Annie took one last inventory of her duffel bag in Jeff's bathroom. She knew she had everything she needed to stay over for the weekend – including her materials for tonight. But octuple-checking the items couldn't hurt – even if she was taking longer to put them on.
The more Annie delayed, the more it didn't seem so bad. But that was her nerves talking. And pretty soon, Jeff would wonder when she'd be coming out. Plus she deliberately didn't pack any backup pajamas, ensuring the nerves couldn't win out. So she screwed herself in a number of ways – although it would be the other way around if this actually went well.
Now that she gave herself no way out, Annie willed herself to do what she planned all week. She took out her special clothes, put them on as quietly as possible, and willed herself to think and feel sexy.
Annie peeked out of the bathroom to see her boyfriend of three months sitting on his bed. Somehow, she hadn't given away what was coming all night, so Jeff had no idea what he was in for. Of course, he wasn't alone there.
But she put those doubts out of her mind, then said from behind the door, "Jeff? I'm done getting ready for bed now." She meant to put on a sexy voice, but it was out of practice since it had never been used before. Clearly she'd have to stick to the visuals.
"Well, way to build up the suspense," she heard Jeff quip. That was as good an opening as any. Hopefully he'd be speechless for once when she came out – although Annie hoped he could use his mouth again when she got in bed.
Sexy women probably didn't blush when thinking things like that. Yet at least Annie got it out of the way now. As such, she opened the door before pushing her luck.
Annie had thoroughly studied herself looking like this just now, and in the last three nights. She had time to get used to her new see through purple negligee, the clearly visible blue bra and panties, the hair that went all the way down, the deepest red lipstick she had, and the high heels that completed the picture. But it was all new to Jeff, which was the point.
His eyes widening while he could only say, "Okay…." was kind of the point too.
So far, so good with the visuals. Now to get over the hump with the rest.
Annie wasn't much of a heels wearer – certainly not in skimpy clothes like this. But she kept her balance as she walked over to the bed, although she forgot to swing her hips until halfway through. Even then, she swung them in a more cartoonish way than originally planned.
Jeff still didn't have a word, so Annie took that as a good sign. She cheered to herself, then remembered she didn't have the right outfit to make cheering sexy. She then made herself remember the next step of the routine, turning around before Jeff could touch her.
Annie took pleasure in Jeff's tiny but not quiet enough moan, then strutted over to his cabinet. She looked in the mirror to see Jeff leering at her from behind, then proceeded to bend over slightly. To top it off, she slid her left foot up her right leg to show them off - yet her left heel fell off.
This threw Annie off as she bent down to pick it up. However, she thought she should have made her bending sexier anyway. To make up for it, she tried to stick her butt out as she came back up, but she could tell she wasn't being that smooth.
"So….now it's on to the talent part of the pageant?" Jeff asked behind her. Annie frowned, since Jeff was supposed to be too seduced to make jokes. Leaving aside how saying "talent" could segue into other activities….damn it, sexy adults didn't blush over that either!
Remembering one thing they did do, Annie turned her head, looked over her shoulder, and tried to use the sexiest voice she could. "I'll bet you're all kinds of talented….sailor."
Damn it! She got so thrown off, she used her Christian Bale voice! And that just had to make her panic and throw in sailor at the end. So verbal seduction was out now.
"All right….but I don't mind someone else setting the bar first," Jeff said. Now he was all out lying to get Annie back on track. Trying to be the smooth, sexy one on this night, and every other night. And every other time he could prove himself way too hot for a repressed child.
With that, Annie frowned and decided to use her two bombshells….good, only a half blush that time.
"You want a bar?" she managed to ask normally. "Well, before you drink your scotch at that bar….don't you want some coconuts?"
Annie gave herself a mental high five, then bent over in front of Jeff, pulling her collar down to show an even clearer view of her bra and cleavage. In fact, she pulled it down so low and wide, she was starting to rip it.
"Oh. Well, beat me to ripping that off you," Jeff joked, but Annie was not in stitches. Not in a funny way.
"Damn it!" This time Annie yelled it outside her brain. When she realized that, she gave up and huffed, "Forget it!" and sat down on the left of the bed. Jeff stayed seated on the front, trying to figure out how dumb and cursed he was this time.
"Annie, you might as well tell me to my face how I screwed up. Even if that wasn't my idea at all," Jeff stressed.
"It's me, Jeff!" Annie halfway snapped. "I'm not sexy, okay?"
"What? Okay, if anyone knew you were going blind, it'd be me. So that can't be it," Jeff figured.
"That's not what I mean. I'm not sexy on purpose," Annie admitted. "It's the Santa song all over again. I can't even use Glee brainwashing as a scapegoat now."
"Okay, saying the g-word in bed? Now you've mastered having no sex appeal," Jeff explained. "Other than that, I guess the doe eyes, the cowgirl costume and the other bending over moments never happened, then."
"The doe eyes are for making you do stuff for us. Not for doing stuff to me," Annie qualified. "And the costume was for homage purposes and a lack of pants only! And….that bending down moment happened four years ago before debate! I didn't….show that much any other time, besides the Santa thing! Right?"
"Well…." Jeff had nothing – and mentioning the times she bent over from behind probably wouldn't help.
"Right! I've only been that sexy and revealing by accident. Hell, I only got this body to help with rehab! You know I wasn't close to sexy before then!" Annie reminded - although Jeff once again thought that the way Annie bashed her high school looks, and the way they sounded in that origin story, really didn't match that accurately.
Yet present day hot Annie continued with, "I'm not comfortable with being comfortable about being uncomfortable anymore. Not about my sexuality. I want….I wanted to look sexy and act sexy, like a grown up, just one time. Without becoming a baby, or oblivious, or being clueless about sex at all. Is that so hard?"
Jeff opened his mouth halfway, but realized the obvious joke he had might not help – even before Annie said, "Don't answer that, please."
When Jeff closed his mouth, Annie felt safe to continue. "We both know I know….one or two things about sex now. So why can't I stop being awkward about it? It's time I learned how to take charge of my sexuality, without being a repressed kid. For my own power, for you, for us, for anything I want!"
"Anything? Not any….." Jeff barely stopped himself from adding "one."
"No, Jeff," Annie rolled her eyes. "It's just supposed to be for you. But you don't want me to be your first woman without sexual confidence, right?"
"So you want to act….like my army of one-night stands?" Jeff deduced.
"Not the one night stand part. The part that can seduce you on purpose and come onto you without blushing. I wouldn't mind being like them there," Annie confessed.
"I would," Jeff suddenly answered.
Annie couldn't figure for the life of her why that sounded bad to Jeff. For his part, Jeff was mostly confused himself. But the longer he thought about it and stayed quiet, the antsier Annie would get for answers, so he blurted out the first thing in his mind. "You're not like those women. You're Annie."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Annie got suspicious. "Is this you trying to 'protect my innocence' again? I really thought we'd be done with that by now, Jeff."
"We are. Kind of," Jeff got stuck. He tried to dig himself out with, "Those women were disposable flings. You know that's not what you are."
"I know that. But I can be seductive and hot and a real girlfriend too. I should be grown up for that by now," Annie pointed out.
"You're grown up without needing to act like that. You just….you just are, okay?" Jeff attempted to flatter and get out of.
"Is that all I have to go on, Jeff?" Annie challenged.
"Annie, trust me. I said you don't need to act that way, so no need for the trouble, all right?" Jeff said, with too much of the old condescending Jeff tone.
"You don't have the final say on that, Jeff. Or the only say," Annie started getting annoyed. "I'm trying to take charge of my sexuality. Not the one you approve for me."
"Annie, that wasn't…." Jeff started getting annoyed himself. "I meant you're better than that way. Better than any of them. The whole reason we're together is because you're more than that. If that changes, this'll never work!" he let get away from him.
Annie got herself off the bed, if only to distract herself from yelling at Jeff. When she spent enough time pacing the floor, she calmly but still angrily asked, "So if I'm more sexy, I'd be something less? Is that it?"
"Come on, don't just assume things like that! You're still pretty bad at that," Jeff vainly tried to fight back.
"I've been right in the end a few times, haven't I?" Annie threw back.
"Not this time!" Jeff argued. "It's just…if you act like all those girls who threw themselves at me….and you want me to think you're like them….what if I end up treating you like them?"
"Oh come on, this again? I thought it sunk in that you're not that guy anymore!" Annie groaned. "It's getting annoying that you won't believe me!"
"I do! But thinking of you like them….I'd rather avoid that if I can," Jeff admitted.
"And why would we fail if you thought I was like them?" Annie pressed.
"Because I was never in love with them!" Jeff confessed, completely by accident.
For a brief second, Annie was pissed that he'd say he loved her for the first time, just to win an argument. Until she remembered he had tons of ways to win arguments – but none of them were like that.
Besides, he had on his "Embarrassed I said too much" face on – the face that hated confessing feelings, but didn't exactly deny they were true. Annie knew that face all too well, and Jeff probably knew that too. In fact, the "resigned to being caught" face he had on all but screamed it.
"Well, there you go. You seduced me into thinking….that. Before tonight," Jeff grumbled. "So you're the seduction mistress, argument over, night," he attempted to worm out, but couldn't.
"I didn't do that on purpose either," Annie got out the first solid thought she had, but soon realized it might not hold up. "Well, not on purpose all the time. Not at the end, anyway. And that's not even the same kind of seducing."
Annie wanted to go on about the L word, how Jeff hadn't denied feeling it yet, and how someone actually might love her. Even if her sexy voice was Batman, just like Troy said Abed's was. But if this dispute hung over it, it would put an asterisk over the "I love you" milestone – especially since he hadn't said those exact three words.
So although Annie wanted to grow up sexually tonight, she settled for growing up maturely. Pushing all her instincts aside to harp on the love part, she brushed it aside to work out the other thing. Jeff would probably appreciate that more, anyway.
"Jeff, I'm not gonna be a whole new Annie if I'm more….adult. Or something else other than who I was when we met. You've got to stop thinking you, or the whole adult world, is gonna….taint me" Annie sighed, disappointed he still had to learn this lesson.
Jeff paused, seemed to think it over, then answered, "I will. If you stop thinking you have to be some sexpot, just to keep me interested. That isn't a deal breaker for me anymore. Believing people can change like that goes both ways."
"That…." Annie resigned to thinking more carefully. "That was only 10 percent of why I did this. I swear."
"Look, on principle, I'm never gonna be real mad if you….put on a show for me," Jeff attempted to smirk, but it wasn't as carefree as usual. Nevertheless, he added, "I mean, for all your 'screw-ups' tonight, I was good to go the whole way. Did I actually say you weren't sexy?"
"No…." Annie recalled. "But that was because the clothes and body hooked you, not….me. Not the way I act," she feared.
"The way you act every day, whether we're in here or not, is why…." This time Jeff stopped himself from getting gushy. "I mean, if you do all that without trying, then you trying…..imagine how addictive that would be. Maybe way too addictive for me to handle. Not like I should. You know?" Annie suspected she was finally starting to.
"But that's my hang-up. Letting you think I'd think less of you if that happened….probably not the best thing to do. But you can't think less of yourself if it doesn't happen. I mean, I sure don't. Okay?" Jeff asked in his sincere voice.
In theory, it sounded easy. Annie hadn't thought less of herself for her stalled sexuality for years – not until things started with Jeff. Which was in no way his fault, especially now. But as she thought more, she wondered if she wanted to be sexy more because she thought she had to, and less because she wanted to.
If Jeff was telling the truth, it seemed pointless now. She still wanted to have a confident sex drive, of course – but it would come when it would come. There was no way to avoid blushing over that line, but when she saw how amused Jeff looked, it didn't seem so embarrassing.
"Okay," Annie finally agreed, sitting next to Jeff on the bed and giving him a hug. He put his arms around her as she rested her face against his neck, somehow more pleased by this than all the steamy stuff she planned out.
She kissed the side of his neck to thank him, and she could have sworn she heard a little moan. Annie thought back, then remembered that night when she kissed him there in the movie theater. As she looked down to his shoulder, she remembered how Jeff liked it when she kissed him there the next morning as he woke up.
Once she kissed him there, Annie looked up to see his ear – Jeff usually liked kisses there too. So she kissed the bottom of his ear, then when Jeff said "Annie," like he was gonna ask a question, she briefly suckled his lobe like he liked.
She wasn't thinking about being sexy, or setting up for sex. Truthfully, she'd had enough thoughts about it for one night and one week. Right now, Annie just wanted to do something right, and to thank Jeff for being patient with her – even with the iffy start to their talk. Paying attention to his favorite places seemed to be a winning thank you so far.
Annie's left hand drifted down to Jeff's shirt, where it reached both her and Jeff's favorite part of his upper body. But while she loved rubbing his abs, she also liked Jeff's tiny ticklish laugh when her fingers glided up and down his creases. Once she heard him try to hide it, she brought her lips over to his throat.
Jeff leaned back and hit the bed, taking Annie with him. But she didn't want to stop and think this over just yet. She lifted his shirt up further and Jeff briefly sat up to throw it off, not needing to care about bending a bed shirt wrong – and even if he did….
He laid back down as Annie kissed his upper chest, making sure the top of her head was slightly tickling his nose. Her hand left his abs and went up to his nipple, which everyone knew Jeff was into. But Annie knew it a bit more intimately, in more than one way.
Everyone might think he liked his nipples tugged, yet Annie got just as much from him, if not more, by circling her fingers around his nipple before gently holding it. While her right hand did that, her left went over to rub the hair on the back of Jeff's head – since he didn't mind that part of his hairstyle being messed up as much.
While Annie didn't want to overthink for once, Jeff was flooding with thoughts – if only to 'hold out' a little longer. He wondered how Annie came up with all this, then when he remembered she'd done these moves before, he wondered how she remembered them all.
Then again, if anyone had a memory like that, it was her.
And that's why this kind of seduction was so perfectly Annie.
Maybe she couldn't make the big, cliché sex moves like all his other conquests yet. But none of his conquests ever had this much….attention to detail. Instead of mindlessly devouring him, like Jeff was justifiably used to, Annie took her time to do more.
She paid attention to the little things he liked, found spots and moves he didn't even know he liked, and didn't settle for the obvious and easy moves. Even when she did, she put her own personal, detailed spin on them – because she thought it was worth the extra effort. That he was worth it.
She saw and noticed more with him, and in him, than any woman who'd ever been on top of him. She made an effort to see more than others would – and actually liked what she saw enough to find out more. That was how Annie Edison made seduction into an art form – and now she was doing it in bed too.
Of course, the shallow, physical stuff wasn't that bad either. Not with that sinful negligee rubbing against his bare skin – or the rest of her, really. And not with Annie lifting her head from his chest, smiling and batting her eyes, Disney style.
"Fuck, I love her," Jeff thought suddenly.
But instead of worrying that he actually said it – and admitted it somewhere – he worried whether he said it out loud. No sense dropping that bomb by accident twice. Although Annie was making a case for not planning out things in advance right now – ironic as that was.
Annie's expression didn't change, so Jeff figured he'd kept quiet. Yet she still leaned over and kissed him, cupping his face and making it feel more appreciated than usual. When her tongue came in, she even put it underneath his, like she did the night they celebrated his first new Winger speech in court.
When she broke off, Annie started to be amazed that she had this in her. And that Jeff brought it out of her quite like this. Holding back the urge to analyze and second guess herself, she breathed out, "I love you, too," in a low tone she'd never heard herself pull off before.
So that was her sexy voice. With those words, no less. That was….something. So was Jeff's speechlessness, once she realized it. After he kind of said it himself and didn't deny it, now he was gonna….
"That has never sounded sexy until now," Jeff spoke up.
For someone who never said "I love you" – not for something like this – that was a Jeff Winger way of making it into an art form.
Of course, when Jeff used his more traditional means of seduction that night, Annie really didn't mind that either.
THE END
