Forbidden Bonds of the Beast

1 - MIDWAY

Lacey

"Dr. Lacey Bonds, savior of tiny hearts and professional good girl," Janice called out, loud enough that the barista looked over and a woman at the nearest table glanced up from her laptop.

"Get over here before I start telling everyone about the dirty fantasies I've been listening to you not have for twelve years. "

I crossed the room with my head down, slid into the chair across from her. "Doctor Janice Patel-Campbell, you're terrible. And keep your voice down. Some of us have reputations to protect." Tall, lean and dark-skinned, Janice looked like someone who had never in her life felt guilty about anything.

"You love it." She pushed the latte she’d already bought toward me, oat milk, extra shot, perfect.

"So," she said. "Sex Saturday tomorrow. How did negotiations go? Did the germaphobe finally agree to put his mouth where it counts?"

I groaned and wrapped both hands around the glass. "I didn't ask yet. I already know what he'll say."

She gave me the look.

"Weekly," I said pre-emptively. "Before you ask. Still weekly. Still Saturday."

"I wasn't going to say anything."

"You were absolutely going to say something."

"I was going to say," she said, with great dignity, "that a subscription service you forgot to cancel is still technically a subscription service." She picked up her latte. "I'm just saying."

I laughed despite myself. "Tell me about your week instead," I said. "You went to the Second Circle again, didn't you?"

"I did." She smirked. "You want the highlights or the full report?"

"Highlights," I said. "We're in public."

"Full report it is."

"Janice."

"You keep asking, Lacey. One of these days you're going to have to admit that's not an accident."

I opened my mouth. Closed it. Picked up my latte instead.

"Right," she said pleasantly. "So."

She leaned forward, settling her elbows on the table. When Janice told these stories she watched your face, the way she read a psychiatric patient.

"Last time," she said. "There was this gorgeous redhead. Mid-twenties. Her boyfriend brought her, they were at the bar with another couple when I noticed her. She'd clearly been thinking about it for a while."

"What do you mean?"

Janice smiled. "I mean she came in already wound up. Already wanting. You can tell, you know, when someone's been sitting on something for a long time. It comes off them. How she touched her wineglass. I caught her watching me from across the bar twice before she could pretend she hadn't."

Janice looked like she was sharing the secret of life.

"They came over," she said. "Introductions.

Conversation. Twenty minutes of that before he whispered into her ear, and she nodded, and he said, 'Whatever you want tonight.

' That was the whole sentence." Janice picked up her latte.

"Anyway. We ended up in one of the side rooms. He came too, to watch. "

She stopped. Took a slow sip. She was torturing me.

"She got on her knees," Janice said, quieter now. "Completely willing. Completely open. Just… waiting for me to tell her what to do next."

Another pause.

"And?" I said too eagerly.

Janice laughed softly. "Details, Lacey?"

I scrunched my eyes in frustration. "Yes, dammit, you know I want the details."

"I told her to kiss my feet. Then work her way up.

Slow. She did. Mouth on my ankles, my calves, the backs of my knees, all the way up the insides of my thighs until she was right at the edge of my panties.

I reached down between her legs and slid my fingers under the lace.

She was soaked. Absolutely dripping. I kept her there, rubbing just enough to make her shake, pulling back every time she got close.

Edged her until she was whimpering. Then I let her take my panties off with her teeth and put her mouth on me. "

Janice tilted her head slightly, still watching my face. I don't know what she saw but I was practically vibrating inside.

"I kept her on the edge the whole time. Made her drink every drop when I came. Only after that did I finally let her finish.” Her voice dropped even lower. "God, Lacey. The sounds she made when I finally let her come."

I reached for my latte with a slightly unsteady hand.

Then, very gently, she asked, "You okay?"

I looked at the table. "Fine," I said.

"Anyway," she said, leaning back, "you could come sometime. Just to observe."

"I would die of embarrassment before we got through the door," I said. "I'd be terrified."

She burst out laughing, bright and genuine. "It's not a Roman orgy. Nobody's going to drag you anywhere. You could sit at the bar with me, have a drink, and observe the whole evening."

"Brad would hate it," I said instead.

"Oh, I know he would. Mr. Sex-on-Saturdays. Mr. Please-don't-make-a-mess." She shook her head slowly. "I bet he folds his socks before he fucks you."

I laughed. "Janice!"

"What? I'm not wrong. It's just—you have all of this." A gesture that managed to take in my body and my face and whatever else she was imagining. "And you're spending it on someone who won't even look at you properly."

She reached forward across the small table and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

"You deserve to feel good, Lacey," she said. "Really good. With someone who actually notices what they're holding."

"Well, Brad never seems to."

"Who said anything about Brad?" she added, pleasantly, to her latte glass.

I laughed it off.

"Just looking out for my best friend," Janice said, and the smile returned, easy and bright. "Purely platonic advice from someone who knows how to have fun." She winked. "Kidding. Mostly."

I shook my head. But a feeling lingered. Not just the warmth from her fingers.

Maybe I loved that she was attracted to me.

I had thought it before. Probably for years.

I took another sip.

"Civilized, though," Janice said, after a moment, the performing register gone. "That's the thing people don't expect about it. Sexy, but civilized. Nobody's getting hurt who doesn't want to. Nobody's going anywhere they didn't agree to go."

I let the pitch happen because I always let the pitch happen.

The images she'd planted were still there.

"I'll stick to hearing about your adventures," I said. "I'm safer that way."

"You know what you really need, Lacey? You need to finally go on the professional development cruise with me this year!"