by Giselle Fox
At the break, I went over to see what she had done. She lifted her screen and assessed it with a critical eye. “Not quite the right blue.”
“But close,” I said. “It’s good. You could teach your own class.”
“I took your advice and went with a rougher edge here,” she said pointing to an area below the sun.
“And? Do you like it?”
“I do. I’m usually more into symmetry but this felt right.”
“It’s important to go with your gut,” I said.
“Yes, it is.” Suddenly it felt like we were talking about something else.
“I have something for you,” she said. “It’s in my jacket. I’ll be right back.” I watched her leave as another student approached.
I was talking to a group at the front of the class when Candy returned. When they were done, Candy walked up and slid a folded piece of drawing paper along the table toward me. I picked it up and flipped it open. It was a sketch of a woman’s body floating in a bubble bath from the breasts down. She’d obviously sketched herself for me that very afternoon. Probably right around the time I’d sketched her. I stared down at it, my heart pounded in my chest and my mouth began to water.
“Wow,” I choked. “You can draw.”
Candy looked over her shoulder at the two students that were waiting to talk to me. She pulled the drawing from my hands, folded it neatly and slid it into the pocket of my apron. “I have a feeling I’m going to be up late tonight. I’m going to grab a coffee,” she said softly. “Can I get you one?”
I tried to speak, but only managed to shake my head. The other two students were behind us now, waiting for their turn to speak. Candy slung her bag over her shoulder and took a few steps backward before she turned and headed for the door. The two students shuffled nervously as they tried to get my attention while I stood there with my mouth open and watched her go. I stuffed my shaking hands into the pockets of my apron and clutched the drawing.
Shep poked his head into my office. I was sitting with my feet up on my desk, tilted back in my ink splattered chair. I’d been staring at the drawing Candy had given me for a few minutes. I folded the sheet again and slid it back into my apron.
“Did she give you her phone number?” he asked.
“Something like that,” I said when I looked up at him.
“We’re almost ready to start.”
“Is she back yet?”
“Yep, she’s at the front talking with one of the other girls.”
I frowned. “Which one?”
Shep raised his eyebrows at me.
“Never mind,” I said.
“The moment of truth,” Shep muttered and left my doorway.
I walked out into the hall and Candy looked up from the armchair at the front. Whatever girl she’d been talking to had joined the others since she was sitting alone. I walked toward her with my hand wrapped around the image inside my pocket. I’d debated showing her the drawing I’d done but decided to wait. As Shep had said, I felt like I was teetering on the moment of truth as if it were the edge of a chasm. As I walked closer to Candy everything seemed to stop. All sounds fell silent. The second hand of the clock on the wall ceased to turn.
“Hello,” she said softly.
“Hi,” I said back to her.
I stood in front of her with my hands in my apron pocket. The drawing was warm in my hand. Somewhere inside my palm were the outlines of her breasts. Somewhere beneath the surface of the water was the rest of her beautiful body. Her eyes dipped down to my pocket. I heard her take a breath and watched her eyes sweep back up to meet mine.
“What did you think of my drawing?”
“You’re very talented,” I said.
Candy smiled. “Talented? And what else?”
“Incredibly sexy.”
Candy grinned. “We have another hour and a half and then…”
I imagined us on the bike, taking the fastest route home in the rain. I imagined her legs wrapped around me again and her hands clutching my waist. Then I imagined us in the elevator, wet and warm. I knew what I would do, what had to be done. I sat down in front of her and looked deep into her blue-gray eyes.
“If you keep looking at me like that, I won’t be able to concentrate for the rest of the class,” she whispered.
I saw everything then, the elevator and the puddles of water beneath our feet as we did the short climb to the fifth floor, the nervous walk down the hallway toward my apartment, and the key in the lock of my door. How we would watch each other as we took off our coats and how Skip would greet us, and then realize he would have to wait a little longer. All that went through my mind and yet we hadn’t even held hands.
I looked down at her hands. One rested on her knee, one held her paper coffee cup. I heard Shep down the hallway behind us as he cleared his throat. Before he said anything, I held up my finger. “One more minute,” I called to him.
“I’ll get them started. Take your time,” he said.
Candy grinned at me when we were alone again. The rain beat down on the street outside the window behind her. The night was already pitch black.
“This feels right, doesn’t it?” she whispered.
“Yes,” I said and picked up her hand. I wound my fingers through hers and she wrapped hers around mine. We were shaking.
“There, we’ve held hands,” I said.
She raised them both to her lips and kissed the back of mine. Her mouth was soft and warm. Then she slid forward and straddled my knees until she sat on my lap. Her hands curled around the back of my neck. I pulled her closer. She stared down into my eyes.
She traced her fingers over my lips slowly. “I want your mouth,” she whispered. And then her mouth was against mine and she let out the most beautiful sigh that I’d ever heard. Her body quivered. I felt the room rush around us as if we were in the depths of a long tunnel and moving very fast. Her thumbs slid along my jaw as she pushed her tongue between my lips.
I couldn’t have stopped my hands if I’d tried. They slid under her coat and up the sides of her body. They slid around her back and then forward again over her beautiful breasts. She leaned into me.
“Can we just go now?” she moaned.
“I have to finish the class.”
She closed her eyes and pressed her forehead to mine. “You have no idea what your hands are doing to me.”
I grasped her nipples between my fingers and watched her eyes dip closed. “I drew a picture of you too.”
Candy stared into my eyes. “You did?”
I nodded. “I spent an hour trying to stop thinking about you, but I couldn’t. I’ve been a total mess since I first saw you.”
“I’ve been a mess too,” she whispered.
Our lips crashed together again. I held the back of her head and she held mine as if neither of us ever needed air again. Then I remembered we were sitting in the window of my shop when a bewildered and rain-soaked pedestrian looked back at me through the glass.
I gritted my teeth and exhaled. “Okay, one hour. I’ll wrap up the class. They all want to go out after anyway.”
“I’m going home with you,” Candy whispered against my lips.
“Yes, you’re coming with me.”
CHAPTER TEN
We spent the last hour of the class discussing the different ways that the group had handled their compositions. Looking at eleven different representations of Candy just added more fuel to the fire that was already raging inside me. I tried not to stare at her while I was talking to the whole class. I tried my best not to smile whenever our eyes met, but by that point, I figured everyone must have known something was going on between us.
The standout piece of the workshop was the one that Candy and I had collaborated on. She’d taken the drawing a step further by adding in dimensionality with her color palette. I was impressed and so was the rest of the class. I watched proudly as Candy gave feedback to the other students. She was constructive and highlighted strengths rather than pinpointing weakness
es. So the workshop ended on a positive note and no one seemed to mind that we wrapped up early. Shep offered to lock up and meet the group at the bar down the street so I could drive Candy home.
When it was finally time for us to leave, I was more than ready. Candy looked up at me as we stood in the alcove of the doorway. Rain came down in sheets and bounced a foot off the road.
“This is going to be wet,” I said to her.
She curled her arm around my waist. “I don’t mind. Think about what’s on the other side.” Her smile was genuinely happy.
“You’re right, it’s only water,” and we both stepped out into the night.
The bike started easily but by the time we pulled away from the curb, cold rain had already pooled inside the crotch of my jeans. Shit, I thought to myself, this truck better work out. Can’t be driving Candy around on the bike over the winter. Then I smiled to myself when I thought about how nice that sounded.
There was traffic on the road since it was a Friday night. Despite the cold rain that ran down my legs and into my boots, Candy kept me warm. She wrapped her hands inside my pockets again and stroked my tummy. When we stopped at a light, I pulled off my glove and stroked her thigh with my bare hand.
I pulled into the underground garage and shut off the bike. Candy got off first and unfastened her helmet. She was soaked through and so was I. I pulled off my helmet and felt cold trickles of water run from the ends of my hair down the back of my shirt. We said nothing to each other for a second and then Candy burst out laughing.
“What?” I grinned.
“What do you do in the winter when it rains like this all the time?”
“I’m buying a truck this weekend if everything works out.”
“It’ll work out,” she said and reached for my hand. We walked toward the elevator. The feeling that I was immersed deep inside a déjà vu hit me again. When the elevator door opened, Candy let me step in first. I leaned my back against the left side wall and watched her walk on. When the doors closed, she was right there.
“Kiss me,” she whispered. I pressed my lips to hers and pushed her mouth open. Our tongues melded together. Time slowed down and I knew exactly what would happen next. When she pulled my hand down, I glanced up at the numbers above the door and saw that the elevator had already made it to the third floor. I reached for the panel and slammed my hand into the stop button before it was all over.
“What are you doing?” she asked breathlessly.
“I’ve dreamed this,” I whispered against her mouth.
Her eyes stared into mine. “What do you mean?”
“We’re in the middle of the hugest déjà vu ever,” I said. “I just don’t want it to end.”
She grinned and then pulled the zipper of her leather jacket down. She popped the snaps of her shirt until it hung open. There beneath the soaking wet fabric was the most beautiful pair of breasts that I could have imagined. She wrenched my soaking wet shirt up high until my abdomen was exposed. Her eyes swept over me and then she pressed her warm skin against mine.
I spun us around until her back was against the wall. She coiled her leg around me, her breath ragged in my ears. “Touch me,” she pleaded.
I looked down between us, at our prickled skin that was slick with rainwater. I slid my hand inside her pants. I plunged down and she pushed her hips back against my fingers. Suddenly it was as if the elevator was rotating on it’s axis and everything revolved around us. I slid my fingers between her lips and stroked the soft bud that lay between them. She let out a little quivering breath and her eyes dipped closed.
“Is this really happening?” I whispered.
Candy grasped my face in her hands. “You’ve got my clitoris… between your fingers,” she breathed. “It’s happening.”
I rolled my fingers more. The sounds that escaped her lips were sweet and tortured. Her hips rolled forcefully against my hand.
“You’re going to make me come,” she said straining against my mouth.
“Let me feel it.”
She clung to me and looked into my eyes. “Tell me this won’t end here. I want to spend the night with you, Rocky.”
“You do?”
“Yes, if you want me to.”
“Of course, I want you to,” I said and pulled her tighter. I stroked her again and her head tipped back against the wall. “Wrap your legs around me,” I said. She coiled them around my hips and I lifted her until her back was pressed against the elevator.
“Go inside me,” she moaned, so I pushed my fingers slowly in. She clung onto me, and when I heard her cries, my entire body rushed with heat. She gripped the back of my neck with one hand, and braced herself against the rail with the other as I rocked my body against her.
Our lips found each other’s as our bodies found our rhythm. Soon the cold rain that soaked our clothing warmed and began to steam. Candy’s face flushed pink. Her lips were plump and red from our kisses. She was so beautiful and sexy, with her pink lacy breasts bouncing between us. The front of her stretchy jeans slid low beneath my hand and I could see her triangle of hair. “Your hair is dark,” I rasped. A part of me had wondered since the beginning whether it would be blond or pink. But the fact that I knew it was black was like a secret she’d kept for me.
Her eyes were open, staring into mine as she moved with me. Her face strained and her body quivered. A perfect fleshy breast jiggled free from its cup. I latched onto her nipple and a deep moan reverberated up through her center. Then she began to shudder around me. “Ohhhhh fuck!” she cried.
I slid another finger inside her and pushed deep. Candy let go of the handrail and clung onto my shoulders as she came. We fell against the back wall and I held her tight until the spasms stopped. Then I eased her slowly back onto her feet.
Candy looked up at me and sighed. “Are you still having your déjà vu?”
“No, it stopped a while ago.” I brushed the wet hair from her cheeks and kissed her forehead.
She looked down at herself and shook her head. “So was my boob hanging out in your dream too?” She tucked herself back into her bra and gave me a shy smile.
I was so elated that I could only smile back. I leaned back against the handrail and sighed.
“God, that felt good,” she exhaled as she fastened the snaps on her shirt. “I’ve been thinking about this for a long time, Rocky. But maybe you already know that.”
When we were ready, I pushed the button for the fifth floor again. Within seconds, we reached our destination. When I stepped out into the hall, I saw Rhiannon standing at her door. She was smiling.
“Hey there,” she called. “Your dog’s been telling me he wants to come over for a visit.”
“Uhh.. Candy, this is Rhiannon, my neighbor and psychic friend. She talks to animals and… other things.”
Candy didn’t blink an eye at the introduction. “Hi, Rhiannon. Pleased to meet you.”
“Well hello to you too, Candy!” she grinned. “I had a feeling something good was going to happen tonight and here you are.”
I could hear Skip whining on the other side of the door as I slid the key into the lock. “Hang on buddy,” I called. When I finally got the door open Skip was so excited he didn’t know who to go to first. We all got the full body wag.
“Let me take him out,” Rhi said.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
“Sure I’m sure. He can keep me company tonight. I’ve got some leftover steak for him too.”
I looked down at Skip. “Hear that? Steak.” Skip licked his chops.
“Okay,” I said to Rhi. The grin on her face told me she knew exactly what was going on. Candy bent down and patted Skip a few times before he tore off into Rhi’s place.
“See ya,” I called after him.
“Have fun,” Rhi said and then she shut the door behind her.
Candy smiled at me. “It’s like she knows something.”
“Believe me, she knows everything.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Candy stepped into the apartment and I locked the door behind us. She stopped and took a long look around from wall to wall.
“This is beautiful,” she said softly and turned to face me again. We watched each other as we peeled off our wet jackets. I passed her a hanger and we hung them side by side on the hooks behind the door. Two black leather bombers almost the same size, it made me smile. I realized this was the first time I’d brought a woman home to my apartment.
Candy pulled off her boots and let them sit on the mat. When she stood up, she took a few slow steps backwards as she unfastened the snaps of her shirt one by one. I watched her from where I stood. I watched her strip her shirt and let it fall to the floor. I watched as she pulled her stretchy black jeans down over her hips and bent to pull them over her ankles. Her beautiful soft breasts tipped over plump in front of me. She stood clad in pink lace and smooth skin. Her tattoos curled over her shoulders and behind her back. Her blue-gray eyes shone beneath the damp tips of her pink bangs that coiled against her forehead. She dropped her jeans on the floor and took another step backward onto the shag rug.
“Can I get you anything,” I asked.
“Just you,” she said. “Come here, Rocky.”
She sat in her pink lingerie with her legs spread on my mid-century modern sofa; a rosewood and beige twill piece that was long enough to lay on and then some. She didn’t sit back but perched her hips on the edge as she waited for me. My clothes were still on. My jeans were soaked through and clung to my legs. My t-shirt was slick with rain and the steam from our romp in the elevator. Candy watched me step toward her, a smile slowly curled her lips.
“I’m going to make you come now,” she whispered.
Yes you are, I thought to myself. Of that, I had no doubt. Just looking at her perched there with her beautiful body on my sofa and her knees spread, I knew what was coming. Her eyes told me everything.
I crossed the gap between us and stood in front of her. She looked up at me as she unfastened the button of my jeans and pulled my zipper down. She pulled my t-shirt up and flicked her tongue over my abdomen.