Declan + Coraline (3 page)

“You don’t remember?” He leaned back. “Doesn’t this place look familiar to you?”

I glanced around the diner, but nothing came to mind.

“This morning you came in here soaking wet and fighting with an umbrella while you laughed at yourself.”

I paused as I looked out at the dark street, and then back at the entrance.

“You also wounded my pride when I went up to you, and you ran out without even looking back.”

“No way. I would have remembered you.”

“Apparently you left a much more lasting impression than I did. This time I hope to rectify my past mistake, Ms. Wilson,” he whispered, and I shifted under his gaze. My skin suddenly felt hot, and I was at a loss for words.

“Two large coffees,” Beatrice interrupted us.

“Why large?” I tried to shift the conversation.

“You said only one coffee. I have to make it last.”

“Why?”

“Why what?

“Why did you follow me outside? Why’d you ask me out for coffee?”
Why had I left a lasting impression?
But I didn’t ask the last one.

“Because I thought you were beautiful from the moment I set my eyes on you, and I knew that I just had to get to know you.”

Whoa.
“Are you always this blunt?” I whispered.

“Yes.” He took a sip of his coffee, and his green eyes never left mine. “Especially when it comes to things I want.”

“And you seem like a man who always gets what he wants.” I frowned.

“You don’t seem pleased by that.”

I shrugged as I grabbed my coffee as well. “I don’t know much about your family, but I do remember that the Callahan boys are known for being major players.”

“And you don’t like being played with?”

“Who does?”

“People who play back,” he countered as he sat up. “Yes. My brothers and I enjoy women. But if I only wanted to sleep with you, we would be at hotel right now, Ms. Wilson.”

“You sound really confident about that. I’ve met men like you before, Mr. Callahan.”

“People should be confident about facts, and I don’t believe you’ve never met a man like me. However, like I said, I brought you here because I wanted to actually get to know the woman who ran away from me not once, but twice…but if you prefer a hotel—”

“There’s nothing to know,” I cut him off. “I’m quite boring.”

“I don’t believe that for a second.”

“I read, shop, work, and watch movies…” I laughed as I shook my head at myself. “It’s actually pretty sad. My cousin was the only reason why I came out tonight.”

“I’m glad she did.”

My leg brushed against his and we both froze. My heartbeat quickened.

“That was an accident!” I blurted out.

He smirked. “I’ll pretend you did it on purpose. I’m not used to being a gentleman. Touch me again if it suits you.”

Why did it feel so good to touch him?
Even something as seemingly insignificant as a light brush against his leg had me wondering what his skin felt like.

“I’ll keep my hands where they are.” Before they got me in trouble.

“Pity.” He frowned. “I really wanted to get out of this shirt.”

My eyes drifted to it and I remembered how I’d gotten in this position to begin with.

“You said in there that I spilled my drink on you to get your attention. Exactly how many times has that happened?”

“Are we talking my whole life or just this month?”

“Really?”

He nodded. “I have a mass grave of all the shirts that have fallen victim to the glasses of women...and a few men too.”

“How many of them have you followed outside?”

“Of the men…none, and of the women, also none. They would’ve had to leave for me to do that. And even then they would’ve had to offer to have my shirt dry-cleaned or give me a blank check…maybe both.”

“All part of my master plan, Mr. Callahan,” I said proudly before I sipped my coffee.

“You’re sending me mixed signals, Ms. Wilson. Did you plan on getting my phone number next or were you going to discretely leave yours on the table?”

“Would you even call?”

He paused as he stared at me intensely. “Believe me, I would. But would you?”

I shrugged. “I’d think about it.”

“Do much better than think. I’m not known for my patience.”

“That sounds like a personal problem.” I wasn’t sure where this bold Coraline was coming from. It was like he was pulling this out of me, or I was feeding off of the energy he was emanating. For the first time in my life, I felt sexy…desired.

His eyes traveled down the length of my neck, to the curve of my breasts before drifting back up to my lip.

“You’re tempting me,” he stated.

“I’m sure it’s only because you’re not getting what you want.” I smiled as I slid out of the booth. Before he could stand, I leaned down to him and placed my hands on his broad shoulders. “You want to fuck me, but I’m not going to allow myself to be just another woman you play with and throw to the side. Goodnight, Mr. Callahan.”

I speed-walked away from him as fast I could and I stepped out of the diner and into the night. The winds blew harshly against my skin, and I only managed to make it a few more steps before his hand was on my waist. He spun me back to face him, and without wasting a moment, he kissed me hard while his other hand reached up to cup my face. I had been a kissed a few times in my life, but never like this.

I melted into him, and I moaned as my lips parted and my mouth opened for him. He greedily accepted my invitation and his tongue explored and tasted every corner of my mouth.

“Wow,” I whispered as he broke the kiss and our lips parted.

“Your phone, where is it?” he questioned as his thumb pressed against my lips.

I reached into my purse without looking away from him. As I handed it to him, he took it and stepped back without releasing my waist. Then with one hand, he dialed his number, calling himself before he hung up and gave it back to me.

“Now you can go.” He released me completely and I found that I was already missing his touch.

He flagged down a taxi, and as he opened the door for me he said, “I’ll be waiting on your call. Good night, Ms. Wilson.”

I nodded, awe-struck and no longer able to think.

“Where to?”

“H…huh?”

“Where to, lady?”

“Raven Hill,” I whispered as I turned back to stare at Declan who was still standing on the corner, watching me as I watched him. My hands went to my lips.

“Wow.”

What just happened?

TWO

“You may not believe in magic, but something very strange is happening at this very moment.”

―Leonora Carrington.

CORALINE

“Did you get home okay?”
I reread the text message he’d sent over twenty minutes ago.

I couldn’t bring myself to reply. My head was still spinning. It was three a.m. and I couldn’t stop thinking about how hard his body felt as it was pressed against mine and how nice the kiss had been. No.
Nice
wasn’t the word—sinful, sexy, and delicious—that’s what came to mind.

Get yourself together, Coraline!

I wasn’t that person…the bold, sexy Coraline he’d met tonight wasn’t me, and I had no idea where she’d come from or how she came into being.

I should text him back, right?

“I got home fine. Thanks. Hope you did as well. You were nice tonight.”
Send.

Wait! No! “
You were nice tonight?
” What the hell did that mean? I threw the phone aside and buried my face in the pillow.

BUZZ

The second I heard it, I jumped towards the phone.

“Nice wasn’t what I was going for, but at least I finally made an impression.”

“What where you going for?”

“Passionate?”

I smiled.
“Mission accomplished.”

“I bet you say that to all the guys. So, you were the Valedictorian at Stanford?”

“How did you know that?” I whispered to myself. Before I could text him back, he sent an explanation in two consecutive messages. It was as though he knew I would be taken aback by his question.

“It was the first thing I that came up when I Googled you.”

Followed by…

“I Googled you because I couldn’t get you out of my mind.”

Reaching for my laptop on the other side of the bed, I Googled him too, and frowned at the very thing I saw.

“The first thing that came up on you was that a Victoria’s Secret model confessed to being in love with you.”

This was why I shouldn’t have texted him in the first place. I was way out of my league here. When I tried to click on the article, a 404 error message came up. Going back to the home page, the article was gone and I wondered if I had imagined the whole thing.

“What the hell?” I yawned to myself.

BUZZ

“We all have a past, Coraline. Get to know me before first before you decide who I am.”

“I will. Good night…again.”
I held the phone to my chest as I drifted off to sleep…thinking of him.

***

It was Sunday morning and Aunty Trisha, who was still in her robe with curlers in her hair, and Uncle Adam, who was nursing a hangover with some soup, were already self-medicating.

“What is this?” I held up the bill in my hand.

“Coraline, go yell somewhere else this morning,” my aunt mumbled, as she handed a cup of coffee to my uncle before she sat down.

“You spent almost forty grand in the last three weeks! On what? I just gave you money!”

“Coraline!” my uncle snapped at me. “Not now.”

Now was never the right time for them.

I put the bills back onto the table.

“I’m going to mass. We’ll talk about this later,” I said on my way out, and, like always, they spoke just loud enough for me to hear.

“What’s wrong with that girl?”

“Honey—” my aunt began.

“Money. Money. Money. She didn’t say anything when she flew herself to California! Don’t you forget that Wilson is my last name too! If her father wasn’t so damn greedy, I would’ve had my share!”

Ignoring him, I walked into the garage, and flicked on the lights. Grabbing the keys to my grey Infiniti, I pulled out as quickly as possible. I hadn’t even been home for a week and I was already tired of dealing with them. It was so much easier when I was far away. I could pretend to not get their messages or calls for a little while and it would force them to live off of what they already had.

Why did I move back?
I’d asked myself this question at least hundred times in the last five days. But I knew that the answer was that they were the only family I had left. No grandparents, no parents, no siblings, just them. I could take their abuse, but I couldn’t take the loneliness.

That was why I came back to Chicago. Besides, when you grew up here, it was kind of hard to leave. The city had its way of growing on you…the city of the wind. Sometimes if you stood still long enough, it felt as though those winds could pick you up and take you anywhere.

I was ten minutes early, but the parking lot for St. Peter’s Cathedral was already nearly full. A row of black luxury cars was parked in front; one Rolls-Royce, one Bentley, an Audi and an Aston Martin. It said something when the most discrete car in the lot was an Audi. Shaking my head, I grabbed my things, and turned my phone off as I walked inside.

I stopped at the church’s wall of donors, which stood right outside the second double doors that led inside. Smiling to myself, I ran my hand over the gold plate that had my parents’ names on it.

“Hi Mom and Dad,” I whispered before I headed inside.

I wasn’t religious, but I came because I knew they would’ve have wanted me to. I entered the packed church and took a seat in the back between an old woman and little boy.

“Hello,” I said to the cutie as I grinned. He smiled and hid his face in his father’s chest. Smiling at him, I, along with everyone else, stood as the priest came forward. I usually zoned out after this part, as I went through the motions of it all, however, my mouth dropped open as none other than Declan Callahan, dress in a fitted navy suit and silver tie, headed up towards the podium do the first reading.

“Sit,” the little boy next to me said as he pulled on my dress.

Realizing that I was the only one still standing, I sat down quickly and hoped that no one else had noticed. Unfortunately, the one person I wish hadn’t, did. Declan looked me straight in the eye and cocked an eyebrow. All I could do was grab the book in front of me and pretend to read.

“Proverbs 21:19-26. It is better to live in a desert land than with a
quarrelsome
and
fretful
woman.” As he read, he stretched out words certain words, and if I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought that he’d chosen this passage just to poke fun at me. He couldn’t even wipe the grin from his face.

I loved the sound of his voice.

The moment the thought hit me, I tried to block him out. Luckily, he had finished his reading and was already walking away from the altar, and back down to the first row.

Of all the churches in the city, why did he have to come to this one? And why didn’t I just sit down?

I tried not to think about him or anything else for that matter. That only lasted for a good thirty minutes or so. Before we all stood for the Eucharist, he came into view again. He stood off to the side with a golden tray in his hand. To my dismay, the lines divided and I soon found myself heading towards him like the Titanic towards an iceberg. There were too many people behind me to change lines, and when his green eyes focused on mine, I felt as though he was pulling me to him…it was the same feeling I’d had when I’d sat across from him at the diner.

“The body of Christ,” he said with a smile, as he held the host up.

“Amen,” I whispered as I stretched out my hands.

But he didn’t place it inside and I glared at him, waiting. His eyes shot to the older woman in other line, who opened her mouth for the priest.