His Forbidden Obsession

She ruined me.

(Callum)

I sat at the bar nursing my third glass of bourbon as the music pounded loudly in my ears. Neon lights cast dark shadows over the entire place reminding me of the night I met Clara.

“Damn it”, I thought to myself. I was here to keep her out of my thoughts but it looked like it wasn’t working.

I downed my drink in one gulp and signaled to the bartender to get me another round, anything to keep these thoughts at bay.

“Buy a girl a drink?”

I turned my head to find a tall blonde with blood-red lipstick and a dress cut like it had been stitched on with intent. Her breasts looked to be struggling to stay put in the flimsy material called a dress. Her smile was flirty, confident, bored. The kind of woman who didn’t come here looking for conversation.

Just what I needed tonight. Another woman to help me get rid of thoughts of burying myself in between Clara again.

“Sure, anything for a gorgeous woman like you” I said, signaling the bartender without looking away from her.

She stepped in closer, intentionally brushing her full breasts against me, her perfume thick and sharp which almost made me gag.

“You here alone?” She asked, tucking a piece of hair behind her ears.

I smirked at her question. “Well, it seems that way,”

She chuckled at my reply which I found a bit pathetic and desperate. Nothing I said was funny but, I was going to indulge her to get what I wanted.

“You’re funny,” she said, grabbing her drink from the bar and taking a long sip. Her lipstick left a red print on the glass, as though she was trying to mark it as hers. “I like that in a man.”

I gave her a tight smile as I sipped my bourbon and trying not to breathe in too much of her perfume. It hung in the air like desperation. I’d been around enough women like her to know what came next.

“You don’t look like the kind of guy who likes to sit still all night,” she said as she moved closer.

“Well I had a rough day so I’m just here to get a break you know,” I replied.

“Ah I see, what do you do for work?,” she asked with her eyes roaming down my biceps.

“I’m a doctor,” I replied causally.

“Wow. I heard doctors have proper knowledge of a woman’s anatomy. Is that true?,” she asked in a flirty tone.

I smirked. “We’ll see,”

Her voice dropped lower, seductive and full of promise. “Wanna dance?”

“Sure,” I said, draining the last of my bourbon and rising from the barstool.

She smiled at me and led me to the dance floor.

The dance floor was packed with people who didn’t have a care in the world as they bumped and grinded to the rhythm of the music, thick with heat and sweat.

She turned to face me, already swaying her hips to the beat before I even found my footing. Her hands came up to my chest, dragging slowly down my shirt as she leaned in, her body brushing mine in all the right places.

But it still felt wrong.

I dug my hands roughly into her hips, guiding her movements more out of habit than desire. Her ass pressed against my thigh, her breath brushing against my ear as she moved in closer.

“You’ve got that sexy, mysterious thing going on,” she said with a smirk, lifting one brow. “It’s hot.”

I didn’t answer instead, I grinded my hips into her as her back gave way to a hard on.

But it still didn’t stop my thoughts.

Clara.

Her scent. Her voice. The way she moaned into my ears when I was inside her like I was the only man who had ever made her feel that way, which I was.

“Did you hear what I said?,” she asked as she pressed herself closer to me.

“Huh?,” I asked absentmindedly.

“You seem tense. Maybe I can help you with that,” she whispered.

She grabbed my hand as we left the club while I led her out of the street and toward my car.

“Nice ride,” she said as I unlocked the car and she slid in, adjusting her dress that kept creeping up her thighs. “You always take strangers home from bars?”

I gave a half-smile as I turned the ignition. “Only the ones who ask nicely.”

She laughed loudly before replying. “Even your accent is hot,”

The drive back to my apartment was short as the lady kept telling me how she had just broken up with her boyfriend two days ago after he found her onlyfans account.

“God forbid a woman tries to be an entrepreneur,” she said in a chuckle.

I almost shook my head in disbelief as she tried to defend herself by calling her ex boyfriend a shallow minded man.

We pulled up to my apartment and her eyes widened in disbelief.

“Holy s**t,” she breathed as I parked in the private driveway. “You live here?”

The modern two-story building stood tall against the night, sleek with dark wood panels, glass walls. The motion lights lit up the pathway as we walked toward the entrance. I unlocked the door and pushed it open, revealing the beautiful interior bathed in soft lighting.

“Wow,” she said again, stepping in and kicking off her heels. “This is… incredible. Are you sure you’re just a doctor?”

“Just a doctor,” I replied.

“I have to admit,” she said, leaning back against the couch, her short dress exposing more than it concealed. “This place is making me wet already.”

She reached for me, tugging at my shirt again as she stepped into my space. “Come on, Doctor… show me what you know.”

I kissed her. Hard. Just to shut off my brain.

Her lips were soft, lips that tasted like cherry vodka and fake sweetness. She moaned into my mouth, pressing her body against mine as she led me backward toward the couch.

My hands were on her waist, sliding down to cup her ass through the flimsy dress. She straddled me, her fingers moved through my hair as she started grinding into my lap.

But I wasn’t feeling it.

I wasn’t here.

My body was moving, responding out of muscle memory of a man but inside, I was somewhere else entirely.

Clara again.

Her hair spilling over my car seat, her lashes fluttering against flushed cheeks. The way she gripped me that night like I was the only thing keeping her alive.

This woman on top of me now? She was nothing like Clara.

Everything about her was fake; her laugh, her perfume, the lazy way she moaned without meaning it.

“I want you so bad,” she whispered, already reaching between us to unzip my jeans.

I grabbed her wrist and stopped her.

She froze, blinking. “What’s wrong?”

I sighed slowly in response. “I can’t.”

She blinked, clearly thrown. “What do you mean, you can’t? Are you gay?”

“I thought I could go through with this,” I said, my voice low. “But I can’t.”

She climbed off my lap in anger. “So you bring me all the way here, get me worked up, and now you’re saying you’re not interested?”

“It’s not that I’m not…” I broke off, running a hand down my face. “You’re beautiful. You’re… more than enough. It’s just…fuck!,”

“You have a girlfriend or something?”

Worse.

I had a student I couldn’t stop thinking about.

I didn’t answer her. That was answer enough.

She scoffed, grabbing her purse from the floor. “Unbelievable.”

“I’ll call you a car,” I offered as I grabbed my phone.

“Don’t bother,” she snapped and stormed out, slamming the door behind her.

I stood there, alone, with a half-open shirt and a hard-on that meant absolutely nothing.

I stared at the empty couch where she’d just been, but it was Clara’s face that filled the room. Clara’s voice that whispered through my head. Her scent, her taste, her f*****g sound.

I sat back on the couch, head tilted against the cushion, eyes staring up at the cold white ceiling.

And for the first time in a long damn while, I realized, Clara had ruined me.