The Coin

He nearly dropped the bag he was carrying.

Kelly, the shy and unassuming young woman he was slowly falling in love with, stood before him in a low cut, green top and a loose skirt. He could smell the subtle hint of some perfume from where he stood and he caught himself sniffing to try to catch more of it. She'd made herself up with light touches of coloring around her eyes and cheeks and a dark lipstick. Her small, nearly pearl white teeth seemed to flash brilliantly through the deep velvet redness of her lips. His eyes strayed to her breasts before shooting back up to her eyes. She was blushing and it only added to the effect. It took an enormous amount of effort for David to restrain himself from staring at how beautiful she was. The urge to take her in his arms, press his lips against hers and hold her against the wall was sudden and fierce.

"I," he started, swallowing again to continue, "I didn't dress up. I. You look amazing." He'd known she was pretty but she hid herself well - something forced on her from her childhood. Something she was still struggling with.

"I banged my elbow on the wall and forgot to unlock the door. Hi! And, oh, don't worry about dressing up! I- well, I wanted to try and we're not going out so I thought it would be safe. Don't tell anyone but I had to watch some Youtube videos on how to do my makeup." Her blush fled from her checks to the top of her chest and David's eyes followed its retreat, pausing to wonder at the way her shirt exposed the tops of her breasts.

"I won't tell anyone. I promise. But why in the world, Kel? I mean, holy cow look wonderful but what's the occasion?"

Her eyes flicked up to his and then down again. "A date with a handsome man." Looking down, he saw she was digging her toe into the carpet. "Am I pretty, David?"

His throat was suddenly dry and his answer came out as a rasp. Thirsty, dying of thirst but not for water. "Yes. Very pretty. You've always been pretty to me, Kelly." He stood close, resting his hand on her side. She looked up and their eyes met. Such simple brown eyes, he thought. But, I could drown in them tonight. Hungry and wary and scared eyes.

Kelly's lips parted slowly as her eyes closed. David leaned in, hesitating for only a moment before touching his lips to hers. He very carefully brought his hands around to her lower back and shoulders - safe areas for her at the moment. When he felt the tentative touch of her tongue against his lips, he almost pulled back but Kelly's arms were suddenly around him, holding him tightly. He opened his own mouth and their tongues met. Kelly moaned softly as her mouth opened wider for him. David mentally cursed himself - his hand was groping her ass and she writhed against the touch. He pulled his hand up and around her back, gripping her side. Her own fingers were gripping his short, curly hair.

She turned and he followed, her back pressed against the doorframe. She moaned again as her body pressed slightly against him. Kelly reached up with her right hand, gripping the doorframe, arched her back. Before he could stop himself, David bent down to her neck, kissing her roughly, reaching down again to grab her ass through the soft fabric of her skirt. Her body shook against him and his teeth were suddenly on her neck, biting her only somewhat gently. Kelly's leg wrapped around his own leg and she used it to pull him even closer.

"Yes," she moaned above him. "Yes, please." Her own fingers clawed at his back and hair, holding him hard against her. "David, please." Her voice was breathless. Needy. He could feel the heat from her chest, from the blood rushing like mad through her body.

It took every ounce of willpower to push himself away and Kelly whined in frustration when he did. David stood in the hallway, panting, staring at Kelly. Her shirt was half off and he could see her plain white bra. Her lipstick had smeared at some point. She looked frantic but a cloud of doubt passed over her face.

"Oh," she said. "Oh. I'm. I'm right here in the hallway, aren't I? We were- Oh." He'd thought she was blushing before but Kelly's face turned an incredible shade of crimson as she worked through what happened. "David, I'm... I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me."

"No, hey, no. It wasn't anything you did." Tears were forming in the corner of her eye. "It was, hey, no. It wasn't anything wrong. I just had to stop it. It's too soon, Kelly. God knows I want it but, Kelly, it's too soon for you." He reached for her and she came to him, so small now against his chest. "Hey, it's okay." David kissed the top of her head as he held her. Feeling her hot tears.

Time passed before she could talk. "Thank you," she told him. "Thank you. I don't know what happened. I think... I think I should be alone tonight. I'm sorry. I ruined our evening. I wanted. I wanted a nice night with you. You don't hate me, do you?"

David sighed against the top of her head. "Of course not, Kel. I know it'll take time. You'll call when you're okay to talk?" He felt her nod against him. "Good. I'm sorry about tonight, Kelly but I'm there if you need to talk." She nodded again and David decided it was time to go. Sometimes he hated her parents deeply for what they did. He pulled away from her and gathered up the grocery bag. "Here, I'll leave you the cheesecake like I promised. Be good." He touched the side of her face, feeling the warmth and the wetness of the tears. She closed her eyes and rubbed against his hand. With a last kiss on her forehead, he turned and left.

Only when she texted later that night did David relax and the worry of whether he'd broken something left him. I'm all right, she wrote. I miss you and our evening together. I'll call in a few days. Sweet dreams, David.

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Over the next few weeks, David and Kelly restarted their relationship. Slowly. Carefully. On the third date after that night, Kelly wore the same outfit - outside of her apartment. At first, she refused to look at anyone around her but as the night wore on, she raised her head and started smiling again. When an older couple remarked on what a handsome couple they were, Kelly grinned with her teeth and pressed up against David, laying her head against him briefly.

After every date, David walked Kelly to her apartment and stood carefully in front of her door. Some nights Kelly would blush and very clearly not look at the doorframe and other times she blush and wink at him as he kissed her (mostly) chastely good night.

They talked a lot - a good bit about her parents and the near cult they were involved in that started with a group of born again Christians. She was sixteen years old when she worked up the nerve to ask a classmate for help. A government investigation was eventually launched and her classmate's parents took her in. Two years later, Kelly's family and the whole group moved to Arizona and set up a compound. She never heard from them again but she bore the scars still. The fact that she was still a virgin with intimacy issues was just one of the many lingering struggles she had to deal with.

Nearly a month after the night of their canceled date, Kelly opened her door and then turned to look at David. She wore a long red summer dress with a pattern of white tropical flowers. Her lips were a new shade of red and she had her short hair held back, showing her neck and ears clearly in the bright overhead light. David's eyes traced the gentle curve of her neck and then up to her slight jawline.

She smiled for him. "I think I could fall in love with you, David." And, with that, she closed the door.

David barely remembered the walk home. All he saw in his mind's eye was the figure of her standing in her doorway as if she were a particularly sultry dame in a 1950's pulp crime novel. Her voice was husky as the hallway filled with a mysterious smoke. "I love you, David," she told him in his daydream, one hand on her thigh, slowly revealing more and more leg through the cut of her dress. Over and over. But, when he dreamed that night, it was just Kelly - just her smiling for him.

His heart soared.

David woke to a small flashing light on his cellphone. A short text from Kelly greeted him: G'morning handsome! Dinner at my place tonight? 7? David's finger hesitated over the virtual keyboard. A small part of him wondered whether it was too soon still, whether she was trying to push herself for him. In the end, he decided they would work through it like adults, and he would just try to restrain himself if they moved too fast. Gladly, he answered back.

The day passed quickly for David. He answered emails from clients, negotiated a new software agreement with a school district and narrowly avoided being forced to have dinner with his boss to congratulate him on closing the sale. There was no humanly possible way he was missing his date tonight.

Near 6 pm, David stood in front of the mirror, trimming his short beard and humming some random song from the radio. When his phone buzzed, he woke it and frowned at the text from Kelly: sick again don't come.

David set the razor down, thinking. Kelly wasn't the type to make up an excuse and if she changed her mind, she'd just ask that they meet at a restaurant for drinks. She wouldn't just completely cancel for no good reason. Another debate waged war as he struggled with whether he would go to check on her or leave her alone for the night. Finally, he remembered how out of it she was and decided to go. With a quick stop at the store a few ingredients, he made his way to Kelly's apartment.

The street lamp across from Kelly's apartment complex flickered weakly over David's car. He sat for over fifteen minutes doubting himself. Wondering whether it was right to go in to check on her. The moon hung fat and low in the sky, turning the nearby playground into a wasteland. A small child's swing creaked slowly as the wind pushed it back and forth. He watched it for a moment, mesmerized by the movement and the sound as shadows played across the old equipment. Solidifying his resolve, David got out, locked the car and made his way to Kelly's apartment. He shivered briefly in the chill night air and then entered the apartment complex, winding towards the back area where Kelly lived.

David stood in front of Kelly's door with her spare key in his hand. When he pressed the key into the lock, a sudden noise came from within Kelly's apartment, followed by a crash and a door slamming. David paused. "Kelly?" He asked loudly. "Kelly? I'm coming in. Are you all right?" David turned the key and then opened the door carefully.

All of the lights were out in the apartment and there was a strange musky smell in the air - a combination of sweat (as if from hard labor), a scent reminding him of the forest floor and other things. The bathroom door was closed ahead of him. He could hear a coarse, low sound coming from somewhere in the apartment. "Kelly?" He half-whispered, cursing himself for the pang of fear that shot through him.

The voice that answered him was wrong. Muffled. He could tell it was Kelly but it was off. "David?" She sounded confused. "I said don't come. I'm sick. Just. Just go. Please. Oh god. Please. Go."

David walked carefully to the bathroom door. "It's okay, Kelly. I had to help raise my little brother. I've seen all kinds of sick. I'm coming in, okay? You're... decent, right? I'll help you back to bed and get some hot ginger tea going. And maybe some chicken soup?" He opened the door carefully, watching the dark floor for vomit but was instead hit with a sudden intense wave of the musky scent from earlier. David peeked around the corner and saw the vague form of Kelly curled into a ball by the sink. "Kel? I'm turning on the light okay, sweetheart?"

The world changed for David Williams the moment he flipped the light switch. He froze, unable to process what his eyes were telling him.

Kelly sat naked on the floor in front of the sink, knees covering her chest and her arms wrapped around her legs. She had her head tucked down against her chest, hiding her face from David, and he could only see part of her front, the left side of her body and her back. He instinctively looked for her face and saw the slight tip to her ears - points she'd never had before. There was a light growth of dark hair on the tops of her shoulders that trailed down in a line to her forearms. Her entire body was soaked in sweat. The hair covering her shoulders lined her spine and down her lower back and up to the point of a stub of a tail slowly wriggling above her ass.

David's mind screamed at him. It was wrong. It was all wrong. It was Kelly - her pale light skin and auburn hair. Her arms were more defined and her legs were thicker than he remembered seeing in the brief glances he stole when she wore a dress or skirt.

As he watched, dark, nearly black hairs grew from her calf muscles. Kelly shifted, moaning in pain or pleasure, shoulders working as if she were releasing stress, back and down, muscles she'd never had in her back flexing around her shoulder blades.

When she looked at him, her eyes were the color of sunshine filtering through a drop of honey. David sat hard on his ass in the hallway, blinking in confusion as his mouth worked to form a sentence. Her lips were dark black and split slightly at the top, showing her canine teeth and an expression of pain and confusion. Her jaw, so delicate before, was thicker. Her face looked slightly longer, a quarter of a muzzle.

"Wha... wha.... Kelly... wha..." David sputtered, trying to form rational thought. The fingers of her left hand were larger, her whole hand bigger and tipped in thick black claws except for her thumb.

"David. I told you not to come. I told you. I- What... what is that?" Kelly's voice was slightly muffled but still recognizably hers. She stopped, tilting her head back and closing her eyes. Small auburn and black hairs pushed through the skin of her cheeks and along her chin as David watched. He couldn't look away from her mouth. Beautiful white teeth against dead black lips. Her canine teeth were longer - she couldn't close her mouth all the way. Four of the teeth near her canines were nearly as long and as sharp as her canines were now. And, now that he noticed, he saw a bloody tooth on the ground near her sweaty body.

Kelly sat up to her knees, still sniffing the air with her eyes closed. David couldn't help but look at her nakedness. Her hips were wider - he'd felt the curve of her body and there wasn't much there before. Now, the swoop from the side of her chest to her hips was noticeable. Her stomach was completely flat and muscular, leading down to thighs nearly as thick as his own now, larger than they were just minutes ago. Her vagina was completely covered by a thick tuft of fur that lead up to a line of hair leading to her belly button - a "happy trail." Her breasts were as small as he'd imagined, a small handful but perky with large, rock hard nipples that dented in slightly at the tip. The line of hair growing down from her chin ran to her neck, little hairs dotting out and around and then down the front of her chest and between her breasts, meeting the hair around her belly button.

With another moan, one sounding nearly close to sexual, Kelly licked around her lips with a tongue too large for her mouth. "David..." She opened her beautiful eyes to stare at him. Her right hand was nearly as large as her left but there were no claws. She rubbed herself down her right breast, rocking slightly on her hips at the touch to her nipple and then down the new growth of fur on her stomach and into the thick hair around her pussy. David could smell her wetness mixed in with the other smells. It was intoxicating and his head swam from it all.

Kelly made a slow circuit of her black lips with her dog-like tongue again, rubbing herself as she stared at David. And then, she leaned forward to fall to her hands and knees. "David," she moaned again. Her small breasts hung lightly in front of her as she held the position, again closing her eyes to sniff the air. The skin of her philtrum darkened and turned black above her lips. Kelly shook her head slowly side to side and whined slightly. The stub of her tail was longer now and completely covered in black fur. She arched her back up and then down, raising her ass in the air as hairs erupted around her back.

She crawled to him, swaying her hips as she did. David was transfixed. One hand (clawed) and one knee, ass swishing and then the other hand (no claws) and other knee. Closer and closer until her head was inches away. Her eyes snapped open and she looked up at him. His heart was racing. The smell was intense. The smell of her wetness. The smell of her sweat. The other smells of her - the smells that made him think of the rich earth on the floor of a forest and exotic spices in a foreign market. Kelly lowered her head to his crotch, nearly purring as she nuzzled against him.

Despite the scene in front of him, David was completely hard. He wanted to touch her but his hands wouldn't move. He watched as the little black and brown and honey colored hairs lengthened on her back, darkening as they did, growing down to cover her ass. She moaned, shuddering and nipping at his dick through his pants. She reached for his thighs with her right hand and he felt the tips of her claws cut into him. Looking down, he saw her already deadly looking nails turn black. It hurt where she cut into him but he still couldn't move.

"Kelly," he said, uncertain. "Kelly, come back to me." Her heart shaped ass wriggled at the mention of her name and the tail flexed, growing longer. Finally, he reached down, gently holding her face and guiding it up. She closed her eyes and pushed against it, nuzzling his hand over and over. The heat from her body was intense and he could feel her jaw changing under his hand. She was so soft. With fur. He could feel the hairs that he couldn't see yet, just there at the surface and covering her cheek. "Kelly, no. This isn't right. This isn't right." He pushed back from her and her eyes cracked open again, watching him. David stood and grabbed a towel hanging near the bathroom door and reached for her. She stood for him and he was glad because he wasn't sure he could lift her.

David wrapped Kelly in the towel. She was nearly as tall as he was now and the towel barely covered her body. When he gently pulled her hand, she followed and he led her to the couch in the living room. "Sit with me Kelly. I don't understand any of this but I can't just leave you like this. Sit with me." David sat at the end of the couch and pulled Kelly with him. She sat at his side in the middle of the couch and her eyes never left his face. She moved and the towel fell away, showing her sweat-soaked body. The fur lining her was matted with it and the smell was stronger than ever. He couldn't understand why it wasn't a bad smell. He'd had a dog as a child and wet dog smell was terrible.

He reached for the towel to try to cover her again but she reached a thick-muscled right hand out to stop him. "No, David. It doesn't feel right any more. I don't want it." Her hand went to his thigh again, kneading at his flesh, scratching and massaging. David jerked under the pressure and strength and pain of it all. Her claws were like needles and he knew he had to be bleeding.

"Kelly, this isn't right. This isn't you. Please. Please stop. I can't do this." She reached for his wrist and tugged him towards her leg, placing it there. His hand automatically rubbed along the smooth, hard surface of her thigh, reveling in the feel of the soft down of fur. She purred again, pulling his hand higher up her leg to her pussy but he yanked it away. "I can't. I can't, Kelly. I can't."

She sighed and then moved, reaching her left leg around to straddle David's lap. "It's okay, David. It's me in here. It's me. Oh. Yes." Kelly's hips moved and he marveled at the weight of her - he was stuck while she grinded against him. David gripped his hands on the couch around him, trying to deny how incredibly turned on he was. "It's okay to touch me, David. You don't know what it's like. You don't know what this is like. Oh god. It feels so incredible, David. It makes everything so alive. Uh. Uh." She was pushing harder against him and he felt the cuts in his leg sting from the sweat coming from her body. Her breasts were directly in front of his face. Her small breasts on a nearly fur-less chest. He watched while her body rocked back and forth, muscles flexing as they grew and moved.