“I think I only used it for a couple of minutes, and I have to do laundry now, if you know what I mean.”
His eyebrows raise in surprise. “Does that happen often for you?”
“Never.”
“Good.” He grins. “I’m glad to know I gave you a new experience.”
“Even without that I think it would have been a new experience,” I say.
He leans closer to me, and I lean closer to him. I swear the energy crackling between us is almost visible. “You know,” I say softly, “since I’m doing this for you, I’d really like to know your name.”
“It’s Jet,” he says, his voice equally soft.
I smile. Jet. Something to call him when I’m inevitably reliving this exchange and wishing it could go so much further.
“And yours?” He gestures to the buttons that the employees wear instead of name tags. Mine says Tie-curious. I thought it would be clever to allude to something I’ve never tried.
“I’m Kara.”
His hand reaches across the counter and brushes mine. “It’s nice to meet you, Kara.”
“I feel like we went around these introductions backwards,” I say.
“But this way was much more fun.”
I get lost looking at him for a second, and a thousand scenarios run through my head, all of them involving him leaning forward and kissing me until I can’t remember my name. I come back to myself, remembering that yet again I have a stack of his money in my pocket. “Do you want your money back today, Jet?”
He stands up from the counter. “No.” He strides across the store to the display case full of glass dildos where we first met, pointing to the light pink one with the spirals. “I’d like one of these.”
I retrieve a new dildo in a box from one of our hidden cabinets, and try to hand it to him. Instead, his hand closes over mine, keeping the box in place. “For you, of course.” The blush on my face must make me look like a tomato. “But also, this.” He takes a card out of his pocket, and there’s a phone number on it. “I would very much like to take you to dinner tonight.”
Somehow the card with his phone number ends up in my hand, though I don’t remember taking it from him. He asked me out before I even had the chance to ask him to coffee! Through the haze of joy I manage to find my words. “I’d like that.”
He smiles, and it’s different than his other ones. This one is a little more free, a little more unrestrained. “Good. Be ready by six.”
“Okay,” I say, biting my lip to keep my ridiculous grin in check.
When he’s gone, and I turn back to the counter, Joey is gaping at me. He holds up his hand for a high five. “You go girl.”
I laugh as I give him the high five. “Can you ring this up for me?” I hand him the glass dildo.
“Experimenting?” he asks.
“Something like that.”
I only have a few hours left of my shift, but I know that every one of them is going to be torture now, waiting until I can leave and see him. Jet.
The name rolls through my mind. Direct, to the point, powerful. It fits everything I know about him so far, and hopefully tonight I’ll get to know a lot more.
5
The entirety of my wardrobe is piled on my bed. I have no idea what to wear. What do you wear on a first date with the mysterious man who’s bought you sex toys? The only thing I’ve settled on is my underwear, a black set trimmed with lace that never fails to make me feel sexy. But it seems like the clothes are a different story. I’m more nervous than I thought I would be, and I really want to make a good impression.
Finally, irritated with myself, I dig out the card with his phone number, and send him a text.
Hi, Jet. It’s Kara. Where are we going tonight? I don’t want to dress wrong.
I half-heartedly look through the clothes again while I wait for a response. But I don’t have to wait long.
Absolutely nothing you wear could be wrong.
Then, a second later.
But for tonight I suggest a dress.
A dress. Good. I can deal with that. I send him a quick, Thanks :) before pawing through the pile for something. Finally, I settle on a deep blue dress. It’s one of my favorites, with a very 50s feel to it. The full skirt always makes me want to twirl around, and I like the way the flare of the dress makes my body look. I pick out a pair of nude heels, and I feel so much better now that I have my outfit. But I still don’t know where we’re going. I pick up my phone again.
I’ll be ready by six. Am I meeting you somewhere?
I’m halfway through my make-up routine when the phone dings.
I’m sending a car for you. What’s your address?
A car? He’s sending a car for me? That’s far fancier than I expected. I just thought I would meet him at whatever restaurant he chose. I send my address to him, finishing my make-up in record time. On nights like this I always manage to be ready early, with nothing to do but lounge around until it’s time to finally leave. The opposite of the stereotype. I fill in the time with more research—fruitless research. I’m googling Jet. But I don’t have his last name yet, and “Hot Guy Jet New York City” doesn’t produce any results. Not ones that I want to look at anyway.
Six o’clock finally rolls around and I slip my phone into my small clutch and grab my keys before heading downstairs. When I step outside, my mouth drops open. There’s a limo parked in front of my apartment building, a driver waiting to open the door. Okay, this is a car, technically.
“Kara Bishop?” the driver asks.
“Yeah,” I say. “That’s me.”
He opens the door for me, and I slide into the limo. I half expect Jet to be inside waiting, but he isn’t. The driver shuts the door behind me, and soon we’re cruising through the streets of New York. The inside of the limo is posh, all leather and wood. There’s a bar tucked into one side, and enough room to fit about ten people. I smile to myself as I lean back against the seat. So this is what it’s like to be rich and live in luxury. I can’t say that I hate it. And I’m going to enjoy it for the short time that I have it.
I get an amazing view of the city starting to light up as we cross the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan, going uptown.
“Where are we going?” I ask the driver.
He glances at me in the rear view mirror. “Columbus Circle.”
Columbus Circle. Huh. I can’t really think of any place to go around there. Maybe Jet wants to take a walk through the park before the sun fully sets. While the limo is crawling uptown towards Columbus Circle, I pull my phone out again and text Jet.
I wasn’t expecting a limo.
The little dots that tell me he’s typing pop up almost immediately. They start and stop a couple of times, like he’s trying to decide what he wants to say. I wanted to send the best.
I laugh a little, and I feel the driver looking at me. I text him back. Hell of a way to make an impression.
When he texts back I can practically feel him smiling. I thought I’d done that already with the toys.
True. I type, I guess I’m just trying to figure you out.
I’ll see what I can do about that when you get here.
I smirk at the phone. I’ll hold you to it. By the way, when I do get there, I’m aiming to make an impression of my own with this dress.
I can’t wait.
That last response is immediate, and my stomach tightens. I don’t know what’s going to happen tonight, but I sense deep down that it will be great. It has to be. If it’s not it will be one of the great disappointments of my life, and I don’t want to think about that. I’d felt relaxed all the way here, but now that we’re approaching Columbus Circle the nerves start dancing in my stomach again.
The limousine pulls to a stop, and the driver hops out. He opens the door for me, and I step out to see Jet waiting for me, a tulip in his hand. He’s dressed in an impeccably cut suit, and my breath catches seeing how gorgeous he is. I’m not entirely sure that this is real life. These last three days have definitely seemed like a dream.
Jet looks me up and down, and the smile he gives me spreads heat from my stomach to every part of me. “You said you wanted to make an impression,” he says. “You succeeded.”
“Thank you.”
He hands me the tulip, it’s deep purple color matching the shirt he’s wearing under his suit. “You didn’t seem like a rose person to me.”
“You’re right,” I say, inhaling the fresh scent. “It’s beautiful.”
“So are you.” Jet reaches for my hand and pulls me closer to him. One hand slides to my lower back, the other to my neck as he presses a kiss against my lips. My entire body ignites with the contact, and I lean into him. His lips are soft and they taste perfect and I want more. His fingers press into my back, and I can tell he’s restraining himself. He pulls away from the kiss, and I follow him, not ready to let him go. He laughs softly. “I hadn’t planned on doing that yet. But I couldn’t resist.”
“I would be fine with you doing it again.” He kisses me again, this time it’s not soft, our mouths pressing together desperately, both of us trying to get closer. When he lets me go my head is spinning, and I grab onto his arm to keep my balance in my heels. “Wow.”