Deep Down Inside Ch. 01-04

"Great line," Camille added.

"Come on," Kaden persisted, "we're well into the two-thousands. Anal sex is about as ordinary as, I don't know... I mean it basically is the equivalent of eating your veggies."

"That's not true. I mean, I'm not a church going gal but my family is Protestant, and... I don't know, it just seems unnatural. Spiritually unnatural. Or maybe just gross."

"Don't look so disappointed," I said to Kaden, earning a round of laughter.

Kaden glanced across the entire table and quickly diverted to Camille. "And where do you stand, Camille?"

"Me? If that's what somebody is into-"

"No, not somebody, are you into it?"

I leaned back in my chair and stopped laughing. Was this one of those moments where I should speak out and protect a woman's modesty? My instincts were screaming yes but I got a vibe from Camille that she'd relished the opportunity to dig into Kaden.

"Well, again, if the guy was really into it, then I might be into it too. I think it's one of those in the moment things. But I wouldn't be manipulated into it if it didn't feel right."

"News flash. Every guy is really into it. Even noble Alex."

Fuck, he had to drag me into it. And he had to know I wanted to impress Camille and that question was loaded in the worst way. Thankfully Bobbie spoke up before I could.

"Kaden, look at her. When you are as pretty as Camille, guys will follow you like a puppy. Jackasses like my ex would know better than to try to bully her."

Kaden grew suddenly annoyed, dragging his saki cup across the table hard enough to cause a grinding noise.

"Where the fuck's our food?" He spoke loud enough for the room to hear, and then tapped the little saki cup anxiously as we all did a double take in his direction.

Most people, myself included, are not comfortable speaking their mind in a room with random strangers, and Kaden used our humility to shift the conversation from Bobbie fawning all over Camille. As hot as Bobbie was, she was conceding Camille was hotter and classier, and that apparently irked Kaden.

"Fuckin' seriously, it's been like twenty minutes, hasn't it?"

"No, Kay-Kay, we just ordered." As of last week Bobbie had begun calling Kaden "Kay-Kay," and I knew it wouldn't take. She knew it was bad, but was grasping for a way to subdue him—get him to bring it down a notch. While we had been ordering, an Asian couple came and took the one table beside us, and they were nervously staring.

I reached over with the saki karaf and Kaden stopped tapping the little cup so I could fill it. I filled the girls' cups and then my own and we all drank up.

"We should get some cold saki," Camille suggested as she scooted her cup towards me to set back on the mini stone serving tray.

"Isn't cold saki like milk?" Kaden's pronunciation had sharpened in his annoyance.

Camille and Bobbie were taken aback by his tone, but I'd expected nothing less from the guy. It's like this—Kaden had traded in two Camaros in four years because he couldn't watch the new models come in without feeling last years were suddenly inferior, and then along comes Camille, a show stopping McLaren.

"The unfiltered is cloudy." Camille crispened her own pronunciation, emphasizing her coolness and sexiness to spite him. "But they do have cold filtered, and that's just as smooth as the hot and far more flavorful."

Kaden rattled his freshly emptied saki cup harder, but at that moment two guys came through the front door, bringing in a loud conversation with them. Their talking continued as they seated themselves at the bar, and I had to practically shout that I'd be in for a round of cold saki. Kaden caved, but insisted we order a hot saki with it. His ire had quickly shifted to the two guys who were overly drunk. I assumed they'd come from the karaoke bar one shop over, and judging by their button-downs and slacks it had been an after work get together.

The bar lined up with our table, and the girls were both seated on their side. When they noticed Bobbie and Camille they quieted down, even whispering at times. Their eyes wandered up and down the girls, especially Camille's legs. Camille had worn a skirt made of a single piece of silver-grey fabric that wrapped around with a slit on the right side. It hung a few inches above her knees, not too short, but while sitting the slit fell open along most of her outer thigh. And from where the guys sat they were getting an eyeful of her deliciously tone leg.

On top of that, she had an odd habit of reaching behind and slipping her fingers into the hem to rub along her lower back. I didn't know how to interpret that, and I don't think our drunk friends did either.

In situations where someone is being rude I generally begin with a warning stare. My brow slanted ever so slightly, not to a degree that I appear angry, but rather cautionary, like the verdict is out but the trial is very much underway.

Camille made a grumpy face at me, goofing on my expression, and then shook her head 'no'. I laughed, of course, and I don't know why, but my crush on her deepened immensely. One look into her tender eyes and I was completely soothed. She'd so easily gotten into my head.

I fantasized about where the night could lead us, maybe next time I saw her we'd hold hands, the world would pass through me instead of around me, and then there'd be a date that doesn't end and we'd wake up next to each other as lovers. But I had to wonder if I could handle sharing that with such a beautiful woman. Eyes would always be on her, and I'd always have to puff up my chest to ensure she wasn't outright ogled. Every heterosexual male in sight would entertain the fantasy of feeling on her ass the same way I did, or pulling her clothes slowly off. Every guy would be thinking about fucking that oh-so-fuckable body. Could I handle that? Could she handle me reacting to that?

One thing I'd grown sure of, she could handle herself, and that helped tamp down my protective jealousy. I replaced my grimace with a smile. Those guys were drunken idiots. Not a threat in any way, shape or form. Dicks were rightfully jealous so fuck 'em.

By the time our saki arrived I'd literally forgotten about the two dicks, and as the waitress set it down Kaden asked her, "Isn't it true that in Japan they eat sushi off of naked women?"

"Kay-Kay," Bobbie complained. "Sorry, Karen, my boyfriend is-"

"What, it's true! I'm not making it up. Isn't it?" he asked our waitress again.

Karen, our waitress, giggled, "Supposedly. But like as a fetish thing. Last time I visited I was twelve, so I mostly went to arcades and Tokyo Disneyland."

"One more question, do you think these tables are strong enough to support two women?"

"Kay-Kay!" Bobbie complained again, her cheeks burning red.

"You guys are wild, I like you."

"And we like you," Kaden said smoothly, and followed with a wink, being flirty but only in jest.

When she was gone, Camille gave the table a shake. "What do you think, Bobbie, can this table hold the guys?"

"If you want to eat sushi off of me, Camille, I'd be happy to oblige."

"Thanks, but I'd be worried I might mistake your pee-pee for a shrimp."

The guys at the bar laughed, making it obvious they were listening in.

Kaden's left eyebrow went up into a devious slant. He'd let Camille have that one for the time being, but he was far from done with her.

Camille got annoyed at seemingly nothing, and reached around to rub the inside of her skirt hem again. She then asked if Bobbie had a pair of scissors or nail clippers. "I just bought this dress and it has a loose thread. It's tickling like crazy."

"I can fix it!" Kaden offered with a flashy grin.

Camille's eyes thinned with skepticism. "I think I'm-"

"I'm serious. Come around here and I can fix it." He reached into his pocket, pulled out a buck knife and unfolded the blade.

Camille went to the aisle area at his side of the table and hesitantly presented him with her beautiful ass. He slipped two fingers into the hem of her skirt and then said she might want to lean forward unless she wanted to give him an eyeful. Her silver-grey skirt with the long slit up the side was made from a thin cotton blend—a blend that was both stretchy and sheer, and it flawlessly clung to her ass. She must've worked out. She must've worked out a lot for her ass to lift and protrude the way it did as she bent forward.

Kaden flipped the hem inside out, which brought her skirt line down to the V leading into her ass crack. The thread was dead center, probably tickling in between her cheeks, and Kaden sliced it away with a flick of the buck knife. He set the thread on the table, and then, to Bobbie and my amazement, and to the stunned disbelief of Camille, Kaden gave her ass a solid spank on her tight tushy.

"Good to go!"

The slap was shockingly loud and Bobbie lit up,

"Oh my God!"

Camille took two quick steps forward, coming to a stop with her hands guarding her ass. Her big fashion model eyes had shot open, to reveal a huge circle of sapphire blue. They quickly thinned as she walked around Bobbie back towards her chair. "I cannot believe you just did that."

"I'm only messing, Camille. I couldn't help it. You were so uncomfortable."

"You OK?" I asked, still in shock myself.

She looked annoyed as she sat down, but muttered she was fine. Bobbie threw her arms around and laughed, "I can't believe you just did that."

"I'm sorry, I really am." Kaden was shaking his hand as if it stung. "But damn, I think I just felt your squat routine."

I then saw the two drunk guys, and heard one of them say, "Got it," and set his phone down on the sushi bar.

"I said to our table, "I think those two guys were recording everything."

"Are you kidding me?" There was no question Camille was mad now.

I pushed my chair back, deciding I needed to go over and ask them to delete whatever was on their phone. Before I could, however, Kaden shouted across the room, "Hey bro, did you film that?" His voice tore through the small restaurant.

The guy looked like he was about to deny it, but instead he grew defensive, "It's a public place. There's no reason I can't-"

Kaden got up, his chair falling over backwards behind him, and he assumed an intimidating stance. "Dude, it's a public place."

"Delete that, or I will."

The next few seconds felt like minutes, but the guy finally picked up his phone and, I assume, deleted the video.

Kaden wasn't sitting down, and Bobbie grabbed his hand. It's OK, baby. Let's just eat, OK."

Camille stared across the table at me, eyes somewhere in between confused amusement and mortification.

"You did the right thing, Kay-Kay," Bobbie tried again, and this time Kaden sat back down.

I had to agree with Bobbie. We'd completely averted an incident with a couple of drunken dicks and all it took was Kaden's obnoxious personality. He was totally Californian but he had a wild, Southern Dukes of Hazzard energy stirring within him too—an always present demon in his eye and an unscratchable itch for mischief.

Camille reached across the table to touch Kaden's rock climber's forearm. "Thanks. I don't even want to think about what they might've done with that movie."

Kaden smiled with a sincerity I didn't know he possessed, his handsome seventies chops framing the ball of muscle in his cheeks. "What a couple of dicks, huh?" He poured himself some of the cold saki and took a sip. "Damn, you're right, this is really good!"

Camille gave me a discreet wink that tamped down my jealousy and I accepted the possibility her and Kaden could exist together in peace.

The two dicks got up and left before ordering, and I joked, "Well Kaden, looks like you can scratch a threesome off your bucket list, because you came down hard on two huge pussies."

The girls groaned loudly, but took it in good fun. Although Camille felt it necessary to question how guys could turn vaginas into something undesirable given their otherwise obsession, and then she tilted her head at Kaden, as if he were a pitbull puppy doing something cute.

"You did the right thing speaking up for me. So thank you."

I felt a little cheated, and a little jealous again, she'd done her part to soothe my temper and was now thanking Kaden for losing his. And then she slipped me one of those all telling looks, her fashion model eyes turning cunning with a subtle lifting of her cinnamon lower lids. She hadn't forgotten about Kaden spanking her butt. She hadn't given him a pass for anything. I learned something about Camille that night, on just our second time out—despite how self-sufficient she'd shown herself to be, she still had her uses for man, even assholes like Kaden.

Chapter 3: Taking Shots

Camille spent on a Trek—seventeen inch wheels, disc brakes and upgraded cranks. Maybe not quite the bike I would've chosen for myself, but still a damn nice bike. I could only interpret such a purchase to mean one thing—she was into me. The embodiment of perfection had spent in upwards of a grand just to go on a bike date.

We pedaled up the coast, from Redondo Beach along the windy beach trail, through the boatyards in Marina Del Rey that smelled like mildew and brine, and finally to Rose Avenue for lunch. Our official first date was an easy ride, but she kept up far better than I expected, and with phenomenal form. She seemed to be born with great body awareness. It also didn't hurt that she practiced advanced yoga daily, including a class that finished just before I picked her up. It gave me an even greater appreciation for her juicy, toned ass, adding discipline on top of her spectacular genes.

At lunch we talked about Colorado again, and how many miles of training were needed to prepare ourselves for a trip over the Rockies. The more time I spent with her the more enraptured I became with her mannerisms and voice, the sly crooked smile when she laughed, the way her eyes would flash open in a seductive way, the blue getting shockingly bright, and the slight crackle in her voice when she said "oh nice" and "too much". For the first time since we'd met I actually believed we might be compatible beyond just my wishful thinking. I was fucking sharing dreams and making solid plans with one of the most gorgeous women I'd ever laid eyes on.

As she sipped a strawberry lemonade from a thick red straw, I felt comfortable enough with her to ask why she wouldn't let me stick up for her at the sushi bar that night but was grateful to Kaden when he did. She leaned up from her lemonade, stirred it with the straw, and ran through several amusing thoughts in her head before finally saying, "I didn't want you to be that guy."

"The guy who stands up for you?"

"No! Look, if some guy wants to defend my honor then I am grateful for it. But at the same time, I certainly don't want an aggressive ape in my life."

"Can I be honest?"

"I don't know, can you?"

She seemed to be getting annoyed, and I didn't want to lose her, so I screwed up my face and breathed, "It was kind of a blow to my pride."

She sat up straight and raised her hands holding them flat so they bent off her wrists like diving boards. One hand was near the table and the other above her head. She shook the hand at table level and said, "I find pride to be important." She then shook the hand above her head, "But sensibility and compassion and thoughtfulness, those are way up here for me. And," she continued, shaking her upper hand again, "you should feel more proud of all this than sinking down to the level of drunken idiots."

I chuckled. "I can already tell you plan to challenge me at every step."

She raised her hand as high as she could and gave it a shake. "Right here is being able to keep up with me."

"Well, I accept that challenge," I said, knowing full well it was bullshit—I could never match her on any level—but goddamn if she wasn't worth every ounce of effort.

We returned to Huntington Beach around four. I dropped her off at her apartment and then headed home to shower and have some dinner. She called shortly after I got out of the shower, inviting me for drinks with Kaden and Bobbie at Lucy's on PCH. I powered through a chicken sandwich and picked her up again around eight.

A long board with "Lucy's" stenciled on it hung on the back wall of the bar and three leather-skinned old timers wearing board shorts and tank tops occupied the stools. Kaden and four of my buddies were at a solid wood pool table but there was no sign of Bobbie.

Kaden looked irritably up at a ceiling fan and informed us they'd got into it on the way to the bar and she ended up taking a Lyft right back home. I saw three empty shot glasses next to Kaden's pint and he had a toothy grin—Kaden's drinking smile. It covered up whatever bad shit he was feeling underneath. Camille wanted to know more, but Kaden just kept shaking his head, giving no information whatsoever.

I led her around, introducing her to the rest of my friends. She'd worn a pair of low riding jeans that showed off the peaks of her hip bones and a short camisole that left her belly button and shoulders exposed. It got her a lot of stares. She finally pulled out her wallet to pay me for the drink she'd yet to drink, and said she wanted to go see if Bobbie was alright. I refused the ten dollars, and offered to drive her, but then Kaden finally started talking.

"She's alright, Camille. I'll call in a bit. Let her cool off."

"Cool off from what?"

"You know how she is. Just doesn't process shit very fast."

"Process what?"

"Well, your friend's kind of a bitch."

Camille crossed her arms.

"I'm not being an asshole. You know she can be a bitch."

"Really Kaden?"

"I'm allowed to say it, I'm her boyfriend."

"So then why is she such a bitch?"

Kaden rolled his eyes. "She saw a text on my phone. She overreacted."

Camille tightened her crossed arms, which lifted up her tits slightly, and that was enough to cause one spaghetti strap to fall off her right shoulder. My friends had all stopped what they were doing to watch the small girl give big, six-two Kaden the third-degree, but now they were noticing just how damn sexy she looked doing it. They'd moved in around us, and eyes were all over her, hoping her camisole might slip a little further.

"Camille," I whispered, trying to get her attention and let her know about the strap. She unclasped her right elbow in order to raise a finger up, gesturing for just a minute so she wouldn't lose her thought. The slight movement in her arms, however, caused the fabric to slide again.

"So just some text, that's all it was?"

Kaden giggled while his eyes darted between her eyes and her partially exposed boob. "That's all! Totally overreacted."

"From a girl?"

"From a friend."

"A girl?"

I reached over, pinched the strap and lifted it back up her shoulder. She looked at me in shock, but quickly realized I was rescuing her modesty. She then turned back to Kaden and rebuked disgustedly, "God! You fucking guys."

Kaden just laughed and shrugged, and Camille turned around and pushed past my friends and grabbed her bag. "Hey wait!" I called as I caught up to her.

She turned sharply. "Is it me or is he intentionally being dodgy just to piss me off?"

"It's not you."

"I just need to check on Bobbie. I need a minute to call her."

I was sure she was going to leave, and she sighed, reading my concern like a billboard. "I'm not leaving yet, OK?"

"OK," I said, letting her go, still ultimately believing she'd leave, if not immediately than right after her call.

I went back to Kaden and asked him what the fuck was up. He was more forthcoming with me, explaining a text lit up on his phone as they were driving over, and the screen stayed on just long enough for Bobbie to see. The text was from a girl he'd been seeing before Bobbie.