Reach - 3. Chapter 3

“Now don’t be nervous, okay baby?” Lady Eva said as she straightened Tibial’s tie for what felt like the millionth time that evening. “You’ll be just fine.”

“I know, mother, I know,” Tibial said, trying to keep the irritation out of his voice. He was nervous enough about the coupling dance, his mother’s equally nervous fussing only made it worse. “I’ll be fine.”

“Okay. So if you need a ride back tonight, you’ll call, right?”

“If I do, yes.”

Terrasa smiled from the couch. “So in other words, we’ll hope not to hear from you.”

“Tessa, dear!” Lady Eva said in a shocked voice. But when she turned back to Tibial she gave him a conspiratorial wink. “You’ll find someone, dear.”

“Of course he will,” Terrasa said, getting up from the couch and crossing the room. “He’s got the family’s good looks. The girls will gobble him up if he’s not careful.” She frowned and rearranged some strands of Tibial's hair. “You look nice,” she murmured.

“Thanks,” Tibial said, blushing and smiling a little. He felt ridiculous. He would feel even more ridiculous if he wasn’t chosen and had to return home that evening.

The doorbell rang. That would be his friend, Robert, who would be driving him and a bunch of other boys to the dance. Tibial let out a long breath. Lady Eva smiled and kissed him hard on the mouth. “Good luck.”

“Thank you Lady,” he said, bowing low.

Terrasa went to answer the door and Robert was there, presenting both Terrasa and Lady Eva with a rose and bowing to both of them in a proper display of respect. Terrasa gave him a saucy wink when Lady Eva wasn’t looking and then shut the door behind him.

“Let’s go,” Robert said. “Sam bailed out, the sissy, so it’s just you and me and John.”

“No problem,” Tibial said climbing into the back. “Do you know who is going to be there?”

“Just women. Lots and lots of lovely ladies waiting to get laid,” Robert said, pulling out into the street. “Whoever thought these things up was a genius.”

Coupling dances didn’t necessarily end in sex. Some people just went to see who was available and some couples met and decided to meet elsewhere if the rooms the facility provided didn’t suit them, or if they wanted to wait until another time. But most people didn’t leave coupling dances until the next morning.

Robert would be there until morning. He was tall and blond, both desirable traits, extremely handsome and a charmer. Ladies would be falling over themselves to hook up with him. John was okay looking, average like Tibial considered himself to be. They might snag a nice lady if they were lucky. Tibial took another deep breath.

Just relax, he reminded himself. No pressure. Be cool.

The dance was crowded and a feast for the eyes with boys in their best suits and ties, the girls wrapped up in glittery confections of satin and lace. Tibial had just stood around and observed for about ten minutes after the dancing had started, before a shy girl who looked very young asked for his hand for a dance. Then another girl. And another. And another.

Yes, there were plenty of girls to dance with him. Would any of them want to sleep with him?

He really liked one girl. She was pretty, with curly blond hair and vibrant green eyes and a warm friendly smile. She was seventeen and her name was Mia.

“You do live here around town right?” she asked him as they danced.

“Yes,” Tibial answered. "My parents own the vineyard.”

“That’s where I recognize your name. Marwhile Vineyards, right?”

“Correct.”

“Wow. Pretty nice place.”

“It’s hard work, but it has its benefits, I guess.”

“Mmm.”

“Are you staying for the night, Lady?” Tibial asked. That was the first step, a subtle way to show interest.

“I plan to.”

“I might be tempted to call on you.”

“I might accept that.”

“Might?”

She smiled coyly. “Might. Lots of fish in this little pond.”

The music changed and she was off with another boy, but Tibial remembered her name. Mia. When he met up with her again for another dance he said, “I am tempted to call you Athena, Lady Mia.”

“Athena?” She was frowning, obviously not knowing what he was talking about and not sure whether or not she was being insulted. "I don't remember that one."

“One of the ancients, a goddess of incredible beauty,” he quickly said. She began to smile. “She’s a bright eyed goddess; cool headed, elegant, and pure. She is also a strong warrior. Her virtues are Wisdom, Reason and Purity.”

She did smile. “You make me sound like a very boring goddess.”

“Not at all. She is fierce and beautiful and wise above all others.” He spun Mia around, dipped her down low. “However, I think she would pale next to you.”

She smiled again as he brought her back up.

Shortly after that the gong sounded and the majority of the girls disappeared to their rooms. Some still lingered downstairs, ones who were not staying the night and some left for parts unknown with male companions. Cards were handed out, one for each boy to write their names on. When the gong sounded for a second time, the boys all trooped upstairs.

It was a bizarre and silly custom, Tibial thought, how girls chose their companion for the night. He went down the hallway, jostled by other boys all crowded in the same place, looking for a girl they liked. Tibial slid through the crowd, sometimes pushing up on his toes to see over the heads of other boys, checking the names on the doors. When he found Mia’s, he slid both his shoes off, tied the laces together and put them outside her door, then slid the card with his name on it securely in between the crossed laces of his shoes.

Once the boys had cleared out, the gong would ring again, the girls would open their doors and if a girl saw a pair of shoes belonging to a boy she would want to couple with, she would take the shoes into her room.

This was an open invitation for the aforementioned boy to come inside and “retrieve” them. If the girl didn’t accept any of the boys who left a pair of shoes, the unlucky lads would pick up their shoes and try their luck elsewhere. It usually went through a couple of cycles until a few very unlucky suitors or a few incredibly stubborn women were left.

Tibial went back downstairs to wait, feeling nervous. Mia had quite a selection of shoes outside her door. He had almost decided to go elsewhere, try someone who had not as much competition, but then decided to go ahead and try his luck. If she didn’t pick him, he would find someone else. If she did…

Tibial smiled and blushed, then spotted Robert sitting on one of the stair treads, looking cool and composed and sophisticated even in his stocking feet. He grinned at Tibial as he sat down next to him. The grin was a little nervous and Tibial felt a bit better.

“Who are you going for?” Tibial asked.

“Lola.”

Tibial remembered her, a tall, exotic beauty with dusky skin and dark glossy hair, obviously not native to their tiny town. “She’s pretty,” Tibial said.

“Yeah, popular too. Had a fucking mountain of shoes waiting for her.”

“You don’t look worried.”

“I’m not. Did you have your eye on her?”

“No. Mia.”

“Cute girl.”

“Well, she's not on the bottom of the favorites list either.”

“Stop worrying, you’re far from ugly. You’ll get picked up by the first three rounds at least.”

“Thanks,” Tibial said. “Just a little nervous.”

“Everybody is,” Robert said. “The girls, especially. Still, it can’t be worse then what we had to go through.” Robert shuddered.

“Bad experience?” Tibial said.

“The worst. Dad thought he was doing me a favor by pairing me with one of his young underlings at work, right?” Robert let out a short, cynical laugh. “Guy was so terrified of teaching his boss’ kid the ropes, he could barely touch me and was shaking like a leaf the entire time. I almost felt sorry for him.”

“Almost?”

“Almost. Wasn’t going to feel completely sorry for the guy. Had to save some sympathy for myself, I was the one getting screwed.”

“Hate this fucking custom,” Tibial muttered, then realized the double meaning of what he just said. He looked at Robert and they both burst into simultaneous laughter. The gong rang from upstairs and they both fell silent, walking upstairs with the rest of the boys to see who was chosen and who had to go elsewhere.

There was a group around Mia’s door, with several boys picking up their shoes and leaving, looking disappointed. Several more were picking through them, searching. Tibial approached as two more picked up shoes and left. Three pairs left and Tibial felt his heart leap. None of them were his. He was cautious, though, waited until the rest of the boys had retrieved their shoes and left before grasping the doorknob and slowly opening the door.

His Athena, his golden goddess, was sitting on the bed, his shoes in her lap. She smiled at him, shyly. Her bright eyes were dark, her color high. "Hello there."

"Hello, my Lady." He took the do not disturb sign from the hook on the wall and hung it on the doorknob so everyone would know she had chosen someone and was no longer available. He also made sure the door was locked before going to her.

Mia slid off the bed as he approached, put her arms around his neck. "No one else called me a goddess," she said softly.

"Fortunate for me, now I've got one to myself," Tibial said. She smiled and dipped her head, blushing. In the soft glow of the lamps with her gold jewelry shining against her skin, she did look incredibly beautiful and elegant, easily a goddess.

Goddess or not, he was hers for the night. He tilted her face up and kissed her carefully. She responded with enthusiasm, wrapped her arms tighter around his neck, pressed her body up against him and opened her mouth under his. She kissed him back with full abandonment, letting him plunder her mouth.

She tossed her head back, gasping softly in the still silence of the room as his lips traveled her jaw and the long line of her throat. He slid a hand behind her, finding the small eyelet hooks on the back of her dress and started wrestling them open with agonizing slowness.

Mia let out a low needy sound, wrapping fingers in his hair and pulling slightly until his mouth met hers again. He finally got all the hooks undone and pushed the material down off her shoulders. She helped shimmy out of it and let it pool down around her feet before she tugged at his shirt, pulling it open and pushing it off his shoulders, down his arms. She kissed him hard again, and Tibial ran his hands up her back. She was wearing a slip, and he liked the slippery feel of the silk sliding under his fingers. He ran his fingers over the lacy hem before he drew up it slowly, the material bunching under his fingers and he moved his hands up, over her hips, her ribcage, up until he was pulling it over her head and dropping it to the ground. The uncovered skin was hot and soft under his fingers as he kissed her again.

Tibial backed them up against the bed, boosted Mia up onto it without breaking contact. He drew away slightly and she looked down at him, her eyes excited and lips swollen. Then she realized she was naked from the waist up and her hands flew up to cover herself.

“No,” Tibial said, grasping her hands and pulling them away, pinning her wrists against the bed. “No,” he said again, softly kissing her and moved his mouth to her ear. “I want to look at you. My beautiful, sexy goddess, my Lady, I want to see you, your body, your face.”

Trembling and flushed, she leaned back on her hands, exposing her body. Tibial's eyes raced over her. She was still wearing a few garments, silk panties and a pair of thigh high stockings that were trimmed with lace. She still had her shoes on, and he bent to take them off, kissing her thigh right above the lacy top of her stocking as he did so. She shivered slightly and said his name, for the first time in a breathless, shaking voice.

He spoke to her quietly, telling her how beautiful she was, how perfect, how much he wanted to be with her. She was very beautiful, but not perfect. She had long slim limbs, but her joints were large and bony, seeming out of proportion with the rest of her body, and here and there she had a scar or mark…trophies from a rough and tumble, tomboy childhood he guessed. But he forgot all of that as he lowered his head to kiss her…kiss her lips, her neck, her breasts...

After that he could remember little else, mostly just sensations--the smooth slip of her stockings under his fingers, the scratch of lace against his tongue, the salty, slightly soapy flavor of her skin, the intimate taste of her once the panties had been shed. The slick tightness as he slowly, so slowly slipped into her, the heat that gripped him so exquisitely until he was pumping into her with mindless abandonment, as she dug her fingers into his hair, fingernails scraping his scalp. The sounds she made, the sweet little whimpers and the shaking, choked cry as she tightened around him seconds after he had come.

He carefully held her like Chad had done to him after their first time, trying to remember if he had done everything the way he was supposed to. Mia snuggled up against his chest, placed a gentle kiss there. It tickled and he forced himself to lay still and not squirm as her breath puffed across his skin.

“Tibial?”

“Yes, my Lady?”

“I just wanted to say that I grant you permission to use my casual name, if it pleases you to do so.”

“It does please me to do so…Mia,” he said, taking her hand and kissing it. “It’s beautiful name, befitting a beautiful woman.”

“I better watch out,” she said, smiling. “You’ve got a sweet tongue in that wicked mouth of yours.”

Tibial could think of a hundred replies to that statement, none that could be deemed appropriate, so he kept silent and listened to Mia fall asleep.

***

While Tibial was meeting Mia for their first dance, Terrasa was arriving at Chad’s apartment. She knocked on the door and waited. When Chad opened the door she gave him her most winning smile. She had dressed in a low cut pair of jeans and a cropped white shirt that showed off miles of her midriff. “Hey there,” she said, combing her hair back with her fingers.

“Hello Lady Terrasa,” he stepped back to let her inside. “What can I do for you?”

“Well, I was just thinking… I’ve been of coupling age for over a year now and you’ve never visited or sent an invitation. I was wondering why?”

Chad smiled, a little cold, but said nothing, just shrugged.

“What?” Terrasa said, looking at him speculatively. “You’re not with someone, are you?”

“No-”

“Then why not be with me?”

“I don’t recall being your type.”

“Well, perhaps you recall wrong,” Terrasa said, sliding her fingers in his belt loops, pulling him a little closer. “Is there anything I can do to change your mind?”

“Consider my mind changed,” Chad said as Terrasa leaned forward to kiss him. He kicked the door shut with a somewhat weary resignation. As the goddess bade, men would always do.

~~~~~

Tibial had thought it would be hard to sleep, especially with another person there with him, but he was a teenager feeling the tumultuous exhaustion of sex and he was able to drop into a deep heavy sleep quite easily.

And dreamt.

* * *

He was back in Chad’s small apartment, watching Chad at his easel. His hair was pulled away from his face and he stood there, shirtless, in a pair of faded, worn jeans, working on the partially complete painting that Tibial had peeked at.

Chad turned to look at him.

“I need the red.”

Tibial turned to the table cluttered with different tubes of paint, saw a bottle of red paint marked “Passion”. He picked it up and unscrewed the lid. Instead of handing it to Chad, he found himself lifting it into the air and tipping it over. Thick red paint poured out and landed on Chad’s right shoulder, slid down his back. Tibial pressed his hand against the warm skin, paint running over his fingers and pressed his lips there, the paint smearing underneath his mouth and chin. His tongue slid out, dragging across the sticky film, the taste slick and greasy. He lapped it up eagerly, sliding his hand up through it. Chad turned, paint splattered on his chest and sliding down the rippled lines of his stomach. Tibial dragged his hand up Chad’s stomach and chest, leaving a smearing path of paint with it, until there was paint everywhere, on Chad and himself, on his hands, face, mouth….

* * *

He woke up violently from the dream, a little spooked and so aroused it hurt. He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply, trying to calm his thundering heartbeat. Normally strange dreams like that didn’t bother him, his had always been on the weird side. But the fact that Chad had been in his dreams and that he was now laying awake and painfully hard…

He didn’t like the conclusion he could draw from that.

Mia shifted next to him and he looked at her and smiled a little. She had obviously been up in the night sometime, her dress had been hung back up and she was wearing his shirt. She had left it unbuttoned though, and he could see the smooth swell of one breast, the dark pink nipple peeking out from the cotton material. He leaned over and kissed it, letting his tongue slip forward to rub against the sensitive nub. Mia murmured and shifted, and Tibial propped himself up on his elbows as she opened her eyes and smiled at him sleepily.

“Good morning,” she said.

“Morning Goddess,” he said and kissed her. She kissed him back, then stretched luxuriously. “Ohh…“ she groaned. “You worked me over pretty good last night.”

“Did I then?” Tibial said. “I apologize if I caused such a lovely lady any pain or discomfort.”

“Only the good kind,” Mia said. “I enjoyed it. Was it your first time with a woman?”

Law, decency and proper conduct demanded honesty to such questions and still Tibial had trouble speaking honestly, feeling like he was being ridiculed. “Yes,” he said faintly, blushing.

She smiled and reached up to touch his face. “It was my first time with a man.”

Tibial felt his insides relax slightly and leaned down to kiss her again.

A loud, rude knock on the door interrupted them. “Hey Lovebirds, the honeymoon’s over!” Robert shouted. “I’m out of here in ten minutes.”

“Is he yours?” Mia asked.

“Unfortunately. He brought me.” Tibial got up and found his pants, pulling them on. “Are you going to keep that?” he asked with a teasing smile, nodding towards his shirt. She blushed and took it off, threw it at him. Tibial picked her slip up off the back of a chair and tossed it to her.

“Thanks,” she said, shimmying back into the garment.

“Do you have someone to take you home?” Tibial asked, buttoning up his shirt and pulling on his shoes.

“Yeah, Daddy is sending a chauffeur for me,” Mia said, picking up and putting on the rest of her clothing.

Tibial reached for the doorknob once he was dressed, then paused. “May I call upon you Lady Mia?”

She smiled at him. “Sure, I would like that.” She rummaged in her evening bag and gave him a card. “Here’s my address. Be sure to come see me sometime or my feelings will be quite wounded.”

“I would die before I saw those delicate feelings injured in any way,” Tibial promised, leaning in to kiss her again.

She smiled at him. “Goddess be with you Tibial, I hope to see you again soon.”

“Goddess be with you Lady Mia, I will do my best to fulfill that hope.”

Terrasa was still sleeping and so Chad let her. They had coupled twice last night. He had been surprised when he saw her standing at his door last night and a little disappointed.

Who had he been expecting, who was he hoping for? Someone else who had those same glittering dark eyes?

He closed his eyes and thought longingly of his cigarettes. He wanted one badly, but he limited himself to a single smoke a day and it was too early to be having one already. He went over to his new painting and covered it. If Terrasa was as curious as her brother, he would have a lot of uncomfortable explaining to do.

He flipped on the coffee and found himself annoyed at being so damn unhappy. He had coupled last night with a beautiful lady, and one who sure as hell knew what she was doing. If he was lucky, she would take and they could have a baby. Why the hell was he sulking and hoping for something he could never have and shouldn’t even want? Let him trade in one pretty face for another, it shouldn’t be that damn hard.

He turned as Terrasa padded in from the other room, looking half awake and sleep-tousled. She smiled shyly, all of the boldness from the previous night gone. She wore one of his shirts, which dwarfed her tiny frame, giving her a slightly childlike appearance.

“I smell coffee,” she said and Chad poured her a cup. She raised it to her lips and blew off the steam, then took a small sip. She took her coffee black, the same way he did.

Watching her, he could admit that she was incredibly attractive, with the same dark hair and eyes as her younger brother. No, she was not hard to look at and her body had felt good enough pressed against his last night, all sweet softness and delicate curves. But still, any desire he felt for her was an artist’s appreciation for a pretty face or, when she was touching him, a sexual hunger. But he felt nothing for her beyond that. He had no desire to. Their flimsy relationship was purely physical and achingly empty.

However, as Terrasa’s smoldering eyes met his over the top of her mug and her bare foot snaked up the back of his leg, he could admit he was as weak as everyone else when it came to the powers of sex to seduce and ensnare. And sometimes, when the desire was as bitter as the coffee he could taste on her tongue, it was the greatest relief to lose yourself in the pleasure of it.