Sex and the Stranger 2: A Mischief Erotica Collection. Justine Elyot
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trees sent out sharp scents that reminded me of childhood baths.
‘I can’t find my car,’ Simon said when we finally made it down. He shook his head.
That was little weird, I thought. There weren’t that many cars left. Most of them looked kind of grey in the environmentally sensitive lighting. Were we going to walk to Carmel, 20 miles away?
‘It’s because I’m in another world,’ he continued, looking at me as if for guidance.
‘I can’t help,’ I said. ‘I’m living in my dreams.’
He nodded.
‘And also I’ve never seen your car.’
He found it, of course. It was grey (really grey in all lights of day) and very comfortable. Surveyors need to drive all over California, apparently.
He drove me back to Esalen, down the long and winding road along the cliffs.
We kissed. A long kiss in the car when he said goodbye, under the watchful eye of the Esalen night guard. Another long kiss when I got out, leaning into his window.
Simon was a stranger in the sense that I had never met him before. But he was not at all a stranger in the internal landscape of my mind. On the contrary, I’d been intimately acquainted with him since I became aware of my sexuality. He was the man who had already spoken a word of magic from my most secret dreams.
True, though, I had no idea what the life of a roadie was like, or what he surveyed now.
Of course we had made an appointment.
Welcome to the Hotel California
I had the four-inch heels in my bag again when the time came. The Esalen boys didn’t need to know everything.
Something I had no need to hide was my skirt. The blood-red silk skirt that spread out so wide, like a corona around the sun.
I’d worn it before, to fire-dance night just outside the Esalen canteen, and to shamanic journeying in the hilltop tent, when the drums rang out and we were asked to imagine falling down into a hole. It actually had tiny little bells sewn into it that made an elvish sound that you could hear tinkle when I moved. If you were very close, and if the night was still.
The skirt was long, all the way down to the ground. I had to lift the front when I walked.
I loved that skirt.
The boys loved it too. They made extra room for its extravagant layers in the van. I had many compliments from the female shaman about expressing my true nature.
They didn’t know the half of it.
‘Here it is.’
Simon opened the door to the hotel room and ushered me in with a little bow. Quite some time since I had been in the proximity of such a well-cut jacket.
That room was expensive. White and asymmetrically shaped. Big windows on a veranda that overlooked a pretty creek with ducks. We shuttered them. It had a huge bed. Firm. I tested it with a well-placed thump.
Simon busied himself while I went to the bathroom.
The secret smile was back when I came out, walking slowly inside my skirt in an attempt to create the famous ‘gliding’ effect.
‘I’m so happy you are here with me. Welcome!’ he said, very formal again. ‘Do you want to play?’
Suddenly, the thought that I had seen him somewhere before flashed through my mind. But where? In my dreams? On TV? Was there a difference?
As I was searching the memory banks, a shadow passed across his face. Had other women changed their minds at the last moment? Had they walked out on him and the expensive hotel?
‘Yes, I want to play,’ I replied, and ‘Yes!’ again. I could speak as loudly now as I wanted to.
With a single swift movement I pulled my shirt over my head.
I threw it with good aim, I thought, and it landed in a heap on the far side of the big bed, where it made an interesting contrast to the hyper-white sheets that went some way to justifying the price of the room. Maybe.
I noticed that there was a selection of black and grey silk strips laid out on the cover, precisely aligned and colour graded. And a beautiful embroidered veil.
Go Tell Me Where Your Freedom Lies
Simon laughed and touched my arm.
We embraced.
He smelled of very discreet aftershave. Something else we didn’t get much at Esalen.
‘You’re so enthusiastic,’ he said. ‘You’re so fast.’
‘Too fast?’ I said. ‘Are we waiting for … something?’
‘No, no,’ said Simon. ‘Just – just come and stand over here.’
He led me to the foot of the bed and positioned me very carefully, like the big loudspeaker in the show that had to be calibrated according to scientific principles. One inch to this side, one half-step to the front …
I followed him. This was a dance only he knew the steps for.
Finally he was satisfied.
He stepped back to survey me from the distance of the shuttered windows, then came close.
Softly, he touched the outline of my best bra and followed it gingerly all the way across. His hand raised little shivers. Simon lowered his head, then kissed my breasts just above the fabric.
‘Later,’ he said.
Then he looked me up and down.
‘I like this skirt,’ he said. ‘It looks like a big theatre curtain. With all these delights underneath …’
I wiggled a little to make the tiny bells rustle …
‘Take your seats and switch off your phones. The performance is about to start …’ I said.
Simon took his jacket off and hung it around the back of a chair. He was even slimmer than I had thought. His shirt was white and crisp. Every fold was in its place.
Then he knelt down in front of me.
Aha. We were going for the mystery intro. But it worked.
Seeing him on his knees before me made my stomach give little hiccups.
Simon reached out and gathered the rim of the wide red skirt. The little bells fell to the side with a tiny zing. All I could now hear was Simon’s breath and mine. And the discreet humming of the air-conditioning. Simon nudged the silk fabric up my left leg, revealing my body underneath. So far all he could see was my leg, but somehow he made me feel deliciously naked. Pale skin and lemongrass soap scent. Each tiny shaved hair was trying to stand up. Goosebumps all the way up my spine.
As the journey up the silk road progressed I couldn’t help smiling to myself. Because I had a surprise for Simon, too.
Simon pushed the skirt up almost all the way. He lingered at the top of my left thigh, the right one still unrevealed. Then I felt his breath on my skin, just at the top of the leg. He lingered for a while, giving me a row of small delicate kisses that led his mouth towards more intimate regions. Then he moved my skirt up further to reveal the middle of my body.
Oh.
Simon lifted his head just enough to give me a look. To acknowledge and approve.
Yes, I had no pants on.
He held the skirt wide open with both hands, just to make absolutely sure.
I glowed with pride.
Then nothing.