Just Pretend

by Juliana Conners

  I look into her beautiful brown eyes and start to believe her that it can be true.

  “Dante is the only person I ever really had,” I tell her. “We never had any parents to speak of.”

  “I didn’t know that,” she says. “And I’m sorry to hear it.”

  “It’s fine,” I shrug. “At least I have Dante. But he says I fall in love too easily because mommy dearest was never really available.”

  “An armchair psychologist,” she laughs. “But then why wouldn’t he be the same way? It’s his mom too, right?”

  “No, it’s actually not,” I tell her.

  “What?” she says, surprised. “Everyone thinks you’re actually brothers. I know I sure did. You both even have green eyes! How does that even happen?”

  “I know everyone thinks that,” I tell her, with a shrug. “And that’s fine. Because we pretty much are. I’ve known him my whole life.”

  “Well now I feel a little better about some of the things we’ve been doing,” she says with a laugh. “It was a little weird thinking that even if you didn’t do things together, you were so up close and personal with me that it could seem a little…”

  “Weird, yeah,” I admit. “But we share everything else, so it just seems to make sense that we both…”

  I pause.

  “That we both like to be with you.”

  “I see.”

  She smiles, as if picking up on more of the meaning behind my words than I’d meant for her to.

  “Yeah, well anyway,” I continue. “I know now that I didn’t really love Samantha.”

  I pause again, not wanting to say anything else to give away the fact that I’m thinking that what she and I and Dante have is so much different and better.

  “That’s good that you recognize that,” she says with a nod. “And it seems to me that she didn’t really love either of you either. If she can come back like she did, threatening to do things that will hurt you if she actually carries them out, then she never really loved you in the first place.”

  “That’s true,” I admit. “She was mostly just using us for her own gain. We gave her everything that we had to give but she still wanted more. Guess she wanted to own the place.”

  “So don’t let her fuck with your head,” Jessica says.

  She has a point. But I can’t fucking talk about it anymore tonight. I’ve already talked about it too much.

  “Well it’s getting late,” I tell her. “I better go help Dante finish closing up. Hopefully he was able to get the inspector out of here. And at some point we can finish what we all started but Dante didn’t get to finish.”

  “Of course,” she says, standing up and beginning to put her clothes back on.

  Right when I’m about to give her a goodbye hug she asks, “Do you want to come over to my place?”

  “For real?” I ask her, trying not to look too surprised.

  I’d been with Samantha for nearly a year and had never gotten invited to her place. I guess this thing I have— Dante and I have— with Jessica really is a lot more real than whatever we thought we had with Samantha.

  “Sure, why don’t you guys head over there when you’re finished closing up?” she suggests. “I’m going to go straight there so I can shower first.”

  “You’d better shower,” I tell her. “Because you’re a dirty naughty girl who has had dirty naughty things done to you.”

  She smiles at me and winks.

  “And I can’t wait for you both to do even more. So hurry up and come see me.”

  “Yes ma’am,” I tell her, hurrying to let Dante in on the good news. “Your wish is our command.”

  Chapter 20 – Dante

  It’s late when Marino and I arrive at Jessica’s apartment but she seems happy to see us here. She leads us up the stairwell and into her small studio apartment.

  “Sorry there’s not a lot of room,” she says with a chuckle.

  “Tell me about it,” Marino says. “Three can get crowded sometimes when it’s all jammed into one small area.”

  We all laugh.

  She twirls around with her arm out and says, “Well I’d give you a tour but this is all there is. My small kitchen is over there and my small bathroom is right there, and this is my living room- slash- bedroom.”

  “Thank you for inviting us into your bedroom,” I tell her and we laugh again.

  “Were you able to cut off the investigator?” she asks

  “Yeah,” I tell her. “He had just stopped by to give us a warning that we had to close soon.”

  “How very nice of him,” Jessica says.

  “We just got everyone out of there and busted our asses to get over here,” Marino says. “I have to go back soon to finish cleaning everything up but I needed to be out of there myself so it’s a good thing we could come here.”

  “Marino and I were thinking of something on the way over here that we wanted to talk to you about,” I tell Jessica.

  She nods and we sit down on her bed, each taking one of her hands in ours.

  “Since you and Marino were alone together in the VIP room we’re thinking it’s only fair that you and I can be alone together for a little bit when he has to go back to the club tonight,” I tell her.

  “Sure,” she says, nodding.

  I’m glad that there’s no jealousy or fighting over this issue. I told Marino that this would work out just fine but he always seems to think that something will go wrong.

  “So are you ready to go again?” she asks Marino, taking his cock out of his pants.

  “I’m always ready for you,” he says.

  “And I owe you one,” she tells me, taking off my pants as well.

  I love how she’s turned into quite the aggressor. Our shy little Jessica has completely transformed. She obviously goes crazy for some Rossi cock.

  She’s on her knees on the floor, sucking my cock and then Marino’s. She moves deftly back and forth, alternating one of our cocks in her mouth with the other. She has one hand on each of our shafts and she jerks one of us off while she sucks on the other one. Then she shoves both in into her mouth and sucks on both of us good and hard.

  “I’m close to coming again,” Marino says, grunting out the words.

  “Don’t,” she commands. “I need you both inside me again.”

  I lie down on her bed and she gets on top of me, facing me. I stuff my hard cock into her pussy. Then Marino gets on top of her and slides his cock in on top of mine.

  “Both of your cocks feel so good in my pussy,” she says, moaning.

  It’s great to be able to lie down and do this and also not to have to worry about how loud we’re being, like we have to worry about at The Fun House. We take turns pumping our cocks in and out of her and then we do it together, increasing our rhythm and force.

  “I’m going to come in your pussy,” Marino says, and I can feel Jessica’s pussy tightening up even more around both of our cocks.

  “I’m coming too,” she says.

  She grabs onto my shoulders while Marino comes in her and she comes on both of our cocks.

  Panting, I tell Marino, “Okay get out of here dude. Get back to the club and finish cleaning up. You had your one on one time with her and now it’s my turn.”

  “But that was just…”

  Marino begins to protest but then thinks better of it. I can tell he doesn’t want to leave. But I’m excited to just be alone with Jessica.

  “Turn over,” I tell her, once he’s gone. “Let me get behind you.”

  I fuck her doggy style, my cock cramming into her pussy and pounding it fast and hard. I love to take my cock nearly all the way out of her pussy and then slide it back in, watching myself fuck her. She plays with her clit as I pound her pussy hole, and she says, “I’m going to come on your cock Dante.”

  “I’m going to shoot my cum into you,” I tell her.

  We both reach climax at the same time and I pull my cock out, watching as my cum dribbles out of her pussy. Then w
e collapse on her bed and I put my arm around her.

  “It’s nice to just lie here in your bed with you,” I tell her.

  “Yeah.” She sighs. “I wish Marino could be here. Then it’d be perfect.”

  I brush a strand of hair away from her eyes.

  “He really didn’t want to leave,” I laugh. “He looked like a puppy dog being forced to wait outside in the rain.”

  “Awww,” she says. “He’s a really sensitive soul. I love how he looks up to you. And how sweet he is to me.”

  Well, fuck. It’s true that Marino is supposed to be the sensitive one. But I’m falling for Jessica in a way I never have for anyone.

  Just the fact that she looks out for Marino like I always have shows me that she’s the right one for me. For us.

  “Marino told me a little bit about Samantha,” she says, and I can tell she’s purposefully trying to keep the tone of her voice nonchalant. “She sounds like a real piece of work.”

  “I warned him about her,” I tell her, angry all over again at Marino for never listening to me. “It was just supposed to be about sex. He had to go and get his heart involved. Just like he always does.”

  “So you didn’t have any emotions towards her?” Jessica asks, and now I can tell that she’s purposefully trying not to sound jealous.

  I shrug.

  “I mean, in this kind of unique relationship, some sort of attachments are always going to form,” I tell her. “But I don’t do love. Commitment. Relationships. Emotions of any fucking sort. That’s Marino’s territory.”

  “I don’t know,” she says, squeezing my hand that’s intertwined with hers. “I feel some emotions of some fucking sort from you. And they’re not just about the fucking, I mean.”

  I sigh. I don’t want to fucking go there.

  “Well with Samantha it was all about the fucking,” I tell her. “I knew she was scheming for more from Marino and me and her plans didn’t involve love, that’s for sure.”

  “Marino says she loved you instead of him.”

  She’s looking straight at me now, challenging me for answers.

  “She knew I was the harder one to pierce,” I tell her. “Had nothing to do with love. But it broke his fucking heart. And that’s what she wanted.”

  “What does she want now?” Jessica asks. “I saw her the first night I was working there, and I’ve seen her several times since. I’m just asking because as we move forward with this relationship I don’t want…”

  “You don’t want to be blindsided by not knowing the full truth,” I tell her. “I get it. But you have nothing to worry about. She’s just jealous. She knows we’re with you now and she wants back in.”

  “She thinks she can just snap her fingers and you’ll take her back?”

  “Something like that.”

  It’s almost comical, really. Except it isn’t.

  “She thinks everything revolves around her,” I tell Jessica. “She doesn’t get that we’ve moved on. And what we had with her was never like…”

  “Was never like what?” she asks, skooching over even closer beside me in her bed.

  “Like this,” I tell her, stroking her hair and then kissing her gently and deeply.

  “Well I’m not scared of her,” she says. “Next time she comes in I’ll just tell her to fuck off.”

  “Now you’re sounding like us,” I tell her, laughing. “But don’t do anything to piss her off further. She’s already threatening to report us and stuff. I don’t even know what she’s up to.”

  “Report you to whom? Where?”

  Jessica’s back has tightened up now, and I don’t want her to worry. I massage her shoulders.

  “Who knows,” I tell her. “Don’t worry about it. I had a great night with you and I just want to concentrate on that.”

  “Maybe love is worth taking chances on then,” Jessica says, as she closes her eyes.

  Who said anything about fucking love?

  But as I lay my head down beside her and drift off to sleep, I know she has only been picking up on the messages I’ve been silently sending her since she walked in as my unsuspecting birthday gift.

  Jessica’s right. But I’m not going to tell her just how right she is. Not until I’m sure that this can all work out.

  Chapter 21 – Jessica

  My mom and dad have come to visit me. This is the last thing I need right now, but I couldn’t exactly turn them down.

  “So when are you going to give us the tour of the state capitol building?” my mom asks me, as my dad and I help her out of the car.

  “It’s really not that impressive, Mom,” I tell her.

  I’m not about to tell her I skipped my last committee meeting. My report is due soon and I don’t want to talk to Senator Santara or the rest of them about any evidence I’ve gathered. Because I’ve had too much fun gathering it, and implicating myself in the process.

  “Hold on,” my mom says, rummaging through some tote bags in the back seat. “I need to get my casserole out.”

  “Hurry up Diane,” my dad tells her. “We can’t wait all day for you to find things in that huge mess of stuff you brought, that I told you not to bring.”

  I shoot my dad a glare. I hate how mean he is to my mom.

  “Here you go, dear,” my mom says, handing me a lasagna pan. “I made it last night. I know you never have time to eat.”

  “Thanks Mom,” I tell her, giving her a kiss on the cheek. “I appreciate it.”

  As we walk upstairs I can’t help but think of my last guests to this apartment and wish they were here now. I’d much rather entertain Dante and Marino than my parents.

  “We’re only going to stay for dinner since you don’t have anywhere to put us up,” my dad says.

  I breathe a sigh of relief. I thought he might insist on sleeping on an air mattress like they did once when I was in college. Why he’s too cheap to stay at a hotel when he makes good money is beyond me.

  “It’s nice to see you for any amount of time, dear,” my mom says, as we enter my apartment.

  “Look at this dump,” my dad says. “When are you going to find a man and get a real house? All you do is think about politics.”

  I shake my head. If he only knew.

  “I like my job,” I tell him.

  At least I did. Before my job was to turn in the two guys I’ve fallen in love with.

  Did I really just admit to myself that I’d fallen in love with them?

  But I don’t have time to think about it because my dad is off on his next rant.

  “Is your committee still having you do that ridiculous investigation into the strip club?” he asks me.

  My parents know a little bit about the investigation to which I was assigned but they don’t know the extent of it. They certainly don’t know I’ve been working as a stripper.

  “Yes,” I tell him. “Except it is not a ridiculous investigation.”

  But now I trail off because I don’t know whether to defend the investigation or not. I’m beginning to think it’s a witch hunt myself.

  I’ve been around the Rossi brothers day and night and the only evidence I have against them so far is that they’re sleeping with me. And I’m willing participant in that of course.

  “I think you should move past that and take your career more seriously,” my dad says, giving me advice that I don’t need, just like always.

  Even though I’m used to it, I can’t help but almost explode.

  “Dad, all I’ve ever done is take myself seriously.”

  I think back to high school debate team, college political clubs and running for different political races. Now that I’ve made it to State Senate it’s still not good enough for him or anyone else. I still have to prove myself by somehow simultaneously taking my clothes off and taking my career more seriously.

  I was really willing to do anything it took to get ahead but now I’m realizing that I’m already right where I want to be.

  I love how Marino and Dant
e talk to me and treat me. They might be down and dirty bad boys but they sure make me feel loved and appreciated. I need to do what it takes to save Dante and Marino from the senate committee’s witch hunt that I’m a part of and stay with them at any cost.

  I’m just not sure how long I can keep the committee at bay. Or what it’s going to mean for my career if I don’t expose the Rossi brothers the way that I’m supposed to.

  But I’m starting to think that if I can’t be respected and if I have to do everything the head of the committee says in order to keep my job then it’s not a job worth having. And if I can’t be with the men I love— yes, truly love— then it’s not even a career that I want.

  Chapter 22 – Jessica

  I’m so glad to be back with Dante and Marino that now I’m finding everything my dad said to me at dinner yesterday hilarious, even though at the time I found it ridiculous.

  I keep thinking about how my dad said I’m too busy thinking about politics to get a man. If only he knew that my political career got me two men, against my better judgment.

  “Let me give you a private dance, boys,” I tell Dante and Marino, as I twirl around on my bed, shedding my clothes as I go.

  “Someone really missed us yesterday when she had to have dinner with Daddy Dearest,” Marino says.

  I know that nudity and sex are always welcome distractions. We’re at my apartment again and I’m so glad my parents are gone.

  “I don’t want to think about my parents anymore,” I tell them. “They’re so fucking annoying.”

  “There have to be some good things about them,” Marino says, looking thoughtful, almost wistful.

  I remember that he said they don’t have parents, and I feel bad. But I’m still annoyed at my dad for being such an asshole.

  “Well, they make me appreciate you guys more,” I tell him. “So there’s that.”

  I sway my hips and rub my nipples, happy to show off the body that both of my lovers like to devour.

  “Very nice,” Dante says. “I’ll take twenty- seven private dances with that dancer.”

  “Only if I can get them too,” Marino says.

  I crawl over to them on my hands and knees on the bed. They’re sitting on the floor looking up at me.