His kisses were deliberate and thorough and heat pooled where their mouths met and sunk through her until it settled deep in her stomach. His hands massaged her hips and thighs as they kissed and Tanya pushed herself as close to him as she could. The silk of her underwear pressed against the rough fabric and zipper of his jeans.
She heard him gasp a little when she pushed her hips into his.
“Sorry,” she said quickly and moved back. “I didn’t mean-”
“Tanya, lesson number two—never apologize for pressing any part of your body into my erection.”
“You’re really going to give me lessons?” she asked, smiling into his lips.
“Yes, but I fully expect you to give me a few lessons in return.”
Tanya shook her head as she made her first forays into touching him back. She put her hands on his strong biceps and ran them up his arms to his shoulders.
“What could I possibly teach you?”
“You can teach me Tanya. I plan on getting my third doctorate in you.”
Inhaling slowly, Tanya bent forward and wrapped her arms around David’s shoulders in an embrace. She couldn’t believe this man she’d been dreaming of since her first day, her first class with him, was kissing her, touching her, saying he wanted to know everything about her.
“I’m not a very interesting subject,” she said as David slipped a hand under her dark blue dress and stroked her pelvic bones. She hated how boney she was. He was substantial–tall and muscular and he filled out those jeans perfectly. “What do you want to know?”
“Tell me how you like to be touched. And where?”
The knot in Tanya’s stomach tightened. Did he really expert her to tell him what to do?
“Do I need to remind I’ve only had sex once in my entire life? If so, I’m happy to remind you…I’ve only had sex once in my entire life.”
“But surely I wasn’t the first person who’s ever touched you.”
“More or less,” she said. “I’m fairly boring in that area.”
“Never even touched yourself?” he asked cupping her bottom with both hands.
“Oh, God.” Tanya buried her head in the crook of his neck. “You’re killing me. You can’t get your doctorate in me if I’m dead.”
Laughing, David pulled his hands out from beneath her loose summer dress and took her by the waist again.
“Very well. If you won’t tell me, I’ll just have to find out myself.”
Gently he rolled them so she was on her back underneath him. He shifted a little to the side and kissed her again long and slow while his hand roamed over her chest and neck. She shivered as his fingertips tickled her collarbone.
“Light touching she likes,” he said into her ear.
“She does like that..” Tanya agreed.
“Does she like have her breasts touched?” He asked as he slowly slid the straps of her dress down her shoulders. Tanya immediately regretted going with the dress that demanded she go braless. The lights in David’s living room were low but she still felt so embarrassed and exposed as he pulled her dress down below her breasts. She closed her eyes as he ran his fingers delicately over her breasts. He grazed her nipples and she felt them harden with desire and need.
“You’re panting, Tanya.”
“I’m sorry. It’s just-”
“Lesson three—never apologize for panting.”
“Will there be a test later?”
“Yes, but don’t worry,” David said as he rose up over her. “You’ve already passed.”
Tanya started to say something but then David took one of her nipples in his mouth and sucked lightly on it. She arched beneath him, blinking from the shock of pleasure. David moved slowly from one breast to the other, kissing her nipples until her breasts felt full and swollen. It wasn’t until she heard him laughing softly that Tanya came back to herself again.
“What?” she demanded.
She raised her head and saw David grinning down at her.
“Even your nipples have freckles.”
Tanya covered her face with her hand.
“Oh please!” she said, shaking her head.
“Don’t you dare. I’ve never seen more beautiful breasts in my life. I had no idea until you that freckles could be that intoxicating.”
“Intoxicating? How much wine did you have before I came over?”
“Just enough to steady my nerves.”
“Your nerves? You were nervous? About me?”
“Course I was. No bloke on earth wouldn’t be nervous if a girl as beautiful as you was stopping by.”
“The mysterious City illness seems to have effected you too!”
“I hope I’m never cured of it!” David said before dipping his head to her breasts again. Closing her eyes once more, Tanya laid her head back and resolved to relax. David knew what he was doing. She couldn’t even begin to imagine how many women he’d been with. He’d even had a girlfriend last term—some gorgeous doctor, the medical kind, named Priya. Tanya remembered seeing her and David having lunch together on the lawn one day in September. She’d never considered herself a violent person, but Tanya remembered thinking how much she would like to look down and see a fistful of shiny and bloody hair in her hand. It had been crushing to see his girlfriend, a woman in her mid-thirties who was no doubt as brilliant as she was beautiful. But for some reason, Priya had disappeared from David’s life and in February Tanya had gone to David’s office with a new poem she’d been working on. Wanting to be a grown-up, she’d asked him if he and Priya had any fun plans for Valentine’s Day—she and her flatmates were going dancing. He’d winced and said the only plans Priya had for him on Valentine’s Day was to likely burn him in effigy. Tanya made an attempt at sympathy but she must not have pulled it off very well because David kept looking at her…looking at her like she was the reason Priya wanted to burn David in effigy. Now she had to wonder if perhaps she was.
She rather liked that thought.
David’s hand roamed from her breasts down her stomach and slid beneath her dress again. This time his hand spent only a few seconds on her thighs and hips before coming to rest between her legs. With his thumb, he teased her clitoris as he made slow circles over her underwear. He touched for a long time. She thought she should stop him, do something for him, but it felt so wonderful she let him continue with his attentions. Tanya’s heart raced and something wound tight in her stomach…tight…tighter… David increased the pressure of his touch and pushed into her. Her hips lifted off the sofa and she came hard with a shuddering gasp.
“Tanya, you just had an orgasm on my sofa,” David said as he pulled his hand away from her and kissed her under her ear.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to. I-”
“Lesson number four,” David began.
“Let me guess—no apologizing for orgasms.”
“It could possibly be the most important rule.”
Tanya turned onto her side and David held her close and tight to him. She pulled her dress back up feeling suddenly self-conscious.
“That was amazing,” she said as he kissed her cheek and forehead. “Can I do something for you?”
“Most definitely.” He ran his hand up and down the side of her body.
“What can I do?”
David brought his hand to the side of her face and tilted her chin to meet his eyes.
“You can come with me to my bedroom and let me make love to you,” he said, his voice low and heady. She’d never seen the flame of lust his eyes had burning so bright or hot before. “Properly this time. Will you do that for me?”
“Yes, Professor David,” she said, grinning to hide how moved she was.
“Lesson number six,” he said taking her hand in his and gallantly kissing the back of it. “When I’m inside you, you have to call me Dave.”
“I do like that name.”
“Then I shall give you ample opportunity to say it tonight. Or hopefully, moan it.”
Tanya sat up and started to stand. But before she could get to her feet, David was already on his. He didn’t let her walk, instead swept her up and carried across the living room toward a door on the other side of the room.
“You’re really going to carry me to bed?” she asked as she clung to his shoulders.
“You had a less than perfect first time. I’d like to rectify that, if you don’t mind.”
“No,” she said, pressing her cheek to the side of his neck.
“You do mind?”
“No…my first time, it was perfect. It was with you.”
In his arms, Tanya not only heard David sigh, she felt it too. Biting her tongue, she resolved to not say anymore outrageously infatuated things to him. But considering he was taking her to his bed, she wasn’t sure how long that resolution would last.
One lamp was already on in his bedroom—a small bedside lamp that cast soft and low light around the room.
“You left a light on…you knew this was going to happen, didn’t you?” she asked as David bent and laid her across his bed. He sat next to her and brushed her hair off her forehead.
“I can’t say I knew. But I will I say I hoped. Warm enough? Comfortable?”
Tanya nodded and David reached down and slipped her sandals off her feet. He ran his hand up on her bare legs and let them come to rest on the center of her stomach. She felt her stomach tighten again and twist underneath the light pressure.
“David, I have to tell you something.”
“Anything,” he said. “Lesson number one, remember?”
Grinning, she put her hand over his where it still rested on her stomach.
“Friday night…I meant it when I said that the last thing I thought would happen when I came to your office was that you and I….that we would make love. I wasn’t really prepared.”
“Emotionally?”
“No. I was more than ready that way. It’s only, I’m not on birth control. I mean, I am now. I went to the college clinic on Monday, but Friday night…I’m sorry.”
Tanya bit her bottom lips as she looked up at David. She feared she ruined it, ruined the moment. His face was implacable as a mask. Slowly he nodded.
“As I said, we’ll take the consequences as they come. I had a condom in my wallet that night and got too caught up in the moment to use it. If anything happens, you’re hardly the one to blame. Tonight, neither of us will be so foolish,” he said, opening the drawer on the bedside table. He pulled out a box of condoms…a very large box.
Laughing and blushing, Tanya rolled onto her side and pulled her knees to her chest.
“I’m having trouble walking just thinking about it,” she said and laughed again. She looked up at David and expected to see him laugh too. He didn’t.
“Did I hurt you that night?” he asked.
“David-“
“Lesson one,” he reminded her.
Exhaling, Tanya slowly nodded.
“Yes, it did hurt. I was a little sore the next day. But just a bit. Hardly a Bell Jar scenario.”
“My God, did you just reference Sylvia Plath in my bedroom?”
Tanya dissolved into giggles at the look of shock and horror on David’s face.
“I just broke one of the rules, didn’t I? I was hoping to keep this is a secret from you—but Plath’s one of my favorite poets.”
David sighed heavily.
“Herr God, Herr Lucifer,” David began.
“Beware, beware. Out of the ash I rise with my red hair and I eat men like air,” Tanya finished the line in a dramatic monotone.
“A red-headed Plath fan—what have I gotten myself into? Well, I’m relieved we didn’t have a ‘Bell Jar scenario’,” he said. “I think if I made love to a girl and she ended up in the hospital hemorrhaging because of it, I’d become a monk.”
“You’re a Professor, remember? Hahaha.”
“Forgot.” David smiled down at her and said nothing for a moment.
“What is it?” she asked as he seemed to study her.
“I don’t recall ever having a girl in my bed as beautiful as you and wanting to talk to her as much as I wanted to make love to her.”
Tanya blushed at the compliment.
“I love talking to you too. I’ve never been able to talk poetry to anyone before. I really appreciate you indulging me so much this year. I know reading my nonsense isn’t your favorite way to spend your office hours.”
David reached up and ran his hand through her hair.
“'And though it was brittle cold and the wind was singing and winter snapped at her heels / she didn’t run and she didn’t want to. / She never even noticed it was raining’.”
Tanya sat up and met David eye to eye.
“That’s from my poem,” she said. The poem, called “With Him” was one of her little bits of nonsense she’d showed him last fall. “You memorized my poem?”
“I thought it was lovely. ‘Brittle’ cold instead of ‘bitter cold’ and the image of late fall feeling like winter chasing after you like a wolf…it’s a wonderful poem. Of course I memorized it.”
A knot formed in her throat and Tanya leaned into him and wrapped he arms around his shoulders. He pulled her close and held her.
“Lesson number one,” she whispered. “Tell you everything, yes?”
“Yes,” he said softly into her ear.
“I wrote that poem about you.”
“Did you?”
Tanya nodded mutely.
David pulled back just enough to meet her eyes. They looked at each other for one single perfect moment before he brought his mouth to hers. Tanya clung to him as they kissed. The room seemed to rock like a stormy sea underneath her. He was her ship and she knew as long as she held onto him, they would sail through.
Tanya stiffened as David gathered the fabric of her dress in his hands and started to pull it up.
“Please,” he said in a near whisper. “Let me see you. All of you.”
Nodding, she said nothing. Only lifted her arms and let him pull her dress off her. He pressed her down onto her back and slid her underwear down her legs and tossed the bit of white cotton aside.
He gazed at her for a long time and she forced herself to say nothing as he looked at her.
“David?”
“Forgive me,” he said as he stretched out on top of her. “I think I stopped breathing there for a moment.”
His mouth was on hers again. Tanya wrapped herself around him wanting to absorb all of his heat into her naked skin. Although he was still completely dressed and she wore nothing but her freckles, she found herself feeling surprisingly unselfconscious for the first time that night. Being naked with him seemed so natural.
As they kissed, Tanya explored his back with her hands. He had marvelous shoulder blades. And the valley down the center of his back…she could spend her whole life there.
David moved from her mouth to her neck and kissed his way to her breasts again. He lingered over her nipples for a moment before moving lower once more. He slipped a hand between her legs and pushed her thighs open.
“David-” she gasped as he dipped his head between her legs.
“I’ll stop if you tell me to, Tanya, but I’d prefer if you didn’t tell me to.”
Tanya took a quick breath and said nothing else. Using his fingers, David opened her and he took her clitoris gently between his lips. The sheets knotted in Tanya’s nervous fingers as David made love to her with his mouth. It felt strange and wonderful and terrifying all at the same time.
“Are you even remotely enjoying this?” David asked, raising his head to smile at her.
“I’m trying,” she said, unable to ease her death-grip on the sheets. “I’m sorry. I’m just nervous.”
“Too much too soon?”
She shook her head. “I don’t want us to stop. Please.”
David turned his head and dropped a quick kiss on top of her thigh before crawling up her body again.
“Forgive me,” he said, kissing her neck and chest again. “You were my first virgin. You’ll have to teach me how to control myself.”
“You’ve never been with a virgin before me?”
“Not one. Even the girl I had my first time with had been with one boy before me.”
“Boy? How old were you?”
“Significantly younger than eighteen,” he said and grinned. “Which is why it never occurred to me that you might be more self-controlled than I was as a teenager. Tell me what you’d like me to do. Something that won’t leave you white as a ghost.”
“Well, there is something a little disconcerting about being the only one in the room naked.”
She gripped the fabric of his t-shirt and David took the hint. He pulled away from her just long enough to yank his shirt off and let it join her clothes on the floor. Reaching underneath her, David pulled the covers down and dbangd them over her body. Tanya stared up at the ceiling as David unbuttoned jeans and stripped completely naked. He slid under the covers with her and stretched out again on top of her. She gasped a little from the pleasure of his warm bare chest pressing against her breasts.
Seeming to sense her thoughts, David’s hand roamed down her body and he slipped a single finger inside her.
“That doesn’t hurt, does it?”
She shook her head. “No. The opposite, in fact.”
He made slow circle inside her and Tanya felt herself growing wetter the more he touched her. A second finger joined the first one and Tanya instinctively opened her legs wider.
“Still no pain?” he asked.
She shook her head. It felt tight now, but not painful. She felt like her body was tensing and trying to draw him deeper inside. She wanted him inside her…inside her body, inside her heart.
Curiosity got the better of her and Tanya reached down and wrapped her hand around David’s erection. He flinched at her touch and she started to pull her hand back.
“Lesson number…damn, I’ve forgotten what number we’re on,” he said breathlessly.
“I can’t remember either. Five? Six?”
“Lesson number something. What you are now doing is a wonderful thing and you shouldn’t stop. Flinching in this regard is a good sign.”
“There’s so much to learn about sex,” she said. “I really should be writing this down.”
“There’s even more to learn when we start actually having it.”
“When is that?” she asked, eager to try having inside her again. She ran her fingers up and down him loving how hard he was, how smooth his skin was.
“Now, I think,” David said and Tanya stroked him once more. “Definitely now,” he said breathlessly.
He pulled away from her and took a condom from the box. She tried to ignore her nervousness as he slipped it on and braced himself over her.
“Open you legs as wide as you can,” he said, touching the side of her face.
She complied, shifting underneath him and spreading her legs wide. David opened her with his fingers once more and pushed an inch inside. She lifted her hips and he pressed completely into her.
Tanya winced and her whole body tensed from the pain. Quickly and carefully, David pulled out of her.
“I’m sorry,” she said hastily.
“Tanya, you’re the only lover I’ve ever had whose apologized for first, having an orgasm and second, for being tight.”
“I suppose I’m not allowed to say I’m sorry for saying I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not.”
“What now?” she asked, praying that “stopping” wasn’t the answer.
“We forego missionary position. Not one of my favorites anyway. Turn over,” he instructed and Tanya nervously rolled over onto her stomach.
“You’re on your stomach and I’m going to get my lube out, but please don’t worry. I’m not planning on sodomizing you. Not yet anyway,” he said and kissed the back of her shoulder.
“That is a comfort,” she said as she pulled one of David’s pillows to her chest. While he was reaching into the drawer again, she pressed her nose into the pillow and inhaled. His sheets smelled just like him—warm and masculine and clean.
David pressed into her again and took her knee in his hand, pulling it up to her chest. She heard him opening the cap of the lube and she winced as she felt the ice cold liquid on his fingertips.
“I know,” he said and laughed gently. “I’ll try to warm you up as quickly as I can.”
“I’m fine,” she said, feeling awkward just laying there while he applied copious amounts of the cold liquid to her. He set the tube aside and slid two fingers inside her again.
“I’m going to try to open you a little. Tell me if I hurt you.”
Tanya was too embarrassed to answer. She merely nodded as she hugged his pillow tighter to her chest. David’s fingers spread apart inside her. He turned them and spread them wider.
“Any pain?”
“No,” she whispered. “None.”
She felt his hand turn again and this time she knew he was pushing a third finger into her. Her body rebelled at first not wanting to let it in. But she breathed through the discomfort and soon David had three fingers buried deep inside her.
“Dave…” she breathed.
“Yes?”
“You said I was suppose to moan your name when you were inside me. Following orders,” she said.
“Good girl.” He kissed her shoulder again, long and deep and she sighed with desire.
David pulled his fingers out of her. Again she felt him at the entrance of her body.
“Relax,” he said into her ear. “Try not to tense.”
“I’ll try,” she promised. He pushed slowly into her, filling her inch by inch. She felt her muscle contracting around him again but no pain this time.
“Better?” he asked.
“Much.”
Slowly he started to move inside her. He pulled almost completely out before sliding back in.
“Do you like it this way?” he asked, brushing her hair off her neck and caressing her back.
“Yes,” she admitted. Back when this act was still only a fantasy to her, she’d always envisioned laying on her back with David on top of her. She saw now how shortsighted that image was. For some reason, being on her stomach with his chest into her back and his mouth at her ear felt far more intimate than missionary position.
“I’m glad. This is my favorite.”
“We’ll say it’s mine too.”
As he moved in her, David explored her body with his hands. She wasn’t completely on her stomach. With her leg bent at the knee, David could reach around her and cup her breasts. He caressed her arms and side before reaching low and finding her clitoris again.
The speed of his thrusts increased. She felt him shift and move completely on top of her. Both hands were now on either side of her head. Talking had stopped. Now all she heard was his ragged breaths mingling with hers.
She turned her head to the side and looked at his left hand as it gripped the sheets. She reached out and touched his hand, wrapping her fingers around his thumb. He moved his hand over hers and twined his fingers over and between hers. Looking at their interlocked hands, she decided that she’d never seen a more beautiful image in her life. She would write a poem about this. She would call it “Love.”
“Tanya…” he breathed and she heard a tightness in his voice.
He kept thrusting. Tanya closed her eyes and arched her back to take him even deeper into her. Pressure built in her stomach, her muscles tightened around him, and she came with a quiet shudder.
David pushed into her. She could feel that his muscles were taut as steel bars. She knew he was trying to be as careful with her as he could and she loved him for it. He was such an odd combination of seducer and protector…the perfect combination.
A low groan escaped the back of David’s throat. He thrust into her one more time, his entire body seemed to tense and then he relaxed on top of her with a sigh.
They lay in silence for a long time catching their breaths. David was still inside her. Their hands were still intertwined.
“About lesson number one,” David said after a minute or two.
“The lesson about us telling each everything?”
“That one. You should know something, Tanya.”
“What?” she asked, pressing back deeper into his arms. No poem had ever moved her like this moment.
“I love you too.”
And then they both hugged each other tightly, with new dreams in their minds.
The End