“Yes please, Steve.” I watched him move away, my mind singing because he’d talked to me. Hell, because he was even here. It excited me to ask him about his stripping, casting his nude spell, and I wondered suddenly, as I leaned backward on the railing, whether I might have excited him, too. The way his asshole had clenched around my finger… I knew a twisty little smile was playing over my lips by now, thinking about him dancing for a roomful of women, feeling that power he’d talked about: the power of his naked body. The spell.
I shivered slightly, knowing I was arching my back a little too much in Izzy’s dress as I rested my elbows on the railing. The day was perfect, the weather custom-made for this kind of place, for these kinds of people, and all at once I felt a shadow cross over me. “Hi there.”
I didn’t realize my eyes were closed until I opened them to find a guy there, conventionally sexy in that full-faced lacrosse-player way, his hair a thick cresting wave. “Hello.”
“I’m Jason. Can I get you a drink?”
I puckered my lips whimsically, making no effort to straighten up and sheathe my boobs a little. “No thank you, Jason.” I heard that burr still in my voice, that hint of hoarseness, but it was there for Steve. “Another gentleman is already taking care of me. There he is now,” I nodded, the two of us watching as my stripper approached with our two bottles. “Hi there, Steve!”
He glanced from me to Jason as he held out my beer. “Steve,” he introduced himself, and I thought I heard a little extra snap in that voice. “Pleasure to meet you.”
“Uh, right.” Jason eyed Steve, taking in his broad shoulders and his obvious masculinity, and wisely decided he should take off. “Nice meeting you both,” he managed.
“Likewise!” Steve called affably. He stood a moment, examining me where I stood. “See?” he said quietly. “You feel it a little.”
“The power,” I breathed, and he was right. I had.
“Told you.” He leaned back alongside me, a little closer than he had been. “Imagine how much stronger it is when I’m totally nude.” He nudged me. “That’s a great dress, by the way.”
“Thank you.” I let my shades slip down my nose, turning my eyes directly on him. “I like your suit, too, but…”
“But?” He was smiling again, holding himself loosely. I was slowly convincing myself that this god of a man was actually enjoying spending time with me, a heady realization: by this time, I’d given up worrying about my thong or my nipples. Hell, by this time, I was thinking about my vibrator in my bedside table.
I turned toward him slowly and took a sip. “I admit,” I said quietly, the alcohol talking, “that I’m spending a lot of time remembering what you looked like last time.”
He chinked his bottle against mine. “Told you,” he winked. “I cast the nude spell on you.”
I shuddered involuntarily. “It wasn’t just that. I did a lot more than just see your body.”
He was looking at me more keenly now, more directly. “There’s an occupational hazard of being a stripper,” he began, still smiling. “You get into situations where people see everything you’ve got, but you’ve seen nothing of theirs.” He took off his glasses so that I could see him staring at my cleavage.
I snickered. “Paramedics have the opposite problem. We see people’s bodies all the time, but usually? We don’t want to.” I shrugged. “By that standard, that run to Briggs Road was fucking awesome.”
He nodded, taking this in, but then the crowd on the deck was stirring with excitement as the bride and groom arrived. The applause was enough to quiet us down as we watched them move toward the water, led by a crouching photographer, Ava’s hair piled up high in an impossible hairstyle that almost made her as tall as her new husband. “Nice dress,” I conceded quietly.
“She’s fucking hot,” Steve agreed.
“Oh my god!” the bride trilled when she saw us. I was quite certain I’d never seen anyone as euphoric as Ava. She had that drug-high look paramedics see a lot, the one that told me dopamine was in full control now and that it would be a bitch when she crashed later. Her groom was nowhere near as sexy as Steve, but then Steve did this for a living. “You both came!”
“Well, I never did…” Nobody heard me mutter this, which was probably a good thing as Ava swooped in for a hug. It was the kind where only your shoulders touch. “Thanks for inviting me,” I burped. “Congratulations!”
Beside me, I caught Steve shaking hands with the groom. “Hi, I’m Dwayne.” I was next, the man moving in for a hug that I deftly turned into another handshake as I watched Ava give Steve a much more enthusiastic hug than me. “Um, how do you guys know Ava?”
I stood there, speechless as the camera guy snapped away, until Ava finally backed off the stripper. “They helped put together the bachelorette party, hon,” she breezed.
“More like take it apart,” Steve joked, but it sounded like a throwaway line. Everybody laughed. “You’re a lucky man, Dwayne.”
“Don’t I know it.”
“You look amazing,” Ava gushed to me. “That dress is lethal.”
“I didn’t think it would look this great,” I shrugged, resolving to flat-out steal it from Izzy. “Serendipity, you know? Hey, thanks for inviting us.” The photographer was already getting impatient, the next cluster of guests waiting for the new couple, but I leaned close to Ava before she could get away. “Uh, everything good? Down there?” I nodded vaguely toward her vagina. “Since you and Steve…”
“Oh! Fuck.” She looked quickly to make sure her husband wasn’t listening. “Yeah, Dwayne fucked me the other day. No issues.” She hesitated, then blurted it out. “He’s skinnier than Steve was, though, so… who knows?”
“Well then,” I shrugged, grinning, “you ought to be fine as long as you just don’t fuck Steve.”
“I know!” She winked. “Thanks again. Enjoy your drinks; sorry I couldn’t fit you guys in for food. Late notice.”
I avoided another pun, something about her fitting things in. Proof that the alcohol wasn’t quite as potent as I’d thought. Good: maybe I could drive home. My vibe definitely needed me. “Don’t even worry about it. Enjoy your day!”
“Thank you!” She moved on, not without a last lingering glance down at Steve’s crotch, and both of us just stood there and reflected.
“You didn’t fuck her again, did you?” I asked out the side of my mouth, both of us watching Ava’s dress trail across the deck.
“No.” He finished his beer. “Once was enough, don’t you think?”
“I kinda do.” It shocked me, then, when another nudge from him turned into an arm around my back, his fingers resting on my hip. I felt myself gasp.
“Ava was right about that dress, Nadia,” he told me calmly.
“Oh my god!” I blurted.
“I mean, just being honest.” He shrugged, his body touching mine. I discovered I was holding my breath, and made myself let it out in a long, crushing sigh. “I see a lot of women, a lot of dresses. A lot of tits,” he smiled. He looked at me curiously, my head buzzing with the drinks and the sun and the thrill of him, and then he bent toward me. “Can I tell you a secret, Nadia?”
Fuck. What do you say to that? “Sure?”