12
Before we could talk further about what might happen the following evening, Alex’s phone began going off again. He soon left, saying that he’d be back with Mason the following evening at eight.
“Barring any catastrophe with the Darkwings, anyway.”
I felt like if the Darkwings caused any kind of problems that interfered with my date with Mason and Alex, I might just be mad enough to take them on myself.
After Alex left, I took a long bath, letting my mind wander freely. It wandered specifically to what was probably going to happen the following evening at eight. With my imagination running wild, I had a feeling that the next twenty-four hours weren’t going to go by as fast as I might have liked them to.
That night, I slept probably the hardest I had in maybe my whole life, maybe because for the first time, I was actually sexually satisfied. Out like a light by eleven, I slept for a full twelve hours, not waking even once until a little after eleven in the morning.
After having some lunch, or breakfast or whatever it was, I took the elevator ten floors down to visit with Dana. She answered the door with a smile, telling me to come on in, which I did. After closing the door, she paused, smile fading, and just quietly studied me for a moment or two before speaking again.
“You know…I know I haven’t known you very long, but something is a bit different about you today. You look really….” She trailed off, studying my face again. “You look really well-rested, I guess. Not that you looked worn down or anything before, because you didn’t, but…you just look really refreshed and bright-eyed today. It’s even something else, though, too. Something I just can’t put my finger on. I guess you just look even more beautiful than usual. You look like you’re glowing from the inside out.”
Pretty positive that I was blushing, I gave my head a little shake. “Well, thanks, and I did sleep really well last night. As for the ‘something else’ you mentioned...well, I really have no idea about that. If I’m ‘glowing,’ maybe it’s just from using a new facial cleanser in the shower today. That's the only thing I think it could be.”
Dana snorted. “Oh, you’re such a liar.”
I sputtered, trying to feign ignorance. “Well, other than the new facial cleanser, I really can’t think of anything in particular that might have given me a glow. Except for maybe the new color of foundation makeup I used today. I guess it could be that.”
“What a terrible liar you are.” Dana shook her head at me with her glossy, berry-colored lips twitching with amusement. “You know, I have other friends who are pretty bad liars, but Kira…you really just suck.”
I began to protest feebly, but she grabbed my hand, laughing a bit, and began leading me out of the foyer in the direction of a short hallway that led to her kitchen.
“Come on. It’s coffee and chatting time for us. You don't have to tell me what exactly gave you your glow today other than your new facial cleanser and makeup, which, nice try about trying to pass those things off as an explanation, but if you do want to tell me, I figure that the least I can do is give you the opportunity.”
Despite her saying that I didn’t have to tell her, I had a feeling I was going to have to come clean to Dana about some things at least partially. I wasn’t so sure she was ever going to let me leave her apartment otherwise.
Her kitchen, which was large and airy and painted a pale, warm shade of peach, smelled like brewing coffee and sweet vanilla. And even though I’d had a fairly substantial meal not a half-hour before, my stomach instantly growled.
Maybe having heard it, Dana smiled and told me to have a seat on one of several barstools around a large island in the middle of the kitchen. “Hold on just one sec, and we'll have piping hot sugar cookies fresh out of the oven to go with our coffee. Like I told you yesterday, I have a little bit of a sweet tooth, so I just felt like making some today.”
Once she and I were both seated up to the island with little plates of cookies and mugs of fragrant coffee with cream and sugar, she gave me a certain type of look, and I knew pretty much what she was going to say before she even said it.
“All right. Time to spill your guts. If you want to, that is, but something just tells me that you might have something you want to spill.”
I took a little sip of coffee to wash down a bite of cookie, then set the mug down with a sigh. “All right. I’ll ‘spill,’ because I don’t think I’m getting out of this apartment alive if I don’t. That being said, I’m still sorting some things out, some things that are just very complicated, so I’m just going to be brief.”
What I was still “sorting out” was the mystery of who I’d overheard talking on the phone, and what they’d meant by what they’d said, although I still didn’t feel like getting into any of that with Dana, especially after what she’d said about me not really knowing Mason and Alex very well a few days earlier.
In response to what I’d said, Dana nodded, quickly licking a few cookie crumbs off her thumb. “Well, you probably know you’re being a little cryptic, but I think I understand. Sometimes in the early days of a relationship, everything can seem just really up in the air. Also, you really don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to. Just tell me whatever you’re honestly comfortable with sharing. I really don’t mean to be pushy, if that’s the way I’m coming off.”
“No…you’re not. And I really don’t have any big, major nuclear secrets to share anyway. I guess the only thing I really have to share is that things have ‘progressed physically,’ I’ll say. And things are going to continue to progress physically tonight at eight. As far as emotionally…that area is kind of gaining speed, too.”
At least, it was with Alex, anyway.
Giving me a little smile, Dana set her coffee mug down. “That’s all good to hear…and that’s all pretty much what I expected you to say as an explanation for your glow today, but I guess I just wanted my suspicions confirmed. So, do you want to share what brought all this ‘progression’ about? Was it anything in particular? Or did things in the ‘physical’ department just kind of naturally and slowly progress?”
“Well...not really. In fact, things actually happened pretty quickly, although I don’t really regret anything. The only thing I’m still struggling with is….” Uncertain of what to say, I trailed off with a sigh. “This is really hard to explain. I guess I just have some thoughts about Mason and Alex that I don’t really want to share right now.”
“Like that one of them might actually try to hurt the other, or whatever it was that you said when we had breakfast at the cafe?”
Stalling while I planned my response, I took a sip of coffee, and then another, before setting the mug down.
I was really tempted to tell Dana everything, especially since I was really wanting another person’s opinion on what I’d heard.
However, I still just didn’t feel like I could tell Dana about the phone call I’d overheard. At least, not right then. I really liked her, but that didn’t mean that I trusted her a hundred percent yet, or even ninety percent. Apparently a little mistrustful by nature, I’d always tended to be like that with friendships and relationships of any kind, especially since Kevin had cheated on me. Whether a friend or a boyfriend, a person had to really earn my trust before I would give it fully. This made it strange that I was already beginning to trust Alex and Mason, particularly Alex, when just a few days earlier, I’d been convinced that he was capable of playing some kind of a sick joke on me just to hurt me.
Knowing that I really didn’t want to say more than I already had, I ultimately just gave Dana a little smile and picked up a cookie. “I guess I’ll fill you in on more another day. But right now, I want to get serious about eating these cookies while they’re still warm.”
To my relief, Dana didn’t press me further, and for the rest of the day, while we did some serious shopping at the various little shops and boutiques within the city, she didn’t press me for any more personal sharing or details about what was going on with me, Mason, and Alex.
When I got back to my apartment around six, I made and ate a quick dinner and then took a warm, leisurely shower before dressing in the short red dress that I had deemed far too sexy the night that Mason, Alex, and I had had drinks. Now, the dress struck me as just perfect, particularly the deeply plunging neckline. Adding to what I hoped would be an incredibly sexy, seductive look, I put on a pair of red high heels, too, with my mind wandering to the activities that might be happening in less than an hour. By the time I’d dried my hair and applied a bit of makeup, my mind wasn’t so much wandering as it was fixating.
The night of the drinks and my drunkenness, when I’d been sitting on Mason’s lap, feeling his huge erection beneath my thigh, it had given me quite a little thrill to know that Alex was just sitting there, watching us while we made out passionately. He’d even been watching while Mason had been toying with one of my stiffened nipples.
Since then, I hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the erotic thrill I’d gotten, and I’d decided that I definitely wanted to experience it again. However, this time, I wanted to take things much further, and I’d made up my mind that I was going to just come right out and tell Alex and Mason exactly what I wanted. After all, being perfectly blunt with Alex had worked out pretty well for me the night before.
When I heard a knock on my apartment door exactly at eight o’ clock, I had to fight not to speed over to answer it, possibly wiping out in my red high heels. Instead, I forced myself to simply walk, despite a thousand butterflies in my stomach wanting me to run. Those thousand butterflies suddenly seemed to turn into a million the moment I opened the door and saw Alex and Mason dressed in dark pants and pressed collared shirts, with each of them looking so handsome that the combined effect nearly took my breath away.
Trying to play it at least somewhat cool and not embarrass myself by smiling goofily, I stepped aside so they could enter the apartment. “Please, come on in, both of you.”
Seeming like they were both struggling not to grin goofily themselves, they both strolled inside.
Mason looked at me for just a moment or two before pulling me into his arms and speaking in a husky voice near my ear. “Alex and I have decided on something. We want you to tell us your deepest fantasy. We want you to tell us what you want us to do, and what you want to do...and we want you to be very, very detailed about all this. Don’t hold anything back.”
Determined not to, I took a deep breath before basically baring my soul.