Harem House - Selene Pt. 08

The living room had a fireplace in the middle of the left wall and a closet door just before the hallway on the right. He could see the open door to the bathroom and the closed doors to the two bedrooms. The television was above the fireplace in place of a mirror, and the sofa that faced it was L-shaped, also acting as a divider between the living room and kitchen area.

"I hope you like chicken thighs." Kelly said as she set the wine on the counter. The stove timer told Arthur they still had a few minutes. "Would you like something to drink while we wait? You like whiskey, right?"

"Uh... yeah." Arthur nodded. Again, surprised that she recalled what he'd told her on their first date.

"Ice?" Kelly asked as she moved about the kitchen while Arthur stood near the table, not sure what to offer to help.

"Yeah, one or two." Arthur said. "Do you need any help? I can-"

"No. Please, take a seat on the sofa. I meant to finish this before you got here, but I didn't get the timing right." Kelly gestured toward the large overstuffed gray sofa.

Arthur nodded and moved toward it. He sat, but he felt guilty. "You sure there's nothing I can do to help?"

"I appreciate it." Kelly said as she came out of the kitchen carrying a glass with two ice cubes and half-full of whiskey. She placed it in his hand with a smile. "But stay out of my kitchen." She narrowed her eyes at him for a moment and then laughed. "So, how have you been?"

"Since this morning?" Arthur asked with a slight chuckle.

"In general, I suppose." Kelly asked as she sat on the perpendicular section of the couch, toward its far end, so she was closer to the fireplace and practically across from him. She crossed her legs and folded her hands over her knees.

"Good." Arthur nodded. "Been pretty busy with class, work, the usual."

"You're in the grad program, right?" Kelly asked.

"Well, it's sort of like a merged Grad/Undergrad program, but yes, I'll have my MBA by the end of it all." Arthur nodded.

"And what do you hope to do with it?" Kelly asked. "When you're done with school?"

"Get a job managing somebody else's business." Arthur answered with a slight smirk. "I'll probably end up in someone's financial department keeping their books straight and crunching their numbers."

"I always enjoyed Math." Kelly said with a slight smile. "I know you're supposed to hate it, but I never did."

"Ah, then clearly, you've never tried accounting math. It's a special kind that makes everyday math seem fun and uncomplicated." Arthur chuckled, then took a sip of his whiskey. It was good. Maker's Mark, if he had to guess. He wasn't a whiskey expert but knew a few brands by taste. "This is good, thank you." He raised the glass to her. She smiled in response and smoothed her skirt.

"Is that anything like Engineer math? I hear that's a bear too." Kelly straightened a little.

"I wouldn't know." Arthur shrugged. "Are you learning Engineer math?"

"No. My roommate's boyfriend complains about it a lot." Kelly shook her head. "As a soon-to-be Elementary school teacher, all they teach me is elementary math. Maybe that's why I don't hate it."

"Or maybe you just like math." Arthur shrugged. "That's okay too."

Kelly smiled.

"Is your practicum starting next semester?" Arthur asked.

"No, practicum started this semester with a few of my other classes. Student teaching starts next semester. So I'll be in the classroom, learning on the job, as it were." Kelly sounded thoughtful by the time she finished speaking but didn't reveal what she was thinking about beyond the words she'd already spoken. Arthur was about to ask her about it when the timer on the stove went off.

Kelly smiled and clapped her hands. "Dinner's ready." She said with a nod. "Do you like cauliflower, by the way?"

"I do." Arthur nodded. "You know me. I eat healthy."

Kelly smiled. "Good. I do too." She stopped at the edge of the kitchen and picked up an apron hanging on the hook. Arthur stood as if he were going to help, but she pointed to the table and said "take a seat, mister."

Arthur nodded and took a seat. Kelly came over to the table, moved the napkins on the plates to the side, then took up the plates, returned a minute later, and placed them down. She put one in front of Arthur and one on her side of the table. The food smelled great, and the plate was full. They each had two chicken thighs that looked herb-roasted to perfection, accompanied by a stir-fry of vegetables she must've been keeping warm in the oven and paired with the white whine he'd brought.

He heard her take the bottle from the bucket and open the cork. He looked up to see her pouring it into two wine glasses. Then she returned to the table sans apron and placed those in their places. He thought she was going to sit down, but she strode away, struck a match, lit the two candles on either side of them, and dimmed the apartment lights. It made for a rather romantic atmosphere. The only thing missing was-

Instrumental music started playing low from a speaker somewhere. Arthur looked around, but Kelly caught his attention as she came to the table and took her seat across from him. She was smiling like the cat that ate the canary, obviously pleased with how the meal had turned out and that everything had gone to plan.

"This is all really impressive." Arthur said with a smile evident in his tone. "You didn't have to go to all this trouble, though."

"No trouble." Kelly assured him. "I wanted to do this, remember?"

"Yeah." Arthur agreed. "I just feel kinda useless."

"You can help me with dessert." Kelly assured him. "I promise." She smiled. "And you have to pick the movie for after dinner, remember?"

"Right." Arthur nodded. "Any preferences?"

"I feel like something romantic might be appropriate." Kelly said with a smirk. "But I'm sure I'll like whatever you pick. I'm not that picky."

Arthur nodded. He felt a little out of place, even though he was dressed as nicely as she was. This whole evening had been her idea, and he went along with it and was having fun. It was a little unusual, but that was what made it fun. It was unique. And honestly, she did look amazing. Still, the thought of Selene came to his mind unbidden, and after a few bites of the delicious chicken from his fork, he felt like he had to address it.

"Kelly..." Arthur started.

"Yes?" Kelly asked, looking up. "What is it? Is something wrong with your chicken?"

"What?" Arthur asked, confused for a second. "No, not at all." He shook his head as his brain caught up to what she'd asked. "It's delicious."

"Oh, good." Kelly visibly relaxed. "It's a recipe I hadn't tried before, and I was nervous because I haven't really cooked like this in a while. My mom and I used to cook together all the time. I've flown solo, so to speak, a few times now, but not all that often." She said hurriedly.

"It's delicious." Arthur assured her. "I just wanted to ask, uh... with the wine, and the dinner, and the dressing up-"

"Are you weirded out by it?" Kelly asked. "I just thought it might be fun. I've had this dress for a while, and I've never had an excuse to wear it, and then I thought I might wear it out on a date with you, but then I invited you here to Netflix and chill, but I thought we could spice it up a little. Did I make it weird?"

"No, no- wait, to Netflix and chill?" Arthur was suddenly jolted in his train of thought from reassuring her to curiosity about what she'd said.

Kelly's blush was possibly the hottest thing he'd ever seen. Her breasts pushed against her sweetheart neckline as she took a deep breath, and Arthur looked back down to his plate to keep from leering.

"Yeah." Kelly admitted after a few moments of silence. "Did you not get that?"

"I did not." Arthur admitted with an embarrassed chuckle. "It makes sense now that you point it out, I guess. I just... wasn't thinking about it like that. I was thinking of it as a second date kind of thing. You know?"

Kelly raised an eyebrow. "So you don't want to Netflix and chill?"

"I did not say that." Arthur said immediately, which prompted Kelly to laugh. Arthur laughed too, and they fell into silence once more.

"So..." Kelly gestured.

"So...?" Arthur asked.

"What did you want to ask me?" Kelly asked as she stabbed some vegetables with her fork.

"Oh." Arthur nodded. "Right." He, too, stabbed some vegetables with his fork but paused before he raised it to his mouth. "I guess I just wanted to know what you wanted out of... this." He gestured to himself and then to her with his free hand.

"Out of dating you?" Kelly asked.

"Well, I mean, yeah." Arthur nodded. "I mean, I wasn't sure what you wanted. If you were thinking of it as if we were just going on dates, or if we were dating, or... what you were thinking."

"You mean, do I think we're exclusive?" Kelly asked for clarification. "Oh my god, did a guy just bring up The What Are We To Each Other Talk before the girl did? Is that a thing that happens?" She laughed and shook her head, then lifted her wine glass to her lips and took a drink.

"I uh-" Arthur started but stopped when she put her glass down and looked at him.

"Look." Kelly started. "I'll be honest with you. I like you."

Arthur nodded. That was a good thing, right?

"I like you a lot." She assured him. "But the timing... is not great for me. I'm super slammed this semester, and as much as I enjoy going on dates with you, I don't think I have the time in my schedule for a boyfriend. So if you're okay keeping things casual... then so am I."

"When you say casual..." Arthur hesitated.

"I mean, I intend to have fun. It's my last semester for it. And I want to have fun with you." She assured him. "But if you're looking for a full-time girlfriend, or want to get engaged before I graduate like a surprising amount of the other seniors, then I don't think this will work out. For now, if you want things to work out between us, we have to keep things casual. At least until after I graduate." She hesitated momentarily as if that were the end of her prepared speech. Her next question was deflated by comparison. "Is that okay?"

"Yeah." Arthur nodded. "It's okay. I just want to make sure we're on the same page."

"You're okay with keeping things light and casual?" Kelly asked.

"Yeah." Arthur nodded. "I think that's probably best on my end too, but I wanted to talk to you about it. I wanted to know if you wanted to be exclusive, more serious, or keep things casual."

"Oh?" Kelly asked, suddenly slightly more alert than she had been a moment ago. "I guess that makes sense. If we're keeping things light and casual, I guess we're not exclusive."

"Is that okay?" Arthur asked.

"Yeah. I just hadn't considered it. I should have. That was dumb." Kelly shook her head. "Of course, you have other girls you're interested in."

"You're the only one I asked out." Arthur corrected her. "But a few have asked me out, and I didn't want to go out with them if you wanted to be exclusive."

"So you would turn them down if I said so?" Kelly asked.

Arthur hesitated, but looking up and into her eyes, he felt compelled to answer. "Yes."

She seemed surprised but did her best to hide it with her napkin. She dabbed the corners of her lips and then returned to eating, lifting her fork from the plate with a medley of vegetables.

"Well." She said after a moment. "Who is my competition?"

Arthur chuckled and shook his head. "I thought you wanted to keep things casual?" He asked. "Do I get to ask about my competition?"

Kelly frowned. "I don't think you'll have any. You're the only guy to ask me out the entire time I've been here."

It was Arthur's turn to look surprised. "That can't be true."

Kelly shrugged and looked down at her plate. "I'm not saying I haven't..." She seemed to hesitate to find the right word and, like most people discussing sex, decided on a sports analogy. "...played the field." She explained. "But mostly that was just tinder dates, hookups, parties, that kind of thing. I had one girl go out with me a few times back in sophomore year, but she ended up getting back together with her ex."

Arthur nodded and kept eating.

"You took that really well." Kelly commented.

"Took what really well? Keeping things casual?"

"No. Me being bi." Kelly explained.

"Oh, well, it's not a big deal, right? I know a lot of bi, gay, lesbian, queer, trans, and even some plus people." He tried to make a joke, which worked to a certain extent. Kelly laughed. "It comes with the territory when you do theater, I think."

"I see." Kelly nodded. "It doesn't bother you then?"

"Well, I'm a little worried that I have twice the competition you do if we decide to become exclusive." He admitted. He took a sip of his wine and then shrugged. "But no, it doesn't bother me. Why should it?"

"It weirds some guys out." Kelly explained. "Or they're afraid I'm secretly a lesbian and just aren't ready to admit it. Or they immediately think that I'll be down for a threesome with the hot girl they really like just because I'm bi."

"You are the hot girl I really like." Arthur shrugged. "Not that I wouldn't be down for a threesome if you wanted one, just to be clear, but it wasn't my first thought. My first thought was: wow. I'm fortunate no one's swept you off your feet yet."

Kelly smirked and shook her head. "Now you're picturing me in a threesome because I mentioned it."

Arthur slowly shook his head. "No... of course not." He said in a dramatically overacted fashion that Kelly couldn't help but laugh at and toss her napkin at him for it. He caught it and offered it back to her.

"It really is okay." He assured her. "It's good."

"Good." Kelly smirked and went back to her wine.

Silence passed between them for a few minutes, punctuated only by the shifting between eating and drinking.

"So..." Arthur broke the silence gently. "How was your week?"

"It was busy." Kelly said honestly. "Practicum has me running a little ragged, and I've got lesson plans to write this weekend."

"Sounds stressful." Arthur sympathized.

"It is, but what else is new?" She shrugged, which Arthur couldn't help but notice did amazing things to that sweetheart neckline. They chewed in companionable silence for a few minutes more before she asked: "So what did you want out of dating me? Another notch in your belt?"

"Excuse me?" Arthur asked.

"Sorry. That was rude of me." Kelly apologized. "I only meant to tease you."

"You're not a notch in my belt, Kelly." Arthur shook his head. "You're the first girl I asked out when I started dating again. Technically, you're the only girl I asked out when I started dating again." He laughed slightly. "The others asked me." He explained.

"Ah, so my competition takes the initiative." Kelly raised her eyebrow. "Good to know." She shook her head. "So, why did you ask me out? If you've got girls chasing you already?" Kelly asked.

"Because I've had a crush on you for years, and after Lori dumped me and transferred, I thought if I was going to date again, I should at least try and have the courage to go after someone I really liked." Arthur admitted it with as much honesty as he could muster. He couldn't judge the effect right away since Kelly looked down at her plate rather than at him when he looked up.

"Really?" Kelly asked softly, almost surprised.

"Uh..." Arthur paused. "Yeah." He finally agreed. "You're sweet, funny, we have a lot of the same interests, and you're hands down the hottest woman I know. I figured I had to take a shot."

Kelly smiled and finally looked up at him. Her green eyes had a fire in them when she locked eyes with him. It was an intense look, and Arthur wasn't sure how to react.

"I've had a crush on you for a while too." Kelly admitted. "I like watching you work out at the gym." She smirked. "Hope you don't mind."

"I don't mind." He assured her. "I check you out from time to time too."

"I know." Kelly smirked but continued eating. It wasn't long before they'd cleaned their plates, and Kelly stood and reached across the table to take his. He protested and stood to pick up his own plate, but she snatched it away from him and took it to the sink. She dumped the chicken bones in the garbage.

Arthur took his suit jacket off and hung it on the back of the chair. Then he started rolling up his sleeves. Kelly watched as he bared his forearms and folded the cuffs into crisp lines at his elbows.

"What are you doing?" Kelly asked.

"I'm going to do the dishes." Arthur answered. "The least I can do since you did all the cooking."

"Nonsense." Kelly answered. "You go pick a movie." She shooed him toward the living room. "I'm just going to put these in the sink."

"No." Arthur answered. "I'm going to wash them. Since you know where everything goes, you can dry and put them away."

"I don't have an apron for you." Kelly warned him.

"Don't worry about it." Arthur said firmly and then followed through. She watched him wash and took up a towel to dry them off. As he placed them in the dish rack, she'd pick them up, dry them off, and put them away wherever they went, sometimes reaching up to place them in a cabinet or bending down in the case of the roasting pans.

"Now, go pick a movie." Kelly slapped his butt with her towel in a playful way, and he smirked, but the heat in his eyes made her pause for a moment. At first, she was afraid she'd misstepped. He looked like he was about to take that towel from her and more if she let him. Then she realized that wasn't a misstep. It was an invitation.

"What about dessert?" Arthur asked.

"After the movie." She assured him.

"You said I could help with it." He reminded her.

"And you will, I promise." She smiled. "Now sit on that sofa, and put something on the television. I'll be right there."

"Okay." Arthur relented. He moved over to the sofa and waited for her to join him, but she didn't. At least, not at first. She went into the hallway instead and disappeared. He took the remote up from its spot on the couch cushions, sat more or less centered across from the TV, and turned it on. He wanted to find something romantic and somewhat sexy, but also something he wouldn't mind missing if her offer of Netflix and Chill was still on the table.

Judging by what she wore when she returned, it was still her entire plan. Arthur turned to look over his shoulder at her when he heard her footsteps, and his heart nearly stopped. She wore a sheer lace babydoll lingerie dress of dark emerald green that only lightly obscured her pink nipples, and the matching green thong beneath it was little more than three straps and a small triangle of transparent silk lace.

"Do you like my outfit?" She asked as she posed with one leg slightly forward, pushing through the slit of material below her waist.

Arthur could only nod. Her body was perfection itself. She was tall, and her form was firm in all the right places but curved and voluptuous. Her hips were wide, and the lines between them and her torso were tantalizingly sharp. Those hips flared out through the slits of the lingerie's skirt, with hard lines showing off the muscles of her lightly toned stomach and sleek thighs. The green ribbon high around the narrowest part of her waist cinched it and showed off the curve as her flat stomach gave way to her D-cup breasts. Her pale skin was spattered with dark, tantalizing freckles.

The stretched lace did its best to support her naturally pert bust. It was a dark enough color to compliment her eyes rather than match them. Arthur could still see the dark circles of her areolas beneath it, more prominent than he'd imagined they would be and tight against the fabric as they hardened while he looked at them. Every line, every curve, every inch of her body drew his eyes in, and wouldn't let go.

"I see that you do." Kelly cooed as she slunk onto the sofa beside him. She placed her arm on the back of the couch behind him and sat directly next to him. Kelly faced him while his body faced the television, but his head was turned toward her.