Chapter 28

Kiki couldn’t figure out why Nick and Pilar were acting so weird today.

Admittedly, Nick was always at least a little weird. Kiki had come to accept that she was a pansexual teenaged boy born into the body of a pretty Japanese girl, but she didn’t think Nick realized how much of a girl he was sometimes. She’d certainly never met another guy who expended so much energy on the topic of feelings, both his own and those of the people around him. Plus, he had the unmanly habit of planning past his next orgasm. She’d considered it a minor victory on Thursday that she and Jazz managed to keep him so engaged in the moment that Kiki was able to leave the loft for the first time without sharing any specific plans for when she would come back.

This time, when Kiki arrived, Nick had been particularly demonstrative, folding her into his arms and kissing her with purpose. It was a good kiss, but it made Kiki think their plans to go clothes shopping with Pilar were off in favor of what they did best together. That would have been fine. She’d been busy the whole weekend, so much so that even hanging out with the infamous Cat Easton hadn’t gone anywhere past a little bit of fooling around in the cab on the way home. But the kiss had apparently been a gesture of affection, not intent. Kiki understood public displays of intent better than those of affection.

A few minutes after that confusing kiss, Pilar had shown up and hugged Kiki. It was a good and welcoming hug, but very un-Pilar-like. Pilar and Kiki were friendly colleagues and maybe friends who had shared the professional intimacy of working models on the same shoot, but with Pilar, it had always been more professional than intimate. Outside of work, Pilar was not a hugger.

When she’d heard Nick and Pilar were going to be spending a long weekend in Missouri or Michigan or one of those weird, flyover states that started with “M,” Kiki had figured there was a chance they would sleep together. Pilar had a boyfriend and Nick had an infinite choice of potential sleepover buddies, but a drop-dead gorgeous Latina and a billionaire with an indefinable charm would almost certainly be attracted to each other. Kiki now assumed they hadn’t, but they were sending out a full spectrum of mixed signals. Their body language and the looks they gave each other suggested they had, but they’d gone out of their way to include Kiki in their outing and been open and friendly, even flirted with her. If it had been Jazz there instead of Pilar, Kiki would have expected they were all going to wind up in bed together at the end of the night. But Pilar was nothing like Jazz. And getting Nick into bed with another woman felt like pulling teeth to Kiki.

Also, Pilar was apparently dressing Nick now - or at least helping him pick out new clothes with only moderate resistance on Nick’s part. That was definite girlfriend behavior. But if she was Nick’s girlfriend, she was going to great lengths to hide that fact, treating Kiki like a partner in the process, even pushing her to pick out items to coax Nick into. Choosing clothing for a man felt dangerously like laying a claim to Kiki. But when it turned out that Nick tended to like Kiki’s rock and roll aesthetic more than Pilar’s sartorial one, Kiki allowed herself to be seduced into choosing more freely, even suggesting they walk the four blocks to John Varvatos while Nick’s staff unloaded the first round of purchases.

Two hours into the excursion, they were in an exclusive high-end menswear shop whose only sign in the front window had read “fittings by appointment only.” The proprietor was apparently a friend of Pilar’s and greeted Nick as “cousin Nick” like they were part of some obscure religious cult. His staff of three had swarmed around Nick like a ballet company doing their best impression of syncopated bees, taking measurements, asking questions, and making suggestions while they guided him to a private fitting room and brought the three of them coffee with fancy Italian names.

When one brought an armful of button-down shirts in various colors and hung them up all up together with a single, practiced motion before stepping out, Nick turned to Pilar. “Do I really need more dress shirts?”

“Most of these aren’t dress shirts.” Pilar flipped through them. “The three in the back are. The ones in the front are just professional work shirts.”

“How can you tell?” Nick asked. “They all look the same to me.”

Pilar held up a sleeve. “It can be hard to tell sometimes, but it’s easy with these. They have French cuffs. See? No buttons. You wear them with cufflinks.”

“I don’t even own any cufflinks,” whinged Nick. He sat down to sip his cafe Americano or, as he’d called it, “just plain coffee.”

Pilar held the shirt up to her chest. “They have cufflinks here. I’ll show you how to put them on. They lend a certain old-world charm to a formal outfit. You said you wanted something to wear when you need ‘business guys’ to take you seriously. A French cuff will help with that.”

Nick looked doubtful. “What do you think, Kiki? Would you take me more seriously in a French cuff?”

Kiki looked at the shirt. “When I was in LA, I used to sleep with this A&R guy sometimes. He loved French cuff shirts. He even wore them on weekends. Every time I came over, he would ask me to strip down and put one of his shirts on unbuttoned before we had sex. I don’t know if it made me take him more or less seriously, but I thought it was kind of sexy.”

Nick and Pilar exchanged a look Kiki couldn’t read, then Nick said. “That does sound sexy. I’d kind of like to see it.” Pilar held out the shirt to her. Kiki took it.

“I’ll make sure none of Jean-Michel’s very helpful staff barge in,” Pilar stepped out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Kiki laid the shirt down, kicked off her sneakers, and stripped out of her pants. “Nick, what’s going on with you and Pilar. You guys are acting really weird. Is she your girlfriend now or not? I keep thinking she must be, but I really can’t tell.”

“She is,” said Nick after a pause.

Kiki stripped off her t-shirt and reached back to unhook her bra. “Then what am I doing here? I could be out partying right now.” She was hardly happy with the development, but it wasn’t entirely unexpected.

Nick sighed and leaned back against the wall. “Well, we’ve been trying to seduce you. I think we’re just not very good at it.”

Reaching for the shirt and wearing only a thong and striped athletic socks, Kiki froze and turned to look at him directly. “You and Pilar are? Nick, you’re like two of the most repressed people I know.”

Nick raised an eyebrow. “Pilar and I are?”

Kiki thought about it. “Well, her more than you I guess. You’ve been coming along slowly. But...”

“Didn’t you and I just have a threesome with Jazz?” Nick reminded her.

“We did. And I say you’re making progress.” Kiki remembered what she was doing long enough to pick up the shirt and put it on, leaving it unbuttoned.

“And I’m still one of the most repressed people you know?” Nick asked.

Kiki considered it. “Well, okay. Maybe not. But, I don’t know a lot of repressed people, Nick. I don’t think I’ve been with anyone as eager to get into a serious relationship as you are - not a guy anyway.”

“I ... like knowing there’s somebody there for me.” Nick sounded exasperated. “But, I’ve slept with four different people this month. How many does it take to get off your ‘repressed’ list?”

“Well, I only knew about two of us,” Kiki turned and put a hand on her tilted hip to show the shirt to its best advantage. “And I guessed at Pilar. Did you hook up with somebody else in Missouri?”

“Montana.” Nick shook his head. “And no. It was more recent than that. And I’m not proud of it. But, I’m definitely not repressed.”

Kiki rolled her eyes. “Fine. Your bona fides are in order, Nick. You’re not repressed. Do you like the shirt?”

Nick looked her over. “I like it a lot. Come here?”

Kiki strutted over and laid a hand on his chest. “So you can seduce me?”

Nick put an arm around her and drew her against him. “Not if you’re going to make fun of me.” He kissed her before she could answer.

Kiki enjoyed the kiss and looked up at him. “That was pretty good. Consider me seduced.”

Nick laughed and looked in her eyes with warmth. “God, you’re impossible.”

“I’m the opposite of impossible.” Kiki ran a hand up his chest. “The word you’re looking for is ‘easy.’ I hope I’m not one of the girls you’re proud of sleeping with. It’s hardly an accomplishment.”

“Maybe not.” Nick slid a hand under the shirt and traced up her side to cup a breast, flicking the nipple with his thumb. “But keeping you coming back is like trying to juggle a soap bubble.”

Kiki sighed in pleasure at the touch. “So, this isn’t a farewell fuck now that you have a girlfriend?”

“She’s not going to be that kind of girlfriend,” said Nick. “She has no interest in saving me from inappropriate women.”

“Good.” Kiki gripped him through his pants. “Because I can be awfully inappropriate.”

Nick groaned and caught her wrist. “Hang on. I might be a little repressed after all. I don’t really want to make the staff wait outside while we have sex.”

“Oh.” Kiki smirked and looked down. “Do you want to make them wait outside while I suck your cock? Because that’s what I had in mind.”

Nick groaned. “Of course I do, but I don’t. Can you wait a little while longer, please?”

Kiki laughed and stepped back from him. “Suit yourself.” She opened the door and peeked out at Pilar. “You can come back in. Your boyfriend is done seducing me until he gets me home.”

Pilar stepped in, looking bemused. “I guess it went all right then?”

“Solid beginner’s effort.” Kiki went back to the bench to pull her pants on. “Did either of you dumbasses ever think to just ask me?”

“We thought about it,” admitted Pilar. “We didn’t want there to be any misunderstandings. I’ve been trying not to even say ‘we’ or ‘us’ to describe us until we settled things.”

Kiki pulled on her bra, turned, and raised her hair to Pilar, who dutifully hooked her in the back. “You might have gone too far in the other direction. I’ve spent half the time today worrying you were trying to get rid of me.”

“Why would you worry about that?” Nick asked.

Kiki frowned and pulled on her t-shirt. She hadn’t meant to say that. She looked over at Nick, hoping he was smirking. But he wasn’t smirking. He was waiting for an answer.

“The same reason I invited Jazz over before you spent the weekend with this one and I was afraid you were going to come back as a couple,” she tilted her head towards Pilar. “I’m not done with you, Nick.”

Too late for her to take the words back, Nick lowered his head and smiled with just a touch of a smirk. “Glad to hear it, Keek. I’m not done with you, either.”

Kiki strutted over to Pilar. “And what about you, Nick’s girlfriend?”

Pilar answered in the best possible way, drawing Kiki in and kissing her with slow, hot purpose. “I haven’t even gotten started with you yet.”

A quick knock on the door gave her just enough time to step back before one of Jean-Michel’s assistants stuck his head in the door. “Everything going all right in here?”

“Yes.” Nick stepped to the door. “I’m afraid something’s come up, but I like everything I’ve seen so far. I’ll take these and let’s make an appointment to come back later in the week.”

“But, we haven’t fitted these for you yet,” protested the assistant.

Nick frowned. “All right. But, I really do have to go.”

“Of course,” the assistant said with a politeness so formal the temperature in the room dropped.

Once he was gone, Pilar laughed. “In a hurry. Are we?”

“Yes,” said Nick. “And not to be too crude, but there’s no way I’m trying on any more pants for a while.”

On the short limo ride home, Kiki sat next to Pilar across from Nick. Pilar put an arm around her shoulder and Kiki cuddled up to her. “No offense, Pi. But I kind of thought you were straight.”

Pilar gave a little chuckle. “I don’t know how anybody could do what we do for a living and claim to never be turned on - so many beautiful women, so few clothes.”

“I guess you’ve been pretty discreet. I know exactly what you mean, but it’s not your reputation at all,” said Kiki.

“The reputation that I think I’m too good to work with some people?” Pilar asked.

Kiki considered softening it, but ultimately just said. “Yeah. That one.”

“I do think I’m too good to work with some people,” said Pilar. “Or at least I don’t ever need to take a gig just for the money. I started modeling because Jazz asked me to and I wanted the chance to talk to a couple of her investors. Once she doesn’t need me to model for her anymore, I’ll probably focus on the construction business full-time again. Either way, in a few years, I’d like to be married and having kids and, unless she decides to start a maternity line, I’ll retire.”

Kiki raised an eyebrow. “You hear that, Nick? Clock’s ticking.”

“We’ve discussed it,” said Nick. “I can’t imagine I’m going to be ready to get married when Pilar wants to. We’ll have to break up before then.”

Kiki looked back and forth between them. “That doesn’t sound like a girlfriend to me. That just sounds like you two are hooking up.”

“It’s more complicated than that,” said Nick. “Do you really want to know all the details?”

“Probably not,” said Kiki. “It probably involves a lot of rules and stuff.”

“It probably does,” said Nick.

“Not really,” said Pilar. “There are some things I’d like to try that are easier with a partner I can trust and I trust Nick.”

Nick gave an affirmative grunt. “And I like having a partner. I don’t love knowing that you’re going to leave, but I do like knowing you’ll stay for a while.”

There was a tinge of sadness to Nick’s words that resonated with a sensation in Kiki’s chest that she couldn’t quite explain. She’d been sixteen when she first decided she wasn’t cut out to be anyone’s girlfriend. Now she wondered what the hell the word even meant. She didn’t think she’d want exactly what Nick and Pilar had worked out between them for herself, but if you could be somebody’s girlfriend with an expiration date and threesomes, maybe there was a definition that Kiki could live with as well.

As they got out of the car, Nick glanced at his phone. “People are going to be at dinner when we go up.”

“Want to grab something to eat?” Pilar asked.

“I should probably keep my strength up tonight,” said Nick. “But I should mention, if we all go to dinner together, then head off to my apartment together, my friends aren’t the polite sort who’ll pretend they don’t notice.”

“Oh.” Pilar frowned. “We could ... say we were going to help you try on your new clothes.”

“And ‘trying on new clothes’ would become a new euphemism for sex,” said Nick. “I know these guys.”

“We could tell them we’re going to your room to have dirty three-way sex,” suggested Kiki. “Maybe that could become a euphemism for trying on clothes. I’m pretty sure they all know you had me and Jazz over on Thursday. Arwen came over to feed your kitten while we were still both there. And you didn’t tell us we were supposed to keep it a secret.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” said Nick. He turned to Pilar. “You okay with this?”

Pilar looked troubled, but managed a shrug. “If I have to choose between my reputation as an uppity prude and mind-blowing sex, it’s not that hard of a choice.”

Nick sighed. “All right. It’s not like we have a lot of secrets here anyway. I really should have built the apartments with thicker walls.”

“You can add sound baffles to your bedroom,” suggested Pilar. “Or if that’s too obvious, you could pipe white noise like ocean waves into the hallways.”

“Does white noise work?” Nick asked.

“Not as well as physical baffles,” said Pilar. “It won’t block if we get particularly loud, but at least it will sound like we’re having sex on the beach.”

Nick’s friends didn’t immediately fixate on the sex question. As soon as they sat down, Max asked, “Did you guys have fun dressing Nick?”

Arwen’s head came up. “Dressing Nick?”

“Pilar and Kiki have been helping me pick out a few new items for my wardrobe,” said Nick.

“A few? The staff made three trips bringing everything in,” Max laughed. “Did they let you keep anything you already owned?”

“Is that what you took off for after the weekly meeting?” Arwen asked.

“I ... had some other things to take care of first,” protested Nick.

“I hope you got him some new sneakers,” said Arwen. “The ones he’s usually wearing have permanent grass stains on them.”

“He still has those?” Shelby looked under the table. “He had those sophomore year.”

“They’re not the same sneakers,” Nick protested. “And I’m wearing new ones now anyway. But, that doesn’t mean I’m getting rid of the old ones.”

“Actually, I kind of threw the old ones out,” said Pilar.

“Those were classics!” said Nick.

“They had a hole in them,” said Pilar.

“Did you get him a suit?” Simon asked.

“Several at Brooks Brothers,” said Pilar.

Simon gave the thumbs up. “Keep this one, Nick.”

“He keeps all of them. Doesn’t he?” quipped Max.

“Classy,” said Shelby.

“What?” Max shrugged. “I’m not betraying any secrets here. Am I? Does anyone here not know Nick is a man-whore?”

Nick scowled at Max, but he was smiling too. “Man. I think I’ve just been slut-shamed at my own dinner table. That’s ... I’m surprisingly okay with that.”

“Good to be a man. Isn’t it?” said Cat.

“Will you two help me with Lev sometime?” asked Arwen. “Most of his closet looks like it belongs to a serial killing lumberjack.”

“Nobody carries my sizes!” protested Lev.

“I know places we can call ahead and they’ll have your sizes available,” said Pilar. “I’d be happy to help.”

“Look what you started,” Dennis said to Nick.

“Me? It was Pilar’s idea,” protested Nick. “I’m totally the fashion victim here.”

“You’re a bad person, Pilar,” said Dennis agreeably. “Nick’s a billionaire. If he wants to wear dad jeans, let him wear dad jeans.”

Nick put his head down and laughed. “You guys are as bad as the Oneida Perfectionists.” When no one had commented, he raised his head. “The Oneida Perfectionists believed in the healing power of criticism and would subject themselves to it in groups kind of like this - particularly when a member of the community went out into the wide world and then came back. It was a way to avoid contamination from the outside.”

“Did you learn this in Montana?” Lev asked.

“Kind of.” Nick turned to Pilar. “Am I supposed to talk about the steading to non-Stones?”

Pilar looked around the table. “Nobody here is a professional historian. Are you? Inez might be annoyed at being scooped.” When no one answered, she said, “It’s not like you can really keep secrets with a family our size. People might be annoyed if you brought media attention to parts of our history that aren’t exactly common knowledge, but it’s not like the trustees go around asking people not to talk about stuff.”

Nick nodded. “Ok. So, I didn’t learn about Oneida in Montana. Oneida’s in upstate New York, but I started reading about them because I’ve been playing around with the idea of a new world land-rush for Pangaria and we went up to see the steading, which is the little village of like maybe forty or fifty people back in the woods. We had to get there by horseback.”

“I rode my first horse,” confirmed Pilar when he glanced at her.

“Right. So, I don’t think there’s anybody in the steading younger than sixty and they’ve pretty much been living up there their whole lives,” said Nick. “Apparently, back in the nineteenth century, they settled there and had way more men than women, but instead of doing whatever it was people did in the wild west when women were scarce, the local reverend, my ancestor, said he had a vision from God that their community would be preserved if each woman took three husbands and they did.”

“Is this why you were talking about starting a cult this morning?” Max asked.

Nick nodded. “You guys all know my father’s a socialist. Right? But, he also talks a lot about why socialism fails because it doesn’t take into account human nature. But in these little religious utopias, people behave in ways you wouldn’t expect them to because they believe salvation is on the line.”

“Or they believe the world’s ending,” Emily reminded him. “My da’s people donated everything they owned to the church. Then the church lent them what they needed back.”

“I didn’t know that,” said Nick. “You’d probably be an excellent person to talk to. I know starting a cult is a bad idea, but I don’t really understand why.”

“I grew up on an artist’s commune,” said Cat. “We didn’t have a religion exactly, but we had a certain shared mythology. I gave a TED talk on the subject of naturally-occurring micromythologies.”

“I ... didn’t know that either.” Nick turned to her. “Cat, you are a fascinating person that I keep forgetting to make time to sit down and talk to. If I haven’t come and found you by lunchtime tomorrow, please come down to the second floor and remind me?”

Cat smiled and nodded. “With pleasure. You’re a pretty interesting young man yourself.”

“Wait. Were these old people living up at the steading still practicing polyandry? Like every old woman still had three husbands?” Arwen asked.

“It got more complicated over time,” said Nick. “The steaders wound up practicing something like the Oneida complex marriage, but not exactly - just these big extended marriages that weren’t limited to two people.”

“Like Heinlein’s S groups?” Arwen asked.

“I ... don’t remember those,” said Nick. “And I don’t know why my first instinct was to read a whole book about utopian societies when I should have just come and talked to you guys.”

“I thought you started reading it on our flight back to pass the time.” Pilar gave Nick a wicked smile that Kiki didn’t understand.

“They were in Friday,” offered Cat. “Friday was part of an S group with two husbands and two co-wives, if I remember correctly. I learned as much about illustration from copying old sci fi and fantasy covers as I did from the artists I grew up with.”

The conversation shifted to Cat and her artwork. Before Kiki could think about whether to bring up the weirder art she’d seen on the link Cat sent her, Arwen mentioned it. Cat talked about her influences and the subject got too nerdy for Kiki to follow, but the conversation only held half her attention as she tried to pull together a lot of disparate ideas. When they’d finished eating and Nick rose to go to his apartment, Pilar held up her glass and whispered to Kiki. “Do you think you could find more of this for later, please?”

By the time Kiki found the bottles, Pilar had slipped away. Kiki assumed she knew where and followed into the residential wing. Only Cat looked up from the animated discussion to give her a knowing little smile. Kiki suspected the three of them had avoided some ribbing by not leaving all at once, but she also suspected it wouldn’t have been any worse than that. From the conversation, everyone seemed to know Cat’s business and they were more interested in talking to her about comic books than sex.

She worried at the idea that she’d been too hasty in giving Nick back the key to Apartment B when she had the chance to stay longer, but decided she hadn’t been. She might like Nick’s people, but she still needed room to be Kiki.

When she arrived in Nick’s apartment, Pilar met her at the door, helping her carry the bottles and glasses to the glass coffee table. “My hero.”

Nick took a glass. “I think I’m making my friends uncomfortable about drinking around me. I don’t want to put the staff in an awkward legal position by having them serve alcohol to teenagers, but there’s beer and wine in the refrigerator. Kiki, as a fellow teenager, you would do me a great service if, when you come to dinner, you just grab yourself something to drink.”

“I’m not going to be a teenager much longer,” said Kiki. “But, I’m still the woman for the job.”

“When’s your birthday?” Pilar asked.

“Next Friday. I’ll be on a plane to Milan most of the day,” said Kiki.

“So will I.” Nick poured himself a half a glass of wine. “So will all my friends. I know you three are staying on Jazz’s side of the castle, but you two and Emily are certainly welcome to fly over with us. We could have a party on the plane.”

“You have a plane?” Kiki asked as Pilar asked, “You’re coming to Milan?”

“That too,” said Kiki. “You’re renting half the castle in Milan? Is that why Jazz agreed to hire me?”

“I sort of have a plane. Effectively, I have a plane,” said Nick. “And yes. I agreed to rent the other half of the palazzo after whoever was renting it backed out and left Jazz holding the bag. I agreed to that because I thought my friends and I needed to get out of the loft more. This was before I flew off to Montana and they all decided to spend the weekend in Kathmandu. But, paying to rent half a castle and then not using it is a bit too wasteful even for me. So, we’re going. But, I didn’t ask Jazz to hire you, Kiki. That was her idea.”

“She told me it was yours,” said Kiki.

Nick frowned thoughtfully. “She said she wanted to hire you for the Japanese campaign and that you’d probably walk in the show if she did, but...” He shook his head. “I just asked her to firm up plans she already had for using you and Emily.”

“Oh. And here I thought you were helping my career.” Kiki smirked at him. “I was totally going to blow you while your girlfriend watched.”

“I’m pretty sure you were going to do that anyway.” Nick sipped his wine. “Not that I have any expectations, but I figure it’s a bit like a sword that, once drawn, can’t be sheathed again until it’s tasted blood. Once you walk through that door, you can’t leave until you taste my seed.”

“Nick, that is the most vulgar thing I’ve ever heard you say.” Kiki laughed. “Well done.”

Nick laughed too. “I’m not sure how I’m going to handle both of you at once. Kiki makes me vulgar and Pilar classes me up just by being around.”

“Nick!” Pilar protested. “I’m going to have a terrible time convincing people I’m a dirty girl as it is. You’re just making it worse if you say things like that.”

“I’ll give you plenty of chances to convince me.” Kiki gave a seductive smile. “Show me what you’ve got and I promise not to respect you in the morning.”

“I don’t know.” Pilar looked doubtful. “I let Nick fuck me in the ass and he still says things like that.”

Nick choked on his wine and, even when he stopped choking, was red-face and red-eared. “Okay. You win. You’re not at all classy.”

Kiki laughed and kissed Pilar joyfully, having fallen in love with her a moment earlier. Pilar kissed her back. The kiss went on, slow and purposeful. When it broke, Pilar peeled off Kiki’s t-shirt. Kiki looked over at Nick. “Are you planning to join us or just watch?”

“Would I be a total perv if I said I just wanted to sit here and watch for a bit?” Nick asked.

“Are you afraid of being a pervert, Nick?” Kiki unbuttoned Pilar’s blouse. “I would think you crossed that bridge by the time you invited the two of us back to your room if not when you sodomized this sweet, innocent young woman.”

Pilar smiled. “I asked him to, actually.”

“Oh, you poor thing.” Kiki stroked her hair playfully. “He just makes you think you did. I used to be a shy, retiring virgin before I met him.”

“Long before you met me maybe,” said Nick. “I don’t really see you as the shy, retiring type ever, Kiki.”

“I used to be cripplingly shy.” Kiki kissed Pilar’s neck, eliciting a faint gasp.

“Seriously?” Nick asked.

“I got over it.” Kiki kissed her way down Pilar’s collarbone and along the line of her bra.

“I see that.” Nick moved from his chair to the couch, sitting on the far side of Pilar from Kiki.

Pilar looked back over her shoulder. “I thought you just wanted to watch?”

Nick smiled. “What I really want tonight is not to rush. It’s early and I don’t have anywhere to be until ten tomorrow morning. Sex just always seems so rushed like I can’t control my desire long enough to just enjoy touching a beautiful, naked woman or two.”

“I like the sound of that.” Pilar leaned back against him. “How about you, Kiki?”

“I’m not sure about this whole controlling my desires thing,” said Kiki. “I’m kind of wound up now. Maybe you and I should just have sex until Nick catches up.”

Pilar laughed. “I like the sound of that too.” She looked at Nick. “Would it be moving too fast right now to take this to the bedroom?”

When Nick gestured at them to proceed, Kiki collected up the wine glasses and the open bottle before following Pilar into the bedroom. After she’d placed them on the side table, she put an arm around Pilar from behind. She felt her newest love tremble at the touch. “Something wrong?”

Pilar turned to kiss her. “Quite the contrary. This is right where I want to be.”