by Cara Adams
A few minutes before six, Mailiki looked out the front door and said, “Okapi and Tedros are outside, Keisha, looking very handsome in suits.”
Okapi always dressed neatly because he worked in the office, but Teddy usually wore jeans and a T-shirt. It would be exciting to see him in a suit. Then again, they’d never seen her in a dress, so it was a fair exchange. For a moment Keisha hoped they wouldn’t be disappointed. Her boobs were really too big to make a dress look good. Oh well, it was too late now.
“Thank you, everyone, for your help.”
“Have fun,” said Shakina.
Hell, yes. That was the plan.
Keisha walked slowly and carefully in her high heels, out of the building and across to her men. Hmm. Are they my men? Well, for the moment they were, anyway. She needed to focus on pulling her knees up and holding her back straight. It’d been a very long time since she’d worn high heels and she was out of practice. Although likely she’d soon be relaxed about it.
The same car they’d gone to the chess tournament in was waiting right outside the community hall, which was good as she wasn’t sure she was ready to walk too far in these shoes just yet. Teddy opened the door for her and held it while she slid inside, while Okapi walked around the car to drive. Both men did look smart in neat dark suits. Okapi was wearing a crisp white shirt and narrow tie, while Tedros’s shirt was a dull gold and his tie mottled fall colors which looked amazing with his dark hair and eyes.
Every woman in the restaurant is going to envy me tonight with two such handsome escorts.
In her few brief journeys through Coopersville, Keisha hadn’t really noticed any particularly tall buildings. It was a reasonable-size town, so of course there were some higher apartment blocks and stores. But the restaurant they went to was on the fortieth floor of an inner-city building with stores on lower floors and offices on higher ones. She’d been unaware of any buildings that tall. The restaurant was amazing, with floor-to-ceiling glass windows on all sides, and far below them Coopersville was a mass of pretty colored lights.
Okapi held out her chair and she sat, thanking him absently as she gazed out the window. “It’s amazing. Breathtakingly beautiful.”
“You didn’t have a place like this in your old neighborhood? I thought every town had a top-of-the-town sort of restaurant,” said Okapi.
“Well, if we did, I never went there, but I don’t recall any advertising for it. I’ve seen pictures of them in metropolitan places like Las Vegas though.”
“Yes, but there’s one of anything you could ever imagine in Las Vegas,” said Teddy.
“Have you been there?” she asked.
“Hell, no. Gambling all night and all day isn’t my idea of fun, although the bazillion different live shows are supposed to be good.”
“What about you, Okapi?”
“No, I haven’t been there either. I haven’t traveled much at all. I like to be home surrounded by family and friends. I guess I’m very boring like that. Although if you wanted to travel, I’d go with you, to protect you.”
Keisha blushed. He looked quite solemn. “Even if you didn’t enjoy it yourself?”
“I’d like to be with you.”
Keisha felt her blush deepening and looked out the window again. From time to time, her folks had talked about traveling the world, seeing all sorts of things. The list of places they wanted to visit seemed to change every time they spoke about it, and when her father’s friend stole all their money, it had been the betrayal and loss of the friendship which had hurt them both far more than the loss of the money, so she rather thought they might never have traveled anyway. Likely it wasn’t in her blood. She was happy to settle down and make her home here in Coopersville.
While they waited for their meal, the men pointed out different buildings in Coopersville and she began to see the pattern in the lights and colors outside the window. Later they talked about all sorts of things, and Keisha realized she’d relaxed and was perfectly happy in their company.
Finally Okapi stood and said, “Dance with me, Keisha.”
It was much more a statement than a question, so Keisha got up and joined him but she warned him as well. “I’m not very good at dancing. I never learned, you know.”
“I won’t do any tricky steps. Let me lead you.”
Keisha moved into his arms and was instantly enveloped in his warmth and sensual scent. Damn, he was sexy. Even in her high heels he was a good half dozen inches taller than her, his body a rock wall for her to lean against, his hands guiding her unequivocally this way and that. Once again she relaxed and let him do all the work, closing her eyes and swaying with his body in time to the music. It was almost as if they were alone on the dance floor, him leading her around and her moving with him, their bodies touching here and there as they danced.
He was strong and powerful, very much in control, demanding yet considerate, and Keisha knew this was how he’d be in the bedroom as well. It was erotic as hell, and she longed for the moment when he would claim her fully.
He must have given Tedros some signal, because when the music stopped, he stepped back from her, and Teddy was there. Teddy held her much more lightly, almost worshipfully. His hands were rougher and quite a lot bigger than Okapi’s, maybe because he did a lot of manual work. He wasn’t quite as tall, and didn’t have the aura of authority Okapi had, but his body was just as hard and even more muscled, and she knew he’d protect her and care for her just as Okapi would.
They danced slowly, every move smooth and deliberate, Teddy leading her tenderly through the crowd and around the dance floor. He smelled different from Okapi. Just as enticing, but with more of a rugged man scent, less spicy. She liked that they were quite different. Even in the dark she’d always know which one touched her and that was very important to her.
When they finally returned to their table Okapi had ordered coffee and as she sipped it she said, “Thank you very much. This has been a special night.”
“It doesn’t have to finish now. If you want to go home, we’ll respect your wishes. But we’d like to show you our house.”
“Tell me about it. Whose house was it originally?” Keisha knew when the men paired up they chose a house to move into. Each pair had been required to think and plan their future and then adjust to being together before the women were brought into the community. She knew for some of the men the huge changes they made must have been difficult.
“There was no real choice. Teddy’s house was far better on every possible criterion. Our parents chose the things they wanted to take with them to the Senior Center then we furnished the house with what we chose out of the rest. Everything remaining is in my parents’ former home, which we hope one day will be needed again when the community begins to grow again.”
Keisha thought they sounded quite matter-of-fact. She knew they’d most likely had the best part of a year to get used to the new arrangement, and was glad there didn’t seem to be any grief in their voices. Besides, she’d wanted all along to be with them tonight. She’d have been disappointed if they’d dropped her home without as much as a kiss.
“I’d like to go home with you both tonight. Thanks for asking.”
* * * *
Okapi had to prevent himself from heaving a sigh of relief. Although Teddy had done most of the work tidying the house and putting out fresh towels in the en suite bathroom and clean linens on the bed in the master bedroom, he’d been very keyed-up wondering what Keisha’s answer would be.
The master bedroom had been furnished for her. Neither of them had ever slept there, and the mattress and bedding was all brand new. He knew Maitho, who had a fetish for pink, had redone his house in swathes of pink for Dera, but he and Teddy had restricted themselves to buying more neutral-colored items, knowing their bride could replace them if she didn’t like them.
Still, it was a huge relief to have Keisha say she’d come to the house with them. That didn’t mean she’d let them fuck her, but it was a great start. Sh
e had to expect a kiss at the very least, and once they could touch her, surely they could arouse her passion and move on to more intimate activities.
He would have loved to have her in the backseat with him, where he could slide his hand up under her dress and touch her thigh, maybe even touch her glorious breasts, but he had to be perfectly fair to Tedros, so he sat alone in the backseat and looked at her hair from behind her, and at her face in the rearview mirror. Her hair was done in a braid thing that wove this way and that, looking very complicated but also very pretty. And her eyes sparkled with pleasure. He longed to see them dark and smoldering with passion. Maybe later tonight, he promised himself.
Their house had an enclosed garage with a door directly into the mud room. Okapi led the way, opening the garage door and the door into the house, turning on lights and closing and locking everything behind them as they went. It was only when they stood in the master bedroom that it occurred to him he really should have taken her to the living room and asked her if she wanted another cup of coffee first. Taking her straight to the bedroom was rather rude and abrupt. Dammit, he wasn’t usually so crass. It was just that he wanted her so desperately he hadn’t plotted this part of the action out as thoroughly as perhaps he should have.
Keisha stood in the doorway looking at the room then walked over and sat on the bed, staring at them both.
Teddy crossed the floor and kneeled at her feet. “Would you like me to take your shoes off?” he asked.
“Yes, thanks. I’m not used to walking in high heels. Tonight was the first time I’ve been dressed up in a long time.”
“Would you like to go out more often?” asked Okapi. If she wanted to, he’d rearrange his schedule. He had to be prepared to spend more time with her and Teddy.
“Maybe. But I wouldn’t like to be going to special places all the time. They wouldn’t be special for very long then, would they.”
“Damn, that’s an insightful remark. You’re a hell of a wise woman, Keisha.”
“Don’t you think that’s why the very, very rich are seldom happy? Everything is ordinary to them. There is nothing amazing or unusual in their lives. It’s all dead boring after a while.”
Teddy placed her shoes neatly under a chair. “I agree. It’s like eating a favorite food for every meal. After a few weeks, anything else would be better than that food.”
“Oh, I don’t know. Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, chocolate with nuts in it. White chocolate. I think I could find enough variety to keep eating it for a long time,” Keisha teased.
“Oh, yes. Those chocolate oranges. Now that’s something truly special,” said Teddy.
Okapi knew Teddy was simply playing along with Keisha, but he couldn’t think of anything witty to say. She was so lovely sitting on the end of their bed, wiggling her bare toes. But he desperately wanted a whole lot more of her to be bare as well. Oh hell, his dick hadn’t been this hard or ached this much since he’d been a pimply teenager. No woman had ever aroused him the way she did just with a single look out of her sparkling brown eyes.
He forced himself to stop looking at her like a lovesick boy and start acting like the man, the Dom, he truly was. He had a scene planned. It was time to begin romancing Keisha.
* * * *
Okapi had explained the outline of what he’d planned to Teddy. Everything depended on what Keisha said, or did, or wanted, at every stage, so he’d need to keep watching Okapi for directions. The core of the plan was pretty simple. Seduce Keisha until she agreed to let them fuck her. Just looking at her aroused him, but he was almost certain it didn’t work that way for women. Women needed to be told they were loved and appreciated. Well, that was easy enough. No female had ever appealed to him the way she did.
She’d said she wasn’t used to wearing high heels anymore. Perhaps her feet hurt after dancing. “Would you like me to massage your feet? Or I could give you a personal foot spa by putting your feet into a warm tub of soothing bath salts while I massage them, if you’d like me to.”
Keisha smiled at him. “I’ve never had a foot spa before. I think I’d like that.”
Teddy hurried into the main bathroom and opened the closet under the sink. He and Okapi had bought some girly, nice-smelling bath salts and aromatic herbs to be put in the tub. A small quantity of them should work in a foot bath. Out in the mudroom was a large basin his mother had used to bathe her feet in when they ached. He grabbed that and rinsed it with hot water, then carefully half-filled it before dropping in the herbs and salts. He laid a big, fluffy towel over his forearm, and walked back into the main bedroom holding the basin. He set it on the floor with the towel beside it and put one of her feet in the water, moving it slowly in case she found the water too hot. But he remembered his mother saying it needed to be hot to soothe her feet properly. He just hoped the stuff he’d put in the water worked okay. He couldn’t remember exactly what his mother used to do.
“Ah, that feels so good,” she said, grinning at Teddy. Carefully he massaged her heel and her arch, then each toe and finally the sole of her foot.
He stayed silent as he worked. Keisha asked Okapi, “Is the farm planning to have a second wave of mail-order brides?”
“If the first group is a success, yes, probably, although not for another year or so. The men needed to find their pairs and sort out their own living arrangements first. Only when the home is ready for a woman and the two bachelors are comfortable together, can we introduce a woman into the mix.”
“What about the men who hoped for a bride this time and won’t get one?
Originally we’d intended to have twelve women come, one for each pair. But there weren’t twelve who passed all our tests. However, I think it’s probably better this way, as the women all get a range of men to choose from. And from what I’ve seen, most of the men decided quite quickly which woman they were most attracted to. Some of them just from the interviews, before they even met the women in real life.”
Teddy dried one foot and began working on the second one. “I expect the process will go much faster the second time through, as there will not only be three pairs of men without a woman from this round, but also the younger men who weren’t eligible to ask for a woman this time will have been watching the process carefully and will already be pairing up, sorting out where they’ll live and making those decisions. For the first group, we had to wait until we came upon problems and then worked out how to solve them. For the next group, any problem we’ve already faced has a matching solution.”
Teddy carefully massaged Keisha’s feet. She had long slender toes, narrow ankles, and high arches. Her feet were very pretty, as pretty as the rest of her. She was making soft, appreciative noises, so he was really glad he’d thought to do this.
“Was there an age limit on the men?” asked Keisha.
“Not really, but younger men knew to give the older ones first preference, and men in their forties also stood back because we asked for women aged over twenty-one. Perhaps next time we might say there is space for two or three women in their midthirties as well. We do have some men in their late thirties and early forties who would like a mate,” said Okapi.
Teddy dried Keisha’s second foot and removed the bowl and towel, taking them back into the bathroom. As soon as he returned, Okapi pulled Keisha to her feet.
“We’d like to take you to bed. If all you want is some coffee, it’s completely your choice, but we’re hoping you’d like a different kind of treat.”
Teddy moved closer beside her, matching Okapi’s stance. He tried hard to keep his face neutral and bland, but inside he was hoping like hell she’d agree to come to bed with them.
“I think I’d like to know you both better. Have you got condoms?”
“Yes, we have, and if that’s what you want, we’ll wear them. We’re both clean and healthy, though. We’d never endanger your health.”
“I believe you, but right now I’d prefer the latex as well.”
Teddy didn’t care. Well, he di
d care, but he was so thrilled that she’d agreed to the next step, that he wasn’t going to fuss over a condom or not. Just getting her into their bed was a huge success, one he’d never jeopardize over protection.
He glanced at Okapi. What did the Dom want him to do? Undress himself? Help undress Keisha? Okapi’s gaze flicked to the bed, and then to the bathroom. Oh yes, of course. He hurried to the bed and pulled the quilt down, folding it neatly in half and then in half again, before laying it on a chair. He then pulled the top sheet and blanket down to the foot of the bed. Next he went back into the bathroom and checked the drawers for the condoms and lube, bringing them in and dropping them on the nightstand. Only then did he remove his own jacket, shoes and socks, and tie.
Okapi had unzipped Keisha’s dress which he handed to Teddy, who hung it over the back of the chair. As he stood beside Keisha, Okapi turned her in his arms until her back faced Tedros. Very carefully Teddy unfastened the clip at the bottom of her hair, laying it on the nightstand, and then unraveling the intricate braid. Her hair was folded this way and that, and when he undid the braid it fell down her back in rippling waves. He stroked his hand down it, as if he were petting a cat. “It’s so pretty and soft,” he said quietly.
“It can also be a real nuisance to get dry and keep tidy, though,” replied Keisha.
He supposed she was correct. He knew so little about women, but he planned to learn everything about Keisha so he could help her and support her.
By the time he’d freed her hair, Okapi was back, wearing only his boxers. Teddy took that as his cue and removed his shirt and pants, then climbed on the bed with Okapi where he was laying Keisha on her back. She still had on a pretty blue bra and panties. The panties had lace across the front and a tiny blue bow on each hip. They were the cutest things he’d ever seen. Not that he’d ever been inside a women’s lingerie store. Although one of the elderly men, Milton, who had to be at least eighty years old, had prevailed upon a group of the human women to take him to a Victoria’s Secret store in Coopersville. He’d said the lingerie he’d seen would keep his imagination busy until the day he died. Which might not be all that far away if he kept going to such heart attack–inducing stores, Teddy thought.