Birthday Treat

By: Dreamless-Mermaid

AN: Hello all and welcome to my first mature story! Yep, MATURE. I know, shocking isn't it? I've been wanting to stretch the writing barrier between what you all are used to reading from me and this new style I'm trying to develop. Mainly this is a late birthday present for one of my best friends. BUT it gave me a chance to write in new characters and themes I've never explored before. If this gets too weird for you then you don't have to read it all the way. I tried to make it sexy without getting so…trashy romance novel. Know what I mean? So without further ado, please enjoy!

PS - The song is called "Gee" and it's by a South Korean girl group called Girls' Generation. They're my favorite k-pop band, haha.

"Psst. Get up."

"Mmmm..."

"The boys will be here soon."

"Meeerrr..."

"I'm sorry I kept you up drinking all night but you are twenty one now. It was my civic duty as your best friend."

"Civic duty my ass. And quit shouting."

"Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey."

I sighed. "Fine. But only for eggs, no bakey."

My friend laughed. "Deal."

I heard a door close softly and I rolled over in the bed, only to be blinded by the sunlight beaming through the window. I winced, groaned, and grabbed the nearest pillow to shove over my eyes. "I'm gonna kill Emma." No doubt she had been the one to throw open the curtains. It was just like her to wake someone up that way, even if they were clearly in a state of hangover hell. There came a loud ringing/vibrating sound a second later and I groped my hand around the nightstand, searching for my cell phone. When I found it I flipped it open.

One new message from: Race

My heart accelerated, as it always did when anything or anyone mentioned his name. I forced myself to open my eyes a little wider to read the message.

Good morning my gorgeous birthday girl. Hope you and Emma didn't get into too much trouble last night. Blink and I are headed your way and will be there in about an hour. Can't wait to see you, love.

I smiled, thumbs at the ready to text back.

Good morning. We had a blast but Em got me a little too drunk so now I'm laying here with a massive hangover. But I'm pretty sure I tricked her into making me breakfast so no worries. See you soon 3

"Johanna!" Emma shouted from the hallway. She bounced into the room, spatula in one hand, cell phone in the other. "Blink just texted me, he says they'll be here in an hour."

"I know, Race texted me too." I tossed my phone on the pillow next to me and massaged my temples. "Holy bejesus my head hurts."

"Oh, I have a solution for that!" Emma pointed to the same nightstand. There sat a large glass of water and two, little brown tablets. I grinned.

"Maybe I won't have to kill you now for opening the curtains."

Emma rolled her bright blue eyes. "A simple 'you're welcome' would have sufficed."

I reached for the Advil, popped them in my mouth, and quickly downed them with the water. "Yeah, well, you know I'm not a morning person so there will be no mention of thanks until after I've had my coffee."

"Which is percolating as we speak." I nodded but threw the comforter over my head in an attempt to block out the evil sunlight once more. I'd get up as soon as I smelled the perfect aroma of Columbia's finest beans. My plan for five more minutes of sleep were squashed when I felt a sudden weight on the bed and was being smacked on the head rather annoyingly by something hard. "Get up this minute, Johanna Richmond! We haven't seen our boyfriends for the whole summer!"

"Ow! What the-"

"Up up up!" Smack smack smack went the spatula in Emma's hand on my head. Crazy lady! But she was right about one thing. For three whole months, my boyfriend Anthony and Emma's boyfriend Will (whom everyone liked to affectionately call Racetrack and Blink, respectively) decided to study abroad in Italy. They left at the end of May and conveniently returned the day before my birthday, which was today, August 28th. That jerkface better have brought me back something nice since he didn't take me with him.

"Alright I'm getting up! Will you quit?" Even after I hopped out of the bed, Emma chased me into the nearby bathroom where the door was promptly slammed shut.

"You better be quick in there. We still have to clean up the house." Emma shouted from the other side.

"Roger that, oh perky one," I responded. I was staring at the door when I gave a mock salute. Wait a minute, what was that? Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a small strip of white gauze taped on the wrist that I had saluted with. I didn't even see that earlier. Shows you how much I pay attention in the morning. Being the curious person I am, I couldn't help but lift the small piece of tape to see what was underneath. The tape pulled away easily and the first thing I saw was something small and black. As more of the tape, and eventually the gauze, came off completely, I was left gazing at what was clearly a tattoo. An Aum tattoo but it was still a thing etched onto a body part by a needle. For a split second this didn't bother me. For one thing I'd always wanted a tattoo. For another thing I drew on myself all the time so it was bound to happen someday. The only question I was left with: How the HELL did it get there when I have no recollection of it? "EMMA!" I threw open the door and almost collided with her.

"What's up?"

I shoved my freshly inked wrist under her nose. "Where the hell did this come from?"

She blinked and was looking at me like I was a nut job. "Mike at Boardwalk Ink. What's the problem?"

"My problem is that I don't remember getting it. At all."

Emma laughed. "That's because you got it before you started drinking."

"Isn't there some kind of rule against that? I thought you bled more or something."

"Yeah but you were really insistent," Emma leaned against the doorframe, twirling the spatula in her hands. "Mike almost didn't do it but I paid him an extra thirty bucks. So you're welcome and happy birthday."

I rolled my eyes. "Cheap bastard."

"Damn straight! But it was my idea you get one in the first place and I was gonna pay for it anyway so…meh," she shrugged. "Let's go sleeping beauty. We got a house to clean and boyfriends to make out with." She smacked me playfully on the behind before she wandered down the hallway.

"Please tell me you're going to use a new spatula!" I called to her.

"Only for my eggs!"

I frowned. She knew how much germs upset me. Why did she have to torment me so? I closed the door again and turned on the shower. Before undressing I found a slip of paper and a small tube of Aquaphor lying next to it. I picked up the paper. They were instructions for taking care of my tattoo. I smiled, knowing it was Emma who put these here. For all of her perkiness and annoying habits she really knew how to look after me. I hopped in the shower after that, sending out strong mental signals for the boys to hurry up and get here already.

Ten minutes later, I was clean, dressed and at the kitchen table scarfing down a delicious veggie and cheese omlette. My cup of coffee was cooling as Emma tossed me a piece of toast.

"How'd you sleep last night?"

"Just fine," I said. "Until I woke up at six in the morning running to the bathroom."

"I'm sorry," Emma made a sad face at me. "If it makes you feel any better I didn't sleep well at all."

"Why?" I shoved more of the yummy omlette in my mouth.

"My uncle does not have a big enough bed. Not to mention it's as hard as a rock. Combine that with all night alcohol consumption and it's not a pretty picture."

"But you were so…chipper this morning."

"That's because I remembered I get to see Blink in about," Emma took a glance at the wall clock above my head, "thirty minutes." She stood up, took our empty plates and cutlery and placed them in the dishwasher. I guess it's time to clean now. In any other circumstance, in any other house but this one, we wouldn't have bothered to clean up. It wasn't that dirty to begin with, just a few junk food bags and empty alcohol bottles scattered on the coffee table. The carpet could probably use a good vacuum. And I guess I should put the sheets away and the return the cushions to the sofa (Emma and I had, very drunkenly, tried to make a fort). Thankfully this was the only part of the house we drank in, thus the only room we had to clean. As I mentioned before, I wouldn't be doing this unless I knew I would get my ass kicked if I ignored it. I'm very close with Emma's family, they're practically my own, and her uncle is a big shot police officer in the city. This is his beach house in the Hamptons. Every summer he's only here for a week, usually in July, so when he heard I was turning twenty one at the end of the month he didn't hesitate to let Emma and I borrow it for the weekend. On two conditions: That we didn't have any wild parties and we kept it clean. Done and about to be done.

"I'll get the vacuum, you start the music." Emma ordered. She vanished from the kitchen and I trotted to my bedroom to retrieve my iPod. Upon finding it I took it to the kitchen where Emma already had the adapter-radio-thing set up. I set it in the cradle, scrolled to the 'shuffle' setting, and pushed play.

Uh huh, listen boy, my first love story

(Ooh wha oh, ooh wha oh yeah)

My angel, and my girls, my sunshine

Uh uh let's go

Oh snap! Of all the songs to be randomly selected first it had to be this one. Classic.

"Gee gee gee gee baby baby!" Emma sang along gleefully at one of the only lines in English as she came around the corner, vacuum in hand. She set it down and joined me in the kitchen, where we promptly tried to sing in Korean and attempted the dance that went along with this video. We mostly just danced however we wanted because it was ridiculously complicated to learn and because we'd only gotten three moves down so far.

"Oh man I love that song." I said when it ended. The two of us started toward the living room.

"I know. Asian girls are so cute it should be illegal."

For the next twenty minutes we cleaned our little butts off. I had gotten out a big black trash bag to throw away the chip and candy bags, then the blue recycling bin to toss the bottles into. After Emma vacuumed she helped me with the couch. We spent the last few remaining minutes wiping down the coffee table and generally straightening odds and ends of Emma's uncle's stuff.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

"They're here!" Emma exclaimed. We glanced at each other, bright smiles on both of our faces, then at the hallway that led to the front door. Scramble the jets! All systems are go! Yeah, I don't know, I'm just super excited to see my boyfriend again. We rushed into the hallway but not before doing one more check in the mirror. I tried to fluff up my pin straight hair, Emma adjusted her tank top and mini skirt, and I opened the front door.

My first thought: He's so tan!

My second thought: …Damn, he's sexy as hell. Maybe it's okay that he went to Italy without me after all. I mean, not seeing him for three months…A girl's got her needs. And now he has a majorly attractive tan and he's all cultured, not to mention he probably picked up some of the language, well that's just going to make our alone time so much sweeter. And by sweeter I mean sexier.

"Race!"

"Blink!"

"Buon giorno, babes!"

The two of us jumped into our boyfriend's waiting arms. God I missed this. I immediately buried my face in his neck and inhaled his familiar scent.

"Happy birthday, Jo," he murmured in my ear. His arms were wrapped so tightly around my waist, pulling me against him. I shivered as his nose brushed up and down softly on my neck. Argh. Someone remind me again why this homecoming with two other people here was a good idea. One pair of us is sleeping on the couch tonight so we can be as far away from each other as possible, and it's not going to be Race and me. "I missed you."

"I missed you too."

I realize that this seems like a scene straight from a corny chick flick but this was the first time Race and I had been apart for longer than a week (you may now commence with the mocking). We've been together since high school and neither of us traveled much. So this was a pretty big deal to both of us. I peeked over my left shoulder at Emma and Blink who were…um…busy at the moment. All I could see was the back of Blink, and Emma's hands in his hair. He had his hands on the wall of the house so I'm assuming she was pressed against the house too.

"Let's uh," Race let go of my waist and took my hand, his duffel bag in the other hand, "leave them alone for awhile. So how was it last night?" We awkwardly sidestepped the couple to go into the house.

"It was fun! We got so drunk that we tried to build a fort."

He laughed. "Because you guys would never do that while sober."

"This was way better because we kept laughing at each other. The cushions kept falling over and for some reason we found that hilarious," I giggled. "We eventually gave up and ended up laying on them while eating gummy bears and watching TV."

When we entered the room I was staying in Race tossed his bag in the corner by the window and looked around appreciatively. "Nice place her uncle's got."

"I know, right? He even has his own private stretch of the beach." I said as I sat down on the edge of the bed. "Okay, so where's my present?"

He laughed again. "You sure don't waste time, do you?"

I shook my head. "Not when you've been in Italy for three months. So, come on, what didja get me?"

"Patience, Jo, you'll get it later," I rolled my bottom lip down and gave him my best pouty face. "Aw don't gimme that look. You're killin' me."

"Good you deserve it," I grumbled, folding my arms across my chest. "Leave me and don't even give me my present. Jerk."

Race was laughing. "Nice to see you haven't changed."

"Can I at least have a kiss?"

"Hmmm," he pondered. "I suppose that could be arranged."

"After all I never got one out front." I reminded him, knowing that I was about to get my way.

"That's true," he sat next to me, his hand immediately in mine. Suddenly and with one swift pull I was in his lap sitting sideways, our arms around each other. I had shrieked with delight and was now giggling as the tip of his nose nestled against the nape of my neck. "I've missed those lips very much."

"Then by all means," I whispered, looking into his eyes, "come and get them."

He smirked and at once his lips were on mine. I felt a fire light in my stomach, a pleasant tingling sensation swept over me, and my hands ran over his back, pulling him closer to me so that our kiss could deepen. In turn, his hands roamed along my tiny body, over the curve of my hips and down the length of my smooth legs underneath my skirt. I let out a soft moan when they grazed across my breasts. When our kiss ended he satisfied himself with kissing my neck.

"Race," I whimpered. "I want-"

"I know, love, I know," he murmured between kisses. "But now's not the time. Tonight."

"That's so far away." I sighed.

"And yet you'll be glad you waited." He gave me one more kiss before he gently nudged me off and I stood up. I'm not going to lie, I was disappointed that this didn't go any further but knew he was right. It would make this evening much more enjoyable.

"Are you hungry? Did you guys eat? There's leftover ground beef in the fridge. Emma and I already had breakfast but we'll make you something if you want." Race and I left the bedroom, hand in hand, to walk to the kitchen.

"Yeah but it wasn't much. Just some airplane food. I'd kill for a burger," he hopped up on a bar stool while I went to the refrigerator. "Blink made us eat authentic Italian while we were there. No pizza or cheeseburgers at all."

"That's because if you had your way that's all we would have ate," Blink said as he and Emma came around the corner. I smirked at how untidy her hair had gotten. Guess she forgot to fix that. "Besides, you didn't complain about the pasta."

"We have pasta here in the States; that was as close as I could get to feeling like I was at home."

Emma opened the fridge and passed out two beers to the boys, grabbed one for herself and wordlessly offered one to me, but I shook my head and gestured to a bottle of orange juice that was sitting on a shelf. Bleh, icky beer is icky. Emma knows better than to ask if I ever want beer but I guess she still wasn't thinking clearly after her and Blink's catching up time on the front porch. I can't blame her though. She missed him more than I missed Race. She and Blink have been together since our eighth grade year and Blink's travels far outweighed any of ours and our other friends put together. Every winter break and summer he took a vacation with his family and every destination was different. He said they'd hit up Italy when he was fourteen but now that he was twenty two and old enough to do pretty much everything, he wanted to see it for himself, the "real" Italy, not the touristy stuff. Somehow Blink had convinced Race to go with him, tossing out that Race needed to see his heritage at least once before he died, and before they graduated college.

"So how was it? Other than tasting the local cuisine."

"Oh man, Johanna, you would've loved it. The villages, the history, clear blue skies-"

"Not to mention all of the gorgeous and sexy-" Race began but suddenly paused. He seemed to have forgotten who he was talking to for a split second. "Art."

I raised an eyebrow. "Art?"

"Yeah, you know, the paintings in the museums."

Emma and I glanced at each other and rolled our eyes. "I'm well aware of what art is, thank you, I just didn't know it could be described as sexy."

"Oh but don't you know? That's how everyone talks about art these days." Emma said sarcastically. I took out the ground beef that was wrapped up in foil, set it on the counter and went on the hunt for the griddle.

"Huh, that's funny; you'd think I'd know that, seeing as I go to an art school."

"All right, all right the art wasn't sexy," Blink said. "Beautiful, yes, but I'm not going to lie. The women weren't too bad either."

Emma and I rolled our eyes at each other again. Good thing neither of us were the jealous type, otherwise this conversation would be really awkward.

"Need some help?" Race offered, pointing to the mass of ground beef (bleh, how can people eat this stuff?) before me. I took off a chunk and started molding it between my hands, making it flat.

"I'm okay," I smiled at him. "Thanks though."

"Well it's just because I know how much you don't like meat."

"I don't mind touching it," I said, slapping the perfectly made patty onto the griddle, where it promptly sizzled. "As long as I don't have to eat it."

"Okay, so while she's doing that, I'll go ahead and take the chips and stuff outside." Emma offered.

"I'll come with you." Blink said. The two of them gathered up everything needed for burgers, along with more beer (and another thing of juice for me) and chips and scooted out the back door.

"That was quick." I muttered.

"What was?" Race said, completely clueless. I grinned.

"I was wondering how long they would last before they needed an excuse to be alone again."

"Ah," he smirked. "Not long at all."

"Emma could not stop complaining about how much she missed him."

"Same. He'd see something in a store window and tell me how much Emma would love that, or if we happened to be walking around and stop to watch the sun set, he'd muse about how she'd think it was beautiful. And on and on and on." Race rolled his eyes. I giggled. By this point, the second patty was hissing away, and I slipped the spatula underneath the first one to flip it. Only it didn't go so well. Instead of making a perfect flip, and trying to impress Race at the same time, it nearly slid off the griddle. I tried again but it didn't seem to want to even get on the spatula. Race was silently laughing and I glared at him. "Here, let me help." He set his beer down, came around from behind the bar to stand behind me. He took the hand that was holding the spatula in his, guided it carefully to the patty, and in one quick motion, managed to get the whole patty onto the spatula and flip it over without any incidents.

"How did you do that?" I asked, amazed.

"It's a trick I learned from my dad. You gotta do it fast. I don't know why but it works."

"Hm. Weird." I frowned down at the meat. I guess I never had a special way of cooking, because for one thing I don't normally cook. And when I do it's to help my mom. I don't retain that stuff. My way of cooking consists of instant, microwavable things. Normally vegetarian things.

Race took a step forward to close the gap between us and was now pressed against my back. His unoccupied hand snaked its way down to my hips and his chin rested lightly on my shoulder. Wordlessly, he guided my hand once more to flip the second patty. Again it turned over with ease. "See? Not so hard, is it?" he said softly in my ear. As he said this he deliberately rocked his hips into me, so that I could feel what he meant. I smirked.

"No, but I know what is."

I felt his lips on my neck and my eyes closed. I let my mind wander while his mouth did some wandering of its own along my clavicle, then my jaw line, finally tugging softly on my ear lobe. His hands, oh and what amazing hands they were, clenched themselves on my skirt and pulled, and pulled (it was a long skirt, which I now regret wearing) until both of my legs were exposed from mid thigh down. I shivered at his touch and the sudden burst of cold on my bare skin. My heart beat like drums in my chest. One of his magical hands caressed up and down my right thigh, the left side of my skirt fell back into place, while the other one snuck its way under my shirt and was now massaging my breast.

At this point I had lost all thoughts of making the burgers. The spatula lay on the counter, forgotten, and I could faintly hear the meat crackling, but my attention was elsewhere at the moment. Hm. Maybe I should turn the griddle off. So I came back to myself for a split second to turn the knob all the way down into the off position. Okay, time to get back to more important things.

Unfortunately at that moment, Blink decided to stumble noisily into the kitchen. What the hell? You choose to come back now? Very quickly I picked up the spatula and Race immediately wrapped his arms around my waist, though he was still behind me and his chin was still on my shoulder.

"Aw, what a Kodak moment. Watching your vegetarian girlfriend make you a hamburger."

"Yep," I said. "And they're almost done." I couldn't meet his gaze so I just stared down at the patties, fiddling with the knob and trying to make it look like I was adjusting the heat instead of turning it completely on.

"Sweet. Emma sent me in to check on 'em. Also, do we have any paper plates?"

Yeah and she also sent you in to check on me and Race. "Oh don't worry about those. I'll take them out when the food's ready."

"Okay. They smell awesome." Blink gave me two thumbs up and turned to head back outside. As soon as the door was closed I burst into laughter.

"That was close."

"You have it admit; it was hot, wasn't it? Almost getting caught?" His hold around me tightened ever so slightly. I thought about this for a second. I had never been daring enough to even attempt anything like that in a place that didn't have a bed in it. It was more about the fact that Race caught me off guard that made me forgetful of my surroundings.

"I guess so. But I prefer beds. And privacy."

Race chuckled then kissed my cheek. "They do smell really good."

The rest of the day could not have gone better. After the boys ate their burgers (well, after they scarfed them down like they hadn't eaten in days), the four of us went to the boardwalk and Emma showed us where I had gotten my tattoo. Race didn't throw a fit about it when he'd seen it, which I kind of expected him to. He was actually really okay with it and told me how much he liked it. How's THAT for a completely amazing boyfriend? After that we spent a good two hours at the penny arcade, Emma and I got our faces painted and took on a few of the obviously unsafe, falling apart carnival rides at the end of the pier.

Now we'd traveled down the beach toward the house and were sitting around a small bonfire the boys had built. The sun was almost gone and the temperature dropped just a bit so I was warming my hands above the flames. We each had a red plastic Dixie cup of liquor beside us (Blink stopped by the store as the rest of us wandered back.)

"Has anyone heard from anyone else lately?" Blink suddenly asked.

"I ran into Jack the other day." Emma said.

"Oh yeah? How's he doing?"

"Pretty well actually. He's in New York again looking for a job. Apparently he just graduated from the University of Phoenix in Santa Fe and got his Bachelor's in psychology. Crazy, huh?"

"Jack always did have a way with words," Blink smirked. "Anyone else we know?"

"Umm...Well I kept in touch with David and Skittery. David's a computer programmer for Mac and Skittery owns a small karate school." I said.

Race laughed loudly. "That's perfect! A way to keep his anger in check!" That made all of us laugh.

"Oh, Mush came over last week and hung out," Emma said. I nodded, remembering too. She and I share an apartment in the city. "We watched corny 80's movies all day and ate popcorn. He was really bummed you weren't around this summer, Blink."

"I know. I'm seeing him first thing when we get back tomorrow."

"I miss everyone," Emma said quietly. "I miss this. Just chilling and catching up, like it used to be in high school."

"Yeah," Race sighed, putting an arm around me. "Those were the days."

"We should definitely have a party. Like Christmas oh-six. That was insane!" I said.

"Only, let's leave off the fan spinning and skinny dipping." Emma said.

"Bumlets only spun from that fan on a dare and we all skinny dipped because we were either drunk or just really stupid." Race said.

"And in some cases, both." I said.

"Speaking of parties," Emma said suddenly, standing up quickly. "I'll be right back." And she jogged to the house. Oh no. Oh no, no, no. I know what she's getting and I know what's coming next, even though I expressly forbade her not to. But does she ever listen to me when it matters? Of course not. Look, I'm all for celebrating your birthday. Turning another year older, whoo hoo. I like the presents and cake and parties but I absolutely cannot stand it when- "Happy birthday to you!" Emma came out singing, holding a green frosted cake with several lit candles. She walked carefully toward us, balancing the cake in one hand while shielding the candles from the wind with the other.

"Happy birthday to you!" The other three joined in singing this time. "Happy birthday, dear Johannaaaaa….Happy birthday to you!"

I hate it when people sing that stupid song. It's so embarrassing. But I smiled graciously and I blew out the candles. It really was awesome of her to get me a cake, even though I had to endure the traditional song.

After cake, more chatting and drinking, it had gotten pretty late. We didn't even know what time it was but the other houses lights weren't on anymore. So we gathered everything up, Race put out the dying fire and we trooped inside. Emma was giggling like crazy, clearly drunk, and she hung all over Blink.

"I've always loved your eye patch, babe," she slurred. "It's super sexy. So Jack Sparrow...But not really because he didn't have an eye patch...It just made me think of pirates, which made me think of Jack Sparrow," she paused. "God, he's so hot."

Blink laughed. "You are so gone."

"I am not gone," she replied indignantly. "I'm right here."

At that moment she tripped over her own feet. Luckily, Blink caught her just in time before she face planted into the tile. She laughed loudly, throwing her arms around his neck. The face paint smeared when she rubbed her cheek into his shirt. "I better get her to bed."

"I don't wanna go to bed. I want to stay up and play." Emma was staring at Blink meaningfully. Wow, when she's drunk she really let's go, doesn't she? Although it's not like I couldn't tell what kind of playtime she'd wanted to do with Blink all day. I felt the same with Race. I specifically didn't let myself drink as much tonight because I wanted to be alert when he and I had our own time to properly play.

"Which way is her room?" Blink asked me.

"Down the hall, take a right and it's the third door on the left," I pointed. "But wait." I strode to a kitchen cabinet and took out a bottle of Advil, then fished out a small bottle of water from the fridge. I thrust these in Blink's hand. "Make her take two of these when she wakes up. She's going to have a major headache tomorrow."

He smiled at me. "Good thinking."

"She took care of me the same way this morning. It's the least I can do."

Emma was having trouble standing at this point. She's start to walk but she either swayed or almost tripped again. Blink resigned to carrying her "over the threshold" style. She waved to me over his shoulder. "Night, night, Jo!"

As soon as they were out of sight, Race and I walked to my room. He was shaking his head. "That girl cannot hold her alcohol."

"Not at all." I agreed. I set down my presents from Emma and Blink on top of the dresser. Emma gave me a really cute purple jewelry box, a book that I've been wanting for the longest time and an adorable set of chopsticks from Chinatown. Blink brought me back the yummiest smelling coffee beans. Some Italian roast that I'd never heard of but probably tasted amazing. I was definitely looking forward to that in the morning. After I washed off the face paint, I plopped onto the bed and looked at Race expectantly. "Soooo," I drew out the word, "can I have my present now?"

"I was just about to get that for you." He reached into his black duffel bag and pulled out a square package, wrapped in shiny gold paper with an almost bronze-y colored ribbon. He started to hand it to me, I reached for it eagerly, but he suddenly pulled it back. "Don't get the wrong impression when you see it. I had the lady help me pick it out after I told her what kind of girl you were and what you liked."

"Oh for heaven's sake, it can't be THAT bad." I snatched it from him and tore off the wrapping in my haste. It was one of those white cardboard boxes you typically see clothing in. I broke the tape at both ends, lifted the top, sifted through the tissue paper and my eyes were met with something silky. I knew it was, even before I touched it because it had that sheen to it. And it was red. Not bright red but not blood red either. It was more of a dozen roses kind of red. I picked it up by the extremely thin straps and out of the box. I didn't know much about lingerie but I saw enough in magazines and stores to know what they looked like, and let me tell you, this was definitely it. It was a night dress sort of thing that could very well pass for evening wear if it weren't for the low cut, sweetheart neckline and lace on the neck and hem. "Oh...Wow. This is...I don't know what to say."

Race was looking very worried. "If it's too much I can ship it back and get you something different. There was a really pretty necklace-"

"It's not that. I've just never thought about wearing this kind of thing before and, let's be honest, most of them are pretty trashy," I said, not taking my eyes off of it. "But...I like it."

"You do?" He sounded hopeful.

"Yeah. It's simple and chic, and I love the touch of lace," I finally caught his gaze. "Thank you."

"You really like it? It's not too much?"

I shook my head. "I love it. You did good." We hugged quickly before I pulled away. "I'm going to try this on."

Race grinned. "I was hoping you would say that."

I hit him playfully on the arm then skipped to the bathroom. The dress was fairly easy to slip on, right over my head. It was shorter than I expected, as it only stopped at mid thigh. The straps barely stayed on my shoulders because my boobs weren't big enough to fill out the top. Of course. That's my luck. Oh well, it's not like this thing is staying on for very long. I stared at my new sexy self in the mirror. I have to admit, I don't look half bad. The gown hugged my curves nicely, the cut was low enough to tease but not enough to see everything and my legs have never looked better. I ran my fingers through my hair a few times, attempting to fluff it up as I had in the entry way earlier that day. A few spritzes of body spray later I opened the door and darkness overtook my senses. Then, suddenly, my eyes found a dozen lit candles all around the room, giving the bedroom a soft glow. This I was definitely not expecting. I spotted Race on the bed, stretched out, in nothing but his boxers.

"What's all this?" I asked him.

"Just a little something that says, 'happy birthday'."

"Ah," I said, walking to the edge of the bed. "Well I like them. You should do this more often."

"You look so hot in the lingerie, by the way."

"I know, right?" I said, putting my hands on my hips and spinning a full turn for him. "This is definitely the best present I've ever gotten."

"And the sexiest." He sat up from his position to scoot closer to me. He wrapped his arms around my hips, my hands rested on his shoulders, and he picked up where he left off in the kitchen from earlier in the day. Both of his hands began to slide up and down my thighs. I couldn't help but briefly think how glad I was that I shaved yesterday. I hung my head back with my eyes closed, reveling in his touch. A small smile lit up my face when I felt his fingers loop themselves through the hem of my underwear and slowly pull them down. "Mmmm, how fitting."

"What?"

"You wore the lacey ones."

"It's because I knew what we'd be doing tonight."

"There was a matching set of underwear at the lingerie store in Italy, but I figured I shouldn't spoil a tradition."

I have a certain pair of under garments that I wear only when I know he and I will have alone time. A red lacey pair of panties and bra (Hmmm…I think I love red way too much.) It works out because they're his favorite and it makes me feel really awesome before we do our thing. It gives me extra confidence. Don't ask me why, it just does.

I opened my eyes, brought my head up and straddled his lap, my legs over his. "Not to mention those suckers were expensive! So of course I don't wear them all the time. Why is it so pricey to discover Victoria's secret?"

He laughed into my hair. "Maybe you should ask her, Miss Employee of the Month."

Yes, I work there. And even with my employee discount it's all still expensive as hell. It doesn't help the fact that I want to buy EVERYTHING either.

I rolled my eyes. "The next time the CEO decides to visit our little dinky store I will make it my mission to do just that."

"Okay, okay, no more talking. Time to get down to serious business." He silenced my laughter by kissing my jaw line in quick succession, up and down my neck and my exposed collarbone. I felt him grow larger in his boxers. I always enjoyed that part, knowing how much I excited him. As he made out with my neck I gently rolled my hips back and forth in his lap, just to get him even more anxious. He had a hard time focusing on me because every now and again he'd stop and moan in my ear. Now I was the one getting excited. My breathing became shallow, my heartbeat picked up. Race's kisses expanded to the very top of the neckline. He eventually slid one hand underneath the gown to massage one of my breasts while he tugged down the other side of the dress, his mouth enveloping my second breast. I gasped in pleasure and a sudden burst of tingle exploded through my abdomen. He continued on this path for quite sometime until I couldn't take much more. I took both of my hands, lay them flat on either side of his shoulders and pushed him down on the bed. Our minds must have been on the same wave length because he kept scooting up until his whole body was completely on the bed, which is what I wanted.

Now admittedly I could hardly see a damn thing. I know Race was trying to set a mood but he could have lit just a few more candles. I would have enjoyed seeing his reaction when I crawled on top of him. Our lips met in a frenzied kiss. Our hands explored each others bodies as if we were horny teenagers again. He tugged upward at the hem of the gown, clearly indicating that it should not be on me any longer, so I sat up and let him slip it over my head (see, my prediction was right, wasn't it?) When that was gone I quickly removed his boxers.

"Mmmm," I moaned between kisses. His hands found their way to my breasts once again. "Race, this is the best birthday ever."

"Just wait, love," he whispered huskily into my ear. "The night's not over yet." And he gently thrust his hips up so that I could get a clear feel of him. My insides stirred again in pleasure. My own hips rocked back and forth on his, teasing and taunting him, preventing him from doing the one thing I knew he really wanted.

"Do you have one?" I said when I finally couldn't stand it any longer. That was my code for when I was ready. Race nodded and pulled out a silver packaged condom from underneath the pillow. He opened it, discarded the package and slipped it on himself. As we kissed he guided my hips down and he was slowly sliding into me with ease. We both moaned at the long awaited, much missed contact. I always forget how amazing this part feels, especially since I haven't experienced it in quite a while. Race commenced into driving his hips into mine, gliding in and out, in and out in a steady rhythm. Our breathing grew heavier as his thrusting intensified.

"Oh God, Johanna-"

"Faster," I demanded. He obeyed. I gasped and my anticipation grew. I was nearing my peak. I bit my lip, closed my eyes and nuzzled my face into his neck. "That feels so good. Don't stop."

We carried on like this for a bit longer. His lips found my neck. I nibbled on his ear lobe, which made him slightly shudder. Faster and harder he forced himself into me, our groans became louder every second. I really hope Blink and Emma don't hear us but I'm sure they're having enough of a good time not to notice anything else.

"Oh fuck, I'm coming." Race said loudly. The bed shook, we were panting, I couldn't hold out anymore. I gasped in ecstasy the moment I came, as did he when he did a split second later. I lay on him for what felt like an eternity. I couldn't move; it had been THAT good. I was still breathing hard when he hugged me. "Are you okay?" He chuckled.

"I'm better than okay. I'm a-freaking-mazing. Best welcome home sex ever."

"Wasn't it better that we waited?"

"Yeah but," I laughed, sitting up and removing myself to plop onto the bed. "I definitely would not have minded doing it twice."

Race laughed while he went to the bathroom to dispose of the condom. When he returned, and after he blew out all of the candles, I pulled down the blanket so that we could wiggle under it. I replayed the entire day in my mind while we got comfortable. If I could turn twenty-one every year I would, just so I could have this exact same birthday. And this was the perfect end to a perfect day.

"So since that gift went over so well," Race said as he pulled the covers over us and snuggled up against me. His fingers wound themselves throughout my hair, his face just next to mine. "What should I get you next year?"