Love Charms (14 page)

“Maybe
she’s right,” Rebecca said, coming to look at the marks.

The
pair flanked Annie now, and her eyes flickered from one sister to the other in
the mirror.

Chloe
crossed her arms. “Annie, you are not leaving here with some strange guy I
don’t know.”

“Who
are you, my mother?” Annie scoffed, picking up the make-up and shoving it back
into the medicine cabinet.

“Annie,
please...we love you,” Rebecca said, holding onto her arm and resting her cheek
against her shoulder.

“We're
just thinking of your safety,” Chloe added.

“I
know, I know.” Annie sighed, doing a last once-over in the mirror and turning
to face them. She put an arm around them both and they hugged her back. “Okay.”
Annie relented, shaking her head. “You win, I'll go get him.”

Annie
made her way back toward the kitchen. She saw John on the way, dancing with the
red-haired girl, his hands way too low on her ass. He leered at Annie as she
passed, and she gave him the finger. She wondered if Eric was already out on
the front porch. She looked out the beveled glass in the door, but she didn't
see him standing out there. She glanced behind her and saw Chloe and Rebecca
talking to Dave, her sisters looking pointedly at her.

"I'm
going!" Annie mouthed. She stood at the door for a moment, wondering why
her hands were shaking, why her breath was so shallow and her heart was beating
so fast. She had every right to go into her sister's kitchen, every right to
turn on the light. Besides, they were right, she had to know.

She
took a deep breath, opened the swinging door with one hand, and flipped the
light on with the other. She stood, holding the door open, staring at the
kitchen. One chair was still pulled away from the table. The table itself was
slightly askew from their arduous attention.

Where
is he?
Annie stepped
toward the table, letting the door swing closed, and peered underneath, just to
be sure. She smiled, remembering, her hand gliding over the smooth surface.

"No
lights, Annie. It was all I asked." His voiced was pained, hoarse.
"You promised."

She
whirled around, her hand over her heart, to see him standing behind the door.
“Eric?” It was a question, but she knew. It couldn’t be anyone else, although
the difference between her expectation and reality staggered her. He was the
most physically beautiful man she had ever seen.

“You
made a promise.” He turned and pushed through the swinging door. “Why couldn’t
you keep your promise?”

In
her panic, Annie forgot how to breathe, and those few moments of stunned
silence cost her. She followed him through the dancing couples, calling his
name. The front door stood open, the porch light on. She hugged herself against
the cold February wind as she peered out the door. Stumbling down the steps,
she stopped at the sidewalk, looking frantically in both directions to see
which way to run, but there was no sign of him. He was gone. Annie sat on the
stoop, burying her face in her hands. She gave into her lament with a long,
mournful wail that brought both of sisters running. They tried to comfort her,
but Annie found no solace in their murmured words, lost in the sudden,
unexpected breaking of her heart.

Chapter
Three

“Annie,
I think I got it!” Rebecca announced with a squeal.

Annie
pressed the speakerphone button off, picking up the receiver and putting one
finger up to her client.

“Yes?”
Annie asked, turning her face toward the wall.

“Do
you remember Sarah McLean?”

“No.
I’m with a client.” Annie smiled an apology over her shoulder at the woman
sitting on the tan leather sofa. The black bag she was clutching to her side
shook so much with the woman’s anxiety that, when she first came in, Annie had
been sure that there was a small dog inside.

“Okay,
I’ll talk fast. Sarah McLean is organizing our ten year class reunion and she
called me yesterday asking if I had any current numbers for people. Can you
believe it’s been ten years since I graduated—?”

“Rebecca!”

“Yeah,
yeah. So anyway, I was looking through my book, and I remembered who Eric was.
He was that hot guy who moved to our school in my senior year, remember? My
god, if he aged well, you’re right, he’s gorgeous!”

“Rebecca!”

“Yeah,
okay. Anyway, I forgot that I had called Eric’s mom the week of the Valentine’s
party, asking if she had a new number for him. He’s your Eric, Annie. I’m sure
of it!”

Annie’s
brow knitted, and she grabbed a pen. “Give me a number.”

“Now,
remember, this is his mother. But I’m sure she can tell you his new number. I
know I wrote it down once because I called and left him a message inviting him
to the party, but I don’t seem to have it in my book—”

“Number,
please,” Annie reminded her.

Rebecca
rattled it off.

“Her
name?”

“Gosh,
I don’t remember. His last name is Desiree, but I don’t know if they’re the
same.”

“Okay,
thanks, I’ll call you back.” Replacing the receiver, Annie faced her client. “I
apologize for the interruption. Please continue.”

The
slight woman moved her purse to her lap, as if it was a shield, and began
talking again in a small, quivering voice. Annie nodded, picked up her notepad
again and scribbled as she listened. Her pen circled the number in the margin
twice, and her brow knitted again, her lips pressing together.

Eric.
She could still feel the disappointment of her error like a weight compressing
her soul. She saw him in her darkest moments—his beautiful, crestfallen
face—and his sad, betrayed look just before he had disappeared. Annie
wrote down “severe anx/neurosis, further testing req” at the end of her notes. The
client had stopped speaking and was looking at her expectantly.

“How
does that make you feel?” Annie asked, and when the woman spoke again, her
words droned with a troubled, rising buzz.

Annie
often believed she could diagnose from tone alone. Her thoughts wandered again,
and she remembered back in February, the secret feeling of sitting with Eric in
the darkness under her sister’s kitchen table, how much they had learned about
each other in that short hour together. Probably more than she had ever learned
about any client in a fifty minute session.

“Well,
our time is up,” Annie said, sensing a pause. “Is there anything else you
wanted to address today?”

Her
client stood, still clutching her bag in her fists. “No. Thank you, Dr.
Thanos.”

“I’ll
see you next week.” When Annie shut the door behind her and leaned against it
with a sigh, she consoled herself that she had spent at least most of the hour
being attentive to her work. She rubbed her eyes, sitting in her rolling chair
and pulling it up to the computer so she could type in her notes. The number
stared back at her—circled twice.

Before
she knew it, the phone was in her hand. She punched the buttons with her pen,
hesitating before pressing the last one.
Do I really want to do this?
Her stomach lurched, and she reached for one of the Saltines she kept hidden
behind the Kleenex box, stuffing it into her mouth and pressing her pen down on
the last number.

It
rang nine times before someone answered. She counted, having resigned herself
at ring six to give up at ring ten. Unfortunately, it was just a machine
finally kicking in.

“Hello,
darlings, this is Dita. You know what to do.” BEEP.

Annie
swallowed her cracker dry. “Hi there. I am calling for the reunion committee
for the Class of 1996, and I’m looking for a current number for Eric Desiree.”
She left her name and number on the machine and hung up.

Fifteen
minutes later, having tried to find Eric using Google, the Yellow Pages, and
every other means she could think of, she stared at her computer screen, her
motionless hand still on the mouse.

I
have to find you.
Annie
rubbed her eyes again, toeing off her heels and putting her feet up on her
desk. She smiled, remembering how she had bumped her head leaning back in the
chair that night and how he had comforted and tended her. She remembered the
heat between them, like a shock, the incredible passion of that night. She
drifted, giving in to her exhaustion.

Eric’s
hands slid slowly up her thighs. She loved his hands the most, so large and
warm, the way he pulled and grabbed at her, like he wanted her. What was it
about him, that she knew it, without even a trace of doubt? It was in his eyes,
his hands. He wanted her.

The
black velvet darkness enveloped her and she strained her eyes in the dimness.
Where was she? She touched the hard, cold surface under her hands. Her body was
splayed for him, her arms and legs thrown wide, her hair fanning out over her
shoulders. She knew she was beautiful, like a goddess. If only he could see
her…

His
hands spread her legs further apart and back, exposing her completely to him.
His fingers probed, his tongue, too, the wet heat of his mouth so hungry! He
made eager sucking and licking sounds between her legs, drinking her like she
was the only nourishment he’d had in eons.

Annie
moaned in her sleep, shifting in her chair, the aching heat between her legs
growing intense. Her hand found its way up under her skirt, cupping the damp
crotch of her panties.

Eric’s
fingers became rougher, spreading her open, shoving into her and curling up
again and again, like he could peel her from the inside. She writhed and
moaned, bucking against him, not caring if someone heard. He wanted to hear
her. Somehow, she knew he wanted her response, and she gave it to him.

Then
he moved onto her. It was so fast, and yet it seemed to go on forever. He had a
hundred hands, grabbing her breasts, pinching her nipples, cupping her ass,
plunging into her pussy. She tried to keep up with him, but she couldn’t. She
could only let him have her, take her.
My pussy was yours the minute you
touched it, Eric…
She knew the whispered thought was true. Her pussy
responded for him in ways she didn’t understand, as if it were weeping with joy
at his touch.

His
cock was hot steel, impaling her again and again. She couldn’t get enough of
it, of him. What was it about this man that made her want to worship every
sweet, glorious inch of him? Never had someone filled her so completely, made
her long for him so much. Her pussy spasmed as she felt herself being opened by
him, bit by bit, the hard press of his flesh spreading hers. The way he stayed
there and kissed her before he started pulling out, the throbbing feel of the
tip buried deep inside of her made her close her eyes and clutch at him. He
used that deliciously fat, bulbous head to collect all her juices, pulling it
along her hot, tight passage toward the light—wetting the way.

He
hesitated for a moment and then…oh, god, he started to fuck her so
hard—so hard and fast and breathless and sweaty in the heat of the sun.
The light? Where was the light coming from? She was aware of the ground beneath
her now as they rocked. There was the sound of water coming from somewhere, but
her eyes didn’t search it out. Instead, Annie opened her eyes and saw
him—the most beautiful man she had ever encountered. She gloried in the
sight of him, and knew he was hers. She could feel it in the way his thighs
pressed against her, see it in the way his dark hair curled behind his ear, and
knew it in the outline of his mouth, drawn tight, as he drove even deeper
inside of her.

“Eric,
look at me!” Annie urged, wrapping her legs around his waist. “Please, look at
me.”

She
felt his smile against her cheek. “I don’t need to.”

And
she knew it was true. He knew her in ways she didn’t even know herself.

They
sank into blackness again, floating on a mattress like a soft cloud in the
darkness. He fucked her with all of his strength, his muscles straining, his
breath hot on her face. She met him, crazy with her own lust, bucking under him
until her body screamed for release. She moaned and gasped in his ear, calling
his name, begging him for more. The words didn’t matter, she just had to
release her breath, or die. And he gave her what she wanted, left and right and
sideways and upside-fucking-down.

He
was relentless. He pinned her legs back practically to her ears, driving into
her with a force that didn’t seem possible. His fingers rubbed her clit, just
the way she loved, using the hood to tease the little bud underneath. She felt
her climax swelling like something about to burst. He seemed to know it, too,
because he gave her even more, grinding his pelvis into hers, forcing her pussy
to its edge and beyond. She came all over his cock in great, shuddering waves
that made her clench around him in sweet desperation.

But
he didn’t stop. He wouldn’t stop. He spread her out onto her belly, his cock
shoving so far up inside of her that she thought she could taste it. She just
let him take her, going along for the ride. The weight of him was crushing the
breath out of her, leaving her panting and clawing at the mattress.

He
quickly sent her out into orbit again, and she couldn’t remember how to get
back. Eric bit at her neck and shoulder as she came again, his cock impaling
her, and still, he didn’t stop. She tried to crawl away, almost frightened by
the intensity of his lust, but his tongue changed her mind. He rolled her onto
her back and licked her. She was a dripping mess and he licked her clean,
moving around so he could shove his hard cock down her throat.

She
could barely stand that position. He used her throat like another pussy, just
driving into her. Annie gasped and pushed against his hips. Just when she
thought she couldn’t do it anymore, his tongue and fingers working between her
legs inched her up another notch, to a place where she could ride with it
again, lost in the sensation. It was as if he knew every threshold and pushed
her eagerly just to that edge.

Annie’s
fingers were pressing between her legs, and she moaned softly. The wet throb of
her clit moved closer toward physical release.

There
was no warning, no build-up. One minute he was licking her, and she was
struggling to handle the length of his cock down her throat, and the next
minute, he had his hand in her hair and he was turning her over onto her hands
and knees and shoving into her from behind. There were no words between them,
just sounds, like animals grunting and gasping.

Annie
whimpered, twisting in her chair. Her head lolled back as her fingers pressed
the wet crotch of her panties.

She
didn’t think her pussy could take any more of his cock, but when he turned her
around and pressed into her flesh, it was like sinking a post on a muddy
day—she had no resistance left. He could have done anything to her. She
was his. She had always been his.

She
sucked and licked and bit at the buttons on the mattress. She didn’t know what
had happened to the sheet. They rocked together, hard, and she grabbed onto the
edges to keep from falling over, pushing back into him like she was riding some
incredible force pressing deep within. Her pussy felt stretched to its limit.

He
grabbed her hips and squeezed, driving his cock so far into her that she was
thrown forward, half off the mattress, hissing and clawing at the shock of the
tile floor underneath. He was filling her, coming hard, his growl rumbling
through her body. She was so tight around him—or he was so huge inside of
her—that she could actually feel the pulse of his shaft, waves of him
spurting upward along the underside of his cock.

Annie
gasped and shuddered, her body jerking alive in the wake of her orgasm.
Consciousness came slowly as she blinked and stared up at the ceiling, shaking
her head as if to clear it. She swore she could feel him, still hard, sliding
out of her pussy.
Eric?! Don’t leave me!
It made her want to cry. She
didn’t want him to go. But he was gone. The air around her was still, and the
light in her eyes was blinding.
You promised. Why didn’t you keep your word?
That’s when she realized she was really awake. Her watch was beeping, chiming
the time for her next client. She started, still disoriented and groggy. She
slipped her shoes back on and rushed to open her door. No one had shown up yet.

She
stumbled back to her chair, straightening her skirt, smoothing her hair.
Eric.
Where are you? God, I need you.
She had never thought that about any man,
but there it was. She could feel it like the ache between her legs.