APHRODISIAC

CLAIRE’S POV

“C’mon Claire, don’t be like this,” Aliana whined for the hundredth time that night. She was trying to get me out of my comfort zone and make me drunk as shit, but I didn’t want that. I wanted to feel every ache my broken heart had to offer me and I wanted to be depressed as far as depression went.

“If you’re going to keep sulking like a little bitch, we’re going to…” Aliana quickly covered Liz’s mouth, stopping her from exposing whatever sick plans they had for me tonight. Liz’s eyes widened in surprise but she quickly recovered and smacked Aliana’s hand away.

“Okay, I get it. Don’t smudge my lipstick.”

The sound of loud music emanating from the speakers of the club succeeded in making me almost hearing impaired, and the stench of alcohol and sweat got me reeling with nausea. I didn’t want to come out today. In all honesty, I would have very much liked to continue to wallow in self-pity back in my hotel room. But my friends had traveled all the way here to be with me during this difficult time that is the post-breakup period of my life, and I didn’t want to be a party pooper, so seven p.m. on Friday night found me in bosom of Manhattan’s most reviled clubs that had the audacity to camouflage as a VIP lounge.

“Claire,” Aliana called and nudged me when I refused to move. “Don’t make it obvious, but a man that is obviously not a man but a god just walked in now. Look!” Despite the loudness of the music, Aliana’s voice still managed to overthrow it and send a shiver down my spine. Reluctantly, I turned to see this so-called god-like-man that she claimed was present.

“That’s who you’re doing tonight.” Aliana said it with such finality that I actually thought twice about defying her before deciding to do so.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Ali. I didn’t come here to hook up with some random stranger.”

“Yeah, like sitting in your hotel room crying your eyeballs out will help you forget about that bastard, Liam,” Elizabeth spat angrily. The mention of my ex’s name drained me and it felt like a wet blanket was suddenly tossed over me and glued there, never to be removed.

“You know what they say, the best way to get over someone is to get under someone new.” Aliana wiggled her brows at me and then handed me a glass.

“Relax, it’s just apple cider,” she said when I refused to accept it.

“The same shit you’ve been drinking since we got here.,” Liz added with distaste. Most people preferred to get drunk and spend the rest of their day not being sober after a breakup, but I’d rather feel the pain and heartache associated with it than try to forget it. Plus, I had a very important interview in the morning and I didn’t want to be wasted and have a hangover then.

I drank it and set the empty glass on the table.

“This is the best city to have a one-night stand in,” Aliana said. “Think about it. You wouldn’t be here after your interview tomorrow. You’ll never see the guy again and you can get over Liam by having sex with someone that’s a million times hotter and sexier than he ever wished he was.”

“What if she gets the job? If she does, she’ll have to move here so there’s a chance she’ll most definitely see the guy again.” That question from Liz earned her a death glare from Aliana that was trying hard to convince me to give myself away to a random person for the night.

I didn’t want the job, not really. I only agreed to come for the interview because my mother wouldn’t stop nagging me about it. I’d probably flunk it and get sent back to Portland.

“Look at him! He’s totally checking you out!”

True to Liz’s words, the handsome god-like- man was indeed looking at me, but I didn’t have it in me to care. The weight of Liam’s betrayal was still hanging over me and hooking up with a random hottie was not in anyway going to make me feel better…

Unless he had amazing sex appeal!

I didn’t know why, but in that moment, I suddenly wanted to wrap my legs around him and let him do to me as he pleased.

“Oh, Claire is so getting pregnant tonight!” one of the girls screamed, but I couldn’t for the life of me tell which one. I was so focused on the person across the room from me whose entire being set my very self ablaze.

Every inch of him looked like it was carefully chiseled by the gods themselves. Broad shoulders that I couldn’t help picturing being carried on, a powerful chest that would look even better with my hands roaming it, and lean athletic frame that oozed strength, grace and amazing for doing a nude pose.

I felt the heat creep up my face the more I stared at him and he me. In between my legs became moist and I blushed even deeper from the sheer embarrassment of reacting this way just by a single look.

What the hell was I doing? I was supposed to be mourning the death of my seven-year relationship, not having naughty thoughts about a…

“He’s coming here!” Aliana squealed excitedly. Somehow, those words of hers had more effect on me than the three silly words spoken to me by Liam just the night before.

“Good evening, ladies.”

Sweet mother of God! I think I just had an orgasm from hearing his voice alone. It was a good thing I was sitting down because my legs turned to jelly and I was certain the floor would have been my new resting place.

“The moon goddess suddenly visited Liz so we have to get going now before there’s red everywhere.” Under normal circumstances, Liz wouldn’t have taken too kindly the idea of Aliana calling her period a visit from the ‘moon goddess’ but even she knew this was not a normal circumstance.

“Drink your apple cider,” Aliana whispered in my ear before scurrying away with our other friend.

“Not a drinker then?” he asked. My mind was finding it difficult to form reasonable sentences when all I wanted to do was jump him.

But why did I want to jump him all of a sudden? It was like my brain was rewired and programmed to only think sex.

“I have a work thing in the morning, so I can’t.” He smiled in a way that almost made me discard my home training and self-worth by taking off my clothes and letting him ravage me right there on that bar stool. My hands itched to crawl up his arm and I desperately wanted to smell his hair and stick my tongue down his throat.

“So, what brings you to the worst club in town?” he asked and I swear, my nipples hardened at that. The fact that he shared the same thoughts about the place as I did was such a turn on.

“My friends think they know everything but really they’re just blind people leading each other.”

Surrendering to the intense urge to touch him, I reached forth my hand and stroked his, drawing small circles the same way Aliana taught me how during Flirting 101 back in college. My heart beat spiked to an abnormal rate and a volt of electricity coursed through my whole body at the contact. He seemed to have felt it too because his gorgeous gray eyes darkened and he looked at me like he wanted to eat me.

“I know a better club downtown. Care to join me?” His voice got huskier and underneath my dress got moister. I didn’t even have the courtesy to tell my friends that I was leaving with a strange man. I was that intoxicated by him.

We got in the back seat of his car with his driver in front. I inched closer to him because my body couldn’t bear to not be close to him. Truly, I wasn’t in control of my own limbs. Whatever I ate or drank was making me act this way and I didn’t like it but liked it at the same time. I wanted to feel his hands on me. I wanted him to make me beg him to keep ramming into me until we both came, screaming and high from pleasure. I wanted his tongue to cover every inch of my body and know it like it knew his teeth.

“You are really beautiful,” he whispered against my ear. My breath caught in my throat at the nearness of him. This man was driving me crazy.

Slowly, with a calculated move that only he could manage, he lifted my left leg and placed it gently on his thigh. Then he began to stroke it ever so softly, like it was a little cat that needed to be pampered. I noticed that his hand went higher up my leg with each stroke, but I didn’t care. In fact, there was a destination I wanted him to reach so badly…

“That’s the cheesiest line ever,” I managed to squeeze out.

“Yeah, but it’s also the truth. Tell me, how often do you do this?”

It was becoming harder to answer his questions the further up my body his hands roamed. He had requested the assistance of his other hand, so while one hand romanced my leg, the other went up my abdomen towards my very exposed cleavage.

“Do what?”

“Follow unknown men to their cars and let them touch you like this?” he answered while cupping my breast in his hand. A gasp escaped my lips and I prayed silently that he would do more than that.

“Never,” I replied breathily. That smile of his was back on his face just as his hand found its way to my center. My brain just about exploded from the sheer pleasure shock that was sent to it.

“Good. I like to think that I’m special.”

Without wasting a second, he leaned in and claimed my lips with his while his two hands worked on various parts of my body. I let this strange man whose name I didn’t know, do to me as he pleased at the back of his car while his driver blasted the loudest rendition of Antonio Vivaldi’s ‘The Four Season’.

I, Claire Moore that was dumped because of how much of a goody two shoes I was – what he said – had sex with a mystery man at the back of a car. I knew for certain that I was going to regret it in the morning, but in that moment, I was soaking up every pleasure-filled moment of his kisses and touch.

I was most definitely going to botch that interview tomorrow just so I can avoid running into him ever again. All I had to do was get passed the first six hours without seeing him and he’ll be a thing of the past. How hard could that be?