You Leave Me With a Dangerous Taste

I was in a room I had barely been in before. The only time I had been in here was when William decided he wanted to watch his favorite movie on ‘the big screen’. Little did I know back then that ‘the big screen’ was an in-home cinema. Everything was projected on a white screen that took up an entire wall, a few two-person leather couches with cup holders placed behind each other as if it were an actual cinema.

I was bent over one of those brown couches this time. My skirt had been pushed up, my panties pushed to the side. Alex was stood behind me, a firm grip on my hips, his belt long on the floor. To make up for the times I took the power away from him, I let him decide what we were doing this time. It started with a movie and ended with me being in this position.

Alex kept pulling me down on to him as he thrust in, making me scream out in pleasure every single time. The pressure his fingers put on my skin only made the build up inside me greater and greater. Despite my elbows becoming painful from holding up my weight, I wanted him to go harder and faster. I was so close to seeing the universe unfold from the stars that were already clouding my eyes.

I was about to moan out his name, the thought of waking up William in the room upstairs nowhere close to my conscious thoughts, when something else happened.

“Oh shit!” A man, somebody who most definitely was not Alex, exclaimed from the doorway.

Although we had closed the door in case somebody like William walked past, we hadn’t been bothered to lock it. It wasn’t necessary while we were watching a movie, and neither of us thought about it when things started getting heated. All I wanted was Alex to touch me.

But now we had been caught.

“Fuck, sorry!” The person added before running out and slamming the door shut.

While Alex had frozen and looked at the familiar-sounding man, he had no trouble falling back into pace as soon as the door had been closed. It was like we hadn’t been interrupted at all. However, I had no idea who had just seen us. My heart was beating rapidly, and not just from the hot activities I had been in the middle of doing. Instead of pleasure tingling throughout me, it was now dread prickling my nerves.

“Alex, stop,” I told him, more annoyed out of fear than anything.

I didn’t expect him to stop, he always continued to pursue, but for once he actually pulled out and stopped immediately. It was like even he knew that this situation called for it. This wasn’t just me trying to get back at him, this was me genuinely being uncomfortable for a good reason. Maybe Alex was thinking about it himself, only continuing cause I had stiffened up for a few seconds and he believed that meant he should continue, or it could have been the tone of my voice. There was no teasing behind it whatsoever.

“W-who was it?” I asked him, my eyes wide as I stared at the door where the, still, stranger had been standing. I was sat on the leather couch now, not having to bother with my clothes since I still had them all on. We were supposed to do this quickly before William woke up from his nap, there had been no time for all the tedious things.

“Rian,” Alex answered simply, still standing with only his shirt on. He slowly bent down and pulled up his boxers and jeans in one go.

“Fuck…” I groaned. He was friends with Zack. He would tell Zack. Zack would tell my brother. My brother would tell Jack despite having the best intentions for me. Jack would break up with me. I couldn’t have him break up with me. That would be the end of my world and everything in it.

“Hey, hey,” Alex sat on his haunches in front of me, his voice lowering to become comforting. It was only then that I notice I was outing my worry through my breathing and the expression on my face, “it’s going to be ok. He can’t have seen you. We awkwardly made eye contact, and other than that, all he could have seen was my bare ass.”

“What about my hair?” I panicked nonetheless. “He must have recognized my hair!”

“Good we left it up in its bun this time, huh?” He gave me a comforting smile and stroked my cheek.

“And my clothes? What about my clothes?” I cried, not understanding why he was so calm. It wasn’t like he could ask Rian to keep quiet about it. As loyal as somebody was, keeping a secret like this was impossible. If one person knows, everybody knows.

“Paisley, it’s going to be ok,” he repeated as if he knew it was a fact, not something that was still open. “I promise.”

I gulped and stared at him, staring into his eyes to see if there was any dishonesty. It was just his warm brown eyes looking back at me, there was no hidden intention… if anything, it was strangely comforting, yet distressing at the same time. There was something so familiar about it.

I continued to take deep breaths, hoping to be as calm as Alex. If he could stay so composed, then I had to be able to do it as well. But I had so much more to lose than him.

“Look, to solidify my promise, I’m going to give you this.” He reached into his back pocket, somehow making a silver chain appear. When he opened his hand, I saw the single charm on it. It wasn’t as cliche as I expected from him. It was a simply crafted silver rose hanging from its stalk. All the leaves and petals managed to be so detailed despite its size.

“I don’t think there’s any better time to give it to you than now.” He let the pendant rest against my collarbone as he stood up a little to reach back and close the lock behind my neck.

As much as I appreciated the gesture and normally would have declined it, it wasn’t like my heart had stopped racing and allowed me to think clearly. “But what if he did see?”

“Look, if you’re really that afraid, you can leave through the ‘secret’ entrance. You can get to the pool maintenance room if you go through the room back there with all the electrical switches for this room.” He pointed at a black door that was at the end of the rows of couches as opposed to the entrance door all the way to the front and close to the screen. “You can then exit the pool maintenance, the door locks itself from the outside. If I’m correct, the outside door to the laundry room is still open. Your clothes from two days ago, the ones I spilled beer over, should be washed. You can put those on and exit like you were in there all along.”

“Sounds like you’ve planned this all out,” I accused and crossed my arms.

He shook his head with a chuckle. “No, I just locked myself out multiple times when the pool actually needed some maintenance and the door kept closing. The laundry room has always been my savior. Everything else is purely coincidental.”

“Ok, then.” I nodded, praying this would work. It was my only option if Rian had seen us as I had feared.

“Good.” Alex got up to his feet, staying bent down a little to press a kiss to my forehead.

He led me to the door and opened it for me like the ‘gentleman’ he was. Just minutes ago we were having hot sex, and now he was all sweet and compassionate. He even gave me one last kiss that wasn’t lust filled as a good luck.

As I started walking my way around the house all the way to the opposite end to the laundry room, making sure Rian couldn’t see me through the windows, I thought about the emotion I had seen in Alex’s eyes. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t figured it out before, but I knew why it was so familiar. Although a different pair of eyes from a completely different human being, I could recognize Alex looking at me the same exact way Jack did. Hence why it was so comforting. Jack was my home. However, that was also why it was so disconcerting. Alex was looking at me the same way Jack did, and I did not know why.

I got changed in the laundry room, picking up a basket with clean clothes that Alex had folded himself, acting as if I had just been doing it. As I left the room, I was cautious. I knew that Rian was somewhere, but I did not know where. I had to act natural, but that was difficult to do if I didn’t know when to do so. Right now, I was just sneaking around.

Eventually, I just found him in the foyer, looking around at the walls awkwardly. To make it as realistic as possible, I moved back a few steps and started walking as I normally would do.

I did a small jump and brought my hand to my chest when I ‘saw’ Rian standing there. “Oh, Rian, you gave me a fright!”

He turned around and a frown immediately flashed across his face. Quickly, it was replaced with confusion and he looked towards the direction of the other wing of the house. “What? Weren’t you just--”

“Just what?” I asked obliviously, adding my own puzzled expression.

“No… nothing…” He shook his head and rubbed his temple, probably retracting all his thoughts. So, I had been right, Rian had figured out it was me with Alex in the home cinema.

“Have you seen Alex?” I continued to question to support my innocence. “I believe I heard him come home, but I haven’t seen him.”

He closely inspected me from afar and glanced down the hallway again. “Are you sure you weren’t just in the movie room?”

“Is that where Alex is?” I laughed softly and started in that direction. “I have to tell him I need to leave soon and since he’s home he should be able to do without me.”

“No!” Rian stopped me, his hands outstretched. “Wait. I wouldn’t go in there.”

“No?”

“No, he’s, umm, he’s…”

“He’s what?” I continued to play unaware.

Rian clicked his tongue and made a large gesture with his hands as he made up an excuse. “He… likes to watch... porn in there…?”

Even I could hear that that was a lie and that Rian couldn’t actually believe he had just said that. However, I just acted dumb. “On a gigantic screen? Is that really a good idea with a four-year-old son? What if he walks in?”

“That’s what I think too!” He blurted out with a deep breath, relieved that I still managed to fall for it.

“Well, okay, then.” I smiled at him and headed for the stairs instead. “I’m going to finish putting away the laundry. Will you tell Alex I had to leave when he’s done… done with whatever he does in there…”

“Will do.” Rian gave me a nod and let his hands drop to his side as I went up the stairs.

It killed me to play the girl who believed everything in this world was good. But I had other things on my mind that were more concerning.