Claiming Carter (4 page)

All of a sudden, Lexy just stopped talking in the middle of her sentence. It was like she was frozen. She didn’t move or blink. She just stared behind me. The look on her face made me nervous. I thought that I was about to be approached by another geek who wanted to buy me a cherry martini, so at first I didn’t turn around.

“Lexy, what the hell is wrong with you?” I inquired, still not turning around.

“Umm … I, uh …” Lexy stuttered.

“What? Earth to Lexy. Snap out of it and tell me what is going on. What are you staring at?”

Lexy didn’t say another word. Instead, she motioned for me to turn around with her head. I slowly swiveled my barstool around and caught a glimpse of what she was looking at.

At first, all I could see was a group of about eight black men standing around a table. They were obviously paying and getting ready to leave. It struck me as odd that they were all so well dressed. Most of them had on black suits, but there were others who weren’t sitting at the same table who weren’t wearing suits at all, choosing to tone it down with pressed, button-up shirts and very fancy shoes. Most of the men were older, and starting to develop gray hair on their stubbled faces, and I couldn’t figure out what the hell was worth staring at.

I turned back around to Lexy who was swaying from side to side, obviously trying to see something that was being hidden from her view.

“Lex, seriously, what the hell?” I asked again.

Suddenly, Lexy gasped loudly. “Oh my god, Lil. Turn around right now.”

“Seriously, Lex, this better be something worth looking at.” I turned around again, and that’s when I saw him.

He wasn’t anywhere near as old as the other men in the group. This man was wearing a gray suit with a light blue underneath that had the top two buttons undone, revealing a muscular, heavily tattooed, hairless chest. His beard was perfectly trimmed around the sides of his face and mouth and his short hair was perfectly edged on all sides. He had one hand on the table and the other by his mouth, revealing an obviously expensive silver watch with a light blue face that was surrounded by diamonds, and his hand and wrist were covered in tattoos. His purple handkerchief was perfectly stuffed into the outside pocket of his jacket.

I couldn’t stop staring. It was like I was watching a model during a photo shoot. His caramel skin was as flawless as the diamond studs in his ears. He opened his mouth to speak to one of the other men and my attention immediately dropped down to his perfectly plump lips. I couldn’t hear anything he was saying, but I watched his gorgeous mouth move until he was done talking. I knew at some point he could look up and see me, but it was like I was stuck in a trance and I couldn’t move. I just kept staring at him. He was physically perfect.

“Okay,” I heard Lexy say from behind me, “make it a little less obvious, Lil. Don’t look like a stalker.”

“Who is that?” I asked as I continued gawking.

“How the hell should I know? Just stop staring. Shit, he’s getting up. Lil, turn around!”

The man rose from his seat and every man around him seemed to move out of the way so that he could get up. When he stood, I saw his perfect build. He was at least six-foot tall and probably weighed about two-twenty, with thick arms and wide shoulders. I glanced around the restaurant and every woman within eye sight was staring at him. One woman received a small nudge from her husband when he caught her staring at him. He commanded the room without saying a word, and as he began walking, the older men followed suit.

I couldn’t help but watch him as he walked. My heart rate had sped up to twice its usual speed and I had an unusual tingling sensation in an area that hadn’t gotten any attention in over a month. As he approached, my heart stopped and I held my breath when we made eye contact. He locked his eyes on mine and tilted his head to the side as he squinted at me, and the next thing I realized, my pussy was actually wet just from him looking at me. He gave me a small smile as he passed by and it was like he was the only person moving in the entire restaurant. I watched him until he and his entourage finally exited the bar.

“Damn,” Lexy said, finally snapping me out of my stupor. “Did you see him staring at you? Holy shit. Lil, did you see that? Lil?”

It was like I couldn’t believe what I had seen. My eyes blinked over and over again like I’d been staring directly at the sun. I adjusted in my seat and realized that I was going to have to excuse myself to go to the restroom to fix my “problem.” I hadn’t ever experienced anything like that before.

“Lil, are you okay?” Lexy asked again. “Did you see him? He was staring right at you. Tell me you saw that.”

“Holy shit,” I replied softy as I shifted in my seat again and felt myself begin to blush. “Yeah, I saw. I definitely saw.”

I don’t think I had ever seen anything as beautiful as that man before in my life. Everything about him was sexy: the tattoos—so abundant that he couldn’t cover them all—his perfectly pressed suit, his fancy blue and gray shoes, and the authority he seemed to have. It was obvious that he was the man in charge of the group, and I wondered what it was that he did for a living. He seemed really young to be a CEO, or the head of a company, and he was surrounded by men who were obviously older than him, yet they seemed to be waiting on him. They didn’t leave until he left. When he stood up, they moved out of his way. He was powerful, and there wasn’t anything sexier than a powerful man.

I remembered the way he looked at me with those deep, dark brown eyes. The way he squinted at me as he tilted his head to the side like a cute puppy, sending chills through my entire body. It may have only been for a split second, but he actually looked like he was interested in me.

As I lay in my bed the next day, I could only imagine what I would have done if he would’ve approached me. What if he would’ve asked to buy me a drink? There was no way I would’ve turned that down. What if he would’ve asked me for my number? Was there a woman in the world who would’ve said no to that? I bet Lexy even would’ve given him her number.

What if he would’ve placed his hand on mine as I sat at the bar? I wouldn’t have pulled away. I would’ve held his hand as long as he wanted me to. I even would’ve rubbed his hand, and tried to creep my way up his arm so I could rub his shoulder and his perfectly toned chest. I would’ve caressed his neck and grabbed him from behind the head and pulled his face close to mine so that we were only inches away from each other. Then what?

What if he would’ve kissed me? What if the entire bar stopped drinking and mingling with each other just so they could watch us? Would I have stopped him from kissing me? There was no way I would’ve stopped him. I would’ve sucked his tongue as he thrust it in and out of my mouth while I moaned in front of everybody in the bar. He would’ve been able to do whatever he wanted to me, in front of all of them.

Even if he began rubbing his hand up my leg until his he pushed my skirt up to my waist, I wouldn’t have stopped him. He could have pulled my panties to the side and pushed his fingers inside of my dripping wet pussy until I groaned with intense pleasure. He could have stood up, grabbed me by my hair and pushed my head forward until my face was on the cold marble bar top, while he pulled out his throbbing, erect cock in front of everyone. He even could have pushed his huge dick deep inside of me with everyone looking, and I still would have let him do it. He could have slid his cock in and out of my pussy over and over again as I became wetter and wetter.

“Oh my god,” I said loudly as I rolled over in my bed. “That is so good!”

He could have kept thrusting in and out, pounding his dick inside of me until my ass became red and sore from his waist smacking up against it. He could have spanked me so hard that the sound would have echoed throughout the entire restaurant.

“Oh shit! Oh my god!”

He could have kept going, fucking me harder and harder in front of everyone while I screamed for him not to stop.

“Yes! Yes! Fuck me! Oh my … please don’t stop. I’m about to …”

He could have grabbed a hold of my hair and used it as leverage to fuck me harder and harder until I came harder than I ever had in my life.

“Oh my god, I’m coming!” I screamed loudly as an intense orgasm shook me from my head to my feet, and I clutched the sheets on my bed, pulling one side loose and exposing the mattress. I clinched my eyes shut as the sensation spread throughout my body while my vibrator continued to buzz inside of me. It was the first orgasm I’d had in months.

“Holy shit,” I said as my body went limp and I placed the vibrator on the bed next to me. Apparently, seeing my mystery man yesterday had awakened something up inside of me, and I’d actually gone to bed last night thinking about the man that I hadn’t met. I’d never seen him before—Chicago is a big city—and I would, more than likely, never see him again, but I got the feeling he would be my muse every time I looked at my vibrator.

About an hour and a half later, I was out of the shower and fully dressed in a pair of black short shorts that left my tattoo of a pinup girl on my leg exposed, and a black and pink Suicide Girls tank top. It was Sunday and I didn’t really have much to do except finish grading my last stack of papers and maybe watch some TV before diving back into Fifty Shades of Grey. I grabbed the remote and plopped myself down on my couch in front of the TV.

There wasn’t anything on, and I flipped through all of the pages on the guide about ten times before finally settling on a Snapped marathon on the Oxygen channel. The episode was about a man who’d hired three different hit men to kill his wife so that he could be with his mistress, but none of the hit men had been successful. The funny part was that the wife actually thought it was all the mistress’ fault and wanted to stay with her husband anyway. The things women do when they are in love.

At about seven-forty-five in the evening my phone rang. I looked at the Caller ID and winced when I recognized my mother’s name and number. My mom and I had always had a decent relationship, but lately she’d been on my case about finding a “good man” to spend the rest of my life with so that she could have some grandbabies. She wasn’t happy when I told her about what Tim had done with the nurse, but she was even more upset when I told her that I’d left him because of it. “All men cheat, it’s just something we have to accept,” she’d said. I certainly wasn’t in the mood for that shit at the time and I’d ended the conversation quickly. Ever since then, she’d called me every Sunday, asking about the men I’d met throughout the week and wondering if I thought they were “the one” or not. She didn’t like when I said they probably weren’t.

I waited for the phone to ring a few times before I answered it so that my mom wouldn’t know I was just sitting by the phone all alone. I wanted her to think I actually had a life.

“Hi, Mom,” I said upon answering.

“Hey, Lilliana. How are you, sweetie?” my mom replied. She never liked the idea of shortening my name to Lily, so she was the only person on Earth who still used my full name.

“I’m fine,” I said, “just hanging out, finishing grading some papers before I head to bed.” I said.

“Oh, okay. I won’t keep you long, then. How was your week?”

I let out a familiar sigh. “My week was fine. Same ole, same ole, Mom. How about you?” I replied.

“Oh, I’m fine, honey. Me and your father just got back from church a couple of hours ago. You know Catholic Church lasts a while. So, did you meet anyone interesting this week? Anything new going on with you?”

“Ugh. No, Mom. I didn’t meet anyone new.”

“Well, that’s okay. Did you see Tim, by any chance?”

“Of course I saw him. His class is right across the hall from mine. You know that, Mom. But, it doesn’t matter if I see him. Like I told you before, Tim and I are over. He cheated with one of my coworkers and it’s over. You have to let it go, Mom.”

“I know he cheated, sweetie, and I know he hurt you, but maybe you should give some consideration to giving him another chance. He was such a sweet guy,” my mother said.

I sighed again. “Mom, we’ve been over this a thousand times. It’s over. Sure, he was sweet until he stuck his penis inside the nurse’s mouth while school was still in session. I won’t even try to forgive him for that.”

“I know he messed up. But are you truly happy with being alone?”

“Come on, Mom, of course not. Nobody wants to be alone but I’m not going to settle for just anyone so that I don’t have to be alone. I’d rather be alone and happy than be with someone who makes me miserable by cheating on me. I would think that you would understand that.”

“I do, sweetie. I do understand,” my mother said. “I’m not trying to be pushy or upset you. I just don’t want you to be alone the rest of your life.”

“Mom, I’m only twenty-two. My life is far from over. Let’s just drop it, okay? How is Dad?”

“Your father is doing well. He just put on his Chicago Bears pajama pants so you know that means he’s about to fall asleep on the couch until I wake him up when it’s time for dinner.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” I said as I yawned. “Well, don’t interrupt his routine or anything. It’s almost eight o’clock and I’m starting to get pretty hungry and sleepy myself. I think I’m going to head down to the gas station and grab a snack and a drink, and fill up the car with gas before my long drive to school in the morning. So, I’m going to go, okay Mom?”