Femme Noir (15 page)

“
Why
are you here?”

“We shared a moment. I’ve come to collect on the promise.”

I shoved Amber’s arm away from me, turned off the water and let my head drip. “What promise?”

“The promise of your hands.” Amber put my hands on her buttocks. “And the promise of your mouth.” Amber stood on tiptoe and caught my mouth with her own. I let my reflexes take over and kissed Amber, who then hovered near my mouth and murmured, “I see you. I see what you are. You’re an animal. You need me. Are those not promises loud and clear?” Amber batted her eyes.

I stepped away. “But those promises are not to you.” Thoughts of Max tipping a grin to me. Max on her knees, fondling her own breasts, arching back, opening her throat, pinching her nipples, her hair brushing her back, her legs parting, parting, parting, revealing her swollen slick cunt, untouched by anyone but me, all for me, only mine forever. Max splitting wider and wider, her clit nourishment, her cunt drink, her breasts hors d’oeuvres, her ass dessert.

Amber pressed me against the bathroom wall. “Well, where is she? Why aren’t you with her? Looks to me like you’re ripe for the plucking.”

I imagined Max’s mouth…Max’s tongue exploring my skin, all her curves and straight edges, all her taut tendons and her potent hairlines, leaving clear tracks of desire. Max’s hot breath, her lips raw, damp, and puffy from my kisses, Max’s voice sliding out only in groans and gasps. My hand sinking into Max’s hair and twisting it in a knot around my fist as I brought Max’s mouth to my own…

I pushed Amber back a couple of steps. “Listen, if there’s anything I want from you, I’ll let you know.”

“Hey, magician, you want this?” Amber retrieved her purse that she had dropped on the floor, removed a clove cigarette, and lit it.

My mouth watered. “Maybe just a drag.”

Amber rested against me. “You can have all you want.” She gave the cigarette to me and I closed my eyes and pulled hard. I felt her move away and heard fumbling. When I opened my eyes, Amber was stark naked in front of me.

“What the fuck? You are one crazy bitch.” I laughed.

“Oh, you Cappies and your conservatism. Let loose.” Amber shook her breasts. “Live a little. It would be a big healthy step for you.”

I could hear Lila wailing another song. If Max had done what Amber just did, I would’ve smacked her bottom right smart, dressed her double-quick, hustled her out of there, and given her a lesson she would never forget in the privacy of her bedroom. No one could have the privilege of seeing even one extra inch of my precious Max. But this chick was on her own.

Amber was spare and lanky with long legs, high, small round breasts, and a decent ass for a white girl. She was so comfortable with herself, she looked like a marionette: all loose joints just waiting to be directed by a stronger hand.

“If I know you, Cappy, this doesn’t give you much choice, does it?” Amber grinned.

I finished my cigarette, enjoying the dizzy little buzz, and flicked the sizzling butt into the toilet. “Nope,” I said, jumping on Amber and biting her throat.

Amber’s laughter gurgled. “I knew it,” she whispered.

“Shut up,” I said. I picked up Amber and put her on the sink where she squealed with delight at the touch of cold porcelain. I jerked her knees apart and brushed her bush with the back of my hand. Amber leaned her head back. She closed her eyes. She tilted her pelvis. I rummaged in my pocket and removed the latex gloves and dental dam I always carried. I snapped on the gloves like a surgeon going to work. I stepped in between Amber’s knees spread oh so accommodatingly wide.

I took one of Amber’s dark red nipples in my mouth. She moaned. I sucked harder and harder still. She began gyrating slightly. “Yes…yes…” she whispered.

“You are one nasty cunt, aren’t you?” I muttered.

“I’ll be whatever you make me. I get what I want,” Amber answered, gasping when I tweaked her clit.

“Maybe you should be my pony. Get on all fours and take it up the ass while I whip you.”

Amber’s eyes sparkled. “I’m a wild pony. It will take a lot to break me.”

“Oh, I’ll break you right now.” I knelt on the floor. I heard clapping and cheering outside the restroom. Then the music began again. I placed the dam on Amber’s cunt and sucked her clit.

“Oh, my God, oh, my God, oh, my God.” Amber went limp and still. “You are so good…you are so good…yes, yes…”

“Shut up,” I commanded. Amber nodded and closed her mouth. She opened her legs wider and curled her hips farther to me. Amber gently pulled her lips open, steadying the dam. I nipped her thigh, then moved to her ankles and bit a ring around each. I nibbled my way back up her lean legs to her thighs, where I sucked and left two matching bruises. I kissed her navel and tugged on the belly ring with my teeth. She was panting and pulsing. I began licking my way down to the dam. I placed my lips ever so gently around her turgid clit. She grunted and sighed.

The door slammed open and Darcy, Ava-Suzanne, and Jhoaeneyie all pushed in together. I expected Amber to clap her legs closed and hide in the stall, horribly embarrassed as she dressed quickly and ran home in shame. I stood, waiting.

Instead, Amber remained where she was. She didn’t even close her legs. She grinned big and stretched her arms. “Hi, guys. Having a good time?” she asked. “I know I was.”

“Amber,” Darcy said. “Love your outfit.”

“This old thing?” Amber laughed.

“Amber, I’ve been meaning to ask you if you ever got in that book on Numerology that I ordered,” Jhoaeneyie said.

“Jhoaeneyie, honey, I’m a little busy. Call Light and Love tomorrow.”

Ava-Suzanne stepped in between Amber’s knees and rolled Amber’s nipple between her finger and thumb. Amber wrapped her legs around Ava-Suzanne and held her close.

“You look absolutely appetizing,” Ava-Suzanne said, her voice low and gravelly.

“Care for a go?” Amber, her chest deep pink and her eyes glittering, stared at Ava-Suzanne. “There’s plenty,” she added.

“This ain’t working for me,” I said, rolling off my gloves and throwing them in the trash. “Y’all play on through.” I searched in Amber’s purse, feeling certain she wouldn’t mind, found the cloves, and took all of them.

Darcy stepped beside Ava-Suzanne and began stroking Amber’s cunt through the dam.

“Come one, come all,” Amber said.

Jhoaeneyie snorted and said, “No pun intended.”

“Yes, there was,” Amber replied. “I need to get off and the more the merrier.” Amber groaned as she writhed under Ava-Suzanne’s and Darcy’s touch.

“You started it, now we’ll finish it,” Jhoaeneyie, with a quick double dip into her nostrils, said to me. “Guess it was too much for you.”

“Yeah, it sure was. Live it up.” I left the bathroom, my head clearing at last. I was glad to be out of the grip of that rapacious octopus. Lila waved to me and kept singing. I picked up an abandoned glass full of golden liquid and downed it, hoping to burn the experience out of my mouth and therefore out of my memory. I leaned against the wall, panting.

Sloane came by on her way to the bathroom.

“You might want to wait awhile,” I warned, then laughed. “Or join in.”

“Amber?” Sloane asked, cocking her head to listen.

“How did you know?”

“I saw her come walking in with That Look. She’s famous for it. I should’ve warned you…” Sloane laughed. “But I didn’t want to.”

“Thanks, dog.”

“Oh, you’re still upright and conscious. Consider yourself lucky.”

“Yep, she’s getting the full ten point inspection. Lube job, oil change…”

“Fluids check?”

I nodded. “Air filter, tire pressure…”

“Is it the gruesome twosome?”

“Naw, there’s three of them in there on her.”

“Oh, Jhoaeneyie’s harmless. She just watches. She will caress Amber’s hair or hand someone a dildo, but she won’t do a damn thing. She ought to play piano in the background.”

“I don’t want to ask…how do you know this?”

Sloane shrugged. “I’ve heard plenty.”

Lila’s song ended to raucous applause. Shouts and cries came from the bathroom. Lila heard this and announced, “Is God here? Someone is paging God. God, if you’re here, you’re needed in the restroom.” Laughter rippled through the club. “In the spirit of attaining multiple…ah…states of bliss…hit it, boys!” Lila cried and swung into another song.

“I’ll just use the men’s,” Sloane said and left.

I needed a drink, a proper gin and tonic to put myself right again. I left Amber’s cigarettes on the bar. After reflection, I wanted no reminders of that scene, no matter how sweet the smokes. I planned to drink this last cocktail out on the deck and then head to Max’s and see what I could get started there. Before I could go outside, the foursome from the bathroom approached me.

“There you are.” Amber smiled dopily, leaning on Darcy and Ava-Suzanne’s arms. Jhoaeneyie took up the rear. “You and I still have a date with destiny.”

“I’ve had Destiny and she’s a bore,” I answered. “I’ll pass.”

Amber tittered. “Remember, I get what I want.” She passed her forefinger under my nose. I grimaced and slapped Amber’s hand down.

“Not this time. You let somebody else play that squeezebox, hear?”

Amber set her jaw and then spied her cigarettes on the bar. “There you are. Funny, I don’t even remember putting them down here. Brandy? Courvoisier?”

Ava-Suzanne stepped to the bar and said, “Two juicy pussies.”

Jhoaeneyie and Darcy giggled. “Cause they’re better in pairs!” they crowed in unison.

Jhoaeneyie ordered two slippery nipples. She and Darcy repeated, “Cause they’re better in pairs!” And fell out laughing.

Amber lit a clove and stuck it in my mouth. I spat it to the floor. “I’ll get my own,” I told her. “Cigarettes and poon…
and drinks,
” I told Jhoaeneyie, who tried to hand me a slippery nipple.

“Oh, is my girlfriend cranky because she gave up the sweet thing tonight?” Amber cooed.

“Girlfriend! Bitch, you are deluded.”

“Amber is never deluded,” Ava-Suzanne retorted.

“You’re my world now.” Amber grinned, taking my hand and kissing my fingers.

I jerked away. “You and I never even met, got it?”

“No, no, it’s in the cards and in the stars. You resist as long and hard as you like, but you’re mine. I think it’s cute. All that fighting. I like a warrior,” Amber said, sipping her drink.

“Well, I don’t like crazy. And you don’t do nothin’ for me. I told you. This,” I gestured between us, “ain’t gonna happen. If you were the last woman on the planet, I’d kill myself and you could hump my dead body. If we were trapped on a desert island, I’d take your cigarettes and then use you for fish bait. Is that clear enough, Amber?”

She winked at me. “Not quite.” She turned to Darcy and Ava-Suzanne. “She doesn’t get it, does she?”

Ava-Suzanne laughed. It was a chilling sound. Darcy laughed too. “No, she doesn’t. Not even remotely,” Ava-Suzanne answered.

“Not a clue,” Darcy said.

“No way,” Jhoaeneyie added.

“You see, Nora,” Amber propped her arm high up on my shoulder and twirled her fingers next to my temple, “all of this is so Earth. You need to expand your perceptions. There’s a lot at work here.”

I patted myself down and found a stale, forgotten Marlboro in a hidden pocket. I lit it and Ava-Suzanne coughed pointedly.

“Could you blow that somewhere else?” she demanded.

I drew so deeply on the cigarette, the end burned brightly and crackled with heat. I pursed my lips and blew hard right into Ava-Suzanne’s haughty face. Her wispy bangs lifted with the smoke. She closed her eyes and smiled, all ice.

“Thank you.” She nodded. “Thank you for showing me who you are.”

“Oh, I’ll show you a lot more than that, baby doll.” I grinned and shrugged Amber off my shoulder.

“God, I love this woman!” Amber cried. “She’s so refreshing.”

“She’s just what this town needs,” Jhoaeneyie said.

“Yes, Tulsa needs another hole in its head,” Ava-Suzanne said.

In spite of myself, I laughed and slapped Ava-Suzanne on the back. As if they were monkeys following the group, everyone else laughed too.

I tried again to remove myself and go out to the deck alone, but Jhoaeneyie grabbed my arm.

“What’s the best thing about coaching college basketball?”

“The pussy,” I quipped.

Jhoaeneyie looked uncertain about whether I was joking, so she sort of choked and coughed, halfway to a laugh. “What I love most about being a therapist is
helping.
” Jhoaeneyie smiled angelically. “The helping,” she repeated. “I’m a helper. It just feels so darn good to know you make a difference. Don’t you find that?”

“No, I just want to win.” I smiled.

“Hmm. Mmm-hmm. Well, anyway, like I was telling my roommate Joan, that’s really why I do what I do.”

“Hold it. You live with someone named Joan? And you’re name is Jhoaeneyie?”

“Yeah, isn’t it ironic?” Jhoaeneyie grinned. Then she baby talked, “My widdle darlin’ wuvs that we have the same name. She is my baby Joanawoan. I wuv it too.”