Lisa

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I took her back out to my car and she slipped into the front seat next to me. I could see her eyes shining and her cheeks were red from the thrill of what had just happened. I noticed my own heart rate was up too, but not in a good way. I hated seeing men rough women up. It got my blood boiling. I spent a night in jail once rescuing a woman from being beaten by her boyfriend who didn't want to be rescued.

"I can't believe you just did that," she murmured, glancing around at the hall where the entire town seemed to be going to pieces behind us.

"Well, somebody had to," I pointed out. "I wasn't just going to let that fucker get his hands all over you when you clearly didn't want it."

"My ex." She shook her head. "As hard to comprehend as it is, he actually didn't realize I was serious about things being over."

One look at him and I could tell instantly: he didn't deserve Jennie. She was way too good for that selfish prick. "Well, I think he just didn't want to, but I'm pretty certain he's got the message now," I remarked with some satisfaction, as we pulled away and started down the road back to the garage. I wasn't sure why I was taking her there, but it was almost as if I wanted to start again, the way it had been that morning when it had been the two of us together, bathed in sunlight.

"I'm sorry you had to become involved though," she continued, rolling down the window and letting the cool breeze in. "I feel stupid because I should have known what they were like. That the night would be a total wash, but I honestly didn't think everyone would be as bad as all that." She shook her head in wonder. "I really didn't."

"I did," I replied bluntly. "You're not around here. You have to stand outside the charmed circle to see how rough it gets for anyone who's not on the inside."

"Yeah, I guess I stood on the outside tonight," she said softly. "And it was downright ugly."

I could feel her staring at me. There was an electric energy running between the two of us. As soon as I saw that useless piece of shit with his hands on her, something had rocked up inside of me, something that told me I had to get over there and make things right in the next ten seconds, or I would never forgive myself. It was more than just my past whispering in my head. It was a protective feeling I wasn't used to having, let alone directed at someone like Jennie.

As we started down the long road out of town, I reached over and put my hand on her bare leg. Her dress had ridden up a few inches, and if I could have, I would have grabbed her and fucked her right there and then. But there was only so much I could expect from a fancy woman like her, and it certainly wasn't like I could—

"Pull over here." Jennie pointed to a spot at the side of the road, a little dusty from all the cars that had stopped there over the years.

I had stopped here a few times too. I cocked an eyebrow at her expectantly as I let the car come to rest.

"I can't believe I'm doing this." She giggled as she unbuckled herself and slid from the seat onto my lap, straddling me at once.

"You did it before," I reminded her, running my hands up and over her back.

"Yeah, but it was late then. This is risker," she murmured.

I leaned up and kissed her hard to keep her quiet. I needed to be inside her as soon as possible and I didn't want to wait a second longer. The adrenalin from the fight and seeing that guy with his hands all over her, was still rushing through me, flooding my system, and I needed to do something about it.

She was grinding back down against me, arms around my neck, but this wasn't what I wanted. I was feeling aggressive, and I wanted her beneath me, to look deep into my eyes as I drove into her. In the tight space of this car, I pulled her around and positioned her beneath me, then shifted the seat to almost horizontal.

She giggled. "How do you want me?" she breathed.

I groaned at the sound of those words coming out of her mouth. Every which way, Jennie. Every which way. Grabbing her legs and straightening them out, I pulled her panties down and tossed them aside. Then I drew her feet up on to the dashboard and slipped between her thighs. Her need for me was palpable, coursing through the air around us in waves. I could already smell her arousal and it drove me crazy.

She grabbed my hair, pulling me in close to her, our tongues tangled, and the flavor of her filled my senses. I thought I would never be able to forget her taste, her smell, the feel of her skin. Part of me still couldn't believe that she was giving herself to me like this. I had always wanted her any way I could have had her, but this was way more than even my wildest fantasies.

I grabbed a condom, pulled down my pants, and swiftly sheathed myself. She pressed her feet into the dashboard so her hips were angled up toward me. I could already see her pussy glistening from where I was above her. The night outside was dark and quiet while inside, all I could hear was the sound of our breathing, and the sensation of our desire consuming both of us.

I ran my hands over her bare legs possessively and moved toward her. She'd looked so fancy in her dress with her hair all done and her makeup perfect, but here she was with her legs spread wide in the front seat of my car practically begging me to fuck her. The contrast was sexy as hell and I couldn't get enough of it. I pushed into her in one swift thrust and let out a long groan of pleasure.

"Oh, my God," she gasped. She hooked her ankles around me and started to grind back against me, meeting me halfway.

Her lush body felt so good next to mine, fitting around me like a glove. I ran my hand over her head, letting my fingers come to rest against her full lips.

She parted her mouth and drew me in, flicking her tongue across my fingertips and sucking on them lightly. "Mmm…" She sighed. One hand was placed against my chest and with the other she sunk her nails into my ass, as though she wanted to shove more of me into her.

We fucked like that desperately, as though this was all she'd been able to think about all night long. The whole time I watched her, burning her face into my memory. I didn't know how much longer we would be able to play this game, the one where she made it seem as if she could actually be with me. That I wasn't just a pit-stop—that she really wanted me—and liked me for who I was. Like she didn't care that the dress she wore right this minute probably cost more than what I made in a month.

I knew it was all a big lie, but I was willing to hold out as long as I could.

"Holy fuck." She tipped her head back, teeth clenched.

I leaned down, ran my tongue from the bottom of her throat to the top. Then reaching her lips, I pulled her tongue into my mouth and sucked it hard. That was all it took. I felt her give out around me, her pussy clenching and pulsating around my cock as she moaned into my mouth and came hard. Knowing I had pushed her over the edge, and realizing that in all the mess this night had been, she'd chosen me over them— the pleasure inside me suddenly burst like a dam.

I roared like a beast as I came. For a long time, I held myself deep inside her as my cock twitched and released. I'd come harder than I could ever remember climaxing before in my life.

When it was finally over, I withdrew slowly and fixed her seat for her. I couldn't look at her. I was afraid she would see how affected I was. She ran her fingers through my hair absent-mindedly as I disposed of the condom. When I was sure I had my features composed, I turned to look at her.

"Back to your place?" she asked.

I nodded at once. "Back to my place." Even my voice sounded strange and harsh. I pulled the car out and started down the road toward my house. I couldn't believe we'd just done that, but I had a feeling it was just the beginning.

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Jennie

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As I lay on her chest, back in her house, the two of us naked and tangled around each other like weeds, I could hear her heartbeat, fast and steady. I looked up into her eyes and wondered what kind of secrets she was hiding from me.

"You okay?" she asked languidly, the tiredness obvious in her voice.

It'd been a hell of a night, and I'd given her a hell of a workout as soon we got through the door. I wasn't sure how much longer I would be able to stay in town, and I wanted to see if there something more permanent we could step into. Since I could easily become a freelancer, I could even be persuaded to move back to town.

"Just…" I trailed off, trying to think of a way to frame it. After what she'd done for me back at the party, I felt as though I had seen a side to Lisa that I'd never laid eyes on before. And I wanted to see more of it. "Tell me about yourself." I grinned and watched her expectantly as a shadow flickered across her face.

"There's nothing to tell. I'm just your ordinary mechanic."

She was brushing me off. She tried to hide by letting her hand stray a little lower down my back suggestively, but I shook my head and pulled it away. Planting it firmly back on my waist, I looked up at her. "There must be something. You just turned up in this town out of nowhere. How did you end up here in the first place?"

"Fostered," she replied curtly. There was also a touch of frost in her voice.

I furrowed my brow. "Oh, I didn't realize you had a foster family. Who was it? Do I know them?"

"Nope," she replied, shaking her head, her jaw set. It was clear that she really didn't want to talk about this.

Then I knew I wouldn't be able to coax the truth out of her no matter how hard I tried. Lisa only did the things that she wanted to do, and that didn't involve telling me anything she didn't want to.

"So what can you tell me?" I wasn't giving up. I pressed gently. "I feel like I don't know anything about you."

"You don't," she replied bluntly.

My heart ached in my chest at her words. She didn't seem to think it was a bad thing to lock me out.

She fell silent for a long moment, as if considering something.

"But I want to," I implored hopefully. "You know so much about me—"

"Your family makes it hard not to," she shot back.

"I know things were different for us growing up, but I want to know you," I went on. "You don't have to tell me everything, just tell me…just tell me something."

"What do you want to know?"

"I don't know. Tell me about your brother, or your father, your dreams."

"Look, I really don't want to talk. Can we continue just having fun? No need to bog it down with the shit that happened years ago."

"I…" I stopped myself before I could come out and say it, before I could express my hurt over the apparent fact that this was all just a causal thing to her. "It's just, the way you were with Mark." I shook my head. "It seemed like—"

"I just don't like it when I see people touching people who don't want it," she cut me off. "Simple as that. Would have done it for anyone."

"Right," I murmured, and I fell silent for a long moment. I guess I had mistaken sex for real feelings. It hurt like crazy, but maybe she was right. I had my life back in the city, and she had her life down here. More importantly, she would hurt me in the end. If I moved back here and she found another woman, it would kill me to see her with someone else.

Saying nothing, I listened to the steady pulse of her heart beneath my head. I knew it should have comforted me, but instead it served as a reminder. A reminder of everything she held in her heart that she would never tell me. She would never be mine, not properly. In fact, I wasn't even sure she could belong to anyone in a serious way, given that she never seemed to want to go past the superficial.

It was what Krystal said when Lisa had first turned up at that bar. Lisa was the kind of girl you had fun with, then moved on and married someone else. Had she ever had a serious girlfriend in her life? Hell, had anyone ever come close enough to figuring out what was going on in that closed-off head of hers?

"This is just fun, right?" she reminded me. As though I'd needed it underlined. "We're just having fun."

"Right," I agreed slowly, even though it hurt to concede that point. I'd been the first one to say it, and now I wanted nothing more than to reel it back to the start and begin again. To do it properly, let myself love her from the start.

"We should go out for lunch tomorrow," she suggested, as if the last few seconds of our conversation hadn't just happened. "Could be fun. See what state the town's in after what happened tonight."

"Yeah sure," I agreed, and felt a shiver of apprehension for the future go through me.

"You all right?" she asked.

"I'm fine," I lied. "Let's sleep for a bit."

She brought her arm around me, and soon enough her breathing smoothed. She had fallen into a deep sleep, but I lay there, on her chest, eyes open while staring into the dark, and wondering what the hell kind of secrets, this woman was hiding. Wondering if I would ever find out what they were.

I was a coward the next morning. I sneaked out while Lisa was still asleep.

Part of me felt shocked and devastated to be leaving like a thief in the night. My heart felt as if I should stay and tell her the truth. That I wasn't coming to lunch…. I was leaving for the city and not coming back for a very, very long time. There was no point in staying, as we were never going to work out since it seemed like she would never tell me who she was, or let me into her life the way I needed.

Besides, I could never forget how I had seen her out in the backyard of the club smoking a cigarette with those people where she seemed far more at home and relaxed than she'd ever been the whole time she had spent with me.

That no matter how hot the sex was, no matter how deep our history ran, there was nothing I could do to bridge that gap between us. Especially, if she wouldn't help. I learned my lesson with Mark. I wouldn't be the one to do all the legwork again. Either someone meets me halfway, or I was walking away. She had her life—I had mine.

We had fun, but now it was over because I couldn't go along anymore with her idea of a relationship without any obligations, ties or real sharing. I thought I could do it, but I couldn't. That was just not me. I want it all or nothing. And it looked like it would be nothing—because she didn't really want me.

She'd said it herself. She would have jumped in to save whomever it was who was being touched against their will. It wasn't because it was me and that she wanted to keep me safe; it was because it triggered some primal response in her that she couldn't swerve.

I threw myself at the town's womanizer, what did I expect?

I went to pick up my car and grab my stuff from my parents' place before they woke up. Last thing I needed was to have to deal with them after what had happened. I told the housekeeper to tell my parents I would call them when I got to the city, then I packed everything into my car, but as I was about to turn the ignition, my father came running out toward me.

"Damn," I cursed and deliberately didn't turn off the engine.

"Jennie, were you going without telling us?"

"Hey Dad. I told Agnes to tell you."

He leaned into the window. "Can you turn the engine off for a second? I want to talk to you."

I sighed, but turned it off, and turned toward him.

"Look, I'm really sorry about last night."

"It's not your fault," I muttered.

He looked sad and suddenly older. Maybe because he hadn't shaved and his stubble had turned white. "It was my fault, honey. I should have stopped Mark. He had no right to do that to you."

"It's okay, Dad. Don't worry about it. It's over now. I'm leaving so it doesn't matter. I'm just sorry that you and Mom will have to put up with all the gossip."

"I don't give a monkey's ass what those old birds talk about while they secretly swig their gin at ten in the morning."

I smiled weakly. "I think Mom does."

"Your mother will survive. It'll do her good to see what it feels like when the shoe is on the other foot."

I stared at my father astonished. I'd never heard him speak like this.

"Now, where are you going to stay?" he asked crisply.

"I thought of asking Sana if I could crash on her couch while I get a place of my own."

"You can stay at our apartment. It's empty. Here are the keys." He held out a ring with bunch of keys on it.

Something inside me felt like it was breaking. I had held on to my tears all this while, but my father's kindness was making it impossible to hold it in anymore. My chin began to tremble.

"Oh honey," my dad said. He came around, opened my car door, and held his arms open.

I got out and fell into his embrace. I could feel the tears running down my face. "No one wants me, Dad," I bawled.

"Stop that nonsense, right now. You know you're beautiful."

"You have to say that. You're my dad." I sniffled.

"I'm saying that because it's the truth. Mark doesn't deserve you. And that woman? Lisa, was it?"

I nodded against his chest.

"It was a lot for her to take in last night, wasn't it? Why don't you give her another chance?"

I pulled away from his embrace. "You don't understand, Dad. It wasn't about last night. For her, it was just a fun thing. You know, no strings attached."

Dad frowned. "Yeah, I know. Don't say anymore, or I'll have to go down to her stupid garage and punch her lights out."

Even I had to laugh at that. The thought of my straight-laced, prim and proper dad punching Lisa's lights out was the most hilarious thing I'd heard since I witnessed Mark's little dick inside another woman.

Dad started to laugh too.

I wiped away my tears. "Thanks for the use of the apartment. I really appreciate it."

"Don't be silly. Do you need money?"

"No."

"I'll put some money into your account anyway."

I frowned. "Don't do that, Dad."

"I don't understand you. Why are you so damn independent? I am your Dad. That's what Dads are for."

"Thanks Dad, but I don't need it. I have some savings."

"Fine, but you stay at the apartment for as long as you want, all right?"

I nodded.

"All right. Drive carefully and text me when you get to the city, okay?"

"Okay."

"Get in the car then."

I leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "Thanks, Dad."

I made my way back to the city. All the while, I tried not to think about Lisa waking up all by herself, or how good it might have felt to be there with her as she opened her eyes and smiled that magic smile at me. We could have begun the day together. I felt as though my heart was still lying there in that bed with her. Then with every mile I drove, the strings between me and it were tugged tighter and tighter, making me ache.

I arrived back in the city and drove straight to my parents' apartment. It was the height of luxury with tall windows and Italian marble floors, but it didn't feel like mine. No, I wanted a little studio. Small but cozy, and all mine. Something that would support me and my small life.

I knew I had to build from the ground up, and work hard to piece together everything that had fallen apart in the last week. Sitting on the big bed in the guest room, I couldn't believe so much had changed in just a matter of a few days from the moment I had arrived in the apartment with a cake for Mark. It seemed crazy now to think that my entire life had been laid out before me, ready to go ‒ an appropriate marriage, a good job, and a traditional life ‒ that I would have been miserable in for the rest of my years.

But now that was over. I didn't have my own place or a fiancé and my heart was back in my hometown with a girl I knew I could never have.

To my surprise, life moved on. At a snail's pace, though. Every time the phone rang, my heart stopped. Then I would look at the screen and feel almost tearful with disappointment. I went to the apartment three days later while Mark was at work. The cake had left an oil stain on the carpet and it made me remember how I felt that day.

I knew I never wanted to feel that way again in my life. It also made me realize that no matter how painful it was short term, long term I had made the right decision to leave Lisa.

Quickly I gathered all my stuff, and put the key into the letter box.

The next day, I went back to work and was glad to fall back into the comfortable old routine. Mark called incessantly at my office until I told the receptionist not to put his calls through. He waited for me outside work so I cool

l told him I had found someone else and if he harassed me anymore, I would take restraining order out on him.

His face! It was my tiny revenge.

He backed off after that and I focused on getting the pieces of my life to make sense once more. First of all, I needed my own place, so I let the task of rushing around and finding a new apartment distract me. In less than a week, I found a tiny place. It was cute, close to work and it made me feel I'd taken the first step toward my new life. I filled it with all my own stuff and it started to feel a bit like home, but the evenings were the worst. I began to go out with my old friends again, but even then, when they left to give me the space I insisted I needed, I would stare into space and invariably think about Lisa.

I guess I still couldn't believe what happened between us.

I had gone into it being so sure that all I wanted was a little fun, a rebound with someone hot, smart, and renowned for being a great lover. I definitely hadn't expected to have all these feelings stirred up, like sediment on the bottom of a lake. Something so deep and secret that I'd tried to hide it from everyone, even myself.

I still wanted her.

Hell, I needed her.

She filled out the parts of me I didn't realize I had been missing, the parts that hated the shallow performance of the lifestyle my parents led. Clearly, she didn't feel the same way about me. One night I got drunk and nearly drunk-dialed Lisa, but fortunately, I was so drunk I managed to delete her number instead of calling it.

Well, that was that.

Fate had taken care of that temptation for me. I cried a little then went to sleep. But when I woke up in the morning, I felt such sorrow and loss it was as if someone had died. I consoled myself with the knowledge that I could always call the garage if I really needed to speak to her. One day after I got over her, I would call her again. Maybe we could be friends. She was a nice girl at the end of the day. The little pep-talk didn't cheer me up, but it allowed me to get out of bed and go to work.

My mother tried to reach out to me, but I ignored her, I wasn't ready to talk to her yet. Jisoo called too, but I didn't pick up. She left a message asking why I didn't go to her wedding. I knew it was a jerk move, not turning up to her wedding, but I couldn't face her, or any of them. I couldn't face that town again, not after the emotional mess my last visit had left me in. Jisoo sent a few more crowing texts about her honeymoon, but I didn't rise to the bait. But the funny thing about it all was she didn't sound pissed at all that I didn't come to her wedding or answer her. In fact, she sounded rather pleased. I guess it made her happy that I had broken up with Lisa and left town.

Nearly ten days had passed as I tried to build my life up once again, but I still found myself craving Lisa as strongly as I had the first day I drove back alone. If I were honest with myself, I yearned for everything about her. Her body, her touch, her scent, the sound of her voice, her laugh.

I told myself over and over not to be so silly, that it was nothing more than a rebound, but it was clear to my heart that it'd been more than that. I had turned her down all those years ago in high school, but there had always been a depth of connection there. It had even scared me a little.

But she did not feel it. She had said it herself. Besides, if she had felt anything at all she would have called at least once to see if I was okay. She didn't. So…that should have been the end of the affair. Until…I was coming home with groceries, and I found a familiar figure sitting on the stoop of my apartment building.

My heart jumped and I stopped dead in my tracks.

There was no way that she could actually be here. I must have magicked her up, an illusion created from my quiet desperation. She looked up, but I still found myself expecting her to blink right out of existence in front of me. I took a few steps close and she still didn't.

"Lisa?" I spoke her name softly, as though she might vanish if I was too loud.

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