Elliott Mabeuse - Triad

As if he sensed my presence, he looked up and met my gaze through the window. My breath caught. There was such intensity in his stare that I was thrown off guard and smiled. Inclining his head he gave a slight bow, one hand touching his chest lightly, a rather old fashioned gesture, I thought, which, combined with his looks, brought to mind images of iconic passion-the tango, a wild gypsy-hearted dancer who was relentless in pursuit of his sweetheart.

How odd, to discover such a man in our sleepy little village. Usually, the best we could hope for was a passing tourist or a randy farmer who wasn’t adverse to women who mostly preferred other women. Dani would adore the idea of such a find. With that in mind, how could I resist investigating further?

The door chimed as I opened it, a bell over head announcing my arrival.

He appeared from the preparation area almost immediately, strolling out to meet me. “ Bonjour . Good afternoon.” His accent was as rich and delectable as his wares. “Is there something in particular I can help you with?”

“ Bonjour .” I tried not to eye him up too obviously. It was difficult not to. “I’m looking for something special, a birthday gift for my lover.”

“Your lover.” He repeated that deliberately, and then cocked his head on one side, as if he was trying to guess what my lover was like. “Does he prefer dark or light chocolate?”

“She…she prefers dark chocolate, mostly.”

“Ah.” His wide, sensual mouth moved in an appreciative smile. His stare was blatant, and rather than disapproving-which was the kind of thing Dani and I had been used to in the small, conservative village we chose to live in-it was filled with curiosity and admiration. “I see. She is a sensuous sort of a woman, your lover?”

“How astute of you to guess.” I couldn't withhold my smile. Dani would love that.

She’d also love his attentive nature. We were committed to one another, lovers and partners for over five years, but as bisexual women we had agreed to share our thoughts and emotions about men-thoughts on them as companions, as lovers. And Dani would respond to this man, I was sure of it.

His gaze was appraising as it raked me from head to toe, making my skin warm in response. It was if he knew what I was thinking, and the way he was looking at me turned me on. I ran one hand over the other, clutching my tote bag against me, self aware in the extreme.

“Her birthday is today?”

“Saturday.”

“That’s even better. Why don’t you bring her in around closing time, and we’ll give her a private tasting. With everything on offer.” He waved his hand over the chocolates on display in the cabinets, but maintained eye contact in such a way that I couldn’t break the spell. Was I imagining the erotic undertow I felt in his statement, the suggestion of something that was more than the offer of an exclusive chocolate tasting?

His voice was low and husky, and his tone was growing ever more intimate. I tried to focus. Whether that part of it was my imagination or not, an exclusive chocolate tasting session with Monsieur Alain was way beyond acceptable as a birthday gift.

“She can luxuriate in the experience, and you will find out which combination of flavors she likes best, for your next visit.”

I wasn’t imagining it. “That’s a wonderful idea. How much does it cost?”

He shrugged. “Whatever you were going to spend on a selection today.”

“Are you sure?”

He paused before replying, and then his mouth lifted at one corner. “There's only so much chocolate two lovers can eat.”

My heart beat erratically. I definitely didn’t imagine the way he looked at me when he said that-as if he was imagining eating something entirely different to a box of chocolates. His heavily-fringed eyelids dropped as his gaze lingered around my hips. I latched one finger over the belt on my low-slung hipster jeans and wondered if he could see the tattoo I had on my hip.

“I see you are a fan of body art.” He nodded at my tattoo, then went behind the counter and opened a drawer. Lifting out a portfolio of photographs, he flicked through them and lifted one image out, setting it on the glass countertop so that I could see it.

“Perhaps you will like this?”

“Oh, my.” The image took my breath away. It was a naked woman, and her body was covered in an intricate scrollwork design, fine art-nouveau swirls that were both decorative and sensual. She was seated on a shiny black seat with a back drop of red velvet curtains. The whole image was about sensuality. The woman had one arm lifted to push her hair up against her head. Her eyelids were lowered, her lips parted.

Sexually aroused, that’s how she looked. At first I thought it was a tattoo, then I realized-it was chocolate. A design in chocolate body paint. No wonder she looked aroused. “That’s incredible.”

“You think your partner would like it?”

“Dani? Oh yes, she’d love it. Is this your girlfriend?”

“No, a friend in France. The design was for her boyfriend. They shared the pleasure of the chocolate after the photograph was taken…”

I inhaled, realizing why he was showing it to me. It was a suggestion. “Yes, Dani would like it.” I dared to meet his gaze, and when I did it made my body brim with expectation. “She’d like it a lot.”

He smiled knowingly, and then he lifted a tray from the counter top and offered it to me. “Please show me which one you think will taste best.”

I was grateful he’d distracted me from the erotic image, but it was still there burning itself into my memory, sending my mind racing. It was difficult to focus. “It’s so hard to choose, they all look so good. You’re very talented.”

“In that case, take two.” His eyebrow lifted. “I always find that two different flavors make the overall experience so much richer.”

He was definitely flirting. I laughed softly and then lifted the heart-shaped dark chocolate I’d admired in the window, and a tall crown-like confection that looked like a truffle with a nut inside the crown.

He watched as I savored the chocolates, first the heart, then the crown. Was he some sort of fortune teller, and he knew something about me because of what I’d gone for? Whatever, the way he looked was such a turn on. He reached for an appointment book. “I’ll book you in. Dani and…?”

“Eve.” I couldn’t repress the almost-moan of pleasure as I savored the rich chocolate in my mouth. I quickly licked melted chocolate off my fingers as he wrote in the book. “Name the time and I’ll bring Dani in.”

He barely reacted but it was there, a flicker in his eyes, a sensuous movement of his lips as he turned back to me and replied, “Six o' clock, closing time.”

Oh yes, there was no mistaking that this was going to be a special event.

Whether he meant it in exactly the way I thought he did, or not, would be revealed. The important thing was we had our own private Chocolatier, at least for a little while. Dani would adore it. Anything else that happened along the way, well, I was pretty sure that would be welcome too. We would both enjoy getting our hands on him, for sure. All I had to do now was keep it a secret until nearer the time. That was going to be the hard part.

“I saw the most delicious man,” I mentioned, ever so casually, over breakfast on Saturday, Dani’s birthday. I’d managed to keep it quiet until the day itself, which was no easy task. “I thought he might be just your sort,” I added, as nonchalantly as I could manage. My mind was full of images of Dani with The Chocolatier painting on her naked body, and I could scarcely keep still as I anticipated the event.

Dani glanced up from her newspaper, eyebrows lifting. She was curled in her armchair in her black kimono, legs folded under her. I was sprawled on the nearby sofa, in my robe. We'd opened her birthday gifts an hour before, in bed, and the start of a supposedly lazy day was well under way. I'd even given her a decoy gift, a booking for a day at the local spa, so that she wouldn’t expect anything else.