His Five Night Stand (5 page)

I had dreams that night. I found myself walking the halls of
The Holiday wearing nothing but a man’s white button down shirt. My legs were bare; I wore underwear and I was looking for someone. There was someone I needed.

I turned a corner and I felt a strong hand move across my body. A stranger pulled me onto the ground. I couldn’t see his face, but I could smell his scent. He smelled like sex and his body was hot with sweat. He hovered above me not penetrating me, but I could feel his throbbing cock brush against my belly, my leg.

I wasn’t afraid.

I knew him.

He was the one I’d been searching for.

“Don’t tease me,” I whispered. “I want to feel you. I want you inside me.”

I was dripping wet and my pussy ached, but he moved past my opening teasing me with his tip. His mouth on my nipples, his fingers playing with my clit I felt a wave of pleasure building between my legs.

This person, this faceless man explored me. It wasn’t sex in a way I’d experienced with Henry, but in some ways it was more sexual than anything I’d ever felt before. I wasn’t afraid I was aroused, excited. I felt an aching need that I’d never experienced.

I wanted this stranger.

I needed him.

His cock pressed between my legs flirting again with my wetness. His breath felt hot against my neck as his lips pressed against my skin. With my fingers on his backside, I tried to push him inside me, but he held his body taut and strong above me.

Then his mouth was against my ear; his voice was low and strong.

He whispered. “Tell me what you want.”

I woke up as I came.

The next morning
, I awoke to a text from Henry on my broken phone. “You OK? You need anything from the condo?”

It seemed so appropriate to read his lame message through the shattered glass. My body tensed and I suddenly felt as though I couldn’t breathe. Henry had no right to ask me normal questions anymore. And what did he want from me anyway? Assurances I hadn’t spent the night sleeping in an alley? I knew Cara had told him I’d rented a place. She had refused to tell him where. Was he looking for forgiveness?

There certainly wasn’t any of that going around in my heart.

My fingers poised on the phone as I struggled with what to do next. Seeing his name made me want to cry and vomit at the same time. The sick truth of it was that underneath all my anger there was a deep wound, a sadness that made me want to hit reply.

I missed Henry.

Henry the asshole I reminded myself. It didn’t matter. We had been together five years. I missed the familiarity and easiness of us together.

“Don’t be pathetic. Get a grip. Get a backbone,” I chastised myself as I dressed my body still humming from the dream the night before. My big mission of the day was to get my cell phone repaired.

I reminded myself that a dream with a stranger had been more erotic than anything Henry and I had done in years. We had been so distant from each other toward the end. It had been weeks since we’d had sex and it was hardly surprising I’d found myself in the arms of some faceless stranger in my dreams.

I thought about telling Cara about the moaning next door, but I was so embarrassed by my behavior. The last thing I needed was to give Cara another reason to think I’d made a mistake getting a place of my own so quickly. Even worse I did not want to be psychoanalyzed and learn that I was some sort of a voyeur on the road to deviancy.

I checked myself in the mirror. Ponytail, white fitted tee, yoga pants, and tennis shoes. I wasn’t a fashion plate, but I thought I looked respectable in that yoga-pants-wearing Seattle way. I had circles under my eyes and I still looked a little puffy from the drinking. I was definitely going to have to find a healthier outlet. Or was that the dirty dream a little voice whispered. You came in your sleep fantasizing about being fucked by a faceless man’s fingers. Maybe that’s what’s keeping you up late at night you dirty girl.

Maybe I did need therapy.

I stepped out into the hall closing my door, just as the door next to me clicked shut.

I swallowed, my mouth dry, afraid to look but more afraid not to.

I looked up.

A beautiful woman with long black hair and honey colored skin smiled at me. “Good morning,” she said. “Did you just move in?” She locked her door, which had a whole series of extra dead bolts that mine didn’t.

“Yes, just recently.”

Her green eyes twinkled as she smiled at me, her face revealing not a hint of shame. In fact, she looked luminous, satisfied. “I thought I heard some noises next door,” she said. “Welcome to the building, I’m Odessa.”

Odessa.

She was gorgeous, sexy, and amazing. She looked perfect for Theo and I felt incredibly guilty for spying on them.

“Callie,” I said, holding out my hand hoping she couldn’t read my mind. She’d heard noises? Had she heard my beer drop? Did she suspect I’d been eavesdropping on her sex fest?

And with that I shook Odessa’s hand, her fingers covered with rings. She wore a purple linen coat and high strappy sandals. She was voluptuous and leggy and magnetic. I could see why Theo wanted to be with her. Beautiful people like them belonged together.

“So is it just you, or do you have a lover as well?” She said the word lover a little lower, her voice husky, a wicked grin crossing her face.

I coughed, half choking on my answer. “No, nope just me. No lover.”

“That’s a shame,” she said, pouting. Then she tilted her head and looked at me with narrowing eyes. “You’re on your own. You just broke up with someone.”

It wasn’t a question.

“Um . . . I . . .” I stammered.

“You were with him for years and now you have a broken heart.”

Again, not a question.

I felt breathless and exposed as if I’d stumbled outside my apartment with no clothes on. “I did have a boyfriend, a fiancé actually, but there was no ring and we never set a date. It’s over now . . .” I stammered, unsure why I was over sharing with this woman.

“Oh honey,” she reached out and squeezed my arm. It was so bold and intimate but somehow it felt real. Her smile was genuine and her expression seemed to carry real concern. I inhaled sharply as a splash of tears filled my eyes.

“I’m sorry,” I said, waving a free hand in front of my eyes. “It’s just kind of fresh I guess. It’s been a really hard few days.”

“You are going to be all right,” she said turning to face me square on. She took both my arms in hand and squeezed. “Girls like us don’t just end up at The Holiday by accident. We end up here because this is a place to find love again.”

“Really?” A part of me knew what she was saying sounded like madness, but another part of me surged with hope. This was a magical place wasn’t it? I’d seen the lights outside and felt something in my core that told me I could call this place home.

“I’m kind of an expert at broken hearts,” she said. “I know just what you need.”

My heart hammered in my chest.

“I’m having a party tomorrow night,” Odessa said. “You can meet the other girls. I’ll send you the details.”

The other girls. Was I really one of them? “Thanks,” I said, standing still.

“And I’ll get you set up with someone who can help you with that broken heart.”

“Oh, I don’t think I’m ready to be set up.”

“Oh honey, I’m not going to get you a marriage proposal, believe me.” Odessa grinned. “Let’s just say I’ve already got someone in mind for you. He is the best medicine in the world.”

I was literally dumbstruck.

She walked away and then glanced back over her shoulder. “You heading out?” She held up her purse. I realized how dumb I looked standing outside my door, purse in hand like an idiot.

“Um, sorry. I forgot something,” I said, trying to laugh it off. “Have a great day.”

“See you tomorrow,” she sang and disappeared down the stairs.

I went back inside my apartment and closed the door, leaning against the wood trying to catch my breath. The best medicine in the world. A man. She was talking about setting me up with a man. She certainly had experience sleeping with beautiful men. Theo oozed sex. I wondered what he looked like underneath all those clothes. He probably had a six-pack; he most definitely had a six-pack. A six-pack and an enormous . . . What was wrong with me? A few days in this new building and I was already sex-obsessed. This couldn’t be healthy. Or maybe it was healthy. I felt totally unequipped to tell.

Even more complicated, talking to Odessa I felt like I had a secret. I was a spying school girl, peeking through a hole in the bathroom wall, listening through a crack in the door to things that were none of my business.

Odessa was so beautiful and confident and Theo was just about the sexiest man I’d ever set eyes on. Even if I couldn’t say it out loud. I knew that I wanted to know their secrets. I wanted to understand what went on between the sheets in their bed. What makes her scream like that? I wished I could ask her.

And she wanted to set me up at her party.

I felt like a girl who had tumbled through the looking glass. What was I getting myself into?

That night, Cara delivered a futon
, a bunch of boxes, and clothes from the condo. Henry had been kind enough to pack up my things. I was relieved and annoyed by the gesture. Cara also brought a bag of groceries, cereal, yogurt, fruit, and told me I needed more in my fridge than micro brews. Cara stayed until about 9:00 p.m., and we spent most of the time making up stories about how Sophia would dump Henry someday. After she left I crawled into my slightly more proper bed and found myself listening and wondering.

What was that beautiful couple next door doing?

At 10:00 p.m. they started. I hesitated a moment since now I had faces to attach to both the voices. There was Odessa in bed with her lover, Theo. The beautiful man with the wavy dark hair.

I resisted for as long as I could. My whole body tingling, I slipped out of bed quietly this time, and padded across the floor towards the wall.

The bed, the banging, the moaning, it all seemed louder this time. I couldn’t tell if it was my imagination but I felt as though the voices were coming through more than one wall, as if there were multiple beds in the other room. Odessa and Theo knew I lived here now. Wouldn’t they be quieter this time knowing I was only one very thin wall away?

I ran my fingers up and down the stucco, growing wetter and weaker as I listened. What was wrong with me? I didn’t do things like this. I’d never even watched pornography, and here I found myself craving the moaning and screaming of a couple I’d only said hello to.

I couldn’t resist. I slipped my fingers inside my panties and pressed up against my clit moving in steady circles. I closed my eyes trying to imagine what they were doing together. Was Theo going down on her, his tongue pressing against her like my fingers? Was he inside her now?

The stranger’s voice from my dream replayed in my mind. “Tell me what you want.”

When had I ever asked Henry for anything in bed? I’d never ever asked for what I wanted. I was horrified to realize I wouldn’t even know what to ask for. I’d never felt a need to ask or command. What did I really want out of a lover? I had no freaking idea.

But I knew what I wanted now. I wanted to come. I wanted to feel like Odessa on the other side of the wall.