by Shona Husk
She cracked open her eyes, ready for some awkward post-coital conversation. Kede lay spread on the bed. Only his mouth had moved. A knowing smile on his lush lips. He was still hard inside her. Did he want her to continue until he was done? It just didn’t feel right with him unable to participate properly. Josie glanced away, not sure what to say or do. Her gaze was caught by the red silk ropes. They lay loose, the ends trailing on the floor. His hands were free. Kede was free.
Josie scrambled away to the other side of the room. Her legs protested the sudden movement. All her doubts resurfaced. She didn’t know him, and even if he came out of the bottle, the whole here for your pleasure thing could be a trick.
“How’d you do that?” she said, pointing to the rope that had been her safety net.
“You set me free.” He sat up, lithe and graceful and unspent. Ready for another round, just what she’d wished for.
“Whoa, stay back.” She held out her hand like she was training a dog. She wasn’t sure she wanted another ride if he wasn’t tied down. There was something about him. Too much power restrained in every glance. She couldn’t tame a lover like that, only hold on and hope for the best. She didn’t want to be picking up the pieces of her life again after another accident with a man. Josie was sure even men from bottles could break hearts.
“I’m here for you. Our time is set by the hourglass.”
The sand moved one grain at a time now. If she stared it seemed to stop falling altogether. Kede prowled over the bed towards her like a lion closing in on lunch. “Don’t you want me to pleasure you, Josette?”
Her pulse fluttered. She was more than ready to be devoured. Slowly, quickly or whatever else he had in mind. She attempted to cover herself with her hands and was less than successful. “No.”
The squeak in her voice halted his progress. He looked confused by her rebuff. His brows drew together. He was a work of art, even with his cock tightly wrapped in latex. How could she not want him? She said the first thing that came to mind to get herself out of trouble.
“I want to watch you pleasure yourself.”
Chapter Four
Kede froze. In his centuries as a lover self-pleasuring was not a frequent request. He could count on one hand, not including his thumb, the number of times he’d performed alone to a wide-eyed woman. And they had all been virgins until they had licked his bottle.
He pulled off the sheath she’d placed over his cock. They’d advanced since he’d last been forced to use one, but he still had no intention of keeping it on. He palmed his length and asked the silent question, shall I continue?
Josette set her chin. She stood almost naked in front of him. One hand over her quim, the other arm crossed over her lace-covered breasts in an attempt to hide. A nervous Venus. He would win her over. He always did, but for the moment this was what she wanted. What she thought she wanted, because she couldn’t let go of whatever was keeping her back. It was better for him. The longer she took, the longer he had out of the bottle. He adjusted his weight on his knees. His balls tight. No matter the request, it wasn’t part of his make-up to give a bad performance. He couldn’t prolong his stay by any means. Deliberately going slow was like walking a knife edge, every step cut and the pain wasn’t worth it. He’d tried before.
It didn’t take more than a couple of strokes for a bead of come to seep out of the slit. He swiped his thumb over the crown. He would rather be feeling her tight channel clench around him, slick and hot. He envisioned her face as she had looked astride him, lips parted, eyes closed, cheeks flushed. Beautiful. All women were while they were arching towards climax.
That was where it stopped. They demanded, ordered, used him like a slave. It hadn’t felt that way at first, but as the centuries slid away in a haze of flesh and lust he had learned his true worth.
Kede fisted his hand tight around his cock and stroked hard. He wasn’t going to deny himself a second time on her behalf. He’d sensed her wish and waited, because he had also wanted his hands free. Now they were free, but they weren’t touching her. “Are you sure?”
She lifted her eyes and gave a little nod. As an afterthought, she reached for her lacy underwear on the floor and threw them to him. He caught them one-handed. Delicate, scented intimately of Josette. She was naked because she had asked what he wanted. He couldn’t remember the last woman who had bothered to care.
He smiled without acting and as he remembered the easy, endless pleasure of when he had first been created. Everything had been new and exciting, and he had held the power to grant women’s wishes. He couldn’t remember when the table had turned and trapped him, when fulfilling fantasies had become an excuse for him to be out of the bottle and nothing more.
He wrapped her panties around his shaft. The fabric was coarse against his skin. If Josette was going to change her mind, she’d better speak up soon. Her tongue traced her lower lip. Heat radiated off her skin, and her perfume of arousal was thick on the air, but she came no closer, made no offer to touch. Yet her eyes skimmed the planes of his body. He pleased her. His appearance pleased every woman who drew him out of the bottle. He wasn’t proud or cocky or vain. He was perfect because Inanna wanted him this way. And Josette really wanted him to finish.
That would be a first.
Could he do it?
If that was what she truly wanted, he could. In the images of wishes that swirled in his mind he knew why she’d asked even if she didn’t. He forced his shoulders back; he wouldn’t let the sigh of disappointment escape. She sought to command him like all the women before her. She was no different to any of the others. Josette was trying to reclaim control.
He closed his eyes and lost himself in his job. His hand moved quickly to give her what she wanted. Then he would wait for the next request. At the edge of his hearing the patter of sand grains was too slow, too fast. The bitter battle of swapping one trap for another.
The climax tore out of his body, spilling onto her black panties. The first one was always the best. The longer he’d been inside the bottle, the better it felt. This time it was oddly empty. Like he’d failed to satisfy. Kede opened his eyes.
Josette was the perfect picture of desire, her skin flushed with lust. Her hands pressed to her body like it was something she was embarrassed by. His performance had paralyzed her. Her mouth opened, but no words came out. Kede waited. She would tell him what she wanted next, and he would obey. By obeying he was staying free, and if his freedom came with the price of his free will so be it. It was a trade he had grown used to. This time he’d thought it would be different. When she’d kissed him there had been something. Now as he reached for it to examine her wish more carefully, it slid away.
“The laundry hamper is in the bathroom.”
Her voice was so soft he wasn’t sure he’d heard her speak. It was a full heartbeat before he understood what she had said. He’d been dismissed. She no longer wanted his services. He had failed.
Josie watched his perfect naked bum as he walked to the bathroom. Only when he was out of sight did she let her legs weaken. She dropped to her knees and let breath steal back into her lungs. Such an intimate act performed because she’d asked. The need that had burned in her blood cooled as it mixed with guilt. She shouldn’t have asked. That was mean. Yet he hadn’t argued, hadn’t tried to talk her round. Just complied. That made what she’d done worse.
She reached under the pillow and pulled out the oversized T-shirt that passed as her nightie. Somehow it smelled of faraway lands, of sultry heat and exotic incense. Of Kede. It rubbed against her nipples and tormented her mind. He had to leave. She looked around the room for his belongings. He’d done what he was here for. Whether he’d been paid or appeared from the bottle like he claimed, she was done. She could last another year alone.
“What are you looking for?” Kede watched from the doorway. Casual with his nakedness in a way she could never be. But she didn’t look like the love-child of a god.
“Your clothes.” She couldn’
t look at him without embarrassment singeing her cheeks crimson.
“I don’t have any. I don’t need any.” He took a couple of paces towards her. Stalking her.
If he touched her, she would melt and accidentally have sex with him. Again. “I, um, really appreciate you being here…but I think it would be best if you were going.”
He sucked in a breath and looked stricken. His skin paled like she’d just suggested his death. “Please don’t send me back.” He glanced at the sand timer. The red sand barely managed a trickle.
“How would I do that?” Even as she asked Josie knew she didn’t have the heart to send him back. Let the timer run. She didn’t have to sleep with him again just because he was here, available, willing, and the only male company she’d had in a year.
“I like being out of the bottle.” He looked at the ground. “If you truly want me gone, I will be returned before the sand runs out.”
He appeared so calm and accepting of his fate. But beneath his skin she saw the tension in his shoulders, the resistance in his legs. She didn’t blame him. Who would want to be trapped, and only freed when some gullible drunk licked the bottle?
“You really aren’t an escort.” Saying it aloud made her a little crazier than only thinking it. She was buying in to his story.
He lifted his head and looked at her. This time no sexy smile graced his lips. “I was created by Inanna, goddess of love and war. My brothers and I were her gift to all women. To remind them She hadn’t forgotten them.”
Josie frowned. She’d never heard of Inanna. But there were hundreds of gods she’d never heard of. Ancient history was never one of her strengths. She tipped her head as she studied Kede. If he had brothers, did they all look like him? All sex and lust and male?
“There are more men in bottles?”
He nodded. “There used to be. Maybe I am the last. I don’t know. I haven’t seen another Inanu in a very long time.”
A shiver traced over her skin at the idea of having two to lavish attention on her. She shook her head. The Universe appreciated gratitude. Be thankful she had one. One she didn’t know what to do with.
“So if I don’t send you back, what do I do with you?”
He closed the distance between them in a couple of strides and captured her in his arms. She squeaked, overwhelmed by the heat of his body colliding with hers. His lips brushed hers, the barest of kisses, more intense than any kiss that had preceded it. A hint of a promise, a desire he could fulfill if given a chance. Her bones became as light as air. Kede supported her, tempted her mouth with tastes of what could be.
“Whatever you want, Josette. Whatever your heart desires.” His teeth pinched her lower lip.
Her mouth opened, unable to resist while her brain tried to rationalize. His scent filled her lungs, exotic and alien and tempting. Her body warmed as lust reawakened and demanded feeding. Through her nightie, the heat of his shaft burned like a brand into her hip. A groan slipped past her lips. If he kept going, she was going to come just from being kissed.
Her fingers skimmed up his chest, his skin smooth and firm beneath her hand, but she wanted a taste. To run her tongue along his neck and down… She leaned back, her hand pale against his bronze skin as she gasped for air that was like treacle, too thick to breathe. The embers of passion burned in his eyes, mesmerizing her, luring her deeper into lust. She blinked, unable to hold his gaze without falling under his spell. Inanna had done a very good job when creating Kede, if her goal was for women to become wanton sex fiends.
His skin burned her palm, but she couldn’t pull away. “Can I trust you?”
“You brought me into existence. I cannot harm you. I am yours until the sand runs out.” He traced her cheek, down her neck, between her breasts.
Josie took his hand off her butt and stepped back. She couldn’t think with him touching her, turning every inch of skin into an erogenous zone. She needed to sleep on this. She glanced at the timer; it would still be running in the morning. At the rate the sand was falling it would be still running in several mornings’ time. She let out a breath. She wouldn’t send him back. He had done nothing wrong, but she didn’t have to be in the same bed as him.
She picked up a pillow and blanket off her bed and handed them to Kede. “Sofa.”
“You don’t…” He looked at the bed, a frown carving lines into his forehead.
“It’s been a long, strange day.” If she woke up in the morning in hospital to find this had all been an alcohol-induced hallucination she wouldn’t be in the least bit surprised. No, only disappointed.
“You don’t believe me.”
Did his shoulder drop a fraction? Did he want her to believe the impossible?
“Would you?”
He looked at her, through her and into her soul. In his gaze she was stripped bare, she could no longer hide any thought or secret. He knew her, Josette, not the Josie that faced the world. She didn’t blink, or look away. And in return she glimpsed a piece of Kede. The part that wanted to be with her tonight, that had hope and that longed for more than a prison made of glass.
“Good night, Josette.” He turned, graceful even with an armful of bedding.
Josie bit her lip to stop from calling him back. He closed the door after himself.
Bet he put the toilet seat down too.
Her window was in the wrong place. Josie rolled over, confused. Everything was in the wrong place. She sat up. No, her bed was in the wrong place. Jammed against the door… Her stomach slunk beneath the bed…because on the other side of the door her man from the bottle should be sleeping. Josie crossed her fingers. Please let it be a dream. A really life-like dream. A Technicolour dream.
She twisted around. On her bedside table sat the sand timer. Red sand fell, one grain per heartbeat. She got out of bed. Her body twinged in places that hadn’t seen action in a long time.
“Aw, damn.” It wasn’t a dream.
She hadn’t dreamed the sex or the man. The red rope tied to the bed was further evidence of her nocturnal activities. She cringed as the memories became clearer. Images of Kede naked and restrained flicked past. This was not like her at all. She tried the bonds again, working the loops and tracing the knots until they made no sense. There was no start and no end, yet twin tails trailed on her carpet. She gave the hourglass a tug, then a shove. She inspected it for nails or screws or glue. Anything that would keep it locked in place.
“Hmm.” If the timer was here, Kede was here. On her sofa. Assuming she hadn’t been conned by some new type of sex predator that lived to please single women by breaking their vows of chastity.
About as likely as men appearing out of bottles.
She dragged her bed away from the door, counted to three and peeked out. A man slept on her sofa, now sofa bed. Her navy blue blanket was draped over his lower half, while his feet hung over the edge. His sculpted chest lifted with each breath. His eyes were closed, and impossibly long, dark lashes lay against his tanned cheeks. Dark hair curled around his head. Too long to be fashionable, like a haircut that had been allowed to grow out, like he didn’t care how he looked because he was too cool, too hot, to be bothered. She dragged her eyes off the luscious male form that decorated her living room. Kede was a sight she could get used to first thing in the mornings.
On the kitchen counter sat the red bottle. Right where she’d left it after being forced to lick it by her well-meaning and now very dead friends. She gave her vision board a scathing glare. The Universe was having a giggle at her expense. Giving her a man with a deadline, a man that wasn’t even a real man.
Josie tiptoed out of her bedroom and gingerly lifted her handbag off the counter top where she had left it. She crossed her fingers and hoped everything was still inside. Although without clothing there weren’t many places he could hide a cell phone and a credit card. The thought brought a smile to her lips. She crept back into bedroom, shut the door and then went into the bathroom.
With her back against the bathroom do
or she rang Karen. It was early, but with two young children she would be up.
“Hi Karen, Josie,” she said just above a whisper.
“Hi, I thought you’d be sleeping off your birthday.”
Josie tried a light laugh. “I was calling to thank you for last night.” She waited for Karen to take the bait and admit to setting the whole thing up: the bottle, the hourglass, the man.
“I’m glad you enjoyed it. Shh. We should do a girls’ night out more often.” A child yelled in the background. “I have to feed the monkeys.”
Not wanting to let the chance go she jumped to the point of her call. “About the bottle?”
“It was just a bit of fun. Emily’s idea.”
Karen knew nothing about Kede. The child increased in volume. Unable to compete with the yelling, Josie said goodbye and hung up. She tapped the phone against her lip. What if Kede was telling the truth? That this was all for her, that he was for her. A birthday present of cosmic proportions.
An idea bloomed in her imagination. She’d given it a workout over the past year, creating her ideal life in minute detail. Now it was time for action. Josie dialed directory assistance.
If The Universe was going to meet her halfway, she’d do the rest.
Chapter Five
The sleek silver Audi TT was parked out front. Red leather seats. Sex on wheels. The most expensive toy she’d ever bought…borrowed. Delivered this morning for a king’s ransom, the ugly yellow hire car sticker plastered over the rear window was a reminder the Audi would be gone too soon. Like Kede, the car had an expiry date. Monday morning the car had to go back.
Josie sipped her second coffee on her almost-a-balcony. The car didn’t belong at her apartment complex. It was too pretty, too exotic. Her eight-year-old white sedan, the epitome of boring, belonged here.