51. Scott
CHAPTER 51
Scott
MAY 12TH
I never thought I’d be this nervous about talking to new people. I like to think of myself a people-person, easy going, easy to talk to, but waiting for two people to show up, one of which might end up banging your girlfriend, well, that’s a new level of strange for me.
I know it’s normal for a lot of people, healthy even, but there’s a flock of butterflies in my stomach making me lightheaded. Do butterflies even come in flocks? I don’t think so.
What do I even say to this woman? “Hi, my name’s Scott, can you come fuck my girl for me please?”
Ugh. It all just feels so new, so scary, so out there for me that my chest tightens, and I eye the door.
I’m in a bar, it’s kind of dark but not dingy, and it’s early enough that there aren’t a lot of people here. I’m not even in Cedar Rapids, we’re meeting a little further out in case someone should spy me with another woman and think I’m doing something I shouldn’t be.
Am I? Is this a step too far?
Will Athena want to pick and vet someone herself?
It’s just a meeting.
A first conversation.
I’m not asking this chick to marry my girlfriend. We’re just having a conversation, and at the end of the day, if Athena doesn’t want it, that’s it, no further discussion required.
The door opens letting a bright beam of light into the dark bar. A guy walks in, he’s wearing a shirt with the top couple buttons opened, and he’s got a woman by his side.
That’s Slade. Apollo introduced me to him last week. Nice guy, in town to oversee the build for his second BDSM sex club. He runs club Protocol in Minnesota and is expanding. I’ve heard nothing but good things about him.
He’s a stickler for consent, for safe sex practices, and by all accounts he’s the man to help me find a safe person to play with my girlfriend for a while. Maybe even forever. If she wants to, that is.
I’d like to have options available for her.
Slade spots me and comes my way. His friend follows. As he gets near, Slade smiles at me, holding out his hand. “Scott, good to see you again.” He turns, gesturing a hand to the beautiful woman he has brought with him. “Scott, this is Ophelia. Ophelia, this is Scott.”
She gives me a warm smile as she slides into a seat across from me.
“Isn’t Ophelia a goddess?” I glance between the two.
She nods. “Goddess of snakes and believed to have healing powers. My name means ‘help’ or ‘aid.’”
Huh. Well. Isn’t that quite the coincidence?
She studies my face. “Why?”
The server comes over and asks what we want to drink. When he retreats with our drinks orders and a request for appetizers from Slade, I address Ophelia. “Slade told you some of the backstory?”
The woman shifts in her seat as she nods. “Your girlfriend went through something awful.” She swallows. “And you’re looking for someone to pleasure her in case she’s understandably turned off from the dick forever.”
Succinct and to the point. I kind of like it.
“Exactly. And your name meaning aid or help, well, it just resonates with the situation, I guess.”
She smiles again, and I can’t deny she’s a beautiful woman. She has some of the most intense green eyes I’ve ever seen. They’ve got brown flecks when the light hits. She’s got a button nose like Jenna Ortega, a slightly asymmetrical smile like Kaley Cuoco, and she has long, wavy dark hair that has been dyed purple from the middle to the end.
When she leans forward, her shirt gapes, and yeah, it’s hard not to look, but I manage to keep my eyes on hers.
“She’s not ready.” I swallow. “She may never be ready, and that’s okay. I just…” This isn’t easy for me to talk about with strangers. “If she ever is ready, and not for me, well, I wanted to look at some options.”
Ophelia nods. “It’s strategic, I like it. But I won’t be butt hurt if this is the first and last time I hear from you.” She shrugs. “I’ve seen pictures of Athena online.” She grins at me. “She’s gorgeous.”
“She is. And so are you.”
That makes her cheeks flush, but she doesn’t look away. “Thank you.”
It’s a few minutes before the apps arrive and Slade digs in, and over the next hour, I get to know a woman who potentially may make my girl come.
Shit. Should not have had that thought.
Should definitely not have had that thought.
Fuuuuuck. I’m painfully hard.
I’ve spent so much time thinking about finding someone to help her, us out in the bedroom when the time comes that I didn’t really think about it, and now my dick is hard as fucking glass and it wants to have a good time.
“You okay there, buddy?” Slade cups his hand over my shoulder and squeezes. He’s got this look on his face that’s teasing, filled with amusement. “Do you need a moment?”
I nod, dropping my face into my palms. “Sorry. It’s not very professional.”
Ophelia snorts. “Finding a woman to fuck your girlfriend isn’t really professional no matter how you look at it.”
The woman has a point.
“It’s my first time.” I offer by way of explanation, my cheeks sizzling.
“We all started somewhere.” She shrugs. “It’s easy to be embarrassed because that’s how society tells us we should be. There’s nothing to be embarrassed about. Is it unorthodox to find another woman for your girlfriend? Sure, if you’re confined to society’s definition of a ‘typical’ relationship. But when you open your mind a little, it’s not such a big deal.” She grins at me. “And I don’t mind you getting all hot and bothered about the idea of me with your girl.” She licks her lower lip.
No matter what ends up happening between Athena and this woman—if anything—my spank bank will forever be filled with images of Ophelia making Athena come. Over, and over, and all the way over again.
It takes me another twenty minutes after they leave and jerking off in the front seat of my truck to simmer down enough to go back to the house. Athena knows me better than I know myself, so if I was to walk into the apartment with that level of arousal pumping through my body, she’d know.
“Hey,” she calls out from the kitchen as I open the door. “I’ve made lunch.”
My stomach groans, not because Athena isn’t a competent cook in the kitchen, but because Slade ordered three appetizers at the bar, and they weren’t small. I toe off my shoes. “On my way.”
As a hockey player, I always have space for food, but Athena’s portions are every bit as huge as her grandmother’s. And I’m not wearing stretchy pants.
She turns to look at me as I approach, pausing, frying pan in one hand with a wooden spatula in the other. “You look nice.” There’s accusation in her tone and suspicion in her eyes. “Where did you say you were going to again?”
I can’t help but laugh at the irony. She’s jealous that I was out, possibly seeing another woman, which is exactly what I was doing, just not for me.
“I didn’t.” I fold my arms, ready to brave hurricane Athena. “But I was out at a bar with another woman.”
She grits her teeth, closes her eyes, and draws a long, slow breath through her nose. When she reopens her eyes, all I see is murder as she points the spatula at me. “I’m going to need a little more than that before I slice you open and sauté your entrails to go alongside my lunch.”
I smile at her. “I love you, too.”
“I’m serious.” She glances at the pan in her hands as though she’s weighing it up to use as a murder weapon. “Start talking.”
I gesture at the plates. “At least kill me on a full stomach. Let’s sit, we’ll talk while we eat. But can I make one thing crystal clear before you expand on your thoughts to turn me into Shish kebab? You are the only woman in the whole wide world for me.”
I’m not sure whether that stalls her thoughts to do me harm or not, but she places a plate of food in front of me, and I’ve seen her hands the whole time so there’s no way it’s poisoned. At least, I sure as hell hope not.
“Where were you, Gizmo?” She pushes food around her plate, but her eyes never stop searching mine.
“Take a breath, Bright Eyes. I’m not cheating on you.”
“Well, get to the point of what you were doing in a bar with another woman because I’m starting to feel like you’re stalling, and I don’t know why.”
“I was there to meet a woman called Ophelia. She’s from Monticello. And I was talking to her for you, not for me.”
She scrunches up her face. “For me?”
I nod. “It was the first time meeting her and Slade. He’s the owner of the new kink club in Cedar Rapids.”
Her fork stops pushing food around. “Kink club?”
“Yeah. I thought after your comment about…” Yeah, shit. I probably should have thought this through a little more before opening my mouth the way I did. I haven’t given a single thought to how I was going to tell Athena.
I groan, covering my face with one hand. “I took a stab in the dark. I thought maybe… Uh… you’d want to spend some time with a woman.”
She nods; her face still contorted with confusion. “I do like women, yes.”
“That’s why I had a chat with Ophelia. I wanted to do a little background research into someone who may be able to help you get off when the time is right.” A little blunt, but it’s out there now at least.
Her face falls as the pieces click together. “Wait.” She holds up the hand with her fork in it. “You went to interview another woman for me to take to bed if and when the time comes?”
I take a bite of the rice dish on my plate. “Mmhmm. That about covers it.”
Her jaw drops, mouth hanging open.
“If you’re never ready, if you never want to, that’s okay too. But I didn’t want you to have to go looking for someone if the mood struck, you know? I figured the last thing you’d want is to have to go through a list of people to find one you might like to spend the night with.”
She rolls her lips together. “And, eh. You think you know my type when it comes to women?”
I don’t know why I feel so confident, but I nod.
“So, tell me, what do I look for in a woman?”
“It’s more about the woman inside than the body outside.”
“Accurate.” She finally gives in and takes a mouthful of the chicken and rice on her plate. “What else?”
I shrug. “That’s mostly it.”
“And you liked her?”
Another shrug. “It’s not about whether or not I like her, it’s about whether you like her, and I think you will, yes. That’s why I came right home and told you about it right away. I felt guilty doing it behind your back and decided on the way home that I’d put my idea on the table. If it’s something you’re interested in looking more into, then we’ll do it together. But no more without you knowing. Even though I did nothing wrong, I still feel… Icky.”
She waves her fork at me. “Especially since you’re the one who said you’re fine with me fucking women as long as you know about it.” She pops another heap of chicken and rice into her mouth.
“Do you have a picture of her?”
I shake my head. “She’s curvy.”
Athena’s brows peak. “How curvy?”
“Curvy enough that you’ll be able to grab more than a handful of her ass, and probably the same for her…” I reach toward my chest and squeeze a few times. “Cleavage.”
Athena laughs.
“She’s got green eyes, a lopsided smile, and long, purple hair. And her name means ‘aid.’”
She purses her lips. “Ironic, since you’re asking her to help me.”
“That thought wasn’t lost on me.”
She stares at me for a long, charged moment. “You want to bring another woman into our bedroom for me?”
I nod. Is it suddenly warm in here? Resisting the urge to tug at my collar, I refill my fork with food.
“Just for me?”
I swallow the food, but it goes down the wrong pipe, making me cough and inhale grains of rice into my trachea. Shit.
Eyes burning, I blink through the pain and thump my chest. “Y-yes. Just for you. She’s not hard on the eyes, so I’d be happy to watch if you wanted me to.”
The image of Ophelia and Athena invades my brain once again, making my pants tight. Shit. Shit.
“And if I don’t want you to watch?”
I tap my temple. “I can make an imaginary approximation of what that might look like.”
She laughs again. “I bet you could.”
After lunch, I pick up the plates, moving them to the dishwasher. When I turn around, she’s sipping on her water, eyes fixed somewhere into the distance. “It’s pretty sweet, you know.”
“Mm?”
“I don’t think I’ve known anyone so selfless, Scottie. I can’t believe you found someone to talk to about coming to bed with me.” She shakes her head. “Why?”
“I told you, Bright Eyes. I want you happy. If after what you’ve been through, you don’t ever want to so much as look at another dick again, then we’ll find a way around it.”
I take her empty glass and add it to the rack in the dishwasher.
“I’m not ready yet.”
I nod. “I know. And I have no intention of rushing you. I just wanted to make it as easy as I could for you.”
She slides to the edge of her seat. “But if I was ready?” Her lips curl into a smirk. “You’d be so fucking naked right now.”