I'll Be Your Best Kept Secret

He had a girlfriend but he still brought her home with him. He kissed her, lips pressed together as close as their bodies. He undressed her quickly, a hunger in his eyes that made her shiver with want.

She liked it.

He had whispered in her ear that he had a girlfriend while her mouth had been attached to his neck, teeth scraping over tender flesh.

“Then stop me,” she had whispered into his ear.

But there was a mystery about this woman that he had never encountered before and he wanted to solve it. Dark hair paired with dark eyes was what had first drawn him to her but it was the rest of her that made him want her even more. Curves, beautiful curves that he had never once before encountered—she had the perfect hourglass figure. He was already picturing her naked.

He was hooked. His girlfriend was forgotten when he tasted her tongue. He forgot everything when they were in the taxi on the way to his apartment. No one else existed; just them. Just her.

It was when he woke up the next morning, naked with his arms wrapped around her that he realized he had made a mistake. It was when she woke up, staring up at him with sleepy eyes that he decided he wasn’t ready to forget her. The mystery wasn’t solved.

His phone rang, bringing him back to reality sooner than he would have wished. She looked away from him as he talked to his girlfriend softly. She closed her eyes when she felt him get out of the bed and heard him pulling on clothes. She pretended to sleep; she didn’t want to leave. He let her sleep; he didn’t want her to leave either.

She got out of bed when she heard the door close. She left soon after.

He found her number written on a piece of paper on the bed along with her name. He hadn’t known her name yet. Amber. He liked it.

---

Amber was his secret. No one knew about her but him and he liked it that way. Their favorite days were when they would just lay in his bed all day, when nothing else in the world mattered and they didn’t have to think about reality. They would talk about silly things, happy things, things that wouldn’t make them sad, things that wouldn’t make Amber sad—she had been sad for a while. He made her happy.

He gave her a key. He hadn’t even given a key to the apartment to his girlfriend. He wanted to break up with her anyways. It was proving to be harder than expected though; he didn’t want to make his girlfriend sad. He didn’t like making anyone sad.

But Amber was becoming unhappy, she was just the secret and she wanted him all to herself. She’d go into his apartment when he was gone, using the key he had given her and lay in his bed waiting for him to return. And he would return, smelling like his girlfriends perfume and Amber would cry.

“Do you love me?” she’d whisper and he’d reply, “Of course.”

It was a never ending circle, their relationship. Amber would get upset and he’d comfort her and they’d be fine again, but only for a little while. But what wasn’t getting fixed was her jealousy. She could feel a jealous rage building up inside her and she didn’t like who she was when she’d let it consume her. But it always settled down when he’d kiss her. His kisses always made her feel better.

His promises didn’t help though. He kept promising he’d end things with his girlfriend, but Amber knew they were empty words just to make her feel better. They didn’t work.

---

“Are you happy?” she questioned on one of the days he had found her crying.

“Of course,” he answered. That was his answer to everything. It was starting to hurt. “Are you happy?”

“Yes,” she whispered. She knew that he was lying. She lied too.

She made dinner for him a few nights later, but she didn’t eat.

“I’m not hungry.”

It was half way through dinner that he realized something was wrong. He felt so tired and her eyes were filling up with tears.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. She shook her head and helped him stand up. He let her lead him to the bedroom and he fell onto the bed. She crawled in next to him. “Amber.”

She hovered over him, staring down at his face, looking in his eyes. She placed cold hands on the sides of his face, leaning down to kiss him softly.

“I love you,” she whispered. She started crying and the tears landed on his face. Cold hands moved to his warm neck. She could feel his pulse; slowed from the sleep medication she had laced his food with to weaken him.

Her hands felt tight around his throat and soon he was gasping for breaths. He couldn’t breathe. Everything was getting blurry and Amber was fading away.

She kept her hands clamped around for a minute after his eyes had shut and she was sure his breathing had stopped. She sat next to his body afterwards, drying her eyes. A soft smile graced her lips as she lay down next to him on the bed.

Now no one could have him.