by Penny Wylder
She’s been taking her mom’s side about everything lately. It’s like she blames her dad for the divorce and not being able to go to school abroad. I wonder if she knows the things I’ve heard my parents talk about when they thought I wasn’t listening. I heard them say Gina cheated on Nicholas and he caught her in their bed. I don’t know how true it is, but that’s the rumor. My dad is close with Nicholas, so it’s possible he heard it firsthand. I don’t want to be petty because I have a crush on Nicholas, but I’ve always thought Gina was sketchy. I used to see her flirting with the fathers when she would show up at the high school parking lot back when Tara and I were still in school.
“Can you guys not fight? This is vacation, it’s supposed to be fun,” I say.
Charlie rolls his eyes and suddenly notices the novel on the side of my bed. “What’s this?” he says with the same amusement that Nicholas had when he saw it. He laughs at the suggestive cover with two half-naked people on it.
“Give me that,” I say, trying to swipe it away from him, but he’s fast. He has the reflexes of a cat. It’s so annoying. The way he’s behaving now is the same way he used to act when he was ten.
“You’re into this kind of shit?” he asks, his brow twisting with confusion as he flips through the pages. I’m finally able to get it away from him before he reads anything too scandalous and embarrasses me further.
“Yes I am,” I say, glaring at him.
“You should get your head out of the books and start experiencing the real thing.”
My face is suddenly an inferno. Tara lets out a teasing giggle. I glare at her too.
“What?” Charlie says, noticing the look that Tara and I exchange. “Why is that funny? Are you a virgin or something?” He says it like it’s a joke, but he doesn’t know how right he really is.
My humiliation deepens. Tara breaks into a fit of laughter.
Charlie laughs too. “Holy shit. You are! You’re twenty years old, what the hell are you waiting for?”
“Nothing,” I say.
I’m not really waiting for anything. I used to be waiting for Mr. Right, whoever that is. The only person who I ever even thought about giving myself to is off limits. It’s impossible to imagine myself with someone other than Nicholas. He’s been my crush for as long as I can remember. I always compare guys who flirt with me to him, and they never measure up.
Charlie starts to talk, interrupting my thoughts about his dad. I feel a little embarrassed for going into my head and spacing out, as if I’ve been caught thinking about him like somehow Charlie can read my mind.
“You seriously need to get laid,” Charlie says. “Let’s go see what’s up with the local scene. We can find you a young French man.”
Tara looks at me and shrugs. “Never know. Could be fun.”
“Seriously?” I ask her.
“Why not? We’re on vacation. This is the last time we’ll get to spend quality time together before you start classes here and I’m stuck at home, in that old familiar hell. When will we get another chance to take on the most romantic city in the world? I mean, you will because you’ll be going to school here, but I won’t.” She sounds a little bitter about it. I feel bad for her because she always wanted to go to school here too, but her parents’ divorce disrupted those plans. “Seems like kind of a wasted opportunity not to spend our time here flirting with French boys.”
Charlie adds, “Getting laid is what this place was built for.”
I laugh. They’re both right. But I’m nervous. I’m not waiting to lose my virginity, but I fear I’ve waited so long that I’ve made being intimate with someone a bigger deal than it should be.
I walk into the common area of our suite and see Nicholas unpacking his things. He’s in long shorts and a t-shirt. His muscles flex each time he moves. The flecks of gray hair mixed with the dark makes him look distinguished, handsome. He’s the sexiest man I’ve ever seen in my life and it’s hard to look away from him. I could stay here forever and just watch him.
He looks up abruptly, catching me staring. “Hey there, Cleo,” he says, his smile making my heart sing.
“Hey Nicholas.” I love the way his name sounds on my lips. I imagine how it would sound as I’m calling it out in bed. The thought makes me blush and smile.
“How have things been?” he asks.
“Things are good. I’ve just been getting ready to leave for college in the spring like everyone else. There’s so much to remember.”
“Better make sure not to get too distracted with all the boys chasing you around,” he says with a teasing tone in his voice. There’s no jealousy, no hint of being upset about it. He doesn’t think of me the same way I think of him. This isn’t one of my historical romances.
My stomach hurts. I want him to want me the as much as I want him. Is that too much to ask?
I sigh. “There are no boys chasing me around.”
He seems surprised by that. “Really? A pretty girl like you? Come on.”
“Nope. No one. Not yet. I haven’t found someone who gets me.”
“You will,” he says with assurance. If only that someone who gets me were him.
I’m disappointed when I walk away. I shouldn’t take it so personally, but knowing he doesn’t feel anything for me hurts.
I go to my brother’s room where he’s sitting on a small sofa playing a handheld video game. Charlie is laying on the bed, looking up at the ceiling as though he’s having the most boring time of his life.
I lay beside him on the bed and look up at the ceiling too. There are little designs carved into the surface. It’s beautiful and mesmerizing. I can see why he’s staring. It’s like being hypnotized.
He looks over at me. My presence seems to break the spell.
“I’ve changed my mind. I’m ready to go out and meet myself a French boy,” I say.
He rolls over to face me and caresses my arm. He’s always been a little flirty with me since he hit puberty, but this is a bold new step that I’m not completely comfortable with.
“Who needs some random stranger when you have me?”
I don’t know what to say. I’ve never thought of Charlie like that. Luckily my mom walks into the room, interrupting the situation before it gets out of hand.
“I’m trying to get everyone together so we can go down to the main ballroom. They’re having dance lessons. It’ll be fun,” my mom says cheerily.
I would normally pass on that sort of thing, but if I do, she’ll leave and Charlie will pick up where he left off, and I’m not ready to deal with that right now.
I jump up off the bed. “Sounds good.”
I go over to my brother and pluck the earbuds from his ears. “If I have to do this, so do you.”
He grumbles and rolls off the bed.
Everyone attends the dance lessons, including Nicholas. Charlie seeks me out to be his dance partner, but I hurry and grab Nicholas before he reaches me. Now Charlie is stuck dancing with his sister.
Nicholas and I face each other as instructed. He takes my hands in his, the warmth of his skin sending tendrils of electricity through me, raising goosebumps despite the heat. I’m breathing hard, but fighting it.
I don’t think he notices. And I know he doesn’t feel the same way that I feel, but I’m determined to make it happen by the time these dance lessons are over. We’re learning the tango. This will be perfect.
We’re clumsy at first because neither of us knows the steps and we keep stomping on each other’s feet and bumping shoulders. We laugh, breaking up some of the tension I’m feeling.
Eventually we get the hang of it. Both of us have decent rhythm—unlike my parents who look like strangers trying to step around each other, but bumping into each other instead, like some sort of comedy sketch. It’s adorable because they laugh and look like they’re having a blast. Someday I hope to find the kind of love that they have.
Nicholas and I find our groove. We’re really good at this, as if our bodies know exactly what to do
without even needing to think. Everyone is busy doing their own thing, so they don’t seem to notice as I press my body against Nicholas. Our noses are barely an inch from touching. I notice when his breathing starts to change. When I look into his eyes, they’re wide and confused. He’s looking at me differently than he ever has before.
He spins me around, away from him, then brings me back into his arms, pressing our bodies together again, closer this time. When I rub against him and feel his hard-on, I glance down at it without thinking. I hadn’t meant to be so obvious about it, but I can’t help it. He definitely notices, but doesn’t try to hide it. Not that there would be a way to hide that monster bulge anyway.
My face is glowing red, I know it. I can feel it. His hand moves down to my lower back and he presses our hips together so his hard dick is pushing against me. I gasp. The motion feels very intentional, but I’m afraid to read more into it. I don’t want to be disappointed if it’s all in my head.
But his hard-on is definitely not all in my head. It’s very real and very big, and rubbing wonderfully against that very sensitive part of me that’s getting wetter and wetter by the second the longer we stay this way,
I grind against him and he lets out a sound like a groan before clearing his throat to hide it.
When I look up at him, his desire is obvious, and I don’t do anything to try to hide my own. I want him and I want to make sure he knows it.
3
Nicholas
I’m staring down at the sweating, gorgeous, heavy-breathing body of my daughter’s best friend as she rubs against my raging erection. Until this moment, I’ve never looked at her in a sexual way. Sure, I noticed as she developed into a beautiful woman. It was hard not to. But I always kept those desires on a leash. Until now.
She’s a grown woman now and she’s doing everything she can to make sure I know it. I never imagined she would be attracted to me. I stay fit, yes, but I’m still twenty years older than she is. She could have any man she wants.
Something clicks in my head and I remember the novel she’d dropped in the hallway of the hotel. When I read the back of the book, it was about a younger woman with an older man. Maybe that’s what she’s into. Now that I think of it, I’ve never once heard her talk about boys her age.
Staring down at her, she’s intoxicating. It feels as though someone has pulled a blinder from my eyes and I’m seeing her for the first time. The way she’s dancing with me and looking at me, she’s been flirting with me this whole time. I still can’t believe it, though. She’s twenty years old. I’ve never thought about dating someone so much younger than me. Never imagined someone like that being attracted to someone my age.
This can’t be okay. It feels wrong. People will judge me. They’ll think I’m going through some kind of mid-life crisis. My body argues against my mind, though. Maybe I’m overthinking the whole thing. She’s probably just flirting and I’m imagining something that isn’t really there. I want to test this, see how far she’s willing to go.
My mind is spinning with the possibilities when Charlie calls my name. “Let’s wrap things up so we can go eat,” he says.
I untangle myself from Cleo’s grasp and thank the instructor. I pretend nothing happened and try to ignore Cleo’s burning stare. A voice deep inside of me says that this isn’t over.
I get in the shower and get cleaned up for dinner. I step under the warm water of the shower and let it roll between my shoulder blades. As I close my eyes and enjoy the warmth and steam, I start to wonder what happened in that ballroom. Was Cleo really rubbing up against me or was I only imagining it? I can still smell the scent of lavender and lemon on her skin. The thought of her keeps my cock hard even after my best attempts to think about anything else.
I know it’s wrong to touch myself right now while thinking of her, but since I’m alone, I allow my mind to wander back to the dance floor. I lather the soap on my body and remember the way she felt against me: small, firm, and full of unbridled youth.
I close my eyes and soap up my hard dick. The feeling sends a shiver through me.
I argue with the thoughts in my head. Part of me wants to not think about Cleo because the things going through my mind are so dirty and wrong. She’s my daughter’s best friend. I’ve known her since she was just a child.
But she’s not a child anymore. She’s a mature young woman with stunning curves. Her liquid jade eyes searched mine, and for a moment, I had forgotten how to breathe, and for a moment I thought she would kiss me.
As I picture all of the little details of that dance, I realize I’ve been stroking my dick this entire time. My hand moves fast as I imagine ripping that dress off of her and tasting the sweet taste of her naked skin and plunging my cock into her tight young pussy. As soon as I imagine her crying out my name, my cock explodes and I shoot cum against the glass shower door.
My knees quiver and my vision is a blur. Hopefully that’s all I need to get her out of my mind for a while. Though knowing that we’ll be stuck together in the same suite for the next three weeks, I have a feeling this won’t be the last time I’ll be defacing these shower walls.
There aren’t enough bathrooms or places to get ready in this suite. Charlie keeps knocking on the bathroom door, interrupting my private thoughts of Cleo. Luckily I’ve already taken care of business, so I grab my clothes and walk out with a towel wrapped around my waist.
Cleo is standing in the small kitchen, watching me as I walk out. The bathroom door slams as Charlie disappears inside.
I pretend not to notice her standing there as I go around the corner to the closet to change. All of the rooms are taken, and now the bathroom is, too. The closet is too small for me to go inside and shut the door, so I leave it propped open while I change. When I turn around, I notice Cleo peeking at me from behind the kitchen counter as I drop my towel, about to put on my boxers. She looks like a deer in headlights when she realizes she’s been caught. I wink at her and my dick gets hard when she blushes and scurries off.
I can’t believe she was trying to look at my dick. I really want to know just how deep this crush of hers goes. Is it a crush or is it just youthful fascination with an older man? I plan to find out.
Paris at night is something to see. The streets are lit up, bistros everywhere you look. It’s late but still everything is open. Rustic music is being played by street musicians. It really is the most romantic city on earth. Everywhere I turn there’s a man on his knee, holding a ring out for a proposal, and teary-eyed women saying yes.
We eat at a gorgeous restaurant. Everything is white and crystal and clean. It’s a place Ted saw on the Food Network and called months ahead of time for a reservation.
We sit at our table. Cleo sits across from me next to Tara. Tara is prattling on about something and Cleo looks as though she’s trying to follow along, but she’s distracted.
Ted turns to me, “So how have things been Nicholas?”
I think about the way things have been lately and hesitate to answer. They haven’t been good. Not even a little bit. After walking in on my wife cheating on me and destroying my family, things have pretty much gone downhill since. I found out her cheating on me wasn’t an isolated incident as I had first thought. Turns out she’d been cheating on me our whole marriage. Even before we were married. Gina was a good actress. I never suspected a thing. How many times had I kissed her after she’d been with another man?
The thought makes me sick and makes me hate her more than I already do, so I try to push it out of my head.
As much as I try, I just can’t. I’m so angry. The part that really got to me was when she tried to suggest that Tara wasn’t even my biological daughter. I didn’t believe her because Tara looks just like me. And I didn’t want to take the DNA test, but she insisted and so did our lawyers. Turns out that Tara is mine after all, but the damage is done.
Gina and her lawyer steamrolled me. I nearly lost everything in the divorce. Every penny went to alimony and lawyers. Tara a
nd Charlie’s college funds were depleted. Lucky for Charlie, he’s a star athlete and has multiple scholarships for different sports. But Tara didn’t get so lucky. She had all these grand plans of going to college with Cleo in Paris, and now she can’t.
Even though everything seems bleak, I try my best to keep my head up. I’m alive and healthy, and I get to see my kids on a regular basis because Gina is off with her sugar daddy in some far off land, spending his money the way she spent mine. She found herself a loaded older man who looks like some gangster in a casino movie from the 70s. It was always about money for her. I feel sorry for the poor sap who’s with her now. He has no idea what he’s gotten himself into.
Ted looks at me expectantly, waiting for an answer. I sigh. “Well, I was doing all right until I found out Gina had been cheating on me our whole relationship.” I say it quietly enough so my kids don’t hear. I don’t like talking about their mom and my divorce in front of them. They’re distracted so I don’t have to worry about it.
“That’s horrible that she cheated on you,” Cleo says.
She wasn’t distracted after all. She was listening in on the conversation. The concern in her eyes melts my heart. She’s so beautiful. She’s always been a kind girl who has a big heart and cared for other people.
“Thank you, Cleo,” I tell her. Ted is generous enough to change the subject. He talks about going to the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre tomorrow morning. But all I can think about is Cleo.
That evening I decide to go for a walk to clear my head. It’s almost dark out. From the park on the hill I can see the city lights shining bright. The whole city is lit up, teaming with tourists, yet it’s so peaceful to watch at the same time.
I’m looking around the park when, across the street, I see someone standing in front of a small bookstore, peering inside. There are several other people walking down the street and standing around in clumps, but for some reason all I notice is her. And then I realize why. It’s Cleo.