A Beauteous Flower Ch. 07

Would through the airy region stream so bright

That birds would sing and think it were not night.

See how she leans her cheek upon her hand.

Oh, that I were a glove upon that hand

That I might touch that cheek!"

Madison's head swam with champagne and the romance. He had spoken to her and her alone and she had his focused attention, just as she wanted. Something about those words jogged a memory that she had tucked away to only recall in her silly and guilty romantic moments. She hadn't heard those words spoken out loud since her senior year of high school when she played Juliet in the school production. In a flush of warm memory, she answered his soliloquy as Juliet on her balcony.

"Ay, me."

Her response gave him pause and he tilted his head curiously. He seemed intrigued and went on as if to test something.

"She speaks.

O, speak again, bright angel! For thou art

As glorious to this night, being o'er my head,

As is a wingèd messenger of heaven

Unto the white, upturnèd, wondering eyes

Of mortals that fall back to gaze on him

When he bestrides the lazy puffing clouds

And sails upon the bosom of the air."

His lines finished, the man looked up at Madison with a studious face. Madison, emboldened by drink and his gaze, cast her eyes wistfully to the stars and bravely orated Juliet's next lines.

"Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?

Deny thy father and refuse thy name.

Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,

And I'll no longer be a Capulet."

Madison glanced down and saw interest in the man's dark eyes. He stepped a little closer to the balcony and Madison's pulse quickened. Could this actually work out? Had Mrs. Selene set her up for success?

"Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?"

Madison got a delicious shiver of excitement. He had noticed her! He was interested in her! The most interesting man at the party was interested in Madison! This was her chance! Madison felt triumphantly terrified as she went on.

"'Tis but thy name that is my enemy.

Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.

What's Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,

Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part

Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!

What's in a name? That which we call a rose

By any other word would smell as sweet.

So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called,

Retain that dear perfection which he owes

Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,

And for that name, which is no part of thee

Take all myself."

The man moved directly below her now and stared up at her intently. Madison met his gaze and parted her lips seductively. In her heart she willed him to come up to her on the balcony and she gently nodded her assent to him. In answer he moved to the small staircase up to the balcony and began to climb to her as he spoke Romeo's next line.

"I take thee at thy word.

Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized.

Henceforth I never will be Romeo."

Madison's smile hurt her cheeks.

"What man art thou that, thus bescreened in night,

So stumblest on my counsel?"

While she spoke, he deftly climbed up out of the night like a ghost cat. She could see the moonlight sparkle of his dark eyes and Madison took a small step back to invite him to join her on the balcony. After a small moment of hesitation, he obliged her and stepped up in front of her. Her breath quickened and Madison wanted to fling herself into his arms and run away from him at the same time. His voice poured the next lines into her like a warm kiss of desire.

"By a name

I know not how to tell thee who I am.

My name, dear saint, is hateful to myself

Because it is an enemy to thee.

Had I it written, I would tear the word."

Now he stood with her on the balcony, not twelve inches away. He was a good bit taller than Madison so that she had to tilt her face up to him, and his sweet breath stirred her hair, and he smelled of heady, thick cologne. Madison's breath caught as she stared up into his dark eyes. She couldn't tell what color they were, but that didn't matter. He was with her on the balcony, and she had her stolen moment with him under the midnight stars. His gaze was so intense that it made Madison's heart flutter and then stop. He might kiss her! He would kiss her! Madison could feel the inevitability of it, and she desperately wanted him to kiss her so she could kiss him back. She wanted to kiss him so badly that she tingled from her bare toes to the highest hair on her head. She only had enough breath to whisper her next line to him.

"My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words

Of that tongue's uttering, yet I know the sound.

Art thou not Romeo, and a Montague?"

Then his arms were around her and she went to her toes to meet his lips. To Madison's amazement, he held her exactly as she wanted to be held when a man kissed her. His right hand slipped up into her hair to support her head while his left hand looped around the small of her back and pulled her body into his. His lips, rich with the taste of smoky whisky, were on hers and he was strong and warm and kind as he leaned into her. Madison melted into his embrace as time stood still and the enraptured stars and moon whirled and watched. A short eternity later their lips parted, and she looked up at him with wonder and prayed this was real. A question sprung up in her mind.

"What's your name?" she asked timidly.

He gave her a gentle peck on the tip of her nose. She giggled and glowed and smiled at him and he smirked back; a gorgeous white smirk just for her and her alone in a world of seven billion people. She didn't care if everyone thought she was a tipsy klutz. She didn't even care if they thought she was a naked, tipsy klutz. Madison didn't even notice the applause from the gazebo.

"Daniel," he told her quietly in his melted butter voice so that no one but her could hear it. "My name is Daniel."

Madison smiled so brightly her cheeks burned. She liked the name Daniel and she especially liked that, of all the other girls at the party, only she knew his real name. She tucked the precious secret into her mind like she would tuck a treasured flower behind her ear. It made her feel pretty and special and, to her amazement, it made her want to cry. But he smirked at her, and she didn't want to miss that smile due to tearful blurry vision, so she didn't cry. Instead, she spoke.

"My name is Madison, and I am very happy to finally meet you."

*****

As the door closed and Daniel's footsteps retreated down the hall, Madison's smile vanished, and she flung her clutch across the room with a frustrated shriek.

Twenty-two dates!

She and Daniel had been on twenty-two spectacularly romantic dates in the four months since that magical first encounter in the garden. Daniel had been such a gentleman and his choice of venues for their dates amazed everyone, especially Madison. Not only that but the chemistry between them was blatantly obvious and Madison was more than ready to take their relationship to a physical level. In her opinion, this was long overdue, but Daniel hadn't laid a lustful hand on her. Sure, he kissed her, but no matter how enthusiastically she kissed and groped and teased and flirted in efforts to show him the "green light" as it were, he hadn't taken any liberties.

This was a strange situation for Madison. Her normal problem was how to get the men to keep their hands off her. Daniel, however, defied expectations and, zealously kept his hands to himself, which left her frustrated, confused and, worst of all, unsatisfied. She had donned short skirts, shown cleavage, freshly quaffed her hair, worn her best perfume, and was even overtly flirty, teasy and touchy. She'd done everything a woman could do short of completely naked indiscretion and a sign that read, "Please have sex with me!" to get Daniel to do the deed with her and... nothing. He remained a perfect gentleman. He hadn't even copped a feel and now Madison found herself smack dab in the middle of a genuine situationship.

"Oooooooooooooooo!" she squealed. She hesitated before her next words because it wasn't ladylike to swear, but in this case some four-letter words seemed appropriate.

"Damn it!"

Deva poked her head out of the bathroom.

"What's up?"

Madison turned to Deva and flung her arms out to the side in a question.

"Look at me! Am I fuckable?"

Adalina turned off the television and looked up at Madison. Moira from down the hall had joined them for the evening and big round eyeglasses framed her sky-blue eyes.

"Well, ordinarily I would say 'you look very fuckable', answered Adalina. "But... I take it from the fact that you are home at a decent hour and your hair and makeup are exactly as they were when you left, I might be wrong?"

Madison huffed while she put her hands on her hips and stamped her high heeled foot.

"Look at me!" whined Madison and gestured up and down her body to emphasize that she had stuffed her body into a skintight black leather mini dress. Behind Madison the zipper strained dangerously close to a failure which would expose the black lace bra and thong underneath. After the party, at Deva's behest, Madison had prudently purchased a few thongs to wear. Not that Daniel had seen them. It had taken Deva's concentrated help to close that zipper over Madison's lingerie before this date. However, Madison had not cared because when she crammed herself into that restrictive leather sleeve, it left little to the imagination and that was exactly the look Madison wanted. In truth, she hadn't planned to wear it for more than half an hour or so before Daniel peeled her out of it, so discomfort had been damned. Surely, she had thought, this outfit would be the clearest kind of signal that Madison expected Daniel to have his way with her. But here she was, safe at home and untouched, after three straight hours of flirty glances, caresses and no less than four footsie battles at the tasteful French restaurant he had chosen for dinner. All he'd done was hold her hand and give her a kiss when he dropped her off. He'd even begged off her offer of a nightcap, which was unprecedented in the apartment.

"Maybe you should just grab him by the face and tell him to fuck you," Adalina suggested unhelpfully. Madison rolled her eyes and huffed again.

"You're not helping!"

Ivy poked her head out of her bedroom.

"What's up?"

Adalina's eyes glittered.

"Madison's horny as a goat, but her man won't give her any!"

Madison threw her hands up and rolled her eyes in hopeless despair. Ivy grinned at Madison.

"Can't get in his pants, eh? You might have to give up your boss bitch card."

"It's not that easy!" protested a discouraged Madison.

"Sure, it is," Ivy countered. "Same as every other guy in the world. Wiggle your butt at him and tell him to take his pants off."

"No, no, no!" Madison huffed as she rose to the bait. "This isn't bar sex with some rando guy! I...."

"What? You're in love with him?" Adalina prodded and then wrapped her arms around herself, flopped back onto the sofa and derisively pantomimed a make out session.

"Oh, I wuv joo!" Adalina moaned in a baby talk voice to her ghost partner. "I wuv joo so much, snookums! Mmmwah, mmmwah, mmwah!"

Madison glowered as the others tittered at her lack of a sex life.

"Dump him," Ivy urged. "He'll either crawl back or you can move on to another man. Dick waits for pussy, not the other way around. Doesn't he know that?

"No big deal," Adalina offered. "Two drinks and grab his junk. Works every time."

Madison smoldered. Madison didn't want a cheap one-night stand with Daniel, so for Madison that kind of forward behavior was out of the question. Madison thought of Danial as, at least, boyfriend material and probably more, so that meant she had to keep up the façade of "ladylike Madison". At least until she was naked and "ladylike Madison" was wrapped up in a ball of clothes on the floor and then "whore-like Madison" could take over and do things to Daniel that would make the devil blush.

"I'm showing cleavage and thighs!" Madison raged. "And my hair is down, and I've got perfume all over, even between my tits! How much more obvious can I be?"

Madison kicked her pumps up in the air, balled up her fists and let out another squeal of anger and frustrated hormones.

"Why won't he just do me?" Madison whined as she flopped down on the sofa with another huff. "I swear I'm so horny that I'll cum if he just touches my thigh."

Madison threw a despondently awkward girl punch as Deva sat down next to her and hugged her like a big sister.

"He's just sooooo damn sexy! I want him soooooo bad!" Madison pouted with her head on Deva's chest. "If we don't have sex soon, I'll pop!"

Deva gave Madison a matronly pat on the back, but Madison would not be consoled.

"I got a Brazilian and everything!" Madison groaned while tears started to flow down her cheeks. "Ooooooh, why doesn't he want me?"

Deva shrugged as she continued to hold Madison in her big sister hug.

"Maybe he really is gay," Deva ventured.

Madison pushed away from Deva with a hurt look on her face.

"You're... not... HELPING!"

Deva gave Madison a pacific smile and patted her hand.

"Sorry, honey. I helped you sexy it up the best way I know how, and he didn't go for it. I'm out of ideas. All I can say for sure is he sure doesn't think like your run-of-the-mill man, and I'm stumped. I don't know how to get him to fuck you, and I don't eat pussy, so it looks like I can't help you."

Ivy plopped on the sofa next to Adalina.

"Don't look at me," Ivy teased. "I don't eat pussy either. Leastwise your dried-up rag of a pussy."

Madison flopped back down onto the sofa with yet another huff of exasperation. Adalina bobbled her head with a shrug.

"Wow, you need it bad. I say, get yourself another man. But if you won't do that, try the shower nozzle."

Madison flapped her arms against the sofa and pressed her lips together in resignation. She sniffed pitifully.

"I'm sorry. It's just... oh God, I'm so horny!" Madison held out her arms helplessly to Deva.

"Unzip me, please?" Madison plead.

"OK, but no funny business. I've never seen you this revved up, and I don't want to get sexually assaulted by my sex starved roommate."

"Who is this?" asked Moira quietly. Moira was a studious type who didn't say very much and when she did, she spoke in a tone just above a librarian's whisper.

"He's the man who doesn't want to have sex with Madison, apparently," answered Ivy, her voice wry with disbelief.

"Dump him!" Adalina urged. "Look at you! You're a mess! You're supposed to be a boss bitch! You should have this guy on his knees! What's wrong with you?"

"Yeah, Madison," Ivy agreed. "It's not like there isn't a thousand more out there for you to pick from."

Madison flopped her arms in frustration. Didn't they understand?

"I don't want to just fuck him...."

"Oh please," Adalina interrupted. "Dick is dick. Get another one is all. And get one that drives one of those new Corvettes, by the way. I like those."

Moira chewed her lip uncertainly as if she had something to contribute to the conversation but wasn't sure she was welcome to share it.

"I think it's sweet," she finally ventured in her quiet voice.

"What?" Ivy asked incredulously.

"I think it's sweet," Moira repeated softly. "I mean, how many times have we all complained about how men want just one thing. Well, Madison finally found a man who doesn't want to just get in her pants. I think it's nice."

Adalina puffed that sentiment away with an eye roll and a backhanded wave, but Moira's assessment changed the momentum a bit and Madison looked at Moira gratefully. However, it didn't change the fact that Madison wanted Daniel and the fact that she couldn't get him to cooperate.

"Who is he?" Moira asked politely.

"C'mon, Madison," chimed Ivy. "Show Moira this gorgeous hunk of man that has you all hot and bothered and out of sorts."

"Ey!" Adalina barked with a violent snap of her fingers and pointed at Madison. "Pictures!"

Deva smirked playfully.

"Yeah, Madison. Show him off a little."

Madison hesitated. Adalina Ivy, and Moira had overlooked Daniel at the party and Deva had misread him, so she was not certain she wanted to share her find with them. Adalina sensed Madison's reticence, so she snapped again and amped up the volume on her "Ey!". Resigned, Madison pulled out her phone and scrolled to what she thought was the best picture of her and Daniel together. In fact, she had already selected it to be her wallpaper once she landed Daniel. She turned her phone over to Adalina's outstretched hand and Deva, Ivy and Moira greedily crowded around to get an eyeful. Adalina mugged a face at Madison's selection and then scrolled greedily through Madison's camera roll until she found Madison's favorite picture of Daniel. He sat half in shadows and his eyes glittered darkly over his smirk. He looked so damn sexy that Madison had wanked herself to that picture several times and Daniel's dark looks weren't lost on Adalina.

"Oh, my Yod!" Adalina gasped in her faux Latina accent as she placed her hand on her chest. Then she fanned herself dramatically.

"Ay, Papi!" declared Adalina with a guttural burr in her speech.

Madison jealously tried to snatch back her phone, but Adalina dodged and stood up. Deva, Ivy and Moira rallied around Adalina again and Madison could feel their eyes crawl over Daniel's picture. Ivy emitted a little sexy purr and Moira gaped behind her big round rims. Madison felt a wicked stab of jealousy and grabbed and missed again.

"Give me my phone!"

Ivy stared pointedly at the picture and let out a little sigh of desire and looked slyly at Madison.

"Mmmm mmm Mmm mmm mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Scrumptious! He could hit!" Ivy looked at Madison with hooded eyes.

"Madison honey, you had better hurry up and do him extra good," purred Adalina. "Because if you don't, I'll put it down on him so extra sweet and give him five babies!"

Adalina put her hands on her knees and twerked her butt up and down with a look of feigned ecstasy on her face. Everyone except Madison laughed.

"Five!" emphasized Adalina with 5 fingers. "Four boys and a little girl who will be a boss bitch like her sexy mama!"

Adalina twirled in place and snapped her fingers again to drive home the point. Madison snatched her phone back with a disgusted "tsk" and looked at the picture as if she wanted to be sure Adalina hadn't changed something about it. Adalina saw the jealous look on Madison's face and gave Madison a light squeeze.

"Come on now, Hun. We're just teasing." Adalina winked over her shoulder at Ivy for confirmation. "Right?"

"Yeah... maybe," smirked Ivy. "I called dibs, Addy. After me, you can have the sloppy seconds and five babies, and if there is anything left, maybe Madison can get some."

Madison pivoted on her heel and stomped towards the bathroom. In her wake, Adalina, Deva, Moira and Ivy giggled.

"Get it together, Madison!" called Adalina after her. "You're letting the team down!

As another peel of laughter flitted around the room, Adalina called to the wireless speakers.

"Hey Google! You play my boss bitch song!"

In obedience to Adalina's order, the speakers began to blare heavy bass.

"Uno, dos, três, quatro!

No quick head in my bed I can't have that!

I want that long neck not talking giraffe neck!

Ain't no laying down man we 'bout to have late fun!

I'm 'bout to make your balls stick up like space buns!

Want your dick soaked? Place it down my throat!

Tongue tickle yo' dick but not telling a joke!

Peddle in this pussy that's how you rock a boat!

It get live in this pussy, I'm not talking Periscope!

In the sheets I am a bully!

Give more head than a hoodie!