by Lisa G Riley
Nicholas stopped laughing and sat next to her hip. “I’m sorry, babe.” He pressed a kiss in the dip of her back. “I shouldn’t have laughed so hard, but you’ve got to admit, it is funny. Now, let’s see what we’ve got here.” He pressed a finger gently against her skin, watching for her reaction as he did so. She didn’t move. “Does that hurt?” he asked.
“No, I just felt a little pressure.”
“Okay, it’s just a little pink, so you’ll be fine. It will be uncomfortable to sit on for long periods of time, though. Stay here today. Unless you think you can take the pain, you shouldn’t drive home just yet.”
“Yeah, I was thinking that too. If I gave you the extra set of keys to my house, would you go over and grab me some clothes for dinner after you leave the clinic? I know it would be out of your way, but—”
“Don’t worry about it, Lindy. I’d be happy to. I’m happy to do anything that will keep you trapped in my bed for hours at a time, which reminds me—” he rose and walked over to his closet “—I bought you some presents.”
Mel perked up, resting her head on her hand so she could see better. “You bought me presents?” Her eyes widened when she saw how large the bag was that he was carrying. “What on earth is it? And when did you buy them?”
“Well, they are some things that I thought might be fun to try while you learned about the pleasure different parts of your body can bring you.” He sat on the edge of the bed, then reached into the bag and brought out some striped material. “I got them after what happened the day before yesterday. I was determined to get you in my bed and show you just what we could do with that body of yours.”
Mel scooted over to get a closer look. “A thong? You bought me a thong?”
“It’s not just any thong,” Nicholas said and pulled out a remote control. “It’s a remote-controlled vibrating thong.”
Mel laughed. “Get out!” she said, and snatched the thong from his hand. It started pulsing against her palm and she looked to see Nicholas working the remote. “So I would wear it while you had the remote?”
“Yep, or you could use it by yourself.”
“Ooh,” she moaned. “That would be really kinky, wouldn’t it? I never knew they even made stuff like this!”
Nicholas reached into the bag and next pulled out what looked like a plastic butterfly. It was purple and had black straps on either side.
“What is that?”
“Another vibrator.”
“But it’s a butterfly,” she protested, and reached out to touch the antennae.
“A vibrating butterfly.”
“Yes, but it’s still a butterfly, plus it’s purple. I’d feel like a pervert using that one. It looks like a toy for kids. What else you got?” she asked eagerly.
Nicholas laughed in sheer delight. He’d had no idea that the toys would go over so well. He’d only thought to get them to help ease her into the world of sex in a playful way, but clearly she didn’t need any easing. He reached down again. “Pull the bag off when I lift this last one,” he told her. “It’s a big one.”
Eagerly, Mel reached over to grab the bottom of the bag, pulling it off of what looked to be an oddly shaped cushion. Shaped like a bowl, but long, the piece was royal blue in color. She poked it with a finger. “What is it?”
“It’s called the Liberator, and this particular piece is what’s known as the scoop,” he told her. He set it on the floor and pushing it down at one end, set it to rocking. “Imagine all the fun we could have on that.”
Mel watched it rock and suddenly blushed. “Oh, wow,” she said as various positions flashed through her mind. She looked at the Scoop, then at Nicholas and back at the Scoop again. She blushed some more.
Nicholas laughed at the speculative, lusty look in her eyes. “I think I’ve taught you too well.”
Still looking at the rocking piece of furniture, Mel mumbled, “When do you think we can use it?”
“Oh, God. I’ve created a sex fiend!” Nicholas snatched her up by her waist and planted a hard kiss on her mouth. “I’ve got to start getting ready. Find a comfortable position on the bed, and when I come out from the shower, I’ll rub some salve on your butt. But first, I’ll need you to get me those extra keys to your house, and you’ll need to use the bathroom if you have to, because I don’t want you to move much until the salve dries.”
11
Mel spooned the last of her breakfast yogurt out of its container and halfheartedly put it in her mouth. It was nourishment and she had to eat. Sighing, she took a sip of water, picked up the novel she was reading, and tried to concentrate on what was on the page. The book was written by one of her favorite authors, and she’d been trying to start it for days, but she couldn’t concentrate on it long enough to follow what was happening in the story.
She thought about Nicholas. Now, she had no problem concentrating on him. She’d been avoiding him for days, even switching shifts so she wouldn’t have to work with him. She was running scared, and she knew it but couldn’t help herself. When she was around Nicholas, she lost all sense of propriety and some of herself. She was in love with him and in lust. He inspired her to do all kinds of things she didn’t think she’d ever do with someone else, and that scared her.
“Hey, it’s today’s resident sourpuss!”
Melinda looked up at Cally as she entered the clinic’s kitchen. “Hey, Cally,” she said without much inflection.
“Um-um-um,” Cally said with pity as she sat down across from her and looked at her miserable face. “Girl, you are just a sorry sight to behold. What in the hell is going on, and what are you doing here on your day off?”
“I switched shifts with Tory this week.”
“Well, judging by the other sourpuss’s disposition this week, I guess I don’t have to ask why. Okay, two questions. When did the two of you break up, and whose idea was it?”
“We didn’t exactly break up, and I’m the one who’s been avoiding him.”
“Why? You told me that you guys were going like gangbusters. That you had fun together and you loved being with him.”
“We were, we did and I do.”
“Okay,” Cally said slowly, not quite comprehending. “So, my original question stands. What in the hell is going on?”
“I just couldn’t take being with him. It scared me, so I decided that I needed some space, that’s all.”
“What scared you?”
“Do you remember when you told me that the right man could have me fienin’ for sex so badly that I basically wouldn’t be in my right mind?”
“I don’t remember using those exact words, no, but I do remember the conversation,” Cally said in confusion and then the light dawned. “Girl, has Nicholas Pantino turned you out?”
“Out, in, sideways, upside down,” Mel confirmed mournfully. “I don’t think there’s a way he hasn’t turned me.”
“Well, good for Dr. Nick! And for you, of course!” Cally said excitedly; then another light dawned when she realized that that was why Mel was miserable. “Wait. It’s not good?”
“Not for me, it isn’t. Cally, it scares me—the things I’m willing to do with him.”
Cally’s eyes widened and she leaned in closer. “Do you want to give me an example?” she whispered.
Mel looked at her and burst out laughing. Even through her misery, she could see the avid curiosity on Cally’s face. “You’re so nosy!”
Cally didn’t even try to deny it. “Hey. I am what I am.”
“Well, the details are none of your business, Popeye, but let’s just say that Nicholas inspires me to forget every bit of decency that my mama, my daddy, and two different Catholic schools spent a lifetime trying to teach me.”
“Damn,” Cally drew the word out for several seconds.
“Exactly,” Melinda concurred with a nod.
“Well, just answer these questions. Is what y’all have been doing illegal?”
“Maybe in some states,” Melinda said with a secret sm
ile, “but not this one.”
Cally grinned before she continued. “Is what you’re doing hurting anyone?”
Melinda thought about the couple of times he’d spanked her and almost answered with an “only me and only for a minute,” but stopped herself “No,” she said, and blushed.
“Is he making you do things that you don’t want to do?”
“Oh, no,” Melinda said in surprise and frowned. “Nicholas would never do that.”
The insult she heard in the other woman’s voice made Cally smile. “Then what exactly is it, girl? I’m not getting it.”
Melinda sighed and leaned in to whisper, “It’s just that I want to do it all the time with him. And when he’s not around, I’m thinking about doing it with him. Once I was thinking about him and it so much that I couldn’t wait for him to get home and I masturbated.”
“Oh, girl, that’s normal,” Cally dismissed her worry with a wave of her hand.
“Twice in twenty minutes, Cally?”
Cally paused but recovered quickly. “Yes, it’s still normal.”
“He came home and caught me just as I was finishing up,” Melinda said, “and he took me on the floor and against the wall before we even made it to the bedroom.”
Cally’s mouth hung open in shock for a moment. “Well, damn! You guys are just a couple of freaks! And I don’t know what to tell you.”
“Cally!” Melinda said in shock before she tried not to laugh.
“What? Don’t look at me. You need help that only a sex therapist can give you.”
Melinda really looked worried then. “Really?” she asked despairingly.
“No, Melinda,” Cally said. “I’m just messing with you. What you and Nicholas have is a healthy sex life. It might be more active than others, but it’s still healthy.”
“Well, that’s a relief, I guess.”
“What is it?”
“I’ve just never felt this way before, and it scares me. All of it.”
“Ah, so we’re back to your control issues,” Cally said with a nod.
“I don’t know. Maybe.”
“My advice is for you to just let go. You can’t get any more miserable than you are now.” When Mel didn’t answer, Cally stood. “My first patient will be here in ten minutes, and I’ve got to prepare. Are you going to be okay?”
“Yes, I’ll be fine, thanks.”
“All right, then. I’ll see you later.”
“Thanks for listening, Cally.”
“Just think about what I said before you panic and sabotage a good thing, Mel.”
Mel thought about how much that sounded like the advice Simone had given her, except Simone had been her usual blunt self on the phone the night before. “Don’t fuck it up, Mel,” she’d said before hanging up.
Mel sighed and thought about the last time she’d seen Nicholas. Every summer, the city sponsored an outdoor movie festival in a downtown park. The movies played every Tuesday starting at dusk, and she and Nicholas had attended the showing of Rebel without a Cause. Her face hot with embarrassment, Mel remembered the things she’d done on that last date that had scared her enough to send her scurrying into hiding.
She’d sat next to Nicholas as he’d lounged back on the blanket he’d brought. He’d also brought a picnic dinner, pillows, and a second blanket in case the night turned cool. Butler Field in Grant Park was crowded with hundreds of people, and they’d set their things up as far away from the crowd as possible.
Nicholas had already eaten most of the cold chicken, cheese, and fruit they’d brought and was licking a vanilla ice cream cone that he’d bought from a nearby stand.
“Want some?”
She shook her head no as she swallowed the grape she’d just chewed. She heard a noise and looked towards the huge screen just as the movie was starting.
“Hey, Lindy. What does this remind you of?”
When she’d turned to look at him, he’d stuck his tongue out, which was covered in heavy clumps of dripping white. Since she’d just watched him eat her out in the mirror the night before, she’d had no problem guessing what he was imitating. Heat had exploded in her stomach before traveling downward to tease her clit. She’d been horribly turned on. “Stop it, Nicholas. Not here.”
He’d swallowed the ice cream and laughed wickedly. “Why not?”
She’d scooted away from him and leaned back on a stack of pillows. “Because, super freak, it’s not appropriate.”
Laughing some more, he’d moved closer to her and slipped his hand under the skirt of her halter dress to squeeze her knee. He’d looked up at her and lasciviously wriggled his eyebrows.
She’d giggled. “You’re incorrigible.”
“I’m also eager to see what you’re wearing under this little yellow dress.”
“Seeing as how you asked me to wear it, you should already know what I’m wearing,” she’d reminded him.
“Ah, yes, the vibrating thong,” he’d teased, and she’d watched as he’d slipped his hand in his pocket.
Suddenly she felt a vibrating buzz against her clit and stiffened. “Nicholas, don’t you dare,” she begged him.
“Why’d you wear it if you don’t want me to?”
“I thought that maybe you’d do it in the car on the way home. Not here, you idiot!” Another buzz, this one much stronger. She fell back against the pillows with a soft moan.
He leaned over her and bent his head to kiss her, just as he hit the switch on the remote control. The vibration this time lasted much longer, and she’d helplessly groaned into his mouth, her hips beginning to jerk as she tried to get closer to the vibration.
He’d raised his head and she’d grabbed his hand that held the remote. “Don’t do it again, Nicky, please. People will see.”
“The movie’s just started. No one is paying attention to us. Besides, I can use the other blanket to cover you,” he’d said, already reaching for it. “No one can see.”
“It’s eighty degrees out here! We don’t need a blanket.” But he was spreading the summerweight blanket over her body and she was letting him, because the risky nature of what he was proposing turned her on.
When he’d untied the halter of her dress so that it fell open to expose her nipples to his fingers, she’d let him do that, too. And right there, under the night sky in Grant Park and amidst hundreds of people, she’d come violently, screaming into his opened mouth and scratching at his shoulders as he’d pinched her breasts with one hand and remotely stimulated her clit with the other.
They’d also made love in the front seat of the car on the way home because neither one of them had been able to wait to feel him moving inside of her. He’d pulled over into a deserted parking lot, and she’d straddled his lap. Later, he’d dropped her off at home because she’d had to work the next day and that was the last time she’d seen him.
Melinda brought herself back to the present with a shake of her head and a deep breath. She rose, dumped her empty container in the garbage and prepared for another long day without Nicholas.
Nicholas let himself into the dark clinic with his extra set of keys. Cally had called him earlier and told him that he should get his ass over there pronto if he wanted to save his relationship. She’d told him that Mel had planned to stay late. He looked toward the receptionist’s desk, expecting to see her there working and frowned when he didn’t.
“Damn it,” he muttered. “Where the hell is she?” He opened the security door and began walking down the hall, checking the nurses’ locker room first. He’d been trying to reach her for days. She wasn’t answering her cell or house phone, and the couple of times he’d gone to her house, she hadn’t been home. It was almost like she’d disappeared.
Almost. He’d figured out what the problem was soon after she’d made herself unavailable. He’d remembered what they’d done, remembered how she’d been before they’d started seeing each other, and he’d put two and two together. “And I came up with five,” he muttered with a shake of
his head as he looked into the empty kitchen. “Just like she, in all her crazy logic, did. A saner person would have come up with four and at least talked to me about the problem.” He left the kitchen and made his way toward the only place left to check. The doctors’ office.
Melinda finished working out the nurses’ budget and leaned back in Nicholas’s chair with a tired sigh. His scent surrounded her, and she breathed it in. She’d decided to work at his desk because she missed him so much and thought that sitting in his chair would help her feel better. “Of course it didn’t,” she said aloud as she rubbed her neck.
“Of course what didn’t?” Nicholas asked her as he walked into the room.
Startled by his voice, Melinda jumped. “Nicholas! What are you doing here?” Her heart raced. He’d asked an innocent question, but the look on his face belied any sense of calmness she might have fooled herself into thinking he felt. She could only describe the look as furious.
“What do you think I’m doing here, Melinda?” He asked this question just as calmly as he continued to walk in unhurried strides toward her.
She stood as he came closer, feeling like she had to in case she suddenly needed to flee. “Um, I don’t know. Did you have to pick up a file or something?”
“Nope,” he said as he continued to stalk her. “Guess again.”
Melinda watched him carefully, feeling more and more like prey to his predator the closer he got. “I don’t know,” she tried to say calmly; then she blew it by saying shrilly, “Stop doing that!”
Nicholas stopped in his tracks and placed his hands on the desk. “Stop doing what, Melinda? I don’t know what you mean.”
All the guilt she felt for being such a coward and the lonely achiness she felt from missing him so much combined to make her nervous and irritated. “Yes, you do! So stop it!”
“I see. I’m supposed to stop doing what I’m doing because it upsets you,” he said sarcastically. “Yet, you didn’t stop to call me when you decided that you didn’t want to continue our relationship. You didn’t stop to tell me what was wrong. You didn’t even stop long enough to try and work out the problem, whatever it is. All those things bothered me, Melinda. In fact, they almost killed me. But I’m supposed to stop what I’m doing because it upsets you. Is that right?”
