| |
At the entrance are standing men and women in black suits wearing white gloves who eagerly take our invitation, direct us to the next group of people waiting to assist us, making sure we are in the right area. The workers wear congenial smiles as they walk us to the entrance to a large room superbly decorated with holiday lights and filled with dining tables and chairs. It appears there is more than one function planned for this Christmas holiday. A young woman enthralled at seeing Max reaches awe-struck for our invitation and says nervously to follow her.
She strolls behind a smartly dressed woman following a crowd into the large dining room, and then the young woman my age in her twenties, leads us to the front to the tables, near the orchestra, sitting on a stage. A dance floor is situated three tables behind us. Max thanks her, and she smiles broadly at him, batting her eyes as if she’s flirting. He doesn’t notice, but it catches my attention.
Now is not the time for me to become jealous. I have thought I’m not a jealous person, but it seems it’s in all of us, it just takes the right person, or thing, or time to bring it to the surface.
Max pulls out my chair and I sit. A young man rushes over and pulls Max’s chair, but he hardly notices. He’s searching the crowd for someone through a sea of black and white attire.
The tables are round and large with expensive white tablecloths draped across them. Everything is flawless.
The crystal goblets are spotless, the silverware is polished to the point where you can use them to check your lipstick, and when the light catches the crystal glasses, they give off a sparkle.
A waiter with white gloves hands Max a menu. Max glances behind us and stands immediately. He sees someone he recognizes, and he doesn’t realize that I’m at this large table alone, and I don’t know anyone in the place. Max doesn’t give that a second thought. He places his hand over mine.
“I hope you will be okay with me leaving you so soon, but I have to talk to one of my partners. It’s business of course. Whatever you select for dinner is fine with me.” He places the menu in front of me, I’m looking up at him with a please don’t leave me look.
Grabbing his hand before he leaves me, I say, “You didn’t tell me you would leave me here all alone and so soon.” My tone is low and whiney like a little girl. I compose myself when he raises his eyebrow. “As usual you aren’t giving me a choice, Max.”
“You won’t be alone,” he says smiling, raising my hand to his mouth and kissing it. “It will only be for a few, Alex. I’ll check on you. You can make friends with the people who will be sitting with us.”
“It’s not easy talking to people over the age of thirty.” Max raises one eyebrow because he’s over thirty. I search around at the moment for someone close to my age and I can’t see anyone. What would he have me do, walk around to tables and say, “Hi, I’m looking for someone my age?”
“When Robert arrives, he and his date will keep you company,” Max smiles as if he has accomplished something, or like I’m a child who needs to be reassured that the babysitter will be here just in case Daddy and Mama doesn’t make it back in time. I narrow my eyes as if the babysitter is the creep from next door.
Did I hear him correctly? Robert! He’s the last man I want to see, or that Max should ask to keep his wife company.
Looking up at Max once again with pleading eyes, I beg, “I don’t want Robert to keep me company. I want you.” I can’t control my voice or body language because I’m desperate. I don’t react well when Robert is near me.
Max doesn’t give my plea a second thought, his mind is somewhere else, and he raises his hand and waves at an older man across the room who’s wearing a simple black tux. Not the designer kind like Max, and all the thirty-something hot shots, movers and shakers, handsome and not so handsome men in a circle talking and shaking hands.
When I turn looking at Max, he steps away from me, in the middle of my pleading and holding on to his extended hand. I let go and he disappears into a crowd of men and women entering the room looking for their tables.
I stand trying to keep him in sight, but he has disappeared into a sea of black suits and black and white dresses. The orchestra is playing, and the music is low. I want him to look into my eyes and tell me he loves me. It’s that kind of music, but he disappears behind the dance floor, and it looks like he’s headed for the bar at the far right of the room.
I turn around ready to bite my nails, but then, I feel a presence. “Mrs. Blackstone,” the voice is seductively hoarse and low. I can never get that voice out of my head. It’s Robert. He’s dressed in a black Tom Ford tux. It fits him as if he was born into it. My heart is racing. He doesn’t look as handsome as Max in his suit, but he does something to me that Max isn’t doing.
He has a date with him, and I feel uneasy knowing he’s with someone. Why do I feel this way? I glance up, my eyes waver between the both of them. I think I’ve seen her before. They sit and Robert never bothers to introduce us.
He turns his back on her to stare at me. I don’t know what to do with my hands. First I reach for my small purse and pretend I’m checking for my lip gloss and then I find a small sample size of my perfume. Robert’s friend has to lean forward to catch a glimpse of me. A waiter rushes over to pour them glasses of water.
The young woman my age—who would have something in common with me, if it wasn’t that we already have something in common, Robert—raises a glass to her mouth and drinks the water and then whispers in Robert’s ear, “I need a drink.” Robert turns to her and doesn’t respond. She places her hand around his neck, and he acts uncomfortable and sits back.
“Haven’t we met before?” the young woman says nervously.
“I don’t think so.” I remember her. She was the one who wanted Robert to buy her a dog like mine. She was the one who mistakenly thought I was a maid. Oh yes, the one in the elevator earlier. The young woman turns and faces forward when I answer coldly.
I’m jealous and I’ve just shown my colors to Robert. He sits there with a secretive grin, and I can imagine him rejoicing at my obvious jealous reply.
“Where is Blackstone?” Robert asks turning to me, his blue eyes burning my red dress, his tone sarcastic. His main purpose of asking is to amplify how callous Max is. How he would bring his wife out to a place like this and then disappear. He doesn’t have to say anything. I know by the look on his face what he is thinking, and what he will say or do if Miss Longlegs wasn’t sitting near him trying to get his attention.
“He had to meet someone,” I say dryly, turning to face him. “It’s business, of course,” I say with a closed smile.
“Yes, of course, and we know how Blackstone puts business before pleasure, I mean before his wife,” Robert says with a smirk and a raised eyebrow.
“If you were mine,” he says leaning over and whispering, “and all due respect, Mrs. Blackstone, I would never let you out of my sight.” A cold chill surges down my spine, but instead of being repulsed, I want to fall into Robert’s arms. His voice is soothing and playful. But I catch myself. I should know better. Here he is, sitting with his girlfriend, and he’s making a pass at me.
Where is Max when I need him? Doesn’t he know better than to leave me alone with Robert?
I’m a young woman, who is in need of a man to whisper in her ear, kiss her breasts as he tells her how and why he wants to fuck her into the next of never, as he’s performing mind-blowing sex with her. I need my husband who has left me in the care of a man who will do all of those things, and much more, if I whisper to him take me and make me yours. Do what you want to me.
Robert’s date is looking around and pretending that she never heard him make a blatant pass at his boss’s wife. Then she raises her hand and a waiter hurries to the table.
She glances at Robert and mouths, “I need a drink.” Her voice is small and she moans in his ear. He gives her an impatient nod. It appears she needs his approval before she can drink. Is she his submissive? It takes a minute for it to register with me. Yes, she is. It hits me all at once. Why haven’t I put that together sooner? A light goes off. He has a submissive or some, but he’s looking to me to be his Dominant. What a fucked-up world.
That’s how I met Max. He was searching for a Dominant woman. He claimed he wanted a submissive, but all along it was someone to control him. Someone to tell him no. Someone to punish him when he’s bad. All these powerful and mighty men are looking to be dominated. The more I refuse Robert’s advances, the more he’s turned on by me, and the more I want to be with him, dominating him. Having my way with him. Punishing him like I used to do with Max.
The waiter shows up and he has two drinks for Robert’s date. She downs the two quickly, and ask permission for two more, and he gives her permission. What is he doing?
I stand up. He clenches my hand under his and I look down on his hand and up at him. I gaze into those steel-blue eyes.
I’m not about to ask him for permission for anything and he knows it.
“Tell my husband I’ve gone to the ladies’ room.” I tear my hand from under his, and turn and stroll from the table. Closing my eyes a moment and exhaling, I control myself. One more minute and I would have sat and obeyed him.
Before I leave, I hear Robert tell the young woman, “Don’t make me ashamed tonight in front of Mrs. Blackstone. No more drinks.” I see the sign for the ladies’ restroom, and I head in that direction, walking slowly and carefully in my high heels.
I’m getting hungry and I feel weak. I look around the enormous room to see if I can spot Max anywhere. Normally I can, because he’s usually the tallest man in the room, but not tonight. There is more than one tall drink of water, and I know two of them.
Standing on tiptoes even in my high heels, I try to find him, but he’s nowhere to be seen. I give up and continue to the restroom to get a breather from Robert.
Before I get halfway to the door, I feel a hand tug at mine, and I look, and Robert is pulling me in a corner down a dark passage. “We shouldn’t be here. What do you want?” I’m angry and I try to pull away. My eyes are narrow and hollow.
“I couldn’t tell you before that you’re so beautiful tonight, and with that red dress, you’re fascinating. I want to make love to you.”
“You want to do what?” I can’t believe he said that to me. No. I can believe he would. “Are you insane?”
“Then let me taste you here.” His eyes are stark and glaring. I don’t move. I can’t move.
“You are dangerous. I’m with my husband.”
“You should have said under no circumstances will I let you. But you didn’t, and now I know that all your talk was just that. Nothing but talk.” He emphasizes those words.
Robert looks to the left and then the right. “I don’t see Max anywhere.” He’s bracing his body against mine, and I’m sweating because I can’t explain to Max what I’m doing huddled in a dark passageway with Robert if by chance he walks upon us. I believe in Murphy’s Law. What can go wrong, will go wrong.
“My husband could come here any minute and see you.”
“He would see us, and I would have to tell him that I’m in love with you, and that I intend to take you from him.”
“He knows that would never happen. I would never leave my children and my husband for a womanizing philandering flirt, who gallivants and fucks a different woman every day and night.”
“How do you know that Max isn’t doing the same thing? He’s never at home, and how do you know that when he claims he’s on a business trip he’s not with a woman?” He’s holding my wrists when he says this. No doubt checking my pulse, which is racing.
“I don’t want to hear any more of your lies. You’re jealous of Max.”
“That’s true. I am jealous of Max. I’m jealous that he has you and doesn’t know how to satisfy you. If you were mine, I would fuck only you,” he says to me. For a moment I fall under his spell and I’m stupid enough to believe him. But only for a moment, but somehow my head clears.
“I’m not yours, and I have to leave.” My voice is strong, but my tone is clouded with uncertainty. I shove his hard chest and it doesn’t budge. He takes one of my hands and places it to his groin.
“Do you feel that? I can’t think or function for wanting you, seeing you, and needing to make love to you.”
Looking him in the eyes, I laugh. That’s all I could do to disguise my feelings for him.
“I had suspicions you thought with your penis.” He drops my hand. I’m against the wall and he has me fenced in. His hands rest above my head as his body leans into me. His face is close to mine. I can feel warmth when he breathes.
I can smell his delicious scent. His bath gel. His aftershave lotion. The smell of a new suit.
“Do you think I will fuck that woman tonight? No, I won’t, because I can’t get hard for anyone but you. And that has been fucking with my mind. You have been fucking with my mind, Alex.” He’s repeating those words making me nervous. With each word he’s getting louder, and thank goodness the music and voices drown out the timbre in his voice.
His penetrating eyes are telegraphing his feelings loud and clear.
Easing my body to the side, looking for an opening, I say, “Stop. I need to get away from you.” I’m breathing hard and he leans in and kisses my neck. I can feel his breath near my ear, and his penis growing and tugging at the silk fabric on my dress.
I raise my chin, and he pushes aside my hair and I feel the warmth of each soft kiss he carefully, softly, lays on my neck. I smell the gel he has used to tame his dark silk curls. When I come to my senses, I glance up, and I move away from him. I make an urgent rush down the hall in the direction of the restroom. My face is flushed and my hair needs combing.
However, most of all, I want Max to make love to me tonight.
It’s essential that Max takes me tonight any way and every way. That I know. I have to get Robert out of my brain and out of my life. When I reach the restroom door, Robert has followed me, and he’s standing behind me, preventing my escape. He touches my arm. I don’t want to look around. I know his touch. I know it’s Robert and not Max.
The door to the ladies’ room flings open just in time.
Standing there is Melody from school. “What the fuck are you doing here, Alex?” Her eyes enlarge with surprise at seeing me. “You look beautiful.” She walks around me. She’s wearing a short black dress with spaghetti-thin straps and a pair of black satin Manolo Blahnik heels. She has dancers legs. She spent her childhood learning ballet and gymnastics. I spent my childhood wondering who my mother was and losing myself in books.
The back of my dress is cut down to my waist. My dress is all front and no back. Melody doesn’t miss the opportunity to notice. “Damn, Alex. You don’t look like that girl I saw at school. What did you do to yourself? You’re hot.”
“There are some things I didn’t tell you.”
“Yeah. I bet.” She takes another scenic tour of me. “I thought this dinner was only for the very rich and well connected,” Melody quips with a snarky tone. She finally notices Robert and glances at him pursing her lips.
“I know why you’re here, Robert. Nothing gets done in this town and with these rich fucks unless you have a hand in it.” She shoots him a closed smile and tilts her head to the right, and he gives her a closed hardline smile. Melody gives him another one back.
She steps out into the corridor and lets the door close behind her. I reach for her and hug her. “I’m so glad to see you.” She’s just in time to save me from myself.
Melody gazes at me and her eyes wander to Robert. “I hope you’re not with him.” She takes a moment to stare down Robert. Placing her hand on my shoulder, she says, “Come in here, Alex. I don’t want Robert to hear me talk about him.” She opens the door, waiting for me. I turn to Robert. He has a brooding look. Melody has the goods on him, and she’s planning on spilling it to me and he knows it.
She glances up at Robert with a conspirator’s grin. “I don’t want you to hear our conversation,” she says holding the door open for me, “...and you can’t come in the ladies’ room anyway.” Melody just about pushes me into the room, and backs in, then she turns and glares at me.
“Do you know who the fuck he is? Of course you do. I gave you the rundown on him in class. You’ve gotten mixed up with a man that’s into everything and everybody?”
“I’m not mixed up with him, Melody.” She’s talking to me as if I’m her little sister when we both are the same age.
“Well, he has his sights on you, and I know Robert. When he wants a woman it doesn’t matter if she’s married or not, he will go after her, until he gets her. He’s relentless.”
“I’m not stupid enough to fall for him. I’m married.”
“Where is that careless husband of yours I’d like to meet him?”
That’s what I’d like to know.