Page 30 of Lust

When I get home, I run through the house searching for my next gift, but there’s nothing. Nothing on the windowsill, nothing in the bushes, nothing in the kitchen or in my underwear drawer. Not even in the mailbox, which I still check, just in case.

Trying to be grateful, I focus on the gifts I’ve already received. But even a steamy shower with my jasmine body wash doesn’t fully erase my disappointment. I’m all dried off and slathering on my jasmine lotion when I finally see it, hidden in plain sight.

My breath stops and the world grinds to a halt. I hoped it was him when I got the diamond necklace. I suspected it was him when I got the pudding cup. But there’s only one person who would ever think to get me a bottle of original, discontinued Fendi perfume. The kind I used to wear in high school. The kind I got from my grandmother.

Aaron.

Heat rises to my cheeks. The thought of my old friend fills me with an inexplicable joy, a warm thrill that seeps through my body.

For a second, the image of the man in the magazine pictures flashes through my mind—the handsome billionaire with a laughing blonde model on each arm. But the magazine billionaire is a foreigner; someone completely out of reach. That’s not the Aaron I’m thinking about now. I’m thinking about my friend, the sweet object of my schoolgirl crush. I’m picturing his serious brown eyes, shaded by his perpetual hoodie. I’m picturing the devotion I always saw in those eyes, but didn’t dare believe was real.

Daubing a spritz of perfume on each side of my neck and the inside of each wrist, I can’t think of anyone else who would know how much this perfume meant to me.

Is he watching me right now?

My whole body throbs. My cheeks ignite to a brilliant crimson. I already found the tiny camera in my mirror. I don’t know how he got into my house, and I don’t care. There have to be others, probably at least one here in the bathroom.

I run my hands along my curves, massaging the lotion into my breasts, my hips, my buttocks, my legs.

Aaron.

I’d been a virgin in high school, too nervous and self-conscious to believe anyone could like me. Not to mention the fact that I was eighteen when Aaron was just a gawky, adorable freshman. But now…

“Aaron.” His name comes out in a whisper while my fingers slip between my thighs. I close my eyes.

“Aaron.” I say it again, stroking and teasing myself, imagining it’s his hand on me, in me, about to make me come.

The notes, the gifts, the way his lust brings me to life… all coalesce into a pinpoint of exquisite pleasure. I collapse in a pile of ecstasy on the bathroom floor, praying that he can hear me scream his name.

Chapter 15

December 25th

Aaron

WhenIfinallygeta moment away from my family’s Christmas gathering, the first thing I do is pull out my phone and check on Ruby. It’s already well past three. I hate that I haven’t checked on her sooner, especially knowing that she’s home with Brent.

He’s in the living room watching television and she appears to be roasting something in the oven. The fact that she’s cooking for that man makes my skin crawl, but I can’t stop her. Not yet. I just wonder whether she’s wearing my Christmas present while cooking food for her ogre of a husband. Just the thought of that scent on her, the rose and sandalwood mingled with jasmine and tobacco, sends a surge of blood to my cock.

Can’t be having a raging erection right now, though. A slap to my cheek distracts me enough to rejoin my family without embarrassment.

The next time I check on Ruby, it’s after six. Brent’s still in his living room, drinking beer in front of the TV.

Some Christmas.

Ruby’s in the kitchen again, this time washing dishes.

Does that asshole do nothing around the house?

I stare at her body and imagine running my fingers over her long green sweater, tracing the seams along the outside of her stretchy blue jeans, then reaching around to trace the inside seam while I press myself against the expanse of her ass.

Then the unthinkable happens.

Brent must have unglued himself from the couch because he suddenly walks up behind her and grabs her ass.

Anger shoots through me.

Ruby’s whole body stiffens.

---