Chapter 9

A Week Later

Will

I hadn’t been to this bar in years, but it still had that same upscale appeal it had before. My mother was watching Avery for the night so I could go out and have a little time to myself. Ever since Ella had left, I’d started to brood over Megan again. I knew that behavior never led anywhere good, and even though I wanted to keep brooding, I forced myself out of the house. I had convinced myself that all I needed to do was get laid by a stranger to push those thoughts and memories away.

A dark-haired woman walked up next to me and took a seat. She ordered a Jack and Coke and let out a deep breath. She was beautiful, with long, curled brown hair and light blue eyes. She looked to be close to my own age. I stirred my drink for a moment and then gathered my courage.

“That sigh sounds like it was a long day,” I said.

“Very long,” she replied, looking over at me. “It’s been one of those Fridays you are desperately grateful to have end.”

“I know that feeling. I’m Will.”

“Samantha,” she replied with a smile.

We sat and talked for quite a while, and I had to admit that she was easy to talk to. It probably didn’t help that she was impressed by my appearance, my manners, and the fact that she said I acted like a “normal guy” even though she had read the op-ed in the New York Times on me and my company. It seemed she had already known who I was when she sat down next to me. The conversation grew to flirting, and the opportunity was sure to arise soon. Then she leaned in and put her hand on my thigh.

“What do you say we get out of here and go back to my place?” she whispered. “We can have some more drinks there.”

“I like that idea,” I said, smelling her perfume.

But I stopped and started to think about it as she took care of her tab. As much as I wanted to get Megan off my mind, Ella was still there. Between the two of them, I was really starting to think I didn’t want to go home with this woman after all. How could I get out of it now? I didn’t want to be a jerk or rude, but I had completely changed my mind. I slowly slipped my hand in my pocket and pressed the side button on my cell phone, making it sound like it was ringing. I smiled at Samantha and stepped away, “answering it” and acting like I was talking to someone of importance. She watched me lustfully from a distance, but I had already disconnected myself from my opportunity with her.

“Hey,” I said as I walked back up to her. “I have bad news. That was my VP. We have a really big deal going down tomorrow, and they need me to come back in and sign off on some things.”

“A really big deal on a Saturday?”

“Technology never sleeps.” I smiled. “Here’s my card. We’ll go out sometime.”

With that, I turned around and walked out onto the curb and up the block a bit. I stopped and stepped out of the way of the foot traffic walking by, leaned against the side of the building, and tapped my head against the stone. I didn’t know what in the hell was wrong with me. That woman was beautiful, sexy, successful, and she had wanted to take me home. There I was, though, running away from her like she was a piranha or something. Immediately, Ella’s face appeared in my mind, and I shook my head, not understanding it. What had happened with Ella was just supposed to have been sex. Nothing more. And yet I was standing on the streets of New York, running from a beautiful woman, all because I couldn’t stop thinking about Ella.

The situation was completely impossible. I had to figure out what to do with it, but the truth was, I just didn’t know what. I had little to no experience with this. I had spent plenty of time trying to keep someone on my mind, but I’d never tried to get someone off it. I had thought a one-night stand would be enough to satisfy my interest in Ella. However, I was realizing it was just the start. I wanted more of her. The way our bodies moved together in the light coming in from my windows, the smell of her perfume wafting through the air, and the sound of her voice echoing through my head—it all completely bewitched me. I couldn’t think of anything I wanted more, and even the idea of being with another woman to satisfying those urges didn’t seem like it would be anywhere close to enough.

Those two times were obviously acting as teasers, and I felt like I had been restraining myself far too much out of fear of hurting her. She had admitted to fantasizing about me, and that was extremely arousing, but her innocence seemed to catch hold of me every time, forcing me to pull back. That needed to stop.

I pulled out my phone, scrolled to Ella’s number, and sent her a text just asking how she was doing. As I sat there trying to decide what to do next, my phone buzzed. I was shocked to see she had actually texted me back, and quickly. Maybe restraint really was the last thing I needed.

***

Two Months Later

Avery was in the other room, running around while he waited for me to be finished. I was packing a bag for him because his grandmother was picking him up from my house and taking him home for the weekend. She loved Avery so much and just wanted to be able to spend some quality time with him. I loved my son, but I had to admit that I was slightly relieved to have a bit of a break and let myself relax without worrying about lunches, bathroom breaks, and keeping my wild child amused enough that he wouldn’t be destructive. I had come home early from work to see him off. My mom had offered to pick him up from school, but I wanted to say good-bye before he left for the entire weekend. He needed time with a strong, loving woman figure, and his grandmother was exactly the woman for it. She had loved that little boy before he was even born.

After they left, I pulled out my phone and scrolled to the running text messages between Ella and I that had started that night two months before. I texted her a steamy message, telling her how I was thinking about her legs wrapped around me as we lie on the couch naked the whole weekend. Just a few minutes later, I received an equally erotic text back with her describing exactly what she wanted to do with my dick. I smiled and leaned back on the couch, adjusting my cock, which was starting to get hard just thinking about her mouth around it. We had been texting nonstop and Skyping whenever we had the chance for the last couple months. The Skyping was my favorite, especially when she found herself all alone in her dorm room.

I wasn’t sure what it was about the whole situation, but the texting, chatting, and thoughts of Ella had kept me surprisingly focused. I’d expected it to have the opposite effect. I barely found myself thinking about my wife anymore except for short, sweet, fleeting moments, but they weren’t even close to the crushing emotions I had endured before. I even found myself being happier around Avery almost all the time.

With everything that had happened over the last two months, I was starting to realize that my inability to stop thinking about Ella just might be a good thing. She satisfied me in ways I hadn’t been in years, and I couldn’t wait until she came back for her sister’s graduation. I wanted to fuck her over and over again, only coming up for air when necessary. In the end, though, when those thoughts would take over my mind, my conscience would arise and remind me that she was still a college girl, almost ten years younger than me. She wasn’t a mature woman who had seen the world, felt heartbreak, and knew what this kind of relationship was all about. In fact, I had to remind myself that it would be best to think of the entire situation as just temporary fun and leave it at that. Acting out on these texts and chats might not lead either of us down the road we were looking for, and hurting Ella was the last thing I wanted to do with all of this.

Still, it was only about fifteen hours before she would physically be one door down from me. She was coming back from school the next morning, and I was already aching to be with her. The last two months had been fun, but it had also been an incredible build up to something I wasn’t sure was the smartest idea. This girl was sexier than hell and knew exactly what to do and say to get me to the brink of lust. She was also, again, a young woman, new to the world, while I had seen the best and worst of it. I didn’t know what she had in mind for when she got back. Nor did I fully know where her mind was when it came to her and me. Was she going to expect something more than just sex? Was I going to give in to the nagging feeling in the pit of my stomach telling me there was definitely more to this whole thing than I was ready to admit out loud? In reality, I didn’t know what to expect. I knew what my mind was telling me to do, but when it came to my brain versus my dick, my dick almost always won out.

Later that night, I met up with Brian at a bar. We hadn’t seen each other except for in passing and at meetings at work. We started out by talking about work, the government contracts we had been scoring recently, and how amazing the business was progressing. After a few drinks, Ella crept back into my mind, and I figured that maybe it would be good to talk to someone about what was going on.

“So, I have this neighbor,” I said. “She’s young, a student at Harvard, and completely hot. The last time she was home on break, we slept together a couple times.”

“Wow,” Brian said, shaking his head. “I’m impressed. I met her once when I was over at your place. She is a hot young babe, not usually your type, but she should be. Just remember that the young college girls can be fun, but they can also get pretty clingy.”

“That’s not an issue,” I said. “I’m in complete control of this.”

The words came out, but in the back of my mind, I was no longer sure who was in control of the situation.