The Tenant - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

“What the hell?!” Jeff cried, pulling his prone body toward the headboard of his bed with his elbows. It probably wasn’t the most eloquent phrasing of the many questions that were popping into his mind, but it was the one that came out.

Fantastic-Femme looked taken aback, rising from Jeff’s tense form to hover above him. She floated back into a vertical position as the man scrambled into a sitting position below her.

“What are you doing here?” Jeff demanded, his puzzled eyes intense. He had never met this woman before and was flabbergasted by both her presence and her actions. Had she mistaken him for someone else? In his house? In his bed? It just didn’t make any sense.

“Jeff, it’s me. It’s Emiline,” she said, her voice quiet, emotion beginning to well in her quivering eyes as he floated above him.

“Emiline?” Jeff blinked uncomprehendingly as he stared up at her.

“This is who I am,” she continued, unable to meet Jeff’s wide-eyed gaze as she gradually rotated in the air. Her movement stopped once she was vertical once again, hovering just above Jeff’s feet. “I’m not sure why I never told you. I just wanted you to love me. The real me. I always knew that I needed to tell you eventually, but Emiline is the true me. I didn’t become Fantasti-Femme until later. I should have told you sooner, but I could never find the right time.”

Jeff’s mind reeled with the implications. His fiancé was the stunning gorgeous, über-powerful Fantasti-Femme?

His fiancé was the stunningly gorgeous, über-powerful Fantasti-Femme!

His awestruck eyes examining her beautiful features, Jeff felt a sudden thrill stutter his heart. He was engaged to a superhero! And not just any superhero, but one of the most powerful in existence. Before he had met Emiline, he had fantasized about meeting this woman—her, he supposed. He had fantasized about exactly what had just happened, in fact! The shapely superhero climbing under the covers with him had been a recurring feature in his nightly fantasies.

But when he had first met Emiline, all of that had fallen away. It wasn’t until lately, when Emiline’s affections and interest in him had seemed to wane, that his mind had begun to stray back to those thoughts and feelings from years earlier. It was probably why Sasha’s sudden arrival had interested him so. She was like a darker, sexier version of his longtime crush.

But Emiline was Fantasti-Femme?

The fact was only now beginning to sink in. What did that mean for them? How did that change the nature of their relationship? Why hadn’t she trusted him with this information? They were engaged to be married! Why was she just telling him now?

Suddenly, Jeff realized that he didn’t know his fiancé as well as he thought he had. Did he actually know the real her at all? She said that Emiline was the real her, but all those late nights at work—had she been working late at her job as she’d told him, or had she secretly been out saving the city from supervillains?

He supposed that was her job. One of them, anyway. And that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it would have been nice to know the truth. She had probably been out there with Astro Ace, doing all sorts of exciting things…

The name of the city’s other superhero sparked something in his memory. Hadn’t there been something about Astro Ace and Fantasi-Femme in the news recently? Before he could quite manage to locate the memory, however, Emiline continued.

“When that bitch of a tenant started acting like I was some kind of charity case—like I wasn’t pretty enough to deserve you or something—I just felt like I should show you what I can be. Part of who I am. Maybe I’m still not as pretty as she is, but plenty of men would be happy to…”

Emiline continued, but Jeff didn’t hear the rest of her words. The phrase “plenty of men” had jarred loose the memory he’d been seeking, sending him deep into his own thoughts. Fanasti-Femme had been spotted making out with Astro Ace! Recently! Emiline had been spotted making out with Astro Ace!

His fiancé had been kissing another man!

Jeff spoke suddenly, abruptly cutting off Emiline’s earnest confession in mid-sentence

“Did you kiss Astro Ace?” His voice was soft but edged with an intensity that surprised even him.

“What?” she replied, blinking in surprise. She tensed, her eyes again falling to the floor.

“Did you kiss Astro Ace?” Jeff repeated, his eyes beginning to harden as he saw her reaction. Why was she reluctant to answer? She couldn’t have actually done it, could she? The tabloids were always finding compromising shots of celebrities, twisting the truth to draw attention.

“I… did,” Emiline said, her eyes squeezing shut as she said the words. “It was a moment of weakness. We’ve been so successful together, and I just… I just…”

Jeff felt a lead weight form in his stomach, his fist clenching at his sides. She had done it. Not only had she kept her alternate identity from him, this whole other life, she had kissed another man!

“You just what?” he asked, his voice rising in volume as hurt permeated his being, hints of anger beginning to form at its edges.

“I just let him kiss me,” Emiline replied, her cheeks beginning to flush a deep shade of crimson. “I know I shouldn’t have. I know it was wrong.” She began to choke up as she uttered the final words, her voice thick with emotion as she continued. “But that’s all that happened. It really is.”

“You let him kiss you,” Jeff repeated, the full weight of her words twisting his leaden stomach into agonizingly painful knots. The question that followed was raw with emotion, Jeff’s voice quavering as his contorting lips uttered the words. “But why?”

“I don’t know,” said Emiline, tears beginning to stream down her cheeks. “It just happened!”

The beautiful heroine began to cry, her beautiful features scrunched in pain, her eyes bubbling with tears of shame. Jeff said nothing, anger beginning to simmer in his agonized stomach. How could she have done this? How could she have not trusted him enough to tell him who she really was? How could she have lied to him all this time? How could she have done that with Astro Ace?

The questions flowed through his mind in an endless loop, fueling a growing rage with every pass. Yes, he had had thoughts about Sasha, but he hadn’t acted on them. This was different. This was worse. And he hadn’t lied to her about who he was. For years! Hadn’t hidden a huge portion of his life from her.

“Jeff?” Emiline asked in a timid voice, finally raising her shimmering eyes to meet his once again.

He didn’t respond, tears of his own beginning to sting his gleaming eyes. He crossed his arms, staring daggers into Emiline’s flushed face.

“Jeff?” his fiancé asked a second time.

Again, he didn’t answer, a single tear rolling down his left cheek.

Emiline gave a choked sob. Then, in a swirling rush of air, she was gone.

Jeff flipped over, burying his head in his pillow, his body shaking as he poured frustration into long, drawn-out sobs. What did this mean for his relationship? Could he forgive her? Should he still marry her? Did he want to be with someone who could deceive him for so long, even if she were Fantasti-Femme?

He didn’t know. Right now, he seemed capable of only two things—feeling pain and feeling anger.

He wasn’t sure how long he lay in bed crying, but eventually, the sobs grew less intense. Rage and agony gave way to aching numbness. The tears slowed, then ceased. The wracking moans faded. After long minutes, he rose unsteadily from the bed, wiping the salty tears from his cheeks with a trembling hand. He paced the room several times, uncertain what to think, now feeling nothing but the emptiness of his hollowed core where a kernel of love had always been.

He marched woodenly out of the room, passing Sasha’s closed door. There was a strange whimpering sound coming from within, but Jeff couldn’t muster the energy for curiosity right now. He swept by her room, descending the stairs with a grim, closed-lip expression before collapsing on the couch. He turned on the television, paying whatever came on little heed, lost in an endless procession of the same few thoughts, his body still cold with senseless apathy.

He wasn’t sure how long he sat there, but after a time, he heard the squeak of hinges as Sasha’s door opened. She descended the stairs slowly, pausing at their base to give Jeff a long, meaningful look. He turned to meet her gaze, too detached from his normal self to give a damn about the sexy girl…

...until he saw her.

Her eyes were puffy as well. From crying? It sure looked like it. But why?

“You look sad,” she said simply, her body rigid as she examined Jeff’s slumped posture.

“So do you,” he replied, his gaze never leaving her searching eyes for once. He watched her directly. Unapologetically. He was not ashamed to look at the girl this time. He intended nothing. He wanted nothing. He couldn’t manage to care about anything. Emptiness had finally made him bold.

Except that as he continued to gaze into her saddened eyes, he suddenly realized that he did care. The feeling rose from within his numb body gradually, slithering up his spine so stealthily that he didn’t notice it at first. But he found himself beginning to wonder what had caused the girl’s tears. The last two times he’d seen her, Sasha had spewed caustic words at Emiline and taken down one of the world’s most powerful supervillains. What could possibly cause a girl like that to cry?

“I heard you arguing,” she said after a long silence. “With your girlfriend.”

She swallowed, turning the rest of her curvaceous body to face him. The elegant curve of her hips shifted. Her lips quivered, her eyes falling to the floor. “I hope that wasn’t because of me.”

She took a hesitant step toward the couch where Jeff sat, her eyes still focused on the patch of floor before her. “I didn’t mean to break you guys up. I don’t even know why I said what I said.”

Her troubled gaze rose to meet his once again. “I don’t know why I’ve been doing most of the things I’ve been doing.”

In that moment, she looked so sincere, so vibrantly beautiful, so utterly guileless, that Jeff felt his heart leap for her. He rose from the sofa, closing the distance between them in three long strides, and embraced her warmly. He breathed in her scent, aromatic as ever, burying his face in the beautiful girl’s thick, glossy tresses.

His pain was back, but it was quiet this time, more of an ache than a piercing wound in his thumping heart. He began to pull back, unsure why he had even hugged the girl. She had simply needed a moment’s comfort. As he did, however, he felt Sasha’s slender arms snaking around him, her fingertips rising softly over his broad back. He could feel the power in her sleek, sculpted muscles, but her embrace was gentle. Almost sensual.

He looked into her eyes. They shimmered with emotion. This time, their shared gaze was absolutely electric. Sasha’s full lips were closed as her gaze penetrated him, her glinting irises reaching a place within him that seemed to instantly quiet all of his swirling emotions. A sudden, shocking sense of peace pervaded his suddenly relaxed body.

Sasha gradually pulled him back in, the tips of her luscious breasts brushing his muscular chest. Nearly as tall as him now, she leaned in, her chin lifting slightly upward as soft lips touched his.

The kiss wasn’t at all like he would have expected from Sasha. It was poignant. Tremulous. Heartfelt. It was the kiss of an inexperienced teen, not that of the sultry vixen she’d shown herself to be time and again.

Somehow, it made him want her far more than anything else could have. All of his quieted emotion instantly spun into a vortex of intense feeling, however this time, it was made of desire rather than pain, of need rather than anger.

He wanted this girl. The girl who suddenly seemed to care for him. The girl who was broken up by the thought that she may have caused him pain. He wanted this enigmatic beauty who had rattled the foundations of his life, the sultry teen who had never been more desirable to him than she was in this moment.

He kissed her back, his hands descending the smooth muscle of her back until it arrived at its innermost curve. From there, he pulled her body toward him. Her lush breasts felt firm but somehow still soft. Her lean stomach was like liquid iron, rolling into his body, the unyielding muscle seeming incongruous with the satin skin that rubbed against him.

Her hips ground into him, the tight leather that encased them creaking as her kisses grew deeper and more passionate, her lips moist as they pressed into his own. She stepped forward, sending Jeff backward a step back as her fingers began to dig into him from behind. Her nails found purchase in the crinkled cloth of his shirt, and she tore it completely away, the slim muscles of her arms tensing into feminine steel with the simple act.

She took another step forward, then another, walking Jeff back, her soft kisses growing more urgent, more insistent as she progressed. When the back of Jeff’s calves hit the edge of the sofa, Sasha’s aggressive attention didn’t diminish in the slightest. Instead, she rode Jeff to the cushions, her long legs coiling to either side of his hips. She broke off their kiss, rising above him to rake his face with twin smoldering eyes.

She tore off her black crop, flinging it aside to reveal just how achingly perfect her breasts truly were. That brief glimpse in the moonlight hadn’t done them justice. They were staggeringly gorgeous, stoking his burgeoning desire with their impossibly succulent curves.

Jeff found himself licking his lips, hungering for this girl’s tantalizing body more than he’d ever hungered for anything in his life. She cared for him. She wanted him. And right now, he needed to feel wanted.

She had entrusted him with the sight of her naked breasts, unveiling herself before his awestruck eyes. She was giving herself to him.

His fingers drew slowly around her insanely slender midriff as she watched him, her head swaying quietly from side to side like a calculating cobra. He could feel the slight movements emanating from deep within her defined core as dangerously dark eyes tracked him. Fingertips slipping into the etched grooves between her unyielding abdominal muscles, Jeff’s hands rose until they found the creamy underside of her breasts. Every part of this girl’s body was absolute perfection. The seductive teen was a masterpiece of erotic art.

At his touch, her sleek thighs clenched, their leather-clad surfaces gripping his hips with breathtaking power. He remembered the ease with which she had dispatched Power Mistress, shuddering as he began to understand how powerful she must truly be. Stronger than Power Mistress! This girl may well be stronger than anyone!

Much about this girl remained a mystery. A brief shudder ran through him. Should he really be doing this? He barely knew this girl. She was incredibly sexy, yes. Gorgeous beyond belief. As she pulled her voluminous, inky mane to one side, he marveled at the elegant line of her jaw, the delicate curve of her nose, the lofty prominence of her cheekbones. Every graceful line of her stunning face made him yearn for her all the more.

His hands rose the silky slopes of her voluptuous breasts, massaging them with all his strength, his digging fingers barely denting the sensitive flesh. The sensual act caused another surge of appreciation to wash through his intoxicated body.

Fuck, she was amazing.

Before he could entertain what little remained of his rapidly fading reluctance, she lowered her left breast to his panting tongue, filling his mouth with exquisitely feminine flesh.

Her skin smelled like particularly intoxicating perfume.

It tasted even better.

She began to kiss the top of his suckling head, her shimmering hair falling around him, like an enveloping curtain. It seemed to give their shared act a greater sense of intimacy, creating a private world in which only the pair of them existed. Jeff felt the girl’s nimble fingers tearing open his pants as he shivered with desire, savoring the taste of her flawless body as the excitement of carnal anticipation rocked him to the core.

Her shapely calves slithered over his legs as she extended over him, her small hands shoving her leather pants downward over her rounded hips. When she had removed her leather garment, she tore away his boxers, letting his hot, hard member touch the silky flesh that encased the iron sleekness of her slender muscles for the first time.

Her body was so incredibly toned that the ridges and swells within her smooth thigh pulsated against him with every movement. The feel of her body against him threw his already thundering heart into a gear it had never previously reached.

Groaning, Jeff shifted beneath her, sparks of arousal electrifying his hips, the increased contact with the girl’s inner thigh driving him wild. She kissed his neck, nibbling flickers of sensual fire into his tantalized body as she adjusted her position over him, aligning his rock-hard member with her glistening sex.

Then, she thrust her delicious body downward over him.

Jeff gasped, the feeling of her taut inner muscles sliding over his shockingly rigid member like nothing he had ever felt before.

It was ecstasy.

He felt a throaty whimper rumble his trembling tongue as Sasha continued her clenching, shimmying plunge. She was so unbelievably tight, so incredibly warm. She seemed to crush him, impossible waves of rapture crashing into his engorged cock from every side.

Sex had never felt like this before. It was as if her body had been designed specifically to fit him. The walls of her canal rippled with feminine power. The steamy moisture within her perfect womb flowing over him. The girl’s powerful core undulated, sending sparks of breathtakingly intense feeling into the rising inferno that whirled with ever-increasing vigor within him.

Her parted legs drew slightly more open and closed as she worked him into her, subtle motions sending ripples of indescribable pleasure through his tightening hips. The coordinated movements of sucking lips, clutching fingers, writhing legs, and rippling womb weaved together in a breathtakingly erotic symphony of impossible rapture.

Need raged through his bucking body as Sasha crushed her body tightly against him before rising for another go. If he hadn’t been so shocked by the suddenness of events, Jeff would probably have already come. As it was, he didn’t last much longer. Two more dizzyingly intense trips down his raging length caused him to explode in screaming, spasming ecstasy within the girl’s magnificent body.

She milked him through the most powerful orgasm he had ever felt, finishing him with a mind-bendingly sensual kiss that sent one long, last shudder of swirling pleasure through Jeff’s clenching, erupting body.

Jeff’s eyes rolled backward, his body shaking uncontrollably as the last powerful wave in the tsunami of ecstasy blasted through him, Sasha pulling away from his trembling body with a surprised look in her dark gaze. She looked down, the action drawing Jeff’s dazed eyes as well.

The tattoo on her stomach suddenly flared to life with a scarlet glow so bright that Jeff had to place an arm before his astonished gaze.