The Offer (24 page)

As for me…I
don’t know. I watch as Bram saunters into the kitchen, my eyes
glued to the swing of his slim hips and narrow waist and that long
expanse of muscular back. I regret not making any claw marks on it
last night, but there’s always next time.

Oh God, please don’t let that have been just a one-night
stand
, I think, suddenly
afraid that he might revert. I know what he said last night about
only wanting to fuck
me
, but
for the life of me I can’t imagine where this will go.

Then again, I
told myself I wouldn’t analyze this to death. That’s not “fun.”
That’s not wild and free. I was just going to enjoy the ride and
worry about what may come later.

“So,” Bram
says as he puts on the coffee. I love how comfortable he is in my
apartment, even though weeks ago it was annoying as hell. “When is
your next shift? Do you have time to go to IKEA today?”

“IKEA!” Ava
yells. “Balls!”

I laugh. “Yes,
Ava, balls.”

“I love
balls!”

“Just like
your mum,” Bram notes, biting his lip to keep from laughing.

“Hey,” I wag
my finger at him. “Let’s keep this morning rated G.”

“Balls!” Ava
yells. “Bram-a-lama-ding-dong!” She runs back to her room and I
hear her bouncing on the bed.

“I don’t know
where she gets her energy,” I say with a sigh, going to get the
medicine and the glucose meter.

“At least you
can say she’s been doing great ever since she was diagnosed,” he
says. As I brush past him for the cupboard, he grabs me around the
waist and pulls me to him. “How are you?” He lowers his voice. “You
seemed to enjoy the way you woke up.”

I can’t help
my smile. He keeps his grip firm on me and searches my eyes.

“I did,” I
tell him. “Better than coffee. Speaking of, you better hurry up or
I’m going to gauge your eyes out.”

“Ah,” he says.
“You’re one of those angry ones who aren’t even human until their
third cup. Good to know. Wake up Nicola with good head and coffee
immediately after.”

“That sounds
like heaven.”

“Heaven can be
arranged,” he says and places a lingering kiss on my neck, kissing
up until right under my jawline. “I think I’ve found my heaven
right here.”

I keep my head
back and eyes closed and that ache between my legs flares up,
wanting just as badly as before. But there’s no way that can happen
today, not with Ava in my care. Unless IKEA has a sex pit, we’ll
have to hold off on the bedroom stuff until it’s dark.

“So,” he goes
on, pressing me to him and inhaling deep. “Oh, sweetheart, you
smell so good. It’s distracting as fuck.”

“So,” I say to
him, trying to keep him on track. “About today.”

He pulls away
and eyes me. “Yes. Are you free?”

“Today is a
day off,” I tell him. “I’m all yours.”

“Good,” he
says. “Because even if you weren’t, I intended to make you mine
anyway. Remember all those things I said about you being totally
underfucked? Well, it’s going to take a long time and a lot of
practice until I have you on the right side. But you can deal with
that, can’t you, babe?”

Now that
sounds like an offer I can’t refuse.

***

Though
it’s the afternoon when we pull into Emeryville again, it’s a
weekday and IKEA isn’t as busy as I thought it would be. To be
honest, I’m actually excited to be back. It’s like when we were
here before that was a totally different Nicola and Bram. Now we’re
here and though we aren’t
together
together, this time I know what his cock feels like when
it’s inside me – I no longer have to wonder.

Unfortunately,
because we aren’t the first ones there, there’s a bit of a wait for
the daycare fun center to fit Ava in, so we make the most use of
our time by going into the dreaded customer service line and
returning the couches. Apparently they don’t have any issues in
taking them back and I’m sure the assembled couch will find itself
in the “as-is” section, where the desperate and lucky souls go
hoping to find that holy grail of all furnishings, the IKEA item
that’s already been assembled.

Finally when
it’s time for Ava to get into the daycare, we’re pretty much done
for the day and ready to go home. But Bram points out how excited
Ava is about going and I can’t say no to free child minding, so we
agree to take a look around the store again while she has her fun
for an hour.

After we wave
goodbye to her, Bram pulls me close, his fingers firm against my
wrist, his thumb delicately stroking the skin there. He whispers in
my ear. “You remember the dare from last time?” he asks.

I give him a
steady look. “It was a few days ago, so yes. And still no. You can
call me no fun again, but I am not going to sit on a showroom
toilet and pretend to take a dump.”

He smiles.
“No, that wasn’t quite it. But it is a dare. One you’ll enjoy if
you’re brave enough to believe me.”

My eyes
narrow. “I don’t know…”

“Come with
me,” he says and he leads me upstairs and back into the showroom
area. We stride down the halls, past couples flopping down on
couches and finicky women testing the smoothness of drawers.

Bram tugs at
the tulle skirt I’m wearing. “Glad you wore this.”

I look down at
it and the contrast with my Zara biker boots. “Thanks, I think it’s
kind of ballerina punk.”

“No, I mean
I’m glad you wore a skirt.”

“Why?” I ask
and suddenly he’s jerking me into one of the showroom apartments.
He takes me right around the corner of a sliding wood door and
we’re in one of the bathrooms.

“No,” I tell
him, planting my feet firmly. “What did I just tell you?”

“Relax, it’s
not what you think,” he says and with one swift motion he grabs me
by the hips and hoists me up onto the sink. I squirm even though
I’m hidden from most shoppers. If anyone explored this faux
apartment and turned the corner, they’d totally see me.

But Bram just
hikes up my skirt so it’s bunched around my waist and pushes my
underwear aside. The sudden burst of air and exposure makes me
freeze, as does the cold faux marble on my ass. He positions
himself between my legs, grinning up at me the whole time.

“Seriously,
no,” I tell him. “We’ll get caught and kicked out.”

“But what a
way to go,” he says and then I feel the tickle of his hair on me
and the hot zing of his tongue.

I don’t even
know how this is going to work. How can I relax and enjoy this
knowing we could be found out at any minute? This isn’t pleasurable
at all, this is nerve-wracking, it’s dangerous.

Jesus, this
feels good.

I grip his
hair in my hands and lean back, my head against the mirror as his
tongue and lips get their fill of me.

A moan escapes
me but I don’t care. The sound is taken away into the buzz of the
store. Just feet away, there are people staring at this apartment,
pondering their home furnishings and yet behind a simple piece of
removable wall, my pussy is on display for them all to see.

Bram’s not
taking his time like he was this morning though. His mouth is hot
and fervent and as his tongue snakes in and out of me, I moan
again, guttural this time, feeling like a very bad, very wild
thing. When he takes his finger and plunges it inside, stroking my
G-spot while his lips suck on my clit, I’m a goner.

“Fuck,” I cry
out, too loud. But Bram keeps going until my limbs stop shaking.
For a few glorious seconds there I think I’m above both time and
space—the seventh dimension where Bram-powered orgasms send
you.

“Wow,” I
manage to say, lifting my head up. I expect to just see Bram but
that’s not all I see. While he’s between my legs and staring at me
with concern, probably because I look like I’ve just seen a ghost,
there’s an elderly couple standing behind him with their mouths
hanging open.

The woman
shrieks and the man covers her eyes and pulls her aside and out of
our view. Bram quickly hops to his feet, bringing me off the
counter and making sure I’m covered.

“Oh, shit, oh
shit, oh shit,” I swear, adjusting my skirt. I grab onto Bram’s
shirt. “What do we do?”

“They look
like the types who’ll call security,” he says and even though I’m
freaking the fuck out, there’s a hint of amusement in his eyes. I’m
not sure I like that. I don’t ever want to encourage this kind of
fun again. “I guess we better run?”

I turn around
and bang on the fake wall of the bathroom behind us. “Can’t you
break through this or we can tunnel our way out? I don’t want to go
out there,” I plead.

He grabs my
hand and kisses the back of it. “On the count of three, we run. Got
it? One, two, three!”

Somehow my
legs move and he pulls me forward and we burst out of the fake
bathroom and into the fake apartment. There are a few people
staring at us, wondering what’s going on, but what’s the most
frightening is that the elderly couple are talking to an Ikea
worker and pointing right at us.

“Keep going!”
Bram yells and my legs keep moving even though the rest of me seems
frozen in icy panic and we scamper out of the apartment and down
the hall toward the stairs at the very end.

I hear a
“Hey!” of someone shouting after us but we don’t dare look or stop.
We keep going, taking the stairs two at a time and run right to the
daycare.

It hasn’t been
an hour but Ava is running around close to the entrance. I call for
her, waving frantically while trying to not appear like a crazy
lady and Ava is good enough to run right over to us without any
coaxing.

“You’re back
already?” she asks.

“Honey, we
have to go right now. Do you want to run with us? Pretend we are
being chased by dinosaurs?”

She nods,
always up for any sort of dino-related adventure.

“What kind of
dinosaurs?”

“The bad
ones.” I grab her hand and the three of us jog out of the store and
away from anyone who may want to ban us for life. Of course we end
up getting lost in the maze that is the parking lot, but once we
find the Mercedes, we hop inside and speed away.

I keep looking
back at the yellow and blue building as it gets further away,
imagining that angry IKEA workers are chasing after our getaway car
with pitchforks and torches. It isn’t until we’re on the freeway
that I burst out laughing. I can’t help it. Tears spring to my eyes
and I’m just shaking from it all, howling like a lunatic.

Bram looks at
me in shock, as if he thinks I’ve lost my mind, but then he breaks
into laughter too. Soon Ava is laughing, even though she doesn’t
know why. Maybe she hasn’t seen her mom belly laugh in a really
long time. Maybe she’s been infected by the strain of lunacy that’s
been going on between Bram and I. Maybe she’s just happy her mother
looks wild and free.

We laugh all
the way back to the apartment.

The one thing
about sleeping with your best friend’s brother-in-law is that
you’re not exactly sure how to approach the subject, or if you
should say anything. But because it’s me and it’s Bram, it’s almost
impossible not to spill the beans. I’m bursting at the seams to
tell someone.

When we
got back from Ikea, Bram cooked me an amazing chicken and roasted
vegetable dinner that both Ava and I loved and then the three of us
spent the evening watching
A Bug’s Life
. When it was time for Ava to go to bed, well then Bram and
I had a fuckfest fest all night. Even though I’d gotten off at Ikea
– and finally lived out my secret dream of sex in public – I’d
become more turned on for him, all of him, than ever
before.

But now it’s
the next day and Bram is in meetings and Lisa is coming to look
after Ava while I work. If I don’t tell someone, even Steph, what’s
been happening for the last forty-eight hours, I’m going to lose my
mind.

I don’t know
,
Steph’s text back to me reads after I’ve begged her to meet.
I’m kind of zonked
and I had plans with my pajamas and Netflix tonight.

I need to talk to you
, I text back.
You need to hear about who had sex at
IKEA
.

There’s a
pause.

Then.
WTF? Who had sex at IKEA? The store??

Come to the
bar tonight and I’ll tell you. And yes the store.

OMG. Was it
you? OMG. WAS IT BRAM?

See you
tonight.

Fine. Gah, you
bitch!!!!!!!! Tell meeeeeeeeeee.

Later.

FUCK.

And that’s how
I convinced Steph to come hang out with me while I did my shift at
the Lion. Fortunately it was a slow night but not slow enough to be
sent home, so Steph sat at the bar and I eased my way into telling
her the big news.

“Just spill
the beans already,” she says, pounding back beer number two. So
much for wanting to stay at home and watch Netflix.

“All right,” I
say and I can feel myself blushing.

“Wait,” Steph
says, holding up her palm. “I already know. I already know. Look at
your face. You’re a giant tomato! It will always give you
away.”

I sigh and
lean in, dropping my voice. Even though there aren’t any people
close to us, I don’t want it to fall into the wrong ears. I’m not
exactly a kiss and tell kind of girl, even though that’s just what
I’m about to do. “I slept with Bram.”

“What?” she
shrieks, and James looks over from the other end of the bar.

“Steph, shut
it!” I warn her, leaning across the bar to smack her arm. “I
thought you figured it via my tomato face.”

“Yeah but to
hear you say it!” she exclaims. She wriggles in her seat. “Okay,
okay, details. All the details. Tell me everything. Does he have a
big dick? Is he like Linden?”