Dorian's Deal - Caysee

"I have a sister myself, I understand. Nothing I can't handle. She'll be sorry for being mean in a couple years," Dorian grinned.

"Huh. Maybe. I can spread a rumor she was dumped by her boyfriend for being too clingy, that'll tank her Prom dreams."

"Ah, that's a bit harsh. Save that for a real crime."

"You're right. I'll wait until she steals my car to go out with her friends again. What name's the table under?"

"Dorian," he said, laughing at the clever inquiry.

"I guess you heard, I'm Caysee. Not meaning to be too forward, but I'm starving."

"Yeah, long week for me, I am too."

"It's just, I'm not great company when I'm hangry, I've learned. I'd hate to make a bad first impression."

"Not to worry, we're here to talk about all the pushy guys you meet on dating sites. It's not a date, it's a therapy session."

"Oh, that's right, I'm paying you for this aren't I?" she giggled. "How much do you charge?"

"Let's see what kind of value I bring you, shall we? Then we'll talk about what it's worth."

"My, how progressive," she grinned back at him.

He held the car door for her and she made a small show of being appreciative. They drove to the restaurant and got seated. He stole glances at her as they looked over the meal. Her hair was done up in a wavy punk-rock sort of style, and she had a tight t-shirt and a short ruffled skirt to match.

"What can I get you to drink?" the waiter said. "Care for a glass of wine?"

Caysee looked up at Dorian for the briefest moment, then shook her head. "I'm more of a shots kind of girl, I think," she said.

"You think?" Dorian cocked his head to the side slightly.

"Well, I haven't tried everything yet. There's a lot of everything to try! I like a nice Kentucky bourbon, I know that for sure."

"No wine today," Dorian said to the waiter. "Just water for me."

"Same," Caysee said.

"So let's get serious for a second. Very important questions," Dorian said, giving her his best very-serious-but-actually-not face.

"Such as?"

"How many exits are there? When the fish haters attack, we need a strategy."

Her eyes tightened in amusement. "Only one worth considering is the front door. The haters will be here for the fish, but we can slip out before they're done ruining all the food."

"The direct approach. I like it."

"Why, what do *you* do when the mob shows up?"

"I channel the energy of an angry black woman and shame them into walking right back out, and paying for my evening for the trouble."

Caysee looked him up and down with a lopsided grin. "How many times has that worked?"

"None. They all know better than to interrupt my dinner, so I've never done it," Dorian said.

"Where were you during my twenty-first birthday party?" she said wistfully.

"Well, what day was your birthday?"

"April fifth."

"I was not saving the nuclear launch codes from falling into the wrong hands. Officially," he winked. "Fifth... hmm... oh yeah, just a nice calm weekend helping my bud change out some spark plugs."

"Oh, you're good with your hands are you?"

"I get the job done, guaranteed," Dorian deadpanned.

The whole meal went much the same way, nothing particularly standing out as good or bad, but just a pleasant meal with an attractive woman who got his jokes, if not laughed at every one of them. This was a modest success.

"I don't think the mob is coming tonight. Shall we go get some shots?" Dorian said.

"Sure," she said quickly.

They went to a pool hall which Dorian knew had a bar, and played a few rounds and had a few drinks. She was terrible, had never played before, and was a bit drunk.

"Heyyyyy, I just remembered... my neighbor is out of town and asked me ta look in on his dogs. His puppies. His floofs! You mind driving me over by there for a minute?"

"Oh sure, I love dogs, they probably need some play time."

"Oh well sure, I mean... yeah if you want to."

He drove back towards her house and she pointed down another street.

"Here, park here," she said, indicating a grassy spot off a road where the lot had no sidewalks and the grass just went right up to the asphalt.

He pulled over into the grass, and they went through a small gate into the back yard, where Caysee found a hide-a-key and unlocked the back door. She let the dogs out of the kennel and let them play in the yard, gave them some food, and Dorian played frisbee fetch with them for a little bit. Once, he threw a frisbee from each hand at once, and both dogs chased one in different directions in the yard.

"Wow you really are good with your hands," she said.

"That's nothing, our family has had dogs for years, we played frisbee all the time."

"Still. Why don't you come inside? I've got something else I can use your help with."

"OK, let me go wash my hands, then."

There was dog drool on the frisbees, and he hoped he knew what she was after, with them being here alone. When he got back, she had turned the TV on and started playing back a show recording. It was a show about cruise trips.

"Look at this. Cruises are the best. You can get a massage and everything! I want a massage so bad."

"That's what you want my hands for? You want a massage?"

"Ooh, do you do those? That's not what I meant, but..."

"I can give it a shot. Who knows, I'm probably good at it."

"Oh yes please!"

She took her shirt off without a moment's hesitation.

"Uhm... this is what you do, right? I have to take my shirt off, don't I?"

"I'm pretty sure it is. In fact, I'm pretty sure you have to take all your clothes off for a professional massage, and they give you a sheet or a towel."

"Let me go see, I bet they have towels."

And they did, much to his delight.

"Turn around," she said. "No peeking!"

He stood up off the couch and turned around. He heard her clothes hitting the floor and couldn't help but get hard just imagining the view behind him right that second.

"OK, you can look now."

She had laid down on the floor with one towel strategically covering her ass, and one underneath her breasts on the floor. Dorian got down on one knee and started gently working the muscles in her back and shoulders.

"Anything hurt? Any tight spots?" he asked.

"I don't know... I don't think so. Maybe I just want some attention on my body. I work hard for this, someone needs to appreciate it."

"Oh I'm sure plenty of people appreciate it, just check your inbox amirite?"

"Hmph. Not like that."

"So, what do you mean then? Like, appreciated but not objectified or something?"

"Maybe. I think so."

"Well, I definitely appreciate how you take care of your own body."

She flopped her head the other way to look at him out of the corner of her eye. "Ack!"

"Oh, does that tickle?"

"Hehehehe stooooop," she twitched as he probed a spot on her side.

"OK, I'll leave that alone. You good on the back?"

"Yeah. Should I turn over?"

"Only if you want your front to be appreciated."

"But that's my good side?"

"Liar, that is not your butt side."

"That's not what I said!"

"Isn't it?"

"Jerk. You're mean. I thought you weren't going to be like all those guys."

"I'm just helping you get in touch with how you really feel. Isn't that what you wanted?"

"I'm not sure what I wanted," she said, turning over, pulling the towels into place over her groin and chest as she did.

"But I do," Ovidia said, materializing into the room through the floor.

'Can she see you?' Dorian said silently, only forming the shapes of the words with his mouth.

"No, can't hear, can't see. I'm not here, except... inside you."

Dorian cocked his head at her in confusion, but shook his head, knowing if he said anything out loud the whole thing would get crazy really fast.

"We talk later. Now is time for doing. Take the charge. Touch her as you do before, and then, once all skin has been touched, remove towels."

He did exactly has she said, rubbing gently over every inch of exposed skin. Then he pulled the towel back from her breasts by running his hands straight up her stomach and under the cloth and let it slide on the back of his hands, up towards her neck. She gasped, pulling her hands to cover her nipples, eyes wide in shock.

"Wh-what are you doing!?" she said.

"You wanted to be appreciated. I'm appreciating you. You're beautiful, you know."

She blinked rapidly several times. "You... really think so?"

"Oh, yes. You're gorgeous."

"And you... want to touch me?"

"If that's OK."

She bit her lip, then nodded, letting her hands fall away. "Be gent-OH!"

His palms found her nipples and rubbed across them, making little circles and then letting them trail between his fingers as he drew his hands down to her stomach again, then further south.

"I- but- you-" she stammered. "Mmmmm, that feels good!"

He worked his way further down, then tore away the towel covering her pelvis.

"Nyaah! Wait! What are you-!"

"You did not want this to be appreciated?" Dorian said, looking at her with mock confusion.

"W-well. That's. I mean..."

He ran his fingers down into the cleft of her thighs, making her shiver and her legs parted.

"Just say stop if you want me to stop," he said.

"N-no..."

"No, don't stop, or no I don't want-"

"Oh! Don't stop! But you couldn't possibly appreciate-"

"Now," said the succubus, "Offer to let her feel touch of the tongue."

"On the contrary, I can. And I'll bet my tongue will appreciate it even more," Dorian said.

She sat up suddenly, a wild look in her eyes. "There's only one way to truly appreciate that."

She embraced him and pulled him down on top of her, kissing him passionately. He continued appreciating her breasts and nipples with his fingers, and she moaned into him hard, shuddering.

"Get up," she said, pushing him away abruptly.

He stood, keeping his face passive. She stood and started undressing him; his clothes joined hers on the carpet floor in short order. She sank to her knees and trailed her tongue down from his belly button to his thigh, then over to the base of his cock and licked side to side as she traveled back up it to the top. She stopped and looked up at him, breathing on the head of his cock with her mouth open. She kissed the tip slowly, took a tiny bit in.

Ovidia snapped her fingers, breaking him out of the silent reverie for a moment.

"God, you're sexy," he said.

She smiled widely, then took him into her mouth. He finally started breathing again, groaning with a deep pleasure that shot through him from the core outwards.

"Mmm, you like that?" she teased.

"Fuck yes, I do," he said.

"Then you're gonna love this."

She started stroking his cock with one hand, following the motion with her mouth, taking him a little deeper each time. Before too long, he was dripping with her spit. His breath hitched every time she hit the bottom of her stroke, and he moaned a little when she pulled all the way back up.

"Now I think you can appreciate this," she said, lying back and lifting her legs to give him a full view of her pussy. "Don't keep a girl waiting."

Dorian didn't need to be told twice. He mounted her right there in the living room floor, curtains open to the world, although there was no one to see in through the privacy fence other than the dogs that just sat there staring. Dorian wasn't bothered; he knew dogs would hump anything and everything, so they weren't judging him, and they wouldn't tell a soul.

"Hnnngh, you're so big inside me," she groaned.

"It's not that I'm big, it's that you're so tight," Dorian countered.

"It's both," she replied with a grin.

"Damn, you're so wet, too," he said.

"It's those strong hands. If you weren't so... fuck! King! Good! Aaaurgh!"

He started thrusting in earnest now that he felt they were both warmed up. This was exactly what he'd been hoping for.

"Damn, you're too sensational. I can't last like this."

"Don't come inside me, you can come anywhere just not inside."

"Sit up," he commanded.

He grabbed a hand and pushed her up and down on his shaft with one of her hands while one of his did the same. In moments, he erupted, spraying her face and chest with white liquidy goodness.

"Hmmm.... you sure know how to show a girl a good time," she said, trailing it around her nipples with a finger.

"There's more where that came from," he said.

"Now, let's not get ahead of ourselves," she said, getting up and going into one of the bathrooms to get cleaned up.

She came back a bit more composed, quickly put on her clothing, and led him out. He had sensed a shift in the mood and gotten dressed as well, and followed her out the back.

"This was fun. Maybe we'll talk again sometime."

"I'd like that."

She leaned in to kiss him, then turned and walked down the street towards her house. But something about her tone had said, no, never again.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Emilee had ghosted on him, too. One day, bubbly and cheerful and friendly, the next - just gone. He hadn't gotten his car fixed where he'd run into hers, either, but there wasn't really anything wrong with it so he wasn't as upset about that as he was that she wasn't returning his messages. After a few weeks, he had given up. So now he'd found someone else to sate his appetite, but she had been a one-time thing also. The succubus got him the hook-up, but she never set the stage for anything that lasted. Except for her own part of the bargain, which-

"Is time."

Dorian groaned. "Do I have to?"

"No."

"Really!?"

"Alternate is, whole spark."

"You can't have my soul!"

"Then, yes, have to."

He made a long-suffering groan.

His sister's voice came through the door. "What's the matter, dork? Lose your game again?"

Ovidia pointed.

"Hey, come in here a sec," Dorian said, scowling at the succubus.

Tatiana stuck her head in carefully, looking around straight past the succubus. Dorian waved her in, and she came.

"Close the door. I guess we ought to get some things straight between us. Considering everything."

She looked at him, searching with a frown of concentration.

"...thirty minutes. My room. Leave your phone."

"Uh... what?"

"Meet me there. Or don't. Those are my terms."

He shrugged. "OK."

She left, and he rubbed his face for a minute, then went back to his video games. After a little bit, Ovidia snapped her fingers in front of his eyes.

"Alright, alr- oh, hey, it's almost been thirty minutes."

He got up, and Ovidia pointed to his dresser.

"Exactly there? A few inches left?" he said sarcastically, putting his phone down there.

Ovidia crooked a finger, and vanished through the wall into the hallway. He opened his door to see Tatiana standing with her hand raised to knock, with a weird expression on her face. She looked over at the phone on his dressed.

"Who were you talking to?" she said.

"My imaginary friend, obviously?"

She shook her head, noticed that the phone's screen was off, then smirked. "He's not THAT small."

His mouth dropped open. It took him the whole walk to her room to figure out what she was talking about.

"Hey now, I'll have you know-"

She pointed to their parents' door, just down the hall. Meaning, don't talk about your cock overtly where they can hear. He glared at the back of her head. She shut the door behind him and gestured for him to sit on the bed. Ovidia floated in from somewhere and made as if to sit on Tatiana's dresser.

"So. You go first," Tatiana said.

"I feel like I should have a speech all prepared now, for some reason. But I don't. So, well... we kinda crossed a line the other day. And uh, before that. There could be consequences. I figured we should talk about what that means, for both of us. I have, you know, concerns. But I figure you do, too. If you want to share them, feel free."

Her head drooped, and she rubbed at her eye. "I have an apology to make, then. All this time, I thought you were setting me up. Like, you were going to catch me in some embarrassing confession and ruin my life. You post the wrong video to the internet these days, you never come back from it. Instant death."

"That's why you wanted to do this in your room?"

She nodded, sniffling. "Any hint that I want to..."

"Kiss your brother?"

She nodded again. "Not quite the word I had in mind, but yeah. Even the perception or suggestion of something and I'm toast. I'll never live it down."

"...leaving aside the word you mean there, let's stay on the topic of consequences. I'd rather avoid them too."

"And still on that subject, you said you took a dare. What's going on with that?"

"Yeah, naturally you'd have some concerns there. Let me just say, no living person knows the real truth about us."

Ovidia didn't count as alive, did she? I mean, she didn't even have a body, and no one else could see her. Technically, she WAS his imaginary friend, for all purposes he could figure.

"But you won't tell me about it?"

He sighed. "I made a bet. I put down a lot of money. If I didn't follow through, I'd lose it all."

"And how would they know that you did or didn't do it?"

"They have a... behavioral specialist. Just looking at me, she'd know if I was lying. We had a video chat."

Which, technically, was true as far as he knew.

"They?"

"Well, I only know about her."

"But they told you to do that. What do they know about us? Do they live here? Could they identify us?"

"No, they're not from around here. I don't think they'd know how to contact anyone we know."

As far as he knew, there was no way for her to send a message across that divide. But it was a very thin technicality, and based on a number of dangerous assumptions, like, the probability that if the succubus hadn't done something already, that she couldn't in the future.

"You don't think?"

"Look, if you start going down the what-if path, you can get yourself into a very dark place. I'm choosing to believe that it can still be OK."

She nodded. "Makes sense, I guess. So the question now is, now what?"

"Yeah, exactly. We can't change what happened. But we can choose where we go from here."

She hugged her knees. "Do you regret it? If you could go back and do it differently, would you?"

"If I knew what I know now, of course I would. I'd buy a lottery ticket."

She frowned angrily at him. "That's not-"

"-what you meant, I know. I was trying to give myself another moment to think about it. But I keep coming back to the conclusion that I don't know, because the most important thing is what hasn't happened yet, the things in our future. It could be great. It could be terrible."

She put her head on her knees. "Tell me about the great part."

He swallowed nervously. "Well, I don't get to decide all of that. Some of it is up to you. What do you want to happen?"

"Let's start with you first. What do YOU want to happen?"

"I want to feel like I really lived my life. I don't want to reach the end and have regrets."

"What does that mean, exactly?"

"I want to have meaningful relationships in my life. Real family. Not this walking-on-eggshells bullshit I do around dad, because The Bible says we're not allowed to have fun. I distinctly remember something about repenting and being forgiven, so what does it matter if I make a few mistakes along the way? How do I not explore and figure out the gifts I've been given?"

"Like that parable we were taught in Sunday School," she said. "With the three brothers."

"Which one?"

"You know, where the father gives his sons some money. Two of them invest in different kinds of business, and one of them buries the money because he's afraid of losing it in a bad deal, and disappointing his father. But it turns out that was the most disappointing thing he could have done with it."