Burning Secrets

“Ahh, yes Levi! Cum in me!”

Cora was doing her best to give a top notch performance as her husband thrust into her over and over again. They’d already been at it for several minutes and Cora was determined to have him finish. As she was bent over the bed, Levi was behind her grunting as he slid in and out of her. Why was this taking so long? Suddenly, Levi started to slow. Cora looked back at him.

“Did you finish?”

Levi sighed and threw his hands up.

“No Cora, and when you ask me, it totally kills my mood,” he said.

“Okay, sorry,” Cora said as she faced forward again.

Levi pulled out of her.

“Forget it, this isn’t going to work,” he said.

“Wait, what are you doing?”

“I can’t finish,” Levi said. “The moment is ruined.”

Levi tucked his dick away and pulled his pants up.

“Okay, well, I don’t think I’ve ovulated yet. We can try again later,” Cora said as she stood and pulled the hem of her dress back down.

“Yeah, maybe,” Levi said as he picked up his phone and left the room.

“What’s wrong?” Cora asked, following him out to their kitchen.

“I don’t know, I’m just not feeling it right now.”

Levi went to the kitchen and poured a glass of water. Cora sat at the bar and watched him.

“Well, maybe it’s time to go back to the doctor and talk about IVF,” she suggested.

“Isn’t that, like, twenty thousand dollars? That seems like a lot.”

“Well, what we’re doing obviously isn’t working,” Cora said.

Levi shrugged.

“Well, maybe we need to stop trying so hard. Sex shouldn’t feel like a chore and right now it does,” he said as he walked out of the kitchen and back to the bedroom they had just left.

Cora pinched the bridge of her nose. Over the last year, she read several books on conception, took multiple ovulation tests, spent way too much on vitamins, stopped drinking, drank some nasty ass tea, ate more kale than she ever cared to eat and shoved a thermometer up her coochie every morning but her husband was whining about sex being less fun. Cora couldn’t even remember the last time she had an orgasm. Studies showed if the female had an orgasm, it could help with conception but it wasn’t a priority for either of them. No, all Levi had to do was shoot a load inside her when she asked him to but apparently that was too much.

Cora was attempting to steady her breathing when her husband emerged from the bedroom in different clothing. He picked up his keys.

“Where are you going?”

“The gym,” he said.

“I want to finish this conversation,” Cora said, trying to keep her voice steady. She’d worked herself up in her head thinking about her frustrations but she needed to keep her cool.

“Well, can we finish it later? I want to beat the gym rush,” he said as he kissed her cheek and squeezed her hand. “We can talk about it over dinner okay? I love you.”

“Okay, I love you too,” Cora said as Levi left their apartment and closed the door. Cora was still irritated but when he showed her brief moments of his sweet nature, she relaxed.

Levi had always had a way of softening Cora, of being a source of safety and security despite her hard head and seemingly impenetrable armor.

Cora had always been a fighter. She was full of determination and resolve to stand on her own two feet. She’d grown up in survival mode, in the throes of domestic violence, homelessness, and poverty. Many people in similar situations allowed these experiences to make them victims, but not Cora. Cora refused to let her past determine her future and she found success because she worked her ass off for it. When she met Levi, she was an owner at a medical spa by day, a self-defense instructor by night, and had just put a down payment on her apartment in the city.

In fact, when she met Levi, she was determined to stay single and didn’t even think she wanted kids. She was enjoying living her life on her own terms and exactly how she wanted when Levi walked in and shook her up like a snow globe. They were engaged within six months and married a year after that.

On their honeymoon, she saw a family playing in the pool at the resort they were staying at. They looked so happy. She watched the children ride on their parents shoulders while they all played a game and splashed in the Hawaiian sunshine. Suddenly, she decided they would be parents and they should start trying sooner rather than later. Levi was immediately on board, he kept saying how he wanted several kids. They were already 30 years old so they decided to start right away.

Now Cora was sitting alone in her kitchen, wondering if she’d ever look down and see a round belly or hear the sound of little feet padding on her hard wood floors. Right now, the silence felt deafening.

She picked up her phone and called her best friend, Sabrina.

“Hey babe, what’s up?”

Cora smiled, just hearing her friend’s voice made her feel better.

“Hi darling, what are you up to? Want to come over? Levi just left for the gym and I’m just feeling a little down,” Cora said.

“Awww I wish I could! I’m on my way to a work function tonight. What’s going on?”

Cora waved her hand as if Sabrina could see her.

“Oh just the same old fertility woes, it’s no big deal.”

“I’m sorry hun, another negative test?” Sabrina was well-informed on Cora and Levi's struggles to conceive. Cora had called her multiple times in the past to cry about negative tests or bad news.

“No, I mean, not yet. I’m supposed to ovulate this weekend but Levi is struggling to, ya know, finish the job. I just feel like we aren’t on the same page lately,” Cora said as she heated up some water for another cup of that nasty fertility tea.

“I understand, that must be super frustrating. Well hey, maybe we can get pedicures tomorrow? Are you free?”

This immediately perked Cora up.

“Yeah actually, that sounds great. I’ll see if we can get an appointment.”

“Awesome, well, try to relax and have a good night okay? I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Sounds good, have fun!”

Sabrina laughed.

“I’ll try! Bye hun.”

Cora hung up and went about making her tea. She took the cup to her favorite cozy nook in her apartment and began scrolling through social media.

Her feed was full of fertility tips and tricks and messages of hope or solidarity. Her life had been completely taken over by all things fertility and some times, like now, it felt overwhelming. It both amused and infuriated her that others could "accidentally" get pregnant while she was trying to get pregnant but couldn't. She scrolled past several videos about conception and baby-making and clicked on a tag about spicing things up in the bedroom. That’s it! They just needed to rekindle that red hot passion they used to have. Cora started scrolling faster to see if there was anything useful.

Some videos featured women talking about specific lingerie or even leggings they wore to entice their husband. Others mentioned toys or games they played. All things said, Levi was a pretty vanilla guy but maybe with the right idea, he would play along? Suddenly, a video appeared that immediately made Cora’s stomach do a flip flop.

A sexy, muscular man with a hard, bare chest and rippling abs appeared on the screen. He was only wearing a pair of black sweatpants slung low on his hips but it was what he wore on his face that truly completed the look. Instead of a handsome, chiseled jaw and a tantalizing smile, the man looked at the camera through a ghost mask like the one from Scream. Cora didn’t know why but it immediately made her damp between the legs as the man sauntered towards the camera, tugging at his waistband.

Cora started scrolling through more ghost face mask videos of thirst traps snapping belts and chasing women. Before she knew it, her hand wandered down to the hem of her dress and lightly brushed against the center of her panties.

She pulled them to the side and easily slid a finger inside her, coating it in her juices. Then she spread her lips and circled her clit with her fingers. A moan eacaped her throat as she immediately started to feel her orgasm build. Suddenly, there was a knock on her door that startled her out of her reverie.

“What the fuck?!”

She got up and straightened her dress before walking over to her front door. As she opened the door, she was surprised to see an attractive man she didn’t recognize standing on the other side. He had bright green eyes that were narrowed on her. His hair was long, dark and wavy and his sharp jawline was covered in matching stubble. She noticed his lips were turned up in a small smirk in the corners.

“Um, hi, can I help you?” Cora assumed he was lost. She'd never seen him before.

His smirk deepened as his eyes took her in quickly.

“I hope so, I just moved in down the hall and I was wondering if my package was here?” His voice was smooth and low and full of confidence.

“Your…package?”

He chuckled which sent a small shiver down Cora’s spine.

“Yeah, I ordered a…well it’s a new set of sheets and it says they were delivered but I didn’t get them,” he said. His eyes floated down to the phone still in her hand. She looked down and saw a muscular guy gyrating in a ghost mask and quickly locked her phone.

“Oh, um, check with the office, they often hold packages if the owner doesn’t answer for the delivery,” she said, wondering if he heard her moaning a few seconds earlier.

“Awesome, thanks, I’m Archer by the way,” he said.

“Cora, and my husband is Levi, he’s not here at the moment,” she said. “Which apartment did you move into?”

“22,” he said, pointing to a door across the hall.

“Oh great! Well, if you need anything, please let us know.”

“Do you think your husband might be willing to help me move a couch? It’s not super heavy but I don’t want to scratch the floors,” he said.

“Oh sure, when he gets home from the gym, I’ll send him over.”

“Great, thank you Cora, nice to meet you. See you around,” he said as he gave a small wave and walked down the hall towards the elevator.

Cora wasn’t sly about watching Archer walk away. She wondered what he did for a living. He carried himself like a firefighter or carpenter, someone who worked with his hands. Maybe he and Sabrina would hit it off?

Back in her apartment, Cora unlocked her phone and saw the video of the gyrating man staring at her in the ghost face mask she had been watching before Archer interrupted her. Instead of going back to her indulgence, she grabbed her keys and left the apartment.