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“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.
