A hard swallow, watching them, in what I would guess is their midtwenties. The second woman’s caramel skin is a few shades darker than Ella’s. Her black hair is loosely curled and as Ella leans into her touch, she plays with her friend, or lover’s, curls.
The video begins with the other woman, dressed in black leather leggings and a burgundy crop top that shows a sliver of her olive-brown skin, tracing her fingertips over Ella’s skin. Over her neck, where I want to touch her. And lower, to where my entire body wishes to be. The two women are standing close to a high-top table, their backs to the crowd. And the way they’re looking at each other, the way they’re touching—
I scroll back down to the comments. Someone identifies the woman as Maggie, her friend. The name suits her, with her girl-next-door smile and expressive eyes. The comments are also right that the scene is hot, but it’s not just hot.
There’s something … suspenseful about it. The man she was with in the thumbnail watches in the background, his gaze mostly focused on Maggie, but it shifts to Ella as the two women clink cocktail glasses filled with a pink liquid. Over the pounding music, you can barely make out their laughter.
Though they’re standing in the bar, it doesn’t seem sleazy or even staged, the way most porn on the internet appears. Two women, flirting innocently with each other. Every so often, their eyes go to people outside the frame. I keep the volume down low, really low, but when they speak and I miss what was said, I have to turn it up a notch and then another.
There’s not an ounce of shame. And from what I gather on the site, this isn’t professional and nothing Ella would be paid for. This isn’t her job, it’s her life, her wants and desires.
I wonder if she knew it was being filmed. There’s no doubt when she stares at the camera, not more than a handful of seconds later, blushing and leaning closer to Maggie to whisper in her ear, all the while keeping her eyes on the camera, that she knows.
A genuine enjoyment shines in her eyes. It sparks in Maggie’s too.
“More drinks!” she shouts out of nowhere, downing the beverage in her hand through the thin black straw. The video continues with the two of them dancing, drinking, and Ella finding herself between two men. The front of one whose face is never shown, and the tall, cleanly shaven black man who towers over her. I wonder if he was her fiancé. Although I don’t have to wonder for long. Maggie joins them and doesn’t hesitate to kiss the man. She calls him Noah. There’s a possessiveness but then she holds Ella’s gaze, bumping her shoulder into her and the two of them share a sinful look.
And Ella responds to Maggie’s touch. Little shivers. Little glances. And those raised eyebrows at someone else behind the camera. The dancing continues and eventually it’s the two women again, partying and laughing. For a moment it seems like it was all in good fun and there wasn’t a damn thing sordid between any of them. Until they’re at the bar and a conversation takes place.
I’m desperate to know what they’re saying. A little more volume, and—
“—all play,” Ella’s saying, to whoever is holding the camera—a phone, I’m assuming. Judging by how the video is in short snippets, and even then, the camera pans and shakes as one would if it were a phone.
I back it up a few seconds.
“We could all play.” Ella’s grin is a sultry, sparkling thing. “You know I don’t mind playing.”
A male voice answers her from behind the camera. “Be careful now, kitten.” My blood heats at the nickname. Kitten.
Maggie’s squeal of delight comes with her toppling forward into the frame, a coiled muscular arm wrapping around her waist to keep her steady. “Noah!”
“You better get your girl,” jokes a male voice I haven’t heard yet. A deep one. If I had to guess, it would be the man from earlier. Answering my guess, he comes into the screen. Noah, Maggie and Ella … but who’s the fourth? I pause, rubbing my eyes and then flicking back through the security cameras.
Is he her fiancé? There’s no ring on her finger. My mind races with dates and information I gathered from comments. This must be a video from before. I wonder if Ella isn’t the one who uploaded these. I wonder if she doesn’t want them available any longer. I wonder, for a moment and then another, if she thinks it was a mistake. But there’s no doubt in my mind that if a woman with her wealth didn’t want these available, they’d vanish. Just like all media of Ella from the last two years seems to have vanished.
At this point, lines haven’t been crossed. I could stop while I’m ahead and read the damn file.
My better judgment tells me not to continue. For my own damn good. With the click of my thumb, I refuse the warning, and watch the scene continue.
Ella pouts subtly, the expression so cute on her lips that it crushes some hidden part of my chest. She shrugs and says, “I’m just having fun.”
Maggie’s thick curls falling down her front, she rests her head on Ella’s shoulder to whisper, “I’m into your kind of fun,” and this time, it’s Maggie’s eyes that find the camera. Biting down on her lower lip, she angles away from the camera, burying her head into Ella’s neck.
The scene at the bar continues in short clips. More drinks, more dancing and accidental bumps into one another. The alcohol flows heavily. That’s one thing I note the most. They’re all drinking, laughing, having a good time.
It’s only when the women glance at the camera that anything at all seems provocative.
This video is made up of multiple segments, most of them of Maggie and Ella. Whoever is holding the camera wants their faces and nothing else.
My body temperature rises, and I strip off the long-sleeved shirt I wore tonight. I’d take off the T-shirt underneath if it wouldn’t be so obviously unprofessional.
Glancing down at the time, it’s only two minutes in when the camera moves to an elevator. Swallowing thickly, I brace myself for what’s coming next.
It’s inevitable. The four of them together, the girls laughing and teasing the camera. Swingers, maybe? Fuck buddies? I anticipate them kissing in the closed space.
That’s what’s logically next and surprisingly, I don’t want to stop it.
She wants this.