20. Dinner Guests
20
DINNER GUESTS
T heo
It was hard to let Lux walk away, especially when all I wanted to do was carry her like a Neanderthal back to my bed. I was in uncharted waters, already craving more of her time and attention than I should.
Desmond watched me watch Lux disappear with a bemused smile. He shook his head, opening our door and disappearing inside.
“What was that look for?” I demanded, following in after him.
“Nothing,” Desmond raised his hands innocently.
“That was not the look of nothing. That was the look of you having an opinion.”
“Not an opinion, just a thought.” Desmond corrected, putting his shoes in the front hall closet and standing.
“What thought?”
“That it’s refreshing to see you this interested in someone. Usually I’m the one pining.”
“I’m not pining, I’m—I don’t know,” I let out a heavy sigh, flopping down on the living room couch. Desmond disappeared in the kitchen, grabbing two pops for us before joining me in the living room. “I wasn’t expecting her, and now…I don’t know what to do with her. It’s crazy, I know, but I’m already so into her.”
“And why wouldn’t you be?” Desmond asked, popping the tab. “She seems great. Jasmine has always spoken highly of her.”
“Yeah, I know,” I nodded. “I don’t want to freak her out with how much I’m into her. I’ve only known her for a few days, and she’s agreed to be our new tenant. This could get messy.”
“It will only get messy if you don’t communicate. Be honest with each other, and you’ll avoid any messes. Did you tell her you were into her?”
“In more or less words,” I lifted a shoulder and took a heady sip of beer. “I mean, I haven’t officially asked her out on a date or to be my steady girlfriend or anything. I told her I liked spending time with her and being with her.”
I’d wanted to make things official between us, but I didn’t want to rush her into anything. I figured there would be plenty of time for that when she moved to Sudbury.
I was worried that I might need to tone it down a little, let her have her space to think over everything before I frightened her away. She’d just gotten out of a long-term relationship, and while she seemed like a relationship girl, she needed a little space to breathe and figure things out for herself. Especially with the mess she was dealing with back home.
I was reluctant to be a rebound, too. I felt in over my head with this girl—but what if I was just a rebound, a good time after a shitty relationship? Already, I wanted to mean more to her than that, and that could be dangerous if she wasn’t on the same page as me.
So, I let her have her space. I didn’t bother her for the rest of the afternoon, which she spent next door, hanging out with Jasmine and Talia. I could hear music pumping through the shared wall and laughter.
Desmond and I hung out for a bit, then he went to his room for a power nap. I unpacked the camping gear and got caught up on laundry. Then I cleaned a little, not that the house needed it, Desmond was a neat freak and I hadn’t been home much in weeks. But the near empty status of our refrigerator suggested we would need to go to a grocery store soon.
When I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner around five o’clock, my cell phone chimed.
Jasmine: Tell Des you guys can come over for dinner. Be here around six-thirty.
I still had an hour and a half to kill, so I decided to grab a shower.
Twenty-minutes later, and I was feeling refreshed. I dressed in a pair of dark denim jeans and a grey Henley, then knocked on Desmond’s door. A moment later, it swung open.
“Yeah?” he asked, wiping the sleep from his eyes. He had to be back at work tomorrow night. I felt bad for waking him up, but knew he had to eat something—and would be pissed as hell to miss the invite next door.
No matter how tired Desmond was, he never turned down an opportunity to be around Jasmine.
“Jas invited us over for dinner tonight,” I told him.
“Cool. What time?”
“Six-thirty?”
“Alright, great. I’ve still got time for a shower.” Desmond had the master bedroom with the ensuite bathroom. He hadn’t wanted to take it at first, but I figured it made more sense for him to have the private bathroom with him working nights a lot of the time.
While I waited for six-thirty to roll around, I stopped off in my room and made my bed. I’d been in a hurry this morning and had left it a rumpled mess. I normally kept my spaces clean and tidy. It was a habit instilled in me from my days living with my parents. Coming home at the end of a long workday to a mess wasn’t exactly relaxing, so my younger sister and I had a list of chores we’d had to accomplish each day before my parents got home.
I wasn’t sure if Lux was going to want to come back and spend another night in my bed, but if she did I wanted to welcome her to a clean room.
The minutes seemed to trickle by, but finally it was six-thirty and Desmond and I were stepping out onto the back porch and walking over to tap on the sliding door. We could see Lux and Jasmine in the kitchen, drinking glasses of white wine and dishing food out.
Lux heard us knocking and looked over, surprised to see us at the back sliding door. But that was usually how we called on each other, especially when invited over. Game nights were a semi-regular occurrence when both Desmond and I were home. Usually, we’d have dinner and then play cards or a board game.
Jasmine gestured at us to come in, and Desmond opened the door. “Good evening, ladies.”
“Hey guys, hope you’re hungry. Lux’s been cooking up a storm; tomato-cream pasta with sautéed mushrooms and grilled chicken.”
“It smells incredible, thank you for inviting us over” my voice sounded way too formal, but I couldn’t help it. It was a miracle I’d even managed to string words together at all.
Lux looked like a freakin’ domesticated vision, standing in the kitchen serving the meal she’d made. Her red hair was pulled back in a high ponytail and she was wearing a pair of form-fitting denim jeans that made her ass look even more delicious than the incredible dinner she plated for us.
Normally, seeing an attractive woman in a kitchen didn’t do much for me—I wasn’t one to buy into that traditional stuff. Gender roles weren’t something my parents had focused on while bringing us up. Olivia and I were both expected to learn how to cook and do our own laundry. It was my parents’ goal to make sure we were self-sufficient by fourteen.
But Lux…she invited a fantasy into my mind looking like she did. A fantasy that I didn’t want to focus too much on, because it was the opposite of taking things slow and easy so as to not overwhelm her.
“Let me help you with that,” I said, reaching for the breadbasket in Lux’s hand. She smiled, letting me take it, and turned back to the counter to grab two of the plates. We walked over to the small round table.
“Where’s Talia?” Desmond asked while Jasmine grabbed the other two plates.
“She’s on a hot date with Eliza, so she won’t be joining us tonight,” Jasmine grinned, setting the plates down on the table.
“Good for her,” I commented with a grin. She had been sort of seeing Eliza casually for a while now, but Talia had some reservations about commitment, and Eliza wasn’t exactly out of the closet with her family yet. I got the impression Talia wanted more.
I was glad to hear they were figuring it out, though. Talia had brought Eliza to a few bonfires and parties, so we’d met her a couple of times.
“So, what did you guys get up to today?” Lux asked, pulling a chair out and sitting down between Jasmine and me.
“Not too much. I did some stuff around the house and Desmond took a nap.” I answered.
“I’m back on midnights tomorrow,” Desmond explained.
“That must be tough,” Lux said sympathetically, her eyes softening.
“It can be, but the pay’s great,” Desmond shrugged before taking a bite of pasta. “Damn, this is delicious, Lux.”
I took a bite too, the flavours exploding on my tongue. It wasn’t just homecooked good, it was restaurant-level good. The sauce was creamy and rich, the mushrooms were sauteed to perfection, and the grilled chicken was flavourful and not at all dry. “It really is, where’d you learn to cook like this?”
“Mainly boredom,” Lux admitted with a shy smile. “My mom’s not much of a cook and my dad’s the chief of Cardiovascular Surgery, he’s usually really busy. We have a chef, Maria, that comes over and prepares a bunch of meals. I learned how to make a few dishes from her.”
“A chef, huh? That’s pretty fancy,” I commented with a grin. I knew Jasmine came from a higher tax bracket, what with her family being in politics. I guess it made sense that Lux came from money, too, especially if her father was the chief of Cardiovascular Surgery.
“Yeah, I guess,” Lux’s gaze dropped as she shifted uncomfortably in her seat and took a bite of her pasta. I could tell the topic of her family was a sore one for Lux. If her sister’s actions were any indication, Lux’s family had a complicated dynamic.
“Maria’s an excellent chef, I used to love going over to Lux’s for dinner. It was like eating at a five-star restaurant, but at someone’s house,” Jasmine grinned. “Does she still work for your parents?”
“Every Monday, she comes over with a ton of groceries and preps enough meals for the week.” Lux confirmed. “I definitely missed her cooking when I was at college. Cafeteria food didn’t hit the same, and our dorms didn’t exactly have kitchens to cook in. There was a hot plate, a microwave, and a refrigerator.”
“Well, this is delicious. You could have been a chef yourself,” I told her, already halfway through the pasta. Lux gifted me with a smile that reached her eyes.
With everyone eating, we fell into a comfortable silence. Once the food was consumed, Desmond and I offered to tidy up the kitchen. There wasn’t much to do, the cookware Lux had used to prepare the meal was already soaking in the sink. Less than ten minutes of effort, and everything was spotless.
Once the dishwasher was loaded, the four of us made our way into the living room, the girls carrying a bottle of white wine while Desmond and I cracked open some beers.
“Anyone want to play a game?” Jasmine held up a black box that said Answer This on it.
“How do you play it?” Desmond asked, mildly curious.
“You answer questions about your friends. The first to answer ten questions correctly wins the game.”
“Sounds interesting,” Lux said, her lips twitching.
Jasmine looked at the three of us with hopeful eyes.
“We could play one round,” Desmond managed, unable to tell her no even though I knew he detested games like this—games that could force him to tell a lie to avoid potentially exposing his true feelings.
Jasmine clapped her hands, delighted. “Okay, great,” she wiggled into a more comfortable position on the couch and opened the box, grabbing four of the dry-erase boards and markers and passing them out. Then she shuffled the cards inside before handing them out. “You’ll have to show your answers on the dry-erase board, and if your answer matches the answer of the person who asked the question, you get a point. The first to get ten points wins.”
“I don’t really know everybody here all that well, Jas,” Lux said, worrying her bottom lip.
“It’s okay,” Jasmine assured her. “You can take wild guesses and it’ll still be fun, plus you’ll hear the answers at the end so you’ll get to know these guys pretty well.”
There was no talking Jasmine out of an idea once she had it, and Lux knew this. She nodded, relenting, and settled onto the couch cross-legged with her dry-erase board on her lap.
The game started with Jasmine going first to show us how it was done.
“Which public figure annoys me the most?” Lux and Desmond scribbled quickly on their boards. I was less sure, jotting down Killian Barker after remembering a heated rant Jasmine went on recently about the American punk-rock singer and songwriter.
“It’s Dudley Wadsworth, although Killian is a close second!” Jasmine laughed. Lux and Desmond had answered the question correctly, both earning a point.
Then Lux went. “When is my birthday?”
I wish I could say I guessed right, but that honour went to Jasmine. “July 15 th !”
So she was a Cancer; it checked out. Lux had an emotional depth to her and was highly empathetic. I couldn’t help but absorb each new detail she revealed about herself like rain on dirt after a drought.
We kept playing, getting through several rounds with Jasmine and Desmond neck and neck before Desmond ended up accumulating ten points and winning the game.
“Well, that was fun.” He stood up, quitting while he was ahead. “Thanks for dinner, ladies. I need to get back and force myself to sleep for a bit,” he added, sounding like it was the last thing he wanted to do. He sent a covert look at Jasmine, but I don’t think she caught it as she was putting the game away.
“Oh, bye Des. See you later,” Jasmine said, looking up at him with a smile. Desmond nodded, then headed to the back door.
“What now?” I grinned, looking between them.
It was nearly nine o’clock, still early, but I was no longer interested in playing board games. Lux and I had kept stealing glances at each other as the game had worn on, and the desire between us was palpable. I was eager to get her alone; eager to claim her lips and her body again.
“Are you still crashing next door tonight?” Jasmine asked Lux, her question rousing me from the inappropriate turn my thoughts had taken.
“Well, all my stuff is still over there. Is that okay with you?” Lux looked at me uncertainly.
“Absolutely. I was hoping you would,” I replied easily.
“We won’t keep Desmond up?”
“He could sleep through a hurricane,” I assured her. Our eyes locked on one another, the heat between us ready to boil over. It’d been simmering all night, rolling off us both in waves. I knew Jasmine could sense it.
“Well, you two crazy kids have at it. I’m going to have a shower then turn in too. Work tomorrow. Blech,” Jasmine wrinkled her nose with disdain. “But I’ll see you after work, Lux? We’ll watch a movie or something?”
“Sounds good,” Lux said, smiling at Jasmine. I stood up, offering my hand to Lux to help her off the couch.
I couldn’t get her back to my place quick enough. Desmond had left the kitchen pot lights on, but the rest of the house was dark. “So, what do you want to do? Your choice. We could watch something out in the living room, or…”
“Or?” Lux arched a brow at me, her lips curling in a seductive smile. My hands went to her hips, stroking the sliver of skin between the hem of her shirt and her jeans.
“We could hang out in my room. Put something on the television in there and get even more acquainted with each other.”
“Hmm,” she pondered. “I like that second option.” Lux rose on her tiptoes to capture my lips in a slow kiss. It was all the permission I needed. I deepened the kiss, pulling her towards me by her hips. I let out a tortured moan as her tongue danced with mine, my erection driving into her lower stomach, the friction making us both wild with want.
We parted a few moments later, our breaths frantic. “Let’s go, before I end up taking you on the kitchen counter.”
Lux’s eyes widened with surprise, and intrigue—like the idea entranced her. I let out a low growl, the idea appealing to me so much that I’d have done it if Desmond wasn’t home. Sure, he could be down for the night sleeping, but I didn’t want to run the risk of him walking in on that.
I grabbed Lux’s hand, tugging her down the hallway to my bedroom. I turned to face her, about to lower my mouth to hers again when she placed her finger on my lips.
“Hold on, I need to freshen up first.”
“Okay, yeah. Sure. Did you want something to sleep in?” The words tumbled from my mouth, and she smiled.
“That would be great,” she bit her lip, waiting while I grabbed a pair of gym shorts and a baggy t-shirt from my dresser, handing them to her. She grabbed her toiletry bag and disappeared down the hall into the bathroom.
While she was gone, I tugged off my t-shirt and turned on the 36-inch TV on my dresser, putting on a random show for background noise, then turned down the blankets in my bed. She returned a few moments later, looking ravenous in my gym shorts and t-shirt.
“You’re so god damn gorgeous, Lux,” I said, my voice a low rumbling in my throat. She blushed prettily, dipping her chin like she didn’t quite believe what I was saying. I stepped toward her, tilting her chin up to force her to meet my eyes. “You truly are a vision. If I was a painter, I’d spend hours painting your beauty, and never come close to encompassing it.”
“You flatter me,” Lux accused, biting her lip. I moved my hand, using my thumb to gently free her lower lip from its trap. That this woman could think less of herself had me reeling.
“No, I’m telling you the truth. Seeing you in my clothes…it does something to me,” I admitted before I finally let myself kiss her.
Our kisses quickly turned passionate, Lux’s hands roaming over my bare chest and abdomen, sending waves of desire licking across my skin. I touched her reverently, like she was a gift I wanted to take my time unwrapping. I lifted the t-shirt, pulling it over her head before dropping to my knees in front of her.
I peered up at her, my hands gripping the waistband of the shorts and tugging down slightly, revealing that she’d gone commando. I swallowed hard, so affected by that as I slowly pulled them down over her thighs.
When she was bared to me, I leaned forward, kissing her pretty mound. Her honey sweet scent made my mouth water, and I didn’t hesitate before sampling a taste.
I’d never been a selfish lover, except for my first time ever at sixteen. I’d been clumsy and hurried, unsure of how to move and what to do. Since then, I’ve taken the time to know my partners’ likes and dislikes, to read their bodies and bring them as much pleasure as I possibly could. It wasn’t about my pleasure because I knew my pleasure would come with my partner’s pleasure.
Lux, though, I wanted each and every time with her to be beyond what I’d given other partners. I wanted her to feel my intent, feel my desire for her on that spiritual level, and I was not a spiritual person.
I wanted to leave her legs shaking and her heart and body fulfilled.
I was salivating for the taste of her. I pressed my mouth to her, licking and sucking, lapping up every drop I pulled from her body like a greedy man. Her moans and sighs were music to my ear. The way her fingers tangled in my hair, holding me to her, drove me mad with the desire to consume her. I had to force myself to pull away when her legs started to tremble from the effort of standing after she came on my tongue.
Standing up, I licked her essence from my lips before kissing her. I knew she could taste herself on my tongue, and that made me throb with an unrelenting ache. I picked her up and carried her to my mattress, easing her down on it before crawling over top of her.
We still had two condoms left, and I made quick work of rolling one on. Lux peered up at me with trusting eyes, her thighs spreading to welcome me home.
I positioned myself between her legs, holding myself up with one arm while I rubbed my throbbing erection against her lower lips, coating myself in her arousal. Lux’s eyelids fluttered at the sensation. She arched her back when I pushed all the way in, her walls squeezing my shaft deliriously tight.
I rolled my hips, pulling out before thrusting forward and filling her to the hilt again. I lowered my mouth to hers, kissing her while I fucked her, our tongues and lips matching the crazed hunger we both felt.
Each thrust brought her closer and closer to the pinnacle, and when I felt her walls tighten before a rush of warmth and wetness surrounded me, I nearly came along with her. I stilled, throbbing inside her as I caught my breath and forced myself to slow down.
“Can we try something?”
“What?” she was breathless, her cheeks flushed.
“I want to take you from behind,” I admitted. I wanted to take her every way she’d let me, but I especially wanted her ass up in the air while I pounded her from behind.
Lux bit her lip. “Okay,” she nodded after a moment of thought.
I pulled out, hating leaving the warm tightness of her but knowing I’d be back inside moments later.
Lux moved into position, her perfect ass on display for me. I nudged her legs open wider, spreading her, and got myself situated behind her. The tip of my cock brushed against her back entrance, and she let out a surprised gasp.
“Sorry,” I chuckled, leaning down to press a kiss to her shoulder blade before sliding back into her warmth.
She moaned, her hands fisting my sheets as I filled her. At this angle, I could go so much deeper. Her slick walls clamped down on me, and I knew I wasn’t going to last long like this.
I drew in a breath, preparing myself, my hands going to her hips, my thumbs pressing into the sweet dimples on her pale back. I held her in place while I thrusted, and she pushed back on me, moaning.
I kept the pace, our bodies frantic with need, her orgasm building and cresting until she came around me, my name escaping her lips on a gasp, calling my own release.
“Jesus, Lux,” I swore, my balls tightening before I spilled into the condom in hot spurts.