Dream On (Stories of Serendipity #2) (31 page)

Alyssa opened her mouth to say no, but not before Summer had drug the man into the room with them.
 “Yes.  We’re looking for some lingerie for my friend.  She’s pretty conservative, but needs something sexy for a pivotal moment in her relationship.”

“Gotcha.”
 After eyeballing Alyssa’s outfit from head to toe, he asked, “Size Eight? 34C?”

“Um...yeah.”
 She didn’t want to know what he thought about her ankle length brown skirt and beige sweater.

“I’ve got some very hot stuff
,
here.
 You like thongs?”

“Not particularly, but...”

“No worries, we’ve got plenty of cheekies, too.”

“Cheekies?”

“Lacy boy shorts, that go up the ass a little bit.  Very sexy.”  He turned to continue rummaging, before coming out with an armful of panties, bustiers, and bras.  There were garter belts dangling down also.  Alyssa was beyond mortified
.
t
T
his punk guy was pawing the stuff that were her potential underthings.
 She grabbed them from him.  

“That’s what I would recommend for the lucky bastard.
 I’ll be up front if you need more help.  Don’t try stuff on.  Store policy.”

“Okay.”
 Alyssa swallowed while Summer started digging through what the man had left.

She came up with a pair of the cheekie panties
,
and a matching bra, plus a garter belt.
 She led a dazed Alyssa through the store, which had way more clothing in it than she had ever imagined.  Summer picked out a gray pinstriped mini skirt, with a slit up the side
,
and a low
-
cut
,
v-neck
,
black sweater.
 “Sexy school teacher, coming up.  Dalton’s not gonna know what hit him.  You also need one of these.”  She said, picking up an unidentifiable object and putting it on the counter.”

“I don’t even know what that is, Summer.
 What do I do with it?”

“You put it on your tongue before going down on him.”
 She
said
said matter-of-factly
simply
.
 “It works the other way around, too.  Major screaming orgasms.”

“Oh...”
 Alyssa was ready to get the hell out of this store.  She would buy anything to get out at this point.  “Whatever.  Just put it in the bag.”

“Do you need some massage oil?
 This stuff tastes awesome.”  The ever-helpful sales clerk was holding up a bottle.

“Sure.
 Add it on.  I gotta get out of here.”  Alyssa was gritting her teeth to get through her mortification.

After the head shop, they went to the grocery store, with Summer giving detailed instructions with each purchase.
 Alyssa was dying inside, but ever thankful they were still in Tyler.  She couldn’t imagine running into a student and their parents with Summer telling her what to do with all of this stuff in her cart.

Friday
,
after school, she went home to get ready.
 Alyssa’s stomach was in knots.  She honestly wasn’t sure if she was going about this the right way or not.  She knew what she wanted the end result to be.  She wanted Dalton to see that she was willing to do whatever it took to keep him.  And she was curious, too.

Dalton spent Friday with his mom, helping her with the housework.  She seemed to be in a cheerful mood, and he relished that.  She was humming softly to herself while they worked.  After announcing she was going to an early dinner with friends, she excused herself to get ready.  So, Dalton used that time to go to his room and start readying himself for his dinner with Alyssa.  His stomach fluttered with anticipation, and  he felt like a school girl anxiously awaiting her de-flowering.  As far as that could be from the truth, he relished the sensation of newness that Alyssa brought to his sexuality.

Interrupting his lascivious thoughts about what he intended to do with Alyssa’s body, his mother knocked at his door.  He needed his own place.

“Dalton, honey?  Do you have a minute?”

“Sure, Mom.
 Come in.”

Mary came in and sat down at his desk chair, so he sat on the edge of his bed, facing her.
 She was sitting on the edge of the chair, with her hands primly in her lap.

“Mom, what’s up?”

“I was wondering what your plans are, Dalton.”

“I’m getting ready for a date.”

“No.  I meant your life plans.  What are you going to do?  Will you continue living here, with me?”

“I’m not sure.  I think I probably need my own place.  I am thirty-six, and living with my mother is a little…”

Mary smiled at him.  “I understand.  So things worked out with your tee shirt idea?”

“Yeah.  They did.”

“I’m glad for you Dalton.  And I’m sorry for the way I acted about her…at first.  I could have been more hospitable towards Alyssa.”

“It’s okay, Mom.”  Wow, he knew how hard that must have been.  His mother didn’t apologize for her actions very often.

“Why don’t you call your friend, Max?  About building you a house of your own out here somewhere?  Maybe out by the tank?  That’s a lovely spot for a house.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“I also wanted to give you something.  If you want it.”  She reached into her pocket and pulled out her engagement ring.

Dalton was floored.  “Mom?”

“I may be jumping the gun here, a little.  But your father would want you to have it.  It was the ring his father gave his mother, and he gave it to me.”

“But you still wear it.  I couldn’t…”

“I still have the band.  It’s the way your father would have wanted things to be.”  She sniffed back a tear.

Taking the ring, he put it inside a desk drawer.  “Thanks, Mom.”  He hugged her, feeling a little more meat on her bones than he had a couple of months ago.  “I love you.”

“I love you too, son.”

As his mother left the room, Dalton was reminded of what the past month had taught him.  He couldn’t imagine his life without Alyssa and the kids.  He allowed himself a brief daydream of Alyssa, Sierra, and Cayden all dancing in a kitchen she designed.  All of them sitting on a sofa
,
watching movies and eating popcorn.  He daydreamed about coffee in huge rocking chairs on a porch overlooking the tank.  He pictured them fishing together on a Sunday afternoon
,
after church.

He whistled on his way out the door.

As he walked up to her door, his stomach clenched tightly.  He was almost more nervous tonight than he had been on their first meeting at the Serendipity bakery.  What was going on with him?  Knocking lightly, he waited for her to open the door.  

When she did, Dalton
's eyebrows rose to his hairline and he swallowed
--- h
ard
had to scoop his jaw up off her porch
.

She looked amazing.
 Her long legs stretched out of a tiny skirt with a slit up the side, all the way to her hip. Her breasts were about to come out of the low-necked sweater she wore, and around her neck was a thin, black leather strip with no adornments.  Was that a collar?  His gaze raked over her again, as his fists clenched at his sides.  He wasn’t sure what she was playing at, but he had to resist every urge inside not to take her against the door, right now.  To give himself a break, he rested his eyes on her shoes, impossibly high, black patent-leather peep toes.  Nope, that wasn’t working either.  He could only imagine her wearing only those shoes, on her back, feet in the air, while he...

“Hello, Dalton.
 Cat got your tongue?”  Her voice was unbelievably husky.  He looked at her face, which held an unsure smile.  This definitely was not his Alyssa, but he had to admit, he liked this one, too.

He cleared his throat.
 “You look great, Alyssa.  What’s going on?”  His voice actually cracked.  What the fuck was this girl doing to him?  She hadn’t even touched him, and he wanted her more than he had ever wanted anyone in his life.

“Come in, I’ve got something to eat on the table.”
 She turned and walked inside, swishing her hips alluringly in her high heels.

Candles filled the table, and Dalton smelled tantalizing aromas coming from the kitchen.
 He sat down, and Alyssa disappeared into the kitchen, returning with a platter of oysters on the half-shell.

“Do you like oysters?”
Knowing the aphrodisiac qualities inherent in the shellfish, Dalton swallowed past the lump in his throat.  “Even if I didn’t, I would eat them anyway.  What’s going on, Alyssa?  Everything is so...” He motioned to the candles and her outfit.  “Sexy.”

“That’s the idea.”

He looked at her, his eyes landing on the collar around her neck.  “Um, Alyssa?”

“Hmm?”
 she answered around an oyster.

“Why the collar?
 Are we going to play those kinds of games tonight?”  Even though he’d never really gotten into the dom/sub stuff, he was suddenly eager to do whatever she wanted. 

“I’m not really sure.
 Summer gave it to me.  I wanted to show you that I’m yours, if you want me.  And I thought it looked…sexy.”  Her voice had dropped to a husky whisper, which suggested she might be unsure of herself, but Dalton found himself turned on
--- e
.  E
ven more.
“Oh, it does.  I was just wondering.”  He ate another oyster, thoughtfully.  “What are you trying to do to me?”

She smiled coyly at him.
 “Anticipation makes everything sweeter, don’t you think?  Just go with it.”

“Oh, I’ve been anticipating this all week.”
 Willing every ounce of self-control he could muster, Dalton speared an oyster with his fork, dipped it into the cocktail sauce and let it slide down his throat.  Alyssa took a spoonful of sauce, poured it onto the shell, and brought the shell up to her mouth before tipping it in.  Her eyes never left Dalton’s, and he swallowed again, before reaching for another.

The next course was steamed lobster claws.
 He watched as Alyssa expertly cracked the claws and retrieved the meat.

“You’re good at getting the meat out.”

“When I was a kid, we always went to Red Lobster for special occasions, and I would get the crab legs.  Everytime.  I got really good at getting the meat out of them.  Lobster’s actually way easier.  Here.”  She leaned over the table with the piece of claw meat she had dipped in butter, and held it in front of his mouth.  He opened, and she put the piece into his mouth.  His teeth grazed her finger as he closed his mouth over the piece of lobster.  Her eyes widened at the contact.  She ran her finger over his chin to wipe off the butter that had dripped there.

“I don’t know how many courses you have planned, but...”

She giggled, softly, “You’re going to need to eat, Dalton.  I have plans for you, tonight.”

He stopped cracking the claw he had in front of him and stared at her.
 She looked at him intently, her eyes deep pools of blue, her mouth turned up at the corners, seductively.  What happened to his Alyssa?

“Excuse me?”

“I want to be with you Dalton.  Not just sex.  I want to be with you.  But in order to do that, I need to let go of some inhibitions.  So, tonight, I’m going to let go, because there’s nobody on earth I want more than you.”

“I want you too, Alyssa.
 I can’t think straight with you looking at me like that.”

“Then stop looking at me, and eat.  I worked hard on this meal.  And I want to tell you about some decisions I’ve made in the past month or so.”

Eagerly, Dalton dug into the pile of lobster claws in front of him, ready for her revelations.

“Part of this new aggressive me is to stand up for myself more often.
 I’ve made a pact with myself to do that.”  She leaned over and wiped another drip of butter from his chin.

“I’ve seen Michael, my lawyer several times.  We’ve made a plan to fight for full custody of the children.  The signs were just the first step in his plan.  It’s a little ‘show-off-y’ for my tastes, but he seems confident they will work in my favor.  There’s other stuff involved in his plan, and I need to talk to you about that, although tonight may not be the best time for that particular discussion.”
 Alyssa dropped the seductive act, reaching for the lobster.  She broke open a claw of her own, dipping the meat into the butter before bringing it to her own lips and eating it.  “These are good.”  She licked her lips innocently, but the gesture captivated Dalton.

“Why later?
 You’ll have to refresh my memory of everything we say tonight anyway.  My mind is…elsewhere.”  He was unable to tear his gaze away from her.