Page 5 of Room Nineteen: Bulls in Her Court

“Well. If only you saw the massive boner I sported while watching you. You might not be asking me that.”

“Bi, then?”

“No, I’m not gay. Not really bi either. I only want to have relationships with women.”

“But, as far as sex?”

“I uh…have this fantasy…”

“Go on,” Romi coaxes me.

I let out a sigh. “I have this fantasy where I’m really in love with a woman, and I watch her with her another man. Hot wife, cuckolding, there’s all kinds of terms for it butmyfantasy is a little specific. I just…I want her to make me jealous. I’ll know if I’m jealous, that I really love her. I don’t fall in love easy, so when I do, I just feel so…passionate. Ferociously passionate for her. That make any sense?”

Her expression says,uh, no. But she tries to make sense of it anyhow, and that means a hell of a lot to me. “You want to be made jealous?”

“Sometimes. Yeah. I can’t explain it. It turns me on.” I lick my spoon then point at her with it. “If I’m not mistaken, it turnedyouon too, pretty baby girl.”

“Oh, I didn’t feel jealous or even imagine feeling jealous when I was seeing that.”

“You just liked the thought of two guys on you.” I wink.

“Uh,yeaah! Oh my god, it wascrazyhot.”

Her enthusiasm lights up some part of me, some corner I didn’t even know needed that sort of incandescence.

Her tone then shifts, quick. “Don’t tell Dylan. Please.”

I can’t reply to that right away because I’m drinking back the last of my soup straight from the bowl. “Why the fuck would I tell Dylan?” I set the bowl down, drop the spoon in it. “That was delicious by the way.”

“You know… Thank you.” She makes a motion at me with her hand. “You know, all that honesty stuff.”

“I have boundaries, Romi.”

“Yeah.” She nods, looking pseudo satisfied with that answer. “Good.”

“What else? You want copies of my porn or something? I know you liked it and I see you burning up with a question.”

She takes a moment. Sets down her bowl. Does a quick little pace for like two, short laps. She walks all the way up to her side of the bar top. “I don’t know what’s going on with me.” Her voice is soft and quiet, and honest. I like that last part especially. “It’s like I’m craving something I never had. Like I can’t getenoughlately.”

“Enough what, sex?”

She exhales a sigh that tells me I’m right. “I got so horny earlier I called Kieran over.”

I immediately push back from the counter and stand up. My lungs compress around my heart. “Youwhat?”

She rears back a little. “You’re mad?” Her bottom lip trembles some, but I watch her visibly collect her resolve. She doesn’t want to be weak. She doesn’t want to be too vulnerable. Or at my mercy too much more than she probably already feels like she is. No, she wants to be strong and taken care of in equal measure. “You never said I couldn’t have guests,” Romi says firmly.

“I think it should go without saying that you can’t have Kieran here. You can’t see him anywhere—”

“You can’t tell me I can’t see him.”

“He treated you like rat shit, Romi. Like sewer, rat shit.”

She can’t even deny that. “Point taken.”

“If I hear about him getting anywhere close to you I’ll kill him. I will fucking kill him.”

“Point double taken,” she exhales.

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