Right Place Right Time

"Shit, that's my father," she whispered sharply, leaping off Ayden's lap and wriggling her dress back into place down her hips and up over her chest.

Ayden sprang from the chair and yanked his pants up as he heard a door slam somewhere in the hall. He just finished doing up his belt when the library door flew open. The grey-bearded man who stepped in did not look happy.

"I've been looking for you," the man growled at his daughter. "You are supposed to be mingling, as we agreed, not hiding in my library with --" He turned his focus on Ayden and demanded, "Who the hell are you?"

Mandy's mouth dropped open in surprise as she looked back and forth between the two men. Then she burst into a gleeful laugh.

"You're bringing strangers into my house for your licentious romps?" her father accused, his face flushing a deep red that contrasted dramatically with his beard.

"What, just because I'm in here with a man, you think I fucked him?" Mandy challenged with theatrical offence.

Her father didn't answer, instead directing his eyes down at her feet. Both Ayden and Mandy followed his gaze to see the little puddle of semen on the floor between her high heels.

Shit, Ayden thought. Busted. But Mandy just shrugged, looking amused.

"Clean yourself up, put on something appropriate -- including underwear -- and return to the event," the man ordered his daughter. Then he spun on his heel and left.

"Oh my god," Mandy laughed, "I love that you just crashed my father's party -- and his daughter!"

"I guess I did," he said, amused at her ribald statement. "I'm surprised he didn't seem that interested in me."

"Oh, he's interested. I strongly recommend you cut out before Paul gets here."

"Paul?"

"My dad's head of security. Takes his job very seriously."

"Oh. Shit. Okay," Ayden stammered, feeling awkward about just running off. "So, it was nice meeting you, and, um, thanks for --"

"Very seriously," she repeated more urgently.

Ayden got the message. A second later, he was out the door and scampering down the hall, backtracking the two turns to get to the party room where his magic door home awaited him. When he saw the entryway ahead, he thanked his good luck -- a moment too soon.

"Hold it right there, asshole!" came a shout from behind him.

Over his shoulder, he saw a menacing hulk in a black suit closing in on him. Paul had arrived. Ayden bolted, emerging into the grand room and frantically searching for the bar, knowing his escape hid in the alcove next to it. He spotted it but saw two more black-suited figures moving to head him off.

Ayden burst into an all-out sprint for the alcove, not caring about disrupting the party. He could hear the footfalls of men running his way as he reached the dim alcove and crashed against the door. Scrabbling for the doorknob, he yanked the door open and dove through.

* * * * * * *

In Wyn-Find, just feet away from the calm old man looking up from his book, Ayden slammed the door and clutched the knob with both hands, pulling fiercely to hold it shut.

"That's quite an entrance," Dak said.

"More like exit," Ayden corrected. "Does this door lock?"

"Nope. But don't worry, no one else can open it -- or find it. That's your door."

Ayden sighed with relief and released the doorknob, then couldn't help but laugh.

"Things not so good this time?" Dak inquired.

"Oh, the main thing was fantastic! Just a little follow-up thing that was best avoided. I could really use that cup of coffee now."

"Comin' right up." Dak prepared a mug for his returned patron and joined him at the small coffee nook table.

"The people I meet on the other side of the door, are they real?" Ayden asked.

"Real people, real places, real times."

"But the right places and right times, is that it?"

"That's it," Dak answered simply.

The two men sat quietly as Ayden drank his coffee and replayed the memories of his recent pleasures. Eventually, Dak leaned forward and asked, "So tell me, son, you finding what you need on the other side of that door?"

Ayden couldn't help grinning broadly. "I'll spare you the details, but I've just had two of the most thrilling sexual experiences any guy could ever want."

"Oh, I know the door is giving you what you want. I asked if you're finding what you need."

"I don't get what you mean."

The shop door swished open, drawing Dak's attention. He stood and gave Ayden a pat on the shoulder. "You think on it," the old man said, then went to attend to his customer.

* * * * * * *

Ayden cuddled Elaine in her queen-sized bed, both of them wiped out after two hours of energetic sex. It was his seventh jaunt through the magic door and, as always, it dropped him in just the right place at just the right time.

So why was he feeling hollow? Not the kind of hollow a guy feels after three intense ejaculations, which he had just experienced. Instead, the kind that feels like something's missing.

It wasn't Elaine -- no, she turned out to be a wonderful person and a super sex partner. So what was going on inside him?

Every one of his experiences through the door over the past three weeks had been another fantasy made flesh -- Imani, the hospital nurse on an intense twelve-hour shift in desperate need of a quick pleasurable release; Sheila, the jogger on the forest trail wanting to indulge in the sensations of her newly slimmed body; Violet, the erotic novelist battling writer's block looking for a muse and running into him right there between the library bookshelves.

Then the last one, Kayla, the topless sunbather on the secluded beach. She wasn't at all fazed about a stranger walking by with her tanned breasts in full view, instead wondering why a man would wear a suit to the beach and inviting him to peel it off. Sex in the sand, then sex in the sea, like a mermaid fantasy.

And now here he was, having just enjoyed Elaine to the fullest. She was a thirty-eight-year-old recently divorced single mom, but to Ayden she was a curvaceous vivacious sex goddess.

The door had placed him outside a shed in the backyard of a vacant house for sale on a typical suburban street. It was morning. Out on the sidewalk, he saw a young boy boarding a school bus, waving back at his bathrobe-clad mom standing in the doorway of their house.

As Ayden was passing, the woman's cat leaped out into the front yard before she could close the door. She moved to give chase, but then stopped short, remembering she was in her robe. Ayden grabbed the cat and brought it to her, and she thanked him effusively.

The school bus had pulled away. She invited him in for a thank-you coffee.

Elaine expressed that she in no way made a habit of inviting strange men into her home like this, particularly considering she hadn't even dressed yet or applied any make-up. But the cat obviously meant a lot to her, and she grew teary-eyed thanking him again as she hugged the feline.

Ayden assured her that she looked more than fine in her natural morning state, and that he was happy to grab her cat.

She stared at him for a long time after that, and the next thing Ayden knew, they were in her bedroom. Off came the robe, beneath which she wore only white cotton panties, which she peeled off in a flash, diving into her bed and pulling the covers over herself. In her brief exposure, he glimpsed a beautiful figure with alluring full curves.

Ayden stripped naked and stood next to the bed. Grasping the covers, he yanked them off, telling her, "If we're going to do this, I want to see that gorgeous body."

And do it they did. And did. And did again. Three times she took him in deep for what seemed like a thousand thrusts, clutching him each time he came like she wanted to soak him up completely. And three times Ayden elevated her to climaxes that had her screaming from her orgasmic mountaintop. He loved every minute of it.

Now they were cuddling, and he liked this too, the feel of her soft boobs pressed against the side of his chest and the feel of her soaked crotch on his hip.

So what the fuck was the hollow feeling intruding on this happy scene? He just didn't get it. He resolved to smother it by reliving the memory of the past hour and a half with this naked Venus lying next to him -- the dancing of her D-cup beauties when he was on top, the bouncing of said beauties when she rode him with zest, the view of that sweet heart-shaped ass as he took her from behind ...

Ayden sensed a change and opened his eyes to discover Elaine watching him.

"What's got you smiling like that?" she asked.

"I was just reflecting on the benefits of catching runaway cats."

Elaine rolled onto her back put her hands over her face. "Oh my god, I can't believe I just did this. And you're so young. Does that make me a cougar or MILF or some shit like that now?"

Ayden gently pulled her hands away from her face. "I'm not that young. And you're not anything but you. And let me just say ... you is amazing."

She gave a little snort of laughter. "You're sweet. Whatever it was that came over me, I'm lucky it was you passing by and not some asshole to make me regret it. I have enough regrets already."

"Your ex?"

"Yeah. But that's nothing I want to talk about. I just want to think about the pure physical satisfaction I feel right now. I haven't had sex in almost a year, since the divorce, and before that wasn't anything special for a long time even when it did happen."

"That's rough," Ayden sympathized. "But I guess you just made up for that -- three times over."

She slapped his shoulder playfully. "Aren't you proud of yourself?"

"Well, kinda."

"Well, you should be."

They laughed and held each other for several more minutes. Then Elaine spoke in a sober tone. "I did the right thing, getting the divorce. The love was gone. But as fucked up as it seems, sometimes I just feel so lonely."

At her words, that hollowness returned like an icy knife to his chest. "I get it," he said, stroking her hair, not wanting to elaborate. She deserved to just feel good right now.

Elaine placed her hand on his cheek. "That's my shit to deal with, but I really needed to feel like a woman again, and you delivered. You made me feel beautiful and desirable."

Ayden smiled and kissed her hand, then gave her a long, tender kiss on the mouth.

"I'm happy you showed up, Ayden," she said. "You saved my pussy."

There was a heartbeat pause as the double entendre hit home, and then they both burst into laughter, rolling over each other with the fun of the moment.

Finally leaving the bed, they showered together to clean up after three rounds of fantastic sex, but then couldn't help themselves once they got all soapy and added a fourth round under the warm stream of water.

Elaine slipped back into her robe as Ayden dressed, then led him downstairs to her front door. When she turned to face him again, he saw the shift in her demeanour, and he knew what was coming.

"Ayden, I need to say something and I hope you won't take it wrong. I really loved this -- God, you have no idea how much -- but I have to ask you not to come around again. This has to stay a one-time thing. I hope you understand."

A pang ran through him. Her words were far kinder than sunbathing Kayla's final "You're blocking my sun" dismissal, but they amounted to the same thing. Still, Elaine was different.

Ayden smiled back at her. "To be accurate, it was four times," he said, earning another slap to his shoulder, but pleased to make her smile. "Don't worry, I get it. And that thing you said before, about me making you feel beautiful and desirable? You don't need me for that ... you just are."

Elaine embraced him and they shared their warmth one last time before she let him out and closed her door.

* * * * * * *

"Welcome back, my boy! You've been gone nearly three hours. Thought maybe you got lost."

Ayden closed the supernatural door behind him and gave his friend a half-hearted smile. "Time well spent."

"Good to hear," Dak said as he got to his feet and gestured to the coffee nook, where a steaming mug sat on the table. "Your coffee's ready."

Ayden sat and took a sip, surprised to find the coffee hot. "How did you know when I'd be back?" he asked.

The old man shrugged as he lowered himself into the facing chair. "Something special this time?" he inquired.

"The woman ... she was special," Ayden said with sincerity. "But it was still only sex. Just like all the other times. I won't be seeing her again."

"You sound discouraged. Isn't that what you said you were after?"

"Yeah, that's what I said I needed. But maybe it's just what I wanted. I'm starting to wonder about what I need. You said something about that a few weeks ago and I didn't get it, but I think I'm starting to now."

"What brought this on?"

"It was something about being with Elaine, and something she said."

"Elaine -- the special woman?"

"Yeah. I had such a great time with her, but after, I just felt this sense of, I don't know ... emptiness. And then we were talking, and Elaine said how she sometimes feels lonely, and it resonated with me in a way that didn't feel so good."

"Emptiness and loneliness. Doesn't sound like the door's working so hot."

Ayden chuckled at Dak's choice of words. "Hot is exactly what the door provides -- right place right time for hot sex, every time, just like I wanted. Hey, I can't believe you're making me defend the door while you criticize it," he jabbed. "I'm not blaming the door. I blame me."

"How so?"

"You told me I can find what I need here at Wyn-Find. Then that magic door shows up to take me to the right place right time for what I'm looking for. And I thought I knew what I was looking for, what I was missing in my life. Every experience on the other side of that door has been amazing, but the feeling doesn't last, because when I get back here, what happened there is gone. It's never something to go back to. Now I wonder what it is I'm actually trying to find."

"So you're confused and you think that's confusing the door," Dak summarized.

"Is that possible?"

"You're talking about a magic door and asking what's possible?"

Ayden conceded the point as he took a swallow of his coffee and pondered an idea forming in his head. "Back when the door first appeared, you told me that what I'd find on the other side came down to me."

Dak nodded.

"I remember saying that what I needed was just to get laid, and the door has most certainly provided. But maybe it's time for me to make a U-turn on that."

"A U-turn?"

Ayden perked up at what felt like clarity of thought forming into a plan. "I've had the sex, enjoyed the physical satisfaction. Now I need to target that emptiness, find the satisfaction that comes from connecting with the right woman, something deeper that will last."

"So your plan is to aim the door with your heart instead of your dick?"

Ayden snorted into his coffee but couldn't help agreeing. Dak asked how he intended to instigate this shift. Ayden considered the question and came to a conclusion he believed would work.

"I have to think about it," he answered.

"You mean you don't know?"

"No, I mean I have to really think about it, focus on it -- what I really want. What I need."

"And what would that 'it' be?" the old man asked.

"Something more, something real, something special that will last. Something like ... like ..."

"Like ...?"

"Something like what I had with Chloe."

Dak tilted his head. "The girl from the university library."

"You remember that story?" Ayden said with surprise.

"I remember how you looked when you told me that story," Dak replied. "You been thinking about this girl again?"

"No," Ayden lied. In fact, he had been thinking about her quite a bit lately. She was the best thing that ever happened to him and he was a fool to let her slip from his life. But that was the past. He had to look forward. He had to believe that kind of special connection could happen for him again.

"Something like what I had with her -- that's what I need," he told Dak, and he had faith that the door would provide.

* * * * * * *

Ayden closed the door and turned to find himself facing a row of urinals and a pair of toilet stalls. He frowned. For two whole days he had focused his thoughts on his need for a meaningful relationship with the perfect woman for him -- and the door deposits him in a men's washroom?

He exited the washroom into a bar. Through the fully open front entrance, he could see a busy hallway and expansive lounge areas with rows of seats. He was in a large city airport.

A perusal of the bar revealed three couples and five single men. Not looking too promising, he thought, but he grabbed a stool anyway, determined to believe in the door. When the bartender gave him an inquiring nod, he asked what time it was.

"Six-thirty," the man answered.

"Morning or evening?" Ayden asked.

"Long flight, huh? Evening."

Ayden ordered a beer. It was only eleven a.m. where he left, but he figured what the hell. As he took a sip, he noticed an unfinished glass of wine on the bar next to him and wondered absently why the bartender hadn't cleaned it away. He had his answer a moment later when a woman seated herself in front of it.

She was beautiful, mid-twenties, short blonde hair, piercing ice-blue eyes, and a lean body sheathed in a tight-fitting shirt and leggings. She turned a cute smile on him and asked what he was looking at.

"Just wondering whose wine that was."

She looked at the wine glass, then back at Ayden with a scowl. "Did you drug it?"

"What? No! I would never --"

The woman laughed. "I'm just fucking with you. The bartender was watching it for me."

Ayden smiled, instantly liking her.

"I'm Savanna."

"Ayden."

Savanna had a wicked sense of humour, which she applied liberally over the next half hour as they joked and chatted and shared a second round of drinks. Ayden felt a warm tingle in his gut. This was feeling so comfortable, so natural, connecting with this captivating woman. Could she be that special one? Had the magic door truly provided what he hoped for?

"Are you on the seven-thirty flight to Chicago, by any chance?" Savanna asked.

Ayden blinked, not comprehending at first. Then he remembered they were in an airport. "No, not Chicago," he answered, hoping she wouldn't ask for any details about his non-existent flight.

"Too bad," she said with an exaggerated sigh. "I would have loved to add you to my Mile High collection."

Ayden felt his elation falter as the implications of her comment sank in. Before he could answer, she leaned in close to his ear. "If you're into a hot quickie, I'm totally down with another notch in my Grounders collection. Those handicap washrooms in the lobby are spacious and have locks, but we have to finish within the next ten minutes so I can catch my flight."

Savanna stood and gracefully finished her last mouthful of wine as Ayden took in her devastatingly sexy body. God, he would love to fuck her. But that's all she was offering ... no deeper connection, no special relationship, nothing more. Just another empty fuck.

With a heavy heart, he thanked her but declined.

Slinging her purse over her shoulder, she leaned in and kissed his cheek. "I like you, Ayden. Talking to you made me super horny. Wish me luck on my flight."

And then she was gone. As were Ayden's hopes for finding something more meaningful through the magic door.

* * * * * * *

Back in Wyn-Find, Ayden closed the door, looked at the carved infinity symbol, then let his head sink until it thumped against the wood, disappointment overwhelming him.

"You okay there, son?"

Ayden wanted to shake his head, but it felt heavy as stone. A warm hand came to rest on his shoulder. He knew Dak wanted to help and really wanted things to work out for him. It just didn't seem meant to be, not even with magical assistance.