“You look like a ‘ho.” 

 Jinny’s excused herself briefly, disappearing down a hall and Magda and I are alone, circling one another in her living room. 

 “But it suits you,” she adds, bending to snatch up the toys in the floor and tossing them loudly into the toy-filled blue plastic basket at the end of the sofa. 

 “Where’s your kid?” I ask, for lack of being able to think of anything else that won’t set her off but of course this isn’t good either. 

 “That’s none of your business.  But since you asked…  He’s at his father’s.” 

 “He lives near by?  That’s nice.” 

 She stops and looks at me, cocking her head and crossing her arms simultaneously. 

 “Did I say he lives near by? And did I ask for your opinion or judgment on the situation?”

 She leaves me standing in the center of the room as she storms into the kitchen.  I hear drawers slamming shut, cabinets next and then the distinct noise of deadbolts being shot home on a rear door.  She flies out again, not even looking at me and snatches the red jacket up off the arm of the sofa, then jerks a closet door open in the foyer near the entrance and does a fair job of knotting it around a hanger before slamming the door closed.  She glares at my leather jacket, which I’ve removed and lain neatly over the back of the sofa, then sniffs in irritation.

 “Martha Stewart on crank,” I mutter, eyeing her warily. 

 “What?” she demands. 

 I shake my head and lift my hands in a “you tell me” gesture. 

 “I probably don’t even breathe to suit you, right?”  

“If you stopped, it wouldn’t be that big a loss in my book, no.”  

“You know, I’m trying to not fight with you here.  Why can’t you just stop?”  

“Because I know you.  I’ve seen a hundred people like you and you’re going to break her heart.”

 “But it’s my heart, Mags,” Jinny says entering the room and coming up beside me, PT shorts replaced with jeans and taking my hand loosely.  “It’s my heart to get broken.”

 “Yeah, but who’s left here cleaning it up?” Magda demands.  “Who is it going to be here picking up the pieces when she runs off the next time, huh?  When she goes back to Texas?  When she~~” she points an emphatic, derisive finger at my hair, “~~sets up shop on a corner in the Castro?”   

Jinny’s smile is very slow and very sweet, her voice mild but her eyes are guarded and solemn as she speaks, “I hope you are.  I count on that, Mags; you being there.”

 There’s silence then and I watch Magda’s furious glare falter as she blinks a couple of times before nodding.   

“You know I will be.”

 “”Yeah,” Jinny says, voice lighter now, “I do know you will be.  And,” she adds, “I also know you owe me thirty bucks.  Pay up.” 

 She rubs her thumb against her fingers, winking and Magda rolls her eyes trying to hide the sudden grin that flashes between them as she crosses to the leather bag hung over the back of the arm chair and digs out money which she slams into Jinny’s palm, trying to keep the grin off her face or the laughter out of her voice when she speaks. 

 “There.  Happy now?”

 “Oh, yeah,” Jinny says happily, sticking the money into her bra as she winks at her.  “That’s two tanks of gas for the Hog, half a steak dinner, one new dildo~~” 

“Auuugh!” Magda wails in mock terror, slamming her fingers into her ears.  “No!  Don’t start with the dildos again!” 

 “I’m telling you Mags, you’re missing out.  Same partner; different dicks.  Variety is the spice of life, remember?  I’ve got a catalogue I could slip Gabe~~” 

 “Stop right there, Jin.” Magda says warningly. “Don’t make me sing Britney.” 

 “~~you’re monogamous, but you’re not bored.  All different sizes and colors~~ Some of them have these rotating pearls inside~~”

 “I’m not a giiiiirl…” Magda warbles nasally, with perfect breathless Britney rhythm, “Not yet~~ a wo-maaaaan…”   

“Okay, okay, you win!” Jinny yells and Magda stops, but levels a finger at her. 

 “If you’re psyching me out I’m going to do NSync next,” she threatens. 

 “No, please.  For the love of God.”  Jinny gasps in horror, clutching at her throat theatrically.  “I beg of you.” 

“No more dildos?”  

“Well, shit~~ that’s a little harsh, isn’t it?”  Jinny asks her grinning.  “I have to put an end to half my sex life just to keep you from torturing me?  Doesn’t that violate some right I have?”  

“I’ll be coming down the hall and putting an end to more than half your sex life if I have to listen to any more of your raving about rubber dicks,” Magda tells her, with a pointed look at me as she checks the bolts on the front door and then pauses in the hallway flipping the light switch off so the room is lit only by the lamp on the end table. 

 “Or,” she adds, “If I have to listen to anything.” 

 The last is clearly directed to the two of us; my ears ring I blush so hard.  Jinny is, of course, nonplussed.   

She snaps her heels together and throws a hand out in a stiff salute.  “Ve vill be very, very quiet, Officer Sex Police.”

 “Uh, huh,” Magda says, dead pan, before returning the salute and retreating down the hall.  “Carry on.”   

“Ooooh, she even gave us permission,” Jinny says as she turns to me, then stops, a huge grin splitting her face.  “Oh fuck, you should see your face.  I think you’re blushing, but I can’t really tell under all that make up.  C’mon.”

 I let her lead me a few steps into the hall Magda has disappeared down and she flips a switch on in a small neat bathroom with navy blue tiled walls.  It’s decorated in bright primary colors and features a combination of Scooby Doo and race cars.  I reach the brilliant deduction it belongs to Magda’s son, Benjamin. 

 “Yep,” Jinny says, opening the mirrored medicine cabinet and pulling out a jar of cream and a package of Pond’s facial wipes.  “But I got some things stashed that’ll get that stuff right off you.” 

She sees the question in my eyes without me having to ask it and nods, then hands me a stretchy head band to keep the hair off my forehead while I wash.   

“Yeah.  I crash here sometimes.  I didn’t before rehab, of course.  God, that’d have been a nightmare, can you imagine?  Mags plowing into me if I came in drunk?  Shit.”   

She shakes her head, half smiling as she perches on the edge of the tub and watches me.   

“What was the money about?” I ask.  “The bet?”  

“Oh.”  I look at her in the mirror and see she’s grinning and can’t help but grin back.  “That was two bets, actually.  Twenty of it was that you’d show at all; the last ten of it was that it was you while ago on the street.  I made you the second you came around that little curve just past her house, the minute you came into sight on the sidewalk.  Magda said no way, it was a call girl that got stood up or got the wrong address or something.  I knew it was you, though.”   

“How?”  I straighten after splashing my face with cold water and pat it dry with the hand towel, then pull the head band off and do things to my hair which would put Angelo into a coma. 

“Your walk.  The way you move.  You were just zooming along furious, head up, probably cussing us both.”   

“Just Magda, actually.  Never occurred to me you’d stand me up.” 

“No?  Good.  I’m glad.”   

She looks glad.  She looks pink cheeked and bright eyed and basically ecstatic all the way around.  She stands up suddenly and moves behind me, pressing herself against me and peering at me over my shoulder in the mirror.   

“Can I help you?”   

Her voice is very low and I shudder, a sudden shiver that shakes me head to toe and I swallow audibly as I feel my nipples harden and press against my bra and the leopard print stretchy tee.   

“Help me what?”  I whisper, unable to move as I stare glassy eyed at the hands coming slowly around my ribcage, the fingers gently dragging the material up exposing my abdomen where they pause, lightly stroking the skin there.   

“Get ready for bed.”   

I shudder again and lean back against her, mesmerized by the sight of the white fingers caressing my rib cage and the ripples of pleasure it sends through me.  I shiver when the hands move upward over my shirt, nails gently raking across my nipples through the fabric as she bends her head and gently bites the side of my neck before groaning and cupping my breasts in her hands and pulling me back against her, pushing herself into me, sighing. 

I try to put a hand back or turn to face her but she shakes her head at the mirror me and tugs the shirt higher, revealing the black bra and the tops of my breasts.  Her fingers skim lightly over the fabric, her eyes watching them in the mirror and I see her hands trembling when I lower my head to stare down at them as they move expertly to the front clasp and grip it, twisting it sideways and releasing my breasts. 

“I was so scared for you,” she whispers, voice low and rough and I watch in fascination at the hands stroking me, the nipples hard and erect as she rubs them against her palms, sighing.  She presses against me from behind, cupping and kneading them into her hands before gently taking the nipples between her fingers, squeezing and tugging. 

My whole body convulses in reaction and she pauses, rocking herself into me, then sighs, hard and slides her hands down my shoulders in a shiver inducing caress across my inner arms before taking one of my hands and tugging my gently towards the doorway. 

 “Magda…” I whisper and she shakes her head, smiling.   

“Magda, won’t come out of her bedroom ‘til dawn.”   

I let her lead me out of the bathroom and to the left down the hallway.  I wait, heart hammering and glancing anxiously at Magda’s shut door as Jinny moves about the room shutting off lights before returning to stand in front of me, head to one side, smiling. 

“Hi,” she says quietly and I wonder if I look as terrified as I feel and if that’s why she seems so silently amused. 

 I gasp when her hands slide deftly into the waist of my jeans and she tugs me up against her, bending her head to mine.  At the first soft dart of tongue over my lips I gasp again and shudder and for one moment she slants her mouth across mine hard, then pulls back, gently tugging my lip between her teeth.  I don’t even feel her undo the button on my jeans but at the first raspy sound of the zipper sliding downwards I start and jerk.   

“Shhhh…” she tells me, mouth pressed intimately against my ear, her breath sending stabbing spasms of want down my spine and making other parts of me pulse and grab in anticipation. She captures my wrists when my hands come up between us, shaking her head solemnly.

 “No.  You wanted me.  You’re going to have me now.” 

 “Magda said a half hour.” I manage, my voice hoarse and she lifts both brows at me in question, the light from the street slanting in through the windows across her face.  “She said I could stay a half hour,” I whisper in explanation.

 “Half hour, huh?  I’m going to take a lot longer than that, Coop.” 

 “Oh fuck,” I breathe as her hands slide my jeans down over my hips. 

 “Yeah,” she agrees and awkwardly kicks my feet apart, leaving me off balanced and precarious with the jeans tangled about my lower legs.  Her fingers stroke and drag themselves across every centimeter of my belly and hips and thighs as her tongue and hair do the same over throat, shoulder and breasts and when I groan in frustration she laughs softly and slides one light brush across my clitoris. 

“There?” she asks and my body reacts convulsively, shuddering into her, my hips rocking frantically. 

 “Oooh, that felt good, didn’t it?  Here,” she whispers, stepping neatly over the jeans on my calves and easing my hips close so that I am straddling the thigh she’s placed between my legs.  I shamelessly grind myself into the rough fabric of her jeans, whimpering with pleasure as she braces herself and strokes the outside of my waist and hips, one hand in the small of my back boosting me. 

 I am so close; I arch my back and shake against her as she grunts and pulls her leg away, leaving me panting and fucking myself against air. 

 “I don’t think so,” she says, grinning devilishly.  “Not yet.”

 “Goddamn,” I pant, aching, trying to get a hand down between my legs.  She grabs my wrist and shakes her head again, the grin wider, the light from the window flashing across her eyes as she lowers her head and takes my left nipple between her teeth, looking up at me as I stop, breathless and stunned at the sensation as she suckles and draws the tender flesh into her lips, then pauses, eyes lowered to lick it before grinning up at me. 

 “That is what I want to do somewhere else,” she tells me, one leg crooking behind me and catching me at the knees.  She holds my hands as she lowers me onto the carpet, then grins at me as she sinks to her knees and jerks the jeans roughly to my ankles. 

 “Off,” I get out, twisting on the floor, hands slapping at the denim confining my legs.  “I want them off.” 

 I gasp when my knees are bent and I am folded so that my feet are rocked up and my ass is tilted upwards. 

 I can’t believe where her tongue is. 

 I cannot believe how good it feels. 

 The noise I make is guttural and hoarse.  My hands grasp and clutch, catching my knees and I hold myself there, poised to feel the delicate lick of tongue again and when the warm dampness runs along the tender skin a second time I feel every muscle in my cunt spasm in pleasure and need. 

 “Oh Jesus God,” I say fervently to Magda’s ceiling. 

 I nearly orgasm when she snorts laughter against me, then arch backwards the next moment as she runs her tongue from anus to clitoris in one long stroke. 

  “God, you’re so wet.”

 Her breath against me there makes me whimper and I writhe in ecstasy as she licks me again, tongue pointed and burrowing, my knees quivering as I involuntarily rock myself higher to press myself into her mouth. 

 “Oh fuck,” I pant when she lifts her mouth from the place, tensing slightly when I feel another delicate, more probing breach of that particular orifice. 

 “I’m going to,” she tells me voice smug.  “Fuck you, I mean.” 

 “That feels good,” I say wonderingly, as she gently wiggles and penetrates, then works the finger in and out as I relax and open to her more.  “Really good,” I add as she finger fucks my asshole, rocking me gently back and forth with her movement. 

 “Good.  And does this feel even better?” 

 I gasp as she penetrates me with several digits from, I presume, her other hand then lay panting and shuddering at the sensation of her fingers filling me and rubbing against one another as she rhythmically rocks me back and forth on them. 

 I can’t speak.  I can hear the low hoarse grunts of pleasure I am making and I close my eyes and surrender myself to the primal sensation of being fucked and fucked well on Magda’s carpet and let my body open to her as I am helplessly engulfed in pleasure. 

 I feel her move between my legs, scooting closer and I pull my knees higher, offering myself up completely, whimpering at the spasms of pleasure lashing down my spine and culminating in my crotch~~ But when she leans forward and passionately fastens her lips around my clitoris, tenderly sucking it between them, then flicking her tongue up and down, gently lifting and stroking beneath the tiny hood of skin, I come undone. 

 I can hear the growling; a keening high note of intense sexual gratification and I realize in a vaguely stunned way that it is coming from me.  The waves of pleasure rock through me, building and crashing higher with each thrust and when the spasms start I lift my head and peer in amazement down my belly at the dark head bent to me, eyes open and staring intently into mine. 

 When she smiles I feel the slight movement of lips to the soles of my feet and throw my head back, panting and whining, letting go of my knees and clutching that mouth tighter to my cunt, writhing myself against her, body convulsing helplessly in spasms of ecstasy. 

 I’m panting and gasping at the ceiling moments later when Jinny speaks.

 “Coop?  If you ever want me to do that again, you might want to release this death grip on my head.  I’m suffocating here.” 

 I can’t get enough oxygen to actually laugh, but I relax and she eases out from beneath my legs, angling her body alongside mine on the carpet, scooping me closer to her and planting a very self-satisfied and arrogant kiss on one shoulder. 

 I can see the huge grin on her face in the semi-dark. 

 “What?” I ask and she chuckles. 

 “I’m just thinking it’s a good thing I didn’t do that to you on that guy’s yard.  I mean, can you imagine?” she stops and then does a fair imitation of my high pitched warbling yowl punctuated by hoarse grunts of rapture, then sits half up, head to one side and in a gruff bewildered old man’s voice intones, “Margaret?  Did you hear that, Margaret?  I thought we got that cat neutered?  And what’s it fucking?  A monkey?”

 “Oh, fuck you,” I say, laughing, shoving her a little and she wiggles closer, chuckling and pumps her crotch against my hip a few times, saying, “Ooooh.  Promise?”

 I’m convinced I’m too sleepy from the full body orgasm I just had, but when she turns on her back and grants me access, I slide my hand down her flat belly and cup my hand over the full pubic mound, then feel myself convulse with desire again as my fingers find the hot wetness of her pouted open, waiting. 

 She sighs, swallows audibly,  then puts her hand over mine on the outside of her jeans and cocks her heels on the carpet, pumping herself smoothly into my hand, her motion and the wetness sliding my middle finger back and forth directly over her clitoris and her own hand holding me where she needs me. 

 “In,” she whispers, eyes closed and her hand urging mine deeper into the wetness and I scoot closer and obediently slide it so that two fingers enter her, then withdraw and slip upwards as she fucks herself against my hand.   Her heels inch higher as she lifts herself against me and I let her work my hand with her own, shivering at the husky moans and low throaty growls of pleasure she sighs out. 

 She turns to look at me when the orgasm shudders through her and I feel the tremors and paroxysms around my fingers and thrust deep, watching the dark lashes flutter and leaning my forehead to hers so that her pants and guttural moan of pleasure peppers the skin of my neck with goose bumps. 

 I leave my fingers inside her when she relaxes to the carpet, breathing hard, cupping my hand over the soft mound of flesh and bone, marveling at how she fits into my hand and loving how every small slide of my thumb over the delicate organ elicits another jerk of pleasure out of her. 

 I’m dozing off when she slaps my hand through her jeans, waking me. 

 “No way.  Wake up.” 

 “Huh?” I ask, voice thick and groggy, head jostled against her shoulder as she shakes me, and not gently. 

 “Wake up, I said,” she tells me and even in the dark I can see her grin.  “What?  Did you think I was through?” 

 “Um…yeah?” I croak hopefully and wince when she pops me lightly on the arm.  “Ow!”

 “You’re such a guy,” she tells me, the grin in her voice evident and I blink through the words, confused for just a moment because the voice is wrong and the place my hand is cupped feels alien for a heartbeat of time. 

 She senses it and sits up slightly, looking at me through the semi darkness. 

 “What?”

 “Nothing,” I lie and gently slide my hand out of her jeans and sit up myself, knees splayed out awkwardly and tangled in my jeans still.  I lay back and lift my ass and begin tugging them up, then stop when I’ve zipped them and try to make her expression out in the low light.  

 “What?” it’s me who asks it this time and she hesitates, looking away, showing me her profile limned in amber light from the street, dark hair swinging forward to half hide her face.  

 I have to ask it again before she faces me, head to one side and then she sucks in a deep breath before speaking.  

 “Don’t lie to me, okay?  Especially not all casual like that.  If you’re going to lie make it a really big one, worth the effort of deceit.  Don’t just toss off a ‘nothing’ and then think I won’t notice.  Give me credit, here.” 

 I sigh hard and remember that I always sucked at this.  Even with Jase only of course Jinny has no way of knowing that. 

 “I’m sorry,” I say and it’s truthful. 

 “It’s… okay.  This time.” 

 There’s a silence which is stretching out into something uneasy for me when she reaches for my hand and immediately I remember; this is Jinny.  I don’t have to pretend or search for glibness I don’t feel. 

 “You know I’m not letting you leave,” she says slowly, holding my hand up under chin with both of hers wrapped around it. 

 I stay silent.  One part of me wants to think she means tonight; the other wants to think she means forever.  Some little slice of cortex is hoping she means both. 

 I can feel her studying my features in the dark, trying to read expression and body language and she heaves a soft sigh before she turns my hand and kisses the palm then nestles it back between her own. 

 “Magda’s couch unfolds.  I want to sleep nude so we can totally ruin her day, okay?”

 I snort laughter. 

 “Yeah.  Okay.  I can do that.” 

 “So you’ll stay tonight, then?”

 There’s a slight catch in her voice when she asks it; an unintentional tremor of emotion.  Against my curled fingers I feel her throat work as she swallows, feel the slight tensing of her hands over mine as she waits. 

 “Yeah,” I say easily, deciding S’Phear can wait and there’s really nothing he can’t do without me anyway. 

 She turns a light on in the hallway to fold the bed out, turning it off again once the sheets are arranged and she’s retrieved pillows from a closet near the front door.  I take the one she tosses to me and catch an immediate Jinny scent from it and stop, holding it to my face for a second, breathing it in. 

 I try to imagine for a moment what it is going to be like to leave here, to be back in Texas a thousand miles from her and no chance of the scent in my bed.  I’m stunned at the emptiness that invades me at the thought. 

 “You okay?” she asks and I wonder how long I’ve stood there, inhaling the smell of her off a rectangular strip of cotton. 

 “Yeah.  You slept here last night, huh?”

 “Yep.” 

 I nod and consider for a moment asking if I can take a pillowcase or a tee shirt home with me when I leave, then wisely decide that’s a question that can wait. 

 We spoon one another once in the sofa bed; her curled up against me, one arm and knee over mine, hands intertwined. 

 I’m almost asleep when she speaks quietly, mouth against the skin of my neck. 

 “I know you have to leave, okay? When all this is done, I mean.  I know you’ll have things to do, stuff to settle with your Department…  You don’t have to pretend.” 

 I take the hand under my chin and kiss it, then fold it back in place with mine. 

END OF FIFTY EIGHT