Janet held up her coffee. “A toast. To you getting your groove on.”
Carla grasped the handle of her cup but didn’t lift. “What did you do?” She glanced around, waiting for some guy to focus on her, expectation in his eyes. Janet had no doubt set her up with someone, and it never went well. One time, she set Carla up on a blind date with some Spanish guy who could only speak one word of English.
Titties.
“You’ll thank me.”
“There is a slim-to-none chance of that happening.”
“Life is what you make of it, Carla. Loosen up. Live a little. I want to see you happy.”
“Janet? What did you do?”
“Nothing… much…” Janet smiled and slurped some coffee.
“Janet? Tell me.”
“I bought you an hour in the Dungeon of Pleasure tomorrow.” She slapped Jake’s card on the table. Carla hadn’t even realized her friend had swiped it.
Oh no…
“Janet…”
“Think of him as your masseur. You deserve good stuff, babe. And if you won’t reach out and take it for yourself, I’ll grab it for you.”
“I won’t go.”
“You will.”
“I’m not going to do this just because you want it, Janet.”
“You want it, Carla. You just don’t know it yet. And when you get it, I want to know every… little… detail.”
• • •
By the time Carla got home that evening, the pressure in her chest bore down so hard it was hard to breathe. She knew Janet was doing this more to dare her than as an act of kindness, but as much as Carla wanted to show her friend that she wasn’t afraid, she just couldn’t go through with it. She wasn’t a dungeon-of-pleasure type of girl. And she certainly couldn’t be totally naked and bound and… vulnerable before Jake.
Him staring at her bare breasts, her open thighs.
Him penetrating her with a sex toy.
Him lowering his mouth to her, teasing her, making her…
Stop it.
Carla had to cancel the appointment. But no matter how she begged Janet in the restaurant, her friend refused to call the whole thing off. Tomorrow night, she’d said. Eight
P.M.
Used a fake name so he won’t know it’s you. Plenty of time to finish work, get home, and get ready for her “date.”
Carla had to stop this, and she had to stop it now. If she couldn’t do it through Janet, she would have to go directly to Jake. That’s what a confident, successful, businesswoman would do. Carla had no problems talking to judges. Talking to the boytoy next door would be cake.
She ducked into the powder room just off the foyer and checked her hair and makeup. She smoothed a fingertip under each eye, erasing the eyeliner and mascara that had bled during the day. She smoothed her chin-length hair, controlling the touch of humidity frizz.
She looked professional. Serious. Not like a horny older woman looking for orgasms. She’d tell Jake the truth, that her friend is overly concerned about her sex life and wants Jake to satisfy her overdue longings—
Scratch that.
Carla would say that Janet thought she was doing a favor, but both Carla and Jake knew this arrangement was impossible. They were neighbors. They might even become friends. But that was as far as anything between them would go.
She certainly couldn’t be one of his clients.
Carla didn’t have a great sex life. Okay, she’d never had even a
good
sex life. But she wasn’t old enough or desperate enough to pay for him to do
all those things
.
Tying her up. Going down on her. Using sex toys. She shuddered, thinking about how vulnerable she’d be, spread wide like that, his face right there.
Carla doubted she’d let a longtime boyfriend do that, let alone a sex worker.
She stood straight in front of the mirror, threw her shoulders back, put on her court face, and…
She was far too intimidating-looking in her power suit. Of course, she’d designed her look to inspire those exact feelings in others, but she didn’t want to seem like a bitch to Jake. She was finished with work for the day. She should look more approachable. Changing her clothes would be disingenuous. But Carla could loosen up a bit.
She slipped off her deep blue Donna Karan suit jacket, leaving just the trousers and a somewhat playful Ralph Lauren blouse.
Playful for corporate work, anyway.
Better. At least she didn’t appear ready to kick the opposing counsel’s ass.
Steeling herself, she marched out the front door and crossed the lawn to Jake’s house. Almost sunset, the lights inside were on and glowing. Against her better judgment, Carla peered through the window to the living room, but no one was there.
Is he in the bedroom?
Does he have a client with him?
What are they doing? Is she handcuffed? Is Jake licking her?
Just as it had yesterday, the front door opened.
Carla flattened herself to the exterior wall, the situation far too familiar. This was getting ridiculous.
“Are you sure you don’t want me to walk you to your car?” Jake asked.
“No, honey. I want to remember you just like this all week. You and your incredible body. It isn’t every day I get to feast my imagination on a naked hunk.”
Carla almost jolted out of her hiding spot just to get a peek.
Jake is naked? Right there, a few feet away?
How do I have a little peek without showing myself?
“You’re sweet, Mimi.”
“No, I’m selfish. And do me a favor, would you?”
“Anything, Mimi.”
“Could you stroke it as I walk to my car? I really want to know you’re getting at least a little of the pleasure you’ve given me. Promise?”
Jake chuckled. “I promise.”
Jake’s door thunked closed, and the woman’s heels clicked across the porch. Moments later Carla could hear a car door open then close along the street, then an engine started up.
Now what was she going to do? If she went to the door now, Jake would know she’d seen his client leave, that Carla had heard what she’d said. That she was imagining him naked, taking himself in his hand, and…
Stop it.
He might even think she’d come over on purpose. No, she needed to tell him about what Janet had done, but she should wait. Give him a chance to… relieve himself.
She pushed up from her hiding spot. Passing by the living room window, she peered inside.
Jake stood behind a sofa, his back to her. He stared out the room’s front window, watching his client pull her car into the street.
Carla knew she should jerk back, duck out of sight before he turned around, before he spotted her, but she couldn’t move.
Jake wasn’t nude, not exactly, but he might as well have been. He wore no shirt, no pants, only the thin black straps of a G-string clinging to his naked skin. His back tapered from broad shoulders to narrow waist and hips. Bare butt, strong thighs, his hand right there, making good on the promise he made to Mimi.
His buttocks bunched as he shifted his weight, turned away from the window, his manhood straining at the G-string’s leather pouch…
Carla stumbled backward, out of his view.
Did he see me?
She didn’t know. Holding her breath, she waited for the door to open, for him to call her name, for the world to come down on her in a suffocating blanket of humiliation.
Nothing happened.
Hand clapped to her chest, as if that would help calm her racing heart, she waited until she was absolutely sure he hadn’t seen her, and then she took another peek into the living room.
His back was to her again, but he wasn’t stroking the leather pouch. Instead, his thumbs were hooked into the straps, pushing them over his buttocks, down his thighs. He bent forward at the waist, slipping the G-string off, and Carla caught her first glimpse of his heavy length swaying between his legs.
Wow.
WOW.
She needed to get out of here. To run home. To stop this peeping nonsense. But she didn’t move, just waited, mouth dry, to watch what he did next.
I’ve lost my mind.
I’m a pervert.
Oh my god is he gorgeous.
Jake straightened, now completely naked, and when he turned slightly to the side, Carla let out a little gasp.
He was hairless, just as he’d teased the first time she’d met him. He was also large and more erect than she’d ever seen a man. His shaft stretched out then scooped upward to a prominent ridge and pronounced glans. Jake wrapped his fingers around his base, then stroked upward, lifting his balls. He thrust his hips forward with the move, as if he was surging deep into a woman. And when he moved his hand over his tip, his cock sprang free, bobbing upward.
Carla leaned against the window’s casing. She’d never been interested in seeing male strippers. She’d never been into porn. But right then, she doubted she could tear herself away even if a police car pulled up, lights flashing.
Jake took himself in his fist again and started pumping, root to tip then back down.
How would he feel in my hand?
The velvet-soft skin sliding over the hardness underneath. The way he would flex under her fingers. The way he would pulse if she held him tight.
What would it be like to slide him over my breasts? To take him into my mouth, circling him with my tongue? To cup his balls in my hand, feeling their weight, their heat?
Something had come over her, but she wasn’t sure what. Lust, probably. She’d never been a big blowjob fan. She’d always taken a guy’s cock for granted. It was always there, and every guy she had been with was always focused on making Carla service it. What else was there to think about?
But now, looking at Jake, she realized she’d been missing something. Was it pure physical attraction? Or a nice guy who seemed to be truly interested in who she was? Maybe the combination of the two.
And here I am, peeping through his window like some sort of crazed stalker.
He was grunting now, butt clenching, eyes closed. She knew the look. He was ready to explode.
Closing her eyes, she made herself turn away, even though every impulse in her body wanted to… no,
needed to
watch him come. She forced her feet to move, one in front of the other, carrying her across the bit of lawn between houses.
She had to find a way to regroup, to get back in touch with who she was. Not some lust-crazed
cougar
. Not a career woman desperate for love. Not a peeper, a stalker who stood outside windows and watched private things no one else should see.
She needed to regain control.
Carla headed for the pier.
Through the house, down the stairs, across the patio, and she was walking on the deck board, her footfalls resonating over the water below. All the lakefront houses had piers reaching out into the water, some with boats tied or hidden in boathouses. After Carla’s bad experience as a kid, she had never purchased a boat. Her neighbors had probably found it strange, but she didn’t care. She loved the lap-lap-lap of the water against shore and footings. Loved the sparkle off the waves. Loved the view of mountains, a wisp of a shadow in the distance.
She sat down on her zero gravity outdoor lounge chair and leaned back, the evening sun shining from behind her, highlighting the breathtaking view. A light wind fanned her heated skin.
She had to calm down.
Think unsexy thoughts.
Resist the urge to daydream. To fantasize. To touch herself.
Stop it!
Sailing. She needed to focus on the boats skimming over Lake Washington. Remember what it was like that day so many summers ago.
“What are you thinking about?”
Carla jolted up from her chair to find Jake grinning at her, dressed in his usual t-shirt and jeans. Only now she knew what was underneath.
She forced her attention onto the lake. “Sailing, actually.”
“Beautiful day for it.”
She almost said
there’s no good day for sailing
, but stopped herself. She liked Jake. It wasn’t his fault that she was a deviant voyeur. And the last thing she wanted was to be rude to her neighbor. “Um, yeah.”
“Hard day?”
Not as hard as yours.
I will not look at his package.
Carla, don’t look at his package.
She glanced at his package, right at eye-level, then played it off awkwardly with a kind of weird yawning motion.
“It was really hard. Uh, I mean trying.” She closed her eyes again and let out a sigh. A cold shower. That’s what she needed. Wasn’t that supposed to calm people’s… urges?
“I have just the thing. It’ll help you relax.”
Carla’s eyes flew open, her gaze landing smack on his crotch again. It was like he had a giant magnet in his pants, and her eyes were made of iron ore. She jerked her gaze up to his face. “Oh?” She could feel the heat creep over her again, only the fanning wind keeping a blush from blooming on her cheeks.
“Yeah. You have any more of that beer?”
How many had they had last night? She was so focused on him, she didn’t remember. “A few more.”
“Why don’t you get them, and I’ll meet you back here.”
“That’s nice, Jake, but I…”
“You have plans?”
“Well, no.”
“You have work to do?”
“No more than usual.”
“Then grab the beers and meet me back here. You won’t be sorry. It’ll be relaxing. And fun. Just two neighbors, enjoying the outdoors. Nothing more than that.”
Carla managed a nod, forced herself out of the deck chair, and traced the pier back to the patio. Mounting the steps to her house, she had to admit that after what she’d seen through Jake’s living room window, she could only think of one fun activity, and with the jitters traveling through her limbs, she wasn’t sure relaxing was part of the picture.
She grabbed what was left of the six pack, only two beers. Not nearly enough. She checked the cabinets for wine, found a stray bottle of Pinot Noir and two crystal glasses, pocketed an opener, and headed back to the lakeside. When she reached the end of her pier, there was no sign of Jake. She waited a couple of minutes, staring out at the sparkling water, then collapsed back into her deck chair, popped the top off a Bell’s Hopslam, and took a long drink. Resting her head back on the chair, she closed her eyes, trying to keep her mind off of Jake, why she’d gone to see him in the first place, and how she was going to explain Janet’s booking when he returned.