This is such a bad idea.
We barely know each other. He's on the board of the start-up I run. We've met at most a handful of times, always in a professional setting. I doubt we've said more than a dozen words to each other before today.
But there had always been a strange energy between us. Sometimes I'd glance in his direction at catch him looking at me. Being around him threw me off balance. It made me flustered and unsure, like I was a teenage schoolgirl instead of a woman in her thirties.
My business partner thought it was funny.
"He's a good-looking guy," she said to me over drinks a few weeks ago. "Lots of women crush on him."
"I'm not crushing on him," I said indignantly. "He ... unnerves me."
"Yeah, you're totally crushing on him," she said, finishing off her Negroni. "Be careful, though. Don't get burned."
Her words come back to me: "be careful".
The time to be careful had been this morning when he'd stopped by my office to chat. Or half an hour later when we'd skipped out of work to have coffee at the bistro downstairs. Or when he'd opened the door to his red Porsche and gestured for me to get inside. Or when he'd lightly rested his hand on the small of my back as escorted me up the steps to his home in Bel Air.
At this point, I'm way past "be careful".
This is a such bad idea.
His house is a sprawling modernist pile--all cantilevered slabs and polished concrete. Elegant and austere, it suits him perfectly. He shows me to the living room, a sparsely-furnished space with a glorious view of the Pacific Ocean. He pours us drinks while I admire the bleak Rothko lithograph that dominates one wall.
He hands me a glass of red wine. He's wearing a gray business suit with a green silk tie. He's poured a scotch for himself, and the ice clinks as he raises his glass to his lips. I'm wearing a suit as well, a lovely crème-colored linen. My blonde hair is swept up in a loose chignon. I look respectable. Professional. Businesslike. Not at all the sort of woman who would go home with a stranger on a whim.
Yet here I am.
I sip my wine. It's excellent, of course.
"You're a fascinating woman," he says.
I try to match his offhand tone. "How so?"
"You're passionate about your work, but also incredibly disciplined. That's an unusual combination. Also, you're smart and not afraid to show it."
"Should I be?"
"It's a dangerous game, showing people how smart you are. They start hoping you'll slip up so they can take you down a notch. Or worse ... they start expecting you to work miracles."
"I think you're overestimating both my intelligence and my bravery."
We both sit down, him in a green leather armchair facing the window, me in a straight-backed Queen Anne opposite him. My legs are tucked demurely underneath my chair, my ankles crossed. I place my wine glass on the side table next to an antique cloisonné box.
I realize, he's going to fuck me. Not right this second, of course, but in the near future. This knowledge lends a curious frisson to the moment. Right now, we're both so restrained and civilized--just two professional acquaintances, calmly chatting. But I can clearly see what lies ahead: My clothes strewn on the floor. My thighs open. His big, hard cock in my tight little cunt. Him thrusting
deep
. Oh.
I'm getting wet. I wonder if he can tell.
"Have you ever considered the basic difference between men's and women's clothing?" he says, looking off to one side.
I raise an eyebrow, jolted back to reality. "Enlighten me."
"Men's clothing conceals," he says, swirling his scotch. "Women's clothing reveals."
I glance down at myself, bewildered. I touch the lapels of my jacket
"I would hardly call this revealing," I say.
"If a male employee came to the office with his legs bare and his collar unbuttoned, would that be that proper business attire?"
"Mm ... I suppose not."
"Or consider formal wear. Men wear black tie. Women wear evening gowns ... low-cut, backless, strapless ...."
"I see your point ... but it's just a matter of fashion, isn't it?"
"It's deeper than mere fashion. Men's clothing is designed to obscure the male body, to supplant its crude physicality with an idealized conception of masculinity. But women's clothing does the opposite. Rather than hiding the wearer's body, it calls attention to it. Even when a woman is fully dressed, her clothing is always gesturing toward her nakedness."
I'm already so far outside my comfort zone that it's hard to keep my bearings. I know this is dangerous, but it's also thrilling. I feel like a mouse staring down a cobra.
I pause and take a sip of wine.
"Why did you invite me here?" I say.
"For an exploration of boundaries."
"Boundaries?"
"Yours ... mine ...."
I shake my head. "I don't understand."
"You like being looked at. All women like being looked at. But you more than most."
I roll my eyes. "Not all women like being looked at."
"Maybe not
all
women.
Most
women."
"
Some
women."
He tilts his head to one side.
"I'm primarily interested in you," he says. Do
you
like being looked at?"
I feel my cheeks getting warm.
"Assuming I do ... hypothetically ... so what?"
"Take off your clothes," he says.
I pause, considering.
"What if I say 'no'?"
He shrugs. "We can stop whenever you want. It will be like none of this ever happened."
"And if I say 'yes'?"
He smiles. "Take off your clothes."
I wobble a little as I stand up. My linen skirt has gotten creased, and I brush it smooth. I feel like a spectator to this scene, like I'm watching the action play out from someplace far, far away. I see myself turn. I hear the echo of my heels on the polished concrete floor. I see him watching me.
I walk over to the table in front of the window. It's a modernist dining table, blocky and severe, all hard white edges, very sculptural. There aren't any chairs around it.
I stand beside it and kick off my shoes, grimacing as my bare feet touch the cold concrete. I can't believe I'm doing this. I take off my jacket, fold it neatly and lay it on the table. Then with nervous fingers, I unbutton my silk blouse and slip it off my shoulders. My skirt has a zipper at the side that makes a surprisingly loud noise as I unzip it. Then I fold it too and lay it on the table atop my other clothes.
I'm down to just my underwear--a sheer demi bra and matching bikini panties. I flash back to this morning when I got dressed. When I picked these particular things from my underwear drawer, I didn't anticipate anyone else seeing me in them. They're sexier than what I normally wear. I don't know why it bothers me that my underwear is so unprofessional, but it does. I feel like I've inadvertently confirmed his thesis about all women's clothing being designed to call attention to the naked female body. I can feel his eyes on me.
It's been a long time since I've undressed for a man, and I hesitate, uncertain what to take off next. I decide to unhook my bra, and let my breasts swing free. My nipples are achingly hard. I brush my fingertips lightly across them, sighing at the electric sensation it sends through my body. I can't remember the last time I was so turned on.
I look at him, a questioning look in my eyes. Is this what you expected? Am I doing it right?
"Exquisite," he says, and takes another sip of scotch, and nods in my direction.
Taking a deep breath, I hook my thumbs in the waistband of my panties and tug them down, letting them drop around my ankles. I'm naked. Naked in the house of a man I barely know. The cool air raises goosebumps on my pale skin. I absent-mindedly run my fingers through my light brown bush, fluffing it from where it was compressed by my panties.
"I didn't take off my clothes because you told me to," I say.
"Oh?"
"I did it because I'm curious about where this is headed."
"And where do you think this is headed?"
"Someplace ... different," I say.
"How do you feel?"
"Strange ... unsettled ... nervous ...."
"Aroused?"
I feel my cheeks getting warm again. "Yes ... aroused."
"Show me," he says.
I bend over and rest my elbows in the white table.
I arch my back and rise up on my toes, displaying my pussy to him.
I hear his footsteps behind me.
He runs his fingers over my swollen pussy lips, and then, rather impertinently, slips one finger inside. It comes away wet, and he wipes the slickness on my bare rump.
I hear the ice clink in his drink and I realize he's taken another sip.
"You said you didn't take off your clothes because I told you to. But nevertheless, you did take them off."
"You say it like it's significant."
"It is significant. Because there's something you want."
"What do I want?" I say.
You want to be free," he says. "Free from the tyranny of choice."
He lightly touches his finger to the tender pucker of my asshole. I draw my breath in sharply. I have never felt so helpless with a man before, so vulnerable. I have never been so aroused before either. He's much stronger than me. I'm alone with him and