He smirked as he pulled a plastic package out of his bag and set it on my lap. I inspected it with a bewildered look. “A vibrator? What the hell, where did you get this?”
“Don’t worry. It’s brand-new, still in the package,” Ivy told me. “One of the guards was able to order it and sneak it to me, after I gave him some cash. He didn’t think much of it, given my former occupation.”
“How’s this supposed to help?” I asked.
“It’s called a rabbit. I did some research on the sexuality of women who have spinal injuries, and that particular device has been known to work wonders,” Ivy said. “The stimulation vibration can give has been known to overpower damaged nerves. That one in particular is made for women with spinal injuries, to cause a kind-of… reflex arousal? I think that’s the term they used.”
“Do you really think this will help me?”
“From my research, it seems different for everybody. You’ll have to try it out and see if you get a response. I can’t make any promises, but it just might help.”
At this point, I was willing to try anything. “Thanks, Ivy. You’re a lifesaver.”
“I’ve got to get back to entertaining my public,” Ivy said with a dramatic sigh. “And you… give your man a show.”
Ivy scampered back into the crowd. Oberi eyed the device in my lap and said,I ain’t helping you with that.
“Ancestors willing, you won’t have to.” I was scared, excited, worried and thrilled all at once. If this didn’t work…
But if itdid… ancestors, I wanted to jump into bed right now.
Kallie came out of the bathroom, then looked down. “Uh, where’d you get a dildo?”
“A little sex fairy stopped by,” I told her. “Esther has the balls to ask if I can still fuck my husband? I guess we’re gonna find out.”
“You get your man, girl,” Kallie sang joyously.
Once we walked through the doorway of The Devil’s Playground, the powdered paint vanished magically from our clothes and skin, leaving no trace of the party. When Kallie dropped me off at my cell, she gave me a wink and went cackling all the way down the hall.
I’m staying firmly on the couch, Oberi said as he jumped onto the cushions.I pray all goes well for you two. Oh, if only dogs could wear earplugs!
Then he lay on his back and promptly went to sleep. I always envied how he could drop off in just a few seconds.
Charlie walked in from the bedroom and asked, “What’s he talking about?”
“Oberi’s just being Oberi,” I said, trying to keep the nerves out of my voice.
“Makes sense. How was the party?”
“It was… fun,” I said. I didn’t tell him about all the bullshit that happened. It’d piss him off, and I wanted his mind to be on nothing but me tonight. “Can you help me into bed?”
“Sure.”
I kept hold of the vibrator and put it on the bedside table before Charlie lifted me onto the mattress. I started taking off clothes the minute I sat down. Charlie didn’t notice until I rolled next to him and started kissing him, taking his hand and placing it on my breast.
“Uh, hi.” He pulled away. “What’s all this?”
“I want to get back to… us.”
Charlie paused. He kissed me again, before he said quietly, “I don’t want you to be disappointed.”
We hadn’t messed around since that awkward night in the hospital, and I knew he had to be dying for some kind of connection. I was. He just didn’t want to ask, because he was scared about how it would go. Charlie had always been super cautious about sex.
But I didn’t want us to turn into roommates. Even if I turned out to be disappointed, I wasn’t going to stop until we found a way around this.
“We have to try. And Ivy might’ve gotten us something that might make it easier, batteries included.”
His head tilted as I began opening the plastic package. I placed the rabbit in his hand, and he said, “Interesting. Never used one of these.”
