A Beauteous Flower

Chapter 12 - The Waiting

As the door closed and Daniel's footsteps retreated down the hall, Madison's smile vanished, and she flung her clutch across the room with a frustrated shriek.

Twenty-two dates!

She and Daniel had been on twenty-two spectacularly romantic dates in the four months since that magical first encounter in the garden. Daniel had been such a gentleman and his choice of venues for their dates amazed everyone, especially Madison. Not only that but the chemistry between them was blatantly obvious and Madison was more than ready to take their relationship to a physical level. In her opinion, this was long overdue, but Daniel hadn't laid a lustful hand on her. Sure, he kissed her, but no matter how enthusiastically she kissed and groped and teased and flirted in efforts to show him the "green light" as it were, he hadn't taken any liberties.

This was a strange situation for Madison. Her normal problem was how to get the men to keep their hands off her. Daniel, however, defied expectations and, zealously kept his hands to himself, which left her frustrated, confused and, worst of all, unsatisfied. She had donned short skirts, shown cleavage, freshly quaffed her hair, worn her best perfume, and was even overtly flirty, teasy and touchy. She'd done everything a woman could do short of completely naked indiscretion and a sign that read, "Please have sex with me!" to get Daniel to do the deed with her and ... nothing. He remained a perfect gentleman. He hadn't even copped a feel and now Madison found herself smack dab in the middle of a genuine situationship.

"Oooooooooooooooo!" she squealed. She hesitated before her next words because it wasn't ladylike to swear, but in this case some four-letter words seemed appropriate.

"Damn it!"

Deva poked her head out of the bathroom.

"What's up?"

Madison turned to Deva and flung her arms out to the side in a question.

"Look at me! Am I fuckable?"

Adalina turned off the television and looked up at Madison. Moira from down the hall had joined them for the evening and big round eyeglasses framed her sky-blue eyes.

"Well, ordinarily I would say 'you look very fuckable', answered Adalina. "But ... I take it from the fact that you are home at a decent hour and your hair and makeup are exactly as they were when you left, I might be wrong?"

Madison huffed while she put her hands on her hips and stamped her high heeled foot.

"Look at me!" whined Madison and gestured up and down her body to emphasize that she had stuffed her body into a skintight black leather mini dress. Behind Madison the zipper strained dangerously close to a failure which would expose the black lace bra and thong underneath. After the party, at Deva's behest, Madison had prudently purchased a few thongs to wear. Not that Daniel had seen them.  It had taken Deva's concentrated help to close that zipper over Madison's lingerie before this date. However, Madison had not cared because when she crammed herself into that restrictive leather sleeve, it left little to the imagination and that was exactly the look Madison wanted. In truth, she hadn't planned to wear it for more than half an hour or so before Daniel peeled her out of it, so discomfort had been damned. Surely, she had thought, this outfit would be the clearest kind of signal that Madison expected Daniel to have his way with her. But here she was, safe at home and untouched, after three straight hours of flirty glances, caresses and no less than four footsie battles at the tasteful French restaurant he had chosen for dinner. All he'd done was hold her hand and give her a kiss when he dropped her off. He'd even begged off her offer of a nightcap, which was unprecedented in the apartment.