“Please let me touch you. I’ve never wanted you more.”
Against everything I want, I give in to her wish. Even as I release her wrists, she doesn’t move them straightaway. They linger over her head as if she was lying flat on her back like she was earlier today and last night. Her elbows bend like that of a dancer. They create shapes I can only imagine, as the fabric of her dress mixes perfectly with the rich color of the world around us.
As they begin to lower, I feel compelled to touch them. My hand slides up her back then over her shoulder to rest on her right forearm as if somehow my weight would have any bearing on her choices. Her petite hands drift over my skin as her manicured nails send a sea of chills down my heated spine.
My fingers thrum over the exposed skin over her leg. The slit of her dress is magnificent. If I had the time, I would be the matador and her skirt would become my cape, and I would be the one seeing red. I slide to rest just behind her kneecap and lift skyward. Her knee breezes to my hip as my hand disappears into the darkness. The heel of my Petal’s shoe presses into the side of my leg. I reward her with a gentle hiss beneath her earlobe.
“I love when you do that,” she admits to the darkness, her breath gently caressing my skin.
“And I love you,” I tell her again, because I can’t get enough of it. I want to remind her constantly.
She doesn’t reply with words, just with her sigh of pleasure and that smile on her face.
She drops her hands to my belt and begins to tug it open.
“Eager?” I ask.
“Mmm, very. I think I’m addicted,” she giggles.
The clinking of my buckle is only bested by the slide of a few rings on the curtain protecting us in full. Nora shrinks behind me as the not so gentle clearing of a throat I recognize has discovered our hiding spot. “I’ll give you two a minute to…collect yourselves,” Adrianna adds. The curtain closes again while Nora and I both are lost somewhere in laughter and the thrill of being caught.
“Oh my God,” she says, burying her face in my chest. “I can’t believe that just happened again.”
“I’m sorry it did, yet not sorry.” I smile, cupping her face in my hand then kissing her lips. “We’ll finish this later. I should go talk to her.”
“I’ll come with you.” She reaches down to smooth out her dress. “How do I look?”
“Ravishing as ever, with a bit more flush to your cheeks. It’s becoming my new favorite color.” I right my clothing, she straightens my tie, then I take her hand, leading her back out of the box to find Adrianna waiting for us just outside.
“Good evening, Professor Griffin.” Nora nods her head.
“I have a feeling we’re beyond that, Nora. You should call me Adrianna or Anna when we’re not on campus.” Anna leans in for my kiss on her cheek. “Hello, Tristan. I’d ask if you enjoyed yourself, but I’m certain of that answer already.”
“Anna, stop.”
“Let’s step over here, shall we? We should be a bit more discreet in this conversation.”
She leads us over to a small, isolated bar height table with a single candle lit in the center.
“Anna,” I try to continue but she holds her hand up to stop me.
“Let me say what I need to say.” She folds her hands together on the table, “It’s fairly obvious, with the video that is circulating, and now that you’re here together there is something between you. Yes, I knew this already, but now so do many, many of the colleagues at the university. While there isn’t an explicit rule against this, it’s probably best not to rub their faces in it, at least until you can have a meeting with Dean Harris, which you will need to do sooner rather than later.”
“I realize that, Anna. It’s something Nora and I have discussed and will be doing in the near future. I have a feeling I know what you’re thinking.”
“No, Tristan, I don’t think you do.”
“Professor Griffin…Adrianna, I don’t want to do anything that will hurt the university, Tristan’s standing, or even mine. I feel bad the clips on social media are even a thing, but I’m not ashamed of us.”
“Nor am I. That is the point. I will never ask permission to love her.”
I can see the surprise, hell, the shock, on Anna’s face as the words I’ve just said process through her mind. This is the first time, ever, that I’ve said that about a woman. It’s the first time that I’ve even come close.
“You know that I’ll be in your corner, Tristan.” She reaches out to lay her hand on mine, then she lays her other hand on Nora's. “This will be as easy or as messy as you make it. Just keep that in mind at every step.”
“We will, Adrianna,” Nora says. “I won’t let anything hurt him. I love him too, and I’ll protect him just as much as I’d protect myself and anyone else I care about.”
Pride swells in my chest, so much so that I’m practically strutting like a peacock in my mind.
Adrianna smiles and squeezes my hand, “I like this one,” she nods her head toward Nora. “Don’t fuck it up.”
“I don’t intend to.” I look to my right and Nora is blushing with a beautiful smile.
“Good.” She pats the table and steps away. “I’ll leave you to your evening. Just remember what I said. Let’s refrain from being too flashy with the PDA for now. Just in case.”
After Adrianna is out of listening range, Nora leans up into my ear. “She really does the principal tone well, doesn’t she?”
“Indeed. She excels at it.”
“Should we mingle and meet the elephant in the room head-on?”
“Anything to see you move in that dress.”
“I can leave it on later if you like.”
“I like you in nothing better. Just let me unwrap you. I’ll get the best of both worlds.”
***
The moon has found its home high in the sky by the time we settle ourselves, twisted in my bedsheets, sweat beading on our skin, and the post-orgasm glow radiating all around us.
Nora is on her back and I’m resting facedown on her body with my cheek resting on her stomach.
“I could get used to this,” I say.
“You’re not the only one.” Her soft touch is what I want to get used to. It’s not something I used to want or need. Now that I’ve had it, now that I’ve had it from her, I’m keenly aware how lost I’d be without it. “I loved tonight. How do you do it?”
“Do what, Petal?”
“Make me feel so confident. I could walk down a thousand runways with every top designer and media person in the building and be fine. A room like we were in and I would utterly freeze. I’m sure I know why, but tonight, except for the whispers, I could do that again tomorrow.”
I rest my chin on her now, staring up through the valley between her breasts to her face that is angled down toward me.
“That’s all I’ve wanted for you. You’ve deserved to feel on top of the world. I just wish I could have helped you feel that way sooner.”
She slides her hand into my hair and lovingly scratches my scalp and I nearly groan in pleasure.
“I’m afraid that I’m going to wake up one day and this will have all been a dream. That I’m going to wake up back in that horrible flat in London and he’ll be right next to me. Please tell me every day that this is real.”