Dedicated to @sonderingly because she's Rayna and who doesn't love Rayna :)
6
The next time I saw Stephen it was early October.
I haven't had sex in at least a month. The last time was with another one of Genevieve's failing attempts to get me to have a sex life again. He wasn't bad. He lacked the dominance, the control, the simple thing Stephen had made effortless for one to gain.
No man had the appeal and no one else was on my mind. I could still hear his voice in my thoughts as I tried to engulf my pleasure my own ways but failed.
Genevieve, being the wonderful observant one that she is, invited me out like the night she had done when I had first seen Stephen after a while.
But she only invited me out for one reason.
I had an anoxic brain injury.
The symptoms were all there. All because of a few minutes, definitely more than one minute where my brain was affected by the lack of oxygen in my body since that day.
Since I almost drowned.
Lightheadedness. The headaches. Lack of concentration. Dizziness. And more.
There was a part of me that thought that I could have been pregnant. That was the farthest thought in my mind considering how this has been happening since the incident. Before Stephen and I had decided what to do with one another that night. Since I almost drowned.
Since I almost drowned.
It was a mild case and I had an MRI scan in a couple of days in case there was anything else. Treatment wouldn't be bad from my perspective. It could have been worse. A part of my brain could have been damaged even further and I may not be able to pronounce my words properly. Everything could have been so much worse.
Since I almost drowned.
Genevieve sensed it. For the past week, I've been racking my mind over it. The possibility that everything could have been worse. But with her manicured claws, she dragged me out of our shared house, away from the thoughts piling upon each other in my mind.
We were in the bar and I could faintly hear Genevieve capturing her theoretical prey, a handsome dark-skinned man, who seemed to enjoy her company. I had already figured that when she had invited me out that she wouldn't be home later in the night.
Another man appeared beside me. He smelled like a pine forest, enchanting for some but I was not one to taken by it. He flirted with technique, telling a woman what they wanted to hear with the usual compliments and the opposition that he had seen me by myself even though I hadn't been alone the entire night despite Genevieve's flirtation to others.
I even went as far as to let him touch my arm. I continued speaking when he asked me questions, a fake smile on my face. Genevieve had told me to have a good time tonight and I was intent on doing so. The thoughts of Stephen I had tried to push out of my mind as the man talked, trying to unnoticeably trail his hand to my waist.
The mere motion did not last five seconds for I was going to move his hand but someone else did anyway. "I believe you are touching what is mine."
Stephen pulled me off the stool and away from the man with ease, a hand on my back. I didn't even look at him but inside I was seething with anger. He smelled like he always did, a scent so intoxication I yearned to turn around and breath him in. I yanked my arm away from him, avoiding the eyes of both men and made my way over to the restroom.
I didn't make it there.
I was pulled again with a slighter greater force than before, clutching my purse to my chest. When outside, Stephen whirled me around. He looked pissed and I, on the inside, was pleased. "What?"
"What was that?"
"I was simply talking to another man inside the room."
His jaw ticked, his eyes brighter than the city light hanging over us. "Talking? Just talking? He had his hands on you."
"And? That has nothing to do with you. I allowed him to touch me and I probably would have let him go further if you hadn't interfered."
His nostrils flared, his eyes searched my face with any indication that I meant what I said. "You wouldn't have."
"You don't know that." I responded. Before I knew it, I was moved past the club. Stephen had lured me away from the avenue to the alleyway a block away.
I was pressed up against the brick wall. My hair raised on my neck from the cold emitting from the air and the wall but the heat was prominent on my front was enough to disappear. The heat coming from Stephen's body as he pressed himself against me, his lips on my neck.
"You would have let him kiss you? Here?"
I failed to respond, my hands pulling his jacket off and I faintly heard it fall to the floor, the both of us not caring in the slightest. Stephen continued to make his way on my neck, the feeling leaving me gasping for air. He pulled away slowly, his hand sliding up my neck to look at him. "Answer me."
"No." I whispered. He kissed me eagerly and possessively. Stephen's kisses were intense and hot. As if he was the sun and I touched him knowing that he was going to burn me in the end. The figurative heat from him devoured me like a flammable object in a fire. I allowed it to do so, my emotions on haywire, my mind on him. Only him. It was wild, infuriating, all emotions he was sending to me twisted into such lust I became dizzy.
Stephen stopped, his lips hovering against mine as he chuckled deeply. "I missed your sounds, Juliana. Did anyone else get to hear you like I did?"
I didn't answer and my moment of hesitation must've fueled Stephen even further. He seemed discontent, his lips brushing across my cheek, his hand that was cold unlike the rest of his body making its way up my dress. He brushed his lips over the shell of my ear as his hand cupped my pussy. I moaned against his shoulder, hoping no one could hear me in the night. Scratch that-I didn't care if anyone heard me, I wanted this more than anything. I had been through withdrawal for a month and my addiction was in front of me, wanting to take me in an alley.
"Did any man make you come like I did," He breathed against me, pulling my panties to the side to subtlety slip his fingers inside me. "Did you come Juliana?"
"No." I squeaked out, wanting him to move.
Sensing my anticipation, he moved his fingers inside me. With power. With ease. His mouth found it's way back to own and the movement of his tongue against mine along with the thrust of his fingers foiled the memory of his cock sliding in and out of me. I moaned inside his mouth, his taste enveloping me, ruining me until my senses obliterated and the only remains were of him.
He slid his fingers out of me, pulling my dress back down. "I need you now."
When he stepped back, a part of my sanity came back and I leaned my head back, feeling sexually frustrated but angered at the same time. I tried to keep my distance, creating a force I knew he could break but respected my boundaries. "You-you can't do this."
"Can't do what?"
"You can't just appear out of nowhere and suddenly fuck me like you did before. You had no right to take me out of there nor to claim me as your own when you know that I am not. You can't make me feel this way when it was clear that you didn't want me in the first place."
"Juliana," he breathed out my name like it caused him anguish. "I never said I didn't want you."
"I meant in the way that I want you." I corrected, my breathing back in order but my heart continued to race. Loudly. Quickly. All because of him. Only him.
"I never said I didn't want you in that way either." He whispered, pressing his lips to my cheek softly.
"Yes. Yes, you did."
"No, baby, I didn't. I said I couldn't give you what you want me to. I didn't plan for you to ignore me in the end. I didn't plan for myself to go back lonely nights when I had you. Your presence alone is beautiful as you are. A month without you was bad but a man that thinks he can go after you when I'm in your proximity is even worse."
I murmured his name as he stepped closer, his hand pushing a lock of my hair out of my face, his finger tilting my chin up. He kissed me and for the first time it was light. Delicate. Exquisite. It wasn't hungry, or lust-filled. It was sweet yet sensational enough I could feel it down to my toes. "Come back to the apartment with me. I need you."
I needed him too.