I felt his hand slowly circle my inner thigh, teasing me just enough, as he continued to breathe into my ear. I imagined what we must look like: an affectionate couple watching the band. Only the two of us knew that his right hand was ravaging me. Secure that no one was watching, he got bolder and glided his other hand across my right breast, letting it linger there for a moment. Then he circled my breast with a wide palm until he could feel my nipple harden.
“I wish I could take this nipple in my mouth. But I can’t because we’re in a room full of people,” he whispered in my ear. “Is this making you wetter?”
Oh God, it was. I nodded.
“If I slid my fingers inside you right now, would you still be wet?”
“Yes,” I said.
“Promise?”
I nodded and then felt his other hand coming to life again under the jacket resting on my lap. It glided up my thighs, and then one finger parted me. This almost sent me toppling sideways, but he held me firmly. He nudged my right thigh open a little more, and I spread his jacket wider to conceal what was occurring beneath it.
“Take a sip of your champagne, Cassie,” he said. I grabbed the cool glass, felt the burst of bubbles on my tongue. “I’m going to make you come right here.”
Before I could even swallow, his fingers had begun to coax me open. The feel of it was so marvelous, I choked a little on my drink. No one standing near us could have known that the most delicious things were being done to me.
“Feel that, Cassie?” he whispered in that sexy accent. “Arch into me, baby,” he said. “That’s it.”
My pelvis pushed down on his hand, now cupped beneath me. His fingers dipped in and out of me while his thumb traced circles around me. I closed my eyes. My entire body felt suspended in his strong hand, held as if in a swing.
“No one can see what I’m doing,” he whispered. “Everyone thinks I’m talking to you about how much I love the band. Can you feel that?”
“Yes, oh God, yes.”
He pressed himself into my back again. I leaned into this deliciousness, my right hand reaching up and cupping his working shoulder, my left arm holding the jacket steady. I felt his taut arm muscles as his thumb worked those magic circles, his deft fingers gliding in and out of me. He was playing me like an instrument. I lost myself in the darkness of the room, the beat of the music, the waves of pleasure. I wanted more of him inside me, not just fingers. Him. All of him. I edged my right thigh out and he read his cue to let his fingers explore deeper. I bent my head forward. I tried to look like I was totally lost in the music, but I was reeling with the swells this man was creating in my body, over and over, now building to a heavenly climax.
“Cassie, I can feel it. You’re going to come in my hand, aren’t you, girl?” he whispered.
I grabbed the bar with my right hand, feeling in a trance, and the room went black, the music mingling with a low moan (mine?) that had me bucking backwards. He was like a wall containing me as wave after wave flooded me. Oh sweet Jesus, I couldn’t believe he could do this to me, right there. I couldn’t believe I had just come in a loud, dark room full of strangers, some of them less than two feet away from me. He slowed his thumb as the waves in my body subsided; the room came into focus again. He stood still, holding me for a moment. When I shifted slightly, he pulled his fingers away gently, tracing them across my exposed thigh.
He slid my champagne glass in front of me. “You’re fearless, Cassie.”
I took the glass in my unsteady hand and gulped it down, then set the empty flute a little too loudly on the bar. I grinned and so did he. He was looking at me as if for the first time.
“You’re gorgeous, you know that?” he said.
And instead of saying something self-deprecating, for once I believed it. “Thank you.”
“Thank you,” he said, signaling the bartender for the bill. He pulled off the two twenties again.
“Keep the change,” he said to the bartender. Then he fished something out of his pocket. “And this is for you,” he said, flicking what looked like a coin in the air and slapping it down on the bar.
When he lifted his palm, I saw my Step Two charm glowing under the bar lights, the word Courage engraved in script.
“It’s been charming,” he said, kissing my hair. Then he plucked his jacket off my lap and disappeared into the crowd.
After securing my charm and admiring it and its partner on my bracelet, I slid off the stool, my legs so rubbery beneath me I almost collapsed on the floor next to my abandoned thong. As I moved through the dark crowd, my breathing was still staggered, my sight blurry. I smacked right into a tiny girl in high platforms, nearly knocking her over. At first I didn’t recognize Tracina, because she was all dolled up, her curly hair a wild corona, her brown skin contrasting dramatically with her lime-green dress. And I definitely didn’t recognize Will in a smart dinner jacket and tie. He looked … sexy as hell.
“See?” she said, slapping Will hard across the chest. “I told Will it was you!”
Shit! This can’t be happening. Not now. Not here.
“Hiiii” was all I could manage.
“As soon as I saw you and that … guy, I was like, ‘Will, check out Cassie on a date!’ ” she said, snapping her fingers and singsonging that last word. She was swaying drunkenly.
Will looked twitchy and uncomfortable. Did they see me pressing into that man’s stomach, grabbing his shoulder, writhing? Oh God! Could they tell what we were doing? Surely not. It was so dark, so loud. Where had they been standing? I was panic-stricken, yet there was nothing to do now but make small talk about the band. Then flee.