Chapter 10: Dinner and a show

He didn't hear from Janelle again until the next Friday afternoon. She rang him on his mobile and proposed they go out for dinner that night.

"I'm dying for a steak. And if I'm in the mood later on, I might try some of your tube-steak."

She said this as casually as she could, but in truth she hungered for it. Not for his willy as such, no — she'd encountered bigger ones before, and ones far more skillfully deployed. To her, his prick was merely a useful accessory after the fact. An accessory to her main indulgence, namely his dispatch on a quest of suitable challenge and difficulty to his ego.

They met at the steakhouse she'd nominated. He was already waiting outside, and pecked her chastely on the cheek in greeting. She liked men who made sure they always got to a rendezvous before she did.

At a corner table, he managed to remember what had been bugging him all week.

"Can you give me some contact details?"

"Why?"

"I missed you. I'd like to be able to call you up."

She thought about it, as if this was a situation she hadn't really considered up 'til now.

"Okay, you can buy me a mobile then."

"Doesn't your apartment have a 'phone?"

"No" she lied. No way did she want Auntie N. picking up her incoming calls.

"We'll go shopping for one after this."

"Okay then."

The waitress appeared, a pretty young college kid who proceeded to reel off the "Tonite's Specials" as if a tape recording had just been switched on in her head.

Doug regarded Janelle as she placed her order. She looked nice tonight. Correction, she looked nice all the time. But especially nice tonight. Her dark complexion glowed in the candlelight, the curve of her cheek in profile looked especially well-sculptured, and her boobs welled up enticingly at the scooped neckline of her black-and-gold dress.

With the waitress gone and her attention free again, Janelle woke up to the fact that she was the subject of his scrutiny.

"What the fuck you lookin' at?" she demanded in mock aggression.

"That's a very endearing response to my admiring glances, my poppet!"

"Admire this!"

So saying, she inserted an index finger between her full lips and made a mini-drama out of sucking it like a cock.

"Another thing I love about you - the way I can just take you out anywhere!"

She grinned wickedly.

"Stop complainin' - I know you love it. Probably got a hard-on already!"

He felt her bare foot brush up between his thighs under the table and firmly nudge his crotch. Sure enough, it encountered a half-fat.

Her point proven, she withdrew her foot and slipped it back in her shoe just in time for salads and garlic bread to arrive.

"You can save me that throbbin' knob for later" she murmured, ripping off a chunk of the bread. She threw him a melting look, which contrary-wise he found to be more stiffening than melting.

There was another topic that had been bothering him.

"How'd you manage to fall out with your folks?"

A pause while she thought about whether, and how, to answer.

"I was unmanageable, period. They got sick of it, and booted me out."

Silence for a while, until their steaks arrived. She attacked hers with zeal.

"Got sick of what, exactly?" he persisted.

"Me doing drugs" she mumbled while chewing. "Being zonked all the time, and stealing anything that wasn't nailed down."

"Oh dear."

"Oh dear is right. I was a mess."

"So where'd you go after that?"

"I went'n stayed in a sleazy apartment with a bunch of guys."

"How'd that work out?" He was really having to worm this information out of her.

"Well... I thought they were my friends. Until I passed out when drinking with them one night. I woke up with my panties missing, and a river of cum flowing out of me."

He quailed visibly, and felt a sudden loss of appetite. In fact, he felt sick to his stomach.

"You okay, hon?" she asked in concern, seeing how he'd suddenly paled.

"I can't bear to think of you being treated like that."

"Me neither."

It didn't stop her popping another chunk of FDA-certified medium-rare into her mouth, though.

"Did you call the cops?"

"Yeah, right." Her tone said it all.

"But that was rape!"

"Certainly I blew my stack at them about it. They claimed I'd consented, though from the condition I was in, no way could it be "informed consent". But it didn't look like I'd get very far with a complaint.

"Anyway, that was a side issue. The main problem, I realized, was that I dis-respected myself. My whole situation, y'know, with the drug thing goin' on, I was abusing and wasting myself. I hadda turn that around somehow."

"You mean... you had to hit rock-bottom before you could come up again?"

Only as these words left his lips did it occur to him how cliched they sounded. Really, he had no idea.

"Not exactly" she said tactfully. "There's more to it than that, and more to me than that."

"Like what?"

She looked mostly down at the table as she answered, and her words slipped out innocuously, almost too casually.

"Like... one thing I came to realise, was about the way that sex is important to me. I got particular urges I need to satisfy, if I'm to maintain my wellbeing."

He could pretty accurately guess what she was hinting at, but wanted to hear her actually say it. He'd never heard her speak so openly on this particular subject before. Tonight she seemed to be on a roll about it, and he felt it was timely to probe deeper.

"Describe these urges..."

"Don't play the shrink with me! You know damn well that sex is only sex when I get to dominate a man!"

"Okay okay, you don't have to draw me a picture! But what are you trying to say - that this somehow stopped you turning into a total crack-whore?"

Janelle had to think again — it was probably the first time she'd had to actually articulate the process whereby she'd arrived at this particular head-space of hers. It couldn't be easy for her. She speared some salad with her fork and munched it, gazing across the room while her mind groped for words.

"Best I can explain it is this — I came to know I'd have to really get my shit together to achieve the kind of relationships I wanted, the kind where I'd be well and truly in the driver's seat. When you dominate a man, you're responsible for him. You can't do that unless you're responsible for yourself first."

"Is that what I am — dominated?"

"Don't take it as a put-down. It's what makes you so very attractive to me, that you have the inner strength to place me higher than your own pride..."

He felt himself flushing red. All his life he'd found it hard to accept compliments in good grace. He steered the conversation back onto her.

"So, you got saved by sex?"

"I guess it does sound weird. But when it came to a choice between sex or drugs, I suppose you could say I chose sex. Not just any old sex, but good sex exactly the way I like it. So I moved in with Auntie N., and cleaned up my act. Haven't been near drugs since."

"You ever get yourself checked for HIV?"

"I got checked for every damn thing, believe me. Then, and every six months since. I'm clean - praise the Lord!"

"A bit late for me to be asking, really."

"You can say that again!"

He felt they were ready for coffee, and flagged the waitress. She cleared their plates at the same time.

Janelle stirred three spoonfuls of sugar into her cup, then continued -

"And since we're on the subject of True Confessions, why'd you split from your wife?"

He took his time answering. Some of those wounds were still tender.

"She turned into a greedy bitch."

"There must have been something nice about her. Otherwise you wouldn't have married her!"

"She had a nice ass."

"Doug! Don't clam up on me!"

"We got married because it was the logical thing to do."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"She was from a good family, I'm from a good family. She went to a good school, I went to a good school. She had the right sort of friends, I had the same sort of friends. It was inevitable. Our parents were thrilled, said we made a good match."

"The kiss of death, huh? Parents saying that."

"You got that right. As a couple we must have looked good from the outside, but things never quite gelled in the bedroom."

"She was frigid, or what?"

"She had to come out of the closet, that's what. It was a long, drawn-out, and very upsetting process. Took a long time to admit to herself what she really was — in our circles it's simply not the done thing to be one of those. Kept on changing her mind about it, first one way then the other. Meanwhile I didn't know if I was coming or going, and neither did the poor lady she was coming out with."

"Any kids involved?"

"No, thank Christ."

"But you said she was a greedy bitch?"

"Oh, she added insult to injury by following that up with a messy divorce. She wanted to continue her accustomed lifestyle, yet continue not working for it. The lawyers ended up getting more out of that strategy than either she or I."

"And lastly, does she truly have a nice ass?"

"Now that you've met her, you be the judge!"

"Not bad, as asses go. I'd like to paddle it 'til its good and red."

"I noticed the two of you didn't exactly hit it off."

"I'd like to stick my biggest dildo up her butthole."

"Okay, I get the picture. Anyway, how was your steak?"

"Shit-hot. Thanks."

"You're welcome. Now, let's go buy you a phone."

"Let's."

He paid the bill, then they crossed the neon-lit street and walked down about half a block to a mall. Inside they found a phone shop, and he let her choose a mobile of suitably feminine shape and colour.

"Jeepers!" he exclaimed, "It's only a 'phone! The way you're trying them all on and looking in the mirror, it's like you're buying it to wear, like shoes or something!"

"No way is it "only a 'phone"" she retorted. "It's the only thing in the world where men boast about how small theirs is!"

"Point taken."

Janelle finally selected a dainty item in lavender that glowed green when it rang, and he paid for it.

"Since you mentioned shoes, I wouldn't mind picking up a couple of new pairs while we're here."

"I'm glad you don't have any hang-ups about money."

"Especially yours." She squeezed his backside appreciatively as they strolled off in search of a shoe shop.

At first they thought the mall didn't have one, which would have been strange, but at last it revealed itself on the very upper level, nearly at the end.

It was a small operation, only one assistant and selling only ladies shoes, with a small but eclectic selection to choose from.

Janelle was looking at pumps and comparing a few styles, then her gaze fell on the high-leather boots section.

"Oooh! Check these out!"

Some were tasteful, some were downright slutty. Some were definitely sensuous with their soft satin finish and new leather smell. Some had zips, and others had to be laced in complicated patterns.

"Doug! Can you help me here?"

Janelle was struggling to lace up the left one, and extended her foot for him to pull on the right one. He knelt in front of her, and she sat back to let him finish the job.

Janelle paraded before the mirror, hiking up her hem to show the boots fully along with a portion of sleek thigh.

"The other ones, Doug. C'mon! Get these off me again!"

She sat as he bent to the task of slackening all the laces again. She was sitting a little unladylike now, her dress still hiked up, and he could see up between her dark-skinned legs to white knickers. That made it hard to concentrate, and she chastised him for taking so long.

The sales assistant, who should have been helping, had been about to come over to do just that. A prim and smartly dressed white woman of about thirty, she instead busied herself a little longer with whatever paperwork she had to do beside the cash register. She had one eye on that, and one eye on the couple toying with the merchandise.

Janelle was enjoying playing dressing-up games now, and was looking for the most outrageous boot styles to try on. Four-inch spike heels, snake-skin, doe-skin with zips, it all involved Doug doing each changeover as she sat back and let him sneak peeks up her dress.

Finally the assistant came over to them, as Doug was struggling to extract Janelle's foot from a particularly clingy black-leather number.

Nodding in Doug's direction, the store lady spoke directly to Janelle -