Dating : Chapter Six

Cora sleepwalks into Jack’s room

Cora got into bed in the wee hours of the morning, several hours earlier than usual. Now that she was on vacation she might as well get back onto a day shift schedule.

Unfortunately, her mind wouldn’t let her rest. She kept thinking about Jack. Would they have let Krista move in the very next day? Had there even been a Krista or had Cora imagined her? Or was she imagining Jack? What if she woke up tomorrow and found that it was actually today, Jack didn’t exist, and she wasn’t on vacation? If that were the case then she would still be cursed. Unless that too had been a dream.

The logical thing to do now was to find out if Demon had lifted the curse. Cora slipped her hand under her nightgown. She tried to use one of her usual fantasies but the only man she could conjure up was Jack. That handsome face, those broad shoulders, those hands — strong rugged hands, with thick fingers. She imagined Jack’s hand on her belly, between her thighs, inside of her…

“Ahem.”

It sounded as if someone were in the room with her, but that wasn’t possible. With a trembling hand, Cora reached over and turned on the lamp.

Red-horned Demon was lounging on the end of her bed. “So sorry to interrupt.”

“What are you doing here? You can’t just invade my privacy this way!”

“Obviously I can. Tell me, what do you think of Nomed in human form?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Jack.”

“Jack is no demon.”

“Of course, he is.”

“He can’t be. He’s too nice.”

“That’s part of his problem. Number 88,691 has always been too nice, and far too sensitive. It’s an unfortunate trait in a half-demon. I blame his mother.”

“That figures. Mothers get blamed for everything. Does Jack know that he’s a demon?”

“No. It doesn’t work like that. This will be a long vacation, starting from birth. You’re going to help him with his problem and when his human life is over he’ll come back to work until his time is up.”

“You mean Jack has the same problem as Nomed?”

“Not exactly.”

“Then what exactly is his problem?”

“Your job is to figure it out and fix it.”

“Can’t you even give me a little hint?”

“No.” Demon glanced at her lap, which was covered with a sheet. “There’s no point, you know. You’ll only end up with tendinitis in your wrist if you keep at it. Your next orgasm will come from Jack, or not at all.” Demon vanished in a puff of smoke.

“Bastard!”

“I heard that,” came a disembodied voice.

****

Jack Whitaker was getting unpacked, marveling at how well everything was working out for him — something that hadn’t happened in a long time — when Cora walked into the bedroom wearing only a pink nightgown. Her shoulders were bare, her nipples clearly outlined through the thin material. Surprised, all he managed was a confused, “Hi?”

Her light blue eyes were focused on him, but she wasn’t seeing him. She seemed to be in some kind of a trance. Or sleepwalking. That must be it, sleepwalking. Was it true that you shouldn’t wake a sleepwalker, or was that an old wives tale? While he tried to decide, she walked right up to him put one arm around his neck and pressed her body to his.

“We have to do this Nomed.”

Nomed? He unpeeled her wrists from behind his neck. “I think you’re dreaming Cora.”

“Don’t fight me Nomed. You’re the only one who can give me what I need.”

Maybe if he gave her what she needed she’d go back to bed. “What is it you need?”

“An orgasm.”

Jack released her hands and took a step back. As much as he’d enjoy making her come, he did have rules when it came to sex. Not many, admittedly, but he did expect his partners to be of age, willing, and fully conscious. “You need to wake up Cora. You’re having a very strange dream.”

Cora used her freed hands to lift off her nightgown and drop it on the floor behind her. “I want that orgasm now. The one I was cheated out of last night.”

At the sight of her luscious body, Jack felt a powerful urge to drop to his knees and bury his tongue in her pussy. He wanted to make her scream in ecstasy. He’d give her at least one orgasm before picking her up, dropping her on the bed and… “You need to put that back on.”

“Don’t you want me?” she asked.

Yes. God yes.

It was time to use the voice, the one he’d mastered years ago, the one that made him feel a bit like a Jedi Knight. “You’re going to put your nightgown back on now Cora, and return to bed.”

He handed her the gown. She promptly put it on and walked out of the room. Jack let out a deep breath. It had been a while since he’d used the voice on anyone. He didn’t understand how or why it worked, only that it did.

The voice wasn’t the only mystery of his life. There had been other incidents, ones similar to what had happened on the beach yesterday. He’d felt the pain of the knife in his belly, the blood seeping between his fingers, and for a split second feared that this would be the time his wound did not miraculously heal. Thankfully, he’d been wrong.

Until six months ago he wouldn’t have worried about it. He’d lived his life as he pleased, which meant making daring rescues — searching for people lost in a blizzard in sub-zero temperatures, taking crazy chances on the crabbing boat. With the money he’d earned crabbing, he’d taken a different kind of chance.

There had been weekends in Vegas, gambling and partying in hotel rooms with women he met in the clubs, some of them prostitutes. He’d tried to blame his indulgences on the months he’d spent at sea with no outlet for his lust, but when he’d sought counseling after the accident the truth had come out. Diagnosis — sex addict.

He’d been this way since puberty. There had been no abuse in his childhood — no logical place to lay the blame. Jack had concluded that his obsession with sex was a defect in his personality. Sometimes, it felt like a curse, though he hadn’t used that word with the therapist his doctor had sent him to. He’d been unable to get enough sex right up until the day Marissa Died.

That’s when everything stopped. He’d lost all interest in sex.

For a moment there, with Cora naked and asking — no, demanding — sex from him, he’d felt pure, uncomplicated lust. He’d felt like his old self. The self he could never return to.

What made him think it was a good idea to move into this house with these women? Oddly, he couldn’t remember making the decision. It just sort of happened.

****

Cora woke up with a strong feeling that something wasn’t right. She’d been trying for an orgasm, that much she remembered. She must have fallen asleep and dreamed the conversation with the red-horned demon. There had been more dreams, and it felt important that she remember them, but she couldn’t.

She took out her running clothes and set them on the bed. When she reached to take off her nightgown she saw that it was on backward. Odd. She must have been far more tired this morning than she’d realized.

Oh, well. She was going to be getting plenty of rest this week. She was on vacation. Unless she’d dreamed it, but she was pretty sure she hadn’t. Cora put on running tights, a sports bra, and a long-sleeved shirt, and went downstairs.

Jack stood at the kitchen sink filling a water bottle. He wore athletic shorts and the black sweatshirt, sleeves pushed up to his elbows. She tried not to stare at his tattoos, or his muscular forearms or his legs — the man even had nice legs.

“Good morning.”

He’d caught her staring. Damn.

“Good — ” The dream came back to her all at once. She’d been in his room asking him for an orgasm. She’d even stripped off her nightgown. Is that why it had been on backward? She shook her head vehemently. No. It hadn’t actually happened. Another weird dream is all it was.

“Are you all right?”

“I’m not sure. You, um, didn’t happen to see me wandering around talking in my sleep earlier did you?”

Jack hesitated, eyes lowered. “Uh, yeah, actually I did.”

“Oh.” Cora’s cheeks burned. “It’s not anything…it’s not something I have any control over. It’s, um, subconscious.”

“You were dreaming.”

“Exactly. I’m glad you understand. If it should happen again, it’s okay to wake me up before I do anything, um, weird.”

“I’ll remember that.”

Cora went to the sink to fill up her water bottle, resisting the urge to splash her face and cool her cheeks.

“Going for a run?” Jack asked.

“Yes. You?”

“Yep.”

“Which way you going?”

“I was thinking I’d run through the park and down to the beach.”

“That’s where I go, too.”

“Should we go together?”

“Sure, I guess. If I’m too slow for you, you don’t have to wait or anything.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

As they ran through Golden Gate Park Cora went at her usual pace and Jack ran alongside her. He wasn’t even breathing hard.

“This is barely a warm-up for you isn’t it?” Cora asked.

“I’m feeling it.”

Cora didn’t believe him. When they reached the bay, the sun had broken through the fog and it felt almost warm. Cora peeled off her shirt. At the same moment, Jack took off his sweatshirt.

The black tank top he wore underneath looked exactly like the one Nomed wore the first time she saw him. Same for his shoulders, biceps and the chest hair peeking out the top of…fuck. She was doing it again, staring openly, practically drooling. She tore her eyes from his chest, tied her shirt around her waist, and ran off down the beach.

Jack followed.

The next time they stopped, Cora sat on a log to rest. Jack sat beside her.

“Do you have any big plans for your vacation?” he asked.

“Rest and relax.”

“Do you have family close by?”

“No. They’re all in Idaho.” And I have no idea why I didn’t make plans to see them this week. When exactly did they okay my vacation?

“Where in Idaho?”

“An ugly little nowhere town called Jerome.”

“Ugly how?”

“Very industrial. Factories and such, though I grew up in the country.”

“Do you miss it?”

“Not the town, but my family, and Pumpernickel.”

“The bread?”

“My horse.”

Jack smiled. “Why Pumpernickel?”

“My great grandmother was German. She lived with us for a few years and would bake Pumpernickel bread once a week. I was ten when she told us that Pumpernickel actually means Devil’s fart. Naturally, I thought it a good name for the new foal my parents gave me for my birthday.”

“Devil’s fart?” he asked, with a raised eyebrow.

“Pumper means fart and Nickel means devil or goblin or demon…” Cora watched his face for some kind of reaction to the last word.

“I had a dog named Demon.”

“Really? What kind of dog?”

“A horny one. No leg was safe from Demon’s constant need to hump.”

Cora laughed, but couldn’t help wondering if Jack had subconsciously named his horny dog after the red-horned demon. Not that she actually believed Jack was a reincarnation of Nomed.

When they got back to the house Cora generously offered Jack the first shower. She was in the kitchen imagining him stripping off his clothes, standing under the stream of water, soaping up his chest, when Simone got home.

“Did Jack get moved in all right?”

“He did. He’s in the shower.”

“Is that why your face is red?”

“My face is red because we went for a run.”

“Oh? How was that?”

Cora shrugged. “Fine.”

“That’s all I get? Fine?”

“He’s our roommate. There can’t be any more to it than that. So how did you sleep last night? Any more visits from the demon?”

“Yes. How about you?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Can he get it up yet?”

“Not that demon, that one is half-demon, half-human. The other one, the full demon, he told me — ” Cora shook her head. “It’s too weird to try and explain. I know it’s only a dream, but it seemed so real.”

“I know what you mean. My demon is the old fashioned kind, all incubus, nothing human about him. Even his dick is extraordinary. I woke up feeling guilty for not making him use a condom. I have this horrible feeling I’m going to get pregnant.”

“Don’t you think it’s a very strange coincidence that we’re both dreaming of demons?”

“I don’t think it is a coincidence. We live together, so our subconscious minds are picking up on each other’s dreams. It’s no more weird than us starting our periods at the same time.”

Cora wanted to believe Simone’s explanation but found the logic a bit faulty. Maybe it was best not to think too deeply about it.

Cora heard Jack come out of the bathroom and felt her heart beat faster as she waited for him to come into the kitchen. Dressed in faded jeans and a black shirt, he looked sexy as hell.

“Hi Jack,” Simone said, in her ‘talking to an attractive man’ voice. “What do you have going on tonight?”

“I don’t know yet. I thought if you two aren’t busy I’d take you out to dinner.”

“I’d love that,” Simone said, “But I have a date tonight. I don’t think Cora has plans.”

“I don’t,” Cora said, realizing it was Friday night, and her social life was pathetic. “I didn’t know I was going to be on vacation until the last minute that’s why I don’t have any plans, yet, and I am, um, hungry.”

“What sounds good to you? Dinner or breakfast?”

Jack. She wanted to eat Jack. “I know a great burrito place that’s reasonably priced which is nearly impossible to find in this city.”

“Sounds great.”

Cora went off to shower and get ready, mentally repeating the words ‘this is not a date’ over and over again.

****

This is not a date, Jack reminded himself as he watched Cora lick a drop of salsa from the corner of her mouth. She’d dressed up for him — or maybe she always dress up for a night in the city. Her skirt was ankle-length and hugged her shape without being tight, her blouse was loose but sheer enough to see the camisole underneath and make out the shape of her small but perky tits. He wished he did not know what she looked like beneath the blouse.

It would be so much easier if Cora hadn’t taken off her nightgown in his bedroom this morning. Every inch of her body was now imprinted in his mind. Not quite every inch. The neatly trimmed patch of dark blonde hair between her slender thighs had kept the best part hidden…

It hit him then, that he was ready to get back in the game. Not the old game, but a new game. It was time to find out if he could have sex again without losing control, and becoming obsessed. He’d have to start with someone who didn’t matter. He’d sign up for Tinder or one of the other sites tomorrow. For now, he wanted to relax and have fun.

“Are you going to show me what there is to do in this city?”

“Sure.” Cora smiled.

Come back tomorrow for chapter seven!