Free Interview with a Master by Jason Luke Page B

mental calculation. Then her eyelids fluttered and closed, and she stood with her back against the wall taking short shallow breaths as though preparing to face a firing squad.
    “I’m standing in a candle-lit room,” she said, and her voice was so soft the words barely carried to me. “It’s a bedroom. I am wearing red lingerie. There are hundreds of candles on the floor and hung from wrought iron candelabras along the walls. The light has a golden magical glow, and as I’m staring into the flickering lights I feel my lover’s warm breath on my neck, and then his strong hands on my shoulders. My skin tingles. I feel a delicious shudder run down the length of my spine. My breath hitches in my throat until at last I gasp.
    “Does he say anything to you, this mystery lover?”
    Leticia shook her head. Her eyes were still closed. She licked her lips. “He just reaches around and presses a silk blindfold over my eyes. He is gentle. He ties the knot tightly at the back of my head and then I sense he is no longer there – the heat of his body suddenly fades so that I feel like I am completely alone.
    “I stand, not daring to move. My senses come alive. I can hear the soft sound of his footfalls and the faint scent of his cologne. And then I feel the brush of his fingers across the silk bottoms of my panties. I flinch. His touch is like electricity. I take a tiny step, and then I feel something ice-cold on my arm. I move again – just another small step, but as I do, I feel his soft wet lips on my neck and I start to tremble.
    “Suddenly I realize I am lost – I don’t know where the door is anymore. I reach out with my hands and my fingers press against his chest. His body feels like it is on fire. I feel the beat of his heart, and then he steps away, and the sense of longing in me is so strong that I groan aloud.
    “An instant later I feel the teasing kiss of a feather on the tender flesh of my thigh. I feel myself clench, and then I turn and take one more step. Suddenly I feel the edge of the bed against the back of my knees and I begin to fall. He catches me, takes me in his arms, lays me down gently, and then covers my body with his own.”
    Leticia ’s eyes opened and she blinked at me. A self-conscious little smile passed across her face. She looked away shyly as a crimson blush of color rose from beneath the collar of her blouse.
    “What happens next?” I asked.
    Leticia didn’t answer for long moments. She seemed still to be drifting amongst the lingering tendrils of her imagination. “Nothing,” she said at last. “That’s all there is. That’s all there has ever been.”
    “You don’t have sex with this dream lover?”
    “No.”
    “He doesn’t undress you?”
    “No,” she said again, more firmly this time.
    I frowned. The rain outside became a downpour so that I had to raise my voice above the hissing sound as it overflowed the guttering and spilled down the drainpipes.
    “Did you ever act out this fantasy with your boyfriend?”
    She shook her head.
    “Did you ever try to talk to him about it?”
    “A couple of times.”
    “And…?”
    “And nothing,” Leticia said. “Dwayne dismissed the whole idea as a waste of time, and wondered why couldn’t I be satisfied with what we were doing in the bedroom.”
    A wicked flash of lightning ripped the dark night apart. Flickering stark light filled the room for a split second, and the echoing thunder sounded like the roar of artillery. The rain seemed to intensify, and a swirling gale of wind flung leaves and dust and debris against the window. I stared out into the storm-filled sky.
    “You’re not going home tonight,” I decided.
    Leticia recoiled. “What?”
    “Yo u’re staying here,” I said. I turned to confront her. “You’re not driving all the way back into the city in this storm. There are plenty of spare bedrooms. You can sleep here and go home in the morning.”
    She shot a speculative glance at me and started to protest.