Make Willing the Prey (Dreams by Streetlight) Read Online Free

before.  Those look expensive .”
    “You always were the observant
one.”
    She nodded curtly.  “What a
catch, Sandy.”
    “Don’t jump to conclusions, Jina. 
You’re the one who said he might smell bad, remember?”
    “I doubt a guy this confident and
clever has anything wrong with him.  And showering can be taught.  This guy is obviously rich, so the rest shouldn’t matter.”
    “Doesn’t love matter?” Sandy
asked.
    “I suppose, but I’ve always found
love to be highly over-rated.  Especially when there are other benefits in the
relationship.  Hey, can I hang out at your place for a little while tonight?”
    “Nope.  There’s not a chance you
are getting these chocolates.  I would like to just spend the evening in quiet
solitude.  I’ll take you home.”
    Jina pouted. 
    “I can see right through you,
Jina.  You only want me for my chocolate.  You can’t have any.  Let’s go.”
     
     

     
    S andy was
glad she had a fireplace in her apartment.  Otherwise she couldn’t have done
her part in the game.  It didn’t really matter, it wasn’t as if S.A. knew
whether she did the thing or not.  But it was fun.
    She put on a CD.  Opera.  Nice,
quiet, peaceful.  She liked these types of nights to herself.  No one hung
around to hassle her or tell her what to do or where to go.  That was one of
the things she had enjoyed these past nine months without Darryl.  Men always
seemed to need company, even when their girlfriends would rather be alone.
    There was just enough wood left
in the house to start a medium sized fire.  It would be enough to burn the
rose. 
    While the new flames crackled in
the fireplace, she filled a wine glass with something leftover from the weekend
party.  Then Sandy sat down on her couch facing the two dozen red roses.  She
took a sip of Merlot and sniffed at a bud.  Slowly, she pulled it from the
vase, and set the wine glass on the table.  As instructed, she walked to the
fireplace, and delicately tossed the rose into the flames.
    Sitting back on her soft couch,
opened the chocolates.  Four beautiful truffles.  As she savored the candy, she
watched the fire until the rose until it was nothing but flower-shaped ashes.
    One more piece left.  She
chuckled at the label on the lid, which hailed them as “decadent”.  Luxurious,
maybe, but not decadent.  That word meant something else entirely, but for some
reason fancy food marketers insisted on using it to describe overpriced gourmet
delicacies.  If the chocolates were decadent, they would be decaying, stale,
rotten husks.
    Definitely not decadent. 
Exquisite.
    With chocolates gone, she set the
box on the table.
    The lid moved.  Of its own
accord.
    She jumped back and found herself
sitting on the back of her couch. 
    A small green lizard slowly
crawled out from under the box.
    Sandy breathed a sigh of relief. 
Reptiles aren’t nearly so scary as a box that moves by itself.  And yet, there
was the question of how a lizard got onto her coffee table in the first place.
    What a strange event.  But she
certainly wasn’t about to let it spoil her evening.  She picked up the lizard
with her bare hands and took it out to the balcony.  Her apartment was only two
stories up, and didn’t think the critter would have any trouble crawling down
on its own.  After putting the tiny reptile on the rail, she spoke to it,
coaxing it onto the building wall. 
    While thus occupied, she didn’t
see the much larger black lizard slide out from under her dining room table. 
It crawled through the balcony doorway and into the night air, hiding in the
shadows of her balcony before she turned to go inside.
     
     

     
    Even though it was a school
night, Jina and Sandy decided to spend Wednesday evening at The Neverland where
they could enjoy the dark atmosphere, loud music, bright lights, and possibly a
little dancing.
    They camped out at the end of the
bar and ordered drinks. 
    “My band is much better
than this