This Strange Addiction by Julie Steimle (e book free reading .txt) 📕

She then started to gently press kisses into his neck, undoing his shirt buttons while wrapping  er arms around him and running her fingers down his bare chest towards his belt.

He turned around in the chair, gazing at her, his eyes wide and going wolfish. “I don’t know what you’ve done to me. But I can’t stay away.”

“Because you want me,” she said with that sultry smile.

Leaning in, he kissed her, rising. He breathed hard when he pulled apart. “I want you very much—and I don’t want you at all.”

She smirked at him, teasing his belt buckle until she loosened it. “Choose one.”

Kissing her again deeply on her lips, Rick lifted up her skirt and pulled at her leg to hold it around him. As always, she wore nothing underneath. She always made herself so easy to get to, so desirable. He lifted the rest of her loose dress up, pulling it over her head as quickly as possible, then taking off his pants as fast as he could. Heaving her to the bed, he climbed on top of her, kissing every bit of her he could touch and handle. Then he went in the rest of the way, giving her exactly what she wanted—what she had been coaxing him for. She tasted so good. And though it did not bring the relief from addiction that he really wanted, the passion he had been aching for surged through him.

In the window, a black cat hopped up onto the sill and stared inside.

Chapter Fourteen

Back home, Audry returned to work. The apartment felt so empty, though. It was strange how Silvia really held such a solid presence wherever she went. And with her gone, the beautiful apartment they shared felt oddly hollow.

And since she didn’t like that feeling Audry went out, back to NYU.

The thing was, she really didn’t have anything to do at NYU either. She wasn’t teaching. She didn’t need the library or the computer lab to print things off. She didn’t have any club meetings, and she didn’t really have any more research at all to complete. It was kind of strange, and Audry felt a bit useless. Because of that, she wondered why she had not gone ahead to get all the consent forms made for the next stage of her research. She had not even chosen a location out west to start. She could still do that before the wedding. She had time. Why had she put it off?

As she was walking through the campus thinking over these things, she noticed that average, kind of mousy witch not far from one of her department buildings—the one witch they called Marta. Marta was loitering, lingering not far from the entrance, her eyes searching the people coming in and out of it, but she did not seem to see Audry at all. As she ducked to make sure she was out of that witch’s sight, the realization hit her that  she had been so distracted by Silvia’s problems that she had forgotten she had her own life. That was why she had not gone forward with her research. But unfortunately she still had to deal with this problem first.

Audry ducked quietly into a doorway and called Matthew. It rang only once before she got voice mail.

“Hey. This is Audry. That witch Marta is here at NYU. She doesn’t see me, but she is looking. I’ve seen her asking questions of the people going in and out of where I work. Text me or something. This is stalking, and you can at least get her on that, right?”

When she finished the call, Audry then called Hogan. He had come to mind as she realized that if she was a target, and they had seen her with him at the police station, then he definitely would be on their target list.

“Hogan?” Audry listened as he picked up. “How are you? I’m back in New York now.”

<< Oh… Audry! Thank heaven! I have had the weirdest week without you. Please don’t stay away that long again. >>

“Weird?” Audry asked, getting worried. “Weird as in how?”

<< You are not going to believe me, but this woman who looks like this LA Barbie doll came around my work asking for me. And then she proceeded to ask me about Silvia of all people, saying she was a sorority sister of hers and they have some kind of reunion coming up and she was trying to get a hold of her… >>

Crud. Danna had found Hogan. Luckily it was at a public place where there were witnesses. Blinking into space, an idea came to Audry. “Would you be willing to testify in a court of law about that?”

<< She didn’t do anything illegal by asking me that kind of thing, >> Hogan replied, confused.

“I know, but in a way she was. That woman—she is stalking Silvia.”

Hogan laughed. << I gathered that. I know Silvia enough to know she was never part of any sorority. >>

Relief washed through her. It was great to be with a man who was sensible. And quick. “What did you say to her?”

He sighed on his end. << I didn’t tell her much. I told her I hardly knew the woman, and I didn’t know where she currently was—as I really don’t. I’ve never been to your friend’s place—Jessica’s. And I really doubt that Jessica would appreciate me sending strangers to her home anyway—not after just giving birth. By the way, is it a boy or girl? >>

“Girl.” Audry grinned.

<< Sweet. Do they have a name? >>

Laughing, she said, “Ivy Chandra Cartwright.”

<< Wow… she named her after you. >>

“In a way.” But Audry beamed. Even her best friends at home had not thought of something that sweet. Honestly it really did show how Jessica thought of her as not just someone she had hung out with, but someone she wanted to keep as a friend for a long time. A real friend. It was nice.

<< Well… do you want to continue house shopping tomorrow afternoon? Or— >>

“What about this afternoon. I’ve got nothing right now,” she said, hoping.

<< I wish I could, but I’ve got lab work to do, and I am booked all day. The earliest I can see you is tomorrow. >>

“Oh.” She sighed.

<< I’m sorry. >>

But she shook her head. “That’s ok. I just sort of sprang it on you.”

<< How about you call your grandmother? She’s been texting me, saying she wants me to convince you to have the reception where she had hers when she was married. >>

“She should be talking to my mother about that.” Audry groaned. “I had delegated that to them. Dad wanted it to be outdoors with tiki torches.”

Hogan laughed. << That’d be fun, but probably misinterpreted by lookers on. Anyway, call her. >>

“Why doesn’t she call me?” Audry laughed.

<< She’s tried, >> he said. << But you haven’t been answering your phone. >>

Audry looked down at her phone. The ringer was off.  

Of course. Audry hit her forehead and turned her ringer back on. She had shut it off so she would not disturb Jessica or the baby. And looking at it, she had a lot of text messages and voice mail.

“Alight, it looks like I need to call her.” Audry sighed. “I’ll call you later. Love you.”

<< Love you too, Artemis. >>

Audry then called her grandmother. After an explosive ‘why aren’t you answering your phone?’, her grandmother then went into all the plans she had for Audry if she had time that day.

So, instead of going on a date with Hogan, she met up with Grandma Bruchenhaus.

They had lunch together.

As always, Grandma Bruchenhaus sat like a prim little cat as she ate daintily in her pretty seat at the pricy restaurant. Her grandmother would settle for nothing less. Audry knew she would have been just as snotty as Rick’s grandparents at the street side café near Central Park where she had met them a few years back, so she didn’t even dare take her grandmother there. Her grandmother also fussed over Audry’s vegan choices as silly and then changed the subject to flower arrangements and wedding cake.

“I insist on a buttercream frosting,” she said.

Which wasn’t vegan. The whole concept of butter being cruel seemed to escape her grandmother’s mind, and there was no arguing with her as she just wasn’t able to understand it. She was old. But also stubborn. So Audry merely smiled and said, “We’ll talk to the baker.”—Which meant she would talk to the baker after her grandmother did and explain her need for them to make a vegan cake, but lie to her grandmother about it.

“Now, I need you to come with me, and we’ll look at dresses. I know you circled some gowns in the catalogue I sent you, and I saw your choices, but I would like to show you your options as we are inviting our extended family to this wedding—including those Busche-Waites, who—as you know—are old money.”

Audry did not want to argue with her grandmother about money either. It wasn’t that she lost the argument, but that the argument was lost on her Bruchenhaus relatives. They just did not understand that human value had no price tag on it, and no words could convince them otherwise. To be honest, her family generally ignored the Bruchenhaus snobbery by keeping out of their world as much as possible.

“Audry!” a bright young woman’s voice cried out.

Hearing her name cheerfully called, Audry turned. It was Kim McGivens again, this time with her husband Stewart and their child. Kim was smiling.

Audry grinned, turning in her seat. “Kim, Stewart, how are you?”

Stewart beamed, his eyes glancing to Grandma Bruchenhaus. “We’re doing well.”

“Very well,” Kim said. Audry noticed her nanny wasn’t with them this time. Kim was holding her own toddler. She also had a baby bump. “How are you?”

Grinning, Audry decided to share her good news. “Actually, I’m engaged.” She lifted her hand and showed her ring.

For a second, Stewart blanched. But then, as his wife cooed over the ring, saying, “So your boyfriend proposed? That’s great! When is the event? Does Rick know?”

Stewart looked to her. “Uh, who is she marrying?”

“Hogan Orwell,” Audry said. Then she gestured to her grandmother. “I’m sorry. This is my grandmother. Tiffany Ann Bruchenhaus. She and I are doing some of the wedding preparations right now.”

Stewart appeared puzzled, though relieved for her. He smiled with a nod to both Audry and Grandma Bruchenhaus. “Nice to meet you.”

“Pleasure,” Grandma Bruchenhaus said, smiling at him. Then she said to Audry, “We should add these friends of yours to the wedding list. I don’t recall seeing the McGivens name on there.”

Audry blushed. “Well… Hogan and I were trying to keep the costs down to—”

“Oh please,” her grandmother said, slapping Audry’s hand playfully. “A couple more plates is nothing. And we need more families like these on our party list. It will be inundated with hippies on your mother’s side, and the Deacon family is new money.”

Audry rolled her eyes.

Kim giggled.

But Stewart said, blinking at her, “You invited Rick Deacon to your wedding?”

Lifting her eyes to him, Audry nodded. “Yes. He asked me to.” And she started to blush. “Uh, my roommate Silvia says it’s for