Hibiscus

Hibiscus

By Hillary Blush

Eidolon looked at the woman in the mirror; the woman in the mirror looked back. She was petite, slightly Asian, with dark eyes and long, silky black hair. Her smile was, well, perfect. Her lips were full, clearly the most sensuous feature of her beautiful face.

"My, but you do look gorgeous today," Eidolon said, and the woman in the mirror returned a coy smile.

"Is this new?" Eidolon had noticed a bloom of red in the woman's hair. "That's beautiful."

She looked over her own shoulder at the hibiscus in a clay pot on her bedside table. She picked one of its red flowers, fastened it in her own hair, and turned back to the mirror.

"Now I look like you," she said, and the woman in the mirror laughed.

Eidolon laughed with her.

"Hibiscus," Eidolon said, trying the name on her.

Hibiscus smiled her approval.

Eidolon took in the rest of the woman's body: smooth skin, a slender neck, breasts that were just right, with perfectly formed, exquisitely sensitive nipples. She allowed her hands to travel down her own belly, hard and well toned from hours in the gym. She let her fingers linger over the mound of her sex.

She was freshly waxed. It had hurt like a bitch at the time, but she always thought it worth the effort. It made her womanhood exquisitely sensitive, and when she walked, the mere caress of silk against her skin sent shivers up her spine.

Just thinking about it, she realized her fingers had trailed lower. She parted her lips and allowed her middle finger to explore, teasing the tiny pink bud stiffening beneath her touch.

A little gasp caught in the back of her throat, and she saw that Hibiscus had gasped as well.

"You like that, don't you?" she asked.

The woman in the mirror nodded.

"You want me to keep going?"

Hibiscus nodded again, urging her on. Eidolon was so wet now that her finger slid easily inside her, seeking that most sensitive, secret place--and Hibiscus cried out in pleasure.

* * *

She met Helen and Grace for coffee after work. She was late. Again. It was a fact not lost on her two best friends.

Grace worked for a competing ad agency, but that still didn't stop their friendship. Helen was the stay-at-home mom. Two kids. Her husband, Derrek, worked offshore--two weeks on and one week off.

"Should be the other way around," Helen often quipped. "Two weeks off and one week ON. I haven't fucked this much since college."

Grace was single, attractive, successful, and in the market, but it was Helen who always seemed to have the most lurid stories.

Helen described how her mom had taken the kids for the week. How Derrek, in spite of working twelve- or sixteen-hour shifts on the rig, could surf through a dozen porn sites in his spare time and come home with two dozen things to try during his week off.

"I just meet him at the door nekkid," Helen said in her Southern twang. "He'd just tear my clothes off right there otherwise."

This week, it had been a trapeze. He had rigged a pulley from the ceiling and strung her up by her ankles at "just the right height."

"I think his tongue actually touched my spleen."

The other women laughed.

"The only bad part of the plan was when he came. I was upside down and couldn't get away. I think it bypassed my uvula and went straight up my nose. I thought I was being waterboarded."

This drew even more laughter.

"What about you guys?"

Grace shrugged. "Meh. Same-same."

Helen sipped her coffee. "What does that mean?"

"You know," Grace said. "Nice-enough guy, good dinner. Sex was okay, but I didn't cross the finish line."

"Sorry about that," Eidolon said.

"It's okay. Jeremy took a cab after breakfast without asking for a repeat, and then I could take care of things the right way."

The other women giggled. Grace called it the Pink Menace--ten inches of silicone manhood that could reach her innermost being and still have room to spare.

"A happy-enough ending to a mediocre weekend," she said.

More laughter.

Helen picked up a chocolate-chip cookie. "What about you, E?"

"Just a dry spell," Eidolon said.

The other women looked at her.

Helen put her cookie--minus one bite--back on the plate. She pulled out her phone and thumbed through her contacts.

"I have just the guy for you."

* * *

He was a nice-enough guy, a year older than she was and, most importantly--at least according to Helen--a compatible sign. He had sandy hair, a nice smile, and an athletic physique despite his job as a data analyst.

Over dinner, he explained that he liked to cycle. Eidolon's eyes must have narrowed, because he quickly added that he wasn't into cycling that way.

"I mean, I'm not one of those guys who thinks he's going to ride in the Tour de France or something."

They had enjoyed a nice dinner. They had even split a dessert. He had talked about his job. Afterward, they had gone to her place.

Things progressed a little too quickly. As she had told Helen and Grace, it really had been a bit of a dry spell.

Her blouse hit the floor; the rest of their clothes soon followed. His mouth was on hers, then on her neck, then on her breast. He sucked at one nipple just a little too hard, then pushed a finger inside her before she was quite ready.

She dropped to her knees.

He was definitely ready, though.

She wrapped one hand around the shaft of his cock and took the head into her mouth--

"Hey, hey--slow down," he said after only a minute.

He managed to get her onto her back and get his cock inside her before he came--but only just. His whole body seemed to go rigid, then suddenly sag and melt.

He sighed and rolled away.

"You mind if I smoke?" he asked.

"I'd rather you didn't."

He left soon after that.

She got a washcloth. Cleaned herself. Cleaned the mess from the bed. Then she caught Hibiscus watching her from the mirror.

Eidolon held up the soiled washcloth.

"I'd call tonight strike one."

Hibiscus agreed with her.

* * *

Grace picked up the matchmaking baton. Now she was thumbing through her own list of contacts.

"Don't set me up with someone you've already fucked," Eidolon said over her coffee.

"Yeah," Helen agreed. "No hand-me-downs."

"It's not like that," Grace said, still searching. "It's like trying on a pair of jeans and deciding you want a different style. You put them back on the rack, and someone else still buys them. It's not like I'm cleaning out my closet or anything."

"Really, I'm good."

"You need to get laid," Grace said.

"I got laid," Eidolon objected.

"No," Helen said. "He got laid. You didn't even get out of the starting gate."

Eidolon couldn't argue with that. Hibiscus had said almost the same thing.

* * *

Grace made the introductions. A few text messages later, the date was arranged.

His name was David. He was her age, but almost a foot taller and as solid as a steel door. He said he had played football in college. Running back. Eidolon had only a passing acquaintance with the positions. David was happy to explain them all.

He was the friend of a friend. Someone else had introduced him to Grace, but she had been seeing someone at the time. By the time she became available, he had been seeing someone else. Their stars had never seemed to align.

"So you'll have to tell me all about it," Grace had said excitedly.

They went for burgers. Talked about football. Ended up at Eidolon's apartment.

David complimented her on the décor. He seemed especially interested in the full-length mirror. He looked deeply into it.

At first, Eidolon thought he might be looking for Hibiscus. It rankled her a bit.

Then she saw he was really looking at himself.

That rankled her too.

They opened a bottle of zinfandel and drank half of it while seated on the edge of the bed. That put her back in the mood. Then he kissed her.

That helped too.

His hands moved onto her thighs, pushing her skirt up around her waist. He didn't bother removing her thong; he merely pulled it aside. Then he put his mouth against her sex.

His tongue began a brutal assault on her clit. She applauded his enthusiasm but wished he would fucking quit. Move on to something else.

"It's okay," she said. "You don't have to."

He stopped. Stood. Shrugged out of his clothes.

Fuck me, she thought. This guy's dick is as big as a signpost.

He knew it too. She saw him admiring his erection in the mirror.

She didn't have time to process that thought before he began pressing the leviathan into her. It was all she could do not to scream.

He came.

She didn't.

Afterward, he dozed with one huge hand cupping her breast.

That was the best part of the night.

Eidolon lay awake, trying to think of an excuse to send him home before he expected an encore.

* * *

"Well, that's disappointing," Grace said.

"Which part?" Eidolon asked. "That he had a dick the size of a killer whale, or that I couldn't take it?"

"That I didn't get to hook up with him back when we first met," Grace said.

They all laughed.

They were back in their corner of the coffee shop. The whole place smelled of chocolate, vanilla, and fresh-baked goodness.

"That's strike two," Eidolon said. "I think I'm going back to flicking the bean on my own."

"No," Helen said. "Don't be a quitter."

She told them about her week. Derrek had left that morning for Lake Charles. By nightfall, he would be a hundred miles out in the Gulf, drilling for oil that would become next month's gasoline.

Helen loved the joke. Her man was a driller in every sense of the word.

They had screwed seventeen times in seven days.

"I just hope one doesn't slip past," she said. "All I need is another kid."

* * *

Eidolon emerged from the shower. She dried herself and dropped the towel onto the floor.

She sat at the foot of the bed, brushing her hair.

Hibiscus was doing the same.

Eidolon stopped and cocked her head to one side. Hibiscus imitated the movement.

Eidolon touched her lower lip and traced its curve.

"You have beautiful lips," she said.

She spread her legs.

"And you have a beautiful pussy."

Eidolon wet one finger and traced it between her inner lips. Her body responded.

Hibiscus's body responded as well.

* * *

Helen texted the next day at lunch.

I have just the right guy.

I'm okay. Really.

I won't take no for an answer.

Okay, Eidolon texted back.

That settled it. Helen made the introductions.

* * *

His name was Aaron. Another friend of a friend. He worked for the same company as Derrek, although Aaron worked in the office, filing leases or something like that.

He tried to explain it, and Eidolon tried to listen, but tracing family histories through old courthouse records and digging through dusty boxes of century-old documents didn't seem nearly as interesting as he apparently thought it was.

At least he had the presence of mind to notice when her eyes glazed over. He changed the subject.

He told her about a book he had read, a spy novel by some guy named Yarbrough.

"A really twisty-turny, complicated plot. One of those books that draws you in so completely that you don't want to put it down--but you don't want it to end either."

His description hadn't drawn Eidolon in, though, so he asked what she had read recently.

She had read one of the Hillary Blush romances.

Aaron had never heard of her.

"I read Wuthering Heights," Eidolon said.

"Hey, I read that!"

It gave them something to discuss for a few minutes, until their food arrived.

Eidolon spent the rest of the meal trying to decide whether it qualified as a pity-fuck because he really was trying, or whether she was going to fuck him simply to make him shut up.

In the end, it hadn't been a bad date. He was easy on the eyes, he genuinely tried, and he had been attentive to her needs.

And she did come.

Just a little one.

He called a cab shortly after midnight. She walked him to the door wearing her bathrobe, and he gave her a kiss before leaving.

When he was gone, she turned back toward the room.

Hibiscus was watching her.

Eidolon watched back.

Hibiscus pursed her lips and shook her head.

Eidolon laughed.

* * *

"The chemistry just wasn't there," Eidolon said.

Helen hadn't made it to coffee that afternoon. She was home with a case of the sniffles. Eidolon and Grace sat at their corner table, hunched over lattes.

"So you did the deed, but there were no fireworks," Grace said.

"Just a little sparkler," Eidolon admitted. "That's strike three. I'm out. Maybe I should just play for the other team."

Grace placed a hand over hers.

"Don't give up," she said. "Maybe..."

Eidolon looked at her friend. "What? Maybe I should try it?"

"I didn't say that," Grace replied.

"Have you ever tried it?" Eidolon asked. "I mean, with another woman?"

"Once," Grace admitted. "Well, maybe a couple of times. You know, back in college."

Eidolon hadn't known that about her friend. She had been curious--hell, what woman hadn't?--but she had never found the courage to, well--

"What was it like?"

Grace looked at her.

"It was... nice."

* * *

They hadn't called it a date.

There had been no candlelight dinner, no sitting across a table and gazing into each other's eyes. They had known each other for years.

They hadn't known each other at all.

They had wine. A good bottle of Chablis. Candles. A tub filled with bubbles.

Eidolon put on some music, something low that filled the entire apartment.

They slipped out of their clothes and beneath the water, giggling. Neither of them had the right words, so they laughed instead. Drank. Refilled their glasses from the bottle beside the tub.

Finally, Grace slid across the tub and pressed her lips against Eidolon's.

A hand found her breast and kneaded the sensitive flesh before moving to her waist, then around to her ass, pulling her closer.

Grace's tongue found hers. Her hand slipped between Eidolon's legs, and then Grace's fingers were inside her.

Eidolon gasped.

Grace knew the secret places.

The thought came to Eidolon that only a woman truly knew a woman's body, and she pulled this woman closer.

Grace murmured something into her mouth, then into her ear, then against the side of her neck. Somehow, they found their way into the other room.

They were on the bed, Grace moving to fit her legs between Eidolon's. Their pussies met--a kiss all their own--and Eidolon felt the fireworks building.

She saw Grace above her, eyes half-lidded in the candlelight.

Over Grace's shoulder, she saw Hibiscus locked in an embrace of her own.

"This is what you wanted all along," Eidolon said. "Isn't it?"

Hibiscus didn't answer.

She merely closed her eyes.

And she came.