CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Nora
Despite it being years since I’d sleepwalked, I woke the next morning under the covers I’d carefully lain on top of, my personal blanket crumpled on the floor. The old mattress sagged in the middle, and our naked bodies pressed together in the sunken groove like snug sardines in a tin.
I gasped at the soft skin against my groin, the sound jolting Corey, which pressed his ass harder against me and did nothing to help ease my horrifying erection.
My blood turned to ice until I was as stiff as the dick between my legs.
My eyes squeezed shut and I counted to ten with deep breaths.
Table legs. Overdue reports. Toilets. Vomit.
Nothing worked. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been this aroused, and even this tight, firm ball sack begged for attention.
I carefully rolled to the side and grabbed the blanket from the floor, wrapped it around me, and raced to the bathroom.
I stared at my throbbing penis and hated the temptation to wrap my large hands around it and ease the urge.
Corey had told me not to let his dick suffer. Was it suffering?
I was suffering.
There wasn’t enough blood in this body for both my dick and my brain.
It was the only explanation for what I convinced myself to do.
I closed my eyes and brushed my fingers over the rock-hard penis.
It tensed with desire and before my brain caught up with my actions, my hand placed a firm grip around it.
Foreign yet intoxicating. An arousing dream where it’s not really your body yet you can feel the relief of pleasure.
With motions I’ve never used on myself, I followed my instincts and swallowed my moan as I indulged until I reached an eruption of ecstasy I never wanted to end.
I felt dirty and satisfied all at once. Like every Christmas when I ate too much pudding.
I convinced myself it would be the first and only time I ever masturbated to Corey Flemmington. I turned on the shower, but just as the water washed my sins down the drain, Corey knocked on the door bringing me back to my guilt. I turned the shower off and wrapped a towel around me.
‘Hey.’ I poked my face out the door.
Corey held out a bundle of clothes in his hands, wearing his outfit from yesterday. ‘These are for you.’
‘Oh, thanks.’
‘Are you okay? It sounded like you woke from a nightmare or something.’
A nightmare. That’s exactly what it was.
‘I’m okay. Thanks for the clothes.’ I closed the door and pulled on my clean jeans and black T-shirt.
I hoped Corey hadn’t realised I’d scooted under the sheets with him last night. As far as he was concerned, I’d been on the top layer in my own blanket the entire time. It then occurred to me that there was no rain tapping the roof. I yanked open the door and raced into the bedroom.
‘When did the rain stop? Are the roads open?’
Corey looked up from his phone. ‘I’m trying to figure that out, but I don’t know which roads lead where.’
I grabbed my own phone and tapped away. ‘It’s a miracle after the rain and flood warning! The motorway’s open, let’s go.’
I filled the remaining forty-minute drive by scrolling through every news article in the area possible, searching for the mysterious person with Corey’s umbrella, and removing the memory of Corey’s pleasurable dick from my mind.
He pulled into the supermarket carpark where the anchorman had reported on a grocery store closing down – how something so trivial made the news was beyond me – and we searched as though the man lived in this very parking lot.
‘What if he was only a tourist?’ Corey asked.
Manifestation can be powerful if you concentrate hard enough, so I blocked out his negativity and focused on the black umbrella.
I followed the white-lined carpark to the brick building and wandered around the corner.
Opposite, a small café echoed with chatter, and the bell of the bookstore next door jingled as a woman exited.
Clouds were non-existent as the sun blinded me during my attempted gaze at the white building further down the road.
Ironically, we needed more rain. Without it, that umbrella would likely be packed away in someone’s garage.
Corey rounded the corner and joined me. ‘How big is this town?’
I cringed. Bigger than the single day of looking we’d allowed ourselves.
Especially considering we needed to be back tomorrow for class, our final week before the exam – not that he needed to prove his worth for his job considering the framed degrees on his office walls did that for him.
Doubt still niggled away though, because I wanted to prove myself.
How did my results compare to his years of experience?
And even if they were unmatched, had his experience as me made him consider women’s obstacles in the workplace?
Had he witnessed Izzy struggle to balance work with motherhood considering her ex was unreliable?
We needed to switch back before the exam.
My teeth scraped my bottom lip, chewing on it while I imagined my future.
Living in Corey’s penthouse would be incredible.
His father though? I’d dreamed of meeting my father when I was a child, but the reality of a father like Craig made me reconsider.
I didn’t want to live Corey’s life. Not even a little bit.
When I pushed myself for a career and salary, I didn’t picture it like this at all. I blew out a breath and shook my hands.
‘The town is pretty big, but we can do this. We have to do this.’
Corey’s bottom lip dropped like a child. ‘I don’t want to be you forever. I’ll never get to prove myself capable.’
‘You don’t need to prove yourself capable to your father,’ I said.
‘I don’t mean to hi—’
We didn’t have time to complain. ‘We need to show friendly faces. How’s this?’ I widened a smile that hurt my cheek bones.
‘You look like you’re going to murder me.’
‘Alright then, show me yours,’ I said.
Corey appeared… seductive. My face warmed at the realisation of how much sex appeal my face exuded. I wasn’t sexy. I was smart, a go-getter, and nine times more likely to reach my goal because I didn’t care what it took to get there.
‘I may look like I’m going to murder you, but you look like you’re about to offer a night of pleasure for two-hundred dollars,’ I said.
‘Two-hundred dollars for the whole night? Bargain.’ Corey laughed.
I sighed. ‘I don’t even want to know why you understand what’s a bargain when it comes to that.’
Corey raised his palms in front of him. ‘No, I—’
‘Whatever. Let’s use our friendly faces to start asking around because we need to head back tonight.’
Corey dropped his hands and followed me into the café.
We couldn’t make out the person with the umbrella on the TV, so it could have been any of the teenagers in the back corner, or the dad at the counter with the child on his hip, or possibly the lady against the wall in a heated conversation on her phone.
Anyone.
‘Excuse me,’ Corey called from just inside the door.
The chatter died until everyone stared at us, waiting. I wanted to shuffle from the attention and drop into a chair at the side, but Corey grabbed my hand. Unity. Strength. All the things I wasn’t feeling.
‘We lost an umbrella. It’s black with green drawings on it. Has anyone seen it?’
Corey’s question was followed by head shakes and scowls. The lady on the phone scrunched her nose and muttered about being interrupted by a small girl about a stupid umbrella. Small girl!
‘Come on,’ said Corey.
He led me outside and down the path to the bookstore next door, which appeared empty other than the grey-haired man behind the desk.
‘We’ve barely been here an hour, and this already feels useless.’ He crossed his arms.
‘We can’t give up. We’re too close. Come on.’ My chest tingled at the thought of wearing my own pyjamas to sleep in my own apartment tonight.
Outside, we wandered further down the path as I flickered my gaze over every detail possible.
The empty alleyway we passed, the closed hairdresser and their empty umbrella stand in the window, the lolly shop filled with children’s excited eyes.
To our left, a fence lined a large park, and we opened the gate to follow the path down to the enormous grassy field.
‘Take off your shoes,’ I said as I kicked my shoes off.
The soft grass brushed against my bare feet as I continued along the field towards the duck pond. Surely someone sensible enough to visit the ducks would take an umbrella outside with them. Corey caught up with his shoes in his hand, head twisting as he searched.
‘Why aren’t we wearing shoes? What if there’s dog shit on the ground?’
I stopped by the water and closed my eyes. ‘Grounding.’
‘Yes, this is the ground,’ Corey said slowly.
I sighed and opened my eyes. ‘Grounding. It’s good for your health.
Spend some time letting your body reconnect with the earth, and you might feel a little less anxious about it.
We’re more likely to find the umbrella if we’re calm and focused.
Besides, this is simple to do while we’re searching. Two birds, one stone.’
‘I’m not anxious.’ Corey’s face tensed.
‘Tell that to your forehead.’ My fingers brushed his skin.
Corey’s pupils dilated and his mouth parted.
He cleared his throat and turned away as my heart raced.
With my fingers now curled at my side, I replayed his eyes – my eyes.
Their honey brown melting with a warmth he didn’t even know was on display.
A warmth that jumped from his eyes and buried itself beneath my skin.
Did Corey feel differently about me now?
Every little piece I discovered about him sanded away his rough edges, and the new smooth Corey wasn’t so bad.
Perhaps he realised the same about me, too.
‘I’m going to have a quick look around.’ Corey clutched his phone and wallet in one hand, and shoes in the other.