Naked Read online

  My phone rang on the table. Sarah’s ring tone, the dance beat of a popular techno song. Reluctantly, I pulled away to answer it. Alex chased me the whole way, so I was laughing when I took the call.

  “What the hell is going on?” Sarah asked.

  “Oh…nothing. What’s up?”

  “‘Nothing’ sounds like someone’s got a hand in your panties.”

  “Umm…” I wriggled away from Alex kissing my collarbone, only to turn and have him nuzzle the back of my neck, instead. “No.”

  Sarah gave a derisive snort. “Uh-huh. Tell Alex I said hi. Or, hey, girlfriend.”

  “As if.” I’d have given her a harder time but hey, I was distracted.

  “Does he go down on you?”

  “What?”

  “See, I always figured gay dudes could get it up for a woman, but actually eating pussy was something different. I mean, putting your dick in something warm and wet seems like a no-brainer, right? But actually going pearl diving…”

  “Is there a point to this conversation?” I managed finally to wriggle away from Alex’s groping hands and teasing tongue, and even got a few steps out of reach.

  He grinned, unashamed.

  “Aside from my sudden, desperate need to dissect whether or not a dude can do a good job eating pussy if he’s not really that into the chick, or if he can fake it till he feels it, or what? Other than that?”

  “Yes, other than your sudden, twisted need to discuss oral sex. Was there a point?”

  Alex had gone back to the album by the window, though he looked over at me when I mentioned oral sex. I turned so I didn’t have to see his face.

  I checked the progress of my order, had the e-mail to show it had gone through, and started closing all my browser windows. A few more messages had come in to my business e-mail and a few to my personal—but those were Connex notifications, nothing important I needed to look at now. I started shutting down my computer. Alex hadn’t said what time we should leave, but I needed a shower and a change of clothes, and by the way we’d been fooling around earlier, I thought it might take me longer than usual.

  “Actually, no.”

  Sarah’s answer gave me pause. “No? Are you serious? You called me up to ask me about guys eating pussy?”

  That definitely drew his attention. I pantomimed asking him what time we needed to leave. Eleven. I had a couple hours before then, which should’ve been plenty of time…if we didn’t end up making out or fucking.

  “Yes,” Sarah said.

  I closed the lid of my laptop and sat in the twirly chair to talk to her. “What about it?”

  “What do you think about it?”

  “I’m a fan, obviously.”

  Sarah laughed. “Hell, yes. Who’s not?”

  “What’s going on with you?”

  “I just…Say I’m taking a survey.”

  I didn’t believe a word of it. “Uh-huh.”

  “So, what do you think? Can a guy perform adequate and/or exemplary cunnilingus on a woman he’s not attracted to?”

  “What the—” I cracked up laughing, certain she had to be putting me on. “Adequate and exemplary cunnilingus? Are you kidding me?”

  “I’m serious, Liv.” She sounded serious.

  I rocked in my chair and put my feet up on the desk. “Guys can fuck anything. I’m convinced of it.”

  “Not fuck. Eat out. I know they can stick their dicks in any hole and get off.” Sarah sounded a little more sour than she normally did. “But…cunt eating. Dining at the Y. Muff-diving. Gorging on the hairy burrito.”

  “Ew,” I muttered. “Gross.”

  “Can they? Do you think?”

  I shot a cautious look at Alex, who no longer seemed to be listening. He’d moved on to another of my albums and was flipping pages, his expression engrossed and thoughtful.

  “Do you mean just gay guys?” I kept my voice low, my back turned.

  “No. Straight guys, too.”

  “Hmm.” Patrick had never gone down on me. Disgruntled at the memory, I said, “I guess so. Why not? Why couldn’t they?”

  “That’s what I thought, too.” Sarah sounded unexpectedly defeated. She paused, then asked in a smaller voice, “Do you think it turns them on?”

  “Sarah, sweetie. Is something going on you want to talk to me about?”

  She sighed. “I met someone, that’s all.”

  “What happened?”

  “Nothing.” Her laugh sounded more normal this time. “I mean, nothing. Dude’s a dud.”

  “Ah.”

  “Well, anyway, I’ll let you go. I just wondered what you thought about all that. I’ve got some other people to call and ask.”

  “Are you for real?”

  “Girl, you know it’s true.”

  I groaned. “Don’t start quoting Milli Vanilli tunes to me, please…”

  Too late. She was already singing. I laughed. Sarah singing early nineties pop songs was always good for a chuckle.

  “I’ll be by this week sometime to help with the studio if you want,” she said. “Have fun with Ahhhlex.”

  “We’re going to Chocolate Fest.”

  “I hate you.”

  “You don’t hate me,” I told her. “You love me.”

  “And yet, I don’t think I could eat your pussy,” Sarah said, so matter-of-factly she might have been reciting the times tables. “Not even if you paid me.”

  “Good Lord, why would I pay you to go down on me?” I had to wipe my eyes from tears of laughter.

  “Ding, ding! Survey says…! Because…hell, I don’t know why, either. Goodbye, fool.”

  “For a Jewish white girl from the suburbs of Philly, you do a mean impression of Mr. T.”

  “Liv, I am blacker than you are,” Sarah said. “Peace out, Girl Scout.”

  “Bye.”

  I thumbed off the call and turned. Alex, silhouetted in the window, didn’t move. I reached for my camera and took a quick shot. Then he shifted, coming out of the light and into focus.

  “Let me guess. Sarah.”

  “Yeah. Smile.” I held up the camera and watched him move closer. “Too close!”

  I got a picture of his eyeball, blurred, and that was it. I showed him in the view screen. “Ah, there’s one for the fridge.”

  “It’s better than the one where I have a bowl cut and a striped turtleneck on.”

  “When was that taken?” I teased. “Last year?”

  Alex curled his lip. “Ha-ha, second grade. I told my mother it didn’t match my brown corduroy flare-leg pants, but she didn’t listen.”

  “Oh, the trauma.”

  His gaze shifted for a second before a hard smile split his mouth. “Yeah. I guess if that was the worst of it, I’d be a lucky guy.”

  He said the words lightly, but they felt heavy. I put my camera on the table and took his face in my hands. I kissed him. Not hard, not sexy. Just…sweet.

  “I’m sure you looked hot even in a pair of cords and a striped turtleneck.”

  He raised a brow. “Of course I did. I was the hottest boy in second grade. And third. And fourth—”

  I put a finger over his mouth. “I’m sure.”

  He smiled and kissed my finger. “That was a long time ago.”

  “Yeah?” We were moving again, not quite dancing, but swaying. It seemed we couldn’t touch each other without turning it into something sexy. “How long? How old are you?”

  “How old are you?”

  “I’m twenty-eight.” I had a strange thought. “You’re older than that, right?”

  He laughed ruefully. “Christ. Yes. I am.”

  “You don’t look it.”

  He pulled a face. “Gee, thanks. Thank God I spent all that money on Botox and pancake makeup.”

  “You don’t use Botox.” I touched the feathered lines, very faint, at the corners of his eyes. “And I don’t see any makeup.”

  His sexy smile sent tingles down to my toes. “Not today.”

  It wouldn�€