Secret Shared: A S.E.C.R.E.T. Novel (12 page)

“Look at you spread out like this for me,” he said, slicking a finger and dragging it down my spine to my ass, now high in the air.
Oh my god
. I closed my eyes as he navigated the fold between my buttocks, circling shamelessly around my dark nerve-intense pucker.

“Jesus,” I murmured, clutching the sides of the table as with every dip and tickle he sent a shock wave of pleasure through my whole body. I had never been touched there before, not like this, so openly.

“What are you
doing
to me?”

“Naughty things to a naughty girl,” he said, grabbing my cheeks firmly, widening the area he was pleasuring. He bent to take me in, all tongue now, slow and languid. The wicked sensations pounded through my whole body. I was pulsating, engorged, on the cusp of coming without him even going near my usual places.
Oh god.

“Do you like that?”

Half delirious, I could only answer with a sound. Then I heard a drawer open in the table beneath me, the crackling of a condom packet.

“Turn around, Dauphine. I want to look at your beautiful face while I fuck you senseless.”

And I did, in a trance now, eagerly flipping around to face his perfect torso. I had never seen a man built like him before, ripples on top of muscles, hairless, made just for this.

I propped myself up on my elbows, boldly watching as he unspooled the condom. He yanked my hips down to the edge of the table, teasing my cleft with his slickened head, inching it inside of me, then out again, never taking his eyes off me. He stopped every few seconds so I could yield to his thickness, helped by his wetted fingers across my clitoris. When he was fully inside, I collapsed back on the table, his hands now caressing my breasts, freed from the bra. My nipples responded, tightening under his touch. When he saw how turned on I was, he moved with greater urgency. I reached back and grabbed the other edge of the table for better leverage and then we became a blur of frantic thrusts.
Oh yeah. So good.

Then came the first wave, as his thrusts found my sweet spot deep behind my pelvis, and I lost it, my arms flung behind my head, bringing my wall down, letting go of that residual fear. Our eyes met just at the apex when my orgasm struck hot and fierce, then his did too as he pumped me hard and fast, murmuring, “This is all for you, Dauphine. This is for you.”

He jerked and shuddered at the end, but remained in me and above me, coated with a gorgeous sheen of sweat, as I clenched and spasmed around him. Slowly my breathing steadied.

He smiled.
Laughed.

“Wow,” he said.

“Did you get … all the information … you needed, Officer?”

“Yes, and then some. Now I have something for you.”

He eased out, then bent down to take something from one of the pockets of his uniform pants, which were lying on the floor by his feet. When he rose, he was dangling a gleaming charm between a thumb and forefinger.

“What does it say?” I asked, still splayed across the table.

“
Courage
. And rightfully so, Miss Mason.”

He shot the charm into the air with his thumb like a coin, letting it fall on my damp stomach. Then he slapped a hand over it.

“Heads or tails?”

“What do I get if I call it?” I asked.

“Anything you want, Miss Mason.”

“Tails.”

He slowly lifted his hand from my stomach and peeked beneath it.

“Well, what do you know,” he said.

His eyes scanned my body, and he lowered himself to kiss the charm on my belly. Farther down he went and I closed my eyes. His mouth worked me into another
fever, bringing me back to that incredible precipice, that ecstasy, then letting me fall over it again.

Afterwards, I lay on the table, my fingers entwined in his thick golden hair, his breath on my stomach, my other hand dangling over the side of the table, clutching
Courage
in my palm.

I ASKED MATILDA
for a last-minute meeting a few days after Dauphine’s cop fantasy. Being her Guide meant spending less time with my own, but my one-night stand with Mark had left me feeling a little off.

As she made her way to where I was sitting in Audubon Park, she looked the picture of Southern gentility. She had on a straw hat, dark glasses and an off-the-shoulder coral-colored sundress that showed off her red hair and the smattering of freckles across her smooth décolleté. She was nearing sixty but looked as fresh and sexy as someone half her age. And by the way she walked, you could tell she knew entrances were her particular talent. It was her idea to meet near the pickup soccer pitch by the Saint Charles entrance. She moved towards the bench, and even the players during a breakaway had to stop to take her in.

As we sat together, I caught her up on Dauphine, explaining how she was learning to give over control.

“That’s a tough one, control,” Matilda said, eyeing the
soccer game. “Too much and you never allow yourself to know others. Too little and you never truly know yourself. How about you, Cassie, how are you faring out there in the wilds?”

“Fine. Good. I … I did it. I had
sex
,” I blurted out.

“Oh? How lovely. With whom?”

“Some guy I just met,” I said, sounding oddly triumphant. “The one from Ignatius’s that day. He’s not really my type. But sexually, he was fun.”

“So you’re not going to see him again?”

“I don’t know. He’s almost ten years younger than me. Young. Self-centered. Sexy, though. Maybe I
will
see him again. The beauty of it is, I don’t care whether I do or not. But the sex was incredible.”

“So you
don’t
want to hear from him again?” Matilda asked.

“Not really … I don’t know. Does that make me a slut?”

Matilda turned her whole body towards me, her attention fully off the soccer game. She looked as though I’d just slapped her.

“The word
slut
, unless employed by iron-clad feminists or ironically by irony
experts
, has no business coming out of a woman’s mouth, do you hear me? Not when she is describing her own sexual behavior and
especially
if she’s describing another woman’s. It’s the kind of word that can scar, Cassie.”

I was stunned. I’d never heard her use such a sharp tone.

“That word has been used as a weapon against women all around the world, since the beginning of time, to keep
us feeling unworthy and separate. It can have especially tragic consequences for young women. Some shut down; some lose their confidence; some lose their desire to explore their sexuality; and still others end their lives over sexual shame.”

I’d never really given the subject much thought, but I have, in my life, felt that shame, that sense that there was something wrong about wanting and enjoying sex. But since joining S.E.C.R.E.T. that shame had been fading. In fact, it seemed ludicrous to hold on to any of those old ideas. Then something else occurred to me.

“If shame is so toxic, why isn’t S.E.C.R.E.T. more public? That would be a way to fight the stigma, the double standard. Why should ‘slut’ be an insult to women and not necessarily to men?”

“Let me ask you something. If we went public, would you admit to being an enthusiastic member of a group of women that arranges sexual fantasies for other women? Would you like to share with the world
all
the marvelous men you’ve met and
all
the marvelous things you’ve done with them, in S.E.C.R.E.T.?”

She lifted her sunglasses to look right into my eyes. She had me. There was no way I could face that potential scrutiny.

“We can’t change the world, Cassie, but we can liberate one woman at a time. Reduce her shame. That’s all we can do. Now, tell me all about this young man you slept with.”

“Well, let’s see. I
like
him. I like being with him. But when I’m not with him, I don’t think about him. Then I
feel guilty because I should have more feelings for him, shouldn’t I?”

“Should. Shouldn’t. Who cares,” she said with a wave of her hand. “I think it’s perfectly healthy, perfectly
necessary
, that a thirty-six-year-old woman like you has terrific sex with a younger man from whom she wants little else. Let me ask you something: were you honest with him about what you wanted?”

“Yes.”

“Was the sex consensual?”

“Of course.”

“Did you use protection?”

“We did.”

“Well then, good for you! What fun it must be to be back in your body, to simply experience a man. So, no more talk of sluts, all right? No judgment. No limits. No shame. That applies to how you think about yourself too.”

It felt like a good time to bring someone else up, someone who I
did
want to see again, for whom I still had lingering feelings.

“How’s Jesse?” I asked, as casually as possible. “Is he next on Dauphine’s fantasy list?”

“I believe he is,” she said, looking out over the field. “He was your number three. We think he should be Dauphine’s as well.”

Ouch.
I tried not to look at her, but she was eyeing a cute, sweaty player with his hands on his knees who was catching his breath. He looked about thirty, Latin, maybe South American or Italian. Not too tall, stocky, fit, with a head of
messy black hair and teeth so white they flashed brilliant from ten yards away.

“See that one?” she asked.

“He’s kind of hard to miss,” I said. “Do you know him?”

“We’re in the process of recruiting him. Angela was supposed to be my wing girl today. That task has now fallen to you.”

“Now?”

“
Get the ball!
” Matilda screamed. “Honey, I know what you’re thinking regarding Jesse. You can’t have Will, and you don’t want this young fella, so you’re looking for a little something in the middle. That’s okay. But I’m not sure pulling Jesse off the roster is a great idea. Besides, I have a special trip I’d like you to go on. You know we have to auction off
Red Rage
?”

“The painting in the Coach House?”

“That’s right. We’ve decided to auction it off in Buenos Aires, in Carolina’s home country. We think we can get the best price there, since there are only two paintings left. We need you to accompany the painting and represent our … consortium. You don’t have to take any photos or answer any questions. You’ll just put on a cute dress and sign a transfer of sale certificate.”

Wow, Buenos Aires. The last trip I had taken was to Canada, where I had my ski instructor fantasy. I was due for a vacation … but with Tracina pregnant and Dell so old, it just wasn’t possible.

“I wish I could, but leaving Will right now … it would devastate the Café.”

“You really care about him, don’t you.”

Before I could answer, a runaway ball rolled close to our bench, followed by the guy Matilda had had her eye on. She smiled at him.

“Hey. Are you our coach now? Or just the ref?” he asked Matilda, breathless from running.

“You guys could use both,” Matilda teased, tilting her head up to get a better look at his face over the brim of her hat. “What’s your name?”

“Dominic. Yours?”

“Matilda Greene. This here’s my friend Cassie.”

“You guys soccer fans?”

“No,” Matilda said.

Dominic laughed while one of his opponents razzed him to put the ball back in play.

“Don’t go anywhere, Matilda Greene,” he yelled, running backwards and folding into the play.

Every few seconds he’d glance over to make sure she was still there.

I was awestruck.

“How did you
do
that?”

“Do what?”

“Get the hottest guy in the park to come over and talk to you. Women half your age couldn’t pull that off.”

She shrugged, her eyes still on him.

“I singled him out. Separated him from his pack. Everyone recruits differently. But this is my method.”

Dominic broke away with the ball again, heading fast to the other side of the pitch. “
Go! Go! Go!
”

“Are we recruiting right now?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact. We’re down one since we dropped Pierre. That’s why I’m reluctant to give you Jesse. Did you spot a wedding ring on our Dominic?”

“I wasn’t looking.”

“That’s the first thing you have to look for.”

I made a mental note as the soccer players headed to midfield. At one point, Dominic pulled his shirt up to wipe his face, revealing his muscled stomach.

“Whoa,” I said.

“Yes, he’s really quite beautiful, isn’t he. But they don’t all have to be models to be recruits. They do have to know they’re sexy. They have to be able to hold a conversation, seem interesting, even if they aren’t. Attractiveness is subjective, but we like to stick to the ‘classic’ sexy, confident, masculine trio of attributes. And of course, they need to be in top health. This one is all that. And, what do you know, no wedding ring.”

She glanced at her watch.

“Cassie, I need you to close this deal for me.
I
have to find someone to go to Argentina.”

“Close what deal?”

“Get Dominic’s number. Maybe he can replace Jesse,” she said, winking.

My panic started at my feet, and traveled all the way to the back of my skull like an ice cream headache.