The first dress I try on is a gorgeous purple dress with sweetheart neckline. It’s strapless, and silver decorates the top. The sweeping purple skirt falls into a cascade of silver as well. I like it. A lot.
I step out of the dressing room and catch Eric with a glass of water halfway to his lips. He freezes when he sees me. I hope that’s a good thing.
“Oh, that’s lovely,” Anita says, guiding me onto a pedestal in front of the mirrors. I can see myself from almost every angle, and impossibly, every angle seems to look good.
“I like it,” I say.
“You should,” Eric says. I didn’t notice him standing and coming up behind me. “You look beautiful.”
I don’t meet his eyes. “Is this fancy enough for the party? I have no concept of whether this is going to be just a party or a full-on ball.”
“I think this would fit well,” he says. “And this dress would be perfect.”
Anita steps up. “We have others to try on too. If this ends up being your favorite, we can easily come back to it.”
For the next hour, I truly feel like I'm the heroine in a movie, because I try on dress after dress and get to see Eric smile at me and feel those butterflies and imagine that this is the world that I live in all the time and that I'm not just a visitor. All the dresses are beautiful, but honestly, none of them really compares to that first one. I think that's going to be the one I choose, but Anita has several more for me to try, and they're all so gorgeous that I'm not going to say no to seeing how they look on me.
I'm in the middle of changing when Eric speaks right outside of the curtain. "Sally?"
"Yeah?"
"Can I come in for a moment?"
I freeze. I'm in my bra and panties, and my mind flashes to what Iris said. I don't want that to happen. "I'm not dressed," I say.
"I have to leave, go back to work, but I wanted to say goodbye."
It's a strange combination, this mix of relief and sadness. I don't want him to go. Suddenly I feel a burst of confidence. This man already knows that I'm a virgin and he hasn't run. His fingers have already been inside me. If he sees me in my underwear, nothing is going to change that. I push the curtain back with a smile on my face and watch as he takes me in.
Satisfaction fills me as I watch his eyes go dark, as he steps close and pulls the curtain closed behind him. "Though I very much wish that I didn't have to leave."
"I was teased before going here that you might want to have sex in the dressing room."
"Oh, I do," he says. "Absolutely. But like I said last night, I'm not going to fuck you for the first time somewhere less than you deserve." Reaching out, he pulls me to him, and kisses me. And this is a very different kiss then the one he gave me before. This one is filled with passion and intimacy and heat. It's not a kiss that you give when other people are watching. "Come to dinner with me tonight," he says. "And make sure you find something to wear while you're here."
"Where are we going?" I ask, because of course I'm saying yes.
That little smirk appears. "I'll text you, and I'll pick you up at eight."
"Okay."
He kisses me again, softly this time, and is out of the dressing room before I have the chance to say goodbye. It's probably a good thing for both of us. A little more and neither of us would have cared whether my first time was in a bed or not. I pull the next dress down and step into it, and am mortified when I realize that Anita was standing outside the whole time.
She sees the look on my face and waves a hand. "Honey, I've seen a lot worse."
"Okay," I squeak. "I need a dress for dinner tonight too, I guess."
She smiles. "I think I have the perfect thing for that."
8
Eric
This day has been torture. Not because of work, miraculously, but because I can't get Sally out of my brain and the way she pushed aside that curtain full of confidence, and yet she's feels so...fragile. My mind keeps spinning back to the curves of her body, breasts spilling out of a simple bra, and everything chaste and simple. I've been aroused all day, and I know that I'll likely be aroused even more tonight at dinner when I can just look at her. Another thing that I didn't necessarily intend. Normally on the eve of Valentine’s Day, I'm in the office fixing some crisis, and then going home to drink myself to sleep.
Tonight, I don't want to do that. I want to be with her, even if it means possibly having a couple of news stories about me having a new Valentine. I can handle it. I just realized that one hour wasn't enough time, and I want to talk to her. Find out what she likes and who she is and dig deeper into this thing that neither of us really understand.
I've had Jennifer make reservations at The Empire Room and reserve a car. If I have the chance to kiss Sally, I'm going to take it. I don't want to be stuck behind the wheel distracted. In fact, I need to leave now if I'm going to change in time.
I barely register getting home and changing because I'm just marking time until I can see Sally. After I put my tux on I still have time to kill, and I have to stop myself from getting undressed just to get myself off. This girl has taken over my brain, and for tonight, I refuse to question whether or not that's a good thing.
Finally, it's time to leave, and I get into the town car Jennifer ordered. The ride from my apartment to Sally's feels like an eternity even though it isn't actually that long. And then I'm ringing her doorbell and waiting, and waiting, and there she is, and I'm thinking that I should have gotten myself off because my cock is criminally hard.
The dress she's wearing is a deep crimson color, and it hugs her body like it was made for it. The design is simple and elegant, with not a whole lot of embellishment, but she doesn't need it. Sally is enough. Her hair is similar to last night, falling in curling waves. I want to have my hands in it again, holding her still so I can kiss her the way I really want.
I realize that I've been staring at her for a minute, and haven't said anything. "In case you hadn't already figured it out from my staring, you're stunning."
The pink that stains her cheeks is delicate, and I love seeing it there, and I hate it. Because the fact that she's blushing from such a simple compliment means that she's not used to it. And there's no reason she shouldn't be told this every day of her life. She'll be reminded for however long she's in mine. That same twinge in my chest that appeared when I was talking to Bianca earlier reappears. I push it aside. Because it's too fast, and I'm not my father. And of all things, I don't want to think about him tonight.
"Thank you," she says, taking my outstretched hand as I help her into the car. The darkened windows are perfect, because no one can see as I sit beside her and immediately pull her toward me for a kiss. I'm not usually one for PDA. I prefer privacy, and the club was an exception. Sally startles, and then melts against me in a way that makes me never want to stop kissing her. But I have to remember to take it slowly. So much of this is new to her, and I'm not going to be the man she remembers as ruining her first experiences.
No. I'm going to be the man she remembers who took the time needed to make those experiences perfect. When I pull away she's smiling. "Iris made me take my lipstick with me, and now I know why."
"So I can keep kissing you without fear of ruining your make-up?" I ask.
Her eyes flick up to mine, and I could fall into them if I tried, I think. "Kiss away," she says softly, and I do. Sally has a way of ruining my plans. I was going to make this about talking, about getting to know each other, but that will have to wait for dinner because I can't get enough of her lips or the way she tastes. It makes me want to taste her elsewhere, hear the sounds that she'll make when my mouth is on her. My cock has become a marble statue just imagining it.
Before I realize it, we're pulling up in front of the restaurant, and I'm a little annoyed that means we have to stop, until I see the glazed look in Sally's face and realize that I'm not the only one who might be disappointed. "We're here."
She bites her lip, the blush on her face telling me she's co
ming back to herself and realizing that she's spent the last twenty minutes making out with me. "Okay."
I help her out of the car, and there's a camera flash. I'm not surprised, given what day it is and where we are, that there are some photographers here. "Ignore them," I say. "They're going to take pictures of everyone who comes in tonight."
"Why?"
I grin. "Because the love lives of the rich and famous are apparently very interesting. Most celebrities don't celebrate on the day of Valentine’s Day if they're going to go out. The photographers know that if they want to catch people, they have to go the day before or the day after."
"So we're going to be in the paper?"
"I doubt it," I say, laughing. "I mean, it's a possibility, but I'm not really a celebrity. I'm sure there will be people who are far more interesting to report on than you and me. Would you be upset if we were?"
Sally shakes her head. "No, I don't think so. It's just...all of this. I'm not used to being in this world. I clearly don't belong in it."