Twenty

Selby stared at the front of Tracey’s apartment. It was a quaint complex with a rustic feel to it. The buildings were a light brown and the trim a rough chocolate. Giant oaks and pines grew throughout the complex, shading the parking spaces as well as the two-story buildings. Luckily for him, Tracey’s was on the bottom floor.

He twisted his hands around the steering wheel, his body one giant nervous knot. He wondered if Faith had the same feelings at Edwin’s. He hoped so, although he doubted it. She had been too hyped up when she left. He was more nervous, which tainted the excitement. He wanted to be with Tracey, but he always pictured them with Faith and not alone. Teasing at the bookstore was one thing. Meeting at her apartment was quite another.

Stop acting like a teenager, you idiot. With a deep breath, he opened the car door and slid out into the cool March air. The breeze tugged at his short hair, making it an even messier nest than usual. He slid his keys into his pocket as he strolled up the small walkway, shoving his hands into his pockets as well.

When Tracey opened the door after his faint knock, she wore a short sundress and a cocky smile. “I’ve watched you sitting out there. I thought you would chicken out. You could hurt a girl’s esteem, you know.”

He smiled as he ducked his head in a sheepish apology. “Sorry. I just don’t want to disappoint you.”

She grabbed his hand, his wrist really since his hand was stuffed back into his pocket, and dragged him inside. “Oh, you won’t.”

Tracey’s apartment was bigger than the outside would allow you to believe. To Selby’s right was a small kitchen with dark-stained cabinets and a beige counter serving as a wall between the kitchen and the living room. She had decorated it in chocolate leather with oak end tables and a matching entertainment center. A picture of a swan gliding across a calm lake decorated one wall while gold metal butterflies flitted along another. Both were beautiful animals, but neither began life that way. Selby wondered if that was symbolic in some way to how Tracey felt about her life.

A small bookshelf set against the south wall, the top covered with snapshots in dollar store frames. One was Tracey dressed in her floral blouse and beige shorts wearing her apron pointing to the sign, Joe’s Bakery. Probably opening day. There was another of an elderly couple, obviously Tracey’s parents unless she had a sister twenty years older than her. Right beside it was another picture of Tracey and what appeared to be an older brother and sister. All three wore white, long sleeve shirts and jeans as they walked barefoot on the beach. That would be a fun shot with Faith. As he looked closer, he recognized Ryan from outside the bakery.

Selby glanced back at Tracey who still stood by the door. She noticed him looking at the picture, her face a mask of apprehension. The last time they talked about Ryan, she almost bit his head off. He glanced back at the picture, this time paying attention to the woman in the photo. Tracey said she hadn’t been in the relationship for Ryan, so that must have meant she had been in it for the wife. She was a tall blond, athletic build with a playful face. If her smile in the picture was any hint at her personality, he could see Tracey getting along with her quite well. He stepped away from the pictures and glanced around at the rest of the apartment.

“I like it. The place suits you quite well,” he said. He pulled his hands out of his pocket, noticing he had stuffed them back inside, a nervous habit Faith pointed out to him on numerous occasions.

Tracey just stared at him. “You might as well ask.”

He nodded. “Will you please tell me about Ryan and, I’m assuming, his wife?”

She walked over to where Selby stood and picked up the picture. She stared at it although he didn’t think the picture was what she really saw. “I met Chelsea Criswall while I was out dancing one night. She was having a girls’ night out, and I kind of crashed the party and attached myself to her. I was younger, of course, and still in my rebellious stage. I wanted to try everything my parents said I should stay far away from. It turned out that Chelsea was one of those things.” She placed the picture back on the top of the shelf and grabbed Selby’s hand and led him to the couch. “We hit it off and decided to keep hanging out with each other. She was married to Ryan, and I found myself over at their house quite often. The three of us seemed to always be together. I fell in love with Chelsea and then Ryan. Chelsea said she loved me, but I think I was really a phase she went through. Ryan, however, did fall in love with me.

“After a few months of what I guess you would call dating, Chelsea moved me in with them and declared us a relationship. We slept in the same bed, shared the bills, shared the household chores, everything a normal married couple would do, except there were three of us.”

They sat on the couch, Tracey never letting go of his hand. Their clasped hands were her focal point during the story. “My parents found out about the relationship and, when I didn’t obey and leave Ryan and Chelsea, quickly wanted nothing to do with me. Only Michael, my older brother, still talks to me.

“We were together, the three of us, for almost four years. Then Chelsea wanted to move away and decided she didn’t want me to go with them. Ryan fought for me, but I refused to go where I was no longer wanted.” Tracey shrugged her shoulders. “I won’t force people to want to be with me. I haven’t done it with friends, and I refuse to do it with lovers. So I left.

“Ryan tried to convince me to go with them. He swears he can get Chelsea to change her mind and has even threatened to leave her for me. I don’t want anyone to leave their wife for me. I told him it was over, and what you saw today was a last-ditch effort on his part as we signed some legal papers to finalize our divorce, so to speak. I’m sorry I took it out on you. That wasn’t fair.”

Selby watched her for a moment, her gaze still focused on their hands. He reached out and lifted her chin, so she looked at him. “You don’t have to apologize for anything. I should have been more sensitive. I tend to open my mouth before I know why and issue dramatically romantic statements. It’s one of my faults.”

She did smile then as she squeezed his hand tighter. “I tend to like your faults.”

Without realizing he even did it, Selby leaned forward and kissed her, his lips gentle on hers, warm, sensitive. He slid his hand around her neck and held her as their kiss continued. He felt her hand drop to his thigh, relaxed as she fell into his kiss. He breathed her in and relished the fragrance, a jasmine with peach overtones. He would never forget it and knew from that day on he would always associate that scent with her.

He pulled away and gazed into her eyes. She had confided in him, which meant she trusted him. He would be deserving of that trust. He leaned in and kissed her again, harder, their lips meshed together as their tongues danced. She pulled him down on top of her, his body blanketing hers, his hands on each side of her face as they continued to kiss. He felt her arms wrap around his back, sliding under his shirt. Her nails dug into his skin, pressing him to her.

His cock grew to life between them.

Tracey pushed him off to the side and onto the floor, following as he rolled over. She straddled his chest as they continued kissing, their lips seemingly locked. She placed her hands on his chest, her fingers around each side of his button-down shirt, and pushed herself to a sitting position. She grinned down at him, her eyes sparkling with mischief, then she ripped his shirt open, the buttons flying everywhere. She laughed, and he just took a deep breath.

He watched as she lowered her auburn-haired head. It was like a waterfall of phoenix colors as she bent over and started kissing his chest. He felt her tongue glide around his left nipple, swirling it into her mouth as she kissed and sucked. Selby gripped her hips with his hands, not knowing where else to put them. She moved to his other nipple, kissing, her tongue gliding and flicking across the swollen nub, and then, he felt her hand slide between them work his pants button. She slid her body downward as she unzipped him, her hand darting into his pants and under the waistband of his boxers until she had his shaft firmly in her hand. He felt her body continue to glide down his legs as she kissed her way down to her hand and what awaited her within its grip.

Selby propped himself up on his elbows and lifted his head to watch her. He could feel the tightness in his chest as his body tensed at her movements. Her mouth was but a breath away from the tip of his cock when she stopped and looked up. Gliding her tongue across her lips, she kept her gaze upon him as she lowered her head and licked the tip of his cock, taking his droplets of cum into her mouth.

He moaned as he took a deep breath. She grinned again and then lowered her eyes and her mouth onto his manhood, swallowing him inside of her as far as she could take him. Her hand twisted around his shaft as her head bobbed up and down, sucking him, devouring him. His back arched at the sensation and his moans grew louder. Her hair was like a fiery waterfall engulfing him as her face vanished beneath it to swallow his cock.

Selby groaned when she pulled her lips from his shaft and sat up, her face a radiant mask of lust. She crossed her arms in front of her and grabbed the waist of her dress, pulling it over her head and tossing it to the side. He just stared, memorizing every curve of her body, nude before him for the first time.

He smiled as he slid his hands up her sides to toy with her nipples. She pushed them out to him, offering herself, her body, for his pleasure. He took it.

With one hand, he rolled her over to her side while at the same time kicking his pants the rest of the way off. He slid out of his shirt and tossed it after her dress, and then, he dropped, a hand on each side of her bracing him up as he stared, grinning, into her eyes. “I have longed for this moment.”

She reached up with a hand and caressed his cheek. “So have I.” She slid her hand behind his neck and pulled him to her, her mouth searching out his as their bodies pressed together, the heat of their passion a fire that refused to go out. Her lips found his ear and nibbled slightly. When she pulled away, he heard her whisper, “Selby, take me. Please. Take me.”

And with a sudden thrust into her most sensitive of parts, he did.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Selby leaned back against the kitchen counter and watched as Tracey reached up on her tiptoes for a mug to pour him some coffee. She had put his button-less shirt on after they had spent an hour on the floor in one position or another, and now, the bottom cup of her ass cheeks poked out from under his shirt. He couldn’t stop himself from smiling as he stared, remembering how her flesh had felt in his hands and against his body. “You know you owe me a shirt.”

“A shirt? What shirt?” She turned and gave him a confused smile. “This is my shirt now.”

He laughed, his chuckle bouncing off the cabinets. “You want me to leave here half-dressed? What will your neighbors think?”

“I don’t care what they think.” Her eyes twinkled as she said it, and he knew she meant it. He doubted she ever cared what anyone thought. You cannot live your life by other people’s perceptions of what is right or wrong.

She poured the coffee into two mugs, the steam rising between her breasts, which kept peeking out from within his shirt. She handed him the mug, and he set it on the counter behind him, taking hers, as well, and placing it beside his. He pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her waist as he leaned down and kissed her, her lips flush from their lovemaking. He felt her hands slide up his back to his shoulders and hold on. He loved the taste of her.

When he pulled away, he could feel himself smiling like a schoolboy who just had sex for the first time. “This was a great idea.”

“I know. I thought of it, remember?”

He paused a moment, his head cocked, as he tried to think. “You did, you little vixen.” Her eyes gleamed as she tried to give him an innocent look but failed. “You brought up the idea of Faith and I having solo adventures at that Italian restaurant. Was this what you had in mind?”

“Who? Me? Whatever do you mean, Selby Greer? What are you accusing me of?”

He pulled her to him and kissed her again, this time with more passion. “Of being adorable,” he whispered as he pulled away.

They picked their mugs back up, and she led him back to the couch. Their knees were touching as they sat facing each other; she grazed his arm with her fingers. He smiled at her as they made themselves comfortable, and it surprised him he was actually comfortable. He wasn’t worried about Faith or in a rush to get out of there. He was relaxed, enjoying the moment, wanting it to last. And that part, he had to admit, scared him just a bit. This was supposed to be sex. Only sex. He stared into her eyes; her lips were curved up into a soft smile, her face a gentle glow.

It was quite a bit more than sex.

“May I ask a question?” He fidgeted a bit, pretending to reach for his coffee.

“Of course.”

“You weren’t in the relationship for Ryan, but for Chelsea. If your preference is for women…”

“Why am I here with you?”

Selby nodded.

She was quiet a moment, thinking. She sipped her coffee and then took a deep breath. “To be honest, I’d love to be here with both Faith and you, but I don’t think Faith sees me that way.” She shrugged. “So I at least get half of you.” She took another sip of her coffee. “Half is better than none.”

He leaned over and kissed her. “I’m glad you settled for me.”

Tracey bit his lip as she called him a brat through her clenched teeth. He took her cup from her hands and set it back onto the table. He then brushed her hair out of her eyes before leaning down and kissing her again. This time, however, he didn’t stop there. He continued pushing her back down as he kissed his way down her neck, her chest, until he found her swollen nipples. He sucked one into his mouth as he squeezed her to him. He was definitely glad she had gone for half.