Discrete Sex in Public
"Lady in the Closet," a Vanilla short story by Claire Simone
Flash by Stephen Perry (available at ObsessionArt.com)
He loved that slick blue trench coat that Madonna had worn on one of her CD covers. But Madonna could slip through the handle of a coffee mug. How would he feel, I wondered, if he saw that coat on me? As long as Madonna's CD was nowhere in sight, I figured I had a chance.
I met him on a Tuesday morning at the perfume counter at Macy's. His eyeballs slid up and down the luminescent blue. “You're wearing that coat!” He asked where I'd found it. Did they have them at Macy's?
I laughed. “She probably got hers on Rodeo Drive, baby. You know I haven't been to Beverly Hills.” I wouldn't tell him where it really came from, of course. Instead, I turned and walked away.
Three, two, one. Now, his eyes would be navigating the shimmer of blue plastic somewhere around my butt. Down those skinny seams running the back of my thigh-high stockings. Then to the heels of my white pumps.
“Tuscany,” I said, turning back to the counter. I lifted a bottle of orange perfume and removed its gold cap. “My favorite.”
He leaned on the counter. “What's this all about, mystery woman?”
“Oh! That's a perfect idea, baby. I need a hat!” I pulled the collar of my coat open slightly and dabbed a few drops of perfume on the curve of my throat. I knew it was mean. I knew I shouldn't have called him away from work in the middle of the morning to play like that, but he was so caught up, he had practically forgotten my name. I curled my index finger to invite him to take a close-up sample. “Does this work for me?”
It was pure joy to watch the flash of my coat light up in his baby blues, but it wasn't the orange perfume, and it wasn't the coat that had truly captured him. He licked his lips like he always does when he sees the pink of a woman's nipple. His elbow fell off the counter. I smiled into his disbelieving eyes and gave him the slightest peck of a kiss.
“I think the hats are over there.”
Off I went, around the counter. I stopped by a jewelry case as he caught up behind me. He looked at my reflection in the glass while I fiddled a moment with my collar. He watched my hands, his eyes darting around the store, then back at the glass and the reflection of the sash of my coat and the two buttons that held it all together.
We wound our way through the purses and the scarves, my hand reaching back for him, but just missing. Seven hat racks circled around a kiosk of mirrors, our own little universe, just him, me, and the mirrors. So good he was with colors, he picked out a dark blue fedora and handed it to me.
“Blue's beautiful on you,” he smirked.
I tried it on. “It is gorgeous, baby, but . . . no. Just a might too small, don't you think?”
“What's your hat size?”
“I don't know.”
His quizzical eyes followed my hands again as I placed the little blue hat back on the rack.
I pulled one down that had a white rim the size of Saturn's rings. “How about this one?”
“White. White works,” he said. He looked at my shoes. “Matches your –“
With that big circle of a hat at my side, I unbuttoned my coat and loosened the sash. He stared at the mirror beside me where a vertical stripe of my nakedness peeked out of my coat at him. I unzipped his pants and reached inside. “Already?”
“Yes, I guess I'm all ready.” He stepped closer and laid his hand on my waist.
“No, not here, silly,” I said. We put ourselves back together and took the hat to the counter.
“You're buying that?”
“I think it's a pretty handy device, don't you think?”
He stood behind me with his hands on my shoulders and his hard knot pushing into my butt while the old lady behind the counter fumbled, perplexed, with an electronic cash register and my credit card. She pulled out a bag and apologized for the plastic.
“Oh I don't need a bag,” I said.
“We'll take the bag,” he said.
“But I want to wear it now.”
He winked at the woman who glanced first at him, then me, then back at him.
“Uh, okay,” she said.
“Do you have one bigger than that?” he asked.
“Well, I think so.” She disappeared under the counter, and I took the moment to reach behind me and rub that knot.
“The bag?”
“Mmm.”
“Yeah, I've got one here.” The lady emerged with a bag large enough to envelope the rings of Saturn and slipped the hat inside. I promptly took the hat out, put it on my head where it belonged and gave him the bag, which he carried in front of him with artistic nonchalance.
“Huh, you're very good at that.”
“You give me a lot of practice.”
We made it out of Macy's, but home was too much to expect. He took me to the smoke shop.
“But you don't smoke. What are we doing here?”
“I thought I'd take up a pipe.”
I loved the smell of pipe tobacco, but I was a little disappointed that he'd cooled off so quickly. He left me to peruse a jungle of carved woods and ivories, while he walked away. When I glanced over to where he stood, I caught him on his cell. No! I was much more than disappointed. Not knowing what else to do, I stood right where he left me, openly pouting.
When he returned, he laughed and grabbed my arm. He walked me to the back of the store, gesturing to the shopkeeper.
“We'll just take a look around in the humidor.”
It was the biggest closet I'd ever seen, made just for cigars. As the door closed behind us, I heard a phone ringing outside.
“That's Jack.” He pulled open my coat and slid his hands down the sides of my waist.
“Jack? Your brother?”
“You're in my territory now, mystery lady.” His hands slipped down my back and over my butt. He lifted me up against the wall, his mouth fell onto mine, and my breasts rubbed against his shirt. He slid inside me and I felt a rush inside my belly that made my skin tingle under my coat. My nipples stood up hard against him. Mmmm. He rocked me rhythmically against the wall. “You're already wet.”
I sucked his earlobe into my mouth, and breathed into his neck. “What if that man comes?”
He continued to rock me. “Do you want him to watch?”
“No!”
“Really.” He stopped rocking me and smiled. “I can go get him.”
I looked into his face, then licked his lower lip, drawing it slowly into my mouth. “Let me down.”
“Don't worry –”
“Let me down.” I said. “I mean it.”
His arms loosened and his smile tilted as he lowered me. “Baby, I'm just –”
I slipped my hand into his pants and under his jewels. I massaged him slowly. I looked into the eyes of this man I'd somehow known forever, yet didn't know at all. His smile returned as I reached up under his shirt and kissed his belly. His fingers played in my tousled hair, twisting 'round and 'round.
I took him into my mouth then, my thumbs sliding up his slick shaft all the way to the ridge of his knob. My tongue wrapped around him as I dipped into myself, drawing with two fingers, and then slathering him with my juices. His moan reached through the crackling wet sound of my circled fingers sliding up and down, up and down, and the succulent slurping of his head. Mmmm. He was hard in my hand and delicious in my lips. I wanted every bit of him. In and out of my mouth, I sucked him, licking, sliding up and down his shaft. I teased fingers down the cleavage between his butt cheeks, tickling through his rigid testicles, around and up, following the line up the shaft of his penis.
He pulled me up, dropped his mouth around my engorged nipple, and coaxed it to a stand with his lips. He circled it with his tongue, and sucked again. Mmmm. Then he lifted me against the wall again, and lowered me onto him. I let out a cry, soft, worried.
“Shhhh.” His eyes were glazed with passion as his head rolled back. And he rocked me, slowly at first, then more urgently. His heat surged through me and ran flush through my thighs. My body gave up to his, hot in the circle of my legs. He pounded me harder. Oooooo.
“Faster,” I whimpered.
“Just the way you like it, babe.”
He held my knees high, and he filled me deeply, stroking. Thrusting. Pushing. Until…Oooooo, it edged forward in me, taking my mind through psychedelic realms while my breath came in a short, fast stutter. I felt as though I was leaning, arms outstretched, over a canyon. Then he thrust himself far inside me. I heard his lusty moan mixing with mine, and over I went, off the cliff with a great whoosh into the updraft of his body. His moan fell into my neck as he pushed inside me, exploding, sweating, pumping.
Slower, he pushed. Slowing, slowing, and then he held me there, against the wall, both of us gasping and trembling. His kisses were soft now, sweet, as he nuzzled a moment longer into my neck, then he set me down to weakened knees, exhausted.
The sweet scent of flavored tobaccos swirled in the humidor. We dressed.
I held onto his arm to steady my gait as we left the shop. He gave a ready salute to the shopkeeper.
“You're very good at that, you know.”
“You give me a lot of practice.”
Originally published March 2010
