City Of Swords. Alex Archer

as if considering its various uses. “Okay,” he said. “Here’s how we’re going to work this.” He dragged his basket of laundry closer, angling it in front of him. “Keep your head down and no one can see you from outside. I will appear to be here alone, folding my laundry.”

      “Right,” she said, “but you need to answer question five.”

      He listened to her repeat the options while he opened the condom and rolled it on. “You are making this up,” he said through his teeth, positioning the head of his cock against her body and spreading her open with his fingers. He pushed inside, closing his eyes in the instant of hot, sweet invasion. She made a funny sound, a low squeal of satisfaction.

      “You can read it for yourself later,” she gasped, “but answer the question.”

      “D,” he said and did his utmost to move in such a way that question six would be obliterated from her mind. He spread his palms across her lower back under her dress, caressing the smooth skin. Then he stilled.

      “Please don’t stop now,” she said.

      He fidgeted with the basket. “There’s someone at the door,” he said, trying not to move his lips. He draped a button-down shirt across her back and started folding it clumsily. Only the hitch in her breathing gave away her agitation. She moved a little, tightening around him. A blonde woman stuck her head in, squinting at one of the dryers. “Not quite done,” he called to her inanely, an odd expression on his face, but she gave him a little wave and left.

      The sidewalk was deserted. He didn’t waste time after that, holding her hips and moving forcefully until her back arched and her head came up. There was no point in pretending—the need to keep going warred with the need for caution and the orgasm hovered just out of reach. He chose, caution losing, deciding that if they got arrested for public indecency it would be worth it. He moved his thumb to her clit, sliding and pressing in time with his thrusts, steadier now. She was moaning, except the sound was more like a series of little squeaks. The feeling tipped over the edge into the glorious territory of the sure thing; a small territory to be sure—maybe four breaths between that and the flare of climax, lost quickly because he pulled out of her and got himself together, and then her, lifting the thigh-highs to their proper place and adjusting the thong.

      “I have news for you,” she said, her cheek still pressed to the lid of the washing machine. “You’re a romantic.” The magazine lay in a crumpled heap on the floor.

      “You must be mistaken,” he said. “Have you checked your math?”

      “Check it yourself,” she said. “Beauty doesn’t lie.”

      The blonde woman returned, holding a large cup of coffee. They folded the laundry in silence. He walked her to the door. Outside, the freezing air bit at their faces with sharp teeth. “Which way are you going?” he asked.

      “IHOP,” she said. “The coffee smelled good.”

      “It did,” he agreed. “I’m heading in the same direction.” They headed north, crossing Lexington and turning left on Baker.

      “Have you ever had sex in an IHOP” she asked him, her breath frosty.

      “I can’t say that I have,” he answered. “Although…with both of our baskets I might be able to work something out.” They walked together in the freezing night, each holding the other’s basket of clean, neatly folded laundry.

      Selections from a Bedroom Closet

      By Thomas S. Roche

      “Know what would be hot?” She breathed warmth against the back of my neck. “If you picked my clothes for tonight.”

      I had been working, focused on the task at hand, a document that required my intense scrutiny—so much so that I had not even noticed her coming up behind me. naked, steamy, smelling of shower.

      But I noticed her breath on my neck.

      My office is in the living room; city living has its drawbacks. She was forever scaring the shit out of me by sneaking up on me and saying things in my ear while I worked. This time I wasn’t scared, not even startled—just perplexed.

      I reached back and took the hand she’d started trailing up my neck; I drew deep and smelled more glorious freshly-showered girl.

      “Tonight?”

      She made a disgusted noise. “Don’t you ever remember a social engagement?”

      “I try not to.”

      She spun my office chair around and sat in my lap facing me. I caught my breath, eyes roving up and down her naked body.

      “Have you been working out?” I asked, equal parts snide and horny.

      “Fuck you,” she said. She grabbed my hair and pulled. She shook my head violently. “Anne and Julian? China? Going away forever?”

      I nodded fervently. “Right, right, right! It’s not forever, just for two years. Is that tonight?”

      “In half an hour, Calendar Boy.”

      “Fuck,” I said. “We’d better get moving.”

      “As I was saying,” she frowned. “Wanna be my Slut Eye?”

      “What are you talking about?”

      She leaned in close. I smelled her more deeply: soap, shampoo and hot girl’s body. With her legs spread like that and me hunkered down in the chair from her weight, I could almost smell her sex—or , rather, I fancied that maybe I could.

      She put her lips against my ear and said it more softly this time, her voice like a fondue-dipped purr.

      She breathed, “Pick…out…my…clothes.”

      She leaned back slightly, just enough so I could see her big bright eyes as she faked innocence.

      “I’ll wear anything,” she said. “Anything you say.”

      My eyes got narrow. I gave her the down-up.

      “How ’bout that?”

      She got that look on her face—that fucking look. No, not that one. Not the playful/played with, teasing/teased, sarcastic/skeptical eye-rolling what-the-fuck-ever that would have been perfectly appropriate—not that one. The other one. The one that says take me, and means it.

      “If you like,” she purred. “I promise. Anything.”

      I was hard inside of a second, two seconds, five at the outside. I smelled her, lifted her, put her on her feet like a china doll. I would have carried her to the bedroom Tarzan-style, but I’d done that once and left a bump on her head the size of a softball—now all trips from living room to bedroom were accomplished under individual power and navigation, whether upright or on all fours. We opted for upright this time.

      “All right,” I said. “Let’s go.”

      She sprawled out loose on the bed, which I’d cheerfully made with fresh white sheets and the newly-laundered white comforter around noon, working at home while she labored at the office. She liked it made; she loved the bed freshly made when she was naked. Liked it neat and clean and unsullied, our bed an innocent expanse of white comforter and carefully placed expensive pillows, a clean white virgin on the outside with a firm pillow-top whore keeping filthy secrets underneath.

      She liked to spread out on it and let me see her body. I did that, trying not to look too hard, because to give her that kind of encouragement at this late hour would mean a tardy arrival for sure. So I just grazed my eyes across her casually spread thighs, and her belly, taut with the arch of her back, and her high tight breasts, perky with the closeness of her shoulders pressed together as she leaned up on her arms—as if she’d just happened to land in the exact position assumed by half the centerfolds from Marilyn on down. As if she’d just happened to shave fifteen minutes ago, with such caution that her perfect pussy showed not a hint of burn.