isabel

Voicemail #1: __i, Isabel Culpeper. I am lying in my bed, looking at the ceiling. I am mostly naked. I am thinking of _ your mother. Call me.__oicemail #2: The first minute and thirty seconds of ____e Gotta Get a Message to You_ by the Bee Gees. Voicemail #3: ____ bored. I need to be entertained. Sam is moping. I may kill him with his own guitar. It would give me something to do and also make him say something. Two birds with one stone! I find all these old expressions unnecessarily violent. Like, ring around the rosy. That__ about the plague, did you know? Of course you did. The plague is, like, your older cousin. Hey, does Sam talk to you? He says jack shit to me. God, I__ bored. Call me.__oicemail #4: __otel California_ by the Eagles, in its entirety, with every instance of the word California replaced with Minnesota. Voicemail #5: __i, this is Cole St. Clair. Want to know two true things? One, you__e never picking up this phone. Two, I__ never going to stop leaving long messages. It__ like therapy. Gotta talk to someone. Hey, you know what I figured out today? Victor__ dead. I figured it out yesterday, too. Every day I figure it out again. I don__ know what I__ doing here. I feel like there__ no one I can ___oicemail #6: __o, yeah, I__ sorry. That last message went a little pear-shaped. You like that expression? Sam said it the other day. Hey, try this theory on for size: I think he__ a dead British housewife reincarnated into a Beatle__ body. You know, I used to know this band that put on fake British accents for their shows. Boy, did they suck, aside from being assholes. I can__ remember their name now. I__ either getting senile or I__e done enough to my brain that stuff__ falling out. Not so fair of me to make this one-sided, is it? I__ always talking about myself in these things. So, how are you, Isabel Rosemary Culpeper? Smile lately? Hot Toddies. That was the name of the band. The Hot Toddies.__oicemail #20: __ wish you__ answer.

The future was getting here faster than I'd expected.

whoopdie-friggin-doo, fooled you!

I love you,_ he whispered as he thrust again. And again. Each movement controlled. Each small movement devastating in its effect. __ love you.__he lost all concept of time. She lost her place and surroundings. She couldn__ remember who he was__ho she was. She lost her mind.

There was no sound, but she felt a movement, a shifting of the air in her room, the warmth of another presence.Isabel opened her eyes. He was there, at the foot of her bed, a single candle in his hand, dressed only in shirtsleeves, waistcoat, and breeches.__orgive me,_ he whispered as he set the candle down. __ could not stay away.

She threw one leg over his and straddled his lap, then reached under herself and found him again.He tore his mouth from hers. __ait.___o._ She looked him frankly in the eyes. __ don__ care if you spill at once. I need you inside me now.__is beautiful eyes widened and then narrowed. __ou__l not always hold the reins, my lady.__he smiled sweetly. __aturally not, but I do now.

She smiled as she poured tea into his cup. __ hope you find your rooms comfortable?___uite._ He took a too-hasty sip of tea and scalded his tongue.__he view is to your liking?__e had a view of a brick wall. __ndeed.__he fluttered her eyelashes at him over the rim of her teacup. __nd the bed. Is it soft and_ yielding?__e nearly choked on the bite of cake he__ just taken.__r do you prefer a firmer bed?_ she asked sweetly. __ne that refuses to yield too soon?___ think___e narrowed his eyes at her___hatever mattress I have on the bed you gave me is perfect. But tell me, my lady, what sort of mattress do you prefer? All soft goose down or one that__ a bit_ harder?__t was very fast, but he saw it: Her gaze flashed down to the juncture of his thighs and then up again. If there hadn__ been anything to see there before, there certainly was now.__h, I like a nice stiff mattress,_ she purred. __ell warmed and ready for a long ride.

She gasped again and opened blue eyes lit with erotic mischief. __re you trying to steal the reins from me?__ven with his penis buried deep within her, even moments from climax, he arched an eyebrow. __ou have them only by my permission.

It hardly mattered. She was tired of waiting for him to acknowledge who he was. Tired of donning a false mask of gaiety when she was so much more__elt so much more__eneath. No one had ever noticed her mask. No one but him. If he couldn__ or wouldn__ make the first move, then damn it, she would.

Isabel's infamous tweets ranged from the cartoonish and impossible:Im going to pull ur tongue out of ur mouth wrap it around ur neck n strangle u w it so hard ur eyes will pop out. i will pee in the sockets.To the quaint:Get ur fcking hands off him bitch i will cut u. #RupertLIsMineTo the cryptically disturbing:I watch u in your sleep.I would never condone Isabel's scary tweets, but you had to give the girl credit for managing to stay under 140 characters every time.

How was the kiss with Alex?""Nice," I say, thinking about how sensual it was. "Actually, Isabel, it was more than nice. It was fucking incredible."Isabel starts laughing, and I laugh right along with her this time.

Cole sat back up, slowly, and I opened my eyes. His expression, as ever, was blank, the face he wore when something mattered. He said, "That's how I would kiss you, if I loved you.

Cole,_ I said, __o you think I__ lovable?___s in __uddly and_?___s in __ble to be loved,__ I said.Cole__ gaze was unwavering. Just for a moment, I had the strange idea that I could see exactly what he had looked like when he was younger, and exactly what he__ look like when he was older. It was piercing, a secret glimpse of his future. __aybe,_ he said. __ut you won__ let anybody try.__ closed my eyes and swallowed. __ can__ tell the diference between not fighting,_ I said,__nd giving up.__espite my eyelids being tightly shut, a single, hot tear ran out of my left eye. I was so angry that it had escaped. I was so angry.Beneath me, the bed tipped as Cole edged closer. I felt him lean over me. His breath, warm and measured, hit my cheek. Two breaths. Three. Four. I didn__ know what I wanted. Then I heard him stop breathing, and a second later, I felt his lips on my mouth. It wasn__ the sort of kiss I__ had with him before, hungry, wanting, desperate. It wasn__ the sort of kiss I__ had with anyone before. This kiss was so soft that it was like a memory of a kiss, so careful on my lips that it waslike a memory of a kiss, so careful on my lips that it was like someone running his fingers along them. My mouth parted and stilled; it was so quiet, a whisper, not a shout. Cole__ hand touched my neck, thumb pressed into theskin next to my jaw. It wasn__ a touch that said __ need more_. It was a touch that said __ want this.__t was all completely soundless. I didn__ think either of us was breathing.Cole sat back up, slowly, and I opened my eyes. His expression, as ever, was blank, the face he wore when something mattered.He said, __hat__ how I would kiss you, if I loved you.