Chapter 23

We wandered down my hallway until we reached the bedroom door.

“I am officially declaring this room to be a clothing free zone,” she said before we entered. She pushed her bikini panties to the floor and looked at me expectantly.

I shrugged and lowered my white boxer shorts. I could see that Liz did not sunbathe nude. Her tan lines said that she wore a sensible bikini top. I could see the bra straps and the line across her back where it fit.

Her tan on the lower half looked as though she wore shorts to the beach. Her tan stopped well before her butt and started again two or three inches below the rounded curve. I was still inspecting her rear when she stopped at the bed and turned around.

“Already thinking about that option, Mr. Blakely?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

It took me a second to understand the reference.

“I was just looking at your tan,” I said quickly.

“Uh-huh,” Liz said, her white teeth shining in the darkened room.

“I was!” I insisted.

“I know but you’re so much fun to pick on,” Liz told me. She sat on the bed and reached for me. I thought she was going to grab my erection (which hadn’t waned since I had spent the previous few seconds looking at Liz’s butt). Instead she ran her fingers down the side of my leg.

“Why don’t you have any hair there?” she asked. “Did you get burned or something?”

As with a lot of baseball players, I had no hair on the side and back of my left leg. The skin didn’t tan very easily there, either. Even after almost eight years away from the game, that area was a little lighter than the rest of my body.

“Sliding,” I said. “Even with compression shorts and sliding pants, you still lose some skin there if the base path is rough. Growing up where we did, there were always rocks and sand around the bases. It’s actually just one huge scar.”

“Damn,” Liz said. She put her hands on my hips and motioned for me to turn. I did and let her inspect the merchandise. “Do you mind if we turn on the lights?”

I didn’t care in the slightest but she hadn’t reached for the switch (and she’d shown no problem with taking over the rest of my abode) so I thought she might prefer them off. I took a few steps and hit the switch. I found I wasn’t the slightest bit embarrassed from walking back with my dick bobbing in front of me.

“Do you mind if I ... just look at you?” Liz asked.

I shrugged. I had been looking at her as closely as I could since I ran into her on Tuesday. I thought it was only fair.

“First, let me take care of that dripping problem,” she said. She ran her tongue over the purple head of my dick to remove the clear liquid that had formed. She smiled and licked her lips when she pulled back. “Oh, look, it came back. I might have my work cut out for me tonight. We definitely don’t want that staining the carpet!”

I expected her to put her mouth back in place but instead she used my dick to direct me to turn to the side. She kept one hand on my erection while she ran the other down my butt and thighs. I wondered if this was how the plantation wives selected which slave they planned to bed. I mentally shook my head to clear that thought. Liz hadn’t treated me as an accessory or an employee. Even as she looked over my body, it was with a sense of appreciation.

“You’re still in really good shape,” she said.

“I go to the gym with Rick a couple times a week,” I said. “Just fitness stuff; we’re not bodybuilding or anything. I can’t do much lifting with my arm.”

“No, it’s ... nice,” Liz said. “Why do you have hair on this side?”

“Uh, this leg was straight when I would slide,” I said. “You get what they call ‘strawberries’ on the leg you tuck beneath you. They’re abrasions. I have the same thing on the side of my left calf. When we played at Bakersfield my first pro year, I slid into second and just tore most of the hide off my leg and my butt. Their field is like a hundred years old and it’s really run down. It was like playing at Vermillion or Greenwich. They do what they can to take care of it but it’s still a pit. I had to sit out the next day because the trainers worried that I might get a staph infection or something from the locker room.”

“Jesus,” Liz said. “I mean, I’ve played some dives but I never worried about getting cooties.”

“MERSA was a problem back then,” I said. “It didn’t help that the hotels where we stayed on the road were pretty dingy. Double-A was a little better.”

Liz positioned me until my back was to her. I heard her chuckle.

“What?” I asked, looking over my shoulder.

“I was just looking at your tan,” she said. “I can see where you tore the skin off your legs. It’s not really noticeable unless you know what to look for but I can see it now. I can also see that you aren’t one for Speedos at the beach.”

“No,” I said. “I wear shorts or swim trunks. I noticed that you don’t go for the thong look.”

Liz sighed and turned me to where my left side faced her. Once again, she put a hand on my dick and the other on my butt.

“I try to wear clothing in public that covers me,” she said. “I can’t really sunbathe in New York and I haven’t really spent a lot of time in Nashville lately. If I were to sunbathe on your deck, I would put on a bikini that would make your neighbors proud. Well, I would until someone figured out I was here and started to take pictures by helicopter.”

“Seriously?” I asked.

“It’s happened before,” Liz said.

“Well, it ain’t happenin’ here,” I stated.

“You can’t stop them,” Liz told me.

“I can’t ... but the FAA and Department of Defense can,” I said. “This is on the flight corridor to NAS Coronado. It’s a designated ‘no fly’ zone. Someone might take a helicopter past once but the FAA would ground that son of a bitch in a heartbeat ... if they didn’t shoot him out of the sky. Commercial planes can’t even use this for their approach. The only group using this sector of airspace is the United States Navy.”

“Wow!” Liz said. “That’s awesome. So I could sit out in the sun tomorrow in a bikini and not worry about pictures of my cooch winding up on TMZ.”

“There are still neighbors,” I pointed out. “Mine are pretty cool.”

“Particularly the mother and daughter that like to show you their boobs,” Liz said. To prove she was joking, she leaned forward to lick the head of my penis again.

“They’re OK,” I said. “I’m a harmless bit of fun for them. I think the girl had some body image issues and the mother was just trying to show her that she was pretty. I saw her a day or two after the first time they were out and she thanked me for helping. Of course, Sarah had to give me shit about it. She was here so I had to explain it.”

“Well, if you looked at her like you look at me her issues should be well behind her,” Liz said. “I might try to do that tomorrow ... sit outside for a while.”

I sat down beside her on the bed.

“Are you planning to be here tomorrow?” I asked.

“If you’ll let me be,” Liz told me. “I know that I’m a lot better in small doses.”

“No!” I cut in. “I like being around you. But, well, I’m better in small doses, too. And I know you have things you need to get done. Plus, you’re out of clothes.”

“All the better!” Liz said, laughing.

“We can wash anything you have but ... I’m pretty sure you’ll need to have that shirt you wore today dry cleaned,” I said. “I can run it down to a place but...”

“I was going to ask you to go shopping for me tomorrow,” Liz admitted.

I smiled.

“I’ll come back with bun huggers, thongs and tube tops,” I said. “Oh, wait! Yoga pants! That’s what I want to see you in.”

Liz nudged me with her elbow but I could see that she was pleased.

“And you can see me in or out of any of those things in private,” she said. “But I do need some clothes that I can wear in public. I’d go with you but I know Ryan would throw a fit.”

“He’s right,” I noted. “There are some really nice shops downtown. Most of them have websites so you can browse. I can go down in the morning and get you what you want. All I need are your sizes. You might be able to order them online and I can just run down and pick them up.”

Liz shook her head.

“I don’t really have a credit card to use,” she said. “I was going to call Jill before she flies home and see if I can use hers. She usually does this for me ... but I’m usually with her.”

“Use my credit card,” I offered with a shrug.

“I haven’t paid you back for the hair products and stuff,” Liz said.

“Oh, shit,” I said. “I was kidding about that. I mean, if you plan to drop ten grand or something, yeah, but if you want a couple of outfits I can spring for them.”

“A couple of outfits for me might cost ten grand,” Liz said with a raised eyebrow. “I have an image to uphold.”

It took me a second to realize that she was joking with me.

“The outfit I wore today was about $350 without the shoes,” Liz said.

“A shirt and a pair of shorts cost that much?” I asked incredulously. “I know the underwear you had on was just ... ordinary.”

“Nothing about me is ordinary,” Liz said, elbowing me again. “But, you’re right. I didn’t bring any sexy underwear with me. I wasn’t planning to run into the man of my dreams. So I just brought comfortable things. I like to dress sexily but, day-to-day, I prefer cotton to silk and lace.”

“I thought you looked sexy in what you had on,” I pointed out.

Liz leaned over to kiss me on the cheek.

“That’s why I like you so much,” she declared. “But, back to my wardrobe for a moment. The shirt was $250. The shorts are from a famous designer and ran $90. The shoes? I won’t even tell you about the shoes.”

“Tell me about the shoes,” I said.

“Nine-fifty retail,” Liz admitted.

“I ... nine-hundred-fifty dollars for a pair of shoes?” I stammered.

She named a famous designer than I’d heard of but never paid much attention to.

“All of his shoes are expensive,” she said. “He gave those to me. I went to one of his shows in New York. I ... I tend to bring a lot of attention. I wore them the next week to an event and he said the sales tripled almost overnight. I usually stop whenever I’m supposed to go somewhere and we work out a deal. He gives me almost anything I want in return for me wearing something that has been a little slow off the market. I’ll agree if I like them and if they’re comfortable. Some of the stuff he’s given me retails for three grand.”

“God damn,” I said. “Maybe I can’t front you the money for some clothes.”

“I can dress stylish without spending a lot of money,” Liz said.

“I was thinking that my wardrobe is going to need a serious upgrade if I’m going to hang out with you,” I said. “My suits are off the rack and ... cost less than the shoes you wore tonight. In fact, you can pull out any three of my suits from the closet and they didn’t touch the shoes you wore tonight.”

“You looked great Tuesday,” Liz said. “You looked great last night and tonight. You’re a guy so you can get away with it. I mean, yeah, if things work out like I think they will, you’ll need a tux for the Grammys. I usually get an invitation to the Academy Awards and we can go if you want. The other things ... the music awards shows ... you can just wear whatever and no one cares a lot. I guess if you go with me to some of the fashion shows, you might need a custom-tailored suit. We’ll cross that hurdle when we get to it. I don’t expect Jill or Stephanie or Ryan to pay out of their own pocket for things like that. I won’t expect you to either.”

I frowned.

“It’s a business expense,” Liz told me. “Why are we talking about clothing while we’re not wearing any?”