Faithful Readers,

I am sorry for my long absence. I want to blame the muses, but really I've been lazy and life has been pretty consistently sucky for some time. But today I read a bunch of the recent reviews asking for updates and enough guilt hit me to finish this last chapter to a barely acceptable state. It's not really my best work, but I think there are a few twists and turns and we're pretty set up for the next chapter (a problem I seem to run into constantly - I set up a chapter and then change the plan while writing the preceding chapter... rendering the plan moot... and then I have to come up with a new plan but I never like my new plans as much as my old ones... ugh, it's a mess. But next chapter is pretty solid in my mind now.)

Hope to update soon, but please don't hate me too hard if it's a little longer than that. As you all know, this does not pay any bills or get me laid, so if one of the items that does that turns up, this gets put on the back burner a bit.

Love you guys!

-K


Ch 25 - A Graceful Exit?


By the time the waitress comes for our orders, Christian is holding my right leg open with one hand and Kate has her leg hooked over my left. This is the only contact I'm given, but the tension in between my thighs keeps increasing as they ever-so-slowly spread me wider. I feel like they're going to tear me apart if they don't stop soon… or touch me.

I'm finding more and more often that when I'm aroused I'm completely incapable of functioning. I wonder how anyone ever survives road head. Reading the dessert menu is just not happening.

Thankfully, Christian orders me flourless raspberry chocolate torte with mascarpone whipped cream (yum!), but when Elliot tries to order for Kate, she completely blows up at him.

"Who the fuck do you think you are, you misogynist piece of…"

"Christian did it! And Ana didn't call him a misogynist…"

"Well, they're dating," she snaps. "You'll notice he didn't attempt to order for me, did he?"

To his credit, he looks appropriately abashed, though he seems like he wants to raise an issue with the dating comment. Finally, she orders herself a glass of whiskey, handing her menu graciously to the waitress.

Kate's tirade has clearly got her blood boiling. She squeezes my thigh hard, making me nearly gasp.

"Let's dance," she says. It's less of an invitation and more of an order. Her leg is still firmly clamped over my upper thigh and I look to Christian. Will he let us up to dance? He planned for this, but as he hadn't expected Elliot here, it's not really clear how this will play out. He seems to be considering it.

"Chris, you have to let us out," she says, eyeing him. "C'mon!" She's basically bouncing on the bench, stretching me as she does so.

Reluctantly, Christian lets go of my leg and stands up from the booth. Now that I'm out from Christian's death grip, Kate untangles herself from me and I can feel my thighs burning from the release of tension.

"Would you ladies care for dance partners?" he asks, looking over to his brother as Kate and I awkwardly bounce along the bench seat to stand up ourselves. I stand up first, Christian holding out his hand and pulling me close to him, our hips just touching.

"Sure," Kate says when she bounces up at my side, grabbing Christian's free hand. "I'll dance with you first, Chris. Ana, you take Elliot." And like that she pulls Christian away and I find myself dragged behind her by Elliot. Not the situation I thought I would find myself in.

The music playing is some kind of techno euro-style something or other that was once a popular love song before it was mutilated into the form dance music. The tempo is upbeat, though, which is just fine by me if I'm going to be dancing with Elliot.

Now, I consider myself a bit of a dance spaz. I am the dancing equivalent of a shower singer: I only do it alone where no one can judge me. I can handle the bop side-to-side in public and that's about it. But Elliot is full-on dancing. He's got eyes closed, head back, hand movements, spins, dips, muscle flexes, even a couple hip thrusts. I'm sticking to my bop. The bop is good. The bop is safe. The bop is un-embarrassing and unobtrusive. No one gets mad at you for the bop. No one assumes you want to sleep with them for the bop.

"So. Ana," he leans in and whisper-shouts in my ear. "I'm flattered, but I'm sort of seeing someone."

No one except Elliot it seems.

"What?" No, but seriously. What?

"You must have a lot of pent-up sexual frustration since you're dating my brother. He's a bit of a prude."

I really, just… I can't respond.

"The lingerie is a nice touch, it looks great. I just don't see it doing it for him."

A nice touch?

"Listen, if it wasn't for Kate, I'd give you a good roll. No questions asked. No one would need to know. As a favor."

"A favor?" Holy shit, am I being propositioned by Elliot Grey?

"But Kate's sort of the jealous type. She doesn't like to share, you know?"

I can't help but laugh at this.

"There's been some kind of misunderstanding, Mr. Grey," I begin to say, but he cuts me off, resting his wrist on my shoulder as the music morphs fluidly into an overplayed Britney Spears song.

"I get it, Ana. We're both hot, sexual beings. And I know the cold fish you're dating just can't satisfy you the way you need." He flashes me a winning smile.

Okay, I'll admit it. If Christian wasn't in the picture, I could see myself being into him.

But compared to Christian, I'm just not interested.

"I promise not to tell Christian about what happened earlier," he says, just as Christian and Kate appear behind him to switch dance partners.

"And what, exactly, happened earlier?" Christian deadpans, pulling me against him to sway sensually to the bump-n-grind beat. I feel my blood boil instantly at the contact.

"Uh, it was just an accident," I mumble.

His grip on my hips tightens almost painfully. "What was an accident?"

"He, uh, may have seen me…" I hesitate. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. "I thought he was you at the door, so I answered it… in my underwear." This time the grip is painful.

"That bastard," he mutters. And when I look up I see that he's not looking back at me but is staring daggers at his brother.

"CALM DOWN, CHRISTIAN."

Okay, well that got his attention.

"It was an honest mistake and it was my fault, not Elliot's." I decide right then and there I never need to mention the conversation Elliot and I just had. I am pretty confident it would result in some serious bodily harm.

"Please, I just want to enjoy our evening," I say pleadingly, tossing him some puppy dog eyes and running a finger along his neck. "I know Elliot threw a bit of a wrench in things, but we can still have a good time, right?"

He seems to soften at this. "Yes, we can."

I tilt my head further and pull his neck in close for a deep kiss. "Even if there's no way to salvage the original plan for the evening, we can have fun just the two of us, right?"

"I'll see what I can do," he says against my lips and kisses me again.


Okay, I'm a bit drunk.

I can still name all the Ninja Turtles. I am not wasted. I am, however, highly tipsy.

I know this because I cannot stop thinking about sex.

Dancing makes me think of sex. This cake definitely makes me think of sex. I look at Elliot, I think about him wanting to have sex with me. I look at Kate, I think about me wanting to have sex with her. I look at Christian…

Oh, he just drips sex.

No wait, that's me. Dampness alert!

I'm hilarious.

Anywho

"Kate, why don't you take Ana to splash some water on her face in the ladies' room," I hear Christian say, helping me to my feet. "Just make sure she doesn't drown."

"I feel fine, Christian," I insist, lacing my fingers through his hair. "Seriously. Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines, Rafael is cool but rude, Michelangelo is a party dude. See? I'm good." I pull him in for a sloppy kiss.

Kate chuckles at my side. "She gets like this. Don't worry, this is a few steps before anything that will cause a hangover. Meet Tipsy Ana. She's like Regular Ana, just more fun."

Elliot leans over so he's eye-level with me. "Yeah, bro, she seems good." He winks at me. Gosh, he's cute.

I lay my palm on his cheek, lift it slightly, and flop it back down on his face. "Ugh! You're adorable. Go home, Elliot!" I say a bit more vehemently than I intended.

Christian's chest rumbles as he laughs. "Okay, yes. I like Tipsy Ana. Go home, Elliot."

Elliot smiles at us and stands back up. "Ah, but she said I'm adorable. I can take a hint, though. I'm beat anyway," he says, yawning. He turns to Kate. "You ready to go, babe?"

Kate shoots a look over to me. "I really should stick with Tipsy and make sure she's okay."

"But she's got Christian," he says.

"Yeah, but I want to stay. I want to get as tipsy as Ana tonight. But don't worry about me. You go. You look exhausted."

He lowers his voice at this point and tugs Kate's arm.

"Babe, what are you going to do? Three's a crowd. Plus, how are you going to get home?"

"Don't worry about that, El," Christian chimes in. "She can stay in my guest room at Escala. That was the original plan anyway. I'll drop the both of them off at home tomorrow."

I reach a hand out to Elliot. "Elliot, come here."

He gives me his hand and I wave him closer so I can whisper in his ear.

"Elliot, you look really tired."

He smiles congenially at me. "Yeah, well, I wasn't planning on going out tonight. I've been up since 5:30 this morning. I have to be at the job site tomorrow at," he looks at his watch. "Holy shit! I have to be there in five hours!" He lets go of my hand and gives Kate a swift kiss. "See you later babe! Christian, thanks for taking care of the girls. I owe you one, bro," he shouts as he flies out of the club.

Alone at last.