by Ivy Smoak
A wave of relief rushed over me. Finally, after all this time, I was free from the fear that Joe might leak it. And it was all thanks to Tanner. How could I ever repay him? I was free! I was finally fucking free of Joe’s threats! Without thinking, I jumped into Tanner’s arms and kissed him.
He hadn’t been expecting it. He stumbled backwards and fell onto the sofa. I straddled him as I ran my hands through his long hair. With all the stress gone, all I could think about was devouring him.
“Thank you,” I muttered between kisses.
His strong hands ran along my rib cage and up to my tits. I thrust my hips against him. I could feel him getting hard. Yes! I’d been dreaming of this moment for weeks.
I pushed his jacket off his broad shoulders and ran my hands over his abs. I wanted to explore every inch of him. To feel him inside of me. To taste his cum on my lips.
And I could tell he wanted it too. He squeezed my ass and groaned into my mouth. “Ash…”
I silenced him with a kiss.
It’s finally happening! My whole body was alive. The sensation of every touch was magnified by a million. And yet…a little voice in the back of my head was screaming that I should stop. Because right now I was on cloud nine. Everything was perfect. But if we got any further and he rejected me…
Fuck.
I let myself enjoy him for a few more seconds - to taste his lips, feel his abs - and then I pulled back.
He reached for me to bring me back, but I dodged.
Shit! I knew how it felt to be rejected. Was that how I’d just made him feel? This was the second day in a row I’d been the one to put the brakes on our sexy time. Although…he kind of deserved it after that genie nonsense. That had been cruel and unusual to make me squirm like that when he freaking had the flash drives the whole time.
And then I got a wonderful idea. I grabbed his lamp off the table. It was time for a little payback.
“So how many wishes does this thing grant me?”
“Three,” he said matter-of-factly.
“Alright then…” What was it that he had said when he’d first joked about being a genie? Something about a flaming genie penis? It was time to throw that nonsense back in his face. “I wish for…”
He held up a hand. “Remember, be careful how you word it.”
I sighed. He was insufferable. “I wish for you to no longer have a flaming genie penis,” I said as I rubbed his ridiculous lamp.
“Sweet lord, Ash!” He snatched the lamp out of my hand. “I just told you to be careful how you word your wishes. If that wish wasn’t disallowed by rule three of the Genie Code of Magic, then you would have just turned me into a eunuch.”
I laughed. “Oopsies.”
“Oopsies?! I quite like having a penis, thank you very much.”
Then maybe you should use it on me.
“Now, if I give this back to you, will you be more careful? And leave my penis out of your wishes?”
“Maybe.” I grabbed the lamp from him. It was a shame that I wasn’t allowed to make any more wishes about his penis. Because I wanted nothing more than to drop to my knees and taste him. Although, if Dr. Lyons was anything to go by, it wouldn’t exactly be the most pleasant taste.
That’s it! I had the perfect wish. Or rather, the perfect two wishes. I rubbed his lamp and made my wish: “I wish for cum to taste like cookies.”
“Your wish is my command.” He snapped his fingers.
I stared at him expectantly. “So it’s done?”
“Yup.”
“Good. Now I wish to taste some cookies.” I put my hand on my hip and stared at him. Daring him to make the move.
“Man, these are some real softball wishes here. Usually people ask for like, a new house. Or for their worst enemy to be attacked by a swarm of locusts.” He reached into his computer bag and tossed me a bag of Famous Amos cookies.
Damn it! What were the odds that he’d just had those on hand? “Just one little bag?” I asked. “I’d been hoping for…more.” I wasn’t shy about staring directly at his crotch.
“Well what did you expect when you didn’t bother to rub my lamp? I can’t just pull cookies out of thin air without my genie magic being activated first. If I could, I’d probably weigh like 400 pounds. So if you really want to taste cookies, then I suggest you rub my lamp and say it like you mean it.”
God that was suggestive. And I was happy to oblige. I rubbed his lamp and said, “I wish for you to fill my mouth with your delicious cookies.”
“Now that’s how to make a wish.” Tanner snapped his fingers and stood up.
I put his lamp down as he walked towards me. His eyes were filled with desire. He looked like he was about to fucking devour me. And I was sure as hell about to devour him.
But then he walked right past me. Towards the door.
Shit! Was he seriously leaving? I knew he was gonna pull this shit. That was why I’d stopped making out with him in the first place.
“Wait,” I said. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have wished for that.”
He turned around. “Well this is going to be awkward then.” He opened the door and I almost screamed. Because in the hallway was a strange little man in a butler uniform holding a platter of cookies. Actually, it wasn’t just any strange little man. It was Tanner’s driver. Or I guess…assistant? If he was running around the city delivering cookies on short notice he wasn’t just a driver.
“Good day, Master Tanner. I have your cookies.”
“Thank you, Nigel.” Tanner grabbed the tray, turned around, and shoved a cookie in my mouth.
I almost spit it out, but it was so freaking good.
“More?” he asked.
I had no idea how to answer. I had so many questions running through my head. Namely…who the hell exactly was this little man named Nigel and how did he get here so quickly with a platter of cookies? I’d only made my wish like thirty seconds ago. But if you counted from when I’d first asked for cookies without rubbing the lamp, then it was a bit longer. All that silliness with the Famous Amos cookies must have been his way of buying time for Nigel to get here.
Tanner pressed another cookie against my lips. “Let me know when your mouth is full.”
He said it in a very suggestive way, but the fact that it wasn’t his dick was not sexy at all. I swatted his hand away and tried to swallow down the cookie already in my mouth.
“I guess she’s finished. Thank you, Nigel. That will be all.”
The little man bowed and backed out of the room.
And then I burst out laughing. And so did Tanner.
We laughed and laughed. Even harder than we had after the weird misunderstanding at the sauna. I hadn’t laughed this hard in years.
“Who the hell…” I tried to say between laughs. But I couldn’t get it out. The relief of finally having my sex tape safely away from Joe and the ridiculousness of Tanner, his lamp, and that odd little butler was too much. I was in tears from laughing so hard.
Between laughs I was finally able to get the whole question out. “Who the hell was that guy? And how did he get here so quickly with those cookies?”
“Don’t even pretend you haven’t seen him before, stalker. That’s Nigel. My houseboy. Was that not clear from his uniform?”
I stared at him in disbelief. Tanner was officially nuts. But I kind of loved it. I might have finally met the one person in the world stranger than myself. “Oh, of course. Silly me.”
“You’ll have to meet him properly some other day. I would have had him stay, but he’s been quite busy recently. Although I’m pretty sure he’s just trying to keep his mind off the departure of our recent houseguest.”
Recent houseguest? As in…a female? I was trying to figure out how to ask more questions without sounding jealous when Tanner’s phone rang.
He checked his text and shook his head. “Damn. Our caterer just said their head chef gets seasick, so they’re pulling out of the launch party. I better head over there to see if I
can change their mind.”
“Okay, let me fix my makeup real quick and then…”
“You don’t have to come,” said Tanner. “Today’s your day off. I got this.”
“I really don’t mind.”
“Nope,” said Tanner. “You didn’t even want to go with this caterer, but I pushed for them. This is my mess, I’ll clean it up. We’ll have to reschedule our dinner for another night though.” He grabbed a cookie off the platter and headed out the door. But he stopped just before closing it. “Oh, and Ash?”
“Yeah?”
“I felt bad that you wasted your wishes on silly stuff, so I granted you a fourth wish. I think you’ll find it’s way cooler than a platter of cookies.”
A fourth wish? How very un-genie-like of him. He’d been so smooth with his joke up until then. But I wasn’t complaining. I loved surprises. “What is it?” I asked.
“I don’t want to spoil the surprise. But you’re going to want to take a closer look at that bookshelf.”
Chapter 45 - The Bookshelf
Thursday
What did Tanner do to my bookshelf? That was the question that I couldn’t get out of my mind. That was the question that had forced me to call for an emergency girls’ night. Because as far as I could tell, there was nothing new or different around my bookshelf.
My books were all in the same place.
The photos of me and Chastity and Madison from college hadn’t been disturbed.
And my fake flowers were just as I had arranged them.
If I hadn’t been so anal about dusting three times a week then there might have been a trail to show what had been disturbed. But alas, I was an anal freak. In like, a clean way. Not the anal sex way. Gross.
The more I stared at my shelf, the more I began to think that Tanner had made the comment about my bookshelf just to mess with me.
I was just about to pull every book off the shelf when Chastity, Madison, and Liz barged in carrying a box of wine.
“Girls’ night!” they all yelled in unison.
“Wow,” I said. “That was quick.”
Chastity opened the box of wine. “You said it was an emergency. Want a drink?”
“Of course. But seriously…how did you guys get here so fast? I literally texted you like four minutes ago.” How was everyone getting to my apartment so quickly tonight? They’d come almost as fast as Nigel and the cookies. God, was I high right now? I’d accidentally eaten a pot brownie in college once. I’d been tripping balls for days afterwards, despite Chastity’s insistence that it had worn off. I didn’t remember eating anything weird today though. Actually, I hadn’t eaten much all day… I was probably hallucinating or something.
“We were at Panera waiting for your call,” said Madison as she plopped down on the couch next to me.
“What? Why? Did you know that Joe was gonna threaten to release my sex tape again?”
“Whoa, what?” asked Chastity. “We just had a feeling you might need us. Because of what today is. But what’s this about Joe and your sex tape?”
Madison looked like she was about to break the stem off her wine glass. “I’m gonna kill that bastard.”
“No need. Tanner sorted it all out.” I held up the flash drives Tanner had given me. I brought them up to speed on Joe being a dick and then Tanner making me wish on his silly genie lamp prop.
“So the drives just magically appeared in his pocket?” asked Liz.
I almost jumped when she talked. I thought she had fallen asleep halfway through my story. “According to him, yes. But I’m pretty sure his PI just found them a few weeks ago when Tanner was stalking me.”
Madison made a weird throat noise. “Gross. How many times do you think he masturbated to it before handing it over to you?”
“Umm…” I hadn’t thought about that. I’d been horrified at just the thought of him seeing it. But if he’d seen it and liked it, then that was a different story.
“Did you use your other two wishes yet?” asked Liz.
Since when is Liz so talkative? “I did.” I took a big gulp of wine. “I wished for cum to taste like cookies. And then I wished for cookies.”
Chastity nearly jumped out of her chair. “You little slut! I can’t believe you finally fucked Tanner!”
I shook my head. “I wish. Instead he just fulfilled my third wish by having his houseboy deliver a platter of cookies. We did kiss again, though…”
“Houseboy?” asked Chastity. “As in…a gay sex slave?”
“What? No. Tanner’s not gay.” Is he? Nope. The way he kissed me was anything but gay.
Chastity grabbed her phone and pulled up a picture of some random dude wearing way too much leather. “Was the houseboy wearing something like this?”
“Dear lord, no. He was dressed more like a butler.”
Chastity nodded in approval. “Oh…classy. Once Daddy gets his money back, I’m gonna have him buy me the hottest houseboy.”
“To…do gay things in front of you?”
“Uh, no. My houseboy is gonna keep my house spotless. And he’s gonna be excellent at full body massages. And when I say full body, I mean full body.” Chastity pointed to her crotch and wiggled her eyebrows.
“But I thought you said houseboys are gay sex slaves?”
“When they work for a guy, yes.”
“I really don’t think Tanner has a gay houseboy.”
“But he says the gayest things sometimes,” Chastity said.
I shook my head. “He just has weird phrases from having been all over the world. His houseboy seemed more like a manservant.”
“I’m not so sure,” said Madison. “I think he might be gay. Because if he’s not, I don’t know how he could resist your beautiful body.”
Weird.
“Speaking of Tanner’s secret,” said Chastity. “Did you guys have any luck digging up info about Club Onyx? I still think that’s our best shot at figuring out his secrets. For all we know, maybe that’s where he found his houseboy.”
Madison shook her head. “I tried asking around, but no one had heard of Club Onyx. If it exists, then those perverts do a good job of keeping their rape parties quiet.”
“I found a few things,” said Liz, who was somehow still awake. She pulled a notebook out of her purse and flipped to a page absolutely packed with notes and doodles.
I craned my neck to try to make out some of the words. “Is that all about Club Onyx?”
“Yeah. Last year a senior overheard his dad talking about a pool party orgy at Club Onyx. Ever since then, it’s been an awfully hot topic amongst the students at Empire High. I tried to remember everything I’ve heard them say about it.” She scanned down her notes. “Let’s see… A few weeks ago a guy wanted to throw a ‘Club Onyx Party’ where the girls all had to wear lingerie and do anything someone asks them to. But then one of the girls shot back and said that she’s heard that all the men at Club Onyx wear gray sweatpants. And that there’s no sex allowed.”
“I liked the sound of it until that last bit,” said Chastity. “God, I can’t wait for it to be cold again so guys start wearing gray sweat pants.” She fanned herself with her hand.
Tanner likes to wear gray sweatpants… He’d worn them that first night after we got fake raided by the FBI. And he’d looked…amazing. He looked amazing in everything he wore. I looked over at my bookshelf, still curious about what the hell he had done to it. If I was lucky, maybe he’d added a framed picture of himself wearing gray sweatpants.
“Hey guys,” I said. “I never told you why I really called this emergency girls night. Before Tanner left, he…” A knock on the door interrupted me. Tanner’s back! Maybe? “Hold that thought.” I jumped up and answered the door.
“Delivery for Ashley Cooper,” said a delivery guy holding a huge bouquet of red and yellow roses. At least three dozen. “That you?”
“Yup.”
He handed me the roses and walked away.
Chastity ran over. “Oooh! Who are th
ose from?”
“Maybe they’re apology roses from Homeless Rutherford for always licking our pizza?”
“Huh?” asked Liz.
“Um, nothing.” I spun the roses around so I could read the card stuck among them:
Ash,
I know you don’t want to hear from me, and I respect that decision. But I also hate to end things on a sour note.
I don’t expect any response, but I wanted you to know that I’m so sorry about how things ended between us. I take full responsibility. If I had just asked you out sooner, none of that would have happened.
I promise that this is the last you’ll hear from me. But if you ever do decide to reach out, I’ll be here.
Yours,
Anthony Lyons
“O.M.G.,” said Chastity. “Dr. Lyons is so adorable. Are you sure you don’t want to keep dating him until you figure things out with Tanner?”
It was a really sweet gesture. But he wasn’t Tanner. “I’m sure.”
“Alright then. What were you saying about Tanner before we got interrupted?”
“Right.” I closed the door and walked back to the couch. “So after I made my three wishes…” Another knock on the door. Who is it now? It was probably Tanner coming back from the caterers. I started to walk over to answer the door, but then the roses caught my eye. “Shit,” I whispered. “What if it’s Tanner? And he sees my roses?”
“Good call,” said Chastity. She plucked the note out of the roses and tucked it into her bra. “Okay, you’re good. Now they’ll just make him jealous.”
Chastity really did not understand that I didn’t want to make Tanner jealous anymore. I just wanted to figure out a way to help him through his secret problem and then start a real relationship.
Before I could fully explain that to her, she ran over and opened the door. A single black envelope - much bigger than the usual ones - had been propped against the door. No delivery man in sight.
She picked it up. “Looks like a special delivery from the Society.”
“Why’s it so big?” I asked.
“Hopefully that’s the exact question you’ll be asking later tonight,” said Chastity.
Madison made her trademark disgusted throat noise.
