Painted Faces (24 page)

When I'm washing my hands I notice the door handle turn.

“
I'm in here,” I call out, but whoever it is still continues coming in, the rude git.

I look up to discover Nicholas standing behind me. He maintains eye contact as he reaches back and turns over the lock on the door. Something
I
should have done before coming in here.

“
Um,
ocupado, occup
é
, occupato
– any of those ring a bell?” I joke. I continue nervously scrubbing my hands and trying my best to ignore the way he's looking at me.

“
I apologise for barging in, but I've been dying to get you alone all night Freda,” he breathes.

He approaches me and presses the front of his body flush along my back, bracing both of his hands against the sink to pen me in. He reaches around me and shamelessly caresses my breast, right before he pulls down the front of my dress to bare the nipple. It all happens so quickly.

“
Exquisite,” he says, as he stares at my reflection in the mirror, one tit spilling out over the silky fabric.

Suddenly he's flipping me around, leaning down and taking me into his mouth. I gasp at the sensation of his hot tongue flicking at my bare nipple.

“
You're not playing fair here,” I protest, straining against him.

He comes up for air long enough to bite back, “And you are? Look at this dress, you might as well have a sign over your head that says
fuck me
.” His gravelly voice sends a tingle shooting through me and a blush covers my cheeks.

His mouth clamps back onto my nipple and I moan instinctively. His hand wanders beneath my dress and violently slips past my knickers to plunge right inside me. I hold tightly onto his shoulders and my body goes more limp with each thrust of his hand. He releases my nipple and buries his face in my neck.

“
We've been dancing around each other for two weeks. I can't take it much longer,” he sinks another finger into me, moving rhythmically in and out. “God you're so tight and soft Fred, I want to lick you all over.”

“
You're scandalizing me Viv,” I manage to breathe with a smirk. He smirks right back at me.

“
I told you I like to corrupt, and you are the perfect candidate with those innocent fucking eyes of yours.”

He watches me as I writhe against him. “What will it take for you to scream my name? Do you need my cock inside you for that?”

“
Oh God, shut up!” I gasp.

He pushes my dress up higher, revealing my black lacy knickers. Then he goes down on one knee and presses his face to my mound. He runs his nose up and down, and I swear I could come just from that movement alone. Somebody knocks on the bathroom door and tries the handle a few times. Nicholas swears and removes his fingers from me, before standing up.

He runs the thumb of his other hand over my lower lip, and nips at the side of my mouth with his teeth. “If we weren't in the middle of my house warming party Freda I would so spread your legs and eat you out right now.”

I swallow a hard lump of saliva and breathe heavily. I squeeze my eyes shut. I'm full to the brim with need and emotion. God, what's the point of trying to resist him when I'm already half in love with him? Spending the best part of the last fortnight with this man, laughing and joking and getting to know one another has really done a number on me. I want him so badly it hurts. But I want all of him. Not just the sex. I want his smiles and his teasing, his smouldering looks. His sad eyes when he thinks nobody's watching. Most of all, I want his heart.

“
We better go back out,” I say shakily, fixing my dress down. I take a step toward the door, but he grabs my wrist to stop me. He deftly swings me around to face him before pulling the top part of my dress back up. He has me so frazzled that I'd just been about to walk out into the party with one boob hanging out.

“
Great fucking tits, Fred,” he says darkly. “I can't wait to suck on the other one next time.” He kisses me softly on the lips, his tongue snaking out for just a second. Then he goes to unlock the door, revealing Sean waiting on the other side. He eyes us both and laughs.

“
Sorry to interrupt, but I really need to take a slash,” he says.

My cheeks flame red as I hurry out, and Nicholas' laughter follows behind me.

Karaoke and Seduction

As I'm entering the living area I notice that Dorotea's eyes are on me. Shit! Did she see that I'd been alone in the bathroom with Nicholas? Her gaze is cool and a little hazy, so I can't tell whether she's mad or if she's just one of those stare-y-when-drunk kinds of people. When I first met her I thought she was cool as shit, now she's becoming something of an irritation.

Over the next hour I keep my distance from Nicholas. I actually can't look at him without blushing like a maniac. I sit with Harry and Sean for a while, as I lubricate myself with alcohol in order to numb how my traitorous body won't stop tingling all over. How is it that I manage to maintain my self-consciousness even when I'm half plastered?

Nora's still engrossed in her barman hunk, so I leave her to it. Soon most of the guests begin to leave, probably because a lot of them work at the club and have shifts to get to. Phil seems to have taken the whole night off though. He's currently walking around the apartment with one of Nicholas' platinum blonde wigs on his head, a lacy pink bra over his shirt and a bottle of wine clutched in his hand.

Harry and Colm say their goodbyes because they've got work in the morning. That leaves only me, Nicholas, Phil, Dorotea, Dorotea's friend, Sean, Nora and her barman left in the apartment. Phil hops over to the karaoke machine (which as it turns out belongs to him) and lifts the microphone to his mouth.

“
Okay everyone, I know something that will spice up this shindig. How about we play a game of seduction karaoke?”

“
What's that when it's at home?” I ask with a giggle, tipsy as you like.

“
Somebody volunteers to be the judge and then we all have to sing to them and try to seduce them,” he explains and pauses to burp. “In the end the judge picks out who gave the most seductive performance.”

“
Sounds like a ball of cheese,” I mumble.

“
Great idea, I will sing to Nicholas,” Dorotea declares with relish, not hearing my comment and clapping her hands in delight.

Phil winks at Nicholas. “Well Miss Blue, do you want to be the judge then?”

“
I'd love to Philip,” he replies smoothly, before taking a sip from his glass. I'm convinced he's looking at me every chance he gets, but I refuse to acknowledge him for whatever irrational reason. The wine voice in my head is urging me to go over and lick his face, but that would be surreal and I have just enough willpower to hold myself back.

Dorotea stands to make her way over to the karaoke machine, but Phil playfully pushes her back to her seat.

“
Not so fast, love, I'm going to go first,” he chides, waggling his sassy “no no” finger in her face.

Dorotea huffs and folds her arms as she drops back into her seat. Phil straightens out his wig, which kind of suits him in a weird way, and messes with the buttons on the machine before the intro to a song begins playing. The lyrics to George Michael's “I Want Your Sex” start rolling down the screen and Phil begins swaying his hips from side to side as he jokingly sings to Nicholas, who's sitting comfortably before him with an amused look on his face.

When the song ends I stick two fingers into my mouth to give Phil an ear splitting wolf whistle and everyone claps for him. Dorotea slinks up to the machine and begins whispering in Phil's ear. He laughs and scrolls down his list of songs, searching for the one she's asked for. Once she's all set she shirks out of her white blazer and drapes it over the back of Nicholas' chair, revealing the cream silky blouse she has on underneath. She undoes a few more buttons and fluffs up her boobs. Nicholas laughs and shakes his head at her.

When her music starts playing I roll my eyes at the predictability of her song choice, “I Touch Myself” by Divinyls. She pouts her lips at Nicholas and leans over him so that he can see right down her blouse, as she sings in her deep Italian accent about how she doesn't want anybody else and that when she thinks about him she touches herself.

God, why does the Italian accent have to be so sexy? She's got an unfair advantage here. Although I do feel a little awkward for Nicholas when she levels her deep brown eyes on him and sings the line about thinking she'd die if he ignored her, because he kind of
has
been ignoring her tonight.

He claps politely and allows her to give him a peck on the cheek when she's finished singing.

“
Okay, who wants to go next?” Phil asks, as he scans the room. I sink lower into my seat and focus intently on the glass of wine in my hand.

“
Fred, how about you?” he says, when nobody else volunteers. Lovely. I let my gaze drift to Nicholas for a moment, and he looks positively delighted at the prospect of having me sing to seduce him.

“
No Phil, I can't sing for shit,” I tell him, shaking my head.

“
Oh come on, karaoke isn't about being able to sing. People with good voices who do karaoke just come across as show-off wankers. It's supposed to be funny!” he exclaims, strutting over and grabbing my hand.

“
Funny eh? I thought the idea here was to seduce,” I mutter.

“
That too,” he replies, and leans in to whisper, “sometimes when people think they're being sexy it's kind of hilarious,” he nods discreetly to Dorotea. It cheers me up that I wasn't the only one who noticed how corny she was singing that song.

“
Oh go on then,” I answer, as an idea springs to mind. “Exactly how extensive is this collection of yours?”

“
You'd be hard pressed to find a song I didn't have. I've got thousands,” says Phil.