The Paris Secrets trilogy: includes: Window, Screen, and Skin by Michele Renae Read Free Book Online

buildings.  Someone on the roof might get a good view, but no one ever went up there.  At least not that I'd ever noticed.
    He pointed to me and then moved his hand down from his chest to his crotch and made a rubbing motion.  I understood what he wanted me to do, and glided my fingers down my stomach, panting in daring anticipation.
    Daring to do this.  Daring to meet his challenge.  Daring to take what I desired without concern for whether or not it was right or wrong.  I wanted to do this…
    I could do this.
    I…
    Bon courage ?  I shook my head, indicating that tiny niggle that wouldn't allow me to make the leap. 
    I kissed my palm and blew him the reluctant send-off.  He reciprocated, but not without a disappointed shrug of his shoulders. 
    I know, I know!  So close and yet unable to grasp the prize. 
    With a wave goodnight, I pulled the sheers closed and scampered into the bathroom.  My heels clicked on the tiles, echoing my daring foray into exhibitionism.
     
    Chapter Four
     
    Staring at my reflection I winked at the brunette.  I had begun something exciting and daring with a stranger.  I wanted it to continue.  But it had rushed into extreme territory tonight.
    "Not that extreme," I muttered, retrieving the toothbrush from inside the medicine cabinet and adding a dollop of Elgydium toothpaste to it (clove flavored).  I started to brush.
    Right, because extreme would be getting together with a stranger too quickly and having sex.  Like on the first date. 
    All right, all right, I had to confess to one—no, two—one night stands.  I wasn't proud of them.  And yet, I wasn't ashamed of them either.  I'd been safe, using condoms, and sometimes I needed it when I needed it, and that didn't imply that I had to start dating, go to the guy's family reunion with him, start dreaming about matching bedroom sets, or ponder the many uses for rhubarb in baked goods.
    Guys had no-strings sex all the time.  Why should women be stigmatized for wanting the same thing?  I certainly wasn't going to wear the guilt crown about it.
    I wasn’t about to feel guilty about my window affair, either.  But I had the right to refuse when things didn't feel right, as did he.  No matter how much I'd wanted to keep going tonight, I had to listen to that inner voice that reminded me that I am the quiet introvert who would be appalled to witness such a scene from the streets below.
    Appalled at first, but then, I'd probably grin and walk on. 
    There was something about sex, the act of undressing together, of learning each other's bodies—well that was it, wasn't it?  We hadn't gone the route of undressing one another and trailing our fingers over skin to read subtle curves and muscles.  What we'd shared was pseudo-foreplay.  There wasn’t anything wrong with that.  In fact, it might be an interesting get-to-know you process, instead of the standard fingers over skin scenario.
    I spit and rinsed and stared hard at myself in the mirror.  Really?
    Fine.  I missed the skin contact. 
    Oh, man, I wanted to wrap my fingers about his cock.  Feel its hardness, the heat of it, the utter strength of it.  Cup my palm over the head and—I wondered if he was circumcised?  He'd been hard so it was difficult to tell.  I'd never seen an uncircumcised penis up close and friendly-like.  My love for knowledge, and the desire to learn and explore things I was unfamiliar with, wanted him to be uncut. 
    But did it matter?  I'd chickened out tonight.
    I clicked off the bathroom light and wandered out to the bed in my pretty high heels.  No, I hadn't been a chicken.  I was being smart.  I'd already stepped out of my box and had toed the comfort zone line.
    Perhaps tomorrow tonight, I'd stick a red-soled toe across that line.  I wanted to do that.  It wasn't the safe distance we had between us, or the daring eroticism of the imaginary boundary that excited me about this liaison so much.  It was simply new and fun and not