vincenzo. It was all that she could think of, getting to him and talking to him. There was something that she needed to tell him. There was something that she wanted to say.
But she couldn’t find him.
There were figures in the mists of her mind, dark people that lurked just beyond the light, shadowy men and women, watching her with hungry, envious eyes that glittered and sparkled, though there were no lights. She avoided them in a panic, running as quickly as she could to get away from him. All she wanted to do was find Vincenzo, but there was no escaping these people.
They were everywhere and they were coming for her. They were after her and she couldn’t run fast enough. She needed to hurry and hide somewhere. She needed to get to safety.
Their eyes watched her and no matter where she ran in the mists, they were there, around every corner of a faceless, nameless city, watching her and keeping their distance, but she knew that they were hostile. There was something dark and horrifying about them, something that screamed out to her to keep running from them.
Whenever she got close enough, she would watch their hands lift up from their sides from long, gaunt arms, reminding her of spider legs as they reached out and pointed at her with long fingernails from their gnarled, ancient fingertips.
In the distance, she could hear something that rang out loud, like a church bell, a gong that roared through the darkness and the mists. As she looked at the horde of faceless figures in the mist, they all turned their dark, smoky heads, craning them toward the sounds of the noise that was piercing in the distance. Something inside of Shantal’s chest began to seize and lock up, catching her breath in her lungs. It was something horrifying to her and made her feel like a cold trickle of sweat was running down her spine.
She could hear a baby crying.
Shantal didn’t know any children and she didn’t have any close friends who had children right now, but there was something horrifying about that sound. Everything seemed to pause and wait as the sound of the crying child rattled and rolled through every foggy alleyway and misty street of the dream. The figures, cloaked in shadow, all around her looked toward the sound and she knew that they were well aware of what the crying child meant. Shantal didn’t understand, but she knew that she couldn’t let them get to the child.
She couldn’t let these figures get the child.
Bolting toward the sound, she headed as quickly as she could in the direction of the screaming baby. There were snarling creatures in the distance, just out of arm’s reach from her and they were ravenous for the child, hissing and snapping their jaws as they ran. They were running with all of their speed, but there was something about Shantal that made her faster than them. She could see a church in the distance, atop a gloomy hill, surrounded by tombstones and dead trees, waiting for her to climb while more and more of the shadowy figures crawled and stalked closer and closer to the sounds of the wailing baby.
It was in the church. She could tell that it was in the church and the figures in the shadows could tell as well. They were coming after her now, knowing that she was the only person that was able to save the child. They wanted to stop her and make it so that she couldn’t get to the child. They wanted to get rid of the one good person in the world.
Throwing open the gate at the bottom of the hill, Shantal looked up at the spire of the church and the bell tower where the screaming baby was no doubt waiting for her. In front of her, clattering over crumbling tombstones and slinking out of the dead trees, the shadowy figures scuttled closer and closer to her, surrounding her and she started to scream.
They were almost on top of her, whispering and calling out to her, their eyes glimmering brightly, like stars in the dead of night. She was about to be overtaken by them, until she heard a loud hiss and the fog evaporated suddenly and the darkness was thrown back by the sun cresting over the vista of the hill, rising up behind the church in a fiery glow.
All around her, the creatures in the shadows shrieked and hissed, bursting into shadows and vanishing like dust in the wind as she stood there, shielding her eyes and rushing as quickly as she could toward the church as the baby ceased crying. All she could hear now was the wailing and hissing of the shadowy beings behind her.
She reached out and touched the handle of the door, throwing it wide open.
She bolted up and felt the sweat coming down from her face and covering her body. Her heart was pounding faster than it had been when she had had been on top of Vincenzo. There was a cold shiver that ran over her body and she knew there was something wrong. She had never had a dream like that. She had never experienced something like that and it was terrifying to her. The panic was rushing through her and it was overwhelming.
Shantal couldn’t think of a time in her life when she was genuinely and truly terrified, but this was a moment where she knew that something was extremely wrong and completely off. She couldn’t handle this.
This was getting to her and she knew that she needed to just take a breath and get everything under control. Her whole body began to shiver and shake and she knew that the sweat was making her colder. She was naked underneath the blanket that she had been wrapped in with Vincenzo. She should go put something on. She should get in the shower or she should go for a walk. There was something inside of her that kept her heart pounding, thumping so that she could hear it in her ears.
Never once had she experienced something so real and tangible like that when she was dreaming. This was something completely beyond her. She had never been in a dream where she thought it was so completely real. She wanted to touch something or pinch herself to make sure that everything was still real around her and that she wasn’t making up things. She wanted to know she was no longer inside of the dream and that she was going to be okay.
What had that been? What had been the purpose of that? Her mind had just conjured up the most terrifying experience of her life and she felt like she had just barely escaped execution. She didn’t know if she bought into the whole symbolism or the subconscious messages that the mind was trying to give the conscious mind through dreams, but right now, it felt like anything was possible.
She would be open to any kind of explanation as to what that had been. Placing her hand on her bare chest, she could still feel her heart pounding and thumping, slowly coming to the point where it calmed down completely.
She looked next to herself, wanting to tell Vincenzo about it. She knew that it would be rude and cruel to wake him up and tell him about it, but she felt like she needed to. She wanted to talk to someone about what she had just been through. It was as if she’d just been mugged and she wanted to talk to the police about it. Her whole body felt like it had been through a trauma.
Looking next to her, she saw that the spot where Vincenzo had been sleeping next to her when she had drifted off to sleep was empty. The pale figure was no longer there. She could see the impression of where his body had been in the faux fur rug and she felt confused by his absence.
She wondered if he’d had a bad dream too or if it had been something that they’d drank or eaten. No, they hadn’t eaten anything. She looked toward the source of light that was dimly illuminating the room and she saw that the door to the bathroom was closed, but the light was piercing the dark from the slit underneath the door.
She sat there on the floor of the apartment, taking a moment to get control of herself. Her hair felt strange, like it was full of sweat. She realized that she needed to shower and get into some pajamas.
He was probably going to think it was weird that she woke up in the middle of the night while he used the bathroom and wanted to have a shower, so she quietly waited for him.
After a while, she wondered if he was all right and didn’t want to waste any more time just sitting in the middle of the living room. She got up and walked into the bedroom, keeping the lights off as she navigated flawlessly in the darkness of the apartment. She found her pajamas, pulling her pants on after she pulled on her tank top, listening for a sound from inside the bathroom, worried that he had fallen asleep on the toilet or something. She was worried that he was doing something weird in there.
She thought about how incredible he had been and sat down on the edge of her bed, realizing that he hadn’t even gotten a good showing of her apartment. They had practically walked into her apartment and gotten down to business. She smiled at the memory of the previous hours that she had spent with him and she knew she had experienced something powerful and magical with him.
It had been fantastic. It had been something that she was going to remember for the rest of her life. She knew that he was a guy she was going to be comparing a lot of men to when she met them. Of course, there was an optimistic part in her soul that hoped it would be a long time before there was another man in her life that she was going to need to talk to and compare sexual encounters.
Patiently waiting for him to get out of the bathroom, she realized that she needed to talk about what she had just been through. It was gnawing at her and digging into her like something she was possessed with, like there was a parasite inside of her and she needed to get rid of it.
She hoped that he wouldn’t think it was weird when he came out of the bathroom and she ambushed him with a story about the dream she’d just had that was bugging her.
Was that a weird thing to do?
She figured that it was probably one of the more strange things to do and she thought about holding back on ambushing him with it, but she couldn’t help it. She’d never really been a big dreamer. She’d never really experienced something that had been so real and so tangible.
She felt like she could have reached out and touched those shadowy figures and grabbed a hold of them in the middle of her wandering in terror. It was like she had been wandering around and they had been truly watching her, truly keeping their cold, dark eyes on her.
With a sudden clicking of facts, she realized that their dark eyes had reminded her of Vincenzo’s, now that she thought about it. What had that meant? His eyes were as dark as chips of obsidian in the middle of a marble sea, but these eyes had been completely dark, solid onyx in the shadowy flickering of their smoky, featureless faces. This was something that unnerved her and she suddenly felt that the darkness wasn’t nearly as friendly as she remembered or had thought that it was. Everything was suddenly growing more and more vivid and deeper around her. She wanted company. She wanted light.
Standing up, she flicked on the light and looked around the room. She was alone. She walked into the living room and turned on the lamp, half expecting a figure to be illuminated in the corner, hissing with a feral shriek, but nothing happened. That was a relief. She couldn’t handle any more surprises or more terrifying experiences that came out of nowhere. She turned and looked at the bathroom door, walking over to knock on it.
As she rapped her knuckles on the exterior of the door, she felt something biting at her, like she was prying into something that she shouldn’t be prying into. Even if he had passed out on the toilet and was asleep, no one wanted to be woken up in that kind of sudden, awkward position, but she needed to make sure that he was alive.
As she knocked, she knew that she was just going to have to deal with the consequences of her decisions. She had crossed that threshold and there was no going back at this point. She closed her eyes and bit her lower lip, hoping that he wouldn’t be mad at her.
“Vincenzo? Are you okay?” she called out softly, not wanting to startle him.
She listened for a response, but there was nothing. There was no shuffling, no heavy breathing, no soft snoring, and there was definitely no sudden jerking or startling. She began to wonder if he was even in there.
She looked down at the handle and she knew was about to do something dangerous, She was going to cross over the line and she knew that it was a risky game that she was playing right then.
Reaching down, she felt the door handle and prayed that he would respond to her so that she wouldn’t have to do this. She didn’t want to have to do this. She wanted to be able to walk away from it and be just fine and have a magical relationship without any boundaries that were broken. She knocked one more time, just in case. She prayed that it would work this time.
“Vincenzo?” She called to him.
Nothing.
Gripping the handle, she knew that there was no going back. If she found him naked, passed out on the toilet, then that was her own fault, but she would deal with it when she discovered it. She slowly pushed open the door and looked into the bathroom.
There was nothing there.
She looked around the bathroom, wondering if she had left the bathroom light on when she had gone out earlier, or if there was anything else that she had forgotten, but there was one thing that she wasn’t questioning. Vincenzo had left.
He had gone just like she knew he probably would when she had been flirting with the idea of asking him back to the apartment. It was the gamble that he had convinced her to take with him and she felt like she had just done the dumbest thing in the world. There was no one to blame but herself.
In the end, this was what she signed up for.
She looked into the bathroom, staring at the emptiness of it, knowing that there was no note, no strange, cryptic message that he might have left her, and there was probably no new contact in her phone that he might have stashed before leaving in the middle of the night like the bandit that he was.
She looked at the empty bathroom and she knew that there was nothing to fret over. She had let herself in for this and she had agreed to the possibility of this when he came over.
Strangely enough, even though she had no one to blame but herself, she just folded her arms and felt a little disappointed that he was gone. He had been so sexy and so mysterious to her, and the sex had been so fantastic that it was going to be hard missing him. It was going to be hard knowing that he was gone from her life.
“Damn,” she whispered.
*
