Walking Away (3 page)

“Cora, talk to me baby,” he said as he moved to brush the hair out of my face. His sleeve pulled down slightly revealing the lines of a tribal tattoo that snaked down his entire right arm. God how I loved that tattoo. It was a huge turn on. “Coraline, come on sweetheart.”

That was all it took. I pulled myself up a little more and put my lips to his. He kissed me back, and hoisted me up a little higher on his body. He ran his tongue across my bottom lip and I moaned in response, opening my mouth to him for exploration. As his tongue entered my mouth, I slipped my hand under his shirt and savored the feel of his hard abs and smooth skin against my fingers. Before I could even register what he was doing, he gripped my hips and flipped us over so that I was underneath him with my back pressed into the cushions. I ran my hands up his stomach and traced the planes of his chest, all the while he deepened the kiss.

Just as he slide his hands up my shirt and cupped my breasts, someone knocked on the door.

“Son of a…! What the hell? Were we expecting anyone?”

It took everything I had to not burst out laughing right there. Over the last few weeks, I had grown accustomed to the us′s and we′s that Charlie would use, but I hadn′t said anything about it. He′d taken to spending more time here at my place than at his own, and we had talked a little about my meeting his family, but with the holidays rapidly approaching I wasn′t so sure. I wanted to meet the family that I had heard so much about over the last two months, but I still felt it may be too early.

Instead of laughing like I really wanted to do, I simply shook my head to indicate that no, we weren′t expecting anyone. Charlie climbed off the top of me, an action I was not very happy with at that point, and after adjusting his shirt, went to answer the door.

While I tried getting my own shirt straightened, the sound of Abigail′s shrieking voice ripped through the room. “Who in the hell are you?”

“Charlie Cross, and you are?” By this point, I had fixed my shirt as best I could lying down and I sat up watching the interplay between my boyfriend at the door and my sister on the other side of it. Laughing at this point would only piss them both off, so I made a valiant attempt at keeping a straight face.

I couldn′t see Abi from where I was sitting, but I could imagine the look she was giving Charlie when she said, “I am Abigail Renfro. This is my
twin
sister Coraline Renfro′s apartment, and she doesn′t know anyone named Charlie Cross, so you must be in the wrong place.”

Desperately trying to stop myself from laughing, I bit down as hard as I could on my cheeks. Charlie chose that moment to turn and look over his shoulder at me. I lost all control. Laughter bubbled up and out of me, just as Abi barged into the living room past him.

The next thing I knew, I was lying on the floor, grasping my sides, and fighting to breathe between the peels of laughter. Abi was looking at me as if I′d grown a third, maybe even a fourth head, and Charlie was doing his best to understand what could have possibly been so funny. Finally, I managed to get a hold of myself, and propped myself against the couch taking slow, deep, deliberate breaths.

“Are you done?” Abi hissed.

I nodded. It was all I could do.

“Just who in the hell is this?” She asked me pointing at Charlie.

I sucked my lips between my teeth and bit down, shaking my head at her.

Charlie decided to speak for the both of us. “As I said at the door, I′m Charlie. Cora and I have been dating for a couple of months now, and as her sister, I′m shocked that you don′t know about me.” He cast an accusatory glance at me.

Again, I shook my head and pointed at Abi. Interpreting that I wasn′t going to be doing any talking for myself any time soon, Abi spoke to Charlie and told him just why she hadn′t known about him.

“Cora and I had a fight. Well, actually that isn′t true. I had a fight with Cora, and we haven′t spoken in a couple of months. These things happen. She wasn′t moving on from Blake.” She stopped and quickly spun around to look at me.

“He knows,” was all I said.

Taking that as my okay to continue, Abi kept going. “I had had all I could take of her locking herself in this apartment, doing nothing but working all day and half of the night. I had to put my foot down. It was time she pick up and start over. She disagreed, so I left.”

Behind Abi, I stood up and rolled my eyes. She hadn′t told him everything, and we both knew it. “Tell him the rest, Abi.”

“What rest, Cora? There′s nothing left to tell,” she said as she turned back toward me.

“Tell him how you were going to try to make me go to that damned concert with you. The concert the four of us…” I never got the chance to finish, because Abi jumped in.

“I was not! That is a lie and you know it, Coraline! I only wanted you to wake up and see there was more out there than Blake fucking Parrish,” she screamed, “He was a loser, and you deserved so much better! I needed you to see that, but no! God forbid anyone try to tell you that you were worth more than the lies that asshole fed you! He never wanted to marry you! All he wanted was your inheritance!”

I was shell shocked. I wanted to scream at her, call her a liar. But what if she was right? Tears began to fill my eyes, but I knew I couldn′t let them fall. I was finished with crying over Blake. I looked up at Charlie just as Abi started to continue. “Cora, you actually believed…”

“That is enough, Abi,” Charlie′s voice boomed across the room, “You′ve said enough. I won′t let you continue to hurt her this way.” He stepped around her and gathered me into his arms. I threw my arms around his shoulders and buried my head into his chest.

Abi came closer to me and placed her hand on my back. “I′m sorry, Cor. I′m so sorry,” she said softly. “I only wanted to come say that I was stupid for not talking to you sooner, and all I′ve done since I came through the door was make it worse.”

I could almost feel the pain in her voice. I felt horrible. Unwrapping myself from Charlie, I turned to look at her. Her red hair was longer, and her eyes a lighter green from the unshed tears in them. Because it was late November, the freckles that normally dotted her face had faded a bit and her porcelain skin was nearly flawless. Looking at her, I couldn′t stay angry with her. I knew she′d meant well.

Reaching out to her, I gathered her into a tight hug. “It′s okay, Ab. I know you didn′t mean it.”

We sat there hugging each other for a few minutes longer and finally broke apart. Turning to Charlie, she apologized to him for her behavior. “I′m really sorry. Could we start over?”

“I′d like that,” he told her, smiling as he extended his hand to her. “I′m Charlie. It′s nice to meet you.”

Abi shook his hand. “Abi. It′s nice to meet you too.”

For the next couple of hours, I filled Abi and Charlie in on one another, and was happy to see that the two of them were getting along so well. Abi announced that she needed to be going, but insisted that she, Colton, Charlie and I needed to go out for drinks. Charlie and I agreed, and Abi headed home.

“So, you′ve met Abi,” I muttered as I leaned in to kiss Charlie′s mouth.

“I′ve met Abi,” he said kissing me back.

I kept kissing him, slowly running my hands up and down his back.

“Shouldn′t we talk about this?” he asked against my mouth.

“No.” I kissed him harder and ran my hands under the hem of his shirt.

He moaned slightly at the contact of my fingers with the skin of his back. I opened to him just enough, and his tongue slid past my lips and tasted every inch of my mouth. I moved my hands around to his stomach and then up to his chest. I wanted the shirt gone; I wanted to see him. Gradually, I worked the shirt up higher. In a single move, he reached back with one hand and yanked the shirt off over his head, tossing it across the room. Moving us backward, I eventually found my back against the wall.

“So, this is what you want?” He asked huskily.

I nodded in response and leaned in to fuse our lips together again. I was missing the contact. He placed his index finger against my lips and pushed slightly. “ Nope. Not that.”

Grabbing the bottom of my shirt, he lifted it up and off. My breathing increased with anticipation. Charlie leaned down and kissed a line from my chin to the tops of my breasts, while his hands gripped my hips and lifted me to wrap my legs around his waist. I did so, and locked my ankles so I wouldn′t slip. He pressed harder into me, holding me firmly to the wall. I could feel his hard–on pressing in between my legs. My God it was massive!

A moan of pleasure slipped from between my lips, and he quickly remove my bra. Taking one breast in his hand, he began to tweak the nipple with his finger while he sucked the nipple of my other breast into his mouth, tugging it lightly. I was on fire. Another moan escaped from me, and Charlie moved his mouth to the breast he′d been working with his hand.

Wiggling against him only served to arouse him further, causing him to press harder into me. I didn′t know if I would be able to take it much longer. “Please, Charlie. I need more. So much more,” I begged against his hair.

At first, I thought he hadn′t heard me, but then my feet were on the floor and he was slowly working my pants and panties down my legs. He made his way back up my body, kissing first my ankles then up my calves, past my thighs, leaving his hand to rest at the apex. Gently, slowly, he ran his fingers into my wetness and I very nearly cried out at the contact.

“Holy God, you′re so hot,” he whispered kissing my mouth again. His fingers slowly slid inside of me, and I could barely contain my need for release. In and out, his finger moved at a steady pace.

My breathing picked up, and he moved his hand faster. “Yes. That′s it, Cora. Let go, sweetheart. I want to feel it.” At his words, I found my release and it was ecstasy. He wasn′t done with me though, and I was far from finished with him.

With my legs still wrapped firmly around him, and our mouths joined together, Charlie carried me into the bedroom, and laid me down on the bed. He broke the kiss long enough to stand up again and take of his pants.

“No underwear?” I asked cheekily.

“Hate it,” he grinned, then crawled back onto the bed toward me.

“Mmm… I like that.”

“Yeah? Well, I like this…” At that, he buried himself deep inside me with one hard thrust. I gasped in exquisite pleasure and called out his name.

Smiling, he looked down at me. His eyes sparkled in the moonlight that shone through the window over the bed. “You okay?”

“Better than. More. Now.”

He began to move at a slow, steady pace, and I moved with him. We stayed that way for a while, him moving in and out of me slowly, while he kissed my face and spoke to me in the most loving ways I had ever heard.

All too soon, his pace increased and my release began to build all over again. The faster he moved, the closer we came to the edge. Just as I was getting ready to close my eyes and revel in the rapture of it, I heard his deep, sexy voice in my ear. “No, Coraline. Look at me. Look into my eyes. I want to see it when I take you there. I want you to see it when we go together. Look at me now, love.”

My eyes snapped open and I looked directly into his. It was glorious. His eyes seemed to flare brighter than any light just as he spilled himself inside of me. My release came right on the heels of his, and we each watched as the other finished. It was the most intimate thing I had ever experienced.

Charlie rolled off of me well before I wanted him to, but made up for it by pulling me into his arms. “Do you have to leave tonight?” I asked him.

“Do you want me to?”

I tipped my head back just enough to see his face before I made my response. He looked so intent. As if leaving was the last thing he had ever planned to do. “Stay. Please.”

“Done,” was all he said before he pulled me into his arms again and cradled me against his chest. Just as I drifted off, I thought I heard him say that he loved me, but I couldn′t be sure.

***

The next morning, I woke alone. I turned over to find the left side of the bed completely empty and cold. Charlie had been gone a while if that was the case. I didn′t want to jump to conclusions, really I didn′t.

We′d been together for two months. Two months and we hadn′t once crossed the line from dating to sleeping together. Sure, we′d blurred it, but neither one of us had ever tried to cross it. Until last night.

Maybe it was my fault. I′d been worked up before Abi′s visit, and then I wasn′t thinking rationally after she said what she′d said. Add that to the fact that she and Charlie seemed to have hit it off, and I was pretty damned pleased. Not to mention that the entire time Abi had been here, Charlie kept giving me these smoldering looks and hooded gazes that spoke to the part of me that
needed
to have him all over me.

Rolling out of bed with a groan, I grabbed a towel out of the linen closet and jumped into the shower.
A note on the pillow, or hell, even a fucking text message saying ′I′m out′ would have been considerate.
It was Blake all over again, only this time I didn′t think I could handle it. At least I didn′t work with Blake. I didn′t have to see him every singe day after he left me. Hell, I hadn′t even seen him the day he did leave!

Frustrated and extremely pissed off by this point, I slammed out of the shower and back into my bedroom. Grabbing the first thing that looked clean, I got dressed with the intent of going to Rudy′s. No way was I going to sit in this damned apartment and torment myself over
another
man who likely couldn′t commit. Huffing and puffing on the way out the door, I didn′t even notice the black Toyota truck parked on the curb in front of my house until I heard a voice I hadn′t expected to hear again.

“I know that look. All too well,” I heard him say. I froze, contemplating looking up and seeing the face that had haunted me for nearly a year.

This isn′t happening. It isn′t real. Just keep your head down and get your ass to Rudy′s.
The next words out of his mouth snapped any resolve I had to not look at him and keep walking.