The sudden ring of my phone slices through the silence like a massive ship through calm water.It's a jarring sound, but the name on the screen is far more jarring.Cassius.
“Hello?”I whisper, knowing it doesn’t matter.I’m alone.There’s no one here to disturb.
“I know you, Lindy girl.”His voice rolls through the line like smoke, low and smooth.Goosebumps prickle every inch of my skin.
No doubt about it now.I can’t deny it.It’shim.My breath catches, sharp and uneven.It can’t be, but I’d know that voice anywhere.The rough velvet, danger wrapped in silk.I don’t say it.He doesn’t either.We let it hang there, unspoken.Maybe we both want to see if the other will admit it first.
“You sound…” My words falter, but I find them again.“Different than I imagined.”
“You’ve been imagining me?”His tone dips, dark amusement curling around every syllable.
“Yes.”It slips out before I can stop it.A breathless confession.
He doesn’t push.He doesn’t need to.The silence between us is heavy, electric, threaded with the memory of him brushing his lips against my cheek in that grocery aisle.I’m almost certain he’s smiling on the other end of the line.A slow, dangerous smile I can feel without seeing.
“Good,” he finally says, his voice quieter now, almost a whisper.“I want you thinking about me.”
“Are you a bad man?”The question slips from my lips before I can swallow it.His intensity scares me, but not in a fear for my life type of way.I am not afraidofhim.I’m afraid of what wanting him will do to me.
“Yes,” Cassius says.I can hear things in the background, light music maybe, but I can’t make anything out.“I will never lie to you when you ask me a direct question.”
“So you’ll lie to me when I don’t ask?”
“I may not always offer information right away, but I hope you can see the difference.”His voice is calm and measured.
“What are you doing?”
“Just got home,” Cassius answers.“I had a job run late.”
I pull my phone away from my ear and check the time.“At two in the morning?”I ask, struggling to reconcile his world with my own.
“Sin City, Lindy girl.Business happens at all hours here.”
“Well, I work normal business hours and I should try to get some sleep.”I use my words as a gentle reminder of the divide between our lives.I don’t know why he keeps talking to me, but I know that whatever world he’s in there’s no place for someone like me.I’m the opposite of dangerous and brave.But, I muster up some bravery anyway because before we hang up I have to know, “Why did you call me?”I barely croak out.
“Because texting you all the things I know about you would take too long,” he says, and then, softer, “and because you promised me one outrageous question if I behaved.”
My pulse trips.“You remembered.”
“I remember everything about you,” he says, low.“And I’ve been thinking about your answer to this question all day.”
“Let’s have it.”I brace for anything.With this man it could be anything from my favorite snack to the last time I made myself come.Heat climbs my neck.Thank God he can’t see me.
“Will you touch yourself to the sound of my voice?”His question lands quiet and lethal, like a blade set gently on velvet.
“Will I… or have I?”I hear myself ask before I can think better of it.
A soft laugh ghosts down the line.“Well, now I want to know both.”
“I only agreed to one outrageous question.”
“What if I promise to behave tomorrow, too?”There’s a smile in it.He knows exactly what he’s doing.
I can’t help laughing.“I haven’t heard your voice before today, so no, I haven’t.But thoughts of you is another story…”
“And now?”
“Are you asking me to?”
