Page 4 of Mahogany 1

“You sure? You were looking for someone a minute ago,” she challenged.

With my arms crossed over my chest, I defensively said, “That was different. He did something for me and?—

“Listen, Mahogany,” she interrupted. “I’m a girls-girl and I’m good at reading people. I spent six months working with you. Six months of seeing you rush to answer your phone. Six months of watching you return from the bathroom with ‘that’ look on your face. And every time, your aura would get a little dimmer. You did a lot for me. Gave life to a vision in a way that not a lot of designers could. Whatever Armani suit did… it gave you this.” She shrugged. “Boost. I could see it before you took the mask off. You might not have had sex, but he did something.”

He did a lot ofsomething’s. Cared about my wellbeing for one, when in reality, he didn’t have to. I said that because hello… I was in a sex club. I winked at someone. That shit was mine toclean up, but he did it. Not only that but… his touch. His skin, regardless of how forbidden it might have been, felt so got damn good against mine. I could still feel him on me. Like footprints in the sand. Like… fingerprints left behind at a crime scene. He was still there. Long gone, but there still. Urging me to find him. Urging me to dig deeper. To ask Emerald questions that would threaten her ethics as a business owner with an NDA clause. I just… I wanted to ask if she knew his name. I had a good enough description, and he had the type of presence that would definitely leave a lasting impression, so I was sure she’d have a good idea of who he was.

But I didn’t push.

Instead of saying anything, the only response I gave was a soft smile.

“You need a membership,” she continued. “Coming here… it does something to people. It’s more than just sex. People come alive here. Men are...” She shrugged. “Men. But they come alive here too.” Pausing again, she looked around her office. “I started this… this business in the basement of a small house in the hood. Not once did I think it would do for people what I’d witnessed it do. We’re free here. We get to connect without inhibitions. Without judgment. And isn’t that what life is all about? Connection? Freedom to just…be? I created that. A little slice of heaven on earth.” She lightly giggled. “And Mahogany… I’d like to share it with you. Not just for one night. One night isn’t enough.” She paused. “Not for some people it isn’t. Would you be open to a membership? One year? On me.”

“I appreciate it, but?—“

“I’ll register you just in case you change your mind,” she interrupted. “Cool?”

With a deep breath, I nodded. “That’s very generous of you.”

I got a glimpse of the membership pricing when I checked in and it wasn’t cheap. The yearly price for the lowest tier wastwenty thousand. Because she’d been so nice, I accepted her invitation with no intention of returning. I mean…. I would have loved to see him again but I looked at everything in life as happening for a specific reason. Maybe I missed him because I wasn’t supposed to engage. Maybe the best thing for me to do would be to go home, nurse that lonely bottle of wine, and wait for my husband.

So, after talking to Emerald for another ten minutes or so, I gathered my things and left. Duke didn’t make it home from his brothers until around midnight. We did the husband-and-wife thing—caught up, talked about work, ate a meal together and then eventually got into bed with zero sex involved. I wanted to. Needed too. Pandora’s had me worked up. But Duke was tired and well… he wasn’thim. As sad as it may have been… that was who I wanted. That forbidden encounter. That… sinful, lustful, sex with a stranger who’d made tingles shoot through every part of me that he’d touched. Duke didn’t do that. Never had. Possibly never would.

I tossed and turned most of the night, wishing I’d been more assertive. More… daring. More of that risqué, freaky version of myself. The side I kept hidden from the world. The one with the outlandish fantasies. The one Pandora’s could have allowed me to be if I wasn’t so… me. So… her. The wife. The me Duke turned me into.

With my eyes to the ceiling, I ran the back of my fingers against my bare nipples, thinking of him. Of all of the ways I would have handled him if I was… me. If I was… free. I tried not to staytheretoo long. You know, trapped in my thoughts. I tried my damnedest to respect my husband. But… I couldn’t help it. Before I knew it, my panties were off and I was playing between the slippery folds of my pussy, eyes closed, thoughts on him. It didn’t take me long to orgasm. Didn’t take long at all because I felt him. His hands on me still. His warm, ‘cognacy’ breath onthe side of my neck. Those… tingles. Bursts of energy. Thought about all the ways I’d fuck him. Thought about the way his nut would feel sliding down my throat. Wondered if he ate a lot of fruit. Wanted to taste him. Needed to taste him. Hoped I would be given a second chance. Needed it. Wanted it more than I wanted my marriage to work. In that instance, with my fingers against my slick, protruding, throbbing clit, I did.

I said I wasn’t going back to Pandora’s.

I lied. Just like Duke did when he told me he was at his brothers. Perception? Intuition? Insecurities? It didn’t matter what it was. Nothing did, except running into him again.

1

MAHOGANY

There was this girl.

No. She wasn’t a girl. She was a woman. She cheated on her husband. In her defense, he cheated first. Religiously. It took her a while… to you know… get ‘her lick back’. But see, it wasn’tonlyabout getting revenge. She’d been hurt. Time and time again. She gave a lot. Always. But got nothing in return. Always. She felt insignificant. Like her efforts were useless. Like her love, the same. So, she cheated. Cheated back and got nothing out of it. Every time he pissed her off, every time she felt like he was doing something he shouldn’t have been, she cheated. Went to this place called Pandora’s. It was a little slice of hell, disguised as heaven, tucked away in midtown Detroit. At Pandora’s you could be anyone and do just about anything. Fantasies… they came alive there. Secrets? Oh, baby, secrets were safe. There she lost bits and pieces of herself every time she walked through the doors. It wasn’t walking through the doors that did it. It was using Pandora’s as revenge that got her. It became the best play in her play book. Silent revenge. There she cheated with men she didn’t like to get back at the man she loved.

But did it matter? Truly? If he didn’t know. If he didn’t find out the way she found out? It didn’t. Not to her it didn’t, at least. The woman… she found pleasure in smiling with him, while thinking of them. The men she laid with while he kept the kids. The dicks she sucked with the mouth he loved to kiss. That was enough for her. Until it wasn’t. Until she looked up one day and five years had gone by and the hole in her heart had done nothing but grow. Pandora’s didn’t fill her up. They didn’t fill her up. They took. Bits and pieces. She was close to empty.

She was me.

Mahogany.

As I laid on my back, naked, with my eyes to the ceiling, thoughts of my first night at Pandora’s filled my mind and I sighed. I met a man. He saved me. Touched me in ways I’d never been touched. Made me feel in ways not even my husband could. I missed him. A man I didn’t know. Missed him more at this time a year. The anniversary was coming up. Had two days until. And every single day, on the week leading up to it, I found myself in a trance. Thinking. Feeling. Longing. Wishing. Hoping.

Thinking of him.

Feeling him.

Longing for him.

Wishing and hoping that one day my husband could give me what he had.

Had been like that for years. Had been searching for that, for years. Wasted them on men who couldn’t measure up, despite the sizes of their dicks. I never even seen his. Couldn’t tell you what it felt like. Didn’t care. Sex was one thing, but feeling what I felt with clothes on? That was completely different.

I shivered, grazing my nipples with a light sigh. The way his hands slid across my waist. The way his breath felt on the side of my neck.Shit. I squirmed, pressing my legs together at thepulse between them. I wondered if his kisses felt like fireworks. Wondered what his mouth where my hands were would feel like.

---