Yup, I knew I should've figured something was way off last night when he received that mysterious call. When Alex had suggested we went shopping the next day, I just knew something was wrong. Alex hated shopping.

"How about that store? It sells white vans."

"So Miles can spend every minute of every day saying 'Damn Sophie'? Nope." I scoffed. I shot Alexander a subtle look when he kept browsing the stores down the street, also watching the people for some reason. He seemed... on edge.

I had of course thought about who could've called him from abroad. I knew he didn't have much family on his mother's side, and the little that he did, they lived in Australia. As for his father, he might've disappeared out of their lives, but the last I heard from Audrey, Alex's mom, he owned a successful architecture firm in Sydney or something, and it was unlikely he even cared about Alex anymore. So the foreign number couldn't be his.

That left us with friends, an accidental very wrong dial, a prank call and/or some chick Alex once knew who was looking to rekindle things.

But every time I tried to ask him about who it had been, he either changed the subject or pretended he didn't hear me. Not his smoothest moves, but it kept him from talking about it, which made me assume whoever he had talked to was someone he indeed knew. If it was just a random wrong call, he would've just told me and we wouldn't be out shopping for everything and nothing.

"How about... dresses? You like dresses," He said, giving me a quick look.

"No, I like tight pants that makes my ass look good, I'm only wearing a dress today because it's 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Alex, what are you doing?" I finally asked. I was getting tired of this bullshit he was running.

"What?" He asked, raising a brow at me. "I'm taking my girl out shopping, I thought you'd be thrilled?" He said, just as we came to a square where a street musician was playing on a rather magnificent piano, set up right by a fountain. "I'm being a good boyfriend."

"No, you're being void. Why won't you talk to me about that phone call?" I tried for the millionth time. "Keeping secrets is not being a good boyfriend."

Alex glanced after the guy playing the piano, again seemingly not paying attention to what I was saying. After a moment of staring, he walked up to him. I sighed and followed him.

"Alex..."

"Hey, mate," Alex said to the street musician, giving him a friendly smile. "Nice tune. Can I give it a go?"

Oh, brilliant. Now we were going to such lengths as disturbing street performers to avoid talking about the phone call. Was he serious?

"You know how to play?" The pianist asked, stopping his version of what I now remembered to be Für Elise by Beethoven.

Alex shrugged. "Some."

I rolled my eyes. He did more that play the piano 'some'. Alex was either cocky as fuck or modest to the point where it was ridiculous. There was no in between.

The pianist moved over on the bench and Alex took a seat, placing his feet on the pedals. He then ran his fingers across the keys, testing them out. "Great sound. How long've you played?"

"Fifteen years, give or take. You?"

"About six months." He replied and then he begun playing.

I palmed my face as he begun playing one of the most difficult piano pieces in the world, 'Flight Of The Bumblebee' by Rachmaninov perfectly. The pianist dropped his jaw and glared, just like the closest pedestrians stopped up to listen and see Alexander's fingers fly across the tangents.

"Fucking hell," The pianist said, scratching his neck. "You said you've been playing just six months? I don't freakin' believe that."

"Nope, it's true," I sighed, fanning myself with my hand magazine in the burning heat. "He was bored one afternoon and decided to take a swing at playing the piano. It worked pretty well."

"Damn," The pianist cursed when Alex slowly let the tune come to an end. "That's some mad-dog talent you got there."

"Thanks mate, you too," Alex smiled. He fished a tenner from his wallet and placed it in the money jar on top of the piano. "Keep playing. Thanks for letting me borrow it."

"No problem man, see ya around."

Me and Alex continued walking down the street in a few minutes of silence. Finally, I got enough of it. "Alex?"

"Hm?"

"Why'd you do that?"

He shrugged casually. "Just felt like showing off. You know me."

I really didn't feel like I did in this moment. He wasn't in his usual mischievous mood, he didn't wear that grin of his, like he did whenever he was feeling coy. He seemed like he was trying to, but it wasn't really working for him.

"Alex..."

"Can we sleep in your bed tonight?"

Well that was subtle. "Sure... why?"

He shrugged again. "I just like it better than mine. It's softer."

"That's because my mattress has memory foam or something. It's supposed to be good for your posture."

"I don't care if it has freaking Alzheimer's foam, I just want to sleep next to you," Alex suddenly said. He sounded so serious, I automatically looked up at him, only to see him quickly crack a smile. Before I had a change to open my mouth and confront him again, he wrapped his arms around me and pulled me in for a kiss. His lips salvaged mine for second, before he just as quickly pulled away and begun walking again. What the hell was with him?

"Alex," I tried again, frowning. "What the hell is up with you? You're more bipolar today than someone with actual bipolar disorder. Can you just talk to me and tell me what's—"

"Come with me," He suddenly said, and before I knew it, he had grabbed my hand and was yanking me along.

"Argh! Alex!" I screeched as he began running from only he knew what. Thankfully I had long legs, so I could keep up, but he was fast and really eager for some reason. "Alex, where the hell are we going?!"

"Nowhere, everywhere," Was his inconclusive reply. He kept on running, crossing a busy road where he nearly got us both run over. Was he crazy?

"Alex!" I screeched again, running out of breath. I was in shape, but this was just plain bolting. "Alex, seriously, what's going on?!"

To my surprise I heard him laugh. "Keep up, Reynolds!"

We ran and ran, and I saw Alex look over his shoulder a couple of times, sending me a grin, but his eyes occasionally flipped to his surroundings. Did he think we were being followed or something?

We begun heading deeper into the town, Alex making some drastic turns here and there. We headed down narrow roads, roads I didn't even knew existed in the town I grew up in. Where the hell were we going?

"Alex, I can't breathe!" I finally managed to get out when he kept running.

Suddenly he stopped and whipped around – me crashing into his arms at the suddenness of his abrupt stop. He swiftly caught me. "Let's do something about that then."

And then before I could intervene a single word, he mashed me up against the wall of the alley he had led us to and crashed his lips again mine.

I didn't get to catch my breath as he gripped my body tightly and sandwiched me between the wall of the alley and the wall of his chest. I had to suck in a loud, awkward breath through my nose to not pass out and then gripped onto his shoulders as he grasped my right thigh and lifted my leg. Had he lost his mind?

"Alex!" I gasped when he pulled up my dress, tracing the band of my thong while his lips moved down to my jawline, to my throat. "Are you fucking kidding me? Here? Did we just run like maniacs because you wanted to fuck?"

"Not wanted. Needed," He corrected me, sucking on my neck, before biting me softly. "And I needed some privacy..."

"Right, because an audience like the one you had back at the piano really throws you off," I scoffed, knowing how he would surely have loved having a crowd cheering him on.

"I don't want that with you," He murmured, moving his lips lower to my cleavage. "I don't want to share you or what we do with anybody. You're mine and mine alone."

I frowned a little. Where was all of this possessiveness coming from all of a sudden? Sure, Alex had always been a little into the caveman protectiveness-thing, but it had always been for the fun of it. This was unlike him... he was almost... obsessed?

"Alex, what's going on?" I whispered, but then gasped and dug my nails into his shoulders when he suddenly pushed two fingers inside my heat without warning. "Aah, Alex!"

"I need you," He whispered, dragging the top of my loose dress aside with his other hand, revealing my hardened nipple. "Fuck, Soph, I need you so bad. Right now, I need to be inside you."

I bucked against his hand, the one that had his fingers thrust deep inside me. I bit my lip and then grasped his blond locks, to draw his eyes up to meet mine. "Are you OK, Alex?"

There was something inside them, something else than lust, but I couldn't put my finger on it. "I'm fine, Soph, I just need you right now. So what do you say?" He whispered and leaned in to my lips, making my eyes flutter shut as his voice lowered into something dark and husky. "Can I fuck you right here against this wall?"

Just then, his fingers hit my golden spot and I moaned, arching my back. He didn't need my verbal reply, he could decode my moans as his permission. So without further ado, he pulled his fingers out of me, only to seconds later thrust inside me with his cock. I hadn't even heard him unzip or unbutton his pants, nor did I get any warning whatsoever. He stretched me painfully and I cried out loudly, clawing my nails down his neck and shoulders.

"Shit," He breathed when I involuntarily whimpered from the pain. "Soph, I'm so sorry. Are you OK? I can't control myself—"

"Just fuck me." I panted, biting the pain down. I didn't know what had gotten into him and why he was acting like this, but whatever it was, I hoped it would pass when he had finished fucking me. Until then, I just had to ride it out. And it was sex after all; It wasn't like I was going to cry about it.

Alex was too far gone in whatever state of mind he was in to question my words, and so he rocked his hips into mine, nailing me up against the wall. I cried out when he thrust harder, faster, making beads of sweat roll down my chest and temples. It was a hot day in Canberra and despite us being in a shadowed alley, up against a cold wall, Alex was burning up, and the smooth, fast strokes of his cock electrocuted my body and set my insides on fire.

My hips began meeting his thrusts as my pulse and breathing intensified, until both of them ran out of control.

"Shit, oh fuck, fuck, fuck, FUCK!" I panted, rocking against him. Each hard plunge from his cock hit my cervix, bruising me, but also brought so much pleasure, my vision started blackening.

He had my leg lifted in one hand while the other one was at the small of my back, pushing me against each hard thrust he made, making my breath reach a pitch. It didn't take long before I felt my inner walls spasm.

"Fuck, I'm—" I breathlessly panted, digging my fingers into his arms. "Fuck, fuck-fuck-fuck-fuck, shit!"

"Go for it, Sophie," He murmured against my neck. "Say my name."

"Alexander!" I screamed, getting consumed by my ōrgasm. Despite him wanting me to say his name, he took the hand that was at the small of my back and pressed it over my mouth to hush my noise level. We were in public after all, and while this was a fairly excluded alley, people could still hear us from the busy street right down the way. At least I assumed, if we went by how the pigeons on the electrical wires above us suddenly flew away, startled by my outburst.

But I couldn't control it. I lost all power of my vocal cord – hell, my entire body – when Alex drove into me and gave me my ōrgasms. His name and his cock that was plummeting inside me was all I could remember in these times, which was why even if he placed a hand over my mouth, I still continued screaming his name.

"Alexander!" It came out garbled and muffled, but it was still audible. I felt him thrust once, twice and then he erupted inside me, drilling his fingers into my thigh as he did. The jerks of his cock coating my inner walls made me shiver in delight when I felt the warmth spread throughout my body. God, I would never get tired of that feeling.

Then slowly, both panting, he pulled out and lowered my leg onto the ground that oddly enough felt unstable – or maybe it was just my legs that were shaking. Alex offered me a tissue from his back pocket to clean myself up from the mess he had made between my legs and I took it. After some awkward cleaning, I readjusted my thong which he in the process only had moved out of the way so that he could fuck me. It had just happened to suddenly and so quickly, it was hard for me to process that it actually just happened.

"Alex..."

"We should head back. Miles invited us to this new club his friend is opening. I promised we'd go to show our support."

"Alex!"

He turned and started walking back down the alley, to the busy street, shoving his hands into his shorts. What the hell was going on with him?

• • •

Learned a new phrase about dicks today; Just because you have one, doesn't mean you have to be one.