Tausa

The sensations lapped across her body like the waves along the seashore. A few sparkles of the previous orgasm flitted around in her vision and other senses like caffeinated fireflies. Slowly in and out. Slowly strokes within her nudged her clit and tugged at her lips.

Annette couldn't speak. She opened her lips to reach for Jason's mouth, but couldn't quite kiss him. She breathed in the air from his lungs, her mouth just touching his. In and out slowly.

She tried to move her arms, but they were constrained by hands that continued to massage her. Had they constantly been there? She wasn't sure. She wanted to raise her knees into the air, to open herself to Jason even more, but again, hands held her there. Slow thrusts in and out. No changes. No speeding up.

The waves were a little more intense. The speed was the same. It was like the tide coming in. The sound of the sea started to fill her ears. She began to feel the white foam on the crests of the breakers. A fizz of commotion all along her nerves as each wave, each slow thrust continued relentlessly.

She struggled to breathe. She felt underwater. The hands. The hands were holding her. No, they were lifting her. As she broke the surface of this sea, the air finally found the way out of her lungs in a long wordless cry, and the waves seemed to fall beneath her as they continued their neverending progression. As her cry continued, she heard Jason.

"Oh, Annette. Oh god! I'm here!"

Deep within her, she felt him. She felt his release, larger than the last. The waves, the thrusts finally began to subside towards calmness. The hands that had held, no that had saved her, slowly withdrew to leave her floating on the surface. She still couldn't speak. She let her lips dance across Jason's face, as much of it as she could reach, and took in his scent like the salt on the beach.

With an almost imperceptible movement, she felt Jason withdraw from her, and then her sensations slowly returned to the room, the darkness of the blindfold, the soft table she laid upon, and the perspiration cooling the surface of her skin.

* * *

"Please get up and come with me." Jason could hear the quiet voice in his ear. It was Aminah. She took his right hand. He slowly rolled off the table to the outside away from Annette and stood up. His blindfold still covering his eyes, he was a bit unsure of his balance, but he held Aminah's hand and trusted her and she led him out of the room. He could tell from the sound of her breathing that Annette had not yet gotten up.

"Slowly sit down here," Aminah said.

Jason slowly sat down towards something he could not see. He eventually met a smooth surface with his naked rear. It was warm to the touch, firm, but pliant like the rubber seat on a swing. It molded perfectly to his back and legs. He could tell that it was made of at least two pieces with a space being open down the center of the surface from his neck to his feet. It was reclined backwards, and relaxing fully into the seat his feet were slightly off the ground supported by the surface running all the way down his legs to his heels.

"Now, please relax. I will temporarily restrain you for this connection ritual. If you feel uncomfortable at any time, just signal to me."

A slight pressure told him something was in contact with the top of his shoulders, arms, legs, and forehead, warm to the touch. It felt almost the same as the surface he was sitting or laying on. He remained relaxed and did not try to fight against it, but he could tell that with so much of his body now held in place on top and on bottom, it would have been difficult to move.

He could hear Aminah re-enter the room with someone else. He did not hear the other person, but he could smell her. It was Annette. He felt her getting closer but without hearing any steps. Some sounds told him that she must be relaxing into a 'chair' like the one he was in. But, she felt so close. Like he could almost breathe in the heat coming off of her skin. Yet he couldn't move, and couldn't see.

A low tone like a bell or maybe a gong sounded.

"Breathe deeply," Aminah said in a soothing voice. "Each time you hear this bell, breathe deeply."

"This is the final step of your reconnection."

"You can already sense that your partner is very close, yet you cannot physically move to meet them. Reach out to them with your mind and your heart. Listen to the sounds and smell the scents in the room. Become in tune with them, and make them into a bridge for your souls to touch."

The bell sounded again.

Jason and Annette both breathed deeply. A low-pitched drum began to beat slowly. Aminah's voice again, but closer to their ears. "This drum is your heart that beats for your partner. Listen to your own heart and tune it to the beats of this drum. Feel the beat of your partner's heart in your mind."

Jason concentrated on his heartbeat and felt his heart slow down to match the timing of the drum. He sought out Annette with his mind. He couldn't quite hear her, but he could feel her. Like a pulse of heat coming every third or fourth beat of the drum. She was so close.

There was a sizzling sound, and a fragrant scent filled the room. It was floral. A scent he remembered.

The bell sounded.

He and Annette breathed deeply. Then, they were back in the garden they visited on their honeymoon. Warm sunshine on their faces, flowers of the Pacific northwest all around them, bright and fragrant. Young and nervous, they were alive and giggling with energy, their skin pricked with goosebumps at the slightest touch.

They were trying not to make a show of their love for others, but they honestly couldn't quite see others at the moment. Just blurs against the background, while their eyes could only glimpse one another. The touch of fingers brushing across the face instantly brought the taste of the previous night's intimacy to their lips.

Her skirt fell gently along her rounded cheeks making clear her lack of panties, while her camisole barely concealed her erect nipples. Jason's pants were just loose enough to not make his erection obvious, while his shirt seemed to demand only a quick tug to lose all its buttons and fall to the ground. Somehow they demurely held hands as they strolled along the deck of the ferry until they returned to their hotel room.

Jason's mind seemed to slowly fade back to the present: the chair, the blindfold, the drum--it seemed to beat a little faster now. He reached out with his mind for Annette again. He needed to touch her. He felt himself getting hard, even after two climaxes during the massage. The only part of him that was free to move was reaching out towards her.

Another sizzling sound, and a new scent filled the air. The bell sounded. Annette and Jason inhaled as deeply as they could.

There was garlic sizzling in a pan along with herbs and a half dozen other things. Annette had just walked in the door of Jason's apartment as he was cooking lunch for them. Their first date. Annette wasn't sure what to make of Jason and his invitation at first, but the sight and smells of him working through a pile of fresh vegetables and other ingredients impressed her in a way no other partner ever had. Later, her stories of life in francophone West Africa held him rapt and thinking of adventures they might one day have together.

Interest and curiosity quickly led to vulnerability and connection as they shared their most private hopes and dreams for the future, shared their fears and hurts and most treasured memories. Jason was still lost inside the opaque swirls of affection and infatuation, when Annette leaned in to kiss him. A kiss not of lust or friendship, but deep love. Jason was surprised, but quickly caught up to the dance of tongues and lips. They spent hours together that day melting together in a way they had never experienced before.

Annette didn't stay the night, but she did return the next morning to share breakfast, another day of deep discussions on life, the universe, and everything, and she was ready to marry Jason, though she didn't tell him until more than 6 months later. That day had been a magical kind of music made by the strings of their hearts. A music that had continued and built itself into an orchestra of harmonious sound.

Again, the image, the music, the dream faded, and they were back in the presence of the drum. Beating. Driving them onward. Annette wanted to reach back to take hold of Jason, and Jason strained to draw nearer to Annette just beyond his grasp. They ached for the touch of the other's skin the way a freediver needed another breath of air after a long dive.

The hiss of boiling liquid again reached their ears, the bell sounded again in rhythm with the drum. Jason and Annette inhaled deeply.

Stars were everywhere. Shapes moved in the dark, eclipsing them now and again. Jason hovered above her at her side. They were clothed only in the darkness. Annette felt so small and vulnerable. She had never seen the sky like this, so vast and limitless.

The cool breeze gave her goosebumps, except in the few places Jason was touching her. He was watching the universe reflected in her eyes. They had had a terrible fight earlier that day. It had been about their future together. Something they both held dear, but surprisingly discovered they had incompatible visions of. There was screaming and stomping; they both felt betrayed. A glass was broken, by accident. It stopped both of them. It was dark then, she wasn't sure what time.

They were both silent. After an eternity, Jason bid her to come with him in the car. The car took them to a dark place, over an hour from their home. A place he knew. A place with stars, wilderness, and no people.

Annette was stunned with wonder, and hardly noticed when Jason took her hand to guide her to a blanket he had placed in the grass. They laid down. She couldn't see, but she felt him take off his clothes, and then start to remove hers. She let him.

They lay there nude in the starlight feeling their place. Jason occasionally traced a finger along her side, passing a bit of warmth and chill at the same time.

"I have always had so many dreams," Jason whispered. "...None of them mean as much to me as you do."

"I will give up my career, and my home province, and my other plans to be with you. We can build new dreams. Dreams that would outshine anything we thought of before," Jason continued.

"Our love can grow to be so bright they will see it from Titan..."

Annette put a single finger to his lips. She missed a little bit at first because of the dark, but found her place soon enough. She pulled him down for a kiss. A long, slow, sensuous kiss. She felt him start to harden against her. Her erect nipples rubbed against his chest hair.

"My dreams have kept me going for so many years. I know them as lifelong friends," she said.

"I wanted to be with you, because you had dreams too, and they were so exciting to me. I just never saw that we couldn't keep going like that and keep our plans the same. It scared me. I was losing my friends, and my sense of direction."

"Look at this sky... There is room for so much brightness, and yet it is still dark. From here, the lost and the found are not so different."

"We can build something new, and we can do it together. We'll write a new dream, and it will be a beacon for both of us."

Jason and Annette had not felt so close to anyone else in their lives before. At the very moment that it seemed their bond would break; that it was built on a mirage. They wiped away the false threats, and defined a new vision for themselves. A vision that had guided so many choices up to the present, including their choice to be in this massage studio that was just beyond perception. That vision was still there, though their distractions and worries had fogged the glass. If they wiped their eyes, it would be there in front of them again.

The drum again was there, as they returned to the small room, beating, pulsing, driving them towards one another with an incessant rhythm.

His cock had reached her. He had never felt it so big. It pressed against her opening, and he could feel Annette drawing him in. They were in contact no where else but this one place.

He could not thrust or otherwise move, but with each heartbeat, the head of his cock pulsed just a bit bigger and just a bit further inside Annette. With each breath, she felt herself pull him inside her just a bit more.

The drum beat a little faster. The drum took over the timing of their breaths and heartbeats. In their minds, red pulses of desire flooded their eyes and ears. Jason needed Annette. Annette needed Jason. They needed one another to anchor their souls.

There was almost no movement, but in their intensity of feeling, of reaching for one another, of requiring one another's touch, their essence, they climaxed together, crying out in the small room that held three as tears of happiness ran down their cheeks. Here in the darkness, restrained, they had found and touched one another.

The drum beat decrescendo proceeded to near silence, and then eventually stopped. Jason and Annette could only hear each other's breaths.

- The End -

About this Story: The title comes from the Hausa word for "massage". Couples massages are semi-erotic experiences between a couple and usually two or four other people. Most places in the world place strict prohibitions on sexual contact in such situations, but what if those rules did not exist, and these experiences were considered therapeutic and even mystical? This near-future story explores what such an experience might be like for a committed, but partially estranged couple.