Chapter 30
PRIVATE LESSONS
It looked big and wicked, so I bought one in every color.
Not that a girl needs three vibrators, but you never know when they might come in handy while house-sitting a mansion on the island of Kauai. And while my business partner, Keisha, visited family back east, I was planning a reunion of my own.Content property of NôvelDra/ma.Org.
A private show.
The guest of honor? Cornelius Jones, CEO and founder of Vault-a sex-toy, lifestyle, love, and fantasy accessories company. He had just sold his business for a ton of money after he’d become a multi-millionaire. At thirty-five, only six years older than I, he was officially retired.
The catering and party-planning service Keisha and I co-owned- Island Eats-provided pineapple fruit baskets, frosty sorbet punch, and croissant wreaths stuffed with chopped vegetables and feta cheese for the monthly sales orientation of Vault’s consultants. Cornelius had helped us network and grow our business into a success.
This is how I came to know Keisha’s hot, blue-eyed cousin, a hunky man-God complete with exotic dreadlocks and muscles so sharply razored they could slice paper. It was also 100 percent business between us. But in my dreams, I had fantasized about his milk-and-cocoa skin rubbing against the whipped cream lightness of mine.
If luck was on my side, and if I didn’t run out of guts by the time his plane landed on Kauai tomorrow afternoon, then maybe my dreams might come true.
I looked at my arsenal of playthings spread out on the display table and smiled a dastardly smile. Nipple clamps, check, handcuffs, check, the Tornado, the Thruster, the Twister, mm-hmmm, the willow-the-whip, and an assortment of other goodies weighed the table down nicely.
I imagined the familiar tease of his blue eyes sparkling at me. My abs quivered, knowing his gaze would soon hook and sink with lazy amusement on my pinkening face. While I’m no shrinking pansy-I’m five-feet-ten-I always blush when he gives me the Eye. The look is a cross between a GodI’d-love-to-bang-you-so-hard look and a Damn-I’m-afraid-to-ask look. It felt intoxicating to have a man look at you with hunger and dread.
My nerves waffled, but my nipples tightened into grim little knobby knobs. They reminded me of what I wanted: Cornelius’ tongue twirling around them…Cornelius’ tongue glazing the bead between my legs to a honeyed bulge, Cornelius’ hands squeezing my ass, his supple fingers gently exploring the opening of my-well…you get the idea.
I arranged candles in their rustic bamboo holders. My hands shook at the thought of touching his silky sable dreadlocks whose narrow lengths brushed the tops of his shoulders. I imagined my fingers tracing the tribal sleeve tattooed on his thick, powerful arm.
What if he laughs in my face? Then I’ll shut him up with a kiss. What if he brushes me off? I continued to fret because the last time I saw him, I told him he was a walking STD dispenser.
So I made a little mistake!
When a man says he’d like to ask you out against his better judgment, what’s a girl to think? That he’s doing you a favor or something? Plus I’d seen him with lots of beautiful women over the years. What did he want with me? “Have I done something to piss you off, Nerissa? Because, against my better judgment, I’d love to ask you out sometime.”
His exact words. That was three months ago. Surely he’d forgotten my reply by now. “Ah, no. I’m not in the market for a venereal disease.”
He didn’t find that funny. I had only been in love with the handsome beast for years, so when he tossed his offer out there so casually, I came back with some glib remark…and hurt someone I cared deeply for.
“Nice, Nerissa. Neither am I. And thanks to you, my cock just shrank into my testicles. Don’t worry, I won’t ask again.”
I was used to his forward way of speaking. He sold sexual fantasies, vibrators and butt plugs and nipple clamps and sex games, and sexy-time fun, for a living. But…I noticed when he was presenting and training, he was a total pro. Yet when he was around Keisha and me he showed glimpses of a warm, kind, dirty-talking, flirty-mouthed self.
Most of all, Cornelius was nice. He smelled nice, too. He captured the scent of Elusive Male-a dazzling man fragrance bursting with pin-prickles of panty-wetting notes. L. O. L.
He’ll be rolling on your ass when he smacks you down, Nerissa. Laugh now. Cry later.
I picked up a vibrator. My gaze roamed its eight-inch length. I fondled it, caressed it, touched its cloak, made of the softest silicone and lightly threaded with simulated veins, such as a real cock would possess.
While the burnt-orange color doesn’t exactly make me want to rip my panties off at the moment, I know whose penis was used to create the mold for this. It’s supposed to be a company secret… Behold! I hold in my hand Whispering Cock!
With a flick of my thumb, I turned it on and a low, strong hum surged through its length. It had a built-in warmer, too. Had I tried it? No. Because if what I have in mind fails, this Bad Boy will be my consolation prize.
Whispering Cock somehow managed to drown out the other noise. I didn’t hear it until it was too late.
It wasn’t the wind blowing through the coffee orchard. Kauai’s famous rain wasn’t dripping down the ropy branches of the banyan tree out front in the circular driveway. Rain wouldn’t make the sinister “click” of the garden room’s door-latch being pushed down, and the sound of the interior glass door being thrown open behind my back.
My heart thumped. No! Nothing and no one was going to keep me from tomorrow-from my plans. From Cornelius!
I grabbed the nearest weapon, a tea-light lamp, swung around, and threw it at the figure that stepped inside the room. My missile hit a carry-on travel bag, quickly raised to protect the intruder’s face.
“Don’t come any closer!” I grabbed my next weapon of choice-my cell phone.
My fingers struggled with the password to unlock my screen.
“What the hell, Nerissa, it’s me!” Cornelius peered at me from beneath his bag. His funky blue eyes, with their halo of gold speckles around the irises, gleamed bright and impatient and pierced me from across the room. My shoulders slumped. Tears pricked my vision. “You scared me!” “I knocked!” He lowered the bag.