The smoke in the sports bar was thick enough to make my eyes water. I took my glasses off, blinked a few times, then set them back on my nose and looked around.

There he was. Mr. Goddamn Right.

Not my Mr. Right, of course. Kim's Mr. Right - Steve, the fiancé who could do no wrong. Or so she insisted.

Last week I'd made an off-hand remark that someone might steal him from her. She laughed, and told me no-one would have a prayer. The way Kim described him, he seemed too good to be true.

But then, so was Kim - a straight A student you couldn't help but love, but secretly wish that you could find a few more traces of imperfection. You wouldn't want to hurt her, far from it, but you might not be too disappointed if she stumbled slightly.

I'd met Steve just once. Kim and I had run into him with a group of his friends, and Kim introduced us to them all. Too many to remember, but Steve's face stuck wtih me. He seemed a good looking guy for being so perfect. Tall, with an athlete's build. Short dark hair.

If he would stray... well, Kim should learn that sooner rather than later, right? Not that I'd want her to be wrong, but if she was... well, I'd like to know that, too.

Watching him with his friends in the sports bar, I grinned. It was almost a shame that he was Kim's Mr. Right.

The game he was watching was finishing. Kim had mentioned his Monday night ritual, and I'd timed my appearance well. I wandered over, then feigned a small start of surprise at recognizing him.

"Aren't you Steve?" I asked. "I'm Toni. I'm a friend of Kim Crowley. We met one time."

He stood, and offered his hand. "I remember," he said. Glancing around, "Good to see you, Toni. You here with anyone? Want to join us?" and soon I found myself squeezed into the group beside him, beer in hand.

He seemed happy to focus on me, meeting my eyes, while the rest of the group talked about the game. His forearm occasionally brushed against mine, and I felt a little surprise as I realized that he was not rejecting my low-key flirtation outright. I felt my face warming - I wasn't expecting to find Kim's perfect suitor so attractive.

When the group started to disperse, I offered to buy him a beer, giving him the opportunity to stay a little longer.

"Better not," he said. I hid my disappointment. "I'm driving... coffee next door?"

"Sure," I responded, trying to hide the opposite response, now.

"Might be better for your cough, too," he added.

"Yeah," I agreed, "this smoke..."

I walked by his side to the coffee shop. I noticed that he didn't mention Kim at all, though we covered work, sports, even some local politics. We were still on our first latté when the coffee shop closed.

"Kinda early, isn't it?" Steve frowned.

"I guess this isn't a chain store," I said. "No drive-through, no late opening."

"Yeah," he agreed. "Want one for the road?"

"If you're not done with coffee," I suggested, "I only live a block or two from here."

Steve showed perfect white teeth. "Sure thing, Toni," he said.

 

"I could get you something stronger," I said, after I'd directed him to the couch, "if you don't need to drive right away."

"What do you have?"

"Come see, if you like," I said, and he followed me through to the kitchen.

I pointed out a couple of bottles of spirits, and the beer in the fridge. As he stood beside me, the hair on his upper arm brushed my bare skin, making me shiver.

"Get me one, too," I instructed, as he took a beer from the fridge.

I followed Steve back to the couch. He took the right side, laying his left arm over the back of the sofa. I sat in the center, close enough that he could - would - take it as an invitation, and sipped nervously at my beer.

If he didn't respond, I'd have lost my one-sided battle with the perfect Kim. But... if he weren't going to at least try to get friendly with me, why would he have come back to my place? Even knowing that he'd done that would be a shock to Kim.

Unless he came to talk about her - but she never seemed to enter the conversation.

I had just taken another sip of my beer when I felt a touch on my left shoulder. Steve was stroking it absently. Then he lowered his fingers to just below my short sleeves, playing lightly along my bare arm.

I sat rigidly, not responding. I'd confirmed that Mr. Right had other things than Kim on his mind. Though "confirmed" was really far beyond the mark. Knowing it, and showing it, were different. Maybe it was just a friendly touch...

Well, I knew better, of course, but I could hardly accuse him even of flirting at this point. And all I'd do if I were to tell Kim would be to make her angry with me for trying to make a move on her fiancé.

Could I ever tell Kim, anyway? This was a stupid idea after all. On the other hand, it would also be stupid to invite him in, then throw him out for the gentlest response to a blatant invitation. And... he was a good-looking guy.

I tried to relax as I leaned back. Immediately he curled his fingers around my arm, drawing me slightly closer. I raised my glass and guzzled about half of my remaining beer. Steve drank, too, not looking at me, then turned the topic of conversation to my work.

I made a brief mention of Kim one time, which drew no reaction at all from him. That struck me as more than a little weird. But he seemed such a nice guy, and I was feeling like a jerk, testing him like this.

Steve bent forward to set his empty glass on the coffee table. I finished mine, and did the same, then leaned back, feeling his arm tighten around me. I lay my head on his shoulder. A moment later he lifted his right hand to touch my face in a caressing motion, smoothing back my hair.

Lowering his face, he kissed my forehead. The fingers of his right hand hooked under my chin, lifting my face, and I felt his lips touch mine. I moved my face aside, but with the stubble of his chin making my cheek tingle, and his lips against my neck, I still found myself not willing to push him away, and just stayed passive against him.

Steve's right hand slipped down from my face, over my shoulder, and down my arm. He took my left hand, and I almost automatically closed my fingers around his. A moment later I kissed his cheek, and he drew back to meet my lips with his.

I tightened my grip on his hand as I returned his kiss, a taut feeling in my breast. There was still a large space between us; my hand in his, his arm around my back, but other than our lips moving together, we weren't at all close. Something about the space held it's own attraction - I found the separation exciting.

I broke away from his lips, just far enough to draw my own across them, barely connecting. He swivelled his face to follow mine, but I stayed slightly out of his reach, feeling a small thrill every time he managed to brush his lips against me. Then I stopped moving, letting him get close, my lips parted. There was a warmth in my belly that tingled as I breathed.

Steve's lips touched mine - oh, so gently, and he disengaged his hand, sliding it back up my arm to my shoulder, slowly drawing me closer. The pressure of his mouth against mine grew, and I moved my jaw in time to his.

Out kiss was becoming more intense by the moment. I leaned into him, feeling my breathing become faster and the tightness in my chest increasing. I groaned slightly with the rush of feeling. His tongue sought mine, and I responded in kind.

My glasses were getting in the way, and I broke away. After I'd set them on the table, I turned to face him, then wrapped my arms around him as I continued where we'd left off, drawing back and repositioning my mouth against his frequently, wanting to find every last ounce of passion in the contact.

My hands explored his back, pressing him to me, building excitement in our contact. He responded by running his hands over my head, the back of my neck, my shoulders, intensifying the power of his lips on mine, and my heart pounded within my breast.

I felt Steve's fingers against the back of my neck, then a light pressure slowly moving down my back. Cool air touched skin, where a moment earlier had been the fabric of my light dress - held closed with a zipper at the back.

Then another touch, just below my shoulder blades. The supporting tension around my breasts eased, and my bra strap tickled as it slid away.

"Mmm," I grunted, pushing myself away from him. "No." I backed up some more. "Not..." I stammered, "I think... I think it's time to say goodnight."

Steve nodded, gently, sadly. "I'm sorry," he said. "I hope I didn't..."

"I'm okay," I said. Oh, God, I thought, what am I doing to you, Kim? What am I going to say to you?

He stood to leave.

"Wait," I said. "You haven't had time... you shouldn't rush away after drinking."

"I'll be fine, Toni," he said.

He was leaving because he thought he'd wronged me, pushing me into something I didn't want. But I'd wronged him, setting him up like this... and it wasn't even that I wanted him to stop what he was doing.

I felt guilty about Kim - he was breaking her trust. But the guilt was stoking the fire in my belly, and it wasn't my job to keep her fiancé in line... And, as I'd rationalized earlier, shouldn't she know now, before it was too late?

I caught his hands. "Wait," I said again. My heart raced as I held his eyes, his expression as confused as mine must have been anguished. I tightened my hands on his...

Then, after a few moments, I drew his face down to my level, to kiss him passionately on the lips. He responded cautiously, and I wrapped my arms around his head as he stumbled back onto the couch. Tugging his shirt from his jeans, I ran my hands over his stomach, before starting to unfasten his shirt.

Steve's palms explored my sides, then down to my ass, squeezing, as his tongue played tag with mine. I groaned as my arousal grew.

Then his hands were back onto my dress, slipping it off my shoulder. I lowered my arms so that the sleeves would drop away, then wrapped them back around his head, devouring him with my kiss, as his fingers explored my back and waist.

Moving my hands back to his chest, I finished unfastening his shirt, then roughly pushed it off him, to kiss his neck and bare breastbone. I ran my fingers over his chest, and down to his waist, gripping and kneading as I briefly nosed and tongued his nipples.

Steve's hands stroked my shoulders again, caressing with his thumbs, then sliding the straps of my unfastened bra down to my arms. I let it fall away as he took in the sight of me, before drawing my face back to his. He sucked my tongue and upper lip as he caressed my breasts, and my sex twitched as my arousal was catapulted to a new level.

I stood, letting my dress fall the rest of the way to the floor, took his hand, and led him to the bedroom, where I grabbed his shoulders, drawing him close. As his lips drew fire from mine, and his thumbs pressed against the tips of my breast, I unfastened his jeans, then removed my own panties, so that he wouldn't need to release my erect nipples.

Pushing him back onto the bed, I worked his jeans and underwear down his legs, then lowered myself on top of him. Steve's hand travelled down my side, then back up between my thighs, to part and caress my labia. I bit his ear as he slowly stroked me into wetness, and by the time he pressed his shaft into me, I had already begun the climb to pleasure.

He was quick to respond as I moved against him, and I could tell from the sounds he was stifling that it wouldn't be long before he lost control, but that was okay, because I was almost there, too. I lifted my body for him to take my breasts, and he did, sucking and squeezing.

My thighs tensed as he pushed my arousal over the limit, and I gasped as my sex tightened and tightened... then cried out as my orgasm erupted. My excitement must have taken Steve over the edge, because I felt his body quiver, and his cock quake within me. I sighed in continuing pleasure as his movements kept my own climax fueled, then covered his lips with mine as we floated back down to the bed.

After I rolled off him, I nestled in his arm, and toyed with the hair on his chest. I wished that I knew where to go from here. Well, after this night, anyway.

"So," I said, several minutes later, "are you planning to see Kim anytime soon?"

He frowned. "Kim? No, I don't think so."

I was taken aback. I didn't know what to say, but he solved my dilemma. "Toni..." he said, "you're close to her, right?"

"Well, not... really."

He gave me a serious look. "I'm shouldn't say this, because he's a friend, but if you look out for her at all... she seems a good kid, and I wouldn't want to see her hurt."

"I'm not following, Steve," I said.

"I don't think she understands that her fiancé... well, he's got an eye for the ladies."

"Her... fiancé?" I asked, dumbly. A knot of panic formed in my breast. What the hell...

"Yeah, Steve - I know you met him when you met me that time. I'm guessing... he was with a girlfriend tonight."

"Steve..." I tried to wrap my mind around the concept, "the other Steve, Kim's Mister Goddamn Right - is a womaniser?"

I felt Steve - my Steve - nod.

The laugh seemed to start down in my toes, then ripple up through my body. When I managed to get control of myself, Steve was toying with my still-quivering breast, and it felt great - if a little disappointingly guilt-free. I slid my body back onto his, and kissed him. "I... umm... I'll talk to her. I don't know if she'll hear me, but I will."

He lifted me to squeeze my boobs. "She won't listen to reason about him?" he asked, then lowered his lips to my nipple.

"Oh, Steve," I answered, "you have no idea." I parted my legs to feel him against me as his tongue sent a thrill through my body. "You really have no idea."