Northern Proposals

by Julia P. Lynde

"What?"

  "Pour it."

  "Of course you can," she said. "That's why it's in a squeeze bottle."

  "You are being deliberately obtuse," I accused her.

  "Maybe you're just being too cryptic. Maybe you should show me what you are trying to suggest."

  I took the chocolate bottle back from her. "You could, you know-" I gestured with the chocolate bottle as if I were pouring it on my chest."

  "Ohhhh," she said with a wide-eyed expression. "Wouldn't that get you all sticky?"

  "You'd have to lick it off."

  "Ohhhh," she said again. "Is that what you want me to do? Pour some on you and lick it off?"

  "No!" I said. "Not on me!"

  "Well, then why did you bring it up?"

  "I didn't bring it up, you did. It was in the groceries."

  "Right. For the ice cream."

  "You intended to use that chocolate on Susan."

  "So then Susan would have been all sticky?"

  "Not after you licked it off."

  "Why would I need such a lame excuse to lick Susan?" She smiled sweetly at me. "Well, I might now, because she's with someone else, but I wouldn't have known that when I packed it. For, you know. The ice cream."

  "And coffee."

  "Exactly." She took the chocolate away from me again and put it back in the cupboard. "I suppose there's something kinky about the oysters I brought, too."

  "You did not bring oysters."

  She sighed. "You're right. I only have oyster crackers. Susan doesn't like oysters. She said they slip out."

  "Slip out?"

  "Well, sure. You sort of, you know."

  "What?"

  "Well, they're raw, right? On the shell. And you can, you know. Slide them in. Then slurp them back out."

  I started laughing. "That is the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."

  "As ridiculous as pouring chocolate over your chest?" She paused. "It's called Venus on the Half Shell."

  "Oh my god," I said, laughing harder. "You are so full of shit."

  "Shouldn't knock it until you try it," she said to me with a straight face, but I saw the corners of her mouth quivering while she suppressed her own laugh.

  We finished putting away the groceries, including the very soft ice cream from the cooler, without any more opportunities to tease each other.

  "All right," she said. "Let's go down to the lake, then I'll set a fire while you get started working on the proposal."

  "Alcohol," I said.

  "I brought one bottle of wine," she replied. "If we want anything else, we can run into town. It's only a few minutes. I am happy to open the wine or run to town."

  "Wine would be great," I told her.

  We went out the front of the cabin, the side facing the lake. It was amazingly beautiful. I stopped and stared. "It's gorgeous." There were pine trees lining the sides of the property and two large oak trees in front of the cabin. The lake was a short walk through the grass.

  "Yes, it is," she replied. "I love it up here. I'm saving my money for my own cabin." She looked around. "It's sort of a shame. Marcy and Jon only come up about once or twice a month. It sits empty a lot." She stared out to the lake and sighed. "But that's how it is."

  Then she took me by the hand and pulled me towards the lake, letting go once I was following after her. We stepped onto the dock, walking to the end. "There are chairs to put out, but I'll do that tomorrow," she said. We stood next to each other, looking out over the serene water.

  In the distance I heard a loon. It's such a lonely sound, reminding me of a wolf howl, and so beautiful. Jessica listened, smiling. "I love that sound," she said quietly when the loon grew silent. "If we have the windows open, we'll hear more tonight."

  We stood there for a while, looking at the water and listening to the sounds of nature. I recognized the crickets, but there were other sounds I couldn't identify. Jessica took a deep breath of air. I looked over at her and thought how beautiful she was. She caught me looking at her.

  "What?"

  "Thank you for inviting me."

  She smiled. "You are welcome. Thank you for coming. I think I'm going to have more fun than if Susan had come."

  "Why is that?"

  "You have a brain."

  We stood there for a few more minutes, enjoying the night air, before we turned around and headed back into the cabin.

  Settling In

  I settled down in the living room with my laptop. Jessica puttered around me, opening the windows, building a fire, and opening the wine for us. Then she joined me with her own laptop, and we used a thumb drive to transfer the incomplete proposal to her computer. We went over it, and I pointed out the parts that weren't done.

  We sat side by side on the sofa, each doing our portion of work on the proposal. Jessica was the numbers person. I had raw sales numbers for her, but it was her job to do the statistics on them and generate projections. Then she'd give those numbers back to me and I would tie a pretty bow on them for presentation to the client next week.

  While she was working, she found some typographical errors, pointing them out to me so I could fix them. She created the spreadsheets she would need for the calculations and was soon waiting for me to give her the final numbers.

  Finally, shortly after ten, I finished everything Jessica needed before she could complete her work. I shot everything over to her.

  "I'll need maybe an hour," she said.

  I set my laptop aside. "Okay. I'm going to go listen to the loons some more." She nodded. I got up and stepped outside, standing on the deck. But instead of loons, I heard a much more annoying sound: the buzz of mosquitoes. I sighed. I didn't feel like smelling like bug spray all night, so I let the annoying insects drive me back inside. Jessica was still crunching numbers, so I let her be and decided to unpack my suitcase.

  I stepped into the bedroom and tossed my suitcase on the bed, opened it, and began pulling things out. I hung things up, put them into the dresser, or moved them to the bathroom as appropriate. It didn't take long. When I looked, Jessica was still staring at her laptop screen.

  I glanced over at her suitcase. It was sitting right there, and I hadn't been able to stop wondering whether she'd really brought kinky sex toys. I looked, and she couldn't see the bed from where she was sitting. What she didn't know would never hurt her.

  Quietly, I moved her suitcase onto the bed and put mine on the floor of the closet, ready to be repacked Sunday when it was time to leave. Then quietly I opened her suitcase.

  She had a lot of the same things I had brought. Spare jeans, toiletries, two bathing suits, that sort of thing.

  I also found a collection of silk scarves. I picked one up and rubbed it against my skin. It felt nice. I wondered why she needed more than one. They were all black, so I didn't think she had brought them for different fashion statements. I counted. There were six.

  Underneath the scarves were more mysteries.

  I pulled something out of the suitcase. It was purple, long, slender, and with an unusual reverse hourglass shape. It felt like it was made out of some type of rubber. I didn't know what it was for, but I realized I hadn't as much sexual experience as I thought I had. Was I really this sheltered?

  "Someone is being naughty," I heard Jessica say quietly.

  I screamed in surprise, my heart immediately pounding furiously in my chest, then turned to look at her, standing in the doorway watching me. "Don't do that! You scared me."

  She raised an eyebrow, then looked pointedly at what was in my hand.

  "I'm sorry," I said.

  "Lying compounds the offense," she said. "The only thing you're sorry about is getting caught." Her tone was cool. I couldn't tell how angry she was.

  "I'm sorry that I couldn't contain my curiosity."

  She didn't respond but continued to stare at me.

  "Are you mad?"

  "I haven't decided yet." Her tone hadn't improved.

  "I'm sorry."

  "Stop lying. Lyin
g pisses me off far more than snooping does." She crossed her arms over her chest, still leaning against the doorframe.

  We stared at each other. I hadn't moved and was still holding, well, whatever it was I was holding. Finally she looked away, sighed heavily, then looked back. "If I choose to get angry, it will ruin the weekend. If you were my girlfriend, I would be obliged to punish you for snooping. But you're not." She paused. "You look like you don't have a clue what that is."

  "I don't."

  "It's a butt plug."

  "It feels like rubber. Or plastic."

  "Latex."

  "Why?"

  "Why is it made from latex?"

  "Why would you use this on someone?"

  "Because she wanted me to, as part of everything else I would be doing."

  "Why?"

  She paused. "I don't even know how to answer that, and I don't think you'd want me to demonstrate."

  I immediately shoved it back into the suitcase.

  "That's the kinkiest thing in there," she said. "I didn't bring that much. The plug, a vibrator, and the scarves. Pretty tame."

  "Tame?"

  She nodded.

  "The chocolate?"

  "It's really for the ice cream. And the honey really is for the tea and the biscuits I'll make tomorrow."

  "Are you mad?"

  "Frustrated. I'd like to be able to punish you for snooping."

  "If I were Susan, what would you do to punish me?"

  "A lot worse than I'd do to you, Jade." She paused. "For you, I'd make you wear it for the rest of the evening."

  I squirmed at the thought, embarrassed and excited at the same time, but then I said, "I thought that was the whole idea in the first place."

  "I imagine it would be distracting long before you finished your work tonight."

  "But we don't have that type of relationship. I shouldn't have snooped, and I'm sorry."

  "Please don't lie about it. You were curious. I guess that's natural. No real harm done. But if you're feeling guilty, I know how you can make it up to me."

  "What?"

  "Backrub when we go to bed tonight. And I'm wearing what I brought to wear with Susan."

  "Some sort of dominatrix outfit?"

  She laughed. "No. Undies and a black teddy like the one you almost brought."

  I smiled. "Deal. Thank you for letting me off so easily." I paused. "Why so many scarves?"

  "Do you have no imagination?"

  "Apparently not."

  "You can't be this innocent," she said, looking a little exasperated.

  "Please, just tell me."

  She sighed then stepped forward, crossing the room to me. "Turn around," she ordered.

  I looked at her. "What are you going to do?"

  "Almost nothing. Turn around." She spoke firmly, and I found myself obeying. After a moment she stepped up behind me. "Don't move." Then she reached over me, holding one of the scarves in her hands, and placed it over my eyes, tying it off behind my head. My heart started speeding up.

  "Turn around again," she said.

  I turned obediently. She grabbed my hands, crossed them in front of me, then tied them in place with one of the scarves.

  "Get the idea?"

  "Yes," I said, then licked my lips. "Would you have hurt her?"

  "No. That's not my thing, and it's probably why she left."

  "She wanted you to hurt her?"

  "Yeah."

  "Why?"

  "Good question. I don't know." I felt her hook the silk around my wrists with her fingers and she began tugging. "Come."

  "Where are we going?"

  "Back to the living room before I find it difficult to stop."

  She led me carefully, and I didn't bump a thing on the way. She turned me, pushed me backwards gently, and after I had taken a small step backwards, said, "The sofa is behind you. Sit."

  I sat carefully and I felt her settle down next to me. "Have you ever let a boy tie you up?"

  "No. I had one ask. When I told him no, he asked if I'd tie him up. I thought it was weird. We didn't go out much after that."

  "Prude." But she said it gently, and I thought perhaps she was smiling.

  "Probably. Or just sheltered. It was a long time ago."

  "How do you feel now?" she asked.

  "I don't know."

  "Excited?"

  "A little."

  "Only a little?"

  "I don't know what else you're going to do."

  "You were awfully curious," she observed. "If you lie, I will know. Are you hoping I'll do more than I have so far?"

  I thought about it. My heart was pounding, and I thought she must be able to tell. She placed her hand on my chest, not groping me, just feeling my heartbeat. I didn't pull away.

  "Answer me," she ordered.

  "Jessica, I don't know."

  She didn't say anything right away. I felt her shift on the sofa, then she said quietly, "Perhaps I should give you more to think about."

  I didn't respond, but then she shifted again. Her hand went to the back of my neck, and then I felt her breath against my lips from maybe an inch or two away. "Last chance to tell me to stop," she said.

  I didn't tell her to stop, and then she was kissing me.

  It was a firm kiss, but soft at the same time, and she meant business with it. At first it was just lips, but then she parted her mouth slightly and caressed my lips with her tongue. I opened for her. She hesitated just a moment, then her tongue began to explore my mouth.

  She made a noise, perhaps of hunger. I made a similar noise.

  She tasted amazing.

  Then she withdrew her tongue and pulled away.

  I sat there, stunned. Jessica shifted on the sofa, then her hands were at my wrists, untying them. I felt her reach up and remove the blindfold. She dropped both pieces of silk in my lap.

  I opened my eyes and stared into hers, still too stunned to say anything.

  "When you are able to think again, please put the scarves away, then hang my clothes up. It'll give you something to do for me while I work on these numbers."

  She turned away from me, settling back onto the sofa, and picked up her laptop from the coffee table where she had set it before discovering me snooping through her things. I watched for a while as she worked on the numbers for me.

  "Jessica?"

  "Yes, Jade?"

  "That's the first time a woman has kissed me like that."

  She glanced over at me. "Did you enjoy it?"

  "Yes."

  Jessica turned back to her computer. "Good. So did I."

  "Am I gay?"

  She turned back to me and looked at me. I thought perhaps she was going to laugh, but then she said gently, "I doubt it. Being curious is natural. We're having a nice time, we've been flirting, and I'm kind of sexy."

  "More than kind of."

  She smiled. "I could pour a little more alcohol into you and probably talk you into letting me do more. But that doesn't mean you wouldn't regret it in the light of day. And even if you enjoyed every minute and we had a wild, amazing weekend, you still might prefer guys. It would just be a fling on the gay side, then back to your prudish, straight life."

  I thought about it.

  "Are you going to do that again?"

  "I don't know. I didn't know I was going to do it that time, but you just looked so amazingly tasty that even if you got mad afterwards, I wanted a taste." She paused. "You're giving out huge 'seduce me' vibes, and I suspect you would let me if I tried, but there's a problem. You're pretty much my dream woman, and on Sunday when you tell me it was fun, but it won't happen again, it would break my heart."

  "So you aren't going to kiss me again?"

  "Honestly?" I nodded.

  "If you don't stop me, yes, I probably well. I've had one taste, and it wasn't remotely enough."

  She turned back to the computer. "Go hang my clothes up, Jade."

  Obediently I rose from the sofa and, still in a daze, began putting
her clothes away.

  In A Daze

  I didn't know what was going on with me. I was straight. I knew I was straight. What was I doing? I was intentionally begging her to seduce me, and I didn't know why.

  Furthermore, if what she said was true, it was cruel. I was playing with her. I had to stop, go out there and tell her, "It was a nice kiss, but please don't do it again." Then I picked up her panties from the suitcase. They weren't any different from mine, but I caressed my cheek with them. Standing in the bedroom of this cute little cabin, I was caressing my cheek with another woman's underwear.

  Maybe there were such things as gay germs after all, I told myself in a moment of self-amusement.

  I picked a drawer in the dresser and put her things away.

  I put all the sex toys in the nightstand drawer. I hadn't gotten to the vibrator before, but I looked at it before I put it in the drawer. I began to blush just holding it, and I quickly stuffed it into the nightstand. I left the drawer open a little so she would notice where I put everything. I could just imagine us forgetting something and her sister-in-law finding it.

  I put her toiletries in the bathroom near mine and put the empty suitcase in the closet next to mine. I hoped the two suitcases would breed and make a small purse or something.

  I was definitely in a weird mood.

  I decided I had stalled as long as I could. It was a small cabin, and there weren't a lot of places to be alone and think. I walked back out to the living room and looked at her. "Did you want anything?"

  She looked up at me and smiled. "Oh, yes," she said. "I do."

  "I meant. Um. To eat."

  She leered, eyeing me up and down. "Definitely."

  I immediately began blushing. "Food, Jessica. Do you want any food?"

  "No thank you, Jade. I think I've had enough wine, too. Unless you want more, can you cork the bottle and leave it in the kitchen?" She bent her head back to her computer. I put the wine away and rinsed both our wine glasses, leaving them on the counter. I headed back to the living room and sat down, watching her work. Somehow she managed to ignore me.

  Didn't she know how confused I was? How could she sit there and work instead of helping me work through my feelings?

  I must have been fidgeting, or staring at her too hard, or something, because she looked up at me, and her expression softened. "I know you're confused. I am trying to finish this as quickly as I can, so it's not hanging over our heads." She leered at me. "It's refreshing to know the gay germs are working."