Darken up

12. Anytime now

  We all make mistakes. Some of us own them. Some of us denounce them. Some of us bury them. Flóra never really lost sleep over her night with Tom. In her view it was a way of processing Ove's blatant infidelity, to literally fuck the pain away. She did not feel remorse at all. It was a cherished memory. Not everyone gets to sleep with an A-lister, so she tucked it away in a little corner of her mind as an utterly pleasant and dirty little secret − until today. There was no escape. Of course Tom would be one of the surprise guests at a charity event such as this! She never replied to his drunk voice messages after they ran into each other a few weeks ago and he never called her or messaged her again. She tried to avoid him as much as she can, yet here they were, in the garden far from everyone else. She did not want to have this conversation and only agreed to it, because he insisted, but instead of talking, he just kept staring into the night in silence.

'So, what's up?' she asked, eager to get it over with.

He looked at her as if he had just realized she was there. He took a deep breath and gazed up at the twilight sky.

'My mind keeps replaying our night together, no matter what I do. I can't stop thinking about it.'

'Well, you have to. I did.'

Her cold, condescending demeanor pissed him off.

'Oh, really? What's your secret? Pray tell.' he asked, looking at her.

'I just moved on.'

'Just like that?!'

'Yes.' she sighed and lit a cigarette.

'Good for you!'

'I don't know why you seem so upset! It was great, we had fun. Used each other. Period.'

'So that's all?'

'I hope you did not drag me out here to evaluate your sexual performance and sing your praises! Jesus Christ! What do you want from me? Leaving me drunk voice messages!'

'Now that...was a mistake. It won't happen again.' he said.

She turned away and rubbed her temples in an effort to make this all magically go away, but she knew she couldn't.

'Did you tell Ove?'

'Fuck no! Are you insane? He would not let it fly this time and I don't want him to do something stupid. Why, have you told your fiancée?'

'No. I don't want to hurt her unnecessarily.'

He stepped next to her and she could smell him. He always had a scent of fresh cotton and vanilla. She flinched as a memory of that night struck her and focused on her annoyance to stop her mind from wandering.

'Oh, by the way, I've been meaning to tell you for future reference: you might want to refrain from love bites.' she lashed out with cold malice.

Tom gazed at her, arching his eyebrows.

'Like the ones you left on my shoulders and neck?'

'I didn't...' Flóra mumbled, ashamed.

'Sure, I must have imagined them!' he hissed, leaning closer to her. 'You might want to get off your high horse. Anytime now.'

They were staring at each other furiously, then Flóra shook her head and turned to leave, but he grabbed her elbow, yanking her back to him.

'I wasn't finished.'

'Oh, I thought you were.' she declared arrogantly, but his mouth was on hers the next moment and the elementary need in his kiss smothered any resistance, flooded by pure lust.

He pulled her into the shadows and pressed her against a tree. Her tongue felt so familiar and new at the same time, he wanted to crush her with his bare hands for making him feel this way. He despised and longed for her at the same time. He reached under her dress and could feel her hands unbuttoning his trousers, brushing against his erection.

'We can't do this.' he pulled away, out of breath, taking a few steps back.

Flóra rubber her eyes with her palms, also out of breath, fighting the urge to feel him again.

'Agreed.' she said and rushed away.

Inside the building, she grabbed a flute of champagne from a waiter's tray and finished it in one go. She tried very hard to calm down, but she was too riled up. She took her phone out from her purse and called Ove, but he didn't answer.

Loki was settling his bill at the new, exclusive massage parlour one of his associates recommended him recently. He sampled everything on the menu, requesting two masseuses at the same time. He gave a generous tip, because eventhough the house rules forbid penetrative sex, the two girls were so turned on midway through their two hour "massage therapy" that they practically used his cock as a sex toy and who was he to deny them? He was never good at following rules.

'Thank you, Mr. Nordgud.' smiled the receptionist.

'No, I thank you. Your services are very refreshing.'

The woman nodded. Once he was out the door, she told her colleague that she had to take five and went to the bathroom to make a call: 'Hey, you wouldn't believe who's just been here!'

Loki checked his phone and saw two missed calls from Flóra.

'Kitty, what's up?'

'This charity event is utterly boring. The gala starts in an hour, I'll bail after that.'

'Do you want me to send Davies to pick you up?'

'You're sweet, but they have a chauffeur service here. What are you up to?'

'I was about to order something to eat, watching Netflix.' he lied.

'I want to go out and party. You are always so well-informed. What's on tonight?'

'Let's see...there is a party I was invited to, but you might be to vanilla for it.'

'What do you mean?' Flóra frowned and she was immediately intrigued.

'I send you the link, decide for yourself and let me know.'

They hung up and she opened the link that led to a black website with red fonts and a logo of two lips kissing. She typed in the password Ove sent her and it was some kind of fetish party targeting mainly lesbians held in his club. She messaged him that she would love to go, but she needed to go home to find something to wear. Her phone rang shortly after.

'That was quick!' she grinned.

'Don't worry about the clothes. I can sort you out.' Loki smirked as well.

'Oh, really? You have a secret stash of fetish designs lying around?'

'Maybe.' he said in a voice that sent surges of lust through her body. 'I'll be there in an hour, keep an eye on your phone.'