Chapter Thirteen

Nicole jerked her neck around so fast, a hot pain shot through it. “How in the world did he know I was here?”

“Oh boy,” Annie mumbled under her breath.

“Oh boy, what?” she said, trying to rub the kink out of her neck.

“I might have inadvertently told Wil where you’d be tonight.” Apparently Annie had run into him earlier on Nicole’s doorstep when she came over to meet her.

“Fabulous,” Nicole said.

“I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to tell him anything. He said you had business to discuss.”

“Well, that’s just great,” she said, taking a deep breath. “I have to face him at some point. Might as well be in a strip joint.”

Wil approached the table and gave his best I’m-not-really-a-dirty-rat smile. “Sorry to interrupt your night out. Nicole, can I speak with you in private?”

He was already taking her arm, trying to lift her up from the chair. She crossed her arms underneath her chest. “Whatever you need to say to me, you can do right here.”

Four pairs of expectant eyes looked up at him.

“You’re really going to make me do this, aren’t you?” he said, looking heavenward.

Nicole fluttered her eyelashes at him. “It’s the least I can do, considering the circumstances.”

“Great,” he muttered, his mouth so tight it seemed as if all the blood had been sucked from his face. “Sonia’s gay, Nicole. She and I may have started out romantically years ago, but she’s gay now, only she hasn’t told her family. We pretend to be together, obviously more for her benefit than mine.”

“Come on,” she said, finding this story hard to believe. “Are you telling me the truth?”

Wil pulled out his cell, hit a button, and said, “Sonia, can you come over here?”

“You brought your gay fiancée?” Wanda said.

“I knew she wouldn’t believe me,” Wil said, shaking his head.

It wasn’t that Nicole didn’t believe him, necessarily. But the story was a little bizarre.

Sonia sure wasn’t the femme fatale Nicole had expected. She had dark hair cut very short, wore not a stitch of makeup, and drastically downplayed what few curves she had.

“This is Nicole,” Wil told her, pointing her out. “She needs some help believing what I’ve told her.”

Sonia held up her right hand. “I swear on my mother and father, everything Wil says is true. I owe him big for keeping my secret. Please don’t be mad at him. He’s such an incredible guy.”

“You believe me now?”

Nicole nodded, feeling like an idiot.

Wil said, “Now can we please go somewhere to talk?”

“You both go ahead,” Wanda said, “we’ll take care of Sonia.” She yanked over a chair from the next table and motioned for Sonia to sit.

Nicole and Wil headed to a somewhat quiet corner toward the rear of the club.

“I’m so, so sorry,” she began. “Really—”

He silenced her with a kiss and she melted into him. When he finally broke away, he said, “Don’t expect me to always chase you like this.”

“I won’t.” She knew he had gone above and beyond what any other man would have done.

He kissed the side of her neck right underneath her earlobe and whispered, “Have you gotten a lap dance yet?”

She pulled her head back to look at him. “No, have you?” He shook his head.

“Do you want one?” she asked.

“I’d rather watch you get one.” The suggestive smile he gave her warmed her entire body.

In her forty-one years of living, Nicole had never gotten a lap dance from a woman. She had to admit she was curious. “What do I do?”

Wil turned her around to face the room. “Pick out someone you like.”

She surveyed all the dancers onstage, as well as the ones working the room. She felt like a talent scout casting for a movie. The girl who caught her eye was a voluptuous Latina in a red silk teddy with hair down to her ass. That was how she had imagined Sonia.

“That one,” Nicole decided, pointing her out.

Wil took her hand and led her over.

“Hi, handsome,” she said, giving him the once-over. “Would you like a private dance?”

“My girlfriend would. I’m just along for the ride.”

She turned her focus on Nicole right away. “I’m Rosa.”

“I’m Deanna,” she said, shaking her hand. Why she gave a different name she couldn’t say, except Nicole felt like a different person, complete with a new libido.

“You have beautiful skin, Deanna,” she purred, caressing her cheek. “So soft.”

Nicole and Wil followed Rosa into a room filled with a series of stalls and a black padded chair in each one. Nicole sat down while Wil handed Rosa a hundred dollar bill and stood off to the side. There was a box on the floor that played songs. Rosa dropped a token into it and “Black Magic Woman” by Santana began to play.

Rosa straddled Nicole and started to work her magic. Nicole didn’t know what to do with her hands, so they remained stiffly at her side. Wasn’t the rule Look, Don’t Touch? She kept glancing at the wrestler-sized bouncer standing at the door, but he seemed more concerned with making sure the men didn’t get out of line.

Nothing could prepare Nicole for having a real live girl grinding into her pelvis. Or running her hands up and down her body. Or pressing her breasts into hers. She couldn’t say it had the same effect on her as if Wil was doing it, but it wasn’t entirely unpleasant either. The sheer seductiveness of Rosa was undeniable. Even more so when she was entirely nude. Nicole looked at Wil to see whether he had a major hard-on yet. She was starting to feel slightly inadequate next to Rosa, what with the absolute perfection of her body and all, but Wil seemed more interested in watching Nicole.

Rosa rolled her hips into her and lightly kissed her neck, her strawberry-scented hair brushing Nicole’s arm. Nicole leaned her head back, as Rosa began to stroke her breasts through her shirt. She heard Wil suck in his breath and let it out slowly.

Rosa had done her job well. She had succeeded in making both Nicole and Wil hot, bothered, and horny. By the time the second song ended and Rosa actually had her hand under Nicole’s shirt, Nicole knew it was time to go home and do Wil like she hoped he’d never been done before.

Wil slipped Rosa another twenty on the way out. He kept his hand around Nicole’s waist, leading her back to the table. Annie sat talking with Ricky Z and Wanda was laughing with one of Ricky’s investor friends.

“Did Paulina leave?” Nicole asked.

“Who knows? She took off somewhere with Wil’s gay fiancée,” Wanda said.

Wil’s jaw tightened. “Can you please stop calling her that?”

“We’re going to hit the road,” Nicole said. “What about you two?”

“I think I’ll stay a while,” Wanda said, leaning into her companion.

Nicole gave Annie a look that said, Get Wanda out of here before she gets herself into trouble, but Annie waved her away, assuring Nicole that they’d both be leaving soon.

“Don’t worry. They’ll be fine,” Wil told her. “They’re big girls.”

At least she was comforted by the fact that no alcohol had been involved in the evening. Therefore, they both had their wits about them. Or at least Annie did. Wanda, she wasn’t so sure about.

Wil kissed her deeply while they waited for the valet to bring their cars around. “Your place or mine?” he rasped.

“Mine,” Nicole said, remembering how much she wanted him.

He followed her home with his car. As soon as she had him in her bedroom, she needed to remind herself to slow down. She didn’t want the frenzied pace of last time.

“We need to take it slow this time,” Nicole said.

“Look who’s talking. If I remember correctly, you were the one who attacked me.”

“I did, didn’t I?”

Wil reached for Nicole. “And I loved every second of it.” He found her mouth and kissed it, softly at first and then rougher as the desire grew between then.

She ran her fingers through his thick hair. “It turned you on to watch me get a dance, didn’t it?”

He let out a low growl. “You have no idea how much.”

“You didn’t get a dance of your own, poor baby.”

“There’s still time. Why don’t you dance for me? Deanna.”

Yeah right. Her compared to the girls at Body Language was like filet mignon from The Palm Restaurant verses a hot dog from a stand at Coney Island.

“Forget the dancing,” she said. “How about I just strip instead?”

“Works for me.”

Nicole lived in a condo built in the eighties, so the sliding closet doors were mirrored. This allowed her to see what she was doing and minimize the chances of her striptease becoming a comedy show.

Wil sat on the floor, his back against the bed frame.

“Hold on, we need some music,” he said. He flipped on the radio, and found some sultry instrumental music.

She began lifting her shirt up slowly and swaying her hips to the music. So far, so good, she thought, but in order for her to remove her top, it’d have to come off over her head. So how was she going to do that and still look sexy? What if it got stuck on her earring? What if—

“Take your shirt off,” Wil said.

His voice snapped her back to the present. “Don’t you want me to tease you?”

“No,” he answered simply.

Off went the shirt, over her head. She still had on another layer, a skintight black camisole. After pulling one of the straps down, then the other, Nicole turned around so her back was facing Wil. She lifted her skirt to reveal a hint of panty, which unfortunately, were pink cotton, but then she hadn’t expected to see him tonight.

Nicole tried to be seductive by throwing him a sexy look over her shoulder, but excruciating pain shot through her neck again. “Ow,” she yelped, trying to rub out the crick.

Wil jumped to her side. “What’s wrong? What did you do?”

“I jerked my neck the wrong way when you came up behind me in the club. The pain just came back.”

“Here, let me rub it for you. I’ve been told I have great hands.”

“I’ll let that comment slide,” she said.

His hands were already on her, rubbing. “By my mom. I used to give her massages all the time.”

“Not anymore?”

“No time. I’m too busy now. Here, lie down. You’ll be more comfortable.”

She melted into the carpet while Wil sat low on her tailbone, massaging the kink out of her neck. When he moved to her shoulders she moaned in approval. “Oh yeah.”

He did have amazing hands—strong, with the correct amount of firm pressure. His hands moved over her back and she told him, “Wait a sec,” while she peeled off her camisole and let him work on her bare back.

I could fall in love with this man and his hands, Nicole thought, in her ecstatic state of mind.

Wil massaged away the knots and the aches, leaving Nicole fully relaxed. He moved down her body to her ankles and up again to her thighs, using a lighter touch. He ran his fingers up and down the outside of her legs, and then the inside, stopping to slide off her skirt and panties. What started off as a light rubbing of the neck had turned into an erotic, full-body massage. No part of her body was left untouched. Nicole was in such an altered state of pure bliss she hadn’t realized Wil had undressed. She felt him now, naked and stretched out on her back, kissing the nape of her neck, fingers exploring her.

“You’re so wet,” he whispered into her hair.

Nicole thrust her backside up into him, feeling him aroused against her. He muttered something in Spanish and pulled himself off her so he could get a condom. He found her waiting for him on hands and knees.

Wil knelt behind her, cupping her ass reverently, kissing it, licking into her. When Nicole felt she couldn’t stand it much longer, when the need to have him inside her became overpowering, he slid into her.

“You feel good,” she whispered, loving the feel of him moving in and out of her. He reached for her breasts, squeezing them lightly, rubbing her nipples between his fingers, until the friction between them got to be too much, and he grasped her waist with both hands and drove deeper and faster into her.

All of this was great until Nicole caught a side view of herself in the mirror. Her breasts looked like swinging water balloons, and the area below her bellybutton could hold two kangaroos as far as pouches went.

Note to self: When alone, configure body into every conceivable sexual position in front of a mirror and veto the ones that make me look like an old fat cow.

How she wished she were one of those carefree women who could accept herself in any way, shape, or form, but she wasn’t. Seeing body parts move in directions they shouldn’t took her right out of the “sexual zone” and straight into “frigid self-conscious mode.” She had to change positions and quick.

“You know what I’d really like to do?” Nicole said, in as relaxed a voice as she could muster. Besides get a tummy tuck and a boob job. “Be on top of you.”

Wil had no problem with that.

She eased herself onto him. With all anatomy now sitting upright, Nicole was feeling much more comfortable. Wil ran his hands over her torso, to her breasts, then around to her ass, kneading it like it was dough. “Kiss me,” he said, his voice cracking.

There was only one other issue keeping her from total abandon. She had to get it off her chest, or else she’d never be able to have a proper orgasm; she’d always be holding back.

Her lips moved to his ear. “You know this thing between us can only last until my son comes home, right?”

He rose up into her as she ground her hips down on him. “Yeah okay,” he mumbled, eyes shut. Judging by the raggedness of his breathing Nicole was pretty sure if she had asked him for the majority of shares in his company, he would have agreed. But she had it on the table now and felt better.

She thought of nothing anymore except how amazing he felt inside her, and then the tingling began and she whispered, “I’m about to come.” He grabbed both hips and pushed her down onto his body, until she felt him hit that spot inside her that sent her crashing over the edge. “Don’t stop,” Nicole gasped, as her nipples tightened and a chill washed through her. She kept moving with him until the spasms waned, and then Wil came right after, moaning her name as he did.

Damn, why did I wait so long to sleep with this man? Look how much time we wasted.

Since it was such a short time before Josh returned, Nicole vowed to spend the next weeks making up for a lot of lost time.