Author's note: I made a small change in Ch. 9 to clarify the dress code for the dinner party, so now Janet knows an evening gown will not be required. g Incidentally, I noticed the questions in the reviews about whether there was more to come. Well, obviously, the answer is yes. When the final chapter is posted, whenever that is, I will identify it as such…just so there's no question. g
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The Transylvanians weren't the only ones making plans. As soon as Brad dropped her off after their odyssey at the castle, Janet raced to her closet to figure out what to wear to the dinner party the next night.
She was actually rather disappointed the "dress code" for the dinner was casual. She would have loved to go to Bradshaw's, Denton's finest department store, and buy a gorgeous, sexy dress for the occasion. It wasn't that she thought she could win Frank away from his longtime lover. After all, how could she compete with someone – an undoubtedly beautiful someone, she just knew it - he'd known all his life, loved for years, and was the Queen, no less? Still, Janet wanted to look her best. She wanted to look sexy. If she were really honest with herself, she wanted to look so stunning the Queen would actually be jealous she'd been with Frank.
Not likely. Janet sighed. Probably the best she could hope for was that the Queen wouldn't look at her and feel sorry for Frank because he'd had to seduce her.
Janet shook her head, impatient with herself. Why did it matter what the Queen, or even Frank, thought of her? They had each other, and she had Brad. Wasn't that the way it was supposed to be?
Maybe so…but did she still want Brad? That was a question that made her wardrobe dilemma pale in comparison. She knew she loved Brad, but was she in love with him? She didn't love Frank, but she loved how she felt when she was with him. She loved the electricity that surged through her body when he touched her. She loved the fire ignited by the oh-so-sensual contact of his lips and tongue with her own. She loved the weight and warmth of his naked body lying on top of her. Most of all, she loved the delicious, intense, incredibly erotic friction that was created as he so expertly moved inside her. Janet remembered when she and her high school friends would find and read the "bodice ripper" romance novels their mothers would keep hidden in their homes. Her more, well, experienced friends would scoff at the torrid sex scenes, saying sex in real life could never be that good. Janet's encounter with Frank had proven them wrong.
However, it was an encounter that would never be repeated. The Transylvanian "mission" was over, Frank would be with Adrianna, and they would certainly return to their home planet. Janet didn't know if the Transylvanians had discovered the knowledge they were seeking about Earthlings and sexuality, but she did know she'd discovered more about her own sexuality than she really wanted to know. When her mother, during an intensely awkward conversation on Janet's thirteenth birthday, explained "the birds and the bees" to her, she said sex was something men expected and women tolerated…it was a "wifely duty," not a source of pleasure. Romance novels notwithstanding, Janet had expected her attitude toward sex would be just like her mother's. She'd allowed Brad to kiss her, but never had the slightest temptation to indulge him in his infrequent, tentative attempts to go any further. She never expected Brad to satisfy her sexually; she never thought she would need that kind of satisfaction.
But need it she does. Badly. And the odds of Brad providing that satisfaction seem slim, at best.
Janet sat down at her vanity, and buried her head in her arms. Why did this happen to her? Why was she given a taste of sexual ecstasy, only to have it taken away? It would have been better had she never experienced it at all. She could have happily married Brad, and never realized what she was missing.
Unfortunately…or fortunately, she isn't sure which…she can't undo what has been done. What she can, and must, do is decide the fate of her relationship with Brad. Should she give up the man she'd loved since high school, on the chance she could find someone who would fulfill her both physically and emotionally? Or should she go ahead and marry Brad, in hopes he could actually learn to be an exciting – or at least reasonably competent – lover?
Her head throbbing, Janet decided to put off the decision a little while longer. Maybe the dinner party would somehow give her an indication of what she should do.
But first, another vital decision needed to be made…what could she wear??