Damn him. Well, if that’s the way he wanted it, she would find another instructor. Maria’s wedding was five months away. She still had time to learn to dance the salsa.
“Why didn’t you just tell him you wanted to learn to dance so you don’t make a fool of yourself at your friend’s wedding?”
Gloria, her feet tucked under her as she sat on the couch, shifted her cell phone to her other ear.
“Because it isn’t any of his business,” she told her friend, LaShonda. “I paid him to teach me, not to find out what is in my head or in my heart. What does that have to do with teaching me how to dance?”
“Girl, you are such a fool. The man asked you a simple question and you had to turn it into World War III.”
“And I didn’t like the way he was teaching me,” Gloria went on. “He was too hard.”
She bit her lip at the irony of her statement. That was the problem. He hadn’t been hard enough.
“But he was fine, right?”
“He was all right.”
LaShonda laughed. “Ain’t what I heard. I heard he’s more than all right. I heard he’s one fine piece of Latin love. Sexy, dark eyes. Nice, tight butt. And he dances like he could make a woman come until her throat is raw from screaming.”
Gloria’s cunt tingled at LaShonda’s words. It was true. All of it. But it didn’t matter. She was never going to see him again. But, damn it, she also couldn’t stop thinking about him.
“You should apologize.” LaShonda’s voice cut into her thoughts.
“Why?”
“Because the person at fault is usually the one who apologizes,” LaShonda said dryly.
“I’m not at fault.”
“Yes, girlfriend, you are. You’re at fault because it’s obvious you’ve wanted to screw that man since day one. But you’re too scared or prudish or stupid to tell him.”
“LaShonda,” Gloria said, her voice rising.
“So, either you apologize, finish your lessons so you don’t look stupid at your friend’s wedding, and then ask him out, or you sit there and masturbate. ’Cause, girl, you got it bad. Real bad.”
LaShonda said good night and hung up. Gloria put the cell phone down. It was uncanny how LaShonda knew her so well. But this time it didn’t matter what her friend said. There was no way Gloria was going to apologize to Eduardo. He’d made it quite clear how he felt about her. She wasn’t going to make a fool of herself by apologizing to him. Because if there was anything Gloria hated, it was making a fool of herself.
But, Lord, he was so fine. Even now she found herself fantasizing about him.
His mouth moving slowly across her cunt, his lips rubbing against the wet lips of her labia, his tongue seeking her searing core, licking slowly at the wetness seeping out of her, the tip rasping against her clit.
Gloria shivered. She shoved her hand down her sweatpants and underneath her panties. Her finger slipped across her cunt the way she imagined Eduardo’s mouth would. She moved her finger inside her and imagined it was his long, agile tongue, invading her, tasting her, ravishing her.
She threw her head back against the couch, her thighs slackening, her legs opening wider as she stroked faster. She imagined Eduardo’s dark head moving between her thighs, his mouth engulfing her sex, his tongue lapping hungrily at her.
She bucked her hips, her finger moving wetly in and out, twisting and rubbing against the sensitive inner walls. She massaged her juices over her clit, slowly circling.
“Yes, lick my pussy, lick it,” she whispered.
She moaned as she fell deeper into her fantasy. She spread her legs wider, her finger moving quickly as she imagined Eduardo’s long, wet tongue licking and probing her cunt. She tossed her head back and forth, her pelvis humping as she stroked and rubbed her swollen clit.
“Oh, yes, yes, yes,” she moaned. “Oh, God.” Her fingers flew over her clit, her body shuddering, her hips quivering.
The phone rang. Gloria gasped, her orgasm just on the edge of peaking. Then she realized it wasn’t her cell phone. It was the house phone. The only person who typically called her on the house phone was her mother. She jumped up and ran for it, picking it up on the fourth ring.
“Hello?”
“Gloria?”
She nearly dropped the phone. Eduardo’s sexy voice flowed into her ear like honey.
“Yes?”
There was silence for a moment on his end. “It is Wednesday night,” he finally said.
“So?”
“You are not here for your lesson.”
“Excuse me? Didn’t you tell me not to come back?”
“No, you said you were going to find another instructor. But you have not. I checked and you have not contracted with any of them.”
It was true, Gloria had not found another instructor but only because she hadn’t had the time to look for one. “Maybe I’m taking lessons at another studio.”
“You are not.”
“And just how the hell would you know that?”
“Why do you curse so much, Gloria?”
“This is not cursing. When I really start cursing—”
“Are you coming or not?”
Gloria’s lips twisted. I was coming, she thought, until you interrupted me. “No, I’m not. You’re right, Eduardo. It wasn’t working. We’re obviously not compatible.”
And she definitely wasn’t going to risk getting hurt by him. Just stay away from him. That was the best course of action.
“Gloria—”
“Good-bye, Eduardo.”
She hung up the phone and released a deep breath. She thought about resuming her masturbating but realized she was no longer interested. Damn him. She wanted him, not her fingers.
The phone on her desk at work rang. Gloria contemplated not answering it. She was already days behind on her report. But, as she glanced at the display, she recognized the phone number. A smile broke across her face.
She picked up the phone. “Hey, girl!”
“Gloria!” María’s voice blared from the receiver. “How you doing, chica?”
“Okay.”
“Bad day?”
Gloria’s lips quirked. “What else is new?”
“How many times have I told you to get out of that white man’s rat race and come help me with my catering business?”
“You know I don’t like humid weather.”
“That’s the only way weather should be, chica. And it’s what you need. Lots of sun, warm beaches, and hot men.”
Gloria shook her head. The sun and beaches sounded great but the last thing she needed was another hot man upsetting her equilibrium.
“So, how are the dance lessons coming?”
Gloria blinked. She had forgotten she had told María about the lessons.
“Umm, okay.”
“Just okay?”
Gloria made a sound she hoped sounded encouraging.
“I can’t wait,” María said. “My brothers are already drawing straws as to who is going to dance with you first.”
María cheerfully went on giving Gloria the latest details about the wedding but she barely heard her friend. She’d tried to find another dance instructor, but either they were all booked up or they’d clearly been unqualified or they wouldn’t stop staring at her breasts.
“Gloria, did you hear me?”
“What?” She quickly brought her attention back to María. “Umm, yeah, I heard.”
“No, you didn’t. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have called you at work.”
“That’s okay. But I should get back to work. I’m so glad you called and I can’t wait until August.”
“Me neither, chica.”
They exchanged good-byes and Gloria hung up the phone. She stared at the walls of her office. What was she going to do? The wedding was in three months. She wanted to at least learn enough Latin dancing so she wouldn’t look like a complete idiot at the wedding. Eduardo had been an excellent teacher. If anyone could get her ready for the wedding i
n time, it was him.
She chewed her bottom lip as she stared at the phone. For all she knew he was completely booked up. Or he would resent her for having quit and refuse to take her back as his student. Or a meteor could smash into the earth and solve all her problems.
She sighed, picked up the phone, and dialed the number for the dance studio Eduardo taught at.
“In Motion Dance Studio.”
Gloria frowned. The receptionist sounded like her mouth was full of food.
“May I speak to Eduardo Reyes?”
“Who?”
Oh, good Lord, Gloria thought, where did they find these people?
“Eduardo. He’s an instructor there.”
“Hold on.”
Gloria drummed her manicured nails on the desk. Then she noted that one of her nails was chipped. Before she could make a mental note to have it fixed, the receptionist was back on the line.
“He’s not here.”
“Do you know where he is?”
“No.”
Gloria gritted her teeth. “Do you know how I can contact him?”
“No.”
“Will he be in later?”
“I don’t know.” The woman’s voice grew flatter with each response.
Yeah, screw you, too, Gloria thought. “Well, if he does come in, could you please tell him that Gloria Berner called?”
The woman hung up without replying. Gloria stared at the phone. The nerve of some people.
She glanced at a postcard she’d thumbtacked to the wall. María had sent it to her as part of her campaign to convince Gloria to move to Florida. White sands and an ocean as blue as the sky. She cupped her chin in her hand and sighed.
Eduardo is wearing swimming trunks and she a bikini. He walks next to her, his hand holding hers. He pulls her across the sand until the two of them are running. Up ahead is a grove of palm trees. They run in among them. He presses her against a tree trunk and puts his hand on her breasts, his fingers squeezing her nipples. She gasps, her sex moistening. He pulls the bikini top down, exposing her breasts. He lowers his head and wraps his mouth around one of them, licking steadily at her nipple.
Gloria grips his shoulders. He wraps his hand around her other breast, pinching and tweaking the nipple. He sucks hard on her breast, while his other hand slowly works its way down her stomach, then in between her bikini bottom, his long agile fingers exploring her cunt lips, teasing her, stroking her, flicking her hard little clit.
He moves his mouth over to her other breast, rubbing it with the flat of his tongue while his fingers part the lips of her moist cunt, and he slowly, maddeningly, slides his finger in and out.
“Earth to Gloria.”
She started and whirled around.
Her coworker, Jared, grinned down at her, his pale green eyes, as always, flicking down to her breasts. “Didn’t mean to scare you. What were you doing? Daydreaming?”
She frowned. Jared was management’s latest golden boy and resident stooge. “What do you want, Jared?”
He smirked. “Mr. Paterson wanted me to check and see if you’re done with that spreadsheet he needs for his meeting.”
Gloria turned back to her computer. “Yes, I’m almost done.” Now, go away.
She felt him standing behind her, then he finally walked away. Her lips twisted. What a prick. Then she sighed. What was she going to do about her dance lessons?
Gloria got out of her car and stopped. Eduardo was pacing in front of the entrance to her condo. He looked amazing. She supposed not having seen him for two weeks made him look even sexier, but she didn’t think so. That man always looked good.
“Eduardo.”
He stopped pacing and looked over at her.
“What are you doing here?” she asked as she walked toward him.
“You left a message for me at the dance studio.”
Gloria laughed. “She actually gave it to you?”
Eduardo smiled as if sharing a secret joke. “Darla knows better than to play her little games with my messages.”
Lord, but when he smiled he was nothing short of make-you-want-to-shout-glory-hallelujah gorgeous. He hadn’t smiled much during their lessons. But he was smiling now and as Gloria looked up into his dark-chocolate eyes, she saw something she hadn’t seen before.
Appreciation. Warmth. Lust.
He moved closer until she was not only surrounded by the lush masculine scent of him but she could feel the warmth of his body radiating against hers.
“Do you wish to continue your lessons? Is that why you called?”
Gloria nodded mutely, as she was too preoccupied in looking at his finely sculpted lips to speak. She imagined his lips on her mouth, on her breasts, on her sex, nibbling, licking, sucking.
He wrapped an arm about her waist and pulled her gently but firmly against him.
“Good. Then we shall start from the beginning.”
He lowered his head and kissed her.
When he pulled away, Gloria looked up at him, almost too shocked to speak. “What…why…when?”
“I’ve wanted you from the first time I saw you, Gloria. But you were my student and I never mix business with pleasure. I was going to wait until we stopped our lessons to ask you out but then you quit.”
“But I quit because—”
“Because you wanted me also?”
She nodded.
“So we are both fools, agreed?”
She nodded again, still too surprised to speak.
Eduardo glanced around. “Now, are we going to stand out here and give your neighbors something to gossip about or are you going to invite me in?”
She opened the door and stepped inside, Eduardo behind her. As soon as the door was closed, she turned to him. They looked at each for the space of five heartbeats, then, without a word they began pulling at each other’s clothes—buttons were unbuttoned, zippers unzipped, and his shirt and his pants, and her blouse and her skirt drifted to the floor.
Gloria gazed admiringly at his naked body, the lean, solid look of him. There wasn’t an ounce of fat on him. It was a dancer’s body. He pulled her tight against him, his naked skin smooth and hot.
“Dance with me,” he murmured. And, as he guided her, naked and barefoot, to the bedroom she fell into the steps he had taught her.
Once they were in the bedroom, Eduardo laid her gently on the bed. He gazed down at her.
“You are so beautiful, Gloria. I’ve wanted you from the first moment you walked into the studio.”
“But you were waiting until our lessons were finished,” she said.
He nodded. “I do not date my students.”
Gloria tilted her head and smiled up at him. “I’m no longer your student?”
Eduardo got onto the bed and lay next to her. “Not tonight. Tonight you are my lover. When you are ready, we will resume the lessons. And once we are done, then we will be lovers again.” His eyes grew worried. “If that’s what you want, of course.”
“If that’s what I want?” Gloria shook her head and laughed. “Of course it’s what I want. Since the first moment I saw you, too.”
“Then it seems we were in sync even before we started dancing.”
Gloria put her arms around him. “Yes, it seems.”
Eduardo’s eyes moved slowly over her breasts. Gloria’s nipples were hard and erect. He reached over and lightly ran his hands over them. She shivered and a soft moan slipped from between her lips.
He leaned over and lightly kissed one of the nipples. He flicked it with the tip of his tongue. Gloria moaned and pulled him closer. He drew her nipple deeper into his mouth, running his tongue over it as he sucked. She moaned louder, the blood rushing madly through her veins.
Eduardo sucked and tongued both her breasts until Gloria was squirming wildly on the bed, the juices of her cunt flowing. He released her saliva-glistening breasts and kissed his way slowly down her body until he reached her navel. Lazily, he swirled the tip of his tongue around the tiny depressio
n. Gloria bit her lip and arched her back as a current of heat burrowed from her navel deep into her womb.
“Tú eres muy hermosa,” she heard him murmur.
“What?”
Eduardo looked up from where he lay between her legs. “You are very beautiful.”
He continued downward. Gloria lifted her hips. Her cunt juices were flowing, dampening her inner things. Eduardo moved his head lower, his kisses soft and wet, his breath moving across her clit.
She whimpered, longing for him to lick her there, but he moved past her quivering nub and down to her cunt. He softly kissed her, his tongue sliding slowly along her cleft.
Gloria gasped. It was so much better than her fantasies. Eduardo ran his tongue up and down her pussy, and she felt her body rising inexorably toward its climax.
No, not yet. She had fantasized about this for so long; she wanted it to last. She tried to move away from Eduardo’s mouth but he held her tightly by the hips. He licked and sucked at her sex, causing wave after wave of pleasure to gush through her.
“Oh, it feels so good.” She pushed her fingers through his dark, curly hair. “Make me come, please, make me come.”
Eduardo moved his tongue up to her clit and flicked it across the nub. Gloria shuddered and jerked against the bed. He slid two fingers inside her, thrusting them in and out as he tongued her clit. Gloria’s hips bucked hard as she came, and the orgasm was so good, so sweet—thick and rich like the tastiest cream.
Her hips slowly ceased their frantic pulsing as she came down from her orgasm. Eduardo moved next to her. She turned and looked at him. He leaned over and kissed her. She tasted herself on his mouth.
“Oh, Eduardo,” she whispered. “That was wonderful.”
“La pequeña muerte,” he said softly.
Gloria smiled. “What’s that?”
“You probably know it better as la petite mort, or so the French call it.”
“The little death. An orgasm. It sounds much more beautiful in French. And in Spanish.”
“Just as you are when you come, Gloria.”
She turned on her side and stroked his chest, her fingers trailing over the crisp black hairs. “I want to see you come, Eduardo. I want to see your pequeña muerte.”