No Kissing

'You have another condom?' she asked. 'For later?'

'Yeah.'

He felt her peel off the latex and swallow his cock whole. It seemed to go right down her throat. Maybe she had been practicing on the dildo.

Charlie buried his face between her cheeks, tracing the outline of her labia with his tongue.

She came up for air. 'You don't need to do that,' she gasped. 'I don't need to practice getting licked.'

'You've done it before?'

'No, but how hard could it be?'

Charlie flicked her clit with the tip of his tongue. She shuddered above him.

'Pretty hard,' he said, 'if you're trying to give a blowjob at the same time.'

She hesitated. He wondered what she was thinking. Perhaps she wanted his mouth on her pussy but was afraid, strangely, of being unfaithful. Perhaps she didn't want it but was afraid of being unprepared for Dan.

'Okay, go ahead,' she said, and wrapped her lips around his cock again. He felt her hand stroke his shaft, as he had taught her.

He slid his finger into her pussy as he lapped at her clit, gently but with growing intensity. As she raked her nails across his balls, he pumped his finger more and more vigorously, and chased her bud of pleasure around with the tip of his tongue.

Her moans sent electric vibrations through his cock. She gulped down more and more of it as she rocked back and forth on his face.

'Hom a doon?' she mumbled around his dick.

He took one last slurp of her delicious juices. 'What?'

She released his cock from her mouth. 'How am I doing?'

'Great. Really good.'

'Any need for more practice?'

He sighed. 'Probably not,' he admitted.

'Okay. Missionary.'

She climbed off him and flopped down onto her back, her smooth knees raised and parted. Charlie rolled another condom onto his slippery erection and climbed onto her, resting his elbows on either side of the pillow, careful not to trap her hair.

His cock nudged at her entrance. 'You ready?' he asked.

Instead of answering, she gripped his naked butt cheeks and pulled him in.

Charlie moaned, his dick surrounded by her slippery ecstasy. Nina gasped, her chin tilted back to expose a pale neck. Charlie kissed it, wondering if that was off-limits.

If it was, Nina didn't seem to notice. She pushed and pulled his hips, dragging him in and out of her. 'Oh Jesus,' she whimpered. 'Oh Christ.'

Charlie nibbled on her earlobe, intoxicated by the smell of her shampoo. She bit down on his shoulder, dug her nails into his buttocks and began to tremble like a car with engine trouble. She was going to orgasm.

Yes, he thought. Come for me. Let me thank you for this. Let me give you some pleasure.

Charlie thrust faster and faster, bringing her to the brink, and with one last shove, pushed her over the edge. She screamed in his ear as she thrashed around beneath him, and he pulled her hair and she squeezed his cock with her pussy and he felt her toes curling beneath his knees and the violent motions set him off, triggering an explosion in his hard-on. The condom filled with squirt after squirt of come as he pounded her pussy, and he cried out 'Nina!' before she silenced him with her mouth, kissing him hungrily, her tongue probing at his teeth, her lips sucking and nipping at his own. He kissed her back, tasting her lip gloss and the salty flesh beneath it, feeling her breaths heaving in his face.

Then she pushed him away.

He tumbled sideways, slipping out of her and collapsing onto the sheets. They lay like that for a moment, shoulder to shoulder, their chests rising and falling in unison.

Then Nina clambered out of bed. She produced a dress from under Charlie's desk and slipped it on.

'Nina,' Charlie said.

She opened the door and left without a word.

***

Charlie didn't sleep at all.

He tried to call Nina, but she wouldn't answer. He sent her a message online – You okay? Call me. – and received no response after an hour. His second message – I just want to know that you're all right – went unanswered.

Eventually he had to decide whether to tell one of her friends what was going on and get them to check on her, or to do nothing.

He knew how important her secret was. He did nothing.

He went to bed and stared at the ceiling, re-living every moment of the evening. Her scent, her taste, the feel of her hands on his skin – and the way she didn't even look at him as she walked out.

He had never been so happy and so sad at the same time.

***

The sun rose high on the quadrangle, lighting up the grass, the wilting bushes, the scratched park benches. Charlie had been waiting for two hours. He had skipped a tutorial and a lecture. He was prepared to miss more, if that was what it took.

Not necessary. There she was, strolling out of the refectory toward one of the other campus buildings. Charlie ran up to her. 'Nina!'

She turned, and smiled uncertainly. 'Do I know you?'

Charlie's jaw fell open. She had spoken so genuinely that he half believed she had honestly forgotten him. The other half of him almost believed that he had imagined the whole affair.

'It's me,' he said, stupidly. 'Charlie.'

'Oh, of course. Charlie. How are you?'

He could feel his face going red. 'Look. About last night–'

She leaned closer. 'We can't talk,' she said. 'That was the deal.'

Where had the Nina from last night gone? Who was this cold, heartless woman?

Charlie was about to protest, but then he saw the sadness in her eyes. This was killing her as much as it was killing him.

'Not even to say goodbye?' he asked.

'For what it's worth,' she said, 'I almost stayed.'

He managed to turn away before the tears welled up in his eyes. He heard her walk away – brisk, confident steps, fading fast.

'Charlie.'

He looked over. Jane stood on the grass nearby, arms crossed.

'Hi,' he said.

'You okay?'

'Fine.'

'You've been out here for two hours.'

He frowned. How did she know that?

'I walked past you,' she said. 'Three times. You didn't see me?'

He shook his head. 'Sorry.'

'It's okay. What's on your mind?'

'Nothing important. Want to grab a drink with me tonight?'

She opened her mouth to turn him down again.

'Just as friends,' he added. 'I'll invite Henry, too. You can bring whoever.'

She smiled. 'I'd like that.'

Charlie glanced at his watch. 'I shouldn't miss any more classes. See you at the Gossamer? Five thirty?'

'See you then.'

He walked away without even the temptation to look back.

His next class was economics. He picked a hard chair next to a pretty redhead with freckles. He thought he caught her looking at his butt as he sat down.

'Have you always been in this class?' he asked.

She laughed. 'You didn't notice me?'

'No,' Charlie said. 'But I should have. I'm Charlie.'

'Sally.' She shook his hand.

Nothing ventured, nothing gained, Charlie thought.

'Some friends and I are meeting at the Gossamer for a drink tonight,' he said. 'Five thirty. You should come.'

She smiled. 'I might just do that.'

Charlie felt a little glow inside his chest. Maybe, he thought, just sometimes, things can be that easy.