My Sexy Phantom Ch. 02

The day went by just like any normal day for Alex, since she was determined to put last night's encounter in the 'Dream' category. She wouldn't acknowledge it. It was simply a dream that had been induced from lack of sleep, alcohol, and emotional turmoil over her last beau. Since, of course, she was not crazy.

Wasn't she?

The crisp smell of coffee, incense, candles, freshly baked bread, and cappuccino drifted around her like a shroud. She was staring into space, her chin in both palms, a deep frown embedded between her eyebrows. She was going to have to dry clean her work clothes, because earlier she got coffee beans smeared on the deep purple shirt she wore, and on her crisp black pants. Oh well, typical day in the life of Alexandria.

"Hey Alex! Whassup?"

She mentally shook herself out of her little stupor, folding her hands in her lap, sitting up straight and blinking a few times. Focus on the present, Alex, not the past..... However short ago the past may be. "Oh, Hey Mandy. I'm just on my lunch break."

Her friend Mandy was a short little woman who only came up to her chin, though voluptuous in everything that was curve. She had short choppy little blonde, white curls that bounced when she walked. Like little corks on strings. "Well, I do hope" she was saying, setting herself in the opposite chair from her. "That you plan on eating soon, and not just daydreaming your precious break away. Come on, girl, you have to have something to eat!"

She shrugged, wiping a strand of her dark hair away from her eyes. "I really don't feel that hungry, Mandy."

Mandy, surprisingly, just sat there with a grin on her face and mischief in her doe-like emerald eyes.

"What's that look for?"

"What look, Alex, my dear?"

"The look you have right now, as if you are part of an inside joke you aren't telling me. Or as if you are about to do something crazy." she stared at her friend, looking at her closely. "Should I be trying to run away now?"

Mandy's dainty blonde curls bounced as she laughed, a hand going for her own. "Have you met someone I don't know about, my love?"

"Of course not!!" she said almost too quickly then lowered her pace. "I am not ready for another boyfriend just yet, Mandy.... I'm barely just getting over my last one."

"Not all men are like your ex, babe. He was just a pretty face, with old moves. He probably uses the same tricks with every poor woman who falls for him." Mandy gave her hands a reassuring squeeze.

She sighed softly, closing her eyes and listening to the sound of her own breathing. "That's just it, I don't want to be another woman in a man's group of women. For once I want to be selfish and only have a man who sees me!"

Her friend gave a nod, crossing her arms. "Don't we all, though? You'll never get the man of your dreams if you keep pushing them away."

"But that's just it, Mandy. I truly believe staying single is better than being with another guy like..... Well, you know who I'm talking about." she said, attempting a smile as she placed her working hat on her head.

"Alex, Alex." her friend tsked at her, leaning back in the chair she sat. "When will you ever learn?"

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Alex was just now coming home from going to the dry cleaners, having dropped off her work clothes. She wore a pair of blue jean shorts, a low-necked tank top, and sandals. Her hair was in a lot of disorder, and she was wary enough for a dozen people.

Work had been much harder to concentrate on today, because she kept dozing off and daydreaming about the encounter that did, or did not, happen the other night. Her body had gotten absorbed in the event then, and even more absorbed in the remembering.

She had even managed to nearly spill a cup of cappuccino on a really tall, body building kind of man who had been in a business suit. THAT would have been a total disaster! Not only would she have not gotten paid for the day, she would have had to pay to get his suit dry-cleaned. Damn, damn, damn.

Ah, but soon she would be home. Soon she would have a nice hot bubble bath. Soon she would indulge herself with candles, soft music, and a nice foot soaking. She sighed softly as she pulled up into her driveway, parked her car, and got out.

"Hey Mrs. Leavey" she called to her neighbor, cheerful to be home at last. "Lovely roses this year."

"Ah, yes, indeed. They are lovely aren't they?" Mrs. Leavey crooned, fluffing one of her roses with a white-gloved hand and smiling up at her. "Do go along and make yourself a cup of tea, my dear, you look dreadfully exhausted."

She smiled brightly at the woman, walking to her front door and bringing out her house key. "Yes, I am feeling quite exhausted. Nearly dumped a drink on one of our poor customers, that would have been the worst....." she trailed off, looking down at the top of her porch table.

"Something wrong?" her neighbor called, stopping in the middle of trimming her rose bush.

"Oh, no..." she blinked rapidly, shaking her head and smiling up at Mrs. Leavey. "Nothings wrong, just been a long day for me."

The old woman went back to her gardening, leaving Alex to look back down at the table. There was a single white rose laid across it, a red envelope at the base of the stem. She picked them both up gingerly, hands shaking, and went inside her house.

Her head was swimming with caution. Who could have laid it there? There was no name on the envelope, no initials. Surely it couldn't be her ex, could it? He would have no right to send her anything, since they weren't together anymore. Dread engulfed her entire body as she stared at the envelope, then at the rose, and back again.

She sat on the edge of her living room sofa for quite some time before she got the courage to open the envelope, placing the rose in a vase with water before she did so. The moment she broke the seal a wind ran across the front of her, making her shiver, and carried with it the strong scent of a million rose blossoms.

"It's just my imagination getting carried away again." she assured herself, shrugging off the sensations that went through her. Determined, she slid the smooth pink paper out of the tiny envelope, unfolded it, and began to read what it said.

{Some men are wolves, my love, and some men are dogs. The wolves protect their loved ones, and stay true to their mates for all of time. The dogs protect and stay true to the women whom they like for a time, and then they are off to find another. Unfortunately, most men are that of dogs. Stay true to your instincts, my love, and never settle for a dog. You are worth much more than that.

Your loyal slave and admirer}

She read it twice over for good measure, blinking repeatedly and staring off to space. "Such a strange, strange letter..... But no, it's definitely not my ex.. " She sighed, holding both letter and envelope to her chest and laying back against the couch.

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The days went by as boring and dull as ever for Alex. Nothing at work really seemed to be too interesting, or too complicated for that matter. The only times she looked forward to had been lunch break with her best friend, and the inevitable drive to her house where she would encounter a rose, with or without a letter from her secret admirer. By Sunday she had six white roses, three perfumed letters, and a tiny silver chain necklace.

It didn't take long at all to find out that this day was doomed to be a horrid nightmare.

The air seemed to just sizzle with the impending doom of gloom and misery. The silence telling all but words into her ears.

No peace for the whicked, huh?

Dressed in khaki shorts, a blue off the shoulder t-shirt, sandals, and a baseball cap; she walked around the park in the early afternoon sunshine. Birds sang amongst the trees, water trickled along a river nearby, and a wonderful crisp breeze ruffled against the tree tops. Yet she felt so wary.

The morning had been a blissfully uneventful, boring Sunday of going to visit a few friends before she went for her noon walk. Now, walking about the green trees in the park, the hair on the back of her neck seemed to stand on end.

Just when you thought someone was going to leave you alone...

"Hey Alex. Long time no see." a smooth, deep voice called to her just as she rounded a corner of the park. There, right in front of her, stood Tommy Whilston; her ex beau.

The smile dropped from her face the moment she saw him. "Not today, Tom. I've got better fish to fry than you." she began to turn around but a hand grasped her shoulder, turning her back to the man.

His lukewarm smile hadn't changed at all, but something dark had appeared within his eyes. "Oh, come on baby. I thought you'd change your mind about me. Was I wrong?"

"Yes!" she all but growled, pulling her shoulder free of his hand and glaring at his pretty face. "Me and you are like oil and water. We just don't mix."

He had tilted his head to one side, crossing his arms against his chest, the smile never dying from his almost elegant lips. "It's not for lack of trying on my part, sweetheart. I was always good to you."

She narrowed her eyes at him, wishing she could wipe that look off his face. "Good to your many other women too, I recall. I don't have time for this." She placed a palm on her forehead and closed her eyes. "Have you been following me around all this time?"

He seemed to be smirking, lying through his pearly white teeth, "I've been looking for you all over the place, Alex. Been hoping, maybe to take you back."

"Take me back?!? Me? Oh no, mister." she hissed, placing her hands upon her hips as she faced him slightly. "You'd be very lucky if I ever took You back."

"Harsh words for someone who hadn't done the dumping."

"Why don't you just go back to the hole you climbed out of, and leave me alone, Tom." she said coolly, turning away from him again and trying her best to act as if he weren't in existance.

He simply stood there, watching her as she walked away, her hands on her hips and her nose in the air as if she had just had someone try to force a plate of gruel down her throat. "I always get what I want in the end, sweetheart."

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"Could this day get any worse?" she asked her baseball cap, her car idle in the sea of traffic along the highway.

What had he meant by always getting what he wanted? Was that some sort of a.... a threat? Was he threatening her?

Oh! This couldn't get any worse!! Why had she even asked that question? It was like asking if there was a bigger number than infinity!

So far the day had been absolutely horrible. She had had an encounter with her ex, found some kid scratching up her fender with a penny, been called to work on a Sunday to get the place ready for an inspection, and now she was stuck in traffic.

She banged her forehead against the steering wheel, whining impatiently, and was shocked to discover her horn loud against her ears. "Wonderful!"

Fifteen minutes later, and another fit of whining, the traffic began to slowly clear out and allow her passage through. She found out traffic had been stopped because of a car accident on the corner of the road. Stupid rubberneckers.

It was already dark when she got home, and the silence of her neighborhood seemed to crackle loudly in her ears as she walked to her front door. She was surprised to find no white rose on her table, nor a red envelope.

She laughed at herself. "He probably got bored of being indiscrete." she murmured, turning the knob of her door and entering her home. She was about to flip the switch on the wall when a hand on her wrist stopped her, breath ruffling the nape of her neck.

"No.... " the feather light whisper of a man drifted against her ear. "He simply wished to pay a house call."

She twirled around, eyes wide, fists coming up in defense. The man had the nerve to raise a brow at her, chuckling heartily and raising a white rose to his chin.

"Who are you?" she breathed, frightened beyond belief. Her heart pounded out a rhythm in her chest, stomach doing an uneasy flip-flop.

"My name" he replied, tilting his head and lowering his lashes as he looked over the rose at her. "Is easy to recall. It's on the tip of everyone's tongue. Just needs a push over the edge."

"I don't trust you.." she said, horrified that it came out as a whisper and not an indignation. She slowly began to crawl out from against the wall, her breath catching every few moments.

He watched her for a time, silence loud and crackling in the distance between them. The man had made her forget, even, to turn on the lights in the room.

The moment he smiled, she was half afraid that he could get anything he wanted if he asked for it just now. A lump formed in her throat, eyes widening, as her knees went weak.

"You were glad enough, in the end, to trust me last time...... Alex." he murmured, fingering the petals of the white rose in his hand.

"How do you know my na..." she was cut off from finishing the sentence, his gaze locked with her own.

"It's not whether I know your name or not, my sweet. It's whether I am simply part of your imagination, or real." The tone of his voice was the sweetest diversion. A deep baritone that always seemed to distract her from her thoughts and the immediate conversation.

Even now, as reality hit her hard on the head, she stuttered. "A-are you real?" she asked, biting her lip to force herself to focus on the here and now, and not on how devastating he really was.

He watched her, slowly following as she backed up further into the room; his movements as precise and care free as a sleek cat hunting his prey. "Am I?" he finally asked, twirling the rose in between his fingers. "Sometimes I wonder the same thing, Alex."

That wasn't the answer she wanted to hear. No, this seemed even more confusing than it did at first.

"But I.... I can see you" she paused, stumbling slightly as she bumped against a coffee table and moved around it, all the while watching his movement; noting that he didn't lose his stride. "I... I can h-hear you..." She jumped as the backs of her legs touched the back of her living room couch.

And, apparently, she could smell him too. It was like a rich aroma of Pine, soap, and masculinity that went straight to her blood; bypassing her brain entirely. Dear lord.......amazing.

Hot breath scorched the skin of her neck as he leaned close, pinning her to the couch between his large, powerful arms. "You don't have to fight it... I am here, because you called for me. Because you needed to get away from the stress of your life."

She had to fight not to moan from the ecstasy of his closeness, the tingling feeling of anticipation sending her heart to beating a tattoo against her chest. "I didn't say that... I merely thought..."

"Shh.. I know what you thought. Thinking it is the same as calling to me, sweet Alex." Though his lips were inches away from her skin, it felt as if they were already touching the throbbing pulse at her neck.

She shivered, biting her lip as a groan started deep in her throat. He was like a potent drug. Oozing sexual intent and charisma from his pores and into her blood stream with only a single breath of air.

The moment he did place his lips at the swollen flesh of her neck, she couldn't hold back her moan. Her arms involuntarily moving around his shoulders, she gasped for breath from this sensual overload. He, appearently, had taken her actions to be a come-on; thus was the reason for his new sense of action.

Her baseball cap flew off the top of her head and to the floor as he immediately took hold of her mouth, searing heat flowing from her lips all the way down to her toes as his tongue penetrated deeply into the crease of her mouth. Hard, languid motions of his tongue thrusting in and out of her mouth, immitating the movements of the erotic dance of sex, slowly brought her to a liquid state in his arms.

His strong, capable hands moved down her arms and to the hem of her off-the-shoulder top; inching the material up her silken skin torturiously slow. Some distant voice in her mind echoed to shove him away, break free, make a run for it before she got her heart involved with her bodies conspiracy. Did that mean she listened?

No, ofcourse not! His mouth, now at her jaw line, felt so warm and wonderful against her skin that she could hardly think about anything else but sex. Good sex! Oh, how she remembered the last time he had done this.

But, if it had happened before.... That must mean that before hadn't been a dream.

Or, maybe this time was just another dream?

Cool air coupled with the warmth of his hands touched the bottom part of her breasts, making her toes curl in anticipated delight as his mouth skimmed down to her collar bone. Languidly he delved into the hollow, earning a light moan from her as she closed her eyes and tried to keep herself afloat while the undertoe was pulling her in.

His hands moving to her back, she could hear a small 'pop' sound before her bra fell loose, his eyes found hers as he moved to swiftly remove her blouse and bra in one quick motion before dropping them to the floor. A flush of red started at the roots of her hair, than continued on down to the very tops of her breasts as his gaze traveled to the pucker of her nipples. She felt utterly exposed and yet she couldn't bring herself to try and go.

"You're so beautiful, Alex." he said softly, running the tip of his thumb along the curves of her stomach and up her chest, his eyes meeting hers once more. "Why must you give yourself to such fools, love?"

Turning her head slightly, she lowered her eyes. "It's not like I do it on purpose.. I never asked to be lied to."

Taking hold of her chin, he turned her head back towards him and caressed her cheek slowly with the palm of his hand; seeming to forget that she was even half naked. "I know you don't ask for it, love, but you still push the warning signs away and try to convince yourself they are nothing to think about." Dipping his head to hers, he captured her lips before she could even answer, taking her hands to push them inside of his shirt.

She sighed softly, closing her eyes and running her fingers up the smooth collum of his abdomin, rolling his shirt up to expose more of his skin. She gasped as he removed his lips from hers, taking the material out of her fists to throw to the floor as well. "Remove your pants for me, sweetheart."

"What?" she asked, startled by his blatant question.

He grinned back at her, stepping away only enough to give her some moving room. "I want to watch you remove your pants and panties for me, Alex. Please?"

When he said it like that, how could she even begin to say the word no?

Shaking slightly, she dipped her hand down to the catch of her pants, unzipping and unbuttoning them before pushing them down along her thighs. The way he watched her every move like that was enough to make her dizzy. At the moment she couldn't catch her breath.

As her shorts fell around her ankles he picked her up, as if she weighed nothing, and placed her on the back of the sofa. The material of the sofa felt strangely erotic against the backs of her legs.

With only his pants on, he reminded her alot more of a sleek jungle cat. The way his muscles rippled with each movement he made. There didn't seem to be an ounce of fat on him. "Must be another dream.."

"It's not a dream, love." he told her, eyes watching her own as he dipped his hand between her legs and ran his fingers through her soft curls. "You are very much awake."

She moaned lightly as he slid a finger between her folds, caressing just enough to get his finger slick with her moist heat before running the pad of the same finger up her belly. She wrapped her arms about his shoulders as he leaned down to kiss the path he drew.