by Billie Dale
Standing on shaky legs, still firing from the intensity, I wash up. Grabbing my purse, I continue with my trip to the store. All the stress seems to have melted away with the rush of wetness and pure ecstasy. My steps are a tad lighter, and I believe with some extra self-exploration and an active imagination, my venture with Elsa might just work.
Eight
Not a lot of people shop at our small grocery store. The large department/food stores save more money, but I save time and gas by picking up what we need locally.
Grabbing a cart, I begin trolling the aisles looking for cheap ideas on what to make for dinner. After one sweep, I head back to the first lane frustrated because cereal is all that sounds appealing. A small voice inside my head chastises Fruit Loops for dinner. I decide on spaghetti taking fast steps toward the pasta before I have a chance to change my mind. Whipping fast around the corner my cart crashes into a body, a very hard body now stumbling backward into a display of paper towels.
Why do stores think it’s a clever idea to create mountains out of product? They know it’s a flashing beacon for disaster. I swear they do it and place bets on how long it will be before someone knocks it over. Thanks to me, whoever picked this day in the toppling paper pool is the winner.
“Oh, no, oh gosh. I’m sorry.” I fumble around digging him out of the rolls when a rumbling laugh moves across my skin and hits me right between the legs. I know this laugh. Jesus, he’s going to think I am trying to kill him. First, I assault him with my knee and now I’ve buried him in paper products.
I start chucking packages over my shoulder, digging faster, not paying attention to where they’re landing. Until I reveal Royal hidden under the wreckage, holding his stomach, his eyes lit in amusement.
He grabs my offered hand, the current between us twists up my arm hitting hard in my heart. Much to my surprise, he uses his hold on my hand to pull me down into the pile with him.
“We’ve got to stop meeting like this, Snowy.” His attempt to be stern fails, lost in his boisterous laughter, killing all seriousness.
Looking at the mess around me and the hotness next to me, I give in. Flinging myself back and lying next to him on the destroyed mountain of store brand paper towels, losing myself in his contagious laughter.
It feels good to laugh, lost in the joy I don’t notice when he stops. On his side facing me, staring at me with a wide grin tipping his lush lips. The longing weighting his eyelids turning my laugh to a nervous giggle.
Reading my expression, he answers my question before I ask it.
He leans toward me, the minty freshness of his breath ghosting across my lips. “You have an amazing laugh.”
Butterflies flip inside my tummy as his face inches closer but before his lips meet mine, a gray-haired, store employee stands at our feet, hands on her hips and a hard set to her eyes. “Ahem. What do you two think you’re doing?”
Royal jumps to his feet, again reaching a hand for me. He always seems to be pulling me up from the ground. When he tugs me up, I fall right into his chest and one arm wraps protectively around my waist before he addresses the ticked off lady waiting for our response.
“Hey, Gladys. Who wins the pot this month?” Her angry expression fades as her face tints pink and the hands on her hips move to cup in front of her as she rocks on her heels. She’s no match for Royal’s charm.
Right there with ya, honey. Plus, I was right. They do have a bet going.
“Oh, Mr. Princeps.” Her pink tinge turns to full red. She reaches out one hand slapping lightly on Royal’s bicep. She licks her lips before tugging her bottom one between her teeth, batting her eyes up.
The hand around my waist pulls me tighter against his side, his body heat filling me with need. “Should we help you clean this up?” he offers.
Sliding her eyes to me, her smile drops. I think she forgot he wasn’t by himself. “No, I’ll get one of the stock boys to rebuild it.”
He steps out of the pile taking me with him. I try to step away from him but his hand grips me tighter. “Have a good day, Gladys,” he calls, bumping me with his hip, urging me to move.
Grabbing my cart again, I push while he walks beside me. Around the next corner, I nearly crash again only this time it’s another cart with a chunky baby boy sitting in the front part of the basket. Luckily, Royal jerks back on the handle to keep me from crashing.
The little boy looks up and his cherubic face breaks into a wide one tooth grin. His little brown eyes sparkle with happiness and he begins a babbling conversation with Royal. Bending down so he’s eye level with the little boy, Royal babbles right back in baby language and the little cutie laughs until he can’t catch his breath.
A statuesque woman with wavy auburn hair hanging down to her waist sways her curvy hips, strutting toward us with her skin-tight top molding to her perfect body. Pushing her enormous breast up and out, her eyes droop and fill with lust as she sets her sights on Royal. Stepping to his chest she runs one blood red fingernail up his arm, over his shoulder and down the center of his chest.
In a husky breath, she purrs, “Hey stranger. Long time, no see. I wondered why Jack-Jack was making such a fuss. I should’ve known it was you.”
He tries to move back away from her reach, but for every step he takes, she moves with him until he’s next to me again. Pulling me into his side, using me as a shield, he tries to make an introduction. “Merida, do you know Snowy?”
Snarling her lip, her eyes change from lust to disgust as they take in my messy bun, no makeup face and long-sleeved tunic paired with leggings. “I know her husband or I knew him before he was arrested.”
Jack-Jack lets out a scream drawing the woman’s attention away from us and back to her kid, where it should be. I didn’t like the way she said she knew Nic. Worse though, I hate the way she feasted on Royal.
“I need to go. I have to be at work soon,” I say, stepping out of his tight hold on my hip, uncomfortable with the unwarranted jealousy eating at my insides and my insecurities coming out to play.
“You didn’t get your groceries,” Royal comments with a frown when he looks into my empty basket.
“Oh,” I mumble, glancing from the cart to the floor. “I’ll grab something on the way home from work.” I turn and scurry back toward the front of the store shoving the basket away, I push my feet in a speed walk back to my crappy car.
“Bright Eyes, wait up.” He calls, jogging toward me and I swear he’s moving in slow motion. His t-shirt sways with his movement, lifting to show the top of his dark jeans and a hint of his hip dips. His thighs tighten and flex with each step. My mouth is as dry as the Sahara, and my lower region is on her knees begging me to remember this for later.
Snapping myself out of the Royal induced trance, I slide in the car before he can reach me, thankful there’s no one parked in front of me, throwing up a hallelujah to the car gods for making my car start on the first try, I race away. Glancing at myself in the rear-view mirror, I shudder in horror. I’m no competition for someone like Merida. Shaking off the gloom I continue to my job at the filthy cottage in the woods.
Nine
Cleaning wasn’t quite as terrible today, I finished in under two hours. Returning home, I skip the shower, settle myself in on the sofa and prepare to watch some mindless television compliments of Axel knowing how to tap into Hilde’s cable.
“Hey, Mom. What’s for dinner?” Axel calls out sticking his head in the refrigerator.
Crap, I forgot to go to the store again. Dragging myself off the couch I grab my purse and head to the door, telling the kids I’ll be back with something to make. Pulling open the door, I rush forward with my head angled down to my purse while I dig for my keys when I slam into a wall of chest. Bouncing off a set of firm pecks, I jolt back while a hand grips my forearm to steady me. Rubbing my nose, I look up at the smiling face of Royal holding two kid’s meals and another large white bag with the big red ‘M’ on it.
“Royal?”
“Bright
Eyes, I brought dinner.”
He peers over my shoulder to Axel, his brow furrows in confusion.
“Sorry, I didn’t know you had company.” He pushes the bags to my chest, his eyes still trained on my son.
“What? Who?” I turn seeing my boy looming right next to me with his chest puffed out and spine straight. “Oh, no. You mean him?” I jerk my thumb toward Axel, giggling at his show of bravado.
With thinned lips and hardened eyes, he gives a slight nod of his head.
Still holding the warm bags of food, the aroma filling my nose makes my stomach gurgle and I laugh harder at his jealous expression. “Royal this is my son, Axel.”
“Your son?” His eyes widen with half question, half astonishment. “I knew you had two kids, no fucking way are you old enough to have one this old. How old were you when you had him? Ten?” Turning his eyes on Axel, he tries to lessen his embarrassment. “I guess you’re not going to want a kid’s meal then? Glad I bought a little bit of everything.”
Aurora sulks her way across the room, her nose leading her to the food. We never have the money for eating out, even the cheapest of cheap fast food joints are too expensive for us. The smell of the fatty burgers and fries rising from inside the bag is pure heaven and enticing enough to bring my sullen daughter from the depths of her cave.
“Aurora, Royal was kind enough to bring us dinner.”
I didn’t think his eyes could grow any larger but now their bugging out of his head. His eyes moving between the three of us. There’s no way you can miss Aurora is mine, even with her caked-on goth makeup and grunge style clothes, her pale skin and black hair, short stature, and facial features are identical to mine. While Axel favors his father with his silky sandy blonde hair and burnt sienna brown eyes, Aurora is me seventeen years ago.
“You have two teenagers?”
“Did you miss Dex saying I was ancient because I have kids close to his age?”
His cheeks flush a light pink just above the line of his scruff, and his hand pulls at the back of his neck. “I must’ve missed it. Too distracted by the beauty who crashed into me. I only caught the end where he swallowed his foot and said you were old.”
Now my face blushes crimson and I fight the grin pulling up my lips. I nod, handing Aurora her meal, her face fills with the first smile I’ve seen in a long time when she pulls the toy from the bag, while Axel grabs the other bags and begins digging for a sandwich.
Opening the door wider, I invite him in. His forehead crinkles, his smile fading when he takes in where I live. He’s quick to change, schooling his features and forcing his lips to turn back up. He tries to make himself comfortable on the couch by wiggling to avoid the springs then catching a burger tossed his way by Axel.
Curiosity gets the best of me and though I’m glad he’s here, I have no clue how he found me. Amid shoving delicious salty fries in my mouth, I ask, “How did you find out where I live?”
Making me promise not to be mad, he tells me how he hounded Dex all day until he relented and gave up my address. My insides do a cartwheel over his determination to find me.
I finish eating while he plays twenty questions with my son, occasionally throwing a question to Aurora, but all she offers are grunts and head nods.
Our dungeon is an open floor plan, no dividing walls. I managed to find three cheap, used, four-panel room dividers which give us each a place to change and the illusion of privacy. With the kids here and hovering, the conversation stays family friendly. I know he has questions, I can see an inquisitive glint in his bedroom eyes. My past with Nic is for certain not a secret, but the inside scoop is what people want. Royal at least has the decency not to ask in front of Nic’s children.
After hours of talking, a yawn breaks through. I don’t want him to leave, my body screams for him to stay, but the layout of our home isn’t conducive to frolicking sexy fun. I walk him to the door, stepping just beyond the frame, pulling it shut behind me. Nibbling on my bottom lip, I stare at his mouth craving to know the feel of it on mine. His peach bottom lip calling out, begging me to bite and suck on it. He stands a hairs breath away from me, the spicy scent of his body and warmth of his closeness infuse me with want. I tighten my thighs to keep from climbing him like a tree. His pupils grow large watching my teeth sinking into my lip, tracking my tongue when it moistens my dry lips.
His eyes hooded making me wonder if this is what they would look like if his cock was buried deep inside me. My skin flushes with heat from my thoughts and my hands yearn to touch his body.
He leans, his lips about to meet mine, when a squirrel races up his back, over his shoulder and leaps on top of my head. His little claws digging into my scalp while his chatter yells at me for ignoring them then bitches me out for being a horrible animal whisperer. Following the pesky varmint’s lead, two birds begin to dive bomb my head, and several mice gather at my feet. Each one yelling and whining because I refuse to acknowledge them anymore.
This is why I don’t stay outside for long. Stupid little animals.
Royal’s eyes widen to the size of saucers as he takes in the harem of vermin gathering around me. His mouth gaped open gives the ticked off squirrel a perfect target. Taking out his frustrations with me, he chucks a nut right at Royal’s face into his gaping mouth. Royal gasps sucking said nut down his throat and choking as it blocks his windpipe.
Swatting away the woodland pests, I rush to get behind him and perform the Heimlich, dislodging the acorn, sending it careening out on the ground.
As he gasps for air, he asks, “What the fuck?”
“You deserted us, we didn’t know, please talk to us again.” The animals chatter in unison at me but to him, it sounds like squeaking and chirping. The offending squirrel scurried away as soon as the choking began, throwing back apologies while I saved Royal’s life.
Stomping my foot, hands fisted at my hips, my glare trained on the animals, “You all need to fucking STOP. Don’t stand here and tell me you didn’t know anything. You were all my friends, my only damn friends and you left me in the dark and now...now you assault me and him. I’m not saying I’ll never speak to you again but until I’m ready to, LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE.”
They all stare for a second before running back into the wilderness. I realize Elsa was right, it does feel good to let loose and let the f-bomb fly.
Royal’s still rubbing his throat, watching the animals run away. “Oh God, are you alright? I’m so sorry. They’re angry and, uh, shit I don’t have a good reason except they’re assholes. We have some unresolved issues and you got caught in the madness.”
“You stop talking to them?” He asks but doesn’t wait for a response. “I understand. I would be an annoyance if you stopped talking to me too.”
“You’re not surprised I can hear and talk to them?”
“Nah. Nothing in this town shocks me. I’m happy you knew how to save me and to be honest hearing you tell them off was hot. You should get angry more often.” I follow the movement of his hand, his fingers adjusting the crotch of his pants. Stunned by the growth behind his zipper, heat creeps up my neck overtaking my face. I’m quick to raise my eyes away.
Slowly he eases his face toward me, with a deep inhale my eyes fall closed. My lips pleading for intimate knowledge of the heat of his kiss. The coarseness of his beard rubs across my cheek milliseconds before his soft lips place a chaste peck, leaving me disappointed and my libido yelling ‘boo’. Opening my eyes, I watch his taut ass moving away from me and the gust of air I’m holding blows out through my lips.
Stepping back inside, leaning against the door, I rub the warm spot on my cheek and will my pulse to slow. Dismissing Axel’s knowing grin, I excuse myself to bed. As I’m dozing off a text lights up my phone lying next to me. Bats start a beating rhythm in my chest as I read Elsa’s words. “All set and ready to go. Let’s start tomorrow.”
The hours tick by, I toss and turn until dawn peeks through the windows. The kids still sleeping, I shower, shaving a
ll necessary parts before drying off and dressing in yoga pants and a baggy shirt. I blow out my hair and leave the rest for Elsabeth to figure out when I get there. I’m whistling the entire time to ease the nerves skating through my veins.
Leaving a note for Axel and Aurora, I grab my keys and drive as slow as I can across town to Elsa’s.
Ten
After sitting in the car for fifteen minutes, telling myself what a bad idea this is. I stand on Elsa’s porch still arguing with my conscience until I force my hand to knock. I’m greeted by a handsome shaggy-haired blonde man with broad shoulders, bold chin, and a grin lighting all the way to his eyes. He introduces himself as Christopher, Elsabeth’s brother-in-law. When I ask about her whereabouts he points me to the ‘Den of Sin’ as Elsa calls it.
With small hesitant steps I move in the direction of the backyard. Elsa’s waiting at the door to the shed, arms crossed over her chest and a Cheshire Cat smile tipping her lips. She rushes me inside and begins to apply layers of makeup to my face, claiming the camera will wash me out further than I already am. With my face complete, she takes a wide-barreled wand to my ebony hair, when she’s finished it falls in loose wide curls around my face. She slides the headband on with the large red bow in the middle and directs me to change into the bra and panty set. While I’m changing, she explains how everything will work.
I’ll sit in the center of the bed, covered in a satin blue and red robe with my mask firmly in place until the first customer logs in. While payment is processing and age verification is taking place, she’ll do a quick scan of the brief questionnaire each man or woman fills out detailing what they want from their five-minute session and relay the information to me. Each patron will also have the choice to pay for more than five minutes but no longer than thirty in one session. The requests decide how many I take in one day. Whoever’s on the other end has the possibility of allowing me to view them the same as they’re viewing me, with the specification I’m not interested in seeing their genitals, only faces. Elsa explains the goal is to get a least four customers in, hoping the first few only want small glimpses or the minimum minutes.
